loveLife, the South African national HIV/AIDS prevention programme for youth, is known for its brand-oriented billboards and mass media campaign that ranges over various print-, broadcast- and alternative media. However, the organisation also implements a national grass-roots peer motivation programme where various activities are co-ordinated by youths (GroundBREAKERS and Mpintshis) from the community. The organisation has been criticised for its communication approach, with many researchers primarily focusing on the organisation's mass media and billboards. This study investigates the communicative approach(es) in loveLife's programme implementation in the light of the normative theory of participatory communication. The focus of this study is to identify how loveLife describes its communication approach, what communication approach the organisation employs and how the organisation's communication approach is perceived by a sample of its target audience. The research was conducted by means of a literature review, qualitative content analysis of loveLife's policy documentation and a selection of the organisation's media. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted at head office, which are contrasted with focus groups with the participants at an implementation site. Broadly, it was found that loveLife's programme is more participatory than most critics would expect and that the organisation attempts to put its primary focus on face-to-face communication. But, there is also tension in what loveLife communicates on a national level and how it relates to grass-roots activities as the national / media-driven communication is more modernistic in its approach, whereas the grass-roots communication is more participatory. / Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

loveLife, the South African national HIV/AIDS prevention programme for youth, is known for its brand-oriented billboards and mass media campaign that ranges over various print-, broadcast- and alternative media. However, the organisation also implements a national grass-roots peer motivation programme where various activities are co-ordinated by youths (GroundBREAKERS and Mpintshis) from the community. The organisation has been criticised for its communication approach, with many researchers primarily focusing on the organisation's mass media and billboards. This study investigates the communicative approach(es) in loveLife's programme implementation in the light of the normative theory of participatory communication. The focus of this study is to identify how loveLife describes its communication approach, what communication approach the organisation employs and how the organisation's communication approach is perceived by a sample of its target audience. The research was conducted by means of a literature review, qualitative content analysis of loveLife's policy documentation and a selection of the organisation's media. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted at head office, which are contrasted with focus groups with the participants at an implementation site. Broadly, it was found that loveLife's programme is more participatory than most critics would expect and that the organisation attempts to put its primary focus on face-to-face communication. But, there is also tension in what loveLife communicates on a national level and how it relates to grass-roots activities as the national / media-driven communication is more modernistic in its approach, whereas the grass-roots communication is more participatory. / Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

This study aims to explore the perceived benefits of three-way observation on the focal areas of objectives of the activities, error-correction techniques, and group-work in an upper-intermediate class in Bilkent University School of English Language. The data was collected through five classroom observations, six post-observation reflection sheets, five focus-group interviews with the students, and five post-observation interviews with the observer. A total of 15 upper-intermediate level students, one teacher, and one observer v were involved in the study. The data was analyzed qualitatively and with the use of descriptive statistics. The findings reveal that the perceptions of the students, teacher, and observer on the focal areas show variability in terms of quantity and quality. It was also discovered that student feedback reveals more detailed information about each focal area and that each perception has its own value and should be taken into consideration by the teacher, observer and students. In this study, the researcher formed a two-step three-way observation model. According to this model, the teacher transfers the information gathered from student interviews to the observer. Based on this information, the observer presents suggestions to the teacher by creating solutions to an existing problem, developing ideas related to classroom activities or increasing the effectiveness of teaching and learning processes in a class.

