This dissertation critiques, develops and applies a form of spatial semiotics, specifically topological semiotics, as a means of interpreting and analyzing the design, operation, use and ideological issues of West Edmonton 'Mega'-Mall (WEM) in the context of postmodern culture. Doing so promotes an understanding of the theoretical and analytical utility and limitations semiotics and postmodernism may hold for landscape studies, while furthering our knowledge about the design and social life of multi-purpose, indoor environments. Drawing from several key geographical concepts (landscape, place, placelessness), semiotic notions (icon, language, myth, sign, signification), postmodern issues (heterotopia, the crisis of interpretation, the linguistic turn), and empirical data (on-site observations, off-site questionnaires, secondary academic, government and corporate studies), the concepts of placial icon, simulated landscape and elsewhereness are developed to critique a "way of seeing" and explain what was viewed at the mega-mall. WEM's postmodern, heterotopic milieu of myths and elsewhereness is argued to collapse due to the mall's dual role as tourist centre/civic centre, making WEM an unoriginal, placeless, homotopic nowhere. Despite their theoretically overburdened and methodologically underdeveloped status, semiotics and postmodernism are shown to be useful catalysts for posing questions and initiating criticisms relevant to contemporary social theory, landscape studies and substantive social issues.

UNSTABLE was a field project in the summer of 2008 to better understand the large-scale and mesoscale forcings of summer storms. This thesis objective is to better understand boundary layer characteristics and convective environments in the Alberta foothills. Three sub-objectives are designed to address the overall thesis goal: (1) Characterize the daily evolution of the boundary layer during different convective regimes, (2) distinguish conditions between days with deep, shallow and no convection, and (3) to illustrate how targeted soundings can be useful for severe storm prediction. Non-convective days exhibited a warmer atmospheric column. Days with shallow convection exhibited a mid-level inversion. Deep convective days commonly displayed unstable low-levels and cooler upper levels, deep low-level moisture and the mountain-plains circulation. When compared to the pre-existing operational upper air network, mobile UNSTABLE soundings better captured the near storm environment of two tornadic events in terms of available instability and shear profiles.

This qualitative research was conducted within Alberta’s Isga Nation, specifically Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and Paul First Nation in central Alberta, Canada. The Isga are located in a hub of industrial activity such as oil drilling and development, sour gas drilling, coal mining, agriculture, and forestry. Despite the whirlwind of industrial activity surrounding them, the Isga people continue to carry out their traditional harvesting activities in and around Alberta, Canadas’ foothills and Rocky Mountains. The research objective was to better understand environmental impacts and changes in Alberta’s Isga Nation. More specifically, document concerns traditional land use harvesters have about: i) the decline in the health and abundance of medicines and berries; ii) the state of health the waterfowl and other wildlife are in; iii) testimony that industrial activity is causing environmental degradation; iv) the health of our lakes and rivers; and v) and worries about how the continuation of the Isga way of life will be affected in the future. The methods, or Isga ways of knowing provide first hand knowledge that the Isga are forced to seek areas outside their traditional harvesting territory to seek medicines and berries; that the wildlife, particularly moose, are showing abnormalities when they are harvested; that the health of the rivers and lakes is rapidly decreasing; and that the survival of the Isga way of life is being threatened today. Moreover, Isga voices will illuminate that their traditional territory is rapidly decreasing in environmental health and abundance because of oil drilling and development, sour gas drilling, coal mining, agriculture, and forestry.

This work provides an initial characterization of song sharing among males in the Northern House Wren (Troglodytes aedon parkmanii). A sample of 21 different males was studied at two different locations across two breeding seasons in southern Alberta, Canada. In total, 35,067 songs were analyzed to assess patterns of song sharing among males within and between study sites and in returning males between years. Virtually all syllable types (n=27) were shared among males. However, they were used to create very large repertoires of mostly unique song types. Absolute levels of song sharing among males was low but song sharing was higher among neighbouring males and decreased with increasing distance between males and across study sites. These patterns are discussed as they relate to important issues in the process of song learning, in the functions of large song repertoires in mate attraction and territory defense, and in the potential formation of dialects in this species. / xi, 102 leaves ; 29 cm

This qualitative research was conducted within Alberta’s Isga Nation, specifically Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and Paul First Nation in central Alberta, Canada. The Isga are located in a hub of industrial activity such as oil drilling and development, sour gas drilling, coal mining, agriculture, and forestry. Despite the whirlwind of industrial activity surrounding them, the Isga people continue to carry out their traditional harvesting activities in and around Alberta, Canadas’ foothills and Rocky Mountains. The research objective was to better understand environmental impacts and changes in Alberta’s Isga Nation. More specifically, document concerns traditional land use harvesters have about: i) the decline in the health and abundance of medicines and berries; ii) the state of health the waterfowl and other wildlife are in; iii) testimony that industrial activity is causing environmental degradation; iv) the health of our lakes and rivers; and v) and worries about how the continuation of the Isga way of life will be affected in the future. The methods, or Isga ways of knowing provide first hand knowledge that the Isga are forced to seek areas outside their traditional harvesting territory to seek medicines and berries; that the wildlife, particularly moose, are showing abnormalities when they are harvested; that the health of the rivers and lakes is rapidly decreasing; and that the survival of the Isga way of life is being threatened today. Moreover, Isga voices will illuminate that their traditional territory is rapidly decreasing in environmental health and abundance because of oil drilling and development, sour gas drilling, coal mining, agriculture, and forestry.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between twenty-first century instructional methods and student learning experiences. To do so, a typical and representative group of eight students was selected for qualitative interviews which ascertained student perception of their engagement in a typical New Media class. The study determined the perceived impact of a "student-centered instructional approach to video creation" on levels of student engagement in order to understand the nature of engagement and how they moved towards higher levels of independent learning. Transcripts of these interviews were used to identify a thematic structure of student perceptions of their engagement in a classroom where a "student-centered instruction approach to video creation" was used. Lastly, using the teacher's professional reflections, notes, and anecdotal reports from the class, students' stories of engagement were created to illustrate each unique journey toward self-engaged independence from the teacher's perspective. The results of this data pointed to three meta-themes. Meta-theme 1: Positive Relationships and Affective Climate, Meta-theme 2: Personalized, Student-centered Supported Independence, and Meta-theme 3: Accelerated Lift and Independent Learning. / xiv, 371 leaves ; 29 cm

Clubroot disease, caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae, poses a threat to the Canadian canola industry, and breeding of resistant cultivars is urgent. The objective of this study was to identify Brassica germplasm possessing resistance to Canadian P. brassicae pathotypes based on greenhouse screening. Germplasm resistant to local pathotype(s) is the prime requirement for breeding clubroot resistant cultivars. Race-specific to broad-spectrum resistance was identified in the diploid species B. rapa (AA) and B. oleracea (CC), and in the amphidiploid B. napus (AACC). The diploid B. nigra (BB) also showed race-specific to broad-spectrum resistance; however, the two amphidiploids with B. nigra as one of the parental species viz., B. juncea (AABB) and B. carinata (BBCC) were completely susceptible. The occurrence of resistance in the diploid and amphidiploid Brassica species is discussed in the light of their evolution, and a differential set for identification of Canadian clubroot pathotypes is proposed. / Plant Science

This novel manuscript explores the connections between art, the city of Calgary, and political complacency. Legislated into the school and job chosen by her high school career test results, a law student attends a party at a heritage house in Calgary and takes a tour through the rooms, hoping to encounter a lost acquaintance. In this world, careers are divided into five ambiguous "Fifths" (labour, service, secondary service, small business, and corporate science) none officially more valuable than any of the others. "Fifth Fifths", though, are the best paid, their post-secondary educations heavily subsized. The characters adhere unquestioningly to the ideology of the government in power (as Albertans historically have done), though they resent their lack of choice and recognize injustice. They, like most of the characters featured in popular Calgary history books, are the ones ultimately benefiting from the system. / English

Thesis (M.A.)--University Alberta, 2010. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed May 16, 2010). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Dept. of History and Classics". Includes bibliographical references.

The application of silvicultural systems in the B-19 Foothills, region of Alberta was examined in the light of current problems in management, silviculture, and utilisation. Following a regional description, in which a classification of site is developed, certain silvicultural systems were examined and recommended for the dominant stand types which occur on three major site groups, viz:- 1. Dry Upland 2. Moist Transition 3. Wet Consideration was given in each case to clearcutting, shelterwood and selection systems. Recommendations were based on the information presented in the preceding chapters and that available in those references cited in the bibliography. It has been pointed out in conclusion that there are three main phases in the development of control of the silviculture and management of the region. These are:- 1. The preparation of management plans for sustained yield. 2. The selection of silvicultural systems to, bring silvicultural control into the framework of sustained yield management. 3. The development and application of cultural treatments through research to improve local conditions and to help solve particular regeneration problems. The importance of the hypothesis presented in Chapter III is finally re-stressed with reference to the above mentioned development phases. That is - That there are already available to the practising forest management planner, silvicultural systems which are applicable, with or without further adaptation, to the forest stands of the region and to the sites described. Certain fields of research have been suggested throughout the text and these were summarised in a final recommendation. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate