The focus of this dissertation is on existing housing areas: in industrialised western countries, in 2005, the number of existing buildings that are taken care of, maintained, repaired, renovated or restructured for other functions is higher than the number of buildings that are (new) built. This is a review dissertation, based on empirical material and further reflections from previous research projects dealing with Swedish housing renovation: private-owned old single-family housing areas and large housing areas from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, mainly owned by housing companies. The concepts of careful renovation, environmentally-friendly renovation and sustainable renovation are analysed as different approaches to housing renovation. The aim is to present an interpretation of sustainable renovation that includes the goals both of careful renovation and of environmentally-friendly renovation as necessary components of sustainable development. This dissertation identifies and analyses the main issues that may be faced during renovation and that have a relevant impact on the environment, the architecture or the inhabitants, and describes the renovation actions that have been used in the studied projects. It concludes with reflections about positive results, incongruities and challenges that may be found in projects of sustainable renovation. / QC 20100928

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-05-23T18:21:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 danieladossantosbarbosa.pdf: 4094927 bytes, checksum: 5fe79c77d2c9d7b143f499eedaffc90b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-07-02T11:45:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 danieladossantosbarbosa.pdf: 4094927 bytes, checksum: 5fe79c77d2c9d7b143f499eedaffc90b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-02T11:45:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 danieladossantosbarbosa.pdf: 4094927 bytes, checksum: 5fe79c77d2c9d7b143f499eedaffc90b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-25 / Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo estudar os rituais de cura e de cuidado dos médiuns da Comunidade Espiritualista Alvorada, localizada no município de Juiz de Fora/Minas Gerais, a fim de compreender o sentido atribuído pelos indivíduos a tais experiências dentro do Terreiro e em suas relações cotidianas. Investigo as concepções de cura e cuidado dentro da Comunidade e procuro interpretar a trama de elementos simbólicos que envolvem tanto a manipulação da natureza como fonte terapêutica quanto a compreensão sobre a existência de um universo espiritual que intervém na vida dos indivíduos. Nesse sentido, a pertença à Comunidade Espiritualista Alvorada requer a observação de regras e valores, desde a adesão até a vivência contínua, numa percepção a partir da qual saúde e doença, equilíbrio e desequilíbrio, estão intimamente ligados à relação estabelecida entre sujeitos, família de santo, guias espirituais e orixás. A doença para os adeptos da Comunidade é percebida não somente como uma parte do corpo que precisa ser tratada ou cuidada, mas também como um indicativo de que existe uma desordem provocada tanto por fatores espirituais, quanto por ações, comportamentos e pensamentos individuais. Desenvolvi, ao longo de dois anos e meio, uma metodologia qualitativa, com observação participante, registros em diário de campo, além de oito entrevistas semiestruturadas. A partir desse arcabouço metodológico, exponho que a religião é uma escolha terapêutica que se sobrepõe aos sistemas de saúde convencionais, visto que o segundo não considera as narrativas, dores, controvérsias e histórias de vida daqueles que buscam a solução para os mais variados problemas e/ou enfrentamento dos mesmos, em busca de um fim maior: a cura. / This research aims to study the rituals of healing and care of mediums of the Comunidade Espiritualista Alvorada, located in the city of Juiz de Fora / Minas Gerais, in order to understand the meaning attributed by individuals to such experiences within the Terreiro and in their everyday relations. I observe the healing conceptions and care within the Community and I try to interpret the plot of symbolic elements involving both the manipulation of nature as a therapeutic source as the understanding of the existence of a spiritual universe that intervenes in the lives of individuals. In this sense, the belongs to the Comunidade Espiritualista Alvorada requires the observation of rules and values, since accession to the continuous experience, in a perception from which health and disease, balance and imbalance are closely linked to the relationship established between individuals, family of saint, spiritual guides and deities. The disease to the adepts is perceived not only as a body part that needs to be treated or cared for, but also as an indication that there is a disorder caused by both spiritual factors, as by actions, behaviors and individual thoughts. I developed, over two and a half years, a qualitative methodology, participant observation, records in field diary, and eight semi-structured interviews. From this methodological framework, I exposed that religion is a therapeutic choice that overlaps the conventional health systems, seeing that the second does not consider the narrative, pain, controversies and life stories of those who seek the solution to various problems and / or face thereof, in search of a higher order: a cure.

Theorists have been concerned with the overlap of reading and problem solving for at least a century (Thorndike 1917, 1973-1974; Sternberg & Frensch, 2014). Various reading models have been proposed including bottom-up and top-down reading processing (Goodman, 1972; Gough, 1972). In second language literature, theorists have further noted that reading consists of strategic, purposeful, and interactive processes (Grabe, 2009). In test taking situations, problem solving is important because it can compensate for students' language proficiencies. In spite of research showing the use of problem solving in reading, less is known about how learners actually read and problem solve in test-taking situations. This study centers around Khalifa, Weir and colleagues' model for cognitive processing in reading (Weir, Hawkey, Green, Unaldy, & Devi, 2009) in combination with eye-tracking technology in order to examine how ESL readers employ careful and expeditious reading. Data were gathered from 50 students attending a university sponsored Intensive English Program. Participants read eight validated reading comprehension items at varying difficulty levels while their eye movements were recorded. Results indicate that student level may not be a factor in how carefully and expeditiously a student reads. However, statistical analyses suggest that text difficulty may be a factor in how carefully students read.

Cette recherche explore les dynamiques et les impacts des transferts de concepts de développement urbain durable (DUD) de l’Europe vers la Chine. Ce sujet a suscité de plus en plus d’intérêt, suite à l’apparition de partenariats internationaux pour le développement d’éco-villes et de méthodes pour améliorer la qualité de vie des villes existantes. Cette étude explore en particulier une initiative de coopération internationale qui a concerné la ville de Yangzhou dans les années 2000. Cette initiative visait à promouvoir le transfert du concept de « rénovation urbaine douce », développé à Berlin au début des années 1980, afin d’encourager la conservation des quartiers traditionnels de Yangzhou. Partant des questions de recherche vouées à savoir si un modèle développé dans un contexte spécifique peut être mis en œuvre dans un autre, et la contribution de la coopération internationale dans ce processus, cette étude analyse le transfert de la rénovation urbaine douce à Yangzhou. Elle utilise un cadre de recherche qui met l’accent à la fois sur les résultats du transfert et sur le processus qui a amené à ces résultats. En se basant sur l’analyse de documents officiels, sur l’examen de la littérature et sur plusieurs entretiens, cette étude révèle que la coopération internationale peut contribuer de manière importante aux transferts de modèles de DUD. Elle révèle également que le succès de ces initiatives dépend beaucoup des capacités locales à importer les modèles étrangers. En particulier, elle montre que à Yangzhou ces capacités sont limitées. Ces limites sont surtout attribuées à la volonté politique des principaux décideurs locaux et à la structure institutionnelle du gouvernement local, qui fait prévaloir l’informalité et les décisions hiérarchiques sur l’application des règles formelles. / This research explores the dynamics and impacts of transfers of concepts of sustainable urban development (SUD) from Europe to China. This topic is of great interest since in recent years international partnerships for the development of eco-cities and of methods to improve the liveability of the existing cities flourished in this country. This study focuses in particular on an initiative of international cooperation concerning the city of Yangzhou in the early 2000s. This initiative aimed at promoting the transfer of the concept of “Careful Urban Renewal”, developed in Berlin in the early 1980s, to foster the sustainable conservation of the traditional quarters of Yangzhou. This study digs into the process of transfer and learning in Yangzhou to question whether a model established in a specific locality can be applied in another, and what is the contribution of international cooperation. It uses a research framework that focuses both on the outcomes of transfer and on its process. Relying on official documents analysis, on literature review and on semi-structured interviews, this study reveals that projects of international cooperation can make an important contribution to the transfer of models of SUD. It also reveals that the success of these initiatives depends very much on the capacities of the borrowing society to import and adapt foreign models. The case study of Yangzhou in particular reveals that this city has limited capacities to pursue the process of learning launched by the international collaboration. These limited capacities are ascribable, above all, to the political willingness of the city’s top decision-makers and to the institutional structure of the local government, making informal rules and hierarchical decisions prevail over the application of formal rules.

Att bygga hus på stolpar, upplyfta ovanför mark eller vatten, har varit ett traditionellt sätt att bygga i många delar av världen och även i Sverige finns exempel på detta. På senare tid har det lyfts fram som en metod för varsam grundläggning för att bevara naturen i områden med höga natur- och kulturvärden. Liknande grundläggning har även getts som förslag för att klimatanpassa byggnader. Eftersom det finns begränsat med studier om moderna hus på stolpar är det intressant att studera metoden. Det är också intressant eftersom det möjliggör små ingrepp i naturen och kan vara ett sätt att minimera klimatpåverkan från grundläggningen. Syftet med studien är att bidra till en ökad förståelse för hur stolpar som byggnadsmetod fungerar och hur metoden kan användas i Sverige. Målet är att identifiera kunskaper och erfarenheter om stolpmetoden från olika aktörer som medverkat i projektet Emils Backe, ett kuperat område med nybyggda villor på stolpar. Fem personer har intervjuats utifrån aktörsperspektiven arkitekt, konstruktör, byggentreprenör, bygglovhandläggare och projektets initiativtagare. En litteraturöversikt genomfördes för att urskilja redan kända kunskaper inom ämnet och för att skapa en grund för intervjustudien. Fokus under intervjuerna har varit att identifiera när stolphus kan vara en lämplig byggmetod, vad som måste beaktas och vilka potentiella fördelar och nackdelar som finns med att bygga på det sättet. Resultatet från intervjuerna och litteraturöversikten indikerar att den främsta fördelen med stolphus är att naturen och platsens karaktär kan bevaras, vilket handlar om att byggnaden kan anpassas till platsen och inte tvärtom. Detta tack vare att stolpmetoden inte medför lika omfattande mark- och grundläggningsarbeten som konventionella metoder. Resultatet visar även andra fördelar så som att den möjliggör ett lägre koldioxidavtryck och utnyttjandet av mer mark, skyddar mot rinnande vatten och annan fuktpåverkan underifrån samt förenklar vid underhåll. Att lyfta upp hus på stolpar kan även bidra till både högre och lägre boendekvaliteter. Bland nackdelarna visar resultatet att stolpmetoden är sämre ur energisynpunkt jämfört med konventionella grundläggningsmetoder eftersom bjälklaget blir en till yta som gränsar mot uteluft. Det kan även vara svårt med tillgängligheten till huset, svårt att hitta byggare och konstruktörer som kan räkna och bygga stolphus samt att detaljplaner kan försvåra byggandet av stolphus vid krav på låga byggnadshöjder. Resultatet pekar även mot att det är en enkel konstruktion men svårare och dyrare att bygga på grund många byggställningar, den sluttande marken och arbete på hög höjd. På svårbyggda tomter kan det dock vara både enklare och billigare att använda stolpar än att spränga och bereda marken för konventionell grundläggning. Viktiga aspekter att beakta är platsens förutsättningar, det arkitektoniska uttrycket och att se till att vatten och avlopp inte fryser. Även energiaspekten, stolphusets utformning för en lång livslängd och bra bärighet samt hur huset kan monteras ihop för en säker arbetsmiljö under byggtiden behöver beaktas. Sammanfattningsvis pekar resultatet mot att stolpar kan vara särskilt lämpliga att använda på kuperade, sluttande och andra svårbyggda tomter, i områden med risk för översvämning samt i områden med höga naturvärden. Förslag för framtida studier är att se över hur stolphus kan utformas som ett passivhus trots att det är kallt runt hela byggnadens klimatskal samt hur detaljplanerna kan utformas för att möjliggöra stolphusbyggande. / Building houses on stilts, elevated above ground or water, has been a traditional way of building in many parts of the world for centuries and even in Sweden there are examples of this. More recently, it has gained attention as a mindful method for creating a foundation whilst preserving nature in areas with high natural and cultural significance. Similar foundations have also been suggested for climate adaptation of buildings. Since there are limited studies of modern houses on stilts, it is interesting to study the method. It is also interesting as it allows small interventions in nature and can be a way to minimize the climate impact from foundation construction. The purpose of this master thesis is to contribute to an increased understanding of how this building method works and how the method can be used in Sweden. The goal is to identify knowledge and experience about the stilt method from various professionals who participated in the project Emils Backe, a hilly area with newly built villas on stilts. Five people have been interviewed to give the perspective of an architect, a structural engineer, a building contractor, a building permit manager and the founder of the project. A literature review was conducted to identify existing knowledge as a basis for the interview study. The focus during the interviews has been to identify when the use of stilts can be an appropriate construction method, what needs to be considered and what potential advantages and disadvantages there are in building in this way. Results of the interviews and the literature review indicate that the main advantage of stilt houses is that nature and the character of the site can be preserved, which means that the building can be adapted to the site instead of the other way around. This is because the stilt method does not entail as extensive ground and foundation work as conventional methods. Other advantages include: enabling a lower carbon footprint, utilizing of more land, protecting against running water and other moisture effects from below and simplifying maintenance. Raising houses on stilts can also contribute to higher accommodation quality, but the opposite may also occur. Among the disadvantages, the results show that the stilt method is inferior to conventional methods from an energy point of view since the floor of the house becomes yet another surface from which heat loss arises. It can also be difficult to create easy access to the house, and to find builders and structural engineers who can count and build houses on stilts. Local development plans can also make the construction of stilt houses difficult when claiming low building heights. Findings also indicate that it is a simple structure but difficult and more expensive to build due to many scaffoldings, sloping ground and high-altitude work. However, on difficult-to-build sites, using stilts can be both easier and cheaper than blasting and preparing the ground for conventional grounding. Important aspects to consider are the conditions of the site, the architectural expression and to ensure that water and sewers do not freeze. The energy aspect, the design of the stilts for a long service life and good bearing capacity, and how the house can be mounted to ensure a safe working environment during construction also needs to be taken into consideration. In summary, the results indicate that stilts may be particularly suitable for use on hilly, sloping and other difficult-to-build sites, in areas with a risk of flooding and in areas with high natural significance. Proposals for future studies are to consider how stilt houses can be designed as a passive house, even though it is cold around the entire building's climate shell, and how local plans can be designed to enable stilt houses to be built.

The Boston accent is one of the most famous accents in the United States and is known for its non-rhoticity, which essentially means that Bostonians do not normally pronounce their r’s after vowels. While most Boston locals would tell you to ‘pahk the cah ova hea’ when you arrive in the city, not every Bostonian has the same level of non-rhoticity; this variation is due to a number of different factors, but arguably one of the most interesting factors, which this paper focuses on, is gender. This study looks into how Boston non-rhoticity differs between males and females, as well the theories that explain these potential differences. This is done by collecting and analyzing the speech of Boston locals, following two previous studies on the same topic. In addition to gender, types of speech and other social factors are also analyzed. The biggest finding of this study is that there is a statistically significant difference in non-rhoticity between males and females, with females pronouncing more r’s, which supports one previous study and opposes another, and also supports the linguistic theory that women tend to exhibit more standardized speech than men.

Det här är resultatet av ett examensarbete utfört vid Mälardalens högskola i samarbete med Iggesund Paperboard AB. Syftet med examensarbetet var att se om det är viktigt för ett företag att ha tillgången till en gästgård men även till hur de är utformade för att fungera för den typen av verksamhet. En gästgård kan ses vara viktig för ett företags representation. Gården används främst som ett tillvägagångssätt för att sälja företagets varor och tjänster men ger också en god möjlighet till att knyta starkare band mellan kunder såväl som mellan företagets egna arbetstagare. Anledningen till att det här examensarbetet utfördes var för att företaget såg det som ett behov att se över om dessa gästgårdar var värda att bevara och utveckla i framtiden. En utredning gjordes därför genom besök och jämförelse av tre olika gästgårdars verksamhet och utformning för att se hur viktig en sådan gård kan anses vara för ett företag. Som ett resultat av denna utredning har därefter ett förslag till en utformning av en bättre fungerande arbetsmiljö vid Hedvigsfors Herrgård tagits fram. Förslaget var ett önskemål från Iggesund Paperboard AB då denna gästgård fått en utökad verksamhet vilket lett till dåligt fungerande personalutrymmen. / This is the result of my examination report for Malardalens University in cooperation whit Iggesund Paperboard AB. The purpose with this work was to see how important a guesthouse is for a company but also how they are designed to work for this type of activity. A guesthouse can be seen to be important for a company´s representation. The house can be used as a technique to sale the companies goods and services but it is also a god method to tie strong band with the customer as well as between the company’s own employees. The reason that the study was made was that the company saw it as a need to look over if this type of guesthouse is important to keep and expand in the future. An investigation was their forth made through visits and comparison to three different guesthouses activity and design to see how important this type of house was seen to be for a company. As a result a proposal of a design for better work environment was made for Hedvigsfors farm. This proposal was a wish from Iggesund Paperboard AB after that the increased activities at this guesthouse have led to a bad work environment.

以英文為外語的學習者常仰賴閱讀獲取英文相關的知識跟文化，所以閱讀在台灣的英文課中得到相當程度地的重視，即便如此，台灣的高中英文閱讀教學多半只專注在仔細閱讀的教導上，而忽略了包含略讀、搜索閱讀跟掃讀的快速閱讀，這是因為快速閱讀並沒有納入在大學入學考試的測驗當中。考量到快速閱讀是日常生活跟學習上不可或缺的技能，本研究旨在檢驗台灣高中學生的英文快速閱讀能力，他們在進行快速閱讀中所採用的閱讀策略跟遇到的閱讀困難也是本研究的調查目標。研究者設計了一份快速閱讀測驗跟一份仔細閱讀測驗來比較學生們的閱讀能力。此外，研究者設計了一份問卷來調查學生們在快速閱讀測驗當中所運用的閱讀策略跟遭遇的閱讀困難。 研究結果顯示台灣高中學生在快速閱讀測驗上的表現略優於他們在仔細閱讀測驗上的表現。此外，學生們在掃讀上表現得最好，優於在搜索閱讀上的表現，而略讀上的表現則是最差。關於策略的使用，學生們雖然會運用快速閱讀策略來完成快速閱讀的任務，但他們仍然在快速閱讀測驗當中普遍地使用仔細閱讀的策略。至於閱讀的困難，學生們進行快速閱讀時的困難主要來自於文章的用字、主題熟悉度跟長度。根據研究的發現，本研究對於教導與評量台灣高中學生的快速閱讀能力提出了實務上的建議。 / As a crucial language skill for EFL learns to gain English knowledge and culture (Alsamadani, 2009), reading receives considerable pedagogical attention in English classes in Taiwan (Wu, 2010). However, the reading instruction at the senior high school level focuses on the careful reading (Hsu, 2004). The expeditious reading, including skimming, search reading, and scanning (Urquhart & Weir, 1998), is often neglected. Considering the usefulness of expeditious reading in daily and academic life (Brown, 2007), the present research examined the expeditious reading ability of Taiwanese senior high school students, their strategy use and difficulties they had experienced in conducting expeditious reading. The researcher composed an expeditious reading test and a careful reading test to compare the students’ reading performances. Besides, the researcher designed a questionnaire to survey the strategy use and difficulties experienced by the students in the expeditious reading test. The result showed that the Taiwanese senior high school students’ performance on the expeditious reading test was marginally higher than their performance on the careful reading test. In addition, the student’s scanning score was the highest, followed by the search reading, and the skimming was the lowest. As for strategy use, the students applied expeditious reading strategies to approach expeditious reading tasks in the test, but they also appealed to some careful reading strategies in the expeditious reading test. Concerning difficulties, the students faced more problems with the vocabulary, topics, and length of texts when conducting expeditious reading. The findings yielded practical implications for teaching and assessing the expeditious reading at the senior high school level in Taiwan.

Students entering academic programmes are frequently overwhelmed by the demand for extensive reading and comprehension of information derived from multiple and contrasting sources. This entails both careful and expeditious reading. The latter has been generally neglected in research and has not been the focus of many tests. Both types of reading were investigated in this study through a validation process of the summative English reading test for academic purposes taken at the end of the Foundation Programme in Oman. In particular, context validity was established through focusing on the interaction between the linguistic demands and task setting parameters and also the cognitive processes through which the students engaged with the test tasks. To establish the context validity of the test, this study adopted Khalifa and Weir’s (2009) model which not only embraced the complex and multi-componential nature of reading but also provided a workable validation framework. A multi-strategy approach was adopted. A natural experiment utilising Verbal Protocol Analysis captured the cognitive processes through which students engaged in reading. Automated analysis software and opinions of expert judges were used to compare test passages with text extracts drawn from first year academic courses. Correlation tests and factor analysis revealed these cognitive processes and established the robustness of the Khalifa and Weir (2009) model, which was thus validated in a second language context. Passages in the foundation tests were found to be generally representative of academic texts although certain features such as abstractness were under-represented.

Students entering academic programmes are frequently overwhelmed by the demand for extensive reading and comprehension of information derived from multiple and contrasting sources. This entails both careful and expeditious reading. The latter has been generally neglected in research and has not been the focus of many tests. Both types of reading were investigated in this study through a validation process of the summative English reading test for academic purposes taken at the end of the Foundation Programme in Oman. In particular, context validity was established through focusing on the interaction between the linguistic demands and task setting parameters and also the cognitive processes through which the students engaged with the test tasks. To establish the context validity of the test, this study adopted Khalifa and Weir’s (2009) model which not only embraced the complex and multi-componential nature of reading but also provided a workable validation framework. A multi-strategy approach was adopted. A natural experiment utilising Verbal Protocol Analysis captured the cognitive processes through which students engaged in reading. Automated analysis software and opinions of expert judges were used to compare test passages with text extracts drawn from first year academic courses. Correlation tests and factor analysis revealed these cognitive processes and established the robustness of the Khalifa and Weir (2009) model, which was thus validated in a second language context. Passages in the foundation tests were found to be generally representative of academic texts although certain features such as abstractness were under-represented. / Government of the Sultanate of Oman, represented by the Ministry of Manpower