<p>&nbsp / This study supports the need for information literacy training for first year or new incoming Community and Health Science (CHS) students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and describes the use of a collaborative framework for integrating information literacy into the undergraduate studentsʹ curriculum and for assessing the results. The Collaborative Information Literacy Model (CILM) provided the guidelines for a more structured and fuller collaboration between the librarian and the lecturer responsible for the first year Physiotherapy students. The collaborative partnership employed strategies to teach information literacy competencies which were significantly more satisfactory with the studentsʹ abilities to successfully complete a research term paper. The process of integration began with developing learning outcomes, an information literacy program, exercises and an assessment instrument for evaluating student performance. Also emphasized is the on-going exchange of expertise between the librarian and the lecturer to enhance library-related components in the design of the program.</p>

This study focuses on the sense of self of adolescents when they are reintegrated into schools after dropping out. Dropout is a global phenomenon and yet very little research has been undertaken regarding reintegration and especially the successful reintegration of adolescents and how this reintegration affects their sense of self. The goal of the study was to determine how reintegrated adolescents experience their reintegration into schools, and how this has affected them in terms of how they see themselves. The research hoped to discover what personal difficulties the adolescents had overcome in their return to school as well as the motivating factors that would keep the reintegrated adolescents in school. The research was conducted from a phenomenological Gestalt, field approach and followed a qualitative research design within an interpretivist framework. This research design allows the participants to give meaning to their own experiences. A total of six adolescent boys between the ages of 13 and 17 were purposefully selected from the informal settlement of Groenheuwel, Paarl in the Western Cape. Five of the six adolescents had been reintegrated into schools in 2011 and 2012 by the Khula Development Group. One adolescent participant was a peer educator and although he had never dropped out, he contributed meaningful data on how reintegrated adolescents are experienced as seen from his role as a peer educator. Other participants in the research included the Headmaster of Groenheuwel Primary School and the President and Project leader of the Khula Development Group. The qualitative data were collected in the form of individual open-ended interviews with the adolescents, project leader and headmaster. The researcher’s objective was to understand and interpret the meanings the participants gave to their own experiences, which was further done through observation, member checking, and a reflective group discussion including the application of an art technique. The interviews were recorded on DVD. The reflective group discussion was held with the adolescent participants two weeks after the individual interviews. The group discussion included an art technique, where the adolescents were asked to create their experiences of their return to school in clay. This session was also recorded on DVD. Recordings were transcribed by the researcher to ascertain certain emerging themes and categories. Thematic data analysis was used to transform the transcribed data into meaningful information. The principles and strategies for enhancing the trustworthiness of the data were done through crystallisation. The findings of the study revealed the unrealistic expectations with which the adolescents view their sense of self. / Thesis (MA (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

This study focuses on the sense of self of adolescents when they are reintegrated into schools after dropping out. Dropout is a global phenomenon and yet very little research has been undertaken regarding reintegration and especially the successful reintegration of adolescents and how this reintegration affects their sense of self. The goal of the study was to determine how reintegrated adolescents experience their reintegration into schools, and how this has affected them in terms of how they see themselves. The research hoped to discover what personal difficulties the adolescents had overcome in their return to school as well as the motivating factors that would keep the reintegrated adolescents in school. The research was conducted from a phenomenological Gestalt, field approach and followed a qualitative research design within an interpretivist framework. This research design allows the participants to give meaning to their own experiences. A total of six adolescent boys between the ages of 13 and 17 were purposefully selected from the informal settlement of Groenheuwel, Paarl in the Western Cape. Five of the six adolescents had been reintegrated into schools in 2011 and 2012 by the Khula Development Group. One adolescent participant was a peer educator and although he had never dropped out, he contributed meaningful data on how reintegrated adolescents are experienced as seen from his role as a peer educator. Other participants in the research included the Headmaster of Groenheuwel Primary School and the President and Project leader of the Khula Development Group. The qualitative data were collected in the form of individual open-ended interviews with the adolescents, project leader and headmaster. The researcher’s objective was to understand and interpret the meanings the participants gave to their own experiences, which was further done through observation, member checking, and a reflective group discussion including the application of an art technique. The interviews were recorded on DVD. The reflective group discussion was held with the adolescent participants two weeks after the individual interviews. The group discussion included an art technique, where the adolescents were asked to create their experiences of their return to school in clay. This session was also recorded on DVD. Recordings were transcribed by the researcher to ascertain certain emerging themes and categories. Thematic data analysis was used to transform the transcribed data into meaningful information. The principles and strategies for enhancing the trustworthiness of the data were done through crystallisation. The findings of the study revealed the unrealistic expectations with which the adolescents view their sense of self. / Thesis (MA (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

As building transcribed speech corpora for under–resourced languages plays a pivotal role in developing automatic speech recognition (ASR) technologies for such languages, a key step in developing these technologies is the effective collection of ASR data, consisting of transcribed audio and associated meta data. The problem is that no suitable tool currently exists for effectively collecting ASR data for such languages. The specific context and requirements for effectively collecting ASR data for underresourced languages, render all currently known solutions unsuitable for such a task. Such requirements include portability, Internet independence and an open–source code–base. This work documents the development of such a tool, called Woefzela, from the determination of the requirements necessary for effective data collection in this context, to the verification and validation of its functionality. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of using smartphones without any Internet connectivity for ASR data collection for under–resourced languages. It introduces a semireal– time quality control philosophy which increases the amount of usable ASR data collected from speakers. Woefzela was developed for the Android Operating System, and is freely available for use on Android smartphones, with its source code also being made available. A total of more than 790 hours of ASR data for the eleven official languages of South Africa have been successfully collected with Woefzela. As part of this study a benchmark for the performance of a new National Centre for Human Language Technology (NCHLT) English corpus was established. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Identifying and hiring the highest performers is essential for organizations to remain competitive. Research has provided effective guidelines for this but important aspects of these evidence-based processes have yet to gain acceptance among practitioners. The general aim of this thesis was to help narrowing the gap between research and practice concerning personnel selection decisions. The first study compared the validity estimates of general mental ability (GMA) and the five factor model of personality traits as predictors of job performance, finding that, when the recently developed indirect correction for range restriction was applied, GMA was an even stronger predictor of job performance than previously found, while the predictive validity of the personality traits remained at similar levels. The approach used for data collection and combination is crucial to forming an overall assessment of applicants for selection decisions and has a great impact on the validity of the decision. The second study compared the financial outcomes of applying a mechanical or clinical approach to combining predictor scores. The results showed that the mechanical approach can result in a substantial increase in overall utility. The third study examined the potential influences that practitioners’ cognitive decision-making style, accountability for the assessment process, and responsibility for the selection decision had on their hiring approach preferences. The results showed that practitioners scoring high on intuitive decision-making style preferred a clinical hiring approach, while the contextual aspects did not impact practitioners’ preferences. While more research may be needed on practitioner preferences for a particular approach, the overall results of this thesis support and strengthen the predictive validity of GMA and personality traits, and indicate that the mechanical approach to data combination provides increased utility for organizations. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

As building transcribed speech corpora for under–resourced languages plays a pivotal role in developing automatic speech recognition (ASR) technologies for such languages, a key step in developing these technologies is the effective collection of ASR data, consisting of transcribed audio and associated meta data. The problem is that no suitable tool currently exists for effectively collecting ASR data for such languages. The specific context and requirements for effectively collecting ASR data for underresourced languages, render all currently known solutions unsuitable for such a task. Such requirements include portability, Internet independence and an open–source code–base. This work documents the development of such a tool, called Woefzela, from the determination of the requirements necessary for effective data collection in this context, to the verification and validation of its functionality. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of using smartphones without any Internet connectivity for ASR data collection for under–resourced languages. It introduces a semireal– time quality control philosophy which increases the amount of usable ASR data collected from speakers. Woefzela was developed for the Android Operating System, and is freely available for use on Android smartphones, with its source code also being made available. A total of more than 790 hours of ASR data for the eleven official languages of South Africa have been successfully collected with Woefzela. As part of this study a benchmark for the performance of a new National Centre for Human Language Technology (NCHLT) English corpus was established. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

In the light of the twofold mission of Swedish schools, that is to say enabling pupils to develop both subject knowledge and a democratic attitude, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate to what extent adult higher education students from different language and social backgrounds, studying Swedish as a second language, are able to carry out joint writing assignments with the aid of deliberative discourse, and to what extent they thereby also develop a deliberative attitude. The twofold mission of education applies to them too. While there already exists a certain amount of research into deliberative discourse relating to education in schools, the perspective of higher education didactics in this research is still lacking. The present study is to be viewed as a first contribution to this research. The theoretical starting point of this study includes previous research into deliberative discourse by further developing an existing model regarding criteria for deliberative discourse, for example that there is a striving towards agreement, although the consensus may be temporary, that diverging opinions can be set against each other, that tolerance and respect for views other than one’s own are shown, and that traditional outlooks can be questioned. This model is supplemented by designations for a number of disruptive behaviours, such as ridiculing, ignoring, interrupting people and engaging in private conversations. The thus further developed model will thereafter act as a lens in the analysis of students’ discussions when writing joint texts. Another theoretical starting point is the view of education as communication, and of the possibility of communication creating a third place, thereby developing democracy in the here and now-situation. For this study, comprising 18 hours of observation of nine students, that is to say the discussions of three groups in connection with writing texts on different occasions, various ethnographic data collection methods have been employed, for example video recordings, participant observations, field notes and interviews in conjunction with the discussions. The analysis clarifies that the three groups developed their deliberation as the discussions about the joint assignment proceeded, and that most of the nine students furthermore expressed at least an openness towards a deliberative attitude for further discussions in the future. The disruptive behaviours mentioned in connection with the analytical model that could be identified in the discussions, for example interruptions and private conversations, proved not to constitute real disturbances; on the contrary they actually contributed towards the discussions developing, enabling them to continue. On the other hand, other and not previously identified disturbances occurred, for example a focus on grades, the lack of time and lacking language ability, which all in different ways affected the students’ attitudes towards their work. For any future didactical work on deliberative discourse in Swedish as a second language within higher education, these disturbances would need to be highlighted and made aware of for both teachers and students. Keywords: higher education didactics, communication, deliberative discourse, deliberative attitude, John Dewey, Tomas Englund, heterogeneity, ethnographic data collection methods. / Mot bakgrund av den svenska skolans dubbla uppdrag, det vill säga att möjliggöra för elever att utveckla både ämneskunskaper och ett demokratiskt förhållningssätt, är syftet med denna avhandling att undersöka i vad mån vuxna högskolestudenter med olika språklig och kulturell bakgrund under sin utbildning i svenska som andraspråk förmår lösa gemensamma skrivuppgifter med hjälp av deliberativa samtal, och i vad mån de därigenom också utvecklar ett deliberativt förhållningssätt. Utbildningens dubbla uppdrag är giltigt också för dem. Samtidigt som det redan finns viss forskning om deliberativa samtal när det gäller undervisning i skolan, saknas fortfarande ett högskoledidaktiskt perspektiv i denna forskning. Föreliggande studie ska ses som ett första högskoledidaktiskt bidrag till denna forskning. Studien tar sin teoretiska utgångspunkt bland annat i tidigare forskning om deliberativa samtal genom att vidareutveckla en befintlig modell när det gäller kriterier för deliberativa samtal, till exempel att det föreligger en strävan efter att komma överens, även om konsensus är temporär, att skilda uppfattningar kan ställas mot varandra, att tolerans och respekt för andra åsikter än de egna kommer till uttryck, och att traditionella synsätt kan ifrågasättas. Studien omfattar 18 timmars observationer av nio studenters, det vill säga tre gruppers samtal i samband med gemensam textskrivning vid olika tillfällen. Olika etnografiska datainsamlingsmetoder har använts, till exempel videoinspelningar, deltagande observationer, fältanteckningar och intervjuer i anslutning till samtalen. Av analysen framgår att de tre grupperna utvecklade sin deliberation allteftersom samtalen kring den gemensamma uppgiften pågick, och att de flesta av de nio studenterna dessutom gav uttryck för en deliberativ beredskap inför fortsatta samtal. Studenternas fokus på sina betyg påverkade emellertid i viss utsträckning deras deliberation och kan betecknas som störningar i samtalen. Inför ett eventuellt framtida didaktiskt arbete med deliberativa samtal inom svenska som andraspråk på högskolan skulle dessa störningar behöva lyftas fram och medvetandegöras både för lärare och studenter.

Bakgrund: Information om hälsoläget och insatser för att förbättra hälsan i befolkningen kommer från direkta undersökningar t.ex. den nationella folkhälsoenkäten och indirekt från hälso- och sjukvården. Men för insamling, analys och återföring av kunskaper om ohälsan från vården liksom för vidtagna hälsofrämjande och sjukdomsförebyggande åtgärder saknas allmänt tillämpade rutiner. Syfte: Att analysera sjukvårdens roll och metoder när det gäller information om hälsoläget i befolkningen samt stödja utvecklingen av informationssystem för analys av hälsan liksom för uppföljning av hälso- och sjukvårdens folkhälsoinsatser. Metoder: Projektet inleddes med att informationssystemet Minimum Data Set för distriktssköterskeverksamhet (MDS-DSK) implementerades och utvärderades i Örebro läns landsting (I). Därefter analyserades patientjournaler från distriktssköterske-verksamheten genom triangulering för att identifiera och kategorisera använda åtgärder som stöd för utveckling av informationssystem (II). För att svara på frågan om patientregistrets validitet som mått på hälsoläget i en befolkning jämfördes dess data om förekomst av ischemisk hjärtsjukdom i en kommun med uppgifter insamlade från alla offentliga vårdgivare i öppen och sluten vård (III). Slutligen undersöktes genom en folkhälsoenkät i vilken omfattning hälso- och sjukvården ger rådgivning om levnadsvanor och vilka faktorer som påverkar rådgivningen (IV). Resultat: MDS-DSK gör det möjligt att utifrån distriktssköterskeverksamhet göra uppskattningar av förekomst av hälsoproblem i befolkningen (I). Analys av distriktssköterskornas journaler visade ett brett spektrum av väl definierade åtgärder från hälsofrämjande och hälsoskyddande till diagnostiska, terapeutiska, rehabiliterande och palliativa (II). Jämförelsen av individrelaterade data om förekomst av ischemisk hjärtsjukdom och dess riskfaktorer visade att mindre än hälften av de berörda individerna identifierats i patientregistret (III). Det är rökning och fysisk aktivitet, som oftast är tema för sjukvårdspersonalens frågor och rådgivning till patienterna. Sannolikheten att bli tillfrågad minskar med stigande ålder och kvinnor tillfrågas i mindre utsträckning än män. Personer med ohälsa där levnadsvanor anses spela stor roll exempelvis personer med diabetes, fetma och högt blodtryck får rådgivning i högre utsträckning (IV). Slutsatser: Med utvecklade informationssystem finns det goda möjligheter att samla in och analysera data från hälso- och sjukvården för att få ökade kunskaper om befolkningens hälsoläge och individrelaterade, hälsoinriktade åtgärder inom vården. Rutiner för detta saknas i stor utsträckning. / Background: Information about health in the population and interventions to improve public health can be assembled directly through the National Public Health Survey and indirectly from health care. However, there are no generally applied routines for collection, analysis, and reporting of information from health care for public health interventions. In addition there are no routines for collection and feed-back of public health measures in health care. Aims: To analyse the role of health care and its methods of information about population health, and to support the development of health informatics and methods on follow up on public health interventions in health care. Methods: This project started by implementation and assessment of the Minimum Data Set instrument for public health nurses (PHN-MDS) in Örebro County (I). Next, clinical notes from public health nurses were analysed by a triangulation process and core elements identified, to be used in the information model (II). The Hospital Discharge Register is often used as a proxy for disease and disability in the population. In order to test its validity, data were collected for each individual who used an official care provider in a well defined geographical area (III). The final work (IV) uses data from a Public Health Survey in order to assess how and to whom health care professionals present questions and advice on health related life style and what factors influence this. Results: The PHN-MDS makes it possible to assess health problems in the population (I). Analyses of clinical notes from public health nurses showed a broad spectrum of interventions ranging from health promotion to diagnostic, therapeutic, rehabilitation and palliative actions (II). The comparisons of data on ischemic heart disease and its risk factors on an individual level indicated that less than half of the cases were identified in the Hospital Discharge Register (III). Smoking and physical activity are the most common themes for questions and counselling by professionals in health care. The probability to be asked decreases with age, and women are less often given questions and advice. Persons with obvious needs of counselling e.g. with diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure were more likely to receive counselling (IV). Conclusions: Development of health informatics makes it possible to collect and analyse data from health care in order to broaden the knowledge on health in the population, as well as on individual counselling within health care. Unfortunately, routines based on developed health informatics systems are insufficient

Understanding human behaviour is key to understanding the spread of epidemics, habit dispersion, and the efficacy of health interventions. Investigation into the patterns of and drivers for human behaviour has often been facilitated by paper tools such as surveys, journals, and diaries. These tools have drawbacks in that they can be forgotten, go unfilled, and depend on often unreliable human memories. Researcher-driven data collection mechanisms, such as interviews and direct observation, alleviate some of these problems while introducing others, such as bias and observer effects. In response to this, technological means such as special-purpose data collection hardware, wireless sensor networks, and apps for smart devices have been built to collect behavioural data. These technologies further reduce the problems experienced by more traditional behavioural research tools, but often experience problems of reliability, generality, extensibility, and ease of configuration. This document details the construction of a smartphone-based app designed to collect data on human behaviour such that the difficulties of traditional tools are alleviated while still addressing the problems faced by modern supplemental technology. I describe the app's main data collection engine and its construction, architecture, reliability, generality, and extensibility, as well as the programming language developed to configure it and its feature set. To demonstrate the utility of the tool and its configuration language, I describe how they have been used to collect data in the field. Specifically, eleven case studies are presented in which the tool's architecture, flexibility, generality, extensibility, modularity, and ease of configuration have been exploited to facilitate a variety of behavioural monitoring endeavours. I further explain how the engine performs data collection, the major abstractions it employs, how its design and the development techniques used ensure ongoing reliability, and how the engine and its configuration language could be extended in the future to facilitate a greater range of experiments that require behavioural data to be collected. Finally, features and modules of the engine's encompassing system, iEpi, are presented that have not otherwise been documented to give the reader an understanding of where the work fits into the larger data collection and processing endeavour that spawned it.

The development of structural monitoring systems is a critical research area because of the age and sustainment costs associated with many aircraft in use today. Specifically, integrated structural health monitoring (SHM) systems are advantageous because they allow for automated, near real-time assessment of the state of the structure, where the automation improves both the accuracy of the measurements and allows for more frequent system interrogation than possible with traditional nondestructive evaluation methods. Ultrasonic techniques are particularly well-suited for SHM systems because of their potential to detect and track damage well before structural failure using in situ sensors. The research problem considered in this thesis is detection and tracking of fatigue cracks emanating from fastener holes in metallic structural components. The sensing method utilizes attached ultrasonic transducers, and tracking of damage is achieved by employing a state estimation framework that incorporates a well-known empirical model for crack growth and a measurement model relating the ultrasonic response to crack size. The state estimation process is preceded by an automated crack detection algorithm, and can be followed by a prediction of remaining life assuming future usage. The state estimation framework provides a better estimate of crack size than either the ultrasonic measurement model or crack growth model alone. Although the example application is monitoring of fastener holes, the general approach is applicable to a variety of SHM problems.