M.Comm. (Economics) / The financial involvement of the public sector in bidding for and hosting major international sporting events has taken various forms, including guarantees of events, sponsorships and direct government expenditure. The primary argument for the substantial use of public funds in the hosting of major events focuses on the ability to generate economic benefits for the public that exceed the costs involved. The scarcity of public funds in the public sector has led to growing scrutiny of allocation of public funds to support sporting events. The dissertation assesses whether or not the overall impact of major sporting events can justify the public funds used. The socio-economic and other impacts of different events, in both developed and developing countries, based on their experiences in hosting different sporting events as well as South Africa’s own experience, have been evaluated in this study. It is the contention of this dissertation that although major international sporting events ostensibly have positive economic spin-offs for the host country, this does not appear to be supported by evidence. Given the weak evidence or lack of evidence that major international sporting events can produce net benefits, it is not clear what motivates countries to fiercely contest for hosting rights. This dissertation therefore questions whether the hosting of major international sporting events is pursued for pure economic reasons.

This study drew upon the affective events and mood-congruent cognition theories to help explain how one domain influences the other. Affective events are things that happen to which people react emotionally and state affect is a result of those affective experiences. This study proposed that state affect generated in one domain would spillover and influence mood-congruent experiences in the receiving domain. Through an integration of organizational stressor-strain models (e.g., job-resources demand theory) and positive psychology, this study further proposed that positive events are resource-building and will work to prevent or buffer against strain responses to resource-depleting negative events. Finally, this study explored how individual differences in domain integration and work- and family-role salience moderate the foregoing relationships, particularly because studies investigating these effects have produced mixed results. To address these empirical questions, this study used the daily diary method to examine daily affective spillover effects from work-to-family and from family-to-work in a full-time working sample over the course of two weeks. This method was employed to help bolster confidence about the temporal precedence of work-family affective spillover and employee health and wellbeing outcomes. One-hundred and forty-four participants filled out diary questionnaires three times daily during the work week and one time daily during the weekend. Daily diaries assessed the participants’ exposure to a number of domain-specific affective events, state affect, physical symptoms, and sleep quality. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test this study’s hypotheses. Overall, the results of this study support affective spillover as the linking pin between the two domains, which has health and wellbeing implications for employees. Specifically, tests of this study’s hypotheses indicated that exposure to affective events throughout the workday was related to state affect at the end of the workday, which then related to the number of valence-congruent affective events within the family domain. Exposure to those family-related affective events was related to corresponding changes in state affect, which not only persisted to the next morning but impacted employee health and wellbeing in terms of psychosomatic complaints. These findings are in line with both the affective events and mood-congruent theories. Only one significant moderating effect was observed. There was a positive relationship between negative affect at the end of the workday and the number of negative family affective events endorsed by participants who were lower on domain integration, but not among those who were higher on domain integration. The direction of this effect was surprising and may suggest that setting up strong boundaries between life domains creates unattainable expectations, which may increase negative outcomes for an employee. In sum, family-related affective experiences are an important variable to consider when investigating the effects of affective spillover on work-related experiences and health and wellbeing. The failure to do so may result in a considerable loss of information and contribute to mixed study results.

Despite considerable uncertainties regarding the exact contribution of anthropogenic climate change to disaster risk, rising losses from extreme events have highlighted the need to comprehensively address climate-related risk. This requires linking climate adaptation to disaster risk management (DRM), leading to what has been broadly referred to as climate risk management (CRM). While this concept has received attention in debate, important gaps remain in terms of operationalizing it with applicable methods and tools for specific risks and decision-contexts. By developing and applying a methodological approach to CRM in the decision context of sovereign risk (flooding) in Austria we test the usefulness of CRM, and based on these insights, inform applications in other decision contexts. Our methodological approach builds on multiple lines of evidence and methods. These comprise of a broad stakeholder engagement process, empirical analysis of public budgets, and risk-focused economic modelling. We find that a CRM framework is able to inform instrumental as well as reflexive and participatory debate in practice. Due to the complex interaction of social-ecological systems with climate risks, and taking into account the likelihood of future contingent climate-related fiscal liabilities increasing substantially as a result of socioeconomic developments and climate change, we identify the need for advanced learning processes and iterative updates of CRM management plans. We suggest that strategies comprising a portfolio of policy measures to reduce and manage climate-related risks are particularly effective if they tailor individual instruments to the specific requirements of different risk layers. (authors' abstract)

The applications of calcium-isotope measurements in marine carbonates are explored in several different contexts within this thesis. As a record of global ion fluxes, seawater calcium-isotope ratios can be used as tracers for large weathering imbalances, which develop as a feedback system in response to intervals of climate change. This approach provides valuable constraints on the complex climatic and oceanographic phenomena known as the Oceanic Anoxic Events. Over much longer timescales, the calcium-isotope ratio of seawater is influenced by steady-state processes that reflect the evolution of seawater chemistry. To understand these influences, the modern calcium-isotope budget is assessed quantitatively using a compilation of marine carbonate samples, revealing several distinctive components of the carbonate burial sink that can affect the steady-state balance of the calcium cycle. Changes in the major ion composition of seawater and in the organisms that contribute to sedimentary carbonate burial are shown to contribute significantly to the geological record of seawater calcium-isotope ratios. The importance of skeletal carbonate in the calcium cycle leads to another application of calcium isotopes towards understanding biomineralization. This large and complex topic is approached with calcium-isotope data from two unique growth experiments that constrain some of the mechanisms by which biogenic aragonite acquires its geochemical signatures. This range of topics presents a diverse, but by no means exclusive, sample of the topics that are accessible for investigation through calcium-isotope analysis. The potential of this isotopic tool is demonstrated by the breadth of environments and timescales represented in this work.

Sammanfattning: Bakgrund: Sjuksköterskor kan konfronteras med traumatiska händelser i sitt dagliga arbete. Dessa händelser kan leda till en fara för sjuksköterskors hälsa i form av posttraumatiskt stressyndrom (PTSD), sekundär traumatisk stress (STS) eller utbrändhet. Hanteringsstrategier är individuella och har en stor betydelse för sjuksköterskors återhämtning. Syfte: Hur påverkas sjuksköterskor av traumatiska händelser och hur hanterar de uppkomna känslor. Metod: En kvalitativ innehållsanalys valdes som metod där 14 bloggar analyserades. Sökningen genomfördes osystematiskt via sökmotorn Google. Analysen resulterade i två kategorier och sju underkategorier. Resultat: Sjuksköterskor kände en fysisk och emotionell utmattning på grund av de traumatiska upplevelserna. Personligheten förändrades. Att stänga av sina känslor eller att frigöra sig från dem var möjliga hanteringsstrategier. En positiv inställning till livet samt acceptans av egna känslor, sammanhållning i team och erfarenhet har bidragit positivt i hanteringsprocessen. Slutsats: Genom att sjuksköterskor upplever traumatiska händelser i sitt arbete är risken för ohälsa stor. Utbrändhet och PTSD kan utvecklas hos sjuksköterskor och påverkar vårdandet negativt. Klinisk betydelse: Studiens resultat kan användas av verksamhetschefer och sjuksköterskor för att öka kunskapen i området. Programansvariga på högskolor kan inkludera studien i utbildningsinnehållet för att även förbereda studenter inför sin kommande praktik. / Summary: Background: Nurses can be confronted with traumatic events in their daily work. These events can lead to danger to nurses' health in the forms of posttraumatic stress syndrom, secondary traumatic stress or burnout. Management strategies are individual and have a significant importance to nurses’ recovery. Purpose: How traumatic incidents affect nurses and how they cope with arising feelings. Method: A qualitative content analysis was chosen as a method where 14 blogs were analyzed. The search was carried out unsystematically through the Google search engine. The analysis resulted in two main categories and seven subcategories. Result: The nurses felt a physical and emotional exhaustion because of their traumatic experiences. The personality changed. Turning off their emotions or to free themselves from them were possible management strategies. A positive attitude to life and acceptance of their own feelings and cohesion in the team has contributed positively in the management process. Conclusion: Traumatic events process a major risk to nurses’ health. They may develop burnout or PTSD that may affect caring negatively. Clinical significance: The research results can be used by business managers and nurses to increase knowledge to the area. Editors in charge in colleges can include this study for educational purposes in order to prepare students for future practice.

The problem of this study was to search for possible effects of the pre-competition meal. This problem had two primary facets: 1) to determine performance scores secured by college varsity track and field men under two different pre-competition meal conditions and to study the relationship of the meal last ingested before competition to the scores; 2) to determine the concern for certain psychological and psycho-physiological factors under each of the two pre-competition meal conditions.

A significant number of scientific projects pursuing large scale, complex investigations involve dispersed research teams, which conduct a large part or their work virtually. Virtual Research Environments (VREs), cyberinfrastructure that facilitates coordinated activities amongst dispersed scientists, thus provide a rich context to study organizational evolution. Due to the constantly evolving nature of technologies, it is important to understand how teams of scientists, system developers, and managers respond to critical incidents. Critical events are organizational situations that trigger strategic decision making to adjust structure or redirect processes in order to maintain balance or improve an already functioning system. This study examines two prominent VREs: The United States Virtual Astronomical Observatory (US-VAO) and the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) in order to understand how these environments evolve through critical events and strategic choices. Communication perspectives lend themselves well to a study of VRE development and evolution because of the central role occupied by communication technologies in both the functionality and management of VREs. Using the grounded theory approach, this study uses organizational reports to trace how critical events and their resulting strategic choices shape these organizations over time. The study also explores how disciplinary demands influence critical events.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This thesis deals with proverbs reflecting historical events and facts, which were reflected in folk literature. It tries to debunk a historical background idioms that have helped to shape the nation's memory. It focus on proverbs in Czech and Hungarian languages, which are closely connected with the history as being Central European nations. Historical background is mounted directly on the national territory (including historical area) or in the other state. The first part brings the reader a general overview of phraseology. Trying to explain the theme of phraseology. The second part focuses specifically on individual idioms. Each phrase is accompanied by a brief explanation to the reader to verify that it understands correctly and completely understands it. In the case of Hungarian idioms are translated into Czech. Follows the approach of historical events with regard to their relevance and impact on other events in the country. The conclusion summarizes the findings of historical events in an effort to highlight their importance and their motivation for stabilization in the form of phrases. Key words Phraseology, czech idioms, hungarian idioms, history, historical events

Les systèmes temps réel sont des systèmes informatiques composés de tâches auxquelles sont associées des contraintes temporelles, appelées échéances. Dans notre étude, nous distinguons deux familles de tâches : les tâches temps réel dur et les tâches temps réel souple. Les premières possèdent une échéance stricte, qu'elles doivent impérativement respecter. Elles sont de nature périodique, ou sporadique, et l'étude analytique de leur comportement fait l’objet d’un état de l’art conséquent. Les secondes sont de nature apériodique. Aucune hypothèse sur leur modèle d’arrivéée ni sur leur nombre n’est possible. Aucune garantie ne saurait être donnée sur leur comportement dès lors que l’on ne peut écarter les situations de surcharge, où la demande de calcul peut dépasser les capacités du système. La problématique devient alors l'étude des solutions d’ordonnancement mixte de tâches périodiques et apériodiques qui minimisent les temps de réponse des tâches apériodiques tout en garantissant les échéances des tâches périodiques. De nombreuses solutions ont été proposées ces vingt dernières années. On distingue les solutions basées sur la réservation de ressources, les serveurs de tâches, des solutions exploitant les instants d'inactivité du système, comme les algorithmes de vol de temps creux. La spécification Java pour le temps réel (RTSJ) voit le jour dans les années 2000. Si cette norme répond à de nombreux problèmes liés à la gestion de la mémoire ou à l'ordonnancement des tâches périodiques, celui de l'ordonnancement mixte de tâches périodiques et apériodiques n'est pas abordé. Nous proposons dans cette thèse d’apporter les modifications nécessaires aux algorithmes principaux d’ordonnancement mixte, le Polling Server (PS), le Deferrable Server (DS) et le Dynamic Approximate Slack Stealer (DASS) en vue de leur implantation avec RTSJ. Ces algorithmes ne peuvent en effet être implantés directement tels qu'ils sont décrits, car ils sont trop liés à l'ordonnanceur du système. Nous proposons des extensions aux APIs RTSJ existantes pour faciliter l’implantation de ces mécanismes modifiés, et nous fournissons les interfaces utiles à l’ajout d'autres solutions algorithmiques. Nous proposons également des modifications sur les APIs existantes de RTSJ afin de répondre aux problèmes d'intégration et d'implantation d’algorithmes d’analyse de faisabilité. Nous proposons enfin un algorithme d’estimation des temps creux, le Minimal Approximate Slack Stealer (MASS), dont l’implantation au niveau utilisateur, permet son intégration dans RTSJ / In computer science, real-time systems are composed of tasks. To each task is associated a timing constraint called a deadline. We distinguish two kinds of tasks : the hard ones and the soft ones. Hard tasks have hard deadlines, which must be respected to ensure the correctness of the system. So hard tasks are in essence periodic, or sporadic. Their behavior has been extensively studied. Soft tasks have soft deadlines that the system has to try to respect. When a task arrival model is unknown, i.e. when task is aperiodic, burst arrivals situation can happens, which makes the tasks timing behavior unpredictable. So aperiodic tasks can only have soft deadlines. The studied problem in this thesis is then the joint scheduling of hard periodic tasks with soft aperiodic events, where the response times of soft tasks have to be as low as possible while the guarantee to meet their deadlines has to be given to hard tasks. A lot of solutions have been proposed these past two decades. We distinguish solutions based on resource reservation, like task servers, and solutions which take benefit from system idle times, like the slack stealer techniques. The first version of the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) was proposed in early 2000. This specification addresses a lot of problems related to the memory management or the scheduling of periodic tasks. But if it proposes a model to write aperiodic events, advanced mechanisms for the integration of such events to handle the above-mentioned problem are not discussed. We propose modifications to the main advanced mixed scheduling mechanisms like the Polling Server (PS), the Deferrable Server (DS) or the Dynamic Approximate Slack Stealer (DASS) in order to make their implementation possible with the RTSJ. Indeed, these algorithms are deeply connected to the system scheduler, and have to be adapted in order to be implemented in a user-land level.We propose extensions to current RTSJ APIs in order to integrate the modified algorithms and to allow the addition of other algorithms in a unified framework. We also propose some modifications to the RTSJ APIs in order to solve some problems we encountered during the integration of modified algorithms, especially in the field of the feasibility analysis algorithms integration in the specification. Finally, we propose the Minimal Approximate Slack Stealer algorithm (MASS), which is independent of the scheduler implementation and has a lower overhead than DASS