Tribal traditions and practices are integral to iwi identity. From the past to the present, the biggest impact on iwi identity was colonisation and subsequent urbanisation. Urbanisation changed the foundation of identity largely due to the demographic rural-urban shift, effectively creating a distance physically and spiritually for Māori between their place of residence and their traditional tribal turangawaewae. Today a larger proportion of tribal members reside in the main urban centres of New Zealand and Australia. This phenomenon provides an ideal opportunity to explore how iwi identity is maintained in an urban setting – away from the traditional sites of cultural practice. The study, which focuses on Ngāti Awa members residing in Auckland, provided evidence that the foundation of an iwi identity is still heavily reliant on strong iwi-based whānau. The corollary is that, strengthening the tribal knowledge base of whānau residing in urban centres may require new or increased active participation in the customs and practices of their iwi. Regrettably, only three of the ten research participants had an in-depth knowledge of their whakapapa, histories and traditions. However, all the participants indicated the need to become more pro-active in creating and expanding on their knowledge base of iwitanga (including te reo). There was also acknowledgement that urban-based iwi marae and whānau wānanga can provide individuals with the opportunities to learn more about their iwi traditions (and thereby reinforce their sense of tribal identity). Encouragingly, each participant confirmed that identifying as Ngāti Awa was important to them, largely due to the sense of belonging and identity. The study concluded that the sustainability of iwi is reliant on iwi members supporting their iwi regardless of the location of their upbringing.

This study is a stakeholder consultation about recovery policies and practices in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. Six consumer advocates and five policymakers were interviewed on whether evaluating mental health services’ adherence to recovery philosophy would be useful in facilitating implementation of national recovery policies and the shape and function of such evaluation. Two focus groups and six individual interviews were conducted and transcribed. Textual data was subjected to software-assisted and manual thematic analyses. One of the key findings is participants’ lack of confidence in the current implementation of the recovery paradigm within the New Zealand mental health sector. Participants generally supported the idea of measuring recovery orientation at organisational level, although for different reasons and with reservations. Evaluating the process of service delivery appeared to be preferable to measuring outcomes.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 1997. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 58-04, Section: A, page: 1339. Adviser: James Will.

Η εργασία εξετάζει το μορφολογικό φαινόμενο της παραδειγματικής ομοιομορφίας στο ονοματικό κλιτικό σύστημα πλήθους νεοελληνικών διαλέκτων τόσο από συγχρονική όσο και διαχρονική σκοπιά και ερμηνεύει τους λόγους εμφάνισής του. / The paper examines the morphological phenomenon of paradigm leveling as it manifests itself within the nominal inflectional paradigm of several modern Greek dialects, both from a synchronic and diachronic perspective, and explains the reasons which lead to its appearance.

Thesis (MA (Information Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Information systems have become a standard and essential feature of contemporary organisations as they are applied to enable the management of information as an organisational asset in the unstable business world of the knowledge economy. The academic field, though extremely young, is a dynamic permutation of various professional domains and scientific research areas, making information systems a complex and often confusing subject. Traditional information systems development methodologies, like the Systems Development Life Cycle, approach systems development with a teleological paradigm. This implies that information systems should be developed to adhere to a certain set of predefined system requirements. Although organisations have widely accepted this paradigm, some experts argue that it is insufficient when organisations are subject to frequent change as a result of turbulent business sectors. They suggest that information systems will operate in a changing context that will render any predefined set of system requirements futile. In contrast to the teleological paradigm, these experts proclaim the ateleological paradigm as a more suitable approach to information systems development in organisations that require the inherent ability to adapt to a changing environment. The ateleological paradigm approaches an information system as a living system that should have the ability to adapt continuously to emerging or changing system requirements. Instead of being driven by system requirements that were fixed at a specific point in time, these information systems are developed over time continuum to ensure that the system remains relevant with the changing context in which it operates. Tailorable Information Systems (TIS) is an information systems development approach that embodies the ateleological paradigm. As a central principle, TIS operates around the notion that information systems development should be done by the end-users of the system as opposed to the traditional system analysts and developers. By empowering the end-users of an information system with adequate technology and relying on their technical sophistication, organisations can implement truly flexible systems that are particularly responsive to contextual changes. In the light of the ateleological paradigm, this thesis critically evaluates traditional information systems development approaches and compares these two approaches that support the notion of an information system as a living system.

Submitted by SÍLVIA HELENA GUTTIER FARIA null (silviaguttier@hotmail.com) on 2017-12-17T23:50:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO_FINAL_SÍLVIA.pdf: 991663 bytes, checksum: 3ee83a18190a533881815a818cb4826b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Satie Tagara (satie@marilia.unesp.br) on 2017-12-18T12:36:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 faria_shg_me_mar.pdf: 991663 bytes, checksum: 3ee83a18190a533881815a818cb4826b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-18T12:36:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 faria_shg_me_mar.pdf: 991663 bytes, checksum: 3ee83a18190a533881815a818cb4826b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-12 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Nesta Dissertação, investiga-se o conceito de identidade social, a partir da perspectiva do paradigma da complexidade. Com amparo na teoria sistêmica, optamos por tal proposta de análise do conceito de identidade social, pois acreditamos na razoabilidade de uma investigação interdisciplinar, no que diz respeito a essa temática. A caracterização do conceito de identidade social se pautará nos conceitos de diferença e informação, assim, nos inspiramos no pensamento de Cilliers (2010), sobre o conceito de diferença, e de Bateson (1972), quanto ao conceito de informação. Bateson entende a informação como a diferença que faz diferença e, nesse contexto, é possível pensar que aspectos de identidade social emergem, seja por processos, seja por propriedades, com base na dinâmica entre os elementos sistêmicos em contato com informação sobre diferenças – em tal dinâmica, salientamos a atividade de parâmetros de ordem e de controle, conceitos que serão caracterizados no decorrer da Dissertação. Ilustramos a caracterização do conceito de identidade social através de alguns exemplos da sociedade contemporânea, relacionados ao desenvolvimento das tecnologias de informação e comunicação. / In this dissertation, the conception of social identity is investigated, starting with the perspective of the complexity paradigm. With the support on the systemic theory, it’s opted for the proposal of the analysis of the social identity conception, because it’s believed in the reasonability of an interdisciplinary investigation, concerning this topic. The characterization of the social identity will be ruled on the conceptions of difference and information, so it has been inspired on Cilliers’ thought (2010) on the conception of difference, and Bateson’s (1972) on the conception of information. Bateson understands information as the difference that makes the difference and, in this context, it’s possible to think that aspects of social identity come up, either by processes or by properties, based on the dynamic between the systemic elements in contact with information on differences – it’s pointed out in such dynamic the activity of order and control parameters, conceptions that will be characterized in the dissertation. The characterization of the social identity conception it’s emphasized through some examples of the contemporary society, related to the technologies of information and communication development.

Findings through fragmentation Architecture is an obvious remnant of our collective past and gives us a fragment of a former life and a different time. This unique relationship between what’s new and old is a very powerful spatial opportunity. If memory is defined as ‘The faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information’ then the role of architecture comes to play is the prop for our collective and individual memories where it represents past events and people.  If we look closely at the definition of a fragment without it's context it will be read as ‘incomplete’ and subordinate to the completed it is extracted from. Architectural fragments have a power of resisting such expected unity and can be read into an alternative whole of none. By fragmenting industrial buildings that is going to b demolished, representing a time and a group of people in Lövholmen/Stockholm, I wish to embody memory and recall spaces that will be forever lost. / Rummet mellan det som är och det som har varit Arkitektur representerar vår historia och det kollektiva minnet.  Att minnas definieras som ‘förmågan att lagra erfarenheter och göra det möjligt att känna igen och lära’. Minnen placerar oss i förhållande till tid och rum vilket gör att platser och arkitektur kommer att spela en stor roll som bärare av vår kollektiva historia. Byggnader som bär spår av tid där de har varit grunden i en annan kontext kan utgöra ett unikt möte mellan det rum som existerar och det som har varit.  När vårt medvetna väljer ut och sorterar bland minnen fragmenteras det som vi upplevt och bara vissa delar finns kvar. Fragment kan definieras som en pusselbit som tillhört en helhet och blivit en spillra. Styrkan i arkitektonisk fragment är att de kan läsas på nya sätt efter att det isolerats från en helhet och antingen läsas in i en ny kontext eller ingen. Genom att fragmentera byggnader som representerar en specifik tid och grupp av människor som har använt dom vill jag förkroppsliga dessa rumsliga minnen innan de för alltid går förlorade.

Le concept de plasticité est progressivement devenu un concept théorique essentiel dans la biologie depuis le début du XXe siècle. Les biologistes s'y réfèrent aussi bien en biologie du développement, pour caractériser la potentialité des cellules à se diviser et à se différencier, en écologie, pour décrire la pluralité des formes observables pour une espèce donnée en fonction des environnements dans lesquels elle se développe, ou encore en génétique, pour préciser la manière dont l'information génétique peut être régulée. Certains auteurs en sont même venus à se demander si le concept de plasticité n'avait pas acquis aujourd'hui l'importance théorique qui avait été accordée au concept de gène en biologie au début du siècle précédent. Dans cette étude, nous proposons une analyse historique et épistémologique du concept de plasticité dans les sciences du vivant. Nous montrons que si le concept opératoire de plasticité sert à caractériser un paradigme épistémique donné - c'est-à-dire le maintien d'un usage singulier, désormais daté, du concept, fortement lié à l'émergence de la génétique -, la récurrence de l'idée générale de plasticité, tout au long de l'histoire des sciences du vivant, signale son caractère essentiel pour envisager certains phénomènes du vivant. Cette étude montre également que si le concept de plasticité est devenu un élément-clé pour penser une « synthèse étendue» de l'évolution, son importance heuristique pour la biologie contemporaine ne se limite pas à cette seule ambition: tel qu'il est mobilisé dans la biologie contemporaine, le concept de plasticité cherche le plus souvent à rendre compte d'une spécificité du vivant. / Since the early twentieth century, plasticity has gradually become an important theoretical concept in biology. Biologists refer to it either in developmental biology, to characterize cells potential to divide and differentiate, or in ecology to describe the diversity of observable forms for a given trait in environments in which the species develop, or even in genetics to describe how genetic information can be regulated. Some authors have even come to wonder whether the concept of plasticity have not nowadays acquired the theoretical importance that was given to the concept of the gene in biology at the beginning of the previous century. In this study, we propose a historical and epistemological analysis of plasticity in life sciences. We show that if the operating concept of plasticity characterizes a given epistemic paradigm - that is to say, the continuity of a certain use, now dated, of the concept, closely linked to the emergence of genetics - the recurrence of the general idea of plasticity, throughout the history of life sciences, indicates its essential role in the way we think of life processes. The study also shows that although plasticity has become a key element in order to think about an "Extended Eynthesis" in evolution, its heuristic importance for contemporary biology is not limited to this single ambition: as it is mobilized in contemporary biology, the concept of plasticity most often seeks to account for the specificity of living systems.

Bayesian modelling, in which our prior belief about the distribution on model parameters is updated by observed data, is a popular approach to statistical data analysis. However, writing specific inference algorithms for Bayesian models by hand is time-consuming and requires significant machine learning expertise. Probabilistic programming promises to make Bayesian modelling easier and more accessible by letting the user express a generative model as a short computer program (with random variables), leaving inference to the generic algorithm provided by the compiler of the given language. However, it is not easy to design a probabilistic programming language correctly and define the meaning of programs expressible in it. Moreover, the inference algorithms used by probabilistic programming systems usually lack formal correctness proofs and bugs have been found in some of them, which limits the confidence one can have in the results they return. In this work, we apply ideas from the areas of programming language theory and statistics to show that probabilistic programming can be a reliable tool for Bayesian inference. The first part of this dissertation concerns the design, semantics and type system of a new, substantially enhanced version of the Tabular language. Tabular is a schema-based probabilistic language, which means that instead of writing a full program, the user only has to annotate the columns of a schema with expressions generating corresponding values. By adopting this paradigm, Tabular aims to be user-friendly, but this unusual design also makes it harder to define the syntax and semantics correctly and reason about the language. We define the syntax of a version of Tabular extended with user-defined functions and pseudo-deterministic queries, design a dependent type system for this language and endow it with a precise semantics. We also extend Tabular with a concise formula notation for hierarchical linear regressions, define the type system of this extended language and show how to reduce it to pure Tabular. In the second part of this dissertation, we present the first correctness proof for a Metropolis-Hastings sampling algorithm for a higher-order probabilistic language. We define a measure-theoretic semantics of the language by means of an operationally-defined density function on program traces (sequences of random variables) and a map from traces to program outputs. We then show that the distribution of samples returned by our algorithm (a variant of “Trace MCMC” used by the Church language) matches the program semantics in the limit.

Submitted by Marcelo Rodrigues Lemos (marcelo.lemos@hotmail.com) on 2018-08-10T19:04:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE DOUTORADO. LEMOS, Marcelo Rodrigues. Um contradiscurso à ciência moderna.pdf: 1318311 bytes, checksum: d74915065929e678ef8f38c2e0ff13ad (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Satie Tagara (satie@marilia.unesp.br) on 2018-08-10T19:41:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 lemos_mr_dr_mar.pdf: 1318311 bytes, checksum: d74915065929e678ef8f38c2e0ff13ad (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T19:41:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lemos_mr_dr_mar.pdf: 1318311 bytes, checksum: d74915065929e678ef8f38c2e0ff13ad (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-07 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O objetivo geral desta pesquisa – teórica e qualitativa – é realizar uma crítica à centralidade que a razão científica ocupa na contemporaneidade em detrimento de outras formas de reflexão. A partir de um possível contradiscurso à ciência moderna, a tese pretende realçar a variabilidade e a pluralidade como condições inerentes aos saberes. Assim, debater o protagonismo ocupado pela ciência, muitas vezes tratada como o único meio eficaz de interpretação das realidades, fundamenta o interesse do estudo – baseado em análises antropológicas e sociológicas que não possuem a intenção de definir conceitos universais ou teorias gerais abrangentes. Ao questionar o projeto moderno e parte de suas convenções epistemológicas, o texto se contrapõe às construções de pensamento que hierarquizam as racionalidades e conduzem o conhecimento acadêmico ao status de detentor das verdades. O problema aqui enfrentado traz componentes históricos e informativos acerca da elevação de um paradigma científico hegemônico, vinculado majoritariamente ao hemisfério Norte e ao Ocidente, que se sobressai enquanto sistema explicativo, subalternizando outras formas de cognição. Através de um recurso metodológico chamado de cabotagem, a tese se propõe a apresentar um movimento intelectual crítico à ciência moderna, o qual evidencia os processos de silenciamento de outras fontes de saber. Esse silenciamento decorre de circunstâncias históricas, como o colonialismo e a colonialidade, que reforçam a suposta superioridade das vozes racionais hegemônicas, especialmente, em relação às falas do Sul e do Oriente. As referências essenciais da pesquisa são o português, Boaventura de Sousa Santos; e o argentino, Walter Mignolo, autores preocupados com a associação entre crítica epistemológica e crítica social. Os dois estão atentos à questão da modernidade, identificando-a enquanto um fenômeno que, embora reivindique uma condição totalizante e global, possui limites claramente ocidentais e eurocentrados. Por isso, para ambos, o projeto moderno é limitado, sua abrangência não traduz a heterogeneidade das inúmeras experiências sociais locais presentes no mundo. Sendo assim, Santos e Mignolo avaliam a importância de incluir à compreensão da modernidade seu lado colonial, e reafirmam a multiplicidade interpretativa e cognitiva das sociedades em contraponto ao discurso universalizante da ciência moderna. / This research – theoretical and qualitative – aims to criticize the centrality that scientific reason occupies in contemporaneity, instead of other forms of reflection. Starting from an argumentation over modern science, the thesis aspire to show the variability and pluralism as a part of knowledge itself. This way discussing science protagonism, usually considered the only effective way of interpreting the realities, gives the foundation to the research – based in anthropological and sociological analysis which do not have the goal to point universal concepts or general theories. Questioning the modern project and some of its epistemological beliefs, the paper puts itself over thinking that hierarchize rationalities and guide academical knowledge to truth holder status. Informational and historical components about a hegemonic scientific knowledge connected to North and Occident, which underlies others. Using a methodological ploy named cabotage, the thesis aims to present a critical movement to modern science, which underline the silencing process of other knowledge origin. This silencing from historical circumstances as colonialism and coloniality, ramp up this underling. The main references to the research are the works of the Portuguese author Boaventura de Sousa Santos and the Argentinian Walter Mignolo, both caring about the association between epistemological and social critic. They notice the modernity, pointing as an phenomenon, even presenting itself as global, that have limits and do not broach the vast social experiences present worldwide. This way, Santos and Mignolo points the importance to include this multiple possibility against the universal speech of modern science. / El objetivo general de esta investigación – teórica y cualitativa – es realizar una crítica a la centralidad que la razón científica ocupa en la contemporaneidad en detrimento de otras formas de reflexión. A partir de un posible contradiscurso a la ciencia moderna, la tesis pretende realzar la variabilidad y la pluralidad como condiciones inherentes a los saberes. De este modo, debatir el protagonismo ocupado por la ciencia, muchas veces tratada como el único medio eficaz de interpretación de las realidades, fundamenta el interés del estudio – basado en análisis antropológicas y sociológicas que no poseen la intención de definir conceptos universales o teorias generales abarcadoras. Al cuestionar el proyecto moderno y parte de sus convenciones epistemológicas, el texto se contrapone a las construcciones del pensamiento que jerarquían las racionalidades y conducen el conocimiento académico al de detentor de las verdades. El problema aquí enfrentado trae componentes históricos e informativos cerca de la elevación de un paradigma científico hegemónico, vinculado mayoritariamente al hemisferio Norte y al Occidente, que se destaca como sistema explicativo subalterinizando otras formas de cognición. A través de un recurso metodológico llamado de cabotaje, la tesis se propone a presentar un movimiento intelectual crítico a la ciencia moderna, que aclara los procesos de silenciamiento de otras fuentes de saber. Este silenciamiento discurre de las circunstancias históricas, como el colonialismo y la colonialidad, que refuerzan la suposta superioridad de las voces racionales hegemónicas especialmente en relación a las falas del sur y del Oriente. Las referencias esenciales de la investigación son el português, Boaventura de Sousa Santos; y el argentino, Walter Mignolo, autores preocupados con la asociación entre crítica epistemológica y crítica social. Los dos están atentos a la cuestión de la modernidad, identificándola como un fenómeno que, aunque reivindique una condición totalizante y global, posee límites claramente occidentales y eurocentrados. Por eso, para ambos, el proyecto moderno és limitado, su alcance no traduce la heterogeneidad de las innúmeras experiencias sociales locales presentes em el mundo. De esta forma, Santos y Mignolo evalúan la importancia de incluir a la compreensión de la modernidad su lado colonial y reiteran la multiplicidad interpretativa y cognitiva de las sociedades en contrapuesto al discurso universalizante de la ciencia moderna.