Thesis--M. Phil., University of Hong Kong.

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published_or_final_version / Physics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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What does it mean to be a counsellor? What challenges do counsellors face? How do life events influence the personal and professional self of the counsellor? What insights are provided by time and experience that accompany a lifelong career? The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to learn from six counsellors, each veteran in their careers, how critical life events influenced who they became as both a person and professional. Interview conversations presented retrospective narratives and personal stories illuminating whether each came to discover and develop an integrated self. Descriptive field notes, researcher reflections and comments further substantiated the complex world of counsellors. The interview data offered through this study exposed the intersection of the person and the professional as well as the valuable and diverse growth experiences that occurred along their career trajectories. Embedded in the interviews were implications for resiliency and sustainability; these were derived from learning that occurred with extensive time and experience.

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This thesis considers the archaeological remains of field systems and cairnfields as evidence for changes in the relations between land and society during the second millennium BC. The theoretical argument aims to demonstrate that the relations between land and society were complex historical processes constituted through the mediation and transformation of structural conditions by social agents. The argument considers ideas, prevalent in critiques of modernity, that break down distinctions between modem and nonmodem, and between culture and nature. These ideas are applied to a theory of practice, which, it is argued, can best be served by allowing for the existence of nonhuman agency as a folk conc.ept within nonmodem ontologies. Based on this theoretical framework and using ethnographic examples, it is argued that the concept of 'land tenure' is a sociological term that equates closely with agency. The changing forms of land tenure that characterise the Bronze Age can be shown to have distinctive and regionalised historical trajectories. This is demonstrated in two case studies. (1) A study of the structural sequences of excavated cairnfields in northern England reveals that a clear distinction cannot be made between burial cairns and clearance cairns. There are many examples of formalised structural and depositional elements in the latter. This is interpreted as evidence that tenure was negotiated within wider collectives made up of a community and their ancestors. (2) Three studies, at varying chronological and geographical scales of analysis, were made of the coaxial boundaries on Dartmoor. In contrast to northern England, the ontological ties between small social groups and places emerged during the earlier Bronze Age. Therefore, the tradition of formalised boundaries, or 'reaves', developed in a landscape characterised by a fragmented and localised sense of place, which was integrated within wider social networks rather than displacing them.

A common complication associated with medical implants is the infectious bio-film, which can cause chronic infection that is difficult to control. Grain boundaries (GBs) in materials of medical implants are often preferential locations for bacteria to congregate, which could be attributed to higher affinity of grain boundaries for bacterial bio-films. In this study, the molecular interaction of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa receptor binding domain, a self-folding domain of 17 amino acid residues derived for the PilA structural protein, which can represents properties of Pseudomonas aerginosa biofilm, with microcrystalline stainless steel surfaces was examined with atomic force microscopy (AFM) both at grain boundaries and within grains. Adherence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm to nanocrystallized stainless steel surface was also determined using AFM. Results indicate that adherence of biofilm adherence at grain boundaries of microcrystalline surface is 2-fold higher than that of inside grains. Nanocrytalline surface is more resistant to biofilm than the microcrystalline one due to the formation of a strong oxidation film after annealing and thermal oxidation process. Surface nanocrystallization for enhanced corrosion resistance of Ag-incorporated 304 stainless steel surface was also studied. It is demontstrated that nanocrystallization of the antibacterial agent-incorporated stainless steel surface also provides an effective approach to control the corrosion problem resulting from the typical galvanic effect of multiphase alloys.

Thesis (M.A.)--Cincinnati Christian University, 2008. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-110).