This study provides preliminary data from a parent-report measure for assessing eating disorder symptoms in preadolescents. The Parent Eating Behaviors and Body Image Test (PEBBIT) is based on the Eating Behaviors and Body Image Test (EBBIT; Candy & Fee, 1998), a self-report measure for preadolescent girls. Eighty-three females in grades 4 through 6 were contacted from elementary schools, but only 10 participated. Girls’ individual responses on the EBBIT were compared to parental responses on the PEBBIT. Parents were able to accurately identify eating disorder behaviors in their children only 65.3% of the time when analyzing the individual responses found on the Binge Eating Behaviors subscale and only 58.6% of the time on the Body Image Disturbance Restrictive Eating subscale. Preliminary analyses suggest that a) clinicians and clinical researchers should supplement preadolescent girls’ self-report with parent report measures, and b) more detailed study of the PEBBIT’s psychometric properties is warranted.

This thesis estimates the impact of non-tariff measures (NTMs) notified by the importing countries on agricultural trade. The non-tariff measures constitute the technical measures notified under the SPS and TBT agreements and the non-technical measures to trade. Two approaches are used; the inventory approach and the econometric approach which makes use of the gravity model. The inventory results suggest that African countries face more restrictions on their exports than what they impose on their imports. Also, Uganda, Senegal and Mali are among the top twenty most affected importers. The empirical results suggest that the impact of the overall group on non-tariff measures is ambiguous but when measures are disaggregated into technical and non-technical measures, the results show that the technical measures promote agricultural trade and that the non-technical measures restrict trade. Also, imports of industrialized nations from fellow industrialized nations are promoted by the technical measures but are restricted by non-technical measures, while those from non-industrialized countries are affected negatively by both technical and non-technical measures. Out of the five regions considered, Africa faces the largest negative impact by both technical and non-technical measures. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

Off the Durham coast, the Permian succession above the Coal Measures contains limestones and anhydrite bands with high seismic velocities and reflection coefficients. The consequent reduction in penetration of seismic energy makes it difficult to determine Coal Measures structure by the seismic reflection method. Seismic data sets acquired from this region by the National Coal Board in 1979 and 1982 are used to illustrate that satisfactory results are difficult to achieve. Synthetic seismograms, generated for a simplified geological section of the region, are also used to study various aspects of the overall problem of applying the seismic technique in the area. Standard and non-standard processing sequences are applied to the seismic data to enhance the quality of the stacked sections and the results are discussed. This processing showed that in the 1979 survey, in which a watergun source and a 600m streamer were used, some penetration was achieved but Coal Measures resolution on the final sections is poor. The 1982 data set, shot along a segment of the 1979 line using a sleeve exploder source and a 150m streamer, showed no Coal Measures after processing. Synthetic seismograms, generated using the reflectivity method and a broadband source wavelet, are processed to confirm that a streamer with a length of 360 to 400m towed at a depth of 5-7.5m will be optimal for future data acquisition in the area. It is also shown that the erosion of the surface of the limestone lowers the horizontal resolution of the Coal Measures. Scattering

Background: Standardized outcome measures used in assessment of chronic disease need to be relevant to the client if interventions based on the results are to be meaningful. The Modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (MHAQ) (Pincus et al., 1983) is an eight-item questionnaire used commonly with individuals with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) to assess self-reported function. This scale has been translated and validated in multiple languages and cultures but has never been evaluated for its relevance with a Canadian Indigenous population despite its frequent application in clinical and health research settings. Purpose: The primary objective of the following study was to determine whether or not the MHAQ is an appropriate measurement tool to adequately document the lived experiences of activity and participation in First Nations individuals diagnosed with RA. Methodology: A mixed methods sequential explanatory approach was utilized. The quantitative component consisted of secondary analysis of an existing clinical database developed at the University of Manitoba Health Sciences Arthritis Centre (UMHSAC). MHAQ scores and other indicators of disease activity of First Nations (n=252) and Caucasian (n=633) individuals with RA were examined for significant differences. The results informed a qualitative phase using interpretive description methodology whereby semi-structured interviews were held with 25 First Nations individuals with RA. Results: A significant relationship was observed between ethnicity and MHAQ score (p<0.001) where the First Nations cohort demonstrated significantly higher scores in pain and MHAQ scores (p<0.001), as well as physician global assessment and morning stiffness (p<0.05). Pain was the single greatest predictor of MHAQ score (p<0.001). In contrast, a convergence coding matrix comparing MHAQ scores to first-hand narratives found only 65% agreement in responses. The thematic analysis of the qualitative component resulted in three key themes: Ka-wachi-wa-pinaywin (“Coldness in the bones”), Adaptive Resilience, and Family Relations. Conclusion: Concurrent validity of the MHAQ in a First Nations population was supported through statistical analyses but convergent validity was not supported by subsequent qualitative and mixed methods approaches. The assessment of disability requires an integrated approach that takes into consideration an individual’s personal context. Both barriers and facilitators in the environment, as well as personal factors, must be addressed. / February 2016

United States Department of Defense (DoD) autonomous vehicle efforts have concentrated research in areas that support development of unmanned ground and air battlefield vehicles. Little attention has been paid to applying robotics to automate routine tasks. A robotic solution consisting of a prototype holonomic vehicle is proposed to search for, detect, and remove debris that could cause foreign object damage (FOD) to turbine-engine aircraft operated from ships. Holonomic, or omnidirectional, motion was realized by solving the system of equations governing the vehicle's motion atop a plane surface. Translational motion without chassis rotation was achieved through motion control using a single board computer, a pulse width modulation (PWM) and optical isolation circuit, and a low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU). Obstacle detection and avoidance was realized by constructing a microprocessor-controlled scanning ultrasonic sonar detector head and controller circuit. The sonar detector demonstrated 360 (degrees) coverage and centimeter resolution. Rudimentary autonomous operation and wireless manual control via a Java graphical user interface (GUI) were achieved in an indoor environment. / US Navy (USN) author.

If the present world scenario in telecommunication systems is considered thousands of systems are getting moved into the cloud because of its wide features. This thesis explains the efficient ways to upgrade Docker containers in a way to support backward compatibility. It mainly concerns about the high-availability of systems in the cloud environment during upgrades. Smaller changes can be implemented automatically to some extent. The minor changes can be handled by Apache Avro where schema is defined in it. But at some point Avro also cannot handle the situation which becomes much more complex. In a real world example, we need to perform major changes on the top of an application. Here we are testing different upgrade strategies and comparing the code complexity, total time to upgrade, network usage of single upgrades strategy versus multiple upgrade strategy with and without Use of Avro. When code complexity is compared the case without Avro performs well in single upgrade strategy with less time to upgrade all six instances but the network usage is more compared to multiple upgrades. So single upgrade strategy is better to maintain high availability in Cloud by performing the upgrades in an efficient manner.

When faced with market risk for investments and portfolios, people often calculate the risk measure, which is a real number mapping to each random payoff. There are many ways to quantify the potential risk, among which the most important input is the features from future performance. Future distributions are unknown and thus always estimated from historical Profit and Loss (P&L) distributions. However, past data may not be appropriate for estimating the future; risk measures generated from single historical distributions can be subject to error. To overcome these shortcomings, one natural way implemented is to identify and categorize similar assets whose Profit and Loss distributions can be used as alternative scenarios. In practice, one of the most common and intuitive categorizations is sector, based on industry. It is widely agreed that companies in the same sector share the same, or related, business types and operating characteristics. But in the field of risk management, sector-based categorization does not necessarily mean assets are grouped in terms of their risk profiles, and we show that risk measures in the same sector tend to have large variation. Although improved risk measures related to the distribution ambiguity has been discussed at length, we seek to develop a more risk-oriented categorization by providing a new clustering approach. Furthermore, our method can better inform us of the potential risk and the extreme worst-case scenario within the same category.