Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The Presbyterian Church in Australia, and in particular in the State of New South Wales, experienced a major disruption in 1977 with the formation of the Uniting Church of Australia. Since that time, under the influence of a revival of Puritan theology, the historic liturgical practices of the Church have been minimised to the point that older people such as myself no longer recognise many of the contemporary worship practices as Presbyterian. John Calvin’s notion of worship in which the worshipper is confronted with God’s unspeakable Majesty and Otherness, the divine transcendence of which leaves the soul awestruck and in a deep sense of humility has given way to informality and the absence of symbol. In what follows I shall argue that given this monumental paradigm shift the Church is facing a monumental crisis in its theological and philosophical assumptions. The awful tragedy is that there are many current ministers who are not aware that there is anything wrong. The crisis I allude to is changing the very nature of traditional Presbyterianism. Future generations will see this crisis as the watershed that changed the nature of the denomination and its institutional politics. In order to investigate the concept of liturgical minimisation, I will place the thesis in a historical context and then make explicit the implicit philosophical and theological underpinnings of this transitional period in the Church’s history. The liturgical minimisation process will be shown to have direct links to a specific epistemology that has its origins in the Enlightenment period. The application of an empirical based epistemology into the theological realm by scholars such as Thomas Chalmers, Charles Hodge, B.B. Warfield and Broughton Knox opens the door to theological distortions. This thesis argues that the Church needs to continue to develop and practise a specific Christian epistemology that is grounded in the love of Jesus Christ in order to move ahead with a coherent Gospel which brings real connectivity with God, nature, historical Christianity and with one other. Apprehending the philosophical and theological underpinnings I will argue that it is necessary to consider a serious reconstruction of Theological Education in which the conceptual framework is located in a specific Christian epistemology, engendering the Lordship of Christ and encouraging a spirit of transformative love and connectedness. It is only in this context that the theology of worship and the beauty and usefulness of liturgical forms can be appreciated.

The topic, Men’s health practices in dual income families, is worthy of investigation because social change continues to challenge gender roles that have been used to justify a segregation of parental responsibilities. Although child health has primarily been the responsibility of mothers, the increasing trend toward dual income families has resulted in mothers being less available for this role. An emerging substitute for maternal health care is that provided by fathers. Key researchers of fatherhood have reported that men desire more pragmatic interactions with their child, aimed at directly improving health and wellbeing (Burgess, 1990; Burgess & Ruxton, 1997; Burghes, et al., 1997). However, little is known about men’s willingness and capability in performing the range of practices necessary to effectively reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with child illness and injury (Hallberg, 2007; Laws, 2003a). This study used several methods of data collection that ultimately identified new knowledge of men’s health practices not previously recorded in the literature. Document searches, for evidence of men’s health practices, are presented as six chapters; each chapter explores a discrete category of child health or illness; Acute illness, Chronic illness, Mental health problems, Terminal illness, Health promotion and Accident and injury prevention. All six document searches revealed scant information on men’s health practices; this finding supported the need for additional methods. Focus group discussions and individual interviewsm aimed to identify men’s knowledge of child health problems, their repertoire of skills and experiences of practicing health. A questionnaire survey was distributed to households to assess respondent’s attitudes toward the concept of gender equity, shared parenting and to measure the actual health practices performed toward children. Analysis of focus group discussions and survey data revealed a) strong support for gender equity in the workplace and the home b) strong support for equitable parenting c) a repertoire of health practices and frequency of performance far in excess of that evident in the literature. These findings suggest more equitable parenting is occurring and a reclaimed fatherhood role. However, all three methods of data collection identify that men experience substantial barriers to expanding their parental role into child health care; these findings and emerging evidence indicate the need for health professionals and policy makers to develop strategies that enhance men’s inclusion, as partners, in child health practices. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, 2009

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The Presbyterian Church in Australia, and in particular in the State of New South Wales, experienced a major disruption in 1977 with the formation of the Uniting Church of Australia. Since that time, under the influence of a revival of Puritan theology, the historic liturgical practices of the Church have been minimised to the point that older people such as myself no longer recognise many of the contemporary worship practices as Presbyterian. John Calvin’s notion of worship in which the worshipper is confronted with God’s unspeakable Majesty and Otherness, the divine transcendence of which leaves the soul awestruck and in a deep sense of humility has given way to informality and the absence of symbol. In what follows I shall argue that given this monumental paradigm shift the Church is facing a monumental crisis in its theological and philosophical assumptions. The awful tragedy is that there are many current ministers who are not aware that there is anything wrong. The crisis I allude to is changing the very nature of traditional Presbyterianism. Future generations will see this crisis as the watershed that changed the nature of the denomination and its institutional politics. In order to investigate the concept of liturgical minimisation, I will place the thesis in a historical context and then make explicit the implicit philosophical and theological underpinnings of this transitional period in the Church’s history. The liturgical minimisation process will be shown to have direct links to a specific epistemology that has its origins in the Enlightenment period. The application of an empirical based epistemology into the theological realm by scholars such as Thomas Chalmers, Charles Hodge, B.B. Warfield and Broughton Knox opens the door to theological distortions. This thesis argues that the Church needs to continue to develop and practise a specific Christian epistemology that is grounded in the love of Jesus Christ in order to move ahead with a coherent Gospel which brings real connectivity with God, nature, historical Christianity and with one other. Apprehending the philosophical and theological underpinnings I will argue that it is necessary to consider a serious reconstruction of Theological Education in which the conceptual framework is located in a specific Christian epistemology, engendering the Lordship of Christ and encouraging a spirit of transformative love and connectedness. It is only in this context that the theology of worship and the beauty and usefulness of liturgical forms can be appreciated.

Thesis (M.S.)--Portland State University, 1993. / Computer-produced typeface. "Technical report EWR-003-93."--Cover. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-76). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Childhood obesity has been increased dramatically and become a public health concern in China. Parents have strong influence on children's eating and weight status. However, there is a lack of data about the influence of Chinese parents' child-feeding practices on children's weight status. This study aimed to assess parents' child-feeding practices and examine their relationships to young Chinese adolescents' weight status. A self-administrated survey was conducted among parents of young Chinese adolescents in Beijing urban areas. The survey included 29 items from Birch's Child-feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) and 15 items developed by the researcher to assess parents' attitudes, behaviors and family food environment regarding child feeding. Parents were recruited through students in public middle schools in two Beijing urban areas. Children's annual check-up data (weight and height) was obtained from schools. 598 parents of students in 7th and 8th grades were surveyed and 548 of them responded to the survey. By excluding those who were not primarily responsible for preparing family meals and those whose children's check-up data was missing, final data analysis included 355 records. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children were 19.4% and 9.0%, respectively, using International Obesity Task Force recommendations. Boys had significant higher prevalence of obesity than girls. Results show that parents of young Chinese adolescents used controlling feeding practices to regulate the child's eating, including restriction of certain food, pressure to eat and monitoring of the child's eating. Parents indicated that they had some concerns about their child's being overweight. The family food environment was generally positive in these families with some unhealthy elements in sizeable proportion of families. After adjusting for socioeconomic factors and parents' BMI, multiple regression analysis showed there were positive associations of restriction and family eating patterns, and an inverse association of pressure to eat to children's BMI z-scores. Parents' child-feeding practices may have significant influence on children's weight status. Family-based intervention is needed to help establish or maintain a healthy eating environment at home in order to combat the rising obesity prevalence in Chinese youths. Further studies also are needed to gain better understanding of parental influence on children's weight status.

Research in recent decades has identified a conception among fathers, and others, of a widespread qualitative change in the potential nature of fatherhood for men. This widely circulated ideal of contemporary, participatory fatherhood is characterised as new, intimate, involved and productive of new practices of ‘masculinity’ (Henwood and Procter, 2003). A belief that fathers play a major part in family life and family a major part in fathers’ lives may, first, change the nature of the life course transition entailed in becoming a father. Second, ‘new’ fatherhood is new in that it is distinguished from a model of authoritarian distance associated with ‘traditional’ fatherhood. What is new is that the primary focus of fatherhood is intimate relationships with children. Third, intimate relationships are generated through fathers’ involvement in family life alongside mothers in a more equitable sharing of the responsibilities of parenting. Finally, as distinctions between maternal and paternal are blurred, some of the lines between ‘masculine’ and ‘not-masculine’ are redrawn. These aspects which the ideal of ‘new’ fatherhood constructs as arenas of change correspond to the domains in relation to which diversity among contemporary fathers are explored in this thesis. Accounts of becoming and being fathers were generated in semi-structured qualitative interviews with a diverse sample of 31 fathers. The first dimension of fatherhood analysed is the place of visions of family and fatherhood in the process of becoming a father. Participants’ situated their orientation to fatherhood in the life course and in the partner relationship. In examining how participants construct family’s needs and parents’ responsibilities, I argue that imagined and lived family relationships are significant for men’s orientations to fatherhood, for their attitude to having further children and for evaluating the resources, material and otherwise, for doing so. The second dimension considered is intergenerational legacies. Participants with different experiences of the father-child relationship engage with their parenting heritage and characterise the legacy they would like to pass on. Connections and breaks with the previous generation of fathers are understood in terms of parent-child relationships, biographical narratives and the relational and discursive resources and constraints of the present. The relation of fatherhood to motherhood is the third dimension explored, through analysis of the different ways in which participants in couples construct, first, the relation between their own practice and their partner’s in the parenting partnership and, second, the relation between caregiving, provision, paid work and career in their own practice. I argue that fathers’ practice is worked through in the lived relationship with their partner, in terms of the division of labour and responsibilities and in the negotiation of similarity and difference, equality and authority, and with reference to a range of discursive resources. Many fathers seek to balance their commitments to the different dimensions of fatherhood in relation to paid work, but in other dimensions of personal life. The fourth aspect of the analysis examines accounts where fathers speak of co-existing contradictory orientations, to freedom and commitment, for example, and moments of ambivalence in relation to the normative articulations of ‘masculinity’ and fatherhood. On the basis of this four-fold analysis of diversity in contemporary multidimensional fatherhood, I argue for a plural focus on the practices of doing family, doing fatherhood and un/doing gender makes conceptual space for engaging critically with the diverse practices through which fathers sustain the relationships and fulfil the responsibilities of multi-dimensional fatherhood.

The history of the Hmong migration as refugees from Laos to the United States reveals a situation whereby the Hmong have been confronted with various political, economic, religious, and social forces that have dramatically shaped their lives. Over the past 35 years, the Denver Hmong’s exposure to cosmopolitan urban centres and rural ways of life in Colorado have continued to influence and develop the character and practices of the community. Within this social and cultural milieu, numerous and contentious views regarding health, community, family, and the reproduction of family have remained entangled within the moral and ethical foundations of Christian faiths and traditional shamanic practices. Furthermore, these perspectives of community and family are enmeshed within a Hmong ethos of continuity that is derived from historical strategies and experiences from Laos and the refugee camps of Thailand. Within the Denver Hmong community, the moral foundations of spiritual practices and a pronounced emphasis on continuity have continued to uphold the idea of family as a central tenant to being Hmong. In doing so, this has further emphasised various degrees of entanglement and mutual reliance within and between families and individuals. As a result, significant pressure has been placed on younger Hmong to strengthen the networks of family, extended family, and community by reproducing and forming families of their own. The production and reproduction of family has in turn drawn into focus generational tensions concerning ideas of family, education, gender, expectations of behaviour, and approaches to health and healing. In consideration of these points, this thesis examines how people within the Denver Hmong community negotiate, maintain, and contest the intersection of these matters while constructing and maintaining the central tenants of Hmong life and a Hmong continuity through the reciprocal reproductive qualities of the social, the spiritual and symbolic, and the biological.

During prehispanic times (1250 B.P. - 1521 A.D), Mesoamerica was the most powerful nation in the entire America continent. One of the most important ethnic groups was the Zapotecs located in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Their history started in those days and it has not ended. The ancient Zapotec gave human femora from the dead special treatments. This thesis seeks to understand the cultural meaning of human femora within ancient Zapotec belief systems, especially the cultural meaning when special treatment of femora was involved in mortuary rituals and practices long after the death of the individual. To understand when this practice began, who did it, why they did it, and what was the significance of human femora for the Zapotecs, it was necessary to know where those femora came from, from ancestors or captives. This research included bioanthropological methodologies considering sex, age and minimum number of individuals, to determine if this practice had a pattern, and also observations on whether human femora had cultural and natural taphonomic modifications. The data were collected from publications from Lambityeco, Mitla, Monte Albán and San Miguel Albarradas, Oaxaca. The results demonstrated that ancient Zapotecs used ancestors' remains as part of their rituals, particularly the femur. Therefore we still lack any bioanthropological evidence for Zapotecs taking human captives.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF MICHAEL A. STROUD, for Doctor of Philosophy degree in HEALTH EDUCATION, presented on MARCH 20, 2014, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PHYSICAL THERAPISTS' CLINICAL PRACTICES REAGARDING INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC FALL RISK FACTORS AND THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARD THE USE OF EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Stephen Brown The phenomenon of falls among community-dwelling adults--coupled with an aging baby boomer generation and an increasing life expectancy--presents a significant concern for an increased number of unintentional deaths and injuries and their associated costs. The risk factors associated with falling are often categorized as intrinsic and extrinsic. Physical therapists have a unique opportunity to positively impact issues involving physical dysfunction and to educate their community-dwelling adult patients about the environmental risk factors and interventions that lessen their risk of falling. Abundant evidence-based research exists regarding interventions for the treatment and prevention of falls; however, this research indicates that physical therapists fail to consistently utilize evidence-based practice (EBP) in their daily clinical practices. The diffusion of innovations theory examines how innovations are adopted (Rogers, 2012). However, the innovation of EBP is not always adopted by physical therapists. Lack of time to conduct literature searches was the most common barrier noted by physical therapists for not adopting EBP (Jette et al., 2003; Fruth et al., 2010; Salbach, Jagial, Korner-Bitensky, Rappolt, & Davis, 2007). This study, which utilized a cross-sectional descriptive research design, provided insight into physical therapists' clinical practices regarding intrinsic and extrinsic fall risks in the treatment of community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older. It examined physical therapists' attitudes and beliefs toward the use of EBP and identified the barriers to their adoption of it. The demographic data provided a descriptive overview of the study respondents. There were 3,523 potential physical therapist respondents, and the study's return rate was 9% (316 respondents. The majority of the respondents held doctoral degrees (49.4%), more than half (55.4%) worked in an outpatient physical therapy clinical setting, and approximately half indicated that they were American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)-certified instructors. The results of the study indicated that physical therapists who had more experience displayed a higher level of attention to clinical practices than those with less experience. The physical therapists who were APTA-certified clinical instructors demonstrated a higher level of attention to the intrinsic and extrinsic risks of falling than those who were not APTA-certified instructors. The physical therapists whose highest level of education was a doctorate placed greater importance on the utilization of EBP than respondents with a baccalaureate or master's degree. Although most physical therapists believe that the utilization of EBP holds significant value, they do not always access or apply it. Insufficient time for using EBP was the major barrier noted by most physical therapists. The results of this study concurred with those of previous studies regarding common barriers to physical therapists' adoption of EBP. Rehabilitation organizations may want to examine methods to promote the use of the most current physical therapy practices based on the evidence revealed in the literature and to explore options for improving staff access to and utilization of EBP research.

Schools across the country are dedicating significant resources to the selection, adoption, and durable implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs); however, the research-to-practice gap remains a significant challenge facing education today (DuFour & Mattos, 2013). Coaching is one of the implementation variables most consistently cited for improving the high-fidelity adoption of new practices. This study used two concurrent multiple baseline, single-case designs across participants with counterbalanced intervention phases to examine the effects of coaching on teachers’ use of evidence-based, class-wide behavior management practices. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which a functional relation exists between (a) coach-delivered prompting, (b) coach-delivered performance feedback, and (c) the interaction effects of coach-delivered prompting with performance feedback and an increase in teachers’ use of evidence-based classroom management practices and a decrease in class-wide disruptive behavior. Results indicate that coach-delivered prompting and performance feedback is functionally related to an increase in teacher use of evidence-based classroom management practices and a reduction in classroom disruption; however, no additional effects were observed when prompting and performance feedback were delivered together. Potential contributions of the study are discussed in terms of establishing a more nuanced understanding of the active ingredients of effective coaching to support the selection, training, evaluation, and ongoing support of coaches in K-12 educational settings.