<p> This study is designed to answer one main research question: How could tertiary education quality be redefined and measured through the education production function model in developing countries. The study will use Indonesia as the target country to carry out research activities. Quality of tertiary education has been one of the most frequently discussed topics in relevant fields in academia and human development. As enrollment continuously increases and education systems expand in many developing countries, quality becomes their biggest concern. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide stakeholders a different and more practical approach to reevaluate tertiary education quality through quantifiable variables and to measure quality through educational input, equity and equality, labor market relevance, and system assurance factors. </p><p> Human capital theory serves as the guiding theoretical framework for this dissertation. The education production function model is the foundation for quality redefinition. Within the four quantifiable variables, benefit incidence analysis is used to measure equity and equality, economic rate of return is used to measure labor market relevance of the tertiary education system, and returns to investment is used to evaluate how education outputs yield from inputs. The study is designed to have an umbrella structure, with tertiary education quality being at the top of the skeleton and educational input, equity and equality, labor market relevance, and system assurance being the four supporting pillars.</p><p> With the redefinition of tertiary education quality, four main research questions will be answered respectively. Educational input in Indonesia has been improving in the past decade; however, it is still behind compared to peer ASEAN countries and countries with similar economic profiles. Indonesia's tertiary education access inequality is mainly caused by socioeconomic differences. The labor market absorbs a majority of tertiary graduates and yields much higher returns at the tertiary level, and it has been responding very positively toward the continuously expanding graduating class. The quality assurance system suffers from shortstaffing, low financial support, low capacity, and weak government support. At its current accrediting pace, Indonesia's tertiary education institutions will not be able to improve as fast as they are willing to.</p>

Ikumen, meaning fathers with small children who are--or look like they are--actively involved in childrearing are a new phenomenon in contemporary Japan, despite the prevalent images of patriarchic and absent fatherhood. But why and how did yesterday's notorious company soldiers turn into today's ikumen? This dissertation interrogates this supposedly drastic shift in the view and the conduct of fatherhood as a cultural practice on historical, political economic, and linguistic grounds. Drawing on fieldwork, mass media, and historical analysis, I explore how new styles of fatherhood have been constructed and how they embody broader social issues of gender, class, and modernity and globalization. Gender roles in the modern family since the late nineteenth century have been strained, and ikumen will allegedly liberate both men and women to achieve the ideal of "work-life balance" in a "gender-equal society." Examination of various genres of language, from metapragmatic comments to the advertising of nursery items, however, suggests that the ideology of gender roles is naturalized and "male features" are appropriated to lead men into the "female" sphere of the home. I argue that this discourse represents the heteroglossic nature of language, and that our speech, influenced by accustomed thoughts, paradoxically strengthens that discourse despite our intentions. Ikumen are not only connected to concerns about gender, but also are predicated on Japan's historical and ongoing fantasy of modernity and globalization. From the label ikumen, to state and local campaigns for male participation in childcare, to the use of terms of address for parents, the idealized West and its monolithic images of stylish and active fatherhood and romantic couplehood are covertly exploited. As a whole, the ikumen movement ends up creating an "imagined community," in which "globalism" is believed to help one obtain a more authentic and global "self" through childrearing. I argue that the ikumen movement presents the perpetual but concealed power hierarchy of modernity, and that Japan and Japanese people docilely appropriate this historical truth, institutionalizing the counterhegemony as the new hegemony and as a form of cultural capital in the context of a disturbingly low birthrate and a sluggish economy.

<p> This retrospective study was conducted to evaluate whether culturally competent resources, such as Vietnamese-speaking healthcare providers, one-on-one public health nurse (PHN) education session(s), and free healthcare services would affect the results of the following questions: (a) Will the 114 study subjects achieve HbAIC reduction at 6-month and 12-month periods? (b) Is there a correlation between HbA1C reduction and the number of the provider visits? and (c) Is there a significant HbA1C reduction for the one-on-one PHN education participants compared to the non-participants? The result findings were analyzed using the Chi-Square tests and the two-sample <i>t</i>-tests. On average, the 114 subjects achieved HbA1C reductions of0.57% and 0.63% at 6-month and 12-month periods, respectively. However, there was no direct correlation between the HbA1C reductions and the frequency of provider visits. Furthermore, the PHN education session(s) did not significantly affect the rate of HbA1C reduction for the attendees. In conclusion, future studies on culturally competent interventions should be studied in the Vietnamese patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus.</p>

<p> This thesis examines Japanese writer Saotome Katsumoto and his efforts to create a pacifist message in his 1991 film <i>Senso to Seishun</i> (War and Youth). The story presents multigenerational viewpoints on the Pacific War, and is significant for being the first film to depict the Great Tokyo Air Raid of March 9&ndash;10, 1945. I discuss how Saotome's use of fiction, metaphor, and autobiographical techniques assist the film in creating a pacifist narrative. The film's pacifist message continues to hold relevance today, as nationalist and conservative groups push strongly for revisions to Article 9 of the Japanese Peace Constitution in order to remilitarize the nation.</p>

<p> The interactions between Chinese religions has occupied an enormous amount of scholarly attention in many fields because there have been direct and indirect consequences resulting from the interactions among Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. These religious traditions have obviously influenced each other in many respects such as rituals, doctrines, textual materials, philosophy and so on. Accordingly, I will, in this paper, critically analyze the implications of the interactions between Buddhism and Daoism by examining Twofold Mystery. Since Twofold Mystery is heavily dependent on Madhyamaka Buddhist concepts, this study will, on the one hand, examine the influence of Madhyamaka Buddhism on the development of Twofold Mystery. On the other hand, it will critically survey how Twofold Mystery remained faithful to the Daoist worldview.</p>

<p> The rise of nationalism and the proliferation of foreign policy actors in China has contributed to increasing levels of distrust between China and the Asia-Pacific region, and contributed to a significant decline in the stability of the US-China relationship. The overblown reaction from China's civil society to the US' strategic "rebalance" to the Asia-Pacific, initiated in November 2011, demonstrates that Beijing's traditional foreign policy pragmatism is being threatened by hostile factions in China's society. This is further evidenced by China's provocative actions in the East China and South China Seas, which have led to heightened regional tensions. Calls for a more confrontational Chinese foreign policy among China's civil society have been exacerbated by a more diffuse foreign policy decisionmaking structure which Beijing now struggles to manage. While official rhetoric toward the rebalance has been characterized largely by restraint, the elites are being forced to cater to a nationalist civil society with greater freedom to pursue self-interested policies independent of central control.</p><p> Crucially, however, caution and restraint remains essential for ongoing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) legitimacy. As a result, stability with the US and with its regional partners still forms the core of Beijing's policy. While China's rhetoric, and to some extents its actions, has become more forceful, a conflict on its periphery would pose enormous challenges which could overwhelm the Party and potentially cause internal implosion. In order to maintain CCP rule, Beijing may be forced to rein in overtly competitive elements within China, even if this comes at significant cost to its legitimacy.</p><p> As a result, the ebb and flow of Chinese policy is likely to continue as the leadership struggles to accommodate new and divergent interests within its civil society. Beijing must take steps to restructure its poorly managed bureaucracy, particularly its maritime agencies, to ensure it can rein in competing interests which threaten its ability to preserve stability. For Xi Jinping, China's new leader, balancing China's nationalist factions against the continuing need for stability may define his tenure. It will also play a central role in stabilizing US-China relations, which are increasingly characterized by distrust.</p>

<p> This dissertation looks at an attempt in Buddhist history to theorize the role and status of the body as the prime focus of soteriological discourse. It studies a text titled <i>Explanation of the Hidden Vajra Body</i> (<i>Rdo rje lus kyi sbas bshad</i>), composed by Yang dgon pa Rgyal mtshan dpal (1213-1258). This work, drawing on a wide range of canonical tantric Buddhist scriptures and Indic and Tibetan commentaries, lays out in detail a Buddhist theory of embodiment that brings together the worldly realities of the body with their enlightened transformation. This dissertation analyzes the ways Yang dgon pa theorizes the body as the essential ground of the salvific path, and endeavors to provide a thematic guide to his rich and complex discussion of what the body is and does, from a tantric perspective. The thesis parses a key term, <i>dngos po'i gnas lugs</i>, that Yang dgon pa uses as an organizing principle in <i>Explanation of the Hidden.</i> If taken literally, the term means something like "the nature of things" or "the nature of material substance," but Yang dgon pa deployed the term specifically to refer to the nature of the human psychophysical organism, in its ordinary state. By way of this term, Yang dgon pa argues that the body itself makes enlightenment possible. In the course of this thesis, I consider the prior history of this category as it was gradually developed by a series of Bka' brgyud writers until it reached Yang dgon pa. Then, in light of this category, I explore Yang dgon pa's own vision of embodiment. This vision, I argue, reflects an attempt to refocus soteriological attention on the power of the body, over and above the mind, as the salient basis for non-dual knowing. Finally, I reflect upon the lasting contributions of Yang dgon pa's conception of the body to the ongoing exploration of such topics in the history of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist soteriology, as well as upon why some of the more radical elements of his thinking seem to have been eliminated in subsequent generations of his lineage.</p>

<p> <i><b>Study Aims:</b></i> With adoption becoming more common in Hong Kong, the present study was conducted to gain an understanding of the opinions of Hong Kong adoptive parents regarding adoption disclosure to their child. Multiple research questions were investigated that may interest both the general public and those associated with adoption. Reasons for adoption disclosure, gender differences, and whether high or low Asian values have a significant influence were examined. <i><b>Method:</b></i> Fifty-four participants (18 men and 31 women) were recruited from Mother's Choice (a Hong Kong NGO). They were asked to complete a Disclosure Questionnaire, which determines the opinions and attitudes of adoptive parents on disclosure that was developed for use in this specific study, and the Asian Values Scale, which can be divided into five subscales (i.e., Collectivism, Conformity to Norms, Emotional Self-Control, Family Recognition Through Achievement, and Humility). <i><b>Results:</b></i> Majority of the participants reported that infertility was their main reason for the adoption and that they disclose because the child has the right to know. In addition, the majority strongly feel that disclosing will save future trauma and will not affect their relationship. The overwhelming majority of parents (94.4%, 51 out of 54) are planning to or already have disclosed the adoptive status to their child. Two participants (3.7%) are not planning to disclose and one (1.9%) did not answer. The 51 participants were then asked a follow up question regarding whether they would still disclose if it were guaranteed that their child would never find out about his/her adoptive status and ten of them changed their mind and one did not answer. Some gender differences were found and there were a few significant items where participants who responded differently on Disclosure Questionnaire items also varied on Asian values. <i><b> Conclusions:</b></i> This study is important to further understand Hong Kong's adoption population. Although there are limitations due to sample size and convenient sampling, this study is a beginning in the exploration of opinions of adoptive parents towards disclosure. As the majority of participants adopted due to infertility, more care and counseling should be provided targeting infertile couples to explore infertility, the possibility of adoption, and what the adoption means to them. This is especially important in Hong Kong, where infertility may be seen as culturally deviant as the purpose of marriage is to parent (Ko, 2001). With the cultural and social stigma of infertility, many couples may choose to remain secretive and thus perhaps keep a subsequent adoption secretive as well. It can be concluded that adoption disclosure is a complicated action that requires a lot of consideration and preparation. However, even with this, thoughts and feelings may continue to conflict with each other as it is a complex process.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> adoption, disclosure, Hong Kong, Asian Values Scale</p>

Kita Morio has been one of the most successful humorists of Japan's postwar period, but his work has received little attention from scholars. The intent of this study is to provide an introduction to the humorous essays of Kita Morio. In particular, after the principles of the humor mechanism are established, the nature of the essays as a type of I-novel is examined. The focus is then turned to the authorial persona that Kita uses in his humorous essays, and an overview of that manufactured fictional character and the world he inhabits is created. Finally, five individual essays are examined in the context created by the preceding chapters, with particular attention given to the manner in which humor functions in the essays, as well as the manner in which the reader can find comfort in them. Translations of the five essays examined in the final chapter are provided in the Appendix.

<p> The diagnostic category of PTSD does not capture culture-relevant symptomatology, that is, somatization, for Cambodian refugees in the United States. Somatization may function as a buffer against chronic PTSD symptomatology in Cambodian refugees because somatization represents a culture-specific coping strategy for this population. The purpose of the present study is to assess the correlation between somatization and degree of PTSD symptoms. The study also addresses the mental health disparities in the Cambodian refugee population in order to inform the literature on access to better trauma-informed mental health services. </p><p> Participants were recruited from community mental health agencies in Oakland, CA and Long Beach, CA. Two "data-gathering" groups of Cambodian refugees (<i>N</i> = 26) were administered a demographic questionnaire, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-Revised (HTQ-R) and the Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire-20 (SDQ-20) in Khmer and English. The correlational relationship between demographic variables was also analyzed in order to explore contextual factors behind the findings of the study's main research question. Recommendations for assessment and treatment of PTSD in Cambodian refugees were then discussed based on the study's findings. Health care utilization by Cambodian refugees was examined and recommendations were suggested for improvement in public policy and health care services.</p><p> The hypothesis of this study that the level of somatization was inversely related to degree of PTSD symptomatology in Cambodian refugees was not supported. The Pearson Correlational Coefficient analysis produced a statistically significant positive relationship (<i>r</i> = .34) between somatization and traumatization in Cambodian refugees as measured by scores on the SDQ-20 and the HTQ-R. The role of specific somatoform symptoms in the chronicity of PTSD symptomatology was explored. The positive correlation found between the SDQ-20 and HTQ-R supported previous research, demonstrating the relationship between somatoform dissociation and higher PTSD symptomatology in Cambodian refugees. </p>