In recent years, the already idealized practice of families sitting down together to eat a homemade meal and enjoy each other's company has been bolstered by academic research that suggests family meals are good for children. In response to these findings, several organizations have launched campaigns promoting family meals. In this dissertation, I compare the ways family meals are framed by the organizations that promote them to how parents frame them by conducting a qualitative content analysis of ten campaign websites and interviews with 46 parents. The sample of campaigns represents commercial and nonprofit organizations, and the sample of parents varies by income and marital status, allowing me to determine whether frames used by a certain type of organization are likely to resonate with certain demographics. My findings suggest that while organizational framing of family meals is sometimes similar to way parents frame them, there are some important disjunctions that are likely to decrease the potential effectiveness of the campaigns. In general, campaigns frame family meals more in terms of conversation and what happens around the table, while parents frame them more in terms of food and labor. When campaign frames do match parents' frames, they align more closely with higher-income and married parents, particularly in the case of commercial organizations, while nonprofit campaigns align more closely with lower-income and single parents. This project contributes to the literatures on framing, social marketing, and consumption by using frame analysis to gauge the potential effectiveness of the promotion of a set of everyday consumption practices. It provides insight into how parents think about and perform the tasks involved in creating family meals within an organizational context and the creation of cultural discourse about them. A practical application is using this information to improve the promotion of family meals, particularly for lower-income and single parents.

This research quantifies the seismic vulnerability of older reinforced concrete frame structures located in Mid-America. After designing a representative three-story gravity load designed reinforced concrete frame structure, a nonlinear analytical representation was used evaluate inter-story drift demands from simulated earthquake time histories that were representative for the region. Limit state story drift capacities were identified for FEMA 273 guidelines, nonlinear pushover analyses, and incremental dynamic analyses. Integrating these two quantities allowed for the creation of fragility curves which relates the probability of exceeding a particular limit state given an imposed spectral acceleration at the fundamental building period. These curves were then used to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of the representatively designed structure. The structure as originally designed was found to be inadequate to resist large lateral loading that would be typical for the Memphis area. So structural retrofit performed by increasing the column-to-beam strength ratio was evaluated by increasing the strength of the column members in the analytical model. The first retrofit raised the column-to-beam strength ratio to 1.2, which is currently required by the ACI code provisions. The second retrofit raised the column-to-beam strength ratio to 1.8, as suggested in previous studies. The story capacity, demand, and fragility curves were once again created for these retrofitted structures. Comparison of these fragility curves is discussed in relation to the retrofit strategy of column strengthening for older reinforced concrete frame structures in Mid-America.

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L'objectif de ce travail de thèse est d'enrichir la formulation du Lancer de Faisceaux Gaussiens (LFG) et de tester sa capacité à répondre à certains des besoins actuels en calculs de propagation dans le domaine du Radar terrestre. Le LFG est envisagé comme une alternative possible aux méthodes classiques (Equation Parabolique, méthodes de rayons) en environnement complexe urbanisé, en particulier en présence d'obstacles latéraux, avec une cible située en non visibilité. La méthode de LFG "de base", qui utilise des expressions analytiques obtenues par approximation paraxiale, permet des calculs de propagation rapides en environnements complexes, sans problèmes de caustiques. Elle conduit à des résultats de précision satisfaisante dans le domaine millimétrique, par exemple pour des calculs de champs intra-bâtiments. Aux fréquences plus basses comme celles utilisées en Radar terrestre, elle est limitée par une prise en compte trop approximative des effets de diffraction et par l'élargissement spatial des faisceaux gaussiens au regard des dimensions des obstacles. La théorie des frames est utilisée dans cette thèse pour dépasser ces limites. La théorie des frames fournit un cadre rigoureux pour la décomposition initiale du champ rayonné en faisceaux gaussiens, et permet de calibrer le nombre et les directions des faisceaux à lancer. Dans ce travail de thèse, l'emploi de frames de fenêtres gaussiennes pour décomposer des distributions de champs ou de sources équivalentes est généralisé aux distributions de champs incidents sur des plans ou des portions de plans, choisis en fonction des obstacles rencontrés et des distances parcourues. Les champs rayonnés à partir de ces plans sont alors obtenus par sommation des faisceaux gaussiens lancés depuis ces frames dits de "re-décomposition". Les transformations de faisceaux gaussiens par des obstacles de taille limitée sont ainsi traitées par redécomposition : les faisceaux incidents partiellement interceptés par des surfaces limitées sont "re-décomposés" successivement sur deux frames de re-décomposition, à fenêtres "étroites" puis "larges", définis dans les plans de ces surfaces. Le frame à fenêtres "étroites" permet de traiter les discontinuités physiques, tandis que le frame à fenêtres "larges" permet de propager les champs transformés sous la forme de faisceaux "collimatés". Dans cette thèse, nous présentons une formulation de ces re-décompositions permettant une mise en œuvre numériquement efficace, grâce à des expressions analytiques approchées des coefficients de frame pour la première décomposition, et des éléments de la matrice de changement de frame pour la seconde. Cette formulation est mise en œuvre numériquement, et l'influence de différents paramètres sur la précision des re-décompositions est analysée. Finalement, l'algorithme de LFG enrichi de ces re-décompositions successives est utilisé dans un scénario simplifié proche de situations rencontrées en propagation Radar terrestre.

In this thesis, I will discuss subject conceptions among social studies teachers who work in upper secondary schools. The aim of this study is to investigate and analyse subject conceptions among social studies teachers and their relationship to the teachers’ personal background. Subject conceptions can be expressed in both planned and realized teaching, which are analysed in this study. The questions posed are: What subject conceptions are expressed in the social studies teachers’ descriptions of their teaching? Are there any relationships between the teachers’ personal background and the subject conceptions they express? Which subject conceptions are manifested in written tests and exercises? This study consists of three empirical sub-studies. The first sub-study is based on a questionnaire with 60 social studies teachers in upper secondary schools in two counties in Sweden. The second sub-study is based on in-depth interviews with eight social studies teachers who expressed different subject conceptions in the questionnaire. The last sub-study is based on a document analysis of 28 written tests and examinations that were collected from the interviewed teachers. The theoretical framework of this study consists of structuration, class, gender and didactic theories. Some conclusions can be drawn from this study. There are different subject conceptions among the social studies teachers. I have found four typical subject conceptions, which I have called the fact-and-concept–focused, value-focused, analysis-focused and citizenship-focused subject conceptions. The study also shows that the teachers’ personal background has a relationship with their subject conceptions, to a certain degree. Gender and the combination of subjects in the teachers’ academic exams are related to the subject conceptions that the teachers express. Also, internal framing factors, like social background, political views and years in the profession, and external frame factors, like steering documents, textbooks, current news events and the students’ interests and needs, influence the teachers’ subject understanding to different extents. The study also shows that there are differences between the subject conceptions, which are shown in the teachers’ descriptions of their teachings and their assessment materials. The majority of the teachers in the study expressed the citizenship-focused subject conception in the questionnaire, while the written tests and examinations are dominated by fact-and-concept–focused and analysis-focused questions. One conclusion drawn from the empirical results is that code, classification and framing vary among the different conceptions of the subject social studies.

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WiMax or the IEEE 802.16 standard is one of the most promising broadband wireless technologies nowadays. It is characterized by its high data rates, large coverage area, flexible design and QoS support. The standard defines two modes of operation: Point-to- Multi-Point (PMP) and the Mesh Mode. In the first mode, all nodes are connected directly to the base station and communication is not allowed amongst nodes. In the mesh mode, nodes are placed in an ad hoc manner communicating to neighbors and relaying the traffic of other nodes. The goal of this thesis is to design a partitioning scheme for the frame structure of the Mesh mode. Increasing the frame utilization would result in better support for QoS applications and optimized resource allocation, and thus revenue increase from the service provider’s perspective. The mesh frame is divided into control and data, which are further divided into centralized and distributed portions. We propose a novel and efficient scheme for partitioning the data subframe between the two schedulers. We use a Markovian model that studies the system behavior in the long run, and provides predictions based on analysis of previous window of frames. We further enhance the decision by tuning the partitioning through statistical analysis of smaller windows to accommodate demand changes. Our simulations show that the proposed scheme achieves high utilization under different network and traffic conditions and decreases the packet overflow. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2008-10-02 18:41:36.551

With the greatly increased rate of social and economic change in North America since World War II, the flexible/adaptable house has become an alternative to the conventional single-family, detached housing that both exceeds the needs and means of many non-traditional households. Theories and experience worldwide have shown that housing flexibility that is based on user participation allows decision-makers to adapt housing projects to meet the changing general needs. However, technological bottlenecks in the invention of new materials and techniques can restrict flexibility. This study examines construction products that contribute to increased flexibility in wood-frame low-rise housing. / Prefabrication has been the construction industry's approach to achieving housing flexibility. The strategy has been to incorporate flexibility into each subsystem or component through the use of new materials and techniques, in order to create overall building flexibility. The research presented in this thesis shows that different products offer different levels of flexibility, and that combining them does not necessarily produce greater overall flexibility. By examining the positive and negative aspects of these products, the author is able to suggest new directions for the development of future innovations in housing flexibility.

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This work is a compilation of ideas intended as a framework for an alternative approach to engaging ‘site’ in the design process, an approach that maintains and explores the complexities and subtleties of a landscape, of a place. Through two parallel explorations - one that considers an expanded and inclusive interpretation of landscape as the frame through which we engage with, and design, our surroundings, and one that examines the specific nature of this engagement as exchange between the self and the milieu - such an approach has been developed. This approach is called RECONNAISSANCE. Through encouragement of explicit, conscious consideration of how we perceive and experience a landscape, how this contributes to an understanding of a particular place and how this relates to and informs the practice of landscape architecture (both the process and the outcome), RECONNAISSANCE contributes to a strengthening of our abilities and actions as landscape architects.