Previous research has shown that humankind is not becoming happier, and that in fact symptoms of depression continue to rise, despite the belief of many that happiness is the ultimate purpose of human life. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether happiness can be taught through an intervention programme aimed at increasing levels of subjective wellbeing as measured by scales of self-reported happiness and depression. Participants attending a course based on research into Positive Psychology that included the practice of multiple validated interventions made up the experimental group (N=33), and participants in other community education courses made up the control group (N=41). A pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up design was used, with participants completing sets of questionnaires designed to test levels of happiness and depression, and additional questionnaires capturing demographic information and signature character strengths. The results of this study suggested that the intervention had a positive effect on increasing happiness and reducing symptoms of depression. The non-randomised groups resulted in a more depressed experimental than control group prior to the intervention. Generally speaking, it was not true that any subgroup benefited more from the intervention than others, nor were happier or more depressed than others. This study appears to support earlier research that found that subjective wellbeing could be increased through education and volitional behaviour. Implications for the findings are discussed in relation to group education and therapeutic intervention both for increasing happiness as well as reducing symptoms of depression.

The current and estimated future shortage of nurses presents a threat to the health of both nursing professionals and those in their care. Stress and burnout are contributors to turnover among nurses and needs to be addressed.Story as a potential self-care strategy has the potential to promote health and wellbeing among nurses, which may increase satisfaction among nurses and decrease turnover in the profession. This study used a qualitative descriptive design with content analysis to: 1) describe the use of story and story sharing/telling in nursing practice, and 2) describe how story contributes to the nursing workplace.Findings revealed that stories are inherent in the practice of professional nursing. Nurses share a common bond and connection through sharing stories about the nursing profession. This connection spans generations, care settings, specialty, levels of education, training and experience.Nurses also use story as a way of remembering and processing information and to teach and mentor each other through the experiences they encounter in work settings. This sharing on the job and outside of work settings is more memorable and valuable to nurses than what they learn in the classroom or through textbooks and case study presentations.Story creates ease for nurses through validation of shared human experience. When an individual feels heard both the storyteller and listener benefit from the understanding that is gained from the exchange. The greatest barrier to this exchange within nursing practice is time. Nurses believe that there is a limited amount of time due to the complexity of the work environment, demands on their time, and the structure of the healthcare system.This study provided empirical findings for what has been theorized with respect to story and nursing. Nurses use story in their daily work and personal lives. The findings of this study provide support for the use of story to promote wellbeing in nurses and to improve environments in which nurses' work. Directions for future research would include the development and evaluation of programs for nurses that incorporate story into education and for self-care.

This research seeks to explore the nature and value of peer learning for a group of pre-registration nursing students and specifically aims to examine a group of student nurses in order to inquire whether they learn from each other and if so, how, when and where this takes place. Secondly, the work aims to discover more about the process used by those nurses while engaging in peer learning and to unearth their perceptions of and value systems ascribed to this type of learning. In this context the students engage in peer learning as they learn from and through each others’ experience. This research is set against the backdrop of recent changes within nurse education in the United Kingdom. In 1999, the Peach report made several main recommendations regarding the future of pre-registration nurse education, including the integration of knowledge and skills through balanced time in theory and practice together with the fostering of interpersonal and practice skills through experiential and problem-based learning (UKCC 1999). In this case the fellow learners are a group of pre registration student nurses enrolled on a programme leading to registration as Adult Branch nurses with a Diploma level academic qualification. The curriculum (based on the Fitness for Practice recommendations within the Peach report) convenes the group (known as a base group) together throughout the course at regular intervals, and utilizes a strategy of problem based learning as part of a range of teaching and learning strategies in order to help the students to acquire the knowledge required by a qualified nurse. It is important to differentiate peer learning from other mechanisms which involve students in learning from each other. For example, peer teaching or peer tutoring is a far more formal and instrumental strategy whereby advanced students or those further on in progression, take on a limited instructional role (Boud, Cohen and Sampson 2001). In other words, the more senior students are used to formally teach various aspects of the curriculum to more junior students.

The relationship between people and nature has long been suffering from a cultural disconnect. In truth, nature is far more readily likened to travel than it is to everyday life; synonymous, as it is, with those faraway ideals beyond the everyday reach of an urban dweller. However, urban environments are teeming with a range of plants and animals, known as urban nature, thus providing the opportunity to shed these exotic associations in favour of a far more accessible experience. In order to do so, the form of contemporary urban nature photography will be examined in this thesis, where any representational trends found to be inhibiting its development will be identified, and ultimately challenged. A combination of photographic practice and reflective analysis was used to challenge these problematic trends. Five experiments were carried out. These served to yield a set of photographs which developed alternative representations of the urban nature subject. The resulting photographs of each experiment were subjected to a means of reflection; based on Gary Rolfe’s three stage method but refocused for compatibility with photographic practice, where observations were drawn from one experiment so as to guide the direction of the following experiment. These experiments culminated in a final project: a definitive body of photographs that served to fuse the findings of each experiment into an alternative aesthetic. Identity became a critical theme underlining the representations of the urban nature subject in this thesis, for the displacement of photographic information began to instil the subject with - to some extent - otherworldly sensibilities. This process challenged the active predisposition toward naturalism in urban nature photography, and began to direct such tendencies toward a much broader aesthetic landscape; engaging with unreserved artistic ideologies so as to develop exclusive representations of the urban nature subject.

Self-compassion is receiving increasing interest from psychologists and researchers due to its potential role in wellbeing and mental health however, self-compassion as a unique construct has not been validated. This research utilised pilot studies in order to develop an operational definition of self-compassion, separate from other similar constructs. A multi-trait multi- method approach to construct validation was utilised to assess self-compassion‟s discriminant and convergent validity in relation to the constructs of self-esteem and compassion for others in a community sample of 307. Self-compassion was then evaluated for its role in mental health and wellbeing when assessed against the two comparison constructs. Results demonstrated discriminant validity to both comparison constructs but convergent validity only in regards to self-esteem, providing partial support for the construct validity of self- compassion. As hypothesised support was found for self-compassion as a unique predictor in regards to wellbeing, but its role could not be determined for mental health. The results are discussed in terms self-compassion‟s functional relationships with comparison constructs and therapeutic utility. Recommendations for the direction of future research are discussed.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or myalgic encephalopathy (CFS/ME) has a negative impact on a child and their parents. It is not known what the impact is for the siblings of children with CFS/ME. Nine siblings participated in semi-structured interviews. Siblings identified a number of negative impacts to their family and to themselves, as well as describing some protective family factors. These findings have implications for current practice in CFS/ME paediatric services.

Does the murder of a sibling affect the health and well-being of siblings over the longer term? Between 2009 and 2013 there was an annual average of 562 homicides in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2013) and 14,767 in the United States (FBI, 2013). Anecdotal report and a small body of literature suggest siblings’ lives are impacted by the murder of a sister or brother and that there are lasting effects. For the most part, however, siblings of murder victims are largely ignored by research. Studies that do exist rely mainly on qualitative data from small, non-representative, and mixed samples. This study used a quasi-experimental design to compare data previously obtained from 67 Canadian and American homicide-bereaved siblings with data from 80 comparison participants, matched as a group on age and sex. Groups were compared on measures of SES, overall general health, subjective distress, perceived social support, life-satisfaction, recollections of growing up, and self-worth. Homicide-bereaved siblings reported significantly higher levels of current subjective distress, less perceived social support, and less positive recollections of growing up in the years following a sibling’s muder. Despite ongoing subjective distress, homicide-bereaved siblings reported self-worth and life satisfaction equivalent to comparison participants. Preliminary data support the continued theoretical and applied research exploring the overlap of trauma and grief in homicide bereavement and of intervention protocols. Findings from this study will inform criminal justice professionals, victim service workers, counsellors, family members, friends, and community members supporting those who have lost a brother or sister to murder. / Graduate / kwright3@uvic.ca

No description available.

Rising rates of obesity among children have become one of the most pressing issues in modern public health. Childhood obesity threatens both the mental and physical well-being of children. Attempts to halt the rise in obesity take many forms, but one of them is the recent implementation of a programme of measurement of primary children at reception and in year 6, with results being fed back to parents. This National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) is controversial and has been criticised in some quarters as unethical, in being a form of screening programme with no clear or effective interventions available for those detected as having a problem. Study aims and objectives The main aim of the study was to explore the relationship between weight status and children’s mental wellbeing, especially in the context of the NCMP. Within this overall aim, key specific objectives of the study were: i) to investigate the association between weight status of 10-11 year old school children and their mental well-being; ii) to assess the impact on the mental wellbeing of children, of participating in the NCMP; and iii) to collect information about parents’/guardians’ and children’s reaction to the NCMP, with particular interest in identifying whether parents/guardians and their children found the feedback useful in moving towards the adoption of a healthy lifestyle. Methods The study was undertaken in primary schools in the catchment area of Gateshead Primary Care Trust (PCT). The overall study used a mixed methods study design. The study involved administering a questionnaire prior to NCMP measurement to a total sample of 264 children, sampled using a proportionate stratified random sampling technique. One-to-one semi-structured interviews were also conducted post measurement with 21 children purposively sub-sampled from the larger group, and with 16 parents/guardians. Results Prior to measurement, most children misclassified their weight status. About 1 in 10 children who were of ideal weight perceived themselves as overweight. Over three quarters of overweight children perceived themselves to be of ideal weight. There was no significant relationship between any of the indicators of mental wellbeing and actual weight status of children. However, there was very strong evidence for a Preface xxv significant relationship between perceived weight status and mental wellbeing among children. Seven major themes emerged from the post measurement interview data, but perhaps the most intriguing was the cycle of emotional reaction of families to the NCMP and weight feedback. Discussion The reactions of parents/guardians whose children are indicated to have weight problems follow a sequence of behaviours ranging from shock, disgust with the programme, through denial and self-blame to acceptance, worry and help seeking. Reasons for these responses relate in many cases to the way the weight problem is portrayed to the parents. While health authorities are keen to portray this problem as a medical one, parents/guardians see it as social one. The roots of overeating and lack of exercise are seen as lying in the complex social and cultural milieu in which this sample of people live. Consequently, associating this problem in feedback letters with dangerous diseases like cancer, and advising parents to visit GPs to resolve child weight issues, seems inappropriate to the recipients and causes controversy and anger. Conclusion The NCMP’s routine feedback could potentially induce families into the state of readiness to change lifestyle behaviours; however, given the reactions described in this study, it seems critical to avoid placing blame on individuals but rather to acknowledge the influence of the environment surrounding families and to provide non-medical support aimed at bringing families on board to support interventions for combating child weight problems.

The study of stem cells has received considerable attention in forming many different tissue types, and gives hope to many patients as it provides great potential for discovering treatments and cures to many diseases such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, spinal cord injuries and diabetes. This study was concerned with developing algorithms that analyses microscope images of stem cells harvested from the bone marrow or dental pulp of a rabbit, expanded in the laboratory at the Tissue Engineering Center in Alexandria, Egypt, and then transplanted into subcutaneous pouches of the rabbit. The research aimed to detect automatically as soon as osteogenic differentiated stem cells were ready to be implanted in the defective parts, thereby avoiding the cells becoming damaged by bacterial infection. A further requirement was that the algorithms would not use traditional (chemical) markers which eventually lead to the sample being discarded as it dies after adding the marker. A total of 36 microscopy images were obtained from seven separate experiments each lasting over 10 days, and the clinicians visually classified 18 images as showing not-ready osteogenic differentiated stem cells and the remaining images showing a variety of cells ready for implantation. The ready cells typically appeared as a colony, or spread all over the image interconnecting together to form a layer. Initially, image pre-processing and feature extraction techniques were applied to the images in order to try and identify the developing cells, and a t-test was applied to the total cell area in each image in an attempt to separate the not-ready and ready images. While there was a significant difference between not-ready images and the ready images which showed the colony shaped characteristics, there was no significant difference between not-ready images and ready images with the spreading interconnecting layer shape, and so more sophisticated classification techniques were investigated. As the differentiated stem cells are effectively texture based images, each of the 36 images were divided into quadrants to give a total of 144 images to increase the image dataset. Several sets of texture parameters were derived from the grey-scale histogram statistics, Grey-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) spatial frequency components of the images. Some of these parameters were used with traditional classification techniques including cross-correlation, and Euclidean distance measures to try and classify the texture relative to the first image (not-ready) in each experiment and the other images (not-ready and ready) in the experiment. The success rate using cross-correlation was 70%, and 68% for the Euclidean distance approach. Secondly, intelligent classification techniques using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) were considered, using the various texture parameters as inputs to a feed-forward 1-hidden layer MLP using Back-propagation of Errors for training. The ANN approach gave the better results, with 77% using the grey-scale histogram statistics, 73% for GLCM, and 92% for the DCT with 70 spatial frequency components. It was observed for each of the experiments that images became classified as ready for implantation after approximately 10 days, and then remained ready for the rest of the experiment.