published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

Silence has been identified as a defining characteristic of Asian students in second language contexts. Recent qualitative studies in this area indicate that taking this as a generalisable characteristic of Asian learners may be an over-simplification. Therefore, there is a need to rethink Asian students’ silent behaviour in learning interactions. Problem-based learning (PBL) provides a high level of communicative demand; however, no in-depth qualitative work has been done to date on students’ silence in PBL tutorials in Asian contexts. Given this lack of research, this study investigates students’ silence in PBL interactions in an Asian English medium of instruction (EMI) university. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to explore the functions of silence and factors contributing to silence in PBL small group interactions. In this research, a sociocultural theoretical orientation formed the foundation for the conceptualisation of silence in situated learning. A case study was conducted to investigate the complexities and subtleties of silence in PBL interactions. The focus of the case was first year students’ experience of PBL tutorials in an undergraduate dental curriculum. A variety of data, including questionnaires, post-survey interviews, observations, audiovisual recordings, and stimulated recall interviews, were collected. Analysis of over twenty hours of PBL tutorials then drew upon traditions from interaction theories and studies of silence to provide an explanatory perspective. Thus, students’ silence in PBL interactions was examined from communicative functional and critical perspectives. From a communicative functional perspective, findings indicate that students’ silence in PBL interactions is not only a means of non-participation or an effect of possible constraints, but is also enacted as a learning and communicative strategy. Based on this understanding of silence for communication and learning, the issue of silence was further explored based on critical discourse analysis. Data analysis indicates that students’ silence occurred when multiple identities, shifting relations, and a specific learning and professional community in an Asian EMI context were constructed, challenged, and reconstructed in PBL discourse. Two key factors were found to influence students’ silence in PBL tutorials: the immediate contextual factor and the power relation. This study has theoretical and practical significance for higher education pedagogy. Findings underline the importance of investigating silence in depth in order to compose a more insightful picture of interaction in small group learning. The study also develops insights into a proposed re-conceptualisation of silence in PBL discourse and offers a novel viewpoint to locate the issue of silence in small group interactions for PBL. Lastly, based on the analysis of a substantial body of qualitative data, this study has increased understandings of student silence in PBL tutorials in an Asian EMI university. Such a study not only contributes towards theorizing silence in higher education but also provides teaching staff and education policy makers with useful information about learners in small group learning in an EMI context. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Sex among men has been existed in all society with variety of reasons. They are often stigmatized by other people. As a result, men who have sex with men (MSM) are less willing to expose themselves even if they have health problems. To increase the awareness of the public and establish trust relationship within health organizations and MSM, Internet is a good platform to promote health concepts and health education. In recent 10 years, Internet becomes popular. There was an increasing trend that MSM people are using Internet to seek partners. As a result, the sexually transmitted infections (STI) among MSM people had been increasing in recent years. The global population of HIV infection among MSM increased from3.9 million in 2007 to 20.4 million in 2010. It is predicted that the number will further increase to 23.3 million in 2015 (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS [UNAIDS], 2011). In Hong Kong the HIV infection rate among MSM is still increasing around 42.4% of HIV infected cases were MSM (Department of Health, 2010).Therefore, a comprehensive health promotion program is needed to promote safer sex and prevent further spread of STI in Hong Kong. Internet-based Sex Education Program is a health promotion program that was held in many countries. Those studies used webpage containing sex education materials such as STI knowledge, STI prevention methods, information about risky sexual behavior, knowledge of condom using skills, negotiation skills with partners and information of STI screening. Results showed that internet-based sex education program is successful in most countries. Three electron bibliographical databases MEDLINE, CINAHL and Cochrane Library were used to search the relevant primary studies. After assessing the quality of the studies, six studies were found fulfilling the criteria of the program. By comparing the transferability and feasibility of the interventions of the six reviewed literatures, a new guideline was set. Stake holders were identified and through communication with the stake holders, a pilot study plan was designed and data collected from the pilot study would be used to modify the online health education program and provide a better nursing care for MSM clients. Online health education program for MSM contributes a better platform to promote sexual health through internet. The program helps to prevent STI and HIV transmission and it is expected that the guideline of the program can be used by different health care settings such as hospitals or clinics when they are providing health education to MSM clients. A decrease of STI and HIV infection among MSM clients is expected since the program is carried out in public settings and hoping that MSM clients could gain benefit from it. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

In Hong Kong, the number of colon cancer patients has increased over the years. But at the same time, early detection of colon cancer has also become more readily available due to the recent technological advancement and increased accessibility to medical care. In recent years, more patients have become eligible for having curative sphincter saving operation and one of the objectives of this operation is to preserve continence function without stoma formation. However, colon cancer patients’ journeys do not finish after their operation. For instance, they may have bowel disorder after the operation, namely ‘Anterior Resection Syndrome’. This debilitating condition may not be amenable by surgical technique or medical therapy and it affects the bio-psycho-social wellbeing of the patient. One of the responsibilities of nurses is to promote the general wellbeing of the clients. Therefore, in this study, the possible methods of alleviating the condition of Anterior Resection Syndrome among colon cancer patients were inspected. By using strategic search of current evidences, this study found that several primary studies support the use of biofeedback to alleviate the condition. After conducting a comprehensive review of the selected studies, the biofeedback treatment was considered as an appropriate recommendation for the current clinical setting. After assessing the implementation potential of the current practice, an evidence-based protocol with considerations of local factors was established. In addition, in order to minimize resistance on the change of current practice, plans on communicating with stakeholders, pilot study and evaluation were carefully established. The purpose of this study is to provide professional nursing care by using evidence based practice for those in need. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

