Thesis (PhD. Ed. (Curriculum Studies) --University of Limpopo, 2019 / The Natural Learning Approach (NLA), commonly referred to as ‘unschooling’, is deeply embedded in the belief that children have an innate desire to learn. Therefore, the notion of autonomy and freedom of the learner in the learning and living process is highly valued and the cornerstone of this approach. The home and the child’s broader environment become the authentic space for the unfolding and implementation of the NLA, where learning and living is a seamless experience. This study examined how the individual and the family go about creating their unique ‘curriculum’, how learning happens, and how families negotiate the challenges of this approach. Using a mixed methods research design, a questionnaire was used to collate quantitative data, and a sample of ten families (parents and children) and seven young adults contributed to the qualitative data; documents were also used as part of the qualitative strand. Content, thematic and critical analysis were used to analyse the data to gain and provide a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. The research evidence of this study evinced that diverse, vibrant, holistic and joyful learning is taking place in the NLA homes. Families shared how authentic learning took place when children directed their own learning process and where the diversity of each unique human individual is valued and empowered. Furthermore, the study attested the key role of the parents in the child’s development and wellbeing. Possibilities of how this approach can be extended to broader society under the notion of a learning society is also proposed. Recommendations and further research suggestions are outlined so that possibilities of the NLA becoming the key learning approach to birth a vibrant learning society in South Africa is realised.

Theoretical frameworks suggest that African Americans express emotion in context-specific ways that are unique to their familial socialization experience (Boykin, 1986; Dunbar, Leerkes, Coard, Supple, & Calkins, 2017). However, less is known about how African Americans express emotion across familial and public contexts. The current study was interested in exploring the contextual differences in emotion expression among 188 African American/Black college students from 3 different types of college campuses: predominantly White (i.e., PWI), historically Black (i.e., HBCU), and racially diverse. Data were collected via an online survey in which students reported the school they attend, their emotion expression in the family and on campus, and their experiences with racial discrimination on campus. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted to test the exploratory hypothesis of contextual differences in emotion expression. Five profiles of African American students’ emotion expression in the family and on campus emerged: High Positive and Negative Submissive Expression (n = 49; 26%), More Family Expression (n = 8; 5%), Low Family and Campus Expression (n = 24; 13%), More Campus Positive and Negative Dominant Expression (n = 45; 24%), and More Positive and Less Negative Dominant Expression (n = 63; 33%). While college campus racial composition type was not a significant predictor of profiles of emotion expression, Wald chi-square = 8.83, p = .360, racial discrimination was, Wald chi-square = 1.00, p = .041. Specifically, African American students who reported more frequent experiences with racial discrimination were more likely to be in the Less Family Expression/More Campus Expression profile than in the More Positive and Negative Submissive Expression profile. Additionally, the More Campus Positive and Negative Dominant Expression profile was significantly different than both the Low Family and Campus Expression profile and the More Positive and Less Negative Dominant Expression profile. In other words: racial discrimination experiences were associated with less expression of emotion in the family and more expression of emotion in the campus context (particularly positive emotion). These results are largely consistent with African American mothers’ emotion expression in the family (i.e., greater positive emotion relative to negative emotion). Furthermore, they contribute to this literature in that African American youth express emotion differently in the family context compared to campus, particularly in the face of racial discrimination. Future studies should continue to investigate contextual emotion expression as it may have implications for the transition of emerging adults during the college experience.

The European Union is proposing that the additional protection for geographical indications afforded to wine and spirits in section 23.1 of the TRIPS agreement be extended to include geographical indications of other agricultural products. Those opposing increased protection for geographical indications represent those countries which do not have a strong history of traditional food products and are generally considered new world countries. South Africa, as part of the new world, has as of yet failed to take a position on the matter. In light of this debate, this study sets out to investigate the relevance of geographical indications in a South African context in order to make recommendations for South Africa’s position in the debate at multi-lateral level. The topic is approached by first contextualizing the subject matter where after the economic rationale for the protection thereof is explored. A comprehensive literature study identifies the factors which contribute to a product’s potential to benefit from geographical indication protection. Based on these factors, three South African products, Rooibos, Klein Karoo ostrich and Honeybush, are analyzed and an ex ante judgment made as to their potential to benefit from geographical indication protection. It is hypothesized that geographical indications are indeed relevant in a South African context given that there are many South African products which are considered to be highly localized with a strong association between the region and the product. The Rooibos scenario is used to illustrate the need for timely protection of our national assets and sets the tone for the discussion of the two further case studies. It is found that despite widespread reputation, Klein Karoo ostrich may not ideally benefit from geographical indication protection given its lack of specificity. In contrast, it is found that Honeybush tea is a highly localised product with strong specificity and therefore stands to benefit from geographical indication protection. The study concludes that there are indeed South African products which could potentially benefit from geographical indication protection. Based on this, recommendations are made for South Africa’s position in the debate at multi-lateral level. It is recommended that the South African government take note of the potential of geographical indications to foster rural development and the need to protect our national assets from foreign appropriation. It is further recommended that this be done by firstly coming out in support of the European proposal for a mandatory system of registration for all products bearing a geographical indication and secondly, by providing for the development of an institutional framework within which to protect geographical indications domestically. / Dissertation (M.COM (Economic Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

Due to the health and relational benefits associated with mindfulness, interest has increased in researching the topic. Typically, samples have been more homogeneous with no attention given to variations in mindfulness levels that may exist based on individuals’ characteristics. Therefore, this study assessed levels of three facets of mindfulness – non-reactivity, awareness, and non-judgement - with 1796 diverse individuals. Results indicate differences in mean level of non-reactivity based on sex, education level, income, and relationship status, with higher levels, on average, for males, individuals without a high school degree, individuals with an annual salary of $75,000+, and married individuals; differences in mean level of awareness based on sex and race, with higher levels, on average, for females and white individuals; and differences in mean level of non-judgement based on income, with higher levels, on average, for low income individuals. Findings highlight the value of considering social address in mindfulness studies.

Cellular network based Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications have been growing rapidly in recent years, being used in a wide range of services such as security, metering, health, remote control, tracking and so on. A critical issue that needs to be considered in M2M communications is the energy efficiency, typically the machines are powered by batteries of low capacity and it is important to optimize the way the power is consumed. In search of better M2M systems, we propose a context-aware framework for M2M communications so the machine type communication (MTC) devices dynamically adapt their settings depending on a series of characteristics such as data reporting mode and quality of service (QoS) features so higher energy efficient is achieved, extending the operating lifetime of the M2M network. Simulations were performed with four commonly used M2M applications:home security, telehealth, climate and smart metering, achieving considerable energy savings and operating lifetime extension on the network. Thus, it is shown that contexts play an important role on the energy efficiency of a M2M system.

The Ambient Network (AN) Project is part of the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme and aims to enable cooperation between heterogeneous networks, using current and future wireless technologies, minimising the effort of mobile users to gain access to the services that they are interested in - irrespective of their location or the network they are currently using. Because of the highly mobile nature of users and a demand for instant and dynamic access to services, these networks have to be composed ‘on the fly’ without any pre-configurations. The use of context information in AN can remove the need for pre-configuration of networks, hence making them autonomic. However, a concern exists that the free and uncontrolled dissemination of context information could breech the privacy of the participants. It is extremely important to address these privacy issues in order to control who has access to what context information. This control can be achieved through the use of well defined policies. This creates a requirement for a framework in the ContextWare architecture for protecting context information. This masters thesis project is part of an effort to create a policy based infrastructure for authorisation of access to network context information within the AN. The thesis investigates, models, and designs an architecture for a policy management system based on OASIS XACML, that creates an extension to the architecture for management of context information in the AN. In addition to a policy management architecture within an AN, a policy management architecture for composing ANs is also created. To facilitate the transfer of requests and policies, the thesis creates a Policy Management Protocol. The designed architecture was then implemented to create a proof of concept. The designed architecture and protocol were evaluated by running tests on the prototype. The measurements from the tests are analysed and presented in this thesis. The analysis of the experimental data indicates that a policy management system is both feasible and practical. The results show that the delay overhead caused by introducing policy management in a distributed context provisioning system, ranges from 1.7% in a system without load to 6% in a worst case scenario. The throughput of the policy management system is 15 requests per second under load. / Ambient Network är ett EU-finansierat project inom det 6:e ramprogrammet.Projektets mål är att möjliggöra samarbete mellan heterogena nätverk, som använderbåde dagens men även framtidens trådlösa teknologier, för att minimeraslutanvändarens insats för att nå den tjänst de är intresserade av – oberoende av platseller vilket nätverk de använder. På grund av den stora delen av mobila användaresom kräver omedelbar och dynamisk tillgång till tjänster måste dessa nätverk gåsamman ’on the fly’ utan tidigare konfigurering.Användningen av context information i Ambient Networks kan elmininera behovet avförkonfigurering av nätverk, följaktligen blir de då autonoma. Dock, ett problem somuppkommer med detta är att den fria och okontrollerade spridningen av contextinformation bryter integriteten för deltagarna. Det är väldigt viktigt att ta itu med dettaproblem för att kunna kontrollera vilka som har tillgång till vilken contextinformation. Den här kontrollen kan uppnås genom väldefinierade policies. Dettaskapar ett behov av ett ramverk inom ContextWare arkitekturen för att skydda dentillgängliga context informationen. Den här uppsatsen är en del i ansträngningen att skapa en policy baserad infrastrukturför attestering av tillgång till context information inom Ambient Networks. Uppsatsenundersöker och designar en arkitektur för ett policy handhavande system som ärbaserat på OASIS XACML, den bygger vidare på arkitekturen för handhavande avcontext information i Ambient Networks. Utöver policy hantering inom ett ambientnetwork skapas också policy hantering mellan ambient networks när de förenas. Denframtagna arkitekturen är därefter implementerad för att visa på konceptets hållbarhet. En sammanslagning av två policy handhavande system när två nätverk slås ihop ärbehandlat endast i teorin, det är inte implementerat. Designen utvärderas genom att köra test på den implementerade versionen ochdärefter analysera och visa resultaten i rapporten. Dessa test innehåller mätningar avfördröjningen av en enda begäran samt flera, responstiden i ett system med policyhanteringjämfört med utan samt prestandan i ett policy-hanteringssystem med en litenmängd policies jämfört med en större mängd policies.

Today customization of services and applications is one of the major challenges in facilitating ease of use. More and more people are interested in context aware services. In this work, I will study context awareness: What contributions can it make? What technical issues are raised? I will concentrate on the semantic problem and show how new technologies such as a web ontology language can facilitate creating context aware services. An application was implemented using these principles as a proof of concept and to enable some evaluation of this approach. This application has shown that combining semantic processing with SIP call processing is feasible and measurements have demonstrated a highly scalable context aware application for at least simple CPL scripts. / I dagens läge är en av de stora utmaningarna att skräddarsy applikationer och tjänster efter kundens begär för att höja användarvänligheten. Fler och fler kunder intresserar sig för tjänster som är kontextuppmärksamma. Jag kommer i mitt arbete att studera detta, mina frågeställningar är huvudsakligen, hur är detta användbart? Vad slags tekniska problem uppstår kring applikationen av detta koncept? Jag kommer att koncentrera mig på semantiska problem och visa hur nya teknologier så som webbontologispråk kan underlätta då man skapar tjänster som är kontextuppmärksamma. Jag kommer även att skapa en applikation där jag använder dessa principer för att visa konceptet och för att underlätta för en utvärdering av detta tillvägagångssätt. Denna applikation samt mätdata visar att det är möjligt att kombinera semantisk bearbetning och SIP anropsbearbetning för att skapa oerhört robusta applikationer, åtminstonde för enkla CPL script, som är hållbara i ett stort omfång av systemstorlekar.

Today almost everyone owns a mobile phone, adults along with teenagers and kids. Even laptops and other wearable devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA’s) are become more common. We want constant connectivity to networks and the Internet, which in turn makes us more and more available. Context-awareness will play a bigger role for these devices in the future. Aware of its surroundings, a portable device can adapt and communicate with different devices and objects, hiding complexity from the user. This enables a simpler user interface and reduces user interaction. This master thesis builds partially upon the prior work done by Maria José Parajón Dominguez. To realize the concept of “context-awareness” HP’s iPAQ Pocket PC h5500 was used together with a server/client application developed as part of this thesis project. Questions that were addressed; what are the effects on the traffic to and from the mobile device of having a personal voice interface; what are the effect on the traffic to and from the mobile device of having significant local storage; and is it possible to exchanging personal CODECs to reduce bandwidth. With this background in mind, this thesis focuses on audio for mobile users in a quest to create more useful devices by exploiting context awareness. / Idag äger nästan alla en mobiltelefon, vuxna, tonåringar så väl som barn. Även bärbara datorer och andra bärbara apparater så som ”personal digital assistans” (PDA:er) blir vanligare. Vi strävar efter konstant dataåtkomst, vilket i sin tur gör oss mer och mer tillgängliga för andra. ”Context-awareness” kommer att spela en större roll för dessa apparater i framtiden. Medveten om sin omgivning, så kan en portabel apparat anpassa sig och kommunicera med andra, utan att göra det komplext för användaren. Detta medför ett enklare gränssnitt för användaren och minskar användarens samspel. Detta examensarbete bygger delvis på ett tidigare arbete av Maria José Parajón Dominguez. För att realisera begreppet “context-awareness” användes HP:s iPAQ Pocket PC h5500 tillsammans med en utvecklad server/klient programvara. Frågor som man försökte besvara var; vilken effekt trafiken har till och från PDA:n vid användning av ett röstgränssnitt; vilken effekt trafiken har till och från PDA:n vid lagring av mycket lokalt utrymme; och om det är möjligt att utväxla personliga algoritmer, så kallade CODECs. Med detta i tanke, så försöker detta examensarbete att fokusera på ljud för mobila användare i ett försök att skapa mer användbara apparater genom att utnyttja ”context-awareness”.

This thesis examines innovation and design processes in small established companies. There is a great interest in this area yet paradoxically the area is under-researched, since most innovation research is done on large companies. The research questions are: How do small established companies carry out their innovation and design processes? and How does the context and novelty of the process and product affect the same processes? The thesis is built on three research papers that used the research method of multiple case studies of different small established companies. The innovation and design processes found were highly context dependent and were facilitated by committed resources, a creative climate, vision, low family involvement, delegated power and authority, and linkages to external actors such as customers and users. Both experimental cyclical and linear structured design processes were found. The choice of structure is explained by the relative product and process novelty experienced by those developing the product innovation. Linear design processes worked within a low relative novelty situation and cyclical design processes worked no matter the relative novelty. The innovation and design processes found were informal, with a low usage of formal systematic design methods, except in the case of design processes for software. The use of formal systematic methods in small companies seems not always to be efficient, because many of the problems the methods are designed to solve are not present. Customers and users were found to play a large and important role in the innovation and design processes found and gave continuous feedback during the design processes. Innovation processes were found to be intertwined, yielding synergy effects, but it was common that resources were taken from the innovation processes for acute problems that threatened the cash flow. In sum, small established companies have the natural prerequisites to take advantage of lead-user inventions and cyclical design processes. Scarce resources were found to be the main factor hindering innovation, but the examined companies practiced several approaches to increase their resources or use existing scarce resources more efficiently in their innovation and design processes. Examples of these approaches include adopting lead-user inventions and reducing formality in the innovation and design processes.

Many family-based treatments for pediatric obesity teach specific parenting practices related to weight management. Although youth in these programs show increases in positive health behaviors and reductions in the extent to which they are overweight, most remain overweight after treatment. A recent trend is to create tailored programs for subgroups of families. We examine the possibility of tailoring based on family context, highlighting 3 aspects of family context that have been studied in relation to pediatric obesity: parenting style, family stress, and family emotional climate. We argue that family context may moderate treatment outcomes by altering the effectiveness of health-related parenting practices and discuss the implications of this argument for designing and evaluating tailored programs.