In my essay I am looking at the common heritage of written signs and images through my own experience of attention deficiency and mental illness. Through this lens of experience in which words and images are vividly transformed and merged, I am reflecting on language and art and their overlapping. Throughout the text I reference early written entirely pictorial languages, the painterly terms of thought disorders, as well as how the images that gave name to the characters in the phonetic alphabet is still lurking in the very letters themselves. I also exemplify how attention deficiency can evoke new image/text hybrids in a chapter I call ADHD poetry. In my own artistic practice I am drawn towards a melting point of language, written sign, image, high and low, illusion-representation-materiality, intellect and intuition. The surface as a physical object and idea – that there is a two-dimensional space where we project fantasies and fiction. Through prose, play, rhythm, rant, word salad, crumble of meaning etc. sandwiched, I am observing the swelling of words.

MSc (Food Science and Technology) / Department of Food Science and Technology / White maize-based porridge is a staple food for about 80% consumers in South Africa and sub-Saharan African countries contributing significantly to the diet of rural populations in developing countries. White maize is deficient in some amino acids and over-dependency on its porridge may lead to high prevalence of malnutrition-related health conditions. Moringa oleifera (MO) and termite (Isoptera spp.) are known to contain a substantially high amount of protein. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of powders from MO leaves and termite on the nutritional and sensory properties of instant-maize porridge. Inclusion of MO and termite powders in instant-maize porridge, at different treatments, was considered using a completely randomised design. Factor levels were: AOB-control (maize flour); BEA (maize, powders of cooked dried MO and termite); CIA (maize, powders of blanched dried MO and termite) and DJE (maize, powders of uncooked dried MO and termite). Data were analysed using SPSS version 23. The protein content of fortified instant-maize porridge (FMP) significantly (p < 0.05) increased from 10.02 to 21.20% compared to unfortified porridges. The mineral content of FMP was higher in terms of Zn, Fe, Ca and Mg. Moisture content of FMP increased from 5.00 to 6.00%. Sensory analysis showed that among fortified porridges, CIA was rated high for colour and texture, BEA higher in taste and DJE higher for aroma. AOB had higher acceptance than fortified porridges for taste. Powder from MO leaves and termite could be used in complementary foods and food supplements to increase protein and mineral contents.

Virtual currencies and mobile banking are technology advancements that are receiving increased attention in the global community because of their accessibility, convenience and speed. However, this popularity comes with growing security concerns, like increasing frequency of identity theft, leading to bigger problems which put user anonymity at risk. One possible solution for these problems is using cryptography to enhance security of Bitcoin or other decentralised digital currency systems and to decrease frequency of attacks on either communication channels or system storage. This report outlines various methods and solutions targeting these issues and aims to understand their effectiveness. It also describes Secure Bitcoin Wallet, standard Bitcoin transactions client, enhanced with various security features and services.

Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) have recently gained attention due to their increased ability to perform sophisticated missions with less cost and/or risk than their manned counterparts. This thesis develops approaches to the use of compliant mechanisms in the design of deployable wings for small UAVs. Although deployable wings with rigid-link mechanisms have been used in the past to maintain flight endurance while minimizing required storage volume, compliant mechanisms offer many advantages in manufacturability and potential space savings due to function sharing of components. A number of compliant, deployable wing concepts are generated and a classification system for them is formed. The pool of generated concepts serves as a basis for stimulating future concept ideas. A methodology is also proposed for evaluating concepts for a given application. The approach to developing compliant designs for certain applications is illustrated through two example designs, which demonstrate key portions of the proposed design process. Each is modeled and analyzed to demonstrate viability.

Text in Afrikaans / This study investigates postcolonial aspects of the prose oeuvre of André P. Brink, with specific reference to his historiographical texts `n Oomblik in die wind, Houd-den-Bek, Die eerste lewe van Adamastor, Inteendeel, Sandkastele and Donkermaan. The texts can be described as links in a textual history of South Africa: a history corresponding to the official version, revisioning it in an imaginative way. The texts also criticize political (mal)practices, and the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial social contexts of the country are critically scrutinized. The texts offer suggestions for a new political dispensation. Since the seventies the Brink oeuvre has developed a multi-dimensional postcolonial approach. Aspects of post-colonialism, post-structuralism, magical realism and feminism as articulated in the texts, are analyzed and interpreted. Brink's investigation of problems concerning historiography, and the relation between history and fiction, comprised an important aspect of the research leading to this report. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / D.Litt. et Phil

Online adolescent friendships and social networking among adolescents are current phenomena that have emerged, and exploded, as part of the digital age and the vast development of communication technologies. The primary aim of this study was to gain knowledge and understanding regarding the nature and quality of online friendships and social networking among adolescents. A sequential explanatory mixed method design, was put to use for the purpose of this study. The quantitative data was collected first in the form of a short survey, by utilising a self-developed questionnaire to obtain a general overview of the social network practices and the forming and maintaining of online friendships among adolescents. Twenty five participants took part in the survey. This study was followed by a qualitative study in the form of interviews, to clarify, elaborate and explain the quantitative findings. Five information rich participants were interviewed. The findings of the empirical investigation revealed that adolescents, being part of the Net Generation, base their concept of socialising with friends on digital and communication technology, especially cell phones. They are connected to their friends 24 hours a day. The sense of safety and support they experience through this constant connectedness strengthens their self-esteem, self-confidence and self-worth and contributes to their identity formation. It is therefore recommended that parents and educators should accept that adolescents live in a virtual world and their new way of socialising, needs to be acknowledged. Parents and educators should adjust accordingly, by getting educated in this field themselves. The Net Generation is a generation who focuses on relationships and collaboration through technology and this should be exploited by anybody who has contact or interacts with the adolescent of today. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

支援自動即時雙向工程（Roundtrip engineering，自即雙工）與重構，是當前先進整合開發環境的兩項殺手級特色。然而，當今自即雙工所實現的即時同步，僅針對特定塑模環境（如圖形使用者介面編排、物件類別設計等）量身訂製，並非任意同步。而精確字串匹配的彈性不足，也使以此為基礎的重構技術面臨些瓶頸。以上限制，使我們無法在跨模型、語言或文件的層次進行同步或重構，以滿足現今系統開發過程中的龐大資料同步需求。 我們的補強方案就是梭。這是一具在Eclipse【1】圖形化塑模框架（Graphical Modeling Framework，GMF【2】）下運作的塑模輔助引擎。梭可監聽GMF編輯器的模型元素輸入，同時連結元素與「同步概念」，以建立同步規則，最後依據規則，輸出視覺化的模型同步建議，輔助達成模型－模型間的資訊同步。 我們借鏡知識本體與資訊擷取「概念搜尋」中的「概念（Concept）」觀，提出了「概念同步」的想法。用以同步的「同步概念」，則延伸自詞網（WordNet【3】）的自然語言同義詞集合，代表著「擁有相關自然語言內容的模型元素間，應當同步」的關係。梭對模型元素屬性內容進行自然語言斷詞後，將斷詞結果投入詞網搜尋，以取得前述的相似內容。 梭以「概念」串連了原本難以即時同步的模型元素。梭的規則推論架構，也為未來的知識本體化、結構化模型同步推論、驗證，鋪好了道路。開發者的夢想──在開發的任何階段，系統皆能維持同步──離實現又邁進一步。 / Roundtrip engineering and refactoring are killer features of modern IDE systems. Most implementations of these features nowadays, however, are tailor-made for scenarios like GUI or UML diagramming ones and hence are hard to generalize; moreover, existing refactoring ways are usually restricted to exact string matching and are thus unable to synchronize artifacts with different occurrences of the equivalent term. These problems inhibit today's IDEs from supporting developments requiring synchronization across models, languages and documents. Shuttle is a modeling assistant developed by us running on Eclipse GMF editors. It monitors users' input model elements and link them by related concepts automatically. Later modifications of an element will trigger rules to find the others under the same related concepts and result in various synchronization recommendations which developers may choose to take to enforce consistency among parts of the developed system. The linking-triggering mechanism of Shuttle is based on what we call concept synchronization (CS), which is inspired by the idea of concept in ontology and concept search in information retrieval. CS captures the simple idea that model elements with related text descriptions would be very likely modified accordingly if one of them is changed by the developer. To detect all others related to a target model element, we establish a many-to-many mapping between elements and WordNet Synsets【3】according to element text descriptions ahead of time and then, with WordNet’s help【40】, all elements related to the target can be found by looking for those mapped to a Synset associated with the target.

Dans le cadre de la présente thèse, a été étudié l’impact de la texturation par traitement thermo-mécanique DIC (Détente Instantanée Contrôlée) sur le séchage de divers produits alimentaires. Ce prétraitement a induit une amélioration de la cinétique de l’opération de séchage quand elle est limitée par le transfert interne de la matière couplé au rétrécissement du produit. Ainsi, la diminution du temps de séchage a atteint 67% dans le cas de l’oignon et 77% dans le cas du cassis. Quant à la diffusivité effective Deff, elle a augmenté par rapport à la matière première jusqu’à 246% pour les pépins et 795% pour les déchets de canneberge, 336% pour l’oignon et 1223% pour le cassis. Dans le cas des produits étudiés, la pression de vapeur de traitement DIC a généralement un effet significatif positif sur la cinétique de séchage et d’extraction des différentes molécules. Concernant les caractérisatiques des produits, nous constatons l’impact positif du traitement par DIC quant aux principales caractéristiques de la matière. Ainsi, les composés phénoliques apparaissent plus disponibles à la suite du traitement adéquat par DIC. Le contenu en composés phénoliques et la capacité antioxydante étant supérieurs dans les produits traités par DIC, la qualité nutritionnelle s’est ainsi également trouvée améliorée. Avec une dégradation thermique négligeable, le traitement DIC implique un effet mécanique dû à la détente instantanée, ce qui permet la rupture de certaines structures cellulaires de la matière et l’augmentation de la quantité maximale extractible. Les caractéristiques physiques diverses (masse volumique apparente et taux relatif d’expansion), les caractéristiques microstructurelles (mesurées par microscopie électronique à balayage) et fonctionnelles d’interaction avec l’eau (réhydratation, teneur en eau, isotherme de sorption, microbiologie et contenu nutritionnel...) peuvent être optimisées en fonction des conditions opératoires DIC, selon les besoins du consommateur. / The present PhD work concerns the effect of thermo-mechanical texturing by DIC (Instantaneous Controlled Pressure-Drop) on fruit and vegetable drying. This pretreatment dramatically improves drying kinetics when the internal mass transfer coupled to the shrinkage of the product, is the limiting process. Indeed, the drying time decreased by 67% in the case of onion and 77% for blackcurrants, while the effective diffusivity Deff increased up to 246%, 795%, 336%, and 1223% for cranberry seed and waste, onion and blackcurrants, respectively. With these products, the saturated steam pressure generally has a significant positive effect on the drying kinetics.DIC treatment significantly improves the main nutritional and functional characteristics of the fruits and vegetables, with more available phenols and higher antioxidant activity. As thermal degradation is negligible, the DIC treatment involves micromechanical effect linked to the instant pressure drop, which allows cell to break and structure to be more porous such increasing the maximum extractable amount. Various physical, microstructural and functional characteristics of new textured material allow water interaction to be completely modified in terms of rehydration kinetics and capacity, sorption isotherm, microbiological and nutritional content... depending on operating DIC conditions, which can be optimized according to the consumer needs.

Cette thèse présente une recherche exploratoire sur l'application du Formalisme Microcanonique Multiéchelles (FMM) à l'analyse de la parole. Dérivé de principes issus en physique statistique, le FMM permet une analyse géométrique précise de la dynamique non linéaire des signaux complexes. Il est fondé sur l'estimation des paramètres géométriques locaux (les exposants de singularité) qui quantifient le degré de prédictibilité à chaque point du signal. Si correctement définis est estimés, ils fournissent des informations précieuses sur la dynamique locale de signaux complexes. Nous démontrons le potentiel du FMM dans l'analyse de la parole en développant: un algorithme performant pour la segmentation phonétique, un nouveau codeur, un algorithme robuste pour la détection précise des instants de fermeture glottale, un algorithme rapide pour l’analyse par prédiction linéaire parcimonieuse et une solution efficace pour l’approximation multipulse du signal source d'excitation. / This thesis presents an exploratory research on the application of a nonlinear multiscale formalism, called the Microcanonical Multiscale Formalism (the MMF), to the analysis of speech signals. Derived from principles in Statistical Physics, the MMF allows accurate analysis of the nonlinear dynamics of complex signals. It relies on the estimation of local geometrical parameters, the singularity exponents (SE), which quantify the degree of predictability at each point of the signal domain. When correctly defined and estimated, these exponents can provide valuable information about the local dynamics of complex signals and has been successfully used in many applications ranging from signal representation to inference and prediction.We show the relevance of the MMF to speech analysis and develop several applications to show the strength and potential of the formalism. Using the MMF, in this thesis we introduce: a novel and accurate text-independent phonetic segmentation algorithm, a novel waveform coder, a robust accurate algorithm for detection of the Glottal Closure Instants, a closed-form solution for the problem of sparse linear prediction analysis and finally, an efficient algorithm for estimation of the excitation source signal.

Text in English / This study adopted a quantitative approach in order to produce numbers in relation to the diffusion of the new media. A descriptive quantitative survey was conducted – with sampling done in multi-stage probability – which comprised clustering, simple random, systematic, stratified sampling techniques, convenience and census sampling. A sample size of 379 respondents was selected, comprising 347 citizen-respondents and 32 government communicators (heads of communication). Data was collected utilising two (2) standardised questionnaires – one tailor-made for the citizens and the other for government communicators. Informed by the Diffusion of Innovations theory, this study has established that new media channels have difussed extensively within communities in the Province of Mpumalanga. This has provided a strong motivation to recommend that the communication policy of the South African government be amended, to include new media channels, like social media, as official government communication channels. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)