Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online via the University of Tennessee ETD website (http://web.utk.edu/~thesis/etd.shtml).

In a society where adolescent technology use is a dominant presence, the potential for adolescent cyberbullying has increased. It has become a phenomenon that warrants research attention. In North America, adolescent cyberbullying research is still in the exploratory stages. Current North American research has focused on younger populations (Beran & Li, 2005; Cochrane, 2008; Li, 2005; 2006; 2007; Patchin & Hinduja, 2006). However, adolescence is a period of dramatic change that encompasses all areas of development (Arnett, 2004; Berk, 2004; Hinduja & Patchin, 2008). These factors form the basis and motivations for this research. This study explored adolescent cyberbullying in Canada with the hope of providing preliminary research attention on a serious issue. Specifically, this study explored the following questions:<p> 1. What was the extent of cyberbullying among grade ten, eleven and twelve students in urban Saskatchewan?<p> 2. What was the relationship between traditional bullying and cyberbullying?<p> 3. What did the experiences of cyberbullying look like (both as a perpetrator and as a victim)? How were the victims impacted?<p> 4. How did individuals respond to cyberbullying (as a bystander)?<p> 5. What were the students opinions on adult responses to cyberbullying?<p> Answering these questions were 476 students from one large Catholic and two large public high schools in urban Saskatchewan. Students from grade 10 and, primarily, grades 11 and 12 anonymously completed a paper-pencil questionnaire. Of these students, 44.0% disclosed they had been a victim of cyberbullying and 31.3% reported they had been a cyberbully. Two-thirds (64.5%) also admitted knowing at least one individual who had been a victim of cyberbullying. Students shared a range of negative emotions and effects that they experienced as a result of being a victim of cyberbullying. The most commonly reported were anger and sadness or hurt. Overall, significant differences in students experiences with cyberbullying were found between gender, grade levels, and among levels of achievement.<p> Two-thirds (66.2%) of students also admitted telling at least one person that they had been a victim of cyberbullying. Students most often told a friend (53.8%) over telling anyone else. This was reflected in students overwhelming perception that adults (e.g., parents or teachers) could not prevent cyberbullying or successfully intervene when it was occurring. Students did offer ideas on possible ways of intervening or preventing cyberbullying that ranged from increased education to effective consequences.

Le but de cette recherche est de proposer un questionnaire validé pour la mesure du niveau de collaboration entre deux éducateurs physiques en situation de co-enseignement. Bien que le co-enseignement soit déjà présent dans certaines écoles primaires, il est plus présent dans les gymnases du Québec depuis 2006. En effet, le Ministère de l'Éducation du Loisir et du Sport (2005), propose que chaque élève ait 120 minutes d'éducation physique et à la santé par semaine et invite ainsi certaines écoles à doubler le temps consacré hebdomadairement à l'éducation physique et à la santé. Faute d'espace disponible, certaines directions d'écoles choisissent d'inscrire à l'horaire maître, dans le même gymnase, à la même période, deux groupes d'environ 25 élèves, qui sont sous la responsabilité de deux éducateurs physiques. Inspirés des outils de Gately et Gately (2001), nous avons créé un questionnaire afin de mesurer le niveau de collaboration entre deux co-enseignants. Une première étape de traduction inversée a d'abord été effectuée par deux personnes bilingues, professionnelles de l'enseignement. Dans un deuxième temps, un comité d'experts a analysé le questionnaire et a formulé des recommandations pour créer la version expérimentale du questionnaire. Cette version a finalement été soumise à une validation de terrain alors que trois éducateurs physiques ont, à leur tour, proposé des modifications. Suite à cette procédure, le questionnaire présente neuf dimensions: 1-la communication, 2-les déplacements et positionnements des co-enseignants, 3-la connaissance du programme d'étude, 4-la différenciation dans l'enseignement, 5-la présentation des situations d'apprentissage, 6 -la planification, 7 -la gestion de classe, 8-l'évaluation des apprentissages et 9-la gestion du matériel. Notre questionnaire a répondu aux exigences de la validation de construit. Les analyses statistiques nous indiquent des alphas de Chronbach varient de 0,61 et 0,89 pour chacune des neuf dimensions. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Co-enseignement, Collaboration, Questionnaire, Efficacité.

A disconnect exists between research and practice that is impeding the flow of knowledge between researchers, practitioners and decision makers. This obstruction of knowledge is acting as a barrier to the use of evidence in decisions and also as a barrier to informing research of important questions that need answering through scientific investigation. This divide between research and practice can be crossed by building a bridge between researchers and practitioners across which knowledge can be transmitted, translated and exchanged. <br /><br /> A possible mechanism to understand the key contributors to bridge building is by using Wenger's Community of Practice model as a framework upon which to understand the importance of and how to build connections between research, policy and practice. The defining characteristic of a Community of Practice is the interaction between members in order to jointly determine and embrace goals, eventually resulting in shared practices. Crucial to the success of a Community of Practice is the engagement between community members. Without engagement, a Community of Practice can not share knowledge and achieve its negotiated goals. <br /><br /> This thesis studied a Community of Practice that is being deliberately formed to facilitate the development of a pan-Canadian population health research network. This network, CANSPANN (Canadian School Physical Activity and Nutrition Network) aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and decision makers to create research programs studying the social-environmental influence of schools on youth physical activity and healthy eating that address priorities for policy and practice. <br /><br /> This thesis assessed if a quantitative questionnaire tool could validly and reliably measure the level of engagement between CANSPANN members. The questionnaire also aimed to determine if engagement predicted knowledge use. Eighteen items in the NEQ validly measure engagement of CANSPANN members. Sufficient content validly was established for these items. Of these eighteen items, only four subscales significantly predicted knowledge use. <br /><br /> Through reliability testing with qualitative interviews it was determined that the Network Engagement Questionnaire reliably measures engagement for CANSPANN members who are centrally involved. It is far less able to reliably measure engagement for peripheral members. Further testing with the NEQ is necessary in order to increase its reliability.

In a society where adolescent technology use is a dominant presence, the potential for adolescent cyberbullying has increased. It has become a phenomenon that warrants research attention. In North America, adolescent cyberbullying research is still in the exploratory stages. Current North American research has focused on younger populations (Beran & Li, 2005; Cochrane, 2008; Li, 2005; 2006; 2007; Patchin & Hinduja, 2006). However, adolescence is a period of dramatic change that encompasses all areas of development (Arnett, 2004; Berk, 2004; Hinduja & Patchin, 2008). These factors form the basis and motivations for this research. This study explored adolescent cyberbullying in Canada with the hope of providing preliminary research attention on a serious issue. Specifically, this study explored the following questions:<p> 1. What was the extent of cyberbullying among grade ten, eleven and twelve students in urban Saskatchewan?<p> 2. What was the relationship between traditional bullying and cyberbullying?<p> 3. What did the experiences of cyberbullying look like (both as a perpetrator and as a victim)? How were the victims impacted?<p> 4. How did individuals respond to cyberbullying (as a bystander)?<p> 5. What were the students opinions on adult responses to cyberbullying?<p> Answering these questions were 476 students from one large Catholic and two large public high schools in urban Saskatchewan. Students from grade 10 and, primarily, grades 11 and 12 anonymously completed a paper-pencil questionnaire. Of these students, 44.0% disclosed they had been a victim of cyberbullying and 31.3% reported they had been a cyberbully. Two-thirds (64.5%) also admitted knowing at least one individual who had been a victim of cyberbullying. Students shared a range of negative emotions and effects that they experienced as a result of being a victim of cyberbullying. The most commonly reported were anger and sadness or hurt. Overall, significant differences in students experiences with cyberbullying were found between gender, grade levels, and among levels of achievement.<p> Two-thirds (66.2%) of students also admitted telling at least one person that they had been a victim of cyberbullying. Students most often told a friend (53.8%) over telling anyone else. This was reflected in students overwhelming perception that adults (e.g., parents or teachers) could not prevent cyberbullying or successfully intervene when it was occurring. Students did offer ideas on possible ways of intervening or preventing cyberbullying that ranged from increased education to effective consequences.

After stepping into 21st century of knowledge economy era, the enterprises¡¦ competition advantage depends on knowledge-management mechanism to promote the decision-making quality, supply better service quality, create core technology, cultivate team cooperation, and establish good relationship with customers. In Taiwan, the competition among medical industries is hot increasing since the practicing of health insurance. The request of medical quality is higher and higher. The medical industry must enforce the medical administration system to elaborate her efficacy. But the SARS infection incident during 2003 is ascertained that the infection almost was inside the hospital. The medical control system and policies were unsuitable and the medical workers operated without protection facilities. Therefore, the workers were infected SARS and six persons died for medical job. This disaster is due to the incompleteness of medical administration. To promote medical quality and performance, combining knowledge-management, clinic administration and quality control is necessary. The knowledge-management includes the acquiring, spreading, cumulating and sharing of knowledge. This study adopts questionnaire law and expert interview law quantity measuring tool.The statistic analysis is based on research framework and model. After the retrieval of questionnaire, the data are coded, checked, keyed. According to the change of quantity-measuring dimensions, the linear analysis- Pearsons relationship is chosen as proper statistic analytical tool. The regression analysis was conducted by SPSS 10.0 software. The result is used to understand the knowledge management of medical industry and discuss the factors, including individual cognition, organization culture, operating aspect and strategy consideration, affecting the performance of knowledge management. It is found that, the establishment of encouragement system, performance comments, on-the-job training, experience inheritance education, and psychology construct coach are all necessary to carry out the knowledge management of medical administration in medical industry. It is very important that the decision makers and directors should emphasize actually knowledge management and execute completely to enhance competition advantage and insure the medical service quality.

Innovation in services has arisen to be a hot topic of today and being innovative serve as a key in staying competitive in most business settings, the service sector is no exception.Although important, service innovation is difficult to measure and the service perspective has been noticeably absent in traditional approaches where innovation measurement has tended to focus mainly on products and production related systems. These measurement indicators fail to capture the diversity and intricacy of innovation processes emerging in service firms, where innovation rarely requires R&amp;D. Until now, a coherent instrument or tool for measuring innovation in a service company has not existed resulting in that research studies on service innovation lag behind those of product innovation. The need for an innovation measurement instrument is obvious as it would not only assist companies in understanding their current innovation practices or capabilities, but would also help clarify what the organization need to focus on to maximize its success. With basis in aforementioned, this study sets out to extend the knowledge regarding factors affecting innovation within the service sector. As a result, a developed and tested questionnaire, suitable for measuring innovation within a service firm is provided and a managerial and theoretical contribution has been made.

According to cognitive theories of anxiety, anxiogenic schemata are a set of beliefs, rules, and assumptions that influence how those with anxiety make inferences and interpret threat. It is hypothesized that each anxiety disorder has a unique anxiogenic schema. This report describes the development of the Cognitive Vulnerability Schemas Questionnaire for Anxious Youth, an instrument used to measure anxiogenic schemata in youth aged 7-17 years old. Factor analyses of the scale demonstrated two empirically distinct and relatively stable dimensions of anxiogenic schema. The two identified factors of anxiogenic schema were: (1) Generalized Anxiety and Social Phobia Schema, and (2) Separation Anxiety Schema. The measure demonstrated good psychometric properties on a range of indices of reliability and validity. Results indicated that scores on the questionnaire subscales predicted anxiety symptomology. Regression analyses showed that both factors were predictors of anxiety symptomology, however did not predict anxiety diagnosis. Significant differences in the Cognitive Vulnerability Schemas Questionnaire for Anxious Youth subscales were demonstrated between patients with clinically significant Generalized Anxiety Symptoms, Social Phobia Symptoms, and Separation Anxiety Symptoms. The implications of these findings for theories of cognitive vulnerability and schema development in youth are discussed. / text

The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes and potential for sorting of food waste at restaurants in the central part of Umeå. The information was gathered through a questionnaire survey and by exploring different sorting methods. The questionnaire was sent to 55 restaurants and 24 of them responded. A majority of the respondents wanted to sort out food waste. 72.8 % believe they have a good or moderate potential to sort out food waste in the future and none of the respondents answered that they believed that they had no means of sorting out food waste. Overall, the restaurants are considered to have good attitudes about sorting food waste. However, this may be because the respondents have a better attitude than those who chose not to respond. The sorting methods were evaluated by reviewing reports written by government agencies and industry associations. Mill systems connected to a tank had the most pros and least cons of the sorting methods, but were expensive to install and required a lot of space. Sorting in individual containers was less expensive and required less space but was considered worse from a working environment standpoint. It seems that a combination of individual containers and a mill system connected to a tank suit most restaurants.

Session ID: TH-A4-3 / Joint 4th International Conference on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems and 9th International Symposium on advanced Intelligent Systems, September 17-21, 2008, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan