Between 1980-2006, thousands of South African pension funds converted members from defined benefit to defined contribution structures. This research set out to answer the questions of why this phenomenon occurred and whether peculiar environmental circumstances influenced the outcome. The research framework identified various stakeholders in the retirement fund industry - government; regulator; pension fund adjudicator; ombudsman for long term insurance; trade unions; members; trustees; business; employers and service providers - and isolated the elements to be considered in the research. Industry experts were interviewed to obtain a macro view of the phenomenon and specific manifestations of the phenomenon were also considered in case studies. The purpose of the research was to develop a model for managers to assist them in dealing with environmental change. Qualitative research methodology was utilised and feedback from semi-structured interviews was categorised into several emergent themes. Within-case and cross-case analyses were conducted. Research results indicate that the conversion phenomenon occurred in two waves - one initiated in the 1980s and driven by the trade unions and a second in the 1990s, driven by employers, often at the advice of their consultants. Evidence of the start of a third wave also emerged. Results indicate that an environmental shock exerted a substantial influence on the course of events. Under these:  Various factors combined to drive organisational evolution (i.e. adaptation to the environment).  Adaptation speed was inappropriate and exceeded that which was required for sufficient thought.  Uncertainty and vacuum circumstances arose leading to consequences that require redress.  The power of the relative stakeholders changed and influenced the strategic outcome.  An imbalance in stakeholder interests arose and ethical factors became consequential.  Business acted to restore certainty for itself. Existing literature explained organisational behaviour in environments of competitive shock and high turbulence, but not in circumstances of environmental shock. A model emerged to assist managers to deal with environmental change, which was applied to an analysis of pension fund reform. It was also applied to the pension fund perspective on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment. This model may also be applied in analysis of land redistribution, sanctions and constitutional development. / Business Management / DBL

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:33:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BDTD - trabalhos retidos.docx: 11621 bytes, checksum: 0452b8296967440b491d0b515ed6814d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-01 / In Brazil, through social rights were recognized, in parallel, the civil and political rights. Even at authoritarian times, social rights have been formally recognized, given that the Federal Constitution of 1988 gave them enormous attention. However, realization of social rights requires, beyond the state action, the commitment of workers and their unions, occupying Article 8., III CF/88 position of prominence in this particular, by allowing the union, as a procedural substitute, to file lawsuits in defense of collective rights (especially of a certain workers class) and homogeneous individual rights of its members. This ensures isonomic access to justice to the members of the class (especially professional), and also decrease the excessive amount of individual claims and increase the number of workers protected. Finally, the most frequent activities of the union as a procedural substitute for workers, beyond strengthening the ties between them, will reduce the low rate of spontaneous compliance of the constitutional and legal norms which enshrine social rights by employers, also reducing, as a result, judicial cases and relieving the Labor Courts. / No Brasil, através dos direitos sociais, foram consagrados, de forma paralela, os direitos civis e políticos. Mesmo em períodos autoritários, os direitos sociais foram reconhecidos formalmente, sendo certo que a Constituição Federal de 1988 deu a eles enorme destaque. Contudo, a concretização dos direitos sociais, além de prestações do próprio Estado, requer o empenho dos trabalhadores e de seus sindicatos, ocupando o artigo 8º., III da CF/88, neste particular, posição de destaque, ao possibilitar que o sindicato, na condição de substituto processual, ajuíze ações em defesa dos direitos coletivos (da categoria profissional, enquanto tal) e dos direitos individuais homogêneos de seus membros. Isso garante aos integrantes da categoria (notadamente profissional) isonomia no acesso à justiça, além de diminuir a quantidade excessiva de reclamações individuais e aumentar o número de trabalhadores tutelados. Por fim, a atuação mais freqüente do sindicato como substituto processual dos trabalhadores, além de fortalecer os laços entre eles, aumentará o baixo índice de cumprimento espontâneo pelos empregadores das normas constitucionais e legais que consagram os direitos sociais, reduzindo também, via de conseqüência, os processos judiciais e desafogando a Justiça do Trabalho.

This dissertation investigates the revitalisation of Tonga, an endangered minority language in Zimbabwe. It seeks to establish why the Tonga people embarked on the revitalisation of their language, the strategies they used, the challenges they encountered and how they managed them. The Human Needs Theory propounded by Burton (1990) and Yamamoto’s (1998) Nine Factors Language Revitalisation Model formed the theoretical framework within which the data were analysed. This case-study identified various socio-cultural and historical factors that influenced the revitalisation of the Tonga language. Despite the socio-economic and political challenges from both within and outside the Tonga community, the Tonga revitalisation initiative was to a large extent a success, thanks to the speech community’s positive attitude and ownership of the language revitalisation process. It not only restored the use of Tonga in the home domain but also extended the language function into the domains of education, the media, and religion. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Sociolinguistics)

Breitstreifenlaser haben eine breite Emissionsapertur, die es ermöglicht eine hohe Ausgangsleistung zu erreichen. Gleichzeitig führt sie jedoch zu einer Verringerung der lateralen Strahlqualität und zu ihrem nicht-stationären Verhalten. Forschung in diesem Gebiet ist anwendungsgetrieben und somit ist das Hauptziel eine Erhöhung der Brillanz, die sowohl die Ausgangsleistung als auch die laterale Strahlqualität beinhaltet. Um die zugrunde liegenden raumzeitlichen Phänomene zu verstehen und dieses Wissen zu nutzen, um die Kosten der Brillanz-Optimierung zu minimieren, ist ein selbst-konsistentes Simulationstool notwendig, welches die wichtigsten Prozesse beinhaltet. Zunächst wird in dieser Arbeit ein quasi-dreidimensionales elektro-optisch-thermisches Model präsentiert, welches wesentliche qualitative Eigenschaften von realen Bauteilen gut beschreibt. Zeitabhängige Wanderwellen-Gleichungen werden genutzt, um die inhärent nicht-stationären optischen Felder zu beschreiben, welche an eine Ratengleichung für die Überschussladungsträger in der aktiven Zone gekoppelt sind. Das Model wird in dieser Arbeit um eine Injektionsstromdichte erweitert, die laterale Stromspreizung und räumliches Lochbrennen korrekt beschreibt. Des Weiteren wird ein Temperaturmodel präsentiert, das kurzzeitige lokale Aufheizungen in der Nähe der aktiven Zone und die Formierung einer stationären Temperaturverteilung beinhalten. Im zweiten Teil wird das beschriebene Modell genutzt, um die Gründe von Brillanz-Degradierung, das heißt sowohl die Ursprünge der Leistungssättigung als auch des nicht diffraktionslimitierten Fernfeldes zu untersuchen. Abschließend werden im letzten Teil Laserentwürfe besprochen, welche die laterale Brillanz verbessern. Hierzu gehört ein neuartiges “Schachbrettlaser” Design, bei dem longitudinal-laterale Gewinn-Verlust-Modulation mit zusätzlicher Phasenanpassung ausgenutzt wird, um eine sehr geringe Fernfeld-Divergenz zu erhalten. / Broad-area lasers are edge-emitting semiconductor lasers with a wide lateral emission aperture that enables high output powers, but also diminishes the lateral beam quality and results in their inherently non-stationary behavior. Research in the area is driven by application and the main objective is to increase the brightness which includes both the output power and lateral beam quality. To understand the underlying spatio-temporal phenomena and to apply this knowledge in order to reduce costs for brightness optimization, a self-consistent simulation tool taking into account all essential processes is vital. Firstly, in this work a quasi-three-dimensional opto-electronic and thermal model is presented, that describes well essential qualitative characteristics of real devices. Time-dependent traveling-wave equations are utilized to describe the inherently non-stationary optical fields, which are coupled to dynamic rate equations for the excess carriers in the active region. This model is extended by an injection current density model to accurately include lateral current spreading and spatial hole burning. Furthermore a temperature model is presented that includes short-time local heating near the active region as well as the formation of a stationary temperature profile. Secondly, the reasons of brightness degradation, i.e. the origins of power saturation and the spatially modulated field profile are investigated and lastly, designs that mitigate those effects that limit the lateral brightness under pulsed and continuous-wave operation are discussed. Amongst those designs a novel “chessboard laser” is presented that utilizes longitudinal-lateral gain-loss modulation and an additional phase tailoring to obtain a very low far-field divergence.

Den breda mitten, eller bara mitten, är ett centralt begrepp i Centerpartiets identitet. Trots detta är Centerpartiets sakpolitik inte särskilt positionerad i ”mitten”. Partiet är snarare det mest högerlutande partiet av samtliga riksdagspartier vad gäller ekonomiska frågor. Samtidigt är själva idén med den breda mitten att etablera ett bredare samarbete över blockgränser men exkludera Vänsterpartiet och Sverigedemokraterna på grund av deras respektive ytterkantsposition. Rent sakpolitiskt är den breda mitten en gåta. Medan fenomenet inte tillåter sig att begripas speciellt väl ur ett sakpolitiskt perspektiv, argumenterar föreliggande uppsats för att det bättre kan förstås utifrån dess symboliska betydelse. Den breda mitten undersöks således som en instans av sekulär religion. Genom intervjuer med Centerpartister kartläggs ett religiöst meningssystem som grundas på; (1) ett heligt ideal om en icke-extrem politisk karaktär i form av mitten; (2) en moralisk gemenskap som sluter upp kring idealet och försvarar det från all form av upplevd extremism, men som är mer intresserad av sitt förakt för Sverigedemokraterna och (3) upplevelser av hur ritualer kring motståndet mot Sverigedemokraterna och självuppoffring för idealet erbjuder frälsning från synden att kunna associeras med Sverigedemokraterna via högeridentiteten. Religionens funktion tolkas vara att reglera diskrepansen mellan partiets identitet och praktik genom ritualer och moraliska argument som triumferar över sakliga problem med motstånd mot Sverigedemokraterna som den övertygande mekanismen. Mitten identifieras vidare som den perfekta täckmanteln för en förlorad högeridentitet och för de framgångar som motståndet mot Sverigedemokraterna bringar partiet, då motstånd mot båda ytterkantspartierna gör att Centerpartiet kan hävda sig som mitten och därigenom attrahera den större grupp väljare som finns där. Motståndet mot Sverigedemokraterna tolkas i sin tur som den grundläggande drivkraften bakom fenomenet den breda mitten, en drivkraft som inte bara bygger på framgångar i termer av en ökad väljarbas utan också på en upplevd välvilja, en dold förhoppning om en alternativ och självständig högergemenskap men även på en möjlighet för Centerpartiet att göra upp med sin egen historia av främlingsfientlighet. / The broad middle, or just the middle, is a central concept in the identity of The Centre Party in Sweden. Despite this, the politics of The Centre Party is not particularly positioned in “the middle”. Rather, The Centre Party is the most right-leaning party of all the parliamentary parties when it comes to economic issues. Simultaneously, the very idea behind the broad middle is to establish wider cooperation across block boundaries but exclude the parliamentary parties The Left Party and The Sweden Democrats due to their respective outer edge position. As a matter of concrete policy, the broad middle is an enigma. While the phenomenon does not allow itself to be understood particularly well from a concrete political perspective, the present thesis argues that it can be better understood based on its symbolic meaning. The broad middle is thus analysed as an instance of secular religion. Through interviews with members of The Centre Party, a religious meaning system is mapped which is based on; (1) a sacred ideal of a non-extreme political character in the form of the middle; (2) a moral community that defends the ideal by protecting it from all sorts of experienced extremism, but whose interest lies more in its contempt for The Sweden Democrats and (3) experiences of how rituals surrounding the antagonism towards The Sweden Democrats and self-sacrifice for the ideal offers salvation from the sin of being associated with The Sweden Democrats trough a Right-wing identity. The function of the religion is interpreted as regulating the discrepancy between The Centre Party’s identity and practise through rituals and moral arguments that triumphs over factual problems with the antagonism towards The Sweden Democrats as the convincing mechanism. The middle is further identified as the perfect cover for a lost Right-wing identity and for the successes that the antagonism towards The Sweden Democrats brings the party, since opposition to both the outer-edge parties allows The Centre Party to assert itself as the middle and thus attract the larger group of voters who are located there. The antagonism towards The Sweden Democrats is in turn identified as the primal driving force behind the phenomenon the broad middle, a driving force that is not only based on successes in term of increased voters but also on an experienced benevolence, a hidden hope for an alternative and independent Right-wing community as well as on an opportunity for redemption with The Centre Party’s own history of xenophobia.

Studies of mating systems and social organisation have been central to understanding of the evolution of social behaviour. The European badger Meles meles is a good species in which to study these processes, as its complex social system provides an opportunity to investigate how both natural and kin selection shape the evolution of mating systems and social structure. In this thesis, I use behavioural and genetic data to describe the mating system and social organisation of a high-density badger population and examine the occurrence of cooperative breeding. I genotyped 915 (85%) badgers trapped in Wytham Woods (1987–2005), 630 of which were cubs, and assigned both parents to 331 cubs with 95% confidence. This revealed a polygynandrous mating system, with up to five mothers and five fathers per social group. Mounting behaviour was also polygynandrous and I show the strongest evidence to date for multiple-paternity litters. I demonstrate, for the first time, that groups consisted of close and distant kin: approximately one third of group members were first-order kin, and overall group members had slightly lower relatedness levels than half-siblings. Within groups, adult and yearling females had higher pairwise relatedness than males, and neighbouring groups contained relatives. These findings result from the high level (42%) of extra-group paternities, 86% of which were assigned to neighbouring males. For the first time I show that females avoided inbreeding by mating with extra-group males; however, incestuous matings did occur. Promiscuous and repeated mountings were observed, which may reduce male–male aggression and infanticide, but may also promote sperm competition, genetic diversity, and / or genetic compatibility. Just under a third of adult males and females were assigned parentage each year and I quantify, for the first time, reproductive skew within badger groups. Correlations between relatedness, group productivity, and reproductive skew were not consistent with the predictions of incomplete-control models; rather, resource availability may play a role. Older and younger badgers displayed reduced annual breeding success, with male success increasing initially with experience. The Restraint, Constraint, and Selection Hypotheses did not explain the age-related breeding pattern in females. Variance in lifetime breeding success (LBS) was greater for males. Males that only bred within or only outside of their groups had half the LBS of males that did both. Females that were assigned maternity probably bred cooperatively and allonursed non-offspring, which has not been demonstrated previously. No benefit was established, however, in terms of litter size, probability of offspring breeding, or offspring lifetime breeding success, with more mothers in a group. In conclusion, badger social groups are fostered through kinship ties. Polygynandry and repeated mounting may have evolved originally to reduce male–male aggression and infanticide by males, through paternity masking. Although plural breeding occurs, group living appears to be costly. Motivation to disperse may be reduced through high-levels of extra-group paternities, which may also reduce inbreeding. Cooperative breeding among mothers may represent a low-cost behaviour with indirect benefits due to high levels of relatedness between female group-members. Badger sociality therefore represents an early stage in the evolution of social behaviour.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Underground septic systems thrive or fail based on the relationship with their local environment. This paper explores ways environmental variables such as soil type, tree roots, degree of slope, and impervious surfaces affect on-site wastewater treatment systems. It also discusses the effects each of these variables may have on a septic system, and the resulting impact a compromised system may have on the surrounding environment. This research focuses on an approximately 20 square mile area of central Washington Township in Marion County, Indiana. This area of central Indiana contains a large septic system owning population in a sampling of different environments such as wooded areas, hilly areas, and a variety of different soil types.

Text in Afrikaans / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil (Psychology)

Text in Afrikaans / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil (Psychology)