The current study examines the association of macro-level economic factors and the creation or enactment animal cruelty laws across the states at a fixed time. Criminologists have postulated that economic factors influence the legal system (Chambliss and Seidman, 1971). This thesis addresses whether state-level economic and related macro-level factors influences the amount and types of state animal cruelty legislation lawmakers enact. To do so, this thesis examined animal cruelty legislation and their association with measures of agricultural and farm production, Democratic Party, Republican Party, and pro-animal interest groups across all states of the United States for the time period (2012-2013). Findings suggested that three out of the four variables had significant relationships. The Democratic Party had the strongest relationship, but only Animal interests groups had a significant positive relationship. In all, this study explores how economic influence can influence the creation of animal cruelty legislation. Furthermore, the study opened up theoretical methods for more comprehensive analyses on the creation of law.

The performance of own-label brands varies enormously across countries, with high penetration in Western countries but limited success in Eastern countries. The common explanations for this state are related to market factors such as the development of big retailer chains or the power balance between retailers and manufacturers. However, the role of culture has been overlooked to explain this situation. This study aims to provide insights into the impact of culture on own-label brands performance. This thesis formulates and tests a conceptual framework linking Hofstede s (1980, 2001) five cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance & long-term orientation) to retail market development (size of the retail market) and own-label brands performance, controlling for three socio-economic variables: GDP per capita, Gini index and Government expenditure. Relevant literature is reviewed in order to develop hypotheses. The conceptual model is then tested upon a sample of 65 countries, utilising data collected via secondary sources and the application of structural equation modelling techniques. The results of this study indicate that three out of five Hofstede s cultural dimensions, power distance, individualism and uncertainty avoidance, have a significant impact on retail market development, which in turn, significantly influences own-label brands performance. Moreover, results show that individualism and long-term orientation have a significant direct impact on own-label brands performance. Past studies on this domain are restricted to one or two cultural dimensions and generally involve a limited number of countries. This research therefore pioneers in investigating the five national cultural dimensions across a high number of nations. The findings are important for retailers and may help them to adapt their own-label strategy according to the culture of the nation they are operating in.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Skilled birth attendance at childbirth is vital for decreasing maternal and child mortality in Zimbabwe. Infant mortality and maternal mortality in Zimbabwe are quite high due to low- use of skilled birth attendance. Based on different study sources, home delivery with complications are high, with many socio-economic and demographic associated factors including lack or no use of skilled birth attendance at childbirth in Zimbabwe. Therefore, the study looked at "preventive" which refers to an action taken to reduce or eliminate the probability of specific undesirable events or dangers from happening in the future and the present time in Zimbabwe. The objective of the study was to highlight the significance of the crucial function within the health systems of saving both the lives of a mother and the child. Furthermore to determine the frequent use of maternal health care services (skilled birth attendant) and identify factors affecting them. The data that was used was nationally represented large scale secondary data ZDHS of Zimbabwe with sample population n = 9,171. It was a secondary data that included all the provinces of Zimbabwe, simple random sampling was used that had questionnaires of both man, women and household questionnaires, these questionnaires helped in examining the socio-economic factors and determinants that leads to low-use of skilled birth attendants at childbirth. The prosed statistics analysis that were used were univariate, bivariate and multivariate techniques. The statistical analysis showed that demographic variables such age, place of delivery and socio-economic factors such as level of education of a mother and wealth index (occupation of a parent) and region has a significant effect on the use of skilled birth attendant during birth. Women with higher level of education were found to have high use rate of maternal health care services (Skilled birth attendants), while women with primary and secondary education were found to have high use rate of less ( traditional birth attendant) or no use of skilled birth attendant. Therefore, the female age at birth, place of delivery, level of education and wealth index played a major role in decision making about the importance of having a skilled birth attendant when giving birth. The access to skilled birth attendance was found to be a significant factor in reducing maternal and child mortality in Zimbabwe. Furthermore women need to be educated about the importance of maternal health care services use and postnatal care and the department of health in Zimbabwe can implement mobile clinics for those who are residing far from health facilities.

The major purpose of this study is to measure the relationship between socio-demographic and economic factors and fertility of rural and urban women in Thailand, utilizing national level survey data collected in 1972 and 1973. Specifically, a regression model of fertility and socio-demographic and economic variable s will be developed and analyzed. Also, a general comparison will be made between the results of the present study, based on the 1972 and 1973 surveys, with those from an earlier round of surveys conducted in 1969 and 1970.

Since its inception in 1993, nearly 90,000 high school dropouts have completed the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, a youth diversion program for unemployed high school dropouts. As of 2008, 27 states have partnered with the military to implement this residential program for at-risk youth. There is limited research on this new social welfare program despite its representing a dynamic military-state-welfare relationship. This study examines state-level conditions and looks to answer three research questions: 1) Under what conditions do states start a ChalleNGe program?; 2) What role do time-varying social and economic factors have in influencing states to initially adopt the program?; and 3) To what extent does the racial composition of program sites reflect the racial composition of its host state's young high school drop-outs? I examined state-level social and economic conditions using data from a variety of federal agencies and public opinion surveys. I examined social and economic circumstances that may have influenced state-level participation. Due to the nature of time-dependent variables and states' launching programs as various times since 1993, I used an event history analysis to predict the timing of initiation of a ChalleNGe program. The results of this research indicate that high unemployment rates and low high school graduation rates increase the likelihood that a state will create a ChalleNGe program. The results from this study provide insight into the creation and expansion of the ChalleNGe program as well as the changing role of military as a part of the welfare state.

The thesis documents the changes in Italian public opinion towards the Euro. Its aim is to assess the relevance of economic factors for the decline in Italian support for the common currency. The thesis begins by assessing the extent to which support for the Euro has declined in Italy. While there has been popular, media and political comment on this issue, the thesis investigates the changes in attitude through the use of survey material and concludes that there is compelling evidence that public support for the Euro has declined in Italy. The thesis adopts a utilitarian/rational choice approach in order to investigate the reasoning behind the Italian public's developing relationship with the single currency from 1998 to the present. Its central question is: How have economic factors impacted on the Italian public's support for the Euro? The analysis focuses on Italians' perceptions - not their actual knowledge - of national and individual level economic changes brought about by the single currency. The thesis investigates how such perceptions have impacted Italian popular support for the Euro over the period 1998-2007. The method employed in this thesis is primarily based around analysing quantitative data gathered from Standard and Flash Eurobarometers. Other sources considered are academic literature and newspaper articles. The analysis clearly suggests that Italians' optimism towards their national and personal economic situations have all decreased since the Euro was introduced, concurrently with their diminishing support for the Euro. This work suggests that the main reason for decreased support lies in Italian perceptions that the Euro has contributed to worsening economic situations at both the national and individual levels. In particular, Italians believe the Euro has spurred inflation and diminished their purchasing power, and accuse it of failing to promote economic growth and jobs. However, Eurobarometer data combined with newspaper articles indicate that it is the perceived economic consequences at the individual level - loss of purchasing power due to Euro-related price increases, and pessimism towards their household financial situation - that more strongly determine Italians' decreasing support for the Euro.

<p>Title: Investigations on the real estate market, what are the main factors influencing the performance of the French Real Estate Investments Trusts?</p><p>Problem: In 2003, the French government implemented a new tax-exempt structure in the real estate market. Like REITs in the United States, SIICs are listed French companies that aim to improve the performance of real estate stocks on Paris Stock Exchange. The problem consists of determining the performance of the SIICs’ portfolio, identifying the major influences of economic factors and capturing financial behaviour in asset portfolio management.</p><p>Purpose: Recently, the subprime crisis has largely brought out uncertainty of financial actors in the real estate sector. In this context, we try to apprehend the performance of these specific</p><p>SIICs investment vehicles related to financial, economic and managerial influences, by quantifying their stock performance in a five-year time frame.</p><p>Methodology: A deductive approach guides our thesis to emphasize our research question. Our business strategy entails positivism and objectivism considerations and relies on a case analysis research design using the multifactor model. Besides, the data collection process is following a quantitative approach of twenty chosen French SIICs between 2003 and 2007.</p><p>Result / Conclusion: Even if the multifactor model used by the authors may be viewed as unspecified, useful results can still be extracted and analysed. The hotel & LDG sector slightly performs better than others depending on the strategy of investment and the state of economy. Long-term interest rate acts as the principal explanatory factor. Investors do not necessarily respond in favour of the general market confidence indicator.</p>

