This commentary accompanies a portfolio of nine compositions written between October 2006 and June 2009. This commentary traces the development of a range of compositional ideas throughout the portfolio. These revolve around the creation of multilayered textures where all the material and all subtle variations thereof are audible, leading to an investigation of rhythmical block durations and the role of memory. The context in which these ideas arose is provided through discussion of specific existing work that closely relates to the portfolio, in particular by John Cage, Morton Feldman, György Ligeti and Giacinto Scelsi.

This study examined the self-perceived leadership orientations of headmasters of independent schools. This research expanded the current body of work that supports Bolman and Deal's (2003) multi-frame explanation that leaders use different orientations (frames) to understand their roles, clarify organizational situations, and make decisions. Using the four-frame model (structural, human resource, political, and symbolic) by Bolman and Deal, this study sought to identify common leadership orientations employed by headmasters of Independent Schools Association of the Southwest (ISAS), Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS), and the Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington (AISGW) member Schools. The study also identified how many frames headmasters use and to what extent the self-perceived orientations relate to the headmasters' self-perceived overall effectiveness as managers and leaders. The Leadership Orientations (Self) survey developed by Bolman and Deal (1990) was revised, validated, and reliability was established before being sent to 272 headmasters of member schools of ISAS, SAIS, and AISGW. Data were collected from 94 respondents. The ISAS, SAIS, and AISGW are non-profit, voluntary membership organizations of independent schools located mostly in the southeastern and southwestern United States, as well as the greater Washington, DC metro area. The ISAS, SAIS, and AISGW are also members of good standing of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Commission on Accreditation. An analysis of the data revealed, through descriptive statistics, that all four frames are used by the headmasters and most headmasters report using more than one frame. Data analysis suggests that specific relationships exist between the headmasters' self-reported frame use and their perceived effectiveness as managers and as leaders. In addition, differences were observed between frame usage and teacher certification and frame usage and years of administrative experience.

This study investigated the impact of an online concept mapping website (Concept Maps for Learning, or CMfL) designed to provide targeted formative feedback to students. The aims of this study were to determine the usefulness of CMfL for both teachers and students, as a tool for instruction and self-regulated learning. Additionally, the impacts of CMfL on supporting student learning were observed. This research site of this study was a Montessori high school, and the participating students were enrolled in the Ontario Grade 9 Academic Mathematics course. The educational philosophies deployed at the research site offered independence and flexibility to students with respect to how the Ontario Grade 9 Academic Mathematics course was approached, and therefore matched the self-regulated learning components of the study. This study measured student achievement across three milestones over the data collection period to analyse any cognitive impact that CMfL had on the participating students. Metacognitive impacts, as well as the students’ perception of usefulness of CMfL, were measured through surveys that were administered at the milestone points. Usefulness of CMfL from the teacher’s perspective was determined through interviews with the teacher. The participating students and teacher were also provided with the opportunity to provide feedback on how CMfL could be improved through the aforementioned surveys and interviews, respectively. The evidence collected over the study suggests that CMfL can be a useful tool for teaching and learning in a self-regulated environment, and that frequent engagement with CMfL may can support student learning. However, there is room for improvement that may increase student adoption and aid teaching strategy.

PhD, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand,2011 / This is a theoretical conceptual post-modern1 study which aims to elucidate the ANC’s democratic project through the prism of its relationship to the media. In turn, it aims to scrutinize events that have already occurred post-liberation in order to explore whether the free space of the media is steadily being impinged upon, and eroded and explore further, what ‘turns’ journalists made when under pressure from political forces. Whilst recognising that interlocking imperatives inform freedom and independence of the press, this study’s main focus is a political one. However, the issue of ownership is intrinsic to research on media ‘freedom’, particularly the concentration of ownership of the media and so, how commercial imperatives impact2 will be examined. Several theorists have been referred to in order to begin putting together a conceptual theoretical framework with which to clarify and account for the emergent pattern of discourse by the ANC on the media. The conceptual framework adumbrated here and employed in the analysis of the relationship of the ANC with the media draws heavily from Zizek, Mouffe and Butler, in particular. The concept of ‘resignifications’ comes from Butler, those of ‘Master signifier’ and ‘social fantasy’ from Zizek, and the conception of radical democracy from Mouffe. Use is made of these theoretical tools in order to account for the compulsion that characterizes certain discursive interventions on the media, which are always in some respect ‘inappropriate’ or in ‘excess’ of expectations. 1 Post-modern thinking has been influenced by Jacques Derrida, Michael Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Francois Lyotard and is characterised by fluidity, undecidability, openness, irony, parody as well a recognition of the world as a field of infinite interplay (McGrath, A: 1993: p456-60) 2 John Keane (1991) in The Media and Democracy is particularly useful in questioning how the concept of freedom of the press originated, but also how deregulation and commercial imperatives impact on the notions of democracy and freedom. Anton Harber wrote in a newspaper piece, Two fat ladies make a meal of it (2003: Business Day) that concentration of ownership - following the global trend – presents a danger to democracy, ‘leading to a homogenized and tepid media’.

Phenotypic screening of drug molecules relies on the generation of a specific response; however the means by which this is elicited often remains unknown. Affinity chromatography is a valuable tool in the discovery of drug binding partners and may even allow the elucidation of the wider interactome of the initial drug target. The introduction of easily cleavable linkers and affinity-independent elution protocols to affinity chromatography is of current interest, since they render the technique much more adaptable with respect to the characterisation of biologically active species of interest. This thesis details the application of a novel azobenzene linker developed by the Hulme group for use in affinity-independent chromatography. The first chapter reviews recent developments in affinity chromatography and describes the synthesis of an affinity linker toolbox with both affinity-dependent and affinity-independent linkers. These linkers are functionalised with an azide moiety for use in CuAAC coupling to alkynyl derivatives of bioactive small molecules and have been modified to include photoreactive groups giving a series of linkers for use in the identification of less abundant, or low affinity, proteins. The first drug investigated, anisomycin (ANS), is a small molecule which was initially introduced as an antibiotic drug (Flagecidin). At nanomolar concentrations ANS has been shown to affect the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways; downstream effects of these pathways are thought to play a role in a range of pathological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). ANS is thus a candidate for drug repurposing. Although the downstream effects of MAPK/SAPK pathway activation induced by anisomycin are well-documented, the cellular target has yet to be revealed. Previous work by the Hulme group has shown that the N-propargyl anisomycin derivative (I) retains the biological activity of the lead compound ANS. Thus to evaluate the cellular protein targets, N-propargyl ANS (I) was coupled onto the linker toolbox to create an ANS affinity probe library as described in chapter 2. The second drug investigated, fingolimod, was introduced as an immunomodulating drug (Glienya) for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). This small molecule has also been shown to have anti-cancer properties in a range of cancer cell lines; however the precise mechanism by which this is effected is unknown. Literature precedent shows that terminal modification of fingolimod generates analogues which still retain biological activity. Thus a novel fingolimod alkyne derivative (II) was synthesised and used to create an affinity probe library as described in chapter 3. Chapter 4 describes affinity pull-down experiments conducted with the aim of finding the protein target(s) of ANS and fingolimod, using the affinity probe libraries generated in chapters 2 and 3. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings and directions for future study.

Siu Yee Hei. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-170). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; appendix in Chinese. / Acknowledgement --- p.ii / Abstract --- p.iii / Table of Contents --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Literature Review --- p.3 / Methodology --- p.19 / Structure of Thesis --- p.28 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Social Background of Women's Mobility --- p.28 / Travel and Women in Chinese History --- p.28 / Travel and Women in Hong Kong History --- p.34 / Women and Traveling for Leisure --- p.37 / Development of Outbound Travel in Hong Kong --- p.39 / New Middle Class and Independent Travel --- p.42 / Concluding Remarks --- p.44 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Solo Travelers --- p.46 / Background of Travelers --- p.46 / Definition of´بIndependent´ةand ´بOutbound´ة --- p.48 / Group 1 - Travel as Training --- p.52 / Group 2 - Travel as Meeting New People --- p.61 / Group 3 - Travel as Breaking Away from the Original System --- p.71 / Group 4 - Travel as Achieving a Different Self --- p.83 / Concluding Remarks --- p.93 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Group Travelers --- p.97 / Background of Travelers --- p.97 / Definition of´بIndependent´ة and ´بOutbound´ة --- p.99 / Relationships Matter in Travel --- p.101 / Travel - For Alternative Achievements VS Perpetuate the Current Situation --- p.113 / Travel ´ؤ An Entitlement to Self-Actualization and Enj oyment --- p.121 / Concluding Remarks --- p.124 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Exploring the Complexity of Empowerment --- p.128 / "Empowerment: Same Nature, Different Degrees" --- p.128 / Difference in Quality of Empowerment: Women vs Men --- p.130 / Complement to the Model of Empowerment --- p.136 / "Bodily Harassment: Avoidance, Victim-blaming or Tolerance" --- p.140 / Maintenance of Parent-Child Relationship --- p.143 / Strengthening the Concepts of´بManhood´ةand ´بWomanhood´ة --- p.145 / Concluding Remarks --- p.148 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.151 / References Cited --- p.165 / Appendices --- p.171

This thesis is about using rather than applying Norbert Elias’s conceptual ideas, and its analytical procedure employs a ‘fair play’ approach to theorists and theory. This is put to use regarding British independent funeral firms by conceiving these as a figuration developing over the long-term, and exploring the accounts of funeral directors placed in dialogue with Elias’s ideas. The thesis examines how the key Eliasian concepts of figuration, sociogenesis, habitus and de/civilising processes play out in context, including over-time developments within the British funeral industry. Its focus is ‘thinking with Elias’ about such matters in relation to the everyday working practices of independent funeral directors. Chapter One introduces Elias’s key conceptual ideas. In beginning its ‘fair play’ analysis it discusses criticisms, debates and uses of his work and explores the substantive literature on death, funerals and the British funeral industry. Building on this, Chapter Two considers analytically the process of methodologically trying out potential approaches to thinking with Elias around one of his core ideas, figuration. Departing from Elias’s retrospective approach, it chases the independent funeral firm figuration as it unfolds in the present. Using figuration in thinking with Elias sets the stage for further analytical use of Eliasian concepts in subsequent chapters. Chapter Three explores how sociogenesis works by examining intersections and departures between the funeral directors’ accounts and the Eliasian view of long-term development. Regarding sociogenesis, the ‘actual’ processes of death-related social change were not of central interest to the funeral directors, who were more concerned with ensuring their firms’ persistence. Chapter Four engages with Elias’s ideas about habitus and the we-identities of the independent directors, shared belief and behaviour traditions within and between firms and the directors, and also sources of conflict. Core to this is the emphasis on traditions, although these are present-time ‘invented’ around the priority of remaining in business. Chapter Five presents Elias’s theory of the de/civilising process as his ‘bigger picture’ of social change, and its analysis engages and contrasts this with the independent funeral directors’ accounts of the bigger picture in discussing perceived trends. They respond to changes as these are unfolding, and explain over-time matters of stasis and change as they experience them in ways that challenge Eliasian thinking. Chapter Six discusses the main contributions of the thesis. In using theory and thinking with Elias rather than against him, I have aimed to be a fair player in doing sociology. First, my thesis recognises the importance of context and that how concepts play out in ‘real’ life will vary significantly. Second, in adopting a fair play approach, the thesis provides a detailed empirical example of how to evaluate theorists on their own terms by following in their suggestions and engaging with their ideas in contextual and reflexive ways. It has neither replicated nor reproduced an Eliasian study, but instead demonstrated how actually using it in a context will play out. Third, the thesis has used the Eliasian key concepts of figuration, sociogenesis, habitus and de/civilising in a present-day setting so as to examine how these unfold in the present and can be explored through people’s accounts. Fourth, it analyses the accounts of the independent funeral directors in a fair play way and establishes that their ideas work as theory, as exploring the dialogue between Elias and the funeral directors has shown. Overall, the thesis is a reply to Elias’s call for sociologists to think for themselves, engage with and expand upon ideas and settings to hand, and to pursue the actual processes at work in society.

Abstract There are approximately 5.5 Million individuals in South Africa infected with HIV-1, predominantly subtype C (HIV-1C). The emergence of drug resistance to the current Antiretroviral (ARV) regimes is of great concern, thus development of novel, effective drugs/vaccines is vital. Certain conserved and thus vulnerable epitopes within the viral envelope (Env) involved in coreceptor binding are usually protected from the immune system in peripheral blood by the variable loops. However, in immune-privileged sites the Env of CD4-independent viruses may exist in a pre-triggered state where these coreceptor binding epitopes are exposed. Targeting the conserved sites could effectively neutralize HIV-1. This study aimed to adapt an HIV-1C primary isolate towards CD4- independence in the Cf2Th cell line through serial in vitro passage. Primary viruses from 20 drug-naïve HIV-1 AIDS patients were isolated and genotypically and phenotypically characterized. The highest percentage (30%) of CXCR4-usage amongst primary isolates from HIV-1C (and CD recombinant) infected AIDS patients worldwide was detected. These data may illustrate the increasing frequency of HIV-1C CXCR4- utilizing (X4) viruses with time and may support the theory that env is capable of evolving. The emergence/evolution of HIV-1C X4 viruses may have profound implications for viral pathogenesis, disease progression and future use of CCR5 antagonists as ARVs. Longitudinal follow-up studies on larger cohorts may confirm this finding. The CXCR4-utilizing isolate 05ZAFV03 was successfully adapted and serially passaged 12 times through Cf2Th cells, whilst gradually decreasing amounts of CD4 expressing cells numbers over time. Viral growth was detected with 10% CD4 expressing cells however, 100% CD4-independence was not reached. Proviral DNA from each stage of the adaptation process was sequenced and analyzed for mutations acquired within env. The only amino acid change noted was an E152K mutation within the V1 region at passage 4. Overall, the extent of env diversity appears to be a complex relationship between isolate-specific and cell-type specific factors. Future attempts to obtain and characterize an HIV-1C CD4-independent isolate will provide potential sites for therapeutic intervention by compounds such as small molecule inhibitors and/or neutralizing antibodies against the most globally prevalent HIV-1 subtype.

Thesis (M.M. (ICT Policy and Regulation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2013. / In the year 2004, before the advent of competition in the South African subscription television broadcasting market the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) identified various potential barriers to enter this market. Then, in January 2006 ICASA issued an invitation to apply for commercial satellite and cable subscription television broadcasting licenses. Eighteen applications were received and five were licensed during November 2007. The purpose of this qualitative study is to assess how effective the regulatory approach has been in addressing the identified entry barriers and in promoting competition and convergence in this market. The findings from the research study indicate that there is lack of effective and sustainable competition and convergence in the market, and that the applicable light-touch regulatory approach is preferred for this market but needs to be intensified. This may seem contradictory, but it is not if the regulator is regarded as absconding from its responsibilities. A significant finding is that ICASA is viewed as a weak regulator that is absconding from its regulatory obligations in this market. Some of the important negative findings include: there are extensive barriers to entry which have created an uneven playing field that favours the dominant operator; ICASA and the Department of Communications have been captured by the dominant operator; there is monopoly in the ownership of content rights which stems from abuse of content exclusive rights and lack of relevant regulations; and the regulatory framework and licensing regime should be modified in the context of the migration to the Digital Terrestrial Television transmission, the urgent need to promote competition in this market and the creation of a converged communications industry in the country.

The research topic discussed will explore Independent Living Program (ILP) services within the parameters of the foster care system. The research conducted followed guidelines within the positivist paradigm along with quantitative data collecting to gather information regarding experiences of youth while in the program and independence after the program through the utilization of surveys from those who have emancipated from the foster care system. Participants were eighteen years or older. The study included 28 participants who ranged in age and gender. Surveys were collected and analyzed using Qualtrics and SPSS software. The data collected and analyzed in this research revealed that youth who participate in the ILP services provided by their county have a better success rate of achieving overall success in independence in housing, education, financial support, and emotional/social support. It appears that the participants living situation was stable with majority not living alone. This begs the question that they still depend on others for support with housing needs.