There are growing concerns about quality of education in schools in many countries, and education systems implement mechanisms like school inspection, an external education quality assurance measure, to evaluate their education. Realising that effective improvement of education quality may be achieved from within rather than from outside, many education systems are adopting School Self-Evaluation (SSE), an internal evaluation process, to evaluate quality of education. This study attempted to identify the characteristics of effective SSE frameworks in order to develop one for Zimbabwean primary schools. The study utilised exemplary frameworks as facilitators for introducing SSE practices in Zimbabwe and was guided by the following question: What are the characteristics of an effective SSE framework for improving classroom quality in Zimbabwean primary schools? The study espoused design research approach which aims to provide solutions to various education problems. The study comprised three phases, the preliminary phase which included a literature review and a needs analysis with the former aimed to gain insight into the efficacy of SSE in evaluating quality of education. The needs analysis sought to establish how education is evaluated in Zimbabwean primary schools. The second, the prototyping phase, involved developing and formatively evaluating various prototypes. The last phase, a semi-summative evaluation, involved field-testing and appraisal of the intervention. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data. Six design principles were generated with the main ones being to engage stakeholders in developing SSE frameworks, to agree on the need for SSE initiative and to define the quality indicators in context. The main characteristics of the SSE framework were that it should have a clear purpose, be context specific, and should focus on what is essential for education. The main conclusion of the study is that there are no clear policy guidelines for Zimbabwean primary schools, coupled with lack of SSE instruments, to engage in self-evaluation of quality of education and therefore, no meaningful SSE takes place. An SSE framework with procedural guidelines developed in this research appears to be relevant, feasible and is expected to be effective for use in Zimbabwean primary schools. Some recommendations were made in order to improve Zimbabwe‟s quality of education. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA) / University of Pretoria / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / PhD / Unrestricted

First-principle modelling of chemical processes and their unit operations has been of great interest in the chemical process, as well as the control and allied industries over the past decades. This is because it offers the opportunity to develop virtual representations (models) of real process systems, which can be used to describe and predict the dynamic behaviour of those systems. These models are based on the fundamentals of the transport phenomena of fluid dynamics (involving momentum transfer), mass transfer, and energy transfer of the systems they describe. A first-principle model of a semi-batch rhodium dissolution chemical process has been developed. It describes the dynamic behaviour of two exothermic reactions, occurring simultaneously in a semi-batch process. The dissolution of 29 kg of solid crude rhodium sponge (Rh) into 546 L of a solution of hydrochloric acid (HCl(aq)), to produce a solution of aqueous rhodium(III) chloride (RhCl3.H2O), as well as the reaction of chlorine (Cl2(aq)) with water (H2O(l)) to produce some more HCl(aq) in the reactor. The model was formulated as a system of explicit ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which demonstrated some good and stable qualitative tracking of the temperature and pressure data of the real reactor. The molar responses of all chemical species, as well as the heats of reactions, showed to be consistent with the description of the process, and no negative values of those variables were generated. Estimates of the key parameters of heat and mass transfer coefficients, arrhenius constants, and activation energies of reactions were assumed and tuned to satisfaction by trial-and-error, but not optimised. This is because during simulations, the numerical solver would often fail to integrate the equations, due to the appearance of large derivatives in some model equations whenever those parameters varied, thereby stopping simulations. Finally, the model was validated with a set of data from 45 batches. For all simulations done, the simulated temperature responses showed better prediction of data than the simulated pressure responses did, with an average percentage accuracy of 80% against 60 percent, respectively. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Anglo American Platinum / BluESP (Pty) Ltd / Chemical Engineering / MSc / Unrestricted

Adversarial principle in the civil procedure of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic throughout the 20th century: an analysis Abstract The aim of thesis is to analyse the adversarial principle in the civil procedure of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic. The hypothesis states that there were three different time periods, each with its unique look at adversarial principle, which the later interpretation of courts and authors maintained. First, I challenge this hypothesis with respect to authors and courts continuing in the footsteps of creators. After that I search for any common ground between all of the concepts. Both topics are examined with respect to how the facts of the case were collected and to whether the court was obliged to follow cause of action pursued by the parties. Based on the analysis of literature and case-law from 1918 to present the conclusions are following: With respect to how the facts of the case were collected, majority of literature and case- law published in the first part of communist regime replaced the adversarial principle by the inquisitorial principle, giving precedence to the activity of court instead of rejecting the claimant's action on the basis of lack of facts presented. The situation changed in literature in the second part of the communist regime,...

The principle of party disposition and its restriction in civil proceedings Abstract in English The submitted diploma thesis deals with the principle of party disposition in civil proceedings which is a guiding principle of civil proceedings, however, it is heavily restricted in the Code of Civil Procedure. The main aim of this thesis is to emphasise the importance of the principle of party disposition in civil proceedings, identify the number of institutes which are restricted, deal with reasons of this restriction of the principle of party disposition, and propose possible changes, which would preserve the principle of party disposition completely. The first part of the thesis presents a theoretical definition of the principle of party disposition. It is also necessary to discuss other legal principles which are connected to the principle of party disposition because it never appears alone, as it is always accompanied by another general principle. This part of the thesis also focuses on the history of the principle of party disposition in civil proceedings. The crucial period for discussed principle was the first half of the 20th century because the disposition principle was not restricted at all. On the other hand, the second half of the 20th century represents a period of strict restrictions of the...

Coordinated decisions in public administration Abstract This dissertation thesis "Coordinated decisions in public administration" deals with a specific category of coordinated administrative acts as a result of the manifestation of will of more deciding authorities in public administration. A concept of coordinated decisions with subsumed binding opinions is one of the possible solutions to the issue of complex decision- making processes in the Czech legal order and extending over the competence of several administrative authorities. The aim of the dissertation is to answer the question whether the legislative solution of coordination of individual decision-making activities in the form of binding opinions, at the general procedural level in Czech administrative law adopted in the act no. 500/2004 Coll., general administrative code with effect from 1st January 2006, a sustainable and eligible concept that stands as a basis for coordinating administrative decisions now and in the future. The thesis first introduces the concept of subsumption in a broader context and from a historical perspective (1st part), the basis of the thesis is the analysis of definitive features of binding opinions in recent legislation (2nd part), all the features are subjected to detailed analysis, the principles and mechanisms of...

This thesis; apart from an introduction of the concept of legal principles, their importance and settlement of their conflicts; deals with an analysis of legal provisions relating to the legal principles and policies in the first, general section, Chapter I of the Civil Code, as these are the primary provisions with relevance to the entire private law. It further evaluates state of the current legislation and its positive and negative aspects. It focuses in detail on the principle of fairness, as it is a principle aiming for an important improvement of legal relations. It also deals with the key interrelated principles of the civil law - the principle of the freedom of choice, and the principle of equality and protection of the weaker party; their importance is also followed in chapters devoted to the selected special legal regulations of the private law (family law, labour law, and commercial law). Chapter 4 of this thesis deals with analysis of importance and role of good morals in the civil law. An independent section focuses on the term of public order in the civil law providing explanation of their common function. It also provides detailed analysis of legal construction of definition of nature of legal rules, seen not just as a theoretical legal problem, but also a practical one, as it is the...

For many years tax jurisdictions have encountered challenges with the concept of the taxation of trusts. The trust concept itself conjures up thoughts of complexity. The development of the trust as a structure and the subsequent colonial influence on the development of trusts in Africa, resulted in different applications of the common law trust principle in tax legislation. This study explores the complexity of the trust tax legislation by way of a comparison of the legislation in selected Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. The study applies a qualitative approach to compare the trust tax legislation of the selected SADC tax jurisdictions in an effort to assess the complexity involved in the taxation of trusts. The research methodology employed is doctrinal (black letter law) and includes an analysis of the legislation of the selected jurisdictions. The study reveals substantial similarities in the terminology used in the taxation of trusts in the selected jurisdictions. In comparing the legislation of the jurisdictions that make provision for the flow through principle with those of the jurisdictions that do not make provision for the flow through principle, a larger element of complexity in the legislation becomes apparent with wider legislative design differences. Additionally, jurisdictions that make provision for the flow through principle also introduce anti-avoidance legislation to curb the misuse of income attributed to the beneficiaries of trusts. This anti-avoidance legislation creates additional complexity in the legislation. / Dissertation (MCom (Taxation))--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Taxation / MCom Taxation / Unrestricted

In Jane Austen’s renowned Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, the reader encounters love and marriage in the British middle-class during the nineteenth century. While the main focus of the novel is the love story between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, the reader also encounters the youngest Bennet sister, Lydia. Lydia is depicted as loud, vain, rude and ignorant and even though this is a correct description of Lydia’s behavior, there are underlying reasons for that foolish and naïve behavior. Thus, the aim of this essay is to examine and explain the underlying reasons as to why Lydia behaves as recklessly and selfishly as she does. By close reading of the novel and by using psychoanalysis and relevant Freudian concepts, mainly the id, the ego and the super-ego, the analysis concludes that there is an evident connection between Lydia’s unruly behavior and her dysfunctional relationship to her parents. Due to the lack of parental guidance, Lydia has been left uncontrolled and heavily ruled by her id. Moreover, this essay will demonstrate that there is a shift in Lydia’s behavior as the novel progresses. As a result of certain events in the novel, Lydia’s behavior shifts even further towards her being driven by the pleasure principle and her id.

The control of type-I error is a focal point for clinical trials. On the other hand, it is also critical to be able to detect a truly efficacious treatment in a clinical trial. With recent success in supervised learning (classification and regression problems), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can play a vital role in identifying efficacious new treatments. However, the high performance of the AI methods, particularly the deep learning neural networks, requires a much larger dataset than those we commonly see in clinical trials. It is desirable to develop a new ML method that performs well with a small sample size (ranges from 20 to 200) and has advantages as compared with the classic statistical models and some of the most relevant ML methods. In this dissertation, we propose a Similarity-Principle-Based Machine Learning (SBML) method based on the similarity principle assuming that identical or similar subjects should behave in a similar manner. SBML method introduces the attribute-scaling factors at the training stage so that the relative importance of different attributes can be objectively determined in the similarity measures. In addition, the gradient method is used in learning / training in order to update the attribute-scaling factors. The method is novel as far as we know. We first evaluate SBML for continuous outcomes, especially when the sample size is small, and investigate the effects of various tuning parameters on the performance of SBML. Simulations show that SBML achieves better predictions in terms of mean squared errors or misclassification error rates for various situations under consideration than conventional statistical methods, such as full linear models, optimal or ridge regressions and mixed effect models, as well as ML methods including kernel and decision tree methods. We also extend and show how SBML can be flexibly applied to binary outcomes. Through numerical and simulation studies, we confirm that SBML performs well compared to classical statistical methods, even when the sample size is small and in the presence of unmeasured predictors and/or noise variables. Although SBML performs well with small sample sizes, it may not be computationally efficient for large sample sizes. Therefore, we propose Recursive SBML (RSBML), which can save computing time, with some tradeoffs for accuracy. In this sense, RSBML can also be viewed as a combination of unsupervised learning (dimension reduction) and supervised learning (prediction). Recursive learning resembles the natural human way of learning. It is an efficient way of learning from complicated large data. Based on the simulation results, RSBML performs much faster than SBML with reasonable accuracy for large sample sizes.

Magister Legum - LLM / The number of environmental offences taking place continues to increase each year. Despite the special position of responsibility occupied by directors as the ‘directing mind and will’ of the companies responsible for the commission of these offences, directors appear to continue to be shielded unconditionally behind the separate legal personality of the company. This thesis consists of a thorough examination of existing environmental laws, as well as the Companies Act 71 of 2008 and the King IV Report on Corporate Governance, to determine whether the provisions contained therein may be interpreted so as to depart from the principle of separate legal personality (as provided for by corporate law) in order to hold directors personally liable for environmental transgressions.