Doctor of Philosophy / Security Studies Interdepartmental Program / Jeffrey J. Pickering / In 2008, Ambassador’s Neumann and Pickering wrote letters to Senator’s Obama and McCain, with recommendations on qualifications for US Ambassador’s. Both Senator’s had recently received their party’s nomination for President, and Neumann and Pickering took the opportunity to suggest qualifications they believed were necessary for US ambassadors to perform their diplomatic tasks better. Their letters suggested that career ambassadors perform better, and they recommended that political appointees be limited to ten percent. The historical average has been roughly thirty percent. They also recommended that ambassadors have previous regional experience, and be knowledgeable about the countries in which they would be assigned, as well as speak the local language. What their letters were missing was evidence these traits actually make a difference in how well ambassadors perform their roles. In fact, this evidence is missing from the extant literature describing ambassadorial roles and responsibilities. This dissertation seeks to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze Neumann’s and Pickering’s qualifications, marking the first time this important subject has been examined using social science methodology.

This qualitative case study explored the writing assessment practices of upper elementary ELA teachers and factors that influenced their decision making when assessing student writing. Effective assessment practices are important because these practices can aid teachers in identifying student needs, designing tailored writing instruction, and monitoring student progress. This study included 5 teacher participants from 3rd to 5th grade. Participants were viewed as 1 case bound by their grade band and employment in a district focused on teaching and assessing writing. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, a think aloud task, a review of assessment artifacts and the researcher’s reflective journal. Analysis was completed following a five-phase model. Findings included: (1) teachers’ efficacy of assessing student writing is influenced by support received, (2) strengthening teachers’ assessment practices requires personalized, ongoing PD, (3) context influences teachers’ decision making when assessing student writing, and (4) teachers have varying levels of knowledge of formatively assessing student writing. These findings suggest implications for state administrators, district and school administrators, classroom teachers, curriculum leaders, and university programs.

Media industry has been through various changes in past two decades due to technological advancement, merger and acquisition. Also, privatization and de-regulation took places throughout of 1980s, which has caused various changes and provided opportunities for the media industries. This thesis aims to find out the financial performance of two media companies in Taiwan whilst such changes and opportunities took place and also to highlight whether so call “synergy” created through diversification, mergers and acquisitions provides real financial incentives and whether public interests are the sacrifice of such financial incentives and highlight the legal framework which affects the media industry in Taiwan. The media industry covers a wide range of businesses, it is almost everything we live with; technological changes made the boundaries between media blurry and common trend of convergence occurred and this has a strong social impact of who is really controlling the information that is provided through the different media. Therefore, the analysis of content control in the media industry will be evaluated with reference to the theories of public interests. Furthermore, conglomeration becomes a phenomenon from 1990’s when many industries consolidated in the economic downturns. Especially, in the USA and Europe, media industries were soon riding the wave of the phenomenon from more than a hundred companies reduced to less than a handful of the gigantic big six media corporations. On the other hand, Taiwan’s media companies are also dominated by a few big business conglomerates and two of them have substantial business interests in the media industry. The two media companies under the two biggest conglomerates in Taiwan are chosen to examine their financial performance and using statistical tool to forecast its key ratios. Keywords Media industry, Synergy, Public interests, Conglomerates, Convergence, Social impact, Business integration, media regulation, Media democracy, global media.

In second language (L2) listening assessment, various factors have the potential to impact the validity of listening test items (Brindley & Slatyer, 2002; Buck & Tatsuoka, 1998; Freedle & Kostin, 1999; Nissan, DeVincenzi, & Tang, 1996; Read, 2002; Shohamy & Inbar, 1991). One relatively unexplored area to date is who controls the aural input. In traditional standardized listening tests, an administrator controlled recording is played once or twice. In real world or classroom listening, however, listeners can sometimes request repetition or clarification. Allowing listeners to control the aural input thus has the potential to add test authenticity but requires careful design of the input and expected response as well as an appropriate computer interface. However, if candidates feel less anxious, allowing control of listening input may enhance examinees' experience and still reflect their listening proficiency. Comparing traditional and self paced (i.e., examinees having the opportunity to start, stop, and move the audio position) delivery of multiple choice comprehension items, my research inquiry is whether self paced listening can be a sufficiently reliable and valid measure of examinees' listening ability. Data were gathered from 100 prospective and current university ESL students. They were administered computer based multiple choice listening tests: 10 identical once played items, followed by 33 items in three different conditions: 1) administrator paced input with no audio player visible, 2) self paced with a short time limit, and 3) self paced with a longer time limit. Many facet Rasch (1960/1980) modeling was used to compare the difficulty and discrimination of the items across conditions. Results indicated items on average were similar difficulty overall but discriminated best in self paced conditions. Furthermore, the vast majority of examinees reported they preferred self paced listening. The quantitative results were complemented by follow up stimulated recall interviews with eight participants who took 22 additional test items using screen capture software to explore whether and when they paused and/or repeated the input. Frequency of and reasons for self pacing did not follow any particular pattern by proficiency level. Examinees tended to play more than once but not two full times through, even without limited time. Implications for listening instruction and classroom assessment, as well as standardized testing, are discussed.

Graduation theses deals with historical development of land assessing from 1897 till 1994. Period is resolved into four phases i term of price making. In each phase is description of previous legislation accordance with it was assessing provided. In practical part is concrete historical land assessing. Land is situated in village Leškovice.

Recent legislation in South Africa has changed education considerably, particularly in the move towards inclusive education. Previous educational provision in South Africa, as in many countries, assigned many learners with learning difficulties to segregated settings. Such placements tended to be based on the psycho-medical, intelligence-testing model of identifying learning difficulties. Much research has queried the effectiveness of this approach. However, as no alternative model has been researched, it was decided to research the effectiveness of using an ecosystemic approach in conjunction with a collaborative consultancy model as a method for identifying learning needs in high school learners in a South African public secondary school. Various methods of qualitative data collection were used during the intervention, and comparative analysis was employed to analyse the data. The findings of this study suggest that an ecosystemic approach used together with a collaborative consultancy approach to identify and understand learning diversity is a viable process in inclusive education contexts. However, it is acknowledged that a considerable body of research needs to be achieved before this finding can be considered conclusive. In addition, certain constraints to using this approach were acknowledged, and these include the time, expertise and money needed to facilitate the process successfully.

La question du bien-être des animaux d’élevage et plus particulièrement celle de la douleur fait l’objet d’une attente sociétale grandissante. Cependant, l’évaluation de la douleur chez l’animal, et par voie de conséquence de l’efficacité des traitements antalgiques, reste très complexe en médecine vétérinaire, en expérimentation ou en élevage. Elle s’appuie principalement sur les modifications de comportement ou de paramètres physiologiques du système nerveux autonome, de l’axe hypothalamo-hypophysaire ou encore des processus inflammatoires. Néanmoins, les indicateurs généralement utilisés ne sont pas tous spécifiques de la douleur "ressentie" par l'animal mais peuvent également indiquer un niveau de stress ou de perturbations physiologiques et métaboliques liés au traumatisme. Chez les carnivores domestiques ou les chevaux, une approche combinant des indicateurs spécifiques de chacune des voies sollicitées dans les processus douloureux a été développée. Aucune démarche équivalente n'a été validée chez les animaux de rente. Cette thèse conduite sur ovin et bovin avait pour objectifs : 1) de développer une approche multiparamétrique d'évaluation de la douleur, ou de situations potentiellement douloureuses, 2) de tester ses performances dans différentes situations considérées douloureuses (douleurs somatiques et/ou viscérale : mammites, castration et pose de canules digestives), et 3) sur la base de cette approche d’évaluer l'efficacité de protocoles antalgiques utilisés en élevage ou en expérimentation animale. Nous montrons que (i) l’approche multiparamétrique est plus performante qu’une approche voie par voie, (ii) les modifications du comportement, de l’axe hypothalamo-hypophysaire et de l’inflammation discriminent des situations potentiellement douloureuses quel que soit le type de douleur alors que les modifications liées au stress oxydant sont davantage liées aux situations présentant des douleurs d'origine viscérale et somatique, (iii) l’approche multiparamétrique différencie les périodes les plus critiques à prendre en charge en fonction de la douleur ressentie et (iv) il est possible de proposer des ajustements des traitements antalgiques en utilisant les renseignements fournis par chacune des voies évaluées. En prenant en compte l'ensemble des principales voies impliquées dans les processus douloureux, l’évaluation de la douleur ressentie, peut donc être plus sensible et spécifique. Néanmoins, l’approche multiparamétrique gagnera à être simplifiée et devra être validée dans d'autres situations douloureuses, notamment dans le cas de douleurs neuropathique, avant d'être proposée sur le terrain aux vétérinaires, éleveurs ou expérimentateurs. / There is a growing societal concern regarding farm animal welfare and especially pain assessment. However, pain assessment in animals and the efficiency of analgesic treatments remains very complex in veterinary medicine, animal experimentation or farming. Pain assessment is mainly based on behavioural changes or physiological responses related to the autonomic nervous system, hypothalamic-pituitary axis or inflammatory processes. Nevertheless, the indicators usually used do not always reflect pain experienced by animals but can also reflect the level of stress or physiological and metabolic disturbances related to trauma. Combinations of pathway-specific indicators involved in pain have been developed in various animal species (carnivore pets and horses), but no equivalent approach has been validated for farm ruminants yet. The main objectives of this thesis were 1) to develop a multiparametric approach to assess pain in sheep and cattle, 2) to test its performances in different painful situations (somatic and/or visceral pain: mastitis, castration and digestive cannulas), and 3) to assess the efficiency of analgesic treatments currently used in farming or research. We showed that (i) the multiparametric approach is more efficient than a single pathway approach (ii) changes in behaviour, hypothalamic-pituitary axis, and inflammation discriminate potentially painful situations regardless of the type of pain, whereas changes related to oxidative stress are related to visceral and somatic painful situations, (iii) the multiparametric approach differentiates the most critical periods requiring specific pain management (to be managed according to the pain), and (iv) it is possible to adjust the analgesic treatments according to the information provided by the assessment of each pathway. In conclusion, taking into account the main pathways involved in painful processes, allows a more sensitive and specific pain evaluation. Further research should aim at simplifying the multiparametric approach and validating it against other painful situation (especially neurological pain) before proposing it for practical-use on field by veterinarians, farmers and researchers.

The presence of nonnative trout and the recent introduction of Myxobolus cerebralis in the Logan River drainage pose a threat to the native Bonneville cutthroat trout population (Oncorhynchus clarki Utah). The variability in the response of susceptible trout populations to M. cerebralis, causing agent of whirling disease, suggests that environmental factors may influence the effects of the parasite in infected environments. I investigated the relationship between temperature, discharge, substrate size, nutrient concentration (nitrogen and phosphorus), periphyton (chlorophyll a), and the relative abundance of Tubifex tubifex to the distribution, and prevalence of M. cerebralis in wild salmonid populations and sentinel fish in the mainstem of the Logan River and two of its tributaries. In addition, I investigated the potential influence of biotic (e.g., food availability, M. cerebralis prevalence) and abiotic factors (e.g., temperature) on the distribution abundance, and condition of salmonid fishes. Differences in mean temperature and discharge across sites explained most (>70%) of the variability in prevalence of M. cerebralis observed along the Logan River. However, the prevalence of the parasite was not related to other factors that can influence its life cycle, such as productivity and substrate composition. The results also indicate that the fish fauna presents a longitudinal change reflected in a zonation pattern. Cutthroat trout dominates the headwaters and high-elevation reaches, while reaches at lower elevations of the mainstem and tributaries were dominated by brown trout. The transition between these species was consistent with changes in environmental characteristics. Cutthroat trout dominates the fish community in mainstream reaches with the lowest average minimum temperature and highest diel temperatures, and where small boulders and small cobbles are the predominant substrate. This study provides insights of the abiotic and biotic factors that affect the distribution, abundance, and condition of salmonid populations along the Logan River. Identifying these factors is crucial to effectively manage this and other trout streams, where ensuring the conservation of native cutthroat trout populations is a priority. Further, I present baseline information of the potential linkages between environmental factors and M. cerebralis distribution and prevelance, which could be used to develop plans to minimize the potential negative effects of this parasite on wild salmonid populations.

A mail survey of randomly selected stratified U.S. households assessed general attitudes toward wildlife and specific concerns about wildlife damage management and the federal Animal Damage Control program. Respondents strongly supported federal government's role in ensuring public safety , engaging in public education, and continuing research into nonlethal control methods. Weaker support was found for lethal control of predators and crop depredators, and financial compensation for losses due to wildlife activities was generally opposed. Lethal methods of control were generally considered to be inhumane and nonlethal methods humane. When asked to rank the importance of factors to be considered when selecting management methods, II human safety ranked highest followed by animal suffering, effectiveness, environmental impacts, severity of problem, and ability to target the specific problem animal. The lowest ranked factor was public opinion. Considered as a whole, results suggest that U.S. citizens want a role in wildlife damage policy formation but respect wildlife professionals ' judgment in specific management situations. This study also assessed attitudes and beliefs about wildlife damage management (WDM) activities and federal government agencies ' roles in carrying out those activities. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine if variables such as environmental attitude, wildlife experience, and sociodemographic characteristics explained levels of support for WDM activities and the importance of the federal government's role . Respondents generally support WDM operations. Differences in respondents' general environmental attitudes and enjoyment of hunting accounted for most of the variation in their attitudes toward WDM practices. Independent variables that most influenced perceived importance of federal involvement in WDM were sex , age, education, and general environmental attitudes.

A sample of agricultural parcels in Salt Lake County, Utah was analyzed to determine the effects on assessed values and per acre taxes under alternative assessment methods; assessment according to market value or agricultural value (preferential treatment). The assessed value changes and tax shifting between all classes of taxable property in the county were calculated with and without the preferential assessment of agricultural land and at assessment levels equalized for all classes. Variations in assessed value, agricultural and market values and assessment ratios were analyzed for the parcels in the sample by location and size of the parcel, present use, occupation of the owner, and the degree of development of the surrounding land. Under preferential treatment the total assessed value of agricultural land would not be lower than the 1967 level. Farm land qualifying for preferential treatment would have lower per acre taxes.