This thesis puts forth an ethnographic, social constructionist account of tattoo shops with the aim of examining how heavily tattooed individuals negotiate positive social meaning in a constructed society. This research assumes that heavily tattooed individuals may be viewed as deviant, which can create problems associated with labeling and stigma. Consequently, these individuals need to develop ways to cope, and can do this by seeking out the company of like-minded people who can help them define away stigma. The central focus of this research will be on the social structures of the space (tattoo shops) and the individuals who visit it - more specifically on their interactions, conversations and experiences. Data were collected from both participant observation and semi-structured open ended interviews with participants. The results from this study demonstrate that tattoo shops are environments that can be interpreted as ‘new third places.’ / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-08-02 18:45:32.617

Few social boundaries still exist regarding tattooed individuals in Western society, yet the professional workplace remains a barrier to heavily tattooed individuals today. The historical stigma attached to heavily tattooed people is still pervasive across many professional communities. A series of ethnographic interviews examine the decision heavily tattooed professionals make to "cover up" their tattoos. Focusing on identity management as it relates to tattoo wearers in a professional context, the research seeks to explain the communicative processes that heavily tattooed individuals use to negotiate professional life. This perspective will work to explore the impact of identity and authenticity on the tattooed self, the safety provided by covering-up in the workplace, and the identity struggle faced by heavily tattooed individuals when covering up.

Experiments were performed to examine the shear resistance of heavily reinforced I-beams. Six I-beams with identical cross sections were constructed using high strength self-consolidating concrete, and were tested under monotonic anti-symmetric loading. All specimens had almost the same amount of longitudinal reinforcement, which provided sufficient flexural capacities. There were two variables: shear span and shear reinforcement ratio. Test results showed that ACI code was too conservative in predicting the shear strengths of heavily shear reinforced I-beams, and the shear strength limit for deep beams should be increased to account for the benefit of high strength concrete. However, doubling the amount of stirrups did not improve the ultimate shear resistance much. The three beams that contained around 2.45% stirrups showed over-reinforced shear failures. Longitudinal flange cracking occurred to every specimen due to lack of cross tie reinforcement in the flanges, and it was believed to have reduced the ultimate shear strength.

Experiments were performed to examine the shear resistance of heavily reinforced I-beams. Six I-beams with identical cross sections were constructed using high strength self-consolidating concrete, and were tested under monotonic anti-symmetric loading. All specimens had almost the same amount of longitudinal reinforcement, which provided sufficient flexural capacities. There were two variables: shear span and shear reinforcement ratio. Test results showed that ACI code was too conservative in predicting the shear strengths of heavily shear reinforced I-beams, and the shear strength limit for deep beams should be increased to account for the benefit of high strength concrete. However, doubling the amount of stirrups did not improve the ultimate shear resistance much. The three beams that contained around 2.45% stirrups showed over-reinforced shear failures. Longitudinal flange cracking occurred to every specimen due to lack of cross tie reinforcement in the flanges, and it was believed to have reduced the ultimate shear strength.

Experiments are an important part of physics and it naturally follows that lab activities is important in physics education. While there are a great number of methods for lab activities that all have varying effects, this study seeks to answer how they interact with one of the most important tools in education, formative assessment. We have explored this topic by reviewing scientific articles on both physics lab activities as well as formative assessment in its many forms. To connect it to a more practical and Swedish context, we also surveyed Swedish physics teachers at different levels of education and performed a thematic analysis to see how they approach lab activities and what, if any, formative assessment they implement. From the scientific review we found that we can divide the physics lab activities into minimally and heavily guided. The minimally guided support abilities like critical thinking and considering sources of error, while heavily guided lab activities are more suited training procedural abilities, such as handling lab equipment, or for students with no prior experience with labs. Formative assessment can be implemented  with positive effects regardless of lab activity. Especially self and peer assessment show great results and should be viewed as a regular part of the teaching methodology for lab activities. The survey, which had 12 respondents, indicated that self and peer assessment are not used on a regular basis prior to university and the lab activities start out from heavily guided and moves towards minimally guided. The main challenge against changing both of these was time. To aid teachers in implementing the effective lab activities, proposed by the research literature, we prepared a lab activity in Swedish alongside considerations for implementations, formative assessment and a rubric.

No description available.

Magister Legum - LLM / This research acknowledges that although literature abounds on development assistance in general, not much has been published yet on Cameroon specifically. Therefore, this mini-thesis seeks to contribute to fill this gap. Moreover, it aims to examine both development assistance legislative frameworks in Cameroon and above all to compare them in order to find out which development assistance approach is the most aligned in terms of international obligations relative to human rights and economic development. The IMF-World Bank’s Comprehensive Approach to debt Reduction, (the HIPC Initiative), and China’s White Paper on Foreign Aid have been specifically chosen for this research for two main reasons: first, these two international instruments are significantly impacting upon and reshaping Cameroon’s political, social and economic development architecture since Cameroon economic crisis exists till today; and secondly, to enlighten the public, academicians, policy makers, on development assistance in Cameroon given that legal sources on the topic exist but mostly unpublished and inaccessible Therefore this research will be restricted to the period from Cameroon’s economic crisis in 1980 up to 2014. Given the limited availability of primary legal sources at both the international and domestic levels, this research will primarily look at HIPC Initiative Agreement and the Chinese White Paper on Foreign Aid. Moreover, this study will be conducted in form of the available HIPC documents and reports on Cameroon regularly published by the staff of IMF and the World Bank and specifically the HIPC Decision Point Document and the HIPC Completion Point Document of Cameroon. In addition, this study will rely on primary legal sources relative to states international obligations regarding human rights and economic cooperation such as, the UDHR (10 December 1948), the ICCPR (16 December 1966), the ICESCR (16 December 1966) and the Declaration on the Right to Development (4 December 1986). In the case of China’s development assistance approach, given that neither China nor Cameroon release specific bilateral treaties or agreements related to their development co-operation and the fact that documents and publications relative to Cameroon’s development assistance are mostly unpublished and inaccessible, this study will principally focus on the Chinese White Paper on Foreign Aid. It will also look, amongst others, at the Beijing Declaration of the FOCAC (2004), the White Paper on China-Africa Economic and Trade Co-operation (August 2013). Moreover this research will be complemented through secondary sources such as books, journals articles, report, working papers, press reviews, drafts, deliberation of international conferences and international summits, and internet sources

Optoelectronics is quickly becoming a fast emerging technology field. It refers to detect or emit electromagnetic radiation, and convert it into a form that can be read by an integrated measuring device. These devices can be a part of many applications like photodiodes, solar cells, light emitting diode (LED), telecommunications, medical equipment, and more. Due to their different applications, the semiconductor optoelectronic devices can be divided by their operating wavelength and working mechanisms. In this work, I have focused on semiconductor plasmonic systems operating in the mid-infrared and on the optical detectors made of 2D materials operating in the UV-visible spectral range. Mid-infrared plasmonic devices are very attractive for chemical sensing. Our results show that ultra-doped n-type GaAs is ideal for mid-infrared plasmonics, where the plasmon wavelength is controlled by electron concentration and can be as short as 4 μm. Ultra-doped n-type GaAs is achieved using ion implantation of chalcogenides like S and Te followed by nonequillibrium thermal annealing, namely ns-range pulsed laser melting or ms-range flash lamp annealing. I have shown that the maximum electron concentration in our GaAs layer can be as high as 7×10¹⁹ cm⁻³, which is a few times higher than that obtained by alternative techniques. In addition to plasmonic applications, the ultra-doped n-type GaAs shows negative magnetoresistance, making GaAs potential material for quantum devices and spintronic applications. UV-visible optical detectors are made of 2D materials based on van der Waals heterostructures, i.e. transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) e.g. MoSe₂ and transition metal chalcogenophosphates (TMCPs) with a general formula MPX₃ where M=Fe, Ni, Mn and X=S, Se, Te. The external quantum efficiency of a self-driven broadband photodetector made of a few layers of MoSe₂/FePS₃ van der Waals heterojunctions is as high as 12 % at 532 nm. Moreover, it is shown that multilayer MoSe₂ on FePS₃ forms a type-II band alignment, while monolayer MoSe₂ on FePS₃ forms a type-I heterojunction. Due to the type-I band alignment, the PL emission from the monolayer MoSe₂ is strongly enhanced.

No description available.

In my thesis I focused on a group of heavily-adaptable Roma citizens. This group was defined as a group with elementary education who are unemployed and depending on the goverment assistance and aid. They receive government social welfare. The last criterion in stipulating the definition was that they lived socially separated on the edge of the society. Their lifestyle reflects their social status and has a huge impact on their health conditions of heavily-adaptable Roma citizens. The goals of my thesis were to find out specifications of health care of healthy and ill heavily-adaptable Roma Citizen, and to work out some standards and some structure for educetional principles. In the course of my research I focuseld on finding the factors that influence the work of nurses with the heavily-adaptable Roma citizens.