Galen Strawson argues that we have a sense of mental selves, which are entities that have mental features but do not have bodily features. In particular, he argues that there is a form of self-consciousness that involves a conception of the mental self. His mental self view is opposed to the embodied self view, the view that the self must be conceived of as an entity that has both mental and bodily features. In this paper, I will argue against Strawson’s mental self view and for the embodied self view. I will draw on P. F. Strawson’s theory of persons and Gareth Evans’ Generality Constraint to argue that Galen Strawson fails to provide a satisfactory account of the mental self that can counter the embodied self view.

The aim of this research is to investigate factors affecting active participation in Business-to-Business Online Business Communities (B2B OBCs). The primary objective of the study was to develop a framework to better understand the important factors affecting members’ active participation behaviour in B2B OBCs. To achieve the main goal of this research, an integrated framework was developed underpinned by three well known theories: Uses and Gratification (U&G), Social Exchange (SET), and Information Systems Success Model (ISSM). A mixed method approach (partially mixed sequential dominant status design) was employed to answer the research question and achieve the objectives of the study. Accordingly, this study was carried out in two phases. During the first phase an exploratory study was carried out to further explore the framework. For that purpose semi-structured interviews with twelve members of B2B OBCs were conducted. The collected data was analysed using thematic analysis utilising NVIVO and this assisted in discovering another important factor ‘service quality’, which reflected on the moderator’s role inside B2B OBCs. Subsequently, service quality was added to the model. The exploratory study is also helped to develop a new measure for active participation in the context of B2B OBCs as this study was unable to adapt the measure for the construct from prior studies due to the discrepancy in the literature. In the second phase of the study, a quantitative approach (online questionnaires) was employed to test the developed framework. Using non-probability convenience sampling technique, 521 useable online questionnaires were collected from 41 B2B OBCs on LinkedIn. The collected data was then analysed using a second generation approach (SEM) utilising AMOS. During the data analysis, two U&G constructs (functional need and hedonic need) were found to have a positive impact on active participation. Yet, the direct association between psychological need and active participation was not significant. Nevertheless, the construct found to have a positive and indirect relationship with active participation. In addition, two of the SET constructs (reciprocity and affective commitment) were also found to have a positive association with active participation. Trusting beliefs was found to have no direct impact on active participation. Further analysis revealed that the relationship between the two construct was indirect via affective commitment. Furthermore, three factors that were identified under ISSM, information quality, system quality, and service quality, were also found to be the antecedent of trusting beliefs but they did not have a direct impact on active participation. Information quality and service quality were also found to have an indirect and positive impact on affective commitment and active participation. The analysis also revealed that members from different industry types had different participation behaviour in B2B OBCs. The research outcomes made several contributions to the literature. These include a new measure for active participation and service quality. This provides a new validated instrument for B2B OBC researchers to adapt in the future. Further, an integrated model for factors affecting active participation in B2B OBCs was developed. This also provides a foundation for future studies in the field. The final results of this study demonstrate the appropriateness and robustness of the developed model, and further suggests that any attempt to investigate members participation behaviour in B2B OBCs will be incomplete unless all three theories (U&G, SET, and ISSM) are cosnidered. Moreover, this study helped to extend the existing knowledge on Online Community (OC) defintions, OC taxonomies, OC commitment, and OC trust. Finally, the findings of this study propose several guidelines to assist B2B OBC providers to build and maintain successful communities.

Digital forensics has become a predominant field in recent times and courts have had to deal with an influx of related cases over the past decade. As computer/cyber related criminal attacks become more predominant in today’s technologically driven society the need for and use of, digital evidence in courts has increased. There is the urgent need to hold perpetrators of such crimes accountable and successfully prosecuting them. The process used to acquire this digital evidence (to be used in cases in courts) is digital forensics. The procedures currently used in the digital forensic process were developed focusing on particular areas of the digital evidence acquisition process. This has resulted in very little regard being made for the core components of the digital forensics field, for example the legal and ethical along with other integral aspects of investigations as a whole. These core facets are important for a number of reasons including the fact that other forensic sciences have included them, and to survive as a true forensics discipline digital forensics must ensure that they are accounted for. This is because, digital forensics like other forensics disciplines must ensure that the evidence (digital evidence) produced from the process is able to withstand the rigors of a courtroom. Digital forensics is a new and developing field still in its infancy when compared to traditional forensics fields such as botany or anthropology. Over the years development in the field has been tool centered, being driven by commercial developers of the tools used in the digital investigative process. This, along with having no set standards to guide digital forensics practitioners operating in the field has led to issues regarding the reliability, verifiability and consistency of digital evidence when presented in court cases. Additionally some developers have neglected the fact that the mere mention of the word forensics suggests courts of law, and thus legal practitioners will be intimately involved. Such omissions have resulted in the digital evidence being acquired for use in various investigations facing major challenges when presented in a number of cases. Mitigation of such issues is possible with the development of a standard set of methodologies flexible enough to accommodate the intricacies of all fields to be considered when dealing with digital evidence. This thesis addresses issues regarding digital forensics frameworks, methods, methodologies and standards for acquiring digital evidence using the grounded theory approach. Data was gathered using literature surveys, questionnaires and interviews electronically. Collecting data using electronic means proved useful when there is need to collect data from different jurisdictions worldwide. Initial surveys indicated that there were no existing standards in place and that the terms models/frameworks and methodologies were used interchangeably to refer to methodologies. A framework and methodology have been developed to address the identified issues and represent the major contribution of this research. The dissertation outlines solutions to the identified issues and presents the 2IR Framework of standards which governs the 2IR Methodology supported by a mobile application and a curriculum of studies. These designs were developed using an integrated approach incorporating all four core facets of the digital forensics field. This research lays the foundation for a single integrated approach to digital forensics and can be further developed to ensure the robustness of process and procedures used by digital forensics practitioners worldwide.

The work selected for this portfolio comprises two language-specific case studies (‘Russian and Soviet loanwords and calques in the Czech lexicon since the beginning of the twentieth century’ and ‘Češi a slovenština’ [The Czechs and the Slovak language]), two publications on the critical reception of foreign vocabulary in Czech (‘The legacy and limitations of Czech purism’ and Attitudes to lexical borrowing in the Czech Republic), and a detailed article on the implications of naming practices for perceptions of the self and others (‘The Czech-speaking lands, their peoples and contact communities: titles, names and ethnonyms’). Extensive use is made of original material, including two nationwide quantitative surveys conducted on my behalf by the Public Opinion Research Centre of the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CVVM), and two small-scale questionnaires carried out for me by Dr Miroslav Růžička of the Czech University of Life Sciences (Prague), as well as a range of other empirical data, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, electronic corpora, and additional sources of lexical and historical information. My commentary employs a thematic approach, which aims both to acquaint the reader with the main findings of each of my publications, and to indicate the broad direction of my output. Supplementary information is provided in the commentary, where required, to contextualize and synthesize my arguments, to shed light on recent scholarship in cognate fields, and to ensure narrative continuity. The ‘new’ knowledge thus complements and frames the discussion of my selected publications, thereby helping to guide the reader through the exposition of my writings. The principal unifying themes of the chosen pieces are their emphasis on (1) the role of language in the national consciousness and self-perception, (2) the influence of external forces on the shaping of the Czech lexicon, and people’s reactions to those forces, (3) public perceptions of lexical borrowing, and (4) changing attitudes to the notion of ‘foreign’, as reflected in the national idiom. The commentary is divided into eight chapters, as listed in the Table of Contents. My study begins with a general introduction to my academic background, and to the content and themes of this thesis, as summarized above. Chapter 2 is based principally on my article ‘The legacy and limitations of Czech purism’, and provides a combination of historical setting and statistical analysis. The next chapter presents a résumé of the overall impact of foreign languages and cultures on the historical development of Czech, with the aim of contextualizing the findings of subsequent chapters. Chapter 4, which draws mainly on ‘Russian and Soviet loanwords and calques in the Czech lexicon since the beginning of the twentieth century’, reevaluates the impact of Russian and ‘Soviet speak’ on the Czech lexicon. In chapter 5, I consider in detail the asymmetrical nature of Czech–Slovak language relations, with reference to the views of over 1,400 informants interviewed for ‘Češi a slovenština’ and Attitudes to lexical borrowing in the Czech Republic. Chapter 6 compares the results of my survey for the latter publication, referred to as ‘Perceptions’, with a series of other questionnaires, including Tejnor’s groundbreaking 1970 study of foreign words. ‘The Czech-speaking lands, their peoples and contact communities: titles, names and ethnonyms’ provides the substance of much of chapter 7, which focuses on the Czechs’ tendency to see themselves in terms of opposition to outsiders, and on the depiction of ‘foreignness’ in the Czech lexicon. The commentary concludes with a summary of my principal observations relating to aspects of language contact and lexical borrowing in Czech, and to their implications for the self and others. Taken collectively, the eight chapters provide a framework for the discussion of my published work and for the thematic and conceptual links that validate their consideration as a corpus of cognate research activity.

This study focuses on the impact that relinquishing a child for adoption has on adolescent birthmothers. The study seeks to understand factors leading up to the adoption, the adoption process and factors impacting negatively on the birthmother following adoption, which influence school performance negatively. The factors impacting negatively on school performance are delineated by an empirical study founded on relevant literature. Five others who relinquished their babies for adoption were interviewed. Correlations were drawn between the factors identified within the literature study and new factors emerging h m the interviews. The study aims to provide Life Orientation educators with information regarding adoption, the adoption process and the impact adoption has on the birthmothers. Furthermore the study seeks to provide guidelines for the Life Orientation educators to help other work through factors that impact negatively on their school performance. The results of the study delineate seven definite factors impacting negatively on the birthmothers and their school performance. The school performance of the others to whom these Factors can be attributed, deteriorated drastically, while birthmothers who felt content with their decision showed almost no deterioration in their school performance. Further study with a greater number of birthmothers is needed to confirm the results obtained within this study. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

This thesis contributes to the study of the usability and security of visuo-cognitive authentication techniques, particularly those relying on recognition of abstract images, an area little researched. Many usability and security problems with linguistic passwords (including traditional text-based passwords) have been known for decades. Research into visually-based techniques intends to overcome these by using the extensive human capacity for recognising images, and add to the range of commercially viable authentication solutions. The research employs a mixed methodology to develop several contributions to the field. A novel taxonomy of visuo-cognitive authentication techniques is presented. This is based on analysis and synthesis of existing partial taxonomies, combined with new and extensive analysis of features of existing visuo-cognitive and other techniques. The taxonomy advances consistent terminology, and coherent and productive classification (cognometric, locimetric, graphimetric and manipulometric, based respectively on recognition of, location in, drawing of and manipulation of images) and discussion of the domain. The taxonomy is extensible to other classes of cognitive authentication technique (audio-cognitive, spatio-cognitive, biometric and token-based, etc.). A revised assessment process of the usability and security of visuo-cognitive techniques is proposed (employing three major assessment categories – usability, memorability and security), based on analysis, synthesis and refinement of existing models. The revised process is then applied to the features identified in the novel taxonomy to prove the process‘s utility as a tool to clarify both the what and the why of usability and security issues. The process is also extensible to other classes of authentication technique. iii Cognitive psychology experimental methods are employed, producing new results which show with statistical significance that abstract images are harder to learn and recall than face or object images. Additionally, new experiments and a new application of the chi-squared statistic show that users‘ choices of abstract images are not necessarily random over a group, and thus, like other cognitive authentication techniques, can be attacked by probabilistic dictionaries. A new authentication prototype is designed and implemented, embodying the usability and security insights gained. Testing of this prototype shows good usability and user acceptance, although speed of use remains an issue. A new experiment shows that abstract image authentication techniques are vulnerable to phishing attacks. Further, the testing shows two new results: that abstract image visuo-cognitive techniques are usable on mobile phones; and that such phones are not, currently, necessarily a threat as part of observation attacks on visual passwords.

Background: Traditional psychosocial treatments have been adapted for use with individuals with bipolar affective disorders due to the limited prophylactic nature of pharmacotherapy and the recognition of the role of psychosocial factors in the course of this disorder. Psychosocial interventions that include a prodromal monitoring and management component have been empirically shown to be an effective adjunct to medication for the treatment of bipolar disorder. Aims: There is a deficit of quantitative research that examines the impact of individualrelated (e.g. age, self-efficacy), disorder-related (e.g. time since diagnosis, experience of prodromal symptoms) and treatment-related (e.g. level of psychosocial input) factors on individuals’ ability to manage this disorder via the use of prodromal monitoring. The current research aimed to investigate factors that are associated with the identification and management of prodromal symptoms. Method: Participants completed five self-report measures in order to provide information on their experience of prodromal symptoms, current mood state, general self-efficacy, view of social support from significant others, and demographic and clinical-related variables. The data were collected from 101 participants, 58 of whom were female. The sample consisted of individuals with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder type I and II. Results: Univariate and bivariate analyses were used to explore the relationship between individual, disorder, and treatment-related variables associated with participants’ experience of bipolar disorder. Variables that were significantly associated with participants’ perception of their ability to identify and manage prodromes were further investigated using ordinal logistic regression analyses. The results indicated that general self-efficacy and prodromal-specific help from significant others were associated with an increase in participants’ perception of their ability to identify manic and depressive prodromal symptoms. General self-efficacy was also associated with participants’ view of their ability to manage cognitive and behavioural prodromes. Experience of prodromal symptoms (e.g. consistency of symptoms experienced, type of prodrome experienced) was associated the participants’ perception of their ability to identify and manage prodromes. In general, disorder-related variables (e.g. time since diagnosis, mood state, diagnosis type, and number of episodes experienced) were not significantly associated with the participants’ view of their ability to identify and manage prodromal symptoms. Individual-related variables such as gender and age, however, were associated with prodromal identification. Conclusion: The results indicated the need to consider constructs such as general selfefficacy and experience of prodromal symptoms (e.g. consistency of symptoms, types of prodromes experienced, and ability to recognise prodromes when they first present) when helping patients to learn how to identify and manage prodromal symptoms. In addition gender differences and the role of help from significant others were highlighted as variables that should be considered when using prodromal monitoring approaches with patients with bipolar disorder. Limitations of the research are reviewed in relation to the methodology used. Clinical implications and directions for future research are considered.

This thesis explores the impact of meditation on art practice. Its basic hypothesis is that Buddhist meditation can expand creative capacity by enabling the practitioner to transcend the limits of everyday sense experience and consciousness. Artists engaging in meditation develop a closer, more aware relationship with their emptiness mind (kongxin), freeing them from preconceptions and contexts that limit their artistic creation. Because this practice-led research focuses on how to expand one‘s freedom as an artist, I use two models to explore studio practice, then compare and contrast them with my own prior approach. A year-by-year methodology is followed, as artistic practice develops over time. The first model is studio practice in the UK, the second is Buddhist meditation before artistic activity. The research took place over three years, each representing a distinct area. Accordingly, in area 1 (the first year), I compared studio art practice in the UK with post-meditation art practice; in area 2 (the second year), I compared studio art practice in the UK with prostration practice at Bodh-gaya, India plus meditation before act activity; in area 3 (the third year), I compared studio art practice in the UK with entering a month-long meditation retreat in Taiwan before practicing art. By Buddhist meditation I refer more specifically to insight meditation, which K. Sri Dhammananda has described as follows: Buddha offers four objects of meditation for consideration: body, feeling, thoughts, and mental states. The basis of the Satipatthana (Pāli, refers to a "foundation" for a "presence" of mindfulness) practice is to use these four objects for the development of concentration, mindfulness, and insight or understanding of our-self and the world around you. Satipatthana offers the most simple, direct, and effective method for training the mind to meet daily tasks and problems and to achieve the highest aim: liberation. (K. Sri II Dhammananda 1987:59) In my own current meditation practice before art practice, I sit in a lotus position and focus on breathing in and breathing out, so that my mind achieves a state of emptiness and calm and my body becomes relaxed yet fully energized and free. When embarking on artistic activity after meditation, the practice of art then emerges automatically from this enhanced body/mind awareness. For an artist from an Eastern culture, this post-meditation art seems to differ from the practices of Western art, even those that seek to eliminate intention (e.g. Pollock), in that the artist‘s action seem to genuinely escape cogito: that is, break free of the rational dimensions of creating art. In my training and development as a studio artist, I applied cogito all the time, but this frequently generated body/mind conflict, which became most apparent after leaving the studio at the end of the day: I always felt exhausted, and what was worse, the art that I created was somehow limited. However, my experience was that Buddhist meditation, when applied before undertaking art practice, establishes body/mind harmony and empties the mind. For this artist at least, this discovery seemed to free my art as it emerged from emptiness through the agency of my energized hand. It was this, admittedly highly personal, experience that led me to undertake the research that informs this thesis.

Technologies such as geographical information systems (GIS) have emerged during the past two decades as part of the Information Revolution and include functions such as data storage, management, integration, analysis and presentation. GIS have wide and diverse applications in disciplines such as engineering, business/marketing, urban planning and environmental management but remain underused in public health. The thesis reports the findings of a mixed methods study examining the views and perceptions of public health practitioners on the value of GIS mapping in decision-making. A case study design was chosen; the case issue (childhood lead [Pb] exposure) represents an example of the "case" which is defined as 'decision- making in public health'. The exploratory phase of the study combined heterogeneous data to produce a visualisation of lead contamination in Newcastle. The value of GIS in public health was explored in an interview phase. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with decision-makers involved either directly or indirectly in public health practice. Interview recordings were transcribed and coded thematically for analysis. Decision-makers tended to be positive about the use of GIS in public health and many volunteered potential opportunities to apply GIS mapping techniques further. Four discourses were highlighted through analyses, namely: data origins (Ontological Discourse), status (Power Discourse), application (Functionality Discourse) and reciprocity (Collaboration Discourse). The power of maps to integrate multiple, disparate datasets was found to be important and respondents felt, overall, that GIS mapping was a democratic means of communication. Complexity frameworks are drawn upon to make sense of the research findings and to illuminate the need for non-reductionist models of decision-making in the public health context. The lessons learnt through this study can be translated to other fields, thereby sharing skills, knowledge and experience to promote collaboration and integrated thinking across the public health landscape.

This work is based on eight papers published between 1998 and 2006. The papers present a process of investigating, discussing and documenting how, through exploring, stretching and developing opportunities offered by various qualitative research approaches, facilitated collaborative action research (CAR) and evaluation became entwined They question how and where participants in projects recognise their own knowledge and learning, and how they use and develop their understandings in relation to new knowledge. In these papers I worked at the interface between the known and the nearly known; between knowledge-in-use and tacit knowledge that was yet to be useful. This interface, a 'messy area', was a place of contested knowledge. In this 'messy area' long-held views, shaped by pro essional knowledge, practical judgement, experience and intuition, came together to disturb both individual and communally held notions of knowledge for practice. Working in the 'messy area' enabled new knowing that has both theoretical and practical significance to arise, a 'messy turn' to take place. This is the purpose of mess. These papers add to the body of knowledge about 'seeing' and 'knowing', 'the importance of not knowing' and the role of participation, collaboration, facilitation and learning as key change mechanisms in research and evaluation.