Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Something Old, Something New : Marriage Customs Among The Druze In The Shouf Mountains Of Lebanon, Nancy Scarlette Beaini

Dissertations and Theses

The focus of this research was to obtain, specifically, data on the marriage customs of the Druze in the Shouf Mountains of southeastern Lebanon. Ten Druze informants were selected and classified according to sex, age, marital status and religious status (sheik/sheika). A detailed questionnaire was designed to use during the interviews with these informants. However, after two interviews, it became apparent that a variable questionnaire was necessary to take advantage of the new, richly-detailed, cultural information that emerged with each informant. New questions were developed, in the field, to reflect and gather this new ethnographic data on Druze marriage customs.

Subsistence Variability On The Columbia Plateau, Ricky Gilmer Atwell

Dissertations and Theses

Long-term human dietary change is a poorly understood aspect of Columbia Plateau prehistory. Faunal assemblages from thirty-four archaeological sites on the Plateau are organized into fifteen aggregate assemblages that are defined spatially and temporally. These assemblages are examined in terms of a focal-diffuse model using ecological measures of diversity, richness and evenness. Variability and patterning in the prehistoric subsistence record is indicated. Major trends in human diet and shifts in subsistence economies are documented and the relationship between subsistence and some initial semi-sedentary adaptations on the Plateau is clarified.

Bone Tool Assemblages As An Aid To Shell Mound Site Typologies On The Northwest Coast, Doria Lee Fingerhut Raetz

Dissertations and Theses

Fifteen bone tool assemblages from shell midden sites were compared. Three of these are unpublished sites from Prince Rupert Harbor. They were grouped using cluster analysis. Inter and intragroup variation in bone tool assemblage structure was analyzed. One of the objectives of this study was to generate hypotheses about the function of the unpublished sites by comparing their bone tool assemblages with those from sites which are better understood by looking for underlying patterns in the bone tool assemblages. Other objectives were to test the utility of using bone tool assemblages as a diagnostic tool in analyzing sites and to …

The Longterm Psychosocial Impacts Of Caregiving On The Caregivers Of Persons With Stroke, Alice Updike Scannell

Dissertations and Theses

This study is a Time 4 (T4) follow-up interview of ninety-three caregivers of persons who experienced a first stroke between 2 to 4 years (mean = 36 months) prior to the T4 interview. The first wave of data collection occurred within two months after the stroke. The second and third waves occurred six and twelve months, respectively, after the first interview. The caregivers were identified by the person with stroke as being the person closest to him/her who would be responsible for care after the stroke.

Data were gathered at all four interviews using reliable and valid measures for depressive …

Commercial Activities And The Geography Of Movement In A West African Urban Market: A Study Of Market-Stall Traders In Onitsha With Implications For Transport Policy, Krys Chukwuma Ochia

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to understand the non home-based travel behavior of urban market traders in Onitsha, Nigeria, where 58-70% of the labor force is engaged in trading.

Relevant trip-inducing variables--gender, location, a means of personal transportation, size of stall and, type of good sold--were selected to assist in theorizing about the travel behavior of traders. Using a systematic sampling methodology, 246 stalls were selected and the MLR model was applied in data analyses.

The results show that a typical stall is occupied by either one or two traders. There are three male traders for every female trader …

Urban Service Delivery System And Federal Government Bureaucracy: A Structural Analysis Of Spatial Distribution Of Water Supply In A Suburban Community Of Metropolitan Lagos, Michael Udochukwu Mbanaso

Dissertations and Theses

This study identifies the prevailing scarcity of urban public services and the conceptual relations among service delivery, patronage, bureaucratic activities and structural factors in the Lagos Metropolitan region. It examines the extent to which clientelism, bureaucratic decision rules and structural theoretical models explain water service delivery patterns in Festival Town (Festac), a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria.

The unprecedented pace of growth of the Lagos Metropolis since the mid-twentieth century gave rise to the spectacular spatial expansion of the continuous built up region. Urban industrial and governmental institutions have not kept pace with the population growth rate of Lagos. This demographic …

Types Of Phonological Processes Occurring In Normal Black English Speakers, Eileen Rella

Dissertations and Theses

Black English (BE) is a rule-governed linguistic system with its own phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. BE is a dialect, not a disordered variation of standard English (SE). When compared to SE, BE phonology has been described in terms of omissions, substitutions, and additions. This study looked at normal BE speakers in Portland, Oregon and described their dialectal differences in terms of phonological processes.

A Preliminary Analysis Of Beneficiary Discharge Status And Post-Hospital Placement Before And After The Implementation Of Medicare's Prospective Payment System, Anne Marguerite Wilkinson

Dissertations and Theses

In recognition of the inherently inflationary nature of retrospective reimbursement, the Reagan Administration enacted legislation that substantially changed Medicare's hospital reimbursement system. The Prospective Payment System (PPS) mandated paying hospitals a fixed payment, set in advance, based on the patient's diagnosis rather than retrospectively paying for all services delivered to a patient. Critics contend that PPS introduces incentives for hospitals to conserve resources during the hospital stay and to shift care to less costly settings, both potentially affecting quality of care to the elderly. The question addressed by this dissertation is whether there were changes in the discharge health status …

A Multivariate Test Of Evolutionary Stasis In Homo Sapiens, Jon Geoffrey Kleckner

Dissertations and Theses

In the past, efforts to prove or disprove stasis in hominids have relied upon univariate tests such as Students's t-test. Severe methodological and interpretive problems arise from the misapplication of univariate statistics to questions concerning variation in shape through time. These are questions best addressed using the multivariate approach of morphometrics. Eighteen cranial dimensions drawn from 33 mid and late Pleistocene Homo sapiens were examined using principal component analysis (PCA). PCA divided the sample into two distinct morphologies. Archaic Homo sapiens of the mid Pleistocene clustered with Wurm I neanderthals and apart from post Gottweig early anatomically modern Homo sapiens. …

A News Discourse Analysis Of La NacióN, Jimen Chan

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is a study of La Nacion, the largest circulating newspaper in Costa Rica. The purpose of this study is to examine whether claims made by La Nacion regarding their fairness and balance of news coverage are justified.

Self-Concept Competency Of National Aeronautics And Space Administration Research And Development Managers, Mark A. Beymer

Dissertations and Theses

Boyatzis has stated that "true" management competencies are characteristics of a manager which differentiate superior from average and below average performance. Boyatzis, however, treats a manager's self-image (self-concept) as a "threshold" rather than a "real" competency. Lafferty's research, which has measured relationships between several lifestyle (self-concept) variables and corresponding organizational behavior, has found that performance differences between average and high performing managers are associated with differences in self-concept construction. The researcher proposes to treat variations in self-concept measurements from managers as indications of their relative management competency. Thisresearch investigates seventeen hypotheses relating to the self-concepts of high performing, mid-level technical …