This research explores womens experiences of arm morbidity after breast cancer. Biomedical knowledge about arm morbidity is limited and often unclear, and there has been even less focus on the health issue from a sociological perspective. While studies do exist about the experiences of arm morbidity, more investigation is required to realize its influence on the daily lives of breast cancer survivors. The purpose of my research is to convey constructed meanings of arm morbidity experiences to indicate the impact it has on womens everyday lives.<p> Qualitative data were collected via twelve in-depth, semi-structured interviews, as six participants were each interviewed twice. The interviews were focused on a broad range of themes in order to create a comprehensive understanding of the womens experiences of arm morbidity in their daily lives. Phenomenological and feminist approaches were both used to guide the research process and analyze the data, and a range of sociological ideas also informed the analysis, such as chronic illness, disability, gender roles, and embodiment.<p> The illness narratives produced two broad areas relevant to the womens experiences. The first major topic involves the meanings directly related to experiences of arm morbidity as a health issue, and is divided into four themes: 1) experiencing bodies with arm morbidity, 2) treatment, 3) information and knowledge, and 4) support. The second major topic involves understandings of arm morbidity as it affects the womens lives, in which three themes emerge: 1) changing abilities and adjusting roles, 2) identity and health, and 3) the influence of illness on approaches to life.<p> As existing research is sparse, the womens narratives present a new level of depth to understandings of arm morbidity experiences that does not exist in current literature. It is evident that more study about arm morbidity is necessary to construct important knowledge and benefit both biological and sociological understandings of this survivorship issue.

In the novel, Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe examines a wide range of complex issues. Defoe takes the typical adventure theme and transforms it into a thought-provoking reflection of many issues involving society. A blending of economic and religious issues is created by first focusing on economy, then bringing the issue of religion in, and finally allowing for the portrayal of the interpenetration between each. Defoe proves that it is possible to live by economic practices and monetary values while still maintaining a good, moral character. The emphasis on economic issues is extremely apparent, as Defoe calls into question the concept of money and its value, as well as its place in society. Crusoe is first portrayed as a man defined by money and ruled by economic principles. Even when removed from society, he is impelled to practice many economic conventions, such as investment, moderation and the idea of profit. Defoe creates Crusoe to be so greatly influenced by money and the economy in the beginning so as to better emphasize the intertwining of his economic side with his religious side. The Christian values and morals of Crusoe dominate the latter part of the novel. He rediscovers the Bible and its teachings and learns the importance of repentance and giving thanks. The provocative progression in unveiling the many layers of Crusoe allows for the reader to see that the man they thought to be defined by money is rather a man trying to live by the Word of God.

Cette recherche socio-historique sur 90 ans de présence des avocats à Sudbury est avant tout une étude quantitative de l'évolution de la profession en regard du développement économique de la région. / Aide financière du Programme Droit et Justice et du Fonds du Recteur de l'Université Laurentienne.

La mayoría de los bosques del planeta, exceptuando, quizá, el cinturón más húmedo del trópico, han sufrido perturbaciones recurrentes por incendios, desde hace miles de años. Sin embargo, en el último siglo, la combinación de factores socio-económicos y ambientales han alterado la frecuencia y distribución de incendios en casi todos los ecosistemas forestales. Esta mala distribución del fuego ha conllevado la acumulación de este elemento perturbador en ecosistemas poco adaptados a su presencia (e.g. bosques tropicales húmedos), mientras que otros ecosistemas han sufrido los efectos de las políticas de supresión de incendios (e.g. bosques templados norteamericanos). Entre las consecuencias de estas alteraciones, algunas se refieren a variaciones en el régimen de incendios, con implicaciones en términos de conservación forestal, impacto ecológico, económico y social. La presente tesis analiza la influencia de factores ambientales y socio-económicos en algunas características del régimen de incendios en ecosistemas tropicales y mediterráneos. En el ámbito tropical, la zona de estudio es el Estado mexicano de Chiapas, y los objetivos son básicamente dos: 1) caracterizar el régimen de incendios en el Estado, en términos de frecuencia de incendios, distribución, áreas y ecosistemas afectados, tipología de incendios, causalidad, y su interacción con algunos factores como el fenómeno de El Niño, la distribución de la tenencia de la tierra o la variación de las precipitaciones. 2) Analizar la influencia relativa de factores ambientales frente a factores socio-económicos, en años de condiciones climáticas normales y años de El Niño. El objetivo último era determinar variaciones en la afectación de los principales ecosistemas y listar los factores más importantes a considerar, a nivel de gestión forestal contra incendios. A nivel de ecosistemas mediterráneos, se seleccionó el incendio del Solsonés 1998, como caso estudio, siendo los principales objetivos: 3) Seleccionar la metodología de clasificación post-incendio más eficiente entre varias técnicas analizadas (teledetección y muestreo de campo). 4) Analizar la influencia de diversos factores ambientales en la formación de islas de vegetación en un gran incendio, empleando las laderas como unidad espacial. 5) Verificar la importancia de la estructura forestal y la continuidad del combustible en la heterogeneidad final de las severidades de afectación de un incendio. En relación a estos objetivos, las principales aportaciones de este estudio han sido, en lo referente a ecosistemas tropicales: La descripción de los incendios en Chiapas como mayoritariamente superficiales, afectando principalmente a estratos no arbóreos, de grandes dimensiones, de origen antrópico y con cierta propensión a afectar zonas protegidas. La aportación clave sin embargo, hace referencia a la demostración de la importancia de El Niño en la afectación de los ecosistemas tropicales húmedos, principalmente influenciado por la presencia de pastos alrededor de bosques fragmentados. El cambio de importancia relativa de los factores ambientales en años de no-ENSO frente a la mayor importancia de los factores socio-económicos en años de ENSO. También se puede remarcar el cambio de ecosistema afectado condicionado por el tipo de año (condiciones climáticas normales o extremas, ENSO o no ENSO: pino-encino versus bosques tropicales húmedos). En relación a los bosques mediterráneos, las técnicas más sencillas de teledetección resultaron las adecuadas para la identificación de islas. La formación de estas islas se ve condicionada por el tamaño y orientación y pendiente de las laderas, así como la cantidad y madurez de los rodales afectados, siendo las laderas más extensas, de orientación noroeste, de mayor pendiente, con mayores extensiones forestales y bosques más maduros (en términos de mayores tamaños), las más propicias a formar islas. Las características estructurales de los rodales fue de gran importancia para predecir la supervivencia forestal en zonas de condiciones climáticas moderadas. / The great majority of the forests of the world, excepting perhaps, the wettest belt of the tropics, have been burned over, at more or less frequent intervals, for many thousands of years. In the last century however, a combination of human and environmental factors have altered the frequency and distribution of fire, almost everywhere. This maldistribution of fire has resulted in an accumulation of this element in ecosystems not adapted to high frequencies of fire (i.e. tropical and sub-tropical areas), while other ecosystems have suffered the effects of fire suppression policies (i.e. north American temperate forests). Among the consequences of these alterations, some of them refer to variations in fire regimes, with implications in terms of forest conservation, ecological, economic and social impact. The present thesis analyses the influence of environmental and socio-economic factors for certain elements of the fire regime in tropical and Mediterranean ecosystems. In tropical areas, the study case relates to the tropical Mexican State of Chiapas, and the objectives are basically two: 1) to characterize the fire regime in the State, in terms of frequency of fires, fire distribution, areas and ecosystems affected, type of fires, causality, and their interaction with some factors like the phenomenon of El Niño, the land distribution, or the variation of rainfall values. 2) To analyse the relative influence of environmental factors versus socio-economic factors, in years of normal climatic conditions and years of El Niño. The final objective is to detect variations in the affectation of the major ecosystems and to list the most important factors to consider for forest fire management. For the Mediterranean ecosystems, the fire of Solsonés 1998 was selected as case study. Main objectives are: 3) To select the most efficient methodology for post-fire classification among several techniques: image classification and field survey. 4) To determine the influence of diverse environmental factors in the formation of vegetation islands inside a large forest fire, using "slope", as the spatial unit. 5) To verify the importance of forest structure and fuel continuity in the final heterogeneity of fire severities in a large fire. In relation to these objectives, the main contributions of this study are, with respect to tropical ecosystems: The characterization of fires in Chiapas, as in other tropical areas, mainly as superficial fires, frequently affecting non-arboreal layers. Major problems focus on large forest fires, which are responsible for the major burned areas. Fires are mainly human related and display certain propensity to affect protected zones. The key contribution nevertheless, refers to the major importance of El Niño in the affectation of humid tropical ecosystems. This is specially enhanced by the presence of cattle pasture surrounding the fragmented forests. The shift on the importance of environmental factors in years of no-ENSO versus the greater importance of socio-economic factors in years of ENSO, is also a major achievement. Moreover, shifts in ecosystem affectation have also been observed depending on the climatic conditions: pine-oak in no-ENSO years versus humid tropical forests in ENSO years. Regarding the Mediterranean forests, the simplest techniques of teledetection were the best performing ones for island identification. The formation of these islands is conditioned by the size and aspect of the slopes, as well as by the amount and maturity of the affected patches. Most extensive slopes, north-western orientations, more abrupt, larger forest extensions per slope, and more mature forests (in terms of greater sizes), are the most suitable combination of factors to form islands. This formation of islands does not have, therefore, a random distribution. Besides, the structural characteristics of the forest patches was confirmed to be of great importance to predict the forest survival in areas were fire burned under moderate climatic conditions. Larger patches and larger trees are the ones that will survive fire the best.

This thesis examines the feasibility of fostering “sustainable foodscapes” in urban communities. A review of the literature on the topics of sustainability, resilience, sustainable food security, and healthy communities is used to determine to the definition of “sustainable foodscapes.” This thesis uses a framework of socio-ecological restoration to consider how communities might adopt sustainable foodscapes. A case study is conducted in the city of Waterloo, Ontario to test the criteria of sustainable foodscapes and explore some of the practical opportunities and barriers to developing sustainable foodscapes in an urban community. The methods for the case study include semi-structured interviews. Interview results indicate that a variety of sustainable foodscapes such as community gardening, individual gardening, and foraging are used in Waterloo already, and survey results suggest that various members of the community are open to the adoption of these foodscapes. The case study results reveal that diverse community members view sustainable foodscapes as an important contribution to community health, less for the purpose of ecological sustainability than for their usefulness as a way of promoting community interaction, social learning, and fostering a sense of place. Ways to conduct a socio-ecological restoration for sustainable foodscapes in Waterloo could include increasing areas for the purposes of foraging to occur in an ecologically benign manner, such as on marginal or private land; creating municipal policies and Official Plans that provide support for community gardens, and fostering more accepting attitudes towards sustainable foodscapes by providing increased opportunities for education and participation among community members.

Den här studien avser att undersöka i vilken utsträckning befintliga riktlinjer för datorstött samarbete är tillämpbara för asynkrona, geografiskt distribuerade system i syfte om att minska det socio-tekniska glappet. Det är ett glapp mellan vad användare efterfrågar socialt och vad som är tekniskt möjligt att stödja, där medvetenhet om andra användare är en central utmaning som påvisar ett glapp. Som praktiskt fall studeras Intercopy.net som är ett system för dokumenthantering via Internet. Resultaten visar att det verkar finnas få riktlinjer specifikt avsedda för asynkrona, distribuerade system och de som avser datorstött samarbete generellt kan vara svåra att tillämpa. Riktlinjer för enskilda användare och för datorstött samarbete kan därför med fördel kombineras vid utveckling och utvärdering av datorstött samarbete för att öka användbarheten på individ- och gruppnivå. Det finns även ett behov av att utveckla nya riktlinjer samt konkretisera befintliga riktlinjer för datorstött samarbete för att stödja sociala aspekter som medvetenhet.

Gymnasiereformen GY11 (SFS 2010:2039) innebar flera förändringar för den nationella gymnasieskolan. Ett program som förändrades i karaktär och omfattning var teknikprogrammet, ett program nu har en pedagogisk utmaning för befintliga och blivande tekniklärare att främst utbilda morgondagens tekniker och ingenjörer - inom kort väntas 18 000 ingenjörer behövas i Sverige. Betraktar man examensmålen för teknikprogrammet kan framför allt fyra av de flera ingående aspekter sammanfattas till följande utifrån examensmålens egen formulering; "Utbildningen ska därför utveckla elevernas förmåga att analysera och förstå tekniska system”. Med det i åtanke så lyfter modern forskning fram att det teknikdidaktiska hantverk som ska förmedlas ut i klassrummen gällande diskussioner om system kräver att den undervisande läraren har väl förtrogna kunskaper om tekniska system. Som sådant är det den enskilde läraren som med sin ämnesdidaktiska insikt kan avgöra vilka aspekter av tekniska system som är av relevans att förmedla, och vart fokus ska vara i undervisningen. Det övergripande syftet med denna studie är att bidra till den kontinuerliga teknikdidaktiska forskningen kring studien av socio-tekniska systemuppfattningar. Därtill finns också syftet att belysa elevers uppfattningar om socio-tekniska system som en didaktisk utgångspunkt vid klassrumsundervisningen av och om socio-tekniska system samt modellering av system. Genom en hermeneutiskt inspirerad metod med inslag av kvalitativ textanalys samt bildanalys kunde öppen enkät tas fram där informanterna vid teknikprogrammet gavs möjlighet att uttrycka sina uppfattningar i form av ord och bilder som svar till olika systemspecifika enkätfrågor. Via studiens författare och dennes förförståelse samt dennes inläsning av litteratur på området kunde tolkningar göras enligt den hermeneutiska traditionen. Således, genom analys av den insamlade informationen kunde studiens författare göra följande slutsats; att utifrån den gjorda undersökningen av elevers uppfattningar om tekniska system så existerar det i överlag ett allmänt och holistiskt systemperspektiv hos eleverna, vilket också förstärks ju mer förtrogenhetskunskaper eleven har gentemot det system som för tillfället betraktas. De didaktiska implikationerna av detta blir då således att undervisande tekniklärare kan utgå ifrån att det existerar en viss nivå av systemförståelse hos eleverna i sin undervisning om teknik och tekniska system. Avslutningsvis är det min mening att resultatet från den här studien kan ses som en essentiell pusselbit kring den allmänna förståelsen om teknikelevers uppfattningar om socio-tekniska system.

This thesis uses a panel of Swedish counties over the years 1976-2007 to investigate the relationship between suicide and a range of socio-economic determinants. Moreover, the thesis is combining sociology and economics in order to understand the part of suicide that can be considered as rational. In addition, suicide is studied separately for total, male and female suicide rates. Contrary to prior research in the field of suicide, this study formally tests for gender differences. Applying a fixed effect model, we managed to uncover a statistically significant gender difference for female labor force participation relation to suicide. When applying fixed effect models most of our results were in accordance with the socio-economic theory of suicide. We found a significant u-shaped relationship between suicide and the level of alcohol sales (consumption). We also found a statistically significant positive relationship between the total suicide rate and female labor force participation. Moreover, we found that higher population density significantly leads to fewer suicides in the total and male model. Furthermore, we found that unemployment increases the male suicide rate. In some cases, however our results contradicted the theory. Our results give evidence that divorce has a negative and significant effect on total and male suicide rate. These findings are not only violating the theoretical framework but previous research as well. We can thus conclude that the socio-economic theory of suicide, in most cases, assistances us to understand suicide.

The aim and purpose of this report is to describe how the domestic tobacco industry is affectingsustainable development in Malawi. This is done by describing the environmental and socio-economic effects ofthe cultivation and selling of tobacco leaves. Together with an outlook on the future developments of the industry,this information is used to describe how the Malawian tobacco industry corresponds to sustainable developmentand how it can be changed to improve sustainability in the country. The report is based on a literature study andtwo interviews. Theories on sustainable development and developmental concepts form the theoreticalbackground for the report. The conclusion of the report is that the situation regarding the Malawian tobaccoindustry is a complex one, where direct economic benefits are the main motive, but various socio-economic andenvironmental effects combine to make the situation unsustainable in a number of aspects. The suggestion of thisreport is to turn away from the current high dependence on tobacco to a more diversified agriculture, wheredifferent types of food crops substitute tobacco as the main source of income, while at the same time providingmore food in a country where poverty and malnutrition are problematic issues.

This thesis examines the feasibility of fostering “sustainable foodscapes” in urban communities. A review of the literature on the topics of sustainability, resilience, sustainable food security, and healthy communities is used to determine to the definition of “sustainable foodscapes.” This thesis uses a framework of socio-ecological restoration to consider how communities might adopt sustainable foodscapes. A case study is conducted in the city of Waterloo, Ontario to test the criteria of sustainable foodscapes and explore some of the practical opportunities and barriers to developing sustainable foodscapes in an urban community. The methods for the case study include semi-structured interviews. Interview results indicate that a variety of sustainable foodscapes such as community gardening, individual gardening, and foraging are used in Waterloo already, and survey results suggest that various members of the community are open to the adoption of these foodscapes. The case study results reveal that diverse community members view sustainable foodscapes as an important contribution to community health, less for the purpose of ecological sustainability than for their usefulness as a way of promoting community interaction, social learning, and fostering a sense of place. Ways to conduct a socio-ecological restoration for sustainable foodscapes in Waterloo could include increasing areas for the purposes of foraging to occur in an ecologically benign manner, such as on marginal or private land; creating municipal policies and Official Plans that provide support for community gardens, and fostering more accepting attitudes towards sustainable foodscapes by providing increased opportunities for education and participation among community members.