<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">The study made use of cross-sectional design that compared the performance of younger children (6- to 7-year-olds) with that of older children (12- to 13-year-olds) on various measures of executive function. Within this, it made use of a natural experimental design, with children exposed to alcohol<i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> as the experimental group and non-exposed children as the control group.</font></i></p> </font></font></p>

<p><font face="Times New Roman">This study explored the lived experience of spouses living with depressed partners. A qualitative phenomenological,&nbsp / exploratory study design was used to explore the lived experience of the spouses, identifying the coping strategies and challenges that they face as they live with the depressed partners. A purposive sample of seven spouses living with their depressed partners who were being treated in outpatient department were recruited to participate in the study.</font></p> <p align="left">In-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted, audiotaped with the participants&rsquo / permission and transcribed verbatim. The data from the transcripts, field notes, and demographic questionnaires was organized ready for analysis. Thematic data analysis was used to code the data, and group the codes to form categories. The categories were further regrouped to form themes. The themes were conceptualized and contextualized to uncover the meaning that the spouse carers attached to the lived experience.</p> <p align="left">It emerged that most of the spouses described their partners and the relationship negatively due to the burden of care. The male carers as compared to the female carers expressed the negativity more and it impacted on the quality of care they were providing to the depressed partners. It was revealed that inadequate professional support was linked with the ineffective coping strategies employed by the spouse carers. Hence, most of the spouse carers presented with symptoms of depression and were at the stage of impoverishment according to the adaptive potential assessment model. A recommendation to involve spouse carers in the treatment plan and improve the support system to the spouse carers was made to the stakeholders of health service providers at the primary health level.</p>

<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">The study made use of cross-sectional design that compared the performance of younger children (6- to 7-year-olds) with that of older children (12- to 13-year-olds) on various measures of executive function. Within this, it made use of a natural experimental design, with children exposed to alcohol<i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> as the experimental group and non-exposed children as the control group.</font></i></p> </font></font></p>

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / South Africa

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / The study made use of cross-sectional design that compared the performance of younger children (6- to 7-year-olds) with that of older children (12- to 13-year-olds) on various measures of executive function. Within this, it made use of a natural experimental design, with children exposed to alcohol as the experimental group and non-exposed children as the control group.

Magister Educationis - MEd / South Africa in the past-apartheid era has undergone a series of curriculum changes that collectively have not yet yielded the desired results. Evidence of this is to be found in the continued low pass rates and poor performance in the annual National Senior Certificate (Grade 12) examinations, including the subject English as a First Additional Language (EFAL). Apart from language policy considerations, reasons related to the teaching approach used in EFAL may have a bearing on the results.The Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) recommends the use of a text-(genre) approach, alongside a communicative approach, to the teaching of languages in schools to replace the old content-based methods with their aims and objectives. While the old curriculum did advocate communicative language teaching, the addition is a text-based approach. This study focuses on investigating the various approaches teachers employ in the teaching of English writing and specifically seeks to identify the extent to which a text-based approach is realized in the teaching of EFAL in Grade 9 in two schools in the Western Cape. The study does so, amongst other ways, by analysing the various texts learners are exposed to in English lessons and taking note of how teachers introduce and negotiate the different stages of writing. This study uses genre theory and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) in combination with social constructivist approaches to language learning. This theory is based on the premise that language is functional and cannot be detached from the social context of the learner.A qualitative research paradigm is used and the study is underpinned by interpretive theory.According to Richards (2003), qualitative research is the study of human action in its natural setting in the context of people’s daily lives. In this case the school classroom has to function as the natural setting. The qualitative data collection instruments for this study include interviews,(particularly open-ended interviews), classroom observation schedules and audio recordings. The teaching processes in the classroom and interview sessions are recorded.The research participants for this study were two qualified English teachers. Secondly, samples of notebooks including class exercises of a selected numbers of learners of English Language in Grade 9 were collected for analysis with regard to the implementation of a text-based approach.The findings revolve round the themes derived from the analysis chapter, and are expected to provide ways of promoting the teaching of English using this approach. They reveal that the teachers in this study do not have sufficient understanding of the theories that underpin the teaching of writing in the English FAL curriculum. They attend to the use of text-based approach superficially but they apply other teaching strategies in their lessons during the teaching of English as a first additional language. The study concludes by summing up the main findings,and by spelling out some implications for further research.

The seasonality of wild caught Cape mole-rats was investigated, focusing on endocrine, neuroendocrine and neuroanatomical parameters. The Cape mole-rat reproduces only during the winter rainfall period of the western Cape Province. Interestingly, the gonadal steroid hormones do not show any significant seasonal patterns in either males or females. In addition, the pituitary does not exhibit a reduced sensitivity to GnRH stimulation during the non-breeding season in either sex. Moreover, in the brain the distribution, number and size of GnRH perikarya do not differ with respect to season. Therefore, although only producing young during a specific period of the year, the Cape mole-rat does not appear to be physiologically repressed from reproducing throughout the year. The results of this study imply that the Cape mole-rat is an opportunistic breeder that is reproductively quiescent during the dry season as a consequence of ecological factors such as lack of favourable burrowing conditions and that when opportunities avail themselves following aseasonal rainfall, reproduction may occur. The seasonality and socially induced infertility of the Natal mole-rat was examined via endocrine, neuroendocrine and neuroanatomical investigations. In contrast with the phylogenetically closely related common mole-rat and highveld mole-rat, the Natal mole-rat does not appear to breed seasonally. Post-mortem examination of animals collected revealed pregnant reproductive females throughout the year. A similar scenario is reflected in gonadal steroid concentrations, with no major seasonal differences observed in either males or females. Likewise, pituitary sensitivity to GnRH does not change over season in males or females, and all neuroanatomical parameters investigated remained stable over season in both males and females. Natal mole-rats captured for this study occur in an area with a high annual rainfall, (almost double that of the common mole-rat habitat and one and a half times that of the highveld mole-rat) and the relatively higher rainfall and hence soil moisture content may provide the Natal mole-rat with increased foraging time a result of increased periods over which the soil is optimal for burrowing. Socially induced infertility in the Natal mole-rat appears to be enforced behaviourally as a result of active incest avoidance. The circulating testosterone concentrations were not significantly different in reproductive and non-reproductive males, and likewise oestrogen concentrations did not differ between reproductive and non-reproductive females. Progesterone concentrations were very low in subordinate females, but markedly higher in reproductive females. This is not surprising since the Natal mole-rat is an induced ovulator, thus coitus is required to induce the LH surge that stimulates ovulation. The sensitivity of the pituitary to a GnRH challenge did not differ between reproductive and non-reproductive animals from either sex. No neuroanatomical differences were observed between reproductive and non-reproductive animals of either sex, however, non-reproductive males and females had significantly higher amounts of GnRH in the median eminence, implying that GnRH is synthesized and transported to the median eminence but not released in the portal system to the anterior pituitary. These findings suggest that non-reproductive animals of both sexes are not sterile, but merely sexually quiescent. Copyright / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

The thesis deals with the difficulties concerning alcohol use and misuse among Coloured farm workers within the heart of the wine industry in South Africa. The current extent of alcohol use and misuse in the rural areas of the Western Cape Province is commonly referred to as the legacy of the dop system. The dop system was a legislative practice whereas farm workers were provided with small portions of cheap wine throughout the workday. The practice was racially targeted towards Coloureds and thus contributed to the creation of a dependent labour force and extensive alcohol-related difficulties among Coloured farm workers. The dop system was formally abolished in 1961 but the practice proceeded into the 1990s. Alcohol related difficulties do however tend to continue without signs of change. The main purpose of the study is to investigate how current difficulties of alcohol use and misuse affect children’s life outcome and educational opportunities. It has also been important to investigate various aspects of living and working conditions in the farm villages that may be linked to alcohol issues. Another aim is to determine contributing factors to the continuance of alcohol use and misuse despite the abolition of the dop system. The work has been conducted according to the method of oral history theories in order to provide a bottom up approach, thus allowing the perspectives and the stories of the farm workers themselves to come forth. Coloured farm workers in the region are largely affected by socio-economic concerns and uncertainty in regards of labour. Inexpensive and readily available alcohol in illegal liquor outlets, so-called shebeens, is a driving force to the consumption of alcohol. Farm workers are partly isolated upon the farm villages and commonly have limited opportunities of unionizing. This makes it crucial to let the farm workers and their families express how alcohol difficulties are manifested in and affecting their daily lives.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Relationship marketing has received much attention and widespread publicity over the past ten years and has moved to the forefront of research and practice. It provides companies with a management tool to establish economically profitable relationships, networks and interactions with different, but equally important stakeholder markets. The marketing concept as reflected in the four P's of the marketing mix was prominent in marketing practice and thinking until the mid-1980s, when reference to customer relationships and relationship building began to appear in the literature and became the focus of much research. The marketing concept, although still relevant, was expanded to include the dimension of relationships. The shift fiom transactional to relationship-based marketing has many implications for product and service based business. Marketing can no longer be viewed as a separate function to which an organisation can assign responsibility for the customer while the rest of the organisation gets on with their tasks. Rather, the relationship-based view of marketing places the responsibility for marketing (as defined broadly) on everyone in the organisation. In other words, it is the responsibility of every employee within the organisation to satisfy the needs of customers. A relationship marketing orientation can therefore create a competitive edge for an organisation and can also have a positive impact on organisational performance. In a highly competitive, global environment organisations are focussing more attention on building sustainable, competitive advantages by developing and maintaining close, cooperative relationships with a limited set of suppliers, customers and channel members. Through these relationships, organisations create value by differentiating their offering and/or lowering their costs. The term "relationship marketing" is therefore applied to a number of different marketing activities ranging from consumer frequency marketing programs to selling activities directed towards building partnerships with key customers. The focus of this study is to investigate the mutually beneficial nature of establishing long term relationships in supplier markets, customer markets, internal markets, recruitment markets, internal markets and influence markets. The different principles which are important to improve and professionally manage the relationships in the markets listed above, are identified and discussed. These principles were tested in travel agencies in the Western Cape province to determine their current and ideal application in a travel and tourism environment. The calculation of effect sizes were based on the difference between the current and ideal application of the principles within travel agencies in the Western Cape. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007