The National Association of Colored Women was formed in 1896, during a period when the Negro was encountering a great amount of difficulty in maintaining the legal and political rights granted to him during the period of reconstruction. As a result of this erosion· of power, some historians have contended that the Negro male was unable to effectively deal with the problems that arose within the Negro community. It was during this same period of time that the Negro woman began to assert herself in the affairs of her community. In the beginning, her work was done in conjunction with church groups and ladies auxiliaries to Negro male secret societies and fraternal organizations. In the 1890's, however, she began to form clubs of her own. This did not mean that the other organizational ties were severed, but rather that she added new priorities to her varied interests. Generally speaking, the women who participated in these groups were middle class women who saw needs within the Negro community and attempted, with their limited resources, to alleviate the problems. There were many clubs of Negro women formed during the period from 1890 to 1895, and there was a general feeling that unification of the clubs would be beneficial to the overall movement of Negro women. The major goal of the National Association of Colored Women was the uplift of the Negro race in all facets of life. The organization declared that it was not drawing the color line but that all clubs of women whose goal was to improve the life of the Negro were eligible to join. From the beginning, the goal that the National Association of Colored Women set up for itself was too broad in relation to membership and resources of the members. Instead of concentrating on one or two specific areas, such as kindergartens, reformatories for Negro youth, homes for the aged, or civil rights, the women divided their forces to such an extent that their effectiveness in dealing with the problems that plagued the Negro community was extremely limited. It is true that many fine examples of their dedication and unselfishness brought relief and in some cases institutions were established to aid their people, but more often than not the lack of unified efforts failed to produce the desired results. Besides the diffusion of goals, there was also the human factors of pettiness, un-co-operative spirit and a desire for self-recognition that disrupted the movement. Later, with the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the N.A.A.C.P . , the National Urban League and other similar organizations dedicated to the improvement of the life of the Negro, the National Association of Colored Women lost much of its impact. In part this was caused by the limiting of the goals pursued by the new organizations. They concentrated their efforts on a few specific areas and refused to be distracted by a multiplicity of causes. Furthermore, the personnel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League were generally more professionally qualified to handle the problems that they attempted to solve. The thesis is based largely upon original sources: memoirs, autobiographies of the founders of the N.A.C.W. and periodicals and newspapers published between 1890-1930.

Several school-based interventions aimed at increasing fruit and vegetables (FV) intake among children have demonstrated success in short-term interventions. The Fit Game is a school-based intervention aimed at encouraging children to consume increasing amounts of FV during a game, which is a narrative. Just as children are being encouraged to eat FV at school, so is it equally important for them to eat FV at home. Parents strongly influence the amount of FV children consume at home. The aim of this thesis is to examine associations between factors that influence consumption of fruits and vegetables at and away from school among children who are participating in a schoolbased intervention, which has been shown to increase fruit and vegetable consumption at school. Associations between factors of the home environment and FV intake of children at and away from school are also explored. The study population was 37 parent-child pairs who participated in the Fit Game intervention conducted at one elementary school in 2013 (n = 252). This study showed that there was an increase in FV intake of children at school during the period they played the Fit Game; however there was no change in fruit and vegetable intake away from school during that same period of time. In addition, though parents and children’s intake of FV were correlated, parents did not change their FV intake during the period of time their child participated in the Fit Game at school. There was no significance between children’s intake and the factors in the home environment including family meals, FV accessibility and availability as well as parental knowledge. This study used rigorous methods to assess dietary intake. It is, however, important that this study is replicated with a larger sample that is more diverse.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis is concerned with the problem of selection of important variables in Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in such a way that the selected subsets of variables retain, as much as possible, the overall multivariate structure of the complete data. Throughout the thesis, the criteria used in order to meet this requirement are collectively referred to as measures of Multivariate Association (MVA). Most of the currently available selection methods may lead to inappropriate subsets, while Krzanowskis (1987) M(subscript)2-Procrustes criterion successfully identifies structure-bearing variables particularly when groups are present in the data. Our major objective, however, is to utilize the idea of multivariate association to select subsets of the original variables which preserve any (unknown) multivariate structure that may be present in the data.The first part of the thesis is devoted to a study of the choice of the number of components (say, k) to be used in the variable selection process. Various methods that exist in the literature for choosing k are described, and comparative studies on these methods are reviewed. Currently available methods based exclusively on the eigenvalues of the covariance or correlation matrices, and those based on cross-validation are unsatisfactory. Hence, we propose a new technique for choosing k based on the bootstrap methodology. A full comparative study of this new technique and the cross-validatory choice of k proposed by Eastment and Krzanowski (1982) is then carried out using data simulated from Monte Carlo experiment.The remainder of the thesis focuses on variable selection in PCA using measures of MVA. Various existing selection methods are described, and comparative studies on these methods available in the literature are reviewed. New methods for selecting variables, based of measures of MVA are then proposed and compared ++ / among themselves as well as with the M(subscript)2-procrustes criterion. This comparison is based on Monte Carlo simulation, and the behaviour of the selection methods is assessed in terms of the performance of the selected variables.In summary, the Monte Carlo results suggest that the proposed bootstrap technique for choosing k generally performs better than the cross-validatory technique of Eastment and Krzanowski (1982). Similarly, the Monte Carlo comparison of the variable selection methods shows that the proposed methods are comparable with or better than Krzanowskis (1987) M(subscript)2-procrustes criterion. These conclusions are mainly based on data simulated by means of Monte Carlo experiments. However, these techniques for choosing k and the various variable selection techniques are also evaluated on some real data sets. Some comments on alternative approaches and suggestions for possible extensions conclude the thesis.

In this dissertation an attempt was made to uncover the source of verbal associations. The investigation focused on establishing the locus of representation for associative relationships in the cognitive system and whether this locus is different from that for semantic relationships. A picture naming task and an object decision task were used within the standard priming paradigm, in which the target is preceded by a prime. A dual-level model was proposed in which associative relatedness is represented at a lemma level that connects the lexical form representation of a word to its semantic information. According to this model an interaction between associative and categorical relatedness should occur in picture naming, but not in object decision, when primes and targets share both relationships, and this is what was observed. To investigate the mechanisms of associative priming, asymmetrically associated prime-target pairs were used to create two situations. In the forward priming condition the target was an associate of the prime (e.g., brick-house), and in the backward priming condition the prime was an associate of the target (e.g., babyrattle). Unexpectedly, facilitation was observed for backward priming at the short SOA in picture naming. Because no effect was observed for this condition in the object decision task, and given that forward priming produced facilitation in both tasks spreading activation was upheld as the mechanism for associative priming. In order to investigate whether the source of the relationship between associates might be in their latent semantic content, the impact of instrument relationships (e.g., grinder-coffee), script relationships (e.g., zoo-tiger), and proximity in multidimensional semantic space were also investigated in the picture naming task. Items that were close in semantic space, but did not share any semantic relationships, produced the same priming pattern as category co-ordinates in picture naming (i.e., interference), while instrumental and script relationships did not produce a priming pattern that matched either that observed for associative or categorical relatedness. These results were taken to indicate that the source of associative relationships is in the co-occurrence of words in the language, which further supported the main claim of a dual-level model where information about verbal associations is stored outside semantic memory.

This study has resulted from the author's interest and participation in the activities of the A.C.T. Primary Principals' Association over the past six years. For the last three years of the twelve-year period covered by the study he was General Secretary of the Association, and thus had access to the minutes, reports and correspondence which had accumulated since the inception of the Association. Additional information has been obtained through discussions, reminiscences, letters and taperecordings from members and others who were actively involved in the activities of the Association. The History of the Association has been divided into four stages, corresponding to: 1. The inaugural period, under the direction of New South Wales. 2. The period of maximum growth. 3. The beginning of the independent A.C.T. Schools System. 4. The reorganisation of the Association. The main topics which were discussed within each period are analysed, together with the reactions of members to the circumstances which caused those topics to be emphasised, The analysis has shown that over the twelve-year period there has been: 1. A series of organisational changes in the structure of the Association as its membership has increased. 2. A significant trend away from the discussion of topics which could be classified as Managerial and towards subjects which could be regarded as Educational. 3. An increasing use of Guest Speakers at meetings and conferences. 4. A gradual change in the objectives of the Association and in the nature of the organisations to which it has related. 5. Only a very small percentage of members who have held Executive Office in the Association. The comments of individuals who have been involved with the Association over a period of years are used to assess its strengths and weaknesses, and suggestions are made regarding ways in which the structure of the organisation might possibly be improved. An examination has been made of the Association as a model-type, and throughout the study there is discussion as to how its performance equates with the findings of current literature on Organisational Theory. A recommendation is made that a review of the stated aims of the Association be undertaken, and that a Constitution be developed.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

This research addresses the functional characteristics of a single organization. It specifically investigates one of the largest festival organizations in the United States, The Portland Rose Festival Association (PRFA). In this case, three groups within the PRFA are its foundation: the paid staff, the executive committee, and the volunteer directors. This study identifies and analyzes the functionality characteristics of this organization. Swanson's (1996) theory of performance variables is used to assess and benchmark the PRFA. He provides five key areas in which functional, effective, and successful groups are proficient. These five areas are: mission/goal, capacity, systems design, motivation, and expertise. The research is qualitative and quantitative in nature by implementing two primary methods- interviews and questionnaires. Phase one consists of interviews from the eleven staff members. The research discovers that the PRFA has numerous strengths. The weaknesses the staff mentioned have been acknowledged by management and are being improved upon or solved. As a result of this phase, the PRFA was assessed as a functional organization. Phase two determines the level of functionality according to appropriate organizational characteristics. The characteristics correspond to Swanson's performance variables. This phase was conducted through questionnaires to the staff members, executive committee, and volunteer directors. The research indicated that the "mission/goal" organizational characteristic received the highest combined mean. Although all areas were ranked very high, responses on the "expertise" questions indicate an area for improvement. Finally, the study discovers that the three groups are relatively familiar with each other. / Graduation date: 2000

Project (D. Miss.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1984. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-172).