A reduction in breast cancer mortality could be achieved by the regular practice of Breast Self-Examination (BSE), an early detection technique. · Based on interventions which have been successful in increasing compliance to other health-related behaviors, this study attempted to evaluate the efficacy of prompts on the monthly practice of BSE. Specifically, after exposure to a BSE teaching workshop, participants (N = 83), who were faculty and staff members at a state university, were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: telephoned prompts, mailed prompts, and no prompts. Compliance was measured during a 7 month period by means of an indirect behavioral measure. Results indicated that although experimental conditions did not differ with respect to mean frequency of BSE, they did differ in terms of proportion of noncompliers and high compliers. The prompt conditions contained a smaller proportion of noncompliers and a greater proportion of high compliers than the control group. In addition, the phoned prompts were more effective than the mailed prompts in increasing compliance. The proportion of compliance in all conditions decreased over time; compliance during the first half of the study accurately predicted compliance during the second half. The variables that accurately discriminated noncompliers from high compliers for all months of the study were educational level and perceived efficacy of BSE. The results are discussed in terms of cost-effectiveness and generalizability. Specific recommendations for future studies are presented. / Ph. D.

This study investigated the variation in rate of upward mobility among public school superintendents. An explanation for that variation was provided in a theory which involved upward mobility as a function of professional attractiveness and inside sponsorship operating in a perceived paternalistic environment. Attractiveness variables included in the theory were categorized as physical, attitudinal, technical, or political. The sample consisted of 427 educational administrators, 294 superintendents, and 133 non-superintendents. A total of 251, 172 superintendents and 79 non-superintendents, or 59 percent participated in the study. Data were collected by mail return of the Questionnaire for Career Development of Educational Administrators within which four instruments were contained. The Modified Career Orientations Survey, Educational Work Components Study, Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-- Behavior, and Background Information Form measured the professional attractiveness variables, inside sponsorship, and perceived paternalism. Data were analyzed using multiple regression and discriminant analysis. / Ed. D.

The effects of different types of reward systems on perceived conflict and coalition formation among those involved in organizational buying decisions are investigated. The buying decision process is examined as group behavior, and the group or buying center is used as the unit of analysis. An experimental design is utilized to test a number of hypotheses concerning the impacts of cooperative, competitive, and independent reward systems on the level of perceived conflict and the extent of coalition formation within the buying center. Groups consisting of representatives from a number of different departments within a hypothetical organization are asked to make a series of vendor choice decisions while being evaluated in terms of one of these three reward systems. The findings suggest that perceived conflict increases as one moves from a cooperative to an independent, and then to a competitive, reward system. Coalitions appear most frequently under an independent reward system, less frequently under a competitive reward system, and infrequently under a cooperative reward system. Implications are drawn both for buying and selling organizations. / Ph. D.

The present study was designed to investigate child abuse through the development of an experimental analog. Infant cries were used as aversive stimuli within a learned helplessness paradigm to examine the relationship between crying and infant-directed aggression. Subjects were assigned to one of several feedback conditions and were required to select one of nine responses (cuddle, talk to, feed, pacify, check, ignore, scold, and spank) in order to terminate each of a series of pain, hunger, anger, and abnormal infant cries. During the first half of the experiment, subjects were given either false, veridical, or no feedback. During the second half of the experiment, all subjects received veridical feedback. It was hypothesized that compared to the veridical feedback groups, subjects in the learned helplessness groups would exhibit negative affect, learning impairments, motivational deficits, and decreased nurturance. Although motivational deficits were not obtained, the induction of learned helplessness did result in negative affect, poor learning, and diminution in nurturance. The results represent a successful first approximation toward the creation of an experimental analog of child abuse. / Ph. D.

The current economic theory of the role of the organization of the firm is based in the traditional transaction cost theory of the firm as well as discretionary theories of managerial behavior. According to the transaction cost theory, the firm serves as an administrative substitute for costly market mechanisms. Meanwhile, discretionary theories assume that managers operate under a costly-to-impose capital market constraint. Given these underlying theories, the multidivisional form of firm organization is valued within the current theory for its ability to internalize (within the firm) the capital market constraint. The internal capital market constraint is said to be less costly to impose than the external constraint, leading to more efficient outcomes. The theory presented in this dissertation, based upon property rights theory, argues that it is a labor market and not a capital market constraint that ultimately mitigates the incentive problems associated with the separation of ownership and control. The large modern corporation is modelled as an internal labor market in specific human capital. The organizational form of the firm is determined by the cost of monitoring individuals within the internal labor market. More decentralized forms of organization are valued for the reduction in monitoring costs that may be associated with increased decentralization. Under certain circumstances, the firm may adopt organizational forms that resort to internal competition to determine the value of performance. This approach generates two significant departures from the current theory. First, the firm is not characterized, in general, as an administrative substitute for costly market price mechanisms. In fact, when the firm faces a highly uncertain environment, the firm has an incentive to internalize labor market forces. Second, rather than describing the modern corporation as a miniature internal capital market, it is more accurate to describe it as a labor market. Ultimately, the organizational form of the firm can be characterized as an internal property rights system, interacting with the labor market outside the firm. Any change in the property rights system is brought about by the interaction of individuals who wish to achieve more utility. / Ph. D.

Vocalizations and singing behaviors of Rufous-crowned Sparrows, Rufous-winged Sparrows, and Cassin's Sparrows were analyzed, described, and compared. For comparative purposes, data from previously studied Five-striped Sparrows were also included. Ten, 5, 3, and 6 types of calls were present in the repertoires of Rufous-crowns, Rufous-wings, Cassin's, and Five-stripes, respectively. Songs were sung from the ground, or from a variety of perch heights. Only Cassin's and Rufous-crowns regularly sang flight songs. Cassin's Sparrows sang a higher percentage of flight songs before nesting than after, but time of day did not affect the occurrence of flight songs. A Discriminant Function Analysis performed on six song parameters showed that the species differed significantly in the parameters measured. Song length proved to be of primary importance for discriminating the species' songs. From 8 male Rufous-crowns, 3320 songs were recorded. Fifty-one different song types composed of 259 different note complexes were found in this species' repertoire. The average song repertoire size for an individual was 12. Nine songs and 84 note complexes were shared among individuals. From 14 male Rufous-winged Sparrows, 3593 songs were recorded. Fourteen different song types were found; all individuals potentially may sing all fourteen song types. Nine hundred sixty-nine songs were recorded from 18 Cassin's Sparrows, of which 15 different songs were recognized. Individual repertoires consisted of an average of 3 song types, thus some sharing did occur, but no individuals shared the same repertoire. Rufous-crowns varied their singing rate regardless of the song type used, and singing rate was not related to time of day. Rufous-wings frequently engaged in counter-singing bouts with males alternating and matching song types. Singing rate appeared to be affected by the song type being sung. Singing rates of Cassin's Sparrow songs delivered from perches were sung at a faster rate than those sung only in flight, but there was no relation between singing rate and variation in number of different song types employed in a bout or the proportion of flight versus perch songs. The vocalizations and singing behavior of the four Aimophila species were dissimilar in many respects, and suggested possible functions of the diverse singing behaviors exhibited by these species were discussed. / Ph. D.

Location-allocation problems arise in many practical settings and may be generically stated as follows: Given the location or distribution of a set of customers and their associated demands, simultaneously determine an optimal location of a number of supply facilities and their allocation of products or services to the customers, so as to minimize total location and transportation costs. This study is concerned with the development, convergence analysis, and testing of exact and heuristic algorithms for location-allocation problems in which demands can occur continuously over regions according to some probability density functions. In this context, minisum location problems on undirected networks are considered in which demands can occur on links with uniform probability distributions. Three types of networks are considered. The first type is a chain graph. It is shown that except for the 1-median case, the problem is generally nonconvex. However, for the p-median case, it is shown that all local and global trd.nima to the problem may be discovered by solving a series of linear programming problems. This analysis forms the basis for similar problems on trees and graphs with isolated cycles. These problems are then extended to multiperiod versions in which demands may change dynamically over time periods and at mostly one facility can be located per time period. Chain and tree graphs are considered in conjunction with three optimization strategies: myopic, long-range, and discounted present worth. It is hoped that the exact methods developed for these special networks will lead to at least effective heuristics for problems on more general networks. Finally, location-allocation problems are considered in which the region to be served is a convex polygon having a uniform demand distribution. Both single and multifacility formulations are considered. For the single facility problem, an algorithm is developed which is shown to converge to a global optimal solution. This analysis is extended to the nonconvex multifacility case, and although optimality is not guaranteed, an algorithm is presented for finding a good starting solution which increases the likelihood of finding an optimal solution. Extensions of the above problems to include discrete demand points and computational experience are also provided. / Ph. D.

An approximate method for calculating the steady, incompressible, viscous flow over an airfoil, including regions of separated flow, is presented. The finite-difference equations resulting from an integral method for the laminar and turbulent boundary layers are solved simultaneously in a line-relaxation procedure with the equations for the outer, inviscid flow. These coupled equations allow direct interaction between the viscous and inviscid regions, thus eliminating the mathematical difficulties usually associated with separation. A distributed source on the upper surface of the airfoil provides an outflow to simulate the displaced boundary, and a distributed sink downstream of the trailing edge closes the wake. Computed results, which are compared with measurements for an NACA 4412 airfoil, are quite satisfactory for engineering purposes. / Ph. D.

This dissertation examined the relationship between marketing influence and life satisfaction for elderly consumers. Marketing influence was conceptually explored within the context of a consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction framework. As such, the construct labeled overall consumer satisfaction was developed and defined as an attitude state representing the specific level of fulfillment of wants or needs possessed by an individual gained from experiential interactions with marketing institutions. This attitude was posited to be made up of a sub-domain structure, with each sub-domain consisting of satisfactions derived from an individual's interactions with groups of similar retail institutions. The overall consumer satisfaction construct was operationally measured using indicators: a multiattribute scale and a semantic-differential scale. Life satisfaction was conceptually examined through the use of quality-of-life and gerontological theoretical perspectives and was defined as an aggregate well-being level or satisfaction-attitude state of an individual determined by a variety of personal and environmental influences. This construct was operationally measured through the use of three indicators, two scales adapted from the quality-of-life perspective and one scale adopted from the gerontological perspective. The two constructs, overall consumer satisfaction and life satisfaction, were conceptually linked using attitude-hierarchy theory. It was hypothesized that (1) overall consumer satisfaction is positively related to life satisfaction of the elderly, and (2) each marketing sub-domain involved in overall consumer satisfaction is positively related to life satisfaction of the elderly. A survey instrument was designed, pretested. and employed on a sample of southwestern Virginia elderly using a group interview data-collection procedure. The statistical techniques employed to analyze the data collected included: Pearson Product-Moment correlations, alpha-coefficient reliability analyses, Costner's Multiple Indicator consistency analysis. t-tests, canonical correlations. and multiple regression analyses. Generally, the hypotheses were moderately supported by the results. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the study's limitations. contributions, and implications as they related to marketing theory and managerial practice. / Ph. D.

In this work, an evaluation of a number of quasi-Newton algorithms and strategies for sparse, symmetric Hessian matrices was performed. It was shown how these quasi-Newton algorithms could be applied to the unconstrained minimization of a nonlinear function as well as a nonlinear least squares approach to solving a system of nonlinear equations. The best of these algorithms were evaluated for a problem with a fairly large number of degrees of freedom with a large load increment. From this study it is concluded that the proposed quasi-Newton method with the double dogleg strategy and an automatic control on Hessian evaluations is the best algorithm for all of the problems considered in this investigation. The algorithm had no difficulty converging to solutions regardless of the size of the model and regardless of the size of the load or time step. The advantage of being able to take large load or time steps may lie in those problems which involve the location of critical points (limit or bifurcation points) of structures with minimal computational effort. All the algorithms which utilized the double dogleg strategy were consistently better able to converge to the solution - a clear validation of the globally convergent property of the double dogleg strategy. Finally, the usefulness of the double dogleg strategy in solving a system of nonlinear equations via the nonlinear least squares approach and in locating multiple equilibrium configurations using deflation speaks for the versatility of the proposed algorithm. In conclusion, the quasi-Newton algorithm proposed in this dissertation is both robust and efficient for small as well as large scale problems of matrices are exploited. Because sparsity and symmetry the algorithm does not place unreasonable demands on core storage requirements. Furthermore, using the deflation technique with tunneling the algorithm can be extremely useful for post-buckling response studies of structures involving many stable and unstable branches. / Ph. D.