Content: The value chain of leather is complex and originates from the animal husbandry system to meat processing, pre tanning, tanning, post tanning and product manufacturing processing. The imbibed properties of the material gained from the environmental conditions under which the animal grew to the range of human skills and processing chemicals determines how best the leather products meet the customer desires. The customer desire for feel and handle is ultimately traced back to the origin of the animal itself. Leather thus is a unique product whose properties such as visco-elasticity, breathability etc. remained unmatched by synthetics. Industrialization activities, reduced farming, the vegan culture all have contributed to reduced availability of hides and skins for meeting the quantity of leather required for various end products. This in essence contributed to the growth of a new market for synthetics, wherein the manmade fabrics tried to reproduce all the features of leather, synthetically. Commercially, these products came to be known through various names such as leatherette, faux leather, vegan leather, PU leather, pleather etc. Advancement in material science led to a range of products and manufacturing methods has today ensured that conventional identification techniques such as rough edges, imperfect surfaces, wrinkle test, water absorption, burnability, uneven stitch holes, structure retention, smell, grain pattern can no longer be used to distinguish between leather and similar artificial products. Advancement in technology for the manufacture of various types of leather like materials has made it difficult to identify genuine leather from other leather like materials. With leather like materials meeting most of the conventional methods of identifying genuine leather there is today a need for a new methodology for identifying genuine leather. This paper addresses to a study of a statistically relevant number of samples of leather and non-leather materials through a range of iterative instrumental techniques leading to the establishment of a protocol for identification of genuine leather. The methodology starts with the FTIR-ATR based (non-destructive) identification of signature bands of collagen – the amide I, II and III. After the first level screening, iterative analysis of samples that have the amide bands matching with that of collagen would be screened through techniques such as hydroxyproline estimation, thermogravimetric analysis, fibre structure assessment etc. The paper would report the results, the positives and negatives associated with the first level screening for genuine leather using FTIR. Take-Away: 1. A method for identifying genuine leather. 2. Value addition to leather by way of facile identification. 3. Customer satisfaction.

Introduction It cannot be denied that employees bring their emotions to work, especially since emotions form a core part of individuals and cannot be separated from them and is thus part of organisational life. Emotions may influence an individual’s judgement, assessment and understanding of work events, and may therefore add to the complexity of work behaviour. The act of managing emotions and the emotional expressions at work for the purpose of compensation and consistency with the ‘display rules’ of an organisation is known as emotional labour. Emotional labour thus encompasses the management of feelings in an attempt to portray acceptable facial and bodily display to the public. Organisations have implicit and explicit emotional display rules that employees should abide, regardless of the employees’ felt emotions. Emotional labour is conducted by employees in an attempt to adapt, control or manage emotions viewed as inappropriate in the work environment. As such, emotional labour is associated with emotional regulation strategies, deep, surface or genuine acting. The concept of emotional labour has been developed and established within the services industry, for example, with flight attendants and teachers. This study aimed to explore how applicable the concept of emotional labour is within internal organisational services, namely, support staff in support departments across various South African industries. Research purpose The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the emotional labour strategies experienced and applied by support staff. The objectives are:  to explore the level of emotional labour performed by support staff  to describe to what extent difference in the levels of emotional labour occur across different support functions, and demographic groups  to describe the relationship that exists between emotional labour and intention to quit and job satisfaction. Research design, approach and method A cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. A non-probability sample was selected by means of availability and snowball sampling methods. The emotional labour scale, intention to quit and job satisfaction survey was administered to 269 individuals employed in support departments in paper-based and electronic format. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 was used to conduct descriptive and correlational statistics on the data. Main findings The results of this study showed that support staff do perform emotional labour, with the use of all four emotional labour strategies, namely, hiding feeling, faking emotions, deep acting and genuine acting. Based on the sample used for this study, there was no statistical significant differences between gender, race and educational groups in terms of the emotional labour strategy used. There was, however, a weak, negative relationship between job satisfaction and surface acting, which was measured through hiding feelings and faking emotions. Even though the study was restricted by many methodological limitations, which are discussed in the last chapter of the dissertation, the study did provide some insight into the emotional labour levels and strategies performed by the support staff in the sample within a South African context. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Human Resource Management / MCom / Unrestricted

This paper analyses the players’ perception of the feedback and polling systems of OldSchool RuneScape to determine what level of participatory design is achieved by the feedback and polling systems used in the game. The aim of the research is to increase the availability of knowledge regarding participatory design in live-service games, as only limited coverage of the topic exists. The study uses an adapted survey created by Segalowitz and Chamorro-Koc that uses three different metrics to measure genuine participation. The survey was presented to in-game players and users of the game’s different forums. It was determined that a high level of genuine participation and participatory design is achieved.

Yes / In this paper, we report the results of our recent research into the understanding of the exact distribution of a smile across the face, especially the distinction in the weight distribution of a smile between a genuine and a posed smile. To do this, we have developed a computational framework for the analysis of the dynamic motion of various parts of the face during a facial expression, in particular, for the smile expression. The heart of our dynamic smile analysis framework is the use of optical flow intensity variation across the face during a smile. This can be utilised to efficiently map the dynamic motion of individual regions of the face such as the mouth, cheeks and areas around the eyes. Thus, through our computational framework, we infer the exact distribution of weights of the smile across the face. Further, through the utilisation of two publicly available datasets, namely the CK+ dataset with 83 subjects expressing posed smiles and the MUG dataset with 35 subjects expressing genuine smiles, we show there is a far greater activity or weight distribution around the regions of the eyes in the case of a genuine smile. / Supported in part by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017, under the project PDE-GIR with grant number 778035.

This thesis consists of a summary and four self-contained papers. Paper [I] Following the 1987 report by The World Commission on Environment and Development, the genuine saving has come to play a key role in the context of sustainable development, and the World Bank regularly publishes numbers for genuine saving on a national basis. However, these numbers are typically calculated as if the tax system is non-distortionary. This paper presents an analogue to genuine saving in a second best economy, where the government raises revenue by means of distortionary taxation. We show how the social cost of public debt, which depends on the marginal excess burden, ought to be reflected in the genuine saving. We also illustrate by presenting calculations for Greece, Japan, Portugal, U.K., U.S. and OECD average, showing that the numbers published by the World Bank are likely to be biased and may even give incorrect information as to whether the economy is locally sustainable. Paper [II] This paper examines the relationships among per capita CO2 emissions, per capita GDP and international trade based on panel data spanning the period 1960-2008 for 150 countries. A distinction is also made between OECD and Non-OECD countries to capture the differences of this relationship between developed and developing economies. We apply panel unit root and cointegration tests, and estimate a panel error correction model. The results from the error correction model suggest that there are long-term relationships between the variables for the whole sample and for Non-OECD countries. Finally, Granger causality tests show that there is bi-directional short-term causality between per capita GDP and international trade for the whole sample and between per capita GDP and CO2 emissions for OECD countries. Paper [III] Fundamental questions in economics are why some regions are richer than others, why their growth rates differ, whether their growth rates tend to converge, and what key factors contribute to explain economic growth. This paper deals with the average income growth, net migration, and changes in unemployment rates at the municipal level in Sweden. The aim is to explore in depth the effects of possible underlying determinants with a particular focus on local policy variables. The analysis is based on a three-equation model. Our results show, among other things, that increases in the local public expenditure and income taxe rate have negative effects on subsequent income income growth. In addition, the results show conditional convergence, i.e. that the average income among the municipal residents tends to grow more rapidly in relatively poor local jurisdictions than in initially “richer” jurisdictions, conditional on the other explanatory variables. Paper [IV] This paper explores the relationship between income growth and income inequality using data at the municipal level in Sweden for the period 1992-2007. We estimate a fixed effects panel data growth model, where the within-municipality income inequality is one of the explanatory variables. Different inequality measures (Gini coefficient, top income shares, and measures of inequality in the lower and upper part of the income distribution) are examined. We find a positive and significant relationship between income growth and income inequality measured as the Gini coefficient and top income shares, respectively. In addition, while inequality in the upper part of the income distribution is positively associated with the income growth rate, inequality in the lower part of the income distribution seems to be negatively related to the income growth. Our findings also suggest that increased income inequality enhances growth more in municipalities with a high level of average income than in municipalities with a low level of average income.

The thesis concerns the function of different intonation tunes in British English yes/no questions. The theoretical part of the work explores the phenomenon of language intonation and describes the commonly listed default contours of English yes/no questions. The practical part analyses authentic samples of British speakers' conversations and compares the function of intonation patterns in yes/no questions with the theoretical assumptions.

Purchasing counterfeited luxury products and downloading pirated items have becomemore common nowadays. Fashion and IT industries are affected negatively by consumers’supportive attitude towards piracy and counterfeits. Many luxury branded companies havetheir exclusive brand names stolen by counterfeits producers. Likewise producers ofcomputer software, music, and movies are affected by individuals who download/streamtheir items for free. Consumers’ attitudes towards counterfeiting and piracy are importantto examine as to understand their acceptance and rejection towards counterfeits and piracy.The purpose of this thesis is to examine consumers’ attitudes towards counterfeits andpiracy. What is accepted and rejected by consumers? To answer the research questions, aqualitative method is used. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews with12 consumers of both/either counterfeits and piracy. The study is performed in Skåne(Scania), Sweden, mainly in Malmö, Perstorp and Kristianstad.We implemented the Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Moral Reasoning, ConsumerTheory and different attitudes for analysing the empirical presentation. The result of thestudy showed that the interviewees had a more accepting attitude towards piracy while themajority of them had a rejecting attitude towards counterfeits. Due to the fact thatcomputer and IT have become a part of the everyday life for many individuals. However,the interviewees who buy counterfeits consume the items while they are on vacationabroad since the supply of counterfeits in the Swedish market is not very big. When itcame to piracy and counterfeited products, the age of the interviewees did matter to someextent. Also, price was one important element why consumers are interested in counterfeitsor download piracy.This study contributes to fill the gap in the lack of studies of consumers’ attitudes towardsboth piracy and counterfeits. The conclusions can be used as a guideline and tool forcompanies to be aware of consumers’ attitudes towards illicit products. Keywords: Counterfeit products, Piracy, Consumer attitude, Physical products, Digitalproducts, Luxury brands, Genuine luxury brand, Illicit forged products

This thesis consists of a summary and four self-contained papers. Paper [I] Following the 1987 report by The World Commission on Environment and Development, the genuine saving has come to play a key role in the context of sustainable development, and the World Bank regularly publishes numbers for genuine saving on a national basis. However, these numbers are typically calculated as if the tax system is non-distortionary. This paper presents an analogue to genuine saving in a second best economy, where the government raises revenue by means of distortionary taxation. We show how the social cost of public debt, which depends on the marginal excess burden, ought to be reflected in the genuine saving. We also illustrate by presenting calculations for Greece, Japan, Portugal, U.K., U.S. and OECD average, showing that the numbers published by the World Bank are likely to be biased and may even give incorrect information as to whether the economy is locally sustainable. Paper [II] This paper examines the relationships among per capita CO2 emissions, per capita GDP and international trade based on panel data spanning the period 1960-2008 for 150 countries. A distinction is also made between OECD and Non-OECD countries to capture the differences of this relationship between developed and developing economies. We apply panel unit root and cointegration tests, and estimate a panel error correction model. The results from the error correction model suggest that there are long-term relationships between the variables for the whole sample and for Non-OECD countries. Finally, Granger causality tests show that there is bi-directional short-term causality between per capita GDP and international trade for the whole sample and between per capita GDP and CO2 emissions for OECD countries. Paper [III] Fundamental questions in economics are why some regions are richer than others, why their growth rates differ, whether their growth rates tend to converge, and what key factors contribute to explain economic growth. This paper deals with the average income growth, net migration, and changes in unemployment rates at the municipal level in Sweden. The aim is to explore in depth the effects of possible underlying determinants with a particular focus on local policy variables. The analysis is based on a three-equation model. Our results show, among other things, that increases in the local public expenditure and income taxe rate have negative effects on subsequent income income growth. In addition, the results show conditional convergence, i.e. that the average income among the municipal residents tends to grow more rapidly in relatively poor local jurisdictions than in initially “richer” jurisdictions, conditional on the other explanatory variables. Paper [IV] This paper explores the relationship between income growth and income inequality using data at the municipal level in Sweden for the period 1992-2007. We estimate a fixed effects panel data growth model, where the within-municipality income inequality is one of the explanatory variables. Different inequality measures (Gini coefficient, top income shares, and measures of inequality in the lower and upper part of the income distribution) are examined. We find a positive and significant relationship between income growth and income inequality measured as the Gini coefficient and top income shares, respectively. In addition, while inequality in the upper part of the income distribution is positively associated with the income growth rate, inequality in the lower part of the income distribution seems to be negatively related to the income growth. Our findings also suggest that increased income inequality enhances growth more in municipalities with a high level of average income than in municipalities with a low level of average income.

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2014-02-19T16:44:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Aparecida Linhares dos Santos Silva.pdf: 5396289 bytes, checksum: 5e6ecc78480d1fd12d7e2c0951234cdd (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Alda Lima da Silva (sivalda@ufba.br) on 2014-02-21T19:32:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Aparecida Linhares dos Santos Silva.pdf: 5396289 bytes, checksum: 5e6ecc78480d1fd12d7e2c0951234cdd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-02-21T19:32:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Aparecida Linhares dos Santos Silva.pdf: 5396289 bytes, checksum: 5e6ecc78480d1fd12d7e2c0951234cdd (MD5) / A práxis pedagógica resultante desta pesquisa sobre a Dança-Educação e sua criação artística, foi desenvolvida através da conscientização dos processos sensoriais do Ser-dan-çarino, da busca do autoconhecimento como fator fundamental na transversalidade de todo aprendizado da Dança, e da necessidade artística e profissional dos alunos da Escola de Dança da UFBA. Essa busca foi fundamentada pela Dança-Educação, pela Psicologia, es-pecificamente teoria da Análise Transacional, pela teoria do Umwelt (entorno ou auto mundo) de Jacob Von Uexküll trabalhando no encontro de um material específico que pode ser utilizado pelo dançarino para a sua criação. Trazemos a teoria dos Sistemas que funda-menta o sistema Ser-Corpo e seu Universo e a teoria da Complexidade. O trabalho artístico elaborado foi o desenvolvimento de um processo de composição em dança que levasse as oito alunas do grupo criado para essa pesquisa à criação de uma dança genuína do ser dan-çarino. A dança genuína é individual e foi baseada no trabalho de busca do autoconheci-mento de cada uma dessas alunas. O autoconhecimento foi o fator fundante para o conheci-mento e reconhecimento do Ser-Corpo e da Arte da Dança. Essa processo busca conhecer, reconhecer e apreender a informação ressignificada pelo Corpo que, estando em constante relação com seu ambiente de vivência é registro de acontecimentos, é mídia, e busca, através da Arte da Dança, constituir-se como um Ser-integral, Ser-Dança, Ser-Pleno.

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