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Pododermatitis (FPD) is a contact dermatitis commonly observed in poultry, primarily affecting the surface of the footpad and the hock joint, and causes poor welfare and economic losses when severe. Most reported field outbreaks of FPD have been associated with poor litter conditions. There are three important aspects of litter condition associated with incidences of FPD and hock burns (HB) i.e. increased litter moisture, greasy or capped litter as well as high ammonia (NH3) content. Therefore maintaining litter quality and more specifically the moisture content is essential if conditions such FPD and HB are to be controlled. Poor litter condition is caused by an interaction between management, nutrition and intestinal health. In terms of nutrition, dietary density i.e. energy and protein concentrations are important factors in terms of determining litter quality and incidences of FPD, because of the effect that they exert on water intake. Four experiments were used to investigate the effects of nutritional modifications on water intake (WI) and excretion by turkeys. In the first experiment explored the effect of different dietary nutrient concentrations supplemented with and without phytase on WI and excretion. It was noted that excreta moisture content was reduced (P<0.001) as nutrient density decreased whereas nutrient density had no effect (P>0.05) on the cumulative WI. Water output (g/g of weight gain) was higher (P<0.05) for phytase-fed birds but nutrient density had no effect (P>0.05). In the next two experiments floor-pen studies were used to examine the effects of nutrient density and dietary protein concentration (ranging from 77 to 120% of BUT breed recommendation) on litter quality parameters and, therefore, on leg health conditions. In one study the energy and protein ratio were kept constant whereas in the second the protein concentration changed while the energy remained constant (100% of breed requirement). Growth performance parameters were determined for each study which was conducted from 4 to 20 weeks of age. When birds were fed diets in which the energy and protein ratio remained constant the high protein/energy diets resulted in a lower WI and litter moisture content when compared to group fed diet containing lower concentrations of protein/energy (P<0.05). In contrast litter pH and NH3 concentration and prevalence of HB were higher when birds were fed with the high protein/energy diets. Notably there was no effect (P>0.05) of treatment on FPD. Birds fed diets containing a higher than the recommended dietary protein concentration (constant energy concentration) had a higher WI and litter moisture content when compared to group fed diets containing the low nutrient density diets (P<0.001). Likewise, litter pH and NH3 concentration and prevalence of HB and FPD were higher where birds were fed the higher than recommended protein concentration diets. The final experiment was designed to establish the relative importance of protein and potassium in determining WI and excretion. There were six treatments based on three diets containing either 77, 100 and 120% of the dietary protein recommended by the breeder. Each diet was then split into two and one of the two diets was supplemented with K2CO3 to give a K+ concentration of 16.5 g/kg of diet. The remaining diet of the pair was left unsupplemented (ie contained only naturally occurring potassium). It was noted that birds fed with diet containing higher dietary protein concentration had higher WI and moisture output (MO) when compared to group fed diet containing lower dietary protein concentration (P<0.001). The effect within diets containing the same CP and standardised K+ was marginally insignificant (P=0.065) in terms of WI. Whereas birds fed diets containing naturally occurring K+ only had approximately 10% less (P<0.05) MO compared to these fed diets containing the standardised concentration of K+. While recognising that factors such as non-starch polysaccharides (NSP), indigestible fat and trypsin inhibitor could not be excluded totally, it was concluded, on the basis of the experiments conducted, that dietary protein (as provided by soybean meal) was primarily responsible for the higher WI and hence excretion. This then ultimately produces unacceptable litter quality and results in leg health problems in turkeys. To prevent excessive water intake and reduce litter moisture content there should be a correct balance between dietary energy and protein levels. Feeding turkeys lower ideal protein diets containing higher apparent metabolisable energy ratio crude protein (AME:CP) may help to improve the amino acid digestibility and ionic balance and, therefore, litter quality and this will help to decrease leg health problems such as footpad dermatitis and hock burn.

The primary aim of this thesis is to put forward what is believed to be an original conceptualisation of culture relevant to understanding organisational change. There are essentially two interrelated areas of research. The first is an explanation of organisational culture. In this, I seek to show what organisational culture is, how it develops, how it is perpetuated and how it is represented. The second is the application of this concept of culture to the management of change. Here I seek to show the effects of culture on organisational change and how an understanding of it is necessary to achieve this. The conscious and unconscious processes of culture are researched from a psycho-dynamic perspective. Relying on a mixture of personal reflection and psychoanalytic theory concepts of organisation, boundaries, symbolism, learning, socialisation and creativity are put forward as background data which supports an original explanation and understanding of organisational culture. This knowledge is then applied to the management of change: first in a theoretical manner and then to an action research project in the Metropolitan Police Service. The psycho-dynamic model provides the necessary ability to examine the transference and counter-transference within the relationship between consultant and clients. The role of consultant is also viewed in regard to power and ethics. By providing what is considered to be an original conceptualisation of culture, the main contribution to knowledge is to the theory of organisations and the management of change. There are also specific contributions in the application of psychoanalytic theory of symbolism to organisations, and what is considered to be an original conceptualisation of creativity.

This dissertation study examines computer use by second graders in an affluent, suburban community to determine how boys and girls view and participate with computers at home and in an educational setting. This qualitative study examined the students' time spent with computers, software choices, perceptions of technology now and in the future, their computer skills and their perceptions of their skills and the influence of parents through the use of interviews, observations, logs, surveys and artifact collection.The findings from this research demonstrate that there were no drastic differences in the amount of time boys and girls spent on computers at home and at school. In terms of software choices, all students favored games to other types of software. However, girls were more likely to favor games that were less competitive and boys tended to favor sports games. The parents in this study had primarily positive perceptions of the role of computers in their children's lives and the students felt that their parents supported their computer use.Additionally, this study reveals that while all students were able to meet most of the school district's technology frameworks, better assessment tools need to be created to truly capture the richness of what students are able to do with computers and to encourage them to use the computer in thought provoking ways that emphasize more than just skills. Finally, students of both genders were able to envision multiple uses for computers now and in the future.

This dissertation describes an ethnographic case study of an elementary school in a border city in Southern Arizona. Its purpose is to explore teachers' professional lives at Cactus Elementary School (CES; pseudonym) through classroom observations, interviews and informal conversations. The majority of the fieldwork was conducted in the 2004-2005 school year. Teachers in Arizona have severe challenges compared with teachers in other states: lower expenditures on students, lower salaries, higher teacher-student ratios, and more English language learning students. Teachers at CES are faced with even more concerns, such as students' high mobility rate, the students' low socioeconomic status, and the students' language development. Furthermore, educational policies, such as NCLB, AZ LEARNS and the English-only policy set strict rules regarding language usage in classrooms and testing environments in schools. This study explores teachers' compassion and commitment to their profession. It also describes professional distress experienced by teachers as a result of national and state educational policies. In addition, it illustrates teachers' strategies for negotiating and developing everyday educational policies. This study questions whether school excellence and teacher quality can be measured solely by student test scores, and what "highly qualified teachers" means to students and the local community. At the same time, this dissertation emphasizes the power that local teachers and administrators have in negotiating and developing federal and state educational policies to meet their students' needs.

This dissertation reports the results of a content analysis of Introductory Sociology textbooks in order to assess their coverage of, and approach to, the teaching of "culture" in the hopes of ultimately creating a unified approach for the introduction of students to the sociology of culture. Looking at introductory sociology textbooks, the current study documents if and to what extent the topic of culture is included; and if so, analyzes which topics are included, how much space is dedicated to culture, and particularly which frames (in Goffman's (1974 [1986]) sense) are used to present sociology of culture. The results of this research highlight three important tendencies of introductory texts. Firstly, there is an apparent inconsistency between current academic work in the sociology of culture and inclusion of that work in introductory textbooks. This is particularly true of cultural production. Additionally, textbooks are extremely likely to treat culture as a concept in an anthropological sense (including a discussion of language, norms, and values) or in terms of diversity or multiculturalism. Finally, textbooks on the whole do not appear to change over time in significant ways. This is certainly not the case from edition to edition (usually a span of one to two years), but also among textbooks from different time periods (the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s).