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The musical ode, which developed during the 1660s and 1670s as a means of celebrating occasions of particular significance (often by setting a specially written text), remained popular throughout the eighteenth century, and can be regarded as the earliest form of large-scale secular choral music to have developed in England. This dissertation discusses the nature of the genre (including its relationship with the poetical ode), and surveys the contexts in which odes were composed and performed. It is supplemented by a catalogue which lists some 270 examples of the genre. Among the earliest odes were those written for performance at the court in London. These have already been the subject of musicological study, but although they were the biggest stylistic influence on the other odes written during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, they were not quite the earliest examples of the species. At the University of Oxford, the practice of performing specially composed odes to enhance academic ceremonial dates from at least 1669, and the custom continued throughout the following century. The odes on St Cecilia's Day also originate in the late seventeenth century, but although the works performed in London between 1683 and 1701 have received some scholarly attention, odes on the same theme written later in the century, along with works performed at a number of provincial centres, have not hitherto been discussed in the context of the wider ode genre. Also neglected have been the birthday odes performed at the Vice-regal court in Dublin during the eighteenth century. These complement the London court odes, but have not previously been listed or discussed in detail. Other odes were written for charitable causes, and to commemorate a miscellaneous array of occasions, including military victories and the inauguration of new buildings. In addition, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, some composers responded to developments in the poetical ode by setting libretti which had no 'occasional' inspiration, but which were notable literary achievements in their own right.

As healthcare within the United States continues to evolve, novel and innovative programs are needed to address the top three leading causes of death, which are largely lifestyle and behavioral related: heart disease, cancer, and stroke. About 50% of U.S. adults have at least one chronic disease. Entities such as the government, employers, and employees are responsible for paying for America’s healthcare bill; 60% U.S. healthcare is paid by employers. A current solution to reducing healthcare costs and the prevalence of chronic disease are worksite wellness programs, which increasingly are being adopted by employers. The purpose of this study is to conduct secondary analysis to assess worksite wellness program components and best practices as defined by program managers within the corporate and university settings. Qualitative analyses was undertaken to analyze and identify common themes from case studies of nine university wellness programs and interview transcripts from the perspective of eleven wellness program managers from the corporate and university settings. The study findings suggest that programs within the university setting target multiple population demographics. They also seek to improve more than the physical dimension of wellness. As mentioned by the program managers, previous literature, communication, consistency, and components that address multi-dimensions are found to be the best practices of their program. To engage program participants, it is suggested that program managers should seek to expand their programs, collaborate, communicate, and be consistent. To confirm these findings, future studies that use a larger sample of universities and corporations should further assess program components and employee participation.

Sport participation in the United States is often characterized as a unitary experience that naturally instills a standardized set of values. In this work, however, I challenge the mythology of a unitary conceptualization of sport participation and examine how the experiences and outcomes of playing sports change depending on the setting in which the participation occurs. Specifically, I undertake an investigation into the differences between playing sports in an organized setting and playing them in an informal, unstructured setting. Drawing from the findings of three distinct studies, I first demonstrate through a mixed-method historical study how the field of sport management has narrowed its focus over time to exclude the more playful forms of sport and physical activity. In the second and third studies, I show the experiential and developmental outcomes that are potentially overlooked by maintaining a narrow definition of sport that excludes sport played in unstructured settings. In the second study, a phenomenological examination of pre-teen youth sport participants reveals that the meaning of the experience of playing youth sports derives not from playing in one setting alone, but emerges through the synthesis of experiences accrued in both organized and unstructured settings. In the third study, the relative influences of time spent participating in organized sports and informal sports during childhood are assessed with respect to the development of participant creativity. Like the phenomenological study, the results of this quantitative analysis again point to the importance of balancing participation in both organized and unstructured settings. The most creative individuals are those who split their sport participation time across both settings, as opposed to individuals with below-average creativity, who spent the majority of their sport participation time in organized settings. Combined, the results of these three studies demonstrate the historical shift (in both research and practice) away from unstructured sport settings, and highlight the potentially transformative sport development implications of reincorporating unstructured sport settings on the overall experiences and outcomes of sport participation.

Acts of “passing” inform the plots of Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light and Nella Larsen’s Passing. Examples of contemporary South African fiction and Harlem Renaissance fiction respectively, these texts explore racial passing and its correlative, social passing. Social passing includes enactment of social relationships, responds to class anxieties, and requires repression of emotions as participating characters attempt to fix their performed roles into permanent identities. At issue are the texts’ multiple enactments of passing with special interest paid to these acts’ constitutive theatricality. Characters perform within narrative settings, locations subsequently deconstructed exposing both implicit and explicit theatrical functions. Threshold spaces of doors and windows form frames within settings, focusing the audience’s gaze and simultaneously creating and dismantling private and public places to reconstitute them as theater. This study culminates in reflections on the tension between the relative freedom and containment of characters that pass.

Interest in youth civic engagement continues to increase and a small but growing group of organizations are seeking to get young people involved in political activism. At the same time, researchers are giving more attention to the features of adolescent settings and how they relate to the overall development of young people. What remains to be absent is a contextual understanding of how the characteristics of adolescent settings contribute specifically to political development. The purpose of this study is to identify organizational level characteristics of youth organizations that promote the political development of adolescents. Semi-structured interviews and grounded theory analysis with 15 young activists revealed a “Big Six” of organizational characteristics and properties that influence participation in societal involvement behaviors. Post hoc analyses also revealed potential relationships between political development and the Big Six. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed and directions for future research are delineated.

In social sciences, data structures are often hierarchical. When these data also arise in spatial settings, dependence between clusters occurs. This three-paper dissertation considers statistical issues arising in spatial hierarchical settings: modeling, measurement, and causal inference. Modeling. In paper 1, I propose a hierarchical linear model (HLM) with spatially dependent random effects (SHLM) and compare it to the standard HLM that assumes independence between clusters. SHLM parameters are estimated using maximum likelihood (ML) approach via the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm with an embedded Fisher scoring. The theoretical results indicate that, under SHLM assumptions, HLM estimators of the fixed effects and within-cluster variance are unbiased. However, the between-cluster variance estimator is biased. The sensitivity of the results to model specifications is examined using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). Furthermore, the empirical results indicate that HLM underestimates the standard errors for the fixed effects, resulting in incorrect statistical inferences. Measurement. In paper 2, I propose an empirical Bayes (EB) estimator, which exploits the spatial dependence in the data (EBS). I demonstrate that EBS dominates standard EB (EBE) and sample mean (OLS) estimators with respect to mean squared error loss under SHLM assumptions. The empirical results approximate these theoretical results: EBS dominates EBE and OLS, especially when neighborhood sample sizes are small. Using PHDCN data, I also demonstrate that the EBS estimator is better at estimating the true neighborhood means, predicting future neighborhood means, relating to theoretically-linked demographic covariates, and predicting future crime rates than EBE and OLS. Causal Inference. In paper 3, I use 1990's Chicago's personal and property crime data to evaluate the effectiveness of the community policing program (CAPS). To answer the causal questions I extend Rubin's causal framework by relaxing Cox's no interference between different units assumption. I redefine causal effects and discuss assumptions that make this framework tractable. No statistically significant effect of beat's own treatment on crime was detected. However, I found that increasing the number of contiguous neighbors assigned to CAPS leads to a moderate reduction in personal crime rates for a beat in a CAPS district.

The dynamics of establishment-level productivity include both persistent shocks and random noise. Therefore firms are uncertain about their own persistent productivities and must form productivity beliefs in order to make decisions about exit, innovation, investment, and inputs. Extending an idea from Jovanovic's (1982) dynamic industry model, this uncertainty is exploited in a sequential learning estimator of production functions and productivity dynamics for unbalanced panels. Firms are assumed to learn from the same data available to the econometrician by updating productivity beliefs after observing each period's production experience. The difference between predicted and realized productivity in the next period is a forecast error and therefore independent of both exit and factor inputs. The resulting sequential updating process is equivalent to a Kalman filter. The estimation algorithm simulates a panel of establishment filters. Parameterized initial beliefs are identified from cross-sectional, within-cohort variation and a rational expectations assumption. Because the sequential learning estimator relies upon belief updating rather than optimal strategic behavior or first-order conditions, it may be used under any industry structure and with any type of productivity dynamics. Consequently, estimated productivity beliefs can be used in second stage modeling of the determinants of firms' actions. Productivity dynamics, innovation effort, and other strategic behaviors can be compared across industries, under differing industry states, and with varying external economic conditions and public policies. The sequential learning estimator is used to estimate Cobb-Douglas and constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production functions from annual panels of Chilean manufacturers in four selected industries. Standard errors are smaller than those from other estimators that address endogeneity. Estimated returns to scale, the relation between factor elasticities and cost shares, and the industry ranking of imputed mark-ups are all plausible. Estimates of productivity dynamics strongly confirm persistent, nonpermanent shocks to idiosyncratic productivity. Estimated productivity beliefs are positively related to investment in three out of four industries. The relation to exit hazard is negative, as expected, in all four industries. An implication of sequential learning estimator assumptions, that firms' selected actions should be independent of productivity information revealed in subsequent periods, is accepted in seven of eight validity tests.

Typically, firms make decisions in environment where both customer demand and also available capacity are uncertain. This research focuses on studying a firm's optimal response when both uncertainties are significant. In principle, to buffer against any variability, either safety stock of inventory or excess capacity is used. Since, however, there exists a broader range of alternatives that firms can choose to hedge their uncertainties. This dissertation systematically studies and compares different mechanisms that help firms to integrate operational improvements with the production and inventory control policies. The first essay aims to compare advance demand information and safety capacity option. We study the structure of the optimal production and safety capacity (e.g. outsourcing) decisions made by a manufacturer facing uncertain demand and capacity, who has some advance demand information. We then compare the conditions that make either of these two approaches more valuable for the manufacturer. Two of the most interesting findings are that (1) in general, conditions that make better demand information more valuable make the option to outsource less valuable (and vice versa) and (2) the combined effect of both options can be greater than the sum of the individual effects. It is thus able to provide managers with some guidance on how to think about their need for more safety capacity or better information (or both) when dealing with uncertainties. The second essay extends the above results and considers a firm with two plants having unreliable capacity. The firm's two alternatives include cooperative planning and transshipment, both of which help to reduce the uncertainty in demand and in capacity. The essay shows how the capacity uncertainty influences firms' production and transshipment decisions. Through a numerical study, we explore situations where implementing the optimal policy is most beneficial. The model allows us to evaluate the benefits of flexibility resulting from two sources of capacity combined with the benefits of transshipment, and to quantify some of the claims used in the collaborative planning programs. The remainder of the dissertation is dedicated to a study of decentralized system and focuses on the feasibility of coordination. The question is in the framework of decentralized distribution system with transshipment. We are interested in whether the two independent facilities can be induced to make the centralized decisions by a pair of predetermined transshipment prices.

The purpose of the study was to test a theoretical model explaining how selected environmental and personal factors affect hospital nursing practice behaviors. Many hospital nurses perform isolated, routine tasks, rather than use their professional training because they are subject to control by organizational and medical divisions of labor. The environment may interfere with nurses' ability to practice autonomously, and according to professional standards. Nursing may not be an attractive career option because of the task-centered focus of a lot of nursing work, and patient outcomes may be adversely affected by task-oriented behaviors. The study used a non-experimental, comparative design. Surveys were sent to a random sample of 500 nurses in Michigan. Four instruments, measuring structural empowerment, self-efficacy, professional nursing practice, and nursing leadership were included. Path analysis was used for statistical analysis. Three hundred and sixty-four nurses responded (73%), of which 266 provided usable protocols for the final analysis. Findings did not support the theoretical model as proposed, but an alternative model emerged. Environmental factors (structural empowerment) contributed both directly to professional practice behaviors and indirectly through self-efficacy. Self-efficacy mainly exerted its effect as a mediator in the relationship between environmental factors and practice behaviors. Level of education and specialty certification were also found to positively affect practice behaviors directly. Nursing leadership had an indirect impact only, and helped to predict 46% of the variance in the overall model explaining nursing practice behaviors. Nurses may practice more professionally when the environment provides opportunities and power through resources, support, and information. Self-efficacy may contribute to professional practice behaviors, especially in an environment that has the requisite factors that provide empowerment, and where strong nursing leadership exists. Strong nursing leadership may influence nurses' self-efficacy by providing more access to structural empowerment factors. Future research should continue testing of the revised theoretical model to be able to fully understand professional nursing practice behaviors, and incorporate the impact of those behaviors on patient outcomes.

This qualitative study is an investigation of the collaborations of two small groups of experienced teachers as they participated in three professional development activity settings in a one-week summer institute. The summer institute was one of several activities that were part of the work of the GIsML (Guided Inquiry supporting Multiple Literacies) Community of Practice. The purpose of the summer institute was for the teachers to enact Guided Inquiry science teaching, which they had experienced as learners earlier in the summer. Three activity settings: instructional planning, debriefing the microteaching, and reporting on the microteaching to the community were the centerpiece of the study. Analyzing transcripts from videotapes, field notes, and teacher journal entries, I reconstruct the experiences of the teachers using their dialogues and written reflections in addition to my observations as represented in the field notes. Using a sociocultural definition of tools as mediational means that scaffold learning, I consider the teachers' choices regarding tool use as the primary lens for the analysis. Thus, the question driving the analysis is: How does tool use influence the processes and outcomes of the teachers' collaborations? In narrating the cases, I analyze the teachers' individual and collective decisions about tool use, how the tools were implemented, transformed, and in one case, invented, and how the tool use influenced the collaborations. The findings indicate that the five experienced teachers in the study, who all brought a genuine commitment to their learning, had unique approaches to the collaborations. As a result, their contributions were enhanced based on their use of available tools as well as by mediated assistance from an expert. The analysis also raises questions about the ways in which teachers negotiate their individualistic approaches within collaborations. The implications that emerge from these understandings suggest designs for professional development activity settings that: (1) support teachers as they negotiate the tension between individual perspectives and the collective work; (2) offer guidance and mediation by experts; and (3) offer compelling and relevant subject matter.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the ethnic and socioeconomic composition of elementary school classrooms affects children's peer relationships. Specifically, four issues were examined: (1) whether there are sociocultural differences in children's social behaviors; (2) whether there are differences in the behavioral correlates of peer acceptance for children of different sociocultural groups; (3) whether socioeconomic or ethnic differences in the processes of peer acceptance are affected by homogeneity versus diversity in the sociocultural make-up of the peer environment; and (4) whether the behavioral correlates of liking by same-ethnicity peers are the same as the corresponding correlates of liking by other-ethnicity peers. The sample consisted of 616 third- and fourth-grade children from three socioculturally distinct classroom settings: middle-class, predominantly European-American classrooms; lower-class, predominantly European-American classrooms; and lower-class, predominantly African-American classrooms. Half of the children were boys; approximately one-third were African-American. Measures included sociometric assessments of peer acceptance and behavioral reputation; self-reports of perceived self-competence; scores on standardized academic achievement tests; and teacher ratings of children's social and cognitive competence. Results indicated that the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral correlates of peer acceptance were generally the same across classroom settings. Similarly, few significant differences were found between the correlates of acceptance by same-ethnicity peers and the correlates of acceptance by other-ethnicity peers. However, significant mean differences in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning were found between children in the three different sociocultural settings, with children in more affluent school settings faring more positively on most measures. Overall, the pattern of results did not support the hypothesis that children would be perceived more positively by teachers and peers, and would experience higher self-competence, in classrooms where their sociocultural group represented a majority, rather than a minority, of the population. Interestingly, though, African-American children in middle-class, predominantly European-American classrooms were perceived by peers and teachers as less socially, behaviorally, and academically skilled, than were African-American children in lower-class, predominantly European-American classrooms. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for school integration and intervention programs.

In theory, nursing homes in the United States are expected to provide elderly people with health care and with room, hoard and opportunities for social growth. However, too often they offer neither a real home nor good nursing care. The purpose of this study is to explain why certain physical design parameters and concepts lead participants in the design process to build nursing homes the way they do. In terms of a research mode, the qualitative approach was used to explore the range of behaviors linking the design process and a designed place. Four design processes of nursing homes built in recent years in the Midwest were followed. Data were gathered through observations, collection of documents, and in-depth interviews with participants in the design processes. The analysis was carried out in the framework of grounded theory that stresses discovery and theory development. The results lend weight to the supposition that the architecture of long-term care facilities in the U.S. is embedded in the cultural history of aging, and is a reflection of the political and social policies toward the elderly in this country. The physical environment of the nursing home is the result of (1) thinking of aging as a medical problem; (2) regulations and reimbursement systems which discourage innovative design; and (3) conflicting interests of the participants in the design process that lead them to limited medical model solutions. Nursing homes, as we design them now based on the medical model, promote cost effective care, but contradict individual autonomy and conflict with private lives in public places. The findings support the growing recognition that continued reliance on nursing home care as the primary service option for frail elderly is neither economically wise nor socially desirable. Future policy will have to enable development of consumer-driven models of long-term care that respond to the needs of frail persons and emphasize individual's values and lifestyle choices.

With this dissertation the researcher intended to advocate and obtain a better understanding of urban middle school students' perceptions, ideas and theories in relation to environmental issues and nature, in order to obtain new insights in adapting environmental education to the social and physical context in which the school community is embedded. Additionally, the researcher tried to capture the drama and the ordinary of the everyday life of the participants as it relates to environmental issues. The research draws upon interpretive and critical science traditions to come to understand the participants' view of nature and environmental issues as manifested in their own lifeworld and their reflections on their position in this world, without from the start imposing the researcher's predetermined views and ideas on them, and without theories about their causal explanations. The body of data for analysis and interpretation consists of; thirty in-depth interviews with African-American and Caucasian seventh grade students from Detroit and two of its suburbs, research journals, classroom participant observation and students' reflections on photographs. The results show that students ascribe to nature at least five different distinct, but related dimensions which manifest themselves in eight different kinds of nature experiences. All students display significant concern about environmental issues, but do so at different levels of understanding. Three levels are distinguished; Level 1, Pollution can be touched, tasted, smelled and seen; Level II, Pollution can be invisible, move around and accumulate, and Level III, Pollution as a politicized problem. The dissertation ends with a list of implications for environmental education in urban settings, using four inputs of curriculum design: decisions on content, information about students' prior ideas, perspectives on the learning process, and teachers' practical knowledge of students, classrooms and schools. The research findings and implications are integrated into a constructivist teaching sequence for environmental education.