People throughout history have judged Public Relations critically. So, today, it is essential for PR professionals to know how the field is perceived. This research examines how college students in America and China perceive public relations. Four research questions were proposed to understand perception differences between the two countries, existing misconceptions against public relations, media influences and PR education. This study employed the survey method to find college students' perceptions of public relations in the U.S. and China. The study finds that college students believe that public relations practice is related to a broad range of specialized areas. Most of students view public relations as an important, ethical profession. However, some negative terms are still associated with public relations, such as "spin," that affect students' PR perceptions. In China, fewer students now relate public relations to the previously perceived escort service; and the Chinese cultural norm "guanxi" is considered to be an important element in PR practice. Comparative analyses show that American college students view public relations as a more positive, ethical, and well-developed profession than their Chinese counterparts do. Public relations, in Chinese students' mind, is far away from the well-developed stage. College students believe media, PR courses and internships influence their perceptions to a great extent. More Chinese students recognize the media impact, while more U.S. students value he education impact. This study affirms the importance and professionalism of public relations. At the same time, it provides crucial insights into the challenges that this field is facing in the two countries. No matter whether it is as a profession, or an academic discipline and a social contributor, public relations still needs to keep educating the public in the new decade ofthe 21st century.

No description available.

No description available.

Video game advertising is a major venue for game industry to promote its products. As a form of advertising, game advertising reflects national cultural values. It also manifests game cultural values which gamers are able to identify with. Millions of people, youth and children in particular, are being exposed to game advertising. Video game advertising may not only influence viewers' purchasing decisions, but has the potential to influence their attitudes and perceptions of important societal issues such as gender roles, violence and sex. However, few studies have examined the information content and messages of game advertising. The purpose of this study is to begin to fill the gap. This study examined the content of 1,021 print game advertisements in four popular game magazines published between December 2006 and May 2008 in China and the United States. The study was built on a variety of theoretical backgrounds and game studies. First, built on Resnik and Stern's (1977) classification of information cues and conceptual differences between advertising service and tangible products, the study found that Chinese game advertisements used more information cues than U.S game advertisements. Second, built on a variety of cross-cultural frameworks including Hofstede's ─ individualism vs. collectivism, Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's human and nature relationship and time orientation, the study found that that U.S. game advertisements used more individualistic appeals, manipulation-of-nature appeals and future-time-orientation appeals than Chinese game advertisements. It was found that Chinese game advertisements used more collectivistic appeals, oneness-with-nature appeals and past-time-orientation appeals than U.S. game advertisements. Third, the study, on the basis of synthesizing game literature, examined gender representation, sex and violence, and major game cultural values in Chinese and U.S. game ads. The study found that in both Chinese and U.S game advertisements, males were more likely to be featured (83.5% in U.S. ads and 55.9% in Chinese ads) as primary characters than females (12.4% in U.S. ads and 42% in Chinese ads). Female characters were sexualized when presented. The study also found 29.8% of Chinese advertisements contained sexual content and only 4% of U.S. game advertisements contained sexual content. It was found violent content was common in U.S. game advertisements and 61% of U.S. game advertisements contained violent content. U.S. game advertisements contained more violent words than Chinese game advertisements. The study examined three online game cultural characteristics reflected in game ads. Compared with U.S. ads, Chinese game advertisements used more character progression, virtual item accumulation and socialization appeals. Limitations of the study and directions for future study are discussed.

There is a growing interest in studying the influence of parental involvement on student achievement, as well as factors that influence parents' choices in being involved in their children's education. This study examined the relationships among socioeconomic status, parental involvement, and students' mathematics achievement in Jordan and the United States. It also investigated the reasons that motivate parental involvement in both Jordan and the United States. For data collection, a four-section instrument was distributed to parents/guardians of students in grades four, five, and six from Jordan and the United States in order to collect demographic information, socioeconomic status, parental involvement levels, mathematics achievement, and qualitative data about the nature of parental involvement and parents' reasons for being involved in their children's mathematical education. The study revealed no relationship between socioeconomic status and parental involvement in Jordan. In the United States, however, the study revealed a positive relationship between socio-economic status and parental involvement at home; only parents' education level had a statistically significant relationship with parental involvement at school. The study further revealed a positive relationship between parental involvement at home (PIH) and students' mathematics achievement (SMA) in both Jordan and the United States. Also, a positive relationship between parental involvement at school (PISC) and students' mathematics achievement (SMA) was observed in the Jordan sample. However, no relationship between PISC and SMA was found in the United States sample. Also, the findings revealed a positive correlation between SES and SMA for the United States sample. However, in the Jordan sample, a positive relationship existed between family income and SMA, and parents' education level and SMA, while no relationship was found between parents' employment status and SMA. Furthermore, the findings revealed a significant difference only between the correlation coefficients of PIH and SMA between Jordan and the United States. The findings of the qualitative data analysis did not particularly support the quantitative findings, but they did provide a clear understanding of parents' diverse reasons for why they chose to be involved in their children's education, such as social and economic gains for their children. It also showed what parents believed affected or influenced their ability or choices with regard to being involved in their children's education. In light of the findings, a number of recommendations were given for further research and practice, specifically with regard to curriculum development and the design of parent-school communication programs.

This dissertation explores multiple episodes of interaction between Ethiopians and Europeans throughout the early modern era. After overviewing the Ethiopian exploration of Europe in the 15th century and the first Catholic attempts to reconnect to the Ethiopian Church at the turn of the 16th century, it focuses on the Ethio-Lusophone encounter by considering the emergence of Ethiopian studies in early modern Lisbon, the Portuguese military intervention in the Ethiopian-Adal War (1529-1543) and the Jesuit mission to Ethiopia (1555-1632). This dissertation argues that in the context of the early-modern Ethio-European encounter, faith trumped skin color in the discourse on sameness and otherness: throughout the 15th and 16th centuries Europeans and Ethiopians perceived each other as belonging to the same Christian world and collaborated to defy the perceived Muslim threat. Starting in the late 16th century however, Counter-Reformation Catholicism and Jesuit proselytism transformed Ethiopians into others, and--in Ethiopian eyes--Europeans became a threat. The Jesuit mission engendered an era of turmoil that crippled both the Ethio-European encounter and the Ethiopian monarchy: in its aftermath, the Ethiopian elites maintained a policy of isolation from Europe, barred Europeans from entering their country and redirected their attention to the Muslim societies of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean basins. / History

It has been recognized that high quality communication is required to help improve shared decision making between clinicians and patients. This makes the role of the interpreter all the more important to help LEP, or emerging English speakers in mental health encounters. While there are many studies on the clinician and patient experiences in cross-cultural mental health encounters, there are only a few qualitative studies that look at the interpreter experiences in a mental health context. As mental health issues in LEP or emerging English speakers increase, there is a gap in the literature as to how to successfully improve the quality of care using interpreters in mental health encounters. Using qualitative methods, this study aims to address this gap by exploring the experiences of interpreters when interpreting for mental health encounters. Seventeen interpreters from the Philadelphia area were interviewed, representing 19 languages (8 Spanish only, 1 Nepali only, the rest interpret for multiple languages). They were asked about the following: 1) challenging experiences in the triadic relationship between interpreter, clinician and patient when discussing mental and emotional health, 2) their experiences in interpreting mental health concepts into another language, 3) their experiences in culture brokering and 4) their opinions on how to improve mental health encounters using interpreters Findings include that mental health concepts and queries can be challenging to translate due to language differences (structure, limited vocabulary), cultural differences (including stigma), the interpreter is often called to cross boundaries by both patient and clinician, many interpreters desire mental health training, and feel that clinicians need training on how to work with interpreters. The use of these findings can help support the agency and autonomy of emerging English speakers in mental health encounters. / Urban Bioethics

Monitoring results is the final step that determines the impact of an evidencebased practice (EBP) decision. A variety of health outcomes can be expected to change following rehabilitation; therefore, outcome measures (OMs) are a major focus of EBP in rehabilitation. For instance, in patients with hand injuries, physiotherapy (PT) services focus on enabling patients to improve their functional use of the traumatized hand. Examining current practice of physiotherapists (PTs) in Saudi Arabia with respect to use of EBP and OMs can serve as a basis for understanding any identified gaps in knowledge before the full effect of translation and adoption of new patient self-reported outcomes (PROs) instruments can be seen in clinical practice. Therefore, this thesis was designed in two phases, incorporating two papers, to address EBP and PROs and their adoption in the evolving PT practice in Saudi. The first paper is a survey that aimed to determine the current self-reported attitudes, skills, and knowledge of PTs in Saudi Arabia toward EBP and outcome measures, including PROs. The second paper describes the process of crosscultural Arabic translation and adaptation of the Patient-Rated Wrist and Hand Evaluation (PRWHE) and reports estimates of the psychometrics properties of the translated measure. Finally, the thesis addresses overall areas of limitations and includes suggestions for future refinement and research in order to foster and facilitate EBP implementation in the cultural context of the evolving physiotherapy profession in the health systems of Saudi Arabia. / Thesis / Master of Science Rehabilitation Science (MSc)

No description available.

There has been a limited amount of research concerning culture and online education. Although human beings have the ability to transcend past and current environments, helping professions are recognizing the influence of cultural epistemologies on themselves and those they intend to serve. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of additional challenges and concerns present when designing online instruction in a cross-cultural context. The data collected in this study stands as preliminary work to creating a substantive theory regarding the importance of cultural influences in the thinking, practice and lived experience of instructional designers, specifically those who have been creating cross-cultural online instruction. Twelve participants were chosen through a snowball sampling method, and case studies were constructing mainly through in-depth interviews. All of these participants were aware of cultural differences, although they recognized theirs was a limited awareness. Some of the many cultural differences these participants noticed in learner characteristics and expectations can be loosely separated into the following four categories: (a) technological infrastructure and familiarity, (b) general cultural and social expectations, (c) teaching and learning expectations, and (d) differences in the use of language and symbols. These participants became aware of cultural issues through both informal (unintentional) and formal (intentional) means. These participants felt a tension, however, between their desire to be more responsive to cultural differences, and the situations in which they were working. Three barriers to their ability to be as responsive to cultural differences were identified: (a) an over-focus on content development, (b) a relative lack of evaluation in real-world practice, and (c) the less than ideal roles instructional designers assume in the larger organizational structures involved. From this research, I present a bridge-building metaphor as a description of how an increased sensitivity to cultural differences influences can change the practice of instructional designers. Additional efforts are needed to educate and get buy-in from other stakeholders to engage in more learner analysis and evaluation. And additional models need to be used which put evaluation and learner feedback as a more integral part of the entire instructional design process.