This study tested a model to predict the likelihood of spring break travel among university students. The data were obtained from a 1996 survey sample of 303 university students.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 16, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Spring Break, which has been transformed from a rather mild mid-winter vacation to a cultural rite over the past seventy-years, allows students to bring their values en masse to the host locations they visit. While only visiting these locales for a short time, college students nonetheless significantly impact the economic, public governance and socio-cultural processes of their Spring Break host locations. This dissertation explores the process of how and why students choose these locations and the impacts that occur as a result. A quantitative approach is used to determine the level of impact on a host location's economic, socio-cultural and public governance processes and what role city policies have in affecting these impacts. The data comes primarily from public sources – national, state and local – between 1995 and 2005. This investigation helps to answer the question ‘Is Spring Break worth the cost of the student impacts?' In doing so, it will allow for current Spring Break cities in the U.S. to determine what role the event plays in their future and provides potential Spring Break locations with the information necessary to determine whether or not to court the next generation of Spring Breakers.

This essay, which is at once a literary critical examination and a theological exploration of the Hebraic scriptural book of Lamentations in relation to ancient Sumerian lament, employs a mixed critical approach (e.g., form, feminist, postmodern, reader response), to address various lyrical, contextual, and thematic elements common to both the biblical Lamentations and the older Sumerian compositions. Specific focus is given to issues of gender and gender-malleability, as well as the notion of "transgression" and the various meanings that may be attached to this word in various contexts, theological or otherwise. Also addressed is the means by which the lament genre reflects/reveals the ways in which individuals and communities attempt to construct meaning, or find solace, in the face of human suffering.

Hydrological data extracted directly from Water Survey of Canada archives covering the 1913-2002 time period is used to assess river ice break-up in the Mackenzie River basin. A return-period analysis indicates that 13 (14) of 28 sites in the basin are dominated by peak water-levels occurring during the spring break-up (open-water) period. One location has a mixed signal. A map of flooding regimes is discussed in terms of physical, hydrological and climatic controls. Annual break-up is found to progress from south to north, over a period representing ~¼ of the year. Average annual duration is ~8 weeks. The at site break-up period, recognized as the most dynamic time of the year on cold-regions river systems is found to last from 4 days to 4 weeks. Break-up timing (1966-1995) is found to be occurring earlier in the western portions of the basin (~3 days/decade), concurrent with late 20th century warming.