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The target for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction in the UK is set at 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. The UK housing stock is one of the least energy efficient in Europe. The energy used in homes accounts for more than a quarter of energy use and carbon dioxide emissions in Great Britain. Therefore, it is imperative to improve the energy performance of the existing housing stock and fully exploit energy efficiency and renewable energy interventions. Several tools have been developed particularly in the last decade for energy assessment of dwellings, largely to inform policy development. However, when it comes to policy implementation stages, stakeholders such as local councils, energy suppliers, social housing providers and planners lack an effective tool, which assists them in estimating the potential for energy performance improvement through implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy interventions. The UK government has several policies and initiatives to improve the energy performance of the housing stock. This research discusses the development of framework and a prototype tool to assist in implementation of these policies. There are a number of databases that hold information about the condition of the housing stock. This is in the form of digital maps, aerial and terrestrial imagery and statistics from census and housing surveys. This research presents an innovative way of integrating this information to undertake energy performance assessment on various geographical levels. The framework and the prototype allow stakeholders to determine the baseline energy performance of the dwellings based on their existing characteristics. This information is then used to estimate the potential for reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions and associated costs. Also integrated within the framework and the prototype is analytical hierarchy process based multi-criteria decision analysis technique that supports stakeholders in selection of energy performance improvement interventions suited to their requirements. Energy Performance Improvement of Dwellings Abstract Amit Mhalas, 2013 iv The developed framework and prototype are calibrated and validated with empirical data to determine the accuracy, reliability and trustworthiness. To demonstrate the practical applicability of the framework and the prototype, two separate case studies are undertaken involving the stakeholders. The results from the case studies indicate a potential to reduce CO2 emissions from dwellings by 70% through installation of energy performance improvement interventions. The developed framework and the prototype are expected to assist stakeholders in making informed decisions with regard to the implementation of energy policies and initiatives and contribute to meeting CO2 emission reduction targets.

In the past, the Northern Tampa Bay Area (NTBA) wetlands saw severe declines in hydrologic conditions due to excessive groundwater withdrawal rates. Eventually these rates were reduced to allow the wetlands to recover. To monitor this recovery, the Southwest Florida Water Management district (SWFWMD) set up a fieldwork based scoring methodology, called the Wetlands Assessment Procedure (WAP). WAP has been used in many studies of the area since groundwater withdrawal reductions; with many of those studies finding the recovery to be mixed at best. However, these studies were very limited in the number of wetlands they could assess due to the limitations of fieldwork. Therefore, it was proposed that remotely sensed variables associated with water consumption and stress be used to assess the recovery of the NTBA wetlands, as remote sensing allows for efficient assessments of targets over large area. Utilizing ASTER imagery scenes from 2005 and 2014, 211 wetlands’ remotely sensed responses of NDVI, Land Surface Temperature (LST), and Evapotranspiration (ET) were mapped and statistically examined for trends indicating improvement or decline. Furthermore, a subset of WAP scores for the two years were examined and compared to the remotely sensed values. The results were contradictory, with remotely sensed responses showing an improvement over the time period, WAP scores indicating a decline in hydrologic conditions, and the two methods showing little to no fit when modeled against each other. As such, it is believed at this time that the remotely sensed method is not suitable for measuring the indicators of wetland recovery used in the WAP methodology.

This study investigates the constructs of Derivation and Complexity and how they relate to latency. Derivation and Complexity are theoretical constructs that have been posited as two of the main factors in differences in latency to responding in implicit measures such as the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and the Implicit Association Task (IAT). This study trained participants to relate two groups of novel stimuli in a linear fashion and then tested their latency to responding to derived relations (relations based on previously trained relations, but not directly trained themselves). The study then analyzed participant's latency to responding after dividing the responses based on derivation, complexity, and phase. The study found a significant relationship between phase and latency (p=.01), derivation and latency (p=.01), and complexity and latency (p=.04). This indicates that brief, immediate relational responses are influenced by both derivation and complexity as well as practice responding and these variables should be considered in future investigations into implicit attitudes.

The objective of this study is to test if the hypothesis of the environmental gerontology theory can be applied to a cross-cultural environment. This study examined the applicability and functionality of the Multiphasic Environmental Assessment Procedure (MEAP), a tool based on the environmental gerontology theory, and assessed the quality of elderly care facilities in Taiwan. Special emphasis was placed in examining the functionality of the MEAP from the cross-cultural standpoint and also in identifying the associations or potential impacting factors of care quality. This is the first study with the application of the MEAP to examine the quality of the two major care facilities in Taiwan. Results of this study provide not only an insight into the characteristics of the elderly care facilities ,and a reference for policy making and regulation, but also valuable data for cross-cultural comparisons. The study employed the MEAP to achieve the stated objectives and further evaluated the differences in the characteristics of the two major elderly care facilities, namely the nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in Kaohsiung city in Taiwan. This cross-sectional research was conducted with questionnaires by 687 employees (excluding foreign workers) and 429 residents in 35 nursing homes and 41 assisted living facilities in Kaohsiung city were interviewed. Participants were selected from residents who were conscious and without cognitive disorder for face-to-face questionnaire interviews. For facilities with ten or more residents, 50% of the eligible residents were selected for this interview. For facilities having less than ten residents, all those qualified residents were interviewed. Results were analyzed on the basis of institutional units rather than the individual basis. Results showed that the MEAP effectively evaluated the associations of the multiple environmental factors with the quality of life of the two major elderly care facilities in Kaohsiung city. Standardized multiple quality indexes mode showed that the assisted-living facilities have better overall quality than nursing homes do. The major findings are: 1.The major residents of elderly care facilities in Kaohsiung city were the socioeconomically less privileged residents, including house wifes, the disabled, and widowed. The service most needed was personal care such as bathing. 2.Based on the MEAP, a total of eight significant variables were compared between nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Among these variables, nursing homes were better in staff resource than that of the assisted living facilities. Assisted-living facilities were better in all other seven variables including functional abilities, activities in community, acceptance of problem behavior, physical amenities, social-recreational aids, and orientational aids and staff facilities. 3.The staff members of both nursing homes and assisted living facilities have better SCES than that of their residents. 4.Compared to assisted living facilities, the nursing homes were superior in staff level and staff resources but inferior in comfort, security, and control. No differences were observed in services, autonomy, rapport and morale. 5.The characteristics of organizational management, such as ownership, type and size, were important impacting factors of care quality. The nonprofit-nursing homes were better scored in six of the eight quality indexes than the ones owned by privately-for-profit. 6.Factors that influenced the quality of the nursing homes include number of workers, number of beds, number of residents, ownership, functional abilities, actively level, activities in community, occupancy rate and type of elderly care facility. 7.Factors that influenced the quality of assisted living facilities include occupancy rate, number of residents, number of workers, activity level and type of elderly care facility. 8.The regression model for the outcome of multiple environmental quality indexes with the structure and process indexes is related in nursing homes. The regression model indicates that the model significantly predicted outcome quality index (morale) (R2 = 49.4%). Both structure quality index (comfort and safety) and process quality index (autonomy and rapport) were significant predicting factors of outcome quality index (morale). Autonomy was a negative predicting factor. 9.Standardized multiple environmental quality index indicated that based on the MEAP, assisted living facilities had a little bit higher quality than that of nursing homes in Kaohsiung city. In conclusion, this study confirmed the hypothesis that the MEAP can be applied effectively to evaluate the quality of elderly care facilities in a cross-cultural environment. However, cultural differences do have an impact on the functionality of the tool. Results of this study indicate that the two major elderly care facilities in Kaohsiung city have relatively similar characteristics, but the assisted living facilities are slightly better in overall quality than that of nursing homes. The major factors that impact the quality of elderly care facilities are the operational characteristics and efficience. Results of this study indicate that the MEAP provides very useful indicators for assessing the quality of elderly care facilities in Taiwan, especially for nursing homes. The MEAP identified more structure and process-related impacting factors than outcome-related impacting factors in this study. Concerning cultural difference, the MEAP could be benefited from some modification in certain measurements, especially in facility atmosphere(SCES), when applied in Taiwan.

The current study examined the utility of an idiographic configuration of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a measure of psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility is the overarching outcome variable of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and may be defined as the ability to make full contact with the present moment and persist in behavior that serves valued ends (Hayes, 2004). One hundred six participants first completed questionnaires assessing individual valued activities and distressing private events. These data were utilized to populate the IRAP. Depending on the administration order, the subjects either continued with the IRAP or with a series of self-report measures evaluating psychological functioning and ACT processes. Results indicated that IRAP scores modestly correlated with some self-reports of psychological flexibility and were also able to significantly predict symptomology. However, the study revealed inadequate internal consistency of the IRAP, which constitutes a limitation to the validity of the measure. This study represents one step in a long line of research examining a variety of procedural and contextual variables influencing the reliability of the IRAP, offering preliminary support for the utility of an idiographic IRAP as an implicit measure of psychological flexibility. Future additions to IRAP research similar to the current study will continue to enhance the field’s understanding of implicit cognitions and the effectiveness of the IRAP in psychological research.

Prosody is the melody and rhythm of speech and language. Prosodic ability is of great importance for communication, and has been shown to be affected in adults with acquired brain injury. Studies have shown that Swedish children with specific language impairment have prosodic  difficulties to a greater extent than e.g. English speaking peers. It is thereby possible that prosodic ability is more vulnerable also in Swedish speaking adults with acquired brain injury. The aim of the present study was to assess prosodic ability in adults with acquired brain injury, and to evaluate the prosodic assessment procedure that was used. The relationship between prosodic ability and general language ability, location of injury and post-onset time was examined. Fifteen adults with acquired brain injury participated, six women and nine men, aged between 30 and 82 years. The participants were tested with an assessment procedure for prosody and parts of Neurolinguistic Assessment of Aphasia (A-ning). Prosodic problems were found at word, phrase and discourse level. No clear links between prosodic ability and location of injury or time post-onset were found. However, a deviant usage of focal accents with a preserved ability to produce word accents as a result of right hemisphere injuries was found. Furthermore, a relationship between prosodic ability and general language ability was found. The prosodic procedure was proven useful for assessment of adults with acquired brain injury, but it needs additional revision. The present study contributes with additional knowledge of prosodic ability in native Swedish speaking adults with acquired brain injury. / Prosodi är talets och språkets melodi och rytm. Den prosodiska förmågan är av stor betydelse för kommunikationen, och är ofta påverkad hos vuxna personer med förvärvad hjärnskada. Forskning har visat att svenska barn med språkstörning har prosodiska svårigheter i större utsträckning än exempelvis engelsktalande barn med språkstörning. Därför är det möjligt att den prosodiska förmågan är mer sårbar även hos vuxna personer med förvärvad hjärnskada och svenska som modersmål. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att kartlägga prosodisk förmåga hos vuxna personer med förvärvad hjärnskada, samt att utvärdera det undersökningsmaterial för prosodi som användes. Sambandet mellan prosodisk förmåga och språkförmåga, skadelokalisation och tid sedan skada undersöktes. I studien deltog 15 vuxna personer, 6 kvinnor och 9 män, mellan 30 och 82 år med förvärvad hjärnskada. Deltagarna testades avseende prosodi samt med delar ur Neurolingvistisk afasiundersökning (A-ning). Resultatet visade att prosodiska avvikelser förekom hos deltagarna på ord- fras- och diskursnivå. Inga tydliga samband fanns mellan prosodisk förmåga och skadelokalisation eller tid sedan skada. Högersidiga skador föreföll dock ge svårigheter att använda fokal accent, trots bevarad förmåga att använda ordaccenter. Vidare sågs ett samband mellan prosodisk och språklig förmåga. Undersökningsmaterialet för prosodi var användbart för testning av personer med förvärvad hjärnskada, men behöver utarbetas ytterligare. Föreliggande studie bidrar till kunskapen om prosodisk förmåga hos vuxna personer med förvärvad hjärnskada och svenska som modersmål.