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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

An Examination of Academic Department Chairs in Canadian Universities

Boyko, Lydia 24 February 2010 (has links)
This thesis is a baseline, population study, designed to create historical and contemporary contexts for and to inform current understanding of the department chair function in Canadian universities. Chairs are explored from five discrete yet dependent perspectives to discern distinctions and associations among institutions, disciplines/fields of study and individuals: What is the job? Who holds the job? Does formal position prescription match practice? Has the job changed over time? What makes department chairs job ready and effective? Canvassing 43 predominantly English-language public universities in 10 provinces, the inquiry encompasses four data sources: (1) 58 university policy documents and faculty association collective agreements; (2) a national electronic survey in two versions – for incumbent chairs, which generated replies from 511 email recipients, representing 38 per cent of the 1,333 individuals in the population approached; and for incumbent deans, sought for their views of the chair function, which drew the participation of 79 email recipients of 269 prospective contributors, signifying a 29 per cent response rate; (3) telephone interviews with 30 chairs and 15 deans (active, former and retired); and (4) curricula vitae of 134 chairs and deans (active, former and retired). The findings confirm the longstanding tradition of the job’s temporary nature, irrespective of institution and discipline. Candidates are usually drawn from tenured faculty ranks, primarily from the immediate unit. The notion of non-academic professionals from outside the university setting occupying the role is viewed by chairs and deans with disdain and is not evident in practice, either in hard pure and applied fields of study such as science, engineering and medicine, or in the soft pure and applied areas such as arts, business and education. The notion of a business-oriented approach to departmental administration appears to be largely a function of an institution’s size and its culture shaped by senior management rather than its location, age and type or a specific discipline with the exception of medicine and engineering. Chairs remain members of the collective bargaining unit in unionized faculty associations during their term of office and typically deem their ability to lead professorial peers with authority constrained as an equal.
2

An Examination of Academic Department Chairs in Canadian Universities

Boyko, Lydia 24 February 2010 (has links)
This thesis is a baseline, population study, designed to create historical and contemporary contexts for and to inform current understanding of the department chair function in Canadian universities. Chairs are explored from five discrete yet dependent perspectives to discern distinctions and associations among institutions, disciplines/fields of study and individuals: What is the job? Who holds the job? Does formal position prescription match practice? Has the job changed over time? What makes department chairs job ready and effective? Canvassing 43 predominantly English-language public universities in 10 provinces, the inquiry encompasses four data sources: (1) 58 university policy documents and faculty association collective agreements; (2) a national electronic survey in two versions – for incumbent chairs, which generated replies from 511 email recipients, representing 38 per cent of the 1,333 individuals in the population approached; and for incumbent deans, sought for their views of the chair function, which drew the participation of 79 email recipients of 269 prospective contributors, signifying a 29 per cent response rate; (3) telephone interviews with 30 chairs and 15 deans (active, former and retired); and (4) curricula vitae of 134 chairs and deans (active, former and retired). The findings confirm the longstanding tradition of the job’s temporary nature, irrespective of institution and discipline. Candidates are usually drawn from tenured faculty ranks, primarily from the immediate unit. The notion of non-academic professionals from outside the university setting occupying the role is viewed by chairs and deans with disdain and is not evident in practice, either in hard pure and applied fields of study such as science, engineering and medicine, or in the soft pure and applied areas such as arts, business and education. The notion of a business-oriented approach to departmental administration appears to be largely a function of an institution’s size and its culture shaped by senior management rather than its location, age and type or a specific discipline with the exception of medicine and engineering. Chairs remain members of the collective bargaining unit in unionized faculty associations during their term of office and typically deem their ability to lead professorial peers with authority constrained as an equal.
3

The wheelchair accessibility of Bloemfontein's guest houses and hotels

Posholi, M., Kokt, D. January 2011 (has links)
Published Article / Wheelchair friendliness is an issue that needs to be taken very serious. Awareness should be created so that the owners of the accommodation establishments have a complete knowledge about wheelchair friendliness. The population of the study covered 16 guest houses and 16 hotels in Bloemfontein and only 11 agreed to participate. Other guest house owners were not interested in the participation. Among those guest houses that participated, only few had wheelchair facilities. It showed that there is a lot of ignorance concerning the topic because other guest house owners thought they were wheelchair friendly, just because there is no step at the entrance. A checklist was compiled from literature and adminstered at each estabilshment.
4

A new workseat for commerce and industry : design and evaluation strategies

Gregg, Howard January 2000 (has links)
No description available.
5

The obese office worker seating problem

Benden, Mark E. 15 May 2009 (has links)
A field study was performed using 51 participants that were randomly selected from several Brazos Valley, Texas businesses to participate in an 8-hour assessment of office seating habits that influence seating design and testing. A control group was established as those with BMI’s < 35 and an obese group was established as those with BMI’s >35. Data was collected through written survey and through data logging of seat and back contact pressure (average and peak), surface area, center of gravity and duration of contact by recording 8 metrics, once per second using the X-sensor pressure mapping device and software. Additionally, 50 days of caster roll distance was recorded for the participants using a caster mounted digital encoder. It was determined that at alpha = 0.05, using the Student’s T-test, a significant difference did exist between the groups in mean seat time per shift (p<.001) back contacts per shift (p<.002), seat contacts per shift (p<.01) and caster distance rolled per shift (p<.001). During a subsequent lab study, data were collected during 3 cycles of ingress, egress on the armrest use, along with anthropometry and critical chair testing parameters. Center of Gravity was measured from a fixed backrest (front to rear) for 16 participants. 4 male and 4 female obese with BMI greater than 35 and 4 male and 4 female with BMI less than 30 were compared. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a significant difference existed between anthropometric factors for normal and obese participants that would affect how a chair should be loaded during testing. The null hypothesis that normal means and obese means for each measure were equal was rejected by using independent samples T-test at alpha = 0.05 with p<.001 significance reported for all measures. These data suggest a need for a fresh look at several parameters used in the normal test standards as well as a need for a tougher test method for seating designed for the obese worker.
6

Effects of backrest design on biomechanics and comfort during seated work /

Carcone, Steven Michael. January 2005 (has links)
Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Kinesiology and Health Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-64). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11762
7

Developing new stylistic possibilities for African product design inspired by African cultural heritage

Campbell, Angus 31 July 2012 (has links)
M.Tech. / This research project endeavours to explore and develop notions of ‘contemporary African design’. The project focuses on chair design with particular reference to the Senufo articulated chair from the Ivory Coast. In order to frame the practical research the separate histories of Western chairs and African chairs are examined for common ground. Ideas of cultural identity and style as a means of communicating an African identity to the West are explored. Transculturation and liminality are presented as alternative conceptual stances from which to overcome conceptual and theoretical problems inherent in the term ‘African design’. The research also examines the notion of communication in products and artefacts aiming at a better understanding of how products and artefacts conceived in one cultural context are likely to be interpreted by another. A general semiotic theory is used as a starting point providing a comparison to various other alternate and/or opposing theoretical approaches. A chair designed in the Western Modernist tradition, Hans Wegner’s 1949 Folding Chair, is used as a basis for illustrating the applicability of such theoretical approaches. A traditional Senufo articulated chair is then used as a basis to explore cross-cultural interpretation: the ways in which one culture interprets the artefacts of another and attaches new and different meanings to these artefacts because of different cultural assumptions, attitudes and values. Finally, the insights gained from the theoretical and cultural understanding of the chairs are used as a basis for putting into practise a hybrid method for design: that of incorporating craft and design and allowing the two approaches to inform one another. After a thorough elimination process one design is chosen, refined and prototyped, this choice being rooted in the theoretical findings in order to develop a new stylistic possibility for African product design inspired by African cultural heritage.
8

A manifesto on making : the knowledge built building a chair

Visotzky, Leora Simcha 16 January 2015 (has links)
Craft is the unification of the work of the hand and the work of the mind through material to produce an object with meaning. A craftsman is he or she who engages in the process of making with conscious intent and engagement with material and a broader scope of people and nature. Today, advances in mechanization and industry have allowed us to embrace a passivity that leaves us disconnected from the world and other people. We can look to craft, particularly with wood, as an antidote for this loss of connection. Through material specificity, the way handwork can offer the maker meaning about the place of the self in the world, and the way in which it illuminates the greater network of people, objects, and nature in which the maker exists, craft is a vehicle by which to produce knowledge otherwise unavailable through today’s methods of production and consumption. Through a personal account of the process of making a rocking chair out of wood and an examination of past and current scholarship surrounding craft and ontological aspects of identity, perception, and experience, the following examination, in conjunction with the actual process of making, aims to create a place for dialogue in the space between aesthetic philosophy and craft, creating a new paradigm for the role and definition of hand work today. It is an inquiry into the relationship between making and the production of knowledge. / text
9

Reliability evaluation of the BIFMA Chair Measurement Device

Lee, Hyun 01 October 2008 (has links)
In the last decade, most offices have been equipped with computers, and most office workers spend much of their time sitting in chairs. And recently, as many office workers complain of back pains, the importance of proper sitting and of chair designs that provide comfortable and suitable sitting posture has become recognized widely. One organization involved in the design of chairs is the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) and its ANSIIHFES 100 committee. This committee has established the ANS/IHFES 100 standard for various types of furniture used at computer workstations, including chairs, desks, and tables. This committee also has designed the Chair Measurement Device (CMD) for specific assessments of seat height, seat depth, seat width, backrest height, backrest width, lumbar support, seat to back included angle, seat pan angle, armrest height, and armrest clearance, for the purpose of developing chairs in connection with other related furniture, such as computer desks. The CMD has been developed through the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association (BIFMA). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the CMD, for future use in evaluating chair design. Eight participants made specific measurements of three chairs over three measurement sessions. Six measurements were taken from each chair: lumbar support height, seat height, seat depth, backrest height, seat pan angle, and seat to back included angle. This experiment produced 2,160 data points, and standard deviation and confidence interval analysis was used to evaluate the inter-evaluator reliability (ie., consistency across the different evaluators) and the intra-evaluator reliability (i.e., consistency within an evaluator). All standard deviations and 99% confidence intervals of the measurements were very small, implying that the measurements using the CMD were reliable across the evaluators, as well as within evaluators. The results also show that the procedure established for measurements was adequate for ANSIIHFES 100 compliance evaluations. / Master of Science
10

The Beauty of Fit: Proportion and Anthropometry in Chair Design

Kelly, Caroline Laure 29 April 2005 (has links)
The goal of this study is to create a method for designers to reconcile the critical functional and aesthetic requirements in chair design. This paper presents a brief history of the design of chairs, an overview of historical types of proportional systems, a discussion of anthropometry and the technical requirements of chair design. The body of the study involves the affects of the application of anthropometric measurement to the proportions of two Modernist chairs; the Zig Zag chair by Gerrit Reitveld and the Grand Confort or LC2 chair by Le Corbusier, Perriand and Jeanneret. Changes to the proportions of the chairs will be proposed in an attempt to fit a variety of people, including outliers in the population. The findings of the study indicate that the chairs resulting from the anthropometric changes are not considered beautiful or well proportioned when they contradict the structural logic of the original design. By determining a hierarchy of functional requirements and understanding the anthropometric values associated with it, a designer can develop the products aesthetics and test them during the design process using this method.

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