Thesis (Ph. D.)--Antioch University New England, 2006. / UMI Number: 3247520. Advisor: Heidi Watts. Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-357).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2008. / Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Education. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 275-306)

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 2012. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / Recent evidence has suggested that vitamin D may modulate innate immune function. We performed a prospective, observational investigation to assess the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adult critically ill patients with sepsis. Subjects were categorized by baseline 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(0H)D]: Deficient: < 20 ng/ml, Insufficient: 21-29 ng/ml, or Normal: > 29 ng/ml. A total of 39 subjects were enrolled in the study. 25(0H)D deficiency is common with 23/39 (59%) of subjects either deficient or insufficient. In-hospital mortality was 15% (6/39) and 5/6 (83%) of the subjects who expired were 25(0H)D insufficient. There were modest differences in severity of illness across 25(0H)D categories (SAPS 3: p = 0.01) and statistically significant inverse associations between 25(0H)D and markers of inflammation (IL-6: p = 0.04; TN F-a: p = 0.03) and vascular endothelial dysfunction (E-selectin: p = 0.05). There is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency in critically ill patients with sepsis and an inverse association between vitamin D and inflammation and vascular endothelial dysfunction. Future studies should assess the causal relationship between vitamin D and inflammation and outcomes from sepsis. / 2031-01-02

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Convergence, the resulting new business and emerging leadership, regulated environment and strategy, telecoms costs as barrier to entry, enablement of global market places. / The market environment of telecommunications in South Africa is such that currently there is only one provider of fixed-line services. This has contributed to much claims of prices of incumbent being too high. The government has licensed operators and service providers to compete with Telkom in an attempt to lower the costs of telecommunications in South Africa. The purpose of this research is to understand the relevance and nature of pricing policies, critically evaluate the management of pricing policies, research literature, theory and also the impact that these pricing policies have had on the business of Telkom. The research was conducted by analysing Telkom pricing related documents, financial statements and conducting interviews. The research found that the price-cap regulation has restricted flexibility in the pricing policies and that Telkom has adopted a short-term based approach to management of the pricing policies.

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The focus of the research for this thesis is the development of critical pedagogy for a greater understanding of environment/development issues among sixth form A Level geography students. The thesis first considers the concept of sustainable development which can provide a framework for supporting the close integration of environment and development issues. Caution is necessary, however, given the various interests it serves and resulting contradictions inherent in proposed radical change within traditional economic, social and political structures. Within this context student perceptions of environment/development issues were investigated using phenomenography as a methodology. However, a critique of the methodology was necessary, given contradictions in accepting multiple realities of phenomena based on conceptualisation through experience while also seeking a limited number of categories of description of phenomena. Out of the action research undertaken, a curriculum module based on critical pedagogy (influenced by critical theory) was developed to encourage critical thinking by students on a case study example of an environment/development issue. The research shows that the students could perceive environment/development issues as complex inter-related phenomena, but only to a limited extent did it enable them to be confident in challenging systems which perpetuate or exacerbate some of the problems related to the issues.

The language used in critical readings of Hamlet is rife with implicitly teleological terms: according to many critics, and the ghost of King Hamlet, the story of his father's murder and Claudius' succession requires Hamlet to do something. I ask, why should Hamlet kill his uncle, revenge his father, correct his mother, become king, marry Ophelia, and produce heirs to rule when he is gone? While Hamlet's inaction is often described as delay or paralysis, I suggest that the Danish prince resists teleology through his studied ambivalence towards dynasty: land-owning, child-bearing, wars and marriage. Building on recent theoretical and historical work by scholars like Lee Edelman, Will Fisher, Margreta de Grazia and Madhavi Menon, I suggest that Hamlet, through the interventions of its main character, thwarts the assumption that the relationship between a nobleman and his land is natural, that the desire for possession and rule is inherent. Combining de Grazia's invaluable historicism with Fisher's discussion of prostheses, Ir ead the Renaissance nobleman as a prosthetic creature, physically and politically embodied by his marriage, his children, his land. In delaying the revenge he has been called upon to carry out, in hesitating to take up the crown, Hamlet defers the prostheses of nobility, and opens up a space from which to question the dynastic project. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis was to conduct a systematic review of studies on critical care nurses’ job satisfaction. Specific research questions addressed were: 1) What are the conceptual definitions and theories of job satisfaction that are used in studies of critical care nurses?; 2) What instruments have been used to quantitatively measure and operationally define job satisfaction among critical care nurses?; 3) What is the level of job satisfaction among critical care nurses?; and 4) What factors are correlated to critical care nurses’ job satisfaction? Sixty-one studies were identified from five electronic databases. Definitions and theories of job satisfaction were inconsistent or absent in the literature. Forty-two different quantitative measures of job satisfaction were identified. The weighted mean job satisfaction score for critical care nurses was 56% and demonstrated a cyclical trend over time. Operating room and other (labour and delivery, pediatric, and neonatal) critical care, and undefined critical care nurses reported lower levels of job satisfaction compared to emergency and mixed critical care nurses. The following factors showed positive significant relationships to critical care nurses’ job satisfaction in four or more studies: shift worked, autonomy, personnel resources and staffing, and teamwork and cohesion. One factor, job stress showed a positive and negative significant relationship to critical care nurses’ job satisfaction depending on the study. Only one factor explored in the included studies (burnout emotional exhaustion) showed a negative significant relationship with job satisfaction. These factors hold promise as targets for critical care nurse job satisfaction interventions.

The use of expensive and highly specialized equipment in any industry is only advisable if the eost of the equipment can be justified by a sufficiently large output. The greater the output, the smaller will be the cost of the equipment to be borne by each unit. Thus, once such equipment has been purchased, management endeavours to maintain output at a maximum in order to reduce unit costs or to increase profits. It is for this reason that airline managements continually endeavour to increase the utilization of jet aircraft. By increasing the number of revenue flying hours only one hour each week on one jet aircraft, an airline will realize an additional net contribution to overhead (or profits) of approximately $60,000 per year. One method of increasing utilization is to decrease the downtime of the aircraft for maintenance purposes. This requires a reduction of the total elapsed time of the maintenance check. The critical path technique has found wide application in solving the general problem of reducing the time required to complete a project which consists of many inter-related jobs. For example, the technique has been used to reduce the time required for constructing a building, for completing the periodic overhaul of a chemical plant, and for completing the Polaris Missile Development Program. It was therefore felt that the critical path technique might be of use in solving this problem of increasing the utilization of jet aircraft. This thesis, based on the results of a study carried out at Canadian Pacific Air Lines during the months of May through August, 1963, describes the various ways in which the technique can be of use in solving this problem. It was found that the technique did have a wide applicability. In the initial period of application, it would be of great value as a tool for analyzing the problems of the check. It can be used both to point out the jobs or chains of jobs which prohibit the reduction of the check time and also to direct the revision of the scheduling of these jobs in such a way that the elapsed time is reduced. This reduction of elapsed time will have the effect of increasing the number of jobs which must be completed at the earliest possible time if the check completion time is to be a minimum. As a result there will be a greater need to use the technique both for scheduling and monitoring all the jobs of the check. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate