Abstract Glaucoma is a progressive neuropathy of the optic nerve. It causes degeneration of ganglion cell axons resulting in defects in the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) and characteristic changes in the optic nerve head (ONH). The Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (HRT) is a confocal scanning laser imaging device, which measures the topography of the ONH and the adjacent RNFL. To quantify the measurements of the ONH topography, various stereometric parameters are calculated. The change in the stereometric parameters of the HRT was studied in 34 eyes with glaucomatous progression in RNFL photographs and 34 eyes without progression. The change in only one stereometric parameter, the cup shape measure, showed a statistically significant correlation with the progression of the RNFL defect. An optimised change in the best three-parameter combination had 77% sensitivity and 79% specificity for progression. The change in the stereometric parameters was compared in 51 eyes with glaucomatous progression in stereoscopic ONH photographs and 425 eyes without progression. The parameters having the best correlation with progression include cup:disc area ratio, vertical cup:disc ratio, cup volume and rim area. The parameter with the largest area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (0.726) was the vertical cup:disc ratio. A change of 0.007 in the vertical cup:disc ratio had a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 65% for progression. The factors having the most significant effect on the sensitivity and specificity of the stereometric parameters for progression were the reference height difference and the mean topography standard deviation, indicating image quality. The change in image quality and age also showed a consistent, but variably significant influence on all parameters tested. Exercise was associated with an increase in variance in 17 of the 18 stereometric parameters. In conclusion, the change in the stereometric parameters provides useful information on ONH topography, especially when image quality is excellent. However, the evaluation of glaucomatous progression should not rely solely on the stereometric parameters of the HRT.

Introdução: Freqüentemente a progressão da doença coronariana aterosclerótica é observada por angiogramas seqüenciais e atribuída ao aumento da incidência de eventos coronarianos.O significado prognóstico desta progressão em pacientes randomizados e submetidos a diferentes formas terapêuticas ainda é pouco conhecido. Este estudo compara a progressão da aterosclerose nas artérias coronárias nativas de pacientes submetidos a tratamento clinico, cirúrgico ou através da angioplastia. Métodos: 611 pacientes portadores de DAC multiarterial estável com função ventricular preservada, foram estudados e submetidos de maneira randomizada, a três formas terapêuticas habituais. Após cinco anos de evolução, 392 pacientes (64%) foram submetidos à cinecoronariografia. A progressão da doença foi definida como surgimento de estenose de, pelo menos, 20% de obstrução em um segmento arterial, admitido previamente como normal. A progressão foi avaliada nas artérias nativas que correspondem a DA, CX, CD dos três grupos terapêuticos. Resultados: 392 pacientes estudados, 136 eram do grupo Cirúrgico, 146 do grupo Angioplastia e 110 do grupo Clínico. Os grupos eram homogêneos em relação às características basais. A análise de progressão entre os grupos terapêuticos mostrou maior progressão da doença na artéria DA do grupo angioplastia. Entre os fatores relacionados à progressão da doença a presença de HAS influenciou significativamente (p= 0,048). Em relação à oclusão total, houve maior incidência no sexo masculino (p= 0,0078) e novo IAM (p= 0,0006). Não se observou relação estatística entre eventos coronarianos e progressão da doença na amostra estudada. Conclusão: Nessa amostra observou-se a progressão da aterosclerose independente da opção terapêutica. Todavia, encontrou-se menor progressão da doença nos pacientes do grupo cirúrgico. Exceto pela presença de hipertensão, nenhum outro fator de risco parece ter influenciado nesta condição. / Introduction: The progression of atherosclerotic in the coronary artery disease (CAD) is observed through consecutive angiograms. The prognosis of this progression randomized patients is not clear. This study compared the progression of native coronary arteries and bypass graft in patients undergoing to surgery (CABG), angioplasty (PCI), or medical strategy (MT). Methods: Six hundred eleven patients with stable multivessel CAD and preserved ventricular function were randomly assigned to the 3 therapeutic options: MT, PCI, or CABG. After a 5-year of follow-up, 392 patients (64%) underwent routine coronary angiogram. Progression was defined as stenosis of at least 20% in an artery segment previously considered normal. Progression was assessed in the native arteries irrigating the three territories, left anterior descending (LAD), left circumflex (LCX) and right coronary artery (RCA). Uni and multivariate analysis were performed in all therapeutic groups. Results: Of the 392 patients, 136 were to CABG, 146 PCI, and 110 MT. Baseline characteristics of three treatment were homogeneous. Analysis of progression within the three groups showed a more significant progression of atherosclerosis in the LAD territories of the PCI group. Among the factors related to the progression, there was a significant influence by hypertension (p = 0.048). Males presented a higher incidence of occlusion (p= 0.0078) and new Myocardial Infarction. (p= 0.0006). There was no statistical difference between coronary events and the development of progression in the sample studied. Conclusion: In this study, we have observed the occurrence of atherosclerosis progression, regardless the treatment option. However, we?ve found less progression of disease in patients from the surgery group. Except for hypertension, any other risk factor seems to have no influence on the increase of this condition.

Introdução: Estudos clínicos e epidemiológicos têm revelado aumento do risco de doença coronária nos pacientes portadores de diabetes mellitus. A progressão da aterosclerose coronária documentada angiograficamente é identificada e utilizada com freqüência na prática clínica. Entretanto, o seu significado prognóstico ainda é pouco conhecido. Neste estudo, analisamos o significado dessa progressão em uma amostra de pacientes diabéticos e não diabéticos, portadores de doença arterial coronária e submetidos ao tratamento clínico, angioplastia ou cirurgia. Métodos. Foram avaliados 392 pacientes com cineangiocoronariografia inicial e após cinco anos de seguimento. A progressão foi definida como o surgimento de uma nova lesão ou o aumento em cerca de 20% de uma lesão prévia. A identificação da progressão foi realizada em pacientes submetidos previamente aos tratamentos clínico, cirúrgico e angioplastia. A progressão da doença foi analisada nos territórios correspondentes das artérias descendente anterior, circunflexa e coronária direita. A amostra englobou um grupo de 138 pacientes diabéticos e 254 pacientes não diabéticos. Dos 392 pacientes da amostra, formaram-se os seguintes grupos de intervenção: RCM (n=136) - 57 diabéticos e 79 não diabéticos; ATC (n=146) - 42 diabéticos e 104 não diabéticos; TM (n=110) - 38 diabéticos e 72 não diabéticos. Também se analisou também o percentual de progressão da doença, correlacionando-a com os fatores de risco e com a necessidade de novas intervenções. Resultados. Não se observou nenhuma diferença entre os grupos diabéticos e não diabéticos quanto à idade, sexo, HAS, tabagismo e distúrbios lipídicos. Além disso, não se demonstraram diferenças de progressão nesta amostra, quando comparados o grupo dos diabéticos e o de não diabéticos; entretanto, quando estratificados por intervenção, observou-se menor progressão da doença nos pacientes do grupo cirúrgico com diabetes mellitus (69,7%, p=0,014). Por outro lado, observou-se maior progressão no território das artérias descendente anterior (71,5%) e coronária direita (64,3%) dos pacientes diabéticos submetidos à angioplastia (p=0,024, p=0,047). Conclusão. Os resultados deste estudo permitiram concluir que, em cinco anos, o diabetes mellitus não impôs maior progressão angiográfica da doença aterosclerótica quando se compararam os grupos de pacientes diabéticos e de não diabéticos. Entretanto, a análise dos pacientes diabéticos submetidos a ATC revelou significativo aumento da progressão da doença nos territórios da coronária direita e da descendente anterior. Por outro lado, os pacientes diabéticos do grupo cirúrgico apresentaram menor progressão da doença. / Background: Epidemiologic and clinical studies have shown an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Angiographic progression of coronary atherosclerosis is frequently observed in clinical practice and is used as an end-point in clinical trials; however, its prognostic significance is unclear. In this study, we prospectively analyzed the angiographic progression in diabetic and nondiabetic patients treated by medication, angioplasty or surgery. Methods: At baseline and 5- year follow-up angiograms were obtained in 392 randomized patients. Progression was defined as an increase in diameter of stenosis by >20% of at least one coronary lesion. We tried to assess the coronary disease progression in the clinical, surgical, and angioplasty groups in the LAD, LCX, and RCA arteries in diabetic (n=138) and nondiabetic patients (n=254). A total of 392 subjects randomly assigned to CABG (n=136), 57 diabetic and 79 non diabetic, PCI (n=146),42 diabetic and 104 non diabetic or medical treatment(n=110) 38 diabetic and 72 non diabetic Also, we analyzed the relation of the rate of progression with morbidity and the need for an additional intervention. Results: No significant differences in relation to age, sex, hypertension, smoking, or lipid disorders were observed between the groups. Furthermore, no differences concerning CAD progression were shown when diabetic and nondiabetic subject were compared. However, when the type of treatment was stratified, the surgery group had less progression in the diabetic group (69.7% p =0.014). On the other hand, more progression in the PCI group was observed in RCA (64.3 %) and LAD (71.5%) territories in diabetic group (p=0.047; p=0.024). No relation was found between progression and the rate of events in both groups. Conclusion: Diabetes was not associated with greater progression of CAD in patients with stable CAD and preserved ventricular function during 5-year follow-up. However, the diabetic patients who underwent PCI had more progression of CAD compared with nondiabetic subjects in RCA and LAD territories.The surgery group shown less progression of the disease in the diabetic group.

abstract: Recently, a well-designed and well-trained neural network can yield state-of-the-art results across many domains, including data mining, computer vision, and medical image analysis. But progress has been limited for tasks where labels are difficult or impossible to obtain. This reliance on exhaustive labeling is a critical limitation in the rapid deployment of neural networks. Besides, the current research scales poorly to a large number of unseen concepts and is passively spoon-fed with data and supervision. To overcome the above data scarcity and generalization issues, in my dissertation, I first propose two unsupervised conventional machine learning algorithms, hyperbolic stochastic coding, and multi-resemble multi-target low-rank coding, to solve the incomplete data and missing label problem. I further introduce a deep multi-domain adaptation network to leverage the power of deep learning by transferring the rich knowledge from a large-amount labeled source dataset. I also invent a novel time-sequence dynamically hierarchical network that adaptively simplifies the network to cope with the scarce data. To learn a large number of unseen concepts, lifelong machine learning enjoys many advantages, including abstracting knowledge from prior learning and using the experience to help future learning, regardless of how much data is currently available. Incorporating this capability and making it versatile, I propose deep multi-task weight consolidation to accumulate knowledge continuously and significantly reduce data requirements in a variety of domains. Inspired by the recent breakthroughs in automatically learning suitable neural network architectures (AutoML), I develop a nonexpansive AutoML framework to train an online model without the abundance of labeled data. This work automatically expands the network to increase model capability when necessary, then compresses the model to maintain the model efficiency. In my current ongoing work, I propose an alternative method of supervised learning that does not require direct labels. This could utilize various supervision from an image/object as a target value for supervising the target tasks without labels, and it turns out to be surprisingly effective. The proposed method only requires few-shot labeled data to train, and can self-supervised learn the information it needs and generalize to datasets not seen during training. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Science 2020

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur förskollärare konstruerar barns övergångar mellan avdelningar med fokus på barns lärande. Studien börjar med en bakgrund som berör litteraturstudier med historisk tillbakablick och teorier rörande hur förskolan organiserat barngrupper och övergångar. Studien är kvalitativ och grundar sig på semistrukturerade intervjuer och tematiskanalys där vi intervjuat och mottagit dokument av sex förskollärare. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är socialkonstruktionistisk där institutionaliserings perspektivet har nyttjats. Resultatet visar på att förskollärare verksamma i förskolan konstruerar barns övergångar mellan förskoleavdelningar på flera skilda sätt där barns progression av lärande hamnar i skymundan. Resultatet och diskussionen som analyseras genom den socialkonstruktionistiska teorin visar på att förskollärare beskriver en institutionaliserad bild över hur de organiserar barns övergångar inom den egna förskolan. Resultatet visar också på att det som läroplan för förskolan Lpfö 18 (Skolverket, 2018) framhåller om progression av barns eget lärande och helhet i utbildningen inte har blivit institutionaliserat i de flesta av förskollärarnas beskrivningar. Detta synliggör vikten av att förskollärare bör vara medveten om att de val som de gör vid barns övergångar mellan avdelningar kan få konsekvenser.

I dagens samhälle är kravet på en god språklig förmåga stort. Samtidigt som svenska elevers språkliga förmågor sjunker enligt flera internationella tester. Regeringen har under de senaste åren satt in flera stödåtgärder för att stärka språkutveckling hos svenska barn. Förändringarna medför större krav på undervisningen i förskolan och förskollärarens medvetenhet av de förmågor barn förväntas besitta vid skolstart. Studiens syfte är att genom brevmetoden belysa och problematisera en likvärdig språkutvecklande undervisning i förskolan. I studien undersöktes språkutvecklande undervisning med påverkande faktorer på organisations och verksamhetsnivå. Förhållningssätt till språkutvecklande undervisning samt medvetenhet av språklig progression inför förskoleklass undersöktes också. Läroplansteorin användes för att analysera hur respondenterna transformerar formuleringsarenan samt faktorer som påverkar realiseringen av den språkutvecklande undervisningen i förskolan. Studiens resultat påvisar variation i förhållningssätt gällande språkutvecklande undervisning. I studien framkommer en skillnad i förskollärarnas syn på lärande och undervisning, vilket påverkar hur den språkutvecklande undervisningen realiseras. Den språkutvecklande undervisningen på organisationsnivå påverkas av rektors kompetens och förhållningssätt till ämnet, vilket i sin tur påverkar förskollärarens realisering av den språkutvecklande undervisningen. Vidare visar studiens resultat att det saknas en medvetenhet av de förväntningar som finns på barns språkliga kunskaper i förskoleklass samt att realiseringen av den språkutvecklande undervisningen varierar beroende på förskollärarens kompetens. Resultatet påvisar förskollärarens betydelse för den språkutvecklande undervisningens kvalitet, samt realiseringsarenans avsaknad av ett evidensbaserat material. Detta påverkar i sin tur likvärdigheten av den språkutvecklande undervisningen, samt synliggörandet av barns språkliga progression.

Thesis (M. Ed.) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / The implementation of progression and similar policies remains a challenge in many education systems globally. This also applies to the implementation of the progression policy in South Africa, Limpopo Province, Dimamo Circuit, which was intended to reduce the dropout rates of learners who struggle to pass their grades during the stipulated duration. Teachers and schools seem to be ill-prepared to implement this policy, which was introduced in 2013. The effective implementation of this policy could alleviate the challenge of dealing with learners who are retained in the same grade more than twice, most of whom end up dropping out of school. This study aimed to discover the experiences of teachers and learners with regard to the implementation of the progression policy in Limpopo Province, Dimamo Circuit. A case study research design was used and the study used multiple methods of collecting data such as interviews, observation and document analysis. The study found that teachers and learners in the schools that formed part of the study experience extreme challenges such as learner participation support, training, and coping with regard to the implementation of the progression policy. The recommendations of the study will contribute greatly to the system of education in Limpopo Province, Dimamo Circuit as the findings could assist in improving the implementation of the policy.

Diploma thesis “Proposal of the Remuneration in the Company Zevos Ltd.” focuses on developing of new company wage control system targeting on higher motivation of employees leading to further company development. The aim of theoretical part of the thesis was to collect and study the theoretical knowledge in the area of wage systems and systems of remuneration based on existing technical literature. This theoretical knowledge was applied on present wage system in the company. The second part introduces the company itself and last part, the practical one, is divided into two parts - the analytical one and the proposal one. By using of the method of comparison of the theory with the analytics of current status some reserves in motivation function of the wage system was found and the proposals for improvement was done. This proposal is based on implementation of tariff system supplemented by personal remuneration and bonus system. The result of the thesis is a proposal of new wage system for Zevos Ltd.

This study compared the projections by young people in a rural school of risk factors and protective resources in the first and second sand tray. From an indigenisation perspective, the assumption was that sand tray therapy could be suitable to understand risk factors and protective resources in two sand trays of young people. As part of a clinical case study design first and second sand trays (n=22) of clients (n=11) were purposefully selected for comparative analysis. Data sources included visual data (photographs), accompanying client narratives (verbatim transcriptions and field notes), ASL student reflections, and semi-structured interviews with purposefully sampled ASL students. Following thematic data analysis two main themes emerged: risk and protection in first and second sand trays of young people in a rural school; and progression in projections of first and second sand trays of young people in a rural school. Sand tray therapy has utility for use with young people in a rural ecology to (i) use as a contextually and culturally appropriate technique (ii) use in groups in school-based educational psychology services (iii) assess risk factors, (iv) protective resources and (v) the use of first and second sand trays for young people to project positive progression in their experiences of their life-worlds. Consequently, educational psychologists can integrate sand tray therapy, as a contextually appropriate technique, into intervention programmes to understand the experiences of young people in rural ecologies and support them. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

Syftet med den här studien var att synliggöra textböckers svårighetsnivå och progression. För att kunna genomföra detta ställdes två forskningsfrågor: (i) Vilken svårighetsnivå motsvarar de granskade textböckerna? Och (ii) I vilken utsträckning ökar läromedlens komplexitet mellan låg- och mellanstadiet? I den här studien analyserades sex olika textböcker från tre olika förlag, textböcker från samma serie avsedda för årskurs 3 och 4 användes. I studien analyserades även bedömningsstöd från Skolverket för samma årskurser, bedömningsstödet fick därigenom utgöra kontrollgrupp. I studien användes en metodkombination, som nyttjade både en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ metod. Resultatet visar att det finns stora skillnader mellan textböckernas svårighetsnivå, att det finns en svårighetsökning mellan årskurs 3 och 4 men att den är diffus och svår att analysera, samt att det saknas en tydlig koppling mellan textböckernas svårighetsgrad och den som bedömningsstödet anser vara godtagbar för årskurserna. Nyckelord: Läromedel, progression, lågstadiet, lexical coverage