Lactulose is efficiently synthesized from lactose using catalysts such as boric acid and triethylamine . However, since neither catalyst is food-safe, both must be removed after processing. Lactulose is also produced inadvertently during heat treatment of dairy products, although in small quantity. Studies have indicated that altering the heat processing conditions can improve lactulose yield . A high lactulose , mixed carbohydrate preparation was produced without the use of toxic catalysts . Using two Taguchi's fractional factorial designs, eight factors were tested as to their influence on lactulose yield : pH, lactose, NaOH, citrate and phosphate concentrations, heating temperature and duration , and purification of the lactose substrate. In the first design, lactose concentration (at levels of 40, 79, and 155 mg/mL) , pH (9.0, 10.5, and 12.0), heating temperature (90, 110, and 130°C), citric acid concentration (40, 70, 100 mM) and in the second design, NaOH concentration (18, 50, and 100 mM) , was shown to significantly influence lactulose yield . All other factors did not significantly influence lactulose yield at the selected levels . The interactions of lactose, citrate , and phosphate concentrations of the first design also significantly influenced lactulose yield . The conditions selected for the conversion of lactose to lactulose was decalcified whey permeate at > 70 mg/mL lactose , a pH of 10.5-11.0, with an added 50 mM sodium citrate , was heat treated at 110°C for 10 minutes. Approximately 30% of initial lactose was converted to lactulose via primarily the Lobry de Bruyn and Alberda van Ekenstein transformation. Again using a Taguchi design, four factors were tested to if they significantly influenced the preferential precipitation of lactose over lactulose in a cooled aqueous solution : pH, sugar concentration, temperature decrease, and final temperature. The pH of the mixed carbohydrate solution (at levels of 7.0, 9.0, and 10.7) and sugar concentration (29, 39, and 52%) both significantly influenced either the lactulose yield of precipitation or the sugar ratio in the decant. For further study, the lactulose preparation was concentrated to approximately 50% solids and pH 10.5, cooled from 65° C to 20° C at 5C°/hour, and held for 24 hours, preferentially precipitating lactose over lactulose. After one cooling cycle, there was a lactose yield of approximetly 82% and a 1:1 lactose: lactose ratio . After a second precipitation of the decanted portion , there was a 78% lactulose yield and a 3.4:1 lactulose : lactose ratio . There was a total loss of about 40% of lactulose through the two precipitation cycles. Ion-exchange columns removed the majority of the natural and added salts from the lactulose preparations. Activated charcoal removed most of the brown colour of the preparation but also 30% of the solids . The final syrup contained 59% lactulose , 26% lactose, 5.0% galactose, 1.0% glucose, and 0.81% fructose, based on total solids . Carbohydrates were assayed using an enzymatic spectro-photometric method. An unidentified substance was detected using thin - layer chromatography of carbohydrates. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

This study explored the usefulness of public speaking and debating activities for an English as a second language (ESL) classroom, and the ways Japanese students developed their oral English skills in a public speaking and debating class for advanced ESL students. Focusing on one recurrent speech event, individual oral presentation, the study examined the kinds of language and rhetorical features the Japanese ESL students acquired in the class, and processes by which they were socialized into the appropriate use of their target language to work on the public speaking activities in that particular classroom context. Taking an ethnographic research approach, the study employed a variety of data collection methods: administering a questionnaire, observing a classroom for three months and interviewing participants of the study. Six Japanese students consisting of five females and one male, and one ESL instructor who was a native speaker of English, were the participants of this study. Five language and rhetorical features were introduced to the class as necessary skills for conducting an individual oral presentation. The students learned these aspects mainly through the instructor's explicit teaching, including scaffolded interaction between the instructor and the students, and applied them to their individual presentations. The results of a descriptive analysis revealed that some of these language and rhetorical features taught in the class were exactly parallel to certain principles of rhetoric in English, and that a recurrent pattern in the instructor's teaching style included modeling, joint negotiation between teacher and students or among students, and students' independent construction. With consistent feedback, this cyclical instructional process facilitated the development of the students' public speaking skills in their target language. Finally, the students' and the instructor's perception of their gains, and the value of this particular course were discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to explore the role that sociocultural context plays in college students' socialization into the classroom culture of a Canadian community college. To this end, it examined the nature of a college first year English literature classroom; the social, cultural, and academic values and norms promoted both explicitly and implicitly in that classroom; and the tasks designed by instructors to enable the students to achieve the stated goals of the course and their own personal goals. The study further explored the role of this literature class's ESL adjunct class in promoting language and cultural socialization, and examined similarities and differences in the socialization experiences of native speakers (NS) and non-native speakers (NNS) of English. This study employed an ethnographic approach and analyzed data mainly collected from classroom observations, video- and audio-taping of classroom tasks and activities, interviews with the instructors and students, and questionnaires. "Task" was the key unit of analysis, viewed from a language socialization perspective: tasks as sociocultural activities in which social and cultural components are embedded. This study was conducted over one semester (fourteen weeks); sixty-five lessons for the English literature class and twelve lessons for its adjunct were observed and video-taped. This study examined the planned curriculum and the lived curriculum of the literature. The qualitative analysis of these two curricula~planned and lived—suggested the complex nature of classroom culture created by its members' interactions with other members. The tasks embraced social, cultural, and academic values and norms; while engaging in these tasks, students learned academic language, reconceptualized their perspectives, and acquired socially-constructed knowledge. The study also described non-native speakers' difficulties, and suggested that the adjunct class provided them with scaffolding and facilitated their language socialization. Looking to the future, this study offers pedagogical implications for second-language learning and teaching: first, NNSs' communicative competence is socially constructed through interactions with NSs, and thus NNSs' language socialization should be examined in relation to that of NSs; second, classroom tasks are not culturally neutral; thus sociocultural perspectives must be considered when planning tasks; third, adjunct models are most effectively constructed from a sociocultural perspective. Finally, this study suggests that creating a dichotomy between NS and NNS, novice and expert, and North American culture and Asian culture oversimplifies the challenges of a classroom culture which is likely to place sociocultural, conceptual, and linguistic demands upon all students class in order to analyze social, cultural, and academic values and norms promoted in the class, and how students perceived these values and norms, created the classroom culture, and constructed knowledge. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

A fast response chemiluminescent ozone sonde originally intended for use as a balloon borne instrument, was deployed on a single engine light aircraft to determine mean ozone concentrations in the boundary layer downwind of a major urban centre. Vancouver is a coastal city at the mouth of a major river delta and valley walled in by mountains to the north and east. Hence, the pollutant distribution during anti-cyclonic conditions is influenced by the thermally induced flows of the sea/land breeze and mountain/valley wind systems. This study focused on ozone concentration in a steep walled, glacial valley near the city, where ozone concentrations had not been previously monitored but were suspected to be high. Measurements confirmed this hypothesis and the mass budget of ozone for the valley was calculated for a period shortly after sunrise when the rate of boundary layer growth was at its maximum. The high levels of ozone found in the valley were partly attributed to residual layer storage of ozone above the nocturnal stable layer. This overnight storage of ozone during sustained anti-cyclonic conditions suggests that the Pitt River valley and possibly other tributary valleys represent an important net sink for ozone emanating from precursor sources in the Lower Fraser Valley. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

Several years ago, the media discovered the Internet. This 'Internet explosion' exposed the non-initiated to a worldwide computer network. Forged by the fear of the nuclear fulfilment of the Cold War, this network had for over twenty years been the domain of academia, precocious computer firms, the government and the military. As the resulting technology continued to develop and thrive, the business community, attracted by the prospect of open systems and low costs, began to investigate the feasibility of applying Internet tools for internal information system and distribution needs. The concept of such 'intranets' has grown increasingly pervasive and persuasive, especially when their costs and development time are compared to equivalent proprietary systems. This paper examines some of the technological, economic and organizational considerations involved with intranet development. This author undertook a feasibility study in several departments of a large company in an attempt to identify the factors. A methodology originally developed for electronic data interchange (EDI) was used to help analyze the results. This analysis indicates the Company is ill-prepared to take advantage of intranet technology. However, the recent maturation of Java and the network computer paradigm (the former allowing applications to run on any platform without recompilation and the latter greatly reducing the administrative costs of bringing computing power to the desktop) may provide the Company with a relatively inexpensive method of leveraging the benefits of an intranet. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

As forest harvesting shifts from old-growth to second-growth stands, profitability is becoming an important issue. In a cooperative project involving Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC), University of British Columbia (UBC) and Canadian Forest Service - Pacific Forestry Center, a model was developed to predict economics of second-growth harvests. The final result that can be obtained with the model is the net revenue produced after logging a second-growth stand. This is computed as a function of stand characteristics, company product requirements and harvest equipment used. Additional results computed by the model are total volume, distribution of volume by species and by sort, and estimate of time to harvest a block. The model is a Windows1 based program, written in Visual Basic 3.0 using some third party Visual Basic Extensions. The final product is a program that makes data input very easy. It ships on two diskettes with a set up kit, making installation simple. The model was tested on two second-growth settings close to Powell River, B.C. In both cases the results were very good, value predicted by the model being within 3% of the actual value obtained. More testing is underway and considering input received from industry, some improvements are being considered. The objective of this project and of the model, which is the final product of the project, is to demonstrate the potential benefits to users of this type of management tool and to serve as a medium term decision support tool that will predict economics of second-growth harvests. 1 Windows and Visual Basic 3.0 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

The problem of this study was to examine the variables that contributed to a successful case of Experiential Systemic Couples Therapy as compared to a non-successful case using a qualitative, exploratory case study. The main purposes were: (a) to generate concepts that may have led to or hindered therapeutic change, (b) to investigate the process of change in Experiential Systemic Couples Therapy, and (c) to contribute to the clinical understanding of how change occurs in ExST. The case data sources included documentation (objective measures, situation diaries and reviews of therapy) and video tapes (15 taped sessions from each of the cases). The two cases were chosen using Pinsof's (1988) techniques of Success-Failure Strategy from a larger pool in The Alcohol Recovery Project. A qualitative case study methodology was implemented to discover the major differences between the two cases. Along with these descriptive methods, three sessions from each case were also analyzed using the Vanderbilt Psychotherapeutic Process Scale. The researcher also used Pinsoff's small chunk strategy and analyzed the "best and worst" session of each of the cases. Again a qualitative analysis was done of the sessions, as well as using the Hill (1993) Category Systems. Key findings from each of the cases were identified and compared. The findings revealed nine major differences which occured between the two cases. The analysis of the cases revealed nine major findings associated with outcome. First, three pre-existing variables were discovered to be associated with the successful and unsuccesful case: client variables, stage of change and length of therapy. Second, three findings were delineated as to why change may have occurred: therapeutic alliance, addressing intimacy issues and practicing opportunities in therapy. Finally, three findings were discovered as to how greater change may have occurred: depth of experiencing, therapist techniques and the completion of a 'story' during a therapy session. These findings are integrated with current research. As well, implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed. The limitations of this study and it's methodology are also presented. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The genus Rhododendron is one of the largest among the angiosperms, and has been the subject of intense interest in the horticultural field for the many species which are of commercial value. Hybrid rhododendrons are also valued, and many thousands of named cultivars have been registered with the International Rhododendron Registry. Rhododendrons make up an important sector of British Columbia's nursery industry, as they thrive in the mild climate of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. The RAPD marker technique was applied in rhododendrons, first for DNA fingerprinting of commercial cultivars, and secondly, to study relationships within the genus For DNA fingerprinting, samples of rhododendron hybrids were obtained from Clay's Nursery in Langley, B.C. Reproducibility of the RAPD technique was established, as was clonal stability of the banding patterns generated. Thirteen RAPD primers were selected and used to generate RAPD banding patterns for the hybrid cultivars. Keys to identification of these cultivars were created based on the presence or absence of certain bands. The reproducibility of RAPDs coupled with the high level of polymorphism generated and the simplicity of the protocol makes the technique a good candidate for use in industry as a tool for quality control and identification of individuals whose identity may be in question. RAPDs were also evaluated for use in parentage analysis in rhododendrons. However, the relatively high frequency of non-parental bands observed limits the usefulness of the technique to certain situations in which there are only a few putative parents. For the taxonomic study, samples were collected from species in subsection Fortunea, as well as from some species thought to be related, and from an outgroup species. Cluster analysis on RAPD data generated from these samples did not give any evidence for the postulated relationships, but did highlight some other relationships. Individuals of the same species were generally clustered together, and individuals of the outgroup species were clustered in a distinct group from the other species. No distinctions were observed between species from more closely related subsections, however, which gives rise to questions regarding the current classification of Rhododendron. Further work is required to clarify and define these relationships. / Medicine, Faculty of / Medical Genetics, Department of / Graduate

Since the Third Plenum, a series of reform measures has been adopted in their efforts to modernize China. The major aims of the reform program were to increase economic efficiency, raise living standards, improve enterprise management, and upgrade technology. An open door policy was pursued which was designed to expand foreign trade, introduce foreign capital, and promote technology transfer. One of the key components of the open door policy was the emphasis on the development of China's Coastal Region. Two southern coastal provinces, including Guangdong and Fujian, were granted the power to adopt "flexible and special" measures in introducing foreign investment and conducting foreign trade. To accelerate the open door program, four special economic zones (SEZs), Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong and Xiamen in Fujian were created in the early 1980s. The major objective of this thesis is to assess the performance of the Shenzhen SEZ during the eight year period from 1979 to 1986. The thesis has five main aims: first, to analyze the development goals of China in the creation of its SEZs and the extent to which these goals were met by Shenzhen; second, to evaluate the performance of Shenzhen in its attraction of foreign investment and the contributions of foreign firms to the development of the SEZ; third, to assess the growth of income, changes in economic and employment structures, and the expansion of manufacturing exports in Shenzhen and its contributions to the regional development of Guangdong Province; fourth, to assess the processes of industrialization and technological development in Shenzhen and its importance as a model of development for the open coastal cities; fifth, to examine the impact of the SEZ on migration, urbanization, and urban development in Shenzhen. Data for the thesis are derived from both documentary research and field work. Two field studies were carried out in Shenzhen and other SEZs during 1986 and 1987. Extensive interviews were held with scholars, government officials, enterprise administrators, workers, and residents in these zones. An assessment of Shenzhen's performance indicates mixed results. By the end of 1986 Shenzhen had achieved almost all of its economic and production targets well ahead of schedule as specified in its economic and urban plan. Shenzhen emerged as the leading recipient of foreign investment amongst all Chinese cities. During the early 1980s, Shenzhen not only experienced high rates of economic and industrial growth but was transformed from an agricultural region to a highly commercialized city. During this eight year period, industrial exports from Shenzhen grew at a rapid rate, contributing significantly to the growth of exports from Guangdong Province. The rapid economic, income, and employment growth led to a large influx of migrants. Since 1979, Shenzhen's population increased seven fold to reach almost half a million. Shenzhen developed into a city with modernized transportation and telecommunication systems. Despite achievements in economic and urban growth, Shenzhen faced several critical issues, including the high cost of development, unstable growth, structural deficiency, low productivity, and declining comparative advantage in production. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

A stress-management intervention for adolescents called the Coping Skills Program (Madden, James, & Paton, Australia, 1994) was replicated in order to test the generalizability to Canadian adolescents. A social support component was added to inform adolescents about the advantages of seeking social support in times of stress and to increase their awareness of support systems that are available. This study examined the impact of the stress intervention on perceptions of social support from family and friends and on social support coping. The participants (32 females and 25 males) were grade 9 students assigned to one of two treatment groups or a control group. Two treatment conditions were compared, a skills intervention (Skills) and a knowledge intervention (Knowledge). The intervention program consisted of five 50-minute sessions conducted over 5 weeks. Perceived Social Support from Family (Procidano & Heller, 1983), Perceived Social Support from Friends (Procidano & Heller, 1983) and the Coping Questionnaire for Adolescents (Madden, James, Paton, & King, 1992) were administered at pre, post and 6 month follow-up. It was predicted that levels of perceived support from family and friends and the relative use of social support coping would increase from pretest to posttest for both treatment conditions compared with the control group and that the Skills group would maintain these increases from posttest to follow-up. The results indicated that there was a significant Group X Time interaction from pretest to posttest for both the Perceived Social Support from Friends and Perceived Social Support from Family measures, and from posttest to follow-up for the Perceived Social Support from Friends. When the mean scores were examined, the direction of change was generally opposite to the hypothesized direction of change resulting in rejection of the hypothesis. There was a moderate and significant correlation between posttest scores of social support coping and follow-up scores of perceived social support from family. These results indicate that greater use of social support coping predicted an increase in the perceived support felt. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate