This dissertation draws on feminist theory and ecofeminist philosophy to examine the connections between understandings of women and nature and the construction of pervasive conceptualizations and practices of childbirth. It also examines the relationship between conceptualizations of men and masculinity, culture and nature, and childbirth. In order to conduct such an examination, this study explores the dominant Western discourse around gender and childbirth. Specifically, the work aims to identify prominent characteristics and themes related to childbirth in both popular culture, such as Hollywood films (Knocked Up, The Backup Plan), documentaries (The Business of Being Born), birth guides, magazines, news articles, websites, and scholarly, medical and alternative healthcare discourse. This work seeks to consider how various conceptualizations of childbirth are used to legitimate, or, alternately, to undermine, patriarchal gender norms such as emphasized femininity and patriarchal (hegemonic) masculinity and, more generally, what ecofeminist philosopher Val Plumwood calls "master consciousness" (Val Plumwood 1993), a way of understanding the world that is reliant on an unjustifiably dualistic thinking and that is responsible for fostering social practices of domination. In particular, this work seeks to determine to what extent is our conceptualization of childbirth, and subsequent practice, based on potentially erroneous presumptions about the hierarchical division between the realms of culture and nature and masculinity and femininity? Perhaps most importantly, this dissertation sets out to consider the implications of alternative conceptualizations of childbirth emerging in the context of the natural birth movement. Specifically, I aim to determine whether or not these alternatives interpretations of childbirth counteract patriarchal gender categories and the culture/nature dualism. / Jeff Nall. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

O câncer de mama é uma doença que mobiliza o sistema familiar da mulher que o apresenta, e a forma como os familiares ajustam-se à doença tem efeito sobre o processo de enfrentamento da mulher. Conhecer a dinâmica familiar e identificar aspectos da interação entre os membros da família que ficam comprometidos com o surgimento da doença e que prejudicam o ajustamento e a qualidade de vida das mulheres e seus familiares é uma das etapas iniciais para se desenvolver serviços adequados à população em foco. A utilização de instrumentos de avaliação do funcionamento familiar, adequadamente construídos e validados, é uma estratégia que tem se mostrado como de grande relevância. No Brasil, não foram encontrados instrumentos que atendessem a esse fim. Portanto, optou-se pela adaptação transcultural e validação de um instrumento norte-americano de avaliação familiar, o que consistiu no objetivo desse estudo. O instrumento escolhido foi a Family Dynamics Measure II (FDM II), uma escala composta por 66 itens construída por um grupo de enfermeiras com base na teoria do sistema familiar saudável de Barnhill. O processo de adaptação do instrumento envolveu a tradução, a retro-tradução, a verificação da equivalência da versão retro-traduzida pela autora principal da escala, a análise semântica e duas análises da validade de face e de conteúdo por juízes. Para o teste das propriedades psicométricas do instrumento, foram realizadas análises de construto por meio da análise fatorial e por meio da validade convergente com a Escala de Ansiedade e Depressão Hospitalar (HADS), e a análise da fidedignidade por meio do cálculo da consistência interna dos itens (alfa de Cronbach). A versão adaptada da FDM II, a HADS e uma ficha de identificação sócio-demográfica foram aplicadas a uma amostra de 251 familiares de mulheres portadoras de câncer de mama, atendidas em dois serviços de saúde do interior do estado de São Paulo. O produto da análise semântica e da validade de face e de conteúdo por juízes resultou em uma versão da FDM II em português adaptada para uso no Brasil. A análise fatorial mostrou que a versão adaptada não confirmou a dimensionalidade teórica do instrumento. Porém, foi semelhante à obtida pelas autoras na análise fatorial do instrumento original. Na análise da validade convergente da FDM II com a HADS, as correlações entre as medidas de ansiedade e depressão e as medidas das dimensões da FDM II foram inversas de moderada a baixa intensidade. E na análise da fidedignidade, a consistência interna dos itens foi muito boa (α = 0,90), apesar dos coeficientes por dimensão serem mais baixos. Concluindo, a versão adaptada da FDM II foi considerada válida, e sugerem-se novos estudos para fortalecer essa evidência. / Breast cancer is a disease that affects the woman\'s family and, the way the family faces the disease affects the woman coping process. Knowing the family dynamics and identifying interaction aspects among the relatives affected by the disease, and that may damage the coping process and life quality of the woman and her family, is an initial stage to develop adequate services for the focused population. The use of well constructed and reliable tools to assess the family dynamics is a relevant strategy. Tools of that kind, to achieve such results, were not available in Brazil. Therefore, the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of a north-American instrument for family assessment was chosen to supply this need and became the purpose of this study. The chosen scale was the Family Dynamics Measure II (FDM II), a 66 items questionnaire, built by a group of nurses and based on Barnhill\'s healthy family system. The adaptation process involved the translation, back-translation, assessment of the equivalence between the original and the back-translated version by the main scale\'s author, a semantic analysis and two face and content validity assessments by judges. For the psychometric properties tests of the instrument, analysis of the construct were carried out by means of factor analysis and convergent validity towards Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); and reliability analysis, through items internal consistency calculation (Cronbach\'s alpha). The FDM II adapted version, HADS, and a socio-demographic identification form were submitted to a sample with 251 breast cancer women\'s relatives, in treatment at two health services facilities in Sao Paulo state. The product of the semantic and the face and content validity analysis resulted in a version of the FDM II in Portuguese adapted for use in Brazil. Factor analysis showed that the adapted version did not confirm the theoretical dimensionality. However, it was like to those obtained by the authors at the factor analysis on the original instrument. At the convergent validity analysis on FDM II and HADS, the correlation between anxiety and depression measurements and the FDM II dimensions measurements were inverted, from moderate to low intensity. At the reliability analysis, the items internal consistency were very good (α = 0,90), despite the low coefficients by dimension. The conclusion is that the FDM II adapted version was considered valid and new studies to strengthen this evidence are suggested.

Na área da saúde, a grande maioria dos instrumentos de avaliação desenvolvida até o momento encontra-se no idioma inglês e foi elaborada com a intenção de ser utilizada em países falantes de língua inglesa. Os questionários de qualidade de vida Quality of Life in Swallowing Disorders (SWAL-QOL) e Quality of Care and Patient Satisfaction (SWAL-CARE) em língua portuguesa do Brasil foram traduzidos para utilização em pacientes com disfagia por diferentes etiologias. É de extrema importância o uso desses protocolos de qualidade de vida específicos, ou seja, traduzidos, adaptados e validados para um público-alvo definido. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi realizar uma nova tradução e adaptação transcultural dos questionários SWAL-QOL e SWAL-CARE originais para a língua portuguesa do Brasil, de acordo com a realidade de idosos acometidos por disfagia neurogênica. Em um primeiro momento, a tradução anterior dos questionários para aplicação em pacientes com disfagia por diferentes etiologias foi aplicada em 05 idosos para observarmos as dificuldades de compreensão relatadas pelas fonoaudiólogas que já aplicavam esses questionários na clínica de fonoaudiologia da FOB - USP. Gravamos os encontros em que os questionários foram aplicados a fim de comprovarmos a dificuldade por parte dos idosos de compreenderem o conteúdo dos questionários. Em seguida, iniciamos o processo de tradução e adaptação transcultural que seguiu as diretrizes para escalas de qualidade de vida relacionadas à saúde propostas por Beaton et al. (2000). Assim, para a tradução e adaptação transcultural foram considerados seis estágios: (1) traduções, (2) síntese das traduções, (3) retrotraduções, (4) comitê de peritos, (5) teste da versão prévia e (6) submissão dos documentos deste processo para um comitê de acompanhamento. No primeiro estágio, duas traduções foram elaboradas por tradutores distintos; no segundo estágio, essas duas traduções foram analisadas, e uma versão síntese foi estabelecida durante uma reunião entre os tradutores e um juiz neutro; no terceiro estágio, essa versão síntese foi retrotraduzida para a língua inglesa por dois falantes de língua inglesa; no quarto estágio, houve uma nova reunião envolvendo os dois tradutores, um dos dois retrotradutores, uma fonoaudióloga, um perito em Letras e um metodologista que estabeleceram a versão prévia a ser testada; no quinto estágio, aconteceram os testes e as adequações necessárias para que uma versão final em língua portuguesa fosse estabelecida. Fizeram parte do estágio 5, 10 pacientes pertencentes ao público-alvo desta pesquisa, idosos com disfagia orofaríngea neurogênica. Em um primeiro momento, esses 10 pacientes responderam à versão final dos questionários a fim de identificarmos a clareza e a compreensão da terminologia utilizada nos questionários. As questões que apresentaram 15% de respostas de difícil compreensão e não se aplica foram reavaliadas por uma banca de especialistas composta por 3 fonoaudiólogas especialistas em disfagia. A única questão apontada por dois pacientes como de difícil compreensão foi a questão 28 do SWAL-QOL. O conteúdo dessa questão foi discutido entre as fonoaudiólogas durante reunião da banca de especialistas e foi alterado. No sexto estágio, os documentos deste processo foram submetidos para acompanhamento pela pesquisadora e sua coorientadora. A pesquisadora revisou a versão prévia e foi estabelecida, então, a versão final em língua portuguesa do Brasil dos questionários SWAL-QOL e SWAL-CARE para idosos com disfagia neurogênica. / In the health field, most assessment instruments that have been developed so far are written in English and designed to be used in English-speaking countries. The SWAL-QOL, a dysphagia-specific quality of life questionnaire, and the SWAL-CARE, a quality of care questionnaire, were first translated and cross-culturally adapted into the Brazilian language to be used with patients with dysphagia by different etiologies. It is extremely important that these questionnaires be specific for a defined target public. Thus, the objective of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt both questionnaires, the SWAL-QOL and the SWAL-CARE, into the Brazilian Portuguese language according to the reality of the elderly with neurogenic dysphagia. First, the Brazilian Portuguese version of both questionnaires, developed to be used with people with dysphagia by different etiologies, were applied in 05 elderly people so that we could observe the difficulties patients have to understand the content as reported by speech pathologists that had been using the questionnaires in their clinical practice at FOB - USP. The meetings were filmed so that we could record the difficulties the elderly had to understand the content while trying to answer the questionnaires. After that, the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation was initiated and followed the guidelines for the translation of health-related quality of life protocols recommended by Beaton et al. (2000). Thus, the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation was conducted in 6 stages: (1) translations, (2) synthesis of translations, (3) back translations, (4) expert committee, (5) pretesting and (6) submission and appraisal of all written reports by developers/committee. In the first stage, two translations were done by two different translators; in the second stage, these two translations were analyzed by the two translators and a neutral judge in order to reach a synthesis version; in the third stage, this synthesis version was back translated into English by two native speakers; in the fourth stage, another meeting was held with the two translators, one of the two back translators, a speech language pathologist, a specialist in Languages and a methodologist that together reached a previous version to be tested; in the fifth stage, tests were performed and the necessary changes were made in order to reach the final version of the questionnaires. A total of 10 patients, who belonged to the target public of this study, elderly people with oropharyngeal neurogenic dysphagia, took part in this fifth stage. First, the previous version of the questionnaires was applied in these 10 patients in order to observe whether the content was clear and understandable for them. Items analyzed as hard to understand and content does not apply by more than 15 % of the participants were reconsidered by an expert committee composed by three speech pathologists. The only question marked as hard to understand by two patients was the question 28 of the SWAL-QOL. The speech pathologists discussed the content of such question during the expert committee meeting and decided on changing it. In the sixth stage, all documents were submitted and appraised by a committee composed by the researcher and her co-supervisor. Then, the researcher reviewed the previous version and we reached the final version of the SWAL-QOL and SWAL-CARE for the elderly with neurogenic dysphagia.

Medidas válidas e precisas advindas de instrumentos calibrados para mensuração de construtos, aplicados padronizadamente, têm sido utilizadas como uma das formas de garantir ao indivíduo um bom estado de saúde, levando-se em consideração principalmente atributos mentais, sociais e físicos. Os instrumentos DISABKIDS® têm sido traduzidos e adaptados para várias culturas e idiomas, com essa finalidade. Este estudo constitui-se como uma Revisão de Escopo com objetivo de mapear a produção científica brasileira, com relação às fases do processo metodológico para disponibilização de instrumentos segundo a utilização dos instrumentos/formulários DISABKIDS® adaptados para o Brasil. A descrição das buscas e seleção dos estudos foi realizada, em concordância com o Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses, em 10 bases de dados eletrônicas, no Google Scholar e por meio de consulta a pesquisadores, sem restrição de período ou idioma. Os resultados mostram que a utilização dos formulários/instrumentos DISABKIDS® adaptados proporcionaram o mapeamento de 90 estudos científicos envolvendo 46 instrumentos distintos. O desenvolvimento dessa pesquisa possibilitou a visualização abrangente do uso dos instrumentos/formulários DISABKIDS® adaptados para o Brasil facilitando a aproximação entre o complexo e minucioso processo de disponibilização de instrumentos e a prática dos pesquisadores. Acreditamos que \"dar voz\" aos envolvidos, incluindo o público alvo, promove segurança ao pesquisador de que o método aplicado para elaboração ou adaptação cultural pode garantir propriedades psicométricas satisfatórias, viabilizando a finalização do processo de disponibilização de instrumento válido e fidedigno para medida do construto / Valid and reliable measures from standardized calibrated questionnaires that measures constructs applied in a standardized way have been used as a means to guarantee the subject a good health state, mainly taking into account mental, social, and physical attributes. To this end, DISABKIDS® instruments have been translated and adapted to different cultures and languages. This study is a Scoping Review that delineates the Brazilian scientific production regarding the phases of the methodological process for the availability of instruments according to the DISABKIDS® questionnaire/papers adapted to Brazil. Searches and selection of studies were performed in ten electronic databases, at Google Scholar and by consulting researchers without period or language restriction, according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses. The results show that the use of the Brazilian adapted DISABKIDS® questionnaire/papers provided the mapping of 90 scientific studies involving 46 different instruments. The development of this research allowed a comprehensive visualization of the use of the DISABKIDS® questionnaire/papers adapted to Brazil and enabled the approximation between the complex and meticulous process of questionnaire availability and the researchers\" practice. We believe that \"giving voice\" to the participants of the researches, including the target people, promotes the researcher\'s confidence that the method applied for cultural elaboration or adaptation can guarantee satisfactory psychometric properties, enabling the conclusion of the process of providing a valid and reliable instrument for the measurement of a subjective characteristic

Neste estudo foi realizada a tradução e adaptação transcultural para o português no contexto da cultura brasileira e validada a versão do Questionário de Incapacidade decorrente de Dor Orofacial de Manchester. As diretrizes seguidas para a tradução e adaptação transcultural foram propostas por Beaton et al. (2000) e Wild et al. (2005). A versão final instituída (Brasil - MOPDS) foi aplicada em 50 pacientes com Dor Orofacial da clínica ambulatorial de ATM e Oclusão do Departamento de Prótese Dentária da Faculdade de Odontologia da Universidade de São Paulo. A Brasil MOPDS foi administrada duas vezes por um entrevistador (intervalo de 15-20 dias) e uma vez por um entrevistador independente. A versão brasileira do questionário OHIP-14 e a Escala Visual Analógica (EVA) foram realizadas em uma das entrevistas. Para análise da consistência interna foi utilizado Alpha de Cronbach e o Coeficiente de Correlação de Spearman. O Coeficiente de Correlação Intraclasse (ICC) e o Coeficiente de Correlação de Bland-Altmann (CCBA) foram computados para avaliar a validade e a confiabilidade externa e interna. A consistência interna encontrada foi alta ( = 0,9175) e as correlações interobservador (ICC = 0,924) e intraobservador (ICC = 0,982) foram excelentes. As validades comparadas ao OHIP- 14 (r = 0,857) e a EVA (r = 0,758) foram altas. A Brasil MOPDS foi validada e adaptada com sucesso para aplicação em pacientes brasileiros, com validade e confiabilidade interna e externa satisfatória. / In this study was done the translation and cross cultural adaptation of the Manchester Orofacial Pain Disability for the Portuguese language. The guidelines followed for this process was suggested by Beaton et al. (2000) and Wild et al. (2005). Therefore, the final version (Brazil - MOPDS) was established and applied in 50 patients with Orofacial Pain selected in TMJ and Occlusion clinic ambulatory of University of São Paulo University Dentistry School. The Brazil MOPDS was administered twice by one interviewer (15-20 days interval) and once by an independent interviewer. The Brazilian OHIP short version (OHIP-14) and the Visual Analogical Scale (VAS) were applied on the same day. For internal consistency analysis, the Cronbach´s Alpha test, Spearmans Correlation Coefficient, intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Bland-Altmans Correlation Coefficient were used to evaluate the validation and internal and external reliability. Results: The internal consistency found was high (=0, 9175). Inter-observer correlations (ICC = 0.924) and intra-observer (ICC= 0.982) were excellent. Validity compared with OHIP-14 (r= 0.857) and VAS (r= 0.758) were high. Brazil MOPDS was successfully translated and adapted to be applied to Brazilian patients, with satisfactory internal and external reliability.

by Oi-Man Kwok. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-52). / Abstract also in Chinese.

Though current personality models provide a starting point for measuring ethical virtues, ethical content may not be fully captured in existing personality inventories due in part to the systematic elimination of morally-relevant trait-adjectives in early lexical studies. Further, personality dimensions relevant to measuring the ethical domain include both ethical and non-ethical content. The Moral Actions Questionnaire was designed to assess seven conceptually-distinct ethical virtues that are emphasized across cultures and philosophies. This dissertation investigates the performance of the Moral Actions Questionnaire, relative to other candidate models of ethical virtue from personality inventories. Psychometric quality, structural validity, and predictive validity for these models are evaluated in samples from five countries: Kenya, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. Findings suggest that the Moral Actions Questionnaire aids in prediction of altruistic bravery, guilt proneness, satisfaction with life, and meaning with life across most countries. Patterns in psychometric quality and structure across countries and methods (self- and informant-report) are discussed.

Law, Helen. / "August 2010." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-84). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.i / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.v / LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES --- p.viii / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background of Study --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research Problems and Objectives --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Layout of Thesis --- p.5 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Explaining the Gender Gap in Math Achievement: A Brief Overview of Previous Studies --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Gender Stratification Hypothesis --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3 --- Role of Parents --- p.11 / Chapter 2.4 --- Role of Single-Sex Schooling --- p.12 / Chapter 2.5 --- Focus of this Study --- p.16 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- ROLE OF FAMILY BACKGROUND AND SINGLE-SEX SCHOOLING IN THE GENDER GAP IN MATH TEST SCORES IN SIXTEEN COUNTRIES --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1 --- Hypotheses --- p.18 / Chapter 3.2 --- Data and Method --- p.19 / Chapter 3.3 --- Results --- p.23 / Chapter 3.4 --- Discussion --- p.40 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- THE GENDER GAP IN MATH TEST SCORES IN ALL COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING IN PISA 2006 --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1 --- Data and Method --- p.51 / Chapter 4.2 --- Results --- p.57 / Chapter 4.3 --- Discussion --- p.63 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- CONCLUSION --- p.67 / Chapter 5.1 --- Summary of Findings --- p.67 / Chapter 5.2 --- Theoretical Implications --- p.69 / Chapter 5.3 --- Empirical Implications --- p.70 / Chapter 5.4 --- Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research --- p.71 / APPENDIX A: Description of dependent variables and student-level independent variables --- p.75 / APPENDIX B: Description of school-level independent variables --- p.76 / REFERENCES --- p.78

Dans le contexte la filière productique-usinage en lycée professionnel, les langages de trois disciplines (mathématiques, construction mécanique, productique-usinage) sont comparées du point de vue de l'enseignement du raisonnement spatial mathématique, selon une approche interdidactique. Deux aspects sont spécifiquement étudiés : d'une part, la description des configurations de solides usuels et d'autre part, la modélisation par l'outil vectoriel. / In the context of the professional and educational program in Automated Manufacturing, languages of three courses (Mathematics, Engineering Design, Automated Manufacturing)are compared from the cross cultural point of view to the way of teaching spatial mathematical reasoning : on the one hand, topological relations between three-dimensional forms and, on the other hand,modelling with vectors as conceptual tool.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries