Though every writing center administrator (WCA) manages a staff, staff management is not widely studied in writing center scholarship. This thesis reports the results of a nationwide survey of WCAs’ preparation for and experiences with staff management in writing centers. The data suggests that many new WCAs feel unprepared for staff management at the beginning of their administrative jobs. The data about WCA staff management beliefs is categorized into four themes: collaboration, empowerment, nurture, and authority. A disparity also seems to exist between the frequency of these themes in the participants’ description of their beliefs and the frequency of the themes in their descriptions of their daily practices. This thesis indicates questions for further research into these findings and discusses why staff management should be of larger interest to the field of Writing Center Studies.

Background: Renacimiento, Mexico in the state of Nuevo Leon is home to approximately 1,000 families who currently experience a host of social, health, and community challenges that span both rural and urban Mexico. The state has committed to initiate the construction of a community health clinic. Methodology: In preparing for the clinic, a needs assessment instrument and associated materials were developed for community members and volunteers to administer to residents within Nuevo Leon. Results: A culturally sensitive survey instrument and associated documents were created with consideration for low-literacy participants and with a wide variety of topics in the areas of individual, women’s, children’s and community health. Conclusions: The creation of this needs assessment survey provide insight to stakeholders in Mexico and abroad who stand to benefit from learning what community residents’ perceive as their greatest needs. The results from the survey will provide the first ever documentation of this unique community’s health status and will demonstrate areas of need within which the community health clinic can focus their efforts.

Recent research has posited that retributiveness is an individual level disposition that can help us understand foreign policy preferences (e.g. Liberman 2006, Liberman 2007, Liberman in press, Stein n.d.). However, previous research is limited in two related respects. First, previous research relies on correlational data, blunting our ability to make clear causal inferences. Also, retributiveness is not made theoretically distinct from general hawkishness. In this paper, I present results from two experiments to refine our understanding of how retributiveness can affect support for use of the military. In the first experiment, I examine how retributiveness affects support for greater military commitment across a number of potential missions. In the second experiment, I examine how retributiveness interacts with different rhetorical justifications for military endeavors (e.g. punishing transgressors versus eliminating a foreign policy threat).

The Shackleford Marijuana Perception Survey is a series survey conducted on criminal justice students at Georgia State University. The current survey design is targeted towards determining perceptions of marijuana related issues at GSU related to the theoretical concepts of Social Learning Theory and the Gateway process of substance use escalation. The currentfindings will include the responses of 163 students in three criminal justice related classes. The major focus of the analysis will be the comparison of the results of the “marijuana knowledge test” section to the likert scale opinion section and the overall positive or negative opinion score for each respondent. It is the goal of this research is to measure and eventually tack changes in the opinions of students taking criminal justice themed classes at GSU as they pertain to marijuana and related issues. This research is called for by the increasing interest by State Legislations, and recently the federal government, in the reform of marijuana laws and policing practices. Understanding this, and other, samples’ level of knowledge and their relative opinions about this topic is needed in order to help formulate effective and efficient policy reform.

The most common computer authentication method is to use alphanumerical usernames and passwords. This method has been shown to have significant drawbacks. For example, users tend to pick passwords that can be easily guessed. On the other hand, if a password is hard to guess, then it is often hard to remember. To address this problem, some researchers have developed authentication methods that use pictures as passwords. In this paper, I conduct a comprehensive survey of the existing graphical password techniques. I classify these techniques into two categories: recognition-based and recall-based approaches. I discuss the strengths and limitations of each method and point out the future research directions in this area. I also developed three new techniques against the common problem exists in the present graphical password techniques. In this thesis, the scheme of each new technique will be proposed; the advantages of each technique will be discussed; and the future work will be anticipated.

Cyberbullying is a problem that has emerged as a byproduct of modern day technologies. This novel form of peer aggression occurs when one or more individuals use a technological medium for the purposes of threatening or harming others. Given that cyberbullying is a relatively new problem in Canada, research remains in its preliminary stages. Previous studies conducted in large urban centers in Alberta and Quebec have suggested that cyberbullying frequently occurs among middle years students. However, the characteristics of cyberbullying among rural students and students from other Canadian provinces are yet to be determined. For these reasons, the purpose of this study was to explore cyberbullying amongst students from rural and urban schools in Saskatchewan. More specifically, this study investigated the following questions:<p>1.To what extent did youth experience cyberbullying? <p>2.What were the characteristics of cyberbullying?<p>3.How did students respond to cyberbullying? <p>4.To what extent did parents and teachers become involved with cyberbullying incidents? <p>Furthermore, how did students think these adults should have responded?<p>To answer these questions, 396 students from a large public school division in central Saskatchewan completed an anonymous paper pencil questionnaire. Among the grades 7 to 9 students sampled, 34.6% admitted they cyber-bullied others and 49.5% said they were victims of cyberbullying. Further, the majority (69.4%) of the students reported that they knew someone who had been cyber-bullied. No significant differences were found between urban and rural students experiences with cyberbullying. However, significant gender differences were found as well as significant correlations between cyberbullying involvement and student grade level, frequency of computer use, school size, and school type. <p>Unfortunately, the majority of cyber-bully victims and bystanders chose not to report the incident to adults. Victims of cyberbullying reported a variety of negative outcomes, especially anger and sadness. Students offered many suggestions for the prevention and intervention of cyberbullying. In particular, students thought teachers should educate their class about cyberbullying and parents should talk to their children about the issue.

This thesis evaluates the Value of Delay (VOD) to commercial vehicle operators due to highway congestions. The VOD for congestion is a fundamental parameter driving the private sectors’ response to public freight projects and policies such as corridor construction and tolling. Factors affecting the commercial VOD include direct operational cost, travel length, travel time variation, inventory holding, and warehouse management. To approach the VOD, two methods are adopted in this thesis. One is the Stated Preference (SP) survey. The other is carrier fleet operational simulation. The simulation framework uses ArcGIS, and C . ArcGIS is used to generate a freight network based on the Houston, TX highway system. A set of customers are randomly generated, each having a random demand for service, which is associated with time windows for delivery and pickup. A heuristic algorithm is proposed to dispatch vehicles for truckload service on a continuous time horizon. The average VOD is then obtained through the ratio between additional operational cost and the delay caused by the congestion. This ratio is assessed in two scenarios: single depot and two cooperating depots. Different tests based on demand size, demand distribution pattern, time window and location of congestion are conducted. Simulation shows a range of VOD from $93.99/hr to $120.89/hr for the case of a central depot and $79.81/hr to $83.81/hr for the case of two depots. In addition, a SP survey is conducted for truckers and carriers in two scenarios. The first scenario assumes a driver running late by 30 minutes on a congested road, while the second scenario assumes an on-time delivery or pickup. Several tolling alternatives are assumed to test the driver’s willingness to pay for using a hypothetical toll road. The data is then regressed with the logit model using maximum likelihood estimation to obtain perspective value of delay. A generic utility function is adopted, which results in a VOD range from $24.72/hr to $64.99/hr. A comparison between the survey and the simulation results shows that drivers perceive a significantly lower VOD than the simulated VOD in freight operation.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (The WIC Program), began in 1974, and has not seen any major changes to its food packages since then. In 2009, the WIC Program began implementing changes that mandated the inclusion of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and low-fat dairy, among other changes. These changes aim to better align the food package benefits of the WIC Program with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005, and the American Academy of Pediatrics Child Feeding Recommendations. The objective of this research was to develop a culturally appropriate original questionnaire for The Texas WIC Program, which aimed to assess the dietary/feeding behaviors of Texas WIC participants both before and after the new WIC food package was implemented. The present study aims to present the methodology of how said survey was developed including pilot study and literature review. A mixed methods, biphasic approach was used to draft, edit and finalize the survey. The first phase consisted of item development, which involved literature review, and expert panel (n= 14) review to refine the instrument prior to piloting. Phase 2 of this research included recruitment of participants, a timed classroom administration of the survey, data collection, analysis and substantive reasoning based on the results of items to be included in the final survey. Quantitative data from survey piloting at two WIC local agency offices was used. Participants (n=54) completed two survey versions during piloting. The final questionnaire included measures of behaviors, attitudes and self-efficacy. Results from piloting showed that the "bubble" survey format had fewer errors and was more easily understood by participants. Incorporating relevant and recent scientific literature as related to survey design within a diverse population with social behavioral theory and mixed methods study design yielded a psychometrically sound instrument that has been used on a large scale and provided relevant data.

Smart Grid technology is likely to be implemented in various magnitudes across utilities in the near future. To accommodate these technologies significant changes will have to be incorporated in building design construction and planning. This research paper attempts to evaluate public utility executives’ plans to adopt smart grid technologies and to assess timing of smart grid impacts on future design and construction practices. Telephone survey was the data collection method used to collect information from executives at cooperative and municipal utilities. The study focuses on small and medium utilities with more than five thousand customers and fewer than one hundred thousand customers. A stratified random sampling approach was applied and sample results for fifty-nine survey responses were used to predict the timing of smart grid implementation and the timing of smart grid impacts on future design and construction practices. Results of this research indicate that design and construction professionals should already be developing knowledge and experience to accommodate smart grid impacts on the built environment.

Past events and present environmental conditions may alter vegetation cover and composition over decadal timescales by exerting persistent effects on modern vegetation patterns and consequently influencing species distribution and abundance. My aim was to reconstruct vegetation and analyze cover during early-European settlement in Brazos County using historical sources, mainly the surveyor’s files from the Original Texas Land Survey. The decoded trees from the surveyor’s notes resulted in 24 witness and bearing tree species being recorded, the most abundant species on the uplands was Post Oak (Quercus stellata) and for bottomlands was Pin Oak (Quercus phellos). Using the distances and directions given in the surveyor’s notes for witness and bearing trees, coordinates were calculated and species classified according to their National Wetland Indicator’ (NWI) status. Indicator kriging was performed to create a continuous vegetation cover of Brazos County by interpolating the point biogeographical data (i.e., witness trees, bearing trees and stake, mound and post locations) that had been spatially located and mapped onto the shapefile. The vegetation map showed 49% of vegetation in the county was covered by grassland during pre-European settlement. Most of these prairie areas were located in the northern portion of the county along the Old San Antonio Road. The bottomland forests covered 15% of Brazos County along the Navasota and Brazos Bottoms. Major expanses of bottomland hardwood occurred in the northwest of the county and at the confluence of the Navasota and Brazos rivers in the south. The Upland Oak Woodlands, mainly dominated by Post Oaks covered 36% of landscape, occurred mainly towards the western and eastern parts of the county and were interspersed with Grasslands. The vegetation map was verified using old photographs, traveler’s accounts and field checking for bottomland hardwoods. This research proves that the OTLS is a valid source for vegetation mapping during Pre-European settlement and for analyzing the tree species present at that time and helps in protecting and conserving our pristine environment at the present time.