Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Feb. 2, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

There has been tremendous variation in the development trajectories of Latin America's leftist parties. Whereas some have successfully entrenched roots in society, built their party organization, and become relevant national parties, other leftist parties have languished organizationally, suffered debilitating internecine rivalries, and witnessed a mass defection of followers, at times despite substantial initial electoral success. For instance, Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) abandoned socialism, moderated its program, and built itself up into one of Brazil's two main parties. Venezuela's Radical Cause (LCR) and Peru's United Left (IU), however, did not. While they had similar origins to the PT, both failed to adapt: LCR and IU fractured and became electorally irrelevant, having been unable to adapt to external challenges. What accounts for this puzzling empirical variation in otherwise similar parties in relatively similar contexts? More broadly, this dissertation seeks to answer under what conditions do leftist parties in Latin American democracies transform from undemocratic, radical, weakly institutionalized parties into democratic, moderate, professional parties? Conversely, under what conditions do they fail to adapt, experience organizational stagnation, and succumb to irrelevance? It argues that the political context in which each of these leftist parties emerged had an indelible effect on the parties' later ability to adapt institutionally and ideologically to future endogenous and exogenous shocks. First, where authoritarian repression dismantled preexisting leftist parties, a political vacuum on the left emerged that created the incentive for the rise of a new type of leftist party that intrinsically valued democracy. Second, the implementation of legal requirements by outgoing authoritarian regimes during a party's formative years encouraged parties to institutionalize, ensuring the development of a disciplined, majoritarian party organization. Finally, obstinance on the part of the military's move to extricate itself from politics encouraged leftist parties to participate in democratization and, thus, widen their electoral appeals. Those leftist parties that were formed under such regimes were induced to take certain actions and adopt certain institutions that made them adaptable in the long run. Those that formed afterwards or never experienced life under authoritarian rule had little incentive to change and, thus, proved unable to respond to external challenges down the line that demanded institutional professionalization and ideological moderation. / text

published_or_final_version / Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

The objective of this study was to determine the safety impacts of right turn followed by U-turn movements (RTUT) at signalized intersections as well as median openings. RTUT movements are the most common alternatives to direct DLT movements(DLT). In order to achieve such data in a shorter amount of time, conflict analysis was chosen to be useful in this study as opposed to crash analysis. Additionally, data collection sites were divided dependent on certain geometric criterion and conflict data was recorded by the use of video recording equipment. Seven out the eleven conflict types used during the study were related to RTUT movements while the remaining observed conflicts were related to DLT movements. The safety comparison of right turns followed by U-turns to direct left turns at traffic signal sites indicated that DLT movements generated two times more conflicts per hour than RTUT movements. When the effects of traffic volumes have been taken into consideration, RTUT movements had a 5 percent higher conflict rate than DLT movements. At median opening sites, DLT movements generated 10 percent more conflicts per hour than RTUT movements. Furthermore, the other conflict rate, which takes the effect of traffic volumes into consideration, was 62 percent higher for DLT movements as compared to RTUT movements.Impacts of separation distance on safety of RTUT movements were investigated by a regression model. The model investigated impacts of U-turn bay locations and the number of lanes on major arterial on separation distance requirements. The model results indicated that U-turn bays located at signalized intersections and greater number of lanes on major arterials increases the minimum separation distance requirements. Finally, on four lane arterials U-turn distributions at median openings were analyzed to investigate how U-turns are accommodated at such locations. A u-turn regression model was developed to investigate impacts of median modifications on signalized intersection safety. The model results indicated that median modifications across the high volume driveways may cause safety problems at downstream signalized intersection.

As America's public schools become more diverse, the achievement gap between white students and students of color persists. These gaps are even more apparent in urban areas that serve large numbers of poor students of color. Because the population of aspiring teachers is increasingly white and middle class, theorists and teacher trainers often recommend multicultural education as a solution to working successfully in these schools. Multicultural education theorists claim that their suggestions for K-12 practitioners have not been infused into classrooms and schools, and so maintain that additional training opportunities should be provided for teachers. Although there is ample literature regarding multicultural education, there is scant research discussing teachers' perceptions and experiences with multicultural education, especially experienced teachers at the secondary level post-No Child Left Behind (NCLB). While one of the main purposes for the accountability measures in NCLB is to eliminate the achievement gap, these current political policies are at odds with the ideals of multicultural education. Further, historical and sociological analyses indicate that teachers have not been able to systematically alter school practices or outcomes in urban schools. Therefore, there is a gap between multicultural education theory and practice, as well as a gap between multicultural education theory and policy. The purpose of this study was to further investigate teacher perceptions of the factors in schools that affect the gaps between theories, practice and policy. Seven teachers who embrace multicultural education and work in urban secondary schools serving large populations of students of color were interviewed to further explore their experiences when implementing multicultural practices in their classroom. The results of this research suggest that multicultural education theory may be flawed in the way it approaches teacher training and the unique conditions of urban secondary schools, especially in the high accountability NCLB era. Teachers in this study understood the theoretical foundations of multicultural education, but believed that the goals of multicultural education were beyond what could be accomplished in classrooms. The findings of this study address some of the theoretical inconsistencies related to the institutional contexts of urban schools, teacher retention, and multicultural education teacher training models.

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This thesis is a study of the organisations, behaviour and attitudes of a group of parliamentarians, conventionally described as the "Right", between 1905 and 1919. The Right is defined as comprising those deputies and senators who belonged to parliamentary groups which were almost united in opposing the law of Separation of the Churches and the State. It is pointed out in the Introduction that categories, suggested by writers such as Goguel, Rémond and Thibaudet, which attempt to describe more meaningfully the divisions in French politics are not particularly useful for the purposes of this study. Members of the Right were, before the passing of the law of Separation, in varying degrees conservative on the religious issue. They were united in opposition to the ministries of the years 1899 to 1906. They shared the same antipathies but lacked a positive aim. The Right could be described as a coalition as long as a bond of mutual sympathy lasted. After 1905 it rapidly disappeared. Section I contains a description of the electoral and parliamentary organisations of the Right and the effects upon them of four general elections. Those groups, which had no representatives in parliament, the most celebrated being the Ligue de l'Action Française, are outside the scope of this study. The parliamentary and electoral organisations were weak, divided and undemocratic. In 1905 most of them were of recent formation. They were formed during a period when there was a sharp division in French politics. The blurring of this division and successive electoral defeats took much of the life out of them. Only the electoral organisations had formal constitutions and these provide useful illustrations of the nature of the organisations. They were oligarchic and their importance depended on the stature of their leaders. At elections they approved rather than sponsored candidates. The parliamentary groups met infrequently and had no control over their members. But group membership is a useful guide to the political tendencies of deputés. The Senate groups became, after 1906, more eclectic and therefore a less useful guide to the opinions of their members. The major national issue of the election campaign of 1906 - the religious question - separated the Right from all other political tendencies. In 1910 the three main issues - the question scolaire, income tax and proportional representation - were confused and submerged by discussions about Briand and his policy of apaisement. On the main issues in 1914 - the Three Years Law and proportional representation (the question scolaire and income tax were of lesser importance) - the attitudes of the Right were shared by men of other political tendencies. The major issue of 1919, anti-socialism, provided common ground for all members of the Right and the Centre. Thus between 1905 and 1919 the Right became progressively less isolated in election campaigns. In Section II those issues on which the Right is usually thought to have distinctive views are examined. The most obvious of these is the clerical question. The difference of opinion within the Right on this question and the decline in its parliamentary importance are described. The formation of the bloc national marks the symbolic end to the isolation of the Right on the religious issue. It lived on as a divisive factor in politics but it no longer had the same primary importance that it possessed in 1905. On the constitutional question the Right was divided within itself as well as from its opponents. Republican, plebiscitary, corporative, bonapartist and monarchist ideas were defended by different sections. Since neither monarchist restoration nor major constitutional revision was a serious possibility curing this period, constitutional discussion was academic. But the ideas of members of the Right usefully illustrate the way they approached basic political problems. Under the heading "External Affairs" the views of the Right on colonial and foreign affairs are considered. Apart from a certain amount of polemical extremism and hints of racialism, the views of the Right varied in degree and not in kind from those of the Centre. The nationalists, who were noisy patriots, were more concerned about the enemy within than the enemy without. Few paid much attention to the practical difficulties which occured in the daily conduct of affairs. In Section III a diversity of subjects are treated under the general heading of "Interest". No group had a monopoly of deputies engaged in a particular activity. General patterns of personal interests emerge but they give no precise indication of individual political views and behaviour. The behaviour of the groups of the Right towards the ministries is described as this forms a background to (although it was not directly related to) discussions on social and financial measures. It also illustrates the evolution of the parliamentary tactics of the Right from disapproval of all anticlerical ministries to obvious preference for some ministries and eventually during the First World War, to support for governments. Some deputies and senators of the Right expressed views on the way in which society should be organised and on possible methods of resolving social discord. These are examined as an introduction to the reactions of the Right to trade unions and strikes. The attitude of the Right on the social question became progressively more negative. The preservation of the status quo became the primary consideration. The social and financial reforms, proposed by the Left to redistribute power and wealth within the community, were opposed by the Right. But there were divisions within the Right on the lengths to which opposition should be carried. Moreover the Right was never isolated in its opposition to these measures. The reason why the bills nationalising the Western railway, introducing old age pensions and income tax were delayed for so long was opposition in the Centre rather than on the Right of the Chamber and Senate. The passing of these bills and their acceptance by public opinion had a somewhat similar effect to the passing of the law of Separation. It removed them from public discussion and they lost their political importance. The thread running through the period 1905 to 1919 is the growing realisation by most of the Right that they had much in common with the Centre. There was something of a realignment in parliament and the country, with socialism replacing clericalism as the great divisive force. This realignment should not be overstressed. In parliament the most significant feature about the Right as a whole was not their shared beliefs and common tactics (which were minimal) but the fact that they were all in some way left out of the regime. Even in the Chambre bleu horizon there was a minority on the Right of the Chamber, as large as the opposition of the Right at the end of 1906, which was hardly represented in the cabinets of 1919 to 1924. More space is given to describing opinions rather than activities because the important initiatives taken by members of the Right were very few in number and present no difficulties. For most of the period the Right was a relatively passive opposition. External circumstances moulded attitudes and organisations. These circumstances are mentioned only briefly.

