Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cultural evidence'
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Smyth, Wesley Stephen. "Architecture of Pastoral Communities: Evidence for Cultural Convergence?" Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/297781.
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The architecture of two geographically isolated, pastoral communities was compared to illustrate how unrelated societies with similar lifestyles can exhibit architectural convergence. The Himba, a semi nomadic tribe in northwestern Namibia, and the Navajo, a Native American tribe located in northern Arizona, were the groups I selected due to their comparable cultures, climate, and lifestyle. Photographs of village structures as well as the overall village layouts were used to make comments on the architectural similarities. The results reveal remarkable village associations, specifically the uniformity regarding the orientation of the livestock enclosures and important huts. The development of similar cultural and architectural adaptations by different communities in response to similar environmental conditions implicates the influence of cultural convergent evolution (Haviland 2010).
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Sifniotis, Maria. "Representing archaeological uncertainty in cultural informatics." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/40735/.
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This thesis sets out to explore, describe, quantify, and visualise uncertainty in a cultural informatics context, with a focus on archaeological reconstructions. For quite some time, archaeologists and heritage experts have been criticising the often toorealistic appearance of three-dimensional reconstructions. They have been highlighting one of the unique features of archaeology: the information we have on our heritage will always be incomplete. This incompleteness should be reflected in digitised reconstructions of the past. This criticism is the driving force behind this thesis. The research examines archaeological theory and inferential process and provides insight into computer visualisation. It describes how these two areas, of archaeology and computer graphics, have formed a useful, but often tumultuous, relationship through the years. By examining the uncertainty background of disciplines such as GIS, medicine, and law, the thesis postulates that archaeological visualisation, in order to mature, must move towards archaeological knowledge visualisation. Three sequential areas are proposed through this thesis for the initial exploration of archaeological uncertainty: identification, quantification and modelling. The main contributions of the thesis lie in those three areas. Firstly, through the innovative design, distribution, and analysis of a questionnaire, the thesis identifies the importance of uncertainty in archaeological interpretation and discovers potential preferences among different evidence types. Secondly, the thesis uniquely analyses and evaluates, in relation to archaeological uncertainty, three different belief quantification models. The varying ways that these mathematical models work, are also evaluated through simulated experiments. Comparison of results indicates significant convergence between the models. Thirdly, a novel approach to archaeological uncertainty and evidence conflict visualisation is presented, influenced by information visualisation schemes. Lastly, suggestions for future semantic extensions to this research are presented through the design and development of new plugins to a search engine.
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Campagna, Desirée. "The Impacts of Participatory Governance on Cultural Development: Evidence from European Capitals of Culture." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Padova, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11577/3422217.
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Participatory approaches to cultural decision-making are increasingly supported in the international and European discourses as means to foster cultural development, promoting capacity building, legitimacy, and social capital. However, their beneficial effects are both empirically contradictory and theoretically under-investigated.
With the aim of providing an evidence-based account of the function of participatory decision-making in culture, this thesis analyses how, why, and under which circumstances participatory governance impacted on cultural development in four projects promoted in the two European Capitals of Culture of 2013 - Marseille-Provence (France) and Košice (Slovakia) –under the umbrella of the “City and Citizens” criterion.
The thesis combines the theoretical assumptions of the “expansive” theories of democracy (Warren, 1992) with the “pragmatic conception” proposed by Fung (2007) and adopts the methodological tools offered by the theory-testing variant of process tracing. Hence, it advances an analytical framework of causal mechanisms able to explain how and why the impacts of participatory governance of culture can change within different contextual conditions.
This work defines cultural development as a long-term process that includes cultural production and reception and is sustained by a network of cultural relations. In addition, it conceptualizes participatory governance as a three-dimensional institutional space (including representation, communication, and power delegation) that can trigger developmental dynamics thanks to consensus-oriented face-to-face dialogue among a variety of cultural stakeholders.
Referring to the empirical evidence collected in the four case studies, the thesis argues that the impacts of participatory governance on cultural development depend on the intensity of trust that is reached among the actors involved in the process.
In presence of fully-fledged trust, as showed in the project PARCeque (Marseille) and in the Exchanger Obrody (Košice), participatory governance can lead to cultural development, activating a reinforcing chain of capacities, legitimacy, and social capital that nurture cultural relations in the long-term. On the contrary, in absence of fully-fledged trust (i.e. mistrust and “calculus-based” trust), as proved by the project Jardins Possibles (Marseille) and the Exchanger Važecká (Košice), participatory governance of culture can exacerbate feelings of manipulation or group dynamics, fostering contestation movements or isolated cultural production.
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Frederick, Kimberly. "Examining the need for cultural adaptations to an evidence-based parent training model." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2009. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/iph_theses/127.
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Child maltreatment (CM) is a major public health problem in the United States which affects millions of children each year. Because parents are responsible for the majority of substantiated CM reports, behavioral parent training is recommended as the primary prevention strategy. In recent years, researchers and clinicians have begun work examining the relevance and effectiveness of making cultural adaptations to parent training programs. The purpose of this study was to explore the need for systemic cultural adaptations to SafeCare®, an evidence-based parent-training child maltreatment prevention program. SafeCare is currently implemented in nine states and SafeCare providers are serving families representing a wide array of cultures and ethnicities. Eleven SafeCare providers, representing six states, participated in individual, semi-structured interviews to determine what, if any, cultural adaptations were in place in the field and whether there was a need for systematic culture-specific or general cultural adaptations to the SafeCare model. The interviews provided evidence that, across sites and populations, adaptations are being made when implementing SafeCare with diverse families. Providers expressed a need to make the language/reading levels of the model materials more relevant for all the populations served. Overall, however, providers found the model to be flexible and amenable to working with families of various cultures and ethnicities. Providers recommended against systematic adaptations of the model for specific ethnic groups.
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Knops, André. "Neurocognitive evidence for cultural recycling of cortical maps in numerical cognition." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Lebenswissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/13982.
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Das Kernsystem zur approximativen Verarbeitung numerischer Informationen - das approximative Mengensystem (AMS) - ist, ebenso wie Systeme zur Verarbeitung räumlicher Informationen, im parietalen Cortex (PC) implementiert. Hier integriere ich 9 experimentelle Studien in vier Teilen und zeige, wie abstrakte mathematische Fähigkeiten mit dem AMS zusammenhängen. Die Hypothese ist, dass die mathematischen Leistungen des Menschen auf grundlegenden Konzepten (Raum, Zahl) aufbauen indem sie kortikale Areale ko-optieren, deren ursprüngliche Organisation für die neuen kulturellen Bedürfnisse geeignet erscheinen. Teil eins zeigt mittels des Operationalen Momentum Effekts, dass (nicht-)symbolisches Rechnen auf das AMS zurückgreift und Kopfrechnen evolutionär alte Strukturen im PC ko-optiert: Durch Anwendung multivariater Lernalgorithmen auf funktionelle Gehirnaktivierungen im posterioren PC während basaler perzeptueller Aufgaben (Sakkaden) konnte ich später ausgeführter Additionen von Subtraktionen unterscheiden. Dies ist ein Hinweis auf das kulturelle Recycling kortikaler Karten für kulturell bedingte kognitive Funktionen. Teil zwei untersucht die Folgen der Implementierung numerischer Informationen im PC. Die Verarbeitung numerischer Informationen konnte auch unter Crowding-Bedingungen nachgewiesen werden, was auf einen bevorzugten, nicht-bewusst vermittelten Zugang numerischer Informationen zum kognitiven System deuten könnte, wie sie bereits für andere visuelle Informationen, die im PC verarbeitet werden gezeigt wurde. Auch die Interferenz zwischen räumlichen und numerischen Informationen kann als Konsequenz der kortikalen und repräsentationalen Überlappung verstanden werden. In Teil drei und vier argumentiere ich, dass Kopfrechenfähigkeiten durch die Befähigung, Ordinalität zu verarbeiten, im AMS verankert sind und zeige technische, Stimulus-inhärente Faktoren auf, die problematisch bei der Unterscheidung zwischen approximativem und exaktem Rechnen sein können.A plethora of evidence supports the idea of a core system in the parietal cortex (PC) of the human brain that enables us to approximately process numerical information, the approximate number system (ANS). By synthesizing nine experimental studies in four parts, I argue how abstract mathematical competencies are linked to the ANS and PC. The hypothesis is that human mathematics builds from foundational concepts (space, number) by progressively co-opting cortical areas whose prior organization fits with the cultural need. In part one the operational momentum effect demonstrates that (non-)symbolic approximate calculation partly relies on the ANS, and that mental arithmetic co-opts evolutionarily older cortical systems in PC. Low-level perceptual processes such as saccades lead to spatial patterns of activation in posterior parts of PC that are predictive of patterns during abstract approximate calculation processes. This is interpreted in terms of cultural recycling of cortical maps for cognitive purposes that go beyond the evolutionary scope of a given region. Part two investigates the consequences of the parietal implementation of numerical magnitude information. Akin to other visual properties that are processed in PC this may favour a privileged, non-conscious access of numerical information to the cognitive system even under a crowding regime. Also, the interference between spatial and numerical information can be interpreted as a consequence of a representational and cortical overlap. Part three elucidates the grounding of mental arithmetic abilities in the ANS and argues for a mediation of the association between ANS and symbolic arithmetic via numerical ordering abilities, which in turn rely on neural circuits in right-hemispheric prefrontal cortex. In part four I will argue that the involvement of approximate calculation in high-level symbolic calculation remains elusive due to a number of technical issues with stimulus-inherent numerical features.
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FERLA, LARA. "I percorsi delle cultural defenses tra garanzie di legalità e richieste di riconoscimento delle identità culturali." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10281/9456.
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In modern pluralistic society minorities and indigenous groups sometimes ask the legal system to recognize their cultural heritage and their costumary law in deciding criminal cases. This request is often rejected by the Courts, because of the difficulty of adopting solutions which appear prejudicial to the rights of victims and because of the need to solve conflicts that require special knowledge and expertise in cultural matter. Especially in United States of America there is an extraordinary range of cases in which individual attempted to invoke a special legale excuse, the "Cultural Defense", in order to avoid penalty or to obtain a mitigation of sanctions. This legal institute has appeared first in the judicial practise and then recently has become object of careful study by scholars, who have shown some features and characteristic, including arguments for and against the acceptance of this excuse. This study attempts to analyze the Cultural Defense and the Cultural Motivated Crime (Cultural Offense) precisely starting from the U.S. legal framework to reach Europe and Italy, where cultural diversity is mostly represented by immigrants and nomadic people. The aim is to understand the possible relevance in these Country, especially in Italy, of defendant's cultural background in explaining criminal behaviour. After examining the most recent legislative reforms in criminal law and judicial practise, it may be possible to underline some points of convergence or dissonance with U.S. context and to highlight the current trend in progress into Italian criminal justice system about the possibility for Courts to take into account cultural factors to consider and evaluate the personal culpability and to mitigate sanctions.
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Hanaček, Ksenija. "Land-use changes, cultural ecosystem services, and environmental conflicts: Evidence from rural Bulgaria." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/670263.
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Como resultado de sus interacciones e interdependencias con las personas, los agroecosistemas se obtienen servicios de ecosistemas culturales (SEC) como identidad rural, conocimiento tradicional y ceremonias relacionadas con cultivos. Sin embargo, los agroecosistemas se enfrentan globalmente a cambios en los usos de suelo, como la agricultura intensiva, el abandono de la tierra y la urbanización, que están influenciados por las fuerzas económicas, políticas y de mercado. Junto con estas tendencias, están surgiendo conflictos ambientales entre diferentes actores con diferentes intereses en las áreas terrestres. Esta tesis doctoral examina de manera integral los SEC y críticamente examina cómo están influenciados por los cambios en el uso de suelo y que tipo de conflictos ambientales surgen según los cambios en el SEC. El estudio comienza a nivel global, luego utiliza a Bulgaria como el caso de estudio tanto a nivel regional como a nivel comunitario, con especial énfasis en las políticas rurales. Los resultados de la investigación indican que los agroecosistemas proporcionan múltiples SEC interrelacionados que constituyen el patrimonio agrícola mundial. Además, los cambios en el uso de suelo tienen un impacto significativo en la cultura y la tradición, principalmente de los agricultores y las comunidades rurales, y por lo tanto surgen conflictos ambientales en forma abierta y latentes. En el caso de estudio en Bulgaria, la evaluación de SEC por parte de los diferentes actores a nivel regional y agrícola indica que la evaluación de SEC se ve interrumpida debido a cambios en el uso de suelo. Además, las sobre el SEC a nivel comunitario pueden surgir como conflictos ambientales que se expresan abiertamente a través de manifestaciones o protestas, siempre que el poder político de la comunidad para la gestión ambiental sea alto. Cuando el grado de poder es bajo, conflictos relacionados con SEC están latentes, expresados con una gran importancia dada a la identidad rural. De hecho, este estudio muestra que los conflictos ambientales por la apropiación de tierras agrícolas están entrelazados con la desposesión cultural. Sobre la base de estos hallazgos, esta tesis argumenta que el patrimonio agrícola global está en riesgo de perderse debido a los cambios en el uso de la tierra. Se necesitan políticas más holísticas de uso de la tierra a diferentes escalas de gobernanza que tengan en cuenta tanto la importancia crítica de las comunidades locales como el SEC que crean conjuntamente para la preservación y nutrición de las zonas rurales. La población rural y los SEC co-creados desempeñan un papel fundamental en la defensa de los problemas de distribución de servicios ecosistémicos y en la promoción de la sostenibilidad social, ecológica y económica. Por lo tanto, la participación de las partes interesadas locales debe incluirse en la toma de decisiones sobre el uso de suelo y el SEC debe ser reconocido en la ciencia y la políticas publicas como vías para la preservación ambiental y la estabilidad social de las zonas rurales marginalizadas.As a result of their interactions and interdependencies with people, agroecosystems contribute to the creation of cultural ecosystem services (CES) such as rural identity, traditional knowledge, and ceremonies related to cultivation. However, global agroecosystems are currently undergoing vast land-use changes –such as intensive agriculture, land abandonment, and urbanization – which are influenced by economic, policy, and market forces. Along with these trends, environmental conflicts are emerging between stakeholders with differing interests in land areas. This dissertation holistically examines CES by critically studying how CES, in the light of relational values, are disrupted by land-use changes, and further identifying environmental conflicts arising from changes in CES. The study begins at the global level, then uses Bulgaria as a case study at both the regional level and community levels, with particular emphasis on rural policies. Results of the research indicate that agroecosystems provide multiple interrelated CES that constitute global agricultural heritage. Further, land-use changes have a significant impact on culture and tradition, mainly at the expense of farmers and rural communities, and therefore lead to open and latent forms of environmental conflict. In the Bulgarian case study, stakeholders’ evaluation of CES at both regional and farm levels indicate CES evaluation is often disrupted due to land-use changes. Moreover, concerns about CES at the community level can emerge as environmental conflicts that are expressed openly thorough demonstrations or protests, provided the community’s political power for environmental management is high. When the degree of power is low, such CES-related conflicts are latent, expressed with a high importance placed on rural identity. Indeed, this study shows environmental conflicts over agricultural land appropriation are intertwined with cultural forms of dispossession. On the basis of these findings, this dissertation argues global agricultural heritage is at risk of being lost due to land-use changes. More holistic land-use policies at different governance scales are needed that consider both the critical importance of local communities and the CES they co-create for preservation and nourishment of rural areas. Rural people and co-created CES play a fundamental role in defending ecosystem services distribution issues and promoting social, ecological, and economic well-being. Therefore, the participation of local stakeholders is important in land-use decision-making, and CES recognition in science and policy as pathways for the environmental preservation and social stability of marginalized rural areas.
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Meng, Zhenhao. "Effects of Nostalgia on Subjective Well-Being| Evidence from Rural China." Thesis, Purdue University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10600583.
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This study investigates the subjective well-being of Chinese rural-urban migrants by examining the effects of nostalgia and perceived authenticity in the context of rural tourism. The rural-urban migration and rural tourism are unique phenomena in contemporary China. Since 1978 when the country’s dramatic economic reform began, China has witnessed a rapid and unprecedented process of urbanization. Due to economic disparity between rural and urban regions, people from rural regions have been flocking to urban regions, which has resulted in a large-scale flow of rural-urban migration. However, having settled in big cities with changes of life experience, the migrants now join in the recent boom of rural tourism as part of their pursuit of happiness.
Founded on the theories of tourist motivation and nostalgia and drawn on selected Chinese philosophical values, this study develops a conceptual model of rural tourism motivation for rural-urban migrants. The model identifies the unique Chinese philosophical values of both “searching for ancestral roots” and “old home/hometown” as key factors of motivation for rural-urban migrants returning to rural destinations. The empirical evidence shows that rural-urban migrants have strong desires to return to rural regions in search of their past memories, personal heritages, and ancestral roots. Rural destinations contain unique cultures, customs, environments, and lifestyles with which migrants were once very familiar. For those rural-urban migrants, nostalgia is found to be the key push factor that motivates them to return to rural destinations because of the Chinese philosophical value of “old home/hometown”. To them, this philosophical value means more than any particular rural destination or their actual home villages. It represents their personal life stories, family histories, and true self-identities. Therefore, a visit to rural destinations is not merely a tourism activity to them—it is a particular way to find their inner peace, past memories, and values, fulfilling their need for self-actualization and improving their subjective well-being. The analysis of the textual interview data in the study benefited from the introduction of such Chinese philosophical values as exemplified by the sayings of “fallen leaves return to the roots” and “searching for ancestral roots”.
The study also found that there is a discrepancy between the expectation of rural-urban migrants returning to rural regions and the reality of what they perceive. Rapid social development and reconstruction have not only occurred in urban China, but substantial developments have also taken place in rural regions. Therefore, rural-urban migrants perceive that many original aspects of rurality, rural community, and rural culture have been lost. The findings from the study reveal that rural-urban migrants pursue an authentic rural destination, which would have an emotional and memorable appeal, because it arouses their nostalgic feelings. The way they perceive authenticity largely depends on their past life stories and the comparisons with and reflection on their current lives and visiting experiences, which is very emotionally complex. The study invokes an age-old Chinese philosophical value to understand their perception process of authenticity: “one can’t have fish and bear at the same time”. The perception process is tantamount to balance between preserving authenticity and modern development rather than giving up one aspect to the other. The migrants value the importance of preserving rural originality; yet, they believe in the necessity of changing and transforming some aspects of rural regions. They are pursuing neither the pure format of objective authenticity nor constructive authenticity. They look for the combined efforts of integrating modern elements into rural tradition, culture, and authenticity.
The results from the study are pragmatically valuable for rural destinations and tourism businesses to apply the understanding of nostalgia and other motivational factors for effective product development and marketing. Furthermore, preserving rural culture and authenticity through proper rural tourism development can improve the overall social and cultural welfare of hosting communities and the subjective well-being of tourists. The review of the research process illustrates the impact and importance of integrating Chinese philosophical values into academic inquiries on the consumers of the Chinese tourism market instead of explaining Chinese phenomena based only on Western theories.
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HUANG, Linjun. "The impact of cultural values on email acceptance : evidence from the PRC." Digital Commons @ Lingnan University, 2003. https://commons.ln.edu.hk/cds_etd/6.
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Global deployment in information technology (IT) requires understandings of the cultural constraints in technology acceptance and usage behavior. Prior research indicates that the salient technology acceptance models may not be applicable to all cultures since empirical support was mainly obtained from North America. Cultural impact on user acceptance is still at the early stage of research. There has been little research done on technology acceptance and usage behavior in the context of China, which exhibits distinctive cultural differences from countries in North America. The purpose of this thesis is to test the cross-cultural applicability of Technology Acceptance Model in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and to investigate the influence of cultural values on user acceptance of IT.
Based on a synthesis of technology acceptance and cultural theories, this study incorporates work related cultural values into Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The four cultural values of individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/femininity identified by Hofstede are posited to either directly influence or to moderate user acceptance to email in the context of the PRC.
Data were collected from the banking industry in the PRC. Cultural values were measured at the individual level to avoid over generalizations of cultural typology and to remedy the inadequacy of post hoc explanation in conventional IS cultural studies. Instead of using the scores of national culture proposed by Hofstede’s cultural study in 1980, this study measures cultural values in terms of personal traits to reflect the changes in and the complexity of cultural values in face of a two-decades of societal change.
Structural equation models (SEMs) and moderated structural equation models (MSEMs) are used in the study to explore the direct impact and the moderating effect of cultural values. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural path analysis using LISREL were performed to analyze data collected.
The findings show that cultural values have both direct impact and moderation effect on user acceptance to email. The TAM general model was found to be applicable in the Chinese context. Collectivism was found to be an antecedent of Subjective Norms, while Masculinity has no significant influence on Perceived Usefulness. In addition, Power Distance was found to moderate the relationship between Subjective Norms and Intention to Use email; while Uncertainty Avoidance moderates the relationship between Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness of email.
The findings are expected to provide insights that can help international businesses to enhance technology acceptance across national boundaries. An understanding of the relationship between cultural values and technology acceptance should help organizations understand the influence of core societal values on email acceptance and so to better utilize social and cultural practices in organizational technology diffusion. This study suggests a few guidelines for better utilizing computer mediated communication technology in regard to the cultural challenges.
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Parncharoen, Charunya. "How do individual cultural values impact the success of Total Quality Management (TQM) programmes? Evidence from a cross-cultural study." Thesis, Parncharoen, Charunya (2002) How do individual cultural values impact the success of Total Quality Management (TQM) programmes? Evidence from a cross-cultural study. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2002. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/52668/.
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Regarded as a tool for improving quality and potentially other performance related outcomes, total quality management (TQM) is held as a key way of achieving competitive advantages in the today's global work context (Anderson & Adams, 1997; Evans & Lindsay, 1996; Gunasekaran, 1999; Nakhai & Neves, 1994). A review of the existing literature however, suggests that two-thirds of all quality programmes fail to show improvement in organisational performance. Cultural differences have been cited as one of the significant contributors to these failures. Although a myriad of studies exist which support this claim (for example see Galperin, 1995; Nasierowski & Coleman, 1997; Tata & Prasad, 1998), empirical investigations of the role of individual cultural values on TQM success have been neglected.
This study aims to examine the impact of those personal variables, specifically individual perceptions of cultural values, on the success of TQM implementation. First, the consensus among the perceptions of Western and Asian quality management consultants as to the key factors contributing to TQM success was determined using the Delphi technique. Data collected from a number of Australian and Thai quality consultancy companies showed that five common factors, including level of management leadership, focus on customers, employee involvement, commitment to education and training, and provision of quality information were identified as essential. These factors were consequently used to develop a measure of employees' perception regarding TQM success.
A cross-sectional survey was thereafter conducted to examine the impact of individual cultural values on TQM success utilising data collected from employees who worked for Australian and Thai quality management organisations. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), results from this study showed that the basic causality structure of the relationships between organisational design and TQM success is similar for the Australian and Thai samples. The importance (or existence) of some relationships of organisational design (as measured by formalisation, centralisation, and reward system) and TQM success (as measured by perceived corporate quality culture, organisational commitment, and perceived business results) varies between these two models. Supplementary analysis indicated that out of four cultural values, power distance is the sole individual cultural value that moderates the relationship between organisational design and TQM success. This suggests that cultural values can play an important role in the implementation of TQM programmes, a notion that has been ignored in past research. Implications for valuing cultural values as part of implementing a successful TQM programme and limitations of this study are discussed.
The outcomes of this study are useful in designing and developing TQM applications suited to a particular cultural context. Furthermore, through broadening our understanding of the operational challenges faced by organisations in implementing TQM programmes, joint ventures between the different countries may be greatly enhanced.
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Rospendowiski, Karina 1987. "Adaptação cultural para o Brasil e desempenho psicométrico do instrumento "Evidence-Based Practice Quesntionnaire" (EBPQ)." [s.n.], 2014. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/283868.
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Orientador: Neusa Maria Costa AlexandreDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Enfermagem
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Resumo: INTRODUÇÃO: A Prática Baseada em Evidência compreende "o uso consciente, explícito e judicioso da melhor evidência atual para a tomada de decisão sobre o cuidar individual do paciente". Para a implantação da prática de enfermagem baseada em evidências, compete ao enfermeiro a busca de estratégias que permitam a utilização de pesquisa na prática. O instrumento "Evidence-based practice questionnaire" (EBPQ), avalia atitudes, conhecimento e implantação da Prática Baseada em Evidências. Utiliza Escala de Likert com pontuação de um a sete em três domínios: prática, atitudes e conhecimentos relacionados à Prática Baseada em Evidências. Mostrou-se uma ferramenta útil para mensurar a implantação desta prática com enfermeiros no Reino Unido e na Espanha. OBJETIVO: O presente estudo tem como objetivo adaptar culturalmente o instrumento EBPQ para a língua portuguesa do Brasil e avaliar suas qualidades psicométricas. METODOLOGIA: Estudo metodológico em que fizeram parte professores e alunos de uma Universidade Pública e enfermeiros de um Hospital Público. Foram seguidos os passos essenciais de adaptação cultural de instrumentos de medida: tradução do instrumento para a língua portuguesa, síntese, retro-tradução, avaliação pelo comitê de juízes e pré-teste. Foi verificada a confiabilidade por meio da avaliação da consistência interna e da estabilidade pelo teste-reteste e a validade de constructo com abordagem de grupos conhecidos, do qual fizeram parte enfermeiros com pós-graduação em Mestrado ou Doutorado e enfermeiros com graduação completa. RESULTADOS: As etapas de tradução, síntese e retro-tradução foram realizadas satisfatoriamente. A avaliação pelo comitê de juízes resultou em alterações em alguns itens, assegurando as equivalências entre as versões original e traduzida. Durante o pré-teste, foi verificada a compreensão dos itens para torná-los mais claros. Na avaliação das propriedades psicométricas, a versão brasileira do instrumento mostrou-se confiável, com Coeficiente Alfa de Cronbach satisfatório em todos os domínios (0,91 ¿ 0,68). O Coeficiente de Correlação Intraclasse, que avaliou a estabilidade do instrumento mostrou-se satisfatório para o instrumento como um todo (0,90). Na avaliação da validade de constructo, o instrumento foi capaz de demonstrar diferenças nos escores entre os grupos conhecidos, com pontuações mais elevadas no grupo de enfermeiros com Mestrado ou Doutorado. CONCLUSÃO: As etapas necessárias para a adaptação cultural de instrumentos de medida foram concluídas com sucesso. A versão brasileira obtida apresenta propriedades psicométricas confiáveis para a sua utilização nessa população
Abstract: INTRODUCTION: The Evidence-Based Practice comprehends "the conscious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence for decision making about the individual caring of patients". To implement the evidence-based practice of nursing, the nurse is responsible for searching strategies that allow the use of research in practice. The instrument "Evidence-based practice questionnaire" (EBPQ) assesses attitudes toward, knowledge of and use of evidence-based practice. It uses Likert Scale which is a seven point scale used in three areas: practice, attitudes and knowledge related to Evidence Based Practice. It was proved to be a useful tool to measure the implementation of this practice with nurses in the United Kingdom and Spain. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to adapt culturally the tool EBPQ to the Portuguese Language and to evaluate its psychometric qualities. METHODOLOGY: For this methodological study, the participants were some teachers and students of a Public University and some nurses of a Public Hospital. The essential steps of cultural adaptation of measurement instruments were followed: instrument translation into Portuguese language, synthesis, retro-translation, evaluation by the committee of judges and pretest .The reliability was checked by means of evaluation of internal consistency and the stability by test-retest and the construct validity with known groups approach. The first group was formed by nurses with Masters' degree or PhD and the second group was formed by nurses with bachelor's degree. RESULTS: The steps of translation, retro-translation and synthesis were performed satisfactorily. The evaluation by the expert panel resulted in changes in some items, ensuring the equivalence between the original and translated versions .During the pretest, the understanding of the items was done in order to make them clearer. The Brazilian version was reliable , with satisfactory results , and it was obtained Cronbach's alpha similar to International studies for all domains ( .91 to .68 ) .The intraclass correlation coefficient , which evaluated the stability was satisfactory for the instrument as a whole ( 0,90 ) .In the assessment of construct validity , there was significant difference between groups in relation to evidence-based practice , with higher scores in the group of nurses with master's or PhD. CONCLUSION: The necessary steps for the cultural adaptation of the measurement instruments were finished successfully. The Brazilian version obtained presents reliable psychometric properties for its use in this population
Mestrado
Enfermagem e Trabalho
Mestra em Ciências da Saúde
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Morris, Arlene H. Witte James E. "Factors influencing Bachelor of Science in Nursing students' perceptions of eldercare cultural self-efficacy." Auburn, Ala., 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10415/1339.
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Singleton, Scott E. "Drawing inferences in the proof of native title: Historiographic and cultural challenges and recommendations for judicial guidance." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2018. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/119688/1/Scott_Singleton_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis develops "Inference Guidelines" for the proof of connection requirements in native title determinations, in the form of a "Bench Book." This is in accordance with recommendations in the Australian Law Reform Commission's 30 April 2015 report "Connection to Country: Review of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth)." This thesis finds that the existing case law provides a strong foundation for clear and consistent principles for inferential reasoning in native title cases, which can be supplemented by considerations drawn from historiographic and epistemological debates, cultural and linguistic challenges, and inferential theory, to form comprehensive, consistent and transparent Inference Guidelines.
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Keskinen, Katri Ilona Maria. "Culture and Masculinity in American School Shootings: Reviewing Evidence from Multi-Victim School Shootings." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för hälsa och samhälle (HS), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-24263.
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American school shootings have received a lot of media, public and academic attention within the last two decades. Still, reasons behind the shocking events lie undiscovered. Although individual factors have been widely examined, researchers are yet to find commonalities. This thesis reviewed evidence of macro-sociological explanations for American school shootings and attempted to identify the roles of culture, cultural marginalisation and masculinity in American multi-victim school shootings using seven case studies from 1999-2018. Results identified cultural marginalisation as a key factor in all of the cases, whereas hegemonic and violent masculinities received some support. In addition, interconnectedness and relationships between anomie, culture, cultural marginalisation, masculinity and school shootings were discussed in more detail. Finally, future suggestions were made, and conclusions were drawn.
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Dibbern, Jens. "The Sourcing of Application Software Services : Empirical Evidence of Cultural, Industry and Functional Differences /." Heidelberg : Physica-Verlag, 2004. http://aleph.unisg.ch/hsgscan/hm00120875.pdf.
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Mirante, Nicole. "Combined constraints in speech production : evidence from linguistic data, oral poetry, and cultural dynamics." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/30956.
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This work describes a model of speech production based on the central role
exercised by a speaker's working memory. It is proposed that speakers make intensive
use of their working memory when planning, composing and uttering speech, and that a
speaker's working memory is guided in its composition processes by an array of co-occurring
cues, or constraints, which determine the selection of chunks of utterances in
memory. The constraints are: semantic activation, imagery (i.e. the activation of detailed
semantic, visual and spatial information), syntax, speech rhythm, prosody and sound
repetitions. Speakers are exposed to the perception of environmental information and to
others' speech, and these inputs determine the co-occurring activation and the selection
of mnemonic data according to the constraints outlined. Evidence for the model is drawn
from linguistic material, research on the cognitive psychology of oral literatures, and
studies in social psychology and cultural information transmission.
The model stems from criticism that I direct to the concept of language as it is
understood in modern linguistics. It will be shown that the assumptions on which current
theories of language rest are at odds with recent developments in philosophy and
communication studies. It will be argued that the proposed model is not only more
theoretically sound, but also more adequate to describe speech as it is produced by real
speakers.Arts, Faculty of
English, Department of
Graduate
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Rose, Fiona. "Cultural identity in Roman Celtiberia : the evidence of the images and monuments, 300BC - AD100." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:495111e9-ad8e-469a-a123-ec91209d8595.
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This thesis presents a study of changing constructions and perceptions of cultural identity over the period 300 BC to AD 100 in the region of northern central Spain known in antiquity as Celtiberia. Its primary focus is iconography, with images of male and female figures of particular interest. The iconography is used to map the continuities and discontinuities in a sense of Celtiberian identity, and considers the effect that interaction with non-Celtiberians, including Celts and Iberians but especially with Romans, had on this identity. A theoretical framework in which to study 'cultural identity' is proposed in the Prolegomena. After the Prolegomena, the thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter One, Celtiberia in its Historical and Cultural Context, examines the development of Celtiberian culture and Celtiberian settlements over time, and the changes that occurred after the arrival of Romans. Chapter Two, Metallurgy and Metal Objects, looks at three categories of metal objects (fibulae, hospitium tesserae, and armaments) and asks whether the horseman motif, an important iconographic element in this thesis, is emblematic of a 'warrior aristocracy'. Chapter Three, Human and Animal Figures on Painted Pottery, studies the range of human figures found on Celtiberian ceramic vessels, considering the types of scenes and figures that were most popular. Chapter Four, Coins from Pre-Roman and Early Imperial Celtiberia, traces the development of numismatic images in the region. This chapter emphasises the so-called transitional coins, which represent the first time that Celtiberian cities were publicly identified with Roman authority on official media. Chapter Five, Men's Funerary Monuments, returns to critical analysis of the horseman motif, focusing on stelai with relief images of male figures on horseback. Chapter Six, Women's Funerary Monuments, examines the most popular visual language for Celtiberian women, the 'funerary banquet,' and places stelai bearing this theme in their wider social context. A concluding section discusses Celtiberian iconography as a whole. It also considers the role that language - Celtiberian and/or Latin - played alongside the images, and whether the phenomena of bilingualism and Latinisation of names bear 'cultural identity' significance.
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Rutgers, Leonard Victor. "The Jews in late ancient Rome : evidence of cultural interaction in the Roman diaspora /." Leiden ; New York ; Köln : E.J. Brill, 1995. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb35749789s.
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Moutsinas, Eleftherios. "Nightlife and Regional Development : Evidence from Greece." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Internationella Handelshögskolan, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-15973.
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Post-industrial economic restructuring in developed countries has downgraded the role of blue-collar labour in regional growth, giving way, conversely, to occupations that demand high concentrations of human capital. Human capital has been documented to positively affect regional growth and income, signifying an urban planning shift towards amenities provision, as a human capital attraction tool. An emerging, highly-valued amenity in the post-industrial society is nightlife. Following Florida’s reasoning on the rising salience of the creative class, this paper investigates the hypothesis that nightlife attracts high human capital or skilled individuals. It focuses on the paradigm of Greece, using data acquired by the Greek statistics agency and, to a lesser extent, the Greek yellow pages. It employs two measures, the human capital one –calculated as the percentage of the population holding a bachelor degree and above- and an approximation of Florida’s creative class measure –occupational categorization according to job complexity. Bivariate correlations are applied to account for human capital attracting factors and structural equation modelling to assess nightlife’s impact on the two measures and respectively, on regional growth.
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Cook, Patricia Maria 1965. "Basal platform mounds at Chau Hiix, Belize: Evidence for ancient Maya social structure and cottage industry manufacturing." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282545.
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Traditional interpretations of ancient Maya social organization formulated more than half a century ago persist in current reconstructions. These proffer an ancient culture dichotomized into two distinct groups, elites and commoners, based on distinct social or economic characteristics. Recent research has shown that this theoretical dichotomy is unrealistic. A continuum in artifact assemblages and quantities, architectural sizes, styles and construction techniques, burial and cache contents, and other data sets indicate that interpretations identifying specific contexts as either elite or commoner are difficult to make. This has led some Mayanists to propose the existence of a middle class in ancient Maya society. This separate class is identifiable in the archaeological record by certain architectural units and limited access to restricted items. A multiple class reconstruction of ancient Maya culture more easily explains the diversity found in the archaeological record, and offers alternative models of Maya social, economic, and political systems. The Basal Platform Mound Project investigated a particular architectural type, the basal platform mound, that was hypothesized to represent the middle class. Excavations were undertaken at the site of Chau Hiix, in northern Belize, between 1993 and 1997. The four goals of the project were: (1) to identify and define a middle class within an ancient Maya community; (2) to determine the economic and social roles of this class within the ancient society at Chau Hiix during the Late Classic through Postclassic periods; (3) to determine the internal variability within this stratum as an indicator of the complexity of social systems among the ancient Maya; and (4) to determine if using the intersection of particular architectural styles and select artifact categories to identify social class is appropriate. This dissertation reports the results of the Basal Platform Mound Project, and offers a reconstruction of ancient Maya social, economic, and political trajectories that incorporates a middle class as a dynamic factor. A model is presented in which the middle class played a crucial role during the transition from the Late and Terminal Classic to the Postclassic periods, participating directly in the economic system as producers and perhaps as distributors. The flexibility and variability documented within this social group may be key to understanding the diverse developmental trajectories exhibited by different sites across the Maya Lowlands.
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Klaerding, Claudia [Verfasser]. "Cultural aspects of managing interfirm collaboration – evidence from returned Chinese executives in Shanghai / Claudia Klaerding." Kiel : Universitätsbibliothek Kiel, 2011. http://d-nb.info/1036243087/34.
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Bergius, Gwendoline Clare Courtena. "The Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture of Mercia as evidence for continental influence and cultural exchange." Thesis, Durham University, 2012. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3543/.
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Scholarship has long considered the style of stone sculpture produced in Mercia during the late eighth and early ninth centuries to reflect the direct influence of artistic activities on the Carolingian continent. Written sources point to the dialogue that existed between the Anglo-Saxon kingdom and the Carolingian courts in the years after Offa’s rise to the Mercian throne. This dialogue has been understood to signal Offa’s desire to raise his profile and that of his kingdom in the eyes of Charlemagne and the papacy. Mercian sculpture, unparalleled in its range of form and ornament, has thus been thought to owe its unique character to borrowed contemporary continental styles and motifs. By means of multi-disciplinary research combining art historical, archaeological and historical approaches, this thesis establishes the nature of the relationship between Mercian sculpture and continental artistic production. Examination of the development of Carolingian sculptural styles against the backdrop of the enduring legacy of late Antiquity reveals the variety of artistic models available to Mercian sculptors. Through close analysis of the stylistic parallels between Mercian sculpture and late Antique, eastern Christian, Lombard and Carolingian monumental art, this research reveals the motivations and mechanisms behind the adoption and adaptation of continental motifs. Exploration of the means by which Mercian patrons and artists accessed continental motifs demonstrates the links between the forms and ornament of Mercian sculpture and the types of sites at which sculpture survives. These associations are argued to be reflective of the hierarchy of exchange networks that linked sites in the kingdom with centres of importance on the Continent and further afield. The development of Carolingian and papal monumental art highlights the shared interest in and importance of late Antique imperialism. Despite a parallel agenda, Mercian sculptors are shown to have accessed late Antique artistic sources largely independent of Carolingian intermediaries.
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Başara, Meltem. "Cultural influences on service quality expectations evidence from the hotel sector in Germany and Spain /." View electronic thesis (PDF), 2009. http://dl.uncw.edu/etd/2009-3/rp/basaram/meltembasara.pdf.
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Asri, Ankush <1985>. "When Giulia and Andrea meet Salma and Omar: Essays on cultural adaptation. Theory and Evidence." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2019. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/9116/3/Asri%20thesis.pdf.
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This dissertation consists of essays that examine the factors that affect the integration patterns in a culturally diverse society. In the first chapter, I introduce a theoretical model consisting of a cultural adaptation game focusing on the effects of strength of group identity and share of the minority in the population on the adaptation levels. The model focuses on the trade-off between coordinating with own group members by playing a pure coordination game and cooperating with other group members by playing a variant of a public good game. The model predicts that with low proportions of minority, only minority adapts and majority does not, however as the share of a minority increases, the likelihood of no one adapting increases even though mutual adaptation is Pareto dominant and socially optimal. In Chapter 2, I test the predictions of the model and the possible ways to improve efficiency in a laboratory experiment. The experiment follows the structure of the cultural adaptation game where mutual adaptation is socially optimal. The results from the experiment are in line with the theoretical results where, with a one-third share of minority, the likelihood of no one adapting increases. Therefore, to improve efficiency, I introduce the possibility of communication through a leader. The results show that only involving leaders with high ability and who can send a message to all the participants irrespective of the group can lead to mutual adaptation. The last chapter is a literature review on the role of the host country characteristics affecting the adaptation patterns of immigrants combining literature from economics, political science and cross-cultural psychology. This dissertation contributes thematically and methodologically to the existing literature by enhancing our understanding of the cultural adaptation process and how we can improve efficiency in today’s globalized world where inter-cultural contact is inevitable.
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Feallock, Lynn O'Neill 1964. ""Justified on a scientific basis": Fetal protection policies, sex discrimination, and the selective use of evidence in labor law." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291413.
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As women have increasingly entered what have been traditionally male-dominated industries, there has been a corresponding increase in "fetal protection policies" implemented by those same industries, based on the premise that toxins in the workplace can be harmful to the "potential fetus." The assumption is that these toxins are transported to the fetus exclusively through the mother and that only by removing the mother from the hazardous environment can the fetus be protected. Some of these companies have been taken to court as women have challenged these policies as infringements of their constitutional rights. This paper analyzes court cases in which this issue has been argued and demonstrates how the courts maintain the patriarchal ideologies of both law and industry through the use of legal precedent and unsubstantiated "science," to uphold policies that prohibit women from working in high-paying "male" industries and maintain women's subordinate position in capitalist society.
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Brand, Eric Joseph. "A Material Evidence Base for Investigating the Evolution of Chinese Medicinal Varieties and Cross-cultural Exchange." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2017. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/426.
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Relevance: Many Chinese medicinal materials (CMMs) have changed over centuries of use, particularly in terms of their botanical identity and processing methods. In some cases, these changes have important implications for safety and efficacy in modern clinical practice. As most previous research has focused on clarifying the evolution of CMMs by analyzing traditional Chinese materia medica ("bencao") literature, assessments of historical collections are needed to validate these conclusions with material evidence.. Aim of the study: Historical collections of Chinese medicines reveal the market materials in circulation at a given moment in time, and represent an underexploited resource for analyzing the evolution of Chinese herbal medicines. This study compares specimens from rare collections of CMMs with contemporary market materials. By highlighting examples of changes in botanical identity and processing that remain relevant for safe clinical practice in the modern era, this work aims to stimulate further research into previously unexplored historical collections of Chinese medicines.. Materials and Methods: Three groups of herbal specimens were investigated from pre-modern collections of CMMs; these specimen groups are divided into separate chapters in the thesis presented here. The historical specimens researched here are stored in the UK in the Economic Botany Collections (EBC) of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and in the Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day, Oregon. The specimens were morphologically examined, photographed, and compared to authentic CMMs stored at the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Chinese Medicines Center at Hong Kong Baptist University, as well as authentic herbarium-vouchered specimens from the Leon Collection (LC) at the Kew EBC. Case studies were selected to illustrate examples of historical changes in botanical identity, used plant parts, and processing methods.. In the first group, 620 specimens of CMMs that were collected from Chinese pharmacies in the Malay peninsula in the 1920s were examined macroscopically and compared with current pharmacopoeia specifications and authentic contemporary samples. In the second group, three commonly used Chinese medicines that have a history of substitution with materials from the Aristolochiaceae family were investigated. In the third group, over 200 herbal specimens from a Gold Rush Era collection stored in John Day, Oregon were assessed.. Results: This investigation confirmed that confusion due to shared common names and regional variations in the botanical identity of certain CMMs has been a persistent issue over time. Additionally, historical changes in processing methods and the plant parts used were observed for some CMMs. In some cases, these changes have direct implications for the safe clinical practice of Chinese medicine.. Conclusions: This preliminary assessment illustrated the significant potential of collections for clarifying historical changes in CMMs. More research is needed to investigate pre-modern collections of CMMs, including a more comprehensive assessment of the holdings in the Kew EBC and other European collections that have not yet been explored from the perspective of Chinese medicine.
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Brylawski, Bryce J. "Cultural eutrophication and the clam Macoma balthica: Evidence for trophic disruption and effects on blue crabs." W&M ScholarWorks, 2009. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539616585.
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Cultural eutrophication (CE) is the allochthonous input introduction of a quantity of matter, such as sediments, organic material, or nutrients, into a water body over the pre-anthropogenic (natural) levels. In most coastal estuaries CE has come to refer primarily to an increase in the concentration of phyto-nutrients. CE has been identified as the cause of very graphic phenomena such as hypoxia and fish kills. In this work I examine the potential for CE to alter the composition of the primary producer community and potentially alter or disrupt the benthic food web, using Macoma balthica as an indicator species. A series of surveys and experiments identified that clams in areas with greater than average nutrient concentrations had lower health, slower growth, and greater non-predatory mortality than clams in less eutrophic areas. Primary production, as estimated from chlorophyll a concentration, was greater at higher nutrient locations while the health and growth of clams was lower. The phytoplankton community in the more eutrophic areas had a lower proportion of diatoms relative to dinoflagellates. A biochemical analysis of clam tissue indicated that the clams from the less nutrient rich sites had a greater proportion of Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) relative to other fatty acids. Diatoms are rich in EPA compared to dinoflagellates. Thus, we hypothesize that CE induced shifts from diatom based production toward dinoflagellates may be limiting trophic transfer due to a lack of EPA. Using a series of models we were able to predict that trophic disruption could significantly reduce the scope for growth of the blue crab, Callenecties sapidus . Thus it is possible that the CE induced changes to primary producer community could disrupt the food web creating a trophic bottleneck.
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Ivanova, Sofia A. "Dietary Change in Ribeirinha Women: Evidence of a Nutrition Transition in the Brazilian Amazon?" The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275491285.
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Gortz, Ann-Christin. "Linguistic markers as evidence for cultural awareness : a critical examination of international critiques of a South African dance company." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/6840.
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Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.Bibliography
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Viewing cross-cultural dance performances on international tours or as part of international dance festivals has become common practice all over the world. For critique writers, choreographers/ dancers and the audience the accessibility of such a diverse variety of dance has both advantages and disadvantages. Cross-cultural differences in these performances challenge strategies of viewing and perception which may lead to aesthetic enrichment but these performances also risk being misunderstood. In dance critique writing, such a misunderstanding may result in a negative critique projecting, in a worst scenario, negative prejudices on the respective cultures. This thesis investigates how attitudes towards, and perceptions of, cultural differences are reflected in cross-cultural dance critiques, through the use of particular linguistic and stylistic devices. Analysis strategies deriving from Critical Discourse Analysis and Text Analysis are used to uncover the critique’s strategies to communicate their evaluation including ways of persuasion and power. I analyse six critiques from three countries on the performance Beautiful Me performed on international tours by the Vuyani Dance Theatre from South Africa. My initial hypothesis is that cultural differences may lead to negative critiques due to intercultural misunderstanding. Since viewing Performance Art is not only influenced by the critique writer’s cultural background but also by their perception attitude towards the performance, the analysis takes perception modes such as a theatre semiotic approach and a phenomenological approach into consideration. Interestingly, different perception modes seem to have a greater impact on the outcome of a critique than cross-cultural differences. This means that most negative evaluations must have their origin in the applied strategy of viewing and perceiving dance. The critic seems to interpret and embed the perceived features of the dance performance into specific cultural or socio-political contexts forming an individual, often complex evaluation.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Om te kyk na kruiskulturele dansuitvoerings deur dansgeselskappe op internasionale toere of as deel van internasionale dansfeeste, het wêreldwyd algemene praktyk geword. Vir kritici, choreograwe/dansers en die gehoor hou die toeganklikheid van so ’n diverse verskeidenheid dans sowel voordele as nadele in. Kruiskulturele verskille in hierdie vertonings daag kyk- en waarneem-strategieë uit, wat tot estetiese verryking mag lei. Daar is egter ook ’n moontlikheid dat hierdie vertonings verkeerd geïnterpreteer mag word. Só ’n waninterpretasie in dansresensies mag lei tot negatiewe kritiek wat, in uiterste gevalle, negatiewe vooroordele oor die betrokke kulture projekteer. Hierdie tesis doen ondersoek na die wyse waarop houdings teenoor en persepsies van kultuurverskille in kruiskulturele dansresensies deur middel van spesifieke talige en stilistiese middele gereflekteer word. Analitiese strategieë uit die velde Kritiese Diskoersanalise en Teksanalise word gebruik om kritici se strategieë wat ’n oordeel kommunikeer, bloot te lê. Ek analiseer ses resensies uit drie lande wat handel oor die vertoning Beautiful Me wat deur die Suid-Afrikaanse dansgeselskap Vuyani Dance Theatre tydens internasionale toere opgevoer is. My aanvanklike hipotese is dat kultuurverskille aanleiding mag gee tot negatiewe kritiek vanweë interkulturele misverstande. Aangesien die beoordeling van Uitvoerende Kunste nie slegs deur die kritikus se kulturele agtergrond beïnvloed word nie, maar ook deur hul waarnemingshouding teenoor die vertoning, neem die analise waarnemingsmodusse soos ’n teater-semiotiek-benadering en ’n fenomenologiese benadering in ag. Interessant genoeg, lyk dit asof verskillende waarnemingsmodusse ’n groter impak het op die uitkoms van kritiek as kruiskulturele verskille. Dít beteken dat die meeste negatiewe oordele hul oorsprong moet hê in die toegepaste strategie van dans kyk en waarneem. Dit blyk dat die kritikus die waargenome eienskappe van die dansuitvoering interpreteer en inbed in spesifieke kulturele of sosio-politiese kontekste wat aanleiding gee tot die verskillende, dikwels komplekse maniere van beoordeling.
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Breckons, Matthew Dunstan. "Cultural factors affecting the development of an evidence-based information service in a third sector provider of complementary cancer care." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/6554.
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Cultural factors affecting the development of an evidence-based information service in a third sector provider of complementary cancer care Matthew Breckons Introduction Many people with cancer access complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and a need for high quality information was emphasised in reports by the House of Lords and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Organisational culture, incorporating people’s underlying assumptions, values and actions, has been highlighted as an important factor when attempting to introduce evidence-based practices. Opinion is divided over the relevance of evidence to CAM practice, although the influence that this has on the cultural context of a CAM organisation is not understood. Aims To identify cultural factors affecting the introduction of an evidence-based information service in a third-sector CAM organisation and, in light of factors identified, to suggest feasible innovations to achieve a more evidenced-based approach. Methods Access to the charity was gained through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. Soft Systems Methodology, a form of action research, was used to carry out four ‘learning cycles’ in which data was collected and fed back to staff at the organisation to prompt discussion on what could be improved. Learning cycles focused on improving the quality of web-based and printed information and gaining an understanding of how the information service could be improved from staff and service-user perspectives. Results Results suggested that a lack of time and emphasis on marketing values led to difficulties feeding back results and making changes that were perceived to reduce demand for the charity’s services. A lack of management support and a reluctance to implement rules made introducing any form of information policy problematic. Additionally, structural factors such as a large team of part-time staff and a lack of financial resources led to communication difficulties as well as limiting the opportunity for staff development. Conclusions This is the first study to document systematic attempts to make evidence-based changes in a third sector CAM organisation. As such, this study has generated results demonstrating how cultural and structural constraints in this type of organisation may influence attempts to make evidence-based changes. Introduction of an initiative such as the Information Accreditation Scheme (IAS) may provide benefits to an organisation of this type by guiding the development of information production systems at the same time as raising the profile of the organisation. The findings of this study strongly suggest that, despite demands from policy makers for the provision of evidence-based CAM information, there may be systematic difficulties experienced by organisations responsible for the production of this information. Further research is needed to understand how producers of CAM information can be supported in providing high quality, evidence-based materials.
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Byrne, Jennifer Eileen. "The Link Between Differing Conceptions of National Identity and Attitudes Towards Immigrants: Evidence from the United States." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195356.
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In the 1990's, the U.S. saw one of the largest periods of migration to its shores in its history. This surge of immigrants can be classified predominantly as Latino or Asian, which will inevitably result in demographic changes within the country. The largest proportion of immigrants claim Mexico as their country of origin, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics now represent the country's largest minority population. Given these facts, it is important to examine a body of literature that warns of the "balkanization" of America and suggests an inability of this new wave of immigrants to assimilate into American society. Previous research on attitudes towards immigrants has found both cultural and economic indicators to be important determinants of public opinion on this issue. I will expand this research by examining how the public perception of the ability of immigrants to assume an "American" identity and assimilate into society will affect attitudes towards immigrants. My primary research questions are: 1) How do different conceptions of national identity affect attitudes towards immigrants? 2) How do perceptions of the ability of immigrant groups to integrate into American society affect restrictionist views on immigration policy? 3) What group and individual-level characteristics determine differing levels of support for the dimensions of American national identity? My findings suggest that the weight attributed to three distinct dimensions of national identity conditions attitudes towards immigrants and their incorporation into American society.
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Ferreira, Maria Beatriz Guimarães. "Adaptação cultural e validação do instrumento The Barriers to Research Utilization Scale: versão para o português brasileiro." Universidade de São Paulo, 2015. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/22/22132/tde-24022016-190316/.
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A cobrança da sociedade pela melhoria da qualidade dos serviços de saúde implica na busca de ações pela enfermagem, para a implementação da Prática Baseada em Evidências (PBE), uma vez que a assistência, pautada em evidências geradas por meio de métodos científicos, pode contribuir para aumentar os resultados do cuidado de saúde. A utilização de resultados de pesquisas na prática clínica é um dos componentes da PBE, entretanto, ainda, é desafio para a enfermagem. Assim, dentre as ações que podem minimizar a lacuna entre o conhecimento produzido e sua aplicação, está a identificação de barreiras que impedem a interdependência entre pesquisa e prática. O presente estudo teve como objetivos gerais: realizar a adaptação cultural do instrumento The Barriers to Research Utilization Scale e analisar as propriedades métricas de validade e confiabilidade do instrumento The Barriers Scale, versão para o português brasileiro. Trata-se de pesquisa metodológica conduzida por meio das seguintes etapas: processo de adaptação cultural - tradução e retrotradução; validade de face e conteúdo - Comitê de Juízes; validade de construto - dimensionalidade e grupos conhecidos e análise de confiabilidade - teste-reteste. The Barriers Scale possui 29 itens distribuídos em quatro fatores, a saber: Fator 1 - Enfermeiro, Fator 2 - Organização, Fator 3 - Pesquisa e Fator 4 - Comunicação, com valores de respostas que variam de 1 (inexistente) a 4 (enorme), sendo que os valores maiores refletem maiores barreiras para utilização de resultados de pesquisas na prática. Os dados foram coletados em dois hospitais, por meio da aplicação de um instrumento para caracterização sociodemográfica e profissional dos enfermeiros e The Barriers Scale - versão para o português brasileiro, no período de outubro de 2014 a junho de 2015, com a participação de 335 enfermeiros. O nível de significância foi de 0,05. Os resultados evidenciaram que a maioria dos participantes era do sexo feminino (88,7%), com idade média de 33,9 anos, solteiros, mestres, com um único vínculo empregatício e em regime celetista. A maioria dos enfermeiros não havia realizado curso sobre a utilização de resultados de pesquisas, na prática clínica (85,1%), e desenvolvia ou já tinha conduzido pesquisas em enfermagem (68,4%). Na avaliação das propriedades métricas, a análise fatorial confirmatória demonstrou que a versão para o português brasileiro, composta por quatro fatores, está adequadamente ajustada à estrutura dimensional, originalmente proposta pela autora principal. A validade de construto foi determinada por grupos conhecidos, os resultados demonstraram diferenças estatisticamente significativas, sendo que os enfermeiros que atuavam em instituição, com cultura organizacional direcionada para a PBE, eram mestres ou doutores, tinham características favoráveis à PBE e identificaram menores barreiras para a implementação de resultados de pesquisas, na prática clínica. A confiabilidade, avaliada em intervalo de sete dias, indicou valores apropriados para o Coeficiente de Correlação Intraclasse, entre 0,75 e 0,84, e com diferença estatisticamente significativa. A avaliação da consistência interna demonstrou valor adequado para a versão para o português brasileiro de The Barriers Scale (? de Cronbach=0,92). Concluiu-se que The Barriers Scale, versão para o português brasileiro, é válida e confiável na amostra estudadaThe society\'s demand to improve the quality of health services implies the search for nursing actions for the implementation of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP), since care guided by evidence generated through scientific methods can help increase health care results. The use of research results in clinical practice is one of the EBP components; however, it is still a challenge for the nursing team. Thus, one of the actions that can minimize the gap between the knowledge produced and its application is the identification of barriers that prevent the interdependence between research and practice. This study\'s overall objectives were: to perform the cultural adaptation of The Barriers to Research Utilization Scale and analyze the metric properties of validity and reliability of the instrument The Barriers Scale - Brazilian Portuguese version. A methodological study was conducted through the following steps: cultural adaptation process - translation and back-translation; face and content validity - expert committee; construct validity - dimensionality and known groups and reliability analysis - test-retest. The Barriers Scale consists of 29 items distributed into four factors, namely: Factor 1 - Nurse, Factor 2 - Organization, Factor 3 - Research, and Factor 4 - Communication. The response values range from 1 (nonexistent) to 4 (massive), wherein the highest values reflect greater barriers to using research results in practice. Data were collected at two hospitals, through the application of an instrument for sociodemographic and professional characteristics of the nurses and The Barriers Scale - Brazilian Portuguese version, from October 2014 to June 2015, with the participation of 335 nurses. Significance was set at 0.05. The results showed that most participants were women (88.7%), with a mean age of 33.9 years, bachelors, masters, with a single job and under the Consolidation of Brazilian Labor Laws (CLT regime). Most nurses had not taken a course on the use of research results in clinical practice (85.1%) and were developing or had already conducted studies in nursing (68.4%). In the evaluation of the metric properties, the confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the Brazilian Portuguese version of scale, consisting of four factors, is properly adjusted to the dimensional structure originally proposed by the main author. Construct validity was determined by known groups. Results showed statistically significant differences, and the nurses working in an institution with organizational culture directed to the EBP were either masters or doctors, had favorable characteristics to the EBP and identified lower barriers to the implementation of research results in clinical practice. The reliability, evaluated in seven-day intervals, indicated appropriate values for the intraclass correlation coefficient, between 0.75 and 0.84, with a statistically significant difference. The evaluation of the internal consistency demonstrated appropriate values for the Brazilian Portuguese version of The Barriers Scale (Cronbach\'s ? = 0.92). In conclusion, The Barriers Scale - Brazilian Portuguese version is valid and reliable as per the studied sample
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Gearhart, Sarah R. "CULTURAL CAPITAL AND SCHOOL CHOICE PARTICIPATION: WHO CHOOSES WHAT? EVIDENCE FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF 2009." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2018. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/492035.
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Urban EducationPh.D.
This study examines the role of parental cultural capital as it pertains to whether a student attends a chosen school and whether the quality of the school a student attends is a function of cultural capital. Three theory-based factors representing cultural capital and three factors that represent facets of school quality were created using principal components analysis. Logistic regression was used to determine that cultural capital does play a role in whether a student attends a chosen school. In fact, one aspect of cultural capital, institutional engagement, is the strongest predictor of whether a student attends a chosen school. Linear regression models shed light on the role that different forms of cultural capital and choosing may play in the quality of school that the student attends. While the results are complex, I am able to conclude that cultural capital and choosing do play a role in the quality of school that a student attends, but community and school district characteristics, as well as parental socioeconomic status may play a stronger role. Models control for student and school district characteristics and school clustering effects. Suggestions for future research and implications for policy are discussed.
Temple University--Theses
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Baker, Sarah. "A biocultural analysis of natural mummification : the importance of preservation on the examination of biological and cultural evidence." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2008. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/1060.
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This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.Bachelors
Sciences
Anthropology
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Odusanya, Kayode A. "The effects of cultural archetypes on the perceived usefulness of IT : evidence from a UK public sector organisation." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2018. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/35935.
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A long-standing inquiry that has persisted in practice and research over the years is how to explain the uptake of information systems by users. A key indicator of systems being accepted by users is that they are used by individuals and that they consider them to be useful. Specifically, one of the most well-established measures that has been used to assess the extent to which users find IT useful is perceived usefulness, which in turn is influenced by users cultural values, assumptions and behaviours. Nevertheless, researchers have pointed to the lack of insights on the cultural factors that explain users perceived usefulness of IT. A recent theoretical advance in the IS literature, the IT culture concept, allows the identification of user archetypes grounded in their needs and motivation to use IT. As a consequence of adopting this concept, this research has provided insights on users cultural values and for the first time portrayed how cultural archetypes influence the perceived usefulness of IT. Using data obtained from a survey of 270 IT users within a local council in the UK, five cultural archetypes (the social users; the compliant-dodgers; the interested users; the high intensity users; and the dangerous users) were identified through a multivariate cluster analysis, while their effects on the perceived usefulness of IT was conducted using a multiple regression analysis. Overall, this thesis makes theoretical and practical contributions. Drawing on the IT culture concept, this study provides deeper understanding of cultural archetypes within an organisational context. It extends current IT culture literature by investigating the influence of cultural archetypes on the perceived usefulness of IT. In addition, the results also provide managers with insight on how to deal with employees that exhibit these cultural archetypes. Moreover, our study shows that business leaders may find it useful to embrace a diversified strategy that responds to the needs and motivation of IT users within their organisation.
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Cearfoss, Christine. "Los Angeles Community-Based Associate Social Workers' Understanding of Culture and Therapy." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/6538.
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Social workers have no clear professional guidelines about the application of culturally competent mental health service delivery. Without culturally competent mental health service delivery, clients from diverse cultures do not access needed mental health services and they experience less effective therapy treatment outcomes and overall disparity of service delivery throughout the therapeutic process. The purpose of this descriptive case study was to better understand how community-based social workers are delivering culturally competent services to clients. The theoretical framework for the study was multiculturalism and the primary research questions addressed how associate clinical social workers who provide in-home mental health services in Los Angeles deliver culturally competent services to their clients. Through 8 interviews with associate clinical social workers, this descriptive case study revealed that without clear direction on what culturally competent services are, or how to deliver them, social workers are using a combination of personal experience and personal culture, educational and practice knowledge, and in some cases no attention to culture, to meet the mental health needs of their clients. This study emphasized the need for an industry wide understanding of the term cultural competency, so it could serve as the frame of reference by which practice professional skill level could be assessed, practice protocols measured, and could lead to social change through greater access to counseling services for clients.
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Ibáñez, Perfecto Andrés. "On the cultural poverty of a (judicial) practice without theory." Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2017. http://repositorio.pucp.edu.pe/index/handle/123456789/115555.
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The traditional model of initial training of judges in Spain and in other countries has been focused, and is still focused, on the mechanical digestion of a pile of stereotyped notions related to several legal subjects.This knowledge is presented with no references to specific legal disputes and does not meet at all, neither the profile of modern complex constitutional legal systems consisting of several levels, internally changing and conflicting; nor the practice of those systems. It does correspond, however, the historical model of the Napoleonic judge, who tends to act as a mechanical enforcer of the law and the longa manu of the real power rather than guardian of the citizens’ basic rights. The alternative to this kind of judicial training would be a system of training incorporating a high quality operative knowledge of the positive law actually in force, together with a theoretical-philosophical training in line with the suggestions made by Manuel Sacristán of «a level of exercise of thinking» based on the specific field and activity inherent to that group of legal practitioners.El modelo tradicional de formación inicial de jueces para el desempeño del rol, en España, pero no solo, se ha cifrado y se cifra en la asimilación mecánica de todo un cúmulo de nociones estereotipadas relativas a las diversas disciplinas. Se trata de un bagaje que, por su carácter desproblematizador, no se ajusta en absoluto al perfil de los modernos ordenamientos constitucionales complejos, dotados de distintos niveles y, con frecuencia, internamente conflictivos y cambiantes; y menos a su práctica.Pero responde, en cambio, al histórico tipo de juez del modelo napoleónico, longa manu del poder en acto más que garante de derechos, tendencial aplicador mecánico. La alternativa a esta clase de formación estaría en otra que incorporase a un buen conocimiento operativo del derecho positivo en su ser actual y realmente vigente, una formación teórico-filosófica en la línea sugerida una vez por Manuel Sacristán, como «un nivel de ejercicio del pensamiento» a partir de y sobre el específico campo temático y de la actividad propia de tal clase de operadores.
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Gómez, Jiménez Marcos. "Employee Creativity and Culture. Evidence from an examination of culture's influence on perceived employee's creativity in Spanish organizations." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Ramon Llull, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/362365.
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La creativitat és considerada un ingredient fonamental de la innovació, un recurs altament valorat per a la competitivitat sostenible i l’èxit a llarg termini de les empreses. Per això, líders de negoci, així com investigadors acadèmics i estaments polítics, han donat una atenció creixent a aquest tema. La investigació sobre la creativitat és un camp multifacètic i en creixement continuat. Degut a una falta de consens en la definició de la creativitat, aquest camp d’investigació s’ha anat ampliant al llarg de dècades, arribant als nostres dies amb una gran varietat d’aproximacions al seu estudi des de diferents disciplines, tals com la psicologia, sociologia, antropologia, neurologia o economia entre altres. No obstant, la perspectiva cultural aplicada a l’estudi de la creativitat ha estat relativament inferior. Malgrat algunes Formulacions teòriques, aquesta aproximació roman un pas per darrere en termes de recerca empírica.
La present tesi es planteja la pregunta d’investigació de en quina mesura la cultura influència la creativitat de l'empleat en els seus llocs de treball, cosa que també es podria conceptualitzar com la influència de la cultura en el domini de coneixement de la creativitat en les organitzacions.
Aquesta tesi proporciona evidència empírica a partir de 198 empleats de 10 organitzacions espanyoles, amb respecte a la relació entre cultura i creativitat en el treball. Es proposa que la cultura té una influència significativa a la creativitat de l'empleat. L'efecte de la cultura sobre aquesta creativitat s’estudia aplicant un model multidimensional de la creativitat de l'empleat percebuda, tenint en compte l’impacte cultural a un nivell individual d’anàlisi en tres dimensions diferents: cultura nacional, cultura organitzacional i valors individuals independents. En aquest model la creativitat de l’empleat es percebuda per ell mateix, i també (a mode de punt de validació) pel cap de l’empleat.
Mentre la majoria de les eines i teories de la creativitat han estat desenvolupades a l’entorn de la cultura Anglo-Saxona, aquesta tesi es focalitza a la creativitat de l’empleat en el si d'organitzacions d'Espanya, una societat mediterrània que representa un espai cultural relativament poc investigat fins al moment.
Entre les principals contribucions, els resultats empírics suggereixen un procés diferent procés social de creativitat en les organitzacions participants en aquest estudi, i una inesperada diferent percepció sobre la creativitat de l'empleat, en funció del punt d'observació.
En resum, el propòsit d’aquesta tesi és la d'estudiar l'efecte de la cultura a la creativitat de l'empleat percebuda, en tres diferents dimensions d'anàlisi: la cultura nacional, la cultura organitzacional i els valors individuals independents.La creatividad es considerada un ingrediente fundamental de la innovación, un recurso altamente preciado para la competitividad sostenible y el éxito a largo plazo de las empresas. Por ello, líderes de negocios, así como investigadores académicos y estamentos políticos, han prestado una atención creciente a este tema. La investigación sobre la creatividad es un campo multifacético y en continuo crecimiento. Debido a una falta de consenso en la definición de la creatividad, este campo de investigación se ha ido ampliando a lo largo de décadas, llegando a nuestros días con una gran variedad de aproximaciones a su estudio desde diferentes disciplinas, tales como psicología, sociología, antropología, neurología, o economía, entre otros. Sin embargo, la perspectiva cultural aplicada al estudio de la creatividad ha sido relativamente menor. A pesar de algunas formulaciones teóricas, esta aproximación permanece un paso por detrás en términos de investigación empírica. La presente tesis se plantea la pregunta de investigación de en qué medida la cultura influencia la creatividad del empleado en sus puestos de trabajo, lo que también se podría conceptualizar como la influencia de la cultura en el dominio de conocimiento de la creatividad en las organizaciones. Esta tesis proporciona evidencia empírica a partir de 198 empleados de 10 organizaciones españolas, con respecto a la relación entre cultura y creatividad en el trabajo. Se propone que la cultura tiene una influencia significativa en la creatividad del empleado. El efecto de la cultura sobre dicha creatividad se estudia aplicando un modelo multidimensional de la creatividad del empleado percibida, teniendo en cuenta el impacto cultural a un nivel individual de análisis, en tres dimensiones distintas: cultura nacional, cultura organizacional, y valores individuales independientes. En este modelo la creatividad del empleado es percibida por él mismo, y también (a modo de punto de validación) por el jefe del empleado. Mientras la mayoría de las herramientas y teorías de la creatividad han sido desarrolladas en el entorno de la cultura Anglo-Sajona, esta tesis se focaliza en la creatividad del empleado en el seno de organizaciones de España, una sociedad mediterránea que representa un espacio cultural relativamente poco investigado hasta el momento. Entre las principales contribuciones, los resultados empíricos sugieren un diferente proceso social de creatividad en las organizaciones participantes en el estudio, y una inesperada diferente percepción sobre la creatividad del empleado, en función del punto de observación. En resumen, el propósito de esta tesis es la de estudiar el efecto de la cultura en la creatividad del empleado percibida, en tres distintas dimensiones de analisis: la cultura nacional, la cultura organizacional y los valores individuales independientes.
Creativity is considered as a key ingredient of innovation, a highly praised resource for sustainable competitiveness and long term business success. As such, business leaders but also academic researchers and policy makers have paid increased attention to the subject. Creativity research is an ever-growing and multifaceted field of enquiry. Despite a lack of consensus regarding how to define creativity, this field of research has grown over the decades and today it includes a wide variety of approaches from diverse disciplines such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, neurology, economy, among others. The cultural approach to the study of creativity has been relatively understudied. Although there are some theoretical formulations, this stream of research lags behind in terms of empirical research. The current dissertation addresses the research question in relation to what extent culture affects the creativity of employees at work, that might also be conceptualized as the effect of culture on the knowledge domain of organizational creativity. This dissertation provides empirical evidence from a sample of 198 employees from 10 Spanish organizations, regarding the relationship between culture and creativity at work. It is maintained that culture has a significant influence on the employee creativity. The effect of culture on employee creativity is examined employing a multidimensional model, of the perceived employee creativity, that takes into account culture’s imprints at an individual level of analysis, at three distinct dimensions: national culture, organizational culture and individual stand-alone values. In this model the employee’s creativity is perceived by the employee himself, and also (as a validation point) by the employee’s manager. While most of creativity tools and theories have been developed within an Anglo-Saxon culture, this dissertation is focused on employee creativity in organizations belonging to Spain, a Mediterranean society and a cultural space that is relatively under-examined by previous research. Among the main contributions, empirical findings suggest a potential different social process of creativity in the organizations under study, and an unexpected different perception of employees’ creativity depending on the observation point. In summary, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of culture on perceived employees' creativity, at three distinct dimensions: national culture, organizational culture and individual stand-alone values.
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Knops, André [Verfasser], Torsten [Akademischer Betreuer] Schubert, Anja [Akademischer Betreuer] Ischebeck, and Isabell [Akademischer Betreuer] Wartenburger. "Neurocognitive evidence for cultural recycling of cortical maps in numerical cognition / André Knops. Gutachter: Torsten Schubert ; Anja Ischebeck ; Isabell Wartenburger." Berlin : Lebenswissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1068855649/34.
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Dolinka, Benjamin Joel. "Arabia adquisita? : ceramic evidence for Nabatean cultural continuity during the Antonine and Severan periods : the Aqaba Ware from Horvat Dafit." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.437491.
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Joshi, Rhucha. "Assessing the Impact of Cultural Beliefs on the Use of Evidence-Based Treatment for Diarrhea in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/627178.
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A Thesis submitted to The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine.Diarrhea is the fourth leading cause of children under five worldwide. Recommendations for diarrhea treatment include oral rehydration therapy, continued feeding, zinc supplementation, and antibiotic use if indicated. The use of these therapies is lower than expected in developing countries. This study aims to determine how cultural beliefs impact the use of evidence-based approaches for diarrhea treatment, specifically in developing countries. A systematic review of primary research articles was done to assess knowledge of and attitudes towards evidence-based treatments, analyze care-seeking behaviors, and identify beliefs attached to treatment practices. Most cultural beliefs fall into the following themes: misconceptions about evidence-based treatments; feeding practices; home remedies and herbal medicines; inappropriate use of medications; and traditional healers and spiritual beliefs. The results show the possibility for working with traditional healers and the local population to gather more data about beliefs and practices. This information can be used to develop culturally sensitive treatment programs that can operate within the framework of local beliefs and practices.
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Puchniak, Megan K. "Paleolimnological evidence of the effects of recent cultural eutrophication and climatic variability during the last 300 years in Lake Malawi, East Africa." Waterloo, Ont. : University of Waterloo, 2004. http://etd.uwaterloo.ca/etd/mkpuchni2005.pdf.
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Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Waterloo, 2004."A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Biology." Includes bibliographical references.
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Puchniak, Megan. "Paleolimnological evidence of the effects of recent cultural eutrophication and climatic variability during the last 300 years in Lake Malawi, East Africa." Thesis, University of Waterloo, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/1252.
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Lake Malawi is the second largest lake in Africa, supporting diverse populations of endemic cichlids and supplying essential water resources to Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. However, population growth, rapid deforestation and intensive agriculture, especially in the southern catchments, have accelerated soil erosion during the last half century. These anthropogenically-disturbed catchments have caused rivers to transport greater sediment loads into Lake Malawi than rivers within forested catchments. Lake Malawi?s immense size and oligotrophic nature may retard detection of inputs of external contaminants. Reversing the effects of increased nutrient loading to Lake Malawi once observed would likely take generations, as the residence time of water is over 140 years. Therefore, sensitive metrics are required to assess the effects of land use change and climate variability in Lake Malawi in advance of deleterious effects. In this study, paleolimnological analyses of four sediment cores collected in 1997 and 1998 along a longitudinal transect of Lake Malawi, dated with 210Pb analyses and analyzed for biogenic silica and sedimentary diatom assemblages, were used to create a long-term water quality dataset. These four sites span gradients of land use and latitude in order to reconstruct limnological conditions over the whole lake during the last 300 years. Paleoecological results indicate that patterns of diatom assemblage change are not uniform lake wide. Southern cores contain evidence of nutrient enrichment starting as early as ca. 1940, indicated by increased silica, carbon and nitrogen burial. By ca. 1970, increased rates of sedimentation, diatom influx and changes in diatom community composition, characterized by increased percent abundance of eutrophic diatom taxa, are attributable to accelerated enrichment by terrestrial soil erosion. The succession of diatoms in southern Lake Malawi begins with high percent abundance of Aulacoseira nyassensis and Fragilaria africana, which thrive in nutrient-rich waters, followed by a shift towards diatom taxa with reduced silica requirements by ca. 1980 (e. g. Stephanodiscus nyassae, S. minutulus, S. muelleri, Cyclostephanos and small Nitzschia species. ), a pattern comparable to the eutrophication-induced decline in silica to phosphorus ratios in Lake Victoria. In Lake Malawi, evidence of eutrophication extends to the mid lake as indicated by similar diatom assemblage changes in the sediment core from the central region. Diatom stratigraphies from the north end of the lake indicate no observable impacts of land use change on the northern basin of Lake Malawi during the past 350 years. However, a nine-meter rise in water level ca. 1860 AD appears to have resulted in elevated diatom influxes at that time comparable to the recent eutrophication-induced diatom influxes of the southern cores. The effects of this rise in water level was recorded in all three measured sites, southern, central and northern Lake Malawi, indicating lake-wide increased productivity, yet changes to the diatom community composition were imperceptible. This study shows evidence of recent cultural eutrophication altering limnological conditions with impacts to the biogeochemical cycling of silica, the available silica to phosphorus ratios and the biotic communities of a large portion of Lake Malawi. Thus, providing an early warning that proper stewardship of Lake Malawi requires effective management of land-use practices within the catchment to reduce soil erosion and avoid widespread water quality deterioration of this great lake.
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Melton, Nigel Duncan. "Archaeological visibility of cultural continuity, contact and change in southern Shetland from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries AD : a multi-discipline analysis of the evidence for inter-action between different cultural identities in a North Atlantic island community." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.645948.
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A multidisciplinary approach, using archaeological and documentary evidence, is used to examine the evidence for cultural contacts, continuity and change in southern Shetland between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Contacts with both the foreign merchants and traders who were operating in the area and those arising from the immigration into the area of large numbers of Scots and Orcadians are considered. Selected artefact types from case studies of a high status site, a crofting township and a trading place are used in this research, along with archaeological economic evidence and documentary evidence. The documentary evidence is used to construct a predictive model of the archaeological record on the site types selected as case studies. The latter use data from the past excavations at Jarlshof, the current excavations at Old Scatness and from targeted sampling of seventeenth century middens at Grutness. The archaeological evidence is shown to reveal a pattern of trading contacts that corresponds to that described in the documentary record. A growing insularity is indicated by a decline in the numbers of items of imported material culture in the course of the seventeenth century. It is suggested that this could in part be linked to climatic deterioration. Archaeological and documentary evidence is presented that may relate to possible climate induced strain in the local whitefish fishery that dominated the trade of the area. Evidence for the historically attested 'Scottification' of the area and its effects on the economy is also demonstrated in both the architectural and material culture records.
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Owen, L. "Exploring the role of Short Food Supply Chains in enhancing the livelihoods of small-scale food producers : evidence from the United Kingdom and The Gambia." Thesis, Coventry University, 2014. http://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open/items/bd9ba560-fd34-4f2e-a7fa-ddd0f27f7604/1.
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Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) can be understood as ‘alternatives’ to conventional, complex food chains that tend to dominate contemporary agri-food systems. They redefine producer-consumer relations through socially and physically ‘closer’, more transparent supply chains founded upon quality cues associated with provenance, whereby products become embedded with information about the spaces of production. It has been argued that SFSC can have significant socio-economic benefits for rural development, providing livelihoods for small-scale, independent food producers who would otherwise be marginalised from food markets. SFSC have received plenty of attention amongst ‘alternative’ agri-food scholars in recent years. However, empirical research has typically addressed SFSC in relation to a specific set of values, politics and traditions, examining a locale or region in relation to cultural structures ingrained in a particular context. This has resulted in vast amounts of agri-food literature with specific reference to the contexts of Europe, North America and other global North regions. Attention to countries from the global South has increased recently, but there are limited cross-cultural, comparative analyses between regions from the global North and South. This is surprising given that small-scale food producers the world over face similar obstacles associated with access to markets, adaptation to climate change, contradictory policies and development programmes and increased competition from imports. This research investigates how SFSC operate in context, drawing on evidence from case studies in rural regions of The Gambia, West Africa and East England; illustrative cases of the global North and South. This thesis adopts an inductive methodology, incorporating grounded theory and a range of qualitative methods and data analysis techniques. The regional food group Tastes of Anglia and social enterprise named ‘Gambia is Good’ served as gatekeepers and provided access to small-scale food producers in each case. The Sustainable (Rural) Livelihoods Framework as originally conceived by the Department for International Development (DFID) was used as a conceptual toolkit to guide data collection and analyses. This involved an amalgamation of the largely disparate ‘alternative’ agri-food literature with that of sustainable livelihoods, revealing the important role that horizontal embeddedness and vertical embeddedness have in the context of SFSC. This research has found that in The Gambia, limited access to capital assets, infrastructural constraints and a lack of social embeddedness between rural producers and customers in the high value tourist industry undermines SFSC as viable livelihood strategies. This is in contrast to the UK, where food producers have access to a wider set of resources and can also draw on established ‘quality’ cues associated with Product-Process-Place linkages to market their products. Results suggest this is due to the historical (agri)cultural trajectories of East Anglia and spatial-temporal synergies that enable products embedded with information to be differentiated in competitive marketplaces. The processes enabling this differentiation can be considered as a form of cultural capital. This cannot be as readily drawn upon in The Gambia given its different agricultural and political-economic histories, and comparatively weaker forms of vertical embeddedness. This raises questions about the relevance and transferability of SFSC models to contexts such as The Gambia and other ‘similar’ regions in sub-Saharan Africa and the global South. The broader implications of these findings are discussed and five future research agendas that explore the key processes of horizontal and vertical embeddedness in both the global North and South are presented.
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Mamary, Albert James M. "African-American Influence on the Chesapeake Bay Log Canoe: Evidence from Nineteenth Century Probate Inventories and Population Census Records of York County, Virginia and Worcester County, Maryland." W&M ScholarWorks, 1994. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625862.
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Margolis, Kathryn. "A Pilot Feasibility and Effectiveness Trial of the Family Check-Up Parenting Intervention with Spanish Preadolescents and Their Families: A Cultural Adaptation and Feasibility Study to Enhance Evidence-Based Intervention Research in Spain." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13219.
Full textAbstract:
There is strong research support for the effectiveness and feasibility of family-centered, evidence-based programs (EBPs) to prevent the developmental and negative effects of youth problem behaviors. Despite this support, there is a relatively low rate of disseminating existing EBPs to diverse nations and cultures, and there is even less research being conducted to evaluate the existing efforts towards dissemination and uptake. Youth problem behavior prevention is a burgeoning area of psychological study in Spain, yet Spanish psychologists do not currently utilize evidence-based prevention approaches. This study aimed to fill gaps in the research related to understanding best practices in disseminating and evaluating the dissemination of EBPs to international settings and to evaluating the uptake of a family-centered EBPs for use in Spain to prevent problem behavior in adolescence and adulthood.
The current study utilized a pretest/posttest with a follow-up, randomized control design to conduct a pilot feasibility and effectiveness trial of a family-centered EBP proven to effectively prevent problem behavior during adolescence. Seventeen pre-adolescents (ages 9-12) and their parents from the Seville metropolitan area in Spain were randomly assigned to receive the Family Check-Up intervention (FCU) or waitlist-control condition. This study used a multimodal, multi-agent approach to (1) examine intervention feasibility and uptake, (2) measure trends in youth adjustment and family management practices in the study sample, (3) examine differences in youth behavior and internalizing problems, and positive parenting, limit setting, and monitoring based on intervention group assignment, and (4) measure motivation to change based on random assignment to the intervention condition. Results from mixed effects repeated analysis of variance analyses indicated that the intervention group made significant improvements in conduct and internalizing problems and in parental limit setting, positive parenting, and family problem solving. These quantitative findings coupled with confirmatory qualitative themes suggest that the intervention was both effective in reducing youth adjustment problems and enhancing parenting skills and feasible when applied within the Spanish cultural context. Implications of culturally sensitive, community-based methods of intervention dissemination are discussed.
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Solymosi, Katalin [Verfasser], and Werner [Akademischer Betreuer] Konold. "Landscape development and land use change in traditional cultural landscapes - evidence from the peripheries of Europe = Landschaftsentwicklung und Landnutzungswandel in traditionellen Kulturlandschaften - Beobachtungen aus den Peripherien Europas." Freiburg : Universität, 2011. http://d-nb.info/1123464871/34.
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Mongeon, Mylène. "Improvising Knowledge: A Case Study of Practices in and Around World Spine Care's Evidence-based Clinics in Shoshong and Mahalapye, Botswana." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/34972.
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Global health organizations attend to populations around the world applying an evidence-based model of care that often does not correspond with local realities on the ground. My thesis provides an in-depth anthropological study of how this occurs within practices in and around World Spine Care's (WSC) clinics in Shoshong and Mahalapye, Botswana. More specifically I explore how knowledge is negotiated and improvised on the ground, paying particular attention to the ways WSC volunteers are (un)able to work with local health workers as they desire. I show the flows and counter-flows implicated in the difficult task of reconciling skills with standards. The study is based on a total of 15 months of participation with WSC's organization through attending meetings, activities and shadowing practitioners both in Ottawa and in Botswana. Expanding the scope of their creative improvisational skills beyond the closed settings of WSC clinics is proposed as a way to move forward.
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Kober, Ryan Kylie. "Bodies of Evidence: A Qualitative Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Female Central American and Mexican Asylum Seekers in Dallas." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2017. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc984243/.
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This work addresses the experiences of female asylum seekers from Central and Mexico currently living in Dallas, TX. The main purpose is to analyze how these women engage in the gendered processes of both migrating to and accessing legal resources and protection within the United States. As the women move through male-dominated spaces in their home country, the borderlands, and the asylum court they must challenge the patriarchal institutions that attempt to silence their narratives and criminalize their bodies. Their physical wounds become evidence in the courtroom, while outside of the courtroom their movements are monitored and tracked through multiple mechanisms of state control: ankle monitors, detention centers, ICE check-ins. They face intersectional discrimination as they are targeted as both women and immigrants. However, these female asylum seekers are not victims. They constantly display agency as they represent themselves in court, find solace in their faith, and form community with each other.