Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 279 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Barbara Lehman, College of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-255).

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb. 18, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dr. Laurel Wilson, Thesis Supervisor Includes bibliographical references.

Canada’s 1991 ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) means that policies to eliminate commercial sexual exploitation should be implemented equally for all children, without discrimination. However, Aboriginal peoples are disproportionately represented among Canada’s population of commercially sexually exploited children and youth. They are also more likely to experience the primary risk factors for commercial sexual exploitation – poverty, exposure to violence, and involvement in the child welfare system. I conducted a policy analysis examining the implementation in Canada of the CRC Articles related to the primary predictors of commercial sexual exploitation of children, to determine whether they are being implemented differentially for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. The findings revealed that although Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children obtained identical scores on the quantitative measures, the implementation of the relevant rights standards differed substantially across the two populations, as evident in differential funding and service provision for the two groups.

With around 50 percent of all dissolving marriages consisting of families with children, and around half of residential parents reporting some experience with dating new partners within 60 days of filing for divorce, there is a need to understand the influences on children’s relationships and the possible consequences or benefits that may be imposed on children due to not only divorce, but additional parental transitions such as repartnering. In this study, I used data from the Texas Families Project, a longitudinal, multi-informant, multi-method study, to examine the implications of mothers’ repartnering for children’s closeness and involvement with nonresident fathers. Resident mother’s dating status alone does not seem to impact children’s closeness and involvement with their nonresident fathers as much as the new relationship that children are forming with their mothers’ partners impacts these relationships. Mothers’ and children’s reports differ, providing competing results as to whether or not children’s relationships with their mothers’ partners is associated with changes in children’s relationships with their fathers. Children report a positive relationship between involvement with their mothers’ romantic partners and involvement with their nonresident fathers, suggesting that both children’s biological fathers and their alternative caretaker play a valuable role in their lives. Mothers’ reports show that there is a negative relationship between the amount of time spent with their mothers’ romantic partner and positive involvement with children’s nonresident father, suggesting that children could be substituting time with their fathers for time with their mothers’ romantic partner. Although contact may decrease due to the child and mothers’ romantic partner relationship, child’s closeness to their father is not affected, supporting research that states that children may continue to feel close to their fathers even when contact is low. / text

This research examines the transformations occurring in children and youth’s identity narratives as they engage dialectically with the recent public narratives of social and political inclusion. Employing children’s experiences of the favela, this thesis explores children’s ontological narratives as part of a place-based identity constructed within the public narratives of Rio de Janeiro. A range of public narratives are constituted and socially constructed by the state, media and culture industries. However, cultural, social and economic narratives from non-governmental organizations based in favelas have emerged as counter-production to the mainstream public narratives. This work captures the intersections of these narratives in children’s lives through empirical research in a favela in Rio de Janeiro using participant observation, a mini questionnaire, and photo-voice technique with children aged 10-13. It provides insight into the ways in which children face every-day boundaries enforced by relationships at the individual, the community, and the city levels. The findings show that children are caught in a web of disorder that is strongly influenced by both traffickers and the state, which contributes to their continued social exclusion from formal city space. / text

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More than half a century ago, Piaget concluded from an investigation of children’s representational thinking about the nature of space that the development of children’s representational thought is topological before it is Euclidean. This conclusion, commonly referred to as the “topological primacy thesis,” has essentially been rejected. By giving emphasis to the ideas that develop rather than the order in which they develop, this work set out to develop a new form of non-metric geometry from young children’s early and intuitive topological, or at least non-metric, ideas. I conducted an eighteen-week teaching experiment with two children, ages six and seven. I developed a new dynamic geometry environment called Configure that I used in tandem with clinical interviews in each of the episodes of the experiment to elicit these children’s non-metric conceptions and subsequently support their development. I found that these children developed significant and authentic forms of geometric reasoning. It is these findings, which I refer to as qualitative geometry, that have implications for the teaching of geometry and for research into students’ mathematical reasoning. / text

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Εισαγωγή: Οι υπερκοιλιακές ταχυκαρδίες (ΥΤ) αποτελούν σημαντική αιτία νοσηρότητας στα παιδιά. Λόγω της χρονιότητας των συμπτωμάτων, η αντιαρρυθμική φαρμακευτική αγωγή δεν είναι ιδεώδης λύση. Η κατάλυση με ρεύμα ραδιοσυχνότητας (ΡΡ) μπορεί να προσφέρει ριζική θεραπεία. Στόχος: Η μελέτη αυτή είχε ως στόχο την ανάλυση των αποτελεσμάτων κατάλυσης υπερκοιλιακής ταχυκαρδίας (ΥΤ) στα παιδιά με ρεύμα ραδιοσυχνότητας (ΡΡ). Μεθοδολογία: Εξετάσαμε αναδρομικά τα στοιχεία 140 παιδιών ηλικίας 4-18 (12,8±3,5) ετών με ΥΤ που υπεβλήθησαν σε πλήρη ηλεκτροφυσιολογικό έλεγχο και κατάλυση με ΡΡ, είτε υπό γενική αναισθησία (84), είτε υπό καταστολή (56). Αποτελέσματα: Η τελική επιτυχία της κατάλυσης με ΡΡ μετά από τυχόν υποτροπές, ήταν 90/94 (95,7%) για ασθενείς (Α) με παραπληρωματικά δεμάτια (ΠΔ), 36/37 (97,3%) για Α με κομβική ταχυκαρδία επανεισόδου (ΚΤΕ), 10/10 για Α με έκτοπη κολπική ταχυκαρδία (ΕΚΤ), 3/3 για Α με κολπική ταχυκαρδία επανεισόδου και 1/1 για Α έκτοπη κομβική ταχυκαρδία. Σε Α με πρόσθια/διάμεσα διαφραγματικά ΠΔ παρατηρήθηκε υψηλότερος χρόνος ακτινοσκόπησης (p=0,05) και χαμηλότερη τελική επιτυχία (p=0,02). Οι υπόλοιπες κατηγορίες είχαν παρόμοια μεταξύ τους αποτελέσματα. Τα δεξιά πλάγια ΠΔ είχαν υψηλότερο ποσοστό συγγενών καρδιοπαθειών (p<0,001). Οι υποτροπές ήταν συχνότερες σε Α με πολλαπλά ΠΔ (p=0,007). Το ποσοστό μόνιμων σοβαρών επιπλοκών ήταν 1,4% (1 Α με ανεπάρκεια αορτής μετά από κατάλυση αριστερού ΠΔ με διαορτική τεχνική και 1 Α με πλήρη κολποκοιλιακό αποκλεισμό μετά από κατάλυση ΚΤΕ). Η τελική επιτυχία της επέμβασης, και τα ποσοστά υποτροπών και επιπλοκών ήταν ανεξάρτητα της ηλικίας. Συμπεράσματα: Η κατάλυση με ΡΡ μπορεί να αποτελέσει ριζική θεραπεία των ΥΤ στα παιδιά, χωρίς διαφορές στα αποτελέσματα σε ηλικίες >4 ετών. / Background: Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) represents a significant cause of morbidity in children. Because of the chronic course, long-term treatment with antiarrythmic drugs is not an ideal solution. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) may offer curative treatment. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the outcome of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) in children. Methodology: We reviewed retrospectively the charts of 140 patients (pts) 4-18 (12,8±3,5) years of age, who underwent complete electrophysiologic study and RFA., either under general anesthesia (84), or conscious sedation (56). Results: The final success of RFA, after possible recurrences, was 90/94 (95,7%) for pts with accessory pathways (AP), 36/37 (97,3%) for pts with AV nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT), 10/10 for pts with ectopic atrial tachycardia, 3/3 for pts with atrial reentry tachycardia, and 1/1 for a pt with junctional ectopic tachycardia. Longer fluoroscopy time (p=0,05) and lower final success (p=0,02) was observed in pts with anterior/mid-septal AP. The remaining categories had comparable results. Patients with right lateral AP had a higher prevalence of congenital heart disease (p<0,001). Recurrences were more frequent in pts with multiple AP (p=0,007). The incidence of severe permanent complications was 1,4% (1 pt with aortic insufficiency after retrograde RFA of left lateral AP, and 1 pt with complete AV block after RFA of AVNRT). The final success, recurrence rates and complication rates were independent of age. Conclusions: Treatment of SVT in children with RFA may offer permanent cure, without differences in outcomes in pts older than 4 years of age.

Teacher educators use children's thinking activities as a means to prepare prospective teachers to teach mathematics. Research in methods courses and student teaching practica has shown these types of activities help prospective teachers deepen their own mathematical knowledge as well as better understand how children think. This study investigates prospective teachers' perceptions in a mathematics for teaching course when using children's thinking activities. Specifically, this study documents how four case study students perceived of the activities, their own and children's mathematical thinking, and the role of language in mathematics teaching and learning.Observations, interviews, and written class work were analyzed through the generation of themes within and across cases. It was found that all of the participants perceived the children's thinking activities as beneficial to providing insight into how children think mathematically. In contrast, two of the four participants did not perceive the activities as supportive of their own mathematical learning. However, the participants' reflections, both on children's mathematical thinking and their own, showed that all participants grappled with important mathematical concepts. Specifically, through consideration of their own thinking, children's strategies, and children's understanding, participants discussed the fractional whole, the meaning of operations, and connections among strategies, among other topics. This difference between how the participants perceived the use of children's thinking activities and what was evidenced through their reflections suggests that participants might have felt a stigma in studying elementary mathematics.While the participants did not often reflect on the role of language in teaching and learning mathematics, they did articulate various ideas regarding language and mathematics, in particular regarding the instruction of English Language Learners (ELLs). They discussed ways to help ELLs acquire mathematical language, which three participants saw as more than just vocabulary. All participants also thought it was important for children to express their mathematical understanding. However, two participants seemed to conceive of a unique way to express that understanding. This finding suggests that prospective teachers need to be critically exposed to literature regarding mathematics instruction of language-minority children.