Book Summary: Balance Function Assessment and Management, now in its second edition, continues to comprehensively address the assessment and treatment of balance system impairments through contributions from top experts in the areas of dizziness and vertigo. Designed for use in graduate audiology programs and by practicing audiologists, this is also a valuable text for those in the fields of physical therapy, otolaryngology, and neurology. Assessment chapters focus on ocular motility testing, positional/positioning testing, caloric testing, rotational testing, computerized dynamic posturography, and vestibular evoked potentials. Treatment chapters examine nonmedical, medical, and surgical treatments of dizziness and vertigo, vestibular rehabilitation, and assessment of and intervention for risk of falls. Additionally, this text provides background information on the vestibular and ocular motor systems with corresponding sample cases. New topics addressed in this edition include: Development of the vestibular system Central compensation following peripheral vestibular system impairment Video head impulse test (vHIT) Biomechanics and physiology of balance Electrocochleography (ECochG) Pediatric vestibular system and balance assessment Effects of age on the vestibular and balance systems An added bonus to the second edition is the companion website that offers additional reference materials, such as video clips, associated with the text.

It is usually recognized that, in the broad sense, our public schools are maintained for the instruction of children and youth. Moreover, there appear to be three important factors which bear directly upon the nature of this instruction: (1) the individuals who enter the teaching profession, the kinds of people they are, their physical, emotional and mental characteristics or capacities; (2) the kind of education these potential educators receive in preparation for their professional work; and, (3) the actual teaching assignment the individual receives in the particular school where he is employed. Commonly, these three matters are referred to as teacher recruitment, education and assignment.

Social organization varies widely among herbivores, and the level of social organization in bison is widely debated. I hypothesized that when mother-daughter relationships are allowed to develop, bison form long-term associations. In my study, 25 treatment mothers were selected from a free-ranging herd and kept together with their calves, while 25 control females had their calves forcefully removed. Treatment mothers and offspring had by far the greatest number of associations with a greater percentage of individuals with a half weight index (HWI) > 0.50. The strongest associations (HWI > 0.31) were among treatment mothers and their offspring. Moreover, these associations persisted over multiple generations. Group coordination requires group decisions and these can vary between extremes. I hypothesized bison utilized both democratic and despotic decisions. I examined movement initiation and direction decisions following rest periods. For direction decisions older cows repeatedly made decisions despotically for the group; in 93% of the choices, group directions were within 95% confidence intervals. For movement initiation, bison used a more democratic decision-making process; group movements did not begin until an average of 47% of adult cows exited the group. Interestingly, the oldest females led this final post-rest movement behavior in 81% of the decisions. Presumably, living in properly functioning social groups has many benefits, including reduced stress. I hypothesized levels of stress was related to animal density. Consequently, yearling bison males were weaned and placed in either 1) tight confinement (TC), 2) loose (LC) confinement, or 3) free-ranging (FR, returned to herd). I measured fecal cortisol metabolites (FCM) as an index of stress. Fecal samples were collected in each group every 2 weeks from January to April 2009. Fecal cortisol levels were lowest for FR (23 ng/g DM), intermediate for LC (39 ng/g DM), and highest for TC (63 ng/g DM; P<0.0001). Fecal cortisol levels also varied by date (P<0.0001), and treatment and date interacted (P<0.0001). These results indicate bison live in extended families. Also, older females strongly influenced the direction of group movements, but bison also used democratic decisions. Finally, confinement greatly increased stress in young male bison compared with allowing them to free-range.

In northeast Brazil grazing is a major use of much of the semiarid woodlands (caatinga). Animal production is limited by lack of dry season forage, primarily deciduous tree leaves. Management is constrained by the persistence of undesirable trees that sprout from the stump (coppice). This study evaluates the possibility of manipulating coppicing trees to improve caatinga management, particularly dry season forage production. The season of cutting can influence coppicing. Trees were cut early and late in the wet and dry seasons. After two years, trees of all species cut in the late wet season produced less biomass than those cut in other seasons. Production of most species was maximized by cutting in the dry season. Desirable species should be cut during the dry season to maximize production and less desirable ones in the late rainy season to reduce coppicing. Seasonal cutting does not cause mortality, nor can it cause any prolonged change in the leaf: stem ratio. Another study quantifies the response to defoliation of coppice growth by goat browsing or manual removal. The palatable browse species sabia and catingueira suffered no mortality while less palatable species experienced significant mortality. One year after defoliation, defoliated trees still produced less biomass than non-defoliated trees. Browsed stumps sprouted again during the dry season. Changes in the abscission phenology of coppice growth were observed. Coppice growth retained leaves from 2 to 12 weeks longer than intact trees of the same species. Regrowth on browsed stumps remained green for the duration of the S month dry season. Delaying abscission regulates the availability of dry season forage, and has implications for animal production that merit further investigation. Coppice growth can be manipulated to change the species composition of the regenerating stand, improve seasonal forage balance, and reduce site disturbance. Changing from even-aged to uneven-aged management might facilitate these changes. Prospects for improving wood production are better than animal production because of the limits imposed by mixed production systems, land tenure, and human population growth.

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Fish and Wildlife Program mitigates for impacts of hydroelectric dams on ESA-listed salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River Basin (CRB). Considering the sizable investments in mitigation and the diversity of stream habitats within the CRB, there has been a pointed effort to develop and identify meaningful metrics relating to fish populations and trends in their habitat across the CRB. The Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program (ISEMP) was developed in 2003 specifically for this purpose, and is tasked with developing and testing strategies for determining the status and trend of salmonid populations and their habitats in the CRB. This thesis was funded by the BPA, ISEMP, Eco Logical Research Inc., the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board, and the Intensively Monitored Watershed project in the Asotin Creek basin with the purpose of investigating the efficacy of foraging modeling as part of a large fish habitat monitoring program. The primary objectives were i) to assess a foraging model's ability to predict fish density in study sites involved in long-term monitoring and ii) to evaluate energetic implications of restoration design and progress after implementation using a foraging model. To assess the foraging model's ability to predict fish density (objective i), we collected topography, drift, temperature, discharge, and fish population information to support foraging modeling, and we simulated flow patterns, drift, foraging, swimming costs, carrying capacity, and density. We then compared observed and predicted densities in 22 study sites from the John Day and Asotin Creek watersheds: Linear regression between observed and predicted fish densities was significant (R2 = 0.61, p < 0.001). When assuming spatially uniform drift densities and small fish territories, carrying capacity predictions were related to the number of foraging locations simulated, suggesting the model is highly sensitive to territory size assumptions. To evaluate restoration design and monitor restoration progress (objective ii), we simulated foraging before restoration, after a virtual restoration (carried out using the restoration designs in a GIS environment), and again followinfg restoration implementation. We used raster differencing to compare the "before" results to the virtual restoration results and then the "before" results to the "after" results. Hydraulic and foraging models suggested: Mean net energy intake increased following both simulated and actual restoration. Restoration structures generally slowed water's progress through the study site or caused pooling, both resulting in an increase in energetically favorable areas. Generally, more areas shifted from another state to having an acceptable energy balance than to an unacceptable energy balance.

Utah is one of the fastest growing states in the USA. Utah’s Wasatch Range Metropolitan Area (WRMA), where 80% of Utah’s population resides, is growing at unprecedented rates and has seen extensive urban landscape transformation in the last half century. Many of Utah’s agricultural lands, grasslands, and wetlands have been transformed into urban areas during this time. Local residents have watched and experienced these changes to their local environment, but without a clear understanding of the processes and impacts of urbanization. It is not until we study these landscapes from a spatial perspective and the time scale of decades that we can begin to measure the changes that have occurred and predict the impact of changes to come if current trajectories continue. In this dissertation research I worked with my research colleagues to provide a comprehensive analysis of the WRMA’s past land use changes and future land use trends. In doing so, we: (1) measured the rate, the magnitude, and the process of past urban growth; (2) compared the changes of irrigated agricultural lands and non-irrigated agricultural lands in relation to urban development; and, (3) predicted how future urban growth could occur under various policy scenarios. We found that several counties at the heart of the WRMA have reached the limits of their capacity for future urban expansion. Thus, increasing urban density and land use efficiency will be key aspects of addressing the WRMA’s future growth. Also, variations of growth trends exist among and within the ten counties located in the WRMA, so it is necessary to develop contextualized and localized growth management plans. Furthermore, past land use dynamics prove that irrigated agricultural lands are more affected by urbanization than non-irrigated agricultural lands, with evidence of increasing agricultural lands fragmentation. Agricultural lands have been and will likely continue to be the major land source for future urban development. Utah’s public has indicated it wants to preserve agricultural lands to maintain open space and preserve cultural heritage, but this will require political attention and actions focused on areas where these lands are particularly vulnerable in the face of urban growth trajectories. The overall dissertation provides quantitative measurement of Utah’s urban landscape transformation and a science-based foundation for crafting successful land use policies to help guide future growth of the WRMA.

The Lower to Middle Ordovician Garden City Formation and Pogonip Group are coeval successions of mixed carbonate and siliciclastic rocks deposited under normal marine conditions on a shallow carbonate ramp on the western margin of Laurentia. The Garden City Formation was deposited in the Northern Utah Basin and the Pogonip Group was deposited in the Ibex Basin. These two basins experienced different rates of thermal subsidence following Neoproterozoic rifting along the western margin of Laurentia resulting in significant thickness differences between rock units and varying lithologic expressions of eustatic change. This study provides a unique opportunity to examine the lithologic, geochemical, and paleontological responses to eustatic oscillations of two coeval sedimentary basins in Utah that formed under different tectonic settings and subsidence rates. The Garden City Formation is composed of fourteen lithotypes and the Pogonip Group is composed of eleven lithotypes. These lithotypes mainly represent depositional environments ranging from inner ramp and middle ramp with minor outer ramp deposits. Many lithologies appear to be storm influenced due to the presence of abundant rip-up clasts (intraclasts), fragmented bioclasts, and occasional mega-ripples. Other lithologies have been extensively bioturbated and burrowed. Nine stratigraphic sequences have previously been identified within the Pogonip Group. Eight equivalent, albeit compressed, sequences within the Garden City Formation were located using biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic correlations, and increases in insoluble residues often found at the bases of sequence boundaries. Sequences are expressed as deepening-upward packages containing silty/sandy lowstand deposits that transition into wackestones and lime mudstone-rich highstand deposits. Several sequence boundaries appear to coincide with conodont and/or trilobite extinction events. Important sequence boundaries mark the Sauk III-m and Sauk IV-m transition and the Ibexian- Whiterockian Series boundary. Meter-scale cycles are common and likely related to Milankovitch cyclicity. Insoluble residue increases upsection at each location which may indicate a gradual overall drop in sea level due to the onset of the regressive upper portion of the Sauk III supersequence. Insoluble residue from the Pogonip Group ranges from 1.2 to 84.7 wt. % with an average of 16.0 wt. % ± 0.7 wt. %. Insoluble residue from the Garden City Formation ranges from 1.5 to 63.8 wt. % with an average of 13.4 wt. % ± 1.0 wt. %. New stable carbon isotope data (δ13C) from the Garden City Formation and the Pogonip Group range from -2.92 to 1.23 ‰ V-PDB and -2.19 to 0.56 ‰ V-PDB, respectively. Four distinct δ13C trends are recognized in both sections: 1) a drop in δ13C from positive values between 0.2-1.0 ‰ to negative values approaching -1.0 ‰ near the base of the Ordovician, 2) a 0.5 to 1.0 ‰ positive δ13C excursion near the top of the Rossodus manitouensis Zone, 3) a drop in δ13C values to near -2.0 ‰ through most of the Acodus deltatus –Oneotodus costatus Zone, and 4) a gradual increase in δ13C from - 2.0 ‰ to -1.0 ‰ throughout the remainder of the sections. δ13C of the Garden City Formation and the Pogonip Group appear to be correlative based on these distinct trends. This correlative relationship was verified by the lowest occurrence of conodont species Scolopodus filosus and Scalpellodus n. sp. A of the Low Diversity Interval which coincides with the positive δ13C excursion in both the Garden City Formation and the Pogonip Group. New δ13C data likely represent global primary seawater chemistry based on the correlation of similar δ13C trends from the Argentine Precordillera and western Newfoundland.

This experimental study used eight written vignettes to analyze the effects of professor gender, professor leadership style (democratic/autocratic), and type of situation (task/personal) and participant gender on evaluations of professorsʹ competence, likeability and masculinity characteristics. Undergraduates from the College of Arts and Science (N=932; Males=464, Females=467), and the College of Education (N=722; Males=140, Females=582) were used. Results indicated that research participants rated democratic professors significantly more competent, likeable, and more feminine than autocratic professors. Contrary to expectations derived from gender spill-over and gender congruency theories, male participants did not rate female professors more negatively than their male counterparts when they acted autocratically in a personal situation (i.e., gender incongruent manner.) Exploratory results revealed trends that are discussed along with theoretical and practical implications.

Culturally appropriate conceptual models for practice are of major interest to occupational therapists, an emerging health profession in Thailand. Currently in Thailand, occupational therapy education and practice derives its conceptual models from Western models. How these models are translated into practice in Thailand is unclear, as there are currently no research studies relating to the cultural and clinical practice demands of Thai occupational therapists and of service delivery in Thailand. In addition, how occupational therapists in Australia apply conceptual models in practice has also been given limited attention in the research literature. A comparison is made between Thai and Western Australian occupational therapists to examine the use of theoretical models in the Western cultural context and to investigate the influences of cultural differences on occupational therapy practice. The purpose of this study is to identify the conceptual models most frequently used by occupational therapists in Thailand and in Australia, to describe the application of these models to practice, and to explore the cultural influences impacting on the application to practice. The need for a derived but more culturally specific conceptual model for occupational therapy practice in Thailand was also investigated. Focus group interviews were conducted as the initial stage of the study, to obtain in-depth background information about occupational therapy practice. Content analysis using transcript-based analysis and systematic coding was used to analyse the focus group data. The results demonstrated three main conceptual approaches: among both Westem Australian and Thai occupational therapists. These three models were described as the Performance Model, the Whole Person Model, and the Medical Model. / The findings from focus group interviews and related literature were used to develop a questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed as a self-report measure, using a 4 point scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’. It was arranged in 4 parts: Part A-Background Information, Part B- Models of Occupational Therapy Practice, Part C-Occupational Therapy Practice, and Part D-Practice Comment. Parts A, B and C consisted of closed-ended questions, whereas Part D was constructed to elicit open-ended questions. The survey data was collected from 138 Thai occupational therapists (ThaiOTs) and 155 Western Australian occupational therapists (WAOTs). A Chi-square test result demonstrated that ThaiOTs favoured the Medical Model for practice whilst WAOTs used the Performance Model and the Whole Person Model (p < 0.05). Principal component factor analysis was used to identify significant factors differentiating the practice of WA and Thai occupational therapists and to guide the development of the model of practice for ThaiOTs. The Mann-Whitney U Test results showed clear differences of therapist practice between Australia and Thailand in relation to their views about Clients, Professional Perspective (Therapists), Intervention, Cultural Implications, and Health Care Systems due to the influence of the culture and socio-cultural environment (p < 0.05). The outcomes from all stages in the study were used to develop a model of practice for Thai occupational therapists. This model named the ‘Samphan’ Framework of Practice focuses on the client and family as an inseparable unit, which differs from an individual, or client focus central to most Western models.

<p>The rapid development of Internet technologies has led to the emergence of new communication means. E-mail has become a new powerful tool used by millions with the main purpose of exchanging information. Considering its large scope, marketers have been using the e-mail as an important direct marketing force and it has become a popular choice for many companies. The e-mail has therefore constituted a new form of on-line marketing coined “E-mail marketing”. However, the increasing use of the e-mail marketing has been adversely affected by the appearance of non-traditional marketing communication media such as unsolicited commercial e-mails (UCEs). The main reasons behind the alarming growth of the UCEs are those explained by the low-cost structure of the e-mail and, thus, a small number of responses are required for generating a profit (Moustakas <em>et al.</em>, 2006; p.45; Shenoy, 2008; p.32). This unsolicited medium used for reaching consumers has evolved from mere nuisance to actual threat (Mendleson, 2010; p.38), which has brought a new complexity into consumers’ daily lives. This in its turn calls for examination of consumer’s perception about the unsolicited commercial e-mails.</p><p> </p><p>Hence, the aim of this thesis is to examine consumer’s perceptions about the mentioned unsolicited marketing communication medium. This will provide increased awareness of the profound implications that the UCEs have on e-commerce and the e-mail marketing on the whole and, particularly, on Internet user groups such as companies, e-mail service providers and policy makers. The study was conducted with a positivistic position and followed a deductive approach, taking known theories as point of departure. The theories presented are mainly concerned with: privacy, ethical and legislation issues; consumer’s reactions and motives behind the opening of the e-mail; the impact of the UCEs on the brand image and overall implications of the UCEs.</p><p> </p><p>A self-completion questionnaire was used as method of data collection. The results indicate that the UCEs are perceived as slightly unethical and neither intrusive nor nonintrusive by the respondents. There is also no clear perceived protection by the anti-spam law, which claims the need for improvement of the policy makers’ work. The results also reveal that the most common consumer’s reaction is to disregard and delete the UCEs, although a small but considerable percentage of the consumers respond. The findings show that the different contents of the UCEs are perceived with low levels of interest by the respondents. Also, the motives behind the opening of the UCEs by the respondents are distributed nearly equal: the credibility of the sender, simply the curiosity and the attractiveness of the subject line. This study reveals a fairly negative perceived image of the companies advertised by the UCEs, which proves the associated cost of sending the UCEs. Furthermore, it has been found that the respondents are concerned about sharing their e-mail addresses with e-companies because of the UCEs and that the latter hinder the accessibility to solicited commercial e-mails in the e-mail inboxes. The e-mail service providers have been also affected since a quarter of the respondents have changed them as a consequence of receiving the UCEs. Thus, the results of this thesis show the adverse implications of the UCEs on electronic commerce, e-mail marketing and on Internet user groups.</p>