Zugl.: Erlangen, Nürnberg, Univ., Diss., 2007

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 307-314).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2009. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, page: .

Thesis (J.S.D.)--Stanford University, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-182).

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Graduate School of Management, 2004. / "December 2003". Bibliography: p. 210-272.

In a criminal investigation, witnesses may get asked by the police to provide a perpetrator’s description or to generate a composite image of the perpetrator’s face. Due to their elevated vulnerability to victimisation people with a learning disability (LD) may be more likely than other members of the wider community to find themselves in such situations. Research regarding face recognition and description abilities of this group has been to some extent neglected in the eyewitness research literature. Consequently, guidance for practitioners on how to effectively generate facial composite images with LD witnesses is limited. The current research addresses this issue, by investigating basic and applied face recognition and description abilities in individuals with mild learning disabilities (mLD) during a series of experimental studies. Moreover, potential facilitating measures are introduced and assessed. Five studies were conducted during the course of this thesis. In the first study a survey was designed to collect information on currently used composite systems by UK law enforcement agencies and how operators perceive and treat witnesses with LD. The survey findings confirmed the initial assumption that individuals with LD may indeed find themselves in the situation of having to describe a perpetrator’s face to an investigative officer. Furthermore, the results emphasised the lack of guidance available to operators on how to best meet the special needs of this particular witness population. Study 2 investigated basic face recognition and description abilities in people with mLD and revealed that overall they performed at a lower level than the non-LD controls. Despite this finding, mLD individuals as a group performed above chance levels and they displayed variability in performance depending on the introduced measures. iv Studies 3 and 5 investigated these abilities in a more applied setting, namely during the construction of facial composites with contemporary facial composite systems. Study 3 revealed that composites generated with the E-FIT system, a featural system, were considerably poorer than those created by their non-LD counterparts. Studies 4 and 5 attempted to improve mLD individuals’ performance by applying visual prompts and by using a more holistic facial composite system, i.e. EvoFIT. There was little evidence of the former being advantageous for witnesses with mLD, however, EvoFIT significantly enhanced composite construction abilities in the mLD participants. Finally, the practical and theoretical implications of the main findings are discussed.

Fundamental changes in the global economy are changing the basis of organisational competitive advantage. The challenge in attaining a competitive advantage is characterised by factors such as increased competition, market volatility, geographically dispersed operations, customer awareness, raising workforce diversity and stringent regulatory regimes. These factors have driven, and in turn have been driven by, an increasing complexity of products, services and the processes that create value, resulting in changes in the structural and functional dimensions of the organisation. Business executives and academics recognise the shift in value creating assets from the traditional land, labour and capital to intangible assets such as knowledge and information becoming the most important resources an organisation can muster.The combination and integration of intangible assets such as human resources, structural and relational resources has been grouped under the umbrella of intellectual capital. This study comprises of a single descriptive case study analysis to ascertain how intellectual capital is managed strategically to gain a competitive advantage in an organisation in the banking and financial services sector in Zambia. Based on document review and semi-structured interviews, this thesis investigated the extent to which an organisation in the banking and financial services sector in Zambia leveraged intellectual capital to gain competitive advantage. In this study it was found that there is a low level appreciation of the intellectual capital phenomenon as a strategic management tool in the participating organisation. However, the organisation has adopted aspects of intellectual capital and has implemented them successfully accounting for the organisation‘s competitive edge in the market.

The impact of the Intellectual Property Rights Act for publicly funded research and development on technology transfer offices was studied, using a questionnaire survey and guided interviews of six technology transfer officers. The survey requested technology transfer officers to express the impact level of each of the eleven impact elements on the four stages of intellectual property development – these being intellectual property creation, disclosure, protection and commercialisation. The set of data was weighted for each element, by intellectual property development stage, and analysed using frequency tables. The impact elements of „structural and resource requirements to commercialise and manage intellectual property‟, „intellectual property detection process by the technology transfer officers‟, and‟ disclosure process‟ were ranked as the top three impact elements, in that respective order. Narrative inquiry and theme extraction allowed further elaboration of the impact elements. Comparison with Staphorst‟s (2010) results showed that the impact elements were different for science councils, pointing to unique requirements by universities in their intellectual property management systems. The results of this analysis clearly indicate that the Intellectual Property Rights Act enforcement and execution will demand a high degree of structural and resource requirements, particularly, and most importantly, at the intellectual property disclosure stage of intellectual property development. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Background: Research has shown that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can be effective in the treatment and management of a variety of psychological and physical health conditions. Whilst under researched, there is growing evidence to support the use of MBIs with individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs) who may require adaptation to existing MBIs as a result of cognitive or other impairments. Method: This research dossier describes the development of an 8-week mindfulness group for adults with IDs. Two mindfulness groups were delivered by community practitioners. Participants completed self-report measures of anxiety and depression pre-intervention, postintervention and at follow-up. Participants were interviewed for their experience of the group and assessed for their ability to understand and engage with the basic concepts of mindfulness. Results: Participants reported a decrease in anxiety post-intervention which continued to decrease at follow-up five weeks after the final session of the mindfulness group. Selfreported depression also decreased post-intervention, however there was a slight increase at follow-up although this remained lower than baseline. The decrease in self-reported depression from pre-intervention to post-intervention was statistically significant. Participants were able to engage with, understand, enjoy and benefit from the mindfulness group and appreciated having the opportunity to meet with similar people with similar experiences. Conclusion: Results indicate that the mindfulness group had some positive effect on selfreported anxiety and depression states. Participant feedback coupled with the researcher’s own reflections offer direction for further adaptations that could be made to the mindfulness group and support the need for further research in this area.

The abundance of wealth and technology in the North, and biological diversity and poverty in the South provokes an inquiry into an appropriate modality for the equitable harnessing and allocation of biodiversity dividends. Over the years, the traditional knowledge relating to biological diversity has been regarded as part of the "global intellectual commons", open to exploitation by all, and subject to validation by formal methods. That knowledge has remained the source of both increasing knowledge and critical discoveries of the therapeutic values of most components of biological diversity. There is a consensus between the North and the South that an effective biodiversity conservation strategy should be one capable of providing incentives to the traditional custodians of wild habitat. Intellectual property is generally recognised as an appropriate framework to implement this objective. However, as a perennial subject of North-South disagreement, there is no consensus on the relevant details or mechanisms for deploying intellectual property rights to effectuate the objective. The United Nations Framework Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) signifies a global regime embodying the ideals of incentivising the traditional custodians of the wild habitat as well as equitable sharing of the benefits of biodiversity. Arguably, it marks an end to the idea of regarding traditional knowledge as part of the global intellectual commons. This thesis contends that the CBD regime carries with it the burden of unresolved North-South perspectives on intellectual property rights. It argues that the heart of the conflict is the reluctance of the North to accord intellectual property status to traditional knowledge. This is partly because of the latter's informal nature but most importantly it derives from an inherent geo-political ideological conflict on the subject of intellectual property rights. Presently, the recognition of rights over traditional knowledge is approached on a sui generis basis. This thesis takes the position that the approach with its several limitations is not persuasive. It contends that on the merits, traditional knowledge is, and ought to be recognised as a subject matter of intellectual property rights. The recent elevation of intellectual property (a traditional subject matter of national law) to the international level under the WTO/TRIPs Agreement further undermines traditional knowledge. This has posed a setback not only to the global biodiversity conservation initiative, but also to the quest for equitable allocation of its dividends. It is my thesis that a national approach offers a better option for accommodating the intellectual property status of traditional knowledge and consequentially for advancing the quest for biodiversity conservation as well as equitable allocation of the dividends arising therefrom. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate