The justification for development of elite loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) genotypes includes potential increases in stand uniformity and reduction in planting densities and corresponding establishment costs. However, some genotypes produce less desirable characteristics than others. The ability to realize full potential genetic gains is dependent on selecting appropriate combinations of genetic material and silvicultural management. In 2008, a study was established in the upper coastal plain of Mississippi to examine the performance of two varietal loblolly pine genotypes, a “crop tree” ideotype (CROP) and a “competitor” ideotype (COMP), at two levels of management intensity and three different initial tree spacings. After nine growing seasons, differences in crown morphology, top dieback frequency, and growth and yield variables are apparent between genetics and silvicultural intensity. The COMP ideotype had, on average, greater crown volume, less acute branch angles, and LAI than the CROP ideotype. Increasing management intensity had greater impact on crown characteristics than genotype. Current annual increment growth of stem wood was statistically higher in the COMP ideotype under intensive management and lowest stocking level. The interaction of ideotype, management intensity and spacing level significantly impacted growth and yield. The COMP ideotype is projected to produce greater volume than the CROP ideotype on this site. There was no significant difference between ideotypes with respect to specific gravity for any combination of cultural treatments. Instances of top dieback were significantly higher in the CROP ideotype across management and spacing levels. Nutrient sufficiency levels for fast growing loblolly pine and foliar levels in the current study were statistically significant. Differences due to management intensity were related to reduced competition and lower incidence of damage. The results of this study provide a reference point for elite loblolly pine under different silvicultural regimes for landowners interested in performance potential in Mississippi’s upper coastal plain.

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Syfte: Syftet med föreliggande in-vitro-studie är att utvärdera brotthållfastheten av singelkronor utformade som en central överkäksincisiv framställda av monolitisk högtranslucent Y-TZP, buckalt porslinsskiktad underkonstruktion av translucent Y-TZP eller monolitisk litiumdisilikatbaserad glaskeram. Material och metod: Sexton monolitiska kronor av högtranslucent Y-TZP framställdes med CAD/CAM-teknik, Coprasmile®(HTW) och Prettau® Anterior®(HTZ). Sexton kronor av translucent Y-TZP med buckal porslinspåbränning framställdes med CAD/CAM-teknik och manuell porslinsuppläggning, Copran HT®(LTW) och Prettau® Zircon(LTZ). Åtta monolitiska kronor av litiumdislikatbaserad glaskeram framställdes med pressteknik, IPS e.max® Press(LD). Samtliga kronor genomgick termocykling före cementering till stansar. Därefter genomgick kronorna cyklisk mekanisk förbelastning innan de frakturerades i en universal testmaskin. Resultat: Kronorna av translucent Y-TZP med buckal porslinyta visade högst brotthållfasthetsvärde. Gruppen LTW visade signifikant högre brotthållfasthetsvärde jämfört med de andra grupperna: HTW, HTZ, LTZ och LD. Slutsats: Fortsatt utveckling av testmetod för kronor utformade som incisiver är nödvändigt för att öka förståelsen kopplat till material, utformning av ersättning och testmetod med klinisk relevans. Det finns behov av vidare studier för högtranslucent Y-TZP samt semimonolitiska kronor av translucent Y-TZP. Beroende på materialval och kronutformning visades skillnader, men med studiens begränsningar kan ingen generell slutsats dras gällande brotthållfastheten. / Purpose: The purpose of this in-vitro-study is to evaluate the fracture resistance between high translucent monolithic Y-TZP, translucent Y-TZP with buccal porcelain veneering and monolithic lithium disilicate based glass-ceramic, designed as a single central maxilla crown. Material and method: Sixteen monolithic high translucent Y-TZP crowns were fabricated using CAD/CAM technique, Coprasmile®(HTW) and Prettau® Anterior®(HTZ). Sixteen crowns of translucent Y-TZP and buccal porcelain veneering were fabricated using CAD/CAM technique and manually layered porcelain, Copran HT®(LTW) and Prettau® zircon(LTZ). Eight monolithic crowns of lithium disilicate based glass-ceramic were fabricated using pressing techniques, IPS e.max® Press(LD). All crowns underwent thermo cycling prior to cementation to dies. Subsequently all crowns were subjected to a cyclic mechanical preload before being exposed to load-to-fracture in a universal testing machine. Result: Translucent Y-TZP with buccal veneering showed the highest rupture strength amongst the groups. The group LTW showed significantly higher fracture strength compared to the other groups: HTW, HTZ, LTZ and LD. Conclusion: Further development of testing methods for anterior crowns are necessary to increase the understanding connected to materials, crown designs and test methods for clinical relevance. There is a need in further studies for high-translucent Y-TZP and semi monolithic crowns made of translucent Y-TZP. There showed differences depending on the choice of material and crown form, but within the limitation of this study, no general conclusion can be drawn regarding the fracture strength.

<p>This research examines the opinions and viewpoints of former Crown Wards regarding the Assessment and Action Record (the AAR), which is the main documentation associated with the Looking After Children approach implemented for use with all children in care by the Ministry of Children and Youth for the Province of Ontario. This documentation, which consists of hundreds of questions and a research-based, check-list format, forms a significant component of the contact that Children’s Service Workers with Children’s Aid Societies have with children in care. Crown Wards, because they are in the permanent care of their Society, are subjected to the AAR yearly throughout their time in care. Open-ended interviews were conducted with four former Crown Wards from three separate Children’s Aid agencies in southwestern Ontario. While the findings did not bear out the anticipated overt criticism of the AAR documentation, what was salient was the hope that all of the information they gave over the years was being put to good use (that it might help themselves and other Crown Wards), that these former Crown Wards were not aware that they could decline to answer the AAR questions in whole or in part, and that the AAR document is felt to be too long and repetitive. In addition, issues of automatic compliance by children in care with requests made by CAS personnel became a discomforting theme.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>Today, performance measurements have become a part of the dominant discourse across public, private, and voluntary sectors. Ontario’s child welfare system is one sector that has been influenced and impacted, with sometimes unintended consequences, by this institutionalized process of performance measurements. One of the measurements is Ontario’s Crown Ward Review (Audit) conducted by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. Annually, ministry officials who make up the Crown Ward Review Unit (CWRU) audit fifty-three child welfare agencies in Ontario, which take care of approximately 5400 Crown Wards (Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2011). According to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (2011), the goal of the Crown Ward Review is “to determine that an adequate plan of care [has been] developed for each Crown Ward and is intended to stimulate improvement in the overall service delivery to children” (Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2011). It appears to not only be about the welfare for Crown Wards, but also about organizational goals. In other words, measuring accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency, as well as to provide transparency of its services appears to be a priority. This research project examines how the performance measurements of the Crown Ward Review have impacted case management for Crown Ward workers and Crown Wards in care.</p> <p>A critical analysis of performance measurements reveals that, for the most part, they have created numerous unintended consequences for Crown Wards, workers, supervisors, managers, Children’s Aid Societies, and the child welfare system as a whole. Overall, the study supports that a more comprehensive, clear, and coherent review process needs to be established and implemented across Ontario’s child welfare system.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>As child welfare practice in Ontario attempts to move toward increased partnerships with families, and recognition of the ways in which social work is implicated in perpetuating marginalities through the application of an anti-oppressive lens, direct social work practice with children lacks a similar critical discourse. Social work practice with children in care in Ontario occurs in the context of a guided practice model, Looking After Children, and within numerous audited standards and compliances. It is a bureaucratic and managerial environment which can constrain the social work agenda with children whose voices are easily silenced. This qualitative research study looks at the plans of care or social work recording for 10 Crown Wards in Ontario, in a search for a ‘real child.’ A critical analysis revealed that children are known in the recordings created about them in limited and prescribed ways. A “looked after” child is revealed: a child known according to the specific developmental dimensions of the Looking After Children model, and within “compliant” social work practice. What is lost is a child who exists in their child welfare record, in all of their complexities, contexts and relationships, while the social work relationship is rendered invisible.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)