A Graphic Identity program for Sculpture \u2791

The Purpose of this thesis was to create a graphic design program for Sculpture \u2791 . My intent was to research environmental art and design, and participate in the project developement. The graphics developed would then be applied to various promotional pieces

Families of Choice: A qualitative study of Australian families formed through intercountry adoption

Recent sociological literature on family life focuses on the apparently increasing scope for individual choice in forming meaningful, intimate relationships. One important arena for the exercise of such choice is adoption, which is increasingly taking place across national boundaries, taking the form of intercountry adoption. Little attention, however, has been paid to this aspect of contemporary family life by these broader accounts of family change. The research which deals specifically with intercountry adoption focuses on the development and trends of the practice as well as outcome studies, often undertaken in the fields of social work and psychology, and there is little research which investigates the interaction between the general trends in family structure and intercountry adoption. This study responds to these gaps in the literature by examining the experiences of individuals choosing to form families through intercountry adoption in the Australian social policy environment. Documentary evidence was used to understand the development of Australian intercountry adoption and provide the historical and social policy context for the qualitative component of the study. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to develop an understanding of the choice participants made to form their family through intercountry adoption, and to examine how the state manages this area of social policy. My study found that individuals choose to form families through intercountry adoption because children are a crucial means by which they can add meaning to their lives and intimate relationships by providing another human being to love and nurture. This child focus was seen as ‘natural’ and, for some, as an inevitable extension of their relationship. The research also generated findings about the nature of relationships within intercountry adoptive families and the factors which influence how these families are different from biological families. The complex policy environment in Australia creates difficulties for individuals negotiating the system and diversity in legislation and practice among states results in an unclear policy orientation. The movement of children across international boundaries, while not new, has been influenced by a number of global forces including improved transport, enactment of international treaties, media coverage and the introduction of the internet. These advances have resulted in increased knowledge and access to information about intercountry adoption and a more developed understanding of how the process operates in other countries, which impacts on the experience of the process in Australia. The sociological account of family formation involving intercountry adoption in Australia that I have developed in this thesis confirms that relationships of choice are being formed in postmodern society, despite messages from a variety of authorities regarding family life which are often mixed, contradictory and dominated by particular family types, rather than by the concept of choice. My study differs from existing studies on intercountry adoption in its achievement of an account of the personal experiences of the intercountry adoption process and family life that links the two together, to show both how broader issues in postmodern family formation structure intercountry adoption, and how intercountry adoption constitutes a vital element of contemporary family formation

A qualitative study of Internet use comparing the experiences of people with physical disabilities and early onset dementia

People living with Early Onset Dementia and/or physical disabilities face distinct challenges in accessing increasingly digitised services and information. Relatively little is known about how either of these groups access and use the internet on a day-to-day basis, or their plans to negotiate changes in access. Early Onset Dementia, also called young onset or working age dementia, refers to a diagnosis of dementia given before the age of 65. People in this group usually have considerably different lifestyles and responsibilities compared to people who are diagnosed in their 80s. For example, people with Early Onset Dementia are likely to have more experience of computers and working online. Even so, they and their families may have difficulties in accessing appropriate information and services. Another sizeable group for whom assistive online access may be highly relevant is people living with physical disabilities. People in this group may be dependent on assistive technologies and interventions to access technology and the internet. However, despite the difficulties that both of these groups are likely to face, relatively little research has been done about any of their day-to-day activities’. This thesis collects and compares the experiences of two groups of participants through both the literature and qualitative research: Group 1, people living with physical disabilities; and Group 2, people living with Early Onset Dementia and their family members. A comprehensive literature search was conducted into internet use and service access by members of these two groups, and data were collected in semi-structured interviews and online questionnaires. Group 1 comprised of 15 interviews with people living with physical disabilities across Nottinghamshire who were recruited with the assistance of Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC). In addition to the interviews, 29 online questionnaires were completed by people with physical disabilities living across the UK. The data were analysed using an iterative coding approach to draw out the main themes and inform the approach used with Group 2. Group 2 also used an online questionnaire, which had 19 participants, and semi-structured interviews to collect data. The interviews used a number of different online recruitment methods to recruit 10 people living with Early Onset Dementia and eight family members from across England. The data were also analysed using an iterative coding approach, followed by thematic analysis informed by the analysis and results of Group 1. These themes were then compared to posts from the Alzheimer’s Society Talking Point forum by using word frequency analysis and word searches within the dataset. The experiences of the two groups were then compared to draw out the similarities and differences between the two, with the main combined themes centring on online access, support, online information, and digital legacies. All these themes indicated similarities in how people with Early Onset Dementia, their family members, and people living with physical disabilities use the internet and online resources to find information and support. There were also differences between the groups, especially between the group of people diagnosed with Early Onset Dementia and people with physical disabilities. The former group had far more limited involvement in searching for health-related information than the people with physical disabilities, or indeed their family members The themes also highlight the need for further research on both of these groups regarding the appropriateness of a ‘digital first’ approach to local authority services and the nature of support needed by these groups to retain online independence. As online access is not yet universal, it is premature for local authorities to plan a programme of digitisation and assume that service users will be in a position to cope with this change. These themes also underline the need for more up-to-date and appropriate post-diagnostic information, and guidance on which sites or services are safe or trustworthy. Significantly, the findings also draw attention to the need to prompt conversations about changing access needs and the nature of digital legacy, both between family members and between service users and professionals. This includes not just what people think a digital legacy is, but also plans they may want to put in place for online accounts and digital assets, and when this should occur. Further research is needed with larger cohorts of both people with Early Onset Dementia and people with physical disabilities who are active online to understand the changing patterns of internet use and dependence. This will help to ensure that people with Early Onset Dementia or physical disabilities can receive appropriate and accessible online services and support

A Compositional Semantics for Stochastic Reo Connectors

In this paper we present a compositional semantics for the channel-based coordination language Reo which enables the analysis of quality of service (QoS) properties of service compositions. For this purpose, we annotate Reo channels with stochastic delay rates and explicitly model data-arrival rates at the boundary of a connector, to capture its interaction with the services that comprise its environment. We propose Stochastic Reo automata as an extension of Reo automata, in order to compositionally derive a QoS-aware semantics for Reo. We further present a translation of Stochastic Reo automata to Continuous-Time Markov Chains (CTMCs). This translation enables us to use third-party CTMC verification tools to do an end-to-end performance analysis of service compositions.Comment: In Proceedings FOCLASA 2010, arXiv:1007.499

Growth Mindset and the Makerspace Educational Environment

This action research project has studied the impact of implementing strategies in a Makerspace on increasing grit in students. The study has been conducted in two fifth grade classes in a mid-western suburban elementary school. During the study, students completed four different Makerspace design challenge activities. Data was collected from Angela Duckworth’s grit survey to establish a baseline of student grit. Documentation of strategies used was collected through an inventory students completed after each design challenge. The data was used to identify changes in grit scores from students’ initial survey results to their final survey results. Student’s survey results were then compared to the total number of strategies used throughout the design challenges. The research data indicated that there was no correlation between the total number of strategies used and an increase in individual grit score. Identifying a tool, or resources to teach and foster grit in students may be increasingly important as grit has been identified as one of the most reliable factors in determining one\u27s success and capacity for academic, professional, or personal success. Keywords: Makerspace, Makerspaces, growth mindset, grit, maker mindset

Feature Paperwork of Features E1-E2 from Burns (8BR85)

This document contains the field notes taken during excavation of test unit E, pertaining to feature E1-E2. It is a scan of original paper documents generated in the field

Feature Paperwork of Feature I1-I3 from Burns (8BR85)

This document contains the field notes taken during excavation of test unit I, pertaining to feature I1-I3. It is a scan of original paper documents generated in the field

Kentucky School Administrator Perspectives on Trauma-Informed Practices: Implications for Critical Supervision

This study explored Kentucky school administrators’ perceptions, knowledge, and beliefs about trauma-informed practices, competence in promoting these practices, and the extent to which school administration preparation programs provided relevant training. Participants reported they were not adequately trained in their school administration programs and believed they needed additional training and support to implement trauma-informed practices. The Culturally Responsive, Trauma-informed Educator Identity framework outlines essential knowledge and skills needed to promote trauma-informed practices, and implications for critical supervision are explored

Co-designing wellbeing: the commonality of needs between co-designers and mental health service users

This paper considers the potential impact of the co-design process on the wellbeing of stakeholders involved in mental health service design. The findings presented here are drawn from semi-structured interviews conducted with both co-designers of a perinatal mental health service, who previously had issues with their mental health and acted as experts by experience, and the service users who accessed the designed offer. These have subsequently been analysed using a General Inductive Analysis approach (Thomas, 2006) to understand the factors that impacted on a participant’s wellbeing in both circumstances. Our findings highlight that there are similarities between the factors that impacted on the wellbeing of the co-designers and those that impacted on the wellbeing of service users accessing a mental health service. This paper suggests ways in which the design community might learn from the mental health sector to manage, and potentially improve, co-designers’ wellbeing during the co-design process. It also suggests how the role of the designer might need to expand to explicitly consider and manage the wellbeing of co-designers during a project