Introduction: Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the most common cause of disability in children. Healthcare providers aim to facilitate optimal function and participation by working with children and their families. The success of this endeavor depends on shared understanding, collaboration, and contextual factors that affect resource availability. The aim of this thesis was to understand parents’ perspectives in Indian and North American cultures towards management of CP using an ICF lens, to evaluate the extent to which this lens is evident in literature conducted in an Indian context and to evaluate a Knowledge Translation (KT) resource to inform parents and healthcare professionals (HCP). Methods: In the five thesis papers: study 1 explored parents’ perspectives towards the management of their children with CP (qualitative design); study 2 described the contextual factors shaping parents’ perspective in India (reflective design); study 3 and 4, described the research trends in the management of CP in India (scoping review); and study 5 describes the development and evaluation of a KT resource created to inform parents about incorporating the ICFconcepts into management of CP. Results: The qualitative study identified that Indian parents focus more on Body Structure and Function (BSF) challenges and have more resource limitations, as compared to the Canadian context. The scoping review identified that research also focuses on BSF, with less research addressing activity and participation, or its environmental determinants. KT resources showing the application of the ICF concepts into CP management received widespread uptake and were perceived as helpful by parents and HCP. Discussion and Conclusion: ICF was useful for understanding and informing parents and HCP about management of CP. Despite the importance of environmental considerations and contextual factors, these were insufficiently addressed in the literature and in stakeholder perspectives. To optimize CP management across contexts, further research and KT is needed. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the most common cause of physical disability in children. Parents and professionals from multiple disciplines work together to provide developmental support for children with CP. This thesis explored parents’ views about management of CP in India and Canada; assessed the scope of the scientific literature from India addressing CP; and developed and evaluated educational videos to inform parents and professionals about the use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in the management of CP. Parents’ views towards their children in both countries are influenced by the availability of resources, professional attitudes, and cultural beliefs. Research in India focuses on ‘fixing’ the child’s impairments. The videos developed to encourage parents and doctors to focus on increasing activity and participation in children, were judged to be useful in creating awareness about the use of the ICF in the management of CP.

This thesis examines translation strategies for translating figurative language with a focus on metaphors, idioms, and phrasal verbs. Translators often state that figurative language presents challenges in the translation process. This is mainly because the translator must consider the language’s pragmatic, cognitive, and aesthetic functions. This analysis combines a modified translation approach based on Liu and Zhang (2005), Newmark (1988) as well as Lakoff and Johnson (2003). Using the strategies literal translation, transference, meaning translation, omission, and addition to reduce the loss between the source and target texts, this paper seeks to map how frequently these strategies are applied in the translation of metaphors, idioms, and phrasal verbs in the source text. This paper also discusses any potential problems arising in conjunction with these strategies. The findings of this analysis show that literal translation is the most commonly used translation strategy, in line with Liu and Zhang’s recommendations (2005). Overall, the second most frequently used strategy is transference, followed by meaning translation. This analysis also highlights interesting research gaps regarding omission and addition and encourages further research on these subjects. Greater knowledge and application of these strategies could lead not only to a better and more efficient target text but also a target text that is closer in word count to the original, thereby reducing the expansion of the source text.

The use of group dynamics principles such as group goal-setting, distinctiveness and cohesion has been the basis of a burgeoning area of physical activity (PA) promotion. Recent reviews of literature suggest that these interventions are robust and increase PA in a wide variety of populations. Still, a number of questions remain unanswered in the areas of theory development, intervention implementation, and translation of research into practice. This dissertation includes a series of manuscripts that focus on research, theory, and practice of group dynamics interventions intended to promote PA. Within research, a systematic review of literature explores group dynamics-based PA interventions in terms of generalizability (through RE-AIM evaluation) and the degree to which the interventions use research techniques that are more pragmatic (reflect typical practice) or more explanatory (testing under optimal conditions). This exploration is based on an initial review of 17 interventions that employ group dynamics strategies to increase PA, fitness, and/or adherence. The results suggest that this body of literature includes a range of pragmatic and explanatory trials, but still has gaps in reporting related to external validity. Embedded within the context of a PA promotion program for minority women, the second manuscript addresses a theory-based question—to what degree do group-interaction variables (cooperation, communication, and competition) differentially predict group cohesion over time. The results suggest that friendly competition is the strongest and most consistent predictor of different dimensions of group cohesion while task and socially related communication are consistent predictors of task and socially related cohesion, respectively. Two manuscripts are included in addressing the use of group dynamics principles within practice settings. The first practice manuscript details a small pilot study in which obese, limited income women successfully (p<0.05) limited gestational weight gain to the Institute of Medicine (2009) recommendation of 11-20 pounds. This study attempted to integrate a group dynamics approach into a group visit model for pregnant women. The quantitative findings were promising, but qualitative findings indicated a number of difficulties in implementation. The purpose of the final manuscript was to determine the attributes of the program agents consider when deciding to adopt a PA and fruit and vegetable promotion program and their understanding of key strategies related to group dynamics theory. Delivery agents were able to identify key underlying principles and propose adaptations that align with those principles. / Ph. D.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease, which, before the approval of therapies, was the leading genetic cause of infant mortality. The primary features of this pathology are progressive muscle weakness and atrophy, due to the degeneration of α-motor neurons in the anterior horn of the spinal cord. SMA is caused by deletions or mutations in the Survival Motor Neuron gene (Smn1), which induce reduced levels of the SMN protein. Since 1999, this disease has been primarily associated with splicing defects caused by loss of SMN protein due to its role in ribonucleoparticle biogenesis. However, further research revealed that this mechanism alone is not sufficient to explain the pathogenesis of the disease. More recent findings revealed that deficient SMN levels lead to defective translation in primary motor and cortical neurons, and in multiple tissues at the late stage of disease in the severe Taiwanese mouse model of SMA. Furthermore, SMN protein has been confirmed to be a ribosome-associated protein in vitro, in mouse cell lines and in vivo, and to physiologically regulate the translation of a particular subset of transcripts (defined as SMN-specific transcripts), which are characterized by specific sequence features. Upon SMN loss, the translation of this subset of transcripts is defective. SMN protein is ubiquitously expressed and its levels vary at different developmental stages and tissues in physiological conditions, leading to the hypothesis that translational defects may vary accordingly. However, the effect of SMN loss on translation across different tissue types, SMA mouse models, and disease stages is yet to be clarified. To investigate the link between SMN loss and translational defects in SMA, I took advantage of ribosome profiling to obtain the translatome from multiple tissues, stages and disease mouse models. Given that SMN is ubiquitously expressed, brain, spinal cord and liver were collected to investigate if common features underly translational defects upon its loss in these tissues. Since little is known about how translational impairments are modulated over time, tissues were collected from various developmental and disease stages, ranging from the embryo to the post-natal early-symptomatic stage of SMA. Furthermore, translation defects were studied in multiple models of SMA have ranging from severe to mild (i.e., Taiwanese, Delta7 and Smn2b/-), allowing for the exploration of the heterogeneity of the SMA clinical phenotype. Hence, the tissues were collected from three SMA mouse models (i.e., Taiwanese, Delta7, and Smn2b/-), allowing for the investigation of translational impairments in conditions that range from severe to mild SMA. A wide range of computational approaches was adopted to analyze ribosome profiling data from multiple perspectives, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA), pipelines for the analysis of RiboSeq positional information, differential and Gene Ontology enrichment analysis, and network methodologies. This set of tools applies to the study of ribosome profiling data and allows to investigate the translational mechanisms underlying SMA. This multilevel analysis holds difficulties in the representation and interpretation of the obtained results due to the number of variables (i.e., tissue, stage, model, and disease condition). I hence developed an R package to support the visualization of changes occurring in omics data from complex experimental designs. Next, I focused on the identification of translational defects in SMA through pairwise differential analyses performed on each set of experiments. This allowed me to identify significantly altered transcripts within each comparison. Despite poor overlaps between the sets of translationally dysregulated transcripts across the different stages, tissues, and models, commonly enriched biological processes were found. The analysis of sequence features on translationally dysregulated transcripts across all the stages, tissues, and models revealed the presence of features similar to those already found on the SMN-specific transcripts. In addition, based on network methodologies, I investigated the system-wide effects of SMN loss on connectivity patterns at the translational level, by taking advantage of network-based methodologies to integrate all sets of experiments and unravel any relationships between genes at the translatome level. Causal-inference networks, coupled with differential network analysis, complemented the standard differential analysis by modeling how the fluctuations in reciprocal transcript-specific ribosome occupancy might influence each other. This allowed to detect disrupted relationships in the disease condition across the multiple tissues, stages and models. In summary, this thesis provides, to my knowledge, the first multi-tissue, -stage, and -model translatome analysis to investigate the mechanisms underlying SMA. Furthermore, results provided within this work confirm that translation dysregulation is a common feature of SMA pathology across multiple tissues, stages, and SMA models. This highlights that the presence of specific sequence features of translationally dysregulated transcripts is a common link between defective translational regulation and SMN loss. Moreover, the detection of disrupted connectivity patterns at the translatome level underlies that a strong remodeling occurs upon SMN loss, and further emphasizes the pivotal role of this protein in translation. These outcomes highlight the importance of further investigating the mechanisms underlying defective translation in SMA from a system perspective to provide a comprehensive understanding of this pathology and promote the development of effective therapeutic strategies.

The use of graphics processing units (GPUs) in high-performance parallel computing continues to steadily become more prevalent, often as part of a heterogeneous system. For years, CUDA has been the de facto programming environment for nearly all general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) applications. In spite of this, the framework is available only on NVIDIA GPUs, traditionally requiring reimplementation in other frameworks in order to utilize additional multi- or many-core devices. On the other hand, OpenCL provides an open and vendor-neutral programming environment and run-time system. With implementations available for CPUs, GPUs, and other types of accelerators, OpenCL therefore holds the promise of a "write once, run anywhere" ecosystem for heterogeneous computing. Given the many similarities between CUDA and OpenCL, manually porting a CUDA application to OpenCL is almost straightforward, albeit tedious and error-prone. In response to this issue, we created CU2CL, an automated CUDA-to-OpenCL source-to-source translator that possesses a novel design and clever reuse of the Clang compiler framework. Currently, the CU2CL translator covers the primary constructs found in the CUDA Runtime API, and we have successfully translated several applications from the CUDA SDK and Rodinia benchmark suite. CU2CL's translation times are reasonable, allowing for many applications to be translated at once. The number of manual changes required after executing our translator on CUDA source is minimal, with some compiling and working with no changes at all. The performance of our automatically translated applications via CU2CL is on par with their manually ported counterparts. / Master of Science

Yes / John Austin introduced the formulation “performative utterance” in his 1962 book How to do things with words. This term and the related concept of performativity have subsequently been interpreted in numerous ways by social scientists and philosophers such as Lyotard, Butler, Callon, or Barad, leading to the co-existence of several foundational perspectives on performativity. In this paper we review and evaluate critically how organization and management theory (OMT) scholars have used these perspectives, and how the power of performativity has, or has not, stimulated new theory-building. In performing a historical and critical review of performativity in OMT, our analysis reveals the uses, abuses and under-uses of the concept by OMT scholars. It also reveals the lack of both organizational conceptualizations of performativity and analysis of how performativity is organized. Ultimately our aim is to provoke a ‘performative turn’ in OMT by unleashing the power of the performativity concept to generate new and stronger organizational theories.

Over the past century, the widespread popularity of Western art music, in particular that of the standard operatic repertoire, has gradually expanded the development of opera in China. In order to bolster a broad range of classical music genres and help promote the development of Chinese opera, opera houses and opera companies have been built in several major Chinese cities. Moreover, a series of first-rate international vocal competitions have been established to promote original Chinese operas and art songs. Nonetheless, performing this modern repertoire can represent a novel and demanding experience for both Chinese and non-Chinese speaking singers. This dissertation examines eight representative works of Chinese music: four arias and four art songs for soprano. These pieces challenge the singer both in terms of their musical style and their singing techniques. The purpose of this study is therefore to provide a detailed performance guide for sopranos that can assist them to successfully perform these works. In addition, this research will supply relevant background information on the selected compositions, an overview of their historical significance, the origin of the source poem or drama, and acquaint the reader with the key features of the main characters. Furthermore, to better understand the original Chinese Pin Yin characters, the International Phonetic Alphabet is provided, as well as the corresponding English translation and transliteration in the musical scores. The dissertation also incorporates stylistic analyses, as well as an assessment of the vocal demands and singing techniques that appear in all eight pieces. This information has the purpose of helping the performer attain a more accurate rendition of these works. In turn, this study may be used as a research model for future studies of Chinese vocal art music.

Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / The poems of The Stratofortress include adaptations into English of two Greek poets: Sappho, circa 650 BCE, whose poems were composed in the Ancient Greek dialect of her birthplace, the island of Lesbos, Greece; and Constantine P. Cavafy, who lived from April 29, 1863 to April 29, 1933, wrote his poems in Modern Greek, and lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. My adaptations of Sappho’s fragments from the Ancient Greek are presented as songs, and numbered according to the standardized textual organization of the most reliable and commonly referenced scholarly editions of her fragmentary compositions (Lobell and Page, D.A. Campbell, E. Voigt, G. Nagy, D. Yatromanolakis). / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

Drama translation is an area in the discipline of Translation Studies that has been neglected compared with the translation of other literary texts, especially in the South African context. This dissertation contributes to this neglected area by exploring to what extent and how the principles associated with foreignisation, dynamic equivalence and shift theory can aid in the process of translating a literary text, specifically a dramatic text, from Afrikaans into English. This dissertation also discusses translation challenges specific to the translation of the source text, Deon Opperman’s Kaburu, from Afrikaans into English. The source text, Kaburu, was selected because of the playwright’s interesting use of the Afrikaans language and the numerous culture-specific references in the text. In addition, it was theorised that a larger global audience would be able to relate to the international themes of identity and migration while being exposed to themes pertaining to socio-political issues that are prevalent in contemporary South Africa, such as crime, land disownment, name changes and political programs to redress the injustices of the past. In order to retain the culture-specific nature of the text, the decision was made to produce a foreignised translation of the source text. Numerous examples of challenges encountered during the production of the target text are provided and discussed. The examples and discussions provided demonstrates that the theoretical concepts of equivalence, domestication and foreignisation and shift theory can be useful tools in analysing and producing solutions for dealing with challenging translation in a literary translation between Afrikaans and English. / MA (English), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Drama translation is an area in the discipline of Translation Studies that has been neglected compared with the translation of other literary texts, especially in the South African context. This dissertation contributes to this neglected area by exploring to what extent and how the principles associated with foreignisation, dynamic equivalence and shift theory can aid in the process of translating a literary text, specifically a dramatic text, from Afrikaans into English. This dissertation also discusses translation challenges specific to the translation of the source text, Deon Opperman’s Kaburu, from Afrikaans into English. The source text, Kaburu, was selected because of the playwright’s interesting use of the Afrikaans language and the numerous culture-specific references in the text. In addition, it was theorised that a larger global audience would be able to relate to the international themes of identity and migration while being exposed to themes pertaining to socio-political issues that are prevalent in contemporary South Africa, such as crime, land disownment, name changes and political programs to redress the injustices of the past. In order to retain the culture-specific nature of the text, the decision was made to produce a foreignised translation of the source text. Numerous examples of challenges encountered during the production of the target text are provided and discussed. The examples and discussions provided demonstrates that the theoretical concepts of equivalence, domestication and foreignisation and shift theory can be useful tools in analysing and producing solutions for dealing with challenging translation in a literary translation between Afrikaans and English. / MA (English), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014