The investigation of exercise specific left ventricular (LV) adaptations to training have been predominantly cross sectional in design. The purpose of the current thesis was to investigate LV adaptations to short term (6-9 weeks) training to establish if any changes are exercise specific. A correlation study was used to investigate correlations between cardiac variables and MAXOV2&(study 1). Cardiac variables were found to be the strongest predictors for absolute MAXOV2&, MAXOV2&BM and MAXOV2&FFM in cyclists compared to the total sample or sedentary group, predicting 79% (p<0.01), 70% (p<0.01) and 77% (p<0.01) of the variance, respectively. Secondly, it was found that when MAXOV2& was scaled to body mass (BM) or fat free mass (FFM) cardiac variables predicted less of the variance than for absolute MAXOV2&, for all groups. Study 2 investigated the hypothesis that there would be no evidence of LV hypertrophy when there was no increase in FFM. This was achieved by taking sedentary participants through a resistance training programme of 6 weeks duration to control for increases in skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Both resting systolic blood pressure (sBP; p = 0.01, d = 1.19) and diastolic blood pressure (dBP; p = 0.029, d = 0.88) were significantly reduced following the 6 weeks resistance training. One repetition maximum (1RM) bench press significantly increased (p = 0.00, d = -1.44) as did 1 RM parallel squat strength (p = 0.00, d = -1.86), with no associated increases in relative FFM (p = 0.45) or absolute LM (p = 0.87). There was no adaptation to LV morphology (p>0.05), however early diastolic function changed with a significant decrease in peak E wave (p = 0.00, d = 1.94). Study 3 compared differences in the time course of the initial adaptations to LV structure and function during 9 weeks of aerobic, resistance and combination exercise ii training, to establish whether LV adaptations are exercise specific. The resistance and combination groups demonstrated increases in relative wall thickness (p = 0.021, ηp2 = 0.408; p = 0.004, d = -1.06, respectively). PWd also significantly increased in the combination group (p = 0.032, ηp2 = 0.301); however there were no structural adaptations evident in the aerobic group (p > 0.05). In contrast, the aerobic group demonstrated functional adaptations with a decrease in A wave (p = 0.44, d = 0.87) as did the combination group (p = 0.002, ηp2 = 0.407). The results of the training studies showed limited support for the Morganroth Hypothesis as structural adaptations demonstrated LV remodelling of the myocardial tissue, with no increase in LV mass. Further to this, combination training appears to have an additive effect of LV adaptations of both aerobic and resistance training.

Denna studie syftar till fördjupade kunskaper om hur gitarrlärare ser på vänsterhänthet i relation till instrumentets speltekniska svårigheter och hur de anser sig arbeta med vänsterhänta elever i sin undervisning. I uppsatsen ges en bakgrund om vad vänsterhänthet är, en historisk bakgrund om den klassiska gitarren och dess speltekniska svårigheter samt tidigare forskning om musikundervisning av vänsterhänta. Studien utgår från ett multimodalt designteoretiskt perspektiv och ett empiriskt material bestående av fyra kvalitativa intervjuer. Av studiens resultat framkommer att de deltagande lärarna inte ansåg sig anpassa sin undervisning efter elevernas vänsterhänthet, förutom vid starkare grader av vänsterhänthet då eleverna uppmanades att vända på gitarren. Valet av hur gitarren ska hållas beskrivs sällan överlåtas till den enskilda eleven, utan förefaller istället vanligen bestämmas av läraren. Lärarna menade också att alla elever behöver öva samma tekniker och att samma undervisning därför bör gälla för höger- såväl som vänsterhänta elever. Den högersträngade gitarren utgör norm i undervisningen, vilket lärarnas berättelser om hur de sällan rekommenderade elever att vända på gitarren visar. Utifrån detta resultat diskuteras sedan gitarrundervisning av vänsterhänta. Undervisningen beskrivs inte enbart vara en fråga om att anpassa ett instrument, då hela undervisningens design beskrivs spela roll för elevernas lärande med instrumentet. / The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper knowledge of how guitar teachers view left-handedness with regard to the technical difficulties of the instrument and how they work with left-handed students while teaching. This paper provides some background on what left-handedness is, some historical background on the classical guitar and the technical difficulties of playing it, and an overview of previous work on musical education and left-handed people. The study is based on a multimodal and design theoretical perspective, and an empirical material consisting of four qualitative interviews. The results show that the participating teachers did not, in their own view, adapt their teaching because of left-handed students. The exception was students with a strong degree of left-handedness, who were encouraged to turn the guitar around. However, how the guitar is held was not often described as something left up to the individual student, but rather as something decided by the teacher. The teachers also felt that all students need to practice the same techniques, and that the same instructions therefore should be used for both right-handed and left-handed students. Right-handed guitars are standard in teaching situations, and the fact that the teachers say that they rarely recommend that students turn the guitar around reflects that. The results of the study then form the basis for a discussion on teaching left-handed students. It is not just a question of adapting an instrument; the whole design of the lessons makes a difference when it comes to the student learning the instrument.

Political parties are the basic building blocks of representative democracy. They reduce information costs for voters, enhance executive accountability, and contribute to democratic governability by facilitating legislative organization and aggregating the interests of powerful societal groups. Yet we continue to know relatively little about the conditions under which strong parties form. The dominant theories of party-building are mostly based on historical studies of the United States and Western European countries, almost all of which developed stable party systems. Drawing on this literature, a segment of the early scholarship on party-building in third-wave democracies optimistically took "party development" for granted, assuming that parties would follow from democracy, cleavages, or certain electoral rules. Yet party-building outcomes in third-wave democracies fell short of scholars' initial, optimistic expectations. In many third-wave polities, social cleavages, attempts at electoral engineering, and decades of democratic competition did not produce durable parties. On the other hand, in numerous third-wave democracies, new political parties did take root. What accounts for the variation in party-building outcomes observed across the developing world? More generally, under what conditions does party-building succeed? / Government