Many vital components of clinical practice including placement of candidate with clinical faculty remain unaddressed in current research. Missing from formal mentoring research is recognition of the best-quality way to pair mentors and protégés in order for both parties to receive the most benefits from the relationship. Mentoring has been shown to be foundational to the retention of career and technical education teachers making mentoring especially critical. The candidate population for the study included students enrolled in clinical practice during the spring of 2009 in agricultural education certification programs at 14 different universities. Findings using a matched pairs t-tests were conducted to reach the heart of the study, the dyadic mentoring relationships between candidate and clinical faculty. Cognitive effect, an indicator of problem solving style was not found to be a significant factor in the study. However, cognitive affect, an indicator of interpersonal orientation found many significant differences. Significance was found at the 0.05 level in the areas of candidate expressed inclusion and clinical faculty wanted inclusion (t=5.27), candidate expressed total and clinical faculty wanted total (t=3.88), candidate wanted control and clinical faculty expressed control (t=-2.97). Significance was also found at the 0.01 level of significance for candidate wanted total and clinical faculty expressed total (t=-2.37). In the area of behavior a matched pairs t-test determined perceived psychosocial support (t=-2.86) and perceived total support (t=-2.32) to be significant. Mentoring and clinical practice are extremely dynamic constructs as many different influences are present from personal preferences to the way people naturally and holistically function. When universities identify clinical faculty, attention should be paid to the matching of dyads in order to emulate an informal mentoring experience to the greatest extent possible. Although mentoring is extremely complex, the research indicates promise for agreement and promise for continued research to benefit not only individuals, but our entire profession. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

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Thesis (MA (Industrial Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The survival of an organisation in a global competitive business environment depends on its survival skills (e.g. adaptability, flexibility and innovativeness), which is situated within its human resources. Hence, the recruitment function’s role is critical, since it is responsible for the procurement of key intellectual capital that could equip the organisation with a competitive advantage. However, against the accelerated growth of the Internet combined with global competition, traditional recruitment methods are increasingly failing to rise to the challenge of securing key intellectual capital, due to being too time consuming and expensive. Consequently, organisations are progressively turning to online recruitment (which does not refer to one specific technique, but rather several different Internet tools that can be employed as a recruitment method, such as organisational websites, specialised job sites, media websites or newsgroups). However, the presence of an organisational website that advertises vacancies is not sufficient to guarantee its success as a recruitment method. Hence, it is vital to gain an understanding of website recruitment, as well as how to maximise the website’s effectiveness and ability to facilitate successful online applicant behaviour (SOAB), in order to harness its full potential as a recruitment method, able to secure key intellectual capital. For the purpose of this study, SOAB refers to potential applicants (i.e. job seekers entering an organisational website in search of employment opportunities) being able to browse the website without any difficulty and obtain relevant and sufficient information concerning the organisation and its listed vacancies. In addition to enabling potential applicants to assess whether he/she will be able to fit, perform and accelerate in the work climate and culture of the organisation (i.e. decide whether he/she would like to work for the organisation), a website that facilitates SOAB, should also enable potential applicants to contact the organisation to address additional information needs. In essence, this study comprises of three phases and centres on the identification of website content- and usability design benchmarks that should contribute to a website’s ability to facilitate SOAB. By means of a comprehensive literature review, it is argued that the content- and usability design are vital contributing factors to a website’s ability to facilitate SOAB. It is also proposed that the effectiveness of the website as a recruitment method is, to a certain degree, linked to the effectiveness of the alignment of an organisation’s online recruitment strategy with the five stages of potential applicants’ job decision-making process (i.e. the recognition of an employment need, search for career related information, evaluation of career alternatives, identification and acceptance of employment and post-choice evaluation). Phase one, entails the identification of website content- and usability design benchmarks and culminates with the development of the Website Benchmarks Checklist. Phase two, which constitutes the overall purpose of this study, entails an audit of the sample of the ‘best’ SA employers’ (drawn from a survey conducted by the Corporate Research Foundation, 2005) websites. The primary aim is to determine the extent to which the sample’s website design incorporates the identified benchmarks. However, the quality of potential applicants’ interaction with a website (i.e. informative content being communicated in an effective, efficient and satisfactory manner), greatly influences their perception of the organisation’s image, its attractiveness as an employer, as well as their intention to pursue employment within the organisation. Hence, the third phase of the study entails the subjective evaluation of three websites (selected from the audited sample), by a sample of potential applicants. Throughout the study, the empirical tests conducted were descriptive in nature and utilised survey research methods to acquire the required data, related to the specified goals and objectives that encapsulate the aim and purpose of this study. The results obtained provided valuable insight into website design benchmarks that should assist potential applicants in their job decision-making process, increase a website’s ability to facilitate SOAB and maximise its effectiveness as a recruitment method responsible for securing key intellectual capital. In addition to revealing that the majority of the sample employs its website as a recruitment method, the audit results also indicated that although a high level of adherence existed concerning the sample’s incorporation of the usability design benchmarks. However, a notable difference that ranged from very little to relatively high existed with regards to the extent to which the sample’s website design adhered to the content design benchmarks. The subjective evaluation of the three websites by potential applicants revealed that in addition to being critical contributors to the quality of their interaction with a website, the content- and usability design also had a profound impact on their assessment of the websites. Finally, the results also showed that a similarity existed between potential applicants’ subjective evaluation and the extent to which the design of the three websites adhered to the recommended benchmarks (audit results).

The electronic properties of Triphenylamine (TPA) in gas phase and adsorbed on gold(111) have been simulated with Quantum Espresso using Density Functional Theory (DFT). To better understand how the presence of a gold surface affects sunlight absorption in the system, partial Density Of States (pDOS) and Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) of the system have been calculated. To describe the electronic excitation, three different methods have been used, No Core Hole (NCH), Full Core Hole (FCH) and Half Core Hole (HCH) approximation. The excitation of the TPA molecule was made in the nitrogen (N) atom and in the four different carbon (C) atoms with different electronic environments, C-ipso, C-ortho, C-meta and C-para. When using the HCH method, the absorbing atom must be described by a pseudopotential (PP) which includes half of a hole in the 1s orbital. This PP has been generated and a detailed summary of the process is described. The TPA/gold system relaxes to a position with the central N atom of TPA above an gold (Au) atom in the second layer of the surface and at a distance of 3.66 Angstrom, to the first layer. TPA keeps its symmetry with only small differences in the length of atomic bonds when adsorbed. The most striking result of this study is how the band gap of TPA is affected by the gold layer. From the pDOS we can observe that TPA in gas phase has a clear band gap of 2.2 eV with C-ortho dominating in the valence region and the four carbons dominating in the first unoccupied states. When depositing the molecule on the surface of Au(111), the band gap is essentially gone and a number of states appear between the previous highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital in TPA. These new states align in energy with three clusters of states of the gold suggesting an interaction between the molecule and the surface. In the generated NEXAFS of nitrogen and carbon in TPA gas phase, one can observe a small pre-peak before the first unoccupied state. This is reinforced when adsorbing the molecule, which generates a pre-peak of approximately 3 eV in width. The pre-peak is connected to the new peaks seen in pDOS, correlating with experimental results on the same system.

Master of Visual Arts / This Dissertation explores the metaphor of Ariadne’s thread in terms of interconnection, when an element from the everyday is used as a locus linking broader concepts of time and space. Such experiences and associations are reflected in the work of Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Doris Salcedo, Lucio Fontana, Richard Tuttle, Mona Hatoum, Simone Mangos, Anya Gallaccio and Yoshihiro Suda. In relation to my own work, the metaphor of interconnecting thread allows a sense of freedom and journey of discovery. My studio and related research are closely aligned in developing my understanding of interconnection, through my studio process of making and continuing experiences of looking at and interpreting others artists’ work.

Master of Visual Arts / This Dissertation explores the metaphor of Ariadne’s thread in terms of interconnection, when an element from the everyday is used as a locus linking broader concepts of time and space. Such experiences and associations are reflected in the work of Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Doris Salcedo, Lucio Fontana, Richard Tuttle, Mona Hatoum, Simone Mangos, Anya Gallaccio and Yoshihiro Suda. In relation to my own work, the metaphor of interconnecting thread allows a sense of freedom and journey of discovery. My studio and related research are closely aligned in developing my understanding of interconnection, through my studio process of making and continuing experiences of looking at and interpreting others artists’ work.

La tesi si propone di indagare l’intertestualità dantesca nell’opera volgare di Matteo Maria Boiardo. Il fenomeno è già stato oggetto di studi – indirizzati soprattutto al poema cavalleresco, e in misura minore (specie negli ultimi anni) al canzoniere lirico – che si sono mossi però nell’alveo dell’impostazione strutturalista, con una considerazione della memoria poetica da un punto di vista formalista e tipologico. Questa corrente ha consentito sviluppi importanti negli studi filologici, ma porta a vedere il fatto letterario staccato dal suo contesto di riferimento. Se questo esito in Italia è stato arginato da una forte base storicista, va detto che gli studi sulle riprese poetiche hanno però vissuto una situazione particolare. Da una parte, infatti, lo strutturalismo fra anni ’60 e ’70 ha imposto anche in Italia, attraverso una serie di importanti lavori, il suo modo di trattare la questione, senza poi che il successivo approdo semiotico incidesse in maniera significativa. Dall’altra, la reazione di chi voleva agganciare il fenomeno al dato storico ha riportato il problema all’impostazione erudita della critica delle fonti, privilegiando la raccolta dati da mettere in relazione con le informazioni sulla storia della tradizione e della circolazione. L’obbiettivo di questa tesi è fare un passo avanti, nella convinzione che per lo studio di questi fenomeni di riuso sia la circolazione manoscritta che i dati testuali e formali vadano letti in una piena prospettiva semiotica: guardare ai fenomeni di tradizione e trasmissione testuale nell’ottica dei processi ricettivi, e considerare le scelte di memoria poetica come atti comunicativi, con un valore pragmatico. La ricerca ha l’intento di giungere ad una maggior comprensione del rapporto del dotto poeta umanistico con il modello dantesco, un’interpretazione più chiara delle strategie di riuso, determinate dal particolare modo di leggere la Commedia nel contesto specifico, e perciò attraverso un preciso filtro fra quelli disponibili al tempo. Accanto all’insieme di informazioni filologiche sulle attestazioni manoscritte nelle biblioteche del tempo, l’indagine qui condotta consente – anche da un punto di vista che potremmo definire attributivo – di indicare in Benvenuto da Imola l’esegeta di riferimento per Boiardo e il suo pubblico, proprio perché l’osservazione ravvicinata dei testi e dei loro legami fa emergere questa tradizione interpretativa come la più attiva nell’elaborazione boiardesca rivolta ai lettori. Il lavoro non ha preso le mosse da un afflato teorico, teso a riconcettualizzare l’intertestualità, ma da un intento di chiarificazione sui testi e alcuni loro aspetti che non sembravano però trovare una spiegazione soddisfacente all’interno del quadro metodologico diffuso. Il lavoro, allora, ha assunto poco alla volta anche una vena metodologica sorta dall’osservazione dei fenomeni in modo nuovo. E così, accanto all’indagine storico-letteraria, e in stretta relazione con essa, è stato possibile avanzare alcune proposte ermeneutiche sui meccanismi intertestuali in base alle dinamiche della comunicazione letteraria. E nelle pagine che seguono il percorso si articola attorno a nuclei diversi ma interconnessi: da una parte la riflessione generale a carattere semiotico sui fenomeni di memoria poetica, che vengono concettualizzati grazie agli apporti di discipline come la pragmatica; segue una ricognizione storica sulle modalità di lettura e ricezione del modello dantesco – e non solo – in base alla circolazione dei testi e dei loro apparati esegetici; si arriva poi al nucleo del lavoro con l’affondo diretto su opere e paratesti esegetici con le loro relazioni, che si instaurano all’interno del laboratorio d’autore e poi da lì arrivano al pubblico.