the General Accounting Office. It reviews the background, history, issues and current methods of using past performance information in the Department of Defense acquisition process. It then categorizes and analyzes the past performance protest decisions handed down from the Comptroller General from July 1, 2000 to September 30, 2001 as well as the rulings handed down by the Court of Federal Claims from February 1, 1997 to September 30, 2001. Following the review and analysis, the interpretations of the statutory requirements by the Comptroller General and the Courts are examined to determine if they allow acquisition professionals more or less discretion in carrying out the tasks required to conduct fair and reasonable procurements. It also examines protest decision trends to determine what changes are needed to mitigate the risk of past performance information claims and protests. / US Navy (USN) author

Thesis (M.S. in Management) Naval Postgraduate School, December 2001. / "December 2001". Thesis advisor(s): Cuskey, Jeffrey R. ; Tudor, Ron B. Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-105). Also available online.

it is essential to regard the history of a site. to find the complexities that to others have mattered. architecture has a responsibility to interpret the past to future generations. it is then that it becomes immortal. / Master of Architecture

No description available.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Mary T. Copple / The formation of English past tense by EFL (or ESL) learners has been the object of much second language acquisition research. This study investigates the production and marking of English past tense verbs by 55 adult Afghan EFL learners who use Pashto or Dari as their first language. The participants were first required to produce the past tense while responding to a questionnaire about their daily activities, and then completed a correction task in which sentences with verb errors appeared. The collected data was analyzed based on verb regularity (Pinker & Ullman 2002, Jaeger et al. 1996, Hoeffner 2000, Housen 2000) and the sequential inflection of events or non-events based on inherent lexical aspect (Vendler 1967, Salaberry 2000, Bardovi-Harlig & Reynolds1995, Tickoo 2001, 2005). Results show that the participants were more accurate in marking and producing regular verbs than irregular verbs for the past tense in both experimental tasks. When examining the role of regularity of the verb in the sequential marking of lexical aspect, it was discovered that past tense production of irregular verbs was influenced by the lexical aspectual verb type as non-events exhibited lower accuracy rates for past tense inflection.

No description available.

No description available.

OBJECTIVE: To compare skeletal maturation of female and male subjects from historic samples to present day subjects by assessing Fishman’s Skeletal Maturity Index (SMI). Present day eating habits and lifestyle have been suggested as factors in accelerating pubertal maturation seen within the last century. Consequently, Body Mass Index (BMI) as well as BMI percentile were evaluated to determine whether it is associated with significant differences in skeletal maturation patterns. METHODS: This pilot study included hand-wrist films from 92 subjects from the Burlington and Forsyth longitudinal growth studies (1959-1970) and 146 patients currently enrolled in the Orthodontic department of the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (BUGSDM). The age of the subjects ranged between 7 and 16 years. SMI stage was determined and BMI and BMI percentile were calculated for each subject. RESULTS: The mean chronologic ages of all the SMI stages were not different in males or females when comparing the historic sample to the present sample except for the mean ages at SMI stage 7 and 11 for females and SMI stage 5 for males. Females in the present sample reached SMI stages 7 and 11 significantly earlier: 11.6 versus 13.3 years for SMI 7 (p<0.001) and 15.6 vs. 16.0 for SMI 11 (p<0.05). Males in the present sample also reached SMI 5 significantly earlier: 12.5 vs 13.8 years (p<0.05). It was also seen that present day females at SMI stage 11 not only matured earlier, but also had significantly higher mean BMI and mean BMI percentile than the females at the same stage in the historic sample. This suggests that BMI may be associated with acceleration of maturation among females at SMI stage 11 (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In both male and female subjects, there are differences between past and present populations at certain SMI stages. This evidence suggests that patterns of skeletal maturation may have changed and BMI may be associated with such changes. The differences in skeletal maturation between the two groups may also be a result of the different distribution of race in each group. In the current study, the historic sample consists of only Caucasian subjects whereas the present sample consists of subjects from many different backgrounds. As a result, effects of racial variations could have additionally played a role in the changes seen in skeletal maturation patterns. Increasing our sample size and controlling for race may help further elucidate these changes and determine if this transition towards earlier maturation is in fact due to increasing BMIs.

The most direct way available to modern day researchers to reconstruct individual and population level behavior is to analyze markers of activity from skeletal remains (Ruff et al., 2004). An analysis of the population at the Republic Groves site (8HR4) was conducted, using the entheseal change score system, the Coimbra method, developed by Henderson et al. (2015). This study examined the implication of analyzing a commingled and fragmentary population with this methodology. Reconstructing specific behavior cannot be done with this type of approach; however, entheseal changes can be compared to specific patterns of behavior for consistency. An atlatl was found with the human remains and thus provided a suggestion of behavior for comparison. Entheses were chosen in line with a throwing motion of the atlatl and focused exclusively on the humerus, radius, and ulna. The application of the Coimbra methodology to the Republic Groves population was successful, at least in part. Overall, there was low variability of results, mostly 0, some 1, and with very few high 2 scores. The entheseal changes from Republic Groves were consistent with the throwing of an atlatl; however, this does not mean that this is the only behavior that could have generated that kind of change. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Hospitality industry has a long history of providing accommodation along with recreation facilities. Resorts are a more recent phenomenon in offering similar services. The similarity stops there as the people who use resorts have different expectations and motives to be there. While hotels are mainly used by the business people and are busier during the weekdays, resorts are generally used for vacation and rest and are busy during holiday season. The difference in the clientele's motivations makes it difficult for the resort marketers to effectively position and market the property to the right segment. There have been many studies done primarily on hotel clients, while resorts have largely been neglected. This study is the first step in evaluating the level of contribution beliefs and past experiences make when Australian tourists decide on their resort accommodation purchase. To achieve this aim the Australian resort market was segmented and then every segment was tested on the model developed for the study. In this study, 412 people responded by filling out the questionnaires that were put in their rooms, by the participating resorts they were staying in. The study targeted all states and Territories of Australia. Every possible precaution was taken to maintain the anonymity of the respondents and the participating resorts to avoid compromising their financial interests. The study found four segments of resort tourists. They were named active conventionalists, young conservatives, elite regulars and veterans. The role of beliefs and past experience in purchase decision was found to be of varying degrees amongst the segments. It was also found that benefit beliefs had the bigger role in resort accommodation selection compared to normative beliefs. Control beliefs had the least role in the formation of the purchase behaviour. It was also found that while the Theory of Planned Behaviour was incapable of predicting resort accommodation purchase behaviour on its own, the addition of past behaviour to the mix increased the predictability perceptibly. The main limitation of the research was that the researcher and the respondents were far removed from each other. It is recommended that in future studies; there must be a provision for qualitative data to complement the quantitative approach. Besides this, there are many more important recommendations made relating to design and application of the questionnaire for future studies. The study also stresses that similar studies should be conducted, preferably on longitudinal basis to confirm or reject the findings of the present study. The present study contributed to the body of knowledge by providing a theoretical framework and suggesting a resort accommodation purchase predictability model incorporating beliefs and past experience of resort tourists. It also provided resort marketing planners with practical recommendations and implications in terms of attracting the right clients to their resorts as well as how to position their resorts for the intended market segment to get the best returns on their investment in marketing.