abstract: In the American Southwest, an area which already experiences a significant number of cooling degree days, anthropogenic climate change is expected to result in higher average temperatures and the increasing frequency, duration, and severity of heat waves. Climatological forecasts predict heat waves will increase by 150-840% in Los Angeles County, California and 340-1800% in Maricopa County, Arizona. Heat exposure is known to increase both morbidity and mortality and rising temperatures represent a threat to public health. As a result there has been a significant amount of research into understanding existing socio-economic vulnerabilities to extreme heat which has identified population subgroups at greater risk of adverse health outcomes. Additionally, research has shown that man-made infrastructure can mitigate or exacerbate these health risks. However, while recent socio-economic heat vulnerability research has developed geospatially explicit results, research which links it directly with infrastructure characteristics is limited. Understanding how socio-economic vulnerabilities interact with infrastructure systems is a critical component to developing climate adaptation policies and programs which efficiently and effectively mitigate health risks associated with rising temperatures. The availability of cooled space, whether public or private, has been shown to greatly reduce health risks associated with extreme heat. However, a lack of fine-scale knowledge of which households have access to this infrastructure results in an incomplete understanding of the health risks associated with heat. This knowledge gap could result in the misallocation of resources intended to mitigate negative health impacts associated with heat exposure. Additionally, when discussing accessibility to public cooled space there are underlying questions of mobility and mode choice. In addition to captive riders, a growing emphasis on walking, biking and public transit will likely expose additional choice riders to extreme temperatures and compound existing vulnerabilities to heat. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil Engineering 2016

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Change in today‟s business situation may be seen as unavoidable; however, the absence of standard change interventions within an organisation can cause an impact on the functioning of the business and its survival in the long run. Thus, it is ideal for the South African petrochemical industry to find a suitable intervention for change models that will assist them in navigating its effectiveness. This study has used an investigative approach to understand the effectiveness of interventions of change management in petrochemical organisations in the Western Cape, South Africa. A qualitative case study was used in this research, as data was collected directly from interviews by fieldworkers, while written documents were also consulted. It was found that a number of factors influence effective change management in the SA petrochemical industry. Some of the factors that were elicited for this study include: organisational structure and size and administrative methods; the introduction of new technology; processing and communication; changes in employee demographics; government regulations; and economic competition. Furthermore, the study also provides a framework that can be used to guide and assess effective changes within the SA petrochemical industry.

Schools are essentially concerned with people and the development of knowledge and skills. Schools require leadership in order to achieve their goals. Furthermore, schools are tasked with being relevant in their contemporary societal contexts as well as for society in the future. Regarding the type of leadership in schools, Sergiovanni contends that schools need special leadership because they are special places, because they are lifeworld intensive and because “school professionals don’t react warmly to the kind of hierarchically based command leadership or hero leadership that characterizes other kinds of institutions” (2000:165 - 166). Against the backdrop of this commonly held belief, this research project undertook to investigate a school where the new curriculum had been successfully implemented in a context where there was absent leadership. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon, the school type and context, the human interventions and the school culture were considered. The qualitative approach was selected for this research with a grounded case study as the relevant research design. Epistemologically, this research is located in the constructionist paradigm and an interpretivist theoretical perspective will be employed in the research project. Interpretivist philosophies promote the notion that human action can be distinguished from physical objects by virtue of the fact that they are inherently meaningful. The data were collected by means of some semi structured interviews and a dyad interview. Both convergent and divergent questions were posed to the participants in the data collection strategies. The process of data analysis was approached from a grounded theory perspective. This approach requires that a theory should emerge from the data rather than the data proving or disproving an existing theory. Six themes were identified through the process of data analysis. These themes were then processed into five findings which collectively developed and compiled a substantive theory. The findings of this study revealed that schools require leadership. Leadership should be considered in its broadest sense with all educators possessing the potential to lead. In addition, the appropriate use of power and authority were identified as essential ingredients for successful leadership. School culture was also found to be an essential component of successful schools. Not only is school culture essential for the successful daily functioning of schools, but an appropriate school culture is imperative for dealing with change and the successful implementation of new policies, curriculum and school reform initiatives. A collaborative school culture was identified as the type of school culture that is appropriate and that would support and facilitate the management of change. In light of the findings, implications for policy and practice are presented and suggestions for future research are made. Lastly, the limitations of the study are noted and the conclusions of the study discussed. It is hoped that this study will assist policy makers and school principals to seriously consider their leadership style in terms of sharing power and authority and in the creation of school culture that are empowering and positive, one that considers individual potential as well as group cohesiveness. / Prof. B. Smit

