Published Article / The current master's degree qualification in Diagnostic Radiography at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) is research based and does seemingly not address the need for training in the specialisation fields of Diagnostic Radiography sufficiently. To address this problem, a needs assessment was conducted amongst qualified diagnostic radiographers in Bloemfontein and Kimberley by means of quantitative questionnaires, qualitative interviews and a focus group discussion. The main aim of the needs assessment was to determine the need for a postgraduate qualification for radiographers in the specialised fields. The possible structure of such a program and the preferred mode of delivery were also investigated. The results of the study emphasised the need for a structured postgraduate learning programme in the specialisation fields in Diagnostic Radiography in the region. Responding to this validated need for a structured postgraduate qualification at the CUT, the current master's degree was revised to accommodate the results of the study and it was proposed to the Professional Board for Radiography and Clinical Technology for approval.

The present thesis is an empirical analysis of lobbying in the United States. First, it analyses an added value of lobbyists' specialisation and connections to congressmen using a method of matching. Second, it extends the analysis by studying the impact of competition for access to congressmen on the added value of lobbyists. Third, it analyses lobbying from the point of view of congressmen by studying the impact of their specialisation on committee assignments on the amount of campaign financing they obtain from lobbyists. The analysis is done using data about lobbying reports as well as committee assignments of congressmen and campaign contributions they obtain from lobbyists in the 106th to 110th congress, corresponding to years 1999-2008. The present thesis also provides a brief summary of related literature analysing different aspects of lobbying.

This present research explores the impact of Flannery’s (1969) Broad Spectrum Revolution model within the context of the Levantine Epipalaeolithic, specifically the early (Kebaran) Epipalaeolithic. This model attempts to explain changes in subsistence behaviour associated with the end of the Pleistocene leading up to the development of agriculture. The Jordan valley represents an ideal model for Flannery’s marginal habitat because of the range of different flora and fauna required more intensive resource exploitation strategies. The discussion here focuses on the zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of two faunal assemblages (representing two sub-horizons) from Urkan e-Rubb IIa, a Kebaran site located in the lower Jordan Valley, and excavated by E. Hovers (Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University Jerusalem), in 1986 and 1988. This site shows evidence of specialised gazelle hunting and processing. Initial interpretations of the site argued for a multi-purpose residential base camp, supported by lithic tool and shell bead manufacturing. Recent discussions of Epipalaeolithic diet breadth have concentrated on the end of the Pleistocene (Munro 2001, 2003, 2004, 2009; Stiner 2001; Stiner & Munro 2002; Stiner et al. 1999, 2000; Stutz et al. 2009) and have been directed towards explaining changing subsistence patterns towards the end of the Epipalaeolithic (i.e. the Natufian), where an increased use of wild cereals and small game has been well documented. The view that it is not until the Natufian that broad spectrum resource strategies were used is questioned here. Major questions that are addressed with this research include: What do the faunal assemblages from Urkan e-Rubb IIa tell us about Kebaran subisistence behaviour? Do broad spectrum models help to shed light on subsistence adaptations at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum? What can recent analyses of Jordan Valley faunal assemblages contribute to the discussion? These are addressed through a detailed zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the Urkan e-Rubb IIa fauana, followed by synchronic and diachronic analyses of Levantine Epipalaeolithic assemblages, through a combination of taxonomy-based diversity indices and prey-ranking indices.

This present research explores the impact of Flannery’s (1969) Broad Spectrum Revolution model within the context of the Levantine Epipalaeolithic, specifically the early (Kebaran) Epipalaeolithic. This model attempts to explain changes in subsistence behaviour associated with the end of the Pleistocene leading up to the development of agriculture. The Jordan valley represents an ideal model for Flannery’s marginal habitat because of the range of different flora and fauna required more intensive resource exploitation strategies. The discussion here focuses on the zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of two faunal assemblages (representing two sub-horizons) from Urkan e-Rubb IIa, a Kebaran site located in the lower Jordan Valley, and excavated by E. Hovers (Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University Jerusalem), in 1986 and 1988. This site shows evidence of specialised gazelle hunting and processing. Initial interpretations of the site argued for a multi-purpose residential base camp, supported by lithic tool and shell bead manufacturing. Recent discussions of Epipalaeolithic diet breadth have concentrated on the end of the Pleistocene (Munro 2001, 2003, 2004, 2009; Stiner 2001; Stiner & Munro 2002; Stiner et al. 1999, 2000; Stutz et al. 2009) and have been directed towards explaining changing subsistence patterns towards the end of the Epipalaeolithic (i.e. the Natufian), where an increased use of wild cereals and small game has been well documented. The view that it is not until the Natufian that broad spectrum resource strategies were used is questioned here. Major questions that are addressed with this research include: What do the faunal assemblages from Urkan e-Rubb IIa tell us about Kebaran subisistence behaviour? Do broad spectrum models help to shed light on subsistence adaptations at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum? What can recent analyses of Jordan Valley faunal assemblages contribute to the discussion? These are addressed through a detailed zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the Urkan e-Rubb IIa fauana, followed by synchronic and diachronic analyses of Levantine Epipalaeolithic assemblages, through a combination of taxonomy-based diversity indices and prey-ranking indices.

Formal long-term athlete development programmes emerged at the turn of the century and, despite some fierce criticisms, have evolved significantly since their inception. The first generation of athletes to grow up with these systems are now coming of age. The purpose of this thesis was to track a population of adolescent school-level swimmers between the ages of 12 and 18 years over an 8-year period so as to assess their performance progression as they matured under these athlete development programmes. The first study aimed to track the performances of the sub-elite athletes at an annual international school championship and to compare their progression with those of both junior elite and elite-level swimmers. In addition to narrowing the gender gap, the records of the sub-elite swimmers have continued to improve. In contrast, both of these factors remained relatively stable for junior elite and elite-level swimmers over the same period. Swimming affords athletes the possibility of within-sport specialisation. This almost unique aspect of swimming led to the two investigations of the second study. Firstly, the paired stroke combinations preferred by swimmers were determined using Cohen’s Kappa tests in a cross-sectional design. Secondly, the stability in the event selection of each swimmer during their adolescent years was explored longitudinally. Both males (33.9±5.8%) and females (36.9±6.5%) preferred to swim the 50 and 100 m freestyle events together over any other paired stroke combination. The majority of swimmers preferred to specialise in specific stroke techniques over distance specialisms with breaststroke being the only stroke in which swimmers of both sexes chose to specialise early. Most notable was that females specialised earlier than males. Studies three (males, n = 446) and four (females, n = 514) utilised mixed linear modelling to determine the quadratic functions of the performance progressions of adolescent swimmers (between the ages of 12 and 19 y) in seven individual competition events. Males progressed at more than twice the rate of females (3.5 and 1.7% per year, respectively) in all strokes over this age range. This was likely due to the fact that females reach puberty before males. Thresholds of peak performance occurred between the ages of 18.5±0.1 y (50 m freestyle and the 200 m individual medley) and 19.8±0.1 y (100 m butterfly) for males, but between the wider range of 16.8±0.2 y (200 m individual medley) and 20.6±0.1 y (100 m butterfly) for females. Using an independent sample of Dutch Junior national swimmers (n = 13), the fifth and final study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the models developed in studies three and four as both target setting and talent identification tools. This was achieved through a mixed-methods approach where quantitative and qualitative data confirmed the applicability of the models for adolescent swimmers of any skill level. This thesis demonstrates that sub-elite swimmers have probably benefitted from first generation athlete development models. Longitudinal modelling of their data provides a valuable platform from which all adolescent swimmers can be compared and used to inform the next generation of bespoke swimming-specific youth development programmes.

Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) has recently attracted the attention of many scholars, pundits and policy makers involved in regional studies, as a new industrial policy able to fill the gap between the weak capacity of Europe to innovate in comparison to its strong academic base and research institutions. S3 is described as a policy aimed to encourage structural changes, through the generation of new domains of opportunities, according to the strengths and potentialities of each region and therefore with a “place-based” outlook. Its primary element of novelty, in comparison to the previous policy approaches, is constituted by the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process (EDP), which represents the modality among institutions, firms, R&D centres, universities, through which the direction(s) of the structural change is organised. To study S3, this Ph.D. thesis focuses on two pillars considered central to understand its rationales: relatedness and entrepreneurship. On one hand, the idea of relatedness is useful to understand the economic structure of a territory and its evolution through its network of connections, outlining possible areas of future development. On the other hand, entrepreneurship, somehow a missing dimension of S3, can be considered as part of the process of opportunity scanning to “challenge” inefficiencies of the society through new models of production and consumption, proactiveness of institutions, business development strategies of firms or cultural mindset of people. The aim of the thesis is to explore this relatedness-entrepreneurship relationship within S3, using a multi-level framework of analysis able to integrate the different aspects of the two concepts, providing theoretical and empirical advancements. The thesis is structured as follows: a general introduction on S3, three papers, which analyse Italy, focusing on the case of Tuscany and some final conclusions that sum up the findings of the papers and provide some further policy insights. The content of the three papers is reported hereinafter. In the first paper the analysis is conducted in the Italian provinces defining entrepreneurship as the creation of a new business and relatedness as one of the principal mechanisms that could explain the origin of innovation in connection with a given territorial knowledge base. The distinctiveness of this first paper seeds in the study of this relationship across individual industries, computing separate measures of external and internal relatedness across 27 sectors (among manufacturing and KIBS). The results suggest a broader and positive impact of external relatedness on the concentration of new firms at the territorial level in comparison to the impact of internal relatedness. The implications suggest that Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship can be included in the cognitive framework of S3 (newborns as expression of knowledge exchanged at the local level) and that innovation policies aimed to promote path creation should consider existent strengths of the territories. The second paper studies the EDP, integrating the concept of relatedness, useful in the initial phases of design and scoping, with the one of institutional entrepreneurship as an expression of the impact of agency in the micro-dynamics that rule the final outcome of innovation policies. This framework is applied to the case of Tuscany, using a mixed methodology. As a first picture of proximity connections between sectors of Tuscany, an original computation of the “Industry Space” of Tuscany is realised (using the methodology of Hidalgo et al., 2007). Then the Technological Districts’ managers and/or coordinators are interviewed, as a sort of fact checking with the Industry Space results, to understand how they define their planning strategies and through which mechanisms they integrate knowledge and combine firms and R&D specialities. Results confirm the necessity to integrate the two concepts to obtain a more realistic “policy orientation map”, and the broader horizon released by relatedness if deeply analysed with case studies at a micro-level and if directly discussed with some central agents embedded in the regional network of proximities. The third paper studies the entrepreneurial styles (as real business men) and their ways of integrating and combining knowledge, adopting a micro interpretation on the concept of relatedness. The paper aims to identify what role can play these entrepreneurial figures as fundamental “micro pieces” in the scanning process of future opportunities of regional transformation promoted by S3. The methodology adopts a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews administered to a selected set of 24 entrepreneurs in Tuscany. The sample of the entrepreneurs, selected with a purposeful criterion, has been built thanks to the help of key informants. The gathered data are codified with the help of Gioia methodology, in order to derive some characteristics of the entrepreneur and the firms to describe some “emerging properties”. Then, a ladder of entrepreneurial typologies, able to group the specific characteristics derived from the interviews, is proposed. Results suggest a “distributed technology transfer model” as a complementary bottom up strategy to converge towards a new cyber-manufacturing regime of production.

The focus of this thesis is on specialising the configuration of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to allow dynamic reconfiguration of real-time applications. The dynamic reconfiguration of an application has numerous advantages, but due to the overhead introduced by this process, it is only advantageous if the execution time exceeds reconfiguration time. This implies that dynamic reconfiguration is more suited to quasi-static applications, and real-time applications are therefore typically not reconfigured. A method proposed in the literature to ameliorate the overhead from the configuration process is to use a block-RAM (BRAM) based, hardware-controlled reconfiguration architecture, eliminating the need for a processor bus by storing the configuration in localised memory. The drawback of this architecture is the limited size of the BRAM, implying only a subset of configurations can be stored. The work presented in this thesis aim to address this size limitation by proposing a specialiser capable of adapting the configuration stored in the BRAM to represent different sets of hardware. This is done by directly manipulating the bits in the configuration using passive hardware. This not only allows the configuration to be specialised practically immediately, but also allows this specialiser to be device independent. By incorporating this specialiser into the BRAM-based architecture, this study sets out to establish that it is possible to reduce the overhead of the reconfiguration process to such an extent that dynamic reconfiguration can be used for real-time applications. Since the composition of the configuration is not publicly available, a method had to be found to parse and analyse the configuration in order to map the configuration space of the device. The approach used was to compare numerous different configurations and mapping the differences. By analysing these differences, it was found that there is a logical relationship between the slice coordinates and the configuration space of the device. The encoding of the lookup tables was also determined from their initialisation parameters. This allows the configuration of any lookup table to be changed by simply changing the corresponding bits in the configuration. Using this proposed reconfiguration architecture, a distributed multiply-accumulate was reconi figured and its functional density measured. The reason for selecting this specific application is because the multiply-accumulate instruction can be found at the heart of many real-time applications. If the functional density of the reconfigured application is comparable to those of its static equivalent, a strong case can be made for real-time reconfiguration in general. Functional density is an indication of the composite benefits dynamic reconfiguration obtains above its static generic counterpart. Due to the overhead of the reconfiguration process, the functional density of reconfigured applications is traditionally significantly lower than those of static applications. If the functional density of the reconfigured application can rival those of the static equivalent, the overhead from the reconfiguration process becomes negligible. Using this metric, the functional density of the distributed multiply-accumulate was compared for different reconfiguration implementations. It was found that the reconfiguration architecture proposed in this thesis yields a significant improvement over other reconfiguration methods. In fact, the functional density of this method rivalled that of its static equivalent, implying that it is possible to dynamically reconfigure a real-time application. It was also found that the proposed architecture reduces specialisation and reconfiguration time to such an extent that it is possible complete the reconfiguration process within strict time constraints. Even though the proposed method is only capable of reconfiguring the LUTs of a real-time application, this is the first step towards allowing full reconfiguration of applications with dynamic characteristics. The first contribution this thesis makes is a novel method to parse and analyse the configuration of a XilinxR VirtexR -5 FPGA. It also successfully maps the configuration space to the configuration data. Even though this method is applied to a specific device, it is device independent and can easily be applied to any other FPGA. The second contribution comes from using the information obtained from this analysis to design and implement a configuration specialiser, capable of adapting lookup tables in real time. Lastly, the third contribution combines this specialiser with the BRAM-based architecture to allow the reconfiguration of applications typically not reconfigured. / PhD (Computer and Electronic Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The focus of this thesis is on specialising the configuration of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to allow dynamic reconfiguration of real-time applications. The dynamic reconfiguration of an application has numerous advantages, but due to the overhead introduced by this process, it is only advantageous if the execution time exceeds reconfiguration time. This implies that dynamic reconfiguration is more suited to quasi-static applications, and real-time applications are therefore typically not reconfigured. A method proposed in the literature to ameliorate the overhead from the configuration process is to use a block-RAM (BRAM) based, hardware-controlled reconfiguration architecture, eliminating the need for a processor bus by storing the configuration in localised memory. The drawback of this architecture is the limited size of the BRAM, implying only a subset of configurations can be stored. The work presented in this thesis aim to address this size limitation by proposing a specialiser capable of adapting the configuration stored in the BRAM to represent different sets of hardware. This is done by directly manipulating the bits in the configuration using passive hardware. This not only allows the configuration to be specialised practically immediately, but also allows this specialiser to be device independent. By incorporating this specialiser into the BRAM-based architecture, this study sets out to establish that it is possible to reduce the overhead of the reconfiguration process to such an extent that dynamic reconfiguration can be used for real-time applications. Since the composition of the configuration is not publicly available, a method had to be found to parse and analyse the configuration in order to map the configuration space of the device. The approach used was to compare numerous different configurations and mapping the differences. By analysing these differences, it was found that there is a logical relationship between the slice coordinates and the configuration space of the device. The encoding of the lookup tables was also determined from their initialisation parameters. This allows the configuration of any lookup table to be changed by simply changing the corresponding bits in the configuration. Using this proposed reconfiguration architecture, a distributed multiply-accumulate was reconi figured and its functional density measured. The reason for selecting this specific application is because the multiply-accumulate instruction can be found at the heart of many real-time applications. If the functional density of the reconfigured application is comparable to those of its static equivalent, a strong case can be made for real-time reconfiguration in general. Functional density is an indication of the composite benefits dynamic reconfiguration obtains above its static generic counterpart. Due to the overhead of the reconfiguration process, the functional density of reconfigured applications is traditionally significantly lower than those of static applications. If the functional density of the reconfigured application can rival those of the static equivalent, the overhead from the reconfiguration process becomes negligible. Using this metric, the functional density of the distributed multiply-accumulate was compared for different reconfiguration implementations. It was found that the reconfiguration architecture proposed in this thesis yields a significant improvement over other reconfiguration methods. In fact, the functional density of this method rivalled that of its static equivalent, implying that it is possible to dynamically reconfigure a real-time application. It was also found that the proposed architecture reduces specialisation and reconfiguration time to such an extent that it is possible complete the reconfiguration process within strict time constraints. Even though the proposed method is only capable of reconfiguring the LUTs of a real-time application, this is the first step towards allowing full reconfiguration of applications with dynamic characteristics. The first contribution this thesis makes is a novel method to parse and analyse the configuration of a XilinxR VirtexR -5 FPGA. It also successfully maps the configuration space to the configuration data. Even though this method is applied to a specific device, it is device independent and can easily be applied to any other FPGA. The second contribution comes from using the information obtained from this analysis to design and implement a configuration specialiser, capable of adapting lookup tables in real time. Lastly, the third contribution combines this specialiser with the BRAM-based architecture to allow the reconfiguration of applications typically not reconfigured. / PhD (Computer and Electronic Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Large accounting firms have been structuring their audit divisions along industry lines for some years. Industry specialisation is seen as a means of differentiation between otherwise similar accounting firms. At the individual level industry specialists are identified as being so designated within their firm. They spend a substantial amount of their time auditing clients in that industry. The purpose of this study is to determine what industry specialist auditors do that is different and similar when working on industry-based tasks, one of which they specialise in. Behavioural decision theory is used to investigate the differences and similarities in the decision-making processes of industry specialist and other auditors. It is known that industry specialists perform better on tasks set in their industry. The purpose of this study is to learn why. To that end, the pre-information search, information search and decision processing phases of the decision-making process are examined. It is expected that industry specialists are more efficient and effective at each stage of the decision-making process when completing a case set in the industry they specialise in. Two controlled experiments were conducted in the offices of each of the Big 4 international accounting firms. Participants included manufacturing and superannuation industry specialists from each firm. Each participant was invited to take part in both experiments, which were conducted consecutively via the internet. The first experiment comprised two cases, one set in each industry setting (manufacturing and superannuation). Participants completed both cases. The purpose of the first experiment was to conduct a within-subject examination unveiling similarities and differences between industry specialists and other auditors during the pre-information search, information search and decision processing phases of the decision-making process. Their performance on each case was also monitored and measured. Significant results were found for information search and performance. Moderate results were found for one proxy each of the pre-information search and the decision processing phases. The relationship between efficiency at each stage of the decision-making process and performance was also measured. A significant relationship was found for the pre-information search and decision processing phases. The second experiment comprised two strategic business risk tasks set in each industry setting (manufacturing and superannuation). Participants completed both sets of tasks. The purpose of the second experiment was to examine effectiveness during the pre-information search (listing key strategic business risks), information search (listing key inputs) and decision processing (listing key processes) phases of the decision-making process and their ability to identify and list key outputs (accounts and assertions) for an identified risk (technological change for the manufacturing industry task and solvency due to insufficient funding for the superannuation industry task) within each industry setting. The results were very significant overall. Industry specialist auditors were able list more key strategic business risks, inputs, processes and outputs when the task was set in the industry in which they specialise. The relationship between effectiveness at each stage of the decision-making process and performance was also measured. A significant relationship was found between effectiveness in listing key inputs and effectiveness in listing key outputs (accounts).

Cette thèse porte sur l'étude de la géométrie de l'espace de spécialisation φ : (X, 0) → (C, 0) d'un germe de singularité analytique complexe (X, 0) sur son cône tangent (CX,0 , 0) du point de vue de l'équisingularité à la Whitney. L'application φ nous donne une famille plate des germes avec section tel que pour chaque t =! 0 le germe φ−1 (t) est isomorphe à (X, 0) et la fibre spéciale est isomorphe au cône tangent. Le but est de établir des conditions sur les strates de la stratification de Whitney minimale de (X, 0) qui assurent l'équisingularité du germe et son cône tangent, generalisant ainsi le résultat de Lê et Teissier pour les hypersurfaces de C3 qui prouve que l'absence des tangentes exceptionnelles est suffisant. Dans ce travail on montre que cette condition est nécessaire et suffisante dans le cas général pour la strate de codimension zero. L'un des ingrédients clés dans la preuve est la théorie de la dépendance integrale sur des ideaux et des modules développé par Teissier, Lejeune, Gaffney, Kleiman, etc, qu'on rappelle au troisième chapitre et où l'on obtient des résultats spécifiques pour cette situation. Les deux premiers chapitres correspondent aux préliminaires, on commence par rappeller la modification de Nash et l'espace conormal d'un espace analytique plongé dans ses versions absolues et relatives à un morphisme et on donne une description explicite de la relation entre le conormal (Nash) relatif de φ : (X, 0) → (C, 0) et le conormal (Nash) de (X, 0). Dans le deuxième chapitre on définit le diagram normal/conormal, l'auréole du germe (X, 0), les cônes exceptionnelles, et on énonce les résultats principaux correspondant à l'équisingularité à la Whitney en incluant la caractérisation des conditions de Whitney en termes du diagramme normal/conormal.