This study explored the extent to which using online communication tools helped NAIT (the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) denturist students on third-year practica maintain laboratory and clinical standards of treatment. The inquiry was framed by the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, and was conducted from a collaborative constructivist approach with quantitative data used to enhance and support a mainly qualitative design. Results showed that all elements of a CoI were present in the online environment and that participants voluntarily used WebCT communications tools for academic and social interaction. Standards of treatment on practical projects completed by the study group were no different than those of cohorts that did not use communications tools. Modifications to instructional practices made comparison of standards achieved on patient cases unfeasible. Study results informed immediate changes made to the online practicum site, and suggestions for long-term pedagogical changes to denturist practica were made.

This study focuses on the teaching of RE in Zambian multireligious secondary schools. The problem faced in secondary schools is that currently RE is being taught with a single religious approach by the RE teachers instead of using a multireligious perspective as directed by the Ministry of Education (MoE). The aim of this study, therefore, was to find out why RE teachers tend to be reluctant to respond to the MoE directive in applying a multireligious approach to the subject. In order to achieve this aim, an empirical investigation was necessary. A quantitative and qualitative survey through self-administered questionnaires and in-depth interviews were undertaken by the 194 teachers teaching RE in selected secondary schools in the Copperbelt Province. The research reveals that the RE teachers' reluctance to respond to the Ministry's directive is a result of their different perceptions which are mostly influenced by their religious affiliations and the syllabuses they use. For example, the majority of the RE teachers involved in the teaching of RE in secondary schools are Christians, therefore, they are reluctant to teach RE that also includes non-Christian religions because they feel it would compromise their consciences and their own faiths. As a result, they prefer to teach the subject from a Christian standpoint. This approach differs from the MoE directive to teach RE from a multireligious perspective. In the light of the different perceptions concerning the problem of teaching RE in Zambian multireligious secondary schools, the following recommendations have been made: (i) Since the Zambian secondary schools have become multireligious, RE teaching should take a multireligious perspective if it is to be relevant to the needs of pupils of diverse religious backgrounds; (ii) The current RE syllabuses (2044 and 2046) require a critical evaluation and revision in order to ensure that they adapt to a multireligious tradition. Finally, the results of this study concludes that the teaching of RE should be firmly placed in an educational context by making no assumptions or preconditions from the personal commitment of RE teachers. The role of RE teachers is that of educators. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Didactics)

The diploma thesis deals with electronic commerce. The theoretical part of this work is focused on basic aspects of consumer's protection, consumer organisations and institutions providing advice and information and the rights and obligations of consumers and sellers. It describes the history and current situation of e-commerce, advantages and disadvantages, circumvention of the law when buying over the internet and specific casework. The diploma thesis also briefly informs of marketing research. In the practical part there is a questionnaire survey applied, examining the issue of electronic commerce, experiences of buying over the internet and knowledge of consumer rights. The aim of the research is to summarize collected information that is complemented by measures designed to reduce the negative impacts.

This diploma thesis follows my bachelor thesis in which the mother slang was described. This diploma thesis is aimed at the performance of the mother speech research, i.e. the use of specific expressions and language resources used by mothers of small children in Internet discussions in relevant forums or web pages. The diploma thesis aims at creating a questionnaire and establishing five hypotheses. The first part of the thesis describes the methodology of this research, in the following part there are presented the data obtained by the questionnaire survey. The hypotheses are verified in the following section, and the hypothesis testing procedure is described here. The appendix includes the questionnaire and a table of critical values that specifies the data that are needed for verifying hypotheses.

This study explored the relationship between leadership styles and organisational climate by means of quantitative research. Data from an organisational climate survey was used during the analysis. The results indicate that there was a positive correlation (0,749 at the 0,01 level) between leadership styles and organisational climate, thus supporting the research hypothesis. A standard multiple regression analysis was conducted and three leadership styles were found to predict 55,6% of the variance in organisational climate. The Authoritative leadership style made the largest unique contribution to the variance in organisational climate. The interaction between biographical and organisational variables and leadership styles and organisational climate was studied by means of t-tests and ANOVAs. Although statistically significant differences were found, these terms were of little practical significance and the effect sizes were generally small. The study concludes with recommendations for Industrial and Organisational Psychology practices and further research. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Change in today’s business environment may be seen as inevitable however in the absence of a generic and endemic Change Framework for Managing and Leading Change; South African businesses face a difficult task of surviving into the future unless they are able to find an Organisational Change Management Approach that will assist them in navigating the Organisational Change Landscape for the 21st Century. This study provides an exploratory approach to understanding the nature of Organisational Change Management in South Africa, by exploring the following key concepts: (1) An understanding of the nature of Organisational Change Management in South Africa (2) The Critical Success Factors needed for Organisational Change Management to succeed in South Africa (3) The provision of a practical Organisational Change Management Framework and Scorecard for the measurement of Organisational Change Management processes and initiatives (4) Recommendations towards a Organisational Change Management Scorecard The study which is largely qualitative in nature makes use of a multiple case study design methodology for the collection of empirical evidence as well as quantitative research data from a survey questionnaire to support the underlying constructs and research questions posed within the study. The use of data and methodological triangulation, namely research interviews, survey data, company and archival documentation as well as focus group discussion points has provided the research study with the necessary validity and reliability to support research results, findings and recommendations.This information should be utilized by Change Practitioners practicing organisational change within a rapidly transforming environment, where Mergers and Acquisitions are major force for change as it would help to provide the necessary change framework and change scorecard for the management and measurement of organisational change interventions. This study also highlights the Critical Success Factors for change by focusing on the Emotional side (Low impact) and Change Imperatives / Prerequisites (High impact) for the management of organisational change. In addition, the study also provides a first view of some change performance measures in the form of a Change Scorecard, which can be used to assess the overall impact of the current change intervention being implemented. / Graduate School for Business Leadership / DBL

The main goal of the diploma thesis is to find out how the import substeps from China participate in making a price. The import substeps of products classified within the section 7 of the Standard international trade classification are analyzed. Another goal of the thesis is to discover advantages and disadvantages of JV co-operation established in China. The results of partial analyses become the basis of making guidelines for those, who are planning to establish this kind of co-operation in chinese region.

Research questions: This research was focused on exploring the impact of communication technologies on rural populations in the Congo. In particular, this research posed two questions: 1. Do mobile phones produce development in rural areas of the Congo? 2. Do mobile phones improve the living conditions of people? The questions helped examine ways in which mobile phones were or were not engendering development among these populations. Methods: The research was undertaken using four methods: 1. Phenomenology, 2. Sen's capability approach, 3. Participatory method, and 4. Ecological method. Phenomenology aimed to cater to the experiences and meanings of mobile phone uses. Sen's capability approach allowed the interviews to be focused on the basic needs of the poor. Participatory method provided a greater participation of respondents in discussion groups, and ecological method helped achieve a higher inclusion of key players in the targeted area. Major findings: The major findings of this study included: 1. Much of the literature on mobile phones and development was not representative or inclusive of key players and their day-to-day lives. 2. Studies have tended to present snapshots or single-focused accounts of mobile phone and development. 3. Authors of mobile phone research have tended to see rural populations with an urban-led bias, leaving aside the actual characteristics of rural areas. 4. Mobile phones were not limited to a person and her properties, but rather mobile phones were owned and shared by the community. 5. Participants expressed a need for technical skills and means to be available to the community and their members. 6. Households were not separated, but rather they were connected to allow people take care of one another. 7. People were connected through collective solidarities in order to come to the aid of those with special needs. 8. Literature and mobile phone sponsors or companies were disseminating mobile phones with an extractive and commercial tendency, focused principally on fees of batteries, chargers, and prepaid cards. Major contributions: The major contributions of this research revolved around the focus on: 1. technology to enhance the needed technical skills among concerned populations. 2. shared ownership of mobile phones to cater to both users and non-users of mobile phones among concerned populations. 3. connected households to capitalize on the dynamics of family among concerned populations. 4. collective solidarities to accommodate the processes of aiding one another among concerned populations. 5. capabilities, from a commercial or extractive aspect to capabilities to enhance the capabilities of people to afford mobile phones fees. 6. capabilities, from a corporate or business aspect to capabilities to enhance the capabilities of people who did not and could not own a business. 7. human basic needs to enhance the capabilities of mobile phone users with regard to human basic needs. 8. outliers or the marginalized to attend to those left out among concerned populations. 9. mobile phone-centric libraries to enhance the storage and retrieval of needed information among concerned populations.

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Business Administration in Project Management in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2014 / This research seeks to investigate the relationship between the use of Operational Research (OR) tools or techniques or the lack thereof, and the possible impact on decision-making amongst management of the City of Cape Town’s (CoCT) Water and Sanitation Department (WSD) and its impact on service delivery. The CoCT is the municipality, which governs the city of Cape Town, its suburbs and exurbs, and falls under the South African local government sphere. The Department is responsible for ensuring water quality. WSD extracts and analyses water samples to identify bacteria or chemicals that may be present, whilst taking action to resolve problems when necessary. For actions to be taken to resolve problems, decisions are taken, and these decisions determine how problems are resolved to deliver quality services to the public on time and in a cost effective manner. OR is a scientific approach to managerial decision making which eliminates guesswork and emotions from decision making. OR is also described as a discipline that focuses on application of information technology for informed decision-making. The research question this study set out to answer is to what extent do managers at the CoCT’ s WSD use OR. It also seeks to discover the relationship between OR and decision-making, whether any relationship between decision-making at the WSD and service delivery exists, and whether there is any link between politics and decision making in the organisation. This research investigated the efficiency of current decision-making tools that are utilized at the WSD. A questionnaire was developed and used as a tool to acquire inputs to satisfy the research question. The analysed data lead to recommendations for the WSD to support and improve on its existing decision-making tools. This study is based on material that was collected from a wide range of journals, extending from regular OR literature to many application journals, articles and published books.

Orientador: Jacques Wainer / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T05:40:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Billa_CleoZanella_D.pdf: 3316703 bytes, checksum: 82c6b703f196ad4980b583703c56be1f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Atualmente, o uso da computação na medicina vem crescendo cada vez mais, e um dos temas mais discutidos é o prontuário clínico eletrônico. é consenso que a utilização de um prontuário eletrônico pode facilitar o trabalho do profissional de saúde e melhorar ainda mais a qualidade do cuidado em saúde, porém ainda existe muita discussão sobre como ele deve ser e quais ferramentas deve oferecer. Este trabalho propõe duas novas formas de visualização do prontuário. A primeira é um sumário com as informações mais relevantes do paciente. A segunda é a representação dos dados do paciente através de um diagrama, onde o profissional de saúde pode expressar o design rationale (DR) da consulta. A área de sumarização automática é um problema altamente complexo, e apesar de terem sido usados procedimentos muito simples, o experimento realizado mostrou que o processo foi suficiente para construir um sumário com o mínimo de informações necessárias para que o quadro clínico do paciente pudesse ser entendido. Alguns estudos apontam que a falta de informação sobre o processo de diagnóstico e sobre o planejamento do tratamento é uma das principais falhas de um sistema de prontuário eletrônico. Por isso, foi sugerida uma representação que utiliza diagramas para armazenar e visualizar, além dos dados do paciente, o raciocínio do profissional de saúde durante uma consulta. Essa técnica é conhecida como design rationale, e é usada, principalmente, na área de engenharia de software. Além de propor essas duas novas formas de visualização do prontuário clínico, foi realizado um experimento formal com o objetivo de testar o sumário e o diagrama com DR na prática. O experimento ocorreu em um ambulatório de clínica geral da Unifesp, onde alunos do curso de medicina recebiam o sumário, ou o diagrama com DR, ou o prontuário clínico tradicional e respondiam questões sobre um determinado caso. Os resultados do experimento mostram que o sumário continha informações suficientes para avaliar o quadro clínico do paciente; porém, eles também mostram que o diagrama com DR provavelmente não apresentou nenhuma vantagem em relação ao prontuário tradicional / Abstract: Collaboration between computer science and medicine is growing day by day, and one of the most controversial topics is the electronic patient record (EPR). Despite all scientists agree that the EPR can improve health care quality, how it should behave, or what tools it should provide are still open questions. This work suggests two ways to visualize the EPR. The first is through a summary, with the most important information of the patient. And, the second, is a diagram where the physician is able to express his design rationale. Summarization is a complex problem, and despite very simple procedures were used, the experimental evaluation shows that the summary contains as much information as the traditional EPR. The idea of diagrams to visualize the EPR was originated in a technique called design rationale (DR), used, mostly, in Software Engineering. Its major goal is to reproduce the rationale during a project design. Some researches pointed out that one of the major limitations of EPR is the lack of information about diagnosis processes, and treatment planning. To evaluate these new ways of visualization of the EPR, an experimental evaluation was performed to test the summary and the diagram in real practice. The experiment was conduct in a outpatient care clinic at Unifesp, where medical students use the summary, or the diagram, or the traditional EPR to answer questions about specific patients. The results of the experiment show that the summary was equivalent to the traditional EPR, and that the diagram no not show any leverage to the traditional EPR / Doutorado / Informática Médica / Doutor em Ciência da Computação