Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Syftet med studien är att undersöka förskollärares syn på delaktighet i förskolan. Vi har även undersökt hur vuxnas makt kan påverka barnens delaktighet på förskolan. Media framställer ibland barns ökade makt och delaktighet som något negativt. Vi ville se hur barns delaktighet kan uppfattas av pedagoger och i vilka situationer delaktigheten syns på förskolan. Vi har utgått ifrån en kvalitativ ansats där vi använt oss av intervjuer för att ta del av förskollärarnas erfarenheter. I studien använder vi oss av Steven Lukes (2008) maktteori och Harry Shiers (2001) delaktighetsstege och vill med hjälp av dem undersöka hur pedagogerna arbetar för att nå delaktighet på förskolan och om eventuellt maktaspekter kan påverka barns inflytande. I resultatet presenterar vi hur förskollärare skapar delaktighet utifrån den delaktighetsstege som Shiers lyfter fram, samt behandlar för- och nackdelar med delaktighet på förskolan. I förskolans läroplan står det att barnen på förskolan ska ges möjlighet till att påverka sin situation på förskolan och delta i olika former av samarbete och beslutsfattande. Resultatet kopplas även till Steven Lukes teori om maktens olika dimensioner. Resultatet visar att förskollärarna ser delaktighet som något positivt. De var dock alla eniga om att för mycket delaktighet inte är bra för barnen då det skapar oro och vilsenhet. Både tidigare forskning och våra informanter anser att barn mår bra av struktur och tydliga regler. Att ge barnen för många val passar inte alla och vi kan därför se att det är svårt att ge barn full delaktighet. Vi kan i vårt resultat se att förskollärare dagligen arbetar för att göra barnen delaktiga men vissa pedagoger menar att stora barngrupper och brist på personal inskränker på möjligheterna. Synen på delaktighet skiljer sig åt mellan olika pedagoger, men ledordet för att skapa delaktighet enligt pedagogerna har varit att lyssna på barnen / The purpose of this study is to investigate preschool teacher’s views of participation in preschool. We examined how adults' power can affect children's participation in preschool. Media produces sometimes children's increased power and empowerment as something negative. We wanted to see how children's participation can be perceived by preschool teachers and the situations in which participation can be seen at the preschool and we have assumed a qualitative approach in which we used interviews to take part in pre-school teachers' experiences. In this study, we use Steven Lukes (2008) power theori and Harry Shiers (2001) ladder of participation and used it to examine how preschool teachers are working to achieve participation in preschool and if any power aspects can affect children's influence. In the result we present how preschool fosters participation based on the needs of the ladder as Shier highlights, and discusses the pros and cons of participation in preschool. The preschool curriculum states that children in preschool should be given the opportunity to influence their situation at the preschool and participate in various forms of collaboration and decision making. The result is also coupled to Steven Lukes theory of power and the different dimensions. The result shows that preschool teachers see participation as something positive. However, they were all agreed that too much involvement is not good for children as it creates anxiety and disorientation. Both previous research and our informants believe that children thrive on structure and clear rules. To give children too many choices does not fit all and we can therefore see that it is difficult to give children full participation. We can from our results see that that the preschool teachers work daily to make the children involved but some educators argue that large groups of children and lack of staff restricts the possibilities. The view of participation differs among different teachers, but the key word for creating participation according to the educators has been to listen to the children

Previous research on children's participation has shown that children’s views are generally not taken into consideration in family law litigation. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate children’s level of participation in the District Court and Court of Appeal rulings on custody, residence and contact. The method used in the study was a content analysis of 12 District Court and Court of Appeal rulings and the theoretical framework was based on childhood sociology combined with theories and a model of child participation. The study's main results showed that parents' mutual agreement in custody disputes prior to the hearing affects the level of child participation, and that children over the age of ten are seen to get their views recognized and accounted for in court.  Furthermore, the court’s assessment whether the child is at risk of coming to harm is more considerable than the child's right to contact with his or her parent. The conclusion of the study was that in order for children to be able to make their voice heard and contribute their perspectives in custody disputes, they must be involved. / Tidigare forskning på barns delaktighet har visat att barn generellt har svårt att komma till tals i familjerättsliga processer. Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie var att undersöka barns delaktighet i tings- och hovrättsdomar gällande vårdnad, boende och umgänge med utgångspunkt i föräldrabalkens kap 6 och FN:s konvention om barns rättigheter. Den metod som användes i studien var en innehållsanalys av 12 avgöranden från tings- och hovrätten. Studiens teoretiska ramverk bygger på barndomssociologi i kombination med en teoretisk modell för barns delaktighet. Studiens huvudsakliga resultat visade att föräldrars överenskommelse innan domstolsförhandling påverkar barns möjlighet till delaktighet, att barn från och med 10 års ålder i större utsträckning får sin vilja beaktad i domstolen, och att en bedömning om att det föreligger en risk för att barnet ska fara illa väger tyngre än barnets rätt till umgänge med sin förälder. Studiens slutsats visar att delaktigheten och barns perspektiv är relaterade till varandra i en sorts växelverkan. För att barn ska kunna göras delaktiga, måste vuxna kunna anta ett barnperspektiv. För att barn ska kunna göra sin röst hörd och bidra med sitt perspektiv, måste de vara delaktiga.

Text in English / A survey by means of mailed questionnaires was conducted to compile a career profile of persons who completed the B.Cur programme at Medunsa. The sample consisted of all the nurses who had completed the B.Cur. programme over a decade from 1985 to 1994. Forty-one percent of the questionnaires were returned and the findings indicated that the nurse graduates were committed to nursing and were contributing to the nursing services in south Africa. The public service was the largest employer of the graduate nurses. Their commitment to nursing is shown by their long service as well as post-registration qualifications sought in nursing. The B.Cur programme at Medunsa had adequately prepared them to practice nursing. There appears to be a need, however, to review the curriculum in some areas. It was concluded that Medunsa has contributed to the provision of well qualified nurses. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

A presente pesquisa trata da compreensão e caracterização do papel do design dentro de uma empresa de desenvolvimento de produtos digitais por meio do ponto de vista de membros das equipes de projetos e seus gestores. Uma das principais motivações para a condução do estudo provém do fato de que poucas pesquisas do tipo foram realizadas em âmbito regional e direcionadas a projetos digitais, a fim de explorar o tema. Pretende-se com a pesquisa, fornecer subsídios para um melhor aproveitamento dos benefícios do uso do design e das habilidades dos designers. A investigação foi conduzida, a partir de um estudo de caso realizado na empresa onde a pesquisadora atua também como designer e fundamentada sob uma perspectiva temporal dos papéis do design e do entendimento sobre o funcionamento de equipes multidisciplinares no processo de desenvolvimento de produtos digitais. Foram selecionados dois instrumentos de fundamentação teórica para análise dos resultados, a Design Ladder e a Taxonomia dos Papéis do Design. Por fim, apresenta-se uma discussão sobre a percepção do design pelos membros da equipe e concluiu-se que o nível de maturidade em design detectado no objeto de estudo encontra-se no segundo nível da Design Ladder: design como provedor de diferencial estético, embora seja percebido através dos discursos o desejo pelo terceiro nível, que trata o design como processo. / This research deals with the understanding and characterization of the role of design in a digital product development company and through the point of view of members of the project teams and their managers. One of the main motivation for conducting this study is due to the fact that little research has been conducted at the regional level and oriented for digital products, in order to explore the topic, and also with the aim of providing subsidies to better exploit the benefits of the use of design and designers skills. The investigation was conducted from a case study in the company where the researcher works as a designer too and based on a temporal perspective of the roles of design and understanding of the functioning of multidisciplinary teams in the digital product development process. Two instruments were selected from the theoretical background in order to analyze the results: the Design Ladder and the Taxonomy of Roles Design. Lastly, a discussion is presented on the perception of design and was concluded that the ripeness level of design are in the second level of Design Ladder: design as esthetics, although it is perceived by the team speech a desire for reach the third level who treats design as a process.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:23:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6295.pdf: 4882645 bytes, checksum: 753ebcc5b034e8345c6f3057edbdb562 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-28 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / The use of glucocorticoids as treatment for allergic and inflammatory conditions has become commom nowadays, although, chronically it can causes many side effects such as peripheral insulin resistance, hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, hypertension, dyslipidemia, body weight loss and muscle atrophy. On the other hand, resistance training (RT) has been recommended as non-pharmacological treatment for some pathological conditions, however little is known about its effects on muscle atrophy induced by chronic treatment with dexamethasone (DEX). The aim of this study was to verify the preventive effect of RT (80% of maximal carrying capacity) on DEX-induced muscle atrophy as well as the responsible mechanisms for this response. Forty-three wistar rats (200-250g) were allocated into four groups: sedentary control (SC), sedentary treated with DEX (SD), trained control (TC) and trained treated with DEX (TD). After a familiarization period on the ladder, a maximal voluntary carrying capacity test (MVCC) was performed to determinate the training intensity and the rats underwent or RT (80% MCCT, 4 days/week, 70 days) or remained sedentary. The MVCC was performed in the beginning, after 4 weeks, before and after the DEX treatment. Through the last ten days, the animals received DEX (0.5 mg/kg/day, i.p.) or saline solution. After 24 hours of the last training session, the animals were euthanized and the flexor hallucis longus (FHL), tibialis anterior (TA) and soleus (SOL) muscles were collected and weighted for further analysis of mTOR, p70S6K, FOXO3a, Atrogin-1 and MuRF-1 protein levels. The results were presented as mean ± SEM, &#945;<0.05. DEX treatment evoked adrenal gland atrophy (-47%), body weight loss (-21%) and food intake reduction (-28%). The RT increased MVCC of trained animals (+215%). Also, DEX treatment reduced FHL and TA muscles mass (-19.6% e -17.7%, respectively), which was associated with the MuRF-1 protein level increase (+37% e +45,5%, respectively). We did not observe any alterations in mTOR, p70S6K, FOXO3a and Atrogin-1 protein levels after DEX treatment. RT was be able to attenuate FHL muscle atrophy due to blockade of MuRF-1 increase (-3.5%). In addition, it did increase mTOR (+63% for TC e TD) e p70S6K (+46% and +49% for TC e TD, respectively) protein levels in FHL muscle. FOXO3a and Atrogin-1 protein levels were not altered by RT. SOL muscle was not affected by neither treatment nor training. Therefore, these results allow us to suggest that DEX-induced muscle atrophy observed in the FHL and TA muscles can be associated with increases in MuRF-1 protein level. RT-induced attenuation of FHL muscle atrophy involved increases in mTOR and p70S6K protein levels associated with maintenance of MuRF-1 protein levels. / O uso de glicocorticoides como tratamento de quadros inflamatórios e alérgicos tem sido uma constante na atualidade, embora, cronicamente provoque vários efeitos colaterais como resistência periférica à insulina, hiperglicemia e hiperinsulinemia, hipertensão, dislipidemia, perda de peso corporal e atrofia muscular. Por outro lado o treinamento resistido (TR) tem sido recomendado como tratamento não farmacológico em alguns estados patológicos, embora pouco se conheça sobre seus efeitos sobre a atrofia muscular induzida pelo tratamento crônico com dexametasona (DEX). O objetivo principal deste trabalho foi verificar o efeito preventivo do TR a 80% do carregamento máximo sobre a atrofia muscular induzida pela DEX, bem como os mecanismos responsáveis por esta resposta. Foram utilizados 43 ratos Wistar (200-250g) distribuídos em 4 grupos: sedentário controle (SC), sedentário tratado com DEX (SD), treinado controle (TC) e treinado tratado com DEX (TD). Após um período de adaptação na escada, foi realizado um teste de carregamento máximo (TCM) para determinação da intensidade do treino. Em seguida, os ratos foram submetidos ao treinamento resistido (80% da capacidade máxima, 4 dias/semana, 70 dias) ou mantidos sedentários. Os TCM foram realizados no início do protocolo experimental, após 4 semanas, antes e após o tratamento com DEX. Nos últimos 10 dias, os animais receberam DEX (0,5 mg/kg por dia, i.p.) ou solução salina. Após 24 horas da última sessão de exercício, os animais foram eutanasiados e os músculos flexor longo do hálux (FHL), tibial anterior (TA) e sóleo (SOL) foram coletados, pesados e seus valores normalizados pelo tamanho da tíbia. Analisamos a produção das proteínas mTOR, p70S6K, FOXO3a, Atrogina-1 e MuRF-1. Os resultados são apresentados como média ± EPM, &#945;<0,05. A DEX provocou redução do peso da glândula adrenal (-47%), peso corporal (-21%) e ingestão alimentar (- 28%). O TR aumentou a capacidade física dos animais treinados (+215%). O tratamento com DEX reduziu a massa muscular do FHL e TA (-19,6% e -17,7%, respectivamente), que foi associada ao aumento da proteína MuRF-1 (+37% e +45,5%, respectivamente), não foram observadas alterações nas proteínas mTOR, p70S6K, FOXO3a e Atrogina-1 após o tratamento com DEX. O TR foi capaz de atenuar a atrofia no músculo FHL, pois conseguiu bloquear o aumento da proteína MuRF-1 (-3,5%), além de aumentar os níveis de mTOR (+63% para TC e TD) e p70S6K (+46% e +49% para TC e TD, respectivamente), embora não tenha alterado os valores de FOXO3a e Atrogina-1. O músculo SOL não foi alterado nem pelo tratamento nem pelo treinamento. Portanto, os resultados obtidos até o presente momento permite-nos sugerir que a atrofia observada nos músculos TA e FHL causadas por 10 dias de tratamento com DEX pode estar associada ao aumento da proteína MuRF-1. Por sua vez, o TR foi capaz de prevenir a atrofia no músculo FHL em decorrência do aumento de mTOR e p70S6K somados a manutenção dos valores de MuRF-1.

A presente pesquisa trata da compreensão e caracterização do papel do design dentro de uma empresa de desenvolvimento de produtos digitais por meio do ponto de vista de membros das equipes de projetos e seus gestores. Uma das principais motivações para a condução do estudo provém do fato de que poucas pesquisas do tipo foram realizadas em âmbito regional e direcionadas a projetos digitais, a fim de explorar o tema. Pretende-se com a pesquisa, fornecer subsídios para um melhor aproveitamento dos benefícios do uso do design e das habilidades dos designers. A investigação foi conduzida, a partir de um estudo de caso realizado na empresa onde a pesquisadora atua também como designer e fundamentada sob uma perspectiva temporal dos papéis do design e do entendimento sobre o funcionamento de equipes multidisciplinares no processo de desenvolvimento de produtos digitais. Foram selecionados dois instrumentos de fundamentação teórica para análise dos resultados, a Design Ladder e a Taxonomia dos Papéis do Design. Por fim, apresenta-se uma discussão sobre a percepção do design pelos membros da equipe e concluiu-se que o nível de maturidade em design detectado no objeto de estudo encontra-se no segundo nível da Design Ladder: design como provedor de diferencial estético, embora seja percebido através dos discursos o desejo pelo terceiro nível, que trata o design como processo. / This research deals with the understanding and characterization of the role of design in a digital product development company and through the point of view of members of the project teams and their managers. One of the main motivation for conducting this study is due to the fact that little research has been conducted at the regional level and oriented for digital products, in order to explore the topic, and also with the aim of providing subsidies to better exploit the benefits of the use of design and designers skills. The investigation was conducted from a case study in the company where the researcher works as a designer too and based on a temporal perspective of the roles of design and understanding of the functioning of multidisciplinary teams in the digital product development process. Two instruments were selected from the theoretical background in order to analyze the results: the Design Ladder and the Taxonomy of Roles Design. Lastly, a discussion is presented on the perception of design and was concluded that the ripeness level of design are in the second level of Design Ladder: design as esthetics, although it is perceived by the team speech a desire for reach the third level who treats design as a process.

