Women in Central Appalachia represent a significant proportion of those engaging in problematic patterns of opioid use, which is concerning given the limited available services in the region and gender specific treatment barriers. This investigation seeks to understand the role of mental health and substance use symptoms among incarcerated Central Appalachian women and build on the conceptual model of substance use treatment utilization purposed by Leukefeld and colleagues (1998). Data for this study was drawn from a larger longitudinal investigation (NIDA 1R01-DA033866) and baseline data collected during initial interviews was analyzed. The sample included 400 women incarcerated at one of three central Appalachian jails. Bivariate analyses determined significant relationships between symptoms of depression, anxiety, trauma and substance use. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the factors influencing treatment utilization. The overall multivariate model of treatment utilization with eight factors (income, overdose history, injection drug use, entered detox, attended self-help groups, substance use problems, number of children, and no way to get to their provider) significantly improved the prediction of treatment utilization. Implications of this study highlight the importance of continued interventions at the individual, community, and policy level.

This study attempts to improve the delivery of health services by applying operations research techniques to hospital admission systems. Although this study applies to hospital admissions systems in general, the admission system of one ward of one hospital was chosen to be the central object in the study. A computer simulation model was formulated to examine the -results of various policies. In the model, the admission of patients is determined primarily by the scheduling of the operating theatre and secondarily by the availability of beds. The three standard priorities for hospital admissions (elective, urgent and emergent) are given separate considerations as would be the case in real life; because scheduling can be much more flexible for elective patients, while time must be set aside for emergent patients although the hospital has no advance information about them. The general results of this study led to two suggestions that would improve most existing admission systems. The first requires that the hospital set up a special class of patients, the "quickcall patients," who would be willing to be admitted for surgery on short notice. It was shown that this procedure significantly reduced the waiting time for elective surgery. The second requires that the hospital limit each physician to a fixed number of requests for elective surgery at any given time, so that the hospital need not keep extensive files. The model could be extended to examine (1) the sensitivity of the schedule to referral patients, (2) the higher utilization of the operating theatre and (3) waiting priority based on patient need and/or utility. In conclusion the simulation study indicated that these policies if implemented would significantly reduce the waiting time (29% in the model), and increase the hospital's effectiveness in assessing the order of admission for patients. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Raspberry pomace, consisting of seeds, pulp and added rice hulls, is the residue from the pressing of raspberries for juice and concentrate production. Through the determination of chemical composition by laboratory analyses and the measurement of feeding value in animal trials, the pomace was evaluated as a feedstuff for growing pigs. Pomace contains 11.1% crude fat, 10.0% crude protein, 59.5% total dietary fibre, 7.4% soluble carbohydrates, and a gross energy level of 5220 kcal*kg⁻¹. The acid detergent residue of the pomace contains 11.7% lignin, 6.0% cutin, 2.2% acid detergent ash and 26.0% cellulose (by difference). The digestibility of dry matter, fat, protein and energy was determined. Pomace dried at 60 C, whole and ground (1mm) was fed to growing male pigs (30-35 kg) in a replicated 4X4 Latin Square design with treatments basal (B) , B plus 40% unground pomace, B plus 40% ground pomace and B plus 40% barley. Grinding of pomace significantly improved the digestibility of all parameters measured, however, the barley-soybean meal basal ration was consistently better digested than either of the pomace treatments. The digestibility of whole and ground pomace was respectively: dry matter 10.7% and 20.8% (S.E.M. 1.30), fat 24.1% and 79.7% (S.E.M. 3.47), protein 10.6% and 14.7% (S.E.M. 4.83) and energy 7.9% and 28.4% (S.E.M. 1.80). Protein quality of ground (1mm) and freeze-dried pomace was evaluated with rats in metabolism cages to produce the following values: true protein digestibility 36.0% (S.E.M. 0.66), biological value 91.0% (S.E.M. 3.46), and net protein utilization 32.7% (S.E.M. 1.15). In rat growth trials, where pomace replaced barley incrementally, growth rate was not affected at replacement levels up to 40%, although feed efficiency declined consistently as the level of pomace in the diet increased. It is suggested that raspberry pomace could replace up to 20% of an energy feedstuff in a ration for growing swine without significantly reducing growth rate or feed efficiency. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

This thesis deals with the fast-growing trees (FGT). The aim of the work will be to create a list of parameters, limiting or conditioning the creation of supply chains (or clusters), focused on the exploitation of local renewable energy sources. The theoretical part will focus on the harvest of FGT and their possible utilization. The practical part includes the views of people, representing different areas. The practical part will also include the calculation of area performance and initial costs in setting up FGT at the village of Smilovy Hory. In conclusion, findings will be summarized and evaluated.

The objectives o-f this research were to investigate the effects of blending Canbra or Canola oil with other oils or fats on the nutritive value and autoxidative stability of the blended oils, and to investigate the possibility of using hydrolyzed oils (free fatty acids) in the study of fatty acid balancing. Canbra oil (containing 6.1% erucic acid) was blended with sunflower oil or animal lard 1/1 (w/w). Canola oil (0.55% erucic acid) was blended with sunflower oil in the ratios 9/1, 8/2, 7/3, 6/4 and 5/5. The nutritional value was assayed using growing chicks fed lipid at 3% in a practical diet during a 4 week feeding period. Evaluation was made using body weight, weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion, feed digestibility, lipid digestibility, total fatty acid digestibility, metabolizable energy and individual fatty acid digestibility. Results show that Canbra oil is equivalent to animal lard but significantly inferior to sunflower oil. Blending Canbra oil and sunflower oil or animal lard improved chick growth and fatty acid utilization over that demonstrated by the Canbra oil alone. Canola oil was equivalent to sunflower oil and soybean oil in supporting chick growth. The 7/3 and 5/5 blends showed synergistic improvement in promoting growth, fatty acid, protein and metabolizable energy utilization. It was concluded that Canola oil is nutritionally equivalent to either sunflower oil or soybean oil and that blending with sun-flower oil further improved its nutritional value. Oil blending rendered no significant detrimental effects on stability. The fatty acids of hydrolyzed Canola and sunflower oil showed nutritive performance equivalent to that of the intact oils. The fatty acids of a hydrolyzed 5/5 blend of Canola oil and sunflower oil showed reduced absorption of some fatty acids and the fatty acids of hydrolyzed soybean oil showed reduced diet and fatty acid absorption relative to the intact oils. These results demonstrate that feeding hydrolyzed oils may be a useful method of investigating fatty acid balance but more research is required in this area. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

The impact of the introduction of hospital medical day care programs on inpatient use was studied, to see if there was a reduction in average lengths of stay, cases or patient days, for those diagnostic categories in the programs. The provincial government funded these programs to create an alternative to hospitalization. Studies on the issue of whether or not day care is an alternative or substitutes for inpatient use were examined. Interest in ambulatory care is growing because of the increasing age of the population, increasing duration of chronic illness and increasing costs of hospital services. Three programs at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, B.C. were chosen: Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (CO.L.D.) program, Diabetic Day Care,and the Neuro (Neurology) program. The population for study were divided into four groups: those from North and West Vancouver who used Lions Gate Hospital, patients from the rest of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (G.V.R.D.) who used other G.V.R.D. hospitals, arid to allow for 'spill-out' cases, those from North and West Vancouver who used other hospitals in the province and those from the rest of the G.V.R.D. who used Lions Gate Hospital. The methodology involved the use of a multiple time series design which would allow some comparison before and after the introduction of the CO.L.D. program, as well as comparison between the North Shore and the rest of the G.V.R.D. A regression analysis, using a dummy variable for the CO.L.D. program, on average length, of stay, cases and patient days showed no statistically significant results. The data collection period, 1970 to 1979/80, does not provide conclusive answers for Diabetic Day Care, introduced at Lions Gate Hospital in 1966 and in some of the hospitals of the rest of the G.V.R.D. in 1972, or for the Neuro program, introduced at Lions Gate Hospital in 1979. However, population and age adjusted cases and patient days for all three programs are consistently higher in the rest of the G.V.R.D. when compared with North and West Vancouver and deserve further investigation. The implications from this study, that there is no impact from medical day care, programs on rates of inpatient use, is consistent with similar studies on Diabetic Day Care and Day Care Surgery. The health care system does not seem to be able to respond to innovations of this type and they are additions to existing services. / Medicine, Faculty of / Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of / Graduate

The current way of “doing” inclusive education in many US public schools includes re-imagining the spaces where a young person is receiving their educational services. Still, many schools and programs are set up to provide specialized educational services in a specific place. Most often, this place is outside of the general education classroom and deemed to have rehabilitative properties. Therefore, research that draws on the lived experiences of people in restricted educational programs is needed to understand more clearly how policies of inclusion and exclusion are not only enacted, but lived by the people inhabiting those spaces. By designing a qualitative study that is an ethnographic narrative inquiry, this project describes restricted educational programs from the perspectives of the people who occupy them. This study draws on the words and experiences of participants within restricted educational programs to explore what a concerted focus on the spatial dimension illuminates about these spaces and youth learning. Taking an iterative approach this study used ethnographic methods such as, participant observation and open-ended and semi-structured interviewing to inquire alongside educators who work with young people with disabilities and young people who are court involved in restrictive educational programs. The methodological choice to collect data at two separate restricted educational programs, one in-school and one after school was intentional to investigate the nature of the label “restrictive” and its spatial properties. The research demonstrates that spaces are dynamic and fluid but often limited by the socio-spatial location such as, during or after school. Often it is the adults within each respective space who engage in practices of teaching and learning which either limit youth or provide youth with more expansive curricular possibilities. More consistently youth engage in practices, which add to the dynamic nature of how spaces are socially produced. From this an understanding of the project of inclusive education emerges which demands concerted attention be paid to the spatial dimension of inquiry, one that requires educators, more broadly, to participate in reflexive practices related to understanding their own socio-spatial position along with the socio-spatial position of the youth with whom they are constructing spaces.

Academic support resources are increasingly available to military-connected youth; however, the military community, in general, tends to under-utilize available resources. The research literature has not clearly identified accessibility to military academic support resources or perceived effectiveness of resources as explanations for under-utilization of adolescent support services. The current research study examines military parents' perceptions of academic resource programs looking at how parents' perception of resource accessibility and resource effectiveness were related to program utilization. Based on qualitative analysis of military parent interviews, utilization was related to both accessibility and effectiveness. This research adds to the literature by identifying the relationship to between accessibility and utilization and reported effectiveness and utilization of academic support resources.

Current rule-utilization research indicated that subjects successively tested multiple conceptual rules, available from natural preexperimental experience, to solve a sorting task. Prior results suggested that older subjects were more efficient in utilizing rules and shifting to unused rules, possibly due to the availability of more conceptual rules at higher age levels. The experimental groups consisted of third, fourth, sixth, ninth graders, and college students. Each of the five groups contained 16 subjects. The rule-utilization procedure was applied to each group. The procedure contained a multitrial, card sorting task. The feedback given at the end of each trial was limited to the correctness of the entire card sort and did not provide information on the correctness of the sorting for any individual card. All subjects in each group were run until they used both bidimensional rules (the conjunctive and the inclusive-disjunctive rule), or until a limit of 30 trials was reached.

No description available.