Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / This study aimed to develop a communication strategy for water re-use in Basic Education, which included illustrative learning materials which were suitable for online learning. To attain the intended aim, the study focussed on the subsequent objectives: to review and analyse learners’ and educators’ perceptions and understanding (knowledge) of water re-use; to examine strategies that could be employed to gain learners’ and educators’ understanding and acceptance of water re-use; to develop information or learning materials that would educate and enhance their understanding and informed decision making related to water re-use; and to discuss approaches to communicate water re-use in Basic Education. A qualitative orientation utilising participatory action research was employed as a research design for this study. A sample size of 80 participants, from four primary and four secondary schools in Mankweng Township was selected. 40 learners and 40 educators were selected. Convenience sampling was used to select the participants for this study. Data was collected by means of interviews, focus group discussions, workshops, teaching and participant observation. Thereafter, thematic analysis and NVivo software were employed to analyse data. This study employed Geertz’s notion of culture, Vygotsky’s social constructivism and the behaviour ecological model as theoretical frameworks to guide the research. Geertz’s interpretation of cultures was employed to understand culture and its effects on human behaviour, Vygotsky’s social constructivism was employed to understand the process of effective learning in educational contexts and the behaviour ecological model was employed to understand individuals’ behaviours and the background of the given behaviour. Understanding an individual’s behaviour and experiences towards water re-use assisted in developing water re-use illustrative learning materials. It also assisted with a communication strategy, which integrated Steyn and Puth’s steps, in the formulation of a communication strategy, joint approach model and a step by step content of a communication strategy and action plan model. The study revealed that the majority of individuals have negative perceptions and attitudes towards water re-use, due to a lack of awareness, knowledge and education. The “yuck” factor and health apprehensions were revealed to be major causes of such perceptions and attitudes. Education, campaigns and programmes, traditional and v new media, community meetings, rules, policies and regulation were reported as strategies which might be employed to promote water re-use. The study revealed that individuals’ home language must be made use of in all the water re-use promotional strategies. Communication approaches which promoted a platform for community participation, were revealed as appropriate for development programmes. As a result, participatory and development approaches to communication were considered suitable for communicating water re-use in Basic Education. The study further indicated that posters and storyboards were effective illustrative learning materials which could be employed to educate learners and raise their cognition regarding water re-use as a water conservation method. This would increase acceptability, awareness and practice and reduce negative perceptions, attitudes and concerns. The study indicated that water re-use communication should consider an individuals’ environmental, religious and cultural backgrounds, which would affect water re-use projects. The study also indicated that there was a relationship between an individuals’ perceptions, attitudes, education and culture.

Under de senaste århundradena har samhället tillämpat ett linjärt synsätt på ekonomin där varor produceras, säljs, används och sedan blir till avfall utan någon högre grad av återvinning. Det linjära synsättet har stor inverkan på vår planet med minskade ändliga resurser och ökat klimathot. Fler och fler har fått upp ögonen för att vårt nuvarande synsätt inte är hållbart och som en respons på den ökade medvetenheten har begreppet cirkulär ekonomi växt fram. Cirkulär ekonomi, i motsats till linjär, bygger på att sluta kretsloppen, både biologiskt och tekniskt. Begreppet innebär att minimera råvaruuttaget genom ökad återvinning och återbruk samt minimera avfallet genom att nyttja det som råvara någon annanstans. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka åtgärder som skulle möjliggöra ett fastighetsföretags omställning från en linjär till en cirkulär affärsmodell. Det innefattar att belysa vilka områden som bör beaktas när cirkulär ekonomi inkorporeras i verksamheten och hur eventuella hinder kan övervinnas. Arbetet har genomförts genom en litteraturstudie där cirkulär ekonomi har undersökts både på generell nivå samt specifikt inom fastighetsbranschen. En intervjustudie har genomförts med fastighetsföretag och andra marknadsaktörer där resultatet visar på tydliga strukturella problem som måste övervinnas för att övergången mot en cirkulär ekonomi ska kunna äga rum. Avsaknaden av en marknadsplats för återbrukade material och produkter är central. Fastighetsbranschen visar på en medvetenhet kring miljöfrågor, kunskapen om hur cirkulär ekonomi ska kunna inkorporeras i verksamheten är dock mindre. Vidare framgår att digitaliseringen kommer vara en drivande faktor där nya digitala tjänster och plattformar möjliggör inte minst för nya delandetjänster och funktioner. Att cirkulär ekonomi måste kunna kopplas till affärsnytta är tydligt och ur övergången mot cirkulär ekonomi uppstår nya affärsmodeller som på sikt kan öka lönsamheten givet att fastighetsägaren i högre grad kan arbeta cirkulärt. / In the last few centuries, society has applied a linear approach to the economy where goods are produced, sold, used and then become waste without a higher degree of recycling. The linear approach has a great impact on our planet with reduced finite resources and increased climate threat. More and more people have become aware that our current approach is not sustainable and as a response to the increased awareness, the concept of circular economy has emerged. Circular economy, in contrast to linear, is based on ending the cycles, both biological and technical. This implies minimizing raw material consumption through increased recycling and reuse and minimize waste by utilizing it as raw material elsewhere. The purpose of this study is to investigate which measures would enable a real estate company to switch from a linear to a circular business model. This includes highlighting which areas should be considered when circular finances are incorporated into the business and how any obstacles can be overcome. A literature study has been conducted in which circular economy has been examined both at the general level and specifically in the real estate industry. Later, an interview study has been conducted with real estate companies and other market participants where the result shows clear structural problems that must be overcome for the transition to a circular economy to take place. The lack of a marketplace for recycled materials and products is central. The real estate industry shows an awareness of environmental issues, however there is less knowledge about how circular economy is to be incorporated into the business. Furthermore, it appears that digitization will be a driving factor where new digital services and platforms are vital enablers, not least for new sharing services and functions. Circular economy must be linked to business benefits and from the transition to circular economy new business models will emerge, which in the future can increase profitability, given that the property owner can work more circularly to a greater extent.

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Availability of good housing may no longer be an important issue for most U.S. citizens. Nowadays most are well housed and the problems confronting those who are not- except in the case of the homeless- are not highly visible. During the last decade, old warehouses in downtown Richmond, Virginia have been converted to new uses as restaurants, apartments, and offices. This reuse of old buildings has brought more people to the downtown area, making streets safer for pedestrians and residents than when the areas were abandoned. However, these well-designed and newly renovated apartments are not for everyone, especially low and moderate-income households because of the high rental costs.This thesis design provides a model for enhancing the character and diversity of low-income-family housing by transforming an abandoned urban structure in downtown Richmond into a holistic living environment.

MSc dissertation - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / Waste electrolyte from fluorine cells is a major waste problem for the fluorine chemical industry. Processes have to be developed to reduce, recycle and re-use the spent electrolyte that has up to now been stockpiled. This dissertation is a compilation of the research work that has been done to derive a process to treat waste electrolyte for re-use. Different conversion processes were investigated to develop a Waste Management plan for the fluorine generating facility in respect of the electrolyte. Gravity settling, centrifuging, filtration, the addition of KF.HF to the to the electrolyte to decrease the HF concentration in the electrolyte and consequently decrease the solubility of Fe, Cu and Ni and addition of NaOH to the electrolyte to convert soluble Fe to the insoluble triple salt were tested. Gravity settling and centrifuging were shown to produce the best solution. However, significant sedimentation of the insoluble metal impurities in the electrolyte is timeously. The implementation of sedimentation as an industrial separation process to purify waste electrolyte of excess metal impurities is therefore impractical. The results indicated that sparging molten electrolyte with N2 gas to remove HF (thus precipitating soluble Fe, Cu and Ni, and removing moisture to reduce corrosion of metal components), followed by sediment centrifuging, appears to be a practical basis for an industrial waste electrolyte treatment process. During an assessment carried out by the Economics Trends Research Group (ETRG) (3) at the University of Cape Town a strong argument was made for the need to direct companies in South Africa to address environmental concerns with high priority. In South Africa there is very little awareness of the concept of Clean Technology. Not only must the level of contamination be reduced before waste is released into the environment, but natural resources like water must be conserved, and energy consumption must be reduced. Public concern over degradation of the environment can no longer be ignored. Globally, the chemical industries are considered to be the main culprits in the degradation of the environment. The assessment carried out by the ETRG showed that the chemical industries are classed among the top 5 generators of toxic and hazardous waste in every country. The metallurgical sector (mining) is in most cases classed as the top waste generator. Development and implementation of technologies that are more efficient are not a matter of choice any more. Each new facility that is developed should meet the challenge of generating as little waste as possible. Unfortunately, many old industries and facilities did not focus on increasing efficiency and minimising waste. These old facilities experience a challenge now to develop technology to make them part of this Cleaner Production and Technology era. Cleaner Production implies generating less effluent or waste and recycling waste to be used as raw material in the same or another facility. Cleaner Production also concentrates on the increase of efficiency but this is often limited by the chemical properties of substances. This research was based on the ideas for implementation of Cleaner Production in the fluorine generation facility at Necsa. Waste reduction almost always implies investment in equipment and development of new technologies. However there is ample evidence to show that the cost of rehabilitation of contaminated environment is exceedingly high in comparison with the precautionary steps taken to prevent contamination. Waste/Effluent Management have become new buzz words in the industrial environment.

Dricksvatten är vårt viktigaste livsmedel. I takt med klimatförändringarna kommer temperaturen öka och vädret bli mer extremt vilket gör vår tillgång till dricksvatten mer sårbar. Redan idag finns problem med dricksvattenförsörjningen i vissa delar av Sverige. Ett sätt att minska dricksvattenförbrukningen är att samla in regnvatten och använda det till processer med lägre kvalitetskrav än dricksvatten. Swedavia jobbar aktivt med att få mer miljövänliga flygplatser och som en del av detta minska dricksvattenförbrukningen. Detta projekt utreder möjligheten att samla upp regnvatten på takytor för att använda till processer som idag använder dricksvatten. Projektet är koncernövergripande och applicerbart på samtliga av Swedavias flygplatser även om arbetet utförs på Stockholm Arlanda Airport. I detta examensarbete har kvaliteten på vattnet från fem olika typer av tak studerats. Taken valdes bland annat utifrån tidigare utförda studier där föroreningsgraden på vattnet från olika sorters tak undersökts. Även faktorer som förekomst på flygplatserna spelade in. Provtagning utfördes vid två tillfällen där avrunnet regnvatten samlades in från de fem olika taken samt ett referensprov på rent regnvatten. Fem näringsämnen, löst organiskt material, suspenderat material och sex olika tungmetaller analyserades. Tre av taken gav så pass höga värden att de överskred satta gränsvärden. Det gröna taket gav höga halter fosfor och löst organiskt material. Taket med TRP-stål gav höga zinkhalter vilket tros bero på den zinkbeläggning som taket har. Taket med PVC-plastduk gav också höga zinkhalter vid en av provtagningarna, men inte lika höga som på TRP-ståltaket. Taken med FPO-plast, som är en mer miljövänlig plastduk, och taket med takpapp gav låga värden och överskred inte några satta gränsvärden. Referensprovet på regnvatten gav hög halt suspenderat material vid en av provtagningarna samt höga blyhalter som överskred gränsvärdena. Slutsatserna av detta projekt är att gröna tak, tak med TRP-stål och tak med PVC-plastduk riskerar att överskrida gränsvärden vilket gör att de lämpar sig sämre för uppsamling av regnvatten än de resterande taken. Resultatet baseras på de två provtagningar som utfördes vilket gör att fler provtagningar bör utföras för att kunna dra den definitiva slutsatsen att dessa tre typer av tak inte lämpar sig för detta ändamål. Taken med FPO-plast och takpapp överskrider inga gränsvärden och kan, utifrån de analyserade parametrarna, lämpa sig för uppsamling av regnvatten. Det är dock viktigt att poängtera att för att kunna återanvända vattnet och garantera att det håller en tillräckligt bra kvalitet behöver fler parametrar analyseras, något som inte kunde genomföras i detta projekt. / Drinking water is vital for our daily life. With climate change comes increasing temperatures and more extreme weather which can jeopardize our access to drinking water. One way to reduce our drinking water consumption is to collect rainwater and use it for processes which have lower quality demands than drinking water. Swedavia is constantly working on making their airports more environmentally friendly and as a part of this reducing the drinking water consumption. This project examines how water can be collected at Swedavia’s airports. The project results should be of intent to all of Swedavia’s airports even if the project is performed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. In this project the water quality from five different types roofs has been studied. The different kind of roofs were chosen based on previous studies where pollutants in roof-harvested rainwater were studied. Other aspects such as location on the airports were also considered. Samplings were collected at two different occasions where water was collected from the different roofs. One sample of clean rainwater was collected as a reference. Five nutrients, dissolved organic matter, suspended matter and six heavy metals were analyzed. Three of the roofs gave water with high values that exceeded the quality limits. The samples from the green roof showed high levels of phosphorus and dissolved organic matter. The steel roof gave high levels of zink which may origin from its zink coating. The roof with PVC plastic also gave high levels of zink, but not as high as the steel roof. The roof with FPO plastic, a more environmentally friendly plastic, and the roof with roof paper gave low values and did not exceed any quality limits. The reference sample of clean rainwater gave high values of suspended matter at the second occasion and high values of lead that exceeded the quality limits. The conclusions of this project are that roof-harvested rainwater from green roofs, steel roofs and roofs with PVC plastic may exceed quality limits which makes them less suitable for collecting and re-use. The results are based on the two sampling occasions which means that sampling at more occations needs to be done to make definitive conclusions. The roofs with FPO plastic and roof paper do not exceed any quality limits and can therefore, according to the analyzed parameters, be suitable for collecting rainwater. It is important to note that to be able to reuse the water and guarantee that the quality of the water does not exceed any quality limits more parameters should be analyzed.

This essay is focused on the re-use during the Bronze Age of the Stone Age passage grave RAÄ 85 in Mysinge, Öland. To increase the knowledge of the phenomena of re-use in general and that which occurred in Mysinge passage grave in particular I’ve looked at other forms of re-use on Öland and the re-use of passage graves in Falbygden. The research has been limited to the Bronze Age. My goal has been to see what this might tell us about the relationship people during the Bronze Age had towards the abstract subject of “non-existence”, in other words death. The research clearly shows that Mysinge passage grave is the oldest grave that were in use during the Bronze Age as a grave, of those known to us, with 1/3 of its dated burials dated to the first half of the Bronze Age and the earliest to early Neolithic. This makes the other three megalithic tombs in the area very interesting since none of them has been excavated. The other forms of re-use of graves that were observed in Öland during the Bronze Age were all later covered by a cairn or a stone packing of some sorts. This most often occurred during the late Bronze Age. However, subsequent burials continued after the construction of the cairn/stone packing throughout the Bronze Age and in most cases into the Iron Age. The cairns/stone packings have a lot in common with the entrance cairn at Mysinge passage grave which also seems to have been constructed during the late Bronze Age. However, while cairns/stone packings mark endings of something they at the same time are monuments of today and are continually being used as a grave (but now according to local burial customs). Entrance cairns on the other hand first and foremost mark endings of something, even though these endings are most likely meant to be remembered. None of the passage graves analysed in this essay in Falbygden indicate the same use of the chamber as Mysinge passage grave. With a few exceptions (Rössberga Rör and Norra Lundby 41) the chamber seems to generally stop being used during Late Neolithic and during the Bronze Age and Iron Age secondary burials in the surrounding mound is instead common. However, it mainly seems to occur during the late Bronze Age and into the Iron Age. Not a single grave in the mound indicate a early Bronze Age date. It is clear that the past often had an important role in the relationship to death and burials during the Bronze Age.

Die Gestaltung betrieblicher Prozesse stellt heute einen wichtigen Wettbewerbsfaktor dar. Um am Markt erfolgreich agieren zu können, ist es notwendig, die eigenen Prozesse konsequent an den Bedürfnissen der Kunden auszurichten. Methoden der Prozessverbesserung beschreiben, welche Schritte hierfür durchzuführen sind. Modelle stellen dabei ein wesentliches Werkzeug für die Visualisierung der betrieblichen Abläufe dar. Gleichwohl wird in bestehenden Methoden der Prozessverbesserung nur unzureichend auf die systematische Nutzung und Wiederverwendung von Modellen eingegangen. Dadurch klafft eine Lücke zwischen erwartetem und tatsächlichem Nutzen des Modelleinsatzes im Rahmen der Prozessverbesserung. So wird insbesondere die methodische Nutzung und Auswertung von Modellen bisher entweder gar nicht oder lediglich isoliert von der Prozessverbesserung betrachtet. Damit existiert zwar eine Vielzahl an methodischen Puzzleteilen, eine durchgängige Unterstützung der Modellerstellung und -nutzung im Rahmen der Prozessverbesserung kann jedoch nicht erkannt werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt sich diesem methodischen Defizit und beschreibt Schritt für Schritt, wie die Verwendung von Modellen im Rahmen der Prozessverbesserung systematisiert werden kann. Damit soll die Nutzung von Modellen im betrieblichen Alltag forciert und der Aufwand für die Modellierung langfristig reduziert werden.

Since the 1980s, regulators in the U.S. and the U.K. have protected the collateral taker's right to re-use securities collateral in securities financing and OTC derivatives markets on the understanding that it would promote liquidity and credit growth, and reduce systemic risk. However, this rationale was incomplete: it failed to acknowledge the full implications of collateral re-use for systemic risk. In this dissertation, I aim to complete that understanding by illustrating how the re-use of securities collateral in those markets can aggravate systemic risk. In particular, I describe two effects. First, re-using securities collateral multiplies the number of market participants that will be exposed to changes in the price of the collateral asset and can thus amplify the role of asset prices as channels of contagion. Second, by conferring a right to re-use, the collateral provider will effectively waive its proprietary interests in the collateral assets and retain a mere contractual claim against the collateral taker for the return of equivalent securities. This transformation will accentuate the incentive of the collateral provider to run from an over-collateralised collateral taker if the latter were to experience financial difficulty. Information asymmetries and a lack of coordination among collateral providers could push the collateral taker over the brink of insolvency. These risks pose an obvious question for regulators: what should we do about collateral re-use? At a time when international bodies are drawing their attention to this widespread market practice, the question is an invitation to a very timely reflection. The final chapter of the dissertation offers an answer to this question and assesses the potential efficacy of the most recent regulatory initiatives in relation to collateral re-use.