Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Egocentric Spatial Data Model For Intelligent Mobile Geographic Information Systems, Christopher E. Frank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals in unknown locations, such as utility workers in the field, soldiers on a mission, or sightseeing tourists, share the need for an answer to two basic questions: "Where am I?" and "What is in front of me?Because such information is not readily available in foreign locations, aids in the form of paper maps or mobile GISs, which give individuals an all-inclusive view of the environment, are often used. This panoptic view may hinder the positioning and orienteering process, since people perceive their surroundings perspectively from their current position. In this thesis, I describe a novel framework that resolves this …

Perceptual Sketch Interpretation, Markus Wuersch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sketching is a creative form of describing a spatial scene. People perceive such a scene in a straight forward way and build a mental model of the objects contained in a sketch. Whereas these objects might be regions, a sketch only contains lines and, therefore, developing automated sketch interpretation means outlining a rationale to grouping lines according to the objects they belong to. Automated sketch interpretation allows efficient processing of sketches. Labor intensive manual extraction could be brought to a minimum and, therefore, spatial data in form of sketches and spatial information extracted from sketches would be available more readily. …

Optimum Currency Area In Europe: An Alternative Evaluation, Yoonbai Kim, Hwee Kwan Chow

Research Collection School Of Economics

In this paper we explore an alternative scheme to assess the suitability of adopting a common currency by Western European countries. It is based on the role of common regional shocks in the determination of output. The results show that the OCA theory well explains and predicts participation decisions in EMU. We also find that our OCA index is highly consistent with two popular schemes that have been introduced by Bayoumi and Eichengreen.

Past, Present And Future Of Language Policy In Kazakhstan, Aliya S. Kuzhabekova

Theses and Dissertations

This study is an analysis of the historical preliminaries, current state and directions of further development of the language policy in the former Soviet and presently independent Republic of Kazakhstan. Such an analysis is of special interest for sociolinguistic theory. The uniqueness of the linguistic situation challenging contemporary Kazakhstani language policy-making consists in the fact that Kazakh, the native tongue of the ethnic majority and the de jure state language of the independent Republic of Kazakhstan, is too lexically underdeveloped to successfully compete in most of the communicative domains with Russian, the state language of Soviet Kazakhstan and the alternate …

Inside Unlv, Gian Galassi, Katrina Hudak, Carol C. Harter, Eric Sandgren, Tom Hagge

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Arkansas Animal Science Department Report 2003, Zelpha B. Johnson, D. Wayne Kellogg

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

The faculty and staff of the Animal Science Program are pleased to present the sixth edition of the Arkansas Animal Science Report. As with virtually all programs in the country, budget constraints presented serious challenges to teaching, research, and extension programming. However, the faculty and staff responded with innovation, good management, and hard work to maintain a productive program designed to benefit the students of the University and the citizens of the state. We are committed to remaining faithful to our Land-Grant mission. A sincere thank you is owed to Dr. Zelpha Johnson and Dr. Wayne Kellogg for editing this …

Performance Of High And Low Book-To-Market Stocks With Strong Financial Signals: Evidence In Asia Markets 1991-2002, Choong Seok Joseph Kang, Kuan Yong David Ding

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Motivated by striking findings in recent US studies on return enhancing role in financial signals, we examine in the context of Asian stock markets if we can improve one- and two-year returns of high and low book-to-market (BTM) portfolios by retaining in the portfolios only the stocks whose current accounting/financial information indicates strong financial performance in the prior year. We find that doing so can substantially improve the future returns of such portfolios in all markets except Malaysia. We also find that a zero-investment winner-loser strategy on high BTM stocks (a strategy of longing the value stocks with strong financial …

Potential Antecedents Of Muscle Dysmorphia, Crystal Henson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The present study was designed to gain a better understanding as to some of the possible contributing factors of muscle dysmorphia. Muscle dysmorphia is an under recognized form of Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Individuals who are diagnosed with muscle dysmorphia are in reality very large and muscular, but they have a profound fear and belief that they are small and weak. These individuals go to extreme lengths to increase their amount of lean muscle mass. This includes behaviors such as spending hours in the gym, excessive attention to one's diet, and use of steroids or nutritional supplements. These individuals experience extreme …

I Love Smu: Heart, Life, Passion, Soul [Advertisment], Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

Celebrating the unconventional, the intriguing, the undaunted. Experience the SMU spirit. Heart: Jenny Foo; Life: Tan Chee Wee; Life: Joven Lai; Soul: Jeremy Nguee; Passion: Richard Ho, Johny Tay.

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Participants' Perceptions Of The Childcare Subsidy System, Sue Pearlmutter, Elizabeth E. Bartle

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper presents a focus group study of perceptions of cash assistance participants in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and the San Fernando Valley in California regarding childcare subsidy use, choices of care, and perceptions of quality. TANF participants discuss experiences in the subsidy system and indicate needs and preferences for childcare. Advocates, policy makers, and parents recognize the need for suitable childcare so that TANF recipients can go to work. However, discussants' comments demonstrate one result of a changing, but not yet changed, social safety net. The authors explore strategies to address participants' concerns-childcare systems that neither function as promised, nor …

Organizational Factors Contributing To Worker Frustration: The Precursor To Burnout, Cathleen A. Lewandowski

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examined the organizationalf actors that contribute to workers' frustration with their work situation. The sample included 141 service professionals who attended workshops on burnout in 2001. The purpose of the workshops was to increase awareness regarding the organizational factors that could contribute to burnout. Findings indicate that factors most directly affecting clients were predictive of frustration, rather than factors that may indirectly support service quality or factors impacting workers' professional autonomy. A sense of powerlessness and isolation was also predictive of frustration, suggesting that participants viewed workplace problems as a private rather than an organizational concern. To address …

Review Of Settlement Houses Under Siege: The Struggle To Sustain Community Organizations In New York City. Michael Fabricant And Robert Fisher. Reviewed By Bill Buffum., Bill Buffum

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Michael Fabricant and Robert Fisher, Settlement Houses Under Siege: The Struggle to Sustain Community Organizations in New York City. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. $49.50 hardcover, $23.40 papercover.

Life Support: The Environment And Human Health. Michael Mccally.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Michael McCally, Life Support: The Environment and Human Health. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. $19.95. papercover.

Financialization Of Daily Life. Randy Martin.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Randy Martin, Financialization of Daily Life. Philadelpia, PA: Temple University Press, 2002. $59.50 hardcover, $19.95 papercover.

Can Dairy Manure Be Profitably Composted In Maine?, Anne Grant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Manure contains many important nutrients that are vital to the growth of crops. When this material is applied to fields in an inappropriate manner or in quantities too large for the soil to handle, this leads to pollution in the form of leaching and runoff, which causes contamination of ground and surface waters. An average cow produces one hundred pounds of manure per day (1 8 tons per year). Composted manure could provide farmers with a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional manure management practices. A review of the composting literature determined that a wide variety of markets do exist …

The Role Of Cognitive Factors In The Development Of Seasonal Affective Disorder Episodes, Stacy Whitcomb-Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent literature on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) has begun to focus on diathesis stress models, including Young and colleagues' (1 991) Dual Vulnerability Hypothesis (DVH). The DVH posits that individuals must possess both a biological vulnerability to developing vegetative symptoms and a psychological vulnerability to developing mood symptoms in order to develop SAD episodes. Such a model addresses SAD as well as non-seasonal depression, and suggests that there may be an as yet unidentified group suffering fiom only the biological vulnerability (i.e., winter anergia). However, until very recently few studies have directly tested this model, and most have focused on …

Taylor-Based Monetary Policy Rules: Are They Forward-Looking, Data Congruent, And Asset Price Responsive?, Rajeev Sooreea

Dissertations

This dissertation presents three essays to analyze a class of Taylor-based monetary policy rules that forms the basis of contemporary monetary policy decisions. The first essay examines whether policy rules are forward-looking. It proposes the methodology that, if the parameters of the Taylor rule change when the mechanism generating inflation changes, that is the Lucas critique applies, then inflation is not superexogenous for the parameters of the rule. In this case where superexogeneity fails, the rule is forward-looking. However, the results indicate that, although there is structural break in the inflation volatility process as evidenced by a model of heteroskedastic …

The Influence Of Policies On Trade And Foreign Direct Investment, G. Nicoletti, Stephen S. Golub, D. Hajkova, D. Mirza, K.-Y. Yoo

Economics Faculty Works

This paper assesses the importance of border and non‐border policies for global economic integration. The focus is on four widely‐advocated policies: removing explicit restrictions to trade and FDI; promoting domestic competition; improving the adaptability of labour markets; and ensuring adequate levels of infrastructure capital. The analysis covers FDI and trade in both goods and services, thus aiming to account for the most important channels of globalisation and dealing with most modes of cross‐border services supply. The results highlight that, despite extensive liberalisation over the past two decades, there is scope for further reducing policy barriers to integration of OECD markets. …

Measures Of Restrictions On Inward Foreign Direct Investment For Oecd Countries, Stephen S. Golub

Economics Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Pedro Casanto’S Nightmares: Lucid Dreaming In Amazonia And The New Age Movement, Fernando Santos-Granero

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Taking as a point of departure the recurring nightmares of a Yanesha boy, the author examines the dream theories and practices of Yanesha people of Peruvian Amazonia. Particular emphasis is placed on the conscious manipulation of actions taking place in nightmares. This practice, common to many indigenous peoples throughout the world, has become known in Western tradition as “lucid dreaming.” The author explores how New Age thinkers and entrepreneurs have adopted this and other connected indigenous dream practices by means of “simulation,” a mode of appropriating the magic of “Others” that, in the context of globalized neocolonial encounters, appears as …

Families Of The Forest: The Matsigenka Indians Of The Peruvian Amazon, Gerald Weiss

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Book review of Families of the Forest: The Matsigenka Indians of the Peruvian Amazon. AllenJohnson. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. xvii + 258 pp.,maps, tables, figures, glossary, references, index. ISBN 0-520-23242-9.

Kayapó Ethnoecology And Culture, Warren M. Hern

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Book review of Kayapó Ethnoecology and Culture. Darrel A. Posey (Kristina Plenderleith, editor). New York: Routledge, 2002. xviii + 285 pp., figures, tables, foreword, glossary, index. ISBN 0-415-27791-4.

The Brazilian People: The Formation And Meaning Of Brazil, William Balee

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Book review of The Brazilian People: The Formation and Meaning of Brazil. Darcy Ribeiro. Gregory Rabassa (transl.). Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida,2000. xviii + 332 pp., bibliography. $34.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8130-1777-7.

Social Disorganization, Disorder, Social Cohesion, Informal Controls, And Crime: A Reformulation And Test Of Systemic Social Disorganization Theory, Gayle M. Rhineberger

Dissertations

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to modify and test the systemic social disorganization models of crime proposed by Bursik and Grasmick (1993) and Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls (1997), and offer an empirical test of my hypothesized model. Specifically, the model includes traditional indicators of social disorganization (racial/ethnic heterogeneity, socioeconomic status, family disruption, residential stability) as exogenous variables; social and physical disorder, social cohesion, and three levels of informal social control (private, parochial, and public) as intervening mechanisms; and official crime counts and crime victimization as dependent variables.

The data used in this study come from the Project on …

Gender Differences In Accurate Route Recall In Novice Drivers Using Landmarks In Electronic Maps, Kimberly K. Brantley

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Past literature has found a link between gender and accuracy of route recall in traditional paper maps using landmarks. Research also suggests that what is already known about wayfinding behavior in the physical world can be applied to computer-generated environments. The goal of this study is to merge these two conclusions to determine if gender and route recall differences remain constant for global, electronic maps. Analysis of gender by accuracy as measured by number of trials showed that males required fewer trials (M = 3.63) than females (M = 4.09), F (1,99) = 7.29, p < .05 and accuracy as measured by number of errors in trial 1 also showed that males had fewer errors (M = 3.33) than females (M = 4.09), F (1,99) = 5.79, p < .05. Analysis of landmarks by accuracy as measured by number of trials showed participants viewing Landmark High Maps required fewer trials (M = 3.64) than those viewing Landmark Low Maps (M = 4.12), F (1,99) = 7.68, p < .05. Accuracy as measured by number of errors in trial 1 showed participants viewing Landmark High Maps had fewer errors in trial 1 (M = 3.16) than those viewing Landmark Low Maps (M = 4.33), F (1,99) = 11.87.

Information Recovery In A Study With Surrogate Endpoints, Song Xi Chen, Denis H. Y. Leung, Jing Qin

Research Collection School Of Economics

Recently, there has been a lot of interest in statistical methods for analyzing data with surrogate endpoints. In this article, we consider parameter estimation from a model that relates a variable Y to a set of covariates, X, in the presence of a surrogate, S. We assume that the data are made up of two random samples from the population, a validation set where (Y, X, S) are observed on every subject and a nonvalidation set where only (X, S) are measured. We show how information from the nonvalidation set can be incorporated to improve upon estimation of a parameter …

Le Rôle De La Critique Dans La Réception De L’Oeuvre Romanesque De Rachid Boudjedra, Valérie Lotodé

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The favorable reception given by French criticism to some of Rachid Boudjedra’s novels can’t be explained by their literary quality only. In fact, the media’s opinion has been influenced by the image of the "authentically Algerian writer" that Boudjedra conveyed, as well as by the political context. Since the emergence of Algerian Literature in French journalistic and academic literary criticism, critics are bounded by ideological a priori.

Deaf Catholic Newsletter, Winter 2003

Deaf Catholic Newsletter

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Philadelphia, PA

Ephatha, Winter 2003

Ephatha

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Newark, NJ

"Fine Designs" From Italy: Montessori Education And The Reggio Approach, Carolyn P. Edwards

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

Italy is not a huge country, nor one that dominates research in scientific areas like biotechnology or computer science; but in the particular field of early childhood, it can be described as a kind of gifted, creative giant. Italians have always revered beauty, architecture, painting, cuisine, and creative design. In a similar fusion of art and science, they have produced two of the 20th century's most innovative and influential leaders in early education, along with their methods of pedagogy and philosophies of education. The two figures were Maria Montessori (1 870-1952) and Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994).

Both Montessori education and the …