People include other people in their self-concept. Research has examined the causes and effects of including liked, but not disliked others into the self-concept. Liked others are included because of a motivation to affiliate and get closer to the other person. The current investigation examined whether disliked others are included as a result of a motivation to differentiate and distinguish oneself from the other person. It also examined how self-concept inclusion of disliked others affects self-concept clarity. First, I tested whether people include disliked others into their self-concepts by showing a memory bias for disliked others similar to that of liked others (Study 1). Liked others, but not disliked others or acquaintances, showed this memory bias. Next, I tested whether people were motivated to differentiate themselves from disliked others by measuring whether they had slower reaction times when characterizing the self with traits similar to those of disliked others (Study 2). I did not find this effect. Finally, neither study showed a mediating effect of self-concept clarity. These results failed to show support for the hypothesis that disliked others are included in the self-concept and that including others in the self affects self-concept clarity.

Bakgrund: Idag är alkohol- och drogmissbruk ett av våra största samhällsproblem. Ett missbruk är en sjukdom med överväldigande konsekvenser för missbrukaren men även dess närstående. Socialt stöd från närstående kan minska risken för återfall och gynna behandlingskontinuitet hos personer med missbruk eller beroendeproblem. Syfte: Att belysa hur sjuksköterskan involverar närstående i omvårdnaden av missbrukare. Design: Fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer med sjuksköterskor verksamma inom beroendevården utfördes för att belysa deras upplevelser av hur närstående involveras i vården av missbrukare. Resultat: Tre teman kunde utläsas varav ett av dessa fick tre underteman. Dessa var Hinder för involvering (underteman: Besöksförbud, Sekretess och Brist på resurser), Relationer och närstående och Fungerande involvering. Resultatet visade att involvering av närstående fungerade till viss del men att de flesta fynden fanns under temat Hinder för involvering. Samtidigt som viljan att involvera närstående fanns så begränsades sjuksköterskorna av olika hinder. Slutsats: Samtliga sjuksköterskor ansåg att närstående kan ha en viktig del i vården av missbrukare men fann det svårt att involvera dem så ofta som de önskade. De främsta anledningarna till detta var besöksförbudet på avdelningarna, sekretess och brist på resurser. Med bättre förutsättningar och tydligare rutiner på avdelningarna borde sjuksköterskorna på ett bättre sätt kunna involvera närstående i omvårdnaden av missbrukare. / Background: Today, alcohol and drug abuse is one of our biggest social problems. An addiction is a disease with overwhelming consequences for the addict but also its significant others. Social support from people important to the addict can reduce the risk of relapse and promote continuity of treatment in people with substance abuse and dependence problems. Purpose: To illustrate how the nurse involves significant others in the care of addicts. Design: Four semi-structured interviews with nurses working in addiction treatment was performed to illuminate their experience of how significant others are involved in the care of addicts. Results: Three themes could be seen and one of those had three sub-themes. These were Barriers to involvement (sub-themes: Restraining order, Secrecy and Lack of resources), Relationships and significant others and Functional involvement. The results showed that the involvement of significant others was functioning to a certain level but most of the findings could be found under the theme Barriers for involvement. While the desire to involve significant others were there the nurses where limited by various obstacles. Conclusion: All the nurses believed that significant others may have an important part in the care of addicts but found it difficult to involve them as often as they wished. The main reasons for this was the restraining orders of the department, secrecy and lack of resources. With better conditions and clearer routines of the department nurses should be better able to involve significant others in the care of addicts.

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.

Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus, GAS) is a major human Gram-positive pathogen that causes infections that normally occur in the respiratory tract, the skin, the wound, the lung, the bloodstream and/or muscle tissues and result in millions of deaths every year. To cause such infections, S. pyogenes produces a wide range of virulence factors. The destruction of connective tissue and the hyaluronic acid therein plays an important role in pathogenesis. S. pyogenes was propagated in hyaluronic acid rich growth media in an attempt to create a simple biological system that could reflect some elements of the pathogenesis. The growth of bacteria was analyzed in the hyaluronic acid rich media and control media and a proteomic approach was applied to identify those proteins that were differentially expressed by the streptococcal pathogens growing in the different media. The techniques of two dimensional gel electrophoresis and static nanospray mass spectrometry were optimized and proteome maps for S. pyogenes grown in both media were constructed. The differentially expressed proteins by S. pyogenes were identified and analyzed using bioinformatics. Our results showed that several recognized virulence factors of S. pyogenes were upregulated in hyaluronic acid rich media, including the Ml protein, a collagen-like surface protein and the glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, which has been shown to play important roles in streptococcal pathogenesis. Interestingly, two hypothetical proteins of unknown function were also up-regulated and detailed bioinformatics analysis showed that at least one of these hypothetical proteins is likely to be involved in GAS pathogenesis. It was therefore concluded that this simple biological system provided a valuable tool for the identification of potential streptococcal pathogens virulence factors.

Medical radiography is a process by which the internal structures of the human body are imaged using a source of x-rays. The images formed are essentially shadowgrams whose size and intensity is dependent on the geometry of the imaging system and the degree to which the structures attenuate x-ray radiation. The images are blurred because the x-ray source has a finite size, and noisy because the x-ray exposure must be kept as low as possible for the safety of the patient but which also limits the number of photons available for image formation. In such noisy environments traditional methods of Fourier deconvolution have limited appeal. In this research we apply maximum entropy methods (MEM) to some radiological images. We justify the choice of MEM over other deconvolution schemes by processing a selection of artificial images in which the blur and noise mimic the real situation but whose levels are known a priori. A hybrid MEM scheme is developed to address the shortcomings of so-called historic MEM in these situations. We initially consider images from situations in which the model point- spread function is assumed to be three-dimensionally spatially invariant, and which approximates the real situation reasonably well. One technique lends itself well to this investigation: magnification mammography. MEM is offered as a way of breaking some of the conflicting performance requirements of this technique and we explore several new system possibilities with a working MEM system in place. A more complicated blurring function is encountered in linear tomography, which uses opposing movements of the image receptor and x-ray source to generate planar images through an object. Features outside a particular focal plane are smeared to such an extent that detail within the focal plane can be very difficult to detect. With appropriate modification of our MEM technique, processed images show a significant reduction to the blurring outside the focal plane.

Hearing impairment is the most common communication disability in older people. The wide-ranging impact of hearing impairment on communication means that not only does the person with hearing impairment experience the consequences but also his or her frequent communication partners. This thesis investigates the impact of hearing impairment on spouses and uses the World Health Organization’s term “third-party disability.” Third-party disability is defined as the impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions experienced by the family due to the health condition of their significant other, and was identified by the World Health Organization as an area for future development and application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Despite a number of studies previously published on the effect of hearing impairment on family members, including younger couples and carers, there remain substantial gaps in knowledge and understanding of the difficulties specifically relating to older people and factors associated with third-party hearing disability. This thesis focuses on the third-party disability experienced by normally hearing spouses (termed the “spouses” in this thesis) of older people with hearing impairment (termed the “partners” in this thesis). To add empirical data to the body of research, this series of studies first explored the lived experience of spouses of older people with hearing impairment in a qualitative study, then identified the ICF domains and categories that described third-party hearing disability, described the extent of third-party hearing disability in this population, modelled the contribution of factors to third-party hearing disability, and developed and psychometrically tested a scale to measure the third-party disability of spouses of older people with hearing impairment. Studies conducted within this thesis were therefore completed in two phases. Ten spouses of older people with hearing impairment participated in the first qualitative phase, consisting of semi-structured in-depth interviews. Results of this study showed that spouses experience a number of effects as a result of their partners’ hearing impairment including: (1) the broad ranging effects of the hearing impairment on the spouses’ everyday lives; (2) the spouses’ need to constantly adapt to their partners’ hearing impairment; (3) the effect of acceptance of the hearing impairment on the spouse; and (4) the impact of ageing and retirement. Findings were then linked to the ICF to identify the most typical and relevant domains and categories of the ICF for spouses of older people with hearing impairment. The majority of themes were able to be linked to the ICF, with most linking to codes in the activities and participation component. A number of contextual factors were also identified that influenced the spouses’ third-party disability. In the second phase, a further 100 older couples affected by hearing impairment participated in a quantitative face-to-face survey to describe the nature and degree of third-party disability in spouses, and to examine factors associated with third-party hearing disability. Concepts identified in the first qualitative study were used to formulate a 36-item tool for measuring spouses’ third-party hearing disability, namely the Significant Other Scale for Hearing Disability (SOS-HEAR). The majority of spouses in this study (98%) reported some degree of third-party hearing disability on at least one item of the SOS-HEAR. Communication difficulties between the couple were the central source of stress reported by spouses, followed by emotional problems in the spouse. Three factors were found to be significantly associated with greater third-party hearing disability: (1) lower relationship satisfaction as described by spouses; (2) a larger spouse-partner age difference; and (3) greater hearing disability in the hearing impaired partner as perceived by the spouse. The scaling properties of the SOS-HEAR were then examined, with a revised 27-item questionnaire found to be a reliable means of measuring older spouses’ third-party hearing disability. Use of the SOS-HEAR is proposed as a means of identifying spouses of older people with hearing impairment in need of intervention. If spouses are identified as experiencing third-party hearing disability, health professionals are then in a position to facilitate discussions with the couple about the impact of the hearing loss on their daily functioning. The inclusion of spouses in rehabilitation takes into account the needs of both members of the couple such that they become partners in rehabilitation. In summary, this research has shown that hearing impairment in older people has an effect on the spouse, as they too experience situations of communication activity limitations and participation restrictions. It is clear that the lives of participants in this study were considerably affected as a result of their partners’ hearing impairment, with spouses reporting a wide variety of stresses involving lifestyle changes, communication difficulties, and emotional consequences. This series of studies has highlighted the potentially important role of family-centred intervention in rehabilitation for older adults with hearing impairment, and strongly suggests the need for increased inclusion of spouses and significant others in the rehabilitation process.

Hearing impairment is the most common communication disability in older people. The wide-ranging impact of hearing impairment on communication means that not only does the person with hearing impairment experience the consequences but also his or her frequent communication partners. This thesis investigates the impact of hearing impairment on spouses and uses the World Health Organization’s term “third-party disability.” Third-party disability is defined as the impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions experienced by the family due to the health condition of their significant other, and was identified by the World Health Organization as an area for future development and application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Despite a number of studies previously published on the effect of hearing impairment on family members, including younger couples and carers, there remain substantial gaps in knowledge and understanding of the difficulties specifically relating to older people and factors associated with third-party hearing disability. This thesis focuses on the third-party disability experienced by normally hearing spouses (termed the “spouses” in this thesis) of older people with hearing impairment (termed the “partners” in this thesis). To add empirical data to the body of research, this series of studies first explored the lived experience of spouses of older people with hearing impairment in a qualitative study, then identified the ICF domains and categories that described third-party hearing disability, described the extent of third-party hearing disability in this population, modelled the contribution of factors to third-party hearing disability, and developed and psychometrically tested a scale to measure the third-party disability of spouses of older people with hearing impairment. Studies conducted within this thesis were therefore completed in two phases. Ten spouses of older people with hearing impairment participated in the first qualitative phase, consisting of semi-structured in-depth interviews. Results of this study showed that spouses experience a number of effects as a result of their partners’ hearing impairment including: (1) the broad ranging effects of the hearing impairment on the spouses’ everyday lives; (2) the spouses’ need to constantly adapt to their partners’ hearing impairment; (3) the effect of acceptance of the hearing impairment on the spouse; and (4) the impact of ageing and retirement. Findings were then linked to the ICF to identify the most typical and relevant domains and categories of the ICF for spouses of older people with hearing impairment. The majority of themes were able to be linked to the ICF, with most linking to codes in the activities and participation component. A number of contextual factors were also identified that influenced the spouses’ third-party disability. In the second phase, a further 100 older couples affected by hearing impairment participated in a quantitative face-to-face survey to describe the nature and degree of third-party disability in spouses, and to examine factors associated with third-party hearing disability. Concepts identified in the first qualitative study were used to formulate a 36-item tool for measuring spouses’ third-party hearing disability, namely the Significant Other Scale for Hearing Disability (SOS-HEAR). The majority of spouses in this study (98%) reported some degree of third-party hearing disability on at least one item of the SOS-HEAR. Communication difficulties between the couple were the central source of stress reported by spouses, followed by emotional problems in the spouse. Three factors were found to be significantly associated with greater third-party hearing disability: (1) lower relationship satisfaction as described by spouses; (2) a larger spouse-partner age difference; and (3) greater hearing disability in the hearing impaired partner as perceived by the spouse. The scaling properties of the SOS-HEAR were then examined, with a revised 27-item questionnaire found to be a reliable means of measuring older spouses’ third-party hearing disability. Use of the SOS-HEAR is proposed as a means of identifying spouses of older people with hearing impairment in need of intervention. If spouses are identified as experiencing third-party hearing disability, health professionals are then in a position to facilitate discussions with the couple about the impact of the hearing loss on their daily functioning. The inclusion of spouses in rehabilitation takes into account the needs of both members of the couple such that they become partners in rehabilitation. In summary, this research has shown that hearing impairment in older people has an effect on the spouse, as they too experience situations of communication activity limitations and participation restrictions. It is clear that the lives of participants in this study were considerably affected as a result of their partners’ hearing impairment, with spouses reporting a wide variety of stresses involving lifestyle changes, communication difficulties, and emotional consequences. This series of studies has highlighted the potentially important role of family-centred intervention in rehabilitation for older adults with hearing impairment, and strongly suggests the need for increased inclusion of spouses and significant others in the rehabilitation process.

Hearing impairment is the most common communication disability in older people. The wide-ranging impact of hearing impairment on communication means that not only does the person with hearing impairment experience the consequences but also his or her frequent communication partners. This thesis investigates the impact of hearing impairment on spouses and uses the World Health Organization’s term “third-party disability.” Third-party disability is defined as the impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions experienced by the family due to the health condition of their significant other, and was identified by the World Health Organization as an area for future development and application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Despite a number of studies previously published on the effect of hearing impairment on family members, including younger couples and carers, there remain substantial gaps in knowledge and understanding of the difficulties specifically relating to older people and factors associated with third-party hearing disability. This thesis focuses on the third-party disability experienced by normally hearing spouses (termed the “spouses” in this thesis) of older people with hearing impairment (termed the “partners” in this thesis). To add empirical data to the body of research, this series of studies first explored the lived experience of spouses of older people with hearing impairment in a qualitative study, then identified the ICF domains and categories that described third-party hearing disability, described the extent of third-party hearing disability in this population, modelled the contribution of factors to third-party hearing disability, and developed and psychometrically tested a scale to measure the third-party disability of spouses of older people with hearing impairment. Studies conducted within this thesis were therefore completed in two phases. Ten spouses of older people with hearing impairment participated in the first qualitative phase, consisting of semi-structured in-depth interviews. Results of this study showed that spouses experience a number of effects as a result of their partners’ hearing impairment including: (1) the broad ranging effects of the hearing impairment on the spouses’ everyday lives; (2) the spouses’ need to constantly adapt to their partners’ hearing impairment; (3) the effect of acceptance of the hearing impairment on the spouse; and (4) the impact of ageing and retirement. Findings were then linked to the ICF to identify the most typical and relevant domains and categories of the ICF for spouses of older people with hearing impairment. The majority of themes were able to be linked to the ICF, with most linking to codes in the activities and participation component. A number of contextual factors were also identified that influenced the spouses’ third-party disability. In the second phase, a further 100 older couples affected by hearing impairment participated in a quantitative face-to-face survey to describe the nature and degree of third-party disability in spouses, and to examine factors associated with third-party hearing disability. Concepts identified in the first qualitative study were used to formulate a 36-item tool for measuring spouses’ third-party hearing disability, namely the Significant Other Scale for Hearing Disability (SOS-HEAR). The majority of spouses in this study (98%) reported some degree of third-party hearing disability on at least one item of the SOS-HEAR. Communication difficulties between the couple were the central source of stress reported by spouses, followed by emotional problems in the spouse. Three factors were found to be significantly associated with greater third-party hearing disability: (1) lower relationship satisfaction as described by spouses; (2) a larger spouse-partner age difference; and (3) greater hearing disability in the hearing impaired partner as perceived by the spouse. The scaling properties of the SOS-HEAR were then examined, with a revised 27-item questionnaire found to be a reliable means of measuring older spouses’ third-party hearing disability. Use of the SOS-HEAR is proposed as a means of identifying spouses of older people with hearing impairment in need of intervention. If spouses are identified as experiencing third-party hearing disability, health professionals are then in a position to facilitate discussions with the couple about the impact of the hearing loss on their daily functioning. The inclusion of spouses in rehabilitation takes into account the needs of both members of the couple such that they become partners in rehabilitation. In summary, this research has shown that hearing impairment in older people has an effect on the spouse, as they too experience situations of communication activity limitations and participation restrictions. It is clear that the lives of participants in this study were considerably affected as a result of their partners’ hearing impairment, with spouses reporting a wide variety of stresses involving lifestyle changes, communication difficulties, and emotional consequences. This series of studies has highlighted the potentially important role of family-centred intervention in rehabilitation for older adults with hearing impairment, and strongly suggests the need for increased inclusion of spouses and significant others in the rehabilitation process.

Actuellement dans le contexte d'Intelligence Economique, l'information est prise en grande partie comme étant un facteur clé de succès qui doit être identifié et interprété au bon moment pour aider l'utilisateur- décideur dans son processus décisionnel. Les besoins en information dans l'entreprise et particulièrement dans le domaine de l'architecture sont généralement mal abordés car ils génèrent des réflexions importantes sur certains aspects et dans le même temps, occultent des disfonctionnements entiers de réflexion sur les besoins et l'usage de l'information. Les outils informatiques mis en place sont parfois non utilisables, du fait qu'ils mettent l'accent sur le traitement des données et non sur la portée de la pertinence de l'action engagée et sur l'analyse du besoin informationnel réel des utilisateurs –décideurs. C'est pourquoi nous réfléchissons sur une méthodologie permettant de répondre aux besoins informationnels des potentiels décideurs- utilisateurs dans le domaine architectural.

Disasters often result in severe socio-economic losses, although there is significant progress in dealing with the social aspect, economic aspect is addressed relatively insufficiently. Therefore, the capabilities of organisations in managing disasters need to be improved, and there should be a way of assessing these capabilities. Hence, this study used capability maturity model (CMM) methodology to develop an assessment method that identifies the built environment flood resilience capabilities of micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs). Towards achieving the aim of the study, a conceptual model was developed using the capability areas identified from the literature. The model was then verified and refined by an expert forum. The conceptual model was further improved in case studies, applied in case organisations and after that validated; this resulted in the final model. This study identified 19 capability areas for enhancing built environment flood resilience and developed a capability maturity model that contains maturity level definitions ranging from level 1 (Ad hoc) to level 5 (Optimising). The outcome of this study provides both theoretical and practical contributions to knowledge. Among the theoretical contributions are the identified and verified built environment flood resilience capability areas for MSMEs. The capability areas can be adopted for use in subsequent studies. Also, the application of capability maturity modelling (CMM) in disaster resilience of the built environment is novel, this has expanded the boundary of CMM application. The practical contributions of the study include the identified capability areas, the capability level definitions and the capability maturity model for profiling MSMEs and benchmarking the capabilities of businesses for built environment flood resilience. The model indicates what needs to be carried out to achieve a higher capability maturity level for flood resilience.