Federal educational policy, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, focused attention on America’s education with conspicuous results. One aspect, highly qualified classroom teacher and principal (HQ), was taxing since states established individual accountability structures. The HQ impact and use of data-informed decision-making (DIDM) for Texas elementary science education monitoring by campus administrators, Campus Instruction Leader (CILs), provides crucial relationships to 5th grade students’ learning and achievement. Forty years research determined improved student results when sustained, supported, and focused professional development (PD) for teachers is available. Using mixed methods research, this study applied quantitative and qualitative analysis from two, electronic, on-line surveys: Texas Elementary, Intermediate or Middle School Teacher Survey© and the Texas Elementary Campus Administrator Survey© with results from 22.3% Texas school districts representing 487 elementary campuses surveyed. Participants selected in random, stratified sampling of 5th grade teachers who attended local Texas Regional Collaboratives science professional development (PD) programs between 2003-2008. Survey information compared statistically to campus-level average passing rate scores on the 5th grade science TAKS using Statistical Process Software (SPSS). Written comments from both surveys analyzed with Qualitative Survey Research (NVivo) software. Due to the level of uncertainty of variables within a large statewide study, Mauchly’s Test of Sphericity statistical test used to validate repeated measures factor ANOVAs. Although few individual results were statistically significant, when jointly analyzed, striking constructs were revealed regarding the impact of HQ policy applications and elementary CILs use of data-informed decisions on improving 5th grade students’ achievement and teachers’ PD learning science content. Some constructs included the use of data-warehouse programs; teachers’ applications of DIDM to modify lessons for differentiated science instruction, the numbers of years’ teachers attended science PD, and teachers’ influence on CILs staffing decisions. Yet CILs reported 14% of Texas elementary campuses had limited or no science education programs due to federal policy requirement for reading and mathematics. Three hypothesis components were supported and accepted from research data resulted in two models addressing elementary science, science education PD, and CILs impact for federal policy applications. / text

In this thesis we provide three main contributions to blind source separation methods based on NMF. Our first contribution is a group-sparsity inducing penalty specifically tailored for Itakura-Saito NMF. In many music tracks, there are whole intervals where only one source is active at the same time. The group-sparsity penalty we propose allows to blindly indentify these intervals and learn source specific dictionaries. As a consequence, those learned dictionaries can be used to do source separation in other parts of the track were several sources are active. These two tasks of identification and separation are performed simultaneously in one run of group-sparsity Itakura-Saito NMF. Our second contribution is an online algorithm for Itakura-Saito NMF that allows to learn dictionaries on very large audio tracks. Indeed, the memory complexity of a batch implementation NMF grows linearly with the length of the recordings and becomes prohibitive for signals longer than an hour. In contrast, our online algorithm is able to learn NMF on arbitrarily long signals with limited memory usage. Our third contribution deals user informed NMF. In short mixed signals, blind learning becomes very hard and sparsity do not retrieve interpretable dictionaries. Our contribution is very similar in spirit to inpainting. It relies on the empirical fact that, when observing the spectrogram of a mixture signal, an overwhelming proportion of it consists in regions where only one source is active. We describe an extension of NMF to take into account time-frequency localized information on the absence/presence of each source. We also investigate inferring this information with tools from machine learning.

Darbo tikslas – įvertinti pacientų požiūrį į teisę gauti informaciją įstaigose, teikiančiose odontologinės priežiūros (pagalbos) paslaugas. Tyrimo metodika. Tyrimui atlikti buvo panaudotas apklausos tipas - anketinė respondentų apklausa raštu. Pagal Kaune esančių odontologinių įstaigų dydį (pacientų apsilankymų skaičius per metus) buvo atrinkta 1 Kauno miesto privati odontologijos klinika ir 1 Kauno miesto valstybinė gydymo įstaiga. Per šešis mėnesius nuo 2009 metų liepos mėnesio iki 2009 metų gruodžio mėnesio šiose gydymo įstaigose viso buvo išdalintos 860 anketos, grąžintos 798 anketos, iš jų 58 buvo atmestos dėl netinkamo užpildymo. Atsako dažnis buvo 92,8 proc. Analizuotos 740 odontologijos kabinetų pacientų anketos (389 užpildytos privačios gydymo įstaigos pacientų ir 351 - valstybinės gydymo įstaigos pacientų). Statistinė duomenų analizė atlikta naudojant SPSS 13.0 ir MS Excel programą. Rezultatai. Dauguma respondentų teigė, kad jiems odontologas vizito metu pakankamai dėmesio ir laiko skyrė informavimui (apie burnos ir dantų būklę, gydymą, profilaktiką ir pan.). Taip pat dauguma pacientų teigė, jog odontologas suteikė išsamią informaciją apie jų sveikatos būklę, ligos diagnozę, sveikatos priežiūros įstaigoje taikomus ar gydytojui žinomus kitus gydymo ar tyrimo būdus, galimą riziką, komplikacijas, šalutinį poveikį. Beveik pusė respondentų teigė, kad informuoto sutikimo forma skirta pacientams, kad pareikštų savo apsisprendimą susijusį su jų gydymu ar kitomis gydymo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Aim of the study. To evaluate patients’ attitude towards the right to information in the institutions providing dental care (assistance) services. Methods of the study. A questionnaire-based survey was carried out. Based on size of the dental institutions in Kaunas city (number of patient visits per year), one private dental clinic and one public dental clinic of Kaunas city were selected. During the 6-month period from July 2009 till December 2009, 860 questionnaires were distributed in these institutions; 798 were returned and 58 were excluded because of inadequate filling them out. The response rate was 92.8%. A total of 740 questionnaires, completed by patients visiting dental institutions, were analysed (respectively, 389 and 351 questionnaires were completed by patients visiting private or public dental institutions). Statistical analysis of the data was conducted by applying SPSS 13.0 and MS Excel programme. Results. The majority of respondents stated that during the visit to an odontologist, they were given sufficient attention and time for the provision of information on oral health status, treatment, prevention, etc. by their odontologist. Also, the vast majority of patients reported having been provided with comprehensive information on their health status, diagnosis of disease, treatment or examination methods having been applied in health care institutions or other approaches known by their odontologist, possible risk, complications and side effects by their... [to full text]

SUMMARY Management of Public Health PATIENTS‘ SATISFACTION WITH IN-PATIENT HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN TAURAGĖ COUNTY HOSPITAL Saulius Jančys Supervisor Jurgita Vladičkienė, Department of Social Medicine. Faculty of Public Health, Kaunas University of Medicine. - Kaunas, 2005.- P.53 Aim of the study. To evaluate patients’ satisfaction with in-patient health care services. Methods. 20 questions anonymous questionnaire have been used in the study. 179 patients aged 18 and older have been surveyed. Statistic data analysis has been made, using SPSS 10.0 version. Results. Response rate of the surveyed patients was 85%. 70.4% of the participants were woman aged 18 and older. Most of the respondents had basic (40.8%) and secondary (29.6%) education. 82% of the patients were informed about their treatment, results of investigations and diagnose by medical personnel and 93.3% were interested in such information. More than one third of the patients (35.6%) assumed that responsibility for the treatment lies on doctor, and 5.6% maintained that patient is responsible for the treatment. 83.8% of the respondents trust in their doctors’ completely. 68% of the patients suggests that only doctor make decision on his treatment. Communication of staff members was acceptable for 97.2% of the patients. 88.3% of the patients were satisfied with in-patient health care services. 33.5% of the respondents evaluated health care services as very good, 59.2% - as good. 90.5% of the respondents would... [to full text]

Introduction: Little guidance is given to health professionals over how to deal with HIV disclosure complexities in the biomedical setting. Given the paucity of related research in this context, there is also little consideration of the actual effect of HIV disclosure in a given context. Social constructionist theory is an important contribution to disclosure research because it shifts the focus from a biomedical perspective to one that incorporates an individual's experience with HIV infection in a specific context. The task of this study was to develop substantive theory, with the aim of providing a theoretical framework for public health and health care practitioners to better understand HIV disclosure dynamics in the PMTCT setting. Methods: This was a qualitative study which explored the experience of disclosure amongst HIV positive pregnant women in the PMTCT context. Between 5 June – 31 November 2008, a total of 62 participants were recruited from two urban-based PMTCT programmes located within the eThekwini District, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Results: Participants disclosed to two main groups: sexual partners, and family/others. Structural and relationship network factors shaped transmission risk behaviour, subsequent disclosure behaviour and outcomes. The circumstances which placed participants at risk for HIV acquisition also affected the likelihood of disclosure and health behaviour change. HIV and pregnancy diagnoses often occurred concurrently which profoundly impacted on participant's social identities and disclosure behaviour. Current HIV testing protocols within PMTCT settings often recommend disclosure to sexual partners under the assumption that couples will engage in safer behaviours, yet findings from this study indicate that this assumption should be challenged. Discussion: The study findings are synthesized in a conceptual model which offers substantive new theory over the concepts and interrelated factors that were identified to shape HIV disclosure and outcomes in the PMTCT context. The model identifies the following domains: 1) social networks and social support; 2) identity; 3) risk behaviour; 4) HIV and pregnancy diagnoses; and 5) HIV disclosure process to partners and others. Recommendations: Assumed pathways to risk reduction and HIV prevention need to be relooked and reconsidered. The conceptual model provides a proposed framework for future research, intervention design and implementation planning in the PMTCT setting. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The overall aim of this thesis was to study participants' understanding of clinical cancer trials, and their motivation for participation. Of particular interest was the question of whether the patients hoped for a cure resulting from the trial. The thesis was based on four studies and used three methods: interviews, a questionnaire, and empirical bioethics. The results of Study I indicated that the participants in phase 1 trials understood most of the information provided, but were unaware of both the very small potential for treatment benefit, and the risk of harm. Patients in phase 3 trials had a good understanding of the trial, except regarding side effects and their right to withdraw. Some found it hard to ask questions and felt they needed more information (Study III). The participants in phase 1 trials were strongly motivated by the generally unrealistic hope for therapeutic benefit (Study I). When the chances of a cure are minuscule, as for participants with end-stage cancer in phase 1 trials, hope can play an important, positive role and offer meaning to one’s remaining life. However, hope for an unrealistic outcome could also deprive patients of an opportunity to spend their remaining lives, as they would otherwise choose (Study II). The participants in phase 3 trials indicated that their motivation for participation was multifaceted; the most common motivations included hope of therapeutic benefit, altruism, access to extra clinical examinations or better care, and a wish to repay society for the help they had received (Study III). After stratifying and analysing the motivation data by gender, age, education and previous experience of trial participation, males and those aged ≥65 years were significantly more motivated to participate out of a desire to reciprocate the help they had received, either because of a sense of duty or because their families or friends considered that they should attend (Study IV). In conclusion, the informed consent process seems to work relatively well, with good results within most subgroups. However, patients with end-stage cancer who are participating in phase 1 trials are a vulnerable group as they have very little potential for treatment benefit coupled with a tangible risk of harm.

Darbo tikslas. Ištirti gydytojų požiūrį į klinikiniuose tyrimuose dalyvaujančių pacientų teisių apsaugą. Uždaviniai. Įvertinti gydytojų informuotumą apie teisės aktus, reglamentuojančius pacientų, dalyvaujančių klinikiniuose tyrimuose, teisių apsaugą, nustatyti gydytojų nuomonę apie informuoto asmens sutikimo reikšmę jo saugumui, įvertinti pacientų, dalyvaujančių klinikiniuose tyrimuose, teisių pažeidimus ir biomedicininių tyrimų etikos principų įgyvendinimo problemas, gydytojų požiūriu. Tyrimo metodika. 2010 m. buvo atlikta anoniminė anketinė gydytojų apklausa. Buvo išdalinta 200 anketų (atsako dažnis 72 proc.). Tyrime dalyvavo visi gydytojai, įtraukti į N kompanijos, organizuojančios klinikinius tyrimus, gydytojų-tyrėjų duomenų bazę ir dirbantys privačiose ir valstybinėse sveikatos priežiūros įstaigose. Statistinė duomenų analizė atlikta naudojant SPSS 17.0 programinį paketą; naudotas susietų lentelių metodas. Duomenų skirtumų statistinis reikšmingumas buvo vertinamas pagal Chi kvadrato (χ2) kriterijų ir statistinio reikšmingumo lygmenį. Rezultatų skirtumas laikytas statistiškai reikšmingu, jei paklaidos tikimybė p < 0,05, labai reikšmingu – kai p < 0,01, ypač reikšmingu – kai p < 0,001. Rezultatai. Geros klinikinės praktikos taisykles teigė žinantys visi pagrindiniai tyrėjai ir tyrėjai, Helsinkio deklaraciją – 63,6 proc. pagrindinių tyrėjų ir 63,3 proc. tyrėjų bei visi tyrimo koordinatoriai. 50 proc. pagrindinių tyrėjų ir 65,3 proc. tyrėjų nurodė esantys gerai susipažinę... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Aim of the study. Investigate physicians' view to protection of patients' rights in clinical trials. Objectives. Evaluate physicians' acknowledge about laws, regulating protection of patients participating in clinical trials; establish physicians' opinion about importance of informed consent to subject’s safety; evaluate violations of patients’ rights and implementation problems of clinical trials ethics principles in Lithuania. Methods. Anonymous physicians’ survey was performed in 2010. 200 questionnaires were distributed (response frequency – 72%). All physicians, working in national and private medical institutions and included in database of N pharmaceutical company organizing clinical trials, were participated. Statistical data analysis was performed by using SPSS 17.0 program package, crosstabs method; statistical significance was evaluated by χ2 criterion and significance level. Result significance was statistically significant if expectation bias p < 0,05, very significant if p < 0,01, extremely significant if p < 0,001. Results. All principal investigators and investigators indicated that they know Good Clinical Practice. 63,6% of principal investigators and 63,3% of investigators and all study coordinators knew Declaration of Helsinki. 50% of principal investigators and 65,3% of investigators were familiarized with Law on ethics of biomedical research. 62,5% of all respondents were read/ heard about Law on the rights of patients and compensation of the damage to... [to full text]

In this Arts-informed Life History I use dialogue and narrative to illustrate “pedagogy in practice” and illuminate the life’s work of Métis adult educator Dave Skene. Skene tells stories of experience working cross-culturally to illustrate how individuals are transformed by learning experiences and how they contribute to transformative learning in others' lives. He recounts experiences of working for social justice and community development in the global context of north-south knowledge exchange. Skene’s life crosses many borders and the research account walks readers through a life growing up in an urban setting, surviving on the street, discovering God, working internationally with indigenous peoples, listening to stories in areas of protracted conflict and war, and co-founding a Non Governmental Organization, Global Youth Network. As researcher I interweave reflexive accounts of cross-cultural experiences in Canada and Latin America to contribute to understanding how to undertake life history research and issues in its representation.

I explore how recreational canoeists develop sense of place developed and ecological identity through experience. The intersection between artefact and narrative is the entry-point of exploration of understandings of how recreational canoeists learn through experiences. There are three structural elements. A factional narrative arc of a canoe trip frames the work. Fragments of collective narratives: weave into this story and add richness and depth of experience. Participants’ interwoven narratives form the second element of this work. Finally, footnotes underpin this text to explain and support the research. They emerge to reflect the complexity of telling, and understanding, experience. This is a story of stories. This is a story of a trip that never happened. It holds real participants’ narratives based in lived experiences that shape this story. Narratives emerge between artefact and experience, between experience and ecological identity, between ecological identity and place, and between place and story.

In this Arts-informed Life History I use dialogue and narrative to illustrate “pedagogy in practice” and illuminate the life’s work of Métis adult educator Dave Skene. Skene tells stories of experience working cross-culturally to illustrate how individuals are transformed by learning experiences and how they contribute to transformative learning in others' lives. He recounts experiences of working for social justice and community development in the global context of north-south knowledge exchange. Skene’s life crosses many borders and the research account walks readers through a life growing up in an urban setting, surviving on the street, discovering God, working internationally with indigenous peoples, listening to stories in areas of protracted conflict and war, and co-founding a Non Governmental Organization, Global Youth Network. As researcher I interweave reflexive accounts of cross-cultural experiences in Canada and Latin America to contribute to understanding how to undertake life history research and issues in its representation.