The Black community and the gay community have historically experienced marginalization from society, public and private institutions, federal government agencies, and law enforcement. Black gay male leadership is not a conversation within leadership academia. This phenomenological study focuses on understanding the lived experiences and leadership among Black gay men who are leaders in Los Angeles County. This study found that the lived experiences such as oppression, mentorship, community involvement, and advocacy have influenced their leadership development and leadership identity. This study identifies how Black gay men define leadership, based off their lived experiences. It also identifies themes of leadership development for Black gay men. The results have implications for future research and leadership development among Black gay men. Understanding lived experiences of Black gay male leaders and their leadership development can help identify what core foundations/topics could be included in professional development aimed at building leadership development among young Black gay men.

Diabetes has become a longstanding public health challenge around the world. Over the last 3 decades, the number of people with Type II diabetes (T2DM) has grown to an epidemic level in Canada. Prior research indicated African immigrants residing in Ontario, Canada experienced a 2-4 times higher prevalence of T2DM than Canadian-born individuals. The social determinants of health theoretical framework guided this study assessing the relationship of the risk factors with T2DM. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed using the 2007-2014 Canadian Community Health Survey data. The random sample included 1,526 African immigrants residing in Ontario, Canada. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted. Study results indicated a lower income level, high acculturation index, and a country of origin significantly associated with T2DM in adjusted and unadjusted binary logistic regression models. Using the results of the study to create a valid and reliable acculturation measurement scale and a cultural-based design of public health programs, increase awareness, and change policies that consider the needs of the sample populations could lead to positive social change by curbing the prevalence of T2DM observed in African immigrants residing in Ontario and Canada at large.

Both the short-term and long-term unemployment rates for older workers in the United States have increased significantly since the 2007 recession. Researchers who examine the impact of involuntary job loss have predominantly focused on the experiences of men. Limited prior research exists on the job loss experiences of women over 50 years of age compared to men. The goal of this study was to address this gap in knowledge by examining the lived experiences of women over 50 who had experienced involuntary job loss, the barriers faced to reemployment, and the ways women overcame the barriers to reemployment. A phenomenological design was employed to gather data from a convenience sample of 10 women in a northeastern metropolitan city. Guided by the frameworks of Bandura and Leana and Feldman, this transcendental approach aimed to capture the lived experiences of the women who incurred involuntary job loss. Data transcribed from audio-taped interviews were manually coded and aligned with the appropriate research question. The findings highlighted the emotions, finances, family and social life of women following job loss. The findings suggest women faced age discrimination, organizational practices, technological challenges, and stereotypical beliefs in their attempts toward reemployment. The results of the study can be used to inform organizational leaders of the need for greater emphasis on programs offering solutions to older female workers seeking reemployment. The study promotes potential positive social change by informing organizational leaders of the experiences of women over 50 who had experienced involuntary job loss.

Business researchers have shown that servant leaders empower, provide long-term vision, and serve their workers and followers better than do nonservant leaders. High performance work practices (HPWPs) and corporate social performance (CSP) can enhance employee and firm productivity. However, when overused or poorly managed, HPWPs and CSP can lead to the business problems of employee disengagement, overload, or anxiety. Scholars noted a gap in human resource management research regarding whether leadership styles affect HPWPs and CSP use. This study examined the relationship between leadership style and the use of HPWPs and CSP, by using a quantitative, nonexperimental design. U.S. business leaders (N = 287) completed a survey consisting of 3 previously published scales. A chi-square analysis calculated the servant to nonservant leader ratio in the population, finding a disproportionate ratio (1:40) of servant (n = 7) to nonservant (n = 280) leaders. Two t tests showed that no significant difference existed in how servant and nonservant leaders use HPWPs or CSP. However, a multiple linear regression model showed that a leader's self-reported characteristics of empowerment, vision, or service positively predicted CSP use; empowerment positively predicted HPWPs use; service negatively predicted HPWPs use; and vision had no effect on HPWPs use. Findings may help human resource practitioners identify leaders who use HPWPs or CSP differently. Positive social change may occur by hiring more visionary, empowering, or service-oriented leaders who can support overwhelmed or anxious workers, potentially leading to more engaged and productive workers, and an increase in the use of positive CSP.

This thesis examines a specific type of instance that bridges the divide between seeing sacred texts as merely vehicles for content and as objects themselves: self-reference. Doing so yielded a heuristic system of categories of self-reference in sacred texts based on the way the text self-describes: Inlibration, Necessity, and Untranslatability. I provide examples of these self-referential features as found in various sacred texts: the Vedas, Āgamas, Papyrus of Ani, Torah, Quran, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, and the Book of Mormon. I then examine how different theories of sacredness interact with them. What do Durkheim, Otto, Freud, or Levinas say about these? How are their theories changed when confronted with sacred texts as objects as well as containers for content? I conclude by asserting that these self-referential features can be seen as ‘self-sacralizing’ in that they: match understandings of sacredness, speak for themselves, and do not occur in mundane texts.

Dû à la complexité des algorithmes de traitement d’images récents et dans le but d'accélérer la procédure de la conception des MPSoCs, méthodologies de prototypage rapide sont nécessaires pour fournir différents choix pour le programmeur de générer des programmes parallèles efficaces. Ce manuscrit présente les travaux menés pour proposer une méthodologie de prototypage rapide permettant la conception des architectures MPSOC ainsi que la génération automatique de système matériel / logiciel dédié un circuit reprogrammable (FPGA). Pour faciliter la programmation parallèle, l'approche MPSoC proposée est basée sur l’utilisation de Framework « CubeGen » qui permet la génération des différentes solutions envisageables pour réaliser des prototypes dans le domaine du traitement d’image. Ce document décrit une méthode basée sur le concept des squelettes générés en fonction des caractéristiques d'application afin d'exploiter tous les types de parallélisme des algorithmes réels. Un ensemble d’expérimentations utilisant des algorithmes courants permet d’évaluer les performances du flot de conception proposé équivalente à une architecture basé des processeurs hardcore et les solutions traditionnels basé sur cibles ASIC. / Due to the complexity of image processing algorithms and the restrictions imposed by MPSoC designs to reach their full potentials, automatic design methodologies are needed to provide guidance for the programmer to generate efficient parallel programs. In this dissertation, we present a MPSoC-based design methodology solution supporting automatic design space exploration, automatic performance evaluation, as well as automatic hardware/software system generation. To facilitate the parallel programming, the presented MPSoC approach is based on a CubeGen framework that permits the expression of different scenarios for architecture and algorithmic design exploring to reach the desired level of performance, resulting in short time development. The generated design could be implemented in a FPGA technology with an expected improvement in application performance and power consumption. Starting from the application, we have evolved our effective methodology to provide several parameterizable algorithmic skeletons in the face of varying application characteristics to exploit all types of parallelism of the real algorithms. Implementing such applications on our parallel embedded system shows that our advanced methods achieve increased efficiency with respect to the computational and communication requirements. The experimental results demonstrate that the designed multiprocessing architecture can be programmed efficiently and also can have an equivalent performance to a more powerful designs based hard-core processors and better than traditional ASIC solutions which are too slow and too expensive.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the phenomenon of “consumer competition.” The overarching objective is to help researchers and marketing practitioners understand how the phenomenon is created, how consumers experience competition, and to begin to inspect its effects. Consumer competition is defined as the active processes of striving against others for the acquisition of a consumption object. To date, this phenomenon has been under-researched, despite its prevalence in many marketing and consumer-related domains. An extensive literature synthesis provides the foundation for understanding competition and competitiveness in general from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Based on the synthesis of literature and respective theory, this research contends that a scarcity effect contributes to consumer competition. It also contends that competitive situations may be purposely created by retailers, who may or may not understand its benefits and/or consequences to the people involved. This dissertation examines the phenomenon in two manners. First, an exploratory study seeks to enrich our understanding of how consumers experience competition in a retail setting. Employing the grounded theory method, researching participants engaged in a competitive shopping context offers insight into the meaning of competition, the motivation for competing, the experiential components of competing, and the outcome of participating in a competitive shopping situation. Second, an experiment tests the influence of scarcity messages on consumers’ perceptions of a competitive purchase situation and the related purchase interest. The results of the research are multi-faceted. It provides managerial insight into an effect of scarcity not yet examined: perceptions regarding the competitive nature of a purchase situation. This is an important distinction given the influence of perceptions on behavior. It also provides insight to enrich our understanding of how consumers engage in competitive shopping behavior and how they reflect on competitive situations in the retail domain.

Se han desarrollado métodos basados en análisis por inyección en flujo multijeringa (MSFIA) para determinar automáticamente sulfuro en muestras ambientales y aguas residuales, con detección espectrofotométrica previa transformación química del analito (acoplamiento oxidativo del sulfuro con N-N-dimetil-p-fenilendiamina en presencia de Fe(III) para formar azul de metileno).- Sistema MSFIA con difusión gaseosa para aislar el analito de matrices complejas sin ningún pretratamiento manual de la muestra.- Sistema MSFIA con pre-concentración en fase sólida (optrodo de reflectancia difusa sobre disco de membrana) para determinar niveles traza. - Método MSFIA que combina separación y pre-concentración en línea del sulfuro, para ofrecer elevadas selectividad y sensibilidad.- Sistema MSFIA inteligente totalmente automatizado para determinar sulfuro en un amplio rango de concentraciones, capaz de auto-ajustarse sin ninguna intervención del analista.- Estudio comparativo de metodologías en flujo para determinar sulfuro en matrices acuosas. Se discuten críticamente distintas técnicas y sistemas de detección empleados. / Multisyringe flow injection analysis (MSFIA) systems for automatic determination of sulfide in environmental and wastewater samples have been developed exploiting spectrophotometric detection prior derivatization of the analyte (oxidative coupling of sulfide with N-N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine in presence of Fe(III) to form methylene blue).- A MSFIA system was coupled to gas-diffusion separation to achieve the isolation from complex matrices without any pre-treatment batch sample.- An optrode using disk-based solid-phase extraction in a MSFIA set-up is proposed to determine trace levels.- A hyphenated method that combines the separation and pre-concentration is presented reaching high selectivity and sensitivity. - A fully automated smart MSFIA system for sulfide monitoring in a wide concentration range is proposed choosing by itself the best approach to quantify the analyte without the analyst intervention.- A review of flow-based methodologies for sulfide determination in aqueous matrices is presented. The characteristics of automated protocols using several detection systems are discussed.

Studies in recent years have revealed the challenges involved in deploying ERP solutions due to its complexity. Before attempting to implement ERP systems, it is essential to study various aspects such as project management, training, and change management in detail to manage the associated risks. When an ERP project is undertaken with insufficient planning, it may result in failure to integrate business processes and in substantial financial loss. Research has been pursued to identify critical risk/failure factors that may arise during implementation and the measures that should be taken to manage them. However, there is lack of research in identifying the management of critical risk/failure factor using a structured methodology. This raises a question of ‘can a structured methodology identify and manage critical risk/failure factors and support deploying ERP solutions with a better quality?’ A study of Microsoft Sure Step Methodology is performed to identify critical risk/failure factors that frequently occur during ERP implementation. These factors are derived from 8 articles. On determining critical risk/failure factors, we investigated if Sure Step methodology likely contains procedures that approach these factors.

Both the short-term and long-term unemployment rates for older workers in the United States have increased significantly since the 2007 recession. Researchers who examine the impact of involuntary job loss have predominantly focused on the experiences of men. Limited prior research exists on the job loss experiences of women over 50 years of age compared to men. The goal of this study was to address this gap in knowledge by examining the lived experiences of women over 50 who had experienced involuntary job loss, the barriers faced to reemployment, and the ways women overcame the barriers to reemployment. A phenomenological design was employed to gather data from a convenience sample of 10 women in a northeastern metropolitan city. Guided by the frameworks of Bandura and Leana and Feldman, this transcendental approach aimed to capture the lived experiences of the women who incurred involuntary job loss. Data transcribed from audio-taped interviews were manually coded and aligned with the appropriate research question. The findings highlighted the emotions, finances, family and social life of women following job loss. The findings suggest women faced age discrimination, organizational practices, technological challenges, and stereotypical beliefs in their attempts toward reemployment. The results of the study can be used to inform organizational leaders of the need for greater emphasis on programs offering solutions to older female workers seeking reemployment. The study promotes potential positive social change by informing organizational leaders of the experiences of women over 50 who had experienced involuntary job loss.