Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Technology itself does not currently offer a competitive advantage in this era of technological development. Innovative utilisation and application of technology does, however offer temporary competitive advantages. This innovative utilisation and application of technology is dependant on the creativity and innovation of the entrepreneur. CaliWatch™ makes use of existing technology namely cellular technology, watch technology and medical monitoring technology. The unique application of these technologies gives CaliWatch™competitive advantage in the market. The innovation does not only apply to the technology, but also to strategy and marketing to keep this competitive advantage in the market. This study analyses the different technologies and industries, identifying potential target markets and give projected financial information. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tegnologie op sigself bied tans nie meer mededingende voordele in die era van tegnologiese ontwikkeling nie. Innoverende gebruik en toepassing van tegnologie bied wel tydelike mededingende voordele. Hierdie innoverende toepassing en gebruik berus op die kreatiwiteit en innovasie van die entrepreneur. CaliWatch TM maak gebruik van bestaande tegnologieë, naamlik sellulêre tegnologie, horlosie tegnologie, en mediese monitering tegnologie. Die unieke toepassing van hierdie tegnologieë bied CaliWatchTM mededingende voordeel in die mark. Die innovasie berus nie slegs by die toepassing van tegnologie nie, maar, om die mededinginde voordeel te behou, ook by die strategiese beplanning en bemarking. Hierdie studie ontleed die verskillende tegnologieë en industrieë, identifiseer potentiele teikenmarkte, en maak geprojekteerde finansiële vooruitskouinge.

Background: Research is essential for the development of a unique body of knowledge, a hall mark of any profession. It should be utilised to provide the basis for professional theory and practice. Aim: The purpose of the study was to develop guidelines that will assist professional nurses in the utilisation of research findings. Design and setting: Quantitative, descriptive research was used to determine professional nurses’ (N=284) perception of utilization of research findings in practice. The structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 since this is a quantitative study. The study focused on professional nurses at the two selected hospitals that were providing the comprehensive programme in the uMgungundlovu district. Results: 284 respondents answered the questionnaire. Of the respondents, 73.3% agreed that they lacked knowledge of research. The frequency of respondents that lacked research knowledge was 208. Of the respondents, 211 (74.3%) recommended use of research findings in practice versus 24 (8.5%) who were unsure and 9 (3%) respectively who did not know whether research should be used or not. Conclusions: The findings revealed that there is a need for changes to be made in the nursing education system to try and improve research utilisation by professional nurses in practice since the professional nurses working in the clinical area are produced by nursing education institutions / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

<p>A severe burn is a trauma fraught with stress and pain and may change the entire course of life. This thesis focuses on care utilisation, care experiences and patient satisfaction after a severe burn.</p><p>The patients studied were treated at the Burn Unit at Uppsala University Hospital between 1980 and 2006. Burn-related health was examined using the Burn Specific Health Scale-Brief (BSHS-B), personality traits with the Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP), psychological symptoms using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS), symptoms of posttraumatic stress with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and satisfaction with care using the Patient Satisfaction-Results and Quality (PS-RESKVA) questionnaire.</p><p>Those utilising care years after injury reported poorer functioning on three of the BSHS-B subscales. Personality traits had a greater impact on care utilisation than injury severity.</p><p>Social desirability was lower among care utilisers and was associated with burn-related health aspects.</p><p>The participants reported a low level of negative care experiences, the most common of which was Powerlessness.</p><p>Most patients were satisfied with care, more with quality of contact with the nursing staff, and less with treatment information. Multiple regressions showed that the BSHS-B Interpersonal relationships subscale was an independent variable related to all measured aspects of patient satisfaction. The highest adjusted R² was 0.25.</p><p>In a prospective assessment with multiple regression analyses, Age and Education, the personality traits of Stress susceptibility, Trait irritability, Detachment and Social desirability, in addition to the post-traumatic stress symptoms Intrusion and Hyperarousal, were predictors of satisfaction with care. The highest adjusted R² was 0.19.</p><p>The thesis has pointed out that interpersonal factors are related to care utilisation as well as satisfaction with care. However, satisfaction with care was only moderately associated with health and individual characteristics, which may imply that the care itself is of major importance.</p>

Eco-labels impact consumers‟ likelihood to buy eco-labelled products and serve as a tool during the decision-making process that helps consumers make informed purchase choices. The textile industry is responsible for a large amount of pollution, but has started to follow a more holistic, eco-friendly approach. Information about their eco-friendliness is communicated to consumers via eco-labels. Consumers can influence the textile industry to include more eco-labelled textile products in their desired range of products, by buying and demanding eco-labelled textile products. However, international studies indicate that consumers do not understand textile eco-labels and the information that is found on these labels. A lack of understanding prevents consumers from including such products in their pre-purchase decision-making process. Yet some consumers, from developed and developing countries, are willing to buy eco-labelled products and pay more for such products. Limited research in this regard, within a South African context, is available hence, more research was required in this study field. Therefore, this study aimed to explore consumers‟ understanding and utilisation of textile eco-labels during pre-purchase decision-making. The research for the study was done using a convenience and purposive sampling method with a quantitative structured online questionnaire for data collection purposes. Findings suggest that respondents were environmentally conscious, but only to some extent. Most respondents objectively understood textile eco-labelled products, but not textile eco-labels or organic label information regarding cotton production processes. Respondents indicated that they do not use textile eco-labels when making a pre-purchase decision, yet they somewhat recognised the need to buy eco-friendly textile products, because they are aware of environmental implications. Regarding the information on eco-labels, respondents searched for information surrounding the quality of eco-labelled textile products, followed by the care instructions and the credibility of the eco-label on the product. Finally, there was a segment of respondents who buy and utilise textile eco-labelled products, and are willing to pay a higher price for these products. The higher price was the main factor that prevented other respondents from buying eco-labelled textile products. Consumers can benefit from education regarding environmental issues and how their purchasing choices can make a difference in protecting the environment. Furthermore, educating consumers about eco-labelled textile products might increase their awareness and utilisation of these products. In turn, this awareness about eco-labels might encourage consumers to include these kinds of products in their pre-purchase decision-making process. Additionally the industry can strive towards keeping eco-labelled products‟ prices relatively equal to regular product‟s prices to make it easier for consumers to choose between the different products, based on their environmental attributes and not price. Finally, the textile industry and manufacturers can focus on making textile eco-labels more attractive and attention-grabbing in order to focus consumers‟ attention on these labels. Furthermore, on these labels, symbols and words should be used together and all elements should correspond to enhance consumers‟ understanding. If all of these elements of an eco-label convey the same message, consumers might be able to understand the intended message by manufacturers and the industry better. / M Consumer Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The present doctoral thesis focuses mainly on the experiences of 20 women and men of becoming and being parents of a prematurely born child and on their perceptions of their contacts with health and medical care services. An additional aim was to investigate the utilisation of health care during the first year of life and its relation to high-risk diagnoses in the neonatal period. Data were obtained by interviews of the 20 sets of parents to infants born at a gestational age of &lt;34 weeks with no serious congenital defects. These parents were interviewed 1-2 weeks after the infant’s birth and at 2, 6 and 18 months of age. The interview texts were subjected to phenomenological and content analysis. Data was also obtained from the records of 36 infants born at a gestational age of &lt;31 weeks and with a birth weight of &lt;1500 g and 36 full-term infants. The records included information regarding contact with health care services including the child health centres (CHCs) and the outpatient clinics of the paediatric and ophthalmic clinics. Finally data from the other two quantitative studies were obtained from three questionnaires: Quality of Care from The Patient’s Perspective, The Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire and The Toddler Behaviour Questionnaire. The result of the studies showed that the utilisation of health care by the very low birth weight infants was higher than that by the fullterm infants in paediatric and ophthalmic outpatient clinics. High-risk diagnoses in the neonatal period did not correlate with utilisation of care except for visits to the paediatric outpatient clinic, especially planned visits. The internalisation of parenthood was described by the parents as a time-dependent process, with four syntheses of experiences – alienation, responsibility, confidence and familiarity. The development and construction of the mothers’ and fathers’ parental identity followed a pattern that could be summarised into three themes: Unexpected start of parenthood, integration of parenthood into the sense of identity and recognition of parental identity. Important turning points in experiences of parenthood often occurred when the infant could be removed from the incubator, when it was discharged from the ward, and when the infant appeared normal compared to full-term infants. The quality of care was judged, from the parents’ and nurses’ perspective. In general the subjective importance of the given care was rated higher than the care actual given in both neonatal care and care at the CHCs. Higher ratings were given to neonatal care compared with the care at CHSs for medico-technical competence. It was also of importance, of both parents, to receive an optimal identity-oriented approach and socio-cultural atmosphere in the neonatal care and the care at the CHSs. High-risk diagnoses in the newborn did not affect the answers. Parental stress of very preterm children, at 18 months of age, did not differ notably from those parents of children born somewhat less premature, but they assessed their children as being rather later in the development of social behaviours. Parents of children who had had a difficult neonatal period were not more stressed when the child was 18 months old than those who had no problems in the neonatal period. In sum, this research project showed that the parents’ expectations and experiences of becoming mothers and fathers in preterm birth was a process of integrating the unexpected start of parenthood into the parents’ sense of identity and their way of being. When the parents developed a relationship with the infant, actively participated in its care on the basis of their own preferences, and received recognition as parents, this process was strengthened. It is therefore important that the professional caring of the staff should meet and involve the natural caring of the parents.

Nature of the inquiry: My research inquiry investigated how qualities of personal interaction shape and affect the promotion of research utilisation for quality improvement in the US healthcare sector. The research investigated my own professional practice of consulting, teaching, and research regarding the improvement of healthcare practices and outcomes. Efforts to improve the quality of healthcare services are often difficult to realise and sustain. The quality improvement movement in the USA and elsewhere has not conducted much self-examination of its own processes for sources of these perennially problematic results. Relevance: The quality of healthcare services can be readily understood as having consequences of life or death, wellness or suffering. Healthcare expenditures in the USA are estimated at 16% of GDP and over 9% in the UK. Improving healthcare quality improvement efforts is a matter of profound human and social significance. Approach: The DMan research methodology is a reflexively aware process conducted as a cohort and as small learning groups of researchers during the three-year programme. The research inquiry used the complex responsive process of relating theory of learning as emergent changes of meaning or, equivalently, knowledge. As a social science of qualities, it uses the qualities of human interaction as the unit of analysis. The research utilised an interdisciplinary approach drawing upon: healthcare quality improvement literature; organizational discourse studies; research on strategy as practice; performance management; communications theories; the theory of mindful learning; interpersonal neurobiology; figurational sociology; and American pragmatist philosophy. The methodology employs a mindful reflexivity research strategy related to concepts from mindful learning and social neuroscience literature. Central methods included iterative peer and supervisor debriefing and iterative reflexive narrative practice. Findings: A contribution is made to the healthcare literature by describing how ordinary qualities of social coordination dynamics affect the promoters of healthcare research, not just potential users of research. A contribution is made to professional practice by providing a new perspective from which to analyse the sources of performance challenges prevalent in healthcare quality improvement efforts. The research findings indicate how applications of substantial organisational and social resources to promote research utilisation in the US health sector can be co-opted and dissipated away from ostensive substantive objectives. This occurs by research promoters‟ organizational discourse efforts to favourably shape power relating and other qualities of interaction of improvement initiatives. These efforts restrict the emergence of learning about the promoted changes.

This work investigates new approaches to the container loading problem which address the issue of how to load three-dimensional, rectangular items (e.g. boxes) into the container in such a way that maximum utilisation is made of the container space. This problem occurs in several industry sectors where the loading approach places cargo effectively into aeroplanes, ships, trailers or trucks in order to save considerable cost. In carrying out this work, the investigation starts by developing a new heuristic approach to the two-dimensional bin packing problem, which has lower complexity than container loading in the aspects of constraints and geometry. A novel approach, including the heuristic strategies and handling method for remaining areas, is developed that can produce good results when testing with benchmark and real world data. Based on the research for two-dimensional bin packing, a novel heuristic approach is developed to deal with the container loading problem with some practical constraints. The heuristic approach to container loading also includes heuristic strategies and the handling of remaining spaces. The heuristic strategies construct effective loading arrangements where combinations of identical or different box types are loaded in blocks. The handling method for remaining spaces further improves the loading arrangements through the representation, partitioning and merging of remaining spaces. The heuristic approach obtains better volume utilisation and the highest stability compared with other published heuristic approaches. However, it does not achieve as high a volume utilisation as metaheuristic approaches, e.g. genetic algorithms and tabu search.To improve volume utilisation, a new hybrid heuristic approach to the container loading problem is further developed based on the tabu search technique which covers the encoding, evaluation criterion and configuration of neighbourhood and candidate solutions. The heuristic strategies as well as the handling method for remaining spaces developed in the heuristic approach are used in this new hybrid tabu search approach. It is shown that the hybrid approach has better volume utilisation than the published approaches under the condition that all loaded boxes with one hundred per cent support from below. In addition, the experimental results show that both the heuristic and hybrid tabu search approaches can also be applied to the multiple container loading problem.

Ad hoc networks represent the current de-facto alternative for infrastructure-less environments, due to their self-configuring and resilience characteristics. Ad hoc networks flexibility benefits, such as unrestrained computing, lack of centralisation, and ease of deployment at low costs, are tightly bound with relevant deficiencies such as limited resources and management difficulty. Ad hoc networks witnessed high attention from the research community due to the numerous challenges faced when deploying such a technology in real scenarios. Starting with the nature of the wireless environment, which raises significant transmission issues when compared with the wired counterpart, ad hoc networks require a different approach when addressing the data link problems. Further, the high packet loss due to wireless contention, independent of network congestion, requires a different approach when considering quality of service degradation and unfair channel resources distribution among competing flows. Although these issues have already been considered to some extent by researchers, there is still room to improve quality of service by reducing the effect of packet loss and fairly distributing the medium access among competing nodes. The aim of this thesis is to propose a set of mechanisms to alleviate the effect of packet loss and to improve fairness in ad hoc networks. A transport layer algorithm has been proposed to overcome the effects of hidden node collisions and to reduce the impact of wireless link contention by estimating the four hop delay and pacing packet transmissions accordingly. Furthermore, certain topologies have been identified, in which the standard IEEE 802.11 faces degradation in channel utilisation and unfair bandwidth allocation. Three link layer mechanisms have been proposed to tackle the challenges the IEEE 802.11 faces in the identified scenarios to impose fairness in ad hoc networks through fairly distributing channel resources between competing nodes. These mechanisms are based on monitoring the collision rate and penalising the greedy nodes where no competing nodes can be detected but interference exists, monitoring traffic at source nodes to police access to the channel where only source nodes are within transmission range of each other, and using MAC layer acknowledgements to flag unfair bandwidth allocation in topologies where only the receivers are within transmission range of each other. The proposed mechanisms have been integrated into a framework designed to adapt and to dynamically select which mechanism to adopt, depending on the network topology. It is important to note that the proposed mechanisms and framework are not alternatives to the standard MAC protocol but are an enhancement and are triggered by the failure of the IEEE 802.11 protocol to distribute the channel resources fairly. All the proposed mechanisms have been validated through simulations and the results obtained from the experiments show that the proposed schemes fairly distribute channel resources fairly and outperform the performance of the IEEE 802.11 protocol in terms of channel utilisation as well as fairness.

La planification des services sociosanitaires oblige une bonne connaissance des besoins des personnes et de leur évolution. Chez les personnes âgées, les besoins sont fortement conditionnés par l'état d'autonomie. Des profils d'autonomie ont permis de bien définir des groupes de personnes ayant des besoins de services similaires. Toutefois, si les besoins sont bien connus de manière transversale, l'évolution dans le temps de groupes de personnes ainsi catégorisées l'est beaucoup moins. L'objectif de cette thèse par articles était d'estimer les transitions entre les profils d'autonomie, la durée moyenne de séjour, les facteurs associés à ces transitions et l'utilisation des services de santé. Les données proviennent de l'étude PRISMA où 1501 personnes âgées de 75 ans et plus à risque de perte d'autonomie et vivant à domicile ont été suivies pendant quatre années. Les évaluations annuelles ont été faites avec le Système de mesure de l'autonomie fonctionnelle (SMAF), à partir duquel les Profils Iso-SMAF sont générés. Ceux-ci consistent en 14 profils qu'on peut regrouper en profils légers avec atteinte aux tâches domestiques (1-2-3), profils avec atteinte prédominante à la mobilité (4-6-9) ou aux fonctions mentales (5-7-8-10) et enfin les profils lourds (11 à 14). Des variables cliniques ont aussi été mesurées ainsi que l'utilisation des services de santé. Des analyses multi-états de Markov en temps continu ont permis les estimations. Les résultats détaillés sur les transitions entre les profils et la durée moyenne de séjour dans un même profil font l'objet du premier article. On y remarque que plus le profil Iso-SMAF est lourd, moins les personnes y restent stables. Elles font principalement des transitions vers des profils plus lourds, l'institutionnalisation ou le décès. On note également la présence de récupération vers des profils plus légers, et ce, à partir de tous les profils. La durée moyenne de séjour dans un profil a été estimée pour la population étudiée et pourrait s'avérer utile pour planifier l'intervalle adéquat de réévaluation de l'état d'autonomie. L'étude des facteurs associés aux transitions fait l'objet du deuxième article. On y observe notamment que les hommes et les femmes font des transitions différentes à partir des profils légers et que l'utilisation de plusieurs services de santé est associée aux transitions vers les profils mobilité. Toutefois, il n'a pas été possible d'effectuer des analyses multivariées. Il s'agit d'une exploration des facteurs associés aux transitions. L'utilisation des services de santé chez les personnes classées dans le même profil au début et à la fin d'un an constitue la troisième grande partie des résultats. L'utilisation des services publics, privés et communautaires durant un an y sont décrits pour les profils 1 à 9. Ce volet descriptif vise à alimenter des hypothèses futures de recherche. Ces travaux de recherche demeurent exploratoires, en ce sens qu'ils constituent la première étude de transitions de profils d'autonomie, pour des profils utilisables en clinique. Ils fournissent néanmoins les premières balises sur lesquelles s'appuyer pour la planification des services de soutien à domicile aux personnes âgées en perte d'autonomie.

Cette thèse a pour objet le développement d’un module d’utilisation des sols compatible avec le modèle NEMESIS, qui est un modèle économique détaillé de l’Union Européenne. Cette thèse a également pour objectif d’utiliser conjointement le modèle NEMESIS et le module d’allocation des sols pour analyser les effets de plusieurs politiques européennes et notamment leurs impacts sur l’économie et l’utilisation des sols. Le premier chapitre décrit d’une part la construction de la base de données d’utilisation des sols et d’autre part, explique le développement du module d’allocation des sols au niveau des États de l’Union Européenne, en utilisant des fonctions d’offre et de demande de terre agricole et un modèle d’expansion des terres urbaines. Le second chapitre traite, au travers de deux applications, du problème de la construction de scénarios en modélisation appliquée. Un premier scénario, construit suivant une approche dite tendancielle, est présenté de façon détaillée et analysé. Ce scénario sert également de référence pour les évaluations des politiques européennes. Une seconde application propose quatre scénarios élaborés suivant une approche dite « imaginative», c’est-à-dire en imaginant différentes possibilités d’évolution contrastée des principales variables motrices de la croissance économiques. Le troisième chapitre présente la construction et le fonctionnement d’une combinaison de différents modèles ou « chaîne de modèles ». Celle-ci sera utilisée pour l’évaluation économique et environnementale d’une politique de libéralisation de l’agriculture européenne avec ré-allocation des fonds aux contribuables ou à l’aide à la recherche et développement. Cette « chaîne de modèles » combinele modèle NEMESIS avec un modèle agricole détaillé (CAPRI), un modèle de gestion des forêts (EFISCEN )et un modèle détaillé d’allocation des sols (Dyna-CLUE). Enfin le dernier, et quatrième chapitre, présente, après la construction d’indicateurs sur l’utilisation des nutriments dans l’agriculture, l’évaluation des conséquences économiques de deux politiques européennes : d’une part, une politique de biodiversité caractérisée par l’augmentation des forêts protégées ou par une production agricole extensive et d’autre part une politique de soutien au développement des biocarburants au niveau européen. / This thesis aims to develop a land use module for the applied economic model NEMESIS which is a detailed model for European Union. This dissertation also proposes the use of the land use module with the NEMESIS model in order to analyse the effects of European policies especially their economic and land use impact. The first chapter describes, on one hand, the construction of a database on land use and, on another hand, explain the development of a land use module for the EU countries by using agricultural land supply and demand but also an modelling of urban land use. The second chapter regards, using two applications, the problem of scenario construction in applied modelling. A first scenario, constructed with an extrapolating approach, is presented and analysed. This scenario is also used as reference scenario for the assessment of European policies. A second application shows four scenario developed using an imaginative approach i.e. assuming different possibilities for the future change in main drivers. The third chapter presents and describes the functioning of four linked models which is used for the economic and environmental assessment of a European agriculture liberalisation with re-allocation of released funds either by consumer tax rebate or a subsidy to R&D investments. The linked models included (i) the NEMESIS model, (ii) the CAPRI model a detailed agricultural model, (iii) the EFISCEN model, a forest resource management model and(iv) the Dyna-CLUE model, a detailed model for land use allocation. Finally, the last chapter presents, after the construction of indicators about nutrient use in agriculture, the economic assessment of two European policies: firstly, a biodiversity conservation policy in forest area or in agricultural land and secondly a biofuel development policy at European level.