This thesis is concerned with the study of biomedical scientific research work that is intensely distributed, i.e. socially distributed across multiple institutions, sites, and disciplines. Specifically, this PhD probes the ways in which scientists co-operating on multi-sited crossdisciplinary projects, design, use and maintain information-based resources to conduct and coordinate their experimental activities. The research focuses on the roles of information artefacts, i.e. the tools, media and devices used to store, track, display, and retrieve information in paper or electronic format, in helping the scientists integrate their activities to achieve concerted action. To examine how scientists in globally distributed settings organise and co-ordinate their scientific work using information artefacts, a multi-method multi-sited study informed by different ethnographic perspectives was conducted focused on a large European crossdisciplinary translational research project in nanodiagnostics. Situated interviews with project scientists, participant observations and participatory learning exercises were designed and deployed. From the data analysis, several abstractions were developed to represent how the joined utilisations of key information artefacts support the co-ordination of experimental activities. Subsequently, a framework was developed to highlight key interactional strategies that need to be managed by experimenters when using artefacts to organise their work cooperatively. This framework was then used as a guiding device to identify innovative ways to design future digital interactive systems to support the co-ordination of intensely distributed scientific work. From this study, several key findings came to light. We identify the role of the experimental protocol acts as a co-ordinative map that is co-designed dynamically to disseminate various instantiations of experimental executions across sites. We have also shed light on the ways the protocol, the lab book and the material log are used jointly to support the articulation of scientific work. The protocol and the lab book are used both locally and across co-operating sites to support four repeatability and reproducibility levels that are key to experimental validation. The use of the local protocol / lab book dyads at each site is further integrated with that of a centralised material log artefact to enable a system of exchange of scientific content (e.g. experimental processes, intermediate results and observations) and experimental materials (both physical materials and key information). We have found that this integration into a co-ordinative cluster supports awareness and the articulation of experimental activities both locally and across remote labs. From this understanding, we have derived several sensitising tensions to frame the strategies that scientific practitioners need to manage when designing their multi-sited experimental work and technologists should consider when designing systems to support them: (1) formalisation / flexibility; (2) articulability / local appropriateness; (3) scrutiny / tinkering; (4) accountability / applicability; (5) traceability / improvisation and (6) lastingness / immediacy. Lastly, based on these tensions, we have suggested a number of implications for the design of interactive information artefacts that can help manage both local and multi-sited co-ordination in intensely distributed scientific projects.

[Truncated abstract] At the commencement of this research project in February 2005, there was a paucity of empirical investigations that focused on understanding the psychological construct of mental toughness in sport (Bull, Shambrook, James, & Brooks, 2005; Fourie & Potgieter, 2001; Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton, 2002). Although impressive, the available literature did little in offering consensus in terms of a definition and operationalising the construct in a consistent manner as well as understanding those factors contributing to its measurement and development. The absence of theoretically guided research, in particular, was noted as a major limitation of this research. The potential significance of mental toughness for performance excellence combined with the conceptual confusion and lack of rigorous empirical research highlighted the need for further research on mental toughness in sport. Accordingly, the purpose of this thesis was to examine issues pertaining to the understanding, measurement, and development of mental toughness in sport, using personal construct psychology (Kelly, 1955/1991) as the guiding theoretical framework. Australian football was chosen as the context to explore these issues. In the opening empirical chapter, two qualitative manuscripts in which Australian football coaches’ perspectives on mental toughness and those factors contributing to its development are reported. Three central themes for understanding mental toughness in Australian football were generated: characteristics (self-belief, motivation, tough attitude, concentration and focus, resilience, handling pressure, personal values, emotional intelligence, sport intelligence, and physical toughness); situations (e.g., injuries, success); and behaviours (e.g., superior decision-makers, consistent performance). '...' In the final empirical chapter, two manuscripts in which the effectiveness of two different psychological skills training programs in enhancing mental toughness among youth-aged (15's) Australian footballers are reported. The first presents a quantitative analysis while the second presents a qualitative analysis. Multisource ratings (self, parent, and coach) of the AfMTI and self-reported resilience and flow indicated more positive changes in mental toughness, resilience, and flow than the control group. Similar patterns in the findings were evident across rating sources. Interviews with several players and one of their parents as well as the coaches generated their perceptions on the benefits of participating in the program (e.g., increased work ethic, tougher attitudes) and the processes by which the program had an effect (e.g., self-awareness; self-monitoring; self-regulation; and multi-perspective discussions) as well as suggestions for program improvement (e.g., parent and coach education programs). In summary, the results of the five studies presented in this thesis provide a comprehensive account of issues pertaining to the understanding, measurement, and development of mental toughness in Australian football. The findings are supportive of several aspects of previous research but also extend this line of inquiry in a number of ways. It is my hope that other researchers will be stimulated to engage in further research extending what is presented here and that practitioners will use this information to inform their professional endeavours.

Universities and their partner organisations are promising that short-term work placements in social entrepreneurial organisations will increase student employability, leadership skills, and knowledge of socially innovative practice, while providing students meaningful opportunities to ‘change the world;’ yet theory and empirical studies are lacking that show what is beneficial and important to students, how students develop, and what influences their development through these cross-cultural and interdisciplinary experiential learning programs. This is the first study to explore the value of UK and US students participating in international internships and fellowships related to social entrepreneurship from a socioeconomic perspective. For this study, a value heuristic was developed from organisational models in the social entrepreneurship and educational philosophy literature followed by a qualitative longitudinal multiple case study. Fifteen individual student cases were chosen from two programmes involving two UK and three US universities, taking place in eleven host countries over five distinct data collection intervals. Findings across cases show a broad range of perceived value to students: from research skills and cross-cultural understanding, to critical thinking and self-confidence. Findings also show how student perspectives changed as a result of the placement experience and what ‘internal’ and ‘context-embedded’ features of the placements influenced students’ personal and professional lives. However, the ambiguity of social impact measures raises ethical questions about engaging students with limited knowledge, skills, and preparation on projects where they are unprepared to create long-term value for beneficiaries. This study contributes to the literature on higher education and international non-profit and business education by: providing an expansive matrix of value to students engaging in international placements; initiating a ‘hybridisation’ theory of personal value; creating a rigorous methodology transferable to similar programmes; outlining embedded features that programme developers can integrate in order to improve their own social and educational impact; raising ethical questions related to theory and practice; and including the researcher’s own multi-continent journey into the substance of the work.

Manufacturing industry is under permanent pressure to maintain its economic growth and profitability as strong societal backbone. At the same time pressures of waste generation and resource consumption are increasing as result of manufacturing operations. Since manufacturing industry is one of the major consumers of natural resources it is therefore essential to reduce dependency on natural resources by decoupling economic growth from consumption. Resource efficiency approaches can improve the performance of production systems by reducing resource losses. However, the fundamental assumption at the basis of resource efficiency approaches is that resources are available infinitely. As a consequence, challenges of sustainability and resource scarcity remain inadequately addressed. The objective of this research is to develop analysis methods and decision support tools for manufacturing industry to facilitate its transition from linear production systems to circular manufacturing systems, which are economically viable and environmentally sustainable. The initial scope of study focuses on industrial resource efficiency assessment in production systems. Expanding the view to a manufacturing system perspective, the current research is explored with regard to circular manufacturing systems in the context of economic benefits, resource scarcity and waste generation. Systematic analysis methods and decision support tools are developed for industrial companies to facilitate the adaption of circular manufacturing systems. These developments are supported by industrial case studies. The analysis methods are to the largest extent based on agent-based simulation approaches. The tools are capable of assessing the economic and environmental impact of different business models, design strategies as well as supply chains settings. Moreover, the tools are able to determine whether introductions of new (circular) business models will be adopted by customers. One empirical market study is performed to investigate value propositions of a circular business approaches based on customer decisions. / <p>QC 20170825</p>

Background Mentorship is used to ease entry to practice for new nursing graduates. However, little is known about the process of pairing with experienced nurses. The aim of this dissertation is to explore mentorship pairing processes for new nursing graduates and experienced nurses. Methods 1. A quality improvement project was conducted using organizational data to describe the impact of the New Graduate Guarantee program at The Ottawa Hospital from 2013 to 2018 on new graduate nurses and organizational outcomes. 2. An interpretive descriptive study was conducted to develop an in-depth understanding of mentorship pairing practices specific to nursing occurring in a clinical setting that will ultimately inform future mentorship pairing practices. 3. A systematic review was conducted to determine the effect of mentorship pairing processes on the mentoring relationship and outcomes at the level of the new nursing graduate, mentor and organization. Findings 1. From 2013 to 2017, 66 nurses were hired directly into operational vacancies and 579 new graduate nurses were paired with a mentor in the New Graduate Guarantee program. The two-year turnover rate for new graduates who participated in the New Graduate Guarantee program (21.5%, N=92/427) was lower than new graduate turnover rates reported in the literature. 2. Interviews with 13 new graduate nurses and 12 mentors revealed a lack of awareness of current nursing mentorship pairing processes. Six nurse leaders described pairing processes using third party pairing. Participants suggested preparation, socialization and self-selection are key components to consider for future practice. 3. Of 2583 citations screened, no studies evaluated the nursing mentorship pairing process. Research is required to determine effective mentorship pairing processes in nursing. Conclusion Although 579 nurses were hired through the New Graduate Guarantee nursing mentorship program, the 13 new graduates and 12 mentors interviewed were unaware of the process used for pairing. Furthermore, no studies have evaluated mentorship pairing processes. Ninety percent of new graduates hired participated in the New Graduate Guarantee program. Future research is required to trial pairing processes proposed by nurse leaders, new graduates and experienced nurses and to develop and validate tools to evaluate the outcomes of these pairings.

No description available.

This study presents a critical investigation into the teaching of computer ethics. A qualitative pluralistic approach (a mixture of qualitative approaches) was used to investigate case studies of teaching computer ethics to university-level students from Bahrain. The main issue was that ethics to Arabs and Muslims is a matter of religion than a matter of philosophy whereas the dominant perception in the academic literature which discussed computer ethics teaching is that computer ethics is a form of practical philosophy and hence separate from religion. In order to shed light on this, the study investigated computer ethic’s perceptions and teaching practices which were occurring in universities in Bahrain. The study found that the issue was not a matter of perception but rather a matter of confusion and a misconception. Computer ethics was being confused with morality, religion, basic computer skills to name just a few. And such confusion was causing computer ethics to gradually disappear from the curriculum and become substituted with concepts which were not necessarily capable of building students’ ethical thinking. The study recommends that computer ethics teachers and policy makers from Bahrain distinguish computer ethics from religion, morality and from any other concept and identify it as an independent field of study, also teachers need to involve their students in social and ethical analysis of various kinds so that students understand that ethics is not a set of rules on what is forbidden and allowed aimed at providing straightforward answers to a given problem but rather ethics is a ‘cognitive tool’; a mechanism through which different competing ethical theories and standards are used to reflect on a given problem.

Over the course of history, different means of object and person identification as well as verification have evolved for user authentication. In recent years, a new concern has emerged regarding the accuracy of verifiable authentication and protection of personal identifying information (PII), because previous misuses have resulted in significant financial loss. Such losses have escalated more noticeably because of human identity-theft incidents due to breaches of PII within multiple public-access environments. Although the use of various biometric and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies is expanding, resistance to using these technologies for user authentication remains an issue. This study addressed the effect of individuals’ perceptions on their resistance to using multi-method authentication systems (RMS) in public-access environments and uncovered key constructs that may significantly contribute to such resistance. This study was a predictive study to assess the contributions of individuals’ perceptions of the importance of organizational protection of their PII, noted as Perceived Value of Organizational Protection of PII (PVOP), authentication complexity (AC), and invasion of privacy (IOP) on their resistance to using multi-method authentication systems (RMS) in public-access environments. Moreover, this study also investigated if there were any significant differences on the aforementioned constructs based on age, gender, prior experience with identity theft, and acquaintance experience with identity theft. As part of this study, a rollout project was implemented of multi-factor biometric and RFID technologies for system authentication prior to electronic-commerce (e-commerce) use in public-access environments. The experimental group experienced the multi-factor authentication and also was trained on its use. Computer users (faculty & students) from a small, private university participated in the study to determine their level of PVOP, IOP, and AC on their resistance to using the technology in public-access environments. Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) was used to formulate a model and test predictive power along with the significance of the contribution of the aforementioned constructs on RMS. The results show that all construct measures demonstrated very high reliability. The results also indicate that the experimental group of the multi-factor authentication had lower resistance than the control group that didn’t use the technology. The mean increases indicate an overall statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups overall. The results also demonstrate that students and participants’ increased levels of education indicate an overall statistically significant decrease in resistance. The findings demonstrate that overall computer authentication training do provide added value in the context of measuring resistance to using newer multi-method authentication technology.

Il presente lavoro di tesi si colloca all'interno di un più ampio programma di intervento clinico per pazienti oncologici. Facendo riferimento ad una cornice teorica basata sul modello relationship-centered care, l'obiettivo di tale programma di intervento è quello di ricercare ed attivare modalità di coping diadico funzionali per fronteggiare la malattia oncologica attraverso i quali si articola questa ricerca, vogliono esplorare tre modalità di coping e caregiving: individuale, diadico e di gruppo. Nel primo studio verranno indagate le strategie di coping e di adattamento interpersonale di donne con cancro al seno, e se tali variabili sono in grado di predire l'adesione ad un trattamento clinico che implichi il paziente medesimo ed un caregiver da lui scelto. Il secondo studio sarà dedicato all'assesssment diadico, dove le coppie formate da paziente e caregiver saranno descritte in funzione di specifiche variabili quali la depressione, l'ottimismo e le caratteristiche di personalità; a questo proposito verrà indagato se tali tipologie di coppia sono in grado di predire lo stile di coping del paziente. Il terzo studio, di processo, è centrato sull'efficacia di un intervento clinico di gruppo in cui sono coinvolti i pazienti e i loro caregiver. / This dissertation examines the psychological assessment for women with breast cancer and their chosen caregivers. It will be wholly presented the longitudinal research design in which the three studies of this dissertation are included. The first study aims not only to standardize the sampling procedure, but it also has the clinical purpose to verify whether coping strategies and interpersonal adjustment preedict end moderate the acceptance to a Supportive-Expressive Group Therapy (SEGT). In the second study the unit of analysis is the couple, which allows for a more accurate description of dyadic coping processes. It will be described and examined specifics couple's typologies or couple matching depending on symptoms and psychological factors such as, life orientations, depression and personality traits. The third study is totally centred on the SEGT. It will be described the nature of intervention and the structure of each session, exploring how the contents and the styles of the therapeutic action change.

In this dissertation I study corruption in the public sector in Sweden, a country which the literature regards as having few corruption problems. Sweden is therefore classified as a “least corrupt” case, and such countries are seldom studied in corruption research. My work is thus an effort to fill a gap in the literature. This research is also motivated by a conviction that such a case provides a fertile ground for studying danger zones for corruption. For example, this work allows me to explore how institutional and contextual changes impact on corruption and danger zones. Though the main focus of this work is on Sweden, I also have comparative ambitions. First, I locate Sweden in a cross-national context. I then study corruption in Sweden using a comparative methodology and with an eye to international comparisons. I apply a combined theoretical approach and a multi-method investigation based on several empirical sources and both quantitative and qualitative techniques. This research strategy enables me to capture a phenomenon (corruption) that is more difficult to identify in countries with relatively few obvious corruption scandals than it is in countries in which the phenomenon has traditionally been studied. Regarding danger zones for corruption, the results show that some of the zones identified in the international literature, such as public procurement, are also important in Sweden. For the Swedish case, my empirical research also identifies the types of corruption that occur, perceptions of danger zones and corruption, how corruption changes over time, and how corruption is fought. With regard to the latter, one conclusion is that ingrained (male) sub-cultures can be problematic and may need to be opened up using a combination of measures like promoting a more heterogeneous group of politicians, creating more transparent proceedings in decision groups and conducting more effective audits. The research also highlights the importance of adapting control measures to existing structures of delegation. For example, if delegation arrangements are changed to improve efficiency and cut costs, new accountability measures may be necessary. In general, delegation and control structures should be structured in such a way as to make the cost of shirking quite high. Finally, based on the results of this multi-method investigation, I conclude that one avenue for further corruption research is to connect our knowledge of danger zones to what we know about mechanisms effecting corrupt behaviour, and then to apply this to discussions of new models of the politics of management in multi-level governance.