Building with burnt clay bricks is part of Sri Lanka's engineering culture. To date, bricks produced by the island's cottage industry have remained the principal building element in the construction of walls. These walls, plastered on both sides, are used mainly as infills or partitions in reinforced concrete buildings except for walls in single storey and two storey buildings carrying light loads. . Neither bricks nor walls in Sri Lanka confirm with standard sizes and vary widely. Brickwork joints too vary also, with significant departures from the norms of other organised construction industries. These variations result in many problems in the industry in what can be described as a disordered or chaotic environment. With material costs far in excess of labour, the status-quo continues without regard to impact on time and costs. The objective of this research is to develop strategies for coping with this 'chaos' and focuses on single brick thick walls. This disorderly environment is profiled with indicators of reasons for departures. Procedures and practices adopted for coping with it are presented as case studies. Methods for computing mortar volumes are developed and validated. The impact of the brick size, joint size, the degree to which the joints are filled, wall thickness, and mortar mix is assessed with respect to mortar consumption, brickwork output, and costs. The study advocates a paradigm shift from the conventional focus of -the 'brick' and the 'joint' to the 'wall' and its 'width. A wall of a given width may be constructed not necessarily with a few discrete sizes of bricks and a standard joint size, but with a variety of brick and joint sizes. This research concludes that the generally perceived 'single best solution' of standardisation is not necessarily the only approach for coping with the existing and emerging future. There are better approaches. It recommends the 'nonstandardisation' route through chaos using its inherent flexibility to advantage in a complex environment. This route is depicted in the form of a map with features of 'universality' of costs, the 'chapparuflexibility' in the wall width, 'geometry of order' in the bed joint, and a 'general specification' for output. The end result is an 'orderly chaos'. The chaos described in Sri Lankan brickwork is different to the 'chaos' as outlined in chaos theory although exhibiting some similarities. This study shows how concepts embodied in chaos theory can be used conceptually and symbolically in furthering understanding on issues related to construction management. The benefits of this research are not limited to Sri Lanka, but are applicable both regionally and internationally. This study whilst laying the foundation for a 'theory on brickwork' suggests that rules for plastered brickwork would not necessarily be the same for exposed brickwork thereby exploring the advantages of such brickwork. It also shows the value of 'decision rules' in coping with chaotic phenomena in an emerging future. It is argued that 'chaos'presents opportunities for a new 'order'.

The greatest task of many international marketing practitioners in host organisations, entails understanding the factors that influence the localisation or standardisation of marketing programmes. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the role of local context in the local strategies of global brands. This paper uses a qualitative case study design of two global brands.Findings – The findings show that the role that emerging macro-level factors of local context play in the local strategies of global brands is in determining the levels at which marketing programs will be standardised or localised.Micro-level factors of local context play the role of a) setting the preconditions for product development and b) determining the extant of productivity that can be achieved in the local contextThe strategic implications that must be considered at the local level when applying a global brand include brand identity standards as well as making specific choices about global or local consumer culture positioning.Practical implications- For practitioners, the practical implications encompass strategic considerations in the course of making decisions to standardise or localise marketing programs.Originality/value – This paper highlights new variations in contextual factors within-countries. It also provides an international perspective that is rooted in local context regarding global marketing intermediaries. Lastly, it explores the strategic implications considered when applying a global brand. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Healthcare in the UK is a very important sector; it provides state of the art accommodation that meets the need of patients, visitors, medical professionals and other staff. The UK Government is currently cutting costs within the different sectors of the economy, while there are raising figures in UK National Health Service (NHS) spending. These are due to a growing and ageing population, advancement in modern healthcare delivery and special needs for different facility users. There is a UK Government proposal set out that requires the delivery of ??15-20 billion in efficiency savings over the three year period from 2011 (Department of Health, 2010-2015). This study has understood that cost savings can be achieved by adopting and implementing a framework that supports refurbishment, flexibility, standardisation and Building Information Modelling (BIM). These cost savings can be achieved through Mechanical Engineering and Plumbing (MEP) clash detections using (BIM). 65% of hospital designs are centred on MEP services (interviews). The NHS needs to save cost when responding to possible future changes without compromising the quality of standard provided to the public. A change-ready healthcare facility is proposed to address the issue of change and the design of quality spaces that can enhance effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of health and social care. A change-ready healthcare facility can be described as a facility that accommodates known or proposed future changes creating novel pathways to increase the quality and life span of facilities. There is also a large chunk of NHS estates that is underutilised EC Harris, (2013). Therefore, healthcare facilities need to respond to future changes in order to optimise their spaces. To achieve quality and cost efficiency in healthcare buildings, key considerations are refurbishment and reconfiguration, optimisation of flexibility, maximising standardisation and implementation of BIM. This research explores opportunities to save costs, time and improve quality of healthcare facilities by making emphasis on the design delivery process. Therefore, the new RIBA Plan of Work 2013 was used as a mechanism to help translate ideas into physical form and yet has been hindered by lack of development and ability to keep up with technological development such as BIM. This is the rationale for developing a framework. The RIBA Plan of Work is accepted nationally. Due to the UK BIM mandate by 2016, this research is focused on the use of BIM to support both space standardisation and space flexibility within a refurbished or new building. Space is a vital component competent in every healthcare facility. It provides the environment for healthcare services to be performed, and links one functional space to another, it can be designed for multifunctional usage. Healthcare spaces are complex entities due to the range of services and technology they support and the number, variety and quality of requirement combined with a rapidly changing environment. Flexibility enables a facility to easily respond to changes, while the introduction of standardisation supports staff performance by reducing the reliance on memory which will reduce human error. But the main question that emerges from current literature is how healthcare designers and planners manage healthcare spaces that cannot easily be standardised due to the constraints of existing structures, diversity in patient and staff needs? With analysis of different flexibility frameworks in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, there is a need to improve the existing frameworks. Therefore, a framework for designing a change-ready healthcare facility was developed through a sequence of data analysis starting with literature, preliminary data, questionnaire survey and interviews. Three frameworks for designing a change-ready facility were revised, organised and merged to produce a state of the art framework. Three frameworks were revised as different research methods were required. The successful framework can guide the design process of embedding different flexible design options for a defined project brief to save costs and improve design efficiency. The framework was validated with some of the top 100 architectural practices in the UK, NHS Estates, facility managers and the RIBA through an interview process. Further research and development arising from this research focuses on the process of applying BIM to record or identify key decisions taken for each of the different design options generated from a single brief to inform the designers, clients or other stakeholders involved while collaborating. Findings of this research are described in five peer-reviewed papers. The only certainty in healthcare is change Gressel and Hilands, (2008).

In the diachronic studies of Afrikaans in the past, the focus used to be on the origin and early development of Afrikaans from Dutch. During the twentieth century, the philological school, with a tradition of researching all Cape-Dutch coloured texts in detail, was established through the work of J. du P. Scholtz and his students. Through their analyses, they estimated the stabilisation of Afrikaans as early as the end of the eighteenth century (for example Raidt, 1991:145; Ponelis, 1994:229). In the past few decades, however, this estimation has begun to receive criticism from other scholars, including Roberge (1994:159) and Deumert (2004:20). With the help of a corpus, Deumert (2004) has shown that there is substantial variation in Afrikaans letters as late as the early twentieth century, and this study expands on her work by researching the variation in published writing. This is done by focusing on verbs, as there is significant change from the Dutch verbal system to the Afrikaans verbal system. This study uses corpus linguistic research methods, and researches Dutch-Afrikaans variation in verbs in published Afrikaans texts, compiled in three corpora. The main corpus was compiled from all the Afrikaans writings of Totius (J.D. du Toit) in the publication Het Kerkblad from 1916 to 1922. Two control corpora are also used: the first was compiled from excerpts from published Afrikaans books for the same period, and the second was compiled from excerpts from Afrikaans periodicals for the same period. In order to compensate for the shortcomings of corpus data alone, normative works on Afrikaans from the relevant period are also taken into account, and there is shown which recommendations these works made about the relevant constructions, and how the corpus data correlates with these recommendations. Variation in six verbal constructions are analysed in this study: 1. End consonant t/n (for example gaat/gaan): the old (more Dutch) word forms are scarcely used in the corpora, while the modern Afrikaans word forms are almost fully established. 2. End consonant g (for example seg/sê): the old word forms are also scarcely used in the corpora, while the modern word forms take the lead. 3. Stem vowel (for example breng/bring): the old word forms are more frequent at the beginning of the period, followed by some uncertainty, with the modern word forms taking over by the end of the period. 4. Preterite (specifically had/gehad and werd/geword): there is great instability throughout, worsened by a distinction in use between main verbs and auxiliary verbs made by some authors. 5. Past participle (for example gedaan/gedoen): there is significant instability at the beginning of the period, but the modern word forms are used more frequently by the end of the period. 6. Perfect tense auxiliary verb (is/het): the old form is still used in the corpora, but the modern form is more frequent from the beginning, and becomes even more frequent towards the end. This data shows that there was still significant variation in Afrikaans under Dutch influence as late as the early twentieth century, and the correlation between the different corpora implies that the written language might have been much closer to the spoken language than had been previously assumed. It is further confirmed by the amount of attention this variation gets in the normative works from that period. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

