Directed enzyme prodrug therapies (DEPT) are currently being clinically trialled, the aim being to localise cytotoxic compounds at cancer sites; enzymes are either expressed or delivered to solid tumours so that non-toxic prodrugs are activated to cytotoxic derivatives exclusively at cancer cells. Nitroreductases (NTRs) have been clinically trialled in DEPT with the prodrug CB1954 (5-[aziridin-l-yl]-2,4-dinitrobenzamide), however the rate of tumour transduction and subsequent over-expression of the NTR was relatively low for effective cancer treatment, as was the activity of the enzyme with the prodrug. This research details the assay of a series of NTRs as yet untested with CB 1954 to measure activity with the prodrug and evaluate their potential suitability for application in the therapy. The enzymes were assayed in a range of environmental conditions and their kinetic parameters with CB 1954 determined and compared to other NTRs reported in the literature. The nfrA2 NTR from Bacillus licheniformis was identified as having a higher catalytic efficiency (KcatlKm) to the much studied nfnB from Escherichia coli which has been used in phase IIII clinical trials and is currently the leading candidate for application in DEPT. Magnetic nanopartic1es were synthesised which behave superparamagnetically at room temperature and coated with gold using an aqueous, low cost, non-toxic synthesis. The gold coated magnetic nanopartic1es were characterised by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and ultraviolet-visible (DV-vis) spectrometry, indicating successful Au surface coating producing 38 nm ± 6 nm nanoparticles, which separated under exposure to an applied magnetic field of 1.28 T and readily redispersed upon agitation. The genetically modified NTRs self-assembled onto Au surfaces and could do so via the introduced cysteine sequence, meaning the enzymes can be immobilised with controlled orientation.

In the new millennium, West Indian territories began embarking on the introduction of information rights legislation such as Freedom of Information (FoI) and Data Protection. However, this type of legislation is proving challenging for West Indian nation states to implement. This thesis investigates the challenges faced by West Indian territories as it relates to the implementation of data protection legislation and explores the idea that these challenges are as a result of their historical background and developmental trajectory. Additionally, the thesis considers the implications of data protection for West Indian societies and a contextual account is undertaken to explain why data protection as a concept is misinterpreted, misunderstood or unknown by policy-makers and the citizenry at large. Moreover, the study seeks to understand and explore whether the sub-standard management of records and information compared with internationally accepted standards, at all levels of West Indian society could be seen as a significant obstacle to the introduction of information rights legislation, in particular, the implementation, regulation and enforcement of data protection. The thesis analyses whether there is an irrefutable link between data protection and records management and if a sound records management environment would provide the required stability for the successful implementation of data protection at all levels. In seeking to inform emerging practice in the West Indies, this is the first multi-disciplinary study that examines the provisions for data protection in select international jurisdictions from a records management perspective. The jurisdictions selected for examination are two European Union Member States, Germany and the United Kingdom as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand where four distinct approaches for the implementation of data protection have been identified. The study examines the core principles, policies, procedures and practices in these four models for data protection using a comparative approach. Thereafter, principally qualitative data is extrapolated towards the development of a framework for the implementation of data protection in the West Indies with a view of data protection’s relationship to records management. The thesis first interrogates how and why data protection emerged as a public issue across the selected jurisdictions in order to establish the main drivers in these societies. It examines the relationship between data protection and the management of records and information, particularly as it relates to the administration and use of the personal data of citizens by public and private agencies. It explores how new trends and advances in technology impact on data protection and records management in today’s digital world. Using the data gathered, it identifies the main drivers and obstacles for the West Indies as they relate to data protection implementation and finally, what issues are expected to arise with the implementation of data protection and the management of records and information in future that would affect regions similar to the West Indies. Additionally, the comparative research makes a case for key solutions, mechanisms and strategies that would prepare professionals working with records and information for how to deal with data protection implementation in an increasingly technological environment in the West Indies.

The research reported in this thesis addresses a patient's information requirements when searching the Internet for health information. A patient's lack of information about his/her health condition and its care is officially acknowledged and traditional patient information sources do not address today's patient information needs. Internet health information resources have become the foremost health information platform. However, patient Internet searching is currently manual, uncustomised and hindered by health information vocabulary and quality challenges. Patient access to quality Internet health information is currently ensured through national health gateways, medical search engines, third-party accredited search engines and charity health websites. However, such resources are generic, i.e. do not cater for a patient particular information needs. In this study, we propose personalising patient Internet searching by enabling a patient's access to their Electronic Patient Records (EPRs) and using this EPR data in Internet information searching. The feasibility of patient access to EPRs has recently been promoted by national health information programmes. Very recently, in the literature, there are reports about pilot studies on personal Health Record (PHR) systems that offer a patient online access to their medical records and related health information. However, the extensive literature searching shows no reports about patient-personalised search engines, within the reported PHR prototypes, that utilise a patient's own data to personalise the search features for a patient especially with regard to health information vocabulary needs. The thesis presents a novel approach to personalising patient information searching based on linking EPR data with relevant Internet Information resources, integrating medical and lay perspectives in a diagnosis vocabulary that distinguishes between medical and lay information needs, and accommodating a variable perspective on online information quality. To demonstrate our research work, we have implemented a prototype online patient personal health information system, known as the Patient Health Base (PHB) that offers a patient a Summary Medical Record (SMR) and a Personal Internet Search (PerlS) service. PerlS addresses patient Internet search challenges identified in the project. Evaluation of PerlS's approach to improving a patient's medical Internet searching demonstrated improvements in terms of search capabilities, focusing techniques and results. This research explored a new direction for patient Internet searching and foresees a great potential for further customising Internet information searching for patients, families and the public as a whole.

There are enormous benefits for any organisation from practising sound records management. In the context of a public university, the importance of good records management includes: facilitating the achievement the university’s mandate; enhancing efficiency of the university; maintaining a reliable institutional memory; promoting trust; responding to an audit culture; enhancing university competitiveness; supporting the university’s fiduciary duty; demonstrating transparency and accountability; and fighting corruption. Records scholars and commentators posit that effective recordkeeping is an essential underpinning of good governance. Although there is a portrayal of positive correlation, recordkeeping struggles to get the same attention as that given to the governance. Evidence abounds of cases of neglect of recordkeeping in universities and other institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The apparent absence of sound recordkeeping provided a rationale for revisiting some universities in South Africa and Malawi in order to critically explore the place of recordkeeping in an organisation’s strategy in order to develop an alternative framework for managing records and documents in an era where good governance is a global agenda. The research is a collective case study in which multiple cases are used to critically explore the relationship between recordkeeping and governance. As qualitative research that belongs in the interpretive tradition of enquiry, it is not meant to suggest prescriptive solutions to general recordkeeping problems but rather to provide an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that arise in managing records and documents in the world of governance, audit and risk. That is: what goes on in the workplace; what are the problems; and what alternative approaches might address any existing problem situations. Research findings show that some institutions are making good use of their governance structures and other drivers for recordkeeping to put in place sound recordkeeping systems. Key governance structures and other drivers for recordkeeping identified include: laws and regulations; governing bodies; audit; risk; technology; reforms; and workplace culture. Other institutions are not managing their records and documents well despite efforts to improve their governance systems. They lack recordkeeping capacity. Areas that determine recordkeeping capacity include: availability of records management policy; capacity for digital records; availability of a records management unit; senior management support; level of education and training of records management staff; and systems and procedures for storage, retrieval and dispositions of records. Although this research reveals that the overall recordkeeping in the selected countries has slightly improved compared with the situation other researchers found a decade ago, it remains unsatisfactory and disjointed from governance. The study therefore proposes governance recordkeeping as an approach to managing records and documents in the world of governance, audit and risk. The governance recordkeeping viewpoint considers recordkeeping as a governance function that should be treated in the same manner as other governance functions such as audit and risk management. Additionally, recordkeeping and governance should be considered as symbiotic elements of a strategy. A strategy that neglects recordkeeping may not fulfil the organisation’s objectives effectively.

This thesis develops a contemporary problematisation of software requirements. It departs from traditional conceptions of requirements as simple, tamed objects with deterministic force over socio-technical actors and based on assumptions of stability. Such views can lead to a narrow, ultimately unfruitful understanding of the significance of requirements and denied wider consequences of their modes of articulation. Instead, the thesis builds on perspectives where requirements are complex and interactive actors. The thesis uses openEHR—an open source health IT project aiming to build interoperable Electronic Health Records (EHRs)—as a case study. Studying open source practice offers a good opportunity to consider the nature of requirements because there is an ongoing debate about requirements’ role and influence on development activities and project organisation. The analysis uses Deleuzian concepts of assemblage, multiplicity and becoming. These themes align with a larger body of work influenced by STS and process oriented theorisations, which see the world as dynamic and performative. The philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari in particular provides a counter-balance to any assumed stability in the world. The thesis presents a new account of the nature of requirements, one that reflects their complex entanglement within software development and open source in particular. Requirements are not insipid descriptive statements that abstract and simplify the world deterministically. They have an intricate existence which serves to hold the potential in the assemblage to become many things. In particular, requirements insinuate themselves into a project’s identity, guide a project through territories—some to be explored, some to be disregarded—and demand specific ways to be recognised, engaged, and cared for. The thesis argues that requirements are more virtual than originally thought, having a subtle, not necessarily visible influence on their assemblages and the way socio-technical actors can potentially relate to the project itself.

