Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 15, 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. Dissertation advisor: Dr. James Laffey Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Keynote address by David James Hudson, Learning & Curriculum Support Librarian, University of Guelph. Critical Librarianship & Pedagogy Symposium, February 25-26, 2016, The University of Arizona.

acase@tulane.edu / 1 / Jocelyn Horner

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2001. / Study conducted with college students in Hawaii, using items from the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and the Self-Construal Scale (SCS). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-171). Also available on microfiche.

Thesis--PlanB (Ed. Spec.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) prognostic index in the Intensive Care Unit of Kimberley Hospital Complex (KHC) on admission. The study was more specifically aimed at patients meeting criteria for the Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS), as patients admitted to KHC ICU frequently meet the criteria and often progress to sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock. Design: A cohort study on South African patients meeting SIRS criteria, including all races and gender. Setting: Intensive Care Unit of Kimberley Hospital Complex, provincial hospital in the Northern Cape province, South Africa. Patients and measurements: Consecutive patients meeting the criteria for SIRS on admission to ICU between August 2006 and May 2007 were included. For each patient the diagnosis, physiological and chronic health data necessary for the APACHE score was gathered and recorded by the doctor on duty on time of admission. Predicted and actual mortality rates were calculated. Data was provided to the department of Biostatistics of the UFS for processing. Results were summarised by means, standard variations and percentiles (numerical variables) and frequencies and percentages (categorical variables). Results Of the 160 patients included in the study, 59 died (36.9%). Patients discharged from the unit before 14 days were followed up in the ward until 14 days or discharge from hospital (whichever came first). 77 patients were discharged from ICU within 14 days of which 3 (1.9%) died in the ward within the 14-day period. 74 of the discharged patients (46.3%) were alive after 14 days. 24 patients (14%) participating in the trial were still in ICU after 14 days and mortality not recorded. The counting of patients who survived and those who died, for each level of death risk predicted, allowed the calculation of sensitivity, specificity and the percentage of correct predictions for each level of predicted death risk. The sensitivity of the calculated death risk was higher at scores below 8, gradually decreasing as scores increased, reaching 50.9% at score >21. Conversely the specificity increased from 1% for scores <5, reaching 79.2% for death risk at scores >21. The most accurate combination of sensitivity and specificity was found at scores of 16-18, with the positive prediction value ranging from 51.3-54.4% and the negative prediction value ranging from 76.1-77.5%. There was a meaningful connection between APACHE II scores and the mortality rate, for all patients and each diagnostic group. In each successive APACHE II score interval the mortality rate was higher than that of the preceding interval. Thus, the result has confirmed the capability of this index to stratify such patients according to the degree of severity of their health condition. Conclusion The APACHE II scoring system may be usefully applied in Intensive Care Units for predicting mortality, classifying and assessing severity of disease and evaluating performance. It must however be used with caution for planning department resource allocation and decision making regarding admission of patients to Intensive Care.

This qualitative research is a hermeneutic inquiry into learning about democracy through critical literacy in high school English language arts (ELA) education. The purpose of this study was to address the need for greater understanding of why critical literacy should be examined in high school ELA. The literature review connects historical theoretical and praxial implications for democratic practices. Critical literacy was explored through the hermeneutic method situated in one ELA teacher’s experience connected to a world view. Pivotal stages of critical literacy learning were explored in the classroom for transfer across education and democracy. Findings provide insight into the need for teachers to envision themselves as lifelong critical literacy practitioners and to engage in learning communities that explore the evolving needs of students. Essential philosophical underpinnings of the new philosophy of critical literacy education are explored; and suggestions for further professional development to increase subject knowledge are stressed. English language arts educators who wish to enact a critical literacy curriculum need to work together with students to engage in discourses around issues of power in literacy practices so classroom discourse may connect to the world.

This thesis suggests that problematic dualistic frameworks are challenged in writing that, in engaging issues of embodiment, does not overlook the biological sciences. This thesis first introduces a brief history of dualistic frameworks, especially in the context of critical animal studies. Each chapter that follows engages a core theme of embodiment: Jacques Derrida's concept of autoimmunity; Sigmund Freud's work on depression, hysteria, and PTSD, along with Elizabeth Wilson's reading of Freud’s work as psychosomatics; and the work of David Wills, whose theory of dorsality suggests an original technicity, or automaticity, at work at the origin of the human species and at the origin of biological life itself. Significant in each chapter is the way in which each theorist draws on concepts, research, or analogies that come from biology in order to strengthen his or her concepts of embodiment.

This qualitative research is a hermeneutic inquiry into learning about democracy through critical literacy in high school English language arts (ELA) education. The purpose of this study was to address the need for greater understanding of why critical literacy should be examined in high school ELA. The literature review connects historical theoretical and praxial implications for democratic practices. Critical literacy was explored through the hermeneutic method situated in one ELA teacher’s experience connected to a world view. Pivotal stages of critical literacy learning were explored in the classroom for transfer across education and democracy. Findings provide insight into the need for teachers to envision themselves as lifelong critical literacy practitioners and to engage in learning communities that explore the evolving needs of students. Essential philosophical underpinnings of the new philosophy of critical literacy education are explored; and suggestions for further professional development to increase subject knowledge are stressed. English language arts educators who wish to enact a critical literacy curriculum need to work together with students to engage in discourses around issues of power in literacy practices so classroom discourse may connect to the world.