Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs) Naval Postgraduate School, Dec. 2000. / "December 2000." Thesis advisor(s): Jeanne K. Giraldo. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1987. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-57). Also available via the Internet.

Class of 2008 / Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine factors that influence the career aspirations of first and third year pharmacy students from the University of Arizona. We hypothesized that greater than 50% of first year Doctor of Pharmacy students from UA will plan on pursuing residencies upon graduation, more first year students will prefer clinical practice when compared to third year students, and the factor that contributes most to pharmacy students going into community practice is compensation. Methods: Surveys were administered during regularly scheduled classes to first and third year students. The questions contained in the data collection form consisted of demographic information and motivating factors that were implemented into the survey in the format of the Likert scale. Results: Questionnaires were completed by 83 1st year pharmacy students and 58 3rd year students. Seventeen students (29%) from the Class of 2009 and 19 students (23%) from the Class of 2011 stated that they would like to pursue a residency. First year students felt that applying clinical knowledge was the most important factor, while the third year students considered ideal geographical location to be the most important. However, the data was not statistically significant when the two groups were compared. Conclusions: The data demonstrated that pharmacy students’ preferences do not change drastically as they progress through pharmacy school. The similarity in responses from both groups may suggest that the students have not had adequate exposure to a variety of pharmacy practice settings. Both groups of students gave similar responses on their plans to pursue a residency, therefore, it did not support our hypothesis that a majority of the first year students would focus on this career path. The data does support our hypothesis of first year students’ preference of a clinical setting when compared to third year students. Salary compensation was not ranked in the top 4 most important factors, therefore, we concluded that it is not a significant aspect for students regardless of what career setting they would pursue.

A mini-dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, 2016 / This study examined the factors influencing career choice. The objectives of this study were to determine factors influencing career choice among the University of Zululand students. Secondly, to find out whether there are any relations between career choice and the following variables; gender, age and race and, finally, to determine the agreement among ranks assigned by students to social institutions. The methodology of the study comprised of field and case study research design. SPSS was used to analyse data which consisted of 200 participants who correctly responded to the questionnaires. The sample was selected from the first year students at the University Of Zululand (UNIZULU). The findings indicated that mothers and the media played a role in influencing students in their career choice. Students agreed that the home played the greatest role in choosing their careers. Most students had a positive perception of their chosen career. Finally, variables such as age, gender and race did not play a significant role in choosing a career amongst this particular group of students.

High frequency stimulation of the perforant pathway triggers a prolonged field potential in the dentate gyrus that far outlasts that obtained with single pulses. The late rising component of this field potential has recently been shown to be mediated by N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA). In the present thesis, rats were implanted with stimulating electrodes in the perforant pathway and recording electrodes in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Baseline input/output functions of field potentials (or population EPSPs) were established for each rat. Ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, was then administered to confirm its effects on the late component of the EPSP. The late component was measured by subtracting the pulse-evoked from the train-evoked response. Ketamine was shown to significantly attenuate the late component. Diazepam, a GABA agonist, had no significant effect on the late component. Having established an NMDA component in the field potential allows for the monitoring of the levels of NMDA activation over prolonged periods. Hence, the effect of kindling, an animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy, was also determined. Fully kindled rats--defined as those who had experienced four stage 5 seizures--also had significantly attenuated late components. In contrast to decreased late components, kindled rats displayed increased population spike amplitudes and EPSP slopes. Such a decrease in the late component suggests that the NMDA receptor plays a role in kindling. Subjects were also given ketamine and diazepam following kindling, whereby the effects were proportionately the same as those observed prior to kindling. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

Light rays emanating from the sun, interact with objects which we see in our everyday life and give them presence. Without light these objects would not be visible to us. The interaction of Light with objects of different qualities within a space creates a variety of environments. People direct their attention to elements of the visual environment which provide information needed to carry out conscious and unconscious activities. These activities include movement along a path, introspection in the form of meditation, fascination. In conclusion, this is a process which involves more than just what is visible to the eye in terms of luminance levels but the overall sensory experience. Personal experience is the vehicle for interpretation for both designers and inhabitants. / Master of Architecture

Thesis (MA. Agricultural Management (Animal Production)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014 / Body measurements have been used in animals to estimate body weight especially in rural areas where scales are not readily available. The study was conducted in Sekhukhune District of the Limpopo province, South Africa where the goats between the ages of 20 and 30 months were used. Body weight and four morphological traits were taken on each goat in the morning before they were released for grazing in a total of 613 indigenous goats of both sexes (62 male and 551 female). Body weight was measured in kilogram (kg) using a balance scale, hip height and shoulder height measurement (cm) were done using a graduated measuring stick and the body length and heart girth were measured in centimetre (cm) using a tape rule. Means, standard deviations (SD) and coefficients of variation (CV) of body weight and morphological traits were calculated. Pair wise correlations among body weight and morphological traits were also determined and range from 0.81-0.91 for male and 0.72-0.89 for female goats, respectively and were significant (P<0.01). The direct effect of heart girth on body weight was the strongest in both sexes (path coefficient of 0.58 and 0.62 in males and females, respectively). Body length (males) and body length and hip height (females) also positively (P<0.05) influenced body weight. The direct effects of other linear type traits on body weight in both sexes were non-significant as revealed by t-test. These traits were indirectly realized mostly via heart girth. Thus, they were removed from the final regression equations to obtain much more simplified prediction models. The optimum multiple regression equation for male goats included heart girth and body length, In female goats, however, the v variables included in the final prediction model were heart girth, body length and shoulder height. The forecast indices obtained in this study could aid in weight estimation, selection and breeding programmes.

Free space is represented as a union of (possibly overlapping) generalized cones. An algorithm is presented which efficiently finds good collision free paths for convex polygonal bodies through space littered with obstacle polygons. The paths are good in the sense that the distance of closest approach to an obstacle over the path is usually far from minimal over the class of topologically equivalent collision free paths. The algorithm is based on characterizing the volume swept by a body as it is translated and rotated as a generalized cone and determining under what conditions generalized cone is a subset of another.

The main objective of this thesis is to present a new path planning scheme for solving the shortest (collision-free) path problem for an agent (vehicle) operating in a partially known environment. We present two novel algorithms to solve the planning problem. For both of these approaches we assume that the agent has detailed knowledge of the environment and the obstacles only in the vicinity of its current position. Far away obstacles or the final destination are only partially known and may even change dynamically at each instant of time. The path planning scheme is based on information gathered on-line by the available on-board sensor devices. The solution minimizes the total length of the path with respect to a metric that includes actual path length, along with a risk-induced metric. In order to obtain an approximation of the whole configuration space at different levels of fidelity we use a wavelet approximation scheme. In the first proposed algorithm, the path-planning problem is solved using a multi-resolution cell decomposition of the environment obtained from the wavelet transform. In the second algorithm, we extend the results of the the first one by using the multiresolution representation of the environment in conjunction with a conformal mapping to polar coordinates. By performing the cell decomposition in polar coordinates, we can naturally incorporate sector-like cells that are adapted to the data representation collected by the on-board sensor devices.

The present investigation focuses on the development of computationally efficient path planning algorithms for autonomous ground vehicles. The approach selected is based on a heuristic hill climbing local search. The cost index employed incorporates a traversability cost average, which offers two primary benefits: 1) the average extends the region of knowledge of the search algorithm, increasing optimality of the solution; and 2) the avoidance of hazardous regions is added to the decision making process. A binary traversability map representation is first utilized to analyze the performance of the enhanced heuristic hill climbing algorithm in comparison to the more traditional techniques. Next, the search algorithm is applied to a multi-valued traversability map to test the capabilities of the algorithm over natural terrain. For this purpose, a digital elevation map is automatically processed to obtain multi-valued traversability values through the de nition of a roughness, inclination and step index. The complete path planning architecture for natural terrain then consists of a three step approach, computation of the multi-valued traversability map, implementation of the enhanced heuristic hill climbing search algorithm, and a path relaxation step. This last step is employed to fine-tune and smooth the trajectory, eliminating sharp turns caused by the regular characteristics of the search space. / text