The study was a randomized clinical tria! involving two cohorts (12 and 18 months) of nutritionally at risk Jndonesian children and three types of supplementary feeding: high energy and micronutrients; skimmed milk and micronutrients; and skimmed milk. The hypothesis of the study was that high energy and micronutrient supplements given early to children could delay on physical growing and mental development. The results showed that a combined energy and micronutrient supplement given for ayear to the 12-month-old children had wide range beneficia! effects. The same supplement given to the 18-month-old had only a modest effect. This suggests that if such an intervention is to he effective it needs to begin early in life. / El estudio fue un ensayo clínico aleatorio en el que participaron dos cohortes de niños (12 y 18 meses) indonesios en riesgo nutricional; hubo tres suplementos dietéticos: energía alta y micronutrientes; leche descremada y micronutrientes; y leche descremada. Se puso a prueba la hipótesis de que un suplemento de energía y micronutrientes administrado tempranamente, previene el retardo en el crecimiento físico y el desarrollo mental. Se obtuvo que el efecto de la suplementación con energía y micronutrientes en los bebés de 12 meses fue superior al efecto producido por la suplementación con micronutrientes y leche descremada. Los efectos en el grupo que comenzó a los 18 meses fueron menores. Hubo una interacción entre los efectos. Los resultados sugieren que este tipo de intervención en niños desnutridos debe iniciarse durante el primer año de vida.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / A review of the literature has shown that there is a lack of mental health information on which to base planning of mental health services and decisions concerning programme development for mental health services. Several studies have indicated that the use of an evidence-based health information system (HIS) reduces inappropriate clinical practices and promotes the quality of health care services. This study was aimed at developing a framework for a district-based mental health information management system, utilising the experiences of health care providers and caregivers about a district mental health information system (DMHIS). Activity Theory was used as the philosophical foundation of the information system for the study. A qualitative approach was employed using semi-structured individual interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), systematic review and document analysis. The intervention research design and development model of Rothman and Thomas (1994) was used to guide the study, which was conducted in the Cape Town Metropole area of the Western Cape. A purposive, convenient sampling method was employed to select study participants. Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the University of the Western Cape, and permission to use the health facilities from the Department of Health. The data collection process involved 62 individual interview participants, from mental health nurses to district health managers, health information clerks, and patient caregivers/families and persons with stable mental conditions. Thirteen caregivers took part in the FGDs. Document review was conducted at three community mental health centres. The data were analysed manually using content analysis. Core findings of the interviews were lack of standardized information collection tools and contents for mental health, information infrastructure, capacity building, and resources. Information processing in terms of collection, compiling, analysing, feedback, access and sharing information were the major problems. Results from document analysis identified inconsistencies and inaccuracies of information recording and processing, which in turn affected the quality of information for decision making. Results from the systematic review identified five functional elements: organizational structure; information infrastructure; capacity building; inputs, process, output and feedback; and community and stakeholders’ participation in the design and implementation of a mental health information system (MHIS). The study has contributed a framework for a DMHIS based on the findings of the empirical and systematic review. It is recommended that there is a need to establish a HIS committee at district health facility level for effective implementation of the framework and quality information processing. There is a need to ensure that staffs have adequate knowledge and skills required for effective implementation of an information system. It is recommended that higher education institutions include a course on HISs in their curriculum. It is suggested that the South African Mental Health Policy be reviewed to include an MHIS and ensure involvement of the community and stakeholders in this system as well as adequate budget allocation.

This research seeks to adopt a post-foundationalist practical theology paradigm, as discussed by J C Müller, in order to create a bridge between the three concepts of the pastoral care perspective, the narrative perspective based on social-constructionism and post-foundationalism. Furthermore, I made use of Müller’s seven movements of methodology which laid a strong foundation to base my research on regarding married migrant women living within Korean multicultural families. Korean society which is a homogeneous culture is currently facing many challenges as a result of becoming more and more multicultural. These multicultural issues are becoming major social and political issues in South Korea. The main reason that South Korean society has become more multicultural is because of intercultural marriages which have also resulted in an increase in multicultural families. These migrant women are faced with many kinds of discrimination and prejudice as a result of their different appearance, culture and language. Furthermore, Korean culture often deprives women of having any position above men especially once they are married. After being married a woman should become invisible, voiceless, and nameless in order to become culturally acceptable. This often results in a migrant woman feeling stressed, fearful, isolated and alone which often results in the development of a low self-esteem, a lack of self-confidence and a low self-image. In my research, I sought to listen to and identify the stories of migrant women, namely foreign women who have married Korean men with a focus on the impact on their identities within a Korean multicultural family through a narrative perspective in order to have a positive growth and outcome from their intercultural differences within South Korea. I decided to view my co-researchers not as co-researchers but as companions on a journey which we could undertake together. The use of the metaphors ‘journey’ and ‘companions’ seemed to give my companions the freedom to speak more openly and placed us on an equal level. Furthermore, I not only discovered my companions’ identities through their own stories, but also developed my companions’ true identities/multi-identities through the broader, inter-relational stories of other people within multicultural communities through a six step process of Listening to the voice, Gaining voice, Giving voice, Finding alternative voice, Retelling voice and Creating future voice. I made use of the narrative approach in order to listen to my companions so that a unity would exist between their past, present and future stories. As I listened to the stories of my companions from a narrative perspective new possibilities were opened which lead to alternative and future stories. Furthermore, my companions were given the opportunity to find themselves and make new identities on the real journey of life. Through the process of my research I also developed a multicultural identity model specifically for married migrant women in South Korea, but ultimately the purpose of my research was not to show or develop a multicultural identity model regarding migrant women, but was more to help these migrant women find their identities themselves and in this become self-empowered to become contributors to Korean society. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Many developing countries depend on the World Bank for development assistance, which the Bank often provides with policy reform conditions. Resistance to World Bank’s conditionality caused the Bank to posit “ownership” as a country’s real assent to its development policies. The combination of ownership and conditionality invalidates the neocolonial, false-paradigm and dualism theses in explaining the international dependence development model. This study explains this model by investigating how the relationship between conditionality and ownership in the context of this model impacts forest management in Cameroon. Integrating theoretical and methodological insights mainly from political science, economics, geosciences, and sociology, the study finds that in this model, conditionality and ownership have a hybrid relationship that fosters and hinders effective forest management in Cameroon. This finding positions policy hybridity within this model. It proposes a nouvelle way to understand international development policies’ interactions, and the effects of the interactions on natural resource management.

Cette thèse de doctorat cherche à savoir s’il existe un modèle de développement alternatif inspiré par la Chine en Afrique, et dans l’affirmative, comment et pourquoi il est diffusé dans certains pays et moins dans d’autres. Cette recherche contribue à combler une lacune dans la littérature sur l’effet des engagements de la Chine en Afrique en matière de modèle de développement. Mon argument principal qu’un tel modèle a plus de chances d’émerger dans un État autoritaire disposant de la marge de manœuvre permettant de mettre un accent particulier sur les infrastructures et l’industrialisation. Je suppose que les pays avec un État développemental, des héritages marxistes et une influence coloniale relativement faible ont tendance à adopter davantage le modèle de développement alternatif, alors que les États neoliberaux sur lesquels l’ancienne puissance coloniale a toujours la mainmise est moins à même de prendre le modèle. J'élucide mes hypothèses à travers une comparaison entre l’Éthiopie et le Sénégal. L’Éthiopie est un pays qui produit ce modèle de développement de manière volontaire et globale, tandis que le Sénégal l’adopte de manière modérée, voire minimale. Les hypothèses sont finalement testées avec plusieurs autres cas de pays africains. Cette recherche est principalement basée sur la méthode comparative et le traçage des processus. Le premier chapitre comporte mon cadre théorique et ma méthodologie. Je présente les caractéristiques de ce modèle de développement alternatif sur la base de mes observations et la revue de littérature dans le deuxième chapitre. J'expose deux études de cas principales au chapitre trois, suivi de mes explications de leurs situations différentes au chapitre quatre. Le chapitre cinque propose brièvement plusieurs autres études de cas tests et finalement synthétise les résultats de mes recherches, tout en rappelant le contexte international et les contraintes de la diffusion du modèle en question. / This Ph.D. dissertation seeks to verify if an alternative development model inspired by China is emerging in Africa and if so, how and why it is diffused in some countries. This dissertation helps to fill a gap in the literature on the effect that China’s engagement in Africa has had regarding development model. I argue that countries with a developmental state, Marxist legacies and relatively weak colonial heritages tend to embrace more the alternative development model because the state, often authoritarian, is able to devise autonomous development, with special emphasis on infrastructure and industrialization. I theorize that the neoliberal state still under control of the former colonial master someway is less apt to take the model. I assess my arguments on the intrinsic and external conditions facilitating the diffusion of the alternative development model through a comparison of Ethiopia and Senegal. Ethiopia is a country on the path of this development model in a voluntary and comprehensive way while Senegal adopts it in a moderate, if not minimal way. Later, the hypotheses are tested with more cases of African countries. This research is mainly based on the comparative method and process-tracing. The first chapter is my theoretical framework and methodology. I present the alternative development model based on my observations and literature review in the second chapter. I expose two main case studies in chapter 3, followed by my explanation of the different situations of the two cases in chapter 4. In chapter 5, I make several more cases studies briefly with a regional vision and finally synthesize my research findings.

This document's objective is to propose a set of methods for improvement of the organization and methodology of software testing and subsequent application of those in a real environment of the Siemens CZ company. The first part discusses the development models in terms of testing segment and the following section focuses specifically on the methodology of agile testing and development as a whole, including applicable metrics for evaluating various aspects of software exiting the testing phase. The third major section lets the reader get acquainted with the Siemens organization and methods of their software testing and by analyzing real-world project it assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the particular testing process and its management. The practical part of this thesis lies in the design and implementation of a plug-in for the JIRA environment. This tool is able to identify and quantify the long term status of the project phases of agile development and testing in a clear and interactive way, while the outputs are represented by clearly defined problems that can be more easily treated, as one can argue further progress.

La prise en charge du diabète est un défi important et a un impact sur la vie des patients. Il existe plusieurs médicaments et les études cliniques sont publiées à une vitesse ahurissante. Les patients diabétiques également atteints de maladie cardiovasculaire comme l’insuffisance cardiaque ou l’athérosclérose sont une population très vulnérable. Certains médicaments peuvent réduire les complications de ces pathologies, alors que d’autres peuvent aggraver le fardeau de la maladie. Le traitement du diabète doit donc être adapté pour ces patients. Une communauté de pratique, composée de médecins, d’infirmières et de pharmaciens qui travaillent quotidiennement à la gestion du diabète, voudrait créer et valider des outils de formation. Nous vous proposons notre démarche de recherche qui est centrée sur un modèle de recherche-développement avec un rajout de la méthode de Delphi. Dans cette approche, nous allons faire plusieurs consultations pour déterminer les objectifs pédagogiques et la vision de l’outil de formation. Par la suite, nous allons construire les outils de formation et vignettes cliniques. Après, nous allons valider les outils de formation avec la méthode Delphi sur un groupe de clinicien de médecines, infirmiers, et pharmaciens. Le projet de recherche a permis d’élaborer des objectifs pédagogiques et la création d’un outil de formation. Le Delphi a permis de valider l’outil de formation avec l’indice alpha de Cronbach de 0,707 avec un intervalle de confiance à 95 % [0,256; 0,940] avec une valeur P de 0,004. Ce qui représente une valeur de consensus acceptable et significative. / The management of diabetes is a major challenge and has an impact on the lives of patients. There are several drugs and clinical studies that are published at an astonishing speed. Diabetic patients also suffering from cardiovascular disease such as heart failure or atherosclerosis are a very vulnerable group of people. Some drugs can reduce the complications of these conditions, while others can increase the disease burden. The treatment of diabetes must therefore be adapted for these patients. A community of practice, made up of doctors, nurses and pharmacists who work daily to manage diabetes, would like to create, and validate a diabetes training tool. We propose the following research approach which is centered on a research-development model with an addition of the Delphi method. In this approach, we will make several consultations to determine the educational objectives and the outline of the training tool. Thereafter, we will build the training tools and clinical vignettes. Afterwards, we will validate the training tools with the Delphi method on a group of medical clinicians, nurses, and pharmacists. The research project led to the development of educational objectives and the creation of a training tool. The Delphi validated the training tool with the Cronbach's alpha index of 0.707 with a 95% confidence interval [0.256; 0.940] with a P value of 0.004. This represents an acceptable and significant consensus value.

The goal of this research was to determine how to productively provide in the unique needs of academically gifted learners in the intermediate phase in the South African education system. The study comprised an empirical, qualitative investigation to this end. Individual interviews with primary school principals and focus groups with primary school teachers, academically gifted learners in the intermediate phase and parents served to determine what the educational needs of academically gifted children are. Secondly, a mini-education system for academically gifted learners was planned and a programme for academically gifted learners was developed within this mini-education system. The information for the development of the programme was gathered from the interviews and focus groups. The paradigm that forms the foundation of this research includes elements of a Christian world view and is complemented by elements of interpretivism, constructivism, pragmatism and post-modernism. The literature study on academically gifted learners revealed that these learners possess their own unique characteristics. Although academically gifted, these learners experience many cognitive, social and affective problems in the current education system. The structure of the education system, educational productivity and self-managed and interactive learning as teaching strategy were highlighted as internal determinants of an educative nature that influence academically gifted learners. The current condition of gifted education in South Africa and on an international level form the internal determinants of historical nature. If education to gifted learners, and specifically academically gifted learners, in South Africa is compared to other countries, it is clear that there are still many gaps in the education system. The main external determinants that influence educational provision to academically gifted learners include the demography of academically gifted learners, the economic environment of academically gifted learners, science and technology, the role of politics in the educational provision to academically gifted learners and the co-workers and competitors in the educational provision to academically gifted learners. The number of learners is increasing and that means that the need for educational provision to academically gifted learners is increasing. A distance-based programme is ideal, as academically gifted learners are scattered across our country. The main goal of this study was to plan a mini-education system that will provide in the unique needs of academically gifted learners in the intermediate phase in an educationally productive way in South Africa. The framework for the strategic planning of a mini-education system was used as research method. An achievable, sustainable and affordable distance-based educational programme for academically gifted learners was planned and a grade 4 pilot module developed within this mini-education system. The findings of this study suggest that the framework for the strategic planning of a mini-education system can be successfully used in planning a system that can effectively provide in the needs of academically gifted learners in the intermediate phase. From the interviews and focus group it was also clear that there is a need for educational programmes intended for academically gifted learners and that these programmes can be successfully implemented at schools. / MEd (Comparative Education), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

<p>Att utveckla en publik webbtjänst kan tyckas lätt, men att få denna till en framgångsrik och lönsam applikation är en annan sak. Konkurrensen är idag stenhård och en bra applikation är långt ifrån det enda man behöver för att lyckas.</p><p>Studiens syfte var att kartlägga och öka förståelsen kring publik webbtjänstutveckling, ett område som tidigare inte fått så stor uppmärksamhet i den akademiska världen. Studien bygger på ett empiriskt material insamlat genom intervjuer med några av Sveriges främsta IT-entreprenörer inom området. Studien inkluderade även ett praktiskt moment där utveckling av inbjudningssajten InviClub.se genomförts för att praktiskt testa teorierna.</p><p>Vår studie visade på att traditionella systemutvecklingsmetoder är svåra att tillämpa på detta område. En faktor som visade sig vara av yttersta vikt för lyckade projekt var snabbhet, något som de traditionella modellerna RUP och Vattenfallsmodellen inte prioriterar. Därför tog utvecklandet av MISSILE (Marknadsföring, Interaktion, Snabbhet, Snack, Integration, Lock-In samt Enkelhet) vid. Denna modell är en lättviktsmodell som är baserad på både teoretisk och praktisk grund, och är speciellt anpassad för webbutveckling inom publika webbtjänster. Modellen tar vara på och behandlar de nyckelfaktorer som kommit fram under studiens gång, genom att utkast till en tidigare egenutvecklad teoretisk modell, MALIN (Marknadsföring, Användbarhet, Lock-In) jämfördes med vad experter inom området publika webbtjänster tyckte var framgångsfaktorer för att utveckla publika webbtjänster.</p><p>Vi anser att uppsatsen har stort värde då det inte finns tidigare forskning inom området publika webbtjänster. Vi anser även att det finns ett stort praktiskt värde av MISSILE-modellen, då modellen kan vägleda IT-entreprenörer att utveckla nya publika webbtjänstprojekt mer framgångsrikt och snabbare än tidigare.</p>

Att utveckla en publik webbtjänst kan tyckas lätt, men att få denna till en framgångsrik och lönsam applikation är en annan sak. Konkurrensen är idag stenhård och en bra applikation är långt ifrån det enda man behöver för att lyckas. Studiens syfte var att kartlägga och öka förståelsen kring publik webbtjänstutveckling, ett område som tidigare inte fått så stor uppmärksamhet i den akademiska världen. Studien bygger på ett empiriskt material insamlat genom intervjuer med några av Sveriges främsta IT-entreprenörer inom området. Studien inkluderade även ett praktiskt moment där utveckling av inbjudningssajten InviClub.se genomförts för att praktiskt testa teorierna. Vår studie visade på att traditionella systemutvecklingsmetoder är svåra att tillämpa på detta område. En faktor som visade sig vara av yttersta vikt för lyckade projekt var snabbhet, något som de traditionella modellerna RUP och Vattenfallsmodellen inte prioriterar. Därför tog utvecklandet av MISSILE (Marknadsföring, Interaktion, Snabbhet, Snack, Integration, Lock-In samt Enkelhet) vid. Denna modell är en lättviktsmodell som är baserad på både teoretisk och praktisk grund, och är speciellt anpassad för webbutveckling inom publika webbtjänster. Modellen tar vara på och behandlar de nyckelfaktorer som kommit fram under studiens gång, genom att utkast till en tidigare egenutvecklad teoretisk modell, MALIN (Marknadsföring, Användbarhet, Lock-In) jämfördes med vad experter inom området publika webbtjänster tyckte var framgångsfaktorer för att utveckla publika webbtjänster. Vi anser att uppsatsen har stort värde då det inte finns tidigare forskning inom området publika webbtjänster. Vi anser även att det finns ett stort praktiskt värde av MISSILE-modellen, då modellen kan vägleda IT-entreprenörer att utveckla nya publika webbtjänstprojekt mer framgångsrikt och snabbare än tidigare.