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abstract: As many as one-third of OEF/OIF soldiers and combat veterans may be struggling with less visible psychological injuries. Military/veteran students may face heightened difficulties as they are not only adjusting to civilian life but also transitioning to college life. University administrators and staff have been charged to address their transitional needs and to promote their academic success. Despite significant influx in enrollment with the passing of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, research on OEF/OIF service members and veterans in higher education remains limited. Utilizing self-report measures, the current study examined the psychosocial functioning of 323 military/veteran students enrolled at Arizona State University who served at least one combat deployment as part of OEF/OIF. The study further investigated whether enlisting for educational benefits and utilizing campus programs/services were associated with more positive academic persistence decisions. Participants were also asked to rate ASU's programming for military/veteran students as well as suggest campus programs/services to promote their academic success. More PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety, and anger/aggression were found to be associated with less cultural congruity and lower perceived social support. Cultural congruity and social support were significant predictors of academic persistence decisions. Participants who reported utilizing more campus programs/services also tended to endorse more positive persistence decisions. No significant differences in persistence decisions were found between participants who enlisted in the military for education benefits and those who enlisted for non-educational reasons. Approximately two-thirds reported utilizing academic advising services and Veteran Benefits and Certifications. Library services, financial aid services, and ASU sporting events were the next most frequently utilized. More than 91% rated ASU's programming satisfactory or better. Over 71% of participants indicated that increasing recognition of their military experience would facilitate their academic success. Nearly 40% recommended a military/veteran student lounge and improvements to VA education benefits counseling. Another 30% recommended that ASU provide professional development for faculty/staff on military/veteran readjustment issues, improve the re-enrollment process following deployment/training, offer a veteran-specific orientation, and establish a department or center for military/veteran programming. Findings are discussed in light of Tinto's interactionist model of college student attrition, and implications for university mental health providers are presented. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Counseling Psychology 2012

Much traditional user interface evaluation is conducted in usability laboratories, where a small number of selected users is directly observed by trained evaluators. However, as the network itself and the remote work setting have become intrinsic parts of usage patterns, evaluators often have limited access to representative users for usability evaluation in the laboratory and the users' work context is difficult or impossible to reproduce in a laboratory setting. These barriers to usability evaluation led to extending the concept of usability evaluation beyond the laboratory, typically using the network itself as a bridge to take interface evaluation to a broad range of users in their natural work settings. The over-arching goal of this work is to develop and evaluate a cost-effective remote usability evaluation method for real-world applications used by real users doing real tasks in real work environments. This thesis reports the development of such a method, and the results of a study to: • investigate feasibility and effectiveness of involving users with to identify and report critical incidents in usage • investigate feasibility and effectiveness of transforming remotely-gathered critical incidents into usability problem descriptions • gain insight into various parameters associated with the method. / Master of Science

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether the post-deployment screening instrument currently utilized to assess active-duty Marines for symptoms of PTSD upon their return from a combat deployment can be solely relied upon to accurately assess for PTSD. Additionally, this study sought to compare the number of Marines who have sought trauma-related mental health treatment based on their answers on the Post-Deployment Health Assessment (PDHA) to the number who have sought trauma-related mental health treatment based on their answers on their PTSD Checklist â?? Military Version (PCL-M). The participants in this study were comprised of a sample of active-duty Marines that had recently returned from a combat deployment. A quantitative secondary data analysis used Item Response Theory (IRT) to examine the answers provided by the participants on both the PDHA and PCL-M. Both instruments proved to be effective when assessing symptoms of PTSD and the participants identified as having symptoms of PTSD were referred for mental health services as required. According to the results, more Marines were identified as having symptoms of PTSD using both assessment instruments (PDHA and PCL-M) compared to those identified using just the PDHA. The result was a better understanding of predictors of Marines who may later develop PTSD. The results of this study can also assist the Marine Corps with its post-deployment screening for symptoms of PTSD which in turn can provide appropriate mental health referrals for Marines if deemed appropriate.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether the post-deployment screening instrument currently utilized to assess active-duty Marines for symptoms of PTSD upon their return from a combat deployment can be solely relied upon to accurately assess for PTSD. Additionally, this study sought to compare the number of Marines who have sought trauma-related mental health treatment based on their answers on the Post-Deployment Health Assessment (PDHA) to the number who have sought trauma-related mental health treatment based on their answers on their PTSD Checklist - Military Version (PCL-M). The participants in this study were comprised of a sample of active-duty Marines that had recently returned from a combat deployment. A quantitative secondary data analysis used Item Response Theory (IRT) to examine the answers provided by the participants on both the PDHA and PCL-M. Both instruments proved to be effective when assessing symptoms of PTSD and the participants identified as having symptoms of PTSD were referred for mental health services as required. According to the results, more Marines were identified as having symptoms of PTSD using both assessment instruments (PDHA and PCL-M) compared to those identified using just the PDHA. The result was a better understanding of predictors of Marines who may later develop PTSD. The results of this study can also assist the Marine Corps with its post-deployment screening for symptoms of PTSD which in turn can provide appropriate mental health referrals for Marines if deemed appropriate.

The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the impact of dynamic message signs (DMS) on the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) toll road network using a Pre and Post-Deployment DMS Survey (henceforth referred to as "pre and post-deployment survey") analysis. DMS are electronic traffic signs used on roadways to give travelers information about travel times, traffic congestion, accidents, disabled vehicles, AMBER alerts, and special events. The particular DMS referred to in this study are large rectangular signs installed over the travel lanes and these are not the portable trailer mount signs. The OOCEA have been working over the past two years to add several fixed DMS on their toll road network. At the time of the pre-deployment survey, only one DMS was installed on the OOCEA toll road network. At the time of the post-deployment survey, a total of 30 DMS were up and running on the OOCEA toll road network. Since most of the travelers on the OOCEA toll roads are from Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties, this study was limited to these counties. This thesis documents the results and comparisons between the pre and post-deployment survey analysis. The instrument used to analyze the travelers' perception of DMS was a survey that utilized computer aided telephone interviews. The pre-deployment survey was conducted during early November of 2006, and the post-deployment survey was conducted during the month of May, 2008. Questions pertaining to the acknowledgement of DMS on the OOCEA toll roads, satisfaction with travel information provided on the network, formatting of the messages, satisfaction with different types of messages, diversion questions (Revealed and Stated preferences), and classification/socioeconomic questions (such as age, education, most traveled toll road, county of residence, and length of residency) were asked to the respondents. The results of both the pre and post-deployment surveys are discussed in this thesis, but it should be noted that the more telling results are those of the post-deployment survey. The results of the post-deployment survey show the complete picture of the impact of DMS on travelers' experience on the OOCEA toll road network. The pre-deployment results are included to show an increase or decrease in certain aspects of travel experience with relation to DMS. The results of the pre-deployment analysis showed that 54.4% of the OOCEA travelers recalled seeing DMS on the network, while a total of 63.93% of the OOCEA travelers recalled seeing DMS during the post-deployment analysis. This showed an increase of almost 10% between the two surveys demonstrating the people are becoming more aware of DMS on the OOCEA toll road network. The respondents commonly agreed that the DMS were helpful for providing information about hazardous conditions, and that the DMS are easy to read. Also, upon further research it was found that between the pre and post-deployment surveys the travelers' satisfaction with special event information provided on DMS and travel time accuracy on DMS increased significantly. With respect to formatting of the DMS, the following methods were preferred by the majority of respondents in both the pre and post-deployment surveys: ● Steady Message as a default DMS message format ● Flashing Message for abnormal traffic information (94% of respondents would like to be notified of abnormal traffic information) ● State road number to show which roadway (for Colonial - SR 50, Semoran - SR 436 and Alafaya - SR 434) ● "I-Drive" is a good abbreviation for International Drive ● If the distance to the international airport is shown on a DMS it thought to be the distance to the airport exit The results from the binary logit model for "satisfaction with travel information provided on OOCEA toll road network" displayed the significant variables that explained the likelihood of the traveler being satisfied. This satisfaction model was based on respondents who showed a prior knowledge of DMS on OOCEA toll roads. With the use of a pooled model (satisfaction model with a total of 1775 responses - 816 from pre-deployment and 959 from post-deployment), it was shown that there was no statistical change between the pre and post-deployment satisfaction based on variables thought to be theoretically relevant. The results from the comparison between the pre and post-deployment satisfaction models showed that many of the coefficients of the variables showed a significant change. Although some of the variables were statistically insignificant in one of the two survey model results: Either the pre or post-deployment model, it was still shown that every variable was significant in at least one of the two models. The coefficient for the variable corresponding to DMS accuracy showed a significantly lower value in the post-deployment model. The coefficient for the variable "DMS was helpful for providing special event information" showed a significantly higher value in the post-deployment model. The final post-deployment diversion model was based on a total of 732 responses who answered that they had experienced congestion in the past 6 months. Based on this final post-deployment diversion model, travelers who had stated that their most frequently traveled toll road was either SR 408 or SR 417 were more likely to divert. Also, travelers who stated that they would divert in the case of abnormal travel times displayed on DMS or stated that a DMS influenced their response to congestion showed a higher likelihood of diversion. These two variables were added between the pre and post-deployment surveys. It is also beneficial to note that travelers who stated they would divert in a fictitious congestion situation of at least 30 minutes of delay were more likely to divert. This shows that they do not contradict themselves in their responses to Revealed Preference and Stated Preference diversion situations. Based on a comparison between pre and post-deployment models containing similar variables, commuters were more likely to stay on the toll road everything else being equal to the base case. Also, it was shown that in the post-deployment model the respondents traveling on SR 408 and SR 417 were more likely to divert, but in the pre-deployment model only the respondents traveling on SR 408 were more likely to divert. This is an expected result since during the pre-deployment survey only one DMS was located on SR 408, and during the post-deployment survey there were DMS located on all toll roads. Also, an interesting result to be noted is that in the post-deployment survey, commuters who paid tolls with E-pass were more likely to stay on the toll road than commuters who paid tolls with cash. The implications for implementation of these results are discussed in this thesis. DMS should be formatted as a flashing message for abnormal traffic situations and the state road number should be used to identify a roadway. DMS messages should pertain to information on roadway hazards when necessary because it was found that travelers find it important to be informed on events that are related to their personal safety. The travel time accuracy on DMS was shown to be significant for traveler information satisfaction because if the travelers observe inaccurate travel times on DMS, they may not trust the validity of future messages. Finally, it is important to meet the travelers' preferences and concerns for DMS.

Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) represent one of the longest wartime deployments in the history of the American military. To date, 1.6 million American military members have deployed. Of these, an estimated 300,000 have returned with a mental health condition, such as depression or PTSD. The Department of Defense has established a robust screening program to identify and track deployment-related physical and psychiatric illnesses. The Post-Deployment Health Reassessment (PDHRA) is a primary tool to identify physical and psychiatric risk following a deployment. The PDHRA is a web-based survey, which is administered between 90-180 days after a deployment. This study seeks to evaluate the psychometric properties and clinical utility of the Post-Deployment Health Reassessment (PDHRA) for accurately identifying truama and depression among Airmen following a deployment. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to address separate research aims. Study aims assessed the impact of deployment on military members and the clinical utility and psychometric properties of the Post-Deployment Health Reassessment. Findings suggest that the Post-Deployment Health Reassessment is a useful triage tool to identify trauma and depression among Airmen following deployment. The study makes recommendations for improving the clinical utility and psychometric properties of the Post-Deployment Health Reassessment (PDHRA). / text