Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / The general objective of the proposed research is to do a needs analysis for the tourism and hospitality industries of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. This will be followed by an alignment of these industries with the provisions of the General Agreement of Trade in Services, commonly known as GATS, so that a Tourism and Hospitality Services Charter may be moulded that may be used uniformly throughout SACU. The specific objectives of the research are: To analyze impact assessment reports and studies conducted on the Tourism and Hospitality Industries for all five SACU member states with the aim of harmonizing standards, costs and border procedures. To ecognize SACU member states' schedule of GATS Commitments, especially in the service sectors being investigated, by improving market access, and to recommend minimal infrastructural development levels to be attained for such sectors' support. To make recommendations to harness the challenges faced by the said industries into a working document. To calibrate a uniformity of trade standards in these sectors that shall be used by the SACU membership. To ensure that the template is flexible enough for SACU to easily adopt and use in ongoing bilateral negotiations, for example. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil

Magister Legum - LLM

Magister Legum - LLM / This study examines the legal and policy objectives of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) with specific reference to international standards and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). The study sets out the history and development of the TBT Agreement and the relationship between the TBT Agreement and selected WTO Agreements. The study also explores the application and interpretation of the TBT Agreement under the WTO dispute settlement system. More importantly, the study addresses the legal, policy and practical implications of the TBT Agreement for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Africa. A central argument put forward in this study is that, albeit international standards have been recognised as an important tool for LDCs in Africa to gain access to foreign markets, there is no significant ‘political will’ and commitment from the key players in standardisation work, that is, the national governments, the private sector and the ISO. At the same time, some developed and developing countries tend to use their influence and involvement in the activities of the ISO as a means of promoting the use and adoption of their homegrown standards. The study proposes, among others, that a more participatory approach which encompasses representatives from consumer groups, the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from these LDCs in Africa, should be adopted

This thesis covers the development of a series of new methods and the application of adaptive filter theory which are combined to produce a generalised adaptive filter system which may be used to perform such tasks as pattern recognition. Firstly, the relevant background adaptive filter theory is discussed in Chapter 1 and methods and results which are important to the rest of the thesis are derived or referenced. Chapter 2 of this thesis covers the development of a new adaptive algorithm which is designed to give faster convergence than the LMS algorithm but unlike the Recursive Least Squares family of algorithms it does not require storage of a matrix with n2 elements, where n is the number of filter taps. In Chapter 3 a new extension of the LMS adaptive notch filter is derived and applied which gives an adaptive notch filter the ability to lock and track signals of varying pitch without sacrificing notch depth. This application of the LMS filter is of interest as it demonstrates a time varying filter solution to a stationary problem. The LMS filter is next extended to the multidimensional case which allows the application of LMS filters to image processing. The multidimensional filter is then applied to the problem of image registration and this new application of the LMS filter is shown to have significant advantages over current image registration methods. A consideration of the multidimensional LMS filter as a template matcher and pattern recogniser is given. In Chapter 5 a brief review of statistical pattern recognition is given, and in Chapter 6 a review of relevant connectionist models. In Chapter 7 the generalised adaptive filter is derived. This is an adaptive filter with the ability to model non-linear input-output relationships. The Volterra functional analysis of non-linear systems is given and this is combined with adaptive filter methods to give a generalised non-linear adaptive digital filter. This filter is then considered as a linear adaptive filter operating in a non-linearly extended vector space. This new filter is shown to have desirable properties as a pattern recognition system. The performance and properties of the new filter is compared with current connectionist models and results demonstrated in Chapter 8. In Chapter 9 further mathematical analysis of the networks leads to suggested methods to greatly reduce network complexity for a given problem by choosing suitable pattern classification indices and allowing it to define its own internal structure. In Chapter 10 robustness of the network to imperfections in its implementation is considered. Chapter 11 finishes the thesis with some conclusions and suggestions for future work.

Au cours des dernières années, la technologie GNSS a attiré beaucoup d’attention autour du monde et elle a été largement appliquée dans de nombreux domaines. D'autre part, le système d'exploitation ferroviaire avancé a été largement utilisé pour assurer la sécurité, la sûreté et l'efficacité du réseau ferroviaire. L'efficacité de ce système se fonde sur la disponibilité du positionnement fiable du train. L’application de cette technologie au positionnement du train est un domaine de recherche très prometteur. Dans cette thèse, plusieurs algorithmes sont proposés pour le positionnement du train en utilisant des signaux GNSS et un modèle géométrique de voie stocké dans la base de données à bord du train. Premièrement, la distance, vitesse du train sont estimées en utilisant des signaux GNSS et un modèle géométrique ‘idéal’ qui est composé de lignes droites, de courbes de transition et d'arcs de cercle. L’impact du rayon de courbure de la voie sur ces estimations est étudié. Deuxièmement, la distance, vitesse du train sont estimées en utilisant des signaux GNSS et un modèle géométrique ‘non-idéal’ qui est approché par une ligne polygonale avec un certain niveau d'incertitude. L’impact de l’incertitude de la voie sur ces estimations est étudié. Finalement, la distance, vitesse du train sont estimées à l’aide d’intégration des mesures GNSS et une base de données bruitée. L’impact des erreurs de GNSS et de la base de données sur ces estimations est étudié / Over these years, GNSS technology has attracted many attentions around world and it has been widely applied in navigation for airplanes, ground vehicles and boats. On the other hand, advanced railway operating systems have been widely used to guarantee the safety and efficiency of the railway network. The efficiency of these systems is based on the availability of reliable train positioning. Hence, applying GNSS technology to the train positioning is a very promising research area, since it has such important benefits as lower initial costs and lower maintenance. In this thesis, several algorithms are proposed for train positioning by using GNSS signals and the railway centerline stored in the onboard computer database. At first, the train travelled distance, speed are estimated by using GNSS signals and an ''ideal'' railway centerline which is composed of straight line segments, transition curves and arcs of circles. The impact of the railroad curvature on these estimations is studied. Secondly, the train travelled distance, speed are estimated by using GNSS signals and a ''non-ideal'' railway centerline which is defined by a polygonal line with some level of uncertainty. The impact of the track geometric model imprecision on these estimations is studied. Finally, the train travelled distance, speed are estimated by integrating the GNSS measurements with a track database. The impact of the GNSS measurements and the track database errors on these estimations is studied

Background: Joint stability has been experimentally and clinically linked to mechanisms of knee injury and joint degeneration. The only dynamic, and perhaps most important, regulators of knee joint stability are contributions from muscular contractions. In participants with unstable knees, such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injured, a range of neuromuscular adaptations has been observed including quadriceps weakness and increased co-activation of adjacent musculature. This co-activation is seen as a compensation strategy to increase joint stability. In fact, despite increased co-activation, instability persists and it remains unknown whether observed adaptations are the result of injury induced quadriceps weakness or the mechanical instability itself. Furthermore, there exists conflicting evidence on how and which of the neuromuscular adaptations actually improve and/or reduce knee joint stability. Purpose: The overall aim of this thesis is therefore to elucidate the role of injury and muscle weakness on muscular contributions to knee joint stability by addressing two main objectives: (1) to further our understanding of individual muscle contribution to internal knee joint moments; and (2) to investigate neuromuscular adaptations, and their effects on knee joint moments, caused by either ACL injury and experimental voluntary quadriceps inhibition (induced by pain). Methods: The relationship between individual muscle activation and internal net joint moments was quantified using partial least squares regression models. To limit the biomechanical contributions to force production, surface electromyography (EMG) and kinetic data was elicited during a weight-bearing isometric force matching task. A cross-sectional study design determined differences in individual EMG-moment relationships between ACL deficient and healthy controls (CON) groups. A crossover placebo controlled study design determined these differences in healthy participants with and without induced quadriceps muscle pain. Injections of hypertonic saline (5.8%) to the vastus medialis induced muscle pain. Isotonic saline (0.9%) acted as control. Effect of muscle pain on muscle synergies recruited for the force matching task, lunging and squatting tasks was also evaluated. Synergies were extracted using a concatenated non-negative matrix factorization framework. Results/Discussion: In CON, significant relationships of the rectus femoris and tensor fascia latae to knee extension and hip flexion; hamstrings to hip extension and knee flexion; and gastrocnemius and hamstrings to knee rotation were identified. Vastii activation was independent of moment generation, suggesting mono-articular vastii activate to produce compressive forces, essentially bracing the knee, so that bi-articular muscles crossing the hip can generate moments for the purpose of sagittal plane movement. Hip ab/adductor muscles modulate frontal plane moments, while hamstrings and gastrocnemius support the knee against externally applied rotational moments. Compared to CON, ACL had 1) stronger relationships between rectus femoris and knee extension, semitendinosus and knee flexion, and gastrocnemius and knee flexion moments; and 2) weaker relationships between biceps femoris and knee flexion, gastrocnemius and external knee rotation, and gluteus medius and hip abduction moments. Since the knee injury mechanism, is associated with shallow knee flexion angles, valgus alignment and rotation, adaptations after ACL injury are suggested to improve sagittal plane stability, but reduce frontal and rotational plane stability. During muscle pain, EMG-moment relationships of 1) semitendinosus and knee flexor moments were stronger compared to no pain, while 2) rectus femoris and tensor fascia latae to knee extension moments and 3) semitendinosus and lateral gastrocnemius to knee internal rotation moments were reduced. Results support the theory that adaptations to quadriceps pain reduces knee extensor demand to protect the joint and prevent further pain; however, changes in non-painful muscles reduce rotational plane stability. Individual muscle synergies were identified for each moment type: flexion and extension moments were respectively accompanied by dominant hamstring and quadriceps muscle synergies while co-activation was observed in muscle synergies associated with abduction and rotational moments. Effect of muscle pain was not evident on muscle synergies recruited for the force matching task. This may be due to low loading demands and/or a subject-specific redistribution of muscle activation. Similarly, muscle pain did not affect synergy composition in lunging and squatting tasks. Rather, activation of the extensor dominant muscle synergy and knee joint dynamics were reduced, supporting the notion that adaptive response to pain is to reduce the load and risk of further pain and/or injury. Conclusion: This thesis evaluated the interrelationship between muscle activation and internal joint moments and the effect of ACL injury and muscle pain on this relationship. Findings indicate muscle activation is not always dependent on its anatomical orientation as previous works suggest, but rather on its role in maintaining knee joint stability especially in the frontal and transverse loading planes. In tasks that are dominated by sagittal plane loads, hamstring and quadriceps will differentially activate. However, when the knee is required to resist externally applied rotational and abduction loads, strategies of global co-activation were identified. Contributions from muscles crossing the knee for supporting against knee adduction loads were not apparent. Alternatively hip abductors were deemed more important regulators of knee abduction loads. Both muscle pain and ACL groups demonstrated changes in muscle activation that reduced rotational stability. Since frontal plane EMG-moment changes were not present during muscle pain, reduced relationships between hip muscles and abduction moments may be chronic adaptions by ACL that facilitate instability. Findings provide valuable insight into the roles muscles play in maintaining knee joint stability. Rehabilitative/ preventative exercise interventions should focus on neuromuscular training during tasks that elicit rotational and frontal loads (i.e. side cuts, pivoting maneuvers) as well as maintaining hamstring balance, hip abductor and plantarflexor muscle strength in populations with knee pathologies and quadriceps muscle weakness.

The zero coupon yield curve is one of the most fundamental tools in finance and is essential in the pricing of various fixed-income securities. Zero coupon rates are not observable in the market for a range of maturities. Therefore, an estimation methodology is required to derive the zero coupon yield curves from observable data. If we deal with approximations of empirical data to create yield curves it is necessary to choose suitable mathematical functions. We discuss the following methods: the methods based on cubic spline functions, methods employing linear combination of the Fourier or exponential basis functions and the parametric model of Nelson and Siegel. The current mathematical apparatus employed for this kind of approximation is outlined. In order to find parameters of the models we employ the least squares minimization of computed and observed prices. The theoretical background is applied to an estimation of the zero-coupon yield curves derived from the Czech coupon bond market. Application of proper smoothing functions and weights of bonds is crucial if we want to select a method which performs best according to given criteria. The best performance is obtained for Bspline models with smoothing.