My collection of short stories is set in the fictional town of Lockswood Gap, Tennessee, and centers around the lives of four women. Through various points of view and story lengths, I interweave several story lines to span over a time period of about twenty years. Themes of change and regret are prevalent in these stories, as each of these four women must make, or refuse to make, choices that will impact their lives. I modeled my collection after Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, using individual short stories that share the same group of characters to tell a novel-length story. The ten stories included in my thesis will comprise about threeourths of the novel, and I will add several more to it following my graduation.

City growth policies codify community values and serve as the basis for enforcement of community standards. If these policies do not match resident preferences for growth, potential exists for communities to grow in ways which make the community undesirable. This thesis examines whether adopted city growth policies match resident preferences in small towns in Utah. Findings include a strong relationship between resident preferences and city leader preferences for growth. Also, city staffs are poor readers of public sentiment relative to growth and growth management. Some cities are more effective in enacting city policies to match resident attitudes towards growth than others, specifically; it seems that cities which have already experienced growth have policies which more closely match resident preferences. This thesis has relevance to the adoption of city growth policies in rural Utah cities. Since city staffs in small towns tend to be poor readers of resident attitudes, whereas city elected officials are much better readers of public opinion, it is important that city policy be instituted at the impetus of elected leaders rather than on the recommendation of city personnel. Failure to adopt city policies regarding growth may lead to growth which is undesirable to city residents.

No description available.

Before the American small town was enshrined as an ideal, it was a space of dynamic and pioneering progressive reform, a narrative that has been largely untold in histories of professional planning and landscape history. Archival research shows that village improvement was not simply a prequel to the City Beautiful in the years following the 1893 Chicago Expo, but a rich and complex history that places the residential village at the center of debates about the middle landscape as a civic realm comprised of complimentary and oppositional pastoral and urban worldviews. The second half of the nineteenth century saw an extensive movement in village improvement that affected the physical, economic, and social infrastructure of rural settlements of all sizes in every region of the country. As a concept referenced by planners working on comprehensively-designed suburban communities, the small town ideal has never been historicized with respect to the history and theory of the nineteenth century village landscape improvements. This study broadens the study of village improvement to include the history of ideas and debates surrounding rural development on the national and local level between the 1820s and 1880s and, in doing so, argues that the discussion-born theory of village improvement within a national rural reform movement led by some of the nineteenth century's most respected and influential reformers including B.G. Northrop (education), Col. George Waring (sanitation), N.H. Egleston (conservation), Isabella Beecher Hooker (women's rights), and F.L. Olmsted, Sr. (landscape architecture) was modeled on the Laurel Hill Association in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and that the local practice of this one society over the same period in line with the national movement together comprised the most active sustained discussion about the civic society and physical infrastructure of rural settlements in American history. This narrative tracks reform movements in rural settlements over several decades, beginning with landscape gardening through sanitation and up to the professionalization of city planning and the country life movement. Planning veered from broadly conceived urban pastoralism and multi-disciplinary rural improvement that viewed the village as an extension of the city toward preservation planning that viewed the small town as an increasingly idealized pastoral space, past-looking and unchanging. This trend was in line with an associated shift from planning as a series of fine-grained locally led practices to expert-driven professionalized planning as grandiose comprehensive vision.

В работе были рассмотрены этапы и инструменты формирования и корректировки имиджа территории, влияние внутреннего и внешнего имиджа на продвижение территории. В ходе изучения поставленной проблемы, было проведено исследование, направленное на изучение внутреннего имиджа территории, а также участников его формирования. Результаты исследования показали, что изучаемая территория имеет ряд проблем с имиджем. Среди населения наиболее активными участниками продвижения неблагополучного имиджа является молодежь. Для работы с данной целевой аудиторией, по результатам исследования был разработан проект, который предусматривает комплексную работу со стейкхолдерами данной территории. / The work considered the stages and tools of formation and adjustment of the image of the territory, the influence of internal and external image on the promotion of the territory. In the course of studying the problem posed, a study was conducted aimed at studying the internal image of the territory, as well as the participants in its formation. The results of the study showed that the study area has a number of image problems. Among the population, the most active participants in promoting an unfavorable image are young people. To work with this target audience, according to the results of the study, a project was developed that provides for integrated work with stakeholders in this territory.

No description available.

No description available.

Despite the impressive progress over the last two decades in which millions of people worldwide have gained first time access to improved water and sanitation infrastructure, the reality for many is that shortly after infrastructure construction the actual service received by users slips back to unacceptably low levels. However, due to inadequate research and inconsistencies with how data and cost data has been collected and reported, very little is known of the necessary levels of expenditure required to sustain an acceptable (so called “basic”) water and sanitation service and this inhibits effective financial planning for households, communities, governments and donors alike. This thesis sought to provide a better understanding of what has historically been spent to provide different levels of water and sanitation services as a means to better understand the necessary expenditure required. Empirical findings are based on a large data sample of nearly 2,000 water points, over 4,000 latrines, and over 12,000 household surveys, which have been collected as part of three research projects (WASHCost, Triple-S, and WASHCost Sierra Leone), across five country research areas (Andhra Pradesh (India), Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone). Findings for water supply systems show that the combination of high capital investments of: $19 and $69 per person for community point sources and $33 – $216 per person for piped systems; and low recurrent expenditures of: $0.06 - $0.37 per person per year for point sources and $0.58 - $7.87 per person per year for piped systems; results in less than half of users receiving a “basic” level of service. Evidence based estimates of the required expenditure for acceptable services are found to be far greater than the “effective demand” expressed in terms of the willingness to pay of service users and national government for these services. Findings for sanitation show that constructing a household latrine that achieves “basic” service standards requires a financial investment of at least $40 that is likely to be an unaffordable barrier for many households in lower income countries. In addition the costs and affordability of periodic pit emptying remains a concern. Ultimately this research suggests that if international standard of improved water and sanitation services are to be sustained in rural areas, the international sector will likely have to provide additional investments to meet a significant proportion of the recurrent costs of delivering these services.

Cette thèse de géographie vient enrichir le corpus théorique des études urbaines à partir del‘étude de trois petites villes au Tamil Nadu. Trois approches des petites villes indiennes sontdéveloppées. Une approche politico-institutionnelle fournit le cadre de ce qui est nommé laville décidée, la ville telle qu‘elle est pensée par les aménageurs à toutes les échelles depuisles élus de quartiers jusqu‘aux politiques nationales d‘aménagement du territoire. La secondeapproche quantitative, relève de l‘analyse spatiale. Elle vise à décrire les dynamiqueséconomiques et démographiques des petites villes à l‘échelle de l‘Inde du Tamil Nadu. Uneanalyse multivariée est notamment développée pour classifier les districts en fonction de leurprofil. Cette classification s‘appuie sur la division des petites villes en trois types : cellessituées sur corridor, celles situées en périphérie de métropoles et celles non polarisées. Cetteclassification a permis de répartir les trois cas d‘études de terrain qui illustrent la diversité desdynamiques dans lesquelles les petites villes sont intégrées et en quoi ces dynamiquesinfluencent la ville perçue, c‘est-à-dire l‘espace de représentation des habitants. Aucroisement de cette ville perçue, de la ville décidée et de la ville matérielle se dessine uneville vécue dont l‘appréhension doit permettre la structuration de politiques publiquesefficaces. / This thesis of Geography enriches the theoretical corpus of urban, from the study of threesmall towns in Tamil Nadu. Three approaches of the small Indian towns are developed. Àpolitical-institutional approach gives the framework of what is called the decided town; thetown as it is conceived by planners at all scales from the ward members to national policies.The second approach is quantitative; it aims to describe the economic and demographicdynamics of small towns across India. À multivariate analysis is developed to classifydistricts based on their profile. This analysis is coupled with a classification of small towns inthree types thanks to a GIS analysis: the ones located on major corridor of development, theones located in a metropolitan area and the last ones in unpolarized areas. The three casestudies fall into this classification and illustrate the diversity of dynamics in which areembedded the small towns. These dynamics affect the space of representation of theinhabitants which is named the perceived town. Àt the crossroads of the perceived town, thedecided town and the material town a living town is emerging which could structure moreefficient policies.

Darbo tikslas - Ištirti mieto ir kaimo pirminės sveikatos priežiūros centrų teikiamų paslaugų prieinamumą pacientų požiūriu. Darbo uždaviniai:1) Ištirti pacientų pasitenkinimą teikiamomis pirminiuose sveikatos priežiūros centrų paslaugomis; 2) Nustatyti veiksnius, turėjusius įtakos nepakankamam sveikatos priežiūros paslaugų prieinamumui. 3) Palyginti kaimo ir miesto pirminių sveikatos priežiūros centrų paslaugų prieinamumą pacientų požiūriu. 4) Pateikti praktines rekomendacija šių centrų darbo kokybei pagerinti. Tyrimo metodika. 2007 metų sausio 3 – balandžio 15 dienomis Kauno Centro poliklinikoje ir Simno poliklinikoje Alytaus rajone vyko anoniminė anketinė apklausa. Jos metu apklausta 510 pacientų, kurie laukė eilė pas savo šeimos gydytoją. Statistinė duomenų analizė buvo atliekama naudojant kompiuterinį paketą SPSS 10, 0 versijos statistinį duomenų analizės paketą bei Excel duomenų analizės paketą. Skirtumai buvo laikomi statistikai patikimi kai apskaičiuotoji p reikšmė neviršijo 0,05. Rezultatai. 45 proc. respondentų buvo patenkinti gydytojo teikiama pagalba. Dažniausios nepasitenkinimo priežastys gydytojo darbu buvotos, jog reikėjo ilgai laukti, kol pateko pas gydytoją (58 proc.), nebuvo reikalingų gydytojų – specialistų PSP įstaigoje(57 proc.) bei nepakankamai suteikė informacijos apie gydymosi galimybes (56 proc.), sveikatos būklę bei gydymą (51 proc.). Dauguma tyrime dalyvavusių pacientų buvo nepatenkinti PSP teikiamomis paslaugomis. Juos vargino eilės prie... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Aim. To evaluate accessibility, satisfaction on patients’ quality of health services in primary health care centers in rural and urban settings in Lithuania. Research objectives were as following: 1) to establish patient’s satisfaction in primary health care centers; 2) to identify what factors affects the poor accessibility to health care; 3) to compare opinion, attitudes of patients on health care services in urban and rural settings. Methods. Two samples of respondents (patients of one primary health care center in small rural town Simnas and one in big city Kaunas) were selected. Anonymous questionnaire was filled in by 308 patients in Simnas (Primary Health care Centre) and 202 in Kaunas (Central Policlinic), response rate was 77% and 26%, respectively. Questionnaire form was developed by the authors has covered 31 question on different issues of quality of health care services: health status and reasons of visit to health care center; different issues on accessibility to health services (waiting time, registration for services, transportation and distance), satisfaction by competencies of physician, reasons of dissatisfaction, satisfaction by services provided by the health care institution. SPSS 10,0 and Excel statistical packages were used for making statistical data anlysis. Statistically significant difference was established when p<0,05. Results. 45 % of respondents were satisfied by the competencies of their family doctors. 58% of patients were not satisfied by... [to full text]