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Title: How does a principal in Detroit Public Schools produce a productive learning environment within the current system?
Creator: Davenport, Marcus G.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: In this dissertation, the researcher investigates the success of productive learning environments in Detroit Public Schools. Using interviews with three productive principals from the Detroit school system, the researcher explores three related issues in public schooling. The first issue is the definition of a productive learning environment. By collecting answers from the principals about their definitions of productive learning environments, the researcher was able to find common themes....
Show moreIn this dissertation, the researcher investigates the success of productive learning environments in Detroit Public Schools. Using interviews with three productive principals from the Detroit school system, the researcher explores three related issues in public schooling. The first issue is the definition of a productive learning environment. By collecting answers from the principals about their definitions of productive learning environments, the researcher was able to find common themes. Among these common themes are: the safety of students, efficient hiring practices, team-centered efforts, and functioning school buildings. The second issue is about the obstacles that these principals face in creating a productive learning environment. The three principals presented many of their challenges in operating their schools, such as a lack funds, an unsafe environment, and a lack of qualified teaching staff. The third issue is the qualities that define productive principals in Detroit Public Schools. After comparing common traits and experiences between all three interviewed principals, the researcher identified several of these qualities, including open communication, acting as an instructional leader, being authoritative and energetic, and ability to build partnerships. The results of this dissertation will prove useful to urban school districts in Detroit and elsewhere in selecting future leaders and building productive learning environments.
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Title: The role of lateral hypothalamic neurotensin neurons in adaptive energy balance
Creator: Brown, Juliette Anne
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The lateral hypothalamic area (LHA), receives cues of energy and fluid status from the body and coordinates appropriate feeding, drinking and activity (e.g. adaptive responses) to ensure survival. The LHA contains many distinct populations of neurons, however, and it remains unclear how each of these contribute to energy balance. Here we sought to understand how LHA neurons expressing the neuropeptide neurotensin (LHA Nts neurons) coordinate distinct behaviors necessary for adaptive response...
Show moreThe lateral hypothalamic area (LHA), receives cues of energy and fluid status from the body and coordinates appropriate feeding, drinking and activity (e.g. adaptive responses) to ensure survival. The LHA contains many distinct populations of neurons, however, and it remains unclear how each of these contribute to energy balance. Here we sought to understand how LHA neurons expressing the neuropeptide neurotensin (LHA Nts neurons) coordinate distinct behaviors necessary for adaptive response and control of body weight. While activation of most LHA Neurons increases both feeding and drinking, activation of LHA Nts neurons specifically promotes drinking but reduces feeding. LHA Nts neurons may exert these divergent actions via distinct circuits, as they have been shown to modulate dopamine (DA) signaling and local orexin (OX) neurons. Consistent with this, we have distinguished two projection-specific and molecularly distinct subsets of LHA Nts neurons. One subset co-expresses Nts and the long form of the leptin receptor (LepRb), is activated by leptin and projects to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra compacta (SNc); we refer to these as NtsLepRb neurons. A separate subset of LHA Nts neurons lacks LepRb, is activated by dehydration and does not project to the VTA or SNc; we refer to these as Nts Dehy neurons. Intriguingly, however, we found all LHA Nts neurons are similar in that they express the inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA. We next investigated the role of the NtsLepRb subpopulation for adaptive response by studying mice lacking leptin signaling via Nts LepRb neurons. Loss of leptin regulation only via NtsLepRb neurons induced obesity, blunted adaptive response to leptin and to ghrelin (a hormonal activator of OX neurons) and dysregulated DA signaling. Finally, we defined the necessity of LHA Nts neurons for energy balance by genetically ablating or chemogenetically inhibiting them in adult mice. Prolonged loss of LHA Nts neurons decreased drinking, locomotor activity and deranged OX expression in target neurons that led to increased adiposity. By contrast, LHA Nts inhibition preserved OX expression but still blunted locomotor activity. Together these data suggest that LHA Nts neurons modulate physical activity that is not dependent on OX, but that the LHA Nts→OX circuit is necessary for regulation of drinking and adiposity. Collectively, our data show that LHA Nts neurons are necessary for regulation of adaptive energy balance, and that distinct subpopulations of LHA Nts neurons may control ingestive and locomotor behavior via OX-dependent and independent pathways. This work suggests that there may be unique LHA Nts circuits to regulate drinking, motivated feeding ingestive disorders such as obesity, anorexia nervosa, psychogenic polydipsia and dehydration.
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Title: Evolution and evolvability in changing environments
Creator: Canino-Koning, Rosangela
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "The specific meaning of the term 'evolvability' is heavily debated, but most definitions can be summarized as: the potential of populations and genomes to produce adaptive variation and complex structures in response to mutation and selection. Changing environments are thought to play a significant role in shaping and promoting evolvability through alternating selective pressures. In this dissertation, I will discuss my recent research on the interplay between changing environments,...
Show more"The specific meaning of the term 'evolvability' is heavily debated, but most definitions can be summarized as: the potential of populations and genomes to produce adaptive variation and complex structures in response to mutation and selection. Changing environments are thought to play a significant role in shaping and promoting evolvability through alternating selective pressures. In this dissertation, I will discuss my recent research on the interplay between changing environments, evolvability, genetic architecture, and the evolution of horizontal gene transfer (HGT), an information-rich mutagenic function that is ubiquitous in nature. Before delving into my own research, however, I begin in the first chapter by providing a survey of current literature on each of these topics, with emphases on how they are believed to arise, how they affect subsequent evolution, and how they relate to each other. Genetic architecture and population dynamics clearly have a complex interplay in ongoing evolutionary dynamics. Evolutionary history, population diversity, modularity, and task size all play a role in determining the location and characteristics of populations in genotype space, and alter the genotype to phenotype map that permits neutral genetic variation. All of these features contribute to evolvability. In Chapter 2, I demonstrate how changing environments provided a sufficient selective pressure to produce quasi-modular genetic architectures that allow for rapid adaptation to the meta-environment of environmental change. Horizontal gene transfer is a highly regulated, ubiquitous, and ancient mechanism for exchanging genetic material between unrelated organisms. In the third chapter, I explore conditions which may have led to the evolution of horizontal gene transfer through transformation, and identify mechanisms that might support its continued performance. In Chapter 4, I compare the fitness and phenotypic effects of the HGT process against other types of increasingly less information rich mutational operators. I demonstrate that not only is HGT selected for in harsh changing environments, but that other mutagenic instructions that contain less information, or provide lesser fitness benefits are not similarly selected for. In the fifth chapter, I explore the long-term evolutionary potential of populations evolved in changing environments by evolving two different populations, one evolved in a minimal changing environment, and the other in a rich changing environment, and exposing them to a brand new environment. I demonstrate that while populations adapted to harsh changing environments are indeed able to adapt quickly to previously seen environmental changes, that these populations do not fare as well in brand new environments. Rather, benign changing environments perform best in measures of task discovery and exploration. In the final chapter, I conclude with a synthesis of my results, along with implications for the field, as well as identification of some new directions for pursuing my research into changing environments."--Pages ii-iii.
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Title: Beyond the random brushings of birds : black women on the meaning of the saints to post-Katrina recovery of home
Creator: Gilbert, Marita Cori
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "The New Orleans Saints transformed themselves from worst to first in the National Football League (NFL), winning their first Super Bowl in franchise history five years after Hurricane Katrina. Observing New Orleans' unique celebratory culture, the media debated the team's success as symbolic of the recovery of the City. New Orleanians would disagree that this event, momentous as it was, connotes the work of recovering home is done. Instead, the Saints embodied a hopeful resilience. The team...
Show more"The New Orleans Saints transformed themselves from worst to first in the National Football League (NFL), winning their first Super Bowl in franchise history five years after Hurricane Katrina. Observing New Orleans' unique celebratory culture, the media debated the team's success as symbolic of the recovery of the City. New Orleanians would disagree that this event, momentous as it was, connotes the work of recovering home is done. Instead, the Saints embodied a hopeful resilience. The team functioned as a conduit to the practice of celebratory memorial, for which New Orleans is known--mourning sorrow through festive celebration. Celebrating the Saints (and their Super Bowl Championship season) exemplified the second line tradition--the cultural performance of home as a shared, embodied knowledge of transcendence blending a visual, emotional, and kinetic experience of narrative, rhythm, food, community, and resistance. Thus, the meaning of the Saints' success exceeded football--it provided a vehicle for New Orleans' cultural aesthetic of home. Still, there exists a dissonance between legitimated narratives and narratives constructed from lived experience--specifically those of black women, erased not only from the center of the "Saints as recovery" narratives but from disaster recovery narratives in their entirety. Black women's accounts were ignored, despite expressed intergenerational bonds with the team as fans and consumers, their experiences rendered undetectable. Indeed, the Saints are an important thread in the fabric of the post-Katrina recovery story. However, understanding the Saints as the story is a problematic act of epistemic silencing enacted against black women recovering home in real-time, possessing relevant narrative and theoretical contributions. This dissertation is a theoretical exercise, blending visual study and a black feminist epistemological framework to interrogate the narratives of black women on-the-ground to understand the meaning of the New Orleans Saints 2010 Super Bowl victory to the post-Katrina recovery of home. The project was designed as an 18-month ethnographic study, combining archival research, participant observation, and photo elicitation interviews with 7 black women (ages 23-81). Five images that depicted the Saints phenomenon as well as themes from extant literature accompanied a semi-structured interview schedule to empower participants as experts and encourage self-authored narratives describing the meaning of the Saints to the post-Katrina recovery of home. Findings suggest that the Saints' success is integral in the recovery of home--as the embodiment of New Orleans unique culture of celebratory memorial as step toward healing."--Abstract.
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Title: Feeling to see : black graduate student women (re)membering black womanhood through study abroad
Creator: Green, Qiana
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This qualitative research study illuminates the lived experiences of Black graduate student women who study abroad. I provide insights on how these students made meaning of themselves through study abroad. I utilized sista circle methodology, a culturally responsive methodology, to examine the study abroad experiences of 23 Black graduate student women. A critical lens was used to analyze and examine how relationships and interactions influenced participants' meaning making of themselves...
Show moreThis qualitative research study illuminates the lived experiences of Black graduate student women who study abroad. I provide insights on how these students made meaning of themselves through study abroad. I utilized sista circle methodology, a culturally responsive methodology, to examine the study abroad experiences of 23 Black graduate student women. A critical lens was used to analyze and examine how relationships and interactions influenced participants' meaning making of themselves through study abroad. Drawing on Black Feminist Epistemology (Collins, 2009), Endarkened Feminist Epistemology (Dillard, 2000), experiential learning, (Michelson, 1998), and participants' narratives, I created a heuristic representation of meaning making through study abroad. I focused my analysis of participants' narratives through three braided areas of inquiry: (a) influences of relationships and interactions with faculty, trip leaders, and peers; (b) interactions with Blackness in study abroad contexts; and (c) healing through relationships and interactions during study abroad. Findings revealed the importance of returning to one's body as a site of knowledge production. Relationships and interactions during study abroad triggered emotional and physical responses experienced in their bodies. As adult learners, "trigger events" are necessary for learning and re-negotiating new identities (Biniecki & Conceição, 2014, p. 39). These events challenged former knowledge and prompted the Black women in this study to expand their knowledge of self. Thus, participants' narratives challenge the Western notion of meaning making that emphasizes cognitive learning. Instead, the Black women in this study utilized their bodies as sites of cultural knowledge production. Triggering events prompted physical and emotional responses during study abroad and influenced participants (re)membering of Black womanhood. These findings contribute to the academic dialogue on Black graduate student women's study abroad experiences (as one aspect of higher education). This study can inform future inquiry into examining intersecting identities in transnational contexts, embodied nature of knowledge, and transformative learning in study abroad. I expand on these notions, and others, as I conclude this dissertation with recommendations for practice, and implications for research and theory.
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Title: Financial constraints and financing decision in cross-border mergers & acquisitions : evidence from the US retail sector
Creator: Li, Jie (Graduate of Michigan State University in retailing)
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Many global retailers in mature markets employ mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as an essential strategic tool to expand into foreign markets. Cross-border M&As are more likely to face financial constraints than other forms of investment and domestic deals. When facing different levels and types of financial constraints, retail Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) tap various capital resources to fund their overseas expansion. Effective, timely financing decision could enable retailers to capture...
Show moreMany global retailers in mature markets employ mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as an essential strategic tool to expand into foreign markets. Cross-border M&As are more likely to face financial constraints than other forms of investment and domestic deals. When facing different levels and types of financial constraints, retail Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) tap various capital resources to fund their overseas expansion. Effective, timely financing decision could enable retailers to capture opportunities that they would otherwise have forgone. More importantly, an acquirer's M&A financing decision may sequentially influence its future cash flows, financial leverage, subsequent financial decisions, ownership structure and profits of both acquirer and target. Given the substantial presence of financial constraints and the importance of financing strategy in cross-border M&As, the present study attempts to answer the research question: how do different types and degrees of financial constraints affect U.S. retail MNEs' cross-border M&A financing decisions? Based on cross-border takeovers with a U.S. retailer identified as the acquirer during 2002-2014, our findings suggest that abundant cash reserves and large unused debt capability are associated with Cash Only financing. We also find that acquirers are more likely to adopt Debt financing than Equity financing when they face meidum to high level of internal constraints and have large unused debt capbilities. Because majority of our sample are medium to large-sized, established, publicly-listed firms, our data do not support the hypotheses that the validity of pecking order would be challenged as the result of credit rationing in the debt market. As a result, our analysis partially supports the overarching hypothesis that Pecking Order Theory is conditional on financial constraints. The financial crisis was not found to have a significant impact on the choice between Cash Only and Debt financing. But our data is consistent with the observation that equity markets were the most volatile during the financial crisis. Our study should shed light on retail MNEs' best financing practices based on their financial conditions and should also inform policy makers' resource allocation decisions to help firms survive during economic tough times.
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Title: An assessment of protective factors in predicting juvenile reoffending
Creator: Barnes, Ashlee R.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Juvenile court practitioners use risk assessment to evaluate level of risk and criminogenic areas of need to determine the most appropriate consequence for young offenders, and to determine goals for case planning. Recently, juvenile court practitioners and researchers have gained interest in evaluating young offenders' internal and external strengths, or protective factors. Some scholars assert that incorporating measures of protective factors into the risk assessment process can increase...
Show moreJuvenile court practitioners use risk assessment to evaluate level of risk and criminogenic areas of need to determine the most appropriate consequence for young offenders, and to determine goals for case planning. Recently, juvenile court practitioners and researchers have gained interest in evaluating young offenders' internal and external strengths, or protective factors. Some scholars assert that incorporating measures of protective factors into the risk assessment process can increase the accuracy of identifying young offenders' odds of recidivating. Relatively few juvenile risk assessment validation studies have evaluated the predictive validity of protective factor items. Moreover, protective factor items that are included in many existing risk assessment tools are narrow in scope, particularly within family-, school-, and community-level protective factor domains. The current study examined the relationship between protective factors and recidivism for 278 young probationers from a Midwestern juvenile county court. The study was conducted in two parts. First, a strengths-based measure of risk of recidivism (Protective Factors for Reducing Juvenile Reoffending, PFRJR) was created and its factor structure and reliability was evaluated. Second, the predictive validity, incremental validity, and differential predictive validity of the PFRJR were examined. In the first study, the author identified two factors, Individual/Community and Family/Social; both subscales demonstrated strong internal consistency. In the second study, the author found no significant differences in mean level composite protective factor scores across gender, however African American offenders had significantly lower protective factor scores than White offenders. The PFRJR significantly predicted recidivism and time-to-recidivism, and produced AUC effect sizes that ranged from small to large for the total sample and across young offender subgroups. The author did not find evidence of differential predictive validity across gender, however the author found differential predictive validity by race/ethnicity. Regarding the incremental validity of protective factor scores, the PFRJR composite scores did not increase the amount of variance explained in recidivism after accounting for the variance explained by composite risk factor scores (as measured by the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory). Broadly, the current study highlights the feasibility of integrating a complementary strengths-based measure into traditional risk assessment procedures. Findings from the current study also contributed to the paucity of risk assessment validation studies that emphasized the predictive validity of protective factor scores.
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Title: Evolution of decision-making systems
Creator: Schossau, Jorden D.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Adaptive biological or engineered systems are adaptive because they can make decisions. Some systems such as viruses use their molecular composition – genetic information – to decide when to become lysogenic (dormant) or lytic (active). Others, such as self-driving cars, must use spatiotemporal information about obstacles, speed, and previous signs to determine when to turn or begin braking. Computational models of systems allow us to both engineer better systems, and create better scientific...
Show moreAdaptive biological or engineered systems are adaptive because they can make decisions. Some systems such as viruses use their molecular composition – genetic information – to decide when to become lysogenic (dormant) or lytic (active). Others, such as self-driving cars, must use spatiotemporal information about obstacles, speed, and previous signs to determine when to turn or begin braking. Computational models of systems allow us to both engineer better systems, and create better scientific understanding about the dynamic world. The practice of modeling decision-making started with the study of interactions between rational agents on the spectrum of conflict and cooperation began with Von Neumann and Morgenstern's Theory of Game and Economic Behavior.Scenarios, called "games", are models designed and studied to increase understanding of conflict and cooperation between these agents. The games discussed here are Prisoner's Dilemma and Volunteer's Dilemma. Modern methods of analysis for games involving populations of interacting agents fail to predict the final strategy distribution among all agents. In chapter 2 I develop a new computational agent-based simulation used as an inductive study system to compare the deductive predictive capabilities of an analytical model that is capable of predicting the final distribution under idealized conditions. Lastly, I show a novel finding that the agent-based model suggests probabilistic, or mixed, strategies (such as probabilistic gene expression) are a result of the development and maintenance of cooperation in Volunteer's Dilemma.Game theory fails to provide tractable models for more complex decision-making situations, such as those with complex spatial or temporal dimensions. In these cases an algorithm of conditional logic may be used to simulate decision-making behavior. Yet still there are systems for which the use of an algorithm as a model is inadequate due to incomplete knowledge of the system. Perhaps the model makes too many generalizations, is limited by atomic discretization, or is otherwise incomplete. In these cases it is useful to compensate for deficits by using probabilistic logic. That is, we assume that a stochastic process can roughly describe those subprocesses not fully modeled.Lastly, algorithms as decision strategies can incorporate temporal information in the decision-making process. There are two ways temporal information can be used in an individual's conditional logic: evolutionary, and lifetime. The evolutionary approach has proved much more flexible as a means to discover and tune models of unknown decision-making processes. Neuroevolution is a machine learning method that uses evolutionary algorithms to train artificial neural networks as models of decision-making systems. There is currently a wide diversity of methods for neuroevolution that all share common structures of the types of problems being solved: those generally being cognitive tasks. Toward this end it would be useful if there were some properties common to all cognitive systems that could be incorporated into the optimizing objective function in order to enhance or simplify the evolutionary process. In chapter 3 and 4 I explore new methods of improving model discovery through neuroevolution and discuss the applicability of these methods for probabilistic models.
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Title: Negotiating fairness : a feminist political ecology of fair trade and organic coffee production in Minas Gerais, Brazil
Creator: Meuninck, Rebecca (Rebecca Mari)
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This dissertation uses a feminist political ecology approach to explore the "fairness" of Fair Trade certification. I do this by examining the gendered social, economic, and environmental impacts of Fair Trade at COOPFAM, a Fair Trade and organic certified coffee cooperative in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Fair Trade is a third-party certification system that attempts to address social and economic inequalities facing small-scale coffee farmers, through floor prices and social development premiums....
Show moreThis dissertation uses a feminist political ecology approach to explore the "fairness" of Fair Trade certification. I do this by examining the gendered social, economic, and environmental impacts of Fair Trade at COOPFAM, a Fair Trade and organic certified coffee cooperative in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Fair Trade is a third-party certification system that attempts to address social and economic inequalities facing small-scale coffee farmers, through floor prices and social development premiums. In return, it requires equitable labor practices, adherence to environmental standards, and freedom of association and democratic decision-making within cooperatives. Fair Trade has grown over the past two decades, due to the liberalization of global coffee markets, and an evolution of consumers' desires which favor more socially and environmentally just coffees. In light of this growth, it is critical to ask, how "fair" is Fair Trade, is it equally fair for all farmers, and how do farmers perceive "fairness"? I use multi-sited ethnographic techniques to explore the "fairness" of Fair Trade; I followed the "thing" (coffee), and "the discourse" (the negotiation of fairness) along COOPFAM's international supply chain (Marcus 1995). I conducted interviews with and participant observation among Brazilian Fair Trade farmers and cooperative administrators, as well as foreign coffee buyers, Fair Trade activists, and certifiers. I then analyze the power dynamics in the Fair Trade system at the local level in homes, at the meso level at the cooperative, and at the macro level with their international partners. I argue that Fair Trade is advantageous for COOPFAM and her farmers, because of the assets they leveraged to overcome the common barriers that have stymied other cooperatives and farmers from obtaining Fair Trade and organic certification. Through Fair Trade, COOPFAM farmers enjoy access to international markets and networks of actors in the supply chain that connect the cooperative with social and economic programs. Moreover, Fair Trade provides an economic safety net for the farmers and the cooperative to experiment with novel production practices, technologies, and emerging certification systems. However, through an examination of COOPFAM's experimentation with new certification systems, the challenges of applying global standards to coffee production surface. Standards, first created to meet the needs of farmers in one locale and the desires of consumers in foreign lands, do not always translate well to other cultures and modes of production. Farmers and cooperatives negotiate these standards with buyers and certifiers, but they are on unequal footing. By examining Fair Trade through a gendered lens, we can see that the system is fairer for some farmers than it is for others. Poorer farmers, those who live far away from the cooperative, unmarried women, and widows are not as well served by the cooperative and may struggle to produce enough high-quality coffee to support their families. My exploration of farmers' livelihood strategies shows that Fair Trade coffee production alone is not sufficient to sustain farming families. Rather, COOPFAM's success and the sustainability of Fair Trade as a production system are reliant on farming families' diversity of livelihood strategies and continual innovation to improve coffee quality.
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Title: Synthesis and aromatization of biobased cyclohexenes
Creator: Nishizawa-Brennen, Yukari
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "In recent years, the cost of petrochemicals has declined by increasing production of unconventional gases such as shale gas, tight gas and coalbed methane. The main component of the unconventional gases is methane. Aromatic compounds are ubiquitous in commodity, specialty and pharmaceutical chemicals. Many aromatic chemicals are derived from benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX), which could be derived from methane. Biobased aromatic chemicals production may appear unnecessary since we can...
Show more"In recent years, the cost of petrochemicals has declined by increasing production of unconventional gases such as shale gas, tight gas and coalbed methane. The main component of the unconventional gases is methane. Aromatic compounds are ubiquitous in commodity, specialty and pharmaceutical chemicals. Many aromatic chemicals are derived from benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX), which could be derived from methane. Biobased aromatic chemicals production may appear unnecessary since we can produce BTX from methane. However, other factors need to be considered such as climate change, avoidance of toxic starting materials and/or byproducts, and significant consumer preference for biobased products. Because aromatics are generally toxic to microbes, biobased aromatic compounds are often synthesized from nontoxic biobased intermediates. An ideal strategy is a synthesis of biobased hydroaromatics that can be either dehydrated or dehydrogenated to aromatics in a single step. We can perform elimination reactions on biobased cyclohexenes possessing appropriately placed leaving groups. In the absence of leaving groups, dehydrogenation reactions need to be employed. This thesis focuses on biobased cyclohexenes that are aromatized either by dehydration reactions or by dehydrogenation reactions."--Page ii.
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Title: Fanning the flames : how U.S. newspapers have framed ten historically significant wildfires, 2003-2013
Creator: Terracina-Hartman, Carol Marie
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This dissertation examines U.S. news coverage of ten historically significant wildfires 2003 – 2013. Using framing theory with support from the Issue Attention Cycle, this historical study examines how wildfire (also referred to as "wildland fire" and "forest fire") is framed within the nation's print media over time and includes measures of news flow as well as five functions of frames: problem (including actor), attribution of responsibility, moral evaluation, and treatment recommendation....
Show moreThis dissertation examines U.S. news coverage of ten historically significant wildfires 2003 – 2013. Using framing theory with support from the Issue Attention Cycle, this historical study examines how wildfire (also referred to as "wildland fire" and "forest fire") is framed within the nation's print media over time and includes measures of news flow as well as five functions of frames: problem (including actor), attribution of responsibility, moral evaluation, and treatment recommendation. The coding protocol employs five frames: fire danger or threat; loss; conflict; resources, and recovery. Rarely have aspects of this news coverage, such as framing or news flow, been studied even though it crosses areas of high interest in communication, such as, hazard, crisis, risk, and public perception. From aggregate levels of data, this dissertation establishes that framing the severity of wildfire incidents ranges from a measure in terms of human capital, such as homes, historic structures, and other property, to loss in terms of life, such as firefighting personnel, unaffiliated citizens, wildlife, domestic animals, companion animals, and livestock. Other frames dominating the coverage suggest severity is framed by size, such as acres threatened or lost, the number of personnel involved in fire suppression, or environmental impact, such as air quality threats, water pollution, loss of timber, and conflicts over salvage timber sales. This result aligns with prior research on environmental reporting that suggests environmental news is framed in terms of capital value.This dissertation also poses a question about journalist source usage in coverage of wildfire; results show journalists rely in equal amounts on agency personnel (federal, state, local, or volunteer jurisdictions) and unaffiliated citizens who are either affected by a wildfire or are expected to be in harm's way. Interestingly, firefighters themselves appeared more often than expected as in other hazard reporting: press comments tend to be restricted to persons in authority (an Incident Commander would be a preferred source in major incidents, such as those selected for this study). Scientists have a high frequency, but rarely in the same article as a fire chief. Industry, such as insurance or timber sources, has minimal appearance despite the 15-month data collection timeframe per incident to allow for discussion of recovery and rebuilding.Whether space was allotted to discussion of fire prevention (such as the "Firewise Communities" campaign), preparation for emergency situations, and prediction of fireseason as a whole varied by state. Those with lesser population, such as Idaho and Nevada, saw the most coverage of fireseason predictions, preparation for fire conditions, and guidelines for preparing and updating supplies. Discussion of fire as necessary for biological systems did not appear as part of efforts to provide balanced coverage of wildfire. While this discussion might be appropriate for coverage of recovery, it would not be expected to appear as part of breaking news of a wildfire. Results show this discussion appears when journalists interview biologists, foresters, or silviculturists in discussions of fire exclusion or strategy.Finally, results show frame and source usage are tied to stages of the news cycle, Applying an adapted model of Anthony Downs' Issue Attention Cycle reveals that as the lifecourse of the issue progresses, different sources dominate news coverage but appear at nearly predictably stages of the news cycle.
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Title: Cognitive, affective, and dispositional components of learning programming
Creator: Lishinski, Alex
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Programming is a complex cognitive skill that develops over an extended period of time. The development of programming ability in introductory computer science courses has been found to be associated with a number of student factors, including cognitive, affective, and dispositional factors. Prior research on the student factors that are associated with success in programming has examined them in isolation from one another, and detailed pictures of the interactions of these factors over time...
Show more"Programming is a complex cognitive skill that develops over an extended period of time. The development of programming ability in introductory computer science courses has been found to be associated with a number of student factors, including cognitive, affective, and dispositional factors. Prior research on the student factors that are associated with success in programming has examined them in isolation from one another, and detailed pictures of the interactions of these factors over time are nonexistent. This dissertation focuses on building a detailed model of the factors that contribute to students' learning outcomes in programming. This study collected data from 612 students enrolled in an introductory programming course on a number of cognitive, motivational, affective, and dispositional factors over the course of a semester. Students completed measures of problem solving ability, metacognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy, goal orientation, emotional responses, and personality traits. Path analysis and multiple regression were used to examine relationships between these student factors and course learning outcomes from exams and projects. The data analysis was used to determine how these student factors interact with one another and relate to student learning outcomes, and to determine which of these factors had the largest association with course outcomes. This study also examined the influence of students' emotional responses to programming projects. Structural equation models were used to determine whether there were reciprocal effects between emotional responses and project outcomes. Finally, this study also investigated the influence of students completing a programming self-evaluation task on their project scores and self-efficacy. The results of this study demonstrated that problem solving ability was the biggest predictor of students' performance on both project and exam scores, whereas conscientiousness and extraversion were significantly associated with project and exam scores respectively. When all factors were considered simultaneously, problem solving ability was the strongest significant predictor of both project and exam score outcomes, and conscientiousness also significantly predicted project scores. The results of this study also discovered reciprocal effects between students' self-efficacy beliefs and their project outcomes. Finally, the self-evaluation intervention provided evidence of a positive impact on students' project outcomes during the intervention period, but no evidence of impact on students' self-efficacy. These results provide CS education researchers with evidence on which student factors are related to programming learning outcomes, when cognitive, affective, and dispositional factors are considered together."--Pages ii-iii.
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Title: Development of a work-based learning model for youth with disabilities from the perspective of employers
Creator: Sametz, Rebecca R.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: ABSTRACTDEVELOPMENT OF A WORK-BASED LEARNING MODEL FOR YOUTH WITH DISABILITIES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF EMPLOYERSBy Rebecca R. Sametz For youth with disabilities, transitioning from school to work and adult life often means overcoming multiple social, academic, and environmental constraints that may present as roadblocks to meeting society’s expectations of ‘successful transition’ (Lehman, Clark, Bullis, Rinkin, & Castellanos, 2002). According to the United States Department of Labor (2014),...
Show moreABSTRACTDEVELOPMENT OF A WORK-BASED LEARNING MODEL FOR YOUTH WITH DISABILITIES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF EMPLOYERSBy Rebecca R. Sametz For youth with disabilities, transitioning from school to work and adult life often means overcoming multiple social, academic, and environmental constraints that may present as roadblocks to meeting society’s expectations of ‘successful transition’ (Lehman, Clark, Bullis, Rinkin, & Castellanos, 2002). According to the United States Department of Labor (2014), the employment rate for youth with disabilities between the ages of 16 and 19 was 16.6% and the employment rate of 16-19-year-old youth without disabilities was 29.9%. In total, that is a 13.3% difference in the rate of employment for youth with disabilities compared to youth without disabilities of the same age. Further, the employment rate of youth with disabilities between the ages of 20 and 24 was 31.6% while the employment rate of youth without disabilities of the same age was 65.0% which is a difference of 33.4% between 20-24-year-old youth with and without disabilities. A gap remains when comparing youth with disabilities to the general youth population on factors such as high school graduation rates, readiness for the world of work, post-secondary education participation, employment rates, wages, and poverty levels (Turner, 2007). Further, a lack of alignment of the employer needs and expectations from employers is a shortcoming that is frequently encountered in the transition process (Rutkowski, Daston, Van Kuiken, & Riehle, 2006). To address the unemployment gap, work-based learning has been deemed an opportunity for youth with disabilities to apply academic and vocational skills and knowledge to real work situations as they develop the attitudes, values, problem solving skills, and behaviors that will help them in their transition from school to the world of work and adult life (Burgstahler, 2001). This study was conducted using qualitative methods to explore and describe employer perceptions of work-based learning in order to develop a conceptual model of work-based learning for youth with disabilities. Interviews were conducted with eight participants who were currently or previously involved in participating in a work-based learning program for youth with disabilities in the Lansing, Michigan area. Data for the current study was collected using semi-structured interviews that were done face-to-face with participants. The results of the study stress how employers describe work-based learning; and what factors do employers believe are important in the successful execution of a work-based learning program for youth with disabilities. From the results, participant’s responses were coded into five major themes: role of employer, critical factors, key stakeholders, targeted program outcomes, and challenges to program implementation. Additionally, a conceptual model emerged from the results of the study to help describe employers’ perceptions on work-based learning programs for youth with disabilities. Implications for practice, policy, and future research are discussed.
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Title: Stories of Cuban-Americans living and learning bilingually
Creator: Perez, Natasha
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This study explores the interplay of bilingualism, identity, literacy and culture for Cuban- American students in the Cuban diaspora. I contextualize their experiences within the social, historical, and political background of Cuban immigration, situating their stories within the conflicting narratives of Cuban-American imagination in the U.S., to explore how manifestations of Cubania shape the language and literacy practices of Cuban-American youth across generations and contexts, within...
Show moreThis study explores the interplay of bilingualism, identity, literacy and culture for Cuban- American students in the Cuban diaspora. I contextualize their experiences within the social, historical, and political background of Cuban immigration, situating their stories within the conflicting narratives of Cuban-American imagination in the U.S., to explore how manifestations of Cubania shape the language and literacy practices of Cuban-American youth across generations and contexts, within three U.S. states.Inspired by traditions of phenomenology and narrative inquiry (Clandelin & Connoly, 2000), this study is an intentional narrative "reconstruction of a person's experience in relationship both to the other and to a social milieu" (CC 200-5), drawing from three narratives of experience, including my own. The three narratives are based on the experiences Cuban- American adolescent girls growing up in different contexts, in search of answers to the following questions:a) For each participant in this study, what are the manifestations of Cuban identity, or Cubania? b) What are the factors that sustain different or similar manifestations of Cubania, both within and across generations of immigrants? c) How, if at all, do manifestations of Cubania shape the language and literacy practices of Cuban-American youth?The narratives in this study demonstrate how language, collective memory, and context become semiotic resources that come to bear on the diasporic identities of the participants. Our ideas about Cuban-ness, as well as our experience of Cuban-ness, are somewhat different,because of the ecologies in which we experienced the culture, as well as our unique family history with Cuba. The relationship between each family and their history with Cuba also shapes what Cuba is to these individuals, making it possible to have different imaginaries of Cuba, as they construct their Cuban identities based on the physical, historical, and emotional sediment that they stand on.Translanguaging emerges as a language practice that provides key opportunities to enact Cuban identity, as well as to feel connected to Cuban-ness. During times of developing proficiency, translanguaging becomes a scaffold that facilitates inclusion in conversations in their midst. For two participants, their experiences reading and discussing the bible in two languages through translanguaging serves to build and reinforce their Spanish literacy and fluency, as they use their academic language of English to inform their understanding of the Spanish bible. Thus translanguaging and religious literacies emerge as funds of knowledge and a bridge to biliteracy. However, constraints to translanguaging emerge for one participant, who has little opportunity to navigate spaces of Spanish use on her own, and becomes limited in her ability to hold conversations with Spanish speakers who cannot translanguage.This research on Cuban American students is timely, considering that Hispanics are the majority minority in public schools, and largest minority in at least twenty-two states, including states that previously had little contact with immigration at all (Pew, 2013).Such an in depth look at a small sample of students is helpful in teasing out the nuances that exist in areas that are known to be both foundational and meaningful to student success in school, such as identity and culture. However, these are nuances that are easily rendered invisible with when we engage in the project of categorization that essentializes all students as one thing or another, in this case, Spanish language heritage students as "Hispanic" or "Latino".
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Title: Evaluation of riparian community capitals and their relationship to adaptive lake management outcomes
Creator: Jermalowicz-Jones, Jennifer L.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: While inland lakes in Michigan provide multiple community benefits, the aquatic ecosystems in many of these lakes are now significantly degraded, resulting in damages to ecological integrity, decreased utility by citizens and a decline in the municipal tax base due to loss in property values. Lake communities vary significantly in their capacity to identify problems and implement programs to improve lake water quality over time. This study utilizes the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) to...
Show moreWhile inland lakes in Michigan provide multiple community benefits, the aquatic ecosystems in many of these lakes are now significantly degraded, resulting in damages to ecological integrity, decreased utility by citizens and a decline in the municipal tax base due to loss in property values. Lake communities vary significantly in their capacity to identify problems and implement programs to improve lake water quality over time. This study utilizes the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) to investigate what community capitals (assets) lead to better capacity and outcomes in terms of improved management of lake resources through implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs). It also evaluates the Trophic State Index (TSI) of the lakes relative to the various community capitals. The exploration of this approach may be used in the future to specify which assets are most needed for improving water quality. This research increases our ability to understand capital resources and ultimately make recommendations to individual communities for optimal management capacity. Statistically significant findings include a positive correlation between cultural capital and BMPs in riparian communities with active Lake Management Plans (LMPs) demonstrating that as cultural capital increased, communities were more likely to implement BMPs. Additionally, there were significant differences between BMPs and financial capital for the riparian communities. Communities with higher financial capital that had LMP's were more likely to also implement BMPs. Lastly, there were significant differences between human capital and BMPs for the LMP communities, indicating that higher human capital was associated with a greater ability to implement BMPs.
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Title: Investigating complexity in transcriptome expression, regulation, and evolution using mathematical modeling
Creator: Panchy, Nicholas Louis
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "To date, gene expression has been characterized in over one thousand species across more than a million experimental conditions. With this wealth of data, it is possible to investigate the role that differential expression has in key biological processes, such as development, stress response, and cell division. However, the complexity of the transcriptome makes the analysis of expression challenging, as a single genome can contain thousands of genes as well as millions of potential...
Show more"To date, gene expression has been characterized in over one thousand species across more than a million experimental conditions. With this wealth of data, it is possible to investigate the role that differential expression has in key biological processes, such as development, stress response, and cell division. However, the complexity of the transcriptome makes the analysis of expression challenging, as a single genome can contain thousands of genes as well as millions of potential regulatory interactions shaped by more than a billion years of evolution. To address this complexity, we can use the language of mathematics to create models of gene expression, regulation, and evolution that define the system in a testable format. In the following chapters, I will present research that applies mathematical modeling to the identification and regulation of cyclically expressed genes as well as the evolution of transcriptional regulators following whole genome duplication. Cyclically expressed genes were studied in two systems. First, I investigated day-night cycling or 'diel' genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Diel genes were identified de novo using two models of cyclic expression that jointly classified half of all genes in C. reinhardtii as diel expressed. To understand the regulation of diel expression, I clustered diel genes according their peak of expression, or 'phase', and searched for cis-regulatory elements enriched (CREs) in the promoters of each cluster. While I found putative CREs corresponding to each cluster, using these CREs to predict diel expression using machine learning performed poorly compared to previous models of expression regulation. Therefore, I changed systems to Saccharomyces cerevisiae and studied cyclic expression during the cell cycle. Here, I applied machine learning models to predict cell-cycle expression using regulatory interactions from four different data sets. These models out performed the previous model of cyclic expression when using regulatory interactions defined by chromatin-immunoprecipitation, transcription factor knockout experiments, and position weight matrices. Further gains in performance were obtained by combing interactions across data sets and using co-regulation by pairs of regulators involved in feed-forward loops. The most important interactions for predicting cell-cycle expression included not only known cell-cycle regulators but also two groups of transcription factors not previously identified as being involved in cell-cycle regulation. The evolution of transcriptional regulation was studied in Arabidopsis thaliana, which has undergone several rounds of whole genome duplication (WGD), after which transcriptions factors (TFs) are preferentially retained. Here, I applied maximum likelihood estimation to infer the most likely ancestral expression and regulatory state of pairs of duplicate TFs prior to WGD. Comparing this ancestral state to the existing TF duplicates, I found that one duplicate, the "ancestral' copy, tends to retain the majority of ancestral expression state and CREs, while the other 'non-ancestral' copy loses ancestral expression and CREs, but also gains novel CREs instead. Modeling the evolution of TFs pairs using as system of ordinary differential equations, I demonstrated that the partitioning of ancestral states amongst duplicates is not random, but occurs because the loss of ancestral expression occurs orders of magnitude faster in the first copy than in the second. This suggests that TFs duplicate pairs are preferentially maintained such that one copy is 'ancestral' and the other is not. Taken as a whole, the research in this dissertation demonstrates how mathematical modeling can be applied to studying the expression, regulation and evolution of the transcriptome."--Pages ii-iii.
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Title: Voices of Mayan Women in Plaza Comunitaria : poetica y educacion desde Yucatan
Creator: Ceballos Zapata, Abraham
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This study took place in a village in Yucatan, Mexico in the context of two adult education programs in Yucatan [Plaza Comunitaria and Preparatoria Abierta]. I interacted in convivencia with bilingual (Mayan-Spanish) Yucatec Mayan women who took on the challenge of completing their formal schooling through those adult education programs. Over 3 summers (2013, 2014, 2015) I immersed myself in the community and witnessed their educational efforts. Ethnographic and convivencia methodologies ...
Show moreThis study took place in a village in Yucatan, Mexico in the context of two adult education programs in Yucatan [Plaza Comunitaria and Preparatoria Abierta]. I interacted in convivencia with bilingual (Mayan-Spanish) Yucatec Mayan women who took on the challenge of completing their formal schooling through those adult education programs. Over 3 summers (2013, 2014, 2015) I immersed myself in the community and witnessed their educational efforts. Ethnographic and convivencia methodologies (Galvan, 2015) helped generate data. I analyzed data with methodologies stemming from the humanities, in narrative (Clandinin & Connelly, 2004) and poetic analysis (Görlich, 2016; Prendergast, Leggo, & Sameshima, 2009). Through my discussion, I explore how the efforts of Yucatec Mayan women prompt educators imagine possibilities for decolonial education and inform our pedagogical practices across multiple educational settings. By focusing on the voices of rural women as poetry, I evoke the rhythms and memories of their lives in indigenous communities and in educational settings. This emerging research has taught me life and professional lessons of education on the margins. I witnessed their ethos of familia, and solidaridad as they studied together. Most importantly, they showed me how studying and being in community are inseparable. -- Abstract.
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Title: Understanding the intersection of loneliness and recovery setting in older cardiac patients
Creator: Macomber, Catherine A.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Loneliness has significant negative impact on health. Loneliness is the difference between the amount of social support you expect to receive and the amount you perceive you are getting. Age is one risk factor of loneliness, and life events such as a move to a nursing home or the need for professional care to provide assistance with Activities of Daily Living also increase the risk of loneliness. There is little evidence comparing the experience of loneliness between settings of nursing...
Show more"Loneliness has significant negative impact on health. Loneliness is the difference between the amount of social support you expect to receive and the amount you perceive you are getting. Age is one risk factor of loneliness, and life events such as a move to a nursing home or the need for professional care to provide assistance with Activities of Daily Living also increase the risk of loneliness. There is little evidence comparing the experience of loneliness between settings of nursing homes and at home with home care, and yet much current policy sees aging-in-place, staying in your own home, as the most appropriate setting for growing older. This mixed methods study compares the experience of loneliness in two settings, nursing home and at home, and the influence demographics and social support have on this relationship. The theoretical framework used is the Health Belief Model." -- Abstract.
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Title: Enrolling in early college : agency and circumstance in the lives of rural students
Creator: Erfourth, Stavroula S.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Most empirical work on dual enrollment has been quantitative and concerned with issues of demographic participation (minority, first-generation, etc.) and college persistence (Carey, 2015; Cowan, & Goldhaber, 2015; D'Amico, Morgan, Robertson, & Rivers, 2013; Habersham, 2013; McCormick, 2010). Less research, however, has focused on the perspective of the students and how they perceive both their experience in dual enrollment programs and in their schooling and lives leading to the decision to...
Show moreMost empirical work on dual enrollment has been quantitative and concerned with issues of demographic participation (minority, first-generation, etc.) and college persistence (Carey, 2015; Cowan, & Goldhaber, 2015; D'Amico, Morgan, Robertson, & Rivers, 2013; Habersham, 2013; McCormick, 2010). Less research, however, has focused on the perspective of the students and how they perceive both their experience in dual enrollment programs and in their schooling and lives leading to the decision to participate. Fewer studies have concentrated on discovering student motivations for participating and to better understand their experiences (Hudson, 2016; Kanny, 2015; Wallace, 2015; Smith, 2015). As a group, rural students from economically depressed regions have not had the same academic opportunities as their urban and even suburban counterparts (Wallace, 2015; Koricich, 2013; Berg, 2010). By offering early college options, a particular type of dual enrollment program, to these students, school districts and their postsecondary partners can increase the college-going of their communities’ children, and perhaps positively impact the trajectories of lives. However, success of these early college programs is influenced by many things including the foundational development–academic, personal, and social–of the students that attend. To situate my work in this space, using the portraiture method, I sought to expand the limited use of work images and extend it by intersecting the idea with secondary students’ postsecondary choices, specifically as they apply to early college program enrollment. To accomplish this, I employed Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998) theory on human agency and Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) social ecology as a framework to guide questions to students about their decisions to participate in an early college program. I made use of Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis’ (1997) approach to producing a portrait, which is the product of the aesthetic whole. They believe, In developing the aesthetic whole we come face to face with the tensions inherent in blending art and science, analysis and narrative, description and interpretation, structure and texture. We are reminded of the dual motivations guiding portraiture: to inform and inspire, to document and transform, to speak to the head and to the heart (p. 243). In this work, I offer the portraits of four early college students from a rural, economically disadvantaged area who made the decision to attend college while still in high school and why that decision is valuable for them and the institution they attend.
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Title: Pathways to well-being during the cultural transition process : the daily experiences of Chinese international students
Creator: Wu, Ivan
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "The current study aims to increase knowledge and awareness of first-year Chinese international students' daily experiences of stress, coping, and psychological well-being. More specifically, the current study seeks to (1) gather data about the daily experiences of stress among Chinese international students at Michigan State University (MSU), (2) examine how appraisals of stress and coping affect their psychological well-being, and (3) investigate how trait mindfulness promotes their...
Show more"The current study aims to increase knowledge and awareness of first-year Chinese international students' daily experiences of stress, coping, and psychological well-being. More specifically, the current study seeks to (1) gather data about the daily experiences of stress among Chinese international students at Michigan State University (MSU), (2) examine how appraisals of stress and coping affect their psychological well-being, and (3) investigate how trait mindfulness promotes their psychological well-being by influencing appraisals of stress and coping. Research suggests that the cultural adjustment process can be particularly isolating and stressful experience for international students that hail from countries that are dissimilar to the U.S. (e.g., those from eastern cultures, such as China, compared to those from similar cultures, such as England). Despite the dramatic increase in Chinese international students at MSU and similar institutions, empirical information regarding Chinese international student experiences and needs is sparse, which hinders efforts to provide culturally sensitive and appropriate mental health counseling and student programming. Grounded in stress and coping theory (e.g., Berry, Kim, Minde, & Mok, 1987; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), the current study examines how perceived stress and coping strategies relate to psychological well-being. Specifically, the role of emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies was assessed. Building upon existing literature that underscores the psychological benefits of trait mindfulness, the current study also examine how trait mindfulness influences perceived stress, coping, and psychological well-being. Towards these goals, 30 Chinese international students from MSU completed an online survey on mindfulness, and psychological well-being, and then engage in a two-week daily diary about their experiences of stress and coping as well as their daily affect. A mixed methods approach was used to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data gathered from the study. Specifically, thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data in order to reveal themes related to reported stressors. Additionally, multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) was used to test hypotheses related to stress, coping, trait mindfulness, and psychological well-being in a cross-cultural context."--Pages ii-iii.
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