This thesis considers the potential of the suburban periphery to become an ecologically, socially and culturally productive site which supports local and regional public programs. It explores ways of creating connectivity across the hard boundaries of a suburban development, an expressway and an agricultural area in order to stimulate biological and cultural diversity in this typically neglected, “leftover” environment. The site is the Ninth Line Corridor at the suburban edge of Mississauga, Ontario. The investigation of boundary occurs at the urban, building and experiential scales, and considers how the intersection of landscape, ecology, architecture and program can generate activities and events which foster engagement with the site and within a community.

This dissertation examines the evolution of the urban tissues of Quebec City's "faubourgs." It présents a diachronic morphological analysis of the structuration of the residential tissues of these neighborhoods between 1608 and 2001. It also provides a synchronic analysis of the syntax of the tissues as well as an architectural typology describing the main architectural types in terms of genesis and processes of derivation in successive types. Finally, it examines the practices of different groups of agents and their impacts on morphological change, while stressing the social and economic conditions under which these agents acted. The study is intended as a contribution to the fields of Urban Morphology and Urban History. This case study is among the first to apply in a North American context the theoretical framework and methods developed by the Italian school of process typology. It proposes also to envision morphological transformation through a theory of practice. Drawing heavily on cartographie documentation, urban iconography, and archival material on land development from notarial and religious sources, this urban morphogenetic study posits that the formation of the urban tissue can be better understood as the outeome of a dialectical interplay between purposeful planning practices, everyday "spontaneous" practices, and structurally resilient settlement configurations and urban form inherited from the past.

The consumerism of Western culture has allowed the prevailing suburban development pattern of the latter half of the twentieth century to evolve from a pedestrian-friendly canvas for the American Dream into an iconographic realization of commuting motorists decentralized from social interaction. Symbolizing solitude and privatization. this sprawling environment has become an epidemic deteriorating the social network in the United States: a condition that requires a remedy.With the popularization of traditional neighborhood development. a large majority of newly constructed communities find themselves located away from the realities of the modern bait environment. Like a bomb shelter. occupants have been allowed the opportunity to escape to a time before sprawl. consequently ignoring the problem. In order to address this condition. these issues can no longer go unaddressed they must be healed. This study depicts suburbia as an evolving network requiring a reinsertion of a mixed-functionality into its failed developments in order to reengage the occupant and revive suburbia's communal identity: in turn allowing the resolution to evolve from a bomb shelter to a Band-Aid.With research methods including qualitative assessments of numerous case studies. writings and diagrammatic theories regarding the social realm. interviews. and the consideration of numerous texts regarding interdisciplinary concerns as well as popular culture and sociological understandings. the study defines suburbia as a poachable territory — a construct that harvests opportunities for the occupant to reengage their context. By reversing the evolution from pedestrian to motorist. these interventions allow communities to embezzle the environment in an effort to establish a collective identity and reintroduce a social ream. Furthermore. these theories are then inserted in a generalizable residential development in Carmel. Indiana named Village Park Estates. By analyzing the potential found in these developments this epidemic can begin to be diagnosed allowing the author to establish a solution grounded in the routine of the everyday. / Department of Architecture

Attempts to limit suburban sprawl by publicizing its social, economic, environmental, and health problems have not been effective. An important aspect of this ongoing appeal of sprawl is its promise of ideal community. The discourse of ideal community in advertisements for housing developments in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. echoes discursive constructions by Plato and Aristotle, Rousseau and Kant. Sprawl is therefore another attempt to solve a problem in political thought that originates with the polls, namely, how to envision, authorize, construct, and secure the best possible space, form, and practice of human organization. By constructing secure political community as the physical embodiment of metaphysical truth, a necessary but impossible resolution between nature and culture, this discourse constructs the central problem of politics as unsolvable. Thus the intractability of sprawl needs to be understood as a political problematic where the act of imposing a solution regenerates the original problem.

Introduction: Breast milk is the best way to feed all infants. It results in better nutrition for the infant and to reduced rates of chronic disease later in childhood and adulthood. Breastfed babies have lower rates of infectious diseases and will not be exposed to contaminated infant formula, such as the recent experience with melamine in China. The WHO Expert Consultation on Infant Feeding recommended exclusive breastfeeding for six months, with the introduction of complementary foods and continued breastfeeding thereafter. It was also recommended by the WHO that breastfeeding continue beyond six months for up to two years and beyond. Breastmilk can provide the majority of nutrients for the first 12 months of life. Complementary foods were given in the second half year gradually. / However with the rapid economic development, the traditional home based obstetric system in China has changed. Following the change in women’s living styles, traditional infant feeding perceptions and practices have changed. Women now have high rates of returning to work after delivering a baby, especially in the urban areas, and more infants are being given infant formula and other substitutes for breastfeeding. Zhejiang Province is the one of fastest developing economic regions located in the mid Eastern coast of China. The breastfeeding rate has dropped rapidly since the 1970’s. This has significant implications for the child health in this region. A longitudinal study of breastfeeding was needed to provide the data necessary to implement a comprehensive health promotion program. Efforts are needed to promote breastfeeding, which should be one of the highest health promotion priorities. / The aim of this study was to document the prevalence and duration of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding in city, suburban and rural areas in Zhejiang Province; analyze the factors determining the initiation and the duration of breastfeeding; document mothers’ knowledge about the benefits of breastfeeding; identify the prevalence of problems associated with breastfeeding and constraints to exclusive breastfeeding up to six months of life; document the prevalence of prelacteal feeds and finally to describe differences in breastfeeding between city, suburb and rural area. / Method: In order to achieve these objectives a longitudinal cohort study was undertaken of infant feeding practices in three locations in Zhejiang Province which represent city and suburban and rural areas. Mothers who delivered babies during 2004 and 2005 were randomly selected from the obstetric wards while in hospital and invited to voluntarily participate in the study. The mothers were interviewed in hospital and after discharge, were contacted by telephone three more times at 1, 3 and 6 months. The few mothers who could not be reached by telephone were interviewed during the scheduled routine immunisation clinics at their local MCH clinic. On each of these follow up occasions they were interviewed using a structured questionnaire to obtain details of infant feeding practices. A total of 1520 mothers were recruited in 4 hospitals located in city, suburb and rural areas. Almost all mothers (98%) agreed to participate. All data analyses were carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), release 14.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Descriptive techniques and survival analysis were used to document breastfeeding rates and duration. Cox regression analysis was undertaken to explore factors affecting breastfeeding. / Results: Of the total 1520 mothers were recruited into the study, 628 were from the city, 347 from the suburb and 535 from the rural area. Breastfeeding initiation rates were high in all three locations. Initially more than 95% of the mothers began breastfeeding, but only 50.3% babies averagely in three locations were being exclusively breastfed at discharge. The number of infants being exclusively breastfed prior to discharge was relatively low. Exclusive breastfeeding before discharge was positively related to delivery method, the first feed given to the baby, mother’s place of residence, mother’s age, mothers’ education level and family income. / ‘Any breastfeeding’ rates at discharge and at 1, 3 and 6 months were 96.9%, 96.0%, 89.7% and 76.7% respectively. ‘Exclusive breastfeeding’ rates at discharge, and at 1, 3, 6 months were 50.3%, 55.1%, 45.8% and 3.9% respectively. The average duration of ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ was 44.7 days (95% CI, 41.6-47.9). / Overall about half of mothers gave the babies prelacteal feeds before commencing breastfeeding. This situation was more common in city, compared with the suburban and rural mothers. The prelacteal feeding rates were 62.0%, 36.6% and 39.0% in city, suburb and rural area respectively. / The breastfeeding rates differed by location between the city, suburb and rural areas. ‘Any breastfeeding’ rates in the city, suburb and rural area at discharge were 96.5 %, 96.8 % and 97.4 % respectively, the ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ rates in city, suburb and rural area at discharge were 38.0%, 63.4 % and 61.0 % respectively. The rates of exclusive breastfeeding at six months were only 0.2%, 0.5 % and 7.2 % respectively, well below the Chinese and WHO targets. / The risk factors related to cessation of ‘any breastfeeding’ were ‘mother’s age’, ‘the time the decision to breastfeed was made’, ‘whether the infant was admitted to special care nursery’, ‘mother’s return to work within 6 months’, ‘the early feeding of water and /or other complementary foods, and location of mother’s usual residence. Factors negatively associated with ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ duration were early return to work and to place of residence, with the mothers living in the rural area exclusively breastfeeding for longer. / Delivery method was an important influence on breastfeeding. In this study the highest caesarean section rate was in the city (76%), with a similar rate in the suburbs (74%) and the lowest in the rural area (53%). Mothers who had a caesarean section were less likely to be exclusively breastfeeding on discharge (35.8% in city, 59.6% in the suburbs) compared to vaginal delivery where the rates were 45% and 74.4% respectively. The adjusted odds ratio for exclusive breastfeeding in caesarean section deliveries in the city and suburban mothers was 0.64 (95% CI 0.46, 0.88). / Conclusion: The study has descried the initiation and duration of breastfeeding (to six months) of babies in the different areas of Zhejiang Province. Separate information is provided on the prevalence of ‘any breastfeeding’ and ‘exclusive breastfeeding'. The factors that are associated with the initiation and duration of breastfeeding in Zhejiang Province are documented. Health promotion programs are needed to change some traditional inappropriate breastfeeding perceptions and to promote ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ in the first six months of life in Zhejiang. Education should be given and regulations should be introduced restricting hospital staff from recommending prelacteal and supplementary feeds unless warranted for medical reasons. The research also shows that there would be a benefit to breastfeeding if delivery and lactation leave were extended to six months and if the incidence of caesarean section could be reduced to levels more consistent with WHO expected levels.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 2007. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 305-321).

Thesis ( Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-242). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (PhD) -- University of Western Sydney, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 318-344.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2005.