Interest in mediation analysis has increased over time, with particular excitement in the social and behavioral sciences. A mediator is defined as an intermediate in the causal sequence between an independent and dependent variable. Previous research has demonstrated that the cross-sectional form of mediation analysis is inherently flawed, evidenced by the inability of the cross-sectional mediation model to account for temporal precedence and estimation of the indirect effect being biased in nearly all situations. For these reasons, a longitudinal model is recommended. However, a method for determining the exact time points to measure the variables used in mediation analysis has not been adequately examined. In this study, we examined methods for determining an appropriate time lag when designing a mediation study. The methods implemented include correlation analysis, the quadratic and exponential forms of the lag as a moderator approach, and knot estimation using basis splines. The data for the study was simulated for three distinct trends generated using a linear piecewise model, a sigmoid model, and a sigmoid piecewise model. Additionally, two sampling approaches, an intense sampling approach and a three-measure approach, were examined as well as six sample sizes and three effect sizes for the total effect on the outcome. The estimation methods were additionally compared by considering different types of error structures used in data generation as well as by examining equal and unequal time lag lengths between the predictor and mediator, and the mediator and outcome. The intent of the study is to provide methods so that researchers can estimate the best time to evaluate mediator and outcome measurements that will be used in mediation analysis. The results from this study showed that the best estimation method varied depending on the lag being estimated, the sampling approach, and the length of the lag. However, the knot estimation approach worked reasonably well in most scenarios considered even with small sample sizes of 5 or 10 per group. The findings from this study have the potential to improve study design for research implementing longitudinal mediation analysis by reducing bias in the estimate of the indirect effect when adequate time points are used.

This thesis considers the ways in which a multimodal approach to teaching writing process can help students better understand the choices available as they navigate first-year writing and beyond. Such an approach destabilizes their understanding of what counts as writing, beyond the strictly text-based practices they may normally associate with writing. This destabilization emphasizes the uncertainty of writing as a productive frame of mind, as it encourages a more critical approach for students as they develop and adapt their writing processes. A multimodal perspective on writing process encourages a more proactive approach to students’ development of a repertoire of writing knowledge and practice to increase their chances of transfer.

Conciliation Abstract This diploma thesis is devoted to a detailed analysis of the issue of conciliation, which can be considered as one of the alternative methods of dispute resolution and differs significantly from other methods by participation of the court in seeking agreement. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first one deals with the definition of the term conciliation or court settlement within the meaning of § 99 of the Civil Procedure Code, although the institute is different, the conciliation procedure is largely interlinked. The second part describes the location of the reconciliation institute within the civil process and also deals with the excursion into the history of reconciliation. The third part deals with the practical applicability of the conciliation procedure. Attention is also given to its subjects, a detailed analysis of the phases of the proceedings, the possibilities of remedy or the question of the effects of reconciliation. Finally, the fourth part focuses on the comparison of the current state of reconciliation with its concept in a substantive intent to the new Civil Judicial Code. Primarily, descriptive and analytical methods, in part also comparative methods, are used in the work. The aim of the thesis is a detailed analysis of the described problems, with an...

Thesis (LLM) --University of Limpopo, 2011

This exploratory case study aims to develop a set of best practices for integrating online discussion forums into the foreign language curriculum, focusing specifically on a group of learners in an advanced French grammar course at a large, public U.S. university. During a period of two months, 26 participants completed a series of tasks designed to provide three different types of data: 1) exploration and analysis of interactional, linguistic, and social features of Web forum discourse; 2) participation in Web forums; and 3) feedback from students. Since the feedback received from two questionnaires was ultimately the most consistent and reliable type of data collected, this study focuses on students' participation patterns and their perceptions of Web forums as a communication space having the potential to provide opportunities for learning French. Although some students indicated that they would neither consider visiting a French-language Web forum nor actually visit one, in both cases, more than half of the participants who completed these questionnaires indicated that they would both consider visiting a French-language Web forum and might actually visit one. Since encouraging students to use French beyond the classroom and to engage in the lifelong use of French for personal enrichment (following the Communities standard of the U.S. Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century), at least one goal of this study-the main goal-has been partially achieved.

Research suggests that living in communities with high densities of persons from their own ethnic group improves the overall health of older Mexican Americans. One hypothesis is that residing in high ethnic density areas allows characteristics of Mexican culture such as strong social ties and social cohesion, to have a beneficial effect. The majority of investigations focused on ethnic density effects, however, have utilized relatively loose interpretations of what constitutes the appropriate social-geographic area to be studied. Moreover it is not clear how certain dimensions of residential segregation are protective or harmful toward health, particularly when measuring ethnic residential segregation from a geographic information systems (GIS) perspective. The effects of ethnic density and segregation have not been directly or quantitatively tested using the kind of multi-level methodology that can effectively capture data from both personal and environmental characteristics. The present study assessed how multiple geographic/neighborhood factors including ethnic density, neighborhood social cohesion, and social ties may serve as resources for health and health service use of older Mexican Americans. The study had three objectives: 1. To examine whether protective/deleterious effects of ethnic density exist when we use the more commonly used approach to measuring ethnic density (proportion of ethnic group within a specific census unit), and whether the ethnic density effect is increased when an alternative measurement approach (proximity weighted density) is used that relies on more than a single, specific census unit . 2. To examine how different dimensions of ethnic segregation are related to perceived social support, number of social ties, and perception of social cohesion in their neighborhood. 3. To examine whether or not social cohesion mediate the relationship between ethnic density or segregation and health status/health service use. The study represents a secondary analysis of data from the fifth interview wave of the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study (H-EPESE; PI: Markides). Using geographic information systems (GIS), proximity weighted ethnic density and residential segregation indices were calculated, as well as more standard measures of density based on composition of the census tract in which participant lived. Since the H-EPESE dataset has a clustered structure where individuals are nested within neighborhoods, multilevel modeling techniques were employed. Results suggest that the several approaches here employed to measure ethnic composition of the local environment are complementary. First, the proportion of Hispanics in the neighborhood as defined by the use of census tracts, is both simple and the data easily accessible to researchers. This proportion, or what is often called density, was found to associate with several outcome measures in much the same way, and with similar proportions of variance as the more complex ways of method. The latter, however, made significant contributions that often were relatively independent of the census tract based proportions and thus add significantly to our understanding of the role of the ethnic neighborhood. These more complex measures, moreover, may potentially contribute even more: analyses using these newer approaches were limited by the lack of street address or census block data. Access to such data was not possible due to confidentiality issues surrounding the use of highly specific geographic information that could potentially identify the participant. Results did strongly suggest the value of a residential segregation index as a means of demonstrating that the ethnic environment and urban-rural composition of the residential environment contributes to our understanding of the importance of social coherence and social ties. It was found for example that older Mexican Americans who lived in neighborhoods with higher exposure segregation (i.e., neighborhoods where an individual from one particular racial/ethnic group has a higher probability of encountering members of another group, rather than from their own group) have higher depressive symptoms, as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. This relationship was mediated by individual level data on perception of social cohesion. While in all cases causal interpretations were limited by the lack of a true experimental design the results generally do demonstrate the value of the newer, complementary, approaches to assessment of racial/ethnic density.

Von der breiteren Öffentlichkeit kaum bemerkt, bahnt sich in der Zivilrechtspflege möglicherweise eine „kleine“ Revolution an. Ausgelöst wird diese durch die Richtlinie über die alternative Streitbeilegung in Verbraucherangelegenheiten (ADR-Richtlinie), die eigentlich bereits zum Sommer 2015 hätte umgesetzt werden sollen. Die Richtlinie verpflichtet die Mitgliedstaaten, ein flächendeckendes Netz von Streitbeilegungsstellen für Verbraucher einzurichten. Damit könnte die ADR-Richtlinie die Art und Weise, wie Konflikte zwischen Verbrauchern und Unternehmern beigelegt werden, grundlegend verändern. Die traditionelle Form der verbraucherrechtlichen Streitbeilegung ist bislang der Zivilprozess. Vor- wie Nachteile der justizförmigen Konfliktbeilegung sind hinlänglich bekannt. So zählen zu ihren Vorzügen die hohe Kompetenz und die Unparteilichkeit der Entscheider, denen als Nachteile die lange Dauer der zivilgerichtlichen Verfahren sowie unverhältnismäßig hohen Kosten für die Rechtsverfolgung gegenüberstehen. Diese traditionelle justizförmige Konfliktbewältigung soll nunmehr durch die Einrichtung von ADR-Stellen ergänzt werden, die einen für die Parteien unverbindlichen und für den Verbraucher kostenfreien Lösungsvorschlag erarbeiten, der in nicht wenigen Fällen eine zivilprozessuale Auseinandersetzung überflüssig machen dürfte. Die ADR-Richtlinie wird in Deutschland durch ein Verbraucherstreitbeilegungsgesetz (VSGB) umgesetzt, das im Wesentlichen im April 2016 in Kraft tritt. Die Arbeit erläutert die Rechtsgrundlagen der ADR-Richtlinie und des VSBG. Die zentralen Regelungen werden vorgestellt und kritisch analysiert. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt dabei darauf, wie das Instrument in Bezug auf den allgemeinen Justizgewährleistungsanspruch und vor allem auch rechtspolitisch zu bewerten ist. Es wird damit eine hochaktuelle Fragestellung behandelt und auch ein Grundstein für weitere aufkommende rechtliche sowie rechtspolitische Problemstellungen gelegt. / Almost unnoticed by the general public, a “small“ revolution might be in the making concerning the civil justice system. This is caused by the Directive on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes (Directive on consumer ADR), which the member states were actually supposed to transpose by summer 2015. The Directive obliges member states to establish an EU-wide network of dispute resolution entities for consumers. Thus, the Directive on consumer ADR could fundamentally change the way conflicts between consumers and traders are settled. To date, the traditional model of consumer dispute resolution has been civil litigation. Advantages and disadvantages of judicial conflict resolution are adequately familiar. Some of its advantages are the high level of competence and impartiality of the decision-makers, whereas the length of civil procedures and disproportionate costs arising from the assertion of rights are disadvantages. The plan is to supplement this traditional method of judicial conflict resolution with the establishment of ADR entities, which develop a non-binding proposed solution free of charge for the consumer that will make civil procedure unnecessary in numerous cases. The Directive on consumer ADR is transposed into German legislation by means of the Verbraucherstreitbeilegungsgesetz (Law on Dispute Reso-lution for Consumers, VSBG), which will essentially come into force in April 2016. The present study explains the legal bases of the Directive on consumer ADR and the VSBG. The essential regulations are presented and analyzed critically. A focal point is the evaluation of the instrument with regard to legal policy, as well as the general right of access to justice. Therefore, it addresses a highly topical issue and lays a foundation stone for other arising legal and legal policy problems.

This thesis examines the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) for local government planning and development disputes in New South Wales. Set within broader theoretical concerns around key concepts, this research comprehensively documents, for the first time, how the ADR process of mediation was introduced to NSW councils and then used by their staff and independent ADR practitioners for disputes over development applications and the formation of local planning policies. The thesis also provides a systematic overview of the use of mediation and conciliation for development appeals brought before the Land and Environment Court of NSW (LEC). In the 1980s there was considerable interest in ADR in Australia. Mediation was in use for community, family and business disputes and by the early 1990s was being suggested for environmental, planning and development matters. Its use was encouraged by government agencies keen to see a reduction in the costs of often delayed council decisions on development applications. There was also a desire by councils to find a way to reduce the community disharmony that often occurred over large or contentious applications, or when changes to planning policies were proposed. Mediation held great promise in these early years but as this research shows, its take-up has been modest and its use variable. A detailed analysis of the encouragement to use ADR for planning and development disputes before councils and the LEC, together with an examination of policy and survey evidence, uncovers a significant gap between the promotional rhetoric and actual practice. From extensive in-depth interviews with council staff and ADR practitioners and through personal knowledge, it can be seen that the initial enthusiasm for ADR has not continued, with council staff now more commonly seeking to directly negotiate solutions to development disputes. The thesis concludes by considering the likely future for ADR in local government planning and development disputes.

Mediation, as a prominent 'alternative dispute resolution' (ADR) process, has been spreading across various legal jurisdictions in Australia and overseas. Because both the process and the outcome are seen to be 'owned' by the disputants, it has been assessed by Australian governments as being appropriate to the decentralised industrial relations systems developed in the 1990's. This led to proposals to create independent mediation services that would supplement the conciliation-arbitration service available in the Federal and South Australian industrial relation commissions. This study canvassed these proposals in light of the various benefits claimed for mediation and explored the confused usage of the terms mediation and conciliation in relation to industrial disputes. The specific focus, however, was to examine the possible effect of the imbalance of power inherent in the employer-employee relationship upon the fairness of outcome from mediation - and how the method of paying the mediator might impact upon this fairness. / thesis (MConflictManagement)--University of South Australia, 2002.

<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate mediation’s crime prevention effects. The question that has been answered is: which crime prevention effects mediation has had on young criminals who have participated in mediation programs? The investigation was made in relation to a comparable control group and included a reoffence analysis based on a multivariate analysis. This reoffence study mainly focuses on that the mediation prevents crime through the feelings of shame that the young perpetrator has due to the fact that the crime has been made clear and reinforced at the mediation meeting. The following hypothesis is addressed in this study: Mediation involves the trust between the young perpetrator and his/her parents and has a conflict-solving and crime-prevention effect. By committing a crime, the youth has broken the trust with his/her parents, who have condemned the action. The parents feel the shame from those around them, and because of this resume their position against the youth. The main conclusion is that the total population of youths who participated in mediation programs relapsed into crime to a lesser extent than the youths who did not participate in mediation. The risk for a relapse was twice as high for the youths who did not participate in mediation. A statistically significant relationship emerged between mediation and relapse with regard to party and person plaintiff status, but it is not possible to draw any conclusions whether mediation has a better or worse effect between plaintiff status. The significant effect of relapse for respective gender showed that girls relapsed to a lesser extent than boys. It was not possible to statistically determine whether the youths who were born abroad respective born i Sweden have relapsed to a greater extent. Regarding the age groups there was no statistically significant relationship as to whether youths relapsed to a greater or lesser extent depending on whether they were under or over fifteen years of age. Furthermore, it has not been possible to statistically determine whether group mediation has had a different outcome in relapse frequency as compared to individual mediation, and it has not been possible to distinguish whether compensation at mediation has had any effect. There emerged significant relationships between mediation and relapse for the crime categories ‘crime against life and health’, ‘crime against freedom and peace’, ‘burglary, robbery and other theft crimes’ and ‘vandalism’.</p>