Dissertation (M. Tech. (Food Service Management, Dept. of Hospitality and Tourism)) -- Vaal University of Technology / Very poor families, mostly in developing parts of the world, consume a monotonous staple diet out of need and are least likely to eat healthy diets. This study focussed on how the low income households in the urbanised informal settlement of Eatonside used available income to buy plant staples (situation analysis), the share of the food budget Rand allocated to this (investigative survey), as well as the extent of influence of low income, food prices, and locality on the buying behaviour. The aspects of where, how much, when and how low-income households purchased were examined in order to determine the purchasing patterns for plant staples. From the households surveyed, most (62,2%) received an income of less than R500.00/month. Household size affected food purchasing and varied according to the type of household head. Total food budget expenditure by male-headed households was 83,1 percent, 58,1 percent by female-headed households and 27,9 percent by de facto headed households. The total average share/portion of the food budget allocated to purchasing of plant staples was reported as R64.63 ±(R8.04). While male-headed households spent 15 percent of the total share/portion/month allocated to purchasing of plant staples, female-headed households spent 23,1 percent and de facto-headed households spent 21,1 percent. Total average expenditure allocated to plant staples was 58,1 percent for maize meal, 23,2 percent for rice, 4,6 percent for mabella, 3,9 percent for sugar beans, 3,7 percent for samp, 2,5 percent for split peas and 4 percent on various other plant staples. Price and quantity (63,6%) were main purchasing indicators. Less plant staples were purchased when prices were high and more when prices were low. Normally when prices of other food products are high, people buy more staples to survive. Most frequent purchases for maize meal was 12,5 kg (65%) once a month (41,7%) at an average price of R32.80 per unit from spaza shops. Plant staples were mostly purchased once a month (80,2%) at supermarkets (47%) or spaza shops (42%). The urbanised low income households of Eatonside were poor, leading to the allocation of a major component of the budget to food (plant staples). Purchasing patterns, plant staples, low-income households, Eatonside informal settlement. / Central Research Committee of the Vaal University of Technology

M.Cur. / During the time as an infection control professional, there was close contact with patients with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). During this contact period many needs regarding health support were identified. Discrimination and the testing of patients for Human Immunodificiency virus anti·bodies (HIV) without their permission, were the main problem areas. The purpose of the study was to determine the nature and extent of comprehensive health care services for patients with AIDS. The research design is a contextual, exploring and descriptive study. This study was done in the Northern half of economic development area H where 16 health care services were identified. These include clinics, community hospitals, regional- and academic hospitals and the local authority clinic. Private hospitals were not included in the study. Criteria for the nature and extent of comprehensive health care services were based on literature studies. Data was collected by means of structured interviews with nursing professionals in the employ of identified services and patients making use of those services. The results of the research showed various needs in the nature and extent of the comprehensive health care services of the patients with AIDS In order to improve the health care services, recommendations were made and guidelines given to nursing professionals. Recommendations were also made regarding other aspects of the multi·disciplinary team approach. Based upon this study other topics were identified to enable the health care services to provide health care to the patient with AIDS.

M.Sc. / The evaluation of population exposure to air pollution is a fundamental reason for management and control of regional air quality. The purpose of this study was to determine the exposure of the local population to PM-10 emissions from sources within the Vaal Triangle using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The emission inventory compiled by van Nierop for the calendar year of 1992 (van Nierop, 1994) was used as input data for these calculations. The Industrial Source Complex Short Term Model (ISCST) was applied for dispersion calculations of annual PM-10 emissions. The ReGIS package was applied to determine the applicability of GIS as a management tool. Annual average PM-10 concentration contours were calculated for the different air pollution source groups within the Vaal Triangle. The combined source group resulted in the highest population exposure from annual average PM-10 concentrations. Population exposure from high- (> 200 m), medium- (10 to 200 m) and low- (< 10 m) elevation air pollution source groups were determined. The medium-elevation source group resulted in high population exposure followed by the low-elevation source group. The high-elevation source group had very low population exposure as a result. The population exposures from all the industrial sources within the Vaal Triangle were calculated and found to be very high. Annual average PM-10 concentrations from domestic fuel combustion sources were surprisingly low, resulting in low population exposure. ReGIS was found to be inadequate for the task and is not recommended for further use. Despite this, GIS was found to be a powerful decision-making tool and other GIS software packages should be explored for future research.

Face à une volonté d'égalité d'accès à l'enseignement supérieur et pour contrer l'insuffisance d'infrastructure d'accueil en raison de l'augmentation du nombre de bacheliers au Cambodge, la formation à distance (FAD) représente une solution alternative ou complémentaire importante par rapport à la capacité d'accueil limitée de la part des institutions actuelles, la formation supérieure étant pourtant incontournable pour le développement de ce pays. L'intégration des technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC), tant en contexte de formation présentielle qu'en FAD, ou dans une formule mixte, implique notamment le questionnement des fondements des pratiques didactiques ou pédagogiques des acteurs. Notre recherche a pour objectif général de faire un état des lieux des représentations que les acteurs ont de la pertinence de l'intégration des TIC en pédagogie universitaire, de celles de leurs propres pratiques à cet égard ainsi que des conditions et contraintes associées à la mise en place de dispositifs de FAD soutenant la formation aux métiers du génie a l'lnstitut de Technologie du Cambodge (ITC). Notre étude s'articule autour de la relation pédagogique sous-jacente aux rapports qui s'établissent entre le formateur, le sujet apprenant, les objets de savoir et les dispositifs technologiques mis en oeuvre. Deux construits théoriques centraux permettent d'en décliner les résultats ; ceux de médiation pédagogique et de médiatisation. Pour mener à bien cette recherche de type exploratoire et descriptive, nous avons réalisé une enquête par questionnaire et une série d'entrevues semi-dirigées auprès du corps professoral de l'ITC. Les données ont été traitées de façon complémentaire selon la nature des données recueillies dans une approche méthodologique mixte (quantitative / qualitative). Notre étude a comme principale retombée sur le plan scientifique de contribuer à l'état des connaissances au regard du recours aux TIC en pédagogie universitaire dans les pays d'Asie du Sud-Est.

Why was the United States caught completely unprepared for the Central American refugee crisis during the summer of 2014? Although thousands of unaccompanied children from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador streamed across the southwest U.S. border in unprecedented numbers, the systemic problems plaguing the region stem back decades, and recent data clearly shows a trend of increasing yearly migration flows to the United States from these countries. Even in the face of the crisis, the U.S. government’s response was targeted more towards mitigating the symptoms of the crisis while insufficiently addressing its underlying causes. This is largely due to U.S. domestic policy, which undermines and conflicts with sound foreign policy. By focusing attention and resources on domestically popular foreign aid programs—primarily security initiatives and drug interdiction—rather than on programs to address the underlying, systemic causes of the crisis, like rampant corruption, lack of rule of law, and extreme poverty, U.S. policy-makers worked against their own best interests. As a result, the number of migrants crossing the U.S. southwestern border is once again rising rapidly. U.S. domestic and foreign policy must be reconciled to ensure that now and in the future, the root causes of migration crises are dealt with once and for all.

A polygon mesh, or a 3D mesh, consisting of a collection of vertices, edges, and polygons in three-dimensional space, is the standard way of representing 3D objects. In practice, polygon meshes acquired from the 3D scanning process fail to meet the quality requirements for most practical applications. Mesh defects like holes, duplicate elements, non-manifold elements are introduced during the scanning process, which lowers the quality of the output meshes. In this thesis, we describe a complete mesh-repairing process that fixes all defects within a polygon mesh. This process is divided into two parts: the mesh-cleaning part and the hole-filling part. In the mesh-cleaning part, we describe the ways of repairing different types of mesh defects. In the hole-filling part, we discuss two main hole-filling approaches: the surface-based method and the volumetric. In addition, we present a hybrid algorithm by combining the surface-based approach and the volumetric approach. We compare the meshes created by different hole-filing algorithms and show that the new algorithm is a good alternative to the existing ones. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-11 23:45:08.591

There are many challenges that are facing the world today. One of those challenges is HIV and AIDS. Thousands of people are infected as well as affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic in the world. In spite of many efforts that have been done to combat the disease, HIV and AIDS is still claiming lives and leave many without their loved ones. The study of the role and place of prayer for HIV and Aids sick patients in the Vaal Triangle churches is a very important research topic, since the results will not only benefit people in the Vaal Triangle only but all people who are affected as well as infected by the disease in other areas. Churches have been given a command from the Bible to pray for the sick. However there are many misconceptions about praying for the sick especially the HIV and AIDS patients. Some of these misconceptions arise because HIV and AIDS is medically declared as an incurable disease. The effectiveness of prayer on HIV and AIDS to others is therefore questionable. Unfortunately these questions and doubts make many some people doubt the power of prayer and its effectiveness for HIV and AIDS patients. People who pray for HIV and AIDS sick persons are faced with many questions. Some of them sometimes wonder if God will answer their prayers or whether the person being prayed for will be healed or not. Others think that HIV and AIDS disease is a punishment from God and praying for the infected will be a waste of time. Some even question God’s ability to cure this disease. It is because of such questions that many avoid praying for HIV and AIDS patients. Others simply avoid praying for HIV and AIDS patients because it might reflect on them by others as lack of faith. Jesus prayed for the sick and also told the church to pray and to ask of the Father. He prayed for the sick regardless of their kind of sicknesses and as well as the causes of those sickness. He accepted those who were outcasts of society and prayed for those whose sicknesses were considered a shame in public. The church has to pray for HIV and AIDS infected people. They are not to be controlled to pray by the results of prayer or the kind and the cause of the sickness. And, issues such as whether HIV and AIDS is a punishment from God or not. Just like Jesus, the church should pray for HIV and AIDS sick people without ceasing. / MA, Biblical Studies, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010

Subject of presented master thesis is a 7-meter object of crystalline structure located in production hall in Brno former woolen factory Vlněna. The object will serve as a basis for videomapping, which will form its editing in real time.

Emergence is a phenomenon where we study the implicit or hidden meaning of an image. We introduce this concept in image database access and retrieval of images using his as an index for retrieval. This would give an entirely different search outcome than ordinary search where emergence is not considered, as consideration of hidden meanings could change the index of search. A feature of an image, which is not explicit would be emergent feature if it can be made explicit. There are three types of emergence: computational emergence, thermodynamic emergence and emergence relative to a model. In computational emergence, it is assumed computational interactions can generate different features or behaviors. This is one of the approaches in the field of artificial life. Thermodynamic emergence is of the view that new stable features or behaviors can arise from equilibrium through the use of thermodynamic theory. In emergence relative to a model, deviation of the behavior from the original model gives rise to emergence. We would use this latter view in our work. Two classes of shape emergence have been identified: embedded shape emergence and illusory shape emergence. In embedded shape emergence all the emergent shapes can be identified by set theory procedures on the original shape under consideration. For example, in a set S= {a,b,c,d,e}, we can find subsets like S1={a,b,c}, S2={c,d,e}, S3={a,c,e} and so on. But in illusory shape emergence, where contours defining a shape are perceived even though no contours are physically present, this kind of set theory procedures are not enough and more effective procedures have to be applied to find these hidden shapes. These procedures could be based on geometrical, topological or dimensional studies of the original shape. Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) techniques, so far developed, concentrated on only explicit meanings of an image. But more meanings could be extracted when we consider the implicit meanings of the same image. To find out the implicit meanings, we first destroy the shape of the original image which gives rise to unstructured image. Then we process the unstructured image to bring out the new emergent image. We discuss emergence, calculation of emergence index and accessing multimedia databases using emergence index in this dissertation. To calculate emergence index in the access of multimedia databases, we take an input image and study the emergence phenomenon of it. Also we study the emergence phenomenon of the images of the database. Both input image and images of database would give rise to more meanings because of emergence as we explained earlier. Based on the new meanings, wherever there would be a match between input image and images of database, we would pick that record up for selection. We defined emergence index as EI = f(D,F,V,C,E) where D stands for domain of the database, F for features of the image, V for various variables that define the image, C for constraints which represent the image and E for emergence phenomenon. We calculate these five variables to get emergence index for each image of the database. Also we calculate these five variables for input image as well. We talk about global aspects of features. It means features of the entire image. Examples are area, perimeter or rectangles, triangles. In some searches, to consider the global features could be advantageous in that a symmetry with the input image could be obtained on the basis of global features only. But as is clearly the case, to consider global features could overlook the individual objects that constitute the image as a whole. In the kind of searches we propose, we take into account the global features of the image of the database while considering in detail local features. Various objects that lie within an image constitute local features. In our example, there are three objects in the image, namely, a lake and two houses. Studying the features of these three objects would add to studying the features of the image globally. We took the example of a geographic location in the thesis and then showed how destruction of original image is done and further processing of the unstructured image gives new emergent image. Partial implementation of this concept is also presented at the end. In implementation, we consider the retrieval of image globally. We do not consider break-up of image into multiple objects which is left for future research.

Function generator has been widely used in each electronics fields recent years. In this thesis, the authors will introduce some basic structure and working principles of a function generator, moreover a function generator which can create three kinds of wave: sine wave, square wave and triangle wave has been implemented. There are many ways to build the function generator; a method of combine the operational amplifier and discrete components is introduced in this thesis. First use the RC Wien bridge oscillator to achieve sinusoidal wave; and convert it into square wave by using the shaping circuit. Lastly, use the integrating circuit to obtain triangle wave. The basic simulation software Multisim has been used to simulate the circuit.