Objectives: To describe utilization of specialised prenatal care by high-risk survivors and evaluate echocardiogram use in echocardiogram-need survivors, as per survivorship guideline recommendations. Methods: Retrospective population-based matched survivor:control study utilizing Ontario health administrative data. Survivors were classified as high-risk/low-risk for obstetrical outcomes, and as echocardiogram-need (yes/no) for echocardiogram outcomes. Associations were tested using logistic regression. Results: 11% (n=363) of 3,204 pregnant survivors were classified as high-risk. Over 90% received specialized prenatal care. Living in a rural area was associated with lower use. (AOR 0.51; 95% CI 0.44-0.59). Since 2003, 32% (560/1,737) of survivors had an echocardiogram-need. Only 14% (77/560) had ≥1 echocardiogram, this was not associated with rurality nor neighbourhood income quintile. Conclusions: Although the majority of high-risk survivors receive specialized prenatal care, geographic inequality in care persists. Despite survivorship guidelines, >85% of echocardiogram-need pregnant survivors do not have an echocardiogram performed; future work should address this gap in care.

Young children with expressive language delay often present with limited vocabulary and reduced length of utterance. In consideration of the relationship between vocabulary and grammar, intervention that targets vocabulary may also result in improved syntax development. This study investigated whether a hybrid approach to verb-focused vocabulary intervention would result in improvements in increased use of target words, increased expressive vocabulary and/or increased sentence length. Four participants, aged two years nine months to three years six months participated in an intervention program that targeted vocabulary, specifically verbs. Number of target verbs, number of different words (NDW) used and mean length of utterance (MLU) were measured in baseline, intervention and post-intervention phases. Results indicated that all participants had increased use of targeted words and increased NDW. The majority of participants also had increased MLU. These findings suggest that verb-focused vocabulary intervention has the potential to have broad effects on the language skills of young children with expressive language delay. Further research is warranted to determine whether similar results would be found in a larger cohort. The study also raises questions around choice of intervention targets and intervention approaches for young children with expressive language delay.

This research explored whether variation in working memory ability helps account for the wide variation in toddlers' language skills and improves predictive models of language outcomes over time. A cohort of typically developing (TD) (n = 55) and late talking children (n = 24) were assessed at two time points. The initial assessment took place at ages 24-30 months and the outcome assessment occurred 18 months later, when the children were aged 41-49 months. The assessment battery included standardised tests of language and visual cognition; assessments representing aspects of Baddeley's model of working memory: phonological short term memory (PSTM), a measure of processing speed, verbal working memory (VWM), visual spatial working memory (VSWM), and a parent report questionnaire of executive functioning (EF). Study 1 explored the associations between these aspects of working memory and concurrent expressive vocabulary at ages 24-30 months and examined group differences in the measures between TD and late talking children. Study 2 explored associations between aspects of working memory and concurrent expressive language in the same cohort at 41-49 months of age. Group differences in the measures between resolved late talkers (RLTs) and TD children were explored. Finally Study 3 explored the ability of the measures used at 24-30 months to predict language outcomes at 41-49 months. These results were considered in relation to the prediction of language outcomes on group and individual levels. Overall the results indicated a strong relationship between early PSTM and early language measures. A novel finding was that PSTM was significantly lower in the late talking and RLT groups compared with the TD groups, even after controlling for group differences in language and phonology at both time points. This confirms previous research that PSTM plays a role in early expressive vocabulary acquisition, and suggests that early PSTM deficits may be a causal factor for some cases of late talking. For the whole group, three working memory variables (VWM, Emotional Control and Shift) measured at 24-30 months added unique variance to predictive models in total language scores at 41-49 months after previously established early predictors (receptive language and parent education) had been entered into the hierarchical regression model (receptive language R²Δ = 59%; parent education R²Δ = 2%; VWM R²Δ = 8%; Emotional Control R²Δ = 1% and Shift R²Δ = 2%). This is another novel finding which supports the concept of working memory playing a unique role in language acquisition between the ages two and four years. Processing speed did not contribute unique variance to regression models predicting language when other working memory measures were included. The A not B task (measuring VSWM) did not correlate with language. There were concerns with construct validity with the EF parent report measure (Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Preschool Version), which meant that the results from this assessment were interpreted with caution. In terms of clinical outcomes, 83% of the late talkers resolved their language delays over the 18 month period, but as a group showed a seven-fold increase in being identified for clinical concerns at the outcome assessment than children who were not late talkers. The majority of these concerns were for poor phonology. While early VWM, Shift and Emotional Control added unique variance to outcome total language scores on a group level, they did not improve prediction of individual outcomes in language impairment status at 41-49 months. Early receptive language delay was a more powerful predictor of later language impairment than late talking in this cohort, as these children (n = 9) showed only a 44% rate of resolution.

The Jot-em-Down Shelter (15McY348) was excavated by U.S. Forest Service archaeologists in 1986. The present study concentrated on the lithic assemblage, with a particular focus on the chipped stone debitage. The Jot-em-Down Shelter lithic assemblage was compared to assemblages recovered from four nearby sites, open sites 15McY570 and 15McY616, and rockshelter sites 15McY403 and 15McY409; and rockshelter sites located in and near the Red River Gorge, Cold Oak Shelter (15LE50) and Rock Bridge Shelter (15WO75). This study determined that Jot-em-Down Shelter was a multicomponent site utilized by mobile groups of people from the Early Archaic through Mississippi periods. Use of the site intensified around the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods. Prehistoric peoples who occupied the shelter had contact with other groups from the surrounding area, hunted nearby, and processed hides.

The existence of an infrastructure that allowed reliable communication between the emperors and all parts of the Roman civil and military administration was integral for the dissemination of ideologies, the promulgation of laws, and the implementation of Roman power in an organized and coherent fashion throughout the empire. This infrastructure was represented by the imperial information and transportation system (IITS, most commonly known by its 4th century name cursus publicus): a network of roadside stations set up in regular intervals along most major roads that could be used by officials of the central administration properly authorized with a permit. An integral aspect of Roman rule, the IITS has received relatively little attention in scholarship, particularly with regards to the question how structural and constitutional developments of the Roman Empire translated into changes to the communication system during the transition from the 3rd until the late 4th century. The aim of this thesis is twofold: after determining the ways in which the applications of the IITS changed over the course of the first three centuries CE on the basis of epigraphic evidence, the first part explores and explains factors that led to the creation of the cursus publicus with its two sub-divisions (cursus uelox, cursus clauulari(u)s) under Diocletian and Constantine through a comprehensive study of military, administrative, legal, and structural developments of the Roman Empire. The second part undertakes a comprehensive review of the structure, history, and development of the cursus publicus in the 4th century (e.g., infrastructure, financing, administration, usage rights, authorization, and control), primarily on the basis of a close reading of book 8.5 of the Theodosian Code. The evolution of the cursus publicus shows not only the interdependency between its development vis-à-vis that of the central administration, but also that the central government perceived it increasingly consciously as a valuable and important tool in ruling the empire. This thesis argues that on account of ongoing regulatory activity and reforms as a result of this shift in perception, the cursus publicus was firmly integrated into the imperial administration and streamlined to such a degree that it could be used with unprecedented effectiveness by the end of the 4th century.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the nuances and implications of the negative portrayals of bishops and the bishopric in late antique and medieval Catholic hagiography. I will consider how and why members of the episcopacy were painted so negatively, and how hagiographers got away with drawing such negative connotations around the office itself. In doing this, I will consider how these texts address real social anxieties surrounding the bishopric, and argue that they work apologetically for the episcopacy by establishing the corruptibility of the office's human aspect as an expected norm, and highlighting in contrast the extreme difficulty and laudability of living up to the office's divine aspect.

This study aims to investigate the perception and experience of emotion self-regulation in a group of late adolescents. An exploratory, qualitative survey design was used to collect data from a group of 54 Afrikaans-speaking late adolescents by means of a semi structured emotion self-regulation questionnaire. Data were assessed by means of directed thematic content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). It was established that participants primarily have a positive perception of emotions, and that more participants display higher levels of emotion awareness. However, despite this, most participants experience emotions negatively. At most, therefore, a balance is struck between the constructive and unconstructive handling of emotions. Throughout it was endeavoured to relate the results to late adolescence as a developmental stage. Study conclusions include that emotion self-regulation in late adolescents is strongly influenced by uncertainty about the handling of emotions, self-consciousness with regard to emotions in a social context, and a lack of self-control. A few recommendations are made on the basis of these conclusions. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Oration 30 (Or. 30) has been commonly used in scholarship as positive affirmation of religious violence and temple destruction in late Antique Syria. This view of widespread violence in late 4th century Syria was previously supported by scholarship on temple destruction and conversion, which tended to argue that temple destruction and conversion was a widespread phenomenon in the 4th and 5th centuries. Recent archaeological scholarship, however, argues against this perspective, in favour of temple destruction and conversion being a rather exceptional and late phenomenon. The question must therefore be asked, to what extent can Libanius’ Or. 30 be used as a source of temple destruction in the Antiochene countryside in Late Antiquity? This question is explored through three chapters which examine: the text and context of Or. 30, the use and application of Roman law in Or. 30, and the archeological evidence for temple destruction and conversion in the Antiochene countryside. This research has revealed that Libanius tends to use similar arguments in his ‘reform speeches,’ that there was no legal basis for temple destruction in the late 4th century, and that there is no archaeological evidence for widespread temple destruction occurring around the composition of Or. 30. Thus, the evidence shows that Libanius’ claim of widespread violence must be seen as an exaggeration. Meaning that Or. 30 cannot be used to support the idea of widespread destruction and religious violence in the Antiochene countryside at the end of the 4th century or, for that matter, Late Antiquity in general.

Pollen profiles from two lakes, Tawny Pond (44°48’59”N, 77°10’54”W, 276m) and Stoll Lake (44°58’16”N, 77°17’22”W,303m) in Addington Highlands, eastern Ontario, Canada were analyzed to understand the effects of late-Holocene climate change and European settlement on eastern Ontario’s forests. Both lakes were analyzed at high temporal resolution and record vegetation dynamics over the last 1000 years. Throughout the past 1000 years, Pinus, Tsuga, Betula, Quercus, Acer and Fagus were the dominant taxa in the pollen record. The pollen records show vegetation response in relation to the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. From 970-1200 AD the forest was dominated by hemlock, beech and maple trees. From 1200-1870 AD the forest composition changed as pine and boreal trees became more abundant and/or had increased relative pollen production. Most recently, since 1870 AD, herbaceous plants (weeds) increased, whereas softwoods decreased and hardwoods increased, due to landscape changes associated with European settlement. These results show that high resolution studies of unvarved lakes, with an appropriate chronology, can detect multi-decadal climate variability. This thesis was also concerned with making management suggestions to the forestry community. Future climate change will likely create a forest composition more similar to that of the Medieval Warm Period than the time of European colonization, and thus should be the basis for forest planning.

The number of Canadian widows and widowers has doubled since 1971, and these numbers are projected to increase as the Baby Boom generation continues to age. Prior studies demonstrate that remarriage is losing ground to cohabitation following union dissolution, and that cohabitation is increasing among older adults. This study explores post-widowhood repartnering practices among older Canadians on the basis of existing theories on partnership. The data were drawn from the 2007 General Social Survey Cycle 21 (N= 23,404 Canadians aged 45 and older). The cumulative proportion of competing post-widowhood partnership choices are compared using life table analysis. The effects of gender, demographic characteristics, cultural influences, economic resources, and physical health are explored using Cox’s proportional hazard modeling. The findings suggest that dominant theories of partnership are insufficient in explaining post-widowhood repartnering behaviour. Namely, most commonly-measured economic resources do not factor significantly into the post-widowhood repartnering choices of older Canadians. / Graduate / 0626 / 0628 / 0938 / nouellet@uvic.ca