Examining Visitor Attitudes and Motivations at a Space Science Centre

The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is a multi-faceted organization whose mission is to educate, inspire and evoke a sense of wonder about the universe, our planet and space exploration. As a popular, Vancouver science centre, it faces the same range of challenges and issues as other major attractions: how does the Space Centre maintain a healthy public attendance in an increasingly competitive market where visitors continue to be presented with an increasingly rich range of choices for their leisure spending and entertainment dollars?This front-end study investigated visitor attitudes, thoughts and preconceptions on the topic of space and astronomy. It also examined visitors’ motivations for coming to a space science centre. Useful insights were obtained which will be applied to improve future programme content and exhibit development.

Kriminalitetens geografi : vardagsbrottslighetens spatiala fördelning i Borlänge

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze the geographical distribution of everyday criminality in the town of Borlänge during the year 2002 and to analyze which measures to be taken in the physical social planning to decrease this everyday criminality there. The term everyday criminality is here to be understood as those categories of crime that appear most frequently in the records of reports to the police every year. Here two kinds of crime have been in focus, thefts from cars and office burglary.In fulfilling this aim two main questions have been answered. The first one is how the everyday criminality was distributed geographically in the town of Borlänge during the year 2002. The second one is which measures to be taken in the physical social planning to decrease this everyday criminality in the town of Borlänge.In order to answer the first question a spatial autocorrelation analysis, Local Moran LISA has been used. This method is based on the measurement Moran´s I and shows the spatial autocorrelation for every single location. To answer the second question three different theories of crime prevention through environmental design have been studied and applied in the analysis. These are Jane Jacobs’ ideas about ”the living city”, Oscar Newman´s ideas about ”defensible space” and Ronald V. Clarke´s theories about crime prevention.The major conclusions that can be drawn from this thesis are that the risk of being exposed to thefts from cars, during the analyzed time period, was highest in Centrum and Hagalund and their surroundings. The lowest risk of being exposed to this type of crime was found in Domnarvet and Islingby, during the year 2002. The highest risk of being a victim of the crime office burglary was found in Hagalund and its surroundings and in the single area of Kvarnsveden. The corresponding lowest risk was found in Lergärdet and its surroundings and in Norra Backa and Kupolen. The measures that should be taken in order to decrease these types of criminality can be divided into overall changes and place-specific changes. When it comes to the crime thefts from cars a more attractive central business district, a better view of parking lots from nearby buildings, dividing of larger parking lot zones into smaller ones, migration of hidden parking lots and stronger access control to parking lots where problems with this kind of crime have occurred have been suggested as overall changes. The corresponding place-specific changes are to remove vegetation that is blocking the view, better lighting and to put up signs with information about increased risk of exposure to crime at parking lots with the most problems. To decrease the amount of office burglaries overall changes as to create a better view of the area from nearby surroundings, move bigger office compartments or divide them into smaller units, rebuild characteristic buildings and increase security by strengthening the access control to offices with these kinds of problems could be useful. Finally there are possibilities to decrease office burglary by using place-specific measures as surveillance cameras combined with signs containing information about these, high fences and better lighting around the buildings where a higher risk of being exposed to this kind of criminality is present.

Economic Evaluation of a Solar Charged Thermal Energy Store for Space Heating

A thermal energy store corrects the misalignment of heating demand in the winter relative to solar thermal energy gathered in the summer. This thesis reviews the viability of a solar charged hot water tank thermal energy store for a school at latitude 56.25N, longitude -120.85W

Solar Collectors for Historic Homes : Linking consumption to perceptions of space

Reduction of household energy consumption is one of the top issues in contemporary discussions on sustainable consumption. This chapter concerns one way through which consumption of purchased energy for house heating can be reduced; by having a solar thermal system added to one's house. However, the fact that one of the components - the solar collector - usually is situated on the roof or the facade of a building, is a recurrent impediment to such installations. In certain contexts, these attributes may melt into the building, while in others, they may be perceived as problematic. The latter may particularly be the case when the appearance of the building is of major imiportance, as with houses deemed worthy of preservation for coming generations. This chapter draws upon a study carried out in Visby Town, a walled Hanseatic town and a World Heritage site on the island of Gotland, Sweden.

‘Being in a womb’ or ‘playing musical chairs’ : the impact of place and space on infant feeding in NICUs

Background: Becoming a parent of a preterm baby requiring neonatal care constitutes an extraordinary life situation in which parenting begins and evolves in a medical and unfamiliar setting. Although there is increasing emphasis within maternity and neonatal care on the influence of place and space upon the experiences of staff and service users, there is a lack of research on how space and place influence relationships and care in the neonatal environment. The aim of this study was to explore, in-depth, the impact of place and space on parents’ experiences and practices related to feeding their preterm babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) in Sweden and England. Methods: An ethnographic approach was utilised in two NICUs in Sweden and two comparable units in England, UK. Over an eleven month period, a total of 52 mothers, 19 fathers and 102 staff were observed and interviewed. A grounded theory approach was utilised throughout data collection and analysis. Results: The core category of ‘the room as a conveyance for an attuned feeding’ was underpinned by four categories: the level of ‘ownership’ of space and place; the feeling of ‘at-homeness’; the experience of ‘the door or a shield’ against people entering, for privacy, for enabling a focus within, and for regulating socialising and the; ‘window of opportunity’. Findings showed that the construction and design of space and place was strongly influential on the developing parent-infant relationship and for experiencing a sense of connectedness and a shared awareness with the baby during feeding, an attuned feeding. Conclusions: If our proposed model is valid, it is vital that these findings are considered when developing or reconfiguring NICUs so that account is taken of the influences of spatiality upon parent’s experiences. Even without redesign there are measures that may be taken to make a positive difference for parents and their preterm babies.

Un estudio de La Sombra del Viento de Carlos RuizZafón desde una perspectiva de género

Esta tesina tiene el propósito de analizar las características de algunos de lospersonajes principales de La Sombra del Viento de Carlos Ruiz Zafón desde un punto de vistade género. El estudio se basa en diferentes teorías de género que pretenden funcionar comoherramientas para poder destacar las diferencias entre las descripciones femeninas y lasmasculinas que aparecen en la obra. Primero, definimos y concretamos el término género conla ayuda de las teorías de Yvonne Hirdman. En segundo lugar, presentamos la teoría deldualismo, de acuerdo con la cual Lena Gemzöe hace una división entre las cualidadesmasculinas y femeninas. El objetivo de nuestro estudio ha sido hacer un análisis de lascaracterísticas de algunos de los personajes principales de para demostrar si existenconstrucciones de identidad de género desde una perspectiva dualista. Como resultado denuestro estudio podemos afirmar que Zafón refuerza la división entre las cualidadesmasculinas y femeninas. Los personajes masculinos son descritos como fuertes, valientes,lógicos, intelectuales e independientes. Paralelamente, las mujeres son descritas como débiles,cobardes, intuitivas y dependientes. Además, consideramos que Zafón da a todos lospersonajes masculinos mayor espacio, estatus y protagonismo en el desarrollo de la historia.En todo momento, queda claro que Zafón crea de forma inconsciente el orden de género yrefuerza así las diferencias sexuales.

Trips and their CO2 emissions induced by a shopping center

Most previous studies have focused on entire trips in a geographic region, while a few of them addressed trips induced by a city landmark. Therefore paper explores trips and their CO2 emissions induced by a shopping center from a time-space perspective and their usage in relocation planning. This is conducted by the means of a case study in the city of Borlänge in mid-Sweden where trips to the city’s largest shopping mall in its center are examined. We use GPS tracking data of car trips that end and start at the shopping center. Thereafter, (1) we analyze the traffic emission patterns from a time-space perspective where temporal patterns reveal an hourly-based traffic emission dynamics and where spatial patterns uncover a heterogeneous distribution of traffic emissions in spatial areas and individual street segments. Further, (2) this study reports that most of the observed trips follow an optimal route in terms of CO2 emissions. In this respect, (3) we evaluate how well placed the current shopping center is through a comparison with two competing locations. We conclude that the two suggested locations, which are close to the current shopping center, do not show a significant improvement in term of CO2 emissions.