While physical activity (PA) declines across the lifespan, this does not occur linearly. Declines are most pronounced during the transition into early adulthood. This dissertation consisted of three studies examining PA decline during the transition into early adulthood: (1) to understand patterns of PA and other health behaviours of Canadians; (2) to understand reasons for PA declines during entry into university; and (3) to examine the feasibility and effects of a website-delivered PA intervention. Study 1 utilized multilevel modeling to identify patterns of PA, binge drinking and smoking among a nationally-representative cohort of adolescents (N = 640). Results found PA decline evident among all young adults transitioning into early adulthood regardless of educational trajectory – declines being most pronounced among college/university males – highlighting the saliency of PA decline, as other health behaviours stabilized or declined during early adulthood. Given justification for intervening with the university population, study 2 explored students’ perceptions of PA, and their preferences towards a PA intervention. Eight focus groups were conducted with first-year university students (N = 45). Results found students being concerned with PA decline, and were receptive to an Internet-based intervention. However, such concerns are inflected with ambivalence, potentially posing a challenge for interventionists. Findings from studies 1 and 2 informed the development of a website-delivered PA intervention – ‘Active Transition’. Pre-testing was conducted with first-year students (N = 15) and PA experts (N = 7), which found the website and its content being acceptable and usable. Results of the efficacy trial (N = 65) found Active Transition to successfully attenuate declines in PA cognitions, and to some extent, PA behaviours. This confirms the Internet being a useful tool for delivering PA interventions in this population. However, given modest compliance in terms of usage, future work is required to evaluate the addition of more current/popular strategies for engaging students. Overall, this dissertation has provided justification for why it is critical that research continues work with this population, and has provided the foundations in helping with the long-term vision of implementing a population-level initiative to help students attenuate the significant declines in their PA behaviours.

While physical activity (PA) declines across the lifespan, this does not occur linearly. Declines are most pronounced during the transition into early adulthood. This dissertation consisted of three studies examining PA decline during the transition into early adulthood: (1) to understand patterns of PA and other health behaviours of Canadians; (2) to understand reasons for PA declines during entry into university; and (3) to examine the feasibility and effects of a website-delivered PA intervention. Study 1 utilized multilevel modeling to identify patterns of PA, binge drinking and smoking among a nationally-representative cohort of adolescents (N = 640). Results found PA decline evident among all young adults transitioning into early adulthood regardless of educational trajectory – declines being most pronounced among college/university males – highlighting the saliency of PA decline, as other health behaviours stabilized or declined during early adulthood. Given justification for intervening with the university population, study 2 explored students’ perceptions of PA, and their preferences towards a PA intervention. Eight focus groups were conducted with first-year university students (N = 45). Results found students being concerned with PA decline, and were receptive to an Internet-based intervention. However, such concerns are inflected with ambivalence, potentially posing a challenge for interventionists. Findings from studies 1 and 2 informed the development of a website-delivered PA intervention – ‘Active Transition’. Pre-testing was conducted with first-year students (N = 15) and PA experts (N = 7), which found the website and its content being acceptable and usable. Results of the efficacy trial (N = 65) found Active Transition to successfully attenuate declines in PA cognitions, and to some extent, PA behaviours. This confirms the Internet being a useful tool for delivering PA interventions in this population. However, given modest compliance in terms of usage, future work is required to evaluate the addition of more current/popular strategies for engaging students. Overall, this dissertation has provided justification for why it is critical that research continues work with this population, and has provided the foundations in helping with the long-term vision of implementing a population-level initiative to help students attenuate the significant declines in their PA behaviours.

This thesis is a case study of the transformation between democratic transitions and electoral processes. The central concern of this thesis is democratic transition, and, in particular the impact of internal and external factors on the shape and goals of democratic transition in Mongolia. The purpose here is to examine the impact of these factors on the direction of the democratic transition in Mongolia, and assess the importance of doing so. This study has found that analyzing the influence of internal and external factors on the shape and goals of democratic transition in Mongolia is absolutely crucial in order to understand the transition process and how democracy is developed in this country. While scholars have acknowledged the importance of studying third world country transitions, the majority of the academic literature focuses on its process and types of transition countries go through. Choosing Mongolia as a case, this thesis had discovered fascinating facts that Mongolia can be a powerful example in the Central Asian region of a consolidating democratic system. The findings in this study are significant because this reveal a deficiency in the literature regarding transitions with democratic elections, and call for a more thorough examination of democratic development in order to improve our understanding of how Mongolia is doing in its democratic transition.

Preparing for a professional ballet dance career requires dedication, discipline and single-minded focus. But, as training becomes increasingly competitive, many dancers must give up this aspiration and reinvent themselves for a life after dance. The transition is challenged by identity loss and limited consideration of alternative careers. Although researchers have studied the transition to a post-dance life for professional ballet dancers, the transition of younger dancers remains unstudied. The goal of this research was to analyze stories of what it means to be an elite, female dancer who was unable to achieve a professional dancing career, and had to make another life for herself. A qualitative study was conducted. Five women, who were former elite amateur ballet dancers, were asked to share their stories through three separate semi-structured interviews. Participants also shared personally meaningful objects. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis and represented in the context of individual stories. A common overarching framework was identified that included: discovering the dream, living the dream, losing the dream, and life after the dream. Further thematic analysis generated insight about the culture of ballet (e.g., rites of passage, individual dancer characteristics, peer relations), as well as common challenges, facilitators and meaning making associated with negotiating a new work/life after failing to become a professional dancer. Findings contribute to the existing literature and suggest the appropriateness of conceptualizing the experience as one of loss and mourning (Worden, 2009). Implications for future research as well as for adults involved in the world of elite dancing (e.g., ballet teachers, school teachers and counsellors) are discussed.

This thesis is a study democratic transition paradigm in Mongolia from its communist past to its present status as a democratic country. The study is informed by the democratic transition paradigm by Guillermo ODonnell and Philippe Schmitter and by the work of Thomas Carothers, a critic of that paradigm. It examines the effectiveness of this theoretical work in guiding the study of an emergent democracy and in that context focuses on the role of elections as well as other internal factors, as well as historical and external factors relevant to democratic transitions. <p>The study finds that both transition paradigm and Carotherss work are useful guides to understanding the Mongolian case but also it finds flaws in each of them.

Slovenia and Latvia are two examples of countries which have gone through a successful democratic transition. They were both under authoritarian rule and command economy up until their declarations of independence in the early 90s. Today they have a functional market economy and political pluralism. I have examined transition theories highlighted by Jonas Linde and Joakim Ekman and from these theories sought the explanations to what lies behind the successful transitions of these two countries.   The transition in Slovenia was affected by liberalization from within the ruling communist party which then controlled much of the transition process. A relatively large civil society and the fact that Slovenia was not involved in the Balkan War also contributed to the short process. In the case of Lativa was the strong public support for independence an important factor. The communist party could be defeated in the parliament in 1990, giving the Popular Front of Latvia legitimacy to declare the country independent. A constitution was created based on the one Latvia had created in 1922 when the country was an independent state for the first time.   In neither Slovenia nor Latvia was violent revolutionary action a significant force for political change. Despite Latvia’s economical problems after the collapse of the Soviet economy and the ethnic segregation a political consensus remained that the democratic system had to withstand. The strive for full market economy and independence was an important factor in Slovenia as well as in Latvia. In Slovenia however, the political liberalization occurred before the economic. The state remained in partial control of the economy for a few years in order to secure a successful transition.

Semiconductor band-gap energy can be measured by using photoreflectance (PR) spectroscopy. It used a pump-beam and a probe-beam and measure modulated reflectance (DR) of the probe-beam by chopping on and off the pump-beam. The photon-energy of the pump-beam has to be greater than the band-gap energy of the sample so that electron-hole pair can be produced in the sample. The electron-hole pairs are separated by built-in electric field (Fbi) of the sample and thus reduce strength of Fbi. In this work the Hg lamp was used for the pump beam to observe E_1 and E_1+∆E_1 transitions of GaAs, and its photon energy is greater than E_1 and E_1+∆E_1 bandgaps. We also used the purple, green and red laser to observe GaAs, and their photon energy are greater than E_0 but smaller than E_1gaps. Finally, we will compare the amplitude of the PR spectra with the strength of the Fbi reduced by the pump-beam.

The current study examined whether pre-birth risk factors mediate the relation between family of origin risk factors and couples’ relationship functioning after birth. Participants in the present study were 132 heterosexual couples who had their first child during the course of a larger, longitudinal study (Laurenceau et al., 2004). Results showed several significant mediation effects for both mothers and fathers. Additionally, for fathers, family-of-origin factors did not appear to directly influence their transition to parenthood, but were related to functioning before birth. For mothers, family-of-origin risk factors appeared to both directly and indirectly influence their relationship functioning after the birth of a child. Information on how pre-birth functioning risk factors mediate family of origin risk factors to the transition to parenthood is useful to psychologists who wish to intervene and assist at risk couples through the transition. This study contributes to the literature by illustrating a more complete picture of which individuals may be at risk during the transition to parenthood, which will allow psychologists to tailor their interventions to those it will help most.

On-going efforts to reduce aircraft drag through transition delay focus on understanding the process of boundary-layer transition from a physics-based perspective. For swept-wings subject to transition dominated by a stationary crossflow instability, one of the remaining challenges is understanding how freestream disturbances and surface features such as surface roughness create the initial amplitudes for unstable waves. These waves grow, modify the mean flow and create conditions for secondary instabilities to occur, which in turn ultimately lead to transition. Computational methods that model the primary and secondary instability growth can accurately model disturbance evolution as long as appropriate initial conditions are supplied. Additionally, transition delay using discrete roughness arrays that exploit known sensitivities to surface roughness has been demonstrated in flight and wind tunnel testing; however, inconsistencies in performance from the two test platforms indicate further testing is required. This study uses detailed hotwire boundary-layer velocity scans to quantify the relationship between roughness height and initial disturbance amplitude. Naphthalene flow visualization provides insight into how transition changes as a result of roughness height and spacing. Micron-sized, circular roughness elements were applied near the leading edge of the ASU(67)-0315 model installed at an angle of attack of -2.9 degrees in the Klebanoff-Saric Wind Tunnel. Extensive flow quality measurements show turbulence intensities less than 0.02% over the speed range of interest. A survey of multiple roughness heights for the most unstable and control wavelengths and Reynolds numbers of 2.4 x 10⁶ 2.8 x 10⁶ and 3.2 x 10⁶ was completed for chord locations of 10%, 15% and 20%. When care was taken to measure in the region of linear stability, it was found that the disturbance amplitude varies almost linearly with roughness height. Naphthalene flow visualization indicates that moderate changes in already-low freestream turbulence levels can have a significant impact on transition behavior.

This dissertation analyzes the effect of periodic roughness elements on the stability of a flat plate boundary layer. Receptivity data is extracted from direct numerical simulations and experimental data and the results are compared to theoretical predictions. This analysis shows that flow in the immediate vicinity of roughness elements is non-linear; however, the evolution of roughness-induced perturbations is a linear phenomena. New techniques are developed to calculate receptivity information for cases where direct numerical simulations are not yet possible. Additionally, the stability behavior of the roughness wake is analyzed. New instability modes are found, and the effect of boundary layer complexity, perturbation amplitude and other factors are examined. It is shown that the wake is much less stable than optimal perturbation theory predicts, and highlights the importance of receptivity studies. The implication of these results on transition-to-turbulence is discussed, and future work is proposed. T