Problem Statement Although the collegiate organization of VICA was officially established in 1975, an appropriate list of goals has not been developed. The problem addressed in this study was the lack of specific direction for the collegiate VICA organization. Research Procedures The goals were developed by administering three Delphi iterations to a thirty-member panel of consultants. The panel was comprised of ten collegiate VICA chapter advisors, six collegiate VICA chapter presidents, four student members of the National Collegiate VICA Planning Council, two National VICA Board of Director's members, two National VICA staff members, two National VICA resource persons, two State Supervisors of Trade and Industrial Education and two State VICA Directors. In addition, a lexical analyst and five-member advisory committee were utilized to examine and assess the panel of consultant's responses compiled after each Delphi iteration. A forced-choice rating scale was utilized by the panel of consultants to determine the priority of each goal. Findings The 16 goals formulated in this study in order of priority are: 1. develop skills in leadership and leadership training; 2.5. assist, organize and implement stimulating VICA activities at the local, district, state and national levels; 2.5. foster the competencies that individuals need to be VICA advisors; 4. recruit potential VICA advisors and Trade and Industrial instructors into teacher education programs; 5. enhance the image of vocational education and VICA; 6. develop collegiate VICA chapter activities that involve business, industry and labor; 7. foster and maintain a supporting interest in Trade and Industrial Education; 8. establish a communication network among collegiate VICA chapters and state and national VICA offices; 9. instill within the collegiate VICA member a respect for and a solid philosophy of professional organizations; 10. provide the building of an improved self-image through personal achievement; 11. recruit new and assist existing collegiate VICA chapters; 12. develop respect for the dignity of work; 13. encourage the pursuit of continuous education consistent to the needs of the individual selected career objectives; 14.5. encourage further study and research by collegiate VICA members in the areas of Trade and Industrial Education and VICA; 14.5. promote unity and common purpose to remove all vestiges of biases in vocational programs; and 16. establish collegiate VICA regional conferences. Conclusions and Recommendations On the basis of the findings, the major conclusions and recommendations include: 1. There are 16 goals which have been formulated for the collegiate organization of the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America; 2. The 16 goals can be categorized into three priorities; "Extremely High or High Priority," "Medium Priority," or "Low or Least Priority." This prioritizing can allow individuals to assess each goal within its proper perspective and thus allow for a finer appreciation of the importance of each goal; and 3. The VICA Board of Directors and delegates to the 1980 Collegiate Forum should adopt the 16 goals as the official goals of the collegiate organization of the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to identify a selected set of perceived indicators of institutional quality for Bible colleges accredited by the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges (AABC). From the literature, 67 indicators of institutional quality in higher education and Bible colleges were identified and collected in a questionnaire, the Inventory of Determinants of Quality for Bible Colleges (IDQBC). The IDQBC was mailed to Bible college presidents, faculty members, alumni, and alumnae representing all 73 Bible colleges in the United States accredited by the AABC. Of the 448 surveys mailed, 309 were returned for a response rate of 69%. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedure was executed for each of the 67 IDQBC indicators to determine if the group means of the four study groups were significantly different. Of the 67 indicators evaluated, 12 were found to have significant differences among the study groups at the .01 level. Therefore, the study groups were in agreement as to the relative weight they assigned to 55 of the 67 indicators. Of these 55 indicators, 46 were rated as important or very important when considering the quality of a Bible college, while 9 were rated as less important when considering the quality of a Bible college. The results of this study point to four conclusions regarding the study groups' assessment of quality in Bible colleges. First, there was a high degree of agreement reported as to the importance of indicators of institutional quality in Bible colleges. Second, student outcomes were reported to be the most important indicators of institutional quality in Bible colleges, especially outcomes related to Biblical values and ideals. Third, indicators related to the teaching mission of Bible colleges were reported to be the next most important determinants of institutional quality. Fourth, indicators related to institutional demographics, resources, and student services were reported to be among the less important indicators of institutional quality.

The purpose of this study was to investigate selected landmark events in the historical development of the Texas Music Educators Association, 1938-1980, and the decisions which influenced their outcomes. A polling of twenty former presidents of TMEA selected the following landmark events that helped to shape the history of TMEA: (1) the change from a band organization to a music educators organization in 1938, (2) the University Interscholastic League takeover of contests in 1947, and (3) TMEA's separation from the Music Educators National Conference in 1976. In addition to developing a historical chronology from documentary sources, in-depth interviews were conducted with actual participants in these landmark events. The interviews utilized comparable questions, in order to identify decision-making patterns, while also capturing the atmosphere and visceral context of TMEA history. Literature from the social science disciplines on organizational decision—making was explored for help in understanding what happened, how, and why. In all three events the final decision was strongly influenced by factors external to the TMEA. The strong power position held by school administrators was evident in both the first and second events, while reinforcement from actively lobbying choral directors was also a factor in the first event only. The strong ultimatum from MENC, backed by their unchallenged charter authority, was a key factor in the third event. Still, TMEA continued to grow, and avoided debilitating organizational trauma. TMEA leaders often demonstrated a capacity to react quickly to sudden changes in the organizational environment, turning potential liabilities into assets. The TMEA was found to be an organization greatly dependent on the decisions of others, but strongly independent and self-sufficient in spirit. This independence has both negative and positive potential. It can become an unnatural barrier between Texas music educators and the MENC, or it can fuel the drive for professional excellence in music education.

v anglickém jazyce: The thesis deals with the history of nurses association in Czechoslovakia, namely, with the first association of graduate nurses existing in the country from its foundation until its termination during the WWII. The introduction focuses on the description of legal foundations and the explanation of the principle of freedom of association. The subsequent historical-theoretical section presents the issue of history of nursing and especially nursing education which significantly influenced all subsequent efforts in the area of nurses association and was closely linked with the activities of the association. A detailed description of the activities of the association and the then applicable rules regarding association in the light of known facts maps the activities of the first organized graduate nurses association using the method of document study. The thesis is based predominantly on primary and secondary sources and other available literary sources. The aim is to provide detailed information on the timeline of the existence of the association, to define the activities of its members and their credit in the foundation of professional association of nurses. The text explains and provides evidence of discrepancies found between archival materials and public documents. Keywords:...

THESIS SUMMARY: ARTICLES OF APARTMENT OWNERS ASSOCIATION The thesis deals with the regulation of apartment owners associations in the Czech Republic, in particular, with the articles of association of such legal entity. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the Czech statutory regulation (especially The Act on Ownership of Apartments No. 72/1994 of Collection of Laws, and The Government Order No. 371/2004 Coll.) of the apartment owners association in general. There has been provided a short survey of the historical evolution of the ownership of apartments in the world as well as in the Czech Republic and a short depiction of the approaches on apartment ownership models - Anglo-Saxon-French and German Models. Greater attention in the first part is given then to the legal entity of apartment owners association. It examines the foundation and dismissal of the association, its legal capacity (and limits given by law), the membership in such association, and its bodies - assembly, statutory body, and other optional bodies. The second part is devoted to the articles. It is always necessary to examine the articles in light of the current legislation, which greatly affects the content of the articles. In the beginning of the second part, short characteristics of the articles is given,...

Le monde du cirque contemporain, qui a émergé en France à la fin des années 70, et qui a toujours entretenu une certaine marginalité, révèle les rapports ambivalents qu'entretient notre société à l'égard du handicap. Nous avons adopté une approche relationniste du handicap pour réaliser une étude exploratoire quantitative, puis une étude qualitative de onze associations circassiennes. Nous avons mis à jour quatre types de rapports à la différence : certaines associations organisent un Regroupement et Mise à distance des différences, qui sépare les personnes qui ont des limitations de capacités intellectuelles des autres pratiquants, par la création d'un véritable secteur de cirque spécialisé; une majorité d'associations accepte également la participation de personnes qui ont peu d'incapacités dans des pratiques de cirque normalisées, par un processus d'assimilation, traduisant une hiérarchisation des comportements; dans certaines associations professionnelles, quelques artistes aux corps hors-normes sont mis en avant, par leurs différences corporelles créatives; seule une des associations étudiées propose une forme originale de participation, acceptant des personnes ayant tous types de capacités et incapacités pour des pratiques inclusives, révélant une mixité créative. Le cirque contemporain a ainsi mis en place un secteur spécialisé, qui reproduit le détour ségrégatif organisé par les secteurs médico-sociaux et psychiatriques. Il propose un simulacre d'intégration hors du monde du handicap, tout en instituant une mise à distance de la différence. Cette participation au processus de ségrégation est masquée par la mise en avant d'artistes ayant des incapacités motrices et l'utilisation créative de leurs différences corporelles, à condition qu'ils démontrent un contrôle exceptionnel du corps. Une unique association combine l'organisation de pratiques inclusives et le rejet affirmé de sa propre institutionnalisation. Pour les autres, ni le statut associatif, ni la posture de marginalité, ne produisent des formes originales de participation pour les personnes ayant des limitations de capacités. On assiste à une polarisation du rapport à la norme, la marginalité « négative » des personnes « handicapées » – au sens d'un manque de contrôle des comportements – est encadrée par une prise en charge globale alors que la marginalité« positive » des différences corporelles est encadrée comme une œuvre, par une mise en piste spectaculaire, symbole de la marginalité renouvelée du cirque contemporain. / The contemporary circus emerged in France during the late 70s and so far it has taken up a marginal position. Itsframework reveals the ambivalent relationship between society and disability.A research approach in which disability is the result of interaction between individuals and their environments wasadopted. We conducted a wide angle quantitative study about circus associations throughout France, followed by aqualitative study centered on eleven circus associations. We established four relationship patterns with respect todissimilarities: some associations organize a Clustering and segregation, that separates people with intellectual disabilitiesfrom other participants, with the creation of a specialized circus programs; a majority of associations also accepts theparticipation of people who carries low impact disabilities in normalized circus practices, by a process of assimilation,reflecting a Behavioral prioritization ; in associations that regroup professional performers, few artists with unconventionalbody types are emphasized by their Creative corporal dissimilarity ; only one among all organizations studied offers anoriginal pattern of participation, where people with all types of abilities and disabilities are united in inclusive practices, bythe virtue of a creative mosaic.Contemporary circus has established specialized programs that reproduce the segregation utilized in the medicosocialand psychiatric sectors. It proposes a simulated integration aimed to the world outside of the disability, whileestablishing a distancing of the difference. Recurrent highlighting of artists with physical disabilities that creatively usestheir corporal differences and demonstrates exceptional body control masks this participation in the process of segregation.A single organization combines inclusive practices and affirmatively rejects its own institutionalization. For others,neither association status nor the posture of marginality produces original forms of participation for people withdisabilities.Norm is polarized: “Negative” marginality of the “disabled” – those that have a lack of behavioral control – isframed by a global care, while the “positive” marginality of corporal differences is framed as a fine art piece by spectacularstaging, the symbol of the renewed marginality of the contemporary circus.

Dans cette thèse nous étudions la problématique de l'association dans les réseaux Wi-Fi. Nous proposons des solutions qui permettent à un contrôleur d'optimiser et de gérer d'une manière centralisée les opérations d'association et de réassociation. L'association est exprimée sous forme de problèmes d'optimisations combinatoires. Les modèles proposés tiennent compte des interférences entre les APs et sont conformes avec la méthode d'accès DCF du standard IEEE 802.11. Dans le premier modèle proposé nous avons considéré le cas d'un réseau saturé dans lequel on suppose que chaque AP dispose en permanence de trames à transmettre. Dans ce modèle, nous avons supposé que toutes les stations d'un même AP ont des chances de transmission équivalentes autrement dit le même nombre d'accès au medium. La fonction objectif proposée offre un bon compromis entre l'amélioration du débit des stations et l'équité. Les résultats numériques obtenus sur des simulations réalistes ont montré l'efficacité de cette solution et présentent une amélioration significative des performances du WLAN par rapport à une association basée sur la valeur du RSSI ou par rapport aux approches existantes. Par la suite, étant donné que l'hypothèse d'un réseau tout le temps saturé n'est pas très réaliste, nous avons proposé une solution qui s'appuie sur des mesures réelles telles que les demandes de débit des stations et les taux d'erreur. Notre solution cherche à équilibrer la charge entre les APs. Plus précisément, nous cherchons à diminuer la charge de l'AP le plus chargé dans le WLAN. Pour évaluer cette charge, nous avons proposé un modèle mathématique qui permet d'estimer le BTF « Busy Time Fraction » d'un AP dans n'importe quelle configuration (schéma d'association). Ce modèle est basé sur un réseau de Markov. Le modèle associé au problème d'optimisation permet de proposer la meilleure association. L'évaluation de cette solution par simulation a montré à quel point notre estimation du BTF est précise, et a aussi montré sa capacité à équilibrer la charge entre les APs et à satisfaire la demande en débit des stations. Pour généraliser cette solution aux nouvelles versions du standard IEEE 802.11 comme 802.11n/ac, nous avons adapté le modèle d'estimation du BTF pour qu'il tienne compte des nouvelles améliorations apportées par les couches physiques et MAC du Wi-Fi telles que l'agrégation des canaux, l'agrégation des trames et le bloc d'acquittement. Ainsi, nous avons proposé une nouvelle métrique qui permet d'exprimer à la fois le BTF d'un AP et les taux d'agrégation de trames de chacune de ces stations. L'évaluation numérique de cette solution a montré l'avantage de la nouvelle métrique par rapport au BTF pour améliorer le débit des stations et l'équilibrage de charge dans le WLAN. Il est à noter que, pour la résolution des problèmes d'optimisation combinatoire formulés dans cette thèse, nous avons utilisé des heuristiques de recherche locale itérative. Ces heuristiques sont basées sur une même structure de voisinage, mais les procédures de recherches sont différentes selon la fonction objectif de chaque modèle. Ce choix est justifié par l'efficacité de la recherche locale à fournir des solutions acceptables dans un temps raisonnable pour des problèmes d'optimisation combinatoire complexes / In this thesis we study the problem of association in Wi-Fi networks. We propose solutions that allow a controller to optimize and manage in a centralized way the operations of association and reassociation. Association is expressed as combinatorial optimization problems. The proposed models consider interference between APs and are compliant with the DCF access method of the IEEE 802.11 standard. In the first model proposed we considered the case of a saturated network in which it is assumed that each AP permanently has frames to transmit. In this model, we have assumed that all the stations of the same AP have equivalent chances of transmission, ie the same number of accesses to the medium. The proposed objective function offers a good compromise between improving station throughput and equity. The numerical results obtained on realistic simulations have shown the effectiveness of this solution and show a significant improvement in WLAN performance compared to an association based on the value of the RSSI or compared to existing approaches. Subsequently, since the hypothesis of a saturated network all the time is not very realistic, we have proposed a solution that relies on real measurements such as station throughput requests and the error rates. Our solution seeks to balance the load between APs. Specifically, we seek to reduce the load of the most heavily loaded AP in the WLAN. To evaluate this load, we have proposed a mathematical model that allows to estimate the BTF "Busy Time Fraction" of an AP in any configuration (association scheme). This model is based on a Markov network. The model combined with the optimization problem allows to propose the best association. The evaluation of this solution by simulation has shown how accurate our BTF estimation, and has also shown its ability to balance the load between APs and satisfy the station throughput demands. To generalize this solution to the new versions of the IEEE 802.11 standard such as 802.11n/ac, we adapted the BTF estimation model to take into account the new improvements made by Wi-Fi on physical and MAC layers such as channel aggregation, frame aggregation and block acknowledgment. Thus, we have proposed a new metric that allows to express both the BTF of an AP and the frame aggregation rates of each of its stations. The numerical evaluation of this solution showed the advantage of the new metric compared to the BTF to improve the station throughputs and load balancing in the WLAN. It should be noted that, for the resolution of the combinatorial optimization problems formulated in this thesis, we used iterative local search heuristics. These heuristics are based on the same neighborhood structure, but the search procedures are different depending on the objective function of each model. This choice is justified by the effectiveness of local research in providing acceptable solutions in a reasonable time for complex combinatorial optimization problems

We introduce an algorithm for mining expressive temporal relationships from complex data. Our algorithm, AprioriSetsAndSequences (ASAS), extends the Apriori algorithm to data sets in which a single data instance may consist of a combination of attribute values that are nominal sequences, time series, sets, and traditional relational values. Datasets of this type occur naturally in many domains including health care, financial analysis, complex system diagnostics, and domains in which multi-sensors are used. AprioriSetsAndSequences identifies predefined events of interest in the sequential data attributes. It then mines for association rules that make explicit all frequent temporal relationships among the occurrences of those events and relationships of those events and other data attributes. Our algorithm inherently handles different levels of time granularity in the same data set. We have implemented AprioriSetsAndSequences within the Weka environment and have applied it to computer performance, stock market, and clinical sleep disorder data. We show that AprioriSetsAndSequences produces rules that express significant temporal relationships that describe patterns of behavior observed in the data set.

Le sport, objet de la modernité, existe sous une forme communautaire chez les populations immigrées installées dans la Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux (CUB) depuis les années 30. Dans cette même région, au sein de la population marocaine, la pratique sportive associative s’observe dès la fin des années 70, avec la création d’équipes de football liées à la volonté politique de la part du gouvernement marocain de surveiller ses migrants pensés comme pendulaires. On assiste alors à l’émergence d’un conglomérat d’équipes de football très fermées qui ne survivent que quelques années. Au début des années 90, les premières associations étudiantes culturelles marocaines voient dans la pratique sportive un outil pour attirer et souder la communauté étudiante marocaine. En même temps, dans la commune de Pessac, le club de l’USSAP Boxe est créé par des Marocains, responsables d’une association culturelle dédiée aux musiques du Maghreb. Le club de boxe devient alors un espace où les logiques sociétaires prennent le pas sur les logiques communautaires et où l’excellence sportive semble être le moteur principal. Les tissus associatifs marocains se constituent donc sous forme de constellations dans la CUB et illustrent le rôle parfois complexe joué par les cultures sportives pour les populations immigrées. Par le biais de la frontière comme objet heuristique, une comparaison entre les associationnismes portugais et marocains met en avant la disparition progressive des logiques communautaires dans les associations sportives au profit de la modernité sportive qui recherche l’excellence et qui oblige ces clubs à s’ouvrir et perdre leur valence communautaire. Du côté des pratiques plus traditionnelles, on constate l’absence de culture physique chez les Marocains là où les danses traditionnelles portugaises contribuent à construire des espaces d’entre-soi fermés. / Sport, object of modernity, exists in a communal form in immigrant populations settled in the Bordeaux Urban Community (Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux - CUB) since the 1930s. Within the Moroccan population in the same region, associative sport was observed in the late 1970s with the creation of football teams related to political will on the part of the Moroccan government to monitor its emigrants who might return to Morocco. This resulted in the emergence of a conglomerate of ‘closed’ football teams that survived only a few years. In the early 1990s, the first Moroccan student cultural associations saw in sport a tool to attract and unite the Moroccan student community. Meanwhile, in the commune of Pessac, the USSAP Boxing Club was created by Moroccans responsible for a cultural association dedicated to the music of the Maghreb. The boxing club became a space where the vision of its members was overriding the opinion of the community and where sporting excellence seemed to be the driving force. Therefore the Moroccan associative networks were formed as constellations within the Bordeaux Urban Community and illustrated the sometimes complex role that sports cultures played amongst the immigrant populations. Through boundary as a heuristic object, a comparison between the Portuguese and Moroccan associate activity highlights the gradual disappearance of communal visions in sports associations for the benefit of modernity of sport, seeking excellence and at the same time forcing the clubs to open up and therefore reduce their alterity.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University