The thesis project is a study for the integration of farming, urban use, and ecology at the edge of the city. The aims of the test-of-principle are to connect the urban consumer with the rural food producer, processing and productive landscape, and to examine mechanisms for local self-sufficiency and the preservation of farmland from suburban encroachment. The proposed model for this study is a sheep farm within the outskirts of Truro, Nova Scotia. At the landscape scale, the thesis takes the position that urban areas and farmland mutually benefit from co-localization. At the site and building scales, the thesis adopts the ‘farm-to-table’ model, seeking to vertically-integrate the full cycle of food-related programming. The public experience within this food hub is choreographed through visibility, porosity and overlapping circuits with farmer, sheep and product. By balancing the public, process and pragmatism, the thesis demonstrates a role for architecture within the agrarian domain.

Each architectural exploration requires grounding. This body of work begins with an interest in that which made historical settlements authentic to a place. The thesis is focused first and foremost on the single most predictable, yet varying influence. The sun which acts as a clock, a calendar, and source of energy, has shaped architecture for thousands of years and should be considered with far greater attention in the future, both experientially but also thermally as source of energy. The proposal for an artist studio located on the Northumberland Straight in Nova Scotia will require an acute relation to the light and solar energy which the sun has to offer. The studio will attempt to function as a self sufficient working space in the landscape, using the resources locally available. As sole users, each artist will shape the habitable space based on specific needs, while continually keeping in mind that which drives the form, light, heat and energy. / How can the Solar Cycles of light and temperature inform a method of design, which allows the architecture to reflect the patterns of the sun?

Background: CVD is a major cause of premature death in Nova Scotia, Canada. Objective: To determine the role of inflammation in the relationships between obesity, physical activity and IHD. Methods: Secondary analysis using exposure data from the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey, morbidity data from CIHI and mortality data from Statistics Canada. Results: A statistically significant association was found between abdominal obesity and IHD for women; the relationship between physical inactivity and IHD was of borderline statistical significance in men. Inflammatory markers were independently associated IHD for women. Conclusions: Abdominal obesity was a risk factor for IHD for women, whereas physical inactivity was the was the strongest predictor of IHD in men. Inflammation was found to be an independent risk factor for IHD in women but not men. There was no evidence that inflammation plays a mediating role in the obesity-IHD and physical activity-IHD relationships for women and men, respectively.

Background: Women who inject drugs continue to represent a disproportionate percentage of new cases of HIV in Canada (PHAC, 2006). However, in Nova Scotia, HIV has still not been conceptualized as a major health issue, especially among women (Gahagan, Rehman & Baxter, 2006). At the same time, recent research findings suggest that female injection drug users in Nova Scotia are engaging in unsafe injection and sexual practices and often lack access to harm reduction-based programming and resources (Ploem, 2000; PHAC, 2006; Jackson et al., 2010; Parker et al., 2011; Hodder, 2011). In a provincial context of high prevalence of injection drug use and HIV risk behaviours, preventing increasing rates of HIV infection will depend on the development of proactive and gender-informed HIV prevention policies. Purpose: This study had two main aims. First, it aimed to chart the development of provincial HIV prevention and harm reduction policies and to identify how, and if, the policy development processes address the HIV prevention needs of women who inject drugs. Its second aim was to identify key barriers and facilitators to developing HIV prevention policy for women who inject drugs in Nova Scotia. Methods: This study involved a review of key HIV prevention and harm reduction policy documents as well as interviews with 27 key informants directly involved with HIV prevention and/or harm reduction policy decision-making. Findings/Discussion: The existing Nova Scotia-based policy development network, their policies, their processes and the context within which they have functioned over the past ten years do not appear to be supporting the development of HIV prevention and harm reduction policy which addresses the needs of women who inject drugs. Policy committee composition lacked inclusivity and organizations that work directly with women who inject drugs held less influence in policy processes. In addition, gender was not prioritized by decision-makers and therefore not comprehensively addressed in policy content. As a result, the needs of women who inject drugs have not been prioritized in policy processes and subsequently few targeted resources are going to the community-based organizations that provide services to these women.

This research examined the effect of increasing attention on OxyContin in the news media on prescribing practices of the drug in Nova Scotia. Using data collected as part of a study looking at representations of OxyContin in North American newspapers between 1995 and 2005, this research assessed the trends in prescribing practices of OxyContin in relation to the increased media attention. Data from the original media study was combined with administrative data from the Nova Scotia Prescription Monitoring Program to examine OxyContin prescribing trends between September 1996 and December 2007, with a specific focus on changes in the volume of OxyContin prescribed as a proportion of all opioids prescribed and as a proportion of strong opioids prescribed. Peaks in print media attention in both the United States and Canada were followed by statistically significant changes in OxyContin prescribing. These changes differed among prescribers in different District Health Authorities and specialties.

The New England Planters were the largest wave of Protestant migration into Nova Scotia prior to the American Revolution. Sponsored by the British government, they represent an attempt to make Nova Scotia a securely British colony in the wake of the Seven Years’ War and the Acadian deportation. Examining the experiences of several families, this thesis argues that the Planters, despite taking up lands in Nova Scotia, remained unsettled. The migration was staggered over a number of years, and Planters maintained close ties with New England. However, the Planters were unable to recreate New England culture completely. Increasing numbers of settlers from the British Isles and revolutionary suspicion marked out Planter Nova Scotia as a separate space, despite the close ties that individual Planters maintained with their homelands. The Revolution forced Planters to choose, but until then many existed between the worlds of Nova Scotia and New England.

Energy crops may present an opportunity to reduce Nova Scotia’s Greenhouse Gas emissions by offsetting fossil fuel use and provide economic benefits for farmers. They have also received government policy support. To investigate this opportunity, I conduct a partial social cost-benefit analysis using non-equity weighted monetary valuation of growing switchgrass on inactive and underused farmland in Nova Scotia for local residential heating. The private net benefit for farmers, processors and consumers is estimated between $24.9 million and $209.9 million. I estimate that the external net benefit to society from the potential reduction in GHG emissions (at $50/tonne CO2E) ranges from $11.3 million to $72.2 million. This must be taken with caution as the analysis does not account for the entire ecological footprint of the project. While a net benefit to society is suggested, the paper also points to a need for more research surrounding the life-cycle emissions of energy crops.

Community power is an alternative to the fossil-fuelled, centralized approach to electricity generation. Typically, community power involves low-carbon or renewable forms of electricity generation developed in relatively small generation facilities distributed geographically, entirely or in part owned by the local community. Community power has been found to improve the efficiency of energy systems by decreasing transmission losses and making better use of the heat by-product. Other benefits include increased community acceptance of renewable energy technologies, expedited deployment of renewable technologies, and rural economic development. This study identified how the Canadian province of Nova Scotia could develop a viable community power sector by learning from leaders in the field, namely Denmark and Ontario. Case studies of these leading jurisdictions were developed through literature reviews and interviews with key informants. Next, the conditions for success for community management of common pool resources were compared to the case studies to draw parallels between conditions for success in community power sectors in Denmark and Ontario. It was found that many of the conditions for successful community management of common pool resources were similar to those that realized viable community power sectors with the exception of ‘the relationship between the resource system and institutional arrangements.’ The conditions fell under the themes of: ‘resource system characteristics;’ ‘group characteristics;’ ‘the relationship between resource system and group characteristics;’ ‘institutional arrangements;’ and ‘the external environment.’ At the time of study, Nova Scotia was taking the initial steps to creating a community power sector. By way of interviews with key informants in the province, barriers to a viable community power sector were identified. Next, drawing from the experiences of the Denmark and Ontario, methods to overcome the barriers were identified. Recommendations for the Nova Scotia Departments of Energy, the Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism, the Department of Natural Resources, CEDIF businesses, municipalities, renewable power proponents, and academic institutions were concluded from this study. The recommended path will enable a successful community power sector in Nova Scotia, which will in turn help achieve the provincial renewable electricity targets, enable a more stable and efficient energy system, and increase economic prosperity, particularly in rural communities. The recommendations are specific to Nova Scotia, although they may inform steps to successful community power sectors in similar jurisdictions.

Chemical pollution has become an environmental and human health concern. Small and medium-sized enterprises are becoming the focus of environmental researchers, as they have been found to collectively contribute a significant amount of the pollution due to improperly managed chemicals. This case study of Nova Scotia small and medium-sized enterprises aimed to collect baseline information regarding environmental and chemical management including what positive practices were in place, what areas required more assistance, what information is being requested and who should be the focus of information programs. Results indicated that there is significant room for improvement in both the environmental and chemical management practices of small and medium-sized enterprises, even though participants indicated they were employing responsible practices. Participants were however, able to provide multiple suggestions regarding information they require in order to improve their business operations and environmental performance, thereby indicating they are aware improvements are needed.

This paper analyzes energy substitution rates on dairy farms in Nova Scotia (NS), Canada. A transcendental logarithmic cost function is used to find the elasticities of substitution which are utilized to determine the substitutability of total farm energy and to determine feasible renewable energy (RE) technologies. Wind turbines are found to be the only feasible RE technology for dairy farms within the region, at this time. A review of on-farm RE production and the associated feed-in tariff (FIT) policies in Germany, USA, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands are examined. The NS FIT policy is used as a case study to assess the effect policies may have on wind turbine implementation by NS farms. Several scenarios are developed based on the existing policy structure to provide a critical review of the policy and to identify methods to provide an increase in the implementation of wind turbines on NS dairy farms.