Violence against women in cohabiting and marital relationships is, at present, a prominent phenomenon in South Africa. Domestic violence against women and children in South Africa is widespread and on the increase, also in Potchefstroom. Yet limited interventions are available. The interventions that are available include the SAPS, the court for the protection order, NGO’s and social workers. Female victims need measures that focus on building and empowering them with skills. Therefore the researcher adapted the Personal Growth Programme of FAMSA in Welkom to cater for the needs of female victims of domestic violence who are currently or were previously in an abusive relationship. The newly formulated Personal Empowerment Training Programme (PETP) is a tool that provides the female victims with the opportunity to deal with poor self–image, emotional demoralisation, loss of selfhood, self–blame and shame. Aim The aim of the research was to determine the effect of the PETP on the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of female victims of domestic violence in Potchefstroom. Method The main core of the research can be depicted as programme evaluation in which an evaluative research design was used. In the main study an experimental group was subjected to the PETP, while the control group was not. However, both experiential group and control group had to complete the pre–post questionnaire. Results The results proved that the PETP had a positive impact on the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of female victims affected by domestic violence. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Violence against women in cohabiting and marital relationships is, at present, a prominent phenomenon in South Africa. Domestic violence against women and children in South Africa is widespread and on the increase, also in Potchefstroom. Yet limited interventions are available. The interventions that are available include the SAPS, the court for the protection order, NGO’s and social workers. Female victims need measures that focus on building and empowering them with skills. Therefore the researcher adapted the Personal Growth Programme of FAMSA in Welkom to cater for the needs of female victims of domestic violence who are currently or were previously in an abusive relationship. The newly formulated Personal Empowerment Training Programme (PETP) is a tool that provides the female victims with the opportunity to deal with poor self–image, emotional demoralisation, loss of selfhood, self–blame and shame. Aim The aim of the research was to determine the effect of the PETP on the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of female victims of domestic violence in Potchefstroom. Method The main core of the research can be depicted as programme evaluation in which an evaluative research design was used. In the main study an experimental group was subjected to the PETP, while the control group was not. However, both experiential group and control group had to complete the pre–post questionnaire. Results The results proved that the PETP had a positive impact on the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of female victims affected by domestic violence. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Eye tracking has a number of useful applications ranging from monitoring a vehicle driver for possible signs of fatigue, providing an interface to enable severely disabled people to communicate with others, to a number of medical applications. Most eye tracking applications require a non-intrusive way of tracking the eyes, making a camera-based approach a natural choice. However, although significant progress has been made in recent years, modern eye tracking systems still have not overcome a number of challenges including eye occlusions, variable ambient lighting conditions and inter-subject variability. This thesis describes the complete design and implementation of a real-time camera-based eye tracker, which was developed mainly for indoor applications. The developed eye tracker relies on the so-called bright/dark pupil effect for both the eye detection and eye tracking phases. The bright/dark pupil effect was realised by the development of specialised hardware and near-infrared illumination, which were interfaced with a machine vision camera. For the eye detection phase the performance of three different types of classifiers, namely neurals networks, SVMs and AdaBoost were directly compared with each other on a dataset consisting of 17 individual subjects from different ethnic backgrounds. For the actual tracking of the eyes, a Kalman filter was combined with the mean-shift tracking algorithm. A PC application with a graphical user interface (GUI) was also developed to integrate the various aspects of the eye tracking system, which allows the user to easily configure and use the system. Experimental results have shown the eye detection phase to be very robust, whereas the eye tracking phase was also able to accurately track the eyes from frame-to-frame in real-time, given a few constraints. AFRIKAANS : Oogvolging het ’n beduidende aantal toepassings wat wissel van die deteksie van bestuurderuitputting, die voorsiening van ’n rekenaarintervlak vir ernstige fisies gestremde mense, tot ’n groot aantal mediese toepassings. Die meeste toepassings van oogvolging vereis ’n nie-indringende manier om die oë te volg, wat ’n kamera-gebaseerde benadering ’n natuurlike keuse maak. Alhoewel daar alreeds aansienlike vordering gemaak is in die afgelope jare, het moderne oogvolgingstelsels egter nogsteeds verskeie uitdagings nie oorkom nie, insluitende oog okklusies, veranderlike beligtingsomstandighede en variansies tussen gebruikers. Die verhandeling beskryf die volledige ontwerp en implementering van ’n kamera-gebaseerde oogvolgingsstelsel wat in reële tyd werk. Die ontwikkeling van die oogvolgingsstelsel maak staat op die sogenaamde helder/donker pupil effek vir beide die oogdeteksie en oogvolging fases. Die helder/donker pupil effek was moontlik gemaak deur die ontwikkeling van gespesialiseerde hardeware en naby-infrarooi illuminasie. Vir die oogdeteksie fase was die akkuraatheid van drie verskillende tipes klassifiseerders getoets en direk vergelyk, insluitende neurale netwerke, SVMs en AdaBoost. Die datastel waarmee die klassifiseerders getoets was, het bestaan uit 17 individuele toetskandidate van verskillende etniese groepe. Vir die oogvolgings fase was ’n Kalman filter gekombineer met die gemiddelde-verskuiwings algoritme. ’n Rekenaar program met ’n grafiese gebruikersintervlak was ontwikkel vir ’n persoonlike rekenaar, sodat al die verskillende aspekte van die oogvolgingsstelsel met gemak opgestel kon word. Eksperimentele resultate het getoon dat die oogdeteksie fase uiters akkuraat en robuust was, terwyl die oogvolgings fase ook hoogs akuraat die oë gevolg het, binne sekere beperkinge. Copyright / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

It is widely believed among South African agricultural market participants that the United States' corn price, as represented by the Chicago Board of Trade-listed corn contract, is causal to the price of white and yellow maize traded on the South African Futures Exchange. Although a strong correlation exists between these markets, the corn contract is far from causal to the South African maize price, as indicated by Auret and Schmitt (2008). Similarly, South African market participants believe that volatility generated in the United States corn market spills over to the South African market. Given the perceived volatility spill-over from the corn market to the maize market, market participants might inadvertently include a higher volatility component in an option price in the South African maize market than is necessary. This study sought to quantify the amount of volatility spill-over to the South African white and yellow maize market from the United States corn contract. This task was accomplished by applying an Exponential Generalised Auto Regressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity model, within an aggregate shock framework, to the data. The findings indicated that the volatility spill-over from the United States corn market to the South African maize market is not statistically significant. This result suggests that volatility in the South African market is locally driven; hence, it should not be necessary for a South African listed option contract to carry an international volatility component in its price. It was also found that the returns data of the South African maize market is asymmetrically skewed, indicating that bad news will have a greater effect on the price of maize compared with good news. / Thesis (MCom (Risk Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

It is widely believed among South African agricultural market participants that the United States' corn price, as represented by the Chicago Board of Trade-listed corn contract, is causal to the price of white and yellow maize traded on the South African Futures Exchange. Although a strong correlation exists between these markets, the corn contract is far from causal to the South African maize price, as indicated by Auret and Schmitt (2008). Similarly, South African market participants believe that volatility generated in the United States corn market spills over to the South African market. Given the perceived volatility spill-over from the corn market to the maize market, market participants might inadvertently include a higher volatility component in an option price in the South African maize market than is necessary. This study sought to quantify the amount of volatility spill-over to the South African white and yellow maize market from the United States corn contract. This task was accomplished by applying an Exponential Generalised Auto Regressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity model, within an aggregate shock framework, to the data. The findings indicated that the volatility spill-over from the United States corn market to the South African maize market is not statistically significant. This result suggests that volatility in the South African market is locally driven; hence, it should not be necessary for a South African listed option contract to carry an international volatility component in its price. It was also found that the returns data of the South African maize market is asymmetrically skewed, indicating that bad news will have a greater effect on the price of maize compared with good news. / Thesis (MCom (Risk Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

In text linguistics coherence is seen as one of the key factors in communication and textual interpretation. Text linguistics, as an inter-disciplinary field of study concerning the textuality of texts in conjunction with coherence, can probably be of great importance in current musicology, especially as the problem concerning musical meaning, is still an ongoing debate. The design of a musical model of coherence relations is a new field of study and can not be connected to present day language models, therefore a new model should be invented. It should be kept in mind that adaptations in text linguistics can be of great influence in musicology today and on music in its relation to language. Musical interlocution forms the basis for musical coherence relations as method of musical communication. Musical communication has its origin in the top/cohesive surface of the musical text and disseminates to the lower/coherensive surface of the musical text. Although there is an interaction between musical cohesion and coherence, coherence relations are more concentrated on the lower level. Musical illocution and musical blended perlocution function within the coherensive musical and word texts. The listener plays a big role in this process, because musical coherence is the platform for musical interpretation. As listeners design a word text around the music text, musical blended perlocution through association results. The addition of associative meaning to the musical text has the result that the linguistic perlocution and the musical perlocution intermix with one another. One must keep in mind that perlocution differs in language and music. It will be indicated that musical coherence relations have a dual character. It will be argued here that the principles of musical textuality, adjusted from those text linguistically practised by De Beaugrande&Dressler (1981) and Carstens (1997, 2000, 2009), as well as the three musical functions, adapted from Austin's (1962) determination in language, figure strongly in J.S. Bach's Schübler Chorales. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Music / unrestricted

Bilateral cochlear implantation is accepted medical practice since 2008 in clinically suitable adults and children to enhance bilateral processing benefits. Bilateral implantation may lead to the restoration of some bilateral hearing advantages, such as improved speech recognition in noise, localisation, head shadow effect, summation, and squelch. The majority of the advantages stated in literature, though, are characteristic of the simultaneously implanted cochlear implant population. Simultaneous implantation is not yet a reality in South Africa due to funding constraints, therefore determining the bilateral processing abilities in sequentially implanted adults is essential. Determining bilateral processing benefits achievable with sequential implantation could result in evidence-based recommendations in terms of candidacy considerations, surgery protocols, motivations for medical aid funding for simultaneous cochlear implantation, and relevant measures to determine the bilateral processing benefit attainable. Furthermore, it might enhance audiologists‟ insight regarding post-implantation performance of sequentially implanted patients and enable them to counsel prospective candidates realistically. The aaim of this study was to determine the bilateral benefit attained by sequentially implanted adults. A quantitative, cross-sectional research approach was followed in a one group post-test-only exploratory research design. A purposive convenient sampling method with specified selection criteria was used to select 11 adult clients of an established cochlear implant programme in Pretoria. Tests of sound localisation in the horizontal plane and speech perception in noise were performed. During the test of sound localisation, performance with only the first or only the second implant was found to be very similar. For the majority of participants the second cochlear implant (CI 2) was the superior performing implant during xviii speech perception in noise testing, in spatially separated speech and noise conditions where noise was directed to the first implant, as well as in spatially coincident speech and noise. A statistical significant bilateral benefit (p < 0.05) was attained by sequentially implanted adults for sound localisation. A bilateral benefit for speech perception in noise was observed when noise was directed to the first implant and in the diotic listening condition with average benefits of 1.69 dB and 0.78 dB, respectively. It was not statistically significant (p > 0.05), however, and was smaller than bilateral benefit values achieved by simultaneously implanted adults in previous studies. The head shadow effect at 180° was found to be the strongest and most robust bilateral spatial benefit. Squelch and summation benefit values ranged from negative values to 2 dB and 6 dB, respectively. This corresponded with values found in previous studies. The improvement in speech perception in spatially distinct speech and noise from adding the ear with a better SNR (signal to noise ratio) indicated that the contribution of CI 2 seems to be greater than that of CI 1 for bilateral spatial benefit. It can be concluded that adults with sequential implants may achieve some extent of bilateral benefit even with many years of unilateral implant use, when speech processors differ, when the second implant is done ≥ 10 years after the first implant, and in cases of prelingual deafness. A key benefit of sequential implantation appears to be related to the advantage of having hearing on both sides so that the ear with the more favourable environmental signalto-noise ratio is always available. AFRIKAANS : Bilaterale kogleêre inplanting is sedert 2008 aanvaarde mediese praktyk vir klinies geskikte volwassenes en kinders, ten einde bilaterale prosesseringsvoordeel te verhoog. Bilaterale inplanting kan lei tot die herstel van sommige van die voordele van bilaterale gehoor, soos verbeterde spraakherkenning in lawaai, klanklokalisering, die kopskadueffek, sommering en selektiewe onderdrukking (“squelch”). Die meeste van die voordele wat in die literatuur bespreek word, is egter kenmerkend van dié persone by wie twee kogleêre inplantings gelyktydig gedoen is. Gelyktydige inplanting is as gevolg van beperkte befondsing nog nie in Suid-Afrika 'n werklikheid nie, daarom is dit noodsaaklik om te bepaal watter bilaterale prosesseringsvoordele by opeenvolgend-geïnplanteerde volwassenes voorkom. Die bepaling van watter bilaterale prosesseringsvoordele met opeenvolgende inplanting bereik kan word, sou kon lei tot getuienis-gebaseerde aanbevelings met betrekking tot besluite oor die geskiktheid van kandidate, protokol vir sjirurgie, motiverings vir die befondsing van gelyktydige kogleêre inplantings deur mediese voorsorgfondse, en toepaslike maatstawwe om te bepaal watter mate van bilaterale prosesseringsvoordeel haalbaar sou wees. Dit sou verder oudioloë se insig kon verbreed met betrekking tot die na-operatiewe prestasie van opeenvolgend-geïnplanteerde persone en hulle sodoende in staat stel om voornemende kandidate van realistiese raad te bedien. Die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal wat die bilaterale prosesseringsvoordele is wat deur opeenvolgend-geïnplanteerde volwassenes verkry kan word. 'n Kwantitatiewe navorsingsbenadering met 'n dwarsprofiel van „n enkelgroep is gevolg, met 'n post-toets verkennende navorsingsontwerp. 'n Doelgerigte gerieflikheidssteekproef met 'n gespesifiseerde seleksiekriteria is gebruik om 11 volwasse kliënte van 'n gevestigde kogleêre inplantprogram in Pretoria te selekteer. Klanklokalisering in die horisontale vlak en die waarneming van spraak in lawaai is getoets. Tydens die toets vir klanklokalisering is gevind dat prestasie met slegs die eerste of slegs die tweede inplanting soortgelyk was. Vir die meeste deelnemers aan die studie het die tweede kogleêre inplanting (KI 2) die beste prestasie gelewer tydens spraakwaarneming in lawaai, in omstandighede waar spraak en lawaai ruimtelik geskei is en die lawaai op die eerste inplanting gerig is, asook in omstandighede waar spraak en lawaai ruimtelik saamvoorkomend aangebied is. 'n Statisties beduidende bilaterale voordeel (p < 0.05) is deur opeenvolgend-geïnplanteerde volwassenes vir klanklokalisering behaal. 'n Bilaterale voordeel vir spraakwaarneming in lawaai is waargeneem waar lawaai op die eerste inplanting gerig is en ook in diotiese luistertoestande, met 'n gemiddelde voordeel van 1.69 dB en 0.78 dB, onderskeidelik. Dit was egter nie statisties beduidend nie en was ook kleiner as die bilaterale voordeelwaardes wat in vorige studies deur gelyktydig-geïnplanteerde volwassenes behaal is. Die kopskadu-effek by 180° was die sterkste en mees robuuste bilaterale ruimtelike voordeel. Voordeelwaardes vir selektiewe onderdrukking en sommering het gewissel van negatiewe waardes tot 2 dB en 6 dB onderskeidelik. Dit stem ooreen met waardes wat in vorige studies gevind is. Die verbetering in spraakwaarneming in ruimtelik geskeide spraak en lawaai wat verkry is deur die oor met 'n beter STR (sein-tot-ruis ratio) by te voeg, het daarop gedui dat die bydrae van KI 2 tot bilaterale ruimtelike voordeel waarskynlik groter as die bydrae van KI 1 is. Die gevolgtrekking kan gemaak word dat volwassenes met opeenvolgende inplantings 'n mate van bilaterale voordeel verkry selfs na vele jare van unilaterale inplantingsgebruik, wanneer die spraakprosesseerders in die twee inplantings van mekaar verskil, wanneer die tweede inplanting ≥ 10 jaar na die eerste plaasvind, en in gevalle van prelinguale doofheid. 'n Sleutelvoordeel van opeenvolgende inplanting hou klaarblyklik verband met die voordeel van gehoor aan albei kante te hê sodat die oor met die gunstigste sein-tot-lawaai ratio altyd beskikbaar is. / Dissertation (MCommunication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Unrestricted