Thesis (MPhil (Rehabilitation))--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A qualitative study was utilised as it was appropriate for the study of attitudes of non-disabled people of Sakhisizwe towards people with disabilities (PWDs). This case study set out to: investigate the perceptions of people with disabilities with regard to attitudes towards them; examine the nature of attitudes toward people with disabilities; determine the impact and influence of attitudes on the integration of people with disabilities; and determine facilitators and barriers with regard to the integration of people with disabilities. This instrumental case study explored the attitudes of non-disabled people towards disabled people of Sakhisizwe Local Service Area in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The researcher used convenience sampling to select a group of disabled participants from a meeting of the disabled structure held at one of the clinics of Sakhisizwe, to form a focus group. In the focus group of disabled people, two participants were identified as information-rich and were selected using purposive sampling for further interrogation. A convenience sample was used to select mostly three diverse groups of non-disabled participants from youth (seven participants), clergy (seven participants), community members (10participants) and one group of disabled people consisting of six participants making a total of four groups to conduct focus groups interviews. Furthermore, three key informants (traditional healer, social worker and local councilor) from the community at large were also purposively selected. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews guided by interview schedules for focus groups, disabled individuals‘ interviews, as well as for the three key informants‘ interviews. To supplement the data, observation was done to study the behaviours of people with disabilities in the service centre towards non-disabled people, and vice versa. Data was analysed by the process of inductive thematic analysis in which four themes emerged. These were: attitudes of non-disabled people towards people with disabilities; determinants of different disabilities; challenges facing young people with disabilities; and confidence and self-esteem of people with disabilities. In conclusion, it is recommended that the community identify the general public education and awareness in order to change the negative attitudes that lead to social exclusion and marginalisation of people with disabilities. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die houdings van nie-gestremde persone teenoor persone met gestremdhede in Sakhisizwe is deur middel van ʼn kwalitatiewe studie ondersoek. Hierdie gevalstudie het ook nagevors hoe persone met gestremdhede hierdie houdings ervaar; die aard van die hierdie houdings; asook die impak en gevolg hiervan op die integrasie van persone met gestremdhede in die samelewing met spesifieke verwysing na fasilitators ('facilitators') of hindernisse. Hierdie waardevolle gevalstudie is in die Sakhisizwe Plaaslike Dienste Area in die Oos Kaap provinsie van Suid Afrika gedoen. 'n Fokusgroep is gekies deur middel van 'n gerieflikheidsteekproef ('convenience sample') uit ʼn groep persone met gestremdhede wat 'n vergadering oor gestremde bestuurstrukture by een van die plaaslike klinieke in Sakhisizwe bygewoon het. Uit die fokusgroep is twee deelnemers met ryk ervarings geïdentifiseer as doelbewuste streekproef ('purposive sampling') vir verdere onderhoude. Benewens die fokusgroep van 10 persone met gestremdhede, is drie verdere fokusgroepe vanuit die geledere van nie-gestremde persone gekies. Die groeperings was uiteenlopend en het deelnemers vanuit die volgende groepe ingesluit, naamlik: die jeug (sewe deelnemers), geestelike leiers (sewe deelnemers), en gemeenskapslede (10 deelnemers). 'n Verdere drie persone is doelbewus ('purposive sampling') as sleutel informante van die groter gemeenskap gekies (tradisionele geneser, maatskaplike werker en plaaslike raadslid). Data was deur middel van semi gestruktureerde onderhoude vir elk van die vier fokus groepe ingesamel. Hierdie data is aangevul deur die wedersydse gedrag van persone met gestremdhede en nie – gestremde persone waar te neem en te bestudeer. Deur middel van induktiewe tematiese ontleding ('inductive thematic analysis') van die data is vier temas geidientifiseer. Houdings van nie – gestremde persone teenoor persone met gestremdhede; bepalende faktore van verskillende tipes gestremdheid; uitdagings wat alle persone met gestremdhede in die gesig staar; asook selfvertroue en self-beeld van persone met gestremdhede. Ten slotte word aanbeveel dat die gemeenskap self die algemene opvoeding en bewusmaking ten opsigte van gestremde persone aanspreek sodat die negatiewe houdings wat lei tot sosiale uitsluiting en gemarginaliseerdheid ('marginalization') aangespreek kan word.

In the modern political environment in the United States, voting is the most common form of political participation. Many individuals consider voting to be a simple process, but it is a form of political participation that requires various costs from both the individuals casting their ballot and the authority systems organizing and managing elections. In recent years new voting programs have been established to lower costs, increase voter turnout, and add flexibility to the voting process through the use of modern technology. The following research examines the new Vote Center Model of running elections being implemented in Wayne, Tippecanoe, and Cass Counties in Indiana. Elections held in 2007 and 2008 will be studied, attempting to determine the effect of the Vote Center Model on running elections when compared to the traditional Precinct Model. / Department of Political Science

Ingeniero Civil Eléctrico / El análisis de sentimientos o sentiment analysis es el estudio por el cual se determina la opinión de las personas en Internet sobre algún tema en específico, prediciendo la polaridad de los usuarios (a favor, en contra, neutro, etc), abarcando temas que van desde productos, películas, servicios a intereses socio-culturales como elecciones, guerras, fútbol, etc. En el caso particular de esta memoria, se estudian los principales métodos usados en la literatura para realizar un análisis de sentimientos y se desarrolla un caso empleando parte de estas técnicas con sus respectivos resultados. La plataforma escogida fue Twitter, debido a su alto uso en Chile y el caso de estudio trata acerca de las elecciones presidenciales primarias realizadas en la Alianza por Chile entre los candidatos Andrés Allamand de Renovación Nacional (RN) y Pablo Longueira del partido Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI). De esta forma, se busca predecir los resultados de las primarias, identificando la gente que está a favor de Allamand y la gente que apoya a Longueira. De igual manera, se busca identificar a los usuarios que están en contra de uno o ambos candidatos. Para predecir la opinión de los usuarios se diseñó un diccionario con palabras positivas y negativas con un puntaje asociado, de manera que al encontrar estos términos en los tweets se determina la polaridad del mensaje pudiendo ser positiva, neutra o negativa. El Algoritmo diseñado tiene un acierto cercano al 60% al ocupar las 3 categorías, mientras que si sólo se ocupa para determinar mensajes positivos y negativos la precisión llega a un 74%. Una vez catalogados los tweets se les asigna el puntaje a sus respectivos usuarios de manera de sumar estos valores a aquellas cuentas que tengan más de un tweet, para luego poder predecir el resultado de las elecciones por usuario. Finalmente, el algoritmo propuesto determina como ganador a Pablo Longueira (UDI) por sobre Andrés Allamand (RN) con un 53% de preferencia mientras que en las elecciones en urnas realizadas en Julio de 2013 en Chile el resultado fue de un 51% sobre 49% a favor de Longueira, lo cual da un error de un 2%, lo que implica que el análisis realizado fue capaz de predecir, con un cierto margen de error, lo que sucedió en las elecciones. Como trabajo futuro se plantea usar el diccionario y algoritmo diseñados para realizar un análisis de sentimientos en otro tema de interés y comprobar su efectividad para diferentes casos y plataformas.

This thesis is an examination of the printed media in France (1955-1963), as represented by two mainstream newspapers: Le Monde (left-centrist) and Le Figaro (right-centrist). Using these newspapers, as well as Gallup polls recorded at the time, this study explores correlations of what was reported in newspapers and how French public opinion evolved during the course of the war. These two major sources of information are shown to have given contradictory information, thus accounting for some of the paradoxes found in public opinion polls. Specifically, the paradoxes analyzed in the study concern the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) and the Pieds-Noirs (the European population of North Africa).

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis proposes the study of rumor as a guide to the battle for hearts and minds in Iraq. It reviews existing rumor theory to identify how rumors function and what we can learn from them. Rumors often serve as a window into a community, and can provide valuable information for developing a campaign to assess, monitor, and gain the support necessary to defeat insurgents. This thesis employs two distinct typologies to analyze over ten months of rumors in Baghdad, Iraq. The motivation typology provides indications of Iraqi sentiment, and suggests unrelieved anxiety and fear is likely contributing to widespread hostility towards the US-led Coalition. Indications of unrealistic expectations are also evident, potentially contributing to hostility levels as they go unrealized. The subject typology identifies overarching concerns of the Iraqi people, and suggests there are specific fears inhibiting cooperation with US counterinsurgency efforts. This thesis then examines rumor remedies. Because they rely on effective communication skills, American and Arab cultural communication styles are contrasted and integrated into tailored remedies for Iraq. The findings in this thesis could assist Coalition information campaigns by alerting them to existing Iraqi perceptions so they can tailor messages to address significant concerns and fears. / Captain, United States Air Force

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited / This thesis analyzes the civil-military relations in the Republic of South Africa as of the end of apartheid. The analysis is based on the theoretical framework of Charles Moskos et al. Based on the development of the civil-military relations in the US as of the end of the Cold War, the Moskos paradigm uses a number of case studies such as those of the UK, France or Germany to confirm the US patterns and uses the paradigm to predict the development of the civil-military relations in Western type democracies. The basic argument is that a change in the international security environment such as the end of the Cold War and the balance of power has had implications on the perceived threat and consequently on the military's mission, force structure, the dominant military professional, and the allocated budget. These changes have also resulted in a change of the military's values and norms. Whereas formerly the politics and society were willing to accept that the military had its own unique values and norms because of the requirement to serve a presumed higher good, this no longer is the case. Moskos uses factors such as the changed relationship between the military and the media, the change in the public attitude toward the military, or the role of women and homosexuals in the military to show how the values and norms of the military are changing and how these changes are closing the gap between civilian society and the military. With regard to South Africa, the thesis will show that the civilmilitary relation has developed along the lines of the postmodern paradigm. However, the newly elected democratic government was challenged by the need to conduct a balanced transformation in which the South African Defense Force simultaneously had to build an institution that is transparent, accountable and representative of the societal demographics. Furthermore, the Department of Defence had to incorporate eight former statutory and non-statutory armies, guerillas, and African revolutionaries into one force and at the same time reduce the total number of soldiers and all this with a reduced budget in order to allow for social reconstruction and development. Additionally and contrary to the postmodern paradigm, the transformation of the South African National Defense Force and the civil-military relations are not only shaped by external factors but to a large degree by domestic issues such as the rate of poverty, distribution of wealth, crime or HIV/AIDS. / Commander, German Navy

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health, in fulfilment of the requirements for a Master's Degree in Technology: Environmental Health, Technikon Natal, 2001. / The purpose of this study was twofold. Firstly, the effect of the social dimensions of households on solid waste practice was investigated in order to examine relationships between socio-economic status and current solid waste practices. Current perceptions and solid. waste practices of households with different socio-economic backgrounds were assessed and compared to explain the influence of socio-economic factors in the planning and operation of a solid waste management system in developing urban areas. Secondly, a waste stream assessment was carried out to examine waste generation and composition trends among different social status residential urban areas. The generally poor state of solid waste services in most developing urban areas in South Africa and the chronic absence of data on domestic solid waste practice in the study area prompted this research initiative. A case study in Umtata involving three residential areas with different socio-economic status was used to assess and explain trends in solid waste practice and contributory factors to variations between different households amongst developing communities from a socio-economic perspective. Data were collected by a waste stream assessment survey involving measuring waste generated from the selected households and analysis of its composition. The waste stream assessment was complemented by a descriptive survey questionnaire, administered by means of personal interviews to each householder or resident in randomly selected households situated in the study area. The survey provided baseline information on solid waste practices and showed that local conditions were unique and thus require a local solution to the solid waste problems. The study showed that the understanding of the relations within households is vital for planning appropriate, effective and sustainable solid waste service programmes /systems. Gender relations, age, educational status and income are significant factors to be considered in planning and effectively operating solid waste management plans. / M

The study explores binary classification with Support Vector Machines as means to predict a satisfaction score based on customer surveys in the customer supportdomain. Standard feature selection methods and their impact on results are evaluated and a feature scoring metric Log Odds Ratio is implemented for addressingasymmetrical class distributions. Results show that the feature selection andscoring methods implemented improve performance significantly. Results alsoshow that it is possible to get decent predictive values on test data based onlimited amount of training observations. However mixed results are presentedin a real-world application example as a there is a significant error rate fordiscriminating the minority class. We also show the negative effects of usingcommon metrics such as accuracy and f-measure for optimizing models whendealing with high-skew data in a classification context.

No description available.

This thesis explores the relationship between crime, media, and public opinion of crime and criminal justice. It sets out current levels of knowledge and contemporary debates in each of the three academic disciplines devoted to these aspects of social life, and discusses how they relate to each other. It focuses on the capacity of information and public education to influence levels of public knowledge of and, as a secondary concern, attitudes towards, crime and criminal justice. The empirical research at the heart of the thesis employed a mixed methods research study drawing on quantitative – experimental research using a public opinion survey – as well as qualitative research methods – in-depth interviews and contextual data. The experimental research, the Oxford Public Opinion Survey and the publication of the Crime Scene column, was designed to measure the impact of providing factual information about crime and criminal justice to the public in a naturalistic way, i.e. by using a local newspaper column as the conveyor of such information. The key finding from the research was that readership of the column was low and that the column had no measurable impact on readers. Overall, the research findings suggest that interest in, take-up, and retention of factual information on crime and criminal justice is not as high as previous empirical research has suggested. The Crime Scene study has implications for sociological theories of crime and punishment which rely on simplistic orthodoxies concerning the media’s importance in influencing public opinion on crime and criminal justice and the related assumption that ‘the public’ is straightforwardly punitive.