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Discussing Laddering Application By The Means-End Chain Theory, Tânia Modesto Veludo-De-Oliveira, Ana Akemi Ikeda, Marcos Cortez Campomar

The Qualitative Report

This article aims at analyzing laddering as a technique of qualitative research, emphasizing the procedures for data collection, analysis and interpretation, and its main limitations as well. “Laddering refers to an in-depth, one-on-one interviewing technique used to develop an understanding of how consumers translate the attributes of products into meaningful associations with respect to self, following means-end theory” (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988, p. 12). The critical literature review shows that laddering is useful in studies on human behavior, especially those related to the Means-End Chain (MEC) model. For a successful application, highly trained interviewers, homogeneous groups of respondents, and the …

The Pre-Conceptual Map Methodology: Development And Application, Shellie Hipsky

The Qualitative Report

The objective of this article is to present the Pre-Conceptual Map methodology as a formalized way to identify, document, and utilize preconceived assumptions on the part of the researcher in qualitative inquiry. This technique can be used as a stand alone method or in conjunction with other qualitative techniques (i.e., naturalistic inquiry). This document explains how to utilize the process and includes specific examples based on a formal study of the pilot of The Drama Discovery Curriculum. The article highlights the Pre-Conceptual Map methodology for use by other researchers by examining: the need for the methodology, how it is related …

Elaborating The Grounding Of The Knowledge Base On Language And Learning For Preservice Literacy Teachers, Carolyn L. Piazza, Cynthia Wallat

The Qualitative Report

This purpose of this article is to present a qualitative inquiry into the genesis of sociolinguistic s and the contributions of eight sociolinguistic pioneers. This inquiry, based on an historical interpretation of events, reformulates the concept of validation as the social construction of a scientific knowledge base, and explicates three themes that offer a set of sociolinguistic constructs, questions, and propositions that can provide aspiring teachers with a frame of reference and set of guidelines for teaching language and literacy. An implication section, at the end of the article, illustrates sociolinguistic components that can be added to course syllabi in …

Qualitative Research And Quilting: Advice For Novice Researchers, Leigh Ausband

The Qualitative Report

This paper relates how the author, a novice qualitative researcher, uses the familiar process of quilting to help her clarify the research process. Other novice researchers are advised to look around for similar connections they can make in their lives to assist with their research.

Preservice Teachers’ Professional Development In A Community Of Practice Summer Literacy Camp For Children At-Risk: A Sociocultural Perspective, Janet C. Richards

The Qualitative Report

This inquiry applied an innovative sociocultural framework to examine transformations in preservice teachers’ professional development as they worked with children at-risk in a summer literacy camp. The camp incorporated a community of practice model in which teams of master’s and doctoral students mentored small groups of preservice teachers. The study examined preservice teachers ’ learning following Rogoff’s (1995, 1997) notions of the personal, interpersonal, and community planes of analysis. The research also employed a postmodernist crystallization imagery to capture multiple perspectives on the preservice teachers’ growth. The study assigns importance to the contextual dimensions in which learning takes place, and …

Southern Rural Public Schools: A Study Of Teacher Perspectives, Leah P. Mccoy

The Qualitative Report

This ethnography explores teachers’ perspectives of the cultural issues affecting academic performance in twelve public high schools in rural Mississippi and Louisiana. Fr om a thematic analysis of the tape-recorded interviews of forty-one mathematics teachers, five categories emerged, each comprising a qualitative aspect of teaching high school in an economically depressed area of the deep South: society, race, students, families, and schools. Each of these categories is discussed and explicated using exemplars from the interviews to show how each category emerged from the data. In addition, the relationships among these categories, which form a destructive cycle of poverty, low expectations, …

Meeting The Needs Of A Latino English Language Learner Through Teacher Research, Sylvia R. Taube, Barbara E. Polnick, Jacqueline Minor Lane

The Qualitative Report

Over the years, Ms. Lane’s third grade mathematics classroom had become increasingly diverse. Challenged by the growing population of English Language Learners (ELL) and he r need to change her teaching practice to meet their needs, Ms. Lane selected to study how best to teach one of her greatest challenges, Ana, a Latino ELL who also had a learning disability. Ms. Lane and her two university mentors found that using a collaborative action research model provided a structure for researching, designing, and implementing strategies that helped Ana improve her mathematics performance. The university mentors found that they, too, benefited from …

Montana Kaimin, December 1, 2006, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula. Page 9 is missing.

Board/Ceo Engagement: Bridging The Governance Gap, Brian L. Newton

Student Scholarship

The role that leaders perform in governing nonprofit organizations has confounded practitioners and scholars since the time of the early settlers, when the functions of governance were first separated. Is governance the role of the board, management, or both? Today, little has changed. Public and private nonprofit organizations, almost all of which are governed by boards of lay citizens and by professional executives, continue to define the gap between what the board's role is and what the chief executive officer's (CEO) role is. Organizations such as BoardSource (formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards), The Aspen Institute, the Independent Sector, …

"I Think We Never Looked At A Financial Analysis" : Making Sense Of Resource Allocation Decisions In Technical Innovation In The Durable Consumer Goods Industry, Martin Zummersch

Student Scholarship

The purpose of this research study was to investigate how practitioners' of the durable consumer goods industry make resource allocation decisions in technical innovation, in an industry shaped by high uncertainty and low barriers to entry. Few studies have been conducted that generated qualitative data that allowed for comparisons between prescriptive models and the actual lived-world experiences of practitioners. During the investigation we conducted interviews with executives of the industry that allowed us to better understand how practitioners derived at decisions and why certain organizations were able to innovate more successfully than others. This analysis leveraged the theories of the …

Investment Consumer Satisfaction: Identifying Factors Of Influence In Financial Advisory Relationships, Betty Moon

Student Scholarship

The search for key factors that influence consumer satisfaction and loyalty in financial advisory relationships, originating in consumer behavior theory, suggests that consumer/financial advisor similarity and superior investment portfolio performance may be key drivers of client satisfaction. Conversely 70% of respondents in this study indicated that similarity played no role at all in their satisfaction with advisors, and 20% of respondents asserted that they specifically selected advisors for their dissimilarity. Our results suggest three discrete, potentially important, drivers of consumer satisfaction- client self-efficacy, client financial self-worth and financial advisor interpersonal performance. In conclusion, we discuss how these findings may enhance …

The Impact Of Organization Destruction On Social Capital Value, R. Drew Sellers

Student Scholarship

This paper links social capital dynamics and value with organization destruction. It produces the finding that organizational destruction may in some cases increase the value of social capital. A key theoretical contribution of this study is extending the metaphor of social capital to encompass asset recoverability. Based upon cases studies of 15 individuals who lived through the destruction of Arthur Andersen, this paper examines the persistence and value of an individual's social capital when an organization destructs. It explores the question, "Is the value of an individual's investment in organization-specific social capital a recoverable asset post-destruction?" Interviews with Andersen alumni …

Professional Soccer Ministries: The Deconstruction Of Secularization Through The Globalization Of Soccer In Conjunction With The Biblical Worldview, Aaron Matsuo Tredway

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This project is an attempt to present the ministry of, conceptual/theological impetus for, and assessment of Professional Soccer Ministries as it pertains to the deconstruction of secularization. This will be accomplished by one presenting the inception of Professional Soccer Ministries. Secondly, a review of the cultural/societal shift from Christendom to Enlightenment thought and its implications for the church of the modern era will be discussed. Third, the methodology and pragmatic implementation of Professional Soccer Ministries will be reviewed and conclusions drawn based upon its effectiveness as an avenue of the church for the proactive deconstruction of secularization.

Enabling Trust And Performance In Distributed Collaborative Teams, Eugene A. Pierce

Student Scholarship

Virtual teams allow organizations to bring together critical contributors who might not otherwise be able to work together due to time, travel and cost restrictions. In addition, virtual teams can enhance the available pool of resources by including people from outside the sponsoring organization, such as consultants, or members of partner organizations. Virtual teams also allow organizations to hire and retain the best people, who may be either unable or unwilling to relocate, and to facilitate dynamic membership changes as a result of changes in project requirements or the unexpected loss of team members. As such they are sometimes unable …

Duty In Tort Law: An Economic Approach, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

Theories of tort law have focused on the breach and causation components of negligence, saying little if anything about duty. This paper provides a positive economic theory of duty doctrine. The theory that best explains duty doctrines in tort law is the same as the theory that explains strict liability doctrine. The core function of both sets of doctrines is to regulate the frequency or scale of activities that have substantial external effects. Strict liability aims to suppress or tax activities that carry unusually large external costs. Duty doctrines, especially those relieving actors of a duty of care, serve several …

Embracing Chance: Post-Modern Meditations On Punishment, Bernard E. Harcourt

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Federal Court Self-Preservation And Terri Schiavo, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

If the federal court in Florida had granted preliminary relief to allow itself more time to consider the constitutional claims that Terri Schiavo's parents brought on her behalf, and if, as expected, those claims were ultimately rejected, the federal court would have been placed in the unenviable position of having to be the institution that made the final decision to terminate Terri Schiavo's feeding and other treatment. Although I have no way of knowing whether this fact, which has not been noted in the commentary,' actually entered into the mind of any of the federal judges who considered the case, …

Symposium: The Role Of The Judge In The Twenty-First Century: Introduction, Eva Nilsen

Faculty Scholarship

The contents of this special issue of the Boston University Law Review are the product of a symposium on "The Role of the Judge in the Twenty-First Century," held on April 21st and 22nd, 2006 at the Boston University School of Law. The symposium presented a rare opportunity for a distinguished group of federal judges and academics to exchange ideas about some of the most pressing and controversial subjects facing the courts. Over the course of two days, panelists explored a number of ongoing challenges to the judiciary, including threats to judicial independence, national security imperatives, exploding caseloads, increasing reliance …

The Value Of U.S. Patents By Owner And Patent Characteristics, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

This paper uses renewal data to estimate the value of U.S. patents, controlling for patent and owner characteristics. Estimates of U.S. patent value are substantially larger than estimates for European patents, however, the ratio of U.S. patent value to R&D for firms is only about 3%. Patents issued to small patentees are much less valuable than those issued to large corporations, perhaps reflecting imperfect markets for technology. Litigated patents are more valuable, as are highly cited patents. However, patent citations explain little variance in value, suggesting limits to their use as a measure of patent quality.

Materiality And Social Change: The Case For Replacing "The Reasonable Investor" With "The Least Sophisticated Investor" In Inefficient Markets, Margaret V. Sachs

Scholarly Works

The current materiality standard for federal securities fraud is a mid-twentieth-century construct that fails to accommodate certain twenty-first century realities. This Article argues that its reach should be restricted to preserve it for the many circumstances in which it continues to function well.

The current standard measures materiality from the standpoint of "the reasonable investor," a savvy person who grasps market fundamentals. This standard has a fatal flaw: its inability to protect unsophisticated investors who are duped by implausible falsehoods in inefficient markets. This flaw can no longer be ignored given Internet and telemarketing securities fraud and its many unsophisticated, …

After The Catastrophe: Disaster Relief For Hospitals, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard

Scholarly Works

Disaster planning for health care providers following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and, more recently, Hurricane Katrina, focuses on preparing hospitals and other emergency services to respond to victims' medical needs. But little attention has been paid to the challenges that providers would face resuming normal operations after responding to the catastrophe. A large-scale catastrophe could create unprecedented demand for health care and emergency services. Hospitals already struggle to fulfill the high demand for and high costs of emergency care. Following a major disaster, hospitals would face additional financial challenges. Strained capacity and financial reserves, may force hospitals to …

The Fading Of Reported Effectiveness. A Meta-Analysis Of Randomised Controlled Trials, Bt Gehr, C Weiss, F Porzsolt

More Faculty of Health Research

Abstract Background The "real" effect size of a medical therapy is constant over time. In contrast, the effect size reported in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) may change over time because the sum of all kinds of bias influencing the reported effectiveness is not necessarily constant. As this would affect the validity of meta-analyses, we tested the hypothesis that the reported effect size decreases over time. Furthermore, we tested three hypotheses that would explain a possible change. Methods Because of well established outcome measures, the lipid-lowering drugs Pravastatin and Atorvastatin (serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, LDL-C) and the anti-glaucoma drugs Timolol and …

