Current views and models about attention regard man as a 'transmitter channel' and try to characterise the properties of that 'odd channel'. Another characteristic of the current views is that attention is regarded as a specific mental operation in a person which can be described, irrespective of the purposes of the subject. By contrast we examine attention as an activity at the service of the purposes of the person. Attention is examined as an activity by means of which the field of consciousness is structured around the 'object of attention'. This object of attention is not a specific 'stimulus' but a system in the sense of General System Theory. Hence, the approach is mainly holistic in character. Activity is looked upon as an INTERTRAFFIC between the person and his relation with the world. And where there is relatedness, information theory, in a cybernetic sense, can be used. The approach developed benefits of the advantages from previous models allowing also for a better explanation of the limitation present in the cognitive realm without appeal to some 'filter mechanism' in the physiological structure of a person.

Though Kenneth Burke has often been dismissed as a brilliant but idiosyncratic thinker, this dissertation will argue that he is actually a precocious systems theorist. The systemic and systematic aspects of Burke’s work will be demonstrated by comparing it to the General Systems Theory (GST) of biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Though beginning from very different starting points, Bertalanffy and Burke develop similar aims, methods, and come to remarkably similar conclusions about the nature and function of language. The systemic nature of Burke’s language philosophy will also become evident through an analysis of the Burkean corpus. Burke’s first book contains several breakthrough ideas that set him irrevocably upon the path of a systemic theory of symbolic action. Burke’s next book, influenced by GST-inspired biology, seeks to understand the nature of associative networks by employing an organic metaphor. Burke’s interest in systems comes from his desire to repair the cultural system crumbling around him as a result of the Depression. Consequently his next book, Attitudes Toward History, studies what happens to such “orientations” (i.e., the systems by which humans classify and evaluate the world) during epistemological crises. The Philosophy of Literary Form is concerned primarily with the function of these orientations. In A Grammar of Motives Burke seeks to understand the basis for transformation of these evaluative systems, and in A Rhetoric of Motives he demonstrates how these transformations are used to persuade. Burke next turns his attention to understanding a small part of the system, a theological doctrine, in The Rhetoric of Religion. Burke’s theory appears plausible when compared to and supplemented by GST and the related self-organizing system theory. Furthermore, a paradigm shift to non-mechanistic cognitive theory allows us to refine and extend Burke’s intuitive theory of symbolic action. The final chapter will argue that symbolic action is the manipulation of the quality space, which is a multi-dimensional model for the super-system composed of mental, linguistic and cultural sub-systems. In mental systems, skeletal information structures called schemas combine to form simple models, which in turn combine to form a model of the world. Similarly, a culture can be seen as a system of schemas held in common by the group. The linguistic system labels, transmits and thus evokes these schemas. The primary means by which the quality space becomes reconfigured is through metaphor, which creates new schemas, and modifies the connections between schemas (and thus the position and relative value of a schema). Metaphor, therefore, is the basis of symbolic action. This systemic theory of symbolic action may be modeled by Connectionist networks. These analogical neural networks provide a model for how brains form and associate categories and support Burke’s assertion that thought is primarily analogical and categorical, thus affording the means for refining Burke’s theory of symbolic action. Ultimately, such a theory may provide a unified field theory for rhetoric, showing how various symbolic action strategies work and interrelate. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

M.A. (Social Work) / The research resulted from the lack of reliable and valid measurement instruments on community functioning. Operationalization of community functioning is complicated by the general character of widely used theories es related to communities in South Africa. Measurement is severely hampered by insufficient conceptualization. In the exploration of social service theory, the Living System Theory was selected as the theoretical underpinning for the research. Living System Theory offers a framework for processes and structures to critically and systematically describe, analyse, explain and interpret communities. Operationalization of community functioning was greatly expedited by the selection of the Living System Theory in view of its detailed description and universal character. In this study the term community from the Living System Theory, is conceptualized to In new synthesis and is also analysed systematically. In the systematic analyses of a community it was concluded that six relevant assessment areas occur in community context, namely: physical structures; transport; communication; decision-making; policy; and product/service. All six identified assessment areas were analysed systematically, but for the purposes of this study only decision-making was operationalized...

In this dissertation, a multiprocess scheduling model is developed and a set of performance theorems is constructed for the set of scheduling functions associated with the model. Each theorem describes the conditions under which a scheduling function exhibits a particular type of performance.

A project report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. / The simulator uses the Monte Carlo technique to quickly and accurately estimate the reliability and availability of complex network systems, Non-exponential failure and repair distributions are included in the model, as is standby redundancy and K out of N active redundancy. The program is easy to use and will work on a large variety of computers and FORTRAN compilers. Some knowledge of FORTRAN is required to program the simulator for each reliability network, The simulator is limited to the analysis of network systems, i.e, those systems whose logic can be fully represented by a reliability block diagram. The applicability of the model was demonstrated by the analysis of numerous systems in the aerospace and industrial environments. Validation of the model was accomplished by comparing these results with analytically determined values, or those from AMIR and SPAR where an analytic solution was impossible. / Andrew Chakane 2018

Petersson, Linda (2015). “It seems a bit like a lottery” A study about the school situation for pupils with Autism spectrum Condition (ASC). Master degree in Special Education, Faculty of Education and Society, Malmo UniversityReports from the Swedish government have since 2009, stated that the education for children with ASC is somewhat troublesome, for example: pupils with ASC seem often have quite low grades. Similar signals, often regarding the curriculum and it´s inflexibility has also been risen from teachers as well as headmasters.The aim of this study was to contribute to the understanding of the school situation for pupils with ASC with a placement in self –contained settings; a school for pupils with ASC and in small groups placed at general schools. The focus in the study has been academic achievement, organization and placement plus positive- and challenging factors for the school in their mission to educate this group of pupils.The study was conducted by using Mixed Methods, the data was collected both from interviews and a questionnaire. Two teachers, two headmasters, two special needs advisors from the National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools, SPSM and three students with ASC was interviewed. The questionnaire was directed to teachers for students with ASC.The results of the study is presented in a parallel mixed design/ convergent design. The data from the questionnaire and interviews is both presented and then integrated. In the work of analyze and understanding the results has general system theory and the ecology of human development, as well as earlier research been used.Implication of the results confirms the reports from the Swedish government, there seem to be a risk that pupils with ASC gets lower grades. The implication is that this could due to that the curriculum isn’t adjusted to this pupils, the lack of “autism-friendly” teaching and lack of collaboration within the school system. Some positive factors was found that could facilitate schools, amongst this: Collaboration, knowledge and understanding ASC and the consequences for the individual.

Il presente lavoro di ricerca vuole essere un contributo all’elaborazione di una teoria della modellizzazione estetica. L’idea di estetico che verrà sviluppata è solo in ultima istanza incentrata sulle opere d’arte, le quali saranno prese in considerazione nei termini di prodotti simbolici costituitivi della sfera culturale umana. Diversamente, nella prospettiva che vogliamo presentare, l’estetico sarebbe parte di un processo ecosistemico e di modellizzazione che coinvolge a vari livelli anche gli altri esseri viventi. L’estetico, ossia, sarebbe uno strumento utile alla creazione di specifici modelli che consentirebbero l’interfaccia con l’ambiente, dove l’obiettivo centrale del presente studio è quello di individuare il tipo di modelli che l’estetico permette di creare e il processo che conduce alla loro costituzione. La modellizzazione estetica, dunque, sarebbe tutt’altro che un comportamento accessorio o di sfondo, bensì uno strumento utile alla sopravvivenza che nell’essere umano trova la sua massima espressione nel simbolico quale capacità di produrre opere d’arte. Sotto questo aspetto, una teoria della modellizzazione estetica permette di superare quei binarismi che per secoli hanno impedito di studiare l’estetico in qualità di processo unitario e complesso. Il comportamento estetico sarebbe infatti una delle manifestazioni più evidenti della continuità tra cultura e natura, verbale e non verbale, soggetto e agente. Al fine di condurre un’indagine di questo tipo, ritengo utile utilizzare gli strumenti offerti dal campo di studi della biosemiotica, i quali permettono una visione biologica e relazionale dei fenomeni estetici. Gli obiettivi principali sono quelli di porre le basi per un ripensamento dell’estetica tradizionale e di riconsiderare il posizionamento dell’uomo all’interno della natura tramite l’analisi del comportamento estetico.

Despite repeated attempts, no normative theory of public administration has emerged that fully and satisfactorily answers questions about the role of public administration, and public administrators, in the process of governance. This dissertation argues that such questions are unresolvable because they are framed in terms of overly simplistic systems metaphors relating to machines and organisms. When theories are framed in terms of these metaphors, they lead inexorably to dichotomies between politics and administration, policy and implementation, and between the society and its government. The dissertation attempts to "reframe" our concept of governance in terms of another metaphor that supports a view of governance as a process that is deeply interrelated and interconnected with its social environment. / Ph. D.

In project or program planning, a Gantt or PERT chart is usually employed as a graphical representation of schedule for activities. Planners utilize this chart in performing analyses such as the Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Very little effort, however, has been devoted to the formulation of activity networks, which is the initial step before aforementioned analyses. This research addresses this problem by developing a systematic methodology to aid in the identification and rapid structuring of a system of activities. The theoretical foundation of the methodology is based on Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM). It consists of seven basic steps: (l) identifying the activities in the set; (2) identifying the set of relation statements; (3)identifying the initial input; (4) establishing a transitive inference mechanism based upon previous responses; (5) generating a logical combination of relationships based on previous responses; (6) storing the relationship for each pair of activities in a relation matrix; and (7) outputting the relationships in the form of a simplified Gantt chart. The merits of applying this methodology include (1) efficiency in activity structuring and (2) avoidance of illogical and inconsistent sequential relationship specifications. A "Business Appreciation" example is used in illustrating the application of this methodology. It reveals that 85% of a total of 120 possible sequential activity relationships can be deduced without asking for information from the user. In general, over 57% of the sequential relationships can be inferred without input by the user. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

C-Maize VT1.0 is a simulation model of corn (<i>Zea mays</i>) growth in a soil plant atmosphere continuum. The purpose of developing the C-Maize VT1.0 simulation model was to provide an additional tool to researcher’s investigating the affects of water and nitrogen stress on corn growth and the movement of water and nitrates in the soil. The user may select either a 1-dimensional or a 2-dimensional approach to the simulation of the soil system. After an initial series of runs and a preliminary assessment of the model’s credibility it was concluded that the 2-dimensional approach provided a ‘sufficiently credible’ solution to modeling all aspects of the soil-plant-atmosphere system. The 1-dimensional approach as currently programmed provides a ‘non-credible solution’. The 1-dimensional approach failed to adequately simulate the soil subsystem and failed to simulate the plant’s response to water and nitrogen stresses. / Master of Science / incomplete_metadata