Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-143). Also available in print.

Thesis, M.Soc.Sc., University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Also available in print.

This dissertation is concerned with the dynamics of housing delivery in Beijing, the capital city of China. Over the past four decades, perceptions of housing problems in Beijing and historical conditions have changed. Housing shortages, run-down housing in inner city areas, affordability of commodity housing, and informal housing developments are some examples of housing problems that have developed over the years. However, during the current transition towards a "socialist market system", developing and formulating effective organizational and institutional arrangements to address these substantive housing problems have become the more challenging tasks. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the dynamic changes of organizational and institutional arrangements in housing delivery in Beijing and to identify factors contributing to their performances. Based on the "housing delivery analytical framework" derived from the literature review, the dissertation identifies five housing delivery systems in Beijing: (1) work-unit housing, (2) commodity housing, (3) inner city housing, (4) the "Comfortable Home" housing programme and (5) informal housing. Based on extensive interviews and field research, the dissertation analyzes the unique combination of actors in each housing delivery system, their goals and how they fulfil their role in the process of producing, distributing, and consuming housing. The changes among these arrangements and the reasons for these changes are also discussed. The findings of this study suggest that outcomes of housing delivery systems do not correspond well with the stated objectives or general goals of availability, adequacy, affordability, accessibility, and viability. The dissertation discovers several major reasons for this imperfect correspondence: (1) policy objectives overstress quantitative requirements; (2) policy objectives represent compromises between conflicting values; (3) key interests within the implementation structure are different from policy objectives; and (4) underlying forces beyond housing delivery influence the behaviour of actors In light of the findings, the chief pragmatic implication of the study is that improving housing accessibility should be the key in future housing reforms in Beijing. Housing policies should focus more on managing land, transforming the role of work-units, integrating informal developments, linking comprehensive planning with housing development, forming new community organizations, building housing finance systems, and coordinating housing administration. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

No description available.

Early Chinese city planners and builders succeeded in creating a imperial ideal city - Beijing. The spatial order of Beijing expresses the elaborate system of imperial hierarchy (meaning). Since the founding of People's Republic in 1949 as all the physical elements which defined the old spatial order have changed, the Chinese State attempted to reconstruct a new ideal city -a people's capital of socialist era. Some of these changes ignored the historical and aesthetic values of the traditional elements for utilitarian functions. This thesis examines the transformation process of this ideal city in terms of the physical elements and sociological perspectives, identifies the unique order and meaning of urban space in the ideal city - Beijing, and articulates some design principals that could be used to reconstruct a new ideal city - Beijing, express the new ideology of the people in the socialist era and preserve the historical and aesthetic values of traditional elements. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Thesis (PhD (Biomedical Sciences. Molecular Biology and Human Genetics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / One of the aims of direct observed therapy strategy implemented by the World Health Organization was to prevent the development of drug resistant tuberculosis. However, in recent years a dramatic increase and spread in multidrug resistant tuberculosis has been observed. In this study, a molecular epidemiological approach was used to understand and rapidly detect drug resistance in high incidence tuberculosis communities of the Western Cape, South Africa. Previous studies showed that, drug resistant tuberculosis occurs as a result of spontaneous mutations in particular genes. Using molecular techniques, we developed an algorithm to rapidly detect isoniazid, rifampicin and ethambutol drug resistance in tuberculosis patients from a short term mini culture. Rapid detection of drug resistance is important to prevent future transmission events. In addition, accurate ethambutol resistance testing is of particular importance, since treatment of patients infected with multidrug resistant strains with second line anti-tuberculosis drugs depend on the ethambutol test results. In a comprehensive study, we found that the algorithm performs well when compared to the traditional culture method currently used by the routine laboratories. However, the results showed that more then 90 % of ethambutol resistance is missed by the routine laboratories. This has important implications for the tuberculosis control program, since patients infected with the drug resistant strain may be on inappropriate treatment. In this study, we found that certain strains have a selective advantage to become drug resistant and transmit and this implies that they are more virulent and fit than other strains. This observation has also been made for strains within the same genotype family. The more transmissible drug resistant strains cause large drug resistant outbreaks. This study highlights the complexity of the drug resistant epidemic, and confirms that it is a major problem in local communities. Application of molecular methods has provided us with tools to study how resistance might develop. We have demonstrated how we made use of a newly developed method to detect a multidrug resistant outbreak in the study community. The applications of transcriptomics identified several genes that might play a role in isoniazid resistance. Using this data a model was proposed whereby isoniazid resistant strains can compensate for the toxic effect of the drug. Application of comparative genomics by whole genome sequencing will be used to assist us in the further understanding of the mechanisms of drug resistance. This study also conclude that we should continue in our attempts to develop faster diagnostics for both first and second line drugs and that we must not loose site that all of this research must in the end benefit the patients.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / abstract / China Development Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Geography / Master / Master of Arts in China Development Studies

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning