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The Contributions Of Ngos To Health In The Developing World, Leigh Ann Johnson Jan 2009

The Contributions Of Ngos To Health In The Developing World, Leigh Ann Johnson

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

This study investigated the contributions of NGOs to health in the developing world and well investigated the influence of organizational factors on an NGOs contribution to health. The researcher examined the health contributions of 210 NGOs with consultative status with the United Nations. The number of sectors and networks an NGO had was found to influence the health contributions of NGOs. HLM was used to examine the interaction between organizational and environmental factors on health contribution. There was no significant interaction found between these to factors.

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High-Order Numerical Schemes For High-Speed Flows, Maria Luisa Bambozzi Oliveira Jan 2009

High-Order Numerical Schemes For High-Speed Flows, Maria Luisa Bambozzi Oliveira

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

A numerical scheme with high order of accuracy is necessary to resolve small length scales in flow transition and turbulence processes. However, numerical simulation for shock-boundary layer interaction, shock-acoustic interaction, porous media flow and multiple phase flow, among others, also require a numerical scheme that can successfully capture discontinuities. To accomplish this, it is essential that an effective shock/discontinuity detector is implemented to reduce damping of physically important high-frequency waves.In this work, two high-order shock capturing schemes - the Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) scheme and the Weighted Compact Scheme (WCS) - are investigated. Based on this analysis, a shock/discontinuity detector …

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Instructional Time Loss In Developing Countries : Concepts, Measurement, And Implications, Helen Abadzi Jan 2009

Instructional Time Loss In Developing Countries : Concepts, Measurement, And Implications, Helen Abadzi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

Students in developing countries are often taught for only a fraction of the intended number of school hours. Time is often wasted due to informal school closures, teacher absenteeism, delays, early departures, and poor use of classroom time. Since the 1970s, attempts have been made in several countries to measure the use of instructional time in schools and its impact on student achievement. Studies have been of variable quality and have used different definitions and methods. However, they have consistently shown that significant amounts of time are lost and that the amount of time spent engaged in learning tasks is …

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Municipal Immigration Ordinances: An Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage Of A Controversial Issue, Andrea Lynne Burnett Jan 2009

Municipal Immigration Ordinances: An Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage Of A Controversial Issue, Andrea Lynne Burnett

Communication Theses - Archive

In 2006, the cities of Farmers Branch, Texas, and Hazleton, Pennsylvania, attempted to enact municipal immigration ordinances. The Farmers Branch ordinance would have banned apartment owners or managers from renting to undocumented immigrants, while the Hazelton ordinance would have targeted those who rent to undocumented immigrants and those who employ them. This study looked at the local immigration debate through attribute agenda-setting and framing approaches found in mass communication research. Using content analysis it identified how often the media mentioned attributes important to opponents and proponents of the ordinances, as well as how often reporters used proponents and opponents as …

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Probation Revocations Based On Technical Violations: Do Probation Officers Contribute To Higher Rates?, Amanda Kent Jan 2009

Probation Revocations Based On Technical Violations: Do Probation Officers Contribute To Higher Rates?, Amanda Kent

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

A recent report by The Pew Center on the States (2009) indicated 1 in 31 adults are under the control of the correctional system nationwide. In Texas, it is reported that 1 in 22 adults are under the control of the correctional system or rather in prison, jail, on probation or parole (The Pew Center on the States, 2009). The prisons in Texas and throughout the nation are becoming overcrowded which presents a problem for administrators and the public alike. Texas has experienced an increase of 310% in their prison population between 1985 and 2005 and it is expected to …

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Dishonest Associates In The Workplace: The Correlation Between Motivation And Opportunity In Retail Among Employee Theft, Edith Marie Fikes Jan 2009

Dishonest Associates In The Workplace: The Correlation Between Motivation And Opportunity In Retail Among Employee Theft, Edith Marie Fikes

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

White-collar crime is a major loss to the economy, employers, and consumers. It is a crime that often goes undetected, and when detected, employers rarely file charges, so estimates as to how often it occurs are hard to come by. White-collar crime is a very broad category so the focus of this study was on a sector of white-collar crime, retail employee theft. Cressey's (1973) fraud triangle contained three components: motivation, opportunity, and rationalization. Cressey (1973) claimed that if any of one of these three components did not exist, then the crime would not occur. In this study, retail employee …

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Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis Of Hybrid Frames, Dobrinka Radulova Jan 2009

Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis Of Hybrid Frames, Dobrinka Radulova

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This study proposes a hybrid frame system consisting of rigid and semi-rigid connections subjected to a dynamic loading. Two building geometries are chosen to represent low-rise and high-rise buildings. Multiple locations for placement of semi-rigid connections are proposed, and the hybrid systems with the most efficient energy dissipation are identified. During this analysis, five earthquake records are used to provide a spectrum of frequencies. Five practical semi-rigid connection types and one connection with analytical parameters are also modeled into the selected hybrid combinations by applying zero-length springs at the ends of beams, in which their nonlinear constitutive relation is defined …

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Managers' Forecast Guidance In Earnings Surprises Around Employee Stock Option Reissues, Jin Dong Park Jan 2009

Managers' Forecast Guidance In Earnings Surprises Around Employee Stock Option Reissues, Jin Dong Park

Accounting Dissertations - Archive

Option repricing, the practice of canceling underwater options and reissuing options with a lower exercise price, has often been considered an effective mechanism to restore the incentive effects of stock options. Since December 15, 1998, the effective date of FIN No.44, firms have initiated option exchange program as a new form of repricing. Under the new option exchange program, most firms cancel underwater options on a specified date and then reissue options at the first business day that is six months and one day later in order to avoid variable accounting for option repricing. I conjecture that this feature of …

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Is Sfas 142 A Good Opportunity For Firms To Manage Earnings?, Fu-Jen Hsiao Jan 2009

Is Sfas 142 A Good Opportunity For Firms To Manage Earnings?, Fu-Jen Hsiao

Accounting Dissertations - Archive

SFAS 142 eliminates the goodwill amortization and replaces it with an annual impairment test. This new accounting rule also provides the guidelines for firms to report their transition goodwill write-offs through a one-time below-the-line special item. After the one year transition period, any goodwill write-offs would be reported as operating expenses. This study analyzes the goodwill reporting behaviors in firms with in-process research and development (IPR&D firms) and examines whether IPR&D restated firms take advantage of this one-time below-the-line earnings management opportunity during the SFAS 142 transition period. In addition, this study examines the association between IPR&D firms' transition goodwill …

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What Are Country-Level Determinants Of Economic Research Productivity?, Hoa Nguyen Jan 2009

What Are Country-Level Determinants Of Economic Research Productivity?, Hoa Nguyen

Economics Theses - Archive

Economics research productivity is an emerging concern because it determines education system's quality and it can help improve economic welfare. This study seeks to investigate country-level determinants of research productivity in the Economics discipline. The main variables of interest are the use of the Internet and personal computers, economic openness and higher education. I hypothesize that Internet and PC use can lower the collaboration cost and searching cost resulting in increased marginal productivity from Internet adoption and positive cross productivity effects. Therefore, if people can access Internet more, their productivity will increase. In addition, economic openness, especially greater labor mobility, …

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What's So Funny? Letters As Comedic Devices In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night And Love's Labor's Lost, Pamela Tracy Jan 2009

What's So Funny? Letters As Comedic Devices In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night And Love's Labor's Lost, Pamela Tracy

English Theses - Archive

While letters and writing appear in many of Shakespeare's plays, his comedies Twelfth Night and Love's Labor's Lost use letter-writing uniquely, as a medium of linguistic-stylistic humor to attack Elizabethan anxieties and procure laughter from his audience. Maria's forged letter to Malvolio is commonly regarded as the humorous center of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, as the cleverly penned epistle leads its recipient to act in a ridiculous manner; in Love's Labor's Lost letters often lead to comic results, especially as the king and his men, who have taken a vow to avoid women, unwittingly reveal to each other that they have …

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Energy Efficient Routing Structures And Wakeup Schemes For Wireless Sensor Networks, Byoung Lee Jan 2009

Energy Efficient Routing Structures And Wakeup Schemes For Wireless Sensor Networks, Byoung Lee

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Wireless sensor networks, which consist of a large number of sensor nodes and a base station, are used for many applications aimed at collecting information. Each sensor node is equipped with a small amount of battery, limited memory, finite radio range and small CPU. It gathers required information and it sends the information to the base station. The large number of sensors can cover a large area by cooperating with each other to build a multi-hop wireless network. However, the small amount of battery is one of the critical concerns because sensor network life time depends on battery longevity. It …

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Novel Nonparametric Control Charts For Monitoring Multivariate Processes, Panitarn Chongfuangprinya Jan 2009

Novel Nonparametric Control Charts For Monitoring Multivariate Processes, Panitarn Chongfuangprinya

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The objective of this dissertation is to develop novel nonparametric control charts to effectively monitor and diagnose multivariate processes with a minimal set of modeling assumptions. Statistical process control (SPC) is a set of procedures that uses statistical techniques to measure, analyze, and reduce process variation. A control chart, which is a special type of graph showing the results of periodic inspections over time, is the primary and most successful SPC tool in real-world applications. This dissertation proposes two nonparametric multivariate control charts based on (1) a support vector machines (SVM) algorithm and (2) a linkage ranking algorithm. The first …

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Unsupervised Data Mining Methods For Functional Data Analysis And Feature Selection, Panaya Rattakorn Jan 2009

Unsupervised Data Mining Methods For Functional Data Analysis And Feature Selection, Panaya Rattakorn

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The objective of this dissertation is to develop new unsupervised data mining methods for functional data analysis and feature selection. Unsupervised learning is a modeling process that facilitates the extraction of implicit patterns and elicits the natural groupings within the dataset without using any information from the output (response) variable. This dissertation consists of two main parts: (1) unsupervised clustering approaches for functional data analysis and (2) unsupervised feature selection. Functional data analysis has gained significant attention from a variety of disciplines. In this dissertation we propose an effective clustering procedure to categorize a number of profiles that are formed …

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Methodology To Forecast Product Returns For The Consumer Electronics Industry, Amit Potdar Jan 2009

Methodology To Forecast Product Returns For The Consumer Electronics Industry, Amit Potdar

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Reverse logistics has gained much attention in recent years. It is becoming a value added area of a supply chain network day by day. For enterprises, it has therefore become essential to manage the reverse flow of materials in an efficient way to gain competitive advantage. One important aspect of reverse logistics is to have a correct and timely estimation of the reverse flow of materials. Improved forecast accuracy leads to a better decision making in strategic, tactical and operational areas of an organization. Intrinsic (time series) and extrinsic (causal) forecasting are some of the well known and frequently used …

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A Simple Sn2 Reaction For The Undergraduate Organic Laboratory, John J. Esteb Jan 2009

A Simple Sn2 Reaction For The Undergraduate Organic Laboratory, John J. Esteb

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

A simple procedure for the synthesis of n-butyl naphthyl ether is presented. This procedure represents an easy method for the production of an aryl ether by an SN2 reaction, uses ethanol as an environmentally friendly solvent, and does not require the use of a lachrymator. Product isolation is done by pouring the reaction mixture over ice and collecting the solid by suction filtration. Students typically recover from 7–95% of the ether.

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A Flexible Solvolysis Experiment For The Undergraduate Organic Laboratory, John J. Esteb, John R. Magers, Luanne M. Mcnulty, Paul Morgan Jan 2009

A Flexible Solvolysis Experiment For The Undergraduate Organic Laboratory, John J. Esteb, John R. Magers, Luanne M. Mcnulty, Paul Morgan

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

A simple SN1 reaction is presented that uses bromotriphenylmethane and a range of oxygen-based nucleophiles including water and various alcohols. This procedure represents a process that affords easy isolation of solid products. Typical student yields ranged from 17–128% with the average yield of 50%. Students obtained products with a melting point range of 140 to 164 °C. This procedure offers multiple ways to adapt this experiment from a straight solvolysis reaction to a discovery-based experiment that explores the effect of nucleophile (for a more advanced group) or the method of product isolation.

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Underlying Causes Of Forced Displacement, Bonita Bhattarai Sharma Jan 2009

Underlying Causes Of Forced Displacement, Bonita Bhattarai Sharma

Social Work Theses - Archive

Conflict and violence have displaced many people around the world. Therefore, this paper explores the broader underlying risk factors that bring population to a vulnerable state of conflict related internal displacement. The possible root causes of conflict explored here are sustenance, degree of democracy, and global economic power status of countries. This methodology follows quantitative studies with dataset that comprises of the countries with conflict-induced internal displacement for 2007. The results of this analysis show that all three indicators are not appropriate measures to predict Internally Displaced Persons and that the global economic power status of the country is closer …

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Hardiness And Homelessness: A Strengths-Based Perspective Of Service Use By Veterans Who Are Homeless, James C. Petrovich Jan 2009

Hardiness And Homelessness: A Strengths-Based Perspective Of Service Use By Veterans Who Are Homeless, James C. Petrovich

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this study was to expand the current knowledge base regarding the use of services by veterans who are homeless. Informed by existing gaps in the scientific literature, it recruited a systematic sample from a low-demand urban shelter and applied a strengths-based perspective by evaluating whether the personality construct of hardiness predicted utilization of assistance services. It also utilized a group of non-veteran homeless men to serve as a comparison group on key variables including demographic characteristics, hardiness, service utilization, mental and physical health functioning, and history of substance abuse problems. Framed within the Behavioral Model of Health …

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How Adult Acquired Hearing Loss Affects Marital Satisfaction, Martha Gayle Speegle Jan 2009

How Adult Acquired Hearing Loss Affects Marital Satisfaction, Martha Gayle Speegle

Social Work Theses - Archive

Hearing loss can adversely affect a marital relationship when a person becomes deafened after the marriage or commitment to cohabitate. This population is growing more quickly than hearing loss professionals had anticipated. Scores of military personnel are returning from deployment with permanent hearing loss. Loud music and environmental noise are rapidly taking their toll on the Baby Boomer generation and those following them.This paper discusses the problems that hearing loss imposes on relationship: Lack of counseling services, grief and loss, intimacy, crisis, co-morbidity, communication, careers, abuse, dependence and co-dependence.

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Community Perceptions Of Social Workers, Robert Veigel Jan 2009

Community Perceptions Of Social Workers, Robert Veigel

Social Work Theses - Archive

The purpose of this study was to explore the community's perceptions of the social work profession. The study explored five specific areas: 1) view of social work; 2) roles of social workers; 3) community preference's for seeking help; 4) social work's value to community; and 5) sources of perceptions of social work. A survey was administered to parents and guardians of students at a local elementary during a school function. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. In contrast to previous studies, findings suggest that the view of social work is generally positive. However, there is a lack of knowledge …

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Phenomenological Psychological Autopsies: A Survivor Driven Model For Understanding Suicide, Elizabeth Ann Mitchell Jan 2009

Phenomenological Psychological Autopsies: A Survivor Driven Model For Understanding Suicide, Elizabeth Ann Mitchell

Social Work Theses - Archive

Over a million people worldwide die by suicide each year. 32,000 of these deaths occur in the United States. Strikingly, that number is miniscule in comparison to the 300,000 additionally recorded and 775,000 estimated non fatal attempts in that same year's time (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008; Maris, Berman & Silverman, 2000). In 1999, suicide was recognized by the Surgeon General as a serious public health issue (Satcher, 2000). The purpose for this study was two-fold. First and foremost the effort was to increase knowledge about why people die by suicide. Secondly, the author hoped to assess the …

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Access To Mental Health Care: Clients Perception Of Services Provided By Agape Clinic And Community Care, Erika Ruiz Jan 2009

Access To Mental Health Care: Clients Perception Of Services Provided By Agape Clinic And Community Care, Erika Ruiz

Social Work Theses - Archive

The purpose of this study was to identify whether there is a relationship between acculturation and utilization of mental health services among U.S. born and non-U.S. born Hispanics in the United States. Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to identify factors, which lead U.S. born and non -U.S. born Hispanics to seek and utilize mental health services. Findings suggest that there is no relationship between acculturation and the utilization of mental health services. A lack of resistance may be due to a need of education on mental health illnesses.

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Influential Factors On Adolescent's Suicidal Behavior, Yi Jin Kim Jan 2009

Influential Factors On Adolescent's Suicidal Behavior, Yi Jin Kim

Social Work Theses - Archive

Several studies have been conducted to investigate risk factors for adolescent suicide. Most adolescent risk models for suicide contain "traditional" risk factors such as depression or substance use. However, other possible factors such as body dissatisfaction or risky sexual behaviors have lacked adequate research and evaluation in general, even though these factors have been prevalent among adolescents and associated with risk factors for suicide. Also, the target population in past studies that investigate suicide risk among adolescents has been mainly focused on Caucasians, African Americans, or Hispanics, and failed to include various racial and ethnic groups such as Asians, who …

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Spirituality As Protective Factor For Adolescents Exposed To Domestic Violence, Linda E. Benavides Jan 2009

Spirituality As Protective Factor For Adolescents Exposed To Domestic Violence, Linda E. Benavides

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

Research has shown that exposure to domestic violence can have adverse developmental outcomes for adolescents. Several protective factors have been identified in the research literature as promoting resilience with at-risk youth. Recently spirituality as a potential protective factor has received attention. The current phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of fourteen adolescents-who had been exposed to domestic violence-to answer the following questions: 1) How do adolescents define spirituality? 2) In what ways does spirituality serve as a protective factor for adolescents exposed to domestic violence? In the current study, both traditional and non-traditional definitions of spirituality emerged. Spirituality appeared to …

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Women's Emotional Experiences With Gynecological Oncology, Chris Camperson Jan 2009

Women's Emotional Experiences With Gynecological Oncology, Chris Camperson

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

This study describes women's emotional experiences with gynecological oncology, with an emphasis on depression, using a qualitative phenomenology approach. The qualitative methodology was designed to give the women participants a voice. Ten women who resided in North Texas participated in the study. Each of the women had been diagnosed with a gynecological oncology at some point in their lives. Seven of the women had an ovarian cancer diagnosis, one had cervical cancer, one had endometrial cancer, and one had a diagnosis of vaginal and cervical cancer. The participants ranged in age from 28 to 67 years of age. The results …

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Factors Influencing Nursing Home Use Of Older African Americans, Hispanic Americans And Caucasians, Jeana Organ Culbert Jan 2009

Factors Influencing Nursing Home Use Of Older African Americans, Hispanic Americans And Caucasians, Jeana Organ Culbert

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

As the population of older Americans increases, the utilization of nursing homes is an area of concern. The purpose of this study is to identify factors which influence the nursing home utilization of older African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Caucasians. This study will focus on selected variables such as caregiver type, relative caregiver race, long-term care insurance and out-of-pocket nursing home expenditures. The study will use a longitudinal, non-experimental approach, guided by a comprehensive literature review and the theoretical application to the Behavioral Model of Health Service Use.

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The Role Of The Sibling Relationship In Foster Care: A Comparison Of Adults With A History Of Childhood Out-Of-Home Placement, Adam Mccormick Jan 2009

The Role Of The Sibling Relationship In Foster Care: A Comparison Of Adults With A History Of Childhood Out-Of-Home Placement, Adam Mccormick

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

This secondary data analysis focuses on the outcome experiences of adults with a history of out-of-home placement. The study focuses on the relationship between childhood sibling experiences and outcomes for adults. The study assessed the outcome of 50 alumni in the areas of income, educational attainment, employment, adult sibling relationships, social support, self esteem, and housing. The strength of childhood sibling relationship and positive adult outcomes was assessed using a number of control variables in a multivariate analysis including maltreatment experience, age, gender, campus, number of placements, level of preparation for independence, and age at placement. A number of factors …

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"A Condition Of Potentiality": American Women's Utopian And Science Fiction, 1920-1960, Bridgitte Barclay Arnold Jan 2009

"A Condition Of Potentiality": American Women's Utopian And Science Fiction, 1920-1960, Bridgitte Barclay Arnold

English Dissertations - Archive

The 1920-1960 period of women-authored United States utopian and science fiction deserves a reassessment. This study focuses on utopian texts and science fiction texts with strong utopian emphasis and recovers 41 women-authored utopian and science fiction texts from the period, almost doubling the number of titles in existing bibliographies. In so doing, the dissertation asserts, first, that the recovered texts mean that the 1920- 60 period is rich in women-authored utopian and science fiction; second, that many of these texts address issues that feminist theorists did not articulate until the 1970s; third, this means that we must reassess the ways …

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The Drag Paradox, Robert Doane Lipscomb Jan 2009

The Drag Paradox, Robert Doane Lipscomb

English Theses - Archive

Why are so many of us intent on defining ourselves in terms of those anatomically well-protected, discrete, and proportionally insignificant parts of our bodies we choose to keep covered up in the first place? Drag, the deliberate performance of gender contrary to societal expectations related to genitalia, cannot be defined in terms of any one construct, though the essential nature of such performances, however elusive the mapping may be, is constant. Because drag represents a transgressed boundary between masculinity and femininity, the act of accessing this transgressed boundary in and of itself provides agency because the performance of drag is …

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