The purpose of the current study was to explore the role of six organizational factors (Equal Employment Opportunity, minority segmentation, diversity climate, instrumental social support, emotional social support, and token status) in the perception of discrimination in the workplace by minorities and majority-group members. Five outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intention to turnover, physical health, and psychological health) were investigated in response to perceived discrimination. Moderated mediation was used to test hypothesis where perceived discrimination mediated the relationship between organizational antecedents and outcomes; minority status served as the moderators. Support for the mediating role of perceived discrimination was found in the relationship between each organizational antecedent and outcome. In each case, poorer environmental conditions related to increased perceived discrimination which in turn related to more negative workplace attitudes and health outcomes. Implications for workplace design are discussed.

ABSTRACT Charles W. Chesnutt captures the essence of the Post Civil War period and gives examples of the assimilation process for African Americans into dominant white culture. In doing so, he shows the resistance of the dominant culture as well as the resilience of the African American culture. It is his belief that through literature he could encourage moral reform and eliminate racial discrimination. As an African American author who could pass for white, he is able to share his own experiences and to develop black characters who are ambitious and intelligent. As a result, he leaves behind a legacy of great works that are both informative and entertaining.

Since the 1992 republication of On Our Own Ground: The Complete Writings of William Apess, a Pequot, most academic work on Apess has focused on his Methodism, his Native American identity, or the intersection between these two parts of his life and work. Dr. Tim Fulford is the only scholar to have written about Apess and Romanticism. In his book Romantic Indians: Native Americans, British Literature, and Transatlantic Culture, 1756-1830, Fulford illustrates the elegiac modes often present in the work of Apess. This thesis will examine William Apess’ Son of the Forest as an expression of early nineteenth century American Romanticism from a post-colonial standpoint. Apess uses Romantic rhetoric to define Native American identity and through that identity, argue for Native American political agency.

This study seeks to examine low income, minority parents' perceptions of after school programs. The independent variables in the study were parental perceptions of supervision, communication, resources, transportation, program content and student academic engagement. The dependent variable was parental satisfaction with after school programs. A quantitative survey was distributed to all parents of students participating in the after school programs of four Title 1 schools in a large metropolitan Atlanta school system with over 70% student eligibility for free or reduced lunch and 85% minority student enrollment. One hundred eighty after school program parents responded to the survey through their child's daily communication planner. The results of the study indicated that there is a statistically significant relationship between parental satisfaction and each of the independent variables of supervision, communication, resources, transportation, program content and student academic engagement. A regression analysis found that the most impacting variables on parental satisfaction were program content, communication and transportation. Based on the results of the study, it is recommended that after school programs that serve low income, minority families should ensure that transportation, effective student monitoring and structured activities are components of their program. After school programs that serve low income, minority families should provide safe methods of transportation from the after school site to the home of program participants. Finally, after school programs that serve low income, minority families should establish and maintain structured learning opportunities for program participants that include scheduled activities, active instruction and assistance by the after school teacher and an orderly classroom environment that allows participants to complete their assignments without distractions or interruptions from other participants.

[pt] Qual é o efeito de um mercado de controle corporativo mais ativo sobre a estrutura de propriedade das firmas? Nós mostramos que, em economias com severas imperfeições no mercado de crédito, empreendedores ilíquidos elevam seus blocos de controle para que, numa disputa pelo controle, os limitados recursos que dispõem sejam suficientes para derrotar as tentativas de aquisições. À medida que a restrição financeira do empreendedor se afrouxa, a ameaça de aquisições perde força e o tamanho do bloco de controle se reduz. O modelo prevê que o tamanho dos blocos de controle em carveouts deve ser menos sensível ao nível de atividade do mercado de controle do que aquele em aberturas de capital de firmas independentes. / [en] What is the effect of greater activity in the market for corporate control on firms´ ownership structure ? We show that, in economies with malfunctioning credit markets, illiquid entrepreneurs increase their blocks´ size, so that in a context for control, their limited resources suffices to defeat takeover attempts. As entrepreneur´s financial restriction is softened, the threat of takeovers dwindles and the size of the controlling blocks falls. The model predicts that sales of shares in carve-outs should be less sensitive to the level of activity in the market for control than thos in IPOs of independent firms.

Les minorités religieuses représentent souvent une composante de la population et se caractérisent par leur différence religieuse qui peut les rendre vulnérables à diverses menaces. Assurer la sécurité et la stabilité des sociétés comportant des minorités religieuses impose l’adoption de dispositions spécifiques. La protection pénale représente ici le moyen juridique le plus efficace, à travers la dissuasion réalisée par les sanctions et les mesures adoptées. Cette étude vise à déterminer le fondement et la portée de ladite protection accordée à des minorités et ce, en établissant une comparaison entre deux systèmes différents devant la religion, le système religieux (libyen et égyptien) et le système laïc (français). Le Statut de la Cour pénale internationale en tant qu’axe complémentaire sera ici un élément neutre par sa position ni laïque, ni religieuse. Cette comparaison s’attachera à l’impact du système juridique adopté quant aux droits des minorités religieuses. / Religious minorities are often a component of the population and are characterized by their religious difference that can make them vulnerable to various threats. Ensuring security and stability of societies with religious minorities requires the adoption of specific provisions. The criminal protection, here, represents the most effective legal means, through deterrence achieved by sanctions and measures adopted. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of that protection extended to minorities in terms of foundation and reach, by making a comparison between two different systems in front of religion: the religious system (Libya and Egypt) and the secular system (French). The Statute of the International Criminal Court as a complementary axis, here, is a neutral element in its position nor secular or religious. This comparison will focus on the impact of the legal system adopted regarding the rights of religious minorities.

While the number of Aragonese speakers is in steady decline in the rural areas of Spain where it was traditionally spoken, the efforts of grassroots movements since the end of Franco’s dictatorship in 1975 have contributed to create a community of new speakers in Aragon’s largest cities, mostly thanks to courses for adults organized by cultural associations. The capital, Zaragoza, which has been practically monolingual for centuries, after Spanish became the language of power and prestige in the 15th century, is now home to several thousand Aragonese speakers. Despite their growing importance, very little research has been done on the views and experiences of these individuals. Drawing on data from focus groups and interviews, the aim of this thesis is to analyze their language ideologies, motivations, frustrations, political engagements, language use and challenges. Hopefully, this information will be valuable in the design of an effective language policy in the future.

O objetivo desta dissertação foi a implementação de uma plataforma de otimização por Programação Genética (PG) com o intuito de estudar e caracterizar as propriedades estatísticas de uma grande classe de problemas. Esta implementação foi feita através de programas escritos em LISP, executados num {\\it cluster} de computadores com o sistema operacional Linux. A plataforma foi usada para estudar uma versão do {\\it Jogo da Minoria} (JM) onde seus jogadores utilizam redes neurais para a realização de suas escolhas. Os jogadores foram divididos em dois grupos distintos. O primeiro formado por jogadores que apresentam estratégias estáticas e portanto não adquirem aprendizado. O segundo grupo é formado por jogadores que utilizam um algoritmo de aprendizado para alterar suas estratégias de identificação da minoria. Mostramos que, em determinadas condições, estes jogadores adaptativos conseguem identificar padrões nas escolhas dos jogadores não-adaptativos e assim optam pela decisão da minoria. Porém a eficiência nesta identificação depende do algoritmo de aprendizado utilizado. O algoritmo de aprendizado gerado pela PG se apresentou mais eficiente que outros algoritmos analisados, como, por exemplo, o algoritmo hebbiano. Esta eficiência é caracterizada por uma emergência espontânea de coordenação entre estes jogadores e que lhes proporcionam um melhor desempenho médio por jogador. / The aim of this work is to describe an optimization platform through Genetic Programming in order to study and characterize the statistical property of a wide class of problems. This implementation was written in LISP and executed in a cluster of computers running the Linux operational system. The platform was used to study a version of the Minority Game where the players used neural networks to make their choices. The players were divided into two distinct groups. The first group was made up of players that had quenched strategies and therefore could not learn. The second group had players that used learning algorithms to change their strategies for minority identification. We showed that, under some conditions, the adaptatives players are able to identify patterns in the choices of the non-adaptatives players and can thus benefit by choosing the minority decision. The efficiency in this identification depends on the learning algorithm. The algorithm generated by Genetic Programming is more efficiency than the others algorithms analysed such as hebbian perceptron learning. This efficiency is characterized by a spontaneous emergence of coordination between this players, which permits earning higher scores than average.

A presente pesquisa tem como contexto linguístico dois bairros da cidade de Jundiaí, formados inicialmente por imigrantes italianos. Desse modo, buscamos responder a seguinte pergunta de pesquisa: como a língua italiana, por meio da memória e do sentimento de pertencimento, se faz presente nas representações sociais das comunidades dos bairros Traviú e Colônia? Este trabalho se justifica pelo fato de, ainda, não existirem pesquisas com base científica sobre as variedades linguísticas das comunidades acima destacadas. Portanto, a tese tem como objetivo central realizar um estudo nesse local para analisar os processos de silenciamento e substituição, oriundos dos contatos entre a língua materna (o português), e língua de imigração (as línguas minoritárias de diferentes regiões da Itália que ali chegaram com os imigrantes). A análise tem como base a modalidade oral, coletada por meio de entrevistas com os descendentes, e a escrita, com base nos poucos registros escritos e preservados, nas variedades da língua italiana ou na língua italiana standard. Os resultados deste trabalho são apresentados com base nas particularidades evidentes nos excertos analisados, em relação às pesquisas referentes ao contato linguístico entre a língua materna brasileira e as línguas dos imigrantes, em nosso caso o português brasileiro e as variedades da língua italiana. Conjuntamente, faz parte desta investigação uma reflexão sobre as dissertações, delimitadas à análise lexical, coordenadas pelo Programa de Língua, Literatura e Cultura Italianas, da Universidade de São Paulo, para destacarmos um estudo que apresente outras possibilidades de estudar as confluências, o silenciamento, a substituição e o quadro atual desses acontecimentos nas comunidades discursivas analisadas. Para tanto, nosso referencial teórico está embasado nos conceitos da Análise do Discurso de linha francesa, iniciados por Michel Foucault, sistematizados por Michel Pêcheux e, no Brasil, a contribuição de Eni Pulcinelli Orlandi. Nas análises do corpus de nosso estudo, verificamos que o processo lento de silenciamento das variedades da língua italiana se afirma com a falta de interlocutores, no entanto, o sentimento de pertencimento, a memória e a busca pela ascendência, têm contribuído para o estudo da língua italiana standard, apresentando um quadro que procura valorizar e registrar o que ainda se faz presente nas comunidades discursivas dos bairros Colônia e Traviú, de Jundiaí SP. Dados que, assim, formam o patrimônio linguístico imaterial com sentidos e valores não substituídos por outros signos linguísticos em tais comunidades. / This research sets its linguistic context in two districts of the city of Jundiaí, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Such districts were initially formed by immigrants of Italian descent. Thereby, we seek to answer the following research question: how is the Italian language, by means of memory and the feeling of belonging, present in the social representations of the communities of these districts of Traviú and Colônia? This research is relevant due to the fact that, so far, no scientifically based research has been made on the linguistic varieties in the communities aforementioned. Thus, the main objective of this thesis is to study the processes of silencing and substitution arising from the contact between the mother tongue (Portuguese), and the immigrants languages (several varieties of the Italian language from different minorities coming from different parts of Italy). This analysis is based on the oral modality, collected through interviews conducted with descendants, and through the writing modality, based on the few preserved written samples of the Italian varieties or the standard Italian. The results presented here are based on the specificities found in the excerpts analyzed, concerning researches on the linguistic contact between the Brazilian mother tongue and the immigrants languages, or, for us, the Brazilian Portuguese and the Italian language varieties. It is also part of this research, considerations on the dissertations which are limited to the lexical analysis, under the coordination of the Program of Italian Culture, Literature and Language in the University of São Paulo, so as to bring into focus a study that presents other possibilities for studying the convergences, the silencing, the substitution and the current status of such events in the discursive community studied. For such purpose, our theoretical framework is based on the French School of Discourse Analysis, which began with Michel Foucault and was systematized by Michel Pêcheux and which counts with the contributions of Eni Pulcinelli Orlandi in Brazil. In the analyses of the corpus studied we found that the slow process of silencing of the Italian language varieties occurs through the lack of interlocutors, although, the feeling of belonging, the memory and the research of ancestry have been contributing to the studies of the standard variety of the Italian language, revealing a scenario where it is sought to value and register what is still present in the discursive communities in the Colônia and Traviú districts. Such data thus, constitutes the immaterial linguistic heritage with meanings and values that are not substituted by other linguistic signs in those communities.

Thesis advisor: Karen Arnold / Despite an increasing number of Asian American women earning the advanced degrees necessary to qualify them for senior administrative positions such as dean, vice president, provost and president, this group remains severely underrepresented in the upper administrative ranks in American higher education. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine if mentoring relationships, which research has shown to be vital to the success of other women administrators of color, would prove important to Asian American women administrators at critical career junctures. Eleven Asian American senior women administrators from four different ethnic backgrounds were interviewed. Two theoretical frameworks were used to interpret the data: relational cultural theory to analyze each interview from the participant's point of view, and; critical race theory to review the data from the institutional perspective. Many of the women experienced factors reported by other women administrators of color: a culture dominated by White men; sexism and racism; feelings of isolation, and; gender-typed family concerns. Most of the women also faced the model minority stereotype of being perceived as passive, yet analysis of their interviews revealed that they did not behave passively. Also contrary to what research has shown to be the experience of other women administrators of color, several reported more instances of sexism than racism. The majority of the women had White male mentors, which is consistent with the literature. For the women who had both male and female mentors, several experienced more career than psychosocial mentoring from their male mentors, a pattern opposite what is typical for other women administrators of color. No clear patterns emerged with regard to how the women utilized their mentors at critical career junctures. The interviews revealed that the women in this study were distinctly different from each other, which disputes the assumption that all Asian American women are similar. This study challenges how these women are currently perceived, and institutions must re-examine their current policies and practices to better support this population. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Higher Education Administration.