Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'External communities'

Class of 2008
Objectives: To determine the number of senior communities within the Tucson area that have access to automated external defibrillators (AED). Methods: Publicly available internet search engines were used to identify a number of various senior communities within the Tucson area. The various communities included senior apartment communities, recreational vehicle parks, and manufactured home parks. A representative employee of the community was interviewed to determine if an AED was accessible to the residents of the community. Results: Thirty senior apartments, eight manufactured home, and twelve RV communities were identified. The communities ranged in size from 22 to 1576 units, with the average being 222 units per community and the mean 232 units per community. IF the 50 senior communities identified only 2 of them had an AED on the premises. Both of the communities that had an AED on premise were RV parks that had a paid security crew that was trained in the use of the AED. Conclusions: In the Tucson senior communities there is a gross under availability of access to life saving equipment in a population that has a higher risk heart attacks and could benefit from having access to an AED.

The mechanism through which goals influence stereotype activation/control is unclear. This thesis aimed to shed some light on the mechanism through which internally-generated and externally-imposed goals influence stereotype activation by applying Fishbach and colleagues’ model of goal progress. Across six experiments, I demonstrated that (1) internal, but not external, egalitarian goals result in less stereotype accessibility (consistent with egalitarian goal pursuit) following a potentially large goal–behaviour discrepancy (Experiment 2), (2) external, but not internal, egalitarian goals result in less stereotype accessibility (consistent with egalitarian goal pursuit) when contemplating past success (Experiment 1), but not following a potentially small goal–behaviour discrepancy or a potential goal–behaviour match (Experiments 3 & 4), and (3) internal egalitarian goals result in concern over including ambiguous faces in the ingroup, but only following a potential goal–behaviour discrepancy. External egalitarian goals irrespective of goal–behaviour discrepancy size, and internal egalitarian goals following a potential goal–behaviour match, both result in concern over accurate categorisation (Experiment 6). These findings suggest that the source of a goal (i.e., internal vs. external), and discrepancy size for internal, but not external, goals, are important parts of the mechanism through which goals influence social categorisation and stereotype activation.

This dissertation offers an analysis of the dimensions of exile and considers how they are reflected in cultural products that emerge in the Iranian context. Exile has generally been understood to mean enforced displacement from a homeland. As a result, the cultural products of exile, for the most part, focus on the dimensions of exile in its physical, expatriated sense: what I refer to as external exile. Exile, however, is a complex phenomenon and it has a variety of dimensions. Exploring, analysing and exposing varieties of exile and exilic identities are important. Because, in the Iranian context, exile and the cultural products generated in exilic conditions play a key role in socio-political make ups of the country. The cultural products of exile, for the most part, aim to expose and through it resist oppression. Studying the dimensions of exile reflected in the selected cultural products show that even though the narratives of exile set out to resist enforced displacement they can instead perpetuate exile. This dissertation looks at three various dimensions of exile: external, internal and intrinsic exile. It begins by considering the cultural products of external exile, using Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It suggests that the understanding of exile is too simplistic and proposes two other ways in which exile can be understood. The first of these is internal exile, which is the exilic condition of people still inside their homeland, using Ahmad Shamlou’s poetry and a film by Granaz Moussavi, My Tehran For Sale. The second is intrinsic exile, which is an exilic condition of people wherever they reside. The selected cultural products for understanding intrinsic exile are Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat and Azadeh Kanom and Her Writer or Dr. Sharifie’s Private Auschwitz, by Reza Baraheni.

Magister Educationis - MEd
Student persistence is a thorn area which did not receive much publication in Namibia and South Africa. Many research focused on why students fail to persist in higher education opposed to why they succeed. This research paper mainly investigated the relationships between external communities, social and academic integration and student persistence among distance students. I used Tinto's theory of student persistence at institutions of higher learning as my theoretical approach. The study employed a qualitative approach with a phenomenological design. I collected data by interviewing senior distance students at a certain public university in Southern Africa. The findings of this research revealed that the majority of students are self-driven which gave an impression that self -motivation and intentions of participants contribute significantly to student persistence. Indications are that informal peer group support contributes considerably to student persistence. The overall outcomes suggest that support from family members and employers positively influence students' academic progress and success. This study generally suggests that there is a positive relationship between external communities and student persistence opposed to what many scholars suggested.

The proliferation of web based technologies has resulted in new forms of communities and organizations with enormous implications for design of learning and education. This thesis explores learning occurring within open source software (OSS) communities. OSS communities are a dominant form of organizing in software development with implications not only for innovative product development but also for the training of a large number of software developers. The central catalyst of learning within these communities is expert-novice interactions. These interactions between experts and novices or newcomers are critical for the growth and sustenance of a community and therefore it is imperative that experts are able to provide newcomers requisite advice and support as they traverse the community and develop software. Although prior literature has demonstrated the significance of expert-novice interactions, there are two central issues that have not been examined. First, there is no examination of the role of external events on community interaction, particularly as it relates to experts and novices. Second, the exact nature of expert help, particularly, the quantity of help and whether it helps or hinders newcomer participation has not been studied. This thesis studies these two aspects of expert-novice interaction within OSS communities. The data for this study comes from two OSS communities. The Java newcomer forum was studied as it provided a useful setting for examining external events given the recent changes in Javaâ s ownership. Furthermore, the forum has a rating system which classifies newcomers and experienced members allowing the analysis of expert-novice interactions. The second set of data comes from the MySQL newcomer forum which has also undergone organizational changes and allows for comparison with data from the Java forum. Data were collected by parsing information from the HTML pages and stored in a relational database. To analyze the effect of external events, a natural experiment method was used whereby participation levels were studied around significant events that affected the community. To better understand the changes contextually, an extensive study of major news outlets was also undertaken. Findings from the external event study show significant changes in participation patterns, especially among newcomers in response to key external events. The study also revealed that the changes in participation of newcomers were observed even though other internal characteristics (help giving, expert participation) did not change indicating that external events have a strong bearing on community participation. The effect of expert advice was studied using a logistic regression model to determine how specific participation patterns in discussion threads led to the final response to newcomers. This was supported by social network analysis to visually interpret the participation patterns of experienced members in two different scenarios, one in which the question was answered and the other where it was not. Findings show that higher number of responses from experienced members did not correlate with a response. Therefore, although expert help is essential, non-moderated or unguided help can lead to conflict among experts and inefficient feedback to newcomers.
Master of Science

This study explores the argument that Postcolonial Africa has been the setting for competing external language spread policies (LSPs) by ex-colonial European countries at the turn of the 21st Century. To explore the topic I examine the case studies of Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, in the time frame of the 1990s to the present. In both case studies is visible the pervasiveness of international European languages that has been fostered by the history, structure and functioning of the international system. African languages mostly remain circumscribed to non-official domains. This linguistic inequality reflects the power relations enacted in society and internationally. It further raises issues of linguistic/cultural human rights and the defence of language and cultural diversity that this study argues for. Associated with the European languages are foreign governments’ policies that support language spread in different measures and, in some cases, are at the origin of the internal language spread policy of the African countries. In Mozambique, my research identified overt external language spread policies undertaken by the governments of Portugal, Brazil, France, UK and Germany. In Guinea-Bissau, research identified external language spread policies undertaken by the government of Portugal, Brazil, France and Germany. Languages are dynamic and the linguistic situation in Africa should not be read as a simple dichotomy of European versus African languages in a positive/negative balance. As it has been deployed, the process of spread of official languages in Africa leads to their de facto supremacy and can be read as a ‘glottophagic’/language cannabalism process (Breton 1991, Calvet 2002b). It is thus imperative that a strong political will supports policies for African languages allowing the maxium participation of the people in the governing process and promoting socio-cultural independence from the outside world (Heine 1992). This study is based on transdisciplinary analysis using elements of sociology of language, sociolinguistics and international relations. Research for this study focused on the qualitative analysis of extensive documentary data and a series of elite interviews.

The competence of the European States in the field of international relations seems to conceive at the present time as an all-embracing faculty, which embraces all responsibility for any activity with external significance. In the Spanish case, this trend has meant a return to the prevailing conception during the primary stage of constitutional development, and refers to coverage in an expansive reading of the State’s competency title on international relations and on the functions of international treaties and Direction Foreign policy constitutionally conferred on the Government.
La competencia de los Estados europeos en materia de relaciones internacionales parece concebirse en la actualidad como una facultad omnímoda, que abraza toda responsabilidad sobre cualquier actividad con trascendencia exterior. En el caso español, esta tendencia ha supuesto un regreso a la concepción prevalente durante la etapa primaria de desarrollo constitucional, y pretende hallar cobertura en una lectura expansiva del título competencial del Estado sobre las relaciones internacionales y en las funciones sobre tratados internacionales y dirección de la política exterior conferidas constitucionalmente al Gobierno.

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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
The study aims to contribute to the analysis of Brazilian foreign policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian issue during the establishment of the Israeli State. In order to take the debate further, the research seeks to understand how the existing Arab and Jewish communities in this country campaigned in favour of their own position within the Brazilian policy on this matter. For us to investigate the essential forces and elements in the formation of Brazilian diplomatic positioning, it is crucial we understand how the Palestine issue was discussed and how it shaped within society, according to the 1947 and 1948 events, which determined the establishment of the Arab and Jewish communities in Brazil. It is therefore necessary to emphasise the meaning of both domestic and international scenarios. The study is based upon the analysis of documents related to the Brazilian diplomatic history, available in the archives of Itamaraty Palace - Ministry of External Relations, as well as the archives of the most relevant national newspapers of that period, “Jornal do Brasil”, “Correio da Manhã”, “Folha de São Paulo” and “Estado de São Paulo”, amongst several other sources. By gathering all information available from all sources it is clear to us that the Brazilian government in his diplomacy had to overcome a series of factors, which were previously based on restrictive and pre-judgemental policies existing during this historical period. As a result, the fact that the two groups in question have unique characteristics and beliefs shows us the direct impact towards their mobilisation and the outcome of it
presente estudo pretende contribuir para a análise da política externa brasileira em relação à questão israelo-palestina durante o período de formação do Estado israelense. De forma a adensar este debate, o trabalho busca compreender como as comunidades árabe e judaica presentes no país recepcionaram e se mobilizaram diante da política brasileira adotada na questão. Foi necessário contextualizar tanto o cenário doméstico quanto o internacional, a fim de verificar quais forças e elementos foram fundamentais para o posicionamento diplomático brasileiro e a configuração que a questão palestiniana adquiriu na sociedade, segundo a hipótese de que os eventos de 1947 e 1948 tiveram um papel formador do arabismo e judaísmo brasileiros. Para isto, o estudo foi permeado pela análise dos documentos históricos da diplomacia brasileira, disponíveis nos Arquivos do Itamaraty, dos impressos nacionais mais relevantes no período: Jornal do Brasil, Correio da Manhã, Folhas de São Paulo e Estado de São Paulo, assim como de fontes secundárias. A convergência de tais fontes nos possibilitou perceber que, o governo brasileiro em sua formulação diplomática teve de dialogar com fatores diversos permeados por preconceitos e políticas restritivas, inseridas dentro do período histórico analisado, e que as etnias em questão possuíam características singulares e motivações distintas entre si, as quais afetaram diretamente a forma e os resultados de sua mobilização

This thesis analyses the decision-making within the European Community on opening to the People’s Republic of China between 1969 and 1979. The three main research themes, which this thesis will make a contribution to, are the EC’s decision-making in foreign policy, European integration in the 1970s, and the intersection of European integration and the Cold War. Neither the historiography of the Cold War nor of European integration have dealt with the EC-PRC relationship. This research addresses that deficiency. This is the first detailed, systematic historical study of the origins of the Community’s response to China that bases on archival sources released according to the 30-year rule. The study takes a Community-centred perspective, focusing on how the interests of the EC member states, those of the EC intergovernmental and supranational actors came together in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg to shape the EC’s response to the PRC. It is based on extensive multi-archival and multinational research, including records of the Community institutions, the French, British and German governments, personal papers, and interviews. The thesis argues that the Commission was the principal architect and motor behind the EC’s opening to China. Sir Christopher Soames, the first British vice-president and commissioner for external relations, was primarily responsible for establishing official relations. Personal beliefs and ambitions were at the root of his decision-making. Geopolitics were key. However the principal factor behind his and the Commission’s subsequent decisions was inter-institutional jockeying for power. The main implications of the opening were a furthering and deepening of European integration, and an acceleration of European détente and détente in Europe. This thesis therefore shows that the wrangle for competencies within the EC institutional system intertwined with broader trends of history, the end of the PRC’s isolation from international affairs and détente.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
O objetivo geral da pesquisa é compreender por qual motivo e de que forma Brasil e Argentina optaram pela cooperação na área nuclear ainda durante seus governos militares. Segundo a literatura tradicional da área de Relações Internacionais, os ganhos relativos deveriam estar em evidência e, por conseguinte, impediriam a coordenação de posições em uma área tão importante para as estratégias de desenvolvimento e de inserção internacional dos dois países o que não se verificou na prática. Minha dissertação tem como meta entender o porquê. Da finalidade principal, decorrem objetivos específicos. São eles: lançar uma nova percepção acerca das relações Brasil-Argentina, ainda hoje encaradas primordialmente de acordo com padrões de inimizade e de desconfiança; compreender até que ponto as motivações dos países para o domínio da tecnologia nuclear estão relacionados a questões de segurança ou de desenvolvimento nacional; compreender quais foram as bases materiais e ideacionais que permitiram aos dois países integrar-se e, portanto, compartilhar soberania em um tema de high politics; demonstrar que a cooperação não é exclusividade de regimes democráticos; analisar a influência de grupos não políticos na formulação de políticas e do processo decisório; comprovar que não houve corrida armamentista na região ou a intenção de utilizar o aparato nuclear contra o vizinho. O recorte temporal deste trabalho partirá do final dos anos 1964, quando houve coincidência de regimes militares nos dois países, até o ano de 1985, quando a democracia é restaurada no Brasil. O marco temporal não é hermético, já que há referências anteriores a 1964, mormente no tocante à cooperação científica, e após 1985, quando a coordenação nuclear brasileiro-argentina é elevada a um nível superior, com o estabelecimento da ABACC. Na tentativa de responder às perguntas propostas, minha dissertação se baseia na análise de dois atores primordiais: o Estado e as comunidades epistêmicas.
The overall goal of my research is to understand based on which reasons and by which means Brazil and Argentina have opted for cooperation in the nuclear field during the military rule in both countries. According to the traditional literature of International Relations field, relative gains should be in evidence and, therefore, keep the countries from coordinating its positions in such an important scope for each country strategies of development and international projection - which did not occur in practice. My dissertation aims to understand the reasons why two once rivals became cooperative. From the main purpose derive specific goals, as follows: to launch a new perception of the Brazil - Argentina relations, still seen primarily according to patterns of enmity and mistrust; understand to what extent the motivations of countries in nuclear technology are related to security issues or national development; understand which were the material and ideational foundations that enabled the two countries to integrate and therefore share sovereignty in a matter of high politics; demonstrate that cooperation is not exclusive to democratic regimes; analyze the influence of non-political groups in policy formulation and decision making; prove that there was no arms race in the region or intention to use the nuclear device against one another. The time frame of this study departs from late 1964, when the military regime begins in Brazil, to the year 1985, when democracy is restored in the Southern Cone. The timeframe is not airtight, since there are earlier references to 1964, mainly involving the scientific cooperation, and after 1985, when the Brazilian-Argentine nuclear coordination is elevated to a higher level, with the establishment of ABACC. In an attempt to answer the questions posed, my dissertation is based on the analysis of two main actors: the state and epistemic communities.

博士
國立臺灣大學
資訊管理學研究所
99
This thesis is to understand the knowdege transfer and creation practices in a network of practice communities across organizations. It constructs a subantive theory by the grounded theory qualitative research method through participant observation and in-depth interviews data collection approachs in an IT research & analysis firm. This theory describes how the organizational context and industrial atmosphere impact knowing trading process where organization members interact within network of practice communities across organizations. It also explains how the knowing in cognition, knowing in action and mental model interweav in organization members’ knowing in practice. The theory explains knowing practices in a network of practice across organizations. Also, it prvoides new directions to include discourse construction and social cognition and institutional contexts into organizational knowedge practice school.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
The purpose of the study was to gather validity evidence for a South African developed instrument designed to measure individual and contextual factors associated with adolescent substance use in low socio-economic status communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. Studies report high rates of substance use in these communities. This possibly points towards the impact of typical post-apartheid contextual factors on the development of adolescent substance use. The South African Substance Use Contextual Risk Questionnaire (SASUCRQ) measures adolescents’ subjective experiences of their own psycho-social and their communities’ functioning.

The host - parasitoid community of externally feeding folivorous Lepidoptera and their parasitoids was studied on 45 focal tree species in a New Guinea rainforest. The patterns of parasitation rate, parasitoid species richness and parasitoid host specificity are described.

Dissertação de mestrado em Relações Internacionais
A política externa portuguesa desde o início da sua democracia foi profundamente influenciada por três eixos: europeu, atlântico e lusófono. No entanto, a sua execução vai além destas prioridades. A estas, adiciona-se as Comunidades Portuguesas, que representam 1/3 da sua população, e traduzem-se numa diáspora extensa, dispersa e heterogénea. Apesar de ser uma introdução inédita, não se trata propriamente de uma novidade no âmbito da Política Externa Portuguesa, uma vez que a emigração é um fenómeno transversal a várias épocas da História de Portugal, e continua a sê-lo contemporaneamente. Através desta dissertação, será analisada a relação entre a Diáspora e o seu país de origem, Portugal. Pretende-se de igual forma compreender o seu papel na Política Externa Portuguesa, e em que medida Portugal aproveita as suas Comunidades residentes no Estrangeiro.
Portuguese Foreign Policy since the beginning of its democracy was deeply influenced by three main vectors: european, atlanticist and lusophone. However, its execution goes beyond these priorities. To those, it is added the Portuguese Communities which represent 1/3 of Portuguese population, and they are depicted as an extensive, disperse and heterogeneous Diaspora. Even though it is an unprecedented introduction, it is not a novelty when it comes to Portuguese Foreign Policy, since emigration is a transversal phenomenon to several periods of Portuguese History, and it is still a contemporaneous thing. Through this dissertation, the relationship between Diaspora and its home country, Portugal, will be analyzed. It is also intended to understand its role in the Portuguese Foreign Policy, and to what extent Portugal seizes its Communities living abroad.

International trade ties the world together and is hypothetically fair and equal. In reality, it is highly asymmetrical and poses a significant challenge for developing countries. A massive sea change occurred in the international trade regime during the Uruguay Round of negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) from 1986 to 1994. Developing countries as a whole began to embrace liberal trade policies which seemed to be the only alternative to failing import substitution industrialization (ISI). An historical comparative account describing and explaining this transformation of developing countries’ attitudes toward the GATT is used in this dissertation to provide an alternative explanation for the transition of developing countries from having little interest in the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations to sharply changing course and adopting neo-liberal policies which supported the conclusion of the Round. Three theoretical approaches seek to explain why this change occurred, including: liberal trade theory (economic reforms), dependency theory (external forces) and constructivism (the role epistemic communities). The Uruguay Round negotiations were dynamic and heavily influenced by two power-house developing economies, India and Brazil, who were initially opposed to the Round itself. Kenya found itself in a starkly different situation with minimal ability to participate or influence negotiations. These three countries constitute the study’s illustrative case studies. As negotiations progressed, India and Brazil changed course and agreed to the Round’s ‘single-undertaking’ and the ‘inequitable Grand Bargain’ between the developed and developing economies. This subsequently led to other developing countries following suit through a powerful demonstration effect in a trade-off between the inclusion of trade in services and intellectual property for reforms in agriculture and textiles & clothing. While economic reforms began to occur and attitudes began to change during the Uruguay Round itself, assessing developing countries during the Round found that no single theoretical approach can explain developing countries’ transformation; rather each had their own trajectory for their economic reforms. A multi-dimensional conclusion provides the most comprehensive account of this transformation of the global trade regime.

No contexto da recente reformulação da política externa portuguesa com a adição de novos vetores estratégicos, dos quais as comunidades portuguesas no estrangeiro, a atividade diplomática adquiriu uma importância redobrada, a nível dos serviços consulares. Nesta investigação, pretende-se analisar o caso da comunidade portuguesa no Grão-Ducado do Luxemburgo. Tendo por base uma contextualização histórica da evolução da política externa portuguesa e da emigração portuguesa, tanto num plano geral como especificamente o caso do Grão-Ducado do Luxemburgo pretende-se analisar a comunidade portuguesa que se estabeleceu neste país. Mais ainda, e compreender de que forma é que a política externa portuguesa, através da diplomacia e, mais especificamente, o seu serviço consular correspondente, o Consulado-Geral de Portugal no Luxemburgo, atua para garantir os direitos e satisfazer as necessidades da comunidade portuguesa no país. Esta análise fundamentalmente teórica é complementada com um relatório de estágio, que decorreu entre 4 de novembro de 2019 e 4 de julho de 2020 no Consulado-Geral de Portugal no Luxemburgo.
In the context of the recent reformulation of Portuguese foreign policy with the addition of new strategic vectors, one of them being the Portuguese communities abroad, diplomatic activity has acquired an increased importance in terms of consular services. In this investigation, the case of the Portuguese community in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg will be the subject of analysis. Based on a historical contextualization of the evolution of Portuguese foreign policy and Portuguese emigration, both generally and specifically in the case of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, it is intended to study the Portuguese community that has established itself in this country. Moreover, understanding how Portuguese foreign policy, through diplomacy and, specifically its corresponding consular service, the Consulate General of Portugal in Luxembourg, operates to guarantee the rights and satisfy the needs of the Portuguese community in this country. This fundamentally theoretical analysis will be complemented with an internship report, which took place between November 4th, 2019 and July 4th, 2020, at the Consulate General of Portugal in Luxembourg.

Motivation of virtually all regional economic integration (REI) initiatives has been prospect of enhanced economic growth. Although REI's role in contributing to growth and development was recognised and acknowledged, its importance in Africa has never been properly outlined. Theoretical background, economic assumptions and evidence of REI are examined to bring out REI's importance to Africa. Depicting from these, benefits and challenges of REI in Africa are explored. This dissertation analyses the progress, pace, approach, sequence of REI in Africa looking at different variables. Africa's regional integration blueprint and institutional framework are compared to EU's but selected areas are identified as essential for Africa. Progress on REI has been found to be slow. This study concludes that REI should be viewed as one aspect of strategy towards Africa's development and growth. However, the benefits of REI make it imperative for it to remain the central pillar of Africa's development agenda.
Economics
M.Com. (Economics)