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This study has been conducted before when the company in question underwent a restructuring (name change) but did not threaten the loss of jobs. This study is being conducted again because another restructuring has taken place over the period of 2011/2012 and involved the retrenchment of employees nationally. The company represented in the study is one of the largest cleaning companies in South Africa and has a very broad and influential client base. They are in high demand in the cleaning industry and have positively impacted many companies and organisations over their many years of existence. Because of the magnitude of the workplace restructuring this time around, more people have been affected (both those who were retrenched as well as those who were left behind). According to Vermeulen, 2002, “Downsizing” is a term that emerged in managerial circles and was used in the business press, but no precise theoretical formulation underpins any clear definition of the term. When hearing the term downsizing, one often will use this together with the term “laying-off” interchangeably. However, some authors will focus on different elements of downsizing for example in reporting on a comprehensive study of downsizing in American industry, Cameron, Freeman and Mishra (1993) limited the term's use to a programme which is an intentional process. This process involves an overall reduction in personnel with a view to improving the efficiency of the organisation. The process wittingly or unwittingly affects work processes at the organisation concerned. According to Hellgren, et al (2005), the attitudinal constructs investigated in this study were job satisfaction, job involvement, organisational commitment, and turnover intention. Job satisfaction represents a general affective response to the overall job situation. Following Locke (1976, p. 1300), we define job satisfaction as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience”. ...employees who survived downsizing were likely to experience high levels of stress and decreased levels of organizational commitment and motivation. These individuals are often known as the "victims" of downsizing due to research that documents the devastation of job loss, focusing on negative consequences in terms of psychological and physical well-being (Bennett, Martin, Bies, & Brockner, 1995; Cappeili, 1992; Fallick, 1996; Leana & Feldman, 1992). This study inevitably aimed to prove that workplace restructuring very well has an effect or impact on an employee’s job satisfaction, whether these effects were positive or negative. The findings of the study highlighted significant positive correlations between the two variables and highlights strong relationships between employees’ career advancement opportunities and job satisfaction; trust and job satisfaction, communication and job satisfaction, as well as employee commitment and loyalty and job satisfaction whereas trust (2) or employee morale seem to have no significant relationship with job satisfaction.

This dissertation combines three separate studies that measure coastal change using airborne laser data. The initial study develops a method for measuring subaerial and subaqueous volume change incrementally alongshore, and compares those measurements to shoreline change in order to quantify their relationship in Palm Beach County, Florida. A poor correlation (R2 = 0.39) was found between shoreline and volume change before the hurricane season in the northern section of Palm Beach County because of beach nourishment and inlet dynamics. However, a relatively high R2 value of 0.78 in the southern section of Palm Beach County was found due to little disturbance from tidal inlets and coastal engineering projects. The shoreline and volume change caused by the 2004 hurricane season was poorly correlated with R2 values of 0.02 and 0.42 for the north and south sections, respectively. The second study uses airborne laser data to investigate if there is a significant relationship between shoreline migration before and after Hurricane Ivan near Panama City, Florida. In addition, the relationship between shoreline change and subaerial volume was quantified and a new method for quantifying subaqueous sediment change was developed. No significant spatial relationship was found between shoreline migration before and after the hurricane. Utilization of a single coefficient to represent all relationships between shoreline and subaerial volume change was found to be problematic due to the spatial variability in the linear relationship. Differences in bathymetric data show only a small portion of sediment was transported beyond the active zone and most sediment remained within the active zone despite the occurrence of a hurricane. The third study uses airborne laser bathymetry to measure the offshore limit of change, and compares that location with calculated depth of closures and subaqueous geomorphology. There appears to be strong geologic control of the depth of closure in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. North of Hillsboro Inlet, hydrodynamics control the geomorphology which in turn indicates the location of the depth of closure.

The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent foundation phase teachers adapt Curriculum 2005. The study was guided by two research questions: (1) What are the critical components of Curriculum 2005 (foundation phase)? (2) What are the adaptations that teachers have made in teaching this curriculum? The specific focus of this study is foundation phase teachers’ initial implementation of the revised version of Curriculum 2005, the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS). An Innovation Configuration Checklist was developed identifying the critical components of the RNCS and the variations of each. Using the checklist, foundation phase teachers were surveyed to establish the adaptations being made during implementation. The findings of this study indicate that there is less active learning and more teacher directed activity than is required by the RNCS. Assessment appears to be a problem area. Most teachers understand what is expected of them in terms of assessment and attempt to put it into practice. Assessment has however, proved to be burdensome and time consuming. Teachers’ planning demonstrates a sound understanding of the procedures to be followed. Teachers do however, need support in terms of deeper pedagogical content knowledge. Although teachers comply with the technical aspects of curriculum development they neglect the emancipatory aspects of the RNCS. The situation in foundation phase classrooms might be described as one where much change is taking place, but little transformation is happening at present. Teachers are nevertheless, reflecting on how to improve their teaching and continue to explore ways to adapt and improve the RNCS.

This study examined the effectiveness of information about, and/or practice with, visualization in increasing: self-understanding, belief in one's ability to effect self change, positive themes in ongoing imagery, and internality of locus of control. A sample of 19 women and 11 men, ranging in age from 18 to 50 years, were divided into four groups which each received different amounts of information about, or practice with, visualization. All groups were tested before and after treatment on four measures, and the three experimental groups also completed a posttest-only measure. The measures used were the Personal Response Questionnaire (developed by the author), subscales from the Imaginal Processes Inventory, the Spheres of Control test, the Questionnaire on Imagery Control, and the Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery. Results indicated that members of the experimental groups believed that visualization could contribute significantly to self-understanding, felt differently about themselves as a result of learning about visualization, felt it would be useful for personal development, and felt they would use it in their own future self-development. Vividness of imagery increased from pretest to posttest for those groups with most information about, and practice with, visualization. Increased internality on the sociopolitical control subscale of the Spheres of Control test was also found for all groups on the posttest. None of the other predicted effects were found to have occurred at a significant level. The failure to achieve the anticipated results was attributed partially to the short period of training and practice allocated, to the small number of subjects, and also to the lack of appropriate and sufficiently sensitive assessment measures. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

By 1994 education in South Africa had collapsed (TRC, 1998; CCOLT, 1996). In response, South Africa's first non-racial government initiated a wide ranging School Reform (SR) program. However, almost a decade after the reforms commenced there have been very few substantial changes in the majority of South African schools: The Education Rights Project (2003a) and the South African Human Rights Commission argue that SR is failing the majority of South Africans. This thesis explores an alternative, School-Community Development (SCD), that integrates school reforms with programs that draw members of the school's neighbouring community (the "school-community") into the process of changing schools. I argue that SR is an inadequate response to the problems that confront schools. Using the case study method I show that SR is enhanced when integrated with locally developed social, cultural, economic, and school development programs. The thesis makes two contributions to the literature. First, the thesis challenges the "simplistic solutions to educational problems" (Anyon, 1997, p. 12) that constitute SR. Second, the thesis presents a materially grounded critique of SR in South Africa that evokes the "multiple voices" (Sayed, 2002, p. 32) from the four case study schools. Accordingly, our understanding of "making change work at the micro level", a neglected area of South African educational research (Sayed and Jansen, 2001, p. 7), is enhanced. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Organizational development and change (ODC) is a broad field because change occurs in all organizations, occurs at multiple organizational levels, consists of numerous interventions, and can impact multiple outcomes. Many ODC efforts attempt to examine the effectiveness of their initiatives, yet fail to account for the quality, or rigor of their methods. The purpose of this paper is to examine how methodological rigor and intervention implementation quality impact ODC outcomes. The results indicate that overall methodological rigor is not a significant predictor of organizational change outcomes; however, several individual rigor criteria exhibit predictive power. Implementation quality is a significant predictor of organizational outcomes, but in a negative direction.

Increasingly erratic flow in the upper reaches of the Mara River, has directed attention to land use change as the major cause of this problem. The semi-distributed hydrological model SWAT and Landsat imagery were utilized in order to 1) map existing land use practices, 2) determine the impacts of land use change on water flux; and 3) determine the impacts of climate change scenarios on the water flux of the upper Mara River. This study found that land use change scenarios resulted in more erratic discharge while climate change scenarios had a more predictable impact on the discharge and water balance components. The model results showed the flow was more sensitive to the rainfall changes than land use changes but land use changes reduce dry season flows which is a major problem in the basin. Deforestation increased the peak flows which translated to increased sediment loading in the Mara River.