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Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The role of public transport is to stimulate urban, social, sustainable and economic developments by transport of passengers based on their needs with public transport organizations functioning as operators in this environment. This dissertation reports on the research done on resilience in urban public transport organizations; it presents the guiding principles and the framework of resilience and the ability of public transport organizations to embed this capability. The emerging discipline of resilience studies is multidimensional and multidisciplinary. The phenomenon has been examined to present a holistic perspective on resilience through an extensive review of the literature, supplemented by empirical research in the European public transport sector. Resilience has been defined as the capacity of an organization to survive, adapt and grow in the face of turbulent change. Existing research tends to focus on the relevance of the concept of resilience in a diversity of environments. There is little information or research that reflects the design principles and specific success factors in the public transport sector. The literature research produced several logical conclusions, which were reviewed by using structured interviews with a selected group of specialists in this field. This made it possible to determine guiding principles, to structure the framework, and to develop a unique classification of (i) the most fundamental vulnerability factors that make an organization susceptible to disruptions; and (ii) the capability factors as attributes required for sustained performance or accomplishment. All these findings are synthesised and this research establishes the ability of public transport organizations to implement a resilience approach within the boundaries of their level of advancement and prioritised direction statements. Recommendations for further research include extending the proposed framework empirically to other functions and to other organizations than urban public transport organizations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die rol van openbare vervoer is om stedelike, sosiale, volhoubare en ekonomiese ontwikkeling te stimuleer deur die vervoer van passasiers op grond van hul behoeftes. Openbare vervoerorganisasies funksioneer as operateurs in hierdie omgewing. Hierdie proefskrif doen verslag oor die navorsing oor veerkrag in stedelike openbare vervoerorganisasies en verskaf die basiese beginsels en die raamwerk van veerkrag en die moontlikheid dat openbare vervoerorganisasies hierdie vermoë insluit. Die opkomende dissipline van veerkragstudies is multidimensioneel en multidissiplinêr en die verskynsel is ondersoek om 'n holistiese perspektief op veerkrag aan te bied deur ’n omvattende oorsig van die literatuur, aangevul deur empiriese navorsing oor die Europese openbare vervoer. Veerkrag word gedefinieer as die vermoë van 'n organisasie om te oorleef, aan te pas en te groei ten spyte van turbulente verandering. Bestaande navorsing neig om te fokus op die toepaslikheid van die konsep van veerkrag in 'n verskeidenheid van omgewings. Min inligting of navorsing weerspieël die ontwerpbeginsels en spesifieke suksesfaktore daarvan in die openbare vervoer. Die literatuurnavorsing het tot verskeie logiese gevolgtrekkings gelei, wat hersien is deur die gebruik van gestruktureerde onderhoude met 'n geselekteerde groep spesialiste in hierdie veld. Dit het dit moontlik gemaak om riglyne op te stel, die raamwerk te struktureer, en 'n unieke klassifikasie te ontwikkel van (i) die mees basiese kwesbaarheidsfaktore wat ’n organisasie vatbaar maak vir ontwrigting, en (ii) die vermoëfaktore as eienskappe wat vereis word vir volgehoue prestasie of vervulling. Al hierdie bevindings word gesintetiseer en hierdie navorsing vestig die vermoë van openbare vervoerorganisasies om ’n veerkragbenadering te implementeer binne die grense van hul vlak van vooruitgang en geprioritiseerde rigtingverklarings. Aanbevelings vir verdere navorsing sluit in die uitbreiding van die voorgestelde raamwerk empiries na ander funksies en na ander organisasies as die van stedelike openbare vervoer.

The current coginitive models of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms focuses on the different cognitive factors. Like other nonspecific and noncognitive variables, these factors may also function as vulnerability factors. However, they have been mostly studied separately and majority of the findings in the literature come from the Western samples. Accordingly, the studies examining these factors together and the impact of the culture in these studies are sparse in number. The present study suggested a comprehensive cognitive model for OCD symptoms, including several distal and proximal vulnerability factors. It was aimed to adapt three instruments to examine the interrelationships among the vulnerability factors and OCD symptoms in different cultures. Relevant ten instruments were administered to the university students from Turkey and Canada. The analyses showed that Turkish versions of three instruments had satisfactory psychometric properties for Turkish students. These analyses also revealed some cross-cultural similarities and differences in these factors and OCD symptoms. Neuroticism, age, introversion, OCD beliefs on responsibility/threat estimation, perfectionism/certainty and thought-action fusion in likelihood dimension were found to be associated with the OCD symptoms in both Turkish and Canadian samples. The relational paths between non-specific, appraisal and control factors, and OCD symptoms were also significant in both samples. However, religiousness was only significant factor in OCD symptoms and contributed to several belief and control factors toward these symptoms, only for Turkish subjects. The analyses of the religiousness differences indicated that psychological fusion in general and in morality was more related to the religiosity for Canadian Christians. Besides, Turkish students seemed to utilize worry more for OCD symptoms / whereas, Canadian participants used self-punishment. These common and unique patterns of the relationships were discussed within relevant findings about characteristics of the religion and culture.

Traditional solutions for test and reliability do not scale well for modern designs with their size and complexity increasing with every technology generation. Therefore, in order to meet time-to-market requirements as well as acceptable product quality, it is imperative that new methodologies be developed for quickly evaluating a system in the presence of faults. In this research, statistical methods have been employed and implemented to 1) estimate the stuck-at fault coverage of a test sequence and evaluate the given test vector set without the need for complete fault simulation, and 2) analyze design vulnerabilities in the presence of radiation-based (soft) errors. Experimental results show that these statistical techniques can evaluate a system under test orders of magnitude faster than state-of-the-art methods with a small margin of error. In this dissertation, I have introduced novel methodologies that utilize the information from fault-free simulation and partial fault simulation to predict the fault coverage of a long sequence of test vectors for a design under test. These methodologies are practical for functional testing of complex designs under a long sequence of test vectors. Industry is currently seeking efficient solutions for this challenging problem. The last part of this dissertation discusses a statistical methodology for a detailed vulnerability analysis of systems under soft errors. This methodology works orders of magnitude faster than traditional fault injection. In addition, it is shown that the vulnerability factors calculated by this method are closer to complete fault injection (which is the ideal way of soft error vulnerability analysis), compared to statistical fault injection. Performing such a fast soft error vulnerability analysis is very cruicial for companies that design and build safety-critical systems. / text

The main objective of this study was to examine the vulnerability factors of Obsessive Compulsive Symptomatology (OCS) in a non-clinical sample. On the basis of Salkovskis&rsquo / cognitive model of OCD, the present study aimed to investigate the role of perceived parental rearing behaviors, responsibility attitudes, and life events in predicting OCS. Furthermore, the mediator role of responsibility attitudes in the relationship between perceived parental rearing behaviors and OCS was examined. Finally, the specificity of these variables to OCS was evaluated by examining the relationship of the same variables to depression and trait anxiety. Analysis of covariance results showed that subjects with higher OCS scores perceived their mothers&rsquo / and fathers&rsquo / rearing behaviors as more overprotective than the subjects with lower OCS scores. The results of the regression analysis showed that perceived mother overprotection, responsibility attitudes and life events significantly predicted OCS. Furthermore, responsibility attitudes mediated the relationship between perceived mother overprotection and OCS. The predictive role of perceived mother overprotection was found to be OCS specific. On the other hand, for depression, perceived mother rejection and father emotional warmth, and for trait anxiety, perceived mother emotional warmth had significant predictive effects. While responsibility attitudes were found to be a common predictor for OCS and trait anxiety, its mediator role was OCS specific. OCS, depression and trait anxiety were all significantly predicted by life events. The results of the study were discussed within the relevant literature, and limitations of the study, suggestions for future studies, and clinical implications of the findings were presented.

Sedan 1981 har ledarutbildningen UGL (Utveckling av Grupp och Ledare) varit en grundkurs för blivande officerare och är idag ett mycket använt koncept även inom näringsliv och offentlig förvaltning. Kursens mål är i enlighet med inbjudan bl.a. att få ökad förmåga att arbeta med reflektion, förstå känslors inverkan, kunna ta och ge utvecklande feedback, förstå hur värderingar påverkar ledarskap samt förstå behovet av olika ledarstilar. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka om det förelåg skillnad i följande variabler: ledarintelligens (emotionell, rationell och själslig intelligens), självkänsla (bas-, förvärvad och prestationsinriktad) och personlighetsdrag före resp. efter deltagande i UGL. Ledarintelligens är en ny ledarskapsmodell (Ronthy, 2006) och ett frågeformulär som bygger på denna teori är under utveckling. Ett annat syfte med studien var därför att undersöka begreppsvaliditeten hos detta instrument. Studien omfattade 125 ledare (M = 38,5 år, SD = 7,8), varav 82 kvinnor. Samtliga genomgick ledarutvecklings­programmet UGL under 2011. Tre självskattningsformulär användes i studien.  Före och direkt efter utbildningen undersöktes samtliga variabler, efter sex månader endast ledarintelligens. Resultatet visade signifikant skillnad före resp. direkt efter utbildning gällande emotionell intelligens, rationell intelligens, själslig intelligens, bassjälvkänsla, bitterhet, psykisk ångestbenägenhet, stresskänslighet samt social konformitet. De självskattade ökningarna i ledarintelligens kvarstod i nivå efter sex månader. Resultat från korrelationsprövningar indikerade teoretiskt rimliga samband. Då den självskattade nivån av den emotionella, den rationella samt den själsliga intelligensen uppmätte högre resultat efter deltagande i UGL i föreliggande studie, verkar det som att denna kompetensutvecklingsinsats möjligen kan ha bidragit positivt till ökad ledarintelligens hos deltagarna. / Since 1981 the leadership training UGL (Understanding Group and Leader) has been used as a basic course for new officers, and it´s today a frequently applied concept even in the commercial sector and public administration. The objectives of the course is, in accordance with the invitation to improve the participants’ abilities working with reflections, understanding the influence of emotions, providing developing feedback, understanding how our values influence leadership as well as understanding the needs of different leadership styles. The aim of the present study was to evaluate if there was a difference in the following variables: leadership intelligence (emotional, rational and spiritual intelligence), self-esteem (basic, earning and performance-based) and personality traits, before and after participating in UGL. The leadership intelligence is a new leadership model (Ronthy, 2006), and a questionnaire based on this theory is in progress. An additional aim of this study was to investigate the construct validity of this instrument. The study included 125 participants (M = 38,5 years, SD = 7,8), whereof 82 women. Everyone participated in the leadership development program UGL in 2011. Three self-assessment forms were used in the study. Before and immediately after the leadership training all variables were evaluated, after six months only leadership intelligence was evaluated. The results showed significant differences before and after participation in emotional intelligence, rational intelligence, spiritual intelligence, basic self-esteem, embitterment, psychic trait anxiety, stress susceptibility and social desirability. The self-estimated increases in leadership intelligence were still at similar levels after six months. Results from correlation tests indicated theoretical plausible correlations. In the present study the self-rated emotional, the logical, as well as the spiritual intelligence measured higher after participation in UGL. This professional development program may have contributed in a positive direction to increase employees’ leadership intelligence.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-22T12:29:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 1914 bytes, checksum: 7d48279ffeed55da8dfe2f8e81f3b81f (MD5) ana_claudia_mamede_wiering_de_barros_iff_dou_2014.pdf: 1615247 bytes, checksum: 74bd71544ec9b771f136f79680fbb6d1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Nacional de Saúde da Mulher, da Criança e do Adolescente Fernandes Figueira. Departamento de Ensino. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde da Criança e da Mulher. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. / O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de analisar as condições de proteção e de vulnerabilidade à violência entre famílias com crianças e adolescentes com deficiências. Este grupo encontra-se especialmente suscetível por necessitarem de cuidados complexos, muitas vezes constantes e regulares. Foi realizada uma pesquisa em duas fases distintas e interativas, a primeira quantitativa e a segunda, qualitativa. Os sujeitos da pesquisa foram crianças e adolescentes com deficiência que eram atendidos em um hospital de referência, e seus cuidadores foram os informantes centrais do estudo. Na primeira fase foi aplicado o instrumento Parent Child Conflict Tactics Scales para aferição do tipo de violência intrafamiliar acometida. A segunda, por sua vez, constou de entrevistas com os cuidadores que apresentaram os maiores e os menores escores para violência no instrumento utilizado. Embora tenham sido detectados vários fatores de vulnerabilidade aos maus-tratos, as entrevistas revelaram a importância dos fatores de proteção na prevenção da violência intrafamiliar. Tendo em vista que este tipo de violência gera graves conseqüências àqueles por ela atingida, se torna fundamental que o profissional de saúde esteja atento a estas questões, não só na identificação das situações de violência, como também no reconhecimento dos fatores de vulnerabilidade e no incentivo aos fatores de proteção aos maus-tratos. / This research was aimed to analyze the protection and vulnerability factors to the violence among families with disable children and adolescent. This group finds itself especially susceptible since they need regular and complex care. A research was carried out in two phases: quantitative and qualitative. The study subjects were children and adolescents with disabilities who were treated at a referral hospital, and their caregivers were the main informants of the study. The first one included the application of the tool Parent Child Conflict Tactics Scales to evaluate the type of intrafamilial violence attack. The second part was comprised of interviews with the caregivers who presented the highest and the lower scores for violence, by considering the adopted tool. Notwithstanding the detection of vulnerability factors to maltreatment, the interviews have disclosed the importance of the protection factors in the prevention of the intrafamilial violence. Having in mind that this kind of violence generates serious consequences to those who are hit, it becomes paramount that every health professional is aware of these points, not only to identify the violence situations, but also in the recognition of the vulnerability factors and encouragement of the protection factors for maltreatment.

Au XXIe siècle, la prévision de l'aléa hydrométéorologique et des impacts associés aux crues rapides demeurent un défi pour les prévisionnistes et les services de secours. Les mesures structurelles et / ou les avancées des systèmes de prévision hydrologique ne garantissent pas, à elles seules, la réduction des décès lors de ces phénomènes d'inondation rapide. La littérature souligne la nécessité d'intégrer d'autres facteurs, liés aux processus de vulnérabilité sociaux et comportementaux, afin de mieux prendre en compte les risques encourus par les populations lors de ces épisodes extrêmes. Cette dissertation conduit une analyse théorique couplés à ceux de une analyse des accidents historiques mortels afin d'expliquer les interactions qui existent entre les processus hydrométéorologiques et sociaux responsables de l'apparition de vulnérabilités humaines lors de crues rapides aux États-Unis. Des données d'enquêtes liées aux crues rapides sont examinées afin d'élaborer un système de classification des circonstances du décès (en voiture, à l'extérieur, à proximité d'un cours d'eau, dans un camping, dans un bâtiment ou en mobile-home). L'objectif est d'établir un lien entre la conception des vulnérabilités et l'estimation des pertes humaines liées à ces catastrophes naturelles. "Random forest" est utilisé et est basé sur un arbre de décision, qui permet d'évaluer la probabilité d'occurrence de décès pour une circonstance donnée en fonction d'indicateurs spatio-temporels. Un système de prévision des décès liés à l'usage de la voiture lors des crues rapides, circonstance la plus répandue, est donc proposé en s'appuyant sur les indicateurs initialement identifiés lors de l'étude théorique. Les résultats confirment que la vulnérabilité humaine et le risque associé varient de façon dynamique et infra journalière, et en fonction de la résonance spatio-temporelle entre la dynamique sociale et la dynamique d'exposition aux dangers. Par exemple, on constate que les jeunes et les personnes d'âge moyen sont plus susceptibles de se retrouver pris au piège des crues rapides particulièrement soudaines(par exemple, une durée de près de 5 heures) pendant les horaires de travail ou de loisirs en extérieur. Les personnes âgées sont quant à elles plus susceptibles de périr à l'intérieur des bâtiments, lors d'inondations plus longues, et surtout pendant la nuit lorsque les opérations de sauvetage et / ou d'évacuation sont rendues difficiles. Ces résultats mettent en évidence l'importance d'examiner la situation d'exposition aux risques en tenant compte de la vulnérabilité dynamique, plutôt que de se concentrer sur les conceptualisations génériques et statiques. Ce concept de vulnérabilité dynamique est l'objectif de modélisation développée dans cette thèse pour des vulnérabilités liés aux véhicules. À partir de l'étude de cas sur les crues rapides survenues en mai 2015, et en analysant principalement les états du Texas et de l'Oklahoma, principaux états infectés par ces évènements,le modèle montre des résultats prometteurs en termes d'identification spatio-temporelle des circonstances dangereuses. Cependant, des seuils critiques pour la prédiction des incidents liés aux véhicules doivent être étudiés plus en profondeur en intégrant des sensibilités locales non encore résolues par le modèle. Le modèle établi peut être appliqué, à une résolution journalière ou horaire, pour chaque comté du continent américain. Nous envisageons cette approche comme une première étape afin de fournir un système de prévision des crues rapides et des risques associés sur le continent américain. Il est important que la communauté scientifique spécialisée dans l'étude des crues éclairs récoltent des données à plus haute résolution lorsque ces épisodes entrainement des risques mortels, et ce afin d'appuyer la modélisation des complexités temporelles et spatiales associées aux pertes humaines causées par les futures inondations soudaines. / In the 21st century the prediction of and subsequent response to impacts due to sudden onset and localized flash flooding events remain a challenge for forecasters and emergency managers. Structural measures and/or advances in hydrological forecasting systems alone do not guarantee reduction of fatalities during short-fuse flood events. The literature highlights the need for the integration of additional factors related to social and behavioral vulnerability processes to better capture risk of people during flash floods. This dissertation conducts a theoretical analysis as well as an analysis of flash flood-specific historic fatalities to explain complex and dynamic interactions between hydrometeorological, spatial and social processes responsible for the occurrence of human life-threatening situations during the "event" phase of flash floods in the United States (U.S.). Individual-by-individual fatality records are examined in order to develop a classification system of circumstances (i.e., vehicle-related, outside/close to streams, campsite, permanent buildings, and mobile homes). The ultimate goal is to link human vulnerability conceptualizations with realistic forecasts of prominent human losses from flash flood hazards. Random forest, a well-known decision-tree based ensemble machine learning algorithm for classification is adopted to assess the likelihood of fatality occurrence for a given circumstance as a function of representative indicators at the county-level and daily or hourly time steps. Starting from the most prevalent circumstance of fatalities raised from both the literature review and the impact-based analysis, flash flood events with lethal vehicle-related accidents are the subject to predict. The findings confirm that human vulnerability and the subsequent risk to flash flooding, vary dynamically depending on the space-time resonance between that social and hazard dynamics. For example, it is found that younger and middle-aged people are more probable to get trapped from very fast flash floods (e.g., duration close to 5 hours) while participating in daytime outdoor activities (e.g., vehicle-related, recreational). In contrary, older people are more likely to perish from longer flooding inside buildings, and especially in twilight and darkness hours when rescue and/or evacuation operations are hindered. This reasoning places the importance of situational examination of dynamic vulnerability over generic and static conceptualizations, and guides the development of flash flood-specific modeling of vehicle-related human risk in this thesis. Based on the case study of May 2015 flash floods with a focus in Texas and Oklahoma, the model shows promising results in terms of identifying dangerous circumstances in space and time. Though, critical thresholds for the prediction of vehicle-related incidents need to be further investigated integrating local sensitivities, not yet captured by the model. The developed model can be applied on a daily or hourly basis for every U.S. county. We vision this approach as a first effort to provide a prediction system to support emergency preparedness and response to flash flood disasters over the conterminous U.S. It is recommended that the flash flood disaster science community and practitioners conduct data collection with more details for the life-threatening scene, and at finer resolutions to support modeling of local temporal and spatial complexities associated with human losses from flash flooding in the future.

This dissertation explores the plight of vulnerable poor households in Sinazongwe district of Zambia. It determines nature of their vulnerability and identifies commonly used coping strategies. It also identifies different types of livelihood strategies and assets available and accessed by vulnerable poor households to create sustainable livelihoods. Study design used qualitative and participatory paradigms, involving variety of data collection techniques and tools such as key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The study identified several factors impacting on vulnerable poor households, their response strategies and perceived potential sustainable livelihoods. Drought and flash floods destroyed livelihoods of poor households from which they often failed to recover. Vulnerable poor households possessed fewer assets and less diversified sources of income and often lacked back up resources in times of hardship. Livestock rearing, fishing and irrigation-supported gardening were identified as possible sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable poor households in Sinazongwe, to recover and become resilient. / Sociology / M.A. (Development Studies)

This dissertation explores the plight of vulnerable poor households in Sinazongwe district of Zambia. It determines nature of their vulnerability and identifies commonly used coping strategies. It also identifies different types of livelihood strategies and assets available and accessed by vulnerable poor households to create sustainable livelihoods. Study design used qualitative and participatory paradigms, involving variety of data collection techniques and tools such as key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The study identified several factors impacting on vulnerable poor households, their response strategies and perceived potential sustainable livelihoods. Drought and flash floods destroyed livelihoods of poor households from which they often failed to recover. Vulnerable poor households possessed fewer assets and less diversified sources of income and often lacked back up resources in times of hardship. Livestock rearing, fishing and irrigation-supported gardening were identified as possible sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable poor households in Sinazongwe, to recover and become resilient. / Sociology / M.A. (Development Studies)