<p> A renewed attack on welfare requires a new perspective on an age-old question: why do Americans hate welfare? This research considers the findings and implications gathered from previous research on the topic and utilizes the theoretical predictions of group threat theory, the dominant ideology thesis of individualism, as well as investment theory of party competition in order to construct research hypotheses that appropriately addressed this research question. A secondary data analysis was conducted using existing statistics from the National Opinion Research Center&rsquo;s General Social Survey. It was determined that the 1990 General Social Survey dataset best fit the concepts developed in the literature review. This research used racial prejudice, individualism, and political identity indicators to predict anti-welfare spending preferences. It was found that race, political ideology, and individualism were the best predictors of anti-welfare spending preferences. Given the findings of this research, we suggest that if there were better education on the material reality of poverty&mdash;rather than a reliance on the internal reality that we often prefer to assume which allows us to blame the victim&mdash;we will be better equipped to address the structural issues of poverty.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 17, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p.150-155). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Drexel University, 2003. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-147).

<p> This survey study examines cell phone usage data and focuses on the application of the data to disaster response management. Through the course of this study, the structure of cell phone usage data and its characteristics will be reviewed. Cell phone usage data provides us with valuable information about human movements and their activities. The uniqueness of the data is that it contains both spatial and temporal information and this information is free of fixed routes such as roads or any preset data capturing timing. In short, it is a very fluid kind of data which reflects our activities as humans with freedom of movement. Depending on data extraction methods, the data server can provide additional information such as application activities, battery level and charge activities. However, cell phone usage data contains shortcomings including data inconsistency and sparseness. Both the richness and the shortcomings of the data expose the hurdles required in data processing and force us to devise new ways to analyze this kind of data. Once the data has been properly analyzed, the findings can be applied to our real life problems including disaster response. By understanding human movement patterns using cell phone usage data, we will be able to allocate limited emergency resources more adequately. Even more, when disaster victims lose their cell phone functionality during a disaster, we might be able to identify or predict the locations of victims or evacuees and supply them with necessary assistance. The results of this study provide some insights to cell phone usage data and human movement patterns including the concentration of cell phone activities in specific zones and rather universal cell phone charging patterns. The potential of the data as a movement analysis resource and the application to disaster response is apparent. As a base to leverage the study to the next level, a possible conceptual model of human movement factors and data processing methods will be presented.</p>

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The following thesis examines the impact of social and legacy media on young people’s political engagement as well as on their attitudes to, feelings towards and beliefs about politics. This was accomplished using a three-tiered design which integrated both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The aim of this design was to ensure that young people were afforded a voice in the ongoing debate around youth apathy. To this end, a direct comparison of social and legacy media coverage of various case studies was undertaken. This initial comparison was accompanied by a series of interviews using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). The interviews focused on individual engagement with politics and social and legacy media, in order to get a sense of each individuals understanding of their role in British politics as well as the feelings and attitudes towards media and politics more widely. The three-tiered design concluded with a quantitative questionnaire assessing governmental trust, political efficacy, self-efficacy, and self-esteem by way of a series of standardised measures. From this mixed-methods approach, two main findings arise. Firstly, that social media such as Twitter hold the potential to facilitate political engagement in young people, beyond what is currently achieved by the British legacy media. The second finding suggests that there has been fundamental paradigmatic shift of youth conceptions of politics from what could be considered traditional political behaviours (such as voting and party membership; Strømsnes, 2009) to lifestyle orientated choices (such as boy/buycotts; Copeland, 2014; Gil de Zúñiga, Copeland & Bimber, 2014), mediated by social media. Overall the results of the thesis foster a dualistic understanding of British young people who are simultaneously engaged with and apathetic toward “politics” dependant on how the term is defined.

Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of data transmission within short range local area networks (LAN). Multimode fibre (MMF) is widely used in local area networks because of its coupling and alignment along with the low cost of related components. Graded index MMF has become common due to the reduction in pulse spreading; however, as demands for high bandwidth increase towards a future gigabit rate network, the typical MMF using conventional transmission methods will not be suitable. Meanwhile, this increasing demand for high speed data transmission will soon reach the Shannon capacity limit of single mode fibres. After multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) technology was successfully used in wireless communication, the researcher realised that the same idea could also be applied to an optical fibre network. Optical MIMO techniques are gaining interest in order to create parallel channels over orthogonal modes in a MMF or a few mode fibre (FMF). This approach could lead to a significant increase in the bandwidth distance product and be employed in the next 40Gb/s or even 100Gb/s optical fibre transmission systems. Generally speaking, optical MIMO appears to be the best solution to the bandwidth limitation problem in either short distance MMF or long distance FMF systems. This thesis focuses on designing a simple, cost-effective, and energy efficient optical MIMO system based on MMFs. This proposed system can be realised by combining radial offset launching and annular multi-segment detectors. First, in the initial work, we performed a theoretical and numerical study of the key impairments of MMFs, and the mode propagation in an MMF was analysed mathematically. The variation in electrical field intensity for linearly polarised (LP) modes in the core region of an MMF and the analytical solutions for power coupling coefficients in either radial offset launching or centre launching were presented. In addition, the modal time delays, impulse response, and transfer function were all introduced. Subsequently, the near field intensity pattern (NFP) was simulated at the output facet of the MMF, which indicated that the overall NFP suffered from blurring when it contained mode mixing, and that the intensity pattern was particularly sensitive to the random phase. According to the spatial distribution of the NFP, the annular detector can be exploited more efficiently. All of the results were calculated and plotted using the MATLAB program. Secondly, the optical MIMO model in the multimode fibre was briefly summarised, including the MIMO channel matrix H expression, a mathematical expression of optical MIMO capacity, MIMO channel estimation and an equalization method. Two metrics can be used to characterise the MIMO channel performance: condition number and crosstalk at each receiver. The numerical results demonstrated that the new type of annular multi-segment detector exhibits superior performance compared to the conventional multiple single mode fibre (SMF) detectors, making them attractive for future optical MIMO systems. Finally, the core work of this thesis can be divided into two parts: the modelling of a 10Gb/s intensity modulation direct detection (IM-DD) optical MIMO MMF system; and the modelling of an advanced 10Gb/s coherent differential phase shift keying (DPSK) MIMO FMF system. In both simulation systems, the important transmission parameters of intra-group mode mixing, modal dispersion, chromatic dispersion, and mode attenuation were considered and discussed in detail. In the IM-DD optical MIMO system, the optimization of the transceiver can be based upon the laser spot size and the power flux distribution emitted by the transmitter. Results from the simulation showed that the intra-group mode mixing had a limited impact on system performance, and due to its inability to compensate for linear impairments, the IM-DD optical MIMO was not favourable for long distance transmission systems. Nevertheless, the new type of optical fibre FMF seems to be the most promising candidate for use in long haul transmission systems. Therefore, the well-known DPSK modulation format in conjugation with the coherent detection deployed in FMF was studied. Both heterodyne and intradyne detection schemes were analysed followed by mathematical derivation and numerical simulation; the results illustrated that similar system performances can be achieved in both schemes. Meanwhile, the coherent DPSK simulation results also demonstrated that the linear impairments were almost compensated by the frequency domain MIMO equalization process, which resulted in system performance being independent to transmission distance for up to 10km. This advantage proved that the coherent optical DPSK MIMO system can be employed in long haul networks. As with an IM-DD optical MIMO system, optimization of a coherent MIMO system was also possible. However, in contrast to the optimization of an IM-DD MIMO system, a trade-off had to be made between sufficient spatial diversity at the transceiver and differential modal delay caused by modal dispersion; consequently, the numerical results showed that the proposed coherent optical DPSK MIMO gained reasonable good results without using any active device, such as a spatial light modulator and a mode converter. In conclusion, this proposed optical MIMO system provided easy implementation and integration and is feasible for use in future optical communication systems.

Science communication, as a multidisciplinary field, serves to transfer scientific information to individuals to promote interest and awareness in science. This process resembles science education. Rooted in science education and science communication studies, this study examines the 4th and 5th grade students` usage of prominent science information sources (SIS), the features of these sources, and their effective and ineffective uses and processes in communicating science to students. Guided by situated learning and uses and gratifications (U&amp / G) theories, this study is a phenomenological qualitative inquiry. Data were gathered through approximately 64 hours of classroom observations / focus group and individual interviews from four elementary schools (two public, two private schools) in Ankara, T&uuml / rkiye. Focus group interviews were conducted with 47 students, and individual interviews were carried out with 17 teachers and 10 parents. The data were analyzed manually and MAXQDA software respectively. The results revealed that students used various SIS in school-based and beyond contexts to satisfy their cognitive, affective, personal, and social integrative needs. They used SIS for (a) science courses, (b) homework/project assignments, (c) exam/test preparations, and (d) individual science related research. Moreover, the results indicated that comprehensible, enjoyable, entertaining, interesting, credible, brief, updated, and visual aspects of content and content presentation of SIS were among the key drivers affecting students` use of SIS. The results revealed that accessibility of SIS was an important variable in students` use of these sources. Results further shed light on the connection between science education and science communication in terms of promoting science learning.

Introduction: Health service organizations and their partners are increasingly under pressure to collaborate to deliver integrated patient care. The Collective Impact framework aligns well with respectful engagement and decision making between an organization and its partners, ensuring long-term change at the systems level. Shared vision, mutually reinforcing activities, and continuous communication are key components of a collective impact effort. Communication, in particular, plays an important role in all aspects of an organization, both internally and externally. Thoughtful feedback from partners and collaborative efforts can achieve collective impact and improved patient and population outcomes. Choose Well (CW), a statewide contraceptive access initiative in South Carolina, was developed using Collective Impact principles. CW launched in 2017 and continued through 2022. CW aimed to implement best practices for contraceptive access and provision. This study examined the perceptions of CW staff towards shared vision for contraceptive access, mutually reinforced activities, and communication strategies between CW and its partners. Methods: Data were collected in 2022 via exit key-informant interviews with CW staff to reflect across-all-years of their involvement with the initiative. A semi-structured interview guide was used, and the interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded. A codebook was developed based on the interview guide. Data from questions related to 1) shared vision, 2) communication, and 3) mutually reinforcing activities between CW staff and partners were analyzed for this study. Coding was conducted with NVivo software version 1.7. Results: A total of eight CW staff participated in the interviews. Findings indicate that participants were very satisfied with the shared vision for contraceptive access between CW and its partners. The most prevalent facilitators for shared vision were constant and ongoing communication, collaboration with partners, and CW changes in framing for the initiative. Regarding communication, most participants perceived that the level of communication and coordination among various CW partners was consistent and streamlined. Integration of communication into daily processes, open communication with partners, and use of an online communication tool were mentioned as strategies that facilitated communication. Lack of administrative and partner buy-in among some partners, staff turnover, and pandemic-related challenges were commonly mentioned by participants as barriers to communication. Most participants perceived mutually reinforcing activities to be adaptability to partner needs, funding for the full range of contraceptive methods, collaboration efforts, and feedback from the partners. Conclusion: While lack of buy-in among some partners and the pandemic posed challenges, most participants perceived that constant and consistent communication facilitated a shared vision among the CW partners. Through adaptability, collaboration, and open communication with partners, CW adjusted its work to align with their partners’ goals. The findings of this study indicate that CW has coordinated their efforts around a common goal that aligns with their partners. CW maintained effective and consistent communication and integrated partner feedback as a Collective Impact approach towards improving contraceptive access and provision in SC. Shared vision and understanding of the health issue between the organization and partners can lead to a collective impact towards solving community health problems such as contraceptive access.

A Modernidade e a Pós-modernidade, em seus antagonismos produziram discursos de legitimação de projetos os quais deslocam, um em relação ao outro, seus sentidos. Tudo que se moveu neste cenário carregou consigo e se embateu com as ambigüidades e aporias que aí se deram. Assim, portanto, se desenvolveu a Ciência Moderna, expandindo seus campos, legitimando novos discursos ora pela vicariedade, ora baseada na alteridade e ora utilizando a paralogia como recurso. Este é o caso da Ciência da Comunicação que, depois da transição vicariedade/alteridade buscou legitimação discursiva em teorias que substantivassem sua autonomia. Entre elas está a Teoria da Recepção e/ou Teoria da Mediação como vem sendo nomeada. Em Jesús Martín-Barbero os estudos de recepção encontraram vigor para tornar a Ciência da Comunicação não só um discurso científico legítimo, mas também sustentar um projeto de autonomia do pensamento latino americano. Constituído nosso objeto, Dos meios às mediações, obra de Martín-Barbero que referencia o projeto ousado o qual a Comunicação tomou para si, traz, no entanto, uma série de problemas epistemológicos no mapa noturno que desenhou, os quais carecem ser revistos, na medida em que sustentam metodologias empregadas hoje por laboratórios de pesquisa que tomam a recepção como caminho. Dialética, Mediação e Subalternidade, do mesmo modo que os limites do deslocamento da categoria trabalho para a categoria comunicação e os limites da mediação subjetiva, estão no cerne das categorias as quais não prescindem de uma discussão séria a fim de se resolver os problemas de legitimação destes trabalhos empíricos na base da Ciência da Comunicação. Discutir as trajetórias das Ciências, bem como debater sobre as bases epistemológicas do discurso que se pretende autônomo, do mesmo modo, discutir os limites da superação de um pensamento europeu ainda com vitalidade, estão na pauta de nosso trabalho o qual agora submetemos à leitura da comunidade científica. / The Modernity and the Post-modernity, in yours antagonisms, produced legitimations speeches to projects wich dislocate, one in relation other, yours senses. All what move it in this scene, carry on with yourself and embat it with te ambiguities and apories that in there happened. This way, therefore, developed it the Modern Science, dilated your fields, legitimating news speeches one moment by vicarity, the next by alterity and the next using the paralogy like resource. This is the case of the Science of the Communication what then transition vicarity/alterity searched legitimations speechesin theories who substantive your autonomy. Between they is the Theory of Reception and/or Theory of Mediation, how goes being called. In Jesús Martín-Barbero, the studies of reception found force to turn the science of the Communication into doesnt only a scientific speech legitimated, but too to support a project of autonomy of thought latin american. Building our object, Dos meios às Mediações, of Martín- Barbero who referances the daring project that the Communication take to it, bring, however, a whole series epistemologic problems in the night map designed by him and that need of revision, cause support the methodologies emploied today in labs of research what take the reception on like your way. Dialect, Mediation and Subalternity are in the center of the categories who doesnt excuse of a severe epistemologic discussion to solve the problems of legitimation these empirics terms in the base of the Science of Communication. To question the route of sciences, well like to debate about the epistemics bases of speeches that pretend autonomy itself, well like the limits of superation of european thought, yet in force are in the lines of our work that now we submit it to the reading of scientific comunity.