Adolescence can be described as a period of heightened vulnerability. The transition between childhood and adulthood encompasses challenges associated with the changes experienced in the various domains of development. Risk and opportunity are associated with adolescence and education with regard to dealing with these aspects of adolescent developmental change is critical. Life Skills Education promotes the acquisition of appropriate non-academic skills and behaviour that will empower the adolescent to lead a meaningful life. Life Orientation is South Africa's interpretation of Life Skills Education. This learning area is one of eight within the structure of Curriculum 2005. This study focuses on this specific learning area. The aim of this study was to determine the specific Life Orientation needs of Grade 9 learners and to assess whether the current Life Orientation curriculum meets these needs. The study also set out to establish whether the Life Orientation needs differed according to race and gender. The research consists of a literature and an empirical study. Primary and secondary literature resources, as well as, the Internet, were studied in order to achieve the aims of the study. Information studied was used to design a measuring instrument in the form of a survey. This measuring instrument is statistically valid and reliable. The empirical study was primarily descriptive and quantitative. The sample population comprised of Grade 9 learners from two mainstream English-medium schools in the Vaal Triangle. The findings of this study show that the Life Orientation needs of Grade 9 learners in this sample are largely met by the current curriculum, although a number of deficiencies do exist and recommendations with regard to the relevance of the curriculum have been made. No significant differences between gender and racial groups were found. Furthermore, the Life Orientation needs are practical and future-orientated. These needs reflect the skills required to cope with the socio-economic reality of modern day life in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

Adolescence can be described as a period of heightened vulnerability. The transition between childhood and adulthood encompasses challenges associated with the changes experienced in the various domains of development. Risk and opportunity are associated with adolescence and education with regard to dealing with these aspects of adolescent developmental change is critical. Life Skills Education promotes the acquisition of appropriate non-academic skills and behaviour that will empower the adolescent to lead a meaningful life. Life Orientation is South Africa's interpretation of Life Skills Education. This learning area is one of eight within the structure of Curriculum 2005. This study focuses on this specific learning area. The aim of this study was to determine the specific Life Orientation needs of Grade 9 learners and to assess whether the current Life Orientation curriculum meets these needs. The study also set out to establish whether the Life Orientation needs differed according to race and gender. The research consists of a literature and an empirical study. Primary and secondary literature resources, as well as, the Internet, were studied in order to achieve the aims of the study. Information studied was used to design a measuring instrument in the form of a survey. This measuring instrument is statistically valid and reliable. The empirical study was primarily descriptive and quantitative. The sample population comprised of Grade 9 learners from two mainstream English-medium schools in the Vaal Triangle. The findings of this study show that the Life Orientation needs of Grade 9 learners in this sample are largely met by the current curriculum, although a number of deficiencies do exist and recommendations with regard to the relevance of the curriculum have been made. No significant differences between gender and racial groups were found. Furthermore, the Life Orientation needs are practical and future-orientated. These needs reflect the skills required to cope with the socio-economic reality of modern day life in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

Thesis (M.A. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Work and family constitutes the dominant life roles for most adults in contemporary society. In that, work may be interrupted by family and family may be interrupted by work. Work often generates ambivalent feelings; it can create both positive feelings (e.g. gives energy, enables development) and negative feelings (e.g. lack of freedom). Therefore, most people accept the overall life experiences including the various dimensions or domains that play a role in work-personal life interaction, such as, time spent on one domain, pressures experienced, responsibilities carried, sense of loyalty with work and family, as common and conflicting aspects. Recent developments in boundary theory highlighted the fact that integrating, or rather interaction means bordering between the two domains of work and personal life is permeable. The main objective of this study was to investigate work-personal life interaction (WPLI) experiences of Setswana speaking police officials. This study also concentrated on the existence of work-personal life interaction, aspects involved, consequences thereof and coping mechanisms employed by the police officers. A non-probability purposive voluntary sample (n = 12) was taken of Setswana speaking police officials from the Mafikeng area in the North West Province. Data collection was done through a phenomenological method of semi-structured in-depth interviews. Content analysis was used to analyse, quantify and interpret the research data systematically and objectively. Results from the content analysis based on the experiences were recorded as reported. The results indicated that there was a definite interaction between work and personal life. However, some police officials experienced interaction more than others. Furthermore, they also experienced the interaction to be more negative than positive due to organisational stressors and the management style of the organisation. Consequently the participants experienced high levels of strain and difficulty when managing their time and dealing with the interaction between their work and personal lives. The time and strain difficulties induced a lot of conflict in their homes as well as their social lives. However, there were some police officials who experienced positive aspects in their lives regardless of the difficulties of being a police official. In addition, it was identified that they made use of coping mechanisms that acted as a buffer against negative experiences of WPLI. Recommendations were made for both the organisation and for future practice. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Intelligent tutoring systems and computer-supported collaborative environments have been designed to enhance human learning in various domains. While a number of solid techniques have been developed in the Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) field to foster human learning in fundamental science domains, there is still a lack of evidence about how to support learning in so-called ill-defined domains that are characterized by the absence of formal domain theories, uncertainty about best solution strategies and teaching practices, and learners' answers represented through text and argumentation. This dissertation investigates how to support students' learning in the ill-defined domain of professional ethics through a computer-based learning system. More specifically, it examines how to support students in the analysis of case studies, which is a common pedagogical practice in the ethics domain. This dissertation describes our design considerations and a resulting system called Umka. In Umka learners analyze case studies individually and collaboratively that pose some ethical or professional dilemmas. Umka provides various types of support to learners in the analysis task. In the individual analysis it provides various kinds of feedback to arguments of learners based on predefined system knowledge. In the collaborative analysis Umka fosters learners' interactions and self-reflection through system suggestions and a specifically designed visualization. The system suggestions offer learners the chance to consider certain helpful arguments of their peers, or to interact with certain helpful peers. The visualization highlights similarities and differences between the learners' positions, and illustrates the learners' level of acceptance of each other's positions. This dissertation reports on a series of experiments in which we evaluated the effectiveness of Umka's support features, and suggests several research contributions. Through this work, it is shown that despite the ill-definedness of the ethics domain, and the consequent complications of text processing and domain modelling, it is possible to build effective tutoring systems for supporting students' learning in this domain. Moreover, the techniques developed through this research for the ethics domain can be readily expanded to other ill-defined domains, where argument, qualitative analysis, metacognition and interaction over case studies are key pedagogical practices.

The size of data generated every year follows an exponential growth. The number of data points as well as the dimensions have increased dramatically the past 15 years. The gap between the demand from the industry in data processing and the solutions provided by the machine learning community is increasing. Despite the growth in memory and computational power, advanced statistical processing on the order of gigabytes is beyond any possibility. Most sophisticated Machine Learning algorithms require at least quadratic complexity. With the current computer model architecture, algorithms with higher complexity than linear O(N) or O(N logN) are not considered practical. Dimensionality reduction is a challenging problem in machine learning. Often data represented as multidimensional points happen to have high dimensionality. It turns out that the information they carry can be expressed with much less dimensions. Moreover the reduced dimensions of the data can have better interpretability than the original ones. There is a great variety of dimensionality reduction algorithms under the theory of Manifold Learning. Most of the methods such as Isomap, Local Linear Embedding, Local Tangent Space Alignment, Diffusion Maps etc. have been extensively studied under the framework of Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA). In this dissertation we study two current state of the art dimensionality reduction methods, Maximum Variance Unfolding (MVU) and Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF). These two dimensionality reduction methods do not fit under the umbrella of Kernel PCA. MVU is cast as a Semidefinite Program, a modern convex nonlinear optimization algorithm, that offers more flexibility and power compared to iv KPCA. Although MVU and NMF seem to be two disconnected problems, we show that there is a connection between them. Both are special cases of a general nonlinear factorization algorithm that we developed. Two aspects of the algorithms are of particular interest: computational complexity and interpretability. In other words computational complexity answers the question of how fast we can find the best solution of MVU/NMF for large data volumes. Since we are dealing with optimization programs, we need to find the global optimum. Global optimum is strongly connected with the convexity of the problem. Interpretability is strongly connected with local isometry1 that gives meaning in relationships between data points. Another aspect of interpretability is association of data with labeled information. The contributions of this thesis are the following: 1. MVU is modified so that it can scale more efficient. Results are shown on 1 million speech datasets. Limitations of the method are highlighted. 2. An algorithm for fast computations for the furthest neighbors is presented for the first time in the literature. 3. Construction of optimal kernels for Kernel Density Estimation with modern convex programming is presented. For the first time we show that the Leave One Cross Validation (LOOCV) function is quasi-concave. 4. For the first time NMF is formulated as a convex optimization problem 5. An algorithm for the problem of Completely Positive Matrix Factorization is presented. 6. A hybrid algorithm of MVU and NMF the isoNMF is presented combining advantages of both methods. 7. The Isometric Separation Maps (ISM) a variation of MVU that contains classification information is presented. 8. Large scale nonlinear dimensional analysis on the TIMIT speech database is performed. 9. A general nonlinear factorization algorithm is presented based on sequential convex programming. Despite the efforts to scale the proposed methods up to 1 million data points in reasonable time, the gap between the industrial demand and the current state of the art is still orders of magnitude wide.

The recent development of methods for constructing andhandling large collections (libraries) of proteins, from whichvariants with desired traits can be isolated, hasrevolutionized the field of protein engineering. Key elementsof such methods are the various ways in which the genotypes(the genes) and the phenotypes (the encoded proteins) arephysically linked during the process. In one section of thework underlying this thesis, one such technique (phagedisplay), was used to isolateand identify protein librarymembers based on their catalytic or target molecule-bindingproperties. In a first study, phage display libraries of the lipolyticenzyme Lipolase from Thermomyces lanuginosa were constructed,the objective being to identify variants with improvedcatalytic efficiency in the presence of detergents. Toconstruct the libraries, nine positions were targeted for codonrandomization, all of which are thought to be involved in theconformational change-dependent enzyme activation that occursat water-lipid interfaces. The aim was to introduce two tothree amino acid mutations at these positions per lipase gene.After confirming that the wt enzyme could be functionallydisplayed on phage, selections with the library were performedutilizing a mechanism-based biotinylated inhibitor in thepresence of a detergent formulation. According to rhodamineB-based activity assays, the fraction of active clonesincreased from 0.2 to 90 % over three rounds of selection.Although none of the variants selected using this approachshowed increased activity, in either the presence or absence ofdetergent compared to the wild type enzyme, the resultsdemonstrated the possibility of selecting variants of theenzyme based on catalytic activity. In the following work, phage libraries of the StaphylococcalProtein A (SPA)-derived Z-domain, constructed by randomizationof 13 surface-located positions, were used to isolate Z domainvariants (affibodies) with novel binding specificities. Astargets for selections, the parental SPA domains as well as twopreviously selected affibodies directed against two unrelatedtarget proteins were used. Binders of all three targets wereisolated with affinities (KD) in the range of 2-0.5 µM.One SPA binding affibody (ZSPA-1) was shown to bind to each of the fivehomologous native IgG-binding domains of SPA, as well as theZdomain used as the scaffold for library constructions.Furthermore, the ZSPA-1affibody was shown to compete with one of thenative domains of SPA for binding to the Fc part of humanantibodies, suggesting that the ZSPA-1affibody bound to the Fc-binding surface ofthe Z domain. The majority of the affibodies isolated in theother two selections using two different affibodies as targets,showed very little or no binding to unrelated affibodies,indicating that the binding was directed to the randomizedsurface of their respective targets, analogously toanti-idiotypic antibodies. The structure of the wild type Z domain/ZSPA-1affibody co-complex was determined by x-raycrystallography, which confirmed the earlier findings in thatthe affibody ZSPA-1affibody was shown to bind to the Fc bindingsurface of the Z domain. Further, both the Z domain and the ZSPA-1affibody had very similar three helix-bundletopologies, and the interaction surface involved ten out of thethirteen randomized residues, with a central hydrophobic patchsurrounded by polar residues. In addition, the interactionsurface showed a surprisingly high shape complementarity, giventhe limited size of the library used for selections. The ZSPA-1affibody was further investigated for use invarious biotechnological applications. In one study, the ZSPA-1affibody was successfully recruited as a novelaffinity gene fusion partner for production, purification anddetection of cDNA-encoded recombinant proteins using anSPA-based medium for affinity chromatography. Further, the SPAbinding capability of the ZSPA-1affibody was employed for site-specific andreversible docking of ZSPA-1affibody-tagged reporter proteins onto an SPAfusion protein anchored to a cellulose surface via acellulose-binding moiety. These generated protein complexesresembles the architecture of so-called cellulosomes observedin cellulolytic bacteria. The results suggest it may bepossible to use anti-idiotypic affibody-binding protein pairsas modules to build other self-assembling types of proteinnetworks. Keywords:phage display, selection, mechanism-basedinhibitor, affinity domains, crystal structure, Staphylococcusaureus protein A, affinity chromatography, anti-idiotypicbinding pairs, affibody, combinatorial, protein engineering,lipase, cellulosome, assembly.

An analysis of the correspondence between Charles Lyell and Gideon Mantell from 1821 to 1852, in conjunction with other manuscript material, highlights the contrasting backgrounds and geological careers of the two men. It is also characterised by two underlying themes: the nature and timing of their geological work; and the influence of various social factors on their career plans and desire to achieve high social and scientific status. In turn, these points raise several wider issues and inter-related questions concerning the following aspects of English geology in the first half of the nineteenth century. When, why and how did an elite group of geologists emerge in England during this period? Who were its members and what were their characteristics in common? What was the nature and scope of the geological work carried out by the identified elite? In what way did it differ from Mantell's? What social and other barriers did Mantell encounter in his search for scientific and social status? What were the critical factors? In this thesis these issues are examined on a decade-by-decade basis, in three main chapters, as a prelude to examining the central question of why Mantell, unlike Lyell, did not achieve the status of an elite geologist. First, an elite group of English geologists is identified through a series of prosopographic and 'screening' analyses of all members of council of the Geological Society of London (GSL). Geologists who did not meet the prescribed criteria are taken into account. Thirteen geologists are identified in the penultimate and final stages of screening over the four decades. Mantell was the only provincial identified, but he did not attain a position in the final list, which consisted exclusively of a distinctive group of 'gentleman-specialists'. Second, the concept of a geological 'domain' is introduced to analyse the nature and scope of the geological work carried out by the identified group. A critical finding is that all members identified in the final 'screening' list established a 'domain' in one of four categories of the concept and were recognised as the leading authority or exponent of the domain they had fashioned. Finally, the impact and relative importance of specific social and other factors on the careers of Lyell and Mantell are examined. When the findings from each decade of the three chapters are brought together it is shown that by the end of the 1820s it was necessary for a future elite geologist to be so 'positioned' in terms of basic geological experience, location, income and available time that he was able to identify and subsequently fashion an appropriate geological 'domain'. 'Gentleman-specialists', such as Lyell, who were able to follow this strategy, constituted a clearly defined elite that dominated the GSL in the 1830s and 1840s. Mantell's failure to achieve elite geological status stemmed from the fact that he placed too much emphasis on fashioning his image and social status, rather than his scientific career. In doing so, he let the opportunity slip of establishing a major domain - British fossil reptiles - in the early 1830s.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2006. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-187).. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 1999. / Spine title: Cortactin-binding protein 1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 148-176). Also available online through Digital Dissertations.