Multi-view video is capable of presenting a full and accurate depth perception of a scene. The concept of multi-view video is becoming more useful especially in 3D display systems by enhancing the viewing of high resolution stereoscopic images from arbitrary viewpoints without the use of any special glasses. Like monoscopic video, the multi-view video is faced with different challenges such as: reliable compression, storage and bandwidth due to the increased number of views as well as the high sensitivity to transmission errors. All these may lead to a detrimental effect on the reconstructed views. The work in this thesis investigates the problems and challenges of transmission losses in a multi-view video bitstream over error prone wireless networks. Based on the network simulation results, the proposed technique is capable of addressing the problem of transmission losses. In practical wireless networks, transmission errors are inevitable and pose a serious challenge to the coded video data. The aim of this research effort is to examine the effect of these errors in a multi-view video bitstream when transmitted over a lossy channel. Moreover, this research work aims to develop a novel scheme that can make the multi-view coded videos more robust to transmission errors by minimizing the error effects and improving the perceptual quality. Multi-layer data partitioning as an error resilient technique is developed in JMVC 8.5 reference software in order to make the multi-view video bitstream more robust during transmission. In addition to that, we propose a simple decoding scheme that can support the decoding of the multi-layer data partitioning bitstream over channels with high error rate. The proposed technique is benchmarked with the already existing H.264/AVC data partitioning technique. The work in this thesis also employs the use of group of pictures as a coding parameter to investigate and reduce the effects of transmission errors in multi-view video transmitted over a very high error rate channel. The experiments are carried out with different error loss rates in order to evaluate the performance of these techniques in terms of perceptual quality when transmitted over a simulated erroneous channel. Errors are introduced using the Sirannon network simulator. The error performance of each technique is evaluated and analysed both objectively and subjectively after reconstruction. The results of the research investigation and simulation are presented and analysed in chapter six of the thesis.

Bakgrund: Trycksår är idag en vanligt förekommande vårdskada. Få studier har gjorts gällande trycksår i samband med buklägeskirurgi. Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka trycksårsprevalensen bland patienter som genomgått kirurgi i bukläge och identifiera möjliga riskfaktorer för trycksår. Metod: En prospektiv deskriptiv studie med kvantitativ design. Datainsamlingen utfördes på neurokirurgiska och ortopediska kliniken under nio veckor, vid ett stort sjukhus i mellansverige. Hudobservationer och journalgranskning skedde på totalt 29 patienter. Frågeställningarna besvarades med deskriptiv statistik och analyserades med Mann Whitney U test och Chi2. Resultat: Var tredje patient som genomgått buklägeskirurgi utvecklade trycksår. Den totala trycksårsprevalensen var 34 procent, antalet trycksår per patient varierade mellan ett till sex stycken. Trycksåren varierade mellan kategori ett och två enligt EPUAPs klassiferingssystem. Det mest utsatta området var ansiktet (51 %). Identifierade riskfaktorer var högt BMI, den postoperativa kroppstemperaturen, ålder och operationens längd. Slutsats: Patienter som genomgår kirurgi i bukläge har en ökad risk att utveckla trycksår. Fortsatt kvalitetsarbete behövs för att motverka vårdskador, patientlidande, ökade vårdtider och kostnader för denna grupp patienter. För vidare utveckling inom området behövs fler och större studier. / Background: Pressure ulcer is today a frequent occuring problem in health care.  There are few studies done regarding the incidence of pressure ulcers after surgery in prone position. Aim: The aim was to investigate the prevalense of pressure ulcer among patients who have been operated upon in prone position, and to identify possible risk factors for pressure ulcer among these patients. Method: A prospective study with quantitative design was chosen. The data was collected during nine weeks at a Neurosurgical and Orthopedic ward. Skin observations and reviewing medical records were conducted for a total of 29 patients. The research questions were answered by descriptive statistics and the data was analyzed using a Mann Whitney U test and Chi2. Results: One out of three patients developed pressure ulcers after surgery in prone position. The prevalence of identified pressure ulcers in the study was 34 percent, the number of pressure ulcers per patient varied between one and six. The ulcers were classified according to EPUAPs classification and the identified ulcers were assigned class one and two. The most vulnerable part was the face (51%). Identified risk-factors are high BMI, body temperature post operatively, patients’ age and duration of surgical procedure. Conclusion: Patients undergoing surgery in prone position are more likely to develop postoperative pressure ulcers. Further preventive measures to avoid health care associated adverse events are necessary in order to reduce unnecessary patient suffering, increasing hospitalization and costs for this group of patients. For further progress in this field more extensive studies are needed

Introdução: Devido ao aumento do volume abdominal, a posição prona é difícil e desconfortável para a gestante. Por isso, até hoje não foi testado se, nessa posição, a grávida teria seus padrões hemodinâmicos materno-fetais alterados. Objetivos: Analisar a influência da posição prona nos parâmetros hemodinâmicos materno-fetais e no conforto da mulher grávida, em um protótipo de maca especialmente construído para gestantes. Método: Estudo prospectivo, observacional e transversal, com 30 gestantes, em seguimento pré-natal, e 16 não gestantes, como grupo de controle. Os dois grupos foram subdivididos para participar de dois tipos de sequências randomizadas de posições, investigando-se se a mudança na ordem das sequências traria, nas gestantes e seus fetos, alguma variação significativa de valores hemodinâmicos. As posições utilizadas neste estudo foram: prona, supina, semissentada e decúbito lateral esquerdo. Foram avaliados os seguintes parâmetros hemodinâmicos: frequência cardíaca, pressão arterial sistólica, pressão arterial diastólica, saturação de oxigênio e frequência respiratória maternos e linha de base e variabilidade fetais. Para a análise estatística, foi utilizada a análise não paramétrica para medidas repetidas; e, para verificar se a posição anterior à prona teria alguma influência no desempenho dessa última, foram criadas variáveis de variação, que foram comparadas pelo teste de Wilcoxon. Resultados: Comparandose os índices da posição prona aos obtidos nos demais posicionamentos, observou-se que todos os parâmetros mantiveram-se dentro dos valores de normalidade e não houve, nesses valores, interferência das posições anteriores à prona. O grupo de gestantes revelou médias significativamente maiores do que as do grupo de não gestantes em relação às frequências cardíaca (p < 0,004), na sequência 1; e p < 0,001, na 2) e respiratória (na sequência 1, p=0,041; e, na 2, p=0,012). Na análise do grupo de gestantes, observou-se que, em ambas as sequências, as pressões arteriais sistólica e diastólica apresentaram, na posição prona, valores menores que os apresentados nas demais posições. Nesse grupo, observou-se diferença significativa na pressão arterial sistólica, quando se comparou, na sequência 1, a posição prona à semissentada (p < 0,001), à supina (p < 0,01) e ao decúbito lateral esquerdo (p < 0,01); e, na sequência 2, quando se comparou a posição prona às semissentada (p < 0,001) e à supina (p=0,013). Ainda no grupo de grávidas, a pressão arterial diastólica apresentou diferença significativa nas duas sequências: na sequência 1, a posição prona foi comparada às posições semissentada (p < 0,006), supina (p=0,023) e decúbito lateral esquerdo (p=0,017); na sequência 2, foi comparada ao posicionamento semissentado (p < 0,005) e supino (p=0,008). Quanto à saturação do oxigênio, na sequência 2 do grupo de grávidas houve diferença significativa quando se compararam os valores obtidos na posição prona aos obtidos na semissentada (p=0,021) e na supina (p=0,003). Em ambas as sequências, não houve diferença significativa na linha de base fetal, quando se comparou a posição prona com o decúbito lateral esquerdo. Não foram observadas variações significativas na variabilidade fetal nas sequências avaliadas. Todas as pacientes declararam terem se sentido confortáveis durante a permanência em cada uma das posições. Conclusão: No posicionamento prono, os padrões hemodinâmicos materno-fetais mantiveram-se dentro dos valores da normalidade. Na maca especialmente desenvolvida para gestantes, essa posição foi considerada segura e confortável / Introduction: Due to the increase of the abdominal volume, the prone position is a difficult and uncomfortable position for pregnant women. Hence, so far, it has not been tested if, in this position, a pregnant woman would have her maternal fetal hemodynamic parameters altered. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to analyze the influence of prone position in maternal-fetal hemodynamic parameters and the comfort of the pregnant woman on a prototype stretcher specially built for pregnant women. Method: A prospective, observational, crossover study with 30 pregnant women in antenatal segment, and 16 non pregnant women as a control group. The two groups were subdivided to take part in two types of randomized sequences of positions, investigating if the change in the order of the sequences would bring a significant alteration in the maternal fetal hemodynamic values. The positions used in this study were: prone, supine position, fowler position and left lateral. The following hemodynamic parameters were assessed: maternal heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, oxygen saturation and respiratory rate and baseline and fetal variability. To the statistical analysis we used the non-parametric analysis for repeated measures and to verify if the position prior to the prone position would have any influence in it and variables of variation were created and compared to the Wilcoxon test. Results: Comparing the prone positions indexes to the other ones obtained, we observed that all the parameters were within the standards of normality and there was no interference in positions prior to the prone position in these values. The pregnant group showed means significantly higher than the ones of the non-pregnant women regarding the heart rate in sequence 1 (p < 0.004) and in sequence 2 (p < 0.001) and respiratory rate in sequence 1 (p= 0.041) and sequence 2 (p= 0.012). In the analysis of the pregnant group we observed that in prone position the systolic blood pressure and the diastolic blood pressure showed lower values than the other in both sequences. In the systolic blood pressure in the pregnant group sequence 1 the comparison of prone position with the fowler position (p < 0.001), with the supine position (p < 0.001) and with the left lateral (p < 0.001) in the pregnant group sequence 2 the comparison of the prone position with the fowler position (p < 0.001) and with the supine position (p= 0.013) it is observed a significant difference. In the diastolic blood pressure in comparison of the prone position in the pregnant group sequence 1 with the fowler position (p < 0.006), with supine position (p= 0.023) and with the left lateral (p= 0.017) and the pregnant group sequence 2 with the fowler position (p < 0.005) and with the supine position (p= 0.008) it is observed a significant difference. To the oxygen saturation in the pregnant group sequence 2 there was a significant difference when compared to the prone position with the fowler position (p= 0.021) and the prone position with the supine position (p= 0.003). In both sequences there were no significant differences in the fetal baseline between prone position with the left lateral. There were not observed any significant variations in the fetal variability in the sequences assessed. All the patients declared having felt comfortable during their stay in each one of the positions. Conclusion: In the prone positioning the maternal-fetal hemodynamic parameters were within the standards of normality and this position on the stretcher especially designed for pregnant women, considered as a safe and comfortable position

The Government of Malawi, through delegates from the Department of Disaster Management Affairs, has on several occasions advised smallholder farmers who live in flood prone areas to relocate to upland areas that are safe from floods. Smallholder farmers have refused to do so and continue to live in the flood prone areas despite experiencing on-going flooding. Smallholder farmers living in flood prone areas in Malawi insist that flash floods bring fertile soils from upland areas that enhance crop production in the flood prone areas. These fertile soils allow smallholder farmers to grow a variety of crops, fruits and vegetables throughout the year, some of which they sell. Within this context, my research critically explores how smallholder farmers perceive their vulnerability to floods and seeks to understand the factors and processes that motivate them to live in the flood prone areas. It also examines the realities and dynamics of local adaptation in the flood prone areas in Malawi through opportunities, challenges, barriers and limitations. The research uses 57 in-depth interviews, a household survey involving 227 households, participant observations and 12 focus group discussions with smallholder farmers. Findings show that firstly, smallholder farmers are not ready to abandon their land and relocate upland because floods are part of their lives and livelihood strategies. Secondly, that power dynamics at household and community levels based on gender roles and culture need to be understood and accounted for in local adaptation strategies in order to effectively enhance local adaptive capacity. Thirdly, that social networks and interdependence between the smallholder farmers living in flood prone areas and those living in upland areas play a significant role in the adoption of local adaptation strategies and adaptation to floods and droughts through temporary migration. This thesis reveals that the perception and extent of vulnerability to floods is dynamic and differentiated based on several factors. The thesis also reveals that local adaption is a complex process such that in some cases, the realities of power dynamics at both the household and community level affects local adaptive capacity to floods. Transformational adaptation that incorporates specific and contextual adaptation strategies is therefore recommended as one of the best approaches towards achieving successful adaptation to climate variability and resilience.

Introdução: Devido ao aumento do volume abdominal, a posição prona é difícil e desconfortável para a gestante. Por isso, até hoje não foi testado se, nessa posição, a grávida teria seus padrões hemodinâmicos materno-fetais alterados. Objetivos: Analisar a influência da posição prona nos parâmetros hemodinâmicos materno-fetais e no conforto da mulher grávida, em um protótipo de maca especialmente construído para gestantes. Método: Estudo prospectivo, observacional e transversal, com 30 gestantes, em seguimento pré-natal, e 16 não gestantes, como grupo de controle. Os dois grupos foram subdivididos para participar de dois tipos de sequências randomizadas de posições, investigando-se se a mudança na ordem das sequências traria, nas gestantes e seus fetos, alguma variação significativa de valores hemodinâmicos. As posições utilizadas neste estudo foram: prona, supina, semissentada e decúbito lateral esquerdo. Foram avaliados os seguintes parâmetros hemodinâmicos: frequência cardíaca, pressão arterial sistólica, pressão arterial diastólica, saturação de oxigênio e frequência respiratória maternos e linha de base e variabilidade fetais. Para a análise estatística, foi utilizada a análise não paramétrica para medidas repetidas; e, para verificar se a posição anterior à prona teria alguma influência no desempenho dessa última, foram criadas variáveis de variação, que foram comparadas pelo teste de Wilcoxon. Resultados: Comparandose os índices da posição prona aos obtidos nos demais posicionamentos, observou-se que todos os parâmetros mantiveram-se dentro dos valores de normalidade e não houve, nesses valores, interferência das posições anteriores à prona. O grupo de gestantes revelou médias significativamente maiores do que as do grupo de não gestantes em relação às frequências cardíaca (p < 0,004), na sequência 1; e p < 0,001, na 2) e respiratória (na sequência 1, p=0,041; e, na 2, p=0,012). Na análise do grupo de gestantes, observou-se que, em ambas as sequências, as pressões arteriais sistólica e diastólica apresentaram, na posição prona, valores menores que os apresentados nas demais posições. Nesse grupo, observou-se diferença significativa na pressão arterial sistólica, quando se comparou, na sequência 1, a posição prona à semissentada (p < 0,001), à supina (p < 0,01) e ao decúbito lateral esquerdo (p < 0,01); e, na sequência 2, quando se comparou a posição prona às semissentada (p < 0,001) e à supina (p=0,013). Ainda no grupo de grávidas, a pressão arterial diastólica apresentou diferença significativa nas duas sequências: na sequência 1, a posição prona foi comparada às posições semissentada (p < 0,006), supina (p=0,023) e decúbito lateral esquerdo (p=0,017); na sequência 2, foi comparada ao posicionamento semissentado (p < 0,005) e supino (p=0,008). Quanto à saturação do oxigênio, na sequência 2 do grupo de grávidas houve diferença significativa quando se compararam os valores obtidos na posição prona aos obtidos na semissentada (p=0,021) e na supina (p=0,003). Em ambas as sequências, não houve diferença significativa na linha de base fetal, quando se comparou a posição prona com o decúbito lateral esquerdo. Não foram observadas variações significativas na variabilidade fetal nas sequências avaliadas. Todas as pacientes declararam terem se sentido confortáveis durante a permanência em cada uma das posições. Conclusão: No posicionamento prono, os padrões hemodinâmicos materno-fetais mantiveram-se dentro dos valores da normalidade. Na maca especialmente desenvolvida para gestantes, essa posição foi considerada segura e confortável / Introduction: Due to the increase of the abdominal volume, the prone position is a difficult and uncomfortable position for pregnant women. Hence, so far, it has not been tested if, in this position, a pregnant woman would have her maternal fetal hemodynamic parameters altered. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to analyze the influence of prone position in maternal-fetal hemodynamic parameters and the comfort of the pregnant woman on a prototype stretcher specially built for pregnant women. Method: A prospective, observational, crossover study with 30 pregnant women in antenatal segment, and 16 non pregnant women as a control group. The two groups were subdivided to take part in two types of randomized sequences of positions, investigating if the change in the order of the sequences would bring a significant alteration in the maternal fetal hemodynamic values. The positions used in this study were: prone, supine position, fowler position and left lateral. The following hemodynamic parameters were assessed: maternal heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, oxygen saturation and respiratory rate and baseline and fetal variability. To the statistical analysis we used the non-parametric analysis for repeated measures and to verify if the position prior to the prone position would have any influence in it and variables of variation were created and compared to the Wilcoxon test. Results: Comparing the prone positions indexes to the other ones obtained, we observed that all the parameters were within the standards of normality and there was no interference in positions prior to the prone position in these values. The pregnant group showed means significantly higher than the ones of the non-pregnant women regarding the heart rate in sequence 1 (p < 0.004) and in sequence 2 (p < 0.001) and respiratory rate in sequence 1 (p= 0.041) and sequence 2 (p= 0.012). In the analysis of the pregnant group we observed that in prone position the systolic blood pressure and the diastolic blood pressure showed lower values than the other in both sequences. In the systolic blood pressure in the pregnant group sequence 1 the comparison of prone position with the fowler position (p < 0.001), with the supine position (p < 0.001) and with the left lateral (p < 0.001) in the pregnant group sequence 2 the comparison of the prone position with the fowler position (p < 0.001) and with the supine position (p= 0.013) it is observed a significant difference. In the diastolic blood pressure in comparison of the prone position in the pregnant group sequence 1 with the fowler position (p < 0.006), with supine position (p= 0.023) and with the left lateral (p= 0.017) and the pregnant group sequence 2 with the fowler position (p < 0.005) and with the supine position (p= 0.008) it is observed a significant difference. To the oxygen saturation in the pregnant group sequence 2 there was a significant difference when compared to the prone position with the fowler position (p= 0.021) and the prone position with the supine position (p= 0.003). In both sequences there were no significant differences in the fetal baseline between prone position with the left lateral. There were not observed any significant variations in the fetal variability in the sequences assessed. All the patients declared having felt comfortable during their stay in each one of the positions. Conclusion: In the prone positioning the maternal-fetal hemodynamic parameters were within the standards of normality and this position on the stretcher especially designed for pregnant women, considered as a safe and comfortable position

<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt / font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-fareast-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-ansi-language:EN-GB / mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA">Literature shows that cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally and nationally. Retinal detachment has also been a substantial problem both globally and nationally. Both of these conditions are prevalent in patients of 50 years and older. The treatment for both conditions is for surgery to be performed. In the Western Cape the three leading hospitals do not have ophthalmic pre-operative and post-operative protocols<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">.</span>Review question:What are the best practices to manage pre-operative and post-operative nursing care in patients waiting for cataract and retinal detachment surgery? bjectives:1. To determine the best practice in pre-operative and post-operative care in patients who have undergone cataract and/or retinal detachment surgery regarding: health education offered by nurses, counselling to prevent psychological effects, and positioning to prevent physical complications. 2. To develop a framework based on systematic reviews for pre-operative and post-operative ophthalmic nursing care in South Africa. Methodology: </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt / font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">A systematic review using the guide by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination was done, and <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">studies were </span>identified by searching various electronic databases and visually scanning reference lists from the relevant studies. Studies that were included were evidence-based. All study types were considered and the studies were selected based on the title and, where available, the abstract. These were then assessed against the inclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis was used. Finally the evidence was summarised and a framework was drawn up, focusing on pre-operative and post-operative nursing care for cataract and retinal detachment surgery</span></p> <p>&nbsp / </p>

In this study, the novel idea of in-vivo directed evolution was applied in order to achieve variants of the enzyme galactose oxidase with increased activity. This procedure was done under starvation conditions in Escherichia coli BL21 Star (DE3). Previous studies have been carried out in order to improve the activity of this enzyme using directed evolution methods. In this study, the same idea was used in-vivo, during stationary phase adaptive mutations inside the host organism, hence called in-vivo directed evolution. This method gave variants with improved enzyme activity as compared with the wild-type enzyme, and some variants showed activities that were even higher than the variants of previous directed evolution studies, hence making this method a promising approach for the random mutagenesis of genes of interest. The above mentioned mutations are carried out by a special group of polymerases, the error-prone polymerases. Phylogenetic analysis of these error-prone polymerases was also carried out in order to investigate the relationship between the number of error-prone polymerases and the level of complexity of organisms, and both the number of error-prone polymerases and the ratio of error-prone polymerases to total DNA polymerases of six organisms were studied. It was found that as the organism gets more complex, the number of error-prone polymerases and their ratio to the total polymerases increase.

<p><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt / font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-fareast-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-ansi-language:EN-GB / mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA">Literature shows that cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally and nationally. Retinal detachment has also been a substantial problem both globally and nationally. Both of these conditions are prevalent in patients of 50 years and older. The treatment for both conditions is for surgery to be performed. In the Western Cape the three leading hospitals do not have ophthalmic pre-operative and post-operative protocols<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">.</span>Review question:What are the best practices to manage pre-operative and post-operative nursing care in patients waiting for cataract and retinal detachment surgery? bjectives:1. To determine the best practice in pre-operative and post-operative care in patients who have undergone cataract and/or retinal detachment surgery regarding: health education offered by nurses, counselling to prevent psychological effects, and positioning to prevent physical complications. 2. To develop a framework based on systematic reviews for pre-operative and post-operative ophthalmic nursing care in South Africa. Methodology: </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt / font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">A systematic review using the guide by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination was done, and <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">studies were </span>identified by searching various electronic databases and visually scanning reference lists from the relevant studies. Studies that were included were evidence-based. All study types were considered and the studies were selected based on the title and, where available, the abstract. These were then assessed against the inclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis was used. Finally the evidence was summarised and a framework was drawn up, focusing on pre-operative and post-operative nursing care for cataract and retinal detachment surgery</span></p> <p>&nbsp / </p>

Stuttgart, Univ., Diss., 2008.

Stuttgart, Univ., Diss., 2005.