Recent research has emphasized the need to professionally manage campsites for long-term use, particularly in light of rising visitation to natural protected areas worldwide. Camping regulations vary considerably along the length of any long-distance trail due to the many land types and management agencies involved. Large proportions of long-distance trails have at-large camping policies, resulting in camping problems associated with visitor-chosen or developed campsites. Several long-term monitoring studies in areas with at-large camping policies indicate the expansion and proliferation of individual campsites, and growth of overall camping related impacts, to be a substantial managerial concern. This research evaluates the relative influence of environmental and topographic factors, both collected in the field and modeled in GIS using high-resolution topography (LiDAR) data, on areal measures of campsite impact utilizing Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) penalized regression for factor selection and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) for regressions. Chosen variables in regressions explained 64% of the variation in campsite size and 61% of the variation in the area of vegetation loss on a campsite. Results indicate four variables managers can utilize to enhance the sustainability of campsites: use level, overnight site type, and terrain characteristics relating to slope and topographic roughness. Results support indirect management methods that rely on the design and location of campsites and trails and not the effectiveness of enforcement or restricting visitor freedom. In the face of rising use, techniques and concepts presented aid in identifying or creating ecologically sustainable campsites. / Master of Science

Studies of Ghanaians who have immigrated to the United States indicate that both economic and emotional support continue to be provided to non-migrant families in Ghana. However support to “family relatives” has been studied generally, without specifying age. Thus, relationships between immigrants and their elderly relatives, particularly those who may be frail and vulnerable, have not been the focus of previous research. In addition, it is necessary to examine the dynamics that shape attitudes towards elderly people, and which in turn influence eldercare patterns among Ghanaian immigrants. Based on the literature, the researcher identified four factors relevant to international long-distance eldercare: (1) support caregivers receive (or previously received) from elderly relatives, (2) filial obligation towards elderly relatives, (3) perceived vulnerability of the elderly people in Ghana, and (4) vulnerabilities that make immigrants unable to provide eldercare. The main objective of this study was to examine the extent to which these four factors shape the provision of eldercare by Ghanaian immigrants in the United States to their elderly relatives in Ghana. To achieve this objective, a convenience sample of 124 Ghanaian immigrants who resided in a large metropolitan area in the southern United States was surveyed. Study results reveal that the dominant type of eldercare provided was emotional care, but special circumstances in elderly people’s lives, such as serious financial problems may significantly increase their chances of receiving financial support. For caregivers, their levels of income significantly determined the level of financial support provided to their elderly relatives and how often they visited them. It was also found that there are always some siblings left in Ghana to take care of the physical needs of elderly parents in the absence of those who have migrated. Elderly people having multiple migrant adult children or relatives were more likely to receive financial support from multiple sources. Factors contributing to immigrants supporting elders in Ghana included feelings of high obligation toward elderly relatives, readiness to show love and appreciation for elderly relatives, and acceptance of eldercare as a moral obligation for all adult children. Overall, there was evidence to conclude that most immigrants provided care to their elderly relatives and that most were influenced by the social and cultural tenets that underlie elder caregiving in Ghanaian society. Implications of the study for social work research include the importance of further exploration of factors that might result in reduction in the care immigrants provide to their non-migrant elderly relatives, and replication of the current study with the view of explaining the inability of both elderly relatives’ and immigrants’ vulnerabilities to predict level of care. Given the possible psychological distress associated with caregiving and its effect on immigrants’ time and financial resources, social work practitioners need to be sensitive to the financial and emotional aspects of long distance caregiving by providing services to caregivers who may need them. Policy implications include maximizing remittances by reducing transaction cost and using remittance as leverage for financial grants for family investments.

No description available.

Universal service is the focal point of the economic dilemma faced by the telecommunications industry. The advent of competition spurred by several regulatory rulings is forcing rates towards economic costs. It is feared that this movement or the erosion of the toll-to-local subsidy with concomitant increases in local prices severely threatens the concept of universal service. To adequately address these fears, accurate elasticity of demand estimates for telephone access are required. This thesis develops estimates of these demand elasticities for access. These estimates are derived consistently from an underlying theory of demand for access. Furthermore, the simultaneous access and class-of-service choice problems are addressed similarly. This consistent development facilitates model usage and interpretation. For example, the model provides the best available estimate for the size of the network externality. Taking into account the underlying demand theory and acknowledging the problems associated with the aggregated nature of the data set (census tract data from 1980 Census), a modified probit technique is developed to estimate the demand model. The estimation methodology is implemented using an iterative least square procedure. To analyze the reasonableness of the algorithm and procedure, a Monte Carlo study is performed. In addition, a jackknife technique is employed to estimate variances of coefficients when the standard measures are unavailable. The model results are used to analyze the effect of current policy decisions. For example, for a proposed doubling of access prices the demand for access elasticity is found to be quite small, about -.04. A welfare analysis is performed to discuss the costs and benefits associated with moving to cost-based rates. This analysis also provides the basis for rate recommendations to facilitate the transition to competition while attempting to preserve the concept of universal service.

