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The purpose of this study is to study the effect of water quality and quantity of raw water on advanced and conventional treatment processes. We are using data of water quality and quantity to investigate difference of quality of treated water in water treatment plant. Finally we compared items of ware quality ( turbidity, free residual chlorine, total hardness, conductivity, pH, NH3-N) whether passed the Taiwan¡¦s national standard of drinking water or not. We are hoping the treated drinking water will all fit the goal of high quality. Results show that high variation of turbidity was found from May to October in every year. The high turbidity was frequently occurred from 9.9% (2008) to 39.5% (2010). It indicated the worsen trend of water quality of raw water is increased yearly. In all monitoring items of water quality, turbidity, conductivity, NH3-N was greatly influenced in seasons from June to September. The rest items had no significant affect by season¡¦s variation. The removal efficiency in items of water quality of advanced and conventional WTP we found there were high value at hardness and TDS with 49.3% and 43.3% respectively. These items, water quality of treated water (such as turbidity, free residual chlorine, total hardness, conductivity, pH, NH3-N), were all pass the current drinking standard in Taiwan ( i.e., turbidity¡Õ2NTU¡BTDS¡Õ500mg/L¡B6.0¡ÕpH¡Õ8.5¡B0.2mg/L¡Õfree residual chlorine¡Õ1.0mg/L¡BNH3-N¡Õ0.1mg/L ).

Magister Scientiae Dentium - MSc(Dent) / Influence of orthodontic caregiver behaviour on the perceived satisfaction of patients during orthodontic treatment. Dr. F.J. du Raan M.Sc. (Orthodontics) thesis, Department of Orthodontics, University of the Western Cape. In this thesis I interviewed patients that are busy with orthodontic treatment, as well as those that have undergone orthodontic treatment at the department of Orthodontics at the University of the Western Cape, with the aid of four questionnaires. Patients completed questionnaires to provide general and demographic information, quantify their satisfaction with the orthodontic treatment process, their perception of the orthodontic clinician's behavioural traits and lastly they completed the NEO-FFI personality questionnaire to determine their own personality profile. All these questionnaires were used in previous studies, or they were slightly modified to be applicable to orthodontics. The information gained was used to determine if there are correlations between the patient’s perceived satisfaction of the treatment process with patient specific treatment variables (as acquired from the General information and Demographics Questionnaire ), demographic factors, clinician's behavioural traits and patient specific personality traits and any combination of the above mentioned. We wanted to determine which behavioural traits of the orthodontic caregiver influences the perceived satisfaction with the treatment to the greatest extent. Furthermore, we wanted to determine if certain personality traits of the patients would influence their perceived satisfaction with the treatment process or their perception of the clinician's behavioural traits. The only aspect from the General Information and Demographics Questionnaire that had any correlation to satisfaction with the treatment process or the perception of the clinician's behavioural traits, was whether the patient was treated by a single registrar or multiple registrars. Patients treated by multiple clinicians had a lower average score for satisfaction and orthodontist behaviour. Results from the study shows that all the clinician's behavioural traits do have statistically significant influence on the perceived satisfaction with the treatment process, but certain behavioural traits have a greater influence. Result showed Empathy and Care to have the strongest influence on perceived satisfaction, whereas Motivation has the lowest influence. The NEO-FFI personality questionnaire was used to register each patient's personality profile. Scoring for the following personality traits created the personality profile: Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness. Patient personality profiles were shown to have no significant influence on the patient's perceived satisfaction with the treatment process.Neuroticism was shown to have a weak negative correlation with the Professionalism sub-category of the Orthodontic Clinician Behaviour Questionnaire. Conscientiousness has been shown to have a weak positive correlation with all categories of the Orthodontic Clinician Behaviour Questionnaire It is put forth by the researcher that more time and effort has to be put into improving all aspects of the clinician's behaviour, as it will positively influence the perceived satisfaction of the orthodontic treatment process.Even though there are no significant correlations, patients needs to be screened to determine their personality profiles, as this may lead to slight improved scoring on certain behavioural aspects which may in turn lead to greater patient satisfaction. It may be especially worthwhile to recognise the neurotic patient and treat them on a more personal level, as this may improve their overall satisfaction.

Studien har undersökt vad behandlare upplever är specifikt i behandlingsprocessen, i alliansskapandet samt hur behandlarna påverkats affektivt av mötet med barn och ungdomar i åldrarna 4 till 18 år som blivit utsatta för incest. Fem legitimerade psykologer med erfarenheter från barn och ungdomspsykiatrisk verksamhet intervjuades. Tematisk analys användes vid bearbetning av data. Behandlarna poängterade i resultatet brister i struktur och skyddsaspekt i behandlingsprocessen samt behov av gränser i alliansskapandet. De affekter som oftast framträdde hos behandlarna var negativa affekter som ledsnad och förakt. Resultatet visade även på att behandlarna efterfrågade riktlinjer och vårdprogram specifikt inriktade mot barn och ungdomar som utsatts för incest. Forskning är nödvändig med fokus på evidensbaserade behandlingsmetoder som kan skapa riktlinjer för behandlare inom området. Vidare behövs det forskning med fokus på hur behandlarna påverkas av affekter som uppkommer i terapi med barn och ungdomar som blivit utsatta. / This study has investigated what therapists experience is specific in the treatment process, in the alliance creation and how therapists were affected by affects in meeting with children and adolescents aged 4 to 18 years who were exposed for incest. Five licensed psychologists with experience from child and adolescent psychiatry were interviewed. Thematic analysis was used in data processing. The result showed that therapists underlined a lack of structure and protection in treatment process as well as need for limits in the alliance creation with children exposed for incest. Effects that often emerged from the therapists were negative effects that led to sadness and contempt. The results also showed that the therapists requested guidelines and care programs specifically aimed for children and adolescent who are exposed for incest. Research is needed to produce evidence-based treatment methods that can create guidelines for therapists in the field.More research is needed focusing on how therapists are affected by affects that occur in treatment with child and adolescent who are exposed for incest.

The primary objective of this research is to model and optimize wastewater treatment process in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). As the treatment process is complex, its operations pose challenges. Traditional physics-based and mathematical- models have limitations in predicting the behavior of the wastewater process and optimization of its operations. Automated control and information technology enables continuous collection of data. The collected data contains process information allowing to predict and optimize the process. Although the data offered by the WWTP is plentiful, it has not been fully used to extract meaningful information to improve performance of the plant. A data-driven approach is promising in identifying useful patterns and models using algorithms versed in statistics and computational intelligence. Successful data-mining applications have been reported in business, manufacturing, science, and engineering. The focus of this research is to model and optimize the wastewater treatment process and ultimately improve efficiency of WWTPs. To maintain the effluent quality, the influent flow rate, the influent pollutants including the total suspended solids (TSS) and CBOD, are predicted in short-term and long-term to provide information to efficiently operate the treatment process. To reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency, the process of biogas production, activated sludge process and pumping station are modeled and optimized with evolutionary computation algorithms. Modeling and optimization of wastewater treatment processes faces three major challenges. The first one is related to the data. As wastewater treatment includes physical, chemical, and biological processes, and instruments collecting large volumes of data. Many variables in the dataset are strongly coupled. The data is noisy, uncertain, and incomplete. Therefore, several preprocessing algorithms should be used to preprocess the data, reduce its dimensionality, and determine import variables. The second challenge is in the temporal nature of the process. Different data-mining algorithms are used to obtain accurate models. The last challenge is the optimization of the process models. As the models are usually highly nonlinear and dynamic, novel evolutionary computational algorithms are used. This research addresses these three challenges. The major contribution of this research is in modeling and optimizing the wastewater treatment process with a data-driven approach. The process model built is then optimized with evolutionary computational algorithms to find the optimal solutions for improving process efficiency and reducing energy consumption.

L'objectif de cette étude est de développer un procédé hybride qui combine à lacoagulation, la floculation et le procédé de flottation dans un hydroclone pour réaliser letraitement de l'eau. Le développement sert à déterminer la caractérisationhydrodynamique ainsi que les conditions optimales pour réaliser le traitement de l'eau.L'étude de caractérisation hydrodynamique est réalisée à l’aide d’une simulationnumérique (Computational Fluid Dynamics). Le travail expérimental a été réalisé à l’aidede la technique dite de l'échographie Doppler afin d’étudier l'hydrodynamique. Lesrésultats ont servi à valider la technique expérimentale « méthode de la goutte d’huile » et les connaissances de base expliquant les phénomènes du procédé hybride. La technique de diffraction du laser est utilisée pour déterminer la taille des micro-bulles ainsi que les paramètres qui affectent leur taille.Le travail expérimental sur le développement d'un pilot hybride est étudié avec del'eau synthèse et de l'eau naturelle. L'objectif de cette étude est d'appliquer ce procédéhybride pour le traitement de l'eau. Différents paramètres tels que les caractéristiques del'eau brute, le type et la concentration de coagulant et de floculant, la fraction de l'air et ledébit d'entrée, ont été modifiés à plusieurs reprises afin d'en déterminer les effets sur leprocédé hybride / The aim of this study is to develop a hybrid process which combines withcoagulation, floculation and flotation process in a hydroclone for water treatmentprocess. The development is for characterization the hydrodynamics of this process andto find the optimum condition for water treatment process.The hydrodynamics characterization study is carried out by the numericalsimulation (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and experimental work by Dopplerultrasound velocimetry technique to study the hydrodynamics for the further research.The results are used for validating the oil droplet experimental technique and to be thebasis knowledge to explain the phenomena in the hybrid process. Laser diffractiontechnique is involved for determining the micro bubbles size and also study on theparameter affects to the size. The experimental work of a developed hybrid pilot plant is studied with synthesisraw water and natural river water. The objective of this study is to apply this hybridprocess for the water treatment. The parameters have been varied in many operatingconditions to indicate the separation and the water treatment phenomena such as rawwater characteristic, coagulant - floculant type and concentration, air fraction and inletflow rate

In this research, the adsorptive capacities of kenaf, peat moss, hay, and peanut hulls were evaluated for the removal of TNT and 2,4-DCP from aqueous solutions. Adsorbent loading capacities determined by batch studies were verified by continuous column experiments. It was found that the adsorption capacity of the candidate adsorbents were significantly lower than granular activated carbon (GAC). The impact of surface modification techniques, such as surface oxidation, were evaluated to study the effect on adsorption capacity. At lower equilibrium concentrations of the adsorbate (less than 10 ppb), surface oxidation by ozone showed an increase in the adsorption capacity. The same trend was not observed with peroxone and ultrasound pretreatment. The adsorbent requirement for treating water contaminated with TNT and 2,4-DCP were calculated based on the adsorptive capacity of the adsorbents. Though the adsorbent requirements for the candidate adsorbents were considerably higher than granular activated carbon, the adsorbent requirement costs for most of the candidate adsorbents tested were competitive when compared to GAC costs.

In order to continue to improve the effectiveness of psychotherapy, researchers must identify key change processes. Unfortunately, there are disparate views in the field about the relative importance and potency of specific techniques versus relationship factors. Few measures have been developed to examine the relative contribution of these factors, particularly for child-focused treatment. The Common-Factor Therapist Competence Scale for Youth Psychotherapy (COMP-CF) was developed to address this deficit. For this study, 142 video-taped sessions of child CBT for anxiety were observed and rated by independent coders using the COMP-CF. The measure demonstrated good reliability and internal consistency. Significant between-therapist and between-session differences were noted that warrant further exploration. The COMP-CF also demonstrated initial validity when compared to other observer-rater measures of therapeutic processes such as alliance, CBT-specific competence, and adherence. Recommendations for further development and refinement are discussed. Used in conjunction with adherence measures, the competence measure developed here may help improve our understanding of the therapeutic process.

Le secteur médical est un domaine dynamique en constante évolution, nécessitant des améliorations continues de ses processus métier et une assistance intelligente aux acteurs impliqués. Ce travail de thèse se focalise sur le processus de soins nécessitant l’implantation d’une prothèse. La particularité de ce processus est qu’il met en interaction deux cycles de vie appartenant respectivement au domaine médical et celui de l’ingénierie. Ceci implique plusieurs actions de collaboration entre des acteurs métier très variés. Cependant, des problèmes de communication et de partage de connaissances peuvent exister en raison de l’hétérogénéité de la sémantique utilisée et des pratiques métiers propres à chaque domaine.Dans ce contexte, ce travail de thèse s’intéresse aux apports des approches d’ingénierie des connaissances et de gestion du cycle de vie du produit pour répondre aux problématiques sous-jacentes au processus de soins médicaux nécessitant l’implantation d’une prothèse. Pour se faire, un cadre conceptuel est proposé pour analyser les connexions entre les cycles de vie de maladie (domaine Médical)et de la prothèse (domaine d’ingénierie). Sur la base de cette analyse, un modèle sémantique sous forme d’une ontologie pour le domaine médical est définit dans le cadre de la construction d’une approche PLM à base de connaissances. L’application de cette proposition est démontrée à travers l’implémentation de quelques fonctions utiles dans un outil PLM du marché nommé AUDROS. / Medical sector is a dynamic domain that requires continuous improvement of its business processes and assistance to the actors involved. This research focuses on the medical treatment process requiring prosthesis implantation. The specificity of such a process is that it makes in connection two lifecyclesbelonging to medical and engineering domains respectively. This implies several collaborative actions between stake holders from heterogeneous disciplines. However, several problems of communication and knowledge sharing may occur because of the variety of semantic used and the specific business practices in each domain. In this context, this PhD work is interested in the potential of knowledge engineering and product lifecycle management approaches to cope with the above problems. To do so, a conceptual framework is proposed for the analysis of links between the disease (medicaldomain) and the prosthesis (engineering domain) lifecycles. Based on this analysis, a semantic ontology model for medical domain is defined as part of a global knowledge-based PLM approach proposition. The application of the proposition is demonstrated through an implementation of useful function in the AUDROS PLM software.

Environmental impact of fullerenes such as C60 and carbon nanotubes is of great concern due to the projection for widespread application and mass production in near future. Understanding their fate in the aqueous phase is prerequisite for accurate assessment of their ecotoxicological and human health effects upon unintended release to environment. This research addresses outstanding questions related to the behavior of fullerenes in natural and engineered water environments. Specifically, this research focuses on investigating: 1) the stability of fullerenes in the natural water, 2) interaction between fullerenes and natural organic matter (NOM), and 3) treatability of water stable fullerenes by conventional water treatment process. The experimental results suggested that NOM readily interacts with fullerenes leading to the formation of water stable fullerene suspensions. The adsorptive interaction between NOM and fullerenes was largely affected by NOM characteristics as well as water quality parameters. The fate of fullerenes in water environments was also greatly influenced by the types of fullerenes (e.g., single walled carbon nanotubes, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and C60) and the pathway they are introduced into the aqueous phase. These water stable fullerene suspensions were found to be relatively well removed by conventional water treatment processes while the presence of NOM could negatively impact the removal efficiency. The outcomes of this study collectively imply that the dispersion of fullerenes in the natural water can occur beyond the level predicted only based on their extreme hydrophobicity and NOM plays a critical role on the fate of fullerenes both in natural and engineered water environments.