Thesis (M Ed (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. S.)--Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. / Richard Catrambone, Committee Chair ; John T. Stasko, Committee Member ; Wendy A. Rogers, Committee Member.

O objetivo do estudo foi estimar os impactos do tempo dos procedimentos portuários sobre as exportações brasileiras. O trabalho utiliza uma base de dados inovadora com dados de exportações municipais, com distinção do porto utilizado, país de destino e com produtos desagregados de acordo com o sistema harmonizado em 4 dígitos para o período de 2010 a 2012. Uma equação gravitacional em diferenças foi estimada pelo método de efeitos fixos utilizando as exportações municipais relativas (volume e número de setores exportadores) contra medidas de tempo em horas dos procedimentos portuários e outras variáveis de controle. Os resultados da análise descritiva indicam a presença de um gargalo no escoamento da produção brasileira para o mercado internacional, e apontam para a necessidade de investimentos que ampliem a capacidade portuária, reduzindo as ineficiências que geram elevadas porcentagens do tempo de inoperância nos portos brasileiros. Os resultados das estimações indicam que, de modo geral, cada hora adicional na condução dos procedimentos portuários representam custos para os exportadores brasileiros, que podem estar se refletindo em perda da competitividade dos produtos nacionais no exterior. Segundo as estimações realizadas, cada hora adicional de estadia no porto mediano é equivalente a uma redução do volume total das exportações municipais em cerca de 1%. Além disso, uma redução de 10% no tempo de estadia relativo do navio no porto pode aumentar o número de categorias de produtos exportados entre 0,3% e 0,9%. / The purpose of this study was to estimate the impacts of the port procedures time on Brazilian exports. The study uses an innovative database with municipal exports, with distinction over the port used, country of destination, and with disaggregated products according to the harmonized system in 4 digits for the period from 2010 to 2012. A difference gravity equation was estimated by the fixed effect method using the relative municipal exports (volume and the number of exporter sectors) against time measured in hours of the port procedures and other control variables. The results of descriptive analysis indicate the presence of a bottleneck in the flow of Brazilian production for the international market, and point to the need for investments that increase port capacity, reducing the inefficiencies that generate high ineffectiveness time percentages in Brazilian ports. The estimation results indicate that, in general, each additional hour in the conduction of the port procedures represent costs to the Brazilian exporters. Those costs may be reflected in loss of competitiveness of the domestic products abroad. According to the estimates made, each additional hour of the ship stay in the median port is equivalent to a reduction of the municipal exports in around 1%. Besides that, a reduction of 10% in time of stay for a ship in port can increase the number of exported product categories between 0.3% and 0.9%.

Marine soft sediments are the second largest habitat on Earth. How animal communities in this habitat are structured is a central issue in marine ecology. Food is an important limiting factor for many benthic populations, and settling organic matter from phytoplankton blooms is of vital importance to them. This thesis discusses the effects of settling phytoplankton blooms on benthic meiofaunal populations in the Baltic Sea and how species interactions affect the fate of settled organic matter. Eutrophication in the Baltic Sea has altered phytoplankton community dynamics, with indications that toxin-producing cyanobacterial blooms may reach the benthos in greater quantity than previously. Paper I found that meiofauna feed on settled cyanobacteria, yet suffer no increase in mortality. However, growth of meiofauna is significantly slower on a diet of cyanobacteria than when fed spring bloom diatoms, indicating that the studied cyanobacteria are nutritionally poor (Paper II). In Paper III we found that the presence of macrofauna reduces the access of meiofauna to settled organic matter, presumably through interference competition that increases when several macrofauna species are present. We also found that meiofaunal populations influence the provision of ecosystem services by benthic microbes. Paper IV shows that when meiofauna is abundant, mineralization of organic matter is positively affected, presumably through facilitation mechanisms. In contrast, paper V reports that degradation of the contaminant naphtalene decreases significantly at high meiofauna abundance. In conclusion, this thesis shows that type and quality of organic matter available, as well as competition from macrofauna, affect how meiofauna grow and incorporate nutrients. Furthermore we found meiofauna to be an important functional component of the benthic ecosystem, with marked effects on ecosystem processes such as nutrient regeneration and contaminant degradation. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript. Paper 5: In press.</p>

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder emerging in the first few years of life. Currently, three characteristics are required for a diagnosis of ASD, impaired social interactions, impaired verbal communication and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour or interests. This last category can optionally include hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input. Individuals with autism can also display superior performance on visual tasks where it may help to ignore global detail, behaviour sometimes described as ‘not seeing the forest for the trees’. At present, the exact mechanisms underlying the perceptual differences between autistic and neurotypical groups remain unknown, but they may reflect an imbalance in the contributions that bottom-up and top-down processing make in perceptual processing. Visual perception is thought to rely on interactions between the ‘bottom-up’ flow of ambiguous information from the retina and the ‘top-down’ flow of disambiguating information from higher cortical areas, via cortical circuits that have been shaped by a lifetime’s experience. These interactions lead to the activation of internal representations (of objects) which are necessary for the successful navigation of our environment. In order to investigate these perceptual differences, we employed three well-known experimental paradigms with a group of thirteen autistic participants and their matched controls. We investigated visual integration (involving bottom-up and top-down interactions) across low and intermediate stage neural mechanisms. A dim line (target) is easier to detect when flanked by two brighter collinear lines (flankers), an effect known as collinear facilitation, and we used two variations of this task to investigate low-level visual integration. In the first, we varied the orientation of the collinear flankers and found reduced integration for an autistic compared to a neurotypical group, a finding that conflicts with previous research. In a second collinear facilitation experiment with neurotypical participants, in which the target could be presented before, during or after flanker presentation, we were able to isolate facilitation that we believe was due to feedforward and feedback processing. However, in a subsequent study in which we compared autistic and neurotypical performance on this task, we found no significant difference. Moving onto intermediate level visual integration, we used a contour integration task consisting of open (lines) and closed (square) contours and found reduced integration for the autistic compared to the neurotypical groups when integrating closed contours. In our final study, we looked at global motion integration, and made use of a translating diamond. This is a bistable stimulus in which four lines can be perceived as independent line fragments moving vertically, or as a single integrated shape - a diamond moving horizontally. In this experiment, the autistic group showed an unexpected bias to perceiving the stimuli in its integrated form as a diamond. Perceptual processing of shapes based on squares or diamonds reflects visual integration at a global level, and so the differences we have found in shape processing between our experimental groups (reduced integration for the square and increased integration for the diamond in autism) are more likely to be the result of differences in top-down processing.

Magister Legum - LLM / The problems connected with transit of goods also have been mostly neglected in the respective literature so far: In most books about the law of the WTO, Article V of GATT 1994 has been left out completely or reference is only made to the text of the article. In the following, this thesis will thus examine (i) what transit restrictions exist for the transport of Ugandan goods from and to the international market through Kenya (see Chapter 2 below); (ii) whether these measures adopted in Kenya are in compliance with the relevant law of the EAC (see Chapter 3 below) and of the WTO (see Chapter 4 below); and (iii) if there is a conflict in jurisdiction in this respect (see Chapter 5 below). In addition, it will then shortly show the current status of the current negotiations of the WTO Trade Facilitation Committee and the possible implications of the Revised Draft Negotiation Text (see Chapter 6 below)

Greater access to international markets is universally accepted as the solution for many of Africa’s problems. Such increased access would theoretically allow African countries the opportunity to develop strong economies. Sustainable growth through trade would then replace the current common dependence on aid and enable African citizens to enjoy a fuller share of the myriad benefits of globalisation. The gradual global reduction in historic methods to protect markets aspects, such as tariffs, is bringing technical requirements to the fore. These requirements often become Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) between Africa and its trading partners. Simultaneously, there are continuous global demands for greater access to African markets. Such demands occur even as ever more stringent technical requirements for granting reciprocal access in developed markets are set. Such technical access requirements are insidiously becoming an increasingly important part of the African trading landscape. African governments increasingly need therefore to ensure that domestic industry and agriculture have appropriate and affordable access to appropriate technical support infrastructure. The current African approaches to such generally unexpected technical challenges from elsewhere, are mostly reactive donor–driven projects managed as crises. In order to address such issues proactively, a vital first step is the formulation of a mutually supportive set of national, or preferably regional, polices and associated strategies to synergistically address African issues of trade, industrialisation, agriculture and the environment. The prevalent silo approach that exists both within and among African countries in these increasingly interlinking areas unfortunately simply exacerbates an already desperate situation. The predominant focus of NEPAD presently revolves around demonstrating appropriate governance. Rather than continuing to be victims of globalisation, African states working cooperatively through NEPAD have an opportunity to redress their past difficulties. In the area of African Standards, Quality assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAM) capacitation, NEPAD has an important leadership role to play. It could provide a foundation through which solutions in SQAM be cooperatively sought and addressed. Aspects relating to proving compliance to the aforementioned agricultural, industrial and environmental policies need immediate attention. An African, public administration led approach to building SQAM technical capacity would then be possible. Complying with the various and technically challenging regulatory requirements of foreign markets cannot continue be the sole thrust of Africa’s trade facilitation efforts. Implementing foreign technical solutions that make sense in a limited and different context will not deliver large scale benefits for Africa. NEPAD fostered partnerships based on mutually beneficial and optimal solutions are preferable. Such a proposed role for NEPAD includes the creation of sound theoretical public administration underpinning and successful operational facilitation for African public administrators working in concert on mutually beneficial technical SQAM support strategies. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / Unrestricted

Pollinator sharing in mixed species communities is expected to significantly contribute to mating patterns in contemporary populations but may also affect the evolutionary trajectory of traits associated with plant mating. In this thesis, I considered how the spring environment and pollinator sharing may contribute to the widespread convergence in traits among spring flowering species using comparative biology. The proposed correlation between a spring flowering phenology and white or light floral colour, fleshy fruits, woody growth forms and understory occupation is confirmed. In addition, I examined the effects of pollinator responses to community and population traits to determine the relative importance of inter- and intraspecific interactions in pollinator mediated reproductive success of a spring flowering species, Trillium grandiflorum. In this study, the reproductive success of T. grandiflorum was pollen limited. However, the magnitude of pollen limitation was influenced only by intraspecific density and varied independently of community diversity. The results of this thesis contribute significantly to our understanding of pollinator-mediated interactions in spring flowering communities but also highlight future avenues of investigation.

This study meta-analyzed relationships between proposed antecedents and both directions of work-family enrichment (i.e., work-to-family enrichment and family-to-work enrichment). Proposed antecedents, which were derived from three existing theoretical models on the positive interface between work and family, include contextual and personal characteristics from both work- and family-domains. Primary studies included in the meta-analyses were from both published and unpublished sources between 1990 and 2016. The results suggest that several contextual and personal characteristics are significantly related to work-family enrichment. Gender’s moderating effect on the relationship between contextual characteristics and work-family enrichment received little support. Comparisons between examined antecedents of work-family enrichment and antecedents of work-family conflict supported the notion that work-family enrichment and work-family conflict are distinct constructs; in other words, enrichment is not merely the opposite of conflict. Practical implications and suggestions on future research are discussed.

The central purpose of the study was to examine Cottrell's (1968) hypothesis that anticipation of evaluation is the major determinant of social facilitation in human subjects. A secondary purpose was to examine the effects of three types of observation: by an audience physically present, by an audience behind a one-way screen and by no audience other than a tape recorder. Thus the two independent variables in the study were evaluation and type of observation. It was hypothesized that social facilitation would occur only in evaluation conditions. It was also hypothesized that the greatest amount of social facilitation would occur in the condition with the audience physically present and the least amount would occur in the condition with no audience other than the tape recorder. Screened observation was expected to yield an intermediate amount. The experimental task was a pseudo-recognition task which had been used in previous social facilitation studies. This task set previously trained strong and weak habits into competition with each other. Habits were established by degree of exposure of nonsense words to subjects. Subjects called out words supposedly flashed on a screen for a fraction of a second. Since recognition of each word was made impossible by using a blurred exposure presented upside-down and backwards, subjects' responses were solely a function of prior differential training. Social faciIitation was defined as a differential increase in the emission of dominant responses at the expense of subordinate responses. The resulting measure of social facilitation was the differences among groups in terms of the slope of the frequency of response-habit strength functions. This definition of social facilitation was in line with Zajonc's (1965) application of Hullian Theory to account for the phenomenon. Evaluation was manipulated by introducing three observers as evaluators and having them evaluate subjects' performance, or, by introducing them as passive spectators and making their evaluation of the task impossible. Observation was manipulated by having the observers, when used, sit behind a one-way screen or sit in the experimental room. The subjects were 120 male undergraduate volunteers. The results were analyzed with a multifactor repeated measures analysis of variance and the slopes of the response-habit strength functions of each experimental group were examined. None of the interactions critical to the experimental hypotheses reached statistical significance. The habit strength by evaluation by observation interaction approached statistical significance. The slopes of the response-habit strength functions were consistently steeper for evaluated conditions than for unevaluated conditions. The slope of the direct observation evaluated condition was flattest and that of the no observation evaluated condition was steepest. The general trends of the data supported the evaluation hypothesis in terms of the magnitude of the various slopes of the response-habit strength functions. Within each observation condition, and overall, the slope of the habit strength-response emission function of those subjects evaluated was consistently steeper than that of non-evaluated subjects. These results suggested that anticipation of evaluation may be a key determinant of social facilitation. The trends of the data were exactly opposite to the predictions of the type of observation hypotheses. The least amount of social facilitation occurred with direct observation. Considerably more and approximately equal amounts of social facilitation occurred in both the screened and no observation conditions. It appeared that hidden evaluators may have a greater effect on performance than those physically present. Theoretical, methodological and practical implications were discussed. The results were compared to those of related studies. The problem of manipulating evaluation effectively was examined. Implications for the use of indirect observation methods in clinical settings were discussed and suggestions for future research were made. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate