The management of online learning environments so that they are effective and efficient presents a significant challenge for institutions and lecturers due to the complexity of requirements in the learning and teaching domain. The use of 3D Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) for education introduces a novel set of management challenges. MUVEs were designed to cater for entertainment and commercial needs and as such do not intrinsically support managed learning. When MUVEs are used for educational purposes, forming 3D Multi User Learning Environments (MULEs), user support for learning management becomes an important factor. This thesis highlights the importance of managed learning in MULEs. It proposes a coordinated approach which accommodates the existing education institutional infrastructure. The research has focused on two very widely used and closely compatible MUVEs, Second Life (SL) and OpenSim. The thesis presents system and user studies that have been carried out on these selected MUVEs. The findings reveal the challenges that academics and students can experience if they do not have sufficient knowhow to manage learning activities in SL/OpenSim. User guidance and training tools were then developed for supporting learning management strategies in the context of SL/OpenSim and demonstrated in exemplar use-case scenarios. The user support models and tools which were developed have been extensively evaluated for their usability and educational value using diverse participant groups. The results validate the efficacy of these contributions, defending the research thesis. These contributions can be used in future research on managing MUVE supported education.

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Background. The study objective was to determine how the population located in five remote rural areas responded to HIV testing offered by mobile clinics operating under Family Health International, an international NGO that provides health services, especially HIV prevention and family planning. The study sought to identify how different segments of the population, classified according to their socio-demographic characteristics, responded to HIV testing. The analysis is based on secondary data, collected between October 2009 and September 2010, on clients who came to seek health services at mobile clinics. The population is geographically located in five districts: OR Tambo in Eastern Cape, Amajuba in KwaZulu-Natal, Gert Sibande and Ehlanzeni in Mpumalanga, and Sekhukhune in Limpopo. Although these mobile clincs provided comprehensive health services, HIV prevention and family planning were the main focus of attention. Methods. A total number of 9015 individuals aged 18 years and older visited the mobile clinics during the period October 2009 to September 2010. Eight socio-demographic characteristics were collected and used to determine the association between HIV testing and the aforementioned eight variables. The association between the independent variables (sex, age, level of education, marital status, occupation, number of living children, district of residence and area of residence) and HIV testing (the dependent variables) was first investigated using a descriptive analysis and then performing a logistic regression. Results. More than 88% of individuals aged 18 years and older who visited the mobile clinics in the areas covered by the FHI project are from rural areas. HIV testing is still low in these areas, even though the services are provided close to their homes by the mobile clinics. It was found that only 34.7% of the mobile clinic’s clients tested for HIV during the period from October 2009 to September 2010. Out of eight independent variables included in the logistic regression model, five were found to have a statistically significant association with HIV testing, being: sex, age, education, occupation and area of residence Although the majority of these mobile clinics’ clients are females (77.1%), males tested in higher proportion than females accross all areas. The results showed that HIV testing decreases with age, with the age category 18 - 24 years testing for HIV in higher proportion than the age group 25 - 34 years and decreasing further when people become older. Individuals are more likely to take an HIV test when their level of education is higher than matric and tend to respond the same to a HIV testing offer when they have no education, primary or secondary level. Employment was found to be an enabling factor to test for HIV. People who are employed tested for HIV in a higher proportion than people who were unemployed or still in school. The area of residence (classified as rural, semi-urban and urban) showed that HIV testing is higher in urban than in semi-urban areas, and low in rural areas. The analysis by sex showed that education is important for women because women who had either primary, secondary or a higher level of education tested for HIV better than women who do not have any level of education. For males, education was not statistically significant regarding HIV testing. The different age groups showed the same pattern for both sexes regarding HIV testing, but young males in the category 18-24 years showed higher odds of testing for HIV than females in the same age category. With occupation variable, females who are either students or employed tested for HIV almost in the same proportion and their odds of testing for HIV were double that of unemployed females. Employed males showed a notably higher difference in testing for HIV than males who were either in school or unemployed. The area of residence showed the same pattern for males and females, with both testing in higher proportions in urban and semi-urban areas than in rural areas. Conclusion. Women from rural areas, with no education, were found to test for HIV less than any other individual in the areas under study. Women tested better when they had been exposed to any form of education. The provision of education to women in the form of an extensive and aggressive door to door HIV awareness campaign should therefore make a difference in increasing the uptake of HIV testing in the five areas covered by the mobile clinics. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This paper examines the issues of equity, as applicable to the HOV-to-HOT conversion project planned for the I-85 North corridor in the Metropolitan Atlanta Region. A review of literature is undertaken to describe the typology of transportation equity issues within the wider context of environmental justice, and to highlight socio-economic factors and local and national transportation funding factors that influence people's travel choices and their mobility and accessibility options. Demographic data on the I-85 corridor peak period commuters in Metropolitan Atlanta is analyzed, in addition to results of focus groups polling current Metropolitan Atlanta interstate commuters on the topic of managed lanes during 2008. The thesis makes a conclusion that a final decision about the equity impact of the I-85 HOV-to-HOT conversion is likely not possible without undertaking a Metropolitan area-wide analysis. Some of the equity findings that emerge indicate that there are no significant income differences between the the HOV lane users and general purpose lane I-85 commuters; that there are differences between median incomes of block groups represented by current I-85 commuters (both HOV lane users and general purpose lane users) and median incomes of block groups typical for the base geography; and that investing in Xpress bus service improvements would primarily serve those households with more vehicles than drivers, unless improvements to reverse commute options and feeder bus networks are made. The focus group findings suggest that current interstate highway users in Metropolitan Atlanta, originating in the suburbs, are generally accepting of the HOT concept and recognize the value of travel time savings.

Thesis (MMed) -- Stellenbosch University, 2010. / Bibliography / Objectives: To describe the establishment of a colposcopy service in a district hospital in a rural sub-district and to assess its impact on the uptake of colposcopy. Design: A retrospective double group cohort study using a laboratory database of cervical cytology results, clinical records and colposcopy clinic registers. Setting: The Overstrand sub-district in the Western Cape: 80 000 people served by 7 clinics and a district hospital in Hermanus, 120 km from its referral hospitals in Cape Town and Worcester. A colposcopy service was established at Hermanus Hospital in 2008. Subjects: All women in the Overstrand sub-district who required colposcopy on the basis of cervical smears done in 2007 and 2009. Outcome measures: The number of women booked for colposcopy at distant referral hospitals in 2007 and at the district hospital is 2009, the proportion of those women who attended colposcopy, the time from cervical smear to colposcopy, comparison between the two years. Results: The uptake of colposcopy booked for distant referral hospitals was 67% in 2007. The uptake improved by 18% to 79% for the local district hospital colposcopy service in 2009 (p=0.06). When analysed excluding patients from an area with no transport to the district hospital, the improvement was more marked at 22% (p=0.02). The delay from cervical smear to colposcopy improved significantly from 170 to 141 days (p=0.02). Conclusion: The establishment of a colposcopy service in a rural sub-district increased the uptake of colposcopy and decreased the delay from cervical smear to colposcopy. This district hospital colposcopy service removed 202 booked patients in one year from the colposcopy load of its referral hospitals.

This study examined the nature and extent of relations between Management of Technology [MOT] and cost management. It explores the roles of competencies and competency measurement in these relations and its associations with company performance. The problem statement asks how the MOT community deals with cost management, whether MOT-based cost management competencies can be isolated and measured, whether a tool for measurement can be created, tested and validated and indeed whether it can be used to assess relations between MOT-based cost management competencies and company performance. To answer these questions, a MOT-based cost management competency index is formulated, consisting of problem statements representing MOT-based cost management insights, knowledge and practices. Designed in the format of a typical research survey, the index is used to source data from sampled companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange [JSE]. Although too small a sample to generalise about the population, sufficient data is collected and processed with statistical software programs. A second set of variables, about financial performance of the responding companies, consists of Asset Turnover [ATO] and Return on Assets Managed [ROAM]. Data for these variables is sourced from their annual financial statements and processed into ATO and ROAM indicators. The combined research data set is used to critically describe statistical qualities of variables such as ATO, ROAM, MOT-based cost management competencies of company executives, their education and exposure to the executive management teams in their respective organizations. The research data is subsequently subjected to correlation analysis, as foundation for hypothesis testing. Among the relationships described by correlation analysis and warranting further examination with regression analysis, are associations between MOT-based cost management competencies and ATO and between Education and MOT-based cost management competencies. The former association is found to be not significant, having the research hypothesis rejected. A significant association between Education and MOT-based cost management competencies is indeed found. Utilizing regression equations yielded by the analyses, the predictive capacity of regression analysis is used to demonstrate results of interventions in those associations postulated in the research hypotheses. The study concludes that it achieved a qualified success in its first objective, which was to formulate a MOT-based cost management competency index, and to demonstrate its application as measurement and management tool on executive managers of JSE-listed companies. The study failed in its second objective, which was to demonstrate a significant association between MOT-based cost management competencies and financial performance of sampled companies. Critical perspectives on the data and the associations tested reveal important shortcomings in the research. These perspectives do though create opportunities for refinement of the MOT-based cost management competency index as measurement and management tool, validation of its status, and indeed demonstration of its business value to the MOT and business community in particular. In closure, the study was meant as a contribution to the discourse on a credo for MOT and the MOT body of knowledge, and it subjects itself to critical analysis by the research community so as to establish whether it succeeded in indeed making such a contribution. / Business Management / M.Tech. (Business Administration)

Les lasers à fibres à modes bloqués font partie des rares systèmes qui permettent de réaliser une variété de fonctions optiques élaborées, au moyen de peu de composants optiques. La gestion de la dispersion apporte à ce type de lasers une variété de comportements, qui est si riche que la cartographie complète et l’analyse détaillée des états stables deviennent difficilement réalisable lorsqu’on utilise les outils conventionnels basés sur les équations de propagation du champ intra-cavité. Dans cette thèse nous montrons que l’adjonction de la technique des coordonnées collectives aux outils théoriques conventionnels, permet de résoudre au moins en partie le problème de la complexité et l’extrême diversité des états stables des cavités gérées en dispersion. En particulier, nous proposons l’ACCD (approche des coordonnées collectives dynamiques), comme un outil théorique permettant de réaliser des gains de performance substantiels dans des opérations de recherche et caractérisation des états stables du laser. D’autre part, le recours à l’approche des cordonnées collectives nous permet de mettre en évidence des effets majeurs induits par certains phénomènes qui étaient jusqu’à présent largement sous-estimés. Notamment, nous mettons en évidence des modifications majeures desdomaines respectifs des différents états stables du laser, qui surviennent lorsqu’on change la bande passant de la fitre. D’autre part, en considérant une cavité où la largeur spectrale du champ lumineux (3.12 THz) est d’un ordre de grandeur plus petite que la largeur de la bande du gain Raman, nous mettons en lumière des effets remarquables de la diffusion Raman sur les phénomènes d’hystérésis. / Mode-locked fiber laser are among the few systems that allow to achieve a variety of elaborate optical functions, by means of few optical components. The use of dispersion management brings to this type of lasers a variety of behaviors, which is so rich that the complete mapping and detailed analysis of the stable states becomes impractical when conventional tools based on the intra-cavity field propagation equations, are used. In this thesis we show that the addition of the technique ofcollective coordinates to the conventional theoretical tools, allows to solve at least in part the problem of complexity and diversity of the stable states of the cavity. In particular, we propose the DCCA (dynamical collective coordinate approach), as a theoretical tool to achieve substantial performance gains in search and characterization of stable states of the laser. Furthermore, the use of the collective coordinated approach allows us to highlight major effects induced by certain phenomena that were until now largely underestimated. In particular, we highlight major changes in the respective areas ofthe different stable states of the laser, which occur when changing the width of the band-pass filter BPF. Furthermore, considering a cavity where the spectral width of the light field (3.12 THz) is an order of magnitude smaller than the bandwidth of the Raman gain, we highlight remarkable effects of Raman scattering on hysteresis phenomena.

This case study attempts to explain the implementation of Information Communications Technology (ICT) in primary schools, specifically mentioning the integration of computers into the curriculum. To begin with, the implementation of ICT from an international perspective is explored and subsequently some international and African ICT policies in education are also identified and discussed. Nationally, ICT policies from four provinces in South Africa are examined and analyzed. Provincially, the ICT Projects Coordinator in the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) was interviewed to obtain a provincial perspective of ICT in the Eastern Cape. From local schools’ perspective, four primary schools and one secondary school in the Makana and Somerset East Districts were visited and the ICT coordinators at these schools were interviewed. The results reveal that the previously disadvantaged (PD) schools were not utilizing their computers effectively. This is due to a number of factors, including a lack of funds to maintain the computers; unskilled or under skilled teachers in ICT; and under resourced computer facilities. The previously advantaged (PA) schools, on the other hand, have well-resourced computer laboratories, adequate maintenance plans as well as skilled teachers in ICT that enable these schools to effectively integrate the use of computers into the curriculum. Key words: Information communications technology, implementation, integration, previously advantaged, previously disadvantaged, curriculum, primary school, secondary school.

Ethiopia has two stories to tell: a fast progress and unfair distribution of the gains in child health care. Despite Ethiopia’s achievement in meeting MDG4, wealth-related mortality inequality increased by 1.5 for every 1,000 live births between 2000 and 2011. Two major dividing lines contribute to child health inequality in Ethiopia: place of residence and wealth status. Lack of proper studies on health inequality policy making is affecting the comprehensiveness and quality of inequality reduction in Ethiopia. This study wished to assess child health inequality and policy factors that affect progress in inequality reduction. Accordingly, the study explored policy-makers’ attitude and interest; policy contents, and institutions to make recommendations that promote child health equity in Ethiopia. The research is mainly a qualitative policy research. Conducted between 2013 and 2017, it was design based on health policy researching and health inequality theories. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews among health policy makers; policy analysis; and a review of the literature. Twenty policy-makers, 15 policy documents, over 350 literatures were selected through purposing and theoretical open sampling methods. Data was synthesised and analysed with ATLAS.ti 7.1.4 through applying the tools of critical interpretive synthesis and ground theory. The study found that Ethiopia is in an early state of recognizing and intervening against health inequalities. The quality and level of knowledge is mixed and gets reduced as one goes far from the centre. Consensus is still growing on the major underlying causes of child health inequalities in Ethiopia. Most of the policy makers focus on down-stream factors than broader determinants of health. Wealth inequality is less discussed and intervened than geographical inequalities. The production of a new Plan of Action can helped to resolve the challenges of lack of detailed approaches that can help reduce the gap in Ethiopia. However, the content of the health policy documents is not comprehensive and based on global lessons. Policy makers from the central government in Ethiopia tend to reject the use of redistribute justice intervention as policy options. There were multiple reasons including: fear of sustainability, ethics and effectiveness were used to reject these interventions. However, leaders from DRS and DPs broadly support the proper adaption of these interventions. The recent surge of interest to address health inequalities is mainly led by small groups from the top leaders. The engagement of the middle level leaders, Developing Regional States (DRSs), civil society and development partners has been limited. The relation between different institutes is very important in the Ethiopian federal state to reduce inequality. Without an improved level of awareness; change in attitude; broader engagement of citizens; use of independent data source and review of resource distribution Ethiopia’s progress towards Universal Health Coverage in 2030 could get delayed. Finally, this research provided a list of recommend interventions that Ethiopia might take in its plan, to narrow down health inequalities among children by 2030. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

The integration of computer technology in education has been a worldwide issue that has been supported and equally criticized by many. However, the practicability of computer technology in education cannot be overlooked, and this reality led to this study. This qualitative study aimed to explore the extents to which computer technology has been integrated in teaching and learning in Namibian schools, and three central schools in the town of Katima Mulilo (Zambezi Region) were investigated in this regard. The study explored possible benefits of computer technology in education, and sought to understand the way learners perceive computer technology. The study findings showed that teachers were unable to use computers to teach due to lack of resources and skills, whereas learners indicated willingness to embrace computer technology in education. Findings further showed greater need to equip schools with computer technology and training teachers. Based on the findings, recommendations were made to train teachers in integrating computer technology, and that schools should be provided with necessary computer technology resources. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Comparative Education)