This thesis examined 228 college students' reported use of relational maintenance behaviors and strategies and their reported perception of the degree of relational satisfaction and solidarity with the relational partners they chose to identify. The study gathered extensive data with the intention of primarily investigating the validity and reliability of measurement of relational maintenance behaviors across cultures with some attention to correlations between relationship maintenance behaviors, relationship satisfaction, and interpersonal solidarity. The study focused on refining previous measures of relationship maintenance behaviors in order to develop a comprehensive global measure. The study found that a linear combination of factors or relationship maintenance behaviors are related to relational satisfaction and interpersonal solidarity.

Long-distance and intercity travel generally make up a small portion of the total number of trips taken by an individual, while representing a large portion of aggregate distance traveled on the transportation system. While some research exists on intercity travel behavior between large metropolitan centers, this thesis addresses a need for more research on travel behavior between non-metropolitan areas and large metropolitan centers. This research specifically considers travel from home locations in northern New England, going to Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. These trips are important for quality of life, multimodal planning, and rural economies. This research identifies and quantifies factors that influence people's mode choice (automobile, intercity bus, passenger rail, or commercial air travel) for these trips. The research uses survey questionnaire data, latent factor analysis, and discrete choice modeling methods. Factors include sociodemographic, built environment, latent attitudes, and trip characteristics. The survey, designed by the University of Vermont Transportation Research Center and the New England Transportation Institute, was conducted by Resource Systems Group, Inc. in 2014, with an initial sample size of 2560. Factor analysis was used to prepare 6 latent attitudinal factors, based on 70 attitudinal responses from the survey statements. The survey data were augmented with built environment variables using geographic information systems (GIS) analysis. A set of multinomial logit models, and a set of nested logit models, were estimated for business and non-business trip mode choice. Results indicate that for this type of travel, factors influencing mode choice for both business and non-business trips include trip distance; land use; personal use of technology; and latent attitudes about auto dependence, preference for automobile, and comfort with personal space and safety on public transportation. Gender is a less significant factor. Age is only significant for non-business trips. The results reinforce the importance and viability of modeling long-distance travel from less populated regions to large metropolitan areas, and the significant roles of trip distance, built environment, personal attitudes, and sociodemographic factors in how people choose to make these trips for different purposes. Future research should continue to improve these types of long-distance mode choice models by incorporating mode specific travel time and cost, developing more specific attitudinal statements to expand latent factor analysis, and further exploring built environment variables. Improving these models will promote better planning, engineering, operations, and infrastructure investment decisions in many regions and communities across the United States which have not yet been well studied, possibly impacting levels of service.

Autor: Bc. et Bc. Adéla Markvartová Title: The views of the runners on the middle and long distance to regeneration in the sport Objectives: The aim of diploma thesis is to detect views of runners on the middle and long distance to regeneration in the sport in terms of their use due to gender and to specialization of runners. Methods: Diploma thesis is divided to two parts - theoretical and practical. Theoretical part is about regeneration in sport and the practical part talks about opinions of of runners on the middle and long distance to regeneration in the sport. Compares each methods of regeneration due to gender and to specialization of runners. It was used nonstandard questionnaire, during championship of the Czech republic in athletics (from 18th to 19th June) in Tábor. Number of 110 runners on the middle and long distance were interviewed. Questionnaire was filled by 91 athletes, 46 men ad 45 women. Results: Research showed that runners realize importance of regeneration in training process. Men are more confident about positive influence of regeneration in performance and also in injury prevention. The most used methods and types of regeration are mechanotherapy, massage (automassage), thermotherapy (sauna, steam bath) and also regeneration by move - stretching excercises, swimming and...

