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The presence of art and artists in health care settings raise many questions of an ethical nature. The presence of art in such milieux challenges the manner in which notions of art, persons, health, healing, community, ethics and aesthetics are presently conceptualized. This thesis will argue that art ought properly be considered an essential human need - integral to the health, flourishing and well-being of all persons - particularly those who are sick and suffering. An ethical care of sick persons would demand that both artistic practice and health care practice be revisioned in the light of this different understanding.

This two-year longitudinal study sought to describe and evaluate a newly developed information and communication technology (ICT) environment and the associated schoolbased ICT professional development (PD) project within a State Government primary school. The overall aim of the research study was to investigate the most effective requirements to support teachers to be skilled, knowledgeable and confident in the use of ICT in their teaching roles. The teachers were the focus of the Research Study and not the students. The ICT environment and the professional development project's effectiveness was evaluated using data collected from participating teachers and the literature regarding components of effective ICT professional development. The Research Study used qualitative and interpretive methods to illuminate and expand on what it means to provide effective ICT PD within the primary school context. The components of the ICT-enhanced environment were studied in detail to provide feedback and findings that may also be useful in other educational settings with modification. The study provided evidence that, apart from providing and developing individual ICT PD components, a collection of inter-related components was necessary at the same time for successful ICT PD to be achieved. The components of the PD project have been discussed individually and collectively in terms of their effect on the research subjects, the teachers themselves. Four global factors were identified for effective ICT PD and they were used as a framework for the study. These were teacher characteristics, authenticity, support and the ICT-enhanced environment.

The study aims to contribute to a debate on the benefits of exposing children to early second language acquisition and maintenance of their mother tongue in early childhood settings. The study uses a qualitative interpretative approach, using a case-study method. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used, and data collected were thematically analyzed.

Agentic women continue to be penalized for success in male-dominated industries, resulting in gender discrimination and differing opportunity structures (Foschi, 2000). The purpose of the proposed study is to see how an employee’s gender and status in male-dominated corporate settings influence participants’ perceptions of competency, liking, and consequences after the employee makes a mistake. These dependent variables will also be examined in relationship to participants’ level of sexism. Approximately 132 participants will be recruited from high technology companies, and will read a vignette about a male or female and entry-level or executive employee who makes a mistake. They will then answer competency, liking, and firing questions, as well as Glick & Fiske’s (1996) Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. Participants are expected to perceive females more negatively than males, and executives more negatively than entry-level employees. Additionally, female executives will be perceived as the least competent, and will be the least well liked. It is also predicted that they will be most likely fired. This study may add important information on gender stereotyping in the workplace, and further explore how an employee’s status in the company influences perceptions of the employee. The implications of the proposed study for future research are also discussed.

abstract: The high rate of teacher turnover in the United States has prompted a number of studies into why teachers leave as well as why they stay. The present study aims to add to that knowledge specifically regarding why teachers choose to stay at urban schools. Several reasons teachers in general choose to stay have been identified in previous studies including faith in their students, continuing hope and sense of responsibility, and love among others. The importance of such a study is the possibility of designing programs that reinforce teacher success through understanding the personal and professional reasons teachers choose to stay. Getting teachers to stay is important to the nation's goal of providing equity in science education to all children. Important to this research is an understanding of motivational theories. Already a challenge in the over-busy modern world, the ability to self-motivate and motivate others is of particular importance to teachers in urban schools as well as teachers struggling against restrictive budgets. Studies have shown teachers extrinsically motivated will need external rewards to encourage them while teachers who are intrinsically motivated will have their own internal reasons such as satisfaction in contributing to the future, self-actualization, or the joy of accomplishment. Some studies have suggested that teachers who decide to remain teaching tend to be intrinsic motivators. Unfortunately, the environment in most Western country educational systems presents a challenge to achieving these intrinsic goals. As a result, self-determination theory should play a significant role in shaping educational programs. The following study examined the perspectives of secondary school science teachers, specifically regarding why they opted to remain within the classroom in urban districts. It was conducted utilizing interviews and surveys of teachers working within urban school districts in Arizona and California. The sample consisted of 94 science teachers. More than half of the participants were White females and 36 percent of them had been teaching for more than 15 years. Participation in the study was based on self-selected volunteerism. Survey questions were based on self-determination theory and used Likert scale responses. Follow-up audiotaped interview requested information regarding identity and their social interaction within the urban settings. The survey responses were analyzed using SPSS for descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and linear regression. The results of this study provide insight on what works to motivate science teachers to continue teaching in less than ideal school settings and with such high bureaucratic impediments as standardized testing and school rating systems. It demonstrates that science teachers do seem to be intrinsically motivated and suggests some areas in which this motivation can be fostered. Such results could help in the development of teacher support groups, professional development programs, or other programs designed to assist teachers struggling to deal with the specific problems and needs of inner city school students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

Purpose: Participation in niches within family settings provide children with social and non-social experiences that may lead to enhanced learning and development which may later promote in-creased participation in many other activities. Therefore, there is a need to identify about ways how to facilitate participation of a child with disabilities in families’ everyday life.Method: The qualitative, explorative, inductive design was performed using focus groups. The data was used from the focus group interviews done in 2013-2014.Results: The semi-structured interviews revealed four ways of how participation for children with disabilities could be enhanced in family settings. They were: to adapt as a parent; to find an ex-ternal personal assistant that suits family’s needs; to develop a connection among family and external personal assistant; to find suitable activities for children with disabilities.Conclusions: environmental aspects were identified as the ones that could be modified to enhance participation in family settings for children with disabilities.

Dois temas são característicos do contexto atual das organizações. Um, já consolidado, é o aumento da velocidade das inovações; o outro, é a necessidade de incorporar a perspectiva emergente da sustentabilidade nas práticas de inovação. A Teoria Neoschumpeteriana busca obter um domínio desses fenômenos dinâmicos da realidade econômica, em que a inovação, principalmente a tecnológica, é identificada como a força maior que propulsiona a dinâmica econômica. Entretanto, Hanusch e Pyka (2007) criticam a Teoria Neoschumpeteriana por entenderem que o desenvolvimento dos sistemas econômicos modernos incorpora a inovação tecnológica, assim como também a inovação organizacional, institucional e social e, por isso, os novos frameworks para estudos de sistemas econômicos, precisariam incorporar características de complexidade através do trânsito em diferentes teorias relevantes, levando em conta as raízes da Teoria Neoschumpeteriana, o que eles próprios não fazem. Assim, o objetivo geral de pesquisa foi o de propor um framework interteórico e complexo sobre a dinâmica da inovação e fazer a sua aplicação no Instituto Rio-Grandense do Arroz - IRGA. A metodologia utilizada foi de estudo de caso. Os dados foram coletados através de entrevistas e documentos. Cada uma das etapas realizadas na metodologia foi apoiada num estudo, a priori, sobre métodos que capturavam características de complexidade. A utilização de uma lógica abdutiva, prevista na metodologia, com constantes idas e vindas entre os conceitos teóricos construídos a priori e as informações advindas do campo empírico, fez emergir o conceito teórico de sistema econômico, como uma configuração complexa de múltiplos níveis de regras que se relacionam ao longo do tempo e se sucedem. Neste sentido, a presente pesquisa avançou ao identificar a emergência de regras, oriunda das teorias usadas, como uma qualidade nova e central, que em múltiplos níveis, compõe as configurações, que evoluem ao longo do tempo. Este avanço possibilitou estudar a história econômica do IRGA, não da perspectiva operacional, mas da perspectiva das regras genéricas, de maior nível, e das regras de menor nível associadas à regra genérica, numa perspectiva de configurações dinâmicas que evoluem, focado em inovações. A lógica abdutiva possibilitou avanços metodológicos na aplicação do método de análise qualitativa comparativa (QCA) no estudo das dinâmicas de configurações, já que o método tinha até então, sido aplicado numa abordagem estática. Os resultados indicaram, ainda, a presença de cinco regras genéricas no contexto de pesquisa do IRGA. O IRGA inseriu predominantemente, em suas atividades, de pesquisa a regra genérica de mais produtividade agrícola. As regras genéricas de gestão ambiental da propriedade agrícola, aumento do consumo do arroz, aumento da renda para o produtor foram inseridas nas atividades de pesquisa de modo marginal. A regra genérica denominada de negócios ambientais nas beneficiadoras de arroz ainda não foi inserida nas atividades de pesquisa do IRGA. A dinâmica de inserção destas regras genéricas no IRGA ocorre através de oito configurações de regras de nível zero e de segunda ordem, que seguem um conjunto de fases que foram denominadas de pré-distúrbio, origem, adoção, retenção e declínio. Uma característica nesta dinâmica é de que somente ocorreu a mudança de fase da regra genérica quando determinadas regras de segundo e de ordem zero estavam presentes. Como as fases de evolução das regras genéricas ocorreram em diferentes anos, no período entre 1969 e 2009, a combinação destas fases gerou seis configurações temporais de regras para inovação no IRGA. / Two themes are characteristic of the organizations on the current context. One is already established that is the increasing innovations speed. The other one is the need to incorporate the sustainability‘s emerging perspective in innovation practices. The Neo-Schumpeterian Theory seeks to obtain a domain on these dynamic phenomena of the economic reality, in which the innovation, especially technological, is identified as its greater propellent force. However, Hanusch and Pyka (2007) criticize the Neo-Schumpeterian Theory for understanding that the development of modern economic systems incorporate the technological innovation, as well as the organizational innovation, institutional, and social. Therefore, the new frameworks for the economic systems studies would need to incorporate some complexity features through traffic in different and relevant theories, taking into account the Neo-schumpeterian Theory roots, which they themselves do not do. Thus, the overall objective of this research was to propose an inter-theoretical and complex framework on the innovation dynamics and to make its application at the IRGA (Instituto Rio-Grandense de Arroz - Rice Institute of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil). We used the case study methodology. Data were collected by some interviews and from some documents. Each of the used methodology steps was supported in a priori study on methods that captured the complexity characteristics. The economic system‘s theoretical concept as a complex configuration of the multiple rules levels related over the time, and that succeed itself, came from an abductive logic use from the methodology, with constant goings and comings among the theoretical concepts a priori constructed, and from the empirical information from the field. In this sense, this research has advanced when identified the rules emergence, derived from the used theories as a new quality and centered, which at multiple levels composes the configurations that evolve over the time. This advance allowed the IRGA‘s economic history study, not from the operational perspective, but from the general rules perspectives of highest level and from the lowest level associated with the general rules perspectives, at a dynamic configurations perspective that evolve focusing on innovations. The abductive logic allowed the methodological advances in the method application of comparative and qualitative analysis (CQA) in the study of the configurations dynamics, since the method had until then been applied on a static approach. The results also indicated the presence of five generic rules in the context of the IRGA research. The IRGA inserted predominantly the general rule of most agricultural productivity in its research activities. The general rules of the farm environmental management, the increased rice consumption, and the increased income for producers have been included in the research activities marginally. The general rule of environmental affairs in the rice processing has not been incorporated into the IRGA research activities. The insertion dynamic of these general rules occurs through eight rules of level zero and second order configurations, which follow a stages set that were identified as pre-disturbance, origin, adoption, retention, and decay. A dynamic characteristic is that there was only a phase change of the general rule when certain rules of the second and zero order were present. As the phases of the generic rules development occurred in different years, from 1969 to 2009, these phases combination generated six rules temporal configurations for innovation in the IRGA.

Today paper is to find everywhere, and the production factories always need to increase the productivity if they want to stay competitive. Stora Enso Kvarnsveden has one of the biggest magazine paper machines in the world, which produces around 1900 meters of paper per minute. The production process is highly automatized, which reduces the number of operators that work on the machine. Still, process variations can cause brakes in the paper web and lead to loss of income, energy and paper production. It may also have a direct impact on the paper quality. This report is focusing the following question: How to keep the Paper Machine production process under controlled conditions? To make a data analysis fully relevant, we need to use the most important variables of the machine. By analyzing these data some unexpected behavior and variation of process values can be pointed out. The analyzing tool needs to be fast and portable, and therefore a software system has been developed. By comparing process data with reference data this software can make a powerful analysis. The created software is intended to be used either by operators or engineers. The most important results are collected in a file. In this text file, the comparison function gives the results which are stored in a CSV-format. Furthermore, an auto-update function allows the users to run it automatically. Graphical presentations are supporting the interpretation of the results.

xvi, 128 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / There were two primary goals of this work. The first goal was to investigate humeral and scapular kinematics in a simulated workplace environment. The second goal was to validate a triaxial accelerometer (Virtual Corset) for the collection of humeral elevation exposure data in an occupational setting. To achieve the first goal, healthy subjects were asked to perform constrained and functional humeral elevation motions. Differences were observed in scapular kinematics. In addition, the variability between constrained arm elevation and functional overhead tasks was found to be similar. Therefore, to compare scapular kinematics in an occupational group (dental hygienists) a functional work related task was determined to be more appropriate. The dental hygienists performed teeth instrumentation on simulated patients' with both big and average chest girth in a simulated work environment. Dental hygienist's humeral elevation and scapular upward rotation angles were found to be higher while working on the big chest girth manikin. These differences may increase dental hygienists susceptibility for musculoskeletal disorders. To achieve the second goal, an in-vitro comparison of angles measured with the Virtual Corset and an inclinometer was conducted under static conditions. Under dynamic conditions the Virtual Corset was compared to a potentiometer, in a pendulum setting. It was found that the Virtual Corset can accurately reconstruct elevation angles under static conditions, root mean square error less than 1[white square]. Under dynamic conditions, the error size was related to the angular velocity and acceleration, and the radius of rotation. To further investigate the Virtual Corset's ability to measure exposure parameters in-vivo the Virtual Corset was compare to a magnetic tracking device. To do so dental hygienists performed flossing tasks in a simulated work station. It was found that the Virtual Corset can be used to reconstruct elevation angles, with an acceptable angle error, and to identify exposure parameters in occupational settings similar to the one simulated in the present study. This dissertation includes unpublished co-authored material. / Adviser: Andrew R. Karduna