No / . Challenging behaviours (behaviour difficulties) represent a problem of considerable clinical significance for learning disability nurses, and a source of much human distress. Gentle teaching is a relatively new approach to dealing with behavioural difficulties, and has been received with enthusiasm by clinicians, but has so far received little empirical support. The current study attempted to compare gentle teaching with a well-established alternative (behaviour modification) and a control group. Objectives. To examine the comparative effectiveness of gentle teaching, behaviour modification and control interventions for challenging behaviour amongst children with learning disabilities. Design. Nonrandomized controlled trial. Setting. Service users¿ homes in East Yorkshire. Participants. Seventy-seven children who presented with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour (behaviour difficulties) and their parents. Procedure. One-day workshops in were offered by recognized authorities in either behaviour modification or gentle teaching that were not otherwise involved with the research project. Forty-one participants were recruited to the gentle teaching condition; 36 to behaviour modification; 26 to the control group. Random allocation was not possible, because of the slow uptake by interested parents. Measures was preintervention, and at assessment points up until 12 months following intervention. Analysis. Quantitative analysis of pre¿post differences between the groups, using t-test. Results. In general, no significant differences were found between the treatment groups and controls. Significant improvements were found for both gentle teaching and behaviour modification children over controls on the AAMR ABS XVII (social engagement) subscale. Controls had more contact with medical practitioner (GP) services than behaviour modification children and less than gentle teaching children. Conclusion. Although very few differences were found between the three groups, those that did exist generally favoured behaviour modification. Implications for service provision and learning disability nursing practice are described.

No / Sampling in the international environment needs to satisfy the same requirements as sampling in the domestic environment, but there are additional issues to consider, such as the need to balance within-country representativeness with cross-national comparability. However, most international marketing research studies fail to provide theoretical justification for their choice of sampling approach. This is because research design theory and sampling theory have not been well integrated in the context of international research. This paper seeks to fill the gap by developing a framework for determining a sampling approach in international studies. The framework is based on an assessment of the way in which sampling affects the validity of research results, and shows how different research objectives impact upon (a) the desired sampling method and (b) the desired sample characteristics. The aim is to provide researchers with operational guidance in choosing a sampling approach that is theoretically appropriate to their particular research aims.

This study contributes to the existing literature on treatment integrity (TI) by presenting TI findings across interventions aimed at the development of social emotional skills in learners with emotional and behavioural disorders. Social and emotional skills were selected as the target for our investigation given the significance of these skills in relation to the academic and behavioural success of learners and the challenges most often faced in these skill areas by students with emotional and behaviour disorders (E/BD). The study analysed single-subject experimental studies from 2000 to 2009 in two leading journals in the field of emotional and behaviour disorders: Behavior Disorders and The Journal of Emotional Behavioral Disorders. The degree to which studies operationally defined independent variables and evaluated and reported measures of treatment integrity and associated risk factors is reported. Thirty-three studies met the inclusion criteria for the present study and TI was evaluated across six variables (1) year published, (2) dependent variable(s), (3) independent variables(s), (4) participant characteristics, (5) treatment agent and (6) assessment of TI. Results indicated that approximately 49% of the studies monitored and reported TI, meaning that they provided a description of the TI procedure and resultant data. Findings from the study point to the need for attention to TI both in the description of methods used and in the reporting of TI data.

abstract: Medical policies, practices, and definitions do not exist solely in the clinical realm; they show up in the lived experiences of patients. This research examines how people with the chronic illness called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) define their own illness experiences. They have situated knowledge about their illness onset, search for care, and clinical encounters. Their knowledge complicates and challenges the existing norms in clinical practice and medical discourse, as the experience of searching for care with ME reveals weaknesses in a system that is focused on acute care. Patient narratives reveal institutional patterns that obstruct access to medical care, such as disbelief from clinicians and lack of training in chronic illness protocols. They also reveal patterns in physician behavior that indicate the likelihood of receiving effective care. These patient narratives serve as a basis for continued examination of ME as well as further reconstruction of medical practice and procedure. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2019

This study examines the movement of creating the scientifically oriented architecture that influenced architectural scholarship especially in 1960s and 1970s and discusses various theoretical frameworks this movement rests on. Architectural studies of the said period display rationalistic approaches motivated towards the routinisation, institutionalization and socialization in architecture, and thus an attempt to shift the discipline to scientific grounds. These studies not only develop plurality in academic realm of architecture, but also pave the way for a spectrum of more autonomous and novel areas of research and knowledge. The movement in Turkey, however parallel to its international popularity, is coincidentally strong between the years 1956 and 1982 befitting the social agenda of the country. The thesis is limited in scope to the definitions and relationships between five dominant approaches in the movement. These approaches are identified as, Design Methods, Environmental Psychology, Building Technology, Social and Cultural Factors and Vernacular Architecture. General Systems Theory emerges as a key reference in this scope. The study initially emphasises the positions of approaches in Turkey with relation to the international context and thus defines a ground for the discussions in the dissertation. The main discussion of the thesis is with regards to the notions of space and environment within the movement. Architectural studies with these notions extend the focus of design and research in terms social and cultural perspectives. The notions, not only define the plurality in the architectural sciences due to the multiplicity of dimensions they entail, but also constitute a bridge between the architectural studies and the social sciences. Moreover, the conceptions and examination methods for the terms of space and environment changes the traditional role of the scholar as designer into facilitator and researcher. The thesis examines the attempts of teaching, forming and framing the scientific architecture in two different venues, namely inside the studio and outside the studio. Inside the studio, design activity introduces systematic approaches for understanding the design process. Outside the studio, architectural research introduces methodological approaches that extend the boundary of the studio.

This dissertation consists of two empirical papers and one methods paper. The first two papers use quasi-experimental methods to evaluate the impact of universal health insurance reform in Massachusetts (MA) and Thailand and the third paper evaluates the validity of a quasi-experimental method used in comparative effectiveness research (CER).

Thesis (Ph.D.) in Psychology--University of Maine, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-169).

abstract: A major challenge in health-related policy and program evaluation research is attributing underlying causal relationships where complicated processes may exist in natural or quasi-experimental settings. Spatial interaction and heterogeneity between units at individual or group levels can violate both components of the Stable-Unit-Treatment-Value-Assumption (SUTVA) that are core to the counterfactual framework, making treatment effects difficult to assess. New approaches are needed in health studies to develop spatially dynamic causal modeling methods to both derive insights from data that are sensitive to spatial differences and dependencies, and also be able to rely on a more robust, dynamic technical infrastructure needed for decision-making. To address this gap with a focus on causal applications theoretically, methodologically and technologically, I (1) develop a theoretical spatial framework (within single-level panel econometric methodology) that extends existing theories and methods of causal inference, which tend to ignore spatial dynamics; (2) demonstrate how this spatial framework can be applied in empirical research; and (3) implement a new spatial infrastructure framework that integrates and manages the required data for health systems evaluation. The new spatially explicit counterfactual framework considers how spatial effects impact treatment choice, treatment variation, and treatment effects. To illustrate this new methodological framework, I first replicate a classic quasi-experimental study that evaluates the effect of drinking age policy on mortality in the United States from 1970 to 1984, and further extend it with a spatial perspective. In another example, I evaluate food access dynamics in Chicago from 2007 to 2014 by implementing advanced spatial analytics that better account for the complex patterns of food access, and quasi-experimental research design to distill the impact of the Great Recession on the foodscape. Inference interpretation is sensitive to both research design framing and underlying processes that drive geographically distributed relationships. Finally, I advance a new Spatial Data Science Infrastructure to integrate and manage data in dynamic, open environments for public health systems research and decision- making. I demonstrate an infrastructure prototype in a final case study, developed in collaboration with health department officials and community organizations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2017

Understanding dynamic, unpredictable, multiple, pluralistic and entangled relations in technology and organization is an inherent endeavor of the Information System (IS) research. However, recent innovation and changes in technology and organizations have posed significant challenges to the existing theoretical and methodological lens to analyze mutually dependent, ensemble, inseparable, ceaselessly intra-actable and constitutively entangled relations in technology and organizations. In line, this study employed sociomateriality as a wider theoretical lens to analyze constitutive entanglements and disentanglements in technology and organization illustrated with a case of E-service of land record in Bangladesh. This study has applied sociomateriality along with intra-actions, diffraction, relational ontology and performativity lens to trace continuous constitutive entanglements and disentanglements in the E-service. Thus, this study identified significance of constitutive entanglement lens through tracing unprecedented changes, unintended consequences and unexpected outcomes from the intra-actions, diffractions, relationalities and performativity in the organizational context and technological process of the E-service. This study has developed ‗action design ethnographic research' (ADER) as an in-depth methodological framework through conducting 'action design research‘ (ADR) in the process of ethnographic research (ER). In line, this study has formulated problems in organizational contexts, designed and redesigned solutions through mutually reciprocal relations between the researcher and clients, conducted concurrent evaluation and identified learning. Consequently, this study has addressed the practitioners' problems through engaging and intervening in the organizational contexts and technological processes of the E-service of land record in Bangladesh. Thus, both the sociomaterial lens and ADER offered potentials to design and redesign the organizational contexts and the E-service processes. Along the line, the study has contributed to theory and practice of IS research through applying sociomateriality and addressing practitioners‘ problems. Therefore, this study has made significant contribution to knowledge and practice.

Definition of marketing specifics in public transportation service utilities. Analysis of marketing communication instruments of the České dráhy, a.s. company, in the railways stations rooms. Proposal of possible improvements for effective communication.