Despite being one of the few human-specific types of play that humans of various ages engage in, games are understudied in cross-cultural research. Games are not distributed randomly across cultures and vary with some socio-ecological aspects of human cultures. Previous observational studies suggest that the cooperativeness and egalitarianism of cultural groups is reflected in the games that are played across cultures, but this has yet to be studied using a breadth of method- ological approaches. In this dissertation, I investigate the relationship the cooperativeness of games may have with the cooperativeness of cultural groups and offer one potential avenue as to how and why games are distributed across cultures. This dissertation consists of two main parts. The first part (chapters 2 - 3) focuses on gathering and analyzing descriptions of historical games and cultural levels of cooperation from ethnolinguistic groups on the Austronesian language phylogeny. The second part (chapters 4 - 6) focuses on gathering games, cultural levels of cooperation, and investigating the relationship between games and cultural levels of cooperation by three modern-day cultural groups. In chapter two, I describe the making of the Austronesian Game Taxonomy, an open-access database of game descriptions as gathered from historical, ethnographic, and other sources. I also describe my goal structure coding scheme and apply it to the 907 games in the Austronesian Game Taxonomy. In chapter three, I test the relationship between the goal structure of games from the Austronesian Game Taxonomy and several proxies for cultural levels of cooperation in 25 ethnolin- guistic groups. I find that the cooperativeness of games is negatively related to cultural levels of intra-group conflict and positively related with inter-cultural conflict. The goal structure of games is not associated with the social structure of cultures, nor reliably correlate with measures of interdependence in subsistence. Chapter four provides a detailed description of the three cultures that are the focus of Part two of this dissertation: Hai||om and Ovambo in Namibia, and Germans in Leipzig, Germany. I use three semi-structured interviews to obtain information about the levels of social stratification, intra-group conflict, and inter-cultural conflict experienced by these three groups. Chapter five documents the games played by Hai||om and Ovambo children and adults during my research visit to Namibia. I describe a handful of games with variety of goal structures. I provide the interview used to gather this information for future cross-cultural game collection. In chapter six, I examine the relationship between the preference for games that are cooperative or competitive, and cultural levels of cooperation in three modern-day cultures. I also interview caretakers on their attitudes toward children’s play and games. I find cross-cultural variation in children’s game preferences, but adult game preferences do not vary across cultures. Game preferences do not systematically vary with predicted cultural levels of cooperation. In the general discussion, I discuss my research findings in terms of the relationship between games and cultural levels of cooperation and suggest further improvements for the field of cross-cultural game research. This dissertation provides some evidence that games relate with types of conflict, but not with levels of social stratification nor interdependence in subsistence.

Massive recruitment of foreign labour occurred in all Gulf States since the beginning of oil exploitation in 1973. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the foreign population accounted for up to 75 per cent of the total population and up to 90 per cent of the labour force in 2000. Even though the migration system is of temporary character, many foreign workers spend dozens of years in the country.This study aims to reveal two fundamental issues. On one hand, it will be shown why a sample of migrant workers came to the United Arab Emirates. Contemporary theories on international migration will be presented to analyze the results of the field study undertaken during four weeks in the emirate of Dubai. On the other hand, living and working conditions for those migrant workers in the UAE are presented. Formal regulations and international conventions are compared to the actual practices in the UAE. Special focus will be given to formal regulations and widespread informal practices that easily generate irregularity.

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Syncope is estimated to account for 1% to 3% of emergency department (ED) annual visits in North America. Although most potential causes of syncope are benign and self-limited, others are associated with serious morbidity and substantial mortality. Recent efforts have focused on prospective identification of ED patients with syncope who are at high risk for early serious adverse outcomes in an attempt to hospitalize them at their first visit to the ED.</p> <p><strong>Objective: </strong>The purpose of this thesis is to describe the methodological issues related to the design of a study to determine whether the Revised Strategy of Syncope Diagnosis in the Emergency Room at the General Hospital Structured Care Pathway (RESASTER-SCP) is superior to usual care in identifying patients at low risk for serious adverse outcomes presenting to the ED who can be safely discharged home. <strong></strong></p> <p><strong>Design and Methods: </strong>A cluster randomized trial will be conducted with EDs (16 teaching and 46 non-teaching general hospitals) as the unit of randomization and patients presenting with syncope (TLOC) as the unit of analysis. Study participants will be followed at 1, 3, 5, and 12 months after the intervention (RESASTER-SCP vs. usual care) has been applied in the ED. Intention to treat analysis will be used. The analysis will be conducted at the individual level using proportions. Alpha level will be set at 0.05 with a power of 0.80 for the primary outcome.<strong></strong></p> <p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This thesis describes some of the methodological issues concerning the design of a cluster randomized trial to determine whether or not RESASTER-SCP is superior to usual care in identifying patients presenting with syncope to the ED who can be safely discharged home.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

<p><strong>Background: </strong>Myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS) increases the risk of 30-day mortality. Intraoperative hemodynamic events (i.e., tachycardia, bradycardia, hypotension, and hypertension) may contribute to developing MINS.</p> <p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To determine if the addition of the duration spent within predefined intraoperative systolic blood pressure (BP; mmHg) (i.e.,160-199 and ≥200) and heart rate (HR; bpm) (i.e.,100-140 and >140) hemodynamic bands improved the prediction of Day 1 MINS (i.e., postoperative troponin T elevation ≥0.03 ng/ml within the first day after surgery) beyond preoperative risk model prediction.</p> <p><strong>Methods: </strong> Prospective observational data was used to developed a baseline risk model to predict Day 1 MINS. Preoperative HR, systolic BP, and hemoglobin as well as intraoperative duration spent within each predefined hemodynamic band were explored to identify optimal thresholds for the prediction of Day-1 MINS. Preoperative variables were added to the baseline risk model to create a preoperative model. Intraoperative variables were then added to the preoperative risk model to create the final model. Models were compared using discrimination (c-statistic) and net reclassification index (NRI).</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>Adding preoperative hemoglobin ≤105 g/dL, systolic BP110 improved baseline model discrimination (0.783 to 0.792, p5min; HR >100 for >147min; systolic BP59min and systolic BP >160 for >42min further improved discrimination (0.8; p</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Adding intraoperative hemodynamic durations significantly improved Day-1 MINS model discrimination and risk stratification compared to the baseline risk model.</p> / Master of Health Sciences (MSc)

<p>This research analyzes the reproduction of patriarchal ideological hegemony in the soap opera <em>Another World</em> using Stuart Hall's theory of the mass media and his conceptualization of ideology. A structural analysis of five one hour video-taped episodes of <em>Another World</em> reveals how the soap opera text constructs meaning fulfilling the three functions of the mass media, and thus, reproducing patriarchy's hegemony. This research confirms Hall's theory of the mass media and the propositions which flow from his conceptualization of ideology. Moreover, this research is the first attempt to systematically apply Hall's theory to the study of soap opera. It goes beyond the generalizations of his theory to look at the particularities of soap opera which contribute to the reproduction of patriarchal ideological hegemony. However, it is seen that what is problematic to this research, and all research on soap opera, is a lack of a theory of the reader.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis investigates the perception of 'difference' which results in the stratification of people within the North American evangelical church. In order to develop this understanding, the experiences of excluded persons are explored carefully by attending to narratives of the elderly, those living with disability, the divorced, widows, the homeless, and others who have endured the pain of rejection. Such persons are made to feel as if they have no voice. By articulating the felt experience of the excluded this thesis gives voice to the hidden dimensions of alienation which occur even in the church. Alienation is explored as a core theological motif with the aim of developing a pastoral theology of community which enables a reorientation of ministry to the excluded. In the course of argument the thesis explores a theology of alienation. This provides the theological context for the narratives of exclusion which illuminate the reality of loneliness-a core dimension of exclusion. Employing the revised critical correlation method the thesis concludes by offering a pastoral theology of community which calls for effective approaches to the ministry of inclusion.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

This research will examine graduation rates from the 1999-2000 school year until the 2012-13 school year, which will shed light on the long-term impact of neoliberal policy on inequality. I begin with a discussion of the history of school reform in NYC, starting with the Brown v. BOE verdict and finishing at the current neoliberal reform era, to understand how various reform strategies have aimed to reduce segregation and inequality. I then use a dissimilarity index to examine changes in racial segregation by performance between 2000 and 2013, using high school graduation rate quartiles to measure performance. In the last empirical chapter, I use growth curve modeling to understand the factors that are associated with changes in graduation rates. I model the impact of several factors that measure the presence of neoliberal reform and inequality on graduation. These measures include: racial and socioeconomic composition, the impact of mandatory regents, being a small school and failing on NYC school accountability report. This research finds that policies aimed at desegregation have been unaggressive and poorly implemented, and this has resulted in persistent segregation. Neoliberal policies assume that by increasing individual choices and accountability, that all students will make the choices that are in their best interest, and inequality will be reduced. This indirect strategy proves to be ineffective. White students have experienced increased access and isolation amongst the best performing schools, while Black students have become increasingly segregated in the worst performing schools. Growth curve modeling shows a consistent increase in graduation rates over this time. This increase is lessened for schools that serve above average black, Hispanic, and free-lunch eligible students. These schools have the lowest graduation rate. / Sociology

Much research has been done to explain how the late 2000s housing bubble burst, but little work has been done to see how working-class people responded and are responding to the issue of foreclosure in their communities. City Resistance, a grassroots community organization, transforms working class people from passive actors going through foreclosure to militant activists seeking to stay in their homes. My two-year ethnographic study chronicles the meetings, civil disobedience, and everyday lives of an organization of 300+ members in a medium sized, declining city, in the Northeast. It seeks to understand the multiple processes by which primarily Black and Latino members of the organization are transformed into radical subjects, but also the limits of that radicalism. A central contradiction is that the organizing model must address the immediate needs of members by servicing them and thus creating a belief in the legal system and the protections it offers, while simultaneously pushing them to think about housing as a human right, to move beyond their taken for granted conceptualizations of capitalism.

Background: The cumulative effect of taking anticholinergic medicines (anticholinergic burden) is associated with adverse outcomes for older people. Prevalence of anticholinergic prescribing is increasing, and there is a need for tools to proactively identify at-risk patients for medication reviews. Aim: To explore the need for, and feasibility of, an integrated case-finding tool that predicts risks using electronic health records (EHRs), facilitating the review of anticholinergic medicines for frail older people. Methods: Mixed methods, adopting a pragmatic approach. A systematic review, prediction modelling of cohort study data, and qualitative interviews were undertaken. Results: The systematic review found anticholinergic exposure was associated with adverse outcomes for the frail; poorer physical function, falls, and mortality, indicating a need for a risk reducing intervention. In the prediction modelling study, predicting risks using composite measures of anticholinergic burden and frailty indicated limited feasibility. Neither enhanced the performance of best subset models using cohort study data. Their predictive utility needs to be investigated using EHR data, to determine their feasibility within primary care. The qualitative study found healthcare professionals needed a proactive tool, supporting risk prediction as a feasible approach. Factors influencing future implementation were; upskilling requirements, deprescribing confidence, patient reluctance, motivation, holistic care, interoperability, trust in risk prediction, remuneration, among other barriers and facilitators. Conclusions: Through identifying a need, and potential feasibility, foundations towards the future developments of a case-finding tool have been provided, informing an early tool prototype (AC-FRAIL). Recommendations for further work suggest a roadmap ahead, to maximise the potential for integrated solutions to proactively reduce anticholinergic risks. / NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (NIHR YHPSTRC)

In 1995, Ghana’s education policymakers imposed a ban on all extra classes initiated and organized on school premises and public buildings, by individual teachers or groups of teachers, for which students were charged extra fees. The ban is referred to as the “policy on extra classes.” This study examined the genesis and justification of the said policy, including the current phenomenon of extra classes in Ghana. The study analyzed the policy’s impact on secondary education in the country, particularly Northern Ghana, using the lens of education stratification in a qualitative interpretive policy analysis approach. Interviews of leading Ghana education officials conducted in 2010 were the predominant source of data in this research, with corroboration from analysis of policy texts and review of the media. The conclusions and recommendations that emerged from this study included: accountability, the responsible use of school time and instructional time, and education equity and adequacy. Other issues concerned social justice, teacher remuneration and motivation, and the need for equitable national education policies that reckon with the disparities in the country. In particular, this study took issue with the culture of nonimplementation of education policies in Ghana, with particular reference to the policy on extra classes. The study contended that the partial or non-implementation of education policies deepens education stratification in the country.