We live in a society dominated by time. It plays a part in nearly everything we do. Time tells us when to wake up, when to eat, when to be at work, when its time to sleep, and so on. Just as people are controlled by time, so are the buildings we use. Th ese buildings oft en times are very narrowly used. As a result, portions of our cities are full of activity during certain times of the day, while at other times become deserted. What happens to the building when it is not being used? Does the building go to sleep? Do buildings need to sleep? Is it possible to design a mixed-use building in our nations capitol that never sleeps? Th ese are just a few of the questions that began this journey to design 24 hours building and the cyclical nature of the people that inhabit them. / Master of Architecture

Med denna studie har vi som avsikt att skapa en förståelse om hur villkoren ser ut för 15-timmarsbarnen i Ängelholm. Vårt tillvägagångssätt handlar om att använda enkäter och intervjuer för att besvara våra frågeställningar. Våra huvudsakliga frågeställningar handlar om hur pedagoger ser på sitt pedagogiska uppdrag gällande 15-timmarbarnen, hur föräldrar till dessa barn ser på sitt barns förskolgång och hur politikerna ser på bestämmelser kring 15-timmarsregeln. / In the Education Act (of Sweden) its described that children to parental leave or children to unemployed have the right to attend at least tree hours a day or 15 hours a week, at preschool. We’ve studied various aspects of the terms of 15 hour children in Ängelholm. We have chosen to approach our issue by using interviews and questionnaires with parents, preschool-teachers and a politician. Our main questions is about how parents look at their children’s stay in preschool, how preschool- teachers look at their pedagogical assignment and how the politician approaches the regulation around the terms of the15-hour rule. After recalling some aspects of Uri Bronfenbrenners theory, we present an approach to his model and use the different kind of levels to make our research findings legible. Further on we are using prior research as Qvortrup and Halldén. Their research concerns preschool as an institution. To sum up we have come to the conclusion of that there is a big lack of communication between the different information groups. The municipality has to take a decision, according to these children, based on the financial situation; the preschool teachers have no power to influence the decision of the municipality and don’t have as much time for the parents as they wished. The parents are concerned that there children don’t have the time they need in preschool and that there children are going to miss out on activities that the other children at preschool gets.

I Sverige användes det år 2010 ca 907 miljoner kubikmeter dricksvatten från kommunala uttag. Allt detta vatten måste kunna transporteras, vilket görs genom vattenledningar. För att dimensionera dessa krävs att man vet hur mycket vatten som skall distribueras och hur det varierar bl.a. beroende på när under dygnet, veckan och året som uttag sker. Vid dagens tillvägagångssätt för dimensionering av vattenledningar till nya områden använder man bland annat typexempel på förbrukningsvariationer under dygnet för ett liknande område. Dessutom används erfarenhetsbaserade värden på maxtim- och maxdygnsfaktorer. Dagens dimensioneringsätt har ej kunnat säkerställas på grund av otillräcklig och bristfälligt detaljerad data över förbrukningsmängd. Syftet med detta arbete är att säkerställa eller motbevisa dagens dimensioneringssätt. För att kontrollera dagens dimensioneringssätt har vi använt mätdata från Norrvatten och tagit fram nya dimensioneringsfaktorer. Genom att mäta vattenförbrukningen för 13 kommuner och jämföra mot varandra med hänsyn till invånarantal och fördelning över förbrukarkategorier har vi kunnat få ut olika dimensioneringsfaktorer. Examensarbetet har påvisat ett behov av en uppdatering vad gäller maxtim- och maxdygnsfaktorer. För att vidare studera faktorerna bör ett system införas för att kontrollera hur stor del av vattenförbrukningen som förbrukas av respektive förbrukarkategori på ett mer detaljerat sätt. / In Sweden, 2010, approximately 907 million cubic meters of drinking water was withdrawn from municipalities. All of this water must be transported, which is done through water pipes. To dimension these it requires that we know how much water that is to be distributed and it varies among others depending on the time of the day, week and year that the withdrawals occur. In today’s approach of designing new water pipes, amongst other ways, we use typical examples of consumption variations during the day of a similar area. In addition, arbitrary and experiential values of ‘ratio of peak hour to average day’ and ‘ratio of peak hour to average hour’ are used. Unfortunately today’s way of dimensioning water pipes has not been ensured due to inadequate detailed data on consumption quantity. The main purpose of this study is to confirm or refute today’s way of dimensioning water pipes. To verify this we have with detailed data from Norrvatten been able to see consumption quantity on an hourly basis which helps us assess today’s dimensioning process. By measuring the flow into 13 municipalities and then comparing them against each other regarding population size, distribution over categories of users and more, we have been able to get different dimensioning factors. In this report we can conclude that there is a need to update the factors regarding ‘ratio of peak hour to average day’ and ‘ratio of peak hour to average hour’. In order to further study the dimensioning factors, a system must be developed that can measure the precise consumer flow for different consumer categories on a more detailed level.

Involuntary electromyographic (EMG) activity has been recorded in the thenar (thumb) muscles of spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects for only short time periods (minutes), but it is unknown if this motor unit activity is ongoing. Longer duration EMG recordings can investigate the physiological significance of this neuromuscular activity. Analysis of these data is complex and time consuming. Since no software is currently capable of classifying 24 hours of data at a single motor unit level, the goal of this research was to devise an algorithm to automatically classify motor unit potentials over 24-hours. Twenty-four-hour, 2-channel thenar muscle EMG recordings were obtained from four different SCI subjects with cervical level injuries using a data logging device with custom software. The automatic motor unit classification algorithm used to classify the 24-hour recordings was a procedure consisting of four stages that included segmentation, clustering, and motor unit template uniting. All individual potentials were then classified and any superimposed potentials were resolved into their constituent classes. Finally, the algorithm found the firing patterns for each of the stable motor unit classes. The classification algorithm performance was compared to the analysis of a human operator and assessed in 2 ways: Tracking global classes over the 24 hours and correctly classifying individual motor unit potentials as to belonging to particular global classes. The algorithm was able to track an average of 13 global classes in four 24-hour recordings with a mean accuracy of 92 %. It was also able to classify individual potentials with a mean accuracy of 86% over four recordings, greater than the inter-rater reliability of two human operators (79%). The activities of the motor units tracked by the algorithm ranged from tonic firing to sporadic activity. The algorithm could analyze 24 hours of data in 2-3 weeks, while a human operator was estimated to take more than 2 years. In conclusion, the motor unit classification algorithm accomplished its goal of automatically tracking motor unit classes over a 24-hour recording with high accuracy. The 24-hour classification method developed here could be applied towards classifying long term recordings of other biological signals.

Adolescence proves to be one of the most vulnerable development stages in the life of humans and therefore dietary assessment of this group is important, but complex. This is due to rapid growth during puberty and the development of new eating patterns that influence dietary intake. Adequate dietary intake in this age group is crucial, since adverse effects such as iron deficiency anemia, inadequate growth and dental caries can occur. Furthermore, dietary imbalance is a significant risk factor that can lay the groundwork for developing preventable complications in late adolescence and adult life such as non-communicable chronic diseases including obesity and diabetes mellitus type II and certain cancers, all leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Given the vulnerability of adolescents in terms of dietary intake, understanding their dietary intake is crucial. Dietary assessment of adolescents is influenced by social, physiological and psychological changes making accurate measurement of this group difficult. Hence, it is of fundamental importance to find a golden standard in terms of a dietary assessment method to use in this group. Several international studies investigated validity and reproducibility of the dietary intake of adolescents, measured with different dietary assessment methods. However, in South Africa only three validity and reproducibility studies have been published and none of them focused exclusively on adolescents. Since the validity of the results of dietary assessment methods of international studies cannot be extrapolated to South African black adolescents, this study emanated from the need to investigate whether multiple 24-hour recalls are valid and reproducible when used to assess the dietary intakes of black adolescents in a convenience sample of grade eight learners from a high school in a township in the North West Province. The study was nested in the multidisciplinary "Physical, Activity in the Young" (PLAY) study. Firstly, the optimal number of 24-hour recalls was determined by calculation of reproducibility coefficients for energy, selected nutrients and food groups. Results showed that four repeated 24-hour recalls provided the optimal reproducibility for black peri-urban South African adolescents. Secondly, the search for a reference method to compare energy intake against energy expenditure led to an investigation into basal metabolic rate equations and physical activity factors with the intention of estimating the energy expenditure. Validity of reported energy intake assessed by multiple 24-hour recalls and estimated energy expenditure was tested using the Pearson correlation coefficient and the dependent t-test. The Pearson correlation test revealed low associations between energy intake and energy expenditure for boys (0.32) and girls (0.17), while the dependent t-test of the energy intake between the different measured occasions showed little difference, which could be explained by the high within participant variation and lower variation between the different participants. The low correlation coefficients showed that there was no association between reported energy intake and mean estimated energy expenditure; thus also no agreement. As a result, multiple 24-hour recalls measured over two years with only five 24-hour recalls did not give a valid measurement of the energy intake of black peri-urban adolescents. Lastly, the ratio of reported energy intake over energy expenditure was evaluated against the energy cut-off points, specifically calculated for age and ethnic group. It indicated that 85% of the participants underreported their energy intake. These results could have been influenced by the estimated basal metabolic rate equations that could have estimated the basal metabolic rate of this group incorrectly or could be due to the inability of the group to recall their physical activity levels correctly. Therefore it is recommended that further validity studies regarding dietary intake need to be performed on adolescents. It is suggested that energy expenditure as a reference method should be measured by using a calorimeter or the doubly labeled water method and then compared with the reported energy intake. Analysing different biochemical determinants of nutritional intake could also be used as an objective reference method to assess the validity of dietary data obtained from questionnaires. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Dietetics)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Adolescence proves to be one of the most vulnerable development stages in the life of humans and therefore dietary assessment of this group is important, but complex. This is due to rapid growth during puberty and the development of new eating patterns that influence dietary intake. Adequate dietary intake in this age group is crucial, since adverse effects such as iron deficiency anemia, inadequate growth and dental caries can occur. Furthermore, dietary imbalance is a significant risk factor that can lay the groundwork for developing preventable complications in late adolescence and adult life such as non-communicable chronic diseases including obesity and diabetes mellitus type II and certain cancers, all leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Given the vulnerability of adolescents in terms of dietary intake, understanding their dietary intake is crucial. Dietary assessment of adolescents is influenced by social, physiological and psychological changes making accurate measurement of this group difficult. Hence, it is of fundamental importance to find a golden standard in terms of a dietary assessment method to use in this group. Several international studies investigated validity and reproducibility of the dietary intake of adolescents, measured with different dietary assessment methods. However, in South Africa only three validity and reproducibility studies have been published and none of them focused exclusively on adolescents. Since the validity of the results of dietary assessment methods of international studies cannot be extrapolated to South African black adolescents, this study emanated from the need to investigate whether multiple 24-hour recalls are valid and reproducible when used to assess the dietary intakes of black adolescents in a convenience sample of grade eight learners from a high school in a township in the North West Province. The study was nested in the multidisciplinary "Physical, Activity in the Young" (PLAY) study. Firstly, the optimal number of 24-hour recalls was determined by calculation of reproducibility coefficients for energy, selected nutrients and food groups. Results showed that four repeated 24-hour recalls provided the optimal reproducibility for black peri-urban South African adolescents. Secondly, the search for a reference method to compare energy intake against energy expenditure led to an investigation into basal metabolic rate equations and physical activity factors with the intention of estimating the energy expenditure. Validity of reported energy intake assessed by multiple 24-hour recalls and estimated energy expenditure was tested using the Pearson correlation coefficient and the dependent t-test. The Pearson correlation test revealed low associations between energy intake and energy expenditure for boys (0.32) and girls (0.17), while the dependent t-test of the energy intake between the different measured occasions showed little difference, which could be explained by the high within participant variation and lower variation between the different participants. The low correlation coefficients showed that there was no association between reported energy intake and mean estimated energy expenditure; thus also no agreement. As a result, multiple 24-hour recalls measured over two years with only five 24-hour recalls did not give a valid measurement of the energy intake of black peri-urban adolescents. Lastly, the ratio of reported energy intake over energy expenditure was evaluated against the energy cut-off points, specifically calculated for age and ethnic group. It indicated that 85% of the participants underreported their energy intake. These results could have been influenced by the estimated basal metabolic rate equations that could have estimated the basal metabolic rate of this group incorrectly or could be due to the inability of the group to recall their physical activity levels correctly. Therefore it is recommended that further validity studies regarding dietary intake need to be performed on adolescents. It is suggested that energy expenditure as a reference method should be measured by using a calorimeter or the doubly labeled water method and then compared with the reported energy intake. Analysing different biochemical determinants of nutritional intake could also be used as an objective reference method to assess the validity of dietary data obtained from questionnaires. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Dietetics)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

In 1998, the French Socialist Government reduced the statutory workweek to 35 hours. This work time reduction policy was implemented in response to the country's chronic unemployment problem, which had seen unemployment average over 10% during the previous decade. The 35 hour week sought to reduce unemployment by spreading the existing stock of jobs more widely and by stimulating job creation. This policy choice was received with considerable scepticism from commentators outside of France. Critics argued that the 35 hour week diverged too greatly from the international orthodoxy of a flexible and deregulated labour market and, given the convergence pressures caused by contemporary globalisation, would reduce French competitiveness. The implication was that governments no longer had the freedom to implement employment policy that diverged from the international norm. In this thesis, I reconsider this argument. I undertake a political economy analysis of the use of work time reduction policy in France from the perspective of the regional labour market of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. In doing so, I focus on the implementation of the 35 hour week policy in this high unemployment region. In addition, I focus on the regional work time reduction policy implemented in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, which predated the national 35 hour week policy and was the source of several of its key features. Thus, I provide a regional perspective on the French 35 hour week policy, an alternative to the 'top down' perspective taken by its critics. Throughout this research, I concentrate on three key issues: (1) the logic of work time reduction policy within the local labour market in France, using Nord-Pas-de-Calais as my case study; (2) the method of policy-making and the importance of geographic scale; and (3) the viability of France's work time reduction policy in the face of globalisation. My aim is to understand the policy process that led to this policy choice, to appreciate how traditions of economic governance influenced its formation and implementation in the local labour market, and to study how these traditions influenced the ability of work time reduction policy to reduce unemployment. I show, first, that French traditions of labour market governance, on which work time reduction policy is based, continue to have meaning in the local labour market, with the public continuing to demand policy consistent with its ideals. Second, I show that scale contributes to policy outcomes and policy innovation, suggesting the importance of geographic factors in the policy, process, such as the spatial match between the policy and policy problem, the transfer of policy between scales, and issues such as proximity and homogeneity. Third, I show that the success of work time reduction policy is largely dependent upon socially determined factors including effective negotiation, preferences between work and leisure, and empathy for the unemployed. Fourth, I show that the 35 hour week policy was not incompatible with international demands for labour market flexibility because it provided significant scope for productivity gains via its design and increased flexibility in the use of work time, albeit within constraints. Therefore, by examining the making and implementation of work time reduction policy in France from a regional perspective, I show that while globalisation places genuine exogenous constraints on the policy choices of government, there nonetheless remains considerable scope within these constraints, especially when implementing policy that is compatible with traditions of governance that continue to resonate in the local labour market.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1964. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thèse (M.Ps.)--Université Laval, 2004. / Bibliogr.: p. 30-38. Publié aussi en version électronique.

Introduction Trauma and emergencies contribute to the quadruple burden of disease in South Africa and being prepared for an emergency requires rapid access to emergency equipment, drugs and emergency trolleys to optimally manage an emergency. This is the first descriptive study looking specifically at essential emergency equipment, drugs and the emergency trolley required for the provision of optimal emergency care at Community Health Centres (CHCs) in the Western Cape Metropole. Aims and Objectives The aim of the study was to evaluate whether eight 24 hour emergency units at CHCs in the Western Cape Metropole had the appropriate and essential emergency equipment, drugs and emergency trolleys necessary for the delivery of optimal emergency care, using the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa (EMSSA) guidelines as the audit tool. Objectives included: 1. To assess availability of essential emergency equipment 2. To assess availability of essential emergency drugs 3. To assess the functionality of existing emergency trolleys Methodology EMSSA guidelines were used as the evaluation audit tool to perform a survey of emergency equipment, drugs and emergency trolleys at eight 24 hour CHCs in the Western Cape Metro pole. Data collection for the study was conducted at the eight 24 hour CHCs over a 3 month period during the months of June 2012 to August 2012. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Health Sciences (Statistica, version 10 of 2012) and Microsoft Excel. Results A total of 81 emergency equipment items, 43 emergency drug items (37 emergency drugs, 6 intravenous fluids) and 78 emergency trolley items were required to be in each emergency unit. An average of 62% of all recommended emergency equipment items, 80% of all emergency drugs and 52.4% of all emergency trolley items were found to be present in this survey. Essential emergency paediatric equipment including bag ventilation devices, Magill’s forceps, masks, intraosseous needles and appropriate blood pressure cuffs were found to be absent at 2 CHCs. All CHCs had access to a defibrillator and ECG machine but these were found to be dysfunctional at 2 CHCs due to expired batteries and no tracing paper being available. Expired first line emergency drugs (adrenaline and atropine) were found at certain CHCs. The recording of emergency trolley checklists and stocking of essential emergency items were found to be incongruent, inconsistent and not up to the recommended standard. Conclusion Essential emergency equipment and drugs and the functionality of emergency trolleys were found to be generally inadequate. Considerable deficiencies of essential emergency items were found, particularly paediatric equipment and drugs and this may negatively impact on resuscitative efforts and outcome in both paediatric and adult emergency care at CHCs in the Western Cape Metropole.