In the era of knowledge economy, more and more people view online communities of practice (CoPs) as wellspring of precious knowledge. Interestingly, many researchers support the notion that CoPs must develop over time; they are not designed or made but grown, however, there is no systematic theory of online community development (Matzat, 2003). Furthermore, when changes with time are specialized concerned, several questions regarding CoPs development remain unanswered. Since online CoPs are formed by groups of people, existing group development models may provide valuable lens for us to understand the driving forces behind. Nevertheless, drawn on the autotrophic and open system of online CoPs, there exist several differences between traditional groups and online CoPs, such as self-select membership, high member fluidity, impossible to know all members in a large member base, unlimited life spans, and no given tasks have to complete. Furthermore, some defects in prior group development studies are also identified. To answer the research question and avoid problems identified in prior group development studies, this study plans to conduct a longitudinal exploratory study on three online CoPs lasting at least three years by overcoming the defects of unreal subjects such as experimental student groups or arranged tasks. Besides, three years of longitudinal study may prevent from the bias drawn from single snapshot and limited life span. Furthermore, we decide to adopt the ecological perspective for several reasons: First, the evolutionary process is akin to the central theme of ecological theory. Therefore the mechanisms of change can be suitably inferred from ecological perspective. Moreover, the ecological perspective is more holistic and macroscopic, and accordingly the problem of high individual member fluidity can be easily tackled. Second, many ecological concepts are used in numerous CoPs-related literatures to describe CoPs. In addition, being immersed in some CoPs for several years, we found that members usually use some ecological terms to describe their CoPs or other members. Third, several studies indicated that the ecological approach provides a powerful framework for understanding complex human social issues. We view each CoP as an ecosystem because ecosystem is the lowest level in the ecological hierarchy that is complete with all the necessary components for function and survival over the long term. This research also adopts the multiple case study approach. Firstly, online CoPs are categorized based on group member interaction statistics. Three categories of online CoPs are identified and three online CoP belonging to these three categories, respectively, are selected as representative cases. Every six months the aggregated data of targeted online CoPs are treating as the unit of analysis. The whole 'lives' of online CoPs under study are analyzed, by the way to avoid the problems of zero-history groups and drawn bias conclusion from observation of groups over different time periods. We attempted to detect and analyze the changes of community structures in the ecosystem using social network analysis tools. Moreover, since quantitative data may fail to capture some interaction modes, this study employs content analysis and semi-structural interviews as complementary vehicles to gain insights into the detailed evolutionary process. Finally, this dissertation follows Yin's (1994) analytic strategy of descriptive framework, and thus uses the metaphor of an ecosystem to integrate and organize sets of dimensions in relation to the evolutionary process of online CoPs. Drawn on Odum¡¦s (1971, 1983, 1993) model of ecosystem, this study proposes a descriptive framework based on ecosystem ecology and network analysis. There are primarily three components: organisms, energy, and nutrients; three types of connections: interactive network, keystone structure, and roles distribution. There are also five categories of constraints on the ecosystem functioning. They serve as dimensions of describing changes within an ecosystem over time. Further, these changes are interpreted from ecological perspectives, where insights into the mechanism governing the development process are generated to postulate the development model of online CoPs.

This project investigated the integration of computer-assisted education at Pinelands High School. A literature search was done on the definition of, the infrastructure for and models of, the integration of computer-assisted education. A new model, the Evolutionary Model, of computer-assisted education was developed, Computer-assisted education at Pinelands High School was measured in terms of the necessary infrastructure and the five phases of the Evolutionary Model. The school has integrated computer-assisted education and many of the teachers are involved at the second phase of the Evolutionary Model. The staff of the Computer and Mathematics departments are ahead of the general staff in the integration of computer-assisted education. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Humanities Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Globalisation has come as a double-edged blade for information technology (IT) companies; providing growth opportunities and yet posing many challenges. Software development is moving from a monolithic model to a distributed approach, where many entities and organisations are involved in the development process. Risk management an important area to deal with all the kinds of technical and social issues within companies planning and programming schedules, and this new way of working requires more attention to be paid to the temporal, socio-cultural and control aspects than before. Multinational companies like IBM have begun to consider how to address the distributed nature of its projects across the globe. With outlets across the globe, the company finds various people of different cultures, languages and ethics working on a single and bigger IT projects from different locations. Other IT companies are facing the same problems, despite there being many kinds of approaches available to handle risk management in large scale IT companies. IBM commissioned the Distributed Risk Management Process (DRiMaP) model as a suitable solution. This model focused on the collaborative and on-going control aspects, and paid attention to the need for risk managers, project managers and management to include risk management into all phases of projects and the business cycle. The authors of the DRiMaP model did not subject it to extensive testing. This research sets out to evaluate, improve and extend the model process and thereby develop a new and dynamic approach to distributed information systems development. To do this, this research compares and contrasts the model with other risk management approaches. An Evolutionary Model is developed, and this is subjected to empirical testing through a hybrid constructive research approach. A survey is used to draw out the observations of project participants, a structured interview gathered the opinions of project experts, a software tool was developed to implement the model, and SysML and Monte Carlo methods were applied to this to simulate the functioning of the model. The Evolutionary Model was found to partially address the shortcomings of the DRiMaP model, and to provide a valuable platform for the development of an enterprise risk management solution.

No description available.

Compreender os fatores que afetam a distribuição das espécies tem sido um dos principais objetivos dos ecólogos. Atualmente, sabe-se que os processos ecológicos e evolutivos moldam a dinâmica de especiação e extinção de espécies, e determinam a distribuição e abundância das mesmas. Ao longo dos últimos anos, tem havido um aumento no número de estudos que utilizam informação filogenética para explicar as dinâmicas populacionais e as distribuições de espécies, e que buscam identificar os mecanismos responsáveis pela montagem das comunidades. Interações das espécies, sejam elas intraespecífica, interespecífica ou com o ambiente, ocorrem baseadas nas diferenças e semelhanças fenotípicas. Essas variações fenotípicas tem origem na evolução das espécies, e com isso espera-se que as espécies proximamente relacionadas tendam a ser ecologicamente mais semelhantes entre si do que as espécies distantemente relacionadas. Esta concepção tem dado origem a um conceito importante, com implicações para estudos tanto ecológicos quanto evolutivos: o conceito de conservação filogenética de nicho, isto é, quando as espécies relacionadas mantêm seus nichos ancestrais ao longo do tempo evolutivo. Esse padrão tem importância para diversas áreas de ecologia, permitindo a ligação das espécies aos processos ecológicos e auxiliando na maior compreensão da ecologia evolutiva das diferentes linhagens. Devido à sua importância, é fundamental o desenvolvimento de métodos estatísticos adequados para quantificar esses padrões e inferir os processos que o subjazem. Atualmente, os métodos utilizados para inferir conservação filogenética de nicho são, em sua maioria, incompatíveis com determinados conceitos ecológicos e não abrangem todos os tipos de dados e esse fato explica uma visão incompleta dos processos presentes nas comunidades e conflitante com o objetivo de muitos estudos ecológicos e conservacionistas que buscam vincular as espécies aos processos ecológicos e evolutivos. Desta forma, o principal objetivo desta tese é propor novos métodos para quantificar o sinal filogenético que integrem diferentes aspectos do conceito de nicho ecológico. Apresentamos aqui os novos métodos em detalhes e avaliamos suas propriedades estatísticas (erro tipo I e poder estatístico) por meio de dados simulados. No capítulo 1, nós propomos um método para medir sinal filogenético utilizando o teste de Mantel, incorporando modelos evolutivos para testar hipóteses específicas da evolução dos atributos. No capítulo 2, descrevemos um conjunto de funções e um novo pacote estatístico para explorar os padrões filogenéticos no nível de metacomunidade. Este pacote permite explorar a distribuição de linhagens filogenéticas através de gradientes ecológicos, a análise de sinal filogenético no nível da metacomunidade e explorar a associação entre clados e gradientes ecológicos. No capítulo 3, investigamos a relação entre sinal filogenético dos atributos com os padrões de coocorrência das espécies nos níveis da comunidade. Esta abordagem permite testar se espécies filogeneticamente relacionadas que coocorrem expressam as suas dimensões de nicho com maior semelhança do que seria esperado por modelos neutros de evolução. Por fim, testamos as propriedades estatísticas destes métodos em relação dois modelos nulos, que incorporam diferentes aspectos da estrutura da comunidade e evolução dos atributos das espécies. Os três capítulos representam diferentes trabalhos que se interconectam no sentido de elucidar o conceito de sinal filogenético e conservação filogenética de nicho. / Understanding the factors that can affect species distributions has been a main goal of ecologists. Currently, it is known that evolutionary and ecological processes shape the speciation dynamics, species extinction and determine the distribution and abundance of species. Over the last years, there has been an increase in the number of studies using phylogenetic information to explain the dynamics of population, species distribution and identifying the mechanisms of community assembly. Species interactions – intraspecific, interspecific or with the environment – occur based on their phenotypic differences and similarities. As phenotypic variation has a basis in evolutionary history, it is expected that closely related species tend to be more ecologically similar to each other than distantly related ones. This notion has given rise to an important concept, with implications for both evolutionary and ecological studies: the concept of phylogenetic niche conservatism, that is, when related species maintain their ancestral niches over evolutionary time. This pattern is important for several areas of ecology, and allows to link species to ecological processes and to understand the evolutionary ecology of different lineages. Despite its importance, it is crucial the development of appropriate statistical method to measure this pattern and to infer the processes behind it. The methods currently available to infer phylogenetic niche conservatism are sometimes incompatible with some ecological concepts and do not cover all kind of data, this fact leads to an incomplete view of the process acting in the currents communities and conflict with the goal of many ecological and conservation studies that need to link species to ecological and evolutionary processes. The main goal of this dissertation is to propose novel methods to measure phylogenetic signal incorporating different aspects of ecological niche. We introduce novel methods in detail and evaluate its statistical properties (type I error and statistical power) by means of simulated data with known structure. In chapter 1 we propose a method to measure phylogenetic signal using the Mantel test, incorporating evolutionary model to test specific hypothesis of trait evolution. In chapter 2, we describe a set of function and a new statistical package for exploring the phylogenetic patterns at the metacommunity level. This package allows the exploration of distribution of phylogenetic lineages across ecological gradients, the analysis of phylogenetic signal at metacommunity level and to explore the association between clades and ecological gradients. In the chapter 3, we access the relationship between phylogenetic signal in traits and species co-occurrence patterns in the community levels. This approach allows one to test whether phylogenetic close related species cooccurring in metacommunities express their niche dimensions more similarly than would be expected by neutral expectation. We tested the statistical properties of these methods in relation to two null models, which incorporate these different aspects of the community structure and evolution of species traits. The three chapters represent different works that are interconnected in order to elucidate the concept of phylogenetic signal and phylogenetic niche conservatism.

Compreender os fatores que afetam a distribuição das espécies tem sido um dos principais objetivos dos ecólogos. Atualmente, sabe-se que os processos ecológicos e evolutivos moldam a dinâmica de especiação e extinção de espécies, e determinam a distribuição e abundância das mesmas. Ao longo dos últimos anos, tem havido um aumento no número de estudos que utilizam informação filogenética para explicar as dinâmicas populacionais e as distribuições de espécies, e que buscam identificar os mecanismos responsáveis pela montagem das comunidades. Interações das espécies, sejam elas intraespecífica, interespecífica ou com o ambiente, ocorrem baseadas nas diferenças e semelhanças fenotípicas. Essas variações fenotípicas tem origem na evolução das espécies, e com isso espera-se que as espécies proximamente relacionadas tendam a ser ecologicamente mais semelhantes entre si do que as espécies distantemente relacionadas. Esta concepção tem dado origem a um conceito importante, com implicações para estudos tanto ecológicos quanto evolutivos: o conceito de conservação filogenética de nicho, isto é, quando as espécies relacionadas mantêm seus nichos ancestrais ao longo do tempo evolutivo. Esse padrão tem importância para diversas áreas de ecologia, permitindo a ligação das espécies aos processos ecológicos e auxiliando na maior compreensão da ecologia evolutiva das diferentes linhagens. Devido à sua importância, é fundamental o desenvolvimento de métodos estatísticos adequados para quantificar esses padrões e inferir os processos que o subjazem. Atualmente, os métodos utilizados para inferir conservação filogenética de nicho são, em sua maioria, incompatíveis com determinados conceitos ecológicos e não abrangem todos os tipos de dados e esse fato explica uma visão incompleta dos processos presentes nas comunidades e conflitante com o objetivo de muitos estudos ecológicos e conservacionistas que buscam vincular as espécies aos processos ecológicos e evolutivos. Desta forma, o principal objetivo desta tese é propor novos métodos para quantificar o sinal filogenético que integrem diferentes aspectos do conceito de nicho ecológico. Apresentamos aqui os novos métodos em detalhes e avaliamos suas propriedades estatísticas (erro tipo I e poder estatístico) por meio de dados simulados. No capítulo 1, nós propomos um método para medir sinal filogenético utilizando o teste de Mantel, incorporando modelos evolutivos para testar hipóteses específicas da evolução dos atributos. No capítulo 2, descrevemos um conjunto de funções e um novo pacote estatístico para explorar os padrões filogenéticos no nível de metacomunidade. Este pacote permite explorar a distribuição de linhagens filogenéticas através de gradientes ecológicos, a análise de sinal filogenético no nível da metacomunidade e explorar a associação entre clados e gradientes ecológicos. No capítulo 3, investigamos a relação entre sinal filogenético dos atributos com os padrões de coocorrência das espécies nos níveis da comunidade. Esta abordagem permite testar se espécies filogeneticamente relacionadas que coocorrem expressam as suas dimensões de nicho com maior semelhança do que seria esperado por modelos neutros de evolução. Por fim, testamos as propriedades estatísticas destes métodos em relação dois modelos nulos, que incorporam diferentes aspectos da estrutura da comunidade e evolução dos atributos das espécies. Os três capítulos representam diferentes trabalhos que se interconectam no sentido de elucidar o conceito de sinal filogenético e conservação filogenética de nicho. / Understanding the factors that can affect species distributions has been a main goal of ecologists. Currently, it is known that evolutionary and ecological processes shape the speciation dynamics, species extinction and determine the distribution and abundance of species. Over the last years, there has been an increase in the number of studies using phylogenetic information to explain the dynamics of population, species distribution and identifying the mechanisms of community assembly. Species interactions – intraspecific, interspecific or with the environment – occur based on their phenotypic differences and similarities. As phenotypic variation has a basis in evolutionary history, it is expected that closely related species tend to be more ecologically similar to each other than distantly related ones. This notion has given rise to an important concept, with implications for both evolutionary and ecological studies: the concept of phylogenetic niche conservatism, that is, when related species maintain their ancestral niches over evolutionary time. This pattern is important for several areas of ecology, and allows to link species to ecological processes and to understand the evolutionary ecology of different lineages. Despite its importance, it is crucial the development of appropriate statistical method to measure this pattern and to infer the processes behind it. The methods currently available to infer phylogenetic niche conservatism are sometimes incompatible with some ecological concepts and do not cover all kind of data, this fact leads to an incomplete view of the process acting in the currents communities and conflict with the goal of many ecological and conservation studies that need to link species to ecological and evolutionary processes. The main goal of this dissertation is to propose novel methods to measure phylogenetic signal incorporating different aspects of ecological niche. We introduce novel methods in detail and evaluate its statistical properties (type I error and statistical power) by means of simulated data with known structure. In chapter 1 we propose a method to measure phylogenetic signal using the Mantel test, incorporating evolutionary model to test specific hypothesis of trait evolution. In chapter 2, we describe a set of function and a new statistical package for exploring the phylogenetic patterns at the metacommunity level. This package allows the exploration of distribution of phylogenetic lineages across ecological gradients, the analysis of phylogenetic signal at metacommunity level and to explore the association between clades and ecological gradients. In the chapter 3, we access the relationship between phylogenetic signal in traits and species co-occurrence patterns in the community levels. This approach allows one to test whether phylogenetic close related species cooccurring in metacommunities express their niche dimensions more similarly than would be expected by neutral expectation. We tested the statistical properties of these methods in relation to two null models, which incorporate these different aspects of the community structure and evolution of species traits. The three chapters represent different works that are interconnected in order to elucidate the concept of phylogenetic signal and phylogenetic niche conservatism.

Compreender os fatores que afetam a distribuição das espécies tem sido um dos principais objetivos dos ecólogos. Atualmente, sabe-se que os processos ecológicos e evolutivos moldam a dinâmica de especiação e extinção de espécies, e determinam a distribuição e abundância das mesmas. Ao longo dos últimos anos, tem havido um aumento no número de estudos que utilizam informação filogenética para explicar as dinâmicas populacionais e as distribuições de espécies, e que buscam identificar os mecanismos responsáveis pela montagem das comunidades. Interações das espécies, sejam elas intraespecífica, interespecífica ou com o ambiente, ocorrem baseadas nas diferenças e semelhanças fenotípicas. Essas variações fenotípicas tem origem na evolução das espécies, e com isso espera-se que as espécies proximamente relacionadas tendam a ser ecologicamente mais semelhantes entre si do que as espécies distantemente relacionadas. Esta concepção tem dado origem a um conceito importante, com implicações para estudos tanto ecológicos quanto evolutivos: o conceito de conservação filogenética de nicho, isto é, quando as espécies relacionadas mantêm seus nichos ancestrais ao longo do tempo evolutivo. Esse padrão tem importância para diversas áreas de ecologia, permitindo a ligação das espécies aos processos ecológicos e auxiliando na maior compreensão da ecologia evolutiva das diferentes linhagens. Devido à sua importância, é fundamental o desenvolvimento de métodos estatísticos adequados para quantificar esses padrões e inferir os processos que o subjazem. Atualmente, os métodos utilizados para inferir conservação filogenética de nicho são, em sua maioria, incompatíveis com determinados conceitos ecológicos e não abrangem todos os tipos de dados e esse fato explica uma visão incompleta dos processos presentes nas comunidades e conflitante com o objetivo de muitos estudos ecológicos e conservacionistas que buscam vincular as espécies aos processos ecológicos e evolutivos. Desta forma, o principal objetivo desta tese é propor novos métodos para quantificar o sinal filogenético que integrem diferentes aspectos do conceito de nicho ecológico. Apresentamos aqui os novos métodos em detalhes e avaliamos suas propriedades estatísticas (erro tipo I e poder estatístico) por meio de dados simulados. No capítulo 1, nós propomos um método para medir sinal filogenético utilizando o teste de Mantel, incorporando modelos evolutivos para testar hipóteses específicas da evolução dos atributos. No capítulo 2, descrevemos um conjunto de funções e um novo pacote estatístico para explorar os padrões filogenéticos no nível de metacomunidade. Este pacote permite explorar a distribuição de linhagens filogenéticas através de gradientes ecológicos, a análise de sinal filogenético no nível da metacomunidade e explorar a associação entre clados e gradientes ecológicos. No capítulo 3, investigamos a relação entre sinal filogenético dos atributos com os padrões de coocorrência das espécies nos níveis da comunidade. Esta abordagem permite testar se espécies filogeneticamente relacionadas que coocorrem expressam as suas dimensões de nicho com maior semelhança do que seria esperado por modelos neutros de evolução. Por fim, testamos as propriedades estatísticas destes métodos em relação dois modelos nulos, que incorporam diferentes aspectos da estrutura da comunidade e evolução dos atributos das espécies. Os três capítulos representam diferentes trabalhos que se interconectam no sentido de elucidar o conceito de sinal filogenético e conservação filogenética de nicho. / Understanding the factors that can affect species distributions has been a main goal of ecologists. Currently, it is known that evolutionary and ecological processes shape the speciation dynamics, species extinction and determine the distribution and abundance of species. Over the last years, there has been an increase in the number of studies using phylogenetic information to explain the dynamics of population, species distribution and identifying the mechanisms of community assembly. Species interactions – intraspecific, interspecific or with the environment – occur based on their phenotypic differences and similarities. As phenotypic variation has a basis in evolutionary history, it is expected that closely related species tend to be more ecologically similar to each other than distantly related ones. This notion has given rise to an important concept, with implications for both evolutionary and ecological studies: the concept of phylogenetic niche conservatism, that is, when related species maintain their ancestral niches over evolutionary time. This pattern is important for several areas of ecology, and allows to link species to ecological processes and to understand the evolutionary ecology of different lineages. Despite its importance, it is crucial the development of appropriate statistical method to measure this pattern and to infer the processes behind it. The methods currently available to infer phylogenetic niche conservatism are sometimes incompatible with some ecological concepts and do not cover all kind of data, this fact leads to an incomplete view of the process acting in the currents communities and conflict with the goal of many ecological and conservation studies that need to link species to ecological and evolutionary processes. The main goal of this dissertation is to propose novel methods to measure phylogenetic signal incorporating different aspects of ecological niche. We introduce novel methods in detail and evaluate its statistical properties (type I error and statistical power) by means of simulated data with known structure. In chapter 1 we propose a method to measure phylogenetic signal using the Mantel test, incorporating evolutionary model to test specific hypothesis of trait evolution. In chapter 2, we describe a set of function and a new statistical package for exploring the phylogenetic patterns at the metacommunity level. This package allows the exploration of distribution of phylogenetic lineages across ecological gradients, the analysis of phylogenetic signal at metacommunity level and to explore the association between clades and ecological gradients. In the chapter 3, we access the relationship between phylogenetic signal in traits and species co-occurrence patterns in the community levels. This approach allows one to test whether phylogenetic close related species cooccurring in metacommunities express their niche dimensions more similarly than would be expected by neutral expectation. We tested the statistical properties of these methods in relation to two null models, which incorporate these different aspects of the community structure and evolution of species traits. The three chapters represent different works that are interconnected in order to elucidate the concept of phylogenetic signal and phylogenetic niche conservatism.

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: see full text for abstract / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: sien volteks vir opsomming

This study investigated the implementation of computer-assisted education in the outcomes-based education system at Sterling Primary School in East London. A literature study was done on constructivism on which outcomes based education is based. The literature review also focused on computer-integrated education. The integration of computer-assisted education at Sterling Primary School was appraised with the help of the Evolutionary Model developed by Miller (1997). It was observed that the educators and learners at this school were trying to integrate computers into their teaching and learning process. Although this study focussed on the Intermediate Phase, it could provide a basis for further study in the field of computer-assisted education in Senior, and Further Education and Training Phases throughout the Republic of South Africa. / Dissertation (MEd (Computer-Assisted Education))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

No description available.