O presente estudo tem por objetivo geral identificar os critérios utilizados na tomada de decisão do orientador em aceitar ou não um candidato a orientando e analisar as possíveis relações dessa decisão com a sua produção acadêmica e a evasão de seus orientados. Para o cumprimento desses objetivos buscou-se identificar e analisar os critérios de seleção de candidatos para os programas de mestrado e de doutorado em um Programa de Pós-Graduação, no caso do Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN, e mais especificamente, procurou-se estudar semelhanças e diferenças desses critérios entre os orientadores; verificar se existe correlação entre os critérios de seleção e as características (perfil) do orientador; identificar o processo de seleção utilizado pelos orientadores e apontar quais as possíveis motivações que levam à evasão segundo a visão desses orientadores. Para responder a tais desafios, como ponto de partida da pesquisa, foi elaborado um modelo conceitual da pesquisa, que serviu de base para a elaboração do roteiro de entrevistas com questões abertas para a identificação dos critérios de seleção utilizados por um grupo pequeno e com um perfil pré-definido de orientadores. Na sequência, a partir das respostas obtidas nas entrevistas, a pesquisa foi ampliada para todos os orientadores do programa de pós-graduação do IPEN mediante a aplicação de uma pesquisa online por meio do aplicativo Google Docs para coleta de dados. Em seguida, esses dados foram analisados e reorganizados segundo um modelo operacional de pesquisa que orientaria a análise através da Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (MEE) com o uso do software SmartPLS, cujo objetivo é identificar a existência ou não de correlação entre os critérios adotados pelos orientadores e sua produção acadêmica e a Evasão dos orientados, para isso nos apoiamos em nossos estudos em: Bazerman e Moore (2010); Hair Jr. et al (2009); Hansmann e Ringle (2004); Martins (1997); Ringle, C.; Silva e Bido (2014); Sousa (2007); Sousa e Yu (2014); Torres (2014); Yu (2011). A metodologia da pesquisa acima descrita pode ser definida como um estudo exploratório que combina aspectos qualitativos e quantitativos. Como conclusão da pesquisa, constatou-se que existem critérios tanto subjetivos como objetivos de escolha dos orientadores, que estão associados à produção acadêmica, esses se apresentam com média intensidade, e que os orientadores que valorizam mais os critérios subjetivos na seleção dos orientandos estão associados a uma maior produção acadêmica do que aqueles que valorizam mais os critérios objetivos. Dentre os critérios subjetivos, destacou-se o critério da disponibilidade enquanto dentre os critérios objetivos destacou-se a experiência. Com relação à evasão não foi possível neste estudo associar os critérios de seleção a esta variável dependente. Os resultados aqui apresentados sugerem que os critérios de escolha por um orientador de Pós-Graduação podem estar associados à produção acadêmica desse orientador. Por outro lado, vale destacar que esses resultados se encontram limitados ao de um Programa de Pós-Graduação. / This study aims to identify the criteria used by advisors in the decision-making on whether to accept a candidate for mentoring in a postgraduate stricto sensu program and examines possible relationships between this decision and their scientific production and mentees evasion. In order to meet these goals one seeks to identify and analyze the selection criteria of candidates for the master\'s and doctorate programs at an institution; in this case, the Energy and Nuclear Research Institute - IPEN. More specifically, one seeks to study similarities and differences between those criteria among the advisors; find out whether there is a correlation between the selection criteria and the advisors characteristics (Profile); identify the selection process used by advisors and point out which are the motivations that lead to evasion according to their point of view. To meet these challenges, as the starting point of the research, a conceptual model was designed in order to form the basis for the preparation of the script for the interviews with open-ended questions as to identify the selection criteria used by a small group of advisors with a predefined profile. From that point, based on the responses obtained in interviews, the survey was expanded to all advisors working in the IPEN Postgraduate program by implementing an online survey using Google Docs app for data collection. These data were then analyzed and reorganized according to an operational model of research that would guide the analysis by structural equation modeling (SEM) by means of the SmartPLS software, in order to identify the presence or absence of correlation between the criteria adopted by the advisors and their academic production and the evasion of their mentees, for that one relied on studies in: Bazerman and Moore (2010); Cohen (1988); Hair Jr. et al (2009); Hansmann and Ringle (2004); Martins (1997); Ringle, C.; Silva and Bido (2014); Sousa (2007); Sousa and Yu (2014); Torres (2014); Yu (2011). The methodology of the research described above can be defined as an exploratory study that combines qualitative and quantitative aspects. As a conclusion of the research, it was found that there are both subjective and objective selection criteria that are linked to academic production and they come up with medium intensity and that advisors who value the subjective criteria in the selection of mentees are associated with a greater academic production than those who value objective criteria. Among the subjective criteria, one highlights the criterion of availability, while among the objective criteria experience stood out. Regarding the evasion, it was not possible, in this study, to connect the selection criteria to this dependent variable. The results presented here suggest that the selection criteria used by a postgraduate advisor may be associated with his academic production. On the other hand, it is worth noting that these results are limited to a single postgraduate program.

Innovative people seize the opportunity to make lives better and more comfortable, which contribute to economy growth and financial gain. Stakeholders study innovativeness of business students, in depth, to understand gender differences, and the factors affecting students' innovativeness. Literature explains how males and females differ in their proneness to guilt and shame. However, a model that explains the dynamic of guilt, shame, and gender on innovativeness will help make policies to improve students' innovativeness. This study describes factor analysis approach to examine the TOSCA-3 subscales guilt, shame, and the DNA instrument of innovativeness. It also describes the measurement invariance across gender for each construct, and for the full measurement model to identify the differences between genders. Moreover, this study examines the total effect of gender on innovativeness, which includes the direct effect, and indirect effect via guilt and shame. The results indicated that guilt is positively associated with innovativeness, and shame and gender are negatively associated with innovativeness. This dissertation can be freely accessed and downloaded from (http://etd.byu.edu/).

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations among Taiwanese elementary school children's effortful control, social relationships and their adjustment at school. Data were gathered on 407 third- to sixth-grade children (81 third graders, 79 fourth graders, 116 fifth graders, and 131 sixth graders) attending three low- to middle-class public elementary schools in Taipei County, Taiwan. Participating children as well as their parents, teachers, and peers provided questionnaire and peer sociometric data. Two main research questions were addressed: a) whether there were direct relations among children's effortful control, social relationships, and adjustment at school; b) whether social relationships mediate the relations between children's effortful control and their adjustment at school. Additionally, two alternative models were tested to evaluate the likelihood of other conceptual considerations. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and examine the direct and meditational relations among the study constructs. As expectation, findings of this study provided illuminating evidence for the direct effects of effortful control on children's adjustment at school. Moreover, the role of teacher-child relationships as a mediator in the pathways from effortful control to children's adjustment at school (i.e., social behavior, school attitudes, and academic adjustment) was strongly supported. Consistent with the hypotheses, the meditational effects of peer relationships were also clearly supported in the pathways from effortful control to social behavior as well as school attitudes. However, inconsistent with the hypothesis, there is no evidence of mediating effect of peer relationships by which effortful control contribute to academic adjustment. Finally, to compare with the alternative models, the hypothesized model was ranked as the best fit model to the given data. In general, the current study suggested that children's self-regulatory capabilities (i.e., effortful control) influence their adjustment at school both directly and indirectly through their relationships with teachers and peers. It contributes to the literature of children's school adjustment by examining the effects of both dispositional self-regulation and social relationships. It is also one of the first studies to examine how teacher-child relationships and peer relationships are linked to multiple aspects of children's adjustment at school. For practical implications, it is critical to provide parents, caregivers, and teachers with specific strategies and techniques to support the development of effortful control. The findings of the study also call for a need to develop preventive interventions or training programs focusing on the development of positive classroom relationships.

This research examines the interrelated biological and cultural factors that determine pathways by which recreational drug use is manifest to addiction in the lives of youth aged 12-18 in Popay[aacute]n, Colombia. It utilizes existing data from mixed methods research conducted between 2004-2005 examining epidemiological risk factors, drug use, perceptions about drugs, and a biological phenomenon of the brain known as incentive salience. Perceptions and experiences related to drugs were gathered using structured methods. MDS and hierarchical plots of drug perceptions are presented in order to demonstrate the power of culture and expectation on perception and choice. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze quantitative health survey data and evolution-based pathways to addiction are mapped. Results confirm the importance of biocultural models in addressing addiction medicine.

Glacial lakes, such as those in the Midwest region of the United States, are ecologically and economically important, and they provide a wide range of ecosystem services, such as habitat for wildlife and fishes, flood control and recreational boating. Glacial lakes often support locally important sport fisheries, such as largemouth bass <i>Micropterus salmoides</i> and bluegill <i>Lepomis macrochirus</i>,<i> </i>which are partially dependent on suitable habitat within lakes. Nearshore vegetation is often removed by lakeshore landowners for perceived aesthetics and boat access, or by area managers as a form of indirect fisheries management and invasive species control. The connection between nearshore vegetation and fish population health, though widely studied is somewhat unclear. In the two research chapters of this thesis we attempted to further understanding of the environmental factors that influence vegetation abundance and distribution, how vegetation abundance and distribution influences fish population abundance and size structure, and how young-of-year (YOY) largemouth bass utilize habitats within the nearshore environment. In the first research chapter, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) and data collected by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to quantify the complexity of relationships among catchment characteristics (e.g., catchment size), lake morphology, water quality, vegetation abundance and distribution, and fish population abundance and size structure. Across multiple lakes, lake productivity was more influential in explaining cross-lake variation of largemouth bass and bluegill proportional stock density (PSD) and largemouth bass catch per unit effort (CPUE) than vegetation. This may be a result of the feedback between phytoplankton production and rooted vegetation production. The models we constructed provide insights into the complexity of environmental variables that influence nearshore vegetation and fish populations. In the second research chapter we used stable isotopes (δ¹³ Carbon, δ¹⁵ Nitrogen, δ¹⁸ Oxygen and δ² Hydrogen) to examine the consistency of habitat use and foraging of YOY largemouth bass within Indiana glacial lakes. We observed spatial variation in stable isotope ratios of YOY largemouth bass between habitat types and sites. Additionally, there were significant, positive relationships between δ¹³C of locally collected potential prey items and δ¹³C of YOY largemouth bass suggesting localized foraging patterns. Later in the summer, as young bass grew in size and likely switched to piscivory, we did not observe similar spatial variation in young bass stable isotopes or spatial relationships between prey and the young bass suggesting more homogeneous foraging patterns. Understanding the habitat use patterns of young bass may allow for more efficient and effective management of the nearshore environment. Overall, a greater consideration for the complexity of relationships between nearshore habitat and fish populations may facilitate more effective management.

Considering 91 countries with seaports, this study conducted an empirical inquiry into the broader economic contribution of seaborne trade, from a port infrastructure quality and logistics performance perspective. Investment in quality improvement of port infrastructure and its contribution to economy are often questioned by politicians, investors and general public. A structural equation model (SEM) is used to provide empirical evidence of significant economic impacts of port infrastructure quality and logistics performance. Furthermore, analysis of a multi-group SEM is performed by dividing countries into developed and developing economy groups. The results reveal that it is vital for developing countries to continuously improve the quality of port infrastructure as it contributes to better logistics performance, leading to higher seaborne trade, yielding higher economic growth. However, this association weakens as the developing countries become richer.

The effectiveness of treatments for degenerative spine conditions, where the primary symptom is back pain, is typically determined using patient-reported quality of life (QoL) measures. However, patients may adjust their internal standards when scoring QoL based on factors other than their health. This response shift phenomenon could confound the interpretation of study data and impact effectiveness conclusions. In the current study, response shift was examined using structural equation modeling (SEM) and previously collected clinical trial data comparing 2 minimally invasive medical devices in lumbar spinal stenosis patients through 1 year postintervention. In subject QoL results, reprioritization shift between 3 months and 12 months that could confound standard analysis was identified. Treatment group did not influence response shift identified at 12 months. SEM provided an effective and practical tool for clinical investigators to assess response shift in available clinical study data. As response shift could lead to invalid conclusions when QoL measures are analyzed, clinical investigators should include response shift assessment in the design of clinical trials. This research into how response shift phenomenon can impact clinical trial results improves the ability of clinical investigators to interpret clinical trial data, potentially preventing erroneous conclusions. This research may also assist researchers and government regulators in the identification and reimbursement of beneficial, cost-effective medical treatments for patients worldwide. For clinical research designers, this study demonstrates a practical application of response shift assessment.

The present study investigates the nature of communicative language ability as manifested in performance on the TOEFL iBT® test, as well as the relationship between this ability with test-takers' study-abroad and learning experiences. The research interest in the nature of language ability is shared by the language testing community, whereas understanding the factors that affect language acquisition has been a focus of attention in the field of second language acquisition (Bachman & Cohen, 1998). This study utilizes a structural equation modeling approach, a hybrid of factor analysis and path analysis, to address issues at the interface between language testing and second language acquisition. The purpose of this study is two-fold. The first has a linguistic focus: to provide empirical evidence to enhance our understanding of the nature of communicative language ability by examining the dimensionality of this construct in both its absolute and relative senses. The second purpose, which has a social and cultural orientation, is to investigate the possible educational, social, and cultural influences on the acquisition of English as a foreign language, and the relationships between test performance and test-taker characteristics. The results revealed that the ability measured by the test was predominantly skill-oriented. The role of the context of language use in defining communicative language ability could not be confirmed due to a lack of empirical evidence. As elicited by the test, this ability was found to have equivalent underlying representations in two groups of test-takers with different context-of-learning experiences. The common belief in the superiority of the study-abroad environment over learning in the home country could not be upheld. Furthermore, both study-abroad and home-country learning were proved to have significant associations with aspects of the language ability, although the results also suggested that variables other than the ones specified in the models may have had an impact on the development of the ability being investigated. From a test validation point of view, the results of this study provide crucial validity evidence regarding the test's internal structure, this structure's generalizability across subgroups of test-takers, as well as its external relationships with relevant test-taker characteristics. Such a validity inquiry contributes to our understanding of what constitutes the test construct, and how this construct interacts with the individual and socio-cultural variables of foreign language learners and test-takers.

Travel demand analysis has traditionally focused on exploring and modeling travel behavior on weekdays. This emphasis on weekday travel behavior analysis was largely motivated by the presence of well-defined peak periods, primarily associated with the journey to and from work. Most travel demand models are based on weekday travel characteristics and purport to estimate traffic volumes for daily or peak weekday conditions. Much of the planning and policy making that occurs in transportation arena in response to weekday travel behavior and forecasts. More recently, there had been a growing interest in exploring, understanding, and quantifying weekend travel characteristics. The ability to do this has been limited due to the non-availability of travel survey data that includes weekend trip information. Most travel surveys collect information about weekday travel behavior and ignore weekend days. However, the 2001 National Household Travel Survey includes a substantial sample that provided detailed trip information for weekend days and therefore this dataset offers a key opportunity to explore in-depth weekend travel characteristics. Weekend travel behavior is expected to be substantially different from the weekday travel behavior for difference in several spatial and temporal constraints. The difference in constraints can also lead to a change in trip chaining patterns on weekdays and weekends. Differences in constraints coupled with socio-economic changes characterized by greater disposable income, time-constrained lives, and greater discretionary activity opportunities point towards the growing role that weekend travel behavior is going to play in transportation planning and policy-making. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of weekend travel behavior using the 2001 NHTS. Differences and similarities between weekday and weekend travel behavior are identified and presented for different urban areas sizes varying according to Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) size. Models of weekend and weekday travel behavior are developed to capture the structural relationship of socio-demographics, activity durations, and travel duration are developed using structural equations modeling approaches to better understand the relationships among these aspects of travel behavior on weekdays and weekends. This report is supposed to act as an updated data guide to the National Cooperative Highway Research Program's (NCHRP) Report 365 titled "Travel Estimation Techniques for Urban Planning" aims at studying the changes in behavioral characteristics between two categories of the day of week - a weekday and a weekend based on personal, household and trip characteristics.

This study employed Monte Carlo simulation to investigate the ability of the growth mixture model (GMM) to correctly identify models based on a "true" two-class pseudo-population from alternative models consisting of "false" one- and three-latent trajectory classes. This ability was assessed in terms of statistical power, defined as the proportion of replications that correctly identified the two-class model as having optimal fit to the data compared to the one-class model, and accuracy, which was defined as the proportion of replications that correctly identified the two-class model over both one- and three-class models. Estimates of power and accuracy were adjusted by empirically derived critical values to reflect nominal Type I error rates of a = .05. Six experimental conditions were examined: (a) standardized between-class differences in growth parameters, (b) percentage of total variance explained by growth parameters, (c) correlation between intercepts and slopes, (d) sample size, (e) number of repeated measures, and (f) planned missingness. Estimates of statistical power and accuracy were related to a measure of the degree of separation and distinction between latent trajectory classes (λ2 ), which approximated a chi-square based noncentrality parameter. Model selection relied on four criteria: (a) the Bayesian information criterion (BIC), (b) the sample-size adjusted BIC (ABIC), (c) the Akaike information criterion (AIC), and (d) the likelihood ratio test (LRT). Results showed that power and accuracy of the GMM to correctly enumerate latent trajectory classes were positively related to greater between-class separation, greater proportion of total variance explained by growth parameters, larger sample sizes, greater numbers of repeated measures, and larger negative correlations between intercepts and slopes; and inversely related to greater proportions of missing data. Results of the Monte Carlo simulations were field tested using specific design and population characteristics from an evaluation of a longitudinal demonstration project. This test compared estimates of power and accuracy generated via Monte Carlo simulation to estimates predicted from a regression of derived λ2 values. Results of this motivating example indicated that knowledge of λ2 can be useful in the two-class case for predicting power and accuracy without extensive Monte Carlo simulations.