The aim of this study is to define and further the understanding of the practice of lobbying as it manifests in the participants’ interactions with each other and to identify its specific conditions (rules, standards, traits). A research overview shows that lobbying as a political phenomenon is well researched, but that the action per se tends to been taken for granted as ‘talking’. Communication between lobbyists and politicians has predominantly been reconstructed as transmission, informationexchange. The study addresses this deficiency by applying an ethnographic method, shadowing, and by focussing on the micro-level of lobbying as a socio-political phenomenon. Lobbying is researched in moments of interaction between interest representatives and representatives of the political system, i.e. MEPs and their assistants. Seven lobbyists and politicians in Brussels have been shadowed for one week each; a further 34 interviews were conducted. The analytical strategy was to infer from the actors’ impression management (Goffman). The study is informed by a neo-institutional perspective. It assumes that cognitive, normative, and regulative structures provide meaning to social behavior, and that these resources are identifiable. Goffman’s concept of team and the distinction between frontstage and backstage emerged as central categories. My results suggest that the small world of the EU’s capital results in a sense of ‘us in Brussels’ shared by lobbyists, politicians and assistants alike. Lobbying-interaction in frontstage-mode is governed by strict conventions; ignorance or transgression are sanctioned as unprofessional. The key result, however, is that lobbyists actively work towards engagement on other terms. Lobbyists employ various strategies and build relations with politicians in order to create moments of backstage-interaction. In backstage-mode, lobbyists not only gain access to soft information, but can negotiate ways of working together with politicians in pursuit of different, but partly overlapping agendas.

Context. In newer database solutions designed for large-scale, cloud-based services, database performance is of particular concern as these services face scalability challenges due to I/O bottlenecks. These issues can be alleviated through various data model optimizations that reduce I/O loads. Object serialization is one such approach. Objectives. This study investigates the performance of serialization using the Apache Avro library in the Cassandra database. Two different serialized data models are compared with a traditional relational database model. Methods. This study uses an experimental approach that compares read and write latency using Twitter data in JSON format. Results. Avro serialization is found to improve performance. However, the extent of the performance benefit is found to be highly dependent on the serialization granularity defined by the data model. Conclusions. The study concludes that developers seeking to improve database throughput in Cassandra through serialization should prioritize data model optimization as serialization by itself will not outperform relational modelling in all use cases. The study also recommends that further work is done to investigate additional use cases, as there are potential performance issues with serialization that are not covered in this study.

Through education, a society hopes to reproduce itself, and through architecture a society reveals it’s values, aspirations, norms, beliefs and its cultural composition in the built environment. The first democratic elections in 1994 marked the end of the apartheid era and the beginning of the definition of a new era that would represent the new aspirations of all the people of South Africa. These fairly recent changes are important for the reshaping of the architectural profession as it seeks to interpret new meanings, views and aspirations of the new South African society in the built environment. A starting point in the transformation of the architecture profession is the development of a curriculum model in schools of architecture that will ensure continuous adaptation to the changes in society. The study reviewed and categorized the contemporary curriculum models as used in the South African schools of Architecture according to an array of philosophies and principles that underlie curricula. The Thesis proposes that an eclectic approach to design of architecture curricula is ideal for the multicultural society of South Africa that seeks to balance the demands of the local and global context in its education. This study revealed that most architecture programmes retain their traditional programmes because the university is the largely the locus of learning, experiential learning is minimal as well as little flexibility as most of the learning course- modules are required modules. The Thesis proposes a curriculum model for architecture based on the Post-Modern philosophy, which can effectively accommodate the needs of a changing South Africa in the educational programmes for architects. Such a model defines with clarity the pedagogic or epistemological reasons for directing change in architecture programmes in an increasingly complex and dynamic South African society. / Thesis (PhD (Architecture))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Architecture / unrestricted

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