published_or_final_version / Journalism and Media Studies Centre / Master / Master of Philosophy

Wayfinding is the process of using one or more tools to move from one location to another in order to accomplish a task or to achieve a goal. This qualitative study explores the process of wayfinding as it applies to locating information in a public library. A group of volunteers were asked to find a selection of items in three types of libraries-traditional, contemporary, and modern. The retrieval process was timed and the reactions of the volunteers were recorded, documented, and analyzed. The impact of various wayfinding tools-architecture, layout, color, signage, computer support, collection organization-on the retrieval process was also identified. The study revealed that many of the wayfinding tools currently available in libraries do not facilitate item retrieval. Inconsistencies, ambiguities, obstructions, disparities, and operational deficiencies all contributed to end-user frustration and retrieval failure. The study suggests that failing to address these issues may prompt library patrons-end users who are increasingly interested in finding information with minimal expenditures of time and effort-may turn to other information-retrieval strategies and abandon a system that they find confusing and frustrating.

Magister Scientiae (Occupational Therapy) - MSc(OT) / Return to work is a recognised goal of rehabilitation by the occupational therapy discipline that is addressed through vocational rehabilitation as a key feature of work practice. Programmes that fall under the umbrella of vocational rehabilitation include work preparation and training, work hardening and supported employment. In the case of mental health care users (MHCU), meaningful employment contributes to their sense of identity and the prevention of relapse. Vocational rehabilitation is thus important in preparing MHCU for self-employment or employment in the community after they are discharged from the hospital. There is however a dearth of literature pertaining to how vocational rehabilitation programmes particularly in a rural setting, is experienced by MHCU in South Africa. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of MHCU regarding the usefulness of the vocational rehabilitation programme at a rural hospital in enhancing their worker roles. A qualitative research approach and exploratory descriptive research design was utilised. Purposive sampling was used to select participants for the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten MHCU participants as well as two focus groups. Semi-structured interviews were furthermore conducted with two key informants. All interviews and the focus group discussion were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed through thematic data analysis. Strategies implemented to ensure trustworthiness included member checking and peer review. Ethics clearance was obtained from the UWC Research Committee and permission to conduct the study at the hospital was requested from the Mpumalanga Provincial Health Ethics Committee and hospital management. Three themes originated from the findings of this study. Theme one describes the barriers experienced by people with mental illness while returning to work. Theme two describes the programme factors that influence return to work in respect of work habits, work skills, and community re-integration. Theme three captures the value of participating in the work programme as experienced by the participants. The findings of the study is related to the Model of The Ecology of Human Performance (EHP) to show how the vocational rehabilitation programme effected the MHCU’s return to work. The findings show that the context as well as the person’s skills and abilities are very important factors in reintegrating the user back to work. The study illuminated recommendations for the further development of the vocational rehabilitation programme.

Last decade witnessed the rise of online social networks, especially Twitter. Today, Twitteris a giant social platform with over 250 million users |who produce massive amounts of data everyday. This creates many research opportunities, speci cally for Natural Language Processing (NLP) in which text is utilized to extract information that could be used in many applications. One problem NLP might help solving is geolocation inference or geolocation detection from online social networks. Detecting the location of Twitter users based on the text of their tweets is useful since not many users publicly declare their locations or geotag their tweets. Location information is crucial for a variety of applications such as event detection, disease and illness tracking and user pro ling. These tasks are not trivial, because online content is often noisy; it includes misspellings, incomplete words or phrases, idiomatic expressions, abbreviations, acronyms, and Twitter-speci c literature. In this work, we attempted to detect the location of Canadian users |and tweets sent from Canada |at metropolitan areas and province level; this was not done before, to the best of our knowledge. In order to do this, we collected two di erent datasets, and applied a variety of machine learning, including deep learning methods. Besides, we also attempted to geolocate users based on their social graph (i.e., user's friends and followers) as a novel approach.

