The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa6 (hereinafter the Constitution) gives everyone the right to fair labour practices.7 The Labour Relations Act8 (hereinafter the LRA) regulates the relationship between employers and employees as well as the relationship between employers and trade unions. These labour relations are quite extensively regulated by statutory measures. The same can unfortunately not be said about the relationship between a trade union and its members. Because a trade union is a legal entity, a trade union is controlled and managed by certain functionaries like any body corporate. The management structures of the trade union are defined in the trade union’s constitution. A trade union can not perform any legal functions which are not provided for in the trade union’s constitution. 9 The trade union’s constitution states the nature of the relationship between the union and its members.10 Workers join trade unions in order to protect themselves and their rights in the workplace. An expectation is therefore cultivated by the members that the trade union, through its representative power and mandate to act on behalf of the members, will do so in the best interest of the members. The disruption of the relationship can have negative implications for the trade union. In this study, relevant case law will be sited to explain the contents of the legal responsibility of a trade union to its members. The specific focus of the study is the legal responsibility of a trade union if its members would suffer pecuniary loss or harm as a result of the trade union’s actions. The purpose of this study is to discuss the regulation of the relationship between a trade union and its members in South Africa and to find a solution for the fragmented regulation or non-regulation thereof. The authority that a member grants to a trade union, mostly in the form of a contract, involves the expression of the will of the members that the trade union has the necessary power to perform judicial acts on its behalf. The discussion is limited to the actual authorization originated by a contract of mandate between a trade union and its members. In terms of the common law’s contract of mandate a representative is obliged to perform his orders with care and diligence, convey information, to act in good faith and to account for his actions. There are no statutory measures that regulate the nature of the legal relationship between a trade union and its members provided for in the trade union’s constitution. This study discusses the regulatory challenges that the regulation of the relationship between a trade union and its members in South Africa are facing, and some recommendations are made with regards to the possible application of existing legislation and the common law contract of mandate. / LLM (Labour Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The aim of this study is to evaluate an alternative socio-economical valuation method (i.e., Hybrid Real Options, HRO) to the traditional benefit cost method (CBA) for the evaluation of investments within Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The proposed alternative method will be evaluated by the use of a case study where it is applied and compared to the results of the traditional method. The case study evaluates the socio-economical effects of an investment in Variable Speed Limits along a section of the motorway E18. The results of the study shows that the choice of evaluation methods affects both the investment strategy and the estimated socio-economical benefits of the investment. Using the HRO method yields twice as high socio-economical benefits compared to the CBA method. The main reason for this being that HRO account for risk and uncertainties wheras CBA only accounts for the most probable outcome of the investment. The choice of method is a complex task that involves many stakeholders however a more critical approach to the choice of socio-economical evaluation method is advocated based on the results of this study.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This work attempts to offer an insight into the problematic of the genus Elettariopsis Baker, the last unrevised genus in the subfamily Alpinioideae (Zingiberaceae). Phylogenetic analyses are performed on ITS, matK and DCS sequence data and correlated with absolute genome size and biogeographical distribution of the samples. Elettariopsis as a genus is found to be weakly supported and strongly supported only with the addition of some species of Amomum Roxb., including the type species A. subulatum. The absolute genome size in this group is greater than in the outgroup represented by members of the Zingiberoideae subfamily. The evidence given by sequence data further suggests that Elettariopsis is divided into two well-supported groups, the "E. curtisii" group and the "E. triloba/E. unifolia" group, each of which contains several well-supported clades. In the analysis of absolute genome size it is shown that the absolute genome size in the "E. triloba/E.unifolia" group is higher than in the "E. curtisii" group. These two groups also differ slightly in their biogeographical distribution, the group G being distributed in only in Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, while members of group H are also occurring in Singapore and Indonesia (Borneo). Keywords: Zingiberaceae, Elettariopsis, South-East Asia, ITS,...

This thesis is focused on the diversity of lichen photobionts and its relation to the mycobionts and environmental factors. The key objective is to map the diversity of lichen photobionts of the genus Stereocaulon, which has been insufficiently examined in comparison with related lichens Cladonia and Lepraria. In total, 92 samples belonging to 12 species of genus Stereocaulon were examined, being found in four continents, at the altitude of 50 to 2 900 metres a. s. l., and variety of natural and artificial substrata. Phylogenetic analyses were inferred on the basis of ITS rDNA, actin type I, 18S rDNA and rbcL sequences. Photobionts belonging to two unrelated genera within Trebouxiophyceae, Asterochloris and Chloroidium, were found in thalli of Stereocaulon lichens. While Asterochloris represents one of the most frequent photobionts of various lichens, Chloroidium has been until now recorded as a lichen photobiont very rarely. The content of heavy metals in substratum can be considered as a determinative factor for its occurrence. A new lineage affiliated to genus Asterochloris was discovered on the island La Palma (the Canary Islands). Interestingly, none of common, widespread Asterochloris lineages has been found in this locality. The lichen photobionts of the genus Stereocaulon were discovered in 12 of...

Garry oak (Quercus garryana Douglas ex. Hook) is a white oak (Quercus sect. Quercus) with a geographic range extending from southwestern BC to south-central California. It is the only native white oak in BC and Washington, and is the northernmost species of the California Floristic Province-Pacific Northwest white oak clade. I used molecular methods to address the following questions: 1) What are the patterns of genetic variation within Garry oak? 2) How do these patterns vary geographically, and how did the spatial distribution of the gene lineages come to occupy its current geographical range? 3) Does Garry oak show evidence of genetic interaction with other white oak species in western North America? 4) Is there morphological or genetic evidence to support the three described varieties of Garry oak? I obtained samples of Garry oak from 117 localities over its geographic range, as well as samples of two other California white oaks (Q. lobata and Q. douglasii) and a Rocky Mountain species (Q. gambelii). Analyses of DNA sequence data from four plastid DNA regions revealed 24 distinct molecular variants (haplotypes) in Garry oak. These show a strong south-to-north decrease in genetic diversity, consistent with post-glacial northward expansion. Haplotypes present in the northern part of the range provide evidence of two separate northward migrations, only one of which reached the northern range limit of Garry oak in BC. I found that Garry oak shared plastid DNA haplotypes with two other white oak species, indicating that it hybridizes with other oaks in the southern part of its range. The nuclear ribosomal ITS phylogeny showed poor resolution, but both cpDNA and nrDNA may indicate that Q. garryana is more closely related to the white oaks of central North America than was previously thought. My findings also suggest that the three currently recognized varieties of Garry oak (var. garryana, breweri and semota) are not well differentiated genetically, but show morphological variation at the regional level. This study shows the phylogeographic patterns within Q. garryana. In addition, it contributes to conservation efforts in Garry oak ecosystems by indicating regions of high genetic diversity in Garry oak, including genetically unique populations that may be especially worthy of preservation. / Graduate

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans une démarche Européenne de recherche sous l'égide du projet European Bus System of the Futur (EBSF). Ce projet vise à définir le bus de demain et de préparer son architecture embarquée, aux systèmes de transport intelligents (STI) critiques ou de divertissement, de plus en plus présents dans les véhicules. Les systèmes autrefois hétérogènes et autonomes, devrons à l'avenir communiquer sur une architecture orientée service (SOA) unique. L'objectif est d'optimiser le fonctionnement de l'architecture dans son ensemble grâce à des protocoles de communication ouverts et standards. C'est à partir de cette base, à laquelle nous avons activement apportée notre contribution, que notre thèse s'appuie. Le dimensionnement et la validation de ces architectures sont restés des éléments sans réponse à la suite du projet EBSF. Cette thèse présente premièrement une méthode dimensionnement des architectures STI basée sur les méthodes de décision multi-critères. Nous nous basons sur une étude poussée des besoins opérationnels collectés tout au long de la thèse. Dans un deuxième temps, nous adaptons le modèle de Criticité Mixte, définit dans le domaine du temps réel, aux flux de communication entre le véhicule et l'infrastructure. Enfin nous présentons les travaux réalisés dans le cadre de la standardisation européenne afin de promouvoir ce type d'architecture et les travaux de cette thèse / Intelligent Transportation systems (ITS) are massively used in the Public Transport sector since the Two decades. This profusion of systems on-board and off-board vehicles generates inter-operability issues. The growth of urban zones and the increase of public transport attractiveness, brought multi-modal constraints that are today limited due to a lack of architecture vision embracing all ITS. This thesis proposes to unify the architecture vision of on-board ITS. We based our technical architecture on the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) proposed in the European Bus System of the Future (EBSF) project, in which this thesis actively contributed. We study first the global requirements of different transportation modes operated in Europe. Those requirements are a basis to the definition of technical constraints of a global architecture. Those constraints are ranked in terms of importance using a proposed method based on Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques. The method that we propose permits to size the technical architecture. We then study the flow management of data, considering the context of operation of vehicles and the criticality of ITS applications. We propose to adapt the Real-time Mixed-Criticality model to communication systems on-board the vehicles. We apply this method on a communication gateway of a bus, through its journey. Finally we present the work done at the standardization level (CEN) in order promote the global architecture vision presented in the thesis

For applications that rely on User-Generated Content (UGC), there is a need to find what may motivate the applications user base to consistently contribute with quality content. One category of such applications is Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) traffic applications, which serve a specific goal; providing useful traffic-oriented content. By implementing useful incentives into Intelligent Transportation System traffic applications, the applications can better serve their purposes, and at the same time, improve their user's experience. Incentives are intrinsic or extrinsic, i.e., the motivation comes from internal- or external stimuli, which can motivate users in different ways and produce different incentive outcomes. To find the most useful incentives, and gain a better understanding of how to best stimulate active application participation, the research question addressed by this thesis is: Which incentives are useful for increasing quality content in the field of ITS traffic applications? The main method employed to address the research question was a survey. The survey was carried out to investigate what people thought was motivating in ITS traffic applications. In addition to the survey, an interview with the project manager of a Swedish ITS traffic application was done. Previous research concludes that the gain and the incentive for people or organizations hosting UGC are apparent, but the gain for the creators is not as clearly recognized and varies in which area the content is created. The findings of this study showed, from a user perspective, an interest in helping others and monetary gain, as potential incentives for implementation. The authors concluded that intrinsic inclined incentives should work better in-line with the goal of functionality and user long-term engagement, which the authors believe would be preferable for UGC based ITS traffic applications. These findings will be useful for understanding the optimal way to increase motivation for adequate quality UGC in ITS traffic applications.

Numerous methods to assess student knowledge are present throughout every step of a students€™ education. Skill-based assessments include homework, quizzes and tests while curriculum exams comprise of the SAT and GRE. The latter assessments provide an indication as to how well a student has retained a learned national curriculum however they are unable to identify how well a student performs at a fine grain skill level. The former assessments hone in on a specific skill or set of skills, however, they require an excessive amount of time to collect curriculum-wide data. We've developed a system that assesses students at a fine grain level in order to identify non- mastered skills within each student€™s zone of proximal development. €œPLACEments€� is a graph-driven computer adaptive test which not only provides thorough student feedback to educators but also delivers a personalized remediation plan to each student based on his or her identified non-mastered skills. As opposed to predicting state test scores, PLACEments objective is to personalize learning for students and encourage teachers to employ formative assessment techniques in the classroom. We have conducted a randomized controlled study to evaluate the learning value PLACEments provides in comparison to traditional methods of targeted skill mastery and retention.