Center for the Study of Free Reed Instruments Collection, 1947-2011 Finding Aid

The Center for the Study of Free-Reed Instruments Collection is an archival collection at the City University of New York Graduate Center’s Mina Rees Library which contains materials donated by Professor Allan W. Atlas, related to free-reed instruments and the International Concertina Association.

Nyttan med virtuella provrum : En utvärderingsstudie av virtuella provrum för online-shopping, med fokus på användbarhet.

Den relativt nya företeelsen BrandME – I am the brand är en eTjänst som fungerar som ett virtuellt provrum och därmed gör det möjligt att kunna prova på kläder virtuellt. Till sin hjälp har man bland annat använt sig av 3D-grafik samt databaser. BrandME är en produkt av det kanadensiska företaget My Virtual Model, ett företag som har arbetat med att sätta standarder för virtuell identitet sedan år 2000.Då denna företeelse är relativ ny, skapar detta utrymme för undersökning och bedömning om huruvida välutvecklad och välanpassad BrandME är. Undersökningens syfte är att utvärdera BrandME för att sedan kunna fastställa nyttan med denna eTjänst. Under utvärderingen koncentrerar vi oss dels på användbarheten hos BrandME och dels på utformningen av BrandME.

Travel Report from the first field trip within the SIDA supported project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility : Including visits to Ihushi Development Center, Tweyambe Secondary School and Mavuno Project in Tanzania. Conducted in April 2011

This report describes the outcome of the first visit to Tanzania, within the project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility". The trip included visits to three different organizations; Ihushi Development Center (IDC) near Mwanza, TIDESO near Bukoba, and Mavuno Project in Karagwe. At IDC, a brief evaluation of the current power system was done and measuring equipment for long term measurements were installed. At all three locations investigations regarding the current and future electricity demand were conducted and connections to people relevant to the study were established. The report is including as well some technical specifications as some observations regarding organization and management of the technical systems. The trip was including only short visits and therefore only brief introductions to the different organizations, based on observations done by the author. The report is hence describing the author’s understanding of the technical system and social structures after only short visits to each of the organizations, and may differ from observations done at another point in time, over a different time period, or by some other person.This report describes the outcome of the first visit to Tanzania, within the project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility". The trip included visits to three different organizations; Ihushi Development Center (IDC) near Mwanza, TIDESO near Bukoba, and Mavuno Project in Karagwe. At IDC, a brief evaluation of the current power system was done and measuring equipment for long term measurements were installed. At all three locations investigations regarding the current and future electricity demand were conducted and connections to people relevant to the study were established. The report is including as well some technical specifications as some observations regarding organization and management of the technical systems. The trip was including only short visits and therefore only brief introductions to the different organizations, based on observations done by the author. The report is hence describing the author’s understanding of the technical system and social structures after only short visits to each of the organizations, and may differ from observations done at another point in time, over a different time period, or by some other person.

Current and future shopping conditions in Sälen

Going from having bought the most essential at the small shops close to home, better communications and an increasingly consumption oriented lifestyle has created a change in shopping behavior and has led to phenomenon such as shopping centres and more. These are constantly being built in Sweden: in the cities, outside the cities and more recently even in small cities -small cities as for one reason or another have access to a larger customer base which can have businesses to flourish economically. During the first decade of the 21st century, shopping centres have been established along the Swedish/Norwegian border. Since the Norwegian Krone is much stronger than the Swedish Krona Norwegians save a great deal of money on going to Sweden to shop. During the shopping trips to Sweden, it is mostly alcohol, meat, tobacco and candy that are being bought. However, other products such as clothing, technology, household appliances and more are also being purchased, all to save money on the trip. Together these cross border shoppers spent 11, 6 billion in Sweden during the year of 2010. This gives an average spending of approximately 10 900 SEK per cross border shopper on annual basis. Nordby, Töcksfors and Charlottenberg (small cities located in southwestern Sweden) are places characterized by Norwegian cross border shopping. Together, they generate billions every year and this only seems to increase. These places are relatively small in size but have prominent attributes such as proximity to the Norwegian border. Apart from these resorts and shopping centres, there are few or none similar places near the Norwegian border in the rest of Sweden. However, a place which is geographically well located and has a relatively large Norwegian and Swedish customer base is the ski resort of Sälen in west central of Sweden. Sälen is a village located near the Norwegian border, although fairly sparsely populated. The destination has annually about one million official guest nights, based on the 414 000 visitors who stay an average of about 4, 5 days.  Per visit, these tourists individually spend an average of 862 SEK on shopping at the destination. The expenditure of the mountain tourists together with the Norwegian border shoppers makes it very interesting to explore the opportunities for shopping development in terms of a shopping centre in the region of Sälen.

Electricity Supply Solutions for an Educational Center in Tanzania

The aim of this study was to investigate electricity supply solutions for an educationalcenter that is being built in Chonyonyo Tanzania. Off-grid power generation solutions andfurther optimization possibilities were studied for the case.The study was done for Engineers Without Borders in Sweden. Who are working withMavuno Project on the educational center. The school is set to start operating in year 2015with 40 girl students in the beginning. The educational center will help to improve genderequality by offering high quality education in a safe environment for girls in rural area.It is important for the system to be economically and environmentally sustainable. Thearea has great potential for photovoltaic power generation. Thus PV was considered as theprimary power generation and a diesel generator as a reliable backup. The system sizeoptimization was done with HOMER. For the simulations HOMER required componentdata, weather data and load data. Common components were chose with standardproperties, the loads were based on load estimations from year 2011 and the weather datawas acquired from NASA database. The system size optimization result for this base casewas a system with 26 kW PW; 5.5 kW diesel generator, 15 kW converter and 112 T-105batteries. The initial cost of the system was 55 875 €, the total net present cost 92 121 €and the levelized cost of electricity 0.264 €/kWh.In addition three optimization possibilities were studied. First it was studied how thesystem should be designed and how it would affect the system size to have night loads(security lights) use DC and could the system then be extended in blocks. As a result it wasfound out that the system size could be decreased as the inverter losses would be avoided.Also the system extension in blocks was found to be possible. The second study was aboutinverter stacking where multiple inverters can work as one unit. This type of connectionallows only the required number of inverters to run while shutting down the excess ones.This would allow the converter-unit to run with higher efficiency and lower powerconsumption could be achieved. In future with higher loads the system could be easilyextendable by connecting more inverters either in parallel or series depending on what isneeded. Multiple inverters would also offer higher reliability than using one centralizedinverter. The third study examined how the choice of location for a centralized powergeneration affects the cable sizing for the system. As a result it was found that centralizedpower generation should be located close to high loads in order to avoid long runs of thickcables. Future loads should also be considered when choosing the location. For theeducational center the potential locations for centralized power generation were found outto be close to the school buildings and close to the dormitories.

La négritude dans Cahier d´un retour au pays natal d´Aimé Césaire

The objective of this thesis is to study Negritude as literary movement expressed through the words of Aimé Césaire in his poetry Cahier d’un retours au pays natal. The relation between the poetry and historical events as well as the relation between the poetry and the author are examined. The analysis is conducted from the book chosen extracts that are examined in relation to identified characteristics of the negritude movement and the poetic expression. The analysis shows that the poetry of Aimé Césaire expresses fundamental values and attributes found within the negritude movement. The language used in the poetry is aggressive and to some extent contradictory. The "I" and "me" have a central role in the poetry when expressing negritude values and attributes. The revalorisation of the black man and the renaissance of the negritude movement are central themes in the poetry. The author himself is essential for the expression, which is characterised by being subjective rather than objective.

Out-of-town shopping and its induced CO2-emissions

Planning policies in several European countries have aimed at hindering the expansion of out-of-town shopping centers. One argument for this is concern for the increase in transport and a resulting increase in environmental externalities such as CO2-emissions. This concern is weakly founded in science as few studies have attempted to measure CO2-emissions of shopping trips as a function of the location of the shopping centers. In this paper we conduct a counter-factual analysis comparing downtown, edge-of-town and out-of-town shopping. In this comparison we use GPS to track 250 consumers over a time-span of two months in a Swedish region. The GPS-data enters the Oguchi’s formula to obtain shopping trip-specific CO2-emissions. We find that consumers’ out-of-town shopping would generate an excess of 60 per cent CO2-emissions whereas downtown and edge-of-town shopping centers are comparable.

Fysikundervisning inom årskurserna 1-6 : Hur klasslärare respektive lärare på science center ser på fysikundervisning

Studiens syfte är att skapa kunskap om hur några lärare vid science center respektive klasslärare bedriver fysikundervisning för elever i årskurs 1-6. Studien har ett konstruktivistiskt perspektiv och grundar sig på intervjuer. Följande tre frågor har ställts och besvarats: 1) Vilket innehåll från kursplanen i fysik genomförs utanför klassrummet enligt lärare vid science center respektive klasslärare? Båda lärarkategorierna bedriver undervisning i Kraft och rörelse, Fysiken i naturen, Fysiken i vardagslivet, samt Fysiken och världsbilden. 2) Vilka arbetssätt uppger lärare vid science center respektive klasslärare att de använder sig av vid fysikundervisning? Båda lärarkategorierna uppger ett undersökande arbetssätt, fältstudier och observationer samt kommunikativt arbetssätt. 3) Vilka likheter och skillnader finns mellan den undervisning i fysik som beskrivs av lärarna vid science center jämfört med den undervisning som beskrivs av klasslärarna? Den största likheten är att båda lärarkategorierna utgår från ett undersökande arbetssätt. Den mest framträdande skillnaden är att lärare vid science center inte använder sig av dokumentation. En slutsats är att båda lärarkategorierna bedriver fysikundervisning utanför klassrummet med ett varierat centralt innehåll. Klasslärarna väljer i hög grad själva arbetssätt men att dessa varierar beroende på vilka resurser som finns samt vilken erfarenhet läraren har. Science center kan erbjuda andra aktiviteter eftersom det där finns andra resurser än på skolorna och i skolornas närmaste omgivning.

To what extent are CO2 emissions from intra-urban shopping trips by cars affected by drivers’ travel behaviour and store location?

Transportation is seen as one of the major sources of CO2 pollutants nowadays. The impact of increased transport in retailing should not be underestimated. Most previous studies have focused on transportation and underlying trips, in general, while very few studies have addressed the specific affects that, for instance, intra-city shopping trips generate. Furthermore, most of the existing methods used to estimate emission are based on macro-data designed to generate national or regional inventory projections. There is a lack of studies using micro-data based methods that are able to distinguish between driver behaviour and the locational effects induced by shopping trips, which is an important precondition for energy efficient urban planning. The aim of this study is to implement a micro-data method to estimate and compare CO2 emission induced by intra-urban car travelling to a retail destination of durable goods (DG), and non-durable goods (NDG). We estimate the emissions from aspects of travel behaviour and store location. The study is conducted by means of a case study in the city of Borlänge, where GPS tracking data on intra-urban car travel is collected from 250 households. We find that a behavioural change during a trip towards a CO2 optimal travelling by car has the potential to decrease emission to 36% (DG), and to 25% (NDG) of the emissions induced by car-travelling shopping trips today. There is also a potential of reducing CO2 emissions induced by intra-urban shopping trips due to poor location by 54%, and if the consumer selected the closest of 8 existing stores, the CO2 emissions would be reduced by 37% of the current emission induced by NDG shopping trips.

The nature and severity of urinary incontinence in post-natal women

This study investigated the frequency, nature and experience of urinary incontinence in post-natal women. Surveys were completed by 224 women, 50% of whom indicated that they had experienced accidental urine loss. The majority of women who had experienced any symptoms were moderately to greatly bothered by them. A variety of strategies were used to manage the problem; however, 42% of the women who experienced accidental urine loss had taken no action to ease the problem. Women received information about urinary incontinence and pelvic floor exercises from a variety health care professionals, but this was not consistently provided. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Using shopping mall attributes to revitalise Australian small town retailing

As has occurred in many smaller rural communities in America, Europe and Canada much of inland Australia has experienced population decline involving both a net loss of people a disproportionate ageing of the population and low average family incomes. Some Australian country towns have ceased to function as retail and administrative centres while other rural areas are faced with the prospect of losing critically important retail outlets and service providers. Australian rural towns are under threat from residents outshopping at nearby large regional centres leading to the loss of businesses and services in small service towns. This paper explores the possibility of how and why retailers and service providers in Australian country towns can and should emulate certain attributes of shopping malls in an attempt to stem the rise of outshopping. Using data collected in one small Australian rural community the paper comments on residents' perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of retailing and the provision of services in their local community and what respondents thought should be done to diminish retail leakage from their town. Based on their responses it is clear that to remain competitive, retailers in smaller rural towns need to learn from the experience of shopping malls with whom they must now compete to survive. In this paper, it is argued that in certain areas this is not only possible, but essential if retailing is to remain viable in Australian country towns.

A longitudinal study of body change strategies of fitness center attendees

This study evaluated predictors of strategies to change weight and muscles among men and women who attend fitness centers. A questionnaire was completed by 107 men (mean age = 39.17, SD = 13.14), and 151 women (mean age = 35.31, SD = 11.38) who regularly attended fitness centers at two points in time, one year apart. The only unique predictor of body change strategies over time for men was body dissatisfaction predicting drive for thinness; for women, body dissatisfaction predicted strategies to lose weight, drive for thinness, use of food supplements to lose weight and levels of bulimia. Media messages also predicted drive for thinness and bulimia among women. These findings would suggest that attendance body dissatisfaction is an important factor predicting other normative and health risk behaviors among fitness center attendees, particularly women at a fitness center over a 12 month period was not generally associated with adverse health risk behaviors.