Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T17:51:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana_Eliane_Casagrande.pdf: 6841127 bytes, checksum: 30dd82d5da876d18630bf3d77ef0e0ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-27 / Fundação Araucária / The research "Population Mobility in the West Coast Region of Paraná: from the countryside to the city" has the objective of analyzing the population dynamics in the West Coast region of Paraná, with approach to rural-urban relationship. It is possible to emphasize the importance of Population Geography and the study of demographic censuses, because through them it became possible to evaluate the established population movements, as well as get an overview of the population, its potential and its demands on regional and local scale. For this, one performed a characterization of the region, its processes as the distribution of the population in the territory, its structure by sex and age groups, education levels, rural-urban migration etc., based on the analysis and comparison of socioeconomic indicators provided by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Paraná Institute of Economic and Social Development (Ipardes). It also seeks, through the Agricultural Censuses and field research, to understand the rural-urban relationship, as well as the influence that the countryside exerts on city and the city on the countryside, in the study area. It was noted, in conclusion, that city and country are inextricably linked in the West Coast region of Paraná, especially in the small municipalities analyzed / A pesquisa Mobilidade Populacional na Região Costa Oeste do Paraná: do campo para a cidade tem o objetivo de analisar a dinâmica populacional na região Costa Oeste do Paraná, tendo como enfoque a relação campo-cidade. Nela cabe destacar a importância da Geografia da População e do estudo dos censos demográficos, pois, por meio deles se tornou possível avaliar os movimentos populacionais estabelecidos, assim como obter um panorama geral da população, suas potencialidades e as suas demandas em escala regional e local. Para isso, realizou-se uma caracterização da região, seus processos como a distribuição da população no território, sua estrutura por sexo e por faixas etárias, níveis de instrução, migração campo-cidade etc., tomando como base a análise e a comparação de indicadores socioeconômicos disponibilizados pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) e pelo Instituto Paranaense de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Ipardes). Também se procura, por meio dos Censos Agropecuários e de pesquisas de campo, compreender a relação campo-cidade, assim como a influência que o campo exerce na cidade e a cidade no campo, na região em estudo. Constatou-se, em conclusão, que campo e cidade estão intrinsicamente ligados na região Costa Oeste do Paraná, principalmente nos pequenos municípios analisados

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:33:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Angela Mara Bento Ribeiro.pdf: 1191558 bytes, checksum: c52ecf07dc9b9ac92c93d583d131d098 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-09-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present study aims to analyze the west cost region of Paraná State from a touristy perspective, specially by the regional tourist planning, considering the programmes, plans and projects managed by federal, state, regional and county public policies. This area started with the Itaipu Binacional Hydroeletric Plant and its lake, constituting a new tourist landscape in that region. Inicially, there were eight counties, and nowadays fiftheen are settled in the region. All these counties, named "lindeiros" or (neighbours) to the Itaipu Lake, look for their development through integrated tourist actions. Starting from the regional and then to the local space, we also investigate Itaipulândia county that is a representative of this region because of the investment in tourist equipments, its history, and resources accrue from Itaipu. / O presente estudo propõe analisar a Região Costa Oeste do Paraná a partir da atividade turística, especialmente através do planejamento turístico regional, considerando os programas, planos e projetos gestados por políticas públicas nos níveis federal, estadual, regional e municipal. A produção deste espaço regional remonta à construção da Usina Hidrelétrica da Itaipu Binacional, que a partir da formação do lago, configurou uma nova paisagem, capitaneada pelo turismo. Inicialmente eram oito municípios paranaenses, que passaram à quinze, seja pela nova constituição física da região ou pelo desmembramento e emancipação de distritos. Todos esses municípios, denominados de lindeiros ao Lago de Itaipu, buscam desenvolver-se através de ações integradas ao turismo. Partindo do regional parte para o local, o município de Itaipulândia expressa essa região pelos investimentos em equipamentos turísticos, pela história da sua formação e pelos recursos advindos dos royalties da Itaipu.

"Edge Effects: Poetry, Place, and Spiritual Practices” focusses on the intersection of the environmental and religious imaginations in the work of five West Coast poets: Robinson Jeffers, Theodore Roethke, Robert Hass, Denise Levertov, and Jan Zwicky. My research examines the selected poems for their reimagination of the sacred perceived through attachments to particular places. For these writers, poetry is a constitutive practice, part of a way of life that includes desire for wise participation in the more-than-human community. Taking into account the poets’ critical reflections and historical-cultural contexts, along with a range of critical and philosophical sources, the poetry is examined as a discursive spiritual exercise. It is seen as conjoined with other focal practices of place, notably meditative walking and attentive looking and listening under the influence of ecospiritual eros. My analysis attends to aesthetics of relinquishment, formal strategies employed to recognize and accept finitude and the non-anthropocentric nature of reality, along with the complementary aesthetics of affirmation, configuration of the goodness of the whole. I identify an orienting feature of West Coast place, particular to each poet, that recurs as a leitmotif for engagement of such aesthetics and related practices. In chapter one, I consider a group of Jeffers’s final poems as part of a project he designated “our De Natura,” attending especially to his affinity for stones and stars. In chapter two, I investigate both Roethke’s and Hass’s configurations of ecospiritual eros in accord with their fascination for flora, while in chapter three, I employ the concepts of “aura” and “resonance” to explicate Levertov’s meditations on the “coming and going” Mount Rainier-Tacoma and Zwicky’s reflective iterations of the sea. / Graduate / 2019-04-04

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology) / Nearly one-third of the world’s tortoises live in South Africa, but little is known about their habitat requirements and feeding ecology. Chersina angulata, the angulate tortoise, is endemic to southern Africa, with a wide distribution along the western and southern coasts. Because this tortoise occupies a number of different habitat types, it has always been considered a generalist herbivore, although little is known about its diet and other needs. This study evaluates the habitat characteristics and feeding ecology of C. angulata at two study sites in the southwestern Cape, the West Coast National Park (WCNP) and Dassen Island (DI). The WCNP is a large conserved area in the Fynbos biome, along the southwestern coast of South Africa, whereas DI is a small offshore island with low floral and faunal diversity, just south of the WCNP. The efficacy of three methods used to study the feeding ecology of herbivores, focal observations, macroscopic faecal analysis and histological analysis of scats, was evaluated. Plant cover, species diversity, and the variety of growth forms were substantially larger at the WCNP than on DI. In the WCNP, shrubs and grasses were the dominant growth forms but the vegetation also included herbs, succulents, restios, sedges and parasitic plants. A few perennial species such as the grass Ehrharta villosa, shrubs such as Helichrysum niveum, Nylandtia spinosa and Rhus spp., and succulents such as Carpobrotus edulis and Ruschia spp., provided most of the plant cover. DI had a depauperate flora, consisting of succulents and herbs, and ephemeral plants contributed more than perennials did to plant cover throughout the year. The succulents Mesembryanthemum crystallinum and Tetragonia fruticosa provided most of the cover on DI. Angulate tortoises are herbivores and 72 diet plants in 32 plant families were identified to the species or genus level. Several diet species, however, could not be identified. In addition to angiosperms, the tortoises’ diet included mosses, mushrooms, insects,snails and animal faeces. The most important growth forms in the diet were herbs and grasses. The diet of the WCNP tortoises was more diverse than the diet of DI tortoises, but the number of principal food items in the diet did not differ between the two sites. Over an annual cycle, WCNP tortoises had four principal food plants while DI tortoises had five principal food plants. At both sites, principal food plants changed with the season and few plants remained principal food items in more than one season. Cynodon dactylon was a principal food item in three of the four seasons in the WCNP, whereas Trachyandra divaricata was a principal food plant each season on DI. Most principal food plants were grass or herb species but the sedge Ficinia nigrescens, and a succulent that could be identified only to the family level (Aizoaceae), featured strongly in the spring diets of DI and WCNP tortoises, respectively. The three study methods did not provide the same type or quality of information about the feeding ecology of angulate tortoises. The small size and wary nature of angulate tortoises compromised focal studies because it was often not possible to see what the tortoises ate. This method, however, provided the interesting observation that rabbit faecal pellets contributed nearly 30% to summer and autumn diets on DI when food was scarce. Rabbit faeces may not only provide a source of nutrients but may also supplement the microflora, required to digest cellulose, in the tortoises’ guts. Macroscopic evaluation of the tortoises’ scats appeared to be an ineffective method to identify diet plants, and the bulk of the scat mass could not be identified. This indicates that angulate tortoises either selected food low in fibrous content or that the digestive system of the tortoises dealt efficiently with tough plant material. The macroscopic method was the only method that highlighted the large contribution of fruits / seeds to the diet of angulate tortoises. Since the tortoises digested many seeds only partially, or not at all, C. angulata is potentially an important agent of seed dispersal in the southwestern Cape. The macroscopic study showed that on DI, sand made up 28% of the scat mass in spring, whereas sand never made a substantial contribution to the scat composition of WCNP tortoises. Lithophagy may be an important strategy in a depauperate habitat, such as DI, because the abrasive action of sand may help with the digestion of tough plants, or the sand may provide the tortoises with important minerals that are deficient in their food plants.The histological analysis of scats provided the most comprehensive diet list for C. angulata. Selection indices based on data from the histological analysis indicated that angulate tortoises were highly selective in their food choice. Most of the principal food items were selected out of proportion to their availability and the tortoises avoided the most abundant plants in their habitats. Several factors, such as palatability, accessibility and profitability, may have influenced their food choice. The proportional similarity indices for WCNP and DI tortoises, respectively, were 0.31 and 0.16, confirming that C. angulata is a food specialist and not a food generalist as was previously thought. This factor should be considered in the management of this species and in future conservation planning of its habitat. / South Africa

Birthweight is powerful predictor of infant growth and survival. Premature birth and intrauterine growth retardation of birthweight. Maternal environment is important underlying determinant of birthweight. Common lifestyle risk factors include maternal under-nutrition, smoking, alcohol and social factors and stress. The Winelands/West Coast region has high rates of low birthweight. In addition, alcohol abuse and smoking are major problems in this area. The aim of this quantitative case-control study was to determine the epidemiology of low birthweight, related to lifestyle behaviours in pregnant women, with particular attention to lifestyle factors such as alcohol, smoking, and stress-related factors.

Examination of the context of record creation, maintenance, and use is a valuable tool which allows the archivist to build a body of knowledge regarding archival records and their creators. Such knowledge enables the archivist to make informed decisions in all realms of archival practice. This discussion focuses upon the women's organization, undertaking a case study of three organizations in Vancouver, British Columbia in order to provide information about their record keeping practices. The case study employs open-ended focus interviews, observation, and document analysis, where provided. Participants are selected based upon their involvement in the creation, maintenance, and use of records in their respective organizations. They are asked to provide information as to the administrative history of the organization and to describe the processes by which they receive, create, use, organize, maintain, and destroy records. Participants are also asked to characterize their organization and its record keeping practices as they relate to the concept of a women's organization. A framework for analysis is established, which allows for further characterization of each women's organization. This framework addresses the voluntary nature of most women's organizations, as well as their unique processes and forms. Three models are presented which allow for further characterization of the history, structure, and practices of each organization. The distinctive internal processes, forms, and record keeping practices of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Western Businesswomen's Association, and the West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund are presented. The thesis concludes by providing recommendations regarding further explorations of record creation, maintenance, and use and their value for the archival profession.

The structure of a forest stand is characterized by: (a) species composition, (b) age, (c) size (diameter and height), and (d) spatial (horizontal and vertical) arrangement of the trees. Depending on the species, site, and disturbance history, the stand structure varies with time, thus providing a snapshot of a particular development stage. Research on growth and stand structure has shown that the spatial distribution of trees is one of the key determinants of stand productivity. Forest inventories and ecological surveys carried out in British Columbia (BC) have shown that the structure of naturally established, unmanaged stands varies from simple (single-species, single-storied, and even-aged) to complex (multi-species, multi-storied, and uneven-aged). Only a few studies have quantitatively characterized this range of structural complexity, with nearly all studies focusing on old-growth stands. BC forest policy requires that harvested areas be regenerated with a mixture of tree species whenever a mixture is suited to the site. This policy is based upon the assumption that under appropriate conditions, increases in stand productivity, reliability, and/or biodiversity can be attained in mixed-species stands. This assumption has not yet been tested for forest ecosystems. One mechanism by which different tree species can reduce crown competition for light is through vertical separation (the development of multiple canopy strata). Canopy stratification is not easily recognized in mixed-species stands, particularly when species have similar shade tolerance and height growth patterns, and no quantitative methods have been developed to detect stratification. The diameter frequency distribution of two-storied stands have been characterized by inverted J-shaped as well as modal curves. Although it would be more appropriate to characterize stand structure by height frequency distributions, these distributions have not been developed. We suggest that (i) a stand is stratified if there are distinct, quantitatifiable modes in the size distribution; either diameter, height, or crown height, and (ii) height or crown height distributions will be the most sensitive measures. To characterize the structure of western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) (Hw) and western redcedar (Thuja plicata Donn ex D. Don in Lamb.) (Cw) second-growth stands, and to investigate its influence on tree growth, we (1) described and compared size (diameter, height, and crown height) frequency distributions in single- and mixed-species stands, (2) determined whether mixed-species stands develop a stratified canopy, and (3) examined whether interactions between hemlock and redcedar affect tree growth.

The influence of tree species on forest soils has been the subject of study for at least a century. Of particular interest have been western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) and western redcedar (Thuja plicata Donn ex D. Don) – two of the most common tree species in coastal and southern British Columbia, but each with a different nutrient amplitude. It has generally been found that acid, mycogeneous Mor humus forms develop in hemlock stands, while less acid and more zoogenous Mormoder, Moder, or even Mull humus forms develop in redcedar stands. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of hemlock and redcedar, growing separately and together, on forest floor nutrient properties. The questions addressed were: (1) does each stand type have unique forest floor nutrient properties? and (2) can any forest floor nutrient property discriminate between stand types?

This thesis addresses two fundamental topics in Engineering Seismology; the application of Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) methodology, and the estimation of measures of Strong Ground Motion. These two topics, while being related, are presented as separate sections. In the first section, state-of-the-art PSHA methodologies are applied to various sites in the Buller Region, South Island, New Zealand. These sites are deemed critical to the maintenance of economic stability in the region. A fault-source based seismicity model is developed for the region that is consistent with the governing tectonic loading, and seismic moment release of the region. In attempting to ensure this consistency the apparent anomaly between the rates of activity dictated by deformation throughout the Quaternary, and rates of activity dictated by observed seismicity is addressed. Individual fault source activity is determined following the application of a Bayesian Inference procedure in which observed earthquake events are attributed to causative faults in the study region. The activity of fault sources, in general, is assumed to be governed by bounded power law behaviour. An exception is made for the Alpine Fault which is modelled as a purely characteristic source. The calculation of rates of exceedance of various ground motion indices is made using a combination of Poissonian and time-dependent earthquake occurrence models. The various ground motion indices for which rates of exceedance are determined include peak ground acceleration, ordinates of 5% damped Spectral Acceleration, and Arias Intensity. The total hazard determined for each of these ground motion measures is decomposed using a four dimensional disaggregation procedure. From this disaggregation procedure, design earthquake scenarios are specified for the sites that are considered. The second part of the thesis is concerned with the estimation of ground motion measures that are more informative than the existing scalar measures that are available for use in New Zealand. Models are developed for the prediction of Fourier Amplitude Spectra (FAS) as well as Arias Intensity for use in the New Zealand environment. The FAS model can be used to generate ground motion time histories for use in structural and geotechnical analyses. Arias Intensity has been shown to be an important strong motion measure due to its positive correlation with damage in short period structures as well as its utility in predicting the onset of liquefaction and landslides. The models are based upon the analysis of a dataset of New Zealand Strong Motion records as well as supplementary near field records from major overseas events. While the two measures of ground motion intensity are strongly related, different methods have been adopted in order to develop the models. As part of the methodology used for the FAS model, Monte Carlo simulation coupled with a simple ray tracing procedure is employed to estimate source spectra from various New Zealand earthquakes and, consequently, a magnitude - corner-frequency relationship is obtained. In general, the parameters of the predictive equations are determined using the most state-of-the-art mixed effects regression procedures.

Birthweight is powerful predictor of infant growth and survival. Premature birth and intrauterine growth retardation of birthweight. Maternal environment is important underlying determinant of birthweight. Common lifestyle risk factors include maternal under-nutrition, smoking, alcohol and social factors and stress. The Winelands/West Coast region has high rates of low birthweight. In addition, alcohol abuse and smoking are major problems in this area. The aim of this quantitative case-control study was to determine the epidemiology of low birthweight, related to lifestyle behaviours in pregnant women, with particular attention to lifestyle factors such as alcohol, smoking, and stress-related factors. / Master of Public Health - MPH