This dissertation is an exploration of the relationship of wisdom to salvation history in the book of Psalms. The notional starting point of this thesis is a conviction that there might be a juncture at which the two themes converge because in certain psalms such as Psalm 78, the Israelite concept of salvation appears to have a close relationship with the wisdom theme. In the history of Psalm interpretation so far, the concept of wisdom psalm has not been properly dealt with due to scholastic difficulty in ascertaining the clear criteria of a genre. The process of scrutinizing the history of interpretation showed that the Psalms in their final form were far more purposeful than were previously understood. The major guiding principles of the method employed are: (1) 'the canonical approach' of Brevard Childs; (2) 'the canonical criticism' of James Sanders; (3) 'the canonical process approach' of Bruce Waltke; (4) 'the Christo-canonical approach' of Jerry E. Shepherd; and (5) 'the communito-canonical approach' of deClaissé-Walford. This thesis made use of these methodological principles by attempting to read the Psalter from the beginning to the end, and by focusing mainly on the final stage of the Psalter proposed by B. Waltke as the third stage, or the final and complete Old Testament canon associated with the Second Temple, and by purposefully limiting the scope of our study to around the post-exilic period. Having dealt with the issue of classifying the wisdom psalm, the presence of the wisdom motif in many psalms which do not fall into the wisdom category serves to add a didactic dimension to the entire Psalter. In so doing, we reach a conclusion that what we are dealing with is not merely the wisdom psalms within the Psalms, but 'the wisdom Psalter' as a literary unit. Then, it can be said that the Psalter is not merely an anthology of individual psalms used for cult, but was meant to be read also as a source of min , an instruction. This means that every psalm in the Psalter has pedagogical potential, which may have been the ostensible intent of the editor(s) at the final stage of the formation of the Psalter. On this premise, this study attempts to set up a strategy to read the Psalms from the beginning to the end from book I up to book V as a wisdom Psalter, with a particular focus on how the wisdom motif relates to the salvation history motif. The question did not merely concern their interpretation as disjointed pieces, but also what their presence in the book of Psalter meant in terms of the relationship between wisdom and salvation history. This means that the study is influenced less by a historical and form critical approach, but more from a literary and canonical perspective. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This dissertation is an exploration of the relationship of wisdom to salvation history in the book of Psalms. The notional starting point of this thesis is a conviction that there might be a juncture at which the two themes converge because in certain psalms such as Psalm 78, the Israelite concept of salvation appears to have a close relationship with the wisdom theme. In the history of Psalm interpretation so far, the concept of wisdom psalm has not been properly dealt with due to scholastic difficulty in ascertaining the clear criteria of a genre. The process of scrutinizing the history of interpretation showed that the Psalms in their final form were far more purposeful than were previously understood. The major guiding principles of the method employed are: (1) 'the canonical approach' of Brevard Childs; (2) 'the canonical criticism' of James Sanders; (3) 'the canonical process approach' of Bruce Waltke; (4) 'the Christo-canonical approach' of Jerry E. Shepherd; and (5) 'the communito-canonical approach' of deClaissé-Walford. This thesis made use of these methodological principles by attempting to read the Psalter from the beginning to the end, and by focusing mainly on the final stage of the Psalter proposed by B. Waltke as the third stage, or the final and complete Old Testament canon associated with the Second Temple, and by purposefully limiting the scope of our study to around the post-exilic period. Having dealt with the issue of classifying the wisdom psalm, the presence of the wisdom motif in many psalms which do not fall into the wisdom category serves to add a didactic dimension to the entire Psalter. In so doing, we reach a conclusion that what we are dealing with is not merely the wisdom psalms within the Psalms, but 'the wisdom Psalter' as a literary unit. Then, it can be said that the Psalter is not merely an anthology of individual psalms used for cult, but was meant to be read also as a source of min , an instruction. This means that every psalm in the Psalter has pedagogical potential, which may have been the ostensible intent of the editor(s) at the final stage of the formation of the Psalter. On this premise, this study attempts to set up a strategy to read the Psalms from the beginning to the end from book I up to book V as a wisdom Psalter, with a particular focus on how the wisdom motif relates to the salvation history motif. The question did not merely concern their interpretation as disjointed pieces, but also what their presence in the book of Psalter meant in terms of the relationship between wisdom and salvation history. This means that the study is influenced less by a historical and form critical approach, but more from a literary and canonical perspective. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Rural development efforts in Third World countries often fail to meet the needs of the most disadvantaged members of society. The priviledged continue to get a disproportionate share of the fruits of development. This is so in spite of the fact that development thinking has changed from the days when the poor were expected to benefit from development through the "trickle down" effect. It is now widely recognised that development should be focused on people in their local communities (human development) and not on the economy per se. To achieve this type of development requires an appropriate strategy of development, and people's/community participation is such a strategy. People's participation in development takes place through community based organisations. The organisations faciiitate the development of the human potential of members. This study investigates the conditions under which rural community participation takes place in lesotho. The Thabana-Morena Integrated Rural Development Project is used as a case study. The first objective is to determine the appropriateness of the organisations through which community participation was promoted in the project. The second objective is to isolate the political and administrative factors which affected participation in the project. Thirdly, the study tries to identify factors at the village level which influenced participation in the project. Fourthly, the study evaluates the effectiveness of the project in experimenting with participatory approaches, given that development projects are basically mechanisms for testing the appropriateness of national policies before applying them on a wide scale. Finally, a set of principles is developed on the basis of which participatory development can be facilitated. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Administration)

Writing coherent essays is evidence of a university student's discourse competence and is important in terms of academic success. An analytical taxonomy of coherence breaks {both topic-related and cohesion-related), based on Wikborg (1985; 1990), was used to determine the frequency of coherence breaks in essays written by first-year English Second Language (ESL) students. A subset of these essays was selected for assessment of their holistic coherence (HCR) by raters. The major finding of the statistical tests is that there is a significant relationship between the frequency of coherence breaks, particularly topic-related coherence breaks, and holistic coherence. Furthermore, the relationship between the coherence of essays and marks awarded them was established. Tutor intervention was also found to have had a positive impact when draft and final versions were compared: in general, there was a decrease in the frequency of coherence breaks, and a greater perception of coherence in the final versions. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Linguistics)

The dissertation describes the quality management- quality management systems, improving the effectiveness of a quality management system, to enhance customer satisfaction.

Foundation Programme (FP) students at the University of Namibia (UNAM) Oshakati Campus display inadequate academic writing abilities. As their aim is to gain admittance to UNAM main campus science-related courses, it is vital to have effective academic writing skills. This action research (AR) study is a comparison of three writing programmes, the process approach, the modeling approach, and the process genre approach which were implemented separately to three different class groups in 2008 and 2009 to improve the writing skills of students and the teaching practice of the researcher. The effects of the interventions were examined using a combination of the quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data were collected using questionnaires, pre- and post-intervention essays and laboratory reports and interviews. The findings indicate that all three approaches improved the academic writing skills of FP students. The process genre approach had a higher rate of effect than the other two approaches. / English Studies / M. A. (Specialisation TESOL)

The aim of this thesis is a description of information systems and a correct method of selection of the information system by an enterprise. It describes the subject with focus on ERP systems, situation and trends on the domestic market. It brings also benefits of the information systems for enterprises and common mistakes during information system selection process. Own solution for the analyzed company consists of information strategy proposal and the wide selection of the suitable information system. Additional proposals are stated contracted.

No description available.

The main goal of this dissertation thesis is to design and verify a new concept of process management principles, procedures and tools application, utilizable in the software development project management field. Emphasis is placed on creating a general (i.e. generally usable) concept, derived from solid theoretical background and suitable for further expansion and modifications. The theoretical part of the thesis has two main chapters. In the "Process management" chapter, the individual derived principles (Effectiveness, Added value, Coherence, Portability, Adequate standardization, Measurability, Clarity, Integration, Accountability, Continuous improvement) and procedures (Initiation, Identification, Definition, Validation, Implementation, Revision) are described and interconnected into an integrated concept, usable for the introduction and development of process management in the organization, supported by appropriate ICT tools (mainly from four selected areas -- Modeling and Simulation, Performance measurement, Change management, Administration). In the "Project Management" chapter, the project management area is embedded in the broader context of a process-driven organization in line with modern models of strategic ICT governance and ICT services management. The main dimensions of project management as well as the process approach to project management, which helps to bridge the gap between unique/temporary projects and repeatable/stable processes, are described. Basis for the normative project processes design in the following part of the thesis is set by the evaluation of selected models of the project life cycle and project management methodologies. The practical part of this thesis is basically a verification of the concept, described in the theoretical chapters. Firstly, an original project management methodology, suitable for deriving process model of the subject area, is presented. On this basis -- and by using the previously described principles, procedures and process management tools -- the major artifacts of a reference project processes model are elaborated (such as Conceptual model of the subject area, List of events and natural processes, Process pyramid, Process model, Organization model, Indicators pyramid or RACI matrix of roles and processes/indicators /SLAs; setup of selected process model is also verified experimentally by simulations). Critical evaluation of the presented model is an important input for the final assessment of the thesis goals' achievement and proposal of further research fields.