Background: Population level child measurement is an established international practice. However, there is limited clarity around the protocol and roles of school-based child measurement programmes (CMPs). Furthermore, questions remain about the positive and adverse outcomes associated with CMPs, as well as their longer-term sustainability. This research contributes new information by addressing these key unanswered questions. Methods: This thesis describes a three-part, mixed methods research project incorporating: a systematic literature review of existing CMPs; an in-depth case study of England’s National Child Measurement Programme; and the development, pilot implementation and evaluation of a CMP in Guernsey. This research was conducted sequentially; individual components informed and guided subsequent work. Results: Routine child measurement is a popular, complex and adaptive practice and offers significant epidemiological value. The principal roles of CMPs are delivery of local prevalence data and assessment of longitudinal trends. However, CMPs are often tasked with additional, diverse and changing roles that do not translate to acknowledged outcomes. Specifically, feedback of individual results represents an unproven programme element. Programme roles can evolve according to political, logistical, or other influences, without consideration of available evidence or wider-reaching implications. There is no evidence of short-term harm from CMPs. Evaluation of the pilot CMP in Guernsey demonstrated that these programmes are perceived to be feasible, acceptable and sustainable. Conclusions: To maximise the broader utility of CMPs, there should be clarity and consistency around their aims, roles and outcomes. Overall, surveillance reflects the preferred programme type. All CMPs should incorporate a standardised, rigorously applied protocol and routine evaluation. These features are essential to ensure the accuracy and comparability of resultant data, as well as programme credibility. Population level CMPs should not function in isolation; instead, they should be integrated into comprehensive strategies for obesity management. This research has important implications for CMP stakeholders and the wider public health arena.

Naujų informacinių technologijų pažanga įtakojo ir darbo santykius, iš esmės pakeitė darbo vietos supratimą, supaprastino ir paspartino daugelį darbo procesų. Tačiau tai parodė ir neigiamą savybę: darbdaviui atsirado poreikis kontroliuoti, kokiais tikslais darbo vietoje darbuotojai naudoja informacinės technologijas ir ar jomis nepiktnaudžiauja, tam pasitelkiant elektronines sekimo priemones. Elektroninio stebėjimo ir kontrolės priemonės įgalino darbdavius rinkti milžiniškus kiekius duomenų apie savo darbuotojus ar net kištis į jų asmeninį gyvenimą. Todėl išryškėjo konfliktas tarp darbuotojo teisės į privatumą ir darbdavio teisėtų verslo interesų, kurio sprendimo variantas – teisinėmis priemonėmis pasiektas balansas tarp šių teisinių vertybių. Darbo tema „Asmens duomenų apsauga darbo vietoje“ yra pakankamai plati, todėl autorius iš esmės nagrinėja, jo manymu, vieną problematiškiausių aspektų – elektroninį darbuotojų stebėjimą iš kontrolę. Darbe siekiama atskleisti privatumo darbo vietoje ribas, analizuojamos literatūroje pateikiamos elektroninio darbuotojų stebėjimo ir kontrolės priežastys, nagrinėjamos technologijos ir būdai darbuotojams sekti bei jų keliama grėsmė darbuotojų privatumui. Taip pat autorius analizuoja teisinio reglamentavimo ypatumus, susijusius su darbuotojų privatumu bei jų elektroniniu stebėjimu ir kontrole skirtingose teisinėse sistemose, daugiausiai remdamasis JAV, ES ir Lietuvos teisės aktais ir identifikuodamas pagrindines problemas. Nagrinėdamas... [to full text] / The progress of new modern technologies has made an impact on industrial relations and essentially changed the concept of a workplace. The work aims to reveal workplace privacy limits, to analyse the reasons of electronic monitoring and surveillance found in literature, to investigate the methods and technologies to survey employees and the possible threat to employees privacy caused by these methods. The author also analyses the peculiarities of legal regulations related to employees’ privacy and electronic monitoring and surveillance in different legal systems, his analyses being mainly based on the law of the USA, the EU and Lithuania and on the identification of the main problems.

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The problem of Third Party Interference (TPI) on Oil and Gas Pipelines is on the rise across the world. TPI is not only common in developing countries but is now occasionally experienced in developed countries including Germany and the UK. The risks posed by these third-party activities on Oil and Gas pipelines are enormous and could be measured in terms of financial costs, environmental damages as well as health and safety implications. The quest for an end to these malicious activities has triggered a lot of studies into the root causes of pipeline TPI, other causes of pipeline failure, risks associated with pipeline failure and their mitigation measures. However, despite the significance of the effects of TPI, very little has been done to proffer an enduring solution through research. This research therefore aims at developing a framework for integrated oil and gas pipeline monitoring and incident mitigation system through integration of various wireless sensors for effective monitoring of oil and gas pipelines. Having identified the existing gaps in literature as lack of reliable, accurate and standard method for oil and gas pipeline risk assessment model, the study undertook a quantitative approach to develop an effective Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) model for pipelines. The QRA model developed benchmarks pipeline risk assessment and gives the parameters with which standard QRA could be measured. The research findings indicate that risk associated with Nigerian Pipeline system is in the intolerable region whereas TPI is an increasing menace across the globe. Further findings show that Support Vector Machine (SVM) gave the best performance with 91.2% accuracy while Neural Networks (NN) and Decision Tree (DT) gave 63% and 57% accuracies respectively in terms of pipeline failure mode prediction accuracies. It was recommended that operators should draw out Pipeline Integrity Management (PIM) programs and store pipeline data in a format that captures number of fatalities, property damages and costs as well as volume of oil or gas spilled to ensure that accurate data is obtainable for improved PIM. In conclusion, having achieved its aim and objectives evidenced by the framework, model developed, and the recommendations presented, the research has contributed in no small measure to providing a solution to pipeline incidences.

More than a century ago in their definitive work “The Right to Privacy” Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis highlighted the challenges posed to individual privacy by advancing technology. Today’s workplace is characterised by its reliance on computer technology, particularly the use of email and the Internet to perform critical business functions. Increasingly these and other workplace activities are the focus of monitoring by employers. There is little formal regulation of electronic monitoring in Australian or United States workplaces. Without reasonable limits or controls, this has the potential to adversely affect employees’ privacy rights. Australia has a history of legislating to protect privacy rights, whereas the United States has relied on a combination of constitutional guarantees, federal and state statutes, and the common law. This thesis examines a number of existing and proposed statutory and other workplace privacy laws in Australia and the United States. The analysis demonstrates that existing measures fail to adequately regulate monitoring or provide employees with suitable remedies where unjustifiable intrusions occur. The thesis ultimately supports the view that enacting uniform legislation at the national level provides a more effective and comprehensive solution for both employers and employees. Chapter One provides a general introduction and briefly discusses issues relevant to electronic monitoring in the workplace. Chapter Two contains an overview of privacy law as it relates to electronic monitoring in Australian and United States workplaces. In Chapter Three there is an examination of the complaint process and remedies available to a hypothetical employee (Mary) who is concerned about protecting her privacy rights at work. Chapter Four provides an analysis of the major themes emerging from the research, and also discusses the draft national uniform legislation. Chapter Five details the proposed legislation in the form of the Workplace Surveillance and Monitoring Act, and Chapter Six contains the conclusion.

The thesis introduces a framework for analysing market monitoring and surveillance systems in order to provide a common foundation for researchers and practitioners to specify, design, implement, compare and evaluate such systems. The proposed framework serves as a reference map for researchers and practitioners to position their work in the context of market monitoring and surveillance, resulting in a useful instrument for the analysis, testing and management of such systems. More specifically, the thesis examines the new requirements for the operation of financial markets, the role of technologies, the recent consultations on the structure and governance of EU and US markets, as well as, future usage scenarios and emerging technologies. It examines the context in which market monitoring and market surveillance systems are currently been used. It reports on their processes, performance, and on the organisational and regulatory environments in which they exist. Furthermore, it develops a set of taxonomies which cover the majority of the concepts of market manipulation, market monitoring, market surveillance, entities, technologies and actors that are relevant for the work in this thesis. Building on the gaps and limitations of the current systems, it proposes a new framework following the Design Science methodology. The usefulness of the framework is evaluated through four critical case studies, which not only help to understand with practical exercises the way how markets monitoring and surveillance systems work, but also to investigate their weaknesses, potential evolution and ways to improve them. For each case study, the thesis develops a fully working prototype tested using a sample prosecution case and evaluated in terms of the appropriateness and suitability of the proposed framework. Finally, implications relating to policies, procedures and future market structures are discussed followed by suggestions for future research.