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With the rise of the writing-to-learn (WTL) movement, studies on reflection and implementing reflective writing became key focal points in research on writing across the curriculum (WAC). Scholars from a wide range of disciplines have noted the benefits of implementing genres of writing that prompt students to look back and assess aspects of their own performance and understanding. Other inquiries examine if reflective writing impacts student performance, as well as analyze students' reflective processes and their perceptions of reflection. This investigation represents a continuation and expansion of these different research efforts on reflection across the curriculum. The goal of this work is to gain more knowledge about students' reflective processes and the language that they use to describe reflective thought and action by focusing on multiple, discipline-specific contexts. Through an exploratory study of four courses within two disciplines--English and History--at a large, public university, this work examines the reflective processes and perceptions of students and how their perceptions and processes align with their instructors' expectations. This study suggests that students and instructors in various disciplines have unique and sometimes divergent ways of using and talking about reflection, which presents implications for research on WAC and knowledge transfer. Aligning with the rich body of research in the field, this investigation uses reflection as both a subject of inquiry and a guiding action.

This thesis seeks to shed light on the cultural construction of marriage and the relative psychosocial predictors of marital satisfaction across British and Ghanaian settings. The main argument is that, Britain and Ghana stand apart in socio-cultural standing: Britain is a developed Western European country whereas Ghana is a developing West African Country. Consequently local realities and social constructions would differ across these two settings and engender different constructions and experience of marriage. The project examined the relative contributions of self-construal, self-disclosure, material support, relationship beliefs, marriage role expectation and demographic variables to marital satisfaction among British and Ghanaian married couples. These objectives were pursued through the implementation of quantitative (n=400) and qualitative (n=117) paradigms in studies of couples from London and Accra. Various multivariate analytic strategies were employed to test hypotheses about differential constructions of marriage and the predictors of marital satisfaction across the two contexts. As hypothesized, responses of British couples suggested constructions of marriage that resonate with individualist patterns (e.g., less emphasis on "traditional" marital roles), and responses of Ghanaian couples suggested constructions of marriage that resonate with collectivist patterns (e.g., relative emphasis on instrumental support). Additional analyses revealed the hypothesized role of cultural grounding indicators in mediating the relationship between predictors and marital satisfaction. Specifically, interdependent self-construal mediated the relationship between material support and satisfaction, but independent self-construal mediated the relationship between self-disclosure and marital satisfaction. Qualitative analyses of the interview data aid in the interpretation of these results. The expected and counterintuitive findings that emerged are discussed against the backdrop of individualism-collectivism descriptions of prevalent cultural patterns that implicitly and explicitly shape and determine personal relationship behaviour. Implications of the findings as well as recommendations for future studies of marriage across cultural settings are offered.

Background: Children continue to experience pain in hospital. Few studies examine pediatric pain management in the rural context. Objectives: 1) To explore nurses’ experiences providing pain care to pediatric inpatients in Northern Ontario. 2) To identify institutional resources to support nurses’ pain care practices. Method: Across methods approach. Study I used qualitative description completed with 10 nurses using semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Study II was an exploratory descriptive online survey using a study-specific questionnaire that was completed by 8 hospital administrators. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and narrative synthesis was used for open-ended questions. Findings: Pediatric pain management presents challenges in Northern Ontario, including competing priorities, gaps in pain knowledge, unclear policies, and resource constraints. Potential facilitators include nurses’ motivation to improve pain management, leveraging local resources, and an increase in context specific standards. Conclusion: Context specific strategies need to be designed and implemented to support nurses’ practices in delivering recommended pediatric pain management to their patients.

The purpose of this thesis is, first, to examine the critical controversy surrounding the publication of Ernest Hemingway's Across the River and Into the Trees and, second, to show what Hemingway was trying to do in the novel, even though he may not have been successful in doing it. Chapter I examines the major critical responses to Across the River and Into the Trees, together with Hemingway’s own comments, and introduces the critical study which comprises the following three chapters. Chapter II examines the relationship between Cantwell's military past and the present, and discusses the effects of this dichotomy. Chapter III examines Cantwell's code of honor, mainly as it applies in his present peacetime situation, and discusses how he finally re-affirms his ideal principles of resolution and endurance, thus enabling him to accept the idea of his own death. Chapter IV examines Cantwell's preparation for death through Renata, secondary characters, and various symbols, and shows how he eventually becomes free of bitterness. Chapter V, a final appraisal of the novel's literary worth, discusses why the novel is not successful as a work of fiction. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This study compared the experiences of adolescent offenders with and without incarcerated parents. A sample of adolescent offenders (n = 26) completed questionnaires assessing past experiences, including trauma and violence, and current behaviors. Over half of the participants reported having a parent who had served time in jail or prison. Adolescent offenders with incarcerated parents were more likely to feel safe at home and school, and more likely to witness their parents in a physical fight than adolescent offenders without incarcerated parents. In contrast, there were no significant differences between adolescent offenders with and without incarcerated parents in self-reported trauma. Post hoc analyses revealed that female adolescent offenders felt less safe, reported more physical punishment, and had more DHS involvement than male adolescent offenders.

Um data warehouse geográco (DWG) é um banco de dados multidimensional, orientado a assunto, integrado, histórico, não-volátil e geralmente organizado em níveis de agregação. Além disso, também armazena dados espaciais em uma ou mais dimensões ou em pelo menos uma medida numérica. Visando oferecer suporte à tomada de decisão, é possível realizar em DWGs consultas SOLAP (spatial online analytical processing ), isto é, consultas analíticas multidimensionais (e.g., drill-down, roll-up, drill-across ) com predicados espaciais (e.g., intersecta, contém, está contido) denidos para range queries e junções espaciais. Um desafio no processamento dessas consultas é recuperar, de forma eficiente, dados espaciais e convencionais em DWGs muito volumosos. Na literatura, existem poucos índices voltados à indexação de DWGs, e ainda assim nenhum desses índices dedica-se a indexar consultas SOLAP drill-across e com junção espacial. Esta dissertação visa suprir essa limitação, por meio da proposta de estratégias para o processamento dessas consultas complexas. Para o processamento de consultas SOLAP drill-across foram propostas duas estratégias, Divide e Única, além da especicação de um conjunto de diretrizes que deve ser seguido para o projeto de um esquema de DWG que possibilite a execução dessas consultas e da especicação de classes de consultas. Para o processamento de consultas SOLAP com junção espacial foi proposta a estratégia SJB, além da identicação de quais características o esquema de DWG deve possuir para possibilitar a execução dessas consultas e da especicação do formato dessas consultas. A validação das estratégias propostas foi realizada por meio de testes de desempenho considerando diferentes congurações, sendo que os resultados obtidos foram contrastados com a execução de consultas do tipo junção estrela e o uso de visões materializadas. Os resultados mostraram que as estratégias propostas são muito eficientes. No processamento de consultas SOLAP drill-across, as estratégias Divide e Única mostraram uma redução no tempo de 82,7% a 98,6% com relação à junção estrela e ao uso de visões materializadas. No processamento de consultas SOLAP com junção espacial, a estratégia SJB garantiu uma melhora de desempenho na grande maioria das consultas executadas. Para essas consultas, o ganho de desempenho variou de 0,3% até 99,2% / A geographic data warehouse (GDW) is a special kind of multidimensional database. It is subject-oriented, integrated, historical, non-volatile and usually organized in levels of aggregation. Furthermore, a GDW also stores spatial data in one or more dimensions or at least in one numerical measure. Aiming at decision support, GDWs allow SOLAP (spatial online analytical processing) queries, i.e., multidimensional analytical queries (e.g., drill-down, roll-up, drill-across) extended with spatial predicates (e.g., intersects, contains, is contained) dened for range and spatial join queries. A challenging issue related to the processing of these complex queries is how to recover spatial and conventional data stored in huge GDWs eciently. In the literature, there are few access methods dedicated to index GDWs, and none of these methods focus on drill-across and spatial join SOLAP queries. In this master\'s thesis, we propose novel strategies for processing these complex queries. We introduce two strategies for processing SOLAP drill-across queries (namely, Divide and Unique), dene a set of guidelines for the design of a GDW schema that enables the execution of these queries, and determine a set of classes of these queries to be issued over a GDW schema that follows the proposed guidelines. As for the processing of spatial join SOLAP queries, we propose the SJB strategy, and also identify the characteristics of a DWG schema that enables the execution of these queries as well as dene the format of these queries. We validated the proposed strategies through performance tests that compared them with the star join computation and the use of materialized views. The obtained results showed that our strategies are very ecient. Regarding the SOLAP drill-across queries, the Divide and Unique strategies showed a time reduction that ranged from 82,7% to 98,6% with respect to star join computation and the use of materialized views. Regarding the SOLAP spatial join queries, the SJB strategy guaranteed best results for most of the analyzed queries. For these queries, the performance gain of the SJB strategy ranged from 0,3% to 99,2% over the star join computation and the use of materialized view

Um data warehouse geográco (DWG) é um banco de dados multidimensional, orientado a assunto, integrado, histórico, não-volátil e geralmente organizado em níveis de agregação. Além disso, também armazena dados espaciais em uma ou mais dimensões ou em pelo menos uma medida numérica. Visando oferecer suporte à tomada de decisão, é possível realizar em DWGs consultas SOLAP (spatial online analytical processing ), isto é, consultas analíticas multidimensionais (e.g., drill-down, roll-up, drill-across ) com predicados espaciais (e.g., intersecta, contém, está contido) denidos para range queries e junções espaciais. Um desafio no processamento dessas consultas é recuperar, de forma eficiente, dados espaciais e convencionais em DWGs muito volumosos. Na literatura, existem poucos índices voltados à indexação de DWGs, e ainda assim nenhum desses índices dedica-se a indexar consultas SOLAP drill-across e com junção espacial. Esta dissertação visa suprir essa limitação, por meio da proposta de estratégias para o processamento dessas consultas complexas. Para o processamento de consultas SOLAP drill-across foram propostas duas estratégias, Divide e Única, além da especicação de um conjunto de diretrizes que deve ser seguido para o projeto de um esquema de DWG que possibilite a execução dessas consultas e da especicação de classes de consultas. Para o processamento de consultas SOLAP com junção espacial foi proposta a estratégia SJB, além da identicação de quais características o esquema de DWG deve possuir para possibilitar a execução dessas consultas e da especicação do formato dessas consultas. A validação das estratégias propostas foi realizada por meio de testes de desempenho considerando diferentes congurações, sendo que os resultados obtidos foram contrastados com a execução de consultas do tipo junção estrela e o uso de visões materializadas. Os resultados mostraram que as estratégias propostas são muito eficientes. No processamento de consultas SOLAP drill-across, as estratégias Divide e Única mostraram uma redução no tempo de 82,7% a 98,6% com relação à junção estrela e ao uso de visões materializadas. No processamento de consultas SOLAP com junção espacial, a estratégia SJB garantiu uma melhora de desempenho na grande maioria das consultas executadas. Para essas consultas, o ganho de desempenho variou de 0,3% até 99,2% / A geographic data warehouse (GDW) is a special kind of multidimensional database. It is subject-oriented, integrated, historical, non-volatile and usually organized in levels of aggregation. Furthermore, a GDW also stores spatial data in one or more dimensions or at least in one numerical measure. Aiming at decision support, GDWs allow SOLAP (spatial online analytical processing) queries, i.e., multidimensional analytical queries (e.g., drill-down, roll-up, drill-across) extended with spatial predicates (e.g., intersects, contains, is contained) dened for range and spatial join queries. A challenging issue related to the processing of these complex queries is how to recover spatial and conventional data stored in huge GDWs eciently. In the literature, there are few access methods dedicated to index GDWs, and none of these methods focus on drill-across and spatial join SOLAP queries. In this master\'s thesis, we propose novel strategies for processing these complex queries. We introduce two strategies for processing SOLAP drill-across queries (namely, Divide and Unique), dene a set of guidelines for the design of a GDW schema that enables the execution of these queries, and determine a set of classes of these queries to be issued over a GDW schema that follows the proposed guidelines. As for the processing of spatial join SOLAP queries, we propose the SJB strategy, and also identify the characteristics of a DWG schema that enables the execution of these queries as well as dene the format of these queries. We validated the proposed strategies through performance tests that compared them with the star join computation and the use of materialized views. The obtained results showed that our strategies are very ecient. Regarding the SOLAP drill-across queries, the Divide and Unique strategies showed a time reduction that ranged from 82,7% to 98,6% with respect to star join computation and the use of materialized views. Regarding the SOLAP spatial join queries, the SJB strategy guaranteed best results for most of the analyzed queries. For these queries, the performance gain of the SJB strategy ranged from 0,3% to 99,2% over the star join computation and the use of materialized view

Abstract The title of this thesis is ¡§ A research on framing the Free Trade Areas across the Taiwan Strait: from the Regional Economic Integration viewpoint¡¨. The main themes of this thesis can be categorized into two parts: 1.Elaborating the theory of Free Trade Areas and the legal framework of global economic law to find out the reason why GATT/WTO permits to build Free Trade Areas as an exception of the GATT/WTO Most-Favored Treatment rule; and further stating the meaning and inspiration of Free Trade Areas across the Taiwan Strait under the experiences of EU and NAFTA. 2.After entering the WTO, according to the international norm, it¡¦s a must for both sides of The Taiwan Strait to adjust their economic relationship and set up a cross-strait free trade zone from the experience of EU and NAFTA in accordance with the natural regularity of international economic development relationship. Taiwan and Mainland China, on two sides of the Twian Strait have become members of the WTO, and have officially connected with international trade and economic organism. It is essential for two sides to develop their economic interrelationship on the basis of the natural regularity of international economic development relationship. This thesis emphasizes that the development of economic relationship across the Taiwan Strait is a step-by-step process and suggests that the process can be divided into three steps as follows: 1.Normalization of economic relationship across the Taiwan Strait after entering WTO¡Ðit means that the activities of trade and investment across The Taiwan Strait should be transformed from ¡§indirect¡¨ into ¡§direct.¡¨ In addition, the restrictions on the movement of the people between Taiwan and Mainland China should be eased. These changes certainly lead to more problems for Taiwan side and it is urgent to negotiate and sign agreements with China for the Agreement of Trade and Investment in order to secure its benefit in the cross-strait economic development. 2.¡§One-step-forward framework¡¨¡ÐI would like to suggest that the second step of the cross-strait economic development should go one step forward to set up a framework under which the Free Trade Agreement, industries cooperation and Custom Unions to be fulfilled. 3.The setup of the Free Trade Areas¡ÐThe Free Trade Areas can be materialized though discussion between two sides based on ¡§one-step-forward framework¡¨ In this thesis, I found out that the best policy for Taiwan and Mainland China is to construct the Free Trade Areas across the Taiwan Strait under the legal framework of WTO. However, there are some prerequisites needed to be considered as follows: 1.Raising the international competition; 2.Averting to be marginalized under the trend of Regional Economic Integration; 3.Evaluating the complementary structure of industries between Taiwan and Mainland China with an analysis of the background, humanities and history between Taiwan and Mainland China. When the Free Trade Areas to be established in the future, it is recommend that the establishment of a Common Market across the Taiwan Strait will most benefit Taiwan and Mainland in the long run.