The Chinese language features a rich class of words called measure words that serve as units for counting objects and actions. In comparison with English and other Indo-European languages, Chinese makes much more extensive use of measure words. American students who study Chinese as a second language often find it hard to acquire the usage of Chinese measure words. To obtain a comprehensive and objective evaluation of students’ measure words acquisition, I designed an experiment where measure words as introduced in Integrated Chinese are collected. In the current study, measure words are divided into two categories by their semantic features: Concrete Measure Words and Abstract Measure Words. If a measure word directly relates to its object’s concrete exterior shape, and image thought plays an important role when people try to use this measure word, it is called a concrete measure word. Abstract measure words are those which have no obvious relation to an object’s exterior image, and whose usages mainly rely on people’s abstract thought. Students are divided into two grades based on how long they have studied Chinese: Grade 1 and Grade 2. Survey results show that students’ acquisition of concrete measure words is significantly better than their acquisition of abstract measure words. Furthermore, there is no obvious difference between measure words acquisition of the two grades; visual aids can facilitate concrete measure words acquisition to some extent. Conclusions of survey results reveal some practical principles of measure words teaching. First, concrete measure words and abstract measure words should be treated differently in classroom teaching. Second, different teaching strategies should be adopted to teach students from different grades. Third, analyzing semantic features and providing visual aids are useful methods when teaching concrete measure words. This thesis includes five chapters. Chapter One summarizes related work in previous studies and points out the importance of future research on Chinese measure words acquisition. Chapter Two focuses on the design of the survey where experimental settings, including objects, participants, survey design, and study methods, are introduced. In Chapter Three, I discuss the experimental results in more detail and summarize typically misused measure words. Chapter Four focuses on the teaching material study where I analyze the arrangements of contents related to measure words, and discuss the merits and shortcomings of the teaching materials currently used. In the last chapter, I summarize some suggestions on teaching strategies inspired by this study.

The current trend among theorists in counseling and psychotherapy is toward the development of metatheoretical models that can be used to organize, systematically and comprehensively, existing theories and techniques within the discipline. Some models also provide behavior adaptation guidelines for practitioners who wish to adapt their behavior to client behavior patterns. Hutchins created the metatheoretical TFA System to accomplish the above goals. He also created the Hutchins Behavior Inventory (HBI) to complement the TFA System. The HBI purportedly measures the thinking, feeling, and acting dimensions of behavior upon which the TFA System is built; it thus enables a practitioner to assess the unique, situationally specific, TFA behavior pattern of a client. At the time of this study, the only evidence concerning the measurement properties of the HBI was for a form that produces ipsative scores (the HBI-I) . But ipsative scores possess inherent psychometric properties that cause problems when they are subjected to certain types of statistical analyses. Thus, in this study, a normative form of the HBI (the HBI-N) was designed. The measurement properties of the HBI-I and HBI-N were then investigated and compared. Reliability was investigated using test-retest and internal consistency procedures. Construct-related validity was investigated using four procedures: internal consistency analysis of HBI-N scores; factor analysis of the items comprising the scales of the HBI-N; an analysis of a multitrait-multimethod validity matrix containing scores from the HBI-I, HBI-N, Strong Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII), and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI); and a factorial validity analysis of scores from the HBI-N, SCII, and MBTI. Results indicated that the HBI-I possesses a high degree of reliability. Prior evidence of content-related validity suggested that the three constructs measured by the HBI are the thinking, feeling, and acting dimensions of behavior hypothesized by Hutchins. Some of the construct-related validity results obtained in this study supported this conclusion, while the main body of results supported the more limited conclusion that the HBI scales measure different, yet to be more clearly identified, constructs. Based on the evidence in this study, the HBI-I seems appropriate for research and clinical use. / Ph. D.

This dissertation examines whether the magnitude of the outcome effect is impacted by the type of performance evaluation system (subjective versus formula-based). The outcome effect is a phenomenon that occurs when an evaluator overemphasizes the outcome of a decision and ignores essential information that is available to the evaluator (e.g., market information, information about the decision-making process). This outcome focus leads to a more positive (negative) performance evaluation when the outcome exceeds (fails to meet) expectations. Prior studies have not examined whether the type of evaluation system (formula-based versus subjective) has an impact on the magnitude of the outcome effect. In a formula-based evaluation system, outcome measures are pre-weighted and an overall variance measure is easily calculated. Conversely, there are no predefined weights or overall variance measures in a subjective system. Instead, evaluators weight the importance of outcome information themselves. For this dissertation, I conducted an experiment in which 99 business professionals enrolled in a MBA program evaluated the performance of a retail store manager. Their evaluation was based on information that they received about the manager's decision, along with situational factors that may have impacted the decision outcome. The results demonstrate that although the magnitude of the outcome effect was larger when a formula-based system was employed relative to a subjective system, this difference was not statistically significant. Nonetheless, this study provides initial evidence that managers using formula-based evaluation systems should be particularly aware of the outcome effect when conducting performance appraisals. In addition, this study documents the perceived controllability of four financial and four non-financial measures that are commonly employed to evaluate performance in the retail industry. As hypothesized, the non-financial measures were perceived to be more controllable than the financial measures. This suggests that non-financial measures should be included in the mix of performance measures used in a performance appraisal system. / Ph. D.

The emergence of high-fidelity vehicle and tire models has raised the requirements for terrain measurement capabilities. Inaccuracies that were once tolerable for measurement of general terrain roughness are no longer acceptable for these new applications. The techniques in this work seek to improve the quality of terrain measurement in addition to providing an objective way to describe the accuracy of these measurements. The first portion of this work develops an accuracy verification procedure for terrain measurement systems. This procedure involves a static test to assess the limitations of the profiler's laser height sensor, and a corresponding dynamic test to evaluate the limitations of the positioning sensors. Even with a well calibrated system, inertial errors will accumulate. The second portion of this work develops techniques to address these inertial errors in the data post-processing phase. A general correction technique is developed for any terrain type and a more computationally efficient technique is developed for smooth surfaces. For basic ride and handling simulations, 3D terrain surfaces are computationally impractical, as the models used for these simulations only require point excitation. Current road profilers acquiring these 2D data use single-point lasers that capture localized disturbances that would be mechanically filtered by the tire and suspension in the physical vehicle system. The final chapter in this work develops a method to extract a 2D terrain profile from a 3D terrain surface. By considering all of the information in the tire contact patch, the filtering properties of the tire are approximately emulated. / Master of Science

This thesis focuses on practical and quantitative methods for measuring effectiveness in naval ship design. An Overall Measure of Effectiveness (OMOE) model or function is an essential prerequisite for optimization and design trade-off. This effectiveness can be limited to individual ship missions or extend to missions within a task group or larger context. A method is presented that uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process combined with Multi-Attribute Value Theory to build an Overall Measure of Effectiveness and Overall Measure of Risk function to properly rank and approximately measure the relative mission effectiveness and risk of design alternatives, using trained expert opinion to replace complex analysis tools. A validation of this method is achieved through experimentation comparing ships ranked by the method with direct ranking of the ships through war gaming scenarios. The second part of this thesis presents a mathematical ship synthesis model to be used in early concept development stages of the ship design process. Tools to simplify and introduce greater accuracy are described and developed. Response Surface Models and Design of Experiments simplify and speed up the process. Finite element codes such as MAESTRO improve the accuracy of the ship synthesis models which in turn lower costs later in the design process. A case study of an Advanced Logistics Delivery Ship (ALDV) is performed to asses the use of RSM and DOE methods to minimize computation time when using high-fidelity codes early in the naval ship design process. / Master of Science

In the study of sets of points certain sets are found to be negligible, especially when applied to the theory of functions. The purpose of this paper is to discuss three of these "negligible" types, namely, exhaustible sets, denumerable sets, and sets of Lebesgue measure zero. We will present a complete existential theory in q-space for the three set properties mentioned above, followed by a more restricted discussion in the linear continuum by use of interval properties.

Yes / Research has suggested a fundamental connection between fairness and well-being at the individual, relational, and societal levels. Mattering is a multidimensional construct consisting of feeling valued by, and adding value to, self and others. Prior studies have attempted to connect mattering to both fairness and a variety of well-being outcomes. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that mattering acts as a mediator between fairness and well-being. This hypothesis was tested through Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) using multidimensional measures of fairness, mattering, and well-being. Results from a Latent Path Analysis conducted on a representative sample of 1,051U.S. adults provide support to our hypothesis by revealing a strong direct predictive effect of mattering onto well-being and a strong indirect effect of fairness onto well-being through mattering. Results also show that mattering is likely to fully mediate the relationship between fairness and multiple domains of well-being, except in one case, namely, economic well-being. These findings illustrate the value of a focus on mattering to understand the relationship between fairness and well-being and to provide future directions for theory, research, and practice. Theoretical implications for the experience of citizenship and participation, along with cross-cultural considerations, are also discussed. / Erwin and Barbara Mautner Endowed Chair in Community Well-Being at the University of Miami

For decades, the pavement engineering community has continued to drive improvements in accuracy and repeatability of terrain measurement systems. Traditional terrain measurement systems are tailored for a measuring a specific scale and resolution and hence application scope. These systems tend to focus on surface roughness alone and reject either fine macrotexture or large-scale global features. This work proposes a novel improvement to the terrain measurement system, by increasing the capability to measure the terrain surface at a variety of scales. By increasing the scales of measurement, desired aspects of the terrain profile can be accurately obtained for a wide variety of applications without having to omit large-scale features or macrotexture. In addition to increasing the capabilities of the traditional terrain measurement system, methods for addressing and minimizing sources of error within the system are developed. Major sources of error in terrain measurement systems, which compromise the accuracy and repeatability of the resulting measured terrain, include scanning laser uncertainty, inertial navigation system (INS) uncertainty and drift, triggering and time synchronization, system misalignment, and post-processing errors. These errors are addressed, and an improved Vehicle Terrain Measurement System (VTMS) is proposed. A triggering and time synchronization system is developed and insight into the development of this system for a terrain measurement system is gained. All three scanning lasers are individually assessed for linearity, with sample profiles analyzed for agreement. The improved VTMS represents a significant development in terrain measurement systems. / Master of Science

Given the central role of panic attacks in the diagnosis of panic disorder, an adequate measure of panic attacks is essential. Panic frequency is routinely assessed either by simply asking individuals to estimate the number of panic attacks experienced during a given time in a questionnaire or assessment interview or by having them continuously self-monitor. Panic frequency obtained by such methods is unreliable and invalid or time-consuming, respectively. The purpose of this project was to investigate the reliability and validity of a Panic Attack Frequency Calendar (PAFC), modeled after a time-line follow-back (TLFB) procedure (e.g., Sobell & Sobell, 1979) that has been used for years to reliably and validly assess daily alcohol use through self-report over extended periods of time. The participants consisted of 74 adult individuals (ages 18-57) who indicated that they had experienced a panic attack within the past two weeks. Participants completed a battery of self-report questionnaires, including a retrospective frequency measure, and administered an 8-week PAFC. Participants were then randomly divided into either a self-monitoring group that recorded information in a diary about any panic attacks that they experienced over the following two weeks or a non-self-monitoring control group. All participants were administered another retrospective frequency questionnaire and a 10-week PAFC two weeks after the administration of the first PAFC. Reliability was determined from the two-week stability estimates across the PAFCs for the eight-week period that overlapped both assessments. This was done with several composite panic behavior variables; daily and weekly test-retest reliabilities were also calculated. Concurrent validity was established by comparing panic frequency from the PAFC with that obtained from the diary and the retrospective frequency measure. Further validity was established via correlating the PAFC with the self-report questionnaires. Results are discussed in light of their implications for the assessment of panic attacks. / Master of Science

Over the past two decades, cigarette smoking has decreased among teenagers and young adults, but nicotine vaping has increased dramatically. Liquid vape products contain harmful chemicals ingested when vapor is inhaled, and vaping is associated with lung damage and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There has been relatively little research on nicotine vaping and effective prevention and intervention methods have yet to be developed. Changing expectancy processes has been successful in preventing early alcohol use and cigarette smoking, but little is known about nicotine vaping expectancies. An appropriately developed nicotine vaping expectancy measure is necessary to better understand vaping behavior and to provide a foundation for the development of effective prevention and intervention methods. In the present study, the Nicotine Vaping Expectancy Questionnaire (NVEQ) was developed using items collected from 8th graders, 12th graders, and college students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and Rash analysis were used to select items and create subscales. The NVEQ was found to have good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity.