No description available.

I dagsläget finns det inga infrastrukturer för separat insamling av textilavfall i Sverige, textilier slutar således upp i det kommunala avfallet. Ett producentansvar kommer träda i kraft den 1 januari 2022 vars syfte är att textilier ska samlas in separat för återanvändning eller återvinning. Insamlingen kommer att vara begränsat till textilier i form av kläder, hemtextil, inredningstextil, väskor och accessoarer. För närvarande beaktas inte textila återanvändningsbara mensskydd i befattningen. Trots att det finns flera textila alternativ på marknaden idag, vilket kan skapa en relevans för att utveckla ett system dedikerat till insamling för återanvändningsbara textilt mensskydd. Studien undersöker kvinnors syn på ett framtida insamlingssystem för textila återanvändningsbara mensskydd, deras möjliga deltagande samt hur de resonerar kring sina val av mensskydd. Studien är empirisk och har använt sig av kvalitativ forskning med enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer för datainsamling. Syftet med intervjuerna var att fastställa konsumenters relation till mensskydd, återanvändningsbara mensskydd och ett insamlingssystem. En tematisk analys användes för att söka kopplingar och mönster i den insamlade empirin. Det finns en stark bild av menstruation som något ohygieniskt och mycket privat vilket har hämmat diskussioner om ämnet. Utan en aktiv debatt om de engångsmensskydd som används idag och dess miljöpåverkan kan inte behovet av mer hållbara alternativ motiveras. Det finns således mindre anledning för konsumenter av engångsmensskydd att skifta till en ny produkt som inte är lika etablerad på marknaden. Möjligheten till insamling av återanvändningsbara textila mensskydd i återvinningssyfte sågs dock som något positivt, då det skulle öka viljan hos respondenterna att använda den typen av produkter. / Today there is no infrastructures dedicated to collecting textile waste in Sweden, thus textiles tend to end up in the municipal waste. A producer responsibility will be instated on the 1st of January 2022, its purpose is to collect textiles separately from other waste to enable reuse and recycling. It will be limited to collecting apparel, household textiles, decorative textiles, bags and accessories. Today reusable textile menstrual products are not mentioned in correlation to the producer responsibility even though there are several products available on the market. This makes the development of a system dedicated to collecting reusable textile menstrual products a relevant cause. This paper examines women’s views on a future collecting system for reusable textile menstrual products, their roles within the system and how they view their choice of menstrual products. The paper is empirical and has been conducted through qualitative research and semi-structured interviews for collection of data. The purpose of the interviews was to determine the relationship between consumers, reusable textile menstrual products and a system for collection. A thematic analysis was used to search for patterns and connections within the collected empirical data. Menstruation is often viewed as something unhygienic and private which has caused discussion of the subject to stagnate. Without an active debate surrounding the environmental effects caused by disposable menstrual products, the need for more sustainable alternatives can ́t be motivated. Thus there is less reason for consumers to make a shift towards reusable textile menstrual products that hasn’t been as established on the market. Although the possibility to recycle reusable textile menstrual products was viewed as something positive by the participants in this study, sins this would increase their will to use this type of product.

The main topic of this thesis is the trading with one of the most important commodity in the market – electricity. This thesis will analyse the topic from the point of view of a natural person who potentially would like to start trading in the market. The description focuses on causes and consequences of the market liberalization. The electricity trading will be also analyzed from the point of view of a consumer and also of a producer. Possibilities will be listed on how to purchase and sell electricity, principles how particular markets work and also comparison of the price of electricity with the prices of other commodities. The aim is to give a detailed description about domestic market electricity price creation. The main purpose of this thesis is to describe the situation in the domestic market with electricity and future development in this branch, expressing also considerations about switching the electricity supplier.

MSCAGR / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness / Agricultural cooperatives have been generally promoted as a vehicle for smallholder agricultural development in South Africa. As a result, agricultural co-operative registrations in South Africa are increasing. However, research suggests that South African co-operatives have generally not been effective, successful and functional. The study determined factors affecting proper functioning of smallholder agricultural cooperatives in Lepelle Nkumpi Municipality. Simple random sampling method was used to select a sample of 140 active cooperative members from 13 registered agricultural cooperatives. A list of agricultural cooperatives was obtained from the Department of Agriculture, Limpopo Province to facilitate the process. Primary data was collected using designed questionnaires and secondary data was collected from journal articles, internet and other recorded data. All questionnaires were handed out during face to face interviews held with participants. Discriminant analysis was used to analyse the data. The model was used to identify different factors which might have positive or negative effects on the functioning of agricultural cooperatives. The discriminant analysis results revealed that functional smallholder agricultural cooperatives were characterized by high level of training of members; interaction with other stakeholder and satisfaction with the training and assistance received. On the other hand Dysfunctional smallholder agricultural cooperative were characterized by high age group, low level of meeting attendance, large cooperative size, dissatisfaction of assistance and training received and high number of females. The weighting coefficients of the standardized canonical discriminant coefficients of the independent variables showed that variables that discriminated between functional and dysfunctional cooperatives were: cooperative size (-0.852), interaction vi    with stakeholders to improve the level of skill (0.579), satisfaction with assistance provided (0.516), number of females in cooperative (-0.455), years in existence of cooperative (0.452), members participation in decision making (0.407) and age group (0.446). The finding obtained in this study could be quite useful to policy makers. This study recommended that government should intensify effort on cooperative training, extension service and assistance to support functioning of agricultural cooperatives in the study area. Cooperative members should also participate in decision making and attend cooperative meetings to acquire more agricultural information

MSCAGR / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness / Poverty and unemployment are the main problems facing many people in the Vhembe District Municipality. Due to these main problems, most people turn into farming as a tool to reduce poverty, ensure food security and create employment in their rural communities. Because of high production and marketing costs, farmers often find it difficult to pool their resources together in order to raise farm income and substantially improve their living conditions. In order to deal with this problem, farmers form cooperatives to pool their resources for increased agricultural productivity, employment creation and poverty reduction. The study assessed the role of agricultural cooperatives in poverty reduction within the rural communities of the Vhembe District Municipality. The research study was a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research method. There are 70 agricultural cooperatives producing field crops and vegetables in Vhembe District. A clustered random sample of the 4 Local Municipalities within Vhembe District Municipality was employed. It involved the selection of 9 cooperatives from Thulamela, 3 cooperatives each from Makhado and Mutale respectively and 1 cooperative from Musina. Relevant data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Descriptive and Binary logistic regression modelling was used to analyse data. The study revealed that socio-economic characteristics of respondents have an impact on the role agricultural cooperatives play in reducing poverty. The study further showed that agricultural cooperatives play a significant role in reducing poverty and ensuring food security to members’ households. The respondents showed a positive response in the effectiveness of cooperatives in poverty reduction. The study also showed that cooperatives have a significant role in creating employment opportunities. Cooperatives were also faced with various challenges which hinder their success in poverty reduction. Some of the challenges include; market access, lack of funding, conflicts within cooperatives and high electricity costs. The study concludes by recommending different strategies which will enhance the success of cooperatives in poverty reduction. Further studies concentrating on poverty reduction, food security and employment creation need to be carried-out which will help cooperatives respondents to eradicate poverty in their households and communities.

MSCAGR (Agricutural Economics) / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness / See the attached abstract below

Depuis la flambée des prix alimentaires en 2007-2008, l'agriculture est de nouveau sur le devant de la scène internationale. Les conséquences politiques et humaines des soubresauts des marchés internationaux ont été importantes dans beaucoup de pays et certains ont vu leur gouvernement renversé. Dans ce contexte, nous nous intéressons au riz, la céréale qui garantit un apport calorique minimal à plus de 50% de la population, et au riziculteur, le premier maillon de la chaîne de production. Dans un premier temps nous revenons sur l'histoire de la culture, sur les évolutions récentes du marché et sur la crise rizicole de 2007-2008. Dans un deuxième temps nous nous intéressons plus précisément à la transmission du prix international vers le prix au producteur, puis nous tentons d'appréhender, d'un point de vue macroéconomique et microéconomique, le comportement productif des riziculteurs à la variation du prix qu'ils obtiennent. / Since the rise in food prices in 2007-2008, agriculture is again at the front of the international scene. Political and human consequences of the turmoil in international markets have been significant in many countries and some had their government overthrown. In this context, we focus on rice, a cereal that guarantees the minimum caloric intake for more than 50% of the population, and on the rice farmer, the first link in the production chain. First we review the history of rice culture, the recent market developments and the rice crisis of 2007-2008. Secondly we are interested specifically in the transmission of international prices to producer prices, then we try to understand, from a macroeconomic and microeconomic point of view, the productive behavior of rice farmers in the variation of the price they get.

No description available.

