This study investigates the restructuring and alignment processes within the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation. The nature of the study was neither inclusive nor an exclusive study accommodate every input of the sub-directorate, and review the staff capacity to meet with set objectives of the Department. It also investigates some of the problematic areas shortsighted by the restructuring and alignment processes in the hub and areas of concerns which included: Accommodation (office space and sports fields); support of staff by senior managers; contracting and performance reviews; transport; progress review meeting of the hub system; budgeting and its implementation; equipment demand; administration tools leading severe problems; contracting of contract workers leading severe problems; and overtime and excessive workload in the hubs. It was showed in the research that problems occurred due to the inappropriate alignment of internal programmes complimented with inadequate human resources strategic planning and implementation. The problem of restructuring and alignment are due to oversight on the processes and implementation of the programmes at the foundational level, the lack of follow-ups on Service Level Agreement (SLA) with local government (still not signed), interdepartmental and intergovernmental integration strategy not in place, inadequate facilities for offices, consultation with community and stakeholders which only took place at the later stage. The respondents seriously commented regarding the organisational structure that has been changed thrice since its implementation. This led to overcrowding of staff hubs, with no career path strategy. Further causes are lack of alignment of human resource management strategy with programmes, and structural arrangement of all the departmental sub-directorates, confusing the implementation of programmes and the reporting systems. Considering the challenges of restructuring and alignment at the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation, the study concludes that there is a need for further restructuring and alignment of the human resource strategy to manage the objectives of the Department effectively and efficiently. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

This study investigates the restructuring and alignment processes within the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation. The nature of the study was neither inclusive nor an exclusive study accommodate every input of the sub-directorate, and review the staff capacity to meet with set objectives of the Department. It also investigates some of the problematic areas shortsighted by the restructuring and alignment processes in the hub and areas of concerns which included: Accommodation (office space and sports fields); support of staff by senior managers; contracting and performance reviews; transport; progress review meeting of the hub system; budgeting and its implementation; equipment demand; administration tools leading severe problems; contracting of contract workers leading severe problems; and overtime and excessive workload in the hubs. It was showed in the research that problems occurred due to the inappropriate alignment of internal programmes complimented with inadequate human resources strategic planning and implementation. The problem of restructuring and alignment are due to oversight on the processes and implementation of the programmes at the foundational level, the lack of follow-ups on Service Level Agreement (SLA) with local government (still not signed), interdepartmental and intergovernmental integration strategy not in place, inadequate facilities for offices, consultation with community and stakeholders which only took place at the later stage. The respondents seriously commented regarding the organisational structure that has been changed thrice since its implementation. This led to overcrowding of staff hubs, with no career path strategy. Further causes are lack of alignment of human resource management strategy with programmes, and structural arrangement of all the departmental sub-directorates, confusing the implementation of programmes and the reporting systems. Considering the challenges of restructuring and alignment at the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation, the study concludes that there is a need for further restructuring and alignment of the human resource strategy to manage the objectives of the Department effectively and efficiently. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

Modelling and simulation are essential to modern research in cell biology. This thesis follows a journey starting from the construction of new stochastic methods for discrete biochemical systems to using them to simulate a population of interacting haematopoietic stem cell lineages. The first part of this thesis is on discrete stochastic methods. We develop two new methods, the stochastic extrapolation framework and the Stochastic Bulirsch-Stoer methods. These are based on the Richardson extrapolation technique, which is widely used in ordinary differential equation solvers. We believed that it would also be useful in the stochastic regime, and this turned out to be true. The stochastic extrapolation framework is a scheme that admits any stochastic method with a fixed stepsize and known global error expansion. It can improve the weak order of the moments of these methods by cancelling the leading terms in the global error. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that this is the case up to second order, and postulate that this also follows for higher order. Our simulations show that extrapolation can greatly improve the accuracy of a numerical method. The Stochastic Bulirsch-Stoer method is another highly accurate stochastic solver. Furthermore, using numerical simulations we find that it is able to better retain its high accuracy for larger timesteps than competing methods, meaning it remains accurate even when simulation time is speeded up. This is a useful property for simulating the complex systems that researchers are often interested in today. The second part of the thesis is concerned with modelling a haematopoietic stem cell system, which consists of many interacting niche lineages. We use a vectorised tau-leap method to examine the differences between a deterministic and a stochastic model of the system, and investigate how coupling niche lineages affects the dynamics of the system at the homeostatic state as well as after a perturbation. We find that larger coupling allows the system to find the optimal steady state blood cell levels. In addition, when the perturbation is applied randomly to the entire system, larger coupling also results in smaller post-perturbation cell fluctuations compared to non-coupled cells. In brief, this thesis contains four main sets of contributions: two new high-accuracy discrete stochastic methods that have been numerically tested, an improvement that can be used with any leaping method that introduces vectorisation as well as how to use a common stepsize adapting scheme, and an investigation of the effects of coupling lineages in a heterogeneous population of haematopoietic stem cell niche lineages.

