Social isolation has been linked with negative health effects in senior women. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of socially-isolated senior women. Local senior-serving organizations assisted with the recruitment of six socially-isolated senior women to participate in individual qualitative interviews. Three service providers were also interviewed. Seniors’ interviews were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis and service provider interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three superordinate themes were derived from the senior interviews: social needs, self-perceptions of isolation and loneliness, and constraints to and facilitators of social engagement. Five superordinate themes were derived from the service provider interviews: definitions of social isolation, differences between social isolation and loneliness, gender differences in isolation and loneliness, identifying socially-isolated seniors, and essential components of initiatives aimed at reducing social isolation. The views of socially-isolated seniors are important to understand to develop programs and policies that promote healthy aging.

This thesis is a theoretical exploration of the problem of the neighbour as an encounter with the Grey Zone. I look at various materials that can be formulated as expressions of the anxiety over the unknown that can come out in confrontation with problematic neighbours. Using an interpretive lense that recognizes the fundamental ambiguity in any speech (Blum 2010, Bonner 1997, 1998) I attempt to show how such talk is grounded in the problem of anxiety in the face of the unknown. I begin with an analysis of city life and problem neighbours in general, I then move to a theoretical discussion of the problem that Žižek’s formulation of the Neighbour as Other and Raffel’s discussion of a shared world brings out. I then look at the problem of a specific kind of bad neighbour, a methadone clinic can have in terms of the experience of parenting, and how this is articulated in some theoretical writings on city life. I then turn to an analysis of the proverbial fence as a solution to the Neighbour, followed by an analysis of the Russell Williams case as a call to revisit the problem of the Neighbour in relation to the Grey Zone. Though seemingly disconnected, all the cases I deal with can be understood as part of a conversation on the relation of health, neighbourliness and anxiety in the city to the problem of an encounter with the unknown.

Thesis--Tübingen. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-164).

Thèse--Paris. / At head of title: Université de Paris. Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Simon Fraser University, 2007. / Theses (Faculty of Education) / Simon Fraser University. Senior supervisor: Stephen Smith -- Faculty of Education. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

The horizon is many things. It is our description of the unknown, the future, and the instigator of our imagination. The horizon is nowhere. It cannot be mapped, measured, or dissected, but it can be defined. A line denotes the horizon, separating us from those things that are mentally and physically out of our reach. The line represents more than that, and upon closer examination gives way to a nomadic encompassment of space. At any given time the horizon contains a multitude of objects, both living and not. Recognizing it’s limits and contents requires an understanding of both its spatial and temporal aspects, as well as of our own abilities to interpret and experience a space. This document explores the physical and mental search for an understanding of the horizon. It shifts, separates, and mirrors the unreachable distance of the horizon. Pulling in the spaces between the air and the landscape as it journals the search for a shifting end. / October 2015

We introduce a new method of mass measurement for particles in decay chains. The method relies upon performing a likelihood analysis on the phase space of the decay in its full dimensionality in a Lorentz-invariant formulation. This method is applicable for any decay chain, but we demonstrate it specifically in the case of a four-body final state decay in which one of the final particles is invisible. We directly compare our method to the edge and endpoint method and show that our new method can achieve higher precision with limited statistics. / text

Searches of supersymmetry at the LHC have put stringent constraints on the strong production of squarks and gluinos. Current results exclude colored particles with masses up to roughly 1 TeV. To fully explore the discovery potential of the LHC, we study the challenging signals that are hidden by Standard Model backgrounds but with masses accessible by the LHC. These particles include the sleptons with a weak production cross section, and stops that are hidden by large top-antitop backgrounds. In this dissertation, I explore the collider phenomenology of sleptons and stops at the LHC. Sleptons can be produced at the LHC either through cascade decay or via Drell-Yan pair production. For the cascade decay, we studied neutralino-chargino associated production, with the subsequent decay through on shell sleptons resulting in a trilepton plus missing transverse energy signal. The invariant mass from the neutralino decay has a distinctive triangle shape with a sharp kinematic cutoff. We utilized this feature and obtained the effective cross section that is needed for a 5-sigma discovery of sleptons. We apply these results to the MSSM and find a discovery reach for left-handed sleptons which extends beyond the reach expected in usual Drell-Yan studies. Slepton pair production searches on the other hand, have limited reach at the LHC. The slepton decay branching fractions, however, depend on the composition of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). We extend the experimental analysis for data collected thus far to include different scenarios for the composition of the LSP. We find that the LHC slepton reach is enhanced up to a factor of 2 for a non-Bino-LSP. We present the 95% C.L. exclusion limits and 5-sigma discovery reach for sleptons at the 8 and 14 TeV LHC considering Bino-, Wino-, or Higgsino-like LSPs. Current stop searches at the LHC focus on signals with top-antitop plus missing transverse energy. However, in many regions of SUSY parameter space, these decay modes are not dominant, leading to weakened experimental limits on stops. We identify stop decays that can have significant branching fractions to new final states resulting in new signal channels to observe. We investigate stop pair production by considering the channel of stop to top-higgs-LSP and stop to bottom-W-LSP leading to a signal of 4 b-jets, 2 jets, 1 lepton and missing transverse energy. We present the 95% C.L. exclusion limits and 5-sigma discovery reach for stops at the 14 TeV LHC.

Aims were to describe depressive symptoms among culturally Deaf adults, describe the words in American Sign Language (ASL) that best express depressive symptoms, and describe shared meaning of depressive symptoms. Primary care providers commonly discuss depressive symptoms with clients, which can lead to earlier identification of those at risk for depression. However, providers may not discuss depressive symptoms with Deaf clients due to communication barriers. Health care providers are rarely familiar with ASL, and depression screening tools are not easily translated from English to ASL. There has been no investigation about Deaf adult's experiences with depressive symptoms or the signs used to describe those experiences. The study method employed hermeneutic interviews and analysis. Nine culturally Deaf adults were interviewed three times each, and certified interpreters were used to assist with ASL communication. After reviewing each interview with the interpreter for accuracy of translation, text was generated through word-for-word transcription and researcher observations; text was then read to obtain a broad understanding of the experience. Findings: Symptoms described by Deaf adults paralleled those of hearing adults. Four shared meanings emerged: 1) Feeling depressed, defined as the physical and emotional manifestations of depression and the ASL signs and phrases used to communicate these; 2) Emotional chaos leading to depression, defined as experiences of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood that led to feelings of depression such as feeling different, feeling isolated from family and peers, feeling excluded, and feeling limited by others; 3) Reaching out, defined as learning to walk in the Deaf world while also navigating the hearing world; 4) I am Deaf - I am not broken! Conclusions: This research provided a description of depressive symptoms as may occur among culturally Deaf adults, which may lead to increased understanding of depression as experienced by and expressed by members of the Deaf culture. In this way, improved communication and understanding between health care providers and Deaf adults can be optimized. Such knowledge may potentiate the earlier identification of culturally Deaf adults at risk for depression in the primary care setting, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality in this underserved population.

Employing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, I explore the experiences of eight individuals engaged differently with nonprofit accountability. The principal-Agent perspective provides the framework. My investigation is prompted by my dissatisfaction with portrayals of governments’ relationships with financially dependent nonprofits as being dysfunctional, and necessarily oppositional, dyads. Simultaneous calls for more collaboration and ever-greater accountability risk dislocating excessively stretched joints. Preserving the uniqueness of each actor’s depiction and interpretation of accountability, I hope to shed light on what is really going on as accountability is negotiated, mediated and enacted by implicated individuals, and suggest how we might improve performances if we pay more attention to performers’ pragmatic interpretations of accountability scripts. Participants’ considered improvisations may enlighten accountability’s audiences and its directors and script-writers.