Contaminated soils are a large issue worldwide and much effort has been made to find efficient remediation methods. At many contaminated sites, mixtures of dif­ferent contaminants with different properties are present, which may lead to addi­tional problems, and thus additional costs, during the remediation process. This thesis presents the results from soil remedia­tion of two mixed contaminated soils, containing explosives and heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and arsenic, respectively. The re­sults demonstrate that bioremediation may be an efficient method for moderate explosives concentration, but that too high contaminant concentrations may prevent the biodegradation, measured by both chemical and ecotoxicological analyses. If the contaminant concentration is very high, soil washing with alkaline pH (~12, NaOH) may be a good alterna­tive, which was observed to remove both explosives and heavy metals. For a PAH and arsenic contaminated soil, little degradation of organics was ob­served during the bioremediation. However, the arsenic present was re-distributed in the soil, which could poten­tially lead to increased availability and thus in­creased risk for contaminant spreading. Soil washing at alkaline pH (~12-13; Ca(OH)2) with a combination of a biodegradable non-ionic sur­factant and a biodegradable chelating agent, executed at high temperature (50°C), reached treatment goals for both arsenic and PAH after 10 min treatment. Measurement of ecotoxicity using Microtox® demonstrated that remaining surfactant in the soil may lead to increased toxicity despite lower con­taminant concentrations. Soil is a basically non-renewable resource and thus re-cycling of remediated soil ought to be commonly occurring. Yet, the re-cycling of remediated masses has so far been limited in Sweden, mainly because of the risk of spreading of pollu­tant remains. However, a recent proposition from the Swedish EPA opens for re-cycl­ing, even though the thresholds are very con­servative. Risk assessment of the re­mediated soil includes the utilization of leach­ing tests to estimate the risk of spreading of remaining pollutants. A comparison of the leaching from four reme­diated soils using three different leaching solutions reveals that leaching of both heavy metals and PAH occurs. In addition, differ­ences between different legisla­tions were observed, which could imply that the same soil could be re-cycled in one country (the Netherlands) but not another (Sweden).

Le diabète de type 2 (DT2) est une pathologie largement associée à l'obésité dont la prévalence est en constante augmentation dans le monde. L'inflammation et le stress du réticulum endoplasmique (RE) ont été largement décrits pour leur rôle dans la pathogénèse du DT2 en favorisant une insulinorésistance des tissus périphériques et une altération de la sécrétion d'insuline par le pancréas. La protéine Thioredoxine Interacting Protein (TXNIP) est activée lors d'un stress RE et joue un rôle important dans la mise en place de la réponse inflammatoire en activant l'inflammasome NLRP3 (Nod-Like Receptor 3). Nous nous sommes donc intéressés au rôle de cette protéine dans les monocytes des patients DT2. Nous montrons que la composition lipidique du plasma des patients DT2 pourrait être impliquée dans la mise en place d'un stress RE et d'une réponse UPR (Unfolded Protein Response) augmentée dans les monocytes de ces patients. Cette augmentation est associée à une activation de l'expression de TXNIP et des marqueurs de l'inflammation dans ces cellules qui pourrait participer à la mise en place d'une inflammation systémique chez ces patients. / Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a pathology largely associated with obesity, which is rising constantly around the world. Inflammation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress have been largely associated with the pathogenesis of DT2, promoting insulin resistance in peripheral tissues and a defect in insulin secretion from the pancreas. During ER stress the Thioredoxin Interacting Protein (TXNIP) is activated and plays an important role in the onset of inflammatory responses by activating the NLRP3 (Nod-Like Receptor 3) inflammasome. Hence we studied the role of TXNIP in monocytes from T2D patients. We have shown that the plasmatic lipid composition from T2D patients could be implicated in the onset of ER stress and an increase in the UPR (Unfolded Protein Response) in monocytes from T2D patients. This increase is associated with an activation of TXNIP expression and inflammatory markers in these cells, which could participate to the onset of systemic inflammation seen in T2D.

Man’s relationship with architecture is not intellectual, but associated with our emotive subconscious. The quality of space, as defined by architecture, is personified and evaluated through the experience it orchestrates. The investigation aims to uncover the process of choreographing emotive experiences through design. These pertain to the writings of renowned Swiss architect, Peter Zumthor, who manages to design evocative spaces, architecture that embodies definite atmospheres. Zumthor explains in his manifesto Thinking Architecture, that atmosphere is measured through man’s emotional sensibility, rendering experience and emotion as tools for designing spatial quality. Architecture is not abstract, but concrete matter, an assemblage of quantifiable substance, and thus, the architectural palette exists within emotion. Beyond its physicality, architectural elements embody sensory potential in its application, arrangements and composition. The architect orchestrates the infinite architectural palette to provoke the senses, which defines experience. Finnish architect, Juhani Pallasmaa, better known for his writings on architecture and the senses, writes extensively on the non-cognitive realm of architecture as experienced, not only through the traditional senses measured by sight, sound, smell, touch and taste, but includes the human body in its dimensionality as it relates to its surroundings, ergonomically and spatially. The architectural premise lead to an investigation into the lost landscape of Pretoria’s Central Business district, where spatial and material degradation have abandoned various sites in hostility. The forsaken lot on the corner of Pretorius and Sophie de Bruyn Streets, currently offers its users, the South African National Police Service (SAPS), nothing more than a parking space. The vastness of emotion in which the architectural palette exists, focused the exploration on a specific emotion as derived from the users of the identified, abandoned lot. As a result of a media-generated perception, members of the SAPS have been alienated by society. Alienation, translated into architectural terms, means ‘to be outside’. The architecture is informed by the contrasting experiential conditions of alienation and belonging, outside and inside, danger and safety, chaos and cosmos. The architecture becomes the transitional medium. The Inner City Police Retreat fills the empirical void in a series of orchestrated experiences, in an attempt to inspire and transform the day to day existence of its users. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

This study aims to examine why organizations and authorities think girls end up in traffickingand why they re-traffick after getting help. We’ve also chosen to study how the organizationsconsider their work being done and how they think it can be improved. Since Sweden is acountry with pretty low rate of trafficking victims 2016, we included the Mekong Area insoutheast Asia as a comparison. The area differs from Sweden in terms of social, economicaland cultural aspects and has a considerably higher level of vulnerability the same year.Through a qualitative interview study we wanted to receive these answers and the empiricaldata that we achieved was derived from 11 interviews where three were from agencies andseven from organizations working with this issue. The theory we use belongs to stigmatizationfrom a perspective interactionist, social bond and a gender section. The results obtained are thatmany people ending up in trafficking because of economical issues and hoping for a better life.Many people re-traffick after they received help because their self-image has negativelychanged and the society has stigmatized them for their situation. The interviewers meant thattheir work is progressing however there is still a lot of work to do for it to be perfect, focusingon cooperation and knowledge.

I denna uppsats analyseras det vegetariska subjektet med fokus på subjektiva upplevelser och genom detta belyses attraktioner och förändringar inom vegetarianismen mellan 1895–1931 i medlemstidskrifterna för Deutscher Vegetarier-Bund. Teoretiskt är uppsatsen grundad i subjektiviseringstesen med fokus på upplevelser, genus och känslor. Resultaten visar att ett skifte skedde från en rationell objektiv upplevelse till en subjektiv och känslostyrd upplevelse. Genomgående konstruerades den vegetariska livsstilen som en elitupplevelse och kontrasterades mot andra livsstilar. Det vegetariska subjektet var även könat och konstruerat med eller mot maskulina förväntningar. Genom analysen av genus och upplevelser har forskningen om tysk vegetarianism utökats. Vegetarianism kan genom analysen förstås som ett sätt att återförtrolla världen genom mystik och förundran.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The modern public sector and system of administration in Ethiopia began at the time of the imperial period, in the early 1960s. But this sector and the tradition of administration itself, compared with other countries, is not yet strong enough to play its role as a catalyst in the development and growth of the country. This study explores the wide array of public sector administration and reform practices in other countries and compares them with Ethiopia. More specifically, it looks into Business Process Re-engineering, a recently adopted type of reform, which originated in the private sector. Commonly termed BPR, Business Process Re-Engineering is a reform mechanism to uproot age-old systems of thinking and functioning in any organization and replace them with new paradigms and more efficient and lean systems that will lead to visible results. The literature reveals that it has had mixed results of improvement, both in the private sector and in the public sector in many countries. This study sets out to analyse whether this is just another fad of reform being adopted in order to fulfil a completely different objective of political reform, or whether it is a real effort to bring about changes in the way the public sector conducts its business. From its wide application in the country, two varying sectors have been chosen for this analysis. One is a service-giving institution in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which has frequent interaction with citizens and, most importantly, investors and business organizations. The other sector is the policy, programming and legal framework designing institution in the Ministry of Works and Urban Development, an institution that depicts one of the core tasks of the public sector. As a result, the findings indicate mixed results in its application. In an institution where there are clearly defined tasks and deliverables, the BPR application seems to have generated visible results with potential continuity. On the other hand, in core public sector tasks, where government plays the regulatory and policy guiding roles, the initial outcomes of the re-engineering process do not look that promising. The newly designed and presented processes seem to be quite superficial, contrary to the principles of the BPR concept. In conclusion, re-engineering is not an across-the-board application when it comes to the public sector, as there are core functions of the government to which it does not apply. In addition, this leads the study to the conclusion that reforms are appropriate in the public sector, so long as they generate tangible results and changes.

Granular gas bed filters have been used in industry for a considerable period and mathematical descriptions of dust capture have allowed rigorous design of static beds. Provision for bed movement and electrostatic augmentation, which allows much thinner continuous beds to be used, requires adaptation of design methods for these phenomena. Design methods that allow for this are developed for a cross-flow bed with vertical bed movement and a number of granule and dust types. Direct current charging is applied to the bed itself and to the particles before they enter the bed. In the case of electrostatic augmentation, it is shown that simple models of spherical particles describe the mechanism adequately. The advantages of pre-charging dust particles before they enter the bed are indicated by calculation and proved experimentally. Parameters to describe the enhancement of filtration efficiency by the collected dust are obtained experimentally. It is shown that the factors controlling re-entrainment vary with particle size. For the dust particles less than 1,5 micrometers in size, re-entrainment is linked closely to the electrostatic capture mechanism which is dominant in that size range. For particles approaching 10 micrometer, re-entrainment can be neglected as the impaction efficiency, which is dominant for particles of this size and larger, approaches unity. A complex situation exists between these particle sizes as the magnitude and predominance of capture mechanisms in this region are determined by a number of operational parameters. It did not prove possible to develop predictive equations for re-entrainment efficiency using the results of this study. A number of heuristics are however developed that allow rational design by the use of the empirical parameters found, and that will be valid for the range of parameters used in this work. / Thesis (PhD(Chemical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

This study investigated the influences of personal value systems and risk propensities on managerial decision-making quality during value clashes. The post-globalisation business landscape is impacted by role players of vastly differing personal attributes, hypothesised to have varying influences on decision-making behaviour. A deeper understanding of how these attributes impact decision-making quality will therefore enrich the literature and arm practitioners with improved decision-making skills. A review of behavioural decision-making literature revealed three core approaches: the normative (prescriptive) perspective, focussed on decision analysis, the cognitive limitations perspective highlighting the boundaries of human cognition and the psychological (values/emotions/motivations) perspective allowing for ethical- or value-boundedness. The extant literature contributes little on the quality of decision-making exhibited by managers, or how to improve it. It also doesn’t consider variance in decision-making between groups defined by personal value and risk traits. This study therefore aimed to establish whether decision-making quality varied with variances in personal attributes, and whether an intervention would improve decision-making behaviour. The research, conducted on a sample of 460 South African managers, established the demographics and value- and risk orientations of the participating group. Three value clashing scenarios, incorporating social-relational framing interventions, where introduced to gauge the decision-making behaviour of the test subjects. Decision-making quality was assessed through the integrative complexity measure and qualitative assessments were conducted on the decision motivation texts. Decision-tree analyses, multiple regression analyses as well as T-tests comparing the decision-quality produced by individuals of opposing orientations, revealed a clear relationship between the value segments of self-enhancement and openness to change and higher quality decision-making. Social risk-taking was related to better decision-making and reframing the scenarios produced better decision-making quality responses, if the reframing was done harshly enough. The qualitative analysis supported these findings, but hinted at additional, context specific decision motivators. This study contributed an integrated view of decision-making literature, tested the application of integrative complexity as a measure of decision quality and introduced new perspectives on how value orientations, risk proclivities and scenario framing relate to decision-making quality. Practitioners can apply this to assess individuals in terms of their decision-making abilities, and can improve decision-making quality in managers through scenario re-framing. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / PhD / Unrestricted

Le terme de réadaptation, n'apparaît qu'au début du XXème siècle, au même moment que celui de handicap dans son sens actuel : conséquence sociale néfaste d'une pathologie. Ces apparitions simultanées ne sont pas un hasard. Depuis la fin du XVIIIème siècle se sont noués de nouveaux rapports au travail et à la santé, à partir desquels les aptitudes et inaptitudes des individus à certaines activités ont pu être jugées autrement que comme le résultat de traits naturels, sur lesquels la société n'aurait pas ou peu de prise.Par l'aménagement des conditions de travail et des interventions sur le marché de l'emploi, l'appartenance égale de chacun à la société a pu être sinon conçue du moins repensée, tandis que la médecine connaissait d'importants progrès et portait une attention de plus en plus grande aux milieux d'existence, à la prévention et à l'hygiène. Sur ces bases, le médical et le social ont pu se nouer et la réadaptation des individus être envisagée, c'est-à-dire l'instauration de capacités nouvelles ou meilleures pour ces individus, en fonction des environnements envisageables, des possibles sociaux et de la connaissance des natures individuelles.Par une analyse des idées directrices des médecines de la réadaptation (rééducation, ergothérapie, thérapies comportementales...), et de la manière dont nos sociétés ont élaboré une connaissance d'elles-mêmes en tant que population et ensemble organisé d'activités, il s'agit de comprendre la genèse et les conditions de possibilité de nos projets normatifs de réadaptation, par là leur nature etlimites, en particulier au travers du handicap, tel que nous le définissons au croisement de critères vitaux et professionnels. / It is not a universal and obvious project that initially guides rehabilitation, the idea to rehabilitate somebody or to rehabilitate oneself. This work aims to trace their history - which is recent - and their way of arranging individuals and societies - which is both precise and in search of general effects. Since the First World War, with rehabilitations we have been jointing medicine and labor to ensure the lives of the disabled and to avoid social assistance. Rehabilitations have thus gradually drawn the field of handicaps which is, like them, the product of a history, whatever may be the timelessness in which we come to grasp the ideas of infirmity or disability.We tried to perceive in this research the displacements of structures, the events, the sets of actors which, correlated, made formulate the procedures of rehabilitation and the conceptualization of the disability during the XXth century. Thus, it may be possible to approach not only one form of the relationship between medical standards (epistemologically, ethically, socially based) and social norms (of health, work and activity), but also how people bind themselves to normative complexes, voluntarily, necessarily.

Introduction: Following ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and treatment with Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PPCI), some patients re-present with potential ischaemic heart disease (IHD) symptoms. Symptoms may be related to cardiac ischaemia, reduced psychological health or a comorbid condition, which share similar symptoms and may lead patients to seek help via acute services. The purpose of the study was to investigate the proportion of PPCI patients who re-presented to acute services due to potential IHD symptoms within 6 months of STEMI, and to explore associated factors. Methods: An explanatory mixed methods study was conducted. Quantitative data were collected at baseline and 6 months from consecutive patients attending two centres in Manchester. Variables were carefully considered based on a conceptual model for re-presentation. These included potential IHD symptom and psychological health assessments using self-report measures: the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) and the Hospital and Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Physiological health was measured using the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) and the Charleson Comorbidity Index (CCI) at baseline. At 6 months re-presentation data were collected using patient records, a telephone interview and a self-report diary card. The experiences of some who re-presented (purposeful sampling) were explored through semi-structured interviews conducted at least 6 months following PPCI. Framework analysis was adopted to analyse data. Results: 202 PPCI patients returned baseline questionnaires [mean age 59.7 years (SD 13.9), 75.7% male]; 38 (18.8%; 95% CI 14.0% to 24.8%) participants re-presented due to potential IHD symptoms at 6 months; 16 (42.1%) re-presented due to a cardiac event and 22 (57.9%) did not receive a diagnosis. At both baseline and 6 months, mean HADS anxiety scores were higher for the re-presentation group compared to the non-representation group (baseline 9.5 vs 7.1, p=0.006; 6 months 9.4 vs 6.0, p<0.001). Angina symptoms were stable and infrequent at both time points for the groups. Multivariate regression modelling with the inclusion of predictors HADS anxiety, SAQ angina stability, SAQ angina frequency, GRACE and CCI, determined HADS anxiety as a predictor of re-presentation with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.12 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.22, p=0.008). The qualitative interviews with re-presenters included 25 participants (14 men, 27-79 years). Four themes were identified: fear of experiencing a further heart attack, uncertainty and inability to determine cause of symptoms, insufficient opportunity to validate self-construction of illness and difficulty adapting to life after a heart attack. Conclusion: Elevated levels of anxiety at baseline were predictive of re-presentation with potential IHD symptoms at 6 months. Factors such as shock at experiencing a heart attack, hypervigilance of symptoms and difficulty with symptom attribution appeared to play a role in raised anxiety levels for the re-presentation group. Findings suggested that changes are needed to cardiac rehabilitation and post-STEMI follow-up to address educational needs and psychological issues and changes in STEMI treatment.