Buffalo, New York was once among the wealthiest cities in the United States, today it is one of the poorest, with a poverty rate of 30%. The economic-infrastructural shift following the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway ended the region’s reliance on the Erie Canal, leading to years of economic and population decline. The resulting urban voids left from acres of abandoned worker’s homes, industrial land and commercial strips provide opportunities for an innovative approach to negotiating Buffalo’s urban issues. This thesis proposes the university campus as a pilot project to address settlement and building in this shrinking context by way of a new urban paradigm incorporating ecology, urbanism and architecture.

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De nos jours, les réseaux sociaux numériques sont devenus des outils de communication incontournables. Chaque jour des dizaines de nouveaux réseaux se créent, des chroniques à la radio leurs sont consacrées, sans parler des livres, des émissions télévisuelles ou les articles de presse. Cette ascension rapide de cet outil communicationnel à usages multiples, suscite l‘intérêt de la part d‘acteurs provenant des différentes sphères (publique, politique,…) Dispositif sociotechnique, les RSN de par leur facilité d‘utilisation et de mise en oeuvre, se sont imposés comme un support favorisant l‘échange, le partage (de photos, de vidéos, de liens), l‘interaction et la diffusion d‘informations de tout ordre. Dans sa première, cette thèse fait l‘objet d‘une mise en perspective historique de l‘emploi de la notion du « réseau », « réseau social » et des « réseaux sociaux numériques ». Nous verrons que ces termes révèlent des détours d‘usages à travers le temps. De plus, nous décrivons les réseaux sociaux numériques par rapport à d‘autres possibilités du web 2.0. A partir d‘approches philosophiques et théoriques, la deuxième partie tente la construction d‘un modèle théorique d‘analyse qui prend comme dimension fondamentale l‘homme et la technique. Ensuite l‘analyse du matériel de recherche dans une démarche empirique/descriptive et une approche exploratoire, permet d‘une part, d‘élaborer de nouvelles typologies et catégories de réseaux sociaux numériques, et d‘autre part, de construire des cartographies des différentes controverses qui entourent cet objet communicationnel complexe / Social Networks are in today‘s world an essential tool of communication. Everyday witnesses the birth of tens of new networks, occupying the airwaves with their chronicles, and becoming the subject of books, television programs and press articles. The impulsive rise of this multi-purpose communication tool is winning the attention of actors of different areas of interest (public, political…). As a socio-technical device, the social networks, being user-friendly and easy to implement, established themselves as a means of support, promoting exchange; sharing (of photos, videos, links); interaction and distribution of information of any kind. The first part of this thesis deals, from a historic perspective, with the usage of the notion ―network‖; ―social network‖ and ―social network sites‖. We will accompany the alteration in the usage of these terms, which occurred with time. Also, we will describe the social networks and compare them to other possibilities of web 2.0. Based on philosophical and theoretical approaches, the second part attempts to build a theoretical pattern of analysis, with man and technology being its fundamental dimension. Next to that is the analysis of the research material from an empirical/descriptive and exploratory approach. This allows us, on one hand, to elaborate on new typologies and categories of networks; and on the other, to sketch the cartography of the different controversies surrounding this complex communicational item

Juveniles adjudicated for sexual offenses are often described as homogenous, collectively viewed as inherently dangerous, and subject to specialized legal and clinical interventions. However, empirical studies have identified several typologies suggesting that juveniles adjudicated for sexual offenses are a heterogeneous group with varying degrees of risk and treatment needs. The purpose of this non-experimental between-groups study was to compare family composition, abuse histories, mental health diagnosis, and offense type among a victim age-based typology of juvenile sexual offenders. The theoretical framework that guided this study was developmental-contextual theory. Archival data (N = 105) were collected from Alberta Health Services in Alberta, Canada. Results of chi-square analysis indicated a statistically significant difference among these 2 groups with respect to family composition and offense type. The groups did not differ with respect to abuse histories or mental health diagnosis. Findings may be used to expand the current knowledge base regarding risk factors for youths who offend sexually, to develop preventative programs and treatment programs, to increase community safety, and to reduce the stigma associated with juvenile sexual offending.

This research looks at some of the different methods of validation used in the growing phenomenon citizen science. Citizen science is discussed and a small range of different typologies is used to define it. To find some of the common themes of validation six case studies are performed. The case studies examine the following six citizen science projects: GLOBE at Night, eBird, Citclops, Foldit, Galaxy Zoo and EyeWire. These projects a divided equally in to two types based on previous typological research: data collection projects and analysis projects. All projects are international in scope but differ greatly in actions and so in what type of validation they use. It is showed that some validation is made in comparison to data made by professionals or machine data or some other external source. In two cases the results of the project are self-validating and one case validation is made by experts on data that seems out of the ordinary. A few projects use consensus data i.e. the average of observations or analyses made by the citizen scientists either for validation or as a measure of probable correctness. A short discussion of the results and some suggestions of future research finishes of this research.

This study looks at one hundred cases of siblicide committed across the United States. Cases are analyzed for criminality patterns which are used by the author to determine offender typologies. The goal of this research is to determine why this type of crime is committed, this question is answered by analyzing offenders and the crimes themselves. This research is important because this type of crime dates back to biblical times with the story of Cane and Able, and it has remained a problem within society. Though this type of crime has been investigated in the past it is necessary to reanalyze similar crimes to remain current on data, over time society changes and with it so does the method and rational for crime. By analyzing crimes of this nature and identifying typologies it will begin to paint a picture of why such crimes occur and can assist those who investigate similar crimes today. To conduct this research one hundred cases of siblicide were collected from across the United States in qualitative form. These cases were found online from reputable news sources that reported on them. They were then compiled into a grid and broken down by date, state, ethnicity and age of offenders and victims. The grid also contains data on weapon used, rational for killing, and a description of the crime that occurred. After the cases were collected, the author picked through the details and began to identify patterns within the cases. From these cases typologies can be created based on similar patterns between the cases. Once typologies are made the data is looked at through a theoretical lens using strain theory to determine if stress could potentially be a leading cause in this crime. The data compiled for this research is still being examined and a conclusion has not yet been made, though the author does expect to see a high level of stressors for those who commit this type of crime. This is expected due to the displacement that can occur with the presence of a sibling. It is expected that in a number of cases factors such as conflict, jealousy and financial stress will be the root cause of the violence that occurs. As for cases of younger children involved in cases the author expects to see a high level of accidental shootings paired with parental neglect. In conclusion this research will shed more light on a crime that has been occurring for thousands of years, and will allow one to understand siblicide in a modern context, by discussing why and how it occurs in today’s society. If it is found that stressor are not the predominant cause of this type of crime it would mean that there is a separate issue to address within this type of crime, and this research would help to identify what it is that truly causes siblicide to occur.

Cette dissertation doctorale entend contribuer au renouveau des sciences de l’information et de la communication (SIC) et plus particulièrement de la construction du « public » dans un contexte caractérisé par une remise en question des savoirs théoriques et méthodologiques associée à l’émergence d’internet. Cette problématique est développée en trois temps. Dans un premier temps, nous effectuons une synthèse des constructions du public dans la recherche sur les médias classiques. Les multiples « publics » repérés dans la littérature scientifique en information et communication (infocom) sont organisés à deux niveaux. D’une part, nous distinguons les constructions du public comme « acteur collectif » et comme « acteur assistant ». D’autre part, à un niveau plus fin d’analyse, les concepts de public comme « groupe » et comme « collectivité » permettent de distinguer deux types de public comme « acteur collectif » tandis que les concepts de public comme « récepteur » et comme « coproducteur » renvoient à deux catégories différentes de public comme « acteur assistant ». Dans un deuxième temps, nous examinons plusieurs ajustements des constructions du public apportés (ou à apporter) par la recherche en infocom à propos d’internet. En ce qui concerne la construction du public comme « groupe », celle-ci recouvre désormais une grande variété de groupes dont les processus de communication interne deviennent un objet d’étude à part entière. De plus, la construction comme « public exposé » (une catégorie de public comme « récepteur ») s’articule à la problématique de l’accès aux informations. Enfin, la construction du public comme « coproducteur » voit son champ d’application considérablement élargi. Dans un troisième et dernier temps, nous réalisons une méta-analyse de la construction du public d’internet. Le corpus est composé de 186 articles issus de six revues scientifiques en infocom. Les variables examinées sont : l’origine culturelle des auteurs, l’orientation éditoriale des revues, les thématiques de recherche, les constructions du public, les constructions d’internet et les méthodes de recherche. Les résultats révèlent notamment que les ajustements nécessaires des constructions du public sont peu représentés dans le corpus. Si la construction comme « groupe » est plus fréquente que la construction comme « collectivité », la première est toutefois concentrée dans deux revues et semble peu diversifiée. De plus, le public comme « coproducteur » est rarement étudié alors qu’internet facilite la participation à la production des messages et favorise l’appropriation des contenus. Par ailleurs, la construction du public d’internet est culturellement marquée : les chercheurs européens le construisent plutôt comme « acteur collectif » tandis que les chercheurs américains privilégient la construction comme « acteur assistant ». De plus, les constructions du public ne sont pas associées aux mêmes constructions d’internet : le public comme « acteur collectif » est associé à une construction d’internet comme « medium » tandis que le public comme « acteur assistant » est associé à une construction d’internet comme « support », « média » ou « contenu ». Enfin, les constructions du public d’internet donnent lieu à des méthodes de recherche distinctes, le public comme « acteur collectif » étant articulé aux méthodes qualitatives et le public comme « acteur assistant » aux méthodes quantitatives. / This doctoral thesis aims to contribute to the revival of the information and communication sciences (ICS) whose theoretical and methodological tools are being called into question by the emergence of information and communication technologies. This study focuses on the construction of the “audience” in the age of internet and develops this issue through three chapters. The first chapter synthesizes the constructions of the audience in the research on traditional media. The numerous “audiences” identified in scientific literature from ICS are organized at two levels. On the one hand, we distinguish the audience as “collective actor” from the audience as “attending actor”. On the other hand, and more precisely, the “group” and the “collectivity” are considered two different kinds of audience as “collective actor” while the construction of the audience as “attending actor” is broken up into two constructions: the “receiver” and the “co-producer”. The second chapter discusses (some of) the alterations to the constructions of the audience that ICS have made (or should make) because of the properties of the internet. With regard to the audience as “group”, it covers henceforth a wide range of groups whose internal communication processes become an object of study. Moreover, the construction of the audience as “exposed audience” (a category of audience as “receiver”) is linked up with the issue of information access and the construction of audience as “co-producer” sees its sphere of validity considerably enlarged. The third and last chapter develops a meta-analysis of the construction of the internet audience. The corpus is composed of 186 articles published in six scientific journals from ICS. The variables examined are: the cultural origin of the authors, the editorial influence of the journals, the research subjects, the constructions of the audience, the constructions of internet and the research methods. Among other results, it appears that the “new” constructions of the audience are not much studied in the corpus. The construction as “group” is more frequently encountered than the construction as “collectivity” but is restricted to two journals and is little diversified. Moreover, the audience as “co-producer” is rarely constructed whereas internet facilitates the participation in message production and the appropriation of contents. Furthermore, the construction of the internet audience is a culturally defined process: European researchers rather construct the internet audience as “collective actor” while American researchers tend towards a construction of the internet audience as “attending actor”. Those constructions are associated with different constructions of internet: the audience as “collective actor” is linked up with the construction of internet as “medium” while the audience as “attending actor” is associated with the constructions of internet as “device”, “channel” or “content”. Finally, the constructions of the internet audience are methodologically different: the audience as “collective actor” is studied through qualitative methods while the audience as “attending actor” tends towards quantitative methods.

In this study an empirical investigation is conducted of the factors affecting moral choice, a necessary antecedent to moral behaviour (or action). The theoretical framework has drawn upon Rest's (1983, 1986) model of moral behaviour, with particular interest in the components motivation and moral judgment. The theoretical framework also integrates agency theory, with its emphasis on the individual as a psychological egoist, as a perspective from which to test hypotheses about determinants of moral choice and the motivational typologies arising from moral choice. Such hypothesis testing is undertaken in the setting of the banking and financial services industry in the People's Republic of China.The development and empirical testing of a set of motivational typologies is a major focus of this study. Such a set of typologies effectively replaces the singular concept of the agent as a self-serving individual. It enables the identification of other realist moral predispositions that may strongly influence the choices business operatives make. These predispositions range from altruism to thinly disguised self-interest. An individual's predisposition to be altruistic or to display strongly disguised self-interest has long been recognized in the ethics literature, but these notions have received little attention in agency theory testing. In addition, an attempt was made to incorporate human judgment theory, including Simon's (1992) concept of "bounded rationality", as a basis for decision making as part of the proposed model.This research study has been conducted in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone of the People's Republic of China during the period 1999 to 2001 and has involved a sample of 400 business operatives employed within national state-owned banks, regional commercial banks, insurance companies and securities companies. Use has been made of a modified ++ / experimental design that involves operatives listening to a culturally adapted audiotaped business dilemma (involving an agency problem) and making moral responses that are recorded on an accompanying questionnaire. The latter has been designed to collect data used to construct motivational typologies. In addition, various personal and contextual data have been collected as part of the research agenda. Of particular interest has been the collection of personal data that permits the author to investigate the impact of both Chinese cultural values and the moral judgment ability of the respondents.After considering the literature pertinent to this study, a number of hypotheses have been developed and tested using the instruments referred to above. The results of these tests can be summarized into three parts.The first set of tests has involved the effects of various personal and organizational factors in the agency-based experiment. After confirming the veracity of the standard agency model as a predictor of moral choice, it was then found that differences in age, gender, employment status and religious affiliation act to significantly affect moral choice, whereas differences in business experience, and education level do not affect choice. The investigation has provided clear evidence that female operatives, within the age group of 26-30 years, who occupy clerical positions within the tested institutions, display a significant adversity to risk when making moral choices in situations that involve moral hazard, including the presence of adverse selection criteria.In comparison, the effects of size and type of institution have provided rather mixed results when tested as organizational factors influencing moral choice within an agency framework. A further analysis of the related data, however, points to other variables such as differences in ethical climate type and ++ / cultural orientation being significantly associated with moral choice. There is also some evidence that age acts to influence the extent to which business operatives apply traditional Chinese cultural orientations.The second part of the data analysis has involved the use of appropriate multivariate statistics in order to establish the existence of a mutually exclusive set of motivational typologies (involving concern for self and/or management within an agency context). The pattern of membership across the typologies does not change significantly when agency conditions altered. This outcome provides evidence that, in relation to the field experiment used in this study, respondents have used informational heuristics that are consistent and logically applied.Financial sector operatives, who identify with a particular typology, are found to respond to moral issues in specific ways. For example, altruists hold high moral positions regardless of the agency conditions facing them, while operatives adopting a thinly disguised form of egoism are likely to be less supportive of management. Further, the study demonstrates that operatives, who displayed strongly disguised egoism/enlightened self-interest positions in situations where an agency problem is not excessive, are likely to be replaced by psychological egoists when faced with a significant moral hazard and adverse selection criteria.Again, by applying multivariate statistical analysis, it has been possible to identify those personal and contextual factors that discriminate between the various typologies. Of the personal characteristics, the Chinese cultural value orientations, integration and human heartedness have been identified as relatively strong discriminators of motivational typology group membership regardless of the agency conditions. The role that traditional value orientations play as discriminators of group ++ / membership become even more significant for operatives aged 30 years and older.The discriminating influence of the contextual factors, namely elements of ethical work climate and job satisfaction, has been somewhat less definitive and has tended to depend on the nature of the agency conditions. The ethical work climate perception, instrumentalism is seen to display a significant influence on the way that the job satisfaction variables of pay and conditions, co-workers and work itself discriminate between the motivational typologies. However, these perceptions do not necessarily influence moral choice depending on the typology adopted by the financial operatives.The third part of the analysis has examined the direct influence of various personal and contextual factors on moral choice. A linear multiple regression analysis of data has revealed that certain factors affected moral choice depending on the nature of the agency conditions defined within the experimental design. The value orientation, integration, arises as a major predictor when adverse selection criteria is absent from the field experiment, whereas the contextual variables instrumentalism and employment status emerge when such conditions are present. In this study it appears evident that operatives expressing strong collectivist views are more likely to be supportive of management when agency conditions minimize the degree of personal conflict. Instrumentalism is identified as a widespread condition in the financial sector and influences moral choice when moral hazard, including adverse selection criteria, is present. Employment status, as a workplace demographic is found to be associated with adversity to risk, impelling junior employees to avoid supporting management in situations that might affect their employment or promotion prospects.The widely accepted component of moral behaviour, namely moral ++ / judgment ability, has been thoroughly tested within the terms of the hypotheses developed for this study. The variable did not emerge as a statistically significant factor influencing moral choice and its role as a discriminator of the motivational typologies was limited. However, its application within an oriental setting produced some interesting outcomes, including evidence that all stages of moral development exist amongst the respondents and that levels of principled reasoning (as identified by the standard p-score (Rest, 1983, 1986)) are on average lower than for equivalent tests conducted in western societies.This research study contributes significantly to the body of knowledge about morality of business agents employed in the financial sector and permits investigators to look beyond the simplistic assumptions associated with the classical principal-agency model. The study's originality as contained in the derivation of motivational typologies and the factors discriminating between them, provides a fresh stepping off point for further studies seeking to refine the understanding of moral choice in business organizations. The fact that the study was conducted in a rapidly developing sector of the People's Republic of China provided additional insights into how people in this environment view moral issues and how traditional cultural values impact on their thinking.

Introduction . Perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) are considered a heterogeneous group of men. This has resulted in several attempts to classify IPV perpetrators into subtypes. Although a well-explored topic, the existing IPV typologies are not suitable for the police due to its reliance on clinical information. The present study aimed at constructing a typology of IPV perpetrators, based on information available to the police. Method. Data from 235 risk assessments conducted by police officers in Sweden, using the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment guide: Short Version (SARA:SV), was analyzed through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Results. Three subtypes of IPV perpetrators were identified: the generally violent/antisocial (GV/A) perpetrator, the family only (FO) perpetrator, and the high risk (HR) perpetrator. Also, a fourth subtype emerged reflecting a victim profile, labeled the rational victim (RV). Discussion. Besides validating previously found IPV subtypes, we also identified two subtypes not previously described in the literature. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that clinical information concerning the perpetrator's mental health was not decisive in identifying the perpetrators constituting the highest risk for IPV. Noteworthy, the importance of considering victim vulnerability factors in an IPV risk assessment context was supported by the identification of the RV. However, the proposed typology needs to be validated in subsequent research. Keywords: intimate partner violence, perpetrator typologies, SARA:SV, risk assessment / <p>2013-06-11</p>

The success of tourism, at a destination, is often accredited to the strength of its marketing; yet, the marketing environment is changing at a fast pace where developments in digital technology have had a profound effect on marketing strategies. Furthermore, the increased accessibility of long and short haul travel has resulted in greater competition for tourist visits among destinations. Such changes present a challenge for cold water island destinations with a seasonal tourism product and limited resources for destination marketing. The ability of such destinations to adopt target marketing strategies, using meaningful segmentation criterion, is of great importance for their future success. For cold water islands, it is vital that the promotional message resonates with the target audience, as such, an image segmentation is proposed. Although tourist segmentation is well practiced in tourism research, existing studies focus on socio-demographic or behavioural segmentation. Few studies have conducted image based segmentation, thus, this thesis explores the feasibility of image segmentation in cold water island destinations; using the Isles of Scilly as a case study. In this thesis image segmentation is used to develop a typology of visitors to the Isles of Scilly, and the intrinsic relationships between destination image, motivation, behaviour, evaluation and place attachment are also explored. Due to the difficulties in measuring image, a mixed method approach was adopted and a concurrent triangulation design employed. Quantitative data were collected from 500 ii respondents visiting the Isles of Scilly, by means of a face-to-face questionnaire, and a further 15 in-depth interviews formed the qualitative sample. Quantitative data were analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis and K-means Cluster Analysis, while qualitative data were analysed using Thematic Content Analysis. The findings of this thesis revealed the feasibility of image segmentation, through the creation of a six-fold typology of visitors to the Isles of Scilly. Both theoretical and practical implications were derived from this study. The most significant theoretical contribution of this research is that offered to the understanding of image segmentation, as this is the first study conducted in the context of cold water islands. Theoretical contributions were also made with regard to the intrinsic relationships between destination image and motivation, behaviour, evaluation and place attachment. While findings of this study agreed with those of past research, valuable contributions are also offered. Notably, this study adds to a body of work relating to the relationships between complex image and motivation, on-site behaviour, evaluation and place attachment. Additionally, this study adds to tourism knowledge, where the role of on-site behaviour in the formation of positive image, and the influence of participation in special interest tourism, on the formation of destination image are identified. Furthermore, practical recommendations are provided in relation to marketing of the Isles of Scilly where lucrative image segments are identified. Finally, through the understanding of destination image, this thesis proposes seasonal marketing campaigns and the development of special interest tourism, with a focus on wildlife, in order to successfully promote and develop tourism in the Isles of Scilly.