Consumer complaint behaviour research in transitional and emerging countries, including South Africa, is still in its infancy stage. The vast changes to the South African consumer landscape along with the socio-political changes and the multicultural population's ongoing cultural changes necessitate the monitoring of changes in personal values. However, very little research has been done in South Africa regarding consumers' personal values. The effect of personal values on complaint behaviour in a South African context has also not yet been explored. As an extension of the social adaptation theory, several researchers have proposed a value-attitude-behaviour (VAB) hierarchy model (Homer & Kahle, 1988; Cai & Shannon, 2012) in order to explain the relationship between values and behaviour. The model proposes that causality flows from abstract values, through mid-range attitudes, to specific behaviours (Homer & Kahle, 1988; Hayley, Zinkiewicz & Hardiman, 2014); that is, values influence behaviour indirectly through attitudes. While the VAB model has been confirmed in a variety of consumer behaviour contexts, it has not yet been explored in a South African complaint behaviour context. This study therefore used social adaptation theory and the VAB model as theoretical framework to determine the effect of consumers' personal values and attitudes towards appliance retailers' complaint handling on their consumer complaint behaviour in the South African context. In addition, the relationships between demographic variables and personal values and also between demographic variables and consumer complaint behaviour were explored. A survey was administered to consumers who were dissatisfied with the performance of a major household appliance within a four-year memory recall period. Data was collected via a self-administered questionnaire measuring personal values with Kahle's (1983) List of Values (LOV) and attitudes toward appliance retailers' complaint handling, using an adapted version of Keng, Richmond and Han's (1995) "Attitudes toward businesses" scale. Convenience sampling and snowball sampling were employed in Tshwane, a major metropolitan area of South Africa, which generated 361 usable questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three value dimensions, namely (1) Harmony and Respect, (2) Hedonism and (3) Achievement. Results of the Pearson correlation analysis showed that higher valuing of any one of the three value dimensions lead to more negative attitudes towards appliance retailers' complaint handling. Furthermore, multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that more negative attitudes towards appliance retailers' complaint handling lead to a decreased likelihood of engaging in public complaint behaviour. Moreover, ANOVA revealed relationships between specific personal value dimensions and gender, age and population group. The study has implications for marketers, policy makers, appliance retailers and consumer protection organisations. / Navorsing oor verbruikers se klagte-gedrag in opkomende lande, insluitend Suid-Afrika, is nie baie ver gevorder nie. Die omvattende veranderende Suid-Afrikaanse verbruikerslandskap, tesame met die volgehoue sosio-politieke veranderinge en die kulturele veranderinge in die multikulturele polulasie, noodsaak die monitering van veranderinge in verbruikers se waardes. Daar bestaan egter baie min navorsing in Suid-Afrika oor verbruikers se persoonlike waardes. Voorts is die effek van persoonlike waardes op klagte-gedrag nog nie in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks ondersoek nie. Verskeie navorsers stel voor dat die waarde-houding-gedrag-hiërargiemodel, wat uit sosiale aanpassingsteorie spruit, gebruik moet word om die verhouding tussen waardes en gedrag te verstaan. Die model stel dat oorsaaklikheid vanaf abstrakte waardes, deur houdings, na spesifieke gedrag vloei (Homer & Kahle, 1988; Hayley et al., 2014). Dit wil sê, waardes beïnvloed gedrag indirek deur houdings. Terwyl die waarde-houding-gedrag-model in 'n verskeidenheid klagte-gedrag-kontekste bevestig is, is dit nog nie in 'n Suid-Afrikaanse klagte-gedrag-konteks ondersoek nie. Gevolglik is die sosiale aanpassingsteorie en die waarde-houding-gedrag-model as teoretiese raamwerk in hierdie studie toegepas om die effek van verbruikers se persoonlike waardes en houdings teenoor kleinhandelaars se klagte-hantering op hulle klagte-gedrag in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks te bepaal. Die verwantskappe tussen verbruikers se demografiese veranderlikes en hulle persoonlike waardes, en tussen demografiese veranderlikes en klagte-gedrag is ook verken. 'n Opname is onder verbruikers wat ontevrede was met die werksverrigting van hulle groot huishoudelike toerusting oor 'n vier-jaar-herroepingstydperk gedoen. Data is deur 'n selfgeadministreerde vraelys ingesamel waarin persoonlike waardes met Kahle (1983) se List of Values (LOV) en houdings teenoor kleinhandelaars se klagte-hantering met 'n aangepaste weergawe van Keng et al. (1995) se "Houdings teenoor besighede"-skaal gemeet is. Geriefsteekproefneming en sneeubalsteekproefneming, wat 361 bruikbare vraelyste opgelewer het, is in Tswane, 'n groot metropolitaanse gebied in Suid-Afrika, onderneem. Verkennende faktoranalise het drie waardedimensies, naamlik (1) Harmonie en Respek, (2) Hedonisme en (3) Prestasie, opgelewer. Die Pearsonkorrelasie-analise se resultate toon dat 'n toename in belangrikheid in enige van die drie waardedimensies tot 'n meer negatiewe houding teenoor kleinhandelaars se klagte-hantering lei. Voorts dui die resultate van die multinomiese logistiese regressie-analise daarop dat 'n toename in verbruikers se negatiewe houding teenoor kleinhandelaars se klagte-hantering tot 'n afname lei in hul geneigdheid tot publieke klagte-gedrag. Die resultate van die ANOVA-analise toon verder dat daar verwantskappe tussen spesifieke persoonlike waardes en geslag, ouderdom en populasiegroep bestaan. Die studie het implikasies vir bemarkers, beleidmakers, kleinhandelaars en verbruikersbeskerming-organisasies. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Consumer Science / MConsumer Science / Unrestricted

50 Patienten wurden mit einem herausnehmbaren unterkiefervorverlagernden Schienensystem im Zeitraum der Jahre 2000 bis 2002 behandelt. Die schlafmedizinisch-diagnostischen Untersuchungen vor Therapiebeginn erfolgten bei 25 Patienten ambulant und bei den anderen 25 Patienten stationär. Es wurden schlafmedizinischen Parameter zur Diagnosestellung herangezogen. Hälftig bestanden bei diesen Patienten die schlafmedizinische Diagnosen einer Rhonchopathie (reine Schnarcher, ohne internistische Besonderheiten) und einer leicht bis mittelgradigen obstruktiven Schlafapnoe. Bei 23 Patienten mit einer Rhonchopathie wurde das Funktionsprinzip der Unterkiefervorverlagerung durch den Wilcoxon-Test bei der Veränderung der schlafmedizinischen Parameter Entsättigungsindex, Schnarchindex, Anzahl der Entsättigungen und niederste Entsättigung bestätigt. Bei zwei (8%) der 25 Patienten veränderten sich die Parameter nicht positiv, so dass die Schienentherapie abgebrochen wurde. Bei 20 Patienten mit leicht- bis mittelgradiger Schlafapnoe bestätigte der Wilcoxon-Test die Signifikanz der Veränderungen bei den polysomnographischen Werten AHI , REM und Schlafeffizienz. Die Signifkanzschranke wurde bei dem somnologischem Wert Tiefschlaf nicht erreicht. Obgleich bei 13 Patienten die Schienentherapie aus unterschiedlichen Gründen innerhalb der zwei Untersuchungsjahre abgebrochen werden musste, wurde die Behandlung bei den 37 verbliebenen Patienten (74%) als erfolgreich und zufriedenstellend eingeschätzt.

The recent increase in the amount of stored company data and exceeding interest in data analysis has resulted in new requirements on Data Warehousing solutions. This has led to the development of Data Warehouse Appliances, which this research project aims to investigate the business value of. The result is intended to support companies that are considering an investment, and give them an understanding of the technology’s benefits. The research project was conducted in two parts. Vendors of the Appliance technology were interviewed, as well as their customers. The results from the vendor interviews together with a literature study provided a knowledge base for the analysis of the user companies’ interviews. The results clearly indicate that there is value in the technology for larger companies. The research shows that although the main benefits advocated by the vendors match the perceived ones of the user companies, there are other aspects which they value even more. Examples of this include a reduced amount of administrative tasks and support from a single source. The research also reveals that the benefits estimated by the customer at the time of purchase were not their most valued benefits in hindsight. / Företag lagrar allt större datamängder och låter dessa ligga till grund för komplicerade dataanalyser, vilket ställer nya krav på deras befintliga Data Warehouse--‐lösningar. Detta har lett till utvecklingen av Data Warehouse Appliance, vars affärsnytta detta projekt syftar till att utreda. Resultatet kommer tillhandahålla beslutsunderlag för de företag som överväger en investering i tekniken. Undersökningen genomfördes i två steg. Intervjuer genomfördes med leverantörer som tillhandahåller tekniken såväl som med deras användande kunder. Resultaten från leverantörsintervjuerna tillsammans med en omfattande litteraturstudie låg sedan till grund för den analys som gjordes av intervjuerna med de användande företagen. Resultaten visar på ett verkligt värde i tekniken för företag med stora datamängder. Undersökningen visar att de fördelar som framhålls som teknikens främsta av leverantörerna bekräftas av deras användande kunder, men att det finns andra vinster de värdesätter ännu mer. Dessa inkluderar en minskad teknisk komplexitet, en minskad mängd administrativa uppgifter samt support från en enda källa. Undersökningen visar även att de faktorer som spelat störst roll vid investeringen inte är desamma som tillskrivs störst värde i efterhand.

A cheap and powerful solution to lower the electricity usage and making the residents more energy aware in a home is to simply make the residents aware of what appliances that are consuming electricity. Meaning the residents can then take decisions to turn them off in order to save energy. Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) is a cost-effective solution to identify different appliances based on their unique load signatures by only measuring the energy consumption at a single sensing point. In this thesis, a low-cost hardware platform is developed with the help of an Arduino to collect consumption signatures in real time, with the help of a single CT-sensor. Three different algorithms and one recurrent neural network are implemented with Python to find out which of them is the most suited for this kind of work. The tested algorithms are k-Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest and Decision Tree Classifier and the recurrent neural network is Long short-term memory.

This thesis identifies impacts of behaviors and technology on residential indoor water use and conservation efforts. We use pre-existing detailed end-use data collected before and after toilets, faucets, showerheads, and clothes washers were retrofitted in 96 owner-occupied, single-family households in Oakland, California; Seattle, Washington; and Tampa, Florida between 2000 and 2003. Water volume, duration of use, and time of use were recorded and disaggregated by appliance for two weeks before and four weeks after appliances were retrofitted. For each appliance, we compare observed differences in water use before and after retrofits to water savings predicted by analytical engineering, semi-analytical engineering, and econometric regression methods. Results show that observed and predicted distributions of water savings are skewed with a small number of households showing potential to save more water. Results also show the relative and significant influence on water saved of both technological (flow rates of appliances) and behavioral (length of use, frequency of use) factors. Additionally, the number of residents, and the performance and the frequency of use of the appliance are the key factors that distinguish households that save the most water from households that save less. Study results help improve engineering methods to estimate water savings from retrofits and allow water utilities to better target subcategories of households that have potential to save more water.

Background: Occlusal appliances for treatment of different temporomandibular disorders (TMD) have shown to have good effect. Patients treated with an occlusal appliance should return for follow-ups and they have a right for free follow-ups within 3 months. Despite this, there are patients that are not receiving their follow-ups. Aim: To evaluate follow-up routines after treatment with an occlusal appliance in public dental practice in Västerbotten, Sweden. To evaluate the most common indications for treatment with an occlusal appliance. To evaluate if the dentists register the outcome of the treatment with their occlusal appliance or not.  Methods: Onehundred randomly selected dental records were analysed from patients treated with an occlusal appliance during 2019 in public dental practice in Västerbotten county. The analysis was conducted using a Microsoft Excel document that had prior to analysis been created. The results were processed using IBM SPSS Statistics and Microsoft Excel. Results: Forty-eight of the 97 accessible patients had a scheduled follow-up. Out of these, 38 received their follow-ups. Seventy-three patients had bruxism as an indication for treatment, 40 had myalgia, 33 had tooth wear and 33 had replacement of an old appliance. Sixty-four out of 97 patients had no information about evaluation of treatment, 17 had improved symptoms.  Conclusions: The study showed an approximately 50% rate of scheduled follow-ups of occlusal appliances and the most common indication for that treatment was bruxism. The dentists did not evaluate the treatment outcome of patients’ symptoms. It is recommended to adhere to the decision-making model.

Introduction: The objective of this retrospective longitudinal study was to assess and compare the surgical changes and stability of the maxilla, mandible, and mandibular condyle, in patients who have undergone surgery first approach (SFA) followed by conventional braces or Invisalign (Inv) treatment. Methods: Thirty patients had a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) exam taken at three timepoints: T1 (presurgery), T2 (immediately after surgery), and T3 at the completion of orthodontics treatment. After the cranial base registration, twenty-seven landmarks were located on each time point using axial, sagittal, and coronal cross-sectional views in the ITK-SNAP software. In addition, seventeen skeletal angular and linear variables were measured using the 3D Slicer software. Result: In general, both Groups had similar sugical changes (T2-T1) and stability (T3-T2). There was a statistically significant longer postsurgical orthodontic time in the Fixed Group (x̅ = five months). Skeletally, comparing T3-T2 the B point showed a statistically significant inferior position in the Fixed Group compared to the Inv Group (1.3 mm), resulting in a larger increase in mandibular plane angle in the Fixed Group (x̅ = 2.7 degrees). Conclusion: The Fixed appliances and clear aligner therapy in the surgery first approach resulted in similar skeletal changes and stability, except for the mandibular plane angle, which showed a greater increase in the Fixed Group. This result may suggest that patients with hyperdivergent skeletal pattern could benefit from aligner therapy for the postsurgical orthodontic phase.

<p>Enthusiasm for uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) in the treatment of mild-to-moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) has declined in recent years, partly because of a lower success rate over time and partly because of adverse effects. In more severe cases, the patients are generally treated with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). However, many patients do not satisfactorily tolerate CPAP as a result of frequent side-effects. Consequently, there is a need for an alternative treatment. Reports on the beneficial effects of mandibular advancement appliances in the treatment of mild-to-moderate OSA exist in the form of short–term evaluations.</p><p>One of the aims of the present thesis was to compare treatment effects with a mandibular advancement appliance and UPPP in patients with OSA with follow-up after one and four years. Ninety-five male patients with confirmed mild-to-moderate OSA (apnea index, AI >5 and <25) were randomised to treatment with a dental appliance or UPPP. Sleep studies were performed before and one and four years after intervention. According to the criteria for normalisation (AI<5 and apnea hypopnea index, AHI<10), 78% of the patients in the dental appliance group and 51% of the patients in the UPPP group had normalised after one year (p<0.05). Still after four years of treatment, 63% of the patients in the dental appliance group and 33% of the patients in the UPPP group were normalised. The dental appliance group had a higher normalisation rate than the UPPP group, but the efficacy was partly invalidated by the compliance rate of 62%.</p><p>Quality of life assessments in the dimensions of vitality, contentment and sleep improved in both groups at the one-year follow-up after treatment. There was no difference between the groups in terms of vitality and sleep. The UPPP group, however, reported a higher degree of contentment than the dental appliance group, even though the somnographic values were superior in the latter group. </p><p>Another aim was to conduct a randomised study to test the hypothesis that severe OSA patients will benefit from more pronounced mandibular advancement (MA) compared with a shorter advancement. Eighty-six males with severe OSA (AI>20) were randomly allocated to either 75% or 50% MA for a six-month treatment period. Treatment with a more pronounced mandibular advancement yielded a 20% higher normalisation rate than a shorter advancement. A mean normalisation rate of 45% was found for patients in this category with few side-effects, good patient satisfaction and a compliance of 92% after 6 months. </p><p>The overall conclusion is that dental appliance treatment is effective in patients with mild to moderate OSA and even for patients with severe OSA. The efficacy in terms of normalisation in patients with mild to moderate OSA was higher after the dental appliance treatment with a 50% degree of advancement than after the UPPP treatment. However, severe OSA patients might benefit from more pronounced advancement (75%) compared with a shorter degree of advancement (50%). QOL improved significantly after both dental appliance and UPPP treatment. </p>

Enthusiasm for uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) in the treatment of mild-to-moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) has declined in recent years, partly because of a lower success rate over time and partly because of adverse effects. In more severe cases, the patients are generally treated with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). However, many patients do not satisfactorily tolerate CPAP as a result of frequent side-effects. Consequently, there is a need for an alternative treatment. Reports on the beneficial effects of mandibular advancement appliances in the treatment of mild-to-moderate OSA exist in the form of short–term evaluations. One of the aims of the present thesis was to compare treatment effects with a mandibular advancement appliance and UPPP in patients with OSA with follow-up after one and four years. Ninety-five male patients with confirmed mild-to-moderate OSA (apnea index, AI &gt;5 and &lt;25) were randomised to treatment with a dental appliance or UPPP. Sleep studies were performed before and one and four years after intervention. According to the criteria for normalisation (AI&lt;5 and apnea hypopnea index, AHI&lt;10), 78% of the patients in the dental appliance group and 51% of the patients in the UPPP group had normalised after one year (p&lt;0.05). Still after four years of treatment, 63% of the patients in the dental appliance group and 33% of the patients in the UPPP group were normalised. The dental appliance group had a higher normalisation rate than the UPPP group, but the efficacy was partly invalidated by the compliance rate of 62%. Quality of life assessments in the dimensions of vitality, contentment and sleep improved in both groups at the one-year follow-up after treatment. There was no difference between the groups in terms of vitality and sleep. The UPPP group, however, reported a higher degree of contentment than the dental appliance group, even though the somnographic values were superior in the latter group. Another aim was to conduct a randomised study to test the hypothesis that severe OSA patients will benefit from more pronounced mandibular advancement (MA) compared with a shorter advancement. Eighty-six males with severe OSA (AI&gt;20) were randomly allocated to either 75% or 50% MA for a six-month treatment period. Treatment with a more pronounced mandibular advancement yielded a 20% higher normalisation rate than a shorter advancement. A mean normalisation rate of 45% was found for patients in this category with few side-effects, good patient satisfaction and a compliance of 92% after 6 months. The overall conclusion is that dental appliance treatment is effective in patients with mild to moderate OSA and even for patients with severe OSA. The efficacy in terms of normalisation in patients with mild to moderate OSA was higher after the dental appliance treatment with a 50% degree of advancement than after the UPPP treatment. However, severe OSA patients might benefit from more pronounced advancement (75%) compared with a shorter degree of advancement (50%). QOL improved significantly after both dental appliance and UPPP treatment.

This thesis presents the development of techniques which enable appliance recognition in an Advanced Electricity Meter (AEM) to aid individuals reduce their domestic electricity consumption. The key aspect is to provide immediate and disaggregated information, down to appliance level, from a single point of measurement. Three sets of features including the short term time domain, time dependent finite state machine behaviour and time of day are identified by monitoring step changes in the power consumption of the home. Associated with each feature set is a membership which depicts the amount to which that feature set is representative of a particular appliance. These memberships are combined in a novel framework to effectively identify individual appliance state changes and hence appliance energy consumption. An innovative mechanism is developed for generating short term time domain memberships. Hierarchical and nearest neighbour clustering is used to train the AEM by generating appliance prototypes which contain an indication of typical parameters. From these prototypes probabilistic fuzzy memberships and possibilistic fuzzy typicalities are calculated for new data points which correspond to appliance state changes. These values are combined in a weighted geometric mean to produce novel memberships which are determined to be appropriate for the domestic model. A voltage independent feature space in the short term time domain is developed based on a model of the appliance’s electrical interface. The components within that interface are calculated and these, along with an indication of the appropriate model, form a novel feature set which is used to represent appliances. The techniques developed are verified with real data and are 99.8% accurate in a laboratory based classification in the short term time domain. The work presented in this thesis demonstrates the ability of the AEM to accurately track the energy consumption of individual appliances.