Title: The knowledge, attitudes and use of performance enhancing substances and supplements among male High-school first and second team athletes in the metropolitan area of Cape Town, South Africa. Objective: Pressure to perform and to achieve success is to many high school athletes the overbearing goal and reality. Many are willing to use substances to achieve their goals even at the expense of their health and wellbeing. Four objectives emanated from this research: To determine the most frequently used sport performance enhancing substances and supplements (PESS) by male high school athletes; to evaluate the prevalence and use of PESS; to determine the main sources of information on PESS to determine the knowledge and lastly to determine the perceptions and attitudes of male high school athletes on PESS usage. Design: This study used a prospective cross sectional survey design. A self-administered questionnaire was employed to assess the participant’s knowledge, perceptions, attitude toward and use of PESS. The selected sample was male athletes in high schools in the central metropolitan area in Cape Town that were involved in competitive sports at the first and second team level. Results: One hundred and twenty two male athletes from four schools in the central metropolitan area of Cape Town participated. No serious PESS use was found. The main first choice of reported sources of information regarding PESS was pharmacists (21.3%), biokineticists (16.4%) and the internet (16.4%). The participants’ knowledge, perception and attitude toward the use of PESS was found to be poor. Conclusion: Most athletes reported to gather information from pharmacists (21.3%) and biokineticists which is encouraging since it is expected of these professionals to provide sound advice. It is suggested to create awareness among such professionals regarding use of PESS by this population and to incorporate organizations such as SAIDS and WADA as part of this dissemination of knowledge. The knowledge, perceptions and attitude toward PESS use by male high school athletes appears to be lacking thus indicating the need for more education on PESS.

This research report examines the role of the projected image in the creation of meaning in theatre-based live performance, through the interaction and integration of the projection, the live performer and the staged environment, termed as intermedia performance. The report is based on findings gleaned from my own creative practice and documents a process of practice-led research. It begins by establishing a historical context for this type of creative practice by tracing the development of intermedia performance in the twentieth century. It then takes five of my performance works as case studies, reflecting on the successes and shortcomings of each work in relationship to the stated goal of integrating the projected and live elements of each performance, with major emphasis placed on the analysis of my staged work Heaven and Hell :The Life of Aldous Huxley. In the analysis, a theoretical framework is introduced in the form of Steve Dixon’s digital double, Phaedra Bell’s Dialogic Media Productions and Inter-media Exchange, as well as Philip Auslander’s notion of liveness. The report concludes that the major shortcoming of Heaven and Hell was the tendency of the projected image to overwhelm the live performer both aesthetically and – through mostly temporal constraints – to stifle the potential of the live performance medium in providing a more inclusive and visceral experience for its audience than that offered by exclusively screen-based media. My findings focus on the need to make use of physical computing technologies such as motion sensors in intermedia performance in order to empower live performers and to create more scope for spontaneity and true interaction between the live and the projected.

Abstract By critically analysing three pieces of devised performance, Even as I Walk (2008), They Were Silent (2009) and The Wages of Sin (2009), I argue that the concept of performance is not easily defined. Rather, it is an ever-changing phenomenon, which can become a useful platform for dialoguing about deeply personal and necessarily public and political subject matter. I locate myself and the theatre makers I worked with to create the three pieces, in the work by reflecting on and writing about the processes using auto-ethnography as a lens. The context within which I write, and within which my collaborators and I work, is that of our locations in very specific African, moral, cultural, political and creative impulses which we interrogate through the creative processes. Through the writing and reflecting, I arrive at various conclusions, including what I call ‘the methodology of not knowing,’ the importance of the group in facilitating the research and creative process, the necessity of redefining or renegotiation—for the purposes of both the research and the creative goals—our understandings of what performance is.

Contrarian investment is a well-documented strategy that may be able to earn the investor superior returns. The theory holds that stocks that have had historically poor performance should be invested in, while stocks that have had superior past performance are sold. These poor past performers are considered value stocks, classified by their high book-to-market, earnings yield, dividend yield and cash flow-to-price ratios. They have low expected future cash flow growth, and tend to have low earnings. Reasons suggested for the success of contrarian investing include judgment biases, naive investors extrapolating past performance too far into the future, value stocks are riskier than growth, and well-known firms are associated with well-managed firms. CAPM along with multivariate regressions and the three-factor model are considered in this dissertation. Data comes from Findata@Wits. Topics such as behavioural finance are dealt with. Consideration of past literature is looked at - similarities and differences in results, along with comparable methods and markets. The size and book-to-market variables appear to be the best explanatory variables, proving that whether equally or value weighted, value will still outperform growth in terms of excess returns. The earnings yield explains stock returns the least.

Master of Science in Engineering - Engineering / Despite the adoption of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) by manufacturing firms, the literature reports disappointing performance of manufacturing, attributed to an imbalance between the dimensions of technology (i.e. AMT) and organisation. The central research problem of this study was: To analyse the effect of development along organisational and technological dimensions on operational performance of manufacturing firms in South Africa. The investigation into the central research problem was guided by a primary research question: Does a balanced development of organisational and technological dimensions result in optimum levels of operational performance of manufacturing? Structural Equation Modelling was employed to assess the central research problem and the primary research question by evaluating the relationship between three latent variables: Technology, Organisation and Operational Performance. Data was collected by means of a self-administered online web questionnaire. A total of 104 responses were received from a target sample of 604 Managing Directors of manufacturing firms. The sample was not representative of the population of manufacturing firms in South Africa. It was shown that the correlation between Technology and Organisation was fairly strongly positive. The direct impact of Technology on Operational Performance was unexpectedly non-significant, whereas Organisation’s direct impact on Operational Performance was strongly positive. These results did not support the primary research question. In fact, organisational dimensions were more important than technological dimensions in obtaining optimum levels of operational performance of manufacturing. The implication was that firms should strongly emphasise the development of its organisation as part of a technology strategy.

The use of performance appraisal systems for employees is far from new. It has been recognised that performance has to be managed in order for the organisation or government department to meet its goal effectively. The main objective of this system is to ensure that all employees or jobholders know and understand what is expected of them. It also includes managing poor or unacceptable performance by giving guidance where needed, while still recognising and awarding outstanding performance. However, do employees have a clear understanding of and information about the system and do they real benefit from the system? The researcher conducted this study in order to explore the perceptions of employees with regard to the effectiveness of the performance appraisal system within the Department of Social Development in two districts. Its aim was to make recommendations for improving the system in relation to the most important themes or aspects that the employees (appraisers and appraisees) have highlighted. The proposed research project adopted a qualitative research approach and was exploratory in nature. A multiple case study research design was used. Participants consisted of employees of the Department of Social Development from two districts in the Free State who are appraisers and appraisees. Purposive sampling, which is a type of non-probability sampling, was used to select appraisers, while convenience sampling was used to select appraisees. A semi-structured interview schedule was used in one-to-one interviews to explore issues and gather information. The main findings of the study are that Social Development employees understand the importance of implementing a performance appraisal system in the workplace. They revealed that they still want the system to continue in the Department. However, their main concern is the practical implementation of the system, and they reported that it needs to be improved. They have suggested many areas that need to be improved in order for the system to be more effective and to achieve its main purpose within the Department.

Implementation of the performance management policy for the Malawi has been held back by a number of factors. There have been indications that suggest that there were some problems resulting in differential implementation of the policy by government’s ministries and departments. In this study the purpose was to find out the factors contributing to this non-implementation of the policy. The research question was; what factors are contributing to the implementation or non-implementation of the performance management policy for the Malawi Civil Service? The study used a qualitative research methodology and questionnaire administered interviews to collect data. The main findings from the study was that implementation of the policy was being hampered because of the complex nature of the public service, absence of follow ups and management support, lack of consultations and motivation factors. The conclusion drawn from the study is that the factors identified are manageable. Therefore, the Department of Public Service and Management and other concerned stakeholders can reflect on the issues revealed by this study, consult widely and put in place necessary mechanism that could ensure successful implementation not only of the performance management but other future polices as well.

Cette thèse traite de la problématique de la performance durable d’une chaîne logistiques. Le travail de recherche se décline en trois phases : la première phase porte sur l’étude des approches existantes pour la mesure la performance durable des chaînes logistiques. L’approche proposée permet alors à une entreprise, de déterminer plus facilement les critères spécifiques de mesure de la durabilité. Cette approche comporte huit critères de durabilité à savoir : valeur financière, valeur non-financière, matière première, ressources naturelles, énergie, santé humaine et sécurité, développement des ressources humaines et l’éthique. Ces critères ont été développés à partir du concept des « Human needs » et le concept de «Triple Bottom » avec la prise en compte des aspects règlementaires, normatifs et lignes directrices.Nous avons développé un modèle de mesure de la performance durable des chaines logistiques. Ce modèle est un cadre amélioré du « value Chain model » (Porter, 2008) et de l’approche processus (Chan and Qi, 2003) permettant l’implémentation de l’approche développée. Cette proposition permet à l’entreprise de mesurer la performance durable de ses processus et de ses activités aussi bien en interne que sur le niveau chaine logistique. Pour implémenter et tester l’approche développée, nous avons sélectionné le cas concret du problème d’évaluation de la performance durable d’un fournisseur.La deuxième phase de ce travail est le développement de l’outil de mesure de la performance durable basé sur la méthode FAHP (Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process) avec une application au cas de l’évaluation des fournisseurs. Il ne s’agit pas de sélectionner le meilleur fournisseur mais d’aider l’entreprise à mettre en place un plan d’action basé sur les résultats obtenus. Pour construire ce modèle, nous avons proposé un cadre de choix entre trois méthodes possibles : la méthode « Extent Analysis Method »(Méthode I), la méthode de normalisation (Méthode II) et la méthode arithmétique des t-norme (Méthode III) pour déterminer les poids flous. La méthode I est plus simple mais elle obtient la plus grande propagation floue comparée aux deux autres méthodes. Les résultats de mesure des performances du fournisseur permettent d’orienter les actions d’amélioration à travers l’utilisation des facteurs de normalisation proposés dans le modèle formel de mesure.La troisième et dernière phase de ce travail fut l’implémentation du système de mesure et les méthodes FAHP dans une étude de cas au sein d’une industrie d’électronique en Thaïlande. La société étudiée visait à évaluer la performance durable de ses fournisseurs en vue d’améliorer leurs performances. Le modèle de mesure de la performance durable comportait dix indicateurs et vingt-cinq mesures de durabilité sur les trois dimensions (économique, environnementale et sociale). Nous avons constaté que les poids de la dimension économique, environnementale et sociale étaient respectivement de 50.87%, 34.86%, et 15.14% respectivement. Cela signifie que les performances économiques étaient les plus importantes et que les performances sociales étaient les moins importantes dans l’évaluation des fournisseurs. La société étudiée travaille avec plus de deux cents fournisseurs. A cause de ce grand nombre de fournisseur, une approche de mesure absolue a été adoptée pour l’évaluation des performances de chaque fournisseur. Cependant, nous avons sélectionné cinq fournisseurs pour l’implémentation et la validation de notre modèle. Les résultats de cette étude de cas ont montré que les méthodes FAHP proposées sont adaptées au contexte industriel et sont moins compliquées que la méthode lambda-max par exemple. / This thesis aims to clarify a sustainability implementation into supply chain and to develop a tool for measuring sustainability performance in supply chain and improving the sustainability performance for electronic industry in Thailand. This research has divided into three phases; the first phase is to clarify a sustainability measurement framework in supply chain. This framework allows decision makers identifying the sustainability measures based on their interesting area in sustainability criteria. There are eight categories of sustainability criteria in this framework which are financial, non-financial, raw material, natural resources, energy, human health and safety, human resources development, and ethical issues. The sustainability criteria in this framework have developed based on the concept of human needs and the triple bottom line concept. It have been justified by analyze with standard, guide line, and regulation involving sustainable development perspective. Moreover, this proposed framework enhances an engagement level of elements in supply chain as an important perspective to identifying the sustainability measures. After developing the conceptual framework for measuring sustainability performance, this thesis has proposed an approach to construct the performance measurement model. This work enhances the valuable of adopting the value chain model (Porter, 2008) and the process based approach (Chan and Qi, 2003) for constructing the sustainability measures model. This leads to an implementation of the proposed framework allowing decision makers to measures sustainability performance in any process or activity in the company and its supply chain. In order to implementing the proposed conceptual framework and the model construction method in practical situation, this thesis has selected the supplier performance evaluation problem for measuring sustainability performance.The second phase of this work is the development of the tool for measuring sustainability performance by focusing on supplier evaluation problem. The measurement tool is developed based on multi-criteria decision method. This model is not used for making a decision such as selecting the best supplier but it is a multicriteria decision aiding which help manager to establish supplier improvement program based on the results. The measurement tool is developed based on a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) approach. This thesis has proposed three FAHP methods by modified the extent analysis method (Method-I), modified the normalization approach (Method-II), and employed the weakest t-norm arithmetic (Method-III) for determining the fuzzy priority weight. These methods are easy to adopt in real-life problem in industry. The method-I is less complexity than method-II and method-III respectively but the method-I also obtains the larger fuzzy spread than method-II and method-III respectively. It is depends on the decision makers to select the proposed FAHP among these three methods for implementing in their situations. The results from supplier’s performance help manager for setting the direction to improve supplier’s sustainability by using the normalization rating from measurement model.The third phase of this thesis is an implementation of the proposed framework and proposed FAHP in the case study company in Thai electronics industry. The case study company aims to evaluate sustainability performance of their suppliers in order to manage and improve supplier’s performance. The sustainability performance measurement model consists of 10 indicators and 25 sustainability measures based on three dimensions (economic, environmental, and social). It is found that the importance weight of economic, environmental, and social dimension are 50.87%, 34.86%, and 15.14% respectively. It means that an economic performance is still the most important and the social performance is the less important of supplier’s evaluation....

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University

Neste trabalho se busca pensar a individuação conjunta do corpo e do som, através da improvisação e segmentos de roteiros performáticos. Assim, colhemos traços metodológicos da atuação teatral para pensar as relações entre produção de corpo, som e vocalização. Para fazer jus a essa lógica, cada segmento da tese se debruçou em uma prática produtiva de corpo: caminhada, desenho e conversação. Guiei-me, para esse campo operativo, na noção de transdução, conforme trabalhada por Gilbert Simondon. É escritura, portanto, experimental, que compromete o tecido argumentativo de uma tese com procedimentos oriundos de outros ambientes, mais instáveis, como a precariedade do caderno. Referência vitalista nesse caso é o Artaud tardio (1943-1948). Focalizamos, em sobreposição, as práticas dos núcleos de corpossom, coletivos de dimensões artístico-pedagógicas que se envolveram no trabalho acima descrito. / In this work we seek to think about the combined individuation of body and sound, through improvisation and segments of performance routines. Thus, we collect methodological traits of theatrical performance to think about relations between body generation, sound and vocalization. To make justice to this logic, each segment of the thesis has looked over on a generative body practice: walking, drawing and conversation. I guided myself, for this operative field, by the notion of transduction, as worked by Gilbert Simondon. It is scripture, therefore, experimental, which compromises the argumentative fabric of a thesis with procedures from other, more unstable environments, such as the precariousness of the notebook. Vitalist reference in this case is the last Artaud (1943-1948). We focused, in overlapping, the practices of the nuclei of corpossom [bodysound], collective of artistic-pedagogical dimensions that were involved in the work described above.