In recent decades historians have documented the nature and impact of religious violence within French Catholicism during the French Wars of Religion (1562-1629). My dissertation introduces the question of religious nonviolence within French Catholicism in this era by examining the religiosity practiced and promoted by Francois de Sales (1567-1622). By interpreting the words, actions, and impact of this clergyman across three different contexts - the mission field of the Chablais, in lay spiritual counseling, and in the Order of the Visitation- this research presents a fresh perspective on the nature of Catholicism in early modern France and an important historical case study of the possibilities and limits of moderation in a society reeling from religious extremism.

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Herbivory can have many effects on plant fitness, including altering plant-pollinator interactions and sexual reproduction in angiosperms. Pollinator-mediated interactions may be impacted when herbivores alter plant traits, such as floral display size, that can influence pollinator visitation rates, and, ultimately, the reproductive component of plant fitness. Here I describe an investigation into the indirect effects of feeding by beetles released as a biological control agent, Galerucella calmariensis and G. pusilla, on plant-pollinator interactions and reproductive output in the invasive plant Lythrum salicaria L. (purple loosestrife). During the summer of 2011, three treatments (low, ambient and mechanical herbivory) were applied to 105 plants during the pre-flowering period of growth. At the onset of flowering, a series of pollinator observations were conducted over the course of approximately 1.5 weeks. Several aspects of floral display were affected by the herbivory treatments, including increased inflorescence and flower production in the ambient and mechanical herbivory treatments, relative to the low herbivory treatment. Treatment type did not have a significant effect on the number of pollinator foraging bouts, but had marginally significant effects on the number of flowers probed per pollinator foraging bout and per 30-minutes. Moreover, treatment had a significant effect on the number of switches among the inflorescences on a single plant. I discuss the possibility that the differences in pollinator visitation were mediated by differences in the architecture and the size of floral display. There were no detectable differences in fruit or seed production (i.e., female fitness) among treatments. However, as I discuss, differences in pollinator visitation may affect other unmeasured aspects of fitness, such as the level of inbreeding or the number of seeds sired through male function.

"Internal globalization" has become a common phenomenon which, among other things, has increased the number of mixed-national couples due to the greater mobility of people and the globalization of trade and commerce. Unanticipated difficulties can follow from the breakdown of such relationships for both children and parents if the custodial parent leaves the family's former habitual residence with the child. This is especially true for the left-behind parent. / The starting point for this study was the discussion among experts as to whether an Additional Protocol to the 1980 Child Abduction Convention might resolve the inherent weak protection of access rights. To answer this question concerning the necessity of such an Additional Protocol, this thesis provides an overview of the relevant existing and future international legal frameworks that address child protection and parental responsibilities and shows the evolution in child law from a formerly neglected issue to a high-profile topic. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Access arrangements for birth parents of crown wards are a concern for child protection workers. Data on 84 crown wards were collected from 11 in care workers at a Children's Aid Society in Ontario, to determine whether best practice guidelines were being observed. Best practice derived from literature was operationalized as: (1) inclusion of birth parents and others in decisions affecting the child, and (2) connectivity ---maintaining family ties. Regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of inclusion and connectivity scores. Results showed three significant predictors of inclusion---worker knowledge, years in child welfare, and birth parents' source of income---and two predictors of connectivity---worker knowledge and parents' source of income. Findings suggest that agency training and support of workers can have a positive effect on implementation of best practice. The effect of income source is a puzzle, as income from employment was associated with lower inclusion scores, but higher connectivity scores.

abstract: The United States prison population is rapidly rising. Consequently, more families are losing loved ones to the system. While many researchers have focused on women of incarcerated men and children of incarcerated parents, none have looked at the partners of incarcerated women. This paper explores the issues and challenges of prison visitation for the significant others of women incarcerated at Perryville Prison in Goodyear AZ. It is known that prison visitation is important for supporting and maintaining romantic relationships. It is also beneficial to the prison institution. Visitation assists in social control and high inmate morale; both of which lower the instances of violent acts. However, it has been reported that visitation is a daunting task for the visitors. Many sources of information and data were used for this study; formal and informal interviews with family members and others with prison visitation experience, government websites that contain visitation policies, online forums for family and friends of inmates to discuss their concerns, existing research literature, direct observations, and discussions with scholar experts and prison activists. These resources act as a window to visitation at Perryville. With insights derived from symbolic interactionism and previous research guiding the project, it was found that visitation is a good experience for the significant others, incarcerated women, and Perryville. However, the troubles the significant others have with money, the institution and social support strongly suggest that these men encounter hurdles that make the positive act of visitation at times nearly impossible. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Justice Studies 2011

O objetivo geral desta tese consisitiu na proposição e teste de um modelo teórico que buscou relacionar o efeito da visualização de fotografias de viagem em redes sociais na alteração da percepção da imagem do destino turístico retratado e na intenção futura de visitá-lo. O estudo foi realizado a partir de uma abordagem multimétodos que incluiu uma fase qualitativa, de caráter exploratório, seguida de um estudo quantitativo. Na primeira etapa do estudo, intentou-se identificar os principais fatores que afetam a percepção da imagem de destinos pelos usuários de rede social. A partir da realização de entrevistas individuais e em grupo, foi possível verificar a existência de três fatores centrais: 1) envolvimento temporal e afetivo com a rede social; 2) perfil dos usuários em relação às suas motivações para o uso da rede social. Foram identificados três perfis motivacionais, incluindo: obter informações sobre destinos turísticos (caçadores de destinos), interagir com colegas a partir de curtidas e comentários (interacionistas) e bisbilhotar a vida privada de amigos da rede (investigadores sociais); 3) força dos laços e identificação entre emissor (postador de fotos) e receptor (visualizador de fotos) da mensagem visual. Posteriormente, procedeu-se à elaboração de um survey on line com seiscentos usuários do Facebook para verificar os efeitos destes fatores na imagem do destino e na intenção futura de visitá-lo. Os dados coletados a partir deste questionário permitiram a elaboração de dois modelos de regressão logística. Para o primeiro modelo apresentado, verificou-se que somente três características dos usuários tiveram efeito estatisticamente significativo sobre a alteração positiva da imagem do destino turístico. O maior efeito estatístico foi verificado pela variável caçador de destinos, seguida de identificação com os pares. Embora em um nível de significância estatística de 10%, verificou-se que o perfil interacionista também possui certa relação com a alteração da imagem. As outras variáveis não tiveram relação estatisticamente significativa. O segundo modelo proposto analisou o efeito das mesmas variáveis anteriores na intenção/probabilidade de visitar o destino retratatado no futuro. Novamente, os perfis caçador de destinos e identificação com os pares apresentaram os maiores efeitos na variável dependente que foi testada. A variável envolvimento temporal-afetivo também foi estatiscamente significativa, em um nível superior a 5%. No entanto, o perfil investigador social apresentou um efeito não esperado na intenção de visita futura. Os resultados indicaram que ser caracterizado por esse perfil reduz as chances de se visitar o destino retratado quase pela metade. Especula-se que esse efeito seja decorrente da forte orientação desses usuários para a comparação social e a busca por prestígio. Tendo em vista investigações anteriores que apontam que a familiaridade com o destino apresenta uma relação negativa com a mudança da imagem do lugar, optou-se por verificar o efeito da familiaridade como variável de controle nos dois modelos implementados. No primeiro modelo, ao se inserir a familiaridade com o destino, observou-se um aumento da medida relativa à identificação com pares. Ao mesmo tempo, o perfil envolvimento temporal e afetivo também se tornou estatisticamente significativo ao nível de 10%. No entanto, no segundo modelo logístico apresentado, a inclusão desta variável não foi estatisticamente significativa, tampouco alterou significativamente o efeito das variáveis testadas. Esse resultado fornece indícios de que, embora a familiaridade tenha um efeito negativo sobre a alteração da imagem do destino, ela pode não ser relevante para a intenção de revisitar, pois existe uma predisposição inata na maioria dos viajantes em buscar novos destinos de viagem. / The general objective of this thesis is to propose and test a theoretical model that related the effects generated by the viewing of travel photographs posted by users of social networks in the image formation/change of tourist destinations, as well as to verify its influence in the intention of future visits. The study was conducted from a multimethod approach that included a qualitative phase, exploratory, followed by a quantitative study. In the first part of the research, an exploratory study to identify the main factors which affect the perception of the image of destinations by users of social media was carried out. From individual and group interviews, it was possible to verify the existence of the main factors: 1) Temporal and Affective involvement with the social network (Facebook); 2) profile of users in relation to their motivations for the use of the social network. Three motivational profiles were identified, including: to obtain information about tourist destinations (destination hunters), interact with peers from “likes” and comments (“interactors”) and prying the private lives of online friends (social investigators); 3) affective closeness between issuer (photo “poster”) and receiver (photo viewer) of the visual message. Subsequently, it proceeded to draw up a survey on line with six hundred Facebook users to check the effects of these factors on the image destination and the future intention to visit him. Data collected from this survey allowed the development of two logistic regression models. For the first model presented, it was verified that only three characteristics of the users had a statistically significant effect on the alteration of image of the tourist destination in positive terms. The biggest statistical effect was verified by the variable “destination hunters”, followed by “peer identification”. Although on a significance level of 10%, it was verified that the interactor profile also has a certain relation to the alteration of image. The other variables did not have a statistically significant relation. The second study proposed analyzed the effect of the same variables on the intention/probability of visiting the portrayed destination in the future. Again, the profiles “destination hunter” and “identification with peers presented the biggest effects on the dependent variable that was tested. The variable “temporal-affectionate involvement” was also statistically significant, on a level above 5%. However, the “social investigator” profile showed an unexpected effect on the intention of future visit. The results indicated that belonging to that profile reduces the chances of visiting the portrayed destination by half. It is speculated that such effect is a result of the strong need of those users for social comparison and search for prestige. In spite of that, it is suggested that new researches be carried out to assess this relation. Bearing in mind the previous investigations which showed that familiarity with the destination presents a negative relation with a change of image of the place, we chose to verify the effect of familiarity as a variable in the control of the two models implemented. In the first model, while inserting “familiarity with destination” as a control variable, it was possible to observe a rise on the level of peer identification. Also, the temporal/affectionate profile involvement also became statistically significant at the level of 10%. However, contrary to the first model presented, the inclusion of this control variable did not behave in a statistically significant way in the second model, and it did not significantly alter the effect of the tested variables. This result showed signs that, although familiarity has a negative effect over the alteration of destination image, it may not be relevant to the intention of revisiting, as there is an innate predisposition in the majority of travelers to seek new vacation destinations.

Legal status of a child after break-up of their parents Abstract The topic of this diploma thesis is legal status of a child after break-up of their parents. It is focused both on children of married and unmarried parents. An extra chapter about legal status of children from atypical families is also included, which addresses unusual legal positions of children of same-sex parents, children born via surrogacy and children raised by foster and adoptive parents. In the first chapter I discuss the marriage, cohabitation and differences between these two. A brief description of how the law in question evolved is included as well. Second chapter covers parental responsibility. The following part is mostly focused on the topic of custody including an overview of the historical context. In this part, forms of custody and their specifics are described and an overview of interpretation issues resulting from regulations and laws is given. The section is also supported by findings from the field of psychology regarding forms of custody with focus on joint custody and parent alienation syndrome. A section about child perception of a divorce is also included. Next chapter depicts visitations between a child and their parents and also between the child and other persons. The interest of a child is also characterized, as...

During the Federal fiscal year of 2009, an estimated 3.3 million referrals involving the alleged maltreatment of children were received by child protective service agencies across the United States. Of those cases that received further investigation, approximately 686,400 children were placed in out-of-home care including foster and group facilities, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available research suggests that child welfare agencies provide parent training to assist parents in keeping their children at home or in achieving reunification in approximately 28% of cases. However, the use of parent training programs for families in the child welfare system has received little examination, and no study has examined the use of such practices during supervised visitation time for parents who have lost custody of their child. The present study evaluated the effects of a behavioral parent training program, titled Microsocial Video Parenting (MVP), on the parenting behaviors of mothers who lost legal custody of their children and were receiving supervised visitation at the Department of Human Services. Participants in this study were 4 mother-child dyads, with the child participants ranging in age from 1 to 3 years old. The investigator employed a within-subjects multiple baseline design across behaviors to examine effectiveness of the MVP intervention on increasing developmentally supportive parenting behaviors and decreasing negative parent behaviors. Results obtained across participants documented a clear functional relation between implementation of the MVP intervention and increases in developmentally supportive parenting behaviors. Social validity and contextual fit results also support the utility of this intervention within the child welfare context. Practical and conceptual implications, as well as future research, will be discussed.

abstract: Mentally ill offenders continue to contribute to mass-incarceration within the United States. The cost, both social and economic, of housing a large number of mentally ill inmates in our prison system has reached a breaking point. The need for empirically founded correctional research, with an emphasis on individuals who suffer from a mental illness, is crucial to reducing the number of incarcerated individuals in the United States. The current study analyzes whether mentally ill inmates reported statistically significant differences in levels of perceived reentry social support, when compared to their non-mentally ill counterparts. The current study utilized data from the APVP. The APVP contained a sample of 231 individuals, 121 female and 110 male, from two Arizona Department of Corrections facilities. The majority of respondents were white (44.58%), medium security (40.26%), non-married (77.49%), and had a mean age of 36.04 years (SD=11.74). The current study conducted both bivariate and multivariate analyses to determine whether mentally ill inmates perceived differences in the reentry social support available to them as compared to non-mentally ill inmates. Further multivariate analyses were conducted to determine whether there were any significant differences the key independent variable and the dependent variables across gender. Mentally ill female inmates reported significantly lower rates of perceived reentry social support in a number of emotional support factors. The findings of this study are a crucial first step for future empirical research on inmate perceptions of social support—perceptions that may directly affect successful reentry. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 2016