Pregnancy is an unique period in a woman’s life in which her body undergoes rapid and drastic changes. Historically, physical activity was thought to be dangerous during pregnancy and women were recommended to avoid engaging in most physical activities. Mechanical efficiency, the ratio of external work and energy required to perform a task, is an important consideration when addressing the safety of physical activity, but also when defining recommendations to this population. Currently, there is limited literature that characterizes the change in mechanical efficiency across pregnancy. Of the available literature, suboptimal methodologies were employed, resulting in conclusions that conflict with what would be expected. The purpose of this thesis was to characterize mechanical efficiency across gestation and to compare with non-pregnant women. Women performed a standardized treadmill task in early, mid, and late pregnancy, and energy dynamics were measured. Results showed that energy requirements and external work performed increased over time, and that these were in relation to gestational weight gain. Pregnant women did not exhibit a change in the efficiency of performing a walking task. Overall, these results add to the current literature that supports women’s engagement in physical activity during pregnancy.

This research aimed to critically appraise the nature and application of social marketing to promote water efficiency within tourism accommodation. Social marketing is the use of standard marketing techniques to change behaviour for a social goal. Efforts to promote water efficiency in this context are needed as it has been acknowledged that the tourism industry generally increases per capita water consumption per individual. To alleviate this issue, research engaged a diversity of stakeholders, unique to similar past efforts, through four stages of research. Stages One and Two engaged managers of tourism accommodation in focus groups and interviews. Managers reported a high interest in changing guest behaviour but emphasized the guest experience was paramount. They identified that most initiatives aiming to promote water efficiency in the existing literature were not viable within their operations and instead they offered new ideas for engaging both guests and fellow managers. In Stage Three, an online questionnaire was conducted with 408 individuals. Results showed significant changes in most water behaviours, though not all, between home and away, indicating promoting efficiency is needed in both sites of practice. Through cluster analysis, three types of water users within the tourism accommodation were identified. Each segment displayed distinct water use patterns and willingness to participate in initiatives. The final stage engaged a panel of experts in a Delphi consultation aiming to discover consensus on evaluating and prioritizing possible initiatives emerging from previous stages. This is the first application of a Delphi consultation, for this purpose, within the field of social marketing. In addition to recommending the pursuit of certain initiatives to practitioners, the research also yielded several theoretical contributions. Primarily, there is a strong need to standardize the process and unit of analysis for measuring water consumption within tourism accommodation. Secondly, the size, type and clientele base of the business are important factors in considering water efficiency initiatives and therefore social marketing campaigns would be best designed specific to the individual needs of a particular business and not generalized across the industry. Additionally, campaigns to promote water efficiency in tourism accommodation should apply the established theories of modelling, norms creation and social capital. In general, less attention on individual actions and instead larger upstream issues affecting targeted behaviours would enable greater water savings. Finally, the Delphi consultation is recommended as an effective tool for prioritizing and evaluating social marketing initiatives.

The aim of this study is classification of production factors in company. Assess the possibility of evaluating the effectiveness of production factors and analyse the impact of the efficiency of production factors on business performance of selected business entity.Calculations are divided to years 2010 2014. The study is divided into practical and theoretical parts. The theoretical part deals with the factors of production in the enterprise, ways of measuring the effectiveness of factors of production and evaluation of the efficiency of utilization of production factors. Furthermore, the theoretical part deals with the influence of the efficiency of production factors on business performance. The practical part describes the development of production factors of chosen company. There are applied methods of evaluating the effectiveness of production factors and evaluated the effect of the use of production factors on the economic results of the company. For these purposes there are used indicators of efficiency and productivity. By calculations were detected irreplaceability of individual indicators of effectiveness. There was also found a high dependence on the performance of the enterprise in productivity. Indicator with the largest impact on company performance is the labour productivity 3.

An energy modeling software was used to analyze the current building configuration and simulations were performed in an attempt to redesign the current HVAC system of an educational building to improve the energy efficiency of the building, exceed current building code requirements, and meet the building's cooling and heating load. The different HVAC systems simulated were: Dual Air Duct, Variable-Air Volume (VAV), and Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems (DOAS). Each system was modeled in four operation schedules including: current system operation, fan control, lighting control, and lighting and fan control. These operation schedules are to represent how efficient the building would be in different controlled settings. Results were obtained regarding the energy requirements of the different HVAC systems. For the educational building both VAV and DOAS systems offer 48.8% and 57.9%, respectively, in annual savings in energy use, achieved by adding controls to the lights and fans of both systems reducing energy consumed by ventilation fans. The time of a simple payback period for a new VAV and DOAS system is 10.2 and 9.35 years, respectively, and may remove any considerations to implement a new HVAC system. Based on these findings, educational buildings using Dual Duct should consider using DOAS systems.

High oil prices and nationalist desires to reduce foreign dependency create opportunities for Illinois bituminous coal to be involved in the transportation market. Using Illinois coal for transportation will have varied environmental effects depending on the method of involvement. To determine these effects, this study calculated CO2 emission for gasoline and eight other vehicle propulsion methods involving Illinois coal for 100,000 miles traveled. The vehicle propulsion methods considered were electricity from Pulverized coal in a Sub-Critical power cycle (PSC), electricity from Integrated Gasification Combined power Cycle (IGCC), electricity from an Ultra Super Critical power cycle (USC), ethanol, butanol, Fischer-Tropsch (FT) diesel, hydrogen, and a combination IGCC/ethanol system to propel vehicles that use their respective fuels. Results show USC, IGCC, PSC, and hydrogen emitted the lowest CO2 with a net of 69,494, 72,866, 75,752, and 81,587 lb CO2/100,000 miles respectively. The base-line gasoline method emitted 99,170 lb CO2, while ethanol, butanol, and IGCC/ethanol methods emitted 97,078, 106,338, and 92,449lb CO2, respectively. The highest CO2 emission came from Fischer-Tropsch diesel with 180,560 lb CO2. It was concluded that life cycle energy efficiency and CO2 offset were the most influential factors for CO2 emissions per 100,000 miles.

To determine the association between military expenditure (ME) and public investment efficiency, I regressed a measure of public investment effectiveness upon a measure of ME in a cross-section of 59 developing countries. A strong association was only observed for Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the main explanations for the strong association is a relatively big government which was accompanied by government operations being inefficient and corrupt. This served as a reason to separately observe group of regions with relatively small and big governments. The results confirmed that the effect of ME on public investment effectiveness in the group with a relatively big government is negative whereas the effect is positive in group of region with small governments. Thus, it confirms that the increase of ME is not always negative but can in some cases improve the effectiveness of public investment.

River otter (Lontra canadensis) populations in Illinois have rebounded considerably after >80 years of harvest protection and a successful reintroduction program. However, few studies of river otter ecology exist in the Midwestern U.S. where river otter numbers have increased in recent decades. Capturing study animals safely and efficiently is a critical part of wildlife research, and difficulties associated with live capture of river otters have contributed to the dearth of research on the species. Furthermore, estimating survival rates and identifying causes of mortality are important in effectively managing river otters. To address these knowledge gaps, my objectives were determine survival rates and mortality causes for river otters in southern Illinois, and to measure injury rates of river otters captured using Comstock traps. During 2014-16, I captured 42 river otters 49 times at Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge (CONWR) in southern Illinois. Eight river otters (3 M, 5 F) were captured in foot-hold traps during 788 trap nights (1 capture/88 trap nights), and the remaining 34 (19 M, 15 F) were captured in Comstock traps during 2,540 trap nights (1 capture/64 trap nights). I detected no significant differences in efficiency or escape rate between the 2 trap types, but Comstock traps did have higher rates for both unavailability and non-target captures. Eleven of the 20 river otters inspected for injuries received some type of injury as a result of capture in a Comstock trap (55%). The most common injury was claw loss (45%), followed by tooth fracture (25%), and lacerations (10%). The ease of setting the Comstock traps and of releasing non-target captures made them a more appealing option than foot-hold traps; however, river otters have a propensity for doing permanent damage to their teeth when live captured in Comstock traps. My study provides information on the functionality and safety of a novel live capture method for river otters. Thirty-four (16 F, 18 M) river otters were successfully radio-marked and monitored for survival for a total of 8,235 radio-days (¯x days/river otter = 242.2 ± 20.6 [SE throughout]). Two river otters (2 M) died during the period of radio-telemetry monitoring: 1 was trapped during nuisance wildlife control activities at an adjacent fish hatchery, and the other died of unknown causes. Annual survival rates were 1.0 ± 0.00 (lower confidence bound = 0.83) and 0.85 ± 0.09 for females and males, respectively, and similar between sexes (χ_1^2 = 1.7, P = 0.19). Pooled-sex breeding season survival was 0.96 ± 0.04. Trapping was the primary source of mortality over the course of my study. After radio-telemetry ended, 2 river otters were harvested by recreational trappers, at 114 (1 M) and 120 (1 F) weeks post-capture, and 1 male was killed by a vehicle collision at 52 weeks post-capture. Primary mortality sources for river otters in southern Illinois are similar to those reported elsewhere (i.e., trapping and vehicle collisions). Although I found no significant difference in survival rates between sexes, the majority of otters that died during my study were male (4 M, 1 F). As river otters occupying CONWR are protected from harvest, males may be more likely to leave the confines of CONWR, thereby putting themselves at greater risk to recreational trapping mortality. My study provides useful demographic information for Illinois’ recently-recovered river otter population.

This dissertation examines how writers helped scientists and engineers transform “efficiency” from a mathematical tool for assessing machine performance to an organizing principle for society. Historians and literary critics have helpfully sketched this transformation. They have paid particular attention to manifestations of Taylorism and Fordism in modernism, especially in the “kinetic” poetics of Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and John Dos Passos. But while scholars have illustrated how modernism pushed efficiency into contexts like labor and politics, they have only begun to consider efficiency’s role in Gilded Age fiction, particularly in the works of utopian thinkers—such as Edward Bellamy and Charlotte Perkins Gilman—and technological cynics—including Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Frank Norris, and María Amparo Ruiz de Burton. I argue that efficiency was a decidedly aesthetic concern in the novels of the Gilded Age, an idea so exciting and anxiety producing that writers felt compelled to scrutinize it in terms of literary form. Indeed, the writers examined in this dissertation developed nuanced rhetorical and narratological programs to explore efficiency’s conceptual possibilities outside the factory, specifically in the domestic sphere, the pastoral places of California, and the writer’s study. Moreover, these writers struggled to make sense of efficiency’s conceptual expansion. Thus, their novels reflect the difficulties of realizing different kinds of social efficiency. The texts I analyze either try but fail to represent the promises of a machine-made society, or they use self-destructive literary forms that call attention to the wastes of industrial capitalism. By attending to the poetics and competing definitions of efficiency advanced by these writers, my dissertation explores how Americans adapted traditional literary structures to promote or challenge the idea of technological progress. This dissertation includes previously published material.

The current study investigated the reliability and validity of using short observations with an observation tool designed to measure implementation of small group interventions. Intervention lessons for eight instructional groups from two schools were video recorded for nine weeks, and post-test assessments of reading decoding were administered to 31 at-risk kindergarten students. Videos of intervention instruction from weeks two, five, and eight, each representing a phase in the intervention period, were used within this study for measuring implementation. Each video was divided into three ten-minute segments representing the beginning, middle, and end of each intervention lesson. Video segments were coded for implementation using the Quality of Intervention Delivery and Receipt tool (QIDR; Harn, Forbes-Spear, Fritz, & Berg, 2012). Overall, the results of this study indicate that a) reliability can be achieved when using 10-minute observations, b) QIDR scores obtained from 10-minute segments are strongly correlated with scores obtained from full-length observations, c) there is no statistical difference in scores obtained from full-length observations and those obtained in 10-minute segments, and d) QIDR scores obtained from both full-length and 10-minute segments accounted for group differences in student outcomes, with lesson segments obtained from the end of lessons accounting for the most variance. Implications for research and practice are discussed, including the importance of thorough training and calibration to maintain reliability, as well as the feasibility and utility of providing frequent observation and feedback through shorter observations.

Os sistemas de controle solar auxiliam no controle da radiação solar incidente no envoltório, e, de acordo com a NBR 15220-3, é recomendável seu uso para a zona bioclimática 3, na cidade de Porto Alegre. Assim, com a ação de retrofitting, é possível utilizar os sistemas de controle solar como modo de adaptar o envoltório das edificações ao clima local e aos padrões de consumo atuais. Dessa forma, o retrofitting do envoltório pode contribuir com a redução do consumo energético e a dependência de sistemas de refrigeração e aquecimento mecânico. Logo, o objetivo da dissertação é qualificar e quantificar energeticamente os sistemas de controle solar com vistas à redução do consumo energético nos ambientes construídos. Um estudo de caso foi realizado na cidade de Porto Alegre, onde um edifício foi selecionado perante um conjunto de edificações existentes. Com o auxílio de um método expedito de cálculo energético, foi realizada a avaliação energética do envoltório da edificação atual e do seu retrofitting proposto. A edificação passou de nível energético E para nível A, comprovando o êxito do estudo de retrofitting aplicado. A pesquisa concluiu que, alinhado com o encontrado na revisão da literatura, as edificações com grandes aberturas orientadas para oeste são um equívoco de projeto no clima de Porto Alegre e que as ações de retrofitting são uma alternativa de adaptação ao clima local, tornando os edifícios eficientes energeticamente. / Shading systems help to control the incident solar radiation on the envelope, and, according to NBR 15220-3, its use is recommended for the bioclimatic zone 3, in the city of Porto Alegre. Hence, with retrofitting, it is possible to use shading systems as a way of adapting the building envelope to the local climate and current consumption patterns. Thus, the retrofitting of the envelope can contribute to the reduction of the energy consumption and of the dependence on systems of refrigeration and mechanical heating. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation is to qualify and quantify the energy of shading systems in order to reduce energy consumption in built environments. Thus, a case study was conducted in the city of Porto Alegre, where a building was selected from a set of existing buildings. We performed an energetic evaluation of current envelope of buildings and its proposed retrofitting by using a facilitated method for energy calculation. The buildings moved from energy level E to level A, proving the success of the study on the applied retrofitting. We conclude that, as also shown in literature review; buildings with large openings oriented to the west in Porto Alegre are a design misconception due to the city’s climate. Thus, retrofitting actions are alternative ways to adapt to the local climate so that buildings are energy efficient.