Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Post structural research'

The performance of Australian home care and how it is enacted has been significantly impacted by the economic and political challenges since the announcement of the Aged Care Reforms in July 2012 and the launch of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in July 2013. As a result, the home care business arena has changed, and the effects are being felt as the marketplace shifts, and businesses adapt to new policy directions. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the social context of Australian home care, and to collect information regarding how home care (under the various auspices of government funded and privately funded) service provision is enacted in terms of quality during this time of change. The qualitative research process for this study involved critical reflexive practice and face-to-face semi-structured interviews of 10 home care business leaders from the states of Queensland and Victoria. In listening to the voices of the participants, this research study sought to develop new discursive approaches in order to understand the practice of caring for the Australian community’s most vulnerable people – those who are frail, aged, and for those who have ill-health or a disability. The analytical framework adopted for this study used a post-structural discourse analysis, which was informed by the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault and other contemporary theorists. The philosophical framework of governmentality and discourse analysis helped to situate the voice of the participants at a time when new ideas and the ways of conducting the business of home care are emerging. In using this approach to analyse the data, it became apparent that the discursive practices that had been instituted by government in the home care sector had been constructed to remove progressive inclusionary policies that were contrary to the democratic principles of governing. The research study’s findings reveal the problematic changes that impact on business but more so for consumers as the rules are interpreted. By using the metaphor of ice dancing, the study problematized the leadership of government and the challenges participants faced in maintaining quality service provision in the home care arena. What emerged was the dance of a political tango. These leaders in the arena revealed the importance of knowing when to lead and when to push back. Like the different genres of tango, there are different ways of viewing the world of home care and performing in its different spaces, and there are other ways of viewing quality in caring service provisions. By participating in the research, the participants highlighted the need of being inclusive to hearing and seeing all performers in the arena of home care regardless of social or geographical positioning. This research concludes that hearing and acting on the voices from the wider home care arena continues to be necessary in order to inform future policy direction for quality performance improvements for Australia’s consumers of home care and to move away from home care traditions of governing and ruling. The research additionally advocates for more inclusive governing approaches through more even distribution of power in consultative processes, research, oversight in the marketplace and access to resources for all groups. This thesis is a contribution to creating a new political dance in the space of Australia’s home care politics.
Doctor of Philosophy

In most metazoans, early embryogenesis is controlled by the translational regulation of maternally supplied mRNA. Sequence-specific RNA-binding proteins play an important role in regulating early embryogenesis, yet their specificities and regulatory targets are largely unknown. To understand how these RNA-binding proteins select their targets, my research focused on the C. elegans CCCH-type tandem zinc finger protein POS-1. Embryos lacking maternally supplied POS-1 die prior to gastrulation, and exhibit defects in the specification of pharyngeal, intestinal, and germline precursor cells. To identify the regulatory targets that contribute to the POS-1 mutant phenotype, we set out to determine the sequence specificity of POS-1 in vitro, and then use this information to identify regulatory targets in vivo. Using a candidate-based search, we identified a twelve-nucleotide fragment of the mex-3 3' untranslated region (3' UTR) to which POS-1 binds with high affinity. Using quantitative fluorescent electrophoretic mobility shift assays, I determined the affinity of the RNA-binding domain of POS-1 for a panel of single nucleotide mutations of this sequence, and then defined a consensus binding element based on this dataset. POS-1 recognizes the degenerate element UAU 2-3 RDN 1-3 G, where R is any purine (adenosine or guanine), and D is any base except cytosine. A bioinformatics analysis revealed the presence of this element in approximately 40% of C. elegans 3' UTRs, suggesting that POS-1 is capable of binding to and perhaps regulating many transcripts in vivo. POS-1 binding sites alone are not sufficient to pattern the expression of a reporter, suggesting that other factors may contribute to POS-1 specificity. To address the mechanism of POS-1-mediated translational regulation, I investigated the translational regulation of the C. elegans Notch homolog glp-1. Previous work demonstrated that glp-1 translation is repressed in the early embryo in a POS-1-dependent fashion, though it was not clear if this regulation was direct. The glp-1 3' UTR contains two POS-1 binding sites within five nucleotides of each other, and these sites are within a thirty nucleotide region of the 3' UTR required for proper spatiotemporal translation of glp-1. The POS-1 sites overlap with a negative regulatory element that is recognized by GLD-1, and a positive regulatory element recognized by an unknown factor. Both POS-1 and GLD-1 bind to an RNA containing these sites in vitro, and POS-1 competes with GLD-1 for binding. Both proteins are required for translational repression of a glp-1 3' UTR reporter in embryos. Furthermore, only one of the two POS-1 binding sites is required for repression, and the required site is wholly contained within a previously characterized positive regulatory element. Based on this, we propose that POS-1 does not regulate its targets by recruiting regulatory machinery, but instead by competing with factors that do. Thus, sites of POS-1 regulation are highly context dependent, which may contribute to POS-1 specificity.

