Good infrastructure and equitable distribution of resources are critical factors in securing equal health care access to all. Poverty, food production and distribution, water, sanitation, housing, environmental protection and education all impact on health (Lee and Mills, 1983). Despite the multi-dimensional determinants of health and healthcare, one of the most noticeable challenges facing the health care system is that of human resources. Health care systems cannot function optimally without sufficient levels and adequate distribution of health care personnel. Brain drain in South Africa is one of the critical areas of concern according to the Health Minister (Poggenpoel, 2004). Recruitment and retention of health care workers within public health institutions is still one of the most critical challenges facing South Africa. Poor working conditions; limited consumable resources and mismanagement of facilities aggravate the problem of shortage of skilled health care personnel. Limited private practice (LPP) is seen as one of the many mechanisms to retain health care personnel. Limited Private Practice or moonlighting allows for government or state employees to perform private duties within certain time parameters. LPP is common in many developing countries, including South Africa. This study focuses on the health professionals engaging in limited private practice in South Africa. Remunerative Work Outside Public Sector (RWOPS) is potentially an alternative term used for LPP in South Africa. The study focuses on the evolutionary process of the RWOPS policy and explores the attitudes and perceptions of the health professionals and management at the Johannesburg Hospital with regards to the RWOPS policy. Policy documents, press releases, international studies and official documents collected through searches on the world-wide-web have provided the bases for the evolutionary process of the study. The perception and attitudes were determined through a selfadministered structured questionnaire. Participants were randomly selected from a list obtained from the Johannesburg Hospital Human Resource personnel. Some participants were selected using snowball sampling. A total of forty two questionnaires were handed out to the respective participants with feedback from thirty five participants. The questionnaire compromised of closed and open ended questions. The sample population consisted of the following participants: · Nursing personnel (these included nurses at all levels, professional nurses, senior nurses, chief nurses as well as representatives from DENOSA) · Doctors (all levels registrars, senior registrars, Head Of Department’s, consultants and reps from SAMA) · Management (the CEO and some human resource personnel responsible for processing the RWOPS applications) · Allied Health Professionals (all levels of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists and the speech and hearing therapists) The results are presented graphically. The data was thematically analyzed allowing the researcher to identify the role of the key actors in the implementation process. The Walt and Gilson (1994) model was used to analyze and assess the RWOPS policy. A pilot study was conducted to determine if the validity and reliability of the questionnaire in determining the role, attitudes and perceptions of these key actors with regards to the RWOPS policy. The pilot study was included in the actual sample population. Management n=2; doctors n=11; nurses n=15 and allied health n=7 were the total number of respondents. Most individuals felt that a shortage of human resource was the most critical challenge. Most participants are not familiar with the RWOPS policy even though seventy seven percent of the participants answered yes to being familiar with the policy. The expectation from many participants was for them to receive substantial financial incentives through the policy. This relates the lack of knowledge on the policy terms. Participants also felt that certain professions and individuals benefited the most from the RWOPS resulting in animosity amongst health care workers at the Johannesburg Hospital. The questionnaires indicated that there was minimal input from all the relevant key actors. This lack of consultation with all relevant actors or perhaps a miscommunication amongst the relevant players may have contributed to the abuse of this policy.

I denna studie undersöks ungdomars uppfattningar och tankar om engelska utanför skolan. Nu för tiden kommer ungdomar i kontakt med engelska överallt och engelska har blivit mer av ett andraspråk än ett främmande språk i dagens samhälle. Syftet med studien är att få en djupare förståelse i vad ungdomar tänker om den engelska som de möter på sin fritid. Fyra niondeklassare har intervjuats och de har svarat på frågor om var de möter engelska på sin fritid, hur de använder språket och hur de lär sig engelska utanför skolan. Deras svar visar att ungdomar kommer i kontakt med engelska genom olika källor, de använder språket beroende på deras intressen och de lär sig engelska på olika sätt utanför skolan. / This study investigates adolescents’ perceptions and thoughts on English outside of school. Adolescents come in contact with English everywhere these days and English has become more of a second language than a foreign language in today’s society. The purpose of this study is to get a deeper understanding of what young people think about the English they meet in their spare time. Four young people who are all ninth-graders were interviewed for the study. They were asked questions about where they meet English in their spare time, how they use the language and how they learn English outside of school. Their responses show that adolescents come in contact with English through different sources, they use the language according to their interests and they all go about learning English in different ways.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att utifrån ett exempel på ett kursupplägg för gymnasiets kurs Historia 1A1 som uppfyller alla styrdokumentens krav, visa på en modell för att undervisa utanför klassrummets väggar, ute i samhället, som kan leda till en avsevärt högre måluppfyllelse. Därvid kan detta exempel även föra fram ännu ett bland tidigare fåtaliga exempel för att hävda behovet av vidare studier av utomhus- eller påplatspedagogik även för de högre åldrarna inom skolväsendet.Detta genom att svara följande frågoställnignar: 1.     Är det möjligt att utarbeta ett realistiskt kursupplägg för gymnasiets kurs Historia 1A1 som uppfyller samtliga styrdokumentens krav där man till övervägande del undervisning utanför klassrummet?2.     Leder ett sådan undervisningssätt i sådana fall även till en högra måluppfyllelse hos eleverna, definierad som i medeltal högre satta betyg på kursens delmål utifrån skolans betygsmatris som bygger på Skolverkets uppsatta mål för kursen?3.     Kan en sådan ökad måluppfyllelse sedermera även antas ligga i linje med vedertagen forskning på området? Utomhus- eller påplatspedagogik har sedan ett antal årtionden varit ett brett och tämligen väl utforskat område inom pedagogiken. Man torde i dagsläget kunna hävda att det finns god evidens för denna pedagogiks styrkor och i vissa fall svagheter. En övervägande del av såväl svensk, nordisk och vidare internationell forskning är samstämmig om att undervisning utanför klassrummet, såväl utomhus som ute i samhället har många vittgående och goda effekter. Forskningen är dessutom mycket omfattande och varierande, dock inriktar sig forskningen nästan helt och hållet på förskolan och grundskolans lägre åldrar. Forskning såväl i Sverige som internationellt av dylik pedagogisk praktik inom skolväsendets högre åldrar (ca.13-18års ålder) saknas dock nästan helt.Vi lyckades genom studien genomföra ett kursupplägg, framtaget genom ett slags snöbollsurval av besöksmål inom regionen kring ett naturbruksgymnasium i Västsverige, med att uppnå en betydligt höjd måluppfyllelse för en klass inom naturbruksprogrammet våren 2019. Detta genom ett utvecklingsarbete som kom att ta formen av en slags aktionsforskning bestående en semistrukturerad observationsstudie med komplett deltagande, i enlighet med hur det definieras i Kristian Säfstens Forskningsmetodik från 2019.Vi utgick ifrån en konstruktivistisk syn på lärandeprocessen, där vi konstruerar vår egen förståelse utifrån våra vardagsföreställningar, det vill säga det vi kan och vet, samt våra tidigare erfarenheter.

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No description available.

Determining the mechanical properties of living cells accurately and repeatably is critical to understanding developmental, disease, and repair biology. The cellular environment is composed of fibrous proteins of a mix of diameters organized in random and aligned configurations. In the past two decades, several methods, including modified atomic force microscopy (AFM) and micro-pipette aspiration have been developed to measure cellular viscoelastic properties at single-cell resolution. We inquired if the fibrous environment affected cellular mechanobiology. Using our non-electrospinning Spinneret based Tunable Engineered Parameters (STEP) fiber manufacturing platform, we developed fused nanonets to measure single-cell forces and viscoelasticity. Using computer-controlled probes, we stretched single cells attached to two-fiber and three-fiber systems precisely and recorded the relaxation response of cells. The viscoelastic properties were determined by fitting the data to the standard linear viscoelastic solid model (SLS), which includes a spring (k0) in parallel with a spring (km)-damper (cm) series. In cases in which cells are seeded on two fibers, we tested hMSCs and BJ-5TA cells, and the viscoelastic components measurements k0, km, and cm are 26.16 ± 3.38 nN/µm, 5.81 ± 0.81 nN/µm, and 41.15 ± 5.97 nN-s/µm, respectively for hMSCs, while the k0, km, and cm, measurements of BJ-5TA cells are 20.02 ± 2.89 nN/µm, 4.62 ± 0.75 nN/µm, and 45.46 ± 6.00 nN-s/µm respectively. Transitioning to the three-fiber system resulted in an overall increase in native contractility of the cells while allowing us to understand how the viscoelastic response was distributed with an increasing number of fibers. Viscoelastic experiments were done twice. First, we pulled on the outermost fiber similar to the two-fiber case. The cell was then allowed to rest for two hours, sufficient time to regain its pre-stretching contractility. The cell was then excited by pulling on the middle fiber. The experimental results of cell seeding on three fibers proved that the viscoelastic property measurements depend on the excitation position. Overall, we present new knowledge on the cellular viscoelasticity of cells attached to ECM-mimicking fibers. / Master of Science / Investigating living cell mechanical properties including the viscoelastic properties of single living cell is critical to understanding developmental, disease, and repair biology. With the advancement of micrometer scale technologies, researchers are able to excite individual living cells. Current methods are mostly based on perturbing cells attached to flat 2D surfaces with limited physiological relevance. Since the native environment of cells is fibrous in nature, we inquired if cellular viscoelasticity could be measured of cells attached to suspended fibers. Using our non-electrospinning Spinneret based Tunable Engineered Parameters (STEP) fiber manufacturing platform, we developed fused nanonets to measure single-cell forces and viscoelasticity. Our suspended, aligned nanonet provides a unique way for us to pull on individual living cells using computercontrolled probes. By controlling the aligned fiber spacing, we are able to determine how many fibers the cells were seeded on. We first measured the viscoelastic properties of human mesenchymal stem cells(hMSCs) and human fibroblast BJ-5TA cells seeded on two fibers. The standard linear solid (SLS) model, which includes a spring in parallel with a spring-damper series, was used to quantitatively analyze the viscoelastic properties of cells. By giving the excitation on one fiber and measuring the cell forces on the other fiber, we calculated the corresponding spring constants and damping coefficients of the model. Then we investigated the viscoelastic properties of hMSCs seeded on three fibers by giving the excitation on the outermost fiber and then the middle fiber. Between the two excitations, the cell was allowed to relax for two hours and regain contractility. Our results confirm that the viscoelastic properties measurements depend on the excitation position. Overall, we present a new fiber-based force measurement system capable of determining the viscoelastic response of cells repeatably.

Cells in the body interact with a predominantly fibrous microenvironment and constantly adapt to changes in their neighboring physiochemical environment, which has implications in developmental and disease biology. A myriad of in vitro platforms including 2D flat and 3D gel substrates with and without anisotropy have demonstrated cellular alterations to subtle changes in topography. Recently, our work using suspended fibers as a new in vitro biological assay has revealed that cells are able to sense and respond to changes in fiber curvature and structural stiffness as evidenced by alterations to cytoskeleton arrangement, including focal adhesion cluster lengths and nucleus shape indices, leading to altered migration speeds. It is hypothesized that these behaviors occur due to modulation of cellular inside-out forces in response to changes in the external fibrous environment (outside-in). Thus, in this study, we investigate the role of fiber curvature and structural stiffness in force modulation of single cells attached to suspended fibers. Using our previously reported non-electrospinning Spinneret based Tunable Engineered Parameters (STEP) fiber manufacturing platform, we present our findings on single cell inside-out and outside-in forces using fibers of three diameters (250 nm, 400 nm and 800 nm) representing a wide range of structural stiffness (3-45 nN/μm). To investigate cellular adaptability to external perturbation, we present the development of a first-of-its-kind force measurement 'nanonet' platform capable of investigating cell adhesion forces in response to symmetric and non-symmetric (injury model) loading. Our combined findings are multi-fold: (i) Cells on suspended fibers are able to form focal adhesion clusters approximately four times longer than those on flat substrates, which gives them potential to double their migration speeds, (ii) Nanonets as force probes show that the contractility-based inside-out forces are nearly equally distributed on both sides of the cell body, and that overall force magnitudes are dependent on fiber structural stiffness, and (iii) External perturbation can evenly (symmetric) or unevenly (non-symmetric) distribute forces within the cell, and the resulting bias causes diameter-dependent outside-in adhesion force response. Finally, we demonstrate the power of the developed force measurement platform by extending our studies to cell-cell junctional forces as well as single-cell disease models including cancer and aortic aneurysm. / Ph. D.

Les grammaires de dépendance permettent de construire une organisation hiérarchique syntaxique des mots d’une phrase. La construction manuelle des arbres de dépendances étant une tâche exigeant temps et expertise, de nombreux travaux cherchent à l’automatiser. Visant à établir un processus léger et facilement adaptable nous nous sommes intéressés à l’apprentissage non supervisé de dépendances, évitant ainsi d’avoir recours à une expertise coûteuse. L’état de l’art en apprentissage non supervisé de dépendances (DMV) se compose de méthodes très complexes et extrêmement sensibles au paramétrage initial. Nous présentons dans cette thèse un nouveau modèle pour résoudre ce problème d’analyse de dépendances, mais de façon plus simple, plus rapide et plus adaptable. Nous apprenons une famille de grammaires (PCFG) réduites à moins de 6 non terminaux et de 15 règles de combinaisons des non terminaux à partir des étiquettes grammaticales. Les PCFG de cette famille que nous nommons DGdg (pour DROITE GAUCHE droite gauche) se paramètrent très légèrement, ainsi elles s’adaptent sans effort aux 12 langues testées. L’apprentissage et l’analyse sont effectués au moins deux fois plus rapidement que DMV sur les mêmes données. Et la qualité des analyses DGdg est pour certaines langues proches des analyses par DMV. Nous proposons une première application de notre méthode d’analyse de dépendances à l’extraction d’informations. Nous apprenons par des CRF un étiquetage en fonctions « sujet », « objet » et « prédicat », en nous fondant sur des caractéristiques extraites des arbres construits. / Dependency grammars allow the construction of a hierarchical organization of the words of sentences. The one-by-one building of dependency trees can be very long and it requries expert knowledge. In this regard, we are interested in unsupervised dependency learning. Currently, DMV give the state-of-art results in unsupervised dependency parsing. However, DMV has been known to be highly sensitive to initial parameters. The training of DMV model is also heavy and long. We present in this thesis a new model to solve this problem in a simpler, faster and more adaptable way. We learn a family of PCFG using less than 6 nonterminal symbols and less than 15 combination rules from the part-of-speech tags. The tuning of these PCFG is ligth, and so easily adaptable to the 12 languages we tested. Our proposed method for unsupervised dependency parsing can show the near state-of-the-art results, being twice faster. Moreover, we describe our interests in dependency trees to other applications such as relation extraction. Therefore, we show how such information from dependency structures can be integrated into condition random fields and how to improve a relation extraction task.

The subject of the master's thesis is study of variants of sewer network of Nezamyslice by gravity, pressure and vacuum sewers. The proposed alternative solutions are then techno-economically evaluated.

Open innovation is a term that has become popularised over the years, due to changes in how business is done as a result of globalisation and digital transformation. Efforts are being made by incumbent companies to collaborate with external parties to a greater extent, and at the same time, the startup landscape has contributed with new technologies and innovations that in some cases have disrupted markets. A collaboration between large companies and startups can bring about positive synergies since these two types of organisations are different and have the possibility to complement each other. This master thesis looks into the outside-in model of open innovation, specifically examining corporate accelerator programs and incubation hubs from a startup perspective. The following research explores what key services that are offered within these corporate programs and how they can be improved according to startups that have previously partaken in them. This research is a qualitative study with an abductive approach. As part of the research, 10 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were held with representatives from a variety of startups. The major services desired by the interviewees to be included in corporate-run startup programs range from access to internal and external networks to putting more focus on a variety of funding alternatives. Early-stage startups expressed the desire of receiving help with understanding their market and customers. The key improvement areas brought up by the startup companies included the presence of internal champions that can help speed up certain processes and act as a facilitator for important meetings. Many startups point to the importance of having the influence to customize their program experience. In addition, accelerator and incubator employees with previous entrepreneurial experience are considered very helpful by the startups since they can grasp the struggles of the startup in a better way. Furthermore, to have more financing opportunities is desirable. / Genom åren har öppen innovation blivit alltmer populariserad,på grund av förändringar i hur affärer görs till följd av globalisering och digital transformation. Stora företag satsar i större utsträckning på att samarbeta med externa parter, och samtidigt har startup ekosystemet bidragit till ny och radikal teknologi och innovationer som har rubbat vissa marknader. Ett öppen innovation-samarbete mellan ett stort företag och en startup kan bidra positiva synergier eftersom dessa två typer av organisationer är olika och har möjlighet att komplettera varandra. Detta examensarbete undersöker den så kallade outside-in modell för öppen innovation, mer specifikt undersöks företagsacceleratorer och företagsinkubatorer från ett startup-perspektiv. Följande forskning undersöker vilka nyckeltjänster som erbjuds inom dessa företagsprogram och hur de kan förbättras enligt startups som tidigare har deltagit i dem. Denna studie är en kvalitativ studie med en abduktiv ansats. Som en del av forskningen hölls 10 semistrukturerade djupintervjuer med representanter från en rad olika startups. De viktigaste tjänsterna som eftertraktas av intervjuobjekten som del av företagsacceleratorer och företagsinkubatorer gäller tillgång till interna och externa nätverk, som i sin tur kan förse tillgång till flera olika finansieringsalternativ. Startups som befinner sig i en tidig utvecklingsfas uttryckte en önskan att få hjälp med att förstå deras marknad och kunder. Förbättringsområden som identifierades av startupföretagen omfattar förekomsten av internal champions, som kan hjälpa till att påskynda vissa processer och som kan facilitera viktiga möten. Många startups pekar på vikten av att ha inflytande över att anpassa sin programupplevelse. Dessutom är accelerator- och inkubatormedarbetare med tidigare entreprenöriell erfarenhet väldigt eftertraktade, eftersom de kan förstå sig på startupföretagen på ett bättre sätt. Vidare, är det önskvärt att ha fler finansieringsmöjligheter.