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The main aims of this thesis are as follows:(a) To present a comprehensive analysis of the concept of privatisation its origins and limits, (b) To identify the legal and institutional framework for privatisation in different European countries from a comparative perspective; (c) To define and analyse particularly legal issues which arise during the privatisation transactions: e.g. labour law, competition law etc.; (d) To evaluate which features of the successful legal and organisational framework of privatisation have been successful so as to provide guidelines for those individuals and organi...

Truth-telling about life-threatening cancer illness is a controversial matter. Few studies have explored attitudes towards truth-telling among people from migrant communities living in cultures different to their own. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explore the perceptions of white British and British south Asian community workers within the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall as to the factors that influence truth-telling. In-depth, focused interviews were carried out with a sample of 20 key informants. A theoretical model was developed which describes the factors that lead to an...

This thesis is concerned with the theoretical and practical development of reliable and robust localisation algorithms for autonomous land vehicles operating at high speeds in unstructured, expansive and harsh environments. Localisation is the ability of a vehicle to determine its position and orientation within an operating environment. The need for such a localisation system is motivated by the requirement of developing autonomous vehicles in applications such as mining, agriculture and cargo handling. The main drivers in these applications are for safety, efficien...

The problematic field of investigation for this study was for the care of bereaved human beings in the context of significant cultural shifts now shaping the twenty-first century. Deritualization was identified as a significant interdisciplinary concern that contributes to potential distress in processes of grieving. The objective of the research was the development of a practical theology of compassionate caregiving for the bereaved with deference to the problem of deritualization. The theoretical framework was guided by the Oxford Interdisciplinary Research model and the Loyola Institute of ...

Students of organisation have used complexity theory in many different ways and for many different reasons. What characterises the writings of most ‘management thinkers’, however, is that the authors are primarily concerned with the question of “how to make this complexity thing work for us?” This study takes a rather different approach. Ideas and concepts of the science of complexity are borrowed to develop the idea that organisations live lives of their own – an idea that is very much at odds with the dominant view that understands organisations as tools that we use to realise certain goals....

The purpose of this research paper is to try to clarify and evaluate the major issues and arguments in the debate on Import Substitution Industrialization Strategy (ISI) between the neoclassical economists and the development economists. In particular, it will focus on some basic underlying models employed by the two schools of thought, rather than on specific policy recommendations given by either school. It will conclude that the critiques against ISI from the neoclassical economists are based on a static equilibrium model, which can not fully comprehend the dynamic relationship between grow...

School psychologists have an ethical obligation to be advocates for students. However, the ethical principles of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) do not define what it means for school psychologists to be advocates for students, except through the inferences that may be drawn from what school psychologists must be, and do, in order to comply with the NASP ethical principles. This dissertation proposed a definition of advocacy, which was then presented to a focus group of school psychology experts, to an expert panel, and then researched through a census survey of the Col...

The delayed development of the Islamic world, in defiance of the formulaic approaches long favored by economists, suggests that the traditional Sharia and Islamic values and principles are at least partially responsible for the region’s persistent backwardness. By analyzing the impact of the legal regime of the Sharia on Saudi Arabia during the Arab Oil Bust of the 1980s, this thesis concludes that Islamic social values and the Sharia’s de facto role as an uncodified pre-emptive Arab common law implemented with high regard to precedent by ulama with extraordinary power of judicial review ha...

The introduction of fair value accounting for stock options has required private companies to apply stock option valuation methodologies that were designed to be applied to their public counterparts. The two recommended methodologies, the Black-Scholes formula and the Binomial Lattice model, require the valuator to provide an input for estimated volatility; for private companies that do not have a trading history there is limited guidance regarding the determination of volatility, which results in diverging and incorrect estimates. Based on a sample representing 178 companies who filed and com...

During the revolutionary period the Soviets came into political and cultural conflict with Russia’s Muslims. Despite indications that the majority of Muslims desired political unification based on their Islamic heritage, the Party divided them into separate “nationalities” along narrow ethnic lines, incorporated most into the RSFSR, and attempted to uproot traditional Islamic institutions and customs under the aegis of class war. Resistance took the form of pan-Muslim nationalism, a reformist political conception with roots in the Near East. This conflict not only aborted the export of revol...