The government has taken constructive steps to address the issue of poverty in South Africa. The principal strategy on the government, and for that matter municipalities for poverty alleviation is to promote sustainable development (better quality of life for all) through the process of integrated development planning (IDP). Municipalities are, by virtue of legislation, required by the Government to use Integrated Development Planning as the vehicle to improve and fast-track service delivery and development. One of the main objectives of the IDP is to promote sustainable development. The objective of this study is to determine the extent to which the IDP is used to promote sustainable development at Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM). For the purpose of the study, the hypothesis was formulated that the implementation of IDP as a tool for promoting sustainable development within ELM is significant for improving service delivery and the living standard of local communities. To test the validity or otherwise of the hypothesis use was made of theoretical review of literature in promoting sustainable development at ELM. Further there was an empirical research method of open-ended questionnaires that was used to test attitudes and perceptions of municipal officials, IDP representatives and the community of ELM on the effectiveness of IDP. It was found among others that:The council and management of ELM consider the IDP as effective management tool in promoting sustainable development; ELM has elaborate plans and mechanisms for initiating programmes on the IDP; Public participation in the process needs to be intensified. While the municipality has achieved much success with the use of the IDP, the rural residents of ELM are largely ignorant of the process and its benefits. The study ends with recommendations for improvement of the IDP process. / Thesis (M.A. (Public Management and Administration))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

Throughout recent history, famous records of building failures may be found, unfortunately accompanied by great human loss and major economic consequences. One of the mechanisms of failure is referred to as ‘progressive collapse’: one or several structural members suddenly fail, whatever the cause (accident or attack). The building then collapses progressively, every load redistribution causing the failure of other structural elements, until the complete failure of the building or of a major part of it. The civil engineering community’s attention to this type of event was first drawn by the progressive collapse of the building called Ronan Point, following a gas explosion in one of the last floors. Different simplified procedures for simulating the effects of progressive collapse can now be found in the literature, some of them described in detail. However, no extensive study can be found, in which these procedures are compared to more complete approaches for progressive collapse simulation, aiming at the comparison of the assumptions underlying them. To further contribute to the elaboration of design codes for progressive collapse, such a study would therefore be of great interest for practitioners. All parties involved with the subject of progressive collapse are currently attempting to bridge the gap between the work done on the research front on the one hand, what can be considered as a fitting numerical model for regular industrial use on the other, and finally, the normalisation committees. The present research work aims at providing insight as to how the gaps between these poles may be reduced. The approach consists in studying the various hypotheses one by one, and gradually adding complexities to the numerical model, if they prove to be warranted by the need for sufficient accuracy. One of the contributions of the present work stems from this approach, in that it provides insight regarding the validity of the various simplifying assumptions. It also leads to the development of procedures which are kept as simple as possible, in an attempt to design them as best as possible for regular industrial use. The objective of simplifying assumptions validation is pursued in Chapter 2. This chapter consists of the text of a paper entitled “Comparison and study of different progressive collapse simulation techniques for RC structures”, in which the main simplifying assumptions of the progressive collapse guidelines are detailed and assessed. The DoD [1] and GSA [2] static linear and non-linear procedures are investigated, and compared to more complete approaches in order to assess their validity. In the next two chapters, two new procedures for design against progressive collapse are developed. They are based on quasi-static computations, their main objective being to account accurately for dynamic inertial effects. The first of these chapters consists in the text of a paper entitled “A new pushover analysis procedure for structural progressive collapse based on a kinetic energy criterion”, in which energetic considerations allow for the development of a static equivalent pushover procedure. The second chapter consists of the text of a paper entitled “A new pushover analysis procedure for structural progressive collapse based on optimised load amplification factors”, which uses load amplification factors resulting from optimisation procedures in order to account for dynamic inertial effects. The contributions of these two papers lie in the fact that they offer an improved accuracy on the results, when compared with other procedure available in the literature, which follow the same general principles. The two proposed procedures are thoroughly validated by systematic comparisons with results obtained with the more costly dynamic non-linear computations. Finally, an additional chapter focuses on the various approaches that can be adopted for the simulation of reinforced concrete beams and columns. Because a rather simple model for reinforced concrete is used in Chapter 2, the bulk of this chapter consists in the implementation of a more complex fibre-based non-linear beam element. Comparisons performed with this model provide insight to the limitations of the simpler model, which is based on the use of lumped plastic hinges, but show this simpler model to be valid for the purposes of the present work.

The aim of this study is to examine the semantic architecture of the motif complex the four elements, i.e. fire, air, water and earth, in the Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelöf’s poem A Mölna Elegy (1960). The poem belongs to the same polyphonic and quotative-allusive tradition as T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Ezra Pound’s Cantos. The four elements may be regarded both as four separate motifs and as constituting one semantically coherent motif complex. The latter reading has to do with the fact that the phrase the four elements is not itself present in the text. Thus, the thesis includes the assumption that this motif complex, heavily suggested by items in the text but still omitted, might function as a text matrix, from which a number of themes emerge such as life–death and time. The thesis has a theoretical anchoring in ideas about semantic frames (Barsalou) when discussing semantic relations between the different element-related words in the poem, and how these words may be linked to the concepts ‘fire’, ‘air’, water’ and ‘earth’ respectively. Traditional lexical relations such as hyponymy, antonymy and meronymy only catch the more obvious relations such as fire–glow, warm–cold and tree–branch, but are unable to explain pragmatically based relations between words linked to the same conceptual domain, such as sea–jetty, water–sink, fly–air and the like. To some extent, the thesis also draws upon Riffaterre’s theories about a poem’s matrix and how meaning arises in such texts. A major finding of the study is the heavy lexical presence of the four elements in the poem, expressed and suggested by a great number of semantically heterogeneous words. This semantic pattern is analysed in detail with the aid of semantic frame theory. A further discovery is that most of the element words imply dichotomies such as motion–repose, warmth–cold, light–dark or soft–hard. The elements have most of the dichotomies in common, which strongly suggests a union of all the four elements. Such a union is also suggested by several conspicuous compounds never earlier recorded in Swedish, such as glödstänk (‘glowspray’), vindstänk (‘windspray’), eldsus (‘fire sough’) and vågsus (‘wave sough’). The meetings of element are also described at the syntactic level as an explicit amalgamation of all four elements, which suggests a theme not earlier noticed. This theme may tentatively be called the cyclical amalgamation.

In this text about the mathematics education in a primary school in the Gambia, I am researching what this mathematics education consists of and what surrounding factors might be affecting it. The pupils of the school in question speak several different languages. This language situation is one of the factors considered in the research. A connection between the real life led by the pupils and their mathematics education was a second factor. The third factor is financial resources or the lack thereof. I wanted to see if a lack of sufficient financial resources was visible in forming the education and the teaching of the pupils. The teaching of mathematics in the school seemed to be based on behaviourism, but could perhaps take benefit from the ethnomathematics perspective. Through observations, analyzing documents and an interview, I realized that the government had set ambitious objectives for the teachers to follow, but due to lack of economical resources, as far as my study found, these are not achieved. As ambitious objectives, which are not followed by sufficient funding is an issue not only applicable in Gambian schools and since Sweden is a growing multicultural society, I can use my knowledge from this study in my work in Swedish schools. / MFS - Minor Field Studies

This thesis' main theme is successful principal leadership in secondary schools within the Swedish education system. Successful principal leadership is examined from three perspectives: What are the processes of a successful principal? Do the leadership processes relate to successful academic and social outcomes of schools? What are the prerequisites for successful principal leadership? The Frame Factor Model and the three concepts of prerequisites, processes and outcomes constitute an overarching framework. The prerequisites are categorized as internal prerequisites (the particular characteristics of individual principals) and external prerequisites operating within the Swedish educational environment. The successful principal processes are viewed as pedagogical leadership processes, on one hand as providing prerequisites for teaching and learning and, on the other hand as leading the core processes of teaching and learning. The definitions build on the empirical data, on the Swedish national curriculum and demands for pedagogical leadership, and on international findings on what successful principals do. The outcomes of successful principal leadership are here defined as the academic and the social outcomes of schools. The research undertaken is part of the research project 'Structure, Culture, Leadership - Prerequisites for Successful Schools?' The empirical data for this thesis are gathered in twenty-six Swedish secondary schools whereof five are regarded successful schools based on both academic and social outcomes. The findings, reported on in four articles, derive from interviews and questionnaires to principals and teachers. The principals in the main identify prerequisites of importance that are within their own realm of influence, such as themselves, teachers and school district level. They consider a limited area of responsibility and support from district level specialists as providing possibilities for their success. The principals accept the national governance of schools and principals via the national curriculum. The principals in the five successful schools however take a higher degree of responsibility for setting direction towards national goals, for processes inside schools and for school outcomes than do principals in less successful schools.They as pedagogical leaders attend to a higher degree both to providing prerequisites for teaching and learning and to leading the core processes of teaching and learning than do principals in less successful schools. In schools with a successful implementation of social goals, which shows as successful social outcomes, the principals, according to teachers, overall take responsibility for their national objectives and obligations to a higher degree than principals in schools with a less successful implementation of social goals. The implementation of social goals is of importance not only from an outcome perspective but also from a process perspective. It requires collaborative interpretation which can promote principal-staff professional relations and ultimately student learning. The identified overall differences between principals' leadership processes and processes in the twenty-six schools raise questions around consequences for equivalence in education. / Struktur, kultur, ledarskap- förutsättningar för framgångsrika skolor?

Due to the environmental issues related with fuel consumption and additionally passenger safety, aluminum space frame chassis is promising a big opportunity to design a lightweight structure with a high stiffness. Despite the lower stiffness and strength of aluminum in comparison to the conventional steel chassis, it can be compensated with changing thickness and design of structure by space frame geometry In this study, instead of using steel for automobile chassis, main goal is producing a space frame structure with using aluminum in an extrusion and sand casting processes and improve the stiffness. Chassis is designed according to calculations for moment of inertia, torsional and bending stiffness and in sufficient structural stiffness which can compete with steel chassis. Static finite element analysis was carried out to understand the chassis bending, torsional stiffness and fatigue behaviors. For frontal collisions, dynamic finite element analysis was also done to determine increases in the energy absorbance, specific energy absorbance and peak force for passenger safety. Aluminum profiles were produced by hot extrusion and joined with sand casting parts by TIG welding to manufacture a space frame structure. For main chassis profile, 6063 series of aluminum alloy was selected due to availability for extrusion process, weldability and having sufficient tensile strength and percent elongation and treatment response. Three point bending test was carried out to determine flexural strength. Moment of inertia calculations were done. Some parts such as side frame and shock absorber tower were produced by sand casting method. A similar composition to Silafont &ndash / 36 aluminum alloy was selected because of its high fluidity and good mechanical properties / despite it is a die cast alloy. Tensile, hardness and Charpy impact test were conducted to determine the mechanical characteristics of Silafont - 36 sand cast alloy. In addition to microstructure features and thermal analysis were also carried out to achieve sufficient alloy properties. Heat affected z one was investigated by hardness and tensile test to determine the mechanical properties change after welding process. In this space frame development study, A, B and C pillar parts were produced by Al &ndash / Si sand casting and T6 heat treatment then welded together by TIG welding and finally assembled on the bottom chassis frame produced by using 6063 extrudes welded by 4000 series electrodes. The space frame chassis was studied by also computer simulation to test and see critical points which must be modified during manufacturing. Besides the experimental and theoretical studies, space frame was also produced at the same time. According to the experimental results, the feasibility of the production of lightweight and solid chassis structure was achieved.

The purpose of this report is not only to improve the cage volume deformation problem during typhoon attack but also to perform the risk analysis for a single-point-mooring (SPM) net cage system when employed in the open sea. This SPM cage system has advantages over the traditional multi-mooring lines cage system, especially when the water depth is deeper than 50m, which may prohibit divers from checking the security of anchors as well as installing the mooring system at a precise position due to the difficulty in deploying anchors in the deep and restless ocean. But the SPM cage system has no such deploying problems, and yet offers some benefits such as: (1) having environmental eco-friendly feature, the uneaten feeds could spread in a vast area and thus reduce the intensity of pollution, (2) employing only one mooring line means saving a lot of construction cost, (3) a precise location is not required and thus relatively easier to be installed at any sites, and (4) easier to connect or remove cages from the mooring system. So far the SPM cage systems have become one of the most potential cage systems in the world. For example, Israel and Canada have individually developed their own SPM cage systems. This study also follows this trend and focuses on developing a new system which is suitable to Taiwan marine environment. The numerical model for cage motion equations are solved based on the lumped mass method which produces the maximum mooring line strength and the minimum of the volume deformation. As for the risk analysis for mooring line consists of two procedures: at first to form a loading probability density function, which is based on the recent data records forming significant wave probability density function and its corresponding mooring tension probability density function of rope through beta distribution technique; secondly to form a strength capacity probability density function, which is given by a rope manufacture company. Finally, the breaking risk of mooring lines is obtained by calculating the intersection area of loading and strength capacity probability density functions. The results show that the cage with a portal frame has good performance in general, especially when the sea states are rigorous. In other words, the frame-cage could maintain about 2 times net volume compared with the cage without a frame. However, the advantage of frame-cage is not obvious when the sea states are mild. Besides, the distance of frame ropes to the cage will also affect the net volume deformation, the trend shows that the net volume deformation increases with the decreasing of the distance of frame ropes. Finally assuming there are four typhoons per year attacking on the net cage system, the recommended replacing period of nylon mooring line (diameter 55 mm)is about 7 years, while for PET mooring line (diameter 50 mm)is about 13.4 years. The failure risk probability of nylon and PET mooring lines at the recommended replacing years are about 0.49 and 0.48~0.49 respectively. Therefore, we strongly recommend marine farmers to use PET ropes instead of nylon and have to replace those ropes before the failure occurs.

