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Title: The rising risk of rising water : examining risk perception and other predictors of flood mitigation behavior
Creator: Rappolee, Eleanor
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: As a result of heat-trapping pollution from human activities, rising sea levels and increasing precipitation could within three decades push chronic floods on land currently home to more than 300 million people. Water levels in the Great Lakes, heavy rainfall, and flooding have all substantially increased in Michigan, causing erosion, water quality decline, and negative impacts on society. Taking action to mitigate flooding at all scales is essential to ensure social and economic...
Show moreAs a result of heat-trapping pollution from human activities, rising sea levels and increasing precipitation could within three decades push chronic floods on land currently home to more than 300 million people. Water levels in the Great Lakes, heavy rainfall, and flooding have all substantially increased in Michigan, causing erosion, water quality decline, and negative impacts on society. Taking action to mitigate flooding at all scales is essential to ensure social and economic sustainability. This study explores predictor variables of flood mitigation behaviors among Michigan residents in a proposed theoretical framework that synthesizes three behavioral theories: Theory of Planned Behavior, Values-Beliefs-Norms, and Protection Motivation Theory. This study also includes empirically measured actual flood risk in the theoretical framework, which is often left out in behavioral studies. Actual flood risk alone was found to weakly align with perceived flood risk and was a significant predictor of flood mitigation behavior during regression. However, when other variables were included, actual flood risk became an insignificant part of the model. Instead, subjective norms, perceived flood risk, self-efficacy, education level, having a flood-related home inspection, and having a basement emerged as significant predictors of flood mitigation behaviors. These findings lay the groundwork for future research and have implications for planning around flood mitigation and policy within and beyond the Midwest region.
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Title: Relationships between academic network and student engagement for construction education
Creator: Chen, Zhiting
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Student engagement is a significant predictor of student's academic performance that has shown essential benefits for collaborative learning in higher education. Activities of social networking are common practices for college students to pursue a higher academic achievement by taking advantages on collaborative learning. Nevertheless, there is a gap in understanding the relationship between student engagement and academic networking patterns. By involving Social Network Analysis (SNA) based...
Show moreStudent engagement is a significant predictor of student's academic performance that has shown essential benefits for collaborative learning in higher education. Activities of social networking are common practices for college students to pursue a higher academic achievement by taking advantages on collaborative learning. Nevertheless, there is a gap in understanding the relationship between student engagement and academic networking patterns. By involving Social Network Analysis (SNA) based research methods, this quantitative study explored the relationships between these two antecedents of academic performance at the individual level as well as the subgroup level in the construction domain. The self-reported interaction and engagement data used in regression analysis was collected from two construction-related undergraduate classes in the United States. The analysis results revealed positive relationship between student engagement and individual direct social connections with classmates. The subgroup-level correlations indicate that a small-sized low eccentricity network with efficient information exchanges is preferred by students to highly engaged in collaborative learning. These prominent findings suggest student leadership as a core motivator to facilitate all favorable engagement predictors uncovered in this study. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted to validate the student engagement framework. The author discussed implications for construction educators to focus on network-based interventions to advance understandings of student's needs and recommended effective instructional strategies for construction educators regarding student leadership development to optimize the outcomes of advanced course designs.
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Title: A systematic evaluation of computational models of phonotactics
Creator: Sarver, Isaac
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: In this thesis, recent computational models of phonotactics are discussed and evaluated and two new models are implemented. Prior phonotactic modeling, motivated by gradient acceptability judgments in nonce word judgment tasks (Albright 2009), claim that phonotactic grammaticality is gradient, and these models are evaluated by their ability to judge nonce words with scores that correlate with human acceptability judgments. Gorman (2013) argues that these gradient models do not account for the...
Show moreIn this thesis, recent computational models of phonotactics are discussed and evaluated and two new models are implemented. Prior phonotactic modeling, motivated by gradient acceptability judgments in nonce word judgment tasks (Albright 2009), claim that phonotactic grammaticality is gradient, and these models are evaluated by their ability to judge nonce words with scores that correlate with human acceptability judgments. Gorman (2013) argues that these gradient models do not account for the facts sufficiently and claims phonotactic grammaticality is categorical. In this thesis, the account of Gorman (2013) is implemented as well as a prominent gradient model from Hayes and Wilson (2008) and compared with the performance of two machine learning models (a support vector machine and a recurrent neural network), with all models trained on a corpus of English onsets. Results in this thesis show that the computational models are unable to correlate with human judgment data from Scholes (1966) as well as a categorical prediction of acceptability based on whether a sequence is attested in the lexicon or not, and that these models rely on assumptions which when challenged show that the models do not convincingly capture the gradience of the human judgment data used for evaluation.
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Title: Write before you speak : the impact of writing on L2 oral narratives
Creator: Bulow, Alyssa
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Current literature suggests that writing may better facilitate language learning than speaking practice alone, but direct empirical research demonstrating this is limited. Evidence is also limited as to whether grammar and vocabulary learned while writing can transfer to speaking. This study investigates the prediction that written planning, even more so than oral planning, leads to improved oral narratives. Thirty-four Spanish-speaking learners of English were randomly assigned to one of two...
Show moreCurrent literature suggests that writing may better facilitate language learning than speaking practice alone, but direct empirical research demonstrating this is limited. Evidence is also limited as to whether grammar and vocabulary learned while writing can transfer to speaking. This study investigates the prediction that written planning, even more so than oral planning, leads to improved oral narratives. Thirty-four Spanish-speaking learners of English were randomly assigned to one of two groups: writing rehearsal or oral rehearsal; rehearsal being individual practice before the final task. The writing group composed a story ending in the written modality while the oral group rehearsed by narrating theirs out loud. Both groups recorded their oral story continuation task as the final product. In order to compare the impact of writing versus oral rehearsal on learners' subsequent oral performance, final narratives were examined using complexity, accuracy, and fluency measures. Results showed that the writing group produced more fluent and lexically diverse narratives than the speaking group but there was no effect on accuracy, and limited effects on grammatical complexity. The study concludes with pedagogical implications for using writing tasks to prepare students for oral tasks.Keywords: L2 writing, complexity, fluency, story continuation task (SCT), EFL, benefits of writing for speaking, pre-task planning, rehearsal.
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Title: Fairness in AI-based recruitment and career pathway optimization
Creator: Mujtaba, Dena Freshta
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Work has long been a source of human livelihood, financial security, mental and physical well-being, dignity, and meaning. However, advances in computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and related technologies are expected to usher in unprecedented and widespread changes in the economy and society. It is estimated that by 2030 up to 14% of the global workforce may need to change occupational categories as the world of work is disrupted by technological advances. Many...
Show moreWork has long been a source of human livelihood, financial security, mental and physical well-being, dignity, and meaning. However, advances in computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and related technologies are expected to usher in unprecedented and widespread changes in the economy and society. It is estimated that by 2030 up to 14% of the global workforce may need to change occupational categories as the world of work is disrupted by technological advances. Many current and future workers that will enter the workforce lack skills that in-demand and future jobs require. In short, the landscape of work is poised for a major and unprecedentedly rapid transformation and this calls for a variety of strategies to meet the needs of workers, employers, the economy, and broader society.Motivated by these concerns, we investigate two key problems faced by organizations and workers in the future of work. As AI has expanded into human resource applications, organizations are increasingly using AI-based recruitment for sourcing, screening, and selecting talent. We explain how this can lead to biases in decisions and how this bias can be measured, review tools available for bias mitigation, and discuss future challenges for fairness in machine learning specific to recruitment applications. Alongside this, workers are affected not only by biased recruitment, but by the growing automation of tasks in occupations, which will increasingly require job and task transitions. To help workers navigate these transitions effectively, we propose a genetic-algorithm-based optimization engine to search for a worker's optimal career pathway in a network of occupations, given their current knowledge, skills, abilities, and other work-related characteristics. Overall, this thesis presents strategies for organizations to mitigate bias in AI-based recruitment and for workers to plan their career pathway in the face of unprecedented changes in the world of work.
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Title: Assessment of drinking water quality and related husbandry practices in North American zoos
Creator: Bohne, Christine E.
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Water is essential for life of all animals. However, drinking water might be of poor quality if it contains excess chemicals, nutrients or contaminants. Based on review of the scientific literature, the quality of drinking water in zoos has not been investigated.Therefore, objectives were to: 1) assess general quality of water in Association of Zoo and Aquarium zoos; 2) examine possible relationships among husbandry practices and water quality; and, 3) analyze iron concentrations in drinking...
Show moreWater is essential for life of all animals. However, drinking water might be of poor quality if it contains excess chemicals, nutrients or contaminants. Based on review of the scientific literature, the quality of drinking water in zoos has not been investigated.Therefore, objectives were to: 1) assess general quality of water in Association of Zoo and Aquarium zoos; 2) examine possible relationships among husbandry practices and water quality; and, 3) analyze iron concentrations in drinking water of zoos with black rhino. Forty zoos without and 10 with black rhino agreed to participate when randomly invited from a pool of 174 eligible zoos (29% response rate). Water samples were analyzed for pH, hardness, total dissolved solids, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, chloride, sulfate, nitrate, total coliform, and Escherichia coli. A water quality index was used to rank overall quality among zoos. A questionnaire about husbandry practices and drinking water also was completed by a subsample of zoos (n = 39). Over 85% of zoos used municipal water primarily. Three of 50 zoos (above the 90th percentile) had poor quality water. Majority (59%) of zoos responded that drinking water quality was considered in nutritional management. However, only 18% routinely analyzed drinking water. Zoos with Black Rhino were aware of the recommendation to formulate for low dietary iron to reduce Iron Overload Disorder. However, only 2 of 8 zoos with Black Rhino routinely analyzed drinking water for iron.
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Title: To translate a life : understanding the holocaust through autobiographical stories
Creator: Stieren, Amelia Naomi
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This thesis seeks to understand some of the aspects and events of the Holocaust through autobiographical stories, with a particular focus on what it means to translate one's life. As there are many different ways one can learn about the Holocaust, this thesis takes a comparative approach of the works of two authors with very different life circumstances: Ruth Kluger's autobiographical works weiter leben: Eine Jugend, and Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered, and Nora Krug's graphic...
Show moreThis thesis seeks to understand some of the aspects and events of the Holocaust through autobiographical stories, with a particular focus on what it means to translate one's life. As there are many different ways one can learn about the Holocaust, this thesis takes a comparative approach of the works of two authors with very different life circumstances: Ruth Kluger's autobiographical works weiter leben: Eine Jugend, and Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered, and Nora Krug's graphic memoirs Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, and Heimat: Ein deutsches Familienalbum. While both authors have in common that they have written their works in both English and German, the lives of these authors are remarkably different: Ruth Kluger is a Jewish survivor of the genocide from Austria, living in the United States, and Nora Krug is neither a survivor nor Jewish, but rather, a German living in the United States with familial ties to Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, in the translation of their lives into their works, both authors raise many questions and concerns about their identity, displacement (forced for Kluger, chosen for Krug), their sense or lack of belonging, and how different aesthetic forms are necessary for them in the constructing of their life narratives, and in tandem with each other, they offer a way to further understand the events of the Holocaust.
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Title: Influences of vegetated buffers on fish habitat in agricultural streams in michigan : implications for conservation
Creator: Ortiz-Gonzalez, Linda I.
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Agriculture provides food for humans and animals around the globe, however, it is also a stressor to ecosystems, including streams and the organisms they support. To reduce negative effects of agriculture on streams and ensure that it is practiced sustainably, conservation practices can help to address environmental concerns from agriculture. The goal of this research is to evaluate the utility of one conservation practice, vegetated stream buffers, in reducing effects of agriculture on...
Show moreAgriculture provides food for humans and animals around the globe, however, it is also a stressor to ecosystems, including streams and the organisms they support. To reduce negative effects of agriculture on streams and ensure that it is practiced sustainably, conservation practices can help to address environmental concerns from agriculture. The goal of this research is to evaluate the utility of one conservation practice, vegetated stream buffers, in reducing effects of agriculture on stream fish habitats. In Chapter 1, we test for influences of forested buffers on fish habitat 30 streams draining heavily agricultural land in the Grand and Saginaw River basins, Michigan. Forested buffers have historically been promoted to reduce nutrient and sediment loading to streams, but they also contribute woody debris, maintain geomorphic units, and improve channel stability by preventing bank erosion, and our results showed that more forest in buffers was associated with decreased sedimentation and less channel erosion. Additionally, we also found that wetlands in buffers were associated with reduced streambed sediment. For Chapter 2, we extrapolated results from Chapter 1 to streams in the Grand, Saginaw, Kalamazoo, and St. Joseph River basins in Michigan to identify where implementation of vegetated buffers may improve fish habitat. This resulted in a series of maps showing locations of streams with limited fish habitat based on a lack of vegetation in their buffers along with maps showing locations of currently protected lands to identify areas that could benefit from additional conservation practices. Results from both studies will aid stakeholders by proving information to help them protect or implement vegetated buffers in heavily agricultural watersheds to improve fish habitat.
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Title: Determinants of water source choice in the slums of Kampala : a spatial and institutional analysis
Creator: Nanteza, Rachel
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Water is a non-substitutable human need. However, water scarcity is prevalent among 60% of the urban population living in the slums of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), partly due to ineffective resource distribution and governance. Globally, access to improved water sources is used as an indicator for water access; hence different stakeholders have invested in providing improved water sources. Utilities and NGOs have deemed pre-paid meter public standpoints (PPMs) the most successful available...
Show moreWater is a non-substitutable human need. However, water scarcity is prevalent among 60% of the urban population living in the slums of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), partly due to ineffective resource distribution and governance. Globally, access to improved water sources is used as an indicator for water access; hence different stakeholders have invested in providing improved water sources. Utilities and NGOs have deemed pre-paid meter public standpoints (PPMs) the most successful available technology to extend pro-poor water services to the urban poor across SSA. In Kampala, Uganda, the national utility company (NWSC) adopted PPMs, not every water user in the slums chooses to use PPMs as their source for water. This research investigates the determinants of water source choice in Bwaise II, a slum in Kampala. I employed a mixed methods approach. First, I utilized GIS methods to present the spatial arrangement of the water system in the slum. Secondly, I utilized qualitative methods, namely interviews and focus group discussions with different water users, to answer questions investigating how, why, and when water users decide which sources to use. Results from this study present the changes in the water provision and access patterns in Bwaise II since the adoption of PPMs. They also present the perceptions different users have of different sources to specifically uncover the challenges users face when trying to access some of the components of the PPMs such as acquiring or recharging tokens. Findings from this study provide recommendations to improve the provision of the PPMs in slums to make them more accessible to the users.
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Title: Empowher : how a woman's presence in the boxing ring is rhetorical
Creator: Melendez, Jessica
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This thesis consists of two parts: a written analysis and a documentary, both of which explore women's experiences with boxing through storytelling. The activity of boxing has historically been male dominated, rendering women's voices and bodies invisible. This thesis analyses the ways in which women come together and engage in rhetorical action sharing their individual and community experiences at a particular boxing gym, Empower Lansing. Utilizing storytelling as my methodology and...
Show moreThis thesis consists of two parts: a written analysis and a documentary, both of which explore women's experiences with boxing through storytelling. The activity of boxing has historically been male dominated, rendering women's voices and bodies invisible. This thesis analyses the ways in which women come together and engage in rhetorical action sharing their individual and community experiences at a particular boxing gym, Empower Lansing. Utilizing storytelling as my methodology and documentary making as my medium, this thesis offers women's lived experiences in real time as they reflect on their relationships with boxing, while creating new meaning to what a boxing community can look and feel like. This thesis explores stories through lived experiences that have shaped my own understanding about what it means to rhetorically and materially feminize the boxing ring. The written portion of the thesis concludes with a call for rhetoric and writing studies to pay attention to women in the boxing ring, and includes directions for the next phases of my research.
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Title: Exploring the effects of technology use and overuse on well-being among emerging adult college students : a qualitative approach
Creator: McCarroll, Alexis
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Digital technology use, including smartphone and social media use, is increasingly necessary in the daily lives of emerging adult college students. The number of hours emerging adult college students spend online is increasing as they balance the multiple demands of their lives, including school and social activities. Additionally, concerns about mental and emotional well-being are growing among college students, who have an increased likelihood of experiencing problems such as anxiety,...
Show moreDigital technology use, including smartphone and social media use, is increasingly necessary in the daily lives of emerging adult college students. The number of hours emerging adult college students spend online is increasing as they balance the multiple demands of their lives, including school and social activities. Additionally, concerns about mental and emotional well-being are growing among college students, who have an increased likelihood of experiencing problems such as anxiety, depression, and stress compared to other adults. This thesis explores how both technology use and overuse impacts well-being and daily life among emerging adult college students. This thesis uses data from a series of in-depth, qualitative interviews from a sample of 19 college students aged 18-24 who self-identified as overusers of technology. Following an analysis of these interviews, it was found that technology overuse impacts the daily lives of college students who identify as overusers by making them feel anxious, creating pressure to respond to their social ties, making it difficult to focus on their education and social lives, and making it difficult to fall asleep at night. Positive aspects of overuse include feeling connected to others, improved mood, and personal development. Negative aspects of use include loneliness, feeling overwhelmed, and depressive symptoms. Based on these findings, implications for future studies are discussed.
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Title: SOLIDARITY & RESISTANCE : WOMEN’S PERSPECTIVES ON EMPOWERMENT THROUGH SELF HELP GROUPS
Creator: Mishra, Manasi
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Development interventions mostly aim to ‘empower’ rural women by increasing their income and livelihood but rarely consider the voices of their beneficiaries. I study the meanings and experiences of empowerment or nari shakti as understood and described by rural women who lead self-help groups (SHGs) engaged in savings, micro-credit and income generation. I conducted the research in the central Himalayan region of rural India in Uttarakhand State using in-depth interviews with 11 SHG leaders....
Show moreDevelopment interventions mostly aim to ‘empower’ rural women by increasing their income and livelihood but rarely consider the voices of their beneficiaries. I study the meanings and experiences of empowerment or nari shakti as understood and described by rural women who lead self-help groups (SHGs) engaged in savings, micro-credit and income generation. I conducted the research in the central Himalayan region of rural India in Uttarakhand State using in-depth interviews with 11 SHG leaders. The findings indicate that the participants experience empowerment as solidarity and collective power that manifest in the form of self-reliance, courage, and independence. The participants associate their self-reliance with courage and inner strength which they have built as a means to survive the pain and struggle. Their stories of nari shakti are also stories of pain and struggle.This research implies the need to examine perspectives of feminists on empowerment related interventions. Further research is needed on how micro-credit SHGs help build collective action that can challenge patriarchal power structures and bring about social change. Such research can help provide solutions on how non-profits can utilize feminist strategies of consciousness raising while still meeting donor expectations for the SHG programs.
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Title: PRECISION DIAGNOSTICS AND INNOVATIONS FOR PLANT BREEDING RESEARCH
Creator: Hugghis, Eli
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Major technological advances are necessary to reach the goal of feeding our world’s growing population. To do this, there is an increasing demand within the agricultural field for rapid diagnostic tools to improve the efficiency of current methods in plant disease and DNA identification. The use of gold nanoparticles has emerged as a promising technology for a range of applications from smart agrochemical delivery systems to pathogen detection. In addition to this, advances in image...
Show moreMajor technological advances are necessary to reach the goal of feeding our world’s growing population. To do this, there is an increasing demand within the agricultural field for rapid diagnostic tools to improve the efficiency of current methods in plant disease and DNA identification. The use of gold nanoparticles has emerged as a promising technology for a range of applications from smart agrochemical delivery systems to pathogen detection. In addition to this, advances in image classification analyses have allowed machine learning approaches to become more accessible to the agricultural field. Here we present the use of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for the detection of transgenic gene sequences in maize and the use of machine learning algorithms for the identification and classification of Fusarium spp. infected wheat seed. AuNPs show promise in their ability to diagnose the presence of transgenic insertions in DNA samples within 10 minutes through colorimetric response. Image-based analysis with the utilization of logistic regression, support vector machines, and k-nearest neighbors were able to accurately identify and differentiate healthy and diseased wheat kernels within the testing set at an accuracy of 95-98.8%. These technologies act as rapid tools to be used by plant breeders and pathologists to improve their ability to make selection decisions efficiently and objectively.
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Title: TEACHING STAFF TO IMPLEMENT MAND TRAINING WITH CHILDREN WITH ASD THROUGH TELEHEALTH
Creator: Rosalik, Shelby R.
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Telehealth services have increased substantially in the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, though little research exists to empirically evaluate the efficacy of direct ABA telehealth treatment or more specifically, how behavior technicians can be trained to implement such treatment. The present investigation utilized a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants to evaluate the use of an online behavioral skills training (BST)...
Show moreTelehealth services have increased substantially in the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, though little research exists to empirically evaluate the efficacy of direct ABA telehealth treatment or more specifically, how behavior technicians can be trained to implement such treatment. The present investigation utilized a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants to evaluate the use of an online behavioral skills training (BST) approach to teach behavior technicians to implement 20-min mand training sessions via telehealth with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The training phase of the study consisted of both role-play with feedback as well as feedback during sessions with the child participant. Results showed increases in behavior technician’s percentage of accurate implementation and rate of fully correct trials implemented following the training. Child participants also showed increased rates of independent mands following the BST implementation. Thus, BST may be an effective approach to teach behavior technicians to deliver mand training via telehealth.
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Title: GENERATION OF HT-B AND HT-B PLUS S-RNASE KNOCKOUT LINES TO UNDERSTAND SELF-COMPATIBILITY IN DIPLOID POTATO
Creator: Lee, Sarah
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Domesticated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the world’s third most important food crop and is a food security crop according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Currently, commercial potatoes are autotetraploid and mainly produced via asexual clonal propagation. The autotetraploid nature of most cultivated potatoes in combination with acute inbreeding depression when self-fertilized over multiple generations cause challenges in making advances with traditional...
Show moreDomesticated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the world’s third most important food crop and is a food security crop according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Currently, commercial potatoes are autotetraploid and mainly produced via asexual clonal propagation. The autotetraploid nature of most cultivated potatoes in combination with acute inbreeding depression when self-fertilized over multiple generations cause challenges in making advances with traditional breeding schemes. The benefits of moving potato to a diploid breeding model include a simplified breeding scheme, easier fixation of desirable alleles, and generation of inbred lines that may be used to generate F1 hybrids with heterotic potential. A major hinderance to self-compatibility originates from the gametophytic self-incompatibility (GSI) system in which the S-RNase and HT-B genes play a critical role. Utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, HT-B and HT-B + S-RNase knockout (KO) lines were produced. HT-B KOs produced parthenocarpic fruit but remained self-incompatible. However, the S-RNase and HT-B double KOs were self-compatible. Self-compatibility was measured quantitatively using fruit set, fruit weight, and seed count. Fruit set varied across both self-incompatible and self-compatible lines, with no clear trend in statistical significance. Double KO lines consistently displayed higher fruit weight than incompatible lines. Seed count served as the best measure of self-compatibility, with S-RNase and HT-B double KO lines producing up to three times mean seed per fruit when compared to S-RNase only KOs from prior studies. The lines with the highest levels of self-compatibility will serve as useful additions in advancing potato breeding to the diploid level.
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Title: EFFECTS OF TEACHING ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY-BASED STRATEGIES ON IMPROVING ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT AND PARTICIPATION FOR STUDENTS IN AN APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS MASTER’S PROGRAM
Creator: Dunnigan, Mikeya Renee
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) comes with rigorous work expectations and demands. ABA practitioners who are also graduate students must balance the extensive workload of educational and work expectations. Given these demands, graduate students providing ABA services to clients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) need strategies to maintain their own positive mental health in order to maintain high academic achievement and to prevent burnout. Using a multiple baseline design this...
Show moreThe field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) comes with rigorous work expectations and demands. ABA practitioners who are also graduate students must balance the extensive workload of educational and work expectations. Given these demands, graduate students providing ABA services to clients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) need strategies to maintain their own positive mental health in order to maintain high academic achievement and to prevent burnout. Using a multiple baseline design this study examined whether teaching 6 graduate students enrolled in an ABA master's program who were also working as part-time practitioners providing ABA services to individuals with ASD to use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-based strategies impacted their engagement and active participation during an online synchronous class. Changes in psychological flexibility, stress, and values-behavior were also examined. Although there was no functional relation between the training on using ACT-based strategies and the dependent variables, the lack of effects is likely because the participants enrolled in the study did not have baseline levels that indicated a need for intervention. Additionally, it is hypothesized that competing factors and stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic likely outweighed the impact of the training to use the ACT-based strategies. The results are discussed more in as well as implications for future research. Keywords: graduate students, behavior technician, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, psychological flexibility, stress, value driven behavior.
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Title: Harnessing Machine Learning Techniques for Large-Scale Mapping of Inland Aquaculture Waterbodies in Bangladesh
Creator: Ferriby, Hannah
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Aquaculture in Bangladesh has grown dramatically in an unplanned manner in the past few decades, becoming a major contributor to the rural economy in many parts of the country. National systems for the collection of statistics have been unable to keep pace with these rapid changes, and more accurate, up to date information is needed to inform policymakers. Using Sentinel-2 Top of Atmosphere Reflectance images within Google Earth Engine and ArcGIS platforms, we proposed six strategies for...
Show moreAquaculture in Bangladesh has grown dramatically in an unplanned manner in the past few decades, becoming a major contributor to the rural economy in many parts of the country. National systems for the collection of statistics have been unable to keep pace with these rapid changes, and more accurate, up to date information is needed to inform policymakers. Using Sentinel-2 Top of Atmosphere Reflectance images within Google Earth Engine and ArcGIS platforms, we proposed six strategies for improving fishpond detection as the existing techniques seem unreliable. The study area is comprised of seven districts in south-west and south-central Bangladesh. The tested strategies include: 1) identification of the best period for image collection, 2) testing the buffer size for threshold optimization, 3) determining the best combination of image reducer and water-identifying indices, 4) introduction of a convolution filter to enhance edge-detection, 5) evaluating the impact of ground-truthing data on machine learning algorithm training, and 6) identifying the best machine learning classifier. Each enhancement builds on the previous one to develop a comprehensive improvement strategy called the Enhanced Method for fishpond detection. We compared the results of each improvement strategy to the known ground-truthing fishponds as the metric of success. We compared the precision, recall, and F1 score for machine learning classifiers to determine the quality of results. Among the studied methods, the Classification and Regression Trees performed the best. Overall, the proposed strategies enhanced fishpond area detection in all districts within the study area.
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Title: AGGREGATE PLANNING IN MANUFACTURING OF REUSABLE CONTAINERS
Creator: Tao, Jinli
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Aggregate production planning (APP) is a method to make several decisions simultaneously on production, inventory, and workforce levels over a finite time horizon, aiming to maximize the profit or minimize the cost while meeting fluctuating demands. Building mathematical models that reflect real-world problems is often difficult, as the constraints are usually intricate and may interact with each other. Decomposing the interconnected system into a number of independent phases could simplify...
Show moreAggregate production planning (APP) is a method to make several decisions simultaneously on production, inventory, and workforce levels over a finite time horizon, aiming to maximize the profit or minimize the cost while meeting fluctuating demands. Building mathematical models that reflect real-world problems is often difficult, as the constraints are usually intricate and may interact with each other. Decomposing the interconnected system into a number of independent phases could simplify the problem; however, it may not guarantee the optimality of the best solutions due to the missed constraints between stages. In this study, two mixed integer programming models for the manufacturing of reusable plastic containers are presented. One is based on the flow of the material and the other is based on the level of the workforce at each period. The proposed models are able to (i) deal with varying demand, (ii) reflect various regulations and restrictions of public and private warehouses for storing materials, and (iii) identify the importance of subcontracting when demand increases dramatically. Both mathematical models are implemented in the case of packaging manufacturing. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis has been conducted on different parameters of the problem to test the effect of parameter changes. To sum up, the general framework of the mathematical models not only can be used for reusable container manufacturing but also the manufacturing of any type of product with a similar supply chain network.
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Title: A RISK BASED USER TOOL TO BUILD USER CENTERED LABELS FOR MEDICAL DEVICES
Creator: Estrada, Eric Joseph
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Herein we develop a user-driven, risk-based tool to inform the design of a standardized label for use with medical devices. Researchers identified 11 labeling inputs found on commercial labels and organized the inputs into a “Device Facts” box at 3 risk levels: high, medium, and low. mock labels and commercial labels were objectively compared by healthcare practitioners using a forced choice methodology where accuracy and response time served as dependent variables. Results suggested that...
Show moreHerein we develop a user-driven, risk-based tool to inform the design of a standardized label for use with medical devices. Researchers identified 11 labeling inputs found on commercial labels and organized the inputs into a “Device Facts” box at 3 risk levels: high, medium, and low. mock labels and commercial labels were objectively compared by healthcare practitioners using a forced choice methodology where accuracy and response time served as dependent variables. Results suggested that pairwise comparisons between labels (mock vs commercial) within a given risk category (e.g. high) yielded statistically significant differences at a confidence level of 95% for time to correct response. For both medium (p=0.0016) and high risk information (p<0.0001), the mock labels yielded a quicker correct response than their commercial counterparts. Only for low risk information were the commercial labels faster (p<0.0001). The gains in speed made in high/moderate risk information were not attributable trade-off. Mock labels were at least as accurate as their commercial counterparts; low and high risk yielded no sign of significant difference when mock and commercial were compared and participants were significantly more accurate with questions requiring medium risk information for the mock labels.
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Title: DEVELOPING A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR PACKAGING POSTPONEMENT
Creator: Yuan, Tingyu
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Postponement refers to a strategy which intentionally delays supply chain activities until the demand is known. Postponement decreases safety stock and the holding cost, while also incurring some additional costs. The main focus of this study is packaging postponement which is recommended if only the packaging of products destined at multiple retailers are different. This thesis summarizes research that exclusively studied packaging postponement and presents a decision support system that...
Show morePostponement refers to a strategy which intentionally delays supply chain activities until the demand is known. Postponement decreases safety stock and the holding cost, while also incurring some additional costs. The main focus of this study is packaging postponement which is recommended if only the packaging of products destined at multiple retailers are different. This thesis summarizes research that exclusively studied packaging postponement and presents a decision support system that determines which postponement strategy, i.e., full, partial (tailored), or no postponement, is optimal. The decision support system is a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model with the objective of minimizing total costs, including the holding cost and the additional cost, and is constrained by the limited capacity of packaging production at a distribution center and the integrity of variables. In this research, the impact of various factors on optimal packaging postponement strategy is also analyzed. To sum up, this research provides a collection of research papers that exclusively studied packaging postponement and presents a decision support model for packaging postponement.
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