Between 1850 and 1922, agriculturalists built 1,700 kilometers of levees to convert 250,000 hectares of tidal marsh to farmland where the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers enter the San Francisco Bay (the Delta). Drained, farmed and isolated from the water channels, the organic soils behind the levees subsided to elevations as low as 8 meters below sea level, turning "levees" into "dams" that hold back water constantly. Engineers built water transfer projects in the mid-20th century, transferring water from the south Delta to 25 million Californians who now rely on the "dams" accidentally converted into supply channels. In 1972, however, a levee failure caused a salt-water intrusion into the Delta, raising the prominence of the polemic Peripheral Canal which, if built would replace the levees in the trans-Delta water transport role. Levee failures in 2004 (the Delta) and 2005 (New Orleans) have re-ignited the debate, fueled by comments made by public officials who warned that the Delta levees posed more risk of failure than did the pre-Katina Louisiana levees. This background motivates two research questions: What are the social perspectives regarding levee failures of the experts managing the Delta; and what is the history of levee failures that might support their perspectives? The research employed Q-Method to identify and describe four social perspectives: Delta Sustainers, Abandon the Levees, Levee Pragmatists, and Multi-Purpose Levee Advocates. A critical element underlying differences among the perspectives revolved around the perceived history of failures of Delta levees. This dissertation employed semi-structured interviews, archival record searches, and historic map and aerial photograph comparisons to compile a history of 265 levee failures since 1868, many of which are referenced to location, segment, and levee type. In addition, the dissertation compiled a list of emergency repairs and successful flood-fights. The history of failures indicates that important levees of the Delta have performed significantly better than previously identified. Sharing these social perspectives and research results among the key actors addressing Delta issues may lead to improved consensus decisions.

Visual metaphors in advertising have been researched extensively because of their ability to persuade. However, few studies have investigated why they are persuasive from the perspective of the consumer. The purpose of this study was to identify why viewers are attracted to visual metaphor ads and provide a better understanding of the types of consumers who view them, revealing their subjective opinions and attitudes. Through the use of Q-method, four factors were identified: "Highbrows," who prefer metaphors that are classy and refined, "Connectors," an emotional group that focuses on interpersonal relationships and the relevance of the metaphor to the advertised product, "Executionists," who focus solely on how well the message or idea is executed by the metaphor, and "Logical Agitators," who can appreciate humorous body distortion because they function primarily cognitively. The results show that visual metaphors attract a diverse audience and that consumers of metaphors are much more complex than previous research implies. Advertisers may create more effective visual metaphors by constructing them to appeal to one of the four types.

Federal agencies operating along the border in southern Florida include the United States Coast Guard (USCG), United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP), which is the parent agency for Border Patrol (BP), Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the National Park Service (NPS). Each agency has its own mission regarding immigration, and conflicts have emerged regarding responsibilities and responses to immigrant landings. The purpose of this study was to identify federal law enforcement perspectives about tactics for responses to Cuban immigrant landings within national parks in southern Florida. This study was motivated by the following research questions: 1.) How do the federal agencies operating along the southeastern border in Florida work together during responses to Cuban immigrant landings within national parks? 2.) What are the perspectives among agency personnel about tactics for response to Cuban immigrant landings within national parks? 3.) What tactics should be emphasized in future responses? The concept of shared mental models (SMM) provided a framework for the research, and data was collected through the Q method. Three factors, or social perspectives, on responses to landings were revealed: 1.) React & Transport, 2.) Protect and 3.) Plan. Implications for managers, limitations and future research is discussed.

The world revolves around weather information - whether the need is to understand, prepare for, or navigate weather. Although traditional television viewership of weather forecasts are on the decline, mobile weather applications are becoming the new media medium for weather information. In fact, the total number of app downloads in the weather market reached 69.5 million at the end of 2021 (Statista, 2021). As a result, understanding the characteristics of weather app users and what those users are looking for is pertinent to research regarding weather communication. While weather is an ongoing phenomenon sought to be understood by people for many decades, the uses and gratifications of engaging in weather communication are under-researched in literature. Thus, this study aimed to identify the characteristics of weather app users and their motivations for checking mobile weather apps. Using substantial literature to build a concourse of opinions about weather apps (Armstrong & Towery, 2021; Eachus & Keim, 2019; Hoang, 2015; Liu, et al., 2020), subjects participated in a Q sort, a quantitative and qualitative method that reveals the subjectivity of audiences (Brown, 1993; Stephenson, 1995). Findings indicate that managing expectations, fulfilling practical needs, and satisfying personal concerns were strong motivators for using a weather app. Other weather app user qualities included being optimistic, controlling, reasonable, or private. Practical implications for weather communicators, as well as for app developers are also discussed.

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This thesis enquires into the role of values in the attrition of teachers of physical science subjects in the formative years of their teaching careers. Recruitment and attrition have contributed to a shortage of these teachers in English schools (Bousted, 2016), and while recruitment has benefited from increased investment (Gov.uk, 2017), attrition has largely gone unaddressed. In belief system theory, values are considered to be intrinsically linked to the behaviours people exhibit (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). As the behaviour of interest in this thesis is the departure of these teachers from the profession, it was decided that the values informing this behaviour should be investigated. Values are also components of an organisation's culture, which is linked to job commitment and satisfaction (Branson, 2008). It is therefore possible that when the values of these teachers and those in school culture are aligned, this will contribute to reduced attrition. Based on the works of Rokeach (1973) and Schwartz (2012), an adapted value scale using Q-method was developed to measure the value systems of student teachers and those contributing to school culture as determined by secondary school department leaders. The measurement and comparison of these value systems showed: values held by these teachers in the formative years of their careers evolve, and ITT guides this; physical science and non-physical science student teacher value systems were shown in some instances to be similar, and in others to be noticeably different; one of the two physical science student teacher value systems was in most instances aligned with the value systems identified as being present in English secondary school culture; misalignment showed that physical science specialists place less emphasis on having a sense of belonging and on benevolence oriented values; when compared with the values in English secondary school culture, teachers in the formative years of their careers, regardless of their specialism, have the potential to overemphasise the importance of conformity oriented values. It is suggested that these combined factors contribute to the attrition of teachers of physical science subjects in the formative years of their careers.

Humans and wildlife live in increasing proximity, which leads to negative human-wildlife interactions. Management efforts are often focused on “controlling” species that are considered problematic, often downplaying, or even neglecting the perceptions and values of affected communities. There are many ideas about what human-wildlife interactions should look like and these are constantly evolving alongside our values. These ideas are essential for informed and legitimate wildlife management. This study investigates what type of human-baboon interactions residents from seven baboon-visited areas in Cape Town want. Using Q-method the results showed that there are two main perspectives: Learning to Live with Baboons and Learning to Effectively Control and Manage Baboons. These are motivated by different sets of values. Learning to Live with Baboons is focused on the natural and social outcomes recognizing the agency of the humans and baboons. In contrast, Learning to Effectively Control and Manage Baboons focuses on maintaining a stable state of society while perceiving nature as something that can be controlled. Despite differences, the two perspectives have several points of the agreement including the end of abusive language toward baboons, recognition of context and value differences, and establishment of collaborative conflict resolution processes. The study also explores how values shape the broader relationships that people wish to have with wildlife and how these can shift depending on the context. Finally, the practice of reflexivity is suggested as one of the steps toward more inclusive human-baboon governance. The thesis concludes by recognizing that subjective perceptions of human-baboon interactions are not pure dichotomies, but rather a complex web of agreements and disagreements, each being a manifestation of different subjective realities.

Berganläggningar kräver oftast någon form av bergförstärkning. Vid projektering av nya berganläggningar används typförstärkningslösningar, vilket innebär en typ av bergförstärkning som är repeterbar för vissa i förväg bestämda kriterier. De styrande parametrarna är vanligtvis spännvidd och bergkvalité. Tidigare byggda tunnlar har medfört flera dimensionerade typförstärkningslösningar för olika förutsättningar och förhållanden. Det är därför fördelaktigt att studera tidigare projektering och dimesionering av typförstärkningslösningar. Syftet med examensarbetet var att undersöka effektiviseringsmöjligheterna avseende dimensionering av typförstärkningslösningar. En fallstudie genomfördes, där sju olika projekt studerades, dessa var Citybanan, Nya tunnelbanan, Norrbotniabanan, Hallsberg - Stenkumla, Hamnbanan, Botniabanan och Förbifart Stockholm. För respektive projekt analyserades geologiska förhållanden, dimensioneringsmetodiken och designade typförstärkningslösningar. / Rock facilities usually requires some type of rock support. When designing new rock facilities, typical support solutions are used. These are solutions that are repeatable for certain predetermined criteria. The guiding parameters are usually tunnel width and rock quality. Previously built tunnels have resulted in several designed typical support solutions for different conditions. It is therefore advantageous to study how we have previously designed typical support solutions. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the possibilities of improving the efficiency of designing typical support solutions. A case study was carried out, in which the seven different studied projects were the City Line, the new Metro, the north Bothnian Line, Hallsberg - Stenkumla, the Hamn Line, the Bothnia Line and the Stockholm Bypass. For each project, the geological conditions, the design methodology and the typical support solutions were analyzed.

Disertační práce formuluje asymptotické odhady řešení tzv. sublineárních a superlineárních diferenciálních rovnic se zpožděním. V těchto odhadech vystupuje řešení pomocných funkcionálních rovnic a nerovností. Dále práce pojednává o kvalitativních vlastnostech diferenčních rovnic se zpožděním, které vznikly diskretizací studovaných diferenciálních rovnic. Pozornost je věnována souvislostem asympotického chování řešení rovnic ve spojitém a diskrétním tvaru, a to v obecném i v konkrétních případech. Studována je rovněž stabilita numerické diskretizace vycházející z $\theta$-metody. Práce obsahuje několik příkladů ilustrujících dosažené výsledky.

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