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The research of the past two decades in travel and tourism has demonstrated that tourism destination image is a valuable construct in investigating the destination selection process and behavior of travelers. Most studies of consumer decision making in tourism have investigated the relationship between image of a destination and preference or visitation intentions for the destination. As competition among tourism destinations is getting more intense, it becomes increasingly important to understand the dynamic structure of image by studying forces or influences contributing to destination image formation so that a more effective image creation and correction strategy can be articulated. In the last two decades, research in travel and tourism has investigated many important issues regarding the image concept and contributed to understanding of tourist destination image. However, although numerous researchers across different fields emphasized the importance of understanding the forces contributing to image formation process, it has not received much attention in travel and tourism studies. Building upon the works from several fields and disciplines such as consumer behavior and marketing, travel and tourism, environmental psychology and geography, this study developed and empirically tested a conceptual model of the determinants of tourist destination image (image formation process). A major finding of the study was that a tourist destination in1age is formed by both stimulus factors and travelers' characteristics. The image of a tourism destination is dynamic and developed by chains of influences. The findings of a path analysis indicated that variety and type of information sources used, age and education influence perceptual/cognitive evaluations of tourism destinations. The perceptual/cognitive eval uatiol1s and socio-psychological travel motivations together influence affective evaluations of tourism destinations. The perceptual/cognitive and affective evaluations, then. form an overall Image of tourism destinations. It was also found that the overall image was more likely influenced by affect than perceptual/cognitive evaluations and affect together. In other words, affect serves as an intervening variable between perceptual/cognitive evaluations and overall image. The study contributed to the theoretical advancement of destination linage formation in the field of travel and tourism. It also contributed to consumer behavior and marketing by providing a structural model by which a simultaneous empirical treatment of the elements influencing image was investigated. The results of this study provided important implications for strategic image management and can aid in designing and implementing marketing programs for creating and enhancing tourist destination images. They can also aid in tailoring images for specific target markets, positioning tourism destinations, and designing advertising and promotional programs. / Ph. D.

In 2007, an estimated 22.3 million people in the United States, aged 12 or older, were classified as meeting the criteria for either substance dependence or abuse. Therapists have long sought to discover the most effective way to address these disorders in therapy; though short-term gains are often seen following inpatient or outpatient treatment, these gains often dissipate over time. Individuals who attend support groups such as Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous or SMART Recovery show much better prognoses over time than those who receive formal treatment alone. The current research is a secondary analysis of data collected by the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study. A path analysis is conducted to examine the relationships between symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety, and motivation for treatment as they relate to post-treatment support group attendance. These variables form a path model which is analyzed so that each individual regression takes into account the other regressions in the model. Symptoms of depression are found to be significantly positive predictors of motivation for treatment, and motivation for treatment is found to be a significantly positive predictor of support group attendance. Implications of these findings for clinical practice and future directions for research are included in discussion of the results. / Master of Science

Utilizing the theory of planned behavior, I examined the variables that affect Chinese individuals' help-seeking intention. A total of 251 Chinese individuals participated in this study. Results showed that the variables in the theory of planned behavior accounted for 16% of the variance in help-seeking intention. Specifically, attitude (r = .22, p < .001) and perceived behavioral control (r = .22, p < .001) were found to be significant predictors of help-seeking intention. Based on these results, mental health professionals can design outreach interventions, such as psychoeducational programs, to improve Chinese individuals' help-seeking attitude and perceived behavioral control in an attempt to increase mental health service utilization. Additionally, counselors can discuss with clients' their attitude and perceived behavioral control regarding seeking counseling in an attempt to assist clients in being committed to the counseling process.

Maintenance and diagnostics play a vital role in the aviation sector. This is especially true for the engines, being one of the most vital components. Lack of maintenance, or poor knowledge of the current health status of the engines, may lead to unforeseen disruptions and possibly catastrophic effects. To keep track of the health status, and thereby supporting maintenance planning, model based diagnostics is a key factor.  In the work going into this thesis, various aspects of model based gas turbine diagnostics, focused on aero engines, are covered. First, the importance of knowing what health parameters may be derived from a set of measurements is addressed. The selected combination is herein denoted as a matching scheme. A framework is proposed where the most suitable matching scheme is selected for a numerically robust diagnostic system. If a sensor malfunction is detected, the system automatically adapts. The second subject is a system for detecting a burn-through of an afterburner inner liner. This kind of burn-through event has a very small impact on available on-board measurements, making it difficult to detect numerically. A method is proposed performing back-to-back testing after each engine start. The method has shown potential to detect major burn-through events under the preconditions, regarding data collection time and frequency. Increasing these will allow for more accurate estimations. The third subject covers the importance of knowing the airplane installation effects. These are generally the intake pressure recovery, bleed and shaft power extraction. Just like inaccurate measurements affect diagnostic results, so does erroneous installation effects. A method for estimating said effects in the presence of gradual degradation has been proposed by using neural networks. By retraining the networks throughout the degradation process, the estimation errors is reduced, ensuring relevant estimations even at severe degradations. Finally, an issue related to the general lack of on-board measurements for diagnostics is addressed. Due to lack of measurements, the diagnostic model tend to be underdetermined. A least square solver working without a priori information has been implemented and evaluated. Results from the solver is very much dependent on available instrumentation. In well instrumented components, such as the compressors, good diagnostic accuracy was achieved while the turbine health estimations suffer from smeared out results due to poor instrumentation.

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