Glycogen phosphorylase 2 (gp-2) is a key enzyme during the development of Dictyostelium discoideum. The gp-2 enzyme breaks down glycogen into glucose monomers that are subsequently used to synthesize the terminal end products of cellular differentiation. This gene is an ideal candidate for studying the process of selective gene expression because its product figures so prominently in the development of this organism, implying a dependable control mechanism responsible for its developmentally regulated expression. I present in this thesis the identification of several putative cis-acting elements of gp-2 as revealed through footprint analysis. Due to the extreme AT-bias characteristic of Dictyostelium promoters, footprinting conditions required intensive optimization with respect to template, nonspecific competitor, source of protein extract and DNase I digestion. Using an endlabeled fragment containing seven repeated sequences (3 TA boxes [TAATTATA], 2 TAG boxes [TAAAAATGGT] and 2 C boxes [ACCCACT]), purified replication protein A and several developmental nuclear extracts were tested for DNA binding activity. Small footprints were observed on the TAG and C boxes of the promoter for both protein sources. However, using a more sensitive footprinting strategy involving multiple rounds of primer extension, larger footprints spanning the same promoter regions were detected. In both cases, the appearance of the footprints coincided with the documented transcriptional activity of the gene. It can be concluded from the data obtained that the TAG and C boxes are very likely cis-acting elements involved in the regulation of gp-2 expression. / Master of Science

The paper describes a qualitative study of users' attitudes to metadata in relation to their knowledge and how it affects their valuation of digital integrity. Method for data collection is semi-structured interviews and a critical event. The informants were two people who work with IT and two who do not. The theories of undesign, utilitarianism and privacy were chosen to discuss in relation to the result. A thematic analysis method is used to find relationships between attitudes and other interesting themes in the result. These themes, which we have named after the main attitudes of the informants, includes inter alia knowledge, trust, suspicion and positivity. In the discussion chapter, the results are linked with the analysis and answer the research question. The conclusion is that there is no clear correlation between the informants' knowledge and their attitude, knowledge of metadata has little significance for the attitude and the knowledge and attitudes have little effect on the evaluation of integrity among our four informants. / Uppsatsen behandlar en kvalitativ studie av användares attityder till metadata i relation till deras kunskap samt hur det påverkar deras värdering av digital integritet. Metod för datainsamling är semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en kritisk händelse. Informanterna var två personer som är yrkesverksamma inom IT och två som inte är det. Teorierna avdesign, utilitarism samt privatliv valdes ut att diskuteras i relation till resultatet. En tematisk analysmetod används för att hitta samband mellan attityder och andra intressanta teman i resultatet. Dessa teman, som är döpta efter de huvudsakliga attityderna informanterna uppvisat, var bland annat kunskap, tillit, misstänksamhet och positivitet. I diskussionskapitlet sammankopplas resultatet med analysen och besvarar forskningsfrågan. Slutsatsen av denna studie är att vi inte funnit något samband mellan de fyra informanternas kunskap och deras attityd, kunskap om metadata har liten betydelse för attityden och att kunskaperna och attityderna i liten del påverkar värderingen av integritet.

The digital footprints collected from the prevailing sensing systems provide novel ways to perceive an individual's behaviors. Furthermore, large collections of digital footprints from communities bring novel understandings of human behaviors from the community perspective (community behaviors), such as investigating their characteristics and learning the hidden human intelligence. The perception of human behaviors from the sensing digital footprints enables novel applications for the sensing systems. Bases on the digital footprints collected with accelerometer-embedded mobile phones and GPS equipped taxis, in this dissertation we present our work in recognizing individual behaviors, capturing community behaviors and demonstrating the novel services enabled. With the GPS footprints of a taxi, we summarize the individual anomalous passenger delivery behaviors and improve the recognition efficiency of the existing method iBOAT by introducing an inverted index mechanism. Besides, based on the observations in real life, we propose a method to detect the work-shifting events of an individual taxi. With real-life large-scale GPS traces of thousands of taxis, we investigate the anomalous passenger delivery behaviors and work shifting behaviors from the community perspective and exploit taxi serving strategies. We find that most anomaly behaviors are intentional detours and high detour inclination won't make taxis the top players. And the spatial-temporal distribution of work shifting events in the taxi community reveals their influences. While exploiting taxi serving strategies, we propose a novel method to find the initial intentions in passenger finding. Furthermore, we present a smart taxi system as an example to demonstrate the novel applications that are enabled by the perceived individual and community behaviors

Taxis equipped with GPS sensors are an important sensory device for examining people's movements and activities. They are not constrained to a pre-defined schedule/route. Big taxi GPS data recording the spatio-temporal traces left by taxis provides rich and detailed glimpse into the motivations, behaviours, and resulting dynamics of a city's mobile population through the road network. In this dissertation, we aim to uncover the "hidden facets" regarding social and community dynamics encoded in the taxi GPS data to better understand how urban population behaves and the resulting dynamics in the city. As some "hidden facets" are with regard to similar aspect of social and community dynamics, we further formally define three categories for study (i.e. social dynamics, traffic dynamics, and operational dynamics), and explore them to fill the wide gaps between the raw taxi GPS data and innovative applications and smart urban services. Specifically, 1. To enable applications of real-time taxi fraud alerts, we propose iBOAT algorithm which is capable of detecting anomalous trajectories "on-the-fly" and identifying which parts of the trajectory are responsible for its anomalousness, by comparing them against historically trajectories having the same origin and destination. 2. To introduce cost-effective and environment-friendly transport services to citizens, we propose B-Planner which is a two-phase approach, to plan bi-directional night bus routes leveraging big taxi GPS data. 3. To offer a personalized, interactive, and traffic-aware trip route planning system to users, we propose TripPlanner system which contains both offline and online procedures, leveraging a combination of Location-based Social Network (i.e. LBSN) and taxi GPS data sets. Finally, some promising research directions for future work are pointed out, which mainly attempt to fuse taxi GPS data with other data sets to provide smarter and personalized urban services for citizens

Tato práce prezentuje metodologii snižování emisních stop v souvislosti s přechodem na obhovou ekonomiku aplikováním integrace procesů při analýze a projektování při zohlednní výzev, které ztěžují praktické aplikace. Udržitelnost životního prostředí se vyznačuje snahou o snižování emisí a zlepšení hospodaření s odpady a hraje rozhodující roli při přechodu na obhovou ekonomiku. Byly navrženy tři metodiky založené na bezztrátovém konceptu a rozšiřujících metodiky Pinch Analysis a P-Grafů. Aplikovatelnost je demonstrována šesti případovými studiemi transportu a nakládání s odpady. Mé příspěvky v této oblasti jsou následující: (i) Nový bezztrátový rozhodovací nástroj paralelní s klasickým fázovým diagramem, který napomáhá rychlému rozhodování o procesech (např. výběr druhu dopravy pro danou vzdálenost a náklad) při nejnižší možné environmentální zátěži. (ii) Systém kvantitativního vyhodnocování emisí, který agreguje a vyhodnocuje celkové environmentální zatížení způsobené sklemíkovými plyny, SOx, PM a NO2. (iii) Rozšířená analýza nakládání s odpady pro regionální plánování s přihlédnutím k zatěžování i odstranní zatěžování emisní stopou, dále rozhodování o způsobu hospodaření s odpady a výběru způsobu zpracování odpadu s cílem nejnižší možné emisní stopy. (iv) Model posuzování pomocí nástroje P-grafu pro identifikaci optimálních integrovaných systémů zpracování odpadu různého složení, který identifikuje a vyhodnocuje stav udržitelnosti procesů před a po zpracování. Navrhované metodiky v grafickém znázornění s podporou sady komplexních základních rovnic transformují problematiku nakládání s odpady a výběru dopravy do snadno srozumitelné formy řešení vyznačujících se nízkými emisními stopami. Jako příklad v jedné z případových studií analýza provedená podle nového přístupu využívajícího E-WAMPA naznačuje, že celkového snížení emisí o 10% (2, 568 kt CO2 ekv.) Lze dosáhnout provedením přechodu odpadu na Maltě (-25.75 kt CO2 ekv.), Řecko (-1,602.71 kt CO2ekv), Kypr (-178.52 kt CO2ekv) a Rumunsko (-761.16 kt CO2ekv). To jsou země, v nichž lze dosáhnout co největšího zlepšení, vzhledem k kombinovanému účinku čistých emisí (zatěžujících i nezatížených stop) stávajícího systému nakládání s odpady, vzniku odpadů a obyvatelstva. Následující studie budou umožňovat komplexní vyhodnocení ekonomické proveditelnosti tak, aby lokální data mohla být použita pro konkrétní případy v již předpřipravených schématech s výstupem kvalifikovaného řešení.

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Vi lever idag i ett samhälle där stora delar av den sociala kontakt vi harmed andra personer sker via sociala plattformar. På dessa plattformarlagras det otroliga mängder information om oss som användare. De vetvar vi befinner oss, våra intressen, vem vi tycker om att umgås med ochofantligt mycket mer. Vi har genom den här studien tagit reda på omattityden kring integritet och informationshantering på socialaplattformar påverkar kontinuitet i användandet av Facebook. Studiensdatainsamling har genomförts med en blandning av fokusgrupper, enintervju och enkäter. Resultatet visar att attityderna hos användarna serolika ut men att detta i större utsträckning inte påverkar användandet.Användandet sker mer av vana och är någonting som är inmatat i vårtbeteende och framförallt någonting som underlättar det vardagliga livet. / We live today in a society where large parts of the social interactions wehave with other people are done through social platforms. Theseplatforms keep an incredible amount of information about us as users.They know where we are, what our interests are, who we like to hangout with and much more. Through this study, we have identified whetherthe attitude towards privacy and information management on socialplatforms leads to another way of using these platforms. The datacollection of the study has been conducted with a mix of focus groups,interview and questionnaires. The result shows that the attitudes of userslook different but that this does not affect the use of social platforms toa greater extent. The use is more of a routine and something that isincluded in our behavior and, above all, something that facilitateseveryday life.

This study evaluates the effect of sustainable business practices on brand perception. Digital marketing is a vital tool for any business, and sustainability is a significant element in brand management and marketing. This study aims to explore how digital marketing using sustainable messaging can help the brands change their brand perception regarding issues of sustainability, ethical branding, and environmentally friendly businesses. This research provides a detailed discussion of brands' sustainability practices and digital platforms more suitable for brands to deliver their sustainability agenda and build trust with the audience. The study evaluates the relationship between sustainability, brand image, and digital marketing.  Overall, qualitative and quantitative methods have been used in this research. The primary medium of the research is the qualitative analysis of sustainability practices of fashion brands, published annual sustainability reports, newspapers, magazines, and social media campaigns. Three European fashion brands have been chosen for the study, each from the category of High-end Fashion brands, Fast Fashion Brands, and Sustainable Fashion and clothing brands. For quantitative data, the survey questionnaire method has been used. The collected data has assisted in identifying the customer's responses towards sustainability and their perceptions and expectation of the brand.  The Sustainability Performance Reports of the selected fashion brands provide information about brands' sustainability strategy, goals, programs, and performance data. The strategy of all these brands revolves around sustainable development goals 2030 where these brands claim to be leading the change, Circular & Climate Positive business, working on renewable energy, providing fair and equal opportunity of employment, without any gender discrimination and reducing inequalities.  Analysing social media platforms indicates that most of the social media material for these fashion firms is about advertising their products, services, and sales. The findings imply that, rather than using digital media just for product advertising, the firm's digital media should raise awareness about sustainability concerns in the fashion sector and promote their efforts toward sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. Efficient use of social media to promote sustainability agendas helps boost the brand image of fashion businesses in terms of sustainability. The findings indicate a positive linkage between sustainability and a positive fashion brand perception. Digital marketing of sustainability initiatives would introduce the brand as a transparent, accountable, and ethical business. The study suggests that brand should utilise multiple social media platforms to promote their sustainability initiatives when it comes to promoting sustainability initiatives. / Denna studie utvärderar effekten av hållbara affärsmetoder på varumärkesuppfattning. Digital marknadsföring är ett viktigt verktyg för alla företag, och hållbarhet är ett viktigt inslag i varumärkeshantering och marknadsföring. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur digital marknadsföring med hjälp av hållbara meddelanden kan hjälpa varumärkena att ändra sin varumärkesuppfattning om frågor om hållbarhet, etisk branding och miljövänliga företag. Denna forskning ger en detaljerad diskussion om varumärkens hållbarhetspraxis och digitala plattformar som är mer lämpade för varumärken att leverera sin hållbarhetsagenda och bygga förtroende hos publiken. Studien utvärderar sambandet mellan hållbarhet, varumärkesimage och digital marknadsföring. Sammantaget har kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder använts i denna forskning. Det primära mediet för forskningen är den kvalitativa analysen av hållbarhetspraxis för modemärken, publicerade årliga hållbarhetsrapporter, tidningar, tidskrifter och kampanjer på sociala medier. Tre europeiska modemärken har valts ut för studien, var och en från kategorin High-end Fashion varumärken, Fast Fashion Brands och Sustainable Fashion och klädmärken. För kvantitativa data har undersökningsmetoden använts. De insamlade uppgifterna har hjälpt till att identifiera kundens svar på hållbarhet och deras uppfattningar och förväntningar på varumärket.  Hållbarhetsrapporterna för de utvalda modemärkena ger information om varumärkenas hållbarhetsstrategi, mål, program och resultatdata. Strategin för alla dessa varumärken kretsar kring hållbara utvecklingsmål 2030 där dessa varumärken påstår sig leda förändringen, Circular & Climate Positive-verksamheten, arbetar med förnybar energi, ger rättvisa och lika möjligheter till anställning, utan könsdiskriminering och minskar ojämlikheter.  Analys av sociala medieplattformar indikerar att det mesta av det sociala mediematerialet för dessa modeföretag handlar om att marknadsföra sina produkter, tjänster och försäljning. Resultaten innebär att företagets digitala medier, snarare än att använda digitala medier bara för produktreklam, bör öka medvetenheten om hållbarhetsproblem inom modesektorn och främja deras ansträngningar för hållbarhet och minskade koldioxidutsläpp. Effektiv användning av sociala medier för att främja hållbarhetsagendor bidrar till att öka modeföretagens varumärkesimage när det gäller hållbarhet. Resultaten indikerar en positiv koppling mellan hållbarhet och en positiv modevarumärkesuppfattning. Digital marknadsföring av hållbarhetsinitiativ skulle introducera varumärket som en transparent, ansvarsfull och etisk verksamhet. Studien föreslår att varumärken bör använda flera sociala medieplattformar för att marknadsföra sina hållbarhetsinitiativ när det gäller att främja hållbarhetsinitiativ.

This thesis investigates the way "healing" may be seen to be represented and enacted by three recent New Zealand music theatre productions: Once Were Warriors, the Musical-Drama; The Whale Rider, On Stage; and Footprints/Tapuwae, a bicultural opera. This thesis addresses the ways each of these music theatre productions can be seen to dramatise ideologically informed notions of Maori cultural health through the encounter of Maori performance practices with American and European music theatre forms. Because the original colonial encounter between Maori and Pakeha was a wounding process, it may be possible that in order to construct a theatrical meeting between the "colonised" Maori and the "colonial" non-Maori, "healing" is an essential element by which to foster an idea of the post-colonial, bicultural togetherness of the nation. In all three productions, Maori song and dance forms are incorporated into a distinctive form of western music theatre: the American musical; the international spectacle; Wagnerian opera. Wagner's attempts to regenerate German culture through his music dramas can be compared to Maori renaissance idea(l)s of cultural "healing" through a "return" to Maori myths, traditions and song and dance.

The way people view development is changing. The world now advocates for a development that also considers future generations. There is a paradigm shift towards sustainable development - a development in today's lifestyle without destroying the resources for tomorrow generations. Sustainable development is a broad concept that addresses how human activities impact on the economic, environmental and social well-being of an ecosystem; however, practical application of the sustainability concept is complex because its objective assessment is elusive. It is often said that the effect of technology on society has never been more profound than today. As mankind develops in science and technology to improve on his well-being, certain impacts are made on the systems that support human existence. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) technology, like gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology, is a latest innovation conceived to 'fight' the problem of gas flaring, and help contribute to the social and economic growth of the people; but it is necessary for man to know if these contemporary technologies are sustainable. This dissertation critically appraises the impact of the LNG project on the community of Bonny Island in Nigeria from a holistic perspective. The approach to the research work is three-fold: an appropriate sustainability framework is selected based on certain criteria; sustainability indicators are developed from the chosen framework; and the sustainability indicators are used to assess the impact of the project on the flora and fauna of the community. To have a clear picture of the impact of Nigeria LNG on its host community, Epe-Waterside is chosen as a control community because of its similar socio-geographical outlook to Bonny Island community. The control community is then subjected to the same set of sustainability indicators for a comparative analysis. The outcome of the research work shows that, though the economic and social conditions of Bonny Island seem much better, its environmental status remains a challenge. In other words, it can be concluded that the present approach to the operation of the LNG technology is not sustainable. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.