Clinical decision rules improve health care fidelity, benefit patients, physicians and healthcare systems, without reducing patient safety or satisfaction, while promoting cost-effective practice standards. It is critical to appropriately and consistently apply clinical decision rules to realize these benefits. The objective of this thesis was to understand how physicians use the Ottawa Ankle Rules to guide radiography decision-making. The study employed a clinical judgment survey targeting members of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. Statistical analyses were informed by the Brunswik Lens Model and Social Judgment Analysis. Physicians’ overall agreement with the ankle rule was high, but can be improved. Physicians placed greatest value on rule-based cues, while considering non-rule-based cues as moderately important. There is room to improve physician agreement with the ankle rule and use of rule-based cues through knowledge translation interventions. Further development of this Lens Modeling technique could lend itself to a valuable cognitive behavioral intervention.

Ottawa’s Capital Slam poetry scene has transformed over the past decade, marking a shift in the identities, discourses and performance styles of local poets. This thesis investigates these changes and trends within the time periods of 2008-2010 and 2012- 2014. This thesis demonstrates the shift from male poets of colour in 2008-2010 to female voices in 2012-2014 at Capital Slam, through an examination of Ottawa’s history and a multimodal critical discourse analysis of online performances. In particular, the creation of local alternative poetry shows over the past five years has increased the representation of female poets and transformed the racial dynamics of the scene. During the period 2008-2010 and 2012-2014, poets used key historical elements of slam poetry such as storytelling and speaking through personal experiences to effectively demonstrate how marginalized individuals can speak counter-narratives to dominant culture. The use of storytelling allowed these poets to engage, connect and dialogue with the audience, as well as demonstrate their different identities, discourses and performance styles.

The following research examined the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its influence on branding in the energy sector. This research took place at Hydro Ottawa because it is a power distribution and a power generation company, with a mixed private and public business model operating in a monopolistic context, which is a well-rounded example that can be transferred to other organizations and other sectors. This research followed a case study approach guided by Strauss and Corbin’s (1990, 1998) grounded theory. This study attempted to answer the following research question 1) Who are the main stakeholders at Hydro Ottawa and what type of influence do they have on the development of their CSR and branding strategies? 2) How is CSR enunciated and applied at Hydro Ottawa? 3) How does CSR shape the brand image of Hydro Ottawa? In order to explore the research questions, the data collected for this study consisted of interviews, organizational documents, as well as observation. Due to the time limitation for a master’s thesis, six participants were chosen for interviews, which were later transcribed, coded and analysed by the researcher. The findings indicated that building a CSR strategy based on a healthy organizational culture, stakeholder needs, and the triple bottom line (financial, social, environmental) led to CSR essentially becoming the brand. The brand can then be communicated and shaped from and inside-out (from the employees to the external stakeholders)/outside-in (from external stakeholders to inside the organization) approach. Based on a grounded theory analysis, the researcher created a step-by-step prescriptive model that could be used to advance corporate social responsibility into Hydro Ottawa’s brand as well as offer a critical perspective of the findings.

In 2007, one current and two former sex workers, Amy Lebovitch, Terri-Jean Bedford and Valerie Scott launched a charter challenge, Bedford v Canada, arguing that the prostitution provisions criminalizing bawdy houses (section 210), living on the avails (section 212 (1)(j)) and communicating for the purposes of prostitution (section 213.1 (c)) violated their section 7 rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Six years later, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously to strike down all three challenged laws, leaving a one-year period to construct a new regime on prostitution. On December 6, 2014, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) came into effect, criminalizing, for the first time, prostitution in Canada and introducing a law that replicates many of the provisions of the previous regime. This thesis uses semi-structured interviews and qualitative analysis to examine the experiences of nine street-based sex workers in Ottawa, paying particular attention to experiences after the introduction of the new law. Drawing on the work of Mead & Blumer’s symbolic interactionism theory and Goffman’s concept of stigma the thesis examines how embedded stereotypes in legislation ‘play out’ in the lives of sex workers. I argue that the interactions of sex workers in Ottawa are conditioned by stereotypical assumptions which in turn lead to their broader discrimination and marginalization. This study concludes by finding that the first objective of PCEPA, to protect those who sell their own sexual services, has not been met; instead, PCEPA has resulted in street-based sex workers in Ottawa assuming more risk, and in turn, facing more danger while on the job.

This thesis paper explores barefoot and minimalist running in Ottawa, Ontario and Boulder, Colorado. The objective has been to answer the following questions: how can we understand barefoot and minimalist style running as cultures, how are barefoot and minimalist style running being done in different ways, how do the senses play out and create nuances between barefoot and minimalist style runners. I argue barefoot and minimalist running are distinct cultural forms. I applied an Ingoldian notion of culture that contends cultures are generative, relational, temporal and improvisational. I conducted a multi-site study and I interviewed participants, as well as conducted participant observation. My findings reveal that the different sensations experienced by the two styles of running make them meaningful in different ways. These different sensations and ways of meaning create nuances between barefoot and minimalist running and differentiate them and as a result, there are found to become different cultural forms.

PROBLÉMATIQUE Au Canada, il y a peu de recherches en santé des populations menées auprès de femmes sourdes pour comprendre leurs perceptions concernant la promotion de la santé. Encore moins d’études de ce type sont effectuées dans la région de Gatineau-Ottawa, selon une approche méthodologique qui cherche à impliquer les participantes dans le processus décisionnel. OBJECTIFS Menée en collaboration avec l’Association de l’ouïe de l’Outaouais (ADOO), un organisme communautaire situé à Gatineau (Québec), à la frontière d’Ottawa (Ontario), cette recherche vise à : 1) comprendre et décrire les perceptions de femmes sourdes, communiquant en français et en langue des signes québécoise (LSQ), quant aux définitions de la santé de, manière générale, et de la santé buccodentaire, de manière plus spécifique, ainsi que les actions qu’elles jugent prioritaires; 2) mener des entretiens avec des personnes ressources de leur réseau (proximal ou distal), agissant à titre d’intervenantes, de décideuses ou d’alliées afin d’approfondir la compréhension du contexte des revendications et des stratégies d’action; 3) décrire les démarches de co-production des savoirs et de partage de pouvoir décisionnel opérées durant la recherche, dans un but d’adaptation. MÉTHODOLOGIE ET MÉTHODES Prenant appui sur deux approches d’intervention préconisées par l’organisme partenaire (l’éducation populaire et l’empowerment), la présente recherche-action à visée participative s’est basée sur des outils textuels et visuels qui ont été adaptés tout au long du processus. Sept femmes ont participé à douze ateliers en groupe de deux heures chacun. Dix personnes ressources sourdes et entendantes ont participé à des entretiens individuels d’une durée variant de 30 à 60 minutes. Les rencontres ont eu lieu en présence d’interprètes en langues des signes. RÉSULTATS Les femmes sourdes participantes aux groupes de discussion conçoivent la santé de manière holistique, intégrant des composantes physiques, mentales, émotionnelles, spirituelles et sociales. La santé mentale et le bien-être occupent une place prépondérante pour elles. La bouche, considérée comme un organe du corps, est associée à l’interaction sociale, à des émotions majoritairement négatives, et à une moindre importance pour la survie. Ces femmes ont discuté également de la promotion de la santé selon une perspective écologique, et ont proposé des pistes d’action, notamment sur le plan relationnel et des services sociaux et de santé. Les entretiens individuels avec les personnes ressources permettent de décrire des actions importantes, notamment sur le plan politique et organisationnel. Ces entretiens permettent également de spécifier le contexte qui favorise ou entrave l’atteinte des objectifs de revendication et de décrire les stratégies d’action gagnantes. La communication efficace est unanimement décrite comme condition nécessaire au bien-être, au développement personnel, aux relations sociales, à la participation citoyenne, à l’accessibilité aux activités et services (dans les domaines de l’éducation, l’emploi, la justice, les services de santé et les services sociaux, les loisirs et les activités culturelles). Les principales actions citées sont : 1) la reconnaissance des langues de signes; 2) l’amélioration de la disponibilité et de la qualité des services d’interprétation; 3) le développement des compétences linguistiques et culturelles du réseau social et professionnel; 4) l’amélioration de l’accès à l’éducation et l’emploi dans des domaines critiques; 5) l’utilisation de termes appropriés et non oppressifs lors des interventions; 6) la reconnaissance de l’expertise et des savoirs produits par les personnes sourdes sous formes textuelles et visuelles; 7) les recherches, menées selon des approches participatives inclusives, dans les domaines prioritaires de l’accessibilité et de la santé mentale; 8) la production de données statistiques en utilisant des questionnaires appropriés. PERTINENCE Cette recherche est une contribution aux connaissances en santé des populations qui permet de présenter l’opinion des personnes participantes et de reconnaître leurs savoirs. Elle permet également de présenter des outils d’intervention utiles pour l’organisme communautaire partenaire et de scruter les démarches de collaboration. Celles-ci ont nécessité de s’adapter aux exigences de l’action dans un contexte imprévisible et dans un cadre relationnel marqué par l’histoire d’oppression des personnes sourdes.

Women and men experience work differently owing to the gendered nature of work and workplaces, but there is limited insight into whether language and gender intersect to shape employment outcomes. This thesis project examines full-time employment in Ottawa-Gatineau to determine whether being French, English, or bilingual meaningfully influences employment status in the federal public service in terms of occupational attainment and employment income. A series of descriptive and inferential statistical analyses using the 2016 Canadian census are used to examine whether commuting patterns, occupational attainment, and annual employment income are significantly different across industrial sectors and between women and men, as well as between official language communities. The analysis reveals important differences in residential distribution between Anglophones and Francophones working in the federal public service as well as differences in commuting times, especially to suburban office locations. There are also important differences in occupational attainment and income attainment between women and men across official language communities, with women, especially francophone women, being more likely to occupy relatively low-pay administrative jobs in the federal public service compared to men or anglophone and bilingual women. In many ways, bilingualism in the federal public service is made real by the work of francophone women, although they are concentrated in some of the least-well paid occupations and stand to have ever more time consuming commutes as jobs are moved to suburban locations in Ottawa.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.