Background: One-in-three carers of stroke survivors experience depression with no psychological treatments tailored to meet their needs, such as barriers to attending traditional face-to-face psychological services. A cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) self-help approach may represent an effective, acceptable solution. Methods: Informed by the MRC framework (2008) for complex interventions, six studies informed development, feasibility and piloting of a CBT self-help intervention for depressed carers of stroke survivors: Study One: Systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological interventions targeting depression and anxiety in carers of people with chronic health conditions; Study Two: Interviews to understand difficulties experienced by depressed and anxious carers; Study Three: Interviews to understand positive coping strategies used by non-depressed and non-anxious carers; Study Four: Drawing on results of Studies One to Three, iterative modelling to develop the CBT self-help intervention; Study Five: Feasibility randomised controlled trial to examine methodological and procedural uncertainties for a Phase III definitive trial; Study Six: Updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Results: Study One: 16 studies identified for inclusion yielding small and medium effect sizes for depression and anxiety respectively, with trends for individually delivered treatments over shorter session durations to be more effective for depression. Six additional studies were included in Study Six, replicating Study One results; Study Two: Depressed and anxious carers experience difficulties adapting to the caring role, managing uncertainty, lack of support and social isolation; Study Three: Non-depressed and non-anxious carers utilise problem-focused coping strategies to gain balance and adapt to caring role, use assertiveness, seek social support and positive reinterpretation; Study Four: Developed a theory-driven CBT self-help intervention; Study Five: Recruited 20 informal carers in 10-months, representing 0.08% of invited carers randomised with high attrition in the intervention arm. Lack of GP recognition, gatekeeping and barriers to accessing psychological support identified as reasons for poor recruitment. Conclusions: A greater appreciation is required concerning barriers experienced by informal carers of stroke survivors to accessing support for depression and type of acceptable psychological support.

Much debate surrounds the effect the minimum wage has on employment. Economic theory suggests that the minimum wage acts as a price floor in the labor market and thus leads to disemployment. However, empirical evidence from a variety of industries, states, and age groups suggests that the minimum wage has negative, negligible, and even positive effect on employment. This Economics/Public Policy Analysis thesis is the first study to analyze the effect the minimum wage has on employment in the informal sector. I apply four OLS regressions with various levels of specifications on five dependent variables: hourly wage, log hourly wages, hours worked, log daily income, and percentage working. My results suggest that economic theory holds true in the informal sector with regards to the California minimum wage mandate of 2016: the minimum wage had a positive and statistically significant effect on hourly wage, with average hourly wages increasing by $1.88; the minimum wage had a negative and statistically significant effect on percentage working, with average number of workers dispatched to jobs decreasing by 15%.

The study is about enterprises in the formal and informal sectors in sub-Saharan Africa and consists of three separate but connected essays. The first essay examines whether or not structural reforms in the business regulatory environment, trade sector, and the financial sector, can influence access to debt financing for investment by enterprises in sub-Sahara Africa. The data is from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. The analyses involve panel data models. The results are indicative that taken together; structural policy reforms reduce debt-financing constraints. Reforms in the business regulatory environment and the financial sector increase the likelihood of access to debt financing. However, for trade, beyond a threshold, further reductions in the tariff and non-tariff barriers make it harder for enterprises to obtain debt financing. These results have implications for the type of reforms pursued in various countries. The second essay examines how social capital, education, and liquidity constraints influence the decision of an entrepreneur to operate either in the formal or informal sector. For enterprises that did not register and operating for less than five years, there is evidence that the likelihood of running in the informal sector, as opposed to the formal sector, decreases with the entrepreneurial level of education while social capital increases this likelihood. However, for enterprises in the informal sector, operating for over five years, liquidity constraints impedes formalisation. In the long run, the decision to stay informal or formalise depends on funding constraints, the incidence of taxes in the formal sector and the perception that there are no benefits from operating in the formal sector. The third essay is about the relationship between enterprises in the formal and informal sector and aims to uncover, at least in part, whether or not social and human capitals are important in facilitating the linkages between enterprises in the formal and the informal sectors. The analysis involves flexible binary generalised extreme value models. The results are indicative that for both male and female entrepreneurs, social and human capitals have significant positive real effects on the likelihood of linkages. / October 2016

This study estimates the size of the informal economy in South Africa, evaluates the macroeconomic implications of this, and then concludes with possible effects that all of this might have on policy. The research is conducted as a South African case study, and uses time-series analysis for the period 1966-2002. Recently there has been a revival of interest in the informal economies of a number of countries. The revival has been driven largely by an increase in the size of informal economies, in both absolute and relative terms. South Africa is no exception to this trend: more and more people are entering the informal economy. The rapid urbanization of the black population, the slow pace of economic growth, the decrease in the incidence of formal employment, the promotion of small-, medium- and microenterprises (SMMEs), as well, finally, as the so-called ‘informalization’ of formal businesses are all factors contributing to the recent growth in the South African informal economy. There is not much literature on the South African informal economy, and what there is tends to be narrow, specializing in particular aspects of the informal economy. Moreover, the subject is controversial: there seems to be little agreement on the definition and use of informal economy estimates in both economic analysis and policy-making. In response to this situation, therefore, the present study examines the problem of defining the informal economy and considers the reasons why people might prefer to operate in the informal economy rather than in the formal economy. By III examining the various definitions of the South African informal economy and by looking at the reasons why people are operating in it, it is possible to gain an understanding of the various approaches used in international literature on the subject to measure the economic contribution of informal economies. A critique of the different approaches suggests that the currency demand approach is an appropriate method for measuring the informal economy in a developing country such as South Africa. The results of the analysis indicate that while the size of the informal economy stood at an average of 9.5% of GDP for the period 1966-2002, the size of the informal economy during the period 1966-1993 decreased. After 1993, the size of the informal economy remained relatively constant. These estimates of size are then used to test the nature of the relationships between the informal and formal economies. It was found that the informal economy has effects in, and on, the formal economy. This finding suggests, ultimately, that an increase in the size of the informal economy will ultimately contribute to an increase in the growth of the economy as a whole. These findings are used in the present thesis in the formulation of policy recommendations regarding the regulatory and macroeconomic policies currently in place in South Africa. The recommendations cover many areas: variable bias, monetary policy, fiscal policy and taxation, capital markets, and employment policy. Areas for further research are also indicated. The study concludes that macroeconomic policy which largely ignores or neglects the informal economy in its modelling IV and planning increases the likelihood that such policy may be overly contractionary, or that it may have unintended consequences. As a consequence, the South African informal economy should be included in all macroeconomic models – whether monetary, fiscal, or development models. The due consideration of the informal economy takes on even further significance in the South African context: it consists largely of the formerly disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of society – the very people who have been given priority in the government’s broad medium-term macroeconomic policy (i.e. GEAR). The estimates presented in this study should therefore make a contribution to macroeconomic modelling and planning. / Prof. Elsabe Loots

Parents are best able to identify their own support needs, and professionals can assist parents in receiving supports to assist with these needs. There has been an increase of children diagnosed with autism, which has resulted in a major concern for education professionals. Teachers, therapists, and medical personnel are better able to assist families of children with autism in obtaining supports because they are able to view the family and child objectively and are not emotionally tied to the situation. The focus of this study was to identify the forms of social support that mothers and fathers of children recently diagnosed with autism perceive as being important. Twenty couples (father-mother dyads) of children between the ages of three to five and diagnosed no more than a year and a half with autism participated in this study. Before the study began a social validation process with professionals and parents of children with autism was used to validate the usefulness of the 16 support items. Once the validation was complete, twenty families completed a Q-sort with the items, which allowed for a ranking from "most" to "least" important. Results indicated that both fathers and mothers ranked "information on how I can help my child" as the most important support and "help with transportation" as the least important support. Overall, fathers' preferred instrumental (goods, services, financial assistance, and information) types of supports, such as, "financial help for expenses." Mothers' preferred emotional (someone to talk to about problems, feelings, and attitudes) types of supports, such as, "contact with other parent(s) who experienced the same situation." T-tests, correlations, and a factor analysis were performed to analyze the data. Significant correlations were from on five support items. "Involvement with a church or strong religious beliefs", "special equipment to help meet my child's needs", "financial help for expenses", "participation in an organized parent support group", and "information on how I can help my child" were significant at the.05 level. From the findings, implications for professionals who work with families of children with autism and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Magíster en Análisis Sistémico Aplicado a la Sociedad / Autor no autoriza el acceso a texto completo de su documento

Tesis para optar al grado de magíster en Finanzas / Según datos recientes, cerca del 10% de los hogares endeudados cuenta con una fuente de crédito no formal, entendido en su forma amplia como aquella que no es regulada y se asocia a la naturaleza de pedir prestado a algún familiar, amigo, prestamista, pedir fiado o solicitar un crédito prendario. Esta deuda es más volátil que las deudas reguladas, además de no generar información para agentes formales y es, en la mayoría de los casos, más costosa que la formal. El objetivo del trabajo es dar respuesta a cuáles son los determinantes a nivel de hogares (o jefe de hogares), de este tipo de deuda, que ha sido poco explorada por ausencia de datos y por la naturaleza misma del sector que no tiene incentivos a generarlos. El desarrollo de la investigación implica datos específicos para la Región Metropolitana en forma representativa a todos los hogares de la región. En conjunto a las tendencias generadas por la Encuesta Financiera Hogares (EFH) en sus versiones de 2007, 2008, 2009 y 2010, y la metodología que Banco Central de Chile (2012) desarrolla, pero solamente trabajando con EFH 2010, se verifica consistentemente que esta deuda es explicada positivamente (o aumenta) por ser un jefe de hogar ocupado laboralmente y con más personas laboralmente activas dentro del hogar, que es creciente con cumplimientos de hitos en educación formal (terminar educación media y superior) así como creciente con el ingreso; mientras que negativamente se relaciona con la edad (en forma convexa), con el efecto de bancarización y con el ser partícipe de un estrato socioeconómico alto (decil 9 – 10). Destacando que existe un eventual sesgo de selección debido a que los endeudados no formalmente ya pertenecen per se al mercado de deuda, se desarrolla además la hipótesis de que existe un sesgo para ser usuario de un mercado crediticio no formal en relación al mercado de crédito completo. No se presenta evidencia significativa para un sesgo de selección, pero sí con una relación negativa, lo cual atiende a que posiblemente quienes ingresan al mercado de deuda optan por no ser partícipes con deuda no formal y viceversa.

Det finns idag i Sverige många personer som har drabbats av en demenssjukdom. Att drabbas av demenssjukdom påverkar hela familjen och de närstående får ofta dra ett tungt lass vid vården av den sjuke. Många närstående sliter dygnet runt och löper därför stor risk att drabbas av hög stressbelastning och depression som följd. Demenssjukdom kan delas in i olika typer så som frontotemporal demens, Alzheimers sjukdom, vaskulärdemens. Olika typer av demens ger olika symtom men gemensamt är att de alla ger en kognitiv och känslomässig påverkan med bland annat nedsatt minnesfunktion, rastlöshet och oro. Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka behov närstående som vårdar en demenssjuk i hemmet kan ha för att som sjuksköterska kunna stödja på bästa sätt. I denna studie har det använts elva artiklar varav sex är kvalitativa och tre kvantitativa samt två artiklar som var blandstudier med både kvalitativa och kvantitativa inslag. Analysen av materialet resulterade i två huvudkategorier vilka är kunskap om sjukdomen och kunskap om stöd som kan erbjudas, samt sex underkategorier. Resultatet visar att närstående har ett stort behov av utbildning och information, vilket de i dag inte tycker att de får tillräckligt av. De behöver dels kunskap om sjukdomen för att kunna förstå och ge en god vård, samt kunskap om sjukdomens utveckling för att kunna planera för framtiden. Det visar sig också att många närstående inte får tillräckligt information om hur de skall få kontakt med olika instanser, samt hur de kan söka olika stödåtgärder så som korttidsplats, dagverksamhet och avlösning i hemmet. För att närstående skall orka sköta den dagliga vården av den sjuke är det viktigt att han eller hon får tid att ta hand om sig själv. Som sjuksköterskor är det viktigt att ha en bra utbildning och en god förståelse för hur närstående och sjuka upplever sjukdomen, för att kunna ge en korrekt information samt att kunna stödja på bästa sätt.

The role of human capital in the overall economic development towards knowledge economy and innovations is fundamental. Without human resources, which make up the essence of human capital, we would have no innovative products or services, no new strategies and processes. The development and continuous increase of human capital is one of the prerequisites of an economic growth. The aim of this research was to test the effects of human capital investments on the economic results of enterprises. The research was based on an extensive questionnaire survey, which was further completed with expert interviews. The interviewees were HR professionals from selected companies. The main hypothesis was formed as an assumption about a positive dependence between human capital investments and economic successfulness of companies represented with value added per employee. The hypothesis was verified at a high significance level. Further this work tries to find answers to several key questions related to the main hypothesis: What are the key competences of a competitive human capital in the Czech companies? How can companies efficiently invest into the human capital in order to increase the company's competitiveness? What is the role of companies as the initiators of human capital development? How did the economic crisis change the companies' attitude towards human capital investments? The work further proposes how to diminish the main inefficiencies of companies' investments in human capital. Great attention is also paid to the comparison of various sources that measure and compare the volume of human capital in the Czech Republic.

Magister Artium - MA / This study explores the lives of Kanana residents, an informal settlement in Gugulethu Township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. It pays particular attention to their everyday lives to dispel negative and simplistic representations of informal settlement residents when they collectively take part in protests. Although there are extensive reasons for the protests in the informal settlements, the media and the South African government have reduced these protests to portraying them as demands for “service delivery”, and furthermore as criminally induced protests. I point out that this problem is partly due to scholarly work that does not engage these misleading representations and illustrate the lives of shack residents in the ordinary, when they are not protesting. Thus the focus of this thesis is life beyond protests. I argue that the lives of shack residents who participate in the protests are complex. As opposed to negative and simplistic representations, this thesis illustrates that one needs to be immersed in the lives of shack residents so as to understand them as identifiable human beings who make meaning of their lives. I explore their lives in the shack settlement further and argue that these human beings live their ordinary harmonious lives centred on the practice of greeting. To highlight the complexity of life of protesting informal settlement residents this thesis makes a point that there exist unsettling realities in the shack settlement; unsettling realities that make residents feel to be less of human beings. Kanana residents, therefore, draw from these perpetual unsettling realities to organise and protest. This thesis is based on ethnographic research, which was conducted between September 2015 and February 2016. During fieldwork, I observed and interacted in informal conversations with Kanana residents. With the main co-producers of this work, I carried out their life histories and further in-depth interviews.