Determined to make a difference : a study of public health nursing practice with vulnerable families : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Nursing at Massey University

Public health nurses have traditionally worked with vulnerable families in ways that are relational, client driven and contextual, an approach that has been described as a health promoting model of care. There is evidence however, that political and ideological reforms occurring within the health arena over the last fifteen years have had a constraining effect upon this area of public health nursing practice. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of public health nurses working with vulnerable families within a New Zealand context. This was in order to provide a contemporary description of how public health nurses work with vulnerable families and factors that enhance or constrain this process. The researcher was interested in whether this aspect of public health nursing practice continues to align with a health promoting model of care. The research process utilised a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken and a general inductive approach was utilised for analysis of the data. The participants consisted of ten public health nurses from a district health board within New Zealand. The findings identified that New Zealand public health nurses continue to align their practice with a health promoting model of care when working with vulnerable families, particularly if nurses are experienced, embedded within a community and determined to make a difference. It was evident however, that this process is significantly constrained by factors relating to the nature of the families themselves, the business model framing the delivery of public health nursing services and the challenges involved in dealing with the Child Youth and Family Service. This study also highlighted the vulnerability of the public health nurse which may occur as a result of working with vulnerable families and dealing with the constraints referred to above. These outcomes have implications for configuring effective services for vulnerable families and the place of public health nursing within the future primary healthcare nursing environment

Human capital, innovation and the productive ageing: growth and senior aged health in the regional community through engaged higher education

[Abstract]: This paper examines how low relative economic growth and high service and infrastructure costs in non-metropolitan regions that are increasingly attractive to lifestyle-seeking seniors, can be offset by focussing more positively on the human capital dimension of this cohort through closer engagement with higher education learning and innovation. At present, many senior-aged persons attracted to ‘lifestyle’ locations are allowed to let their knowledge, networks and skills ossify through a lack of engagement with processes of learning and innovation and institutional impediments of a structural and attitudinal nature. It represents poor return on sunk investment in human capital, has cost impacts on enabling health and community services and infrastructure and does not contribute as positively as it could to regional growth outcomes through productivity gains. The spatial impact of this will exacerbate as the demographic profile of the nation continues to age. Higher education in these places could be a key instrument in the learning and innovation required to realise the greater productivity gains from senior-aged human capital and the consequential growth and health outcomes at the local and regional scale. The paper reports on the literature, research undertaken and analysis to understand these potentially important issues of policy and practice. The paper has a particular focus on the Sunshine Coast and Wide Bay Burnett regions of Queensland which have some of the highest concentrations of senior aged people in Australia

Measuring Institutions: Indicators of Political Rights, Property Rights and Political Instability in Malawi

This paper aims to construct a new set of institutional indicators for Malawi. Our political freedom index correlates strongly with the Freedom House political rights and civil liberties indices, but consists of a far longer time series, which can be used to examine long-run issues with greater efficacy. The high correlations between the political freedoms index and the various property rights indices suggests that, in the Malawian case, lack of political freedom is associated with lack of economic freedom and security. However, our property rights indices correlate poorly with an index based on de facto property rights. This suggests that despite the governmentÂ’s legal power to abrogate property rights, these rights were generally respected. Cross-country comparisons suggest that political freedoms follow broadly similar patterns, particularly in Zimbabwe and Malawi. There is less of a match between countries on property rights issues, however.Institutions, Political freedom, Property rights and Malawi

Depletion layer recombination effects on the radiation damage hardness of gallium arsenide cells

The significant effect of junction depletion layer recombination on the efficiency of windowed GaAs cells was demonstrated. The effect becomes more pronounced as radiation damage occurs. The depletion is considered for 1 MeV electron fluences up to 10 to the 16th power e/sq m. The cell modeling separates damage in emitter and base or buffer layers using different damage coefficients is reported. The lower coefficient for the emitter predicts less loss of performance at fluences greater than 10 to the 15th power e/sq cm. A method for obtaining information on junction recombination effects as damage proceeds is described; this enables a more complete diagnosis of damage to be made

Alloy composition effects on oxidation products of VIA, B-1900, 713C, and 738X: A high temperature diffractometer study

High temperature X-ray diffraction studies were performed to investigate isothermal and cyclic oxidation at 1000 and 1100 C of the nickel-base superalloys VIA, B-1900, 713C, and 738X. Oxidation was complex. The major oxides, Al2O3, Cr2O3, and the spinels, formed in amounts consistent with alloy chemistry. The alloys VIA and B-1900 (high Al, low Cr alloys) tended to form Al2O3 and NiAl2O4; 738X (high Cr, low Al) formed Cr2O3 and NiCr2O4. A NiTa2O6 type of oxide formed in amounts approximately proportional to the refractory metal content of the alloy. One of the effects of cycling was to increase the amount of spinels formed

Trade flows and the exchange rate in South Africa

The exchange rate plays a central role in public debate around trade and trade policy in South Africa. The general view is that depreciation enhances export competitiveness, encourages export diversification, protects domestic industries from imports and ultimately improves the trade balance. This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical relationship between the exchange rate and trade flows in South Africa. Trade volumes are found to be sensitive to real exchange rate movements but nominal depreciations have a limited long-run impact on trade volumes and the trade balance, as real effects are offset by domestic inflation. Policy should not focus on the exchange rate, but on the fundamental determinants of the profitability and competitiveness of domestic exporters and import competing industries: productivity enhancement, infrastructure, constraints to business operations and production costs, including labour costs.Exchange rate; South Africa; international trade

A stereographic representation of Knoop hardness anisotropy

Indentation direction parameter for hardness anisotropy representation of single crystal on stereographic triangl

Design study of large area 8 cm x 8 cm wrapthrough cells for space station

The design of large area silicon solar cells for the projected NASA space station is discussed. It is based on the NASA specification for the cells which calls for an 8 cm by 8 cm cell of wrapthrough type with gridded back contacts. The beginning of life (BOL) power must be 1.039 watts per cell or larger and maximum end of life (EOL) after 10 years in the prescribed orbit under an equivalent 1MeV electron radiation damage fluence of 5 times 10 to the 13th power e/square cm. On orbit efficiency is to be optimized by a low thermal absorptance goal (thermal alpha) of .63

¿El camino más concurrido? Los desplazamientos secundarios de los solicitantes de asilo y refugiados

El fenómeno de los desplazamientos secundarios supone tremendos retos para los Estados, los solicitantes de asilo y los refugiados, y para el sistema de protección internacional en su totalidad