This thesis examines the risk and internationalisation practices of International New Ventures (INVs) in the environmental sector. The purpose of the research is to make observations regarding the manner in which environmental INVs manage risk when internationalising.The literature review focuses upon the published literature that relates to INVs, risk and risk management, mode of entry and the environmental sector. Section one of the literature review provides the characteristics of what constitutes an INV. Section 2 provides a review of the risk literature, this allows the differences between Multi National Enterprise (MNE) and INV risk and risk management to be reviewed. Section 3 takes the international business risks mentioned in section 2 and relates them to the mode of entry literature (i.e. the internationalisation of firms). The final section of the literature review is used to justify the investigation into the water pollution and control sector of the environmental industry. The research question is 'What strategies do environmental INVs use when entering new international markets?' The research question is broken into five specific research questions and addressed using the Repertory Grid process. The Repertory Grid process is used as it can turn the tacit knowledge held by the participants into explicit knowledge. The results show areas of convergence and divergence between practice and academia. The results also suggest new issues that need to be considered when firms internationalise. This culminates in the observations made in regard to the way environmental INVs manage risk when internationalising.

This thesis explores the process of an annual appraisal strategy, ‘clinical conversation’, from the perspective of seven nurses who were assessed using this technique. The findings demonstrate that clinical conversation is a strategy which facilitates reflection, both as a solitary exercise and with others, to ensure that learning from experience is optimized. The research used a qualitative interpretive approach informed by the model of Grounded Theory espoused by Strauss and Corbin. All eight nurses who were assessed using the clinical conversation strategy were advanced practitioners working within the scope of sexual and reproductive health. Two of the actual appraisals were observed and seven of the nurses were interviewed within eight weeks of being assessed. The outcome of the clinical conversation was primarily one of learning; the acquisition of new insights into self as practitioner. The learning was facilitated through the process of narration; telling the story of clinical practice. Three distinct narrative cycles were identified, each an experiential learning episode. The experience of undertaking a variety of assessment activities created a narrative with self and triggered an internal reflective thinking process; the experience of working with a peer created an additional narrative, a mutual dialogue reflecting back on practice; the experience of sharing practice with an assessor created a further and final narrative, a learning conversation. Each narrative can be seen as a catalyst for change. Primarily, the nurses felt differently about themselves in practice, the way they saw themselves had shifted. Such a change can be described as an alteration in perspective. These alterations in perspective led all nurses to identify ways in which they would change their actual clinical practice. In this way the nurses attempted to align their espoused beliefs about practice with their actual practice. My study shows that each nurse responded differently to each narrative learning cycle: for some the conversation with the assessor was more of a catalyst for change than for others. In this way clinical conversation may be flexible enough to respond to a variety of differing learning styles. Learning was person specific which is an imperative for the continued professional development of already highly skilled clinicians. The implication of the research is that whilst clinical conversation was designed as a tool for appraising clinical competence, its intrinsic value lies in supporting the professional development of nurses.

Subsequent to the growing need for internationally mobile talent, alternative forms of international assignees have arisen (Collings, Scullion and Morley 2007; PricewaterhouseCoopers 2010). This study focuses on such newly appointed internationally working employees, particularly International Business Travellers (abbreviated to IBTs). Inspired by a lack of research attention relating to this labour population, this DBA project opens up the black7box of the IBT working partnership. This is achieved by surveying the role of the IBT as well as the distinctiveness and the state of the psychological contract that the employees involved have with their current employer. The research described and substantiated in this work was devised from the IBT’s perspective, and occurs within a Belgian context. Consistent with a – methodologically revitalising – interpretive phenomenological framework, the study was operationalised on the basis of qualitative, semi7structured interviews with nine IBTs. The thematic data analysis carried out indicated the multifarious, intercultural and strategic role of the IBT, and brought skills specifically characterising the IBT to light. The IBT psychological contract was summarised by eighteen content7related obligations, which contemporaneously display contrasts and similarities with related reference research. The contract in question proved to be evaluated generally positively by the research participants and to develop itself in a unique manner through a noteworthy relational base mixed with a non7negligible transactional facet. Along with a discussion of the principal insights found/contributions made, this thesis includes a number of study limitations, recommendations for further research and implications for successful IBT psychological contract management. Personal reflections are, where relevant, also provided throughout this work.

This study examines how people construct and negotiate social identity in neighborhood associations. It builds on previous social identity research by examining how identity construction is important in regards to political behavior, but in an unexamined context - that of neighborhood associations. Neighborhood associations are groups that are formally organized and frequently interact with city employees and elected officials to obtain and/or improve city services in that geographic location. This study is informed by interpretive approaches to social science inquiry. My findings are based on three sources: participant observations of neighborhood association meetings in the City of St. Louis, Missouri during 2008-2009; 31 semi-structured interviews with neighborhood association leaders, members, and city employees during the spring and summer of 2009; and document analysis of association materials such as meeting agendas and by-laws. Neighborhood associations can be both a source of empowerment and exclusion. Needless to say, people negotiate multiple social identities based on race, gender, and class. In general, gendered identities were activated far less than racial or nationalistic identities, and when they were activated, it was in the context of a private interview not a public meeting. In the best situations, people were able to form new collective identities and bridge differences across diverse backgrounds

Background: The last few decades have seen neuroscience rapidly progress as a discipline. Development of research techniques such as neuroimaging have been utilised to increase an understanding of our species. Counselling psychologists are trained to combine the world of humanistic and phenomenological philosophies with an ability to understand and undertake psychological research, leading to interventions which are theoretically and subjectively informed. This work is undertaken through the reflexive and scientist-practitioner models which underpin the identity of the discipline. As such, counselling psychologists would seem ideally placed to integrate neuroscience into their work, utilising their reflective and scientist practitioner identities to both utilise and add to neuroscience research, helping to increase the understanding and efficacy of interventions for our species' mental health. However, it appears to be unknown as to whether this is something that counselling psychologists want, particularly in the UK. Aims and Method: The aim of this research was to explore UK based counselling psychologists' views and experiences of integrating neuroscience into their work. An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) was undertaken. Six participants were recruited into three different groups of interest/understanding in integrating neuroscience into counselling psychology. One hour semi-structured interviews were carried out with each participant to explore their views and experiences relating to the paradigm. Findings and Discussion: Six master themes emerged from the analysis; 'The Dangers of neuroscience', 'Defining neuroscience', 'There are ways that neuroscience can help us', 'Methods of learning and the need for training', 'Integration: The opposition and the need - finding the balance', and 'My practitioner identity'. The themes presented various advantages, dangers and challenges to integration, some of which aligned with existing literature and some of which presented new thoughts and feelings on the paradigm. Conclusion: The six master themes highlighted that participants indicated an overall view that UK counselling psychologists are currently integrating neuroscience into their work, utilising neuroscience theory as a way to develop their understanding of clients, as well as to communicate with clients and multi-disciplinary colleagues. Participants provided a number of experiential advantages of integration and indicated that they want to integrate even more with neuroscience, incorporating neuroscience into doctorate and CPD training, though they acknowledged the importance of balanced integration.

abstract: This dissertation aimed to identify the factors that facilitated the friendship initiation, development, and maintenance between Taiwanese and Chinese students and the influential relationship among those factors. Nine Taiwanese and nine Chinese students studying at one Taiwanese university were recruited for this study. The Chinese students were in Taiwan for at least two years. The participants were friends with the other party for at least 8 months. This study was divided into three stages. In the first stage, participants were required to provide factors that facilitated their friendship with the other party. Fifty ideas were collected. In the second stage, participants were asked to clarify those factors and then categorize those factors. Fourteen categories were identified in this stage. The participants, then, voted on factors that affected their friendship formation, development, and maintenance with other party. Fifteen factors were voted the highest among those factors. Those 15 factors were imported into interpretive structure modeling (ISM) software for the next stage. In the third stage, 18 one-on-one interviews were conducted, and 18 ISM diagrams were generated. ISM provided a method to identify the influential relationship among those factors. According to the results, the friendship formation model was proposed. Five stages were identified in this model: exploring, matching, engaging, deepening and bonding. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2016

Magister Artium - MA / In these novels suspense plays an important role, but elements that are usually found in literary works are also prominent in these narratives, for instance the fleshing out of characters' psyche and working with philosophical or current issues. In rhetorical terms these novels can be said to be suspense novels that make use of literary devices and themes. Novels by Deon Meyer fit into this category. In the Netherlands translations of his works are to be found among 'literaire thrillers' in bookshops. Therefore one of Meyer's novels was chosen for analysis. In this study the ways in which suspense is created in a narrative text is investigated. Proteus, a literary thriller, was chosen for its handling of characters and events in the transition in South Africa from an apartheid state to a democratic dispensation. This poses an intricate challenge for the writer. The reseach problem posed is this: How is literary suspense created in a narrative text? The creation of suspense in a narrative text has to do with literary communication. For this reason Roman Jakobson's well-known model for literary communication is at the basis of this research. Rene Appel's criteria for the creation of suspense in narrative texts, as it is explained in his work Spanning in verhalen: Over het schrijven van spannende boeken (2007), is also part of this study at its theoretical base. Various relevant sources have been included in this regard. In this formalistic study various elements pertaining to suspense in the narrative are part of the research in terms of isolating the ways in which suspense is produced in a narrative text in general and specifically in the case of Proteus. Also in this regard the novel's literarity is discussed. / South Africa

