Undoubtedly, runaway and homeless youth (RHY) are one of the most vulnerable, yet underserved groups in our country. Well-meaning advocates have developed programs and services in an attempt to remedy this, yet there is little evidence of their effectiveness. Moreover, according to the research literature, a low utilization rate of current services by youth is a major concern. From a constructivist theoretical position, this study posits that the missing element is youth voice and the researcher hired formerly homeless youth to conduct the analysis of focus group data gathered from RHY who were participating in a range of services funded by the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act. By employing participatory action research (PAR) methods, this study privileges youth voice and asks two research questions; 1) what are current program models doing right with regards to RHY services, and 2) what can be learned by employing youth analysts in research. Findings indicate that how services are offered is as important as what services are offered. Additionally, by privileging youth and providing meaningful participation, youth are exceptionally capable to develop and evaluate services, programs and policy. Youth workers must continue to privilege youth voice if they hope to effect change in the lives of young people. If not, services will continue to play a key role in keeping RHY as one of the most marginalized groups in our society.

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An analysis of existing showrooms showed that absence of atmosphere makes it hard for clients to imagine effects in a context, and that lack of guidance by the light makes the experience of the showroom overwhelming or static. Also, clients often prioritize luminaires' design over light effect, even in architectural lighting where design should be negligible. This thesis investigates whether it is possible by prioritizing light effect, to optimize the showroom experience and to direct clients' focus on the light, while minimizing the influence of design on the impression and eventually choice of luminaire. In order to achieve these goals, three main concepts are suggested – guiding light, contrasting atmospheres and sequence of presenting light effects first and luminaires afterwards. These enable good communication about light which is essential for clients to focus on the atmosphere created by the light, rather than price and design. Experiments were conducted in the basement of a Croatian company's office, where the exhibits were not the luminaires, but their light. Visitors' priorities before and after going through the installation changed significantly, which might mean that the light effect made an impact and influenced examinees to base their choice of luminaire more on light effect, than design. It is concluded that the used concepts contributed to putting more focus on the light itself. Instead of focusing solely on light experience or product, a balance between the two was achieved by prioritizing and showing the light effect first, and only afterwards joining it with the product, thus offering visitors a more complete experience of the luminaire.

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Yes / Introduction Heart failure affects 26 million people globally, approximately 900 thousand people in the UK, and is increasing in incidence. Appropriate management of medicines for heart failure at the time of hospital discharge reduces readmissions, improves quality of life and increases survival. The Improving the Safety and Continuity Of Medicines management at Transitions (ISCOMAT) trial tests the effectiveness of the Medicines at Transition Intervention (MaTI), which aims to enhance self-care and increase community pharmacy involvement in the medicines management of heart failure patients. Methods and analysis ISCOMAT is a parallel-group cluster randomised controlled trial, randomising 42 National Health Service trusts with cardiology wards in England on a 1:1 basis to implement the MaTI or treatment as usual. Around 2100 patients over the age of 18 admitted to hospital with heart failure with at least moderate left ventricular systolic dysfunction within the last 5 years, and planned discharge to the geographical area of the cluster will be recruited. The MaTI consists of training for staff, a toolkit for participants, transfer of discharge information to community pharmacies and a medicines reconciliation/review. Treatment as usual is determined by local policy and practices. The primary outcome is a composite of all-cause mortality and heart failure-related hospitalisation at 12 months postregistration obtained from national electronic health records. The key secondary outcome is continued prescription of guideline-indicated therapies at 12 months measured via patient-reported data and Hospital Episode Statistics. The trial contains a parallel mixed-methods process evaluation and an embedded health economics study. / The study was funded as part of a National Institute for Health Research Programme Grant for Applied Research (RP-PG-0514-20009).

Performance in Lesotho at senior level (COSC) has been poor. One of the subjects which is performed poorly is Biology 5090. This prompted the researcher to examine factors responsible for the poor performance in Biology 5090. The study also aimed at finding ways in which teachers envisage to improve Biology 5090 performance. Data was collected from three schools through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The study also adopted the General System Theory (GST) as the theoretical framework. Data was analyzed in line with qualitative content analysis, and from the perspective of the GST. The data analysis scheme was developed and presented (appendix P). The results of the study showed that Biology 5090 performance was affected by factors such as human resources, and the transformation process. The study also suggested ways in which Biology 5090 performance could be improved in Lesotho. These include: in-serving training, team work and others. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

Généralement, les problèmes de conception de réseaux consistent à sélectionner les arcs et les sommets d’un graphe G de sorte que la fonction coût est optimisée et l’ensemble de contraintes impliquant les liens et les sommets dans G sont respectées. Une modification dans le critère d’optimisation et/ou dans l’ensemble de contraintes mène à une nouvelle représentation d’un problème différent. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons au problème de conception d’infrastructure de réseaux maillés sans fil (WMN- Wireless Mesh Network en Anglais) où nous montrons que la conception de tels réseaux se transforme d’un problème d’optimisation standard (la fonction coût est optimisée) à un problème d’optimisation à plusieurs objectifs, pour tenir en compte de nombreux aspects, souvent contradictoires, mais néanmoins incontournables dans la réalité. Cette thèse, composée de trois volets, propose de nouveaux modèles et algorithmes pour la conception de WMNs où rien n’est connu à l’ avance. Le premiervolet est consacré à l’optimisation simultanée de deux objectifs équitablement importants : le coût et la performance du réseau en termes de débit. Trois modèles bi-objectifs qui se différent principalement par l’approche utilisée pour maximiser la performance du réseau sont proposés, résolus et comparés. Le deuxième volet traite le problème de placement de passerelles vu son impact sur la performance et l’extensibilité du réseau. La notion de contraintes de sauts (hop constraints) est introduite dans la conception du réseau pour limiter le délai de transmission. Un nouvel algorithme basé sur une approche de groupage est proposé afin de trouver les positions stratégiques des passerelles qui favorisent l’extensibilité du réseau et augmentent sa performance sans augmenter considérablement le coût total de son installation. Le dernier volet adresse le problème de fiabilité du réseau dans la présence de pannes simples. Prévoir l’installation des composants redondants lors de la phase de conception peut garantir des communications fiables, mais au détriment du coût et de la performance du réseau. Un nouvel algorithme, basé sur l’approche théorique de décomposition en oreilles afin d’installer le minimum nombre de routeurs additionnels pour tolérer les pannes simples, est développé. Afin de résoudre les modèles proposés pour des réseaux de taille réelle, un algorithme évolutionnaire (méta-heuristique), inspiré de la nature, est développé. Finalement, les méthodes et modèles proposés on été évalués par des simulations empiriques et d’événements discrets. / Generally, network design problems consist of selecting links and vertices of a graph G so that a cost function is optimized and all constraints involving links and the vertices in G are met. A change in the criterion of optimization and/or the set of constraints leads to a new representation of a different problem. In this thesis, we consider the problem of designing infrastructure Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) where we show that the design of such networks becomes an optimization problem with multiple objectives instead of a standard optimization problem (a cost function is optimized) to take into account many aspects, often contradictory, but nevertheless essential in the reality. This thesis, composed of three parts, introduces new models and algorithms for designing WMNs from scratch. The first part is devoted to the simultaneous optimization of two equally important objectives: cost and network performance in terms of throughput. Three bi-objective models which differ mainly by the approach used to maximize network performance are proposed, solved and compared. The second part deals with the problem of gateways placement, given its impact on network performance and scalability. The concept of hop constraints is introduced into the network design to reduce the transmission delay. A novel algorithm based on a clustering approach is also proposed to find the strategic positions of gateways that support network scalability and increase its performance without significantly increasing the cost of installation. The final section addresses the problem of reliability in the presence of single failures. Allowing the installation of redundant components in the design phase can ensure reliable communications, but at the expense of cost and network performance. A new algorithm is developed based on the theoretical approach of "ear decomposition" to install the minimum number of additional routers to tolerate single failures. In order to solve the proposed models for real-size networks, an evolutionary algorithm (meta-heuristics), inspired from nature, is developed. Finally, the proposed models and methods have been evaluated through empirical and discrete events based simulations.