This paper investigates the role of foreign competition and regional unemployment in influencing privatization policy for domestic firms. With a general model specifying the existence of foreign competition and regional unemployment, we find a negative relationship between presence of foreign competition and state ownership of the domestic firm within the same sector. We also find a positive relationship between unemployment rate in a region and state ownership of the domestic firm in the same region. Econometric analysis for China supports the theoretical findings.

Although there currently exists an in-depth empirical understanding of parents experiences and involvement in youth sport, there is an absence of published field-based intervention research specifically with sport parents (Harwood & Knight, 2015). In order to address this gap in the literature, this thesis developed a psychosocial parent education programme for British Tennis. The first study identified the education and support needs of tennis parents operating within British high performance centres (study one). Adopting a grounded theory design, data were collected through informal chats, observations, and formal interviews with parents, coaches, and ex-youth players (n=29) during a six-month period of fieldwork. Findings revealed how parents education and support needs occur across multiple levels of functioning (i.e., social, organisational, developmental, and intra-interpersonal) and are influenced by the developmental stage that parents operate in. This theoretical framework was then used as the basis for a group-based tennis parent education programme (study two). Using a qualitative organisational action research framework seven workshops were run over a 12-week period for parents with children between the ages of 5 and 10 years. Participant diaries, social validation feedback forms, and post programme focus groups (n=19) revealed perceived improvements in parents knowledge, affect, and skills across a range of learning objectives. In an attempt to improve accessibility and extend participation, the final study utilised a convergent parallel mixed methods design to examine the effectiveness of an online education programme for British tennis parents (n=38) and their perceptions of engaging in the programme (study three). Quantitative findings revealed positive directional changes in tennis parent efficacy, general parent efficacy, emotional experiences, and achievement goal orientations after completing the programme. Qualitative data provided complementary and unique insights into what worked, how, and why. Taken together, the studies within this thesis are the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of face-to-face and online sport parent education programmes. Findings also extend and advance existing recommendations and guidelines in relation to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of education programmes for sport parents. In particular, studies illustrate the importance and value of providing sport parents with accessible, proactive, structured, and developmentally appropriate education and support which addresses their stage-specific needs.

abstract: In the last decade, the number of people who own a mobile phone or portable electronic communication device has grown exponentially. Recent advances in smartphone technology have enabled mobile devices to provide applications (“mHealth apps”) to support delivering interventions, tracking health treatments, or involving a healthcare team into the treatment process and symptom monitoring. Although the popularity of mHealth apps is increasing, few lessons have been shared regarding user experience design and evaluation for such innovations as they relate to clinical outcomes. Studies assessing usability for mobile apps primarily rely on survey instruments. Though surveys are effective in determining user perception of usability and positive attitudes towards an app, they do not directly assess app feature usage, and whether feature usage and related aspects of app design are indicative of whether intended tasks are completed by users. This is significant in the area of mHealth apps, as proper utilization of the app determines compliance to a clinical study protocol. Therefore it is important to understand how design directly impacts compliance, specifically what design factors are prevalent in non-compliant users. This research studies the impact of usability features on clinical protocol compliance by applying a mixed methods approach to usability assessment, combining traditional surveys, log analysis, and clickstream analysis to determine the connection of design to outcomes. This research is novel in its construction of the mixed methods approach and in its attempt to tie usability results to impacts on clinical protocol compliance. The validation is a case study approach, applying the methods to an mHealth app developed for early prevention of anxiety in middle school students. The results of three empirical studies are shared that support the construction of the mixed methods approach. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2016

Este trabalho mostra o percurso e a evolução do projeto de arquitetura de um conjunto multifuncional edificado de grande porte. E, nesse contexto, estuda as principais variáveis que influenciam diretamente as decisões sobre a natureza dos espaços e sobre as definições quanto a sua construção. Nosso objetivo é mostrar como são definidos os caminhos do projeto, as fases do seu desenvolvimento e salientar os pontos críticos relativos à sua qualidade. E, para atingirmos esse objetivo vamos discutir a evolução dos estudos preliminares, o anteprojeto e as inúmeras alterações no programa do Espaço Brooklin nosso estudo de caso - mostrando a evolução do lugar, aspectos econômicos imobiliários que influenciaram o projeto, o processo que constituiu a formação do grupo empreendedor, e como esse conjunto de forças refletiu decisivamente no desempenho do trabalho dos arquitetos e consequentemente na definição do projeto. / This work focuses the course and the design of a multi-use building and it studies the main variables that strongly affects the decisions about the character of the space and the definition of the building. This studys objective is to show how the roads to the project are defined, their development fazes, and how the design details critical points to the overall quality of the finished project. To be able to accomplish this objective I am going to discuss the evolution of the preliminary studies, the layout, and the many changes on the Brooklin Space program my study case sharing the spaces evolution, the financial aspects of such project, the process to form a group of investors and how all of the above aspects reflected decisively in the architectural work and, consequently, in the projects definition.

La rupture des matériaux quasi-fragiles, tels que les céramiques ou les bétons, peut être représentée schématiquement par la succession des étapes de nucléation et de coalescence de micro-fissures. Modéliser ce processus de rupture est un enjeu particulièrement important lorsque l'on s'intéresse à la résistance des structures en béton, en particulier à la prédiction de la perméabilité des structures endommagées. La démarche choisie est une vision multi-échelle où le comportement global est caractérisé par la mécanique de la rupture, et le comportement local représenté par la méthode des éléments discrets. Le modèle représente la fissuration par des grandeurs généralisées, qui seront définies dans le cadre de la mécanique de la rupture. Afin de prendre en compte l’aspect non linéaire de la fissuration dans les matériaux quasi-fragiles, la cinématique usuelle de la mécanique de la rupture est enrichie par l’ajout de degrés de libertés supplémentaires chargés de représenter la part non linéaire du champ de vitesse. L'évolution du comportement est alors condensé par l'évolution de facteurs d'intensité. Le modèle proposé permet de prédire le comportement lors de chargements de mode mixte I+II proportionnel et non-proportionnel. Enfin, une campagne d'essais visant à caractériser le comportement en fissuration du mortier à été réalisée. Les résultats obtenus montrent un rôle important de la fissuration par fatigue. La méthode de changement d'échelle a également été appliquée sur les champs de vitesse en pointe de fissure, confirmant la représentation du comportement en pointe de fissure par une cinématique enrichie. / Fracture in quasi-brittle materials, such as ceramics or concrete, can be represented schematically by series of events of nucleation and coalescence of micro-cracks. Modeling this process is an important challenge for the reliability and life prediction of concrete structures, in particular the prediction of the permeability of damaged structures. A multi-scale approach is proposed. The global behavior is modeled within the fracture mechanics framework and the local behavior is modeled by the discrete element method. An approach was developed to condense the non linear behavior of the mortar. A model reduction technic is used to extract the relevant information from the discrete elements method. To do so, the velocity field is partitioned into mode I, II, linear and non-linear components, each component being characterized by an intensity factor and a fixed spatial distribution. The response of the material is hence condensed in the evolution of the intensity factors, used as non-local variables. A model was also proposed to predict the behavior of the crack for proportional and non-proportional mixed mode I+II loadings. An experimental campaign was finally conducted to characterize the fatigue and fracture behavior of mortar. The results show that fatigue crack growth can be of significant  importance. The experimental velocity field determined, in the crack tip region, by DIC, were analyzed using the same technic as that used for analyzing the fields obtained by the discrete element method showing consistent results.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Larry L. Lawhon / This report addresses the questions of whether the Birch Street Development in Brea, CA is a successful example of Smart Growth, and whether it is something that can be replicated in other cities. It is important to find the answers to both of these questions because Smart Growth may hold the key to solving the problem of sprawl, and the Birch Street Development could potentially serve as a Smart Growth implementation guide for cities everywhere.

This arts-based thesis is a personal account of making sense of loss, embracing emotion, and the cathartic qualities of mixed-media art relying greatly on family photographs. The findings from this will inform my teaching approach and assist budding artists (my pupils) in creating connections by breaking down walls to promote growth of their artistic voice.

A positive safety culture has been shown to contribute to a firm's ability to avoid or reduce the occurrence of occupational accidents and injuries. In American workplaces alone 3,582 people died and 5.1 million people were disabled in 2009 and the cost to corporate America was $169 billion and an additional productivity loss of 95 million work days. The economic cost to each American household is about $1,200. Firms that establish and maintain a positive safety culture are able to achieve a competitive advantage in the market. While much research exists showing the relationship between safety culture and accident reduction, less guidance is found on how companies might achieve such improvement through cultural change. Attempts have been made to determine the factor structure of safety culture, that is, the identification of the antecedents of a positive safety culture. However, to date no general consensus has emerged among researchers about the exact elements of the factor structure. Research methodologies have been blamed for biasing the research results and thereby causing the lack of consensus. This dissertation uses a different methodology, the Delphi method combined with Hofstede's well-known onion model of organizational culture, to determine those organizational practices that lead to a positive safety culture. Delphi is a mixed methodology that begins with an exploratory approach followed by the more traditional quantitative method. The exploratory front-end was deemed appropriate given that prior traditional survey instruments most likely introduced researcher bias through a myopic view of safety culture. Delphi also differs by utilizing purposeful sampling versus random sampling which provides a high level of expertise to inform the research. After four rounds of inquiry with a panel of experts, a consensus was reached on 18 organizational practices that lead to a positive safety culture. This research adds to the understanding of safety culture, provides useful information for both practitioners and academic researchers, and offers launch points for extensions of the research.

In this study the mixed methods research design was used to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of secondary school science teachers in the implementation of the new Swaziland Junior Secondary Science Curriculum (SJSSC). The interactions between the teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and classroom practices were also investigated. A total of 37 Form-1 Science teachers from 20 purposively selected schools in the Manzini region of Swaziland participated in the study. The 20 schools were located in urban, peri-urban and rural settings. The teachers responded to a survey questionnaire and a few selected teachers were interviewed and then observed teaching the new curriculum in their classrooms. The data for the study were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The findings for the study showed that teachers generally have good basic knowledge of the curriculum. A majority hold positive attitudes towards it. However, the classroom practices for almost all the teachers are inconsistent with the requirements and demands of the curriculum. Generally, the teachers’ knowledge was not transferred to their classroom practices largely because factors such as inadequate school physical resources, large class sizes, and traditional teaching methods appeared to still influence the classroom practices and mediate the relationship between the teachers’ knowledge and their classroom practices. / Dissertation (MEd (Curriculum and Instructional Design and Development))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

The challenge of leadership in the public sector has far reaching implications for the entire society given its role in the regulation of the affairs of any society. The complexities of the public sector decision making and operations as well as their implications require good leadership. Therefore the identification of leadership potential at all levels is crucial in order to design the interventions to develop the potential further. Studies have shown that there is not a lot of research done in the area of leadership potential identification especially in the public sector. This is also because, until recently, there has been no widely accepted framework for identification of leadership potential that is applicable at all levels. A model of identifying leadership potential has recently been published and this model has been applied in the identification of leadership potential in the Australian public sector. This study aims to assess the leadership potential of the public sector managers from an intentional change perspective. This was done through a determination of the relationship between the three concepts of ideal self, leadership potential as well as the current performance of managers in the public sector. Furthermore, an assessment of the required organizational support to improve awareness of ideal self by the employees and managers was done. 95 responses from a variety of middle and senior managers in the Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa were collected and analysed. The analysis included Principle Component Analysis and Correlations to assess the relationships between these three constructs. Also 12 interviews with middle managers (level 11-12) across most departmental functions were conducted and analysed. The results indicated that there does not appear to be any statistically significant relationship between performance scores and ideal self as well as performance scores and leadership potential. They, however, indicated that there is a statistically significant relationship between the ideal self and the leadership potential. Furthermore, the results showed that to improve the awareness of the ideal self by the employees and managers and thereby increase their leadership potential, the organization needs to consider a few things. Those are, training and organizational culture; conversations with managers; coaching and mentoring; clear succession planning and rotation; opportunity or space to innovate. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted