The purpose of this study was to examine the development, evaluation, and testing of a technical manual produced by the new United States Army Improved Technical Documentation and Training concept. The concept involved a complete systems analysis of the hardware being considered prior to the actual writing of the manual. The manuals were validated and verified by actual soldiers performing maintenance tasks using only the manuals. A comparison of the new manual with the old manual was Performed using untrained and trained soldiers. Conclusions formulated were that the new manual seemed to be a great improvement over the old manual and may assist in improving the present maintenance system.

Federal legislation enacted in January 1974 created federal agencies to produce a rail plan process for the Northeast United States and to monitor and evaluate the programs. A a result of the federal enactment, many states are producing rail plans. Wisconsin is presently preparing one such plan which included the elements of freight operations. The State also has produced a Manual for State Railroad Planning. Both documents have included railroad abandonment as topic of discussion. The present planning process in the State is not sufficient to determine future courses of action concerning abandonments. A case study is presented to determine whether the future State Rail Plan adequately meets the demands of a planning process for abandonments. A summary of future planning practices of railroad abandonments is also included.

This study was made in attempt to assess company attitudes toward industrial recreation in order to draw conclusions concerning present and future trends in employee recreation. A survey instrument was devised with the aid of a jury of experts to validate and improve upon the questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed through the mail to the one hundred largest manufacturing firms in North Carolina. Personnel managers were asked to answer the survey as to reflect company attitudes and not necessarily thelr own. The questions pertained to areas such as recreational opportunities, amount of participation, utilization of recreational personnel, the availability of facilities and land, future plans, and recreational objectives. Fifty-six companies responded to the surveys and returned the questionnaires to the investigator. The surveys were tabulated and data were accumulated. The survey indicated a trend toward growth in recreational opportunities and programs, but a stabilization in the area of facilities and land provided. Attitudes toward recreation were found to he positive for the most part. However, attitudes towards objectives of employee recreation were generally negative. Recommendations, based upon the analysis of the study, were made in order to allow companies a basis of comparison for the development of their programs. It was suggested, according to the findings of the study, that area in order for companies to remain competitive in the of industrial recreation programs offered, recreational opportunities should be made available to employees, a recreational director or part time director should be hired, and use of volunteers should be increased. Extensive facilities and land were not found to be essential to a competitive program. Continuation or expansion of recreational programs was recommended. An awareness of objectives of employee recreation or a set of goals for the company program is highly recommended for a successful industrial recreation program.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify organizational and administrative trends in university club sports. The general research design was the survey via a questionnaire distributed through the mail. The sample was limited to the 102 colleges and universities with student populations between 10,000 and 17,000 as listed with the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association Directory. The questions were developed under the general topic area headings: Departmental Supervision, Sponsored Clubs, Memberships, Departmental Financing, Budget, Budget Expenditures, Contest Arrangements, Class Excuses, Academic Standards, Locker Space, Office Space, Varsity Status, Legal Liability and Facilities. A total of eighty (78.4%) institutions responded to the survey. The collected data from these institutions revealed that sports clubs were primarily supervised by the Intramural Department; there was an average of eleven clubs per institution with an approximate membership of twenty-four participants; money for the clubs came from a variety of sources; the average budget per club was $1,736.00; arrangement for contests were primarily made by club members, coaches, or advisors; a majority of institutions did not excuse participants from class for contests; a majority of institutions did not require that club members maintain the same academic standards as varsity athletes; locker space was also available for sports clubs in many institutions; office space was too limited to be made available for approximately half of the institutions when clubs needed space; a majority of the institutions did have provisions, at least in some cases, whereby sports clubs could become varsity sports; legal liability for club members were left up to the college or university or to the club members themselves; and sports clubs came after physical education classes, varsity athletics and intramural activities for scheduled facility time.

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes and opinions of circuit court judges in Kentucky concerning the issue of pregnancy and substance abuse. A questionnaire was mailed to all 90 circuit court judges in Kentucky. The questionnaire, consisting of both a Likert scale and open-ended questions, dealt with concerns relating to the criminalization of pregnant substance abusers, fetal rights, state intervention in the case of pregnant substance abusers, and mothers rights. The ages of the judges, as well as their years of experience on the bench, were used to determine their attitudes on these issues. Results showed that older judges and more experienced judges were more likely to favor criminalization of pregnant substance abusers. Younger judges and less experienced judges, however, were less likely to favor criminalization of pregnant substance abusers.

The objective was to identify the leisure preferences of elderly in Bowling Green Nutrition Programs. This objective was to be accomplished through the utilization of a leisure preference test. Since no leisure preference test was found, the study was significant not only for the results obtained but also to evaluate this new test. The test was designed after the format utilized in the Edwards Personal Preference Test. Major categories were selected and each was composed of five leisure opportunity statements. Each category was placed in opposition to every other category four times to comprise the test. A test was then designed consisting of fifty questions. This arrangement of two statements per question yielding an either-or choice resulted in the indication of a preference. Three test sites were used with a total of seventy respondents. Results were analyzed for the total group of respondents and were studied by age, sex, and test site. When analyzed as a group, results indicated that these elderly preferred three leisure categories substantially over the other two. These three preferred categories were trips and excursions, nature and outdoor activities, and social recreation activities. The two least preferred activities were hobbies and clubs, and service activities. With the ease of administration and use, the leisure preference test holds great potential for use in the leisure service field. It provides a sophisticated method of identifying public interest in leisure opportunities and can insure sounder programming to meet public preferences.

The research in this paper seeks to articulate how interest groups can effectively enfranchise the barred felon votes within their state through legislation. After following the history of felony voting laws in the United States, I first address and utilize Florida as a successful case study of felony enfranchisement. The state’s recent legislative victory in 2018 has returned tens of thousands of Floridians to the ballot, and is therefore, a superlative example to emulate in other state battles for felon rights. The paper also looks at the progress of felon voting rights made in Iowa. While Iowa still employs permanent felon disenfranchisement, the state is an integral example to study given that the electorate actually enjoyed felon enfranchisement from 2005-2011, before reverting back to disenfranchisement under executive orders. Iowa’s inability to secure felon voting rights would prove to be very informative on how implementing lasting legislation for felon rights is to be accomplished. The paper also considers the strategic implementation of legislation for felon voting rights through the lens of the venue shopping theory, which “refers to the activities of advocacy groups and policymakers who seek out a decision setting where they can air grievances with current policy and present alternative policy proposals.

I contribute to the literature by providing additional factors that could affect the incremental budgeting theory and punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) within a budgetary context. Because of the fluctuation in the price of natural resources, I argue that dependence on natural resources could lead to less stable budgets than ones not dependent on natural resources. I also argue that democracy is another source that leads to stability in the budget, relative to countries that are not democratic. I theorize that countries with no democracy and heavy dependence on natural resources will have budgets with more volatility than the rest of the countries. Most of the extant literature focuses on countries that are democratic and not dependent on natural resources. My theory expects these to have the most stable budgets. I extend the literature by comparing the Kuwaiti National Budget (dependent on natural resources and not democratic) to the U.S. Federal Budget (democratic and not dependent on natural resources). The results of all tests are consistent with the expectations of the theory that countries with no democracy and heavy dependence on natural resources have less incremental budgets than nations that are democratic and not dependent on natural resources.

This dissertation is a case study of the New Orleans Police Department and identified factors that affected the retention of law enforcement officers post-Hurricane Katrina. The NOPD was chosen because the agency was an extreme case and experienced the unprecedented separation of over 300 officers during and post- Hurricane Katrina. The variables examined included tenure, age, salary, education, and job satisfaction, as well as, race, sex, marital status, and New Orleans residency. This research is significant because in a time of decreasing budgets and increased cost to replace employees, where skills are scarce and knowledge is important, recruitment is costly, and it takes time to fill vacancies, turnover can be problematic (Loquercio, 2006). Hurricane Katrina was an unprecedented catastrophic disaster unlike any event experienced by a local police department. The impact accelerated the attrition of New Orleans Police Department officers at a time when the agency and community needed them the most. In addition to normal retention challenges experienced by law enforcement, post-Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Police Department experienced separation of almost a fourth of its agency post-Hurricane Katrina. This was very problematic and forced the department to operate severely short-staffed at a time when the department was trying to provide essential services to the community and recover from the storm’s affect at the same time. This dissertation explored some of the causes of attrition, examined the attrition of the NOPD pre-and post-Hurricane Katrina, and reasons most officers stayed. It was important to identify lessons learned from an agency and officers who experienced a disaster and unprecedented attrition of officers first hand. The consequences of such significant attrition will take years to overcome, especially in light of the New Orleans Police Department’s pre-and post-Hurricane Katrina recruitment and retention challenges.

Relatively low rates of homicide solvability results in law-abiding citizens being forced to co-exist with known murderers, which is detrimental to a community’s psyche. This condition happens disproportionately in neighborhoods where crime is high, cohesiveness among its members is weak, and the citizen/police relationship is little or non-existent. This research sought to understand this phenomenon by asking,” How can murder solvability rates improve in marginalized communities?” and employing four theoretical lenses. Using the city of New Orleans as a case study and holding Social Disorganization Theory constant, Spiral of Silence, Habitus, and Dramaturgy were utilized in an attempt to understand individuals who witness violent crime but do not come forward. From these theories, nine assumptions were formed, connecting the literature to this specific area of inquiry. Using a mixed methods approach both qualitative and quantitative data was collected within New Orleans from a variety of instruments: a survey (both web-based and in-person), a questionnaire and two deliberative forums. Utilizing the questionnaire and in conjunction with the Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forum Institute (NIFI), this research was also able to quantitatively compare New Orleans data with data collected nationally by NIFI. While the data collected support all nine assumptions, five of the nine account for 82% of the data. Of these five, none originated from the Spiral of Silence theory, two originated from the Habitus theory, and three originated from the Dramaturgy theory.