Outcomes of secondary alveolar bone grafts in cleft patients

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Dentistry in the branch of Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery 31 May 2018.Aim The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the outcomes of secondary alveolar bone grafts (SABG) in cleft patients treated at the Wits Dental Hospital at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. Objectives To record the demographic data of patients who had secondary alveolar bone grafts, and to assess the outcomes of SABG by evaluating clinical variables and the quantity of bone post SABG. Methods Records of 19 patients with a total of 23 clefts were examined to evaluate the amount of bone at the cleft site following secondary alveolar bone graft. Socio-demographic information was collected as well as the clinical variables of the type of graft used, canine eruption, keratinised tissue around teeth close to the cleft, and closure or persistence of any oronasal fistula. The amount of bone at the graft site was measured on CBCT images using the Chelsea scale. Comparisons of Chelsea scale scores and CBCT findings were carried out. SPSS ® 24 was used to analyse the data. All statistical tests were conducted at 5% significance level. Results Most (52%) patients were male, with 57% having left unilateral cleft. The majority of them received autogenous bone grafts from the chin. Most (65.2%) of the patients showed good clinical outcomes, whilst showing evidence of bone resorption in and around the graft site on CBCT images. Fifteen of the patients were considered to have partial alveolar graft resorption. Conclusion In the majority of patients, 3D CBCT images revealed bone resorption in areas that 2D images gave an impression of presence of bone. However, the majority of patients indicated good clinical outcomes despite the poor radiological findings.LG201

The Improved Model of the Method, Rights, and Resources (MRR) for the Evaluation of the EIA System: Revising the Sustainability Indicators

Measuring effectiveness of environmental impact assessment systems is central to the implementation of environmental impact assessment, considering the debate about relevance and usefulness of environmental impact assessment systems. Many models for evaluating environmental impact assessment system’s effectiveness have been developed. Difficulties in quantifying environmental impacts have restricted the effectiveness mostly to procedural effectiveness evaluation, though substantive effectiveness evaluation is better. The method, rights, and resources (MRR) model was initially developed to harness the indicator-based evaluation theory into the evaluation of environmental impact assessment system’s effectiveness. This chapter reviews the method, rights, and resources model and proffers some improvement. The method, rights, and resources model evaluates environmental impact assessment systems using indicators of compliance, participation, and capacity. The indicators incorporate both procedural and substantive approaches; hence, it attempts to present a more indicative measure of environmental impact assessment system’s effectiveness. The guiding idea in this chapter is that monitoring and evaluating environmental impact assessment systems should be embedded in the environmental impact assessment system itself as opposed to being concepts that are externally and subsequently applied on existing environmental impact assessment systems

A SERVQUAL investigation into customer expectations and perceptions of service quality at DTA College Pietermaritzburg during 2010

Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.The marketisation of higher and further education institutions whereby education institutions adopt commercial practices to operate has led to increased competition in the education industry. Various sources of competitive advantage are being searched for aggressively by education institutions in the hope of securing customers and remaining competitive. Service quality has become one of the biggest sources of competitive advantage for higher and further education institutions as it enables the institutions to differentiate themselves from the competition. Development and Training for Adults (DTA) College in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa also faces similar challenges of the need to be competitive in an increasingly competitive environment. The study investigated the customers‟ perceptions and expectations of service quality at DTA College in Pietermaritzburg in order to identify and assess any existing service quality gaps. The SERVQUAL instrument which consists of 22 statements on perceptions and 22 on expectations of service quality was utilised to collect data for the research study at DTA College. A sample size of 58 was used and it was selected through stratified random sampling to maximise representativeness of the sample. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. Statistical tools that include frequencies, meanscores and tabulations were utilised to present the data from findings. The Wilcoxon signed ranks test was also utilised to further analyse the significance of the gaps. The findings from the study indicated that, a negative service quality gap exists at DTA College. Reliability was the service quality dimension that had the widest gap which indicated that the respondents do not rely on the College as it does not deliver as per promise. Assurance was the service quality dimension which had the narrowest gaps. However, 3 of the 4 assurance gaps were significant according to statistical tests conducted which mean that DTA College has to pay attention to all the service quality dimensions regardless of the gaps being small. Frequent interaction between the college and the customers is recommended for DTA College as it provides the college with important information on customer expectations and perceptions. Continuous employee training to improve the existing skills is also recommended for the college‟s employees as it can have a good impact on meeting the customers‟ expectations of the service quality dimensions

Situation recognition using soft computing techniques

Includes bibliographical references.The last decades have witnessed the emergence of a large number of devices pervasively launched into our daily lives as systems producing and collecting data from a variety of information sources to provide different services to different users via a variety of applications. These include infrastructure management, business process monitoring, crisis management and many other system-monitoring activities. Being processed in real-time, these information production/collection activities raise an interest for live performance monitoring, analysis and reporting, and call for data-mining methods in the recognition, prediction, reasoning and controlling of the performance of these systems by controlling changes in the system and/or deviations from normal operation. In recent years, soft computing methods and algorithms have been applied to data mining to identify patterns and provide new insight into data. This thesis revisits the issue of situation recognition for systems producing massive datasets by assessing the relevance of using soft computing techniques for finding hidden pattern in these systems

ALLOCATION SOLUTIONS FOR RECYCLED MUNICIPALWASTE AGGREGATES

Municipal waste presents major environmental and public health concerns. The disposal of municipalwaste has become a major worldwide environmental problem. Landfill sites are considered as environmentally questionable option and their capacity are decreasing rapidly. Nowadays, various processes have emerged to recycle the waste as synthetic fuel gas, heat source, polymers, fertilizers, and particulate solid residues. In this study, the possibility of recycling these particulate solids as aggregate in concrete was considered. The physical properties and size distribution of recycled aggregates were measured along with the effect of using these recycled aggregate on the compressivestrength of concrete. The resulting outcomes of these tests were compared with concrete sample prepared with conventional crushed stone as coarse aggregate and natural sand as fine aggregate materials. No doubt, recycled aggregates can be used as a replacement of natural course and fine aggregates, but there is need for further investigations about its effect on the concrete properties

Agave lechuguilla as a Potential Biomass Source in Arid Areas

Biomass productivity presents a challenging problem in arid and semi-arid areas. Despite a large need for energy in the form of solid biomass, liquid fuel or needs for animal feed, these regions remain largely unproductive. A convenient way to overcome this challenge is to utilize plants with high water-use efficiency. Agave lechuguilla is an example of a highly productive (3.8 tons ha-1 yr-1 ) desert plant that holds the potential for producing biomass with minimal water resources. For this purpose, a global suitability map has been developed showing areas where this plant can be planted, and its productivity was assessed. A Maxent model was used and was further refined by excluding protected areas and used lands (urban, agriculture, etc.). Productivity assessment provides a good way forward for prioritizing the regional utilization of this plant. This study provides an initial analysis for the use of arid and semi-arid regions for biomass production. Results indicate the potential generation of 93.8 million tons per year of dry biomass if the suitable areas were fully utilized. The analytical method can be readily applied to other potential plant species to optimize the use of certain areas

ALLOCATION SOLUTIONS FOR RECYCLED MUNICIPALWASTE AGGREGATES

Municipal waste presents major environmental and public health concerns. The disposal of municipalwaste has become a major worldwide environmental problem. Landfill sites are considered as environmentally questionable option and their capacity are decreasing rapidly. Nowadays, various processes have emerged to recycle the waste as synthetic fuel gas, heat source, polymers, fertilizers, and particulate solid residues. In this study, the possibility of recycling these particulate solids as aggregate in concrete was considered. The physical properties and size distribution of recycled aggregates were measured along with the effect of using these recycled aggregate on the compressivestrength of concrete. The resulting outcomes of these tests were compared with concrete sample prepared with conventional crushed stone as coarse aggregate and natural sand as fine aggregate materials. No doubt, recycled aggregates can be used as a replacement of natural course and fine aggregates, but there is need for further investigations about its effect on the concrete properties

Co-operatives, Work, and the Digital Economy: A Knowledge Synthesis Report

This report surveys recent literature on co-operative approaches to improving work and livelihoods in the digital economy, specifically in the gig economy, the tech sector, and digital creative industries. It introduces concepts that update co-operative theory and practice for the digital age, including platform cooperativism, open cooperativism, distributed co-operative organizations, and Exit to Community. It outlines how the co-operative model has been adopted by and for self-employed workers, platform workers, technologists and communication professionals, and data subjects. While the report presents evidence of co-ops’ potential to improve working conditions and mitigate power asymmetries in the digital economy, it also addresses challenges co-ops face. It explores perspectives on the infrastructure necessary to overcome these challenges and expand worker co-ops’ presence in the digital economy, including the formation of co-operative federations for sharing technology across co-ops. Despite the promise of co-ops in the digital economy, the literature cautions against viewing them as a panacea. Stressing that individual co-ops are not, on their own, a sufficient response to problems of work and inequality, several authors position co-ops as one among a diversity of worker-centered organizations and strategies necessary to improve work and livelihoods in the digital economy. The report concludes with suggestions for future research and policy recommendations