The purpose of this thesis is to examine the problem of gazumping, to consider the various factors which give rise to it, to examine the adequacy of existing legal doctrine in redressing it, to explore statutory provisions designed to reduce gazumping and to propose reform of the law to address the problem. The term gazumping refers to a practice by which a vendor accepts a purchaser's offer to purchase land or property, and before exchanging contracts, withdraws from the existing agreement in order to accept a higher price from another purchaser. This thesis proceeds on the assumption that gazumping is an undesirable practice, particularly from the prospective purchaser' perspective. The practice of gazumping initially boomed in a volatile property market with constantly rising house prices and where demand exceeded supply. A purchaser who believes he or she has secured the purchase of his or her desired property may suffer emotional stress and significant costs which cannot be recovered when the vendor reneges on his or her agreement. The thesis notes that gazumping occurs at the pre-contractual stage in the sale of property because there is no legally binding relationship before the formal exchange of contracts. The thesis posits that the existing law in various Australian jurisdictions offers inadequate protection to prospective purchasers of property. The thesis examines the inadequacy of existing legal doctrines and remedies in addressing the problem of gazumping at the pre-contractual stage and arrives at the conclusion that existing legal doctrine is inadequate. The thesis notes legislative and other measures in response to gazumping in Australia and other common law jurisdictions and concludes that these too were inadequate in not going far enough to eliminate or reduce gazumping. The competing merits of these approaches are considered. The thesis establishes that the solution to gazumping lies in an early protection of the purchaser�s interest in land. This is because as soon as an agreement is enforceable the purchaser acquires an equitable interest and in the event of any breach of the agreement by the vendor, the purchaser, as a general rule, can obtain either damages or specific performance. The thesis raises seven key recommendations for law reform aimed to minimise the occurrence of gazumping and to provide the purchaser with tools against the practice of gazumping. It considers that the recommendations can minimise the undesirable practice of gazumping where the current law is inadequate and also achieve several other objectives.

During the last decade, my main research topic was on medical image analysis, and more particularly on image registration. However, I was also following in background a more theoretical research track on statistical computing on manifolds. With the recent emergence of computational anatomy, this topic gained a lot of importance in the medical image analysis community. During the writing of this habilitation manuscript, I felt that it was time to present a more simple and uni ed view of how it works and why it can be important. This is why the usual short synthesis of the habilitation became a hundred pages long text where I tried to synthesizes the main notions of statistical computing on manifolds with application in registration and computational anatomy. Of course, this synthesis is centered on and illustrated by my personal research work.

<p>Syftet i denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka bakomliggande faktorer som påverkar eller kommer att påverka diffusionen av Bolagsverkets e-tjänst för elektroniska årsredovisningar i XBRL- format. Det uppnås genom att undersöka varför vissa privata aktiebolag väljer att använda Bolagsverkets e-tjänst för elektroniska årsredovisningar medan vissa andra än så länge valt att avstå. Genom att undersöka vilka konkreta för- och nackdelar som aktiebolag kan erhålla, genom att till Bolagsverket skicka in elektroniska årsredovisningar i XBRL- format, kan en mer djupgående bild av denna innovations nuvarande och framtida spridning presenteras.  </p> / <p>The purpose of this paper is to examine the underlying factors that affect or will affect the diffusion of the Companies Registration Office e-service for electronic annual reports in XBRL-format. This is achieved by examining why some Private limited liability companies choose to use the Swedish Companies Registration Office e-service for electronic annual reports, while others have so far chosen to abstain. By examining the practical advantages and disadvantages that can actually occur in the sending of electronic annual reports in XBRL- format, a more thorough picture of the spreading can be presented.</p>

Ce document constitue une synth`ese de travaux de recherche en vue de l'obten- tion du diplˆome d'habilitation `a diriger les recherches. A la suite ce cette in- troduction r ́edig ́ee en franc ̧ais, le reste de ce document sera en anglais. Je suis actuellement charg ́e de recherches INRIA au centre de Rennes Bretagne Atlantique. J'ai rejoint en Septembre 2001 l' ́equipe Vista dirig ́ee par Patrick Bouthemy, puis l' ́equipe Visages dirig ́ee par Christian Barillot en Janvier 2004. Depuis Janvier 2010, je travaille dans l' ́equipe-projet Serpico dirig ́ee par Charles Kervrann dont l'objet est l'imagerie et la mod ́elisation de la dynamique intra- cellulaire. Parmi mes activit ́es pass ́ees, ce document va se concentrer uniquement sur les activit ́es portant sur la neurochirurgie guid ́ee par l'image. En parti- culier, les travaux effectu ́es sur le recalage non-rigide ne seront pas pr ́esent ́es ici. Concernant le recalage, ces travaux ont commenc ́e pendant ma th`ese avec le d ́eveloppement d'une m ́ethode de recalage 3D bas ́e sur le flot optique [72], l'incorporation de contraintes locales dans ce processus de recalage [74] et la validation de m ́ethodes de recalage inter-sujets [71]. J'ai poursuivi ces travaux apr`es mon recrutement avec Anne Cuzol et Etienne M ́emin sur la mod ́elisation fluide du recalage [44], avec Nicolas Courty sur l'acc ́el ́eration temps-r ́eel de m ́ethode de recalage [42], et sur l' ́evaluation des m ́ethodes de recalage dans deux contextes : celui de l'implantation d' ́electrodes profondes [29] et le re- calage inter-sujets [92]. L'utilisation de syst`emes dits de neuronavigation est maintenant courante dans les services de neurochirurgie. Les b ́en ́efices, attendus ou report ́es dans la litt ́erature, sont une r ́eduction de la mortalit ́e et de la morbidit ́e, une am ́elio- ration de la pr ́ecision, une r ́eduction de la dur ́ee d'intervention, des couˆts d'hospitalisation. Tous ces b ́en ́efices ne sont pas `a l'heure actuelle d ́emontr ́es `a ma connaissance, mais cette question d ́epasse largement le cadre de ce doc- ument. Ces syst`emes de neuronavigation permettent l'utilisation du planning chirurgical pendant l'intervention, dans la mesure ou` le patient est mis en cor- respondance g ́eom ́etrique avec les images pr ́eop ́eratoires `a partir desquelles est pr ́epar ́ee l'intervention. Ces informations multimodales sont maintenant couramment utilis ́ees, com- prenant des informations anatomiques, vasculaires, fonctionnelles. La fusion de ces informations permet de pr ́eparer le geste chirurgical : ou` est la cible, quelle est la voie d'abord, quelles zones ́eviter. Ces informations peuvent main- tenant ˆetre utilis ́ees en salle d'op ́eration et visualis ́ees dans les oculaires du mi- croscope chirurgical grˆace au syst`eme de neuronavigation. Malheureusement, cela suppose qu'il existe une transformation rigide entre le patient et les im- ages pr ́eop ́eratoires. Alors que cela peut ˆetre consid ́er ́e comme exact avant l'intervention, cette hypoth`ese tombe rapidement sous l'effet de la d ́eformation des tissus mous. Ces d ́eformations, qui doivent ˆetre consid ́er ́ees comme un ph ́enom`ene spatio-temporel, interviennent sous l'effet de plusieurs facteurs, dont la gravit ́e, la perte de liquide c ́ephalo-rachidien, l'administration de pro- duits anesth ́esiants ou diur ́etiques, etc. Ces d ́eformations sont tr`es difficiles `a mod ́eliser et pr ́edire. De plus, il s'agit d'un ph ́enom`ene spatio-temporel, dont l'amplitude peut varier consid ́era- blement en fonction de plusieurs facteurs. Pour corriger ces d ́eformations, l'imagerie intra-op ́eratoire apparait comme la seule piste possible.

A key issue in understanding how the brain functions is the ability to correlate functional information with anatomical localisation. Functional information can be provided by a variety of techniques like positron emission tomography (PET), functional MRI (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG) or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). All these methods provide different, but complementary, information about the functional areas of the brain. PET and fMRI provide spatially accurate picture of brain regions involved in a given task. TMS permits to infer the contribution of the stimulated brain area to the task under investigation. EEG and MEG, which reflects brain activity directly, have temporal accuracy of the order of a millisecond. TMS, EEG and MEG are offset by their low spatial resolution. In this thesis, we propose two methods to improve the spatial accuracy of method based on TMS and EEG. The first part of this thesis presents an automatic method to improve the localisation of TMS points. The method enables real-time visualisation and registration of TMS evoked responses and MRI. A MF digitiser is used to sample approximately 200 points on the subject's head following a specific digitisation pattern. Registration is obtained by minimising the RMS point to surface distance, computed efficiently using the Euclidean distance transform. Functional maps are created from TMS evoked responses projected onto the brain surface previously segmented from MRI. The second part presents the possibilities to set up a brain-computer interface (BCI) based on reconstructed sources of EEG activity and the parameters to adjust. Reconstructed sources could improve the EEG spatial accuracy as well as add biophysical information on the origin of the signal. Both informations could improve the BCI classification step. Eight BCIs are built to enable comparison between electrode-based and reconstructed source-based BCIs. Tests on detection of laterality of upcoming hand movement demonstrate the interest of reconstructed sources.

BEYOND THE NUMBERS: CONFIDENTIAL ENQUIRIES INTO MATERNAL DEATHS IN ACCRA-GHANA Researcher: Afisah Yakubu Zakariah Universite Libre de Bruxelles- School of Public Health Reproductive Health and Epidemiology of Perinatal Health Unit Brussels-Belgium Afiyakzak@yahoo.com Promoter: Professor Sophie Alexander-Karlin Universite Libre de Bruxelles- School of Public Health Reproductive Health and Epidemiology of Perinatal Health Unit Brussels-Belgium salexand@ulb.ac.be Co-Promoter: Professor Jos van Roosmalen Leiden University Medical Centre Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Leiden-The Netherlands J.J.M.van_Roosmalen@lumc.nl "A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health Sciences Universite Libre de Bruxelles-School of Public Health Reproductive Health and Epidemiology of Perinatal Health Unit. November, 2008. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background Maternal mortality remains a severe problem in many parts of the world, despite efforts to reach MDG 5. Assessing progress towards this goal is difficult because maternal mortality is difficult to measure and the information available at country level does not generally permit the establishment of good baseline data. Countries with high maternal mortality ratios neither have adequate vital registration systems nor adequate resources to carry out surveys. Only few low-income countries have been able to establish a comprehensive reporting system and even where such vital registration systems are in place, maternal deaths are often underreported or misclassified as non-maternal even in large well developed cities. Ghana belongs to the group of low-income countries with high maternal mortality ratios (point estimate 560, lower bound 200 and upper bound 1300) per 100,000 live births and inadequate data on maternal deaths. Previous studies have demonstrated that most of these deaths could be prevented with existing effective practices. In this dissertation, we looked at the registration system of births and deaths in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. We assessed completeness of registration of maternal deaths and data quality. We also looked at the degree of underreporting of maternal deaths, assessed causes of maternal deaths and substandard care of these cases through a confidential enquiry. This enabled us to identify problems associated with measuring of maternal mortality in Ghana and the standard of care of the cases. Through our findings we were able to make recommendations to achieve MDG 5 in the country by 2015 if implemented. Other maternal and child health (MCH) interventions were also looked as working to improve MCH is a continuum, and no aspect should be neglected. The first relates to seeking evidence based practice in presence of potentially complicated obstetrical conditions like premature rupture of membranes and the second pertains to preventive activities in MCH and concentrates on the results of tetanus immunisation of women in their reproductive age in the Northern Region of Ghana. Objectives 1. To assess the precision (quality) of civil registration of maternal deaths in Ghana 2. To identify the magnitude of maternal deaths using multiple sources and assess the degree of underreporting of these deaths 3. To identify the root causes and related factors of the identified maternal deaths as well as classify the deaths 4. To assess the level of substandard care in maternal deaths in order to identify weakness in the Ghanaian maternity care system and propose locally relevant and affordable solutions to improve maternity care in Ghana 5. To discuss the results of the research with the Decision makers and health care providers leading to an adoption of the method at national level and a reduction of maternal mortality in Ghana as a whole 6. To assess risk factors and management of premature rupture of membranes and make recommendations that will address avoidable complications 7. To assess challenges of other maternal and child health interventions like Tetanus Toxoid immunization in women of reproductive age group and formulate recommendations to increase the coverage in this group. Organization of dissertation This dissertation contains eight chapters. Chapter one is on general introduction, which gives an overview of the problems associated with the reduction of maternal mortality by literature review. Chapter two highlights the profile of Ghana and the Health system Chapter three is on maternal mortality in the Greater Accra region of Ghana for the year 2000. In this chapter, we assessed completeness of registration and data quality as well as the sensitivity and specificity of the civil registration system to capture maternal deaths in Ghana. Chapter four discusses Reproductive Age Mortality Survey (RAMOS) conducted in Accra city (Metropolis) for the year 2002. It showed how effective the method is in identifying maternal deaths using multiple sources approach. In this study, we aimed at identifying the magnitude of maternal deaths in the city and the degree of underreporting during the study period. Chapter five elaborates the main content of this thesis, which is on confidential enquiries into maternal deaths for the year 2002. This chapter deals solely with the seventy three cases of maternal deaths that were identified during the study period (1st January 2002-31st December 2002) with adequate information surrounding the deaths. We identified the root causes and related factors of the identified maternal deaths as well as their classification. We also assessed the level of substandard care in maternal deaths, identified weaknesses in the Ghanaian maternity care system and proposed locally relevant and affordable solutions to improve maternity care in Ghana. Chapter six is on controversy of management of premature rupture of membranes at term. We reviewed systematically the existing evidence on expectant management of PROM and prompt delivery after a premature rupture of membranes at term and gave an answer to this controversy. Chapter seven assessed challenges of other maternal and child health interventions like Tetanus Toxoid immunization in women of reproductive age group and formulated recommendations to increase the coverage in this group. Chapter eight gives the general discussion, conclusion and recommendations. Main results and conclusion The study on the assessment of completeness of registration and data quality of maternal deaths in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana found the process of registration of maternal deaths in the Region to be incomplete even though there is a system of registration of deaths in Ghana. We identified the major causes of under registration of maternal deaths during the study as omission of pregnancy status in the registers. Pregnancy status is not systematically noted in the registers and the death certificate forms. Other contributing factors to the under registration of maternal deaths were erroneous classification of maternal deaths as non-maternal and imprecision in the death certification and registration. The study on Reproductive Age Mortality Survey (RAMOS) in Accra city (Metropolis) for the year 2002 has almost doubled the officially reported figures, which showed that the method is effective in identifying maternal deaths using multiple sources approach. The findings of the confidential enquiries into maternal deaths for the year 2002 showed that the proportion of maternal deaths associated with substandard care factors at various levels is high in the Metropolis even though the city has the best medical services in the country. The study on the controversy of management of premature rupture of membranes at term shows that prompt delivery after the membranes are ruptured averts many complications both for the mother and the baby. It is presented as an illustration of how evidence based guidelines can be instrumental in challenging the maternal mortality problem In the study on challenges of maternal and child health interventions like Tetanus Toxoid immunization in women of reproductive age, we found out that the tetanus toxoid vaccine was perceived as an anti fertility drug by those who refused to be vaccinated. Among other reasons for refusal was complete authority over wives by their husbands and therefore not allowing them to be vaccinated. It also is an illustration of the role of good organisation of care in meeting MDGs 4 and 5. We finally conclude that, even in environments with limited resources, most maternal deaths can be prevented if appropriate measures are put in place to prevent their occurrence. Key words: Maternal mortality, registration, underreporting, RAMOS, confidential enquiries, sub-standard care, PROM.

While robots are extensively used in factories, our industry hasn't yet been able to prepare them for working in human environments - for instance in houses or in human-operated factories. The main obstacle to these applications lies in the amplitude of the uncertainty inherent to the environments humans are used to work in, and in the difficulty in programming robots to cope with it. For instance, in robot-oriented environments, robots can expect to find specific tools and objects in specific places. In a human environment, obstacles may force one to find a new way of holding a tool, and new objects appear continuously and need to be dealt with. As it proves difficult to build into robots the knowledge necessary for coping with uncertain environments, the robotics community is turning to the development of agents that acquire this knowledge progressively and that adapt to unexpected events. This thesis studies the problem of vision-based robotic grasping in uncertain environments. We aim to create an autonomous agent that develops grasping skills from experience, by interacting with objects and with other agents. To this end, we present a 3D object model for autonomous, visuomotor interaction. The model represents grasping strategies along with visual features that predict their applicability. It provides a robot with the ability to compute grasp parameters from visual observations. The agent acquires models interactively by manipulating objects, possibly imitating a teacher. With time, it becomes increasingly efficient at inferring grasps from visual evidence. This behavior relies on (1) a grasp model representing relative object-gripper configurations and their feasibility, and (2) a model of visual object structure, which aligns the grasp model to arbitrary object poses (3D positions and orientations). The visual model represents object edges or object faces in 3D by probabilistically encoding the spatial distribution of small segments of object edges or the distribution of small patches of object surface. A model is learned from a few segmented 3D scans or stereo images of an object. Monte Carlo simulation provides robust estimates of the object's 3D position and orientation in cluttered scenes. The grasp model represents the likelihood of success of relative object-gripper configurations. Initial models are acquired from visual cues or by observing a teacher. Models are then refined autonomously by ``playing' with objects and observing the effects of exploratory grasps. After the robot has learned a few object models, learning becomes a combination of cross-object generalization and interactive experience: grasping strategies are generalized across objects that share similar visual substructures; they are then adapted to new objects through autonomous exploration. The applicability of our model is supported by numerous examples of pose estimates in cluttered scenes, and by a robot platform that shows increasing grasping capabilities as it explores its environment.

Syftet i denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka bakomliggande faktorer som påverkar eller kommer att påverka diffusionen av Bolagsverkets e-tjänst för elektroniska årsredovisningar i XBRL- format. Det uppnås genom att undersöka varför vissa privata aktiebolag väljer att använda Bolagsverkets e-tjänst för elektroniska årsredovisningar medan vissa andra än så länge valt att avstå. Genom att undersöka vilka konkreta för- och nackdelar som aktiebolag kan erhålla, genom att till Bolagsverket skicka in elektroniska årsredovisningar i XBRL- format, kan en mer djupgående bild av denna innovations nuvarande och framtida spridning presenteras. / The purpose of this paper is to examine the underlying factors that affect or will affect the diffusion of the Companies Registration Office e-service for electronic annual reports in XBRL-format. This is achieved by examining why some Private limited liability companies choose to use the Swedish Companies Registration Office e-service for electronic annual reports, while others have so far chosen to abstain. By examining the practical advantages and disadvantages that can actually occur in the sending of electronic annual reports in XBRL- format, a more thorough picture of the spreading can be presented.

The use of complementary non-invasive imaging modalities has been proposed to track disease progression, particularly cancer, while simultaneously evaluating therapeutic efficacy. A major obstacle is a limited ability to compare parameters obtained from different modalities, especially those from exogenous contrast agents or tracers. We hypothesize that combining Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Ultrasound (US) will improve characterization of the tumour microenvironment. In this study, we describe a co-registration apparatus that facilitates the acquisition of a priori co-registered MR and US images in vivo. This apparatus was validated using phantom data and it was found that the US slices can be selected to an accuracy of +/- 100µm translationally and +/- 2 degrees rotationally. Additionally, it was shown that MRI and US may provide complimentary information about the tumour microenvironment, but more work needs to be done to assess repeatability of dynamic contrast enhanced MRI and US.

Image registration is the process of aligning two images such that their mutual features overlap. This is of great importance in several medical applications. In 2008 a novel method for simultaneous T1, T2 and proton density quantification was suggested. The method is in the field of quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging or qMRI. In qMRI parameters are quantified by a pixel-to-pixel fit of the image intensity as a function of different MR scanner settings. The quantification depends on several volumes of different intensities to be aligned. If a patient moves during the data aquisition the datasets will not be aligned and the results are degraded due to this. Since the quantification takes several minutes there is a considerable risk of patient movements. In this master thesis three image registration methods are presented and a comparison in robustness and speed was made. The phase based algorithm was suited for this problem and limited to finding rigid motion. The other two registration algorithms, originating from the Statistical Parametrical Mapping, SPM, package, were used as references. The result shows that the pixel-to-pixel fit is greatly improved in the datasets with found motion. In the comparison between the different methods the phase based algorithm turned out to be both the fastest and the most robust method.