The construction industry is on the top list of hazardous industries. This justifies the importance of safety research in this industry. Review of the literature identified "falls" as the top mortality source in the construction industry. Therefore, this research focuses on falls from heights. Conventional safety practices have held designers responsible for safety of the end-users, and considered constructors responsible for the safety of construction workers. Design for Safety — along with its similar ideas such as Safety in Design, Prevention through Design, etc. — is gaining attention with the emerging paradigm of Integrated Project Delivery which promotes collaboration between designers and constructors through the entire delivery process. With Design for Safety concepts, designers and constructors can work together to enhance construction workers' safety early in the design phase. The philosophy of Design for Safety is based on the idea that eliminating hazards early in the design phase rather than the construction phase is more effective. Szymberski's (1997) time-safety influence curve explains how construction workers' safety can be influenced in the different phases of construction. Szymberski depicts that the ability to influence safety diminishes as the phases from design to construction to operation progress. This research is inspired by the Design for Safety (DfS) concept. It aims at "design"ing and "engineer"ing safety during design as well as construction phases. BIM (Building Information Modeling) and parametric modeling are the tools that this research considers when designing its road for future developments. This research limits its scope to construction workers falls from heights. The research presents a framework for representing falls hazards for future implementation in a BIM modelin order to help the designers and constructors better study and analyze safety of construction workers. The research studied falls accidents recorded from past projectsand proposed rules and properties for hazard identification in a BIM / parametric model. These rules and properties were abstracted and presented in the form of flowcharts and validated by an expert panel. The flowchartswill guide software developers for incorporating hazard identification functions into parametric BIM environments in future research. / Ph. D.

Protein transduction domains (PTDs), such as TAT from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or VP22 from herpes-simplex-virus-1, have been shown to deliver a myriad of molecules, including synthetic small molecules, peptides and proteins in vivo and in vitro. The protein transduction processes mediated by TAT or VP22 are highly efficient and occur in many types of cells with low toxicity. The anti-tumor proteins to be investigated are abrin A chain (ABR-A) and Apoptin. ABR-A is the toxophoric subunit of plant toxin abrin from the seeds of Abrus precatoriusa. ABR-A is a potent inhibitor of translation, but not toxic to cells due to its lack of the cell-binding B chain. Apoptin is a protein derived from chicken anemia virus and has been proved to be selectively cytotoxic to various tumor cells but not to normal cells. The tumor-specific activity of Apoptin is correlated with its nuclear localization in tumor. In this study, we employed VP22 PTDs to promote the entry of natural toxins, such as ABR-A or Apoptin, into tumor cells, thereby to enhance their anti-tumor effects. We generated and characterized green fluorescent protein (GFP)-, hemagglutini (HA)-, and VP22-fused expression constructs for ABR-A and Apoptin, to evaluate the gene delivery effect of ABR-A/Apoptin genes in non-transformed NIH3T3 cells and tumor cells, including Hela and A375 melanoma cells. Gene delivery of ABR-A led to growth inhibition by 50~70% in transformed and non-transformed cells. In contrast, Apoptin gene delivery exhibited cytotoxicity only in tumor cells. The cytotoxicity of ABR-A and Apoptin gene delivery was enhanced when fused with VP-22. Furthermore, the depletion of APAP1 reduced the cytotoxic effect of Apoptin gene delivery. In the future, the anti-tumor effect of these novel PTD-toxin vectors will be explored in cell culture as well as animal model. We hope these studies will open a new avenue for cancer therapy.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Zululand, 1989. / This dissertation sets out to investigate the relevance and the effectiveness of the Primary Teachers' Diploma (PTD) Music Syllabi. The Main focus is the KwaZulu and Natal Colleges of Education that offer PTD. Chapter 1 outlines the background to the research study, and discusses the role played by Music in both rural and urban Black communities. This chapter also summarises the musical needs of black communities. Chapter 2 reviews the literature that deals with the teaching of Music in schools. This literature is then compared and contrasted with the prescribed Music syllabi of the South African Black schools and colleges. Chapter 3 describes and discusses the interviews, questionnaires and observation (Triangulation) that are used to investigate the relevance and effectiveness of the PTD Music Syllabi. Chapter 4 presented the findings that are concluded in chapter 5. The prescribed PTD Music syllabi are found to be generally relevant but ineffective. The ineffectiveness is attributed to factors such as poor musical background of music students, inadequately trained music teachers, amount of allocated time, and a shortage of music equipment. The researcher recommends that Music teachers should be in-serviced and be helped to improve their music knowledge and qualifications. A balance is to be brought about between the allocated amount of work and time. Secondary schools are to try and offer Music as a subject.

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Adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) is widely used as an oncolytic agent for cancer therapy. However, its infectivity is highly dependent on the expression level of coxsackievirus-adenovirus receptor (CAR) on the surface of tumor cells. We engineered Ad5 virus with the protein transduction domain (PTD) from the HIV-1 Tat protein (Tat-PTD) inserted in the hypervariable region 5 (HVR5) of the hexon protein in the virus capsid. Tat-PTD-modified Ad5 shows a dramatically increased transduction level of CAR-negative cells and bypassed fiber-mediated transduction. It also overcomes the fiber-masking problem, which is caused by release of excess fiber proteins from infected cells. To achieve specific viral replication in neuroblastoma and neuroendocrine tumor cells, we identified the secretogranin III (SCG3) promoter and constructed an adenovirus Ad5PTD(ASH1-SCG3-E1A) wherein E1A gene expression is controlled by the SCG3 promoter and the achaete-scute complex homolog 1 (ASH1) enhancer. This virus shows selective and efficient killing of neuroblastoma cell lines in vitro, and delays human neuroblastoma xenograft tumor growth on nude mice. To further enhance the viral oncolytic efficacy, we also switched the fiber 5 to fiber 35 to generate Ad5PTDf35. This vector shows dramatically increased transduction capacity of primary human cell cultures including hematopoietic cells and their derivatives, pancreatic islets and exocrine cells, mesenchymal stem cells and primary tumor cells including primary cancer initiating cells. Ad5PTDf35-based adenovirus could be a useful platform for gene delivery and oncolytic virus development. Viral oncolysis alone cannot completely eradicate tumors. Therefore, we further armed the Ad5PTDf35-D24 virus with a secreted form of Helicobacter pylori Neutrophil Activating Protein (HP-NAP). Expression of HP-NAP recruits neutrophils to the site of infection, activates an innate immune response against tumor cells and provokes a Th1-type adaptive immune response. Established tumor on nude mice could be completely eradicated in some cases after treatment with this virus and the survival of mice was significantly prolonged.

Cette thèse a pour sujet la modélisation et le contrôle des processus intervenant lors de l'amplification d'impulsions laser à dérive de fréquence.<br />Nous présentons les modèles utilisés, qui prennent en compte la propagation, les effets non linéaires et les effets thermiques se produisant dans les chaînes laser basées sur le principe de l'amplification à dérive de fréquence. Une validation expérimentale de ces modèles a permis de souligner l'importance des aspects spatiaux du laser pour modéliser finement le processus d'amplification.<br />Nous avons également étudié l'importance, durant la propagation, des aspects spatiaux avec des calculs de propagation après un miroir déformable et montré toutes les précautions nécessaires pour l'utilisation d'une boucle d'optique adaptative. Cette boucle d'optique adaptative est utilisée maintenant de manière journalière pour garantir la qualité de la tache focale du laser 100 TW du LOA.<br />Nous avons réalisé des études sur les effets spatio-temporels créés dans les systèmes de lentilles. Le retard local et l'élargissement de la durée globale, dus au temps de propagation (PTD) dans un système de lentilles, ont été mesurés. Cette mesure directe de l'élargissement global de la durée temporelle est la première à notre connaissance.<br />Enfin, le futur laser Pétawatt (LUIRE) du LOA a été dimensionné avec les modèles validés précédemment. Nous pouvons atteindre le régime Pétawatt (30 J, 30 fs) avec un amplificateur multipassage supplémentaire dont les caractéristiques sont présentées.

Human α-N-Acetylglucosaminidase (Naglu) is a lysosomal acid hydrolase implicated in tthe rare metabolic storage disorder known as mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB (MPS IIIB; also Sanfilippo syndrome B). Absence of this enzyme results in cytotoxic accumulation of heparan sulphate in the central nervous system, causing mental retardation and a shortened lifespan. Enzyme replacement therapy is not currently effective to treat neurological symptoms due to the inability of exogenous Naglu to access the brain. This laboratory uses a Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) insect cell system to express Naglu fused to a synthetic protein transduction domain with the intent to facilitate delivery of Naglu across the blood-brain barrier. The project described herein may be broken down into three main sections. Firstly, the impact of two cryptic splice sites on Naglu expression levels was analyzed in both transiently expressing Sf9 cultures and stably selected cell lines. Secondly, the effectiveness of the native Naglu secretion-signaling peptide in the Sf9 system was examined. Finally, purification of a Naglu fusion protein from suspension culture medium was performed using hydrophobic interaction chromatographic techniques. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop an efficient system for economical, large-scale production of a human recombinant Naglu fusion protein that has the potential to be successfully used for enzyme replacement therapy to treat MPS IIIB. / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to contextually describe and explore the experiences and challenges of the juvenile offenders and pre-trial diversion officers (PTD) involved in the pre-trial diversion programme (PTD) in the Chitungwiza community. In this study, the qualitative research methodology was applied. Research designs used were explorative, descriptive and contextual of nature. Furthermore, the multi-case studies design within the qualitative approach applied. The non-probability purposive and snow-balling sampling methods were used to select the sample from juvenile offenders and PTD officers who have been involved in the PTD programme. Qualitative data was collected using semi-structured interviews with an open-ended interview guide. The eight steps of Tesch (Creswell, 2009:186) were employed to analyse the data. To demostrate the trustworthiness of the research findings, the researcher used Guba`s model (Krefting, 1991:214-222). The findings of the study established that most children commit criminal offences due to socio-economic reasons and that the pre-trial diversion programme is largely effective in the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. Recommendations were made for the PTD programme to activate socio-economic interventions and improve resources allocation in order to enhance service delivery. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Work)