Beyond internet as tool: A mixed-methods study of online drug discussion

This thesis describes how internet use has shaped drug practices among Australians who engage in the recreational use of psychostimulants and hallucinogens (‘party drugs’) and participate in public internet forums. This thesis uniquely contributes to drugs research by applying theoretical frameworks from internet studies, finding that internet forums enable the consumption and production of drug information, facilitate the production of alternative online places, and are increasingly converged with offline social worlds

Investigating the Relationship between Operations Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction

The importance of efficiency in the service industry has continued to grow with the increase of services in today’s society. As a result, services must maintain efficient operations in order to achieve positive customer satisfaction and retain their customers. The fear of receiving negative customer satisfaction often results in a firm owner’s reluctance to improve efficiency operations because he or she believes it will hurt sales. This thesis provides a background on restaurant operations efficiency and customer satisfaction and discusses a case study used to explore the effect of efficiency on customer satisfaction. The case study consisted of a time study and customer survey based on a scale called SERVQUAL, which is used as a measure of service quality. The wait times collected during the time study were correlated with the customer survey responses in order to determine strong correlations. Four of the five strong correlations related to the tangibles dimension of service quality, which corresponds to the appearance of the restaurant facilities, equipment, and staff. Due to the determined importance of the tangibles dimension, it can be used as a measure for customer satisfaction. A polynomial regression model was then generated based on the strong correlations. The model indicates that shorter order wait times do not negatively affect customer satisfaction much, but rather, longer order wait times more strongly affect customer satisfaction. Therefore based on the regression model, restaurant owners and managers should focus on reducing the customer order wait time because reducing this time results in higher levels of customer satisfaction. Additionally, these results show that restaurants can choose to increase revenue by improving their efficiency without fear of hurting their customer satisfaction

Adapting a Suzuki and Bornoff Method Curriculum in a Beginning Public School Strings Class with a Class of Mixed String Instruments

Perspectives on the combination of the Suzuki Method and the Bornoff Method, and the struggles a string teacher has starting a beginning orchestra program, have emerged as themes through exploration of a small body of existing literature. This study aims to support struggling or first-year string teachers starting a beginning orchestra program in a public-school setting by combining the Suzuki and Bornoff method. Despite a plethora of research that has been written over the Suzuki method and the Bornoff method separately, there is a lack of research on combining the two approaches, particularly within a beginning string class setting. The examination of how the two methods could complement each other is essential because one method supports the other in different technical areas. Also, both methods create a strong curriculum in a public-school orchestra setting. This qualitative research study identifies the strong points of both methods and how each can supplement the other. Views on the combination of the Suzuki Method and the Bornoff Method, as well as the struggles a string teacher has starting a beginning orchestra program, have emerged as themes through exploration of a small body of existing literature. Further, this study and the artifact of two methods could encourage further research by teachers or researchers outside the music field who want to research best practices within a classroom. Such researchers could examine the benefits of memorization and repetitions within a classroom curriculum and teach with what the results should be by the end of the school year. These three concepts are among many strong points of the two teaching methods. The study revealed that the step-by-step process supplied through the Suzuki method establishes a strong foundation for young beginning musicians. Analyzing each step and how it affects beginning musicians creates confidence for a first-year teacher or a novice teacher

The Role of Parents as Formal Math Instructors of Prekindergarten Children

This study was designed to explore the relationship between maternal attitudes about math, mothers\u27 attitudes about their prekindergarten child\u27s math abilities, mother-child math interactions, and prekindergarten children\u27s math achievement. Using a Vygotskian framework, an intervention was developed. An intervention group of 18 mother-child dyads from Hyrum, Utah, area and a comparison group of 17 mother-child dyads from the Weston, Idaho, area were invited to participate in this research project. Measures included the Early Mathematics Concepts (EMC) assessment, the School Readiness Composite (SRC) of the Bracken Basic Concepts Scale-Revised (BBCS-R), My Attitudes Scale (MAS), and My Attitudes About My Child\u27s Abilities Scale (MAAMCAS). Research hypotheses predicted that the intervention group would score higher on the EMC and each of the EMC\u27s four focus areas at the posttest. Results did not support these hypotheses. Research hypotheses also predicted that the intervention group would have a larger difference in MAS and MAAMCAS scores from pretest to posttest and .that MAS and MAAMCAS scores would predict EMC scores. Neither of these hypotheses was supported. The final research hypothesis predicted a relationship between EMC focus area scores and mathrelated subscales of the BBCS- R. The strongest relationship appeared to be between the EMC number focus and the BBCS-R number subscale. The results were interpreted in accordance with current research and possible limitations of the present study

Non-linearities in mark-up on costs

Abstract This study employs an error-correction SETAR model to analyse the non-linearities in the behaviour of the mark-up on costs charged by the filling stations in the New York metropolitan area. While usual price transmission gained significant attention in the literature, the mark-up portion of the price has not been analysed to date. The results indicate that the adjustment to mark-ups to their long run values is non-linear, but the speeds with they adjust to their long-run values are equal across regimes for two out of three series analysed. For one of the series the adjustment is beneficial for the end consumers such that prices fall faster than they rise. The findings are somewhat surprising, indicating that there is no need for government intervention in the NY petroleum market.Rockets and feathers; asymmetry; petroleum; SETAR

Content-based Propagation of User Markings for Interactive Segmentation of Patterned Images

Efficient and easy segmentation of images and volumes is of great practical importance. Segmentation problems that motivate our approach originate from microscopy imaging commonly used in materials science, medicine, and biology. We formulate image segmentation as a probabilistic pixel classification problem, and we apply segmentation as a step towards characterising image content. Our method allows the user to define structures of interest by interactively marking a subset of pixels. Thanks to the real-time feedback, the user can place new markings strategically, depending on the current outcome. The final pixel classification may be obtained from a very modest user input. An important ingredient of our method is a graph that encodes image content. This graph is built in an unsupervised manner during initialisation and is based on clustering of image features. Since we combine a limited amount of user-labelled data with the clustering information obtained from the unlabelled parts of the image, our method fits in the general framework of semi-supervised learning. We demonstrate how this can be a very efficient approach to segmentation through pixel classification.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, PDFLaTe