Background: There is no standardized approach to the organizational structure for oral health provision in long-term care (LTC) and many different arrangements exist within different institutions. Objectives: To analyze how integration of dental service in LTC impacts residents and their oral health using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed involving 61 residents in 3 LTC facilities in Ontario. Facility A had a fee-for-service hygienist, Facility B had a dentist present once per week, and Facility C had a full time dental team. Results: Dental services that initiated treatment as opposed to placing responsibility on the LTC resident to access dental care resulted in better oral health outcomes. Conclusion: Dental services in LTC require a proactive approach directly integrated with each resident’s overall health care plan. Passive treatment strategies fail to provide acceptable oral health for LTC residents even when dental services are available.

This thesis explores Korean-Chinese migrant workers’ local experiences of the global phenomenon of international migration of care labour, focusing on how the care labour of migrant workers is being constructed through the intertwined social and political processes in South Korea’s shifting long-term care sector for the elderly. The thesis uses a qualitative case study method and relies on data collected through participant observation, interviews, and textual analysis during field research between November 2009 and May 2010. The analysis is based on a global economy of care framework, which understands care work as being made of products that are socially and politically constructed in the global processes. My study findings illuminate the roles and relations of the state, the employers, and the workers in producing a huge migrant workforce in South Korea’s segregated elder care labour market. The policy analysis at the intersection of elder care, labour market, and immigration policies shows that, over the last decade, the South Korean government has significantly reconstructed the boundaries of elder care work through the expansion of publicly-funded programmes for the elderly and the institutionalisation of care work in those programmes. In the institutionalisation process, the government’s ignorance about the care work performed in the private care sector has resulted in different regulations and working conditions for care workers in the publicly-funded versus the private sector. My empirical findings highlight how employers’ search for ‘cheap’ and ‘flexible’ labour and older female migrants’ disadvantageous status in the labour market have placed these workers in the less regulated private sector and their pay and working conditions at the bottom of hierarchical elder care workforce. In advocating for migrant care workers’ labour rights, this thesis challenges the current discriminative employment practices and the government’s lack of protection and regulation of care work in the private sector.

This thesis explores Korean-Chinese migrant workers’ local experiences of the global phenomenon of international migration of care labour, focusing on how the care labour of migrant workers is being constructed through the intertwined social and political processes in South Korea’s shifting long-term care sector for the elderly. The thesis uses a qualitative case study method and relies on data collected through participant observation, interviews, and textual analysis during field research between November 2009 and May 2010. The analysis is based on a global economy of care framework, which understands care work as being made of products that are socially and politically constructed in the global processes. My study findings illuminate the roles and relations of the state, the employers, and the workers in producing a huge migrant workforce in South Korea’s segregated elder care labour market. The policy analysis at the intersection of elder care, labour market, and immigration policies shows that, over the last decade, the South Korean government has significantly reconstructed the boundaries of elder care work through the expansion of publicly-funded programmes for the elderly and the institutionalisation of care work in those programmes. In the institutionalisation process, the government’s ignorance about the care work performed in the private care sector has resulted in different regulations and working conditions for care workers in the publicly-funded versus the private sector. My empirical findings highlight how employers’ search for ‘cheap’ and ‘flexible’ labour and older female migrants’ disadvantageous status in the labour market have placed these workers in the less regulated private sector and their pay and working conditions at the bottom of hierarchical elder care workforce. In advocating for migrant care workers’ labour rights, this thesis challenges the current discriminative employment practices and the government’s lack of protection and regulation of care work in the private sector.

Background: There is no standardized approach to the organizational structure for oral health provision in long-term care (LTC) and many different arrangements exist within different institutions. Objectives: To analyze how integration of dental service in LTC impacts residents and their oral health using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed involving 61 residents in 3 LTC facilities in Ontario. Facility A had a fee-for-service hygienist, Facility B had a dentist present once per week, and Facility C had a full time dental team. Results: Dental services that initiated treatment as opposed to placing responsibility on the LTC resident to access dental care resulted in better oral health outcomes. Conclusion: Dental services in LTC require a proactive approach directly integrated with each resident’s overall health care plan. Passive treatment strategies fail to provide acceptable oral health for LTC residents even when dental services are available.

This paper uses stock market data from 2000-2010 to examine the role long-term growth (LTG) uncertainty plays in equity valuations. In theory, the convex relationship between LTG and per-share value suggests a positive relationship between LTG uncertainty and analysts’ price targets, with higher levels of LTG uncertainty leading to higher, less accurate price targets. However, this paper finds conclusive evidence that analysts are not incorporating LTG uncertainty into their pricing models. This leaves uncertainty regarding the discount rate and the perpetuity growth rate as the only remaining potential sources of upward pressure on analysts’ price targets that are attributable to uncertainty.

Polyethylene has been studied from many different perspectives; a final application property perspective, in which the response of the material to loads is the topic; a micromechanical point of view, in which the macroscopic state of the material is related to its microstructure, e.g., Alvarado (2007), and a chemical point of view in which the molecular structure and the processes that create polyethylene are investigated. This thesis focuses on the mechanical behavior of polyethylene observed from testing and relates the mechanical behavior to the molecular structure of the material. High density polyethylene is a material used in civil engineering applications such as pipes and containers. There are two general modes of failure for polyethylene: ductile failure that happens at relatively large stresses (up to 200MPa) and in short amount of time, and brittle failure that occurs when a much lower stress is sustained over a long period of time (Cheng 2008). Other than these two modes of failure, excessive deformation of the material that is usually caused by creep is also to be avoided. This thesis studies the relationship between short-term and long-term creep of polyethylene and its molecular structure. In this work three types of mechanical tests were performed on six samples of polyethylene. The existing models that prescribe the constitutive behavior of the material were then critically evaluated against the observed data. Furthermore the molecular properties of the samples that had been obtained from previous research by Cheng (2008) were compared against the mechanical behavior observed from testing in order to assess what molecular properties are important in determining the mechanical behavior of polyethylene. This information can also help polyethylene designers to produce longer lasting material, or a material that has high stiffness, by knowing what molecular properties to control and optimize.

This dissertation presents different aspects of long-term contract for product service system (PSS); also different issues that companies are dealt for implementation of PSS. The study consists of literature review for understanding factors which can affect long-term PSS contracts. Different generic categories of green business models which are used in PSS contracts have been addressed and in addition, various models of contracts for PSS in industries have been identified too. The important factors which can influence these types of contracts are categorized in six major aspects organizational, social, economic, technological, legal and environmental. Each of these factors separately has been analyzed by reviewing related literature. Moreover a general evaluation about effect of each factor in other influential factors has been presented. In respect of long duration of contract, the rate of uncertainty is higher than traditional method of buying a product. Here, problems which are related to each of these factors have been addressed. Moreover, different approaches of companies for these problems have been discussed which these solutions can be useful for other providers in similar situation.

Polyethylene has been studied from many different perspectives; a final application property perspective, in which the response of the material to loads is the topic; a micromechanical point of view, in which the macroscopic state of the material is related to its microstructure, e.g., Alvarado (2007), and a chemical point of view in which the molecular structure and the processes that create polyethylene are investigated. This thesis focuses on the mechanical behavior of polyethylene observed from testing and relates the mechanical behavior to the molecular structure of the material. High density polyethylene is a material used in civil engineering applications such as pipes and containers. There are two general modes of failure for polyethylene: ductile failure that happens at relatively large stresses (up to 200MPa) and in short amount of time, and brittle failure that occurs when a much lower stress is sustained over a long period of time (Cheng 2008). Other than these two modes of failure, excessive deformation of the material that is usually caused by creep is also to be avoided. This thesis studies the relationship between short-term and long-term creep of polyethylene and its molecular structure. In this work three types of mechanical tests were performed on six samples of polyethylene. The existing models that prescribe the constitutive behavior of the material were then critically evaluated against the observed data. Furthermore the molecular properties of the samples that had been obtained from previous research by Cheng (2008) were compared against the mechanical behavior observed from testing in order to assess what molecular properties are important in determining the mechanical behavior of polyethylene. This information can also help polyethylene designers to produce longer lasting material, or a material that has high stiffness, by knowing what molecular properties to control and optimize.

This thesis examines vegetation community change at two temporal scales in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Using long-term plots in the Duke Forest, I examine decadal-scale changes in community composition of the forest understory and shed light on the potential drivers of that change. Using historical data from colonial survey records, I study presettlement forest communities of the Piedmont and attempt to reconstruct Piedmont forests as they may have been in the time before European arrival. The pattern of successional change in southeastern United States Piedmont forests has been assumed from chronosequence studies over the last half century. However, these assumptions for forest understory herb-layer populations and communities have not been tested using long term data sets. Using permanently marked plots in the Duke Forest (Durham, NC, USA) re-censused after a 23 year time step, species richness and community changes at 25m2 and 1000m2 scales are examined. I look at changes across life forms and examine these changes in relation to measured stand and environmental factors. Although total species richness stayed relatively constant through the 23 year step, herb richness declined with a concomitant increase in woody richness. Plot composition change was remarkably consistent and this change was not correlated to any measured stand or environmental factors. These community-level changes are consistent with previously reported changes in the understories of hardwood dominated stands in the Duke Forest, suggesting that landscape scale drivers may be more important than within-stand successional processes in patterning herbaceous communities at this time. Combined with growing evidence from other studies, this work indicates that forests in the temperate region may be experiencing changes different from those predicted by successional chronosequence studies. It indicates that one of the primary drivers of this change is the explosive growth of deer populations in the last two decades. Witness trees recorded in historical surveys have been used to reconstruct presettlement vegetation in many parts of North America, leading to a better understanding of vegetation patterns before the effects of Europeans. For some parts of North America, Government Land Office records make the process of reconstructing vegetation patterns easier - thus more is known about these areas. Because of the unique and unplanned nature of settlement in the southeastern U.S., less is known about the presettlement vegetation in this area of the country. Using a reconstructed cadastral map of a section of the North Carolina Piedmont, I was able to plot the positions of trees on the historical landscape. These data were then used to understand and reconstruct the composition of presettlement forests. Although the vegetation of some areas of the Piedmont is similar to what was expected, I find significant differences with the expected presettlement composition. In particular, pine species were common in some areas and rare in others, indicating that different disturbance regimes were active on the landscape. / Dissertation

I examine the market reaction to merger announcements and the long-term post-merger stock price performance of newly merged firms. For a sample of 484 acquiring firms completing mergers between 1993 and 2000, the average value-weighted abnormal announcement date return (market-adjusted) is a statistically significant -1.02%. On average, this reaction is more negative for firms with "good governance." Specifically, a governance index comprised of three governance variables is significantly negative in a multivariate regression of announcement date abnormal returns. Comp is the percentage of CEO salary consisting of equity incentives (including stock options and restricted stock grants), InsideOwn is the percentage of the firm owned by officers and directors, and InstOwn is the percentage of the firm owned by large outside block shareholders. Value-weighted calendar-time portfolios consisting of the full sample of acquirers exhibit significant abnormal returns of 9.12%, 33.84% and 55.8% for the 12, 36 and 60 months following the merger, respectively. This overperformance is limited to the value-weighted portfolios. There is calendar-time evidence of abnormal performance for some subsamples on a risk adjusted basis. However, when compared to a control group, abnormal performance is limited to large glamour acquirers on a 12-month horizon, large cash acquirers on a 36 and 60-month horizon, and small focusing acquirers on a 60-month horizon. Multivariate analysis of long-run returns reveals that use of equity and corporate diversification are associated with lower post-merger performance. With regard to governance and long-run stock returns, there is also evidence that suggests higher levels of incentive compensation for CEOs is associated with more successful merger transactions for long-term investors.