Research in the work-life area has typically concerned individuals' assessments of their own conflict. The current study went beyond this by examining supervisor assessments of employee conflict and how they relate to the support given to employees. This support, traditionally measured using a unidimensional measure of support, was measured with a multidimensional measure that differentiates eight separate forms of support, including listening, emotional, emotional challenge, reality confirmation, task appreciation, task challenge, tangible assistance, and personal assistance support. Additionally, the amount of personal contact between the supervisor and the employee and the extent to which the supervisor likes the employee were examined as potential moderators of the relationship between supervisor assessments and the support given. Further, employee satisfaction with supervisor support, as well as the potential moderating role of the need for support on the relationship between the provided support and the employee's satisfaction with the support, were explored. Finally, employee satisfaction with the eight forms of support and subsequent outcomes (i.e., subsequent work-life conflict, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, organizational commitment, and job performance) as they relate to the provided support were examined. Data were collected from 114 pairs of employees and supervisors. Employees were assessed at two time periods two weeks apart whereas supervisors were assessed at one time period, within five days of the employee's first time period. Results showed that supervisor assessments of employee work-life conflict were either unrelated or negatively related to the eight forms of support. Additionally, it appears that when supervisors perceived employees as having a high degree of work-to-life conflict, they provided relatively high and relatively equal amounts of emotional challenge and reality confirmation support to employees regardless of how much they liked them. When supervisors perceived employee work-to-life conflict as being low, however, they provided significantly more emotional challenge and reality confirmation support when they liked the employee as opposed to when they did not like the employee. Furthermore, the relationship between emotional challenge support and job satisfaction was mediated by satisfaction with emotional challenge support, the relationship between task appreciation support and affective commitment was mediated by satisfaction with task appreciation support, and the relationship between task appreciation support and job satisfaction was mediated by satisfaction with task appreciation support. Finally, when emotional challenge support was provided, greater levels of support led to greater employee satisfaction, especially if there was a need for the support. However, when reality confirmation support was provided, employees were less satisfied with the support when a large amount of support was provided and the employees' need for support was low.

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of concept map assessments in freshman level general chemistry courses. Two strategies were employed in this study. The first strategy involved the creation of a web based concept mapping program capable of scoring concept maps drawn by students. The second strategy involved comparing different methods of scoring concept maps. Students enrolled in web based general chemistry course drew concept maps using the web based Concept Map Assessment Tool, CMAT. The reliability of the automated scoring in the CMAT program was tested by scoring the concept maps created in the CMAT program by hand. The results of the study indicated that scoring concept maps by hand was the same as the automated scoring of concept maps in the CMAT program. Two characteristics of concept maps serve as the basis for scoring methods. The relational character of a concept map is defined as the correctness of the propositions in the concept map. The structural character of a concept map is defined as the key features of the map, such as branches, long chains or intersecting points. The scoring method used in the CMAT program scores the relational aspects of a concept map. In this study, a second relational scoring method was used to score the concept maps drawn by students using the CMAT program, and the two sets of scores were compared. A novel structural scoring method, the Structural Complexity Index (SCI), was developed compared to the relational scoring approach of the CMAT program. The results of this study found the two relational scoring methods to score concept maps similarly under certain conditions. The SCI was found to produce a different score for concept maps than the relational scoring method employed by CMAT. / text

When assessing preferences of individuals with developmental disabilities, choices can be described vocally or presented using objects or pictures in preference assessments. For individuals who are unable to perform auditory-visual discriminations and visual identity matching, objects instead of pictures or vocalizations need to be used for preference assessments to be effective. Considering the practical advantages of using pictures over objects, recent research has begun to focus on identifying and teaching skills needed for picture preference assessments. Although object-to-picture, picture-to-object, and generalized matching have been implicated as possible skills needed for picture preference assessments, further systematic studies are needed. The present study examined the relation between preference assessments (object vs. picture groups) and 5 discrimination skills. Based on direct paired-stimulus preference assessments completed at the beginning of the study, participants who could indicate their preferences with objects, but not with picture or vocal presentation, were assigned to the Object Group (n = 11); and participants who could indicate their preferences with both objects and pictures, but not vocal presentation, were assigned to the Picture Group (n = 9). The 5 discrimination tasks included: (a) object-picture matching and (b) its symmetry, picture-object matching; (c) generalized object-picture matching and (d) its symmetry, generalized picture-object matching; and (e) generalized identity picture-picture matching. All task stimuli were parts from everyday objects. Independent sample t-tests with Bonferroni correction showed that the percentages of correct responses were significantly higher in the Picture Group than in the Object Group on 4 of the 5 tasks (p < .01). Individual data showed that 8 of the 9 Picture Group participants met the pass criterion (80% or higher correct responses) on at least 1 discrimination task, with 6 participants passing 2 or more tasks. In contrast, only 1 of the 11 Object Group participants met the pass criterion on 1 discrimination task. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of picture preference assessments is not dependent on one specific discrimination, but possibly the ability to perform generalized matching.

Past research has shown that preference for a stimulus is correlated positively with reinforcer efficacy – more preferred stimuli tend to be more potent reinforcers. Researchers have recently examined the use of progressive ratio (PR) reinforcement schedules to evaluate preference. However, research on the concordance between preference and performance under a progressive ratio schedule is limited. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to extend this research. In Experiment 1 I compared the relative reinforcing efficacy of six stimuli obtained under a PR schedule to the mean preference hierarchy obtained through paired-stimulus preference assessments conducted before and after PR reinforcement sessions. In Experiment 2 I evaluated the PR schedule for quantifying the reinforcing value of three stimuli from Experiment 1 (i.e., one high, one medium, and one low preference stimulus). The results of Experiment 1 indicated that items that yielded higher breaking points and responses per minute were also more preferred. However, concordance between percent preference and breaking points and response rates for less preferred items was more variable. The results of Experiment 2 showed that high preference stimuli increased responding over baseline for all participants. However, low preference reinforcers also increased responding over baseline for some participants.

Through practices of assessment and consultation, information gathering and analysis, social workers, in the field of child protection, build understandings about children and families. Social workers actively construct knowledge as they engage in assessments of children referred to them as potentially 'at risk'. Their work is always informed by explicit or implicit theories about risk and protection. The active engagement with risk by social workers is the central focus for this inquiry. This thesis presents an exploratory inquiry into the work of child protection in Aotearoa/New Zealand as experienced by social workers employed at the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS). The primary focus is on their understanding of risk and their active construction of risk discourses. I am interested in how children are identified as potentially at risk, and how risk is identified, worked with, managed and woven into the assessments of social workers as they engage in child protection work. This inquiry took, as its starting point, narratives of 70 social workers about specific child protection cases. They were asked to describe both straightforward and more complex assessments, and, as a result, provided a rich and detailed range of narratives about how risk is defined, assessed and managed by social workers. This qualitative study employed a critical incident technique as a data collection method, and applied a grounded approach to the analysis of these practice stories. The focus for the interviews was on the day-to-day work as experienced by social workers, that is, the practices of assessment in child protection. Probes were used to solicit further information when risk was discussed by the workers. This research also involved spending time in different branches of CYFS around the country and informal conversation with social workers. Field notes made during these periods of immersion in different practice settings were also analysed to provide understandings of the contexts in which social workers engage in individual and collective knowledge production about children and risk. This is the first detailed investigation of how New Zealand statutory social workers of different ethnicities engage with, and draw on, risk discourses in their assessment work. For the social workers in this study, risk discourses were actively and strategically used in the legitimation of their practice interventions. The practices of socially constructing knowledge about 'risk' are a continuing focus of this thesis, and the wider implications for social work practices of 'risk' assessment are discussed.

When assessing preferences of individuals with developmental disabilities, choices can be described vocally or presented using objects or pictures in preference assessments. For individuals who are unable to perform auditory-visual discriminations and visual identity matching, objects instead of pictures or vocalizations need to be used for preference assessments to be effective. Considering the practical advantages of using pictures over objects, recent research has begun to focus on identifying and teaching skills needed for picture preference assessments. Although object-to-picture, picture-to-object, and generalized matching have been implicated as possible skills needed for picture preference assessments, further systematic studies are needed. The present study examined the relation between preference assessments (object vs. picture groups) and 5 discrimination skills. Based on direct paired-stimulus preference assessments completed at the beginning of the study, participants who could indicate their preferences with objects, but not with picture or vocal presentation, were assigned to the Object Group (n = 11); and participants who could indicate their preferences with both objects and pictures, but not vocal presentation, were assigned to the Picture Group (n = 9). The 5 discrimination tasks included: (a) object-picture matching and (b) its symmetry, picture-object matching; (c) generalized object-picture matching and (d) its symmetry, generalized picture-object matching; and (e) generalized identity picture-picture matching. All task stimuli were parts from everyday objects. Independent sample t-tests with Bonferroni correction showed that the percentages of correct responses were significantly higher in the Picture Group than in the Object Group on 4 of the 5 tasks (p < .01). Individual data showed that 8 of the 9 Picture Group participants met the pass criterion (80% or higher correct responses) on at least 1 discrimination task, with 6 participants passing 2 or more tasks. In contrast, only 1 of the 11 Object Group participants met the pass criterion on 1 discrimination task. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of picture preference assessments is not dependent on one specific discrimination, but possibly the ability to perform generalized matching.

Past research has shown that preference for a stimulus is correlated positively with reinforcer efficacy – more preferred stimuli tend to be more potent reinforcers. Researchers have recently examined the use of progressive ratio (PR) reinforcement schedules to evaluate preference. However, research on the concordance between preference and performance under a progressive ratio schedule is limited. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to extend this research. In Experiment 1 I compared the relative reinforcing efficacy of six stimuli obtained under a PR schedule to the mean preference hierarchy obtained through paired-stimulus preference assessments conducted before and after PR reinforcement sessions. In Experiment 2 I evaluated the PR schedule for quantifying the reinforcing value of three stimuli from Experiment 1 (i.e., one high, one medium, and one low preference stimulus). The results of Experiment 1 indicated that items that yielded higher breaking points and responses per minute were also more preferred. However, concordance between percent preference and breaking points and response rates for less preferred items was more variable. The results of Experiment 2 showed that high preference stimuli increased responding over baseline for all participants. However, low preference reinforcers also increased responding over baseline for some participants.

Results from large-scale assessments of academic achievement are key sources of evidence in the development of education policy and reform. The increasing influence of these assessments underscores the need for the results to be valid and reliable. This study investigates possible threats to the validity of reading proficiency assessments by examining the influence of two motivational variables: the interest attributed to the texts students read, and the amount of effort that students invest in undertaking the reading assessment. Using data from Australian pilot assessments and the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) this study explores the influence of interest and effort on reading proficiency outcomes and on the conclusions that can be drawn from these assessments.

For technical systems in the electricity and paper and pulpindustries, asset management is emerging as a new approachaddressing how to exploit physical assets with long operativelives in the most profitably way. An important problem forasset management staff is knowing when to carry out areplacement or renewal. This is a difficult question whichrequires taking into consideration parameters of totallydifferent natures–e.g. reliability data, operatingcosts, condition information from technical systems, theenvironment and rules and regulation. An incorrect estimate ofa residual lifetime can result in a premature renewal withaccompanying high capital costs. If, however, renewal isdelayed, a breakdown may occur which can cause major damage totechnical equipment and a loss of income due to outages. This work presents a formal model that calculates expectedcosts of different long-term strategies when managing technicalsystems. It is shown that with relatively few inputs, which inmany cases are easy to collect or estimate, a good picture canbe developed that shows the amount of resources a company willneed in the future in terms of renewals of their technicalsystems. The foundation for this work is a case study and aliterature review; the objective was to study what methods andmodels are in use today when estimating residual lifetime oftechnical systems. Also, aspects that influence long-term assetmanagement were investigated. Lessons learned from the casestudy and literature review were then used to develop a dynamicmodel, the Dynamic Lifetime Analysis model (DLA model). This model is based on a probabilistic and dynamic riskanalysis of a technical system, linking different aspects ofrisk management strategies to specific characteristics of thephysical system. Furthermore it is shown how this model,coupled with specific value judgments, can be used to designoptimal long-term strategies. When taking more than onetechnical system under consideration the model shows that it isnot always the most effective, from a system viewpoint, torenew it too close to a possible breakdown. If there is aperiod predicted to incur high investment, it can, at times, bebetter to do an early renewal thereby maintaining resources ata constant level. The thesis also describes how to work withlong-term strategic decisions in a structural manner in orderfor the actors on a deregulated market to stay competitive. <b>Key Words:</b>Residual lifetime estimation, Assetmanagement, Maintenance, Technical systems in power and pulp-and paper industries, Long terms renewal strategies. / NR 20140805

This article examines whether the use of impact fees and special assessments affect the level of capital spending and two major own source revenues of local capital spending (taxes and long-term debt) by analyzing a panel of 695 American cities with populations over 20,000 during the time period of 1980-2000. Since impact fees and special assessments are heavily used in a growing community and because it covers less than half the costs of new development, the findings demonstrate that the private financing of public infrastructure (impact fees and special assessments) increases the level of local capital spending. It also leads to an increase in the level of long-term debt use. Although it provides partial tax relief, it is not a strong substitute for taxes. Thus, impact fees and special assessments are not a substitute for local capital spending. It is rather a supplemental revenue source to fund local capital infrastructure.