This thesis explores three models of a good school: the Modified Academic Index Model, the Demographically-Adjusted Model, and the Equity Model. The Modified Academic Index Model uses test scores, from the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System 2008 and 2009 academic year, to measure good schools. The Demographically-Adjusted Model uses these test scores while controlling for certain demographic variables. The Equity Model uses standard deviations of these test scores to measure quality schools. Rankings of the 228 public high schools in Kentucky are developed for each model. The rankings of the models are then compared.

The images of tourist destinations significantly influence travel choices. Accordingly, destination marketers make great efforts to inform their potential consumers about their destinations using deliberately designed projected images. This research focuses on a Chinese tourism destination, Qingdao, exploring the relationships between the images projected by Qingdao government agencies and those perceived by current visitors and by residents. It also examines the factors that influence the image formation of visitors and residents. Three sources of information are used in this research: promotional materials issued by the Qingdao municipal government and the Qingdao Tourism Administration, key informant interview transcripts and a questionnaires survey. The promotional materials were collected from the aforementioned agencies in May 2009. Key informant interviews were conducted in April and May 2009. Self-administered surveys of 578 visitors and 337 residents of Qingdao were administered throughout May and June 2009. The image construct was conceptualized as having three dimensions: cognitive, affective and overall images. The cognitive image attributes included seafood, scenery, beaches, local people, green space, special events, ethnic attractions, weather, squares, architecture, relaxing atmosphere, resorts, hygiene and cleanliness, cultural attractions, golf course, highway system, accommodation, public transport, shopping, fashion shows, value for money, transportation cost, nightlife, football games, airline schedules, and traffic congestion. The affective image attributes included arousing-sleepy, exciting-gloomy, pleasant-unpleasant, and relaxing-distressful. Qualitative evaluation suggested greater congruence between the images projected by Qingdao government agencies and those perceived by visitors than quantitative correlation analysis. The projected images of Qingdao and images perceived by visitors were consistent in their emphases on certain image themes. However, the correlations between these two types of images suggested that the extent to which these image themes were emphasized differed. Similar results were found in the comparison between the images projected by Qingdao and those perceived by residents. Furthermore, most visitors and residents held positive images of Qingdao. Both similarities and differences were discovered in the cognitive, affective and overall images perceived by visitors and residents. Residents were generally more positive than visitors in their cognitive and affective images. It was found that sex, education, place of residence, and previous travel experience only significantly affected visitors’ images of one or two attributes, while age, occupation, primary motivation, most important information source used and number of sources used significantly influenced visitors’ images of between 5 and 8 attributes. Additionally, place attachment and importance of the 2008 Olympic Games were significantly positively correlated with most of the image attributes examined in this study, while importance of German Heritage and Qingdao International Beer Festival were significantly positively correlated with fewer attributes (8 and 6 attributes, respectively). With regard to the factors influencing resident images, it was discovered that sex, education, age, occupation, length of residence, most important source used and number of sources used significantly affected residents’ images to different degrees, ranging from 7 to 18 attributes. Furthermore, place attachment and the importance of German heritage, the 2008 Olympic Games and Qingdao International Beer Festival were significantly positively correlated with the majority of the image attributes examined in this research. This study is one of very few that compares projected and perceived images although methodological challenges for undertaking such research remain. It is also innovative in that it encompasses both tourists’ and residents’ images. Very few such studies have been undertaken in China which has a massive domestic tourism industry and is a major player in international tourism.

ABSTRACT Beginning in 1946 fertility in Canada and other Western countries increased to rates unequaled throughout the rest of the 20th century. Sixty five years since the beginning of the baby boom, as this generation was labelled, workers are retiring or nearing retirement on scale not previously witnessed. This workforce exodus has signalled concern among scholarly, professionals and government sources alike. The public sector has been identified as particularly at risk with both and older average worker age and a low average retirement age. Within the public sector, jobs relating to the Canadian water workforce have similarly been identified for retirement concerns, specifically among senior positions. Retirements have highlighted aspects of concern for the future: knowledge leaving the workplace, and recruiting talent for the future. Among primary concerns is for knowledge that has no place in traditional documentation methods, tacit knowledge. Although transferring this knowledge presents difficulties, strategies include retaining knowledgeable employees and creating programs that facilitate knowledge exchange. Mentorship programs are one such strategy identified specifically for tacit knowledge transfer. This thesis considers how retirements would affect the water workforce including positions centred on conservation and policy efforts, as well as the water utilities industry. Although a few studies have focused on water utilities, this area of the public workforce had largely been ignored. Conducting fourteen interviews within three case study municipalities, primary data was gathered to determine how the water workforce would be affected by retirements, if retirements created concerns with respect to inter-organizational networks, and what strategies would be most suited to the needs of participating organizations.

With the change of world economy and the constant innovation of technology, people¡¦s lifestyle and eating habits have changed tremendously. And There are more and more people like to eat out. When they are choosing restaurants, the western-style fastfood will be often taken into account. In fact, eating too much fast food in high calories will cause nutrition disorders and fatness. So consumer should keep careful attitude toward this kind of food. In Taiwan, every western-style fastfood corporation is in high competition. In order to increase sales and market share, firms adopt different marketing strategies to attract consumers. When new products are launched, the point of purchase advertising will be replaced right away to convey product information to customers. Therefore, the research chooses McDonald¡¦ s, Mos Burger and Burger King because they are top corporations. The main purposes as follows: 1. Among McDonald¡¦ s, Mos Burger and Burger King¡¦s point of purchase advertising, to explore the relevance between impulsive buying behavior and point of purchase advertising. 2. To research the revision effect of impulse buying characteristics and demographics. This research analysis consumers¡¦ behaviors after seeing point of purchase advertising in Mcdonald, Mos Burger, and Burger King. After analyzing, we found that consumers in Mcdonald, Mos Burger and Burger King has lower ratio of impulsive buying behavior. Thus, point of purchase and impulsive buying behavior are low connected. About revision effect of impulsive buying characteristics, only Mos Burger has revision effect. About demographic variables, age, educational level and monthly income don¡¦t have revision effect in three research objects. And about sex, only Mos Burger has revision effect.

Since chain convenience store becomes the main trend in the retail industry, and the store managers play the important roles to run the business, therefore this research is trying to find out what the competences are necessary for the store managers. Furthermore, this research would like to find out if different characteristics of managers would affect their emphasis degree on the managerial competency. The results are as follows: 1. The 7 competences for the store managers are: (1) business improving ability; (2) daily work managing ability; (3) planning ability; (4) leadership; (5) selling field managing ability; (6) instructing ability; (7) goal approaching ability. 2. The relations between demographics valuables and managerial competences: (1) store managers from ¡§ the middle area¡¨ put the least emphasis on selling field managing ability, leadership and instructing ability; (2) store managers working in ¡§ Family¡¨ put the least emphasis on goal approaching ability; (3) store managers working in ¡§ regular chain¡¨ put more emphasis on planning ability, daily work managing ability and leadership than franchise chain; (4) store managers who work less than one year put the least emphasis on planning ability, goal approaching ability and business improving ability. 3. The moderate effect of individual performance: when individual performance interacting with education, it would affect the emphasis degree toward planning ability and daily work managing ability.

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<p>Organic consumption is currently experiencing a boom of sales on the Swedish and international market. Whether this occurrence is a contemporary trend or if it will prove to be sustainable in the future, the demographics of the so-called ‘green consumer’ are of great interest for economic agents on markets such as foods and textiles. Therefore, the writers have chosen to highlight this topic by focusing on the relation between income and purchase of organic products.. Economic data for the Swedish market has been gathered and analyzed through various statistical and macroeconomic perspectives, where the basis has been Kelvin Lancaster’s models of consumer choice theory. The results showed that income does not generally have a direct effect on the choice of purchasing an organic good in Sweden, although it cannot be fully dismissed when discussing the demographics of the green consumer. Other factors are of importance as well, including education, marital status and geographical location. The study of the green consumer is a rather new area and this study, along with its previous counterparts, has proved it difficult to draw any firm conclusions regarding the characteristics of the organic consumer. Therefore, future studies within this area will have plenty to discover about a subject of increasing interest and importance on the market.</p> / <p>Ekologisk konsumtion upplever för närvarande en försäljningsboom på den svenska och internationella marknaden. Oavsett om detta är en tillfällig trend eller om det kommer bestå såväl i framtiden, är demografierna av de såkallade ’gröna konsumenterna’ av stort intresse för ekonomiska agenter inom marknader såsom textil och dagligvaror. Därför har författarna valt att framhäva detta ämne genom att fokusera på relationen mellan inkomst och inköp av ekologiska produkter. Ekonomisk data för den svenska marknaden har samlats in och analyserats genom olika statistiska och makroekonomiska perspektiv, där basen har varit Kelvin Lancasters modeller av konsumentteori. Resultaten har visat på att inkomst generellt inte har en direkt effekt på valet att köpa en ekologisk vara i Sverige, även om denna faktor inte helt kan uteslutas när demografier av den gröna konsumenten diskuteras. Andra faktorer har också betydelse, däribland utbildning, civilstånd och geografisk lokalisering. Studier om den gröna konsumenten är ett relativt nytt område, och denna kandidatuppsatsen har, tillsammans med föregående rapporter inom ämnet, funnit det svårt att dra några fasta slutsatser om den ekologiska konsumentens karaktärer. Därför kommer framtida studier inom detta område ha mycket att upptäcka om ett ämne av ökande intresse och angelägenhet på marknaden.</p>

The politics of Blacks are stereotypically assumed to be the same and share the same race-based root, be it disenfranchisement or solidarity. Given the recent jump in Black political participation and the seemingly race-based and partisan nature "the Black vote" holds, it is essential to investigate what factors drive Black voter turnout as well as what factors contribute to the partisan nature of Black voters. Most other studies of political opinion, turnout, and party preference only consider comparable demographic groups such as men versus women or Blacks versus Whites. This study examines partisan preference and participation only among Black Americans. The data used here come from the American National Election Survey (ANES) 1984, 1996, and 2008 Pre- and Post-Election Survey, election years that coincided with peaks and lows of Black voter turnout since the Civil Rights Movement. Findings indicate that Black Democrats report higher voter turnout than Black non-Democrats, and younger Blacks and those who opposed abortion were less likely to vote. Also, results suggest that although Black partisanship can be predicted by gender, abortion stance, and age, partisanship is largely not a product of demographics or political stances based on how little variance these models account; rather, Black partisanship may be explained by aspects that go beyond these usual determinants, measures, and proxies. Implications of this study show that non-Democratic Blacks were political available to other parties, and it warrants a further investigation into Black partisanship.

Amphibian decline is a major concern worldwide, and a lack of basic ecological and life history information for many species significantly limits our ability to evaluate the degree and possible causes of such declines, and to develop effective conservation strategies for threatened and endangered species. Not only is there a shortage of adequate long-term datasets necessary for robust analyses of population variability, but the elusive nature and obscure microhabitats of many species make it difficult to collect even the most basic natural history data. In a series of observational and experimental studies, I employed both traditional and novel ecological methodologies to examine environmental correlates of temporal population variability, foraging ecology and anti-predator behavior in endangered Barton Springs Salamander (Eurycea sosorum) from Austin (Travis County), Texas. Though headwater springs are typically thought of as habitats with relatively stable environmental conditions, I discovered that E. sosorum population abundance was strongly influenced by periodic extremes of rainfall that affect cycles in spring flow rates, water temperature, and other physico-chemical variables. I also found that population dynamics in E. sosorum are highly consistent with those expected for organisms with a storage effect life-history strategy, in which a few long-lived females capable of high fecundity and prolonged survival in subterranean habitat during adverse environmental conditions may be sufficient for population persistence. In addition, juveniles may use subterranean habitat as a thermal refuge. Using stable isotope analyses and macroinvertebrate prey censuses, I determined that at the population level, adult E. sosorum exhibits high electivity for planarian flatworms (Dugesia sp.). This would not have been detectable using traditional methods of dietary analysis such as stomach or fecal content analysis because Dugesia are soft-bodied animals. Additionally, stable isotope analyses revealed that adult E. sosorum exhibits inter-individual diet variation and is capable of diet switching. Finally, I discovered that anti-predator behavior in E. sosorum is influenced more strongly by visual and bioelectric cues from potential predators, but not olfactory cues. This is the first known demonstration of anti-predatory response mediated only by bioelectric stimuli in an amphibian, and one of very few to observe this phenomenon among aquatic vertebrates. / text

The study examined school district expenditures in Texas and their correlations with student achievement. The following research question guided this study: Which resource allocations produce statistically significant correlations between the resource allocation variances among school district and student achievement? An ordinal logistic regression analysis included 1009 school districts in the State of Texas, 18 of 26 possible finance function codes provided per-pupil dollar amounts, and 9 of 11 possible demographic categories were utilized for the study. The study held the school district as the unit of analysis. The statistical model was used to regress the dollar amounts categorized by financial function codes and percent student demographics to determine if a relationship existed with the dependent variable of the Texas Education Agency’s defined accountability rating during the 5-year time period—2004-2008. At the national level, there is a long-standing debate over whether the amount of money allocated to education affects student achievement. The literature review presents two sides of the debate concerning whether financial resources make a difference with regard to student achievement as represented through district-level accountability ratings. The research revealed that specific school district resource allocations by function code are statistically significant with regard to district level accountability measures through the Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability system. However, the odds ratios temper the impact of the significance. The research also revealed that demographics are statistically significant in the State of Texas accountability system. / text