Binding Opinions as an Instrument of the Environmental Protection Abstract The thesis deals with binding opinions issued in the field of environment. Its primary objective is to evaluate whether binding opinions fulfil the role of an effective and appropriate instrument of environmental protection in the context of the adopted reform of public building law. In addition to an unnumbered introduction and conclusion, it is divided into four parts. The first part deals with binding opinions from the perspective of general administrative law and their enshrinement in the Administrative Procedure Code. In particular, it focuses on their general definition, the process of issuing and the issues of review in both administrative proceedings and administrative court proceedings. The second part provides a basic definition of the respective authorities, with an emphasis on the regulation of the status of the respective authorities in the field of the environment. It focuses in particular on their institutional setting and powers. It does not fail to introduce several proceedings under various laws in which the respective authorities are involved. At the same time, it presents the main changes in the field of the respective authorities brought about by the reform of public building law. As binding opinions are most...

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There has been limited research completed to identify supports or supporting behaviors that assisted candidates while they were completing the national board certification process. Identifying support factors that assisted national board certified teachers to the successful completion of the process was the primary focus of this study. A qualitative research method was used to interview national board certified teachers, their teaching colleagues, and their administrators. Questions were posed from the interview guides developed for each of the three targeted groups. Information derived from the interviews focused on the perceived supports that lead to the successful attainment of the national board certification. Each interview was audio taped and transcribed verbatim and then systematically coded and analyzed. The thick and rich descriptions provided an opportunity for professionals to identify with the study's participants and therefore established the applicability of the study. The specific findings were organized and clustered around the research questions. Subtopics that emerged from the data analysis process were also addressed as they related to the five researched topics. The information that accumulated prompted the formation of specific recommendations. This study should be of interest to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) as they continue to revisit their set of rigorous standards and the certification process. It should also be of interest to prospective teachers seeking the certification along with their administrators as supporters. The study could also be of interest to school system administrators who seek to promote staff development experiences for their teachers or to those individuals who desire to assist teachers in becoming highly qualified. Prompted by the No Child Left Behind legislation, our nation began to focus on the effects of teacher quality and students' achievement. The national board certification provided by the NBPTS is one means of meeting the criteria set forth to be deemed highly qualified.

The demand for audiobooks is higher than ever--and increasing each year, surpassing the growth rate of electronic books, print books, and the US economy overall. Audiobooks have long been used to aid adolescent and struggling readers; however, recent studies have revealed that the majority of audiences consume audiobooks for the purpose of entertainment and relaxation. Despite this, much of the research available on audiobooks still applies to audiobooks as they are used in education. The purpose of this study was to understand the attitudes, opinions, and beliefs of people who love listening to audiobooks. The study was conducted using Q methodology, a behavioral research approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods in order to measure audience perspectives. The results produced four factors: (a) Busy Bookworms, who listen because they do not have time to sit down and read; (b) Non-Readers, who enjoy audiobooks because they dislike reading physical books; (c) Experience Lovers, who listen so they can be immersed in a world of their own; and (d) Entertainment Seekers, who view audiobooks as a reward to motivate them to accomplish mundane daily tasks. The results of this study also revealed nuanced multitasking behaviors, as well as psychological gratifications for audiobook consumption.

Many policies and programs have relevance to intimate partner violence (IPV), such as no-drop policies, firearm-related policies, mandatory reporting, mandatory arrest, and others. IPV affects persons from a multitude of demographics and statuses. Dating violence has its mark on college campuses. The present research studies both attitudes toward IPV and attitudes toward interventions that pertain to IPV. Attitudes toward IPV have been found to relate to a number of explanatory variables: attributions, socioeconomic status, age, class standing, race/ethnicity, religion/spirituality, attitudes toward gender, violence in the family of origin, and previous IPV histories. Perceptions of IPV interventions have been found to relate to a number of explanatory variables as well: attitudes toward IPV, attributions, race/ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic status, education victim status, sexual orientation, attitudes regarding gender, and political variables. The present research administered a survey to undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida as a means to explore such perceptions.

The dissertation studies the value of both investment banks' services on the whole and fairness opinions specifically, which the banks provide to the acquiring firms. In the first chapter, I examine how investment banks and acquiring firms' governance quality interact to affect shareholders' wealth in corporate mergers and acquisitions. Although the wealth impact of investment banks in mergers and acquisitions is widely studied in the literature, existing studies do not consider the interaction between governance quality and investment banks. I examine how investment banks and governance quality of acquiring firms interact to affect the wealth of acquiring firms' shareholders. I find that acquiring firms with poor governance are more likely to use investment banks in the deal. This association holds even after controlling for deal feature and other characteristics. I find that the use of investment banks per se does not result in a wealth reduction for the acquiring firms' shareholders. However, when the acquiring firm has poor governance, the use of investment bank is associated with extra value loss for the shareholders. The finding suggests that investment banks may help managerial empire building at the expense of shareholders under some circumstances. The study indicates that when studying investment bank's impact it is important to consider the quality of the hiring firms' governance. In the second chapter, I investigate the wealth implications of fairness opinions that the board of an acquiring firm purchases in corporate mergers from investment banks. Using the propensity score matching method to address the self-selection issue, I find that firms undertaking opinioned mergers under-perform firms with non-opinioned matching mergers in short windows around the announcement date. In the long run, the firms with opinioned merger do not perform better than firms with non-opinioned mergers. The acquiring firms perform poorly relative to their performance before the mergers, irrespective of whether their mergers are opinioned. Over a 12-month window after the mergers, the acquiring firms involved in both opinioned and non-opinioned mergers under-perform matching firms that do not make mergers. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the board buys a fairness opinion for its self-protection instead of maximization of shareholder wealth. The implication of this finding is that when investors evaluate mergers, they should focus primarily on deal characteristics, not fairness opinion.

In 1998, a tanker truck overturned on U.S. Route 460 in Tazewell County, Virginia, releasing approximately 5110 L of Octocure 554-revised, a rubber accelerant, into an unnamed tributary approximately 162 m from its confluence with the Clinch River. The spill killed nearly all aquatic life in the river, including three species of federally endangered mussels, for 11 km downstream. The restoration plan developed after the spill included community outreach to complement the physical, on-site restoration effort. Although numerous studies have been made of the aquatic resources in the upper Clinch River, Tazewell County, Virginia, there had been no prior assessment of the local residents' knowledge, attitudes, and opinions about the natural resources in this biodiversity hotspot. I surveyed residents of Tazewell County, Virginia to assess their baseline knowledge about the upper Clinch River watershed, endangered mussels, aquatic conservation, and water quality issues. The survey response rate was 42%. Survey respondents were aware that mussels are present in the Clinch River watershed, but were not aware of their imperiled status or the ecosystem services that mussels perform. On average, respondents expressed stronger moralistic, naturalistic, and ecologistic than negativistic and utilitarian attitude orientations toward endangered freshwater mussels. Respondents considered water quality important and expressed support for mussel restoration. However, respondents indicated that the presence of mussel populations might negatively impact economic development of the county. Local community leaders and conservation educators, when interviewed to explore their opinions on conservation of aquatic resources, placed high value upon the Clinch River's water quality. They also have sought information regarding water quality and the Clinch River from local organizations and agencies and/or have developed a relationship with them as a result of their long-term presence in the community. The majority of respondents believed that human impacts contribute to species decline, but human impacts may not be the primary contributor to such decline. Respondents indicated that governmental and nongovernmental conservation agencies and organizations can assist localities by providing additional funding opportunities, seminars, and training sessions. Tazewell County conservation educators focus broadly on water resources of the county. Conservation educators wised that adults and teenagers displayed greater interest in conservation issues and that local governments were involved more actively in conservation. Overwhelmingly, educators believed that forming and fostering partnerships is the most effective way to inform audiences about conservation. Barriers to conservation education faced by educators include lack of funding, audience apathy, and/or audience negativity. Nearly all respondents indicated that balance between conservation and development currently exists or that achieving such a balance should be a goal of the local government. Survey and interview results were used to develop specific outreach recommendations to generate community support for mussel restoration and aquatic conservation in Tazewell County. Recommendations for the Certus Spill Outreach Plan include: frame mussel outreach messages in a broader aquatic ecosystem context in order to emphasize the human connection to aquatic ecosystems, communicate positive messages about conservation with decision-makers, regularly communicate positive messages about conservation in the local press, and partner with the local school system and agencies that have established positive images in the towns and county. / Master of Science

Social media and online discussion forums have allowed people to hide behind a veil of anonymity, which has made the platforms feel unsafe for people with a different opinion than the majority. Recent research on robots and bots have found that they are a good option when it comes to inducing cooperation or acting as a conversation partner to encourage critical thinking. These robots and bots are based on an algorithm that is able to identify and classify comments, usually into positive and negative comments, left by users. The problem attended to in this thesis is to explore the possibility of creating an algorithm that can classify and pick out a minority opinion with an accuracy of at least 90%. The purpose is to create one of the vital algorithms for a larger project. The goal of this thesis is to provide a functioning algorithm with an accuracy of at least 90% for future implementations. In this thesis, the research approach is quantitative. The results show that it is possible to create an algorithm with the ability to classify and identify comments that also can pick out a minority opinion. Furthermore, the algorithm also achieved an accuracy of at least 90% when it comes to classification of comments, which makes the search for a minority opinion much easier. / Sociala medier och diskussionsforum online har tillåtit människor att gömma sig bakom sin datorskärm och vara anonym. Detta har gjort sociala medier till en osäker plats för människor som inte delar samma åsikt som majoriteten om olika diskussionsämnen. Ny forskning om robotar och sociala botar har funnit att dem är effektiva med att få människor att samarbeta samt att dem är en bra konversationspartner som framkallar mer kritiskt tänkande. Dessa robotar och sociala botar är baserade på en algoritm som kan identifiera och klassificera kommentarer, oftast till positiva eller negativa kommentarer som användare av sociala medier har lämnat. Problemet som avhandlingen försöker lösa är om det är möjligt att skapa en algoritm som kan identifiera och klassificera kommentarer, men även hitta och ta fram en åsikt som inte är en del av majoriteten med en träffsäkerhet på minst 90%. Ändamålet är att skapa en viktig byggsten för ett större forskningsprojekt. Målet med avhandlingen är att skapa en funktionerande algoritm för framtida undersökning som förhoppningsvis kan motarbeta partiskhet i sociala medier. Avhandlingens ståndpunkt är kvantitativ. Resultaten från avhandlingen visar att det är möjligt att skapa en algoritm som kan klassificera samt hitta en åsikt som inte är en del av majoriteten. Dessutom har algoritmen hög noggrannhet när det gäller klassificeringen vilket underlättar sökandet av en åsikt.

Social policy concerns groups. Specifically, social policies have been implemented as a means to affect the well-being of sexual and gender minorities, including areas such as health, employment, violence, and many others. Undergraduate student opinions on such policies are an understudied area of survey research. Possible correlates of support for such policy areas include, but are not limited to, sexual prejudice, attributions, increased contact with the minority group, gender, Para-social contact, and many others. This research administered a 55-item survey to undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida. With a sample of 210 individuals, this study aimed to answer the following research question. Which explanatory variables are most correlated with support for social policies and rights regarding sexual and gender minorities? Dimension reduction techniques were utilized to create three sub-scales that measure the dependent variable: Alternative Relationship Recognitions, Socio-Political and Economic Goals, and Basic Freedoms. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were reported, confirming the internal consistencies of the dimensions. Bivariate correlation analyses revealed a number of variables with consistent relationships to the dependent variable: sexual prejudice, attributions that view homosexuality as something with which an individual is born, support for abortion rights, partisan identification, ideology, religious affiliation, and religious attendance. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models further assessed the nature of the relationships; sexual prejudice was the most correlated with support for social policies and rights pertaining to sexual and gender minorities. Discussions of findings, limitations of this research, directions for future research, and empirical implications are provided accordingly.

Compassionate care, or humanism, should be available to all patients, but the stigma associated with mental illness is a barrier to many people receiving the appropriate care. Views held by Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students can vary from custodial, or the belief in a traditional medical model which involved a highly controlled setting for all mentally ill patients, to humanistic, or viewing the hospital as a therapeutic community for the human needs of a patient. This study examines the views of BSN students before their psychiatric clinical experience through a pretest and post-test survey and analyzes for a shift in opinion following the psychiatric clinical experience. This study’s aim is to identify the effect of exposure to mentally ill patients on BSN students’ opinions of mental illness. A convenience sample of 56 BSN students from the University of Central Florida College of Nursing was used; recruitment happened through an announcement made during the psychiatric mental health lecture. An online survey was distributed before the psychiatric mental health clinical experience, and a post-test survey was done following the conclusion of this clinical experience. Results showed an overall shift toward humanistic views following exposure to mental illness. These results demonstrate the value of the psychiatric mental health clinical experience in developing humanistic views among BSN students. The results of this study complement past research, which has shown that people who have not had experience with mentally ill persons tend to show more negative, custodial views. However, knowledge and experience can shape one’s view in a more humanistic way, opening up nurses to provide compassionate care.