The United States Army land managers are facing a difficult task of balancing environmental quality and military land carrying capacity when planning missions. The increase in soil erosion and landscape fragmentation caused by intensive military training degrades environmental quality and restricts military missions simultaneously. So far, no effective tools can be applied to quantitatively assess the environmental quality of military training facilities. This study aims at overcoming the existing gaps in land management of the U.S. Army installations. In this study, spatial metrics were selected and used to quantify landscape quality and further their correlations with landscape aesthetics indicators were investigated to seek surrogates of the immeasurable indicators. The spatial metrics were then combined with other environmental variables including soil erosion, water quality, and noise to create an integrated indicator that comprehensively measures environmental quality for the U.S. Army installations using spatial multi-criteria decision analysis. The methodology proposed in this study was tested at Fort Riley Installation, Kansas. The obtained important results included i) Landsat Thematic Mapper TM imagery was better at identifying land cover categories than India Remote Sensing Imagery and their Brovey transformations and Principal Component Analysis (PCA); ii) Too fine of a spatial resolution of imagery led to a great number of small patches and degraded the accuracy of landscape segmentation; iii) both landscape shape index (LSI) and Aggregation Index (AI) had statistically significant correlation with military training intensity and quantified the landscape fragmentation well along with both LSI and AI had a significant negative correlation; iv) there were moderate correlations of LSI and AI with landscape complexity and Interspersion and Juxtaposition index (IJI) with disturbance; v) the landscape level environmental quality indicator obtained comprehensively and well quantified the overall environmental health and its dynamics, while the patch level indicator detailed the local environmental quality. The significant contributions made in this study included i) exploring the relationships of landscape aesthetic evaluations with spatial metrics variables and further incorporating the spatial metrics as surrogates of the landscape aesthetic evaluations into derivation of comprehensive environmental quality indicator; and ii) developing a practical method to integrate the individual factors into a comprehensive environmental quality indicator at both landscape and patch levels based on sustainable environmental health and military land carrying capacity. Without doubt, this study can provide effective tools for the Army land managers to accurately assess environmental quality and effectively plan military training on the installations. It is also expected this methodology can be applied to management of other lands such as agricultural, forested, and industrial lands, etc.

The history of nineteenth-century Ireland has traditionally been understood in terms of resistance to state coercion imposed ‘at the point of a bayonet’. This thesis offers an alternative approach by shifting focus away from metropolitan centres of power (Westminster, Dublin Castle) and the state's formal apparatus, toward an understanding of power as environmentally constructed. Using the case of Cork, the thesis traces the emergence of a non-sectarian ethos of urban ‘politeness’ rooted in middle-class reactions to the violent upheavals of the 1790s. Here, I argue a range of new public spaces emerged to ‘moralise’ the masses, anticipating state legislation by decades. In chapters on the spread of time-keeping technology and the reform of market spaces, the thesis argues effective authority inhered as much in clocks and weights as ‘at the point of a bayonet’. The corresponding rise of the ‘private sphere’, materialising the ideology of ‘separate spheres’ in the city’s first suburbs, provided an alternative pole of moral reform. Here, the invisible agency of pipes and sewers helped to privatize the burden of ‘healthy living’, severing the link between poverty and disease long before ‘Famine fever’ ravaged the city. And when it hit, John Stuart Mill was not alone in dreaming of a ‘tabula rasa’; the ‘Father of Temperance’ Theobald Mathew and his allies expressed precisely this view, ‘feminizing’ the catastrophe as a moment to ‘cleanse’ the city of morally ‘diseased’ prostitutes. Free from such ‘contamination’, new spaces devoted to recreation – parks, theatres, and racecourses – were engineered as arenas ‘free’ from state oversight, with citizens instead positioned to survey one another. The thesis concludes with a call to reinterpret resistance to the state in terms of the ‘rule of freedom’ as much as that of force. The seven chapters and conclusion of the thesis are divided into three parts: ‘The Polite City’, ‘The Purified City’ and ‘The Liberal City’. These overarching themes provide a framework to the chronological and thematic development of the thesis as a whole. The first three chapters explore the rising ethos of ‘politeness’ as an ‘improving’ ideology which sought to engineer certain forms of conduct – domestic, social, and commercial – into the fabric of everyday urban life. Crucial to this was the notion of non-coercive governance aimed at securing ‘the right disposition of things, arranged ... to a convenient end’. ‘The Purified City’ explores ways in which the Famine helped to ‘naturalise’ the alienation of certain classes of deviant from the ‘social body’ of the urban community. ‘The Liberal City’ looks at how mid-Victorian city also invited the consent of the governed by creating spaces where citizenship could be performed in acts of leisure and recreation. It was in this sense that fin de siècle cultural nationalists saw the greatest threat to a revival of Irish popular culture as arising not from police stations or military barracks, but from the respectable world of suburban ‘politeness’.

The purpose of this study was to gain insights into the perspectives of child welfare alumni related to the educational experiences that facilitated or presented obstacles to academic and social-emotional resilience and well-being and to what extent. Through qualitative methodology, I sought to understand the life and experiences of these participants who experienced foster care and “came out” on the other side of the experience with the ability to live successful lives. Furthermore, I sought to discover how the school setting contributed to building well-being for this population. Data was collected from individual and focus group interviews. My sample consisted of four women who met the criteria for my study as they were taken into custodial care due to maltreatment issues and were with child welfare for at least two years following the placement decision. Results of the study indicated that alumni of child-welfare identified the school environment as contributing to feelings of safety, and as a venue in which they were provided encouragement and support from educators (i.e., teachers, guidance counselors). The findings of this study reinforce the need for school to play an active role in supporting youth in care by providing a safe, supportive environment in which students can learn the skills they need later in life, including the development of basic skills, the ability to inquire, and the ability to express themselves. While school systems are not responsible for meeting every need of their students, schools must meet the challenge when the need directly affects learning.

This thesis paper supports the Artist’s Master of Fine Arts exhibition held at the Tipton Gallery, located in downtown Johnson City TN from November 30, 2015 through January 22, 2016. The works Included in the exhibition consists of a series of mixed media collage paintings, a large scale etching combined with clay and a site specific installation. The Exhibit features work that delves into the concept of nature as a subject of beauty, as well as a symbol of the resiliency of life. The work in this exhibit exposes the separation that exists between humanity and the natural world. Through an exploration of memory the importance of a connection between human beings and nature is revealed. The following further expands upon on the ideas, influences, techniques, and concepts that led to the formation of this exhibit.

In the last 10 years, the number of remote workers has increased by 80%. Remote workers are more productive than their traditional in-office colleagues, cheaper to maintain for the organization because of the major decrease in overheard costs, and drastically increase organizational leaders' hiring options. The problem was that over half of the nation's disengaged employees work remotely, contributing significantly to associated annual costs of employee disengagement to businesses of upwards of $550 billion. The purpose of this exploratory case study, using a critical incident technique, was to create a taxonomy of responses to the incidents that are critical for maintaining, strengthening, or eroding the workplace engagement of 14 remote workers nationwide. The data collection method included in-depth interview questions, open and selective coding, and thematic analysis from the data provided by the 14 participants. The 9-step analysis process, triangulation, and member checking consisted of structure and credibility of the findings. The taxonomy derived from this study that strengthens and maintains the engagement of remote workers is directly related to the primary theme of connectedness and organizational culture; the taxonomy derived from this study that erodes workplace engagement is directly related to the secondary themes of organizational fit and disconnectedness. The findings suggested that remote workers experience strengthened and sustained levels of workplace engagement more when working environments where they have a personal connection to the organization's mission and vision and where they feel the work culture is familial. The taxonomy derived from this research could provide organizational leaders with techniques to engage and inspire the talent of remote workers to create positive and sustainable social change

Children's language development is highly connected to the success of every school. Especially when it comes to the children learning reading and writing skills, regardless of what method the schools use in order to achieve this. An early intervention can facilitate the learning of reading comprehension. Reading aloud and playing with the language learning is the greatest gift we can give our children and students. Children learn how to use a book by turning the pages and see how the words and texts are structured. Together you create a moment of closeness and discover how you can share your thoughts and experiences using pictures and words in the book. The purpose of this study is to gain insight and understanding into how teachers motivates and leads the children towards the discovering their own joy of reading. These also include those children that would rather play than sitting still listening to children's literature. The survey is a series of interviews with six class teachers from pre-schools in a suburb south of Stockholm. The result shows that teachers believe that reading aloud and having follow up book talks are an important part of capturing children’s interest for reading, especially children who do not have their own motivation to be involved in learning to enjoy books. Reading aloud using intonation and different voices stimulates children's curiosity, and in turn this results in children themselves getting involved in the narration.

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abstract: A growing body of research shows that characteristics of the built environment in healthcare facilities impact patients' well-being. Research findings suggest that patients form judgments of perceived quality care based on environmental characteristics. Patient outcomes and ratings of quality of care are linked to the environments' ability to reduce patient stress as well as influence perceptions of quality of care. Historically, this research has been focused in the hospital environment. The United States healthcare system heavily relies on hospitals to treat (rather than prevent) illness, leading to a high per capita healthcare expenditure. Currently, this healthcare system is shifting to rely heavily on ambulatory care settings and primary care providers to detect, prevent, and manage expensive medical conditions. The highest rates of preventable disease and the lowest rates of primary care usage are found in the young adult population (ages 18 to 24). More than any other patient population, this segment rates their satisfaction with healthcare significantly low. For this population education, early detection, and monitoring will be key for a primary care focused model to have the greatest impact on care and long-term savings. Strong patient-physician connections ensure the success of a primary care focused model. The physical environment has the opportunity to provide a message consistent with a physician's practice values and goals. Environmental cues in the waiting area have the potential to relay these messages to the patient prior to physician contact. Through an understanding and optimization of these cues patient perception of quality of care may be increased, thus improving the patient-physician relationship. This study provides insight on how to optimize environmental impact on the healthcare experience. This descriptive exploratory study utilized a non-verbal self-report instrument to collect demographic information and measure participant's responses to two panoramic photos of primary care provider waiting areas. Respondents were asked to identify physical elements in the photos that contributed to their perceptions of the quality of care to be expected. The sample population consisted of 33, 18 to 24 year-olds leaving a total of 234 emotional markers and comments. Qualitative and quantitative revealed three key themes of appeal, comfort, and regard. Physical elements, in the photos, related to the themes include: General areas that were important to the respondents were the seating and reception areas, as well as the overall appearance of the waiting area. Key elements identified to be significant characteristics influencing perceptions of quality of care are presented in this study. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S.D. Design 2012

The quality of the relationship between supervisors and subordinates strongly influences a variety of important work-related attitudes and behaviors, which consequently impact organizational effectiveness.

Using critical feminist theories and methodologies, my research investigates the power relations and influences at play within the field of children's environmental health. I begin with the research question of how a parent's everyday purchase of a toy or other children's product is "hooked into" extra-local governance (agenda-setting, rule-making and monitoring). Focusing on Bisphenol A and phthalates as an example, in-depth interviews were conducted with six government officials (three federal and three municipal), three non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives, a politician, six higher education faculty members and a parent, as well as two focus groups of 23 parents. Legislation and other relevant documents from governments, NGOs, industry and media were analyzed together with reports of their activities and attitudes to theorize "how things work" in the identification and management of toxic substances in products for sale, with a special interest in how this affects children's environmental health. My research revealed the influence of neo-liberalism, corporate power and over-reliance on strictly evidence-based biomedical reductionism in slowing down assessment and regulation of chemicals while many health professionals and grassroots activists have called for swifter responses based on the precautionary principle, as favoured by European governments. That is, politics and bureaucracy, with the approval of industry, over the past two decades, have clung to reductionist science as the only paradigm for understanding toxicity, thus slowing down regulatory processes. Although the historical and epistemological power relations mapped in my research work together to legitimize scientific certainty rather than the precautionary principle, I argue that the resulting regulatory logjam has been and could be addressed by reference to European examples, knowledge produced by collectives and the establishment of upstream and equity-based public health strategies with public input into the process.