Worldwide, drowning is the third leading cause of death among children. In Asia it is the first leading cause of death and a major public health threat. The objective of this paper was to develop a drowning prevention program including swimming training, CPR and lifesaving methods for children and to evaluate it. This intervention was provided and evaluated in Thailand where drowning is the first leading cause of death among children. The study used observations, quantitative and qualitative methods. In total 20 children in the age of seven to ten, from Nan Province in northern Thailand were participating.The result of this intervention is that the children are highly capable to learn swimming, CPR and lifesaving activities within 10 days. Out of 20 participants all have successfully completed the swimming, CPR and lifesaving programs.The conclusion of this intervention study can be sum up by both the interventions result, the questionnaires and the independent evaluators is that swimming program as this one is highly needed for saving lives. Support from the local as well as the central authority is also needed. Therefore such swimming program shows the importance of swimming knowledge and water security to prevent drowning in near future.

This is a dissertation about care. Based on over ten years of experience with Southeast Asia and sixteen months of ethnographic research for this project, I address the issue of caregiving primarily from the perspective of those providing care at home for elderly people in urban Northern Thailand and from the vantage point of national and international public health initiatives aimed at supporting such endeavors. In turn, I use the intimate experiences of caregivers to interrogate the politics of aging, long-term care, and national identity. What emerges is an understanding of caregiving different from that of liberal humanitarianism and biomedicine alike. With a focus on social relationships and embodied care practices, I show how forms of attention, obligation, giving, and receiving in urban Thai settings do not always equate with their counterparts in standard global health accounts. Instead, local values are put into action with significant ramifications for the performance and promotion of care. I examine local and global techniques of power and care embedded in the growing number of volunteer organizations directed at the elderly. With attention to class, religion, and history, I trace the interpersonal, social, and political influences reflected in caregiver subjectivity and propose a distinctly Thai logic of psychosocial support that underlies the experience of the caregivers and aid workers with whom I worked. Examining family dynamics and the stories people tell about the future, I trace a new imaginary for long-term care at play, apparent at both the individual and the institutional level. And I develop the concept of the "social body," arguing that attention to and care of the collective is crucial for making sense not only of the disorienting varieties of volunteerism marking the shifting ground of long-term and end-of-life care in Thailand, but also of the larger scale political upheavals afoot in that country today. / Anthropology

Hotels are an essential and critical component of Thailand's tourist industry and one of the major contributors to Thai tourism revenue. However, the industry is considered to be in an infant stage. Since a general manager is considered to be the key person who directs the business in the hotel in every situation, this research aims to investigate the emphasis of time spent on various work activities of hotel general managers (i. e. marketing, human resource, training, etc.). In order to identify the significance of the general manager's roles, the research was conducted as an empirical investigation focusing on the leading Thai luxury hotels which were of international standard. The research defines the emphasis of the amount of time spent on the various work activities by investigating how managers perceive their work roles and how they actually spend their time. The core study of this research derived from Mintzberg's study of managerial work (1973), an observational study of five top executives in the United States and Ley's study of the managerial activities of seven managers in a major US hotel chain (1978). The methodology in this study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. According to an appropriateness of access to data, there were three methods utilised which comprised a questionnaire, an interview and a period of observation. These three methods were used in sequence. The questionnaire was used to study biographical data and perceptions of Mintzberg's managerial work roles. The interview, which was semi-structured, was used to provide the interviewer with additional questions to make sure the desired information has been obtained, while the observation aimed to study the work roles which emerged from general managers' work behaviour and to provide the insights of general managers' behaviour into specific work roles from recording and classification. It is intended that the results of the research will enhance the understanding of different approaches to managerial roles and time usage thereof. With this understanding, there will be an increase in the number of qualified Thai general managers employed in international hotels and a responsibility for development of Thai general managers. In addition, individual general managers themselves, may be able thereby to increase the effective use of their time.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The aim of this study was to investigate 10-14 year old Thai School children’s habits related to television, computer games and eating, and to make comparisons regarding these issues between genders as well as between a rural and an urban area of Thailand. A descriptive comparative, cross-sectional study with a quantitative method was used. Data were collected at two schools, one in Bangkok and another in Ayuttahaya, Thailand. A purposive sample consisting of 441 participants was included in the study, from grade 5, 6 and 7. The chosen theoretical framework was Virginia Henderson´s nursing theory. The result showed that most children watch television 1-4 hours/day and play computer games 30min-1hour/day. Significant differences between the genders or areas regarding television viewing were not found. Habits of playing computer games were similar in the urban and rural area, although boys played more computer games than girls. The children in the urban and rural area ate quite healthy food regarding intake of fruits and vegetables. However fast food and snacks while watching television and playing computer games were more common among children in urban area than rural area. A different between genders was also found, showing that girls eat more than boys, both healthy alternatives and more unhealthy while watching TV and playing computer games.  Limitation and reduction of television watching and playing computer games are needed for the children and also motivation to more physical activity as well as healthier food choices.

The purpose of this study is to develop a terrain evaluation system for road corridor selection applicable to the intermontane basins in northern Thailand. The first stage involves database construction of the terrain factors which have a direct effect on construction costs. These factors are land cover, topography and landforms, surficial geology, soil strength, topsoil removal, difficulty of excavation, embankment height, construction materials, and drainage characteristics. Remote sensing and terrain evaluation techniques, field investigations and geotechnical laboratory tests are used to prepare maps of these terrain factors. The resulting maps are converted into digital database form as map layers by using Geographical Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS)--a raster-based Geographic Information System (GIS). / These factors are incorporated into cost models. These are constructed using local engineering cost assessments which control the selection and specification of terrain factors. Under the GRASS environment the digital map layers of different terrain attributes are converted, based on the cost models, into cost surfaces (cost per unit area). The cost surfaces are subsequently combined into an integrated terrain-cost model. / With different assigned end points and cost models, the applications of the single theme cost surfaces and the integrated terrain-cost models to least-cost route selection are provided. An existing road network can be incorporated in these applications. The quality and benefits of the database and system developed related to terrain conditions, data capture by remote sensing, GIS manipulation and modelling, and cost modelling are discussed.

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This ethnographic study examines the understanding ofthe concept of sex (pheet) among university students in Mahasarakham province in northeast Thailand. Specifically, it describes different categories of sex and related concepts, meanings associated with each, and how those are communicated through social action. Northeast Thailand has shifted away from an agricultural-based society to a cash-based agro-industrial one. This, combined with the influence of a Bangkok-centered national elite and international globalization, has resulted in an influx of new cultural knowledge and shifting meanings related to sex, some reinforcing each other, others in conflict. Many of these conceptual conflicts are located in tensions between tradition and modernity, local culture and Bangkok culture, and Thai-ness and foreign-ness. At these points oftension, meanings are reinterpreted and recreated. This study relies on a variety of research methods including participant-observation, interviews, and questionnaires, and thus is methodologically situated at a crossroads of qualitative and quantitative traditions. This mixed method approach facilitates a broad understanding ofthe concept of sex, including categories of sex, sex roles, and sex behavior.