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.

Gold mining in the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa has resulted in soil contamination due to the lack of sufficient environmental management plans for the tailings dumps and remnant footprints. Tailings reclamation as a strategy of reducing pollution in the Central Rand, for instance, has resulted in contamination of water systems by acid mine drainage (AMD). After removal of the tailings dumps, remnant material is left over on the tailings footprints and these contain significant amounts of pollutants that were initially in the tailings. Heavy rainfall during summer dissolves primary minerals and later in the dry season, secondary minerals are precipitated as efflorescent crusts on and nearby tailings dumps as well as footprints due to high evaporation. The efflorescent crusts can redissolve when it rains and form acidic, metal and sulphate-rich solutions due to their soluble characteristics. This study aimed to characterise tailings footprints in areas targeted for human settlements and office spaces to assess their potential to release left over toxic elements such arsenic (As), lead (Pb), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn). The approach to the study involved characterisation of oxidised and unoxidised tailings material and secondary precipitates on both tailings dumps and footprints. This involved determining the mineralogical composition using Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD). Dissolution and leaching studies were also conducted on the material followed by determination of constituent elements using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and sulphates using ion chromatography (IC). The leaching solutions used included rainwater; dilute sulphuric acid at pH of 3.0 (a common leachate in such acidic soils); as well as plant exudates such as oxalic and citric acids. The leachate solutions were used to correlate the mineralogical composition of secondary precipitates and tailings footprints. Potential implications on humans following any accidental ingestion of the tailings or contaminated soils were assessed using gastric juices. The ecological risk factors and risk index together with the model to evaluate daily intake and different pathways to humans were used to assess the toxicity caused by exposure to contaminants in the materials. The experimental work was augmented by computer simulations based on geochemical modelling (using the PHREEQC geochemical modelling code) to determine the speciation of elements (and thus their potential lability and bioavailability), dissolution and formation of secondary mineral precipitates in the tailings dumps and footprints. The findings of the PXRD study showed that the mineralogy of the tailings and footprints was dominated by quartz (SiO2) and some minor minerals such as pyrite (FeS2), pyrophyllite (Al2Si4O10(OH)2), chlorite (Mg,Fe)3(Si,Al)4O10), mica (K(Mg,Fe)3 AlSi3O10(F,OH)2) while that of secondary precipitates was dominated by jarosite (KFe3+ 3(OH)6 (SO4)2), goethite (FeOOH), melanterite (FeSO4.7H2O) and gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O). Minerals obtained for the secondary precipitates were corroborated by geochemical modelling. Leaching results using rainwater with pH ranges from 3.5 to 3.9 showed that trace elements are released very slowly from tailings dumps and footprints and in small concentrations during rainy seasons as follows: As (1.5 mg/L-4.5 mg/L), Pb (3.5 mg/L-5.5 mg/L), Cu (4 mg/L-4.8 mg/L) and Zn (23 mg/L-44 mg/L). The release and mobility of Cu, Pb, Zn and As occurs quite markedly when secondary precipitates dissolve, making the immediate impacted environment unfavourable for plant growth and any habits in the vicinity. This was substantiated by simulated dissolutions and assessment of the resulting elemental speciation that pointed to the elements being distributed in bioavailable forms, implying potential uptake by plants (such as vegetables that may be cultivated on such impacted soils). The model was used to evaluate the daily intake and different exposure pathways and the results showed that children may daily intake 48.4 mg kg-1 day-1 and adults‟ 32.8 mg kg-1 day-1 . After 5 years (1825 days) of exposure more harm may be experienced and findings shows that kids are the most victims on these contaminated sites compared to adults. Both children and adults may absorb low levels of these toxic elements daily and after long time of exposure it may cause disease like cancer in their body which may lead to death. Pathways may be through inhalation and accidentally ingesting tailings soil that contain toxic elements. Drawing from the above findings, it will be important that tailings footprints that have been earmarked as land for development (residential or office space) be thoroughly assessed for potential release of toxic elements and high levels of acidity. Further reclamation aimed at reducing these hazards can then be implemented. / College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Science)

Det finns enorma mängder data att samla in om dagens internetanvändare. Det går idag att med hjälp av människors digitala avtryck avgöra vad de har för intressen, vart de rör sig, samt hur de i framtiden kan komma att agera. I denna studie har det studerats vilken roll attityder och tidigare kunskaper om digitala fotspår har i användandet av internet. Inom ramen för denna uppsats har det också studerats om och hur teorier grundande i begreppen tillit, integritet och egenmakt har haft för inverkan på informanterna. I studien har det använts kulturella sonder för att agera provokatör och inspiratör inför de efterföljande intervjuerna. Resultatet visar att tidigare utbildning och förkunskaper om digitala fotspår har en liten till icke existerande effekt på användandet. Istället verkar det som att tidigare upplevelser och attityder kring digitala fotspår har en större inverkan på användandet av internet. / There are huge amounts of data to collect on today's internet users. Today, with the help of digital footprints, we can calculate people´s interests, where they are moving, and how they may act in the future. In this study, I look at the functions of attitudes and previous knowledge of digital footprints in the use of the internet. In the context of this essay, it has also been examined how theories founded on the concepts trust, integrity and empowerment have had an impact on the informants. In the study, cultural probes have been used to act as provocateur and as inspiration for the subsequent interviews. The result shows that previous education and knowledge for digital footprints have a small to non-existent effect on the use. Instead, it seems that previous experiences and attitudes about digital footprints have a greater impact on the use of the internet.

The thesis consists of two main parts: a theoretical one which includes a separate chapter about the Jizera Mountains as a whole, introducing their geological structure, climate, botanical and zoological species and three public figures connected with the Jizera Mountains. The second part is a practical one. The first chapter which is divided into ten sub-chapters, introduces typical vertebrates, especially those which can be included in education at primary schools and grammar schools. The next chapter mentions nature trails which are later suggested as enriching elements in zoological excursions. These must follow the official paths within the nature conservation area. Certain thought in this thesis is also given to the SPA (Special Protection Area) established to protect the black grouse and the boreal owl. The last but one chapter involves selected centres of ecological education and other organisations organising programmes focused on vertebrates. Then there is classification of primary and secondary education with emphasizing a short survey of which biology textbooks are used at primary schools around Jablonec nad Nisou. Education at secondary schools is supplemented with international researches called PISA and TIMSS serving as a base for the last chapter, which is about enquiry based...

Digitaliseringen av samhället har ökat kraftigt det senaste decenniet och hela 95% av Sveriges befolkning uppger att de använder internet dagligen. Det har också lett till att data som personer lämnar efter sig på nätet även den har ökat. Denna ökning i kombination med smartare analysverktyg för att utvinna information ur dessa datamängder har möjliggjort en ny typ av marknadsföring, den individanpassade marknadsföringen. Det innebär att företag riktar sina erbjudanden och annonser för den specifika konsumenten med hjälp av dennes egen data även kallat digitala fotspår. De digitala fotspår som företag använder sig utav kan vara köpbeteende, GPS- koordinater och tidigare sökhistorik på exempelvis Google. Dock finns det en risk att företag kan kränka den personliga integriteten när den individanpassade reklamen blir för specifik eller är baserad på känslig information om konsumenten. Detta leder in på studiens forskningsfråga som är ” Vad är konsumentens uppfattning kring individanpassad marknadsföring gällande den personliga integriteten?”. Denna forskningsfråga har även två delfrågor som är ” Vilka faktorer bidrar till att konsumenten i mindre utsträckning uppfattar individanpassad reklam som integritetskränkande?” och ” Vad uppfattas som integritetskränkande för konsumenten?”. Dessa delfrågor ska tillsammans hjälpa till att svara på huvudfrågan. Ordet konsument avser i denna studie de som handlar digitalt och använder sig av olika digitala tjänster där de blir exponerade för individanpassad reklam.Forskningsfrågan besvaras med hjälp av en kvalitativ metod och samtalsintervjuer där en induktiv med inslag av deduktiv tematisk analys används för att analysera materialet. Studien kommer fokusera på att undersöka individanpassad marknadsföring gällande integritet utifrån ett konsumentperspektiv och kommer därmed inte gå in på hur företag resonerar kring denna fråga. Syftet med studien är att ge företag en inblick i vilken information som konsumenter tycker är okej att de använder sig av för att individanpassa reklam samt när de anser att det blir integritetskränkande.Det resultat som studien kom fram till är att olika åtgärder från företag så som att ge konsumenten ökad kontroll över sin personliga information samt en ökad transparens kring vilken information som samlas in och används leder till ett ökat förtroende för företaget vilket i sin tur bidrar till ett positivare mottagande av reklamen. Vidare uppfattas reklam som är baserat på konsumentens köpbeteende och tidigare sökningar3som minst integritetskränkande medan reklam som baseras på ljudupptag, GPS- koordinater samt vilka konsumenten integrerar med som mest integritetskränkande. Företaget som ligger bakom en reklam som uppfattas som integritetskränkande kan få en skadad image vilket kan leda till att konsumenten i framtiden väljer ett annat företag.

Les empreintes digitales recueillies par détection systèmes offrent de nouvelles façons de percevoir les comportements d'un individu. En outre, de grandes collections d'empreintes numériques des communautés apportent de nouvelles compréhensions des comportements humains. La perception des comportements humains à partir des empreintes digitales de détection permet de construire des nouvelles applications sur les systèmes de détection. D’après les empreintes digitales recueillies avec l'accéléromètre embarqué dans les téléphones mobiles et les taxis équipés avec GPS, nous présentons ici notre travail sur la reconnaissance des comportements individuels, la capture des comportements communautaires et la démonstration des nouveaux services activés. En reconnaissant les comportements individuels, nous présentons la reconnaissance des activités physiques d'une personne avec les lectures de l'accéléromètre recueillies à partir des téléphones mobiles mis dans les poches autour de la zone pelvienne. Avec les empreintes GPS d'un taxi, nous résumons les comportements anormaux du transport des passagers pour un individu et améliorons l'efficacité de la reconnaissance de la méthode existante IBOAT. En outre, sur la base des observations dans la vie réelle, nous proposons une méthode pour détecter les événements de changement de service d’un taxi individuel. Avec des traces GPS à grande échelle et à l’aide des milliers de taxis, nous étudions les comportements anormaux pour le transport des passagers et les comportements de changement de travail et exploitons les stratégies de service de taxi. En outre, nous présentons un système intelligent de taxi comme une étude exemplaire des nouvelles applications qui s’appuie sur les comportements perçus individuelles et communautaires / 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 équipés de capteurs GPS sont un dispositif sensoriel important pour examiner les mouvements et les activités des gens. Dans cette thèse, nous cherchons à découvrir les facettes cachées en ce qui concerne les dynamiques sociales et communautaires codés dans les données de taxi GPS pour mieux comprendre comment se comporte la population urbaine et la dynamique résultant de la ville. Comme certains « aspects cachés» sont en ce qui concerne l'aspect similaire de la dynamique sociale et de la communauté, nous avons encore définissons formellement trois catégories pour l'étude, et les explorer à combler les écarts importants entre la première circuler des données GPS et des applications innovantes et des services urbains intelligents. Plus précisément, 1. Pour permettre aux applications d'alertes de fraude de taxi en temps réel, nous vous proposons algorithme iBoat qui est capable de détecter des trajectoires anormales "à la volée " et déterminer quelles parties de la trajectoire sont responsables de sa "anomalousness", en les comparant historiquement trajectoires ayant la même origine et de destination. 2. Pour introduire des services de transport respectueux de l'environnement aux citoyens rentable et, nous vous proposons B -Planner qui est une approche en deux phases, à planifier des itinéraires de bus de nuit bi- directionnelles de levier grands taxis données GPS. 3. Afin d'offrir un système de planification voyage d'itinéraire personnalisé, interactif, et le trafic-courant pour les utilisateurs, nous proposons système Tripplanner qui contient à la fois hors ligne et des procédures en ligne, en s'appuyant sur une combinaison de géolocalisation réseau social et des ensembles de données de taxi GPS. Enfin, certaines directions de recherche prometteuses pour les travaux futurs sont signalées, qui tentent essentiellement de fusionner les données de taxi GPS avec d'autres ensembles de données pour fournir des services urbains plus intelligents et personnalisés / 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

No description available.

Climate change is regarded as the greatest threat facing the world today. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that climate change is caused by human activities, as a result of greenhouse gases (GHGs) being emitted into the atmosphere. Scientific literature on the impact of climate change is well documented, especially for the health sector. The mission of the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) is to “contribute towards the reduction of the burden of diseases in all the communities in Gauteng”. Ekurhuleni Health District is part of GDoH and shares a similar mission. However, this mission is under threat due to the direct and indirect impact of climate change on the public health sector. Therefore, it is essential for Ekurhuleni Health District and Provincial Clinics to take measures to reduce their contribution to climate change in the light of improving the health of their constituent. This study estimates the carbon footprint of the employees of Ekurhuleni Health District and Provincial Clinics and determines the knowledge and perception of climate change among managers and operational employees. The methodologies of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) and the Department of Environmental Forestry and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) were used to quantify the carbon footprints of the employees of the Ekurhuleni Health District and Provincial Clinics. A content analysis was applied to determine the knowledge and perception of climate change. The study revealed that Scope 2, indirect emissions (electricity), accounts for 92% (35150 t CO2e) of the total carbon footprints for the period of five years, 2010-2014. Scope 1, direct emission (vehicles), is responsible for 4% (1362 t CO2e) and Scope 3, indirect emissions for ICT, for 2% (862 t CO2e), office paper 1% (181 t CO2e) and air conditioners 1% (458 t CO2e). The majority of employees demonstrated basic knowledge of climate change. However, the concept of GHGs was unfamiliar to most of the employees. In terms of perceptions of climate change, the majority of employees were concerned about the future of the planet and climate change and believed that climate change will impact their job description. The study recommends the following mitigation measures, among others, to reduce carbon footprints: (1) electrical vehicles; (2) substituting personal desktops with laptops; and (3) substituting HFC-23 air conditioner refrigerant with R410A. These recommendations have the potential to reduce the carbon emissions by 2445 t CO2e for the period of five (5) years and save R7 875 089 from fuel and power consumption. Furthermore, the District Office and Provincial Clinics can generate a revenue of R293 400 by registering for a CMD project for five years or R1 173 600 for the duration of the project (20 years). / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

Aus den frühen Bindungsstudien des globalen Regulators AbrB mit der ausgedehnten phyC-Promotorregion von Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB45 konnte ein mehrstufiger kooperativer Bindungsprozess abgeleitet werden. Dabei verlangt die AbrB-vermittelte Repression von phyC nach Integrität zweier großer Bindungsstellen, ABS1 und ABS2, die 162 bp voneinander entfernt liegen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden die ersten Echtzeitkinetiken zur DNA-AbrB-Interaktion mittels der Oberflächenplasmonresonanz (SPR) gemessen und analysiert. AbrB zeigte hohe Affinitäten zu den 40 bp langen Oligonukleotiden, die den beiden Bindungsstellen entstammen. Dabei verursachten alle Oligonukleotide der ABS2 und nur eine kurze Region innerhalb der ABS1 bei der Bindung von AbrB Konformationsänderungen im Protein und in der DNA (CD - Zirkulardichroismusspektroskopie) und wiesen eine Kooperativität von 2 / In previous binding studies it could be demonstrated that a global regulator AbrB and the extensive phyC promoter region of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB45 interact in a complex manner. AbrB binding is a multistep cooperative process. The integrity of both binding sites, ABS1 and ABS2, which are separated by 162 bp, is crucial for the AbrB-mediated repression of phyC. This work presents the first real-time binding kinetics of the AbrB-DNA interaction using surface plasmon resonance (SPR). AbrB exhibited high affinities to all analyzed 40-bp oligonucleotides that were derived from the ABSs of phyC. All parts of the ABS2, but only a small region within ABS1, were bound cooperatively to AbrB with a stoichiometry of 2 DNA to 1 AbrB tetramer and with 2