Magister Legum - LLM

I have used weaving as a method to investigate connections between this craft and architecture. The project can be divided into four parts: The first part is a research phase starting from the etymology of the word textile, which derives from the latin word texere which means - to weave, to join, to build, to construct etc. Following the spirit of Gotfried Semper and his ideas in his book “The four elements of architecture” I have built frames to learn the principles of weaving. The second part is a basic research of an attempt to create a prototype for a structural element that is based on previous studies. In part three I illustrate potential areas of use of the elements. In the final conclusive part I reflect upon my work and what I have learned during the project.

[pt] Jogos educacionais vêm sendo propostos no ensino de ciências da computação, e também no ensino de a engenharia de software. Neste trabalho, apresentamos uma abordagem de modelagem intencional apoiada em conceitos de transparência para a implementação do jogo educacional SimulES. SimulES é um jogo para apoiar o ensino de engenharia de software. A abordagem é inovadora neste contexto. Acreditamos que a modelagem intencional é pertinente para modelar jogos, já que ela permite representar a interação e colaboração entre os atores, além de apoiar conceitos de transparência. Essa modelagem foi usada no desenvolvimento do software SimulES-W que implementa o jogo num ambiente Web. / [en] Educational games have been proposed for teaching computer science, and software engineering as well. This work presents an approach for intentional modeling supported by concepts of transparency towards the implementation of the educational game SimulES. SimulES is a game for helping software engineering teaching. The approach is innovative in that context. We believe that intentional modeling is akin to game modeling, since it allows us to represent the interaction and collaboration among the actors as well concepts of transparency. The intentional model we produced was used to develop the software that implements SimulES-W, a Web based version of the game.

The government has taken constructive steps to address the issue of poverty in South Africa. The principal strategy on the government, and for that matter municipalities for poverty alleviation is to promote sustainable development (better quality of life for all) through the process of integrated development planning (IDP). Municipalities are, by virtue of legislation, required by the Government to use Integrated Development Planning as the vehicle to improve and fast-track service delivery and development. One of the main objectives of the IDP is to promote sustainable development. The objective of this study is to determine the extent to which the IDP is used to promote sustainable development at Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM). For the purpose of the study, the hypothesis was formulated that the implementation of IDP as a tool for promoting sustainable development within ELM is significant for improving service delivery and the living standard of local communities. To test the validity or otherwise of the hypothesis use was made of theoretical review of literature in promoting sustainable development at ELM. Further there was an empirical research method of open-ended questionnaires that was used to test attitudes and perceptions of municipal officials, IDP representatives and the community of ELM on the effectiveness of IDP. It was found among others that:The council and management of ELM consider the IDP as effective management tool in promoting sustainable development; ELM has elaborate plans and mechanisms for initiating programmes on the IDP; Public participation in the process needs to be intensified. While the municipality has achieved much success with the use of the IDP, the rural residents of ELM are largely ignorant of the process and its benefits. The study ends with recommendations for improvement of the IDP process. / Thesis (M.A. (Public Management and Administration))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

The government has taken constructive steps to address the issue of poverty in South Africa. The principal strategy on the government, and for that matter municipalities for poverty alleviation is to promote sustainable development (better quality of life for all) through the process of integrated development planning (IDP). Municipalities are, by virtue of legislation, required by the Government to use Integrated Development Planning as the vehicle to improve and fast-track service delivery and development. One of the main objectives of the IDP is to promote sustainable development. The objective of this study is to determine the extent to which the IDP is used to promote sustainable development at Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM). For the purpose of the study, the hypothesis was formulated that the implementation of IDP as a tool for promoting sustainable development within ELM is significant for improving service delivery and the living standard of local communities. To test the validity or otherwise of the hypothesis use was made of theoretical review of literature in promoting sustainable development at ELM. Further there was an empirical research method of open-ended questionnaires that was used to test attitudes and perceptions of municipal officials, IDP representatives and the community of ELM on the effectiveness of IDP. It was found among others that:The council and management of ELM consider the IDP as effective management tool in promoting sustainable development; ELM has elaborate plans and mechanisms for initiating programmes on the IDP; Public participation in the process needs to be intensified. While the municipality has achieved much success with the use of the IDP, the rural residents of ELM are largely ignorant of the process and its benefits. The study ends with recommendations for improvement of the IDP process. / Thesis (M.A. (Public Management and Administration))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

The government has taken constructive steps to address the issue of poverty in South Africa. The principal strategy on the government, and for that matter municipalities for poverty alleviation is to promote sustainable development (better quality of life for all) through the process of integrated development planning (IDP). Municipalities are, by virtue of legislation, required by the Government to use Integrated Development Planning as the vehicle to improve and fast-track service delivery and development. One of the main objectives of the IDP is to promote sustainable development. The objective of this study is to determine the extent to which the IDP is used to promote sustainable development at Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM). For the purpose of the study, the hypothesis was formulated that the implementation of IDP as a tool for promoting sustainable development within ELM is significant for improving service delivery and the living standard of local communities. To test the validity or otherwise of the hypothesis use was made of theoretical review of literature in promoting sustainable development at ELM. Further there was an empirical research method of open-ended questionnaires that was used to test attitudes and perceptions of municipal officials, IDP representatives and the community of ELM on the effectiveness of IDP. It was found among others that:The council and management of ELM consider the IDP as effective management tool in promoting sustainable development; ELM has elaborate plans and mechanisms for initiating programmes on the IDP; Public participation in the process needs to be intensified. While the municipality has achieved much success with the use of the IDP, the rural residents of ELM are largely ignorant of the process and its benefits. The study ends with recommendations for improvement of the IDP process. / Thesis (M.A. (Public Management and Administration))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

In this dissertation, we investigate the spread option pricing problem with stochastic interest rate. First, we will review the basic concept and theories of stochastic calculus, give an introduction of spread options and provide some examples of spread options in different markets. We will also review the market efficiency theory, arbitrage and assumptions that are commonly used in mathematical finance. In Chapter 3, we will review existing spread pricing models and term-structure models such as Vasicek Mode, and the Heath-Jarrow-Morton framework. In Chapter 4, we will use the martingale approach to derive a partial differential equation for the price of the spread option with stochastic interest rate. In Chapter 5, we will study the spread option numerically. We will conclude this dissertation with ideas for future research.

This master thesis deals with some elements of information literacy throught the term netiquette. The netiquette's relation with etics and etiquette is described in the theoretical part. This part's interest lies in the organisations engaged in netiquette, cyberspace, language and chosen elements of information literacy in connection with the computer literacy. The empirical part of the research handles the knowledge of netiquette at 4th and 5th grade students of elementary schools. Using an anonymous questionnary, the research's objective was to discover the acquaintance of the term netiquette and to realise the differences of the acquirement according to the size of the location of their elementary school, to the sex of subject and to the socioeconomic status of students. The research detects the relation of the information literacy with more facts, as having computer at home, knowing how to use computer and internet, managing the basic manipulation, being familiar with the safety rules. According to the investigation, all the asken students have modern technologies at home with ratio of 27% of the students on the countryside and 59% of the students living in a town, overal 43% of asked subjects are familiar with the netiquette. Even instructed students happen to break the safety rules. The...

The Framework for 21st-Century Learning (The Framework) is focused on the mastery of core subjects and been found to be essential to student success. Teachers in a suburban school district in Ohio were struggling to address the challenges associated with the implementation of The Framework. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how teachers implemented the program in their classrooms. Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development guided the exploration of how elementary teachers were implementing critical elements of The Framework to scaffold literacy instruction. A qualitative case study design was used to allow the researcher to examine the ways elementary teachers were addressing the challenges of The Framework. Nine elementary teachers (grades K-3) with varying levels of experience from 2 elementary schools similar in demographics in a school district were selected to participate in the study. Each completed a questionnaire pertaining to The Framework and was observed in the classroom using a checklist based on The Framework, guided by Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of learning, and focused on best-practice literacy principles. Axial coding was used to identify patterns and themes from the questionnaires, observations, and public documents. Results indicated that educators were implementing The Framework, but were using outdated terminology, were creating misconceptions and confusion about some literature principles, and were not using student-driven assessment strategies. The findings informed creation of a professional development project that will provide elementary teachers in the district with support while integrating The Framework. This study affects positive social change by providing increased understanding of literacy instruction to enhance student learning within The Framework.

Le problème de séparation aveugle de sources a but de retrouver un ensemble des sources signaux statistiquement indépendants à partir seulement d’un ensemble des observations du capteur. Ces observations peuvent être modélisées comme un mélanges linéaires instantané ou convolutifs de sources. Dans cette thèse, les sources signaux sont supposées être cyclostationnaire où leurs fréquences cycles peuvent être connues ou inconnu par avance. Premièrement, nous avons établi des relations entre le spectre, spectre de puissance d’un signal source et leurs composants, puis nous avons proposé deux nouveaux algorithmes pour estimer sa fréquences cycliques. Ensuite, pour la séparation aveugle de sources en mélanges instantanés, nous présentons quatre algorithmes basés sur diagonalisation conjoint approchées orthogonale (ou non-orthogonales) d’une famille des matrices cycliques multiples moment temporel, or l’approche matricielle crayon pour extraire les sources signaux. Nous introduisons aussi et prouver une nouvelle condition identifiabilité pour montrer quel type de sources cyclostationnaires d’entrée peuvent être séparées basées sur des statistiques cyclostationnarité à l’ordre deux. Pour la séparation aveugle de sources en mélanges convolutifs, nous présentons un algorithme en deux étapes basées sur une approche dans le domaine temporel pour récupérer les signaux source. Les simulations numériques sont utilisés dans cette thèse pour démontrer l’efficacité de nos approches proposées, et de comparer les performances avec leurs méthodes précédentes / Blind source separation problem aims to recover a set of statistically independent source signals from a set of sensor observations. These observations can be modeled as an instantaneous or convolutive mixture of the same sources. In this dissertation, the source signals are assumed to be cyclostationary where their cycle frequencies may be known or unknown a priori. First, we establish relations between the spectrum, power spectrum of a source signal and its component, then we propose two novel algorithms to estimate its cycle frequencies. Next, for blind separation of instantaneous mixtures of sources, we present four algorithms based on orthogonal (or non-orthogonal) approximate diagonalization of the multiple cyclic temporal moment matrices, and the matrix pencil approach to extract the source signal. We also introduce and prove a new identifiability condition to show which kind of input cyclostationary sources can be separated based on second-order cyclostationarity statistics. For blind separation of convolutive mixtures of sources signal or blind deconvolution of FIR MIMO systems, we present a two-steps algorithm based on time domain approach for recovering the source signals. Numerical simulations are used throughout this thesis to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approaches, and compare theirs performances with previous methods