In the 21st century, the mobility of world population has posed greater challenges to healthcare practitioners, since they are facing an increasingly diverse patient population from all over the world. At the same time, patients also find it difficult to access and utilize quality health care services in a culturally diverse context. This study examines the role of culture in Chinese international students’ health-seeking behaviours in Canada. The study explores any barriers/perceived barriers that Chinese international students may confront when accessing health care which can prevent them from obtaining quality health care services in Canada. To this end, an intercultural health communication model was employed as a theoretical framework, and semi-structured interviews were used as a data collection tool. While contributing to existing literature on health communication and culture, this study also hopes to contribute to providing Canadian universities and institutions important information regarding Chinese international students’ access to and utilization of health care services with the hope of enhancing the quality of ethnic health care and promoting better health outcomes.

Recent research has proposed a new stage in human development, termed emerging adulthood by Jeffrey Arnett, which is characterized by a prolonged journey to adult roles and responsibilities. This thesis explores the experience of Chinese emerging adults, university students aged 20-25 years using Erikson’s and Levinson’s developmental theories as a theoretical framework. These authors proposed that three major developmental tasks are necessary for the transition to adulthood: separating from family of origin, forming an adult identity and finding the place for the self in the larger society. Qualitative interviews were conducted virtually with 12 Chinese university students to understand their perceptions and lived experience. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview transcripts. The results suggest Chinese emerging adults (a) have a low level of separation from parents; (b) have not formed a clear sense of identity and have not achieved a self-definition in adulthood; and (c) have not made initial commitments to love and work. It is speculated that the Chinese sociocultural context may further postpone its young adults’ independence and autonomy, and this prolonged transition to adulthood is both positive and problematic to Chinese young adults. This study lends support to Arnett’s emerging adulthood theory through its exploration of emerging adulthood in China, where, to date, little research has been done on this subject. It provides rich descriptions of the experience of Chinese emerging adults’ lives and enhances understandings of the role of culture in influencing the emerging adulthood period.

Government of Canada communications professionals work in an increasingly challenging environment, characterized by an intrusive 24/7 media cycle, a frenetic pace of evolving communication technologies, layered accountability requirements, political tension, and waning public trust. Scholars call on professional communicators to help rebuild public trust, which is intrinsic to a healthy democratic government. The Three-dimensional Model for Transparency in Government Communication developed by Fairbanks, Plowman and Rawlins (2007) serves as the theoretical framework for investigating the Government of Canada’s approach to transparent citizen-focused communications from the perspective of communications professionals. The model’s adaptability to the Government of Canada context is tested through 23 qualitative semi-structured interviews with Government of Canada senior communications advisors, managers and executives. The data is analysed using constant comparative thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that Government of Canada communicators strongly value transparency. Furthermore, the key components of the transparency model – communications practices, organizational support and provision of resources – encapsulate the factors that influence the practice of transparent citizen-focused communications by the Government of Canada. The study concludes by offering recommendations for future research and practical applications.

Structured physical activity (SPA) is one type of physical activity in which preschool aged children participate (e.g., soccer programs). Given that SPA often occurs at community-based locations, such as at a field or hockey rink, primary caregivers, who are often times mothers, must transport their preschool aged children to the scheduled SPA. Although studies have examined social cognitions important to individuals participation in their own scheduled physical activity, no study to date has focused on the social cognitions of mothers that may be related to the transportation of their preschool aged children to SPA. The purpose of this two-study dissertation was to use self-efficacy theory to develop and examine the reliability and validity evidence of measures to assess mothers social cognitions (i.e., self-regulatory efficacy to overcome barriers and to schedule/plan; outcome expectations including likelihood and value) that may be related to transporting their children to SPA. A literature review, focus group elicitation with nine participants (Mean age = 35.25 years; SD = 3.57), and feedback from three expert judges and 10 participants were used to develop items for each of the measures in Study 1. The reliability of the measures was then investigated in Study 1 using data from 31 participants (Mean age= 33.50 years; SD = 5.79) to examine initial internal consistency and then 64 participants (Mean age= 32.87 years; SD = 4.48) to further examine internal consistency and temporal stability. Findings revealed some evidence for the content and construct validity, internal consistency, and temporal stability of the measures. To continue the construct validation of the measures, it was important to continue to examine the reliability evidence of the measures and other aspects of validity, including concurrent and predictive validity. In Study 2, data from 93 participants (Mean age= 34.88 years; SD = 5.04) were used to examine evidence of the criterion-related validity (i.e., concurrent and predictive) of the developed measures. Results revealed convergence of the measures that assessed similar constructs (i.e., self-regulatory efficacy to schedule/plan and to overcome barriers; outcome expectations: likelihood and value). However, evidence of the divergence of the self-regulatory efficacy measures from the outcome expectation measures was less consistent. Results also revealed that the self-regulatory efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations measures were not significant, independent predictors of transportation to SPA. These predictive validity findings as well as the divergence findings may have been due to the type of mothers who participated in the study (i.e., highly experienced in transporting children to SPA). Findings from the present series of studies suggest a need for continued exploration of the measures, including research with a more diverse sample. Collecting further reliability and validity evidence of these measures to compare it with the evidence from the present studies would contribute to the ongoing construct validation of these measures.

Specialundervisning och nivågruppering i matematik har inte så stor effekt (Bentley & Bentley, 2011; Giota & Emanuelsson, 2011) och vår skollag (2010:800) gör gällande att undervisningen ska ske inom klassens ram. Med detta som utgångspunkt designades denna studie. Studien genomfördes med 21 elever i år två under nitton lektioner. Syftet var att se om intensivundervisning med hjälp av strukturerad undervisning kan ge effekt på elevernas automatisering av additions och subtraktionstabellerna inom talområde 0-20. Studien genomfördes som en experimentell design med fältexperiment och metoderna i studien var deltagande observation, fältanteckningar och diagnoser.  Observationerna och fältanteckningarna visar ett exempel på hur strukturerad intensivundervisning kan planeras och diagnosernas resultat indikerar på att strukturerad intensivundervisning i aritmetik med ett inkluderande perspektiv har positiv effekt på elevernas automatisering. / Special education and abilitygrouping in mathematics have not shown a great effect (Bentley & Bentley, 2011; Giota & Emanuelsson, 2011) and our Education Act (2010:800) argues that students should be taught in the frame of the class. The study was based on this knowledge, which was conducted with 21 students in their second year for nineteen lessons. The aim was to see if intensive teaching has any effect on students´ procedural fluency of counting addition and subtraction within the numberrange 0-20. The study was conducted as an experimental design of fieldexperiments and the methods in the study were participant observation, fieldnotes and diagnoses. The observation and the fieldnotes show an example of how structured intensive teaching can be planned and the results of the diagnoses indicate that structured intensive teaching in aritmetic in an inclusive perspective has a positive effect on students´ procedural fluency.

