Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Scientific approach'

Includes bibliographical references.<br>Horseracing and its associated activity of gambling invites academic research of a multidisciplinary nature. Economics, psychology, mathematics and statistics are all fields that have investigated the two topics. In 1976 economists discovered a new body of data on which they could test their theories. For many years psychologists have investigated human behaviour in gambling situations. Mathematicians have developed optimal betting strategies. Statisticians have assisted in all the investigations as well as utilised decision theory, probability theory and regression analysis, in their own right, within the discipline. Why do academics devote their time to this subject? The furthering of knowledge in general in the above fields is important. Also, because the possibility of making money with relatively little work exists, people from all walks of life will be drawn to the intellectual challenge of finding winners. Researchers know that in order to derive money making systems, research on an academic scale is necessary. The amount of data available is phenomenal and although much of it is utilized by the public, some of it is not and that which is, is not always used in a consistent manner. The research in this work concentrates on all four fields mentioned above. A general, overview of the work done in each section is as follows. In chapters two and three, the betting market is examined within the framework of the efficient markets hypothesis. Tests of the three well known forms of efficiency are performed. In chapter four, within the framework of the expected utility hypothesis, the behaviour of gamblers is analysed. The investigation concentrates on behaviour observed at the racetrack, but draws ideas from other gambling situations as well. In chapter five, an investigation is made into horseraces, considering a race to be a sports event. This will consider the competing horses as athletes and will try and identify which fundamental factors are most important in determining the victor of such a race. In chapter six, some statistical theory, which has simple applications in horseracing is examined. In chapter seven, the economics of racetrack management is investigated.

In 1986 Thereza Imanishi-Kari, then an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was at the peak of her career. She had just coauthored a paper in the prestigious journal Cell with David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate. Their research was exciting and their findings promising.<br>Margot O'Toole, Imanishi-Kari's postdoctoral fellow at the time, was unable to reproduce some of the experimental results published in the paper and could not resolve this with her postdoctoral supervisor. Subsequently, O'Toole became convinced that there were serious errors in the paper and, shortly afterwards, the National Institutes of Health began officially investigating the questions she raised about it.<br>It may have been simply a character clash between Imanishi-Kari and O'Toole but partly due to the involvement of a figure such as Baltimore, this clash possibly ruined their careers, took 10 years to settle down, cost millions of dollars of public money, polarized the scientific community, and went down in history as one of the most widely followed cases of scientific fraud.<br>Based on statistical, forensic and other evidence, Imanishi-Kari was found guilty of scientific misconduct and banned from receiving public funding for 10 years. This was not the end of the matter, however, because Imanishi-Kari appealed the decision and was later exonerated.<br>In this thesis, we tell the statistical story by putting forward the statistical arguments that were used against Imanishi-Kari and the counterarguments to them.

This thesis presents a structural model of one aspect of science, the theory-driven discovery of empirical laws, in terms of the knowledge structures and reasoning processes that it involves; and describes a machine learning system designed to embody the major features of the model, called OZ, which is designed to investigate the transport properties of an unknown membrane separating two solutions. Inductive data-driven discovery is an important process in science, but takes place within very tightly constrained limits defined by theoretical reasoning. An explicit specification of the possible search space for a law is a <i>law framework</i>; this takes the form of a law with some undetermined parameters. Inductive law discovery is the search for the values of these free parameters. According to the model <i>informal qualitative models</i> (IQMs) describing the essential structural features of a physical system are used to guide the selection of appropriate variables for scientific law discovery, and the selection of an appropriate mathematical function for a law. Our analysis differs from previous work in machine discovery in stressing the importance of models of internal structure in scientific discovery. OZ comprises a domain independent control structure and a set of domain independent procedures, plus a set of domain dependent heuristics for the membrane properties domain. It constructs a set of candidate IQMs for the unknown membrane, and designs goal-directed experiments to determine which IQM is the right one, generating and testing qualitative predictions about the patterns to be expected in numerical data. When it has identified a single model as correct, it constructs law frameworks for possible laws describing the transport properties of the membrane, then designs different experiments to gather data to supply to an inductive law discovery function, which looks for a law of the type specified by each law framework.

Scientific Workflow Systems have been developed as a means to enable scientists to carry out complex analysis operations on local and remote data sources in order to achieve their research goals. Systems typically provide a large number of components and facilities to enable such analysis to be performed and have matured to a point where they offer many complex capabilities. This complexity makes it difficult for scientists working with these systems to readily achieve their goals. In this thesis we describe the increasing burden of knowledge required of these scientists in order for them to specify the outcomes they wish to achieve within the workflow systems. We consider ways in which the challenges presented by these systems can be reduced, focusing on the following questions: How can metadata describing the resources available assist users in composing workflows? Can automated assistance be provided to guide users through the composition process? Can such an approach be implemented so as to work with the resources provided by existing Scientific Workflow Systems? We have developed a new approach to workflow composition which makes use of a number of features: an ontology for recording metadata relating to workflow components, a set of algorithms for analyzing the state of a workflow composition and providing suggestions for how to progress based on this metadata, an API to enable both the algorithms and metadata to utilise the resources provided by existing Scientific Workflow Systems, and a prototype user interface to demonstrate how our proposed approach to workflow composition can work in practice. We evaluate the system to show the approach is valid and capable of reducing some of the difficulties presented by existing systems, but that limitations exist regarding the complexity of workflows which can be composed, and also regarding the challenge of initially populating the metadata ontology.

Philosophers of science have long realized that it is not possible to decide which scientific theory is true just by relying on their empirical adequacy. That theories should possess other virtues in order to be accepted by the scientific community is well understood. Nevertheless, empirical adequacy remained as having a privileged value among these virtues. In this thesis I argue that scientific theories are accepted or rejected on the bases of an evaluation of their degree of coherence. In such a coherentist understanding, empirical adequacy still plays some role. However, this is an egalitarian approach where observational reports have no special status. By means of case studies form history of science I provided reasons to think that this coherentist approach is better suited to understanding scientific change as a rational process.

This thesis presents an approach for device information modeling that is meant to ease the challenges of device manufacturers in the automation domain. The basis for this approach are semantic models of the application domain. The author discusses the challenges for integration in the automation domain and especially regarding field devices, device description languages and fieldbuses. A method for the generation of semantic models is presented and an approach is discussed that is meant to help the generation of device descriptions for different device description languages. The approach is then evaluated.

