People with physical disabilities face challenges each day when trying to navigate a world filled with environmental and architectural barriers. Research indicates that environmental barriers isolate and prevent many people with physical disabilities from accessing and participating in the community and society. This research study directly applied quantifiable investigative methods through the dissemination of anonymous, online surveys that obtained a total of 363 participants who met the requirements of being between the ages of 18 and 65, and who have a medically diagnosed physical disability in order to identify key factors leading to the isolation among physically disabled persons. This study also discovers a relationship between environmental barriers and isolation among people with physical disabilities, and effectively establishes that the majority of participants identified environmental barriers as being the leading cause of their isolation and exclusion from society. Moreover, research acquired through this study uncovers the previously concealed realization that many individuals do not feel there is an effort being made to ensure that buildings and environments are accessible for people with physical disabilities; and further examines the colossal need for advocacy and change within ADA guidelines to create a more acceptable and adaptable solution for reducing or eliminating environmental and architectural barriers.

This review began with an interest in treatment of child abuse and in how a study of social isolation might lend direction to treatment of abusing families. The literature leads one to believe that social isolation is somehow involved, but that the process is far from clear. The intent of this review is to synthesize the findings available on the relationship between social isolation and child abuse, to encourage further thought on how the concept of social isolation can be refined and operationalized, and to discuss the implications of that relationship for treatment and prevention of physical abuse. The information gained might assist those responsible for community programs to understand the role of social resources in the prevention of child abuse.

My work investigates a lifelong passion for buildings, homes, and architecture. Buildings are more then shelters made of wood and screws; I personify them as if they were living breathing creatures. I’m particularly drawn to rundown and abandoned structures because I empathize with these sad looking buildings that were once majestic. This personal connection exists because I view them as versions of my former self, rough around the edges with a promising interior. Expanding beyond vacant and decaying buildings, I portray my experiences within fabricated architectural systems. I communicate with building materials and architecture through their many layers of physical and socially constructed histories. Drawing from my memories and feelings surrounding my brother’s death and subsequent drug addiction, I’ve focused on the emotions of abandonment, isolation, absence, and loneliness.

Organizational leaders and managers may not have the management acumen, organizational awareness, or leadership expertise to construct and implement effective strategies, policies, and procedures to help reduce the frequency of the phenomenon of workplace isolation. The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory, multiple case study was to gain a common understanding about how workplace isolation may influence a remote employee'€™s performance in a customer service organization in the United States. Emerson'€™s social exchange theory was used as the conceptual framework. A series of semistructured interviews with 21 remote workers that consisted of four different divisions at the same organization was conducted to yield thematic results. Data analysis included holistic and pattern coding. The most common understandings that emerged into themes were the need of social interaction, manager communication, and peer-to-peer interactions that had an influence on job performance. The knowledge acquired in this study can affect social change by providing insights for leaders, managers, and practitioners to create policies and strategies to improve the engagement, performance, and well-being of remote workers who may experience workplace isolation.

Illness. A secret. Feeling alone? Have you ever kept a secret? A life-changing secret that keeps you secluded, isolated, and contained in a bubble, lonely and empty? The daily struggle of coping with your own secret, yet feeling like everyone you come in contact with already knows, takes its toll in the lives of those who carry the burden of a chronic disease. While dealing with judgmental thoughts, and the scrutinizing gaze from others, do we think that the stigma of a medical diagnosis affects our ability to love someone? More specifically, how about being capable of allowing someone to love you knowing that you are HIV positive? In We Were Here, the choreographic research speaks directly to the topic of secrecy and isolation through song, dance, poetry, and videography of people living with life-threatening diseases in today’s society. This piece will take the audience on a short journey through the lives of seven individuals who seek to find peace and understanding in revealing their conditions to their family, friends and loved ones. In seven different journeys, through the highs and lows of coping with a chronic disease, the silver lining of WE WERE HERE, provides a friendly reminder that everyone needs somebody, sometimes.

Seismic considerations greatly influence the lateral and vertical design of a structure, often necessitating larger elements than would otherwise be required. Seismic isolation greatly reduces the demands on a structure due to earthquake loading, allowing the use of smaller, more efficient members and foundations. This case study illustrates the theory and procedure of evaluating the response of a recently built multi-span highway bridge using the most recent (2009) AASHTO code. Based on this response, an equivalent structure was designed to incorporate a seismic isolation system, and the substructure of the isolated bridge redesigned to meet the reduced demands more economically. The reduction in demands was quantified, and the member demands and overall responses of the two designs were compared. An overview of isolator design for the common isolator types available in the United States, with examples specific to the isolated structure that was designed, is also included as an addendum.

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Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / Snapshot Isolation (SI) is a multiversion concurrency control that has been implemented by open source and commercial database systems such as PostgreSQL and Oracle. The main feature of SI is that a read operation does not block a write operation and vice versa, which allows higher degree of concurrency than traditional two-phase locking. SI prevents many anomalies that appear in other isolation levels, but it still can result in non-serializable execution, in which database integrity constraints can be violated. Several techniques have been proposed to ensure serializable execution with engines running SI; these techniques are based on modifying the applications by introducing conflicting SQL statements. However, with each of these techniques the DBA has to make a difficult choice among possible transactions to modify. This thesis helps the DBA’s to choose between these different techniques and choices by understanding how the choices affect system performance. It also proposes a novel technique called ’External Lock Manager’ (ELM) which introduces conflicts in a separate lock-manager object so that every execution will be serializable. We build a prototype system for ELM and we run experiments to demonstrate the robustness of the new technique compare to the previous techniques. Experiments show that modifying the application code for some transactions has a high impact on performance for some choices, which makes it very hard for DBA’s to choose wisely. However, ELM has peak performance which is similar to SI, no matter which transactions are chosen for modification. Thus we say that ELM is a robust technique for ensure serializable execution.

The thesis set out to explore means of coping with change when in a state of isolation and basic parameters and references in life have been lost. Isolation may be a result of a change in environment, such as an interstate move to take up a new job,or changing from an office environment to home based work. It can result from relational changes such as marriage breakdown or from major life stage changes such as retirement. The first stage of the study involved the establishment of a collaborative group to explore issues that each member had experienced in coping with change. The second stage was an individual exploration of the author's own journey involving changes in work environments and interstate moves. The third stage was a consideration of literature that reflected and supported the thesis, of gathering information from relevant case studies conducted.Out of these stages came the hypothesis that people cope with change in isolation through a sense of belonging associated with several factors.Reflections on the research process and methodologies have been considered and implications arising out of the research are discussed. The thesis concludes with evocations of the impact of the research findings on others. / Master of Science (Hons)(Social Ecology)

The structure, functionality, isolation methods and applications of whey components, particularly the proteins and lactose, have been extensively studied. These studies have had a great impact on the food industry where whey components are increasingly being used as food ingredients. Two generations of whey protein product, namely Lactalbumin, produced by heat-induced precipitation, and Whey Protein Concentration/ Isloate, produced by ultrafiltration/ ion exchange chromatography, have been commercialised. Crystalline lactose in the food and pharmaceutical grades is also being produced. Recently, research activities in whey fractionation have shifted to the isolation of the minor components. This thesis is aimed at developing a Total Whey Utilization strategy by which the several components of the whey stream would be completely recovered by fractionation, resulting in little or no residue to be disposed of in the wastewater stream. Therefore, this study was initially dedicated to the development of novel separation methods which would be suitable for the Total Whey Utilization process. The development of those techniques revealed some previously unknown feature of whey components. The mechanisms of the separation methods have been also investigated. Although crystallization is an efficient method for fractionation or purification, its disadvantage is that the mother liquor is a wastewater containing high salt and BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand). The chromatographic method has been investigated in this work to separate the mother liquor or permeate into lactose and mineral fractions such that a goal of this thesis, namely a 'clean' water stream after processing whey, can be finally achieved. These studies have focused on the effect of resin type, salt form of the resin and the operating conditions on the separation of the lactose and mineral fraction. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)