The Perception of CEOs and CIOs in Regard to Planning and Information Systems Success in Higher Education in the Southeastern United States

As information systems become an ever-increasing part of the educational infrastructure, their successful implementation and operation become paramount and strategic. It appears that information systems have not been utilized in a paramount or strategic fashion by education, especially in organizations of higher education. The intent of this research was to identify the perceptions of the presidents/chief executive officers (CEOs) and the senior information systems executive\u27chief information officers (CIOs) in not-for-profit institutions of higher education, accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and whose highest conferred degree is a master\u27s degree or higher. The study reviewed certain institutional and respondent demographics. The perceptions queried related to four categories: (a) institutional strategic planning, (b) information systems planning, (c) information systems success, and (d) critical effect of information systems on the institution\u27s operation. All data collected were self-reported by the CEOs and CIOs of the surveyed institutions. A total of 316 not-for-profit higher education institutions were sent a package requesting that a survey be completed by the CEO and the CIO of the respective institution. The mailing comprised the entire population of the study. Response was permitted by mail and web. Usable responses were received from seventy-five institutions; the respondents included forty-nine CEOs and fifty-two CIOs for a total of one hundred one individual responses. The major findings of this study may be summarized. Perceptions of CEOs and CIOs in regard to planning and information systems success are the same in terms of most of the variables of the study. The perceptions which differed were only in a matter of degree. There were no occasions where the perceptions of the CEOs and CIOs were on opposite ends of the continuum. Demographics have little to do with the perceptions of CEOs and CIOs in regard to planning and information systems success. The criteria for judging the success of the information systems function may be categorized into (a) user satisfaction, (b) meeting goals and objectives, and (c) system reliability

Nec(Romantic)

NEC(ROMANTIC) is a poetry collection thematically linked through images of insects, celestial bodies, bones, and other elements of the supernatural. These images are indicative of spells, but the parenthesis around romantic in the collection’s title also implies idealism. The poems explore the author’s experiences with death, grief, love, oppression, and addiction. NEC(ROMANTIC) employs the use of traditional forms such as the villanelle, sestina, and haiku to organize these experiences. Prose poetry and a peca kucha ground the center of NEC(ROMANTIC) which alternates between lyrical and narrative gestures. NEC(ROMANTIC) is influenced by Sylvia Plath. The author uses Plath’s methods of compression, sound, and rhythm to create a swift, child-like tone when examining emotionally laden topics. Ilya Kaminsky influences lyrical elements of the poems, including surrealism. Spencer Reese’s combination of the natural and personal world is also paramount to this book. Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde influence NEC(ROMANTIC)’s political poetry

Long-Term Effects of Bullying: Exploring the Relationships among Recalled Experiences with Bullying, Current Coping Resources, and Reported Symptoms of Distress

Retrospective studies of college students who recall experiencing bullying during childhood and/or adolescence have found that being the target of bullying may place one at greater risk for depression (Roth, Coles, & Heimburg, 2002; Storch et al., 2001), anxiety disorders (McCabe, et al., 2003; Roth et al.) and interpersonal relationships (Schafer et al., 2004) in comparison to peers who do not recall a history of bullying during childhood or adolescence. However, researchers have found that not all targets of bullying develop such problems in adulthood (Schafer et al., 2004; Dempsey & Storch, 2008). Little attention has been devoted to understanding resiliency among adults who experienced bullying during childhood and/or adolescence (Davidson & Demaray, 2007). The purpose of this dissertation was to 1). Explore gender and racial/ethnic differences in recall of perceived seriousness of past bullying experiences 2). Replicate past findings regarding the association between past experiences with bullying and depression, anxiety, and loneliness in college students 3). Explore whether coping resources accounted for differences in symptoms of distress. A total of 211 college students completed the Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire (Schaefer, et al, 2004); The Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1982); UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1996) and the Coping Resources Inventory for Stress-Short form (CRIS-SF; Matheny, Curlette, Aycock, & Curlette, 1993). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to investigate gender and racial/ethnic differences in perceived seriousness of bullying. Hierarchical linear regression was used to test whether coping resources moderated the relationship between psychosocial distress in adults and past experiences with bullying. Females in this study reported that they perceived their experiences with relational bullying during middle/high school to be more serious than males. There were no significant differences between males and females in perceived seriousness of physical bullying during elementary or middle/high school, verbal bullying during elementary or middle/high school or relational bullying during elementary school. Males and females did not differ significantly in the duration of bullying experiences. White students reported that they perceived their experiences with relational and verbal bullying during middle/high school in middle/high school to be more serious. There were no significant differences between the racial/ethnic groups in perceived seriousness of physical, verbal, or relational bullying during elementary school. There also were no significant differences among the racial/ethnic groups duration of bullying. Implications for future research and clinical practice are addressed. Perceived seriousness of bullying and duration of bullying during childhood and adolescence was found to predict depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Coping resources were not found to be significant moderators of distress

TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN CHINA: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY OF EXPATRIATE TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES

In the late 19th century, China’s education policies and curricula began to change in response to global economic issues. The addition of English language courses opened opportunities for expatriate teachers in China. Expatriate teachers are widely perceived as linguistic experts regardless of their qualifications and experiences. However, differences between the expatriate teachers\u27 cultures of learning and the local cultures of learning call attention to the challenges of cross-cultural education in local school settings. This narrative inquiry (Clandinin, 2012) explored the expatriate teachers’ approaches to cross-cultural teaching, connections to local culture, and observations on school-based practices as they navigated their new environments in China. A conceptual framework based on Vygotsky\u27s genetic domains was used to analyze the expatriates\u27 experiences. Data included discussions with expatriate teachers about their educational backgrounds, their previous cross-cultural teaching experiences, and their reflections on navigating the tensions of teaching in China. Excerpts from the researcher\u27s journals describing the tensions she encountered teaching in a local secondary school and adapting to a new cultural environment were used as triggers for the discussions. The findings indicated that connections to local culture, teacher education, and cross-cultural experiences contributed to the teachers’ approaches to teaching. Additionally, knowledge of the students’ L1 and previous experiences teaching English as a foreign language facilitated their ability to adapt to their new environments. This study contributes to understanding the complexity of teaching English as a foreign language when the teacher and students have different cultural backgrounds. Awareness of the need to nurture intercultural competence can inform the curricula and practices of teacher education programs as well as the development of professional learning programs and school learning policies. Furthermore, the teachers’ contributions can be useful to school administrators in developing teacher recruitment strategies, hiring practices, and new-teacher orientation programs

Path Constitution in Family Business Succession: Evidence from A Longitudinal Case Study

Family businesses balance profit with family, employee, and consumer needs and touch almost every facet of the private and public sectors. At the same time, family businesses must manage the challenging processes attributed to the critical, never-ending succession task. Against that backdrop, we aim to explore how family businesses thrive through multiple successions, focused on how critical path junctures work to create succession trajectories over time. Based on close collaboration with Kinsmith Finance, we researched how family businesses can secure successful successions and increased business longevity across several generations through combinations of path creation episodes adapted to new, emerging circumstances and path dependence episodes that reinforce previous decisions. Hence, designed as a longitudinal case study, we investigated Kinsmith Finance’s three successions as unique cases displaying combinations of path creation and path dependence episodes. As a result, this dissertation contributes to the literature by adapting the theory of path constitution to the context of family business succession. We also provide empirical insights into 79 years of evolution in a family business. Finally, we offer practical insights on path constitution in the context of family business succession

The Hoover\u27s Sign of Pulmonary Disease: Molecular Basis and Clinical Relevance

In the 1920\u27s, Hoover described a sign that could be considered a marker of severe airway obstruction. While readily recognizable at the bedside, it may easily be missed on a cursory physical examination. Hoover\u27s sign refers to the inspiratory retraction of the lower intercostal spaces that occurs with obstructive airway disease. It results from alteration in dynamics of diaphragmatic contraction due to hyperinflation, resulting in traction on the rib margins by the flattened diaphragm. The sign is reported to have a sensitivity of 58% and specificity of 86% for detection of airway obstruction. Seen in up to 70% of patients with severe obstruction, this sign is associated with a patient\u27s body mass index, severity of dyspnea and frequency of exacerbations. Hence the presence of the Hoover\u27s sign may provide valuable prognostic information in patients with airway obstruction, and can serve to complement other clinical or functional tests. We present a clinical and molecular review of the Hoover\u27s sign and explain how it could be utilized in the bedside and emergent management of airway disease

Severe Asthma and the Omalizumab Option

Atopic diseases and asthma are increasing at a remarkable rate on a global scale. It is now well recognized that asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. The inflammatory process in many patients is driven by an immunoglobulin E (IgE)-dependent process. Mast cell activation and release of mediators, in response to allergen and IgE, results in a cascade response, culminating in B lymphocyte, T lymphocyte, eosinophil, fibroblast, smooth muscle cell and endothelial activation. This complex cellular interaction, release of cytokines, chemokines and growth factors and inflammatory remodeling of the airways leads to chronic asthma. A subset of patients develops severe airway disease which can be extremely morbid and even fatal. While many treatments are available for asthma, it is still a chronic and incurable disease, characterized by exacerbation, hospitalizations and associated adverse effects of medications. Omalizumab is a new option for chronic asthma that acts by binding to and inhibiting the effects of IgE, thereby interfering with one aspect of the asthma cascade reviewed earlier. This is a humanized monoclonal antibody against IgE that has been shown to have many beneficial effects in asthma. Use of omalizumab may be influenced by the cost of the medication and some reported adverse effects including the rare possibility of anaphylaxis. When used in selected cases and carefully, omalizumab provides a very important tool in disease management. It has been shown to have additional effects in urticaria, angioedema, latex allergy and food allergy, but the data is limited and the indications far from clear. In addition to decreasing exacerbations, it has a steroid sparing role and hence may decrease adverse effects in some patients on high-dose glucocorticoids. Studies have shown improvement in quality of life measures in asthma following the administration of omalizumab, but the effects on pulmonary function are surprisingly small, suggesting a disconnect between pulmonary function, exacerbations and quality of life. Anaphylaxis may occur rarely with this agent and appropriate precautions have been recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As currently practiced and as suggested by the new asthma guidelines, this biological agent is indicated in moderate or severe persistent allergic asthma (steps 5 and 6)

Carboxymethyl lysine, an advanced glycation end product, and incident diabetes: a case-cohort analysis of the ARIC Study

To verify whether elevated fasting levels of circulating carboxymethyl lysine (CML), an advanced glycation end-product (AGE), predict the development of diabetes in middle-age adults

Variability in baseline laboratory measurements of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)

Multi-center epidemiological studies must ascertain that their measurements are accurate and reliable. For laboratory measurements, reliability can be assessed through investigation of reproducibility of measurements in the same individual. In this paper, we present results from the quality control analysis of the baseline laboratory measurements from the ELSA-Brasil study. The study enrolled 15,105 civil servants at 6 research centers in 3 regions of Brazil between 2008–2010, with multiple biochemical analytes being measured at a central laboratory. Quality control was ascertained through standard laboratory evaluation of intra- and inter-assay variability and test-retest analysis in a subset of randomly chosen participants. An additional sample of urine or blood was collected from these participants, and these samples were handled in the same manner as the original ones, locally and at the central laboratory. Reliability was assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), estimated through a random effects model. Coefficients of variation (CV) and Bland-Altman plots were additionally used to assess measurement variability. Laboratory intra and inter-assay CVs varied from 0.86% to 7.77%. From test-retest analyses, the ICCs were high for the majority of the analytes. Notably lower ICCs were observed for serum sodium (ICC=0.50; 95%CI=0.31–0.65) and serum potassium (ICC=0.73; 95%CI=0.60–0.83), due to the small biological range of these analytes. The CVs ranged from 1 to 14%. The Bland-Altman plots confirmed these results. The quality control analyses showed that the collection, processing and measurement protocols utilized in the ELSA-Brasil produced reliable biochemical measurements

2D Animation of the 21st Century: The Digital Age

My thesis project, entitled The Curse Breaker, is a personal and career venture studying the medium of 2D animation while battling my struggle with cigarette addiction. I researched and applied symbolism and narrative strategies while building an impactful hero narrative. Joseph Campbell\u27s The Hero with a Thousand Faces provided insight into the monomyth and hero archetypes. Character and environment designs implemented symbolism as a driving focus of my thesis and fueled the semantic interpretation needed to successfully communicate my struggle with the audience in a non-verbal fashion. The language of cinematography aided in the effectiveness of my thesis film. The use of focal points and transitional wipes helped blend my film cohesively. Understanding the 2D pipeline with the production of my film, my thesis aligns with current industry demand. Large streaming companies have acknowledged this demand and invested heavily in new 2D animated content catering to children and adults