Digital Commons Network^™

Memory, Truth And Justice: A Contextualisation Of The Uses Of Photographs Of The Victims Of State Terrorism In Argentina, 1972-2012: Communicating An Intersection Of Art, Politics And History, Richard Askam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Photographs of the victims of Argentine state terrorism from 1972 to 1983, and most prominently those of the detained-disappeared victims of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional dictatorship (1976-1983), have had a significant role in elucidating the demands of human rights activists since the aftermath of the Trelew Massacre in 1972. In this thesis I examine the role of photographs of victims of state terrorism in the construction of unofficial, or counter, narratives critical of those produced by two dictatorships and by elected democratic administrations in the demand for truth and justice, and in the construction of social memory. I discuss …

Teaching For Students' Confident Transition From Number To Algebra, Christina Lang Lee

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The adoption by all states and territories of the national curriculum by 2013 saw students in schools across the country taught introductory algebraic concepts from Year Five. In the twenty first century the need to be algebraically competent has become a necessity much as computation was in the previous centuries.

The Researcher has found from experience that students who have struggled with number and number operations will then most probably make poor progress in their study of algebra. The transition from number to algebra requires a robust understanding of number and number operations

This study investigated the balance of instructional …

"Wonderfully Ordinary" Words From A Romantic Archive Of Elizabeth Jolley's Writing For Students : Creative Process As A Garland Of Fragments, Andrea Wood

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This project, including the visual artworks and poetry developed for the exhibition Wonderfully Ordinary, is the outcome of practice-led research into the creative process. Through creative practice—and the development of a personal and fragmentary process of invention—it aims to generate knowledge about creative practice as a form of philosophy in action. Drawing on Paul Carter’s concept of material thinking and historical ideas arising from Western Australian author Elizabeth Jolley’s (1923–2007)creative process and writing, it explores ways in which Friedrich von Schlegel’s (1772–1829) philosophical conception of the Romantic fragment might be revealed as a continuing idea of interest and tool …

The Impact Of Implementing A Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Education Package In Jordan, Shereen Hamadneh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a problem worldwide. In North Jordan, SIDS rate was high as 1.32 per 1,000 live births and contributed 6% to the infant mortality rate (Bataineh, Shawagfeh, & Twalbeh, 2008). However, SIDS risk factors are preventable and can be reduced by improving knowledge and changing relevant behaviours of parents and healthcare providers (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013; American SIDS Institute, 2011; Bataineh, Hussein Shawagfeh, & Twalbeh, 2008; Bredemeyer, 2004; Grazel, Phalen, & Polomano, 2010b; Moon, Oden, & Grady, 2004; NICHD, 2010). Still educating Jordanians about SIDS has not been a national health policy priority. …

Community Building, Multiculturalism And The Suburban Public Library, Rajeswari Chelliah

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research investigates the role of public libraries in building communities and cross-cultural citizenship through provision of equitable information resources and services to English as Additional Language (EAL) speakers, particularly in metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. The rapidly changing demographic profile of Western Australia is producing an ever increasing diversity of people who need to access information in order to thrive in their new community. However, access to these information services pose challenges to users who lack competency in language, computer and general literacy, while the increasing diversity in the local population creates widely divergent competencies in information seeking skills among …

Teaching Aboriginal Curriculum Content In Australian High Schools, Sarah Booth

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Many misconceptions about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders stem from Australia’s period of colonisation in the 18th and 19th centuries when Indigenous people were believed to be inferior by European settlers. It is disturbing that after 200 years these negative ideas still exist and are often perpetuated through the mass media. Even though schools are well positioned to challenge these colonial values; unfortunately there are many factors which affect the depth and quality of teaching Aboriginal content, such as culture, history and contemporary issues.

The government has aimed to disperse the inconsistencies associated with teaching Aboriginal perspectives by implementing a …

Constructing Corporate Capability In Changing Contexts: The Innovation Journey Of Strategic Management Development At Bankwest, Moira Watson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is about an unfolding management development process over time. Interconnections influencing corporate capability are explained and insight provided into the social construction of strategic organisational change. Studies of strategically-focused change don’t generally address the part management development plays in innovation and corporate capability construction. This research thus fills a persistent knowledge gap in the understanding of the way management development is provided within organisations and the value of the process.

This empirical study is in the process research tradition. A longitudinal, in-depth case study of BankWest, an Australian financial services company undergoing significant change between 1997 and 2009, …

De Concentv Amisso Qvaerendo: An Investigation Into The Relative Benefits Of Three Different Types Of Ambient Music On The Observed Agitated Behaviour And Quality Of Life Of Dementia Sufferers In Residential Aged Care Facilities, Peter Wilkinson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

There is an increasing body of research evidence to support the use of music as a therapeutic modality in reducing the agitated behaviour frequently associated with late-stage dementia. Although much of this evidence suggests that music interventions are most effective when they are “individualized”, this type of intervention is often difficult to implement in large, busy, aged care facilities where residents may be located together in communal areas during the day. The challenge therefore is to try and identify a particular musical genre which, when played as “ambient” or “background” music, demonstrates a consistent capacity to reduce agitated behaviour in …

Corporate Governance, Conservatism And Firm Performance: Evidence From China, Yun Ren

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the effect of the board of directors and supervisory board on conservatism and firm performance, respectively, and the benefits of conservatism on performance. In addition, this thesis investigates whether the effectiveness of firms’ governance on conservatism and firm performance is influenced by ownership concentration and state ownership. The extant literature has shown that conservatism reduced agency conflict and was beneficial for corporate governance in developed countries; however, little evidence has been provided for emerging countries such as China.

Sample companies are selected from the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges for the period from 2007 to 2010. Archival …

The Role Of Resilience In Individual Innovation, Muhammad T. Amir

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Organisations in today‘s changing environment face significant challenges, requiring continual innovation. A critical factor in their response may be employees‘ resilience, the ability to apply high levels of effort and persistence while initiating, promoting and applying new ideas. However, despite growing evidence of the value of many positive psychological characteristics in organisational behaviour, the role of resilience in individual innovation has received little attention in the literature.

This thesis describes two studies of this issue. First, current perspectives and definitions of resilience were reviewed, revealing a need for an improved definition, a re-examination of its dimensions and a new measure. …

Talking On The Move: Place‐Based Interviewing With Undergraduate Students, Mark Holton, Mark Riley

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Recent research has begun to pay attention to the importance of place to the research encounter. This paper makes a contribution to these discussions through an investigation into the lived experiences of higher education students. Although there is a burgeoning literature on what has been termed ‘student geographies’, there has been relatively little attention focused on the methods that we might employ in exploring these geographies. Here we consider ‘walking interviews’ as an approach to helping better comprehend students’ experiences and understandings of University towns and cities. Accompanying students ‘in the field’ allowed us to explore students’ narratives ‘in place’ …

Parameterization Of Pharmaceutical Emissions And Removal Rates For Use In Uk Predictive Exposure Models: Steroid Estrogens As A Case Study., J. D. Heffley, S. D.W. Comber, B. W. Wheeler, C. H. Redshaw

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Newly available prescription data has been used along with census data to develop a localised method for predicting pharmaceutical concentrations in sewage influent and effluent for England, and applied to a case study: the steroid estrogens estrone, 17β-estradiol, and 17α-ethinylestradiol in a selected catchment. The prescription data allows calculation of the mass consumed of synthetic estrogens, while use of highly localised census data improves predictions of naturally excreted estrogens by accounting for regional variations in population demographics. This serves two key purposes; to increase the accuracy of predictions in general, and to call attention to the need for more accurate …

An Investigation Of The Current System Of Destination Management Organisations- The Case Of China, Xiaoran Tian

Plymouth Business School Theses

This research investigates Destination Management Organisation (DMOs) in China, and looks at their functions and their adoption of Performance Measurement Systems (PMSs). A two-stage questionnaire survey has adopted to achieve the pre-determined aims of the research. Finally, ninety-three DMOs took part in the first stage survey and thirty-four DMOs were involved in the second stage survey. The key findings from the research are as follows. (1) Irrespective of their nature and level, Chinese DMOs attached most importance to the functions of “economic-driver”, “marketing” and “coordination & collaboration”. (2) DMOs attached a second level of importance to the functions of “operator”, …

Tracking Discourses Of Occupation And Genocide In Lithuanian Museums And Sites Of Memory, Alexander Craig Wight

Plymouth Business School Theses

Tourism visits to sites associated to varying degrees with death and dying have for some time inspired academic debate and research into what has come to be popularly described as ‘dark tourism’. Research to date has been based on the mobilisation of various social scientific methodologies to understand issues such as the motivations of visitors to consume dark tourism experiences and visitor interpretations of the various narratives that are part of the consumption experience. This thesis offers an alternative conceptual perspective for carrying out research into museums that represent genocide and occupation by presenting a discourse analysis of five Lithuanian …

Cultural Responses To Pain In Uk Children Of Primary School Age: A Mixed-Methods Study., Pary M. Azize, Ruth Endacott, Allegra Cattani, Ann Humphreys

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Pain-measurement tools are often criticized for not addressing the influence of culture and ethnicity on pain. This study examined how children who speak English as a primary or additional language discuss pain. Two methods were used in six focus group interviews with 34 children aged 4-7 years: (i) use of drawings from the Pediatric Pain Inventory to capture the language used by children to describe pain; and (ii) observation of the children's placing of pain drawings on red/amber/green paper to denote perceived severity of pain. The findings demonstrated that children with English as an additional language used less elaborate language …

Repositioning For Pressure Ulcer Prevention In Adults, Brigid M. Gillespie, Wendy P. Chaboyer, Elizabeth Mcinnes, Bridie Kent, Jennifer A. Whitty, Lukman Thalib

School of Nursing and Midwifery

No abstract provided.

Introduction: The No-Man’S-Land Of Displacement, Ak Smith, S Barkhof

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Carbon Monoxide Screening In Pregnancy: An Evaluation Study Of A Plymouth Pilot Intervention, Ea Stenhouse, G Letherby, O Corrigan, L Adams, A Bendall

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

An Electronic Delphi Study To Establish Pediatric Intensive Care Nursing Research Priorities In Twenty European Countries*, Lyvonne N. Tume, Den Hoogen A Van, Joke M. Wielenga, Jos M. Latour

School of Nursing and Midwifery

No abstract provided.

South African Critical Care Nurses' Views On End‐Of‐Life Decision‐Making And Practices, Gayle Langley, Shelley Schmollgruber, Paul Fulbrook, John W. Albarran, Jos M. Latour

School of Nursing and Midwifery

ABSTRACTBackgroundCare of patients at the end‐of‐life (EOL) may be influenced by the experiences, attitudes and beliefs of nurses involved in their direct care.AimTo investigate South African critical care nurses' experiences and perceptions of EOL care.DesignCross‐sectional survey.MethodsSouth African critical care nurses completed a modified version of the ‘VENICE’ survey tool. Data were collected concerning: attitudes towards EOL care; involvement in EOL decision‐making; and beliefs about EOL practices.ResultsOf 149 surveys distributed, 100 were returned (response rate 67%). Seventy‐six percent stated that they had had direct involvement in EOL care of patients, but a minority (29%) had participated in EOL decision‐making processes. Whilst …

Antecedents Of Business-To-Business E-Commerce Adoption And Its Effect On Competitive Advantage In Manufacturing Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Comparative Study Of United States Of America And Egypt, Haseba Hamad

Plymouth Business School Theses

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce adoption has become a necessity for most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), allowing them to gain and sustain competitive advantage in a dynamic competitive environment. Accepting the fact that B2B is adopted at different levels based on different resources leads to the acceptance that competitive advantage is gained and sustained on a level consistent with the level of adoption. This study employs quantitative method based on the positivism philosophy and deductive approach. A questionnaire survey technique was used to collect the data from the American and Egyptian manufacturing SMEs. Moreover, it used structural equation modelling with a …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Intellectual Capital On Innovations In The Egyptian Banks: The Mediating Role Of Organisational Capital, Ahmed Elsetouhi

Plymouth Business School Theses

This research aims to analyse the direct and indirect effects of human capital, social capital and customer capital on the different types of innovations via organisational capital in the service sector. It also examines the interaction among the different types of innovations including product, process and organisational innovations and tests the role of human capital, social capital and customer capital in supporting organisational capital. This research employs the first stage of Actor Network Theory named problematisation to justify the research model. This study adopts a positivism philosophy, a deduction approach and a quantitative method as the research methodology. Hence, a …

From Principles To Practice: Sustainable Supply Chain Management In Smes, Alison Louise Ashby

Plymouth Business School Theses

Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) is an evolving discipline, and incorporates the environmental and social performance dimensions of sustainability with the traditional measure of economic performance; current SSCM research indicates a skew towards economic performance and its interaction with environmental performance, while social performance is underrepresented (Pagell and Wu, 2009, Schaefer, 2004, Sharma and Ruud, 2003). The UK clothing industry represents a relevant research focus due to its supply chain complexity, and scale and scope of its environmental and social impacts; this thesis further recognises the tendency for academic research to focus on Large Enterprises (LE) (Curran and Blackburn, 2001) …

Developing A Methodical Approach For The Systematic Identification Of Innovative Technological Applications – Based On Mixed Reality In Manual Order Picking, Markus Friedrich Ehmann

Plymouth Business School Theses

The need to be economically successful is the key driver for companies to be innovative and implement new technologies with increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Uncertainty about whether to use new technologies and missing knowledge about their advantages lead to staggering and withholding from fast diffusion of innovations. Focusing on the industry of logistics and the technology Mixed Reality, this research project developed a methodical approach for evaluating the fitness of an innovative technology and a specific process of application. A mixed methods approach was derived, based on interviews and experiments. The main methodologies used, were semi-structured interviews with decision makers …

Factors External To The Individual Encouraging Idea Generation In Sme Contexts, Graham Michael Perkins

Plymouth Business School Theses

This thesis sets out to explore factors external to the individual that encourage creative idea generation in SME environments, understanding their importance in a variety of organisational contexts. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is the creation of a framework which aids understanding by splitting the various factors into those responsible for initiating and sustaining idea generation. Literature concerning creative idea generation is continuously developing and contains a broad spectrum of topics and understandings. Key amongst these are leadership, the nature of creative idea generation, theories such as the ‘strength of weak ties’, collective creativity and the …

"A Knot Worth Unloosing": The Interpretation Of The New Heavens And Earth In Seventeenth-Century England, John H. Duff

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

Scholars interested in the history of Christian eschatological thought have focused primarily on the theme of heaven or on the various interpretations of the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20:1-6. Virtually no attention has been given to past interpretations of the biblical phrase the new heavens and earth. This dissertation uncovers the interpretations of this phrase that were extant in seventeenth-century England. These interpretations fall into two basic camps—those that understood the phrase metaphorically and those that understood the phrase literally. One group of English divines believed the new heavens and earth was a phrase referring to the new age …

Symphonia Catholica: The Merger Of Patristic And Contemporary Sources In The Theological Method Of Amandus Polanus (1561-1610)., Byung Soo Han

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation intends to answer, by investigating the merger of patristic and contemporary sources in the theological method of Amandus Polanus, a significant question concerning the way in which the intellectual and methodological eclecticism of the Reformed was able to establish a coherent “system” of thought capable of defense as not only confessional but also orthodox in its theology and broadly catholic, drawing both on the thought of the Reformers and on the resources of the great tradition of Christian thought that extended back to the church fathers. From a methodological perspective, Polanus’s development from the Ramistically-organized doctrinal framework of …

Longitudinal Evaluation Of Quality Of Life In 288 Patients With Neurofibromatosis 2, Rosalie E. Ferner, Adam Shaw, D. Gareth Evans, Dympna Mcaleer, Dorothy Halliday, Allyson Parry, F. Lucy Raymond, Juliette Durie-Gair, C. Oliver Hanemann, Rachel Hornigold, Patrick Axon, John F. Golding

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

The Contributions Of Dissenting Protestantism To Western Views Of Human Dignity And Freedom, Nicholas P. Miller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Teaching And Transforming Through Stories: An Exploration Of Macro- And Micro-Narratives As Teaching Tools, Jaclyn R. Devine, Todd Quinn, Paulita Aguilar

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Narratives are one of the most powerful teaching tools available, and as Clark and Rossiter (2008) argue, “constructing a coherent narrative is how, in fact, we learn” (p. 66). We investigate the role of narrative in adult learning in library instructional contexts, introducing the concepts of micro-narratives and macro-narratives, and illustrating these ideas using relevant teaching examples. Macro-narratives are stories that are common across many cultures and contain universal themes and lessons. Micro-narratives are stories that are uniquely relevant to the members of a particular group. We argue that both types can be used to create meaningful library learning experiences.