Bewitched, amputated or dead: an existential study of leadership stuckness

This is a constructivist grounded theory project building a theory on the process and definition of leadership stuckness. Ten senior leaders were interviewed, and the qualitative data analysed for patterns. This led to the creation of a theory of the process of stuckness and an existential definition of stuckness. It was found that the process of leadership stuckness involves three losses: the loss of self and capacity to self-reflect, the loss of relationships, and the loss of meaning. A significant proportion of this research has been devoted to understanding how the participant and the context were perfectly primed for a merged relationship of stucknesss including the leader’s childhood and training. Other significant findings were that leadership stuckness is “normal”, occurs more than once in a lifetime, and varies in severity and complexity. An existential definition of stuckness was generated, as were recommendations for working with an existential approach to stuckness

The injury patterns in pole sports athletes in Gauteng

Abstract: Purpose: To determine the types of injuries occurring in pole sports athletes in Gauteng. In addition, this study aimed to identify potential risk factors that may have predisposed certain athletes to developing musculoskeletal injuries. Risk factors such as: age, weight, skill level, frequency of training and the duration of training were investigated. Method: A questionnaire-based quantitative study was conducted in order to establish the injury patterns occurring in 100 pole sports athletes in Gauteng. A pilot study was used to test the questionnaires before commencing the data collection. Participants were recruited at their pole sports studios after permission was granted by the studio owners. The information letters, consent forms and questionnaires were distributed and completed in hard copy format. The questionnaires were completed anonymously and the participants were free to withdraw from the study at any time before they handed in their completed questionnaire. Once the data collection was completed, a statistician was consulted in order to assist with the data analysis. Results: The majority of the study participants (58%) sustained an injury as a direct result of participating in pole sports. The greatest proportion of the injuries sustained were muscle strains (58%) followed by ligament sprains (29%). The most commonly injured region of the body was the upper limb (41,6%). The risk factors identified that predisposed participants to sustaining a musculoskeletal injury were: skill level, duration of training per day and frequency of training per week. Additionally, the number of years of participation also presented as a risk factor in this study. Conclusion: Injury occurrence was prevalent in this study population, with the upper limb being the most commonly injured body region. The injury patterns were not in accordance with a similar study conducted internationally; however, the setting for these two studies was vastly different which could therefore explain the differences noted between the data collected by each study.M.Tech. (Chiropractic

The effect of zeolite type on the hydrocracking of long n-paraffins

Includes synopsis.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-144).Although it is debatable as to the lifetime of the planet’s crude oil reserves, it is indisputable that they are finite and will, eventually, become exhausted. As such it is desired to devise methods whereby currently available non-crude oil derived hydrocarbon feedstocks may be utilised for the production of clean, high quality liquid fuels (particularly middle distillate fuels such as diesel and jet fuel), aiding in alleviating the demand on crude oil reserves. One technique whereby this may be achieved involves the conversion of the non-crude oil derived hydrocarbon feedstock (for example stranded gas, remote natural gas, coal or biomass) to syngas (a mixture of CO and H2). This syngas is subsequently converted to paraffinic wax by Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, and this wax selectively hydrocracked down to the desired distillate fuels fraction. This hydrocracking may be conducted utilising either monofunctional or bifunctional catalysts. Monofunctional catalysts, such as the supported sulphided base metals or metal oxides utilised in many crude oil refineries, yield a product with minimal additional branching, as desired, though would contaminate the otherwise clean Fischer-Tropsch wax with sulphur. Bifunctional catalysts, utilising a metal on an acidic support, yield a product with significant branching, yet do not contaminate the product. Furthermore, the acid supports utilised in oil refinery applications are limited to either amorphous silica-alumina, or H-USY (a thermally treated large pore zeolite) due to the presence of large, bulky polycyclic and highly branched molecules in the feedstock. Fischer-Tropsch wax exhibits only minimal branching, and it was hence the aim of this investigation to determine whether zeolites with pores smaller than those utilised in the hydrocracking of crude oil derived feedstocks, specifically medium pore zeolites such as H-MFI, may be utilised in the bifunctional hydrocracking of this wax to impart shape selectivity upon the reaction, thereby limiting the extent to which branching may occur. In this regard, four different zeolites (H-MFI, H-BEA, H-USY and H-MOR) were tested under the same, industrially relevant conditions, and the results collated so as to quantify the effects of the each zeolite’s unique properties, in particular their pore geometries (in terms of pore size, shape and channel inter-connectivity), the performance of each catalyst in terms of its activity (the overall conversion of the feedstock) and selectivity (with regards to both carbon number distribution and the degree of branching). Furthermore, it was desired to determine the extent to which the anticipated transition state shape selectivity of some of the zeolites affected the stability (on-stream lifetime) of the catalyst through a reduction in coke formation. The results of this investigation indicated that medium pore zeolites show significant potential for use in the selective hydrocracking of a Fischer-Tropsch wax feedstock. It was found that those zeolites possessing medium sized pores (specifically H-MFI and H-BEA) exhibited a significantly higher activity than did those with only larger pores (H-USY and H-MOR), a phenomenon theorised to be due to the more orderly and efficient configuration of the adsorbed molecules within the medium pores promoting contact with active acid sites. Furthermore, it was found that H-MFI, with a porous network comprised entirely of medium pores, showed an improved selectivity towards the desired linear products, whilst zeolites with only wide pores (H-USY and H-MOR) and those with intersecting wide and medium pores (H-BEA) showed branched product selectivities roughly equivalent to one another, all greatly favouring the production of mono-methyl branched species. Unfortunately, due primarily to the large variations in the observed activity between the zeolites tested, the results of the deactivation analysis were inconclusive

The trajectory of the shifts in academic and civic identity in South African and English secondary school History National Curriculums across two key reform moments

This thesis seeks to explore the trajectories of the kinds of academic and civic identities that four different history curriculums would seek to produce. The curriculum documents chosen are two South African (Curriculum 2005 [1997] and the Curriculum and Policy Statement [2011]) and two English (the first national curriculum [1991] and the most recent [2014] Secondary history national curriculum). These curriculums have been chosen in part because of the historical connections the two countries share, as well as the relationships that exist between the history educationalists in the two contexts. The theoretical underpinning for the discussion of identity are Bernstein's concepts of instructional and regulative discourse. In addition to examining the shifts in imagined identity, the other question which the thesis seeks to answer is that of the underlying purpose of school history. Three ideal types were therefore developed in relation to the three dominant ways of viewing the purpose of history education that emerges in history education literature. The academic and civic identities were analysed through the construction of an analytic framework developed through an iterative process of engaging with the data and history education literature. A framework was also developed to consider the degree to which the four curriculum documents conform to the three ideal types. The shifts in overall purpose and identity within the two contexts are striking. The first English national curriculum saw a tension between a focus on developing history students who had a strong sense of national identity and using constructivist models that teach the students the knowledge base of the subject. Curriculum 2005 instead focused on attempting to create students who were actively engaged with the problems of their current day situation. By the second English national curriculum, this focus on making connections to current day challenges had been introduced in addition to continuing concerns about national identity and understanding the way in which historians work. The Curriculum and Policy Statement reform in South Africa brought greater concerns for developing historical thinking, but nevertheless retained a focus on actively engaged citizenship

Creating a collaborative learning environment online and in a blended history environment during Covid-19

Collaboration is key to an effective history classroom. Discussion, peer work and learner engagement facilitate the development of historical thinking skills, understanding of historical content and a careful engagement with the ethical issues posed in studying history. The realities of teaching online and then in a blended learning environment during COVID-19 have created challenges for maintaining this collaborative environment. The article discusses a number of techniques that have been employed to foster general engagement and also to scaffold assessment.https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/yesterday_and_today/article/view/190

Exploring the use of sandplay psychotherapy in overcoming a language barrier whilst supporting a young vulnerable child

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of sandplay psychotherapy, as intervention technique, in overcoming a language barrier, whilst supporting a young vulnerable child emotionally. An empirical study of limited extent was undertaken, which was qualitative by nature and conducted from the interpretivist paradigm. An in-depth case study was used as research design, whilst educational psychological assessment, intervention and re-assessment, observation, interviews, analysis of documentation, field notes and visual data (photographs) were employed as data collection methods. A young Sotho-speaking girl, who resides in an institution for children who are infected with and affected by HIV&AIDS, who had been made vulnerable by various circumstances (death of primary caregivers, emotional difficulties, and being infected with HIV&AIDS), was selected as the primary participant in the study. The findings of the empirical study are supported by relevant literature with regard to the main concepts guiding the study, namely, sandplay psychotherapy, vulnerable children, and language barriers. The findings were, firstly, that sandplay psychotherapy supported the primary participant emotionally, and, secondly, sandplay psychotherapy was an effective technique for overcoming a language barrier. A further finding was that the emotional healing that appeared to take place had a positive effect on the relationships and communication skills of the primary participant.Dissertation (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006.Educational PsychologyMEdunrestricte

Acorn girl

My thesis encapsulates a coming-of-age novella told through short vignettes of flash fiction and prose poetry. It makes use of the distillation and fragmentation of these forms to explore themes such as the nature of violation, and works between genres to engage the tension between inner and outer realities, and the blurred lines between passivity and resistance. Moving fluidly between memoir and fiction and set in modern day South Africa, it draws inspiration from both my own experiences and the writing of others, especially Raul Zurita’s resistance poetry in Dreams for Kurosawa, Claudia Rankine’s subtle absurdity in Don’t Let Me Be Lonely, bizarro elements as seen in Athena Villaverde’s The Clockwork Girl and the use of physicality to explore the emotional world, as seen in Shelley Jackson’s The Melancholy of Anatomy: Stories

The critical history of the New Group

This research had two aims; to clarify the history of the New Group, and to examine the way in which this history has been constructed and distorted. The first section of the dissertation presented a history of the New Group. Chapter One discussed general aspects of the Group's history such as their activities and administration, and Chapter Two focused on the reasons for the New Group's formation and its dissolution. It was indicated in these chapters that the Group formed in order to provide production and retail structures which would enable artists to earn a living from their work, and that once these had been established the Group disintegrated. Chapter Three considered the issue of nationalism and proposed that most art writers during the New Group's existence were primarily concerned with the development of a national South African art. Furthermore, that many of these writers considered modern European art movements after Post-Impressionism and African art, undesirable influences in the development of a South African art. chapter described the way in which these writers' concern for the development of a national art caused the history of the New Group to be linked to the history and institution of Post-Impressionist art movements in South Africa. Later writers, using earlier writings on the Group as source material, were led to believe that the New Group formed in order to promote art influenced by modern European movements such as Expressionism. The Group's existence was explained by these authors as resulting from a desire to institute art influenced by European, modern, Post-Impressionist art styles as an accepted art form. Part of this understanding of the Group included the belief that the New Group was as a whole a group of modern artists who had to battle for recognition and acceptance from the critics. Chapter One indicated this not to be true. Chapter Six found that the use of early writings as source material caused a further distortion in the history of the New Group. The first chapter indicated that African art was an important influence on the work of the New Group artists but, because this was not recognised in the earlier writings on the Group, this influence was not acknowledged in the later writings. The researcher concluded by indicating that a new approach to the history of the New Group was necessary. That is, that the New Group be seen in relation to the construction and extension of accessible production and retail structures in art, rather than in relation to the institution of European modern art in South Africa

Consumers’ perception of item-level RFID use in FMCG: a balanced perspective of benefits and risks

The main purpose of this thesis is to explore how perceived consumer benefits affect the perceived privacy risks associated with the implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags at an item-level within the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry. This research expanded upon Smith et al. (2013) that explored the idea of consumer benefits for RFID at an item-level, which only considered benefits within a store environment. This thesis proposes two new categories to measure benefits and risks, in-store and after sale. By splitting these benefit and risk categories, the respondents’ willingness to accept RFID in both a public (grocery store) and private (home) environment could be measure individually. To test the theory a quantitative survey was conducted using primary household purchasers within the USA. A total of 261 responses were received and were subjected to a PLS-SEM data analysis through SmartPLS software. The results suggest that while consumers’ seem to be aware that there could be a certain degree of risk while using RFID both in-store and after sale, they would still be willing to use the technology if there were sufficient benefits. This research has both practical and theoretical contributions, as a study into how the benefits of RFID could affect consumer acceptance of RFID, It creates a framework for future researchers to explore the topic in more in-depth studies. However, the study was limited to grocery purchasers within the United States of America (USA) between the ages of 18 and 65. While the study focused on perceived benefits and risks for the grocery purchaser, it does not take into account the rest of the household’s perception of potential benefits and risks for this technology. In practical terms, this research gives practitioners reason to consider consumer benefits as a strategy for item-level RFID implementation within the FMCG industry and importantly starts to build a case for a bottom-up approach to the implantation of RFID as apposed to the enormous cost of an entire supply chain fit out. This research changes the conversation within RFID literature, moving away from a focus on consumer privacy issues to a balanced privacy / benefits approach for consumers and how that might affect their technology acceptance