Contemporary networking in Canada, like most of the developed world, involves significant use of media to maintain relationships. This is not the use of media for faraway alters where in person contact is difficult, but media use within the very fabric of everyday life alongside in person contact. Past debates about the effects of new media have frequently focused on a medium's potential for social isolation. These debates have resulted in ambiguous, muted or contradictory findings. So instead of suggesting another response to the issue of social isolation, this thesis reorients the focus towards a different question: under what conditions are alters accessible and how does multiple media use affect this accessibility? Rather than suggest that new media simply offer "more" social accessibility, I contend that they complicate social accessibility by offering individuals increasingly differentiated ways to habitually maintain contact with each other. The result of this differentiation is that while individuals might be able to maintain contact with more alters (or at least just as many) in the abstract sense, they end up maintaining contact with the most accessible alters rather than alters with whom one has the strongest ties. This is the conundrum of multiple media use: how is it that each individual medium offers increased convenience but the sum total of media use makes life less convenient, more planned and more complicated? I suggest it is because media use cuts across longstanding social norms of public and private spaces (or public and private time) without offering a coherent normative framework as a substitute. Instead, individuals are differentially accessible via each medium. Moreover, this accessibility is related more to emergent personal habits than to tie strength. Data for this study comes from 350 random-sample surveys and 86 follow-up social network-oriented interviews in East York, a former borough on the east side of downtown Toronto, Canada. The data were collected in 2005, before the widespread adoption of social networking software, but after the widespread adoption of cellular telephones, instant messaging services and email.

The effect transit investments can have on surrounding land uses has been studied in planning literature. Often it is argued that high-density, more sustainable development occurs around stations on newly constructed transit lines. This study examines the impacts of the Yonge-University-Spadina line on development in the north ends of the city of Toronto. This study is guided by three objectives. First, the research aims to determine the extent of the differences in built form and densities between the two study sites. Second, the thesis explains why these differences have emerged and what factors have shaped the evolution of the two sites. Based on the first two analyses, the research provides recommendations to encourage intensified, transit-oriented development in areas that currently do not reflect these principles. A variety of methods are used to achieve these objectives including: an analysis of empirical census data, a comparison of land uses and built form through archive and current photographs, a property value comparison, a transit ridership analysis, a review of archive newspaper articles, an examination of previous and existing policy documents, and a review of previously conducted interviews with Toronto area developers and municipal officials. This study concludes that the Yonge line has experienced significantly more growth over time than the Spadina line. It finds that the policy provisions that dictate development along the Yonge line are much more conducive to intensified growth. As a result, recommendations are made that the city establishes a similar policy framework for land around the Spadina line so that obstacles to potential for intensified growth may be eliminated. More specifically, the thesis identifies contemporary monetary and policy incentives to developers to encourage sustainable development.

Nurses who work with people who use drugs in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver (DTES), British Columbia are on the forefront in advancing a harm reduction framework in very controversial, cutting-edge practice environments. The purpose of this study was to explore how these nurses, using the framework of harm reduction, make sense of their nursing practice. It is hoped that the results of this study may advance adopting a harm reduction framework in nursing practice, education and policy development and serve as the foundation for further nursing research. This study utilized a qualitative interpretive descriptive methodology to gather data from eight nurses who work with people who use drugs in harm reduction practice environments. The nurses were divided into two focus groups and data was collected through a semi-structured focus group interview. Following initial data analysis, each focus group was reconvened and a second semi-structured group interview was held to clarify and to further discuss the emerging themes. The data analysis proceeded simultaneously with the interviews utilizing a process of constant comparative analysis. I completed the thematic analysis as I moved between the transcripts and identified commonalties and variations within the emerging themes. Ultimately, I described one overarching theme, which encapsulated the range of experiences described by the nurses. The theme that I identified was: meeting people where they are at. The importance to the nurses of both the therapeutic nurse-client relationship and a commitment to praxis were apparent. In conclusion, the value the nurses placed on "meeting people where they are at" was integral in gaining an understanding of how they make sense of their nursing work.

No description available.

This thesis discusses language use by sixth grade students in the English-German bilingual program in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This bilingual program started out as a heritage language program in the early 1980s, and continues to be well attended. This project looked at the way in which students used both English and German with a fluently bilingual interviewer in an out-of-classroom setting. The study started with the following research questions: 1. How do children currently being educated in the English-German bilingual program in Winnipeg, Manitoba use German (the second language or L2) and English in out-of-classroom contexts? 2. What kind of borrowing tendencies do sixth grade students share? 3. What do these tendencies tell us about children’s bilingual language use and their communication strategies? It is often assumed that use of L1 when speaking L2 is a sign of laziness or a sign of low language proficiency. However, based on a thorough linguistic analysis of two interviews as case studies, it became clear that borrowing is used for far more diverse purposes than the simple filling of lexical gaps. After an examination that included cultural vs. core borrowing, structural transference, and discourse-related borrowing, the data suggests that depending on the proficiency of the speaker, borrowing is an extremely important communication tool that not only allows the speaker to become more proficient in their L2, but also a more highly developed bilingual.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore bicycle use and attitudes towards cycling through case study analyses in Halifax Regional Municipality and the Region of Waterloo. There are two main sections of analyses; the first investigates factors that have been shown by previous research to be associated with cycling behavior for each of the study areas, and the second focuses on the results of a bicycle survey administered for the purpose of this research. The statistical analysis in Part 1 applies Fisher’s Exact Test to reveal statistically significant associations in the survey data. These two sections of analysis are compared and the following conclusions offered: 1. Cycling use is likely associated with city size, density, weather, topography, age, and gender. 2. Cycling trip purpose in Halifax is associated with weather; in Waterloo, trip purpose is associated with weather, gender, and employment. 3. Cycling use in Waterloo is associated with weather, age, gender, employment, and income. 4. There is strong evidence that the provision of bicycle infrastructure has a strong association with bicycle use. In the context of increasing bicycle use, the principal finding is the association between the provision of bicycle infrastructure and increased cycling use. In Waterloo, where the rate of cycling use is higher than in Halifax, there is approximately twice the total number of kilometres of on-street bicycle routes and respondents reported living significantly closer to bike paths, lanes, or trails. In Halifax, where cycling use is less common, respondents expressed much more concern regarding inadequate cycling infrastructure and an overall dissatisfaction with the quality of cycling facilities. These findings reaffirm the previous research suggesting that the provision of more bicycle lanes, paths, route signage, and parking facilities is associated with higher rates of bicycle use among the general public.

This cross-sectional study described antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in healthy pigs in 20 Alberta and Saskatchewan herds. All herds used antimicrobials; the daily probability of antimicrobial exposure was 0.8 for nursery pigs and 0.3 for grow-finish pigs. Salmonella spp. (n = 468) were isolated from nursery, grow-finish pigs and sows while <i>Escherichia coli</i> (n = 1439) and <i>Campylobacter</i> spp. (n = 405) were isolated from grow-finish pigs. <p>Fifty-nine percent of the Salmonella were pansusceptible. Isolates from sows were more likely to be pansusceptible than those from other production phases, while Salmonella from nursery pigs were more likely to be multiresistant. All Salmonella and E. coli were susceptible to ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin, drugs critically important to human medicine, while one E. coli was resistant to ceftiofur. Resistance was most common to tetracycline and sulfamethoxazole (Salmonella, 35% and 27%; E. coli, 68% and 46%). Although often considered an indicator organism, <i>E. coli</i> AMR was a poor sentinel for Salmonella AMR at the herd-level. <p>Antimicrobial resistance genes, described in 151 <i>E. coli</i>, were associated in two sets: aadA1 / sul1 / tetA and blaTEM / strA strB / sul2 / tetB. Associations between genes consistently matched associations between phenotypes suggesting phenotype data may be useful for predicting co-selection. Demonstrating dose-response relationships between various antimicrobial exposures and resistance phenotypes in E. coli reiterated the importance of co-selection. Significant predictors included exposures in other production phases and to unrelated drugs. Four <i>E. coli </i> resistance-phenotypes were associated with macrolide exposure; the most commonly used antimicrobial class in study herds. Additionally, 70% of the Campylobacter were resistant to a macrolide and this resistance was associated with macrolide exposure in nursery pigs. Study herds did not use quinolones. Despite this, 15% of Campylobacter were resistant to a quinolone. Both Campylobacter and <i>E. coli</i> AMR clustered within herds, indicating on-farm interventions could mitigate AMR in pigs.<p>This study described AMR in enteric bacteria from healthy pigs. Identifying dose-response relationships between antimicrobial resistances and exposures to unrelated drugs, and exposures of pigs in different production phases, emphasize the importance of judicious antimicrobial use in pig production.

Tanning bed use, especially among young, white females, has become a serious health problem in the United States. Those who use tanning beds value a tanned appearance; thus, one possible way to get individuals to stop using tanning beds is to persuade them to begin using an alternative method: a sunless tanner. This study sought to use persuasive messages to encourage individuals to both stop using tanning beds and start using a sunless tanner. Deviance Regulation Theory (DRT) was used to design three messages, and source expertise was manipulated (high and low). In addition, attitudes, perceived norms, benefits and threats about tanning were examined. Results indicate that the combination of DRT message design and source expertise produced several message conditions that were effective at decreasing tanning bed use intent. No combined message condition was effective at changing sunless tanner use intent. DRT message design alone did not produce results, nor did source expertise. Tanning attitudes were influenced by reference groups, and perceived norms about tanning predicted individual‘s tanning bed use for several reference groups. In addition, there was an interaction between benefits and threats of tanning.

In 2004, Tim O¡¦Reilly brought up the ideas ofWEB 2.0 to describe the internet phenomenon for the incoming future.Tim noticed the WEB 2.0 concept that focused on the internet characteristics such as user-generation involvement ,openness API structure, and the group sharing and interactions. He predicted the websites owners will create internet surroundings which will be controlled by user themselves.Also, the owners will return the authorities such as publishing contents and feedback of the articles on websites to the users. According to that, this study through the ¡uUse and Gratification¡vtheory to focus on evolving the individual difference between users motivations, behaviors and satisfications when they having the more and greater freedoms on internet. This study found that the users between 20 to 40 years old are the majority who lives the WEB 2.0 internet surroundings. For these researches, female users are more than males, and approximately 41.9% users log on the WEB2.0 websites six times a week, 46.6% of overall users surf on these websites for one to two hours. The most common activities the users do is ¡uinformation collection and sharing¡v, between 21:00 to 00:00. Furthermore, this study through the personnal characteristics found that the ages, professions, sex, and educations have siginificant differences on the motivation of using internet. Also, the convience of download and upload information has the highest scale on user¡¦s satisfication. This research indicates that users are more satisfied on information convience than other functions when staying in the WEB2.0 interface platforms. Besides, this study also found on the ¡usatisfication of achievements¡vaspect of motivations, not only the anticipated¡usatisfication of achievement¡vaspect, but also ¡uconvenience of information collection and delievery¡v¡B¡usatisfication of entertainment and interaction¡vand¡usatisfication of psychological performance¡v aspects have siginificant positive influence on the user¡¦s behaviors and overall satisfications. This study also proved the ideas Tim O¡¦Reilly mentioned before, which is about increasing individual values under the user-generation-content interface.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.