Après 25 ans de recherche intensive, aucun vaccin ou traitement définitif contre le SIDA n'existe, et les mécanismes moléculaires de pathogenèse de l'infection VIH-1 ne sont pas clairement élucidés. Les avancées technologiques permettent de comparer des sujets malades avec des sujets contrôles sur tout le génome. Il est ainsi possible d'identifier sans a priori des gènes potentiellement impliqués dans le développement de la maladie avec pour conséquence le développement rationnel de nouvelles stratégies diagnostiques ou thérapeutiques. Durant ma thèse, j'ai réalisé deux études d'association 'génome entier' dans le SIDA, en comparant les 275 non-progresseurs à long terme ou les 85 progresseurs rapides de la cohorte GRIV avec une cohorte de contrôles séronégatifs. J'ai réalisé une troisième analyse en exploitant les données issues de trois études 'génome entier' internationales dont la nôtre (France, Pays-Bas, USA), ciblant plus particulièrement les SNPs de fréquence faible (fréquence de l'allèle mineur, MAF<5%). Ces approches 'génome entier' ont réaffirmé le rôle central du HLA dans la progression vers le SIDA, mais aussi dévoilé de nouveaux gènes candidats très pertinents donnant une nouvelle lumière sur les mécanismes moléculaires de la maladie.

1. Nustatyti erozinio ezofagito ir jo komplikacijos – ikivėžinio susirgimo, Bareto stemplės, dažnį tarp endoskopiniam tyrimui atsiųstų pacientų, turinčių viršutiniojo virškinamojo trakto skundų ir/ar „pavojaus“ simptomų. 2. Nustatyti klinikinius, endoskopinius ir morfologinius požymius, susijusius su gastroezofaginio reflukso ligos sunkumu. 3. Nustatyti klinikinius, endoskopinius ir morfologinius požymius, susijusius su ikivėžiniu susirgimu – Bareto stemple. 4. Nustatyti skrandžio, skrandžio – stemplės jungties ir stemplės gleivinės morfologinius pakitimus, sergant įvairaus sunkumo GERL ir Bareto stemple. 5. Išanalizuoti trumpo ir ilgo segmento Bareto stemple sergančių asmenų klinikinius, endoskopinius ir morfologinius ypatumus. 6. Nustatyti rizikos veiksnius, įtakojančius ikivėžinio susirgimo - Bareto stemplės - progresavimą dvejų metų stebėjimo laikotarpiu. / 1. To investigate the prevalence of erosive esophagitis and its complication -precancerous disease, Barrett‘s oesophagus, in patients referred to upper diagnostic endoscopy with upper gastrointestinal and/or „alarm“ symptoms. 2. To establish clinical, endoscopic and morphological signs associated with severity of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. 3. To establish clinical, endoscopic and morphological signs associated with precancerous disease - Barrett‘s oesophagus. 4. To determine morphological alterations of stomach, gastro-oesophageal junction and oesophagus mucosa of different severity of GORD and Barrett‘s oesophagus. 5. To analyse clinical, endoscopic and morphological peculiarities of long and short segments of Barrett’s oesophagus. 6. To investigate risk factors associated with progression of precancerous disease, Barrett‘s oesophagus, during two years follow-up period.

This thesis analyses individual experiences of the promotion process to Managing Director within a global bank to identify the contribution made by social capital. Using Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) three-dimension framework as the theoretical lens, the thesis extends social capital research beyond its largely quantitative focus on network analysis (structural dimension) to understand more clearly the relative importance and impact of the relational and cognitive dimensions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 men and women in an investment bank and a template-based analysis of their accounts was made. The findings make visible, the invisible mechanisms which enable or constrain the creation, development and use of social capital and, therefore, its contribution to securing the position of Managing Director. The findings highlight the need to consider the importance of agency, relationship level and gender in this context. The study makes three key contributions. First, it extends Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) theory of social capital, in the context of career progression, by demonstrating how each social capital dimension is operationalized and interdependent. Second, the research explicitly demonstrates the crucial role social capital plays in an executive-level promotion process, thereby revealing a complex and multi-layered system. Third, the study extends our knowledge of the gendered nature of senior-level career progression by identifying the particular barriers women face, compared to men, in their efficacious use of social capital for promotion in a global bank.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This thesis analyses individual experiences of the promotion process to Managing Director within a global bank to identify the contribution made by social capital. Using Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) three-dimension framework as the theoretical lens, the thesis extends social capital research beyond its largely quantitative focus on network analysis (structural dimension) to understand more clearly the relative importance and impact of the relational and cognitive dimensions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 men and women in an investment bank and a template-based analysis of their accounts was made. The findings make visible, the invisible mechanisms which enable or constrain the creation, development and use of social capital and, therefore, its contribution to securing the position of Managing Director. The findings highlight the need to consider the importance of agency, relationship level and gender in this context. The study makes three key contributions. First, it extends Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) theory of social capital, in the context of career progression, by demonstrating how each social capital dimension is operationalized and interdependent. Second, the research explicitly demonstrates the crucial role social capital plays in an executive-level promotion process, thereby revealing a complex and multi-layered system. Third, the study extends our knowledge of the gendered nature of senior-level career progression by identifying the particular barriers women face, compared to men, in their efficacious use of social capital for promotion in a global bank.

The intention of this study is to find out how the English subject takes form and develops in the early years in school related to the curriculum, teachers, teaching material, students and parents. The methods of the survey have been classroom observations, teacher interviews, textbook analysis and a parents´ questionnaire. The findings of this study are that the knowledge of the teacher in and about the English subject can have effect on how the English subject will be presented to the students during the English lessons and the amount of the students oral production of the target language seem to depended on how much the teacher uses the target language in the classroom. The contents of the English lessons was overall structured by the curriculum. The parents and their interest in their children´s education seem to have had an impact on how much focus the English language get. Parents also seemed to have an influence on the contents of the English subject.

This study explores teachers' beliefs, views and experiences of the design principles of integration, progression and infusion in the Life Orientation (LO) curriculum at the Intermediate Phase level. Integration, progression and infusion are integral to the South Africa Curriculum Statement and the LO curriculum in particular, as they serve the connection, sequence and technique of linking different learning contents. The aims of the study were: (i) to determine to which extent if any can the principles of feminism be used to influence curriculum integration, progression and infusion in the LO curriculum; (ii) to use different theories of feminism to enhance our understanding of curriculum integration, progression and infusion in the LO curriculum; (iii) to determine teachers' beliefs and experiences of curriculum integration, progression and infusion in the LO curriculum. To achieve these aims, on a theoretical level, I synthesised and analysed different theories of feminist discourses into different themes such as location, caring relations, knowing and thinking. These themes were related to the principles of curriculum integration, progression and infusion and these were used as a frame of reference to make suggestions on the various ways to enhance LO teachers' classroom practice of integration, progression and infusion at the Intermediate Phase. Empirically, I explored the LO teachers' views, beliefs and experiences. Consequently, I situated the study in an interpretative paradigm. I used qualitative research design and methodology with a phenomenological approach, by means of unstructured interviews, classroom observations and focus-group interviews. Three primary schools were purposefully selected for the study. The three principals of the schools were interviewed for the unstructured interviews while nine teachers were interviewed in three focus groups. To strengthen the interviews, I observed nine LO classrooms. The data that I generated as a result of the study were analysed by means of content analyses. The themes that emerged were categorised into different classes, namely: lack of adequate consultation, learning content repetition, learning content outdatedness, learning content irrelevancy, among others. It was deduced that these themes which formed the participants' experiences of integration, progression and infusion in the LO curriculum were arrived at as a result of their inherent approach which was described as a one-dimensional approach. A one-dimensional approach is that which stipulates a step-by- step approach to the design of curriculum. The Multi-dimensional approach embedded in multiple realities underpinning feminist discourses was suggested as an alternative. A multi-dimensional approach to the design of the curriculum includes the active contribution of various individuals to curriculum design. / Thesis (MEd (Curriculum Development))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

This study explores teachers' beliefs, views and experiences of the design principles of integration, progression and infusion in the Life Orientation (LO) curriculum at the Intermediate Phase level. Integration, progression and infusion are integral to the South Africa Curriculum Statement and the LO curriculum in particular, as they serve the connection, sequence and technique of linking different learning contents. The aims of the study were: (i) to determine to which extent if any can the principles of feminism be used to influence curriculum integration, progression and infusion in the LO curriculum; (ii) to use different theories of feminism to enhance our understanding of curriculum integration, progression and infusion in the LO curriculum; (iii) to determine teachers' beliefs and experiences of curriculum integration, progression and infusion in the LO curriculum. To achieve these aims, on a theoretical level, I synthesised and analysed different theories of feminist discourses into different themes such as location, caring relations, knowing and thinking. These themes were related to the principles of curriculum integration, progression and infusion and these were used as a frame of reference to make suggestions on the various ways to enhance LO teachers' classroom practice of integration, progression and infusion at the Intermediate Phase. Empirically, I explored the LO teachers' views, beliefs and experiences. Consequently, I situated the study in an interpretative paradigm. I used qualitative research design and methodology with a phenomenological approach, by means of unstructured interviews, classroom observations and focus-group interviews. Three primary schools were purposefully selected for the study. The three principals of the schools were interviewed for the unstructured interviews while nine teachers were interviewed in three focus groups. To strengthen the interviews, I observed nine LO classrooms. The data that I generated as a result of the study were analysed by means of content analyses. The themes that emerged were categorised into different classes, namely: lack of adequate consultation, learning content repetition, learning content outdatedness, learning content irrelevancy, among others. It was deduced that these themes which formed the participants' experiences of integration, progression and infusion in the LO curriculum were arrived at as a result of their inherent approach which was described as a one-dimensional approach. A one-dimensional approach is that which stipulates a step-by- step approach to the design of curriculum. The Multi-dimensional approach embedded in multiple realities underpinning feminist discourses was suggested as an alternative. A multi-dimensional approach to the design of the curriculum includes the active contribution of various individuals to curriculum design. / Thesis (MEd (Curriculum Development))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Use of progression-free survival in the evaluation of clinical interventions is hampered by a variety of issues, including censoring patterns not addressed in the usual methods for survival analysis. Progression can be right-censored before survival or interval-censored between inspection times. Current practice calls for imputing events to their time of detection. Such an approach is prone to bias, underestimates standard errors and makes inefficient use of the data at hand. Moreover a composite outcome prevents inference about the actual treatment effect on the risk of progression. This thesis develops semiparametric and sieve maximum likelihood estimators to more formally analyze progression-related endpoints. For the special case where death rarely precedes progression, a Cox-Aalen model is proposed for regression analysis of time-to-progression under intermittent inspection. The general setting considering both progression and survival is examined with a Markov Cox-type illness-death model under various censoring schemes. All of the resulting estimators globally converge to the truth slower than the parametric rate, but their finite-dimensional components are asymptotically efficient. Numerical studies suggest that the new methods perform better than their imputation-based alternatives under moderate to large samples having higher rates of censoring.

Children’s entry into school at appropriate ages and their successful progression through the primary grades are strong predictors of later life opportunities and successes. This retrospective study focuses on factors that can influence age appropriate school entry and grade progression with children who were eight at the time of the study and who live in a peri-urban community in Uganda. Children in this resource constrained community face risks of educational exclusion and longer term underachievement that arise from social, health and economic disadvantages, inequalities and inadequate services. The most disadvantaged children, those who live in households with life stress events such as the absence of one or more parents or the impact of diseases such as HIV and AIDS, are at risk of not enrolling in school at an appropriate age or not advancing successfully. Such risks may be mediated through family composition and family demographic variables and may be ameliorated through the presence of community programs designed for young children. This study examined the influence of family variables, home environment life stress events, and exposure to early childhood development (ECD) services on the educational transitions of young children. The study determined that children living with biological parents, and parents with higher educational levels, had more opportunities of exposure to community-based ECD programs, had higher success in enrolling in school at an age-appropriate time, and more successfully progressed through the grade levels. For the purposes of this study, data were collected from 535 children and their 535 caregivers in the peri-urban community of Kyanja in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The findings provide a backdrop for a discussion regarding the relationship between home environment life stress events, community ECD services for young children, and the current educational status of children aged eight years. A major focus lies on whether enrolment in ECD can help close the gap created by events in and the structure of the home environment. / Graduate