No description available.

Phenomenal Things is a comical look into the daily lives of Internet of Things (IoT) artifacts and their experiences as social beings in cyberspace. This Augmented Reality (AR) experience presents a storyworld set in the digital realm where the digital personas of IoT artifacts are engaged in activities normally invisible to humans such as information extraction, learning, talking to each other and communicating with other "things" online. By wearing a head- worn display (HWD), users will encounter anthropomorphized IoT artifacts going about their daily lives and come to understand these characters as digital beings with social lives. Placed inside of cyberspace, participants will find themselves within a circle of anthropomorphized IoT devices in dialogue with one another, as they welcome a new light bulb to their network. As participants move about the AR actors, proximity to each character will cause the participant to "friend" that character. "Friending" in this case means to get close to and influence the version of the story being told by changing the social network of the character. With this work I intend to create a mesmerizing yet subtly-interactive experience using proxemics to create an interactive narrative where participants can create emotional bonds with the AR actors in this immersive theater experiment. / Master of Fine Arts / What is everyday life like for the billions of interconnected sensors and devices that make up the network known as the Internet of Things (IoT)? Many people struggle to accurately describe what the IoT is, so it is likely most of us are unaware what specifically these "smart" devices are doing while continuously completing their digital chores. Beyond collecting information and serving their own unique functions, these devices now autonomously connect to social networks and interact with one another in ways meant to replicate human social networking. Phenomenal Things is a comical look at the social lives of these devices, from inside the Internet of Things. Told with the aid of an Augmented Reality Head Worn Display, the story stars anthropomorphized devices of a smart home network and is centered around the idea of these devices welcoming a new smart bulb to their network. The AR actors engage in dialogue to explain the network to the new bulb, what they are all doing there and how to communicate with other beings online. Participants can directly impact the version of the story being told by "friending" the various devices and thus influencing their point of view as so often happens with the social network experiences of humans.

This research study explores the intersection of school leadership and ethics. This study used the hermeneutic phenomenological approach described by Max Van Manen (1990, 2014) to explore the question: How do school leaders experience ethical dilemmas in their role as school leaders? Hermeneutic phenomenology seeks to find the meaning of a phenomenon, which in this case is the experience of an ethical dilemma. Hermeneutic refers to the interpretive-reflective-analytical component and phenomenological refers to the descriptive concrete life-experience phenomenon component (Creswell, 2007; Van Manen, 1990, 2014; Vagle, 2014). This study looked at experiences recounted by four practicing school leaders and found that the experience of an ethical dilemma involves contemplating (cognition) the uncertainty (chance) about the moral merit (values conflict) of a situation and ones capacity (power) and opportunity (options) to act in response. The lived experience themes of time and being watched were also found to be of particular relevance. These hermeneutic themes were drawn from experiences that the school leaders who participated in the study shared during rounds of conversational and analytical interviews. 'Lived experience is the starting point and the end point of phenomenological research....[which] is to transform lived experience into a textual expression of its essence' (Van Manen 1990, p 36). The experiences include experiences of ethical dilemmas regarding student behavior, teacher supervision, program changes, decisions that other school leaders make, parents, and complex systems with multiple actors. / Ph. D.

Having historical, cultural, and religious roots, humans have been walking the path of the labyrinth for centuries. From seashores to cathedral floors, the labyrinth is seen as a symbolic search for one's center. The labyrinth has experienced a revival in modern life, showing up everywhere from rehabilitation centers and hospitals, to prisons and backyard landscapes across this country. The labyrinth has emerged as a form that can help humans find their internal center and place of emotional stability. Having walked the labyrinth and believing in its healing properties, I became interested in the symbol itself. I was intrigued by the way the symbol was actually an architectural element that told the narrative of the culture that built it. While the labyrinth was on church floors in medieval times, its revival in modern times seems to be located in the outdoor environment. Since Landscape Architecture is a field based on the creation of safe and pleasing outdoor environments for humans, I chose the labyrinth as a way of looking at "experience" and "contemplation" in the landscape, and how the design(the creation of form) of this object contributes to the analysis. Wanting to complete this analysis by actually building a labyrinth, I was approached by the Sanctuaries Unique Garden Center in Richmond, Virginia, and asked to design and build a labyrinth. Providing Sanctuaries with conceptual designs of one way paths, a final design was settled on and the project was built. The thesis will highlight the theory, design, and construction surrounding the object called a "labyrinth." c44fb6c5-1ea6-4f7d-89f1-2e62511b85f8,"Health outcomes following a traumatic event are an important aspect of recovery from any type of trauma. Further, distress and psychopathology, specifically Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), have been shown to have a significant impact on physical health recovery post-trauma. The current study utilized a sample of 56 (48 women, 8 men) residential fire survivors to examine the potential mediating effect of PTSD and PTSD symptom subclusters. Participants were interviewed four months after a residential fire and were assessed on levels of exposure to the fire (Fire Questionnaire & Resource Loss Scale), PTSD symptomology (Anxiety Disorder Interview Schedule), and somatic health complaints (Brief Symptom Inventory). Consistent with previous findings, PTSD was found to mediate the relationship between exposure to a traumatic event and reporting of health symptoms. Further, the increased arousal subcluster was found to mediate the aforementioned relationship; the avoidance symptom subcluster was found to partially mediate the same relationship. Implications of results of the current project are discussed with regard to the impact of trauma on survivors' health, along with recommendations for further research. / Master of Landscape Architecture

No description available.

The implementation of telehealth applications is resource intensive and fraught with challenges unique to the people and places involved. The use of telehealth to provide clinical care to patients, educate patients and providers, and conduct research studies to advance medical science has been shown to positively affect issues of access and the quality of care. Previous research has focused on the use of specific technologies, known barriers to adoption and diffusion, and the general efficacy of these applications. Few studies have researched the role champions play in the deployment and operation of telehealth networks. The researcher proposed conducting an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of clinicians, educators and technical professionals within a successful telehealth network to determine the lived experiences that identify them as champions in the field. Three research questions were studied: 1) What do telehealth champions believe to be the human elements necessary to advance telehealth systems?; 2) How do these telehealth champions explain their empowerment during the creation and use of telehealth networks?; and 3) How do these champions use shared processes and experiences to help spur engagement? Semi-structured interviews with 16 champions from the three disciplines were conducted to explore their lived experiences as part of a telehealth network. Seven champion themes - modern pioneers; champion teams; agents of change; knowledge brokers; supported by management; advocates, not champions; and well-prepared visionaries - emerged from the iterative review and analysis of data. Findings suggest that telehealth champions are not born but instead created. They are modern pioneers who function as part of innovative telehealth teams. Champions also serve as agents of change who utilize their knowledge of disruptive technologies to advocate for improvement in established healthcare systems. They are problem solvers who serve as resources for their colleagues, organizations and collaborative networks. Telehealth champions channel the universal goals of improving patient care and expanding healthcare access to overcome adoption barriers. Applying the ideals of what it means to be champions and how they overcome barriers to new telehealth applications could prove to be very beneficial for those tasked with developing new networks.

The purpose of this lecture-recital document is to provide an overview of the musical form and stylized rhythms present in Gonzalo Castellanos-Yumar's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, his last symphonic composition to date. Castellanos-Yumar has repeatedly stated that he creates in his music a link between "the Venezuelan" and "the Universal" through traditional musical forms. The core of this document is my analysis of the Concerto for Viola and Orchestra through the composer's phenomenological approach to music, which successfully integrates a traditional musical form, such as the Concerto, with stylized Venezuelan folk rhythms in order to bring "the Venezuelan" into "the Universal". Also, it includes an overview of nationalism in Venezuelan music, an updated biography, a list of works of the composer, and an introduction to phenomenology, its application to music and its relation to the work of Gonzalo Castellanos-Yumar, specifically his viola concerto.

No description available.

Geocaching, an outdoor recreation activity that uses mobile digital technology combined with online social networks to find outdoor hidden treasure, has gained a strong following of geocachers worldwide. This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of geocachers as they described connections between themselves, fellow geocachers, informal learning, nature, and technology while engaged in the sport of geocaching. The descriptive phenomenology of Husserl and the methodology of Colaizzi provided the context and structure for this study. Geocachers while involved in geocaching activities participated in self-directed, informal, and incidental learning. Geocachers were motivated to participate in geocaching to experience nature, explore and discover, and to connect with other geocachers. The implications for this research will lead to a better understanding of how geocachers perceive their connections to learning, other geocachers, nature, and technology. Findings from this study are of interest to a range of educators, environmental communicators, and park and land managers.

Although there are both common and specialised senses of the term variation, (the OED lists dozens) there seems to be no well defined use of this term in philosophy. The main task of my thesis is to demonstrate that variation can be defined as a cognitive technique. I suggest that variation has been frequently used by philosophers, although not always in an overt manner. Moreover, I attempt to show that it is reasonable to talk about the relative importance of variation by examining the role of variation in Locke's Essay, Husserl's and Reinach's phenomenology, cognitive science, and thought experiments.