Transfer RNA (tRNA) is the adaptor molecule responsible for bringing the correct amino acid to the ribosome during protein synthesis. tRNA contains a number of modified nucleosides, which are derivatives of the four normal nucleosides. A great variety of modifications are found in the anticodon loop, especially at the first (wobble) position of the anticodon. According to Crick’s wobble hypothesis, a uridine at the wobble position of tRNA recognize codons ending with A and G. Uridine-5-oxyacetic acid (cmo5U34), found at the wobble position of six species of tRNA in Salmonella enterica, have been predicted to expand the codon recognition of uridine to include U-ending, but not C-ending codons. To study the function of cmo5U34 we have identified two genes, cmoA and cmoB, which are required for the synthesis of cmo5U34 in tRNA. We have shown that the proline, alanine and valine tRNAs containing cmo5U34 are capable of reading codons ending with any of the four nucleotides, while the threonine tRNA is not, and the importance of having cmo5U is different for the different tRNAs. In addition, we found that cmo5U is important for efficient reading of G-ending codons, which is surprising considering the wobble hypothesis, which states that uridine should read G-ending codons. The dominant +1 frameshift suppressor sufY suppresses the hisC3737 +1 frameshift mutation. We have demonstrated that sufY induces frameshifting at CCC-CAA (Pro-Gln), when tRNAPro[cmo5UGG] occupies the P-site. sufY mutants accumulate novel modified nucleosides at the wobble position of tRNAs that should normally have (c)mnm5s2U34. The presence of an extra sidechain (C10H17) on the wobble nucleoside of tRNAGln[(c)mnm5s2U] leads to slow decoding of CAA codons, inducing a translational pause that allows the P-site peptidyl-tRNAPro[cmo5UGG] to slip into the +1 frame. We have characterized 108 independent frameshift suppressor mutants in the gene encoding tRNAPro[cmo5UGG]. The altered tRNAs are still able to read all four proline codons in the A-site, but induce frameshifts after translocation into the P-site. Some of the mutations are in regions of the tRNA that are involved in interactions with components of the P-site. We hypothesize that the ribosomal P-site keeps a “grip” of the peptidyl-tRNA to prevent loss of the reading frame.

The X-ray Multi-mirror Mission, XMM-Newton was launched by the European Space Agency, ESA, in 1999. XMM-Newton carries six cameras, including a silicon pn-junction Charge Coupled Device, or pn-CCD camera. This camera has six operating modes, spatially as well as time resolved. The main objective of this project is to refine the Burst mode energy correction in order to align the measured energy spectra observed in the Burst mode with the spectra taken in the Full Frame mode. An observation of the line-rich supernova remnant called Cassiopeia A is used to evaluate the line positions in each mode such that the energy correction function used for the alignment can be modified accordingly. The analysis further treats the application of the correction on a source with a continuous spectrum, the Crab nebula. Discussion shows how to reduce eventual residuals in the Crab spectrum by modifying the correction function while keeping the alignment of the Cas-A spectra. The final product is an update of the corresponding published calibration file.

In this thesis, an actuation system is developed for a Two-Axis Gyroscopic (TAG) adapter. This adapter is a fixture with two auxiliary axes which is used for the Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) technique to enhance a three-axis mill to have five-axis capabilities. With five-axis mill capabilities, variable angles between line segments of the toolpath and the tool can be obtained. To achieve specialized angles between a line segment and the SPIF tool, the sheet is rotated. Inverse kinematic equations for the TAG adapter are derived to calculate the required rotations for the TAG adapter’s auxiliary axes for a line segment of a toolpath. If the next line segment requires a different orientation of the sheet, the sheet is rotated while the tool follows the rotation of the sheet to maintain its position at the connecting point of the line segments of the toolpath. Five equations of motions are derived to calculate the three translations of the mill and two rotations of the TAG adapter’s frames, during forming. A toolpath execution algorithm is implemented in MATLAB which uses the five equations of motion to execute a toolpath. The algorithm generates an array of data points that can be used by a Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machine to follow a desired path. A visual representation for the execution of the toolapth is implemented in MATLAB and is used to illustrate the successful completion of a toolpath. A computer controlled motor system is selected and tested in this thesis which will ultimately be integrated with a worm gear system and a CNC machine to develop a full CNC actuation system. / UOIT