Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This master thesis presents a reconstruction of the problem of the unity of reason in Kant s critical-transcendental philosophy. Bearing in mind that there is much disagreement in the literature, not only as to the critical answer to this problem, but also as to its specificity and systematic function within the various moments in which it is considered by Kant, this approach centers essentially on Kant s own argumentation. The aim of this research is to show that Kant s treatment of the problem follows the development of the critical-transcendental philosophy and that it can only be understood insofar as this development is presented. Therefore, a search for the systematic localization of the moments in which Kant approaches the problem of the unity of reason has been carried out, with the intention of justifying that this approach is fundamentally connected with the critical intention of establishing the boundaries that guarantee legitimacy to reason and assure its authenticity to operate in the theoretical as well as in the practical domain. The investigation is guided by the necessity to understand that both the negative results at which Kant arrives in the search of the demonstration of the unity of reason and the only critical answer admitted to this problem have their genesis in the systematic possibilities considered by the critical philosophy as a whole. Initially, in view of the argumentation that corresponds to the first period of this philosophy, an examination of Kant s search for a solution to the problem of the unity of reason from the theoretical use is carried out. Secondly, the systematic identification of the impossibility of solving the problem through this route leads to the consideration of an effort to establish the unity from the practical use and, likewise, to the discovery that the theoretical and practical uses of reason must be legitimized in two distinct domains of reason and, thus, the unity of reason cannot be guaranteed from either of its uses. Finally, faced with this situation, an exploration of the answer guaranteed to the problem of the unity of reason by the Kantian argumentation that considers the relation of the theoretical and practical domains in a regulative manner is carried out. As a result of the systematic impossibility to establish the unity of reason from one of its uses, the necessary self-sufficient validation of these uses, and, also, the fact that the relation of their domains can only be admitted as regulative, the conclusion reached is that the unity of reason is a fundamental presupposition of the critical philosophy in the articulation of its entirety, but that the critical answer to this problem consists in the justification of the impossibility of its demonstration. / Este trabalho apresenta uma reconstrução do problema da unidade da razão na filosofia crítica-transcendental kantiana. Dado que a literatura discorda não apenas acerca da resposta crítica a esse problema, mas até mesmo sobre a sua especificidade e a sua função sistemática nos diversos momentos nos quais ele é considerado, a abordagem centra-se essencialmente na própria argumentação kantiana. Procura-se, outrossim, mostrar que o tratamento do mesmo problema segue o desenvolvimento da filosofia crítica-transcendental e que ele só pode ser compreendido desde que apresentado tal desenvolvimento. Assim sendo, busca-se uma localização sistemática dos momentos onde Kant aborda o problema da unidade da razão no intuito de justificar que a mesma abordagem é fundamentalmente vinculada à intenção crítica de determinar os limites que garantem legitimidade à própria razão e asseguram que esta tem autenticidade para operar tanto no domínio teórico como no domínio prático. A investigação é conduzida pela necessidade de se compreender que tanto os resultados negativos que Kant chega na busca da demonstração da unidade da razão como a única resposta crítica admitida para tal problema têm sua gênesis nas possibilidades sistemáticas consideradas pela filosofia crítica no seu todo. Tomando em consideração a argumentação que corresponde ao período do início da mesma filosofia investiga-se, primeiramente, a procura de Kant de uma solução para o problema da unidade da razão a partir do uso teórico. A identificação sistemática da impossibilidade de qualquer tentativa de resposta mediante esse percurso conduz, num segundo momento, ao apreço de uma tentativa de estabelecer a unidade a partir do uso prático e, ainda, à descoberta sistemática de que os usos teórico e prático devem ser legitimados em dois domínios distintos e, assim, a unidade da razão não pode ser garantida partindo-se de um dos seus usos. Frente a essa situação, num último momento, pondera-se a resposta ao problema da unidade da razão garantida pela argumentação kantiana que considera de modo regulativo a relação dos domínios teórico e prático. Como resultado da impossibilidade sistemática de estabelecer a unidade da razão a partir de um dos seus usos, da necessária legitimação auto-suficiente dos mesmos e, ainda, do fato de que a relação dos seus domínios só pode ser admitida como regulativa, apresenta-se a conclusão de que a unidade da razão é um pressuposto fundamental para a articulação da filosofia crítica-transcendental em todos os seus momentos, mas que a resposta crítica a esse problema consiste na justificativa da impossibilidade da sua demonstração.