No Brasil, políticas de saúde que incluem o cuidado aos usuários de álcool e outras drogas são recentes. Apesar da existência de serviços comunitários, a internação dos usuários é algo muito frequente. Nos últimos anos, as modalidades de internação compulsória e involuntária passaram a ser aplicadas em larga escala, principalmente, por meio de solicitações dos familiares de pessoas com problemas relacionados ao uso de drogas. Estudos demonstram que há poucas evidências científicas acerca da efetividade de tais internações. O objetivo deste estudo foi compreender como os sentidos sobre a internação involuntária e/ou compulsória da pessoa que usa álcool e outras drogas foram construídos com seus familiares. Para tanto, foi realizado um estudo qualitativo, com referencial teórico construcionista social. O corpus foi composto por 15 entrevistas semiestruturadas feitas com familiares de usuário de drogas que foram, anteriormente, internados involuntariamente e/ou compulsoriamente. A técnica utilizada para a seleção destes participantes foi a bola de neve. O projeto foi aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa da FFCLRP-USP. Em primeiro lugar, foi realizada análise temática das entrevistas, considerando a construção dos sentidos dentro do contexto histórico-cultural, as experiências de vida e as interações sociais. A seguir, foi realizado um estudo de caso de uma das entrevistas realizadas, com o objetivo de analisar discursos envolvidos no processo de busca de internações involuntárias e compulsórias. Para isto, foi selecionada a entrevista de uma participante que havia solicitado 23 internações involuntárias e cinco compulsórias para seu filho. O corpus dessa análise consistiu na entrevista semiestruturada e notas de campo que foram elaboradas a partir das conversas com a participante. A partir da análise temática foram construídos quatro temas: (1) Sentidos sobre internações involuntárias e compulsórias, em que as internações foram construídas como formas de educar, cuidar e proteger o usuário dos perigos da rua, dos traficantes, de ser preso e de morrer, alcançar abstinência e alívio principalmente para os familiares. (2) Consequências do uso problemático de drogas, como relatos de mudanças negativas no comportamento do usuário, acúmulo de perdas na vida do usuário e a percepção de estigma. (3) Sentimentos da família, envolvendo culpa, desespero, frustração, vergonha, medo e desesperança diante do problema. (4) Tentativas mal sucedidas de resolver o problema, diante do desconhecimento de serviços ambulatoriais e do foco apenas na abstinência. A partir do estudo de caso, foram construídas três narrativas: (1) discurso individualista e discurso do déficit sobre seu filho que ao ser posicionado como alguém que é definido pelas suas falhas passa a ser internado repetidamente; (2) Discurso individualista e culpabilização da mãe uma vez que ela é descrita como superprotetora, inadequada e impotente; (3) Discurso alternativo baseado na perspectiva relacional que convidaria mãe e filho a se engajar em uma conversa colaborativa, criando um contexto onde novas formas de entendimento poderão surgir. Considera-se que para reduzir o número de reinternações dos usuários de drogas é necessário apoiar seus familiares por meio da ampliação da rede de cuidados, orientação sobre tratamentos ambulatoriais e acolhimento dos sentimentos e angústias da família. / In Brazil, the health policies that include care for alcohol and other drug users are recent. Despite the existence of community services, the drug users hospitalization is very frequent. Over the last years, compulsory and involuntary hospitalization has been applied on a large scale, especially, requested by families of people who consume alcohol and drugs. Studies shown few scientific evidences of the efficiency of those hospitalizations. This study aims to understand how the meanings about the compulsory or involuntary hospitalization of the person that uses alcohol and other drugs were constructed with the families. To achieve this, it has been a qualitative study, with social constructionist referential. The corpus consisted in 15 semistructured interviews conducted with the families of drug users that were previously taken by involuntary or compulsory hospitalization. The selection participant technique was made through snowball selection. The project was approved in the Ethical Committee of FCLRPUSP. In first place, it was made thematic analysis of interviews, considering the construction of meanings inside the historic-cultural context, their experiences of life, and their social interactions. In second place, a case study was made through one of the interviews conducted in order to analyze discourses involved in the seeking process of involuntary and compulsory hospitalizations. To achieve this, it was selected an interview with a participant who had requested 23 involuntary and five compulsory hospitalizations for her son. The corpus of analysis consisted by the full transcription of this interview and the field notes referring to it. Through the thematic analysis was constructed four themes: (1) Meanings about involuntary and compulsory hospitalization, in which the hospitalizations were construed such as education, care, abstinence, relief mainly for family members, protection from the dangers of the street, from drug dealers, police, and death. (2) Problematic drug uses consequences, such as reports of changes in the user behaviors, accumulation of losses in the drug users life, and the perceived stigma. (3) Feelings of the family, involving guilt, despair, frustration, shame and hopelessness in the face of this problem. (4) Attempts to help the family member, due to not knowing the community services for drug treatment and to focus only on abstinence. Through the discourses analysis, it were constructed three narratives: (1) individualistic discourse and deficit discourse that helped to position her son as somebody who is defined by his failures, and resulting in new hospitalizations. (2) Individualistic discourse and blaming the mother since she was described as overprotective, flawed, and powerless. (3) Alternative discourse based on the relational perspective that invited the mother and son to engage in a collaborative conversation, creating a context where new forms of understanding can emerge. In order to reduce the number of hospitalizations of drug users, it is necessary to support their relatives by publicizing services for community treatment, and helping the family to deal with distress.

Magister Curationis - MCur / The provision of mental health care, treatment and rehabilitation of the acutely ill mental health care users (MHCUS) poses a major challenge to the nurses working in acute units. Nurses spend long hours ensuring that acutely ill psychiatric patients receive quality patient care in acute admission units in different psychiatric hospitals in South Africa. With few studies showing a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders in the South Africa and the Western Cape Province, acute psychiatric inpatient units across the province have experienced intense pressure and persistent rise in the number of acute patient admissions. Dealing with this group of patients is a difficult task particularly for nurses who spent prolonged hours caring for them. Despite the continuing provision of care to MHCUS by nurses in acute admission units, very little is known about the lived experiences of nurses in acute admission units. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of nurses who care for the acutely ill MHCUS in an acute male admission unit at a psychiatric hospital in the Western Cape. Acutely ill MHCUS in acute psychiatric units show severely disturbed behaviour at times, aggression, hostility, acute psychotic symptoms and many other symptoms related to psychiatric illness. Methods: a qualitative, descriptive phenomenological research design was used to explore and describe the lived experiences of nurses who care for acutely ill patients in an acute admission unit. A purposive sample of eight nurses was selected. Individual, semi structured phenomenological interviews were used to collect data from nurses caring for MHCUS in an acute admission unit. Data saturation was reached after carrying out the eight interviews. These interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim and Collaizi’s (1978) seven steps method of qualitative data was applied to analyse the collected data. Findings: The study found that nurses in the acute admission unit experienced several challenges while caring for MHCUs. Nurses reported both negative and positive experiences. Positive experiences included MHCUs recovery, teamwork and passion for caring while negative experiences were feeling unappreciated and unsupported by authorities. Furthermore, they reported physical assault by MHCUs which led to fear. Challenges experienced included shortage of staff and increased workload which led to burnout amongst nurses in acute admission units.

A pesquisa buscou compreender como a paisagem de Paranapiacaba acontece em sua complexidade, a partir da ótica daqueles que tecem o cotidiano e fazem da Vila o que ela é de fato. Ao considerar o desafio de articulação entre distintos olhares sobre a paisagem, optou-se pela abordagem qualitativa, lançando mão de ferramentas vindas de diferentes disciplinas, com a intenção de abrir o diálogo com outros campos do conhecimento favoráveis à leitura do fenômeno da vida cotidiana. De um modo geral, a pesquisa constatou que a paisagem acontece no dia a dia de Paranapiacaba por movimentos de inconstâncias e ambiguidades que por vezes se revelam de maneira intensa e mostram que, apesar de essa ser uma relação de afetos, nem sempre é uma relação afetuosa. Além de ambígua e paradoxal, aquela paisagem revelou suas múltiplas feições: não somente grandiosa, monumental e exuberante, mas também, pequena, recolhida. Por se revelar à luz do corriqueiro, da rotina e do trivial, definem aquilo que denominamos paisagem banal. / The current research sought to understand the means by which the landscape of Paranapiacaba happens in its complexity, from the perspective of those who weave the daily life and make the Vila what it really is . In face of the challenge of articulating different perspectives on the landscape, we chose a qualitative approach, using tools from different disciplines, with the intention to open the dialogue with other fields of knowledge related to the understanding of the phenomenon of daily life. In general, the research realized that the landscape of Paranapiacaba happens in the daily life through movements of inconstancy and ambiguities that sometimes reveal themselves in a very intense way, showing that although this is a relation of affections, it does not mean that the relationship is always affecionate. In addition to being ambiguous and paradoxical, this landscape revealed its multiple features: not only magnificent, monumental and exuberant, but also, small and withdrawn. By revealing itself in the light of the ordinary, the routine and the trivial, it is defined as a banal landscape.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Kay Ann Taylor / The purpose of this qualitative multiple participant case study was to identify the influence of social media on Saudi graduate students who are active social media users. Social media have been influencing Saudi students differently than those in other socio-cultural contexts due to the uniqueness of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in terms of cultural, political, economic, and social life. This study contributes to educational technology broadly and understanding the experiences of Saudi graduate students who are active social media users specifically. This study sought to illuminate and clarify understanding of the influence of social media use on graduate students in the KSA. This study investigated the influence of social media on Saudi graduate students through the experience of six Saudi graduate students who have 200K or more followers/subscribers on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat. Vygotsky-based social constructivism was used to analyze and interpret the findings of the research in an effort to understand and make sense of the impact of social media on education through the participants’ experiences as graduate students and active social media users. The significant findings of this research support social constructivism, in that learning occur through social interaction with the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The findings of the study included three emerging themes: (1) social media experience, (2) social media influence, and (3) changes brought by social media. Two categories emerged from the data under the first theme. The categories are (a) planned versus unplanned fame, and (b) social media preferred sites, activities and topics. Three categories and two sub-categories emerged from the second theme: (a) educational influence, which has two sub-categories —(i) formal teaching and learning (ii) informal learning —; (b) financial influence; and (c) gender issues in social media. The results contribute to the limited qualitative research on Saudi graduate students and social media and to the overall social constructivism research in the KSA higher education.

This master thesis concerns a library in Eastern Africa and the users of that library. The aim is to describe the situation and try to assess what the users' needs and wants are. It was my belief that different cultures need different libraries. We need to ask ourselves: can we help if we do not understand the needs? There is a chapter on what has been written on libraries in Africa and African literature, including one section devoted to giving a broad background on Tanzania and the Tanzania Library Service, including history and a quick glance at Swahili and Arusha. The chapter on Arusha Regional Library makes use of the statistics from the library regarding the number of visits and the number of members. In the next chapter there is a presentation of the results of a questionnaire grouped around the different areas - literature both written and oral as well as libraries and attitudes toward literature and libraries. Followed by a section on the point of view of the library staff. They express some opinions that are contradictory both to what some of the users think and what the statistics say. In the conclusion, I bring up the fact that there are many library service needs that remain unsatisfied. The financial situation has forced Tanzania Library Service into solutions that are less than ideal. Furthermore, I make some suggestions based on my observations and on the comments made by the respondents of the questionnaire. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Orientadora: Heloisa Pait / Banca: Andreas Hofbauer / Banca: César Gomes da Silva / Resumo: A Organização Mundial de Saúde (2001) reconhece a dependência química como doença, porque há grave alteração da estrutura e do funcionamento normal do indivíduo, sendo-lhe altamente prejudicial. Não existe causa isolada, mas é resultado de uma série de fatores (físicos, emocionais, psíquicos, espirituais e sociais) que atuam ao mesmo tempo, podendo ser um mais predominante que o outro. Até pouco tempo, o tratamento destinado ao dependente químico era basicamente de contenção e com métodos hospitalar bastante repressivo. Ao passar dos anos, outras formas de abordagem foram ganhando atenção no cenário das políticas públicas, com ênfase na prevenção, tratamento e reinserção social. As Comunidades Terapêuticas surgem nesse cenário como uma das alternativas de tratamento e orientação. Atualmente a reinserção social torna-se um novo desafio para a continuidade desse modelo, para o dependente químico, que se submeteu de forma voluntária ao programa terapêutico, a reinserção dá continuidade ao processo de transformação de vida, oportunidade em que serão restabelecidos os vínculos com a família, escola, trabalho e a sociedade. Ainda se conhece muito pouco sobre esse modelo, cada vez mais procurado por usuários, bem como sobre a sua metodologia de trabalho, especialmente no campo das Ciências Sociais. Por esse motivo, há uma grande carência bibliográfica na área, o que nos motivou a desenvolver essa pesquisa intitulada "A reinserção do dependente químico no mercado de trabalho: o caso ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The World Health Organization (2001) recognizes chemical dependency as a disease, because there is a serious alteration in the structure and normal functioning of the individual, and it is highly harmful to the one. There is no single cause, but it is the result of a series of factors (physical, emotional, psychic, spiritual and social) that act at the same time, being more prevalent than the other. Until just recently, the treatment for the chemical dependent was basically of containment and with repressive hospital methods. Over the years, other approaches have been gaining attention in the public policy scenario, with emphasis on prevention, treatment and social reintegration. The Therapeutic Communities appear in this scenario as one of the alternatives of treatment and orientation. Currently, social reintegration becomes a new challenge for continuities of that model and for the chemical dependent, who voluntarily submitted to the therapeutic program. Reinsertion gives continuity to the process of life transformation, an opportunity to reestablish links with the family, school, work and society. This model is not so well known, which is increasingly sought after by users, as well as its methodology, especially in the field of Social Sciences. For this reason, there is a great bibliography lack in the area, which motivated us to develop this research entitled "The reinsertion of chemical dependents in the labor market: the case of Ave Cristo therapeutic community." For th... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre