The purpose of the current study was two-fold. Firstly, to explore and describe how school staff members, learners and parents collaborate to prevent violence at two urban secondary schools and secondly, to help school staff members, parents and policymakers to gain a better understanding of the complex and multi-faceted problem of addressing school violence, which should result in guiding them to adopt effective strategies to prevent violence. The ecosystemic perspective, which is an integration of ecological and systems theories combined with the typology of violence, was the theoretical lens through which the phenomenon of adolescent learner violence was viewed. The study was rooted in the sociological interpretative research paradigm and a qualitative descriptive and exploratory case study design was employed. Multi-method data collection strategies (individual, dyad, triad and group interviews; document reviews) were employed to obtain trustworthy data from the three population units of analysis (school staff members, learners and parents) at the two selected urban secondary school sites situated in Johannesburg, South Africa. The inductive qualitative content analysis of the framework approach was used to give a transparent account of the data analysis process. Constant comparative analysis was employed to discover the emergent themes. The main research findings were interpreted by relating the results to the research purpose, the socio-ecological theoretical framework and the existing knowledge base on collaborative strategies for violence prevention. The findings of the current study suggest that family-school collaboration in violence prevention is especially important for families with adolescent children. Adolescence is characterised by many physical and psychological changes and development. Adolescents strive to find their independence and establish their own identities. However, this experimentation may lead to risk-taking or antisocial behaviour. Contrary to current belief, the findings of the current study suggest that adolescent learners want their parents to be involved in their lives and that parents want to support their children’s education but may lack the know-how. The learners explicitly expressed their need for the support and guidance of both their parents and also the school staff members in withstanding the peer and societal pressures that can result in their acting in aggressive or violent ways at school. To promote the positive development of all young people, the school staff members and most centrally young people and their families, must actively work together to establish positive and effective family-school collaborative partnerships as part of their violence prevention strategies. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

Le discours comparatiste influence le débat sur l’impératif d’efficacité économique en droit du travail ; là où la science comparative exige du temps, de l’attention aux aspects juridiques et extra-juridiques pouvant influencer un système juridique, une méthode et de la modestie (quant aux conclusions auxquelles le comparatiste parvient), la rhétorique comparatiste n’obéit pas aux contraintes du droit comparé. Le comparatisme d’intimidation, principale figure du discours comparatiste dominant en droit du travail, s’érige en instrument de diffusion de « bonnes » pratiques et de « modèles » d’institutions juridiques jugés économiquement efficaces. Il est un outil de propagande ; il permet de dissimuler les positions des différents acteurs sous une apparence de neutralité axiologique et scientifique. La mobilisation de l’argument comparatiste influence et bouscule les catégories juridiques et les représentations sur lesquelles repose le droit du travail. / The comparative discourse influences the debate on the imperative of economic efficiency in labour law ; where the comparative science requires time, attention to the legal and extra-legal can influence a legal system, a method and modesty (towards the conclusions reached), the comparative rhetoric does not obey the constraints of comparative law. The intimidation comparatism, leading figure of the dominant discourse in comparative labour law, stands in scattering instrument of "good" practices and "models" of legal institutions deemed economically efficient. It is a propaganda tool; it can hide the positions of various actors under the guise of scientific and axiological neutrality. The mobilization of the comparative argument influences and challenges the legal categories and the representations underlying labour law.

Depuis plus d'une vingtaine d'années, les espèces invasives ont été hissées au rang des problèmes publics majeurs en raison de leurs effets sur l'environnement, l'économie ou la santé. L'objectif général de cette thèse est d'identifier les facteurs naturels et humains conduisant à attribuer au cours du temps le statut public d'espèce invasive à certaines espèces et dans certains contextes, à travers le cas de l'ajonc d'Europe (Ulex europaeus) sur l'île de La Réunion (Océan Indien). Ce travail se structure en trois parties : (i) une comparaison des caractéristiques biologiques de l'ajonc entre La Réunion, où il est déclaré invasif, et la France métropolitaine, d'où est-il originaire, (ii) une analyse historique de sa dynamique d'expansion géographique et des facteurs naturels et humains qui l'ont favorisée, et (iii) une étude de la construction des statuts publics qui lui ont été attribués depuis son introduction. Les résultats ont révélé une évolution biologique entre des populations d'ajonc de France et de La Réunion sur le taux et la vitesse de germination, et la production et dispersion des graines. Couplée à une croissance des individus plus rapide précédemment démontrée, ceci suggère que les capacités de colonisation de l'ajonc sont plus importantes dans l'île que dans sa zone d'origine. Ces capacités ont favorisé son expansion géographique dans les milieux agricoles et naturels, en interaction avec les usages du sol, les pratiques agricoles et les savoir-faire liés à l'ajonc. Ces éléments découlent eux-mêmes du contexte socio-économique global à l'œuvre, de l'échelle européenne à l'échelle de l'exploitation agricole familiale. La construction et publicisation du statut invasif de l'ajonc dans l'île résulte d'une combinaison entre ces éléments écologiques et les éléments sociologiques suivants : une nouvelle lecture scientifique écologique du monde à l'échelle globale, et, à l'échelle régionale, des jeux d'acteurs complexes autour de la gestion des milieux naturels protégés. Ces résultats mettent une fois de plus en évidence l'importance des approches interdisciplinaires pour appréhender les objets foncièrement hybrides, produits de nature et de culture. / For over twenty years, invasive species have been raised to the rank of major public problems because of their effects on the environment, economy and health. The main objective of this PhD thesis is to identify natural and human factors leading to attribute over time the public status of invasive species to certain species and in certain contexts, through the case of gorse (Ulex europaeus) on the island of La Réunion (Indian Ocean). This work have a three-part structure: (i) a comparison of biological characteristics of gorse between La Reunion, where it is called / declared invasive, and France, its native range, (ii) a historical analysis of its geographic expansion through natural and human factors, (iii) a study of the construction of public status attributed to gorse since its introduction on the island. The results showed a biological evolution between gorse populations of France and La Reunion related to germination rate and velocity, and seed dispersal. Coupled with a faster growth of individuals previously demonstrated, this suggest that colonization capacities of gorse are more important in the invasive region than in its native region. These capacities have favoured its geographic expansion in agricultural and natural environments, in interaction with the uses, agricultural practices and land uses, which themselves result from the overall socio-economic context from European scale to family farming scale. The construction and publicizing of the invasive status of gorse on this island is a combination between these ecological features and sociological elements: a new ecological vision of the world on a global scale, and, on a regional scale, social interactions between stakeholders about the management of protected natural areas. These results demonstrate one more time the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to understand the fundamentally hybrid object, product of nature and culture.

The indispensability of the Church [in Africa] is the primary motive for the writing of this dissertation. Throughout the centuries, we have seen the Church in various contexts, and in many forms. We have borne witness to the good, bad and the ugly throughout the history of the Church. It is my belief that any constructive growth for the future success of the Church in Africa has to come from the bold recognition that if it is to succeed and fully partake in the Missio Dei, 'everything must change' (McLaren 2007). There is need for continuity and discontinuity; however, change is not negotiable!! The Church is called to be both confessional and Missional; the Church should always be forming (ecclesia simper formanda), and reforming (ecclesia simper reformanda)(van Gelder 2007). Therefore, there is a need to rediscover the essence of Jesus‟ intention for the Church; that is God‟s redeemed people, and their view of God‟s Kingdom with its various implications for an African Missiology. There is a need for Missional Churches in Africa, for dialogue, and for unity in action. In this dissertation, I will endeavour to present architecture for a Missional Ecclesiology in dialogue with Bosch; focusing on the emerging renaissance of African Missiology, and the current Pneumatological importance/ emphasis in many African Churches (otherwise known as African independent Churches- AIC). I have used the word architecture to mean overall framework emphasizing relationships between components, orientation and support as well as the innovative response to functional necessity. The focus/ niche of this dissertation will be faith communities in Botswana, because that is my current context of ministry, and there is an obvious research gap in this area of study as nothing has been researched and published in terms of an emerging Missional Ecclesiology amongst faith communities in Botswana. I will seek to collect, analyze and interpret current as well as historical data regarding Church (mission), population and emerging areas of concern for faith communities in Botswana, and, by implication, Southern Africa. / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Science of Religion and Missiology / unrestricted

Using Hebb’s (1961) paradigm, it has been shown that older adults (OAs) fail to learn recurrent visuospatial supra-span sequence information (Turcotte, Gagnon, & Poirier, 2005); a deficit which has not been demonstrated on verbal versions of the same task or in younger adults (YAs). Since the Hebb paradigm is thought to rely on working memory and thus attention (Conway & Engle, 1996), one interpretation concerns an OA’s capacity to allocate the necessary attentional resources to carry out the various components of the task. Five studies investigated this proposal. The first three (Article 1) examined attention in a general manner by reducing the amount of attentional resources that a YA could devote to carrying out the visuospatial Hebb supra-span sequence learning task through the implementation of a verbal dual task (DT) procedure. The fourth (Article 2) further investigated the role of attention by using a DT induced at retrieval that overlapped extensively with the requirements (spatial and response features) of the visuospatial Hebb task. The final study (Article 3) aimed to use our previous findings to demonstrate learning among OAs in a visuospatial Hebb learning paradigm in which the motor response was replaced by a verbal response. Our findings confirm that attentional resources employed at the retrieval phase of the task appear to be particularly important for the demonstration of visuospatial sequence learning. The inclusion of a spatial and motor based DT at recall eliminated learning of the repeated sequence in YAs. Interestingly, the learning deficit of OAs was partially eliminated when the motor and spatial requirements at retrieval were reduced. Our findings offer strong support to the contention that supra-span learning of the Hebb type is not altered by the effect of age. However, learning deficits can be observed among OAs when the retrieval component of the task overly taxes attention-related processes. In the case of the visuospatial sequences, the basis of the deficit likely concerns an individual’s capacity to discriminate between responses made to previously presented sequences versus those that need to be made in reaction to the just seen sequence.

The modern world is more and more dependent on information. As grows its importance, so does its quantity. That is why the good communication, especially the visual one, is indispensable for the proper disclosure and addressing of potential recipients of information. Graphic design provides the form of visual communication. The interconnection of different cultures is linked with the quick pace of globalization - thus the communication with different cultures is important. Each culture is based on specific values that can vary and very often do to a great extent. These values are then reflected in all areas of human activity, graphic design included. At first, we define the term culture and have a look at the process by which we acquire it - to find out its influence on us. We use as a means the interdisciplinary approach which draws knowledge on cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology and anthropology. Next, we focus on the principles of visual perception and studies concerning the difference in behavior and visual perception in different cultures. We divide the world on the basis of culture-shape events into different cultural units and we analyze graphic design in different cultures by using the knowledge from the previous chapters. We point out the principles and potential pitfalls of symbols and colors in the communication with other cultures. We describe the way how the paradigm of cultural values is reflected in the graphic design and we try to capture the features of visual communication typical for each culture.

Due to the rise of psychosocial hazards and its increasing healthcare associated costs in Europe but also in the whole World, the poor management of those risks becomes an urgent issue to overcome for the states and companies but above all, for the people who suffer from it. The problem is that there is not enough awareness among the society about psychosocial factors and its associated risks. Our master thesis aims at examining and determining the roots of psychosocial hazards by starting from an already existing case study to set and classify the main variables. Thus, through the lens of psychologists and psychiatrists we interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire, we compare and analyze these variables and their answers in order to identify what are the most important factors to deal with in priority and how to manage them properly. Again, through the lens of the specialists in the field and ours, we question the risk management paradigm presented as a solution to tackle psychosocial hazards in the European survey we found. The main goals of our thesis are to raise awareness among people about psychosocial factors and its associated risks but also to provide a solution to identify and manage them properly in a lucid and realistic leadership but also more human, thanks to the enlightening vision of our dear interviewees.

Après les travaux de F. Del Punta, S. Donati et C. Trifogli, sur les commentaires inédits de la Physique au XIIIe siècle, cette étude propose une réévaluation du commentaire thomasien. En resituant celui-ci dans la tradition exégétique dominée par le Grand commentaire d’Averroès et la paraphrase de Maître Albert, l’intention plutôt énigmatique de Thomas prend un caractère moins théo-centré et, en un sens, plus physique, mais aussi plus paradoxal. / Following the works by F. Del Punta, S. Donati and C. Trifogli on the unpublished comments of Physics in the thirteenth century, this study puts forward a revaluation of Aquinas’s comment. By placing it in the exegetic tradition dominated by Averroes’s great comment and Albert’s paraphrase, Thomas’s rather puzzling intention becomes less theo-centred, and in a way, more physical, but also more paradoxical.

Os paradigmas da teoria de metacomunidades atribuem diferentes graus de importância à dispersão, filtros ambientais, interações bióticas e processos estocásticos na organização de comunidades. Incluir atributos funcionais em conjunto com aspectos espaciais da estrutura da paisagem pode resultar em uma poderosa ferramenta para a investigação dos diferentes processos que atuam na organização de comunidades biológicas. Neste estudo, utilizamos o potencial de análise e de levantamento de hipóteses que os atributos funcionais proporcionam em uma metacomunidade de peixes, formada por 37 lagoas em uma bacia hidrográfica na região costeira do sul do Brasil (29º37’ a 30º30’ de latitude Sul e 49º74’ a 50º24’ de longitude Oeste). Os objetivos deste trabalho foram identificar qual é a relação entre a diversidade taxonômica com índices de redundância e diversidade funcional. Também verificar se variáveis espaciais são determinantes na variação de índices funcionais, e das composições taxonômica e funcional, e se ocorrem padrões de convergência e de divergência de atributos. Através de sistemas de informação geográfica (imagens Spot e Landsat-TM5), estas lagoas foram mapeadas e delas foram obtidas variáveis estruturais (área, forma, distância do mar, coeficiente de variação da área, conectividade primária e conectividade estuarina). Os dados da ictiofauna foram obtidos através de amostragem padronizada, utilizando-se redes de espera, e uma série de atributos relacionados às habilidades de dispersão e de uso de recursos alimentares foram tomados. A diversidade taxonômica demonstrou ser fortemente correlacionada com a redundância e a diversidade funcional. Os modelos que melhor explicam a redundância funcional são aqueles que incluíram a forma e o coeficiente de variação da área das lagoas, mas a diversidade funcional não foi predita significativamente por nenhuma variável espacial. Não foram encontrados padrões de convergência e de divergência de atributos, e lagoas semelhantes em suas características espaciais não possuem composição funcional similar. Nossos resultados sugerem que o paradigma neutro de metacomunidades é a abordagem que melhor explica a estruturação deste sistema, o qual prediz equivalência funcional entre espécies. / The metacommunity theory paradigms attribute different degrees of importance to dispersal, environmental filtering, biotic interactions and stochastic processes in community assembly. To include the jointly use of functional traits with the spatial aspects of landscape structure could result in a powerful tool for the investigation of the different processes involved in the organization of biological communities. In this study, we used the potential of analysis and survey of hypotheses that functional traits provide in a fish metacommunity, composed by 37 lagoons in a river basin in the coastal region of southern Brazil (29º37' to 30°30' south latitude and 49º74' to 50°24' west longitude). The aims of this work were to identify the relation between taxonomic diversity indices with redundancy and functional diversity. Also, it was verified if spatial variables are determinants for the variation in functional indices, taxonomic and functional composition of fishes. We also look for trait convergence and trait divergence assembly patterns. Through geographic information systems (Spot e Landsat-TM5 images), these lagoons were mapped and were quantified structural variables (area, shape, distance to the ocean, coefficient of variation of area, primary connectivity and estuarine connectivity). Ichthyofauna data were obtained through standardized sampling, using gillnets, and a set of traits related to dispersal abilities and use of food resource were obtained. The taxonomic diversity showed to be strongly correlated with functional diversity and redundancy. The models that best explain the functional redundancy are those involving the shape and area variation coefficient, however, the functional diversity was not significantly predicted by any spatial variable. We did not find trait convergence and trait divergence assembly patterns, and lagoons that share similar spatial features do not have similar functional composition. Our results suggest that the neutral metacommunity paradigm is the approach which has the best explanation for the structure of this system, which predicts functional equivalence among species.

[pt] A presente tese se debruça sobre a passagem das danças de orixá do terreiro para as artes cênicas, no intuito de pensar a relação entre arte e sagrado através de trabalhos em dança de coreógrafos brasileiros. Para isto, no entanto, parte de uma revisão crítica da perspectiva simbólico-representativa que guia as análises de textos canônicos sobre o candomblé, oriundos das disciplinas de antropologia e etnologia, sobretudo. Com este movimento inicial, se propõe a questionar esta perspectiva como um pressuposto ou um paradigma das análises que não leva em consideração uma crítica à tradição do pensamento por representação, ao passo que o candomblé teria seus próprios pressupostos filosóficos e cosmológicos, como uma visão de mundo que não necessariamente opera pela função simbólicorepresentativa. Em seguida, dedica-se a uma releitura da questão da biopolítica a partir do paradigma imunitário, que relaciona o saber científico sobre o corpo a uma concepção de política e democracia, interessante para se pensar a relação de uma sociedade fundada sob o regime colonial e escravista com os modos de vida e as visões de mundo não europeias no Brasil, uma vez que o candomblé foi se constituindo como uma religião à qual estas questões confluíam, tendo em vista o dinamismo inerente à tradição em que se fundamenta o culto. Por fim, a dança surge como campo de pensamento e de saber no qual as contradições se encontram e se resolvem a partir de um trabalho com o corpo, ressaltando positivamente sua multiplicidade - e não, como no projeto biopolítico, no intuito de confiná-lo mediante concepções dicotômicas. Isto se dá, primeiramente, a partir de uma reflexão acerca da importância do som e da música como modos de pensar as organizações políticas, econômicas e sociais, numa desierarquização dos sentidos a partir da qual emergem racionalidades e visões de mundo. Finalmente, o trabalho de coreógrafos e bailarinos brasileiros que tomam como técnica não só as danças de matriz europeia, como o balé clássico, as danças moderna e contemporânea, mas também as danças de matriz africana, mais especificamente, os pés de dança de orixá. Essa passagem dos terreiros para o palco vem a levantar uma discussão sobre a relação entre o sagrado, o ritual e a arte, como campos que, segundo uma visão de mundo do candomblé, se pudermos chamar assim, não estão separados. / [en] This thesis aims to think about the passage of the dances of the orishas from the religious context of Brazilian candomblé to the stage, taking as an issue the relation between art and the sacred trough the works on dance of Brazilian choreographers. For this purpose, however, the thesis begins with a critical review of the symbolic and representative perspective that guides most of the canonic texts about Brazilian candomblé, mainly in the fields of anthropology and ethnology. This initial movement aims to put in question this perspective as a presupposition of the analyses that doesn t consider a critique to the representative paradigm that guide the western thought, once candomblé has its own philosophical and cosmological presuppositions, as a world view that not necessarily operates through this same symbolic and representative logic. Following this first movement, it dedicates to a rereading of the biopolitics issue from the immune paradigm that relates the scientific knowledge about the body to a political and democratic conception, which is interesting to think about the colonial and slavery system relations to the non-European ways of living and world views in Brazil that shaped the construction of candomblé as a religious body to which these issues flows, considering the inherent dynamism of the tradition in which it is based upon. The dance arises as a field of thought and knowledge in which the contradictions get together and are solved through the work with and from the body, emphasizing its multiplicity in a positive way - and not as in the biopolitical project that aims to confine it in opposite conceptions. This comes, first, through a consideration about the sound and the music as ways to think political, economic and social organizations, in order to undo the hierarchy of senses from which emerge different rationalities and world views. Finally, the works of Brazilian choreographers that take as a dance technique not only the European dances, but also the African dances and, more specifically, from the orishas that belongs to the religious tradition of candomblé. This passage from the terreiros (the temples) to the stage brings forward the relation between the sacred, the ritual and art as fields that, according to a world view founded in candomblé, if we can refer like that, are not aparted.