Master of Public Health - MPH / Background: The identification of undiagnosed HIV positive individuals through HIV testing services is one of the key measures in ensuring that the UNAIDS/ WHO 90 90 90 targets are achieved by the year 2020. The identification and subsequent initiation of HIV positive individuals on ART helps to minimise or prevent HIV transmission following viral suppression. Around 25% of people living with HIV globally are unaware of their positive status. In many countries, critical gaps exist in HIV services including prevention, testing and treatment. In Africa, the East and Southern region has a high burden of HIV/ AIDS where 50% of people are living with HIV, with 800,000 new infections in 2017. Despite concerted efforts in rolling out HIV testing services in Zimbabwe, a significant number of the population, especially men and young people, remain with an unknown HIV status, which is hindering progress towards the control and prevention of the HIV pandemic. A recent study confirmed that HIV testing in men is lower as compared to women. Consequently, progress is slower in trying to achieve the year 2020 milestone. The identification of suitable options for reaching out to these groups and the general population is important to achieve a reduction HIV prevalence. HIV self-testing oral fluid sample is thought to have the capacity to increase uptake of HIV testing. However, it still requires evidence on its acceptability and feasibility for those with undiagnosed HIV. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of the accessibility and feasibility HIV self-testing kits for individuals who received and used this method in Neta ward in Mberengwa District, Zimbabwe. The study identified some key factors that led to individuals accepting the kits and using them. The findings of this study will hopefully be able to inform policy makers’ decision-making about the importance of rolling out HST in the country.

Barley is an economically important cereal crop throughout most of the world. The study and elucidation of the genetic complex of this plant will add to its extensive usefulness to man, and will also provide valuable information for similar research projects on other crop plants.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-01-18T13:55:45Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Alexandre Lopes Pimentel - 2001.pdf: 2600476 bytes, checksum: 34c037bb591d8dbf3b4ea3bf4da41be6 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-01-18T13:56:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Alexandre Lopes Pimentel - 2001.pdf: 2600476 bytes, checksum: 34c037bb591d8dbf3b4ea3bf4da41be6 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-18T13:56:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Alexandre Lopes Pimentel - 2001.pdf: 2600476 bytes, checksum: 34c037bb591d8dbf3b4ea3bf4da41be6 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2001-08-30 / The main objective of this work is to compare different testes to evaluate for combining ability a group of unselected lines. Twenty eight lines from the CMS 04C population and six testers were used. The testers were the BR105 population, three imbreed lines from the BR105, one single cross proceeding from crossing of two of the used lines as testers and the EMGOPA 501 population. Because of the limited amounts of seeds, the topcrosses of the 20 from the 28 lines were evaluated in two places. The incomplete block design with two common treatments and three replicates were used for the topcrosses evaluation. The trials were installed in 2000/01 season, in the experimental stations of the Planagri company, in Goianésia-Goiás, and at the Escola de Agronomia of Universidade Federal de Goiás, in Goiânia-Goiás.The diallel analysis followed the model of Griffing (1956), adapted by Geraldi & Miranda Filho (1988). The correlations of Spearman, percentage of coincidence based in selection intensity and the variances between topcrosses were used, to compare the testers. It wasn’t observed consistency of the lines rank among the testers and not even for each tester between the two places. The results were different for each place. In Goianésia, the BR105 population, that got greater estimative of General Combining Ability, was the most convenient tester to discriminate the lines. However, in Goiânia, the EMGOPA 501 population, that got the lowest estimative of General Combining Ability, was the most convenient tester to evaluate the lines. In the combined analysis of the two places, the EMGOPA was only able to discriminate the lines. Some lines were superior in hybrid combining and some crossings will have to be evaluated in other environments to confirm its good performance. / Esse trabalho teve como objetivo principal comparar diferentes testadores para avaliar um grupo de linhagens não selecionadas. Foram utilizadas 28 linhagens provenientes da população CMS04C e seis testadores. Os testadores utilizados foram a população BR105, três linhagens endogâmicas provenientes da população BR105, um híbrido simples obtido pelo cruzamento de duas das linhagens usadas como testadores e a população EMGOPA 501. Devido às quantidades de sementes obtidas, somente os “topcrosses” de 20 das 28 linhagens puderam ser avaliados em dois locai. Foi utilizado o delineamento de blocos incompletos com dois tratamentos comuns e três repetições para as avaliações dos “topcrosses”. Os ensaios foram instalados na safra 2000/01, nas estações experimentais da empresa Planagri S.A., em Goianésia-GO, e da Escola de Agronomia da Universidade Federal de Goiás, em Goiânia-GO. A análise dialélica seguiu o modelo de Griffing (1956), adaptado por Geraldi & Miranda Filho (1988). Foram utilizadas as correlações de Spearman, porcentagem de coincidência em função da intensidade de seleção e as variâncias entre “topcrosses”, para comparar os testadores. Em geral, não houve consistência das classificações das linhagens entre os testadores e nem mesmo para cada testador entre os dois locais. Os resultados obtidos foram diferentes para os dois locais. Em Goianésia, a população BR105, que obteve a maior estimativa de CGC, foi o testador mais adequado para discriminar as linhagens. Já em Goiânia, foi a população EMGOPA 501, que obteve a menor estimativa de CGC, o testador mais indicado para avalia-las. Na análise conjunta dos dois locais, somente a população EMGOPA 501 foi capaz de discriminar as linhagens. Algumas linhagens que se destacaram em combinações híbridas e alguns cruzamentos deverão ser avaliados em outros ambientes para confirmar o seu bom desempenho.

Le développement croissant de systèmes embarqués de consommation, où les composants numériques, analogiques et logiciels sont combinés sur une même puce, résulte en une augmentation de la complexité des processus de conception et de vérification. La validation de tels systèmes analogiques et à signaux-mixtes reste largement basée sur des techniques de simulation, qui sont souvent combinées avec des méthodes d'analyse de nature ad-hoc. Cette thèse est motivée par l'exportation de méthodes formelles basées sur des propriétés, vers leur application à la validation de systèmes analogiques et à signaux mixtes, considérés à leur niveaux d'abstraction continu et temporisé.<br />Etant-donné que la vérification formelle de systèmes continus non-triviaux reste très difficile, nous nous tournons vers une méthode de validation plus légère appelée le monitoring basé sur des propriétés. Nous définissons signal temporal logic STL comme langage de spécification de haut niveau qui permet d'exprimer des propriétés temporelles de signaux continus et temporisés. STL est une extension de la logique de temps-réel metric interval temporal logic MITL, où les signaux continus sont transformés en signaux Booléens avec des prédicats numériques, et les relations temporelles entre ces signaux son exprimées avec les opérateurs temporels habituels dont les propositions atomiques correspondent à ces prédicats. Nous développons deux procédures de monitoring, une offline et une incrémantale, qui permettent de vérifier si les traces de simulations sont correctes par rapport aux propriétés STL. Les deux procédures sont implantées en outil de monitoring analogique AMT. Notre approche de monitoring basé sur des propriétés est appliquée, en utilisant AMT, à deux études de cas réalistes, où nous étudions des propriétés d'une mémoire de type FLASH et d'une interface de mémoire DDR2. <br />Nous considérons aussi le problème de vérification formelle de systèmes temporisés, et développons une traduction modulaire des formules MITL avec les opérateurs futurs et passés, vers des automates temporisés. La construction que nous proposons est basée sur les testeurs temporels, une classe spécifique d'automates avec les entrées et les sorties qui réalisent la fonction séquentielle définie par la sémantique des opérateurs MITL. Nous montrons d'abord comment chaque formule MITL peut être exprimée avec six opérateurs basiques (trois opérateurs passés et trois futurs) et nous proposons une construction de testeurs temporels à partir de ces opérateurs. Les testeurs temporels pour des formules MITL arbitraires sont obtenus en composant ces testeurs élémentaires.<br />Finalement, nous développons une procédure pour la synthèse automatique de contrôleurs à partir des spécifications de haut niveau exprimées avec le fragment borné de metric temporal logic (MTL). Nous proposons une traduction des propriétés spécifiées dans cette logique temporisée vers des automates temporisés déterministes, en supposant la variabilité bornée. Ensuite, nous pouvons appliquer à ces automates les algorithmes habituels de synthèse de sûreté pour construire un contrôleur qui satisfait la spécification par construction.

