Lu, Yao. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

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This research project explores factors affecting sustainability initiatives within educational institutions. Using grounded theory and mixed-methods, the project evaluates the experiences and perspective of nineteen individuals involved with sustainability initiatives in schools. Twelve research participants are from one school community while the other seven are sustainability programme coordinators at a range of educational institutions. Results indicate that significant life experiences and situational factors both have an impact on an individual’s perspective on sustainability. The success of sustainability initiatives relies heavily on keen advocates for sustainability within the community and the support ascribed to sustainability by the institution. Providing engaging, hands-on experiences, supporting individuals and groups, and encouraging role modeling can foster an ethic of sustainability across the community. The outcome of this research project is a framework designed to help individuals and institutions in their efforts to support and implement sustainability initiatives. Keywords: Sustainability, education, barriers, environment

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<p>Objective: We compared the performance of PLUS to that ofthe Cochrane Trial Registry (CCTR), Medline and EMBASE for locating studies added during an update of Cochrane Systematic reviews. We investigated the effect of excluding studies not found in PLUS on meta-analysis results.</p> <p>Study Design and Setting: A sample of new studies in updated Cochrane Systematic Reviews was used to establish a reference standard. Searches were performed for each study in PLUS, CCTR, Medline and EMBASE. Where a primary study was not indexed in PLUS, we examined the effect on the review of excluding the study. We compared the result of each selected meta-analysis including only new studies obtained in PLUS to the result using only those not found in PLUS (non-PLUS) via ratio of odds ratios (ROR). The sensitivity of Hedges filters for randomized trials was measured.</p> <p>Results: Ninety-eight updated reviews were identified and 87 included a meta-analysis suitable for calculation of RORs. The relative recall rates for PLUS, CCTR, Medline and EMBASE were 23%, 95%, 90% and 86%, respectively. PLUS contained all new studies for 13 of74 reviews. No statistically significant difference between PLUS and non-PLUS new studies was found when RORs were pooled across 39 reviews (ROR 0.929; 95% CI, 0.79-1.093). Nineteen updated reviews had no new studies indexed in PLUS. Hedges filters for Medline demonstrated 99.4% sensitivity to detect new trials.</p> <p>Conclusions: PLUS included less than a quarter of the new studies in Cochrane Review updates but the majority of reviews in our sample appeared unaffected by the use of PLUS as a sole source of literature. This may be because PLUS captures the most important studies although no predictors of PLUS retrieval performance were found. Reviewers should consider adopting PLUS and Hedges filters to keep their reviews up to date.</p> / Master of Science (MS)

<p>This thesis is based on 32 semi-structured phenomenological interviews conducted at a large Canadian ambulatory cancer centre serving 2.3 million people in Ontario. The primary objective of this program of study was to explore cancer care employees' perceptions of a Quality of Work-Life (QWL) Project where they were the subjects of research and their perceptions of clinical research where patients were the subjects of research. Three secondary objectives were to explore: (a) perceptions of the participatory approach to research from the perspective of employees on the steering committee of the QWL Project; (b) perceptions of the QWL Survey from the perspective of employees who completed the survey; and (c) perceptions of clinical trials from the perspective of nurses and radiation therapists who treated trial patients Findings had important implications for the conduct of workplace and clinical research in a cancer care environment. Some of the main findings included: (a) It may be difficult to conduct participatory research in a work environment given that power and a hierarchy of relationships interfere with employees being considered equal; (b) Many QWL issues presented by employees were not captured in the QWL Survey. QWL researchers need to ensure that QWL measures are pertinent to a particular worksite and encompass all meaningful QWL issues of a given work environment; (c) Ethical concerns associated with clinical trials suggested that the clinical trials department should review trial procedures; (d) Workload concerns associated with clinical trials implied that employees should be credited for their present involvement in trials; and (e) Clinical research was perceived to be more important than the QWL Project, party due to the perception that patient interests outweighed those of employees. In general, employees' perceptions of clinical and workplace research suggested that identification with the cancer centre as a clinical research organization contributed significantly to employees' QWL.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Hydrocephalus is a common condition of childhood. Attempts to measure the health status of children with hydrocephalus have traditionally relied on surgical outcomes, non-specific generic health outcomes, or very specific neuropsychological measures. This work describes the development of a new disease-specific health status outcome measure for children with hydrocephalus--called the Hydrocephalus Outcome Questionnaire (HOQ). This work begins with a discussion of several methodological issues relevant to health status measurement, highlighting certain points of controversy. This is followed by a review of the methodology and the results of various stages of development of this new health status measure. This includes the stages of concept development, item generation, item reduction, reliability testing, and validity testing. The final section describes the use of some different approaches to providing interpretability to the new outcome measure. This work was approved by the Research Ethics Board at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. The result of this work was the 60-item Hydrocephalus Outcome Questionnaire. It demonstrated very good psychometric properties and was well received by the parents of children with hydrocephalus, who are the primary respondents. It is hoped that this will serve a useful role as a much-needed outcome measure for pediatric hydrocephalus.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Background Clinical Care Pathways (CCPs) are a form of organized care processes and mutual decision making regarding select patient groups in a specific context. Their aim is to enhance care quality, patient satisfaction, and outcomes while optimizing safety and resource utilization. CCPs are poorly characterized in the Canadian context, with a few examples of successful programs but no organizational framework. Aims & Methods Through an interview series and qualitative descriptive content analysis, this thesis attempts to discern neurosurgeon perspectives on CCPs, important content and processes, and barriers to CCP development. Through a retrospective case control study, for operative patients at one Canadian center, a second project describes characteristics of entry to neurosurgical care for the purpose of understanding system inputs and subsequent CCP development. Results Interviewed neurosurgeons describe a positive sentiment toward CCPs overall, with nuanced understanding coalescing between numerous perspectives. Respondents described CCPs heterogeneously, but overall recognized their structure. Current care barriers were identified. Numerous existing informal or partial CCPs were discussed. CCPs are noted to have specific essential elements in their design. Retrospective review of care entry from July through December 2022 analyzed 654 operative cases and 2135 regional urgent consult requests. This analysis revealed differences in care entry dependent on disease entity, referral characteristics, patient characteristics, and patient acuity. Conclusions Design and development of CCPs is an emerging practice in the Canadian neurosurgical context. Numerous institutions and groups are presently developing their local CCPs. This analysis serves as a preliminary structure of CCP design, with an example retrospective analysis of the care entry component at a local institution. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Clinical Care Pathways (CCPs) are processes describing how to care for a group of patients, from diagnosis through treatment and follow-up. Interviewed surgeons suggested that while significant barriers exist, such as resource limitations and prolonged wait times, CCP implementation would improve care. These pathways need to be evidence based, expert led, collect data, and contain a team from multiple specialties. CCPs should be uniquely built for certain disease groups such as spine, trauma, or oncology. Review of care entry at a specialized neurosurgical center suggested that care capacity is currently very strained. Wait times from assessment to surgery are lengthy. Many surgeries are happening as emergency cases, and some emergency cases would likely be done in a scheduled fashion, if resources were available for this. Similar reviews of referral sources can assist an institution to plan, in an informed way, for current and future needs for neurosurgery patients. This type of study serves as an example, when constructing a CCP, of how one can analyze system inputs.

由於數據、模型等的尺度依賴性，尺度不匹配可能導致錯誤的結論。尤其在相互作用的地理過程研究，尺度適宜性對認知地理過程起著至關重要的作用。本文結合珠三角地區的氣象場和空氣品質過程模擬，對地理過程研究中的尺度適宜性問題進行了研究。 / 首先，基於尺度概念的定義，本文提出了地理過程研究中的四組尺度適宜性問題：多地理過程層、維度層、類型層和組成成分層。分析了其可操作級別以及評估流程和指標。 / 第二，在WRF模型中引入多解析度地形數據以研究數據與模型在氣象過程模擬的尺度適宜性。結果表明由於DEM數據與模型的尺度不適宜，可能對氣象變數的模擬帶來較大偏差。而3和30秒解析度的DEM數據與1千米解析度的模型可以較好地模擬香港地區的氣象過程。本案例有助於通過考慮尺度適宜性來提高氣象場的模擬能力。 / 第三，針對模擬模型與地理過程的尺度適宜性，應用WRF和CALMET模擬了香港地區的氣象過程。結果表明CALMET可以更好地模擬香港的氣象過程，但是WRF與CALMET模擬結果的差異在空間分佈上是異質的，即複雜地表條件的區域CALMET模擬改進明顯。多尺度模擬的結果也表明了跨尺度地理過程的相互影響，有助於多尺度地理過程模擬與認知。 / 第四，設計並研發了面向空氣品質過程的多尺度虛擬地理環境系統。本系統應用LAMP架構，支援模擬知識的管理、跨平臺及分散式平行計算，亦考慮到模擬的尺度依賴性，將有助於多尺度空氣品質過程的模擬和認知。應用該系統，對多尺度SO₂濃度過程進行模擬並分析了香港當地排放源的分擔率。較低的本地分擔率表明香港政府仍需要加強區域合作來治理空氣污染問題。 / 本論文的研究不僅加強對地理過程研究中的多尺度以及尺度適宜性問題的認知，有助於分解和研究複雜的尺度適宜性問題，研究案例和原型系統亦將會對香港和珠三角地區的空氣品質過程理解和管理作出有益貢獻。 / Although multiscale data and models are taken into account to study geography, due to their scale dependence, the scale mismatching may cause adverse results. Thus, scale compatibility is becoming crucial to decode geographic process, especially, for the interactive geographic processes. This thesis focused on scale compatibility in geographic process with a case study of multiscale meteorological and air quality simulation in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. / Firstly, based on the conceptual definition of scale, this dissertation identifies four groups of scale compatibility in geographic process research: multiple process level, dimension level, type level and component level. By illustrating the different operational levels from the abstract to operational, the author proposes a procedure to implement scale compatibility with potential criteria. / Secondly, scale compatibility in the reproduction of meteorological process is investigated between multiscale digital elevation model (DEM) data and the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF). The experiments show that: DEM data with 3 and 30 arc sec resolutions are relatively more compatible with the WRF model of 1 km resolution to reproduce the meteorological field over Hong Kong; and uncertainty arising from scale mismatching between DEM data and the model may account for 38% of the variance in certain meteorological variables (e.g., temperature). This case study not only helps to improve meteorological simulations by taking the issue of scale compatibility into account, but also explains the significance and implementation of scale compatibility in geographic process research. / Thirdly, this thesis utilizes multiscale meteorological models to study the scale compatibility between dynamic models and interested geographic process. We conduct validation through three steps: daily statistics, spatial comparison and time series. The results support the idea that CALifornia METeorological model (CALMET) is more compatible to reproduce the meteorology process in Hong Kong; however, the discrepancy between the WRF and CALMET is spatially heterogeneous, with larger improvement over the area of complex topography and land use. The results also give evidence about the cross-scale interaction to interpret multi-scale geographic process. / Fourthly, applying the above findings, this dissertation presents a multiscale Virtual Geographic Environments (VGE) system to integrate geographical analysis and multiscale models in a cross-platform and parallel manner. With database system and Linux-Apache-MySQL-Perl (LAMP) architecture, users can manage and retrieve modeling concerning both data and model parameterization to help them reach a consensus on the simulation results and share modeling knowledge. Scale compatibility among data, models and analysis is also considered in the system design. Aided with high-resolved and regulable emission inventory, such multiscale system enables the practical application for various scenarios. As a case study, the VGE is applied to simulate and analyze the SO₂ concentration process and local contribution in HKSAR. / Achievements of this dissertation should greatly contribute to a better cognition of multiscale issues and scale compatibility concerning geographic process, and the VGE is expected to contribute to better understanding and management of air quality for both HKSAR and PRD. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Zhang, Chunxiao. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-157). / Abstracts also in Chinese.

Many large-scale national and international testing programs use the Rasch model to govern the construction of measurement scales that can be used to monitor standards of performance and monitor performance over time. A significant issue that arises in such programs is that once a decision has been made to use the model, it is not possible to reverse the decision if the data do not fit the model. There are two levels of question that result from such a situation. One of them involves the issue of misfit to the model. That is, how robust is the model to violations of fit of the data to the model? A second question emerges from the premise that the issue of fit to the model is a relative matter. That is, ultimately, it becomes the decision of users as to whether data fit the model well enough to suit the purpose of the users. Once this decision has been made, such as in the case of large-scale testing programs like the ones refocused to above, then the question reverts to one in which the focus is on the applications of the Rasch model. More specifically, in the case of this study, the intention is to examine the consequences of variability of fit to the Rasch model on the measures of student performance obtained from two different equating procedures. Two related simulation studies have been conducted to compare the results obtained from using two different equating procedures (namely separate and concurrent equating) with the Rasch Simple Logistic model, as data-model fit gets progressively worse. The results indicate that when data-model fit ranges from good fit to average fit (MNSQ ??? 1.60), there is little or no difference between the results obtained from the different equating procedures. However, when data-model fit ranges from relatively poor fit to poor fit (MNSQ &gt 1.60), the results from using different equating procedures prove less comparable. When the results of these two simulation studies are translated to a situation in Australia, for example, where different states use different equating procedures to generate a single comparable score and then these scores are used to compare performances amongst students and to predetermined standards or benchmarks, it raises significant equity issues. In essence, it means that in the latter situation, some students are deemed to be either above or below the standards purely as a consequence of the equating procedure selected. For example, students could be deemed to be above a benchmark if separate equating was used to produce the scale; yet these same students could be deemed to fall below the benchmark if concurrent equating is used. The actual consequences of this decision will vary from situation to situation. For example, if the same equating procedure was used each year to equate the data to form a single scale, then it could be argued that it does not matter if the results vary from occasion to occasion because it is consistent for the cohort of students from year to year. However, if other states or countries, for example, use a different equating procedure and the results are compared, then there is an equity problem. The extent of the problem is dependent upon the robustness of the model to varying degrees of misfit.