Vietnam is currently in a volatile transition period. The country has been experiencing rapid economic growth and development since the introduction of its market-oriented renovation policies in 1986. The urban areas in Vietnam, which are absorbing migrants in increasing numbers, are under pressure to provide housing, urban services, and jobs. Combating high rates of unemployment is only one of the challenges facing Vietnam today. This paper is concerned with how Vietnam's economic renovation policies are influencing job opportunities for urban women. In particular, the problem addressed in this document pertains to small-scale business and micro-enterprise opportunities for women. Women working in urban marketplaces in Ho Chi Minh City were interviewed to collect information on their employment histories and personal profiles as self-employed people. Because they are working in the private sector during times of economic transition, women who are self-employed in Vietnam represent a creative and progressive group within the Vietnamese labor force. Furthermore, women marketplace sellers have geared their income generation to jobs outside the wage earning sector, where discrimination in hiring and pay is common. .Women in Vietnam are critical beneficiaries of employment and training programs because they face more difficulties in finding stable forms of employment than men. Conclusions drawn from this study find that small-scale business opportunities offer women a form of income generation that is obtainable to persons of all levels of education, ages, and personal background. Moreover, the income generated by marketplace sellers contributes significantly to urban households and is capable of withstanding turbulent economic. Declining health and education subsidies are affecting women and girls of school ages, which should be closely so that women do not lose ground in the labor force in years to come. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Area samples for gases and metals were taken at 10 sites from each of five categories: professional studios, recreation centres, elementary schools, secondary schools, and colleges. Reported concentrations are in ug/m3 unless otherwise specified. Means and maxima are reported for substances detectable at 50% or more of all sites: nitrogen dioxide (0.021 ppm, 0.060 ppm), aluminum (1.13, 15.6), barium (0.015, 0.091), boron (0.534, 5.25), iron (0.549, 4.04), manganese (0.013, 0.094). Only maximum values are reported for substances with fewer than 25 of the 50 measurements above detection limits: sulfur dioxide (0.508 ppm), fluorides (0.152 ppm), formaldehyde (0.102 ppm), carbon monoxide (7 ppm), antimony (0.010), beryllium (0.002), cadmium (0.114), chromium (0.431), cobalt (0.169), copper (0.002), lead (0.208), lithium (0.015), magnesium (4.25), mercury (0.017), nickel (0.291), selenium (0.249), silver (0.003), vanadium (5.22), and zinc (1.50). There were no detectable levels of arsenic or gold. Personal metal exposures were sampled at 24 sites. Means and maxima are reported for metals present at more than 50% of all sites. Where more than 50% of all values are below detection limits, only maxima are reported. Aluminum (7.82, 62.8), barium (0.085, 0.368), beryllium (0.005) boron (0.655, 3.89), cadmium (0.999), chromium (0.306), cobalt (0.069, 0.863), copper (0.075, 0.312), iron (2.51, 27.0), lead (0.788), lithium (0.125), magnesium (1.87, 9.57), manganese (0.056,0.174), nickel (0.175), silver (1.76), zinc (0.359,3.58). There were no detectable levels of antimony, arsenic, gold, mercury, selenium, or vanadium. In general, measured concentrations were well below North American occupational limits. Personal metal exposures tended to exceed kiln area concentrations, suggesting other important sources of metal exposure. Small, ventilated kiln rooms, with contaminant concentrations ranking among the highest measured, indicate a potential for higher contamination. Industrial exhaust hoods accompanied by HVAC systems proved the most effective ventilation strategy. / Medicine, Faculty of / Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of / Graduate

Hydrothermal alteration on the Hank property, northwestern British Columbia, is hosted by andesitic to basaltic volcaniclastic breccias, flows and sills of the Upper Triassic Stuhini Group; Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks; and, a hypabyssal, Middle Jurassic (185±3 Ma) potassiumfeldspar megacrystic porphyry which intrudes the stratified rocks. Alteration on the property forms two sub-parallel northeast trending zones (Upper and Lower alteration zones) which are capped by broad tabular zones at higher elevations (Felsite Hill and Rojo Grande). The lower alteration zone (LAZ) strikes northeasterly and dips steeply to the southeast cutting the stratigraphy on the property and is characterized by intense illite-dominant alteration. The pit area of the Upper alteration zone (UAZ) is semiconformable to stratigraphy, strikes northeast and dips moderately to the southeast. The pit area of the UAZ is hosted within volcaniclastic breccias with footwall and hanging wall defined by flows or sills. Alteration is characterized by illite/smectite which grades into illite/smectite+kaolinite-dominant alteration near the top of the zone. Above the UAZ, alteration comprises kaolinite-dominant alteration containing minor natroalunite within the volcanic and overlying sedimentary sequences. This transition from illite/smectite to kaolinite-dominant alteration is marked by a zone of intense, multiphase silicification dipping gently to the south. Alteration mineralogy on the Hank property is characteristic of a near-surface, lowsulphidation epithermal environment dominated by illite alteration at depth and illite/smectite and kaolinite alteration at higher elevations. The overall morphology of these alteration zones suggests that the LAZ is a conduit for hydrothermal fluids which cuts stratigraphy. The UAZ, and the Flats Zone (FZ) are semiconformable to stratigraphy, indicating lateral movement of hydrothermal fluids along a permeable horizon outward from the central conduit. The silicified zone, which lies above the UAZ, may indicate a zone of increased permeability or the presence of a paleo-water table or aquifer. Above the silicified zone, tabular zones of kaolinite-dominant alteration reflect the upper parts of an epithermal environment, derived from acidic, vapour condensate above the paleo-water table. Illite/smectite alteration within the potassium-feldspar megacrystic porphyry suggests that it intruded during the final stages of hydrothermal activity and may be the causative intrusion. Alteration and mineralization on the Hank property represents one extreme of a continuum of mineralization styles throughout the Iskut River area including porphyry, vein and exhalative examples, all co-temporal with Middle Jurassic intrusions. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is a common disorder of carbohydrate metabolism. The main characteristic of NIDDM is high blood glucose levels. People with NIDDM are at increased risk of microvascular (retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy) and macrovascular (coronary heart disease) complications. It has been found in insulin-dependent diabetic subjects that maintaining low blood glucose levels can reduce the risk of microvascular complications. Risk factors that have been identified in NIDDM subjects for heart disease have included high triglyceride levels, high levels of very-low density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. The current dietary recommendation for people with NIDDM is to consume a diet high in complex carbohydrate and fiber and low in fat. This recommendation has recently been challenged by some investigators who have suggested that high monounsaturated fat diets may be better. Sixteen people with NIDDM who were in moderate metabolic control and had low to moderate blood lipid levels were randomized to receive either Ensure with Fiber® (high carbohydrate) or Glucerna® (high monounsaturated fat). The diets were followed for 28 days, with an average of about 90% of energy corning from the formula. Subjects performed finger prick blood glucose monitoring at home before and 2 hours after each meal for two days each week. Fasting blood samples were taken from the subjects on days 0, 7 and 28, and were used to measure selected indices of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. It was found that the consumption of Glucerna® resulted in lower postprandial rises in blood glucose when compared to Ensure with Fiber® (p=0.000). Statistical analysis using repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant time effects, in which a decrease in serum glucose (p=0.000), and plasma glucagon (p=0.002) were found. A different pattern of change between the groups was noted for plasma insulin levels (p=0.028) in which the Ensure with Fiber® group displayed a decrease in insulin over time. No significant effects were found for plasma triglycerides, total cholesterol or apo B cholesterol. There was a different pattern of change for HDL cholesterol between the two groups (p=0.004), explained by a significant decrease in the Glucerna® group. This result may be confounded by the significantly different baseline levels of HDL cholesterol between the two groups. Overall, this study found that the only advantage of the high monounsaturated fat, Glucerna® diet over the high carbohydrate, Ensure with Fiber® diet, was the lower rise in postprandial blood glucose levels. This study found no benefit of Glucerna® on other indices of carbohydrate metabolism or on indices of lipid metabolism. More research is needed to understand the metabolic effects of high carbohydrate and high monounsaturated fat diets in NIDDM subjects. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

The average size at maturity of sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in the northeast Pacific Ocean varies considerably from year to year: It is generally accepted that the majority of variation in size at maturity of sockeye salmon is due to variation in marine growth. However, few studies have shown strong linkages between specific oceanographic factors such as temperature, ocean currents, zooplankton production, and salmon abundance and the ultimate size of returning Fraser River sockeye. Using size at maturity data specific for ten Fraser River sockeye stocks I demonstrate that i.) the amount of variation in size at maturity that is due to environment is detectable in spawning ground length samples and ii.) mean size at maturity declined in almost every stock over the period 1954-1993.1 also show that variation in marine growth is strongly associated with changes in sockeye salmon abundance and sea surface temperature in the northeast Pacific Ocean. Marine growth was not correlated to sockeye salmon abundance over the period 1959-1975; however the two were strongly associated during the period 1978- 1992. Annual scale growth increments support the assumption that critical periods for density dependent growth occur during the time when Early Stuart sockeye salmon are present in the Central Gulf of Alaska. If present levels of salmon abundance are maintained during future warmer climates, major declines in size at maturity of sockeye salmon are likely to result due to the combined effects of high temperature, high abundance, and possibly a reduction in the standing crop of prey. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

Two studies using sewage sludge were conducted to examine the forms of nitrogen in the field and the potential for nitrogen gas loss in the laboratory. A study using biosolids was initiated on Island 6 in the Fraser River to determine sludge mass loss and to characterize nitrogen forms: NH₄⁺, NO₃⁻ and organic N. Sewage sludge was used alone and in combination with wood pulp clarifier fines and deinked recycled paper waste. The pulp plus sewage lost the most mass, followed by the deinked plus sewage mix. Sewage sludge alone showed no statistically significant mass loss over the 8 month period. Inorganic N concentrations (NH₄⁺ and NO₃⁻) exhibited similar fluctuating patterns for all three sludge preparations, first decreasing then increasing and finally decreasing. The major loss of inorganic N may have been due to the loss of NH₄⁺ during the first 3.5 months. In addition, declines in NO₃⁻ indicate that denitrification likely occurs. Both these losses cannot be explained solely in terms of NO₃⁻ production, leaching, and immobilization as measured over the 8 months. All forms of N leached. However, NO₃⁻ concentrations were very low, and thus, leaching and denitrification were not major loss pathways. Ammonia volatilization may have accounted for the majority of the N lost. A second study using sewage sludge was initiated in the laboratory to determine sludge loss of N in the gas phase through the processes of volatilization of NH₃ and the reduction of NO₃⁻ (denitrification) over a 38 day period. On day 19 the sludge chambers were vented and the balance of the study represents a second phase of the study. Sewage sludge was controlled at a low temperature (5°C) simmulating the cool conditions of winter in southwestern British Columbia, and at a high temperature (25°C) emulating the warmer conditions of summer. Irrespective of temperature influences, denitrification occurred at relatively low rates in contrast to NH₃ volatilization which initially exhibited a high loss rate of NO₃⁻N that decreased to levels approaching zero towards the end of the study period. Temperature had a statistically significant effect on both denitrification and volatilization. Denitrification was discontinuous and more variable at the high temperature whereas, at the low temperature, it was continuous and more uniform for the first 18 days. Volatilization was more variable under low temperature conditions than under high temperature conditions for the first 18 days, but during days 7 to 18, the loss of NH₃ was significantly greater at the higher temperature. The loss of gaseous N leads to the conclusion that sludge N loading rates should be increased in compensation. This would lead to an improvement in the efficiency of sludge fertilization operations because managers would come closer to meeting the plant's requirements for N and simultaneously dispose of larger volumes of biosolid waste materials. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

This thesis is about chance and choice, or decisions under uncertainty. The desire for creating an intelligent agent performing rewarding tasks in a realistic world urges for working models to do sequential decision making and planning. In responding to this grand wish, decision-theoretic planning (DTP) has evolved from decision theory and control theory, and has been applied to planning in artificial intelligence. Recent interest has been directed toward Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) introduced from operations research. While fruitful results have been tapped from research in fully observable MDPs, partially observable MDPs (POMDPs) are still too difficult to solve as observation uncertainties are incorporated. Abstraction and approximation techniques become the focus. This research attempts to enhance POMDPs by applying A l techniques. In particular, we transform the linear POMDP constructs into a structured representation based on binary decision trees and Bayesian Networks to achieve compactness. A handful of tree-oriented operations is then developed to perform structural belief updates and value computation. Along ii with the structured representation, we explore the belief space with a heuristic online search approach, in which best-first search strategy with heuristic pruning is employed. Experimenting with a structured testbed domain reveals great potentials of exploiting structure and heuristics to empower POMDPs for more practical applications. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate

This study focuses on the active responses of plants to herbivore damage, specifically on the ability of plants to regrow following an episode of herbivory. The Continuum of Responses model (CRM) and the Growth Rate model (GRM) make some conflicting predictions about the effects of soil nutrient availability on compensatory growth by grazed (clipped) plants. A factorial field experiment was conducted to examine the effects of longterm fertilization, short-term fertilization and clipping on the rate of (re)growth and the amount of (re)growth of three herbaceous perennial species, Achillea millefolium, Festuca altaica and Mertensia paniculata. Plants were collected from areas with different soil nutrient levels (low soil fertility and high soil fertility), planted in a common garden in the field and subjected to one of three simulated herbivory events (0%, 50% and 100% leaf loss) and one of two fertilizing treatments (no fertilizer and fertilizer addition). Concordant with both models, clipping was detrimental to plant growth which decreased as clipping intensity increased. From the plant's perspective, the impact of herbivory on the proportional leaf area of clipped plants relative to undipped controls, was independent of short-term fertilization. When biomass was measured, short-term fertilization reduced the compensatory ability of A. millefolium and M. paniculata, but improved it for F. altaica. From the animal's perspective, the impact of herbivory on the absolute size of clipped plants relative to controls was reduced by short-term fertilization, regardless of species and the measure of growth considered. Under natural soil nutrient conditions, M paniculata is more likely to compensate for leaf loss than A millefolium and F. altaica. These results indicate that short-term nutrient availability may affect the compensatory growth of clipped plants, but compensatory responses of the three species studied were only partly consistent with the predictions of the two models. / Science, Faculty of / Botany, Department of / Graduate

Agricultural development has historically focused on rural areas and the needs of rural populations, it has virtually ignored cities. Indeed, farming was an activity perceived to be 'traditional' and not befitting modern concepts of urban development. Nevertheless, urban agriculture has persisted and expanded in Third World cities to reduce hunger and malnutrition amongst the urban poor. Urban agriculture is documented as occurring in numerous cities throughout the developing world as a 'survival strategy'. This study takes urban agriculture beyond 'survival' and evaluates urban agriculture for its contribution to the development of sustainable cities. Increasingly, finding ways to achieve sustainable development is becoming the challenge for planners. Sustainable development calls for an integrated approach to the problems of Third World Cities. Social, ecological and economic issues need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner: widespread environmental damage is often symptomatic of social and economic problems. This study examines the background literature to sustainable development and urban agriculture to find positive links between them. I use the city of Nairobi, Kenya as my study site. Urban agriculture in Nairobi has already been adopted by small NGOs through development projects. Their projects target a small number of cultivators and provide them with technical assistance. Meanwhile hundreds of other 'urban farmers' continue to cultivate without any outside assistance. What if any, additional benefits does the incorporation of urban agriculture into a development project bring the farmers? This research answers that question by using the City of Nairobi, as a case study and adopting a comparative approach to the sampling method Prior to developing my survey an extensive literature review, meetings with government officials, UN workers, rural farm managers and project leaders helped develop a contextual framework to evaluate urban agriculture. To determine the advantages of project assisted cultivation my study examines three urban agriculture projects facilitated by two NGOs - the Undugu Society of Kenya and the Help Self-Help Center. Fifty-five cultivators were chosen for study out of a total population of 200. Because it would be difficult, if not impossible, to determine the total number of cultivators farming without project assistance, a control group of 'non-project' farmers representing one-third of the 'project' sample were selected for comparison. I used a questionnaire presented to the cultivators to assess the strengths and weaknesses of current practices and to determine the contribution of urban agriculture to sustainable urban development. Meetings and discussions have shown that there is a growing awareness of the benefits of urban agriculture, yet, it still goes unrecognized by development planners and government officials. I provide recommendations as to how current practices can be improved and how policy can support urban agriculture. Currently, policy, land use regulation, and general mismanagement of environmental resources are restricting the ability of urban agriculture to expand and flourish. Dedicated policy and programmes would expand the direct and indirect benefits of urban farming to improve the livelihood of urban residents and to improve the health and sustainability of urban centers. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Ideas of typology are pursued, expanding on popular preconceptions of automobile culture and strip architecture. The elements of type are investigated through an analysis of their physical, social, and economic relationships. An argument of complicity is developed as an alternative to the traditional "eurourbanism" common to many municipal design guidelines. This position seeks to work within the context of the existing city, taking pleasure in its margins, gaps, and adjacencies. Considering the particular physical, cultural and economic conditions of the City of Richmond, this project is framed as the identification of an emerging spatial conception and program/use. The physical space of the city is seen to be shaped most directly by the inclusion of the automobile. The cultural influences of immigration are read on the surfaces of the city and through building programme. Economic realities shape the space of the city as a commodity to be constructed, marketed, and consumed. Through the analysis of the site and contextual conditions, strategies of spatial investigation emerged: the folding of the plane of the city (street) into the space of the building, the horizontal framing of the space of the city (serving as reference and dis-locator to both the automobile and the body as these move through the spaces of the project), and the assemblage of existing types to produce hybrid/mutant types. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate