Laboratory safety has recently become more of an imperative in research laboratories than it has ever been in the past. Recent accidents at several universities have escalated the awareness of safety concerns in laboratory workspaces among the general public and created a greater need for a stronger culture of safety in chemistry research overall. Historically, results and publications have been the top priority of most researchers, not laboratory safety. This thesis discusses a number of laboratory accidents. The first happened in December of 2008 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and resulted in the death of a graduate student researcher. Many safety concerns and violations contributed to the fatality. The second accident happened in June of 2014 at the University of Minnesota (UMN). This incident involved an explosion in a fume hood that caused injuries to the researcher as well as a great deal of damage to the hood and experimental setup. Various minor incidents at the University of Vermont (UVM) are also discussed with regards to the effects on laboratory safety at the university. Universities around the country have been able to learn from these accidents in order to prevent similar occurrences in the future. These accidents and their safety ramifications at UCLA, UMN, and UVM are the focus of this thesis. The safety programs at each of these universities are examined and compared with respect to how the incidents have facilitated necessary changes. Finally, future goals and opportunities for the safety program at UVM are suggested.

Higher Education is influenced by society and workplace demands, which affects the structure of curricula. The literature review exposed a lack of understanding of knowledge in the Oral Hygiene occupational field. This led to a call to understand which knowledge is most valued by the Oral Hygienist and how it affects professional development. This necessitated the examination of knowledge located in curricula. The aim of this study was to study the perceptions of South African Oral Hygiene lecturers and the organisation of knowledge in curricula, in order to learn about current attempts to professionalise the field. The study makes use of a qualitative descriptive design. The study population is based at two universities, consisted of full-time lecturers teaching Oral Hygiene. Data collection and analysis comprised three methods: semi-structured questionnaires to examine the lecturers’ perceptions about knowledge; curriculum analysis gathering information about the curricula making use of a knowledge type analysis tool developed from the conceptual framework; and examination question analysis to assess the recontextualisation of knowledge from concepts or everyday knowledge of practice. The results show a comparison of lecturers’ perceptions and the organisation of knowledge in the curriculum suggest that although it is clear that the lecturers aspire to professionalise the field, the curricula and their own research identities promote the preparation of practitioners with technical skills. This is shown (inter alia) in the following findings about both curricula: ‘clinical applied knowledge’ is highly valued (UNIV1-73% and UNIV2-53%) with a small amount of time spent on ‘pure’ knowledge (UNIV1-8% and UNIV2-12%). The point to be made here is, that an emphasis on ‘Clinical Applied knowledge’ suggests that a large amount of time is spent on covering procedures for practice, which in turn is an indication that the two curricula are inclined towards preparing students for an occupational model of practice. The lecturers’ research identity focuses on knowledge borrowed from clinical practice. Lecturers use a unifying concept for practice and believe they are experts in clinical teaching. In conclusion, examining South African lecturers’ current views of the Oral Hygiene knowledge base and studying its organisation within different curricula reveal that the knowledge most valued in the field is Clinical Applied knowledge with less emphasis on pure knowledge and knowledge applied from the sciences. This study highlights that lecturers aspire to professionalise the field, even though curricula promote the preparation of practitioners with technical skills.

ABSTRACT In South Africa the assessment of exposure to occupational hygiene stressors or environmental factors in workplaces covered by the Occupational Health & Safety Act, Act No. 85 of 1993 must be performed or at least verified by an Approved Inspection Authority for occupational hygiene. However, no formal system is in place to effectively audit and score operational work of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. Formal auditing is a requirement of internationally accepted and implemented management systems such as the International Standards Organisation (ISO) 9001: 2000, Quality Management System – Requirements, the British Standards Institution - Occupational Health and Safety Series (OHSAS) 18001: 1999, as well as the International Standard - ISO 14000: 2004: Environmental Management System. To develop an audit system for Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene, a descriptive research project that gathered relevant data through electronic questionnaires was conducted with the objective of identifying audit elements and a general scoring system as well as the development of an audit tool that can be applied by regulatory authorities, professional bodies and even competent persons to audit operational work of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. 5 This study had a sample population of 40 Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene, all based in the Gauteng Province, the province which had the largest number of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. A questionnaire was compiled from local and international audit elements and emailed to the study population for electronic completion. The cover letter and study questionnaire is appended as ANNEXURE A and ANNEXURE B respectively. The Ethics Committee – Clearance Certificate is appended as ANNEXURE C. The questionnaire listed the proposed audit elements and a number of questions relating to the registration of the Approved Inspection Authority for occupational hygiene. A scoring mechanism was also suggested. Questions asked in the questionnaire applied the equivalent-form approach whereby as far as reasonably practicable each question was rephrased so that it “appeared different”, but effectively asked the same question. The study had a response rate of 65%, or a total of twenty six returned questionnaires. The respondents were in agreement that the elements; Organisation & Administration, Human Resources, Accommodation & Environment, Equipment, Measurement & Testing as well as Occupational Hygiene Services & Documentation were applicable to an audit for Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. Twenty two or 84.6% of the respondents strongly agreed that the said elements were adequate for an occupational hygiene audit. Four or 15.4% of the respondents disagreed, responding that the proposed elements were not adequate for an audit of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. 6 Four of the 26 respondents indicated that the elements; Suppliers & Accommodation should be excluded from the proposed occupational hygiene audit. Twenty two or 84.6% of the respondents strongly agreed that audits are effective in the identification of poor quality work and the subsequent need for corrective measures. Forty two percent of the respondents agreed to the use of the four point scale applied by most of the CONCAWE member companies (Brussels), which was suggested for the proposed audit of the Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. Two of the respondents preferred the use of the terms “comply” and “not comply” instead of a numerical rating or scoring mechanism. Two respondents stated that they preferred the use of a five point scale (numbers 1 – 5) as a scoring mechanism. Six of the respondents stated that they would use a different scoring mechanism but did not explain, or elaborate on their statement. Five respondents did not complete the section on the suggested scoring mechanism. On the subject of adequate scores the study found that 18 of the respondents suggested a score of not less than 80% (out of a possible 100%). The majority of respondents indicated that a score of less than 60% warranted corrective action from the Department of Labour or the Southern African Institute for Occupational Hygiene. The majority of respondents preferred the legal appointment of the Department of Labour as the body permitted and approved to audit the operational activities of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. From the results of the study the researcher concluded that a need exists for a formal auditing and scoring system for operational work of Approved Inspection Authorities for occupational hygiene. A proposed audit tool was designed and is appended.

Background: Phase Three of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) measured the global prevalence of symptoms of asthma in children. We undertook comprehensive analyses addressing risk factors for asthma symptoms in combination, at both the individual and the school level, to explore the potential role of reverse causation due to selective avoidance or confounding by indication. Objective: To explore the role of reverse causation in risk factors of asthma symptoms. Methods: We compared two sets of multilevel logistic regression analyses, using (a) individual level exposure data and (b) school level average exposure (ie prevalence), in two different age groups. In individual level analyses, reverse causation is a possible concern if individual level exposure statuses were changed as a result of asthma symptoms or diagnosis. School level analyses may suffer from ecologic confounding, but reverse causation is less of a concern because individual changes in exposure status as a result of asthma symptoms would only have a small effect on overall school exposure levels. Results: There were 131 924 children aged 6-7 years (2428 schools, 25 countries) with complete exposure, outcome and confounder data. The strongest associations in individual level analyses (fully adjusted) were for current paracetamol use (odds ratio = 2.06; 95% confidence interval 1.97-2.16), early life antibiotic use (1.65; 1.58-1.73) and open fire cooking (1.44; 1.26-1.65). In school level analyses, these risk factors again showed increased risks. There were 238 586 adolescents aged 13-14 years (2072 schools, 42 countries) with complete exposure, outcome and confounder data. The strongest associations in individual level analyses (fully adjusted) were for current paracetamol use (1.80; 1.75-1.86), cooking on an open fire (1.32; 1.22-1.43) and maternal tobacco use (1.23; 1.18-1.27). In school level analyses, these risk factors again showed increased risks. Conclusions & clinical relevance: These analyses strengthen the potentially causal interpretation of previously reported individual level findings, by providing evidence against reverse causation. / Revisión por pares

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There is a significant relationship between nutrition, systemic disease, and oral health. The integration of both nutrition and oral health information into educational programs for dental hygiene and nutrition students is vital for each profession. The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge levels of dental hygiene and nutrition students in regards to content material pertaining to each discipline. This study attempted to provide baseline data for those teaching in ETSU’s Dental Hygiene and Nutrition programs to determine if modifications in the curricula are needed to better prepare future students. Results indicated that there was not a significant difference between the knowledge levels of ETSU senior dental hygiene students and nutrition students. Despite the absence of a statistically significant difference in responses between dental hygiene and nutrition students, evaluating the low scores from each group of students indicated that there is room for improvement. Students demonstrated strong knowledge in some areas and lack of knowledge in other areas in regards to the relationship of diet, nutrition and oral health. Focusing on the areas where the students scored the weakest should be of interest for both programs.

Limited information is available describing ergonomics issues and physical risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal pain in the eye care clinical environment. The purpose of this thesis was to estimate the distribution of exposure to forceful muscular exertion of neck and shoulder muscles, and to estimate the relative contribution of important components of exposure variance to overall exposure variance. Surface electromyography (EMG) was used to continuously collect muscle activity measurements of the right and left upper trapezius muscles as well as the right and left anterior deltoid muscles throughout two full working days in clinical ophthalmology. The study observed between-exam-within-day-within-subject to be the variance component with the greatest contribution to total exposure variance in most EMG summary measures. For example, 52.1% of the exposure variability could be attributed to the exam and only 18.7% attributable to the day for the mean RMS value of the right upper trapezius. Similar results were found in the left anterior deltoid muscle with 52.7% exposure variability attributable to the exam and 15.7% attributable to the day. For futures investigations, the large between-exam variance implies the need for longer measurement durations in order to obtain more exams and to explore deeper into the physical risk factors the exams.

This thesis explores parental health behaviours in order to develop a questionnaire which will measure the health behaviours of parents. It does so in a triangulated study by using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The aims of the qualitative study were to explore parents’ concepts of health and the health behaviours they initiate for their preschool aged children and examine the relationship between parents’ health concepts and the health behaviours they undertake for their children. The aims of the quantitative study were that the health concepts of wellness, health promotion and illness prevention, identified by these parents, were measured. In line with the major research aims of the second quantitative study the emerging theory from the inductive exploration of parents’ health and their health behaviour and the health literature formed the basis for the construction of a questionnaire which contained health domains of wellness, health promotion and illness prevention and their clusters / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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