Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-104).

Zugl.: Diss. / Titel auf der Beil.

From 1988 to 1990 a study of the reproductive ecology of the burrowing owl was conducted to determine seasonality and reproductive success in Dade and Broward Counties. Reproductive data for each of the three years (1988- 1990) reveal a higher reproductive success rate (54%) for 1990 than 1989 (40%) and 1988 (40%). Owls using previously used burrows had a higher success in fledging young (63%) than newly excavated burrows (19%). T-tests were conducted on several appendage measurements of male and female owls to determine sexual dimorphic traits. Metatarsus lengths of males and females were different (t=2.36, p=0.02). As of 1990,197 owls had been banded in the study area. In 1989, 75% and in 1990, 83% of the banded adults were found on the same territory. Only 4 of 129 banded nestlings have been reencountered in the study sites.

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the basic causes of food service employee turnover in five selected restaurants in the Miami area. The withdrawal behavior in this study is treated in terms of controllable turnover, for the purpose of management, learning more about what action to take to solve this problem which has eaten into the fabric of the hospitality industry. The aim is to find out from the food service employees and management view of work for the purpose of identifying the variables which cause an employee to voluntarily leave a job. The objective is therefore, to analyze and describe the problem of labor turnover in these selected restaurants. Such description must precede efforts to arrive at solutions to the problem if these efforts are ever to be more than haphazard and superficial. Sigmund Freud once stated: "The true beginning of scientific activity consists in describing phenomena and only then in proceeding to group, classify and correlate them."1 The nature of the study is basically descriptive survey. Data is collected by the use of management questionnaire, food service employee questionnaire and finally employees job description index. The survey consisted of a series of well defined questions with open and closed endings dealing with employee with employee turnover. As Robert Ferber and P. J. Verdoom state in their book titled Research Method in Economics of Business: "Structured questionnaires, by supplying question formulations in very specific terms as well as the different possible answers are easier for the sample members to answer and also serve to reduce the danger of interviewer bias."2 The answers to the prepared questionnaire by sample members were then recorded. The results of the questionnaire responses were then compiled for presentation and analysis. 1 Julian Simon, Basic Research Methods in Social Science. Random House, New York, 1969, p.53. 2 Robert J. Ferber and P.J. Verdoon, Research Methods in Economics and Business, The McMillan Company, 1962, p. 20 9 .

The Statement of the Problem: The purpose of this study is to determine and analyze the attitude of restaurant operators in Miami Beach toward the use of credit cards at their establishment.

This dissertation argues that the history of Miami is best understood as an imperial history. In a series of thematic chapters, it demonstrates how the city came into existence as a result of expansionism and how it continued to maintain imperial distinctions and hierarchies as it incorporated new people, beginning as a colonial frontier prior to the nineteenth century and becoming an imperial center of the Americas in the twentieth century. In developing an imperial analysis of the city, “The Viceroyalty of Miami” pays particular attention to sources that elite imperialists generated. Their papers, publications, and speeches archive the leading and often loudest voices directing the city’s capitalist development and its future. This focus on the elite shows both their local power over the city and their global vision for it, putting local history into dialogue with newer scholarly approaches to global urban cities. Though imperialists worked to portray the area as untamed during the Spanish colonial period, taming nature became paramount in subsequent eras, especially during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century with the environmental transformation of south Florida. City founders intentionally introduced plants from the Americas and around the world that created an elite tropical culture in Miami, a consequence of overseas imperial acquisitions in 1898 in tropical parts of the world. Spanish revival architecture worked as the means of establishing U.S. sovereignty over a formerly contested frontier, but self-contained suburban development inaugurated persistent problems of metropolitan management. Finally, once imperialists laid claim to the soil and the building that sat upon it, they turned to the air, making Miami a projected site of U.S. power through aviation. In light of the four substantive chapters, the Epilogue recasts our understanding of ideological migration before and after 1959 as the final stage of Miami’s transformation from a colonial frontier to an imperial city.

Food quality is a vital factor for the success of many food facilities, Fast food facilities may, however, depend on factors along with food quality to attract patrons. This study attempted to find out if food quality is a major factor prompting customers to eat at a fast food facility. Burger King Corporation was selected to ascertain to what degree quality served to attract business. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire handed to passersby at the Miami International Mall and the Miami Dade Mall to find out the reason why patrons who ate at Burger King selected it. Six factors were covered: fast service, food quality, price, location, advertising and child preference. Results showed that food quality was fourth in prompting customers to eat at Burger King. Location, fast service and price were ranked first, second and third in importance.

Minimum Student Performance Standards in Computer Literacy and Science were passed by the Florida Legislature through the Educational Reform Act of 1983. This act mandated that all Florida high school graduates receive training in computer literacy. Schools and school systems were charged with the task of determining the best methods to deliver this instruction to their students. The scope of this study is to evaluate one school's response to the state of Florida's computer literacy mandate. The study was conducted at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, located in Dade County, Florida. The administration of Miami Palmetto Senior High School chose to develop and implement a new program to comply with the state mandate - integrating computer literacy into the existing biology curriculum. The study evaluated the curriculum to determine if computer literacy could be integrated successfully and meet both the biology and computer literacy objectives. The findings in this study showed that there were no significant differences between biology scores of the students taking the integrated curriculum and those taking a traditional curriculum of biology. Student in the integrated curriculum not only met the biology objectives as well as those in the traditional curriculum, they also successfully completed the intended objectives for computer literacy. Two sets of objectives were successfully completed in the integrated classes in the same amount of time used to complete one set of objectives in the traditional biology classes. Therefore, integrated curriculum was the more efficient means of meeting the intended objectives of both biology and computer literacy.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the current status of the study of Italian in Miami and particularly to identify the motivational factors behind student enrollment in local Italian programs. A qualitative study was carried out based on interviews with the local director of “Società Dante Alighieri” and four students studying Italian in two different settings. Gardner and Lambert’s (1959) concepts of instrumental and integrative motivation and the motivation components identified by Csizér and Dörnyei (2005) provided the conceptual framework for this study. According to the information obtained from the five participants the study of Italian in Miami is mostly linked to integrative motivation and particularly to the motivation components referred by Csizér and Dörnyei as “attitude toward the L2 speakers/community” and “culture interest”. These findings are in line with previous research that linked the study of Italian in the United States to cultural and ethnic factors related to integrative motivation.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a risk prevention safety and security program for the major problem areas of hotel operations. This includes general hotel safety and security, personnel, lock and key control, lighting and fire prevention. It will then evaluate randomly selected hotels in the Miami area to determine how well they meet the criteria set forth in this program. This thesis will use related texts, periodicals and published articles to develop a the risk prevention safety and security program. The data to determine how well selected Miami hotels responded to this program was developed through the use of a detailed questionaire. The major finding was that the majority of hotels have adequate risk prevention safety and security programs set forth in writing as part of the overall hotel management function. However. the hotels surveyed failed to implement these programs into daily operations. Survey members agreed if the hotels could consolidate the risk prevention safety and security program into a singular management function then a valuable management tool would be created.