This study examines the speech act of refusal among Saudis. Specifically, it investigates the refusal strategies implemented by Saudis in Saudi Arabian Social settings. Data was gathered using Discourse Completion Task (DCT). Thirty Saudi male and female students, graduate, undergraduate, and ESL students participated in this study creating 180 natural responses. The responses were coded and classified according to the classification of refusals proposed by Beebe, Takahashi, and Uliss- Weltz. The results revealed that Saudi females and males choose to use indirectness more than directness when refusing an invitation. Even when using direct strategies, indirect strategies accompany the direct once to mitigate the threat of directness. The results also showed a great deal of implementing adjuncts as part of Saudis refusal statements. The result showed that Saudis use one new strategy, refusal-functioning acceptance, and one new adjunct, pray.

The purpose of this study was to explore how a potential model of a tourism industry cluster could be developed in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). To undertake this task an extensive literature review of cluster-based economic strategies was done. This was followed by a synopsis of the tourism industry from a global and South African perspective in order to determine issues of competitiveness and their impact on provincial dynamics. The study employed a qualitative research design and focused on the tourism industry in KwaZulu-Natal as a case study. Major stakeholders in the industry were interviewed. The main findings of the study are that KZN has the necessary preconditions for existence of a potential tourism cluster, and these conditions make it ripe for the cluster to be activated and developed. Activating and developing a cluster would bring home major benefits. The study highlighted various tools and mechanisms which could be used to analyse the province’s cluster map, and a model cluster map is also suggested based on contributions from different respondents. Using Porter’s Diamond Model, the competitiveness of the KZN tourism industry was assessed. Overall, it has been found that the province’s tourism industry possesses a mixture of resources and capabilities, which could be capitalised upon to developing the industry in future. However, glaring weaknesses are also exposed, which need to be dealt with urgently. In particular, crime and grime, together with the lack of tourism infrastructure to attract the high-end of the market, are seen as huge liability for the industry. A major contribution of this study is in identifying strategic management challenges that cluster studies have not addressed previously. The study also highlighted important critical success factors for cluster development and the drivers for change. The presence of some of these factors contributes to making the future prospect of the tourism industry in KZN to look bright. The study concludes by recommending that a tourism cluster be activated and developed in KZN and this process be led by an Independent Cluster Facilitator, who must be appointed by the Member of the Executive Committee responsible for Finance and Economic Development in the province in consultation with industry leaders.

The object of this work is to quantify the costs, which are connected with using production factors, qualify their effectiveness and evaluate individual tools that are used to control and optimization of these cost sorts. Within the case study, to make the cost structure analysis in a selected company and to suggest steps leading to improving the effectiveness of this company through optimization individual cost sorts.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-03-28Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:58:29Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 joaquim_rm_me_bauru.pdf: 1016372 bytes, checksum: 0cded22ee2a76260d3911cc17a0db20f (MD5) / O presente trabalho objetivou avaliar estratégias de enfrentamento e o nível de ansiedade em mulheres em atendimento psicológico do Centro de Apoio Psicossocial de Bauru. Participaram deste estudo 40 mulheres com idade entre 40 a 62 anos, pacientes psiquiátricos, em atendimento psicológico. Os instrumentos utilizados para a pesquisa foram o inventário Beck de Ansiedade (BAI) e o Inventário Estratégias de Coping de Folkman e Lazarus. Para análise estatística foi utilizado o teste não paramétrico de Mann-Whitney para a comparação de dois grupos utilizando como nível de significância 5%. Os resultados do BAI revelaram um índice de ansiedade considerado grave presente no grupo de mulheres em estudo bem como revelaram significância estatística nas estratégias de enfrentamento Passividade e Suporte Social. A análise das alternativas que compõem os fatores Suporte social, Fuga Esquiva e Passividade caracterizam em termos de enfrentamento o perfil das mulheres ansiosas deste estudo / This study aimed coping strategies and level of anxiety in women, in psychological treatment at the Center for Psychosocial Support of Bauru. The study included 40 women aged between 40 and 62 years of psychiatric patients in psychological treatment. The instrument used for research were the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the Coping Strategies Inventory Folkman and Lazarus. For statistical analysis we used the nonparametric Mann-Whitney test for comparing two groups using the signficance level of 5%. The results of the BAI showed in index of anxiety which is serious in this group of women in the study showed statistical significance as well as strategies for coping Passivity and Social Support coping. The analysis of alternatives that make the factors and social support, Passivity characterized in terms of coping profile of the anxious women in this study

Orientador: Eunice Ribeiro Henriques / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T21:51:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Soares_LucianaSalesPires_M.pdf: 1386828 bytes, checksum: 274b3a12f8ee9411b99ade0d40cc1fe5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Este trabalho é um estudo de caso, que analisa as estratégias, usadas por três grupos de leitores¿três do ensino fundamental, três do ensino médio e quatro universitários, todas do sexo feminino. A fundamentação teórica deste estudo são as ¿estratégias de raciocínio¿, de Johnston (1983), e as três intenções, de Umberto Eco (1993): ¿intention auctoris¿, ¿intention operis¿ e ¿intention lectoris¿. Para conciliar essas duas visões, vamos usar as estratégias como uma forma de se chegar ao foco do leitor: na ¿mensagem do autor¿, nas ¿pistas textuais¿ ou no ¿ponto de vista do leitor¿. Os objetivos são: (1) categorizar e (2) analisar as estratégias; (3) examinar o processo da construção do sentido por cada grupo; e (4) comparar e contrastar os três grupos. Os dados foram obtidos por meio de protocolos verbais e entrevistas participativas, com base em textos curtos de diferentes tipos. A análise é primordialmente de cunho interpretativista, que consiste de observação participativa e juízos de valor. Os resultados mostram que os leitores menos proficientes tendem (1) a optarem pelo processo de leitura ¿bottom-up¿, por dirigirem sua atenção, em geral, para palavras isoladas e sentenças e (2) a usarem estratégias que espelham sua própria competência lingüística. Os leitores mais proficientes, no entanto, tendem a analisar o texto como um todo, através do processo ¿top-down¿ (com certeza, em função de seu conhecimento prévio e de sua prática de leitura). Além disso, dependendo do tipo de texto, os leitores mais jovens e/ou menos proficientes, tendem a se projetar nos textos (¿intention lectoris¿), ao passo que os mais velhos e/ou mais experientes tendem a ouvir o que o autor (¿intention auctoris¿) ou o texto (¿intention operis¿) transmitem (ou parecem transmitir). Os resultados destacam a importância de se identificar (1) as estratégias, usadas pelos aprendizes, e (2) o tipo de ¿intenção¿ que buscam no texto a fim de ajudá-los a superarem algumas das maiores dificuldades, impostas pelo ato de ler / Abstract: This work is a case study, which analyzes the strategies used by three groups of readers--three high school juniors, three seniors and four college students. The theoretical underpinnings of this study are Johnston's "reasoning strategies" (1983) and Umberto Eco's three intentions: "intention auctoris", "intention operis" and "intention lectoris" (1993). To accomodate both views, we will use the strategies as a means to get to the reader's focus on: the author's intended meaning", the "textual clues" or "the reader¿s viewpoint". The aims are: (1) to categorize and (2) to analyze the strategies; (3) to examine the process of meaning construction by each group; and (4) to compare and contrast the three groups. Data were obtained by means of think-aloud protocols and participant interviews, based on short texts of different types. The analysis uses primarily an interpretive approach, consisting of participant observation and value judgements. The results show that less proficient readers tend (1) to favor the bottom-up process, as they direct their attention primarily to separate words and sentences and (2) to use strategies that mirror their own linguistic competence. More proficient readers, however, tend to analyze the text as a whole, by means of the so-called top-down process (most certainly, on account of their background knowledge and experience in reading). In addition, depending on the type of text, younger and/or less proficient readers, tend to read themselves into the texts ("intention lectoris") while older and/or more experienced ones tend to listen either to what the author ("intention auctoris") or the text ("intention operis") convey (or seem to convey). The results underscore the importance of identifying (1) the strategies used by learners and (2) the type of intention they search for in a text in order to help them overcome a few of the toughest difficulties imposed by the act of reading / Mestrado / Lingua Materna / Mestre em Linguística Aplicada

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for social studies are based on critical thinking and literacy skills. These new mandates are expected to lead to curricular and instructional changes within social studies classes. This qualitative study explored how the CCSS might have impacted the curricular and instructional decision-making of middle school social studies teachers and ultimately how the CCSS might affect a teacher’s gatekeeping role. As the CCSS initiative is fairly new, there is little research on the instructional practices being used to support the needs of teachers implementing these new standards in their classrooms as well as the processes, challenges, and successes teachers experience in addressing the CCSS in their classrooms. This study fills the gap of information lodged between a policy mandate and implementation in the classroom by contributing to the literature in the area of social studies education and the types of instruction social studies teachers may use to achieve the goals within the CCSS. Data gleaned from this study demonstrates that the CCSS had an influence on teachers’ instructional and curricular decision-making. CCSS influenced teachers’ decision-making in three domains: teacher beliefs ((individual teacher’s beliefs regarding the CCSS, including his or her personal beliefs regarding the CCSS and self-confidence to teach the skills associated with the CCSS), student assessment (the connection between standardized assessments and the CSSS), and best practices (recommended best practices by CCSS that were already being used in the classroom). As a result, teachers increased the number of the types of instructional strategies that focused on the critical thinking skills advocated by CCSS such as analyzing primary and secondary sources and using evidence from multiple sources to complete a Document Based Question (DBQ). The study also revealed that teachers felt inadequately prepared to fully implement the CCSS in their classrooms due to insufficient teacher education geared to CCSS, resources, and inconsistencies of the focus of the CCSS within participants’ Professional Learning Communities.

The purpose of this study was to examine challenges encountered by Chinese-international students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) in university courses in Canada and compare them to challenges experienced by domestic students. Participants included 38 Chinese-international students and 106 Canadian-domestic students studied in a self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies learning course. Weekly over 10 weeks, participants (a) rated their experiences with a list of possible challenges, (b) identified their dominant challenges from a list, (c) identified one possible strategy for addressing the dominant challenge, and (d) rated how successful the strategy selected was. Findings indicated that domestic students reported higher proportional frequency of motivation challenges, compared to the other group. From the perspective of strategy use, domestic participants reported persisting strategies more often, but Chinese-international students more frequently reported social-regulation strategies. The most dominant challenge reported by both Canadian-domestic students and Chinese-international students is motivation challenge. For addressing the motivation challenge, domestic students most frequently reported an Adjust or change strategy, but Chinese-international students reported a Social-oriented strategy. Both groups identified that their strategies use was a moderate success. Findings from this study will inform policy and practice in the area of intercultural learning by identifying specific challenges to be addressed in supporting Chinese-international students and Canadian-domestic students. / Graduate

Hot och våld mot sjuksköterskor förekommer inom sluten vården och det är ett växande problem. Detta ses både inom somatisk och psykiatrisk vård. Hot och våld är underrapporterat, vilket är problematiskt ur synpunkten att det minskar möjligheterna att motverka, förhindra och hantera fenomenet. Olika strategier kan användas för att hantera konsekvenserna hos den enskilda sjuksköterskan efter att denne utsatts för hot och våld. Att drabbas av detta leder inte sällan till psykisk ohälsa och/eller fysisk skada som kan resultera i sjukskrivning. Arbetsmiljön är betydelsefull inom vården och patient/sjuksköterskerelationen bygger på en ömsesidig respekt samt empati. Denna vårdrelation kan vara svår att upprätthålla då hot och våld förekommer. En litteraturbaserad studie valdes till examensarbetet för att beskriva sjuksköterskors upplevelse av hot och våld inom sluten vården. Tio artiklar ur vetenskapliga tidskrifter granskades. Ett resultat sammanställdes utefter vad dessa studier kommit fram till. Utefter resultaten bildades tre teman och tio underteman som svarade till syftet i denna litteraturstudie.  Temana som framkom var, att känna sig utsatt, att inte känna stöd och att behöva hitta en lösning för att hantera hot och våld. Sjuksköterskorna önskade mer stöd från verksamheten de arbetade i för att kunna hantera fenomenet. Stödet de önskade låg i omgivningen i form av säkerhetsaspekter i arbetsmiljön. Även känslomässigt stöd upplevde sig sjuksköterskorna vara i behov av efter att de konfronterats med hot och våld. Detta för att kunna hantera sina känslor samt utveckla strategier att hantera liknande situationer i framtiden. Arbetsplatsen kan förbättra sin arbetsmiljö genom att erbjuda sjuksköterskor stöd samt hjälp att skapa personliga strategier att hantera hot och våld. Arbetsplatsen kan lära sig om utlösande faktorer och skapa ett aktivt förebyggande arbete för att förhindra hot och våld mot sjuksköterskor i framtiden. / Background: Within inpatient care violence and threats are a growing problem, which nurses are particularly exposed to in their workplace, especially by patients. It makes an impact on the relationship between them and it also creates consequences in the care of the patient and the ability of the nurse to provide it.  Aim: The aim of this study was to describe nurse experiences of threats and violence within inpatient care. Method: A literature study based on qualitative articles. Ten qualitative articles were used and analysed. Results: The results are grounded in three themes and ten sub-themes. Nurses experiences of violence and threats resulted in feelings of fear and concern when they were exposed to it. They felt difficulties to handle the problems and they asked for more strategies, both personally and in the working environment to deal with the issue.   Conclusion: The results showed that nurse's feelings in this subject were fear and concern in their profession were they need more strategies to handle situations in violence and threat. In the articles nurse's asked for more support programs and reflections from their managers.

[pt] Desde o final da década de 70, a indústria siderúrgica brasileira vinha sofrendo com a presença maciça do governo no setor, pois se ressentia da falta dos investimentos necessários para a renovação e ampliação do parque siderúrgico. Esta falta de investimentos provocava, também, a perda de competitividade das empresas siderúrgicas brasileiras frente às suas concorrentes no mercado internacional. A saída do Estado do setor siderúrgico, a partir das privatizações efetuadas no início da década de 90, trouxe novas perspectivas para o setor. No entanto, a passagem das principais empresas siderúrgicas para a iniciativa privada abriu espaços para a entrada de novas empresas no setor, acirrou a rivalidade entre as empresas já estabelecidas na indústria e modificou o poder de negociação relativo entre as empresas siderúrgicas, seus fornecedores e seus compradores. A ameaça de produtos substitutos, apesar de aparentemente baixa, continua a rondar a indústria, impedindo-a de repassar aumentos nos custos e aumentar seus preços livremente. A alteração no controle das empresas, associada às mudanças no ambiente competitivo, têm provocado uma maior difusão do conceito e da importância da estratégia entre as empresas siderúrgicas. Estas empresas, que antes não se preocupavam com a estratégia ou não apresentavam consistência nas estratégias escolhidas, agora demonstram reduções significativas em seus custos e exibem padrões de diferenciação ou de escolha de nichos de mercado onde atuar. É importante ressaltar que estas novas escolhas estratégicas também são influenciadas pela relação que algumas das empresas possuem com suas matrizes e com os governos brasileiro, dos países de suas matrizes e dos países onde possuem interesses comerciais, como Argentina, Chile e Estados Unidos. Os estudos de Porter (1980, 1985) foram a base para a caracterização do ambiente competitivo e a identificação das estratégias competitivas abordadas neste trabalho. O ambiente competitivo foi detalhado utilizando o modelo das cinco forças de Porter: ameaça de novos entrantes, ameaça de produtos substitutos, poder de negociação dos fornecedores, poder de negociação dos compradores e rivalidade entre as empresas já estabelecidas na indústria. A classificação das estratégias competitivas das empresas, por sua vez, teve como base a tipologia de estratégias genéricas de Porter, com sua definição de estratégias de liderança em custo total, diferenciação e enfoque. O referencial teórico deste trabalho também apresenta tipologias alternativas à de Porter, como a proposta por Mintzberg (1988) e a Resource-Based View, que é uma corrente que enfoca a empresa do ponto de vista dos insumos e vai contra diversas idéias de Porter, porém ainda necessita de validação por meio de pesquisas empíricas. A tipologia de Porter se mostrou adequada à classificação das estratégias das empresas siderúrgicas brasileiras, porém ainda é uma incógnita se o poder explanatório adicional que poderia ser proporcionado pela tipologia de Mintzberg compensaria seu menor nível de parcimônia em relação à tipologia de Porter. / [en] Since the end of the decade of 70, the siderurgical industry Brazilian vine Suffering with the massive presence of the government in the sector, therefore if resented at the lack of the necessary investments for the renewal and magnifying of the siderurgical park. This lack of investments provoked, also, the loss of competitiveness of the Brazilian siderurgical companies front to its competitors in the international market. The exit of the State of the siderurgical sector, from the privatizations effected in the beginning of the decade of 90, brought new perspectives for the sector. However, the ticket of the main siderurgical companies for the private initiative opened spaces for the entrance of new companies in the sector, incited the rivalry enters the established companies already in the industry and modified the relative power of negotiation between the siderurgical companies, its suppliers and its purchasers. The threat of substitute products, although pparently low, continues to go up to around the industry, being hindered it to repass increases in the costs and to increase its prices freely. The alteration in the control of the companies, associated to the Changes in the competitive environment, has provoked a bigger diffusion of the concept and the importance of the strategy between the siderurgical companies. These companies, who before were not worried about the strategy or they did not present consistency in the chosen strategies, now demonstrate significant reductions in its costs and show standards of differentiation or choice of market niches where to act. It is important to stand out that these new strategical choices also are influenced by the relation that some of the companies possess with its matrices and the governments Brazilian, of the countries of its matrices and the countries where they possess commercial interests, as Argentina, Chile and United States. The studies of Porter (1980, 1985) had been the base for the Characterization of the competitive environment and the identification of the boarded competitive strategies in this work. The competitive environment was detailed using the model of the five forces of Porter: threat of new incoming, threat of substitute products, to be able of negotiation of the suppliers, power of negotiation of the purchasers and rivalry enters the established companies already in the industry. The classification of the competitive strategies of the companies, in turn, had as base the tipologia of generic strategies of Porter, with its definition of strategies of leadership in total cost, differentiation and approach. Referencial theoretical of this work also presents tipologias alternative to the one of Porter, as proposal for Mintzberg (1988) and Resource-Based View, that it is a chain that focuses the company of the point of view of the insumos and goes against diverse ideas of Porter, however still needs validation by means of empirical research. The tipologia of Porter if showed adequate to the classification of the strategies of the Brazilian siderurgical companies, however still it is an incognito if the additional Explanatory power that could be proportionate for the tipologia of Mintzberg would compensate its lesser level of parsimony in relation to the tipologia of Porter.

When the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX) Agricultural Products Division (APD) was formed in the early 1990s after the demise of the Marketing Boards, the support and direct participation of producers on the exchange was core to its long term success. A tremendous amount of energy and cost was invested by SAFEX and brokers to educate and sign up primary producers. Most agribusinesses (excooperatives) also had broking divisions. This campaign was very successful and a large percentage of producers, particular of maize and wheat, opened SAFEX accounts through brokers. It was not unusual for many of them to open more than one account with different brokers. Collectively, they had a very important impact on the market. Fifteen years after the launch of the wheat contract (in 1998), this is no longer the case. Industry sources have it that many, if not most, producers have either closed their accounts, have an inactive account, or have scaled down their trading activities. This leads to the hypothesis that direct participation by producers on the JSE/SAFEX Commodity Division is declining. The questions that arise from this observation are:  Are producers distancing themselves from SAFEX (or the other way around)? or,  Has the industry matured and progressed into a new era? This research had the objectives to:  Determine the estimated percentage of producers that directly traded on SAFEX during the initial years and compare the data to present numbers. Based on the outcome of the primary data collected, to determine if there is indeed a trend.  If correct, to determine what the reasons for this could be. Has there been a shift in hedging practices? Are brokers offering additional services which make it unnecessary for producers to operate directly on the exchange? Wheat producers in the Western Cape were selected as the target group for various reasons, including the province’s geographical isolation, its importance as a wheat production area and the importance of wheat in the gross income generated by producers. The survey firstly established the importance of wheat in the Western Cape grain production areas. No doubt, income derived through wheat production is still very important throughout the Western Cape, but in certain areas it is absolutely crucial. Next, the survey attempted to determine how and when producers ‘price’ (sell) wheat. The survey then aimed to establish what the most important factors are that influence producers’ pricing strategy. Producers ranked growing conditions as the number one factor in taking a pricing decision, followed by production costs. Furthermore, producers do adjust their marketing strategy but there seems to be a difference of opinion as to whether it is on their own accord or on advice of their brokers. The survey not only depended on producer data but cross-referenced with brokers (traders and agribusinesses). Based on overall feedback, the analysis determined vi that on average in the Western Cape 10 – 20% of wheat producers had SAFEX accounts, while in selected areas it was as high as 37 – 50%. It was also important to determine to what extent SAFEX trading activity had decreased, if at all. This question only applied to those respondents that said they did have a SAFEX account and their activities had decreased. The answer revealed that 91% of respondents had stopped trading altogether. Having now established that a fairly large number of producers had accounts on which most had ceased their activities, the question is why. Cash flow requirements are the single biggest reason why producers have reduced (or completely stopped) their participation on SAFEX. The second reason was that a producer could achieve the same benefits and more through the services offered by the grain traders and agribusinesses, compared to trading directly on SAFEX. It should not be forgotten that the trader could only offer these service if he or she does a deal, back-to-back, on SAFEX. This is part of the reason why all traders and agribusinesses have a SAFEX account. The survey concluded with what might be singled out as one of the most important questions (given what had been determined up to this point): Do producers believe brokers offer all of the marketing options that could be achieved by trading direct on SAFEX? With the benefit of already having analysed the response to the earlier questions, the answer might have been expected. However, the response was overwhelming: 97% of respondents said that brokers offer all of the marketing options they were interested in. It could therefore be said that the decline in direct SAFEX participation by Cape wheat producers is the direct result of the all-inclusive services offered by traders and agribusinesses. Producers sign a forward contract with their brokers while the brokers would offset their risk on SAFEX. An element of caution, however, needs to be expressed. Given the importance of wheat in the Western Cape, and particularly in the Swartland, producers should not relinquish their responsibility to acquire or maintain a minimum amount of knowledge on the functioning of SAFEX. Irrespective of whether producers deal directly on SAFEX or through their brokers, knowledge now and in the future will hold the key to their marketing performance and should not be replaced by using brokers. / Dissertation (MSc Agric)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted