The present study is concerned with the effects of different levels of "cohesiveness" on the persuasiveness and persuasibility of individuals in a two person verbal interaction situation. In particular, changes is verbal behavior over time are obtained. Now the sex of the participants affects the discussion and outcome is also investigated. The results indicated that favorably predisposed subjects are more persuasible than unfavorably predisposed subjects. Further, male subjects speak more than female subjects and this is reflected in the member of positive, negative and neutral statements they emit. Over-all decreases in the emission of positive statements and over-all increases in the emission of negative statements were found to accompany opinion change. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This thesis is an attempt to determine the precise meaning of Plato's notion of justice, as it applies to an individual human being. Specifically, it asks how the Republic's definition of justice as the proper ordering of the parts of a whole must manifest itself in the actual life of a just individual. This amounts to an examination of Plato's conception of the philosophic life. This issue arises, in part, due to a recent trend, exhibited by some of the most influential commentators on Plato, to seek a social, or practical, dimension of philosophic activity. That is, these commentators assume that if Plato's account of the truly just life is to be deemed credible, he must propose, as an essential element of such a life, a course of public and/or political action to be engaged in. Some scholars accuse Plato of failing to meet this criterion of a proper account of the just life, while others try to find evidence to support the claim that Plato did meet it. It is the claim of this thesis that Plato neither did, nor wished to, make 'moral behaviour', as such, an intrinsic part of the philosophic, or just, life. Rather, I argue that Plato is deliberately overturning the ordinary understanding of justice in favour of a conception of the purely contemplative life as the most just. My argument proceeds by way of an analysis of the interpretations of three prominent Plato scholars: David Sachs, Gregory Vlastos, and Terence Irwin. By exposing their misinterpretations of various key passages in Plato's texts, I bring to light the proper interpretation of 'Platonic justice', thus clarifying one of the Republic's central aims, namely to establish exactly why the philosophic life is the best, most just, and happiest life. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Previous research in bovine embryology has found that embryos cultured individually have limited ability to develop compared to their counterparts cultured in a group of other embryos. This investigation aimed to find if any of three different interventions over two experiments would increase development of individually cultured embryos to that of group cultured embryos. In the first experiment both the addition of serum/serum replacer and a co-culture with bovine granulosa cells were applied to individually cultured embryos in a 3x2 design. None of the interventions was found to be significantly different from the others, and all resulted in significantly lower development than embryos cultured as a group (avg. 4.7 +/- 1.93% individual vs. 21.7 +/- 3.76% group). However, a significant difference was found in the hatching rate between blastocysts cultured in media including cells (71.4 +/- 17.07%) and those cultured without cells (18.1 +/- 11.63%). In the second experiment, embryos were either cultured in standard droplets or microwells made at the bottom of culture droplets either in groups or individually for a 2x2 design. This experiment experienced poor development in all treatments including the group control, and none of the treatments were found to be significantly different from each other. However, the hatching rate of blastocysts cultured in multiple microwells was significantly higher than those cultured individually in droplets. To summarize, none of the treatments increased the development rate, but embryos cultured with granulosa cell co-cultures and in group microwells showed improvements in hatching rates. / Master of Science

No

The present study investigated counseling expectations of Mexican American clients in relation to acculturation by conducting personal interviews with a convenient sample of ten Mexican American clients. Utilizing a qualitative approach, the information gathered through personal interviews was consolidated as well as presented verbatim-style, and to some extent, it was interpreted as deemed appropriate. The results of the data revealed that there were no great contrasts of expectations across the acculturation levels for this set of participants. There were indications that what was generally stated for one particular acculturation level also applied to other levels as well. An implication of this study was that knowledge of counseling expectations as well as how they affect the counseling process and whether these expectations are being met will provide the mental health community with necessary and useful information to enhance the continued development of effective interventions for the Mexican American client.

The intriguing exoplanet candidate KIC 12557548b is believed to have a comet-like tail of dusty debris trailing a small rocky planet. The tail of debris scatters up to 1.3% of the stellar light in the Kepler observatory's bandpass (0.42-0.9 mu m). Observing the tail's transit depth at multiple wavelengths can reveal the composition and particle size of the debris, constraining the makeup and lifetime of the sub-Mercury planet. Early dust particle size predictions from the scattering of the comet-like tail pointed toward a dust size of similar to 0.1 mu m for silicate compositions. These small particles would produce a much deeper optical transit depth than near-infrared transit depth. We measure a transmission spectrum for KIC 12557548b using the SpeX spectrograph (covering 0.8-2.4 mu m) simultaneously with the MORIS imager taking r' (0.63 mu m) photometry on the Infrared Telescope Facility for eight nights and one night in H band (1.63 mu m) using the Wide-field IR Camera at the Palomar 200 inch telescope. The infrared spectra are plagued by systematic errors, but we argue that sufficient precision is obtained when using differential spectroscopic calibration when combining multiple nights. The average differential transmission spectrum is flat, supporting findings that KIC 12557548b's debris is likely composed of larger particles greater than or similar to 0.5 mu m for pyroxene and olivine and greater than or similar to 0.2 mu m for iron and corundum. The r' photometric transit depths are all below the average Kepler value, suggesting that the observations occurred during a weak period or that the mechanisms producing optical broadband transit depths are suppressed.

O empreendedorismo pode ser definido como qualquer tentativa de criação de um novo empreendimento como, por exemplo, uma atividade autônoma, uma nova empresa ou a expansão de um empreendimento existente. No Brasil, o empreendedorismo é uma atividade exercida por dezenas de milhões de indivíduos. Destes, 6,2 milhões são microempreendedores individuais (MEI). Esta categoria de empresários tem um faturamento bruto anual limitado por lei a R$ 60.000,00, e não pode ter mais de um empregado. Os microempreendedores individuais são importantes agentes na economia. Se todos os MEI atingirem o faturamento máximo, o valor movimentado na economia ultrapassa R$ 370 bilhões. Percebendo a importância destes agentes, o governo expandiu os regimes fiscais favoráveis aos microempreendedores individuais. Há também outras ações de incentivo, por parte de bancos públicos e privados, aos pequenos empreendedores, como a concessão de microcrédito. Contudo, mesmo com o acesso a tais benefícios, manter um empreendimento em funcionamento pode ser uma tarefa complexa. Por dispor de poucos recursos humanos e financeiros, torna-se essencial ao MEI que almeja o sucesso, possuir conhecimentos técnicos e gerenciais. Diante disso, alguns programas têm surgido com o intuito de ensinar aos MEI a controlar suas finanças e a gerir seus negócios, tornando-os empresários de sucesso. Todavia, para auxiliar os MEI a serem bem-sucedidos, faz-se necessário compreender o que é o sucesso deste público alvo. Assim, esta pesquisa foi desenvolvida com o intuito de identificar e analisar fatores que indicam sucesso do microempreendedor individual. Para isso, optou-se pela utilização do método Delphi. Para participação no Delphi, especialistas em pequenos empreendimentos foram selecionados e submetidos a aplicações de questionários, que continham fatores que pudessem indicar sucesso do microempreendedor individual. Para a elaboração dos questionários, foi realizado um levantamento na literatura sobre sucesso do empreendedor, sendo encontrados poucos estudos voltados ao tema. Dezesseis fatores foram levantados e apresentados aos especialistas. No decorrer das aplicações, fatores foram excluídos e incluídos. Ao final, os fatores considerados como mais importantes pelos especialistas foram: lucro, fluxo de caixa positivo, sobrevivência, vendas, remuneração do empreendedor, carteira de clientes, autorrealização, regularidade fiscal, profissionalização, separação entre pessoa física e pessoa jurídica, crescimento, independência, inovação, reconhecimento, formalização e aquisição de bens. O resultado da pesquisa permite as seguintes reflexões: 1) com exceção da autorrealização, fatores apontados como de sucesso pessoal não foram bem classificados. 2) diversos fatores como lucro, fluxo de caixa, venda, separação entre pessoas física e jurídica e sobrevivência são conceitos amplamente abordados pelas Ciências Contábeis, podendo ser incorporados e enfatizados pelos programas de apoio; 3) a inovação, apresentada por teóricos como a principal atribuição do empreendedor e abordada por alguns programas de apoio, foi apontada por alguns especialistas como um fator que indica sucesso, enquanto outros afirmam que o MEI dificilmente agregaria algo inovador a seus produtos ou serviços. Espera-se que os resultados da pesquisa forneçam aos programas de apoio aos MEI e aos fomentadores de políticas públicas, subsídios para que se tornem mais eficazes ao auxiliar estes indivíduos a se tornarem bem sucedidos. / Entrepreneurship can be defined as any attempt to create a new venture, for example, an autonomous activity, a new business or expanding an existing business. In Brazil, entrepreneurship is an activity carried out by tens of millions of individuals. Of these, 6.2 million are individual microentrepreneurs (or MEI, in Brazil). This category of business has annual gross sales limited by law to R$ 60,000.00, and cannot have more than one employee. Individual microentrepreneurs are important agents in the economy. If all of these individuals reached the maximum billing, the amount moved in the economy would R$ 370 billion. Realizing the importance of these agents, the government expanded the favorable tax regimes to MEI. There are also other actions taken by public and private banks to stimulate small entrepreneurs, such as microcredit. However, even with access to such benefits, maintaining an enterprise in operation can be a complex task. Because they have few human and financial resources, it is essential to a MEI that expects to be successful to have knowledge not only of technical, but also managerial issues. Therefore, some programs have emerged in order to teach MEI to manage their finances and manage their business, making them successful entrepreneurs. However, in order to assist the MEI to be successful, it is necessary to understand what success is for this target audience. Thus, this research was conducted in order to identify and analyze factors that indicate the success of individual microentrepreneurs. For this purpose, the Delphi method was selected. To participate in the Delphi, experts in small enterprises were selected and required to answer applications containing factors that could indicate the success of individual microentrepreneurs. For the preparation of questionnaires, a survey was conducted on entrepreneurial success, although there are few studies related to the theme. Sixteen factors were collected and presented to specialists. During the application, factors were excluded and included. In the end, the factors considered most important by the experts were: profit, positive cash flow, survival, sales, entrepreneur compensation, customer base, sense of accomplishment, tax compliance, professionalization, separation between the individual entrepreneur and the owned business, growth, independence, innovation, recognition, formalization and purchase of goods. The results of the research allow for the following considerations: 1) except for sense of accomplishment, factors identified as personal success have not been classified positively; 2) several factors such as profit, cash flow, sales, separation between the individual entrepreneur and the owned business and survival are concepts widely discussed by the Accounting Sciences and can be incorporated and emphasized by the support programs; 3) innovation, presented by theorists as the main attribution of the entrepreneur and addressed by some support programs, was considered by some experts as a factor that indicates success, while others claim that the MEIs could hardly add innovation to their products or services. It is hoped that the research results provide MEI support programs and public policy makers with subsidies in order to get even more effective in helping these individuals to become successful