ABSTRACT Most of the countries in the world take increasing national income and improving living standard as their economic development goals. Due to the change of economic structure, the nation¡¦s average national income per year has exceeded USD.10,000, and the people are enjoying the material life brought forth from the high economic growth. However, the increasing of wealth doesn¡¦t guarantee the increasing of happiness and well-being. Therefore, the idea of ¡§Quality of Life¡¨ in the advanced country is to remind us that pursuing living standard is only a tool, pursuing quality of life is the real goal of economic development. Looking back at 50 years¡¦ change of economic structure and the quality of life in Taiwan, the result of the transformation of the economic structure shows on the high multiple increasing of income and the notable improvement of quality of life in each aspect of people¡¦s life, such as education, medical insurance etc. However, pursuing the rapid economic development also brings about the negative effects on the quality of life, causing the impact of environmental pollution and the over development of resource, city densely populated, thus the quality of public security, social order, and nature-ecology environment cannot reach the people¡¦s expectation but even worsen. There is a tendency towards slow rising of the general quality of life index, just as the American economic historian W. W. Rostow said, people begin to improve their quality of life when the economic development comes into the mature stage. As a result, when Taiwan is pursuing the high economic growth and wealth, the improvement of ¡§quality¡¨ is much more important than that of ¡§quantity¡¨. The expense for improving the quality of life today is the investment in the payoff tomorrow. To improve the quality of life, we have to understand the external effect in the change of economic structure, and to estimate and deal with the external cost properly.

For meeting the requirements for both domestic economic development and social realistic demand, the foreign labors have been employed in Taiwan for several industries such as public civil engineering, important production business, household service, nursing service and fishery etc. in recent years. The main purpose of employing foreign labors was an expedient measure to resolve the shortage of blue-collar workers in Taiwan. However, the employing foreign worker had to obey the following four basic principles as: 1) Foreign labors should be hired to remedy domestic shortages of unskilled labor without compromising the employment rights and interests of Taiwan nationals. 2) Foreign labors are not allowed to use employment as a basis for immigration. 3) Foreign labors should not disturb the public safety. 4) Employment of foreign labors could not hinder domestic industrial upgrading and economic development. Since the domestic working environment has been deteriorated gradually, some events about the foreign labors with various characters disrupting residents occurred occasionally. In particular, the foreign labors living in centralized accommodations have brought several collective actions which have impacted on community residents¡¦ job satisfaction, quality of life, and conscious of community seriously. This study attempted to realize the residents¡¦ minds and exceptions in order to examine the residents¡¦ attitudes on foreign labors whether could affect their job satisfaction, quality of life, and conscious of community. In addition, did it have a significant correlation between them? The various attributes of residents such as gender, age, education, occupation, household income, type of accommodation and living time would lead to impact remarkable different results in job satisfaction, quality of life, conscious of community, and attitudes of foreign labors? The results could provide useful information for relevant authorities, thereby beneficial to look after both sides when carried out the policy of employing foreign labor and considered on the residents¡¦ experience.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 180 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-81).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-136). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Includes bibliographical references.

This study examines the effects of TYSABRI on the health-related quality of life (HrQoL) outcomes, disease status and symptomatology, treatment satisfaction, productivity outcomes and healthcare utilization for patients with Crohn’s Disease (CD). A total of 241 patients consented to participate in the study, out of which 61 patients qualified for the baseline survey. After three-months of TYSABRI therapy, the follow-up survey was completed by 24 patients. Changes in outcome scores from baseline to the three-month follow-up were evaluated. The 24 patients with the three-month follow-up were, on average 41 years old and 62.5% percent were female. For those with follow-up, a significantly lower proportion of patients (41.7 percent) identified their CD severity as moderate to severe compared to 83.3 percent at baseline (p=0.001). The patients also reported experiencing a significantly lower mean number of CD relapses at follow-up (4.0) compared to baseline (6.8) (p=0.004). Improved median well-being scores (2.0 vs. 1.0; p<0.001) and improved median abdominal pain scores (2.0 vs. 1.0; p=0.001) were also reported at follow-up. The patient global assessment of HrQoL over the last 2 weeks was significantly improved at follow-up (2.0 vs. 3.0; p=0.006). Similar improved results were observed regarding their assessment of the impact of CD on HrQoL (7.0 vs. 5.0; p<0.001). A significant change of 32.0 points on the total Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ) scale (p<0.001) and significant improvements in each of the four component scales were also seen at follow-up (p≤0.05). Significant improvement was noted on the SF-36 PCS scale (mean change 7.0; p=0.001) and MCS scale (mean change 6.0; p=0.05). Significant improvements were observed in the scores for each of the four scales of the treatment satisfaction questionnaire at follow-up: effectiveness scale (28.6 vs. 63.0; p<0.001); side-effects scale (61.6 vs. 82.2; p=0.01); convenience scale (63.8 vs. 70.8; p=0.05); and global satisfaction scale (41.3 vs. 67.0; p<0.001). A significant decrease in the number of CD-related emergency room (ER) visits was observed between baseline and follow-up (1.3 vs. 0.7; p=0.03). For the productivity outcomes, the percent of planned household work lost due to absenteeism was significantly reduced (73.1 percent vs. 43.9 percent; p=0.02) and the total percent of planned hours lost was also reduced (87.3 percent vs. 64.4 percent; p=0.037). These results indicate that TYSABRI is associated with significant improvement in HrQoL outcomes, CD disease severity, treatment satisfaction, ER visits and productivity outcomes. / text

The purpose of this research was to determine if incorporating individualized arts and art-making activities into the caregiving of persons with Alzheimer's Disease would help to improve their overall quality of life. To answer this question, I conducted an eight-week qualitative case study of two persons with Alzheimer's Disease. I visited the patients and their caregivers in their homes, and facilitated the incorporation of arts and art-making activities into their caregiving. These activities included painting with watercolors and acrylic paints, sewing, dancing, listening to music, collage, craftwork, storytelling, and sharing past art experiences. As a result of participating in this case study, the two persons with Alzheimer's Disease experienced increased confidence and self-esteem, a positive means of communication and social engagement, an opportunity to be validated and valued as persons with a rich life history and valuable remaining talents, and they developed new physical and mental abilities. / text

Planners often invoke wellbeing, sustainability, and related concepts when discussing planning initiatives, all of which are contested within their own separate literatures. Some of these planners, however, have begun drawing connections between the disciplines, a connection that very few in the planning academic literature are recognizing and studying. Using the Greater Victoria Happiness Index Partnership (HIP) in British Columbia as its primary case study, this thesis draws upon HIP’s experience in creating regional wellbeing indicators to better understand this relationship. It will investigate the efficacy of their efforts in affecting regional policy, explore their as well as the academic understandings of the wellbeing/sustainable development relationship, and draw recommendations that ultimately suggest a new means of applying this relationship in planning and other realms of public policy. / text

As cities across the world have grown and continue to grow in many ways and for many reasons, it is anticipated that the growth of population will come from all over the world. In turn, it will influence on our urban environment economically, socially, culturally, and ecologically. Like other cities, London is making a plan -creating 326,000 new homes and 776,000 jobs - to tackle issues of the city. A series of new emerging developments across London will contribute to the changing face of the city. A lot of interventions spreading through the city are focused on the economic forces and to take advantages of real estate of London by projecting offices, apartment which is mostly market-housing, and hotels. They swept away existing contexts and replaced with higher density buildings obtaining large profits, building high rise, filling gaps between buildings with gated car parks on the ground floors, and building over open spaces. Ground floors remain blind, and tall office blocks make the overshadowed open square inhospitable and wind turbulence. Most initiatives do not seem to contribute to urban life, but may possibly become the slums of tomorrow. Now, it is time to think about how to make sense of an environment which is safe, pleasant and healthy with a sense of identity, and how to contribute to neighborhoods, visitors and new comers. In dense inner city area, since place is an invitation where neighborhood meets city, urban design must meet needs of commuters, visitors, travelers, and residents equally by combining place, amenity, and movement. Therefore, this study is to investigate ‘How city’s agenda combine with, and support local neighborhood needs’, and to redefine the quality of city life through qualities of comfort, accessibility, amenity, education, experience, and nature. / text

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice