3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Drawing on Words: Jasper Johns's Illustrations of Samuel Beckett's Foirades/Fizzles(1994) Richards, Colin PeterBetween 1973 and 1976 artist Jasper Johns produced some thirty-three illustrations to accompany five prose texts authored by Samuel Beckett. The result was the book Foirades!Fizzles, published in New York in 1976. Almost without exception the critical literature published on this book draws the relation between image and text away from any idea of illustration. And this only when the idea is not simply ignored. This critical attitude reflects a wider tendency in especially elevated critico-aesthetic discourse to consider illustration as aesthetically and textually debased. Bracketed off, illustration merely signals a parasitic relation. Compromising the integrity of the texts it enjoins, it articulates a secondary aesthetic of the accessory. This view seems unproductive not only when applied to Johns's work, but also to image-text combinations more generally. The sheer incidence of such combinations (including illustration) in recent and current aesthetic production suggests that the indifference or prejudicial critical reflex routinely provoked by illustration marks a moment of poverty in contemporary critical thinking. This moment appears solidly rooted in a once dominant and still apparently powerful formalist and purist impulses within modernist discourse. The persistence of these impulses suggests the survival of unexamined, limiting and tenacious critical assumptions. A closer examination of selected texts - pre-modernist, modernist, and post-modernist - point beyond these assumptions. Here the logic of the supplement in particular illuminates very specifically how illustration might come to function, and where its incendiary critical potential may lie. The supplement resists the easy hierarchisation or even synthesis of different texts which has been the fate of illustration. It renders illustration both critically robust and radical. The concept of allegory is also illuminating here. It not only helps us understand better the fate of illustration within modernism and postmodernism, but also provides for enlightening readings of Foirades!Fizzles. In turn, a revaluation of illustration opens up a more productive view of allegory in both modernist and postmodernist discourse. Illustration, in coordinating different semiotic systems, however marginally, can function as a framing, focusing and spacing device, a way of bracketing and specifying themes, structures and forms within a given textual complex, a way of opening readings otherwise foreclosed or overlooked. In this study such readings are articulated through a set of textual configurations which include: vision and perception; the body, eye, and skin; calibration, measurement, and point of view; memory, repetition and originality; and finally liminality, ambiguity and metastable signification. Against the grain of published opinion there is then much to be gained by recognising the capacious critical potential of illustration, what we might term its 'motivated contingency'. Rather than being considered critically inconsequential or an aesthetic impedin1ent, illustration may in fact provide an almost unique opportunity not only to explore issues germane to Johns's work (both independently and in relation to Beckett's texts), but also to address certain important critical debates within postmodern discourse. Its value may be felt in reading Foirades!Fizzles, in reading other image-text combinations, and the broader relations between visual art, literature, and language.Item The penetration and fracturing mechanisms generated in brittle rock by the impingement of a high velocity jet(1992) Giltner, Scott GeorgeExtensive studies on the jet penetration process in ductile metal targets have been previously carried out in numerous investigations. As a result, the penetration in ductile targets has been characterized by various theoretical models. However the penetration of brittle materials, particularly rock, has received considerably less attention. The lack of information concerning brittle materials is important as major differences between penetration in ductile and brittle materials have been observed. In most instances the actual penetration in brittle materials is far less than that given by theoretical calculations. This thesis presents an investigation into the high velocity jet penetration of brittle rock. The aim of this work is to describe the dynamic forces transmitted into the rock by the jet and the subsequent response of the rock to these forces. It is shown that existing penetration theories do not adequately describe penetration in rock. Of all the jet and target properties considered in the theories examined, target strength is shown to be the most relevant for predicting penetration depth. Recovery of the actual hole created was achieved by overcoring of the hole. Detailed measurements of the hole profile and fracture zones around the hole are presented. From the recovered samples of the hole, thin and polished sections were obtained for microscopic analysis. Results from the microscopic examination of these specimens are discussed from which temperature and pressure information are derived. In order to provide an adequate description of the penetration process, instrumentation was used to measure the penetration velocity, particle acceleration, and dynamic strain generated in the rock. From the instrumentation the interface pressure, dynamic stress, and dynamic strain generated in the rock are quantified and related to the various fracture zones identified around the hole. The results of these tests indicate that penetration in rock can be separated into three distinct phases. Initially the rock behaves as a hydrodynamic fluid should the interface pressure be very high. However as the interface pressure drops, the strength of the rock becomes evident and the second phase is entered into. The second phase is characterized by rapid changes occurring in the behaviour of the rock. Once the behaviour of the rock has stabilized, the third and final phase of penetration is entered. This final phase is predominantly controlled by the rock strength. As a result of this investigation, a better understanding of the interaction between the rock target and penetrating jet has been established. Additionally the behaviour of rock subjected to very high shock pressure has also been described. This has allowed better insight into the material properties governing the penetration process and the fracturing of rock from purely dynamic stresses.Item Reproductive labors: the politics of women's health in South Africa, 1900 to 1960(1995) Burns Catherine EileenThis dissertation opens the theme of reproduction in southern Africa to historical scrutiny. To do this, the work is divided into nine chapters, each tackling related aspects of this field of inquiry. It examines the development of a definition and practice of public health in the early decades of this century in Johannesburg and traces the local history of maternal health, mothercraft, and midwifery in the context of urban segregation. Healing practices that existed outside of official control, namely the work of family midwives and health practitioners many of whom were black women with skills and experience acquired in rural settings, are explored. Here, the commonplace separation of "Western biomedicine" and "indigenous African" practices concerning health and midwifery are challenged, using the records of an extraordinary herbalist and midwife, Louisa Mvemve. In 1928 the Bridgman Memorial Hospital was established as a site for a massive project to train and certify a cadre of black midwives and as space for scientific research concerning the bodies, birthing capacities, and gynecology of black women. The development of a local specialty termed "Bantu Gynaecology" is traced, indicating the powerful linkages between the development of anthropological and scientific knowledge about black women. The heart of this dissertation is an examination of the complex and contradictory history of the Bridgman through archival records and the oral testimony of women who trained at the Hospital and who gave birth there from 1930 to 1962. The politics of contraception and birth control in Johannesburg and the history of debates about sexuality and illegitimacy lead to a discussion of the increasingly didactic involvement of local and central state officials in the policing of black women in the city. This increasingly invasive state intervention in birth, "family planning" and controlling the reproductive labor of black women after 1950 is the subject of the last section.Item Vrouetaal in drie Afrikaanse tydskrifte: Die Boervrou (1919-1931), Die Huisgenoot (1932-1948) en Sarie (Marais) (1949-1989)(1993) Slabbert Sarah Johanna CatharineThis study is based on three main hypotheses: a) The discourse between a women's magazine and its reader can be regarded as a specialized type of woman-to-woman communication and can therefore be placed within the paradigm of women's language. b) Because language is a social semiotic, changes in the social position of women will be reflected in the lexicogrammatical features of the women's magazine. c) Changes in the social position of women will mainly be reflected in the realm of interpersonal meaning and consequently one can expect movement in those lexicogrammatical features that are associated with interpersonal meaning. The research traces the historical development of this discourse type in three Afrikaans magazines: Die Boerevrou (1919-1931), the women's section of Die Huisgenoot (1932-1948) and Sarie(Marais) (1949-1989). The focus is on three core sections of the women's magazine: the discourse between female and male characters in love stories, and the discourse between magazine-speaker and reader-listener in general articles and in advertisements. Theoretically, the research links up with the functional model of Halliday. The method is mainly quantitative and based on the Interactional Process of Analysis (IPA) of Bales (1970) as interpreted by Preisler (1986), as well as on the work of Fowler et al. (1979). Three sets of specific hypotheses have been defined. The first is based on the stereotypes of women's language, the second on IPA categories and the markers of tentativity, and the third on the markers of control as described by Fowler et al. (1979). When relevant, the behavior of additional variables that have shown themselves to be sensitive to time, or which have been previously researched in other material, e.g. Stoops (1972), was also described quantitatively. For the advertisements changes in the context of the situation were also described in qualitative terms. The results have proved the central assumption of the study to be correct, namely that the discourse of women's magazines would be sensitive to the defined variables. The most important findings were the following: In all the examined volumes, with the exception of 1970/71, a significant difference between the linguistic behavior of male and female characters in the magazine stories was found. This difference is however not always equal and does not always concern the same variables. In both the magazine articles and the advertisements there is a movement away from an explicit task-oriented role towards a more socio-emotional role. In the articles, it entails a massive shift from task-oriented functions towards the function ''Dramatizing" (Bales 1970), whereas the shift in the advertisements is not as large and towards "Friendly" (Bales 1970}. The study has shown that a quantitative instrument that has been developed for the description of group interaction on a synchronic level can also be successfully applied to a historical study on written language. It is hoped that it has also demonstrated the value of functionally defined variables and contrastive material for stylistic analysis.Item The capacity of municipalities to deliver on housing.(2003) Maluleke, Delca Petunia.This study was undertaken to determine whether Gauteng municipalities, constitutionally obliged to provide low-cost housing to those who qualify for it, possessed the capacity to do so. The only Gauteng municipality not included in this research were Metsweding District Municipality. Pertinent literature was consulted and reviewed. In this qualitative research, the data were obtained from interviews and answers to questionnaires. Analysis showed that all the municipalities studied lacked the capacity to deliver on their mandate. Necessary capacity was found to be lacking in several areas. The report concludes with suggestions for rectifying this problem and thus, enabling municipalities to meet their housing delivery obligations.Item Graham Newcater's orchestral works : case studies in the analysis of twelve-tone music(1984) Rorich MaryThe aim of this thesis has been four-fold, namely: i) to present an overview of twelve-tone theory and practice, particularly that practice that admits a background of traditional procedure; ii) to pinpoint the linguistic problems that twelve-tone music presents; iii) to suggest a style of analysis that makes coherent the linguistics of twelve-tone music; iv) to present in-depth case studies of four representative orchestral works of the South African composer, Graham Newcater, not only so as to make available analyses of his works, but also so as to provide practical exegeses of the theoretical problems listed in ii) and iii). Part I of this thesis is, therefore, synthetic rather than original. It sets out the premises of the serial principle, its structural implications, its historic-stylistic background, and problems in analysis. In Parts II and III various of Newcater's orchestral works are presented as case studies in the analysis of twelve-tone music with particular reference to the issues discussed in Part I. As is shown to be the case with Schoenberg in Part I, three out of four of Newcater's works are treated as examples of rhetoric that synthesizes serial principles and tonal syntax. It has therefore not been sufficient to analyze the sounding forms of the music as entirely the product of the various sets and their structural implications; on the contrary, it has been necessary both to justify the aesthetic validity of this synthesis and to examine the results. The First Symphony, the composer's first major work, and the Violin Concerto, one of a group of concertos written fairly recently, best illustrates Newcater's fusion of the twelve-tone and tonal worlds. The Variations de Timbres represents an attempt to create rhetoric more inherently compatible with the serial principle. Both in that it seems that this is the direction that Newcater is likely to take in the following decade, and in that the Variations undoubtedly represents one of Newcater's most valuable creative essays, its inclusion seems justified. The last work analyzed is the composer's Third Symphony. Its extensive treatment in Part III of this thesis is justified in that it clearly derives from the compositional idioms of all three works analyzed in Part II. Both in sound and in syntax, it is the most sophisticated of Newcater's orchestral works to date, and, in its assimilation of the influence of electronic music on live instrumental music, it also suggests a route that Newcater's compositional career might take. In that Newcater emerged, in his early career, as the first pioneering spirit in the use of the twelve-tone system in South Africa, in that his approach to twelve-tonalism is clearly derived from Schoenberg's, and in that, he possesses a compositional gift of undeniable strength, his works seemed to present an ideal vehicle for the concepts and issues set out in Part I of this thesis. No single approach or analytical method has been employed, although obviously the procedures explored by such specialists as George Perle and Milton Babbitt have provided the basis for set analysis. Beyond this, more traditionally 'descriptive' methods have been used, and the conceptual studies of Theodor Adorno and Leonard B . Meyer has provided invaluable points of reference. In that this thesis is concerned primarily with linguistics which the twelve-tone the theory produces, all analysis is largely concerned with pitch content. Where a reference to the other parameters is made, it is generally in the service of this aspect of Newcater's musicItem Evaluation of the South African army physical training programme: fitness attained and injuries sustained(1985) Gordon, Neil FarrylPhysical fitness has remained an essential requisite of modern-day armed forces. Despite considerable advances in the science of exercise training, the South African Army physical training programme has remained essentially unaltered for over a decade. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the efficacy of South African Army basic training centres might be limited by the injurious nature of the physical training modes used. The present 3-part investigation was therefore designed as an initial evaluation of the South African Army physical training programme in terms of both physical fitness attained and exertion-related injuries sustained. In Part I of this study, the effect of 1 year South African Army training on endurance fitness was investigated. The pre-military training maximal 02 consumption of 53.14 mg.kg-1.min-1 did not change significantly during the course of the study. In contrast, lactate turnpoint (m-g O2 ,kg- .min-J") and maximal treadmill performance time were moderately enhanced (7.5% and 8% increase, respectively, p<0.05) by the initial 10-week basic training programme. A further analysis of the results indicated that this endurance training effect was limited to the average and, in particular, the below-average fitness recruits. Although this could be regarded as an adequate situation, the effec= tiveness of the physical training was limited in that 17% of recruits were unable to complete the post-basic training exercise test as a result of exertion-related injuries; of these recruits more than 50% had initial below-average fitness levels. Furthermore, the observed beneficial effect of basic training on recruit endurance fitness levels was transient in nature, the values on completion of 1 year military training being essentially unaltered from those existing prior to military conscription. This preliminary assessment of the South African Army physical training programme demonstrates a need for the introduction of changes during and, in particular, after basic training. In Part II of this study, the effect of 1 year South African Army training on muscular strength, power, power- endurance, speed, and flexibility was investigated. When considering the entire study group, a significant enhance= ment by basic training was observed for the isokinetic muscular strength of the right elbow extensors alone (17% increase, p <0.05). Stratification of training responses on the basis of initial recruit fitness levels revealed significant (p<0.05) improvements with basic training for all measures of muscular strength, power, power-endurance, and speed, but not flexibility, in the below-average fitness recruits. In contrast, with the exception of elbow extensor strength, fitness levels of the average and above-average recruits were not improved by basic training. Furthermore, for all recruit fitness groups, values documented on completion of 1 year military training differed insignificantly from those recorded prior to military conscription. Although further research (aimed at assessing the physical requirements of various military work and emergency situations) is needed to evaluate the desirability of the observed selective enhancement of recruit fitness levels, it is evident from the present data that greater emphasis should, at the very least, be placed on flexibility training and physical conditioning after basic training. Finally, in Part III of this study the incidence and nature of exertion-related injuries sustained at a large South African Army basic training centre were studied. A total of 404 separate injuries were incurred by 359 of 947 recruits during the 10-week basic training cycle. Of these injuries, 18.3% were sustained with (Group 1) and 81.7% without (Group 2) an obvious sudden acute precipitating event. Exertion-related injuries were responsible for a loss of 2 711 recruit-days of basic training. While the knee sustained the largest number of Group 2 injuries, lower-leg injuries resulted in the greatest loss of basic training time. Fourty two separate radiographically confirmed stress fractures were incurred by 39 recruits, the incidence of recruits with stress fractures being 4.12%, a value considerably higher than that of the United States Army. These data leave little doubt that the injurious nature of the South African Army basic training programme studied is costly in terms of training time lost and may prohibit large numbers of recruits from deriving the optimum conditioning benefits.Item Technology management, transaction processes and governance structures(2003) Siriram, RajenallThis thesis focuses on technology management within and between firms. The effects of technology management on transaction processes, and the mechanisms for effective governance of technology is studied. A model incorporating different schools of thought including technology management, strategic management, organizational and TCE (transactional cost economics) and operations management is built. The model has subsets of technology management, transaction processes, and governance structures. The model is then tested within an investigative framework, which includes organizational determinants, competitors, and external factors. The testing is on firms that adopt or implement technologies. Technological firms are categorized into user firms and system integrator firms. User firms are firms that adopt technologies; system integrator firms are firms that are involved in the implementation of technologies and help user firms. Statistical analysis is used to test correlations between these two types of technological firms. An expert panel is used to understand the differences and similarities between the two types of technological firms. Different links are significant in this model and the following conclusions may be drawn: firstly that technology management, transaction processes and governance structures are linked; secondly that the transaction cost economic view and the resource-based view are both important for competitive advantage and neither is superior to the other; and thirdly that the effects of technological change on the organizational and environmental evolution is significant. This thesis lays the foundation for further work toward integrating technology management, transaction processes, and governance structures. In addition lessons for managers involved in technological decisions are also provided.Item End-user satisfaction with an information system implementation in Natalspruit hospital, Gauteng province(2005) Vomacka, JaromirThe aim of this study was to evaluate user satisfaction with a new hospital information system, Medicom, implemented in Natalspruit hospital. A sample consisted of 380 full-time employees representing all groups of hospital staff who utilised the software. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The mean total score for the survey was 40.7 out of possible 60. This was above the middle score of 36 meaning that the users were satisfied with the system. Administrative personnel were most satisfied (mean 43.9). Medicom scored highest for the dimension of Ease of Use. Six variables that were presumed to influence users' satisfaction were analysed; only Availability of the Technical Support was significantly associated with satisfaction in multivariate analysis. Medical doctors were found to be not utilizing the system. Staff complained about training, technical problems and time constraints to exploit the Medicom prospects to its optimum. Implications for improving the hospital information system are discussed.Item An analysis of fifth year Paediatric teaching(1987) Skapinker, ReneeMuch teaching in paediatrics is done at the patient's bedside. The clinical ward round should integrate all the pertinent features of the case. A prospective study was undertaken at the Johannesburg Hospital to evaluate such teaching. Twenty-two fifth year medical students and ten paediatric consultants were studied during the students1 first exposure to clinical paediatrics. Analysis of the teaching showed that there were significant differences between ideal objectives set by the Department, what was actually taught during the clinical ward round and what students perceived as having been taught. Futhermore, consultants defined more objectives for the teaching session when this was done prior to the tutorial than after the tutorial. The correlation between objectives considered taught by consultants and those perceived by students as having been taught, was poorer when consultants defined their teaching objectives before the tutorials compared with when consultants defined their objectives after the tutorials. These findings indicate unrealistic expectations in terms of what tutors are able to cover in a ward round when the objectives are pre-defined. Further analysis of the data revealed a bias towards objectives which were inappropriate for students with limited clinical experience.