The automation of scientific discovery has been an active research topic for many years. The promise of a formalized approach to developing and testing scientific hypotheses has attracted researchers from the sciences, machine learning, and philosophy alike. Leveraging the concept of dynamical symmetries a new paradigm is proposed for the collection of scientific knowledge, and algorithms are presented for the development of EUGENE – an automated scientific discovery tool-set. These algorithms have direct applications in model validation, time series analysis, and system identification. Further, the EUGENE tool-set provides a novel metric of dynamical similarity that would allow a system to be clustered into its dynamical regimes. This dynamical distance is sensitive to the presence of chaos, effective order, and nonlinearity. I discuss the history and background of these algorithms, provide examples of their behavior, and present their use for exploring system dynamics.<br>Master of Science

<p>Scientific Computing is the collection of tools, techniques, and theories required to solve on a computer, mathematical models of problems from science and engineering, and its main goal is to gain insight in such problems. Generally, it is difficult to understand or communicate information from complex or large datasets generated by Scientific Computing methods and techniques (computational simulations, complex experiments, observational instruments etc.). Therefore, support of Scientific Visualization is needed, to provide the techniques, algorithms, and software tools needed to extract and display appropriately important information from numerical data.</p><p>Usually, complex computational and visualization algorithms require large amounts of computational power. The computing power of a single desktop computer is insufficient for running such complex algorithms, and, traditionally, large parallel supercomputers or dedicated clusters were used for this job. However, very high initial investments and maintenance costs limit the availability of such systems. A more convenient solution, which is becoming more and more popular, is based on the use of nondedicated desktop PCs in a Desktop Grid Computing environment. Harnessing idle CPU cycles, storage space and other resources of networked computers to work together on a particularly computational intensive application does this. Increasing power and communication bandwidth of desktop computers provides for this solution.</p><p>In a desktop grid system, the execution of an application is orchestrated by a central scheduler node, which distributes the tasks amongst the worker nodes and awaits workers’ results. An application only finishes when all tasks have been completed. The attractiveness of exploiting desktop grids is further reinforced by the fact that costs are highly distributed: every volunteer supports her resources (hardware, power costs and internet connections) while the benefited entity provides management infrastructures, namely network bandwidth, servers and management services, receiving in exchange a massive and otherwise unaffordable computing power. The usefulness of desktop grid computing is not limited to major high throughput public computing projects. Many institutions, ranging from academics to enterprises, hold vast number of desktop machines and could benefit from exploiting the idle cycles of their local machines.</p><p>In the work presented in this thesis, the central idea has been to provide a desktop grid computing framework and to prove its viability by testing it in some Scientific Computing and Visualization experiments. We present here QADPZ, an open source system for desktop grid computing that have been developed to meet the above presented needs. QADPZ enables users from a local network or Internet to share their resources. It is a multi-platform, heterogeneous system, where different computing resources from inside an organization can be used. It can be used also for volunteer computing, where the communication infrastructure is the Internet. QADPZ supports the following native operating systems: Linux, Windows, MacOS and Unix variants. The reason behind natively supporting multiple operating systems, and not only one (Unix or Windows, as other systems do), is that often, in real life, this kind of limitation restricts very much the usability of desktop grid computing.</p><p>QADPZ provides a flexible object-oriented software framework that makes it easy for programmers to write various applications, and for researchers to address issues such as adaptive parallelism, fault-tolerance, and scalability. The framework supports also the execution of legacy applications, which for different reasons could not be rewritten, and that makes it suitable for other domains as business. It also supports low-level programming languages as C/C++ or high-level language applications, (e.g. Lisp, Python, and Java), and provides the necessary mechanisms to use such applications in a computation. Consequently, users with various backgrounds can benefit from using QADPZ. The flexible object-oriented structure and the modularity allow facile improvements and further extensions to other programming languages.</p><p>We have developed a general-purpose runtime and an API to support new kinds of high performance computing applications, and therefore to benefit from the advantages offered by desktop grid computing. This API directly supports the C/C++ programming language. We have shown how distributed computing extends beyond the master-worker paradigm (typical for such systems) and provided QADPZ with an extended API that supports in addition lightweight tasks and parallel computing (using the message passing paradigm - MPI). This extends the range of applications that can be used to already existing MPI based applications - e.g. parallel numerical solvers used in computational science, or parallel visualization algorithms.</p><p>Another restriction of existing systems, especially middleware based, is that each resource provider needs to install a runtime module with administrator privileges. This poses some issues regarding data integrity and accessibility on providers computers. The QADPZ system tries to overcome this by allowing the middleware module to run as a non-privileged user, even with restricted access, to the local system.</p><p>QADPZ provides also low-level optimizations, such as on-the-fly compression and encryption for communication. The user can choose from different algorithms, depending on the application, improving both the communication overhead imposed by large data transfers and keeping privacy of the data. The system goes further, by providing an experimental, adaptive compression algorithm, which can transparently choose different algorithms to improve the application. QADPZ support two different protocols (UDP and TCP/IP) in order to improve the efficiency of communication.</p><p>Free source code allows its flexible installations and modifications based on the particular needs of research projects and institutions. In addition to being a very powerful tool for computationally intensive research, the open sourceness makes QADPZ a flexible educational platform for numerous smallsize student projects in the areas of operating systems, distributed systems, mobile agents, parallel algorithms, etc. Open source software is a natural choice for modern research as well, because it encourages effectively integration, cooperation and boosting of new ideas.</p><p>This thesis proposes also an improved conceptual model (based on the master-worker paradigm), which makes contributions in several directions: pull vs. push work-units, pipelining of work-units, more work-units sent at a time, adaptive number of workers, adaptive time-out interval for work-units, and multithreading. We have also demonstrated that the use of desktop grids should not be limited to only master-worker applications, but it can be used for more fine-grained parallel Scientific Computing and Visualization applications, by performing some specific experiments. This thesis makes supplementary contributions: a hierarchical taxonomy of the main existing desktop grids, and an adaptive compression algorithm for remote visualization. QADPZ has also pioneered autonomic computing approach for desktop grids and presents specific self-management features: self-knowledge, self-configuration, selfoptimization and self-healing. It is worth to mention that to the present the QADPZ has over a thousand users who have download it (since July, 2001 when it has been uploaded to sourceforge.net), and many of them use it for their daily tasks (see the appendix). Many of the results have been published or are in course of publishing as it can be seen from the references.</p>

<p>In the past decade, the amount of scientific data collected and generated by scientists has grown dramatically. This growth has intensified an existing problem: in large archives consisting of datasets stored in many files, formats and locations, how can scientists find data relevant to their research interests? We approach this problem in a new way: by adapting Information Retrieval techniques, developed for searching text documents, into the world of (primarily numeric) scientific data. We propose an approach that uses a blend of automated and curated methods to extract metadata from large repositories of scientific data. We then perform searches over this metadata, returning results ranked by similarity to the search criteria. We present a model of this approach, and describe a specific implementation thereof performed at an ocean-observatory data archive and now running in production. Our prototype implements scanners that extract metadata from datasets that contain different kinds of environmental observations, and a search engine with a candidate similarity measure for comparing a set of search terms to the extracted metadata. We evaluate the utility of the prototype by performing two user studies; these studies show that the approach resonates with users, and that our proposed similarity measure performs well when analyzed using standard Information Retrieval evaluation methods. We performed performance tests to explore how continued archive growth will affect our goal of interactive response, developed and applied techniques that mitigate the effects of that growth, and show that the techniques are effective. Lastly, we describe some of the research needed to extend this initial work into a true &ldquo;Google for data&rdquo;. </p>

Complex social systems strive by exchanging information and resources. By means of the exchange, some actors in the system are able to at least partially determine the behaviour of another actor, thereby influencing it. Both the information exchange process and the degree of actors’ influence are latent, unobserved phenomena in many instances of real-world systems. This thesis presents a framework that intends to unearth the two hidden properties. It does so by introducing a Network Inference and Influence Framework (NIIF), which makes use of graph-based methods to derive a latent network in a social system, and measure the influence of its elements. The framework is applied on three case studies where the latency problem translates into research questions with importance for public policy making. The first case study uses NIIF to estimate the latent network of interdependency across financial institutions, and measures the extent to which a bank may negatively influence the system after an economic distress. In the second case study, a network of information diffusion is extracted from House of Commons parliamentary debates, testing the relation between the resulted metric of influence and speakers’ positions in government. The last case study builds a network of semantic and ideological affinity across UN General Assembly members, showing how graph-based methods can detect global political change. The thesis concludes with a discussion of potential future usages of the framework, as well as ameliorations.

This thesis uses the tools and methods of corpus linguistics to study the process of knowledge encoding in a corpus of texts from the scientific discipline of genetics. It is argued here that the approach taken fits into the tradition of corpus-driven approaches to linguistic questions in that no assumption is made about the linguistic form that this knowledge encoding will take. Instead the study proceeds by identifying a set of keywords using the concept of lexical chains to identify items of terminology. The investigation of these uses the cluster function of WordSmith Tools (Scott 2004) and is qualitative, following Sinclair (1991; 2004) in attempting to develop a picture of the typical linguistic nature of the patterns surrounding these clusters inductively through a process of studying collocation and colligation patterns and identifying phraseology. It is argued here that such an approach is required to discover linguistic aspects of epistemic encoding that have as yet not been identified by those working in the related fields of discourse analysis or corpus linguistics.

Gillrell, C. Vetenskapligt förhållningssätt i verksamhetsförlagd-sjuksköterskeutbildning. Fenomenografisk studie. Examensarbete i omvårdnad 15 högskolepoäng. Malmö högskola: Fakulteten för hälsa och samhälle, Institutionen för Vårdvetenskap, 2015.Det är en utmaning för sjuksköterskestudenten att identifiera omvårdnadsbehov hos en patient. Aktuell studie har fokuserat på vad den handledande sjuksköterskan uppfattar vara centralt i ett vetenskapligt förhållningssätt i omvårdnadsarbetet och hur fenomenet förmedlas till sjuksköterskestudenter. Resultatet visade variation i syftet med ett vetenskapligt förhållningssätt. En del handledare uppfattade att syftet med fenomenet var att identifiera omvårdnadsbehov, andra menade att syftet var att utföra omvårdnad flexibelt utifrån faktakunskap och vad som var det bästa för patienten. Starkast stöd för målet med ett vetenskapligt förhållningssätt i omvårdnadsarbetet var att ge den bästa och säkraste vården för specifik patient. Fenomenet vetenskapligt förhållningssätt kunde förmedlas om den verksamhetsförlagda utbildningen gavs tid, utrymme och hade strukturerade läraktiviteter samt reflektion i handling, och på handling.<br>Gillrell, C. Scientific approach in clinical placement in nursing education. A phenomenographic study. Degree project in Care Science 15 credits. Malmö University: Faculty of health and society, Department of Care Science, 2015.It is a challenge for nursing students to identify the care needs of a patient. Current study has focused what the supervising nurse perceived to be the center of a scientific approach in nursing and how the phenomenon was communicated to the nursing students. The results showed variation in the purpose of a scientific approach. Some supervisors perceived that the purpose of the phenomenon was to identify care needs, others meant that the aim was to carry out nursing flexible based on factual knowledge and what was best for the patient. The strongest support for the goal of a scientific approach in nursing work was to provide the best and safest care for a specific patient. The phenomenon of scientific approach could be communicated, in the clinical placement, if given the time and space, and if the student had structured learning activities and reflection in action, and on action.

The contributions of Gaston Bachelard to the history and philosophy of science are not very well known in the United States. This thesis traces the particular characteristics of Bachelard's epistemology within the context of early twentieth century French culture and science. Bachelard began his career in philosophy comparatively late in life and although his background in mathematics and physics was reflected in his philosophical approach to science, he belonged more to the French intellectual avant-garde than to the traditional philosophies of positivism and pragmatism defended by the Third Republic. Bachelard's writings represent an important contribution to a new vocabulary in epistemology, and they influenced scholars such as Georges Canguilhen, Alexandre Koyré, Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault. His works definitely deserve wider exposure, as they easily connect with problems that American scholars pursue today in Science Studies.<br>Master of Science

Thesis advisor: Andrea Vicini<br>Thesis advisor: Colleen M. Griffith<br>Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2019<br>Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry<br>Discipline: Sacred Theology

In late nineteenth and early twentieth century Argentina underwent large-scale immigration and fast-paced urban changes commonly associated with the coming of modernity. These changes led to elite fears of potential social instability. They turned to the French philosophy of Positivism, which advocated the view that all social problems could be systematically solved through scientific observation in order to "civilize" the Argentine nation. As a result, the government implemented numerous policies that catered to upholding traditional family structures. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the ways in which these policies affected women of different social classes. In developing my arguments, I use secondary literature from prominent scholars in Argentine history, gender studies, and intellectual history, as well as primary sources, including essays written by prominent officials and elite women, government reports, laws and penal codes. This thesis examines the impact of scientific motherhood on Argentine society. Elite men and women viewed their role in society as that of fathers and mothers to the poor and the working classes. This study permits a broader understanding of the impact of Positivism and European influence on Argentine society and policymaking.<br>B.A.<br>Bachelors<br>Arts and Humanities<br>History

Knowledge is the center of operation in modern organizations. This understanding leads them to clearly recognize that their intellectual capital is the essential source of competitive advantage. Organization integration is the todays tendency, which calls for the need to understand the organization as a complete system, implementing new concepts and approaches in an adaptive way to their organizational reality. Knowledge management, in this new approach, incorporates all of these aspects becoming a complex job, which must be fully studied to be brought into the organization routine. This document analyses the technical & scientific committees as an able instrument to contribute to the easiness of group activities in highly complex research organization as the Aerospace Technological Center (CTA) here taken as a case study. Several factors organizational, cultural and behavior have influence when implementing this management tool and need to be analyzed to guarantee a successful way of implementation. The objective of this research is to identify favorable and unfavorable aspects of technical & scientific committees in CTA. These aspects must not be considered separately. To implement these committees successfully the interrelationship of all aspects must be analyzed in a systemic view of the organization. It was possible to verify as well in this research that the committees are considered very important for the Aerospace Technologic al Center activities.<br>O conhecimento é o centro de operação das organizações, na atualidade. Este entendimento leva as organizações a reconhecerem explicitamente que o seu capital intelectual é fonte essencial de vantagem competitiva. A tendência atual é a de integração da organização, o que cria a necessidade de entendê-la como um todo sistêmico, implementando os novos conceitos e abordagens de forma adaptativa à realidade organizacional. A gestão do conhecimento, nessa nova abordagem, incorpora todos esses aspectos, tornando-se uma tarefa complexa que deve ser amplamente estudada para ser inserida na rotina da organização. Neste trabalho são abordados os comitês técnico-científicos, um instrumento julgado capaz de contribuir para a criação de um contexto de facilitação das atividades em grupo em organizações complexas de ensino e/ou pesquisa, tal como o Centro Técnico Aeroespacial, aqui tomado como estudo de caso. Diversos fatores organizacionais, culturais e comportamentais influenciam a implantação desse instrumento gerencial e necessitam ser analisados, a fim de se ter uma sistemática de implantação que tenha êxito. O objetivo da pesquisa foi a identificação de aspectos favoráveis e desfavoráveis à implantação dos comitês técnico-científicos no Centro. Esses fatores não devem ser considerados isoladamente. Para o sucesso da implantação dos comitês, o inter-relacionamento desses fatores deve ser analisado, contemplando uma visão sistêmica da organização. Pôde-se verificar também, nesta pesquisa, que os comitês são considerados importantes para as atividades do Centro Técnico Aeroespacial.

Continuing change in the provision of, and access to, scientific and technical information has stimulated the interest of researchers to study current information provision and usage in different work environments. The aim of this thesis is to study the current operation of the STI system in the Saudi higher education environment. A systems approach was adopted in order to have a holistic view of the requirements of this study. Since the systems approach is a concept, rather than a specific methodology, a number of framework research models that take the systems approach into consideration were developed to guide the investigation of both the information systems and the users.

Seemingly unscrupulous entities, referred to as “predatory” journals, have appeared in scholarly publishing over the past decade. Predatory journals have been characterized as using questionable publishing practices and consequently, as publishing questionable research. At the outset of this thesis, such assertions were based on little evidence, making it difficult to understand how to identify a predatory journal and judge the extent of the potential problem they present. This thesis sought to: (1) determine how the apparent operations of predatory journals differ from their presumed legitimate counterparts; (2) to characterize the epidemiology and reporting of biomedical research published in predatory journals; and (3) to determine what, if any, guidance health research funders provide about selecting journals in which to publish funded research. Predatory journals appear to be distinct from presumed legitimate journals in several ways. For example, they lack descriptions of their editorial processes, ethical policies, and content preservation arrangements more often than presumed legitimate journals. Researchers, globally, have published clinical and preclinical studies reporting on millions of research subjects in predatory journals. Such content is poorly reported against established reporting guidelines; some of it originates from high profile institutions and is supported by well-known biomedical research funders. Most major funders propose journal publication as one way of achieving open access, yet few provide guidance on how to select a journal for this purpose. These thesis findings suggest that some features encountered on journals’ websites may signal potentially questionable journal practices. These features should be further evaluated to determine their accuracy in detecting predatory journals. Additionally, researchers may be sending research to predatory journals which may be of low quality, low priority, or unacceptable in legitimate journals. This is problematic because genuine research efforts/participant contributions may go undetected and never contribute to future knowledge generation. Future research ought to be done to determine why and how researchers, globally, choose where to publish. Research funders ought to agree on guidance and policies to ensure funded research can be found by others and is published in journals indicating basic standards for facilitating this.

This study focuses on children’s cognitive understanding of the concept of death from a scientific perspective. The investigation is conducted through the sub-concepts of understanding death - irreversibility, inevitability, universality and non-functionality – derived principally from the work of Jean Piaget. I propose within this study that children’s understanding of these subconcepts is mirrored by their understanding of astronomy as the concept of death includes the idea of hidden phenomena, disappearing, existence, and non-existence, alternation or seriation (death after life) and time. Whilst these concepts are part of other sciences such as physics, cosmology and mathematics, these particular phenomena are only found in the scientific field of astronomy. Specifically, therefore, instead of investigating their understanding of the concept of death through the knowledge of cessation, it is an investigation of their knowledge of the concept of time. The study thus includes the concept of time within the sub-concepts of death to judge the children’s understanding of death. The study employs qualitative methods, uses the interpretive paradigm, and relies on investigating the children’s knowledge of astronomy in order to find out how they construct their understanding. This is related to the common cognitive thinking that children do in their daily life with the phenomena of astronomy. To support this investigation, two common children’s stories are used as tools of the study, in order to probe their cognitive thinking. The first story focuses on the concept of death. The second story focuses on the knowledge of astronomy. The sample includes 21 children from ages 4 to 9 years. The results show that children have a schema of cognitive thinking based on inferences and scientific knowledge that enables them to understand the concept of death beginning at age four. They are able to make logical inferences inductively and deductively. They show that they have developed cognitive concepts, which allows them to classify scientific from non-scientific knowledge. Their understanding of the concept of time and the phenomena of astronomy support them in understanding that death is inevitable, universal, irreversible and non-functional. Children in this sample reflect that they understand non-functionality as they relate it to the concepts of non-existence, invisibility and disappearance from the environment. This study finds that educational intervention can confirm these insights. Inductive and deductive strategies can be used when dealing with the concept of death. The study also sheds light on children’s knowledge of astronomy as a way to acquaint children with the concept of death as scientific knowledge.

Arran de la publicació del document científic de l’EFSA titulat “Opinió científica sobre el risc existent per animals i la salut pública en relació a la presència de toxines d’Alternaria en productes alimentaris i pinsos” va sorgir la idea de desenvolupar aquesta Tesi Doctoral. En primer lloc, es van escollir dues empreses alimentàries de la província de Lleida i es va iniciar la recol•lecta de mostres de tomata durant dues campanyes per tal de determinar la presència d’espècies viables d’Alternaria mitjançant la tècnica PMA-qPCR i, a la vegada, analitzar la presència de dues micotoxines d’Alternaria (AOH i AME). En segon lloc, es van estudiar dos components de la família de proteïnes Velvet (VeA i LaeA) i, paral•lement, es va indagar en el metabolisme de les poliamines en Alternaria alternata amb l’objectiu de trobar noves diana útils per al disseny de nous fungicides. El següent pas dut a terme, ja en un context de postcollita, va ser analitzar els efectes de l’1-metilciclopropè en A. alternata infectant tomates en relació al creixement fúngic i a la producció d’AOH i AME. Finalment, es va estudiar l’estabilitat de l’AOH i l’AME durant el procés industrial de productes derivats de tomata<br>Fue a partir de la publicación científica de la EFSA “Opinión científica sobre el riesgo existente para animales y la salud pública en relación a la presencia de toxinas de Alternaria en productos alimentarios y piensos” que surgió la idea de desarrollar esta Tesis Doctoral. En primer lugar, se escogieron dos industrias alimentarias de la provincia de Lleida y se inició la recolecta de muestres de tomate durante dos campañas con el objetivo de determinar la presencia de especies viables de Alternaria mediante la técnica PMA-qPCR y, a su vez, se analizó la presencia de dos micotoxinas de Alternaria (AOH y AME). En segundo lugar, se estudiaron dos componentes de la familia de proteínas Velvet (VeA y LaeA) y, paralelamente, se indagó en el metabolismo de les poliaminas en Alternaria alternata con el objetivo de encontrar nuevas diana útiles para el diseño de nuevos fungicidas. El segundo lugar, se analizaron los efectos del 1-metilciclopropeno en A. alternata infectando tomates en relación al crecimiento fúngico y a la producción de AOH y AME. Finalmente, se estudió la estabilidad de AOH y AME durante el proceso industrial de productos derivados de tomate<br>As a result of the publication of the EFSA’S scientific report, entitled “Scientific opinion on the risks for animal and public health related to the presence of Alternaria toxins in feed and food”, arose the idea of developing this Doctoral Thesis. The first steps were to assess the presence of viable Alternaria spp. using the PMA-qPCR technique and, additionally, analyze the occurrence of two Alternaria mycotoxins (AOH and AME). A second approach to the problem was to focus the study in analyzing two components of the Velvet family (VeA and LaeA) and, at the same time, the polyamine metabolism in order to find new targets useful to design new fungicides. Secondly, in a postharvest context, effects of 1-methylcyclopropene were analyzed on A. alternata infecting tomatoes in relation to fungal growth and mycotoxin production. Finally, the stability of AOH and AME along the industrial process of tomato derivate products was studied

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Cincinnati, 2006.<br>Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Sept. 15, 2006). Includes abstract. Keywords: Intelligibility; Understanding; Explanation; Articulation; Theory Assessment; Newton; Leibniz; Atrraction. Includes bibliographical references.

Translocation is a tool for conserving animals and their environment. It is a complex process that involves detailed planning and preparation. The IUCN/SSC/RSG specifies the need for scientific employment in all animal translocation programmes pre-, during- and post-release. In this thesis, I aimed to follow and employ guidelines as detailed by IUCN/SSC Reintroduction Specialist Group for a rehabilitation release of vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus hilgerti) in Kenya. Additionally, I aimed to provide measures of post-release success, using verifiable indicators and criteria against which the release could be quantified. This was achieved by comparing biological and behavioural measures of a release vervet group with indigenous vervet control groups inhabiting the same anthropogenically modified landscape, within the same time period. Data were collected on two habituated control groups of vervet monkeys over a 24-month observation period inhabiting an anthropogenically modified habitat in Kenya. In addition, data were collected over a 20-month pre- and post-release monitoring period on a group of released vervet monkeys, subjected to a rehabilitation release. Datasets included habitat assessments, behavioural ecology, survivorship and social networks. The control data were used to inform release site selection and provided comparable datasets against which the post-release monitoring data could be compared to assess release success. The analysis of the release site selection process indicated that habitat assessments do not provide sufficient detail to be the only selection tool and need to be conducted alongside a minimum one-year food availability study. The behavioural ecology of the control vervet groups showed trends representative of other vervet groups living in anthropogenically modified habitat. Using the control groups behavioural ecology as a unique set of indicators and criteria against which the release group could be monitored, proved to be invaluable. The release was deemed successful due to Release groups survivorship, activity budgets and general feeding ecology falling within the expected ranges set by the control groups. Social network analysis revealed that extended periods of captivity, where new infant individuals are introduced over time, could benefit group cohesion and ultimately post-release survival. The findings of the study indicate that wild-born, rehabilitated vervet monkeys can be successfully returned into the wild, in close proximity to wild conspecifics. It is hoped that future translocations will follow a similar process of comparing biological and behavioural measures between indigenous control groups and newly released groups. Future translocations can benefit from the knowledge gained during this rehabilitation release, and each newly monitored and reported translocation will add vital information to the developing primate translocation model.

This thesis contributes further understanding on how to pursue improvements in healthcare and informs the academic growth of improvement science. Derived from manufacturing industries, QI methods are common approaches to structure the process of making improvements in healthcare, however, questions over their scientific legitimacy and application have arisen due to their varied effectiveness. A review of how QI methods are associated with science identifies the prominent theoretical role of QI methods in facilitating change and improvement by supporting the local application of the scientific method. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle method is identified as playing a central role in this and a theoretical framework is developed to assess the use of the method in published and local team's accounts. This demonstrates that the method is commonly not used with high fidelity; a key novel addition to the research literature. Studies are presented to further understand the reality of PDSA cycle use. These provide a novel identification and empirically grounded description of the social dimensions of applying the PDSA cycle method including negotiating through a single PDSA cycle and navigating the iteration and scale up of change and complexity of learning. A novel association between understanding, intentions and process of applying the PDSA cycle method and the fidelity of the methods use is also presented as well as the views of teams using the method which demonstrate different conceptual views of the PDSA cycle method and the wider social benefits of using the method. Overall, this thesis provides clarity in regards to the technical and social elements of PDSA cycle use. It demonstrates research approaches to open the 'black box' of PDSA cycle use and investigate the use of QI methods more widely. It calls for continued exploration of applying science to improve the quality of healthcare for patients.

The thesis starts with the theoretical framework of the research work (Chapter 1). First, the studies that have investigated the relationship between conceptual change learning and text comprehension are introduced, as well as the two models of text comprehension that are particularly relevant to learning from the refutation text, the Construction-Integration (C-I) Model (Kintsch, 1988) and the Landscape Model (van den Broek, Risden, Fletcher, & Thurlow, 1996). Then, recent research that has dealt with the specific processing of refutation text (e.g., Kendeou & van den Broek, 2007) is reviewed. Finally, I described the use of eye movements in reading research, explaining how they represent an effective methodology to tap into the moment-to-moment online comprehension processes at discourse level (Hyönä, Lorch, & Rinck, 2003). Following, four studies are extensively presented (Chapters 2-5). The first was a study in which the usefulness and reliability of the eye-tracking methodology was tested, and initial evidence has been collected (Chapter 2). Findings from this study suggested that the refutation text assists readers to activate their current conceptions during the initial text processing. A conceptual conflict may be perceived during refutation text reading (van den Broek & Kendeou, 2008), requiring an intentional cognitive effort to be resolved (Sinatra & Pintrich, 2003). Finally, learning from the refutation text was positively related to strategic reading: the quality, not the quantity, of reading is entailed in deep text comprehension. In other words, it is crucial how the reading time is spent. The second study has addressed the issue of whether the refutation text effect encompasses a series of sub-processes with different time courses (the “when” of the effect), taking place on different parts of the text (the “where” of the effect) and at different stages of reading (Chapter 3). This study provided evidence that the refutation text effect is not monolithic; rather, it represents a composite effect comprehending sub-processes that take place in different parts of the text and at different stages of reading. The third study has investigated the relationship between the refutation text effect and text processing during repeated exposure with text information. The aim of this study was to reveal that the refutation nature of a text alters the well-established (Hyönä & Niemi, 1990; Hyönä, 1995; Raney & Rayner, 1993, 1995) pattern of processing during repeated reading (Chapter 4). This study particularly showed that repetition benefits are, at least in part, strategic in nature. Finally, the fourth study has been focused on the readers’ verbal working memory capacity (Burton & Daneman, 2007; Daneman & Carpenter, 1980). Specifically, it has investigated, on the one hand, whether the effectiveness of the refutation text in promoting a stronger conceptual change would be different in readers with diverse working memory capacity (lower- and higher-span readers); on the other hand, whether refutation text processing at discourse level would vary as a function of the readers’ working memory capacity (Chapter 5). Findings from this study showed that the refutation text effect is mainly related to the co-activation (Kendeou & van den Broek, 2007) of incorrect and correct conceptions about the examined phenomenon. The refutation text also facilitates the processing of text information for both lower- and higher-span readers. Readers with a lower working memory capacity span learn more when interacting with the refutation text rather than with the standard one. The thesis concludes with a final chapter (Chapter 6), which presents a general discussion of the findings emerged across the studies and indicates some potential future direction of the research.<br>La tesi si apre con la cornice teorica del lavoro di ricerca (Capitolo 1). In questa prima parte sono anzitutto presentati gli studi sul rapporto fra cambiamento concettuale e comprensione del testo, e i due modelli di comprensione del testo più rilevanti per l’apprendimento dal testo confutazionale, il Construction-Integration (C-I) Model (Kintsch, 1988) e il Landscape Model (van den Broek, Risden, Fletcher, & Thurlow, 1996). Successivamente è stata introdotta la recente ricerca sull’elaborazione specifica del testo confutazionale (es., Kendeou & van den Broek, 2007), nonché l’uso dei movimenti oculari nella ricerca sulla lettura, descrivendo come essi rappresentino un’efficace metodologia per studiare i processi online di comprensione dal testo (Hyönä, Lorch, & Rinck, 2003). In seguito quattro studi sono presentati (Capitoli 2-5). Attraverso il primo studio si sono mostrate l’utilità e l’affidabilità della metodologia eye-tracking e sono stati raccolti risultati iniziali (Capitolo 2). Questi hanno suggerito come il testo confutazionale sostenga i lettori nell’attivazione delle proprie concezioni durante l’elaborazione iniziale del testo. Un conflitto concettuale può essere percepito durante la lettura del testo confutazionale (van den Broek & Kendeou, 2008), conflitto che richiede sforzo cognitivo per essere risolto (Sinatra & Pintrich, 2003). Infine, l’apprendimento dal testo confutazionale è risultato positivamente legato alla lettura strategica: la qualità, non la quantità della lettura influenza la comprensione profonda del testo. In altre parole, è cruciale come il tempo di lettura è speso. Il secondo studio (Capitolo 3) ha esaminato se l’effetto del testo confutazionale comprenda diversi sottoprocessi con decorsi temporali differenti (il “quando” dell’effetto) e se tali sottoprocessi avvengano durante la lettura di parti di testo differenti (il “dove” dell’effetto). Questo studio ha evidenziato come l’effetto del testo confutazionale non sia monolitico, ma rappresenti piuttosto un effetto composito comprendente sottoprocessi distinti che si verificano in momenti diversi della lettura di parti di testo differenti. Il terzo studio (Capitolo 4) ha analizzato la relazione fra l’effetto del testo confutazionale e l’elaborazione cognitiva durante le successive riletture di un testo scientifico. L’obiettivo di questo studio è stato di mostrare come il testo confutazionale influenzi il tipo di elaborazione durante le letture ripetute ampiamente descritto dalla ricerca (Hyönä & Niemi, 1990; Hyönä, 1995; Raney & Rayner, 1993, 1995). In particolare, lo studio ha messo in luce come il testo confutazionale riveli che il beneficio derivato dal rileggere sia, almeno parzialmente, di natura strategica. Il quarto studio (Capitolo 5) si è focalizzato sulla memoria di lavoro verbale dei lettori (Burton & Daneman, 2007; Daneman & Carpenter, 1980). Nella fattispecie, questo studio ha analizzato, da una parte, se l’efficacia del testo confutazionale nel promuovere il cambiamento concettuale sia influenzata dalla diversa capacità di memoria di lavoro verbale dei lettori (“low-” e “high-span”); dall’altra, se l’elaborazione del testo confutazionale vari a seconda della capacità di memoria di lavoro verbale. I risultati di questo studio hanno evidenziato come l’effetto del testo confutazionale sia principalmente legato alla co-attivazione (Kendeou & van den Broek, 2007) delle concezioni corrette e scorrette sull’argomento in esame. Inoltre, il testo confutazionale facilita sia i lettori con basso span sia quelli con span alto nell’elaborazione delle informazioni. Infine, i lettori con un più basso span di memoria di lavoro verbale apprendono di più dal testo confutazionale rispetto al testo non confutazionale. La tesi si chiude con un capitolo finale (Capitolo 6) in cui è presentata la discussione generale dei risultati emersi nei vari studi e sono indicate alcune possibili direzioni della ricerca futura.

Observations of consistency in behavioural responses in animals suggest that animals have personality, a term previously mainly used when describing humans. The expression of differences in personality, similar to expression of variation in behaviour, is in principle dependent on genetic background, environmental factors and experiences. Therefore, by estimating heritability one can determine to which extent the genes affect the phenotypic expression of behaviour. This has rarely been done for variation in animal personality. The aim of the present study was therefore to estimate the consistency and heritability of personality traits in red junglefowl chicks (Gallus gallus). Consistency of behaviours within individuals (n=100) was determined from their responses to repeated novel arena tests, novel object tests and tonic immobility tests. A comparison between the offspring and the parent generation, both with known personalities, through a linear regression enabled me to estimate heritability of behavioural responses in these birds. The results showed a consistency in exploratory, boldness, risk-taking behaviour, and fearfulness in red junglefowl. Additionally, heritability estimates for exploratory, risk-taking and foraging behaviours were found. Taken together, this shows that in the red junglefowl, similar to in other species, personality have both a heritable and an environmental component. An important aim in biology education is the scientific approach, where hypothesis, experimentation, processing results and discussing the results are in focus. Learning and gaining knowledge through the process is a key factor, and will hopefully increase the interest in science among Swedish pupils.

STRUCTURED ABSTRACT Background The treatment of cancer in adolescents and young adults is still challenging nowadays, presenting, in addition to the biological complexity of the disease and its treatment, special psychosocial needs of this subset of patients. This type of patient lies in a “no man's land”, between pediatric and adult oncology, too often without an adequate care. Moreover, suffering for cancer during adolescence, could hinder or delay the normal construction of a personal identity; therefore, these patients require more specific tools aimed at their protection and support. Due to the specific Italian historical background and scientific culture, to the complexity of psychosocial needs and to the multidisciplinary approach accomplished, the development of medical and psychological cancer treatment in children, adolescents and young adults represents a productive context for experimenting new approaches to psychological care, with each path of care tailored on the specific needs of a particular patient. This dissertation collects the studies conducted at the Pediatric Oncology Unit of Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Milano (INT), where a model for the best care of adolescent is being defined. These studies concern the critical aspects of the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology, i.e. medical and psychological aspects, the primary role of communication, the use of new media, and the definition of an appropriate intervention strategy. Aim of the project The aim of this work is to describe the major concerns of cancer treatment in adolescents, reporting my scientific research and clinical experience at the Pediatric Oncology Unit of Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori of Milan, in which a multidisciplinary team is seeking a new psychological approach. Results In the present dissertation I present the results of the work carried out in the last three years. These results can be divided in four major categories, which are described in the different chapters. For each chapter, a brief summary is followed by a complete version of the single studies, most of which have been already published, or are in press or submitted to international scientific journals. Chapter 1: Medical problems. In recent years, pediatric oncologists reported that the survival trend for adolescents with cancer is disappointingly lower when compared with the improvements seen in children in the last few decades. I report two studies in which this is particularly evident. - Study 1.1. The situation in Italy is described, along with the current efforts made in order to bridge the gap in the curve of survival rates and implement specific programs for patients suffering of synovial sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma, two high-grade soft tissue sarcoma subtypes that occur in adolescents and young adults. - Study 1.2. It appears that adolescents often arrive to qualified cancer institutions with a considerable delay, and this is likely to affect their chances of being healed. We conducted a prospective investigation on patients with different types of solid tumors with the aim of establishing whether the diagnostic delay observed for soft tissue sarcomas, is confirmed in case of other malignancies. The data we collected suggest that this is the case. Chapter 2: Psychological aspects. Dealing with patients’ psychosocial needs has become an increasingly fundamental goal of care institutions. This is true, in particular, for adolescent patients. They develop the disease when are experiencing major psychological and physical changes, establishing their self-image, structuring their identity, their personality and their relationships with their peers. This makes especially important the presence of an adequate psychological care, that takes into account the relationship they are establishing with their social world. Medical care system must take responsibility for the person as a whole, and has to combine traditional therapy with new methods specifically designed for each individual patient. - Study 2.1 This study reviews the international literature from 1980 to present, with considerations on the perspectives for integrating the clinical, psychological, and psychopharmacological interventions. I discuss the specific issues relating to the psychopathological diagnosis in the course of organic disease, and behavioral aspects determined by the biological mechanisms directly related to the disease and their treatment. - Study 2.2. The organic components of psychic and behavioral alterations occurring during the disease are illustrated, considering the symptoms, the causes, and the possible remedies in the light of the most recent interdisciplinary viewpoints. The main mechanisms connected with the oncologic treatments - chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy - and responsible for psycho-organic alterations in children and adolescent with cancer are described. Within the Pediatric Oncology centres, the psychological intervention and the psychotherapy are generally offered to children and adolescents in order to support their adjustment to disease and treatment. The clinical practice, however, points out that the cognitive and emotional symptoms are sustained by biological mechanisms connected with disease and treatment, and that do not respond to psychological consultation and to other psychosocial resources. These manifestations could interfere with the treatment or with the long-term adjustment, and sometimes it is necessary to use also pharmacological supports to face them, but precise guidelines are needed . - Study 2.3. The use of the mirror therapy to treat phantom limb syndrome in a 39-year-old patient, whose right lower limb had been amputated at the age of 17 for an osteosarcoma is described. The patient suffered from frequent episodes of pain, with severe negative consequences on the quality of his life. In particular, the advantages of using an unconventional rehabilitation technique, and the recently developed mirror therapy are discussed. - Study 2.4. Cancer patients may have particular and clinically unconventional needs that are often unnoticed. It is a characteristic of adolescents to wonder about the meaning of life: who am I? Where am I going? What is the meaning of life? Disease and suffering unavoidably interfere with such processes (which are already critical per se). With the idea that spirituality is a relevant aspect for adolescents suffering from cancer, a ‘spiritual assistant’ should be included in the multidisciplinary team, whose aim is to adequately deal with patients’ needs, in order for them to have faith, trust and hope. This study explains what exactly the role of the spiritual assistant is within our group/department. - Study 2.5. Oncological diseases may demand long treatments, and the emotional attachment between care providers and patients might become intense. This especially happens when the patient is a child or an adolescent. This work reports the procedure devised and adopted for the immediate support of grief in use at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan when a patient dies. Clinicians should possess the necessary tools in order to cope with these emotional issues, as integral part of their responsibilities. - Study 2.6. Even when the therapy is capable of treating the disease, after the completion of the treatment, returning to normal life can be dramatically difficult. In this study I describe the case of a 17-year-old girl cured of Burkitt lymphoma, that committed suicide after completing her treatment. The complex needs of adolescent patients require a multidisciplinary team comprising different specialists, all involved in providing a more global treatment. It is essential for all the personnel to be alert in order to perceive any sign of psychic and social discomfort; this should be a constitutive part of the long-term follow-up program for childhood cancer survivors. - Study 2.7. This letter to Editor comments the editorial by Masera et al. that discusses the extraordinary adaptation processes implemented by young individuals who experience neoplastic disease. In the letter we clarify the idea that resilience may be the result of patient’s adaptation. On one side, cancer in developmental age can have severe permanent consequences, that can interfere with the adaptation process; on the other side, we believe that it is important to note that psycho-pathological criteria are not enough to assess patient’s quality of life. Chapter 3: Translating Scientific knowledge into an improved doctor-to-patient communication. Video sharing websites have become increasingly important in recent years in providing information and orienting people’s decisions relevant for their health. New technologies are nowadays an innovative form of worldwide communication. Unlike traditional videos, these resources stimulate the interaction among users; therefore they have become a sort of hybrid between public and personal tools. Especially adolescents use Internet to obtain information on pediatric oncological diseases. The potential of these new tools, however, implies that all the traditional institutions dedicated to the research and education acquire the skill to use them. The aim of this chapter is presenting my research activity in this area. - Study 3.1. This work describes the availability and the type of video content on YouTube concerning a particular set of pediatric neoplastic diseases, i.e. rhabdomyosarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma. These observations indicate that video sharing websites– like blogs and social media - constitute an easier way for the patients to describe their impressions and experiences of the disease. Moreover, this could help other patients to figure out new strategies to coop with the disease, and provide them with a further support, and opportunities of information and resources sharing. - Study 3.2. This study review the literature on the use of online videos in the health field. In Italy, like in other countries, Internet is an increasingly used source of diseases-related informations, used both by health professionals and patients. In recent years, besides the most common search engines, sanitary information explained in video sharing sites have gained an increased influence. - Study 3.3. Internet and social networks, such as Facebook, have changed the way people communicate, especially young people. They may be extremely useful for adolescent cancer patients. Disease severely limits adolescents’ school attendance and time spent with peers, leading to the risks of a social isolation. Facebook can help young diseased people to keep in touch with their friends. In addition, Facebook makes possible for such adolescents to become friends of other patients, and to stay in touch with people outside the hospital. This is a positive aspect, but it also carries inherent risks. This study emphasizes the importance for patients with cancer of using Facebook, in particular for adolescents. - Study 3.4. The innovative and recently developed experience at the INT, of using on line videos to inform the patients about the pathologies and their treatments is reported.. Chapter 4: The Youth Project. This chapter presents two studies that describe the key aspects of the Youth Project launched in 2011 at the INT pediatric oncology unit and focusing on adolescents and young adult with pediatric tumors. One of the main aims of the Youth Project is to help the older patients to feel more as if they were at home, by providing a dedicated and adequately equipped multifunctional room, together with various activities and events. Patients may also have access to particular services, for their psychosocial support, fertility preserving measures, and the access to care after completing their cancer therapy. This project may become a possible new clinical and organizational model, capable to address the unique needs of adolescent and young adult patients, also in order to bridge the existing lack of their treatment accessibility, their recruitment in clinical trials and in clinical and psycho-social management. Conclusion Overall the work presented in the current thesis represents an attempt to bridge together biological, psychological and social aspects of cancer disease in adolescents adopting a psychosocial approach to provide an integrated support to this special subset of patient. This thesis reveals the complexity of psychological research in a hospital setting, where the constraints imposed by the clinic practice cannot be ignored and it is necessary to take into account issues that affect the real needs of the department in which research is conducted. The psychological intervention in serious organic disease can not be centred only on traditional models of support and psychotherapy, based on a rigorous setting and on treatment of symptoms. We need new models that support the resources of the patients during treatments and even later, with preventive interventions and with different type of helps (psychological support, socialization, entertainment, school in hospital). We also need new languages that are close to the changed ways of communicating and relating of the new generations (Internet, YouTube, Facebook, social network). This work is a starting point for the elaboration of a new model of psychological support in hospital. Studies that composed this thesis also shows that the method and the demands of medical care can be harmonized with psychological methods and intervention through a close working relationship between psychologists and medical doctors.

Although science undergraduates in Thailand need to acquire English report writing skills, many in their final year are unable to describe even their own experiments in a clear, acceptable style. This study, therefore, set out to discover how the theory and practice associated with the Australian School of Genre could be used to create a report writing course, which would be viable with the Thai context. After careful examination of both the theoretical and actual conditions relating to the teaching of written English to undergraduates, a compromise position was adopted, wherein two genre-based courses were designed, taught and compared. In both the Australian School's approach was modified to suit the context with the more innovative experimental group, Mode X, following a course which was closer to the theoretical positions than the more traditional control group, Mode Y.

The lack of access to effective diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains a persistent global challenge. Human rights arguments for access to treatment mostly focus on the right to health. However, a key challenge in access to effective diagnosis and treatment is the glaring absence of scientific research in neglected diseases such as TB. This thesis sets out to elaborate the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and explore its potential to increase scientific research in DR-TB and consequently enhance access to effective diagnosis and treatment in South Africa. This research project was conducted using three interrelated sub-studies; a legal analysis sub-study which examines the current conceptualisation of the REBSP in international law; a policy analysis sub-study which interrogates South Africa’s legal and policy efforts towards the realisation of the REBSP and access to diagnosis and treatment for DR-TB; and a qualitative sub-study which explores the South African context regarding research and development (R&D) in general, and in DR-TB in particular. The qualitative sub-study included 17 stakeholders who are active in TB R&D, advocacy and policy work, from human rights and research institutions, government agencies, civil society organisations, and donor agencies. This thesis finds that the REBSP essentially ensures two things, namely the production of science and access to the benefits of scientific progress. However, most countries including South Africa have systems, policies and resources aimed at advancing the production of science but lack similar systems, policies and resources to purposely ensure the enjoyment of the benefits from scientific progress. Internationally, there is no clear guidance on the interpretation of the REBSP, making it difficult for states to domesticate it in their national policies and framework laws. A General Comment by a UN human rights monitoring body is therefore urgently needed to secure global consensus on the interpretation of the REBSP. In the meanwhile, South Africa can still draw inspiration for the REBSP and together with the right to health, use it to advance access to DR-TB diagnosis and treatment alongside many other interventions. To enable better access to effective diagnosis and treatment of DR-TB, this thesis recommends that South Africa i) develops systems that would make scientific progress and results accessible, and affordable; ii) removes system and regulatory barriers that hinder the conduct of research or that delay registration of new drugs; iii) monitors and regulates the conduct of third parties and prevent them from exploiting communities; iv) encourages pharmaceutical companies to provide free access to successful treatment and tools in communities where trials are conducted; and v) mobilises financial and technical resources and allocates them to DR-TB researchfrom drug discovery through to implementation science.

This thesis contributes to the scientometrics literature by providing empirical evidence on a number of aspects in academia focusing on the most prominent scholars. It comprises eight individual studies examining topics on recognition, research performance, impact, biases and collaboration patterns in academia.

The first goal of this investigation was to undertake a non-equivalent quasi-experimental design to test the effect of a total Quality management (TQM) approach to improve the appropriateness of clinical laboratory test utilisation in the management of early acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The study was conducted at 2 public hospitals in Sydney over a 30 month period, and in 2 stages- pre and post TQM intervention. Using specifically a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) FOCUS-PDCA model, a multidisciplinary team was empowered to make appropriate changes in order to improve a variety of problem areas that affected the total pathology service. Improvement was directed at the total system of pathology testing, not just test ordering. It was observed that the introduction of a TQM environment had provided a more committed, integrated and motivated clinical care effort towards improving the appropriateness of test ordering. Such team efforts were accompanied by demonstrated customer satisfaction at various aspects of the laboratory service and further benefits to patient care. Patient care benefited greatly from the highly significant changes towards more appropriate timing of blood collections for cardiac enzyme testing. Other improvements included overall improvements to the turnaround time of test results, reductions in specimen delivery delays, more appropriate use of clinical laboratory tests, a streamlined distribution of printed reports and marked improvements in communication between staff involved in the process of test ordering. Of major importance was the finding that CQI strategies resulted in substantial savings of 23.0% of the overall cost of pathology services. Adoption of the TQM approach appears to be a strategy worthy of exploration by laboratory directors and health administrators interested in improving patient care while at the same time reducing expenditure.<br>Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The basic idea of this paper is to outline a cross-curricular approach between mathematics and science. The aim is to close the often perceived gap between formal maths and authentic experience and to increase the students’ versatility in the use of mathematical terms. Students are to experience maths as logical, interesting and relevant through extra-mathematical references. Concrete physical or biological correlations may initiate mathematical activities, and mathematical terms are to be understood in logical contexts. Examples: physical experiments can lead to a comprehensive understanding of the concept of functions and of the intersection of medians in triangles. Biological topics can lead to the concepts of similarity and proportion as well as to the construction of pie charts. In the European ScienceMath Project a variety of teaching modules was developed and tested in secondary schools.

This thesis covers three main areas. The first part deals with the nature and depth of various research methods used in exploring ways of learning, assessing and teaching writing in English, and particularly the writing of English as a foreign language (EFL). The second part of this thesis argues for and demonstrates the usefulness of applying approaches derived from systematic functional linguistics to the teaching and assessment of scientific reports written in English by students studying science, medicine, engineering, and for whom English is a foreign language. This is done through the presentation of practical analyses of the recurrent problematic areas shown in the writing of Arab students, and especially students at the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) (from whose work data has been drawn). These problems cover especially the areas of reference, conjunctions, collocation, Theme/Rheme and sentence relations. Possible reformulations of problematic texts are regularly suggested as part of the analysis. The third part of this thesis presents a description of a course design for the teaching of writing scientific research, supported by examples and various possible methodologies that can offer some help for both learners and teachers of English. The thesis concludes with a summary and suggestions for further research that can be carried forward in further investigations of the teaching of research writing to Arabic-speaking students.