Building changes aid handicapped

Making buildings accessible to the handicapped is helpful to the entire university not just to the disabled, said Joanne Fritsche, director of equal employment opportunity

Scholarly Communication, Author Rights, and GT Library Services

Presented at the Library Faculty Advisory Board meeting on April 17, 2009

The Dynamics of Reforms in the Delivery of Public Services and Management Controls in an Irish Local Authority During a Period of Austerity

The purpose of this study, is to investigate the dynamics of reforms (i.e. why and how) in the delivery of public services and management controls in an Irish local authority, paying particular attention to the role of a newly appointed CEO and austerity measures. The case study method is adopted. Several complementary socio-political theoretical lenses are adopted to give greater emphasis to agency and structure including concepts such as institutional entrepreneurship, institutional contradictions, institutional change, organisational change and power. Such theoretical pluralism illuminates the complex nature of public service reforms in an Irish local authority, as it sought to realise services efficiency targets in times of austerity. This study makes important contributions to research on public service deliveries and management controls. As far as its author is aware, this study is the first of its kind to detail the unfolding journey of reform in the delivery of services and management controls in an Irish local authority that faced the significant challenges of austerity. Hence, for this reason alone the research contributes significantly towards the development of new knowledge in this important area. Furthermore, an in-depth process-oriented account of a purposeful institutional entrepreneur, utilising management accounting information, power and communication, in reforming the delivery of public services and management controls, is provided. Also revealed is how external factors, such as the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent central government funding cuts, enabled rather than constrained, institutional entrepreneurship. In addition, the case findings informed, how in conditions of austerity, the fundamentals of budgetary control became easier to enforce

Butter increases high-density lipoprotein functional capacity: is this compensation for its adverse effect on serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol?

Credencia o curso "Depoimento Especial de Crianças e Adolescentes" compartilhado pela Enfam, promovido pela Escola Judicial do Tribunal de Justiça do Estado de Goiás - Ejug

Selective attentional processes in mild Parkinson's disease and mild Alzheimer's disease

On tasks of visual selective attention, both patients with mild Parkinson's disease (PD) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) show patterns of performance that differ from those observed in healthy controls. Typically in research, selective attention is treated as a unitary concept and altered performance explained in terms of a broad inhibitory deficit, i.e. problems ignoring extraneous stimuli. This thesis sought to clarify whether the performance of these patients reflected mechanisms that impact on different stages of attentional processing. The goal of the series of studies reported was not to compare the performance of patients with PD (n=20 throughout) and AD (n=16 to 20), rather it was to examine within each patient group (and healthy controls) similarities or differences in patterns of performance across tasks. In each study, targets and distractors were presented simultaneously and the characteristics of the distractors and/or their relationship to the target stimuli were manipulated in terms of visual characteristics, location or meaning. The performance of patients with mild PD improved when distractors were semantically related to the target. It was suggested that this was due to a priming mechanism that aided stimulus identification, and so these patients tended to rely on the meaning of items within the visual array. In contrast, the performance of patients with mild AD did not benefit from semantic similarity and was impaired by visual similarity. It was suggested that these patients tended to rely on the visual characteristics of items, and so the distraction from extraneous visual information interfered with stimulus selection. A framework was suggested that articulated how the properties of visual stimuli interact with processing mechanisms that impact on different stages of selective attention. The impairment of different visual attentional processes in patients with mild PD and mild AD could have implications for the cognitive support provided to them.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A Case Study: The Preparedness of Adult Education Students for College-Level Education

Each year adult education programs have served over three million people. Approximately 40% of these students aged 24 years and younger who were economically and educationally disadvantaged have benefited from postsecondary education. Although adult education programs have offered high school diploma (HSD) and General Educational Development (GED) credentials to the adult population including young adults, many of the graduates who enrolled in higher education failed to enter at college-level. Because most non-traditional students left college during their first year, their preparation for college-level education had a dire consequence for not only their success, but that of society as well. The desired results would be an increased educational attainment leading to economic betterment for the area. The primary purpose of the research was specifically to study four technical college students who completed an adult education high school credential program and entered postsecondary education. The research focused on preparation for postsecondary coursework and the students’ perceptions of the link between their demographic background and their performance. This area of study described a qualitative inquiry approach used to identify, describe, and analyze reasons for and barriers to adult education graduates’ postsecondary placement. Data were collected using heuristic interviews on the subjects initially consisting of four adult education graduates selected as completers of adult education at the local center. A panel of colleagues from the field of adult education provided the interview questions for the study. In addition, each member of the panel acted as peer reviewers. A variety of procedures ensured trustworthiness (e.g., triangulation, member checks, audit trail, thick description, and peer reviewers). The study was unable to demonstrate that the adult education program prepared its graduates for college-level education; however, strong evidence suggested that the adult education program motivated its graduates to enter postsecondary education. The subjects of the study became pioneers, that is, the first in their families to enter postsecondary education. One of the issues that emerged from the finding was the fact that the subjects who entered postsecondary education at college-level have continued in the associate degree program; however, the subjects who entered postsecondary through remedial/developmental studies program have withdrawn from the college. Recommendations for future research on this topic were also included in this paper

Impact of knowledge sharing among doctoral students on research self-efficacy

Doctoral programs experience low attrition rates and with keeping this in mind, it is important to address the challenges and barriers preventing students from reaching their academic goals. The purpose of this study is to investigate knowledge sharing behaviors and types of knowledge being shared among doctoral students and whether this process predicts research self-efficacy. The Social Cognitive Theory is used as the framework for this study with a focus on research self-efficacy. The results provide insight on how internal processes (emotion and cognition), environmental influences (research climate), and behaviors can impact knowledge sharing in doctoral programs

Selective attentional processes in mild Parkinson's disease and mild Alzheimer's disease

On tasks of visual selective attention, both patients with mild Parkinson's disease (PD) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) show patterns of performance that differ from those observed in healthy controls. Typically in research, selective attention is treated as a unitary concept and altered performance explained in terms of a broad inhibitory deficit, i.e. problems ignoring extraneous stimuli. This thesis sought to clarify whether the performance of these patients reflected mechanisms that impact on different stages of attentional processing. The goal of the series of studies reported was not to compare the performance of patients with PD (n=20 throughout) and AD (n=16 to 20), rather it was to examine within each patient group (and healthy controls) similarities or differences in patterns of performance across tasks. In each study, targets and distractors were presented simultaneously and the characteristics of the distractors and/or their relationship to the target stimuli were manipulated in terms of visual characteristics, location or meaning. The performance of patients with mild PD improved when distractors were semantically related to the target. It was suggested that this was due to a priming mechanism that aided stimulus identification, and so these patients tended to rely on the meaning of items within the visual array. In contrast, the performance of patients with mild AD did not benefit from semantic similarity and was impaired by visual similarity. It was suggested that these patients tended to rely on the visual characteristics of items, and so the distraction from extraneous visual information interfered with stimulus selection. A framework was suggested that articulated how the properties of visual stimuli interact with processing mechanisms that impact on different stages of selective attention. The impairment of different visual attentional processes in patients with mild PD and mild AD could have implications for the cognitive support provided to them