Thesis (MTh (Practical Theology and Missiology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Language serves as a primary medium for humanity to find and communicate meaning. To use language in such a way that an experience of vitality becomes possible for people requires particular understandings of the nature and role of language as medium and framework that mediates the existence of man in the presence of God, rather than merely a consideration of language as medium of communication between persons. The study aims to defend a particular approach to language and language activity by exploring various subject disciplines with the purpose of mediating church practice of communicating the gospel in current contexts. The investigation is done with a practical theological approach and aims to prove as valid the spatial evolutionary understanding of language. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Taal dien as ‘n primêre medium waarin die mens betekenis vind en kommunikeer. Om te kan “taal” op so ‘n manier dat ‘n belewenis van lewenskragtigheid vir mense moontlik word, vra dat die aard en rol van taal op spesifieke maniere verstaan word.– veral dan op maniere wat getrou is aan die rol van taal as medium en raamwerk vir die eksistensiële integriteit van die mens voor die aangesig van God, eerder as slegs die oorweging van taal as medium van kommunikasie tussen persone. In die studie word gepoog om ‘n bepaalde benadering tot taal en taling te verdedig deur verskillende toepaslike vakdissiplines te verken met die oog daarop om die kerklike praktyk van kommunikasie van die evangelie in ‘n hedendaagse konteks te begelei. Die ondersoek word prakties-teologies aangepak en beoog om die ruimtelik-evolusionêre verstaan van taal en taling as geldig te bewys.

La vérification de propriétés de sûreté des logiciels distribués basés sur des canaux fifo non bornés et fiables mène directement au model checking de systèmes infinis. Nous introduisons la famille des (q)ueueing (c)oncurrent (p)rocesses (QCP) composant des systèmes de transitions locaux, par exemple des automates finis/à pile, qui communiquent entre eux par des files fifo. Le problème d'atteignabilité des états de contrôle est indécidable pour des automates communicants et des automates à plusieurs piles, et par conséquent pour QCP.Nous présentons deux solutions pour contourner ce résultat négatif :Primo, une sur-approximation basée sur l'approche abstraire-tester-raffiner qui s'appuie sur notre nouveau concept de raffinement par chemin. Cette approche mène à permettre d'écrire un semi-algorithme du type CEGAR qui est implémenté avec des QDD et réalisé dans le framework McScM dont le banc d'essai conclut notre présentation.Secundo, nous proposons des restrictions pour les QCP à des piles locales pour démêler l'interaction causale entre les données locales (la pile), et la synchronisation globale. Nous montrons qu'en supposant qu'il existe une borne existentielle sur les exécutions et qu'en ajoutant une condition sur l'architecture, qui entrave la synchronisation de deux piles, on arrive à une réponse positive pour le problème de décidabilité de l'atteignabilité qui est EXPTime-complet (et qui généralise des résultats déjà connus). La construction de base repose sur une simulation du système par un automate à une pile équivalent du point de vue de l'atteignabilité --- sous-jacente, nos deux restrictions restreignent les exécutions à une forme hors-contexte. Nous montrons aussi que ces contraintes apparaissent souvent dans des situations ``concrètes''et qu'elles sont moins restrictives que celles actuellement connues. Une autre possibilité pour arriver à une solution pratiquement utilisable consiste à supposer une borne du problème de décidabilité : nous montrons que l'atteignabilité par un nombre borné de phases est décidable par un algorithme constructif qui est 2EXPTime-complet.Finalement, nous montrons qu'élargir les résultats positifs ci-dessus à la vérification de la logique linéaire temporelle demande soit de sacrifier l'expressivité de la logique soit d'ajouter des restrictions assez fortes aux QCP --- deux restrictions qui rendent cette approche inutilisable en pratique. En réutilisant notre argument de type ``hors-contexte'', nous représentons l'ordre partiel sous-jacent aux exécutions par des grammaires hypergraphes. Cela nous permet de bénéficier de résultats connus concertant le model checking des formules de la logique MSO sur les graphes (avec largeur arborescente bornée), et d'arriver aux premiers résultats concernant la vérification des propriétés sur l'ordre partiel des automates (à pile) communicants. / The safety verification of distributed programs, that are based on reliable, unbounded fifo communication, leads in a straight line to model checking of infinite state systems. We introduce the family of (q)ueueing (c)oncurrent (p)rocesses (QCP): local transition systems, e.g., (pushdown-)automata, that are globally communicating over fifo channels. QCP inherits thus the known negative answers to the control-state reachability question from its members, above all from communicating automata and multi-stack pushdown systems. A feasible resolution of this question is, however, the corner stone for safety verification.We present two solutions to this intricacy: first, an over-approximation in the form of an abstract-check-refine algorithm on top of our novel notion of path invariant based refinement. This leads to a \cegar semi-algorithm that is implemented with the help of QDD and realized in a small software framework (McScM); the latter is benchmarked on a series ofsmall example protocols. Second, we propose restrictions for QCP with local pushdowns that untangle the causal interaction of local data, i.e., thestack, and global synchronization. We prove that an existential boundedness condition on runs together with an architectural restriction, that impedes the synchronization of two pushdowns, is sufficient and leads to an EXPTime-complete decision procedure (thus subsuming and generalizing known results). The underlying construction relies on a control-state reachability equivalent simulation on a single pushdown automaton, i.e., the context-freeness of the runs under the previous restrictions. We can demonstrate that our constraints arise ``naturally'' in certain classes of practical situations and are less restrictive than currently known ones. Another possibility to gain a practicable solution to safety verification involves limiting the decision question itself: we show that bounded phase reachability is decidable by a constructive algorithms in 2ExpTime, which is complete.Finally, trying to directly extend the previous positive results to model checking of linear temporal logic is not possible withouteither sacrificing expressivity or adding strong restrictions (i.e., that are not usable in practice). However, we can lift our context-freeness argument via hyperedge replacement grammars to graph-like representation of the partial order underlying each run of a QCP. Thus, we can directly apply the well-known results on MSO model checking on graphs (of bounded treewidth) to our setting and derive first results on verifying partial order properties on communicating (pushdown-) automata.

La conception d'architectures opérationnelles d'un système de contrôle-commande est une phase très importante lors de la conception de systèmes de production d'énergie. Cette phase consiste à projeter l'architecture fonctionnelle sur l'architecture organique tout en respectant des contraintes de capacité et de sûreté, c'est-à-dire à allouer les fonctions de commande à un ensemble de contrôleurs tout en respectant ces contraintes. Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse proposent : i)une formalisation des données et contraintes du problème d'allocation de fonctions - ii)une méthode d'allocation, par recherche d'atteignabilité, basée sur un mécanisme d'appel/réponse dans un réseau d'automates communicants à variables entières - iii)la comparaison de cette méthode à une méthode de résolution par programmation linéaire en nombres entiers. Les résultats de ces travaux ont été validés sur des exemples de taille réelle et ouvrent la voie à des couplages entre recherche d'atteignabilité et programmation linéaire en nombres entiers pour la résolution de problèmes de satisfaction de systèmes de contraintes non linéaires. / The design of operational control architectures is a very important step of the design of energy production systems. This step consists in mapping the functional architecture of the system onto its hardware architecture while respecting capacity and safety constraints, i.e. in allocating control functions to a set of controllers while respecting these constraints. The work presented in this thesis presents: i) a formalization of the data and constraints of the function allocation problem- ii) a mapping method, by reachability analysis, based on a request/response mechanism in a network of communicating automata with integer variables- iii) a comparison between this method and a resolution method by integer linear programming. The results of this work have been validated on examples of actual size and open the way to the coupling between reachability analysis and integer linear programming for the resolution of satisfaction problems for non-linear constraint systems.

The decision of romantic partners to share or keep a secret involves each partner’s perception of the other’s trustworthiness. Indeed, trust may influence how romantic partners enact secrecy in their relationship. This study investigated the willingness of individuals to keep secrets from their partner, the number of secrets that people keep from their partner, individuals’ reports of their reasons for discussing their expectations regarding secrets, and the association between each of these characteristics and partners’ trust. First, the literature regarding secrecy and people’s willingness to keep secrets from a relational partner is investigated. People’s willingness to keep secrets from a relational partner should differ based on their trust in the partner. Secret holders are more likely to disclose to a confidant when they perceive that confidant to be trustworthy (Kelly & McKillop, 1996) and, conversely may not disclose to a confidant who lacks trustworthiness (Wheeless & Grotz, 1977). In light of these findings, it was expected that individuals’ willingness to keep secrets would be negatively related to the degree to which they trusted their partner. In a similar vein, the association between trust and the frequency of discussing expectations regarding secrecy was explored. The literature suggests two possibilities for the association between trust and the frequency of discussing expectations regarding secrecy. The first is that individuals who trust their partner enough may decide to discuss how secrets should be managed, because dyadic trust is associated with increased intimacy of disclosure (Larzelere & Huston, 1980). The second possibility is that people may choose to discuss their expectations of how they should manage secrets, not because of trust, but because a lack of trustworthiness. Research questions explored the associations between the frequency of discussing expectations regarding secrecy and partners’ willingness to keep secrets, the number of secrets they keep, and their trust. Finally, the reasons why individuals might or might not discuss their expectations regarding secrets with their partner, and what these discussions might consist of were explored. / text

This study on parent involvement in Early Childhood Development in KwaZulu Natal investigates the experiences of educators and parents of the different types of parent and community involvement as set out in the Epstein typology. In order to investigate this phenomenon a thorough background of the theory and practice of the Epstein model has been provided. In addition the work of other researchers that support the Epstein typology of parent involvement forms an integral part of the discussions. As parent involvement is the key focus of the study, parent involvement in education before and after 1994 are discussed. In this regard relevant educational policy and legislation that are designed to increase the role of parents and the community in Early Childhood Development are highlighted. Parents' role in the provision of Early Childhood Development is explored. The provision of Early Childhood Development in KwaZulu Natal, which provides a backdrop for the investigation, is exptained. In addition contextual factors that influence parent involvement in KwaZulu Natal are provided. The research methodology and the research design used in this study are described in detail. By means of a qualitative approach the experiences of a small sample of educators and parents in Early Childhood Development are explored using the six types of parent involvement that include parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home and collaborating with the community as set out in Epstein's comprehensive model. The experiences of educators and parents of Grade R learners of the six types of involvement have been included. Although all schools engage in some form of parent involvement, it is evident that not all schools involve parents in all types of parent involvement to the same extent. The study concludes with recommendations for developing strategies to involve parents more effectively in Early Childhood Development in KwaZulu Natal

Barn till föräldrar med substansmissbruk är en utsatt grupp då denna målgrupp lätt glöms bort eller inte ses av samhället. Att växa upp i en miljö med missbruk ökar risken för eget substansmissbruk eller psykisk ohälsa. Syftet med studien är att analysera webbaserade organisationers stöd och hjälp till barn och unga som lever i en missbruksmiljö. Metoden som används är en databassökning och textanalys. I resultatet framkommer det att frivilligorganisationernas hemsidor är mer användarvänliga för barn och unga då deras huvudsyfte är att vända sig direkt till den målgruppen jämfört med Statliga, Kommunala, Regionala, Länsstyrelsens hemsidor som är riktade att nå ut med sin information till allmänheten. / Children of parents with substance abuse are a vulnerable group and is easily forgotten by the society. Growing up in an environment with addiction increases the risk of own abuse or mental illness. The aim of the study is to analyze webbased support from different organizations, aimed to address children and young people living in an abusive environment. The method used, is a database-search and text-analysis approach. The result shows that NGO’s websites are more userfriendly for children and young people, probably because their main purpose is to address directly to this target group, compared to local-governmental, municipal, regional and county-governmental websites

Death is a sensitive topic, and discussing death with children may be difficult for parents, especially parents who are uncomfortable with emotional expression. Many factors are associated with parents' decision to discuss death; however, a dearth of recent literature existed examining the role of parental emotional expressiveness and discussing death with children. Using Jackson's communications theory within the broader family systems theory, this exploratory non-experimental quantitative study examined if one or more of the selected variables of parents' emotional expressiveness, parents' gender, and any previous discussions about death with a child adequately predicted the age of a child when parents felt it was appropriate to discuss death with a child. Prospective participants were parents recruited from a national online university (n = 175). Multiple linear regression analysis using enter selection was conducted on the data from the instruments that included the Attitudes towards Emotional Expression Measure and the demographics questionnaire. Results indicated no significance between the predictor and criterion variables. Despite the non-significant results, this study has the opportunity to impact positive social change by encouraging further research to understand the association, if any, between emotional expressiveness and death conversations, de-stigmatizing discussions of death and bereavement, and informing parents and professionals regarding discussing death with children to help children cope with their emotions in bereavement.

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Yes / In this paper we consider four restricted cases of the generalised communicating P systems and study their computational power, by providing improved results, with respect to the number of compartments involved. We illustrate the expressive power of these devices by modelling several problems, such as producer/consumer, work ow patterns, broadcasting problem and comparative operations. We also present some relationships between generalised communicating P systems and P colonies, tissue-like P systems with very simple components. / MG and FI were supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0688, CSVE by grant No. 120558 of the National Research, Development, and Innovation Office, Hungary.

This thesis discusses linguistic constraints on scrambling and flexibility in word order in spoken Persian (Farsi) and presents a computational model for efficient implementation of these constraints for a subset of Persian. Linguistic phenomena which we have studies include local scrambling, long distance scrambling, extrapolation of clauses, topicalisation, case tendancy and the discourse marker ra. The work extends previous work on Persian based on Government and Binding (GB) theory by considering the pragmatic aspects of Persian Grammar and long distance scrambling.