Orientador: Marizilda dos Santos Menezes / Banca: Antônio Nelson Rodrigues da Silva / Banca: Dijon de Moraes / Banca: Olimpio José Pinheiro / Banca: Vânia Cristina Pires Nogueira Valente / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho é propor recomendações para o desenvolvimento de ferramentas de suporte à Educação a Distância. Essas ferramentas foram delimitadas como os ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem e sistemas tutores inteligentes, vistos a partir da ótica do design gráfico, dentro das especificações do design instrucional. A Educação a Distância é um fazer pedagógico que procura atender a sociedade da informação e do conhecimento. Para isso, ela faz uso da educação online, que se processa pela Internet, envolvendo a interação de pessoas. A terceira geração da educação a distância, baseada nas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação; usa os ambientes virtuais, os sistemas tutores inteligentes e as tecnologias interativas. O design instrucional é identificado como uma metodologia educacional que, por meio da tecnologia, propõe práticas e soluções para uma aprendizagem colaborativa e autônoma. Essa responsabilidade e abrangência cruzam os caminhos com o design. O designer gráfico e o webdesigner fazem parte da equipe multidisciplinar que compõe o design instrucional. Mesmo havendo vários sistemas eletrônicos de aprendizagem no mercado, várias instituições de ensino optam por desenvolvê-los internamente, privilegiando mais a generalidade do que a usabilidade. Para entender o desenvolvimento de sistemas tutores e ambientes virtuais, alguns processos, que regem a inteligência, a emoção, a percepção, a inteligência virtual, a ergonomia e a usabilidade, devem ser vistos como premissas básicas de tendências de aplicação. Assim, as recomendações deste trabalho, baseadas em uma metodologia de detalhamento do design instrucional, abordaram alguns passos, que foram o planejamento de unidades de aprendizagem, em que se verifica a aplicação do design gráfico; o desenvolvimento de roteiros e storyboards, e a definição... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The objective of this word is to propose recommendations for the development of tools supporting the Distance Education. These tools had been delimited as virtual environments of learning and intelligent tutorial systems, in the approach to graphic design, inside of the specifications of instructional design. A Distance Education is one to make pedagogical for the society of the information and the knowledge. For this, it makes use of the education online, that it processes itself for the Internet, involving the interaction of people. The third generation of the distance education, based in the Information Technologies and Communication, uses virtual environments, the intelligent tutorial systems and the interactive technologies. Instructional Design is identified as an educational methodology that, by means of the tecnology, consider practical and solutions for a collaborative and independent learning. This responsability and wide-ranging cross the ways with design. Graphical designer and webdesigner are part of multidiscipline team that composes instructional design. Even with several some electronic systems of learning in the market, some institutions of education opt to develop them internally, focusing more the generality of what the usability. To understand the development of tutorial systems and virtual environments, some processes, that conduct intelligence, the emotion, the perception, virtual intelligence, the ergonomics and the usability, they must be seen as basic premises of application trends. Thus, the recommendations of this work, based in a methology of detailing of instructional design, had approached some steps, that had been the planning of units of learning, where if verify the application of design graphical; the development of scripts and storyboards, and the definition of structures of navigation for menus; design of media contents, that... (Complete abstract, click electronic access below) / Mestre

Este trabalho teve como objetivo desenvolver a formação continuada com ênfase na área ambiental por meio da Educação a Distância. Com o propósito de desenvolver uma Formação Continuada para Professores, o Ministério da Educação criou a Rede Nacional de Formação Continuada de Professores de Educação Básica, um programa que indicou universidades brasileiras para promover a formação de professores. Neste contexto foi criado o CECEMCA - Centro de Educação Continuada em Educação Matemática, Científica e Ambiental, que responde por ações dirigidas à formação continuada de professores. O objetivo do programa é melhorar a qualidade de ensino através da capacitação e aprimoramento dos conhecimentos dos professores das escolas municipais. Dentre os produtos desenvolvidos pelo CECEMCA, destaca-se nessa pesquisa o Caderno Áreas Verdes, que apresenta textos de apoio a atividades de formação continuada de professores de Ensino Fundamental (1º a 4º ano) com tema Áreas Verdes e Educação Ambiental. Por abordar a temática ambiental, o Caderno Áreas Verdes constitui uma forma abrangente de educação que pode alcançar os cidadãos por meio de um processo participativo que promove nas pessoas uma consciência crítica sobre a problemática ambiental. Como parte do programa de formação continuada de professores, o CECEMCA criou e realizou um curso no município de Alfenas MG. O curso foi apresentado em dois módulos, presencial e a distância. O trabalho de campo no curso presencial apresenta-se como uma metodologia indispensável na compreensão da realidade local e também, através da solidariedade do grupo, desenvolve um dinamismo na relação do ensino-aprendizagem e na compreensão dos conceitos sobre área verde e meio ambiente. No curso a distância, a plataforma virtual Teleduc constituiu-se em um instrumento adequado no desenvolvimento do curso. Os registros e os questionários confirmam que os dois módulos do curso foram satisfatórios e acrescentaram novos conceitos relacionados ao meio ambiente. / The objective of this paper is the development of the Continuing Educations Programme, focused in the environmental area through the means of the Long Distance Learning. With the purpose to create Continuing Education for Teachers, the Ministry of education has created the National Network of Continuing Education for Teachers primary school, a program that had designated certain Brazilians universities to promote teacher training. In this context CECEMCA (Centre of Continuing Education, in Mathematics, Science and Environmental) was created to deal with actions related to Continuing Education for Teachers. The objective of this program is to update the quality of education through training and improving the knowledge of teachers in municipal schools. Among the products developed by CECEMCA is the book Green Areas, discussed centrally in this study, which presents texts that support continuing education activities for teachers in primary schools, on the topics of Green Areas and Environmental Education. By employing the environmental theme, the book Green Areas is a comprehensive educational material that can reach all citizens through a participatory framework that provides individuals with a critical lens for analysing environmental problems. As part of the Continuing Education Program for teachers, CECEMCA created and ran a course in Alfenas MG. The course was designed in two modules: Classroom Learning and Long Distance Learning. The fieldwork undertaken on the Classroom Learning module was designed to provide essential methodology for understanding local realities and also, through the solidarity of the group, develop dynamism in the relationship between teaching and learning, and understanding the concepts of Green Areas and environment. During long distance learning, the virtual platform Teleduc was formed as an appropriate instrument in the development of the course. The records and questionnaires confirm that the two modules of the course were satisfactory and created new concepts related to the environment.

This study seeks to analyze each of Sillitoe's proletarian novels as a separate artistic endeavor, to study each in terms of its critical reception, plot, theme, characterization, setting, and style.