This research examined notions of belonging and sense of community through a set of layered lenses that integrated a social model of aging with phenomenology to gain a better understanding of the lived experiences of individuals residing in a long-term care (LTC) home. Conducted in a for-profit LTC home in Ontario, this study analyzed messaging in marketing materials supplied to potential residents and their families in anticipation of a move to a LTC home and in the staff policies and procedures manuals using document and narrative analysis. Themes emerging from this phase were then compared with the first-hand experiences of living in a LTC home as told by residents through the use of a focus group (n=6) and individual interviews (n=6) and experiences of working in a LTC home as described by interviews with staff (n=6). Analysis of marketing documents revealed the theme of let us be your caring community. As messaged in these documents, the LTC home supported residents by caring, embodying the ideals of home through natural living spaces, and supporting meaningful personal connections. This contrasted with messages found in the staff policy manuals. Divided discourses highlighted the tangible complexities of implementing a person-centered philosophy within a business model by describing the industry of care, prescribed customer service, fabricating normalcy and, to a much lesser extent, promoting the practice of person-centered care. Residents’ phenomenological stories illustrated variable un/belonging within a LTC home. Personal experiences of the institutional erosion of belonging, congregate nature of living in a LTC home, changing nature of personal relationships and the prescriptive living environment routinized day-to-day experiences and provided a stark contrast between belonging in community and un/belonging in a LTC home. Weaving belonging into daily tasks described how staff members laboured daily at working to personalize LTC home living, and how they were helpless to prevent losses in community and belonging. After completing the research and analysis of the promotional materials, policy and procedures manuals, and resident and staff transcripts I conducted a broader level analysis of all four sets of themes in order to get a sense of the whole. I concluded there were five tensions of: constructing home from the outside; person-centered care within a biomedical, business model; promoting individuality in a congregate structure; synthetic connections at the expense of long-standing relationships; and fostering living in a death-indifferent culture which justified society’s need to divide and regulate. Incorporating a range of data including promotional materials, policy and procedures manuals, and the voices of both residents and staff, these tensions are not only implicit in the culture of Manor House but within the overarching structure of LTC homes in general and have deep implications on the standing and status bestowed upon older adults in Canadian culture. My intention was to bring to light the contextualized lived experiences of individuals living at Manor House and highlight the structural and social barriers that continue to produce discrimination by “problematizing” aging and subsequently fostering notions of presumably acceptable dividing practices (Foucault, 1982) within society. By examining meanings and experiences of community in a LTC home, and also recognizing the systemic, structural and cultural factors that may shape those experiences, I sought to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the lifeworlds of individuals living within a LTC home.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different joint positions, rotator cuff muscle fatigue and experience on shoulder proprioceptive sense among male volleyball players. The participants of the study were 20 experienced (Mage= 20.7 &amp / #61617 / 2.8) and 20 inexperienced (Mage= 17.1 &amp / #61617 / 1.0) male volleyball players being members of first league volleyball teams. Measurements were made by Biodex System 3 pro (Biodex Medical Systems, Inc., New York, USA) and only dominant extremities were assessed. Shoulder proprioceptive sense was determined by measuring participant&rsquo / s perception of joint position sense with the joint at 90&amp / #61616 / abduction, external rotation and 90&amp / #61616 / abduction, neutral rotation. Participants were tested at a speed of 2 deg/s before and after exercising on an isokinetic testing machine until fatigued. Fatigue protocol was practiced at 60 deg/s and it was terminated when the internal rotation maximal peak torque decreased by 50%. There was significant difference between proprioceptive sense of inexperienced volleyball players at 10&amp / #61616 / -20&amp / #61616 / (p&lt / .01) and 15&amp / #61616 / -20&amp / #61616 / (p&lt / .05) in external rotation before fatigue. The difference between before and after fatigue proprioceptive sense of experienced volleyball players at 20&amp / #61616 / (p&lt / .05) was found statistically significant, whereas the significant difference was observed between before and after fatigue proprioceptive sense of inexperienced players at 10&amp / #61616 / (p&lt / .01) and 15&amp / #61616 / (p&lt / .05) in internal rotation. It was concluded that the effect of fatigue on proprioceptive sense is related with experience, but experience itself had no effect on proprioceptive sense.

Ethylene (C2H4) is a very simple molecule, a gas, and has numerous effects on the growth, development and storage life of many fruits, vegetables and ornamental crops. In higher plants, ethylene is produced from L-methionine in essentially all tissues and ACC Synthase and ACC Oxidase are the two key enzymes in the biosynthesis of ethylene. The objective of the present study was to transform tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Samsun) plant with partial sequence of torenia acc oxidase gene in antisense and sense orientations via Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer system, and to analyze its effect on ethylene production in transgenic plants. Six antisense and seven sense T0 putative transgenic lines were obtained and were further analyzed with several assays. Leaf disc assay and chlorophenol red assay under selection (75 mg/L kanamycin) revealed positive results compared to the non-transformed plant. T1 generations were obtained from all putative transgenic lines. PCR analysis and Northern Blot Hybridization results confirmed the transgenic nature of T1 progeny. Furthermore, ethylene amount produced by flowers were measured with gas chromatography, which resulted in an average of 77% reduction in S7 line and 72% reduction in A1 line compared with the control flowers. These results indicated that, transgenic tobacco plants carrying torenia acc oxidase transgene both in antisense and sense orientations showed reduced ethylene production thus a possibility of flower life extension.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of hands-on activity enriched instruction on sixth grade students&rsquo / achievement (on sense organs) and attitudes towards science. In this study, Science Achievement Test and Science Attitude Scale were used to assess students&rsquo / achievement on sense organs and students&rsquo / attitudes towards science, respectively. Also, hands-on activities about sense organs were prepared. This study was conducted with 2 teachers and 4 classes and total of 140 sixth grade students in the public elementary schools at Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren district of Ankara in the fall semester of 2002-2003 academic years. One class of each teacher was assigned as experimental group and treated with hands-on activity enriched instruction and other class was assigned as control group and treated with traditional instruction. At the beginning of the study, both teachers were trained for how to implement hands-on activity enriched instruction in the classrooms. The Science Achievement Test and The Science Attitude Scale were applied twice as pre-test and after three week treatment period as a post-test to both experimental and control groups to assess and compare the effectiveness of two different types of teaching utilized in science course. The data obtained from the administration of post-test were analyzed by statistical techniques of Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA). The statistical result indicates that hands-on activity enriched instruction was more effective than traditional instruction. However, the statistical results failed to show a significant difference between the experimental and control groups attitudes toward science.

Online social interactions differ from face to face interactions and lack the non-verbal cues leading a learner to procrastinate, decreased motivation, feelings of isolation and high drop out rates. Existing research illustrates a need for social awareness information in online education, and this research studied the impact of the visual presence of social information on a learner's sense of connectedness and learning using Rovai's (2002) classroom community scale (CCS). Specifically, the study examined if a learners' sense of connectedness is improved with the exposure to others' social awareness information; and if and to what degree learning advanced due to the improved sense of connectedness. <br>Two, 5 X 1 between-subjects one-way analyses of covariances compared connectedness and learning scores of five social awareness information disclosure groups (appearance, educational, contact and personal information disclosure groups and control group). Although the study did not find evidence of exposure to social awareness information having an impact on learning, the findings confirm the claim that social awareness provides a sense of connectedness. The type of social information presented in the educational category (last degree earned, major and educational year) provided a strong relationship compared to other categories studied. <br>Educators, course designers and content management companies will benefit in recognizing that social awareness information positively impacts online educational participants by providing a sense of connectedness when presented with educational related materials. The development of social awareness support within a learning management system can improve an online learner's experience and enhance the quality of online education. This social awareness support in a learning management systems infrastructure is thus recommended. / School of Education / Instructional Technology (EdDIT) / EdD / Dissertation

We are rapidly entering a world with an immense amount of services and devices available to humans and machines. This is a promising future, however there are at least two major challenges for using these services and devices: (1) they have to be found and (2) after being found, they have to be selected amongst. A significant difficulty lies in not only finding most available services, but presenting the most useful ones. In most cases, there may be too many found services and devices to select from. Service discovery needs to become more aimed towards humans and less towards machines. The service discovery challenge is especially prevalent in ubiquitous computing. In particular, service and device flux, human overloading, and service relevance are crucial. This thesis addresses the quality of use of services and devices, by introducing a sophisticated discovery model through the use of new layers in service discovery. This model allows use of services and devices when current automated service discovery and selection would be impractical by providing service suggestions based on user activities, domain knowledge, and world knowledge. To explore what happens when such a system is in place, a wizard of oz study was conducted in a command and control setting. To address service discovery in ubiquitous computing new layers and a test platform were developed together with a method for developing and evaluating service discovery systems. The first layer, which we call the Enhanced Traditional Layer (ETL), was studied by developing the ODEN system and including the ETL within it. ODEN extends the traditional, technical service discovery layer by introducing ontology-based semantics and reasoning engines. The second layer, the Relevant Service Discovery Layer, was explored by incorporating it into the MAGUBI system. MAGUBI addresses the human aspects in the challenge of relevant service discovery by employing common-sense models of user activities, domain knowledge, and world knowledge in combination with rule engines.  The RESPONSORIA system provides a web-based evaluation platform with a desktop look and feel. This system explores service discovery in a service-oriented architecture setting. RESPONSORIA addresses a command and control scenario for rescue services where multiple actors and organizations work together at a municipal level. RESPONSORIA was the basis for the wizard of oz evaluation employing rescue services professionals. The result highlighted the importance of service naming and presentation to the user. Furthermore, there is disagreement among users regarding the optimal service recommendation, but the results indicated that good recommendations are valuable and the system can be seen as a partner. / Vi rör oss snabbt in i en värld med en enorm mängd tjänster och enheter som finns tillgängliga för människor och maskiner. Detta är en lovande framtid, men det finns åtminstone två stora utmaningar för att använda dessa tjänster och enheter: (1) de måste hittas och (2) rätt tjänst/enhet måste väljas. En betydande svårighet ligger i att, inte bara finna de mest lättillgängliga tjänsterna och enheterna, men också att presentera de mest användbara sådana. I de flesta fall kan det vara för många tjänster och enheter som hittas för att kunna välja mellan. Upptäckten av tjänster och enheter behöver bli mer anpassad till människor och mindre till maskiner. Denna utmaning är särskilt framträdande i desktopmetaforens efterföljare Ubiquitous Computing. (Det vill säga en form av interaktion med datorer som blivit integrerad i aktiviteter och objekt i omgivningen.) Framförallt tjänster och enheters uppdykande och försvinnande, mänsklig överbelastning och tjänstens relevans är avgörande utmaningar. Denna avhandling behandlar kvaliteten på användningen av tjänster och enheter, genom att införa en sofistikerad upptäcktsmodell med hjälp av nya lager i tjänsteupptäcktsprocessen. Denna modell tillåter användning av tjänster och enheter när nuvarande upptäcktsprocess och urval av dessa skulle vara opraktiskt, genom att ge förslag baserat på användarnas aktiviteter, domänkunskap och omvärldskunskap. För att utforska vad som händer när ett sådant system är på plats, gjordes ett så kallat Wizard of Oz experiment i ledningscentralen på en brandstation. (Ett Wizard Of Oz experiment är ett experiment där användaren tror att de interagerar med en dator, men i själva verket är det en människa som agerar dator.) För att hantera tjänste- och enhetsupptäckt i Ubiquitous Computing utvecklades nya lager och en testplattform tillsammans med en metod för att utveckla och utvärdera system för tjänste- och enhetsupptäckt. Det första lagret, som vi kallar Förbättrat Traditionellt Lager (FTL), studerades genom att utveckla ODEN och inkludera FTL i den. ODEN utökar det traditionella, datororienterade tjänste- och enhetsupptäcktslagret genom att införa en ontologibaserad semantik och en logisk regelmotor. Det andra skiktet, som vi kallar Relevant Tjänst Lager, undersöktes genom att införliva det i systemet MAGUBI. MAGUBI tar sig an de mänskliga aspekterna i den utmaning som vi benämner relevant tjänste- och enhetsupptäckt, genom att använda modeller av användarnas aktiviteter, domänkunskap och kunskap om världen i kombination med regelmotorer. RESPONSORIA är en webbaserad plattform med desktoputseende och desktopkänsla, och är ett system för utvärdering av ovanstående utmaning tillsammans med de tidigare systemen. Detta system utforskar tjänste- och enhetsupptäckt i ett tjänsteorienterat scenario. RESPONSORIA tar ett ledningsscenario för räddningstjänst där flera aktörer och organisationer arbetar tillsammans på en kommunal nivå. RESPONSORIA låg till grund för ett Wizard of Oz experiment där experimentdeltagarna var professionella räddningsledare. Resultatet underströk vikten av namngivning av tjänster och enheter samt hur dessa presenteras för användaren. Dessutom finns det oenighet bland användare om vad som är den optimala service-/enhets-rekommendationen, men resultaten visar att goda rekommendationer är värdefulla och systemet kan ses som en partner.

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This thesis examines the construct of Psychological Sense of Community (PSOC). Within the discipline of community psychology, there is debate as to the dimensions underlying the construct PSOC. One of the few theoretically proposed structures is that put forward by McMillan and Chavis (1986), who hypothesized four dimensions: Belonging; Fulfilment of Needs; Influence; and Shared Connections underlying PSOC. Further, there is some deliberation in the literature as to the existence of PSOC in relational, as well as geographical, communities. Discussion has also emerged regarding the role of social identification within PSOC. It has been suggested that differences in PSOC may be understood in terms of the degree to which members identify with their community (Fisher & Sonn, 1999). However, few studies have explored the place of identification in PSOC. In addition, while PSOC has been applied to both relational and geographical communities, little research has looked in depth at PSOC within relational communities. Thus, the principle aims of the current program of research were to elucidate the underlying dimensions of PSOC and their consistency across geographical and relational communities. Further, the research also aimed to explore the role of identification in PSOC. The first stage of this research endeavoured to clarify the underlying dimensions of PSOC by utilising a questionnaire which included multiple measures of PSOC and social identification, administered to both relational and geographical community members. The first paper of the current research explored PSOC in a relational community, science fiction fandom (N = 359) and the third paper in a sample of residents of rural, regional and urban geographical communities (N = 669). In both the relational and geographical communities, support emerged for McMillan and Chavis' (1986) four dimensions of PSOC. In regards to identification, the Sense of Community iv affective and ingroups ties aspects of social identification were subsumed within the PSOC dimensions; however, the Conscious Identification aspect emerged as separate to the existing PSOC dimensions. The study presented in paper three also examined the role of demographic factors in predicting PSOC in geographical communities. The demographic factors significantly associated with PSOC were: type of region, with rural participants displaying higher PSOC than their urban counterparts; participation in local organizations; having children; and a vision of one's neighbourhood as broader than just a street or block. To date, little research has compared a single group's PSOC with a relational community to their PSOC with their geographical communities. The second paper presented in this manuscript explored PSOC with participants' relational and geographical communities in the sample of members of science fiction fandom (N = 359). All the PSOC dimensions and Conscious Identification emerged as significant predictors of overall sense of community in both community types. Participants reported higher levels of global PSOC with fandom than with their geographical communities, a pattern that also emerged across the four dimensions and Conscious Identification. It was proposed that the degree of choice of community membership may be one reason for this finding. However, stronger conclusions could not be drawn from this study as situational salience may have influenced the results as data was collected in the relational community context. The second phase of the current research aimed to validate the multidimensional nature and related measures of both social identification and PSOC. The fourth paper presented in this thesis examined the construct validity of the three-factor model of social identification as measured by the Three Dimensional Strength of Identification Scale proposed by Cameron (1999, 2004). The 12 item version of the scale was used to collect data from an undergraduate sample (N = 219) to assess their social identification across three distinct group memberships (sex, student and interest group). This data was subjected to confirmatory factor analysis to examine the fit of the three-factor model of social identity in comparison to fit indices for one and two-factor models. The results indicate that the three-factor model was the most parsimonious and best fit to the data across all groups. In addition, the fact that different patterns of means and correlations emerged across groups on the three dimensions provided further evidence for a multidimensional model of social identification and, moreover, the greater depth of exploration it allows. The fifth paper examines The Sense of Community Index (SCI), one of the most commonly used measures of PSOC. There is much discussion in the literature as to the validity of the scale as a measure not only of overall PSOC, but of the dimensions (Membership, Influence, Needs fulfillment and Emotional Connection) theorized by McMillan and Chavis (1986) to underlie the construct. This paper examines the factor structure of the Sense of Community Index in a study (N = 219)that examined neighborhood, student and interest group communities. The results showed that the Sense of Community Index, in terms of its original factor structure, did not adequately fit the data. The scale was revised, utilizing confirmatory factor analysis indicators, to produce a new four-factor structure based on the original items. This revised model was tested and found to display adequate fit indices to the data in all three community types. The results of the study provide empirical support for retaining measures that encapsulate the four dimensions of PSOC.The sixth paper further explores the interplay between PSOC and the dimensions of social identification. In particular, the study (N = 219) examines the relative strength of the separate aspects of social identification (based on Cameron's 2004, Three Factor Model of Social Identification) as predictors of overall PSOC, accounting for situational salience. Results indicate that Ingroup Ties is consistently the strongest predictor of PSOC and that the strength of Ingroup Affect and Centrality alter according to the group or community context. The seventh and final paper from the current research program emerged from the results of paper two indicating that choice may influence individuals' social identification and PSOC with their respective communities. The study presented in this paper examined participants' (N = 219) level of social identification and PSOC across multiple group memberships that differ in the degree of choice associated with membership (low choice: neighborhood community; medium choice: student community; and high choice: self chosen interest group). Results indicated that, controlling for contextual salience, choice was positively associated with levels of social identification and PSOC. Overall, the current program of research provides some important findings which add significantly to the theoretical understanding of PSOC in today's society. The research provides clarification of both the dimensions underlying PSOC, their application to both geographical and relational communities and the measurement of overall PSOC and these dimensions. Further, it provides empirical evidence of the importance of the Centrality aspect of identification in PSOC in both geographical and relational settings. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings of the overall program of research are discussed.

Australian Government policy has sought to decrease university reliance on federal support through the re-allocation of funding. Access to this pool of funding is based on teaching and learning performance and the subsequent comparison with similar education institutions. The concept of community has been promoted as a strategy for responding to these government demands whilst facilitating the student learning experience. Despite an intensive investment in strategic initiatives to enhance sense of community among the student cohort, there is a lack of scaleable evaluative measures to assess the overall effectiveness and accomplishment of intended outcomes. Contemporary methods for the assessment of community primarily rely on the establishment of pre-defined characteristics and the subsequent content analyses of communication artefacts to identify presence or absence. These studies are often small in sample size and limited in scalability and therefore the generalisation of research findings is impeded. This study aimed to examine the relationship between student sense of community (SOC) and communication interactions. To achieve this aim the study first developed a scaleable quantitative methodology that can be used to benchmark current pedagogical performance and guide future implemented practices relating to the establishment of a student community. The study juxtaposes an established scale of SOC with student online communication behaviours to identify potential relationships. In developing this methodology the study confirmed that the Classroom Community Scale (CCS) was a valid and robust instrument. The study incorporated a mixed methods paradigm to investigate the research questions. Quantitative data were derived from an online survey (N= 464), student online communication interactions and social network analyses. These data were further explored using more qualitative approaches such as content analyses of the discussion forum transcripts (n = 899) and student interviews (N = 4). The findings demonstrate that students and teaching units with greater frequencies of communication interactions possess stronger levels of SOC as determined by the CCS (R2 = .24, F = 14.98, p < .001; R2 = .83, F = 16.53, p < .01, respectively). A significant correlation was observed between discussion forum interaction types (learner-learner; learner-content; system) and SOC. Although learner-to-learner interactions demonstrated a positive correlation (r = .48, p < .05), system posts (isolated contributions) illustrated a negative correlation (r = - .50, p < .05). Quantity of discussion forum postings alone was not observed to be a significant indicator of SOC. Social network analyses demonstrated that the centrality measures closeness and degrees are positive predictors of an individual's reported SOC (t = 3.02 and t = 3.24, p < .001 respectively). In contrast, the centrality measure betweenness revealed a negative correlation (t = -3.86, p < .001). Discussion forum content analyses illustrated the fluid transition of discourse between social and learning oriented communities. Student interviews suggested that pre-existing external networks influence the type of support and information exchanges required and therefore, the degree of SOC experienced. The study also recognised that a key challenge in the implementation of data mining practices to monitor lead indicators of community lies in the notion of surveillance. This study examined the impact of technologically mediated modes of surveillance on student online behaviour. The findings demonstrate that students' unaware of the surveillance technologies operating within the institution modify their online behaviour more than their cognisant peers. The results of this study have implications for educational theory, practice, monitoring and evaluation. This research supports the development of a new model of community that illustrates the inter-relationships between student SOC and the education environment. Furthermore, the developed methodology demonstrates the capacity for cost effective data mining techniques to guide and evaluate implemented teaching and learning practices. Consequently, alignment with other theoretical constructs such as student satisfaction and engagement provides the institution with a lead indicator of teaching and learning performance. As the findings from this study illustrate the relationship between communication interactions and SOC, educators have the capacity to monitor communication trends and alter the teaching and learning practices to promote community among the student cohort in a just-in-time environment.

Recent and current socio-cultural trends are significant factors impacting on how business is conduced and correspondingly, on how work environments are designed. New communication technology is helping to break physical boundaries and change the way and speed of conducting business. One of the main characteristics of these new workplaces is non-permanency wherein the individual employee has no dedicated personally assigned office, work station, or desk. In this non-territorial, nomadic situation, employees undertake their work tasks in a wide variety of work settings inside and outside the office building. Such environments are understood to be must suitable where there is the need for high interaction with others as well as a high level of concentrated, independent work. This thesis reports on a project designed to develop a deeper understanding of the relationships between people (P) and their built environment (E) in the context of everyday work practice in a nomadic and non-territorial work environment. To achieve this, the study focuses on the experiences of employees as they understand them in relation to their work and the designed/ physical work environment. In this sense, the study is qualitative and grounded in nature. It does not assume any previously established theory nor test any presenting hypothesis. Instead it interviews the participants about their situations at work in their workplace, interprets natural interaction and creates a foundation for the development of theory informing workplace design, particularly theory that recognises the human nature of work and the need, as highlighted by several seminal researchers, for a greater understanding of how people manage and adapt in dynamic work environments.