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This research explored how identity transitions are accomplished when individuals experience distress in relationship to the social systems in which they are embedded. Study participants grew up in cultic groups, where they were parented by committed members. Twenty-two people who chose to leave or were ejected from 12 cultic groups provided low point, high point, and turning point stories for an exploratory narrative analysis. Life story narratives revealed a jarring disconnect between what participants were expected to believe and become and how they experienced themselves. The research i...

The purpose of this thesis is to develop new hybrid admission decision prediction models by using different machine learning methods including Support Vector Machines (SVM), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function (RBF) Network, TreeBoost (TB) and K-Means Clustering (KMC) combined with feature selection algorithms to investigate the effect of the predictor variables on the admission decision of a candidate to the School of Physical Education and Sports at Cukurova University. Three feature selection algorithms including Relief-F, F-Score and Correlation-based Feature Selection (CFS...

Due to recent climate change, the character of environmental regional planning has shifted to address the anticipated extreme increases in sea level rise. As such, this project, based on existing scientific research/data, proposes a spatial, habitable landscape architectural solution as a model for flood mitigation for the East coastal edge. This proposal tests the potential for resilient coastal landscapes through a particular site located on Revere Beach, along with the New England coast in Massachusetts. The study demonstrates how through new public spaces designed to renew and protect the ...

The purpose of this thesis is to forecast the amount of network traffic in Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -based networks by using different time lags and various machine learning methods including Support Vector Machines (SVM), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function (RBF) Neural Network, M5P (a decision tree with linear regression functions at the nodes), Random Forest (RF), Random Tree (RT), and Reduced Error Prunning Error (REPTree), and statistical regression methods including Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Holt-Winters and compare the performanc...

Generally, construction of dams is regarded as means of economic progress in many countries. However, major consequences of such projects are the inundation of upstream areas and the resettlement of entire communities in newly built environments where they experience dramatic transformation in their lifestyles. The present study takes the Nubian resettlement experience after the creation of Lake Nasser that submerged their old settlements, along the river Nile. Following their resettlement, the design of the newly-built environment disrupted the Nubian traditional lifestyles and patterns of...

Background: Establishing standardized Quality of Life (QOL) core outcomes in stem cell clinical trials is important to ensure (1) researchers and clinicians can make informed decisions, and (2) clinical trials use and consistently measure the same units (Clarke, 2007; Thornley & Adams, 1998). This study reviews the most common QOL methodologies, timing/frequency of the measurement, and outcomes in cardiovascular stem cell clinical trials. Methods: To identify instruments, the study reviewed MEDLINE, Scopus, and US Clinical Trials Register through September 2010, and randomized BMSC controlled...

This study is the product of a long view of space exploration and the conversations about space in China. It locates the multiple conversations about space exploration and utilisation as they are in the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC), within other conversations about space culture in the world. China is viewed by Western researchers though many lenses which are examined here critically. In previous studies, writers explain away China‘s space programme with the easy answers of a "Space Race" and a "China Threat", in which the space programme is seen as merely an example of global competition,...

One of the pastoral problems of religiosity in Slovakia today is that contemporary Christianity is pervaded by nihil-inclinations. Such inclinations manifest themselves in the loss of orientation and meaning, and a disinterest in Christianity, which has by and large remained on a doctrinal, moralistic, and ritual level without offering a constructive faith response to the 'signs of the times'. This dissertation argues that nihilism is not an entirely negative or morose concept that leaves behind a void or abyss without values, rendering this world meaningless. Nihilism as such is not an absolu...

This Thesis presents a proposal for building an effective, legitimate, and transparent judicial system in the investor-state dispute settlement through an appellate review mechanism for the awards of ad hoc arbitral tribunals. Current investment dispute settlement system includes the arbitration facilities provided by institutions such as ICSID and ad hoc arbitration tribunals agreed by the disputing parties. This Thesis argues that this scheme of investment arbitration lacks the mechanisms for correcting the legal errors and securing the consistency between arbitral awards for the similar iss...

This research, undertaken with children's services social workers who have worked in an urban Local Authority in South Wales, UK, sets out to explore whether statutory social services departments meet the psychological needs of refugee children. The study is in the form of a comparative study of refugee and non-refugee children. The comparison was made in relation to the children's psychological presentation pre- and post-intervention by the statutory social services department. This investigation was undertaken in response to general observation and research evidence that suggest the possibil...