Monsoons

This study was supported by the Institute for Basic Science (project code IBS-R028-D1). I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of authors, reviewers, and assistant editors for their effort to this special issue

Re-Entry Challenges: Comparison and Contrasts Between Korean and American MKs

Problem Missionary Kids (MKs) have a different experience in the mission fields in terms of culture, language, and social adjustment when compared with their parents. They also face another challenge when they return to their parents’ home country, for they feel out of place and often do not think of their parents’ country as home. The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate the experience of MKs in the mission field, during re-entry, and to research the common elements or differences between Korean MKs and American MKs in their re-entry process. Method The research method used in this Masters thesis consists of the use of library resources, web resources, and a few personal interviews. The Research Questions that will guide this research are: 1. What general information is available concerning Asian and Western missionary children who live at least one year outside of their home culture? 2. What re-entry challenges do Korean and American MKs face? 3. What are the implications for Adventist mission? Results The primary research on Korean MKs and Japanese returnees indicates that their parents, society, and church want them to maintain their ethnic identity regardless of the fact that their enculturation, language acquisition, and worldview development has shaped them in very different ways. On the other hand, research on American MKs is focused on the individual rather than on the in-groups they belong to. These differences between the two groups stem from whether their home culture is collectivistic or individualistic. Similarities among Korean and American MKs include experiencing a cultural clash when returning home, difficulties in making friends, adjusting to new family dynamics, and home cultures. They may struggle with education issues due to different educational systems and increased study loads. They may also struggle with the burden of meeting the high expectations of being MKs as experienced by the sending church and its youth groups. They may consider themselves as strangers in terms of their identity. Differences found between Korean and American MKs are that Korean MKs with a Western background may struggle with returning to a monocultural home culture. They also have issues with mother tongue proficiency, college entrance exams, hierarchical relationships between seniors and juniors, with not disappointing the expectations of their parents and the sending church, and striving to resolve the issue of their ethnic identity. On the other hand, Western MKs with Asian backgrounds may encounter difficulties with Western ways and mindsets when returning to the United States, they may have issues with their accent, with plagiarism, and with American college life, in trying to figure out what they can do to resolve spiritual issues, and their desire to create their own in-group where their diversity and international mindset can be understood and appreciated. Although Korean MKs and American MKs have several things in common in terms of re-entry challenges, each of them has differences as well. Those differences mainly have to do with whether their home culture belongs to collectivism or individualism. Korean MKs encounter unique problems since Korean society requires them to conform to its monocultural norms and rules influenced by some of the Confucian values. But American MKs have issues mostly related to striving for their individual achievements and creating their own in-groups. American culture does not require a standardized way to abide by. It is thus interesting to note that various re-entry challenges of Korean and American MKs have to do with the clash between collectivism and individualism. Conclusion Based on various re-entry challenges of Korean and American MKs, implications for Adventist mission were explored. To better understand and care for Adventist MKs in general and meet the needs of Korean MKs in particular, suggestions were made that included: (1) the need for understanding MKs in the Adventist Church, (2) the need for research on Adventist MKs, (3) the need for MKs to understand TCK concepts, and (4) the need for Korean church leaders to understand MK needs

Acoustic measurements of cohesive sediment transport: Suspension to consolidation

This dissertation aims at utilizing the acoustic approach to measure cohesive sediment behaviors including (1) suspension, (2) settling, (3) deposition and (4) consolidation. The first two processes were attempted to interpret by means of backscattered signal analysis, while the last two processes were done by echo signal analysis. The acoustic instruments used in this study include Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV), Pulse Coherent Acoustic Doppler Profiler (PC-ADP) and Micro-Chirp system. Used sediments are pure kaolinite and in-situ sediments collected from Mai Po and Clay Bank. 5-MHz ADV was used to estimate the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and settling velocity (ws). For a limited range of SSC, the time-averaged backscatter wave strength can be well correlated with the SSC. Backscattered signals would be sometimes too noisy due to high amplification ratio, high sampling rate and small sampling volume, and thus, a moving average was used to yield the instantaneous changes of SSC. The measurement of ws with Clay Bank sediment showed that turbulence can increase ws, up to one order larger than that for calm water. When turbulence is stronger than a limit, however, it contributes to the decrease in ws. For the measurement of SSC profile, the performance of 1.5 MHz PC-ADP was evaluated. Clay Bank sediment showed a higher correlation coefficient between range-corrected volume scattering (SSC) and backscattered signal within a limited SSC range (ca. \u3c 10 g/L). On the other hand, kaolinite showed a much smaller range of SSC for linear correlation. This different response might be attributed to the fact that the acoustic response is primarily controlled by the SSC and particle size in suspension at a given frequency. This study suggests that PC-ADP is a potential instrument to reveal the high-resolution (about 1.6 cm) SSC profiles near the bed, if the sediment is sufficiently large. Annular flume experiments with Mai Po sediment were conducted to address a debatable issue regarding the critical shear stress for deposition (tau cd). The direct observation from the flume bottom suggests that tau cd does exist, and that the deposition only occurs when the local bed shear stress (taub) is less than taucd. The changes of deposit length and SSC under the simulated tidal cycles demonstrate that deposition can happen only at tidal decelerating phases with a recognizable tau cd. This study further proves that both taub (a hydrodynamic parameter) and taucd (a sediment parameter) are the main controlling parameters for determining cohesive sediment deposition. A non-intrusive acoustic technique and a signal-processing protocol were developed to estimate the bulk density at consolidating sediment interface. Using high-frequency (300-700 KHz) Chirp acoustic waves, laboratory measurements were carried out in a consolidation tank filled with clay-water mixtures. Because the acoustic echo strength is proportional to the difference in acoustic impedance, and the sound speed in water is close to that in clay, the approximation of bulk density could be successfully presented. The acoustic wave reflectivity increased with increasing the bulk density at the water-sediment interface, which are well correlated with the consolidation status

THREE ESSAYS ON RURAL EDUCATION: DESCRIPTIVE STUDIES FOCUSED ON FEDERAL RURAL DEFINITIONS AND POLICY CHANGES

Rural education issues in K-12 public schools are understudied despite a large rural student population in the U.S. This dissertation studies how different federal definitions of rural change how rural school districts and their diverse communities are portrayed, in comparison to their non-rural counterparts. This study also explores the recent federal rural policy changes on rural district revenue and student academic outcomes. This dissertation consists of three descriptive essays. The first chapter shows how we choose to define ‘rural’ changes what differences are accentuated between rural and non-rural districts. Definitions of ‘rural’ is closely related to who gains access to federal rural financial assistance. I find that both rural and non-rural school districts show differences in their district characteristics and level of district revenue when two different federal rural definitions are applied to define which districts belong to ‘rural’. The second chapter investigates a federal rural financial assistance initiative, the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) and its recent policy changes on funding eligibility requirements. I find new rural federal funding policy changes increased the number of poor rural districts receiving the funding. The new policy change also allowed rural districts to make more independent financial decisions by choosing their preferred program to receive the rural funding when they are qualified for both Rural Low-Income School Program (RLIS) and Small, Rural School Achievement Program (SRSA). The third chapter explores the relationship between current rural policy changes and student achievement gaps between rural and non-rural school districts, and within rural districts. I look at the historical student achievement gap trends and find the interesting patterns that existed before and after the REAP policy changes. Rural school districts receiving additional funding from REAP program are observed to have increases in student test scores, especially for rural districts with high fractions of minority and poverty-status students

Beneficiary Foci Types and Performance Appeals in Green Advertising

In green advertising, the message focus is often associated with one of two benefits: the self-benefit focus and the other-benefit focus. However, determining which of the two benefit foci is more effective in generating positive consumer responses is still debatable. To explain the complexity of the mixed findings, we have explored advertising appeals that influence the perception of the environmental performance of the product, or green performance perception. Specifically, we have examined the self- and other-benefit types with three performance-based appeals (before, after, and before–after appeals) in relation to perceived green performance and brand attitudes. A 2 × 3 ANOVA of perceived green performance with data from 390 participants reveals a significant two-way interaction. Results from comparing the three types of performance-based appeals indicate that, regardless of the beneficiary foci type, the before–after appeal works best in generating greater perceived green performance, which, in turn, leads to positive brand attitudes. When promoting the green benefit of others, we recommend using before-appeals to enhance a product’s green performance perceptions and after-appeals for self-benefit-focused advertisements; if not, before–after appeals are used

Green Advertising Using Sick-, Well-, and Healed-Appeals

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of sick, well, and healed appeals while examining the interaction effect of the saliency of environmental issues in the fashion industry on consumer responses. A 3 x 2 experimental study was conducted with the appeals (sick vs. well vs. healed appeals) and the salience for environmental issues in fashion (low vs. high) as independents and positive and negative anticipated emotions as mediators, leading to purchase intentions. A total of 195 usable responses were collected through MTurk. While all appeals worked well with consumers with high saliency through anticipated positive emotions, a sick appeal was not effective regardless of the consumer’s position on the saliency of environmental issues in the fashion industry. The findings suggest that markers should convince consumers in a positive manner and promote positive emotions that consumers will have from buying their environmentally sustainable fashion products

Can I Touch the Clothes on the Screen? The Touch Effect in Online Shopping

We examined the interplay effects of device types (touch vs. non-touch) and the tactile sensitivity (fur vs. woven) on the product attitudes mediated by the mental simulation for touch. The participants from MTurk were randomly assigned to one of two tactile conditions. Responses from those who used tablets (n=83, touch device) and laptops (n=96, non-touch device) were included in the analysis. The main effects of device types and tactile-sensitivity on the mental simulation for touch were significant. The interaction effect of device types and tactile sensitivity was also significant. Those participants seeing the less tactile-sensitive product showed greater mental simulation for touch when using a touch device (vs. non-touch device). However, those participants seeing the high tactile-sensitive product showed similar mental simulations for touch regardless of the device types. This indicates that using a touch device can strengthen the mental simulation for touch of a non-haptic centric product

The Relationship Between Self-Sexualization and Sexually Objectified Experience

Will women who use their sexuality as a source of power, empowering themselves through self-sexualization, experience negative consequences resulting from sexually objectifying experiences? This study explored the relationship between self-sexualization and sexually objectifying experiences, which leads to body shame, with age as a moderator. An online questionnaire was created to measure the four variables (self-empowering sexualization, general self-sexualization, sexually objectified experiences; body shame). A total of 308 female respondents participated through MTurk, and the data were analyzed with SEM. The findings showed that not all self-sexualizing women experienced a negative consequence from sexually objectified experiences; the use of self-sexualization for power was not related to negative consequences. However, young women were at greater risk from self-sexualization because regardless of differences in self-sexualization, self-sexualization can not only lead to more sexual objectification but also directly lead to a feeling of body shame even in the absence of sexual objectification

Performance Appeals, Environmental Knowledge, and Emotions for Green Advertising

This study aims to investigate the effect of the green performance appeals in an advertisement on purchase intentions, which are mediated by anticipated positive emotions (i.e., happiness and hope). This study also explores that the mediation model is moderated by individuals’ environmental knowledge. Three experimental conditions were utilized in which three types of green performance appeals (before, after, before–after appeal) were presented in the advertisement of a mock denim brand. Web-based online survey data (N = 201; Amazon MTurk) were analyzed by using ANOVA and PROCESS procedure using SPSS 23.0. The results of this study indicated that when the green-message of fashion products used after-use and before-after appeals, the effect of the green-message can increase individuals’ anticipated happiness and hope, leading to purchase intentions. This strategy of message-appeals especially works for people with low environmental knowledge

Which Osteotomy for Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head and Which Patient for the Osteotomy?

Transtrochanteric curved varus osteotomy (TCVO) and transtrochanteric rotational osteotomy (TRO) are joint-preserving procedures for osteonecrosis of the femoral head. The purpose of this review is to provide up-to-date guidelines for the osteotomies. One retrospective comparison revealed that TCVO has shorter operation time, less bleeding, lower incidence of osteophyte formation, and lower rate of secondary collapse. To obtain successful results of the osteotomy, the patient should be younger than 40 years and should have a body mass index of less than 24 kg/m2. The osteotomy should be performed in early stages of femoral head osteonecrosis before marked collapse of the femoral head. The patient should have a medium-size lesion and an enough viable bone to restore the intact articular surface and subchondral bone in the weight-bearing area