http://dspace1.isd.glam.ac.uk:80/dspace/handle/10265/309 2013-05-22T11:34:13Z 2013-05-22T11:34:13Z Oti, Jonathan E. http://dspace1.isd.glam.ac.uk:80/dspace/handle/10265/664 2013-05-01T14:31:01Z 2013-04-30T23:00:00Z

Title: The development of unfired clay building materials for sustainable building construction Authors: Oti, Jonathan E. Abstract: Currently there is a growing pressure on energy efficiency for new buildings in the UK and worldwide. This has arisen partly due to the increasing awareness of the public for sustainable building construction. In addition, there is pressure on building materials manufacturers, due to new government regulations and legislations that are targeting energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions in new buildings. This research work reports on unfired clay building materials (unfired clay bricks) technology for sustainable building construction. The technology aims at the reduction of the high energy input, especially that arising from firing clay bricks in kilns. The research has investigated the use of lime or Portland cement as an activator to an industrial by-product (Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag-GGBS) to stabilise Lower Oxford Clay (LOC). Portland cement was used in the formulation of the unfired clay brick tests specimens predominantly as a control. The development of an unfired clay brick in this current work is considered by the researcher as a significant scientific breakthrough for the building industry. Another breakthrough is the fact that only about 1.5% lime was used for GGBS activation. This is a very low level of usage of lime that is not comparable to, or sufficient for, most road construction applications, where far less strength values are needed and where 3-8% lime is required for effective soil stabilisation. Hence, the final pricing of the unfired clay brick is expected to be relatively low. Industrial scale brick specimens were produced during two separate industrial trials. The first trial was at Hanson Brick Company Ltd, Bedfordshire, UK, while the second was carried out at PD Edenhall Ltd, Bridgend, South Wales, UK. The results clearly demonstrate that all key parameters such as compressive strength, thermal properties and durability were within the acceptable engineering standards for clay masonry units. From the environmental and sustainability analysis results, the unfired clay material has shown energy-efficiency and suggests a formidable economical alternative to the firing of clay building components. This study is one of the earliest attempts to compare fired and unfired clay technology, and also to combine energy use and CO2 emission for unfired clay bricks relative to those bricks used in mainstream construction. This is an attempt to come up with one parameter rating. The overall results suggest that the spinoff from this technology is an invaluable resource for civil engineers and other built environment professionals who need quick access to up-to-date and accurate information about the qualities of various building and construction materials.

2013-04-30T23:00:00Z D'Arcy, Geraint http://dspace1.isd.glam.ac.uk:80/dspace/handle/10265/663 2013-05-02T00:00:18Z 2013-04-30T23:00:00Z

Title: Towards an aesthetics of theatre technology Authors: D'Arcy, Geraint Abstract: This thesis establishes groundwork for producing an aesthetic language for theatre technology by creating and testing a model for looking at theatre technologies in a critical manner. This model has several functions: Firstly it identifies theatre technology as something which can have a specific or a psycho-plastic scenographic effect. Through processes of re-invigoration and diversification the model allows a device to be regarded in its own context while historiologically allowing for precedent technologies to be acknowledged and compared. Lastly, because the model is ouroboric, self-consuming, it accounts for theatre technologies to be able to interpolate (and be interpolated by) other technologies whilst maintaining its own aesthetic integrity. This allows a critic to treat technology as a text rather than as a medium, and therefore enables it to be closely "read" as a text of the stage affording the technology a content of its own. Through problematising this model against theories of media and remediation, the thesis observes that the common critical position in theatre and performance studies is to treat theatre technology merely as a theatrical technē -- a tool or craft of the art. The arguments presented in the thesis reposition theatre technology from the position of craft to a position of art -- as alētheia, an artistic truth revealed through poiētic means. In the repositioning of attitudes towards technology, and by identifying theatre technologies as separate alētheuein, this thesis is then able to investigate theatre technologies aesthetically. Examining the contexts of technologies through the ouroboric model, and then critically studying their content, usage and meaning textually, this thesis is able to take a theatrical technological effect and begin to identify its affect. It posits that technology as an art in its own right can be aesthetically criticised and awarded meaning of equal weight to other elements of performance and theatre art.

2013-04-30T23:00:00Z Woodburn, Diana http://dspace1.isd.glam.ac.uk:80/dspace/handle/10265/605 2012-08-08T00:00:32Z 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Understanding key account management Authors: Woodburn, Diana Abstract: This document is presented in three parts, i.e. Part 1, ‘The context of ‘Understanding Key Account Management’, positions the portfolio of work in terms of its contribution to knowledge within the literature of Key Account Management and its underlying theories, and relative to alternative research methodologies: Part 2: ‘Understanding Key Account Management’, starting on page 31, gives an account of the author’s research and knowledge development activities in Key Account Management in chronological order, to link together the material submitted as the portfolio of work (listed below). Each part has its own separate list of contents and references. The portfolio of work forms Part 3 of the document, but only the research reports from 2006-2009 are included here: the other reports, articles and books are not available electronically or are published with copyright restrictions.

2011-01-01T00:00:00Z Davis, Ruth Elizabeth http://dspace1.isd.glam.ac.uk:80/dspace/handle/10265/604 2012-11-02T01:00:20Z 2012-08-06T23:00:00Z

Title: Advancing nursing jurisdiction in diabetes care Authors: Davis, Ruth Elizabeth Abstract: Nursing has its own unique contribution to make to diabetes care, but that impact is rarely quantified, measured or conceptualised. The thesis makes this contribution in the form of three published research projects and proposes an adaptation to Abbott’s conceptual framework on the division of expert labour. The first research project demonstrates the value of the hospital based diabetes specialist nurse using a randomised controlled trial; the second delineates the competences of different levels of nurses in diabetes care using a nominal group technique and the third project provides a baseline of the state of nursing in relation to the initiation of insulin therapy using a survey approach. Each project is followed by a personal reflection and discussion of the implications in the light of Abbott’s framework. Abbott’s thesis is that the development of professions is determined by a series of jurisdictional disputes rather than by a grand plan of the professions themselves. While this assertion does not always hold true in diabetes care the studies do concur with Abbott in other ways, particularly that the profession can be taken forward by taking responsibility for appropriate educational preparation, extending the boundaries of knowledge and the nursing role where appropriate. The discussion cautions against setting up professional edifices that become self-serving and stifle development, either by rigid enforcement of competences or by fossilising the nursing contribution to diabetes care. In terms of the care of the person with diabetes, nursing remains most effective within the umbrella of a multi-disciplinary team while demonstrating its own contribution. Nursing should show professionalism by continually striving for excellence, developing new knowledge and pushing role boundaries when it is in the best interests of the patient. The original contribution to knowledge is shown in the research projects’ contribution to the evolution of diabetes nursing in the United Kingdom and the proposal that Abbott’s framework be modified to put more emphasis on the task of work to achieve optimum patient outcomes than on the jostling of professions; acknowledging the growth in multi-disciplinary team-working and rise in the power of organisations at the expense of the power of individual professions since his work was first published.

2012-08-06T23:00:00Z