This study focuses on the role of media portrayal and coverage in serial killing. The first objective of the study is to develop a conceptual structure that aids in the understanding of the cyclical relationship between media, serial killer, and audience. The media acts as a catalyst in this relationship, providing the stage on which serial killer and audience form a fatal relationship in which celebrity status forms the ultimate motivation. Media sensationalism of serial killing and the extreme glamorization in fictional representations has obviously negative consequences. In developing such a structure I hope to demonstrate that there is an alternative to the sensationalizing and glamorizing of serial killers in the media. This alternative will take the form education and a more documentary-style approach to films about serial murder. The study focuses mainly on developing a theoretical framework that emphasizes each of the three elements of the cyclical relationship mentioned above separately. The second chapter is devoted to the media and its role. The third chapter focuses on serial killers and the motivations involved. The fourth chapter deals with the audience attracted to serial killing as a source of identification. A number of thinkers’ work is used in coming to grips with this relationship, including both American and South African authors. The fifth and final chapter takes into consideration the moment of application by addressing the South African situation. I conclude by discussing the repercussions of media glamorization and possible documentary-style alternatives.

This study explores healthcare coverage disparity using a quantitative analysis on a large dataset from the United States. One of the objectives is to build supervised models including decision tree and neural network to study the efficient factors in healthcare coverage. We also discover groups of people with health coverage problems and inconsistencies by employing unsupervised modeling including K-Means clustering algorithm. Our modeling is based on the dataset retrieved from Medical Expenditure Panel Survey with 98,175 records in the original dataset. After pre-processing the data, including binning, cleaning, dealing with missing values, and balancing, it contains 26,932 records and 23 variables. We build 50 classification models in IBM SPSS Modeler employing decision tree and neural networks. The accuracy of the models varies between 76% and 81%. The models can predict the healthcare coverage for a new sample based on its significant attributes. We demonstrate that the decision tree models provide higher accuracy that the models based on neural networks. Also, having extensively analyzed the results, we discover the most efficient factors in healthcare coverage to be: access to care, age, poverty level of family, and race/ethnicity.

Current geocasting algorithms for VANETs are being designed to enable either private or reliable communications, but not both. Existing algorithms preserve privacy by minimizing the information used for routing, and sacrifice message delivery success. On the other hand, reliable protocols often store node information that can be used to compromise a vehicle's privacy. We have designed two private and reliable geocasting protocols for VANETs that ensure confidentiality. One is a probabilistic algorithm that uses direction-based dissemination, while the other is a deterministic algorithm that uses transmission-coverage dissemination. To preserve privacy, we create unlinkable and pseudonymous channels of communication with geocasting. For encryption and authentication, we use a public key technique. Our probabilistic forwarding model depends on message rate and cumulative payload, as well as the value of the angle of spreading of the direction-based scheme. To reduce message duplication, we apply dynamic traffic restriction and probabilistic forwarding techniques. The deterministic forwarding algorithm delays forwarding messages based on its uncovered transmission area after neighbouring nodes have broadcast the message. We prove that both algorithms ensure node privacy with appropriate message encryption security, and we ran simulations to demonstrate that both meet the message delivery requirements. From the gathered data, we observe that both algorithms behave differently depending on the scenario, with node density affecting the deterministic algorithm, while the angle of spreading does have a significant impact on the probabilistic protocol.

