Screening for depression in older adults

Despite being the most common mental disorder in older adults, depression is under-recognised. It poses diagnostic difficulties in this population for several reasons; for example, symptomatic and phenomenological differences, age-related biological and psychological factors, and the presence of physical comorbidities. Depression in older adults is an important clinical topic because outcomes are worse in comparison to younger adults. It is also associated with higher rates of morbidity and mortality, increased healthcare utilisation and economic costs. It is likely to become a more pressing issue in the future due to the projected increase in the older adult population.Screening for depression could be a solution to improve detection rates and avert the negative consequences of depression. This dissertation explores the topic of screening for depression in older adults. It uses systematic review methods to examine two questions. First, what is the diagnostic accuracy of the Geriatric Depression Scale? Secondly, what is the clinical effectiveness of screening for depression in older adults?Findings of this dissertation show that the diagnostic performance of the Geriatric Depression Scale, at the recommended cut-off score of 5, is acceptable for screening purposes. However, results suggest the possibility of selective reporting of cut-off scores post-hoc and therefore findings should be approached cautiously. The dissertation found limited evidence regarding the clinical effectiveness of screening for depression in older adults and therefore cannot make any recommendations for policy or practice.[Thesis includes article from International journal of geriatric psychiatry, available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gps.4407/full

Effects of age, sex, context, and lexicality on hyperarticulation of Korean fricatives

Seoul Korean is known for a rare three-way laryngeal contrast among lenis, fortis, and aspirated voiceless stops, which has recently undergone a change in phonetic implementation: whereas older speakers rely more on voice onset time (VOT) to distinguish lenis and aspirated stops, younger speakers rely more on onset fundamental frequency (f 0) in the following vowel. This production difference is reflected in disparate strategies for enhancing the contrast in clear speech, supporting the view that younger and older speakers represent the three laryngeal categories differently in terms of VOT and f 0 targets (Kang & Guion, 2008). In the current study, we used the clear speech paradigm to test for change in the representation of the two-way contrast between fortis (/s*/) and non-fortis (/s/) fricatives. Native Seoul Korean speakers (n = 32), representing two generations and both sexes, were recorded producing the coronal stops and fricatives in different vowel contexts, item types (real vs. nonce words), and speech registers (plain citation vs. clear). We report acoustic data on how the above factors influence production of the fricative contrast and discuss implications for the phonological categorization of non-fortis /s/ as lenis, aspirated, or a hybrid lenis-aspirated category.https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1_NoAiLQlnkZ2RtdEtuYTlaMkkOthe

Job Satisfaction and Its Relationships with Age, Gender and Educational Background in a Vietnamese Context : A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Business Studies (Management) at Massey University, Manawatu New Zealand

The present study aims at examining the reliability and validity of a Vietnamese version of the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) which was developed by Spector (1997). It also reveals the current overall job satisfaction and investigates the relationship between job satisfaction and age, gender, and educational background among a specific community, the auditors and ex-auditors in Vietnam. With these goals, a quantitative cross-sectional design has been employed for the research. A pilot study with 68 Vietnamese respondents establishes a solid foundation for the final Vietnamese-translated version of the JSS. In the main study, a sample of 202 Vietnamese auditors and ex-auditors is recruited. The JSS in Vietnamese demonstrates a high internal consistency with the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of α = .91. Moreover, an exploratory factor analysis reports an underlying construct of nine dimensions, which is similar to the original version of the JSS. The convergent and divergent validity of the scale are also analysed and return satisfactory results. The present research suggests that the auditors and ex-auditors in Vietnam are generally satisfied with their jobs and, surprisingly, the auditors are reported to be happier than their ex-colleagues in every job aspect. There is no relationship found between the overall job satisfaction and age or gender for this specific community, while a significant correlation between job satisfaction and educational background is confirmed. However, the women of this community are reported to be more likely to experience a lower level of job satisfaction when they get older or when they have a better educational background. The present study provides audit companies in Vietnam with recommendations for improving the job satisfaction of their employees. Its findings suggest that these firms should pay more attention to their older female employees as well as the ones with higher educational backgrounds due to their vulnerability to a lower level of job satisfaction than the opposite gender. Furthermore, directions and indications for future research are also offered in the present dissertation

Job satisfaction of secondary school teachers in Tawau, Sabah

In order for the teachers to function effectively in a school system, it is important that teachers need to seek satisfaction and happiness not only in the intrinsic aspects of teaching job but also in other dimensions related to the teacher work experience in the wider social environment. This paper examines the level and differences in the job satisfaction of 200 Sabah secondary school teachers with respect to the various teachers characteristics identified as gender, service category, job title, tenure and place of origin. Data was collected through survey questionnaire. The finding reveals that secondary school teachers in Tawau, Sabah are generally satisfied with their job. There is significant relationship between job satisfaction and gender, whereby the male teachers are generally more satisfied than female teachers. The graduate teachers are more satisfied than non-graduate teachers. The higher ranking teachers are more satisfied than the ordinary teachers. Also, older teachers are more satisfied than younger teachers. However, there is no significant relationship between places of origin of teachers with job satisfaction. Based on the findings, several recommendations are proposed

Old age, retirement villages and New Zealand society : a critical narrative analysis of the experiences of retirement village residents : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

There is a paucity of critical research that examines the experiences of retirement village residents in New Zealand. The research objective was to critically analyse how retirement village residents in New Zealand made sense of their experience of living in a retirement village and to locate these experiences within the wider socio-political context. Multiple interviews were carried out individually with fourteen retirement village residents from one retirement village in Auckland, New Zealand. Their personal narratives, about their experience of moving to and living in a retirement village, were analysed using a critical narrative analytical approach, based on a social constructionist perspective. The way that the participants made sense of old age drew on ageist societal narratives that depict old age as a time of physical decline and loss of ability, mobility, social supports, independence and autonomy. These loss narratives devalue older adults and so undermined the participants’ ability to locate themselves positively in the interview. Consequently, they drew on a young-old subject position in order to resist loss narratives. This research considers the socially constructed nature of loss narratives, by discussing the Western cultural values and assumptions that underpin them. The participants made sense of their move to the retirement village as a solution to decline and loss in old age. Analysis of the solutions that the participants sought at the village highlights that societal practices in New Zealand contribute to losses in old age. Yet, the participants indicated that the retirement village did not always provide the solutions they had hoped for and presented them with additional problems. Therefore, the retirement village represents an imperfect solution to problems in old age that are partly created by current societal practices. This study explores how retirement villages are a culturally specific solution that reflects dominant political ideologies, cultural values, and societal narratives that exist in New Zealand society. Overall, this study argues that alternative societal narratives that ascribe value to the ageing process will better promote the interests of older people. Furthermore, the problems that older adults face will be better solved by directly addressing the societal practices that create them

Interneti võimalused ja ohud: noorte online-praktikate mõju nende subjektiivsele heaolule

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Teismelised on ühed kõige aktiivsemad internetikasutajad ja internet moodustab loomuliku osa nende igapäevaelust. Kuna internet on siiski suhteliselt uus meedium, mille kasutust ei raamista väga kindlad normid, kuid mille noored on väga kiirelt ja aktiivselt omaks võtnud, ärgitab see küsima, millist mõju internetikasutus noortele avaldab – kas positiivset või negatiivset. Heaolu kontseptsioonist lähtudes on doktoritöös vaatluse all nii internetikasutuse positiivsed kui ka negatiivsed küljed ning nende mõju noorte elukvaliteedile. Viimane aspekt on eriti oluline, kuna teismeiga on üks olulisemaid arenguperioode. Doktoritöös olid vaatluse all noorte online-praktikad – ühelt poolt blogimine kui positiivne ja teiselt poolt ülemäärane internetikasutus kui problemaatiline praktika – ning see, kuidas ja missugustel tingimustel need suurendavad või vähendavad noore heaolu. Nii meediumi valikut kui kasutust kujundavad laiemad kontekstuaalsed tegurid nagu vanus, sugu ja sotsiaalne keskkond (näiteks suhted pere ja eakaaslastega) ning ühiskondlikud tingimused (kultuuriline tasand), milles inimene elab, aga ka meediumi enda või selle rakenduste omadused. Seega võib järeldada, et just kontekst loob ja määrab internetikasutuse võimalikud positiivsed või negatiivsed tulemid. Internetikasutusel võivad olla erinevad tagajärjed. Näiteks avaldavad noored blogides enamasti tõele vastavat sisu, millega nad kujundavad enda identiteeti ja hoiavad sotsiaalseid suhteid, või mis pakub võimalust pälvida tunnustust eakaaslaste hulgas. Samas jagavad noored blogis enda kohta intiimset infot, millel võivad olla negatiivsed tagajärjed. Ülemäärane internetikasutus on seotud nii psühholoogiliste probleemide, internetis veedetava aja kui ka noore digitaalsete oskustega ja sellega, mida ta online-keskkonnas teeb. Ülemäärane internetikasutus võib olla ühelt poolt toimetulekustrateegia, saamaks üle negatiivsetest emotsioonidest, kuna just noortele ekspertkasutajatele pakub internet mitmesuguseid võimalusi meelelahutuseks ja tujutõstmiseks. Teiselt poolt võib see toimetulekumehhanism avaldada pikemas perspektiivis noore heaolule negatiivset mõju.Teenagers have become the most prominent users of the Internet as they effortlessly incorporate the medium into their everyday lives. Due to the newness of the medium, only partially settled norms surrounding usage, and intensity with which the online space was adopted by the youth, much attention has been paid to dwell upon whether the usage of the Internet by the young people brings along positive or negative outcomes. The concept of well-being is used in the thesis to simultaneously look both at the positive and negative aspects of Internet use and to ask how these phenomena are related to young people’s quality of life. The latter question is especially important as adolescence is the formative period in young people’s development. The thesis looked at online practices – blogging as a positive side, and excessive Internet use as a problematic one – and how and in what condition they increase or decrease the well-being of the young. The findings suggest that both media choice and usage, as well as the well-being of the young Internet users, are framed by larger contextual factors – age and gender of the user; social environment (e.g. family and peer influence) and societal (cultural level) conditions individuals live in; and the structural characteristics of the medium or its applications. Hence, the thesis suggests that it is the context which creates and defines the positivity and negativity of certain outcomes of Internet usage. For instance, adolescent bloggers primarily stay truthful to their offline selves in their blogs, and hence the practice could be seen as a mechanism for maintaining one’s identity and social contacts, but also as an opportunity to seek prestige and competence among the peer group. At the same time, revealing intimate details about one’s life in a blog can also lead to possible negative consequences. Excessive Internet use among the young is related to psychological distress and the time spent online but also to one’s digital skills and the activities one engages in online. Hence, on the one hand, excessive Internet use may be a coping strategy, especially for more expert young users of the medium, as it offers a wide range of opportunities for mood management and entertainment; on the other hand, it may have negative outcomes on one’s well-being in the long run

A historical outline of school architecture in Malta

Although the history of education in Malta is well documented, the architectural history of local educational facilities is still as yet uncharted territory. The available literature on the architecture of schools in The Maltese islands and their underlying design philosophy is almost non-existent. A tentative outline can only be sketched on the basis of the substantial corpus of surviving drawings, various ad hoc reports ar.d for the international style modern schools, built in the 1950's and 60's, by direct verbal communications with their architects. This paper will present a concise historical exposition on school architecture in Malta and Gozo.peer-reviewe

The impact of political connections on Chinese listed firms : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Finance at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

This thesis investigates the impact of a new type of “princeling” political connection on Chinese listed companies. Three specific issues are examined through three interconnected essays: characteristics of “princeling” politically connected firms (PCFs) with respect to accounting numbers in financial statements and corporate governance; the expropriation on earnings by PCFs; and the impact of political connections on stock returns. Firstly, to examine the characteristics of PCFs, this thesis systematically examines the differences between PCFs and their matching firms with respect to financial statement accounts and corporate governance during the period from 1992 to 2011. This thesis finds that PCFs have significantly greater profitability and market valuation, but they have significantly lower net investments and net fixed assets compared to non-connected firms. Moreover, board directors are on average older and have higher educational levels in PCFs, relative to non-connected firms. Surprisingly, PCFs exhibits larger percentage of directors with academic backgrounds. Secondly, an investigation is made on the link between political connections and value expropriation. This thesis finds PCFs stockpile disproportionately larger retained earnings but pay lower cash dividends, compared to unconnected firms. This thesis further finds such behaviour in PCFs is not due to either investment or precautionary motives. These results immediately give rise to the question of what happens to the retained earnings. By examining the components of retained earnings, this thesis identifies a new form of tunnelling in the form of a discrepancy in the accounting for changes in retained earnings, newly defined as “grey usage”. Specifically, PCFs have higher average grey usages on retained earnings than matching firms, by CNY 4.68 million. The findings provide important information for investors that PCFs may potentially increase the risk of expropriation through grey usages. The final examination investigates the market response to the “princelings” political connection. This thesis compares the cumulative abnormal stock returns between PCFs and unconnected firms. Three benchmarks are applied: cumulative market adjusted abnormal returns (CMAARs); cumulative risk adjusted abnormal returns (CRAARs); and cumulative abnormal returns adjusted from the Fama-French three factors model (CFAARs). No matter which benchmark is used, firms connected to PCFs show higher cumulative abnormal stock returns than matching firms. Also, this study finds that PCFs outperform matching firms in the Conglomerates and Industrials sectors, but not in others. This result could be due to the predominance of firms in the Conglomerates and Industrial sectors in the connected firm samples