Thesis (M. Env. St.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-67).

Nature in the city center

The aims of the research were to assess the influence of urban design on the Better Cities Program (BCP) and to explore and document the achievements of the Program in terms of urban design. This in turn led to the exploration of some 34 case studies of the BCP initiatives known as Area Strategies throughout Australia. The research outcomes provided an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the Program�s objectives and processes in relation to urban design and prompted suggested options or modifications, which could enhance outcomes in future initiatives. The thesis is an overview of the Program�s genesis and procedures, including comment on economic, political and social concerns, and draws from this broad analysis the specific issues and outcomes related to urban design practice. It was perceived that whilst not centrally an urban design program the BCP fell short of known urban design principles that could reasonably be expected to be present, given that the achievement of better cities is dependent in large part on better urban design. To maintain a comprehensive overview and sense of continuity the research included urban design evaluations of two projects from the earlier Department of Urban and Regional Development (DURD) period. This was done in order to review the state of urban design at that time and to discover whether fresh insights and approaches may have occurred over the intervening 25 years. To structure the research, a number of interlinking methods were implemented. These included literature reviews, interviews, questionnaires and case studies of the Program�s projects - called Area Strategies - and their ranking through a matrix. Methods extended to a comparative analysis of the Program�s objectives with those of DURD. The Area Strategies were interrogated from three positions, namely: by evaluation of these initiatives based on an Empirical approach; by critical literature where available, but mostly from a more abundant source of descriptive literature and by expert opinion through many interviews, discussions and the Questionnaire responses. The methods were essential in order to collate, analyse and categorise the gathered information for the purpose of evaluation, summarising and framing of conclusions. Central to the thesis was the reliance on the �enduring strands�, being those essential and timehonoured fundamental elements of the urban fabric. These enduring strands became the evaluation tools of the case studies, and comprised the following: buildings and their groupings, the public domain, issues of safety and security, activities, conservation and heritage, the role of landscape, architectural responses to the environment, ecological responses, circulation, public art, social responses and management processes. The discipline of urban design as distinct from city planning and architecture, developed signifi- cantly during the second half of the twentieth century and it received Commonwealth recognition during the life of the Program through the publication of the findings of Prime Minister Keating�s Urban Design Task Force. The thesis compares the recommendations of the Task Force and those of the research and finds sufficient parallels to affirm that both endeavours share a common basis. It is not the role of the thesis to recommend an urban design policy for potential future programs, but it does point to the way urban design might be better integrated in such programs. This research provides support for the argument that if urban design concerns had occupied a more central position in the range of objectives of the Better Cities Program, then the outcomes would have been more satisfactory in many of the projects. With greater recognition of the critical contribution of urban design skills, outcomes of future programs of this nature could potentially be significantly enhanced.

The aims of the research were to assess the influence of urban design on the Better Cities Program (BCP) and to explore and document the achievements of the Program in terms of urban design. This in turn led to the exploration of some 34 case studies of the BCP initiatives known as Area Strategies throughout Australia. The research outcomes provided an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the Program�s objectives and processes in relation to urban design and prompted suggested options or modifications, which could enhance outcomes in future initiatives. The thesis is an overview of the Program�s genesis and procedures, including comment on economic, political and social concerns, and draws from this broad analysis the specific issues and outcomes related to urban design practice. It was perceived that whilst not centrally an urban design program the BCP fell short of known urban design principles that could reasonably be expected to be present, given that the achievement of better cities is dependent in large part on better urban design. To maintain a comprehensive overview and sense of continuity the research included urban design evaluations of two projects from the earlier Department of Urban and Regional Development (DURD) period. This was done in order to review the state of urban design at that time and to discover whether fresh insights and approaches may have occurred over the intervening 25 years. To structure the research, a number of interlinking methods were implemented. These included literature reviews, interviews, questionnaires and case studies of the Program�s projects - called Area Strategies - and their ranking through a matrix. Methods extended to a comparative analysis of the Program�s objectives with those of DURD. The Area Strategies were interrogated from three positions, namely: by evaluation of these initiatives based on an Empirical approach; by critical literature where available, but mostly from a more abundant source of descriptive literature and by expert opinion through many interviews, discussions and the Questionnaire responses. The methods were essential in order to collate, analyse and categorise the gathered information for the purpose of evaluation, summarising and framing of conclusions. Central to the thesis was the reliance on the �enduring strands�, being those essential and timehonoured fundamental elements of the urban fabric. These enduring strands became the evaluation tools of the case studies, and comprised the following: buildings and their groupings, the public domain, issues of safety and security, activities, conservation and heritage, the role of landscape, architectural responses to the environment, ecological responses, circulation, public art, social responses and management processes. The discipline of urban design as distinct from city planning and architecture, developed signifi- cantly during the second half of the twentieth century and it received Commonwealth recognition during the life of the Program through the publication of the findings of Prime Minister Keating�s Urban Design Task Force. The thesis compares the recommendations of the Task Force and those of the research and finds sufficient parallels to affirm that both endeavours share a common basis. It is not the role of the thesis to recommend an urban design policy for potential future programs, but it does point to the way urban design might be better integrated in such programs. This research provides support for the argument that if urban design concerns had occupied a more central position in the range of objectives of the Better Cities Program, then the outcomes would have been more satisfactory in many of the projects. With greater recognition of the critical contribution of urban design skills, outcomes of future programs of this nature could potentially be significantly enhanced.

Self-control is required when an agent encounters some opposition to acting on her better judgments. One such opposition is diminished motivation, that is, a lack of desire to act on a better judgment. Thomas Connor compares two views of successful self-control, actional (i.e. the view that self-control is produced by a motivated action) and non-actional (i.e. the view that self-control consists of having unmotivated thoughts), and argues that non-actional views are better at explaining successful self-control in cases of diminished motivation. I reject Connor’s suggestion that successful self-control is likely to be non-actional by presenting two arguments: (1) non-actional views do not possess an advantage in explaining successful self-control because of a failure to provide an account of how self-controlling thoughts arise when self-control is required, and (2) actional views can account for successful self-control in the case of diminished motivation, namely, by prescribing minimally taxing strategies of self-control.

The goal of this work is to modify an existing course module on engineering better medicines to produce a more engaging physiologically realistic and pedagogically sound curriculum. The original module explored drug delivery using a one-compartment model, which examined only the dissolution of medicine; the module relied on a traditional teacher lead pedagogy. The curriculum modifications include engineering a two-compartment model students use to test the medicines they design, incorporating both dissolution and transfer to the blood and project based learning strategies have been added to produce a student centered project. The purpose of these modifications is to produce a curriculum successful in providing a diverse group of students, both male and female, of all socioeconomic backgrounds as well as ethnic and cultural groups with a positive engineering experience. / text

No / Big Lottery Fund (as part of the A Better Start programme), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Yorkshire and Humber

Mycket forskning har gjorts på konformitet och dess negativa konsekvenser. Denna experimentella studie var en delvis replikering av M. Rosander och O. Erikssons (2012) studie om konformitet på internet men med fokus på hur konformitet kan ge förbättrade resultat. Det övergripande syftet var att undersöka om det lönade sig att göra som andra, relationen mellan konformitet och säkerhet samt förekomsten av överkonfidens. Två enkätstudier i form av kunskapstest genomfördes med 38 respektive 92 studenter. Deltagarna delades upp i en konformitetsgrupp som fick information om tidigare deltagares svar och en kontrollgrupp som inte fick denna information. Resultatet visade att konformitet ledde till fler rätta svar samt att det förekom ett positivt samband mellan säkerhet och antal rätta svar. Ingen överkonfidens kunde bevisas men däremot förekom en underskattning av antal rätta svar. Studiens slutsats var att det mest lönade sig att göra som andra vid medelsvåra uppgifter. Vid mycket svåra uppgifter fanns det ingen fördel i att följa strömmen.

Q- sort methodology was used to detect underlying structures in 45 statements that reflect women’s attempts to make themselves feel better after incidents of abuse. Eight dichotomous categories were created as plausible descriptors of the 45 statements within the measure. Graduate and advance undergraduate students used the categories to sort the 45 statements. The individual sorts were input with PQMethod software. The Centroid method was used for data analysis. Three of the eight proposed categories were supported: perspective (i.e. the woman’s thought and perceptions regarding the abusive relationship), health behavior, and social relationship. Data analysis displayed that the 45 “feel better” items are able to be grouped into meaningful categories.

Q- sort methodology was used to detect underlying structures in 45 statements that reflect women’s attempts to make themselves feel better after incidents of abuse. Eight dichotomous categories were created as plausible descriptors of the 45 statements within the measure. Graduate and advance undergraduate students used the categories to sort the 45 statements. The individual sorts were input with PQMethod software. The Centroid method was used for data analysis. Three of the eight proposed categories were supported: perspective (i.e. the woman’s thought and perceptions regarding the abusive relationship), health behavior, and social relationship. Data analysis displayed that the 45 “feel better” items are able to be grouped into meaningful categories.