Nesta tese desenvolvemos um método numérico para diagonalizar o Hamiltoniano de Heisenberg iterativamente. O método consiste basicamente em diagonalizar cadeias de spins, cada vez maiores, em que cada passo da diagonalização corresponde à adição de um novo spin à cadeia. A base de vetores para calcular o Hamiltoniano de uma cadeia de N spins, HN, é construída por meio do produto direto dos autovetores do Hamiltoniano Hn-1 da rede diagonalizada no passo anterior, pelos autoestados correspondentes ao N-ésimo spin adicionado. Além de usar a comutação do Hamiltoniano com a componente azimutal do spin total, Sz, prática comum em outros métodos, usufruímos da conservação com o quadrado do spin total, S2. Para uma classe específica de redes também implementamos a simetria de reflexão. Obtemos o espectro completo de energia de cadeias de spins 1/2 com até 20 sítios, para as quais mostramos resultados da dependência com a temperatura da susceptibilidade magnética e do calor específico, para redes com impurezas tipo spin substitucionais, com defeitos nas ligações ou com efeitos de bordas, isto é, para sistemas sem invariância translacional. Usualmente essa restrição impõe enormes dificuldades em métodos tradicionais. Para diagonalizar cadeias com um número maior de sítios, implementamos um procedimento que seleciona os estados de mais baixa energia para serem usados na base de vetores do passo seguinte. Com esse tipo de truncamento de estados, fomos capazes de obter o estado fundamental e alguns estados de baixa energia de cadeias com mais de uma centena de sítios, com precisão de até cinco algarismos significativos. Nossos resultados reproduzem os da literatura para os casos conhecidos, em geral sistemas homogêneos. As aproximações desenvolvidas recentemente no contexto da Teoria do Funcional da Densidade, aplicada ao modelo de Heisenberg, e que também se aplicam a sistemas inomogêneos, estão em conformidade com nossos resultados numericamente exatos. Generalizamos o método para diagonalizar escadas de spins 1/2. Calculamos o estado fundamental e o gap de energia desse sistema, onde variamos a razão entre os acoplamentos ao longo das pernas da escada e ao longo dos degraus da mesma; nossos resultados são comparados com os da literatura. Apresentamos também a implementação do método iterativo no modelo de Hubbard, que descreve um sistema de spins itinerantes. Sabe-se que no regime de alta repulsão Coulombiana entre os spins e densidade um (número de spins igual ao número de sítios da cadeia), esse modelo é mapeado no modelo de Heisenberg, resultado que é verificado numericamente em nosso procedimento por meio do cálculo de energias de ambos os modelos em um regime paramétrico apropriado. / In this Thesis we develop a numerical method to diagonalize the Heisenberg model iteratively. In essence, we diagonalize spin chains in steps, each one corresponding to an addition of a spin to a smaller chain. The basis vectors to calculate the Hamiltonian of a N-spin chain, HN, is built by means of the direct product of the eigenvectors of the (N-1)-spin Hamiltonian, diagonalized on the previous step, by the eigenstates of the N-th added spin. Besides the common use of the conservation of the z-component of the total spin, Sz, we also exploit the conservation of the squared total spin, S2. For a specific class of spin systems we also implemented the reflection symmetry. We obtain the entire energy spectrum of spin-1/2 chains up to 20 sites, for which we show the temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility and specific heat, for systems with substitutional impurity spins, bond defects, border effects, i.e., for systems without translational invariance. This normally imposes enormous restrictions in many traditional methods. In order to diagonalize chains with a larger number of sites we implemented a procedure that selects lower energy states to be used in the basis vector on the next step. Using this truncation scheme, we are able to obtain low-lying energy states for chains with more than a hundred sites, up to five significant figures of accuracy. Our results reproduce those of the literature for the known cases, in general homogeneous systems. The approaches recently developed in the context of Density Functional Theory to the Heisenberg model, which also apply to inhomogeneous systems, are consistent with our numerical results. We generalize the method to diagonalize spin-1/2 ladders. We calculate the ground-state and the energy gap of this system, for arbitrary ratio of the couplings along the lags or over the rungs of the ladder. We also present the implementation of our iterative method to the Hubbard model, which describes a system of itinerant spins. It is known that in the regime of high Coulomb repulsion between the spins and unitary density (number of spins equal to the number of sites in the chain), this model is mapped onto Heisenberg one, a result which is verified numerically in our procedure by calculating the energy spectrum of both models in na appropriated parametric regime.

This study aims at exploring the motivation that drives tourists to townships. The theories that were chosen as the theoretical base of this study were the push and pull theory, the Travel Career Ladder, authenticity and the tourist gaze. Three research questions were asked around the theory base and a survey was done of 100 tourists in selected locations within Soweto. Results obtained from the respondents allowed for statistical analysis. The results indicated that the township tourists were intrinsically motivated and were driven by affiliation needs. Furthermore, the tourists that initially visited Soweto were motivated by authenticity; however, as the amount of tourism in the area grew, the tourist gaze became the more dominant form of motivation. The implications of the study findings are discussed. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Large capacity high voltage power transformers are one of the most expensive items of equipment in an electrical power network. Power utilities can ill-afford breakdown of transformers, especially, in a deregulated scenario. The consequences of such a failure are well known. Under these circumstances, utilities have figured-out that condition-based monitoring and diagnosis is worth pursuing, in spite of increased expenditure. Thus, monitoring and diagnosis is an integral part of operation and maintenance. Mechanical forces generated during short-circuits is the main cause leading to displacement/deformation of windings. Frequency response measurements have attained worldwide acceptance as a highly sensitive monitoring tool for detecting occurrence of such events. This is evident from the fact that customized commercial equipment are available (popularly called FRA or SFRA instruments), and with recent introduction of an IEEE draft trial-use guide for application and interpretation of frequency response analysis. Once a damage is detected, the next task is to identify its location along the winding and, if possible, determine its extent of severity. Understandably, these two tasks are best achieved, without disassembling the transformer and should ideally be based on off-line and on-site terminal measurements. In this regard, literature analysis reveals that recent research efforts have successfully demonstrated possibilities of using frequency response data for localization of discrete change in windings. This is indeed noteworthy, in spite of one major drawback. This pertains to excessive computing time needed to synthesize large-sized ladder-network, which automatically limits its practical use. Keeping these issues in mind, a research was initiated to find alternatives. The primary objective of this thesis is to examine the use of- • Complexnetwork-function-lociforlocalizationofadiscretechangeinasingle,isolatedtransformerwinding,basedonterminalmeasurements It goes without saying that the proposed method should be non-invasive, simple, time-efficient and overcome drawbacks in the earlier approach. A brief summary of the proposed method follows- This thesis presents a different approach to tackle the problem of localization of winding deformation in a transformer. Within the context of this thesis, winding deformation means, a discrete and specific change imposed at a particular position on the winding. The proposed method is based on the principle of pre-computing and plotting the complex network-function-loci (e.g. driving-point-impedance) at a selected frequency, for a meaningful range of values for each element (increasing and decreasing) of the ladder network. This loci diagram is called the nomogram. After introducing a discrete change (to simulate a deformation), the driving-point-impedance (amplitude and phase) is measured again .By plotting this single measurement on the nomogram, it is straightforward to estimate the location and identify the extent of change. In contrast to the earlier approach (wherein the entire ladder-network had to be synthesized for every new measurement), the proposed method overcomes the drawbacks, is non-iterative and yields reasonably accurate localization. Experimental results on a model coil and two actual transformer windings (continuous-disc and interleaved-disc) were encouraging and demonstrate its potential. Further details are presented in the thesis.