Container cranes represent one of the most critical components of ports worldwide. Despite their importance to port operations, the seismic behavior of cranes has been largely ignored. Since the 1960s, industry experts have recommended allowing cranes to uplift, believing that it would limit the amount of seismic loading. However, modern cranes have become larger and more stable, and the industry experts are now questioning the seismic performance of modern jumbo cranes. The main goal of this research was to experimentally investigate the seismic behavior of container cranes from the general elastic behavior through collapse, including non-linear behavior such as buckling and cross section yielding, utilizing the 6 degree-of-freedom shake tables at the University at Buffalo. The testing was divided into two phases. The first phase of testing was conducted on a 1/20th scale model. The second phase of testing was conducted on a 1/10th scale model, which was designed such that no inelastic action would develop prior to uplift (as is the common design practice). In support of the experiments, finite element models were created to determine what simplifications could be made to the structure to aid in testing. The data collected from the testing has been used to validate finite element models, to give a better understanding of the behavior of container cranes under seismic excitations, validate fragility models, and to develop recommendations and guidelines for the design and testing of container cranes.

In the late 1980s, references to postmodernism, post-structuralism, and Michel Foucault started to appear in nursing journals. Since that time, hundreds of journal articles and dozens of books in the discipline of nursing have cited these continental-philosophical ideas—in substantial or minor ways—in nurses’ analyses of topics in nursing practice, education, and research. Key postmodern and post-structural notions including power/knowledge, discourse, the clinical gaze, disciplinary power, de-centering of the human subject as the originator of “meaning,” and the challenge to grand narratives and binary thinking—all found their place on the pages of journals such as the Journal of Advanced Nursing, Nursing Inquiry, and Nursing Philosophy and in a predominantly American journal Advances in Nursing Science among a few other periodicals. In my dissertation, I assemble this voluminous body of publications into a “field of study.” Taking a comparative approach to this field, I argue that we can understand postmodern/post-structural scholarship in nursing as characterized by a marked difference between its non-American (in this case, Australian and New Zealand, British and Irish, and Canadian) and American domains. While each domain is heterogeneous, peculiar features distinguish American postmodern/post-structural nursing literature from its non-American counterparts. I build on a recent systematic critique of so-called American “unique nursing science” and (meta)theory by Mark Risjord (2010), who surfaced the unacknowledged legacy of the logical positivist philosophy of science on contemporary American nursing conceptions of science and theory. These influences, according to Risjord, have had profound and lasting intellectual impact on nursing theoretical work manifesting in the notions of “unique science,” a caution toward “borrowed theory,” a hierarchical model of theory, the language of metaparadigms, incommensurable paradigms, and so on. These ideas and related practices of theorizing have culminated in what I call the American disciplinary nursing matrices that shape the visibility and intelligibility of alternative practices of theorizing in the discipline of nursing. I show the ways in which these matrices are consequential for how postmodern and post-structural philosophical ideas are understood, discussed, and deployed (or not) in American nursing literature; indeed, I argue that these continental ideas, vital for nurses’ ability to critically reflect on the discipline and the profession—are unintelligible as a form of nursing knowledge within the American nursing theoretical matrices.
Graduate
2017-09-29
0569
0344

This study investigates the possibilities and limitations of "constructivist" methods of teaching in a mathematics "methods" course in pre-service teacher education. The research undertaken responds to the Discipline Review of Teacher Education in Mathematics and Science (1989, p.17) which states that teachers of mathematics must themselves "have learned mathematics by constructing their own knowledge through discovery, exploration and problem solving in relevant and supportive environments".

In the initial cycles of the research I concentrated on the implementation of "constructivist" practice informed by Habermas' (Can and Kemmis, 1986) critical social theory. I found liberal humanistic assumptions of the individual and knowledge within action research and constructivism problematic in that they did not afford any way of making sense of many of the actions and practices of myself and students. I turned to Foucauldian genealogy for a post-structuralist theorisation of power-knowledge operating within the discourse of constructivist mathematics constituting subjectivities and effecting instances of marginalisation.

In the third and final cycle of the research I moved hesitantly towards an understanding of myself and students as discursively constituted, variously positioned and positioning others within the discourse. Epistemologically I began to recognise and appreciate both knowledge as cognitive construct, and a knowing or knowledge as production of meaning. That is, as students constructed the authoritative mathematical and pedagogical knowledges, meanings were also produced which were at times discriminatory.

Concluding chapters focus on the production of meaning within myself and students as pedagogical desire. With reference to my practice, I reflect on the importance of distinguishing between discourse as a linguistic function and discourse in the Foucauldian sense as the operation of power-knowledge within practice if teacher education is to move beyond its present conservative influence on students. That is, perhaps teacher education in mathematics needs to move beyond talking differently about mathematics, for example constructivist mathematics or mathematics from minority cultures, to an emphasis on being differently in mathematics through affording students the space to examine meanings produced through the operation of power-knowledge as unquestioned liberal-humanistic assumptions of the individual in constructivist pedagogy and collaborative action research.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are a common comorbidity in veterans seeking treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP). However, little is known regarding the mutual influence of PTSD and CMP in this population. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a randomized clinical trial evaluating a stepped care intervention for CMP in Iraq/Afghanistan veterans (ESCAPE), this dissertation examined the relationships between PTSD and CMP along with other factors including depression, anxiety, catastrophizing and health-related quality of life. The Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis was conducted to identify key factors associated with baseline PTSD besides CMP severity. A series of statistical analyses including logistical regression analysis, mixed model repeated measure analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and cross-lagged panel analysis via structural equation modeling were conducted to test five competing models of PTSD symptom clusters, and to examine the mutual influences of PTSD symptom clusters and CMP outcomes. Results showed baseline pain intensity and pain disability predicted PTSD at 9 months. And baseline PTSD predicted improvement of pain disability at 9 months. Moreover, direct relationships were found between PTSD and the disability component of CMP, and indirect relationships were found between PTSD, CMP and CMP components (intensity and disability) mediated by depression, anxiety and pain catastrophizing. Finally, the coexistence of PTSD and more severe pain was associated with worse SF-36 Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) scores. Together these findings provided empirical support for the mutual maintenance theory.

碩士
國立中正大學
中國文學所
93
The thesis mainly deliberates Lesbian novels written after the era of curfew in Taiwan. It investigates the narrative structure of Lesbian novels of that certain period (1987-2003), analyzing both the text and the form of the works. Author starts with the five W’s – why the writers were interested in the stories of Lesbians, what kind of stories they were writing, who were the live model of the main characters of their works, how they constructed the stories, and where were the stories taken place. The thesis continued with an exploration of the narrative structure and literary value of the Lesbian novels, by examining the substances of novel writing such as topics, characters, plots, and occasions.

This work is concerned with healing practices that are created within a participatory framework in pastoral theology. It works in post-colonial and postapartheid times in South Africa following on from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The thesis looks to forms of participation with both victims and perpetrators of apartheid. It seeks to challenge singular identities of victims and perpetrators, whites and blacks, which are bound up in juridical practices that are embedded within binary forms of identity. It exposes some of the problems associated with the splitting of a subject from an object of enquiry. The research concerns a journey with a group of Mothers who lost their sons and husbands to the violence of the apartheid state. It is also a journey with some of the perpetrators who were responsible for the elimination of these men. It seeks to deconstruct identity in order to find alternate descriptions of people, both the victims and perpetrators that are not constructed within a binary oppositional form. This is worked with ideas from the social construction movement particularly ideas relating to relational responsibility. The research attempts to create a safe enough context for accountability, vulnerability and healing to take place within a participatory frame of pastoral care. It works with post-modern theology and some of the philosophy of Derrida, Foucault and Levinas.
Practical Theology
D.Th.(Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

Text in Afrikaans
The aim of the study is to describe the ecology of ideas in a family after the traumatic experience of a child. The focus is on developing a new context through which set meanings can expand. Therapeutic conversations and flexible hypnotic techniques, as part of a co-constructured process, are the "instruments" through which new ideas can be formed. The epistemological and theoretical framework of the study is postmodern, social constructionist ideas. Modernistic explanations are provided to fit in with the postmodern "both/and" focus of the study. A social constructionist position implies that the focus is placed on the multiple trauma perceptions of the family and social-cultural domain. Symptoms are viewed as part of the meaning systems in the family. The interconnection between dominant and non-dominant trauma stories is explained. Themes and relationship patterns are exposed and described according to the researcher's own epistemology, reflections and interpretations of the literature.
Clinical Psychology
M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The results of mathematics level 3 have always been a problem at TVET colleges as this hampers the certification rate and the progress of the students to level 4. Students who did not do well in the current subject are not allowed to register that subject in the following level. Even though the students are allowed to progress to level 4 they won’t be certificated for both levels until they pass the remaining subject. The above challenges made the researcher to check during the marking and moderation of November / December examination the course of poor results for mathematics level 3. In the process of checking the researcher discovered that rectangular hyperbola is one of the topics that the students of mathematics level 3 are struggling with. This study therefore focuses on exploring the challenges faced by TVET Level 3 NCV students in understanding the hyperbolic function in mathematics. In addition to the literature review, an empirical investigation based on a qualitative approach and involving semi-structured interviews with the students of a TVET college in North West was conducted to collect data. The analysis of documents relevant to the study was also used as the other method. The study used participatory action research, where the researcher, collaborators and students work alongside each other to collect data and to improve practice and follow the spiral pattern of reflection, analysing the results and adapting the action. The research design and methodology was qualitative. This helped the researcher to understand the challenges students faced in the learning of rectangular hyperbola and also came up with ways to minimise those challenges. The data collection methods used was interviewing using semi-structured questions, pre-test and post-tests. During data collection different interventions (IN1 –IN3) was used depending on the understanding of the students. For ethical consideration, ethical clearance was obtained from UNISA. DHET, the principal of the college, collaborators, parents and students will also give written consent on forms which will be sent out explaining what we envisage. Since research was voluntary, an explanation was given that this was not compulsory and that participation was completely voluntary and that they could withdraw at any time. In this study, various methods to empower students were recommended. Recommendations are also made on what was found in this study, as are recommendations for further study.
Mathematics Education
M. Ed. (Mathematics Education)

Summaries in German and English
Text in German
Angestoßen durch ein vom evangelischen Jugendwerk getragenes Projekt hat sich eine zu-nehmende Zahl von Jugendgemeinden in Orten und Bezirken der württembergischen Lan-deskirche etabliert. Diese Jugendgemeinden zielen auf verbindliche gottesdienstliche Ge-meinschaft und verstehen sich nicht nur als Jugendarbeit, sondern wollen ein eigenes Ge-meindebewusstsein entwickeln. Da sich Jugendgemeinden naturgemäß besonders auf das Jugendalter konzentrieren, werden sich junge Erwachsene eine andere geistliche Heimat suchen müssen, sobald sie sich zu sehr vom Jugendalter entfernen. Diese Masterarbeit setzt sich zum Ziel, Faktoren zu ermitteln, die zu einem gelingenden Wechsel ehemaliger Mitglieder von Jugendgemeinden in landeskirchliche Ortsgemeinden beitragen, bzw. Faktoren zu finden, die zu einer Abwanderungsbewegung derselben führen. Dafür werden Leitfadeninterviews mit ehemaligen Mitgliedern von Jugendgemeinden durch-geführt und entsprechend der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse nach Philipp Mayring ausgewertet. Auf Basis dieser ermittelten Faktoren sollen Handlungsempfehlungen zur Erneuerung der Praxis entwickelt werden sowie die Faktoren mit der praktisch-theologischen sowie inner-kirchlichen Diskussion in Verbindung gebracht werden.
Initiated by a project of the youth division of the protestant church in Württemberg, an in-creasing number of youth churches (“Jugendgemeinden”) have been formed in different parishes and districts of the protestant church in Württemberg (“Evangelische Kirche in Würt-temberg”). These youth churches view themselves as more than the current understanding of normal youth ministry. They conduct regular youth worship services, have a congregation of committed members and develop the self-understanding of an actual church. Because youth churches target a teenage demographic, its members are placed in the position of needing to search for another church home once they become too old for the youth church. This dissertation aims to find factors which aid the transition of former members of youth churches into protestant local church congregations (“landeskirchliche Ortsgemeinden”) and respectively find factors which lead to migration outside these protestant church congregations. To that end, guided interviews are conducted with former members of youth churches and are analyzed by employing the qualitative content analysis method by Philipp Mayring. These determined factors form the basis for recommendations for action and a renewed church practice. They are discussed within the practical-theological and church context.
Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology
M. Th. (Practical Theology)

no
Aims and objectives To (1) investigate the organisation, provision and practice of oral care in typical UK stroke units; (2) explore stroke survivors', carers' and healthcare professionals' experiences and perceptions about the barriers and facilitators to receiving and undertaking oral care in stroke units. Background Cerebrovascular disease and oral health are major global health concerns. Little is known about the provision, challenges and practice of oral care in the stroke unit setting, and there are currently no evidence-based practice guidelines. Design Cross-sectional survey of 11 stroke units across Greater Manchester and descriptive qualitative study using focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Methods A self-report questionnaire was used to survey 11 stroke units in Greater Manchester. Data were then collected through two focus groups (n = 10) with healthcare professionals and five semi-structured interviews with stroke survivors and carers. Focus group and interview data were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using framework approach. Results Eleven stroke units in Greater Manchester responded to the survey. Stroke survivors and carers identified a lack of oral care practice and enablement by healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals identified a lack of formal training to conduct oral care for stroke patients, inconsistency in the delivery of oral care and no set protocols or use of formal oral assessment tools. Conclusion Oral care post-stroke could be improved by increasing healthcare professionals' awareness, understanding and knowledge of the potential health benefits of oral care post-stroke. Further research is required to develop and evaluate the provision of oral care in stroke care to inform evidence-based education and practice.