Un réseau de capteurs sans fil résulte du déploiement d'un ensemble de petites unités autonomes interagissant via un réseau construit grâce à leur module de communication qui observent leur environnement par des capteurs pour ensuite traiter et/ou sauvegarder cette information via leur capacité calculatoire et de stockage. La couverture est la seule représentation disponible aux réseaux de capteurs de l'espace physique environnant. Par conséquent, il est essentiel de pouvoir qualifier et quantifier sa qualité notamment concernant la présence de trous. Nos travaux utilisent la topologie algébrique pour répondre à ces problèmes. Plus précisément, nous définissons dans un premier temps une notion de trou de couverture d'un champ scalaire qui mesure la qualité de l'estimation par le réseau de capteurs sans pour autant connaître la position des capteurs. Cela permet d'utiliser l'homologie simpliciale pour déterminer la qualité de la couverture globale et accessoirement de mettre en veille certains capteurs surnuméraires tout en garantissant la couverture. Puis, afin de rendre le résultat précédent facilement calculable par un réseau de capteurs grâce à une distribution du calcul qui supporte en plus le passage à l'échelle, nous utilisons la théorie de Morse discrète pour faire le calcul des groupes d'homologie nécessaires à notre application précédente. Enfin, cette dernière approche est rendue suffisamment souple pour permettre le suivi temporel des modifications de la couverture de manière délocalisée. Cela permet non seulement de suivre la qualité de la couverture lorsque l'environnement se modifie mais aussi de proposer un schéma distribué de mise en veille des capteurs afin d'augmenter la durée de vie du réseau de capteurs tout en garantissant une couverture suffisante. / A wireless sensor network consists of a set of small autonomous units that interact via a network built by their communication modules. They observe their environment by their sensors and then they manage this information according to their computational capacity and storage. The coverage is the only representation available to the sensor network of its environment. Therefore, it is essential to quantify the quality of coverage especially related to the presence of holes. Our work uses algebraic topology to solve these problems. We first define a notion of the coverage hole in a scalar field, which measures the quality of the estimation by the sensor network without knowing the positions of the sensors. It allows the simplicial homology tool to determine the quality of the overall coverage and put certain redundant sensors into sleeping mode with the guarantee of the coverage. Then, to make the previous result easier to compute by a sensor network, the discrete Morse theory is used. It allows a distributed computation of the previous homology groups while supporting scalability necessary in sensor networks domain. Finally, one flexible approach that allows time varying tracking which allows a coverage is proposed in a distributed way. When the environment changes, this approach can not only guarantee the capability of monitoring of coverage quality, but also proposes a scheme to send to sleep the redundant sensors in order to increase the lifetime of the sensor network with adequate coverage.

The random deployment of Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network (WSAN) nodes in areas often inaccessible, results in so-called coverage holes – i.e. areas in the network that are not adequately covered by nodes to suit the requirements of the network. Various coverage protocol algorithms have been designed to reduce or eliminate coverage holes within WSANs by indicating how to move the nodes. The effectiveness of such coverage protocols could be jeopardised by inaccuracy in the initial node location data that is broadcast by the respective nodes. This study examines the effects of location inaccuracies on five sensor deployment and reconfiguration algorithms – They include two algorithms which assume that mobile nodes are deployed (referred to as the VEC and VOR algorithms); two that assume static nodes are deployed (referred to as the CNPSS and OGDC algorithms); and a single algorithm (based on a bidding protocol) that assumes a hybrid scenario in which both static and mobile nodes are deployed. Two variations of this latter algorithm are studied. A location simulation tool was built using the GE Smallworld GIS application and the Magik programming language. The simulation results are based on three above-mentioned deployment scenarios; mobile, hybrid and static. The simulation results suggest the VOR algorithm is reasonably robust if the location inaccuracies are somewhat lower than the sensing distance and also if a high degree of inaccuracy is limited to a relatively small percentage of the nodes. The VEC algorithm is considerably less robust, but prevents nodes from drifting beyond the boundaries in the case of large inaccuracies. The bidding protocol used by the hybrid algorithm appears to be robust only when the static nodes are accurate and there is a low degree of inaccuracy within the mobile nodes. Finally the static algorithms are shown to be the most robust; the CPNSS algorithm appears to be immune to location inaccuracies whilst the OGDC algorithm was shown to reduce the number of active nodes in the network to a better extent than that of the CPNSS algorithm. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Computer Science / unrestricted

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T18:55:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcia.pdf: 199702 bytes, checksum: a039cd4582a69d4e1c07fb9f2c9a4796 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-21 / This study aims to evaluate the effect of the probiotic supplementation in response to the humoral immune response in vaccinated cattle with one dose of anti-rabies vaccine. Thirty Nelore male cattle, aged 12 months, all of them vaccinated with one dose of anti-rabies vaccine, randomly divided in 2 groups (15 cattle/group): The control group (CG) received 70 grams of mineral/animal/day supplement, the probiotic group received 70 grams of the mineral supplement plus 4 grams of the probiotic/animal/day. The individual titres of neutralizing antybodies were determined by serum-neutralisation technique based on the Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test (RFFIT) and the Fluorescent inhibition Microtest (FIMT). The obtained results were compared by the unpaired t test and the serological titres in each group at 30 and 60 days post-vaccination, by the t paired test for related samples. The results did not demonstrate meaningful statistical differences between the averages concentrations between the group, however, there was statistical differences in the proportion protected animals (> 0,5 UI/ml in 60 days). Concluding that the administration of the probiotic did not interferes in the humoral immune response in cattle. / Esse estudo avaliou o efeito da suplementação do probiótico sobre a resposta imune humoral em bovinos vacinados com uma única dose de vacina antirrábica. Trinta bovinos machos, hígidos da raça Nelore, com idade de 12 meses, todos vacinados com dose única de vacina antirrábica, divididos aleatoriamente em 2 grupos (15 bovinos/grupo): grupo controle (GC) recebeu 70 gramas de suplemento mineral/animal/dia, o grupo probiótico (GP) recebeu 70 gramas de suplemento mineral adicionado 4 gramas de probiótico/animal/dia. Os títulos individuais de anticorpos neutralizantes foram determinados por meio da técnica de soroneutralização baseado no Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test (RFFIT) e no Fluorescent Inhibitio Microtest (FIMT). Os resultados obtidos foram comparados pelo teste t não pareado, e os títulos sorológicos dentro de cada grupo, aos 30 e 60 dias pós-vacinação, pelo teste t-pareado para amostras relacionadas. Os resultados não demonstraram diferenças estatísticas significativas entre as médias de concentrações séricas entre os grupos, entretanto, houve diferenças estatísticas significativas nas proporções de animais protegidos (> 0,5 UI/ml aos 60 dias), concluindo que a administração do probiótico não interfere na resposta imune humoral em bovinos.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:53:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcia.pdf: 199702 bytes, checksum: a039cd4582a69d4e1c07fb9f2c9a4796 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-21 / This study aims to evaluate the effect of the probiotic supplementation in response to the humoral immune response in vaccinated cattle with one dose of anti-rabies vaccine. Thirty Nelore male cattle, aged 12 months, all of them vaccinated with one dose of anti-rabies vaccine, randomly divided in 2 groups (15 cattle/group): The control group (CG) received 70 grams of mineral/animal/day supplement, the probiotic group received 70 grams of the mineral supplement plus 4 grams of the probiotic/animal/day. The individual titres of neutralizing antybodies were determined by serum-neutralisation technique based on the Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test (RFFIT) and the Fluorescent inhibition Microtest (FIMT). The obtained results were compared by the unpaired t test and the serological titres in each group at 30 and 60 days post-vaccination, by the t paired test for related samples. The results did not demonstrate meaningful statistical differences between the averages concentrations between the group, however, there was statistical differences in the proportion protected animals (> 0,5 UI/ml in 60 days). Concluding that the administration of the probiotic did not interferes in the humoral immune response in cattle. / Esse estudo avaliou o efeito da suplementação do probiótico sobre a resposta imune humoral em bovinos vacinados com uma única dose de vacina antirrábica. Trinta bovinos machos, hígidos da raça Nelore, com idade de 12 meses, todos vacinados com dose única de vacina antirrábica, divididos aleatoriamente em 2 grupos (15 bovinos/grupo): grupo controle (GC) recebeu 70 gramas de suplemento mineral/animal/dia, o grupo probiótico (GP) recebeu 70 gramas de suplemento mineral adicionado 4 gramas de probiótico/animal/dia. Os títulos individuais de anticorpos neutralizantes foram determinados por meio da técnica de soroneutralização baseado no Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test (RFFIT) e no Fluorescent Inhibitio Microtest (FIMT). Os resultados obtidos foram comparados pelo teste t não pareado, e os títulos sorológicos dentro de cada grupo, aos 30 e 60 dias pós-vacinação, pelo teste t-pareado para amostras relacionadas. Os resultados não demonstraram diferenças estatísticas significativas entre as médias de concentrações séricas entre os grupos, entretanto, houve diferenças estatísticas significativas nas proporções de animais protegidos (> 0,5 UI/ml aos 60 dias), concluindo que a administração do probiótico não interfere na resposta imune humoral em bovinos.

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Stereo types and stigmas of individuals with mental illnesses have proved to be a major roadblock preventing these individuals from seeking help. The news media, despite having a responsibility to accurately inform the public, has played a significant role in portraying individuals with mental illness as violent, unpredictable, dangerous, and unfit to live with the rest of “normal” society. This happens through the words journalists choose to use and the information they choose in included, and excluded, when reporting on mental health issues. This study attempts to establish a guideline that journalists can follow that will hopefully reduce the stigma of mental illness in the media, and eventually in society. This study used a 2 x 2 ANCOVA to test two independent variables (amount of labeling terms and amount of corrective information). The variables were manipulated by modifying a news article four times to produce articles with varying levels of labeling terms and corrective information. A control article was also be used. The articles were randomized and passed out to 220 undergraduate college students at the University of North Texas who completed a questionnaire, read their assigned article, and then completed a second questionnaire to determine the impact the article had on their attitudes about individuals with mental illnesses.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study is a philosophical analysis of the National Health Insurance (NHI) policy and legislation, including the related NHI Fund, with a view to assessing its prospects in realising Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The NHI system is about ensuring universal access to quality healthcare for all. The rationale is to provide free healthcare for all at the point of care/service. This legislation has the potential to transform, on the one hand, the relationship between the public and private healthcare sectors and, on the other, the nature of public funding for healthcare. Part of the challenge with the NHI system is that it seeks to provide healthcare for all, but by seeking to integrate the private sector it runs the risk of commercializing healthcare. The study is philosophical in that it holds that ideas have consequences (and conversely actions have presuppositions with certain meanings). In part, it aims to show that an implementing mechanism of the NHI system as presently envisaged has socio-political and economic implications with fundamental contradictions within it; for it seeks to incorporate the private healthcare sector in offering free public healthcare services. This introduces a tension for private healthcare services operate with a neoliberal outlook and methodology which is at odds with a public approach that is based on a socialist outlook. The analysis may make explicit conceptual and ideological tensions that will have practical consequences for healthcare. Much of the commentary on the NHI system have focused on the practical consequences for healthcare; my intervention is to explore and critically assess the various philosophical assumptions that lie behind these practical concerns. Some of these practical consequences are related to the possibility that healthcare is likely to become commercialized and the public healthcare sector will remain in a crisis. This study argues for the provision of access to high quality healthcare facilities for all members of the South African population. Healthcare must be provided free at the point of care through UHC legislation or by the setting up of the NHI Fund as financing mechanism. The study provides reason for the decommercialization of healthcare services completely – that is for eliminating private healthcare from contracting with the NHI Fund. Essentially, it argues for the claim that healthcare should not be traded in the market system as a commodity and that the NHI system in its current incarnation seeks to do precisely that. I further argue that in theory and in practice the neoliberal and socialist assumptions underlying the NHI system in its present formulation do not fit together. On the contrary, rather than a two-tiered system incorporating the private and public healthcare sectors, the dissertation argues for a different way of conceptualizing the NHI system that privileges the latter.