The purpose of this research study was to investigate the learning of print concepts (PCs) by preschool children at risk for literacy problems using an experimental treatment: explicit, non-evocative print referencing. Children from low socio-economic status (SES) families have been determined to be at-risk for literacy learning problems including a reduced knowledge of print concepts. The study incorporated a multiple group (experimental and control) time series design with persistent insertion of treatment to those subjects who were assigned to the experimental condition. Participants included 25 children at-risk, ages 4:0- 4:11 (years: months) who qualified for pre-school services and for subsidized childcare (low SES). Participants received eligibility pre-testing and a standardized test of print concept knowledge (PCK).The children were randomly assigned to the experimental or control condition. Children in the experimental condition received three treatment sequences of two illustrated story books read to them each day for three days with the adult reader using the experimental treatment of verbal descriptions and gestures to point out PCs. At the end of each treatment sequence the children were tested for PCK. This intermittent testing helped determine which concepts were learned using this treatment and at what level of dosage of the treatment. Children in the control condition were periodically tested for their PCK and only receive the “business as usual” class room references to print. Results of data analysis indicated a significant increase in the learning of print concepts by the children enrolled in the experimental condition compared to those in the control condition and suggested that some print concepts were more easily learned using this intervention than others.

Many organisations use strategic management as an imperative to gain competitive advantages. Theorists have not been able to ascertain whether prescriptive or emergent strategic approaches will be most suitable within an organisational climate for sustaining these competitive advantages. The notion of creativity has been identified as a source of competitive advantage that organisations may make use of within their strategic frameworks. However, within the organisational climate, there may be various barriers to creativity that will impede performance outcomes, efficiency and potential competitive advantage for an organisation. The study concerns itself m d y with an investigation into the strategic and organisational climates within selected higher education institutions in South Africa, as these institutions are in need of an assessment regarding potential sources of competitive advantage, in order to survive. The imperative to remain competitive is primarily due to the turbulent and changeable environments that these institutions find themselves in. This instability has occurred as a result of various changes in higher education due to the merging of several higher education institutions and the changes in the configuration of others. The study has shown that creativity is a source of competitive advantage. This was done by determining which barriers to creativity were present within the organisational climates of the selected institutions, as well as which strategic management approaches were being employed by the said institutions. The information obtained from the data gathered was compared to two competitive advantage measures (throughput and research output rates) of those higher education institutions. Three pivotal questions were asked and answered by the study in this regard. What are the prevalent prescriptive strategy dimensions and processes being employed by selected South African public higher education institutions? What are the prevalent creativity barrier dimensions that exist with selected public higher education institutions in South Africa? What relationships can be observed between the prescriptive strategy dimensions, the creativity barrier dimensions and the organisational competitive advantage performance output dimensions of throughput rate and research output in selected public South African higher education institutions? Non probability, judgment sample was obtained from four selected higher education institutions located in the Gauteng province in South Africa during the latter half of 2004. The survey requested certain biographical information on respondents (who had to fulfill the criteria of being full-time academic employees working for the institution in question), information on the strategic climate and barriers to creativity with the organisational climate. The last section of the questionnaire contained open-ended questions. Data on the throughput and research output rates of the institutions was obtained separately from the South African Department of Education (DOE), and correlated against the data obtained from the questionnaire. The questionnaire was testing for eight pre-determined creativity factors within the organisational climate (identified from the literature review and previous studies), and a separate dimension of prescriptive strategic planning. Overall only five of the creativity barriers were found to be most predominant within the selected higher education institutions, namely: Insufficient Resources; Lack of Team Unity; Lack of Organisational Support; Organisational Hindrances and Workload pressure. The factors were compared to the measures of competitive advantage and it was determined that there was a positive correlation between a higher prevalence of barriers and a lower performance output, which indicated that creativity could be identified as a source of competitive advantage within those institutions. This lent evidence to support the initial, first hypothesis of the study. Furthermore, it was discovered that those institutions that were utilising prescriptive strategic management approaches were more inched to achieve higher performance in terms of their throughput rates. Refuted the second hypothesis of the study that was advocating that emergent strategy was more likely to result in competitive advantage. More education institutions, known for their typically bureaucratic approaches might be more able to utilise formal procedures to obtain increased competitive advantage than utilising a more informal, emergent approach, as academic employees might more freely be able to explore creative alternatives under the security of prescriptive strategic approaches. It is likely that any organisation would wish to improve their competitive performance in order to be more effective. Higher education institutions also need to be concerned about their performance in order to continue operating effectively. It is necessary, then for those higher education institutions, to take note of these potential barriers to creativity with their organisational climates, which were highlighted by the study and to proactively remove them to ensure they remain competitive into the future. In addition, these institutions should consider which strategic management approaches they are currently utilising and streamline them to cement the competitive advantage. It was advocated that South African higher education institutions should be adopting formalised strategic management approaches in this regard. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

Fueled by ubiquitous access to mobile phones, and a massive population of nearly 3 billion unbanked people around the globe, mobile commerce is evolving as a disruptive technology. Simultaneously, mobile payments are surfacing as a killer application within the mobile commerce context (Hu et al. 2008). Undeniably, the proliferation of wireless mobile technology provides much-needed access to vital information, and financial services for disenfranchised, unbanked populations. In addition, technological innovations offer first-time opportunities for suppliers of goods and services in a market context to gain competitive advantages while enhancing their economic viability. According to Portio Research, the volume of mobile payments rose significantly from $68.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, with predictions of $633.4 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2014 (mobithinking.com 2012). Despite exponential growth in the number of mobile subscribers globally, and widespread adoption of mobile commerce, acceptance rates for mobile payment applications have lagged (Dahlberg et al. 2007, Ondrus et al 2009, Ondrus and Lyytinen 2011). Yet examinations of factors inhibiting the widespread acceptance of mobile payments are relatively sparse. Using Social Network theory, this research examines factors affecting engagement in mobile payments. The researcher posits that four primary elements influence mobile payment engagement: 1) the relationships between and amongst inter-organizational alliance members; 2) the prevailing regulatory environment; 3) the state of existing banking and technology infrastructures, and 4) an assessment of economic opportunity. The research outcomes from this exploratory examination led to the development of a comprehensive model for mobile payment engagement, and strongly suggest that ties between and amongst firms in inter-organizational alliances help ensure the success of mobile payment engagement. Support was found for the following suppositions: 1) similarities and relations (continuous ties) help establish a framework and understanding amongst alliance members as to each party’s goals and objectives; and 2) interactions and flows (discrete ties) between and amongst inter-organizational alliance members strengthen the overall ties between alliance members while solidifying a viable working relationship amongst the alliance members. This study employs a qualitative approach to obtain real world insight into the dynamism of the mobile payment arena. A model is then proposed to practically examine mobile payment engagement opportunities. From a theoretical perspective, the research contributes to the extant scholarly knowledgebase pertaining to engagement in mobile payments.

The feasibility of using optical sensors and non-nitrogen limiting reference crops to determine post-emergent nitrogen fertilizer requirements of canola was evaluated. Normalized difference vegetation index was well suited for estimating yield potential and nitrogen status. Although sensor-based nitrogen management was generally agronomically feasible for canola, the economic benefits of doing so remain uncertain because of the added cost of applying post-emergent nitrogen.

This doctoral thesis contains three essays on the economics of climate change and the electricity sector. The first essay deals with the subject of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and economic growth. The second essay addresses the issues of climate change policies, especially the role of the emergent innovative technologies, and the restructuring of the electricity sector. The third essay presents a model of transmission investments in electric power networks. Chapter One studies the impacts of climate change on economic growth in the world economies. The paper contains explicit formalization of the depletion process of exhaustible fossil fuels and the phase of technology substitution. The impacts of climate change on capital flows and welfare across countries are also investigated. The restructuring of the electricity sector is studied in Chapter Two. It also analyzes how climate change policies can benefit from emergent innovative technologies and how emergent innovative technologies can lower GHG emissions. It is shown that the price of electricity is strictly rising before emergent innovative firms with zero GHG emissions enter the market, but strictly declining as the entry begins. In Chapter Three, a model of electricity transmission investments from the perspective of the regulatory approach is formulated. The Mid-West region of Western Australia, a sub-system of the South West Interconnected System is considered. In contrast with most models in the literature that deal only with network deepening, this model deals with both network deepening and network widening. Moreover, unlike the conventional investment models which are static and deal only with the long run, this model is dynamic and focuses on the timing of the infrastructure investments. The paper is a study of an optimal transmission investment program which is part of the optimal investment program for an integrated model in which investments in transmission and investments in generation are made at the same time.

In an era of dawning anthropogenic climate change, people of atoll nations face grievous threats to their future. Rising sea levels, warming oceans, and changing weather patterns conspire with economic isolation, rapidly growing populations, and the loss of traditional livelihoods to perpetuate conditions of dependence and wardship which threaten the very existence of their island homes. This project examines an atoll nation of the equatorial Pacific, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, where the outward appearance of pristine tropical paradise belies a tragic history of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile testing at the hands of the US military. While the islands have been consistently framed in rhetoric which stresses vulnerability, smallness and unsustainability, this project contests the limited scope of the regimes of power in Oceania by considering how the independent, grassroots actions of local groups of islanders have achieved surprising and dramatic results in defiance of the policies and planners at the top. In developing a design proposal for the contemporary condition, this thesis examines the persistent ways in which the islands and people are framed by outsiders. This project engages with the social, political and natural history of the atolls: common tropes are challenged by the actions and agency of a people who have dealt with imperialist outsiders in sophisticated and conscious ways. It explores the traditional cultural practices which enabled the ancestors of the Marshallese people to flourish, and suggests that it is at the level of actions by ordinary people that the most fertile potentials lie, and are in fact already being played out. What forms of urbanism might be appropriate in this environment? How can islanders effectively manage their landscape and engage with the natural processes - as their ancestors once did to a remarkable degree? By pairing traditional techniques with modern technologies, a proposal is synthesized which could empower the contemporary Marshallese to transform their landscape and develop sustainable livelihoods in this extreme and dynamic environmental condition: to build a future which offers the best aspects of both traditional and contemporary ways of life.

Most animals grow substantially during their lifetime and change in competitive ability, predatory capacity and their susceptibility to predation as they grow. This thesis addresses the implications of this on regulation and dynamics within populations as well as between population interactions. In size-structured populations either reproduction or maturation may be more limiting. If juveniles are competitively superior, the competitive bottleneck will be in the adults and reproduction will be limiting. Mortality will in this case result in overcompensation in juvenile biomass through increased reproduction. Compensation in biomass was demonstrated in Daphnia pulex populations subjected to size-independent mortality, where juvenile biomass did not decrease when a substantial harvest was imposed due to increase per capita fecundity. This supported that juveniles were superior competitors and that population cycles seen in Daphnia are juvenile-driven. Compensatory responses in biomass may lead to that predators facilitate eachothers existence by feeding on a common prey, a phenomenon coined emergent facilitation. In an experimental test of the mechanism behind emergent facilitation it was demonstrated that the invertebrate predator Bythotrephes longimanus was favoured by thinning of its prey Holopedium gibberum. The thinning mimicked fish predation and targeted large individuals while Bythotrephes preferrs small prey. Size dependent predation also occurs within populations, i.e. cannibalism, were large individuals feed on smaller conspecifics. Two populations of the common guppy (Poecilia reticulata) originating from different environments were demonstrated to differ in cannibalistic degree. Cannibalism was also affected by the presence of refuges and females and juveniles from one population were better adapted to structural complexity than the other. The effects of these differences in cannibalism on population regulation and dynamics were studied in long term population experiments. Both populations were regulated by cannibalism in the absence of refuges, and displayed cannibal-driven cycles with suppression of recruitment and high population variability. The presence of refuges decreased density dependence and population variability and harvesting of large females in the absence of refuges led to population extinctions in the more cannibalistic population. The less cannibalistic population had higher population biomass and stronger density-dependence in the presence of refuges. When refuges were present, cohort competition increased and cycles with short periodicity were seen. Large individuals were not only cannibals, but could successfully prey on other species. Small and large guppies were allowed to invade resident populations of Heterandria formosa. Small invaders failed while large invaders succeeded as predation from large invaders broke up the competitive bottleneck that the resident population imposed on juveniles of the invader.

Teachers face pressures to meet the needs of an ever-changing diverse population of learners while simultaneously attempting to assist students in meeting state standards. There is a body of research that supports emergent bilinguals' growth in reading and writing. However, those practices do not necessarily reflect classroom instruction nor the needs of the students. The purpose of this study was to examine adolescent emergent bilinguals' perceptions about their learning from research-based literacy practices implemented in a classroom designed as a third space. Data were collected using participatory research and photo-elicitation and were analyzed using inductive analysis. The emergent bilinguals provided their insights about class assignments. Findings revealed that research-based literacy practices support emergent bilinguals' perceptions of learning when they are made accessible to them in distinctive yet extensive ways. For students to uncover which literacy activities they value, teachers need to present them with various opportunities to explore their own learning and encourage them to take ownership of their learning. Educators must consider the unique and individual needs of emergent bilinguals when designing the classroom environment and the lessons based on the standards. Recommendations for practitioners, professional development coordinators, and researchers are presented.

Stakeholder satisfaction has in the modern day, become an imperative criterion to achieve project success. Satisfaction of stakeholders’ requirements however is challenging because these requirements evolve as the project progresses. Previous research indicates that as stakeholders continuously interact with a project, they gain more information and new requirements or request for modifications are likely to emerge as a result of this increased intelligence.  Nonetheless, conventional project management elicits requirements from stakeholders at the onset of the project, and uses these pre-defined requests to design the project. This practice hinders the ability of stakeholders to influence the project as it advances, and ill equips managers to handle and implement stakeholder requirements that materialize at subsequent phases. It is therefore important to investigate how emergent requirements of stakeholders come about and how they are managed in practice.  The objective of this thesis is to answer the research question, “From the perspective of managers, in the Scandinavian management context, how do emergent requirements of key stakeholders materialize, and how are they managed?” by probing into the ways via which emergent requirement of stakeholders come about, and investigating how managers deal with these emergent requirement upon their occurrence.  This qualitative study was conducted in the Scandinavian region using semi-structured interviews. Five respondents in managerial positions of the Umeå wastewater treatment plant project participated in the research and data collected concerned materialization and management of emergent requirements that surfaced during different phases of the project. The resulting data was then analyzed with reference to previously established theoretical frameworks.  Results from this study confirm that, new or modified requirements and consequently, requests for changes do emerge at even the execution phase of projects, despite careful planning. These emergent requirements are traced to three different sources and are managed in different ways depending on the type of requirement, whether strategic and critical or minor.

Three archaeological cases from different areas of the Andes are employed to study the rise of social and cultural complexity in varying social and economic contexts, with the intention of distinguishing certain environmental and cultural factors in each case. The purpose also is to search not only for differences but for commonalities to be used for cross-cultural comparisons and to learn more about the developmental cultural history of the societies representing these cases. / En el presente trabajo se analizan tres casos de diferentes áreas de los Andes para estudiar el incremento de la complejidad cultural en contextos sociales y económicos variados con el fin de distinguir factores definidos de carácter ambiental y cultural en cada caso. El propósito final es el de la búsqueda de diferencias, así como de las características en común que se utilizan para hacer comparaciones culturales y para aprender más acerca de la historia del desarrollo cultural de las sociedades que representan estos ejemplos.