Computer applications can be described as largely rigid structures within which an information seeker must navigate in search of information - each screen, each transaction having underlying unique code. The larger the application, the higher the number of lines of code and the larger the size of the application executable. This study suggests an alternative pattern based approach, an approach driven by the information seeker. This alternative approach makes use of value embedded in intelligent patterns to assemble rules and logic constituents, numerous patterns aggregating to form a "virtual screen" based on the need of the information seeker. Once the information need is satisfied, the atomic rules and logic constituents dissipate and return to a base state. These same constituents are available, are reassembled and form the succeeding "virtual screen" to satisfy the following request. Metaphors are used to introduce current information solutions, where events are initiated and driven by physical constructs built using monolithic instruction sets. The metaphor approach is then expanded, illustrating how metaphors can be used to communicate an understanding between two likeminded intellects - this illustrates how spatial artifacts are used to carry intellectual value across the intellectual divide, from the one (intellectual source) to the other (intellectual target). At this point, the pattern based concept is introduced. This is where value, an intellectual appreciation hidden within spatiality, can be exploited towards the delivery of information. The pattern based approach makes use of multiple pattern "instances" to deliver functionality - each pattern instance has a specific embedded value. Numbers of these patterns aggregate to drive the formation of a "virtual screen" built using patterns, each pattern referencing and associating (physical) atomic logic and spatial constituents. This is analogous to painting a picture using removable dots. The dots can be used to describe a fish, and then, once appreciation has been completed, the image is destroyed and the dots are returned to the palette. These same dots can later be reapplied to present the picture of a dog, if that is requested by the information seeker. In both pictures the same "dots" are applied and reused. The form of the fish and dog are retained as value embedded within the patterns, the dots are building blocks aligned using instructions within the patterns. This study classifies existing application solutions as belonging to the Artifact-Pattern-Artifact (APA) group, and the pattern based approach belonging to the Pattern-Artifact-Pattern (PAP) group. An overview and the characteristics of each are presented. The document concludes by presenting the results obtained when using a prototype developed using the PAP approach. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Information Technology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

The aim of this thesis is to describe perceived barriers and drivers and analyze its impact on the implementation of strategies among food retailers in order to reduce food waste. On supply chain, food retailers are in the powerful position, communicating both consumers and suppliers. Existing literatures and our findings show that food retailers engage mostly in strategies to prevent and re-use food waste. The methodology used in this thesis is qualitative research through single case study design in order to gain valuable insights from food retailers and develop the existing theories. The empirical date is collected through semi-structured interviews with a store manager, the head of logistics and a project manager and environmental ambassador, Karin Bildsten. The findings had formed several learning points. First, in this case the major barrier is lack of resources in financial and knowledge terms in order to implement strategies. Second, consumers have a strong impact on the implementation of strategies, playing both as drivers and barriers. Lastly, environmental consideration of employees is a strong driver as well as positive response from society toward implementing different strategies. This research intended to give inspiration to other researchers into this new field of research. The authors concluded with practical recommendations to food retailers as well as some advices to different stakeholders.

