Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Influence Of Network Factors On Network Centric Operations, Mehmet Fidanci

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

As Information Age changes the lifestyle of all humankinds, it also changes the way how to defense and secure the borders are secured and defended. The Information Age is about information superiority. It evolves the command and control concept, proactively, to optimize the size of the units and their connections within a combat force for effective mission accomplishment. The biggest issue is how big a unit will be and how they will arrange and connect it to the command and control structure in order for the unit to be effective on the battlefield. While some arrangements connect to each other …

Experience And Regulation Of Positive Emotions As Predictors Of Anxiety And Depression In Adolescents And Children, Ann Schlegelmilch

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The high rate of comorbidity between anxiety and depression in children and adults raises questions concerning whether these disorders are two distinct disorders or a broad, but unitary construct. Clark and Watson's (1991) tripartite model purports that these disorders can be differentiated by two factors, positive affect (PA) and physiological hyperarousal (PH), in which low PA is unique to depression and PH is specific to anxiety. However, little is known about how specific positive emotions or their various facets may be related to depression and anxiety in children. Using 162 elementary and 148 middle school children (49% male, 66% Caucasian), …

Cooperative Strategies On Parallel Tracks: The Nepad And Agoa Initiatives, Guelmbaye Ngarsandje

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

In July 2001, at the 37th of the former Organization of African Unity, African heads of states launched the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a combination of the Omega Plan from Abdoulaye Wade and The Millennium African Renaissance Partnership initiated by Thabo Mbeki, respectively presidents of Senegal and South Africa. This was an achievement of tasks given by their peers in Algiers in 1999. Previously to that, the Clinton administration initiated the African Growth and Opportunity Act passed in law in 1998. Though the two programs aim at African development, they did not take in account each other.

This …

A Differential Absorption Model For Remote Sensing Of Atmospheric Pressure, Shivam J. Shah

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The goal of the project is to develop and test a "model based" radar processing strategy that is compatible with the concept of a "cognitive radar". The basic approach will be to develop a cognitive radar algorithm (genetic algorithm) based on the capabilities of an existing commercially available Software Radio. While the focus of this effort is the development of a candidate approach for genetic algorithm, the longer term goal would be to implement the approach using this software radio technology to provide a low cost radar processor. The proposed technology would use differential absorption radar working at the 50-56 …

Development And Validation Of A Measure: Preventive Coping With Work-Family Conflict, Meghan P. Jones

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Much research has focused on the concept of work-family conflict. Recent research has called for more studies concerning how individuals cope with work-family conflict (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brinley, 2005). This research aids in the measurement of coping with work-family conflict by creating a measure of preventive coping with work-family conflict. Items for the new measure are based on results from focus-groups with working adults. The study assessed the dimensionality and validity of the proposed scale. Results indicate that preventive coping with work-family conflict is comprised of five subscales: accumulating resources, strategic planning, cognitive structuring, withdrawal from work, and …

Intergenerational Conflict Between Emerging Adults And Their Parents In Asian American Families, Kathy Nguyen

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Due to a paucity of research, little is understood about the experiences of Asian American emerging adults as they navigate their relationship with their parents. The purpose of the current study was to investigate intergenerational conflict in Asian American families, specifically when emerging adults are living at home with their parents. Acculturation gap, generational status, birth order, gender, and language proficiency were examined as predictors or mediators of conflict. Participants consisted of 350 Asian American emerging adults who were currently living with their parents, who lived with their parents during certain times of the year (e.g., vacations), or who had …

Interactive Effects Of Physical Activity And Apoe-Ε4 On Bold Semantic Memory Activation In Healthy Elders, J. Carson Smith, Kristy A. Nielson, John L. Woodard, Michael Seidenberg, Sally Durgerian, Piero Antuono, Alissa Butts, Nathan Hantke, Melissa A. Lancaster, Stephen M. Rao

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Evidence suggests that physical activity (PA) is associated with the maintenance of cognitive function across the lifespan. In contrast, the apolipoproteinE-ε4 (APOE-ε4) allele, a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), is associated with impaired cognitive function. The objective of this study was to examine the interactive effects of PA and APOE-ε4 on brain activation during memory processing in older (ages 65–85) cognitively intact adults. A cross-sectional design was used with four groups (n = 17 each): (1) Low Risk/Low PA; (2) Low Risk/High PA; (3) High Risk/Low PA; and (4) High Risk/High PA. PA level was based on …

Bastards, Brains, Boobs And Performance: A Retrospective Account, Joanna Bartell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two essays that comprise this thesis use personal narrative to discuss various aspects of illness, resistance and the body. The first essay uses performance theory to explore the social structures, mandates and restrictions concerning illness. I use the cancer experience to explore the co-creation of self, identity, and modes of being between "performer" and "audience." "Performer," in this case, is the "breast cancer patient," and the "audience" is comprised of the "social others.” The second essay explores cyborgization of the body, its painful effects, and associated social and moral values. It also discusses how we create theory and understanding …

An Ecology Of Performance: Gregory Bateson's Cybernetic Performance, Daniel Matthew Blaeuer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of the public performances of Gregory Bateson at The Esalen Institute. The case study is a reconsideration of the work of Gregory Bateson from the perspective of performance studies. The author brings together performativity, cybernetics, and the sacred to argue that Gregory Bateson, in his public performances, was striving for grace in encounters with others. The author has conducted archival research into Bateson’s presentations and has spoken with several close to Bateson to get a sense of how his process of public presentation paralleled his ideas—a process of continually working through ideas in conversation …

Long-Term Evaluation Of Individualized Marketing Programs For Travel Demand Management, Jennifer Dill, Cynthia D. Mohr

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research examines the use of individualized marketing as a transportation demand management (TDM) strategy, using the City of Portland's SmartTrips program. This research project has two specific aims: (1) to evaluate whether the benefits of these individualized marketing programs continue to at least one year after the project ends; and (2) to examine whether the theory of planned behavior (TPB) can help explain the behavior changes identified. Surveys of residents conducted one or two years after the original program found that the share of daily trips made driving alone, walking, and bicycling were comparable to that found in the …

The Landscape: Sherwood, Elizabeth Mylott

Metroscape

A brief look at the community of Sherwood, Oregon, highlighting the town's landmarks, features and future prospects.

Stimulus And Response: Is The Recovery And Reinvestment Act Working For Us?, Elizabeth Morehead

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

From the beginning, the Recovery Act has received mixed reviews. Skeptics worry about wasteful government spending and a crushing national debt while proponents argue that it is the only way to dig out from the recession. Locally, reaction has also been mixed. While some local leaders have enthusiastically embraced the Recovery Act, others are frustrated by its restrictions and see the program as a missed opportunity to effect real and permanent change. Additionally, several projects within the metroscape have received negative attention on both a local and national scale, causing embarrassment and raising questions about the judgment of those involved …

Black And White And Read All Over: Print, Profit, And Passion - An Interview With Peter Bhatia, Ben Lundin

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Few industries appear as precarious in today’s economy as newspapers. Once the main source of information for millions of people, printed papers now have to compete with a variety of alternative forms of information gathering and reporting. The ink-stained wretches of yore now lock horns with anonymous bloggers, pompadoured TV anchors on 24-hour news channels, YouTube, and social media for the attention of a fickle public. Among the threatened giants of the old media is The Oregonian, one of the state’s oldest businesses. We sent Ben Lundin, an awardwinning freelance journalist who worked as a staff writer for three Louisiana …

A Composite Counterstorytelling: Memoirs Of African American Military Students In Hawaii Public Schools, Kimetta R. Hairston

The Qualitative Report

There are social, educational and behavioral problems for African American students in Hawaii public schools. Utilizing Critical Race Theory as a lens for analysis, the perceptions and experiences of these students regarding race, ethnic identity, military lineage, and self-definition are addressed. A composite counterstory of the researcher's and 115 African American students' experiences and reflections is portrayed through two siblings' memoirs. The impact of the counterstory challenges readers to see similar themes, perceptions, and experiences of being Black, military- affiliated, and a student in Hawaii in a story format as all events are integrated into two experiences, one male and …

Experienced Secondary Teachers' Perceptions Of Engagement And Effectiveness: A Guide To Professional Development, Denise Meister

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this research is to describe a qualitative research study of experienced high school educators who have remained motivated and highly engaged in their teaching. Ten high school teachers who have been called "the best" by their administrators and fellow teachers were interviewed to ascertain common traits that can serve as a framework for providing professional development to assist teachers in the work force, as well as bring their voice to the National Reform Movement. The following themes emerged: teachers are ambivalent to administrative leadership as an important influence in their work; colleagues are their support network; and …

An Evaluation Of A Development Program For New Principals, John F. Eller

The Qualitative Report

The evaluation of a program designed to assist principals recently appointed to their positions is the focus of this article. Researchers conducted a variety of qualitative assessments including focus group interviews, a review of training session feedback forms, participant reflective writing, and an assessment of training materials and program agendas. Researchers analyzed this data to look for aspects of participant knowledge, skills, and applications of program information. Participant feedback provided insights into program benefits and needed refinements. Article provides insights into assessment tools that people responsible for delivering principal support programs could consider to provide them with a more comprehensive …

A Pilot Study Of Nurses' Experience Of Giving Spiritual Care, Belinda Deal

The Qualitative Report

Using spiritual and religious resources gives patients and families strength to cope during a crisis, but nurses often do not offer spiritual care (Kloosterhouse & Ames, 2002). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore nurses" lived experience of giving spiritual care. A descriptive phenomenological approach was used to interview 4 nurses. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi's (1978) phenomenological method. Five themes were identified: spiritual care is patient-centered, spiritual care is an important part of nursing, spiritual care can be simple to give, spiritual care is not expected but is welcomed by patients, and spiritual care is given by …

Creative Combinations In Qualitative Inquiry, Robin Cooper

The Qualitative Report

In Qualitative Inquiry: Thematic, Narrative and Arts-Informed Perspectives, Lynn Butler-Kisber offers students of qualitative research a valuable resource that provides useful foundational information about both traditional and arts-based qualitative methods. At the same time, by bringing a discussion of these various methodological approaches together into one text, the book inspires possibilities for creative combinations in qualitative research design.

Theoretical Considerations In Qualitative Interviewing, Robin Cooper

The Qualitative Report

You might expect a book on interviewing in qualitative research to focus solely on the procedures of conducting interviews; however, in Reflective Interviewing: A Guide to Theory & Practice, Kathryn Roulston (2010) offers this perspective and much more. In particular, her new book addresses ways in which the researcher's theoretical perspective can inform not only the interview but also each stage of the research process. This thoughtful, well-written text also includes at the end of each chapter helpful suggestions of further reading and activities that relate to the chapter's topic.

A Winning Combination For Business Researchers: A Review Of Qualitative Methods In Business Research, Jane Whitney Gibson

The Qualitative Report

Qualitative Methods in Business Research by Paivi Eriksson and Anne Kovalainen is a comprehensive, current, and compelling text discussing both qualitative research in general and nine specific approaches in particular. These include: case studies, ethnography, grounded theory, focus group research, action research, narrative research, discursive research, critical research and feminist research. The reviewer identifies the considerable strengths of this book, which include its attention to the writing process that differentiates qualitative from quantitative research, and recommends the book as a solid resource for both students and practitioners.

Practicing Reflexivity In The Study Of Italian Migrants In London, Francesca Romana Seganti

The Qualitative Report

This article discusses the centrality of reflexivity in qualitative research through examples from my study on the role new media play in the lives of Italians in London. My hypothesis was that Italians were "in transit" in London and they were using new media to build "temporary" communities. I conducted in-depth interviews with members of the Italianialondra.com online community. I found they settled in London and the online community, instead of supporting "nomadic" identities, was used for re-territorialization. Through reflexivity I was able to determine the reasons for a partially wrong hypothesis. I also identified biases that clouded my interpretations …

Situating Narrative Construction Within Social Dynamics And Context To Create Complex Meaning: A Review Of The Book Analyzing Narrative Reality, Becky De Oliveira

The Qualitative Report

Analyzing Narrative Reality (Gubrium & Holstein, 2009) examines how stories are constructed for different purposes in a variety of social situations and aims to provide a framework for analysis "oriented both to the internal and especially to the external organization of stories" (p. 2). The authors are keen to create an understanding of how stories emerge and why they are constructed, confident that these factors are vital to creating good stories-"continuously unfolding accounts, whose extensions move in many directions" (p. 228) and that go beyond the boundaries of text. The book covers narrative reality, narrative work, narrative environments and narrative …

Conducting A Focus Group, Barbara Packer-Muti

The Qualitative Report

Conducting focus groups seems to be a process that is practically intuitive. However, this key practice in qualitative research requires that a novice facilitator must do his or her homework. This article describes the process by which I became more cognizant of the tools necessary to be successful in planning and running focus groups. The article provides information about books and articles that were useful in providing practical information. It also details the use of the "learning-by-doing" journey embarked upon at my institution, whereby we conducted 56 town hall meetings over a four month time period using a focus group …

Using Message Boards To Conduct Online Focus Groups, David Deggs, Kenda Grover, Kit Kacirek

The Qualitative Report

Geographic dispersion of research subjects can make traditional face-to-face focus groups difficult if not impractical to conduct. Online focus groups have many advantages such as enabling researchers to save costs, allowing for more efficient collection of data, and allowing researchers to accommodate research subjects' schedules. However, online focus groups require greater skill on the part of the researcher and research subjects alike. This manuscript chronicles the process that we recently used to conduct an online focus group using a message board system with graduate students enrolled in an online degree program. We explain the processes that were followed in conducting …

The Political Personality Of U.S. President Barack Obama, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of U.S. president Barack Obama, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Obama was collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Obama’s primary personality patterns were found to be Ambitious/confident …

Report Of The Law Reform Committee On Online Gaming And Singapore, Joyce A. Tan, Aqbal Singh, Yee Fen Lim, Wai Yee Wan, Warren B. Chik,

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The terms “gaming” and “gambling” are fairly wide and they refer to a wide range of activities. Traditionally, the term “gambling” has been used to cover lotteries, wagers and casino-style games. “Gaming” has also been used traditionally in some literature to cover not only activities involving gambling but also games of skill or games predominantly of skill. However, in recent times, certain jurisdictions such as the United States (“US”) and Australia have drawn a distinction between “online gaming” and “online gambling”. The former is used to refer to games played in an online environment which do not have the elements …

Optimism And Pessimism In Children With Cancer And Healthy Children: Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Youth Life Orientation Test And Relations With Health-Related Quality Of Life, Natalie A. Williams, Genevieve Davis, Miriam Hancock, Sean Phipps

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Objective To test the measurement equivalence of the Youth Life Orientation Test (YLOT) in children with cancer (N = 199) and healthy controls (N = 108), and to examine optimism and pessimism as predictors of children's health-related quality of life (HRQL).

Methods Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to establish the two factor structure of the YLOT and to test for metric invariance.

Results A two-factor structure for the YLOT was confirmed and found to be stable across our study groups. There were no differences in mean levels of optimism and pessimism between cancer patients and controls after controlling for …

The Challenges For Asian Jurisdictions In The Development Of International Criminal Justice, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The paper reviews the different frameworks for international criminal justice in which China’s influence can be measured, or should be present, looking specifically at procedural traditions on which international criminal law and its jurisprudence are said to be based. Understanding China as a transitional hybrid criminal justice model undergoing radical transformation in its justice delivery and discourse, it is argued, assists significantly in forecasting where the synthesis of international criminal procedure may be heading. Attached to a re-interpretation and critique of individualised liability is the unpacking of China’s in principle commitment to communitarian rights and social protection as a foundation …

Profile Quasi-Maximum Likelihood Estimation Of Partially Linear Spatial Autoregressive Models, Liangjun Su, Sainan Jin

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose profile quasi-maximum likelihood estimation of spatial autoregressive models that are partially linear. The rate of convergence of the spatial parameter estimator depends on some general features of the spatial weight matrix of the model. The estimators of other finite-dimensional parameters in the model have the regular √n-rate of convergence and the estimator of the nonparametric component is consistent but with different restrictions on the choice of bandwidth parameter associated with different natures of the spatial weights. Monte Carlo simulations verify our theory and indicate that our estimators perform reasonably well in finite samples.

Off The Cliff And Back? Credit Conditions And International Trade During The Global Financial Crisis, Davin Chor, Kalina Manova

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the collapse of international trade flows during the global financial crisis using detailed data on monthly US imports. We show that credit conditions were an important channel through which the crisis affected trade volumes, by exploiting the variation in the cost of capital across countries and over time, as well as the variation in financial vulnerability across sectors. Countries with higher interbank rates and thus tighter credit markets exported less to the US during the peak of the crisis. This effect was especially pronounced in sectors that require extensive external financing, have limited access to trade credit, or …