Military power, alliances and technology : an analysis of some structural determinants of international war among the great powers

Levy, Jack Steven Xerox University Microfilms 1976 국내박사

The principal as a spiritual leader: A case study of elementary principals in Connecticut

Levy, Ruth I University of Hartford 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

This case study examined the personal leadership behaviors and characteristics of school principals who have been nominated for or selected for Connecticut's National Distinguished Principal of the Year Award. Kouzes and Posner's (1997) model of leader-teacher relationships and Marcic's (1997) model of leadership spirituality was used to develop an understanding of the relationship between credibility and spirituality in principals deemed as outstanding leaders by their professional organization. This was studied through examination of the principals' perceptions of themselves and the perceptions of the full time teaching staff in their respective schools via Kouzes and Posner's conceptual framework of credible, exemplary leadership along with Marcic's conceptual framework of spiritual leadership. Data were collected by administering the Leadership Practices Inventory (Kouzes and Posner, 1997), and a researcher developed Spirituality Survey to principals and teachers in each school. A supplemental semi-structured interview protocol was conducted with each principal. The findings for this study were presented as eight portraits of elementary principals and the perceptions of the teachers in their respective schools. Several characteristics emerged as essential components of effective principals. The principals in this study and their teachers see respect as the single most important characteristic that principals must believe in and model in their every action. Beyond respect, trust, honesty, and integrity were characteristics of great importance. It was hypothesized that in order for a principal to be effective as a school leader, they must be perceived of as not only credible leaders but personally spiritual in their beliefs and values as well. The study suggests that principals need to be persons who first understand themselves spiritually and the meaning of their work, then translate that understanding into a vision that is communicated through daily decisions and interactions. The results of this study indicated that open and honest communication of beliefs and values was the vehicle for growth and improvement, and to build the positive connections that are necessary to develop collaborative and collegial relationships.

Design, experiment, and analysis of a photovoltaic absorbing medium with intermediate levels

Levy, Michael Y Georgia Institute of Technology 2008 해외박사(DDOD)

The absorption of the sun's radiation and its efficient conversion to useful work by a photovoltaic solar cell is of interest to the community at large. Scientists and engineers are particularly interested in approaches that exceed the Shockley-Queisser limit of photovoltaic solar-energy conversion. The abstract notion of increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells by constructing a three-transition solar cell via an absorber with intermediate levels is well-established. Until now, proposed approaches to realize the three-transition solar cell do not render the efficiency gains that are theorized; therefore, researchers are experimenting to ascertain where the faults lie. In my opinion, it is unclear if the abstract efficiency gains are obtainable. Furthermore, it is difficult to determine whether three-transition absorbers are even incorporated in the existing three-transition solar cell prototypes. I assert that there are material systems derived from the technologically important compound semiconductors and their ternary alloys that more clearly determine the suitability of employing nanostructured absorbers to realize a three-transition solar cell. The author reports on a nanostructured absorber composed of InAs quantum dots completely enveloped in a GaAs1-xSbx (x ∼ 0.12) matrix that is grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The material system, InAs/GaAs 0.88Sb0.12, is identified as an absorber for a three transition solar cell. This material system will more easily determine the suitability of employing nanostructured absorbers because its quantum-dot heterojunctions have negligible valence-band discontinuities, which abate the difficulty of interpreting optical experimental results. A key tool used to identify the InAs/GaAs1-xSbx (x ∼ 0.12) system is a maximum-power iso-efficiency contour plot. This contour plot is only obtainable by first having analyzed the impact of both finite intermediate-band width and spectral selectivity on the optimized detailed-balance conversion efficiencies of the three-transition solar cell. Obtaining the contour plot is facilitated by employing a rapid and precise method to calculate particle flux. The author largely determines the electronic structure of the InAs/GaAs1-xSb x (x ∼ 0.12) absorber that is grown by molecular beam epitaxy from optical experimental methods and in particular, from photoluminescent spectroscopy. The interpretation of the experimental photoluminescent spectrum is facilitated by having first studied the theoretical photoluminescent spectra of idealized three-transition solar cells.

"I Could Make a Difference" Research and Theory on Fostering Adolescents' Political Efficacy and Engagement

Levy, Brett Miller University of Michigan 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

In democratic societies, many adult citizens choose not to participate in political processes. To address this problem, this dissertation explores and examines how educators can foster adolescents' political efficacy, one of the strongest predictors of political participation. Prior research indicates that political efficacy, the belief that individuals' action can influence governmental processes, increases when individuals have opportunities to (1) discuss public issues, (2) participate in small-scale democratic processes, and (3) develop connections with others who are politically engaged. However, this earlier research does not explain why or how these experiences support the development of political efficacy. Through three mixed methods empirical studies, this dissertation begins to fill this research gap. First, I examined two educational programs---a Model United Nations club and a course on civic advocacy---in which students had the three types of aforementioned experiences. In Model UN, students attended conferences where they represented different countries, debated those nations' positions on a wide range of topics (such as security treaties), and developed solutions to major international challenges. The advocacy class, on the other hand, required students to select and research community-based problems or institutions, develop plans to influence relevant policymakers, and advocate for change through various means. To examine the implementation and outcomes of these programs, I gathered data during one semester through observations, interviews, surveys, and student papers. Findings indicated that both programs had a positive impact on students' political efficacy and that crucial to this growth was adult leaders' support of students' political knowledge (e.g., political processes and issues), political skills (e.g., communication), and political goal achievement. The third empirical study sought to identify the broad set of factors that influence adolescents' political efficacy. By analyzing interview data from the two classroom-based studies and survey data from 142 undergraduate students, I found evidence to support a robust model that includes a wide variety of factors that contribute to political efficacy, such as political interest and political trust. Based on this theoretical model and the program-based studies, I provide practical recommendations to educators and researchers interested in preparing students for active political participation.

Frontier figures: American music and the mythology of the American West, 1895--1945

Levy, Beth Ellen University of California, Berkeley 2002 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation examines the intersection between two cultural spheres: American music and the mythology of the American West. During the twentieth century, as western imagery became ever more prominent in literature and film, American composers also looked westward for inspiration. Through musical analysis and archival research, I show how images and folk songs associated with the West were absorbed into American music and how they influenced the ideals of composers and musical institutions during the first half of the twentieth century. In each chapter, my aim is twofold: to deepen our understanding of influential western stereotypes and the individuals who deployed them, and to explore some of the common ground between music scholarship and American Studies. In Chapter 1, I discuss two early twentieth-century composers' appropriations of Native American materials. Arthur Farwell claimed Indian songs as part of an ideological platform for a renewal of American musical life that involved grass-roots musical groups and a printing press devoted to music built on American folklore. During the same years, Charles Wakefield Cadman's stereotyped portrayals of the Native American as a “vanishing race” propelled him to fame as his popular parlor songs found their way into American homes and his large-scale dramatic works (<italic>Shanewis</italic> and <italic> The Sunset Trail</italic>) reached such stages as the Metropolitan Opera and the Hollywood Bowl. Beginning in the 1930s and 40s, composers began mining cowboy songs as a compositional resource. Relying on the folk-song collections of Carl Sandburg and the Lomax family, they brought cowboy melodies into classical music just as the “singing cowboy” rode onto the Hollywood scene. In Chapters 2 and 3, I investigate this new mythology as revealed in the music of Roy Harris and Aaron Copland. The structure of my dissertation reflects an unnoticed but intriguing development in the character types that composers chose to associate with the West. Portrayals of Native Americans dominated at the turn of the century after the forced removal of Indian tribes had ended. Postwar pride and Depression-era politics fostered an agrarian mythos, and cowboy figures offered an aggressive hero appropriate for the years leading up to WWII and into the Cold War. The diverse composers in this study—ideologue and songwriter, western native and “cosmopolitan cowboy”—were engaged in constant negotiation between sweeping socio-political trends and the intricacies of their own biographies. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Retooling relationships within Habitat for Humanity: A folkorists foray into participatory action research

Levy, Elinor Indiana University 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

In her article “The Politicization of Culture in Applied Folklore” (1999), Jessica Payne calls upon folklorists to use our unique skills in service to the communities in which we study, work and live. This project is an initial foray into the uses of folklore outside both the academy and traditional public or applied folklore arenas. Distinctive but unusual contributions to the field of folklore will be made through demonstrating how folklorists can use their skills to collect data that will assist people in solving problems. Participatory action research (PAR) is a collaborative methodology familiar to sociology and education but little used in folklore, despite the methodology's sharing many of the research tools of folklore, such as participant observation, qualitative interviewing and use of personal narrative experiences. One of the hallmarks of PAR is that each participant is recognized and utilized as an expert in his or her base of knowledge. This dissertation will explore the application of folkloristics and PAR in a non-profit organization: the Americus/Sumter County Habitat for Humanity affiliate based in Americus, Georgia. It will particularly address the use of collaborative methodologies in folklore. I am working with a collaborative team which consists of two Habitat homeowners, an AmeriCorps/Habitat volunteer and the affiliate's Director of Family Services. Through the application of folklore methods, such as participant observation and interviews we are exploring the relationship between homeowners and volunteers. The research has had two distinct but connected parts. The first is that of a folklorist testing a methodology little used in folklore and the second is chronicling the application of folklore and collaborative methodologies in a real application: Habitat for Humanity.

Romantic families: Collaboration and the domestic affections

Levy, Michelle Nancy University of California, Los Angeles 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

The phenomenon of the literary family begins in the Romantic period. From the Wordsworths and the Shelleys to the Edgeworths and the Coleridges, writing families emerged from different class and ideological backgrounds, within and across generations. Even in customarily dividing writers into the first and second generation, we implicitly acknowledge the familial ties that bind the period together. Yet the formative role that these families play in shaping Romantic literary culture has rarely been discussed in its own. Thus though the literary relationships of a few families have garnered attention, we remain largely unconscious of the widespread practice by which families and friends composed and published collaborative literary texts during the Romantic period, and of the implications this has for our understanding of literary Romanticism. My project aims to offer a genealogy of collaboration in the Romantic period. I argue that instead of conceiving of individual authorship as the sole mode of Romantic literary production, we must consider how writers produced collaborative texts to express the double bonds of private affection and literary sensibility. By reflecting on their private attachments, these writers sought both private and public aims, to express their affection for one another and to model the virtues of domestic and intellectual life to a wider audience. Questions of gender formation are critical to this examination of the intersection between the family and print culture. Women, as we might suspect, played a critical role in this emergent writing culture, promoting the British home as a place where both the domestic affections and the intellectual work of reading and writing might flourish. But the intriguing and overlooked aspect of Romantic culture is that not simply women but men as well sought to wed literacy to the domestic affections. By writing with their sisters, wives, and daughters, male writers increasingly presented themselves as domestic authors, committed to engaging in intellectual work with their family members. Collaboratively produced literary texts by men and women therefore offer a fascinating example of these efforts to redefine masculinity, the family, and ultimately the nation at large.

The making of the gringo world: Expatriates in La Antigua Guatemala

Levy, Joshua Wolfe University of California, Berkeley 2007 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation examines a community of young expatriates living in La Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala, during the first years of the 21st century. These foreigners, largely of North American and European nationality, occupy a problematic and therefore productive space in many ways. Neither "travelers" nor "mass tourists," expatriates participate in the practices and discourses of both, yet are distinct in their ability to create a meaningful community and relation to place and to themselves. Expatriates occupy a special and often contradictory position that brings with it various forms of privilege and freedom--as well as dangers. They must negotiate multiple forms of difference and belonging and manage certain kinds of selves against the backdrop of an imagined Guatemala. This process is made possible within a space that can be understood as "utopian"---an unreal world in relation to an often dystopic reality. The effects of this social world have powerful and meaningful effects for both the expatriates themselves and the "real" Guatemala. Using a genealogical approach, this research seeks to situate this social world within the historical context of foreigners' representations of Guatemala. This legacy has contributed to the creation of a powerful discourse and set of practices that continue to influence how foreigners experience and represent Guatemala and themselves. Rather than completely replicating the past, however, expatriates engage in a creative process of self-transformation and community formation that suggest emergent possibilities in the current moment of globalization. Based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork, this research contributes to an understanding of a neglected aspect of Guatemalan society as well as to the larger global context. It seeks to contribute to the anthropology of Guatemala, tourism and cosmopolitanism, as well as to anthropology more broadly.

Yucatan's arrested development: Social networks and credit markets in Merida, 1850--1899 (Mexico)

Levy, Juliette University of California, Los Angeles 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation analyzed the effects of economic inequality and concentration through the development and social structure of Mérida's mortgage market. This dissertation argues that the internal dynamics of Yucatan's agricultural export boom in the late nineteenth century are central to the arrested development of the region, and to this end I study how social relations at the local level shaped the development and the history of this regional economy. I analyze how Yucatan's mortgage market developed during this period in the absence of formal financial institutions, and how notaries contributed to this development. I focus specifically on credit markets because they are an essential foundation for economic growth as well as a central mechanism of wealth redistribution. The dissertation reveals how the development of the credit market was shaped by structure of the local society, by focusing on the role played by landed wealth, social connections, reputation, and gender in the development of the local mortgage market. The main source for this work are debt contracts recorded by notaries in Mérida, housed in the <italic>Archivo de Notarias de Yucatán</italic> and the <italic>Archivo General del Estado de Yucatán </italic>. I worked with all the existing and surviving notarial ledgers, from which I recorded all mortgage transactions in ten and five year intervals between 1850 and 1895. With this set of contracts I recreated the mortgage market of Mérida. I also recorded and worked with all other contracts recorded by the Mérida notaries, including sale contracts and land deeds, compiling a unique register of approximately five thousand contracts. In addition to the notarial contracts, I used probate records and debt default litigation from civil court documents, also at the <italic>Archivo General del Estado de Yucatán</italic>. These court cases and substantiating documents provided a rich source with which to follow the relationships observed in the notarial ledgers and reveal the inequality that permeated this economy.

Internal structure, firm boundaries and industry organization

Levy, Nadav Northwestern University 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

In the first chapter of this dissertation I present a theory of the boundary of the firm that accounts for some important characteristics of multidivisional firms. In this setup, vertical integration is desirable, as long as the choice of trading partners can be credibly delegated to the divisions' managers. I show that this is satisfied not only under the assumption of full commitment by the general office of the firm, but also interestingly, if it has no commitment power at all. An explanation of the boundaries of the firm emerges only if the general office retains some limited commitment power. I show that the general office mandates internal trades in more instances than would have been optimal with full commitment, adversely affecting the levels of investment taken by the divisions' managers. In such cases, it can be optimal to have the trade conducted between non-integrated parties. The second chapter explores the reasons why large multidivisional integrated firms often encourage conflict between units over the transfer price of internally traded inputs. I show that due to informational asymmetries, it is beneficial for the firm's general office to allow the trading divisions to influence the internal transfer price by eliciting and presenting supply and purchase bids from external sources, even if internal trade is superior and the elicitations of bids is costly. Bids collected by a division are positively correlated with the other division's private information, allowing the general office to "tighten its control" over the division managers, lowering their information rents and increasing their targeted effort. In the third chapter I analyze the interdependence in the manner in which different firms organize their supply relations. In the multi-buyer, multi-supplier framework I develop, firms choose whether to integrate upstream into the supply of the input or to outsource its production, and the size of their supplier network if outsourcing. Suppliers taking designs by several buyers enjoy economies of scope in investment due either to spillovers of know-how, or to savings in setup costs. The model admits multiple vertical equilibria that are Pareto-ranked, the one with the highest level of outsourcing being most efficient. I find that outsourcing is more pervasive in bigger markets and when the economies of scope in investments are stronger. The optimal size of the supplier network however decreases when the spillovers are stronger.