<p>Since Dengue fever (DF) and its related forms, Dengue Hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS) have become important health concerns worldwide, it is also imperative to develop methods which will help in the analysis of the incidences. Dengue fever cases are growing in number as it also invades widely, affecting larger number of countries and crossing climatic boundaries. Considering that the disease as of now has neither an effective vaccine nor a cure, monitoring in order to prevent or control is the resorted alternative. GIS and its related technologies offer a wealth of interesting capabilities towards achieving this goal.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The intention of this study was to develop methods to describe dengue fever outbreaks taking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a case study. Careful study of Census data with appropriate attributes was made to find out their potential influence on dengue fever incidence in the various regions or census districts. Dengue incidence data from year 2000 to year 2008 reported by the municipal secretariat of Rio was used to extract the necessary census districts. Base map files in MapInfo format were converted to shape files.  Using ArcGIS it was possible to merge the dengue fever incidence data with the available base map file of the City of Rio according to corresponding census districts. Choropleth maps were then created using different attributes from which patterns and trends could be used to describe the characteristic of the outbreak with respect to the socio-economic conditions. Incidence data were also plotted in Excel to see temporal variations. Cluster analysis were performed with the Moran I technique on critical periods and years of dengue outbreak. Using the square root of dengue incidence from January to April 2002 and 2008, inverse distance was selected as the conceptualised spatial relationship, Euclidean distance as the distance method. More detailed analyses were then done on the selected critical years of dengue outbreak, (years 2002 and 2008), to investigate the influence of socio-economic variables on dengue incidence per census district.</p><p> </p><p>Dengue incidence rate appeared to be higher during the rainy and warmer months between December and May. Outbreaks of dengue occurred in years 2002 and 2008 over the study period of year 2000 to 2008. Some factors included in the census data were influential in the dengue prevalence according to districts. Satisfactory results can be achieved by using this strategy as a quick method for assessing potential dengue attack, spread and possible enabling conditions. The method has the advantage where there is limited access to field work, less financial means for acquisition of data and other vital resources.</p><p>A number of difficulties were encountered during the study however and leaves areas where further work can be done for improvements. More variables would be required in order to make a complete and comprehensive description of influential conditions and factors.  There is still a gap in the analytical tools required for multi-dimensional investigations as the ones encountered in this study.  It is vital to integrate ‘GPS’ and ‘Remote Sensing’ in order to obtain a variety of up-to-date data with higher resolution.</p><p> </p>

<p>Contraception is said to be one of the vital determinants of fertility (Bongaarts, 1978). African nations, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa have a history of high fertility levels and low contraceptive use. However, contraceptive methods have been used one way or another throughout human history, although, due to improvements, these methods have evolved over the years. In Namibia, there tend to be a huge gap between women&rsquo / s knowledge of methods of contraception and usage thereof. For instance as per NDHS survey of 2000, 97 percent of married women knew of a contraceptive method, while 38 percent utilised them. This study aims at investigating knowledge and usage of contraceptives among women in union of reproductive age in an independent Namibia, 10 years after independence between 1992 and 2000. Socio-economic and demographic factors affecting contraceptive usage are examined in this study to determine their significance.</p>

Tuberculosis (TB) is a two-stage disease, acquisition of infection and progression to disease. A complex interaction exists between the individual and their environment that determines who acquires infection and who progresses to disease. According to TB literature, 10% of individuals with infection will develop TB disease (1;2). Tuberculosis has been described a disease of poverty, but other factors may be important. The contribution of both individual measures, such as ethnic origin, gender and age and area-level measures, or socio-economic factors, to this two-stage process is not well understood. Understanding tuberculosis epidemiology and identifying those at risk for developing TB is important for effectively controlling the disease. The objective of this study was to determine the individual (age, gender, ethnic origin, geographic location) and area-level measures (income, home ownership, housing density, education, and employment) that contribute to the progression from tuberculosis infection to disease. Data from all Canadian-born Caucasians, Status Indians, and non-Status Indians and Metis, with an initial positive tuberculin skin test (TST) documented in the Saskatchewan TB Control database from January 1, 1986 to January 31, 2002 was analyzed. Exclusion criteria included any previous BCG vaccination, treatment for latent TB infection, or missing data. Individual data was obtained from the TB Control database. Area-level measures were obtained by matching individual postal codes with Canada census data to obtain information from enumeration areas. Outcome was time to TB disease at > 1 month following a documented positive tuberculin skin test. Analysis was completed using Cox regression proportional hazards model. 7588 individuals with a positive tuberculin skin test were included in the study and of these 338 (4.5%) developed TB disease. Thirty-four out of 4140 (0.8%) of Caucasians, 183 out of 2649 (6.9%) of Status Indians and 121 out of 799 (15.1%) non-Status Indians and Metis developed TB. The rate of progression to TB was 5.6/1000 person years for the entire study population. The incidence for Caucasians was 0.9/1000 person years, 7.7/1000 person years for Status Indians and 16.0/1000 person years for non-Status Indians and Metis. In the Cox regression model, including individual and area-level measures, the risk factors association with the progression to TB was age and ethnic origin (< 19 years of age HR 3.7, 95% CI 2.8 - 4.8 compared to > 19 years and ethnic origin HR 5.1, 95% CI 3.0 - 8.6 for Status Indians and HR 7.4, 95% CI 4.1-13.3 for non-Status Indians and Metis both compared to Caucasians). No socio-economic factor was consistently associated with progression to disease. We have found that age and ethnic origin are associated with an increased risk of TB infection progressing to disease. The differences in TB rates between Saskatchewan Caucasians and Status Indians, non-Status Indians and Metis can be explained by Grigg's natural history curve of TB epidemiology within a population (3). The Aboriginal population of Saskatchewan is much earlier in its epidemic resulting in higher disease rates compared to the Caucasian population. Identifying those at risk of developing TB and understanding the determinants of TB epidemiology are important for establishing successful TB control programs.