Industrilandskapet is an area in central Norrköping who has undergone major changes during the 1900s. The area has in recent decades gone from being an important industrial area into a place that today is focused on knowledge production and visit activities. This study focuses on how four selected businesses in Norrköping look at the change that Industrilandskapet has undergone. The four businesses all have in common that they use and care of Industrilandskapet in both marketing and as a working place. The businesses are in this study represented by four informants who were interviewed with semi-structured interviews. The results from the informants are analyzed by support of theoretical points. The results shows that Industrilandskapet appear as an important area of the interviewed informants. The preservation and re-use of the old factory buildings is seen as a positive decision, and it has also established itself as a tourist resource. However, there is disagreement about how the term Industrilandskapet should be defined and what it really means. The informants are making extensive use of Industrilandskapet to both marketing and selling the area to potential visitors. The problem that Industrilandskapet is hard to define is overshadowed when businesses are using the area.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilken syn som förskollärare har i arbetet med hållbar utveckling, med inriktning på den ekologiska delen där återvinning, återanvändning ingår för att värna om miljön. Studien kommer också belysa hur förskollärare anser att arbetet med hållbar utveckling kan se ut i förskolan samt hur naturen kan användas i detta arbete. Studien kommer att utgå ifrån ett pragmatiskt perspektiv där praktiska handlingar ger barnen en djupare kunskap, men att det också krävs samtal och reflektion för att det ska kunna göras en bedömning.   Metoden som användes i studien var intervjuer med verksamma pedagoger ute i förskolor. Intervjuerna gav djup och detaljrik data till studien. Pedagogerna anser att arbetet med hållbar utveckling sker genom källsortering, skräpplockning, återanvändning av material och sopsortering. Resultatet visar på att samtliga pedagoger anser att arbetet med hållbar utveckling är viktigt för att barnen ska bli miljömedvetna vuxna. Barnens delaktighet handlar till mestadels om att delta i vuxenplanerade aktiviteter. I resultatet framgår det att naturen är ett viktigt verktyg i arbetet med hållbar utveckling för att skapa en miljömedvetenhet hos barnen. Samtliga pedagoger känner att de inte har tillräckligt med kunskap om ämnet och hälften har aldrig deltagit i någon fortbildning. / The purpose of this study is to examine what sight preschool teachers have in the work of sustainable development, focusing on the organic part where recycling and reuse are included to protect the environment. The study will also illuminate how the preschool teachers believe the work with sustainable development might look like in a preschool and how the nature can be used in the work. The study will be based on a pragmatic perspective in which practical actions give children a deeper knowledge, but also requires conversations and reflections for it to be made an assessment The method that has been used in the study was interviews with working teachers out in the preschools. The interviews gave deep and detailed data for the study. The preschool teachers believe that the work with sustainable development is done by sorting, garbage picking, reuse of materials and waste separation. The result shows that all of the preschool teachers think that the work with sustainable development is important for the children to form them to become environmentally aware adults. Children´s participation is mostly about participating in adult planned activities. It shows in the result that the nature is an important tool in the work with sustainable development to create an environmental awareness among the children. All of the preschool teachers feel that they don´t have enough knowledge in the topic and half of them have never participated in any continuing education.

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions and experiences among pre-school teachers, regarding working with recycling and re-use in their work, related to the science of chemistry in the field of sustainable development, which is included as a goal to aim for in the Lpfö 98 (curriculum) of all preschools. The survey was conducted through a qualitative approach, the choice of method was using semi-structured interviews, to provide as much interview material as possible. The interviews were conducted with six different pre-school teachers from two different pre-schools in a smaller municipality in central Sweden. The questions in the interviews had been constructed to meet the preschool teachers' perceptions and experiences of chemistry, sustainable development and more specifically on the recycling and re-use of different materials, which were used within the educational activities. The results showed several similarities but also differences. All preschool teachers felt comfortable with the concept and meaning of re-use, compared to the other concepts. They were actively working with the re-use of materials, however, they were not only doing this from an environmental or natural point of view, but also in terms of design and working with a creative purpose in the educational activities. All pre-school teachers agreed that they did not work with re-use as much as working out of a perspective of design. However, there was a variety of views on why working with re-use and recycling did not meet the intended expectations of the work in the pre-schools. All pre-school teachers agreed with the fact that the link between sustainable development, recycling and re-use, and the science of chemistry has to become stronger in their work, partly due to the fact that the level of knowledge the children need to achieve by every certain age stated in the curriculum, must be met. All agreed that the process of recycling and re-use should be emphasized more, here the fact was also mentioned that it was a difficult task to work with recycling and re-use, and that this to a great extent depended on their own experiences and their lack of knowledge of the subject. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka förskollärares uppfattningar och erfarenheter av att arbeta med återvinning och återanvändning i verksamheten utifrån kemiska processer inom hållbar utveckling, som är en del av strävansmålen i läroplanen för förskolan. Undersökningen gjordes genom en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade intervjuer blev metodvalet för att få fram så mycket underlag som möjligt. Intervjuerna genomfördes med sex förskollärare från två olika förskolor i en mindre kommun i mellersta Sverige. Intervjufrågorna riktade sig till förskollärarnas uppfattningar och erfarenheter om begreppet kemi kopplat till hållbar utveckling och mer specifikt på återvinning och återanvändning i förskolan samt i den pedagogiska verksamheten. Resultatet visade på flera likheter men även skillnader. Samtliga förskollärare kände sig mer bekväma med begreppet återanvändning och dess innebörd gentemot de övriga begreppen. De arbetade aktivt med återanvändning men däremot inte enbart utifrån en miljö- och natursynvinkel utan även från ett designperspektiv och ett kreativt syfte i den pedagogiska verksamheten. Samtliga förskollärare menade att de inte arbetade med återvinning i lika stor utsträckning som inom designperspektivet. Det rådde dock olika uppfattningar om varför arbetet med återvinning inte uppfylldes i tillräcklig utsträckning i verksamheterna. Samtliga menade att kopplingen mellan hållbar utveckling, återvinning- och återanvändning och kemin måste bli starkare i verksamheten, för att bland annat strävansmål i läroplanen för förskolan Lpfö 98 ska uppfyllas. De var alla eniga om att arbetet med återvinning och återanvändning borde lyftas än mer, i samband med detta nämndes deras uppfattningar om att det var en svår uppgift som främst berodde på deras egna erfarenheter och okunskap.

