Decentralisation remains a preferred instrument of education reform policies throughout the world. In theory, decentralisation shifts power and authority from the state at national level to the school community at local level. In South Africa, a decentralising initiative in education was the promulgation of the South African Schools Act, No 84 of 1996, which provided parents with an opportunity to share in the governance of a public school by being elected to serve on its school governing body. In this context, it appears that members of school governing bodies hold unique sets of expectations when serving on a school governing body. Expectations may influence the nature and type of education to which a particular school community aspires and may consequently influence the workloads of the educators at that school. A primary search of national and international literature on governing bodies provides numerous descriptions of governmental intentions with respect to governing bodies but the expectations that governing body members have of educators, appears to be a neglected field of empirical enquiry. This study therefore examines public primary school governing body functions in the light of prevailing education labour law and other relevant law. The findings emerging from open-ended questionnaires completed by members of school governing bodies, time-use diaries recorded by educators and interviews with principals together with an analysis of prevailing education labour law and other relevant law consistently show that the workloads of educators who teach at public primary schools situated in middle-class contexts have intensified. There appears to be a variety of factors, which singularly and collectively contribute to the intensification of educators’ workloads. Among these are the increasing expectations of parents, differences in the conceptual understanding of professionalism, marketisation and managerialism arising from decentralisation and the principal’s leadership style. The findings point to sport and professional development as the core duties, which demand a great deal of educators’ time and appear to militate most on educators’ private lives. Moreover, this research has provided conclusive evidence that despite the fact that school governing bodies’ expectations of educators are aligned with prevailing education labour law and other relevant law, the open-ended nature of such law, together with omissions and silences, allows legal space for individual and contextual interpretation and implementation. It is therefore, the most prominent factor contributing to the intensification of educators’ workloads. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

This study, based on a sustained, qualitative investigation into the instructional decision-making of three Grade Nine Natural Science teachers, addresses the dichotomy between policy and practice in the post-apartheid South African context. The main research questions that guided this study were: 1. How do secondary school teachers understand the critical differences between the traditional curriculum, the new outcomes-based curriculum and the revised version of this new curriculum? 2. Why and how do these teachers make strategic curriculum decisions at the interface of the three curricula in their classrooms? A comparative case study approach was taken, during which evidence of what the science teachers were doing in their classes was collected through prolonged, non-participant classroom observation of close to 30 lessons each. Insight into the rationale behind their practices, i.e. their pre-active and interactive decision-making, was gleaned from intensive pre-lesson and post-lesson interviews. The video-recording lessons were played back to them for stimulated recall of their interactive thinking and decision-making. Together with biographical interviews, teacher diaries, and the researcher’s field-notes, these instruments helped get a sense of the mechanics and dynamics of how these two science teachers make planning, teaching and assessment decisions in the fluidity of the present curriculum habitat in South Africa. The main finding from this study is that teachers do not make extensive use of their considerable decision-making space; I characterize this phenomenon as passivity in decision-making. It was found, further, that a number of decision-making frame factors have a bearing on teachers’ tendency to abdicate their decision-making authority; However, an unexpected finding was the extent to which the commercially prepared ‘outcomes-based’ learning support material shapes what happens in science classrooms. In theorizing teachers’ passivity-in-decision-making during complex curriculum change, I draw on and extend the scholarship on the intensification of teachers’ work, by arguing that South African teacher essentially cede their decision-making authority to ‘outcomes-based’ texts, in order to cope with the overwhelming and multiple threats of intensification of their work. The evidence in this study demonstrate that the veritable threats of intensification of teachers’ work, which typically accompany radical curriculum change in developing countries, stifles teachers’ opportunities to bridge the gap between policy and practice. / Thesis (PhD (Education))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

The task of this master thesis was assessment of the possibility of intensification of biological ponds, which are used for wastewater treatment, and subsequent application of selected systems to the existing wastewater treatment plant in the village Krumsin in the district Prostejov, including economic assessment. In the first part of the master thesis, I worked up the available options for the intensification of biological ponds. In the practical part of the thesis it was prepared a report of the current state of the wastewater treatment plant that serving as a basis for the design of intensification, which is also processed in the practical part. For the proposed variants of intensification was also processed economic assessment.

ABCTRACT This master's thesis is focused on Finnish intensification expressions in the form of the genitive case of adjectives and on adjectives intensified by them. Research is carried out in the form of corpus-based analysis for the purpose of seeing if semantics of intensification expressions affect the possibility of their combination with intensified adjectives. The first chapters of the thesis are dedicated to the theoretical study of semantic relationships and intensification. First of all, the corpus analysis attention focuses on what semantic features intensification expressions themselves have. Intensification expressions are categorized into groups on the basis of these features. Three of the groups are a subject of a more detailed analysis. Each group is represented by three intensification enpressions whose adjective collocations and wider context are examined. The purpose of this part of the analysis is to find out if different groups of intensification expressions appear in different contexts and if expressions belonging to the same group prefer a combination with the same adjectives. Key words: Finnish, intensification expressions, semantic preference and prosody, adjectives, corpus-based analysis

<div>Distillation is the most important separation process that accounts for 90-95% of all separations in the chemical industries. Even slight improvements can tremendously impact the landscape of the chemical economy world. The goal of this thesis is to develop mathematical modeling and global optimization approaches as well as systematic process intensification strategies to design and synthesize compact, easy-to-operate, energy-efficient, and cost-effective multicomponent distillation systems.</div><div><br></div><div>Towards this goal, we discuss the following aspects in this thesis:</div><div><br></div><div><div>1. We solve a longstanding challenge in chemical engineering of developing a short-cut method to determine the minimum reflux condition for any multi-feed, multi-product distillation column separating ideal multicomponent mixtures. The classic Underwood's method turns out to be a special case of our approach.</div><div><br></div><div>2. We develop the first enumeration based global optimization algorithm to identify optimal distillation configurations that can potentially save up to 50% of total cost or total exergy loss compared to conventional schemes from the immense configuration search space. For the first time in the literature, global optimality is guaranteed.</div><div><br></div><div>3. We propose a systematic and comprehensive multi-layer approach for process intensification in multicomponent distillation. For the first time, industrial practitioners have an easy-to-follow recipe to generate an array of completely new and attractive highly intensified configuration designs that further enhance operability, improve efficiency, and reduce total costs.</div></div>

Ce mémoire présente une étude de langue et genre s’intéressant à l’utilisation des atténuateurs et des intensificateurs par les superhéros de l’univers cinématographique de Marvel. En effet, les films de superhéros ont été largement critiqués pour leur représentation des héroïnes qui sont, malgré leur pouvoir, réduites à leur apparence. Toutefois, une montée en conscientisation du traitement de la femme dans le milieu cinématographique a eu lieu au cours des années 2010. La création d’organismes comme l’Institut Geena Davis, qui vise à promouvoir une représentation plus égalitaire des femmes dans les films, témoigne de ce changement. Notre étude s’intéresse donc à la production linguistique des femmes dans les films de superhéros et à l’évolution de ce langage au cours des dix dernières années. Pour ce faire, nous suivrons le développement de l’héroïne Black Widow, qui a fait l’objet de nombreuses polémiques concernant l’hypersexualisation des femmes au cinéma. Nous nous sommes concentrée, plus précisément, sur son utilisation des atténuateurs et des intensificateurs, associés à un langage dit « féminin » ou subordonné par la littérature pionnière de langue et genre, comparativement à celle des autres Avengers et sur les changements dans son utilisation à travers le temps. Nous avons trouvé peu de différences considérables avec les personnages masculins, mais nous avons observé une tendance descendante dans son utilisation de ces éléments du langage dit féminin à travers les films. Nous concluons donc que l’utilisation des atténuateurs et des intensificateurs de Black Widow n’est pas nécessairement associée à son genre, mais plutôt au contexte et au développement du personnage. / This thesis presents a study of language and genre, focusing on the use of hedges and intensifiers by superheroes in the Marvel Cinematographic Universe. Indeed, superhero movies have been widely criticized for their representation of heroines who are often reduced to their appearance despite their strength. However, an increase in awareness of the treatment of women by the film industry occurred in the 2010s. The establishment of institutions such as the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, whose purpose is the promotion of an equal representation of women in movies, reflects this change. Therefore, our study explores the linguistic production of women in superhero movies and the evolution of female language in these movies over the last decade. For this purpose, we will follow the development of the heroine Black Widow, who has been the subject of numerous controversies concerning the hypersexualization of women in cinema. Our primary focus is on her use of hedges and intensifiers, which are typically associated with a language called "feminine" or "subordinated" by the pioneering literature of language and gender, compared to other Avengers and the changes in her use over time. We found little difference between Black Widow and the male characters in their frequency of use of hedges and intensifiers. However, we found a downward tendency in her use of these types of words throughout the movies. Hence, we conclude that Black Widow’s use of hedges and intensifiers is not necessarily associated with her gender, but rather with the context of their use and her character development.

<p>Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, or ”net-zero”, may be the biggest sustainability goal to be achieved in the next 30 years. While chemical engineering evolved against the backdrop of an abundant supply of fossil resources for chemical production and energy, renewable energy resources such as solar and wind will find more usage in the future. This thesis work develops new concepts, methods and algorithms to identify and synthesize process schemes to address multiple aspects towards sustainable chemical and energy systems. Shale gas can serve as both energy resource and chemical feedstock for the transition period towards a sustainable economy, and has the potential to be a carbon source for the long term. The past two decades have seen increasing natural gas flaring and venting due to the lack of transforming or transportation infrastructure in emerging shale gas producing regions. To reduce carbon emission and wastage of shale resources, an innovative process hierarchy is identified for the valorization of natural gas liquids from shale gas at medium to small scale near the wellhead. This paradigm shift fundamentally changes the sequencing of various separation and reaction steps and results in dramatically simplified and intensified process flowsheets. The resulting processes could achieve over 20% lower capital with a higher recovery of products. Historically, heat energy is supplied to chemical plants by burning fossil resources. However, in future, with the emphasis on greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy resources will find more usage. Renewable electricity from photovoltaic and wind has now become competitive with the electricity from fossil resources. Therefore, a major challenge for chemical engineering processes is how to use renewable electricity efficiently within a chemical plant and eliminate any carbon dioxide release from chemical plants. We introduce several decarbonization flowsheets for the process to first convert natural gas liquids (NGLs) to  mainly ethylene in an energy intensive dehydrogenation reactor and subsequent conversion of ethylene into value-added and easy-to-transport liquid fuels. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Molecular separations are needed across many types of industries, including oil and gas, food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. In a chemical plant, 40%–60% of energy and capital cost is tied to separation processes. For widespread use of membrane-based processes for high recovery and purity products from gaseous and liquid mixtures on an industrial scale, availability of models that allow the use of membrane cascades at their optimal operating modes is desirable towards sustainable separation systems. This will also enable proper comparison of membrane performance vis-a-vis other competing separation technologies. However, such a model for multicomponent fluid separation has been missing from the literature. We have developed an MINLP global optimization algorithm that guarantees the identification of minimum power consumption of multicomponent membrane cascades. The proposed optimization algorithm is implemented in GAMS and is demonstrated to have the capability to solve up to 4-component and 5-stage membrane cascades via BARON solver, which is significantly more advantageous than the state-of-the-art processes. The model is currently being further developed to include optimization of total cost including capital. Such a model holds the promise to be useful for the development in implementation of energy-efficient separation plants with least carbon footprint. This thesis work also addresses important topics in separation including dividing wall columns and water desalination. </p>

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped societies and will continue to do so. Despite its salience, micro-scale evidence on how this pandemic reshapes the livelihood strategies of forest communities in sub-Saharan Africa are lacking. To bridge this lacuna, this paper analyses the dynamics around forest-based livelihood strategies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Bia West District of Ghana. Key informant interviews (n = 8) and a survey of forest-dependent households (n = 100) were conducted to generate relevant data. The study identified fuelwood harvesting, medicinal plants extraction, fruit-gathering and beekeeping as the four livelihood activities that were predominantly practised in the study communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis established an increase in the number of households that diversified into fuelwood harvesting. Regarding medicinal plants collection as a livelihood strategy, less than 10% of households either diversified or intensified this practice with similar charges recorded in fruit-gathering and beekeeping. The logistic regression disclosed gender, household size, education and income, as the socioeconomic variables that significantly predict livelihood diversification and intensification during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the financial, social and physical asset base of households significantly shaped livelihood diversification. Diversification into fuelwood collection, medicinal plants extraction and beekeeping were the strategies that showed a significant positive correlation with the well-being outcomes of forest-based households. While this paper provides fresh evidence to inform the vulnerability dimension of the sustainable livelihoods framework, it further calls for policy interventions to build pandemic-resilient livelihood strategies around forest communities.

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L'extrapolation des réacteurs catalytiques nécessite l'acquisition des données cinétiques sur des réacteurs à petite échelle dans les conditions opératoires industrielles. Le critère de dimensionnement utilisé lors de la réduction d'échelle est la conservation de la vitesse volumique horaire, ce qui conduit à des vitesses de circulation très faibles dans les réacteurs pilotes à lit-fixe. A ces vitesses, les flux de transfert de matière externes peuvent devenir limitant par rapport au flux de réaction. Dans ce contexte, une nouvelle géométrie de réacteur a été imaginée pour intensifier les transferts de matière et chaleur et pour augmenter les vitesses de circulation des fluides : le réacteur "filaire". Il s'agit d'un réacteur dont le diamètre est égal ou proche de celui des grains de catalyseur et avec un ratio longueur sur diamètre très élevé. Le principal objectif de cette thèse est de caractériser ce réacteur en termes d'hydrodynamique et de transferts de matière externes pour définir ses limites d'utilisation. En écoulement diphasique, ce réacteur est relativement piston et la rétention liquide est élevée, ce qui permet d'assurer un mouillage total du catalyseur. En ce qui concerne les vitesses des transferts de matière externe, celles-ci sont proches de celles d'un réacteur agité avec panier et sont supérieures à celles caractéristiques d'un réacteur pilote à lit-fixe conventionnel. Cette observation est liée à l'augmentation des vitesses locales du liquide et à la présence d'un écoulement du type Taylor modifié. En conclusion, le réacteur "filaire" constitue une alternative efficace aux réacteurs pilotes à lit-fixe pour l'étude de catalyseurs mis en forme.