DEd (Curriculum Studies) / College students in Zimbabwe were facing many challenges in adopting proper dietary patterns which promote learning. This study sought to establish the impact of Socio-Economic factors and dietary patterns in particular on the academic performance of college students in Zimbabwe. The study established challenges that were faced by college students in making choices of dietary patterns that promote learning. Factors that influence choice of dietary patterns for college students were established in this study. The case study was Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic College in Zimbabwe with a population of 206 students and a sample of 102 participants was purposively selected. A mixed-methods research, using quantitative and qualitative approaches was employed and questionnaires, interviews, observation and document analysis were used to collect data. Findings are presented from both questionnaire and interview data in combination, with interview data playing the role of supplementing quantitative findings and probing detailed information. Quantitative data was analysed using the IBM SPSS Version 23.0 while qualitative data was coded into themes and synthesised into quantitative data to support or refute quantitative data. Research indicates that diet quality and overall health status of college students are among the prominent factors which contribute to poor student academic performance worldwide. The experiences and perceptions held by the college students and cooks were investigated. The main study findings showed that if students follow proper dietary patterns they may perform well in their studies since relationship between nutrition and academic work lies on the notion that a healthy body is able to maintain a healthy mind, which suggests that certain risk factors for a physically ill-health are also risk factors for cognitive impairment. This study made recommendations for dietary patterns that promote learning in academic domains. It also developed a model valuable for dietary patterns. / `

This thesis intends to verify and quantify relationship between microeconomics, macroe- conomics and social variables with annual beer consumption per capita. To assess dif- ferences in tastes in groups of countries, the concept of beer, wine and spirit drinking countries is used to separate the influences. Firstly, the general model for all European countries is estimated with the use of panel data techniques on data from 2000 to 2013. The results and findings from the first model are subsequently used as a building blocks for specific model for The Czech Republic. The Czech Republic has over a long period the highest annual consumption per capita. Still the share consumed in hospitality expe- riences persistent downward trend. All data are collected on annual basis and with only country-aggregated level of detail. Keywords Beer, Wine, Spirits, Consumption Patterns, Beer Demand, Beer Drinking Countries, Be- havioral Economics Author's e-mail Vladimir.Zobal@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail Karel-Janda@seznam.cz 1

With over half of the world’s population living in urban settlements and an ongoing urbanization, cities today offer a unique opportunity to tackle climate change. Emissions of greenhouse gases derive from all products and services used, and in Sweden the average inhabitant emit 7 tons of greenhouse gases in carbon dioxide equivalents every year from privately acquired products and services, calculated from a consumption perspective. Long-term climate goals, and international climate agreements sets a limit of 1-2 tons. Lifestyle changes are important to achieve sustainable development, but planning practices today generally do not try to influence citizens’ consumption, and is presumed cannot affect inhabitants’ consumption of food, clothes, electronics, furniture, etc.  This thesis investigates how planning and the built environment can practically encourage more sustainable consumption patterns, and which of these practices would be suitable to implement in the current sustainability project of Norra Kymlinge. The study concludes that sustainable consumption patterns could be encouraged in Norra Kymlinge through: collaborative living, sharing infrastructure, green leases, food production, personal measurement, and semi self-built apartments. For future research, more quantitative studies on the topic are suggested.

Denna kandidatuppsats fokuserar på relationen mellan konsumtion, konsumenter och miljöförändringar från ett holistiskt synsätt. Syftet är att undersöka konsumenters attityd och kunskap om konsumtion, välbefinnande, och miljöproblem. För min studie har jag använt mig av kvalitativa semistrukturella intervjuer och litteraturstudier. Resultatet av min studie visar att många av intervjupersonerna inte är bekanta med begreppet hållbar utveckling. Detta till trots hade dem kunskap om klimatförändringar samt miljömässiga och sociala problem relaterade till konsumtion. Välbefinnande beskrivs av intervju personerna, främst som ”att ha tillräckligt”, ex. boende, jobb, mat och speciellt att ha god hälsa. Ingen av de tillfrågade konsumenterna var nöjda med den tillgängliga informationen om konsumtion och olika varor, men de hade alla idéer om hur man bättre kan informera om konsumtion. De av konsumenterna mest upplevda barriärerna var tid för att planera inköp, avsaknad av information eller privat ekonomi. / This study focuses on the relations between consumption, consumers and environmental change seen from a holistic perspective. The purpose of the study is to examine the attitudes and knowledge among consumers, about consumption, well-being, and environmental issues. To study these questions, I did personal qualitative semi-structural interviews and literature studies. My research showed that now many of the interviewed persons were familiar with the concept of sustainable development. However, the subjects showed to have good knowledge on climate change and other environmental and social problems related to consumption. To most of the interviewed persons, well-being meant to have “enough”, explained as housing, work, food, and especially good health. None of the consumers were satisfied with the information about different commodities and they all had different ideas of how information about consumption could be improved. The most experienced barrier to the consumer’s possibility to consume more sustainable, was time or rather lack of time in everyday life to plan the purchases, as well as personal economy.

På livsmedelsmarknaden finns det olika produkter som konsumenten kan välja mellan. Valensom görs inom dagligvaruhandeln kan påverka individen och samhället på olika sätt, dåprodukter har olika näringsinnehåll och de har producerats under olika förutsättningar. För attkonsumenten ska veta hur olika produkter påverkar individen och samhället finns det olikamärkningar såsom Fairtrade och KRAV. Ekologiska produkter marknadsförs som hälsosammasamtidigt som de ska vara bättre för miljön än icke ekologiska produkter. Den ekologiskamarknaden har ökat de senaste 5 åren. Av den anledningen finner vi det intressant att analyseravem som väljer att konsumera ekologiska produkter och varför.Syftet med studien är att analysera vilka faktorer som påverkar konsumenternas val attkonsumera ekologiska produkter. För att kunna analysera de olika faktorerna användskvantitativa ansatser. Data samlas in genom en enkätundersökning och analyseras medekonometriska tekniker. Resultatet analyseras även med hjälp av ekonomiska teorier.Enkätundersökningen genomförs på den svenska marknaden, i de två kommunerna Norrköpingoch Ockelbo.Studiens resultat indikerar att utbildning, kön, upplevd kunskap om ekologiska märkningar,upplevd mediepåverkan, härkomst och kommun är signifikanta variabler för att förklaraekologisk konsumtion. Resultatet indikerar även att de två viktigaste argumenten för attkonsumera ekologiska produkter är ur hälso- och miljösynpunkt. / The consumer can choose between different products at the market of groceries. These choicescan affect the human being and society in different ways, because products do not have thesame nutritional value and they may not have been produced in the same way. Therefore, it isimportant for the consumer to have knowledge about brands like Fairtrade and KRAV. InSweden, the products that are marketed as healthy and environmentally friendly alternatives arecalled ecological products. In the last 5 years, the market of ecological products has increased,because the market shows that the demand of ecological alternatives has increased. For thisreason, we think it is interesting to analyze who the typical consumer of ecological products isand why.The purpose of this study is to analyze which factors that affects the consumer’s choice ofecological products. To analyze the different factors the study is using quantitative methods.The data will be collected from surveys and then analyzed by using econometrical techniques,and the results will be analyzed and examined using economic theories. The survey is beingperformed on the Swedish market, where the municipalities Norrköping and Ockelbo has beenchosen. Norrköping has a substantially larger population than Ockelbo, which we consider is abenefit for the study.The results of the study shows us that education, gender, perceived knowledge about ecologicalbrands, experienced influence from media, a Nordic heritage and municipality are significantvariables to explain ecological consumption. The results also indicate the two most importantarguments for consuming ecological products are those of health and environmentalperspectives.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T16:41:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Altamira Queiroz2.pdf: 2299194 bytes, checksum: 07ecb127ebc11ad21a0cb551e23c2f1b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / One of the main problems currently faced by electric utilities is the occurrence of energy losses in the distribution network caused by fraud and electricity theft. Because of the financial losses and risks to public safety, the development of solutions to detect and combat fraud in the distribution networks is of the utmost importance. This work presents an analysis of computational intelligence algorithms to extract knowledge in databases with information from monthly energy consumption to identify consumption patterns with anomalies which could represent fraud. The algorithms Artificial Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines were tested to see which one perform better on the identification consumption patterns with abnormalities. Tests have shown that the algorithms used are able to detect patterns in electricity consumption curves, including special situations of fraud that manual techniques did not detect. / Um dos principais problemas que enfrentam atualmente as empresas concessionárias de energia elétrica é a ocorrência de perdas de energia na rede de distribuição, causadas por fraudes e furtos de energia elétrica. Sendo que tais problemas provocam prejuízos financeiros e também colocam em risco a segurança pública, é de grande interesse das concessionárias encontrar soluções para detectar e combater fraudes nas redes de distribuição de energia elétrica. Neste conceito, o presente trabalho apresenta uma análise dos algoritmos de Inteligência Computacional para extrair conhecimento de bases de dados de informações de consumo mensal de energia elétricas de usuários de uma determinada concessionária, a fim de identificar padrões de consumo com anomalias que representem possíveis fraudes nas redes de distribuição de energia elétrica. Para detectar padrões nas curvas de consumo, foram utilizados algoritmos de Redes Neurais Artificiais e Máquinas de Vetores de Suporte. Após a criação dos modelos, estes foram testados para verificar qual seria o melhor algoritmo para a detecção de padrões de consumo com anomalias, e os resultados obtidos, foram então, comparados com uma base de dados fornecida pela concessionária com a verificação manual dos usuários. Os testes demonstraram que os algoritmos utilizados são capazes de detectar padrões nas curvas de consumo de energia elétrica, inclusive detectando situações especiais de fraudes que técnicas manuais não detectaram.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the quantitative potential to reduce energy requirements and CO2 emissions through changed patterns of consumption, given unchanged levels of consumption expenditure. The thesis question is analysed using a systems analysis approach which in this case means that life cycle assessment data on energy requirements and CO2 emissions related to household consumption are combined with a financial and behavioural analysis to make sure that the budget constraint is kept and that both the first and second order effects of adopting a green consumption pattern are analysed. The budget constraints are kept using a general linear model. By using marginal propensities to spend to direct the reallocation of saved or deficit money calculated utility is maintained as far as possible. Further, investigations explore the impact of individual household demographic characteristics and geographic context on household consumption patterns, energy requirements and CO2 emissions. The key result of this thesis is that changed household behaviour, choosing “green“ products and energy efficient technology will not make a big difference. What can be achieved in the short time perspective by adopting an almost completely green consumption pattern and energy efficient technology is a reduction of energy requirements by around 8% and CO2 emissions by around 13%. With a longer time perspective and further technological change that provides additional possibilities to move consumption patterns in a greener direction, the effect on energy requirements and CO2 emissions is still fairly small. By 2020, the potential to reduce energy requirements is around 13% and CO2 emissions around 25%. In the most extreme scenario (2050), the scope for reducing energy requirements is 17% and for CO2 emissions 30%. All these reductions will be outpaced by growth in income almost as soon as they are implemented. Of policy relevance the results reveal that very limited impact can be expected by a policy relying on greener consumption patterns, whether adopted voluntarily or as a result of incentives such as tax changes. Such a policy cannot achieve more than a small and temporary reduction to growth in energy requirements and CO2 emissions. It is also shown that, prescribing specific consumption patterns as a means of reducing energy requirements and CO2 emissions has to be done with care. This is illustrated by one of the experiments in which adopting a partly green consumption pattern, a green diet, in fact increased total energy requirements and CO2 emissions. This, and the results of all the other experiments show the importance of applying a systems approach. It demonstrates that life cycle data alone are irrelevant for assessing the total effects of adopting green consumption patterns. Further research on the potential to reduce energy requirements and CO2 emissions thus primarily needs to better capture system wide effects rather than to improve on, and fine tune the measurement of the energy requirements and CO2 emissions related to individual products.

The reduction of the impact of energy consumption is a priority issue and a major challenge that concerns every country in the world. This is a complex task that needs to be tackled from several angles in the search for areas where optimizations and savings can be made. In Sweden an electricity meter reading reform was fully implemented by 1st July 2009, including 5.2 million customers, and this created new set of circumstances in the Swedish electricity market. The main purpose of this thesis work has been to investigate the possibilities of increasing the use of remote meter readings. Two research questions have been: “How can the electricity market benefit from remote collected meter readings?” and “Where do barriers appear when utilizing meter readings?”. The work started in 2000/2001 to study Internet based applications that visualize electricity consumption patterns. Over these years the daily internet users have increased from approximately 40 % to 73 % and new markets for web-based applications have evolved. These solutions can be important in the forthcoming years as energy portals that hold new energy services. Experiences from new installations indicate that at least interested customers do submit information concerning building and household properties through internet. Still, it is challenging to enable the majority of customers to take part in these new solutions. It may therefore be important to remind customers on a regular basis in order maintain the frequency using the application and to make it habitual. Further the introduction of demand-based pricing allows electricity distribution utilities to achieve a stronger correlation between peak loads in the distribution network area and their revenues.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of Ph. D (Public Managment), Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / Using historic and ethnographic data collected from KwaZulu-Natal, this study examines food consumption from the Zulu Cosmology epistemic point of view. The study highlights as a prosocial behaviour that reduces the importance of self in favour of pro social norms of sharing and selflessness. In other words, personhood is understood as a process and the product of interconnectedness experienced in social spaces. Pro-social behaviour is therefore seen as a determinant of harmonious and social cohesive communities. The study concluded that social cohesive communities develop a set of cultural protocols and boundaries that reward prosocial norms and punish antisocial behaviour. Social cohesion as a concept was also found to be inseparable from the notion of shared values, identities and norms. The study delved deeper and found that the land, the livestock and the cultural rituals to honour the living and the dead defined a unique interconnectedness of the Zulu person to his culture. Eating and eaten products were part of a uniting culture that linked a Zulu man, woman, girls, old men and women to other people, their animals and their land. Zulu people lived for, and with, other people in peace. No man or family would go hungry. Immediately that becomes known, another man would give the destitute man a few cattle to start his own flock and feed his family. This and other eating rituals contributed to a strong, peaceful and social cohesive nation of King Shaka ka Senzangakhona. On the basis of the understanding of the cultural rituals, their link with the land and animal the study concluded that land restitution and agrarian policies can be enhanced by taking into consideration their need for land to cultivate vegetables and fruits that have cultural meaning, policies that enable to have livestock as well as space to practise their culture. The study is envisaged to inspire social welfare and community development policies that instil the prosocial values of Ubuntu and interconnectedness. / D

The big data framework applied to smart meters offers an exception platform for data-driven forecasting and decision making to achieve sustainable energy efficiency. Buying-in consumer confidence through respecting occupants' energy consumption behavior and preferences towards improved participation in various energy programs is imperative but difficult to obtain. The key elements for understanding and predicting household energy consumption are activities occupants perform, appliances and the times that appliances are used, and inter-appliance dependencies. This information can be extracted from the context rich big data from smart meters, although this is challenging because: (1) it is not trivial to mine complex interdependencies between appliances from multiple concurrent data streams; (2) it is difficult to derive accurate relationships between interval based events, where multiple appliance usage persist; (3) continuous generation of the energy consumption data can trigger changes in appliance associations with time and appliances. To overcome these challenges, we propose an unsupervised progressive incremental data mining technique using frequent pattern mining (appliance-appliance associations) and cluster analysis (appliance-time associations) coupled with a Bayesian network based prediction model. The proposed technique addresses the need to analyze temporal energy consumption patterns at the appliance level, which directly reflect consumers' behaviors and provide a basis for generalizing household energy models. Extensive experiments were performed on the model with real-world datasets and strong associations were discovered. The accuracy of the proposed model for predicting multiple appliances usage outperformed support vector machine during every stage while attaining accuracy of 81.65\%, 85.90\%, 89.58\% for 25\%, 50\% and 75\% of the training dataset size respectively. Moreover, accuracy results of 81.89\%, 75.88\%, 79.23\%, 74.74\%, and 72.81\% were obtained for short-term (hours), and long-term (day, week, month, and season) energy consumption forecasts, respectively.