This study was an effort to identify the reasons for use or under use of neighborhood parks in Fort Wayne, IN and to suggest the solutions for the problems found. Two heavily used parks and two underutilized parks were chosen after an interview with the Director of Parks and Recreation Departments of Fort Wayne. Questionnaires and direct observation were the two major tools used to understand user preferences and tendencies. Each data were analyzed to find out the differences between the heavily and underutilized parks in the categories of age, sex, income and race. The significant differences between under and heavily used parks were found by the quantity and quality of each park's facilities and by the racial characteristic of residents around the each park. Environmental and social factors, and user satisfaction with their neighborhood park are suggested to be the solutions. The solutions may be used as a general recommendation to improve the conditions of neighborhood parks. / Department of Landscape Architecture

Most of the research conducted to measure credibility has focused on comparing one type of media with another, i.e., newspaper vs. television. Other research has looked into how different target audiences of corporate or company newspapers perceive the credibility of the publication. To date, there has been little research into how the target audiences perceive the credibility of a military installation's command newspaper. This study examined how active-duty Army personnel perceived the credibility of an Army installation's command newspaper; specifically, The Paraglide from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.The study employed the model developed by Meyer (1988) to measure perceptions of credibility. The study also used a model developed by Surlin and Walker (1975) to measure the respondent's self-agreement with how three hypothetical "bad news" stories should and would be covered by the command newspaper. The independent variables for the study were: civilian education level, years of service in the military, and job level/rank. The data was collected using a survey questionnaire distributed to Army units assigned to the 82nd Infantry Division (Airborne). Respondents were directed by their supervisors to complete the survey.The results indicated education level was not significant in perceptions of credibility; years of service was significant in perceptions of credibility; and job level/rank was significant in perceptions of credibility. Additionally, education level, years of service, and job level/rank were all significant in the respondent's self-agreement with how controversial issues were covered, but the significance appeared to be issue dependent. / Department of Journalism

This creative project inspected the design of water conserving landscapes by restoring native vegetation. Water conserving design principles discovered in the background research were applied to the redesign of the Old Fort Boise Park in Parma, Idaho. Important issues that were explored included discussing the need for water conserving landscape designs that result in functional spaces that meet the needs of intended users. The main focus of water conservation was implemented by using native plants that typically require less water than non-native species. The project developed a park master plan that could demonstrate to Idaho residents that native plants, when carefully sited, result in lower maintenance, aesthetically pleasing visual qualities, environmentally sensitive performances and could be integrated into landscapes on private or public properties. Rather than viewing the Idaho native plants as unattractive and dull, this project explored the idea that under cultivation and as part of the site character a carefully designed water conserving naturalized landscape has a beauty unsurpassed by traditional landscapes. The park redesign also employed educational and interpretive systems wherein native plants were highlighted and identified. These educational and interpretive systems could assist park users, especially local residents, in familiarizing themselves with many of the beautiful native species that are common in the surrounding deserts, prairies, hills and mountains. The creative project examined one particular site, while it developed principles and concepts applicable to other sites throughout the Great Basin Region. / Department of Landscape Architecture

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the current status of healthcare delivery on American Indian reservations. In particular, the study sought to determine if the Indian Health Service was actually meeting its goals in delivering healthcare to American Indians, and if not, were there alternatives to public medicine for healthcare? The Indian Health Service has not met its own goals in delivering healthcare, and private medicine in the form of private practicing physicians and other medical personnel have filled the void left by the Indian Health Service. The study also discusses the possibility of private medicine being the only realistic alternative in the future for Indian healthcare delivery.

The Jackalope in the Room is an installation of sculptural and found objects that have been altered or contextualized in a way that conflates strangeness with normality. Many of the items in the installation were given as gifts or found in thrift stores, and have been modified to communicate a broader cultural or psychological meaning. Often this meaning is related to personal anecdotes and stereotypes attached to the objects that, in turn, seek to complicate popular narratives and cultural myths—many of which relate back to my experiences in northern Alberta. Northern Alberta is a liminal, near-mythical place where our ideas about remote environments collide with mass industrialization. These shibboleths have a pervasive quality that allows me to construct an uncanny web of associations using often banal source materials.

The purpose of this study was to appraise the quality and effectiveness of the master's degree program at Saint Francis College, Fort Wayne, Indiana.Data were obtained through the technique of survey research, employing a combination of the open form - closed form type of questionnaire which was devised by the investigator. Data were obtained from three separate population groups. Group A was comprised of those persons who earned the Master's Degree in Education from 1962 through 1972. Group B consisted of those persons enrolled in the program at the time this study was conducted. Samples were selected at random from Groups A and B. The entire population of the graduate faculty was utilized for purposes of this study.A pre-evaluation study was conducted to generate the contents of the questionnaire. Initially, broad questions designed to approach the evaluation from the viewpoint of present students, past students, as well as faculty members teaching at the graduate level were prepared for the prestudy. These questions were submitted to sample groups from each of the population groups. Persons participating in the pre-study were not utilized in the final study.Responses to the questions used in the pre-study helped to determine items used in the final form of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was field tested in order to eliminate any remaining ambiguities.The final form of the questionnaire was mailed with a cover letter of explanation to a random sample of 500 persons from Group A and 300 persons from Group B. All of the faculty population, a total of 45 persons received the questionnaire.Data received from the questionnaire were used to provide a detailed description of the respondents. Frequency tabulations and percentages were calculated for comparison purposes. A measure of central tendency, the mean, and the standard deviation were calculated for the responses. Rank orders were established for both the perceived importance of items and the perceived evaluation of the institution, Saint Francis College, used in the study. This allowed meaningful comparisons to be made.

This thesis documents three polychrome, geometric mosaics that were discovered in the Praetorium of the Trajanic Roman fort at Humayma in southern Jordan. Patterns used in the mosaics are swastika meanders, quatrefoil rosettes and interlocking circles, while colours used are beige, red, and two shades of blue. The mosaics can be confidently dated to the initial construction of the fort, between A.D. 111 and A.D. 114. I document the excavation and present state of the most southern mosaics in Jordan, and place them in their regional and social context. By comparing the patterns employed with other similar mosaics, both geographically and temporally, I shed light on the early development of mosaics in the region. I argue that the Roman military employed local craftsmen to construct the mosaics and that evidence of craftsmen training is visible in details of the mosaics. The social and cultural context of the Humayma mosaics is reconstructed by examining both other local examples, and comparanda from the wider, Mediterranean corpus of mosaics, including sites such as Delos, Olynthus, Antioch, Pompeii, and Ostia. The focus is on the extent of diffusion of the specific motifs employed. Interpretation of the mosaics at Humayma will concentrate on such issues as patronage, craftsman training, and indications of regional wealth.

ALFA (Absolute Luminosity for ATLAS) vise à mesurer la luminosité absolue pour l'expérience ATLAS avec une incertitude de 2 - 3\% et la section efficace totale. La luminosité est reliée au nombre d'événements. Plus la luminosité est élevée, plus le nombre d'événements est élevé. C'est donc une quantité importante pour les collisionneurs en général et notamment pour le LHC (Large Hadron Collider). LHC est constitué de deux faisceaux circulant dans deux chambres à vide différentes et collisionnant aux quatre points d'interaction où les principales expériences de physique sont positionnées (ATLAS, CMS, ALICE et LHCb). Les détecteurs constituant ALFA insérés dans des Pots Romains sont positionnés à 240 m de distance du point d'intéraction d'ATLAS après six quadrîpoles et deux dipôles qui constituent la partie de ligne faisceau utile à ALFA et localisée sur le LHC.Les détecteurs sont constitués de fibres scintillantes pour détecter les protons élastiques issus du Point d'Interaction. Ces protons sont transportés au travers des différents aimants qui constituent la ligne de faisceau considérée et qui nécessite une optimisation des paramètres optiques pour les besoins de la mesure. Nous appellerons les optiques fort β, les optiques utilisées durant les périodes expérimentales dédiées à ALFA. Les paramètres des optiques fort β ont été simulés afin de remplir le cahier des charges demandé pour ALFA et elles ont été testées sur le LHC en 2011 et 2012 pendant un certain nombre de périodes expérimentales spécifiques aux optiques fort β sur le LHC.Ces périodes expérimentales se sont terminées en 2013 avant l'arrêt du LHC. Les paramètres optiques ont été mesurés et comparés aux simulations.Certains paramètres ayant des valeurs bien meilleures que celles attendues. Cela a aussi permis de regardes quelques incertitudes sur les paramètres optiques et d'évaluer l'impact de certains de ces paramètres sur la mesure de section efficace totale.

The process of defining heritage is fraught with the inequalities of social and political power concomitant with colonialism. As a result, disenfranchised and marginalized groups worldwide have been given little say in heritage matters until recently. Though often perceived as "experts" on the past, archaeologists are just one of many stakeholders with interests in how the past is used in the present. As such, archaeologists today face the challenge of decolonizing heritage work through engagement with diverse stakeholder communities. In this dissertation, I explore the ways that archaeologists have been working at this over the last two decades through a variety of community-based approaches to the archaeological dimensions of heritage work. I propose a multi-stakeholder model--what I call a "poly-communal approach"-- that builds on and address several shortcomings I identify in these efforts. This approach engages diverse local and non-local stakeholders in collective heritage work that aims to restructure traditional power relationships in archaeological projects. I explicate this approach and, through a case study, evaluate its effectiveness as a tool for decolonizing practice and dominant histories. The case study focuses on the social relationships of multiple stakeholders (Native American descendant communities, heritage institutions, archaeologists, landowners, avocational archaeologists, local residents, and scholars) catalyzed by the archaeology of a seventeenth-century Native American site in Deerfield, Massachusetts. The site, believed to be a fortified place of Pocumtuck peoples, plays a critical role in the dominant English and early American colonial history commemorated in the town for a century. The Pocumtuck Fort is popularly, though inaccurately, believed to be the last place the Pocumtuck lived before they "disappeared" just prior to the first English settlement in Deerfield and this dominant narrative has contributed to historical erasures of Native American peoples in the New England interior. Here, I combine a poly-communal approach to heritage work, archaeological research, and current fieldwork in this case study. I conclude that poly-communal heritage work, like that of the Pocumtuck Fort Archaeology and Stewardship project, can transform sites of historical erasures to places that mobilize and facilitate intercultural discourse and action, demonstrating that heritage and the power to mobilize the past can be shared.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-199) and abstract.