The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ motivational beliefs for involvement in a Comprehensive School Health approach (locally called Healthy Active Schools, or HAS) at their child’s school. Literature suggests that parents’ role construction and parents’ self-efficacy are the most salient influences on parents’ decision to become involved at their child’s school. Twelve parents involved at two urban public elementary schools were interviewed. Questions were based on Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement (1995, 1997, 2005c). Qualitative multiple case study analysis additionally utilized Penner’s (2002) model of sustained volunteerism and Bandura’s collective efficacy theory (1997, 2000; Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2004) to clarify findings. Results suggest most parents’ strong active role construction and negative valence grounded their parent-focused role orientation. School case study analysis revealed that the principal’s leadership, the structure of the HAS committee and the school’s climate uniquely influenced parents’ beliefs. Individual parent case analysis revealed four distinct patterns of parents’ motivational beliefs for HAS involvement. Future research is warranted to further examine the decisive impact of parents’ health and prosocial values on their decision to become involved specific to a CSH approach type of involvement. Additional case studies in local schools, school districts and provinces are recommended to illuminate unique contextual influences and the potential for the emergence of collective efficacy; including consideration for parents’ belief construct general invitations from the school would contribute to gaining a deeper understanding within this domain. Finally, the link between parents’ motivational beliefs of empowerment and their sustained motivation for involvement needs to be explored further.

Reform initiatives in education since the introduction of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) call for all educators to develop strategies to increase student achievement and improve school climate. School counselors are charged by their professional organizations to act as agents of change in their schools and to demonstrate the effectiveness of their programs. To garner support for school counseling programs that cultivate positive results for students and schools, school counselors need to adopt a leadership mindset. The purpose of this exploratory study was to assess leadership practices of school counselors, and to analyze the relationships between demographics, experience, training, work setting, school counseling program implementation and leadership practices. This study addresses the need for understanding the way school counselor leadership promotes school counseling programs that contribute to positive student outcomes. Participants in this study were recruited through convenience sampling from a state school counseling association and completed a research packet including a demographic survey and two instruments, The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), Self Instrument, 3rd edition by Kouzes and Posner (2003) and The School Counseling Program Implementation Scale (SCPIS) by Carey & Elsner (2006). Correlation analyses were used to describe relationships of demographic, training and work setting variables with leadership practices and program implementation. Analysis of variance examined mean differences and regression analyses assessed predictive qualities of identified relationships between the independent and dependent variables. Variables of age, experience, preparation and school setting were correlated with leadership practices and program implementation. Age, experience, size of school population and professional licensure predicted leader¬ship practices of school counselors. Experience predicted comprehensive program implementation. Results revealed statistically significant positive relationships between school counselor leadership practices and comprehensive program implementation. Model the Way (MTW) and Enable Others to Act (EOA) leadership practices predicted the level of school counseling program implementation.

Sexuality education continues to be an extremely emotional and polarizing issue in the United States. The U.S. leads developed countries with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STI acquisition, as well as teenage abortions. Additionally, costs to society are tremendous—experts estimate unplanned pregnancy costs the federal government up to $12 billion annually. Now more than ever, there is a dire need for medically accurate, high-quality sex education in this country. This thesis explores the history of sexuality education policy in the United States, as well as recent legal developments. It highlights the arguments of those in favor of comprehensive as well as abstinence-only education. Finally, it discusses the pertinent needs of society today, parents' opinions regarding the topic and the risky behavior trends of adolescents. Based on numerous academic studies regarding different curricula types, as well as adolescent behavior, it makes broad policy recommendations to decrease unintended pregnancy and STI acquisition in the U.S.

The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ motivational beliefs for involvement in a Comprehensive School Health approach (locally called Healthy Active Schools, or HAS) at their child’s school. Literature suggests that parents’ role construction and parents’ self-efficacy are the most salient influences on parents’ decision to become involved at their child’s school. Twelve parents involved at two urban public elementary schools were interviewed. Questions were based on Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement (1995, 1997, 2005c). Qualitative multiple case study analysis additionally utilized Penner’s (2002) model of sustained volunteerism and Bandura’s collective efficacy theory (1997, 2000; Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2004) to clarify findings. Results suggest most parents’ strong active role construction and negative valence grounded their parent-focused role orientation. School case study analysis revealed that the principal’s leadership, the structure of the HAS committee and the school’s climate uniquely influenced parents’ beliefs. Individual parent case analysis revealed four distinct patterns of parents’ motivational beliefs for HAS involvement. Future research is warranted to further examine the decisive impact of parents’ health and prosocial values on their decision to become involved specific to a CSH approach type of involvement. Additional case studies in local schools, school districts and provinces are recommended to illuminate unique contextual influences and the potential for the emergence of collective efficacy; including consideration for parents’ belief construct general invitations from the school would contribute to gaining a deeper understanding within this domain. Finally, the link between parents’ motivational beliefs of empowerment and their sustained motivation for involvement needs to be explored further.

The biggest limitation to conventional gas chromatography (GC) is limited peak capacity, making the analysis of complex mixtures a difficult or even impossible task. Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) significantly increases peak capacity and resolution, improves sensitivity and generates structured 3D chromatograms. This is achieved by connecting two columns coated with different stationary phases through a special interface (modulator). The interface samples the first column effluent and periodically injects fractions of this material, as narrow injection pulses, onto the second column for further separation. Commercial instruments achieve this with cryogenic agents. Since this expensive approach permits only in-laboratory analysis, the development of simple, economical and field-capable GC×GC systems is in demand. This report summarizes the fundamentals governing GC×GC separations and a brief history of technological advances in the field. It also documents the construction of a simple interface, devoid of moving parts and cryogenic consumables, and hence highly suitable for field analysis and monitoring applications. Evaluation of the interface suggests on-par performance with more complicated cryogenic modulators. GC×GC separations of technical mixtures of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), common environmental pollutants (EPA 8270), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides (toxaphene), as well as selected essential oils and major distillation fractions of crude oil indicate very good performance. Most notably, the interface prototype was applied for the first ever time-resolved on-site analysis of the semivolatile organic fraction of urban air particulate matter (PM2.5).

The biggest limitation to conventional gas chromatography (GC) is limited peak capacity, making the analysis of complex mixtures a difficult or even impossible task. Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) significantly increases peak capacity and resolution, improves sensitivity and generates structured 3D chromatograms. This is achieved by connecting two columns coated with different stationary phases through a special interface (modulator). The interface samples the first column effluent and periodically injects fractions of this material, as narrow injection pulses, onto the second column for further separation. Commercial instruments achieve this with cryogenic agents. Since this expensive approach permits only in-laboratory analysis, the development of simple, economical and field-capable GC×GC systems is in demand. This report summarizes the fundamentals governing GC×GC separations and a brief history of technological advances in the field. It also documents the construction of a simple interface, devoid of moving parts and cryogenic consumables, and hence highly suitable for field analysis and monitoring applications. Evaluation of the interface suggests on-par performance with more complicated cryogenic modulators. GC×GC separations of technical mixtures of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), common environmental pollutants (EPA 8270), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides (toxaphene), as well as selected essential oils and major distillation fractions of crude oil indicate very good performance. Most notably, the interface prototype was applied for the first ever time-resolved on-site analysis of the semivolatile organic fraction of urban air particulate matter (PM2.5).

Planning researchers believe that property losses from natural hazards, such as floods can be reduced if governments address this issue and adopt appropriate policies in their plans. However, little empirical research has examined the relationship between plan quality and actual property loss from floods. My research addresses this critical gap in the planning and hazard research literature by evaluating the effectiveness of current plans and policies in mitigating property damage from floods. Specifically, this study: 1) assesses the extent to which local comprehensive plans integrate flood mitigation policies in Florida; and 2) it examines the impact of the quality of flood mitigation policies on actual insured flood damages. Study results show that fifty-three local plans in the sample received a mean score for total flood mitigation policy quality of 38.55, which represents 35.69% of the total possible points. These findings indicate that there is still considerable room for improvement by local governments on flooding issues. The scores of local plans varied widely, with coastal communities receiving significantly higher scores than non-coastal communities. While most communities adopted land use management tools, such as permitted land use and wetland permits as primary flood mitigation tools, incentive based tools/taxing tools and acquisition tools were rarely adopted. This study also finds that plan quality associated with flood mitigation policy had little discernible effect on reducing insured flood damage while controlling for biophysical, built environment and socio-economic variables. This result counters the assumption inherent in previous plan quality research that better plans mitigate the adverse effects associated with floods and other natural hazards. There are some possible explanations for this result in terms of plan implementation, land use management paradox and characteristics of insurance policies. The statistical analysis also suggests that insured flood loss is considerably affected by wetland alteration and a community's location on the coast. Another finding indicates that very strong leadership and dam construction are factors in mitigating flood loss.

Conventional wisdom believes that customer satistaction has a positive effect on profitability, normally measured in such terms as return on assets(ROA). It is not, however, clear whether customer satisfaction has a current effect or lagged effect on profitability¡Xan issue of importance but largely neglected. I fill the void by examining how current current and past customer satisfaction performance affects corporate value(China automobile industry). In addition, comprehensive income and investment capital are also important causes to corporate value. As a result, I take comprehensive income, investment capital and current and past customer satisfaction performance into account to see the relationship with corporate value. Results show that current customer performance bears no relationship to corporate value while past customer performance is a positive effect on corporate value. Comprehensive income, investment capital also have positive effect on corporate value. That is, customer satisfaction performance has a lagged effect on corporate value

Taiwan has enforced the educational reforms since the academic year of 1994. One of the policies is expand the chance for further education by means of increasing the senior high schools and launching the comprehensive high schools. From academic year of 2001, the policy of high school integrating with local community was undertaken, the core objectives are balancing the gaps between the urban and country districts and promoting the educational quality of the general and vocational high schools. Therefore the government encouraged the students attend the nearby schools to save the social costs and set up the fundamental for the 12-Year Compulsory Education. The enrolment rate of the junior student graduates have been over 96% in the recent years. If the student has the will for further education, the chance is almost 100%. However, the pressure of enrolment has never eased off or calmed down. Because the pursuits for the ¡§elite school¡¨ have never faded off among the mind of the general public. The expectation for entering the ¡§elite senior high school¡¨ for the students and their parents is to seek a better opportunity for superior social class. They do not understand the objectives of diversified social values and hindered the students to seek for their best development by their talent and orientation. Even thought, can the ¡§elite senior high school¡¨ guarantee a ticket to the higher education? The study focus on the junior high school graduates with the same score level of the basic competence test comparing the differences on their academic performances, motives for further education and their reception of education according their different choice of attending schools 3 years after the graduation. The major findings are as listed below: 1. The students who chose the nearby schools they have better grades for the Academic Attainment Testing for university than the students who attend the schools located on different districts. 2. Most of the senior high school students choose their attending school on the preferences of the conventional social values (according the traditional ranking of high schools). The second consideration is the traffic, the reputation of school and the faculties. The incentive of high scholarship is the latest consideration of choosing school. The key for the student chose to attend the schools nearby is on the schools¡¦ high quality educational environment and their good tradition and the word- of- mouth reputation. 3. Most of the students¡¦ satisfaction for the attending schools lied on the ¡§non-academic performance¡¨ and the second lied on the ¡§teacher¡¦s caring on students¡¨ and ¡§good school reputation and tradition¡¨. The least items lies on ¡§high scholarship¡¨ and the ¡§academic performance¡¨. The study concluded with some suggestions on the enforcements of the ¡§academic district allocation¡¨ and ¡§nearby school enrollment¡¨ for the 12-Year Compulsory Education. Key words: nearby school enrollment; cross academic district enrollment; comprehensive high school

Mitt syfte var att undersöka hur risken för översvämningar påverkar den fysiska planeringen generellt, samt att göra en fallstudie angående översvämningsrisker i Karlstad och hur dessa påverkar kommunens tillväxtvision ”Karlstad 100 000”. Undersökningen har främst gjorts genom litteraturstudier och granskningar av olika utredningar och utvecklingsdokument. Sverige har under de senaste åren drabbats av flera, både större och mindre, översvämningar av områden nära sjöar och vattendrag, vilka har resulterat i allvarliga miljökonsekvenser, ekonomiska förluster samt svåra skador på infrastruktur och andra samhällsfunktioner. Och klimatförändringarna förväntas förvärra problemen ytterligare. Samhällets sårbarhet inför översvämningar beror på hur stor klimatförändringen blir, men även på hur stor hänsyn som tagits till riskerna i utformningen av den fysiska planeringen. Många av de problem som uppstod under tidigare höga flöden skulle ha kunnat lösas om vattendragets avbördningskapacitet varit bättre och bebyggelse och annan infrastruktur planerats med hänsyn till höga flöden och översvämningsrisker. Kommunerna har till följd av sitt planmonopol det största inflytandet över hur den fysiska planeringen utformas, och därmed ligger en stor del av ansvaret för anpassningsarbetet på dem. Men arbetet med att anpassa den bebyggda miljön till översvämningsrisker hamnar ofta på kollisionskurs med ekonomiska intressen i kommunerna, exempelvis vattennära bostadsbebyggelse, vilket innebär en risk för att de nödvändiga åtgärderna inte vidtas. Osäkra och motstridiga faktaunderlag, kortsiktigt tänkande i planeringsarbetet samt en tydlig tendens av urbanisering som innebär en ökad sårbarhet för naturrisker är andra faktorer som försvårar anpassningsarbetet. Karlstad är en av de städer som hotas av översvämningar när klimatet förändras. Närheten till Vänern samt det faktum att Klarälven rinner genom staden gör den sårbar för höga flöden. Detta skapar problem för kommunen i arbetet med den fysiska planeringen och ”Karlstad 100 000”. Kommunen har byggt en stor del av sin marknadsföring på just närheten till vatten och möjligheter till vattennära boende för att locka nya invånare till Karlstad. De anser att kunskapsunderlaget är alltför osäkert, och väljer därför att inte ta hänsyn till rekommendationerna om att inte placera nybyggnationer på översvämningshotad mark. Istället har man valt att undersöka en rad tekniska lösningar, som är betydligt kortsiktigare och även mycket kostsamma. De kortsiktiga ekonomiska vinsterna drar alltså det längsta strået i avvägningen mellan risker och ekonomiska intressen. / The purpose of the essay was to study how flooding risks affects the physical planning generally, and also to do a case study regarding flooding risks in Karlstad and how these affect the municipality vision of growth: “Karlstad 100 000”. The study has mainly been made through literature studies and scrutinises of various investigations and development plans. During recent years Sweden has been struck by several, both severe and minor, floods of areas related to seas and watercourses, which has resulted in serious environmental consequences, economic loss and severe damage to infrastructure and other societal functions. And now, climate change is expected to make the problems even worse. The vulnerability of society regarding floods is dependent on how severe the change is going to be, but also on how much consideration is taken to risks in the shaping of physical planning. Many of the problems revealed during earlier high flows could have been solved if the unburden capacity of the watercourse had been better and if buildings and other infrastructure had been planned in consideration of high flows and flooding risks. The municipalities has, in consequence of their planning monopoly, the greatest influence on the shaping of physical planning, hence a large part of the responsibility for the mitigation work is on them. But mitigating the built environment to flooding risks often collide with economic interest in the municipalities, for example building houses in close proximity to water, which denotes the risk that the necessary measures wont be taken. Unsure and contradictory information, short-term thinking in planning and an obvious tendency for urbanisation leading to an increased vulnerability for nature risks are other factors that complicates the mitigation work. Karlstad is one of the cities threatened by floods when the climate is changing. The close proximity to Vänern and the fact that Klarälven runs through the city makes it vulnerable to high flows. This creates a problem for the municipality regarding the work with physical planning and “Karlstad 100 000”. The municipality has based a large part of it’s marketing on the close proximity to the water and the possibility for estuaries next to water in order to attract new inhabitants to Karlstad. They argue that the state of knowledge is to uncertain, and thereby choose not to incorporate the recommendations regarding no new buildings on land threatened by floods. Instead, the municipality has chosen to investigate technical solutions to the problem, which could be considered a far more short term and also very expensive way of dealing with the problem. Thus, the short term economic profits seem to get the upper hand in the weighing between risks and economic interests.