The tattooed client – a phenomenological exploration of symbolic representations in Self-concept

This study’s primary research questions sought to explore Tattoo Narratives as an alternative approach to understanding a client’s phenomenological sense of Self. The author was also interested in understanding why some clients choose to immortalise significant life events with tattoos and the personal meaning they attach to it. The intension of this study was to examine whether any knowledge produced is of benefit to a counsellor, working with a tattooed client. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed in an in-depth study of a small sample of tattooed counsellors. Three master themes emerged, detailed by eight interlinking super-ordinate themes. Master themes were Self, Tattoo Narratives and Meaning Making of the Tattoo Narrative

Actualización de la gestión del mantenimiento en secciones de crudo y horno en la planta CEMEX Colorado de Abangares.

Proyecto de Graduación (Licenciatura en Ingeniería en Mantenimiento Industrial) Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Escuela de Ingeniería en Mantenimiento Industrial, 2016.Now a days, large companies or even SMEs have tried to improve their processes and increase their profits through a good maintenance management, since many years maintenance has been stopped seeing as a department responsible for dealing with faults, to be entities responsible for ensuring that the objectives of the companies are met, through good management and good use of assets. Being aware of this, CEMEX one of the leaders worldwide in the production and distribution of highquality cement, aggregates and concrete, has invested large sums of money for the improvement of their maintenance activities through the implementation of world class maintenance practices. However, it is not a secret that a maintenance program should be dynamic, i.e kept constantly updated and improved continuously, this is perhaps one of the aspects that many companies have forgotten; CEMEX seeks to eliminate these malpractices. To achieve this, first was important to evaluate the current maintenance management to find possible improvement points. As a second step, was established the hierarchy of assets considered critical for the company, in order to have fundamentals in making decisions and establishing maintenance policies, allowing to assess, if there is justification for repair an asset or just let it fail. Finally, equipment were analyzed according to hierarchy of assets considered critical; were evaluated if current maintenance activities are cost efficient; identifying this, was possible to obtain a 15% reduction in the costs of preventive maintenance in these equipments, which, as a consequence, increases productivity and profits, allowing to produce more, with less resources.CEMEX Costa Ric

Early Childhood Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Professional Learning Communities

Teachers are struggling to transfer newly acquired knowledge and skills from professional learning experiences into their classrooms. This study aimed to explore teachers\u27 perceptions of how professional learning communities (PLCs) enhance elementary teachers\u27 instructional practices based on interviews with teachers in a rural school district. Olivier and Huffman\u27s theory of utilizing PLC to their fullest potential was used as a conceptual framework for the study. This framework highlighted five dimensions of meaningful collaborative learning to increase teaching and learning in schools. This was a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews of 10 certified elementary teachers who engaged in PLC. Interview transcripts were examined using open-coding techniques with thematic analysis. Participants reported nurturing teacher leadership, support for teaching and learning, collaborative learning, sharing instructional practices, and supportive conditions were significant contributing factors for PLCs\u27 success in enhancing teacher instructional practices. All of the study participants agreed that PLCs impacted teachers learning instructional strategies at the elementary school level, especially for pre-kindergarten through second grade teachers. It is recommended that districts and schools provide training regarding collective learning and application, sharing instructional practices, working collaboratively to plan, solving problems of practice, and learning opportunities in their classroom through collaboration with colleagues. Further recommendations include using a mixed-methods research design to understand PLCs better. This study contributes to positive social change by informing educators, practitioners, and researchers about the need for teacher collaboration to improve instructional strategies, thereby improving students\u27 academic achievement

Teacher Perceptions About Using Collaborative Inquiry in Professional Learning Communities

A large suburban school system in the mid-Atlantic United States identified the Data Wise Improvement Process (DWIP) as a systemic strategy to achieve the district-wide goal of student achievement for college and career readiness. Elementary science teachers marginally participated in school-based instructional team meetings to analyze student data. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand teacher perceptions of working with colleagues in a collaborative learning environment focused on shared student data. Adult learning theory, social constructivist theory, and collaborative inquiry practices served as the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected through an electronic web-based survey with five Grade K–5 science teachers and a focus group with four Grade K–5 science teachers. The data were examined through inductive analysis, and seven themes emerged: (a) teachers have a working knowledge of DWIP and collaborative planning, (b) teachers’ new skills and knowledge impact their individual practice, (c) teachers’ colleagues display adverse behaviors in collaborative sessions, (d) central office personnel impact teachers’ collaborative inquiry processes, (e) teachers value student data for flexible decision making, (f) teachers identify supportive principal behaviors related to collaborative inquiry, and (g) teachers identify adverse principal behaviors related to collaborative inquiry. Based on the findings, a 3-day professional development module was created to enhance teacher and school administrator collaboration regarding student work. Positive social change may occur through a shared commitment of teachers and school administrators focusing on collaboration around student data for improved teaching practices and student outcomes

Cortical Bone Adaptation: A Finite-Element Study of the Mouse Tibia

Bone is a dynamic tissue that adapts its shape and material properties as a response to changes in mechanical demands. The process by which bone functional adaptation takes places consists of a complex cascade of events, entailing different levels of mechanical and biological regulation, which are still unknown or under debate in the scientific community. Mechanical cues are site-specific factors that play a crucial role in skeletal maintenance and adaptation. The present work is framed within this research area and aims to inspect a hypothetical relationship between organ-level load-induced mechanical cues and the adaptive response of cortical bone. More specifically, this thesis focuses on how loading parameters (such load frequency or the insertion of rest periods between load cycles) alter the mechanical environment in bone tissue (estimated using numerical tools) and, consequently, its adaptive response. Animal in vivo loading models allow for inducing bone functional adaptation in a controlled environment and are, therefore, a powerful tool in the study of the influence of external loading and loading parameters to bone mechanotransduction. The murine axial tibial loading model was used as platform to trigger cortical bone adaptation in mouse specimens and provide relevant biological and biomechanical information. The spatial distribution of in vivo functional adaptation in the murine model was assessed via morphological examination of ex vivo μCT scans from loaded and control tibiae of C57BL/6 mice, by contralateral comparison of cross-section geometrical properties and measurements. Calculation of the second moment of area indicated regions of bone formation along the length of the bone. A method for mapping cortical thickness was developed, consisting in the three-dimensional representation of the changes of shell thickness in the diaphysis of a long bone, allowing for explicitly describing how bone adaptation is distributed in space. The mechanical environment of the cortical shell was estimated using computational models, based on finite-element analysis generated from μCT data, to provide a full field description of mechanical fields. A novel in silico predictive model was coupled to the finite-element models. This mathematical formulation assumed that bone responds instantly to local mechanical cues in an on-off manner and that this response is integrated in time and averaged in space, resulting in a bone formation rate represented by surface displacements. Strain energy density (SED) was initially employed as stimulus to cortical bone formation. The obtained predictions were compared against the 3D cortical adaptation maps from in vivo adaptation, showing that SED is able to reproduce the spatial patterns of changes in bone shape, but has a limited contribution in the study of time-dependent parameters. Following experimental evidence that suggests that interstitial fluid flow in the lacunar-canalicular system is a stimulus for mechanoadaptation, a simplified 3D poroelastic finite-element model of a beam in bending was developed in order to simulate the behaviour of fluid flow in mouse cortical bone. This model allowed exploration of two important loading parameters that affect mechanoadaptation: load frequency and rest insertion. A range of intrinsic permeabilities found in literature from 1E-23 to 1E-18 m2 were tested, and fluid velocity was determined. Models with permeabilities down to 1E-21 m2 followed a dose-response relationship between fluid flow and sinusoidal frequency. Smaller orders of magnitude of permeability were relatively insensitive to frequency. It was found that there is a minimum time of rest between loading cycles that is required to maximise fluid motion. These findings suggest that, in addition to biological saturation, fluid flow plays a role in the enhancement of osteogenic response in load regimes that allow recovery periods between consecutive load cycles. Fluid velocity was then included as a mechanical stimulus in the developed cortical bone adaptation algorithm, in order to determine if, in addition to predicting time-dependent factors, fluid flow could reproduce in vivo spatial patterns. Equivalent predictions to the strain-based simulations were obtained. The presented cortical adaptation algorithm simulated spatial distribution of cortical adaptation with a good agreement between the in vivo measurements and our predictions. The work presented here provides novel methodological and theoretical approaches to understanding the spatial and temporal parameters of cortical bone adaptation. With a better understanding of the factors that promote bone formation, mechanical loading can be optimized to elicit a maximum osteogenic response.Open Acces

Leeds Urban Development Corporation The potential for development

Report compiled by PIEDA, JMP Consultanats Ltd., Shepheard, Epstein, Hunter plc., Turner and Townsend, & Weatherall, Hollis and GaleAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q95/09900 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo