Many complex systems in nature are governed by simple local interactions, although a number are also described by global interactions. For example, within the field of hydraulics the Navier-Stokes equations describe free-surface water flow, through means of the global preservation of water volume, momentum and energy. However, solving such partial differential equations (PDEs) is computationally expensive when applied to large 2D flow problems. An alternative which reduces the computational complexity, is to use a local derivative to approximate the PDEs, such as finite difference methods, or Cellular Automata (CA). The high speed processing of such simulations is important to modern scientific investigation especially within urban flood modelling, as urban expansion continues to increase the number of impervious areas that need to be modelled. Large numbers of model runs or large spatial or temporal resolution simulations are required in order to investigate, for example, climate change, early warning systems, and sewer design optimisation. The recent introduction of the Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) as a general purpose computing device (General Purpose Graphical Processor Unit, GPGPU) allows this hardware to be used for the accelerated processing of such locally driven simulations. A novel CA transformation for use with GPUs is proposed here to make maximum use of the GPU hardware. CA models are defined by the local state transition rules, which are used in every cell in parallel, and provide an excellent platform for a comparative study of possible alternative state transition rules. Writing local state transition rules for CA systems is a difficult task for humans due to the number and complexity of possible interactions, and is known as the ‘inverse problem’ for CA. Therefore, the use of Genetic Programming (GP) algorithms for the automatic development of state transition rules from example data is also investigated in this thesis. GP is investigated as it is capable of searching the intractably large areas of possible state transition rules, and producing near optimal solutions. However, such population-based optimisation algorithms are limited by the cost of many repeated evaluations of the fitness function, which in this case requires the comparison of a CA simulation to given target data. Therefore, the use of GPGPU hardware for the accelerated learning of local rules is also developed. Speed-up factors of up to 50 times over serial Central Processing Unit (CPU) processing are achieved on simple CA, up to 5-10 times speedup over the fully parallel CPU for the learning of urban flood modelling rules. Furthermore, it is shown GP can generate rules which perform competitively when compared with human formulated rules. This is achieved with generalisation to unseen terrains using similar input conditions and different spatial/temporal resolutions in this important application domain.

Flat ownership The theme of this thesis is flat ownership. The author has chosen this theme because it is very current and from the legal point of view also very interesting issue, which affects the major part of the population of the Czech Republic. The main objective of this work is to analyze the Institute's flat ownership in terms of the Flat Ownership Act. Furthermore, to highlight some problematic points in the regulation of housing ownership, to comment and suggest possible solutions with regard to case law and opinions of authors specializing in issues of housing ownership. This work consists of eight chapters. The first chapter deals with basic theoretical concepts of flat property, important for understanding the specific nature of the Institute's flat property. Such basics also may serve as a guide for policymakers in the design of legislation on housing. Then continues the second chapter, which talks about the concept of law based on flat ownership, its applicability and relationship to the Civil Code and other regulations. The third chapter focuses on the definition of specific terms related to the issue of flat property, such as: building, section, house, unit, flat, flat under construction, floor area of a flat, common space in building and land. The following fourth chapter is...

The purpose of my thesis is to describe unit owners association as a subject of law in the Czech Republic. It focuses on analysis of the most significant problems of the current legal regulation in the Act No. 72/1994 Coll., on apartment ownership. It also concurrently reflects the legislation in the new civil code, in which is the apartment ownership incorporated. The subject of thesis was selected because of its actuality in the professional literature and in the daily life. The issue of the unit owners association affects more and more inhabitants because of its mandatory membership and increasing amount of apartment owners. This dissertation consists of six individual chapters. Each chapter looks at the basic principles of the unit owners association and contains subchapter reflecting legal regulation in the new civil code. The first chapter concentrates on the legal regulation of the unit owners association. It looks at the most significant changes in the apartment ownership legislation, which have constituted unit owners association as a legal person. It also includes basic analysis and classification of amendment to apartment owners legislation in the new civil code. The second chapter looks at the legal status of unit owners association. It describes its characteristics as a person of law,...

Unit owners association as a subject of law (A comparative study of the new civil code bill) The purpose of my thesis is to analyse current legislation regarding apartment ownership which incorporates provisions regarding unit owners associations and compare it with the new Civil Code bill which will incorporate these provisions in the future. The methodology is primarily critical analysis. I explain the main problem by way of practical examples. The reason for choosing this subject of research is its topicality and the large numbers of people who live in apartments in the Czech Republic who are required to be members of unit owners associations. The thesis is composed of six chapters, five of which deal with various elements of the provisions regarding unit owner associations. Following these chapters, I look at the new Civil Code bill. The final chapter describes some provisions which apply outside the Czech Republic. Chapter One explains the legal status of unit owners associations as a legal entity and their characteristics. The chapter is subdivided into three main parts. Part One deals with the extent of the association's legal capacity. Part Two describes who represents the association and Part Three concerns the register of unit owners associations. Chapter Two describes the creation and...

As compared to short-term forecasting (e.g., 1 day), it is often challenging to accurately forecast the volume of precipitation in a medium-term horizon (e.g., 1 week). As a result, fluctuations in water inflow can trigger generation shortage and electricity price spikes in a power system with major or predominant hydro resources. In this paper, we study a two-stage robust scheduling approach for a hydrothermal power system. We consider water inflow uncertainty and employ a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to represent its seasonality and accordingly construct an uncertainty set in the robust optimization approach. We design a Benders' decomposition algorithm to solve this problem. Results are presented for the proposed approach on a real-world case study.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Background: Palliative care is specialised health care to support people living with a terminal illness, and their families. Palliative care aims to prevent and relieve suffering, to help people to live as well as possible until they die, and to support the processes of dying and bereavement. Palliative care is holistic care provided by Emergency and Oncology Nurses caring for cancer patients. Palliative care protocols for Professional Nurses working in Emergency Units and Oncology Departments are not always posted or in full view in the government hospitals of the Western Cape. The researcher had noted that the development of a palliative care protocol would be unique in its use at the three targeted government hospitals. Aims and Objectives: This study focused on the development and implementation of palliative care protocols for Emergency and Oncology Nurses in the targeted government hospitals of the Western Cape, i.e., protocols could be beneficial for cancer patients and their families. The overall aim of the research was to develop applied palliative care protocols for Emergency and Oncology Nurses to provide best practice palliative care nursing for Oncology Patients who may present at any one of three Western Cape Provincial Hospitals.

This thesis deals with a contrastive analysis of German phraseological units containing an animal and their Czech equivalents. In the theoretical part, we will explain the basic concepts of phraseology and focus on the contrastive phraseology. The core of the thesis is formed by analysis of German proverbs and other verbal phraseological units and finding their Czech equivalents. The selected phraseological units are accompanied by examples. The aim of the thesis is to divide the phraseological units into groups according to the degree of equivalence.

Die vorliegende Arbeit überprüft an einem nach Alter, Geschlecht, Barthel-Index und Mini-Mental-State-Test gematchten geriatrischen Patientenkollektiv mit erstmaligem Schlaganfall die Wirksamkeit einer vorausgegangenen Akutbehandlung an einer Stroke Unit (n=59) gegenüber einer allgemeinen (internistischen oder neurologischen) stationären Akutbehandlung (n=59) für die Prognose im Laufe einer nachfolgenden geriatrischen Rehabilitationsbehandlung. Hintergrund dieser Frage ist der erhöhte ökonomische Druck im Gesundheitswesen, der eine Effizienzprüfung einer personell, technisch und logistisch aufwändigeren und damit teureren Behandlung auf einer Spezialstation verlangt. Bei Anwendung zahlreicher funktioneller Skalen und Erhebung einiger sozioökonomischer Faktoren zeigte sich auf Signifikanzniveau, dass die auf Stroke Unit Vorbehandelten bei Aufnahme in die Rehabilitation motorisch schwerer beeinträchtigt waren (timed up and go-Test p=0,044, Lachs-Test p=0,34) und sich dann ausgeprägter (Transferleistung p=0,024) auf ein bei Rehabilitationsende schließlich vergleichbares Leistungsniveau verbesserten. Die ursprünglich geplante Langzeiteffizienzbetrachtung im Gruppenvergleich scheiterte an Datenschutzbedenken. Gesundheitsökonomisch relevant ist, dass die Vorverweildauer im Akutkrankenhaus bei Stroke Unit-Patienten sechs Tage kürzer war, die Rehabilitationsdauer allerdings vier Tage länger. Weitergehende Kostenbetrachtungen scheiterten am Unwillen zur Leistungsoffenlegung verschiedener Beteiligter im Gesundheitssystem. Eine plausible Erklärung für diese positive motorische Leistungsweiterentwicklung nach Stroke Unit-Vorbehandlung kann in einer frühzeitigeren und effektiveren Anstrengung durch Krankengymnastik, Ergotherapie, Logopädie, aktivierende Pflege, „enriched environment“ gesucht werden, die sich positiv auf die Plastizität im Gehirn als wesentliche Bedingung zur Funktionswiedergewinnung auswirken könnte, was aber noch umstritten ist und Ziel weiterer Untersuchungen sein muss. / This dissertation compares 2 groups of geriatric patients during their stay in a rehabilitation clinic after they suffered a first apoplexy. The first group is a group a 59 patients who have been admitted in the hospital on a general ward after their stroke. In the second group (n=59), the patients have been admitted in a special stroke unit after the apoplexy. In order to study the profit of the stroke unit pre-treatment, the 2 groups have been compared under the following criteria: age, sex, barthel-index and mini-mental-state examination. A long term comparison of efficiency was impossible because of data protection. The stroke unit patients stayed 6 day shorter in the acute hospital but they had to stay 4 days longer during the rehabilitation treatment before leaving the clinic of rehabilitation. Le travail suivant examine l’efficacité d’un traitement d’urgence dans un service de stroke unit par rapport à un traitement d’urgence dans un service général stationnaire (médecine interne ou neurologie) sur le pronostique lors du traitement de rééducation gériatrique à venir. Afin de pouvoir établir une comparaison, un groupe de patients gériatriques ayant subi un premier AVC a été choisi et couplé selon les critères de l’âge, du sexe, de l’index de Barthel et du test « mini-metal-state ». L’intérêt de cette question est la forte pression économique dans le secteur de la santé qui exige l’examen de l’efficacité d’un traitement dans un service spécialisé dont les moyens personnels, techniques et logistiques sont plus élévés et plus chers. L’utilisation de nombreuses échelles fonctionnelles et le relevé de quelques facteurs socio-économiques ont permis de mettre en évidence de facon significative que les patients traités dans un service stroke unit étaient plus gênés sur le plan motorique lors de l’admission mais qu’à la fin de la rééducation, ils s’étaient améliorés de facon nette, atteignant finalement un niveau de performance comparable. L’observation de l’efficacité à long terme dans le groupe de comparaison initialement prévue, a finalement échoué en raison de doutes quant à la protection des données. En ce qui concerne l’aspect éco-sanitaire, il est flagrant que le séjour à l’hôpital avant la rééducation a duré 6 jours de moins chez les patients du groupe stroke unit, mais la durée de rééducation 4 jours de plus. Il a été impossible d’examiner les coûts plus en détail en raison du refus de différents acteurs du système sanitaire à mettre leurs données à disposition. Cette évolution positive de la performance motorique suite au pré-traitement stroke unit peut s’expliquer par les efforts très précoces fournis en matière de physiothérapie, d’ergothérapie, de logopédie et de soins de rééducation active (enriched environment) qui ont une influence positive sur la plasticité du cerveau, laquelle est une condition indispensable au regain de fonctions. Ceci est encore controversé et devra faire l’objet d’autres études.

The critical care unit (CCU) is a unit where different health care professionals work together to care for the patient efficiently. A lot of studies in the past have shown that good communication and transfer of information from one health care professional to the other is an essential aspect in the transfer of a patients care. Most of these studies are concentrated on the reporter or informant. Lapses in communication and information transfer could result in unnecessary suffering both for the patient and for the health care worker. There are very few studies on how well the recipient of the information or report understands or comprehends the information passed. The aim of this study was to illuminate the critical care nurses (CCN) experiences of receiving report of patients transferred from other units. A qualitative design was chosen and five CCNs in a particular CCU were interviewed. The analysis was done using the content analysis method. The analysis resulted in four main categories which are: The patient’s situation-a determinant factor, the work environment, communication deficit creates uncertainty and structure enhances report and ten subcategories. The findings showed that CCNs' experience a feeling of uncertainty as a result of lapses in communication and their work environment and its attendant distractions has a great influence on the quality of the report they receive. To ensure a good quality of care that promotes patient’s safety and job satisfaction, it would be necessary to address the factors that hinder effective communication during handover in nurses' education programs and clinical practices.

This research report investigates the way that course designers in the financial services industry use and engage with unit standards. The origins of unit standards, theories drawn from the sociology of education, and interviews with course developers jointly contribute to understanding how unit standards are received and used within an organisational context. Eight informal interviews were conducted with self-employed course designers, to examine how they use unit standards when developing learning material in business contexts. These interviews indicated that course designers had many issues and concerns regarding these documents. Five course developers working in three large organisations in the financial services industry were further interviewed, formally, to establish how they use and engage with unit standards. The findings from both sets of interviews suggest that unit standards are used in a limited capacity in organisational course development in this industry, because they do not correspond to the training requirements of the respective organisations interviewed. However, unit standards are used in Learnership programmes, because a different training objective is pursued, namely a social justice and redress objective and not a business objective. Although the research indicates that course developers would welcome some kind of standardisation or regulatory system to direct course design, they are opposed to the existing design and structure of unit standards.