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Teenage childbearing is considered a societal ill, despite the evidence failing to demonstrate a causative link between teenage childbearing and negative consequences for teens or their children. This thesis argues that the strongly held assertion that teenage childbearing is detrimental to teens and society is rooted in racist eugenics theories and histories of reproductive coercion. Today, social scientists, health care providers, and public health professionals develop and celebrate programs that reduce rates of teen pregnancy, particularly programs that provide Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs) to teens in marginalized communities. While these efforts are well-intentioned, they fail to recognize their perpetuation of histories of reproductive coercion of young women of color. This paper recommends ways in which the medical community can be better informed and respect reproductive autonomy in caring for teens from marginalized communities. / Urban Bioethics

The existence of polymer constituent in piezoelectric fiber composites (PFCs) could lead to significant viscoelastic behaviors, affecting overall performance of PFCs. High mechanical and electrical stimuli often generate significant amount of heat, increasing temperatures of the PFCs. At elevated temperatures, most materials, especially polymers show pronounced time-dependent behaviors. Predicting time-dependent responses of the PFCs becomes important to improve reliability in using PFCs. We study overall performance of PFCs having unidirectional piezoceramic fibers, such as PZT fibers, dispersed in viscoelastic polymer matrix. Two types of PFCs are studied, which are active fiber composites (AFCs) and macro fiber composites (MFCs). AFCs and MFCs consist of unidirectional PZT fibers dispersed in epoxy placed between two interdigitated electrode and kapton layers. The AFCs have a circular fiber cross-section while the MFCs have a square fiber cross-section. Finite element (FE) models of representative volume elements (RVEs) of active PFCs, having square and circular fiber cross-sections, are generated for composites with 20, 40, and 60 percent fiber contents. Two FE micromechanical models having one fiber embedded in epoxy matrix and five fibers placed in epoxy matrix are considered. A continuum 3D piezoelectric element in ABAQUS FE is used. A general time-integral function is applied for the mechanical, electrical, and piezoelectric properties in order to incorporate the time-dependent effect and histories of loadings. The effective properties of PZT-5A/epoxy and PZT-7A/LaRC-SI piezocomposites determined from the FE micromechanical models are compared to available experimental data and analytical solutions in the literature. Furthermore, the effect of viscoelastic behaviors of the LaRC-SI matrix at an elevated temperature on the overall electro-mechanical and piezoelectric constants are examined.

Use of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) is a highly effective strategy for preventing pregnancy. Methods of LARC include the intrauterine device (IUD) and the contraceptive implant; the latter is currently unavailable in Canada. Less than 5% of Canadian women use LARC as their contraceptive method. Exploration of women’s experiences with methods of LARC can shed light on the factors and dynamics influencing information and use. Understanding these dynamics may also inform efforts to increase awareness of the contraceptive implant, once it is approved for use in Canada. This multi-methods study aimed to assess Ontario women’s knowledge of and attitudes toward methods of LARC and identify avenues to improve information and services related to LARC in the province. The study comprises two components: an anonymous online bilingual survey and a telephone/Skype interview with a subset of survey participants. Our results suggest that the main factors influencing LARC use are its ease of use, efficacy, and recommendation by a health care professional. Most survey respondents were satisfied with the information provided by their health care provider when they were first prescribed LARC. However, Franco-Ontarian participants we interviewed faced challenges obtaining reproductive service in French. Participants highlighted a number of ways that LARC could be improved and new methods of LARC could be introduced in Canada. This study provides insight into opportunities to improve counselling to Ontarian women and highlights areas that should be routinely discussed with contraceptive patients about methods of LARC.

Este trabalho apresenta um sistema de conferência multiponto centralizada com controle de posse da palavra, que oferece comunicação por voz e por texto, desenvolvido para dar suporte a ferramentas de educação a distância baseadas em tecnologia web. Além do sistema de conferência multiponto, este trabalho introduz, também, conceitos de voz sobre IP (VoIP), codecs de áudio, tráfego de tempo real sobre redes IP, mecanismos de distribuição de pacotes em redes IP, conferências multimídia sobre redes IP, criação e controle de conferências e mecanismos para se controlar a transmissão de pacotes de voz em conferências multiponto, como detecção de atividade de voz (VAD) e controle de posse da palavra. O controle de posse da palavra ou moderação é uma metodologia para coordenar o acesso a recursos de mídia contínua, como os canais de áudio e vídeo em conferências, resolvendo eventuais conflitos e condições de corrida e garantindo o uso exclusivo dos mesmos por um participante da conferência. O controle de posse da palavra é apropriado para a dinâmica de uma sala de aula, onde na maioria das vezes, o professor exerce o papel de um moderador e de principal interlocutor. Além de regular o fluxo de informação na sala de aula virtual, o controle de posse da palavra também ajuda a reduzir a utilização dos recursos da rede. Como principal resultado deste trabalho, uma arquitetura para o sistema de conferência multiponto foi proposta, implementada e testada. Verificou-se que o sistema é escalável e que o controle de posse da palavra reduz o grau de interatividade entre os participantes da conferência, mas funciona eficazmente como mecanismo para reduzir a utilização dos recursos de rede. A comunicação adicional por texto ajuda a reduzir o impacto do controle de posse da palavra no grau de interatividade. Neste trabalho, o uso de uma topologia centralizada para a realização de conferências multiponto mostrou-se bastante vantajoso, principalmente porque o tráfego multicast não era suportado. / This work presents a centralized multipoint conference system with floor control, which offers voice and text communication capability, developed to support distance learning tools based on web technology. This work also brings concepts about voice over IP (VoIP), audio codecs, real-time traffic over IP networks, packet distribution mechanisms in IP networks, multimedia conferences over IP networks, establishment and control of conferences and mechanisms to control voice packets transmission in multipoint conferences, as Voice Activity Detection (VAD) and floor control. Floor control is a suitable methodology for coordinating access to continuous media resources, such as audio and video channels in conferences, solving resource conflicts and race conditions and guaranteeing their mutually exclusive use by one participant of the conference. Floor control is appropriate for the classroom’s dynamics, where the teacher, mostly, has the role of a moderator and main talker. Besides regulating the information flow in the virtual classroom, floor control helps reducing the need for network resources. As main result, an architecture for the multipoint conference system was proposed, implemented and tested. It was found that the system is scalable and that floor control reduces the interactivity among the conference’s participants, but works efficiently as a mechanism for reducing the need for network resources. Text communications help lowering the impact of floor control on interactivity. In this work, the deployment of a centralized topology for multipoint conferences showed to be very advantageous, mainly because multicast traffic was not supported.

Este trabalho apresenta um sistema de conferência multiponto centralizada com controle de posse da palavra, que oferece comunicação por voz e por texto, desenvolvido para dar suporte a ferramentas de educação a distância baseadas em tecnologia web. Além do sistema de conferência multiponto, este trabalho introduz, também, conceitos de voz sobre IP (VoIP), codecs de áudio, tráfego de tempo real sobre redes IP, mecanismos de distribuição de pacotes em redes IP, conferências multimídia sobre redes IP, criação e controle de conferências e mecanismos para se controlar a transmissão de pacotes de voz em conferências multiponto, como detecção de atividade de voz (VAD) e controle de posse da palavra. O controle de posse da palavra ou moderação é uma metodologia para coordenar o acesso a recursos de mídia contínua, como os canais de áudio e vídeo em conferências, resolvendo eventuais conflitos e condições de corrida e garantindo o uso exclusivo dos mesmos por um participante da conferência. O controle de posse da palavra é apropriado para a dinâmica de uma sala de aula, onde na maioria das vezes, o professor exerce o papel de um moderador e de principal interlocutor. Além de regular o fluxo de informação na sala de aula virtual, o controle de posse da palavra também ajuda a reduzir a utilização dos recursos da rede. Como principal resultado deste trabalho, uma arquitetura para o sistema de conferência multiponto foi proposta, implementada e testada. Verificou-se que o sistema é escalável e que o controle de posse da palavra reduz o grau de interatividade entre os participantes da conferência, mas funciona eficazmente como mecanismo para reduzir a utilização dos recursos de rede. A comunicação adicional por texto ajuda a reduzir o impacto do controle de posse da palavra no grau de interatividade. Neste trabalho, o uso de uma topologia centralizada para a realização de conferências multiponto mostrou-se bastante vantajoso, principalmente porque o tráfego multicast não era suportado. / This work presents a centralized multipoint conference system with floor control, which offers voice and text communication capability, developed to support distance learning tools based on web technology. This work also brings concepts about voice over IP (VoIP), audio codecs, real-time traffic over IP networks, packet distribution mechanisms in IP networks, multimedia conferences over IP networks, establishment and control of conferences and mechanisms to control voice packets transmission in multipoint conferences, as Voice Activity Detection (VAD) and floor control. Floor control is a suitable methodology for coordinating access to continuous media resources, such as audio and video channels in conferences, solving resource conflicts and race conditions and guaranteeing their mutually exclusive use by one participant of the conference. Floor control is appropriate for the classroom’s dynamics, where the teacher, mostly, has the role of a moderator and main talker. Besides regulating the information flow in the virtual classroom, floor control helps reducing the need for network resources. As main result, an architecture for the multipoint conference system was proposed, implemented and tested. It was found that the system is scalable and that floor control reduces the interactivity among the conference’s participants, but works efficiently as a mechanism for reducing the need for network resources. Text communications help lowering the impact of floor control on interactivity. In this work, the deployment of a centralized topology for multipoint conferences showed to be very advantageous, mainly because multicast traffic was not supported.