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This thesis investigates the implementation of the ‘Team-Teach’ behaviour support training programme in New Zealand. This school-wide training package develops generalised skills in behaviour management and de-escalation for students who are exhibiting extreme and violent behaviour. The Team-Teach framework also provides training in physical interventions that are designed for use in schools, and with children. The legal issues associated with the use of physical intervention are also addressed during the training in addition to recommended best practice for the development of policies and procedures. Prior evidence suggests that behaviour support training with a physical intervention overlay can result in increased confidence and safety for staff members and a reduction in the levels of physical intervention and incidents. The purpose of this study was to investigate participant opinion of Team-Teach training immediately after course delivery and further into implementation in addition to an investigation into the barriers and facilitating factors affecting the impact of Team-Teach within two New Zealand special schools. The research employs a mixed method pragmatic paradigm utilising document analysis, questionnaire and interview survey to ascertain the impact and implementation issues related to Team-Teach training. Quantitative analysis of course feedback ratings and attitudinal scales were combined with the qualitative thematic analysis of written comments and interview transcripts to inform the discussion. The results present a positive endorsement of Team-Teach training both immediately after the training course and further into implementation and compare favourably with the findings of previous international studies. Research participants reported a significant increase in personal confidence and a perceived reduction in incidences of extreme behaviour and physical intervention. The perceptions of research participants to initial training in New Zealand varied considerably between training providers and there were also notable differences between groups in different work roles and with different levels of experience. Research participants expressed concern over the lack of adaptation of the Team-Teach syllabus to embrace the New Zealand context. Research participants endorsed use of the ‘positive handling plan’ (PHP) as a way to legitimatise and standardise practice in difficult situations. It was however clear that neither school had developed genuine parental partnerships in either the creation or effective communication of these plans. There was a general agreement that parents should be able to access Team-Teach training but significant concerns were highlighted over how this could be achieved in practice. Research participants endorsed the Team-Teach model of training ‘in-house’ tutors to provide contextual and responsive internal capacity. There was a general agreement that the physical interventions taught were effective and appropriate for use with children. Participants clearly expressed concerns related to the teaching of too many physical interventions that were not required and recommended that training in physical interventions should be in class teams and specific to actual need. There was a clear indication that research participants believed this training should receive official recognition at the highest level as an acknowledgement that physical intervention is sometimes necessary in schools and that there is a legitimate way to achieve this.

Construction cost indices are developed to measure the degree of price variations in construction material and labor costs. However, each specific type of construction is a combination of unique set of materials and labor. As such, the degree of price variations referring to each specific type of construction shall be measured by specific price indices, in order to achieve more accurate results. In Turkey, Producer Price Index (PPI) published by State Statistics Institute is commonly used for the escalation of building costs. This study aims to compare the existing cost indices as well as new alternative cost indices in terms of their adequacy for the representation of variations in the building costs in Turkey. The developed price indices will be tested to measure their fit with the cost of building projects, will be compared with the price indices published by the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement and also State Statistics Institute, and finally the most adequate price indices among the examined ones to be used for building projects will be selected. Moreover, models representing past price movements will be developed.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian men. The standard treatment in high-risk category is radical radiation, with androgen suppression treatment (AST). Significant disease progression is reported despite this approach. Radiation dose escalation has been shown to improve disease-free survival; however, it results in higher toxicities. Hypofractionated radiation schedules (larger dose each fraction in shorter overall treatment time) are expected to deliver higher biological doses. A hypofractionated scheme was used in this study to escalate radiation doses with AST. Treatment was well tolerated acutely. Early results of self-administered quality of life reported by patients shows a decrease in QOL which is comparable to other treatment schedules. Significant positional variation of the prostate was observed during treatment. Therefore, we suggest daily target verification to avoid a target miss. Initial late effects are reasonable and early treatment outcomes are promising. Longer follow-up is required for full outcomes assessments.

Housing renovation is a major activity for many consumers in Australia, and its growing popularity in recent years has been reflected not only by it share in GDP but also by publicity it receives via home exhibitions and numerous TV renovation shows. Despite this, and despite similar experiences in other countries, research on how decisions in this sector are made is still quite sparse, a major restraint being the limitation of secondary data. This thesis attempts to improve knowledge in this area while at the same time exploring the feasibility and benefits of doing applied economic research in a pluralistic manner. From the perspective of mainstream economics, individuals’ decision-making in the context of renovation can be modelled in terms of utility/profit maximization subject to a budget constraint. The literature that has attempted to follow this research strategy is reviewed in Chapter 2, as is research undertaken in sociology that has been partly informed by behavioural economics. The economic literature fails to recognize the possible importance of social influence and psychological factors in this context. This could be unfortunate, as these factors, which are seen as important in some other economic paradigms, may explain how some renovators get derailed from rational decision-making. The methodology of pluralism offers a way to bridge between these divergent arguments by keeping mainstream insights in mind whilst at the same time adopting an ‘open-minded’ rather than ‘autistic’ attitudes towards different paradigms and embracing ‘realistic’ aspects (e.g. limits to individuals’ rational behaviours) rather than assuming them away. Chapter 3 examines the case for pluralism and shows that although debate in economics is often couched in terms of a battle between fundamentally opposed ‘mainstream’ and ‘heterodox’ views, a deeper analysis of sub-paradigms reveals a complex web of partially overlapping core ideas. Once this richer view of schools of thought in economics is recognized, orthodox economics and heterodox economics are not necessarily incompatible but rather seem potentially complementary. Despite renovation being a popular topic in Australia, relevant micro-data regarding individuals’ choices and their social and psychological attitudes towards renovation are in short supply. Therefore, unlike most previous renovation studies using published secondary data, this study involved the collection of primary data by a survey mailed to a sample of Brisbane residents in late 2006 and early 2007. Chapter 4 explains this choice of method, which provided data on respondents’ decision-making regarding renovation, their demographics, and social and psychological factors. This data set was used to analyse the following four topics: individuals’ decision to renovate or not (Chapter 5); renovators’ choice between using their own labour (DIY) or outsourcing the work (Chapter 6); psychographic segments of ‘non-renovators’, ‘DIY-renovators’ and ‘Hire-renovators’ (renovators who outsource the work) (Chapter 7); and factors shaping renovators’ tendencies to engage in overcapitalization and cost escalation in their renovation projects (Chapter 8). The pluralistic philosophy is applied in an addition way to analyse these issues, since the study used a variety of statistical techniques. The empirical results reveal that this dual form of pluralism—involving theoretical inputs from a variety of paradigms (including both ‘old’ and ‘new’ behavioural economics, socio-economics and others) and a variety of analytical techniques (cluster analysis, logistic regression and others)—does indeed widen our understanding of this topic. Generally speaking, the empirical finding stresses the importance of psychological factors in the context of individuals’ decision-making on renovation. In analysing individuals’ decisions to renovate or not, it is shown that, besides conventional factors (such as age of respondents), the psychological factor ‘perceived self-performance in renovation’ is crucial: individuals are more likely to embrace renovation if they perceive highly their ability to handle the renovation process. In exploring renovators’ decisions to engage in do-it-yourself (DIY) or hire others to do the work in their latest renovation projects, besides factors such as the scope of the project and renovators’ capabilities, the psychological factor ‘trust in contractors’ plays an important role: renovators are more likely to choose to use their own labour if they are uncertain about contractors’ reliability while those who outsource renovation works are in general more trusting than those who engage in DIY. The exploratory psychographic analysis of heterogeneous groups within each of the three groups (non-renovators, DIY-renovators and Hire-renovators) indicates the necessity of recognizing the heterogeneity the population when designing policies to improve the efficiency of the renovation market. In the investigation of renovators’ mistakes that lead to overcapitalization and cost escalation, psychological factors did not show their expected strong influences on either of these phenomena. However, it was found that the factors related to the project itself, especially the scope of the project (approximated by ‘time spent on preparation’) and the age of house, influence renovators’ overcapitalized spending and the extent of their cost escalation.

Housing renovation is a major activity for many consumers in Australia, and its growing popularity in recent years has been reflected not only by it share in GDP but also by publicity it receives via home exhibitions and numerous TV renovation shows. Despite this, and despite similar experiences in other countries, research on how decisions in this sector are made is still quite sparse, a major restraint being the limitation of secondary data. This thesis attempts to improve knowledge in this area while at the same time exploring the feasibility and benefits of doing applied economic research in a pluralistic manner. From the perspective of mainstream economics, individuals’ decision-making in the context of renovation can be modelled in terms of utility/profit maximization subject to a budget constraint. The literature that has attempted to follow this research strategy is reviewed in Chapter 2, as is research undertaken in sociology that has been partly informed by behavioural economics. The economic literature fails to recognize the possible importance of social influence and psychological factors in this context. This could be unfortunate, as these factors, which are seen as important in some other economic paradigms, may explain how some renovators get derailed from rational decision-making. The methodology of pluralism offers a way to bridge between these divergent arguments by keeping mainstream insights in mind whilst at the same time adopting an ‘open-minded’ rather than ‘autistic’ attitudes towards different paradigms and embracing ‘realistic’ aspects (e.g. limits to individuals’ rational behaviours) rather than assuming them away. Chapter 3 examines the case for pluralism and shows that although debate in economics is often couched in terms of a battle between fundamentally opposed ‘mainstream’ and ‘heterodox’ views, a deeper analysis of sub-paradigms reveals a complex web of partially overlapping core ideas. Once this richer view of schools of thought in economics is recognized, orthodox economics and heterodox economics are not necessarily incompatible but rather seem potentially complementary. Despite renovation being a popular topic in Australia, relevant micro-data regarding individuals’ choices and their social and psychological attitudes towards renovation are in short supply. Therefore, unlike most previous renovation studies using published secondary data, this study involved the collection of primary data by a survey mailed to a sample of Brisbane residents in late 2006 and early 2007. Chapter 4 explains this choice of method, which provided data on respondents’ decision-making regarding renovation, their demographics, and social and psychological factors. This data set was used to analyse the following four topics: individuals’ decision to renovate or not (Chapter 5); renovators’ choice between using their own labour (DIY) or outsourcing the work (Chapter 6); psychographic segments of ‘non-renovators’, ‘DIY-renovators’ and ‘Hire-renovators’ (renovators who outsource the work) (Chapter 7); and factors shaping renovators’ tendencies to engage in overcapitalization and cost escalation in their renovation projects (Chapter 8). The pluralistic philosophy is applied in an addition way to analyse these issues, since the study used a variety of statistical techniques. The empirical results reveal that this dual form of pluralism—involving theoretical inputs from a variety of paradigms (including both ‘old’ and ‘new’ behavioural economics, socio-economics and others) and a variety of analytical techniques (cluster analysis, logistic regression and others)—does indeed widen our understanding of this topic. Generally speaking, the empirical finding stresses the importance of psychological factors in the context of individuals’ decision-making on renovation. In analysing individuals’ decisions to renovate or not, it is shown that, besides conventional factors (such as age of respondents), the psychological factor ‘perceived self-performance in renovation’ is crucial: individuals are more likely to embrace renovation if they perceive highly their ability to handle the renovation process. In exploring renovators’ decisions to engage in do-it-yourself (DIY) or hire others to do the work in their latest renovation projects, besides factors such as the scope of the project and renovators’ capabilities, the psychological factor ‘trust in contractors’ plays an important role: renovators are more likely to choose to use their own labour if they are uncertain about contractors’ reliability while those who outsource renovation works are in general more trusting than those who engage in DIY. The exploratory psychographic analysis of heterogeneous groups within each of the three groups (non-renovators, DIY-renovators and Hire-renovators) indicates the necessity of recognizing the heterogeneity the population when designing policies to improve the efficiency of the renovation market. In the investigation of renovators’ mistakes that lead to overcapitalization and cost escalation, psychological factors did not show their expected strong influences on either of these phenomena. However, it was found that the factors related to the project itself, especially the scope of the project (approximated by ‘time spent on preparation’) and the age of house, influence renovators’ overcapitalized spending and the extent of their cost escalation.

Escalation of commitment refers to the tendency of decision makers to continue with failing courses of action (Staw, 1981). An abundance of research has shown that decision makers persistently escalate commitment to less favorable alternatives when making a series of decisions related to a single course of action. This decision making fallacy occurs across a wide range of personal and professional settings, and has significant implications for management and policy. There has been a wealth of research suggesting various explanations for why escalating commitment occurs across a wide range of situations; however, there have been relatively few studies investigating factors that may reduce this type of irrational decision making. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and understand emotional information in oneself and others and use that information to guide one's thinking and behavior (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). This study investigated the previously unexplored relationship between emotional intelligence and escalation of commitment decisions. It also examined whether anticipatory emotions and risk perceptions mediate the relationship between emotional intelligence and escalation of commitment. It was hypothesized that individuals who have higher emotional intelligence will be less likely to commit additional funds to unfavorable courses of action, and that this relationship is mediated by anticipatory emotions and risk perceptions. These hypotheses were tested using a scenario based experiment with 110 undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university. Escalation of commitment was measured using Staw's (1976) "Adams & Smith Financial Decision Case" (p.30). Emotional intelligence was measured using the 33-item emotional intelligence scale (Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden, & Dornheim, 1998) The relationship between emotional intelligence and escalation of commitment was tested using regression analysis, and the mediating relationships (anticipatory emotions, risk perceptions) were tested using Baron and Kenny's (1986) mediation procedure. Findings from the study reveal several practical and theoretical contributions. Results suggest that emotional intelligence is not significantly related to escalation of commitment. However, anticipatory emotions were shown to play an important role in one's tendency to escalate commitments. Those who anticipated more positive emotions about finishing the course of action were significantly more likely to escalate commitments toward its completion. In addition, managerial experience was significant in reducing one's tendency to escalate commitments. Results, strengths, weaknesses and future research directions are discussed in relation to the current study.

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Large software organizations handle many customer support issues every day in the form of bug reports, feature requests, and general misunderstandings as submitted by customers. Strategies to gather, analyze, and negotiate requirements are comple- mented by efforts to manage customer input after products have been deployed. For the latter, support tickets are key in allowing customers to submit their issues, bug re- ports, and feature requests. Whenever insufficient attention is given to support issues, there is a chance customers will escalate their issues, and escalation to management is time-consuming and expensive, especially for large organizations managing hundreds of customers and thousands of support tickets. This thesis provides a step towards simplifying the job for support analysts and managers, particularly in predicting the risk of escalating support tickets. In a field study at our large industrial partner, IBM, a design science methodology was employed to characterize the support process and data available to IBM analysts in managing escalations. Through iterative cycles of design and evaluation, support analysts’ expert knowledge about their customers was translated into features of a support ticket model to be implemented into a Ma- chine Learning model to predict support ticket escalations. The Machine Learning model was trained and evaluated on over 2.5 million support tickets and 10,000 escalations, obtaining a recall of 79.9% and an 80.8% reduction in the workload for support analysts looking to identify support tickets at risk of escalation. Further on- site evaluations were conducted through a tool developed to implement the Machine Learning techniques in industry, deployed during weekly support-ticket-management meetings. The features developed in the Support Ticket Model are designed to serve as a starting place for organizations interested in implementing the model to predict support ticket escalations, and for future researchers to build on to advance research in Escalation Prediction. / Graduate

How do technologies that remove warfighters from the front lines affect the frequency and intensity of military confrontations between states? Many scholars and policymakers fear that weapons that reduce the risks and costs of war – in blood and treasure – will lead states to resort to force more frequently during crises, destabilizing the international security environment. These concerns have featured prominently in debates surrounding the proliferation and use of remote warfighting technologies, such as drones. This project sets out to evaluate whether and how drones affect crisis escalation. Specifically, do drones allow decisionmakers to deploy military forces more frequently during interstate crises? Once deployed, how do these systems affect escalation dynamics? I argue that drones can help control escalation, raising questions about scholarly theories that suggest the world is more dangerous and less stable when technology makes conflict cheaper and less risky. At the core of this project is a theory of technology-enabled escalation control. The central argument is that technologies like drones that remove friendly forces from the battlefield may lead states to use force more frequently, but decrease the likelihood of escalation when used in lieu of inhabited platforms. More specifically, these technologies lower the political barriers to initiating military operations during crises, primarily by eliminating the risk of friendly force casualties and the associated domestic political consequences for launching military operations. At the same time, removing personnel from harm’s way may reduce demand for escalatory reprisals after remotely operated systems are lost to hostile action. Drones can also help to mitigate escalatory spirals by collecting intelligence that overcomes information asymmetries that often contribute to armed conflict, helping facilitate more measured decision-making and tailored targeting of enemy forces. By more fully considering how technology affects escalatory dynamics after the initial use of force, technology-enabled escalation control theory advances our understanding of the link between technology and conflict. I test the theory using a multi-method approach that combines case studies with original experiments embedded in surveys fielded on public and military samples. The dissertation also introduces a new research method for international relations research: experimental manipulations embedded in wargames with military participants. In Chapter 1 and 2, I define the concept of crisis escalation and review the literature that examines the effect of technology on escalation and conflict dynamics. I then introduce the theory of technology-enabled escalation control and outline four mechanisms that undergird the theory – increased initiation, tempered/tailored targeting, restrained retaliation, and amplified aggression. Each of these hypothesized mechanisms describes ways in which emerging technologies can prevent crises from escalating into broader or more intense conflicts. Chapter 3 describes each component of the multi-method research design that I use to test the theory in Chapters 4 through 7. Chapter 4 uses experiments embedded in surveys and wargames to assess whether and how drones allow states to more frequently initiate military operations. Chapter 5 tests whether drones enable decisionmakers to control escalation by restraining retaliation after attacks on a state’s drones. Chapter 6 and 7 test the theory in the context of U.S drone use during the Cold War and Israeli drone use from the 1960s through late-2010s. The findings of these empirical tests provide strong support for technology-enabled escalation control. In Chapter 8, I conclude with a summary of the analysis and test the generalizability of the theory beyond the state use of drones. I find that tenets of technology-enabled escalation control explain escalation dynamics associated with U.S. cyber operations against North Korea and Hezbollah’s use of drones against Israel and during the Syrian Civil War. The chapter also maps out pathways for future research and identifies policy implications. My findings suggest the growing proliferation of drones will increase the frequency of military confrontations during crises, yet these confrontations are unlikely to escalate. Even though drones may help control escalation, clearer doctrine, rules of engagement, and international agreements to govern their use will help to further avoid crisis escalation and conflict.