The sculptural forms produced on a knitting machine reveal the existence of human body. The installation induces sensation, questions the sense of absence, though differentiating between the Male and Female identity. The work evokes the evolution of human life exposing the secret of unborn, the journey of gender origin. No doubt we are born with gender specific features, but still one is constrained to investigate the individuality. / Program: Master Programme in Fashion and Textile Design

This empirical research uses interpretative enquiry in order to identify the barriers to school improvement by examining the impact of New Public Management (NPM) on the dual role of the Head Teacher in Scotland. For the purpose of this research staff absence management is employed as a surrogate for the adoption of New Public Management techniques. Three main concepts are covered within the context of this thesis: NPM; staff absence in the public sector and the dual nature of Headship in Scotland. The main frameworks that guide this research are Constructed Grounded Theory (Charmaz), Embedded Multiple Case-Study (Yin), NPM (Hood), Service-Dominant Logic (Vargo and Lusch), Co-production (Ostrom; Osborne et. al. and Pestoff et. al.), New Public Governance (Osborne), Occupational Professionalism and Organisational Professionalism (Evetts). Logic models are central to the cogency of the argument and throughout this thesis the logic models of Old Public Administration, NPM (Hood; 1991) and Service dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2004) are central. Adopting Osborne’s position (2009), that the root of NPM is based on a product-dominant/manufacturing logic, this thesis argues that this logic model is at odds with the occupational professionalism (Evetts; 1994) that exists at the school level, a logic model rooted firmly within a service-dominant logic model. The thesis proffers that it is this clash of logic models that has created a void between the goals of NPM, the organisational professionalism that exists within the case study local authority, and the occupational professionalism found on the ground in practice at the school level. The thesis concludes by stating that NPM has had a damaging effect on the dual role of the Head Teacher in Scotland and offers three main themes to support this original contribution to theory. Firstly, that NPM has failed at the school level in Scotland because of an underestimation of how complex schools are and a systematic failure to understand the complex nature, and high level of variance, within the public service delivery as exemplified through a focus on absence management. Secondly, NPM has had a damaging effect by continually expanding the tasks and responsibilities devolved to the Head Teacher over the last two decades in particular. Finally, NPM has failed at the school level in Scotland because of a systematic failure to understand both the occupational professionalism of the Head Teacher and the service-dominant organisation in which the Head Teacher works.

Thesis (MPHM. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / The quality of mortality data in South Africa has been questioned because of the high percentage of deaths reported to be due to ill-defined causes. We sought to assess the level of knowledge of doctors on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) rules for medical certification of cause of death and determine the factors influencing that knowledge. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted across 12 hospitals in Limpopo Province among the five districts stratified by level of care. Doctors completed selfadministered questionnaire, which included the baseline characteristics and questions that tested their theoretical knowledge of the ICD rules of death certification. The outcome, an adequate level of knowledge was set at a score of ≥ 60%. A chi square test was used to determine the factors associated with the outcome. Ethical approval was obtained from Turfloop Research Ethics Committee, University of Limpopo. Results Of the 301 doctors who participated, 50.5% were female, 64% were junior doctors and 13% were specialists. Up to 49% of doctors worked in the two tertiary hospitals. Only 18% of the doctors have ever attended a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) on the topic. The mean overall score on knowledge of medical certification for all the doctors was 59.80% (±11.95) with 53% obtaining at least 60% on the questionnaire. Doctors lacked knowledge on identifying unnatural deaths and discerning the underlying cause of death. Factors associated with the adequate knowledge included years of clinical experience (p=0.01), previous training (p<0.001), awareness of guidelines (p=0.04), comfort level (p=0.01) and rank (p=0.02). Conclusion The study highlighted the need for training of all doctors in the province and identified the knowledge gaps. Interactive capacity-building workshops have been shown to improve knowledge of doctors on medical certification of cause of death in other studies. To improve the quality of mortality data in Limpopo Province, such workshops must be conducted in all hospitals. Key words: death notification, medical certification, cause of death

Employee absenteeism is a global management problem that affects organizational productivity, profits, justice, and employee motivation. A Zambian government agency has little knowledge about absenteeism and the lived experiences of clients regarding staff absenteeism and service delivery. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore employee absenteeism and service delivery through the lens of McGregor's theory x. The research question was about the lived experiences of the agency's clients regarding absenteeism and service delivery. The data were collected through semistructured interviews of 22 purposefully selected clients of the Zambian government agency and were analyzed using the van Kaam method. Findings indicated that health issues of staff and relatives, funerals, alcoholism, demotivation, lack of staff transport, chronic fatigue, staff shortages, poor working conditions and salaries, poor supervision, school runs, laziness and indiscipline, and the transfer of staff affected absenteeism. Absenteeism caused organizational financial losses, inefficiency, reduced productivity, delayed service delivery, damaged the organization's reputation, and created client stress, frustration, and hopelessness. Absenteeism can be significantly reduced by close collaboration between the managers and their subordinates through increased employee engagement, improved incentive rewards programs, and a better understanding of the effects of work-€related stress. Positive social change through the reduction of absenteeism in government agencies can enhance the quality of public services in critical public sectors such as education, health, social welfare, labor, and agriculture.

Students at an alternative high school located in a northern Midwest state demonstrated low science achievement and high rates of student absenteeism. Students who do not attend school regularly and achieve in science courses are at risk of not graduating from high school, so teachers at the study school implemented a 16-day service-learning project embedded in a Grade 10 environmental science unit. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of 10th-grade students' participation in the service-learning project on student science achievement and attendance. The theoretical framework was Kearsley and Shneiderman's engagement theory. Archival data from school and teacher records were used for this quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group study. Data from 114 students enrolled in 6 sections of Grade 10 general science classes were retrieved. The Mann-Whitney U test was calculated to determine the difference in science achievement change scores and the difference in number of absent days between students who participated in the service-learning project and students who did not. The findings showed a significant difference for science achievement gain scores (U = 1,982.5, p = .042) but not for days absent (U = 2,048, p = .008). A professional development project was created for high school science teachers focused on implementing service-learning projects, which included suggestions on how to get students excited about attending the service-learning project and school. The findings from this study could be used to guide district decision-making about embedding service-learning projects into science courses to improve student achievement in science, thus, achieving positive social change.

This art project explores issues of unoccupied space. In particular, the project concerns itself with temporal aspects of site and issues of past, present and potential usage. This space, otherwise inert, invites activation by the spectator's psychological projections. This projected occupation calls on redolence of the past, memory and a sense of the utility of the site.Based on imagery evidence and personal remembered experience, the spectator provides context forthis site. The project uses the painting process to open up areas of sensibility around personal and remembered experience.The thesis is constituted as practice-based work, 80%, accompanied by an exegesis, 20%.

Translation of author's diss., Quaestio medico-chirurgica ... An mortis incertae signa; original Latin text p. [11]-40. / Also available online.

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Absence seizures in Childhood Absence Epilepsy (CAE) are 5 10 second episodes of impaired consciousness that are characterized on electroencephalography (EEG) by frontally-predominant, 3 4 Hz spike and wave discharges (SWD). The aims of this study were to use simultaneous EEG, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and behavioral testing to identify the neural networks involved in absence seizures as well as to examine the timecourse of those ictal fMRI changes. It was hypothesized that absence seizures involve wide-reaching neural networks including the areas traditionally associated with normal attention processing and that absence seizures produce fMRI signal changes not only during the seizure, but before and after it as well. In this study, we recorded 88 absence seizures from a cohort of 42 children with pure CAE. These seizures were recorded as subjects participated in simultaneous EEG-fMRI scanning while engaged in a continuous performance task (CPT) of attentional vigilance or a repetitive tapping task (RTT) requiring repetitive motor activity. Using a novel, voxel-based percent fMRI change analysis combined with a volume of interest analysis, the second-by-second fMRI signal timecourse of the absence seizures were examined across numerous brain regions of interest, from 20 seconds before seizure onset through 40 seconds after seizure onset. EEG frequency analysis revealed seizures with a mean duration of 6.6 seconds and an abrupt onset and ending that were comprised of frontally-predominant, 3 4 Hz SWD. Ictal behavioral testing demonstrated abrupt onset of impairments during periods of SWD. These behavioral impairments were typical of CAE absence seizures in that impairments were greater in the CPT of attentional vigilance (omission error rate, OER = 81%) than in RTT testing (OER = 39 %) (p < 0.003). The ictal fMRI changes we observed varied depending upon the method of fMRI signal analysis used. Using the traditional general liner model, and assuming the standard hemodynamic response (HRF) function, this study replicated results consistent with previous ictal absence fMRI studies showing ictal activations primarily in the thalamus and ictal deactivations in traditional default mode areas. Using a more data-driven, novel voxel-based fMRI percentage change analysis to examine the ictal fMRI timecourse on a second-by-second basis, both ictally as well as pre- and post- ictally, this study, however, demonstrated ictal involvement of diverse brain regions before, during, and after the seizure. Activation was demonstrated up to 16 seconds before seizure onset, starting first in the parietal and orbital-medial frontal cortices and progressing to lateral frontal and lateral temporal cortices followed by the occipital and Rolandic cortices and finally the thalamus. Deactivation followed a similar anatomic progression and lasted up to 17 seconds after the end of SWD. These findings reveal a complex and long-lasting sequence of fMRI changes in CAE absence seizures that are not detectable by conventional HRF modeling and are important in the understanding and eventual treatment of absence seizures associated with CAE.

No description available.