Emergency department (ED) nurses exposed to pediatric resuscitations are at a high risk of developing posttraumatic stress (Adriaenssens et al., 2012; Lavoie et al., 2016). This may be especially true in community hospital EDs where nurses have less exposure to, knowledge about, and resources for managing these events (Gangadharan et al., 2018; Gilleland et al., 2014; Goldman et al., 2018). Interventions to proactively prevent nurse trauma in these contexts remain uninvestigated. To inform such interventions, this study aimed to understand the largely unknown lived experiences of these nurses. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four registered nurses who experienced at least one pediatric resuscitation while working in a community hospital ED in Ontario. Data analyzed using Smith et al.’s (2009) interpretive phenomenological analysis revealed three superordinate themes (i.e., “Conceptualizing Pediatric Resuscitations,” “Seeing What I See,” and “Making Sense of What I Saw”) and nine corresponding subthemes. This study provides insight into the infrequent but profound experiences of nurses resuscitating children in community hospital EDs. Participants, who conceptualized these events as unnatural, emotional, and chaotic, were comforted by those who understood their experiences and distressed by those who could not see what they saw. To reconcile what they saw, the nurses reflected and ruminated on the event, ultimately restructuring their experiences of themselves, others, and the world to make room for a new reality where the safety of childhood is not certain. The findings of this study have implications for nursing practice, education, leadership, and research that may enhance nurse coping following these events.

Der gleichzeitige Betrieb mehrerer Gast-Betriebssysteme auf einem einzigen physischen Rechner unter einem Host-Betriebssystem ist eine leistungsfähige moderne Entwicklung. Bekannte Beispiele sind VMware für die IA32-Architektur sowie das Betriebssystem z/VM und die PR/SM-LPAR Einrichtungen der zSeries-Architektur. Die Nutzung eines Betriebssystems als Gast bedingt einen Leistungsverlust. Die als Partitionierung bezeichnete Zuordnung von Systemressourcen zu den einzelnen Gast-Betriebssysteme ist schwierig, wenn eine dynamische Anpassung an sich ändernde Lastprofile erforderlich ist. Diese Probleme lassen sich mittels Erweiterungen der Hardwarearchitektur adressieren, sowie durch Softwarestrukturen, welche diese Erweiterungen nutzen. Die Erweiterungen der Hardwarearchitektur gehen über das hinaus, was auf heutigen Rechnerarchitekturen wie IA32 oder Mips verfügbar ist. Der vorliegende Beitrag erläutert den optimalen Betrieb von Gast-Betriebssystemen und die begleitenden Partitionierungsmöglichkeiten auf der zSeries-Plattform und beschreibt die zusätzlichen Hardware und Software-Einrichtungen, welche dies ermöglichen. / The capability to run multiple guest operating systems simultaneously on a single hardware platform is a powerful feature in a modern computer system.Well-known examples are VMware for the IA32-architecture and the z/VM operating system and the PR/SM-LPAR facilities of the zSeries architecture. Running an operating system as a guest results in a performance degradation. Partitioning of system resources and assigning them to individual guests may be difficult, if a dynamic adaptation to an ever changing load profile is required. Extensions of the hardware architecture and their exploitation by software permit to address these problems. Such extensions have not been available on existing architectures like IA32 or Mips. The following paper discusses the operation of guest operating systems and associated partitioning capabilities available in zSeries systems and describes supporting hardware and software facilities.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis turns to Martin Heidegger to develop an interpretive framework to answer the question that has increasingly been thrust to the fore of 21st century society: what is the nature of the relationship between technology and society? And related to this central question is the matter of how society and social being is altered by technology and its modalities of vision? The basic argument that has been advanced to address this question revolves around the fact that in as much as we use technology as a means to serve practical ends, it displaces certain tasks and functions, which would otherwise be necessary, and thus truncates or reduces the scope of social practices in our everyday social routines. However, it does not simply end there as we illustrate that social practices encompass, to varying degrees, a different range and scope of social relationships which are instantiated in their wake. Considered together we found that these relations constitute a nexus of social connections, which we take up as the quality of sociality. The implications for our argument that sociabilities and sociality converge to produce an understanding of social being means that any technological encroachments which displace our social practices and social connectives alters our understanding of social being and thus how we understand ourselves, the world and others. We take up this theme of the displacement of our social being, sociality and sociabilities by considering two outcomes that modern technology seems to open up: equipmentality and curiosity.Firstly, as regards equipmentality we have noted that it connect us to our sociality and sociabilities and thus inures our understanding of social being, however, by contrast Heidegger finds in (idle) curiosity a second outcome that dooms us to the dystopian fate of nihilism. There is thus no fait accompli as regards modern technology’s nihilistic tendencies. This does not mean that we can be complacent about our future. But it does mean, on a positive note, that we human beings do have a responsibility to recognize technology’s efficacious ontological dimension for disclosing our being and the world.By contrast, on the negative task, our responsibility does extend to resisting modern technology’s nihilistic ontological wasteland, which does not admit objects, things or for that matter human beings, but only the flattened insubstantial being of resources as standing reserve for the technological system, bereft of sociality, humanity and an understanding of social be-ing.