Although effective anti-tuberculosis agents have been available for over thirty years, tuberculosis (TB) is still a global health concern and the incident rate in Hong Kong remains high. Directly Observed Therapy, Short-course (DOTS) strategy, in combination with patient education are proved to be more effective in reducing TB incidence than the DOTS strategy alone. However, there is a lack of evidence based protocol to guide nurses through the implementation of health education for TB patients. This dissertation is a translational nursing research aims at developing an evidence-based health education guideline for nurses to deliver health education to TB patients to improve treatment adherence. The objectives are to gather evidence on the effectiveness of nursing health education in promoting treatment adherence among TB patients, conduct quality assessment of the reviewed articles, develop evidence-based health education protocol for TB patients, assess the implementation potential of the innovation and discuss its implementation and evaluation plan. In this dissertation, a systematic review of 8 relevant and up-to-date research papers was performed and a guideline was then generated based on the extracted data. The guideline consists of 3 components: effective individual health education, essential elements for health education booklet and training for nurses. The implementation potential of the guideline is considered to be high while the implementation and evaluation plan of the guideline are also discussed. With the implementation of the evidence-based protocol on TB health education, the treatment adherence of the TB patients is expected to be increased. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory skin disorder and approximately 1% to 3% of the world’s populations are suffering from it. As numerous studies have shown that psoriasis is highly correlated with psychological distresses, one of the critical issues in the psoriasis patient care is the psychological problem. However, in the existing care for psoriasis, no guideline has been developed for patients’ psychological issue. Therefore, the aim of this translational research is to develop an evidence-based psychological care guideline with an implementation and evaluation plan for psoriasis patients in a dermatology setting. In this dissertation, 11 studies were selected after assessing the relevance of the obtained full texts. Data of these studies were extracted, and the quality of data was assessed by the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. Evidences obtained from the literature review were aggregated and also critically reviewed. After these processes, an Evidence Based Protocol was developed. In the guideline, information related to the psychological assessment and interventions for psoriasis are included. Then the implementation potential of the guideline produced was examined in terms of the transferability, feasibility and the cost-benefit ratio. A pilot test was also conducted to identify any problems of the actual implementation of the mentioned guideline. Both process and outcome evaluation would be as used to assess the feasibility and the effectiveness of the guideline. In the end, this guideline isexpected to manage psychological aspects of psoriasis patients so as to improve their quality of life. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

In typical location-based services (LBS), moving objects (e.g., GPS-enabled mobile phones) report their locations through a wireless network. An LBS server can use the location information to answer various types of continuous queries, e.g., \Give me the ID of a battalion which is the closest to a military base within the next hour." Due to hardware limitations, location data reported by the moving objects are often uncertain. In this paper, we study efficient methods for the execution of Continuous Possible Nearest Neighbor Query (CPoNNQ) that accesses imprecise location data. A CPoNNQ is a standing query (which is active during a period of time) such that, at any time point, all moving objects that have non-zero probabilities of being the nearest neighbor of a given query point are reported. To handle the continuous nature of a CPoNNQ, a simple solution is to require moving objects to continuously report their locations to the LBS server, which evaluates the query at every time step. To save communication bandwidth and mobile devices' batteries, we develop two filter-based protocols for CPoNNQ evaluation. Our protocols install filter bounds" on moving objects, which suppress unnecessary location reporting and communication between the server and the moving objects. Through extensive experiments, we show that our protocols can effectively reduce communication and energy costs while maintaining a high query quality. / published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

Slit valves play an important role in semiconductor manufacturing industry. They enable creation of a vacuum environment required for wafer processing. Due to the high volume of production in the modern semiconductor industry, slit valves experience severe degradation over their useful lifetime. If maintenance is not applied in due time, degraded valves may lead to defects in end products because of pressure loss and particle generation. In this thesis, we proposed methods for signal processing and feature extraction for analysis of slit valve vibration signatures. These methods would be used to demonstrate the ability of reliably, accurately and efficiently distinguish between each individual valve via a multi-class classification procedure. Such ability is a clear illustration of the feasibility of vibration based monitoring of the slit valve conditions. / text

The future experimental programs both at FNAL and at CERN will have a strong focus on the search for new physics at the intensity frontier. In order to provide beams of unprecedented intensities to the various experiments at these labs, the booster accelerators in which the beams originate must perform far beyond their original design specifications. The optical properties of the booster accelerator lattices will need to be carefully controlled in order to deliver these high-intensity proton beams. This thesis presents the results of linear optics measurements made with unprecedented precision in the FNAL Booster and the CERN PS Booster using LOCO and K-modulation techniques. In the FNAL Booster, corrections to the observed optics distortions were also successfully implemented. The implications of these results for future high-intensity operations are discussed. / text