Magister Public Health - MPH / HIV support groups have been widely adopted as part of care and support interventions in Zambia, yet there is very little research on the effectiveness of these groups in meeting the needs of the PLWHIV from the perspective of those who join them. This case study looks at a selected support group for People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHIV) facilitated by the Flying Angels, a faith based non-governmental organization established in 2007 by the Living Assemblies of God Church, in Ng‟ombe Township, Lusaka. The Support Group brings together around eighty young and old, married and single, men and women living with HIV and AIDS, to share experiences and find ways of coping with their situation. The qualitative case study sought to obtain a rich understanding of the experiences of members with a view to understanding the support they needed, the aspects of the support group that are relevant and effective to their situation, and which are not. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions methods were used to collect data. Discussion and interviews were audio-taped. Audio-recordings were translated during transcription, data organized, coded and thematically analysed.

Typically, systems biology focuses on the form and function of networks of biochemical interactions. Questions inevitably arise as to the evolutionary origin of those networks' properties. Such questions are of interest to a growing number of systems biologists, and several groups have published studies shown how varying environments can affect network topology and lead to increased evolvability. For decades, evolutionary biologists have also investigated the evolution of evolvability and its relationship to the interactions between genotype and phenotype. While the perspectives of systems and evolutionary biologists sometimes differ, their interests in patterns of interactions and evolvability have much in common. This thesis attempts to bring together the perspectives of systems and evolutionary theory to investigate the evolutionary effects of fluctuating environments. Chapter 1 introduces the necessary themes, terminology and literature from these fields. Chapter 2 explores how rapid environmental fluctuations, or "noise", affects network size and robustness. In Chapter 3, we use the Avida platform to investigate the relationship between genetic architecture, fluctuating environments and population biology. Chapter 4 examines contingency loci as a physical basis for evolvability, while chapter 5 presents a 500-generation laboratory evolution experiment which exposes E. coli to varying environments. The final discussion, concludes that the evolution of generalism can lead to genetic architectures which confer evolvability, which may arise in rapidly fluctuating environments as a by-product of generalism rather than as a selected trait.

This master’s thesis deals with the issue of mobile networks, protocol suite TCP/IP and routing protocols. It focuses in particular on the functioning of the transport part of the third and fourth generation mobile networks and intends to fnd the most suitable options for their emulation. The master’s thesis compares two selected emulation programs through a series of tests that were performed on a server created for these purposes. The main outputs are two detailed comprehensive scenarios and solutions have been developed. The frst scenario deals with the overall transport network confguration. The second scenario is based on the frst one and is focused on troubleshooting of particular issues in this network. Their implementation helps to analyze the behavior of the transport part of the mobile network.

Pokrok při zdokonalování klasifikačních algoritmů je zpomalován nedostatkem dat potřebných pro testování. Reálná data je obtížné získat z důvodu bezpečnosti a ochrany citlivých informací. Existují však generátory syntetických sad pravidel, jako například ClassBench-ng. K vyhodnocení správného fungování, propustnosti, spotřeby energie a dalších vlastností klasifikačních algoritmů je zapotřebí také vhodný síťový provoz. Tématem této práce je tvorba takového generátoru síťového provozu, který by umožnil testování těchto vlastností v kombinaci s IPv4, IPv6 a OpenFlow1.0 pravidly vygenerovanými ClassBench-ng. Práce se zabývá různými způsoby, jak toho dosáhnout, které vedly k vytvoření několika verzí generátoru. Vlastnosti jednotlivých verzí byly zkoumány řadou experimentů. Implementace byla provedena pomocí jazyku Python. Nejvýznamnějším výsledkem je generátor, který využívá principů několika zkoumaných přístupů k dosažení co nejlepších vlastností. Dalším přínosem je nástroj, který bylo nutné vytvořit pro analýzu užitých sad klasifikačních pravidel a vyhodnocení vlastností vygenerovaného síťového provozu.

The main object of this thesis was to design a computer network for small and medium companies which will be made among others from network server providing simple network control. The next task was to provide internet connection to subscribers of local area network, their security and access to common services. There had been discussed the choice of distribution of Linux operation system with regarding to demanded services, stability and long lasting operation in theoretical part. One part of the work is a theoretic preliminary to separate services, to the purpose of their using and to their weaknesses. The practical part deals with an installation and configuration of Debian operating system, launching the base services and the setting of selected monitoring programs.

This thesis deals with CFD analysis of a wing-fuselage junction on L410NG airplane. Possible modifications are proposed as well. Calibration problem solved in the introduction serves as a pathway for validation of the results and gives insight into the CFD methodology. The main part analyses the airplane's flow field and shows the details of the modelling process. Description of the computing network followed by final evaluation is presented. Next part is devoted to the creation and aerodynamic analysis of the modified geometry. Final part of the work compares both basic and modified geometry.

The Internet of Things (IoT) comprises many small, embedded devices that operate on severe resource constraints concerning energy, bandwidth, and memory footprints. Software for such devices has traditionally been implemented using relatively low-level languages such as C, which makes it susceptible to introducing bugs or flaws that can compromise the security of the device. This thesis adds interpreted WebAssembly (WASM) bytecode execution to Contiki-NG – an operating system for the next generation IoT devices. This is done using an open-source WASM runtime called WebAssembly Micro Runtime (WAMR). It creates an isolated and secure environment for applications to be executed in that has restricted access to the host operating system. To support the event-driven approach of Contiki-NG, the bytecode execution can be interrupted and resumed as needed, allowing the operating system to handle pending events without significant delays. The result is a way for applications written in a variety of programming languages to be safely executed in Contiki-NG and to interact with its APIs. When tested on Nordic Semiconductor's nRF52840 System-on-Chip (SoC), applications executed as bytecode resulted in an increase in binary size of 2.7-3.1x, and a performance penalty of around 9.2x for C-generated bytecode, and 10.3x for Rust-generated bytecode. For less compute-intensive applications, the performance penalty is not as prominent but still displays a sizable increase in energy consumption compared to native execution.

As the interest in electric heavy-duty vehicles has grown, so has the need for route planning tools to coordinate fleets of electric vehicles. This problem is called the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem (EVRP) and it can be solved using a Branch-Price-and-Cut method, where routes for individual vehicles are iteratively generated using information from the coordinated problem. These routes are computed in a pricing problem, which is a Resource Constrained Elementary Shortest Path Problem (RCESPP). Because of its iterative nature, the Branch-Price-and-Cut method is dependent on a fast solver for this RCSPP to get a good computational performance. In this thesis, we have implemented a labeling algorithm for the RCESSP for electric vehicles with state-of-the-art acceleration strategies. We further suggest a new bounding method that exploits the electric aspects of the problem. The algorithm's performance and the effect of the different acceleration strategies are evaluated on benchmark instances for the EVRP, and we report significantly improved computational times when using our bounding method for all types of instances. We find that route relaxation methods (ng-routes) were particularly advantageous in test instances with a combination of clustered and randomly distributed customers. Interestingly, for test instances with only randomly distributed customers, ng-relaxation required longer processing time to achieve elementary optimal routes and for these instances, the bounding methods gave better computational performance.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study determines whether media reporting has any influence on members’ image formation processes of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC). The aim of this study was (a) to determine respondents’ attitudes towards the Church, (b) to determine respondents’ image of the Church, (c) to establish whether media reporting has any influence on members’ image formation of the DRC, and (d) to define such influence, if any. This study is based on the Integrated Communication Model for Image Formation and Projection (the IFP model) as theoretical foundation. The IFP model suggests that certain document design aspects, such as content, style, structure and graphics, may influence a company or organisation’s image. Following on the IFP model this study determined the effect that rhetorical content devices in media reports have on DRC members’ image of the Church. The rhetorical devices that were analysed are direct criticism, contrast, laden words, implication phenomena, sarcasm and insinuation. The study investigated how these rhetorical devices are employed to have a harmful effect on the image of the DRC. A total of 127 respondents, all of them DRC members, were selected from four congregations in the Boland region. The congregations are situated in Worcester (rural), Malmesbury (semi-rural), Paarl (semi-urban) and Durbanville (urban). Gender and age were incorporated as independent variables of this study. Members’ attitude and image with regard to the DRC and media reporting were determined by means of a questionnaire survey as primary methodology, while the possible influence of media reporting was established through a text analysis (rhetorical discourse analysis, or RDA) – another primary methodology. Professor Martin Kidd from Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Statistical Consultation prepared the statistical processing of the survey responses. The results are depicted by means of histograms and other statistical methods. The results show that members’ attitudes towards, and image of, the Church are less positive than what the Church may have hoped for: Members generally have a cautiously positive image of the Church. In addition, results indicate that media reporting does indeed influence the image formation processes of the DRC; that this influence is negative, and that it contributes to a less positive image of the Church. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie bepaal of mediaberiggewing enige invloed op die beeldvormingsprosesse van individue van die Nederduitse Gereformeerde (NG) Kerk het. Die doel van die ondersoek was (a) om respondente se houding teenoor die Kerk te bepaal, (b) om respondente se beeld van die NG Kerk te bepaal, (c) om vas te stel of mediaberiggewing enige invloed op lidmate se beeldvormingsprosesse van die NG Kerk het, en (d) om sodanige invloed, indien enige, te omskryf. Die Geïntegreerde Kommunikasiemodel vir Beeldvorming en -projeksie, oftewel die IFPmodel (“Integrated Communication Model for Image Formation and Projection”), is die teoretiese model waarbinne die studie uitgevoer sal word. Die IFP-model beweer dat sekere dokumentontwerpaspekte, soos inhoud, styl, struktuur en grafika, ʼn instansie se beeld kan beïnvloed. Na aanleiding hiervan het dié studie dus die uitwerking van inhoudelike retoriese meganismes in mediaberigte op NG Kerk-lidmate se beeld van die Kerk bepaal. Die retoriese meganismes wat ontleed is, is direkte kritiek, kontras, gelade woorde, implikasieverskynsels, sarkasme en insinuasie. Daar is ondersoek ingestel na hoe hierdie retoriese meganismes aangewend word om die beeld van die NG Kerk negatief te beïnvloed. Altesaam 127 respondente, almal NG Kerk-lidmate, is uit vier gemeentes in die Bolandomgewing gekies. Die gemeentes is geleë in Worcester (platteland), Malmesbury (semiplatteland), in die Paarl (semistad) en Durbanville (stad). Geslag en ouderdom is as onafhanklike veranderlikes in aanmerking geneem. Lidmate se houding en beeld ten opsigte van die NG Kerk en mediaberiggewing is deur middel van ʼn vraelysondersoek as primêre metodologie bepaal, terwyl die moontlike invloed van die mediaberigte met behulp van ʼn teksanalise (retoriese diskoersanalise, of RDA) – nóg ʼn primêre metodologie – ontleed is. Prof Martin Kidd van die Universiteit Stellenbosch se Sentrum vir Statistiese Konsultasie het die vraelysantwoorde statisties verwerk. Die uitslag word met histogramme en ander statistiese metodes uitgebeeld. Die resultate toon dat lidmate se houding jeens, en beeld van, die Kerk minder positief is as wat die Kerk dalk hoop: Lidmate het in die algemeen ʼn versigtig positiewe beeld van die Kerk. Resultate suggereer voorts dat mediaberiggewing wél die beeldvormingsprosesse van die NG Kerk beïnvloed; dat sodanige invloed negatief is, en dat dit gevolglik tot ʼn minder positiewe beeld van die Kerk onder lidmate bydra.

Ces travaux de recherches visent à étudier et à proposer de nouvelles architectures dans le contexte d'une Nouvelle Génération de Réseau d'Accès Optique Passif (NG-PON). Cette nouvelle génération d'équipements se justifie par l'augmentation des besoins en débit (descendant et/ou montant), ou d'éventuelles futures obligations réglementaires. Elle a pour fil conducteur le souci d'optimiser les coûts de déploiement de l'accès FTTH. Depuis 2010, l'organisme de pré-normalisation, le FSAN (associé à l'ITU) a prévu une action sur le thème du NG-PON qui se décline en XG-PON1 pour la première vague (débit 10 Gbit/s descendant et 2.5 Gbit/s montant) puis en un deuxième volet appelé NG-PON2 (pour une offre viable commerciale basée sur un débit de l'ordre de 1 Gbit/s) pour succéder au G-PON et au XGPONl. Des évaluations ont été menées sur la transmission optique, plus exactement au niveau de la couche physique (mesures de taux d'erreur, budget optique, portée) pour en déduire par la suite la faisabilité et la performance des systèmes. Deux thématiques ont structuré le travail de thèse sur la base de ce périmètre d'analyse : i) la recherche de solutions techniques pour optimiser le nombre de centraux " opticalisés ", ii) la recherche de solutions dans le modem client pour permettre de se connecter à des solutions de type une longueur d'onde par client. Un combineur optique sans pertes répondant au meilleur remplissage des cartes OLTs (Optical Line Termination) au Central Optique a été démontré. Ce combineur optique permet la réduction des sites NRO (Noeud de Raccordement Optique). Cette thèse s'intéresse aussi à l'ONU (Optical Network Unit), l'équipement du côté du client qui est un élément fondamental qui impacte le modèle de coût dans les réseaux d'accès. Les ONU achromatiques (dont les émetteurs sont identiques quelque soit la longueur d'onde d'émission) étudiés sont soit à base de source large à découpage spectral (" Spectrum Slicing ") soit à base de lasers accordables. Ils offrent l'avantage de la simplicité dans une architecture dont le multiplexage et l'accès multiples sont basés sur la longueur d'onde. Le format de modulation avancé de type OFDM et l'emploi de la technique de traitement de signal comme l'égaliseur sont également mis en relief dans ces travaux de thèse. Ces deux aspects correspondent à des mises en oeuvre d'outils de l'état de l'art le plus récent pour compenser les pénalités d'une transmission optoélectronique.