Τα Δημόσια Νοσοκομεία αντιμετωπίζουν σοβαρά προβλήματα διαχείρισης και εκσυγχρονισμού των παρεχόμενων υπηρεσιών υγείας με κύριο αποτέλεσμα την αναποτελεσματικότητα της λειτουργίας και το χαμηλό βαθμό της ικανοποίησης των πολιτών. Ο πολίτης που καταφεύγει σε ένα Δημόσιο Νοσοκομείο ζητώντας την απαραίτητη υγειονομική φροντίδα και περίθαλψη δηλώνει σιωπηρά την εμπιστοσύνη του στις υπηρεσίες παροχής υγείας, καθώς και την αποδοχή του στο σύστημα της Δημόσιας Διοίκησης. Το σύστημα όμως δημιουργεί παραλείψεις, καθυστερήσεις, χαοτική γραφειοκρατία και υπέρογκες χρηματικές και μη επιβαρύνσεις που έχουν σαν αποτέλεσμα τη χαμηλή απόδοση παραγωγής υπηρεσιών υγείας και την άναρχη λειτουργία του ιδιωτικού τομέα. Η αιτία του προβλήματος έγκειται τόσο στη παραβίαση ή στην έλλειψη κανόνων που ρυθμίζουν το κανονιστικό εργασιακό πλαίσιο όσο και στην αδυναμία κατασκευής και εφαρμογής μηχανισμών οι οποίοι να επιβάλλουν την ανελαστική εφαρμογή των διατάξεων. Επίσης, η αδιαφορία των διοικήσεων για την εφαρμογή της τεχνολογικής εξέλιξης και της καινοτομίας καθώς και η έλλειψη σχεδιασμού υλοποίησης και οργάνωσης της παροχής δημόσιας υγείας το ενισχύουν. Γενικά, το πρόβλημα των οργανωτικών αλλαγών στο νοσοκομειακό χώρο είναι βαθύ, αφού απαιτείται αναδιοργάνωση, αλλαγή, προσαρμογή στην τεχνολογική διοίκηση, έλεγχος και αξιολόγηση του παραγομένου έργου σε όλες τις βαθμίδες και ιδιαίτερα στην παροχή υπηρεσιών υγείας. Για παράδειγμα, οι ιατρικοί φάκελοι στα περισσότερα νοσοκομεία ακόμα και σήμερα εξακολουθούν να είναι χειρόγραφοι, ογκώδεις, ασαφείς, δυσεύρετοι, δυσανάγνωστοι ενώ πολλές φορές χάνονται, φθείρονται και αλλοιώνονται. Επίσης, η αναζήτηση ιστορικών και κλινικών δεδομένων που αφορούν τους νοσηλευόμενους και τους εξωτερικούς ασθενείς είναι πολύ δύσκολη, ενώ η εξαγωγή στατιστικών συμπερασμάτων εντελώς αβέβαιη και πολύπλοκη. Ωστόσο οι όποιες προσπάθειες για την βελτίωση και τον εκσυγχρονισμό του συστήματος υγείας πρέπει να συνοδεύονται από σταδιακές τεχνολογικές μεταρρυθμίσεις οι οποίες θα βελτιώνουν την πολυποίκιλη νοσοκομειακή εργασία και παράλληλα θα βοηθούν στο σχεδιασμό πολιτικών διοικητικού ελέγχου και ιεραρχικών δομών οργάνωσης. Ο σκοπός της μεταπτυχιακής μου εργασίας είναι να εξετάσουμε τον ιατρικό φάκελο του ασθενή από τη στιγμή που νοσηλεύεται στο νοσοκομείο μέχρι το εξιτήριό του. Θα εξετάσουμε πιο συγκεκριμένα τη διαδικασία που ακολουθεί το γραφείο κίνησης έπειτα τη κλινική και τέλος το αρχείο του νοσοκομείου όπου και εκεί καταλήγει ο ιατρικός φάκελος του ασθενή. Θα αναπαριστάνουμε όλη αυτή την διαδικασία μέσω του προγράμματος Bizagi Process Modeler. Θα εξετάσουμε το πρόβλημα που έχουν οι υπάλληλοι του αρχείου του νοσοκομείου στο να εντοπίσουν τον φάκελο του ασθενή στη περίπτωση που νοσηλεύεται ο ασθενής για δεύτερη και τρίτη φορά στο νοσοκομείο. Με αποτέλεσμα να δημιουργούνται διπλά μητρώα νοσοκομείου για τον συγκεκριμένο ασθενή και να υπάρχει έλλειψη αποθήκης όλων των πληροφοριών που αφορούν το ιστορικό του. Τέλος οι διαδικασίες που θα γίνουν είναι οι εξής: • Αναπαράσταση της διαδικασίας του νοσοκομείου μέσω της Bizagi Process Modeler • Εντόπιση του προβλήματος (Διπλά μητρώα) • Λύση του προβλήματος μέσω της Access • Σωστή λειτουργία του αρχείου του νοσοκομείου μέσω της Bizagi Process Modeler / The public hospitals are facing serious problems of management and modernization of health services with the main result of operating inefficiencies and low degree of satisfaction of citizens. The citizen who resorts to a Public Hospital seeking necessary health care and care implicitly declares his confidence in health services delivery and acceptance of the system of public administration. But the system creates omissions, delays, chaotic bureaucracy and exorbitant financial and non charges have resulted in a low yield of health services and the operation of the unregulated private sector. The cause of the problem lies both in the lack or violation of rules governing the regulatory framework and partly to the inability construction of mechanisms that enforce rigid implementation. Also, indifference of authorities for the implementation of technological change and innovation and the lack of planning and organizing the implementation of public health to strengthen. Generally, the problem of organizational change in the hospital setting is deep since a reorganization, change, adapt to technological management, monitoring and evaluation of the work done at all levels and particularly in the provision of health services. For example, medical records in most hospitals still remain in manuscript, bulky, fuzzy, scarce, illegible and often lost, worn and altered. Also, the search of historical and clinical data on inpatients and outpatients is very difficult, while the statistical conclusions completely uncertain and complex. However, any efforts to improve and modernize the health system must be accompanied by a gradual technological reforms that will improve diverse hospital work and will also help design policies of administrative control and hierarchical organizational structures. The purpose of my master thesis is to examine the medical records of the patient once hospitalized until his discharge. We will examine more specifically the procedure followed by the circulation desk after the end of the clinic and the hospital where file and there goes the medical record of the patient. Will be represented throughout this process through the Bizagi Process Modeler. We will look at the problem that the staff of the hospital authorities to locate the file of the patient in case the patient is hospitalized for a second and third time in the hospital. Resulting to double hospital records for this patient and a lack of storage of all information relating to the history. Finally, the procedures to be carried out include: • Representation of hospital procedures through Bizagi Process Modeler • Locating the problem (Double registers) • Solution of the problem through the Access • Correct operation of the hospital authorities through Bizagi Process Modeler

Von Mittwoch, den 21.04.2021, bis Freitag, den 23.04.2021, richtete das Archiv für deutsche Polarforschung (AdP) des Alfred-Wegener-Instituts (AWI), Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, und der Verband deutscher Archivarinnen und Archivare (VdA) die Frühjahrstagung der Fachgruppe 8 des VdA aus. Diese Tagung war bereits im Frühjahr 2020 geplant und musste dann abgesagt werden. Im Jahr 2021 wurde die Tagung von vornherein als digitale Tagung geplant. Neben dem Tagungsprogramm wurde ein digitaler Pausenraum unter Wonder.me eingerichtet, in dem sich die Tagungsteilnehmer zwanglos zum kollegialen Gespräch treffen konnten. Die Tagung widmete sich dem Thema 'Digitalisierung' in seiner ganzen Breite - natürlich mit Bezug zu den Archiven in unserer Fachgruppe. Unter dieser Prämisse behandeln wir in Vorträgen, Workshops, Diskussionen und Führungen verschiedene Aspekte des Themas. Dazu gehören: Erhebung, Verarbeitung, Speicherung und Aufbewahrung von Forschungsdaten, Schriftgutverwaltung im Rahmen von Dokumentenmanagementsystemen, die Einrichtung von digitalen Archiven, Nutzung von Archiven im Rahmen von Portalen, rechtliche Aspekte des Digitalisierungsprozesses im Archiv und zukünftige Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Künstlicher Intelligenz in den digitalen Workflows eines Archivs. / From Wednesday, 21 April 2021, to Friday, 23 April 2021, the Archive for German Polar Research (AdP) of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, and the Association of German Archivists (VdA) hosted the spring meeting of Division 8 of the VdA. This meeting was already planned for spring 2020 and then had to be cancelled. In 2021, the conference was planned from the outset as a digital conference. In addition to the conference programme, a digital break room was set up under Wonder.me, where conference participants could meet informally for collegial discussions. The conference was dedicated to the topic of 'digitisation' in all its breadth - naturally with reference to the archives in our section. Under this premise, we dealt with various aspects of the topic in lectures, workshops, discussions and guided tours. These include: collection, processing, storage and preservation of research data, records management in the context of document management systems, the establishment of digital archives, use of archives in the context of portals, legal aspects of the digitisation process in the archive and future possibilities of using artificial intelligence (AI) in the digital workflows of an archive.