<p>Birth registration is a fundamental key in ensuring several essential rights of the child; including the right to a name and a nationality, the right to education and health care, and protection from abuse and exploitation among others. The United Nation’s Convention on the Right of the Child establishes that the child shall be registered immediately after birth and have the right to a name and a nationality. A total of 22 % of the Dominican children under the age of five are lacking an official proof of their existence within the Dominican society and in the world. A Minor Field study was conducted during a period of two months in 2009 with the aim of clarifying what obstacles to birth registration exist in the South-western part of the Dominican Republic. This clarification will contribute to a wider understanding of the causes to non-registration and the birth registration process in the country. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with parents to unregistered children, civil registry officials and other relevant actors in the Dominican society. The findings of the study present a wide range of obstacles to birth registration and it is clear that the reasons behind non-registration in this region are numerous, complex and often inter-related. According to most parents, officials and other informants the main obstacle to birth registration was found to be the parents’ lack of a Dominican identification card, a <em>cédula</em>. The lack of awareness about the importance of being registered and neglect by the parents were two other significant barriers to birth registration. The Minor Field Study was conducted with the support of the child rights organisation Plan International - República Dominicana.</p> / <p>Registro de nacimiento es una de las claves más importantes para asegurar los derechos fundamentales del niño; derecho a un nombre y una nacionalidad, derecho a la educación, derecho a servicio de salud, protección contra el abuso y la explotación entre otras cosas. La Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño establece que el niño será inscripto inmediatamente después de su nacimiento y tendrá derecho a un nombre y una nacionalidad. Un total de 22 % de los niños Dominicanos menores de cinco años de edad carece de una prueba oficial de su existencia dentro de la sociedad Dominicana y en el mundo. Un estudio de campo (Minor Field Study) fue realizado durante un período de dos meses en 2009 con el objetivo de aclarar cuáles son los obstáculos para el registro de nacimiento en la parte Sur-occidental de la República Dominicana. Esta aclaración contribuirá a una mayor comprensión de las causas de la no inscripción y el proceso de inscripción de nacimientos en el país. Entrevistas semi-estructuradas fueron realizadas con padres de niños sin registrar, oficiales del Estado civil y otros actores en la sociedad Dominicana. Los resultados de este estudio presentan varios obstáculos para la inscripción de nacimiento y es evidente que las razones de la no inscripción en esta región son numerosas, complejas e interrelacionadas. Según la mayoría de los padres, oficiales del Estado civil y otros informantes el principal obstáculo para el registro de nacimientos se encontró en la falta de cédula de los padres, un problema que muchas veces pasa de una generación a otra. La falta de conciencia sobre la importancia de estar registrado y la negligencia de los padres fueron otros dos obstáculos importantes para el registro de nacimientos. El estudio fue realizado con el apoyo de la organización non gubernamental Plan International- República Dominicana.</p>

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive treatment for either hepatocellular carcinoma or metastasis liver carcinoma. In order to resect large lesions, the surgeon has to perform multiple time-consuming destruction cycles and reposition the RFA needle for each of them. The critical step in handling a successful ablation and preventing local recurrence is the correct positioning of the needle. For small tumors, the surgeon places the middle of the active needle tip in the center of the tumor under intra-operative ultrasound guidance. When one application is not enough to cover the entire tumor, the surgeon needs to repeat the treatment after repositioning of the needle, but US guidance is obstructed by the opacity stemming from the first RFA application. In this case the surgeon can only rely on anatomical knowledge and the repositioning of the RFA needle becomes a subjective task limiting the treatment accuracy. We have developed a computer assisted surgery guidance application for this repositioning procedure. Our software application handles the complete process from preoperative image analysis to tool tracking in the operating room. Our framework is mostly used for this RFA procedure, but is also suitable for any other medical or surgery application.

Our brain, perhaps the most sophisticated and mysterious part of the human body, to some extent, determines who we are. However, it’s a vulnerable organ. When subjected to an impact, such as a traffic accident or sport, it may lead to traumatic brain injury (TBI) which can have devastating effects for those who suffer the injury. Despite lots of efforts have been put into primary injury prevention, the number of TBIs is still on an unacceptable high level in a global perspective. Brain edema is a major neurological complication of moderate and severe TBI, which consists of an abnormal accumulation of fluid within the brain parenchyma. Clinically, local and minor edema may be treated conservatively only by observation, where the treatment of choice usually follows evidence-based practice. In the first study, the gravitational force is suggested to have a significant impact on the pressure of the edema zone in the brain tissue. Thus, the objective of the study was to investigate the significance of head position on edema at the posterior part of the brain using a Finite Element (FE) model. The model revealed that water content (WC) increment at the edema zone remained nearly identical for both supine and prone positions. However, the interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) inside the edema zone decreased around 15% by having the head in a prone position compared with a supine position. The decrease of IFP inside the edema zone by changing patient position from supine to prone has the potential to alleviate the damage to axonal fibers of the central nervous system. These observations suggest that considering the patient’s head position during intensive care and at rehabilitation should be of importance to the treatment of edematous regions in TBI patients. In TBI patients with diffuse brain edema, for most severe cases with refractory intracranial hypertension, decompressive craniotomy (DC) is performed as an ultimate therapy. However, a complete consensus on its effectiveness has not been achieved due to the high levels of severe disability and persistent vegetative state found in the patients treated with DC. DC allows expansion of the swollen brain outside the skull, thereby having the potential in reducing the Intracranial Pressure (ICP). However, the treatment causes stretching of the axons and may contribute to the unfavorable outcome of the patients. The second study aimed at quantifying the stretching and WC in the brain tissue due to the neurosurgical intervention to provide more insight into the effects upon such a treatment. A nonlinear registration method was used to quantify the strain. Our analysis showed a substantial increase of the strain level in the brain tissue close to the treated side of DC compared to before the treatment. Also, the WC was related to specific gravity (SG), which in turn was related to the Hounsfield unit (HU) value in the Computerized Tomography (CT) images by a photoelectric correction according to the chemical composition of the brain tissue. The overall WC of brain tissue presented a significant increase after the treatment compared to the condition seen before the treatment. It is suggested that a quantitative model, which characterizes the stretching and WC of the brain tissue both before as well as after DC, may clarify some of the potential problems with such a treatment. Diffusion Weighted (DW) Imaging technology provides a noninvasive way to extract axonal fiber tracts in the brain. The aim of the third study, as an extension to the second study was to assess and quantify the axonal deformation (i.e. stretching and shearing)at both the pre- and post-craniotomy periods in order to provide more insight into the mechanical effects on the axonal fibers due to DC. Subarachnoid injection of artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) into the CSF system is widely used in neurological practice to gain information on CSF dynamics. Mathematical models are important for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Despite the critical importance of the parameters for accurate modeling, there is a substantial variation in the poroelastic constants used in the literature due to the difficulties in determining material properties of brain tissue. In the fourth study, we developed a Finite Element (FE) model including the whole brain-CSF-skull system to study the CSF dynamics during constant-rate infusion. We investigated the capacity of the current model to predict the steady state of the mean ICP. For transient analysis, rather than accurately fit the infusion curve to the experimental data, we placed more emphasis on studying the influences of each of the poroelastic parameters due to the aforementioned inconsistency in the poroelastic constants for brain tissue. It was found that the value of the specific storage term S_epsilon is the dominant factor that influences the infusion curve, and the drained Young’s modulus E was identified as the dominant parameter second to S_epsilon. Based on the simulated infusion curves from the FE model, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was used to find an optimized parameter set that best fit the experimental curve. The infusion curves from both the FE simulations and using ANN confirmed the limitation of linear poroelasticity in modeling the transient constant-rate infusion. To summarize, the work done in this thesis is to introduce FE Modeling and imaging technologiesincluding CT, DW imaging, and image registration method as a complementarytechnique for clinical diagnosis and treatment of TBI patients. Hopefully, the result mayto some extent improve the understanding of these clinical problems and improve theirmedical treatments. / QC 20120201

In Taiwan area, it has become a rule that the national identity cards of all population are changed every 10 years. The fifth comprehensive change of national identity cards was implemented from Dec. 21, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2006. The government institutions of different cities and counties (municipal) under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior positively conducted national propaganda of the important news through the strong promotion of the change of identity cards by various means of mass media. First of all, the study investigates promotion strategies and procedures of the change of national identity cards in Taiwan, and then studies the promotion situation of the services for people, and further investigates how to strengthen the use of marketing ideas to achieve the goal of offering services for people. In view of this, the study reviews the related literature about the development procedures of the household registration system of Taiwan. Through the understanding of the situation and problems of the current use of new national identity cards, as well as the necessity of the change of national identity cards, the study focuses on marketing strategies to adopt SWOT analysis of trend and use questionnaire survey to make proof analysis and review. The study examines the effects and improvement measures of the government for execution of public domains, and provides the following research conclusions and suggestions for the Ministry of Interior and other government institutions as a reference for innovative promotion of public policies: 1. It is not easy to promote relationship marketing of the first line household registration institutions. 2. Important project work relatively needs the increase of reasonable and proper budget for promotion. 3. Strengthen the innovative development culture of household registration organization, and cultivate the overall marketing team. 4. A sound evaluation mechanism should be established for the marketing of public policies 5. Although the promotion of comprehensive change of national identity cards used different marketing channels, measures should still be strengthened on how to integrate different communication tools effectively. 6. Strengthen the public¡¦s rights of their awareness of the use of identity cards. The government has the responsibility and obligation to teach the public use of identity cards. The conclusions made by the study are that national identity card system is not a system that has to be existed in all countries. Each country can determine the necessary of offering identity cards to the citizens according to the country¡¦s idea of system. Under the national identity card system constructed in Taiwan, the nature of national identity card is to ¡§prove¡¨ that a citizen possesses the archive of his/her nationality. It also refers that national identity card is a document that cites the nationality relationship between a citizen of his/her country. Under this system, all the citizens of Taiwan are obliged to collect their national identity cards, and have the rights to ask for offering them. Therefore, the people of Taiwan should be cautious about the importance, safekeeping and use of national identity cards. The government should more positively bear the responsibility of strengthening the concept of ruling by laws because the maintenance of social stability depends on the people¡¦s practices and compliance with laws. Keywords: national identity card, household registration system, SWOT analysis of trend, relationship marketing, development culture, public policy marketing, national identity card system, concept of ruling by laws

Rationale: Vital registration is lacking in developing settings where health and development problems are most pressing. Policy-makers confront an “information paradox”: the critical need for information on which to base priorities and monitor progress, and the profound shortage of such information. Aims: To better understand the dynamics of mortality transition in rural South Africa over a decade of profound socio-political change coupled with emerging HIV/AIDS. Thereby to inform health and development programming, policy formulation, and the research agenda; and contribute to debate on the nature of the ‘health transition’. Methods: The Agincourt health and demographic surveillance system is based on continuous monitoring of the Agincourt sub-district population in rural north-east South Africa. This involves annual recording of all vital events, specifically deaths, births and migrations in 11,700 households comprising some 70,000 persons. A “verbal autopsy” is conducted on every death, and special modules provide additional data. Key findings: A major health transition has occurred over the past decade, with marked changes in population structure and rapidly escalating mortality particularly among children and younger adults. A quadruple burden of disease is evident with persisting infectious disease and malnutrition in children, emerging non-communicable disease in the middle-aged and older, high levels of violence in an apparently peaceful community, and rapidly escalating HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. There is evidence of sex differences and socio-economic differentials in mortality; vulnerable sub-groups include the children of Mozambican immigrants and recently returned labour migrants. Implications: With respect to health transition, empirical data demonstrate a marked “counter transition” with mortality increasing in children and young adults; “epidemiologic polarization” is evident with the most vulnerable experiencing a higher mortality burden; and a “protracted transition” is reflected in the co-existence of persisting infectious disease and malnutrition, emerging HIV/AIDS, and increasing chronic non-communicable disease. With respect to health policy and practice there is urgent need to: strengthen HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care; offer effective long-term care to control the rising burden of chronic illness and related risk; maintain and improve maternal and child health services; and address differential access to care. This poses a substantial challenge to a severely stretched health system.

The global objectives of this research are to develop a liver-specific magnetic resonance (MR) image registration and segmentation algorithms and to find highly correlated MR imaging features that help automatically score the severity of chronic liver disease (CLD). For a concise analysis of liver disease, time sequences of 3-D MR images should be preprocessed through an image registration to compensate for the patient motion, respiration, or tissue motion. To register contrast-enhanced MR image volume sequences, we propose a novel version of the demons algorithm that is based on a bi-directional local correlation coefficient (Bi-LCC) scheme. This scheme improves the speed at which a convergent sequence approaches to the optimum state and achieves the higher accuracy. Furthermore, the simple and parallelizable hierarchy of the Bi-LCC demons can be implemented on a graphics processing unit (GPU) using OpenCL. To automate segmentation of the liver parenchyma regions, an edge function-scaled region-based active contour (ESRAC), which hybridizes gradient and regional statistical information, with approximate partitions of the liver was proposed. Next, a significant purpose in grading liver disease is to assess the level of remaining liver function and to estimate regional liver function. On motion-corrected and segmented liver parenchyma regions, for quantitative analysis of the hepatic extraction of liver-specific MRI contrast agent, liver signal intensity change is evaluated from hepatobiliary phases (3-20 minutes), and parenchymal texture features are deduced from the equilibrium (3 minutes) phase. To build a classifier using texture features, a set of training input and output values, which is estimated by experts as a score of malignancy, trains the supervised learning algorithm using a multivariate normal distribution model and a maximum a posterior (MAP) decision rule. We validate the classifier by assessing the prediction accuracy with a set of testing data.

Il lavoro ha affrontato la tematica riguardante la disciplina del trasferimento delle azioni. In particolare, l'attenzione si è concentrata sulla formalità dell'iscrizione nel libro soci. A tale riguardo, si è posto il problema di comprendere se essa costituisca ancora il mezzo necessario per il conseguimento dello status socii. Con riferimento alle s.p.a. che emettono titoli, si è ravvisato nel possesso qualificato del titolo l'unico indice di legittimazione necessario e sufficiente in caso di trasferimento a mezzo girata, riconoscendo all'iscrizione nel libro soci la funzione di elemento necessario (ma comunque insufficiente, se isolatamente considerato) all'acquisto della legittimazione in caso di trasferimento dell'azione per atto separato e di circolazione mortis causa. Si è, comunque, escluso che le novità introdotte abbiano surrettiziamente trasformato le azioni in titoli all'ordine. In assenza di titoli, si è evidenziato che l'iscrizione ha sempre funzione legittimante come accade in caso di trasferimento di quote di s.r.l. In presenza di azioni dematerializzate, si è sottolineato che l'iscrizione nel libro soci perde ogni funzione legittimante, posto che l'avente causa acquista lo status di socio tramite registrazione sul conto tenuto dall'intermediario. Si è giunti alla conclusione che, al di là della funzione cartolare, a-cartolare o scritturale, l'annotazione nel libro soci rappresenta, esaltando il suo ruolo organizzativo, l'unico strumento che l'emittente ha a disposizione per riconoscere i propri soci ed avere contezza dei suoi assetti proprietari e delle vicende relative alle partecipazioni dallo stesse emesse. / The work concerned the issue about the circulation of shares. In particular, the attention is concentrated around the registration on shareholders' book. In this respect, the difficulty lied in understanding if the registration is still the instrument for the achievement of status socii. About the corporations which issue paper securities, the only instrument (necessary and sufficient) for the ability to exercise the shareholders' rights if the share is transferred by endorsement is the security's qualified possession. The registration on shareholders' book is the necessary, but not sufficient, instrument for the ability to exercise the shareholders' rights if the share is transferred by separate contract and if the share is transferred mortis causa. Anyway, the recent reform confirmed that the shares are registered securities. About the corporations which don't issue paper securities, the registration is always the instrument for the ability to exercise the shareholders' rights, like it happens in case of circulation of unlimited liability company's stakes. About the corporations which issue dematerialized securities (in particular, listed companies), the registration isn't the instrument for the ability to exercise the shareholders' rights, because the buyer achieves status socii by the registration on intermediary's account. In short, the registration on shareholders' book is the only instrument which the legal system puts at corporation's disposal to know its shareholders and the events about its shares.

At present, the quality of image taken from infrared cameras is low compared to the other cameras because of manufacturing technology. So, resolution enhancement processes are becoming more important for these cameras. Super resolution is a good approach to solve this resolution problem. In general, the systems that infrared cameras used require video processing to perform in real time. So, a suitable approach should be selected and implemented to work in real time. The computational load and processing time are big issues in this case. FPGAs are proven to be suitable hardware devices for these types of works. Super resolution involves two parts as global motion estimation and high resolution image reconstruction. In this study, one suitable algorithm, namely as PM, for global motion estimation in the literature is selected to be implemented in real time. On the other hand, for high resolution image reconstruction part, FPGA structures of some well known algorithms in the literature, namely as POCS, MLE, MAP and LMS are proposed and their performance, resource requirements and timing considerations are discussed. Most efficient one is selected and implemented in FPGA.

The aim of the present thesis is to provide an e ffective computational framework for the analysis and quantifi cation of the longitudinal structural changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The framework is based on the diffeomorphic non-rigid registration parameterized by stationary velocity fields (SVFs), and is hierachically developed to account for the diff erent levels of variability which characterize the longitudinal observations of T1 brain magnetic resonance images (MRIs). We developed an effi cient and robust method for the quantifi cation of the structural changes observed between pairs of MRIs. For this purpose, we propose the LCC-Demons registration framework which implements the local correlation coeffi cient as similarity metric, and we derived consistent and numerically stable measures of volume change and boundary shift for the regional assessment of the brain atrophy. In order to consistently analyze group-wise longitudinal evolutions, we then investigated the parallel transport of subject-specifi c deformation trajectories across di fferent anatomical references. Based on the SVF parametrization of diffeomorphisms, we relied on the Lie group theory to propose new and effective strategies for the parallel transport of SVFs, with particular interest into the practical application to the registration setting. These contributions are the basis for the defi nition of qualitative and quantitative analysis for the pathological evolution of AD. We proposed several analysis frameworks which addressed the di fferentiation of pathological evolutions between clinical populations, the statistically powered evaluation of regional volume changes, and the clinical diagnosis at the early/prodromal disease stages.

Stränder och strandnära områden utgör i många avseenden en värdefull miljö som i Sverige skyddas tack vare vår strandskyddslagstiftning. Strandskyddslagstiftningen är en naturvårdsföreskrift som syftar till att trygga allmänhetens tillgång till stränder och bevara goda livsvillkor för växt- och djurlivet. Skyddet är generellt, dvs gäller alla stränder i Sverige och innebär bl a ett förbud mot uppförande av ny bebyggelse. Fastighetsbildning inom strandskyddat område utgör en åtgärd där hänsyn måste tas till strandskyddsbestämmelserna. Åtgärden kräver en bedömning där förrättningslantmätaren, efter vederbörligt samråd med kommunen eller länsstyrelsen, avgör om strandskyddets syfte motverkas eller inte. Kort sagt, följderna för ett strandskyddat område vid fastighetsbildning grundas på en enskild bedömning där Lantmäteriet är beslutande myndighet. Examensarbetet syftar till att undersöka och analysera fastighetsbildning inom strandskyddat område. Målet är att ge förslag på hur Lantmäteriets arbetet vid fastighetsbildning inom strandskyddat område kan förbättras.   För att uppnå studiens syfte genomfördes en grundlig litteraturstudie som främst fokuserade på att studera den svenska strandskyddslagstiftningen. Dessutom genomfördes en kvalitativ analys där genomförda lantmäteriförrättningar, från två kommuner, granskades. Resultaten från de kvalitativa studierna sammanställdes i en jämförelseanalys för att visa på skillnader och likheter vid fastighetsbildning inom de utvalda kommunerna. Litteraturen bekräftar bl a att fastighetsbildning inom strandskyddat område initialt innebär en bedömning från förrättningslantmätaren, efter vederbörligt samråd med kommunen eller länsstyrelsen, vad gäller om strandskyddets syfte motverkas eller inte. De kvalitativa analyserna redovisar att den angivna arbetsgången enligt litteraturen inte alltid tillämpas i praktiken.  Jämförelseanalysen visar att fastighetsbildning inom strandskyddat område på vissa sätt skiljer sig mellan de studerade kommunerna. Fastighetsbildning inom strandskyddat område är ett komplext förfarande som kräver ett väl fungerande system där tolkningsutrymmet för lagstiftningen är mycket begränsad och där risken att strandskyddet försummas minimeras. Ett förslag som bör leda till förbättringar av arbetet är främst ökad kunskap bland förrättningslantmätare. / Shores and coastal areas are in many respects valuable environments which in Sweden are protected thanks to our shore protection provisions. The shore protection provisions are conservation regulations aimed at ensuring public access to shores and preserve good living conditions for flora and fauna. The protection is general which means it applies to all shores in Sweden and includes e.g. a ban for construction of new buildings. Registration of property within shore protected areas is a measure which must consider the shore protection provisions. The measure requires an assessment by a cadastral surveyor, after consultation with the municipality or the county administrative board, to determine whether the aims of the shore protection are countered or not. In short, the consequences of a shore protected area when registration of property is being completed, is based on an individual assessment where Lantmäteriet (the Swedish mapping, cadastral and land registration authority) is the decision-making authority. The thesis aims to examine and analyze registration of property within shore protected areas. The goal is to make suggestions on how Lantmäteriet can improve their work when registration of property is being completed within shore protected areas. To achieve the purpose of the study a thorough literature review was conducted that primarily focused on studying the Swedish shore protection provisions. In addition, a qualitative analysis was performed, where completed cadastral procedures from two municipalities were reviewed. The results of the qualitative studies were compiled in a comparative analysis to show the differences and similarities in registration of property within the selected municipalities. The literature confirms, among other things, that registration of property in shore protected areas initially involves an evaluation by the cadastral surveyor. The qualitative analysis shows that the specified workflow in the literature is not always applied in practice. The comparative analysis show that registration of property within shore protected areas differ in some ways in the studied municipalities. Registration of property in shore protected areas is a complex procedure which requires a well functioning system where interpretation of the legislation is very limited and where the risk of the shore protection being neglected is minimized. A proposal that should lead to improvements of the work is mainly increased knowledge among cadastral surveyors.