Ecotourism has been promoted globally as a model for sustainable development because it simultaneously benefits the environment and the residents of the given destination. However, many conservationists have questioned the long term sustainability of ecotourism as it is difficult to mitigate the impact of even low levels of tourism on a particular ecosystem. Further, social scientists including anthropologists have similarly questioned whether most residents of a particular destination actually benefit significantly from the alternative tourism economy. The Globalization Research Center in cooperation with the Monteverde Institue in the Monte Verde Zone, Costa Rica, is undertaking a longitudinal study -- dubbed the Triangulation Study -- to understand the effects that development through ecotourism has on human and natural systems. In order to collect preliminary data, the Globalization Research Center funded the Development Survey which was designed to collect demographic data from a representative stratified random sample of household from nine communities in the Monte Verde Zone. Basic descriptive information was also collected for all of the businesses in the area that would agree to participate. The data collected showed that there is a significant difference in the extent that the nine communities in the Monte Verde Zone are involved in and perhaps benefiting from ecotourism despite the fact that their opinions about ecotourism are mostly positive. The communities located on the main road to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve have demographic statistics that are significantly different from communities that are off the main road, and all communities are significantly different from the Monteverde community. Further, the ecotouristic businesses are located in these road proximate communities. Like the ecotourism literature predicted, the majority of the businesses are small and locally owned. Further study that carefully looks at the differences between those communities closest to the road and those furthest away is recommended. Perhaps a repetition of the Development Survey after a period of time would help elucidate changes in the Zone.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a brief examination of the historical accounts of philosophical theories of personal identity and show the influence that each has had on the development of contemporary theories. In doing so, the thesis explores the problems associated with these theories, attempting to establish a meta-theory (i.e. a theory about theories) of personal identity. What is demonstrated is that the fundamental problems of personal identity arise from issues related to the use of language, as well as assumptions involving the concept of personhood. By demonstrating that our understanding of personhood is relative to frameworks of understanding based on assumption, the meta-theory states that propositions made about persons are not factual statements, but are, rather, matters of contingency. As such, propositions about persons contain truth-value only within a particular frame of reference that is based on these assumptions. Therefore, the problems that traditionally arise in theories of personal identity -- problems with dualism, the mental criterion, and bodily criterion -- result from a flawed approach to the problem altogether. The conclusion is that it is possible to construct a theory of personal identity (a relative theory), but not the theory of personal identity (one which is definitive and strictly conclusive).

Transparent conductive oxides are an essential part of technologies that require both large-area electrical contact and optical access in the visible portion of the light spectrum. SnO2 doped with Fluorine (SnO2: F) and In2O3 doped with tin (ITO) are the most popular choices of front contacts for CdTe solar cells. In this thesis, CdS/CdTe devices were fabricated with SnO2: F (MOCVD) and ITO (sputtering) as front contacts without a high resistivity (resistivity relatively greater than front contact) buffer layer. The device characteristics of these devices were low but improved considerably after the inclusion of an intrinsic SnO2 (SnO2-i) deposited by MOCVD as buffer. Thus having emphasized and demonstrated the benefits of a buffer layer in these devices, the use of reactively sputtered SnO2 (intrinsic), SnO2 doped with Zinc (5% and 10% Zinc) and In2O3(intrinsic) as buffer layers in SnO2:F/buffer/CdS/CdTe devices were explored. Experiments were also carried out on the photovoltaic active layers of SnO2:F/SnO2-i/CdS/CdTe Solar cells. Namely, the effect of window layer thickness was studied by making a series of devices in which the CdS thickness was progressively reduced and the effect of substrate temperature (Tsub) during the deposition of the absorber layer was also studied by increasing Tsub > 600°C during CdTe CSS. In order to determine the effectiveness of In2O3 as a buffer layer, a series of ITO/In2O3/CdS/CdTe cells were fabricated with varying thickness of In2O3 (250 to 2000 Ǻ) and also the CdS thickness was reduced in steps (~800 Ǻ to~500 Ǻ) in these devices. ITO/ In2O3 device with efficiency greater than 14% (Voc: 820 mV, FF: 72% and Jsc: 24 mA/cm2 ) was fabricated for an In2O3 thickness of 250 Ǻ and CdS thickness of ~ 600 Ǻ. However the best efficiency of 14.7% (Voc: 830 mV, FF: 77%, Jsc: 23 mA/cm2 ) was achieved for SnO2:F/SnO2-i/CdS/CdTe device. ITO films with resistivity as low as 1.9X10-4 Ω-cm, mobility 32 cm2V-1s-1 and average transmission ~ 90% in the visible region were obtained for carrier concentration in the order of 1.1X1021 cm-3.

The present study will examine the effects of hypocrisy induction on selection decisions for two populations: Aversive Racists and truly non-prejudiced individuals. Aversive Racists are operationally defined as individuals who are low in explicit prejudice and high in implicit prejudice, whereas truly non-prejudiced individuals are defined as being low in both explicit and implicit prejudice. These two groups of people will differ on their ratings of job applicants, so that Aversive Racists will rate Black applicants lower than White applicants (with comparable job credentials) while truly non-prejudiced individuals will rate them similarly. The induction of hypocrisy will serve as a manipulation that reverses Aversive Racists ratings of job applicants; Black applicants will now be rated higher than White applicants with similar job credentials. External motivation to respond without prejudice will moderate these effects in the expected direction.

Women are drawing together the concepts of space, style,and medium and using these concepts collectively as a foundation for a new discursive tradition in the online autobiography. This dissertation, positioned in postmodern feminism, draws on a variety of disciplines to argue the development or evolution of a new women's discourse. While a broad base of material exists which acknowledges the presence of women's discourse (formed by combining women's writing and women's genres), very little information explores its evolution, particularly in/on the new medium of the World Wide Web (WWW). A combination of extant social and literary theories supports the idea that women are developing a new e-criture feminine via the online diary. Both the virtual medium and the historically female genre echo the very tenets of this new writing style: privacy, individuality, and a lack of (restraining) conventions. This dissertation will contextualize the phenomenon of women publishing online diaries in the poststructuralist ideologies of Woolf, DuPlessis, and Cixous. Following an explication of women's space, women's style, and women's medium, this dissertation will demonstrate that women successfully concatenate these concepts in their online journals, resulting in the creation of a new feminine discourse. The goal of this project is to provide readers with a theoretical explication of this new discursive tradition. Certainly, a number of critical and academic works exist which address the “gendering” of the written medium, the phenomenon of women publishing online, the importance of women developing their own voices. What is missing from academic dialogue, however, is the assertion that these individual elements unite to create a new discursive tradition that is at once literary and rhetorical. Using the work of Woolf, DuPlessis, and Cixous, this dissertation presents, explicates, and ties together these elements in an effort to introduce and theorize the significance of this new discursive tradition within the context of postmodern feminism/s. Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to demonstrate that women are experiencing the organic concatenation of the concepts of space (Woolf), style (DuPlessis), and medium (Cixous) as they relate to the Web in order to develop an important new women’s discursive tradition.

Observations of the bottom boundary layer on the inner West Florida Shelf were made with a downward looking pulse coherent acoustic Doppler profiler throughout the passage of Tropical Storm Isadore during September 2002. The storm passed through the Gulf of Mexico roughly 780 km offshore of the Florida study site. Significant wave heights ranged from 0 m to 2.5 m within a span of eight days. The excellent, non-invasive, 5 cm resolution of the near bed (bottom meter) mean flows were used to estimate bed shear velocity and bottom roughness using the standard log-layer approach. A unique opportunity to examine boundary layer structure was provided by the high-resolution data. Calculated friction velocity due to currents (u*c) and apparent bottom roughness (z0) reduced considerably when velocity measurements closer to the bed were emphasized. This observation may be indicative of segmentation within the bottom boundary layer and has implications for common practices of estimating bed shear stress measurements from distances greater than a few tens of centimeters above the bed. Acoustic backscatter strength was used as a proxy for sediment suspension in the water column revealing no relationship between current parameters and sediment resuspension during the ten-day data set. Wave effects were included following the work of Grant and Madsen and others with strong relationships between wave and wave-current parameters and the ABS as a proxy for sediment resuspension evident.

This thesis is an analysis of the pros and cons of doing ethnographic and oral history research with elders. The subjects are women born before 1933 and residing in Sulphur Springs, Florida for most of their adolescence and adult lives. They were selected from attendees of the semiannual reunion of students who attended the Sulphur Springs School during the years it served both elementary and junior high. This method of research, with an elder population presents specific challenges and rewards. The pros and cons of such research are discussed within the context of doing ethnography of Sulphur Springs from the perspective of a select group of women. Interviews were conducted with eight (8) women in their homes, yielding approximately fourteen (14) hours of recordings. A list of questions was developed to prompt memories during the interviews. A small tabletop recorder was used to record unstructured interviews regarding their years in Sulphur Springs, with emphasis on the years they consider most memorable. A social network analysis of attendees of the recent reunions was conducted with the responses to a mailed questionnaire. The study revealed the importance of understanding the culture of a generation through the lens of history and place. Special considerations need to be made in preparation of survey instruments and interview questions for any physical limitations and/or security concerns. Researchers also need to be flexible in the application of their pre-determined research designs in order to assure maximum quality and quantity of resulting data.

The goals of this study were to evaluate anger, depression, and anxiety in children and adolescents with aggressive/homicidal (A/H) and depressive/suicidal (D/S) problems and to compare these clinical groups with each other and a normal control group. The State Trait Anger Expression Inventory for Children and Adolescents (STAXI C/A), the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and the Pediatric Anxiety Scale (PANX) were administered to the Clinical (N=114) and Normal (N=353) groups ranging from 9-18 years of age. The Clinical group was comprised of 18 A/H, 87 D/S, and 18 Comorbid children with both problems. The Clinical group had significantly higher scores on the STAXI C/A State and Trait Anger and Anger-Out scales, and higher scores on the CDI Total scale and Interpersonal Problems, Negative Mood, and Negative Self-Esteem subscales. They also had higher PANX State Anxiety scores. These differences were primarily due to substantially higher Clinical Comorbid group scores. Similarly, the Clinical Comorbid scores on most of the anger, depression, and anxiety scales were higher than the Normal and Clinical scores. The D/S group had significantly higher scores than the A/H group on the STAXI C/A Anger-Out scale, the CDI Negative Mood subscale and the PANX State Anxiety scale. The D/S group has significantly higher scores than the Normals on the CDI Negative Mood, Interpersonal Problems, and Negative Self Esteem subscales, and a higher State Anxiety score. Although not statistically significant, the A/H group had noticeably higher Anger-In and Anger-Control/Out scores than the D/S group. In contrast, the scores of the A/H group on State and Trait Anger were somewhat lower than those of the other clinical groups, as well as the Normals. This pattern of findings for the A/H group was interpreted as possibly due to the operation of psychological defense mechanisms. The findings indicated the procedure for assignment into the A/H group was unrelated to the mean level of anger that they reported. Since assignment to clinical groups guided inpatient treatment planning, these results suggest that administration of anger, depression, and anxiety measures assessing both state and trait features would likely facilitate better assignment and more effective treatment.

This study provides an analysis of the historical and legal constructs of parental choice and implications for public education. While qualitative in nature, the historic record provides important detail in establishing a foundation for understanding parental authority in determining the education of children. An overview of major education legislation from the Colonial era to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is discussed as well as the legal analysis which consists of U.S. Supreme Court decisions influential in the debate over parental authority in determining the education of children. Conclusions include (a) data supporting parental choice as a growing phenomenon in which the power and influence of the federal government over public education is increasing and represents a fundamental shift from an egalitarian focus to a performance driven, standards-based approach; (b) opposition to parental choice is varied depending upon interest group and the type of parental choice in question; (c) the U.S. Supreme court consistently supports parental rights in determining the education of children; and (d) parental choice is here to stay. Implications of expanded parental choice options include (a) increasing federal control over k-12 public education, (b) less emphasis upon addressing social ills and more emphasis on quality of education, (c) resegregation occurring as "equal access" issues are considered secondary to improving academic performance, and (d) accountability, student performance, competition and other market factors will dominate the parental choice debate.

This thesis is an examination of a firearm identification system that creates a three-dimensional image of a bullet in order to record the depth and length of striations occurring along the bullet's surface. Ballistics evidence is an area of forensics in great need of further development. The advent of more sophisticated firearms such as semi-automatic and automatic weapons has increased the need for a matching system that connects bullets found at crime scenes with suspect guns. In the past, control bullets matching ones found at the crime scene have been test fired and then examined by a comparison microscope for similarities with the evidence bullet. The purpose of this thesis is to examine data collected by an emerging system that uses three-dimensional technology by way of a laser and convex mirrors to create a digitized representation of the lands and grooves of a bullet. This representation is a measure of the depth of striations or markings created on the bullet's surface during the firing event. The objective of this thesis is to statistically examine the data collected by this system, which consists of bullets produced by eight different manufacturers. The data for this thesis comes from a pilot study conducted by the creators of a three-dimensional system called SCICLOPS. Variables examined include the maximum and minimum number of striations recorded, the relative position of the bullet (as determined by the six lands and grooves measured by the system), and the manufacturer type. It is hypothesized that there will be differences in the number of striations measured across manufacturer types. Results indicate that manufacturer type may play an important role in how bullets "take" striations or markings during the firing event. Implications for the SCICLOPS system and future research are discussed.