Thesis (M.Arch. (Research))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 2012. / Abstract: The on-campus learning environment often falls far short of the expectations of architecture students. One reason is that these students are seldom given a voice in how their schools are designed, or how the facilities are managed. This study tested the use of Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE), and Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) as a strategic method of addressing this shortcoming. To do this research, a POE questionnaire was developed, based on the theoretical underpinnings of good design of places for adult learning, questionnaire design, POE, and IPA. After implementation of the questionnaire at four South African schools of architecture, the collected data were processed using standard spreadsheet software. Once the results were presented in an IPA matrix format, it was clear that there are several commonalities in the needs and desires of architecture students from the different schools. Some requirements, such as that for well-equipped computer laboratories were not surprising. Others, such as a universal need for quiet, separate spaces in which to work; and outdoor places where they can gather to work or ‘chill’ away from their studios and classrooms were less expected outcomes. The typically poor quality of indoor environmental conditions was exposed as one of the main reasons why architecture students now often prefer to make use of alternative, off-campus ways of working, and of communicating with each other and with their teachers. The implication of these findings is that by combining POE and IPA, it is possible to identify and monitor the attributes that are necessary for a satisfactory on-campus learning environment. Where shortcomings are identified with POE, strategic responses can easily be devised using IPA. The dissertation is concluded with suggestions for future applications of the proposed questionnaire and data analysis method, to enable benchmarking at schools of architecture and improve the on-campus environment of students of architecture.

Syftet med här studien är att undersöka hur fritidspedagoger tolkar sin yrkesroll och samtidigt uppfattar sitt yrkesuppdrag. Metoden som har använts är tolkande fenomenologisk analys, förkortat IPA. Genom denna metodansats har kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts med fritidspedagoger på olika skolor i en större stad i Sverige. Resultaten från studien visar att yrkesrollen som fritidspedagog både är mångfacetterad och komplex. I skolverksamheten används fritidspedagogen som en resurs till läraren och den kompetens som kan sägas vara speciell för fritidspedagogen lämnas ofta outnyttjad. Fritidspedagogens yrkesuppdrag presenteras som att uppfostra elever, skapa medborgare och främja relationer. Samtidigt som yrkesrollen och yrkesuppdraget avhandlas, synliggörs också förutsättningar för att skapa en tydlig yrkesroll. Trots stora förändringar i skola och fritidshem under de senaste decennierna verkar yrkesrollen som fritidspedagog förbli otydlig. Förverkligandet av en tydlig yrkesroll för fritidspedagogen, som samtidigt kan realisera sitt yrkesuppdrag, begränsas ofta av skolledning och en maktasymmetri som finns mellan lärare och fritidspedagog. En ömsesidig förförståelse av yrkesuppdraget hos respektive yrkeskategori skulle kunna ge grund för tydligare yrkesroller.

Denna uppsats har skrivits med syfte att genom en fenomenologisk ansats undersöka innebörden av begreppet högkänslighet och vilka särskilda behov som är viktiga att beakta hos högkänsliga barn, samt hur detta kan förstås i relation till förskolans miljö. Genomförandet av studien består av kvalitativa intervjuer av föräldrar till högkänsliga barn som går i förskola/förskoleklass såväl som förskolepersonal med förkunskaper om begreppet högkänslighet. I resultatet framgår exempel på deltagarnas upplevelser av hur högkänsligheten tar sig uttryck hos högkänsliga barn och vilka situationer eller sammanhang som kan upplevas som extra utmanande såväl i förskolan som i dagliga livet. Detta har analyserats med hjälp av interpretativ fenomenologisk analys – IPA-metoden. Avslutningsvis diskuteras tolkningar av de resultat som presenteras och hur dessa kan förstås i relation till syftets frågeställningar samt tidigare forskning. Detta har genererat i slutsatser om att förskolans miljö har betydande inverkan på högkänsliga barns välmående, utveckling och lärande, vilket delvis innebär att det i förskolan krävs både anpassningar i miljö och ett lyhört bemötande för att tillmötesgå de behov som följs av högkänslighet. Det kan dessutom konstateras att det finns ett behov av ökad kunskap kring högkänslighet bland personal i förskolan.

This study explores the subjective experiences of CBT therapists who have undergone personal therapy and seeks to gain insight into the significance of personal therapy in CBT clinical practice. Seven CBT therapists who have undergone personal therapy were interviewed. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was chosen to generate rich interview data. Participants were asked about their experience of personal therapy in clinical practice. Participants' narratives were analysed using IPA to identify common themes. The analysis resulted in twelve interrelated themes from which three master themes emerged. The first theme, 'Personal therapy creates conflict', explores a paradox that arises between personal therapy and CBT clinical practice; participants suggest that personal therapy equips them with therapeutic tools that paradoxically hinder their capacity to practice a standardised protocol-led CBT. The second master theme, 'Personal therapy ties me to humanity', suggests that the gap between personal therapy and CBT practice narrows by participants' 'use of self': calling upon their own vulnerabilities to forge fundamental connections with their clients based on the shared experience of being human. This study finds that all participants value 'being human' with their clients, however, struggle to find the space 'to just be' within an action-focused, goal-orientated CBT model. This is further explored in the final theme, 'Personal therapy: Being and doing'. Potential implications of the themes that emerged were considered. This study contributes to the literature on CBT and counselling psychology, and to the understanding of a divide in the psychotherapy profession between evidence-based priorities and expectations of reflective practice.

Under-acknowledged both clinically and socially as a threat to men’s health, breast cancer in men continues to be a critical health issue, with complex ramifications for those affected. Research exploring men’s breast cancer experiences and their lives beyond the diagnosis remain limited. Hence, this inquiry asks ‘How do men describe breast cancer and their experiences of the illness?’ the aim, to advance understandings about men’s meaning-making of breast cancer and masculinity, and to ‘give voice’ to this under-researched population. Embedded theoretically and methodologically within a critical qualitative health framework, the research has two parts. Part one is a qualitative synthesis of nine existing international studies exploring men’s breast cancer experiences, following Noblit and Hare’s (1988) method for synthesising interpretive qualitative data. The outcomes of this synthesis were used to inform part two: a multi-method phenomenological exploration of men’s breast cancer accounts using verbal and visual data. Thirty-One British men recruited through NHS records, Breast Cancer Care, and social media platforms, used self-authored photographs to illustrate their breast cancer experiences, which they later discussed as part of extended semi-structured interviews. All data were analysed together using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2003). Integrating and triangulating the findings from the two study phases, the on-going marginalisation of men across the breast cancer trajectory, and how this influences men’s experiences of, and adjustment to the illness, are revealed. Findings from the qualitative synthesis suggest current approaches to breast cancer care and advocacy serve to isolate men, potentially alienating and emasculating them; while patient management practices and informational resources unequivocally marginalise men. Findings from the new inquiry corroborate those from earlier studies, further illuminating the difficulties men encounter and some of their coping strategies. Specifically, three superordinate masculinities were identified: ‘threatened and exposed’, ‘protected and asserted’, and ‘reconsidered and reconfigured’. A schematic representation is presented to show how these interconnected masculinities are encountered, performed and utilised by men from pre-diagnosis through treatment and beyond as they manage, make sense of, and live through breast cancer. How and why men encounter/perform these different masculinities at different points in time across the breast cancer trajectory, and how this aids men’s adjustment to illness, and life beyond the diagnosis, is considered. The findings are expected to have both academic and real-world impact through informing future research, and recommendations for advocacy and intervention for improved future breast cancer care and practices.

Medical literature identifies a number of technology-driven improvements in disease management such as implantable medical devices (IMDs) that are a standard treatment for candidates with specific diseases. Among patients using implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD), for example, problems and issues are being discovered faster compared to patients without monitoring, improving safety. What is not known is why patients report not feeling safer, creating a safety paradox, and why patients identify privacy concerns in ICD monitoring. There is a major gap in the literature regarding the factors that contribute to perceived safety and privacy in remote patient monitoring (RPM). To address this gap, the research goal of this study was to provide an interpretive account of the experience of RPM patients. This study investigated two research questions: 1) How did RPM recipients perceive safety concerns?, and 2) How did RPM recipients perceive privacy concerns? To address the research questions, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants to explore individual perceptions in rich detail using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Four themes were identified and described based on the analysis of the interviews that include — comfort with perceived risk, control over information, education, and security — emerged from the iterative review and data analysis. Participants expressed comfort with perceived risk, however being scared and anxious were recurrent subordinate themes. The majority of participants expressed negative feelings as a result of an initial traumatic event related to their devices and lived in fear of being shocked in inopportune moments. Most of these concerns stem from lack of information and inadequate education. Uncertainties concerning treatment tends to be common, due to lack of feedback from ICD RPM status. Those who knew others with ICD RPM became worrisome after hearing about incidences of sudden cardiac death (SCD) when the device either failed or did not work adequately to save their friend’s life. Participants also expressed cybersecurity concerns that their ICD might be hacked, maladjusted, manipulated with magnets, or turned off. They believed ICD RPM security was in place but inadequate as well as reported feeling a lack of control over information. Participants expressed wanting the right to be left alone and in most cases wanted to limit others’ access to their information, which in turn, created conflict within families and loved ones. Geolocation was a contentious node in this study, with most of participants reporting they did not want to be tracked under any circumstances. This research was needed because few researchers have explored how people live and interact with these newer and more advanced devices. These findings have implications for practice relating to RPM safety and privacy such as identifying a gap between device companies, practitioners, and participants and provided directions for future research to discover better ways to live with ICD RPM and ICD shock.

Childhood abuse can impact the survivors' life in many ways. Children learn various skills from their caregivers, such as the tools needed to develop and maintain healthy relationships. When a child is abused by their caregiver, there can be a drastic impact on how the child perceives the world, and the therapeutic relationship is important in the healing process. This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study explored the lived experiences of therapists who work with adult women who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse to better understand the effects that childhood sexual abuse has on the therapeutic relationship. The theoretical base for the study was attachment theory that was conceptualized within a traumatic framework. Participants were recruited through online media forums and with the use of flyers posted at local counseling offices in the metro area of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Eight therapists who self-identified as meeting the criteria for this study were recruited and interviewed in-person; the data was analyzed by hand. Five themes emerged during the analysis: the enhancing effects of disclosure, seeking to empower clients, the client's emotional distress, negative feelings and loss of self, and ability to maintain boundaries. This study contributes to provide avenues for social change by developing awareness and education resources for therapists to increase their effectiveness of treatment and develop ways in which support can be employed to serve the affected population through education and rapport building. This in turn has the potential of increasing successful treatment outcomes, which allows clients to build better external positive, healthy relationships.

In December 2004, at the SoDIS® (Software Development Impact Statements) symposium in Auckland, an industry certification as a method of credentialing teachers and analysis of SoDIS was mooted. SoDIS, a process of ethics-based risk assessment and analysis of downstream risk to project and software stakeholders, including the public, is currently in the process of progressing from prototype to commercial product. Certification was proposed to ensure the integrity of the process and the quality of service to stakeholders.Certification sponsored by industry, commercial organisation, or professional association (collectively referred to as industry certification, or certification) has been a form of credentialing for over half a century. Industry certification was adopted by the IT industry when Novell, Inc. began testing and certifying IT industry and IT network professionals in 1986 (Cosgrove, 2004; Novell, 1996). Global certification testing centres were established in 1990 by Drake International (now Thomson Prometric) (Foster, 2005).During the 1990s, industry certification became a veritable juggernaut: a "multi-billion dollar business" (Cosgrove, 2004, p. 486), an industry that has arisen in its own right (Adelman, 2000) and driven by several dynamics (Hitchcock, 2005). In 2000 there were over 300 discrete IT certifications with approximately 1.6 million individuals holding approximately 2.4 million IT certifications (Aldelman, 2000). The total number of available certifications is impossible to quantify (Knapp & Gallery, 2003). Many academic institutions both at tertiary and secondary level are integrating industry certification, especially IT certification, into their curricula.Is industry certification, however, a pedagogically robust form of credentialing? Does it have value to its stakeholders? Is it an appropriate form of credentialing for the SoDIS process? This research, using both Phenomenography and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a joint methodology, focuses on the experiences of actors with the phenomenon of industry certification and extracts both the essence of the understanding and perceptions of the value and validity of industry certification, and the essence of industry certification itself.Due to the vast amount of literature found describing industry actors' perceptions of and experiences within the phenomenon, the research is predominantly literature-based. Further data was collected from interviews with a small, purposive sample of industry certification holders and employers, with the research further informed by my own experiences within the domain which is the focus of the research. The methodology paradigm is interpretive: the research aims to interpret the social construction that is the phenomenon of industry certification.While this research does not attempt to single out specific industry certifications to determine their value or pedagogical robustness, the findings suggest that, in general, well designed and well administered certifications with integrity and rigour of assessment processes, are indeed pedagogically sound, with significant value. The research identifies both benefit and criticism elements of typical certifications, along with elements of the various certification programmes categorised into standard (typical), and more rigorous (less typical) certification programmes.The research develops and presents a paradigm for building an appropriate vendor specific or vendor neutral certification programme that is pedagogically sound with value for its stakeholders. The contrasts and complementary aspects of industry certification and academic qualifications are highlighted. It is therefore concluded, and supported by data from the interviews, that such a credential is indeed appropriate for teachers and analysts of SoDIS.

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) industry is one of the two major Integrated Circuit (IC) part manufacturing industries in Taiwan, but it derives many environmental problems because large amount of chemicals and special materials are used in its process, especially copper sludge generated from wastewater treatment. Although the heavy metal sludge can be treated by solidification, heavy metals contained in the sludge may still be leached out due to longtime exposure to acid rain. Therefore, there are urgent needs of research and development of technologies regarding how to reduce both quantity and volume of the hazardous heavy metal sludge and how to recycle the valuable heavy metals. Acid leaching method, chemical exchange method and ferrite process are applied to study how to recycle and stabilize copper sludge of PCB industry. The ultimate goal is to achieve cleaning production and sustainable development by transforming the hazardous waste into valuable byproducts, reducing the amount of the waste and lowering the treatment costs. Experimental results show that a method is successfully developed to recycle copper from the sludge generated by PCB industry by using the combination of acid leaching, chemical exchange and ferrite process. Via this method, not only is pure copper powder recycled, but highly valuable nano-scaled catalyst-CuFe2O4 is also produced. Hence, the problem that copper sludge has nowhere to go is solved, as well as the high cost of catalyst in catalytic incineration is reduced to nearly zero. The achievements of this study are summarized as follow: (1) Characteristic analysis of industrial sludge Water content and pH of the sludge is 60% and 7.05, respectively. The drop in quantity of ignition is 23%. The screening test results show that particle size of the sludge varies from 0.4 £gm to 200 £gm, with D50 of 25.0 £gm. Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, Ni and Cr are found in the sludge, and the biggest part of heavy metals is Cu, with a concentration of 158,000 mg/kg (dry basis), whereas the other heavy metals are all below 105 mg/kg (dry basis). (2) Study of recycling of pure copper powder The optimal operational condition of acid leaching method is that concentration of sulfuric acid is 2.0 N, temperature is 50¢J and treatment time is 60 minutes. Under this operational condition, more than 99% of heavy metals can be extracted to liquid phase and the sediment of treated sludge meet Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) standards and therefore is considered as general industrial waste. The optimal operational condition of chemical exchange method is that molar ratio of Fe/Cu is 5.0, pH is 2.0 and treatment temperature is 50¢J. Under this operational condition, more than 95.0% of Cu can be recovered. The optimal operational condition of ferrite process is that Fe/Cu=10.0, pH=9.0, treatment temperature=80¢J, aeration rate=3 L/min/per liter waste liquid and reaction time = 30 min. Under this operational condition, TCLP concentrations of all heavy metals of both supernatant and sludge are well below regulatory standards, which proves that ferrite process is very effective. (3) Resourcing of spinel sludge In the potential of catalytic incineration of volatile organic compounds test, the sludge generated from ferrite process is used to catalyze the isopropyl alcohol (IPA). The catalyst is replaced by the same volume of glass wool on a reactive bed as a blank. Experimental result shows that the conversion of IPA is only 10% at 200¢J and 75% at 500¢J in the absence of catalyst under the conditions that IPA inlet concentration=1,700 ppm, space velocity=24,000 hr-1, O2 concentration=21%, and relative humidity=19%, which indicates that the destruction of IPA is associated with the consumption of much energy when no catalyst was used. But when ferrite catalyst is applied, IPA is decomposed completely at 200¢J, showing that the sludge has great potential of catalyst. (4) Synthesizing five VOCs catalyzing ferrite catalysts via ferrite process As to the synthesis of five ferrite catalysts in the laboratory, IPA conversion rate is higher than 58% at 200¢J. The sequence of IPA conversion from good to bad is Cu-ferrite catalyst > Mn-ferrite catalyst > Ni-ferrite catalyst > Zn-ferrite catalyst > Cr-ferrite catalyst, where Cu/Fe is most efficiency, with IPA conversion rate of 75% at 150¢J and 100% at 200¢J.

Abstract Biological processes have been proven to be economical and effective for control of VOCs with concentration of <1,000 mg C/m3. This study armed to develop a biofilter packed only with fern chips for the removal of airborne isopropyl alcohol (IPA). A three-stage down-flow biofilter (2.2 m in height and 0.4 m¡Ñ0.4 m in cross-sectional area) was constructed for the performance test. The first stage serviced as a humidifier for the incoming gas and the following two stages, both packed with fern chips with a packing space of 0.30 m ¡Ñ 0.40 m ¡Ñ0.40 m, as trickling bed biofilters for the VOC removal. Air with a nearly constant IPA concentration of 100 mg/Am3 (@ an average temperature of 34 oC) and a flow rate in the range of 100-400 L/min was fed to the reactor in Phase I test. The flow rate gave an empty bed retention time (EBRT) in the range of 12-48 s for the gas flowing through the two bed media. Solutions of urea-N, phosphate-P, and milk powder were supplied daily to the fern chips for the microbial nutrition in Phase I experiment which lasted for 26 days. Following the Phase, Phase II test operated with a constant EBRT of 12 s and without any nutrient supplementation for 30 days. Experimental results show that with an influent gas temperature of 29-40oC (average 34 oC) and relative humidity of 43-93% (average 73%), with a proper moistening of the bed media, the effluent gas could achieved a temperature of 26-35oC (average 29 oC) and a relative humidity of 98%. The proceeding medium experienced a greater moisture variation (12-68%, average 38%) than that (65-82%, average 72%) of the following one. The former and the latter media had pH in the range of 6.11-7.78 (average 6.77) and 6.13-7.36 (average 6.59), respectively. With no additional nutrient supplementation for 30 days, approximately 98% of the influent IPA of 100 mg/m3 could be removed at the EBRT of as short as 12 s which corresponded to a loading of 60 g IPA/m3.h.