Agency directors, program administrators and planners as well as U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service regional federal aid supervisors provided input that defined 22 factors considered most important in determining management effectiveness of state fish and wildlife agencies. I grouped the factors into the following six categories: public support and awareness, conflict resolution, politics, planning and funding, agency management and personnel. State agency directors, commissioners and legislators ranked the factors. In cooperation with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Organization of Wildlife Planners, I conducted case studies of nine state fish and wildlife agencies widely recognized by their peers as being particularly effective relative to the identified factors. Questionnaires and interviews with 845 agency members and constituents revealed effective fish and wildlife agencies had much in common with the excellent companies described by Peters and Waterman (1982) in In Search of Excellence. Effective agencies were proactive in dealing with issues and frequently among the nation's leading agencies in dealing with issues of national scope. Effective agencies used a variety of techniques to understand public desires and involve the public in making important decisions. Effective agencies grant their employees much freedom to make decisions and try new ideas without fear of punishment for making mistakes. They are committed to the personal development of employees. Effective agencies are good planners, with well defined missions and goals. Personal missions of employees are highly congruent with agency missions, resulting ina missionary-like zeal for their work. Effective agencies have a strong biological basis for their decisions and maintain credibility by balancing biological factors with public opinion. Effective agencies have stable political environments and experienced, enlightened resource management professionals as their leaders. Leaders emphasize participative decision making and teamwork. Finally, effective agencies have strong public support and are effective in mobilizing that support when important policy decisions are made. Many specific examples that illustrate the characteristics of effective agencies are discussed. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study is to document how much time teachers in a large suburban school district expend on their professional responsibilities at home and at school. The study also documents the time usage and allocation through the relationships of teaching experience and teaching grade level assignment. Fairfax County Public Schools and all school systems are facing increasing demands for educational reform. Teacher responsibilities have continued to increase with many current reform initiatives. Consequently the associated time for reform implementation, with increased demands is not limitless. Current time usage documentation is important data needed in future educational reform decisions. Two hundred and thirty-one randomly selected teachers completed a questionnaire regarding the time spent working in an average week for Fairfax County Public Schools. The results of this study are reported in total time spent on tasks associated with their professional responsibility both at home and school; and time spent specifically on; individual planning, group/team planning, assessment, instructional contact, career and staff development and parent communication. The mean hours per week reported in this survey was fifty-nine hours per week. T-Tests comparisons revealed Significant differences in three categories at the .10 level of confidence; first year teachers spend less time in staff development, middle school teachers spend more time in team planning and elementary teachers spend less time in team planning. There were no significant findings in any other areas of data analysis. T-Tests were utilized to examine Significant differences in time distribution between means in the following demographic areas; years of teaching experience and grade level assignment. Reviews of literature reveal a few studies of teacher time documentation exist in England and West Germany. This study is one of the first in the United States documenting teacher time usage in a large suburban school district. The interpretive results from this study provide data for strategic planning for educational reform and suggest areas for further research in teacher time usage. / Ed. D.

Corn production is scattered geographically over various continents, but most of it is grown in the United States. As such, the world price of corn futures contracts is largely dominated by North American corn prices as traded on the Chicago Board of Trade. In recent years, this market has been characterised by an increase in price volatility and magnitude of price movement as a result of decreasing stock levels. The development and implementation of an effective and successful derivative price risk management strategy based on the Chicago Board of Trade corn futures contract will therefore be of inestimable value to market stakeholders worldwide. The research focused on the efficient market hypothesis and the possibility of contesting this phenomenon through an application of a derivative price risk management methodology. The methodology is based on a combination of an analysis of market trends and technical oscillators with the objective of generating returns superior to that of a market benchmark. The study found that market participants are currently unable to exploit price movement in a manner which results in returns that contest the notion of efficient markets. The methodology proposed, however, does allow the user to consistently achieve returns superior to that of a predetermined market benchmark. The benchmark price for the purposes of this study was the average price offered by the market over the contract lifetime, and such, the efficient market hypothesis was successfully contested. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)

Research has shown that African American males are performing poorly in American public schools and are disciplined at a higher rate than other ethnic and gender groups. Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS) has a long history of success with individual students and more recently in school-wide settings. School-wide PBIS offers schools the ability to tailor their rules, rewards, and consequences to the specific needs and culture of a school. This descriptive and quantitative study sought to determine if implementation with fidelity of SWPBIS positively correlated to reduced disciplinary measures. The object of this study was to determine in what ways disciplinary rates for African American males differ in American public schools that identify as using SWPBIS with fidelity as compared to American public schools that do not implement SWPBIS with fidelity. Disciplinary rates examined included ISS, OSS single incident, and OSS multiple incidents. Descriptive findings indicated that schools that implement SWPBIS show a lower rate of ISS and OSS incidents for African American males. The quantitative findings did not yield a statistically significance between schools with fidelity of implementation of SWPBIS and schools without fidelity of implementation of SWPBIS.

The tunicate Styela plicata (Ascidiacea) was investigated for its potential use in bioremediation of bacteria and microalgae blooms from estuarine waters. Salinity tolerances, filtration rate, substrate selection, and effects on digested bacteria and ichthyofaunal communities were examined. If acclimated slowly, Styela can be placed in salinities as low as 24 parts per thousand (ppt) before increased fatalities result. An immediate decrease in salinity from 32 ppt to 20 ppt was not detrimental at short term exposure (four days). One average-sized (~40g) Styela, exposed to 105 and 106 bacteria or microalgae mL-1, can filter as much as 4.7 L hr-1 and 3.3 L hr-1, respectively. Individual tunicate filtration rates varied from hour to hour, independent of organism size, indicating that filtration rates for this species would be better reported on a population basis rather than on an individual weight or size basis. Bacterial viability in tunicate feces was assessed by ATP analysis. Bacteria were found to be non-viable after passage through the tunicate digestive tract. Filtration of eggs or larvae of recreationally or commercially important fish is of concern. The smallest eggs (~0.6mm) reported in the Indian River Lagoon belong to Cynoscion nebulosus (spotted seatrout) and Bairdiella chrysoura (silver perch). Over the course of two hours, 72.5% of 0.5 mm glass beads (simulated fish eggs) were initially retained, but many were later expelled by the tunicates. For 1.0 mm beads, 49.4% were initially retained and for 2.0 mm beads, 43.5% were initially retained. Neither the size of the oral siphon nor the size of the overall animal was correlated to bead retention. Substrate selection was investigated using the tunicate Phallusia nigra. / Newly hatched larvae preferred settling on wood (53.7%), as compared to polyethylene (30.9%), high-density polyethylene (13.0%), and polyvinyl chloride (2.4%). Overall, results of this study indicate S. plicata is very effective at removing bacteria and microalgae from estuarine waters. However, further testing is warranted regarding the unwanted removal of fish eggs and larvae before utilization of S. plicata for bioremedial purposes. / by Lisa Denham Draughon. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

In 1991, the NCAA created Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success (CHAMPS)/Life Skills (NCAA, 2005). The CHAMPS/Life Skills program concentrates on five areas: Academic Commitment, Athletic Commitment, Personal Development Commitment, Career Development Commitment, and Service Commitment (NCAA, 2005). Very few amendments and modifications have been made to the CHAMPS/Life Skills educational material since the program was developed. In the present creative thesis project, revisions and updates were implemented to the current material to satisfy the needs of collegiate student-athletes. Hence, the purpose of this creative thesis project was to update the Academic Commitment module within the CHAMPS/Life Skills manual. Specifically, the Time Management and Study Skills components were revised. These revisions were evaluated by three university professors. In conclusion, the present creative thesis project will assist in presenting CHAMPS/Life Skills material to student-athletes. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

Corn production is scattered geographically over various continents, but most of it is grown in the United States. As such, the world price of corn futures contracts is largely dominated by North American corn prices as traded on the Chicago Board of Trade. In recent years, this market has been characterised by an increase in price volatility and magnitude of price movement as a result of decreasing stock levels. The development and implementation of an effective and successful derivative price risk management strategy based on the Chicago Board of Trade corn futures contract will therefore be of inestimable value to market stakeholders worldwide. The research focused on the efficient market hypothesis and the possibility of contesting this phenomenon through an application of a derivative price risk management methodology. The methodology is based on a combination of an analysis of market trends and technical oscillators with the objective of generating returns superior to that of a market benchmark. The study found that market participants are currently unable to exploit price movement in a manner which results in returns that contest the notion of efficient markets. The methodology proposed, however, does allow the user to consistently achieve returns superior to that of a predetermined market benchmark. The benchmark price for the purposes of this study was the average price offered by the market over the contract lifetime, and such, the efficient market hypothesis was successfully contested. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)

The presence of naturally occurring and man-made public health threats necessitate the design and implementation of mitigation strategies, such that adequate response is provided in a timely manner. Since multiple variables, such as geographic properties, resource constraints, and government mandated time-frames must be accounted for, computational methods provide the necessary tools to develop contingency response plans while respecting underlying data and assumptions. A typical response scenario involves the placement of points of dispensing (PODs) in the affected geographic region to supply vaccines or medications to the general public. Computational tools aid in the analysis of such response plans, as well as in the strategic placement of PODs, such that feasible response scenarios can be developed. Due to the sensitivity of bio-emergency response plans, geographic information, such as POD locations, must be kept confidential. The generation of synthetic geographic regions allows for the development of emergency response plans on non-sensitive data, as well as for the study of the effects of single geographic parameters. Further, synthetic representations of geographic regions allow for results to be published and evaluated by the scientific community. This dissertation presents methodology for the analysis of bio-emergency response plans, methods for plan optimization, as well as methodology for the generation of synthetic geographic regions.

This paper presents a case study of developing foreign currency trading strategies for trading operations for a multi-million dollar company that sells analytical products and services to European countries. The analysis provides a general framework for managing currency risk exposures for U.S. Multinational companies.

The purposes of this study were to determine whether directors and the senior student affairs officers who supervise them perceive the formal performance evaluation process to be accurate, fair, and meaningful, and whether they perceive the process to be influenced by the politics involved in the position.