Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Investigation Of Geobase Implementation Issues: Case Study Of Information Resource Management, Mario L. Oliver

Theses and Dissertations

Billions of dollars have been wasted on failed information system (IS) projects over the last decade in the private and public sectors. More specifically, the tri-service environment of the U.S. military has not implemented a single successful geospatial IS (GIS). The lack of a service-wide insertion process for GIS was cited as the most significant cause for military GIS failures. GeoBase represents the USAF's most recent GIS implementation. The GeoBase program focuses on Information Resource Management (IRM) and cultural issues. The GeoBase Sustainment Model (GSM), anecdotally developed by GeoBase leadership to reflect implementation issues and the IRM practices of the …

Using Value-Focused Thinking To Evaluate The Effectiveness Of Air Force Utility Privatization, Carlos Braziel

Theses and Dissertations

The majority of the Air Force s stateside utility systems are old, obsolete, and unreliable. The cost to upgrade and repair these systems is currently estimated at over $4 billion. In response, the Air Force began efforts to convey ownership of these utility systems to the private sector through privatization efforts. However, privatization critics believe that newly privatized entities of government will cost the public more money and provide a lower level of service. Therefore, independent audits are a necessity to ensure government initiatives, meet their intended goals. However, the Air Force currently lacks an effective auditing tool to ensure …

Decision Analysis Using Value Focused Thinking To Select Renewable Energy Sources, James S. Duke

Theses and Dissertations

The United States is heavily dependent on fossil fuels to produce electricity. Renewable energy can provide an alternative source of energy for electricity production as well as reduce fossil fuel consumption. The executive agencies in the U.S. must also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2010 based on 1990 emission levels as directed by Executive Order. However, there is currently no analysis model to provide guidance toward which renewable energy to select as a course of action. This research effort used value-focused thinking decision analysis to create a model based on inputs from the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency. This …

Modeling And Analysis Of Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Damon B. Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

The forces at play in reconstruction operations are a complex system of time phased interlocking cause and effect relationships that are not thoroughly understood. A model capable of capturing the general dynamics involved in post-conflict reconstruction would provide insight to decision makers regarding potential policy alternatives. This research effort demonstrates the viability of using systems dynamics modeling techniques to simulate the establishment of public order and safety in a post-conflict reconstruction operation (Phase IV operations). A high level generic framework is developed that can be used as a general template for modeling post-conflict reconstruction. It is then demonstrated with a …

A Study Of Information Exchange Between United States Air Force Bases And Their Surrounding Communities, Andrew C. Clewett

Theses and Dissertations

Data, information, and knowledge are exchanged daily from United States Air Force (USAF) bases to surrounding communities. The purpose of this research is to aid managers and commanders in gaining a better understanding of their information flow and bettering their information management practices. The research specifically seeks answers to the questions of where information is exchanged, why information is exchanged, and to whom information is exchanged with.

Modeling And Simulation Of The Military Intelligence Process, Carl R. Pawling

Theses and Dissertations

There is concern within U.S. space and intelligence organizations that the current Tasking, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination processes may be insufficient to support current and future Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance systems. As part of a larger intelligence process, more detailed analysis becomes critical to determine what portions need to be improved. This analysis can be accomplished by simulation, which is appropriate due to the complexity of the process and the ability to compare variations in the process. We construct a high level model of a generalized military intelligence process based in part on the Intelligence Cycle outlined in Joint Publications. …

Aggregation Techniques To Characterize Social Networks, Sara E. Sterling

Theses and Dissertations

Social network analysis focuses on modeling and understanding individuals of interest and their relationships. Aggregation of social networks can be used both to make analysis computationally easier on large networks, and to gain insight in subgroup interactions. Aggregation requires determining appropriate closely knit subgroups as well as choosing a measure or measures to represent the network data. This thesis provides the analyst with several techniques for using aggregation to analyze the characteristics of social networks. The contribution of this research lies in its ability to analyze a wide variety of social network structures and available data through two methods for …

Cross-Service Investigation Of Geographical Information Systems, Matthew H. Beverly

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the armed services current uses of GIS, and asked the question whether or not a joint GIS program could benefit the DOD. An information technology implementation model was presented as a framework to implement a joint GIS program. It was found that all four armed services use GIS for forward deployments. The Army has its Combat Terrain Information System (CTIS). The Navy's digital nautical charts are a GIS. The Marine Corps has created their Geographically Linked Information Display Environment (GLIDE) program, which is similar to a map repository. Finally, the Air Force has its GeoBase program for …

An Analysis Of Generational Differences Among Active Duty Members, Stephanie M. Skibo

Theses and Dissertations

There seems to be a widely held belief that different generations have different attitudes toward work, organizations, and co-workers. Clearly, these observed differences have implications for managers and leaders. Actions taken by leaders might be misunderstood by junior organizational members, leading to undesirable outcomes. Considering that many generational groups are represented within the Air Force, there is a need to analyze and understand potential generational differences. With the exception of the Smola and Sutton (2002) study, little empirical research has explored the extent to which these differences actually exist and whether differences exist among Air Force members. This research explores …

An Analysis Of Generational Differences Among Civil Servants, Stacey L. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

There seems to be a wide held belief that different generations have different attitudes toward work, organizations, and co-workers. Clearly, these observed differences have implications for managers and leaders. Actions taken by leaders (who are often older) might be misunderstood by junior organizational members (who are often younger), leading to undesirable outcomes (i.e., turnover). Considering that many generational groups are represented within government service, there is a need to analyze and understand potential generational differences. With the notable exception of the Smola and Sutton (2002) study, little empirical research has explored the extent to which these differences actually exist and …

Supply Chain Management In Humanitarian Relief Logistics, William K. Rodman

Theses and Dissertations

Hundreds of millions of people are affected by disasters each year. This thesis explores the use of supply chain management techniques to overcome the barriers encountered by logistics managers during humanitarian relief operations. Using grounded theory methodology, barriers were analyzed based on academic, organizational, and contemporary literature. Possible solutions to these barriers were selected from available supply chain management literature. This work is different from others in that it marries supply chain principles from different disciplines (including private, nonprofit, and military sectors) to benefit humanitarian operations. It also serves to advance the body of knowledge on this subject so that …

Analysis Of Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Cadet Behavioral Leadership And Development, Matthew S. Woodruff

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Army is continually looking for ways to improve the training of its leaders. FM 22-100, Army Leadership: Be, Know, Do (1999), provides the foundation for the Army's leadership training. Its goal is to train leaders who can both accomplish the mission and take care of soldiers and their families. This project investigates how individuals' leadership opinions may vary according to their year in the Reserve Officer Training Corps program and also compared to non-ROTC students of similar academic standing. Does the leadership training implemented in ROTC effect change in leadership opinions from the MS III (junior) to …

The British North Sea: The Importance Of And Factors Affecting Tax Revenue From Oil Production, Mark Hill

Theses and Dissertations

The oil industry is the richest and most influential industry in the world. The industry has moved the fates of nations. Oil is required to fight wars and exert power, and the restriction of this energy source is paramount to the restriction of movement, control, and in the end, power. Management of this resource and the tax revenue it generates are of serious strategic importance, both domestically and internationally. Understanding the results of taxation for this important commodity is important to international relations as well. The tax system affects tax revenue, government actions, oil company actions, and the oil supply …

Measuring Prejudiced Attitudes Toward Mexicans In Latter-Day Saint Missionaries During Missionary Service In The American Southwest, Jared A. Montoya

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the foundations of prejudiced attitudes toward Mexicans held by White Americans and to investigate a means of reducing it, paying specific attention to prejudice found within a subpopulation of White Americans. The origins of American prejudice toward Mexicans are outlined using both historical and psychological explanations. An understanding of these origins leads to the notion that increased favorable contact is the best method for reducing prejudice. A field study focusing on prejudice toward Mexicans among ecclesiastical volunteers demonstrated that missionary service can be considered a means of favorable contact. Eighty-one White American …

Memory Matters Ii: Predictors Of Self-Care Behaviors In Young Adults With Type 1 Diabetes, Sari A. Soutor

Theses and Dissertations

Type 1 diabetes and associated hypoglycemia can result in verbal memory difficulties, yet the role of memory in daily diabetes self-care has not been evaluated for young adults. Subtests from two well-standardized memory measures were administered to 34 young adults with type 1 diabetes, aged 18-29, in this pilot study. Self-care behaviors were assessed through 24-hour diabetes care interviews, while HbAlc indicated metabolic control. Verbal associative memory uniquely accounted for 12% of the variance in blood glucose testing frequency (p p p p = .06. Single-trial verbal memory uniquely predicted 10% of the variance in metabolic control (p p < .05. Importantly, memory was the only significant predictor in each model, which indicates memory, rather than overall cognitive capacity or financial/educational resources, relates to self-care behaviors/health status. Memory, a novel factor not previously evaluated in the quest to better understand daily disease management for young adults with diabetes, is significantly related to central self-care behaviors and metabolic control. Memory predictors likely warrant additional research and clinical attention such that eventually, intervention studies might identify strategies or compensatory aids that could improve young adults' self-care behaviors and health status through facilitating better memory functioning.

The Social Network And Attachment Bases Of Loneliness, David M. Ouellette

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tests Robert S. Weiss's 1973 theory of loneliness, which claims two types of loneliness: emotional and social. Emotional loneliness is the affective reaction to the absence of a close attachment bond. Social loneliness stems from inadequate integration into a social network. Undergraduate residents of a university dormitory completed questionnaires on loneliness, attachment, personality, and relationships with other dorm residents. Patterns of relational ties among participants were evaluated using social network analysis, specifically density, tie strength, and four forms of centrality. Results reveal that, while controlling for neuroticism, the network measure of outdegree and the two attachment dimensions accounted …

Explaining Retention In Community-Based Movement Organizations, Sarah Kathryn Diehl

Theses and Dissertations

An individual's initial acceptance of a recruitment pitch from a community-based social movement organization is usually based upon minimal information about the group and its efforts. It is only during the subsequent period of orientation that new members begin to learn more about the organization. During this period, the retention of new members is dependent on the successful alignment of individual and organizational frames. The failure to achieve such an alignment is likely to result in the new member's departure from the organization. This study explores the frame alignment process during early orientation to community-based SMOs. Using nineteen qualitative interviews …

Interorganizational Collaboration: An Examination Of Factors That Influence The Motivation For Participation In A Collaborative Partnership Of Homeless Service Providers, Jan Marva Ivery

Theses and Dissertations

This project was a mixed methods study that examined the collaboration dimensions of Homeward's planning process and the factors that motivate organizations to participate. The study examined the collaborative strategy used by an organization called Homeward located in Richmond, Virginia. Homeward is a broker organization (Chaskin, Brown, Venkatesh, & Vidal, 2001) that was created in 1998 to mediate and nurture relationships among partnering organizations in order to facilitate the collaborative process required by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to receive Continuum of Care funding. During the quantitative component of the study, a survey was sent …

Evaluating A Day Treatment Program For Children With Serious Emotional Disorders, Nicole Lynn Lee

Theses and Dissertations

The current study used a longitudinal design to evaluate a day treatment program for children with serious emotional disorder located in Richmond, Virginia (N = 101). Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (Hodges, 1984, 1999) results were analyzed from children who had attended the program for at least six months. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance tests indicated that children attending YDT for nine months improved their overall functioning F(2, 217) = 26.23, p = .01 as well as their functioning at school F(3,279)= 10.822, p =.01, home F(3, 244) = 6.120, p = .01, and in the community F(3, 238) …

Gender And Ethnic Differences In Perceived Stress As A Predictor Of Smoking Behaviors In Rural Adolescents, Lashanda R. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were conducted to examine the impact of perceived stress on current and future smoking behaviors of rural Virginia middle school students. Data were analyzed for 685 sixth grade students and 554 seventh grade students. Sixth grade students were 52% male, 53% Caucasian American (CA), and 47% African American (AA). For 7th graders, the sample was 53% female and 56% CA (44% AA). Of the 685 sixth grade students, 7% reported that they had smoked cigarettes at least once during the past 30 days (n=46,63% male and 67% CA). By the 7th grade, the percentage of smokers …

Meanings Of Security: A Constructivist Inquiry Into The Context Of Information Security Policy Development Post 9/11, Linda F. Larkin

Theses and Dissertations

Security is a term that appears to be used in a variety of ways and to have a number of meanings. In policy discussions, there may be reference to information security, national security, network security, online security, and other kinds of security. In an environment where technological innovation appears to be occurring at an ever increasing rate, policy makers look to technological experts for advice, and information security policy is developed, it seems to be important to consider these variations in meaning. This constructivist inquiry explores the context in which information security policy is developed and inquires into the meanings, …

A Qualitative Study Of The Lived Experience Of Single, Gay Adoptive Fathers, John Daryl Matthews

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study expands the existing literature on fatherhood, single parents, and gay and lesbian adoption to include the unique experiences of single, gay men who became adoptive parents after "coming out", or establishing a gay identity. To illustrate these unique and common experiences, individual ethnographic interviews were conducted with 16 fathers residing throughout the United States, as well as internationally. Specifically, this study explored the participants' experiences through their reflections of the adoption process, and through their experiences after the family was established. The participants had experiences to those found in previous studies on gay and lesbian adoption and …

Utilizing A Structuration Perspective To Examine Perceptions Of Labor Market Opportunities & Constraints In A Distressed Urban Neighborhood, Sharon M. Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand how members of an urban extreme poverty neighborhood experience the labor market and how they perceive the role of social policies and institutions that attempt to facilitate or mediate employment opportunities.

Residents of extreme poverty neighborhoods have been the subject of numerous public policy efforts designed to ameliorate the geographic concentration of poverty as well as strategies to promote work participation based on existing theoretical models of how work participation can be induced. It is argued that the predominant theoretical models that shape inquiry and the development of policy recommendations are incomplete …

Emotion Perception In Asperger's Syndrome And High-Functioning Autism: The Importance Of Diagnostic Criteria And Cue Intensity, Carla Ann Mazefsky

Theses and Dissertations

Asperger's syndrome (AS) is a pervasive developmental disorder that is associated with marked social dysfunction. Deficits in the perception of nonverbal cues of emotion may be related to this social impairment. Research has indicated that children with autism are limited in their emotion perception abilities, but studies that have addressed this issue with individuals with AS or high-functioning autism (HFA) have yielded inconsistent findings. These inconsistencies may be related to methodological differences across studies including diagnostic criteria and failure to consider the intensity of the emotion cues. It was hypothesized that children with AS and HFA would both have deficits …

The Effects Of Aniracetam Treatment On Cognitive Performance And Ampa Receptor Glur2 Subunit Expression After Moderate Fluid Percussion Injury In Rats, Anna Igorevna Baranova

Theses and Dissertations

In addition to the acute pathology produced by traumatic brain injury, there are chronic alterations that occur after the trauma, including a depressed state of neuronal activity (Feeney, 1991). This study included a preclinical testing of a novel treatment strategy focusing on increasing neuronal activity during the chronic hypofunctional posttraumatic stage. The present investigation tested the effects of repeated post-injury aniracetam administration on cognitive performance in the Morris water maze (MWM) and on the GluR2 - immunoreactivity and protein expression by Western blot analysis in the hippocampus. The first study examined the optimal dose of aniracetam in the MWM task. …

Childhood Exposure To Interparental Conflict: Memory Biases And Intergenerational Patterns Of Conflict In Romantic Relationships, Christine A. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Testing a model that explains the ways in which interparental conflict shapes later intimate relationships was the goal of the present study. Participants were 94 college students at Virginia Commonwealth University, a large state university with a diverse student body. The study found that violence occurs with alarming frequency in the dating relationships of university students. Analyses also revealed an intergenerational pattern of violence in which individuals from high conflict homes were more likely to use violent conflict resolution strategies in their own adult romantic relationships. Specifically, young adults from homes characterized by high levels of verbal conflict and minor …

The Longterm Effects Of Television Mediation On Lds Young Single Adults: An Exploratory Study, Jennia Parkin

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study examines what Latter-day Saint young single adults remember about their parents mediating the television and its use, and how those recollections contribute to their current attitudes and values toward the media, as well as their media choices. A stratified random sample of 267 LDS young single adults across the United States and outside the state of Utah responded to a cross sectional mail or online survey. The three mediation styles established by Valkenburg, Krcmar, Peeters, and Marseille (1999)—Restrictive, Instructive, and Coviewing—were used as the independent variables while scales assessing television offensiveness levels, attitudes, orientation, and usage were …

Internet-Mediated Communication: Publicly Interpersonal, Katharine A. Cannella

Theses and Dissertations

A thesis on communication between individuals as mediated by the Internet, concluding that certain types of messages are interpersonal as well as public in nature. Away messages and blogs are examined as evidence that Internet- mediated interpersonal communication is a new context. The researcher determines that Internet-mediated communication (IMC) results in several communicative adaptations unique to this medium and that significance lies within the development of extended interpersonal relationship through the creation and expansion of online social networks.