Single-probe formation testers have been used since the 1950s to measure pore pressure and estimate mobility in fluid-bearing formations penetrated by a well. They are widely used in the oil and gas industry, with tens of measurements often made in every newly drilled well as part of the formation evaluation program. Each measurement consists of placing the tool in the wellbore in direct contact with the face of the formation, extracting a small amount of fluid (from 1 to 50 cc) from the rock and analyzing the fluid pressure response of the system. Pressure interpretation is based on models that assume that temperature within the formation tester flowline remains constant during the tool operation. However, formation pressure measurement involves relatively fast volume and pressure changes within the flowline, which result in temperature changes. These temperature changes are modeled semi-analytically and their effect on pressure transients is analyzed. Temperature variations are accounted for by describing the pressure and temperature dependence of fluid density in the continuity equation, and that temperature varies with both space and time. It is considered here that once a temperature change is imposed on the system, the primary mechanism of thermal transport to achieve equilibrium is conduction. Including temperature in the analysis requires taking into account flowline geometry, and well environmental conditions during the measurement-- namely, wellbore temperature and type of drilling fluid in the wellbore, all of which are immaterial in the isothermal analysis. Arguably, pressure behavior during formation tester measurements could be influenced by several factors. All previous studies related to formation testers assume perfect tool performance and provide explanations to pressure behaviors from the reservoir point of view (e.g., Stewart and Witmmann, 1979; Phelps et al., 1984; Proett and Chin, 1996, etc.). The approach followed here is diametrically opposite. The formation is considered `perfect' from the point of view of pressure measurement, and physical phenomena (thermal transients) that may affect the measured pressure signal are studied. The focus is to understand fundamental aspects of the tool performance that can be studied analytically while minimizing, as much as possible, external parameters that add uncertainty. This dissertation was motivated by inconsistencies observed between the pressure behavior in field measurements and existing (isothermal) theory. For instance, false buildups, buildup overshoots and long time required to reach pressure equilibration, have puzzled those involved in the interpretation of formation tester pressure transients for many years. These behaviors can be reproduced in pressure computations when accounting for temperature variations. The focus of this dissertation is on modeling the tool capability to sense pressure transients associated with recompression of formation fluids several inches away from the wellbore, accounting for temperature variations during the measurement. This is relevant because it is desirable to characterize formation properties beyond the region affected by drilling mud filtrate invasion. In practice, a discrepancy is often observed between formation mobility obtained from drawdown, which depends mostly on formation properties near the wellbore, and mobility obtained from the analysis of late-time buildup pressure, which in theory depends on formation properties farther from the wellbore (Moran and Finklea, 1962). This dissertation examines the influence of late-time tool storage effects caused by thermal equilibration of the flowline fluid on the pressure equilibration and buildup mobility interpretation. It was found that in some cases such late-time storage effects could exhibit a behavior that resembles that expected from spherical flow, that is, the flow regime characteristic of single-probe formation testers; and could therefore invalidate mobility determined by isothermal transient pressure analysis. Formation tester flowline and probe design, test parameters (rate and volume), and environmental conditions during the measurement, mostly type of drilling fluid and wellbore temperature, are important variables in determining the magnitude of late-time storage effects, and hence the tool capability to detect a deep formation signal (spherical flow). Temperature variations affecting late-buildup pressure transients were observed to be more pronounced (listed in order of importance): as wellbore temperature increases; drilling fluid is oil-based mud; flowline with large radius components (e.g. > 1 cm); large flowline volume; small probe radius (< 1 cm); and, large drawdown rate. Temperature effects on the late-buildup also tend to be more significant when mobility is in the 0.1 to 10 md/cp range, that is for those formations more likely, in theory, to exhibit spherical flow regime during buildup. / text

The emerging industrial trend towards agile software development processes brings forth new concerns, challenges as well as opportunities. One of the main concerns is with respect to the achievable quality levels of the final product, for which testing is the well-known assurance mechanism. However, it is not well defined for the community on how to perform testing using existing expertise in an agile environment. This uncertainty may create confusion and contra productivity that can lead to testing teams and their practices considered as an obstacle for full implementation of agile processes within an organisation.   This thesis outlines our current research activities towards identifying and addressing important organisational and technical challenges in the agile environment.  In this context, we propose a new role for traditional testers which will enable them to integrate into the agile team as well as to fully exploit their knowledge in the new context. We have conducted an elaborate industrial survey on the preferences and practices with respect to the contemporary aspects of software testing and identified test-driven development as an important technical area for improvement.  A systematic review on empirical evidences related to test-driven development was performed subsequently, which revealed a list of factors limiting its widespread industrial acceptance. Knowledge of testing was identified as one of those factors and was further investigated in a controlled experiment performed with undergraduate students.   Our future works aim to confirm these research findings in wider as well as industrial settings and investigate other limiting factors in detail, with the aim of providing guidelines for achieving better utilisation of testers and testing practices.

Dagens samhälle präglas av den växande digitaliseringen. Information flödar på alla håll och kanter, den bearbetas, lagras och kommuniceras konstant. Nuförtiden kan systemen byggas ganska säkra, men så fort man sätter en människa bakom tangentbordet introducerar man en rejäl sårbarhet och äventyrar att vår information hamnar i fel händer. SE (social engineering, social manipulering) är konsten att nyttja social interaktion som ett medel oavsett om det kräver ett tekniskt system eller övertygelse för att få tillgång till känslig information. Detta är en kvalitativ intervjustudie som försöker skildra hur penetrationstestare ser och arbetar med/mot SE (social engineering, social manipulering) sker. Studien tolkar penetrationstestares perspektiv på dagens sociala manipulerings angrepp, hur de arbetar med det och vad vi som individer kan göra för att skydda oss. Slutsatserna från studiens delfrågor hjälper att besvara studiens forskningsfråga “Hur ser penetrationstestare på dagens SE?” Studien visar på att majoriteten av respondenterna är överens om hur SE ser ut idag. Konklusionen visar på att angreppet “phishing” är en av de vanligaste angreppsformerna idag både trendmässigt och arbetsrelaterat just nu. Vidare skildrades även “varför sociala manipulatörer ofta lyckas med sina angrepp” vilket resulterade i att den psykologiska aspekten är ett av de viktigaste förbättringsområdena inom SE. Slutligen, redogjorde respondenterna viktiga skyddsåtgärder som kan tillämpas av både organisationer och privatpersoner. / Our modern World is filled with information everywhere. Information isconstantly processed, stored and communicated. However,we all know that information usuallyhas some value;therefore,we build secure and complex systems, whichare packed with data. Valuable data. Then we put humans behind those systems and introduce ahuge vulnerability and by that,we are risking our data falling into the wrong hands. Social engineering –it is used to deceive people and letting themgive up sensitive information. This qualitative interview study will attempt to disclose the perception of social engineering from people who perform penetration-testingservices. The results of the study are showing that participators are partially decided of their view of social engineering. They almost all agree that “phishing” is a common attack in bothinternet occurrences and in work-related matters. Furthermore, the conclusion shows that the psychological aspect of social engineering is an important improvement area. Lastly, the participants explain several preventative actions, whichcan be used by organizations and by individuals to minimize the risk of exposure to social engineering.

Denna uppsats syftar till att diskutera påverkan av artificiell intelligens (AI) på programutvecklingsprocessen, både nuvarande och framtida. Fokus ligger på att undersöka hur programmerare och testare har kommit i kontakt med AI hittills och i vilken utsträckning de tror att AI kan utnyttjas i framtida programutvecklingsprocesser. Detta är särskilt relevant att undersöka eftersom AI-tekniken utvecklas snabbt och det finns redan verktyg som potentiellt kan underlätta programmerares och testares arbete. Uppsatsen är skriven på svenska. Forskningen är av kvalitativ karaktär och omfattar en litteraturgenomgång för att undersöka tidigare forskning om ämnet, samt kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna genomfördes med både testare och utvecklare för att få en bättre täckande bild av området för programutveckling. Totalt genomfördes fem semistrukturerade intervjuer där djupgående frågor ställdes för att förstå individernas tankar kring ämnet och deras motiv. Resultaten av studien visar att våra respondenter inte i stor utsträckning använder AI idag. Detta trots att både litteraturen och respondenterna själva påpekar att det finns verktyg som skulle kunna användas i båda processerna av programmering och testning. En slutsats är att det finns olika etiska och juridiska frågor som behöver redas ut innan verktygen kan börja utnyttjas. Dock är både respondenterna och tidigare forskning överens om att AI i framtiden kan förändra sättet som programutvecklingsprocessen utförs på, eftersom AI kan användas som ett verktyg för att effektivisera och potentiellt förbättra kvaliteten på tester och programmering. Detta kan leda till förändringar i rollerna för testare och programmerare. / This thesis aims to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the software development process, both current and future. The focus is on examining how programmers and testers have come into contact with AI so far and to what extent they believe that AI can be utilized in future software development processes. This is particularly relevant to investigate because AI technology is developing rapidly and there are already tools that can potentially facilitate the work of programmers and testers. The thesis is written in swedish. The research is of a qualitative nature and includes a literature review to examine previous research on the subject, as well as qualitative semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with both testers and developers to get a more comprehensive picture of the software development field. A total of five semi-structured interviews were conducted where in-depth questions were asked to understand the individuals' thoughts on the subject and their motives. The results of the study show that our respondents do not use AI to a large extent today. This despite the fact that both the literature and the respondents themselves point out that there are tools that could be used in both processes of programming and testing. One conclusion is that there are various ethical and legal issues that need to be sorted out before the tools can begin to be used. However, both respondents and previous research agree that in the future AI may change the way the software development process is carried out, as AI can be used as a tool to streamline and potentially improve the quality of testing and programming. This can lead to changes in the roles of testers and programmers.

Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva mätmetoder, som mäter träets egenskaper med hjälp av vågrörelser respektive mätmetoder som mäter träds egna vågrörelser. Vidare att undersöka hur människor uppfattar musik från trädens egna ljud (vågrörelser). Resultaten visar att det finns flera olika mätmetoder som främst mäter kvalité i träd och virke. Ytterligare två mätmetoder finns och de tar hjälp av sensorer, synthesizers och en örontrumpet, och mäter främst elektriska impulser, ljud och ljudvågor. Resultaten visar även att människor är positivt inställda till musik som kommer från träden. Slutsatsen som kan dras från detta arbete är att det finns många olika sätt att mäta och lyssna på träden på. / The purpose of this study was to describe measurement methods, which measure the properties of the wood using wave movements and measurement methods that measure the tree's own wave movements. Further to investigate how people perceive music from the trees' own sounds (wave movements). The results show that there are several different measuring methods that primarily measure quality in trees and wood. Two other measuring methods are available, and they use sensors, synthesizers and an ear trumpet, and mainly measure electrical impulses, sounds and sound waves. The results also show that people are positively attuned to music that come from trees. The conclusion that can be drawn from this work is that there are many different ways to measure and listen to the trees.