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The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of peer, community and religious influences on alcohol and tobacco use among high school adolescents from three different dominant groups of South Africa i.e. African, coloured and white adolescents. The investigations were based on two perceived major factors such as their familiy structure and their family's socio-economic status, which may either increase or decrease the likelihood of adolescent substance use.

We examine a class of planar area preserving mappings and give a geometric condition that guarantees the existence of homoclinic points. To be more precise, let $f,g:R \to R$ be $C^1$ functions with domain all of $R$. Let $F:R^2 \to R^2$ denote a horizontal reflection in the curve $x=-f(y)$, and let $G:R^2 \to R^2$ denote a vertical reflection in the curve $y=g(x)$. We consider maps of the form $T=G \circ F$ and show that a simple geometric condition on the fixed point sets of $F$ and $G$ leads to the existence of a homoclinic point for $T$. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mathematics & Statistics) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-17 14:22:35.72

It is crucial to understand the factors that influence the health of Canada’s rapidly aging population. This thesis examines social and material deprivation among the older population in Canada, focusing on a case study of Kingston, Ontario, as well as the intersections between indicators of deprivation and health. A Canadian area-based deprivation index developed by Robert Pampalon was used to measure deprivation. Data were obtained from the Institut national de santé public de Quebec, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Canadian Community Health Survey, and the Canadian Census. Firstly, these data were used to examine relationships between deprivation indicators, aging and health. The percentage of the population in fair or poor health increases with age, as does the likelihood that this group will experience one or more indicators of deprivation. Secondly, the spatial patterns of deprivation were compared to the areas where the older population is living in Kingston. Social deprivation is positively correlated with areas with a higher percentage of those 75 years of age or more, whereas material deprivation is negatively correlated with these areas. Collectively, these results indicate that the older population in Kingston is facing a triple jeopardy of declining health, declining resources, and living in areas that are socially deprived. This population seems to be asset-rich, in that they own their own homes, but cash-poor. Overall, these findings contribute to our understanding of aging and the burden of deprivation faced by the older population. In order to facilitate healthy aging, it is important to take into account the social and material environments where the older population resides as part of an effort to maximize the health and wellbeing of this vulnerable population. / Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-25 11:30:26.279

Generally  cameras  are  used  for  area  based  surveillance,  but  with  advancement  in  technology, cameras  can  be  employed  for wide  area  space  surveillance  (volumetric space surveillance). The volumetric systems require a number of cameras in order to cover a large area. Single panoramic cameras  do  not  provide  required  functionality  for  wide  area  space  surveillance  and Pan-Tile-Zoom (PTZ) cameras do not either cover wide areas.   To  meet  this challenge,  we  propose  a  cost  effective smart volumetric  surveillance system  which utilizes smaller number of cameras in order to provide a coverage of 360 degree. A test case used for this system includes detection of birds in the wind farms. The proposed approach provides a solution  for recording/preventing collision  of  birds  with  wind turbine. To  realize  the  system, a model is developed with two camera nodes. This model provides a 360 degree conical volumetric space coverage. The  system is  utilizing  a  servo  motor  with  capability  of  changing  speed  and arduino  embedded  platform for  controlling  different  functionality. After  triggering  the  camera nodes from arduino, software perform the image analysis.  This  cost  effective  and  wide  area  surveillance  system  consumes at  least half lower  power as compared  to traditional  linear  systems with  eight  cameras. It  is  worth  noting  that  the system provides  conical  shaped  area coverage  of  200  square  meters  with  height ranging  from approximately 40 to 100 meters. The system would capture images in raw format in local storage and  the test  results  show  that  saving  images  with  PNG  format  requires a small  memory  size  as compared  to BMP  and TIFF.    Experiment  results  indicate  that  surveillance  system  can  be effectively employed for detecting birds in opening places.