While numerous studies have linked family routines to pediatric asthma outcomes, it remains unclear how family routines come to be associated with these outcomes on a biological level. The current study investigated whether longitudinal trajectories of inflammatory markers of asthma could be predicted by levels of family routines in youth with asthma. Family routines were assessed at baseline through parent questionnaires and peripheral blood samples obtained from youth every 6 months (total number of assessments = 4) over the course of an 18 month study period. Youth with more family routines in their home environment showed decreases in mitogen-stimulated production of a cytokine implicated in asthma, IL-13, over the course of the study period. In turn, within-person analyses indicated that at times when stimulated production of IL-13 was high, asthma symptoms were also high, pointing to the clinical relevance of changes in IL-13 over time. A variety of potential explanations for this effect were probed. Parental depression, stress, and general family functioning could not explain these effects, suggesting that family routines are not just a proxy for parent psychological traits or family relationship quality. However, medication use eliminated the relationship between family routines and stimulated production of IL-13. This suggests that family routines do impact asthma outcomes at the biological level, possibly through influencing medication adherence. Considering daily family behaviors when treating asthma may help improve both biological and clinical profiles in youth with asthma.

While numerous studies have linked family routines to pediatric asthma outcomes, it remains unclear how family routines come to be associated with these outcomes on a biological level. The current study investigated whether longitudinal trajectories of inflammatory markers of asthma could be predicted by levels of family routines in youth with asthma. Family routines were assessed at baseline through parent questionnaires and peripheral blood samples obtained from youth every 6 months (total number of assessments = 4) over the course of an 18 month study period. Youth with more family routines in their home environment showed decreases in mitogen-stimulated production of a cytokine implicated in asthma, IL-13, over the course of the study period. In turn, within-person analyses indicated that at times when stimulated production of IL-13 was high, asthma symptoms were also high, pointing to the clinical relevance of changes in IL-13 over time. A variety of potential explanations for this effect were probed. Parental depression, stress, and general family functioning could not explain these effects, suggesting that family routines are not just a proxy for parent psychological traits or family relationship quality. However, medication use eliminated the relationship between family routines and stimulated production of IL-13. This suggests that family routines do impact asthma outcomes at the biological level, possibly through influencing medication adherence. Considering daily family behaviors when treating asthma may help improve both biological and clinical profiles in youth with asthma.

This study examines the role of the reporter in the newsroom amid economic challenges and changes to technology over the past 10 years and how reporter routines have changed in response to those challenges and changes. The past 10 years are significant from a technological standpoint because of the rise of social media and the growth of video and use of smartphones. During that same time period, the recession of 2007 hit and caused a large number of layoffs and the need to restructure the newsroom due to smaller staffs—all of which affect reporter routines. This study employed in-depth interviews conducted at three newspapers across the country with business, features, news, and sports reporters. In addition, the managing editor and executive editor at each newspaper were interviewed because they, too, influence reporter routines. This study finds that reporters are working increasingly longer hours to address new duties created by technologies and social media. Sports, which was first to adopt new technology, was also the one to most harness the power of technology and enthusiastically use it in a variety of ways, from tweeting to blogging to creating video. Features came in second for embracing technology, while the news section adapted to it to a lesser degree, and business not at all. This finding was true at all three newspapers. On the economic side, staffing cutbacks have resulted in the elimination of investigative teams, as those reporters are needed for daily work. In addition, the cutbacks to copy editors, as well as the need for speed, have resulted in “community editing,” the reliance on readers to help edit materials once they have been posted. As surprising was the widespread shift to immediacy first, in that reporters are encouraged to write short stories for online posting, if necessary, followed with continual updates throughout the day until the story for the print edition was ready to be filed. All this results in a change of routines for reporters.

This thesis comprises a collection of research papers within the areas of goalsetting as a psychological skill, and as an individual difference factor (previously interpreted as a personality characteristic). It uses a variety of methodologies and statistical analyses to address pertinent research questions identified from the goalsetting and goal perspectives literature. The first two studies examined the influence of goal-setting practices on performance and associated cognitions. Specifically, the results from the first study provide support for the use of self-referenced goals, while indicating that process goals have additional benefits over and above those associated with performance goals. The second study into goal-setting suggested that utilising process goals in a more holistic (rather than specific) manner might prove efficacious when they are incorporated into a pre-performance routine. Although the findings providing some support for the use of process goals, it appears that the exact nature of the process goals used is important. The remaining three research studies looked at the propensity of individuals to judge personal ability according to normative and/or self-referenced criteria (ego and task goal orientations). The first study in this area suggested that these criteria change in a systematic fashion in response to naturally occurring situations, and that ability level moderates this effect. The results of the second study indicated that competition performance is differentially affected according to the specific goal orientation profile that athletes hold. The third research study provides evidence which suggests that skill level might be predi icted according to the patterning of goal orientations possessed by athletes.

While numerous studies have linked family routines to pediatric asthma outcomes, it remains unclear how family routines come to be associated with these outcomes on a biological level. The current study investigated whether longitudinal trajectories of inflammatory markers of asthma could be predicted by levels of family routines in youth with asthma. Family routines were assessed at baseline through parent questionnaires and peripheral blood samples obtained from youth every 6 months (total number of assessments = 4) over the course of an 18 month study period. Youth with more family routines in their home environment showed decreases in mitogen-stimulated production of a cytokine implicated in asthma, IL-13, over the course of the study period. In turn, within-person analyses indicated that at times when stimulated production of IL-13 was high, asthma symptoms were also high, pointing to the clinical relevance of changes in IL-13 over time. A variety of potential explanations for this effect were probed. Parental depression, stress, and general family functioning could not explain these effects, suggesting that family routines are not just a proxy for parent psychological traits or family relationship quality. However, medication use eliminated the relationship between family routines and stimulated production of IL-13. This suggests that family routines do impact asthma outcomes at the biological level, possibly through influencing medication adherence. Considering daily family behaviors when treating asthma may help improve both biological and clinical profiles in youth with asthma. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this investigation was to (a) use the positive routines procedure to decrease child noncompliance and the time it takes the child to comply (latency) at bedtime, (b) to assess treatment fidelity, and (c) to record objectively parent behavior. Research was conducted with four children and five parents in their homes. The treatment was explained to each parent and introduced to each child after the baseline phase. Positive routines requires the parent to implement a low-stimulation “routine” at the time the child naturally gets sleepy. The routine gradually begins earlier so that by the end of treatment, it is completed at the time the parent originally attempted to establish bedtime. The data reveal that with high treatment fidelity, the treatment was effective in reducing bedtime noncompliance, latency, and parental reinforcing behaviors. The data also supported the notion that parent behavior can be controlled by child behavior.

"Same Shit, Different Day" is a collection of three VR installations portraying short, looping animations. I am exploring routines and patterns I find myself and the people around me in to draw attention to the ways in which we mindlessly go through motions in our everyday life. / Master of Fine Arts / "Same Shit, Different Day" is a collection of three VR installations portraying short, looping animations. I am exploring routines and patterns I find myself and the people around me in to draw attention to the ways in which we mindlessly go through motions in our everyday life.

Dans cette recherche nous nous intéressons aux processus d'échange d'informations entre acteurs au travers de trois approches théoriques : les routines organisationnelles, l'approche par les proximités et la théorie de l'effectuation. Le projet est de rendre intelligible le rôle joué par la dialectique causale/effectuale dans l'articulation des routines organisationnelles d'échanges d'informations dans un contexte de proximité. Nous utilisons une méthode qualitative organisée autour de l'étude des domaines vitivinicoles du territoire provençal. Notre démarche abductive s'organise autour d'une phase exploratoire et d'une phase compréhensive descriptive au cours desquelles nous avons procédé à des analyses textuelles, via des logiciels d'aide à l'analyse de données qualitatives et de contenu, selon la méthode de comparaison continue empruntée à la théorie enracinée. Nos résultats indiquent que la triangulation des différentes informations issues des processus d'échanges avec les différents acteurs dans un contexte de proximité participe, de manière générale, à l'évolution des formes de raisonnement des responsables des domaines vitivinicoles, d'une logique causale à une logique effectuale et vice-versa. En cela la théorie de l'effectuation et plus précisément la dialectique causale/ effectuale peut alors être considérée dans une perspective intégrative pour compléter et agrémenter l'intelligibilité des processus d'échanges d'informations. L'existence d'interactions entre les modes de raisonnements causaux et effectuaux des responsables des domaines vitivinicoles sont en lien avec la médiatisation des routines organisationnelles internes et externes bâties sur des mix de proximités organisationnelles. / In this research, we are looking at information exchanges processes among actors, using three theoretical appoaches : organisational routines (Lewin et al. 2011), proximity approches (Pecqueur et Zimmermann, 2004 ; Torre et Beuret, 2012 ; Torrès, 2003, 2009) and the effectuation theory (Sarasvathy, 2003, 2007). Our itent is to understand the role of causal/effectual modes of reasoning in the articulation of organisational routines within context of proximity among actors. Using a qualitative method based on a single-case involving embedded units of analysis, we are studying small and medium size entreprises (SMEs) of the Provence wine industry. Our abductive approach is organised around an exploratory and a descriptive/ comprehensive phase. We proceeded textual analyses, with the help of softwares and content analyses, using the continuous comparison method borrowed from the grounded theory. Our findings reveal that the triangulation of various informations stemming from exchanges processes developped with different actors in a proximity context, participate to the evolution of the managers' modes of reasoning from causal to effectual and vice-versa. We discussed that the effectuation theory and more precisely, the causal/effectal modes of reasoning, can be considered as in integrative approach which contribute to a better understanding of the informations exchanges processes among actors. We argued more precisely, that interactions between causal and effectual modes of reasoning of wine SMEs managers are related to the mediation of internal and external organisational routines build on mix of proximities.

Following international trends, statistics is a relatively new addition to the South African mathematics curriculum at school level and its implementation was fraught with problems. Since 2001 teaching statistics in the Further Education and Training Phase (Grades 10 to 12) has been optional due to lack of professional development of teachers. From 2014 teaching statistics will be compulsory. This study is therefore timely as it provides information about different discourses in discussions of an ill-structured problem in a data-rich context, as well as in discussions of the meaning of the statistical mean. A qualitative case study of informal statistical reasoning was conducted with a group of students that attended an introductory course in descriptive statistics as part of an honours degree in mathematics education at the University of the Witwatersrand. The researcher was the course lecturer. Transcripts of the discussions in four video recorded sessions at the start of the semester long course form the bulk of the data. The discussions in the first three sessions of the course were aimed at structuring the data-context, or grasping the system dynamics of the data-context, as is required at the start of a cycle of statistical investigation. The discussion in the fourth session was about the syntactical meaning of the mean algorithm. It provides guidelines for meaningful disobjectification of the well-known mean algorithm. This study provides insight into informal statistical reasoning that is currently described as idiosyncratic or verbal according to statistical reasoning models. Discourse analysis based on Sfard’s (2008) theory of Commognition was used to investigate and describe discursive patterns that constrain shifting from colloquial to informal statistical discourse. The main finding is that colloquial discourse that is aimed at decision making in a data-context is incommensurable with statistical discourse, since comparison of data in the two discourses are drawn on incommensurable scales – a qualitative evaluation scale and a quantitative descriptive scale. The problem of comparison on a qualitative scale also emerged in the discourse on the syntactical meaning of the mean algorithm, where average as a qualitative judgement conflicted with the mean as a quantitative measurement. Implications for teaching and teacher education are that the development of statistical discourse may be dependent on alienation from data-contexts and the abstraction of measurements as abstract numerical units. Word uses that confound measurements as properties of objects and measurements as abstract units are discussed. Attention to word use is vital in order to discern evaluation narratives as deed routines from exploration narratives and routines.

Malgré un récent regain d’intérêt pour l’artisanat, la sociologie française semble déprise de cet objet polymorphe qui demeure en proie au doute concernant sa nature et sa capacité à se maintenir. Pour lever ces ambiguïtés, des statistiques portant sur l’emploi ont été produites en lien avec le réseau consulaire, des chiffres sur l’entrepreneuriat ont été traités et des données qualitatives ont été recueillies au sein de la boucherie et de la réparation automobile via des observations et des entretiens menés en France et au Maroc. L’immersion durant trois années au sein de la Chambre Régionale de Métiers et de l'Artisanat en Rhône-Alpes avec un financement CIFRE (2007-2010) a permis de mener à bien cette recherche. La thèse montre l’entreprise artisanale comme un incubateur des savoir-faire qui s’incarnent dans une division ad hoc du travail faite de routines et de créativité. Celle-ci s’actualise en s’ajustant aux situations productives et marchandes. Enracinée localement, la dimension relationnelle façonne la performance organisationnelle et marchande, amenant davantage d’efficience. Cette dimension transparaît dans l’offre marchande, les stratégies de captation des clients et les rapports concurrentiels entre pairs. Cette thèse vise aussi à étudier l'artisanat rhônalpin comme catégorie sociale. Elle montre que les ressorts de sa cohésion et de son élasticité sont au principe du marché professionnel ouvert et dynamique qu’est l’artisanat et dans lequel sont enchâssés le marché du travail artisanal et une constellation de groupes professionnels réunissant un noyau d’artisans-indépendants et une population mobile, qui gravite autour, partageant leur expérience et leurs qualifications. / French research in sociology seems to have detached itself from artisanship as a field of study in spite of a recent regain of interest in it. As a polymorphous object, artisanship still remains subject to doubt as far as its definition and sustainability are concerned. To characterise it, we based our work on employment statistics produced within the consular network in Rhône-Alpes and entrepreneurship data that we processed. Together with qualitative material collected in butcheries and mechanic businesses through observations and interviews conducted in France and Morocco. We spent three years of full-time work within the Regional Chamber of Trades and Crafts with a research funding (CIFRE 2007-2010) to carry out this study. This thesis reveals the craft business as an incubator of skills which are embedded in an ad hoc work division based on routines and creativity which are an updated response to production and market situations. Adding up to this efficiency, the locally rooted relational dimension leads to organizational and market performance. This dimension appears in the artisans offers, their customers capture strategies and the competitive relationships between peers. This thesis also aims at studying the Rhône-Alpes artisanship as a social category. The main finding here is that artisanship cohesion and its elasticity reveal an open and dynamic occupational market built on the labor market and on a constellation of occupational groups that gather independent-craftsmen as their core and a mobile population that revolves around sharing the same qualifications and experience