At present, the main cooking fuels inChinaare natural gas, coal gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), coal, biogas, wood and straw. This paper reviews the characteristics, advantages, disadvantages and the current application status of these different cooking fuels. Moreover, a questionnaire survey is presented, dealing with different cooking fuels in Chinese households and the occupants’ perceived health, ventilation behaviors and general knowledge in potential health hazards. About 56% of the respondents of the questionnaire survey stated that symptoms like itching eyes, dry or irritated throat, irritated nose, running or blocked nose and headache were worse when they were cooking in their kitchens. This suggests that cooking fuel combustion has a significant influence on human health. The most evident health effect was that wood and straw as cooking fuel caused eye irritation. The present common house planning in Chinese countryside, where the kitchens are separated from the rest of the house via a courtyard, is very likely to reduce the stove contaminant exposure of all occupants.   In general, the main cooking fuels of the cities tend to be better than the cooking fuels of the countryside. Natural gas appears to be the cleanest cooking fuel among all urban cooking fuels except electricity. For the rural residents, biogas or LPG is a better choice than wood, straw and coal as cooking fuel.

No description available.

Boundary Bay is a novel that explores important areas of investigation linked to education. These fields of inquiry include: literary study and the teaching of literature, aesthetics and artistic production. The novel also investigates the nature of teachers' lives in school and university settings, the nature of institutional education, societal issues affecting intellectual and creative life, the roles of the woman poet and teacher, the social structures and conventions of marriage and contemporary women, the conflicts and paradoxes of motherhood, the issues of teen suicide and homosexuality, and the transformative power of literature and artistic forms of seeing the world. As an example of arts-based qualitative research, the "art of fiction" is envisioned as an extension of human experience. The novel or literary narrative as a viable mode of representation for research is envisioned in light of the perception that ideas can be reflectively addressed through the arts in order to enlarge human understandings. Boundary Bay explores the vital roles literary fictions play in our everyday lives and in educational processes. Fictions are not the unreal side of reality or the opposite of reality: they are conditions that enable the production of possible worlds. In this sense, fiction can become a premise for epistemological positionings. The writing of Boundary Bay is informed by narratives of beginning secondary school teachers as well as the narratives of Ph.D. candidates and university educators. Boundary Bay is a novel that forms a response to the debate at the 1996 Annual American Educational Researcher's Association Meeting (AERA) between Elliot Eisner and Howard Gardner recorded in "Should a Novel Count as a Dissertation in Education?" (Saks, 1996; Donmoyer, 1996). The debate between Eisner and Gardner continued as Boundary Bay was presented at a symposium titled "Shaking the Ivory Tower: Writing, Advising and Critiquing the Postmodern Dissertation" at AERA 1999 in Montreal. The manuscript of poetry interwoven through Boundary Bay was short-listed for the 1998 CBC Canada Council Literary Awards. Boundary Bay was a semifinalist for the 1999 Robertson Davies Prize for fiction.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson on Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is well known; equally well known are the traces of the Transcendentalist philosophy concerning nature. But Whitman expands upon both these influences as he developed his own individualism based on solidarity rather than independence. Whitman's take on individualism permeates all parts of Leaves of Grass, including the aesthetics. The aesthetics were up for much contemporary debate as the book seemed to lack traditional poetic structure and form. However, this was not the case as this study shows. In light of the sociopolitical climate in America when Leaves of Grass was first published, there was a demand for change from within literary circles. This need to create a new American spirit was called for by Emerson among others. Leaves of Grass was the response. In his book of poetry, Whitman develops a new American spirit with the intention of encouraging the American people to seek individual solitude; although, in this innovative individualism there is a paradox revealed: one must connect with each other and find social belonging at the same time as being self-reliant to have true liberating individualism. Also, the aesthetics in Leaves of Grass does show traces of traditional structure. However, the form is altered to represent Whitman's new innovative individualism. Thus, this study shows that the influences of Emerson and the transcendentalists are evident, but Whitman develops his own individualism in support of America, and in this lies a paradox. Whitman's first-person "I" becomes a representation of this paradox in Whitman's individualism, as well as a symbol for his solidarity towards his people: the united American people.

D.Litt. et Phil. (Applied Linguistics & Literary Theory) / In this thesis I wish to state the case for, and argue the merits of, the teaching of literature as an independent subject, in standards 6 to 10, in South African high schools. I shall therefore discuss the relevant sections of the Department of Education and Culture Core Syllabi for English Second Language and for English First Language Higher Grade for Standards 8, 9 and 10. These are the syllabi on which all present departments of education base their teaching and prescription of set works and the core syllabi also represent (being for the senior standards and the Higher Grade) the highest requirements set for English Second Language and for English 2First Language in South Africa. I shall also briefly discuss the Province of Cape of Good Hope Core Syllabus for English Literature, Standard Grade, Standards 8, 9, & 10 and the Province of Cape of Good Hope Kernsillabus vir Afrikaanse Letterkunde Standaardgraad, Standerds 8- 10. (While this thesis argues mainly from the point of view of English Second Language, the Kernsillabus vir Afrikaanse Letterkunde is included, because, at the moment, it is one of the only two literature syllabi available in South Africa.) From these syllabi I shall extract the present philosophy underlying the teaching of literature, and proceed to various purposes that can be served by literature as subject and I shall propose aims, learning content, prescribed material, methodology and testing methods for such teaching, because I believe that literature is enriching and: "Enrichment programs should be an organic part of the formal curriculum, not », optional extramural activities" (Mphahlele, 1990: 46).

The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the advantages of adopting a sociological approach to the study of the smrti literature of India. For this purpose a functional-sociological approach is outlined by extrapolating and combining classical, sociological principles taken from the writings of Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Peter Berger. The approach is designed to illustrate the three principal phases in the sacralization of social processes--explanation, legitimation and perpetuation. In Chapter One these three phases are discussed and defined with the aid of Emile Durkheim's and Mircea Eliade's concepts of the sacred, Max Weber's concepts of rationalization, legitimacy, traditionalism and charisma, and Peter Berger's concepts of cosmization, 'world-construction', 'world-maintenance' and plausibility structure. In Chapters Two and Three this approach is applied to three of the major smrti texts--The Visnu Purana, The Manu Smrti and the Mahabharata. Each of these texts admirably illustrates one phase of the sacralization process. In addition, the three aspects of the Indian concept, dharma--cosmis, social and individual--are discussed in terms of sacralization process. The advantages of this type of approach to smrti literature lie in its ability to point to some of the reasons for Hinduism's historical emergence during the period of smrti literature, the fifth century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. Second, it demonstrates the relationship of the different genre of smrti to one another. Third, it provides a framework for the understanding of smrti which is familiar to non-Indians, and which harmonizes well with smrti as defined by the Indians themselves. / Arts, Faculty of / Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of / Graduate

This study investigates the relationship between history and literature in the English curriculum of the school. The investigation moves in two directions, one leading to an examination of the boundary between English and history to see if the barrier between these two humanistic studies can be lowered. The other leads to an analysis of the prescribed texts to determine the times in literary history from which the selections in these texts were taken and the effects the times are likely to have on students’ understanding of their own culture. The teaching of historical literature contributes to students’ enjoyment of literature. For the purpose of this study this hypothesis limits the definition of "historical" literature to imaginative writing describing historical events, attitudes, and characters; expository accounts of exploration; and to literature written before this century. "Enjoyment" refers to immediate pleasure and also to enduring insights; that is, to a sense of heritage, understanding of desirable and possible values, and recognizing the attitudes to recurring themes expressed at different points in time. In this thesis I have examined the purpose of general education and then the contributions of English literature to the curriculum of general education. When I realized the effects of fragmentation of learning on general education and on English teaching, I began to consider how this trend toward subdividing knowledge could be reversed. The common interest of English and history in human beings suggested that their contiguity could be exploited and I have therefore written at length on the relationships between them. The correlation of these subjects in the classroom has rewards as well as perils, as I have pointed out, but by relating my personal experience I have shown that it can be done by one teacher in normal teaching conditions. The concluding parts of the thesis deal with the extension of selections into the past and offer annotated bibliographies. Rather than a "proof" or a "disproof," this thesis is designed to give a new and interesting approach to old ideas. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

This study examined the written responses of seven adolescents to three novels. During the course of two school years, the students recorded their ongoing responses to small sections (ten to fifteen pages) of each novel in a response log. These responses were examined for evidence of patterns, typical responses, individual variations, and the effects of narrative structure. The Purves and Rippere instrument was used to determine response patterns while a new instrument developed by the researcher to accomodate the nature of the preliminary, ongoing responses was implemented to address the remaining three questions. The following general observations were made: 1. No predictable, sequential pattern of response could be found in student response writings. 2. Certain responses predominated: namely, narrational retelling, tentative frameworklng of the content, and analysis of characters and events 3. The written responses were generally characterized by considerable variation in individual responses. 4. Texts bearing distinct narrative features prompted different responses both for individuals and the group as a whole. Conclusions: The effects of writing during the reading of literary texts appears to bring response to a clear, conscious level. Writing in the response log encourages a conscious transaction with the literary text and consequently, readers can engage more actively and knowledgeably in the reading experience. Some broad conclusions and implications emerged from the study: 1. Particularly as they encounter complex literary works, adolescents should be encouraged to engage actively and consciously in their reading of literature by recording their ongoing responses in a log. 2. Teachers ought to promote the development of personal literary responses that require active thinking through testing hypotheses, making connections and interpreting the literary content 3. By purposefully structuring active meaning-making in the study of literature, teachers can determine the student needs and create the context for meaningful discussion. Moreover, by publicly sharing the contents of the response logs, all class members can contribute to and enhance their responses. Using writing to gauge the ongoing literary response allows both students and their teachers to be consciously aware of the "sense-making" strategies employed. As the medium for critical reading, writing promotes tentative, flexible construction of meaning. Furthermore, the instrument developed for analyzing the ongoing student responses in this study provides both a way to consciously examine the content of written responses and exposes alternative responses in order to extend understanding and appreciation of literature. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

Boundary Bay is a novel that explores important areas of investigation linked to education. These fields of inquiry include: literary study and the teaching of literature, aesthetics and artistic production. The novel also investigates the nature of teachers' lives in school and university settings, the nature of institutional education, societal issues affecting intellectual and creative life, the roles of the woman poet and teacher, the social structures and conventions of marriage and contemporary women, the conflicts and paradoxes of motherhood, the issues of teen suicide and homosexuality, and the transformative power of literature and artistic forms of seeing the world. As an example of arts-based qualitative research, the "art of fiction" is envisioned as an extension of human experience. The novel or literary narrative as a viable mode of representation for research is envisioned in light of the perception that ideas can be reflectively addressed through the arts in order to enlarge human understandings. Boundary Bay explores the vital roles literary fictions play in our everyday lives and in educational processes. Fictions are not the unreal side of reality or the opposite of reality: they are conditions that enable the production of possible worlds. In this sense, fiction can become a premise for epistemological positionings. The writing of Boundary Bay is informed by narratives of beginning secondary school teachers as well as the narratives of Ph.D. candidates and university educators. Boundary Bay is a novel that forms a response to the debate at the 1996 Annual American Educational Researcher's Association Meeting (AERA) between Elliot Eisner and Howard Gardner recorded in "Should a Novel Count as a Dissertation in Education?" (Saks, 1996; Donmoyer, 1996). The debate between Eisner and Gardner continued as Boundary Bay was presented at a symposium titled "Shaking the Ivory Tower: Writing, Advising and Critiquing the Postmodern Dissertation" at AERA 1999 in Montreal. The manuscript of poetry interwoven through Boundary Bay was short-listed for the 1998 CBC Canada Council Literary Awards. Boundary Bay was a semifinalist for the 1999 Robertson Davies Prize for fiction. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate