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Mixed-use house at Křížová Street The project of mixed-use house located in the district of Old Brno is based on its location and its specific plot, situated between two street corners, at the end of the future pedestrian-only street, in direct contact with busy Mendel square. The house as a whole is enclosing eastern side of the street and with two breaks of the façade reacts to the gentle curve of the street on the other side. At the same time, these breaks of the façade acts as dividing elements, which help to create more subtle feeling of the otherwise long building. One of these breaks continues all the way through the house to the back and creates a cut, which allows a view to the inner courtyard, where a historical brick chimney is situated. This visual connection is at the same time also a metaphorical connection to the history of the location. The cut also serves as a main access for the residential areas in the upper floors and gives the inhabitants the opportunity to enter their homes through a dignified and representative space. Functionally, the house is divided into commercial spaces on the ground level, residential upper floors and parking in the basement.

Nonparametric tests are used to test hypotheses when the data at hand violate one or more of the assumptions for parametric tests procedures. The test is an ordered alternative (nondecreasing) when there is prior information about the data. It assumes that the underlying distributions are of the same type and therefore differ in location. For example, in dose-response studies, animals are assigned to k groups corresponding to k doses of an experimental drug. The effect of the drug on the animals is likely to increase or decrease with increasing doses. In this case, the ordered alternative is appropriate for the study. In this paper, we propose eight new nonparametric tests useful for testing against nondecreasing order alternatives for a mixed design involving randomized complete block and balanced incomplete block design. These tests involve various modifications of the Jonckheere-Terpstra test (Jonckheere(1952), Terpstra(1954)) and Alvo and Cabilio’s test (1995). Three, four and five treatments were considered with different location parameters under different scenarios. For three and four treatments, 6,12, and 18 blocks were used for the simulation, while 10, 20, and 30 blocks were used for five treatments. Different tests performed best under different block combinations, but overall the standardized last for Alvo outperformed the other test when the number of treatments and number of missing observations per block increases. A simulation study was conducted comparing the powers of the various modification of Jonckheere-Terpstra (Jonckheere(1952), Terpstra(1954)) and Alvo and Cabilio’s (1995) tests under different scenarios. Recommendations are made.

Walmart and other “big box” stores seek to expand in rural markets, possibly due to cheap land and lack of zoning laws. In August 2000, Walmart opened a store in Ephraim, a small rural town in central Utah. It is of interest to understand how Walmart's entrance into the local market changes the sales tax revenue base for Ephraim and for the surrounding municipalities. It is thought that small “Mom and Pop” stores go out of business because they cannot compete with Walmart's prices, leading to a decrease in variety, selection, convenience, and most importantly, sales tax revenue base in areas surrounding Ephraim. This shift in sales tax base is assessed using mixed models. It is found that the entrance of Walmart in Sanpete County has a significant change on sales tax revenue, specifically in the retail industry. A method of calculating the loss for each city is discussed and a sensitivity analysis is performed. This project also documents what has been done to assemble the data set. In addition to discussing the assumptions made to clean the data, explanations of area and industry definition exploration are explained and defended.

The estimated lifespan of a building today is only 50 years. They are often designed down to the minimum for a specific target group or one specific use. In many cases constructed with load-bearing walls that divide function-specified rooms, making conversion into any other form of function impossible. Locking buildings to a specific function is not very clever, as buildings are subject to a wide range of trends and changes.  The goal of this project has been to investigate how the built environment can be resilient to changing societal trends to avoid becoming obsolete and in the worst case having to be demolished. This leads to the question of how a building can be designed to enable change and how to build and plan a building when its future use and users are unknown.

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This mixed methods study sought to refine the causal explanations for racial disparities in mental health care by exploring with youth of color (YOC, ages 12–21) how they became candidates for psychiatric care (“candidacy”). The thesis focused on developing and testing hypotheses about the Candidacy Model (CM) as a mediator of the relationships between mental health needs, racism, and health care utilization; examining those relationships when the candidate for care was represented by an agent; and characterizing how YOC and their agents experienced the assertion and adjudication stages of CM during a psychiatric emergency services visit. Despite a rich and growing literature on patient and environmental factors associated with lower access to psychiatric services, health services research in the United States has paid little attention to how YOC actualize their candidacy for mental health services. The CM suggests that vulnerable populations must negotiate with health care systems to have their needs considered medically treatable and to experience treatment in conditions that are congruent with their lifestyles. Theorizing that CM acts as a mediator between healthcare needs, racism, and treatment, this thesis explored how the specific stages of CM influenced mental health outcomes for YOC. The hypothesized relationships between candidacy, needs, racism, and utilization were tested using data from two national surveys, and in two different contexts: among young adults (ages 18-21) and among adolescents (ages 12–17) whose candidacy was co-constructed with their guardians. Through qualitative research (interviews and observation), over two years the research team explored with YOC and their guardians how current and prior candidacy experience influenced their use of psychiatric emergency services, an undesirable source of mental health care, and often the last resort for patients unable to access ongoing care. I found limited evidence that CM stages mediated the relationship between health care needs and treatment. Experiencing racism decreased the likelihood of being a successful candidate for care. Explorations with YOC and guardians found that people of color were marginalized when their assertions were ignored and when they were excluded from mental health care decision making. Repeat visits to the psychiatric emergency room reflected a negotiation strategy, in which the YOC and guardian triangulate and learn over time how to negotiate for a desired outcome. This thesis deepens knowledge of CM and of the role of negotiations in mental health care access for YOC, providing theoretical insights that will inform interventions to improve mental health equity. / 2025-08-23T00:00:00Z

No / The implementation of a mixed reality game using the J2ME platform is presented. The different levels of the game environment are presented and also the game navigation system which uses QR code and Bluetooth. Its relationship to other environments such as iPhone and Android, the portability issues, and the hardware and software specification for the game deployment are discussed. The game aims to stimulate and maintain a conversation between learners and their teachers, and also between learners and learners, whilst being immersed in the story of the game. It is found that the learners become more competent through enculturation, externalising their ideas, and socialising within their zone of proximal development.

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<p> This mixed methods study seeks to explain women's decision making regarding intimate partner violence disclosure in urban emergency departments. It contributed to an overall program of research led by Dr. H.L. MacMillan examining the effectiveness of screening in health care settings to reduce violence and improve the quality of women's lives.</p> <p> The study included a randomized, controlled trial with a quantitative sub-analysis and a grounded theory approach. The trial goal was to evaluate whether routine screening for IPV in health care settings, as compared to usual care, does more good than harm. The quantitative sub-analysis included 1,182 participants from three trial emergency departments. In the sample, 1.9% were exposed to intimate partner violence disclosed to the health care provider. Of those who disclosed, 62.9% were positive on both the screening tool and criterion standard. The grounded theory phase involved 19 participants and sought to examine the problems that trial participants associated with intimate partner violence disclosure and the processes they used to resolve them.</p> <p> "Being found out" was the basic social psychological problem that influenced women's decisions against disclosure. This led to a three-phase process where participants attempted to "minimize their risks." The basic social psychological process included: (a) deciding to seek health care, (b) evaluating trust in the clinician, and (c) establishing internal readiness for disclosure. Participants stated that the emergency department was not an ideal place to disclose violence due to overcrowding, chaos, long wait times, and a lack of privacy. Results indicated that abused women wanted clinicians to offer empathy and support, and to minimize the intrusion caused by assessment. Clinician education is required to improve communication, client engagement and comfort discussing intimate partner violence. Future research could explore the barriers and facilitators to care quality and patient satisfaction among abused women seeking emergency care.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)