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published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

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Errors during radiotherapy treatment can cause severe, and potentially fatal, patient harm. The final check immediately prior to treatment delivery, whereby two radiographers ensure that the dose about to be delivered corresponds with the prescription, is the last defence against error. The aim of this research was to increase understanding of this final treatment check and factors affecting error detection, in order to improve the safety of radiotherapy treatment delivery. The research adopted a mixed methods approach, combining qualitative and experimental studies to investigate the interaction of factors affecting accuracy during the final treatment checks. The qualitative interviews and task analysis pointed to difficulties maintaining attention and variation in how these checks are conducted. The interface used to conduct the final treatment check was also recognised to have usability issues. The laboratory-based experimental studies results indicated that a structured form of double checking, called challenge-response, is most effective at error detection, when compared to single or unstructured double checking. Furthermore, it was found that alternating the roles of challenger and responder, and the order parameters are checked in, significantly increases accuracy during repeated treatment checks. The original contribution of this research was a detailed investigation of a previously understudied aspect of radiotherapy treatment. The results informed the design of an original, evidence and theoretical based two-person checking protocol for use during the final treatment check. Qualitative evaluation indicates that it would be well received as a standardised method of treatment checking. Furthermore, an alternative interface design has been proposed, specifically for use during the final treatment check. This was comparatively tested against the most frequently used software package within the UK and found to have a significant positive impact upon user’s accuracy. An additional output is a series of practice based recommendations to improve accuracy during repeated treatment checking. This research has concluded that implementation of the practice recommendations, checking protocol and interface design should help maintain radiographers’ attention during repeated final treatment checks, thereby preventing errors passing undetected. Future research into the radiotherapy interface design and implementation of the standardised final treatment check protocol have been identified.

LL.M. (Civil Procedural Law) / In this dissertation various topics regarding inchoate documents will be analysed and discussed. A brief historical background will set the scene, showing the development of bills of exchange in various countries around the world. Although the origins of the earliest bills of exchange can be traced back to Arabic traders in the eighth century, the development of the bill of exchange is generally traced back to the lex mercatoria, i~ the rules which were adopted by medieval traders, especially the Lombards in Italy, to conduct their business. As the lex mercatoria was absorbed into various countries, differences developed. It is clear that the English Bills of Exchange Act 1882 had a marked influence on the law relating to negotiable instruments in most Commonwealth countries and the United States of America. In the second chapter the distinction between the common law and statute law will be analysed. The recent Appellate Division judgment in the case of Thompson v Voges 1988 (I) SA 747 (A) will be discussed. In that case Acting Chief Justice Rabie held that an automatic estoppel could not operate against the signatory of an inchoate document who had signed a document and had handed it to another with the intention that it be issued and used as a negotiable instrument. A detailed analysis of Thompson's case, and the cases referred to by the learned Acting Chief Justice in the course of his judgment, will show that the conclusion reached by him can only be applied to holders who qualify as mere holders, and not to holders in due course. It is submitted, with the greatest respect, that an automatic estoppel will still operate in favour of a holder in due course...

A historical perspective on healthcare regulation is provided along with the details of the process of fingerprinting and background checks. Issues are raised concerning the validity and reliability of background checks. Information on the status of the individual states is provided by means of a chart and a discussion ensues regarding the rationalization for requiring background checks and fingerprinting. Finally, questions and recommendations are posed regarding making background checks a requirement for licensure and/or entry into nursing schools.

A historical perspective on healthcare regulation is provided along with the details of the process of fingerprinting and background checks. Issues are raised concerning the validity and reliability of background checks. Information on the status of the individual states is provided by means of a chart and a discussion ensues regarding the rationalization for requiring background checks and fingerprinting. Finally, questions and recommendations are posed regarding making background checks a requirement for licensure and/or entry into nursing schools.

Although the wave of democratization already took place in Latin America, Venezuela has experienced a reversal in the past decade. In earlier years, the higher courts (although independent) had no impact on society; the justice members only assumed a symbolic role with no real importance, but with time, this characteristic started to interchange and the Judicial branch began to get involved in issues regarding its civil society. Consequently, the elected President Hugo Chavez decided to neutralize the power of all branches of government, including the judiciary, by enacting a set of rules not commonly seen in a democratic country, which concentrated the majority of power in his hand, eliminating the concept of Checks and Balances. This imbalance of power between the Executive and all other branches of government, has led to the deterioration, and almost elimination, of the independence within the judiciary. Therefore, the more the executive controls the judiciary, the less autonomy and less self-sufficiency it will have, thus eliminating the checks and balances in the Venezuelan government. In this negative relationship, the excessiveness of power exerted by the Executive branch is the main variable that controls the judicial branch. I will present valuable background information to this topic, and I will then suggest a concise solution to the problem of government imbalance between the branches in the Venezuelan government.

Modern enterprise organisations rely on dynamic processes. Generally these processes cannot be modelled once and executed repeatedly without change. Enterprise processes may evolve unpredictably according to situations that cannot always be prescribed. However, no mechanism exists to ensure an updated process does not violate any compliance requirements. Typical workflow processes may follow a process definition and execute several thousand instances using a workflow engine without any changes. This is suitable for routine business processes. However, when business processes need flexibility, adaptive features are needed. Updating processes may violate compliance requirements so automatic verification of compliance checking is necessary. The research work presented in this Thesis investigates the problem of current workflow technology in defining, managing and ensuring the specification and execution of business processes that are dynamic in nature, combined with policy standards throughout the process lifycle. The findings from the literature review and the system requirements are used to design the proposed system architecture. Since a two-tier reference process model is not sufficient as a basis for the reference model for an adaptive and compliance workflow management system, a three-tier process model is proposed. The major components of the architecture consist of process models, business rules and plugin modules. This architecture exhibits the concept of user adaptation with structural checks and dynamic adaptation with data-driven checks. A research prototype - Adaptive and Compliance Workflow Management System (ACWfMS) - was developed based on the proposed system architecture to implement core services of the system for testing and evaluation purposes. The ACWfMS enables the development of a workflow management tool to create or update the process models. It automatically validates compliance requirements and, in the case of violations, visual feedback is presented to the user. In addition, the architecture facilitates process migration to manage specific instances with modified definitions. A case study based on the postgraduate research process domain is discussed.