The construct of perfectionism is related to many important outcome variables. However, the term “perfectionism” has been defined in many different ways, and items comprising the different existing scales appear to be very different in content. The overarching aim of the present set of studies was to help clarify the specific unidimensional constructs underlying what is called “perfectionism”. First, trained raters reliably sorted items from existing measures of perfectionism into nine dimensions. An exploratory factor analysis, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis on an independent sample, resulted in a 9 scale, 61 item measure, called the Measure of Constructs Underlying Perfectionism (MCUP). The nine scales were internally consistent and stable across time, and they were differentially associated with relevant measures of personality and psychosocial functioning in theoretically meaningful ways.

The solar minimum of 2009 has been identified as an exceptional event with regard to cosmic ray (CR)modulation, since conditions in the heliosphere have reached unprecedented quiet levels. This unique minimum has been observed by the Earth–orbiting satellite, PAMELA, launched in June, 2006, from which vast sets of accurate proton and electron preliminary observations have been made available. These simultaneous measurements from PAMELA provide the ideal opportunity to conduct an in–depth study of CR modulation, in particular charge–sign dependent modulation. In utilizing this opportunity, a three–dimensional, steady–state modulation model was used to reproduce a selection of consecutive PAMELA proton and electron spectra from 2006 to 2009. Thiswas done by assuming full drifts and simplified diffusion coefficients, where the rigidity dependence and absolute value of themean free paths for protons and electrons were sequentially adjusted below 3 GV and 300 MV, respectively. Care has been taken in calculating yearly–averaged current–sheet tilt angle and magnetic field values that correspond to the PAMELA spectra. Following this study where the numerical model was used to investigate the individual effects resulting from changes in the tilt angle, diffusion coefficients, and global drifts, it was found that all these modulation processes played significant roles in contributing to the total increase in CR intensities from 2006 to 2009, as was observed by PAMELA. Furthermore, the effect that drifts has on oppositely charged particles was also evident from the difference between the peak–shaped time profiles of protons and the flatter time profiles of electrons, as is expected for an A < 0 polarity cycle. Since protons, which drift into the heliosphere along the heliospheric current–sheet, haven’t yet reached maximum intensity levels by 2008, their intensities increased notably more than electrons toward the end of 2009. The time and energy dependence of the electron to proton ratios were also studied in order to further illustrate and quantify the effect of drifts during this remarkable solar minimum period. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Sociology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The solar minimum of 2009 has been identified as an exceptional event with regard to cosmic ray (CR)modulation, since conditions in the heliosphere have reached unprecedented quiet levels. This unique minimum has been observed by the Earth–orbiting satellite, PAMELA, launched in June, 2006, from which vast sets of accurate proton and electron preliminary observations have been made available. These simultaneous measurements from PAMELA provide the ideal opportunity to conduct an in–depth study of CR modulation, in particular charge–sign dependent modulation. In utilizing this opportunity, a three–dimensional, steady–state modulation model was used to reproduce a selection of consecutive PAMELA proton and electron spectra from 2006 to 2009. Thiswas done by assuming full drifts and simplified diffusion coefficients, where the rigidity dependence and absolute value of themean free paths for protons and electrons were sequentially adjusted below 3 GV and 300 MV, respectively. Care has been taken in calculating yearly–averaged current–sheet tilt angle and magnetic field values that correspond to the PAMELA spectra. Following this study where the numerical model was used to investigate the individual effects resulting from changes in the tilt angle, diffusion coefficients, and global drifts, it was found that all these modulation processes played significant roles in contributing to the total increase in CR intensities from 2006 to 2009, as was observed by PAMELA. Furthermore, the effect that drifts has on oppositely charged particles was also evident from the difference between the peak–shaped time profiles of protons and the flatter time profiles of electrons, as is expected for an A < 0 polarity cycle. Since protons, which drift into the heliosphere along the heliospheric current–sheet, haven’t yet reached maximum intensity levels by 2008, their intensities increased notably more than electrons toward the end of 2009. The time and energy dependence of the electron to proton ratios were also studied in order to further illustrate and quantify the effect of drifts during this remarkable solar minimum period. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Sociology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Cartilage tissue engineering has been emerging as a promising therapeutic approach, where engineered constructs or scaffolds are used as temporary supports to promote regeneration of functional cartilage tissue. Hybrid constructs fabricated from cells, hydrogels, and solid polymeric materials show the most potential for their enhanced biological and mechanical properties. However, fabrication of customized hybrid constructs with impregnated cells is still in its infancy and many issues related to their structural integrity and the cell functions need to be addressed by research. Meanwhile, it is noticed that nowadays monitoring the success of tissue engineered constructs must rely on animal models, which have to be sacrificed for subsequent examination based on histological techniques. This becomes a critical issue as tissue engineering advances from animal to human studies, thus raising a great need for non-invasive assessments of engineered constructs in situ. To address the aforementioned issues, this research is aimed to (1) develop novel fabrication processes to fabricate hybrid constructs incorporating living cells (hereafter referred as “construct biofabrication”) for cartilage tissue regeneration and (2) develop non-invasive monitoring methods based on synchrotron X-ray imaging techniques for examining cartilage tissue constructs in situ. Based on three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques, novel biofabrication processes were developed to create constructs from synthetic polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer framework and cell-impregnated alginate hydrogel, so as to provide both structural and biological properties as desired in cartilage tissue engineering. To ensure the structural integrity of the constructs, the influence of both PCL polymer and alginate was examined, thus forming a basis to prepare materials for subsequent construct biofabrication. To ensure the biological properties, three types of cells, i.e., two primary cell populations from embryonic chick sternum and an established chondrocyte cell line of ATDC5 were chosen to be incorporated in the construct biofabrication. The biological performance of the cells in the construct were examined along with the influence of the polymer melting temperature on them. The promising results of cell viability and proliferation as well as cartilage matrix production demonstrate that the developed processes are appropriate for fabricating hybrid constructs for cartilage tissue engineering. To develop non-invasive in situ assessment methods for cartilage and other soft tissue engineering applications, synchrotron phase-based X-ray imaging techniques of diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI), analyzer based imaging (ABI), and inline phase contrast imaging (PCI) were investigated, respectively, with samples prepared from pig knees implanted with low density scaffolds. The results from the computed-tomography (CT)-DEI, CT-ABI, and extended-distance CT-PCI showed the scaffold implanted in pig knee cartilage in situ with structural properties more clearly than conventional PCI and clinical MRI, thus providing information and means for tracking the success of scaffolds in tissue repair and remodeling. To optimize the methods for live animal and eventually for human patients, strategies with the aim to reduce the radiation dose during the imaging process were developed by reducing the number of CT projections, region of imaging, and imaging resolution. The results of the developed strategies illustrate that effective dose for CT-DEI, CT-ABI, and extended-distance CT-PCI could be reduced to 0.3-10 mSv, comparable to the dose for clinical X-ray scans, without compromising the image quality. Taken together, synchrotron X-ray imaging techniques were illustrated promising for developing non-invasive monitoring methods for examining cartilage tissue constructs in live animals and eventually in human patients.

The general aim of this research was to determine the theoretical elements of positive coping behaviour and operationalise these into a reliable and valid measurement scale, the Positive Coping Behaviour Inventory (PCBI). Positive coping behaviour was conceptualised in the context of employee wellness in the contemporary world of work. The literature review guided the development of a theoretical model comprising four constructs denoting positive coping behaviour: cognitive, affective, conative and social coping behaviour. Scale development protocols were followed in generating items for each dimension. The empirical study (research scale development) employed a non-probability, purposive sampling technique. The empirical study targeted the total population of N = 525 employees working in Omnia. The Omnia Group comprises a balanced and diversified range of complementary chemical service businesses with a broad geographic spread. The sample was diverse in terms of age, gender and race, overall mood description and general health. The respondents were purposefully selected based on the requirement that respondents had to be working and aged between 19 and 65 years. The empirical research provided evidence of the factorial (multidimensional) validity, unidimensionality, internal consistency reliability and structural and intra-test construct validity of the PCBI. Construct equivalence of the PCBI across age, gender and race groups was also confirmed. The statistical analyses provided evidence of the PCBI being anchored in a strong theoretical foundation with the scale having the potential to provide researchers and practitioners with a reliable instrument to measure the positive coping behaviour of adult workers. Furthermore, the PCBI contributes to the field of positive psychology and industrial and organisational psychology in terms of better understanding of the behavioural dimensions that constitute positive coping behaviour. As a valid theoretical framework, the PCBI dimensions provide useful information on measuring individuals’ positive coping behaviour in a holistic manner by focusing on a broad spectrum of positive psychological constructs in terms of cognitive, affective, conative and social behavioural elements / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The primary objectives of this study were to determine the relationship between the wellness constructs coping and SoC as well as the relationship between the wellness constructs LoC and SoC in the petrochemical industry in South Africa. The sample of 184 participants completed three different psychological concepts namely COPE (Hereinafter referred to as coping), Locus of Control Inventory and Sense of Coherence Scale. The results of the study indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between the variables coping ad Soc as well SoC and LoC but no statistically significant relationship between the variables coping and LoC. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The aim of this work was to characterize a member of the Drosophila Idgf family. IDGF2 was expresed in Drosophila S2 cells and purified by affinity chromatography. Function of wild-type and mutant IDGF2 was compared.

Submitted by (lucia.rodrigues@ufrpe.br) on 2016-11-16T13:01:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Laurentino Goncalves da Rocha.pdf: 2473080 bytes, checksum: a312b7cf684b2319db33b7f540b308f9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-16T13:01:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Laurentino Goncalves da Rocha.pdf: 2473080 bytes, checksum: a312b7cf684b2319db33b7f540b308f9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-08-15 / The current research deals with the constructive revision – in the cognitive structure of first year students in a public high school state, in the Uniform Rectilinear Motion (URM) conception, evolving from the Aristotelian to Galilean thinking. Students have a natural difficulty in understanding the existence of motion without a prime mover action – a Galilean concept – since they can only observe it in complex laboratory experiments or as a result of mental idealization. Differently, the Aristotelian conception permits an easier comprehension since it can be demonstrated from the sensorial observation of everyday experiments. In this work, through pedagogical activities based in the Kelly’s Experience Cycle (KEC), part of the Personal Constructs Theory (PCT), formulated by George Kelly, examined the URM concepts, as per Galileo and Aristotle and revised basic concepts of Physics related to the research topics of concern to the students, we intend to investigate whether the KCE is appropriate for the desired conceptual revision asking the following question: how to promote, among first year students in a public high school, the revision of Aristotelian thinking introducing Galilean logic? In order to reach our objective we did a didactic intervention based in moments of Cycle. The results obtained, indicate a quantity considerable of students that change from aristotelian’s conception to galilean’s conception. At the end of the research we came to the conclusion that the KEC method is appropriate to promote a change of students’ conception / Trata a presente pesquisa da revisão construtiva, na estrutura cognitiva dos alunos do 1º ano do ensino médio de uma escola pública estadual, da concepção de movimento retilíneo uniforme (MRU), do pensamento aristotélico para o galileano. Observa-se a dificuldade dos estudantes em compreender a existência de movimento sem a ação da força, oriunda da dificuldade de sua visualização no cotidiano, pois sua ocorrência exige condições laboratoriais de alta complexidade ou mentalmente idealizadas. A concepção aristotélica é de mais fácil verificação, pois origina-se da observação de eventos do nosso cotidiano. Neste trabalho, através de atividades fundamentadas no Ciclo da Experiência Kellyana (CEK), que faz parte da Teoria dos Construtos Pessoais (TCP), de George Kelly, nas concepções de MRU, segundo Galileu e Aristóteles e em conceitos básicos de Física, pretendemos investigar se o CEK é adequado para a desejada revisão conceitual, respondendo à seguinte indagação: Como promover entre alunos, a revisão do pensamento aristotélico para o de Galileu? Para a consecução da mudança, realizamos uma intervenção didática, baseada nos momentos do Ciclo. Os resultados obtidos indicaram uma quantidade relevante de alunos que passaram de uma concepção aristotélica para uma concepção galileana. Ao final do trabalho concluímos que o CEK é um método apropriado para promover uma mudança de concepção dos estudantes.

The purpose of this study was to see how meaningful and practically challenging a combined and structured arts therapy approach can be for an island-style counselling scenario. The overarching rationale with this particular arts therapy approach was to enable the client to gain self-insight by means of constructing a holistic view of present concerns and aspirations by capturing them in personal, functional and professional-looking artefacts conveying relevant self-messages. The client self-generated the content of each exercise, according to a manual and strategic interventions, and was guided by the counsellor in the user-friendly application of the arts. Apart from the unique combination of arts therapies in this study, another factor that may contribute to counselling practice is the attempt to make use of video as a non-threatening integrating medium. Throughout the process, the client made rehearsed video appearances to consolidate personal gains. At the end of the counselling process, the respondent enjoyed an “objective” screening of the process and he left with the personal constructs, a video tape and a CD-Rom application of the recorded process. The literature study reveals the numerous techniques, exercises and most common combinations spread across the domain of the 26 expressive modalities that were scrutinised to gain insight into this vast field. The empirical process revealed that it is possible to utilise the arts therapy approach meaningfully to enable a client to build a “visual narrative”. To optmise the potential this approach holds, the environment facilitating the process needs to be adequately equipped and the counsellor needs to be skilled in the application of particular electronic media or, alternatively, a group of experts need to co-operate. / Dissertation (MEd (Learning Support, Guidance and Counselling))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

The aim of this study was to explore, from a group dynamics perspective, the adult learners' experiences in a learnership program structured to include employed and unemployed learners. A secondary aim was to develop guidelines for practitioners regarding the implementation of learnerships that are structured to include employed and unemployed learners, taking into account the group dynamics at play. The case study played out within a pharmaceutical distribution company within South Africa. A qualitative, constructivist grounded theory method was used to analyse the data that were collected by means of questionnaires and focus groups. The data collected were transcribed and uploaded into Atlas.ti, which is a visual qualitative data analysis and theorybuilding software program that contributes to the management of qualitative data. It was used to complete a rigorous inductive-abductive analysis. The final code list contained 277 codes linked to 29 code families which in turn were linked to 8 super families. These super families were described and the experiences of the learners were then interpreted by means of a number of group dynamics theories and adult learning theories that were discussed in the preceding literature chapters. In the case study the exploration of the learners' experience indicated that certain group dynamics were not taken into consideration and this led to an emotionally burdened experience. If one considers the adult learning theory, these experiences could influence the learning effectiveness. The implementation of a learnership program taking the group dynamics into consideration prior to implementation thereof, could contribute towards a more successful learnership. Guidelines were given based on the conclusions of the research for example: <ul> <li> Ensure that all the relevant parties including management, supervisors, employed learners, unemployed learners, employed staff, SETA etc. strive towards the same goal right from the start.</li> <li> Integrate the employed and unemployed learners' rights from the start so that the unemployed learners are accepted as part of the system.</li> <li> Make it very clear to the employed staff that the unemployed learners are not a threat to their employment within the company as the unemployed learners have not been given a commitment that they will be employed after the learnership.</li> <li> Make sure that the training facilitators are well trained and equipped to deal with the group dynamics that can develop in the classroom environment so that they can contribute to the containment of emotions and to alert the company of the events.</li> <li> Ensure that change agents are available to monitor and manage these group dynamics.</li> <li> Explain the differences and similarities that might exist between the groups and assist the groups to realise their mutually dependent relationship.</li> </ul> The guidelines obtained from this study can be used to stimulate the thinking process when planning and managing the implementation of a learnership program in order to be aware of consequential implications that group dynamics can have on the successful implementation of such a learning program. The conclusions and guidelines will be useful to human resources practitioners, training providers and line managers that are planning to implement similar learnership programs. AFRIKAANS: Die doel van die studie was om volwasse leerders betrokke by ‘n leerlingskapprogram wat gestruktureer is om bestaande werkers en werklose leerders in te sluit, se ervaring vanuit ‘n groepdinamika perspektief te ondersoek. ‘n Sekondêre doelwit was om riglyne te ontwikkel vir mense in die praktyk met betrekking tot die implementering van ‘n leerlingskapprogram vir volwasse leerders bestaande uit werklose leerders en leerders in diens van ‘n bepaalde maatskappy, met in agneming van die groepdinamika daarby betrokke. Die gevallestudie het plaasgevind binne ‘n farmaseutiese verspreidingsmaatskappy in Suid-Afrika. ‘n Kwalitatiewe, konstruktiwistiese metode is gebruik om die data te analiseer wat deur vraelyste en fokusgroepe versamel is. Die data is getranskribeer en ingelees in Atlas.ti, wat ‘n visuele kwalitatiewe data-analise en teoretiese gebaseerde sagtewareprogram is wat bydra tot die bestuur van kwalitatiewe data. Hierdie program is gebruik om ‘n indringende gebaseerde teorieanalise te doen. Die finale kodelys bestaan uit 277 kodes gekoppel aan 29 kode families wat weer op hul beurt gekoppel is aan 8 hooffamilies. Hierdie hooffamilies is beskryf en die navorsingsgebeure van die studie is by wyse van groepdinamikateorieë en volwasseleerteorieë (wat in die vorige literatuur hoofstukke van die studie bespreek is) geïnterpreteer. In hierdie gevallestudie het die interpretasie van die ervarings van die leerders wat ondersoek is, daarop gewys dat sekere groepdinamika nie oorweeg is nie en dat dit gelei het tot ‘n emosionele stresvolle ervaring. Volwasseleerteorie dui aan dat hierdie ervarings die leereffektiwiteit kon beïnvloed het. Die implementering van ‘n leerlingskap program waar die groepdinamika in ag geneem word voor die implementering kan bydra tot die sukses van soortgelyke leerlingskapprogramme. Die riglyne wat deur hierdie studie verkry is, kan gebruik word om die denkproses te stimuleer tydens die beplanning en die bestuur van die implementering van soortgelyke leerlingskapprogramme. Dit sal veroorsaak dat die betrokke persone bewus is van die invloed van groepdinamika kan hê met betrekking tot die suksesvolle implementering van ‘n leerlingskap program. Die navorsingsinligting wat ingewin is, sal bruikbaar wees vir menslike hulpbronne praktisyne, opleidingsvoorsieners en lynbestuurders wat beplan om ‘n soortgelyke leerlingskapprogram te implementeer. Copyright 2010, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Ward, ME 2010, A group dynamics perspective of the experiences of adult learners taking part in a learnership program, MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02152012-114353 / > C12/4/124/gm / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted