This dissertation examines the possible influence of language learners' second language (L2) on their perception of phonological contrasts in their third language (L3). Previous studies on Third Language Acquisition (TLA) suggest various factors as possible sources of cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of an L3. This dissertation specifically investigates whether learners' levels of perceptual performance in the L2 is related to their phonological perception of L3 contrasts. In order to examine the perception of Japanese contrasts by non-native learners, I conducted a forced-choice identification experiment (Experiment 1) and AXB discrimination experiment (Experiment 2) with native speakers of English and native speakers of Korean who were learning Japanese at an introductory level. In addition, the Korean participants also participated in a forced-choice English minimal pair identification experiment (Experiment 3). In order to answer the main research question, I examined whether there was any correlation between the Korean participants' perceptual performance in English (L2) and Japanese (L3).There was a positive correlation between the identification of the Japanese word-initial stop voicing contrast and the identification of English minimal pairs. Distinguishing Japanese voiced stops and voiceless stops is widely known to be difficult for native speakers of Korean especially in word-initial position. Therefore, this positive correlation is considered as an indication of a positive influence of learners' L2 on speech perception in their L3. The L2, however, did not influence the perception in the L3 negatively. This result indicates that the participants experienced positive influence from both of their background languages, which supports the idea expressed in the Cumulative-Enhancement Model. Positive correlations were also observed for the discrimination of several other Japanese contrasts and the identification of English minimal pairs. These correlations are considered to indicate an increase in the learners' sensitivity to the speech sounds in general. Different types of correlation results obtained for the identification and the discrimination tasks are considered to reflect the difference in the nature of these perception tasks. All in all, the results suggest that L3 perception is qualitatively different from L2 perception and that the perceptual level in the L2 is related to perception in the L3 at least to some extent.

This research studies the relationship between car manufacturers (CM) and third party logistics providers (TPLP), also known as the logistics partnership, in the outbound delivery channel in the Malaysian automotive industry. It focuses specifically on the dyad perspective, and demonstrates that several critical success factors are required for a successful relationship between these two parties. Five such factors emanate from the operational dimension and eight from the relational dimension. The five operational factors are: logistics service performance, investment, information sharing, information technology and communication, and price of the logistics service; and the eight relational factors are: trust, commitment, power, conflict, dependency, co-operation, informal activity, and understanding. The study also reveals that five outcomes are identified that benefit both the CM and the TPLP as a result of the win-win situation accruing to both parties. These are: renewal of the contract, company profitability, improved logistics service performance, knowledge transfer, and company branding. Such benefits enhance the supply chain relationship, and knowledge of these advantages improves current TPLP theory by deepening the understanding of how logistics partnership can succeed. In order to obtain rich data concerning the CM-TPLP relationship, the researcher adopted a different methodology from that used by previous scholars, who have concentrated on quantitative techniques. In this study, multiple case studies (seven in total) in one industry, the automotive industry, in the non-western context of Malaysia, were conducted. Three main steps in the case study protocol were followed. The first involved a review of the literature pertaining to the themes that required further exploration, together with the development of the interview questions. In the second step, data were collected using semi-structured interviews, observations, document reviews, photographs and also archival records. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The third stage involved exploring the data until it was found that nothing new was emerging from the interviews, and hence theoretical saturation had occurred. At this point the factors in question were confirmed, and the initial model revised. Additionally, confidentiality was maintained in all respects to protect the participating organisations and individuals. The findings contribute to the understanding of the CM-TPLP relationship which enhance supply chain relationship and TPLP theory, since they shed light on the operational and relational factors in one specific industry, from a dyadic perspective, and in a non-Western context, thereby adding new dimensions to the existing body of knowledge in this field. The findings benefit practitioners via the novel LPS (logistics partnership success) model generated by the researcher. This indicates the key contributory factors to the CM-TPLP relationship success. Moreover, the study may have the capacity to generalise to other culturally-similar environments.

In recent years much has been made of active and productive ageing policies, with the attempt to promote a more positive image of ageing. Despite this, negative representations of ageing and conceptualisations of older people as a ‘burden’ persist. This thesis presents an argument that these negative images are intertwined with common understandings of work, the frequent equating of this to paid employment within the field of social gerontology, and the reliance upon cessation of work in determining the beginning of old age. With reference to the wider literature in the sociology of work, an argument is presented that determines why it is essential to challenge those taken-for-granted assumptions about older people and work. Reflecting upon the findings from an exploratory and qualitative research project, which focuses upon the perspective of the older people themselves, attention is given to the detail of what should be encapsulated into new understandings of work. Within the thesis it is argued that there are many activities undertaken by the older person, which should be thought of as work, including (but not limited to) paid employment, volunteering, care, attendance at social clubs, undertaking sport and physical activity. Some of these activities might more intuitively be thought of as acts of leisure. However, it is evidenced within this thesis that there are fuzzy and blurred boundaries between leisure and work - older people leisure at work and work at leisure. The recognition of these blurring boundaries is one aspect that must be incorporated into re-conceptualisations of work. The thesis demonstrates how the work of older people transcends different socio-economic spheres and there are multiple interrelations existing between different activities. Whilst this last point resonates with the approach of some authors in the sociology of work, they have never been incorporated within the field of social gerontology. Through this analysis, and promoting a new way through which the activities of older people might be incorporated within the rubric of work, it is hoped that ageism might be challenged in a similar vein to the way in which feminist researchers once challenged sexism in relation to work and housework. This thesis reflects upon how we need to identify and conceptualise the third age in light of the findings. It highlights how the working lives of older people are shaped through a process of negotiation between social expectations within current political and economic contexts, influences from key historical events and social changes, and the desire for freedom, autonomy and choice. Age period cohort is crucial in determining the world of work, and more generally how ageing might be experienced. Through its unique approach, and the lessons learnt within this thesis, a theoretical framework is provided to assist in future comprehensive studies of both work and ageing. Overall, this thesis makes significant contributions to understandings of work and ageing following the consideration of two schools of thought (i.e. sociology of work and social gerontology), which previously have been infrequent companions.

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Healing in the mental health system of the 21st century is difficult as the credibility of mental health users is constantly called into question, their experiences and perceptions of their "illness" undervalued or even completely ignored. This attitude towards mental health users must be changed in order to work towards truly alleviating mental illness and suffering. Careful analysis of the rhetoric of published personal narratives written by women describing their experiences with mental healthcare reveals the ways in which medical knowledge is created, owned, and disseminated only by the “authoritative expert,” defined as healthcare professionals who categorize, taxonomize, and pathologize in order to treat both physical and mental illness. I argue the authoritative expert marginalizes the "everyday expert," exemplified through the perceptions of women who, in their narratives, record realities that do not always match the diagnoses and prognoses assigned to them by their healthcare providers. My project's central question asks: In what ways do personal narratives of mental illness and suffering illuminate the ways in which language constructs reality? My research illuminates the ways in which narratives of mental illness and suffering are healing, and thus serves as an advocate for patient rights, both by empowering patients and by furthering discussion among medical professionals regarding problematizing "standard" treatment. My work advances the connection between politics and language as it takes a commonly undervalued form of language and lived experience--narrative--and researches the ways in which it has been and can continue to be used as a powerful political agent to empower mental health users by giving them a voice. Specifically, I demonstrate how patients' personal experiences should and can be valued as a way to illuminate their own understanding of their disease as well as to inform their treatment. This project lays the foundation for future research examining ways treatment for mental illness should be differentiated from treatment for physical illness. I am interested in ways to further combat the stigma of mental illness by looking at ways providers can honor and respect the opinions and values of mental health patients in non-pejorative ways.

The country Cambodia has in the last recent years prospered as an international tourist destination and the tourism industry has become more recognised as a major source of income. The international tourist destination has therefore come to occupy an important role for the country’s economic development. Concerning the fact that Cambodia is a Third World country the local community can be extremely vulnerable in relation to the consequences that international tourism can create. The project ChildSafe was formed by the organization Friends International as a consequence of the poor situation for street children. This project works to protect children from all sorts of abuse. This project has also developed information for the international tourist to take part of while visiting the country. This information provides guidelines concerning how to act as a responsible tourist. The aim of this study is consequently to investigate how international tourism can influence the social community in Cambodia. To limit the research the study will focus on the organization ChildSafe and their work to promote a sustainable social development. It will also focus on the Ministry of Tourism and their work and attitude towards the same issue. The result of the study shows that international tourism affects the social community in many ways, both positive and negative. International tourism can contribute to the community and create a sustainable social development if there is support, information, incentives or regulations for the tourists that interests them or controls them in a way that is beneficial for the local community. Both ChildSafe and the Ministry of Tourism agree that the main positive consequence of international tourism for the social community is the revenue that the tourism industry can generate. Concerning the negative impacts of tourism the two organizations differ significantly as ChildSafe identifies many negative consequences for the social community. The Ministry of Tourism, on the other hand, believes that the negative impacts of international tourism do not affect the community significantly. However, both organizations believe that sustainable tourism can support the local community and create a sustainable social development. It is concluded from the work done by ChildSafe that international tourism can be used to promote the social community, but only if there is support and information for the international tourists when they arrive in the country. Finally, it is concluded that support from the Ministry of Tourism is needed as it is believed that they possess the greatest power of change for the tourist destination Cambodia.

Hintergrund: Die Osteotomie von Weisheitszähnen ist im zahnärztlichen Alltag ein Routineverfahren. Das primäre Ziel der modernen Operationsverfahren ist die Reduktion operationsbedingter Morbidität und der Erhalt von umgebendem Knochen. Wir beschreiben eine Technik, durch die über einen okklusalen Zugang impaktierte Weisheitszähne mit Mini-Flap und ohne laterale Osteotomie entfernt werden können. Methode: Nach okklusaler Freilegung des Knochens im Bereich des dritten Molaren erfolgt die Visualisierung des Operationsfeldes mit Hilfe eines Stützendoskops (30 Grad Vorausblick, 2,7mm Durchmesser, Fa. Storz, Tuttlingen) und Mikroskops (40-fache Vergrößerung, Zeiss OPMI). Unter vergrößernder Betrachtung des Operationsfeldes mit dem Stützendoskop und Mikroskop wird die Krone schrittweise separiert und fragmentiert. Dabei wird eine raumschaffende Präparation im Sinne einer Implosionstechnik angewendet. Kronenfragmente und Wurzeln werden durch die okklusale Kavität entfernt. Ergebnisse: Bei 40 Patienten (19 Männer, 21 Frauen, Alter: 15-55) wurden 50 Weisheitszähne uni- oder bilateral entfernt. Die mittlere Operationszeit betrug 18,41min (4-89,5min), wobei sich zwischen den einzelnen Angulationstypen kein signifikanter Unterschied zeigte (vertikal -22,58min, horizontal -21,55min, mesial -16,11min, distal -12,10min). Der durchschnittliche Knochenverlust betrug ca. 2mm (0,4-6,5mm), wobei eine gleichmäßige Verteilung in allen vier Angulationstypen zu ermitteln war. Intraoperative Komplikationen traten nicht auf (0%). In sechs Fällen (12%) wurden postoperative Komplikationen beobachtet, drei temporäre Hyp-oder Parästhesien (6%), zwei Entzündungen (4%) und ein verbliebener Wurzelrest (2%). Schlussfolgerung: Die okklusale Expositionstechnik mit endoskopischer und mikroskopischer Visualisierung erlaubt unter Verzicht einer großflächigen Lappenbildung eine gezielte und schonende Zahnseparation. Das gilt insbesondere für die Entfernung komplex verlagerter Zähne mit enger Lagebeziehung zum Nervus alveolaris inferior. Die okklusale Expositions-technik ist auch bei Zähnen mit unmittelbarem Nervenkontakt anwendbar. Bei der Weisheitszahnentfernung und analog auch in anderen Kieferregionen kann diese Methode Knochenverluste und großflächige Gewebetraumata vermeiden. Dem Nachteil eines erhöhten Zeitaufwandes stehen eine hohe Präzision der Op-Techniken und eine bessere Übersicht in komplexen Fällen positiv gegenüber.

This thesis is premised on the notion, drawn mainly from a postcolonial perspective (which is subsumed under the poststructuralist as well as the postmodern), that Conrad's early writing reflects his abiding concern with how people construct their identities vis-a-vis the other/Other in contact zones on the periphery of empire far from the reach of social, racial and national identities that sustain them at home. It sets out to explore the problematic of race, culture, gender and identity in a selection of the writer's early works set mainly, but not exclusively, in the East, using the theoretical perspective of postcoloniality as a point of entry, nuanced by the configurations of spatiality which are factored into discourses about the other/Other. Predicated mainly on the theoretical constructs about culture and identity espoused by Homi Bhabha, Edward Said and Stuart Hall, this study proposes the idea of an in between "third space" for the interrogation of identity in Conrad's work. This postcolonial space, the central contribution of this thesis, frees his writings from the stranglehold of the Manichean paradigm in terms of which alterity or otherness is perceived. Based on the hypothesis that identities are never fixed but constantly in a state of performance, this project underwrites postcoloniality as a viable theoretical mode of intervention in Conrad's early works. The writer's early oeuvre yields richly to the contingency of our times in the early twenty-first century as issues of race, gender and identity remain contested terrain. This study adopts the position that Conrad stood both inside and outside Victorian cultural and ethical space, developing an ambivalent mode of representation which recuperated and simultaneously subverted the entrenched prejudices of his age. Conceived proleptically, the characters of Conrad's early phase, traditionally dismissed as those of an apprentice writer, pose a constant challenge to how we view alterity in our everyday lives. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

GlobalGAP (previously EurepGAP) is a voluntary business-to-business standard for food audit that has recently achieved the greatest acceptance worldwide (Campbell, Lawrence & Smith 2006) boasting implementation numbers of over 80,000 farms in 80 countries. Compliance with the standard is verified by means of the third party certification (TPC) audit, and is designed to (GlobalGAP 2008) assure European retailers that exporting producers have met their criteria for safe and sustainable agriculture (GlobalGAP 2007b). In 2004, cherry growers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia became the first GlobalGAP certified producers in Canada. This novelty afforded a unique opportunity to observe the introduction of the standard in an industrialized country with well-established regulations and where the capacity of producers to undertake the process was relatively high. A qualitative methodology was used in case studies of two communities to inductively study the implementation of ‘safe and sustainable agriculture’ certification and generate relevant research questions for deeper examination. Sensitizing concepts emerging from observations of the TPC audits (n = 20) evolved into two primary research objectives; 1) to understand the practical application and diffusion of a TPC standard and 2) to explore the efficacy of the TPC standard as a mechanism to promote sustainable agriculture within certain pre-existing contexts. Forty-four follow up interviews were conducted with growers that chose to certify (n = 24), those that did not (n = 14), and other key actors (n = 3). This thesis examines the research objectives over three chapters. The introduction provides the local and global context along with a review of GlobalGAP, agri-food governance and the role of private certification and retailer power. Chapter two presents the technological and sociological factors that influenced the stages of the diffusion of GlobalGAP TPC and compares these factors and outcomes to the technological and sociological components of sustainable agriculture. In the conclusion, policy strategies are offered to maximize the potential for this tool to promote sustainable agriculture along with suggestions for future research on the topic.

Problem: Third molar removal in sagittal split osteotomies(SSOs) is recommended by some authors at least 6 months preoperatively to prevent unfavorable fractures. Others authors suggest concomitant removal. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of third molars during SSOs. Methods: A prospective study of 677 SSOs was conducted. GroupI consisted of 331 SSOs and third molar removal. GroupII consisted of 346 SSOs without third molar. Intraoperative and postoperative evaluations were recorded. Results: The overall rate of unfavorable fractures was 3.1%, with incidences of 2.4% in GroupI, compared to 3.8% in GroupII(P=0.3). The rate of IAN entrapment was lower in GroupI(37.2%) than in GroupII(46.5%;P=0.01). Third molars increased procedural time by 1.7 minutes. Neurosensory deficits were higher in GroupII. Conclusion: Removal of third molars during SSOs is not associated with increased incidence of unfavorable fractures. Their presence decreases IAN entrapment, improve neurosensory recovery, but slightly increases operating time.