Dissertation submitted in compliance with the Master's Diploma in Technology: Medical Technology, Technikon Natal, 1994. / The arena with the for medical technologists result that educational is continually changing directive must change accordingly. A number of big issues have changed the role of the medical technologist. Cognisance of the identified issues is essential if the profession is to survive the year 2000. The future directions of medical technology ar~ analysed in this disseration in order to identify the knowledge and skills that the professional medical technologist will require for the 21st century. The factors which have up to now introduced dramatic changes in clinical pathology laboratories will also present certain opoortunities for laboratory professionals but taking cognisance of the necessity for change and professional ability. This study was thus conducted to explore the educational requirements necessary for the professional future of medical Africa. laboratory technologists in the Republic of South !'.C.,' . A t~eoretical sub-structure lays the foundation for the study. The literature review in Chapter 2 outlines medical technology eduction both in the Republic of South Africa and in certain other countries. The necessity for change in the education of medical laboratory technologists is addressed here. Chapter 3 examines the factors (gleaned from the literature) which are producing a need for such dramatic change for the century ahead. It also examines the role of the technikons and the roles of the technikons with regard to the training of medical technologists and the influence of academic drift. The methodology in Chapter 4 explains the structuring and administration of a questionnaire used to capture data from registered medical laboratory technologists in the Republic of South Africa. The processed data results are discussed in Chapter 5. Tables are presented at the conclusion of certain groups of major issues. Chapter 6 concludes with the findings / M

On a longtemps cru que les régions de l'espace séparant deux étoiles constituaient un milieu quasiment vide. En fait, il n'en est rien et on sait maintenant qu'elles renferment de vastes nuages de gaz essentiellement composés d'hydrogène atomique, de dihydrogène et de monoxyde de carbone CO. On a longtemps pensé également que, du fait des conditions physicochimiques très particulières qui prévalent dans ces nuages interstellaires (faibles températures, faibles densités de matière, champs de radiations élevés dus à  la présence d'étoiles proches) il était peu probable que des processus chimiques puissent s'y dérouler et des molécules y survivre. On sait désormais que ce n'est pas le cas et qu'une chimie complexe et riche peut se développer. A ce jour, près de deux cent espèces chimiques différentes ont été détectées dans les milieux interstellaire et circumstellaire. La physico-chimie menant à  la formation de nouvelles molécules, même les plus complexes, peut avoir lieu en phase gazeuse et aussi à la surface des grains interstellaires. C'est à ce second aspect que je me suis principalement intéressée.Ce travail de thèse de doctorat est une étude expérimentale de l'interaction et de la formation de molécules sur différents types de surfaces simulant les grains de poussière présents dans le milieu interstellaire (silicates et/ou diverses morphologies de glace d'eau qui les couvrent dans les nuages denses froids). Dans ce but, plusieurs expériences sont faites en utilisant le dispositif expérimental FORMOLISM qui réunit des techniques de l'ultravide, de la cryogénie, des jets atomiques et moléculaires ainsi que la spectrométrie de masse.Dans ce travail, j'étudie expérimentalement la formation de l'eau via l'hydrogénation de l'ozone dans des conditions similaires à celles des nuages moléculaires denses (couverture de glace d'eau sur des grains à 10 K). Nos résultats confirment les prédictions théoriques et montrent que l'ozone est bien une des voies possibles, très efficace pour la formation de l'eau, en plus de celles de O et O2. Ce résultat est interprété par l'absence de barrière pour cette réaction.Dans une autre série d'expériences je présente des résultats sur les énergies d'adsorption/désorption de deux isomères, l'éthanol (EtOH) et le diméthyl-éther (DME), sur une surface de silicates couverte ou non de glace d'eau, à basse température. Les résultats obtenus sont comparés aux calculs théoriques sur la stabilité thermodynamique de ces deux isomères, le plus stable (EtOH) interagissant de manière plus efficace avec la glace d'eau que l'isomère (DME) qui a une énergie d'adsorption plus faible. Ce résultat apparait lié au fait que l'éthanol a une plus forte liaison hydrogène avec la surface de la glace. Il peut permettre d'expliquer l'abondance préférentielle du DME observée dans certains milieux circumstellaires. / It has been long believed that regions of space between two stars were an almost empty environment. In fact, it is not the case and we know now that it contains vast gas clouds mainly containing atomic hydrogen, dihydrogen and carbon monoxide CO. It was long thought also that because of the very specific physicochemical conditions prevailing in these interstellar clouds (low temperature, low density material, high radiation fields due to the presence of nearby stars) it was unlikely that chemical processes could take place and molecules could survive. We know now that this is not the case and that a rich and complex chemistry can develop there. To date nearly two hundred different chemical species have been detected in the interstellar and circumstellar medium. The physical-chemistry leading to the formation of new molecules, even complex ones, can occur in the gas phase as well as on the surface of interstellar grains. I have been mainly interested in this second aspect.This PhD thesis is an experimental study of the interaction and of the formation of molecules on different surfaces simulating the dust grains present in the interstellar medium (silicates and/or various morphologies of water ice covering them in cold dense clouds). For this purpose, several experiments are performed using the FORMOLISM experimental setup, bringing together several techniques and methods (ultrahigh vacuum, cryogenics, atomic and molecular beams and mass spectrometry).In this work, I am studying the formation of water via the hydrogenation of ozone under conditions similar to those of dense molecular clouds (water ice covered grains at 10 K). Our results confirm theoretical predictions and show that ozone is one possible very efficient way to form water, in addition to the O and O2 pathways. This result can be interpreted by the existence of a barrier-free reaction.In another set of experiments, I present results on the energies of adsorption/desorption of two isomers, ethanol (EtOH) and dimethyl-ether (DME) on a surface of silicates covered or not with water ice, at low temperature. The results are compared with theoretical calculations on the thermodynamic stability of both isomers, the most stable (EtOH) interacting more efficiently with the ice water than the isomer (DME) which has a lower adsorption energy. This result appears related to the fact that ethanol has a stronger hydrogen bond with the surface of the ice. It may help to explain the observed preferential abundance of DME in some circumstellar medium.

Rapporten behandlar utvecklingen och konstruktionen av ett laparoskopiskt blodkärlsidentifierande instrument. Identifiering sker med hjälp av fotopletysmografi. Fotopletysmografi betyder ungefär "detektion av volymförändrings med hjälp av ljus". Laparoskopi kan översättas med titthålskirurgi. Laparoskopioperationer sker med små runda instrument som förs in i kroppen. Rapporten diskuterar olika probmodeller, det vill säga hur sensorn skall konstrueras för att erhålla en bra mätsignal. Konkurrerande tekniker och framtida applikationer redovisas på flera ställen i rapporten. Vid mätningar på blodmodell studerades och analyserades signalkvaliten. Till slut skall tilläggas att proben fungerade tillfredsställande. Proben kunde detektera pulsationer i blodmodellen.

Pure rotational spectra of the rare isotopologues of titanium oxide, (TiO)-Ti-46, (TiO)-Ti-47, (TiO)-Ti-49, and (TiO)-Ti-50, have been recorded using a combination of Fourier transform millimeter-wave (FTmmW) and millimeter/submillimeter direct absorption techniques in the frequency range 62-538 GHz. This study is the first complete spectroscopic characterization of these species in their X-3 Delta(r) ground electronic states. The isotopologues were created by the reaction of N2O or O-2 and titanium vapor, produced either by laser ablation or in a Broida-type oven, and observed in the natural Ti isotopic abundances. Between 10 and 11 rotational transitions J + 1 <-> J were measured for each species, typically in all 3 spin-orbit ladders Omega-1,2, and 3. For (TiO)-Ti-47 and (TiO)-Ti-49, hyperfine structure was resolved, originating from the titanium-47 and titanium-49 nuclear spins of I = 5/2 and 7/2, respectively. For the Omega = 1 and 3 components, the hyperfine structure was found to follow a classic Lande pattern, while that for Omega = 2 appeared to be perturbed, likely a result of mixing with the nearby isoconfigurational a(1)Delta state. The spectra were analyzed with a case (a) Hamiltonian, and rotational, spin-orbit, and spin-spin parameters were determined for each species, as well as magnetic hyperfine and electric quadrupole constants for the two molecules with nuclear spins. The most abundant species, (TiO)-Ti-48, has been detected in circumstellar envelopes. These measurements will enable other titanium isotopologues to be studied at millimeter wavelengths, providing Ti isotope ratios that can test models of nucleosynthesis.

The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments originating from human consumption has received increased scientific attention during the last decades due to concerns regarding their combined environmental effects. This concerns stress the need of studies quantifying dissipation rates of pharmaceutical in aquatic ecosystems. The aims of this study were: i) to assess the degradation rates of trimethoprim (TPR), diphenhydramine (DPH), diclofenac (DCL), oxazepam (OXZ) and hydroxyzine (HDZ) in laboratory incubations, and ii) to compare laboratory assessment of dissipation rates with previously measured in situ half-lives of these drugs in a pond ecosystem. I hypothesized that the dissipation of these five drugs dissolved, in laboratory incubations, is affected by common environmental parameters such as temperature, UV-light, organic solutes and presences of sediments. In line with my hypothesis, all substances were affected by my treatments. Here, main parameters affecting the dissipation of the drugs were UV light and to a lesser temperature (i.e. through microbial degradation). All drugs were found to be affected by sediment sorption, especially HDZ where 95 % of the applied pharmaceutical was adsorbed. Laboratory estimate with highest environmental relevance (low TOC and 3 °C water temperature or low TOC, sediments and UV light) seemed to predict field estimates fairly well for all of the drugs beside OXZ and DCL. Given the strong adsorption for sediments seen in the laboratory incubations, it seems likely that the mismatch between laboratory inferred half-lives and the in situ half-lives for OXZ was likely caused by sediment exchange processes releasing drugs initially adsorbed to the sediments into water column over time.

A thorough biological survey and evaluation is a lengthy and expensive project. The number of technically trained persons required prevent its use by most public agencies. Since public health departments are the groups most frequently concerned with measuring the effects of pollution in streams, a need exists for a simplified method of sanitary survey. Recognizing this need, the Texas Health Department assigned the writer the problem of devising a method of survey which would require a field party of two and could be conducted entirely from a mobile field laboratory.

The objectives of these investigations were (1) the purification of MG reductase from sheep liver and (2) studies of some of its characteristics. MG reductase was purified 40 fold and showed a single band on SDS-PAGE. Molecular weight estimations with SDS-PAGE showed a molecular weight of 44,000; although gel filtration with Sephadex G-150 gave a molecular weight of 87,000 indicating that the enzyme might be a dimer. The Km for MG is 1.42 mM and for NADH it is 0.04 mM. The pH optimum for the purified enzyme is pH 7.0. Isoelectric focusing experiments showed a pI of 9.3. In vivo experiments involving rats treated with 3,3',5-triiodothyronine (T_3) and 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU) indicated that MG reductase was depressed by T_3 and elevated by PTU.

While relational databases are still the preferred approach for storing data, XML is emerging as the primary standard for representing and exchanging data. Consequently, it has been increasingly important to provide a uniform XML interface to various data sources— integration; and critical to protect sensitive and confidential information in XML data — access control. Moreover, it is preferable to first detect and repair the inconsistencies in the data to avoid the propagation of errors to other data processing steps. In response to these challenges, this thesis presents an integrated framework for cleaning, integrating and securing data. The framework contains three parts. First, the data cleaning sub-framework makes use of a new class of constraints specially designed for improving data quality, referred to as conditional functional dependencies (CFDs), to detect and remove inconsistencies in relational data. Both batch and incremental techniques are developed for detecting CFD violations by SQL efficiently and repairing them based on a cost model. The cleaned relational data, together with other non-XML data, is then converted to XML format by using widely deployed XML publishing facilities. Second, the data integration sub-framework uses a novel formalism, XML integration grammars (XIGs), to integrate multi-source XML data which is either native or published from traditional databases. XIGs automatically support conformance to a target DTD, and allow one to build a large, complex integration via composition of component XIGs. To efficiently materialize the integrated data, algorithms are developed for merging XML queries in XIGs and for scheduling them. Third, to protect sensitive information in the integrated XML data, the data security sub-framework allows users to access the data only through authorized views. User queries posed on these views need to be rewritten into equivalent queries on the underlying document to avoid the prohibitive cost of materializing and maintaining large number of views. Two algorithms are proposed to support virtual XML views: a rewriting algorithm that characterizes the rewritten queries as a new form of automata and an evaluation algorithm to execute the automata-represented queries. They allow the security sub-framework to answer queries on views in linear time. Using both relational and XML technologies, this framework provides a uniform approach to clean, integrate and secure data. The algorithms and techniques in the framework have been implemented and the experimental study verifies their effectiveness and efficiency.

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Biochemical Sciences Candidate: Bc. Jana Stehnová Supervisor: Prof. MUDr. Jaroslav Dršata, CSc. Consultant: MUDr. Mgr. Sylvie Špitálníková, Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: Laboratory investigation of thyreoidea in pregnancy Thyroid diseases are very common in the Czech Republic. It is reported that up to 46% of the population suffer with thyroid diseases. Women are afflicted with the desease 4 to 8 times more often than men, and particularly in pregnancy, hormones of the thyroid gland play an important role in developing, maintaining and progress of pregnancy. In this work, we focused on creating the reference intervals for TSH, fT4 and antiTPO in the first trimester of pregnancy, which are recommended as the main markers of thyroid assessment of thyroid function during pregnancy. Reference intervals created by us were compared with the recommended reference intervals of the supplied Roche diagnostics. Our reference file was compiled from a group of 81 pregnant women and divided into individual weeks of the first trimester (weeks 11, 12 and 13). Reference intervals were calculated according to the recommendation, such as 2.5th and 97.5th percentile of our reference group for each week and then the resulting average...

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Biochemical Sciences Candidate: Bc. Lucie Bahenská Supervisor: doc. MUDr. Bohuslav Matouš, CSc. Title of diploma thesis: Monitor the parameters of thyroid function with regard to a diagnosis of hypothyroidism in middle aged There was proved an occurence of the thyroid disorders with regard to hypothyreosis in humans in the middle age in the file of 15 412 patients (5753 men, 9659 women). Simultaneously there was calculated an occurence of these disorders in the rate on men vs women. There was a file of all patients examined in VFN during the year 2012 including all patients treating at the department of endocrinology. No significant higher occurence of thyroid disorders at women was found. In the examined file there were 474 TSH analysis indicated by a practitioners like a steering control. There wasn't confirmed a higher incidence of an occurence of the thyroid disorders at women. In the file indicated by practitioners there was changed the value of TSH at 7,2% women and 9,9% men. The reason can be caused by examination the men in the risk group in comparison to women, who are examined without risk factors. There was checked the connection between hypothyreosis and diabetes mellitus and no significant higher occurence...