15 research outputs found
Exploring language contact and use among globally mobile populations: a qualitative study of English-speaking short-stay academic sojourners in the Republic of Korea
This study explores the language contact and use of English speaking sojourners in the Republic of Korea who had no prior knowledge of Korean language or culture prior to arriving in the country. The study focuses on the use of mobile technology assisted l anguage use. Study participants responded to an online survey about their experiences using the Korean language when interacting with Korean speakers, their free time activities, and the types of digital and mobile technologies they used. The survey respon ses informed questions for later discussion groups, in which participants discussed challenges and solutions when encountering new linguistic and social scenarios with Korean speakers. Semi structured interviews were employed to examine the linguistic, soc ial and technological dimensions of the study participants’ brief sojourn in Korea in more depth. The interviews revealed a link between language contact, language use and a mobile instant messaging application.
In the second phase of the study, online surveys focused on the language and technology link discovered in the first phase. Throughout Phase Two , the researcher observed the study participants in a series of social contexts, such as informal English practice and university events. Phase Two concluded with semi structured interviews that demonstrated language contact and use within mobile instant messaging chat rooms on participants’ handheld smart devices.
The two phases revealed three key factors influencing the language contact and use between the study participants and Korean speakers. Firstly, a mutual perspicacity for mobile technologies and digital communication supported their mediated, screen to screen and blended direct and mediated face to screen interactions. Secondly, Korea’s advanced digital environment comprised handheld smart devices, smart device applications and ubiquitous, high speed Wi Fi their Korean speaking hosts to self reliance. Thirdly, language use between the study participants and Korean speakers incorporated a range of sociolinguistic resources including the exchange of symbols, small expressive images, photographs, video and audio recordings along with or in place of typed text. Using these resources also helped the study participants learn and take part in social and cultural practices, such as gifting digitally, within mobile instant messaging chat rooms. The findings of the study are drawn together in a new conceptual model which h as been called sociolinguistic digital acuity , highlighting the optimal conditions for language contact and use during a brief sojourn in a country with an unfamiliar language and culture
Essentially yours: the protection of human genetic information in Australia
ALRC Report 96 (tabled May 2003) was the product of a two-year inquiry by the ALRC and the Australian Health Ethics Committee (AHEC) of the NHMRC, involving extensive research and widespread public consultation.The inquiry was the most comprehensive ever undertaken into these issues in Australia or overseas.
The report covers an extensive range of activities in which genetic information plays—or soon will play—an important role. The two-volume, 1200 page report makes 144 recommendations about how Australia should deal with the ethical, legal and social implications of the New Genetics.
This Report reflects the law as at 14 March 2003
Applications and Experiences of Quality Control
The rich palette of topics set out in this book provides a sufficiently broad overview of the developments in the field of quality control. By providing detailed information on various aspects of quality control, this book can serve as a basis for starting interdisciplinary cooperation, which has increasingly become an integral part of scientific and applied research
Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World
The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management
- mathematical methods in reliability and safety
- risk assessment
- risk management
- system reliability
- uncertainty analysis
- digitalization and big data
- prognostics and system health management
- occupational safety
- accident and incident modeling
- maintenance modeling and applications
- simulation for safety and reliability analysis
- dynamic risk and barrier management
- organizational factors and safety culture
- human factors and human reliability
- resilience engineering
- structural reliability
- natural hazards
- security
- economic analysis in risk managemen
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Governance and change in the British seafood supply chain 1950 to 2013
The thesis firstly examines the extent to which different sources of governance activity have both changed the supply, processing and consumption of seafood in Britain and achieved its sustainability, food safety and quality over the period 1950 to 2013 and secondly reflects on the implications for agri-food and governance theories in which the UK seafood chain has not previously been considered. Using documentary sources, the compilation of a database of seafood companies and stakeholder interviews the research has reconstructed development and change over this period. In doing so it demonstrates a range of changes which can be related to different forms of governance: these include transformation of supply, diverse activities to raise sustainability, greatly improved quality and food hygiene systems and variations in consumer attitudes and practices. The thesis underlines the significance of public forms of regulation in changing the sources of supply as well as in the contested movement towards the more sustainable exploitation of fisheries, in raising food hygiene standards and in establishing the basis for nutritional advice to consumers with regard to seafood. Complementarily, the account also shows how private forms, particularly certification systems, have dominated governance of domestic aquaculture and of quality generally and how they have impacted on food safety. The thesis further examines how implementation of public governance is delegated and shared, including by analysis of various forms of mixed public and private governance, considers the various ways seafood consumption has been governed with attention both to both retailing and foodservice roles and assesses the contributions of civil society organisations. Based on these findings, the thesis argues that agri-food theories about internal supply chain functioning and the role of major retailers needs to be modified; it shows the limitations of explaining standards systems as the mode of control and the benefits of incorporating a power model of chain relationships. Further, in relation to external supply chain impacts the thesis demonstrates the need to emphasise the role of state regulation in the overall governance of food systems to a much greater extent than has usually been done hitherto. In relation to governance theory more broadly, the thesis examines the way changes in the operation of the British state have related to the seafood supply chain and the importance of examining the interests served in different types of governance with particular attention to the balance of public and private benefits resulting. The thesis thus analyses change in an important food source, illustrates how delegated state governance functions in a specific area and contributes to the theoretical basis for understanding food chains in general
The health consultation experience for people with learning disabilities: A constructivist grounded theory study based on symbolic interactionism
Aims. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of the health consultation experience for people with learning disabilities, particularly in terms of their self-concept Background. Annual health checks have been introduced as a reasonable adjustment for health providers to make in meeting the needs of people with learning disabilities, who experience significantly poorer health outcomes than the general population. Evaluation of the health consultation from the service user perspective can inform this service provision. Design. A constructivist grounded theory approach, based on symbolic interactionism, was used to explore the meaning of the health consultation experience for the person with learning disabilities, and its effects on their sense of self. Methods. Purposive and snowballing sampling was used to recruit 25 participants with learning disabilities through a GP practice, self-advocacy groups and a health facilitator. Nine individual interviews, three interviews with two participants, three focus groups (n=7, n=5 and n=3), and an audio-recorded health check consultation were carried out (with two participants interviewed twice and four attending two focus groups), as well as a member check used to assess the resonance of the findings. Data collection was undertaken in different primary care trusts across the north west of England. Data were subjected to constant comparative analysis, using a symbolic interactionist approach, to explore all aspects of the health consultation experience and its effects on the self. Findings. Current expectations, attitudes and feelings about health consultations were strongly influenced by previous experience. Participants negotiated their own reality within the consultation, which affected their self-concept and engagement with their health care. Respectful and secure health professional – service user relationships, developed over time, were central to an effective consultation. Perspectives on the consultation, and engagement within it, were co-constructed with a companion, who could help to promote the personhood of the service user with support from the health professional. Anxiety, embarrassment and felt stigma were identified as significant barriers to communication and engagement within the consultation. Conclusions. People with learning disabilities have similar health consultation needs and expectations to other people, but may have more difficulties in engaging with the process and building trusting relationships with the health professional, due to previous negative experiences, anticipated stigma and loss of self within health settings leading to a fear of disclosure. This, combined with difficulties in communication and cognitive processing, results in less satisfactory outcomes persisting over time. The effects of triadic consultations are generally positive, particularly where relatives or health facilitators are involved. However, continuity of companion as well as health professional is needed, and more service user engagement should be supported. Fundamental attitude change by health professionals, supported by specific educational initiatives to enhance their understanding of the service user perspective, is needed to reduce health inequalities. Participatory research by people with learning disabilities should inform future health care practice
Exploring the Meaning of Ethical Consumption: A Chinese Perspective
The existing literature on ethical consumption is primarily developed from a Western perspective; those from other parts of the world remain under-represented. This study offers an authentic Chinese perspective of ethical consumption: revealing Chinese consumers’ responses to the Western notion of ethical consumption and describing their interpretations of ethical consumption in a Chinese context. A phenomenological approach was adopted to explore this Chinese perceptive through consumers’ lived life stories and experiences. Four focus groups and fourteen interviews were conducted to ‘make text’, thematic analysis, guided by a hermeneutic approach to interpretation, was then used to produce rich meanings.
This study’s findings highlight the significance of traditional Chinese cultural virtues, and in particular, those attached to reconstructionist Confucianism. The outcomes illustrate that these traditional Chinese virtues are still deeply embedded in Chinese consumers, speaking through them and influencing their construction of the meanings of ethical consumption. Virtues such as harmony, thrift, being humble, trustworthiness, humanness and righteousness, loving one’s family and extending this love to others, are particularly relevant. This Chinese perspective of ethical consumption, therefore, can be viewed as ‘a bundle of virtues’. This bundle does not operate in a fixed order, but rather the elements interact with the external environment and thus the virtues used are influenced by specific situations to provide the basis for ‘ethical consumption’ in context.
The study findings also indicate the usefulness of virtue ethics in the field of ethical consumption. This leads to the suggestion that future research adopt a virtue ethics lens, rather than falling back on either a principles-based (deontological) or outcomes-based (consequential) perspective. Thus, even though this study considers a Chinese perspective, it offers a response to the Western notion of ethical consumption that underscores the importance of context, environment and situation. This leads to a position where research need to address, appreciate and incorporate the collaboration of governments, organizations and individual consumers in achieving a ‘true’ sense of ethical consumption