The Dutch Revolt (c. 1568-1648) led to the establishment of a new state in the northern provinces of the old Habsburg Netherlands. This new polity confronted intense hostility from Habsburg dynastic interests. It sustained itself militarily against these interests, and extended its power globally. In addition it developed a remarkable and wealthy mercantile culture. However configurations of power in the new state differed radically from those within the surrounding monarchies, and its political texts remain problematic. Thus there is no dynamic political theory to match the reality of its might. However, one of the remarkable features of its culture was the unprecedented output of pictorial art, including thousands of political prints. Therefore, this thesis addresses the issue of power in the Republic on the basis of pictorial evidence, using a combination of three routes. First, instead of examining evidence made up of texts, it was decided to use a range of political imagery, largely political prints, to serve as primary sources, inverting the usual practice of alluding to images from an argument based on texts. Second, there is a requirement upon historians for a systematic approach to primary sources, allowing argument to be tightly referenced. However, imagery is not subject to the usual methods (footnoting chapters and pages for example), so a methodology was developed which incorporates digitally modelled representations of the prints. This was based upon work undertaken by Gerhard Jaritz at the Instituts für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit in Austria. Thirdly, prompted by the doubts of several scholars about the utility of conventional political theories in the context of the Dutch Republic, the work of Michel Foucault, in particular his prescription for the study of power, has been adapted and used as an analytical framework in which to discuss the sources. The thesis demonstrates the systematic exploitation of pictorial sources in the context of historical study. It demonstrates the advantages and limitations of digital models and computer analysis. On the basis of these novel methodologies, the thesis summarises a thorough exploration of a range of political imagery. It also highlights the extraordinary success of a particular image of the Revolt, the Tyranny of Alva. On the basis of the evidence examined, it also demonstrates that there was a profound antipathy towards monarchic, 'top down1 power in the early Republic, and argues that power there was more easily diagrammed than textualised.

Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Social and Clinical Pharmacy Candidate PharmDr. Abobakr Abasaeed Elhag Supervisor prof. RNDr. Jiří Vlček, CSc. Title of Doctoral Thesis Analysis of the Use of Antibiotics in the United Arab Emirates Introduction and Aims: The misuse of antibiotics for viral infections (for which they are of no value) and the immoderate use of broad spectrum antibiotics instead of narrower spectrum antibiotics have been well-documented and reported. Therefore the inappropriate use of antibiotics is getting a global problem, mainly in the developing countries. Emergence of antibiotics resistance is often a result of irrational prescribing patterns, misuse of the antibiotics as well as self-medication. Although the United Arab Emirates (UAE]) antimicrobial policy restricts dispensing of antibiotics without prescription , studies revealed the wide availability of these agents over the counter (OTC), their over prescribing pattern and the high prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics, unfortunately and regardless of this results, there is a lack and paucity in studies that tracking the prevalence of antibiotics resistance. The aim of our research was to evaluate the attitude of the community towards the use of antibiotics, estimate...

The process of globalisation has had a large impact on the world economy over the past three decades. Economic globalisation has manifested itself in the increasing integration of goods and services through international trade and the integration of financial markets. As a consequence the existence of co-movements in economic variables of different countries has become more evident. The extent to which globalisation causes a country’s economy to move together with the rest of the world concerns policy-makers. When such co-movement is significant, the influence of policy-makers on their respective domestic economies is significantly reduced. South Africa re-entered the international economy in the early 1990s when the forces of globalisation, especially for developing countries, seemed to gain momentum. Empirical research such as Kabundi and Loots (2005) found strong evidence of international co-movement between the world business cycle and the South African business cycle, particularly following South Africa’s integration into the global economy. This study examines the relationship and interdependence between South Africa and four of its major developed trading partners. More particularly, the study examines the question of whether business cycles are transmitted from Germany, Japan, US and UK to South Africa, and/or from South Africa to Germany, Japan, the US and UK. The study employs structural vector autoregressive (SVARs) models to analyse monthly data from 1980:01–2008:04 on industrial production, producer prices, short-term interest rates and real effective exchange rates. The results show that South Africa benefits from economic growth in both the UK and US. They also indicate significant price transmission from Germany and Japan to South Africa, with transmission in the opposite direction being statistically insignificant. The impulse response graphs show that a positive one standard deviation shock to both German and Japanese producer prices has a negative impact on South African output (industrial production) growth. Furthermore, South African monetary policy is relatively unresponsive to international monetary policy stances. The findings of this study indicate that South African policymakers need to take into consideration economic performance of the country’s major trading partners, with particular emphasis on the UK and US economies.

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Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Information and Communications Technology Degree, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / Telecentres are a means of allowing members of disadvantaged communities access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) so that they are included in the digital world. Thorough literature searches, along with communication with the Uni-versal Service Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) indicated that there was no common operational monitoring model for Telecentres. The lack of such a model re-sulted in a lack of real time user and usage profile information to provide strategic business insights for managers. To obtain the requirements for this model, different stakeholders of South African Telecentres were consulted, and these consultations were supplemented by research studies based on international Telecentres. After a detailed evaluation of the different research methodologies, positivism and re-ductionism were selected as the most appropriate conceptual frameworks for the re-search. The research design included both quantitative and qualitative research meth-ods. Requirements engineering was used to provide a number of different methods for verification and modelling. The UML methodology was used to represent the TeleMun monitoring model. A specific UML diagram, the activity diagram, was used to validate the phase consistency of the TeleMun model using the semiformal tool of VeriScene. The choice of methods depended on several factors, for example, the problem domain, and the nature of the solution required, amongst others. Design science methodology was selected as an overarching methodology to encompass the full process from re-quirements to the final design and reporting phases. This methodology was used both in the design of the model and in the design of VeriScene. (The literature review had revealed that there was a gap concerning appropriate phase consistency tools to ensure consistency between the requirements and design phases. To address this gap, a tool ‘VeriScene’ was developed to provide this consistency). In order to analyse these re-quirements, a combination of different appropriate methods was selected, providing the design strength associated with triangulation. These requirements engineering methods were applied to derive the TeleMun model. Thus the monitoring model, TeleMun, was developed, verified and partially validated using several requirements engineering methods. The model is designed at a high level and therefore can be modified to suit other local and international Telecentre opera-tions. / M

Class of 2014 Abstract / Specific Aims: To classify East Asian and Pacific countries into homogenous groups based on potential determinants of their healthcare expenditures and public health care. Methods: We used data from the 1995 to 2010 World Health Organization (WHO) database. Cluster analysis techniques were applied to identify clusters of East Asian and Pacific countries using variables identified as potential determinants of healthcare expenditures and public health care. Differences between clusters of countries were validated using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Average annual growth rate (AAGR) was calculated to study the change in trends across countries over time. Main Results: Nineteen countries with complete data were included. Of those, we identified four distinct clusters. Cluster 1 consisted of Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu. Cluster 2 represented China, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Cluster 3 consisted of Fiji, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. Cluster 4 represented Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa and Tonga. Health Expenditure per capita AAGR (P=0.002), infant mortality rate AAGR (P=0.018), life expectancy at birth AAGR (p=0.003), population ages 65 and above AAGR (P=0.004) and death rate (P<0.001) were found to be significantly different among the clusters. Clusters were similar based on birth rate (P=0.425) and public health expenditure (P=0.231), though there were trends of differences. Conclusion: East Asian and Pacific countries were similar based on birth rate and public health expenditure, but were different based on health expenditure per capita, infant mortality rate, life expectancy at birth, population ages 65 and above and death rate. Exploration of clusters among countries may increase the chances of success for health policies and innovations at lower costs of targeted implementation at a global level.

Magister Legum - LLM / Safeguards are among the most controversial of all trade remedies, due to the fact that they are contrary to the general principles of international fair trade as articulated in the various ageements governing the relationship between Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Thus, deeloping countries, least developed countries (LDC), South Africa, and other Sub-Saharan African countries, are hard-pressed to deploy and consider safeguards as an option. This thesis rests upon two central interlinked propositions, in essence a two-pronged argument and overarching statement of policy. First, the legal constraints on safeguards, many of which evolve out of the strict Appellate Body decicions, are reasonable on legal and policy grounds even though such controlling measures are applied likewise to fairly-traded and not just to unfairly-traded merchandise. Secondly, developing countries like South Africa should properly be accorded special and differential treatment to apply safeguards. / South Africa

Capital controls relaxation is one critical macroeconomic policy component that constitutes the broader framework of economic reform policies. Research work has been done, especially on developed countries, to establish if relaxation of capital controls does improve economic performance of a country. The literature reviewed supports this notion but the results from causal studies lack consistency, especially when studying the emerging economies. This research reviewed the literature on the impact of capital account liberalization and the pace thereof on economic growth of emerging economies. Then, a quantitative research methodology was followed whereby 67 emerging economies, geographically grouped into five continents, were studied over a period of 25 years, 1980 to 2005. The economic growth rate was traced as the emerging economies relaxed or tightened their capital controls to establish if there was any kind of relationship. It was statistically proven that in emerging economies relaxation of capital controls had a significantly low impact on economic growth and that a gradual relaxation approach positively impacted economic performance. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Malaria is one of the most deadly parasitic diseases known to man. Although the number of malaria cases reported each year is decreasing, this disease continues to pose health and economic problems mainly in developing countries. Significant progress has been made in the fight against this disease. This includes the discovery and development of potent antimalarial agents. However, the development of resistance to most of these potent antimalarials has made the development of new antiplasmodial agents of paramount importance. Several promising antiplasmodial agents have been found from the marine environment. Amongst these are the tetraprenylated toluquinols from the brown alga: Sargassum heterophyllum. These metabolites have been reported to exhibit a range of antiplasmodial activity; however, the mechanisms by which these compounds bring about their antiplasmodial activity and the pharmacophoric groups responsible for such activity are unknown. Two species of Sargassum algae were encountered during the course of this project. From the investigation of the geographical and seasonal variation of metabolites of S. heterophyllum and S. elegans we established that there were no significant intra and inter site variations amongst metabolite profiles of both species both within and between the sampled seasons. These results enabled us to establish that the collection of both species from three different sites on the eastern coast of South Africa namely; Kenton on Sea, Port Alfred and Noordhoek in autumn, winter or spring would qualitatively yield the same metabolites. A comparison of metabolite profiles of both species also revealed no qualitative differences between metabolites of S. heterophyllum and S. elegans. The quantities of selected prenylated metabolites extracted from S. heterophyllum using four different extraction techniques was also assessed using qNMR as the method of quantification. This led to the identification of optimal extraction techniques and conditions for the extraction of sargahydroquinoic acid (1.38), sargaquinoic aid (1.39) and sargachromenol (2.10) from S. heterophyllum. From this study, the extraction of algae by soxhlet extraction using EtOH as the extraction solvent led to the extraction of the highest quantities of sargahydroquinoic acid. The potential of other extraction techniques such as microwave assisted extraction, to yield high quantities of the selected metabolites were also identified. With gram quantities of sargahydroquinoic acid (1.38) in hand, this compound was modified by oxidation, reduction, acetylation, methylation and cyclization reactions to yield nine derivatives. The derivatives and four naturally occurring prenylated toluquinols were assessed for antiplasmodial and cytotoxic activity against the FCR-3 Gambian Chloroquine resistant strain of P. falciparum and the MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma cell line respectively. Comparison of antiplasmodial data for all twelve compounds showed that the hydroquinone moeity of sargahydroquinoic acid (1.38) is important for antiplasmodial activity while esterification of the carboxylic acid group in 1.38 resulted in more potent antiplasmodial compounds. Of all twelve compounds, compound 5.2, the hydroquinone methyl ester of 1.38 was found to be the most potent antiplasmodial compound with an IC₅₀ value of 1.94 μM and a selectivity index of 22.68.

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