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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
61

Capturing travel entities to facilitate travel behaviour analysis : A case study on generating travel diaries from trajectories fused with accelerometer readings

Prelipcean, Adrian Corneliu January 2016 (has links)
The increase in population, accompanied by an increase in the availability of travel opportunities have kindled the interest in understanding how people make use of the space around them and their opportunities. Understanding the travel behaviour of individuals and groups is difficult because of two main factors: the travel behaviour's wide coverage, which encompasses different research areas, all of which model different aspects of travel behaviour, and the difficulty of obtaining travel diaries from large groups of respondents, which is imperative for analysing travel behaviour and patterns. A travel diary allows an individual to describe how she performed her activities by specifying the destinations, purposes and travel modes occurring during a predefined period of time. Travel diaries are usually collected during a large-scale survey, but recent developments show that travel diaries have important drawbacks such as the collection bias and the decreasing response rate. This led to a surge of studies that try to complement or replace the traditional declaration-based travel diary collection with methods that extract travel diary specific information from trajectories and auxiliary datasets. With the automation of travel diary generation in sight, this thesis presents a suitable method for collecting data for travel diary automation (Paper I), a framework to compare multiple travel diary collection systems (Paper II), a set of relevant metrics for measuring the performance of travel mode segmentation methods (Paper III), and applies these concepts during different case studies (Paper IV). / <p>QC 20160525</p>
62

Royal Subjects : Feminist Perspectives on Diary Writing and the Diary Form in Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries Series

Liljeqvist, Hanna January 2016 (has links)
Meg Cabot’s young adult (YA) novel series The Princess Diaries (2000-2009) is one of many modern-day examples of attempts to redefine what Western society considers the classic princess narrative: the story of a beautiful princess passively waiting for Prince Charming. As critics such as Kay Stone and Sarah Rothschild emphasize, the fictional princess is traditionally linked to notions of ideal femininity which, in turn, makes princess stories interesting texts from a feminist perspective. Rothschild notes a surge in YA princess novels in recent years, with YA writers such as Cabot aiming to challenge the traditional image of the princess as a passive feminine stereotype in their re-workings of the princess story. Previous feminist research on The Princess Diaries series celebrates the main character Mia as a symbol of third wave feminism and as such, a positive role model for Cabot’s predominantly young, female readers. Mia’s characteristic Dr Martens boots are frequently cited as an example of how greatly Mia differs from her princess predecessors. However, these critics ignore important changes in Mia’s personality over the course of the series. By the end of the series, the Dr Martens-wearing heroine introduced in the first book has replaced her combat boots with high heels. In my thesis, I will argue that Mia’s transformation in terms of appearance and preoccupation with mainstream fashion, from quirky outsider to stereotype girly girl, complicates the idea of The Princess Diaries series as feminist texts. Moreover, previous feminist research largely ignores diary writing’s prominent role in the series, and the ways in which the diary format influences the reader-narrator relationship in the novels. In my feminist reading of The Princess Diaries series, I therefore use Mia’s diary writing and the diary format of the series as my starting points. I argue that while Mia’s diary writing is portrayed as empowering, and thereby inspiring, the diary format as a narrative structure creates a rather ambiguous tone and effect; questioning but simultaneously conforming to traditional, restricting notions of femininity.
63

Creating and Negotiating Narratives: Understanding the Positionality of Hayashi Fumiko

Kremer, Jessica M 01 January 2016 (has links)
Through examining the positionality of Hayashi Fumiko as well as the changing socio-political, economic and historical contexts in which she lived in, I look to better understand how Hayashi navigated through the patriarchal systems of society as a woman writer. This thesis includes a survey of the Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods as well as a comparative analysis of Hayashi's prewar, interwar and post-war works.
64

Ethical considerations in psychiatric inpatient care : The ethical landscape in everyday practice as described by staff

Pelto-Piri, Veikko January 2015 (has links)
This thesis focuses mainly on the general ethical considerations of staff and not pre-defined specific ethical problems or dilemmas. The aims of this thesis were: first, to map ethical considerations as described by staff members in their everyday work in child and adolescent psychiatry as well as in adult psychiatry; second, from a normative ethical perspective, examine encounters between staff and patients; and third, to describe staff justification for decisions on coercive care in child and adolescent psychiatry. The material in the three first studies comprised ethical diaries written by staff in 13 inpatient clinics. The fourth study included all the medical records of patients who were admitted to coercive care during one year in child and adolescent psychiatry in Sweden. In a final analysis, combining all the four studies, three staff ideals were identified: being a good carer, respecting the patient’s autonomy and integrity and having good relations with patients and relatives. Staff often felt that the only reasonable way in many situations was to act in a paternalistic way and take responsibility, but they considered it to be problematic. Four main themes were identified as ethical considerations. These were the borders of coercion, the emphasis on order and clarity rather than a more reciprocal relationship with patients, a strong expectation of loyalty within the team, and feelings of powerlessness, mostly in relation to patients. I have identified four challenges for inpatient psychiatry. First, formal and informal coercion in inpatient care raise ethical concerns that also can be emotionally difficult for staff. Second, the professional role and care needs to be redeveloped from providing routinised care to providing more individualised care. Third, staff often worry about how patients manage their life after discharge, indicating that patients need better support. Fourth, staff also need support; they often experience feelings of being alone with their thoughts about ethical difficulties at work. Future research could contribute in the mapping of ethical considerations, in helping to develop, implement and evaluate methods for managing these issues in psychiatric settings, and to develop the normative ethical language so that it is more relevant to the clinic reality.
65

Cotton utilization in women's apparel : gender, apparel purchase decisions, and fiber composition

Stewart Stevens, Sara Marisa 1976- 21 October 2014 (has links)
A cursory review of domestic apparel production data from ‘Cotton Counts Its Customers’ reports by The National Cotton Council of America showed a discrepancy between the amounts of cotton utilized in domestically produced women’s apparel and that for men’s apparel. It appeared that the men’s apparel sector had a higher percentage market share of cotton than women’s apparel. For both genders, cotton’s dwindling market share was similar to that of diminishing domestic US apparel production overall. Since the majority of apparel in the U.S. is imported, import data was obtained from the United States International Trade Commission and compiled with the domestic apparel data to offer a more expansive view of cotton’s market share and its use separated by gender. The compilation of domestic and import apparel data followed the overall trend of a higher percentage of weight of cotton being used in men’s apparel than in women’s. Challenging apparel categories which may offer potential for expanded utilization with increased performance were Coats, Underwear/Nightwear, Suits, and Dresses. In an attempt to add context to the apparel market data, we explored two stages of the apparel supply chain: the first at the retail setting, the second at the consumer purchase and wear decision level. At the retail level, we investigated the availability of fiber composition information and its use as a part of the assortment offered to consumers. Two stores were selected for this exploratory phase and retail availability by gender and fiber content were physically tallied in the two retail settings. In both retail assortments, there was no emphasis of fiber composition as part of the information offered to the consumer. For the consumer wanting to find cotton apparel in these two settings, prior knowledge regarding the feel or look of cotton would seem necessary to facilitate locating cotton among the assortment of apparel. Fiber blends can offer cotton-like appearance and hand, so fiber composition tags could give consumers certainty regarding the garments they are buying. In addition to the observations above, we also noted in both stores a prevalence of cotton in men’s apparel, and a larger presence of man-made fibers in women’s apparel, which reflects the overall market situation. Finally, the second exploratory stage focused on clothing diaries and a wardrobe inventory provided by a small purposeful sample of respondents to examine the role of fiber composition, cotton in particular, in the individual’s garment purchase and daily-use decisions. The findings suggested that fiber composition was an important part of the daily garment selection process, based upon the daily activity and a set of personal beliefs about what the diary respondent felt that fiber had to offer. Similar to the market data Results, in the Clothing Diary responses males showed a greater tendency to select both 100% cotton Tops and Bottoms than did the female respondents. Overall, cotton appeared challenged by man-made and other fibers when the respondents needed to “dress up”, to attend to athletic activity, or to satisfy the need for specific functionalities such as rapid drying. / text
66

Travel Adaptive Capacity Assessment Simulation (TACA Sim)

Watcharasukarn, Montira January 2010 (has links)
More than 95% of fuel used for personal transportation is petroleum-based (Environment and Development Division (EDD), 2005). The peak and decline of world oil production is producing price and uncertainty pressures that may cause significant travel behaviour change in the future. Current travel behaviour has developed during conditions of low cost fuel and government investment in private vehicle mobility. Current urban forms and land use have also been developed during a period of growth in vehicle travel demand. Research that explores the long term (permanent oil supply reduction period) implications of reduced fuel demand on private travel behaviour is needed. Local and national government investments in transport infrastructure and urban development will be used and require maintenance for decades. Research is needed to assess long-term mode choice and car travel demand as a function of urban form and demographic indicators. This type of travel behaviour adaptive potential should be relevant to transport planning decision making. Literature review shows that there are a few available long-term planning methods, models, or tools in transportation engineering for future oil depletion. Transportation engineers need information of how current travel demand patterns may change over the lifetime of infrastructure investments in response to oil supply depletion. Behaviour change data for long term future situations would be difficult to obtain using traditional survey methods because most people have never experienced oil depletion situations. This research proposes that immersing people into the situation of oil depletion through sharp price rise would be necessary to generate relevant behaviour change decisions. The thesis is that the long term behaviour change can be assessed by characterising current adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity is defined in this thesis as the travel demand pattern with maximum fuel reduction without reducing participation in activities. The reasons why people might change travel demand to reduce fuel use is not part of the definition. This research also proposed that an immersive sim game environment could be used to prompt behaviour change decisions relating to fuel price shocks. Research into sim game surveys and travel behaviour surveys was used to inform the design of a Transport Adaptive Capacity Assessment (TACA) Sim survey tool. The TACA Sim survey was designed to assess capacity to adapt travel behaviour to reduce fuel use, and to characterise the potential for mode change. Participants experience the TACA Sim survey as a self assessment or transport energy audit. The survey provides a personal feel, focuses on the usual weekly activities, and provides feedback to participants about their fuel use and car dependence. Participants supply their normal travel activities over a week, and three weeks of sim play includes a steep fuel price rise while people are allowed to change their travel behaviour in response. The TACA Sim survey was evaluated through a case study of surveys of staff and students at the University of Canterbury. A second version of the TACA survey was developed that surveyed the one week of normal travel, but then probed adaptive capacity by asking a simple question after each travel activity was entered “Could you get to the activity another way?” The sim game travel adaptive capacity is compared with the available alternative adaptive behaviour for participants in a case study at the University of Canterbury. The results of the case study show that the participants responded well with the simulated situation. This reflects that the TACA Sim is successful in helping participants to perceive the situation of fuel price rise and think about their alternatives to car travel. Asking people “Could you get to the activity another way?” was found to effectively probe their adaptive capacity which agreed well with the virtual reality survey. The virtual reality survey yields more details of what people can do such as moving house, chaining trips, combining trips and buying a more efficient vehicle. The web-based TACA survey has been developed and deployed in two further research projects.
67

Positivity Ratio: Predicting Sleep Outcomes Across The Adult Lifespan

Imel, Janna L 01 January 2016 (has links)
Although sleep has been linked to changes in positive and negative affect across the lifespan, the prediction of sleep from affect has not been explored completely. As such, the main objective of this study was to examine the association between affect and sleep across the adult lifespan, using a novel gauge of affect, the positivity ratio. Both subjective and objective assessments of sleep were used in analyses. This study was an archival analysis of data collected as a part of the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS-II), with participants ranging from 34 to 83 years of age. Results revealed the positivity ratio to be a significant predictor of self-reported sleep quality and global sleep, but not of objective sleep measures. Additionally, the positivity ratio was found to increase with age and appears to predict better global sleep and sleep quality across all age groups. Implications of the findings are discussed.
68

Knowledge sharing in pulsating organisations : the experiences of music festival volunteers

Clayton, Diana January 2014 (has links)
This research aimed to investigate how and why festival volunteers share knowledge in pulsating UK music festival organisations, through an interpretation of volunteers’ lived experiences of knowledge sharing during the event lifecycle. Within the UK music festival sector, competition for leisure spend is high, and successful management of knowledge activities has the ability to improve business, innovation, and competitive advantage. Research across Knowledge Management Studies, Festival Studies, and People and Organisation Studies is dominated by positivist, quantitative research; whereas, this research investigated a fuzzy concept (knowledge) in a socially-constructed world (music festival) and interpreted multiple realities of social actors (volunteers). To do this, a qualitative, phenomenological study was suitable to explore in-depth experiences and unveil meanings attached to them. Purposive sampling using social media resulted in a sample of adult festival volunteers (n=28) being recruited. The methods selected enabled the ability to privilege the participants’ voice and their lived experience; these were diaries (n=11) and in-depth interviews (n=9), or both (n=8). The empirical data generated was interpreted using thematic analysis, using Atlas.ti. The findings of this research illustrate how and why volunteers share knowledge that is attributed to a successful process of volunteering, which enables effective knowledge management and reproduction. Where volunteers’ motivations are satisfied, this leads to bounce-back, episodic volunteering. Knowledge enablers and the removal of barriers create conditions that are conducive for knowledge sharing, which have similar characteristics to conditions for volunteering continuance commitment. Where volunteers do not return, the organisation leaks knowledge. The original contribution of this research is through its use of qualitative phenomenological methods to explore how and why UK music festival volunteers share knowledge.
69

Utopie v Denících Kryštofa Kolumba / Utopia in The Diary of Christopher Columbus

Legátová, Iveta January 2013 (has links)
Utopia in The Diary of Christopher Columbus At first, we meet with the context of era of 15th century in Spain, as well as we come to know complicated journey of Christopher Columbus. The first chapter describes the most important moments of his life together with the Renaissance rebirth of thinking. The second chapter is concerned with the birth of hispanoamerican literature based on anal ysis o f Columbus's marine diary and his messages. All the content and formal part of diary confirm value of Columbus who enrich spanish vocabulary. The main part of this thesis is dedicated to utopia and th e et ymological meaning of the word. We know definition of the utopia but more important is to see the utopia as a literary genre. New literary and mental phenomenon is represented, it's the Utopia of America. The m yth is actual again, we comeback to the Beginning. Also we know differences between utopia and m yt h and we confirm that it is almoust impossible to separate them. The trust, hope and the return to the biblical Paradise are transformed to the isolated place and time, the literature plays the role of creative force which intensifies and spreads these hopes. We aplicate teorical work of Mircea Eliade to Columbus's Diary. Thanks to Eliade we know how the example act was born and his teories are...
70

Os diários de juventude de Liev Tolstói, tradução e questões sobre o gênero de diário / The youth diaries of Leo Tolstoy, translation and studies on the diary genre

Erasso, Natalia Cristina Quintero 24 March 2011 (has links)
Liev Tolstói, autor russo do século XIX, reconhecido tanto pelos acadêmicos como pelo público geral como um dos maiores romancistas da história, ao longo de mais de sessenta anos escreveu um diário paralelamente a sua vasta obra artística. No conjunto de toda a produção escrita do autor, o diário constitui a sua obra mais volumosa, contudo, quase inexplorada em língua portuguesa. O presente trabalho propõe-se aproximar o leitor brasileiro dessa faceta menos conhecida de Tolstói por meio da tradução, direta do russo, dos primeiros sete anos do diário (1847 1854). Observa-se o que há de particular nesse texto de Tolstói, no âmbito do diário como gênero literário e, por fim, questiona-se a possibilidade de ler o diário de Tolstói como criação artística independente ou se deve ele ser tratado como um coadjuvante na interpretação das obras literárias do autor. / Leo Tolstoy, great Russian writer of the nineteenth century, recognized as one of the leading novelists in the history of the genre, both by scholars and the general public, spent over sixty years writing a diary. Throughout the vast production written by the author, this diary is his most voluminous work, yet still unexplored and almost unknown in Portuguese. This work presents a translation directly from Russian of the first seven years of the diary (1847 - 1854) and also makes a first reflection on the nature of the text which encompasses the characteristics of Tolstoy\'s diary related to the genre. Then it analyzes whether Tolstoys diary can be treated as an artistic creation or as supporting text in the interpretation of literary works of the author.

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