Persuasive Engagement: Exploiting lifestyle as a driving force to promote energy-aware use patterns and behaviours.

Electricity consumption has been rising significantly in the western world the last decades and this has affected the environment negatively. Efficient use and more energy conservative usage patterns could be ways to approach this problem. However, electricity has for a long time actively been hidden away and it is rarely thought of unless it ceases to exist. From the perspective of critical design, we have been working to find methods to visualise electricity and electricity consumption in everyday life to promote environmentally positive behavioural change. In this paper, we are looking at how aspects of lifestyles can be used in design as central driving forces that could lead to changed behaviour. Attempts to promote behavioural changes related to energy consumption might be successfully carried out when people are offered desirable alternatives that are engaging and that do not impose a perceived extra burden in their everyday life. This argument is exemplified through two design concepts, the AWARE Laundry Lamp and the Energy Plant, which are examples on how to increase people’s energy awareness and offer them means for reducing their energy consumption in the home. Both prototypes are inspired by current trends in lifestyle as well as actual observed user behaviour. Keywords: Interaction Design; Sustainable Design; Energy; Lifestyle; Persuasive Design</p

A Historical Review of Imitation in Literature

no abstrac

EDUFORM

EduForum is a project that has been constructed to fulfil a niche in the learning management system market. The current learning management system market is comprised of mainly large, well-funded, and highly entrenched offerings. The trend in the market has been shifting recently away from some of these legacy offerings towards some of their newer competitors. This trend holds true in the for-profit marker, but no true competitor has emerged to challenge the market’s largest open-source offering, Moodle. EduForum hopes to be the offering to fill this role by using a number of new methodologies and technologies to create a robust and user friendly offering. EduForum has been constructed to be easy to develop new features for, to be user-friendly, and to meet the learning needs of all potential users. The project was constructed during the course of two semesters at Dakota State University. The project was broken into distinct phases that encompassed the conception, project planning, and project implementation. The tooling of the project was designed to allow for the easy development of new features so as to facilitate its easy expansion. The development of the project was further broken down into development sprints so as to take advantage of an agile methodology. Utilizing this methodology during development allowed for project development focus to methodically shift focus to respond to perceived issues or to focus in a different direction. Additionally, “ Developing in short, time-boxed iterations and demonstrating to stakeholders early and often enables teams and stakeholders to agree when the product has met each of the needs” (Ekas, 2012

Preface

no abstrac

Spengler's Theory and Middle Eastern Literature

no abstrac

Analysis and Implementation of an Age Structured Model of the Cell Cycle

In an age-structured model originating from cancer research, the cell cycle is divided into two phases: Phase 1 of variable length, consisting of the biologically so called G1 phase, and Phase 2 of fixed length, consisting of the so called S, G2 and M phases. A system of nonlinear PDEs along with initial and boundary data describes the number densities of cells in the two phases, depending on time and age (where age is the time spent in a phase). It has been shown that the initial and boundary value problem can be rewritten as a coupled system of integral equations, which in this M.Sc. thesis is implemented in Matlab using the trapezoidal and Simpson rule. In the special case where the cells are allowed to grow without restrictions, the system is uncoupled and possible to study analytically, whereas otherwise, a nonlinearity has to be solved in every step of the iterative equation solving. The qualitative behaviour is investigated numerically and analytically for a wide range of model components. This includes investigations of the notions of crowding, i.e. that cell division is restricted for large population sizes, and quorum sensing, i.e. that a small enough tumour can eliminate itself through cell signalling. In simulations, we also study under what conditions an almost eliminated tumour relapses after completed therapy. Moreover, upper bounds for the number of dividing cells at the end of Phase 2 at time t are determined for specific cases, where the bounds are found to depend on the existence of so called cancer stem cells. Lastly, a careful error analysis of the Matlab implementation is performed both in a linear and in a nonlinear case.I en åldersbaserad modell av cellcykeln som härstammar från cancerforskning kan cellcykeln delas in i två faser: en av variabel längd och en av fix längd. Det totala antalet celler i en tumör kan, tillsammans med antalet celler som just avslutat en cykel och ska genomgå celldelning, beskrivas genom ett system av integralekvationer. I arbetet studeras detta system dels analytiskt och dels numeriskt, genom förfinad implementering av modellen i Matlab och simulering för många olika val av modellens ingående komponenter. Bland annat undersöks huruvida återväxt av en tumör efter avslutad behandling beror av så kallade cancerstamceller

Proposals to Establish a Nordic Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone

Today, after a long silence, the Nordic States are again investigating the idea of establishing a Nordic nuclear-weapon-free zone. The renewed exchange of views is no doubt partly related to the continuing development of nuclear weapons and partly to the fear that even in circumstances where nuclear weapons would not be used against the Nordic States they present a threat to the region should major war break out. This fear was mentioned by Dr. Urho Kekkonen, the President of the Republic of Finland, in an address he delivered at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm on May 8, 1978. He referred in this context especially to mini-nukes, precision-guided munitions, neutron bombs and cruise missiles. The use of such weapons cannot leave Northern Europe immune

Summary of Part II

no abstrac

Index

no abstrac

Materialisation of emergent farmers in a Malawian context : a privileged class’ positioning in agricultural transformation

Emergent farmers have rapidly increased in numbers on the sub-Saharan African continent during the last couple of decades. The main interest in this study lies in how emergent farmers have materialised as a class in a political economic context and historical process and what societal impact they have had. Emergent farmers as a class are understood as capable of reproducing their means of subsistence and creating surplus value without having to own their means of production. Mkanda Extension Planning Area (EPA) in Malawi has served as the empirical area for this matter. During the fieldwork, 31 persons were interviewed. The interviews gave insights into farmers’ living conditions. An explorative survey was also conducted with 31 informants, of which 13 persons also participated in the interviews. The explorative survey provided an overview of farm characteristics in the area. In addition, two focus group discussions were held to gain perspective on shared experiences among farmer groups regarding the positioning of emergent farmers, how they and other types of farmers can be classified and how the relationship between farmers appear. The field work was combined with a desk study to investigate political, socioeconomic and environmental conditions through which emergent farmers have materialised. Emergent farmers in Mkanda EPA have materialised through inheritance and acquisition of property such as land; other natural resources; material assets and technology. They have grown through extension service and credit regimes; sales of cash crops and livestock; agribusinesses; incomes from employment and off-farm activities. They have advanced through family and class support; labour power control; strategic utilisation of volatile agricultural markets and income diversification. They have progressed through agricultural institutions, political favouritism and resource exchange with state representatives; traditional authorities; traders; investors; large-scale buyers and other farmer groups. Emergent farmers have contributed to and been shaped by the development of the capitalist mode of production during Malawi’s postcolonial history. The farmer class has enabled increased capital investments and accumulation and contributed to new businesses; production methods; market directions and means of livelihood in rural areas. They have provided links between local production conditions; extraction of raw material; capital exchange; means of profit and growth opportunities. At the same time, emergent farmers have constituted a minority that has served certain class interests. While emergent farmers have influenced the socioeconomic and ecological dynamics in rural places such as Mkanda EPA, the class has maintained structures that have reproduced inequality among the population