Despite the growing numbers and valuable contributions of older individuals to society, they continue to face negative attitudes towards them. Such attitudes are largely influenced by portrayal of older persons in the media. Understanding how the media portrays older people to the public can provide significant insights into the nature of the images from which older people may make comparisons and which inform the perceptions, opinions, and attitudes of other people. There is little knowledge of perceptions of media portrayal in old age, and this study aimed to obtain insight from the point of view of older people regarding how they are portrayed in the printed media. Qualitative research has been applied to gain insight in the older persons’ perceptions. The case study method was chosen since it allowed the researcher to gain an in–depth understanding of older person’s perceptions regarding how they are portrayed in the media. The participants in this study consisted of nine male and 12 female individuals residing in a residential care facility. Persons between the ages of 60 and 85 were purposively chosen since they can contribute to meaningful insight regarding how they are portrayed in the print media. Data was collected by means of conducting focus group discussions and individual interviews. The use of these methods enabled dynamic interactions resulting in the production of rich, detailed information. Data was analyzed using thematic content analysis and key–word–in–context analysis. Guidelines to ensure the integrity of the findings have been applied. The findings indicated that older persons perceive their portrayal in the media to be minimal in terms of the exposure that they receive. Older persons feel that on the seldom occasion when they are in the media, they are presented as an isolated population separated from younger persons. The portrayal of older persons in the media is also perceived as stereotypical in the sense that older persons are presented as sick, inactive, weak and fragile. The implications of such portrayal according to older persons are that they influence intergenerational relationships and they also confirm stereotypical assumptions about older persons. Older persons feel that they rather want to be portrayed in terms of the valuable contributions that they are making to all spheres of life, despite old age. The media should thus promote positive ageing, which could contribute to the stimulation and motivation of older persons. Findings of this study also indicate that while older persons enjoy reading magazines and newspapers they are often limited to do so due to financial restrictions and physical limitations such as poor eyesight. The findings of this research of older persons perceptions regarding their portrayal in the media has implications for intergenerational relationships as well as to advertisers and marketers who are looking to appeal to the older population. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Despite the growing numbers and valuable contributions of older individuals to society, they continue to face negative attitudes towards them. Such attitudes are largely influenced by portrayal of older persons in the media. Understanding how the media portrays older people to the public can provide significant insights into the nature of the images from which older people may make comparisons and which inform the perceptions, opinions, and attitudes of other people. There is little knowledge of perceptions of media portrayal in old age, and this study aimed to obtain insight from the point of view of older people regarding how they are portrayed in the printed media. Qualitative research has been applied to gain insight in the older persons’ perceptions. The case study method was chosen since it allowed the researcher to gain an in–depth understanding of older person’s perceptions regarding how they are portrayed in the media. The participants in this study consisted of nine male and 12 female individuals residing in a residential care facility. Persons between the ages of 60 and 85 were purposively chosen since they can contribute to meaningful insight regarding how they are portrayed in the print media. Data was collected by means of conducting focus group discussions and individual interviews. The use of these methods enabled dynamic interactions resulting in the production of rich, detailed information. Data was analyzed using thematic content analysis and key–word–in–context analysis. Guidelines to ensure the integrity of the findings have been applied. The findings indicated that older persons perceive their portrayal in the media to be minimal in terms of the exposure that they receive. Older persons feel that on the seldom occasion when they are in the media, they are presented as an isolated population separated from younger persons. The portrayal of older persons in the media is also perceived as stereotypical in the sense that older persons are presented as sick, inactive, weak and fragile. The implications of such portrayal according to older persons are that they influence intergenerational relationships and they also confirm stereotypical assumptions about older persons. Older persons feel that they rather want to be portrayed in terms of the valuable contributions that they are making to all spheres of life, despite old age. The media should thus promote positive ageing, which could contribute to the stimulation and motivation of older persons. Findings of this study also indicate that while older persons enjoy reading magazines and newspapers they are often limited to do so due to financial restrictions and physical limitations such as poor eyesight. The findings of this research of older persons perceptions regarding their portrayal in the media has implications for intergenerational relationships as well as to advertisers and marketers who are looking to appeal to the older population. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Pets like dogs and cats have a considerable importance for humans and research demonstrate a variety of positive economic and social effects in society due to our pet companions. The presences of pets are increasing on a global scale with correlation to economic development in low- and middle income countries. For example dogs have doubled in India over a five year period. The feed industry for dogs and cats is also the fastest growing sector in the food industry and certain pets have a significant animal protein intake which, depending on the choice of resources may provide a high ecological footprint. Examples of environmental effects with distribution and manufacturing of pet food are increased greenhouse gas emissions, waste, use of water and energy. Pet food producers have an important role to play in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development efforts, especially in their choice of sustainable protein resources as by-products from sustainable fisheries and livestock production. The purpose of this study was to investigate how pet food industry for dogs and cats generally working on sustainable development and CSR from primarily an ecological perspective in terms of ingredients, communication and production process. Ecological sustainability within pet food industry is more or less unexplored, and this study aims to create a broader understanding and interest for further studies in this field. This study was conducted using the multi method research including qualitative and quantitative methods on a global and national scale.   The result is not possible to generalize, but some conclusions can be drawn. In relation to resources, by-products from food industry are a commonly used pet food content. But several companies are also marketing pet food containing “real meat, fish, poultry” with no or less byproducts. This seems to be a consumer driven trend. Indications that resources in pet food partly competes with human food system, give further considerations how to feed a growing human and pet population within planetary boundaries. All national and multinational cooperation’s in this study work more or less with CSR and sustainability from an ecological perspective. Generally there is visibly a weak relationship between companies’ sustainability activities and animal protein which should be a prerequisite in a production that is largely made of this resource, in relation to acute environmental degradation like climate change and depletion of fish stocks. Another conclusion is that corporate communication of environmental CSR and sustainability efforts on different pet food brand websites are almost non-existent. Finally, working with this study gave rise to many further questions and study subjects in relation to ecological sustainability within Pet food industry, not at least it´s relation to food industry and how this may effect global human meat consumption. / Sällskapsdjur i form av hund och katt har stor betydelse för människan och forskning påvisar en mängd positiva ekonomiska och sociala effekter som dessa ger oss. Förekomsten av sällskapsdjur visar en tydlig korrelation med ekonomisk utveckling och hundägandet har exempelvis fördubblats i Indien under en femårs period. Foderindustrin för hund och katt är samtidigt den snabbast växande sektorn inom livsmedelsindustrin. Hund och katt har som regel ett högt intag av animaliskt protein vilket beroende på resursval kan ge ett påtagligt ekologiskt fotavtryck. Själva foderproduktionen samt transporter ger också upphov till miljöpåverkan i form av t.ex. ökade  utsläpp av växthusgaser,  ökad vatten- och energianvändning samt avfall.  Foderproducenterna har en viktig roll att fylla vad gäller sitt företagsansvar (CSR) samt arbete med hållbar utveckling ur ett ekologiskt perspektiv. Exempel på detta kan vara val av proteinresurser som biprodukter ifrån hållbart fiske och animalieproduktion. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur foderindustrin för hund och katt generellt arbetar med hållbar utveckling samt CSR ur framförallt ett ekologiskt perspektiv vad gäller produktionsförfarande, kommunikation samt om foderingredienser kompletterar eller konkurrerar med livsmedelsingredienser. Området är relativt outforskat och studien syftar till att skapa en bredare förståelse samt intresse för djupare studier inom området. Undersökningen har utförts med hjälp av flermetodsforskning i form av kvalitativ samt kvantitativ metod på global och nationell nivå.  Resultatet går inte att generalisera på foderindustrin globalt även om vissa slutsatser kan dras. I relation till resurser är förekomsten av biprodukter ifrån livsmedelsindustrin vanligt foderinnehåll men flera företag marknadsför också foder som innehåller ”riktigt kött, fisk, fågel” med frånvaro av eller lägre innehåll av biprodukter. Detta verkar vara en konsumentdriven trend. Både nationella samt multinationella företag i studien arbetar mer eller mindre med CSR och hållbarhet ur ett ekologiskt perspektiv. Generellt är det dock en svag koppling mellan miljöarbetet och animaliskt protein, vilket borde vara en förutsättning i en produktion som till stor del består av denna resurs i relation till akuta miljöproblem som klimatförändringen samt utfiskning. Ytterligare en slutsats är att företagens kommunikation av miljömässigt CSR- och hållbarhetsarbete på sina varumärkens hemsidor är närmast obefintlig. Slutligen väckte arbetetet med uppsatsen ett antal djupare frågeställningar samt ideér till fortsatta studier i relation till ekologisk hållbarhet inom foderindustrin. Inte minst avseende foderindustrins relation till livsmedelsindustrin och hur detta samband eventuellt kan påverka global köttkonsumtion. Foder för hund och katt konkurrerar dessutom till viss del med livsmedel vilket skapar utmaningen att föda både en ökande befolkning samt population av sällskapsdjur som skall livnära sig inom planetens gränser i framtiden.

RTFC is a multichannel publishing tool which has been designed to convert text documents into several accessible formats. You can produce books in common file formats like plain text, HTML and HTML Help as well as large print, Braille, web Braille and DAISY. It implements a standard for e-books which was created at German schools for the blind. This standard makes it possible to get the most out of DAISY even though desktop publishing software often has no capabilities to mark up optional content like annotations or sidebars. Therefore RTFC is especially suitable to convert school books and other non-fiction literature.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-12T20:34:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dis tede.pdf: 5792426 bytes, checksum: b90942a01c13b5e8ab57ca11617c026e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-03-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work has as its main objective to show that several statistical information published in print media (newspapers and magazines) suffer distortions, both technical as well as semantic, whether by lack of knowledge of those who publish, either by intentional manipulation. Through the analysis of cases, seeking to show the misconceptions presented in terms of statistical information. It is intended to build a line of analysis which help to obtain more accurate conclusions on the part of readers / Esta dissertação tem por principal objetivo mostrar que várias informações estatísticas veiculadas na mídia impressa (jornais e revistas) sofrem distorções, tanto do ponto de vista técnico quanto semântico, seja por falta de conhecimento daqueles que as publicam, seja por manipulação intencional. Através da análise de casos, busca-se mostrar os equívocos eventualmente apresentados em termos de informações estatísticas. Intenciona-se dessa maneira, construir uma linha de análise que contribuirá para a obtenção de conclusões mais precisas por parte dos leitores

This study argues in favour of the distance education student as being a decision-maker and scrutinised his choice criteria against the `open' education background. In particular, the study investigated the relative contribution of influential decision factors, as identified by previous research, in the choice students made when they chose between print-based and on-line modalities. A quantitative study, drawing data from 233 participants in two modules at the University of South Africa, was employed. The study showed that influential decision factors were transferable to a choice between printed or on-line instructional content, but their effects were less significant. Differences pertaining to previous experience with their delivery mode were apparent between students who selected the print-based option and students who selected the on-line option. The results also confirmed that of other research that a significant relationship exists between self-concept and optimal decision-making and self-concept and social environment. / Education Studies / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The purpose of this study is ultimately to analyze the influence of cultural attitudes on the treatment of the Scottish estate in the first half of the 18th century (c.1715 – c.1776), making particular reference to the ideology of improvement, through the use of Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk as a case study. Grant’s improvement of his estate is not understood as literally agricultural or economic development alone, but as a complex ideological commitment to the transformation of land, landscape and society. Whilst Grant of Monymusk has been discussed with reference to economic improvement, the relationship between his role as a publically acknowledged improver and his patronage of art and architecture, as well as his attempts at publication, has not been subject to similar interest. This thesis uses an innovative interdisciplinary approach which draws on archaeological as well as art historical methodologies. It discusses a wider range of estate commissions, in particular Grant’s patronage of the portrait artists John Smibert and William Robertson, the poet John Ogilvie, his commission of the architectural surveyors Alexander Jaffray and Robert Robinson, as well as his work to construct planned villages at Kirktown of Monymusk and Archiestown. The thesis attempts to place these commissions within the context of recent studies of improvement which emphasize its role as an ideology with cultural implications. The use of an individual case study allows for a more in depth discussion of specific reactions to historical and ideological change, providing a narrative of a specific site and thus creating an individual response towards broader cultural and scientific developments.

This report presents a thesis done in the field of mechanical engineering with a focus on product development and design. The work was done together with Kongsberg Automotive AB in Mullsjö. The company wants to investigate the push button solutions available on the market today and the solutions that seem promising for the future. The purpose of this thesis is to examine what the user perceives as quality and define which solution the company should use in future products. To make the subject less about an abstract feeling of quality a method for interviewing end users was created. This allowed their feelings about good and bad characteristics to be concretized to statistical data about characteristics and buttons tested in the study. These statistics where then used in a product development process to create concepts from ideas. With support from an experienced professional a direction was set to create prototypes built around existing switches matching the results of the interview based study. The result is a number of concepts for solutions, as well as 3D-printed prototypes of the more promising solutions followed by advice on which direction future research in the area should be headed. The task was solved with several well documented methods such as Kano. With these methods, the market has been reviewed, user comments about quality have been collected and analyzed and new concepts has been created to accompany the coming trend and meet user demands.

This thesis in the beginning deals with the history of 3D printing and its development. For better understanding the nature of 3D printing are the significant technologies that includes. Professional part includes work with the printer MakerBot Replicator 2X. Mechanical parts of the device are analyzed together with the operating software MakerBot DesktopThe following chapter is dealing with the limits and restrictions when it is printed on said 3D printer, except that describes important aspects when working on the printer. For the creation of electronic models are suggested appropriate programs for use in elementary school. A significant milestone is forming the problems of 3D printing, which can serve as a guide for the elimination of print quality problems, malfunctioning of 3D printers and others. Interesting models are designed for teaching physics and working activities that the students facilitate understanding of the substance of the response and act as activating element within lesson. It was created a list of important sites where you can find models suitable not only for teaching in elementary schools, but also for other purposes. The last chapter deals with the economic aspect of 3D printing.

The aim of this dissertation is to show the shortcomings of the Computer Evidence Act No 57 of 1983 , in so far as the requirements of authentication of computer generated documents before their admissibility as evidence in a court of law. / LL.M.