Children are often overlooked in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and children’s use of coping strategies plays an important part in their post-disaster adaptation (Vernberg, La Greca, Silverman, & Prinstein, 1996). The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the coping strategies of children with adequate self-regulation skills and minimal behaviour problems, living in Christchurch following the major 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. This aim was achieved through the use of semi-structured interviews with five seven-year-old children, their parents, and their teachers. These interviews were analysed using Directed Content Analysis and results showed that children most often reported using active and adaptive coping strategies, followed by avoidant strategies. Results in the current literature regarding children’s coping suggest that children exposed to natural disasters are able to utilise strategies that involve some personal control over their environment and emotions, through the use of active and adaptive coping strategies. Findings from this study contribute to the current understanding of children’s use of coping strategies when faced with commonly occurring childhood upsets. Further research is required regarding the outcomes associated with the use of effective coping strategies following traumatic events.

Drawing on data collected in rural Serenje District, in the Central Province of Zambia, this thesis focuses on the production, consumption and valorisation of grain beer, a significant livelihood practice for people. The discussion is contextualised by detailed reference to both the changing national and global politico-economic scene and to local agricultural practices. I argue that an understanding of livelihood practices must take account of both 'micro' and 'macro' level factors, as these form part of the material and conceptual 'resource repertoire' of local people. Focusing on particular case examples, the discussion reveals, for rural Serenje, the multiplex ways in which value is ascribed to beer - a highly significant livelihood resource. The data highlights the socio-symbolic, ritual, and commoditised contexts in which beer is produced and consumed. The analysis of this resource highlights how the relationship between different social arenas of experience, and the socially constructed value of beer are integrated in subtle and complex ways. A central theme of the thesis focuses on issues of value and argues that value notions are multiple social constructions. Resources, then, have many different associations of value. These different kinds of value are, in certain contexts, contested by actors, and it is in contexts of social interaction, negotiation and accommodation that resources are ascribed with value. Furthermore the fixing of value in this way provides contexts in which social identities are asserted and modified. The empirical chapters of the thesis draw attention to the importance of beer and maize in terms of people's income strategies. These livelihood practices remain firmly embedded in social life, however, and therefore concern more than the singular pursuit of cash. Consolidating, establishing, and reaffirming social relations are also a fundamental part of people's 'economic' life and co-operation in securing material and social resources remains vital. Methodologically the thesis synthesises situational analysis and discourse practice paying particular attention to the concepts of practice and agency.

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The purpose of this practicum is about developing a resource for future riverfront development through the integration of ecological erosion control techniques, flood design strategies and insightful planning principles. With a new outlook on protection solutions and design opportunities for riverfront spaces, the Red River will return as the ecological spine of Winnipeg, ensuring the health and longevity of our future River City.

Coping strategies represent the efforts, both behavioural and cognitive, that people invest in order to deal with stressful encounters. Coping is a basic component for developing adaptation and plays a major role in the relationship between the individual and the environment, especially as a moderating element between stress and sickness. Against this backdrop of the impact that the well-being of employees has on organisations, it is of the essence that organisations need to understand how their members cope with the demands which the organisation places on them. This understanding can assist organisations to evaluate the resources they make available to help employees to cope more positively with the demands placed upon them. The general objective of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Coping Orientations to the Problems Experienced Questionnaire (COPE) within different occupational groups in South Africa, to examine the construct equivalence and to assess reliability. A swey design was used. Random samples (N = 3178) were taken from electricity supply personnel, nurses and police officials, and the COPE was administered. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used to analyse the data. Exploratory factor analysis, using principal axis factoring with varimax rotation, was conducted on 53 items of the COPE and revealed four interpretable factors (Factor 1 = Approach Coping; Factor 2 = Avoidance; Factor 3 = Seeking Support; and Factor 4 = Turn to Religion). Highly acceptable Tucker's phi coefficients were found for all the comparisons, and therefore, sufficient evidence for the construct equivalence of the COPE was demonstrated. Alpha coefficients, ranging from 0,85 to 0,92, were obtained. Statistically significant differences were found between the coping strategies employed within the different organisational, gender and language groups. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Sialic acid is the terminal sugar found on most glycoproteins and is crucial in determining serum half-life and immunogenicity on glycoproteins. The scarce supply of sialic acid hinders its advancement in basic research, diagnostic development and therapeutic production. In this work, the recombinant E. coli BRL04 (pBRL89) producing sialic acid was studied by some batch and fed batch runs of high cell density cultivation using a 3-L fermentor. Some cultivation conditions including carbon source, induction time, dissolved oxygen were optimized and different feeding strategies were compared to enhance sialic acid production. The results may be helpful to the further scale-up of sialic acid production and the production of other recombinant proteins by high cell density cultivation of E. coli.

Based on two typological frameworks (Dahl, 1979 and Miestamo, 2007), I explore the various strategies used to negate declarative verbal main clauses (standard negation) in 28 languages in order to investigate the correlation between them and basic word order. The 28 languages are divided into three groups according to their basic word order as follows: 11 SOV, 10 SVO and 7 VSO. As much as possible, I have included languages from different language families and different geographical areas in order to eliminate the effect of genetic relationships and borrowings. The results suggest that negative strategies are probably morphological, where the negator is an affix, in SOV languages and frequently syntactic, where the negator is an independent morpheme, in SVO and VSO languages. I also show that symmetric negation, where no structural differences are observed between affirmatives and negatives other than the negative marker (s), is the most common type cross-linguistically.

In this paper, the need to develop a control strategy and test apparatus for next generation hybrid vehicles was realized. The complexity of today’s and future hybrid vehicles necessitates the need for an equally advanced method of control that can extract the optimal fuel economy from the system as a whole. A review of existing hybrid vehicle control strategies was performed. Overall, much research has been done on the optimization of series and parallel type vehicles, but virtually no information was found on the optimal use of advanced powersplit drivetrains. However, the control strategy concepts explored in the literature are useful, and can be extended to complex architectures like the General Motors Two-Mode design. The equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS) method developed by Rizzoni et al at the Ohio State University has proven to be a well developed control strategy that has seen much progress over the last decade. Although it has been only demonstrated on parallel-type vehicles, it was chosen as the basis for the control strategy methodology. An in-depth analysis on the Two-Mode transmission operation was performed. The fundamental equations for each of its range states were derived for future use in developing a plant model, and for use in control strategy development. The torque and speed capabilities of each of its modes and gears were analysed. A detailed plant model was created to form a virtual test bed for control strategy development purposes. The models use empirical data provided by manufactures, which ensures a reasonable level of accuracy in portraying component constraints and efficiencies. Building on the ECMS, a similar hybrid vehicle control strategy was developed for Two-Mode transmission based vehicles. It was modified to handle two degrees of freedom as required by the system. Its objective is to constantly minimize the total equivalent power use in the system which is defined as the sum of the chemical power in the fuel and the power used by the battery multiplied by an equivalency factor. Overall, the control strategy provides a strong basis for the optimal control of nextgeneration hybrid vehicles incorporating powersplit transmissions. It is suggested that further research be explored in combining rule-based control methods with the developed optimization based method since rule-based methods can add the stability required for enhanced drivability. / Graduate / 10000-01-01

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Background: The nursing profession involves meetings and situations which can be stressful. The work environment can cause additional stress in the form of time pressure, lack of support from colleagues, management or disgruntled family members and patients. This places the nurse in a position that requires a sharpened ability to handle stress. It can become overwhelming and unmanageable and cause a serious threat to the nurse's health and wellbeing. To handle stress the nurses uses different coping strategies. Aim: The aim of the review was to gain a better understanding of how nurses deal with occupational stress. Method: A systematic literature overview study based on eleven articles, including both qualitative and quantitative studies. Results: Nurses deal with stress in different ways based on their own resources. The results were divided in to seven themes: Seeking social support for emotional expression, Planning and problem solving to reduce stress, Setting boundaries to alleviate stress, Create time and space for recovery, Create time for reflection and guidance, Manage what cannot be affected and Creating distance in order to gain perspective. Conclusion: Perceived stress differs wide between nurses. A great responsibility therefore rests on the nurse herself to learn to manage her stress. The employer can create supportive conditions but the nurse must learn to master their own stress.