Effects of fungi and overstory composition on tree seedling survival and growth were investigated in closed canopy upland forests in the coastal plain of South Carolina. Seedlings of Quercus alba, Cornus florida and Pinus taeda were planted in the understory of two forest types -naturally regenerated hardwood and planted pine. Fungal species composition and biomass were experimentally manipulated with a treatment of the fungicide captan. In contrast with other studies conducted in different systems (sand dune, grassland, and old field), the effects of soil fungi were minor in a closed canopy forest. Only Q. alba showed a significant response to the fungicide (p < 0.05) treatment with increased growth. Overstory composition had no significant effect on growth or survival for any of the species. Both of the commercially desirable species (Q. alba and P. taeda) had reasonable survival ( @ 60%). Both also maintained positive, though modest, growth. This suggests that an advance regeneration pool could be established successfully by artificial regeneration. / Master of Science

In many situations, different consumers have different degrees of willingness to wait to get delivery of a product. So, consumers can be segregated based upon the demand lead time they are providing. In this paper, two types of consumers have been considered. The first category needs immediate delivery of the product, so there is no demand lead time; whereas for the other category, demand lead time is positive. A manufacturer, which produces the items using a base stock policy, can benefit from the advance demand information that the second category of consumers are providing. Early fulfillment for a particular order means fulfilling the order before the demand lead time. In this research, it is shown that a restrictive early fulfillment policy can help the firm to reduce the chances of order loss. A production control approach for restrictive early fulfillment is discussed and the factors that may affect the early fulfillment policy are examined. / Master of Science

Most Americans will die in a hospital or skilled care facility. Despire diligent efforts by local citizens groups, state and national foundations, and healthcare providers to inform the public about their legal rights, only 15% of patients have advanced directives in the form of a living will or health care proxy (Haynor, 1998). Advanced directives that are available are often out-dated, ambiguous, incomplete, unacknowledged, or disregarded by both healthcare providers and family members. An educational program was offered to the residents of a low-income senior housing complex to introduce the "Five Wishes" advanced directive developed by the Commission on Aging with Dignity. The program involved informing the participants about advanced directives, identifying communication strategies for the participants when talking with their physician and family about their wishes, encouraging and assisting participants to complete an advanced directive, and identifying ways to distribute their completed directive. The program was attended voluntarily by thirty-two residents. Results of the anonymous program evaluations revealed the program provided good information about advanced directives, that the information was useful, and that the participants felt more knowledgeable about advanced planning. The majority of participants stated they felt comfortable discussing their wishes with their physician and family, and most wished to complete an advanced directive. Nurse practitioners are in a unique position to provide education, support, and guidance for patients regarding advanced directives. Advanced care planning should be an integral part of the patient's health care. The longitudinal relationships formed through continued health care provision give primary care practitioners the opportunity to help patients remain in control of their care throughout their lives and to keep the patients informed of changes in self-determined healthcare laws and health policies.

No / Radiographer reporting of plain film radiographs is an established role in the UK. Despite this previous research has demonstrated widespread inconsistencies in implementation, scope and utilisation. A cross-sectional postal survey was undertaken to provide a longitudinal insight into changes in radiographer reporting practice. The sample comprised all individual hospital sites in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man with both a radiology and trauma service A response rate of 63.7% (n = 325/510) was achieved. Reporting radiographers were in place at 179 sites (55.1%) but less likely to be employed at sites with a minor injury unit rather than a full emergency department (χ2 = 71.983; p < 0.001; d.f. = 1). Radiographer utilisation has increased since 2007, although local barriers to implementation and activity were identified. Geographical variation was evident in relation to reporter employment and anatomical scope. A significant association was noted between broader anatomical scope and a wider range of referral sources (χ2 = 34.441; p < 0.001; d.f. = 1). Delayed reporting of radiographs remains the standard service delivery model across the UK. This study confirms the significant contribution that radiographers are making to reporting capacity in the UK, although there continue to be geographical variations, particularly around anatomical scope and referral groups.

No / Accepted definitions and descriptions of advanced practice offer generic ideals for the development of advanced radiographer practitioner roles. However, they fail to specify a development pathway necessary for a clinical practitioner to attain advanced practitioner status and lack of clarity persists around the definition of advanced practice within the context of radiography [Price R. Critical factors influencing the changing scope of practice: the defining periods. Imaging & Oncology 2005;June:6–11.]. This paper will consider the expectations of practitioner and advanced practitioner competencies within the context of radiography practice in the United Kingdom and suggest criteria for an advanced practice development pathway that may be adopted by individual radiographers, or their managers, to assist professional development within any imaging speciality.

Criminal law issues related to Advance directives Abstract The aim of this thesis is to describe the recent institute of Advance directives in the Czech legal system and to analyze criminal law issues related with it's aplication. The focus is on medical workers which can get into jeopardy of criminal liability by respecting the Advance directives. Furthermore in this thesis are compared the legislations of Czech republic and the Australian state Queensland conserning Advance directives. Also, key rullings of Australian courts and other common law courts related to the aplicaton of Advance directives are described in this thesis. Descreption methods were aplied to describe each institute and terms close to it, analyzing methods to analyze liability of medical workers and comparative methods to compare the Czech and Queensland legislations. The thesis is divided into seven chapters and many subchapters. The first chapter is dedicated to the institute of Advance directives, to it's definition, history and to the legislations it is based in. The second chapter describes fundamental human rights related to Advance directives. These are the Right to Life, Right to dignity and the Right to self- determination. Every one of these rights is closely described and a subchapter deals with their collisions. The third...

This thesis examines the role of rock avalanches in tectonically active terrains including the effects of the deposits on glacier behaviour and their contribution to moraine formation. The chronologies of mountain glacier fluctuations, based on moraine ages, are widely used to infer regional climate change and are often correlated globally. In actively uplifting mountain ranges rock avalanches that travel onto the ablation zone of a glacier can reduce ice-surface melting by insulating the ice. This can cause buried ice to thicken due to slower ablation and can significantly alter the overall glacier mass balance. This glacier response to supraglacial rock avalanche deposits can confound apparent climatic signals extracted from moraine chronologies. This thesis investigates the processes through which rock avalanche deposits may affect glaciers and develops a new technique to identify the presence of rock avalanche debris in glacial moraines. From laboratory experiments on the effects of debris on ice ablation it is demonstrated that the rate of underlying ice ablation is controlled by diurnal cyclicity and is amplified at high altitude and in lower latitudes. The relatively low permeability of rock avalanche sediment in comparison with non-rock avalanche supraglacial debris cover contributes to the suppression of ablation, at least partly because it greatly reduces the advection of heat from rain water to the underlying ice. The laboratory findings are supplemented by field investigations of two recent rock avalanche deposits on glaciers in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. This work demonstrates that the rock avalanche deposits are very thick (10 m at Aoraki/Mt. Cook and 7m at Mt. Beatrice) and almost stopped the ablation of the overlying ice. This resulted in the formation of an ice-platform more than 30 m high. This led to a reduction of the existing negative mass balance of the affected Tasman and Hooker Glaciers. There was little noticeable alteration of the overall glacial regime due to the small scale of the debris covered area (4 and 1% of the ablation zones for the Tasman and Hooker Glaciers, respectively) but there is a significant contribution to supraglacial debris, which is passively transported toward the terminus. A conceptual model of the response of mountain valley glaciers to emplacement of extensive rock avalanche debris on the ablation zone has been proposed for the effect of this type of debris on terminal moraine formation based on enhanced ‘dumping’ of supraglacial sediments. A new technique has been developed to distinguish rock-avalanche-derived sediment from sediment of glacial origin, based on the sedimentary characteristics of the finest fraction. Examination of rock avalanche sediment under the Scanning Electron Microscope showed that finer particles tend to form strong clumps, which comprise many smaller (down to nanometre-scale) clasts, named here ‘agglomerates’. These agglomerates are present in the fine fraction of all examined rock avalanche deposits and absent in known non-rock-avalanche-derived glacial sediments. The agglomerates are characteristics of sediment produced under the high-stress conditions of rock avalanche emplacement and contrast with lower-stress process sub- and en-glacial environments. It is demonstrated that these agglomerates are present in some moraines in the Southern Alps of New Zealand that have been attributed to climate fluctuation. Consequently, this technique has the potential to resolve long-standing arguments about the role of rock avalanches in moraine formation, and to enhance the use of moraines in palaeoclimatological studies.

Advance directives in Canada are instructions made by capable adults that pertain to future healthcare treatment choices at a time of incapacity. My experience as an ethicist working in an Ontario long-term care facility that provides medical treatment to patients with Alzheimer’s Dementia portrays a range of important ethical concerns that arise out of the use of advance directives, at least in terms of their current use. In this thesis I analyze composite case studies to identify the more prominent challenges that exist and I turn to the literature to seek ways to more clearly understand these problems and to determine if they can be overcome. What I conclude is that the use of advance directives with the Alzheimer’s Dementia population in long-term care, as it is currently used, is fraught with problems that are mainly irresolvable. I offer clinical and policy recommendations that are aligned with this view.

Advance directives in Canada are instructions made by capable adults that pertain to future healthcare treatment choices at a time of incapacity. My experience as an ethicist working in an Ontario long-term care facility that provides medical treatment to patients with Alzheimer’s Dementia portrays a range of important ethical concerns that arise out of the use of advance directives, at least in terms of their current use. In this thesis I analyze composite case studies to identify the more prominent challenges that exist and I turn to the literature to seek ways to more clearly understand these problems and to determine if they can be overcome. What I conclude is that the use of advance directives with the Alzheimer’s Dementia population in long-term care, as it is currently used, is fraught with problems that are mainly irresolvable. I offer clinical and policy recommendations that are aligned with this view.

An advance directive is an instruction made by a competent person about his or her preferred health care choices, should the person become incapable to make treatment decisions. Legal recognition of advance directives has developed over the last half century in response to medical advances that can prolong the life of a patient who is no longer sentient, and who has decided to forego some or all treatment under such circumstances. Two types of directive have emerged in the law: an instructional directive, in which a person sets out treatment choices, and a proxy directive, which enables the person to appoint a proxy to make treatment decisions. Development of the law has been impeded by fear that advance directives diminish regard for the sanctity of life and potentially authorize euthanasia or assisted suicide. In Canada, this fear explains the continued existence of outdated criminal law prohibitions and contributes to provincial advance directive legislation that is disharmonized and restrictive, in some provinces limiting personal choice about the type of advance directive that can be made. The British Columbia Representation Agreement Act (RAA)1 is an example of such restrictive legislation. The RAA imposes onerous execution requirements, is unduly complex and restricts choice of planning instrument. Respect for patient autonomy requires that health care providers honour patients' prospective treatment preferences. Capable persons must have ready access to a choice of health care planning instruments which can be easily executed. B.C. should implement advance directive legislation that meets the needs and respects the autonomy of B.C. citizens. The Criminal Code must be amended to eliminate physicians' concern about potential criminal liability for following an advance directive. Advance directive legislation across Canada should be harmonized. Finally, health care providers should receive training on effective ways to communicate with patients about end-of-life treatment decisions to ensure that patients' health care choices are known and respected. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate