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M.B.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The aim of this study was to develop an optimized process for the manufacturing of hexazinone and to validate laboratory results on a larger scale, in this case a miniplant. Patent protection on hexazinone has expired and the objective of this study was to improve on the known commercial process to enable the cost-effective manufacturing of hexazinone. The generic market is highly competitive and hexazinone can be sourced from several suppliers at low cost. Ownership of improved technology for the production of hexazinone can give Dow AgroSciences a competitive advantage in the generic market. Various routes for the manufacture of hexazinone are reviewed and important aspects of scale-up is considered and summarized. The known commercial five-step synthesis was optimized on a laboratory scale, using experimental design where applicable. The optimized procedures were scaled to the mini-plant. Significant improvements over patent results were realized for the process efficiencies. This is in particular true for the synthesis of N-ethoxycarbonyl-N,N,Ntrimethylguanidine in step 3. Employing experimental design to optimize the reaction was instrumental in meeting the objective of the study. Higher overall yields lead to substantial cost savings because of more efficient raw material conversion to value adding products. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die vervaardigingsproses vir heksasinoon te optimizeer. Die geldigheid van die laboratorium resultate is bevestig op ‘n groter skaal, in hierdie geval, op ‘n loodsaanleg met ‘n vyftig liter kapasiteit. Patente op die bekende vervaardigingsproses van heksasinoon het verval. Die mark vir generiese produkte is hoogs kompeterend en heksasinoon kan teen lae koste aangekoop word van verskeie vervaardigers. ‘n Betekenisvolle verbetering op die bestaande tegnologie kan aan Dow AgroSciences ‘n kompeterende voordeel besorg in die generiese heksasinoon mark. Die studie gee ‘n oorsig oor verskeie roetes vir die vervaardiging van heksasinoon en belangrike aspekte van opskalering. Die bekende vyf-stap sintese van heksasinoon is suksesvol geoptimiseer in die laboratorium met behulp van eksperimentele ontwerp. Die optimum kondisies is bevestig op ‘n loodsaanleg. Die gebruik van eksperimentele ontwerp om die vervaardigingsproses te optimiseer, het gelei tot belangrike verbetering in die tegnologie. Die totale opbrengs van die vyf-stap sintese oorskry gedokumenteerde waardes. Die geoptimiseerde proses kan lei tot betekenisvolle besparings deur die effektiewe omskakeling van uitgangstowwe na ‘n waardevolle produk. / Prof. F. Van Heerden

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide (Kishore et al., 2011), therefore how to prevent and treat this condition is of great importance to health care professionals and patients. Patients struggle to afford these medications which can ultimately influence their health outcome. Treatment of cardiovascular disease conditions may require several drugs and this causes an increase in health cost to the patient (Burapadaja Siriporn et al., 2007).The promotion of the use of generic medication and generic substitution is seen as one of the approaches to improve access to cardiovascular medications (Kishore et al., 2011; Kesselheim et al., 2008). Generic medications play an important role in reducing health care costs and in increasing access to healthcare. A large number of branded or innovator drugs and molecules are no longer protected by their patents or will be reaching patent expiration soon. Therefore there is an increased interest in research on generic drug competition and its effect on the market. Once generics enter the market, they have many effects on areas such as market share, prices and quantities sold (Gonzalez et al., 2008). The objective of this study was to determine the usage patterns of generic cardiovascular medications and possible cost savings that can be achieved by maximum generic substitution in the private community pharmacy health care environment in the Johannesburg area. Ten oral solid drug pairs experiencing generic substitution were investigated at four private community pharmacies that provided pharmaceutical products and services. The study was a quantitative, retrospective study of medical claims. Data on computerized drug claims were provided by a South African pharmaceutical service provider. Data was extracted and analysed of patients who receive one or more cardiovascular drugs for the period of June 2009 to May 2011. The results of this study showed that the cardiovascular (CVS) medications under study accounted for 21 817 of the total number of 282 109 items dispensed at all pharmacies for the study period which equals to 7.7%. Of the total of 21 817, the innovator CVS drugs accounted for a volume of 6 527 (29.9%) and the generics 15 290 (70.1%) of all the study CVS items dispensed. There was a decline in terms of percentage of innovator products (9.7%) and a corresponding increase in generic products by the same percentage from beginning to end of the study period in terms of items dispensed. The total cost of the study CVS innovator and generic drugs was R3 249k. This accounted for 7.4% of the total cost of all items dispensed for all the study pharmacies which was R43 672k. Of the total of R3 249k, a cost of R1 240k (38.2%) accounted for the innovator items and R2 009k (61.8%) accounted for the generic items. The average cost per CVS item for the entire study period was R149. The innovator average cost per item dispensed was R190 (±R93.28) and for generic R131 (±R59.55). There was a 9.9% decrease in percentage of innovator total cost and a corresponding 9.9% increase in percentage of generic cost from the beginning until end of the study period. The following was also revealed: the average cost per item decreased by R18 (from R156 during P1 to R138 for P6). The average cost per innovator item dispensed decreased by R10 (from R191 during P1 to R181 for P6) and the average cost per generic item decreased by R14 (from R138 during P1 to R124 for P6). The cost prevalence index (CPI) for innovator items was fairly expensive compared to generic medicine because the value of CPI was larger than 1. Potential cost savings of R576k would have been achieved if the least expensive generic was substituted during each period for the entire study period. If the most expensive generic was substituted, the potential cost savings would have been R448k. (Note: k =1000). Recommendations in this field of study for future research were also done.

The object oriented programming style used in the Smalltalk and Actor languages is available in Lisp Machine Lisp, and used by the Lisp Machine software system. It is used to perform generic operations on objects. Part of its implementation is simply a convention in procedure calling style; part is a powerful language feature, called Flavors, for defining abstract objects. This chapter attempts to explain what programming with objects and with message passing means, the various means of implementing these in Lisp Machine Lisp, and when you should use them. It assumes no prior knowledge of any other languages.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the perceptions of mental health professionals regarding the impact of female sexual assault on heterosexual romantic relationships. Specifically, the implications of non-partner sexual assault were investigated. A qualitative approach was selected in order to examine this topic. Data was generated through semi-structured interviews with five mental health professionals and subsequently analyzed using a thematic analysis approach offered by Braun and Clarke (2006). Four broad themes materialized from this analysis to effectively capture the data, including: a) implications of individual processing, b) significant relationship changes, c) response to external variables, and d) pre-assault functioning affects post-assault response. The resultant implications of these findings are discussed in light of relevant research. Practice implications and future research directions are also highlighted. / Counselling Psychology

A variety of modelling methods has been used to modelconstruction processes and projects, either during normalproject planning or for process re-engineering efforts orresearch. One common method, which is widely used byconstruction industry practitioners, is scheduling. In additionto schedules, some companies have used a simple box-and-arrowmethod, which graphically resembles schedules, for analysingtheir working processes. More formal methods such as IDEF0 havebeen used in re-engineering projects and by researchers. Allthese methods are limited in scope and cannot be used to modelall the aspects of the processes that practitioners areinterested in. A new generic construction process modelling method, GEPM,was developed to overcome the deficiencies of the currentmethods. GEPM uses object-oriented principles, and has borrowedfeatures, such as activity, task, and temporal dependency, frommethods like IDEF0 and scheduling. GEPM is flexible in thesense that the conceptual model can be changed to achieveadditional special features. This capability is also supportedby the database implementation, which enables users to interactwith the developed process models through views that representpartial models. The views support the IDEF0, scheduling, andsimple flow methods. There are, though, rules for how toconvert between the partial models through views. The evaluation of GEPM showed that more modelling features,i.e. modelling power, are obtained in comparison with theearlier methods. One of the essential features of GEPM is thedistinction between activities and tasks. Activities define howan action will be carried out, generally using predeterminedinputs to achieve a predetermined output, whereas tasks areactivities with additionally specified starting and finishingtimes, duration and location. Moreover, a task has atype-attribute that refers to an activity where its overalltemplate is defined. Before the actual evaluation, case material from a realproject was preliminarily tested with GEPM along with theprototype application. It turned out that some additions wereneeded to the conceptual model of GEPM and to the prototypeapplication. GEPM can be used for process improvement, processmanagement, and for enhancing communication in a constructionprocess. One usage scenario for GEPM is to define qualitysystems and reference models, using the activity sub-model andstoring the results in the GEPM database. A project-specificmodel can be derived from the reference model using conversionrules, and it eventually turns into a project specific-schedulewith tasks. <b>Keywords:</b>process, modelling, generic, method, model,database, view

<p>A variety of modelling methods has been used to modelconstruction processes and projects, either during normalproject planning or for process re-engineering efforts orresearch. One common method, which is widely used byconstruction industry practitioners, is scheduling. In additionto schedules, some companies have used a simple box-and-arrowmethod, which graphically resembles schedules, for analysingtheir working processes. More formal methods such as IDEF0 havebeen used in re-engineering projects and by researchers. Allthese methods are limited in scope and cannot be used to modelall the aspects of the processes that practitioners areinterested in.</p><p>A new generic construction process modelling method, GEPM,was developed to overcome the deficiencies of the currentmethods. GEPM uses object-oriented principles, and has borrowedfeatures, such as activity, task, and temporal dependency, frommethods like IDEF0 and scheduling. GEPM is flexible in thesense that the conceptual model can be changed to achieveadditional special features. This capability is also supportedby the database implementation, which enables users to interactwith the developed process models through views that representpartial models. The views support the IDEF0, scheduling, andsimple flow methods. There are, though, rules for how toconvert between the partial models through views.</p><p>The evaluation of GEPM showed that more modelling features,i.e. modelling power, are obtained in comparison with theearlier methods. One of the essential features of GEPM is thedistinction between activities and tasks. Activities define howan action will be carried out, generally using predeterminedinputs to achieve a predetermined output, whereas tasks areactivities with additionally specified starting and finishingtimes, duration and location. Moreover, a task has atype-attribute that refers to an activity where its overalltemplate is defined.</p><p>Before the actual evaluation, case material from a realproject was preliminarily tested with GEPM along with theprototype application. It turned out that some additions wereneeded to the conceptual model of GEPM and to the prototypeapplication.</p><p>GEPM can be used for process improvement, processmanagement, and for enhancing communication in a constructionprocess. One usage scenario for GEPM is to define qualitysystems and reference models, using the activity sub-model andstoring the results in the GEPM database. A project-specificmodel can be derived from the reference model using conversionrules, and it eventually turns into a project specific-schedulewith tasks.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>process, modelling, generic, method, model,database, view</p>

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drexel University, 2009. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-126).