Umgeni Water ABE: a case study on the implementation of an adult basic education programme within a workplace environment : 1989-1996.

Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.The water authority Umgeni Water, has run an adult basic education (ABE) programme from 1989-1996. During 1989 and 1990 Stephen Camp initiated an ad hoc pilot programme for 42 learners using Operation Upgrade. His successor, Rosemary Ward, co-ordinated a planned in-house pilot during 1991 and 1992 which reached 50 learners. She was followed by Kim Weyer, who launched a company wide initiative with the aid of the ABE consultants, BESA, and implemented an ABE policy, forum and data base. Finally from 1994, Sally Frost consolidated a programme catering for 342 learners and run by five full time ABE facilitators. It was aimed at those of the 578 unskilled workers at Umgeni Water who were illiterate. Materials used were increasingly in-house and learners were entered for the external Independent Examinations Board examinations. Evaluation of the programme in 1996 revealed that learning was occurring, though at a much slower and more individually erratic rate than predicted. Overall the programme was considered successful. From a case study of Umngeni water experience a generic model for ABE programme implementation has been developed, applicable to many workplace environment. In the case of Umgeni Water, implementation vision was grounded in educational/social responsibility, productivity and public relations motives. Company funding enabled implementation. Guiding principles for programme implementation included the acquisition of securely employed, high calibre staff / leadership, a directed, demand driven approach, an ABE policy, and ongoing stakeholder involvement and management support. Umgeni Water's production environment was catered for, learner needs were met, sufficient budget provided, and the programme evaluated. Implementation ingredients interacted with one another and often occurred simultaneously. Independent influences affected smooth programme implementation at Umgeni Water. Positive influences included the existence of a demand for English within the organisation and the perception of external pressure to provide. Negative internal influences centred around production demands. The impact of Umgeni Water's big business environment, and of its interaction with internal ABE stakeholders and the external ABE world, were ambiguous. These contextual dynamics were either accounted for, accommodated or harnessed. One can conclude that given the correct enabling factors, ABE can be successfully implemented within a workplace environment. If certain guiding principles are followed, and independent contextual influences accounted for, programme goals and targets for functional literacy can be achieved

Optimization of electric vehicle charging in a fully (nearly) electric campus energy system

The goal of this work is to build a set of computational tools to aid decision making for the modelling and operations of integrated urban energy systems that actively interact with the power grid of the future. District heating and cooling networks incorporating heat recovery and large-scale thermal storage, such as the Stanford campus system, dramatically reduce energy waste and greenhouse gas emissions. They have historically played a small, but important role at a local level. Here we explore the potential for other co-benefits, including the provision of load following services to the electrical grid, carbon emissions reductions or demand charge management. We formulate and solve the problem of optimally scheduling daily operations for different energy assets under a demand-charge-based tariff, given available historical data. We also explore the interaction and interdependence of an electrified thermal energy network with actively managed power sources and sinks that concurrently draw from the same electrical distribution feeder. At Stanford University, large-scale electric vehicle charging, on-site photovoltaic generation and controllable building loads could each separately represent up to 5 MW, or 15% of the aggregate annual peak power consumption in the very near future. We cooptimize financial savings from peak power reductions and shifting consumption to lower price periods and assess the flexibility of both the different components and the integrated energy system as a whole. We find that thermal storage, especially complemented with electric vehicle charging, can play the role that is often proposed for electrochemical storage for demand charge management applications and quantitatively evaluate potential revenue generators for an integrated urban energy system. Although there is little value to smart charging strategies for low penetrations of electric vehicles, they are needed to avoid significant increases in costs once penetration reaches a certain threshold – in the Stanford case, 750-1,000 vehicles, or 25% of the vehicle commuter population

Abortion in Northern Ireland: has the Rubicon been crossed?

On 7 June 2018, the Supreme Court delivered their long anticipated ruling on whether the abortion laws in Northern Ireland are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Although the case was dismissed on procedural grounds, a majority of the court held that, obiter, the current Northern Irish law was incompatible with the right to respect for private and family life, protected by Article 8 ECHR, “insofar as it prohibits abortion in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality”. This Supreme Court decision, seen alongside the May 2018 Irish referendum liberalising abortion, and the 5 June 2018 Parliamentary debate seeking to liberalise abortion laws in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, places renewed focus upon the abortion laws of Northern Ireland and Great Britain, which suggests that the ‘halfway house’ of the Abortion Act 1967 Act finally be close to being reformed to hand the decision of abortion to women themselves

Using Intervention Mapping to Develop an Efficacious Multicomponent Systems-Based Intervention to Increase Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination in a Large Urban Pediatric Clinic Network

Background: The CDC recommends HPV vaccine for all adolescents to prevent cervical, anal, oropharyngeal, vaginal, vulvar, and penile cancers, and genital warts. HPV vaccine rates currently fall short of national vaccination goals. Despite evidence-based strategies with demonstrated efficacy to increase HPV vaccination rates, adoption and implementation of these strategies within clinics is lacking. The Adolescent Vaccination Program (AVP) is a multicomponent systems-based intervention designed to implement five evidence-based strategies within primary care pediatric practices. The AVP has demonstrated efficacy in increasing HPV vaccine initiation and completion among adolescents 10-17 years of age. The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of Intervention Mapping (IM) toward the development, implementation, and formative evaluation of the clinic-based AVP prototype. Methods: Intervention Mapping (IM) guided the development of the Adolescent Vaccination Program (AVP). Deliverables comprised: a logic model of the problem (IM Step 1); matrices of behavior change objectives (IM Step 2); a program planning document comprising scope, sequence, theory-based methods, and practical strategies (IM Step 3); functional AVP component prototypes (IM Step 4); and plans for implementation (IM Step 5) and evaluation (IM Step 6). Results: The AVP consists of six evidence-based strategies implemented in a successful sequenced roll-out that (1) established immunization champions in each clinic, (2) disseminated provider assessment and feedback reports with data-informed vaccination goals, (3) provided continued medical and nursing education (with ethics credit) on HPV, HPV vaccination, message bundling, and responding to parent hesitancy, (4) electronic health record cues to providers on patient eligibility, and (5) patient reminders for HPV vaccine initiation and completion. Conclusions: IM provided a logical and systematic approach to developing and evaluating a multicomponent systems-based intervention to increase HPV vaccination rates among adolescents in pediatric clinics

Locus of control and involvement in videogaming

Abstract An external locus of control (feeling low personal control over one’s life) has been linked with excessive/addictive behaviours, including problematic videogaming. The current study sought to determine whether this is driven by the opportunity for greater control over one’s environment within a videogame. Participants (n = 252, 59% males) completed a traditional locus of control scale, alongside a modified version assessing in-game feelings of control. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that feeling less under the control of powerful others in-game than in the real world was a significant predictor of gaming frequency (standardised β = .31, p < .0005), while feeling comparatively more internal control in-game than in real life significantly predicted problematic gaming (standardised β = .17, p = .02). This demonstrates that locus of control in-game can diverge from that experienced in the real world, and the degree of divergence could be a risk factor for frequent and/or problematic gaming in some individuals

Predictive markers and risk factors in canine pyometra

Pyometra is a common and life-threatening disease in intact female dogs, which is generally treated by surgery. Early identification of dogs with high risk of complications or poor prognosis is valuable for optimising treatment and increase survival. The objectives of this thesis were to detect predictive markers for prognosis and outcome of pyometra by investigating clinical and pathophysiological responses and to explore the breed-dependent risk for pyometra and mammary tumours (MTs). Leucopaenia was the most important predictive variable, associated with an 18-fold increased risk for peritonitis (present in 13% of the dogs) and an over 3.5-fold increased risk for prolonged postoperative hospitalisation. Fever or hypothermia was linked with an increased risk for peritonitis and dogs with moderate to severely depressed general condition or pale mucous membranes had an increased risk for prolonged postoperative hospitalisation. These results show that commonly explored clinical variables may be helpful for predicting prognosis. Blood concentrations of the acute phase proteins, C-reactive protein and serum amyloid A (SAA) were found to be increased in dogs with pyometra, whereas concentrations of albumin, insulin-like growth factor-I, and iron were decreased. Importantly, SAA concentrations were higher in the dogs that also suffered from sepsis. Though unspecific, SAA could therefore be a potential marker for identifying more severely affected dogs. The neuroendocrine protein chromogranin A was measured by its breakdown products catestatin and vasostatin. Catestatin concentrations were decreased in pyometra whereas vasostatin concentrations did not differ compared to healthy dogs. None of these investigated inflammatory mediators or chromogranin A were useful for outcome prediction as measured by postoperative hospitalisation. The incidence of pyometra in 110 different breeds was studied using insurance data. Before 10 years of age, 19% of all female dogs had suffered from the disease. Breed greatly affected the risk of both pyometra and MTs. In summary, these findings show that clinical and laboratory data and analysis of inflammatory variables can be helpful for predicting prognosis and assessing severity in dogs with pyometra. Breed considerably affects the risk of pyometra and MTs, and the information presented in this thesis will be valuable for evaluating possible health benefits of spaying in individual dogs, based on the risk of developing these diseases