Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

College Campus Sexual Assault and Retention Rates

Increased media attention on college crime, specifically sexual assault, has led to greater prioritization of campus safety when deciding whether to continue attending a college. This, coupled with society’s view of a four-year college education as a necessity to succeed in the labor market, creates a potential tradeoff between safety on campus and future employment success. To analyze such tradeoff, I use data from the US Department of Education from 2014 to 2017 to examine whether college campus sexual assault at four-year American institutions impacts retention rates. Such results have implications for college policies to combat sexual assault on campus not only to keep students safe, but to prevent students from transferring or dropping out which could curb institutional money flow. Using an OLS model that addresses typical difficulties associated with time series work, I find that college campus sexual assault decreases retention rates at a statistically significant level, implying that college students value their safety at school more than any potential change in their future job market success due to transferring or dropping out

Cohesion, commonality and creativity: youth work across borders

No abstract available

Campus Community Readiness to Engage Measure: Its Utility for Campus Violence Prevention Initiatives—Preliminary Psychometrics

The researchers present preliminary psychometric information on a recently developed measure—the Campus Community Readiness to Engage Measure (CCREM)—which was developed as a tool for campuses to determine their readiness to address sexual assault (SA) and relationship abuse (RA). Participants were 353 community leaders and administrators at 131 colleges and universities across New England. Factor analytic results demonstrated that the CCREM had three factors for both SA and RA: denial (the campus community is unwilling to acknowledge that SA and RA are issues for the community), initiation (the campus community is beginning to create efforts to address SA and RA and some community members are involved), and sustainability (the campus has high levels of engagement from community members and longstanding efforts to address SA and RA). Whereas there was fair to moderate agreement among raters within the same community on the sustainability and initiation subscales, there was poor to fair agreement among raters within the same community on the denial subscale. Although additional measurement development research is needed, preliminary data suggest that the CCREM may be useful to campus communities in helping to initiate prevention initiatives and implement services related to SA and RA

An Evaluation of a Peer Led Bystander Intervention Program to Reduce Sexual Assault Violence Among College Students

It has been reported that sexual victimization among college women is three times higher than the general population. Because of these alarming rates, sexual violence prevention has become a main concern on college campuses. Sexual violence prevention programs have been implemented and evaluated throughout the years in order to decrease the incidence of sexual violence, but very few have explored the bystander intervention component. The current study developed and evaluated a program that promoted proSocial bystander behavior through a one-time educational program utilizing peer educators. Data for this study were collected with a pre/posttest design from a Division 1 university in the Southern United States. Program participants were assessed in three areas: bystander efficacy, willingness to engage in bystander behaviors, and readiness to change with regard to sexual assault. Findings indicate that the developed program was effective in increasing scores from pretest to posttest and also maintaining retention rates for at least one month. In line with previous research, score differences among student athletes and non-athletes, Greek students and non-Greek students, and males and females were also examined and showed no significant differences between the subgroups. The hope of this research is to guide sexual assault programming to include a bystander intervention component while utilizing peer educators to decrease sexual assault victimization

Peacebuilding Strategies in Conflict Societies Through Art Education: Cyprus

The purpose of this study is to include the evaluation of teacher opinions concerning the acquisition of peace culture by students through art education  programs applied in Northern and Southern Cyprus. The study is patterned according to qualitative research method and is performed with focus group interview. The research included 10 secondary school (K12) 7th grade visual arts course teachers in total form both Northern Cypriot Turkish community (n=5) and Southern Cypriot Greek community (n=5). In the study, semi-structured interview form was used in obtaining the opinions of teachers. Teachers stated that they believed that acquisition of peace culture awareness by students through art education  which would result in individual and social peace. They also displayed that families had a very important role to play in the popularization of peace culture through art education and that school administration and ministries were determinant in this respect. In addition, teachers added that in both communities education institutions did not play their part adequately in the popularization of peace culture in education

Peacebuilding Strategies in Conflict Societies Through Art Education: Cyprus

The purpose of this study is to include the evaluation of teacher opinions concerning the acquisition of peace culture by students through art education  programs applied in Northern and Southern Cyprus. The study is patterned according to qualitative research method and is performed with focus group interview. The research included 10 secondary school (K12) 7th grade visual arts course teachers in total form both Northern Cypriot Turkish community (n=5) and Southern Cypriot Greek community (n=5). In the study, semi-structured interview form was used in obtaining the opinions of teachers. Teachers stated that they believed that acquisition of peace culture awareness by students through art education  which would result in individual and social peace. They also displayed that families had a very important role to play in the popularization of peace culture through art education and that school administration and ministries were determinant in this respect. In addition, teachers added that in both communities education institutions did not play their part adequately in the popularization of peace culture in education

The initial stage of the international sojourn: excitement or culture shock?

This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of the adjustment journey of international postgraduate students at a university in the South of England, which involved interviews and participant observation over a twelve-month academic year. It was discovered that the initial stage of the sojourn was not characterized by feelings of excitement, as suggested by the U-Curve model (and its successors): though such feelings were present, they were overwhelmed by negative symptoms more commonly associated with culture shock. The implications of these findings for support structures in Higher Education are discussed

Is Rowan University\u27s Alcohol and Other Drugs Policy effective at deterring students from possessing or using drugs and drug paraphernalia?

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate Rowan University\u27s current Alcohol and Other Drugs Policy. Two surveys were distributed; one via email to all current Rowan University students and the other via email to all students found in violation of the drug policy between 2005 and 2011. Three hypotheses were examined. The first was that students generally do not know about the policy and its possible sanctions. The second hypothesis was that the potential sanctions of the drug policy do not deter the general student population. The third hypothesis was that the imposed sanctions help to prevent recidivism among offenders. Results showed that the first hypothesis was false; the general student body is aware of Rowan\u27s drug policy and its possible sanctions. The second hypothesis was not necessarily true or false; it was undetermined if the potential sanctions of the drug policy deterred the general student population. After surveying drug policy violators, the third hypothesis was also found to be false; the imposed sanctions of Rowan\u27s drug policy did not help to prevent recidivism among offenders. Recommendations for policy change and future research were given