An intensive case study design was utilized, integrating data from the application of Q-technique and subject interviews, to examine the meaning of career change from a family perspective. Ten subjects, identified through an informal network of referrals, were selected as diverse examples of career changers (6 men, 4 women). Subjects Q-sorted 46 items drawn from Holland's (1966) typology of personalities for 19 to 23 Salient Role Figures identified from three domains of dramatic enactment: Family, Self, and Vocation. Q-sort results for each subject were developed into a correlation matrix, then submitted to a principal components analysis. Results were analyzed to identify shifts or maintenance of themes and role enactments as indications of lived-out dramas. The empirical findings and suggested themes were presented to each subject to stimulate subject elaboration. Quantitative and qualitative data were synthesized to develop portraits pointing to the meaning of career change for each subject. Results support previous research that suggests individuals displace role enactments from family-of-origin onto the vocational arena. This study also provides support for the thesis that the phenomenon of role displacement from the family to vocational arenas occurs across differing vocational contexts. Additionally, while the meaning of career change as reflected in patterns of dramatic enactment appears idiosyncratic, the shifts in role displacement from family-of-origin to vocational arena appear to virtually define the subject's sense of the meaning of the career change itself. Thus, when viewed in the context of the individual's life as it is lived out, there appears to be regularity in the meaning of career change. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This series of studies evaluates the ability of global climate models (GCMs) to simulate the observed relationship between the upper limit of tropical cyclone (TC) intensity and sea surface temperature (SST). Previous studies addressed whether GCMs are capable of reproducing observed TC frequency and intensity distributions. This research builds upon these earlier studies by examining how well GCMs capture physically relevant relationships that are important for understanding the impacts of climate change on TC intensity. The research presented here aims to 1) quantify differences between the observed and simulated sensitivity of TC limiting intensity to SST, and 2) explore possible explanations for any differences that exist. Observed TC data are compared to simulated TCs from four different GCMs---the FSU-COAPS, GFDL-HiRAM, MRI-AGCM, and NCAR-CAM. Model horizontal grid spacing ranges from ~100 km for the FSU-COAPS to ~20 km for the MRI-AGCM. An additional comparison is made for TCs generated through a statistical-deterministic downscaling technique. This research uses a spatial tessellation approach that spatially bins North Atlantic TC and SST data into equal-area hexagon regions. For each region, the statistical upper limit of observed and simulated TC intensity (i.e., limiting intensity) is estimated using extreme value theory. For comparison with the statistical limiting intensity, reanalysis and model field data are employed to approximate observed and simulated potential intensity, respectively. Results reveal that the current suite of GCMs do not capture the observed sensitivity of TC limiting intensity to SST. While a 1° C increase in SST corresponds to a 7.9 +/- 1.19 m/s increase in observed limiting intensity, the same 1° C increase in SST is not associated with a statistically significant increase in simulated TC limiting intensity. This is found to be true both for relatively coarse resolution GCMs that do not generate TCs with intensities exceeding 50 m/s as well as for higher resolution GCMs that are capable of simulating Category 5 hurricanes. Rather than SST, it is found that simulated TC limiting intensity is highly sensitive to 700--400 hPa relative humidity. Conversely, relative humidity does not describe any of the residual variance in observed TC limiting intensity. Therefore, this research suggests that even if a model is able to resolve realistically strong TCs, those simulated TCs may not be governed by the same thermodynamic principles as those that we observe. Although GCMs do not capture the observed sensitivity of limiting intensity to SST, it is shown that the FSU-COAPS model capably reproduces the observed sensitivity of potential intensity to SST. The model generates a thermodynamic environment suitable for the development of strong TCs over the correct portions of the basin, however strong simulated TCs do not develop. This result strongly supports the notion that direct simulation of TC eyewall convection is necessary to accurately represent TC intensity and intensification processes in climate models. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2015. / February 27, 2015. / Global climate models, Tropical cyclones / Includes bibliographical references. / James B. Elsner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Henry Fuelberg, University Representative; Chris Uejio, Committee Member; Tingting Zhao, Committee Member.

Violent tropical cyclones (TCs) continue to inflict serious impacts on national economies and welfare, but how they are responding to global warming has not been fully clarified. Here I construct an empirical framework that shows the observations supporting a strong link between rising global ocean warmth and increasing trade-off between TC intensity and frequency in the western North Pacific. Thermodynamic structure of the tropical western North Pacific with high global ocean warmth is characterized by convectively more unstable lower troposphere with greater heat and moisture, but this instability is simultaneously accompanied by anomalous high pressure in the middle and upper troposphere over the same region. Increasing trade-off level between TC intensity and frequency in a warmer year proves that this environment further inhibits the TC occurrences over the region, but TCs that form tend to discharge stored energy to upper troposphere with stronger intensities. By increasing the intensity threshold at higher levels we confirmed that the TC climate connection with global ocean warmth occurs throughout the strongest portion of TCs, and the environmental connection of the TC climate is more conspicuous in the extreme portion of TCs. Intensities at the strongest 10~% of the western North Pacific TCs are comparable to super typhoons on average, the increasing trade-off magnitude clearly suggests that super typhoons in a warmer year gets stronger. Conclusively, the negative collinear feature of the thermodynamics influences the portion of TCs at the highest intensities, and super typhoons are likely to become stronger at the expense of overall TC frequencies in a warmer world. The consequence of this finding is that record-breaking TC intensities occur at the expense of overall TC frequencies under global warming. TC activity is understood as a variation which is independent of global warming, and could be assumed to be an internal variability having no trend. Frequency variation and super typhoon intensity variation are regarded as the addition of global warming influence on TC activity variation. The structure depicts how a previous intensity record is overtaken and frequency falls continuously in the global warming environment in a linear perspective. A peak TC activity year when global ocean warmth is the highest ever is likely to experience a record-breaking intensity. In the same way, the least number of annual TCs may appear when a lull of TC activity occurs in the warmest year. / A Dissertation submitted to the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / August 25, 2014. / efficiency of intensity, global warming, super typhoon, Tropical cyclone climate / Includes bibliographical references. / James B. Elsner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert Hart, University Representative; Kevin Speer, Committee Member; Mark Bourassa, Committee Member.

Elevated and prolonged exposure to extreme heat is an important cause of excess summertime mortality and morbidity. To protect people from health threats, some governments are currently operating syndromic surveillance systems. However, a lack of resources to support time- and labor- intensive diagnostic and reporting processes make it difficult establishing region-specific surveillance systems. Big data created by social media and web search may improve upon the current syndromic surveillance systems by directly capturing people’s individual and subjective thoughts and feelings during heat waves. The primary objectives of the dissertation are to improve existing heat wave and health surveillance systems by testing current heat exposure metrics, checking system improvements with social media/web search data, and studying differential vulnerability to extreme heat exposure. In order to conduct the research, this dissertation employed two popular statistical techniques: time series and case-crossover analysis. Chapter 2 examines the relationship between the count of heat-related tweets and heat exposure. For this, I collected Twitter data focusing on six different heat-related themes (air conditioning, cooling center, dehydration, electrical outage, energy assistance, and heat) for 182 days from May 7 to November 3, 2014. First, exploratory linear regression associated outdoor heat exposure to the theme-specific tweet counts for five study cities (Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta). Next, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) time series models formally associated heat exposure to the combined count of heat and air conditioning tweets while controlling for temporal autocorrelation. Finally, I examined the spatial and temporal distribution of energy assistance and cooling center tweets. The result indicates that the number of tweets in most themes exhibited a significant positive relationship with maximum temperature. The ARIMA model results suggest that each city shows a slightly different relationship between heat exposure and the tweet count. A one-degree change in the temperature correspondingly increased the Box-Cox transformed tweets by 0.09 for Atlanta, 0.07 for Los Angeles, and 0.01 for New York City. The energy assistance and cooling center theme tweets suggest that only a few municipalities used Twitter for public service announcements. The timing of the energy assistance tweets also indicates that most jurisdictions provide heating instead of cooling energy assistance. Chapter 3 aims to investigate the relationship between heat-related web searches, social media messages, and heat-related health outcomes. I collected Twitter messages that mentioned “air conditioning (AC)” and “heat” and Google search data that included weather, medical, recreational, and adaptation information from May 7 to November 3, 2014, focusing on the state of Florida, U.S. I separately associated web data against two different sources of health outcomes (emergency department (ED) and hospital admissions) and five disease categories (cardiovascular disease, dehydration, heat-related illness, renal disease, and respiratory disease). Seasonal and subseasonal temporal cycles were controlled using autoregressive moving average-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARMA-GARCH) and generalized linear model (GLM). The results show that the number of heat-related illness and dehydration cases exhibited a significant positive relationship with web data. Specifically, heat-related illness cases showed positive associations with messages (heat, AC) and web searches (drink, heat stroke, park, swim, and tired). In addition, terms such as park, pool, swim, and water tended to show a consistent positive relationship with dehydration cases. However, I found inconsistent relationships between renal illness and web data. Web data also did not improve the models for cardiovascular and respiratory illness cases. These findings suggest web data created by social medias and search engines could improve the current syndromic surveillance systems. In particular, heat-related illness and dehydration cases were positively related with web data. This study also shows that activity patterns for reducing heat stress are associated with several health outcomes. Chapter 2 and chapter 3 suggest that web data could benefit both regions without the systems and persistently hot and humid climates where excess heat early warning systems may be less effective. Chapter 4 investigates whether there is a difference between five different types of heat sensitive health outcomes (cardiovascular disease, dehydration, heat-related illness, renal disease, and respiratory disease) between undocumented immigrants and US citizens. This study also examines if the impact of heat exposure on health by citizenship status is further modified by sex, age, or race/ethnicity. I conducted a case-crossover analysis to assess different heat-related health impact by citizenships, focusing on the warm season (May through September) from 2008 to 2012 in Florida. I reported separate case-crossover models for each health outcome and type of healthcare visit (emergency department, hospitalization). I stratified the data by immigration status and then added interaction terms to understand the impact of sex, age, or race/ethnicity. For both groups, higher temperature raised the risk of all heat-related health outcomes and healthcare visits. This analysis suggest undocumented people (ED: 1.127, 95 % CI: 1.056 ~ 1.204; hospitalization: 1.061, 95 % CI: 1.046 ~ 1.076) have moderately higher renal disease ORs than US citizens (ED: 1.069, 95 % CI: 1.059 ~ 1.078; hospitalization: 1.051, 95 % CI: 1.049 ~ 1.053). In addition, male US citizens had significantly higher ORs than female citizens for both ED (male: 1.080, 95 % CI: 1.076 ~ 1.085; female: 1.060, 95 % CI: 1.056 ~ 1.064) and hospitalization (male: 1.063, 95 % CI: 1.060 ~ 1.066; female: 1.054, 95 % CI: 1.052 ~ 1.057). This study documents some heat and health inequalities between US citizens and undocumented immigrants. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / 2019 / November 1, 2019. / Google search, Health, Heat wave, Surveillance system, Twitter, Undocumented immigrants / Includes bibliographical references. / Christopher K. Uejio, Professor Directing Dissertation; Yiyuan She, University Representative; James B. Elsner, Committee Member; Sandy Wong, Committee Member.

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The question arises pertaining to the reasons behind the choice of making a career change into teaching. Men and women that have been working at their jobs in industry and business for years, quite efficient at the job that they do, make the life-changing, difficult choice to become teachers. The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of their previous mentoring experiences behind such conscious choices. In quantitative research, the researcher states a hypothesis early in the beginning chapters, laying the foundation for the results to be revealed in the ending chapters. However, in qualitative research there is no room for the researcher to show cause and effect, to prove or disprove a hypothesis. What the researcher does instead is he or she acts as the research instrument. This means that there is no third party or instrument between the researcher, the data or the assertion. The identification of these mentoring experiences, including actions, comments and examples demonstrate what a mentoring teacher does, says or exemplifies that shapes their students' decision to become teachers, whether directly into that degree or as a career transition later in life. Within the qualities, teaching methods and values discussed, overall they were positive. ·This common theme is what students should be advised before entering the teaching profession. The power of a positive experience for the student is what new teachers should learn and practice based on these responses. The general skills/teaching methods and values that a teacher demonstrates is what set them apart from other teachers as a "great teacher" and most importantly, a mentor.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science by Coursework and Research Report. Johannesburg 2014. / Climate change is an issue of global significance resulting in trans-boundary environmental and socio-economic impacts. South Africa is involved in the international efforts to address climate change, has accepted the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report and developed a National Climate Change Response Policy, listing the impacts of climate change on the sustainable development in South Africa. The main causes of climate change are Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), which have been emitted from different development activities over temporal and spatial scales. In order to reduce the emissions of GHGs and protect proposed development projects from climate change impacts, climate change mitigation and adaptation measures should be incorporated into Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This research aimed to describe climate change incorporation into the EIA legal regime and practice in South Africa, based on climate change impacts on sustainable development and the role of EIA in considering climate change. The methodology involved reviewing EIA regulations and related legislation, EIA case studies from Gauteng province conducted between 2010 and 2013, key informant interviews with Environmental Assessment Practitioners (EAPs), and discussion on the linkedin group of the International Association for Impact Assessment of South Africa (IAIAsa). The study concluded that climate change is not explicitly incorporated into the EIA regime, but it is implied in the EIA regulations and related legislation. Largely as a result of the lack of climate change incorporation in the EIA legal regime, climate change is not adequately considered in the EIA practice. In order to support the contribution of EIA to sustainable development in South Africa, It is recommended that climate change should be incorporated into EIA regulations in the next amendment of NEMA. This can be done through including listed activities that require climate change incorporation into the EIA based on type of an activity and/or specific receiving environments. It is also suggested that EIA guidelines for climate change consideration be developed. Further recommendations include supporting the role that Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Environmental Management Framework (EMF) play, in conjunction with the EIA, in considering climate change; increasing the availability of accurate, local climate change data and modelling technology; developing staff capacity and awareness about climate change, and building EAP’s ability to incorporate climate change in the EIA through the support of government related authorities and associations such as IAIAsa and EAPSA. Key words: climate change, EIA, mitigation, adaptation, EIA legal regime, EIA practice.

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Accurate forecasts of future regional temperature and rainfall patterns in many regions largely depend on characterizing anthropogenic trends in tropical Pacific climate. However, strong interannual to decadal-scale tropical Pacific climate variability, combined with sparse spatial and temporal coverage of instrumental climate datasets in this region, have obscured potential anthropogenic climate signals in the tropical Pacific. In this dissertation, I present sea-surface temperature (SST) and salinity proxy records that span over the 20th century using living corals from several islands in the central tropical Pacific. I reconstruct the SST proxy records via coral Sr/Ca, that are combined with coral oxygen isotopic (d18O) records to quantify changes in seawater d18O (hereafter d18Osw) as a proxy for salinity. Chapter 2 investigates the spatial and temporal character of SST and d18Osw-based salinity trends in the central tropical Pacific from 1972-1998, as revealed by corals from Palmyra (6ºN, 162ºW), Fanning (4ºN, 159ºW) and Christmas (2ºN, 157ºW) Islands. The late 20th century SST proxy records exhibit warming trends that are larger towards the equator, in line with a weakening of equatorial Pacific upwelling over this period. Freshening trends revealed by the salinity proxy records are larger at those sites most affected by the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), suggesting a strengthening and/or an equatorward shift of the ITCZ. Taken together, the late 20th century SST and salinity proxy records document warming and freshening trends that are consistent with a trend towards a weakened tropical Pacific zonal SST gradient under continued anthropogenic forcing. Chapter 3 characterizes the signatures of natural and anthropogenic variability in central tropical Pacific SST and d18Osw-based salinity over the course of 20th century using century-long coral proxy records from Palmyra. On interannual timescales, the SST proxy record from Palmyra tracks El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability. The salinity proxy record tracks eastern Pacific-centered ENSO events but is poorly correlated to central Pacific-centered ENSO events - the result of profound differences in precipitation and ocean advection that occur during the two types of ENSO. On decadal timescales, the coral SST proxy record is significantly correlated to the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO), suggesting that strong dynamical links exist between the central tropical Pacific and the North Pacific. The salinity proxy record is significantly correlated to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), but poorly correlated to the NPGO, suggesting that, as was the case with ENSO, these two modes of Pacific decadal climate variability have unique impacts on equatorial precipitation and ocean advection. However, the most striking feature of the salinity proxy record is a prominent late 20th century freshening trend that is likely related to anthropogenic climate change. Taken together, the coral data provide key constraints on tropical Pacific climate trends, and when used in combination with model simulations of 21st century climate, can be used to improve projections of regional climate in areas affected by tropical Pacific climate variability.