Efficient digitization and long-term digital archiving of printed newspapers are building blocks that contribute towards the creation and maintenance of a collective memory for news media. Due to the large volume of digitized files per newspaper, there is a demand for their structured digitization, tool support, and integration with digital long-term archives. However, the state-of-the-art in digitization of newspapers with the open source tools like Kitodo.Production lacks support for structuring digitization processes. Such structures are necessary to make large scale projects with thousands of newspaper edition manageable and to enable a proper integration with long-term digital archives and presentation systems. Within this work, we analyze the existing problems and pitfalls of digitizing newspapers with the Kitodo.Production and propose a concept that supports flexibly structured digitization processes.

<p>Human action recognition continues to evolve and is examined better using deep learning techniques. Several successes have been recorded in the field of action recognition but only very few has focused on dance. This is because dance actions and, especially Traditional African dance, are long and involve fast movement of body parts. This research proposes a novel framework that applies data science algorithms to the field of cultural preservation by applying various deep learning techniques to identify, classify and model Traditional African dances from videos. Traditional African dances are important part of the African culture and heritage. Digital preservation of these dances in their myriad forms is a problem. The dance dataset was constituted using freely available YouTube videos. Three Traditional African dances – Adowa, Bata and Swange – were used for the dance classification process. Two Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models were used for the classification and they achieved an accuracy of 97% and 98% respectively. Sound classification of Adowa, Bata and Swange drum ensembles were also carried out; an accuracy of 96% was achieved. Human Pose Estimation Algorithms were applied to the Sinte dance. A model of Sinte dance, which can be exported to other environments, was obtained.</p>

Worldwide, changes in the family have become more evident. Many of the traditional roles that families used to play are now performed by other institutions, such as schools, churches, a variety of welfare agencies and non-governmental organizations. Families in South Africa are no exception, as many South African families are faced with challenges that have a negative impact on their ability to sustain themselves and their members. The previous Minister of Social Development, Doctor Zola Skweyiya, rightly acknowledged that, in order to address the needs of vulnerable groups in our communities effectively, we need a particular focus on the role of the family, both as a developmental and as a supporting institution. In responding to these challenges, the Department of Social Development developed a new Manual on Family Preservation Services (Department of Social Development, 2008b), with the aim of training social service professionals to deliver family preservation services. In order for the programme envisaged by the developers of the Manual to be implemented efficiently, the Norms and Standards Policy on Developmental Social Welfare Services (Department of Social Development, 2007a:52-57) mandates the roll-out of the training and education by all provinces. Thus all social service professionals are mandated to implement family preservation services as stipulated by the Norms and Standards Policy on Developmental Social Welfare Services (Department of Social Development, 2007a) and the Draft National Family Policy (Department of Social Development, 2008a). In her role as one of the trainers on family preservation services who was also responsible for monitoring and evaluating these services in the provinces, the researcher observed the inadequacy and inconsistency of the concept of family preservation services in reporting among social service professionals despite the training and capacity-building carried out by the Department of Social Development. The researcher therefore investigated, first, whether the formulation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services lacks clarity relating to the theoretical framework and operational definition of key concepts which are supposed to assist social service professionals in rendering effective family preservation services. Second, she interviewed 20 social workers regarding their experiences on the formulation and implementation of the Manual. This is a small sample in terms of representing social workers in the country. In total, 37 social workers were originally interviewed, but, because it transpired that they had never attended any training on the Manual for Family Preservation Services, their data were excluded from the empirical study, even though they are implementing these services. The researcher was therefore interested in analysing the formulation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services and also analysed the experiences of social workers regarding the formulation and implementation of the Manual, with the aim of identifying gaps and improving service delivery to families. The researcher reviewed prior literature on systems theory, which is fundamental in addressing family dynamics, the family life cycle and its stages. She also considered literature on family preservation services on four levels of service delivery, the stages of the policy cycle and the overview of the Draft National Family Policy, as well as the Manual of Family Preservation Services. In this study, the researcher adopted an explanatory design, which is a form of mixed methods research. The overall purpose of an explanatory design is to gather qualitative data that help to explain or build upon initial quantitative results from the first phase of the study. In order to collect quantitative data, the researcher used a checklist for a content analysis of the formulation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services. She then conducted semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data about social workers’ experiences regarding the formulation and implementation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services in eight provinces. The researcher did a pilot test of the semi-structured interview schedule, which helped her to refine two questions that were understood differently by the two social workers who participated in the pilot test. After latent coding, the quantitative data were analysed manually, while the qualitative data were coded according to Creswell’s model for qualitative data analysis. The quantitative empirical results revealed some limitations in the formulation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services. Such limitations include an unclear definition of the concept of family preservation services, the omission of objectives from the Manual, confusion with regard to the theoretical frameworks applied, a lack of clarity on the role of volunteers, the process of providing training and capacity-building to social service professionals, monitoring and evaluation plan. These findings were confirmed by the social workers who were interviewed. They exposed the confusion that exists on the definition of family preservation services, the objectives, the theoretical frameworks, the role of volunteers, high case-loads, which they linked to a shortage of social workers and the fact that resources, training and capacity-building on family preservation services are not prioritized. It was therefore recommended that the issues highlighted above be addressed and be included in a revised Manual, and that relevant material also be provided to social service professionals who need to implement family preservation services. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / tm2015 / Social Work and Criminology / DPhil / Unrestricted

Bohuš Získal Methodology for design of digital archives Summary: This work examines how concepts and recommendations defined within the ISO 14721:2003 standard could be applied to archives in audiovisual industry and how its key components and processes relate to the corresponding structure of real production archives. A basic overview of audiovisual content formats, storage solutions and metadata structures is provided with respect to long time content preservation. The most common standards (international, industry and proprietary ones) specific for this area are discussed within the perspective of inevitable data migration process. As certain types of organisation have their archive deeply integrated in the production process and its functional and organisational parts could not be easily distinguished from the rest of the structure, the various approaches to the complex archive design are evaluated, including a brief introduction to MAM system role and implementation. The data migration to new solutions also means the integration with the existing technologies, where a rather higher level of dependence on commercially available solutions is often involved. As the interoperability standards are not widely adopted yet, some decisions are inevitably tied with previously adopted technologies. Changes in...

Microorganisms will play a significant role in the agricultural revolution in the coming decades and help meet the growing population's needs. Hence, understanding the impact of beneficial bacteria on crop development is key to the future of developing microbial products. The ability of PGPB to increase crop yields has been recently investigated in agriculture, as PGPB can support and protect plants under different stresses. Since PGPB interactions occur naturally, finding a method to apply beneficial bacteria while maintaining their efficiency and quality is a topic of interest. PGPB have been used as microbial inoculants, biofertilizers, and also as seed coatings. Preservation of microorganisms through desiccation has been used as the preferred method for long-term storage of microbial culture. The use of dry powders is favored over liquid cultures due to their ease of transportation and better quality control. For microbial preservation, freeze-drying has been defined as the most convenient and satisfactory preservation method for long-term storage. Freeze-drying is generally preferred over other drying techniques as it gives a high-quality dehydrated product. However, to reach a high-quality product, many parameters need to be monitored, such as bacterial cell concentration, growth medium, lyophilization buffer, rehydration, and duration of freeze-drying. In this research, SA190 was freeze-dried with 10% sucrose mixed with 5% trehalose as lyophilization buffer. Pseudomonas argentinensis SA190 was isolated from the root nodules of the desert plant Indigofera argentae in Saudi Arabia, specifically Jizan. The SA190 freeze-dried product was examined by several tests to assess the product viability and quality, such as accelerated test and water stability test. For future work, the effect of freeze-dried SA190 on plant growth and crop yield will be investigated. Moreover, optimization of the freeze-drying process, formulation, and packaging for commercial will be considered. In addition, bacterial strains isolated in DARWIN21 project with promising effects on plant growth, will be subjected to freeze-drying process.

The Rancholabrean Land Mammal Age (RLB) occurred in the late Pleistocene, incorporating at least the Wisconsin Glaciation and possibly the preceding interglacial ('Sangamon'). The RLB is defined based on the occurrence of Bison. The first occurrence (arrival time) of Bison is not well established and is still debated. A conservative approach toward the RLB includes: (1) restricting the RLB to faunas south of 55°. N latitude in North America, (2) defining the RLB by the earliest arrival of Bison south of this latitude, (3) placing the best-corroborated arrival time of Bison (therefore the beginning of the RLB) between approximately 210 and 160. ka, and (4) the end of the RLB is marked by the extinction of mainly large mammals as an event or process culminating at approximately 11 radiocarbon ka BP. RLB faunas contain a wealth of information including amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, but clearly the most is known about the latter. Glacial climate regimes forced species into communities that do not occur today (nonanalog or disharmonious scenarios). The debate about the terminal RLB extinctions continues with the cause either being (1) overkill due to the arrival of the First Americans, or (2) the climatic and environmental defragmentation of biotic communities.

The Rancholabrean Land Mammal Age (RLB) occurred in the late Pleistocene, incorporating at least the Wisconsin Glaciation and possibly the preceding interglacial ('Sangamon'). The RLB is defined based on the occurrence of Bison. The first occurrence (arrival time) of Bison is not well established and is still debated. A conservative approach toward the RLB includes: (1) restricting the RLB to faunas south of 55°. N latitude in North America, (2) defining the RLB by the earliest arrival of Bison south of this latitude, (3) placing the best-corroborated arrival time of Bison (therefore the beginning of the RLB) between approximately 210 and 160. ka, and (4) the end of the RLB is marked by the extinction of mainly large mammals as an event or process culminating at approximately 11 radiocarbon ka BP. RLB faunas contain a wealth of information including amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, but clearly the most is known about the latter. Glacial climate regimes forced species into communities that do not occur today (nonanalog or disharmonious scenarios). The debate about the terminal RLB extinctions continues with the cause either being (1) overkill due to the arrival of the First Americans, or (2) the climatic and environmental defragmentation of biotic communities.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / This thesis deals with analysis and implementation of a positivity preserving numerical method for a vaccination model for the transmission dynamics of two HIVsubtypes in a given community. The continuous model is analyzed for stability and equilibria. The qualitative information thus obtained is used while designing numerical method(s). Three numerical methods, namely, Implicit Finite Difference Method (IFDM), Non-standard Finite Difference Method (NSFDM) and the Runge-Kutta method of order four (RK4), are designed and implemented. Extensive numerical simulation are carried out to justify theoretical outcomes.

Immigrant clinicians are vital to population healthcare delivery and therefore population health. One in four physicians in the USA is foreign-born and notably represented in family and pediatric medicine—specialties charged with administering childhood/adolescent vaccines, such as human papillomavirus vaccine (HPVV). Our examination suggests there may be unique cultural and socialization factors that influence clinician HPVV recommendation practice; however, immigrant clinicians have not been adequately engaged within the national HPVV agenda. Given the volume and significance of immigrant clinicians, engagement of these clinicians, in both community and nation-wide efforts to increase HPVV, is a necessary step for improving and achieving the national health goal of optimizing HPVV for cancer prevention.

Immigrant clinicians are vital to population healthcare delivery and therefore population health. One in four physicians in the United States are foreign-born and notably represented in family and pediatric medicine–specialties charged with administering childhood/adolescent vaccines, such as Human Papillomavirus vaccine (HPVV). Our examination suggests there may be unique cultural and socialization factors that influence clinician HPVV recommendation practice; however, immigrant clinicians have not been adequately engaged within the national HPVV agenda. Given the volume and significance of immigrant clinicians, engagement of these clinicians, in both community and nation-wide efforts to increase HPVV, is a necessary step for improving and achieving the national health goal of optimizing HPVV for cancer prevention.