Multiple-choice questions are acknowledged to be difficult for both English mother-tongue and second-language university students to interpret and answer. In a context in which university tuition policies are demanding explicitly that assessments need to be designed and administered in such a way that no students are disadvantaged by the assessment process, the thesis explores the fairness of multiple-choice questions as a way of testing second-language students in South Africa. It explores the extent to which two multiple-choice Linguistics examinations at Unisa are in fact ‘generally accessible’ to second-language students, focusing on what kinds of multiple-choice questions present particular problems for second-language speakers and what contribution linguistic factors make to these difficulties. Statistical analysis of the examination results of two classes of students writing multiple-choice exams in first-year Linguistics is coupled with a linguistic analysis of the examination papers to establish the readability level of each question and whether the questions adhered to eight item-writing guidelines relating to maximising readability and avoiding negatives, long items, incomplete sentence stems, similar answer choices, grammatically non-parallel answer choices, ‘All-of-the-above’ and ‘None-of-the-above’ items. Correlations are sought between question difficulty and aspects of the language of these questions and an attempt is made to investigate the respective contributions of cognitive difficulty and linguistic difficulty on student performance. To complement the quantitative portion of the study, a think-aloud protocol was conducted with 13 students in an attempt to gain insight into the problems experienced by individual students in reading, understanding and answering multiple-choice questions. The consolidated quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that among the linguistic aspects of questions that contributed to question difficulty for second language speakers was a high density of academic words, long items and negative stems. These sources of difficulty should be addressed as far as possible during item-writing and editorial review of questions.

Textile materials and textile design are a part of countless products in our surroundings,as well as diverse design fields and industries, each of which has very different materialtraditions and working methods. The aim of this thesis is to add to our understandingof the relationship between textiles and products in the design process, and to explorehow textiles enter and influence product design processes and how products functionin textile design processes. A further aim is to examine the effect of new textiletechnology, such as smart textiles and 3D printed textiles, on this dynamic. This thesis is the result of an interplay between theoretical work, experimentalpractice-based projects, and observation of design practice, and it presents two typesof results: Firstly, descriptions of how the relationship can manifest itself in the designprocess, which give a broad picture of the relationship between textile and productand in so doing add to our understanding of textiles as design materials and highlightsome of the additional complexities and possibilities for the design process that comewith new forms of textiles. Secondly, this thesis presents ways of describing thedynamics between textiles and products in the design process, with the intention ofopening up for reflection on how we design, and can design, with textiles. Here, themain outcome is a theoretical framework which examines the relationship from botha product design and a textile design perspective, and includes methods and questionsthat can be used to explore and define how textiles and products meet in the designprocess.

Experimental aesthetics research has been conducted since the nineteenth century. Interestingly, however, few studies have examined the perceived beauty of naturally shaped objects. In the current experiment, 204 participants were presented with a set of ten snowflake silhouettes that varied in complexity (perimeter relative to area); they were similarly presented with ten randomly-shaped, computer-generated, solid objects that also varied in complexity. For each stimulus set, the participants selected the single snowflake or object that was the most beautiful (Fechner’s method of choice). The results for the solid objects replicated the findings of earlier research: the most and least complex objects were chosen as the most beautiful. Moderately complex objects were rarely selected. The results for the snowflakes were different. For these visual stimuli, the least complex snowflakes were almost never chosen; only the complex snowflakes were perceived to be most beautiful, with the aesthetic preference increasing with increases in complexity.

ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / High data rate communication between airborne vehicles and ground stations over the bandwidth constrained Aeronautical Telemetry channel is attributed to the development of bandwidth efficient Advanced Range Telemetry (ARTM) waveforms. This communication takes place over a multipath channel consisting of two components - a line of sight and one or more ground reflected paths which result in frequency selective fading. We concentrate on the ARTM SOQPSKTG transmit waveform suite and decode information bits using the reduced complexity Viterbi algorithm. Two different methodologies are proposed to implement reduced complexity Viterbi decoders in multipath channels. The first method jointly equalizes the channel and decodes the information bits using the reduced complexity Viterbi algorithm while the second method utilizes the minimum mean square error equalizer prior to applying the Viterbi decoder. An extensive numerical study is performed in comparing the performance of the above methodologies. We also demonstrate the performance gain offered by our reduced complexity Viterbi decoders over the existing linear receiver. In the numerical study, both perfect and estimated channel state information are considered.

Syntactic complexity has been an area of significant interest in L2 writing development studies over the past 45 years. Despite the regularity in which syntactic complexity measures have been employed, the construct is still relatively under-developed, and, as a result, the cumulative results of syntactic complexity studies can appear opaque. At least three reasons exist for the current state of affairs, namely the lack of consistency and clarity by which indices of syntactic complexity have been described, the overly broad nature of the indices that have been regularly employed, and the omission of indices that focus on usage-based perspectives. This study seeks to address these three gaps through the development and validation of the Tool for the Automatic Assessment of Syntactic Sophistication and Complexity (TAASSC). TAASSC measures large and fined grained clausal and phrasal indices of syntactic complexity and usage-based frequency/contingency indices of syntactic sophistication. Using TAASSC, this study will address L2 writing development in two main ways: through the examination of syntactic development longitudinally and through the examination of human judgments of writing proficiency (e.g., expert ratings of TOEFL essays). This study will have important implications for second language acquisition, second language writing, and language assessment.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation explores the utility of using Complexity studies to improve our understanding of peacebuilding and the coherence dilemma, which is regarded as one of the most significant problems facing peacebuilding interventions. Peacebuilding is said to be complex, and this study investigates what this implies, and asks whether Complexity could be of use in improving our understanding of the assumed causal link between coherence, effectiveness and sustainability. Peacebuilding refers to all actions undertaken by the international community and local actors to consolidate the peace – to prevent a (re)lapse into violent conflict – in a given conflict-prone system. The nexus between development, governance, politics and security has become a central focus of the international effort to manage transitions, and peacebuilding is increasingly seen as the collective framework within which these diverse dimensions of conflict management can be brought together in one common framework. The coherence dilemma refers to the persistent gap between policy-level assumptions about the value and causal role of coherence in the effectiveness of peacebuilding and empirical evidence to the contrary from peacebuilding practice. The dissertation argues that the peacebuilding process is challenged by enduring and deep-rooted tensions and contradictions, and that there are thus inherent limits and constraints regarding the degree to which coherence can be achieved in any particular peacebuilding context. On the basis of the application of the general characteristics of Complexity to peacebuilding, the following three recommendations reflect the core findings of the study: (1) Peacebuilders need to concede that they cannot, from the outside, definitively analyse complex conflicts and design ‘solutions’ on behalf of a local society. Instead, they should facilitate inductive processes that assist knowledge to emerge from the local context, and such knowledge needs to be understood as provisional and subject to a continuous process of refinement and adaptation. (2) Peacebuilders have to recognise that self-sustainable peace is directly linked to, and influenced by, the extent to which a society has the capacity, and space, to selforganise. For peace consolidation to be self-sustainable, it has to be the result of a home-grown, bottom-up and context-specific process. (3) Peacebuilders need to acknowledge that they cannot defend the choices they make on the basis of pre-determined models or lessons learned elsewhere. The ethical implications of their choices have to be considered in the local context, and the effects of their interventions - intended and unintended - need to be continuously assessed against the lived-experience of the societies they are assisting. Peacebuilding should be guided by the principle that those who will have to live with the consequences should have the agency to make decisions about their own future. The art of peacebuilding lies in pursuing the appropriate balance between international support and home-grown solutions. The dissertation argues that the international community has, to date, failed to find this balance. As a result, peacebuilding has often contributed to the very societal weaknesses and fragilities that it was meant to resolve. On the basis of these insights, the dissertation concludes with a call for a significant re-balancing of the relationship between international influence and local agency, where the role of the external peacebuilder is limited to assisting, facilitating and stimulating the capacity of the local society to self-organise. The dissertation thus argues for reframing peacebuilding as something that must be essentially local. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif ondersoek die toepaslikheid van Kompleksiteitstudies om ons begrip van vredesbou en die dilemma van koherensie te verbeter, wat as een van die gewigtigste probleme vir die toetrede tot vredesbou beskou kan word. Vredesbou word as kompleks beskou en die implikasies van hierdie siening word in hierdie proefskrif ondersoek. Dienooreenkomstig word die vraag na die nut van Kompleksiteitstudies vir die verbetering van ons begrip van die veronderstelde kousale verband tussen koherensie, doeltreffendheid en volhoubaarheid aangespreek. Vredesbou verwys na alle handelinge wat deur die internasionale gemeenskap en plaaslike belanghebbendes onderneem word om vrede binne ʼn gegewe sisteem, wat neig na konflik, te konsolideer om sodoende ’n (her)verval in gewelddadige konflik te voorkom. Die aanknopingspunt tussen ontwikkeling, staatsbestuur, staatkunde en sekuriteit is tans die sentrale fokus van die internasionale poging om sodanige oorgange te beheer, en vredesbou word toenemend as ’n kollektiewe raamwerk beskou, waarbinne hierdie onderskeie dimensies van konflikbestuur in een gemeenskaplike raamwerk saamgebring kan word. Die koherensiedilemma verwys na die voortdurende gaping tussen beleidsvlakaannames ten opsigte van die waarde en kousale rol van koherensie vir die doeltreffendheid van vredesboupogings en empiriese data vanuit die vredesboupraktyk wat hierdie aanvaarde kousale verband weerspreek. Die proefskrif toon dat vredesboupogings uitgedaag word deur voortdurende en diepgewortelde spanninge en teenstrydighede, en dat daar dus inherente beperkings en stremmings is ten opsigte van die mate waartoe koherensie binne enige spesifieke vredesboukonteks moontlik is. Op grond van die toepassing van die algemene kenmerke van Kompleksiteitstudies op die vredesbouproses, weerspieël die volgende drie aanbevelings die kernbevindings van die studie: (1) Vredesbouers moet toegee dat hulle nie daartoe in staat is om komplekse konflikte van buite af bepalend te analiseer en ‘oplossings’ namens ’n plaaslike gemeenskap te ontwerp nie. Hulle behoort eerder induktiewe prosesse te fasiliteer om ondersteuning te bied sodat kennis uit die plaaslike konteks na vore kom, en sodanige kennis moet as voorlopig en onderhewig aan ’n voortdurende proses tot verfyning en aanpassing, verstaan word. (2) Vredesbouers moet besef dat die selfvolhoubaarheid van vrede direk verband hou met, en beïnvloed word deur, die mate waartoe ’n gemeenskap oor die vermoë tot en ruimte vir selforganisering beskik. Vir vredeskonsolidering om selfvolhoubaar te wees, moet die proses wat daartoe aanleiding gee inheems, van ‘onder-na-bo’ en konteks-spesifiek wees. (3) Vredesbouers moet aanvaar dat hulle nie die besluite wat hulle neem op grond van voorafbestaande modelle of lesse wat elders geleer is kan regverdig nie. Die etiese implikasies van hulle besluite moet in terme van die plaaslike konteks beoordeel word, en die effekte van hulle ingrepe – bepland en onbepland – moet voortdurend opgeweeg word teen die daaglikse ervaring van die samelewings wat bygestaan word. Vredesbehoupogings behoort gelei te word deur die beginsel dat diegene wat met die gevolge van die proses sal moet saamleef, die agentskap behoort te hê om besluite oor hulle eie toekoms te neem. Die kuns van vredesbou lê in die vasstel van ’n toepaslike balans tussen internasionale ondersteuning en inheemse oplossings. Die proefskrif se argument is dat die internasionale gemeenskap tot dusver daarin gefaal het om hierdie balans te vind. As gevolg hiervan het pogings tot vredesbou dikwels bygedra tot die presiese swakhede en broosheid in die gemeenskap wat dit veronderstel was om aan te spreek. Op grond van hierdie insigte sluit die proefskrif af met ’n beroep tot ’n betekenisvolle herbalansering van die verhouding tussen internasionale invloed en plaaslike agentskap, waarin die rol van die eksterne vredesbouer beperk moet word tot die ondersteuning, fasilitering en stimulering van die plaaslike gemeenskap se vermoë tot selforganisering. Die proefskrif bepleit dus dat vredesbou herontwerp word binne ’n essensieel plaaslike raamwerk.

More than 35 years ago, calls were made for research on the constitutive role of accounting. Since then, many statements have been made to specify what accounting is or is not. This study describes what accounting does, in order to amalgamate a fragmented picture of accounting in practice, instead of seeking the answer to the existential question of what accounting really is. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe what accounting does, and how this is done on the basis of business meetings in order to contribute to a better understanding of the role of accounting in practice.This study is based on the actor-network theory approach. Particular attention hasbeen paid to accounting as named numbers, when becoming a performative participantin framed situations. The framed situations of business meetings contained three elements; 1) pure calculation, 2) qualculation which include both calculation and judgments, and 3) calqulation as a collective social process. An ethnographically inspired field studywas carried out at Eton Fashion AB, a Swedish shirt making company. Data was collected by participant observations of business meetings supported by interviews. Photography, sound recording, and field notes were used as techniques for documentation.Diagnoses of five business meetings revealed that; 1) accounting restricted time,place and content, 2) accounting brought past and future into the present, 3) accounting summarized and obscured discontinuities, 4) accounting defined people and things, and 5) accounting called for the filling of content. Accounting became an actor in these five ways as they were allied with people and things that appeared in the meetings. Accounting was in a context where people made sense of situations by making both estimates and judgments. During the meetings, an ongoing reduction of complexity was taking place. Step by step, diversity and complexity were reduced until an order filled with numbers was the only thing remaining. At the same time, something was gained, as we step by step achieved greater legibility, transportability and universality. In this way the situation could subsist. It might move to new situations and it might allow for new summaries and new situations to take place. The situation of a meeting contained elements of pure calculation representing the cold, anonymous and empty part. Oftenthough, calculation, because of its emptiness, initiated for qualculation and calqulation to begin. Accounting as an idea is a taken for granted phenomenon, with influence, often far beyond what we can see when we find ourselves in a given situation. I conclude that it could have been some other way. It is not accounting in itself, its own excellence or ability to represent the truth, which makes it successful. The success story of accounting is simply about “the others” with whom accounting is an ally. / För avläggande av ekonomie doktorsexamen i företagsekonomi som med tillstånd av Handelshögskolans fakultetsnämnd vid Göteborgs universitet framlägges för offentlig granskning fredagen den 30 mars kl. 13.15 i CGsalen vid Företagsekonomiska institutionen, Vasagatan 1, Göteborg.

The significant influence that practice learning plays within undergraduate nurse education cannot be overstated. By practice learning, I mean work-based learning immersed in the activities of nursing practice, typically involving learning undertaken in placements at hospitals and other clinical worksites. Practice learning is intended to achieve standards defined by professional regulatory bodies, and aims to enhance learners' capability and employability. Learning here refers to processes through which student nurses develop capabilities to practice effectively, critically, confidently and professionally in health care settings. Practice is a key concept in this thesis, much contested in debates about professional learning in practice which I will examine in detail in chapter 2. In terms of current policy regarding practice learning, I would, however, suggest that what we have at the moment is an inherited legacy which to date has not been robustly scrutinised. Based on my experiences as a nursing educator I came to believe that it was timely for a re-examination of policies, practices and philosophies underpinning the duration and structure of the current practice learning model. Taken together, the above experiences led me to focus this thesis on the following research question: How might practice learning experiences be better designed to promote nursing capability? This thesis brings together six published papers reporting studies that I conducted to explore this question, as well as chapters explaining the background literature, theory and methodology guiding these studies. My overarching aim is to contribute to the improved practice learning experiences of undergraduate student nurses, retaining them on programmes and easing their transition into the role of newly qualified practitioners (NQP). Chapter 1 charts the history of nursing educational developments. The aim is to demonstrate the influence of government and professional policy over nursing’s development from an apprentice-style model to the current-day academic model. In charting these developments alongside reviewing the contemporary research literature, what is obvious is that the issues of support, retention, models of practice learning and curricula to prepare nurses are perennial challenges. However, as a practice-based discipline, the focus of preparation has always remained grounded in practice. Chapter 2 sets forth the theoretical constructs of this thesis. During the course of conducting the studies reported in the publications of this thesis, I became frustrated with the relative lack of emphasis on contemporary learning theory in nursing education, and the paucity of supporting evidence for the ‘reflective’ theory that seems to be dominant in nursing. The discussion presented in this chapter aims to provide an overview of the major traditions of constructivism and reflective practice, as well as their historical theoretical foundations, which have been widely adopted in nurse education. I discuss the strengths and limitations of these theories as they apply to undergraduate nurses’ practice learning and capability development. These are then contrasted via the means of a critical discussion with more novel alternative models. These include situated learning theory and legitimate peripheral participation, and practice-based learning theory as advocated by contemporary writers such as Schatzki (2002). These theories changed my thinking about practice learning and informed my efforts to develop a more cogent understanding of learning through, for and at work for undergraduate nurse education. In setting out Chapter 3, I am presenting a brief overview of these publications for a nursing education audience. Firstly, I have included information that is generally considered important to this audience, such as details about the journal’s standing and article citations, the databases searched, and the percentage of my own contributions. Secondly, I report the studies from an evidence-based perspective of prediction and control aligned with the contexts of the commissioning process and the conduct of each project. By this I mean that I treat the findings in these papers as valid and credible within the stated limitations Chapter 4 presents the six publications in their entirety for the reader Chapter 5 explains the research methodology adopted in the papers presented for this thesis, and offers my critical reflections on these methodologies. I outline the philosophy that underpins the approach taken with the research studies, discussing the interpretive stance that was taken to research and the consequent choice of qualitative approaches. The chapter also discusses the strengths and limitations of the methods employed in each of my papers along with the means used to analyse the data, and the ethical considerations that an interpretive researcher must consider. In retrospect, given where my theoretical orientation has moved (as explained in chapter 2), I now look rather more critically on the premises of these studies, their categories of definition, multiple causes and uncertainties at play. In my reflections on the research approach, I explain some of these issues. In concluding this thesis, Chapter 6 details my recommendations and some future implications for policy and practice. It also explains my plans for carrying forward different methodological and theoretical approaches in my future research work examining nurses' practice learning.

Transnational advocacy networks (TANs) are a rapidly proliferating phenomenon in international contentious politics. Widely known for waging headline-grabbing wars of words, TANs remain under-theorised on important levels of analysis. Unsurprisingly, they have been termed ‘elusive’ in the political literature. Typically portrayed as vital service-providing agencies that by-pass official controls to relay civil society concerns to the world’s media and international policy-makers, TANs are commonly assumed to be the vociferous, Internet-enabled, offspring of traditional NGOs and, thus, heirs to the reputational capital of NGOs. However, despite this respected provenance, it is evident that TANs frequently fail to achieve their goals. Knowledge of why some TAN strategies succeed while others fail is contested and inconclusive. This empirical thesis attempts to build on the international political literature by showing why the emerging NGO typology of TANs cannot be explained without paying attention to the systemic complexity of their environment and the essentially communicative functioning of these globe-spanning advocacy cooperatives. It seeks to demonstrate also the analytical value of applying complex realism in IR praxis. Hence, the thesis explicates a real-world conundrum: What is the place and function of transnational advocacy networks in the contemporary international system and how effective are they in achieving their aims? To identify macro-structural conditions and indicators of relationship quality — primarily involving state and non-state elements in the context of the United Nations — the thesis study reclaimed macro-sociological perspective as a first stage, ‘top-down’ approach to this complex, multi-dimensional problem space. The resultant data and patterns were then tested by way of a second-stage, micro-sociological, ‘bottom-up’, case study exploration of the UN’s interface with three iconic TANs — Greenpeace, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch. By conceptualising these relationships as intersections between systemic elements constituted on different social levels and scales of complexity, the scalable methodology enabled the study to transcend the micro-macro problems inherent in the primary research question. The results indicate that TANs are a distinctive typology of NGO that the international system is struggling to evaluate and accommodate within existing arrangements for NGO engagement. Unexpectedly, the study found plausible indications that the barriers many TANs encounter are endogenously produced. The results challenge prevailing assumptions about the place and function of grassroots diplomacy in the international arena; the ability of communications strategies to remedy global problems; and the reality and limitations of ‘people power’. By highlighting under-exposed features of the contemporary international relational landscape, the thesis argues, we might better determine whether many contemporary TANs are, in fact, evolving as the best-suited champions for the urgent, political quests they adopt.

Sports clubs today are exposed to multiple, sometimes contradictory, forces and expectations. This study is about sports coaches and their problems with and experiences of multiple institutional logics in Swedish sports. The aim of the study was therefore to provide further knowledge about the relationship between sports coaches’ leadership and institutional complexity. The study focused on the context of football in northern Sweden. The research questions that were examined were about institutional pressures, legitimacy, institutional logics, sports clubs’ impact and coaches’ strategies to manage institutional complexity. The data was collected through the means of qualitative interviews with 12 active football coaches. The results showed that the football coaches experience multiple institutional pressures and legitimacy claims. The coaches engage with 4 different coexisting institutional logics depending on the situation. Despite the fact that the institutional complexity is institutionalized in the context, it is sometimes viewed as problematic due to lack of control and support by the sports clubs. This indicated that the coaches are relatively autonomous and free to plan the activities as they wish and pursue the goals they see appropriate. Furthermore, the sports clubs have an important role in helping the coaches manage the institutional complexity and provide guidelines.