The aim of this study was to explore women's perceptions of ageing in order to shed light on how individual women feel about getting older. The qualitative interpretive research paradigm was chosen for the purposes of this study. In-depth interviews were held with three women who gave their accounts of their perceptions of ageing. The data was analysed using hermeneutic thematic analysis. The accounts of the participants were reconstructed in terms of themes which emerged. Recurring themes in the accounts of all three participants were linked with the literature. This study provided rich descriptions of women's perceptions of ageing and helped to create new insights and meanings both for the participants and the readers. The information gained could serve as guidelines for clinical practice and future research. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study is geared at an open systmes critique of the macro theories of development. It is highlighted in this study that we are living through the realities of the open systems, and yet much of development thought is based on closed systems philosophies, principle and ideologies. The first chapter gives an orientation into the origins of both the closed systems and open systems paradigms respectively. Included in this orientation chapter, is the literature review of the various research contributions of the major trends in development thought. The second chapter expands on the evolution of the closed systems paradigm and its influences on development thought. This chapter further explains the attendant philosophies, principles and ideologies that underlie the closed systems paradigm. The third chapter captures the open systems paradigm and its influences on contemporary development discourse. Further to the discussion on the closed systems paradigm, the chapter elaborates on the philosophies, principles and processes that underlie this paradigm. The fourth chapter is on a discussion of trends in development thinking, traced from the traditional, through the medieval to the modern, right up to the contemporary. This entails tracing the theory to its ontological background right up to its implications for social reality in contemporary development thought and experience. The fifth chapter is on the open systems critique of the trends in development thinking, while the sixth chapter revisits the open systems paradigm and its implications for development thought. In the seventh chapter is the recapitulation of the findings in the study and recommendations for both development thought and practice. / Development Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (Development Administration)

No description available.

[pt] O Autismo é um transtorno do neurodesenvolvimento caracterizado por prejuízos na interação social, na comunicação e no comportamento. Um dos deficit apresentados em seu escopo é no reconhecimento de emoções, apontando para uma série de estratégias de visualização atípicas, tais como: olhar reduzido para estímulos sociais; preferência para a região da boca em vez dos olhos e dificuldades em fixar a atenção. Todavia, não existe um consenso, até o momento, sobre os fatores que podem acarretar tais prejuízos, bem como se existe um padrão característico do rastreio viso espacial para essa população. Com base nesses dados, que a presente dissertação desenvolveu um paradigma de rastreio visual no reconhecimento de emoções em crianças do Espectro Autista (EA). Para tanto, foi necessária uma revisão sistemática, que a partir de uma seleção criteriosa, verificou 65 paradigmas investigados na avaliação do Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA) que utilizaram o Eye-tracker como instrumento. A partir de então foi desenvolvido um roteiro para a posterior programação das tarefas. O paradigma de rastreio foi, então, aplicado em quatro crianças diagnosticadas com TEA, que compunham o grupo experimental e em três com desenvolvimento típico para controle, com a finalidade de avaliar a sua aplicabilidade. E embora existam limitações na tarefa que precisam passar por adaptações, foi possível verificar que os participantes do grupo experimental tiveram a duração da tarefa ampliada em decorrência de uma dificuldade na fixação do olhar, bem como tiveram o desempenho prejudicado no reconhecimento das emoções. Esses dados, junto a outros estudos, sugerem que os indivíduos do espectro autista utilizam estratégias visuais atípicas. Entretanto mais pesquisas são necessárias sobre o assunto. / [en] Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction, communication and behavior. One of the deficits presented in its scope is the emotions recognition, pointing to a number of atypical visualization strategies, such as: reduced look at social stimuli; preference for the mouth instead of the eyes region, and difficulties in fixing attention. However, there is no consensus so far on the factors that can lead to such damages, as well as whether there is a characteristic pattern of visuospatial screening for that population. Based on these data, this dissertation developed a visual tracking paradigm in the recognition of emotions in children of the Autistic Spectrum (EA). Therefore, a system-atic review was necessary, which, based on a careful selection, verified 65 paradigms investigated in the evaluation of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and that used the Eye-tracker as instrument. From then on, a script was developed for later tasks programming. The screening paradigm was then applied in four children diagnosed with ASD, who composed the experimental group, and in three with typical development, to control, to evaluate its applicability. Although there are limitations in the task, that must undergo adaptations, it was possible to verify that the participants of the experimental group had a longer duration of the task, due to it s difficulty in fixing the look, as well as they had the performance impaired in the emotions recognition. These data, along with other studies, suggest that individuals on the autistic spectrum use atypical visual strategies. However more research is needed on the subject.

Face à la multiplication exponentielle du nombre de personnes souffrant d’une maladie chronique d’origine comportementale (e.g., tabagisme, alcoolisme, mauvaise alimentation, sédentarité), des interventions non médicamenteuses (INM) agissant sur ces comportements modifiables sont devenues incontournables en prévention et en complément des traitements. Parmi ces INM, les interventions numériques santé (INS) ouvrent un champ prometteur de changement durable de comportement de santé (e.g., objet connecté santé, application pour le téléphone, jeu vidéo). La thèse s’intéresse, au-delà de leur ergonomie et de leur fonctionnalité, à leur évaluation santé, de leur validation à leur surveillance. La première étude recense les modèles proposés dans le monde pour évaluer ces INS et les catégorise selon leurs paradigmes épistémologiques sous-jacents. Les résultats montrent une augmentation exponentielle de ces modèles et une absence de consensus ou de convergence vers un modèle comme cela a été le cas dans le médicament à la fin du XXème siècle. La deuxième étude s’appuie sur une revue systématique ayant identifié 90 essais interventionnels publiés testant les bénéfices et les risques de solutions numériques visant à lutter contre le tabagisme. Les résultats montrent une efficacité de certaines INS sur le tabagisme mais issue d’un corpus méthodologique très hétérogène limitant la portée des conclusions. Cette hétérogénéité est liée aux caractéristiques intrinsèques des INS (e.g., technologies utilisées et combinaison entre elles, multiplicité des théories du changement de comportement utilisées), aux méthodes d’évaluation utilisées (e.g., type de groupe contrôle, durée de suivi) et aux critères de jugement choisis (e.g., réduction du tabagisme ou arrêt). La discussion porte sur les limites actuelles dans la mise en évidence de l’efficacité et des risques des INS à cause d’approches paradigmatiques parallèles, le paradigme biomédical, le paradigme d’ingénierie et le paradigme comportemental. Le manque de consensus limite la comparabilité et la reproductibilité des résultats des études testant ces solutions numériques de santé. Elles restent pour la plupart à ce jour des solutions gadgets malgré un potentiel prometteur et promis par les industriels. La thèse encourage à la convergence vers un modèle consensuel de détermination du bénéfice/risque santé fondé sur la science de chaque INS et fait des propositions en ce sens. / To deal with the exponential increase of chronic diseases caused by health behavior (e.g., smoking, alcoholism, unhealthy eating, physical inactivity), non-pharmacological interventions (NPI) have become essential as a prevention tool and as a complement to treatments. Among these NPIs, behavioral intervention technologies (BIT) open up a promising field to a sustainable change in health behaviour (e.g., connected health devices, smartphone health apps, serious games). Beyond their ergonomics and their features, this thesis focuses on their evaluation in health, from their validation to their surveillance. The first study identifies the existing frameworks proposed around the world to evaluate these BITs and categorizes them, based on their underlying epistemological paradigm. The results show an exponential increase of these frameworks and a lack of consensus or convergence towards a common framework, as it had been the case for the drugs, by the end of the twentieth century. The second study is based on a systematic review used to identify 90 published interventional studies evaluating the benefits and the risks of digital solutions to fight against smoking. The results show that some BITs are effective against smoking but their effectiveness is based on a heterogeneous methodological corpus limiting the significance of the results produced. This heterogeneity is related to the inherent characteristics of the BITs (e.g., employed technologies and combination of technologies, multiplicity of the theories to change health behavior), to the chosen assessment methods (e.g., kind of control group, follow-up time) and to the chosen outcome measures (e.g., smoking reduction, smoking cessation). The discussion is focused on the current limitations to demonstrate the effectiveness and the risks of the BITs., due to parallel paradigmatic approaches, the biomedical paradigm, the engineering paradigm and the behavioral paradigm. The lack of consensus limits the comparability and the reproducibility of the results of the studies evaluating these BITs. Most of them are still gadgets, despite a promising potential, as predicted by the manufacturers. This thesis promotes the convergence to a consensual framework to determine the evidence-based benefits and risks of each BITs and introduces proposals to this effect.

The purpose of this mixed-methods research is to determine the effectiveness of the Kingdom Marketing (KM) intervention for improving Israeli SME marketing knowledge among managers and employees of Israeli small and medium-sized business. The secondary objective of the study was to portray the process of change in participating organisations. The newly developed KM intervention programme was designed to enhance Israeli SMEs’ marketing knowledge and marketing strategy, imparting new marketing skills and allowing SMEs to operate with better marketing knowledge. The intervention uses a metaphoric story-line approach to teach participants in mediator-led sessions to understand and use important marketing concepts, such as the difference between sales and marketing. Although the intervention has been used in business settings, it has not yet been empirically validated using rigorous methods. This study was conducted using a mixed methods paradigm with an embedded experimental design. Five Israeli based SMEs were recruited to take part in the training programme. The research consisted of three phases. In Phase 1, I administered a preintervention evaluation to measure five variables: awareness of marketing processes, mistaken marketing attitudes, incorrect marketing process beliefs, organisational marketing skills, and marketing need awareness. Participants were also interviewed during Phase 1. In Phase 2, I administered the KM intervention and collected qualitative data in the form of daily open-ended feedback and a researcher diary. In Phase 3, I administered a postintervention evaluation to assess change in the five quantitative variables, and I conducted a second round of interviews. The findings indicated that the KM intervention programme (a) increased awareness of marketing processes, (b) reduced mistaken marketing attitudes, (c) reduced incorrect marketing process believes, and (d) increased marketing need awareness. However, the intervention had no significant effect on organisational marketing skills. Qualitative analysis confirmed that, although the KM intervention empowered participants with marketing knowledge and skills, it did not result in broad organisational changes. I conclude that the KM intervention programme is valid and worthy of wider use for promoting the survival of SME businesses through marketing knowledge and skill improvement. However, the intervention should be used in conjunction with internal efforts to translate increased knowledge into lasting organisational change.

O objetivo desta Dissertação é analisar a práxis dos integrantes do Jornal Boca de Rua, Projeto integrado à ONG ALICE. Por meio dessa iniciativa concretizada em 2000, a ONG orienta moradores de rua de Porto Alegre na produção e na venda de um veículo de comunicação alternativa voltado ao seu cotidiano. Nesse trabalho, o Boca de Rua, campo empírico da pesquisa, foi estudado a partir da perspectiva do desposicionamento dos Estudos Organizacionais, a qual enfatiza a natureza processual da organização e a construção local de identidades, considerando a organização social como fluida, plural, móbil e transparente. A Dissertação foi elaborada em duas etapas. Na primeira, com base em uma postura fenomenológica, é elaborada a apresentação do Boca de Rua. Quanto ao Referencial, ele está organizado em torno dos seguintes Eixos Teóricos, respectivamente: a Teoria Crítica da sociedade, a proposta de Alberto Guerreiro Ramos para uma Sociedade Multicêntrica, com destaque a elementos centrais da sua teoria para a delimitação de sistemas sociais, ou paradigma paraeconômico, e a Ética da Alteridade, de Emmanuel Lévinas. Na segunda etapa deste estudo, com base nos dados empíricos, foi realizada a análise teórico-empírica dos processos de organização do Boca de Rua. A sua consecução, em uma perspectiva crítica, teve como suporte os princípios da Fenomenologia Dialética. / The aim of this thesis is to analyze the praxis of the members of Jornal Boca de Rua, a Project of the NGO ALICE. With this initiative, established since August, 2000, the NGO supports homeless people from Porto Alegre in the production and selling of an alternative vehicle of communication which concerns their daily life at the streets. In this study, Boca de Rua is approached since the project of depositioning Organization Studies which highlights the processual nature of organizations and local construction of identities, working towards the dislocation, displacement or depositioning of traditional conceptions of organization. What is evident in these discourses is a tendency to consider social organization as fluid, plural, mobile, transparent and locally constructed. The research was arranged in two phases. In the first one, the author assumes a phenomenological approach in such a way that required references were organized in three main theoretical axles: the Critical Theory of society, Alberto Guerreiro Ramos’s proposal for a multicentric society, stressing important elements for his theory of social systems delimitation, and the Ethics of Otherness of Emmanuel Lévinas. In the second phase of this research, based on empirical data, the author presents his theoretical-empirical analysis of the organization processes of Boca de Rua. This moment constitutes a critical reflection upon these processes, based on theoretical and empirical elements which were organized according to Dialectics Phenomenology principles.

Este estudo tem por objetivo examinar a rede de relações músico-sociais que se estabeleceu com a instalação da fábrica de discos “Casa A Electrica” no Rio Grande do Sul em 1914, no que se refere à circulação musical regional, nacional e internacional. Através de uma etnografia histórica, com base na imprensa, crônicas de memorialistas e literatos modernistas, documentos judiciais e na escuta dos fonogramas, reflito sobre os modos de produção e recepção das primeiras gravações mecânicas realizadas em Porto Alegre. Valendo-me de referenciais teóricos da Etnomusicologia que exploram a “escuta” como uma das formas de compreensão da modernidade e sua incorporação na descrição etnográfica, teço proposições entre instituições, ideias e práticas que acionaram o mundo audível de diferentes maneiras e valorizaram novos constructos de audição. Tais proposições giram em torno do cenário urbano local, onde se inscrevem as subjetividades envolvidas na escuta e no fazer musical moderno e suas relações com a tecnologia de reprodução sonora. Assim, componho um quadro dos cruzamentos de experiências de músicos, intérpretes, ouvintes e marcas estéticas das gravações musicais, procurando apresentar diversas vozes e percepções na compreensão das mediações entre a escuta e a transmissão musical entre diferentes agentes sociais no espaço-tempo moderno e como esse processo aparentemente localizado colabora no avanço dos entendimentos sobre as práticas musicais do Brasil no contexto da modernidade. / This study aims to examine the network of social musical relationship who settled with the installation of the record factory “A Casa Electrica” in Rio Grande do Sul in 1914 with regard to the international, national and regional musical circulation. Through an historical ethnography based on the press, chronicles of memoirs and literary modernists, court documents and based also on listening of phonograms, I reflect on the modes of production and reception of the first mechanical recordings held in Porto Alegre. Based on Ethnomusicology theoretical frameworks, which explore the “listening” as a way of understanding modernity and its incorporation in ethnographic description, I weave propositions among institutions, ideas and practices, which triggered the audible world in different ways and valued new constructs of audition. Such propositions are involved in a local urban scene, where the subjectivities involved in listening and in modern music making, and its relationships with the technology of sound reproduction are inscribed. Thus, I compose a picture of the crossing experiments of musicians, performers, listeners and aesthetic marks of the recorded music, trying to present diverse voices and perceptions in the understanding of the mediations between the listening and the musical transmission among different social agents in the modern space-time. I also try to show how this apparently located process collaborates in the advancement of the understanding about the musical practices in Brazil in the modernity context.

A presente tese trata da inserção da economia do Rio Grande do Sul no atual paradigma tecnoeconômico, sob uma perspectiva neoschumpeteriana/evolucionária. A hipótese assumida é que diante de um esforço tecnológico limitado na criação de vantagens competitiva dinâmicas no Brasil, com políticas de C,T&I pouco articuladas, emerge a maior necessidade de esforços estaduais no que tange a capacitação tecnológica das empresas do RS, mas que, no entanto, a indústria do Estado não tem apresentado esforços inovativos suficientes para compensar esse fraco dinamismo nacional, além de uma incipiente política estadual de inovação. Nesse sentido, a pesquisa assume, como de suma relevância, uma visão amparada nos sistemas de inovação e uma política estadual de C,T&I ativa, fortalecendo o processo inovativo. Usando como pano de fundo a economia brasileira e seu desempenho recente diante do paradigma das tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TICs) - com a maior importância dos processos de aprendizado, de produção de conhecimento, cooperação e de inovação -, o Rio Grande do Sul, por sua vez, apesar de ser um Estado que se destaca no cenário nacional, não vem logrando um desempenho satisfatório na produção de produtos de alta tecnologia, ligados ao atual paradigma tecnoeconômico. Os dados da PINTEC para o Rio Grande do Sul demonstram os insuficientes esforços inovativos, com pouca importância e reduzidos dispêndios em atividades internas de P&D, utilizando-se de poucos mecanismos de aprendizado e com insuficientes relações de cooperação. Além disso, corrobora substancialmente com a tese, os reduzidos gastos do governo estadual em C&T, pois enquanto outros Estados da Região Sul tem apresentado um aumento nos gastos em C&T, ao longo dos anos 2000, o RS está indo na direção contrária, abdicando de esforços que poderiam contribuir significativamente para o aumento da participação da indústria gaúcha em setores de alta tecnologia, denotando uma inserção deficiente no atual paradigma tecnoeconômico das TICs. Conclui-se que esse conjunto de fatores indica a manutenção de uma estrutura de produção vigente, não amparada numa visão sistêmica do processo inovativo e na construção de um sistema estadual de inovação, com uma política de C,T&I insuficiente no RS, diante dos requisitos impostos pelo atual paradigma das TICs. / This thesis aims to situate the economy of Rio Grande do Sul state in the current techno-economical paradigm, a neo-Schumpeterian/evolutionary approach. The assumption made is in front of limited technological efforts in the creation of dynamics competitive advantages in Brazil, with C, I & T policies not articulated, the states must have greater efforts regarding the technological abilities of their companies, but the companies of Rio Grande do Sul have not given sufficient innovative efforts to compensate this weak national dynamics as well as its incipient state innovation policy. In this sense, this research assumes great relevance in a vision anchored in an innovation system and T&I state policies active, able to strengthen the innovative process. Using the Brazilian economy and its recent performance on the paradigm of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a backdrop – with greater importance to the learning process of knowledge production, cooperation and innovation – the Rio Grande do Sul state, despite of being a state that standouts on the national scene, is not achieving a satisfactory performance in the production of high technology products linked to the current techno-economical paradigm. The PINTEC data for Rio Grande do Sul demonstrate inadequate innovative efforts, with little importance and reduced spending on internal R & D, using a few learning mechanisms and insufficient cooperation relations. Moreover, these data corroborates substantially with the thesis, the reduced spending of state government in S & T, because while other states in the Southern Region has shown an increase in spending on S & T over the year 2000, the RS is going in the opposite direction, abdicating efforts that could contribute significantly to the increased participation of industry of the state in high-tech sectors, indicating a poor inclusion in the current economical paradigm of ICT. It concludes that this combination of factors indicates the maintenance of a structure of current production, not supported in a systemic view of the innovative process and in building a statewide system of innovation with a policy, I & T Insufficient RS, before the requirements imposed by the current paradigm of ICT.

Esse trabalho define K-Aspects (Knowledge Aspects), uma abordagem para a implementação de Sistemas de Conhecimento (SC) em linguagens orientadas a objetos usando o paradigma orientado a aspectos (OA) e anotações de metadados. Essa abordagem define uma forte correspondência entre o Modelo de Conhecimento (MC) e sua implementação no paradigma da orientação a objetos (OO). K-Aspects fornece um conjunto de anotações documentacionais para facilitar a leitura da associação entre o modelo de implementação e o modelo conceitual do conhecimento; um conjunto de anotações para facilitar a separação de interesses na implementação do SC usando OA; um conjunto de bibliotecas para realizar a interpretação das anotações e sua execução em aspectos; e uma ferramenta para geração de documentação do MC a partir das anotações no código. A abordagem busca atender tanto os engenheiros de conhecimento quanto os engenheiros de desenvolvimento em projetos de SC. Os engenheiros de conhecimento tem ao seu alcance um modo adequado para elaborar a especificação do MC que resulta em uma especificação em uma linguagem orientada a objetos, permitindo aos engenheiros de desenvolvimento implementarem o sistema preservando a estrutura do modelo conceitual e mantendo clara distinção entre os requisitos associados ao MC dos demais requisitos. K-Annotations adicionam recursos de OA ao modelo conceitual do conhecimento OO, oferecendo facilidades de tratamento separado de diversas funcionalidades transversais de um SC, através do particionamento do sistema em aspectos que implementam funcionalidades específicas, ativadas através das anotações inseridas no componente do modelo conceitual. Anotações distinguem, clara e visualmente, no código, os elementos do MC em relação ao restante do código do programa, facilitando a leitura do código pelos engenheiros de conhecimento. A função principal das anotações é prover as informações necessárias para a interpretação dos elementos de conhecimento durante a execução do programa. Anotações identificam as funcionalidades transversais relativas aos construtos do modelo e são gerenciadas pela biblioteca de aspectos. A abordagem foi validada re-escrevendo com o uso de K-Annotations um sistema de conhecimento no domínio da análise da qualidade de reservatórios de petróleo. O modelo desse sistema representa uma ontologia de domínio sobre o qual métodos de solução de problemas para interpretação e classificação de rochas são aplicados. A análise dos resultados identificou um conjunto de vantagens no uso de K-Aspects, como distinção clara entre a implementação do MC e a implementação dos demais requisitos, suporte nativo aos construtos providos no modelo de conhecimento e alto grau de rastreabilidade entre o modelo e sua implementação. Além disso, provê redução de tarefas repetitivas de implementação e redução da dispersão de código a partir da geração automática de código. As bibliotecas de aspectos garantem o encapsulamento de inferências e tarefas. As bibliotecas tratam os construtos do modelo para garantir a reutilização em diferentes projetos de SCs. / This work defines K-Aspects (Knowledge Aspects), an approach for implementing Knowledge Systems (KS) with object-oriented languages using the aspect-oriented paradigm (AO) and metadata annotations. This approach defines a strong link between the knowledge model (KM) and its implementation in the object-oriented paradigm (OO). K-Aspects provides a set of documentational annotations to make the association between the implementation model and the knowledge conceptual model easier to read; a set of annotations to enable the separation of concerns, using aspect orientation, of the implementation of the different requirements of the knowledge system; a set of libraries to perform the interpretation and execution as aspects of annotations; and a tool for documentation generation of the KM extracted from the annotations on the code. The approach aims to support both knowledge engineers and development engineers in KS projects, by providing to the knowledge engineers a well-defined way to elaborate the KS specification, which results in a specification presented in an object oriented language, making it easily understandable and extensible by development engineers that can thus implement the knowledge system preserving its conceptual knowledge structure and keeping a clear distinction of the requirements associated to the KM from the other requirements. K-Annotations add aspect oriented resources to the OO conceptual knowledge model, providing features to manage separately the multiple crosscutting concerns of a KS, partitioning the system in aspects that implement specific features, activated by annotations inserted in the knowledge conceptual model. Annotations distinguish, clearly and visually, within the code, KM elements from the rest of the code, making easier the code reading by the knowledge engineers. The most important function of the annotations is to provide information necessary for interpreting knowledge elements during runtime. Annotations identify several crosscutting concerns related to the model constructs. Annotations are managed and executed by the aspect libraries. This approach was validated by re-coding, using K-Annotations, a complex commercial KS on the domain of oil reservoir quality analysis. The model of this system represents a domain ontology on which problem-resolving methods for rock interpretation and classification are performed. The analysis of the results identified several advantages of using K-Aspects as: a clear distinction of the KM implementation among other requirements; native support for knowledge model constructs; and high traceability between the knowledge conceptual model and its implementation. Moreover, the use of K-Aspects reduces repetitive implementation tasks and code dispersion because of the automatic code generation. The provided aspect libraries enable the encapsulation of inferences and the execution of several tasks. The libraries manage the constructs of the model thus providing reusability among multiple KS projects.