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The growing recognition amongst local authorities of the potential of asset management to improve property management practice has led to its increased adoption. The growing trend has been supported by the development of asset management frameworks. However, evidence indicates that local authorities are failing to achieve the full benefits from their asset management implementation. The factors contributing to some of the property management problems such as reactive management, lack of leadership support, ineffective corporate landlord approach, remain. The available frameworks are incapable of mitigating the identified problems by failing to provide understanding of local authority differences. Therefore, this research aimed to develop an adaptable and flexible operational property asset management framework for local authorities in England and Scotland. The strategic management theory, review of existing literature findings and evaluation of available asset management frameworks especially the Total Asset Management Process model helped to identify, define and establish the causal logic of the asset management concepts underpinning the developed conceptual framework. Face to face semi-structured interviews followed by large scale questionnaire surveys were used to gather primary data. The key research findings are that the following are the key factors limiting asset management practice improvements in local authorities: ineffective leadership support, asset management capabilities and corporate landlord approach; inadequate asset management information systems and performance management arrangements. Principal components factor analysis was utilised to help establish underlying factors that account for flexible and adaptable asset management framework. The findings suggest that asset management processes associated with an adaptable and flexible asset management framework include a board level cross functional asset management structure; strong leadership support for both direct and indirect property; an enabling environment; an effective corporate landlord approach; an effective performance management arrangement; and availability of an appropriate management information system. The framework has been validated to be robust and can be utilised and flexibly adapted by different local authorities and provides the basis for improving the process and outcome of asset management practice.

With proposed increases in both freight and passenger railway in the United Kingdom and the European Union and the building of new high speed lines, there has been an increase in interest in recent years in the human response to vibration in residential environments. As with exposure to environmental noise, exposure to environmental vibration can result in adverse effects such as annoyance and sleep disturbance. However, unlike exposure to environmental noise, well established relationships to evaluate annoyance caused by vibration in residential environments do not exist. In order to predict and control annoyance caused by vibration from environmental sources, a better understanding is needed of how humans perceive vibration and how their perception relates to measureable, quantifiable features of the vibration exposure. In the work presented in this thesis, the human response to vibration is considered on both a community and individual level. The first major aim of this work is to develop statistically robust exposure-response relationships for the human response to railway and construction induced vibration in residential environments. This is achieved via a large scale field survey in which 1431 questionnaires were conducted with residents in their own homes along with extensive vibration measurements at internal and external positions. Analysis of the data collected through this field survey shows that all of the vibration exposure descriptors advocated in national and international standards are equally well correlated with annoyance due to railway induced vibration. Using a grouped regression model, exposure-response relationships describing the proportion of respondents expected to express annoyance above a given threshold are derived for railway and construction induced vibration in terms of a variety of vibration exposure descriptors. The second major aim of this work is to investigate the perception of railway induced vibration on an individual level by investigating the salient dimensions of the perception of whole body vibration. This is achieved via a subjective laboratory test in which paired comparisons of similarity and annoyance are conducted using fourteen measured railway vibration stimuli. Through multidimensional scaling analysis, it is shown that the perception of railway induced vibration is dependent on up to four perceptual dimensions. These dimensions relate to energy in the 16 Hz 1/3 octave band, energy in the 32 Hz 1/3 octave band, the duration of the train passage, and the modulation frequency of the envelope of the signal. These perceptual dimensions are related to single figure Perceived Annoyance Ratings (A) by the following relationship: $A=-0.40+4.57{{\ddot{X}}_{RMS,16Hz}}+3.18{{\ddot{X}}_{RMS,32Hz}}+0.02{{T}_{10dB}}+0.02f{}_{\bmod }$. Finally, the single figure Perceived Annoyance Ratings are related to categorical ratings of annoyance via a logistic regression model.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-116). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [304]-327).

This Creative Writing thesis argues for the need to rethink our understanding of climate change and focuses on the response of creative writers to this phenomenon, whilst also offering its own creative contribution. The critical component aims at articulating a post-climate change poetics. It reviews the mainstream literature in popular science writing, fiction and poetry from the point of view of a political frame-analysis of climate change, to demonstrate how a certain understanding of climate change maps onto conventions of literary genre. The thesis takes the view that many mainstream literary attempts to negotiate climate change are compromised by the teleological way in which they conceive of the phenomenon. As an alternative position, it draws on the work of climatologist Mike Hulme and physicist and cultural theorist Karen Barad to encourage participation in climate change as a condition for negotiating its meaning. Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass is proposed as a model for literary production informed by this poetics and as a model for the author’s own creative practice. The creative component of this thesis is an intra-generic text presenting the fictionalised narrative of a cycle expedition the author made from Salford to the Greek island of Ikaria in the summer of 2010. This substantial work aims to interrogate, imagine, and enquire into the epistemology of a post-climate change world.

The complex relationship between human societies and the environment has become a thriving field of research over the past three decades. The contribution of human osteoarchaeology to exploring this relationship, however, has been rather limited. Two unpublished late medieval skeletal assemblages unearthed in the historical centres of Bucharest and Braşov (located in southern and north-central Romania respectively) seemed ideal choices for investigating the impact of substantial climatic and environmental changes that took place worldwide between the 14th and the 18th century AD. As witnessed by medieval artistic and documentary sources, this unsettled climate was mirrored by human populations with social and political instability, epidemics, famine, but also through the rise of new cultural movements. The analysis of over 600 individuals (a minimum number of 421 individuals from Bucharest and 206 from Braşov) was carried out to: 1) Provide a thorough osteological analysis, and compare and test statistically the collected data to reconstruct demographic and pathological patterning; 2) Identify ‘skeletal environmental markers’, i.e. possible indicators of the effect of climatic shifts on the human body; 3) Cross-reference osteological, archaeological, historical and climatological data in order to present a robust biocultural assessment of the impact of environmental and historical events on the Romanian population during the Middle Ages. The identification of low life-expectancy, higher mortality rates for children and young adults and general high morbidity levels were in line with other studies on medieval populations. However, evidence for a high prevalence of specific physiological and psychological stress markers was observed in these two geographically, culturally and economically different urban communities. As a strong mortality- and morbidity-shaping factor, the detrimental effect of climate anomalies is one of the main explanations for such findings, and is supported by medieval historical sources and recent advances in Romanian climatological studies. Despite some limitations (i.e. incomplete chronological information for most of the burial contexts, minimal local historical sources, lack of funding for isotopic analyses, and time constraints), the results of the present study have offered a new perspective on the relationship between Romanian medieval populations and their living environment, and have shown the enormous potential of interdisciplinary bioarchaeological research in Romania.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-08, Section: B, page: 5173. Advisor: Lawrence W. Whitehead. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-116).

<p>A decade ago the World Health Organization declared obesity to be a ‘global epidemic’. Rapidly climbing rates of excess body weight resulted in Health Canada declaring obesity as one of three major health concerns facing children today. Accordingly, there is a growing body of research examining how 'obesogenic environments' contribute to increasing prevalence. To date, multiple studies have found rates of childhood and adolescent obesity especially high in low-socioeconomic status (SES) neighbourhoods but knowledge about the specific local-level factors that shape body weight is lacking. Thus, this research focuses on examining local environmental determinants of body weight in adolescent populations living in low-socioeconomic status neighbourhoods in two cities in Southern Ontario.</p> <p>Using a mixed-method, parallel case study design, this study examines the environments in two low-SES neighbourhoods in the cities of Hamilton and Mississauga, Ontario. This study utilizes the ANGELO Framework as an analytic tool to dissect local environments. In the first phase of the study, the political and socio-cultural environments in both cities are investigated through analysis of municipal policy documents, public health websites and key informant interviews. The findings reveal that the cities each held differing health priorities and values that reflected the way they approached obesity. This phase further highlighted the integrated nature of the political and socio-cultural environments and their role in shaping other environments.</p> <p>The second phase of the study involved qualitative data collection from adolescents living in low-SES neighbourhoods (based on 11 SES neighbourhood measures). Specifically, a community mapping exercise and in-depth interviews with 31 participants were conducted in order to better understand how participants define and use neighbourhood space. The results indicate that there are differences between how urban and suburban residents defined neighbourhoods and that personal factors such as age, mobility and migration status influenced knowledge of the neighbourhood. Additionally, findings suggest that social interaction is a primary factor that influences adolescents use of neighbourhood space.</p> <p>In the third and final phase of the study, adolescent perceptions of the determinants of body weight were collected using in-depth and go-along interviews. Results of the 31 interviews revealed that adolescents perceive obese bodies as the unhealthy product of individual-level behaviours. Further exploration of environmental determinants revealed that factors in the physical and economic environments were indeed important and were often influenced by the socio-cultural environment. Participants held the view that neighbourhood space was tempting and unhealthy, and required them to self-regulate their behaviour. This research makes significant theoretical, methodological and substantive contributions to the obesity, adolescent health, and neighbourhoods and health literatures. Policy implications and future research directions are also highlighted.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)