Master of Science / Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Todd W. Easton / Integer programs (IP) are used in companies and organizations across the world to reach financial and time-related goals most often through optimal resource allocation and scheduling. Unfortunately, integer programs are computationally difficult to solve and in some cases the optimal solutions are unknown even with today’s advanced computing machines. Lifting is a technique that is often used to decrease the time required to solve an IP to optimality. Lifting begins with a valid inequality and strengthens it by changing the coefficients of variables in the inequality. Often times, this technique can result in facet defining inequalities, which are the theoretically strongest inequalities. This thesis introduces a new type of lifting called synchronized simultaneous lifting (SSL). SSL allows for multiple sets of simultaneously lifted variables to be simultaneously lifted which generates a new class of inequalities that previously would have required an oracle to be found. Additionally, this thesis describes an algorithm to perform synchronized simultaneous lifting for a binary knapsack inequality called the Synchronized Simultaneous Lifting Algorithm (SSLA). SSLA is a quadratic time algorithm that will exactly simultaneously lift two sets of simultaneously lifted variables. Short computational studies show SSLA can sometimes solve IPs to optimality that CPLEX, an advanced integer programming solver, alone cannot solve. Specifically, the SSL cuts allowed a 76 percent improvement over CPLEX alone.

This research study was conducted to provide information on school readiness. While there is no national definition for school readiness, states and organizations have developed various definitions to highlight readiness skills that have been deemed important for kindergarteners. The early childhood developmental domains that are often cited in these individual definitions are physical (fine/gross motor), social-emotional, cognition (academics), and communication skills. By considering a holistic approach of school readiness, a child’s development is not isolated to mastering one domain to be “ready” for school. While most states do not have a statutory school readiness definition, many have been measuring school readiness skills for several years. In the 1980’s, a number of states screened or tested children’s readiness skills using standardized assessments before kindergarten entry. In the 1990’s, the attention moved from using a child’s score to determine their placement to assessing a child’s strengths and weaknesses in various skill areas that were associated with identified school readiness criteria. Over the last few years, the focus has continued to shift to include monitoring state-wide school readiness levels and guiding planning and instruction. With no universal definition of school readiness, no universal school readiness measurement instrument exists. However, there are school readiness instruments currently being developed to address the needs of states and school districts. The need for reliable and valid instruments to focus on the various developmental skill levels of young children across domains is apparent. The school readiness instrument, the AEPS (Assessment Evaluation Programming System)-3 Ready, Set 4.0, is being developed to do just that, providing a holistic approach to measuring school readiness. Skills in the following areas are to be assessed on the AEPS-3 Ready, Set 4.0: gross motor, fine motor, adaptive, cognitive, social-communication, social-emotional, literacy, and math. The instrument is to be used by kindergarten teachers to access students in the categories listed above once the school year starts. The information gathered from the AEPS-3 Ready, Set 4.0 would provide teachers with authentic, holistic data on the school readiness skills of children in their class. Through teacher surveys, this school readiness study aimed to answer if field users agreed on the content of the AEPS Ready, Set 4.0 in terms of sequence, breadth, clarity, relevance, and functionality and if field users agreed on the scoring, item and criteria, and usefulness of the AEPS Ready, Set 4.0 for its intended purposes.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (p.176-188).

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:16:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1383308 bytes, checksum: 500cb4671d2745cbb4da5d7e8c4c20ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Since the late 1980s until the 2010s, Brazil experienced political, economical and educational transformations that modified the relationships between individual and society. In the political, the country emerged from dictatorship, and achieved the political stability lived today. In the economical, the country faced crisis that foster the creation of new currencies, until reached the economical stability with Real in the mid-1990s. In the educational, the country has gone through transformations in the structure of basic and higher education with the implementation of the law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education and the National Curriculum, and the policy of expanding the higher education. Given these chances in the socio environment of Brazil, and based in the Kohlberg s Theory of Moral Development (Kohlberg, 1984), who defines moral as justice thoughts, a study was designed with the propose of verify if there were changes in the quality of moral judgment of young adults from 1988/1989 and 2011, and of adolescents from 1996 and 2011. This research involves the participation of 210 young adults, age range 17 and 32 years, students from a public university, and 222 adolescents, age range 14 and 17 years, students of private schools, all of the city of João Pessoa. The Defining Issues Test DIT (Rest et al., 1974) was used as instrument. The results showed that in the years of 1988/1989, the young adults showed post-conventional moral judgment, with predominant use of the stage 5, whereas the young adults in the year of 2011 showed conventional moral judgment, with predominant use of stage 4. Both the adolescents of 1996 and the adolescents of 2011 showed conventional moral thought, with predominant use of stage 4. The results for adolescents confirm the theoretical assumptions about the level of development planned for this phase, and they corroborate various empirical studies, indicating also that the different sociopolitical and economic situations did not affect the predominant moral judgments for adolescents. The results for young adults indicate that the development of these young people, in 2011, is below of the predicted level, taking into consideration the theoretical approach and the data of young adults in 1988/1989. Therefore, we can infer that the young adults in 2011 were affected by current economic and socio-political conjunctures. Thus it is assumed that the instability of the economic and sociopolitical conjunctures in 1988/1989, that was marked by popular participation in social movements directed to the preservation of the common good, may have favored the development of post-conventional moral judgments. It is assumed also that the stability of the current economic and socio-political conjunctures, but marked by issues such as disclosure of corruption in the political sphere, violence in society, and the competition in the labor market, and precariousness of basic services to society, may have favored the development of conventional moral judgment, aimed at preserving the law as a way to maintain social order. / Desde o final da década de 1980 até a década de 2010, o Brasil passou por transformações políticas, econômicas e educacionais que modificaram as relações entre indivíduo e sociedade. No âmbito político, o país saiu do regime ditatorial, passou por um processo de redemocratização e atingiu a estabilidade política vivida na atualidade. No âmbito econômico o país enfrentou crises que provocaram a criação de novas moedas até que atingiu estabilidade com o Real em meados da década de 1990. No âmbito educacional, o país passou por transformações na estrutura do ensino básico e superior com a implementação da Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional e dos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais, e com a política de expansão do ensino superior. Diante dessas mudanças na conjuntura social do Brasil, e tendo como base a teoria do desenvolvimento moral de Kohlberg (1984), que define moral como pensamentos de justiça, elaborou-se um estudo com o objetivo de verificar se ocorreram mudanças na qualidade do julgamento moral de jovens adultos dos anos de 1988/1989 e 2011 e de adolescentes dos anos de 1996 e 2011. Essa investigação contou com a participação de 210 jovens adultos, de 17 a 32 anos, alunos de uma universidade pública, e de 222 adolescentes, de 14 a 17 anos, alunos de escolas da rede privada, todos da cidade de João Pessoa. Como instrumento utilizou-se o Defining Issues Test DIT (Rest et al., 1974). Os resultados mostram que em 1988/1989 os jovens adultos apresentaram julgamento moral pós-convencional, com predominância do uso do estágio 5, enquanto que os jovens adultos de 2011 apresentaram julgamento moral convencional, com predominância do uso do estágio 4. Tanto os adolescentes do ano de 1996, como os adolescentes do ano de 2011, apresentaram julgamento moral convencional, com predomínio do uso do estágio 4. Os resultados encontrados nos adolescentes confirmam as suposições teóricas sobre o nível de desenvolvimento previsto para essa fase e corroboram vários trabalhos empíricos, indicando, além disso, que as diferentes conjunturas sociopolíticas e econômicas não afetaram os julgamentos morais predominantes dos adolescentes. Já os resultados encontrados para os jovens adultos indicam que o desenvolvimento destes jovens, para o ano de 2011, está abaixo do nível previsto, tendo em consideração o aporte teórico utilizado e os dados dos jovens adultos dos anos de 1988/1989. Portanto, é possível inferir que os jovens adultos do ano de 2011 foram afetados pelas conjunturas sociopolíticas e econômicas atuais. Assim, presume-se que uma conjuntura social instável política e economicamente, e marcada pela participação popular em movimentos sociais voltados para a preservação do bem comum, pode ter favorecido ao desenvolvimento de julgamentos morais pós-convencionais. Assume-se também que uma conjuntura social estável política e economicamente, mas marcada por questões como a divulgação da corrupção nas esferas políticas, a violência na sociedade, a concorrência no mercado de trabalho e precariedade dos serviços básicos oferecidos à sociedade, pode ter favorecido ao desenvolvimento de julgamentos morais convencionais, voltados para a preservação das leis como forma de manter a ordem social.

This dissertation tackles the ageless human debate of the body versus the soul. Based on Kohlbergian theory, the multidisciplinary literature review advances the proposition that moral development proceeds in waves of referential egoism leading to nonreferential altruism that is couched in power--the apple of the eye. Many inter organizational studies using the Defining Issues Test have compared moral maturity levels coming from various academic backgrounds. Previous studies have purported that education is the chief moderating variable for moral maturity, with little regard for paradigmatic bases of power. Yet, in this study noncoercive power is carefully controlled because of the highly technical procurement process used in construction contracting. Coercive power and position in the food chain become the main moderators, because success is not measured by charm or wisdom or even social relations, but only by the low bid in accordance with the contractual specifications. The results from 93 respondents of the Iowa Architects Institute of America (n = 93) indicated that despite the higher education and aesthetic interests, the sample of architects ranked low on moral maturity level when compared to the average of the DIT data bank as a whole. Postconventional scores were 36.4 versus 39.1, respectively. Few intra organizational studies have been conducted examining moral maturity levels among groups in the same work setting. This research also compared the moral maturity of intra industry groups in marketing dyads consisting of architects, contractors, and suppliers using the Defining Issues Test and ANOVA. Again it was expected that architects with higher education and aesthetic interests would rank highest. So in addition to the architects, the members of the Iowa Associated General Contractors and Iowa Associated Builders and Contractors were solicited. This added 32 contractors (n = 32) and 27 suppliers (n = 27), to the total sample (n = 153). Findings showed significant differences among the groups (F (2, 150) = 3.64, p = .05). Yet post hoc comparisons revealed that there was no significant difference in moral maturity levels between architects and contractors engrossed in the same power paradigm (p = 1.00). However, a significant difference existed between architects and suppliers (p =.024). This implication is consistent with the teleological pattern that is prevalent in research studies of salespeople. In summary, performance-based organizations and theorists of stakeholder theory may expect no less than orthodox and opportunistic choices in the real world of business as long as performance remains the ultimate criterion of success.

The aim of this thesis is to warn of possible problem of erosion of sustainable development concept. The study combines content and frequency analysis as well as hermeneutics and its framework builds on three essential UN documents. By the scope of these documents along with the use of secondary literature is then possible to search and analyze various conceptions of sustainable development in important documents of organizations or institutions of global level, european regional level and local level of Czech republic. With the research at the place we can say that sustainable development erodes in particular organizations, across these organizations, generally through time and space and that the erosion is caused in two ways, with the specific purpose or unconsciously. The most common was the erosion stemming from leaning on traditional neoliberal paradigm of economic growth. Except the erosion, the research can be used to examine how organizations understand the concept of sustainable development.

Recent literature by several eminent psychotherapists ·such as Bergin and Beutler argues that counsellors' personal values are probably the greatest influence on the success and outcome of therapy and that the counsellor tends to convert the client to the counsellor's values. This literature provided strong support for this researcher's contention of the need for similar studies in pastoral counselling. The researcher was particularly concerned about the role of pastoral counsellors' value systems and moral judgement development in counselling situations. The researcher selected the Rokeach Value Survey and the Rest Defining Issues Test as instruments to test a sample of South African pastoral counsellors in this regard. The research questions addressed were as follows. Firstly, what are the value systems of a sample of pastoral counsellors in the South African context? Secondly, what are the moral judgement development levels of the pastoral counsellors? Thirdly, what is the relationship between the rank ordering of values and pastoral counsellors' levels of moral judgement development? Fourthly, what implications could these variables have for pastoral-client pairing in pastoral counselling? The chief findings were as follows. Firstly, the pastoral counsellors were shown to have conservative value systems with a preference for introspective terminal values over social terminal values. Secondly, the pastoral counsellors had a P score of 39.6 on the Defining Issues Test. This compares favourably with Asian university students who score between 36-40 as opposed to American university students who have a mean P score of 42.6. The researcher concluded that the conservative religious ideology of the sample helped to explain the low P scores somewhat. Thirdly, the Spearman correlational coefficient indicated little correlation between the Rokeach Value Survey and the Rest Defining Issues Test. Fourthly, both instruments indicated that the conservative nature of the pastoral counsellors would no doubt make them very effective counsellors in most denominations. They would tend to counsel in support of the status quo in the church. A major recommendation of the study was the need for further pastoral counsellor education in dealing with moral values issues. / Practical Theology / D.Th. (Practical theology)

[pt] Este trabalho elabora o mosaico de valores referente a três coortes geracionais brasileiros recentes e propõe sua utilização como base de segmentação de consumidores. Um coorte geracional é um grupo de pessoas que ao entrar na fase adulta compartilhou os mesmos eventos históricos e circunstâncias sociais, desenvolvendo valores comuns que perduram ao longo do tempo. A partir da identificação de eventos marcantes associados aos coortes geracionais brasileiros, este estudo revela que o efeito coorte resulta de macro processos sociais em grandes populações e compreende mecanismos psicológicos complexos relacionados ao amadurecimento dos indivíduos ao entrarem na fase adulta, indicando a existência de variações individuais quanto à intensidade em que tais transformações se operam. Esta pesquisa investiga os valores pertencentes às classes sociais A e B. Como alguns valores prevalecem em coortes específicos, o trabalho confirma a estrutura de coortes geracionais brasileira adotada. Utilizando a análise de classe latente captura tanto variações intercoorte quanto variações intracoorte nos graus de aceitação e assimilação dos valores e inova o processo de segmentação via coortes. Indivíduos classificados como pertencentes a um coorte geracional, eventualmente, exibem diferenças significativas em relação aos membros mais representativos deste coorte geracional. Os resultados demonstram essas diferenças. O mosaico geracional revela os perfis distintos de valores e facilita o desenvolvimento de programas de marketing diferenciados para atingir os consumidores. Os resultados deste trabalho são relevantes para aprimorar as abordagens de segmentação de grandes populações. / [en] This research designs a value mosaic for three Brazilian generational cohorts and proposes it as a consumer segmentation basis. A generational cohort is a group of individuals that upon entering adulthood has shared the same historical events and social environment, and has developed common values that lasts a lifetime. Based on the identification of defining moments associated with each cohort, this study reveals the cohort effect as a macro social process and covers complex psychological mechanisms related to the individuals entering adulthood, revealing the existence of individual variations associated to the strength of these transformations. This research investigates the values ofindividuals that belong to the Brazilian social classes A and B. As some values prevail in certain cohorts, the research confirms the Brazilian cohort structure adopted. The latent class analysis captures both the intercohort and the intracohort variations in the assimilation of values. It also innovates the segmentation process through cohorts. Individuals classified as belonging to a generational cohort, eventually, show significant differences related to the most representative members of this generational cohort. The generational mosaic reveals different profiles of values and makes the development of differentiated marketing programs easier to target the consumers. The results of this research are relevant to enhance the big population`s segmentation approaches.

Consider distinct latin squares, L and M, of order n. Then the pair (T1, T2) where T1 = L \M and T2 = M \ L is called a latin bitrade. Furthermore T1 and T2 are referred to as latin trades, in which T2 is said to be a disjoint mate of T1 (and vice versa). Drápal (1991) showed that, under certain conditions, a partition of an equilateral triangle of side length n, where n is some integer, into smaller, integer length sided equilateral triangles gives rise to a latin trade within the latin square based on the addition table for the integers modulo n. A partial latin square P of order n is said to be completable if there exists a latin square L of order n such that P ⊆ L. If there is only one such possible latin square, L, of order n then P is said to be uniquely completable and P is called a defining set of L. Furthermore, if C is a uniquely completable partial latin square such that no proper subset of C is uniquely completable, C is said to be a critical set or a minimal defining set. These concepts, namely latin trades and defining sets in latin squares, are intimately connected by the following observation. If L is a latin square and D ⊆ L is a defining set, then D intersects all latin bitrades for which one mate is contained in L. In Part I of this thesis Dr´apal’s result is applied to investigate the structure of certain defining sets in latin squares. The results that are obtained are interesting in themselves; furthermore, the geometric approach to the problem yields additional appealing results. These geometric results are discussed in Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6. They pertain to partitioning regions (polygons in R2 that satisfy certain obvious conditions) into equilateral, integer length sided, triangles, such that no point, in the region, is a corner of more than three distinct triangles. In Chapter 2 one of the main two theorems on defining sets is established, as is a method for using the above geometric results to prove the nonexistence of certain types of defining sets. In Part II of this thesis, intersection problems, for latin squares and Steiner triple systems, are considered. The seminal works, for problems of these types, are due to Lindner and Rosa (1975) and Fu (1980). A natural progression, from the established literature, for intersection problems between elements in a pair of latin squares or Steiner triple systems is to problems in which the intersection is composed of a number of disjoint configurations (isomorphic copies of some specified partial triple system). In this thesis solutions to two intersection problems for disjoint configurations are detailed. An m-flower, (F,F), is a partial triple system/configuration, such that: F = {{x, yi, zi} | {yi, zi} ∩ {yj , zj} = ∅, for 0 ≤ i, j ≤ m − 1, i 6= j}; and F = UX∈FX. The first such problem considered in this thesis asks for necessary and sufficient conditions for integers k and m ≥ 2 such that a pair of latin squares of order n exists that intersect precisely in k disjoint m-flowers. The necessary terminology, constructions, lemmas and proof for this result are contained in Chapters 7, 8 and 9. The second such problem considered in this thesis asks for necessary and sufficient conditions for integers k such that a pair of Steiner triple systems of order u exists that intersect precisely in k disjoint 2-flowers. This result relies on the solution to the latin square problem and an additional result from Chapter 9. The further constructions and lemmas used to prove this result are detailed in Chapter 10.

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