Animationsserien sind ein fester Bestandteil der deutschen Fernsehlandschaft und sollen vor allem Kinder als Zielgruppe ansprechen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich zum einen die Frage, welche Wirkungen und Funktionen von Animationsserien auf und während der Sozialisation zu erwarten sind. Zum anderen möchte diese Arbeit aber auch die Seite der Produzierenden von Animationsserien näher beleuchten, die gerade in der Trias „Produktion, Distribution, Rezeption“ eine zentrale Rolle einnehmen und an wesentlichen Entscheidungsprozessen beteiligt sind. Mit Hilfe von qualitativen ExpertInneninterviews sollten verschiedene Fragen beantwortet werden: Welche subjektiven Wirkungs- und Funktionsannahmen besitzen ProduzentInnen von Animationsserien und welchen Einfluss haben diese auf die Gestaltung der Serie? Und wie werden individuelle künstlerisch-ästhetische Vorstellungen mit den Anforderungen des Marktes „Animationsfilm“ in Einklang gebracht?:Inhaltsverzeichnis Abbildungsverzeichnis 4 Tabellenverzeichnis 4 Abkürzungsverzeichnis 5 I Theoretische Grundlagen: Der Animationsfilm als Medium zwischen "Werk" und "Kunst" 1 Einleitung 7 2 Der Stellenwert der Medien in der heutigen Gesellschaft 11 2.1 Begriffliche Klärungen 11 2.2 Medien aus kulturpessimistischer Perspektive 13 3 Animationsfilme und -serien als Bestandteil von Kunst und Kultur 16 3.1 Begriffliche Klärungen 16 3.2 Ausprägungen und Arten des Animationsfilms 18 3.2.1 Der Zeichenanimationsfilm 18 3.2.2 Die Puppenanimation 19 3.2.3 Der Flachfigurenfilm 20 3.3 Animationsserien im deutschen Fernsehen – Ein historischer Abriss 22 3.4 Die gegenwärtigen Kindersender im Vergleich 24 3.5 Die aktuelle Stellung deutscher Animationsserien 26 3.6 Fallbeispiel: Tom und das Erdbeermarmeladebrot mit Honig 29 4 Kinder als Rezipienten 32 4.1 Kindheit heute 32 4.2 Sozialisation durch Medien? 34 4.2.1 Soziologische Sozialisationstheorien 35 4.2.2 Mediensozialisation 41 4.3 Der Einfluss von Animationsserien auf Kinder und ihren Alltag 42 5 Zusammenfassung der theoretischen Grundlagen 47 6 Theoriegeleitete Grundannahmen 49 II Empirische Befunde: Animationsserien im Blick der RezipientInnen und ProduzentInnen 7 Medien im Alltag der Kinder – Ergebnisse quantitativer Befragungen 52 7.1 Medienausstattung 53 7.2 Medienrelevanz und Medienbindung 54 7.3 Fernsehnutzung 54 7.4 Präferenzen in Fernsehsendern 57 7.5 Lieblingssendungen und Lieblingscharaktere 59 8 Die Seite der ProduzentInnen 62 8.1 Qualitative ExpertenInneninterviews 62 8.2 Überlegungen zum methodischen Vorgehen 64 8.2.1 Vorbereitung 64 8.2.2 Datenerhebung und -verarbeitung 65 8.2.3 Auswertung 66 8.3 Durchführung der Studie 68 8.4 Ergebnisse 70 8.4.1 Subjektive Modelle von Kindheit 70 8.4.2 Wirkung und Funktion von Animationsserien 73 8.4.3 Relevante Merkmale bei der Gestaltung von Animationsserien 81 8.4.4 Produktionsbedingungen aus der Sicht der Produzenten 88 8.4.5 Bewertung des aktuellen Kinderfernsehens 91 8.4.6 Ausblick – wie sieht die Zukunft der deutschen Animationsserien aus? 95 9 Zusammenfassung der empirischen Ergebnisse 99 10 Kritische Reflexion und Fazit 105 Literaturverzeichnis 107 Anhang A: Interviewleitfaden 117 Anhang B: Kategoriensystem 121 Selbstständigkeitserklärung 122

Today the large scale introduction of biomass gasification is hampered by health, safety and environmental issues which present a major barrier in the deployment of this technology. The condensate in particular resulting from producer gas cooling before use in gas engines is highly toxic and carcinogenic which, if not adequately controlled, can lead to detrimental impacts on human health and the environment. The study was therefore aimed at assessment of pollution levels resulting from biomass gasification organic condensates. The study involved assessing the concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and BTEX (i.e. benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) in the condensate deemed toxic and carcinogenic, mention their impact on human health and the environment as well as recommend measures aimed at minimizing pollution levels resulting from biomass gasification.   The gasifier installation at Makerere University was run in downdraft mode using maize cobs as biomass fuel. The producer gas was cooled using a water cooled condenser connected to the exhaust pipe of the gasifier. The condensate was then transferred into sampling bottles made of opaque glass to minimize photochemical reactions in water samples and preserved in a cooler at 2oC to 6oC until the time for analysis to minimize volatilization and bacterial degradation of the hydrocarbons. The capillary gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detector (CGCMSD) was used to analyze the condensate for the selected hydrocarbons. The procedures involved preparation of PAHs and BTEX standard solutions using standard mixtures and internal standards, calibration of the CGCMSD, extraction of the aromatic hydrocarbons using hexane, performing a surrogate analysis to assess percent recoveries and injecting a 2 µl aliquot of the final solution of each test sample in a CGCMSD for analysis. Identification of targeted hydrocarbons was based on the retention time match and mass spectra match against the calibration standards while quantitation was done by use of internal standards.   The average concentration of naphthalene was 204.3 mg/m3, benzene-16.8 mg/m3,toluene-105.5 mg/m3, ethylbenzene-200.9 mg/m3, 1,2-dimethyl benzene-209.5 mg/m3 and 1,3+1,4-dimethyl benzene-790.4 mg/m3. Acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene and anthracene were not detected in the condensate by the CGCMSD due to their concentration levels being below the detection limit of the CGCMSD. The concentrations of naphthalene and xylene were considerably high compared to the recommended permissible exposure limits thus posing risks on both human health and the environment. It is therefore important to treat the condensate before disposal to the environment. On the other hand, the concentrations of benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene were below the permissible exposure limit and therefore for this study, the liquid effluent was considered to meet the regulatory standards. The recommendations aimed at minimizing pollution levels during biomass gasification were also discussed.