Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Task based language instruction has generated some debate among researchers. Some argue in favour of task based language instruction by claiming that tasks focus learners' attention on meaning and thus facilitate second language acquisition (Prahbu, 1987; Pica and Doughty, 1986; Pica, Kanagy, and Falodun,1993). Others argue against task based language instruction and call into question the concept of comprehensible input, the idea upon which the whole task based approach is based (Sheen, 1994).

Concrete has been used in a number of civil engineering applications due to its interesting fresh, hardened, and durability-related properties. 28-day compressive strength is the most important hardened state property and is frequently used as an indicator of the material’s quality. However, early-age mechanical properties are a key factor nowadays to enhance construction planning. Several advanced techniques have been proposed to appraise concrete microstructure and quality, and among those electrical resistivity (ER) is one of the most commonly used since it is a non-destructive and low-cost technique. Although recent literature data have shown that ER may be significantly influenced by a variety of parameters such as the test setup, material porosity and moisture content, binder type/amount and presence of supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) along with the nature of the aggregates used in the mix, further research must be performed to clarify the influence of the raw materials (i.e. SCMs and aggregate nature) on ER using distinct setups. Therefore, this work aims to appraise the influence of the coarse aggregate nature and binder replacement/amount on the concrete ER and compressive strength predictions models through ER. Twenty-four concrete mixtures were developed with two different coarse aggregate natures (i.e. granite and limestone), two different water-to-binder ratios (w/b; i.e. 0.6 and 0.4) and incorporating two different SCMs (i.e. slag and fly-ash class F) with different replacement levels. Moreover, three distinct ER techniques (e.g. bulk, surface, and internal) and compressive strength tests were performed at different ages (i.e. 3, 7, 14, and 28 days). Results indicate that the binder type and replacement amount significantly affect ER and compressive strength. Otherwise, the coarse aggregate nature presented only trivial influence for 0.6 w/b mixes, except for 50% fly-ash replacement samples; whereas for concrete specimens with enhanced microstructure (i.e. 0.4 w/b), the aggregate nature influence was statically significant especially for the binary mixtures with high SCMs replacement levels (i.e. 70% GGBS and 50% fly-ash). Finally, all ER test setups were considered to be quite suitable and reliable NDT techniques correlating themselves very well. Yet the internal resistivity setup demonstrated to be the device which yields the lowest variability amongst them.

The diploma thesis is concerned with specific legal instruments for protection of rights of third persons introduced by the media law in the Czech Republic. The aim is to provide a complex overview of the right to reply, supplementary statement, supplementary information and protection of sources. In order to do so, this thesis introduces the value basis of the legislation, characterizes all these instruments and the conditions under which they might be claimed and describes possible exercise of these rights in court. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is focused on the constitutional background of the basic human rights of protection of personality as well as on the freedom of expression, including their legal base in international treaties. This chapter also describes the so-called proportionality test, which is used by the courts in cases where two basic human rights collide with each other. The second chapter deals with the sources for legislation regarding the protection of personality under Czech media law. The most significant rulings of the European Court of Human Rights are introduced in this chapter, i.e. the case of Von Hannover v. Germany and the case of Axel Springer AG v. Germany. This chapter is also concerned with the legislation of the European Union and...

The aim of this research was to investigate the structures and processes of pharmacist prescribing in Great Britain, focusing on primary care settings. A ‘sequential-mixed methods’ was employed in the conduct of the research. The first phase was a cross-sectional postal questionnaire of all pharmacist prescribers (n= 1654 in January 2009), to quantify the extent and nature of prescribing and key factors associated with prescribing practice. Response rate was 42.3% (n=695). The pharmacy practice setting was significantly associated with prescribing (those in hospital or general medical practice were more likely to have prescribed (p< 0.05), than respondents in community practice). Factor analysis of attitudinal statements on prescribing implementation revealed factors, grouped as: ‘administrative structures and processes’, ‘perceptions of pharmacists’ prescribing role’ and ‘facilities for prescribing’. Scores for ‘facilities for prescribing’ varied depending on practice setting. Respondents in community practice recorded lower median scores compared with those in general medical practices. However, there were no statistically significant differences in median scores between respondents based in GP and hospital settings. In-depth qualitative work undertaken in the second phase further explored facilitators of, and challenges to prescribing practice (e.g. the lack of defined prescribing roles) identified in phase one. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 34 prescribers. Prescribers were selected from diverse settings, including secondary care from England and Scotland, to highlight key factors contributing to prescribing success which could potentially inform extrapolations of successful practice from one setting to the other. The ‘framework’ approach to qualitative data analysis was rigorously applied, revealing that the professional isolation and issues around access to clinical data and administrative support in the community setting may have negatively impacted on prescribing implementation. Notably, a perceived lack of clarity and definition of the pharmacist prescribing role was a key theme in hindering prescribing practice of pharmacists irrespective of setting. Participants described ‘ideal’ roles which they perceived as potentially providing clarity, definition and direction to facilitate implementation. The original data generated through this research highlights that prescribing implementation is less than desired, especially in community pharmacies. Pharmacist prescribing appears to have progressed little since supplementary prescribing developments in 2004, even with the much heralded arrival of independent prescribing in 2006. Interestingly, phase 2 participants suggested a ‘hybrid supplementary/independent’ prescribing model, as more likely to succeed. In this model, pharmacist prescribers favour a cooperative practice arrangement in which doctors diagnose and pharmacists prescribe. The implication of these findings and specific recommendations for policy makers, other key stakeholders and practitioners are discussed in detail within the thesis.

This work examined the effects of thermal and chemical treatments on zeolite reactivity and determined the zeolite properties governing the development of compressive strengths and pozzolanic reactivity. Zeolites are naturally occurring aluminosilicate minerals found abundantly around the world. Incorporation of zeolites in cement mixtures has been shown by past research to increase concrete’s compressive strength and durability. In addition, use of zeolites as SCMs can decrease the environmental impact and energy demands associated with cement production for reinforced concrete structures. Further, in contrast to man-made SCMs such as fly ash, zeolite minerals provide a reliable and readily available SCM source, not affected by the production limits and regulations of unrelated industries such as the coal power industry. In this work, six sources of naturally occurring clinoptilolite zeolite were examined. The zeolites were first characterized using x-ray fluorescence, quantitative xray diffraction, thermal analysis, particle size analysis, pore size distribution and surface area analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. Cation exchange capacity was also tested for one of the zeolites. Following comprehensive material characterization, the six pozzolanic reactivity of the natural zeolites was determined by measuring the quantity of calcium hydroxide in paste after 28 or 90 days, by measuring calcium hydroxide consumption of the zeolite in solution and by tracking the development of strengths of zeolite-cement mortars. Pretreatments that attempted to increase the reactivity of the zeolites, including calcination, acid treatment, milling and cation exchange, were then tested and evaluated using the same methods of material characterization and testing mentioned previously. Last, the results of the reactivity testing were reanalyzed to determine which properties of natural zeolites, including particle size, nitrogen-available surface area, and composition, govern the development of compressive strengths, pozzolanic reactivity and improved cement hydration parameters of pastes and mortars using natural zeolites as SCMs. Pretreatment testing showed that milling and acid treatment successfully increased the reactivity of zeolites used as SCMs. Additionally, particle size was shown to be the dominant property in determining the development of compressive strengths while particle size and surface area of the zeolites contributed to zeolite pozzolanic reactivity. / text

In a rapidly changing visual environment, the delay between perception and action might impair the probability of survival of a prey or the efficiency of a predator. In order to compensate for delays associated with sensory-motor processing, primates often make predictions about future events and initiate anticipatory movements. To prepare an anticipatory movement, an estimation of when and where to a target is likely to move is necessary. Such an internal representation is often termed 'expectation'. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the gradual changes of a subject's expectation at the behavioral and electrophysiological levels. Anticipatory smooth pursuit was used in order to study temporal and directional changes in expectation. We found that temporal uncertainty strongly modulated the latency and the velocity of anticipatory movements suggesting that monkeys could estimate the hazard rate of target motion onset in order to decide when to initiate an anticipatory movement. In addition, we have shown that monkeys could use prior directional information in order to voluntarily initiate anticipatory responses in the direction of expected target motion. This prior directional information significantly affected the latency and velocity of these movements. Finally, we have shown that the majority of recorded supplementary eye field (SEF) neurons encoded expected target motion direction. The presence of a directional cue induced an increase of activity in the preferred direction of the neuron. Moreover, a large sub-population of neurons encoded the direction of future anticipatory movement. These results suggest that the SEF could be involved in the cognitive control of anticipatory pursuit eye movements when prior temporal and directional information is provided.

Farmacijos pramonei yra taikomi vieni iš griežčiausių reikalavimų. Dėl šių reikalavimų labai sutrumpėja patento suteikiamos apsaugos trukmė produktui. Siekiant kompensuoti tokią sutrumpėjusią apsaugos trukmę, įvairiose valstybėse numatyta galimybė pratęsti patento, išduoto medicinos produktams, galiojimo laiką. Europos Sąjungoje patentų teisė nėra suderinta, tačiau suteikiant papildomą apsaugą medicinos produktams, yra priimtas vieningas sprendimas. Šis sprendimas – tai galimybė medicinos produktams išduoti papildomą apsaugos liudijimą. Bendrijoje nėra vienos kompetentingos institucijos, kuri išduotų tokį liudijimą. Jis yra išduodamas kiekvienoje valstybėje narėje tam tikros kompetentingos institucijos. Išduodant tokius liudijimus skirtingose valstybėse dažnai iškyla tam tikrų klausimų. Todėl darbe aptariamos papildomų apsaugos liudijimų medicinos produktams išdavimo problemos. Tyrimo tikslas – identifikuoti ir išanalizuoti papildomų apsaugos liudijimų medicinos produktams išdavimo probleminius aspektus. Analizuojant teismų praktiką bei specialiąją literatūrą apžvelgiami įvairūs probleminiai aspektai susiję su PAL išdavimu. Išvadose apibendrinama, jog PAL išdavimo medicinos produktams pagrindiniai probleminiai aspektai yra: a) susiję su Reglamente Nr. 469/2009 įtvirtintos sąvokos „produktas“ aiškinimu, b) susiję su minėtame Reglamente įtvirtintomis sąlygomis reikalingomis gauti PAL medicinos produktams, c) dėl „neigiamo“ galiojimo PAL išdavimo galimybės ir PAL galiojimo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The pharmaceutical industry is subject to one of the most stringent requirements. Because of these requirements the duration of a product patent protection is much shorter. In order to compensate such reduced duration of protection different countries provide for a possibility to extend the period of a patent issued to medicinal products. The EU patent law is not consistent; however a unanimous decision has been adopted as to granting of extra protection to medicinal products. This solution is to issue a supplementary protection certificate with respect to medicinal products. There is no single competent authority in the Community, which is responsible for the issuance of such certificate. The relevant competent authority of each Member State issues a certificate. Often many questions arise in the course of issuance of such certificates in different countries. The paper discusses the problems concerning the issuance of supplementary protection certificates for medicinal products. The aim of the research is to identify and analyze problematic aspects of the issuance of supplementary protection certificates for medicinal products. The analysis of case law and special literature deals with various problematic aspects related to the issuance of SPC. The conclusions summarize the principle problematic aspects of the issuance of SPC for medicinal products, which are related with the following: a) Interpretation of the term "product" provided for in Regulation No. 469/2009; b)... [to full text]

This research investigates a batch arrival queueing system with a Bernoulli scheduled vacation and random system breakdowns. It is assumed that the repair process does not start immediately after the breakdown. Consequently there maybe a delay in starting repairs. After every service completion the server may go on an optional vacation. When the original vacation is completed the server has the option to go on an extended vacation. It is assumed that the system is equipped with a stand-by server to serve the customers during the vacation period of the main server as well as during the repair process. The service times, vacation times, repair times, delay times and extended vacation times are assumed to follow different general distributions while the breakdown times and the service times of the stand-by server follow an exponential distribution. By introducing a supplementary variable we are able to obtain steady state results in an explicit closed form in terms of the probability generating functions. Some important performance measures including; the average length of the queue, the average number of customers in the system, the mean response time, and the value of the traffic intensity are presented. The professional MathCad 2001 software has been used to illustrate the numerical results in this study.

La carbonatation atmosphérique et la pénétration des ions chlorures sont les principales causes du déclenchement de la corrosion des armatures dans les bétons armés. Chacun de ses mécanismes a fait l'objet de nombreuses études dans la bibliographie. Pourtant les études prenant en compte en même temps les deux types d'agression sont rares. Le couplage des deux phénomènes existe cependant. La carbonatation intervient en effet dans tout ouvrage dès le décoffrage et il suffit que cet ouvrage soit aussi par exemple situé à proximité d'eau de mer pour que les embruns apportent des ions chlorures dans le matériau. L'objectif de cette thèse a été de quantifier les différentes phases de la matrice cimentaire et ses capacités de fixation des ions chlorures par le biais d'isothermes d'interactions pour des matériaux sains et carbonatés. Ces isothermes d'interactions obtenues notamment par la méthode des équilibres ont permis de voir que les matrices partiellement ou totalement carbonatées fixaient moins d'ions chlorures que les matrices saines. L'utilisation de moyens complémentaires d'analyses tels que l'analyse thermogravimétrique (ATG), la diffraction des rayons X (DRX) et la résonance magnétique nucléaire (RMN) a permis de mieux comprendre cette perte de fixation. Une diminution des sels de Friedel et des chlorures fixés par les C-S-H a été ainsi mise en évidence dans les matériaux carbonatés. Ces diminutions qui on été quantifiées sont attribuées à une modification sous carbonatation des phases capables de fixer les ions chlorures (phases aluminates, sulfo-aluminates et C-S-H). Des différences au niveau du réseau poreux ont été également mises en évidence par la porosimétrie par intrusion de mercure (diminution de la macroporosité et de la connectivité en général pour les matrices carbonatées par formation de CaCO3). L'objectif a été aussi de corréler toutes ces modifications observées avec les propriétés de transport des ions qui ont été obtenues par des tests de diffusion et migration des ions chlorures (et/ou sulfates) ainsi que des mesures de résistivité électrique. Les résultats expérimentaux ont montré que le coefficient de diffusion apparent est plus grand dans les matériaux carbonatés. Certaines expériences de diffusion faites en présence à la fois d'ions chlorures et sulfates ont aussi montré la concurrence de ces deux ions pour se fixer à la matrice cimentaire. Les matériaux cimentaires testés (bétons et pâtes) ont été formulés sans ou avec additions minérales (métakaolin, cendres volantes, laitier) et les propriétés de ces matériaux ont été observées à différents âges / Carbonation and chloride ingress are the main causes of reinforced concrete degradation. A lot of studies describe these two phenomena separately but only few studies state a possible coupling. However, the coupling of both phenomena exists. The corrosion of reinforcement due to chloride ions occurs more often in marine environments or in the presence of deicing salts while carbonation occurs systematically, in a more or less high degree depending on environmental conditions (humidity, temperature…). The aim of this thesis was to quantify the different phases of the cement matrix and its chloride binding by means of chloride binding isotherms for carbonated and non-carbonated cement based materials. These chloride binding isotherms, obtained by the equilibrium method, showed that the partially or totally carbonated cement matrix are bound fewer chlorides than the non carbonated ones. Complementary techniques such as the thermogravimetry (TGA), the X-rays diffraction (XRD) and the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses were used and allowed to understand why this binding decrease occurs. A decrease of Friedel's salt and chlorides bound in the C-S-H was showed in the carbonated materials. These decreases were quantified and are due to a modification of the phases containing chloride (such as aluminates, sulfo-aluminates and C-S-H phases) during carbonation process. The porous network, was observed by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), was also modified (decrease of the macroporosity and the connectivity for carbonated cement matrix due to formation of calcium carbonate). The other aim was to correlate all these modifications with the ions transport properties. Chloride diffusion and migration tests (with or without sulfates) were obtained as well as the measurements of electric resistivity. The experimental results showed that the apparent chloride diffusion coefficient is higher in the carbonated cement materials. Some diffusion tests were performed in presence of both chlorides and sulfates, which showed the competition of these two ions to bind on the cement matrix. Cement materials (concrete and cement paste) were designed without or with supplementary cementing materials (metakaolin, fly ash, slag) and the properties of these materials were followed at different curing time

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Civil Engineering / Kyle A. Riding / Finely ground glass has the potential for pozzolanic reactivity and can serve as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM). Glass reaction kinetics depends on both temperature and glass composition. Uniform composition, amorphous nature, and high silica content of glass make ground glass an ideal material for studying the effects of glass type and particle size on reactivity at different temperature. This study focuses on how three narrow size ranges of clear and green glass cullet, 63–75 [mu]m, 25–38 [mu]m, and smaller than 25 [mu]m, as well as combination of glass types and particle sizes affects the microstructure and performance properties of cementitious systems containing glass cullet as a SCM. Isothermal calorimetry, chemical shrinkage, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), quantitative analysis of X-ray diffraction (XRD), and analysis of scanning electron microscope (SEM) images in backscattered (BS) mode were used to quantify the cement reaction kinetics and microstructure. Additionally, compressive strength and water sorptivity experiments were performed on mortar samples to correlate reactivity of cementitious materials containing glass to the performance of cementitious mixtures. A recently-developed modeling platform called “[mu]ic the model” was used to simulated pozzolanic reactivity of single type and fraction size and combined types and particle sizes of finely ground glass. Results showed that ground glass exhibits pozzolanic properties, especially when particles of clear and green glass below 25 [mu]m and their combination were used at elevated temperatures, reflecting that glass cullet is a temperature-sensitive SCM. Moreover, glass composition was seen to have a large impact on reactivity. In this study, green glass showed higher reactivity than clear glass. Results also revealed that the simultaneous effect of sizes and types of glass cullet (surface area) on the degree of hydration of glass particles can be accounted for through a linear addition, reflecting that the surface area would significantly affect glass cullet reactivity and that the effects of SCM material interaction on reaction kinetics were minimal. However, mechanical properties of cementitious systems containing combined glass types and sizes behaved differently, as they followed the weaker portion of the two particles. This behavior was attributed to the pores sizes, distruibution, and connectiity. Simulations of combined glass types and sizes showed that more work on microstructural models is needed to properly model the reactivity of mixed glass particle systems.