Es presenta un esquema únic per a la síntesi i anàlisi audiovisual personalitzable realista de seqüències audiovisuals de cares parlants i seqüències visuals de llengua de signes en àmbit domèstic. En el primer cas, amb animació totalment sincronitzada a través d'una font de text o veu; en el segon, utilitzant la tècnica de lletrejar paraules mitjançant la ma. Les seves possibilitats de personalització faciliten la creació de seqüències audiovisuals per part d'usuaris no experts. Les aplicacions possibles d'aquest esquema de síntesis comprenen des de la creació de personatges virtuals realistes per interacció natural o vídeo jocs fins vídeo conferència des de molt baix ample de banda i telefonia visual per a les persones amb problemes d'oïda, passant per oferir ajuda a la pronunciació i la comunicació a aquest mateix col·lectiu. El sistema permet processar seqüències llargues amb un consum de recursos molt reduït, sobre tot, en el referent a l'emmagatzematge, gràcies al desenvolupament d'un nou procediment de càlcul incremental per a la descomposició en valors singulars amb actualització de la informació mitja. Aquest procediment es complementa amb altres tres: el decremental, el de partició i el de composició. / Se presenta un esquema único para la síntesis y análisis audiovisual personalizable realista de secuencias audiovisuales de caras parlantes y secuencias visuales de lengua de signos en entorno doméstico. En el primer caso, con animación totalmente sincronizada a través de una fuente de texto o voz; en el segundo, utilizando la técnica de deletreo de palabras mediante la mano. Sus posibilidades de personalización facilitan la creación de secuencias audiovisuales por parte de usuarios no expertos. Las aplicaciones posibles de este esquema de síntesis comprenden desde la creación de personajes virtuales realistas para interacción natural o vídeo juegos hasta vídeo conferencia de muy bajo ancho de banda y telefonía visual para las personas con problemas de oído, pasando por ofrecer ayuda en la pronunciación y la comunicación a este mismo colectivo. El sistema permite procesar secuencias largas con un consumo de recursos muy reducido gracias al desarrollo de un nuevo procedimiento de cálculo incremental para la descomposición en valores singulares con actualización de la información media. / A shared framework for realistic and personalizable audiovisual synthesis and analysis of audiovisual sequences of talking heads and visual sequences of sign language is presented in a domestic environment. The former has full synchronized animation using a text or auditory source of information; the latter consists in finger spelling. Their personalization capabilities ease the creation of audiovisual sequences by non expert users. The applications range from realistic virtual avatars for natural interaction or videogames to low bandwidth videoconference and visual telephony for the hard of hearing, including help to speech therapists. Long sequences can be processed with reduced resources, specially storing ones. This is allowed thanks to the proposed scheme for the incremental singular value decomposition with mean preservation. This scheme is complemented with another three: the decremental, the split and the composed ones.

A distressing consequence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and of the increasing numbers of orphans and decreasing numbers of caregivers is the emergence in ever larger numbers of child-headed households (CHHs). The complexity of issues affecting CHHs and the lack of research on this subject means that CHHs are not well understood. This sometimes prompts support agencies to provide emotionally driven recommendations suggesting that it is better for a child to be in an orphanage than to live in a CHH. This exploratory study, involving heads of 105 CHHs over a 12 month period and 142 participants in various focus group discussions (FGD) and interviews, suggests the need for a change in perspective. It addresses the question of CHH quality of life, coping strategies and household functioning and attempts to bring this into a productive dialogue with community child care activities, NGO and statutory support and child care and protection policies. Research data suggests that the key determining factor contributing towards the creation of a CHH is `pre-parental illness' family conflict. Another contributing factor is that siblings want to stay together after parental death. Quality of life assessments indicate that despite significant adversities, over 69% of CHHs reported a 'medium' to 'satisfactory' quality of life and demonstrate high levels of resilience. As regards vulnerability to abuse, it is found that while CHH members are more vulnerable to external abuse, they experience little within their household. Contrary to public perceptions about CHHs lacking moral values, CHH behaviour might actually be more responsible than non-CHH peer behaviour as their negative experiences appear to galvanize them into adopting responsible behaviour. Community care and neighbourhood support in older townships are better established compared with newer suburbs. Sufficient community care capacity enables CHHs to function, thus avoiding a situation where households disintegrate and household members end up as street children. CHH coping responses seem to be mainly influenced by individual and community factors, and by social, spiritual and material support. The interplay between these and the CHH's ability to engage in the required coping task impacts on the coping outcome at household level. National and international government and non-governmental child service providers in Southern Africa need to recognize that an adequately supported CHH is an acceptable alternative care arrangement for certain children in communities with high adult AIDS mortality and where adult HIV-prevalence exceeds 10%. / Development Studies / D. Ltt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

The aim of the thesis is to determine the influence exerted by the heads of the Catechetical School (Didaskaleion) in Alexandria on the growth and development of Christianity in Africa prior to the Arab invasion in 642 CE in Egypt. The methodological tool used is the Historical Method. Chapter 1 contains a discussion of the founding and development of the city of Alexandria through its Golden Era and until the Arab invasion in 642 CE. This city played an important role in the development of Christianity as it is there that the early Christians (the "followers of Christ's teachings") settled and established their faith. Chapter 2 deals with the founding of the Didaskaleion as an addition to the other big schools/"universities" in the city, for example the Musaion (also called the Museion), the Serapium (also called the Serapeum) and the Sebastion. All the possible heads of the School are discussed in order to get a full picture of the School and her activities during the time. In Chapter 3 all the extant and lost documents written by the heads of the School are discussed to provide insight into the formation of the Theology of the School and the contributions of her various heads. Chapter 4 constitutes the pinnacle of the thesis and depicts the influence of the School on the known parts of Africa – to the west and the south of Alexandria – during the first seven centuries CE (until the Arab invasion in 642). The influence is described at two levels: Influence, where mentioned by a specific writer, is called factual influence and includes personal influence. • Influence that is not mentioned but observed, is called derived influence. As there is ample evidence that the (heads of the) School exerted both factual and derived influence on the people in Africa, the conclusion can be drawn that the School and her heads played a significant role in the growth and development of Christianity in Africa. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Church history)

Ethiopia faces large and growing numbers of child household heads, mainly due to AIDS-related parental deaths. Many of them are vulnerable to abuse and are forced to look after themselves and their siblings, drop out of school and find work. This exploratory study employed qualitative research methods using purposive sampling. The aim was to ascertain how child household heads affected by AIDS adapted to changed life circumstances. The study entailed fieldwork for five weeks in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, where evidence was gathered from 10 selected households headed by children (aged 12 to18), their siblings and key informants. It was found that all the children in the study are in dismal living conditions although some reported feelings of satisfaction and happiness. The need to provide special recognition and support to child household heads and their siblings by policy makers and service providers in Ethiopia is highlighted. / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS) / Social Work

This diploma thesis deals with the operation of radiators. It is divided into three parts. The first part describes the various types of radiators and heating surfaces, radiator control and heat measurement, the second part deals with the design of heating and hot water in an apartment building in Brno in two variants of the conceptual solution and the third part is processed in the form of experimental measurements issues of radiator operation during a real day in the heating season and operating conditions that may occur.

The study sought to investigate the role of Heads of Departments (HoDs) in the teaching of mathematics in primary schools of the Eastern Cape Province in the OR Tambo Inland District using a qualitative approach and a case study design in particular. Data was collected using both semi-structured and focus group interviews with eight purposively selected heads of departments in the district in six schools. Data was analysed using Colaizzi’s method of data analysis from which three themes emerged. The first one was that the current performance management system interfered with the roles and responsibilities of the HoDs in schools in their daily activities and in the organisation of their work. Second, the barriers in achieving learners’ good performance in mathematics interfered with the HoDs’ responsibilities to achieve good learner performance in the subject. Third, a weak support system and inadequate resources interfered with the learners’ performance in the subject. The results here indicate that HoDs for mathematics experience various obstacles, which affect subject teachers’ implementation to yield positive results, ultimately leading to poor teaching and learning of the subject. These include the admission of learners without the necessary foundations in mathematics which was viewed as an obstacle to learner performance. The study further suggested that the HoDs of mathematics should be capacitated on use of teaching aids, management and administration to improve learner performance in the subject. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The researcher investigated the management of multi-grade teaching for optimal learning in Gauteng West primary schools. Ten participants, including school principals, heads of departments and educators participated in individual and focus group interviews and in observation of multi-grade classroom contexts. Findings revealed that educators involved in multi-grade teaching feel overwhelmed by challenging work conditions pertaining to large learner numbers and a lack of adequate didactical resources. This is exacerbated by a lack of professional development by means of tailor-made training for multi-grade teaching and the presumption that educators teaching such classes must merely change the monograde teaching format of the curriculum themselves for applicable implementation in a multi-grade teaching context. This leaves educators socially, emotionally and professionally isolated. Recommendations include the involvement of seasoned educators with expert knowledge and experience of multi-grade teaching to present training sessions constituting advice and support to inexperienced educators involved in said teaching. / Die navorser het die bestuur van meergraadonderrig by laerskole in Wes-Gauteng vir optimale leer ondersoek. Afgesien van individuele en fokusgroeponderhoude met skoolhoofde, departementshoofde en opvoeders, is waarneming in meergraadklaskamers gedoen. Volgens die bevindings bemoeilik groot klasse en ʼn gebrek aan didaktiese hulpmiddels meergraadopvoeders se taak. Meergraadopvoeders voel hulle geensins opgewasse teen hierdie werksomstandighede nie. ʼn Gebrek aan opleiding in meergraadonderrig en die veronderstelling dat opvoeders die eengraadformaat van die kurrikulum in ʼn meergraadformaat kan omskakel, vererger sake. Opvoeders is van mening dat hulle maatskaplik, emosioneel en professioneel in die steek gelaat word. Daar word aanbeveel dat gesoute opvoeders met kennis van en ervaring in meergraadonderrig onervare opvoeders oplei en adviseer. / Monyakisisi o dirile dinyakisiso ka ga go ruta dikereiti tse fapanego go fihlelela bokgoni le tsebo tikologong ya go thekga dinyakwa tsa baithuti dikolong tsa phoraemari go la Gauteng Bodikela. Batseakarolo ba lesome, go akaretswa dihlogo tsa dikolo, dihlogo tsa dikgoro le barutisi ba tseere karolo ditherisanong ka botee le dihlopha tseo di nepisitswego gape le temogo dikemong tsa diphaposi tsa dikereiti tse di fapanego. Dikhwetso di utollotse gore barutisi bao ba rutago dikereiti tse fapanego ba imelwa ke maemo a modiro wo o nyakago gore ba ntshe bokgoni bja bona ka moka ka lebaka la dipalo tse ntsi tsa baithuti le tlhokego ya dithusi tsa thuto tse di lekanego. Se se thatafiswa ke tlhokego ya tlhabollo ya profesene ye ka go fa tlhahlo yeo e lebanego ya go ruta dikreiti tse fapanego le kgopolo ya go re barutisi bao ba rutago ba swanela go no fetola popego ya lenaneothuto la kereiti e tee ka bobona go re ba le dirise kemong ya go ruta dikereiti tse fapanego. Se se dira gore barutisi ba ikhwetse ba se na kgokagano le setshaba leagong, ba hloka bao ba ka llelago go bona le go se be le bao ba nago le kgahlego go profesene ya bona. Ditshisinyo di akaretsa go ba gona ga barutisi bao e lego kgale ba ruta ba nago le maitemogelo le botsebi go ruta dikereiti tse fapanego go hlagisa dipaka tsa tlhahlo tseo di fago maele le thuso go barutisi bao ba se nago maitemogelo. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)