Malaria kills nearly 1.5 million and affects more than 500 million people annually, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. The malaria parasite has developed resistance against almost all of the known drugs used for treatment. This fact has resulted in a constant battle between developing new anti-malarials and the parasite evolving resistance. One of the main drug combinations, pyrimethamine/sulfadoxine, targets the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and dehydropteroate synthase (DHPS) proteins in the folate synthesis pathway of human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. The folate synthesis pathway is absent from the human host and thus presents itself as an ideal target for parasite-specific drugs. The three dimensional atomic coordinates of a target protein can help in designing new, more effective drugs. Malarial proteins are notoriously difficult to crystallize and thus homology modelling was chosen as an alternative method to obtain a protein structure. DHPS and PPPK occur as a bifunctional protein in the folate metabolism pathway. In this study, homology modelling was used to do in silico modelling of P. falciparum DHPS and hydroxymethyldihydropteridine pyrophosphokinase (PPPK). For the P. falciparum DHPS model the crystal structures of M. tuberculosis and B. anthracis DHPS were used as templates and for the P. falciparum PPPK model, the crystal structure ofE. coli PPPK. Molecular dynamics was used to investigate loop movement in DHPS and PPPK as well as to reveal the effect of resistance-causing mutations on sulfadoxine binding in P. falsiparum DHPS. This study revealed that four of the five known sulfadoxine resistance-causing mutations in DHPS disrupt the interaction between sulfadoxine and DHPS. This translates to a reduced capacity for sulfadoxine to inhibit DHPS, and results in resistance. The simulations also showed that both DHPS and PPPK have extensive loop movements during catalysis. The loop movements in DHPS and PPPK may also play a role in determining the catalytic rate of the enzymes. The work presented here provides researchers with models of P. falsiparum DHPS and PPPK. These models can be used to design experiments to investigate resistance, design new drugs and probe the structure of the PPPK-DHPS bifunctional enzyme. / Dissertation (MSc (Biochemistry))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Biochemistry / unrestricted

I did my utmost best to present what I consider to be the essence of human rights from the perspective of the Bible. In my view human rights are a modern discovery and re-defining of what had long been implied, acknowledged and taught in the Bible. The implied form and acknowledgement of human rights in the Bible need not be overshadowed and hidden away by many of Bible characters’ sinful nature and acts (as all Bible characters except Christ were also born with a fallen and sinful nature, which needed God’s redemption by faith). Instead, they need to be perceived in God’s divine intention, which has progressively been revealed in God’s interaction with the Israelites and other nations and culminated in both the personhood and exemplary saving acts of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23,24). My opinion is that in the Bible human rights have been expressed in the context of both the Israelite religion and culture, whereas currently there is a need and tendency to express them in an inter-cultural approach, which is driven by the trend of globalization. While in modern times context human rights have been expressed as human rights, in the Bible context they had long been implied in and acknowledged and expressed as an integral part of every person’s free will of choice imparted at man’s creation. In my view the Bible is authoritative because it is probably the only classic book that identifies every human being with our creator, God. It highlights the need for and possibility of a unique God-man relationship, which all people are worthy of to be identified with the only highest being such as God. The Bible serves as the source of information about the needed meaningful relationship that identifies people with their creator, God. It contains stories that inform us about various people’s counter-active relationship with God. Its authority, in my opinion is further demonstrated by the way it shows the necessity and possibility of developing the creator-creature (i.e.God-man) relationship, which lifts up human beings to the status above all other creatures. The authority of the message of the Bible from its various stories needs to be understood and accepted in the light of Christ’s exemplary constructive attitude towards the Scriptures of his time. His un-conniving but constructively critical attitude towards the unacceptable cultural aspects before and during his time show us the exemplary attitude people must adopt towards all cultures and the Bible. My opinion is that Christ needs to be seen as a corrective measure against both Bible and non-Bible characters before his time. He also needs to be seen as the role model to all people of our times, so that we can meaningfully implement and promote human rights. Christ-like love and attitude towards other people need to underscore everything we do or say in order that we may meaningfully implement and promote human rights. Human dignity, in my opinion, is one of the underlying factors, which has undisputedly long been acknowledged and promoted by the Bible. The identification of every person with the creator of the universe, God, implies the acknowledgement of human dignity in the highest dimension that cannot be surpassed by anything. Human dignity in the light of man’s identification with God puts God as the highest moral criterion worthy to be complied with by every person. Human dignity also implies that every person was created and is born with a free will of choice. With free will of choice goes the responsibility for every personal choice made by a human being at the age of accountability. In my opinion there is commonality between the need for every person to be accountable and God as every person’s highest moral criterion worthy to comply with. Current controversy on homosexuality is regarded by me as a situation that challenges us to agree to disagree as groups and individuals. None of us should judge another. None should compel the other to think and believe against personal choice. While there will always be disagreements, it is only practical outcomes of our choices and acts which help us have a much more objective judgement of them. The present general consensus on promiscuity as one of the contributing factors to the spread of HIV/AIDS is a good example. Here the ultimate concrete results serve to unite the previously divided opinions on the culpability of promiscuous life style, which according to human rights is blameless as a result of consensus of two individuals. In the words of Jesus (Matthew 13:24-30) undisputable judgement will finally be affirmed by God. My opinion is that God’s judgement will amaze all people. God’s ways and thoughts are higher than human beings’ ways and thoughts, (Isaiah 55:9). Therefore, his judgement will be unique. He will judge people’s acts and thoughts in the light of seen and unseen motives behind them. While every person has the freedom to choose what he or she wants to be, every person is accountable for the outcomes of his or her choice and actions. ‘Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account,’ (Hebrews 4:13). / Thesis (PhD (New Testament))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / New Testament Studies / unrestricted

An increasing number of ebusiness projects are undertaken as voluntary collaborations of independent organizations. These projects are known as ‘ebusiness collaborative projects’. Industry sources estimate only about 20% of these projects achieve their stated objectives due partly to inadequate project management. The volunteer and virtual nature of the collaboration and relationships among the participating organizations means existing project management frameworks and methods are not appropriate because they assume project management has authority, or that projects occur within a single organization. This thesis investigates the nature of ebusiness collaborative projects to provide insight into management approaches that increase the likelihood of success. The research questions are: What concepts need to be addressed in a framework capable of supporting effective management and providing an understanding of ebusiness collaborative project outcomes? Is there an existing framework with this capability? Are the concepts supported by empirical evidence and a sound theoretical base? Can these concepts be used to form an integrated framework suitable for use by practitioners? A qualitative meta analysis of 6 published case studies identified characteristics that explained challenges specific to ebusiness collaborative project management. Empirical research identified concepts that need to be addressed in a management framework, namely: 3 organizational levels – organizations, teams and representatives; 3 stages of the eBusiness Collaborative Project Lifecycle© and; 4 management meta factors - motivation, capability, communication and coordination These concepts were supported by theory. In the absence of an existing framework, the concepts were used to develop the Integrated Framework for Managing eBusiness Collaborative Projects. Five additional case studies were used to evaluate the Integrated Framework and its usefulness for practitioners. Findings indicate the Integrated Framework is capable of supporting effective management and providing an understanding of the outcomes of ebusiness collaborative projects within the Australian context. This thesis contributes to knowledge by integrating and building on theory and existing research about project management, collaborations and virtuality and applying these findings to a real world environment. The Integrated Framework enhances industry best practice and may apply to all collaborative projects in which participating organizations volunteer to work towards an agreed objective or outcome.

Pas de résumé / No abstract

The provision of public services has changed significantly over the years. One of the more recent changes has involved the increased delivery of public services by non-governmental organizations, whether these organizations be private in nature or belong to the so-called third sector. The third sector is known by a number of different terms, including the non-profit sector, the voluntary sector, civil society, and the social economy. Of particular interest in this study are those social economy organizations (SEOs) that receive the whole or a part of their revenue from the government. These organizations must be accountable to the government for the funds that government provides to them. The purpose of this accountability is to ensure SEOs undertake their obligations to use public resources effectively and to deliver quality public services. One potential accountability challenge involves the limitations associated with the performance evaluation of SEOs, since performance is often not easily observable. Performance is comprised of two parts: the work done by the organization (output) and the impact of this work (outcome). The difficulty in the observation of both outputs and outcomes may result in a conflict for the SEOs between focusing on observable parts of their work that can be more readily measured and reported to meet accountability requirements versus work with less tangible outputs and outcomes. In a funding agreement between an SEO and government, the SEO might have to agree with government requirements, for instance, to follow standardized procedures so that the government can monitor the observable aspects of its work. This requirement may conflict with the SEO’s desire to focus on things that are not observable, and consequently not funded by the government, but are important to the SEO’s mission and social goals. The goal of this research study is to examine the challenges that arise in the operation of SEOs, given that they need to be responsive to government’s expectations and at the same time follow their mission requirements. In-depth interviews were used to examine the extent to which outputs and outcomes are unobservable in SEOs as well as the possible conflicts that might arise between competing objectives within SEOs. Interview participants are three SEO executive directors and one manager, each of whom is responsible for the work carried out by his or her respective SEO. A government employee involved in providing funding to one of the SEOs was also interviewed. The results of this study suggest that the SEOs that were examined have varying degrees of unobservable outputs and outcomes. This study also found that organizations with a greater percentage of unobservable outputs and outcomes experienced a greater degree of conflict in their relationships with government. One of the reasons for the conflict is that the SEO personnel felt that the government focused its attention too much on the observable outputs/outcomes and not enough on outputs and outcomes that, although unobservable, were nevertheless important to clients and the public. Moreover, the SEOs examined in this study that serve specific groups of clients, such as seniors or immigrants, experienced less conflict than those whose services (e.g., increasing environmental sustainability) target the general public. The results of this research have implications for the way in which government structures its activities. Over the last 25-30 years, governments have, through New Public Management (NPM), privatized the provision of public services and encouraged greater competition in the delivery of public services. The results of the analysis carried out in this thesis suggest that this restructuring may not be as effective in situations where the services are directed toward the general public and/or where the services provided involve unobservable outputs and outcomes. The added conflict that appears to accompany these situations suggests that there may be goals and objectives that are important to society but are not being met through the contractual relationship established between the government and the SEO. Since NPM is expected to remain in place, government may wish to find ways of better addressing important unobservable outputs and outcomes. One suggestion, drawn from the interviews with SEOs, is that the government officials who are assigned to work with SEOs should have a good knowledge of the SEOs and be familiar with their missions and functions. This knowledge and familiarity might enable the government officials to evaluate the degree to which non-observable outputs and outcomes are being provided, which in turn might reduce conflict and ensure a better provision of services to clients and the public.

Sustainability is a growing trend and companies are increasingly engaging sustainability in their core business strategy. One example of how this is manifested is through the development of products that are  labelled as energy-efficient. There is a lack of insights into how consumers perceive and gain benefits from such sustainable products, particularly so regarding the nonfunctional and non-economical benefits and into how culture influences those benefits. The purpose of this study is to investigate consumer perceived non-functional and non-economical benefits that are associated  with energy-efficient products,  in order to gain a deeper understanding on how the Swedish compared to the Thai culture influence consumers perception of energy efficient products within the home appliance industry. The literature review regarding the  symbolic meaning of products concludes that the most relevant perceived benefits of products includes emotional-, self-expressiveness-, and social benefits. A cross-cultural quantitative study performed in Sweden and Thailand determines that culture influences consumers understanding of products and thereby influence their perceived benefit from energyefficient home appliances. How culture influences consumer perceived benefits depends on the characteristics of the different cultural dimensions established by Hofstede (2010), involving: power distance, masculinity, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation.

The pedagogical debates within language learning and language teaching have emphasized motivation as one of the key factors. Conversely, the broadness of motivation and its complexity has been acknowledged as a challenging concept which is difficult to grasp. This study aims at examining motivation as a concept determined by different internal and external factors which also shape individuals’ attitudes towards language learning. With the aim of understanding the existence of motivation and attitudes in a variety of contexts, individuals’ level of language knowledge is the point of departure in this study. Motivation and attitudes in language learning are examined in the light of individuals’ learning experiences, personal beliefs, self-determination and personal goals.

Most of Peter Ackroyd&rsquo / s work takes place in London, and the city can be said to be a unifying element in his work. Even those of his novels that do not use London as a setting are about London and Londoners, in history and in the present. London, in Ackroyd&rsquo / s work, is represented by multiple points of view &ndash / firstly that of a historical personage and secondly of a researcher in the present day. Through the use of such a structure, Ackroyd parodies biography writing (by rewriting and distorting the life of a historical Londoner), and detective fiction (by making the contemporary researcher ineffectual and underqualified). These narratives, while being clearly separate and linear in themselves, focus on London, which acts as a bridge between the characters and themes in the separate centuries, culminating in their merge at the end. Thus, methods of rewriting in Ackroyd&rsquo / s work come together in the ulterior aim of rewriting the city of London. The main aim of this dissertation is to account for the various types of rewriting and parody that becomes evident in Ackroyd&rsquo / s fiction. In the light of the discussions on parody of detective fiction and biography in each chapter, this dissertation will attempt to view Ackroyd&rsquo / s fiction as a chronological metamorphosis of London itself, through rewriting its artists and their texts as productions of London.

Zhang, Lucy Chen, Master of Public Policy, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 2013. Policy Evaluation: A Case Study of Genome Canada Programming, 2000-2011. Supervisor: Dr. Peter W. B. Phillips The policy evaluation literature on research programing generally focuses on the cost-benefit of different choices in research systems. This thesis applies evaluation tools to assess the fit between project allocations and the strategic goals of Genome Canada, a major research funding organization in Canada. Genome Canada (GC) was established in April, 2000, to provide funding and information resources related to genomics research. The research targets many key areas, such as health, agriculture, environment, forestry, energy, mining and fisheries. Since then the scientific community has partnered with government, the private sector, and international organizations to fund research projects on genomics related subjects. Four open competitions (I, II, III and Applied Genomics in Bio-products and Crops or ABC), combined with a wide array of more targeted projects, have collectively been allocated more than C$2 billion in total investment for the 2000-2014 period. This study assesses how well these research projects fit the stated goals of Genome Canada. The study assesses the fit between the goals and research investment decisions of GC. As a first step in this research, we conducted a review of Genome Canada operations to develop the background understanding of the system and its structure. After reviewing the goals, structure, selection processes and progress reports, we found that there was no explicit assessment of the fit between the stated goals and resource allocation decisions. This study targets to fill this area. Second, we investigated the methods used by GC to develop and implement their goals. Once we understood these methods, we developed a research approach to assess the fit between the goals and the outputs. The model was built to test each project against the stated overall program objectives, namely to: develop and implement a coordinated strategy for the technology in Canada; bring together industry, governments, universities, research hospitals and the public to support large-scale genomics and proteomics research projects; provide accessibility to science & technology platforms to researchers; and assist in attracting co-funding for projects from both domestic and international investors. Third, we determined that the review processes contain scientific, financial and management criteria. By using the STATA tool, we tested the relationship between the stated goals of the organization and the share of funds allocated to specific projects both in the total pool of investments and the open competitions. The analysis revealed that the overall fit for the entire investment program between 2001 and 2011 was about 35%, which is quite reasonable for such an analysis. We found the most important variable affecting resource allocation was the quality of the principal investigator. Other stated goals of GC were either less important or insignificant. By segmenting the analysis into the open-competition investments alone, we discovered the fit deteriorated (R2 of 34% dropped to 22%), which suggests the directed investments are a stronger fit with the goals. While we could not conclusively determine the cause, it might be attributed to either weaknesses in the competitive process or a particularly effective and strategic effort by Genome Canada staff. Further analysis would be needed to determine this.

The aim of this study is to find out the main psychological problems of inner migrants’ children in Guiyang and to give some suggestions to treat these problems. Compared to other social groups, inner migrants’ children meet specific psychological issue in migrate processing. It is a world-wide issue, especially in the developing countries today. In this research, both qualitative method and quantitative one are used. The research result shows that there are three aspects that influence the psychological condition of the inner migrants’ children most. They are social-economic condition of the family, school environment, and social policy.