This study examines the relationship between English in the environment and English language development in Japan. Although the English language enjoys a significant presence in the country, it has rarely been given consideration in previous research looking at second language development for Japanese learners. The study adopts Uric Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Model to conceptualize the levels of the total learning environment in which the individual is immersed. The participants for this study were 99 Japanese university students attending Doshisha University in Kyoto. Participants were required to fill out a questionnaire and five students volunteered for interviews regarding the learners' perception of English in the surrounding environment. The findings from this study revealed little relationship between English in the environment and English language development for Japanese learners. In fact, the results indicate that a sharp divide between English taught in the classroom and English found outside of the classroom remains. Learner attitude was identified as the most significant factor influencing English language development.

The complex health profile of older adults entering hospital presents staff and administrators with new challenges. In a climate of fiscal restraint, competing priorities and public pressure. it is necessary for acute care hospitals to rethink their views of caring for older adults. This critical ethnographic study applies a social ecological perspective using the concept of person-environment fit to illuminate how problems arise from conflict between needs and expectations. Constant comparative analysis and coding techniques take account of hospital operations and the perspectives of hospital employees and older people together. Data included hospital observations, and interviews with older adults (N=11) and hospital employees (N=14). Procedures to ensure rigor included continuous reflexivity. participant selection, triangulating data sources, peer debriefing, multiple checks. and an audit trail. Findings yield four areas of poor fit: architectural features, bureaucratic conditions. chaotic atmosphere, and hospital employee attitude. These environmental features act in independent and cumulative ways to produce a disempowering synergy that erodes independence and confidence: produces stress, worry, and anxiety; and enhances disabilities when functional impairments exist. Incongruent relationships emerge only when non-ideal older people enter the hospital's cultural space. A lack of fit exists for those considered different either because of their personal functional attribute or because hospital employees judge them to be unsuitable or inappropriate for the unit or service. Being different is key to lack of fit in the hospital environment and the construction of problems. The study also contributes groundwork for identifying indicators of older adult-hospital environment fit. and by doing so. aids in defining quality of hospital services based on what older people need and expect compared with what the hospital provides and the demands it places on older people. This research has the potential to set the stage for assessing hospitals and ensuring policies are better suited to the needs of older people.

Understanding the ecology of an organism is fundamental for defining conservation and management priorities for wildlife and natural ecosystems. The most basic ecological framework identifies the key components of an organism's habitat, and the scale for measuring the quality of those features. How these core needs are expressed and vary in the surrounding ecosystem changes over time and space. In marine systems, the physical environment has few strict boundaries, and variations regularly occur on a scale from days to decades. The dynamic and patchy nature of marine habitat makes defining the ecological roles of an animal difficult, even where baseline data exists. In this study I analyze long term field records on the ecological interactions between foraging gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus), and their mysid prey (Family mysidae) in Clayoquot Sound, B.C. By looking at spatial and temporal shifts at both trophic levels, I measure foraging responses and requirements, and assess prey resource availability and resiliency in the marine environment at a series of scales. Appreciation for bottom-up and topdown trophic interactions provides the foundation for identifying natural variability in marine habitat, and a baseline for conservation measures that seek to use marine predators as a barometer of broader ecosystem health.

The aim of the study was to determine whether a modified version of the Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) (American Thoracic Society, 2002) could be used to assess aerobic power in adults with intellectual disability. Thirteen adults (7M, 6F), four with Down syndrome; 18-44 years old, with mild or moderate intellectual disability participated in the study. Each participant performed the following: (1) the modified 6MWT twice, with a pacer, along a straight 30-m course in a gymnasium; (2) the graded maximal treadmill test; and (3) a test of leg strength, twice, using a Cybex dynamometer. Cronbach’s reliability coefficient between the two 6MWTs was α = 0.98. Stepwise linear regression analysis showed that the furthest 6MWT distance was predictive of peak oxygen consumption (R² = 0.67). Peak torque during leg extension and BMI were significantly correlated with 6MWT distance. The modified 6MWT can be used with minimal time and space, to assess aerobic power in adults with ID.

Neoliberal economists argue that the market provides the most efficient mechanism to address externalities. Theoretically then, the market value of a commodity should show a correlation with any changes in social and ecological performance. Alternatively, if the social and ecological costs of production are being externalized (not addressed by the market) then it is expected that the social and ecological costs of production would not be reflected in the market price. This study examined the extent to which social and environmental costs are externalized by the salmon farming industry and, by extension, to what level social and ecological impacts are reflected in the market, if at all. The salmon farming industry represents a classic example of how a relatively new industry functions within the confines of the current economic climate and was assessed to examine whether social and ecological impacts are reflected in the market. A novel tool called the Global Aquaculture Performance Index (GAPI) has been developed that addresses both the need for a quantitative measure of social and ecological performance and a tool that informs where policy is best directed to alleviate the impact of externalities. In applying the GAPI method, the market price for farmed salmon was not found to be correlated with changes in social and ecological performance and it may be assumed that these costs are externalized. GAPI provides a quantitative, performance based assessment of the salmon farming industry while the indicators of social and ecological performance provide clear starting points to improve salmon farming through a policy based context.

Alcohol-related partner aggression is a pervasive social problem throughout various life stages, including the transition to parenthood. Previous research shows that alcohol use is associated with partner aggression perpetration for both men and women; however, not all individuals who consume alcohol act aggressively. In this study, the moderating effects of general social support and partner-specific support on the association between alcohol use and both physical and psychological partner aggression were investigated using a community sample of 98 pregnant couples. For men, high levels of general social support increased alcohol-related physical and psychological aggression whereas partner-specific emotional support served as a buffer for physical aggression. For women, general social support was not a significant moderator, but high levels of partner-specific instrumental support increased alcohol-related physical aggression. These results can be applied to prevention and treatment programs for alcohol-related partner aggression.

This study investigated the subjectively constructed narratives of how veterans’ retrospective experiences of trying to balance career and parental roles. Narrative-oriented inquiry (NOI), which has not been used as a framework in previous research within the area of work-family balance in general and within research involving military families more specifically, was the primary orienting methodology in the current study. Five veterans, all male and who currently reside in the area of Victoria BC, participated in the process of co-constructing their individual 1st-person narratives with the primary researcher. The six stages of Arvay’s (2002) Collaborative Narrative Method were used as the guiding framework for the creation of these narratives. Implications that came out of these narratives in regards to future research and counselling practice are also discussed.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore how preschool-aged girls self-regulate when they are challenged by a naturally occurring task or activity within the preschool environment. My work as a graduate research assistant to Dr. Wanda Boyer enabled me access to a large grounded theory study entitled, A Foundational Measure of Early Childhood Self-Regulation, from which participants were chosen. Since I endeavoured to capture a holistic picture of preschool-aged girls’ self-regulation, as they encounter a naturally occurring difficult activity, a multiple case research design, within the qualitative paradigm, was used. In keeping with the qualitative case study tradition, this study utilized multiple data sources such as demographic information, transcriptions of interviews and videotaped observations from the larger study. The results of pattern matching, within-case and cross-case analyses are presented within four central themes: (a) initiating, modulating, and ceasing a difficult task, (b) strategies used across six dimensions of regulation, (c) interactions occurring during the regulation of a difficult task and, (d) the common use of physical strategies. This descriptive thesis concludes with key findings, proposed implications, and suggestions for future research.

Indigenous and settler relations have been negotiated, and continue to be negotiated in various forms across Canada. This thesis begins from the continued assertions of treaty Elders that the historic Treaty relationships are valid in the form that they were mutually agreed upon and accepted at the time of negotiation. From this assertion, this thesis asks how this mutually agreed upon understanding of Treaty can be understood. In particular, the holistic approach to reading historic treaty draws on the oral history and first hand accounts to provide an understanding of the context and content of treaty. The holistic approach is then applied to Treaty 6 in Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as the contemporary Treaty process in British Columbia. This provides a critical analysis of the continued negotiation of the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Settlers, both regarding how historic treaties are understood in Canada, and how contemporary treaty relations continue to be negotiated.

The current state of a prototype fan-beam optical computed tomography scanner for three-dimensional radiation dosimetry has been presented. The system uses a helium-neon laser and a line-generating lens for fan-beam creation. Five photodiode arrays form an approximate arc detector array of 320-elements. Two options of physical collimators provide two levels of scatter-rejection: single-slot (SS) and multi-hole (MH). A pair of linear polarizers has been introduced as a means of light intensity modulation. This work examined: (i) the characterization of system components, (ii) data acquisition & imaging protocols, and (iii) the scanning of an nPAG dosimeter. (i): The polarizer-pair method of light intensity modulation has been calibrated and the polarization sensitivity of the detector array was evaluated. The relationship between detected values and both light intensity and photodiode integration time was examined. This examination indicated the need for an offset correction to treat all data acquired by the system. Data corruption near the edges of each photodiode array was found to cause ring artefacts in image reconstructions. Two methods of extending the dynamic range of the system---via integration time and light intensity---were presented. The use of master absorbent solutions and spectrophotometric data allowed for the preparation of absorption-based and scatter-based samples of known opacities. This ability allowed for the evaluation of the relative scatter-rejection capabilities of the system's two collimators. The MH collimator accurately measured highly-attenuating solutions of both absorption-based and scatter-based agents. The SS collimator experienced some contamination by scattered light with absorption-based agents, and significant contamination with scatter-based agents. Also, using the SS collimator, a `spiking' artefact was observed in highly-attenuating samples of both solution types. (ii): A change in imaging protocol has been described that greatly reduces ring artefacts that plagued the system previously. Scanning parameters related to the reference scan (Io) and data acquisition were evaluated with respect to image noise. Variations in flask imperfections were found to be a significant source of noise. (iii): An nPAG dosimeter was prepared, planned for, irradiated, and imaged using the fan-beam system. In addition to ring artefacts caused by data-corruption, refractive inhomogeneities and particulates in the gelatin were found to cause errors in image reconstructions. Otherwise, contour and percent depth dose comparisons between measured and expected values showed good agreement. Findings have indicated that significant imaging gains may be achieved by performing pre-irradiation and post-irradiation scans of dosimeters.