Natural hazard-induced disasters have become a priority concern for international humanitarian child protection actors due to the increase in their intensity, frequency, and the risks they pose for children worldwide. In responding to natural hazard-induced disasters, international humanitarian child protection actors are giving increasing attention to the role of the family in promoting children's well-being. The current interventions implemented to support families in these crisis settings are limited by the lack of grounded understanding of what family is in different contexts, and an understanding of how families adapt to contextual stressors. Using a combination of a literature review, meta-ethnography and critical reflection on how to strengthen humanitarian practice, this dissertation examines how families respond, adapt and can be better supported in natural disaster settings. Key findings are that families draw upon cultural strategies of adaptation to navigate changes in their environment and support their children’s well-being. These strategies are often disrupted by external humanitarian responders, however, hindering the ability of families to adapt and causing unintended harm. Current family-level interventions are limited by their reliance on Northern conceptions of the nuclear family, their failure to recognize the rich diversity of family arrangements and supports that exist, and their predominant focus on dynamics within the family unit, often neglecting to fully consider the interactions families have with their social and physical surroundings. This dissertation provides evidence for why and how current interventions to strengthen families in humanitarian contexts should be realigned in a manner that gives greater attention to families’ adaptation strategies, including cultural and relational aspects, builds on local strengths and avoids causing unintended harm.

This study was conducted to determine if the strength of consensus in small groups could be predicted from group members' perceptions of information usefulness and shared understanding. Eight groups of five and two groups of four subjects participated in a group consensus exercise designed to allow mathematical measurement of the consensus achieved. The subjects also completed questionnaires designed to measure their perceptions of information usefulness, shared understanding, and strength of consensus. The findings of this study suggest that shared understanding is a strong predictor of the strength of consensus while information usefulness is only slightly predictive. This study is the first step toward development of management tools to measure consensus in small groups when no mathematical algorithm is possible. The goal of this and further research is to provide managers with a way to know how strongly workers support actions they have agreed· to take in order to make participatory management more effective. Tools such as these can also be used in the public policy arena. When groups of concerned citizens are brought together, these toolS can be used to see if the consensus achieved is really representative of everyone's views. / Master of Science

This dissertation offers an examination of the concept of sustainability, via an ethnography of geothermal life in the district of Puna on Hawaiʻi Island. In the midst of global discourse on climate change, population growth, and energy needs, ‘sustainability’ brands a remarkable number of initiatives to signify a thoughtful connection with earth, and concern with the continuation of all of existence. Close examination of what sustainable measures have meant for life in the district of Puna on Hawaiʻi Island, however, reveal the ties of discourses on and enactments of ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable’ living to the sustenance of market, colonial inheritance and renewability, and the manufacture of narratives that erase forms of existence—human and nonhuman, including and especially the geological. Examinations of the notion of ‘sustainability’ alongside currents of Kanaka ʻŌiwi inquiries into earth’s heat element and its relations, and settler experiences of geothermal activity, reveal the pliability of material Natures in the face of human desire, the graceless scaffolding of lives under Late Liberalism, and the structure of Late Liberal biases as suspended in love with the biontological—those forms deemed “Life.” In the dissertation I examine engagement points between literatures on Development, Indigeneity, and Space, in particular what they reveal about possible relationships with land and resource, as well as literatures on Foucauldian biopower and what Elizabeth Povinelli (2016) has termed “geontopower”—increasingly exposed arrangements of power as divisions between Life and Nonlife in the Late Liberal period—to think through the commodification of rock and earth, and the spaces between things where the possibility for hulihia (overturning) continues to exist.

HIV incidence rates have been on the decline globally, yet certain sub-populations have seen their incidence rates increase, bearing an extraordinary share of the HIV disease burden. In Eastern and Southern Africa, the rate of new HIV infections disproportionately affects adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) with up to three times as many young women ages 15-24 living with HIV as compared to their male peers. These statistics make AGYW a key demographic for action in order to realize an AIDS-free generation. To most effectively intervene, researchers must examine the rationale for higher infection rates among young females. Recent studies have found positive correlation between economic strengthening interventions (such as cash transfers, savings accounts, or financial literacy) and HIV sexual risk among AGYW, however, the majority of the literature to date understands these economic strengthening interventions at the household level, as a mechanism for providing insurance against economic shocks and as an incentive for keeping girls in school, a key predictor of reduced HIV. Fewer studies have sought to understand how increased resources, and power over those resources, affects the thoughts and behaviors of AGYW at the individual level. Does this enhanced agency translate into greater power in intimate relationships? Does she feel more entitled to make decisions over her own body once she has the power to meet her own basic needs? And does agency over her body inevitably translate to fewer HIV risk behaviors? This three-paper dissertation examines data collected with AGYW living in two urban areas, characterized by HIV prevalence. These areas are the sites of a multi-sectoral DREAMS program, a public-private partnership to reduce HIV incidence in ten countries within sub-Saharan Africa. Paper 1 examined the construct of financial agency through the development of a scale, finding variations in experience of financial autonomy between age cohorts with younger adolescents’ autonomy correlated to a higher likelihood of being sexually active and exposure to partner violence. Financial agency was not strongly associated with HIV risk reduction variables at any age. Paper 2 sought to understand the correlational relationships between personal financial agency, sexual relationship power (SRP), and reduced sexual HIV risk for AGYW in Zambia in order to determine if SRP may be a potential mediator between financial agency and sexual HIV risk reduction. Paper 2 found that SRP within sexual relationships did convert to HIV protective behaviors and that while financial agency did correlate with SRP for the oldest cohort, financial agency on its own was not sufficient to reduce sexual HIV risk. Paper 3 explored how AGYW in Zambia understand financial agency as a construct and how it does or does not affect their power in intimate relationships. This study demonstrated that financial independence is an aspiration of AGYW, however, that autonomy is tied up with negative community-based perceptions about what it means to be a woman earning and with control over her own income. Financial independence has promise as a mechanism for sexual HIV risk reduction, specifically the reduction of transactional sex; however, the realities of male sexual privilege may remain an obstacle to risk reduction irrespective of financial decision-making power. Women’s sexual agency was viewed as far greater in non-martial relationships as opposed to within marriage, where religious mores on headship created a power imbalance. Overall, findings from this dissertation contribute empirically to the literature on economic strengthening and HIV prevention for AGYW, providing new insights on the influence of individual financial agency. Findings suggest a nuanced relationship between financial agency and sexual HIV risk reduction, one that is not necessarily linear or positively correlated. HIV prevention programs that wish to incorporate economic strengthening into their multi-sectoral models should consider the influence of gender norms and sexual relationship power which could continue to keep AGYW in positions of vulnerability regardless of their financial autonomy.

In 2012, President Barack Obama used prosecutorial discretion to initiate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that deferred deportation and provided employment authorization for a two-year renewable period to undocumented immigrant persons that came to the U.S. as children. Under former President Donald Trump’s administration, DACA was rescinded in 2017. A review of the literature suggests this is the only study to explore the perceived impact of a policy shift in DACA status, given the critical time of interviews conducted from April 2016 to October 2018. Thus, substantially advancing the literature, qualitative data on a diverse group (N=10) of young adult DACA beneficiaries revealed positive and negative impacts. The sample included 60% currently gainfully employed, 40% attending college—while 80% had experienced emotional distress by having an unauthorized legal status and facing obstacles to pursuing higher education. Of note, 40% rated themselves as currently relatively healthy, while 60% indicated having experienced a decline in their physical or mental health since entering the United States. As significant sources of stress, 90% had experienced anxiety centered around having to wait to renew their DACA status and having to pay for their status renewals. Given the rescinding of the DACA program in 2017, many were ill-prepared, as 90% had never experienced being undocumented without a DACA status as an adult in the United States. The main body of qualitative data generated six categories that encompassed 51 emergent themes: 1-Participants’ health trajectory across their lifespan; 2-Participants’ experiences of barriers to seeking care and having their health and mental health needs addressed; 3-Participants Living at the Intersection of Contemporary Immigration; 4-The impact of other family members’ immigration status; 5-From enjoying benefits of the DACA program, to having a false sense of normalcy, to feeling ambivalence, and experiencing detriments; and, 6-Potential DACA policy shifts and anticipated impacts ranging from negative (fear, loss, suffering) to positive (relief). These six broad categories suggest how, despite the benefits of their DACA status, substantial barriers and sources of anxiety and stress still impacted the lives of the young adults and their families. Implications of the findings are discussed.

This study examines the various ways that Central American migrants traversing Mexico’s southern border interpret, negotiate, and resist conditions of immobilization imposed by state refugee policy and other institutional impediments to northbound movement. My findings are informed by 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Tapachula, Chiapas, followed by an additional six, non-consecutive weeks in various sites of transit across Mexico as a Human Rights Observer in the migrant caravans of 2017 and 2018. Since 2011, as a result of increasing rates of violence, flows of Central American women, youth, and families across Mexico’s southern border have risen substantially. In efforts to curb northbound movement, the US has exerted significant pressure for the Mexican government to assume a greater role in the retention, organization, and deterrence of prospective refugee populations, resulting in the temporary resettlement along the southern border of thousands of migrants seeking international protection. Many of these migrants find themselves in a liminal space of legal and social uncertainty in which they must contend with a range of limitations and distinct possibilities as they consider their ongoing trajectories. Through close attention to the social worlds that emerge around and within migrants’ transit communities, I explore central themes related to the existentiality of im/mobility, gendered experiences of transit migration, the paradoxes of institutional practices of refugee protection within predominant transit zones, and diverse forms of resilience and coping that are given breadth through collective travel. Ultimately, I argue that it is critical to explore the narratives and lived realities of those most affected by migration-centered policy and discourse, and to recognize the critical role that migrants play in challenging and reimagining the terms of their in/exclusion.

In May of 2021, in a move unprecedented in European history, the governments of Germany and Namibia announced the completion of their negotiations for funding to redress what they together have termed the "wounds" of the colonial past. The bilateral agreement had long been declared void by Namibians of diverse backgrounds, however, who protested that the way they have been treated pales in comparison to the kind of treatment that Jewish people of various communities have received from Germany since 1945. My ethnographic research followed the diversity of discourse about German colonialism in two years leading up to this agreement in multiple locations; from hearings concerning legal demands for the return of Herero and Nama indigenous land, bones, and cattle in New York City, to political struggles around race and racism in Berlin, to the intransigent settler work of German Lutheran landowners in Namibia. I explore this ethnographic and historical material in a thesis that has three distinct sections. In the first part, I look at the place of the idea of Germany in these ongoing struggles by turning to the German Namibian community and the networks that they operate in and through. I ask after the borders of Germany as an idea, as a territory, and as a political theology – and I look to what "German Namibia" can tell us about contemporary German politics more broadly – most specifically as a site to undertake a potential genealogy of German Protestant Liberalism and its various phantasms. In the second part, I look to the history of Holocaust reparations and its relationship to the Herero and Nama case in the New York courtroom to understand how historically specific iterations of the figure of the suffering Jew have come to contour various grammars in which repair for anti-Black violence and native dispossession are fought for and responded to, especially when figured through the juridical language of reparations. In the third part, I turn towards the contemporary German politics of acknowledgment, Vergangenheitsbewältigung, the process of coming to terms with the past. Rather than asking here after the lack of attention to colonial history on the part of the German state, I ask after how the state has actively tried to oppose colonial racism by integrating the history of colonialism into its memory politics. I look to the multiple paradoxes of this attempt that I argue ultimately leads to a reinscription of German white supremacy upon racialized bodies. Overall, my research turns to the past and present of German settler colonialism to explore the politics of reparation on an international scale alongside the relationship between race, religion, and repair in a fractured Europe.

Thesis (MSocialWork)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was the formulation of guidelines for the organising of developmental partnerships, of which the key components may be seen as: • the corporate sector; • the State; and • the non-profit or non-Governmental sector. A literature study was completed, focusing on the partnership strategy within the context of the social developmental approach. In-depth focus was placed on the elements of an effective developmental partnership, as well as the manner in which such a partnership should be organised. An empirical study was completed in order to investigate the nature of the developmental partnership strategy; the characteristics of an effective strategy; and the nature of the various and distinctive organisational components. Data was gathered from a study sample determined by means of purposive selection of developmental partnerships in the Western Cape. This sample comprised four (4) representatives each of the corporate sector, the State and the non-Governmental sector. Three (3) different self-administered questionnaires were used for data-gathering - one type of questionnaire for each of the sectors mentioned. The questionnaires were distributed amongst the twelve (12) respondents - thus, in total comprising four (4) distinctive developmental partnerships. The findings primarily relate to the following three aspects: • the nature of the developmental partnership strategy within the current social developmental context; • the requisite elements necessary for effective developmental partnerships; and • the organisation of these partnerships. Of the various findings, the following may be considered to be of primary significance. A developmental partnership is possible between all the parties, irrespective of the sector where they are involved. The partnerships are, however, increasingly being regulated by means of policy and are thus consequently becoming increasingly formal and institutionalized. All parties are active participants in the developmental partnerships, and contributions by each of the parties are usually made in the form of service provisions or service-producing activities. The parties, however, do attach value or importance to certain specific elements of the partnership - which in tum have a significant influence on determining the effectiveness of that partnership. It is on these principles that the organising of the developmental partnership is based. There are diverse reasons for the concluding of a developmental partnership which generally differ from one partner to the next. The partners in such a developmental partnership are selected according to specific criteria. Certain criteria are of greater significance for certain partners than for others. However, a key element does appear to be a sufficient degree of "cultural fit" between the partners. Certain mechanisms are utilized in order to promote this "fit". Despite the structure of the developmental partnership being adaptable and flexible, there appears to be a strong indication that the partnership is control-assured. The nature of this control is facilitative. The control varies amongst the partners, depending on the current nature of the partnership activities; the competencies of the partners; and the need for growth within the partnership in order to realise its objectives. A further finding concerns the need for clarity regarding the division of tasks or functions and for co-ordination within the partnership in order to ensure its effectiveness. Resources are contributed by the various partners, and thereby any resources, risks and benefits inherent to the partnership are shared amongst its members. The principle of exchange is an integral factor for the success of the partnership. It is this idea of exchange that provides the general framework within which it is determined what each of the partners contribute to the partnership, and what benefits they derive from the partnership. On the basis of these conclusions, as well as the findings made in the literature study, recommendations have been made focusing on the elements that will give rise to effective developmental partnerships and how they should be organised in order to promote the desired success. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van die studie was om riglyne op te stel vir die organisering van ontwikkelingsvennootskappe. Die korporatiewe sektor, die Staat en die nie-winsgewende of nie-staatsektor is by hierdie unieke vennootskappe betrokke. Ten einde hierdie riglyne op te stel is 'n literatuurstudie gedoen oor die vennootskapstrategie binne die konteks van die maatskaplike ontwikkelingsbenadering. In die literatuurstudie is elemente van 'n effektiewe vennootskap, asook die wyse om so 'n vennootskap te organiseer, indringend ondersoek. 'n Empiriese ondersoek is ook gedoen om die aard van die vennootskapstrategie, die kenmerke van 'n effektiewe vennootskap en die aard van organiseringskomponente te bepaal. Die steekproef vir die ondersoek is bekom deur 'n doelbewuste seleksie van ontwikkelingsvennootskappe in die Wes-Kaap provinsie. Hiervolgens is vier (4) verteenwoordigers van die korporatiewe sektor, die Staat en die nie-staatsektor onderskeidelik by die studie betrek. Daar is gebruik gemaak van drie verskillende selfgeadministreerde vraelyste, een vir elke sektor onderskeidelik. Hierdie vraelyste is versprei na die twaalf respondente. Die twaalf respondente het bestaan uit vier verteenwoordigers van elk van die drie partye betrokke en het dus vier (4) verskillende ontwikkelingsvennootskappe behels. Die bevindings wat gemaak is, hou hoofsaaklik verband met die volgende drie aspekte: • die aard van die vennootskapstrategie binne die huidige maatskaplike ontwikkelingskonteks; • elemente noodsaaklik vir 'n effektiewe vennootskap; en • die organisering van 'n vennootskap. Die belangrikste bevindings was die volgende. 'n Vennootskap is moontlik tussen al die partye, ongeag die sektor waarby hulle betrokke is. Hierdie vennootskappe word toenemend deur beleid gerig, en gevolglik is dit toenemend formeel en geïnstitusionaliseerd. Al die partye is aktief betrokke by die vennootskappe. Bydraes word deur die vennote gelewer in die vorm van diensvoorsienings- of diensproduseringsaktiwiteite. Die vennote heg waarde aan sekere spesifieke elemente in die vennootskap. Hierdie elemente het 'n beduidende invloed op die bevordering van effektiwiteit. Die organisering van die vennootskap wentel om hierdie beginsels. Daar is verskillende redes vir die aangaan van die vennootskap. Hierdie redes kan verskil van vennoot tot vennoot. Vennote vir die vennootskap word volgens spesifieke kriteria geselekteer. Sekere kriteria is meer belangrik vir sommige vennote as vir ander. Wat veral belangrik is, is 'n bevredigende kulturele passing ("cultural fit") tussen die vennote. Sekere meganismes word benut om hierdie passing of verenigbaarheid te bevorder. Alhoewel die struktuur van die vennootskap aanpasbaar en buigsaam is, is daar egter 'n sterk aanduiding dat die vennootskapsbeheer verseker is. Die aard van die vennootskapsbeheer is fasiliterend. Die beheer wissel van vennoot tot vennoot, afhangende van die aard van die aktiwiteite, die bevoeghede van die vennote en die behoefte binne die vennootskap om te groei en sy doelwitte te bereik. 'n Verdere bevinding wat gemaak is, is dat duidelike werkverdeling en -koördinering in die vennootskap noodsaaklik is vir effektiewe samewerking. Die hulpbronne word bygedra deur die onderskeie vennote. Sodoende word hulpbronne, risiko's en voordele wat verbonde is aan die vennootskap tussen die vennote verdeel. Die beginsel van uitruiling is 'n sleutelfaktor vir die sukses van 'n vennootskap. Die idee van uitruiling verskaf die algehele raamwerk vir die analisering van wat partye bydra en voordele wat die vennote uit die vennootskap kry. Op grond van hierdie afleidings en gevolgtrekkings asook die bevindings gemaak in die literatuurondersoek is sekere aanbevelings gemaak. Die aanbevelings fokus op die elemente wat aanleiding sal gee tot 'n effektiewe vennootskap en hoe hierdie ontwikkelingsvennootskappe georganiseer moet word om effektief te wees.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: It is widely accepted that the Internet has become a valuable resource for social scientists, not just for the purpose of information exchange; via e-mail, discussion groups and electronic journals, but also as a medium for data collection. Its global nature gives a researcher access to a vast range of individuals located around the world. It also opens up access to difficult to hitherto penetrate study areas, such as sensitive research on deviant behaviour. Further, it is claimed that considerable savings to both research budgets and time frames are made possible with the new technology. It is not surprising, therefore, that a substantial body of research, employing the Internet as the primary means of data collection, already exists. This raises a number of questions as to how the Internet fares as a research tool. Are there any important methodological issues that this new approach raises? Do the traditional research methods suffice? Or are adaptations to existing methods necessary when difficulties are encountered? Does such changes affect the more fundamental question of the research design? These questions are considered in this thesis. To answer them, I consider two different types of empirical research designs. The first,' survey research, is a quantitative, numerical design that traditionally has a high level of control. I consider in detail issues of sampling, including non-response, and questionnaire design. The second design examined, ethnographic research, is qualitative, textual and generally has a low level of researcher control. I address the methods used in cyber ethnography and then discuss the considerable ethical concerns that feature in such research. I conclude that, on the whole, the existing methods can be transferred to Internet research. Indeed, some of the problems faced in traditional research are also considerations in Internet studies and can be overcome by employing similar techniques, such as using incentives to reduce non-response rates. However, a number of new problems emerge, such as the lack of paralinguistic cues, which require adaptations to the existing methods in order to produce results that can be considered valid and reliable. However, I also argue that these necessary adaptations to the methods do not affect the underlying principles found in the research design. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Dit word algemeen aanvaar dat die Internet In waardevolle hulpmiddel is vir sosiaalwetenskaplikes; nie net vir die uitruil van inligting deur middel van e-pos, besprekingsforums en elektroniese joernale nie, maar ook as In instrument om inligting te versamel. Die globale aard van die internet gee die navorser toegang to In wye spektrum individue internasionaal. Dit verleen ook toegang tot moeilike navorsingsareas, soos sensitiewe navorsing oor afwykende gedrag. Verder word beweer dat dit aansienlike besparings moontlik kan maak vir beide die navorsingsbegroting en tydraamwerk. Dit is dus nie verbasend dat In substansiële hoeveelheid van navorsing, wat die Internet as die primêre bron van dataversameling gebruik, reeds bestaan nie. Dit laat verskeie vrae ontstaan oor hoe die Internet vaar as In navorsingshulpmiddel. Is daar enige belangrike metodologiese kwessies wat hierdie nuwe metode aanraak? Is die tradisionele metodes voldoende? Of moet daar veranderinge aan die huidige metodes aangebring word wanneer probleme ontstaan? Sal hierdie veranderinge die fundamentele aspekte van navorsingsontwerp beïnvloed? Die vrae saloorweeg word in hierdie tesis. Ek gebruik twee empiriese navorsingsontwerpe om die vrae te beantwoord. Die eerste, steekproefnavorsing, is In kwantitatiewe ontwerp wat tradisioneel In hoë vlak van beheer toon. Ek ondersoek in detail kwessies van steekproewe, insluitend geen respons en vraelysontwerp. Die tweede ontwerp wat ondersoek word, etnografiese navorsing, is kwalitatief, tekstueel en toon in die algemeen In lae vlak van navorser beheer. Ek ondersoek die metodes wat gebruik word in kuberetnografie en bespreek dan die etiese vraagstukke wat hierdie navorsing kenmerk. Ek kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat oor die algemeen die huidige metodes toegepas kan word op Internetnavorsing. Inderdaad kan van die probleme wat ondervind word in tradisionele navorsing ook ondervind word in Internet studies en ook hier kan dit oorkom word deur die gebruik van soortgelyke tegnieke, soos om aansporingsbonusse om geen responskoerse te verminder, hoewel daar nuwe probleme opduik, soos die gebrek aan para-taalkundige wenke. Dit noodsaak veranderinge aan die huidige metodes om resultate te lewer wat geldig en betroubaar is. Ek redeneer egter ook dat hierdie nodige veranderinge aan die metodes nie onderliggende beginsels van navorsingsontwerp verander nie.

Effective decision support plays vital roles in people's daily life, as well as for professional practitioners such as health care providers. Without correct information and timely derived knowledge, a decision is often suboptimal and may result in signi cant nancial loss or compromises of the performance. In this dissertation, we study text mining and topic modeling and propose to use text mining methods, in combination with topic models, to discover knowledge from texts popularly available from a wide variety of sources, such as research publications, news, medical diagnose notes, and further employ discovered knowledge to assist social and medical decision support. Examples of such decisions include hospital patient readmission prediction, which is a national initiative for health care cost reduction, academic research topics discovery and trend modeling, and social preference modeling for friend recommendation in social networks etc. To carry out text mining, our research, in Chapter 3, first emphasizes on single document analyzing to investigate textual stylometric features for user pro ling and recognition. Our research confirms that by using properly designed features, it is possible to identify the authors who wrote the article, using a number of sample articles written by the author as the training data. This study serves as the base to assert that text mining is a powerful tool for capturing knowledge in texts for better decision making. In the Chapter 4, we advance our research from single documents to documents with interdependency relationships, and propose to model and predict citation relationship between documents. Given a collection of documents with known linkage relationships, our research will discover e ective features to train prediction models, and predict the likelihood of two documents involving a citation relationships. This study will help accurately model social network linkage relationships, and can be used to assist e ective decision making for friend recommendation in social networking, and reference recommendation in scienti c writing etc. In the Chapter 5, we advance a topic discovery and trend prediction principle to discover meaningful topics from a set of data collection, and further model the evolution trend of the topic. By proposing techniques to discover topics from text, and using temporal correlation between trend for prediction, our techniques can be used to summarize a large collection of documents as meaningful topics, and further forecast the popularity of the topic in a near future. This study can help design systems to discover popular topics in social media, and further assist resource planning and scheduling based on the discovered topics and the their evolution trend. In the Chapter 6, we employ both text mining and topic modeling to the medical domain for effective decision making. The goal is to discover knowledge from medical notes to predict the risk of a patient being re-admitted in a near future. Our research emphasizes on the challenge that re-admitted patients are only a small portion of the patient population, although they bring signficant financial loss. As a result, the datasets are highly imbalanced which often result in poor accuracy for decision making. Our research will propose to use latent topic modeling to carryout localized sampling, and combine models trained from multiple copies of sampled data for accurate prediction. This study can be directly used to assist hospital re-admission assessment for early warning and decision support. The text mining and topic modeling techniques investigated in the dissertation can be applied to many other domains, involving texts and social relationships, towards pattern and knowledge based e ective decision making. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection