This dissertation provides a detailed examination of the influence of Thomas Clifton Mann on the Latin American policy of the United States of America. A Foreign Service Officer from 1942, Mann eventually rose to the position of Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs, and was President Lyndon Johnson’s most valued adviser on inter-American policy until his retirement from government service in May 1966. Commonly portrayed as highly conservative, insensitive to Latin American needs, and opposed to U.S. aid programs, Mann was a far more complex character than his critics have allowed. During the Eisenhower administration Mann’s influence was vital in reorienting policy priorities in Washington, emphasising the need for price stabilisation measures and limited development aid. During the Kennedy administration he opposed the Bay of Pigs invasion, before serving as Ambassador to Mexico where he successfully resolved the nation’s longest running border dispute. Most influential under Lyndon Johnson, Mann sought to place U.S. policy on a stable and sustainable path, reining in unrealistic expectations while fending off attacks from fiscal conservatives opposed to aid measures of any kind. In studying Mann’s career, much is revealed regarding the nature of U.S.-Latin American relations during a crucial period of history. While U.S. goals remained largely consistent, the nature of the challenges faced and the tactics used to counter them did not. Mann’s career saw the Cold War come to Latin America, and was met with both aid and military intervention, often in the form of counterinsurgency training and operations. Mann’s role in developing those polices reveals the contrasts and, more often, consistencies between the administrations he served, and undermines claims that the transition from Kennedy to Johnson witnessed a radical policy overhaul. Studying Mann’s career also illuminates divisive internal debates over the nature and meaning of inter-American relations, and the role and influence of an individual within Washington’s policymaking bureaucracy.

There has been much controversy concerning the comparability of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJTCA). Previous research has raised the issue of a mean score discrepancy between the tests when used with the learning disabled. This study analyzed and compared performances on these two tests by re-evaluated and newly referred LD students and newly referred non-LD students. In addition, subtypes of LD students were formed on the basis of achievement test scores. These students' test performances were also analyzed and compared. The results of this study were consistent with previous research. The Full Scale scores from the two tests were highly correlated in all three groups, but the WISC-R was significantly higher than the WJTCA for each group. Across the identified LD subtypes there was a significant difference between the Full Scale scores from the two tests. However, meaningful patterns of strengths and weaknesses across aspects of cognitive functioning were not uncovered. These results indicate that the WISC-R and WJTCA result in significantly different estimates of the cognitive ability of LD and referred students. This difference can be attributed to a combination of three possible explanations--the effects of the use of non-random samples, the use of different norm groups when the tests were standardized, and the tests contain different content.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Woodcock-Johnson-Revised Cognitive test is biased when used with a Hispanic population of school-age children. Norming data, provided by R. Woodcock, Ph.D., for grades three, five, eight, and eleven were used for the study. Three hypotheses were explored. The first hypothesis called for a comparison by gender. The second hypothesis called for a comparison of non-Hispanics and Hispanics. The third hypothesis called for comparisons between all combinations of grade levels using only the non-Hispanic subgroup. Using the results of confirmatory factor analysis from LISREL VIII (1993), the chi-square difference test, and three goodness-of-fit indexes provided evidence of similarity in factor patterns between target groups. Hypothesis 1 stated that there were no differences between male and female factor patterns. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the acceptance of hypothesis 1. Hypothesis 2 stated that there were no differences between non-Hispanic and Hispanic students. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported a qualified acceptance of hypothesis 2. The relationships between the latent variables are significantly different. Age, therefore, may have been a confounding variable in this study. Hypothesis 3 stated that there were no differences in patterns between grades. Only one of the six grade comparisons, 3-5, found model 1 to be the preferred model. All other comparisons found model 3 to be the preferred model. The residual or error terms were variable in matrix patterns, indicating that a factor other than age may be influencing the relationships. A fourth analysis was utilized and determined model 1 to be the preferred model. The results of the analysis indicate that differential patterns of processing, rather than age, may be the variable influencing the relationship of latent variables.

English writer and poet Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) introduced the term "parable-art" in his essay "Psychology and Art To-Day" (1935) as a means of describing works of art that are both message-bearing and moralistic in nature. Auden believed that art had the power to influence the affairs of the world, and felt it was the artist's obligation to work for the betterment of society. Though he ultimately rejected this conviction, Auden's influence on his English contemporaries in the 1930s was profound. Perhaps the most notable musician who embraced Auden's ideal was Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), who so often embedded moral, social, and humanitarian themes in his works. Britten was deeply influenced by Auden's philosophical views; therefore, it is logical that the term parable-art has been used to describe many of the composer's works. The expression, however, has never been applied to the works of other composers. I believe that many twentieth- and twenty-first-century works comprise similar parabolic characteristics and can be appropriately labeled parable-art. In this study, I attempt to demonstrate that Stephen Paulus's A Place of Hope (2001) and Ralph M. Johnson's This House of Peace (2008), two choral-orchestral compositions incorporating unconventional, non-literary texts, can be deemed twenty-first-century parable-art. These two compositions were chosen as the focus of this research due to three commonalities: 1) each work was commissioned by an organization dedicated to ethical and humanitarian ideals in healthcare; 2) humanitarian themes, such as gratitude, compassion, kindness, and love, are found in the texts of each composition; 3) each composer incorporated words of patients, family members, visitors, or caregivers at the medical facility for which the respective work was commissioned. Analyses include examinations of each composer's intent, the values of the organizations for which each work was commissioned, and the impact these values had on the selection of texts, the parabolic aspects of the texts, and the compositional techniques employed, which result in textual clarity and effective musical/dramatic affect, thus heightening the communicability of the message.

Since 1941, R. M. Bell has devoted his life to the training of ministers as the President of Johnson Bible College, Kimberlin Heights, Tennessee. During his tenure as president he has represented a point of view that has played both a distinctive and controversial role in the life of our Brotherhood. It is the purpose of this study to examine his life historically with emphasis on the events and influences that helped shape his life and thought. His theological positions will be surveyed and a critique given regarding the contribution his life and thought has had in the Christian church.

The present study focused on the educational and career experiences of four selected Swedish immigrant women at North Park College in Chicago from 1900-1920. There is a gap in the extant literature with regard to the Swedish immigrant women experiences, and this study attempted to shed some light on this fascinating topic.The study examined the lives of three selected Swedish immigrant women students at the College and their lives afterwards as missionaries in China. It also examined the life of Lena Sahlstrom, a faculty member at North Park College during the same period. The four women were exceptional individuals, each in her own way a pioneer. Hilma Johnson studied business for one year at North Park College before becoming the Covenant Church's first woman missionary to China in 1901, a commitment she maintained for 40 years. Hilda Rodberg was the first female graduate of the Swedish Covenant Hospital Nursing School in 1900, and she became a missionary in China for over thirty years. Victoria Welter was the first woman to graduate from North Park College's Seminary Department in 1903, after which she, too, left for China to serve as a missionary, where she married John Sjoquist, a medical missionary. Welter was the only one of the four to marry, and after the death of her husband in 1917 she returned to Chicago to complete her children's formal education.Caroline "Lena" Sahlstrom was the first female faculty member at North Park College. She was a teacher in the Primary Department and the Music Department, and she also served as the Dean of Women during part of her long tenure at North Park College. Her contributions to the school and the students were impressive, and she was a committed educator of her time.Each of the four women valued education and religion, and each was influenced in various ways by their experiences at North Park College. Hilma Johnson, Hilda Rodberg, and Victoria Welter chose professional careers as missionaries in China where they ministered to many people through teaching and health care. Influenced by her educational and religious background, Lena Sahlstrom chose to join the faculty at North Park College where her years of service and various roles impacted the lives of many students. While economic advancement was not a goal for any of the four, they all chose professional careers and lives of commitment that differed from the traditional roles filled by most women of their day. All four were role models who made a difference in many peoples lives.

Random projection method is one of the important tools for the dimensionality reduction of data which can be made efficient with strong error guarantees. In this thesis, we focus on linear transforms of high dimensional data to the low dimensional space satisfying the Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma. In addition, we also prove some theoretical results relating to the projections that are of interest when applying them in practical applications. We show how the technique can be applied to synthetic data with probabilistic guarantee on the pairwise distance. The connection between dimensionality reduction and compressed sensing is also discussed.

The generalized inviscid Proudman-Johnson equation serves as a model for n-dimensional incompressible Euler flow, gas dynamics, high-frequency waves in shallow waters, and orientation of waves in a massive director field of a nematic liquid crystal. Furthermore, the equation also serves as a tool for studying the role that the natural fluid processes of convection and stretching play in the formation of spontaneous singularities, or of their absence. In this work, we study blow-up, and blow-up properties, in solutions to the generalized, inviscid Proudman-Johnson equation endowed with periodic or Dirichlet boundary conditions. More particularly,regularity of solutions in an Lp setting will be measured via a direct approach which involves the derivation of representation formulae for solutions to the problem. For a real parameter lambda, several classes of initial data are considered. These include the class of smooth functions with either zero or nonzero mean, a family of piecewise constant functions, and a large class of initial data with a bounded derivative that is, at least, continuous almost everywhere and satisfies Holder-type estimates near particular locations in the domain. Amongst other results, our analysis will indicate that for appropriate values of the parameter, the curvature of the data in a neighborhood of these locations is responsible for an eventual breakdown of solutions, or their persistence for all time. Additionally, we will establish a nontrivial connection between the qualitative properties of L-infinity blow-up in ux, and its Lp regularity. Finally, for smooth and non-smooth initial data, a special emphasis is made on the study of regularity of stagnation point-form solutions to the two and three dimensional incompressible Euler equations subject to periodic or Dirichlet boundary conditions.

Using concepts of cognitive evolutionary theory, the author explores how narrative storytelling manifests itself in Denis Johnson's novella Train Dreams. The novella form is also discussed, focusing on its manipulation of linear time, its naturalization of supernatural elements, and its deconstruction of dichotomous relationships. Utilizing the novella's distinct structural and thematic elements, Johnson's text shows the myth of American expansionism and industrial progress and that of Kootenai holism in collision, resulting in a narrative renegotiation that seeks to affirm coexistence and complexity.

Uppsatsen undersöker hur män och kvinnor blir medialt representerade olika i relation till framgångoch förlust. Detta görs genom att undersöka den mediala rapporteringen av duon Johnson& Häggkvist under deras deltagande i Melodifestivalen 2008. Den övergripande teorin som ligger tillgrund för uppsatsen är relationen mellan media och kön. Vidare används Simone de Beauvoirsteorier om transcendens och immanens, vilket stödjer sig på Yvonne Hirdmans genussystem omisärhållande och hierarkisering. Uppsatsen genomför en kritisk diskursanalys och undersöker hurduon könas i utvalt material, åtta krönikor i Aftonbladet under Melodifestivalperioden. Vidareundersöks hur representationen skiljs mellan könen och hur Simone de Beauvoirs begrepp transcendensoch immanens reproduceras. Uppsatsens resultat visar på hur den mediala rapporteringenkring Johnson & Häggkvist konstruerar och reproducerar normer och diskurser. Uppsatsensslutsats och funna diskurs är hur kvinnan, Carola Häggkvist, är fast i immanensen trots atthon påstås försöka transcendera. Medan mannen, Andreas Johnson, genomgående transcenderargenom att skriva sig själv. Under transcendens och immanens-diskursen finns även andra diskursivateman: natur och kultur samt aktivitet och passivitet är centrala i uppsatsens slutsatser.