Adopting new technologies enable enterprises to improve employees¡¦ performance and competitive advantages. The differences in natures of adopting processes of organizations and individuals need further clarify for better understandings regarding to their framework in adopting new technologies. This paper based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and existed research to construct the relations amongst the effective factors which affect the adopting new technologies in either individual or organization perspectives. In the individual level, the constructed research framework indicated employees¡¦ e-Learning satisfaction could be measured by three major dimensions, the perceived e-Learning qualities, individual internal beliefs (usefulness and ease of use), and social influence. Eight proposed hypothesis were confirmed by Structured Equation Modeling analysis of 428 valid samples. Path analyses verified the original path in TRA, TAM, and D&M ISS Model. The perceived e-Learning qualities and social influence cause significantly influence to employees¡¦ e-Learning satisfaction in both directly and indirectly, which by way of individual internal beliefs, positive paths. The results also showed that perceived information quality, usefulness, system quality, social influence, ease of use, and than service quality positively affect employees¡¦ satisfaction of e-Learning in descend sequences. Where, in the organization level, decision framework of adopting new technology of oil refinery was composed by modified Delphi method and was verified by Analytic Network Process from the survey of 15 experts. The consistency opinions confirmed four inter-depended dimensions and seventeen criteria were included. The results suggested that process fitness, environmental fitness, actors¡¦ organizational fitness, and new technology characteristics are important dimensions of adopting new technology in descend sequences. On the other hand, economic feasibility, relative advantages, government, environment acceptance, and engineering feasibility are the top five important factors to be evaluated during the adopting process. The different natures of adopting processes of organizations and individuals cause their different framework in adopting new technologies. This paper concluded that new technology, actors¡¦, environmental characteristics are three interdepended dimensions which influence the adopting behavior no matter in individual or organization context. In organization level of oil refinery case, actors¡¦ characteristics consist not only of actors¡¦ organizational fitness but also process fitness, which is the most important dimension while adopting new technology. In final, the implications of findings were discussed and directions were also suggested for future research.

Spray cooling has proven to be efficient in managing thermal load in high power applications. Reliability of electronic products relies on the thermal management and understanding of heat transfer mechanisms including those related to spray cooling. However, to date, several of the key heat transfer mechanisms are still not well understood. An alternative approach for improving the heat transfer performance is to change the film dynamics through surface modification. The main goal of this study is to understand the effects of nano-scale features on flat heater surfaces subjected to spray cooling and to determine the major factors in droplet impingement cooling to estimate their effects in the spray cooling system. Single droplet stream and simultaneous triple droplet stream with two different stream spacings (500 μm and 2000 μm), experiments have been performed to understand the droplet-surface interactions relevant to spray cooling systems. Experiments have been conducted on nano-structured surfaces as well as on flat (smooth) surfaces. It is observed that nano-structured surfaces result in lower minimum wall temperatures, better heat transfer performance, and more uniform temperature distribution. A new variable, effective thermal diameter (de), was defined based on the radial temperature profiles inside the impact zone to quantify the effects of the nano-structured surface in droplet cooling. Results indicate that larger effective cooling area can be achieved using nano-structured surface in the single droplet stream experiments. In triple stream experiments, nano-structured surface also showed an enhanced heat transfer. In single stream experiments, larger outer ring structures (i.e. larger outer diameters) in the impact crater were observed on the nano-structured surfaces which can be used to explain enhanced heat transfer performance. Smaller stream spacing in triple stream experiments reveal that the outer ring structure is disrupted resulting in lower heat transfer. Lower static contact angle on the nano-structured surface has been observed, which implies that changes in surface properties result in enhanced film dynamics and better heat transfer behavior. The results and conclusions of this study should be useful for understanding the physics of spray cooling and in the design of better spray cooling systems.

none

Ever since the early 90¡¦s the global software market and knowledge accumulation have been growing at a rapid speed. Knowledge has become a critical asset for professional software service industry and therefore, the demands for knowledge management in this industry have been increased dramatically. This study presents a novel approach for knowledge management in structured systems analysis and design area for a professional software service firm. A case study and a prototype system were used to illustrate the feasibility and usability of the proposed method. These results provide a practical base and better understanding for the professional software firms when they implement a knowledge management system.

3D face modeling is currently a popular area in Computer Graphics and Computer Vision. Many techniques have been introduced for this purpose, such as using one or more cameras, 3D scanners, and many other systems of sophisticated hardware with related software. But the main goal is to find a good balance between visual reality and the cost of the system. In this thesis, reconstruction of a 3D human face from a pair of stereo cameras is studied. Unlike many other systems, facial feature points are obtained automatically from two photographs with the help of a dot pattern projected on the object&amp / #8217 / s face. It is seen that using projection pattern also provided enough feature points to derive 3D face roughly. These points are then used to fit a generic face mesh for a more realistic model. To cover this 3D model, a single texture image is generated from the initial stereo photographs.