Les microparticules (MP) sont des vésicules qui résultent du bourgeonnement des membranesdes cellules activées ou apoptotiques. Leur capacité à vectoriser des systèmes fonctionnelsexprimés par leurs cellules d’origine nous a conduit à explorer, la génération de plasmine àleur surface. Dans un premier travail, nous montrons que les MP dérivées de cellulesendothéliales (MPE) sont des surfaces catalytiques capables d’activer le plasminogène par lesystème de l’urokinase et de son récepteur (uPA/uPAR). Les MPE agissent comme desvecteurs de plasmine constituant une nouvelle voie dans la régulation des activitésprotéolytiques de l’endothélium. Dans un second travail, nous avons montré que l’uPA portéepar les cellules ou par les MPE est spécifiquement impliquée dans un mécanismereconnaissance du plasminogène lié à une autre surface biologique générant de la plasmine insitu avec une grande efficacité. Dans un troisième travail, nous montrons que cette activitéfibrinolytique est détectable sur les MP extraites de la circulation sanguine, où elle est plusspécifiquement portée par les sous populations endothéliales et leucocytaires. Cette activitéqui est dépendante de l’uPA mais aussi de l’activateur tissulaire du plasminogène, estmodulée dans des pathologies cardiovasculaires et auto-immunes. Dans une seconde partie, lapertinence de la mesure des MP comme biomarqueur en pratique clinique nous a amené ànous focaliser sur leurs méthodes d’analyse. En effet, à l’heure actuelle, l’évaluation dubénéfice apporté par les MP est limitée par un manque de standardisation des méthodologies.Dans ce travail, nous présentons une nouvelle stratégie de standardisation de la cytométrie enflux (CMF) et son évaluation dans le cadre d’une étude multicentrique utilisant des microbillesfluorescentes calibrées en taille. Enfin, nous discutons dans une revue les limitesactuelles de la CMF et les stratégies ou améliorations technologiques permettant de lesdépasser. / Microparticles (MP) are small vesicles resulting from the blebbing of cell membranes in response to activation or apoptosis. Because they express functional molecules from their parent cells, plasmin generation at their surface has been explored. First we have shown that endothelial derived MP (EMP) promote plasminogen activation at their surface in an urokinase and its receptor (uPA/uPAR) dependant manner. Thus, plasmin generation by EMP constitutes a new pathway for the regulation of the endothelium proteolytic activities. Second, we have shown that cellular or MP uPA is specifically involved in the recognition and effective activation of plasminogen bound to another biological surface. Third, we have demonstrated that circulating endothelial and leukocytes MP bear this plasminogenolytic activity which it not only uPA but also tissue-type plasminogen activator dependant and modulate in pathological settings such as cardiovascular and auto-immune diseases. Supported by this work, a patent on a method to measure MP plasmin activity has been filed. In a second part, we focused on analytical methods available to measure MP. Indeed, there is an increasing interest to measure MP as biomarker in clinical practice. However, the evaluation of their input for patients is impeding by methodological concerns and a lack of standardization so far. In this work, we present a new strategy based a size-calibrated fluorescent beads for the standardization of flow cytometry (FCM). This approach was evaluated in a multicentre study. Finally, we reviewed the present limitation of the FCM for MP measurement and the strategies or technological improvements to overcome them.

Faculty of Humanities School of Education 0002687e kenbenneth@yahoo.com / This is a phenomenological study that studies a small group (5) of adult learners and two (2) teachers at E.W. Hobbs ABET center in Eldoradopark, and investigates how the colloquial Afrikaans spoken in Eldoradopark and the home environment influences the learners’ competency in the classroom where ‘standard’ Afrikaans is required. The study revealed that standard Afrikaans is a requirement across the curriculum at this center, but is only rigorously applied in the Afrikaans class. This proved to have an impact on learning as colloquial Afrikaans is accepted in all other classes except the Afrikaans class. The implications of this is that the curriculum should be reevaluated and adjusted to implement standard Afrikaans in all learning areas, or accept colloquial Afrikaans in all subjects, including the Afrikaans class.

In the diachronic studies of Afrikaans in the past, the focus used to be on the origin and early development of Afrikaans from Dutch. During the twentieth century, the philological school, with a tradition of researching all Cape-Dutch coloured texts in detail, was established through the work of J. du P. Scholtz and his students. Through their analyses, they estimated the stabilisation of Afrikaans as early as the end of the eighteenth century (for example Raidt, 1991:145; Ponelis, 1994:229). In the past few decades, however, this estimation has begun to receive criticism from other scholars, including Roberge (1994:159) and Deumert (2004:20). With the help of a corpus, Deumert (2004) has shown that there is substantial variation in Afrikaans letters as late as the early twentieth century, and this study expands on her work by researching the variation in published writing. This is done by focusing on verbs, as there is significant change from the Dutch verbal system to the Afrikaans verbal system. This study uses corpus linguistic research methods, and researches Dutch-Afrikaans variation in verbs in published Afrikaans texts, compiled in three corpora. The main corpus was compiled from all the Afrikaans writings of Totius (J.D. du Toit) in the publication Het Kerkblad from 1916 to 1922. Two control corpora are also used: the first was compiled from excerpts from published Afrikaans books for the same period, and the second was compiled from excerpts from Afrikaans periodicals for the same period. In order to compensate for the shortcomings of corpus data alone, normative works on Afrikaans from the relevant period are also taken into account, and there is shown which recommendations these works made about the relevant constructions, and how the corpus data correlates with these recommendations. Variation in six verbal constructions are analysed in this study: 1. End consonant t/n (for example gaat/gaan): the old (more Dutch) word forms are scarcely used in the corpora, while the modern Afrikaans word forms are almost fully established. 2. End consonant g (for example seg/sê): the old word forms are also scarcely used in the corpora, while the modern word forms take the lead. 3. Stem vowel (for example breng/bring): the old word forms are more frequent at the beginning of the period, followed by some uncertainty, with the modern word forms taking over by the end of the period. 4. Preterite (specifically had/gehad and werd/geword): there is great instability throughout, worsened by a distinction in use between main verbs and auxiliary verbs made by some authors. 5. Past participle (for example gedaan/gedoen): there is significant instability at the beginning of the period, but the modern word forms are used more frequently by the end of the period. 6. Perfect tense auxiliary verb (is/het): the old form is still used in the corpora, but the modern form is more frequent from the beginning, and becomes even more frequent towards the end. This data shows that there was still significant variation in Afrikaans under Dutch influence as late as the early twentieth century, and the correlation between the different corpora implies that the written language might have been much closer to the spoken language than had been previously assumed. It is further confirmed by the amount of attention this variation gets in the normative works from that period. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

No description available.

No / This paper examines the concept of mass customisation from the point of view of the customer. Although the theory of mass customisation has received considerable attention in recent years, the emphasis has been on identifying and classifying the ways in which mass customisation can be implemented efficiently and effectively. There appears to have been no empirical evidence to support the notion that customers are indeed ready for this approach. The aim of this study is to examine how far customers are ¿ready¿ for mass-customised products, using the UK new car market as its basis for analysis. A framework is developed and results presented which suggest that a sizeable section of the market is ready to accept the ¿inconveniences¿ of mass-customised products. However, the main inconvenience of mass customisation is identified as increased price, even for ¿ready¿ customers. It would seem, therefore, that both global standardisation and mass customisation strategies are appropriate in this market.

Cette thèse étudie le rôle des brevets essentiels pour la coordination de l'innovation dans les standards des Nouvelles Technologies d'Information et de Communication (NTIC). Les firmes actives dans la standardisation ont réagi au défi de la marée de brevets essentiels en créant des mécanismes innovateurs de coordination, et notamment des consortia informels de standardisation et des pools de brevets. La thèse met en lumière le mécanisme d'appropriation original que représentent les brevets essentiels. Ce mécanisme peut cependant générer des incitations à recourir à des stratégies opportunistes. Les pools de brevets peuvent exacerber ces incitations, mais induisent également une augmentation du nombre de brevets déposés autour des standards technologiques. Les consortia informels ont un effet positif sur le nombre de brevets liés aux standards si les incitations à innover sont insuffisantes. L'effet des consortia est plus faible, voire négatif, si les incitations à innover sont excessives. Les brevets essentiels influencent le progrès technologique des standards, notamment en donnant lieu à un progrès plus continu, consistant dans de nombreuses mises à jour et évitant les remplacements de standards.