Working Toward Democracy: Thurgood Marshall And The Constitution Of Kenya, Mary L. Dudziak

Duke Law Journal

This Article is a work of transnational legal history. Drawing upon new research in foreign archives, it sheds new light on the life of Thurgood Marshall, exploring for the first time an episode that he cared very deeply about. his work with African nationalists on an independence constitution for Kenya. The story is paradoxical, for Marshall, a civil rights legend in America, would seek to protect the rights of white landholders in Kenya who had gained their land through discriminatory land laws, but were soon to lose political power. In order to understand why Marshall would take pride in entrenching …

Journal Staff

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Against Individually Signed Judicial Opinions, James Markham

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Disability, Disparate Impact, And Class Actions, Michael Ashley Stein, Michael E. Waterstone

Duke Law Journal

Following Title VII's enactment, group-based employment discrimination actions flourished due to disparate impact theory and the class action device. Courts recognized that subordination that defined a group's social identity was also sufficient legally to bind members together, even when relief had to be issued individually. Woven through these cases was a notion of panethnicity that united inherently unrelated groups into a common identity, for example, Asian Americans. Stringent judicial interpretation subsequently eroded both legal frameworks and it has become increasingly difficult to assert collective employment actions, even against discriminatory practices affecting an entire group. This deconstruction has immensely disadvantaged persons …

Estimation Of Blood Loss During Caesarean Section: An Audit, Fauzia A. Khan, Mueenullah Khan, Asif Ali, Ursula Chohan

Department of Anaesthesia

Objective: To evaluate the blood ordering practice and blood transfusion for Caesarean sections at our institution and to compare the estimated blood loss between anaesthetists and obstetricians.Methods: A review of 126 patients undergoing both elective and emergency Caesarean section was undertaken in 2002. Information collected included the number of blood units cross-matched preoperatively, type of surgery (emergency or elective), type of anaesthesia, parity of the patient, estimated blood loss by both anaesthetists and obstetricians, intraoperative and postoperative transfusion within 48 hours and pre and post operative haemoglobin (Hb) and haemocrit (Hct).Results: A total of 215 units were cross-matched for 126 …

A Universal Copyright Fund: A New Way To Bridge The Copyright Divide, Kung-Chung Liu, Haochen Sun

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The ever-increasing digitization of works, along with the deployment of technical measures to protect such works and the expansive use of the Internet, further exacerbate the divide between the IP-rich and IP-poor countries in their ability to benefit from such works. It is suggested by this paper that to borrow from experiences on how the telecommunications world provides universal service to each and every household at affordable prices, and to endeavor to shed some new light on how the copyright divide can be narrowed. It is structured in three parts. The first part will examine the past and future failure …

Combined Effects Of Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Variants And Maternal Mitochondrial Genes On Alcohol Consumption, Yedy Israel, Maria E. Quintanilla, Amalia Sapag, Lutske Tampier

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Two lines of rats bred to differ in their voluntary alcohol consumption — the alcohol-abstaining UChA rats and the alcohol-drinking UChB rats — differ in how effectively toxic acetaldehyde is removed during alcohol metabolism. UChB animals carry efficient variants of the aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) genes and have active mitochondria, resulting in fast removal of acetaldehyde. UChA animals, in contrast, carry less efficient ALDH2 variants and less active mitochondria, which result in transient elevations of acetaldehyde levels after alcohol ingestion. Cross-breeding studies have demonstrated that the presence of active mitochondria inherited from UChB females can fully abolish the reduction of …

Restriction Of Tort Remedies And The Constraints Of Due Process: The Right To An Adequate Remedy, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In the recent proliferation of tort reform statutes, the dangerous clause of remedial jurisdiction stripping has sneaked into the law. Reminiscent of federal statutes in other areas of the law, these jurisdictional provisions strip courts of all power to award punitive or non-pecuniary damages in excess of legislative limits. Many states have acted to restrict frivolous claims and excessive recoveries by cabining “McTorts” and “runaway juries.” Regardless of the merits of these policy questions, the use of the simple expedient of remedial jurisdiction to accomplish these purposes raises significant concerns. By arbitrarily restricting an individual’s right to a meaningful remedy, …