Work describes the relationship between structure and mechanical properties in case of hybrid mixtures. They are composed from polyurethane matrices (eventually polyurethane-urea or polyurethane-inorganic filler mixtures), different rubber fractions as filler and eventually reinforcement made from PET monofilaments. Mechanical behaviour was studied by tensile testing. Studied mechanical properties include tensile modulus, ultimate strength and strain and also specific energy need neccessary for ultimate strength achievement. Prepared materials are naturally porous. Therefore their mechanical behaviour has to be described generally for porous composites. The porosity occurence means, that it is difficult to describe them by models valid for mechanical behaviour (mainly elastic modulus) of nonporous composites. Models are also based on idealized structures on microscopic level. In case of porous composites, it is very difficult to create any idealized structure. The structure is changed with modifications of composition (change of components or their rates). These conditions have lead to utilizing of different approach how to describe the relationship between structure and mentioned mechanical properties. The chosen approach comes from knewledge about structural parametres coming from porosity. Structural parameters describe the structure on macroscopic level. They include interspace volume (volume lying between filler particles), interspace filling (how the matrix fills the interspace volume) and matrix volume fraction. Proposed parameters are used in relations, where they are fitted by exponents to interlay values of chosen mechanical properties for composites containing discrete matrix and filler. Found exponents are then described by properties of matrices to obtain relations describing properties of filled porous materials. Very similar approach was chosen for description in the case of reinforced composites. Proposed relation are potentially valid for materials containing binding matrix, infinity count of fillers and one kind of reinforcement.

The thesis explores the notion of physicality in selected novels of Ernest Hemingway and Francis Scott Fitzgerald, using the works of Jean Baudrillard as its theoretical base. The text seeks to uncover the significance of a human body in the novels through a detailed observation of the depicted characters, focusing mainly on the role of the body as an emblem that reflects not only its owner's individual battles, but also the transgressive processes taking place in the society. The study assumes that the works written by the authors of the Lost Generation capture the gradual onset of capitalism and consumerism, and thus they reflect the emergence of the consumer society, a social order that became Baudrillard's main subject of study. The main aim of the thesis is thence to explore the human body as a reflection of major societal changes and uncover the methods in which the characters use their bodies to define their own position in the newly arising system. Following the theoretical introduction, the analysis firstly examines fashion and demonstrates its capability to either unify the members of the consumer society through their shared desire to follow specific trends, or alternatively hierarchically divide the consumers based on their dissimilar approaches to consumption. Secondly, the thesis...

Cell separation based on antibody-targeted magnetic beads has been widely used in a number of applications in immunology, microbiology, oncology and more recently, in the isolation of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in cancer patients. Although other cell separation techniques such as size based cell filtration and Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting have also been in popular use, immunomagnetic cell isolation possesses the advantages of high throughput, good specificity and reduced cell stress. However, certain fundamental features of the cell-bead interface are still unknown. In this study, some of the key features of the cell-bead synapse were investigated in an effort to improve the efficiency of immunomagnetic cell isolation and reduce its dependence on high expressing cell surface markers. A clinically relevant antibody fragment (Fab) against tyrosine kinase receptor HER2 was applied to study the immunomagnetic isolation of HER2 expressing cancer cells. First, the minimum number of target proteins required on a cell for it to be isolated was determined. Second, the importance of the primary antibody affinity was investigated, using a series of Fab mutants with known kinetics and it was shown that despite starting with sub-nanomolar affinity, improving Fab affinity increased cell isolation. Third, the influence of the connection between the primary antibody and the bead was studied by comparing Fab bridged to the magnetic bead via a secondary antibody, Protein L or streptavidin; the high affinity biotin-streptavidin linkage increased isolation sensitivity by an order of magnitude. Fourth, the effect of manipulating cytoskeletal polymerization and cell membrane fluidity using small molecules was tested; cholesterol depletion decreased isolation and cholesterol loading increased cell isolation. The insights from these observations were then applied to isolate a panel of cell lines expressing a wide range of surface HER2. While the standard approach isolated less than 10% of low HER2 expressing cancer cells from spiked rabbit and human blood, our enhanced approach with the optimized cholesterol level, antibody affinity and antibody-bead linkage could specifically isolate more than 80% of such cells. The final part of this work focussed on developing an antibody clamp that could physically restrict the antigen within its binding site on the Fab and prevent antigen dissociation, using the HER2-Fab complex and the anti-myc peptide antibody 9E10. Work from this thesis provides useful insights into the molecular and cellular parameters guiding immunomagnetic cell isolation and can be used to extend the range of target receptors and biomarkers for tumour cell isolation and other types of cell separation, thereby enhancing the power and capacity of this approach.

Multi functional health monitoring wearable devices are quite prominent these days. Usually these devices are battery-operated and consequently are limited by their battery life (from few hours to a few weeks depending on the application). Of late, it was realized that these devices, which are currently being operated at fixed voltage and frequency, are capable of operating at multiple voltages and frequencies. By switching these voltages and frequencies to lower values based upon power requirements, these devices can achieve tremendous benefits in the form of energy savings. Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) techniques have proven to be handy in this situation for an efficient trade-off between energy and timely behavior. Within imec, wearable devices make use of the indigenously developed MUSEIC v2 (Multi Sensor Integrated circuit version 2.0). This system is optimized for efficient and accurate collection, processing, and transfer of data from multiple (health) sensors. MUSEIC v2 has limited means in controlling the voltage and frequency dynamically. In this thesis we explore how traditional DVFS techniques can be applied to the MUSEIC v2. Experiments were conducted to find out the optimum power modes to efficiently operate and also to scale up-down the supply voltage and frequency. Considering the overhead caused when switching voltage and frequency, transition analysis was also done. Real-time and non real-time benchmarks were implemented based on these techniques and their performance results were obtained and analyzed. In this process, several state of the art scheduling algorithms and scaling techniques were reviewed in identifying a suitable technique. Using our proposed scaling technique implementation, we have achieved 86.95% power reduction in average, in contrast to the conventional way of the MUSEIC v2 chip’s processor operating at a fixed voltage and frequency. Techniques that include light sleep and deep sleep mode were also studied and implemented, which tested the system’s capability in accommodating Dynamic Power Management (DPM) techniques that can achieve greater benefits. A novel approach for implementing the deep sleep mechanism was also proposed and found that it can obtain up to 71.54% power savings, when compared to a traditional way of executing deep sleep mode. / Nuförtiden så har multifunktionella bärbara hälsoenheter fått en betydande roll. Dessa enheter drivs vanligtvis av batterier och är därför begränsade av batteritiden (från ett par timmar till ett par veckor beroende på tillämpningen). På senaste tiden har det framkommit att dessa enheter som används vid en fast spänning och frekvens kan användas vid flera spänningar och frekvenser. Genom att byta till lägre spänning och frekvens på grund av effektbehov så kan enheterna få enorma fördelar när det kommer till energibesparing. Dynamisk skalning av spänning och frekvens-tekniker (såkallad Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling, DVFS) har visat sig vara användbara i detta sammanhang för en effektiv avvägning mellan energi och beteende. Hos Imec så använder sig bärbara enheter av den internt utvecklade MUSEIC v2 (Multi Sensor Integrated circuit version 2.0). Systemet är optimerat för effektiv och korrekt insamling, bearbetning och överföring av data från flera (hälso) sensorer. MUSEIC v2 har begränsad möjlighet att styra spänningen och frekvensen dynamiskt. I detta examensarbete undersöker vi hur traditionella DVFS-tekniker kan appliceras på MUSEIC v2. Experiment utfördes för att ta reda på de optimala effektlägena och för att effektivt kunna styra och även skala upp matningsspänningen och frekvensen. Eftersom att ”overhead” skapades vid växling av spänning och frekvens gjordes också en övergångsanalys. Realtidsoch icke-realtidskalkyler genomfördes baserat på dessa tekniker och resultaten sammanställdes och analyserades. I denna process granskades flera toppmoderna schemaläggningsalgoritmer och skalningstekniker för att hitta en lämplig teknik. Genom att använda vår föreslagna skalningsteknikimplementering har vi uppnått 86,95% effektreduktion i jämförelse med det konventionella sättet att MUSEIC v2-chipets processor arbetar med en fast spänning och frekvens. Tekniker som inkluderar lätt sömn och djupt sömnläge studerades och implementerades, vilket testade systemets förmåga att tillgodose DPM-tekniker (Dynamic Power Management) som kan uppnå ännu större fördelar. En ny metod för att genomföra den djupa sömnmekanismen föreslogs också och enligt erhållna resultat så kan den ge upp till 71,54% lägre energiförbrukning jämfört med det traditionella sättet att implementera djupt sömnläge.

Cette recherche a pour but d’identifier une personnalité féminine révisionniste dans le modernisme littéraire américain. Cette personnalité révisionniste a pour nom «American Eve» et défie le «American Adam» qui est un personnage mythique patriarcal de R.W.B. Lewis provenant du dix-neuvième siècle. Cette conceptualisation est accomplie à l’aide d’une analyse socio-critique et comparative des trois protagonistes féminins dans les romans modernes The Awakening (1899) de Kate Chopin, The Sun Also Rises (1926) d’Ernest Hemingway, et The Great Gatsby (1925) de F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ma construction de cette personnalité féminine est divisée en trois chapitres, chacun étant dédié à un protagoniste en particulier. En comparant ces personnages littéraires sur un plan socio-critique et féministe, je permets à mon étude d’établir en quoi les personnages en question contribuent ou ne contribuent pas à la personnalité de «American Eve». Cette approche comparative est un excellent moyen d’évaluer l’évolution du potentiel révisionniste de la femme au vingtième siècle et les différentes façons par lesquelles elle emploie ce pouvoir.

For many years, community colleges that chose to offer community college baccalaureate (CCB) programs were looked upon in a negative light (Rice, 2015). However, as the need for specialized baccalaureates within specific fields and job markets have continued to grow (McKee, 2005), CCB programs are becoming more widely accepted throughout the United States. In spite of this paradigm shift, Mississippi is one of the remaining states that have not embraced the idea of CCB programs, in spite of its statistical deficiency in regards to baccalaureate degree holding citizens (Williams, 2010). The focus of this study was to explore the perceptions of community college administrators in Mississippi with regards to the influence of CCB programs to the community college mission of institutions in their state. This study indicates that administrators in Mississippi recognize the benefits of offering CCB programs, but do not want CCB programs to take away from the well-established statewide higher education system through mission creep. Many of the strong position statements received overwhelmingly neutral responses. In contrast, Administrators who chose to give their opinion indicated that they are not familiar with how CCB programs are implemented, and do not believe that Mississippi is ready for CCB programs across the state. However, respondents felt that the community college mission is always evolving, should meet students’ needs, and varies from location to location. The findings also show that administrators are favorable to the piloting of CCB programs at a few (1-2) institutions, even though they believe the programs will take funding away from current programs and do not want community colleges evolving into 4-year institutions. The study also concludes that there is a significant difference between institution size and survey questions #18 and #20. There is also a significant difference between length of time in the community college sector and survey questions #15, #17, and #18.

As depicted in Chapter I, 2-oxoglutarate- (2OG) dependent oxygenases are ubiquitous in living systems and display a wide range of cellular functions, spanning metabolism, transcription, and translation. Although functionally diverse, the 2OG oxygenases share a high degree of structural similarities between their catalytic sites. From a medicinal chemistry point of view, the combination of biological diversity and structural similarity presents a rather challenging task for the development of selective small molecules for functional studies in vivo. The non-selective metal chelator 8-hydroxyquinoline (8HQ) was used as a template for the generation of tool compound <b>I</b> for the KDM4 subfamily of histone demethylases via application of the Betti reaction. Structural analogue <b>II</b> was used as the corresponding negative control (Figure A). These compounds were characterised in vitro against a range of 2OG oxygenases and subsequently used for studies in cells. <b>I</b> displays selectivity for KDM4 and increases the level of the H3K9me3 histone mark in cells. It has an effect on the post-translational modification pattern of histone H3, but not other histones, and reduces the viability of lung cancer cells, but not normal lung cells, derived from the same patient. <b>I</b> also stabilises hypoxia-inducable factor HIF in cells via a mechanism which seems to be independent from prolyl hydroxylase inhibition. This work is described in Chapters II and III. The chemical biology research in epigenetics is complemented by qualitative analysis conducted in the social sciences at Said Business School. With a global view on how innovation occurs and may actively be fostered, Chapter IV focuses on the potential of epigenetics in drug discovery and how this process may actively be promoted within the framework of open innovation. Areas of focus include considerations of incremental and disruptive technology; how to claim, demarcate, and control the market; how knowledge brokering occurs; and insights about process, management, organisation, and culture of open innovation. In contrast to the open-skies approach adopted for the development of a tool compound in Chapters II and III, a focused-library approach was taken for the generation of a tool compound for the OGFOD1 ribosomal prolyl hydroxylase. The development of a suitable in vitro activity assay for OGFOD1 in Chapter V enabled the development of lead compound <b>III</b> in Chapter VI. <b>III</b> is selective for OGFOD1 against the structurally closely related prolyl hydroxylase PHD2.