This thesis analyses the integration of knowledge (disciplinary, expert and lay) in order to contribute to the understanding of how knowledge can be integrated for conservation.  Specifically, the thesis asks: a) how the knowledge of social and natural sciences can be integrated to better manage social-ecological systems; b) what the barriers are to integrating different types of knowledge; c) what the outcomes are of integrating different forms of knowledge; d) what type of participation can best sustain action; and e) how participation can improve adaptive capacity. In Chapter 3 the underlying philosophies of the social and natural sciences are mapped out and evaluated, demonstrating how taking one philosophical stance over another influences project methodology and outcome.  The mapping process may also benefit knowledge integration by enabling researchers to make their underlying assumptions explicit.  In Chapter 4 current cross-disciplinary research in conservation is analysed: results suggests more integrative research (interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary) has a higher impact on practitioners whereas less integrative research has a higher impact on colleagues.  Using conservation case studies from England, Scotland and Wales, Chapters 5 and 6 investigate some claims made for participation in conservation.  Chapter 5 analyses the satisfaction of participants with implications for participant recruitment and retention. Chapter 6 evaluates how participation and how particular participatory approaches may influence participant learning.  Results indicate a strong link between the integration of participants and types of learning that are considered to build adaptive capacity. Findings indicate that the approach taken to integrating knowledge can directly affect who benefits from the research, methodological flexibility participant satisfaction and learning.

Learning organizations is a concept which is little understood and researched in Southern Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe. The researcher chose the subject matter of learning organizations because she feels it is critical to the success of organizations. To date in most organizations the understanding of learning organizations and what they represent has been understood to a very small extent, if any at all. The concept of learning organizations has been researched and practiced mainly in the European and American parts of the world but not to the same extent in Africa. This paper seeks to examine, The extent to which organizations in Zimbabwe are learning organizations, a case study of BancABC.

Current trends indicate that the prevalence of ontologies will continue to increase within many domains. They are already commonly used to define controlled medical terminologies and form the backbone of the Semantic Web initiative. Very few tools that support versioning of ontologies are currently available, and those that provide difference detection and visualization are particularly lacking. We have implemented a tool called PROMPT-Viz that provides advanced visualizations using treemaps to help understand the location, impact, type and extent of changes that have occurred between versions on an ontology. PROMPT-Viz runs as a plug-in for the popular ProtCgC knowledge engineering environment and as such should be applicable to a large number of ontology developers.

I explore the traditional contention that a priori epistemic warrants enjoy some sort of higher epistemic security than empirical warrants. By focusing on warrants that might plausibly be called 'basic', and by availing myself of an original taxonomy of epistemic defeaters, I defend a claim in the vicinity of the traditional contention. By discussing some examples, I argue that basic a priori warrants are immune to some sort of empirical defeaters, which I describe in detail. An important by-product of my investigation is a novel theory of epistemic defeaters, according to which only agents able to engage in higher-order epistemic thinking can suffer undermining defeat, while wholly unreflective agents can, in principle, suffer overriding defeat.

The aim of this thesis is to offer up a structure of what I call Emotional Self-Knowledge—roughly, knowledge of one’s own emotions. I begin with a broad understanding of an emotion event, according to which emotion events include a set of bodily feelings in response to some object. I then argue that knowledge of the object and the feeling of the emotion are required parts of knowing one’s own emotions if we expect emotional self-knowledge to be prudentially useful. I then outlining three levels of emotional self. The first requires knowledge of the feeling on is experiencing; the second requires that knowledge plus knowledge of the emotionally-salient object. The final level is knowledge of one’s emotional dispositions, and as such is the most robust form of emotional self-knowledge. I conclude by examining some cases in which emotional self-knowledge can be usefully applied towards an agents own prudential goals.

Nationally an increased inequality in oral health is seen. Children coming from a lower socioeconomicbackground, as well as children with immigrant background show a higherprevalence of caries. The reason for this can be cultural differences but also parentalunawareness.In this study, the differences in knowledge and oral health habits of children aged 7-8 areinvestigated. The hypothesis is that an increased education and training of oral health inprimary school can help to provide a more equitable oral health in children, regardless oftheir background.Three schools where chosen for this study based on their representation of different socioeconomicareas. A total of 176 pupils participated in the study, where they were asked to fillout a questionnaire about their habits and knowledge of oral health. The same questionnairewas filled out at a later time after they had an educational session and illustrative teachingmaterial was handed out to all of the pupils. The results from the first and second sessionwere compared and analysed.This study shows that there are big differences in children’s oral habits and knowledge inbetween different schools depending on their socioeconomic level. Differences could also beseen depending on the children’s cultural background, as children with foreign-born parentshad a lower knowledge and in some aspects more lacking oral habits. It could also beconcluded that education in school had a positive impact on the children’s knowledge in oral health regardless of their background.

In the FORCEnet Functional Concept document published by the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the leaders of the US Naval Forces called for the development of "adaptive, distributed networks of commanders, staffs, operating units, supporting organizations, sensors, weapons and other equipment interacting with one another on an underlying infrastructure, as well as the associated command and control policies, concepts, organizations... to allow them to interact." Posed to invest in the development of the FORCEnet architecture, the Navy and Marine Corps require a means of analysis to determine the value of information technologies prior to development and acquisition. The Knowledge Value Added (KVA) methodology can provide the decision makers with quantitative tools to make informed and accurate decisions in the acquisitions process of information technologies within the FORCEnet Functional Concept framework. Historically, these decisions were based on costs, schedule, and capabilities, with the emphasis on cost. A Proof of Concept analyzing the Joint Forces Maritime Component Command Planning Process was developed to demonstrate the utility of the KVA method. This analysis demonstrates the current inefficiencies within the process and the potential value of notional information technologies that could be developed to support the planning process. / US Marine Corps (USMC) author.

M.B.A. / The following study concerns Knowledge Management and Outsourcing in an IT environment. More specifically, it gives a brief description of what Knowledge Management is; the different types and phases, the economics and strategies, different drivers, the outcomes, critical success factors, the benefits, frameworks and the influence that Knowledge Management has on competitiveness and innovation in the workplace. The topic is concluded with a discussion around technologies for enabling Knowledge Management. Also discussed in the study is the definition of Outsourcing, the different theories, critical success factors, drivers and moving from traditional to transformational Outsourcing. Mention is also made about some of the obstacles and problems associated with Outsourcing and the different prescriptive models around. Lastly, the determinants of organisational adoption and the stages of the Outsourcing framework are discussed in depth. The original decision was to develop a questionnaire and distribute it throughout the company, Business Connexion, a leader in the IT Outsourcing industry. However, due to time constraints and the number of potential employees, approximately 4700, it was agreed upon to only target the staff members within the Outsourcing division. At the time of the questionnaire, the total number of employees was 539 and 127 participated in this study by responding via a URL link set up by Statkon, a division of the University of Johannesburg. The responses were fed into a database which produced the relevant results for this particular study. These questionnaires were designed to specifically measure the varying issues surrounding Knowledge Management and Outsourcing in an IT environment. Due to the fact that this study was implemented within only one division of the organisation, it is important to note that the findings of this study cannot be generalised, thus providing an opportunity for future comparative research.

The following purposes were proposed in undertaking the study: 1. to determine the health knowledge of the students selected for the study, as indicated by a standardized test; 2. to determine the health practices of the students selected for the study, as indicated by a standardized inventory; and 3. to determine if there is a relation between the health knowledge and the health practices of the students selected for the study.

The effective use of computer based tools to support decision making in manufacturing industry is critical to business success. One of the most critical areas is during product design and especially in design for manufacture. This research will help in understanding of how manufacturing knowledge can be effectively maintained for an existing knowledge base. The work will use modern product lifecycle management tools in combination with a knowledge based environment in order to explore the effectiveness of the methods produced. This work is a part of the SAMULET (Strategic Affordable Manufacturing in the UK through Leading Environmental Technologies) research program and was done in association with an aerospace manufacturing company. The main focus of this research is to define a novel method for maintaining the machining knowledge associated with manufacturing of Xtra Wide Body (XWB) High Pressure (HP) turbine blade. The four main elements explained in this thesis are, a) the literature review done on knowledge management and knowledge maintenance, b) industrial investigation done on a manufacturing facility, c) detailed explanation of a novel manufacturing knowledge maintenance method d) four iterative case studies used for the evaluation and iterative improvement of the method. The research concludes that the aspect of knowledge maintenance is important. It is imperative to set out a formalised and mandated knowledge maintenance process in an organisation to keep the knowledge up-to-date and relevant. It has been shown that a novel task based knowledge maintenance method comprising a Knowledge Maintenance Process (KMP) and a Knowledge Maintenance Template (KMT) provides an effective route to knowledge maintenance. Three maintenance tasks, check relevancy, knowledge filtering, and integrity checking have been considered in detail for successful knowledge maintenance. Four iterative case studies have been conducted for the experimental evaluation of the maintenance method. As the result of these evaluations a novel method for maintaining the machining knowledge of XWB HP turbine blade was defined.