Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2009. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Abstract The present measures and methods of beneficiary payments carried out by ABC Refinery is an incomplete good-neighborliness project. Although large amounts of funds were accumulated over a period of several years, due to the lack of long-term, complete and concrete planning, no beneficial effects could be achieved. The study aims to profoundly understand the needs and thoughts of residents from six villages in Hsiaokang District, Kaohsiung, by using questionnaires and conducting interviews in order to analyze their feedback and determine their actual needs in relation to the beneficiary payments made by the ABC Refinery. It also aims to analyze whether the measures carried out by ABC Refinery can meet the residents¡¦ demands as well as their acceptance and implementation effects. According to the results of a systematic investigation, related projects were proposed. The result was that different resident types require various strategies and programs for good- neighborliness. It is hoped that the local residents¡¦ appreciation of ABC Refinery can be raised and more support and understanding received from them. The results of a science laboratory showed that the risk recognition and trust were weak in A village; it means that since the residents of A village did not trust ABC Refinery, their support was therefore at a low level. Consequently, the risk recognition and trust in regard to ABC Refinery needs to be strengthened. The project for increasing the risk recognition includes announcing environmental inspection data on a regular basis or inviting residents to visit the facilities and equipment of ABC Refinery on an irregular basis. This would help the residents of A village to obtain a clearer idea of what ABC Refinery is doing, so that the risk recognition could be elevated. Furthermore, the degree of feedback satisfaction and the environmental attitude towards living quality for residents were quite low, particularly for those whose incomes are below the NTD 70,000-100,000 monthly level. It presents that the lower the income, the higher the demand. ABC Refinery should take more actions in relation to beneficiary payments in order to improve the local living quality.

The purpose of this study is to understand the satisfaction of the resident who live in the Da Ai Village about the permanent supportive house and their living environment. The subjects are: 1.The satisfaction of the environment quality of their ¡@ ¡@neighborhood. 2.To understand the demand of the resident about the ¡@environmental improvement. 3.To analyze the satisfaction and their demand to their ¡@ neighborhood and further offer the strategy and ¡@ ¡@suggestion to improve. This study investigated the resident aged over 20 who lived in Da Ai Village. Purposive Sampling method was applied in the survey. Total 400 questionnaires were released in 731 household. 395 valid ones were returned. After compile and analyze the data, we obtained the results as follow: 1.For the living environment quality, there are five structures: the interior environment of the house, the exterior environment of the house, culture and entertainment, public utility, and safety management. The average of the overall satisfaction is 83.54%. (1)For interior environment of the house: the most satisfied: the number of the room; the most unsatisfied: the privacy. (2)For exterior environment of the house: the air quality; the most unsatisfied: the landscape image of the neighborhood. (3)For the culture and entertainment: the most satisfied: parks; the most unsatisfied: religion center. (4)For the public utility: the most satisfied: fire facilities; the most unsatisfied: social affairs service. (5)For the safety management: the most satisfied: community friendship; the most unsatisfied: security and order. 2.The priority of the improvement needs in safety, convenient, comfortable, health caring and religion are: (1)For safety: Surveillance video recording. (2)For convenient: Bus station. (3)For comfortable: Sound insulation. (4)For health caring: Children day care. (5)For religion: Portal image. In order to urge the government to speed up the improvement progress of the Da Ai Village after Morokot Typhoon, this study offer suggestions as follow: 1.Establish good coordination and integration system. 2.Setting specific examine procedure in order to clarify the right and obligation. 3.To respect multi-culture and to consider the resident¡¦s actual needs. 4.To explain and communicate the improvement procedure and detail of the village

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Univ., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (D.Phil (Sociology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the internet via the World Wide Web.

The study assess the roles played by cooperative societies’ savings and loans services on members’ economic condition, standard of living and in meeting participants financial needs in rural locations where there is no bank nor other formal financial providers. Using a combination of interview, focus group discussion and questionnaire techniques, the study covers the activities of cooperative societies located in rural communities and villages outside the state capital and local government headquarters where there is no electricity, water and tarred road in Ogun State, Nigeria. From its findings, this study identified and discussed potential areas for the improvement of cooperative societies that could be of benefit to rural finance providers and the cooperative members. The study is the first empirical investigation in Nigeria that focuses on the relevance of cooperative societies on members’ standard of living in rural communities and villages. The study shed light on how rural communities function – how their relationships develop, how individual esteem is increased, how interdependence grows, how hierarchies are maintained – and how this is facilitated in part by the loan-making of members promoted cooperatives. It has also provided more evidence on the importance of land ownership, and how this is enhanced when rural communities have access to cheap and affordable loans. It has also provided insights into the development of rural businesses, how complex they are, and how they require more input than the financing received through cooperative loans. The study breaks new ground in informal cooperative functioning, community development and rural finance research by providing a distinction between standard of living and quality of life variables in measuring the economic condition of rural dwellers, and the production of circle of social capital theory that the role of cooperatives to the members involve financial capital, physical capital and social capital which are interrelated. This helps to appropriately identify the roles of cooperative societies in rural finance to increase in household income, ownership of household assets and acquisition of enterprise assets. However, participation in the cooperative does not lead to enterprise profitability, while rural financial needs are more accessible from cooperatives than other sources.

People in developed countries are living longer with the help of medical advances. Literature has shown that older people prefer to stay independent and live at home for as long as possible. Therefore, it is important to find out how to best accommodate and assist them in maintaining quality of life and independence as well as easing human resources. Researchers have claimed that assistive devices assist in older people’s independence, however, only a small number of studies regarding the efficiency of assistive devices have been undertaken of which several have stated that devices are not being used. The overall aim of this research was to identify whether the disuse and ineffectiveness of assistive devices are related to change in abilities or related to the design of the devices. The objective was to gather information from the elderly; to identify what assistive devices are being used or not used and to gain an understanding on their attitudes towards assistive devices. Research was conducted in two phases. The initial phase of the research was conducted with the distribution of questionnaires to people over the age of fifty that asked general questions and specific questions on type of devices being used. Phase One was followed on by Phase Two, where participants from Phase One who had come in contact with assistive devices were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview. Questions were put forth to the interviewee on their use of and attitudes towards assistive devices. Findings indicated that the reasons for the disuse in assistive devices were mostly design related; bulkiness, reliability, performance of the device, difficulty of use. The other main reason for disuse was socially related; elderly people preferred to undertake activities on their own and only use a device as a precaution or when absolutely necessary. They would prefer not having to rely on the devices. Living situation and difference in gender did not affect the preference for the use of assistive devices over personal assistance. The majority strongly supported the idea of remaining independent for as long as possible. In conclusion, this study proposes that through these findings, product designers will have a better understanding of the requirements of an elderly user. This will enable the designers to produce assistive devices that are more practical, personalised, reliable, easy to use and tie in with the older people’s environments. Additional research with different variables is recommended to further justify these findings.