Outcomes related to students’ reading comprehension and higher-order critical thinking skills, and students’ academic and intellectual engagement following the implementation of a Three-Block Model of UDL-based literature circles pedagogical model were investigated. Fifty-nine (59) students attending three suburban public middle schools took part in the study. The study adopted a mixed-design approach to data collection and analysis, with quantitative data collected from all students, and qualitative data collected from a purposively selected sub-sample of 24 students (12 in each of treatment and control classes). Intervention and control groups were assessed pre and post for measures of reading comprehension using classroom-based assessments, which were triangulated by qualitative data from pre and post semi-structured student interviews to explore students’ academic and intellectual engagement. Quantitative data were analyzed using repeated measures MANOVA’s to determine treatment effects for both groups while qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed thematically using a case study approach. Quantitative results showed a small but significant increase in reading comprehension outcomes for proficient and typical readers in treatment groups compared to their counterparts in control classes, and showed a significantly greater increase in reading comprehension outcomes for students in treatment classes who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) and struggling readers. These findings were corroborated by the qualitative results, which showed that students’ academic and intellectual engagement increased in the treatment classes both for proficient readers and struggling readers.

The customer currently lifts caravans with an ordinary car jack in combination with a beam and a tractor. The customer wants to have a device which grants more safety and stability. The task is executed by two international students. In order to develop a new design, a methodical design process is used. This process does not contain all steps of a product development process and in consists in this case of four steps. The outcome of this product development process is a device which meets the technical requirements and which is validated by a computer simulation. The device is safe to use and stable. Besides, the device is mobile, thus storable, and adjustable, as the customer requested. Lastly, the students made some recommendations for using the device.

The tourism industry involves people with specific but different needs to be satisfied, whether one is able-bodied or has a disability. People with disabilities are a global phenomenon and research indicated that 600 million people in the world have some type of disability. Therefore the market for tourists with disabilities cannot be disregarded, for it can significantly contribute to a country's tourism receipts. To understand and effectively cater for the disability market, there are several aspects that the tourism industry should look at. This leads to the aim of this study viz. to determine what the barriers and constraints faced by people with disabilities are. In order to achieve this aim, a hundred questionnaires were distributed to various sectors of the tourism industry, for example the accommodation sector (hotels, guesthouses, Bed and Breakfasts), tour operators and travel agents. The study indicated that: *The tourism industry needs to adapt and promote “Tourism for All”. *The lack of available and accessible facilities, transport, accommodation and attractions have an impact on the travel patterns of tourists with disabilities. * Marketing should include information to tourists with disabilities. * To achieve this goal and server diverse tourists, a universal design needs to be included in the current and future developments of tourism products. Evaluation of existing facilities and tourist attraction need to take place in order to provide a quality service and experience to people with disabilities. * Government and local authorities have an important role to fulfil to ensure that a universal design be implemented in tourist attraction and facilities. The key aspect that the tourism industry need to know and remember is that if a person has a disability, it does not mean that he/she is unable to travel or does not want to travel. / Thesis (M.A. (Tourism))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

The tourism industry involves people with specific but different needs to be satisfied, whether one is able-bodied or has a disability. People with disabilities are a global phenomenon and research indicated that 600 million people in the world have some type of disability. Therefore the market for tourists with disabilities cannot be disregarded, for it can significantly contribute to a country's tourism receipts. To understand and effectively cater for the disability market, there are several aspects that the tourism industry should look at. This leads to the aim of this study viz. to determine what the barriers and constraints faced by people with disabilities are. In order to achieve this aim, a hundred questionnaires were distributed to various sectors of the tourism industry, for example the accommodation sector (hotels, guesthouses, Bed and Breakfasts), tour operators and travel agents. The study indicated that: *The tourism industry needs to adapt and promote “Tourism for All”. *The lack of available and accessible facilities, transport, accommodation and attractions have an impact on the travel patterns of tourists with disabilities. * Marketing should include information to tourists with disabilities. * To achieve this goal and server diverse tourists, a universal design needs to be included in the current and future developments of tourism products. Evaluation of existing facilities and tourist attraction need to take place in order to provide a quality service and experience to people with disabilities. * Government and local authorities have an important role to fulfil to ensure that a universal design be implemented in tourist attraction and facilities. The key aspect that the tourism industry need to know and remember is that if a person has a disability, it does not mean that he/she is unable to travel or does not want to travel. / Thesis (M.A. (Tourism))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

This thesis uses the history of the Disconto-Gesellschaft to argue that the role of universal banks in fostering German industrialization was less than has previously been assumed. The archive of the Disconto-Gesellschaft is not currently accessible, so the thesis will use industrial archives to examine the bank's relations with industrial companies. After a discussion of the literature, a summary of other Disconto-Gesellschaft ventures shows that the Dortmunder Union was not an isolated disaster, but one among many. The thesis discusses the boom of 1867-1873 and. suggests it was engendered by a spate of railway building which fed into heavy industry. The next section recounts how the collapse of universal banks during financial crises led most countries outside Germany to separate commercial from investment banking either by law or by custom. The first chapter concludes with a discussion of how German industry raised capital. The second chapter discusses the origins of the Disconto- Gesellschaft; David Hansemann's introduction of a new corporate form, the Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien; the Disconto- Gesellschaft' s rise during the crisis of 1859, relations with competitors, internal structure and the character of its management and supervisory board. The third chapter treats the history of the Dortmunder Union, and the reasons for its failure. The fourth chapter discusses Krupp's difficulties in raising funds; how the Disconto-Gesellschaft coped with the problem of lending to two competing firms, Krupp and the Union; and management of this conflict through the rail cartel. The fifth chapter uses the correspondence of Kirdorf and Russell to discuss the coal industry's plight in the 1870's, and the reasons for the success of the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-Actien-Gesellschaft. The conclusion suggests that private banks were more successful in financing industry than universal banks like the Disconto-Gesellschaft because their great number meant that even a Krupp could find a private banker who believed in him, and because their narrow capital bases prevented them from keeping lame ducks alive.

Statement of the problem: Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccocus aureus (MRSA) is a pathogen of increasing concern and is associated with higher hospital readmission rates, poorer prognosis, and increased mortality resulting in increasing costs to the Canadian healthcare system.1-13 Institutions have been challenged with developing effective infection control programs to prevent the spread of MRSA. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a universal MRSA screening intervention within a large tertiary care facility. Methods of investigation: The retrospective population-based observational study consisted of two periods. In the first period (24 months), patients admitted to the Ottawa Hospital underwent risk factor-based screening. In the second period (20 months), universal MRSA screening was implemented in which all patients were screened for MRSA upon admission. Results: The regression analysis demonstrated that the universal MRSA screening intervention was not effective in reducing the number of nosocomial MRSA cases. The economic analysis estimated that the universal MRSA screening intervention incurred an additional cost of $1.16 million/year with an estimated additional cost per patient screened of $17.76. Conclusions: The universal MRSA screening intervention was not clinically or economically effective. Further research is required to verify/dispute these findings in other settings.

No description available.

The syntactic component of the faculty of language is a device responsible for ordering features or clusters of features, usually called categories. As to the syntactic component is concerned, Universal Grammar is a rewiring of three elements that are independently in place: (i) features (or instructions for the levels of interpretation of the faculty of language), (ii) a combinatorial operation responsible for creating nests (sets of sets linearly ordered by the inclusion relation), and (iii) principles of analysis (which determine constituency structure and distance relations among the categories of a syntactic object). To understand the precise shape of syntactic patterns one must explore how the syntactic component feeds the morphological component and the semantic component. Firstly, it is proposed that there exist discontinuous syntactic patterns, where two covariations of a feature are assigned to two poles of a discontinuous domain. Secondly, it is argued that, in general, the semantic component requires analytic syntactic patterns with a one-to-one relation between positions and features; some combinatorial restrictions have been attributed to the Full Interpretation Condition, a legibility condition. Indeed, discontinuous syntactic patterns are argued to be no more than a subtype of analytic syntactic patterns. Thirdly, it is defended that syncretic syntactic patterns, where two features are matched in the same projection, also exist, following the Maximize Matching Effects Principle, a principle of structural minimization. The study of how features are ordered in these patterns has provided a rather simple account of several syntactic phenomena, like some of the combinatorial restrictions observed by Cinque (1999), the so-called C-Infl connection (and also the υ-V and the P-K connections), the A'-status of preverbal subjects in Null Subject Languages (Solà 1992), the alleviation of wh-island effect in English when the embedded wh-phrase is a subject (Chomsky 1986) and the dynamic V2 patterns in double agreement dialects observed by Zwart (1993). Some ideas that would deserve further attention have been proposed: (i) the C-Infl discontinuity may contract in English under some special circumstances, which renders Comp-insertion impossible, and (ii) the Relativized Opacity Principle, an alternative to Chomsky's Phase Impenetrability Condition to account both for subject islands and wh-islands. Several devices postulated in the literature, such as suicidal greed and the existence of uninterpretable features, the Extended Projection Principle and merely occurrential features (EPP/OCC) and the Vacuous Movement hypothesis, have been considered concluding that they are inaccurate and unnecessary. Importantly, no language-or-construction-specific rules redundant in its form (Chomsky 1965) or no abstract template like the X'-theory (Chomsky 1981, Chomsky & Lasnik 1993) need to be attributed to UG to derive the knowledge of hierarchy; the Linear Correspondence Axiom (Kayne 1994) neither needs to be postulated as an axiom: it is not a proposition one needs to take for granted to derive other propositions, namely the X'-theory. No more than a recursive procedure responsible for nesting categories is needed to account for the knowledge of hierarchy. / El component sintàctic de la facultat del llenguatge és un mecanisme responsable d'ordenar trets o conglomerats de trets, normalment anomenats categories. La Gramàtica Universal, pel que fa al component sintàctic, és una reconnexió de tres elements que estan independentment en joc: (i) trets (o instruccions pels nivells d'interpretació de la facultat del llenguatge), (ii) una operació combinatorial responsable de crear nius (conjunts de conjunts linealment ordenats per la relació d'inclusió), i (iii) principis d'anàlisi (que determinen l'estructura de constituents i les relacions a distància entre les categories d'un objecte sintàctic). Per entendre la forma precisa d'un patró sintàctic cal explorar com el component sintàctic alimenta els components morfològic i semàntic. En primer lloc, s'ha proposat que existeixen patrons sintàctics discontinus, on dues covariacions d'un tret s'assignen a dos pols d'un domini discontinu. En segon lloc, hem defensat que, en general, el component semàntic requereix patrons sintàctics analítics amb una relació bijectiva entre posicions i trets; certes restriccions combinatorials s'han atribuït a la Full Interpretation Condition, una condició de legibilitat. De fet, s'ha argumentat que els patrons sintàctics discontinus no són altra cosa que un subtipus de patrons sintàctics analítics. En tercer lloc, s'ha argumentat que també existeixen objects sintàctics sincrètics, on dos trets es computen a una mateixa projecció, satisfent la Maximize Matching Effects Principle, un principi de minimització estructural. L'estudi de com els trets s'ordenen en aquests tres patrons obeint la Full Interpretation Condition i el Maximize Matching Effects Principle ha proporcionat una explicació força simple de diversos fenòmens sintàctics, com certes restriccions combinatorials observades per Cinque (1999), l'anomenat lligam C-Infl (i també els lligams υ-V i P-K), l'estatus A' dels subjectes preverbals en llengües de subjecte nul (Solà 1992), l'alleujament dels efectes d'illa-qu quan el sintagma-qu subordinat és un subjecte (Chomsky 1986) i els patrons dinàmics de V2 observats per Zwart (1993).S'han expressat certes idees que s'han d'investigar amb més cura: (i) la discontinuïtat C-Infl es pot contraure en anglès en certes circumstàncies especials, fent impossible la inserció de complementador, i (ii) el Relativized Opacity Principle, una alternativa a la Phase Impenetrability Condition, per explicar les illes de subjecte i les illes-qu. S'han considerat diverses propostes que es troben a la literatura, com la teoria de comprovació i l'existència de trets no-interpretables, el Principi de Projecció Ampliada i els trets merament ocurrencials (EPP/OCC), i la Hipòtesi del Moviment Vacu, concluent que són poc acurades i innecessàries. És important notar que no cal postul·lar regles específiques que varien segons la llengua o la construcció i redundants en la forma (Chomsky 1965), ni cap esquema abstracte com la teoria de la X' (Chomsky 1981, Chomsky & Lasnik 1993) per derivar el coneixement de la jerarquia; tampoc cal postul·lar el Linear Correspondence Axiom (Kayne 1994), ja que no és necessari per derivar la teoria de la X'. Per donar compte de la jerarquia, no cal res més que un mecanisme responsable d'enniuar categories.

L'objectiu d'aquesta memòria és estudiar, classificar i caracteritzar extensions unitàries del càlcul infinitvalorat de Lukasiewicz. Per mostrar les motivacions que ens han portat a fer aquest treball remarcarem alguns resultats sobre les lògiques i els càlculs multivalorats de Lukasiewicz. Al 1918, Jan Lukasiewicz, en una conferència a la Universitat de Varsòvia, manifesta la necessitat d'obtenir una lògica, lleugerament diferent a la lògica preposicional clàssica, que admeti més de dos valors de veritat. Al 1920 introdueix la lògica trivalorada que més tard, al 1922, generalitza en definir les lògiques n- valents i la lògica infinitvalent. Totes aquestes lògiques estan definides semànticament utilitzant el mètode de les matrius.Hem optat per fer l'estudi algebíaic usant les MV-àlgebres per diverses raons. En primer lloc la presentació és més propera a la presentació clàssica de les àlgebres de Boole. En segon lloc, i tal com detallarem més endavant, les MV-àlgebres estan estretament lligades als grups reticulats abelians, la teoria dels quals ha estat àmpliament estudiada. Per altra banda, la literatura sobre MV-àlgebres és molt extensa i això, sense dubte, simplifica la tasca a l'hora d'emprar propietats de les MV-àlgebres.Finalment, voldríem remarcar que a l'hora d'estudiar quasivarietats de MV-àlgebres, hen fet servir tècniques pertanyents a matèries diferents: per exemple, per obtenir els resultats referents a les varietats hem usat resultats i nocions de Teoria de Models i Teoria de Grups; en el cas de les quasivarietats generades per MV-àlgebres simples, el Teorema de McNaughton, Topologia lineal "a trossos" i Teoria de Grups; per les quasivarietats n-acotades sobretot hem usat resultats de la pròpia Teoria de MV-àlgebres i d'Àlgebra Universal; i per les quasivarietats congruent distributives Àlgebra Universal i Teoria de Grups Totalment Ordenats.Hem dividit la memòria en quatre parts: Hi ha una primera part de preliminars que inclou un capítol dedicat a Àlgebra Universal i Lògica Algebraica, on el lector no familiaritzat amb aquestes dues matèries hi trobarà algunes nocions i resultats necessaris per seguir aquest treball. El segon capítol està dedicat als càlculs multivalorats de Lukasiewicz. La segona part de la tesi està dedicada íntegrament a les MV-àlgebres. Elcapítol 3 conté la teoria general de MV-àlgebres: àlgebres equivalents, ordre natural, aritmètica, teorema de representació, etc. No es tracta d'un estudi exhaustiu, sinó més aviat d'un recull de nocions i resultats necessaris per l'elaboració de la memòria. Un tractament a part mereix la relació entre els grups abelians reticulats i les MV-àlgebres. En el capítol 4, recordem l'equivalència functorial entre la categoria de les MV-àlgebres i la categoria dels grups abelians reticulats amb unitat forta definida a partir del functor F de Mundici. Al final d'aquesta secció, obtenim els primers resultats originals que ens asseguren, sota certescondicions, la distributivitat dels productes reduïts i ultraproductes respecte de la transformació F i que usarem sovint al llarg del treball.El capítol 5 està dedicat a les MV-cadenes. La importància d'aquestes ve donada pel fet que tota MV-àlgebra és representable com a producte subdirecte de MV-cadenes (teorema 3.30) i que la classe de les MV-cadenes és la classe de les MV-àlgebres finitament subdirectament irreductibles (corol·lari 3.31). La tercera part és la més extensa i la principal de la memòria. Està dedicada a l'estudi de les quasivarietats de MV-àlgebres. En el capítol 6, tractem les varietats i repassem de quina manera havien estat abordades anteriorment. En el capítol 7, estudiem les quasivarietats generades per MV-àlgebres simples. En el capítol 8, tractem les quasivarietats n-acotades, on demostrem que coincideixen amb les quasivarietats de MV-àlgebres localment finites (teorema 8.7). En el capítol 9, estudiem les quasivarietats congruent distributives. En el capítol 10, estudiem les propietats (R)CEP i EDPC(R) en les quasivarietats tractades. Fem un esquema de les relacions que hi ha entre els diversos tipus de quasivarietats que hem estudiat i finalment, com a resum, donem una taula classificatòria de les seves propietats. .La quarta part és la darrera i conté les conclusions d'aquest treball. En el capítol 11, a partir de la teoria d'algebrització de. sistemes deductius traduïm els resultats algebrals de les quasivarietats estudiades a propietats lògiques. Finalment, a tall d'apèndix, enunciem alguns dels problemes que resten encara oberts i que tenim la intenció d'estudiar en el futur.

Accidental injury is a common experience for children (ABS, 2004-2005), yet the debilitating psychological effects of the trauma event often go undetected and thus not treated. Whilst for many the accident will result in some distress, many children will naturally recover and move on (Bryant, 2004). In spite of this, 10-18% of children will continue to experience persistent chronic stress symptoms for up to 2 years post accident (Le Brocque, Hendrikz, & Kenardy, 2009). Unfortunately, little psychological assistance is available or offered to children that may assist in their psychological recovery and even prevent the significant and debilitating effects of psychological distress. Therefore, the aim of this research was to develop and investigate an intervention for children following accidental injury. This was carried out via three stages and presented as three sections within the thesis. Section 1 aimed to develop a theory driven and evidenced-based intervention. Firstly, a meta-analysis was conducted to identify potential risk factors of significance that predict post-traumatic stress symptoms. This analysis resulted in pre-trauma psychopathology, threat to life, gender (female) and parental distress being relatively strong and consistent predictors. This information helps inform potential screening tools as well as directly guidinge the development of the intervention for this thesis. Secondly, this section conducted a comprehensive literature review of relevant approaches and interventions to help guide the development of the intervention. This review drew on models of traumatic stress development such as the Resilience Framework (Kumpfer, 1999), and Paediatric Medical Traumatic Stress (Kazak et al., 2006) as well as preventative frameworks such as the Paediatric Psychosocial Preventative Health Model (Kazak, 2006) that resulted in a Universal approach being argued as the most appropriate. Following this, a review was conducted of relevant universal preventative interventions currently available or recommended following trauma including, Psychological Debriefing (PD), Psychological First Aid (PFA) and information provision. Overall it was concluded that an information provision intervention that drew on strategies used within PD and PFA (such as normalisation and coping strategies) was the most appropriate and practical approach to offering psychological assistance to children and their parents following accidental injury. Finally, this section culminated in a chapter outlining the design, delivery and content of the intervention. The intervention developed aimed to normalise reactions and enhance coping in children following the accident whilst providing parents with accurate information regarding trauma reactions and how they could assist their child’s emotional recovery. Of importance was the decision to place the child’s intervention on the internet. It was argued that this would offer a more child friendly medium and provide greater and easier access for families. Section 2 encompassed the evaluation of the intervention developed. Children (7-16years) and their parents were recruited from the Royal Children’s Hospital and their trauma reactions were assessed over a 6 month period, with three assessment time points; Time 1 (baseline, within 1-2 weeks of the accident), Time 2 (4-6 weeks) and Time 3 (6 months). Children and their parents were randomised into the intervention group following Time 1. Analyses revealed that children within the intervention group reported significantly decreased anxiety, in comparison to a worsening of symptoms for children in the control group. No significant group differences were noted for the parents. Exploratory analysis conducted on high risk children (those with high initial distress) revealed that those in the control group exhibited a significant worsening of anxiety and social phobias over the 6 months. This significant increase in symptoms was not noted for children who had received the intervention. Furthermore, exploratory analyses revealed that children who initially reported high symptoms were the ones most likely to find the intervention helpful and effective. This result was exhibited in the qualitative responses from the parents and children. Overall, the intervention showed promise and encouraging results in its ability to aid child recovery. Furthermore, the results indicated that high risk children may benefit over and above all those recruited suggested the possible appropriateness for a stepped care approach. Section 3 was conducted in light of the results of Section 2, suggesting that children with high initial distress may benefit more greatly from the intervention compared to those with low initial distress. Therefore, this section examined a number of risk factors identified via the meta-analysis conducted in Section 1, to examine whether they would moderate a child’s and parent’s trauma symptoms following treatment compared with no treatment. Thus, this section investigated whether the intervention would be best delivered universally or targeted at children and parents who exhibited certain risk factors. Results indicated that when the child risk factors of initial child distress, attribution of self-blame and parental psychopathology were present, children in the control group had significantly higher trauma symptoms in comparison to those in the intervention. When these factors were not present, there were no significant group differences. For parents, their initial post-accident depression, anxiety and stress levels moderated treatment; in that when it was not present (low) there were no group differences, however when the risk factors was present (high) those in the control group exhibited significantly higher mood disturbances at 6 months. The findings of this section resulted in the conclusion that there are a number of risk factors that impact or influence treatment, thus suggesting that the intervention could be best utilised when targeted at those presenting with risk factors. Therefore, this research developed, investigated and optimised a universal preventative intervention for children and their parents following accidental injury. The limitations and implications for this research are discussed, including debate regarding a universal versus a targeted approach to intervention delivery.