Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T13:54:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 EmersonHS_DISSERT.pdf: 3506096 bytes, checksum: 88d17d7e36e1677c47a4a2f8166b30c8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-19 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / In a highly dynamic society such as we live, have access to the virtual world is an increasingly common practice, is aiming to study, work or to search leisure through chat rooms, sites and games, being incorporated by the most varied groups that end up appropriating these new possibilities of interaction, shaping them in order to adapt them to their needs / wants. The specific purposes pursued through the use of tools available over the Internet can vary considerably when one takes into account specific user groups, which makes the topic quite relevant to problematization, especially when we take into account access through lan houses. This research seeks to study the networks of knowledge, sociability and leisure formed by young people who frequented the "Lan house do Paulo" in S?o Gon?alo do Amarante - RN based on the use of the online role-playing-game World of Warcraft, which makes possible the interaction of several users through an avatar resident in a virtual world, theoretically questioning the importance of this type of platform for the development and maintenance of social interactions among its users / Em uma sociedade extremamente din?mica como a que vivemos, ter acesso ao mundo virtual ? uma pr?tica cada vez mais comum, seja com a finalidade estudar, trabalhar ou ainda de procurar lazer atrav?s de chats, sites de relacionamento e jogos, sendo incorporada pelos mais variados grupos que acabam por se apropriarem dessas novas possibilidades de intera??o, moldando-as de forma a adequarem-nas ?s suas necessidades/vontades. As finalidades espec?ficas buscadas atrav?s do uso das ferramentas disponibilizadas pela internet podem variar consideravelmente quando se leva em conta grupos espec?ficos de usu?rios, o que torna o tema algo bastante relevante ? problematiza??o, principalmente quando levamos em conta o acesso atrav?s de lan houses. A presente pesquisa busca estudar as redes de conhecimento, sociabilidade e lazer formadas pelos jovens frequentadores da Lan house do Paulo no munic?pio de S?o Gon?alo do Amarante RN tendo por base a utiliza??o do jogo de interpreta??o de personagens online World of Warcraft, o qual torna poss?vel a intera??o de diversos usu?rios atrav?s de um avatar residente em um mundo virtual, problematizando teoricamente a import?ncia desse tipo de plataforma para o desenvolvimento e manuten??o das intera??es sociais entre seus usu?rios

Thesis (MTech (Construction Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / The study investigates the predominant factors responsible for increase in the cost of building materials and the effect of this cost increase on housing delivery in Western Cape, South Africa. Sustainable housing is buildings produced to meet the present housing needs of people without conceding the ability of the future generation to meet their future needs. However, a significant increase in the cost of building materials has been a major constraint to the delivery of sustainable housings, as made evident in the literature, leading to project cost and time overruns or even project abandonment. However, building materials consume up to 65% of the total cost of construction. This factor on cost has, over the years, threatened the ability of the construction industry to deliver projects within budgeted cost, at stipulated time, and at satisfactory quality. This prompted the need to proffer solutions to these factors identified which are causing increases in the cost of building materials towards sustainable housing delivery in Western Cape. Based on this research study, housing is termed to be sustainable when it is available and affordable for the masses timely and at quality expected. The research study adopted a mixed methodological approach, involving the use of semi-structured qualitative interviews and closed-ended quantitative questionnaires administered to construction stakeholders (architects, quantity surveyors, engineers, construction managers, project managers, site supervisors and material suppliers) in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. SPSS version 24 software was used for analysing the quantitative data collected and ‘content analysis’ method was used to analyse the information collected through the qualitative interviews. The findings revealed that the major factors responsible for increasing the cost of building materials are inflation, wastages of building materials by labourers, cost of transportation and distribution of labour, design changes, client contribution to design change and change in government policies and regulation. Moreover, the research showed that fluctuation in the cost of construction and high maintenance costs due to poor workmanship also impact the cost increase of building materials for housing delivery. In addition, research findings affirmed that for optimum materials usage for the enhancement of sustainable construction, the following criteria should be considered in the selection of building materials: maintenance cost, energy consumption and maintainability. The adoption of these findings by construction stakeholders in the South African construction industry would enhance the delivery of affordable housing at reduced cost, at the required time and at the expected quality. Therefore, an adequate implementation of the framework presented in this study will enhance sustainable housing delivery.

The present study evaluated offender characteristics associated with completion of halfway house placement by the inclusion of additional offender characteristics for analysis in addition to those studied in previous research, the analysis of a large number of representative cases, and the use of statistics allowing clear conclusions upon which to base decision making. Data analysis was done in three steps. The first Step was to identify offender characteristics which were associated with completion in halfway house placement. The second step was to see how accurate the offender characteristics identified were in predicting completion of an offender's halfway house stay. The third step was to identify any possible factors which underlie the offender characteristics identified. Discriminant analyses identified ten offender characteristics which were associated with completion of halfway house placement for 521 male offenders and four offender characteristics which were associated with halfway house completion for the group of 33 female offenders studied. These offender characteristics resulted in 75.38 percent correctly classified cases for the male offender group and 96.9 7 percent correctly classified cases for the group of female offenders. Factor analyses resulted in the identification of four factors for the group of male offenders and two factors for the female offender group. Suggestions for future research included replications of the present study leading to the identification of offender groups based on probabilities of successful halfway house completion, and the establishment of halfway house programs tailored to offenders identified as having high or low probabilities of completion.

Thesis (M. A. (African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / The purpose of this study is to analyse the building, use and caring of traditional Tsonga houses. Data was collected by means of interviews. An interview is an instrument of collecting information by asking the participants questions. The participants of this study were male and female Tsonga elders. The research area of this study is Ndhambi, Mageva, Maphata and Makhuva villages, which are found in the Mopani District of Limpopo Province. This study attempts to answer the following questions:  How were traditional Tsonga houses built?  What were traditional Tsonga houses used for?  How were traditional Tsonga houses cared and repaired?  Why are the causes of gradual disappearance of Tsonga culture? The findings of this study revealed that men and women were responsible for building traditional houses and they were assisted by their female and male children. The type of houses built was rondavels without windows and they used poles, grass, stones, water and soil for building the houses. They decorated the walls of the traditional houses with clay and black and red soil mixed with dung. Traditional houses were taken care of and repaired by men and women assisted by their children using equipments such as poles, reeds, grass and soil which were collected in the veld. They used the houses for sleeping, cooking, girls initiation and worshipping of their forefathers. Lastly, The Tsonga nation is no more building the traditional houses because they have been influenced by foreign cultures to abandon their own culture. KEY CONCEPTS Houses, traditional, role, building, care of, decoration, men, women, boys, girls.

No description available.

Master of Architecture

Master of Architecture

The purpose of this study was to determine intermediaries’ perceptions of barriers and incentives to innovative, energy efficient housing in Iowa. Data was collected by two surveys. The questionnaire for the first survey collected data from 102 communities in Iowa. Respondents were asked to determine the number of building permits issued for all new single family dwellings between 1975 and 1985 as well as the number of permits issued that were for passive solar, active solar, or earth sheltered housing. A rate of adoption was calculated for each community. The second questionnaire surveyed housing intermediaries drawn from the 102 communities included in the first survey. The sample consisted of 481 builders, building inspectors, realtors, lenders, and solar suppliers. Intermediary groups differed in their perceptions of barriers and incentives to innovative, energy-efficient housing. Significant differences were found among the intermediaries for whether state mandated solar standards would reduce the risk of inspection of solar energy houses and whether risky resale potential acts as a barrier to building solar energy housing. The major barriers were the "first costs" associated with building active solar and earth sheltered housing and the lack of skills among subcontractors to build active solar and earth sheltered housing. There was no significant relationship between rate of adoption among communities and their location in the state. There was, however, a significant relationship between category of building official and rate of adoption among communities. Communities with a high rate of adoption did not cluster in any one quadrant of the state. Additional differences among intermediaries occurred between lenders who had financed innovative energy efficient housing and lenders who had not. Lenders who had not financed solar or earth sheltered housing perceived the barriers to be greater than those who had. There were fewer differences in perceptions among solar/earth sheltered builders and nonsolar/earth sheltered builders. In conclusion, variability in perceptions among intermediaries on the barriers and incentives to innovative, energy efficient housing impact on the rate of adoption in communities in Iowa. / Ph. D.

The gradually changing behavior of the population, towards urbanization, ledto an increased shortage of available housing. This development has resultedin a serious issue in Sweden, where too few firms are providing solutions formulti-family houses in wood. Potential firms that could fill this increasingdemand are those in the single-family house industry. Yet, these firms mightface considerable problems with productivity, predominately derived fromincreasing production costs and inadequate production development.Developing these firms are associated with long-term investments, whichis investigated by evaluating the industry structure for sellers, highlightingthe financial and market situation within their industry. These factors aregrowing in importance due to the current market concentration, where morefirms are required to focus on product development driven by the demand toprefabricate wooden elements, volumes or modules in an industrialized way.This thesis studies Swedish firms producing wooden single-familyhouses, with the aim to investigate their possibilities to enter the woodenmulti-family house industry in Sweden.Investigations will be conducted by applying Altman’s Z’ value, riskposition model, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, the Herfindahl-Hirschmannumber equivalent, productivity ratio model for profitability and finally amodel measuring market Concentration Ratio.Results show that the industry tends towards perfect competition with toomany firms involved, i.e. firms mainly have to compete by prices. Further,firms are grouped into three zones; risk, grey or safe zone. The levels withinthese zone show a reduction of firms in the red zone over time. Related to thecurrent risks, many firms have promising positions to invest in productdevelopment towards wooden multi-family houses, in addition to theircurrent products, even though firm productivity has declined during thestudied time frame. The results that the investigated firms have goodpossibilities gaining a competitive advantage by diversifying into thegrowing wooden multi-family house industry.

Being concerned with the questions of housing is one of the priorities of each society. Housing develops with reference to traditions, geographical conditions and it is subject to economic level of a society. The aim of doctoral thesis is to analyze the approaches to architectonic dwelling production. This is based on investigation and analysis of the particular buildings in the chosen historical periods of society. The analysis of the dwelling architecture in individual historical periods of society development should contribute to clarification of the dwelling architecture conception, clarifying which urbanistic, functional and constructional approaches contribute to creating a well operating housing complex or dwelling-house. Thanks to the analysis and understanding the dwelling construction building-up of the last hundred years we can define the positive and negative principles of designing dwelling constructions proved with the benefit of hindsight. It is not the aim to solve the contemporary insufficiency in dwelling design simply by returning to principles which came into existence under different social, economic and technical circumstances. However, we can learn from those principles and try to employ them when answering the up-to-date problematic questions of housing. The principles should be contemporary, in accordance with present society and technical advance, local traditions and geographical givenness of the Czech Republic.