No description available.

No description available.

Market demand for housing changes over time, in response to the wants and needs of both individuals and society. Changes in socio-demographics highlight the emergence of non-traditional households in Canada and influence the configuration of a house (or product) which meets buyers' individual requirements. In turn, this affects the design approach (or process). At the same time, society today requires sustainability in housing development, since building a house consumes large amounts of energy during construction and after occupancy. / Technology that improves the cost and performance of housing has advanced over time. Although some innovative design and construction systems (or approaches) that attempt to meet societal and individual demands for housing are available in today's market, homebuilders tend not to apply unfamiliar approaches to their housing developments, since their business operation is often based on convention. Another reason, which inhibits a builder's adoption of new housing technology, is the extra cost required for seeking and analysing information. Thus, the homebuilders' decision-making processes for the adoption of 'familiar' and 'unfamiliar' design and construction systems (or housing systems) which affect the configuration of housing need to be well programmed. / Accordingly, this study, composed of four parts, focuses initially on identifying housing market trends and issues in Quebec, as well as introducing the new concept of mass customisation that encourages homebuilders to standardise parts of a house---i.e. the creation of mass custom homes. Then, in consideration of this new concept, as well as a value analysis approach that helps facilitate homebuilders' buying decisions, it proposes a choice model for the design and construction approaches to the delivery of 'lower-cost and higher-performance' housing. Thirdly, to assess its practicality, the proposed decision-making model is demonstrated in collaboration with a selected homebuilder in Quebec. Finally, the results of this study are discussed in depth in order to identify future research opportunities. / In view of the demonstration project conducted in this study, the author concluded that the proposed 'choice model' could function effectively as a practical decision-making support tool (or system) that helps open the door for homebuilders to generate and select alternatives that aid them to produce lower-cost and higher-performance housing. As a consequence of programming the homebuilders' buying decision-making process, the goal identification uncertainty and goal/purchase matching uncertainty, which often hinder their adoption of unfamiliar, innovative housing systems, could be reduced, or eliminated.

The use of plastic mulches in producing red bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is relatively new to Quebec and management techniques need to be further developed in terms of nitrogen (N) fertilization as well as insect and disease control. A research project was undertaken in the 1995 and 1996 growing seasons to compare peppers grown on black and on silver mulches, and fertigated using either the conventional method (weekly N-fertigated) or N-fertigated using diagnostic chlorophyll meter readings. Both fertigation treatments resulted in similar yields, although those fertilized according to the chlorophyll meter received 28 to 42 kg N/ha less than the weekly fertilized treatments. The chlorophyll meter was able to detect N deficiencies. Alate aphid populations were significantly reduced by mulches, especially by the silver mulch in both years. However, apterous aphid populations were increased by mulches, most markedly by the black mulch. No significant effect of mulch or N was found on tarnished plant bug or European corn borer populations, or on the percentage of fruit with sunscald or viral symptoms.

The most northeasterly population of wood turtles (Clemmys insculpta ) was studied during 1996 and 1997 in Quebec, Canada. A total of 188 turtles (55 males, 83 females, and 50 immatures) was captured, measured and marked for future identification. The adult sex ratio was not significantly different from 1:1. Males were significantly larger than females for measures of carapace length, 214.5 and 201 mm, respectively. Wood turtles from northern populations are larger than those from southern regions. The population density was estimated to be 0.44 turtles/hectare. Courtship occurred in the spring but was more common in the fall. Nesting occurred in mid-June with nesting activity taking place at all times of the day but more frequently in early morning and evening. Females migrated over 3 km to a nesting area and exhibited nest fidelity. Sixty-six percent of turtles nested in 2 consecutive yr and these females were significantly larger than turtles that nested in only 1 yr of the study. There was no mammalian predation but, some arthropods were suspected of being predators. Mean clutch size was 10.1 (range = 5--20) eggs. Comparisons with other populations of C. insculpta are also made.

An evaluation of the impact of the nutritional program "Mangeons en coeur" was conducted with 64 participants in this program. The two study objectives were to measure any changes in the dietary intake of program participants and to evaluate the performance of a food habits questionnaire in evaluating change in fat intake at the individual level. The dietary evaluation by the diet history indicated no change in the total intake of lipids (31% of energy as lipids) over the course of the program. Comparisons of the total lipid intake as measured by the diet history and food habits questionnaire indicated significant correlations at both baseline and at the end of the program.

This thesis contains a study of the legal rules governing the transmission and change of the surname in Quebec civil law. It undertakes to shed light, by means of a psychoanalytical approach, on the regime for the attribution and change of surname, notably on law reform initiatives in the Province since the onset of the 80s. Contemporary norms in Quebec in respect of the name depart from the classical features of the civilian tradition in that the role played by human will appear indeed to be preponderant in Quebec, be it as to assignment or change of name. This characteristic is likely to affect the normal functioning of the naming process by turning it into a battlefield upon which unresolved incestuous and narcissic tendencies are at play. Whilst the naming scene is in process of privatisation, state actors remain however principally as sanction takers toward parents.

During the last stages of the Marcommani Wars in the late second century A.D., Roman literary sources recorded that the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was planning to annex the Germanic territory of the Marcomannic and Quadic tribes. This work will propose that Marcus Aurelius was going to create a province called Marcomannia. The thesis will be supported by archaeological data originating from excavations in the Roman installation at Mušov, Moravia, Czech Republic. The investigation will examine the history of the non-Roman region beyond the northern Danubian frontier, the character of Roman occupation and creation of other Roman provinces on the Danube, and consult primary sources and modern research on the topic of Roman expansion and empire building during the principate. / Graduate / 0579 / 0324 / 0294

The first part of this thesis is concerned with the assimilation of Pisidia into the Roman Empire, reviewed against a background of general expansion and development. Hellenistic and Roman influences contributed to the transformation of a district with a basically tribally-structured society, primitive communications and a self-sufficient agrarian economy, into a Roman province which had adopted Roman culture and urbanisation, whose road network was part of an Empire-wide system and whose economy was integrated with that of the Empire as a whole. Still it appears that, for fundamentally geographical reasons, Pisidia retained some of her independent characteristics and the process of assimilation of the highlands into the Empire was, on the whole, more retarded than that of the lowland and coastal regions. The second part of the thesis is concerned with aspects of later Antiquity, beginning with the archaeological evidence for Christianity in Pisidia. This is of major importance because Christianity was one of the critical and most influential aspects of change in the Roman world and because the churches are very often the only evidence which bears witness to the occupation of a site after the 4th century. There is thought to have been an Empire-wide decline during late Antiquity, resulting in urban decay, economic dislocation, depopulation and discontinuity of city life and traditions. The main cause seems to have been political instability, in particular almost continual warfare from the mid 3rd century. These and other possible factors of decline are assessed against a background of general transformation and development, the symptoms reinterpreted, whenever justifiable, as reflections of changing traditions and changing needs. The closing chapter considers more specifically the questions of continuity, decline and change in Pisidia, exploring the possibility that Pisidia's element of independence and her geographical isolation protected the district to a certain extent from adversities which were not the result of natural causes.

No description available.