Browsing by Subject "Benefits"
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Item Comparison of the Perception of Facility Managers on Green Roofs Attributes and Barriers to their Implementation(2014-07-24) Ferrer Garcia, Eduardo RThis study compares perceptions of facility managers on green roof attributes and barriers for their implementation. The population under study were the four IFMA chapters of the State of Texas (Austin, Dallas-Fort-Worth, Houston and San Antonio). A questionnaire containing 21 statements related to green roof attributes and 14 statements related to green roof barriers for their implementation was used and responses were measured on a five-point Likert scale. Two types of questionnaires were used to collect responses. An online questionnaire that was distributed through the chapter?s members list, and face to face responses were obtained on IFMA chapters meetings. The response rate for the questionnaire was 7.7%. The nonparametric statistic method of Kruskal-Wallis was used to check for differences among the four chapters with respect to perceptions on a given statement. The responses suggest that facility managers generally agreed with the majority of the statements regarding benefits that green roofs can provide. Similarly, the majority of facility managers tended to agree with the statements regarding barriers for green roofs implementation. The results of the investigation for ?=0.05 and a p-value=7.815 showed that no significant differences were found for any of the 35 statements with respect to the facility managers perceptions.Item Developing trust in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising : the effects of benefit type and balance of risk and benefit information(2011-05) Ball, Jennifer Gerard; Stout, Patricia A.; Choi, Sejung M.; McAlister, Alfred; Sung, Yongjun; Lee, Wei-NaTrust in direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising is declining among consumers. Survey findings suggest providing more information about side effects and benefits to address this issue. Some scholars also criticize the ads for their emotional content despite the key role emotion can play in health-related decision making and trust. Therefore, an experimental study was conducted to assess the relative effectiveness of functional and emotional benefit communication as well the preferred balance of side effects and benefits information provided in DTC pharmaceutical ads in terms of perceived credibility/trust and persuasive outcomes. Results suggest a message including a combination of functional and emotional benefits is considered more credible and informative than an ad describing only emotional benefits. In addition, a high amount of side effect information produces lower brand attitudes and greater perceptions of manipulative intent compared to a low amount of side effect information. Implications for pharmaceutical advertising practitioners and researchers are discussed.Item The influence of leadership coaching as perceived by secondary school principals of title I campuses in Texas(2012-05) Greenwalt, Michael Wayne; Gooden, Mark A.; Ovando, Martha N.; Cantu, Norma V.; Garza, Ruben; Pringle, PatWhile various systems of support and professional development are in place for teachers, there remains a distinct void when it comes to these same opportunities for beginning and especially, experienced principals. An emerging form of assistance for campus principals is leadership coaching: a confidential relationship between a professional coach and principal focused on capacity building and the provision of time and support for the school leader to thoughtfully reflect, plan, problem solve, and establish and achieve significant goals. Leadership coaching is an investment in campus principals, which seems to fill an immediate need for them to experience relevant, ongoing, job-embedded, and individualized professional development. This multiple-case qualitative study, using a grounded theory approach, was framed by the research questions: What are the experiences of middle and high school principals participating in leadership coaching and what benefits result from principal participation in leadership coaching? Through the constant comparative analysis of individual and collective data obtained through semi-structured interviews, observations, and documental evidence of principals participating in leadership coaching, principals’ perceptions of their leadership coaching experience and any benefits were revealed. Overall, findings suggested that participation in leadership coaching was perceived positively and led to principals taking time to pause from their stressful roles and responsibilities to reflect and plan. Principals described factors that accounted for initially connecting with their coaches, such as client readiness and the coach’s experience, as well as the conditions established by the coach that helped build and sustain a healthy coaching relationship: safety, flexibility, action-orientation, and skillful guidance. Additionally, principals reported personal, professional, and organizational benefits resulting from leadership coaching. Personal benefits included better self-care, reduced isolation, increased self-confidence, and heightened self-awareness. On a professional level, coaching resulted in the generation of plans/ideas, improved communication, individualized professional development, and an enhanced sense of efficacy. And finally, organizational benefits were identified in areas of staffing, solutions, student performance, and the extension of coaching to others.Item Meta-Analysis of Design-Bid-Build (DBB), Competitive Sealed Proposal (CSP), Design-Build (DB), and Construction Manager at Risk (CMR) Regarding Selected Performance Metrics(2014-12-11) Jimoh, Moruf AjideThe need for a one size fits all type of project delivery system still persists within the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. However, owners still feel the need for a more refined system that could help meets their various demands within time and budget. These demands in part are due to the performance benefits the various project delivery system offers to project stakeholders. Ranging from higher project complexity to the level of communication and integration, these project delivery systems have been used to produce world class buildings and state-of-the-art projects. Unlike competitive sealed proposal (CSP), over the decades, traditional low bid design-bid-build (DBB), construction manager at risk (CMR), and design-build (DB) has gained significant credits and awareness in the industry due to their vast popularity and usage in different varieties of project type in the U.S and around the world. Several studies however have been conducted to quantify these performance benefits and wastes levels, in terms of the commonly used metrics namely; time, unit cost, cost growth, delivery speed, schedule growth, production rate, safety, project change, and project quality. This paper meta-analytically organizes and summarizes decades the construction literature that quantifies the differences in performance benefits and waste levels between DBB, CSP, DB, and CMR project delivery methods in terms of project cost growth, schedule growth, project change, and quality to unfold the trends, patterns and/or identifies possible differences in the results. Findings reveal that despite several research efforts, few studies present statistically significant comparative results between the studied project delivery systems for all the identified key waste and performance metrics. Other project delivery characteristics such as owner involvement, project team preference, project team chemistry and experience, project team participant`s involvement and entry time, and overall team characteristics was found across studies to have tremendous impact on the levels of waste, performance, and benefits associated with the delivery systems and project outcomes irrespective of the project delivery system adopted. Overall, this paper intends to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by summarizing decades of project delivery systems performance research, while identifying and comparing the range of project performance values that can be achieved by using DBB, CSP, DB, or CMR. The paper also intends to allow for an improved understanding and proper implementation of the studied project delivery systems performance.Item Parents learning online : informal education on parenting through online interactions examined from a community of practice perspective(2010-08) Matthews, Megan Renee; Schallert, Diane L.; Robinson, DanielThis study investigated the online interactions of parents using the constructs of Wenger’s (1998) community of practice theory. Parents were surveyed and blogs and comments selections were examined to determine whether a communities of practice perspective would be appropriate as a construct to examine parents’ online interactions, and whether parents could gain similar benefits to those found from face-to-face parent support groups. This study provides evidence to support the utility of parents’ online interactions and the relevance of a community of practice perspective as analyzed with the components of Wenger’s (1998) Communities of Practice Theory.Item THE RISK VERSUS ECONOMIC BENEFITS FOR THE ALTERNATE ROUTE OF THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE IN THE NEBRASKA REGION(2016-11-15) Young, Matthew Robert; Leipnik, Mark; Mukherjee, Falguni; Gong, GangKeystone is a project that extends from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast in Texas. It crosses an international border and is divided into two segments with the first segment extending from Alberta, Canada to Steele City, Nebraska and the second segment from Steele City, Nebraska to the Texas Gulf Coast. Lots of controversy has been raised about this project especially in the Nebraska region where it crosses endangered species, the Sandhills, and the Ogallala Aquifer. Thus, opposing sides were created involving environmentalist and “oil people” with both arguing whether or not the risk is greater than the economic benefits or vice versa. A GIS helped answer this question by using geoprocessing tools and combining several different variables for a risk assessment in order to create a map showing the overall risk using risk classes along the pipelines corridor. Percentages of the risk classes were then able to be compared to economic information involving county benefits such as taxation and spill cost. Although, with Nebraska being a Republican state the economic benefits received a higher weight in the comparison. Rankings were made for the counties but became subjective in which, risk assessments become subjective at some point. Additionally, spill cost was observed in comparison to the risk assessment and analyzed using a formula that was created specifically for finding the total economic risk of TransCanada. Other risk factors such as terrorism and pipeline diameter are mentioned in stating that the pipeline is prone to other factors.