Surface waters can be impacted by point and non-point source (NPS) pollution including stormwater culverts, runoff, and septic systems. It is important to develop water quality monitoring plans that can be implemented within resource constraints while still providing useful data. The goal of this research was to develop a sampling strategy to identify the impacts of point and NPS pollution on surface waters. This research incorporates water quality monitoring, land use data, precipitation data, and statistical modeling to improve understanding of pollutant impacts on surface waters. Research was conducted at a 152-acre private lake in western Massachusetts. Lake water samples were collected approximately twice per month over 12 months at ten sample locations selected to isolate land uses, including (1) shoreline samples adjacent to homes with septic systems, (2) shoreline samples at stormwater discharge sites, and (3) control samples at the lake influent, lake effluent, and a private beach. Sampling events included dry and wet weather conditions. Water samples were analyzed for physical, chemical, and microbiological parameters including: pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, alkalinity, nutrients, anions, organic carbon, and microbial indicators (total coliform, E. coli, enterococci, male-specific and somatic coliphages). The data were statistically analyzed to determine how land use, season, and precipitation affect the risk of contamination to surface waters. Results indicated significant water quality variations by land use, season, and precipitation and identified important correlations between water quality parameters.

A clear understanding of the relationship among three performance indicators (perceived service quality, perceived service value, and satisfaction) would inform tourism businesses and organizations which of these evaluation measures were the most useful indicators of visitors’ behavioral intentions. Perceived service quality is a user’s judgment about a service’s overall excellence or superiority (Berry, Parasuraman and Zeithaml 1988). Perceived service value has been recognized in the past decade as one of the most salient determinants of purchase intention and repeat visitation (Bolton and Drew 1991; Chang and Wildt 1994; Jayanti and Ghosh 1996). Previous studies (Grewal, Monroe and Krishnan 1998; Jayanti and Ghosh 1996; Oh 1999; Sweeney, Soutar and Johnson 1997; Zeithaml 1988) suggested that perceived service value which is defined as a trade-off between visitors’ perceptions of the “give” and “get” components of a service (Zeithaml 1988) mediates the influence of perceived price and perceived service quality. Satisfaction is a visitor’s affective and evaluative response to the overall product or service experience (Oliver 1997). What visitors receive from their investment (money, time and other resources) on a tourism trip are psychological benefits. Thus, it is an experience that visitors receive from interacting with the tourism product, and satisfaction is an evaluation of the level to which these psychological benefits are received (Crompton and Love 1995). This study is an examination of the relationships between visitors’ perceived service quality, perceived service value, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Respondents were visitors who attended the Cajun Catfish Festival in Conroe, Texas and were systematically selected. Findings revealed that: a) a structural model operationalizing perceived service quality as a set of attributes fit the data better than an alternative model that measured quality by using a visitor’s judgment about a service’s overall excellence or superiority; b) among the constructs analyzed perceived service value appeared to be the best predictor of behavioral intentions; and c) of the four dimensions of service quality of a festival, generic features and comfort amenities had the most influence on determining perceived service quality.

The AQHI, currently used by the Canadian government, is a multi-pollutant public health information tool that is based upon extensive Canadian epidemiological evidence. As the AQHI is a relatively new metric, there is little published information about the accuracy, and behaviour of this metric both spatially and temporally. The goal of this work was to provide more information to the scientific community on the spatial and temporal behaviour of the AQHI in the Halifax, Nova Scotia region. Sampling was conducted in both the winter and summer of 2009, at 50 sites distributed around the city and at the central NAPS site in downtown Halifax. Statistical analysis was conducted using daily calculated AQHI values. AQHI values in the region were predominantly in the 1 to 3 range on the AQHI scale which corresponds to very good air quality. The Government reported AQHI was found to be significantly different from the 50 sample site s AQHI values for both summer and winter (P=<0.001 for both seasons). The Government reported AQHI was significantly higher (P=0.05) than the AQHI calculated for the 50 sampling sites. Analysis identified that more than 50% of the daily AQHI index values were reported differently than the local sites, most commonly over predicted by one AQHI index point. Analysis also indicated a temporal trend of disagreement between the reported and sampled AQHI values. It was observed that during periods when the AQHI was higher, there was greater disagreement between that reported and the sample site AQHI value. This finding raises some concern regarding the behaviour of the AQHI in both larger cities and over the next decade as Halifax increases in size. The miss-reporting of AQHI values also raises some concern for epidemiological work, if the AQHI is used as an exposure metric it could over estimate exposure to air pollution. However, the AQHI is a useful scientific measure having a number of advantages, first it is a multi pollutant measure based on sound epidemiological evidence linking a mixture of three major air pollutant metrics to health effects and second that it has been distilled into a form that is readily understood by the public. This project has been successful in providing more information to the scientific community on the spatial and temporal variation of the AQHI in the Halifax region. It has been able to identify both seasonal and temporal variation, reinforced the understanding of pollutant behaviour and has begun to provide information on the behaviour of the AQHI on small urban scales and provide valuable information for both researchers and policy makers on the AQHI from a public health context.

No description available.

This study investigated the quality of braille transcription in public schools in Texas. In the first phase, an electronic survey of 94 school personnel across the state found that instructional materials are often transcribed by a variety of personnel not certified by the Library of Congress. In addition, the majority of survey respondents felt that their initial training had not adequately prepared them. Not surprisingly, transcribers and braillists reported that they spent more time each week transcribing materials than did teachers of the visually impaired. In the second phase, 40 transcriptions prepared by school personnel were examined. The quality of the transcriptions varied greatly. More than 30% (n=13) of the transcriptions contained four or less errors. The other transcriptions (n=27) contained a variety of contraction errors, misspelled words, misformed characters, omission of letters or words, insertion of additional letters, detectable erasures, and formatting errors. Perception of quality by the person transcribing often did not reflect the actual quality of the transcription. The data in this study indicated that neither years of experience nor certification status have a decisive effect on quality. On the other hand, the salient characteristic in predicting the quality of braille produced by the participants was time spent each week transcribing materials, which, in turn, was associated with the job role of the participant. In the third phase, members of a focus group assessed a representative subset of the transcriptions. The findings of the focus group revealed that errors would prevent legibility for some students, and that errors in transcribing negatively affect the academic performance of braille readers. The data in all three phases supported the need for developing a formal definition of quality in braille transcribing and providing ongoing, standardized training for school personnel. Perhaps most importantly, the data gained from this study supported the hypothesis that braille readers receive instructional materials that are not equal in quality to those received by other students.

A clear understanding of the relationship among three performance indicators (perceived service quality, perceived service value, and satisfaction) would inform tourism businesses and organizations which of these evaluation measures were the most useful indicators of visitors’ behavioral intentions. Perceived service quality is a user’s judgment about a service’s overall excellence or superiority (Berry, Parasuraman and Zeithaml 1988). Perceived service value has been recognized in the past decade as one of the most salient determinants of purchase intention and repeat visitation (Bolton and Drew 1991; Chang and Wildt 1994; Jayanti and Ghosh 1996). Previous studies (Grewal, Monroe and Krishnan 1998; Jayanti and Ghosh 1996; Oh 1999; Sweeney, Soutar and Johnson 1997; Zeithaml 1988) suggested that perceived service value which is defined as a trade-off between visitors’ perceptions of the “give” and “get” components of a service (Zeithaml 1988) mediates the influence of perceived price and perceived service quality. Satisfaction is a visitor’s affective and evaluative response to the overall product or service experience (Oliver 1997). What visitors receive from their investment (money, time and other resources) on a tourism trip are psychological benefits. Thus, it is an experience that visitors receive from interacting with the tourism product, and satisfaction is an evaluation of the level to which these psychological benefits are received (Crompton and Love 1995). This study is an examination of the relationships between visitors’ perceived service quality, perceived service value, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Respondents were visitors who attended the Cajun Catfish Festival in Conroe, Texas and were systematically selected. Findings revealed that: a) a structural model operationalizing perceived service quality as a set of attributes fit the data better than an alternative model that measured quality by using a visitor’s judgment about a service’s overall excellence or superiority; b) among the constructs analyzed perceived service value appeared to be the best predictor of behavioral intentions; and c) of the four dimensions of service quality of a festival, generic features and comfort amenities had the most influence on determining perceived service quality.

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Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-84).

Thesis (M.A.)--Kutztown State College. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 3169. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-47).