Over the past two decades, the literature on Absorptive Capacity (AC) research has been burgeoning with enormous empirical and theoretical contributions to the field. Yet, there is not much advancement in understanding the internal dynamics of AC and the concept remains a black box in a large body of research. This study aims at contributing to this body of knowledge by examining the development of AC throughout the lifecycle of R&D consortia. In particular, it examines the pre-conditions of AC across its three dimensions corresponding with the phases of consortia: exploratory, transformative and exploitative learning, and investigates the role of disciplinary, organisational, and intra-organisational boundaries in the development of AC.Utilising a case study research strategy, the thesis analyses AC in three R&D consortia in the alternative materials, pharmaceuticals, and aerospace industries and embraces qualitative methods with interviews and documents as its main sources of data. The collected data is analysed through template analysis technique assisted by the NVivo 8 software package. The theoretical contributions of the thesis are fourfold. First, findings indicate that AC is not an exclusively organisational or dyadic capability, but a three-level concept unfolding at the consortium, interface (between consortia and organisations), and organisational levels, and in exploratory, transformative and exploitative phases throughout the consortium lifetime. On that basis, a model for AC in R&D consortia is developed and its underlying learning mechanisms and conditions across levels and phases are discussed in detail. Second, the thesis contends that the development of a shared space which provides the opportunities for participation and development of shared meaning across organisational and disciplinary boundaries in R&D consortia serves a critical role in the development of AC. The characteristics of the shared space and the conditions for its development are specified. Third, by integrating adaptation mechanisms to the formulation of AC, the thesis contributes to understanding of AC as a dynamic capability-a higher order capability to change operating routines and processes. This finding feeds into the argument that AC is both path-dependent, by storing knowledge in routines, processes and artefacts through exploitative learning, and path-breaking, by modifying and changing prevailing processes and structures through exploratory and transformative learning. Finally, the thesis argues that understanding learning in R&D consortia necessitates taking into consideration the effects of disciplinary and organisational boundaries simultaneously. It is argued that organisational boundaries can influence the transfer of knowledge even within disciplinary domains, which challenges the excessive focus of practice-based research on disciplinary boundaries in cross-disciplinary collaborations, calling for further exploration of the role of organisational boundaries within a given disciplinary domain. These theoretical contributions are accompanied by a set of managerial implications for the formation and governance of R&D consortia, as well as policy implications for evaluation of policy interventions in collaborative research schemes.

Advancements in molecular sequencing have revealed unexpected cryptic genetic diversity and contrasting evolutionary histories within genes and between genomes of many organisms; often in disagreement with recognized taxonomy. Incongruent patterns between the mitochondrial and nuclear evolutionary history can have several plausible explanations, but widespread systematic conflict inevitably challenges our conceptions of species boundaries when there is discordance between coevolving and coinherited genomes. It is unknown to what degree mitonuclear conflict drives the process of divergence, or how ubiquitous these patterns are across the tree of life. To understand the evolutionary relevance of intergenomic discordance we must identify the conflicting patterns that exist in natural systems by generating robust estimates of the underlying species history, quantify support for alternative hypotheses of lineage formation, and describe patterns of genetic variation present in robust nuclear genomic datasets. Empirically testing correlations between mitonuclear genomic conflict and reduced gene flow at the organism level will contribute toward a better understanding of lineage boundaries and how intergenomic interactions shape the process of divergence. Mitochondrial introgression has been inferred in many salamander systems with limited perspective from nuclear sequence data. Within dusky salamanders (Desmognathus), these patterns have been observed between morphologically and geographically disparate populations. I sequenced regions throughout the nuclear genome to reconstruct species trees, performed population-level analyses testing concordance between the mitochondrial, nuclear datasets, and nuclear genes with mitochondrial functions with the expectation that coevolutionary interactions among genomes are more likely to manifest in these regions. I also estimated migration rates between populations that may have experienced historical mitochondrial introgression to evaluate phylogeographic patterns. Using these data we definitively reject species models in which genetic boundaries are based solely on mitochondrial data, favoring geographic models instead. Furthermore, analyses soundly reject current taxonomic models based on morphological characteristics, suggesting there is greater lineage diversity than is currently recognized. I also used empirical assays of pre-zygotic reproductive mating behavior within and among populations containing diverse mitochondrial lineages to test metrics of reproductive isolation, and to determine if introgression shapes the evolution of complex traits directly influencing rates of divergence. These results may explain incongruent patterns observed between the mitochondrial and nuclear data as a function of inheritance and population dynamics rather than directly functioning to suppress nuclear gene flow. This research builds upon recent studies suggesting that speciation is a highly complex and often non-bifurcating process in which introgression can have a profound and lasting signature on the nuclear evolutionary history. Mechanisms responsible for divergence with gene flow challenge evolutionary biologists to reevaluate our notions and definitions of species boundaries to accommodate seemingly conflicted genomic patterns within and between genomes.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Sandstone and shale samples were selected within the systems tracts for laboratory analyses. The sidewall and core samples were subjected to petrographic thin section analysis, mineralogical analyses which include x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and stable carbon and oxygen isotopes geochemistry to determine the diagenetic alteration at deposition and post deposition in the basin. The shale samples were subjected to Rock-Eval pyrolysis and accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) prior to gas chromatographic (GC) and gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) analyses of the rock extracts, in order to determine the provenance, type and thermal maturity of organic matter present in sediments of the Orange Basin. The results revealed a complex diagenetic history of sandstones in this basin, which includes compaction, cementation/micritization, dissolution, silicification/overgrowth of quartz, and fracturing. The Eh-pH shows that the cements in the area of the basin under investigation were precipitated under weak acidic and slightly alkaline conditions. The δ18O isotope values range from -1.648 to 10.054 %, -1.574 to 13.134 %, and -2.644 to 16.180 % in the LST, TST, and HST, respectively. While δ13C isotope values range from -25.667 to -12.44 %, -27.862 to -6.954% and -27.407 to -19.935 % in the LST, TST, and HST, respectively. The plot of δ18O versus δ13C shows that the sediments were deposited in shallow marine temperate conditions. / South Africa

Fictions written between 1939 and 2005 by indigenous and white (post)colonial women writers who emerge from an African/European cultural experience form the focus of this study. Their voyages into the European diasporic space in Africa within the context of their texts are important since they speak of how African women's literature develops from, and is situated in relation to colonialism. African literature constitutes one facet of the new literatures in English from formerly colonised countries. However, the accomplishments of indigenous writer Grace Ogot are eclipsed by the critical acclaim received by her male counterparts, whilst Elspeth Huxley, Barbara Kimenye and Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, who emanate from Western culture but adopt an African perspective, are not accommodated by the `expatriate literature' genre. Hence, indigenous and white (post)colonial women's narratives by authors issuing from an African/European cultural experience are brought together to foreground European influence as an apparent phenomenon common to both categorieso f writers, with consequencesfo r the representation of gender, identity, culture and the `Other'. The selected texts are set in Kenya and Uganda, and a main concern is with the extent to which the works are impacted upon by setting and intercultural influences. However, this thesis argues that the `African' woman's creation of textuality is at once the formulation and expression of female individualities and a transgression of boundaries. Furthermore, Kimenye and Macgoye's children's literature illustrates the representation and configuration of a voice and identity for the female `Other' and writer, which enables a re-negotiation of identity and subsequently a crossing of borders. No critical study combines indigenous and white settler women's fiction written from an African perspective and therefore this study extends current scholarly knowledge. Whilst the combination of texts together with the disparate (post)colonial backgrounds is unique, the study of Kimenye and Macgoye's African children's narratives in particular breaks new ground since there is currently no critical comparative study pertaining to indigenous and white postcolonial women's children's literature with an African perspective

This document includes three completed publications to represent Urban Agriculture as a ideal solution to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The first publication (Weaver, 2017a) provided in Chapter Two examines the stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) modelling parameters for the current EPA Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) as the first step to developing Urban Agriculture BMPs. The second publication (Weaver, 2015) provided in Chapter Three highlights how many high-rated scholars have identified agriculture as a critical driver for the planetary systems impacts we find with community development. The third publication (Weaver, 2017b) provided in Chapter Four breaks down a completely new definition for Urban Agriculture, as the foundational works disagree on meaning, resulting in an ambiguous definition. Together, these publications encourage engineers to model Sustainable Development options with green infrastructure (Weaver, 2017a), distinct from the Planetary Systems impacts of other contemporary options (Weaver, 2015), with a greater understanding of the social capital to engage stakeholders in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Weaver, 2017b).

The dissertation looks at the city as an emergent product of the lower-level activities of the city components. City components refer to the smaller elements which make up the fabric of a city like buildings, roads, inhabitants, cars etc. Lower-level activities refer to the interaction between these components, and define the consequential feedback into the city as a whole. An understanding of these aspects of emergence allows for the identification of tools and guidelines which, in turn, forms the basis for design and building performance criteria. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Architecture / unrestricted

No abstract available / Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted

This dissertation aims to challenge the existing built thresholds that are in place between South Africa and its neighbouring countries. In the words of Heidegger, “ A boundary is not that at which something stops, but as the Greeks recognised, the boundary is that from which something begins it’s prescencing.”¹ Boundaries and edges need to be created. They need to be made strong. They need to dominate and control. But borders must not be barriers. This study sets out to investigate the design of a border complex as a transition zone between two countries. It intends to encourage international connectivity, and encourage fair trade and travel, by addressing the functional requirements expectant of a border post, and ensuring the necessary control. Emphasis is also placed on movement through a site where many challenging physical constraints call for innovative design solutions, and where a harsh climate needs to be addressed. / Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Architecture / unrestricted

This paper applies the ethnic boundary making theory developed by Andreas Wimmer to understand the maintenance of Jewish ethnic identification in Sweden, as expressed in thirteen interviews with Swedish Jews. Wimmer’s theory holds that ethnic conflict and persecution routinizes and entrenches perceptions of ethnic difference; I argue that the antisemitic persecutions of the 20th century has entrenched the perception of the ethnic distinctiveness of Jews among Jews themselves. These persecutions also contribute to alienation from Swedish society, which does not share the same historical identity and frames of understanding. These factors in turn motivate the participants to maintain the ethnic boundary between Swedes and Jews and guard it against assimilation. Ethnic consciousness also motivates Jews to endow the category of “Jewish” with cultural content, sometimes having previously lacked knowledge of Jewish culture; the cultural distinctiveness of Jews is thus shown to partly be a result of the ethnic boundary between Jews and others, and not just an explanation for that boundary. However; the participants are generally not prepared to restrict the choice of romantic bonds to fellow Jews; since social closure is required to maintain ethnic boundaries (as stressed by Wimmer), this puts the participants in a contradictory situation.