This research focused primarily on exploring the talk of mothers of daughters with Anorexia Nervosa, paying specific attention to their emic perceptions of the underlying causes of Anorexia Nervosa. The research sought to reveal the discourses underpinning participants talk. Further, the way in which these discourses serve to construct Anorexia Nervosa in particular ways as well as the function these discourses serve were explored. This study is qualitative and exploratory in design and provides a unique understanding of Anorexia Nervosa in the form of emic accounts gleaned from mothers' own experiences. The findings of this research suggest that mothers of daughters with Anorexia Nervosa primarily reproduce a discourse on the causality of Anorexia Nervosa that is family or biomedically focused. Through analysis of the discourses embedded in participants’ talk, it became evident that participants reproduce discourses of gender and femininity and are influenced by societal pressure as well as the constructions of womanhood and motherhood. Insight into a side of the mother of the Anorectic, often concealed in the literature, was revealed through a semi-structured interview process with nine urban, middle-class, white South African mothers of daughters with Anorexia Nervosa. Interviews were then transcribed and analysed according to Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. Incorporating the silenced voices of mothers of daughters with Anorexia Nervosa appears to have allowed for the emergence of a more generous view of the mother and has contributed to a larger set of discursive repertoires through which to understand Anorexia Nervosa. This research further gave rise to the realisation of a need for a critical education program whereby taken for granted notions can be revealed and actively engaged. This program would ideally seek to free the anorexic woman as well as the mother from the constraints of the uncritically constructed conceptualisations of Anorexia Nervosa and femininity.

Couple therapy research demands a shift in focus from quantitative to qualitative studies that explore therapist behaviours such as the role of the therapist due to the significant gap between research and practice, where research is often irrelevant and inaccessible to clinicians, and errors in practice are repeated and perpetuated as a result of lack of insight into therapeutic functions. Research on couple therapies also lacks focus on recent modalities such as Imago Relationship Therapy (IRT), a formative and recent modality of couple therapy in South Africa and internationally that requires empirical research and evaluation. Studies addressing therapist qualities and skills necessary in dealing with diverse populations such as South Africa are also lacking. The subjective experiences and perceptions of eight Imago relationship therapists practicing in a South African context were thus explored and described within a qualitative paradigm to provide an in-depth account of their role. Semi-structured individual interviews were used to explore their role, and responses recorded and analysed using thematic content analysis. Findings highlighted underlying complexities of this role as a result of evident contradiction, irony, and paradox within participants’ experience. Firstly, the core function of establishing safe connection for the couple proved ironically ‘unconnecting’ and theory-driven in nature, which also provides a sense of safety and reduced responsibility for the therapist. The role of the Imago therapist was also indicated to be a part of participants’ identity and life philosophy. The second theme highlighted the inherently paradoxical nature of the role because perceptions of a ‘non-expert’ and ‘background’ role in fact requires active and expert therapeutic functions as they remain acutely connected to the couple’s process. Thirdly, the intuitive nature of this role was reiterated as participants’ experienced both favourable and limiting therapeutic encounters in a positive and congruent way, which has implications for increased therapeutic growth. Finally, although participants’ experience of their role in South Africa highlighted IRT’s underlying theoretical orientation of universal connection, they did not seem aware of this underlying theory as informing practice. This raises questions about implications on their role given the importance of theory in influencing the way the therapist thinks about the client. Findings generally contribute to narrowing the research-practice gap providing insight into the practice of Imago therapy, which may in turn add to richness of theory.

<div>In the modern era where technology is constantly evolving, it is important to evaluate new technological tools and approaches in order to gauge their potential for adoption. Rapid Application Development (RAD) has highly evolved over the years, but it has not seen much response at the university level. Several studies show that perceptions of usability form the basis of acceptance or rejection of new tools and applications. Thus, running a usability study on a specific RAD tool coupled with autoethnographic documentation of specific development experience with that tool has the potential to encourage university faculty/staff to consider teaching/using it.</div><div><br></div><div>This research study seeks to understand developers' perceptions regarding the usability aspect of Mendix, a Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed to discover and understand the extent of perceived usefulness, ease of use and satisfaction with the tool. The results of the study presented a case for academicians on the viability of teaching RAD or using Mendix for their web application development needs. The study ultimately sought to help university faculty understand what to expect while teaching RAD to students from computing background and also help them decide if they would like to use tools like Mendix for their software development projects or continue to use specific coding languages (traditional software development) for software development projects. </div><div><br></div>

The democratic elections in 1994 marked the formal end of apartheid. During apartheid 'race' was, for the most part, a somewhat rigid construct which, despite many nuances and complexities, typically seemed to frame whiteness as dominant, normative and largely invisible, and blackness as subordinate and marginalised. The transformations brought about in post-apartheid South Africa have heralded many positive reformations, such as macrolevel institutional changes. However, many of apartheid's racialised patterns of privilege and deprivation persist and 'race' continues to influence the identities of South Africans. Furthermore, an inherent tension exists in South Africa's social fabric, where ‘race’ and racism are often juxtaposed against narratives of the Rainbow Nation and colourblindness. This study, which is framed by critical 'race' theory and social constructionism, aims to explore the extent of the fluidity and rigidity of 'race', racialisation and racialised identities in post-apartheid South Africa by exploring the narratives of black and white first year students. This study collected the narratives of seven black and seven white first year South African university students. It was found that South African youth identities can be seen to be functioning in relation to and reaction against both South Africa’s racialised past as well as its present socio-cultural context. It was found that the racialised patterns which characterised apartheid still impact on black and white youth identity in contemporary South Africa. For instance, despite the many disruptions to whiteness post-1994, it was noted as still being a normative and dominant construct to some extent. Similarly, despite attempts to rectify power imbalances in the new South Africa, blackness is still constructed as being somewhat other and inferior. However, many alternative voices emerged which subverted these narratives, suggesting that identity is in a state of flux. Thus, despite the continued influence of apartheid’s racialised patterns of identity, shifts and schisms are appearing in post-apartheid racialised identity, where issues of racialised dominance and power relations are no longer as clear cut as they once were.

As past research has found benefits of outdoor education and the current global society is facing a decline in access to beneficial natural spaces due to urbanization (Keniger, Gaston, Irvine &amp; Fuller 2013), the aim of this master thesis research project was to explore the idea of an Outdoor Primary School, a way to provide children the access to beneficial natural spaces. In order to explore this idea, Professional Outdoor Educators (n= 61) were interviewed and asked to fill out a survey about the following aspects: outdoor and indoor spaces, learning activities, curriculum and challenges related to an Outdoor Primary School. There was a wide range of results showing that an Outdoor Primary School is a way to incorporate beneficial ways of learning, such as project-based learning, experience-based and practical learning, social learning, play and student-centered learning in formal schooling. Including learning content and activities that can aid children’s development such as food, animals and sustainability is also possible in an Outdoor Primary School as shown below. Furthermore, an Outdoor Primary School is an institution that can be equipped with beneficial learning environments, such as natural environments, a vast space, spaces for cooking, growing food and keeping animals, quiet zones, play zones and opportunities for creating, building and crafts. These results go in line with previous research about Outdoor Education and related fields, suggesting that an Outdoor Primary School both holds challenges but also is a possible model to bring together many beneficial ways of learning that are already being practiced today.

As áreas protegidas são importantes espaços de conservação da natureza e de práticas turísticas e recreativas. A categoria de parques nacionais apresenta uma oferta natural, principalmente de trilhas para caminhadas, que proporciona ao visitante distintas experiências, porém nem sempre são garantidas qualidade e segurança como elementos inerentes à visitação turística. As trilhas abertas à visitação precisam apresentar sinalização e orientações mínimas, por meio de placas, folhetos, mapas e demais materiais informativos, para contribuir com a qualidade da experiência do visitante, ou seja, as trilhas devem ser planejadas, administradas e manejadas de maneira adequada. Neste contexto, esse trabalho discute um dos elementos essenciais da visitação em trilhas que é a necessidade de existir um sistema de classificação quanto ao grau de dificuldade, como parte integrante das ações de manejo da visitação turística, garantindo informações e contribuindo para a segurança do visitante. O principal objetivo do trabalho é elaborar um modelo para classificar trilhas de caminhada quanto ao grau de dificuldade, com o uso de geotecnologias. Para tanto, a área de estudo nesta pesquisa foi o Parque Nacional do Itatiaia (PNI), localizado na divisa entre Rio de Janeiro e Minas Gerais. Foram selecionadas para análise três trilhas localizadas na Parte Alta do parque, região conhecida como Planalto, quais sejam: Agulhas Negras, Prateleiras e Couto Prateleiras. O estudo apresenta uma abordagem qualitativa, com caminho metodológico delineado a partir de três etapas principais: 1) pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, e entrevistas com gestores do PNI, o que permitiu a seleção dos critérios utilizados para a análise do grau de dificuldade dessas trilhas: declividade, condições do terreno, cobertura vegetal e drenagem; 2) levantamento de dados geográficos em campo, com base nos critérios selecionados, a partir do mapeamento das trilhas com uso de receptor de Sistema Global de Posicionamento (GPS); e 3) aplicação de um modelo de classificação, com uso de técnicas de sensoriamento remoto, operações de álgebra de mapas e ferramentas de análises espaciais em um Sistema de Informações Geográficas (SIG), para produzir os mapas temáticos de acordo com o grau de dificuldade das trilhas. Na revisão de literatura foram identificados poucos estudos no Brasil; e ao mesmo tempo no mundo há diversos sistemas de classificação de trilhas, porém na maioria dos casos não há explicação clara sobre o método adotado, bem como não há referência quanto ao uso de geotecnologias na análise de dados; destaca-se o caso da Austrália por possuir um sistema nacional de classificação de trilhas bem estruturado. Por fim, identificou-se na pesquisa que a realização de análises espaciais deve ser considerada um dos principais alicerces do planejamento e gestão de recursos naturais e do turismo em áreas protegidas, sendo que os mapas servem tanto de apoio aos visitantes quanto para o manejo dos parques / Protected areas are important zones of nature conservation and tourism and recreational practices. The category of national parks has a natural supply mainly of hiking trails that provide the visitor with different experiences; however, quality and safety are not always guaranteed as inherent elements in tourist visitation. Trails open to visitors must present minimum signaling and guidelines through plates, brochures, maps and other informative materials, to contribute to the quality of the visitor experience, i.e., trails must be planned, managed and handled properly. In this context, one of the essential elements of visitation trails is discussed in this study, which is the need of a classification system for trails by the degree of difficulty, as part of the management activities of tourist visits, providing information and contributing to the safety of visitors. The main objective of this study is to develop a model to rank hiking trails by the degree of difficulty with the use of geotechnologies. Therefore, the area of study in this research was the Itatiaia National Park (PNI), located on the border between Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. Three trails located on the upper zone of the park, region known as Plateau, were selected for analysis, which were: Agulhas Negras, Prateleiras and Couto Prateleiras. The study presents a qualitative approach, with a methodological path outlined from three main steps: 1) bibliographical and documentary research, and interviews with PNI managers, which allowed the selection of the criteria for analyzing the degree of difficulty of these trails: slope, terrain conditions, vegetation cover and drainage; 2) field spatial data collection, based on selected criteria, from mapping the trails with a Global Positioning System (GPS); and 3) application of a classification model, using remote sensing techniques, map algebra and spatial analysis tools in a Geographic Information System (GIS), to produce thematic maps according to the degree of difficulty of trails. In the literature review, it were identified few studies in Brazil; and at the same time in the world, there are several trails classification system, but in most cases there is no clear explanation of the method adopted, and there is no reference regarding the use of geotechnologies in data analysis. It is highlighted the case of Australia for having a well-structured national classification system of trails. In conclusion, it was identified in the research that performing spatial analysis should be considered one of the main pillars for planning and management natural resources and tourism in protected areas as maps serve both to support the visitors as well as for parks management

O objetivo central do trabalho é congregar os componentes naturais e sociais que agem no ambiente da região Oeste Catarinense, tendo em vista uma cartografia ambiental. Para tanto, abordamos e representamos em mapa os elementos referentes a geologia, relevo, solos, vegetação, clima, uso e cobertura da terra, rede de drenagem, divisão administrativa e rede viária. Uma visão de síntese, integrada e espacializada da realidade do ambiente regional foi obtida com a utilização de técnicas de geoprocessamento, que, dentre suas possibilidades permitiram a identificação de cinco unidades ambientais e suas subdivisões para o Oeste Catarinense. / The main aim of this work is to bring together the natural and social elements that act on the West Catarinense region in Brazil, considering the environmental cartography. In order to do that, we show and represent maps of geology, relief, soil, vegetation, climate, land use, drainage system, political division and transport. Using the techniques for geoprocessment, a syntesis, integrated and spacialized view of the environmental reality was obtained. This procedure identificated five environmental units and its subdivisions into the West Catarinense.

Os transtornos afetivos influenciam diretamente a configuração dos grupos sociais. Segundo o Código Internacional de Doenças, transtornos afetivos são transtornos nos quais a perturbação fundamental afeta a esfera do humor ou do afeto, no sentido de uma depressão ou de uma elação. Para a psicanálise, a psicodinâmica dos transtornos de humor tem contribuição desde Freud com seu texto sobre a melancolia. Wilfred R. Bion traz uma ampla obra com importantes conceitos acerca das configurações vinculares e da relação continente-conteúdo, a qual é aqui utilizada para compreensão dos transtornos afetivos sob este enfoque. Muitas transformações ocorreram no comportamento e atitudes dos indivíduos contribuindo para o aumento da prevalência de quadros de depressão e outros transtornos afetivos nas últimas décadas. Assim, parece importante refletir sobre esta clínica e sua psicodinâmica. O presente estudo teve o objetivo geral de compreender a psicodinâmica do sujeito que sofre com transtornos afetivos, à luz do pensamento de Bion. Em específico, buscou-se caracterizar o modo de vinculação utilizado pelos participantes e sua consequente configuração. Fizeram parte do estudo dois participantes, utilizando-se os seguintes instrumentos: A) Entrevista semiestruturada para coleta de dados acerca do participante e sua trajetória; B) Teste de Apercepção Temática (TAT) para coleta de dados acerca de sua psicodinâmica. A pesquisa foi realizada dentro do referencial clínico-qualitativo, sendo composta por dois estudos de caso, levando em conta os dados coletados nas entrevistas e dos conteúdos projetados no TAT. Concluiu-se que através dos instrumentos aplicados pôde-se chegar a uma considerável compreensão da psicodinâmica das participantes e de seu sofrimento através da utilização do pensamento de Bion. Em ambos os estudos de caso observou-se um ego frágil diante às frustrações e ao desamparo, transferindo os papeis parentais para outras figuras ao longo da vida, em busca do que foi perdido, advindo de falhas parentais na relação continente-conteúdo, gerando grande carga de elementos oriundos do interior e do exterior. Percebe-se que este panorama exige a utilização maciça de mecanismos de defesa, como a cisão e a ambivalência, servindo à pulsão de morte e demonstrando dificuldade na aquisição e implementação da função . Observou-se ainda a predominância vincular sob a configuração H, -H, -L e -K com os objetos internos e, consequentemente, externos. Destaca-se o fato de os vínculos formados tenderem a fazer parte da configuração que o sintoma e as defesas buscam manter, observando-se inúmeros exemplos da ligação das participantes a formas variadas de ser e viver sem variar a essência da vinculação, estando aprisionadas em modelos vinculares primitivos advindos de seus fantasmas introjetados, impedindo a aproximação com K. O TAT permitiu em ambos os casos obter um discurso que surge do inconsciente na forma primitiva de protopensamentos, mostrando-se um teste prolífico para se analisar pelo corpo teórico de Bion. Isto, tendo-se em vista que a análise do teste se pauta em uma análise do discurso inconsciente, e Bion utiliza exatamente estes elementos do discurso do pensamento para se atingir a compreensão da psicodinâmica. Neste sentido, sugerem-se trabalhos futuros combinando-se o TAT e as teorias de Bion visando a ampliação da compreensão de outros tipos de transtornos psíquicos / Affective disorders can directly influence the configuration of social groups. According to the International Classification of Diseases, affective disorders are defined as those whose fundamental disturbance affects the mood or affection sphere, in the sense of a depression or an elation. Within the psychoanalysis, the psychodynamics of mood disorders has contributions since Freud with his seminal text on melancholy. Wilfred R. Bion brings up a broad work with important concepts about the linkage configurations and the continent-content relationship, which is here used to understand the affective disorders under this approach. In the recent decades many changes have occurred in behavior and attitude of individuals that contributed to increase the prevalence of depression and other affective disorders. Thus, it seems important to reflect on this clinical and its psychodynamics. The present study aimed at understanding the psychodynamics of the subject suffering from affective disorders in the conceptual basis of Bions thought. Specifically, the main analysis focused on the modes of linkage used by the participants and their consequent configuration. Two participants took part in the study, which employed the following instruments: A) Semi-structured interview, to collect data about the participants and their trajectory; and B) Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), to collect data about its psychodynamics. The research was carried out within the clinical-qualitative framework, being composed of two case studies, which took into account the data collected in the interviews and the contents projected in the TAT. It was possible to conclude that through the applied instruments we could reach a considerable understanding of the participants\' psychodynamics and of their suffering through the use of Bion\'s thought. In both case studies, it was seen a fragile ego in face of frustrations and helplessness, transferring the parental roles to other figures throughout life, in search of what was lost, coming from parental failures in the continent-content relation, generating a great load of -elements coming from inside and outside. It was perceived that this panorama requires the massive employment of defense mechanisms such as split and ambivalence, serving the death drive, and demonstrating difficulty in the acquisition and implementation of the function. It was also seen a predominance of linkage under the H, -H, -L and -K configuration with the internal objects, and consequently the external ones. It should be noted that the linkage formed tend to be part of the configuration that the symptom and the defenses seek to maintain, in a way that a number of examples show the connection of the participants to forms of being and living without varying the essence of the linkage, being they imprisoned in these primitive linkage models, that come from their introjected ghosts and which avoid them to eventually approach the K. The TAT allowed, in both cases, to look at a discourse that emerges from the unconscious in the primitive form of protothinking, proving therefore to be a prolific test to be analyzed by the theoretical body of Bions thought. This, because the analysis of the test is based on an analysis of the unconscious discourse and Bion uses exactly these discourse elements of the thinking to reach the understanding of the psychodynamics. In this sense, future work is suggested combining TAT and Bion\'s theories in order to enlarge the understanding of other mental disorders

Esta pesquisa buscou analisar a atual situação das disciplinas cartográficas, especificamente a de Cartografia Temática, ministradas nos cursos de Geografia em instituições públicas de ensino superior do Estado do Paraná e o uso da Semiologia Gráfica entre elas, partindo-se da premissa de que o estudo da linguagem da representação gráfica, tendo esta como base metodológica, é aplicado aos conteúdos ministrados nas disciplinas cartográficas que compõem a grade curricular dos cursos paranaenses, fato que foi investigado através de entrevistas realizadas com os professores responsáveis e por meio da análise de seus planos de ensino. Ademais, buscou-se expor como esta é trabalhada nas disciplinas, investigando algumas questões como: em quais delas esta é empregada?; qual a formação dos docentes quanto a esta metodologia?; quais as bibliografias utilizadas por eles para embasar os conteúdos da Semiologia Gráfica?; como se encontram a estrutura da instituição, seus laboratórios e os softwares utilizados na disciplina?; as dificuldades dos alunos no processo de aprendizagem da Semiologia Gráfica; a importância desta, segunda a opinião dos docentes e; se há outras orientações metodológicas as quais os docentes utilizam além desta. A partir desta investigação, conclui-se que a Semiologia Gráfica continua sendo a corrente metodológica que orienta o entendimento da estruturação de uma linguagem, a da representação gráfica, essencial para a formação do licenciado e bacharel dessa ciência, como parte dos conteúdos cartográficos trabalhados dentro do curso superior de Geografia, sobretudo das instituições públicas de Ensino superior do Paraná. / This research sought to analyze the current situation of cartographic disciplines, specifically the Thematic Cartographic, being taught in geography courses in public higher education institutions of the Parana State and the use of Semiology of Graphics among them, starting from the premise that the language study of graphic representation, which was taken as a methodological basis, it is applied to the contents taught in cartographical disciplines which compose the curriculum grade of Parana courses, a fact that was investigated by interviewing responsible teachers and analyzing their teaching plans. In addition, it sought to expose how this is worked in the disciplines, investigating some questions such as: Which of them are being used? What is the knowledge of teachers about this methodology? Which are the bibliographies used by them to support the Semiology of Graphics Content? How the institution structure is found and how its laboratories and software are used during the discipline? Which are the main difficulties of the students in the learning process of Semiology of Graphics its relevance from teachers opinion and if there are other methodological guidelines which teachers use beyond it? From this work, it is concluded that the Semiology of Graphics remains the current methodological that guides the understanding of language structure, the graphical representation, being essential for licensee and bachelor formation of geography science, as part of cartographic contents worked out in Geography Degree, mainly in public higher education institutions of the Parana State.

A agricultura de precisão fundamenta-se na investigação e manejo da variabilidade dos atributos de interesse agrícola. Diversos fatores que condicionam a produtividade da lavoura, como fertilidade do solo, compactação, condutividade elétrica, já foram alvos de diversos estudos e os resultados tem sido bastante encorajadores. No entanto muitas vezes não existe uma correlação direta entre esses fatores e a produtividade expressa em mapas digitais gerados após a colheita. O objetivo desse estudo foi desenvolver uma tecnologia para mapeamento de iluminação e determinação de áreas de sombreamento, através do software SPRING e de softwares de apoio. A metodologia se mostrou de baixo custo e de relativa facilidade de implementação, podendo servir de uma boa ferramenta para o planejamento de culturas e investigação da variabilidade agrícola. / Precision agriculture is based on investigation and management of the variables within the interests of agriculture. Diverse factors effect the crop productivity of like soil fertility, compaction, electric conductivity, were already targets for various studies and the results have been encouraging. However, many times there is no direct correlation between those factors and the productivity expressed in digital maps generated after the harvest. The object of this study was to develop the technology for mapping the areas of lighting and shadow by using the software SPRING and other support software. The methodology was shown to be of little cost and relative ease of implementation, serving as a good tool for the planning of cultures and investigation of agricultural variability