This thesis introduces an adaptive re-use approach to the remains of a former industrial site located along the River Douro in Porto, Portugal to reconnect individuals with communities and the past with the present by encouraging a return to local culture through art, craft, and small scale design intervention. A design approach that engages with the act of making can establish areas for creative collaborative activities, developing a sense of community, channeling value-creation mechanisms and fostering local economic development. The site can serve as a catalyst for larger art projects along the waterfront, improving other abandoned sites and connecting the site to the Ribeira. Beyond aesthetisizing the alienated area of the District of Aleixo in Porto, Portugal, the proposed architectural interventions can be significant in tying people back to their local history and culture in a contemporary way, creating an environment that encourages learning, engagement and facilitates collective place-making.

Computer applications can be described as largely rigid structures within which an information seeker must navigate in search of information - each screen, each transaction having underlying unique code. The larger the application, the higher the number of lines of code and the larger the size of the application executable. This study suggests an alternative pattern based approach, an approach driven by the information seeker. This alternative approach makes use of value embedded in intelligent patterns to assemble rules and logic constituents, numerous patterns aggregating to form a "virtual screen" based on the need of the information seeker. Once the information need is satisfied, the atomic rules and logic constituents dissipate and return to a base state. These same constituents are available, are reassembled and form the succeeding "virtual screen" to satisfy the following request. Metaphors are used to introduce current information solutions, where events are initiated and driven by physical constructs built using monolithic instruction sets. The metaphor approach is then expanded, illustrating how metaphors can be used to communicate an understanding between two likeminded intellects - this illustrates how spatial artifacts are used to carry intellectual value across the intellectual divide, from the one (intellectual source) to the other (intellectual target). At this point, the pattern based concept is introduced. This is where value, an intellectual appreciation hidden within spatiality, can be exploited towards the delivery of information. The pattern based approach makes use of multiple pattern "instances" to deliver functionality - each pattern instance has a specific embedded value. Numbers of these patterns aggregate to drive the formation of a "virtual screen" built using patterns, each pattern referencing and associating (physical) atomic logic and spatial constituents. This is analogous to painting a picture using removable dots. The dots can be used to describe a fish, and then, once appreciation has been completed, the image is destroyed and the dots are returned to the palette. These same dots can later be reapplied to present the picture of a dog, if that is requested by the information seeker. In both pictures the same "dots" are applied and reused. The form of the fish and dog are retained as value embedded within the patterns, the dots are building blocks aligned using instructions within the patterns. This study classifies existing application solutions as belonging to the Artifact-Pattern-Artifact (APA) group, and the pattern based approach belonging to the Pattern-Artifact-Pattern (PAP) group. An overview and the characteristics of each are presented. The document concludes by presenting the results obtained when using a prototype developed using the PAP approach. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Information Technology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using salvaged timber from deconstructed buildings in Turkey. The intention was to show that the re-use of &lsquo / waste&rsquo / materials, while decreasing the cost of construction also preserves the environment from wasteful and extensive use of natural resources. It is hoped that the findings of such a study will encourage professionals to use second hand timber components in Turkey. In order to deal with the waste problem and to save our planet the re-use of construction materials from economic, environmental, social, and historic points of views should be pursued. This research incorporated information about the re-use of timber, including ongoing projects around the world, as reported by the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building Construction (CIB) Task Group on Deconstruction (TG39), a local survey of individuals, organizations, and businesses that are related to the recycling and reuse of building materials. Local deconstruction works, recovery and re-use of timber elements and components were investigated on the basis of information obtained from the demolition contractors in Bentderesi locality in Ankara, a salvaged materials market. iii Moreover the study aimed to observe how used timber components are recovered from a demolition project. By observing the demolition of a building the author was able to determine the problems in recovering timber with the least damage. The findings of the investigation indicated that the architects and the building industry can play an important role to increase recovery rates and conditions of used timber components in construction, considerably. Instead of using nails for timber joints bolted connections should be preferred since they allow demounting and re-use with minimum damage during the deconstruction process. At the same time defects in timber due to extensive and unnecessary nailing can also be avoided. The decision on type of deconstruction, time and cost estimation, worker ability and sensitivity during disassembly influence the success of deconstruction. Tools and machinery used both on the work site and in the UBMs selling area have direct effects on the condition of recovered materials.

This thesis discusses the opportunities of using open data particularly from the perspective of commercial organizations. At first, the concept of open data is generally described including the relationships with related concepts. The thesis also mentions the general benefits and estimated economic impact of using open data. Next, it is described the current situation of open data activities in the Czech republic, the current possible sources of open data and also the possible business models for open data. The practical benefits of this thesis include the visualized outputs from the content analysis of national open data catalogues data.gov.uk and govdata.de, which demonstrate what kind of published datasets are available in those catalogues as an example for the Czech republic and also the conclusions of the performed pre-survey on demand for open data in the Czech republic. Based on this and similar surveys around the world, it was found that there is a big interest on open data from the commercial organizations and the biggest issue is its insufficient availability.

This dissertation investigates the significant problem of abandoned buildings in the Pretoria Central Business District and, to a lesser extent, the lack of public exposure to art, architecture and design. For the purpose of this study, empty spaces in the City Centre and Die Meent buildings are examined. A new system for their reuse is developed and a gallery for the exhibition of multiple art forms is incorporated therein, as an example of how the aforementioned system can be appropriated. These problems, especially the first, is not restricted to the local urban context. The investigation is thus divided into two phases: the first provides a solution to the challenge of reusing abandoned spaces in buildings; the second phase, as a proposed future exploration of this system, provides a solution to the need for a multi-purpose exhibition area. City Property is the proposed client for the first phase, while MINI Space is the proposed client for the second phase. Empty buildings are a growing concern worldwide, due to concerns for sustainable development and decreasing greenfield sites. This dissertation proposes that the term ‘site’ should be redefined, using the x-y-z axes as a base. By applying the theory of Deconstruction, it is argued that ‘ground zero’ be shifted to a higher level, to include not only the x- and y-axis, but also the z-axis, leading to the creation of truly three-dimensional cities. This project aims to advance a new way of looking at the city and promoting different forms of art. Culturally rich spaces within vibrant cities with multiple levels of living, working and playing, aid the creation of new communities and unique spaces for each individual. Copyright / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted