Quantum physics provides us with a formalism with which we can try to understand the microscopic world. However, the underpinning concepts of the basic principles of quantum mechanics itself are surprisingly ill understood. Even the ubiquitous concept of the wavefunction collapsing post measurement, lives outside the formal theory of quantum mechanics and must be taken as a postulate. The Schr\"odinger equation, which governs the evolution of quantum systems, does not describe the system during the measurement process. This is referred to as the measurement problem, and has been debated since the inception of quantum theory. Many different interpretations of quantum mechanics try to elucidate what happens during wavefunction collapse, such as the famous many-worlds interpretation. However, these interpretations either give rise to the same physical outcome or simply are not testable, and so cannot be physically differentiated from one another. We attempt to gain insight into the measurement problem through experiments involving sequential measurements, both in the weak and strong regime. We find surprising outcomes such as the persistence of time-ordering asymmetry in the weak measurement limit, and the survival of coherence in the strong measurement limit.

Published Article / The purpose of this paper is to argue that the quality of a Building graduate is not compromised by qualifying through the access programme route. This paper examines the statistics of the 2005 and 2006 access programme and mainstream National Diploma Building cohorts as well as the 2007 mainstream cohort. The study made use of descriptive research comprising quantitative data. The quantitative data was derived from statistics based on student performance that was downloaded from the Management Information System of the University of Johannesburg. The findings revealed that, although the access Building students enter the access programme with results below the minimum entrance requirements for the national diploma, their graduation rate is above or equal to that of their mainstream peers who gained entry directly into the national diploma. Furthermore, many of these students register for post-graduate studies once they start working. This study confirms that students who have received additional support in their first year of study and who have been 'enculturated' into the 'ways of doing' of construction and engineering during a four-year access diploma programme are not inferior to students who have completed a mainstream diploma in 3 years.

This thesis concerns the circular epistemology of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and Science of Logic. I argue that these works can be read as epistemologies based on the dialectical structure of their progression. Furthermore, I claim that this dialectical structure is circular. I hold that the epistemology of these works is circular not only because it is anti-foundational, self-justifying, and presuppositionless, but also in these works one instance of knowledge depends on the next for its justification and so on, until the last instance of knowledge returns to the first. Hegel sharply attacks Reinhold in The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's System of Philosophy, but changes his mind in the Science of Logic to embrace elements of Reinhold's philosophy. I argue that, through this circular epistemological reading of the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Science of Logic, we can account for Hegel's changing view. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Philosophy / MA; / Thesis;

This thesis is about the arguments and the methods that can sustain the epistemic support that comes from intuitions regarding hypothetical cases vis-à-vis theories of intuition. In the past twenty years, philosophical intuitions have received new attention, spurred by fashionable experimental philosophy that empirically tests philosophers’ intuition-engendering hypothetical cases with experimental methods. The results purportedly show that intuitions are unreliable, subject to demographic variation, and error-prone. In response, philosophers have presented various theories of philosophical intuition and explanations of how intuitions are situated in the justificatory apparatus of philosophical methodology. Three types of theories prevail in the literature, each a plausible option for the explanatory sustenance of intuitions’ epistemic efficacy. Selfevidence theories depend on the understanding of the intuited proposition. Intellectual seemings theories depend on the content of the intuited proposition. Judgment theories depend on our normal capacities for making judgments. Judgment theories divide further into disposition-to-believe theories and capacity theories. I argue that, beyond objections and unique epistemic burdens that each theory faces regarding the methodologies underpinning their conception and defense, no one theory of intuition can be reasonably accepted over the others. The centrality of intuitions’ use in philosophical methodology and in philosophers’ ways of thinking and reasoning, giving an argument that supports intuitions as conferrers of epistemic status, which does not itself appeal to intuitions, is a precarious endeavor. I consider various methods to avoid engaging question-begging premises and epistemic circularity. However, none are successful when the theory at hand is characteristically a priori and countenances only intuitions that confer epistemic status. In response to the ill-fated caricature of philosophical intuitions epistemic-statusconferrers, I present my own survey evidence concerning philosophers’ conception of intuition-use in philosophical method. Surprisingly, professional philosophers are more inclined to think that intuitions operate in the context of discovery more so than they are inclined to think that intuitions operate in the context of justification. The upshot of these survey results motivates my preferred account philosophical intuitions wherein philosophical intuitions are bifurcated into epistemic (justificatory intuitions) and epistemically-related (intuitions of discovery) roles. In the light of the objections I pose regarding the proper grounding of intuitions, revising the standard conception of philosophical intuitions requires two sorts of moves in the debate. First, one must offer a proviso for sources of justification that do not epistemically depend on intuitions for the ability to confer epistemic status. This allows one to justify a theory of intuition without appeal to intuition or epistemic regress. Second, one must give an explanation for and build on the recognition that intuitions are bifurcated into justificatory and discovery roles. The added clarity of filling out the nature of bifurcation allows for a more accurate characterisation of philosophical intuitions in the methods of philosophy. Furthermore, that intuitions operate in discovery roles offers an explanation for philosophical innovation and progress.

This dissertation considered whether new product development practices employed resolved the uncertainty and equivocality in information processing created by external turbulence. With external turbulence coming from more sources and arriving with greater frequency, this wave of change must be addressed to achieve desired project outcomes. Healthcare was the target industry for this research and respondents were selected from members of HIMSS, the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society. Five hundred sixty-three survey responses were collected about completed new product development projects. The aspects of the projects reported included the external turbulence experienced, flexible new product development practices employed, the effectiveness of information processing and the project’s outcomes. The results using all respondents did not show support for the crucial hypothesis that reduction of uncertainty and equivocality in the information processing environment leads to desired new product development outcomes. While the full respondent set did not support the main hypothesis, the subset of projects that were completed during the ramp-up of the Affordable Care Act showed the hypothesized relationship. With the Affordable Care Act ramp-up, there was a wave of change and a high volume of new information generated by external turbulence. Those organizations that were successful used their information processing capabilities to reduce uncertainty and equivocality and address the changes. Their information processing capability combined with flexible product development practices was directly related to positive new product development outcomes. The extreme example of external turbulence that occurred during the Affordable Care Act ramp-up supported the crucial hypothesis about information processing. The research also found that external turbulence is related to the positive use of flexible new product development practices and that use of those practices is directly related to desired new product development outcomes. In the presence of external turbulence, product development teams use flexible new product development practices to achieve desired project outcomes. The major implication from this study is the need by product development teams to consider external turbulence as a factor in all product plans. It was the strongest relationship reported.

The achievement gap is a historic and pervasive issue of social justice in education. the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has further stalled student achievement in reading and math, amplifying the urgency for accelerating student learning to close the gap. The third grade is a critical year for literacy in education; if students have not mastered grade level literacy skills by then, they are likely to continue to fall behind, which can diminish academic opportunities and significantly reduce their economic potential. This study seeks social justice in education to add to the literature by elucidating strategies to improve third-grade literacy. Grounded in quantitative analysis, this longitudinal study employs a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design to evaluate the relationship between third-grade student engagement in two concurrent literacy interventions, Smarty Ants and Achieve3000 Literacy, and student reading outcomes. To this end, the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied with a control for pretest scores while evaluating the relationship between engagement and outcomes. Results of each ANCOVA show statistical significance between student engagement in the literacy interventions and their Lexile outcomes. Despite the small sample size, results of the analyses verify that there is statistical significance in the relationship between student engagement levels in the programs, individually and concurrently, and their Lexile outcomes in Achieve3000 Literacy during the 2020-2021 academic year within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the strength of correlation results in the ANCOVAs and the t-tests, this was especially true for engagement in Achieve3000 Literacy and more so for combined engagement. The study concludes with a discussion of these findings, an articulation of the significance of the study, as well as recommendations for future practice and study.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Education, 2011 / This study is a located in a foundational undergraduate mathematics course designed to facilitate the transition from school mathematics to advanced mathematics. The focus of the study is on two innovations in the course; the use of practical problems that make links to non-mathematical practices and a learner-centred pedagogy. While these innovations are part of the discourse of the mathematics education community in terms of access to school mathematics, this study investigates the relationship between these innovations and access to advanced mathematics. The texts of three practical problems from the course and texts representing the verbal and non-verbal action of 17 students as they worked collaboratively in small groups on these problems were analyzed. The analysis of these texts is used to describe and explain, firstly, how the practical problems in the foundational course represent the practice of foundational undergraduate mathematics and its relationship to other practices in the educational space (for example, school mathematics, calculus reform, advanced mathematics, and non-mathematical practices). Secondly, the students‟ enabling and constraining mathematical action on the practical problems is described and explained. Answering the empirical questions in this study has required theoretical work to develop a socio-political perspective of mathematical practice. This theoretical perspective is based on Fairclough‟s social practice perspective from critical linguistics, but has been supplemented with recontextualized theoretical constructs used by Morgan, Moschkovich and Sfard in mathematics education. These constructs are used to conceptualize the notion of mathematical discourse and action on mathematical objects in this discourse. The methodological work of this study has involved supplementing Fairclough‟s method of critical discourse analysis with Sfard‟s method of focal analysis to analyze mathematical, discursive, social and political action in a socio-political mathematical practice. The central finding of this thesis is that foundational mathematical practice represents both continuities and disruptions in its relationship to other practices in the space. As a result, participation in the foundational practice is complex, requiring control over the how and when of boundary crossings across practices, social events and texts. On the basis of this complexity, innovative foundational practice is positioned paradoxically in the higher education space. On the one hand, it represents an alternative to the dominant representation of mathematical practice and positioning of the foundational student in higher education. On the other hand, the complexity of foundational practice makes access to advanced mathematics problematic and foundational practice thus reproduces the dominant ordering.

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2017-06-29T13:06:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LUANA CARLA DE SOUZA SILVA.pdf: 4599901 bytes, checksum: f2aa8775a811e190de389cca06fb9dc4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-29T13:06:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LUANA CARLA DE SOUZA SILVA.pdf: 4599901 bytes, checksum: f2aa8775a811e190de389cca06fb9dc4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-25 / The work proposes to raise the history of the foundational center of Porangatu, understood here as a place of memory. It is understood as place that has acquired meaning over time. It is over time that the place becomes meaningful to the individuals or groups that live there. It is the lived experiences there that build their history, their past, their memory. Value is attributed to place because of its intimacy with it, because even simple and routine events over time have a profound meaning, creating in the individual or group a great affection for the place where they occurred. Memory is rooted in different contexts of our life experience: local customs, celebrations, family and social relationships. In Porangatu, these moments happen at parties, especially religious. These are moments that bring together the entire urban community and the inhabitants of the farms. The festivities became moments of fraternization and encounter, besides a manifestation of faith. Another important festival for the porangatuenses is the Arraiá do Descoberto, which has become a landmark for the city, a moment of entertainment, meeting and fun for decades, although it is not a religious manifestation. The foundational center of Porangatu is a historical place that, for many of its residents, deserves to be preserved. Its history is described in its landscape, in its streets, in the colonial features of the houses and buildings that still remain. The mining period in Goiás was of discoveries and transformations for its immense territory, crossed by the diverse exploratory, military and scientific expeditions. Situated in an important territory of the captaincy, the Sertão de Amaro Leite, appears among the many arraiais, Descoberto da Piedade. Among the many settlements that were extinguished with the disappearance of gold, the Arraial do Descoberto remained and developed yourself until it became an important part of the city of Porangatu. Its historic center still retains the marks of its beginnings, the history of its formation. But today the transformations in which it has passed gone it has caused its decharacterization. / O trabalho propõe-se a levantar a história do centro fundacional de Porangatu, entendido aqui como um lugar de memória. Compreende-se como lugar aquele que adquiriu significado ao longo do tempo. É com o tempo que o lugar passa a fazer sentido para os indivíduos ou grupos que ali habitam. São as experiências vividas ali, que constroem a sua história, o seu passado, a sua memória. Atribui-se valor ao lugar pela intimidade que se tem com ele, pois mesmo acontecimentos simples e rotineiros com o tempo passam a ter profundo significado, criando no indivíduo ou grupo grande afeição pelo lugar onde ocorreram. A memória está enraizada em diferentes contextos da nossa experiência de vida: nos costumes locais, nas comemorações, nas relações familiares e sociais. Em Porangatu, esses momentos realizam-se nas festas, sobretudo as de cunho religioso. São momentos que reúnem toda a comunidade urbana e os moradores das fazendas. As festas tornavam-se momentos de confraternização e encontro, além de uma manifestação de fé. Outra festa importante para os porangatuenses é o Arraiá do Descoberto, a festa junina que a mais de três décadas ocorre na “praça velha” e que se tornou um marco para a cidade, momento de entretenimento, encontro e diversão há décadas, apesar de não ser uma manifestação religiosa. O núcleo fundacional de Porangatu é um lugar histórico que, para muitos dos seus moradores, merece ser preservado. Sua história está descrita na sua paisagem, nas suas ruas, nas características coloniais das casas e edifícios que ainda restam. O período da mineração em Goiás foi de descobertas e transformações para seu imenso território, percorrido pelas diversas expedições exploratórias, militares e científicas. Localizado em um importante território da capitania, o Sertão de Amaro Leite, surge em meio aos muitos arraiais, o Descoberto da Piedade. Entre tantos arraiais que se extinguiram com o desaparecimento do ouro, o Arraial do Descoberto permaneceu e se desenvolveu até se tornar parte importante da cidade de Porangatu. Seu núcleo histórico guarda ainda as marcas dos seus primórdios, da história da sua formação. Mas atualmente as transformações pelas quais tem passado vêm causando sua descaracterização.

Christian Parent Controlled (CPC) Schools, which commenced in the 1960s, are a relatively small, but growing component of the non-government schooling sector in Australia. In 2001, they enrolled over 22 000 students in 85 schools. Very little research has been conducted on the values and practices of CPC schools and while these schools frequently assert that they promote explicitly Christian values, their foundational values have not previously been identified or recorded. This research identifies the key foundational values which are characteristic of these schools and examines the extent to which these values continue to influence the prevailing practices of these schools. Consideration is given to the implications of the relationship between foundational values and prevailing practices for the identity, development and leadership of CPC schools in Australia. The ability of these schools to articulate their foundational values and consider their prevailing practices in the light of these values should enhance their ability to understand their heritage, assess their current situation and plan their future. The research found that in general, prevailing practices in these schools give faithful expression to the foundational values; however, the research also identified a number of areas where CPC schools struggle to engage consistently with these values. As a result of this study, recommendations are proposed to assist national and school-based leadership in their strategic planning for the maintenance of these values and the future of these schools.

Hoje em dia, muitas empresas de petróleo estão adotando diferentes sistemas baseados em conhecimento com o objetivo de ter uma melhor predição de qualidade de reservatório. No entanto, existem obstáculos que não permitem geólogos com diferentes formações recuperar as informações sem a necessidade da ajuda de um especialista em tecnologia da informação. O principal problema é a heterogeneidade semântica dos usuários finais quando fazem consultas em um sistema de consulta visual (VQS). Isto pode ser pior quando há uma nova terminologia na base de conhecimentos que afetam a interação do usuário, especialmente para usuários novatos. Neste contexto, apresentamos contribuições teóricas e práticas que explora o sinergismo entre ontologia e interação homem-computador (HCI). Do lado da teoria, introduzimos o conceito de visão de ontologia bem fundamentada e a sua definição formal. Nós nos concentramos na extração de vista ontologia de uma ontologia bem fundamentada e completa, baseando-nos em meta-propriedades ontológicas e propusemos um algorítmo independente da linguagem para extração de sub-ontologia que é guiada por meta-propriedades ontológicas. No lado prático, baseado nos princípios de HCI e desenho de interação, propusemos um novo sistema de consulta visual que usa o enfoque de vistas de ontologias para guiar o processo de consulta. Também o nosso desenho inclui visualizações de dados que ajudarão geólogos a entender os dados recuperados. Além disso, avaliamos nosso desenho com um teste de usabilidade a-través de um questionário em experimento controlado. Cinco geólogos que trabalham na área de Geologia do Petróleo foram avaliados. O enfoque proposto é avaliado no domínio de petrografia tomando as comunidades de Diagênese e Microestrutural adotando o critério de precisão e revocação. Os resultados experimentais mostram que termos relevantes obtidos de documentos de uma comunidade varia entre 30 a 66% de precisão e 4.6 a 36% de revocação, dependendo do enfoque selecionado e da combinação de parâmetros. Além disso, os resultados mostram que, para toda combinação de parâmetros, a revocação obtidos de artigos de diagênese usando a sub-ontologia gerada para a comunidade de diagênese é maior que a revocação e f-measure usando a sub-ontologia gerada para a comunidade de microestrutural. Por outro lado, resultados para toda combinação de parâmetros mostram que a revocação e f-measure obtida de artigos de microestrutural usando a sub-ontologia gerada para a comunidade de microestrutural é maior que a revocação e o fmeasure usando a sub-ontologia gerada para a comunidade de diagêneses. / Nowadays many petroleum companies are adopting different knowledge-based systems aiming to have a better reservoir quality prediction. However, there are obstacles that not allow different background geologists to retrieve information without needing the help of an information technology expert. The main problem is the heterogeneity semantic of end users when doing queries in a visual query system (VQS). This can be worst when there is new terminology in the knowledge-base affecting the user interaction, particularly for novice users. In this context, we present theoretical and practical contributions that exploit the synergism between ontology and human computer interaction (HCI). On the theory side, we introduce the concept of ontology view for well-founded ontology and provide a formal definition and expressive power characterization. We focus in the ontology view extraction of a well-founded and complete ontology based on ontological meta-properties and propose a language independent algorithm for sub-ontology extraction, which is guided by ontological meta-properties. On the practical side, based on the principles of HCI and interaction design, we propose a new Visual Query System that uses the ontology view approach to guide the query process. Also, our design includes data visualizations that will help geologists to make sense of the retrieved data. Furthermore, we evaluated our interaction design with five users performing a usability testing through a questionnaire in a controlled experiment. The evaluation was performed over geologists that work in the area of petroleum geology. The approach proposed is evaluated on the petrography domain taking the communities of Diagenesis and MicroStructural adopting the well known criteria of precision and recall. Experimental results show that relevant terms obtained from the documents of a community varies from 30 to 66 % of precision and 4.6 to 36% of recall depending on the approach selected and the parameters combination. Furthermore, results show that almost for all the parameters combination that recall and f-measure obtained from diagenesis articles using the sub-ontology generated for the diagenesis community is greater than recall and f-measure using the sub-ontology generated for microstructural community. On the other hand, results for all the parameters combination that recall and f-measure obtained from microstructural articles using the sub-ontology generated for the microstructural community is greater than recall and f-measure using the subontology generated for diagenesis community.