Falls in the elderly are a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Elderly people with visual impairment have been found to be at increased risk of falling, with poor visual acuity in one eye causing greater risk than poor binocular visual acuity. The present study investigated whether monocular refractive blur, at a level typically used for monovision correction, would significantly reduce stereoacuity and consequently affect gait parameters when negotiating a raised surface. Fourteen healthy subjects (25.8 ± 5.6 years) walked up to and on to a raised surface, under four visual conditions; binocular, +2DS blur over their non-dominant eye, +2DS blur over their dominant eye and with their dominant eye occluded. Analysis focussed on foot positioning and toe clearance parameters. Monocular blur had no effect on binocular acuity, but caused a small decline in binocular contrast sensitivity and a large decline in stereoacuity (p < 0.01). Vertical toe clearance increased under monocular blur or occlusion (p < 0.01) with a significantly greater increase under blur of the dominant eye compared with blur of the non-dominant eye (p < 0.01). Increase in toe clearance was facilitated by increasing maximum toe elevation (p < 0.01). Findings indicate that monocular blur at a level typically used for monovision correction significantly reduced stereoacuity and consequently the ability to accurately perceive the height and position of a raised surface placed within the travel path. These findings may help explain why elderly individuals with poor visual acuity in one eye have been found to have an increased risk of falling.

Concerns on market power conferred by airport dominance and the debates of hub premiums have attracted longstanding attention from governments and academics alike. Most previous studies mainly focus on the fully deregulated markets such as the United States and Europe, what remains unknown is how such effects change when a country evolves from a tightly controlled regime to a deregulated market. This research analyses the effects of airport dominance on airline pricing power with the empirical study based on the Chinese domestic market using fixed- effect panel data models. Results from the regression analysis indicate that airport dominance is the most important source of pricing power in the gradually deregulated Chinese domestic market. Hub carriers are able to charge higher prices to premium class passengers and non-hub carriers can benefit from the “umbrella effects” of hub premiums. However, hub carriers are not able to translate their airport dominance to pricing power in the economy class market, whereas non-hub carriers even have to reduce the prices as their market shares at major airports increase. This study contributes to the literature by explicitly segmenting the market into economy and premium classes. The results have important policy implications.

Thesis (M.Cur. (Community Health Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (M.Cur. (Community Health Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Racism is undeniably an interesting and important theme in The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle, but exploring how the novel establishes vraisemblance and motivates the progression of events reveals another significant theme. Relying on assumptions about gender and masculinity the narrative juxtaposes the different spheres of men and women, and as the narrative shifts its focus between the different characters of the novel, their respective domestic roles are scrutinised and compared. The narrative establishes and depends on the idea of a binary opposition between the sexes in order to highlight the marginal position of Delaney Mossbacher’s expressions of masculinity. Through locating Delaney’s performance of masculinity on the perimeters of the normative male role, his crisis of identity and sense of disorder are explained. Furthermore, by linking scenes where Delaney Mossbacher’s male role is threatened with scenes that depict his descent into racism the novel establishes the logical connection between Delaney’s disadvantaged position and his increasingly racist outburst of hatred and violence thus rendering them vraisemblable.

This thesis analyzes how Harold Pinter&rsquo / s characters use language with ulterior motives: making their existence felt and acknowledged, concealing the truth, avoiding conflict or confrontation, and exerting dominance. In the dissertation, stylistics, which is the analysis of texts by means of linguistic phenomena, has been used as the method of analysis. Characters&rsquo / use of language with ulterior motives has been illustrated with reference to a variety of Pinter&rsquo / s plays.

Hollywood’s dominance of the movie industry has been the subject of numerous studies. An interdisciplinary literature review in this thesis identified twenty different single or multiple factor explanations that try to account for Major studio dominance at different time periods but cannot comprehensively explain how Hollywood acquired and maintained dominance for nine decades. This thesis reviewed the economics, management and marketing literatures to identify existing theoretical explanations for the acquisition and persistence of market dominance. It then integrated existing theories identified within the business literature into a ‘theoretical lens’. This lens enables an historical analysis of Hollywood’s longstanding dominance of the movie business to be undertaken from a strategic business perspective. This thesis concludes that the Major studios rise to market leadership and enduring dominance can primarily be explained because they developed and maintained a set of strategic marketing management capabilities that were superior to rival firms and rival film industries. It is argued that a marketing orientation and effective strategic marketing management capabilities also provide a unifying theory for Hollywood’s enduring dominance because they can account for each of the twenty previously identified explanations for that dominance. The original contribution of this thesis is the development of a strategic marketing management lens and a set of guiding questions that can facilitate a strategic analysis of market dominance in any industry.

Thesis (M.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychiatry, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 350-389).

Thèse (D. en psychologie)--Université du Québec à Montréal, 2005. / En tête du titre: Université du Québec à Montréal. Bibliogr.: f. [185]-202. Publié aussi en version électronique.

Thèse (D. en psychologie)--Université du Québec à Montréal, 1997. / Thèse réalisée à l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières dans le cadre du programme de doctorat en psychologie offert en extension par l'Université du Québec à Montréal. En-tête du titre : Université du Québec. CaQTU CaQTU Bibliographie : f. [114]-125.