We study the facial structure of the independent set polytope using the concept of conflict hypergraphs. A conflict hypergraph is a hypergraph whose vertices correspond to the binary variables, and edges correspond to covers in the constraint matrix of the independent set polytope. Various structures such as cliques, odd holes, odd anti-holes, webs and anti-webs are identified on the conflict hypergraph. These hypergraph structures are shown to be generalization of traditional graph structures. Valid inequalities are derived from these hypergraph structures, and the facet defining conditions are studied. Chvatal-Gomory ranks are derived for odd hole and clique inequalities. To test the hypergraph cuts, we conduct computational experiments on market-share (also referred to as market-split) problems. These instances consist of 100% dense multiple-knapsack constraints. They are small in size but are extremely hard to solve by traditional means. Their difficult nature is attributed mainly to the dense and symmetrical structure. We employ a special branching strategy in combination with the hypergraph inequalities to solve many of the particularly difficult instances. Results are reported for serial as well as parallel implementations.

En nuestro país, los problemas derivados de la epidemia de consumo de heroína durante los años 80-90 se vieron desplazados por los derivados del consumo de cocaína. Actualmente, la cocaína es la segunda sustancia ilegal en cuanto a prevalencia de consumo y en estos últimos años el consumo de heroína ha empezado a incrementarse de nuevo. Uno de los principales problemas asociados al uso de estas sustancias son los trastornos psiquiátricos comórbidos. Este trabajo se diseñó para determinar la prevalencia e incidencia de los trastornos mentales en consumidores de cocaína o heroína y los factores asociados, así como describir el perfil de personalidad sólo en el grupo de consumidores de cocaína mediante una escala dimensional. El resultado de estos estudios debería servir para diseñar estrategias de prevención y tratamiento dirigidas a una población joven de consumidores que no suele acceder a los circuitos sanitarios habituales a pesar de la gravedad de su estado psicopatológico. / Al nostre país, els problemes derivats de l’epidèmia de consum d’heroïna durant els anys 80-90 es van veure desplaçats pels derivats del consum de cocaïna. Actualment, la cocaïna és la segona substància il•legal pel que fa a prevalença de consum i, aquests darrers anys, el consum d’heroïna ha començat a augmentar de nou. Un dels principals problemes associats a l’ús d’aquestes substàncies són els trastorns psiquiàtrics comòrbids. Aquest treball es va dissenyar per determinar la prevalença i la incidència dels trastorns mentals en consumidors de cocaïna o heroïna i els factors associats, i també per descriure el perfil de personalitat només en el grup de consumidors de cocaïna mitjançant una escala dimensional. El resultat d’aquests estudis hauria de servir per dissenyar estratègies de prevenció i tractament adreçades a una població jove de consumidors que habitualment no accedeix als circuits sanitaris regulars malgrat la gravetat del seu estat psicopatològic.

In this dissertation I shall give a brief historical survey of Black Theology and the African Independent Churches (AI Cs). The study focuses mainly to the developments of the two trends in South Africa. This was done after realising that Black Theologians often ignored the history of Black people, including that of the AI Cs which has in the end stymied their efforts. The immediate effects were negative in that little results were produced. ATCs and Black Theology have interesting histories which complement each another. I will present the current state of affairs and give some guidelines on how the future debate can be carried out. The two theological trends have weaknesses and strengths which are clearly identifiable. In chapter four I give guidelines for future debates and possible new developments. This study is also carried out to expand the scope of dialogue and constructive debate among the two. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management / Kevin R. Roberts / Ethnic foods have gained in popularity and have become mainstream in the diet of most Americans. However, researchers have noted that ethnic food, specifically food served in ethnic restaurants, has been associated with foodborne outbreaks. Little has been done using the Social Cognitive Theory to predict food safety behaviors, especially in independent ethnic restaurants. The purpose of this study was to determine whether self-efficacy, self-regulation, outcome expectations, and environmental determinants are predictive of self-reported food safety behaviors in independent ethnic restaurants. Utilizing a thorough literature review and results of five focus group and group interviews, a questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was translated to Chinese and Spanish and back-translated to English to ensure consistency. After pilot-testing, a multistage random sampling technique was utilized to collect data, targeting a total of 150 food handlers from independent Mexican and Chinese restaurants. A total of 204 food handlers responded, but due to incomplete data or responses from non-food handlers, 201 responses were usable for a response rate of 80.4%. A multiple regression analysis investigated the prediction of food safety behavioral intentions based on the respondents’ self-efficacy, self-regulation, outcome expectations, and environmental determinants and found the model was significant (F = 75.246, p = 0.002). The significant independent variables in the model were self-regulation (β = 0.467, p = 0.001), environmental determinants (β = 0.181, p = 0.011), and outcome expectations (β = 0.152, p = 0.018), which explained about 60.6 % of the variance in food safety behavioral intentions. Self-efficacy was not significant (β = 0.078, p = 0.219). A mediation analysis showed that behavioral intentions are a significant mediator of the relationships between self-efficacy and self-reported food safety behaviors (b = 0.24, CI [0.161, 0.336], self-regulation and self-reported food safety behaviors (b = 0.252, CI [0.155, 0.366]), outcome expectations and self-reported food safety behaviors (b = 0.355, CI [0.247, 0.469]), and environmental determinants and self-reported food safety behaviors (b = 0.269, CI [0.172, 0.393]). Implications, limitations, and direction for future research were discussed.

Les récents progrès instrumentaux en spectrométrie de masse, notamment en terme de- rapidité de balayage et de résolution, ont permis l'émergence de l'approche « data independent acquisition» (DIA). Cette approche promet de combiner les points forts des approches « shotgun » et ciblées,mais aujourd'hui l'analyse des données DIA reste compliquée. L'objectif de cette thèse a été de développer des méthodes innovantes de spectrométrie de masse, et en particulier d'améliorer l'analyse des données DIA. De plus, nous avons développé une approche originale Top 3-ID-DIA, permettant à la fois un profilage complet des protéines de la cellule hôte (HCP) ainsi qu'une quantification absolue d'HCP clés dans les échantillons d'anticorps monoclonaux (mAb), au sein d'une même analyse.Cette méthode est prête à être implémentée en industrie, et pourrait fournir un support en temps réel aux développements du procédé de production de mAb, ainsi que pour évaluer la pureté des biomédicaments. / Recent instrumental developments in mass spectrometry, notably in terms of scan speed and resolution, allowed the emergence of “data independent acquisition” (DIA) approach. This approach promises to combine the strengths of both shotgun and targeted proteomics, but today DIA data analysis remains challenging. The objective of my PhD was to develop innovative mass spectrometry approaches, and in particular to improve DIA data analysis. Moreover, we developed an original Top 3-ID-DIA approach, allowing both a global profiling of host cell proteins (HCP) and an absolute quantification of key HCP in monoclonal antibodies samples, within a single analysis. This method is ready to be transferred to industry, and could provide a real time support for mAb manufacturing process development, as well as for product purity assessment.

This master thesis discusses various mathematical problems related to the placement of chess pieces. Solutions to the problems are mostly elementary (yet sometimes quite inventive), in some cases rely on basic knowledge of graph theory. We successively focus on different chess pieces and their tours on rectangular boards, and then examine the "independence" and "domination" of chess pieces on square boards. The text is complemented with numerous pictures illustrating particular solutions to given problems.

Le déclin du thon rouge de l'Atlantique nord-est et de Méditerranée (ABFT, Thunnus thynnus) qui faisait suite à une forte surexploitation a été largement médiatisé au cours de la dernière décennie. Pour contrer cette tendance et reconstituer ce stock, d’importantes mesures de gestion ont été mises en place à partir de 2007. En dehors des difficultés liées à leur mise en œuvre et à leur contrôle, la gestion des pêcheries thonières est aussi limitée dans les capacités à suivre précisément les variations d’abondance de ces espèces dont les observations reposent principalement sur les données de pêche. Le manque d’indice d’abondance fiable fait que l’évaluation du thon rouge, comme celle des autres espèces de poissons grands pélagiques, est entachée d’importantes incertitudes. Cependant, les suivis aériens pourraient permettre de fournir un indice d’abondance du thon rouge. Ils sont en effet fréquemment utilisés pour l'évaluation de l'abondance des mammifères marins et aussi par les pêcheurs pour détecter les poissons épipélagiques, comme les thons. Dans ce contexte général, cette thèse a pour objectifs : (i) d'évaluer des facteurs qui affectent potentiellement la détectabilité des thons pendant les suivis aériens, (ii) d’analyser leur comportement horizontal et vertical et les facteurs environnementaux qui l’influencent, et (iii) d’intégrer les connaissances acquises pour développer un indice abondance robuste du thon rouge en Méditerranée Nord Occidentale. Les analyses reposent sur des suivis aériens conduits depuis 2000 dans le golfe du Lion, une zone de nourricerie importante pour le thon rouge. Une modélisation des données basée sur le « distance sampling » montre des effets significatifs des observateurs, de la taille des bancs de thons et de l'état de la mer sur l’estimation d’abondance. Cette étude confirme par ailleurs une augmentation importance des abondances entre 2003 et 2009, probablement en réponse aux mesures de gestion mises en œuvre depuis 2007 (notamment la taille minimale de débarquement de 30 kg). Pour évaluer les effets du comportement sur les estimations d'abondance, une étude a porté sur les trajectoires de thons issues du marquage électronique. Ces analyses montrent une disponibilité des thons rouge ainsi qu’une présence en surface dans la zone et la période (Août-Octobre) des suivis aériens ; résultat confortant la fiabilité de l’indice d’abondance. On note également des changements saisonniers du comportement, avec un approfondissement des thons à partir de mi-Novembre correspondant à la dé-stratification de la colonne d’eau. Le comportement de plongée profonde était particulièrement fréquent pendant les mois de forte productivité biologique (février-Mai), mais des plongées profondes ont également été observées à la fin de l'été en relation avec des fronts thermiques. La variabilité des schémas migratoires sur l’horizontale et du comportement sur la verticale indique une forte composante opportuniste, probablement liée à la disponibilité des ressources alimentaires. Les résultats obtenus durant cette thèse démontrent la faisabilité d’obtenir un indice d’abondance de thon rouge robuste à partir des suivis aériens (donc indépendants des données de pêche) et fournissent un cadre théorique et méthodologique pour une extension de ce type de suivi afin de diminuer les incertitudes autour de l’évaluation de ce stock. Outre le thon rouge, les suivis aériens ont également permis un suivi du rorqual commun (Balaenoptera physalus) et des dauphins rayés (Stenella coeruleoalba). La présence des mammifères marins semble également être liée à la productivité élevée et l'activité méso-échelle de la zone d'étude. Si les dauphins présentent une distribution spatiale en partie corrélée à celle du thon rouge, les rorquals ne présentent pas de forte co-occurrence avec le thon rouge, résultat qui confirmerait une certaine proximité des régimes alimentaires des thons et des dauphins. / Declines in Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks (ABFT, Thunnus thynnus), due to extensive over-fishing, have been widely publicized in recent decades. To counteract this trend, regulatory measures have been introduced by the fisheries managers, aiming at the rebuilding of ABFT stocks. However, apart from difficulties in controlling the implementation of these measures, fisheries management is limited in its capabilities to track their efficiency due to major uncertainties in the stock assessment. Indeed, there is a general need of reliable indicators of ABFT abundance. Aerial surveys may provide a helpful tool for the abundance monitoring of this highly exploited fish species. They are frequently used for the abundance assessment of marine mammals and also by fishermen to detect epipelagic fish, such as tunas. The aim of this thesis was to address these issues and to create a robust fishery-independent abundance index for ABFT through aerial surveys. To achieve this goal, the focus was set on (i) the assessment of factors that potentially affect the detectability of ABFT during the aerial surveys, (ii) the habitat use of ABFT, i.e. their horizontal and vertical behaviour as well as the factors driving it, and (iii) the integration of the knowledge gained through these analyses in the development of a robust index of ABFT abundance. Surveys were conducted from 2000 onwards in the Gulf of Lions, an important nursery ground for ABFT in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Line transect modelling of the sighting data revealed significant effects of detectability changes on abundance estimates, related to the observer teams employed, the size of detected ABFT schools and the sea state during the aerial surveys. Derived estimates of ABFT abundance confirmed a significant increase from 2003 to 2009, likely reflecting the success of recently implemented management measures (e.g. minimum landing size of 30 kg since 2007). To assess behavioural effects on abundance estimates, auxiliary archival tagging experiments, conducted since 2007, focused on the presence and surface availability of ABFT during the aerial surveys, and aimed to identify factors influencing these variables. The data gained from these experiments demonstrated seasonal changes in the migratory behaviour of ABFT, but also a high area and surface presence of ABFT in the study zone during the survey period (August–October), supporting the reliability of the abundance index. Surface presence of ABFT decreased with the breakdown of the thermal stratification of the water column (mid-November), when the fish left the survey zone and moved South. By contrast, deep diving behaviour was particularly frequent during months of high biological productivity (February--May), although deep and unusual long spike dives were also observed during late summer in relation to thermal fronts. However, the variability in the migration patterns indicates a strong opportunistic component in both, the horizontal and vertical behaviour of ABFT, probably related to the availability of food resources. Apart from ABFT, the aerial surveys also allowed an abundance monitoring of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) as well as an analysis of their co-occurrence with ABFT. In fact, similar to ABFT, the presence of these species appeared to be related to the high productivity and mesoscale activity of the study zone, improving our understanding of their habitat use, essential for the conservation of these much less abundant and endangered species. Regarding the stock assessment of ABFT, the results gained through this thesis prove the feasibility to derive robust fishery independent abundance indicators for ABFT through aerial surveys, providing the theoretical and methodological background for an extension of these efforts for a more sustainable management of the stocks of this species.

The interaction between parent, child and book during story-book reading is considered as one of the fundamental instruments required for children to acquire the important elements needed to learn how to read. Parents of grade one children are unsure of their new role in the reading development of their children because their children enter a new phase in their literacy development and reading becomes the centre of their learning activities. The main aim of this research is to compare and describe how parents of grade one children without learning disabilities and parents of children with learning disabilities, perceive their children’s participation in home reading activities. Thirty biological parents or legal guardians of grade one children without learning disabilities and ten of grade one children with learning disabilities were used to complete a questionnaire. The results indicated that although children without learning disabilities and children with learning disabilities have similar exposure to home literacy activities, children without learning disabilities become more fluent and efficient readers than their peers with learning disabilities. Children without learning disabilities prefer to be actively involved in the story-book reading act with their parents, whereas children with learning disabilities tend to be more passive and they prefer to engage less in reading activities due to their reading difficulties. The study highlights the importance of story-book reading for grade one children in both groups, as well as independent reading of story-books by these children. Suggestions for further research are provided. / Dissertation (MA (Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / MA / Unrestricted

This dissertation thesis deals with electronic self-publishing of literary fiction, i.e. its publishing by the authors themselves, without involving publishers. Support from big technology companies led to unprecedented growth of this type of publishing in the 2010s and electronic self-publishing has in some countries become one of the standard ways of publishing. In spite of its expansion, electronic self-publishing is affected by many problems. The most prominent one is comparatively lower quality of many independently published e- books, mainly caused by limited knowledge of the publishing process from the side of the authors, many of which are not proper acquainted with publishing practices. The activities that should an independent author perform during the publishing process are the same as those performed by a publisher. Due to complicated character of some of these activities, many independent authors outsource them to other parties, or do not perform them at all. In the Czech Republic, electronic self-publishing is relatively undeveloped. It is true that there has probably been hundreds or thousands e-books published independently and that the number of downloads of these books is in hundreds of thousands copies. On the other hand, majority of this literature is offered for free or for...

SAAB has developed an autonomous underwater vehicle that can mimic a conventional submarine for military fleets to exercise anti-submarine warfare. The AUV actively emits amplified versions of received sonar pulses to create the illusion of being a larger object. To prevent acoustic feedback, the AUV must distinguish between the sound to be actively responded to and its emitted signal. This master thesis has examined techniques aimed at preventing the AUV from responding to previously emitted signals to avoid acoustical feedback, without relying on prior knowledge of either the received signal or the signal emitted by the AUV. The two primary types of algorithms explored for this problem include blind source separation and adaptive filtering. The adaptive filters based on Leaky Least Mean Square and Kalman have shown promising results in attenuating the active response from the received signal. The adaptive filters utilize the fact that a certain hydrophone primarily receives the active response. This hydrophone serves as an estimate of the active response since the signal it captures is considered unknown and is to be removed. The techniques based on blind source separation have utilized the recordings of three hydrophones placed at various locations of the AUV to separate and estimate the received signal from the one emitted by the AUV. The results have demonstrated that neither of the reviewed methods is suitable for implementation on the AUV. The hydrophones are situated at a considerable distance from each other, resulting in distinct time delays between the reception of the two signals. This is usually referred to as a convolutive mixture. This is commonly solved using the frequency domain to transform the convolutive mixture to an instantaneous mixture. However, the fact that the signals share the same frequency spectrum and are adjacent in time has proven highly challenging.