This thesis uses an exploratory case study design to chronicle the shifts, recognition, and implementation of programs, tools and policies designed for high need federally sentenced women in Canada that were created after 1990, in accordance with or opposed to the gender specific principles outlined in the Creating Choices (1990) report. The body lens is used as an analytic tool to deconstruct eleven of the most pertinent documents regarding policy and strategy for high need women offenders that were implemented by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) personnel and the Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) over the past twenty years. Coding of a wide range of documents reveals that despite appearing to be rhetorically progressive, CSC’s attempt at creating a women-centered mental health strategy uses contradictory disciplinary techniques that control and restrain the bodies of federally sentenced women in hopes of normalizing the behaviours of high need women. The policies imposed by CSC for high need women offenders fail to make any substantial changes in women’s prison reform and resulted in a different form of regulation and control. High need women offenders are imprisoned in their own bodies.

This dissertation consists of three essays investigating the role of early life events, family environment and personal choices in shaping a child’s chances for human capital accumulation. The first essay examines how physical stature of a child measured in terms of age standardized height influences his/her selection for family labor activities vs. schooling in rural Ethiopia using malnutrition caused by exposure to significant weather shocks in early childhood as sources of identification for the child’s physical stature. We find no evidence that better physical stature of the child leads to his/her positive selection for full-time child labor activities. On the other hand we found reasonably strong and consistent evidence that physically more robust children are more likely to combine child labor and schooling than physically weaker children. The findings indicate that, although better early childhood nutrition leads to higher chances of attending school, it may also put the child at additional pressure to participate in family labor activities which may be reflected in poor performance in schooling. The second essay empirically investigates whether the quantity deficit in the children of the mother’s preferred gender is compensated through their favorable treatment in terms of investment in schooling and nutrition (referred to as compensating hypothesis) and to what extent the mother uses her bargaining power in the family to influence this process. We use data from siblings and twins in two rounds of the demographic and health surveys of Ethiopia with robustness checks using a similar but larger data set from India. We find the mother’s bargaining power working in the opposite direction to that of the compensating hypothesis in the case of child schooling and having no substantive role in the case of child nutritional health. Our findings for child schooling imply that mother’s empowerment could turn out to be unfavorable to a child’s attendance of schooling in the circumstances where the child is needed to help out with family activities. In the third essay we use date from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of the Youth (NLSY97) to examine the extent to which high school completion (and to a limited extent college enrollment) are influenced by the choice teenagers make as to when to start dating and/or engage in sex, how many dating and/or sex partners to maintain, and how frequently to engage in sexual and/or dating activities. We use indicators of parental and peer religiosity as instruments for teenager’s involvement in sex and dating activities. While our results for teenage dating are generally weaker than those for teenage sex, the overall pattern of our estimates suggests that teenage sex and dating could have significant effects not only on high school completion but also the subsequent enrollment in a college.

This thesis uses an exploratory case study design to chronicle the shifts, recognition, and implementation of programs, tools and policies designed for high need federally sentenced women in Canada that were created after 1990, in accordance with or opposed to the gender specific principles outlined in the Creating Choices (1990) report. The body lens is used as an analytic tool to deconstruct eleven of the most pertinent documents regarding policy and strategy for high need women offenders that were implemented by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) personnel and the Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) over the past twenty years. Coding of a wide range of documents reveals that despite appearing to be rhetorically progressive, CSC’s attempt at creating a women-centered mental health strategy uses contradictory disciplinary techniques that control and restrain the bodies of federally sentenced women in hopes of normalizing the behaviours of high need women. The policies imposed by CSC for high need women offenders fail to make any substantial changes in women’s prison reform and resulted in a different form of regulation and control. High need women offenders are imprisoned in their own bodies.

Policymakers, politicians, and media outlets have declared an obesity epidemic. In doing so, they have named a variety of villains, including fast food. Despite the framing of fast food as being a leading contributor to weight gain and obesity, we have yet to understand the impact that fast food has on those who work with it every day. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the food choices, BMIs, and self perceived weights of the food service worker population. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field, I investigate the role of the workplace and external cultural influences, such as the family, in navigating an obseogenic workplace environment that is centered on selling highly caloric food to the Canadian public in a quick and cost effective manner. The first stage of this research addresses the question: Are food service workers more likely to be overweight or obese and perceive themselves as being overweight compared to the general population? In order to do this, I analyzed secondary survey data from the Canadian Community Health Survey cycle 5.1 (2009-2010). I used logistic regression techniques to construct models that analyze the likelihood of having high BMIs and high self perceived weights in both the food service worker and general Canadian populations. In addition to this, I sought to understand the food choices that contribute to weight gain in fast food workers. To do this, I conducted forty semi-structured qualitative interviews with workers from a variety of fast food chains. The results of my research disprove my original hypothesis that food service workers are more likely to be overweight or obese because of their frequent exposure to fast food. Instead, I found that they are less likely to be overweight or obese than the general Canadian population. Additionally, they are also less likely to perceive themselves as being overweight or obese. Through the qualitative interviews, I found that these individuals participate in a process of regulation where they monitor their food intake at work. Additionally, I found that their consumption patterns stemmed from habitus generated through cultural exposures in other areas of their lives. Pierre Bourdieu (1984) argues that we develop habitus through meaningful cultural exposure. We use our habitus, or engrained dispositions, to navigate hierarchical spaces or fields. Through this research, I found that workers viewed their jobs as being temporary and their cultural consumption patterns did not seem to change from their exposures to their workplaces. The majority were part time students, working in this industry to pay for living expenses and tuition. For the most part, they were raised in middle class homes where their mothers prepared food for their families from scratch on a daily basis. Fast food was viewed as a special treat and not an item to consume on a regular basis. I conclude that the meaningful exposures we have to food and cultural norms throughout life are more important in determining our food choices than our exposure to fast food restaurants.

Our purpose with this study was to investigate whether there was any difference between high and low performing students from selected aspects such as choice of studies, achievement, self-image, motivation, confidence and career choices. A training professional in today's schools requires knowledge of how young people think about their lives for us to help students develop both high-and low-performing students. Students have different conditions, but no matter good or bad conditions, each individual pupil must be allowed to develop. The concepts used in the study are of study, self-image, motivation, achievement in the future and career choices. In the background, describes these concepts through literature study. The method we have used was semi-structured interviews. Which means a fixed structure, but with room for follow-up questions. The results of our study indicate that there were clear differences between high-and low-performing students. The differences suggest that the high-performing students were more conscious about their study options than low-performing students. Differences were also in the students' views of themselves,where the high-performance had a lower self- image than the low-performing students had. High performance compared each other more often with other people and was more unsure of themselves, however, the motivation was significantly higher among the high-performance students, performance showed the same results. The high-performing students had a clearer vision of the future and that they had a clearer picture of their career choice than the low-performing students. Discussion on how we as educators can strengthen each student based on their individual needs have been based on results of the study.

Thailand possesses high potential for solar energy, which has been given more attention from both government and the private sector lately. While the major investment in solar energy has gradually shifted from governments to private sectors, this paper aims to compare private investment's net present value (NPV) and production risks of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) projects. The scope of this paper includes PV projects on three different scales: 3 kW, 5 MW and 73 MW installed capacity in 74 locations across Thailand. The study utilizes RETscreen software to estimate means and variability in electricity productions in Thailand. Cost-benefit analysis is the method used to measure projects’ NPV and profitability, while portfolio theory is applied to capture the profit variability or production risk. The analysis also includes 3 feed-in-tariff (FIT or adder) scenarios that are likely to happen in the solar energy policy in Thailand; which are 8 baht/kWh, 6.5 baht/kWh and the case where there is no support at all. The study finds that 3 kW PV projects yield negative NPV, which means investment losses, in all scenarios and locations in the country. On the other hand, 5 MW PV projects result in positive NPV in all scenarios and locations and it is concluded to be the most profitable scale among three. 73 MW PV projects are considered as policy dependenceas the projectsyield negative NPV without the supports. Sensitivity analysis shows that the costs of 3 kW projects have to reduce at least by 60% in order to turn the projects to profits. With respect to allocation of risk, the production risks of 73 MW projects are slightly higher compared to the other two scales. Also, it is shown that the technologies located in north of Thailand have higher production risks, but yield approximately the same expected net benefits as technologies located in the rest of the country. As for conclusions, the future of PV technology in Thailand is still bright, but the investors should intensely consider about scale and location of the implementation. Further researches can examine other scales of PV technology and the drives behind the risk characteristics in Thailand.

According to earlier research farmer's crop orientation in developing countries mainly depends on farm size, large-scale farmers prefer cash crop while small-scale farmers prefer subsistence crops. The first aim of this study is to see if this hypothesis can be applied on six households in Babati District in rural Tanzania. The second aim is to investigate if other factors than farm size affect crop portfolio choice and the final aim is to see if those crop portfolio models can be improved. A case-study research design and qualitative interviews are used. The primary data is based on a fieldwork that took place from the 18th of February until the 7th of March 2009 in the study area. From a theoretical perspective the underlying assumptions of the Marcel Fafchamp's model Crop portfolio choice under multivariate risks is discussed in connection to the result of the study. Interviews were made with six households of different farm size. The result of the study indicates that both small-scale and large-scale farmers are using cash crops. The fact that all crops can be used for selling, gives also small-scale farmers in season with higher prices, an opportunity to sell a large share of their crops. It's thereby not possible to state that large-scale farmers devote a larger share of their land for cash crop than small-scale farmers do.

Due to the development of society, the rise of living standards, the increase of population, the availability of information, and the establishment of health care systems, the medical industry is not as prestigious as it was in the past. Under the economy where the market is changing from supplier-oriented to consumer-oriented, competitions between various medical facilities and patients¡¦ demands for better medical care quality grow, which then result in the rise of medical risks. Medical institutions no longer just focus on the treatment effects, but must also fully understand the conditions of the patients and effectively manage and utilize the resources at hand in order to raise the treatment quality and to stand above other competitors. The purpose of this research is to identify the various factors that prompt patients to seek medical treatments, and to raise patients¡¦ satisfaction and faithfulness towards medical institutions. The research was carried out using a survey/questionnaire approach. Patients that have been to two or more dental clinics were asked to participate in the survey, and those who were interested were chosen. The PZB service quality SERVQUAL scale was used. Out of the 150 questionnaires distributed, 123 were retrieved (82%), and 111 of those retrieved were valid for consideration (74%). The survey showed that (1) a gap exists between patients¡¦ expected treatment service and the actual service received; (2) patients hold high expectation towards the service quality; (3) patients decision to switch clinics partially depends on the received service; (4) the main factor that prompt patients to switch clinics is their concerns towards the ability of their doctors/physicians; (5) Instead of the actual service, assurance and reliability are more essential to the patients; and (6) clinics showing sincerity and making sure the patients feel secure are most important towards the patients. The research concludes that patients choose their medical institutions base on the received services. The five aspects of service all have almost equal importance, and all are influential towards patients¡¦ choices of medical institutions.

The main purpose of this dissertation attempts to clarify the relations between imposed institutional change and social development in terms of Taiwan¡¦s development experiences. There are chiefly three studies in the dissertation. First of all, we reexamine Taiwan¡¦s democratic transition in institutional analysis. With regard to a political entrepreneur model, we shed light on the reasons why the transaction costs of Taiwan¡¦s democratic transition are not expensive and why the process of institutional change is relatively smooth. Secondly, we also explored the development of Taiwan¡¦s IC industry by virtue of imposed institutional analysis. We find it is the desirable government policies and appropriate institutional innovations that Taiwan¡¦s IC industry has made progress at a rapid rate in recent years. Finally, we analyze the interaction between technological choice and economic growth in terms of introducing adjustment costs of technology within a dynamic framework. We make a first attempt at exploring the technological adjustment costs on the rate of steady-state growth and the transitional behavior of the economy in an endogenous growth model.

Overweight and obesity are influenced by many factors, however, food and beverage advertising and its influence on the dietary preferences and choices of youth is important. Models providing explanations for the association between advertising and youth outcomes have been proposed, yet few have been tested. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how objective measures of attention to food and beverage advertising were associated with the (1) unhealthy food and beverage preferences (2) unhealthy food and beverage choices and (3) overweight/obesity status of youth, and how susceptibility to food and beverage advertising moderated these associations. Participants included 102 youth (m age = 11.6; 56.4% Caucasian; 43.1% female) who viewed 40 food and beverage advertisements on a computer and had their eye movements recorded. Attention measures included total time, total unhealthy time, fixation length (animated characters/branded logos, unhealthy food and beverage items), and fixation count (animated characters/branded logos, unhealthy food and beverage items). Participants self-reported susceptibility to food and beverage advertising, unhealthy food and beverage preferences, unhealthy food and beverage choices, and overweight/obesity. Regression models, controlling for gender, and moderation analyses were conducted. Fixation length and count for unhealthy food and beverage items were each positively and significantly associated with unhealthy food and beverage preferences. Fixation count for unhealthy food and beverage items was positively and marginally associated with unhealthy food and beverage choices. Findings indicate that individuals who look longer and more frequently at unhealthy food and beverage items appear to prefer them, and may also choose them. Susceptibility to food and beverage advertising moderated the association between fixation count for animated characters/branded logos and BMI z-score, suggesting that under conditions of high susceptibility to food and beverage advertising, those with a higher fixation count for animated characters/branded logos had a lower BMI z-score. Future research should include longitudinal studies, as well as work which examines the role of other potential moderating variables. Findings may have important implications for use in intervention programs, in the development of advertising messages for healthy food and beverage items, and/or policy initiatives aimed at changing the landscape of food and beverage advertising. / text