The intention of this project is to research the potential of emergent technologies for developing sustainable composites for the building industry. It is divided into three parts: Part 1 Identifies emergent practices which are being applied to the development of new sustainable building prototypes such as developments using nanotechnologies, the influence of biomimetics, the development of intelligent interactive systems and the use of digital technologies to generate complex cellular structural systems. Part 2 Outlines existing processes involved in selecting and manufacturing prototypes, as many existing processes have been opportunistically applied to emergent practices to generate innovative sustainable prototypes. Part 3 By synthesising the research gathered in the previous parts of this thesis, this section documents the design process for developing a sustainable building system. The design is based on a minimal surface structure to reduce materiality and to optimise strength and its manufacturing process exploits emergent and existing technologies for its generation.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur barn uppfattar läsning och skrivning i förskolan. Avsikten är att skapa kunskap och förståelse för vilka förutsättningar som ges till lärnande av skriftspråk genom att närma sig barns perspektiv. Genom ett intresse för hur barn uppfattar skriftspråket i omgivningen på förskolan blev den sociala aspekten av lärnadet av betydelse vilket innebär att ett sociokulturellt perspektiv har använts som metod. Ett nedslag i två förskolor har genomförts för att undersöka några barns uppfattningar om deras skriftspråkliga omgivning. Resultatet visar att barnens svar går att koppla till möjligheter med att skriva som skriftspråkets funktionsaspekt. De svarar till exempel att de skriver sina namn och meddelande till varandra, aktiviteter där det tycks finnas en mening med att skriva. Barnen beskriver även att det finns olika funktioner med att läsa som att läsa böcker, läsa på väggen och läsa kartor. Redskapen de använder sig av vid dessa aktiviteter är främst papper och penna samt böcker. Dator som redskap tyks inte vara något som barnen nämner i någon större utsträckning. Vidare visade resultatet att barn har olika strategier vid skriftspråkliga aktiviteter som kännetecknas av både solitära och kollektiva handlingar. Leken tycks i många fall inte vara ett sammanhang som barnen kopplar ihop med skriftspråkliga handlingar. Skriftspråkliga aktiviteter kopplas istället till särskilda platser på förskolan.

Nearly a third of all emergency department (ED) visits are for non-emergent conditions. Several factors contribute to non-emergent ED use, though the relative importance of these factors and how non-emergent ED users differ from those seeking similar care in primary care (PC) settings are less clear. Surveys were administered to adult, English-speaking, primary care patients seeking same-day, non-emergent care in the ED and PC clinic at an urban, safety-net hospital during normal clinic hours. ED patients were eligible if they had a primary care physician (PCP) located at the hospital and thus the ability to seek same-day care in the PC clinic. Surveys assessed sociodemographics and six major care-seeking factors (perceived urgency, cost, convenience, beliefs about alternative sites, access, and referral). Patient characteristics were compared between sites using t-tests and Fisher’s exact test, and multivariable logistic regression identified predictors of ED use. Compared to PC patients (n=61), ED patients (n=59) were significantly more likely to be male, middle-aged, homeless, Medicaid-insured, and unmarried with a trend toward being non-White and less educated. ED patients were significantly more likely to perceive the cost of an ED and PC visit to be the same/free (69.1% vs. 37.1%; p<0.01) and to believe the ED would provide higher quality care (24.6% vs. 3.6%; p<0.001). PC patients were more likely to consider their doctor’s office as their usual source of care (83.1% vs. 37.9%; p<0.0001) and believe it is easy to make PCP appointments on short notice (74.5% vs. 54.2%; p=0.04). In the adjusted model, patients whose usual source of care was not the doctor’s office had the highest odds of non-emergent ED use (aOR 4.25, 95% CI 1.28–15.20), and patients reporting ease of scheduling PCP appointments on short notice had significantly lower odds of ED use (aOR 0.19, 95% CI 0.04–0.67). Non-emergent patients in the ED and primary care clinic differed by sociodemographics, usual source of care, and perceptions of cost, care quality, and ease of scheduling appointments. Opportunities exist to reduce unnecessary ED use in similar populations by promoting the primary care clinic as a routine and easily accessible source of high-quality care. / 2019-11-08T00:00:00Z

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South Africa (SA) is home to 11 official named languages; its Language in Education Policy (LIEP) identifies multilingualism as one of the defining characteristics of its citizenry (DOE, 1997). Moreover, English is the official Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) in most ex-Model C schools nationwide. It is the language that is reported to be valued by the middleclass, people who are known for placing a high premium on education (Soudien, 2004; Alexander, 2005). The aim of this ethnographic Language Socialisation study is to explore the language socialisation experiences of a Grade R child in a Black middle-class multilingual family residing in a Cape Town suburb. The study is framed by the question: What are the language socialisation experiences of a child from a Black middle-class multilingual family? It uses a socio-cultural approach, drawing from linguistic anthropology, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics to critically analyse the language ideologies, language practices and linguistic repertoires evident in both the home and school domains across which the young child traverses. Concepts such as multilingualism, Family Language Policy and ‘mother tongue’ identity are reviewed and used to gain insight into the lived language experiences of the Grade R child. The concepts of assimilation (Soudien, 2004) and anglonormativity (Christie &amp; McKinney, 2017) are reflected on as markers of school language practices and ideologies. Findings reveal that the Grade R child is an emergent multilingual who participates meaningfully in multilingual conversations with her family but only produces English. Despite the evident heteroglossia (Bhaktin, 1991) of the family’s language practices through translanguaging (Garcia, 2009; Creese and Blackledge, 2010) and drawing from the range of resources in their linguistic repertoires (Busch, 2012), the parents continue to use their Tswana and Xhosa ethnicity as markers of their language identities. The parents want their children to speak their heritage languages for identity reasons. They also want them to speak English to ‘fit in’ with their peers and to access learning. They see the teaching of Tswana and Xhosa as their sole responsibility thereby absolving the school. Their view enables the schools’ status quo of anglonormativity to go unchallenged. The child, thus, experiences heritage languages as identity markers and languages reserved for home, and English as a valuable language resource that gives access to learning. The notion of a single language identity remains complex for a child who is expected to be multilingual at home but monolingual at school.

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Agency and desire are interdependent. Agency is not a given, but an achievement of ordered desiring. We want to control our desires rather than be controlled by them, but the dilemma is that our selves are separate neither from our desires nor our control. John Dewey articulates this dynamic and proposes a solution; we can control desire and thereby ourselves by an immanent and reflective reconstruction of the meaning and object of desire. However, Dewey over-estimates the cognitive control of meaning and desire, because he presumes that desire is always ideational, rather than explaining how desire comes into cognitive awareness and control to be available for reflective manipulation. This work will extend Dewey's theory of experience and habit by explaining the structural habitual conditions necessary for the cognitive control of desire, e.g., how desire becomes ideational and subsequently an ideal. It offers a constructive criticism and a new heterodox phenomenological method based on the works of John Dewey, Thomas Alexander, and Victor Kestenbaum.

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