A living room is defined in terms of place theory (Canter, 1977a): a relationship between actions, conceptions, and physical attributes of the setting. A new term "anti-living room" is created to highlight the importance of a subject's decision in the use of the living room. A "multiple use" of the living room, which is an antithesis of place theory, is tested against the empirical data collected between two different cultures. The paradigms of Tao are introduced to highlight the cultural differences in the pattern of use of living rooms. The English living room is hypothesised to be predominantly yang (B) (rational), whereas the Japanese living room being predominantly yin (B) (intuitive). Attempts are made to relate the I Ching to facet theory, both dealing with the complexity of "real life" issues. In order to understand the "entire phenomenon" of a living room, and to accommodate the "multidimensional nature" of experiences in a living room, facet theory and its associated multidimensional scaling procedures (SSA-1, MSA-1 and POSA) have been applied in this study. A facet theory postulates a priori definitions (mapping sentences) of the pattern of use of living rooms. MDS procedures try to reveal the underlying structures of the data. Thus it is possible to compare findings within similar living rooms and between different living rooms of different cultures when a facet approach is taken. A cross-cultural study is presented of patterns of behaviour, furniture possessed and attitudes towards living rooms in 115 homes in Guildford (England) and a comparable social sample of 145 households in Oyama (Japan), reveals that the Japanese engage in a wider range of activities in the Japanese living room (yin action - synthesis). In the English living room the English are likely to specialize its use, namely, relaxing and entertaining (yang action - analysis). In the field of man's relationship with his living room, the type of approach which might be termed intuitive speculation seems to be lost in a world devoted to the supposedly more scientific approach of objective analysis. As Alan Watts (1970) has speculated, this emphasis on the so-called objective may indeed be a handicap for Western man, for it enables him to retain his belief in the separateness of the ego from all that surrounds it. Although certain objective facts have been presented in this thesis, it is hoped by the author that its overall message is clear: allow yourself to be open to the consideration of relationships other than those that can be proved or disproved by scientific method, for it may well be in these that a deeper truth lies. Chapter 1 defines a living room in English and Japanese houses and briefly outlines the structure and aims of the thesis. Chapter 2 introduces the concept of space in the East and the West and discusses the living room in a cross-cultural context. Chapter 3 reviews the existing research on living rooms. Chapter 4 describes the research instruments and the selection of samples and introduces facet theory and its associated multivariate statistics. Chapter 5 analyses the structure of the pattern of living room activities. Chapter 6 analyses the structure of the use of living room furniture. Chapter 7 analyses the structure of satisfaction with living rooms. Chapter 8 develops a typology of families and relates it to living room activities. Chapter 9 develops a typology of physical properties of living rooms and relates it to living room activities. Chapter 10 discusses the implications of the research.

No description available.

Abstract Habitat selection is a crucial process affecting space use and reproductive success of birds. In this thesis, I investigated spatial and behavioural aspects of nest spacing, brood stage space use, habitat selection and factors affecting reproductive success of breeding common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) using two large and long-term observational data sets from individually marked females. In the nesting stage, I found that spatial nesting pattern of goldeneye females changed from one year to the next and also between spatial scales. However, increasing aggregation of nesting females decreased nesting success due to increasing rate of nest desertion and nest predation especially at small spatial scale. These results provide evidence of a density-dependent population process in the common goldeneye in terms of association between annual spatial dispersion of nesting females and annual nesting success. In the brood stage, the most important factor affecting habitat selection was the amount of food. However, safe nest sites and food requirements of ducklings were not usually met in the same patch and females with broods adjusted their space-use tactics according to these critical breeding resources. Spatial divergence of these two obligatory resources induced brood movements at various distances shortly after hatching. During movements, broods used different landscape elements such as patches, corridors and matrix in a flexible way without clear fitness consequences in terms of duckling survival. Goldeneye broods suffered heavy losses especially during the early brood stage. Increasing predation risk by northern pike (Esox lucius) decreased survival of young ducklings, but frequent total brood losses suggest that also other factors affected duckling survival. Environmental factors such as temperature or rain were not related to the survival of ducklings.

Energy used in the operation of the United Kingdom’s non-domestic buildings contributes 18% of national carbon dioxide emissions and reducing these is government policy. The use of electrical equipment in buildings is a major contributor to overall consumption, due to both its intrinsic energy consumption and the effects of incidental internal gains resulting from its operation. Knowledge of how and where consumption and internal gains occur in buildings is important in understanding the consumption characteristics of the building stock. The overall aim of this research was to improve the prediction of energy consumption in the non-domestic stock through the inference of appliance electricity consumption and resultant heat gains, for internal space uses of premises, as identified in UK property taxation data. To achieve this, the objectives were to: 1. Develop a method for inferring space usage in premises. 2. Infer values for the electricity consumption of appliances, and hence internal gains, for space uses within premises. 3. Apply the method to a dataset at the urban scale and use a suitable model to deduce the energy consumption. 4. Compare the results with measured data. Objectives 1 and 2 were achieved through analyses of detailed energy surveys of more than 300 non-domestic premises. By excluding equipment used for heating and cooling, both intrinsic electricity consumption and internal gains from appliances have been characterised for combinations of internal space use and premises activity type. For each combination, the characteristics include the energy intensity (kWh/m2/year) for: • overall appliance use • 14 end uses of appliances (e.g. lighting, catering, computers) • 18 groups of appliance activity descriptions (e.g. sales, office work, process) These characteristics were mapped onto subdivisions of space use, within premises, listed in property taxation data for a test urban area (City of Leicester). Using only 115 descriptions of space use, appliance consumption characteristics have been inferred for 91.5% of the measured internal floor area of the test dataset; this achieved the third objective. More than 80% of the floor area was identified using standard space use descriptions utilised in real estate taxation datasets. The total estimated consumption accounted for 75% of the recorded annual electricity consumption of the test area (the fourth objective). This result is acceptable, given the known limitations of the datasets and suggests that the method constitutes an improvement to stock energy modelling, thus meeting the overall aim. By inferring appliance electricity consumption and internal gains at a finer spatial resolution than previous methods, the diversity of energy consumption characteristics of the non-domestic stock may be represented more faithfully than by values applied to entire homogenised premises or premises types. The method may be used by policy makers as part of an urban energy model and as a means of evaluating potential energy interventions in the non-domestic stock, or parts thereof.

Biological invasions threaten biodiversity globally, and degraded ecosystems increase the potential for invaders to compete with threatened native populations. In natural systems, niche partitioning minimizes interspecific competition, but introduced species may alter expected outcomes by competing with ecologically similar species for scarce resources. Where food production is highly variable, coexistence of native and invasive competitors may depend on dietary niche flexibility. Territorial species under invasion face additional challenges to maintain economically defendable territories. From 2011-2016, we conducted removal and behavior experiments to determine effects of non-territorial introduced Abert’s squirrels (Sciurus aberti) on diet, space use, and territoriality of endangered Mount Graham red squirrels (MGRS; Tamiasciurus fremonti grahamensis) in their declining habitat in the Pinaleño Mountains, Arizona. We collected comparative data from Arizona sites of natural syntopy between Abert’s and Fremont’s squirrels (T. fremonti). Stable isotope analysis revealed similar dietary partitioning among populations. Experimental removals did not appear to affect MGRS diet. Space use by MGRS responded inconsistently to removals; territory sizes increased after the first removal, but did not change following the second removal. Territory sizes and body mass of MGRS were sensitive to conspecific population density and food production. Behavioral experiments showed MGRS were more aggressive than other Fremont’s squirrels (hereafter, red squirrels). Dietary flexibility of Abert’s squirrels may have facilitated coexistence with MGRS, possibly due to coevolved resource partitioning with red squirrels. However, aggressive territoriality toward Abert’s squirrels may incur fitness costs for MGRS especially during poor food production years. Climate change may reduce the advantage of ecological specialist species globally, and where introduced species are better-adapted to novel environmental conditions, native species may ultimately be replaced.

From large-scale agriculture and farming to concentrated fishing discards, garbage dumps, game carcasses and bird feeders, human action has been increasingly affecting natural systems and animal species through the deliberate and unintentional provisioning of food resources. Anthropogenic food sources (AFSs) are often more spatially concentrated, easily accessible, abundant and stable than natural food sources. The common raven, Corvus corax, is a behaviourally flexible and ecologically adaptable species that has managed to thrive in human transformed landscapes by exploiting these anthropogenic sources of food. The aim of this research was to investigate how raven individuals vary in their use of different AFSs through space and time. I used data from a long-term GPS tracking initiative in the Upper Austrian Alps to investigate (1) the space-use of non-breeding raven individuals across this landscape to answer the questions: (2) what types of AFSs are most extensively used by ravens in this landscape, and what factors predict individual variation in AFS use (i.e., apparent reliance on and access to resources), specifically (3a) the number of AFSs visited and (3b) the probability of being at AFSs at any given point in time. Movement patterns can reveal information on the foraging decisions made by individuals, including how they use different AFSs. Non-breeding raven individuals exhibited great variation in how they moved around and used the landscape. The number of AFSs visited, but not the probability of being at an AFS (at any given point in time), varied among individuals with different ranging behaviour and of different age class (i.e., juvenile and adults) and origin (i.e., captive-bred-released and wild-caught), suggesting that experience affects AFS-use. Non-breeders differed in their use of AFSs by season, visiting the highest number of AFSs but having the lowest probability being present at an AFS in winter, potentially indicative of high foraging competition under stressful environmental conditions. They were also found to extensively exploit resources in spring, both visiting high numbers of AFSs and having a high probability of being present at an AFS, perhaps due to decreased competition (e.g., from breeders) and increases in food availability. The category (i.e., wildpark, refuse site, hut) of AFSs also influenced the probability of an individual being present at the site, likely because of differences in resource quality, quantity and replenishing rate. A very few foraging sites were highly popular, while over half attracted less than 5 individuals throughout the study. By exploiting AFSs, raven population numbers have increased across their range, raising conservation concerns (i.e., predation on threatened species and human-wildlife conflict). With a better understanding of the patterns of AFS-use and the factors influencing these patterns, I suggest that strategies to manage ravens in this semi-transformed, alpine environment should focus on controlling the supply of food at AFSs at a regional scale.

No description available.

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the Big Cypress Basin of South Florida must cope with top-down and bottom-up forces, including frequent pyrogenic and hydrological disturbances and the threat of predation. These forces affect their space use, behavior, and survival. Recent changes to the regional hydrology and increased abundances the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi), their primary predator in this system, call for a renewed look at how these forces affect this deer herd. To assess the effects of these forces on seasonal space use, behavior, and survival of deer, I analyzed GPS telemetry and camera trap data, highlighting the factors influencing deer space use across hydrological and biological seasons, and connected behavioral data captured on camera traps to female deer survival. Space use is primarily a function of intrinsic sex affects and landscape composition and configuration, and varies as resources and reproductive cycles fluctuate across seasons. Disturbance has little effect on space use, suggesting deer are well adapted to these disturbance regimes. Temperament in foraging behavior in female deer impacted survival, influencing prey catchability and potentially buffering prey populations against cycles of predation. / Master of Science / White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the Big Cypress Basin of South Florida must cope with a changing landscape of resources caused by frequent fire and flooding, while avoiding predation by their primary predator in this system, the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi). Recent changes to water flow across this landscape and increasing numbers of Florida panthers call for a renewed look at how disturbance, landscape features, and predation influence the seasonal space use, behavior, and survival of deer in this system. Differences from sex and landscape features most explain seasonal space use of deer, while the influence of fire and flooding is limited. Variability in vigilance of female deer led to differences in female survival, suggesting a tradeoff between acquiring resource and safety when foraging under predation risk.

The dynamics of pathogen and host relationships relative to disease transmission in wildlife populations are important ecological processes to understand, particularly since spatial dynamics of disease can be driven by movement, behavior, and dispersal of animals. Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is an example of this important interface, where little is known regarding origin of the disease or routes of transmission. Surveillance data for CWD in free-ranging mule deer indicates that breeding-age male deer have 2-4 times higher prevalence rates than females or younger age males. In an effort to understand differences that might increase risk for exposure to CWD infective agents, I used GPS data to examine breeding behavior and home range sizes of mule 11 deer. GPS radiocollars were placed on adult (> 2 ½ years) males, females, and young ( < 2 ½ years) males. Data collected during the breeding season was used to infer visitation rates of males to females. Cluster analysis was used to separate data into periods of movement (spatio-temporal clusters) and non-movement. Females formed more spatio-temporal clusters and movement paths than males. However, males spent more time moving, had more long-term periods of movement, moved an estimated 1 km/day more than females, and had more tortuous movement paths. Male home ranges for winter, summer, and breeding seasons were also larger than those of females. Overall, data indicates that males may have an increased risk of exposure to CWD relative to females, because of larger movements and greater space use. These male behavioral differences may result in increased encounter rates with CWD infectious material through greater exposure in the environment to sources such as carcasses from infected animals, their excreta, or contaminated soils. Furthermore, during the breeding season increased male sociality, as suggested by increased movement rates and movement path tortuousity, combined with larger space use may further enhance direct contact with infected individuals and increase exposure to excreta sources such as feces and alimentary secretions due to licking and tending behaviors.

Empirical measurements of the use of space of an enclosure are important indicators of the enclosure’s appropriateness for the exhibited animal. By studying the animal’s use of space zoological parks are able to provide a more species-adequate environment. In this study the utilization of space by the Siberian tigers held at Kolmården Djurpark was analyzed. Data were collected using the scan sample method for a total of 120 observation hours during 15 days. The tigers showed a marked difference in the utilization of different parts of the enclosure with the number of observations ranging from 1252 for the most popular zone to only 172 for the least popular one. The tigers showed a consistent preference for two of the 15 zones across all days of observation. Further analyses showed that these zones were preferred both during mornings and afternoons as well as during feeding days and non-feeding days. This study demonstrates that the tigers might display a preference for certain environmental features as a result of their behavioral needs that are no different from tigers in the wild.