TiNiPd high-temperature shape memory alloys (HTSMAs) have attracted considerable attention as potential solid-state actuators capable of operating at temperatures up to 500 °C, exhibiting excellent corrosion resistance, adequate ductility levels and significant strain recovery under both constrained and unconstrained thermomechanical conditions. During operation, these actuators may be subjected to multiple cycles and from an application point of view, the functional stability, i.e. conservation of original actuator dimensions and transformation temperatures during repeated employment, is of considerable importance. This study addresses the issue of functional stability in a model HTSMA, Ti50.5Ni24.5Pd25, for its use as a compact solid-state actuator. Since the primary reason for functional instability is the creation of lattice defects (dislocations, vacancies, etc.) during repeated transformation cycles, several methods were successfully undertaken to improve the functional stability through inhibiting the generation of these defects. Solid-solution strengthening through Sc microalloying and thermomechanical treatments via severe plastic deformation were the two approaches used to strengthen the HTSMA against defect generation. Thermal cycling the HTSMA under stress was the third method to voluntarily introduce defects into the microstructure such that further defect generation during application would be impeded. Overall, severe plastic deformation was found to be more efficient than other strengthening methods in improving the functional stability of TiNiPd HTSMA, yet it brought about disadvantages such as reduction in transformation strain and transformation temperatures. While functional instability is due to the creation of lattice defects, the generation of these defects is mainly controlled by the crystallographic incompatibility between martensitically transforming phases and the strength levels for plastic deformation. It was shown that TiNiPd HTSMAs, which exhibited martensitic transformation from a cubic (B2) to orthorhombic (B19) symmetry, illustrated better compatibility and thus better functional stability levels compared to TiNi SMAs, which had a B2 to monoclinic (B19’) transition. Although crystallographic incompatibility seems to be the governing factor for the functional stability of the TiNiPd HTSMA, the strength differential between the onset of plastic deformation and local constraint due to the martensitic transformation was also found to be an influential factor determining the overall stable behavior. Functional stability was also investigated for the two-way shape memory effect (TWSME) in TiNiPd HTSMAs. Better strength and compatibility levels compared to TiNi SMAs were also reflected in the TWSME characteristics in the form of enhanced stability under stress-free thermal cycling. The stability during constrained thermal cycling was not as good and TWSME degraded rapidly while doing work against an opposing stress. Nevertheless, work output levels were much higher as compared to those obtained from conventional TiNi and Cu-based SMAs.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Phoenix Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 304-307).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Phoenix Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 304-307).

O objetivo desta tese é analisar os modos de vida na cidade de Belterra. Foram analisados dois períodos de tempo (1934-1945 / 1995-2011) da vida social do lugar, para identificar como a ação do capital, com base no apoio estatal, se deslocou para a Amazônia Brasileira, se apropriou de grandes porções do território, destruiu ou desorganizou os modos de vida preexistentes em nome das exigências do mercado internacional. No primeiro período, buscou-se identificar como ocorreu o processo de ressocialização do migrante em uma cidade-empresa da Companhia Ford Industrial do Brasil, baseada na criação de uma hierarquia sociofuncional do sistema fordista de produção e uma restrição da convivência dos americanos em relação aos brasileiros. No segundo período, analisamos a presença da soja na cidade e em seu entorno. O rural e o urbano estão contidos na cidade, simultaneamente, como práticas socioculturais que não se fazem pela oposição. A ligação entre os dois períodos encontra-se nas mudanças dos modos de vida preexistentes, no uso predatório da natureza e na enunciação de estereótipos pelos de fora contra a população do lugar sob o abrigo da fala do desenvolvimento. As técnicas usadas foram a observação de campo, as entrevistas, as conversas informais, o levantamento bibliográfico, documental e fotográfico. Permitindo a construção de mapas que resumem estes movimentos. Pudemos realizar entrevistas com perguntas semi-estruturadas para tratar dos dois períodos de tempo considerados em nossa pesquisa. Desse modo, observamos que na cidade praticada, onde se realiza a mediação entre o lugar e a totalidade-mundo, os híbridos presentes na vida cotidiana e o contexto de sua realização nos informam sobre a Amazônia e, em particular, da presença étnica (quilombola e indígena), do rural e do urbano na cidade, uma vez que a vida naquele espaço subnacional não se realiza pelas oposições criadas pelo pensamento abstrato. / The aim of this thesis is to analyze the Belterra ways of life. We analyzed two time periods (1934-1945 / 1995-2011) of the social life of the place, to identify how the action of the Capital, based on governmental support, moved to the Brazilian Amazon, has appropriated large pieces of territory, destroyed or disrupted the ways of life in the name of the requirements international market. In the first period, attempted to identify how was the process of reintegration of migrants into a city-company Ford Industrial Company of Brazil, based on creating a hierarchy sociofuncional Fordist production system and a restriction of living of Americans and Brazilians. In the second period, we analyzed the presence of soy in the city and the around it. The rural and urban are contained in the city simultaneously and socio-cultural practices that are not made by the opposition. The connection between the two periods lies in the changes of "ways of life" pre-existing, the predatory use of nature and the enunciation of stereotypes by "outsiders" against the population of the place with the shelter of speech development. The techniques used were field observations, interviews, informal conversations, the bibliographic, documentary and photographic, allowing the construction of maps that summarize these social movements. We could do interviews with semi-structured questions to address the two time periods considered in our research. Thus, we observed that practiced in the city, where it mediates between the place and the whole world, hybrids present in everyday life and the context of its performance tell us about the Amazon and in particular the presence of ethnic (quilombola and indigenous), the rural and urban life since the sub-space that is not realized by the oppositions created by abstract thinking.

abstract: There are many wireless communication and networking applications that require high transmission rates and reliability with only limited resources in terms of bandwidth, power, hardware complexity etc.. Real-time video streaming, gaming and social networking are a few such examples. Over the years many problems have been addressed towards the goal of enabling such applications; however, significant challenges still remain, particularly, in the context of multi-user communications. With the motivation of addressing some of these challenges, the main focus of this dissertation is the design and analysis of capacity approaching coding schemes for several (wireless) multi-user communication scenarios. Specifically, three main themes are studied: superposition coding over broadcast channels, practical coding for binary-input binary-output broadcast channels, and signalling schemes for two-way relay channels. As the first contribution, we propose an analytical tool that allows for reliable comparison of different practical codes and decoding strategies over degraded broadcast channels, even for very low error rates for which simulations are impractical. The second contribution deals with binary-input binary-output degraded broadcast channels, for which an optimal encoding scheme that achieves the capacity boundary is found, and a practical coding scheme is given by concatenation of an outer low density parity check code and an inner (non-linear) mapper that induces desired distribution of "one" in a codeword. The third contribution considers two-way relay channels where the information exchange between two nodes takes place in two transmission phases using a coding scheme called physical-layer network coding. At the relay, a near optimal decoding strategy is derived using a list decoding algorithm, and an approximation is obtained by a joint decoding approach. For the latter scheme, an analytical approximation of the word error rate based on a union bounding technique is computed under the assumption that linear codes are employed at the two nodes exchanging data. Further, when the wireless channel is frequency selective, two decoding strategies at the relay are developed, namely, a near optimal decoding scheme implemented using list decoding, and a reduced complexity detection/decoding scheme utilizing a linear minimum mean squared error based detector followed by a network coded sequence decoder. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Electrical Engineering 2011

Polarised synchrotron emission from the Milky Way is of interest for its role as a foreground to the polarised CMB and as a probe of the interstellar medium. The Galactic ALFA Continuum Transit Survey (GALFACTS) and the Global Magneto-Ionic Medium Survey (GMIMS) are two ongoing surveys of the diffuse polarised emission around 1.4 GHz, with wide bandwidths and high frequency-resolution. In this thesis, I use early data from GALFACTS to investigate the behaviour of polarised, diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission. I also analyse GMIMS total intensity data. I derive a rotation measure (RM) map of the GALFACTS sky using a combination of RM-synthesis and linear angle fitting, commenting on the structure of the maps in general and on specific regions in particular. Overall I find that the maps are rich in features, and probe the RM structure of the extended Galactic emission with reasonable accuracy. I also derive the Angular Power Spectrum (APS) of the polarised emission for thirty-one 15 by 15 degree subregions across the GALFACTS data. I compute the E- and B-modes (E+B) and the scalar APS of the polarised emission (PI). I parametrise the APS by fitting a power law to the data. Comparing the E+B APS to the PI APS shows that E+B is consistently steeper across the sky. The APS data is also used to estimate the level of foreground contamination of the CMB B-mode by the synchrotron emission. I find that the slope of the APS averaged over high-latitude, low-emission subregions agrees exactly with that of the Planck 30 GHz polarised emission, thus setting an upper limit to the synchrotron contamination of CMB B-modes. Finally, I evaluate the spurious, systematic, temperature zero-level offset and associated uncertainty in preliminary GMIMS total intensity maps, finding a lower limit of ±0.26 K. I also make spectral index maps made using the GMIMS data and the Haslam et al. (1982) 408 MHz map, improving upon previous spectral index maps in the literature.

CARVALHO, Hebe Macedo de. A alternância do indicativo/subjuntivo nas orações substantivas em função dos tempos verbais presente e imperfeito na língua falada do Cariri. 2007. 159f. – Tese (Doutorado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Letras Vernáculas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza (CE), 2007. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-08-25T12:58:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_tese_hmcarvalho.pdf: 713491 bytes, checksum: a0745c6494e20ba4a7d25239ededa62b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-08-25T14:05:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_tese_hmcarvalho.pdf: 713491 bytes, checksum: a0745c6494e20ba4a7d25239ededa62b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-25T14:05:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_tese_hmcarvalho.pdf: 713491 bytes, checksum: a0745c6494e20ba4a7d25239ededa62b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Investigamos neste estudo a alternância dos modos indicativo e subjuntivo na língua falada do Cariri, região que fica ao sul do estado do Ceará. Utilizamos o corpus do Projeto Português não-padrão do Ceará, sediado no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Lingüística da Universidade Federal do Ceará. O objetivo central dessa investigação é captar a variação dos modos indicativo e subjuntivo na língua falada da região em foco, descrever e analisar os ambientes favoráveis e de restrição ao uso do subjuntivo. Controlamos contextos lingüísticos favoráveis à alternância indicativo/subjuntivo e contextos considerados obrigatórios do modo indicativo e do modo subjuntivo, a fim de compreender não somente a alternância, mas a distribuição do subjuntivo nas orações substantivas, a fim de demonstrar que em ambientes de alternância a força modal se encontra na carga semântica do verbo matriz, estando as formas indicativo/subjuntivo atuando apenas como variantes morfológicas desprovidas da sua função precípua de modo. Os dados foram quantificados por meio do pacote de programas VARBRUL e analisados à luz da Teoria da Variação e de pressupostos funcionalistas (GIVÓN, 1984; 1995; 2001) para o modo subjuntivo. Realizamos rodadas separadas por tempo verbal. Controlamos as orações no presente do indicativo vs. presente do subjuntivo e as orações no pretérito imperfeito do indicativo vs. pretérito imperfeito do subjuntivo. Os resultados constatam a interferência de condicionadores lingüísticos e sociais no uso da alternância dos modos indicativo e subjuntivo. Verificamos que os fatores estruturais tipo de verbo da oração matriz e modalidade revelam-se relevantes na distribuição do subjuntivo. O grupo de fatores anos de escolarização não reflete influências no uso do subjuntivo. Nos dados, informantes com nenhuma escolaridade formal usam mais o subjuntivo do que estudantes com mais de 11 anos de escolaridade. Ao realizamos uma rodada agrupando falantes de 0-4 anos, 5-11 anos e mais de 11 anos de escolaridade o grupo de fatores não foi selecionado como significativo nos dados do presente. Nas rodadas referentes ao imperfeito, ainda que com poucos dados, esse grupo também não se mostrou significativo. Em linhas gerais, a força modal da sentença se concentra na carga semântica do verbo principal, sendo a alternância no português produto de complexas interações de fatores lingüísticos.