Thesis (MScEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa, and other developing countries, experience great problems concerning road traffic accidents. Despite road safety campaigns like Arrive Alive being launched, accident rates do not decline significantly and the problem is predicted to get worse. This study is done on a road in the Western Cape, the R44, to investigate the causes of road accidents. The causes of the accidents are deduced from the accident reports and relationships are sought with other factors. The results of this study are risk factors (human-, environment- and vehicle factors) for the 14 accident types that occurred on the R44, as well as measures to prevent road accidents. It has been found that the human factor plays the biggest role in road accidents. Out of the 404 accidents analysed, 77.7% were caused by human factors, 8.7% by unknown factors, 7.2% by environmental factors and 6.4% by vehicle factors. The problems experienced with the data quality are reported and recommendations concerning it are made. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid-Afrika en ander ontwikkelende lande ervaar groot probleme met verkeersongelukke. Ten spyte van veldtogte soos Arrive Alive wat geloods word, neem ongelukskoerse nie beduidend af nie, en daar word voorspel dat die situasie nie gaan verbeter nie. Hierdie studie is op 'n pad in die Wes-Kaap, die R44, gedoen om die oorsake van padongelukke vas te stel. Die oorsake van ongelukke i s van die ongeluksvorms a fgelei, en verwantskappe is gesoek met ander faktore. Die resultate van die studie is risikofaktore (menslike-, omgewings- en voertuigfaktore) vir die 14 ongelukstipes wat op die R44 voorgekom het, asook voorkomingsmaatreëls om padongelukke te voorkom. Daar is gevind dat die menslike faktor die grootste oorsaak van ongelukke is. Uit die 404 ongelukke wat geanaliseer is, is 77.7% van die ongelukke deur menslike faktore, 8.7% van die ongelukke deur onbekende faktore, 7.2% van die ongelukke deur omgewingsfaktore en 6.4% van die ongelukke deur voertuigfaktore veroorsaak. In hierdie studie is probleme ondervind met die datakwaliteit, en daaroor is verslag gedoen en aanbevelings gemaak.

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Rivers are one of the earth's major readily available sources of fresh water. Abstractions from rivers are however not without problems. Firstly, river ow is variable and to deliver a constant yield is difficult. Secondly, rivers transport sediment which will be included in the diverted ow. Sediment control at diversion works have been studied for many years and this study attempts to gain further knowledge on certain sediment control features of diversion works. Sediment control at diversion works and abstraction works is crucial to prolong the life of the mechanical components like pumps and turbines. A Commonly used diversion works design is one with a low weir and a graveltrap. The weir dams water for abstraction, which is of importance in South Africa with its variable rainfall and river ow. The study focused on the following design features of diversion works: (1) the intake angle, which is the angle at which the structure is pushed into the river, (2) the intake opening height above a datum, (3) the river ow range where sediment is sufficiently scoured from the graveltrap and (4) the efficiency and river ow range of sediment ushing through a sluice gate at the graveltrap. A Physical model study was conducted in the laboratory of the University of Stellenbosch, which consisted of designing the diversion works that were to be tested. The designs were based on guidelines from previous studies, case studies and hydraulic principles. The above mentioned features (1-4) were studied at three structures with prototype weir sizes of 2.5 m, 3.5 m and 4.5 m. The river was modelled as a straight rectangular channel with a loose bed surface, which was simulated with crushed peach pips. Sediment was also fed into the system with a conveyor belt feed system. Pumps were used to abstract water and sediment through the intake opening, during the diverted sediment tests. Flow was diverted at a specific ow rate for each structure. The diverted sediment was caught and weighed. Each structure was designed to divert sediment through one of three intake opening heights, to determine whether a higher intake opening sufficiently reduces the amount of diverted sediment. The self-scour efficiency at the graveltrap was determined with a sediment level survey in the graveltrap. From the survey a clearance ow was determined, which is the minimum river ow that clears the intake opening of sediment along its complete length. It was also determined what intake angle induces secondary ow which results in the lowest clearance ow. The sediment ushing through the sluice gate was evaluated by recording the time it takes a full graveltrap to be ushed clean at various river ow rates. The maximum river ow at which the graveltrap still ushes efficiently was determined for each structure. It was found that between the 300, 450 and 600 intake angle that were tested, the 60 0 angle yields the lowest diverted sediment ratio (DSR) over the range of structures as well as river ows tested. The tests yielded a river ow at each structure where the DSR is at minimum. During the self-scour tests of the graveltrap, it was determined that a 450 intake angle promotes better self-scour at the graveltrap. To promote both features, a 450 intake angle is suggested, as it reduces diverted sediment and has a lower risk of issues due to too large ow constriction. The intake opening height was evaluated with analysis of diverted load and concentration. The conclusions on the intake opening vary between structure sizes. In the case of the smallest structure, with a 2.5 m weir height, the improvement observed for intake openings higher than the first (lowest) were variable. In the case of the 3.5 m weir structure, the results showed three consecutive intake openings could be feasible. In the case of the 4.5 m weir structure, less improvement was observed between the highest two intakes. Flood frequency should determine whether an intake opening with top-of-inlet of 1.6 m or 3.3 m above the minimum operating level should be designed. It was observed during the sediment ushing tests that submergence of either the graveltrap wall and/or the downstream water level affects the ushing efficiency. y3/y2, which is the downstream ow depth over the contracted ow depth under the sluice gate of the graveltrap, was evaluated as an indicator of efficient ushing. The study found that a good guideline would be to ush during river ows where y3/y2 < 1, while also ensuring the ow over the graveltrap wall entrains the sediment in the graveltrap. A figure which plots the downstream ow depth over sluice gate opening size was developed to serve as an operational guideline to efficient sediment ushing. The figure shows zones of efficient and non-efficient ushing. Further, the observed sediment ushing and self-scour ranges at each structure are also represented graphically. The fact that there was designed for a specific river scenario and also the lack of varied model sediment size, limits the applicability of the findings and conclusions. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Riviere is van die aarde se hoof, maklik beskikbare bronne van vars water. Onttrekking uit riviere is wel nie sonder probleme nie. Eerstens is rivier vloei wisselvallig en om 'n konstante lewering te handhaaf is moeilik. Tweedens, vervoer riviere sediment wat ingesluit sal wees in die uitgekeerde vloei. Sediment beheer by uitkeerwerke word al vir baie jare bestudeer en hierdie studie poog om verdere kennis te verkry oor sekere sediment beheer funksies van uitkeerwerke. Sediment beheer by uitkeerwerke en onttrekkingswerke is noodsaaklik om die lewensduur van meganiese komponente soos pompe en turbines te verleng. 'n Algemeen toegepaste uitkeerwerke ontwerp is een met n lae keerwal en gruisvangkanaal. Die keerwal dam water op, wat nodig kan wees om die lewering te handhaaf, veral met Suid-Afrika se wisselvallige reënval en rivier vloei. Die studie het gefokus op die volgende ontwerp funksies van uitkeerwerke: (1) die inlaathoek, wat die hoek is waarteen die struktuur in die rivier ingedruk is, (2) die inlaatopening hoogte bo 'n datum, (3) die rivier vloei reeks waar sediment voldoende uitgeskuur word uit die gruisvangkanaal uit en (4) die effektiwiteit en rivier vloei reeks van 'n sediment spoel aksie deur 'n sluishek in die gruisvangkanaal. 'n Fisiese model studie was onderneem in die laboratorium van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch, wat bestaan het uit die ontwerp van die uitkeerwerke wat getoets sou word. Die ontwerp is gebasseer op riglyne van vorige studies, gevallestudies en hirouliese beginsels. Die bogenoemde funksies (1-4) was bestudeer by drie strukture met prototipe keerwal hoogtes van 2.5 m, 3.5 m en 4.5 m. Die rivier was gemodelleer as 'n reguit, reghoekige kanaal met 'n los bed oppervlakte, wat gesimuleer is met fyngemaakte perske pitte. Sediment was ook in die sisteem ingevoer met 'n vervoerband voer sisteem. Pompe was gebruik om water en sediment te onttrek deur die inlaatopening tydens die uitgekeerde sediment toetse. Vloei was uitgekeer teen 'n spesifieke vloeitempo vir elke struktuur. Die uitgekeerde sediment was gevang en geweeg. Elke struktuur was ontwerp om sediment uit te keer deur een van drie inlaatopening hoogtes, om te bepaal of 'n hoër inlaatopening hoogte die hoeveelheid uitgekeerde sediment voldoende verminder. Die self-uitskuur effektiwiteit van die gruisvangkanaal was bepaal deur 'n sediment vlak opmeting in die gruisvangkanaal. Vanaf die opmeting was 'n skoonmaak vloei bepaal, wat die minimum rivier vloei is wat die inlaatopening skoon maak van sediment oor die totale lengte. Dit was ook bepaal watter inlaathoek veroorsaak sekondêre vloei wat die laagste skoonmaak vloei oplewer. Die sediment spoel aksie deur die sluishek was geëvalueer deur die tyd wat dit neem om 'n vol gruisvangkanaal skoon te spoel, teen verskeie rivier vloeitempos te bepaal. 'n Maksimum rivier vloei waarteen die guisvangkanaal steeds effektiewelik skoon spoel was bepaal vir elke struktuur. Dit was bevind dat tussen die 300, 450 en 600 inlaathoeke wat getoets is, lewer die 600 hoek die laagste uitgekeerde sediment verhouding (USV) oor die reeks van strukture, asook rivier vloeitempos wat getoets is. Die toetse het 'n rivier vloei opgelewer by elke struktuur, waar USV 'n minimum was. Gedurende die self-uitskuur toetse was dit bepaal dat 'n 450 inlaathoek beter uitskuur in die gruisvangkanaal bevorder. Om beide funksies te bevorder word 'n 450 inlaathoek voorgestel, omdat dit ook uitgekeerde sediment verminder en 'n laer risiko van probleme as gevolg van te groot vloei vernouing het. Die inlaatopening hoogte was geëvalueer met analise van die uitgekeerde sediment lading en konsentrasie. Die gevolgtrekkings oor die inlaatopening hoogte varieer tussen struktuur groottes. In die geval van die kleinste struktuur, met 'n 2.5 m keerwal hoogte, was die verbetering wat waargeneem was by inlaatopeninge hoër as die eerste (laagste) inlaat, wisselvallig. In die geval van 'n 3.5 m keerwal struktuur het die resultate getoon dat drie opeenvolgende inlaatopeninge kan uitvoerbaar wees. In die geval van 'n 4.5 m keerwal struktuur was minder verbetering waargeneem tussen die hoogste twee inlate. Vloed frekwensie moet bepaal of 'n inlaatopening hoogte met 'n bokant-van-inlaat vlak van 1.6 m of 3.3 m bo minimun bedryfvlak moet ontwerp word. Dit was waargeneem dat gedurende die sediment spoel toetse dat versuiping van die gruisvangkanaal muur en/of die stroomaf watervlak die spoel effektiwiteit beïnvloed. y3/y2, wat die stroomaf vloeidiepte oor die vernoude vloeidiepte onder die sluishek van die gruisvangkanaal is, was geëvalueer as 'n indikator van effektiewe spoel aksie. Die studie het bevind dat 'n goeie riglyn sal wees om te spoel tydens rivier vloeie waar y3/y2 < 1 is, terwyl dit ook verseker moet word dat vloei oor die gruisvang kanaal sediment meevoer in die gruisvangkanaal. 'n Figuur wat die stroomaf vloeidiepte teenoor die sluisopening grootte plot was ontwikkel om te dien as 'n bedryfsriglyn tot effektiewe spoel aksie. Die figuur toon zones van effektiewe en nie-effektiewe spoel aksie aan. Verder is die waargeneemde sediment spoel aksie en self-uitskuur reekse van elke struktuur ook grafies voorgestel. Die feit dat daar ontwerp is vir 'n spesifieke rivier scenario asook die gebrek aan variëerende model sediment grootte, beperk die toepasbaarheid van die bevindings en gevolgtrekkings.

This research study explored the meaning of 'Being' (i.e. Heidegger's four philosophical concepts of Being-in the-world, fore-structures, time and space) as a nurse involved in the work of death investigation in the USA. The objectives were to: reveal the hidden meaning of Being; transfer the findings into an English context by examining what nurses could offer beyond their current role boundaries in an area not currently practised to the extent that nurses make to other medical specialities; and finally put forward developments that would need to take place to ensure such proposals were successful in making an effective difference to health care. In the USA there are two systems of death investigation, the Coronial and Medical Examiner system. The Coroner is an elected county or state position with varied educational and professional requirements. Some Coroner positions have been filled by registered nurses as they have put themselves forward successfully for election. In contrast, the Medical Examiner is an appointed county or state position who must be a licensed physician and a qualified pathologist or forensic pathologist in most cases. Within the Medical Examiner systems death investigators may also be appointed of which some have been filled by registered nurses. It was under the interpretive paradigm that a Heideggerian hermeneutic study was undertaken. Snowball sampling was instigated to reach a hidden population and collect qualitative data by means of unstructured interviews, non-participant observations, interrogation of historical records and the keeping of a personal reflective diary. The seven phase analysis process underpinned by the hermeneutic circle was developed to enable a synopsis of the shared meaning of Being to be revealed through the presentation of paradigm cases that encompass stories and themes. Of the 22 nurses found to be working as either death investigators or Coroners in the USA who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, 17 nurses from 11 States in the USA consented to take part. Fore-structures concerning age (average 37), gender (82% were women) and professional experience (majority came from an adult nursing background with emergency department or critical care experience) are discussed. Overall participants were interviewed for a total of 78 hours in 11 States, five of which were also observed in practice for a total of 142 hours in 3 States, giving a total of 220 hours of interview and observational data. The interpretive analysis revealed the three major paradigms of: the authentic and inauthentic reality of Being (the death investigator nurse in action); the everydayness and averageness of Being (community outreach) and the publicness of Being (mass fatality care). This study reveals knowledge concerning the meaning of Being as a nurse involved in the work of death investigation in the USA. Aspects of this illuminated landscape have propositioned for the advancement of nursing clinical practice to replace and further develop the current coroner's officer and soon to be implemented medical examiner officer role in England and Wales. Hence recommendations are made for practice development and further research in England.

published_or_final_version / Criminology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Criminology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

<p>X-ray fluorescence (XRF) detection of heavy metals is a cost- and time-effective method for investigation of polluted areas. Compared to laboratory analysis, XRF analysis is limited by high detection limits and uncertainties in some situations. Preparation of samples is known to affect the results of measurements.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to bring a deeper understanding of how different factors affect the results of XRF-analysis. A large number of measurements have been made with the instruments Niton XLt 700 and Niton Xli 700. Results from measurements of lead, zinc and copper have been analysed.</p><p>This study has shown that a greater moisture content will give a lower measured concentration for the same sample. If the moisture content is known, it is possible to make good approximations of concentrations in dry samples. No obvious differences were found between different metals.</p><p>Proper homogenisation of samples was found to be one of the most critical issues. It should be noted that laboratories do not usually homogenise samples prior to analysis, so samples sent for laboratory verification should therefore be homogenised before sending.</p><p>Sample preparation, including drying, sieving to finer grain-sizes and analysing in a special sample cup was found to increase the measured concentrations and decrease the variation between measurements. The concentrations differed with different sample matrices and with sample preparation. Because of the differences, measurements should always be correlated with laboratory analysis before any conclusions can be made. In situations when metals are well within detection range of the XRF instrument, the only preparation needed is in most cases homogenisation. If metal levels are just at the limit, or just below the detection limit, further preparations of samples should be made. When drying samples makes detection possible, more preparation is usually not worth the effort. If detection limits still are a problem after drying, the samples should be sieved and analysed in sample cups. In situations where concentrations still are below the</p><p>detection limit when analysing in sample cups, or if the measurements are disturbed for other reasons, another method than XRF-analysis must be used. When XRF analysis is possible, the method is preferable compared to only laboratory analysis. This cost- and time effective method makes a larger number of measurements possible, and gives a more complete overview of a polluted area.</p> / <p>Analys med röntgenfluorescensdetektor (XRF) är en snabb och kostnadseffektiv fältmetod för detektion av tungmetaller i mark. Nackdelen är att mätningarna inte är tillförlitliga i alla sammanhang och att detektionsgränsen för många ämnen är förhållandevis hög. Det är sedan tidigare känt att olika former av provbearbetning påverkar mätresultaten.</p><p>I detta examensarbete har undersökts hur olika faktorer påverkar mätresultaten vid analys av jordprover med XRF instrument. Faktorerna som undersökts är inverkan av vattenkvot, kornstorlek, provpåsar och olika provbearbetningsmetoder. Vid provbearbetningsförsöken skickades prover även in till externt laboratorium för jämförande analys. Metaller som undersökts är bly, zink och koppar.</p><p>Vid undersökningen konstaterades att en ökad vattenkvot ger upphov till lägre mätvärden. Vid kännedom om vattenkvot kan halt per torrsubstans med god överensstämmelse uppskattas utifrån mätningar på fuktiga prov. Är precisionskraven stora och vattenkvoten varierande och okänd bör dock proverna torkas innan mätningar görs. Ingen avsevärd skillnad sågs mellan de olika metaller som undersöktes.</p><p>Vid undersökningen om provbearbetningens betydelse visade det sig att homogeniseringen av proverna är mycket viktig, inte minst av prover som skickas till laboratorieanalys.</p><p>Ökad provbearbetning med torkning och siktning till mindre kornstorlek tenderar att ge högre mätvärden med XRF instrument. Storleksmässigt är mätvärden vid obearbetade prov mest överensstämmande med laboratorieanalys. Mest skiljer sig analys på finsiktade prover i provkopp. Korrelationsmässigt finns i en del fall en tendens till bättre överensstämmelse med mer bearbetade prov. Den största vinsten med ökad bearbetning av prover konstaterades i detta arbete vara att mark med lägre metallkoncentrationer då kan analyseras.</p><p>I de fall där halterna av metaller ligger väl inom XRF instrumentets detektionsområde visade det sig att det oftast är tillräckligt att endast homogenisera proverna innan analys görs. I de fall där koncentrationen av metaller är på gränsen till vad XRF instrumentet kan detektera rekommenderas att proverna torkas, eller om nödvändigt torkas, siktas och analyseras i provkopp. Där nivåerna av metaller ligger under detektionsgränsen för XRF instrument trots provbearbetning, eller där andra ämnen till exempel järn stör mätningarna, måste en annan analysmetod väljas.</p>

This study tested an underlying assumption of professionals who interview young children with anatomically correct dolls: children who have been sexually abused react differently to interviews with the dolls than children who have not been sexually abused. The behavior of a group of children who were referred to a mental health clinic in the southwestern United States because of suspected sexual abuse was compared to the behavior of a group of children referred to the same clinic for other reasons while the children were interviewed by clinicians using anatomically correct dolls. The study examined four categories of behavior which consisted of indicators of child sexual abuse from the literature. The four categories were: (1) sexual behavior; (2) anger/aggression; (3) anxiety/regression; and (4) avoidant behavior. Clinicians at the mental health clinic identified potential subjects for the study from the outpatient population. Parents were given written and verbal descriptions of the study and asked to contact the researcher if they were interested in allowing their child to participate. The voluntary nature of participation in the study was stressed. Eleven children who were referred because of suspected sexual abuse and eleven children referred for other reasons were successfully recruited. Groups were matched as closely as possible as to sex, age, racial/ethnic group and developmental level. Two dependent measures were employed: the Behavioral Checklist and the Likelihood of Victimization Scale. Both instruments were designed for the research study. The Behavioral Checklist was completed by two observers who watched each interview from behind a one-way mirror. The Likelihood of Victimization Scale was completed by the clinicians who interviewed the children. Observers as well as interviewers were blind to the referral status of the children. Statistically significant differences were obtained for two of the four categories of the Behavioral Checklist. The same two categories correlated significantly with the Likelihood of Victimization Scale. The results provided support for the assumption tested.

Pre-sentence evaluations are commonly prepared by court clinics to assist the court in sentencing dispositions and plans for treatment of offenders. There is no standard policy in effect for advising a defendant of his legal rights prior to evaluation by a mental health professional for purposes of a pre-sentence report. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the effects that different types of briefing or warning statements may have upon clients in a court clinic. The present study systematically investigated two factors in briefings given before a pre-sentence evaluation. The first factor was the nonverbal communication of the person giving the briefing. The effects of these briefing manipulations were assessed in terms of client behavior and mental health evaluator's impression of the client. Specifically, these dependent variables were measured by MMPI scales L, K, and Pd, an Evaluation Rating Scale, a Briefing Questionnaire, a Psychopathology Rating Scale and a Nonverbal Behavior Record Form. A set of hypotheses was forwarded which predicted that these behavioral indices would vary as a result of changes in briefing procedure. Contrary to predictions, results indicated that the briefing procedures had no significant effect upon any of the measures of clients' behavior. While questionnaire data indicated that subjects were affected by the type of briefing immediately after the briefing was given, it appears that these effects were of very short duration. These findings are discussed with regard to the methodology of the present study and with regard to previous research concerned with Miranda warnings.

The growing popularity of various Web 2.0 media has created massive amounts of user-generated content such as online reviews, blog articles, shared videos, forums threads, and wiki pages. Such content provides insights into web users' preferences and opinions, online communities, knowledge generation, etc., and presents opportunities for many knowledge discovery problems. However, several challenges need to be addressed: data collection procedure has to deal with unique characteristics and structures of various Web 2.0 media; advanced data selection methods are required to identify data relevant to specific knowledge discovery problems; interactions between Web 2.0 users which are often embedded in user-generated content also need effective methods to identify, model, and analyze. In this dissertation, I intend to address the above challenges and aim at three types of knowledge discovery tasks: (data) collection, selection, and investigation. Organized in this "CSI" framework, five studies which explore and propose solutions to these tasks for particular Web 2.0 media are presented. In Chapter 2, I study focused and hidden Web crawlers and propose a novel crawling system for Dark Web forums by addressing several unique issues to hidden web data collection. In Chapter 3 I explore the usage of both topical and sentiment information in web crawling. This information is also used to label nodes in web graphs that are employed by a graph-based tunneling mechanism to improve collection recall. Chapter 4 further extends the work in Chapter 3 by exploring the possibilities for other graph comparison techniques to be used in tunneling for focused crawlers. A subtree-based tunneling method which can scale up to large graphs is proposed and evaluated. Chapter 5 examines the usefulness of user-generated content in online video classification. Three types of text features are extracted from the collected user-generated content and utilized by several feature-based classification techniques to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed text-based video classification framework. Chapter 6 presents an algorithm to identify forum user interactions and shows how they can be used for knowledge discovery. The algorithm utilizes a bevy of system and linguistic features and adopts several similarity-based methods to account for interactional idiosyncrasies.

The aim of the study is to make a comparison between the nursery/preschool recommendations (by the state) made in 1972 and the one used today. Here I’ve focused on the posts of looking after children vis-à-vis the educational responsibility. Also the type of education recommended in 1972 and what type of education recommended today. My questions concerns what the preschool recommendations from 1972 are and how they are viewed and applied today in the 2000nds. Since my questions has to do with ideologies regarding children, family and society I choose to do a specific form of text and content analysis called Idea and ideology analysis. In my theoretical chapter I choose two aspects central for my field of examination. These are discourse and discourse analysis, I choose them as they concern how people of different professions in society uses language to categorize and discuss various phenomena surrounding us. Discourse and discourse analysis also includes a description of what the Swedish discourse regarding childcare looks like during the two years I’ve been doing this study. My findings are that the preschool in both 1972 and today both have the responsibility to look after children and the educational task. I’ve also found that in 1972 a certain type of education is recommended for preschools while as today the recommendations don’t contain only one specific type of education.