The objective of this study is to test whether the Affordable Care Act will have an effect on the professional tax preparation industry of Kingsport, Tennessee. To accomplish this objective, the researcher collected surveys concerning taxpayers’ initial reaction to the realization that the law affects their 1040. A two proportion test for equality was performed and failed to reject the idea that the ACA will have an effect on the tax preparation industry of Kingsport. Because this study failed to prove that the change in legislation causes a jump in clientele for the professional tax preparation market, the fight for market share falls to marketers. They will decide who will benefit from this landmark piece of legislation.

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Patients with dementia, especially Alzheimer’s disease and particularly those in early stages, are susceptible to become victims of predators: Their agnosia (see Case 1) prevents them from detecting and accurately interpreting subtle signals that otherwise would have alerted them that they are about to fall for a scam. Furthermore, their judgment is impaired very early in the disease process, often before other symptoms manifest themselves and usually before a diagnosis is made. Patients with early stages of dementia are therefore prime targets for unscrupulous predators, and it behooves caregivers and health care professionals to ensure the integrity of these patients. In this case study, we discuss how a man with mild Alzheimer’s disease was about to fall for a scam were it not for his vigilant wife. We discuss what went wrong in the patient/caregiver interaction and how the catastrophic ending could have been avoided or averted.

Balance disorders and falls are prevalent among multiple pathologies that affect the musculoskeletal or sensorineural systems. Annually, fall-related injuries put excessive economic burden on society and yet, current clinical balance assessment tools based on functional tests are inaccurate and have limited association with fall risk. Therefore, there is a growing need of an accurate balance and fall risk assessment tool for clinical use. The primary purpose of this research was to develop an accurate Center of Pressure (COP) based balance assessment tool to study postural instability and fall risk. Chapter 1 aimed at development of the COP based tool using cost effective equipment- a Wii Balance Board (WBB) and testing its accuracy and errors. The result of this study indicated that the WBB tool is reliable in assessing balance and the linearity and hysteresis errors in WBB tool are higher than force plates but it compares well in terms of cost, portability and availability. Chapter 2 aimed at assessing the relation between the radiographic parameters of balance, COP metrics, and health related quality of life in adults with spinal deformities. The results of this investigation revealed that just like radiographic parameters, COP metrics could help explain some variability in symptoms in patients with comparable extent of deformity. Chapter 3 attempted to establish a threshold value of COP metrics for binary classification of fall risk in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings of this study highlighted path length as an excellent predictor of future falls with high test accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. This dissertation concludes that the WBB tool has the potential to revolutionize balance and fall risk assessment in clinical fields such as geriatrics, rehabilitation, neurology, and orthopedics.

Ways in which the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) affect parents with chronically ill children are not well understood. The purpose of this phenomenographic study was to gain greater insight into the perceived experiences of parents of chronically ill children regarding implementation of the ACA in a southern state. Argyris's intervention theory provided the framework for the study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 12 female parents who are caregivers of chronically ill children. Data were analyzed and coded to identify categories and themes. Findings indicated that parents view physicians and policymakers as key actors in their communities to create more equitable services for parents of chronically ill children through the expansion of Medicaid services in southern state. Many participants did not perceive that the ACA had made significant changes to services received prior to its implementation. Findings may assist health care providers, insurance companies, legislators, and other policymakers to develop appropriate health care policies and interventions to lessen the financial burden experienced by parents of chronically ill children. Providing more support services that address the physical, emotional, and financial needs of parents may improve the health outcomes of their chronically ill children.

Energy efficient houses benefit communities not only to provide renewable energy shares and generating surplus electricity supporting local economic development. Also, residents in energy efficient houses have less energy usage that reduces household budget expenses. However, one of the obstacles of energy efficient technology installment of residential buildings is high investment cost, which can be solved with the usage of modular housing. In Europe, housing costs have a large share, especially for Sweden, housing expenses is a burden mostly for people who are at the risk of poverty. Also, high investment costs of energy efficient housing are combined with high construction prices leading a large share of budgets and effort to make houses affordable for low income groups. This study develops a scenario to find solutions for affordable housing problem in Sweden with a design proposal. The aim of this study is to investigate if there are ways of achieving socio-economic mix by the production of energy efficient affordable housing and urban gardening to develop a strategy for resource efficiency in Jakobsgårdarna. To achieve the aim, energy efficient affordable housing designed as modular units to achieve a local economic development. This study uses a design-based research method consisting of learning from background cases to transfer lesson learned in design phase of the sustainable neighborhood consisting of energy efficient technologies. Background cases were analyzed with literature review to define sustainable neighborhood, which was then used to develop a hypothesis. Findings of this thesis generates definition of sustainability tools consisting of a collaborative ownership; designing common kitchens; producing electricity and biogas from renewable energy sources; practicing urban agriculture; managing waste and storm and methods to cross subsidize energy efficient affordable housing production. The outcome of this research provides a sustainable neighborhood design proposal for Jacobsgårdarna, Borlänge.

Despite the need for affordable housing, consumers have failed to recognize manufactured housing as a viable alternative to site-built housing. The decline in market share for manufactured housing and subsequent decrease in sales has threatened the sustainability of manufacturers, retailers, suppliers, and support organizations. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine the extent that respondents' demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, perceptions of manufactured home characteristics, and perceptions of manufactured home occupants and neighborhood characteristics predicted the acceptance of manufactured homes. The model of acceptance of manufactured homes provided the theoretical framework for the study. Data were collected from 2 surveys distributed among adult learners (n = 204) enrolled in a nontraditional degree-seeking program at university campuses in west Tennessee. One survey applied to single-section manufactured homes and another survey instrument applied to double-section homes. Correlation and multiple regression analyses techniques tested the hypotheses. Six of the 12 independent variables emerged as moderate predictors of manufactured home acceptance (R2 = .217), which were respondents' housing value, perceived manufactured home occupant behavior, perceived educational levels of manufactured home occupants, respondents' household size and composition, land-use mix, and respondents' neighborhood population range. The research findings may contribute to social change through providing a foundation for future research on variables that influence consumer perceptions about affordable housing choices.

À partir du cas des attributions de logements sociaux, cette thèse s’intéresse aux questions de tri et de sélection dans l’action publique. Elle analyse la manière dont sont choisis les futurs locataires HLM et dont se construisent les discriminations dans l’accès au logement social. Elle éclaire l’émergence de critères d’attribution contraires au droit et explique leur récurrence au niveau local. L’enquête s’appuie sur une ethnographie comparée de trois agglomérations françaises et six organismes HLM. Elle repose sur des observations directes, des entretiens auprès de professionnels du logement social, des analyses documentaires et statistiques. Ses résultats soulignent d’abord la faiblesse du pouvoir normatif de l’État et discutent l’hypothèse d’une ruse de la mise en œuvre. En examinant les conditions d’élaboration des règles au niveau méso, la thèse identifie ensuite plusieurs régimes de tri des ménages en fonction des caractéristiques du contexte local et des modalités d’association entre élus, bailleurs et acteurs économiques. L’étude des pratiques professionnelles précise, enfin, les paramètres qui influencent les modalités de catégorisation des usagers au guichet. Elle montre que l’attribution des logements n’est discrétionnaire et discriminatoire que dans certaines configurations spécifiques, en fonction des marges de manœuvre dont dispose le bailleur, de l’état du patrimoine social et des comportements des street-level bureaucrats. Les régularités constatées dans la mise en œuvre sont finalement expliquées par le poids des contraintes institutionnelles et la culture professionnelle des agents de terrain. / Through the example of social housing allocations, this dissertation examines the issues surrounding sorting and selection within public policy. It analyses how new social housing tenants are chosen and how discriminations play within the access to social housing. It highlights the rise of illegal allocation criteria and explains their recurrence at the local level. The study builds upon a comparative ethnography within three French conurbations and six social housing authorities. It gathers direct observations, interviews with social housing practitioners, as well as documents and statistical analyses. Its results firstly show the weakness of the normative power of the State and discuss the hypothesis of an implementation trick. Focusing on the establishment conditions of rules, at the meso level, the dissertation then identifies multiples regimes of households sorting, depending on the characteristics of the local context and of the collaborations between elected officials, housing authorities and economic actors. Studying precisely professional practices finally allows to precise the parameters that influence sorting processes of welfare agencies’ window users. It decomposes how housing allocation is discretionary and discriminatory only in some specific configurations, depending on the room of manoeuvers of the housing authority, the state of the social housing stock and the behaviours of street-level bureaucrats. The witnessed regularities in the implementation of public policy are finally explained by the significance of the institutional constraints and of the professional culture of civil servants.

<p>This thesis explores efficient techniques for high quality real-time rendering of large architectural environments using affordable graphics hardware, as applied to illumination, including window reflections, shadows, and "bump mapping". For each of these fields, the thesis investigates existing methods and intends to provide adequate solutions. The focus lies on the use of new features found in current graphics hardware, making use of new OpenGL extensions and functionality found in Shader Model 3.0 vertex and pixel shaders and the OpenGL 2.0 core. The thesis strives to achieve maximum image quality, while maintaining acceptable performance at an affordable cost.</p><p>The thesis shows the feasibility of using deferred shading on current hardware and applies high dynamic range rendering with the intent to increase realism. Furthermore, the thesis explains how to use environment mapping to simulate true planar reflections as well as incorporates relevant image post-processing effects. Finally, a shadow mapping solution is provided for the future integration of dynamic geometry.</p>

The scale of the affordable housing problem in Canada is enormous and the situation is worsening due to a number of recent social trends. Continued wealth inequality, an aging population, increased immigration, changing marriage and independence trends, and increased part-time employment, have all contributed to a growing affordable housing problem in Canada. Certain groups such as single parents, recent immigrants, seniors living alone and tourism/seasonal workers are particularly vulnerable. In Canada, cities and tourism-based communities have the most pronounced affordable housing shortages, and this is expected to continue in the future. New and innovative methods of public participation are needed in dealing with the challenges of affordable housing development. Spatial information technology such as Internet-based collaborative geospatial software aims to improve the public participation process. This technology is able to use the Internet, spatial data and carefully designed interfaces in order to engage citizens and increase community participation for difficult planning problems such as affordable housing development. This thesis focuses on three objectives. The first objective is to define a collaborative, spatially-aware approach to create and assess affordable housing options in Collingwood, Ontario. This approach will use existing spatial data, participants with a vested interest in affordable housing, and an open source geospatial software tool called MapChat. The second objective is to implement the defined approach in a real-world setting in order to generate participatory input. The third and final thesis objective is to examine the spatial patterns of existing affordable housing and the locations generated in the study to determine sites that are most suitable for future affordable housing development in Collingwood. The results of the thesis show that the approach used provides a proof of concept in the use of Internet-based collaborative geospatial software that can be applied to any town in Canada. Although the approach involved a modest study design, it was able to offer a number of potential advances in planning the locations of future affordable housing. The approach was successful in creating a set of potential affordable housing options, was effective in assessing those scenarios and was feasible to implement in a real-world setting. In addition, the approach had high potential in the generation and management of information and in supporting community participation and empowerment.