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Using universal design instruction (UDI) as a framework, this study explores the inclusive teaching practices of four award-winning humanities and social sciences faculty at a large urban Research I university located in the northeastern region of the United States. UDI, a framework used to assist teachers in creating proactively inclusive instructional design, was used as a measure of inclusivity. Using a qualitative case-study approach, the study cross-examined the pedagogy of these faculty and unpacked specific techniques and practices embedded in their pedagogy that aligned with UDI. With each faculty member considered an individual case, structured classroom observations and interviews with target faculty, their colleagues, and student focus groups were conducted. Guided by the UDI framework, a cross-case analysis was then undertaken to determine the extent to which each faculty member met UDI principles. The study yielded descriptive accounts of multidimensional teaching strategies that incorporated universal design instruction. / Urban Education

The goal of this dissertation is to test the agenda-setting theories of John Kingdon and Frank Baumgartner/Bryan Jones in terms of applicability. Universal service policy and the 1996 Telecommunications Act serve as the test case. Case study methodology guides the dissertation and employs a variety of methods including the quantitative and qualitative techniques used by John Kingdon and by Frank Baumgartner/Bryan Jones. These methods involve content analysis and the coding of media articles, an analysis of congressional hearings and government reports, and a review of scholarly literature on topics related to the policy-making in general, and telecommunications policy development, in particular. Universal service was selected for legislative action because it was bound up with telecommunications legislation, which required revision. Although some policy-makers preferred a market solution (that is the elimination of subsidized telecommunication services), universal service remained part of the telecommunications policy revision. Reasons include a new issue definition accompanied by a compelling image (information superhighway), the support of rural senators, and presidential leadership. With regard to fundamental differences between the Kingdon and Baumgartner/Jones' theories Kingdon's premise regarding the impact of cyclical events and systematic indicators has more applicability than Baumgartner and Jones' punctuated equilibria model of policy change. In addition, unlike Kingdon's research results, which indicate the media have a minor role in agenda-setting, Baumgartner and Jones' media attention indicators of policy change demonstrated a similar pattern to the universal service media indicators. The influence of interest groups is another point of difference. The universal case as with Baumgartner and Jones' research results that interest groups were major actors in setting the policy agenda. The contribution of this dissertation is to suggest elements of a new integrated model for the study of agenda-setting that incorporates aspects of the work of Kingdon and Baumgartner/Jones. / Ph. D.

A number of studies have examined how counselor educators can facilitate counselor development of multicultural competence within the context of graduate counseling programs (e.g., Chu-Lien Chao, 2012; Constantine, 2001; Constantine, Juby, and Liang, 2001; Dickson and Jepsen, 2007; Sodowsky et al., 1998). Much less research has focused on counselor development occurring in students' personal lives, yet some evidence has shown that students report the impact of extracurricular experiences on counselor development (Coleman, 2006; Furr and Carroll, 2003; Rønnestad and Skovholt, 2003). Many qualitative studies have demonstrated positive effects of cultural immersion experiences, yet much less research in this area has utilized the quantitative measures related to cultural awareness. Few studies have also examined the effects of living among a different culture instead of visiting a different culture short term. After a thorough review of the literature on cultural immersion experiences, this study was designed to fill the gap that presently exists in quantitative findings exploring differences in multicultural competence and universal-diverse orientation, which is an awareness and accepting attitude for those who come from diverse backgrounds. The sample for the study consisted of students experiencing cultural immersion by means of relocation for their graduate training program. Additional analysis examined how universal-diverse orientation and duration of graduate training predicted multicultural competence scores. The results were not significant showing any differences in either multicultural competence or universal-diverse orientation scores based on cultural immersion. Similarly, no differences were found for either of these variables based on amount of multicultural training either. One finding that was statistically significant was a strong, positive correlation, as well as predictive ability, between universal-diverse orientation and multicultural knowledge and awareness. Implications of the findings could be applicable to clinicians and counselor education programs. By fostering more universal-diverse orientation, counselor educators could work towards increasing multicultural competence as well. This study was found to have some limitations, primarily a small sample size for quantitative analysis. These results do have implications for future research to continue studying multicultural competence, universal-diverse orientation, and cultural immersion. / Doctor of Philosophy / Much research has examined how people who train mental health professionals can facilitate counselor development of multicultural competence, an awareness for cultural differences and an ability to work with people from many cultural backgrounds. Much less research has focused on counselor development occurring in students’ personal lives, yet some evidence has shown that students report the impact of events in their personal lives on counselor development. Many studies have demonstrated positive effects of cultural immersion experiences, in which participants immerse themselves in a different culture for a time period. A few studies have also examined the effects of living among a different culture instead of visiting a different culture short term. After a thorough review of the literature on cultural immersion experiences, this study was designed to research how living among a diverse culture could result in differences in multicultural competence and universal-diverse orientation, which is an awareness and accepting attitude for those who come from diverse backgrounds. The study focused on students who moved to live in a different culture as part of their graduate training program in a counseling related field. The researcher also explored the relationship between universal-diverse orientation and multicultural competence scores. The results were not significant showing any differences in either multicultural competence or universal-diverse orientation scores based on whether or not participants had experienced cultural immersion. Similarly, no differences were found based on amount of multicultural training either. One finding that was significant was a strong relationship between universal-diverse orientation and multicultural knowledge and awareness. Implications of the findings could be applicable to counselors and counselor education programs. By fostering more universal-diverse orientation, counselor educators could work towards increasing multicultural competence as well. This study was found to have some limitations, primarily having few participants take the study’s survey. These results do have implications for future research to continue studying multicultural competence, universal-diverse orientation, and cultural immersion.

In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law. This paper explores the implications of these new healthcare policies in the United States, given that a universal healthcare system has already being put in place. More specifically, it explores the question "Does the new 'universal healthcare' system bring with it obligations for citizens participating within the system to be more conscientious about their health and lifestyle choices? And if so, on what grounds?". I argue that individuals have strong social and moral obligations within a universal healthcare system to take the minimal provisions required for staying healthy (eating healthy, exercising, getting vaccinations, smoking cessation, and attending routine "check-ups" in order to not burden others with easily avoidable healthcare costs. These new obligations are grounded in the duty of fair play stemming from the fact that health insurance is a cooperative scheme. Furthermore this paper will show that when a universal healthcare scheme is in place, the healthcare resources become a 'common good' which is susceptible to a collective action problem known as 'the tragedy of the commons', and thus also give recommendations for its solution. The solutions that I endorse, although designed to address the free-rider problem recognized David Winkler, shows that Winkler's solution goes too far by indiscriminately punishing every unhealthy individual within a universal healthcare system. / Master of Arts

Each year, falls from elevated structures, like scaffolding, kill or seriously injure over a thousand construction workers (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007). To prevent such falls, the development of a robotic system is proposed that can climb and navigate on the complex structures, performing hazardous inspection and maintenance in place of humans. In this work, a serpentine robotic system is developed that will be able to climb pole-like structures, such as scaffolding and trusses, commonly found on work sites. Serpentine robots have been proven to be effective at traversing unstructured terrains and manipulating complex objects. The work presented in this thesis adds a new method of mobility for serpentine robots, specifically those with actuated universal joint structures. Movement is produced by inducing a wobbling motion between adjacent modules through oscillatory motions in the actuated axis of the universal joint. Through the frictional interactions between the modules of the serpentine and the surface of the pole, the wobbling motion lets the serpentine effectively roll up the pole's surface. This work investigates theoretical and experimental results for a serpentine robot climbing a pole structure. It discusses the structure and design parameters of the robot and develops relationships between them. These geometric and performance-based relationships are then used to create a design space that provides a guide for choosing a combination of module dimensions for a desired set of performance parameters. From this, case studies are shown which give examples of how the design space can be used for several different applications. Based on the design space procedure, a serpentine robot, HyDRAS (Hyper-Redundant Discrete Robotic Articulated Serpentine) was designed and built. The robot was used to prove the validity of the design space procedure and to validate the climbing motion algorithms. Several tests were performed with HyDRAS that showed the practicality of the helical rolling motion, as well as the feasibility of serpentine pole climbing. Observations and discussion based on the experiments are given, along with the plans for future work involving pole-climbing serpentine robots. / Master of Science

O crescimento do pentecostalismo no mundo constitui uma das principais mudanças religiosas do Século XX e a América Latina possui um papel importante nessa expansão. Naquela região, houve uma acelerada redução na proporção de católicos e crescimento dos protestantes nas últimas décadas, com forte participação de igrejas pentecostais. Os pentecostais brasileiros diferem dos católicos em várias dimensões em relação às suas atitudes e visões do mundo, sendo no geral religiosamente mais ativos e mais conservadores em questões sociais como aborto, casamento entre pessoas do mesmo sexo, meios contraceptivos artificiais, sexo fora do casamento, divórcio e consumo de álcool; eles também são mais propensos a acreditar que os líderes religiosos devem ter influência na política. Nesta tese, contribuímos para o entendimento da expansão pentecostal no Brasil focando em uma das maiores denominações pentecostais, a Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD). Examinamos, em dois estudos, o impacto de duas estratégias principais de expansão da IURD, cobrindo um ramo ainda pouco explorado na literatura econômica sobre religião e procurando entender como cada uma delas contribuiu para a expansão dessa igreja desde sua fundação. No primeiro estudo, examinamos os impactos das redes de rádio e televisão ligadas à IURD (a Rede Aleluia e Record TV) sobre suas afiliações, explorando uma variação possivelmente exógena na qualidade do sinal daquelas redes devido aos acidentes geográficos entre as antenas transmissora e as áreas receptoras. Com dados da Anatel e modelos técnicos de densidade de sinal, analisamos os efeitos da cobertura das mídias nas áreas de ponderação do Censo Demográfico de 2010 (IBGE). Nossos resultados de benchmark mostram que a Rede Aleluia tem um impacto de cerca de 13% do número médio de afiliações no interior dos estados (fora das capitais e Regiões Metropolitanas), enquanto a Record TV tem um impacto geral de 26%. Esses efeitos são mais fortes para grupos que são descritos na literatura como mais propensos a frequentar a igreja. A robustez dos resultados é verificada com teste de placebo com uma rede de rádio não religiosa. Encontramos evidências de que a competição entre veículos de mídia pode ter um papel importante nos efeitos da mídia religiosa e da existência de complementaridade entre templos e mídias religiosas em áreas rurais. Além disso, encontramos efeito positivo da Rede Aleluia sobre empreendedorismo, impacto negativo da mídia religiosa sobre a fertilidade, o que é consistente com a posição da IURD sobre o aborto e o uso de métodos contraceptivos, e impacto positivo na proporção de votos para o Partido Republicano Brasileiro, com o qual a IURD possui uma forte ligação. No segundo estudo, estimamos o efeito da presença de templos da IURD sobre as afiliações. Exploramos a diferença no tempo de entrada e nos anos de permanência dos templos nos municípios brasileiros entre 1991 e 2010, com uma especificação de diferenças-em-diferenças e dados do CNPJ (Receita Federal) e dos Censos Demográficos (IBGE). A presença de templos da IURD aumenta os adeptos dessa denominação em 15%, comparando com a média da amostra, e esse efeito é devido ao interior dos estados. Nossos resultados também mostram que leva alguns anos para os templos da IURD começarem a ter impacto positivo depois que entram. Testamos a robustez de nossos resultados usando dados de outra fonte, a Relação Anual de Informações Sociais, e com um teste de falsificação no momento da entrada da IURD no município. / The growth of Pentecostalism in the world is one of the major religious changes of the 20th Century and Latin America plays an important role in this expansion. In that region, there has been an accelerated reduction in the proportion of Catholics and a Protestant growth in the last decades, with strong participation of Pentecostal churches. Brazilian Pentecostals differ from Catholics in various dimensions regarding their attitudes and views of the world, being generally more religiously observant and more conservative on social issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, artificial contraceptive methods, sex outside marriage, divorce and alcohol consumption; they are also more likely to believe that religious leaders should have influence in politics. In this thesis, we contribute to the understanding of the Pentecostal expansion in Brazil focusing on one of the largest Pentecostal denominations, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG). We have examined the impact of two major strategies of expansion of the UCKG, covering a branch still little explored in the economic literature on religion and trying to understand how each of them contributed to the expansion of this church since its foundation, in two studies. In the first study, we examined the impacts of the radio and television networks linked to UCKG (Aleluia Network and Record TV) on its affiliations, exploring a possibly exogenous variation in the signal quality of those networks due to geographical accidents between the transmitting antennas and the receiving areas. With data from Anatel and technical models of signal density, we analyzed the effects of media coverage on the weighting areas of the 2010 Demographic Census (IBGE). Our benchmark results show that Aleluia Network has an impact of about 13% of the average number of affiliations on the countryside (outside state capitals and Metropolitan Regions), while Record TV has an overall impact of 26%. These effects are stronger for groups who are described in the literature as more likely to attend church. The robustness of the results is verified with placebo test with a non-religious radio network. We find evidence that competition among media vehicles can play a significant role in the effects of religious media and evidence of complementarity between temples and religious media in rural areas. In addition, we find a positive effect of Aleluia Network on entrepreneurship, a negative impact of religious media on fertility, which is consistent with UCKG\'s position on abortion and the use of contraceptive methods, and a positive impact on the vote share of the Brazilian Republican Party, with which UCKG has a strong connection. In the second study, we estimated the effect of the presence of UCKG temples on affiliations. We explored the difference in time of entry and in the years of residence of UCKG temples in Brazilian municipalities between 1991 and 2010, with a specification of differences-in-differences on CNPJ (Federal Revenue Office) and Demographic Censuses (IBGE) data. The presence of temples of UCKG increases the adepts of this denomination by 15%, compared to the average of the sample, and these effects due to the countryside. Our results also show that it takes a few years for the UCKG temples to start having a positive impact after their entry. We tested the robustness of our results using data from another source, the Annual Social Information Report, and with a falsification test at the time of UCKG\'s entry into the municipality.

Objetivos: Apresentar características do processo migratório de Bolivianos no Município de São Paulo, explorando, num contexto de saúde global, a relação entre os Sistemas de saúde do Brasil e da Bolívia; destacando os respectivos processos históricos, noções de acesso universal e semelhanças que possam vir a ser fundamentais na compreensão da problemática específica da alta incidência de Tuberculosos entre bolivianos residentes na capital do Estado de São Paulo. Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo de abordagem qualitativa e exploratória em que foi realizado um levantamento teórico bibliográfico capaz de apresentar a problemática do tema. Dentre os métodos foi utilizado o descritivo e a pesquisa histórica para caracterizar os processos de implementação e reforma dos sistemas de saúde do Brasil e da Bolívia. Resultados: As fortes correntes migratórias internacionais levam a uma discussão do papel do Estado na garantia dos direitos do migrante, dentre eles, o acesso universal a saúde. Neste trabalho foi possível caracterizar a dinâmica do mundo em constante modificação e ausência de fronteiras no contexto da saúde globalizada. Usando como base o imigrante Boliviano com Tuberculose no Município de São Paulo, analisou-se os Sistemas de Saúde Universal Brasil e Bolívia. Por fim, através deste trabalho foi possível perceber que após o processo migratório há uma combinação de fatores que propiciam o aumento de TB nesta comunidade. / Objective: We attempted to present some of the characteristics of the migratory process of Bolivians in São Paulo. We attempted to observe the relationship between the health systems of Brazil and Bolivia. We observe the historical processes of creation of two health systems; highlight how countries perceive universal access to healthcare. And we highlight the similarities and differences of the two health systems. The purpose is that this will serve to help understand the high incidence of tuberculosis in the Bolivian citizens living in Sao Paulo. Methods: This is a qualitative and exploratory study. This study conducted a bibliographical theoretical research. This served to explore the issue of Bolivians in São Paulo. The main method used was a descriptive and historical research. This allowed the characterization of the processes of implementation and reform of health systems in Bolivia and Brazil. Results: This study shows that international migration flows have resulted in a renewed discussion of the role of the state in ensuring the rights of migrants. This discussion was particularly seen in the problem of universal access to healthcare. In this work it was possible to characterize the dynamics of the ever-changing world. We also observed the lack of geographical boundaries in the context of global health. When looking at the case of Bolivian immigrants with tuberculosis in São Paulo, we analyzed the relevance of the differences between Universal Health Systems in 9 Brazil and Bolivia. Finally, this worked allowed to realize that the migratory process of Bolivians to Sao Paulo consists of a combination of factors that potentiate the increase of tuberculosis in this immigrant community.