Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Human and Community Development (Psychology), 2013 / The prevalence, characteristics and causes of unemployment in the general population have been well researched in South Africa, however, the sub-population of unemployed graduates has been studied to a far lesser extent. In this mixed methods research, 2029 participants from the 23 public higher education institutions in South Africa were surveyed. The online survey was sent to approximately 20 000 participants via email, with an invitation to participate in the study and information on the study. The dependent variable was employment status; three categories described the employed and two categories described the unemployed. Survey results were analysed using frequency distributions, chi-squared analysis and binary logistic regression. Thereafter, ten Black, low socio-economic status, unemployed graduates were interviewed telephonically. The interview transcripts were analysed thematically looking for both variation and consistency. The results showed that unemployment in the sample was 5.1%. Black graduates, graduates of low socio-economic status and graduates with difficulty accessing resources showed the highest prevalence of unemployment. Having received career guidance was not associated with employment status. The perceived causes of unemployment were lack of resources available to look for a job, the lack of connections to the labour market and discriminatory recruitment practices.

A significant nursing shortage exists in the United States, which is compounded by high turnover rates. Skilled nurse preceptors are needed to train and assimilate nurses, which would improve retention of nurse preceptors, facilitate transition of nurses to the practice environment, and increase the number of preceptors within the organization. A preceptor preparation program in a 300-bed hospital was developed to promote nurse preceptor success while enhancing learning outcomes and creating a supportive work environment. The organization's leaders are interested in the successes of the program and its long-term role in retaining nurse preceptors who completed the preceptor preparation program. Therefore, the purpose of this doctor of nursing practice (DNP) project was to develop a program evaluation model where the institution could assess the retention rate of preceptors and the overall effectiveness of the program. The evaluation framework consisted of the Benner's model skill acquisition, from novice to expert, which will assist in assessing outcomes of retention of nursing preceptors as they evolved through the program. The project question for this DNP project asked whether a program evaluation to identify methods to capture current rate of retention of preceptors and overall program effectiveness could be developed. A survey tool was successfully developed and the pilot study was accepted by the facility to capture and evaluate the program information. This project provides a model for program evaluation and may increase the nursing literature on preceptor retention programs. Preceptor program outcomes are important to evaluate and can create positive social change regarding the number of quality preceptors available to train new nurses in practice.

archives@tulane.edu / Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening, non-carcinogenic inflammatory pulmonary conditions characterized by the collection of fluids in the air sacs of the lungs. When fluid-filled airways are ventilated, the stresses of repetitive recruitment-decruitment (Rec-Der) causes cellular damage to the epithelial surface, leading to ventilator induced lung injury (VILI). The objective of this study was to establish a foundation for use of electric cell-substance impedance sensing (ECIS) in real-time analysis of cell membrane morphology and RecDer-induced damage. NCI H441 papillary adenocarcinoma human pulmonary epithelial cells are cultured onto custom 1F8x10E PC Flow Array. 10mM cysteine and 1% gelatin surface treatments demonstrated strong results for improved cell-substrate adhesion strength. RecDer insults were introduced at a velocity of 0.5mm/s through FBS-enhanced RPMI164 growth media. Experimental trials for 0 (n=1), 1 (n=1), 5 (n=1), 10 (n=1), 20 (n=7), and 50 (n=1) RecDer insults were analyzed using Annexin-V/PI flow cytometry; results showed monolayer health of 97.76%, 93.152%, 91.801%, 72.495%, 66.88% and 60.812% respectively. Trials for 20 (n=1), 30 (n=1), and 40 (n=1) RecDer insults were analyzed using ECIS; Frequency-dependent impedance modeling of the acquired data suggested increased damage to both cell-cell junction health and cell membrane integrity with increased RecDer insults. Results established a strong foundation for ECIS analysis of RecDer-induced monolayer damage. / 1 / Joshua Erwa Yao

Every day, children are removed from their homes of origin by Children & Family Services and placed into foster care. When the county foster homes become full, private foster family agencies are relied upon to take in the overflow. For a variety of reasons, private agencies are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of foster parents to house all of these children. This is a pressing problem in the social work field as, without proper placement options, many children will simply fall through the cracks in the system. The purpose of this research was to explore and address the many concerns surrounding foster parenting, thereby improving foster parent recruitment and retention. Surveys were completed by foster family agency staff (both private and county), current and former foster parents, and people who have considered foster parenting but later changed their minds. Qualitative data gleaned from these surveys revealed improvement that could be made in foster parent recruitment and retention for both private and county agencies. This research has the potential to increase the pool of available foster homes and save the lives of many children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate recruitment practices used .in industrial arts education programs and to identify factors which influence students in deciding to prepare for teaching industrial arts. Findings led to these conclusions: 1. Teacher-respondents were mostly unaware of or apathetic to the -problem of recruiting for the future. 2. Teachers used three types of recruitment practices: (a) presentations about industrial arts teacher education; (b) motion pictures and slides on industrial arts; and (3) articles in periodicals written about teaching and college activities.

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2006 / The main objective of the study was to scrutinize the difficulties that confront the recruitment and selection processes at provincial government level, which recruitment processes are required to be in conformity with national and provincial policies. Furthermore, the study will also endeavor to answer questions on problems emanating from the recruitment and selection of public managers since 27 April 1994. The population selected for purposes of this study was that of the management team of the Department of Public Works in the Limpopo Province. The population consisted of 281 management officials. A proportional stratified random sampling design was used for obtaining a sample, with head office and the six district offices forming the different stratas. 14% of managers in all stratas were taken as a sample. The data was collected using questionnaires and interviews, followed by the collection of selected government reports with appropriate data. In the case of interviews, the following three methods were iv used, namely, non-scheduled interviews, non-scheduled structured interviews and scheduled structured interviews. The study revealed that in the Department of Public Works:  There was a sustained or uncontrollable movement of managers hopping in and out of the department. This was exacerbated by the lack of a retention strategy for controlling this problem. As a result, the cream of the department’s most resourceful managers was lost.  The recruitment and selection processes in the department of Public Works were inappropriately guided due to a lack of proper planning. As a direct result thereof, the wrong managers were recruited.  The internal source was preferred over the external source in conducting the recruitment and selection processes. This limited the opportunities of employing the correct managers.  There have been biases in that the recruitment and selection processes were manipulated in order to benefit certain individuals v at the expense of others. This has had a negative impact on the morale of the rest of the staff. In view of the findings of this study, it is recommended that further research on a broader scope is imperative, with the population consisting of the entire management in the Limpopo Provincial Government. The purpose of such research should be to determine the extent to which the recruitment and selection of managers were impacting on service delivery, which is critical to the welfare of the Limpopo society in particular, and the South African society in general.

Social media has changed the way that we create, use, and disseminate information and presents an unparalleled opportunity to gather large-scale data on the networks, behaviors, and opinions of individuals. This dissertation focuses on the role of social media and social networks in recruitment, examining the complex interactions between offline recruiting activities, online social media, and recruiting outcomes. Specifically, it explores how the information college football recruits reveal about themselves online is related to their decisions as well as how this information can diffuse and influence the decisions of others. Recruitment occurs in many contexts, and this research draws comparisons between college football and personnel recruiting. This work is one of the first large-scale studies of social media in college football recruiting, and uses a unique dataset that is both broad and deep, capturing information about 2,644 recruits, 682 schools, 764 coaches, and 2,397 current college football players and tracking offline and online behavior over six months. This dissertation comprises three case studies corresponding to the major decisions in the football recruiting cycle—the coach’s decision to make a scholarship offer, the athlete’s decision to commit, and the athlete’s decision to decommit. The first study investigates the relationship between a recruit’s social media use and his recruiting success. Informed by previous work on impression management in personnel recruitment, I construct logistic classifiers to identify self-promotion and ingratiation in 5.5 million tweets and use regression analysis to model the relationship between tweets and scholarship offers over time. The results indicate that tweet content predicts whether an athlete will receive a new offer in the next month. Furthermore, the level of Twitter activity is strongly related to recruiting success, suggesting that simply possessing a social media account may offer a significant advantage in terms of attracting coaches’ attention and earning scholarship offers. These findings underscore the critical role of social media in athletic recruitment and may benefit recruits by informing their branding and communication strategies. The second study examines whether a recruit’s social media activity presages his college preferences. I combine data on recruits’ college options, recruiting activities, Twitter connections, and Twitter content to construct a logistic classifier predicting which school a recruit will select out of those that have offered him a scholarship. My results highlight the value of social media data—especially the hashtags posted by the athlete and his online social network connections—for predicting his commitment decision. These findings may prove useful for college coaches seeking innovative methods to compete for elite talent, as well as assisting them in allocating recruiting resources. The third study focuses on athletic turnover, i.e., decommitments. I construct a logistic classifier to predict the occurrence of decommitments over time based on recruits’ college choices, recruiting activities, online social networks, and the decommitment behavior of their peers. The results further underscore the power of online social networks for predicting offline recruiting outcomes, giving coaches the tools to better identify vulnerable commitments.

Changes to rivers that alter physical and thermal habitat may cause fish population abundance to decline, due to fewer individuals maturing and entering the adult population. The Weber River has become highly degraded with many dams and diversions altering fish habitat, river volume, velocity, and temperature, and limiting movement between reaches. Bluehead suckers (Catostomus discobolus) occupy only 47% of their historical range and the genetically-distinct Weber River (northern UT) population is declining and contains few young, juvenile fish. My objectives were to determine whether spawning and rearing habitat available in the Weber River may be limiting bluehead sucker reproductive success and population growth. I used reach-based surveys to locate and quantify spawning habitat in the Weber River and Ferron Creek (central Utah), a relatively unaltered river for comparison. I sampled slow-water backwaters near (< 1 km) spawning reaches for juvenile sucker and surveyed habitat characteristics. I conducted laboratory experiments to evaluate the effect different temperature and velocity treatments (12-19°C, 0.004-0.18 m/s) have on juvenile bluehead sucker growth. In the Weber River and Ferron Creek, reaches with gravel (4-64 mm diameter), cobble (64-256 mm diameter), and pools (6-26 pools/km) were used by spawning bluehead sucker. In Weber River backwaters, deeper backwaters contained significantly more juvenile sucker (18-378 sucker; range: 19-87 cm max depth). Laboratory results indicated that juvenile bluehead sucker growth was greatest in the cooler temperature and slower velocity treatments. Collectively these results suggest spawning habitat is limited by the availability of small, rocky substrate and pools and rearing habitat is limited by the availability of deep, slow backwaters at the optimal temperature. By evaluating factors that may limit bluehead sucker population growth, this study will provide a template for future restoration efforts directed at recovering this imperiled population.

Riparian cottonwoods (populus spp.) are keystone pioneer species that contribute to critical streamside and in-stream habitats, water quality, and aesthetic and recreational value. Land use and river regulation have caused a widespread reduction in the extent and regeneration of this genus. The majority of research on Populus species' reproduction has examined seedling recruitment that dominates in wide alluvial valleys. In contrast, I evaluated reproductive strategies of Populus angustifoliain mountain valleys. Research was conducted in northern Utah on the Little Bear River, a gravel-bedded stream that flows north out of the Bear River Range onto deposits of Ancient Lake Bonneville. I used allozyme electrophoretic data and vegetation mapping to investigate recruitment mechanisms of cottonwoods at two steep, confined mountain valley sites and two wide, alluvial valley sites. Allozyme electrophoretic analysis on samples from sites one through four revealed 60%, 69%, 86%, and 84% clonal recruitment, respectively. The size of cottonwood clones may be on the order of 200-300 m in this system. Vegetation mapping supported allozyme data and suggested that clonal recruitment dominates the system. I also collected data at four sites containing no cottonwoods to compare hydrogeomorphic influences at non-cottonwood (NC) sites and cottonwood recruitment (CR) sites. CR sites possess a distinctive geomorphic template relative to NC sites and this template may facilitate root disturbance resulting in clonal recruitment. A high frequency of woody debris and mid-channel islands characterizes CR sites. Channels at CR sites are less entrenched, more sinuous, and exhibit larger bankfull channel width and width to depth ratios, and finer grain sizes than channels at NC sites. At CR sites, estimates of bankfull average boundary shear stress and unit stream power are less compared to those at NC sites. Cottonwood recruitment models that typically describe seedling reproduction in alluvial valley environments do not apply in narrow, steep-gradient environments. I found clonal recruitment of cottonwoods to correlate spatially and temporally with channel and root disturbance associated with rain on snow events on the order of the 25-30-yr flood event.

Mobile robots are being used for an increasing array of tasks, from military reconnaissance to planetary exploration to urban search and rescue. As robots are deployed in increasingly complex domains, teams are called upon to perform tasks that exceed the capabilities of any particular robot. Thus, it becomes necessary for robots to cooperate, such that one robot can recruit another to jointly perform a task. Though techniques exist to allocate robots to tasks, either the communication overhead that these techniques require prevents them from scaling up to large teams, or assumptions are made that limit them to simple domains. This dissertation presents a novel emotion-based recruitment approach to the multi-robot task allocation problem. This approach requires less communication bandwidth than comparable methods, enabling it to scale to large team sizes, and making it appropriate for low-power or stealth applications. Affective recruitment is tolerant of unreliable communications channels, and can find better solutions than simple greedy schedulers (based on experimental metrics of the time necessary to complete recruitment and the total number of messages transmitted). Experimental results in a simulated mine-detection task show that affective recruitment succeeds with network failure rates up to 25%, and requires 32% fewer transmissions compared to existing methods on average. Affective recruitment also scales better with team size, requiring up to 61% fewer transmissions than a greedy instantaneous scheduler that has an O(n) communications complexity.