A skill instruction technique based on cognitive behavioral principles was applied to thermal imagery to determine if it could enhance either subjective or physiological responsiveness. The effects of imagery instruction were compared with the effects of muscle relaxation on imagery vividness, thermal imagery involvement, and the finger temperature response. The subjects were 39 male and 29 female volunteers from a minimum security federal prison. The personality characteristic of absorption was used as a classification variable to control for individual differences. It was hypothesized that high absorption individuals would reveal higher levels of imagery vividness, involvement, and finger temperature change; that imagery skill instruction and muscle relaxation would be more effective than a control condition; and that the low absorption group would derive the greatest benefit from the imagery task instruction condition. None of the hypotheses was supported. Finger temperature increased over time during the experimental procedure but remained stable during thermal imagery. The results suggest that nonspecific relaxation effects may best account for finger temperature increases during thermal imagery. Results were discussed in relation to cognitive-behavioral theory and the characteristic of absorption.

This study was conducted to look into state-owned ICT institutions. The emphasis was on devising a strategic management framework that would be robust and agile, thereby enabling government companies within the ICT sector to rapidly respond to changes in the market and to also enable them to forecast and plan for the future in respect of technology. The main objective of the study was to derive an ICT strategic management framework for the rapid technological evolution of state-owned companies. Further, the study aimed to provide a critical exposition of the factors that affect company ICT strategies; assess the impact of technological changes on company ICT strategies; and propose guidelines on keeping companies‘ ICT strategies responsive to rapid technological changes. Through the literature review as well as an empirical study, common variables and factors that affect a company‘s ICT strategy and its response to technology changes were explored and guidelines were compiled into a framework that will assist SOEs (state-owned enterprises). Through a literature study of available material on the world‘s telecommunication trends and developments in developed nations, some key observations were recorded such as the concept of convergence, which in the main is driven by consumers‘ need for mobility and flexibility, as well as applications with high capacity demands on the one hand and the need for companies and telecommunications operators to be more efficient on the other. Convergence delivers this benefit of efficiency within the market and stimulates competition. Innovation and creativity continue to be the driving force behind the technological evolutions in the ICT sector. The study also considered how both the PEST model and Porter‘s five forces affect these companies. Issues such as the legislative and policy framework of the ICT industry in South Africa were looked at, with emphasis on how they affect ICT parastatals. The study ended with key recommendations and guidelines summed up into a comprehensive framework. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This study was conducted to look into state-owned ICT institutions. The emphasis was on devising a strategic management framework that would be robust and agile, thereby enabling government companies within the ICT sector to rapidly respond to changes in the market and to also enable them to forecast and plan for the future in respect of technology. The main objective of the study was to derive an ICT strategic management framework for the rapid technological evolution of state-owned companies. Further, the study aimed to provide a critical exposition of the factors that affect company ICT strategies; assess the impact of technological changes on company ICT strategies; and propose guidelines on keeping companies‘ ICT strategies responsive to rapid technological changes. Through the literature review as well as an empirical study, common variables and factors that affect a company‘s ICT strategy and its response to technology changes were explored and guidelines were compiled into a framework that will assist SOEs (state-owned enterprises). Through a literature study of available material on the world‘s telecommunication trends and developments in developed nations, some key observations were recorded such as the concept of convergence, which in the main is driven by consumers‘ need for mobility and flexibility, as well as applications with high capacity demands on the one hand and the need for companies and telecommunications operators to be more efficient on the other. Convergence delivers this benefit of efficiency within the market and stimulates competition. Innovation and creativity continue to be the driving force behind the technological evolutions in the ICT sector. The study also considered how both the PEST model and Porter‘s five forces affect these companies. Issues such as the legislative and policy framework of the ICT industry in South Africa were looked at, with emphasis on how they affect ICT parastatals. The study ended with key recommendations and guidelines summed up into a comprehensive framework. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

A baby’s early experiences have a crucial effect on their later development and adjustment. Early maternal sensitivity is a concept which has been associated with a crucial influence on these later child outcomes, including behavioural outcomes. Results from large longitudinal population based studies have provided conflicting evidence in relation to early maternal sensitivity, particularly sensitivity to non-distress, and later child behaviour and a need for further research in this area exists. The current study investigated early maternal sensitivity and its association with later child behaviour in a UK based population sample using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The study used a subsample of 766 mother-infant pairs who had data on observed maternal responsiveness at 12 months and on child behavioural difficulties derived from the Revised Rutter Parent Scale for Preschool Children at 42 months. Data for a number of potentially confounding variables, including maternal and child-based variables were also included in the analysis. Hypotheses were tested regarding an association between lower maternal responsiveness and higher child behavioural difficulties as well as regarding associations with further behavioural subscales of the Rutter scale, including a prosocial behaviour subscale. Results were analysed using a linear regression model with adjustments for groups of confounding variables. There was no evidence to support a relationship between lower maternal responsiveness and higher behavioural difficulties at 42 months although there was suggestion of a trend in the expected direction. Similar results were found for the subscales of the Rutter scale. The conclusion is that maternal sensitivity measured in this way does not have a strong relationship with child behaviour. One interpretation of these results is that there is a need to distinguish between maternal sensitivity to non-distress and to distress and ensure that the appropriate aspect of maternal sensitivity in relation to child behavioural outcomes is assessed. Limitations of the study are discussed and the effects of potential improvements are considered.

Microsleeps and other lapses of responsiveness can have severe, or even fatal, consequences for people who must maintain high levels of attention on monotonous tasks for long periods of time, e.g., commercial vehicle drivers, pilots, and air-traffic controllers. This thesis describes a head-mounted system which is the first prototype in the process of creating a system that can detect (and possibly predict) these lapses in real time. The system consists of a wearable device which captures multiple physiological signals from the wearer and an extensible software framework for imple- menting signal processing algorithms. Proof-of-concept algorithms are implemented and used to demonstrate that the system can detect simulated microsleeps in real time. The device has three sensing modalities in order to get a better estimate of the user＇s cognitive state than by any one alone. Firstly, it has 16 channels of EEG (8 currently in use) captured by 24-bit ADCs sampling at 250 Hz. The EEG is acquired by custom-built dry electrodes consisting of spring-loaded, gold-plated pins. Secondly, the device has a miniature video camera mounted below one eye, providing 320 x 240 px greyscale video of the eye at 60 fps. The camera module includes infrared illumination so that it can operate in the dark. Thirdly, the device has a six-axis IMU to measure the orientation and movement of the head. These sensors are connected to a Gumstix computer-on-module which transmits the captured data to a remote computer via Wi-Fi. The device has a battery life of about 7.4 h. In addition to this hardware, software to receive and analyse data from the head-mounted device was developed. The software is built around a signal processing pipeline that has been designed to encapsulate a wide variety of signal processing algorithms; feature extractors calculate salient properties of the input data and a classifier fuses these features to determine the user＇s cognitive state. A plug-in system is provided which allows users to write their own signal processing algorithms and to experiment with different combinations of feature extractors and classifiers. Because of this flexible modular design, the system could also be used for applications other than lapse detection‒any application which monitors EEG, eye video, and head movement can be implemented by writing appropriate signal processing plug-ins, e.g., augmented cognition or passive BCIs. The software also provides the ability to configure the device＇s hardware, to save data to disk, and to monitor the system in real time. Plug-ins can be implemented in C++ or Python. A series of validation tests were carried out to confirm that the system operates as intended. Most of the measured parameters were within the expected ranges: EEG amplifier noise = 0.14 μVRMS input-referred, EEG pass band = DC to 47 Hz, camera focus = 2.4 lp/mm at 40 mm, and total latency < 100 ms. Some parameters were worse than expected but still sufficient for effective operation: EEG amplifier CMRR ≥ 82 dB, EEG cross-talk = -17.4 dB, and IMU sampling rate = 10 Hz. The contact impedance of the dry electrodes, measured to be several hundred kilohms, was too high to obtain clean EEG. Three small-scale experiments were done to test the performance of the device in operation on people. The first two demonstrated that the pupil localization algorithm produces PERCLOS values close to those from a manually-rated gold standard and is robust to changes in ambient light levels, iris colour, and the presence of glasses. The final experiment demonstrated that the system is capable of capturing all three physiological signals, transmitting them to the remote computer in real time, extracting features from each signal, and classifying simulated microsleeps from the extracted features. However, this test was successful only when using conventional wet EEG electrodes instead of the dry electrodes built into the device; it will be necessary to find replacement dry electrodes for the device to be useful. The device and associated software form a platform which other researchers can use to develop algorithms for lapse detection. This platform provides data capture hardware and abstracts away the low-level software details so that other researchers are free to focus solely on developing signal processing techniques. In this way, we hope to enable progress towards a practical real-time, real-world lapse detection system.

Abstract: Identification of, and responsiveness to, the communicative attempts of children with developmental delays’ is essential to developing intentional, symbolic communication. The current study was a replication of Keen, Sigafoos, and Woodyatt’s 2005 study titled Teacher Responses to the Communicative Attempts of Children With Autism, with modifications to the participants used in the study. The Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA; Sigafoos et al, 2000) was used with three teachers of three children with deafblindness to determine if teachers were able to identify potential communicative acts (PCAs) of their students using the IPCA during an interview session. Additionally, analysis of teacher responsiveness to student PCAs took place during a 30-minute classroom observation session. All three teachers identified a wide range of student PCAs during the IPCA interview and showed high levels of responsiveness to those PCAs during the naturalistic, classroom observation. Low interobserver agreement, clinical implications, and directions for future research are discussed. / text

This study examined associations between two domain-specific manifestations of perceived psychologically controlling parenting (i.e., dependency oriented and achievement-oriented), dimensions of personality vulnerability to depression (i.e., dependency and self-criticism), and depressive symptoms in Peruvian late adolescents (N = 292, 60 % female). Structural equation modeling showed that perceived dependency-oriented psychological control was related specifically to dependency and that perceived achievement-oriented psychological control was related specifically to self-criticism. Both dimensions of personality vulnerability played an intervening role in associations between the domains of psychologically controlling parenting and depressive symptoms. In addition, dependency-oriented psychological control interacted with perceived parental responsiveness in the prediction of depressive symptoms, such that responsiveness exacerbated effects of psychological control on depressive symptoms. Results were similar across maternal and paternal ratings of parenting. Findings are interpreted in light of the debate about the cross cultural generalization of the effects of psychologically controlling parenting.

This study considers the relationship between scores on the "Experimental Draw-A-Group Projective Technique for Measuring Interpersonal Responsivenesss" (DAG), and self-concept as indicated by scores on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS). The study assumes a significantly positive relationship between interpersonal responsiveness and self-concept. The study further seeks to establish sound empirical data to justify the use of the DAG scale in the research of self-concept.

Politicization has an ambivalent reputation among public administration scholars. While considered an effective instrument to safeguard political control over ministerial bureaucracy, partisanship of senior civil servants is likewise associated with patronage and deemed detrimental to professionalism and meritocracy. To scrutinize this contradiction, the article examines how a party¿political background of senior civil servants influences their decision-making behavior. Two theoretically derived conceptions of loyalty are put therefore to the test: responsiveness and responsibility. Effects are captured by using vignette technique in 40 in-depth interviews with former senior civil servants from ministerial departments at federal and state level in Germany. The results are surprising insofar as they reveal that politicized senior civil servants neither act more responsive nor less responsible than their non-politicized peers. These findings challenge common assumptions and call for a more refined analysis of the conditions under which politicization leads to negative effects.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) continues to gain attention amongst corporate bodies and is the medium through which the private sector contributes to development. The last decade has seen a significant growth in CSR initiative in South Africa, partly due to the implementation of public polices such as the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Code of Good Practice and the various industry charters that obligate corporate institutions to contribute towards the reconstruction efforts of the nation. As a result many organizations have adopted strategies that include social development projects as part of their core business objectives, thus the initiation of certain projects and programmes as part of their CSR contributions to the reconstruction efforts. Although CSR has roots in philanthropic activities, it has become evident that when CSR initiatives are designed strategically to embody the holistic views of business goals towards profit making as well as community goals that promote positive development. Anecdotal evidence suggests that projects collapse after corporations discontinue funding due to lack of community involvement which renders CSR initiatives unresponsive to the developmental needs of communities. The study sought to explore the extent to which corporate social responsibility initiatives were responsive to the educational needs of beneficiaries in Johannesburg. It also explored beneficiary perceptions on how CSR initiatives can be sustained. The study population was drawn from Tiso Foundation and three partnering organisations. A qualitative case study design was utilised in the study to obtain in depth information from the research participants concerning the CSR initiatives of Tiso Foundation. Semi-structured interview schedules were used to conduct interviews with both beneficiaries of the CSR initiatives and key informants. The research sample consisted of 16 beneficiaries of Tiso Foundation’s CSR initiatives and 6 key informants that were drawn from Tiso Foundation and partnering organizations. The findings revealed that the CSR initiatives were responsive to the needs of the beneficiaries by providing them access to education and skills development. The findings also established the nature of beneficiary participation in CSR initiatives as partially participatory. The study recommended that CSR initiatives should take a developmental approach towards programme executions to ensure full participation of beneficiaries in order to ensure sustainability of the programmes even after funding is discontinued. The study also iv suggests the collaborative partnership of government and the private sector towards sustainable development by enhancing and complimenting each other’s efforts.