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Title: Three essays on multi-stakeholder school governance : participation of parents, local communities and private partners in school management and finance
Creator: Sakamoto, Jutaro
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Education decentralization facilitates the participation of parents, local communities, and private partners in school management and finance, forming a system of multiple-stakeholder school governance. While their participation is expected to hold a school accountable for educational outcomes, engaging external stakeholders who are not education professionals and who have diverging interests may have adverse effects. Does the participation of external stakeholders in school management and...
Show moreEducation decentralization facilitates the participation of parents, local communities, and private partners in school management and finance, forming a system of multiple-stakeholder school governance. While their participation is expected to hold a school accountable for educational outcomes, engaging external stakeholders who are not education professionals and who have diverging interests may have adverse effects. Does the participation of external stakeholders in school management and finance improve educational outcomes? Whose participation really counts? What conditions need to be met to realize the purported positive effects of multiple-stakeholder governance? I examine these questions in three studies.The first study explores efficiency-equity tradeoff of engaging non-state stakeholders in public school finance. Financing public schools with private funds is expected to promote efficient use of resources while it raises concern for financial equity. However, private funds raised from different non-state stakeholders may have differential efficiency and equity effects. Using public school data derived from the Learning and Educational Achievements in Punjab Schools (LEAPS) in Pakistan, this study examines how private funds mobilized from parents, local communities, and private donors are associated with the efficiency of generating student achievement and the equity in school finance. The findings inform the importance of understanding effects of private-fund revenue that vary by its source and school type. This helps design cost-sharing policy that improves both school efficiency and financial equity.The second study explores factors that facilitate or constrain the influence of parents and private partners on school decision-making. Parents and private partners are increasingly engaged in school management as a means to improve education quality and outcomes. In multi-stakeholder school governance, external stakeholders are considered to be able to influence school decisions when their interests and concerns become elevated over the priorities and demands of other parties. This raises a question: under what conditions do their influence become salient? I used the stakeholder salience theory as a conceptual framework to identify factors affecting the influence of parents and private partners on school decision-making through a systematic literature review. The findings were applied to participatory school governance in Pakistan to examine how these factors affect the influence of external stakeholders in a particular context. Based on the analysis, I present a new framework that addresses the multi-dimensional and interrelated nature of stakeholder influence in multi-stakeholder school governance.The third study explores the association between parent participation in school management and student achievement in eight countries and economies. Engaging parents in school management is expected to hold the school accountable for educational outcomes. However, the evidence has proven inconclusive and limited in explaining mechanisms of learning gain/loss. Using the public school student data derived from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015, this study examines the association between student achievement and participation of a student's own parents in school management, which would affect their learning support at home, and the participation of a parent group, which would influence school decisions and thus affect the learning environment at school. The findings suggest the importance of identifying which mechanism accounts for positive/negative associations in order to design effective participatory school governance models.
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Title: Three essays in applied economics
Creator: Baker, Quinton James
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: My dissertation covers areas in applied economics: labor economics, public economics, and the economics of education. I use a variety of econometric tools and other economic analysis to study welfare program rules and regulations as well as assess the efficacy of a high school science curriculum. My first chapter uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), spanning 2003-2013, to estimate whether the ABAWD-specific 20 hour per week minimum work requirement influences...
Show moreMy dissertation covers areas in applied economics: labor economics, public economics, and the economics of education. I use a variety of econometric tools and other economic analysis to study welfare program rules and regulations as well as assess the efficacy of a high school science curriculum. My first chapter uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), spanning 2003-2013, to estimate whether the ABAWD-specific 20 hour per week minimum work requirement influences their labor supply outcomes and SNAP participation. I employ binary response models to estimate average partial effects (APE) and find the work requirement has statistically significant effects: ABAWDs are 1 percentage point (pp) less likely to participate in SNAP and are 2.6 pp more likely to meet the 20-hourwork requirement. This negative effect of the work requirement on SNAP participation is larger among non-white (1.37 pp), specifically blacks (2.09 pp), suggesting that the impacts of a work requirement must be considered in areas with higher percentages of minorities. This paper contributes to the study of ABAWDs, a relatively understudied population in the context of SNAP.Chapter 2 uses the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), spanning from January 2013 to December 2016, to study the effect of SNAP and Medicaid expansion on labor market outcomes (income, hours worked and employment status) and SNAP participation. Using a suite of empirical methods, I find no evidence that the interaction of the SNAP and Medicaid expansions has an effect on labor outcomes of the head and second adult in a household. However, I do find that the Medicaid expansion increases SNAP participation in states with the least generous state-level SNAP policy options. These findings demonstrate the importance of analyzing the effect of both expansions jointly, as both SNAP and Medicaid serve low income households that may simultaneously choose their labor supply and program participation.Chapter 3 uses data from the NSF funded project Crafting Engaging Science Environments(CESE), a cluster-randomized controlled trial to study the effect of project-based learning on the scientific achievement of high school chemistry and physics students in Michigan and California during the 2018-2019 school year. I extend the analysis conducted in Schneideret al. (2021) and use pooled OLS with school level fixed effects to estimate the treatment effect. I find sound evidence to support the findings in Schneider et al., 2021 that the CESE intervention had a positive and significant effect on students' scientific learning, even in the presence of multiple levels of attrition. The point estimates range from 0.24 to 0.34 standard deviations. Additionally, I compute the Lee Bounds for the estimates and find the bounds do not contain zero, suggesting that differential attrition alone likely does not drive the entire treatment effect.
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Title: Three dimensional analysis of the gas flow in piston ring pack
Creator: Kharazmi, Ali
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Cylinder-kit dynamics design in an internal combustion engine is highly relevant for the engine performance characteristics, durability and reliability. Since the middle of the 20th century, researchers have been using numerical models to describe the processes that occur in a ring pack. Because it is difficult and extremely costly to conduct experiments on every series of engines to check for the blow-by and oil consumption, a computational analysis can be performed on the ring pack to...
Show more"Cylinder-kit dynamics design in an internal combustion engine is highly relevant for the engine performance characteristics, durability and reliability. Since the middle of the 20th century, researchers have been using numerical models to describe the processes that occur in a ring pack. Because it is difficult and extremely costly to conduct experiments on every series of engines to check for the blow-by and oil consumption, a computational analysis can be performed on the ring pack to study the blow-by and oil-consumption characteristics. In this dissertation a 3D CFD simulation model is introduced to analyze the flow between the cylinder liner and the piston. This model allows for calculation of the piston assembly with consideration of the ring dynamics, transient boundary conditions for combustion chamber pressure and temperature as well as thermal distortion of the piston and liner. The determination of the complex geometry of the cylinder-kit is established in a STL (STereoLithography) format by considering the complicated geometrical details of the ring pack such as thermal distortion of piston and liner, ring twist and ring/groove conformability. The blow by and blow back is numerically calculated for a small bore cylinder operating at 2000 RPM and verified by the results of commercially available 1D models. The calculated velocity filed shows substantial circumferential flow in the piston ring pack that is dominated by the ring and groove geometry as well as the relative position of the rings end gap. It is found that the amount of gas that flows back to the combustion chamber increases when the in-cylinder pressure trace decreases from its peak value. The knowledge from this study can be used as a basis for further multiphase calculations containing oil flow such as oil consumption, oil evaporation and eventually cylinder-kit wear."--Page ii.
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Title: Three Essays on Panel Data Models with Interactive and Unobserved Effects
Creator: Brown, Nicholas Lynn
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Chapter 1: More Efficient Estimation of Multiplicative Panel Data Models in the Presence of Serial Correlation (with Jeffrey Wooldridge)We provide a systematic approach in obtaining an estimator asymptotically more efficient than the popular fixed effects Poisson (FEP) estimator for panel data models with multiplicative heterogeneity in the conditional mean. In particular, we derive the optimal instrumental variables under appealing `working' second moment assumptions that allow...
Show moreChapter 1: More Efficient Estimation of Multiplicative Panel Data Models in the Presence of Serial Correlation (with Jeffrey Wooldridge)We provide a systematic approach in obtaining an estimator asymptotically more efficient than the popular fixed effects Poisson (FEP) estimator for panel data models with multiplicative heterogeneity in the conditional mean. In particular, we derive the optimal instrumental variables under appealing `working' second moment assumptions that allow underdispersion, overdispersion, and general patterns of serial correlation. Because parameters in the optimal instruments must be estimated, we argue for combining our new moment conditions with those that define the FEP estimator to obtain a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator no less efficient than the FEP estimator and the estimator using the new instruments. A simulation study shows that the GMM estimator behaves well in terms of bias, and it often delivers nontrivial efficiency gains -- even when the working second-moment assumptions fail.Chapter 2: Information equivalence among transformations of semiparametric nonlinear panel data modelsI consider transformations of nonlinear semiparametric mean functions which yield moment conditions for estimation. Such transformations are said to be information equivalent if they yield the same asymptotic efficiency bound. I first derive a unified theory of algebraic equivalence for moment conditions created by a given linear transformation. The main equivalence result states that under standard regularity conditions, transformations which create conditional moment restrictions in a given empirical setting need only to have an equal rank to reach the same efficiency bound. Example applications are considered, including nonlinear models with multiplicative heterogeneity and linear models with arbitrary unobserved factor structures.Chapter 3: Moment-based Estimation of Linear Panel Data Models with Factor-augmented ErrorsI consider linear panel data models with unobserved factor structures when the number of time periods is small relative to the number of cross-sectional units. I examine two popular methods of estimation: the first eliminates the factors with a parameterized quasi-long-differencing (QLD) transformation. The other, referred to as common correlated effects (CCE), uses the cross-sectional averages of the independent and response variables to project out the space spanned by the factors. I show that the classical CCE assumptions imply unused moment conditions which can be exploited by the QLD transformation to derive new linear estimators which weaken identifying assumptions and have desirable theoretical properties. I prove asymptotic normality of the linear QLD estimators under a heterogeneous slope model which allows for a tradeoff between identifying conditions. These estimators do not require the number of cross-sectional variables to be less than T-1, a strong restriction in fixed-$T$ CCE analysis. Finally, I investigate the effects of per-student expenditure on standardized test performance using data from the state of Michigan.
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Title: Three Essays on Labor Market Regulation in the American Construction Industry
Creator: Hinkel, Matthew Phillip
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This three-article dissertation focuses on labor market regulation in the American construction industry.

Title: Three Essays on Demographic Issues in South Korea
Creator: Park, Narae
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: In chapter 1, I estimate the effect of a first birth on the labor market outcomes in South Korea over time using a method proposed by Kleven, Landais, and Søgaard (2019b). In many countries, the child penalty, which is the loss in earnings associated with childbirth, is large and persistent for mothers. My results show how the child penalty in Korea is different from the one in other countries. First, I find that Korean women experience a substantial penalty in earnings with a first...
Show moreIn chapter 1, I estimate the effect of a first birth on the labor market outcomes in South Korea over time using a method proposed by Kleven, Landais, and Søgaard (2019b). In many countries, the child penalty, which is the loss in earnings associated with childbirth, is large and persistent for mothers. My results show how the child penalty in Korea is different from the one in other countries. First, I find that Korean women experience a substantial penalty in earnings with a first childbirth compared to women in other countries. Second, while the child penalty in other countries comes from both the intensive and extensive margins, the penalty for Korean women arises almost exclusively on the extensive margin. Third, I find a substantial drop in earnings for mothers even before the child is born. Finally, to shed light on the source of the child penalty, I examine several of its correlates, including marriage, the lack of work benefits, and opportunity costs.In chapter 2, I analyze the effect of skewed sex ratios at birth on the marriage market. Due to high son preference and reduced fertility rates, sex ratios at birth were skewed from the 1980s to the 2000s in South Korea. This can affect the timing of marriage when those generations start to enter the marriage market. I use large administrative data sets, including the Population Census and the Vital Statistics. The results show that a high SRB delays the marriage of men, while women marry early. In chapter 3, I review the trend in fertility rates and policy changes and finds the source of low fertility rates in Korea. The Korean government spent over 200 billion dollars to increase fertility, but the total fertility rates continues to decline. I compare the trend in fertility rates in Korea with the one in Spain, Italy, and Japan. I show that the low fertility rates in Korea result mainly from delayed marriage.
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Title: Three Essays on Causes and Consequences of Violence and Conflict
Creator: Ayesh, Abubakr
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This dissertation revolves around the theme of violence, crime and conflict. It is an attempt at (a) improving the understanding of the causes of violence and crime, and (b) the consequences of violence and conflict. Specifically, the first chapter investigates if air pollution can be a contributor to crime, the second chapter looks at the labor market impacts of terrorism in non-war zones, and the last chapter tries to understand the human capital accumulation decisions of permanently...
Show moreThis dissertation revolves around the theme of violence, crime and conflict. It is an attempt at (a) improving the understanding of the causes of violence and crime, and (b) the consequences of violence and conflict. Specifically, the first chapter investigates if air pollution can be a contributor to crime, the second chapter looks at the labor market impacts of terrorism in non-war zones, and the last chapter tries to understand the human capital accumulation decisions of permanently displaced individuals.The first chapter looks at air pollution as a potential contributor to criminal activity. Using the seasonal variation in increase in air pollution --due to increased rice stubble burning-- in the Punjab province of Pakistan, I explore the relationship between air pollution and crime. I combine eight different sources of data and use an instrumental variable approach to estimate the causal impact of air pollution on crime. Air pollution increases both violent and non-violent crimes, but the increase in violent crimes is much more salient. A one standard deviation increase in seasonal variation in air pollution increases violent crime by at least 15 percent. Back of the envelope calculations suggest that the cost of increased crime due to air pollution are at least 5 million US dollars, but maybe as high as 600 million US dollars. One potential mechanism driving the estimates is the reduction in earnings for middle aged male individuals due to high air pollution. The results suggest that the social costs of air pollution are much wider than those previously considered. They also have significant implications for developing countries whose economies rely on agriculture. The second chapter of the dissertation looks at the impact of violence in non-war zones on incomes. A non-war zone does not have an active presence of the military, and it is not characterized by mass migration or shutting down of the economy. I use data from Pakistan on intermittent but sustained terrorist attacks for this purpose. After accounting for the intensity of the attacks, incomes reduce by about 2.5 percent on average due to terrorist attacks. However, the effect is almost twice in the same month in which a terrorist attack takes place in a district. The effects are more severe for low skilled members of the labor force as well as for relatively inexperienced members. The two potential channels driving this impact are the changes in employment compositions across different occupations and a reduction in the number of days worked. From a policy perspective, relief and welfare efforts targeted towards (a) the most vulnerable groups in the labor force and (b) the sectors of the economy directly affected by the violence seem to be the best possible response -instead of general aid aimed at overall rebuilding of the economy which is more relevant for a war or conflict zone. The last chapter considers the event of partition between India and Pakistan in 1947 that induced forced migration and permanent displacement of about 14.5 million people. I compare the educational outcomes of migrants and natives who were still in school going age when they were forced to migrate. I use a differences-in-differences approach. I also address the recent development in related literature on concerns related to identification, power, and bias in a differences-in-differences approach. I find that migrants are more likely to achieve certain educational milestones than their native counterparts. The results may be driven by the choices of older migrants pertaining to location and occupation. They also highlight the importance of an enabling and convenient environment for migrants which plays a crucial role in the pursuit of their educational goals.
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Title: Thinking, feeling, and creating with photography : widening the lens of visual research in education
Creator: Vellanki, Vivek
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This arts-based photographic research project consists of three written chapters and two creative works. The dissertation develops a focus on aesthetics, stories, and communities through photographic inquiry, which expands conceptualizations of visual research methodologies by interweaving the indexical/imaginary, art/data, and fact/fiction. Building on the works of artists, arts-based researchers, and interdisciplinary scholarship on visual research, the written chapters engage...
Show moreThis arts-based photographic research project consists of three written chapters and two creative works. The dissertation develops a focus on aesthetics, stories, and communities through photographic inquiry, which expands conceptualizations of visual research methodologies by interweaving the indexical/imaginary, art/data, and fact/fiction. Building on the works of artists, arts-based researchers, and interdisciplinary scholarship on visual research, the written chapters engage epistemological and ontological understandings of photography in educational research, close readings of Mahtab Hussain's photography examining the transnational histories and lives of the South Asian diaspora, and a study of methodology as a lifestyle choice. One creative component is The Passport Photo Project, which forms the basis for one of the artistic products (exhibition), traces the history of passport photos and reshapes understanding of these bureaucratic objects through collaborative art-making with immigrants and refugees. The second creative component is a photobook, Notes from the City, which offers photo-textual vignettes about migration, home, and belonging. Taken together, this dissertation demonstrates the multifarious possibilities for photography as theory, method, and artistic practice, while also attuning to the ethical questions that are yet to be addressed by educational researchers as we see drastic shifts in the role of the visual in our everyday lives.
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Title: Thermal properties of the gas in early-type galaxies and galaxy clusters
Creator: Frisbie, Rachel L.S
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Most of the baryons, or "normal" matter, found in galaxies and galaxy clusters are found in the hot, X-ray emitting gas known as the circumgalactic medium (CGM) or intracluster medium (ICM). The hot gas traces the gravitational potential well and is affected by both thermal and gravitational processes, so we use observations of the hot gas to explore changes across the galaxy or cluster's radius. Heating and cooling in the central regions of galaxies and clusters is primarily driven by...
Show moreMost of the baryons, or "normal" matter, found in galaxies and galaxy clusters are found in the hot, X-ray emitting gas known as the circumgalactic medium (CGM) or intracluster medium (ICM). The hot gas traces the gravitational potential well and is affected by both thermal and gravitational processes, so we use observations of the hot gas to explore changes across the galaxy or cluster's radius. Heating and cooling in the central regions of galaxies and clusters is primarily driven by feedback processes, including Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and Type Ia supernovae. We can use X-ray observations of the hot gas to understand its thermal history and how the various feedback mechanisms affect the gas at small and large radii. Furthermore, we use X-ray gas properties (temperature, density, entropy, concentration, centroid shift, and power ratios) to characterize galaxies and clusters, understand their evolution, and classify them in meaningful ways. The combination of observations along with theoretical models and simulations explored in this thesis provides key insight into understanding how feedback processes affect the hot gas.I begin by presenting gas property results for a uniformly reduced sample of 348 galaxy clusters and show how those results can be used to characterize the sample and for further galaxy cluster science. I will then turn my focus to early-type galaxies for the remainder of this work. I examine a sample of 12 nearby early-type galaxies with powerful radio sources and find that IC 4296 exhibits unusually low central entropy as previously observed in NGC 4261. We also find some evidence that the minimum of the ratio between the cooling time and free-fall time, if it occurs at the galaxy center, may indicate the presence of a powerful radio source. Finally, I examine the galactic atmospheres of a sample of 49 early-type galaxies. I will show that the equilibrium pressure and density radial profiles for single- and multiphase galaxies agree with the Voit et al. (2020) theoretical model. I also find evidence for a correlation between the central velocity dispersion and entropy profile slope of the galaxies in the sample that agrees with the theoretical model.
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Title: Thermal Characterization and Crystal Growth of the Germanium Telluride-Tin Telluride System
Creator: Levental, Gill
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Thermoelectric materials, which can create an electrical current from a temperature gradient within the material, are an important means of generating electrical power in very remote and harsh environments. However, their deployment in terrestrial environments has been limited, due to two primary factors: the high cost of thermoelectric materials and their low energy conversion efficiency- too low for economic use in almost all applications. One method by which thermoelectric material energy...
Show moreThermoelectric materials, which can create an electrical current from a temperature gradient within the material, are an important means of generating electrical power in very remote and harsh environments. However, their deployment in terrestrial environments has been limited, due to two primary factors: the high cost of thermoelectric materials and their low energy conversion efficiency- too low for economic use in almost all applications. One method by which thermoelectric material energy conversion efficiency may be increased is by reducing material lattice thermal conductivity, or a material’s ability to conduct heat through the vibrations of its crystalline atomic lattice, which are called phonons. In support of that objective, this work presents a characterization of fundamental material properties that influence the lattice thermal conductivity of the germanium telluride-tin telluride (Ge1-xSnxTe) system, a promising thermoelectric material. The properties characterized include composition-dependent coefficients of thermal expansion, speeds of sound within the material, and elastic moduli. These were characterized using high-temperature X-ray diffraction, resonant ultrasound spectroscopy, and high-pressure X-ray diffraction, respectively. This work also presents an account of the synthesis of bulk single-crystal ingots of several compositions within the Ge1-xSnxTe system, which will be used for an in-depth investigation of Ge1-xSnxTe phonon characteristics by collaborators using inelastic neutron scattering.
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Title: There is no such thing as the voiceless : listening to the voices of elementary youth to affect school change
Creator: Mauldin, Courtney Camille
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Using an arts-based methodology, this dissertation project moves beyond the traditional bounds of student and leader in schools by examining how elementary-aged youth of color are positioned to affect change within their school by way of centering student voice. Further, this study examines how school leaders engage the voices of elementary-aged youth of color. While there has been emerging research on the inclusion of student voice in the field of educational leadership, there is limited...
Show moreUsing an arts-based methodology, this dissertation project moves beyond the traditional bounds of student and leader in schools by examining how elementary-aged youth of color are positioned to affect change within their school by way of centering student voice. Further, this study examines how school leaders engage the voices of elementary-aged youth of color. While there has been emerging research on the inclusion of student voice in the field of educational leadership, there is limited literature that provides an in-depth description of how school leaders implement student voice in the elementary school setting. Drawing from a critical leadership framework and Black feminist practices and epistemologies, the aims of this study are to contribute to the literature on student voice in the educational leadership field and to examine the ways in which youth voice can influence more critically reflexive approaches to school leadership practice. Using an art-based approach in our weekly dialogue group allowed for students to create poetry, collage, and other constructed artifacts that conveyed their ideas about what leadership should encompass and the changes they desired to see in their school, society, and local community. Through a thematic analysis of field notes, artifacts composed by the youth, recorded dialogue sessions with youth and repetitive interview sessions with the school leader, this study documents both youth and school leader perceptions of student voice and leadership in the elementary school context.
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Title: The well-being of adults who volunteer with children at risk of child maltreatment
Creator: Bishop, Joshua Daniel
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The lack of sufficient foster care homes, their inconsistent quality, and their risk of increasing negative outcomes for children highlight the need for more people to be involved in roles that support children at risk of maltreatment and foster care. While volunteer opportunities exist for supporting children after foster care placements, few opportunities exist to care for children who are at risk of maltreatment and foster care. Innovative approaches are being developed to provide such...
Show moreThe lack of sufficient foster care homes, their inconsistent quality, and their risk of increasing negative outcomes for children highlight the need for more people to be involved in roles that support children at risk of maltreatment and foster care. While volunteer opportunities exist for supporting children after foster care placements, few opportunities exist to care for children who are at risk of maltreatment and foster care. Innovative approaches are being developed to provide such opportunities. These approaches may find support from an emerging literature that has found a positive relationship between volunteerism and well-being. However, no studies have investigated the well-being of those who volunteer with children at risk of maltreatment and/or child welfare involvement. This dissertation, which is an exploratory, cross-sectional, quantitative study, will address this gap with a sample of volunteers (N = 302) from Safe Families for Children (SFFC), a faith-based organization that works to keep children safe during family crises, prevent child maltreatment, and reduce the number of children entering the child welfare system. The aim of the dissertation is to investigate whether volunteering and/or motivation are associated with seven dimensions of well-being: Happiness, Physical Health, Life Satisfaction, Self-Mastery, Self-Esteem, Anxiety, and Depression.Results demonstrate limited evidence of significant relationships between volunteering and well-being dimensions. There is also limited evidence of significant relationships between motivation and well-being. However, an important finding of this study is that despite the high time and emotional demands of doing this type of volunteer work, there is no apparent decrease or drop-off in the well-being of the volunteers. Rather, they are happy and physically healthy. They report very low levels of anxiety and depression, and they demonstrate a high degree of Self-Esteem, Self-Mastery, and Life Satisfaction. While some may believe that working with children at risk of maltreatment is stressful and may result in a decrease in well-being (Tyebjee, 2003), the results of this study suggest that it is not the case for Host Families from Safe Families for Children.The Confirmatory Factor Analysis used in this study is a unique contribution to the literature. It robustly demonstrates very reliable methods for operationalizing and measuring seven well-being dimensions as well as four dimensions of motivation. The analyses and results in this study go beyond typically used measurements of reliability and offer strong evidence for reliably measuring well-being in future studies.The most important limitation in this study is the lack of control or comparison group that would allow for investigating the difference in well-being among SFFC volunteers and those who are not SFFC volunteers.This study offers reliable options for future studies to operationalize well-being and motivation in a way that encourages accurate comparison between studies. Future studies should consider whether using measurement scales that can detect small changes in well-being among populations that may have a high level of well-being are important. Implications for practice include recommendations for volunteer managers to focus on volunteer efficiency, the importance of social support, and motivation.
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Title: The water-energy-food nexus assessments of carbon neutral efforts
Creator: Xie, Yachen
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Efforts toward carbon neutrality are crucial for humans' well-being and the environment. Currently, two main ongoing carbon mitigation efforts are enhancing carbon sequestration and reducing carbon emissions. However, there are debates regarding the tradeoffs of these two efforts' related policies and action plans. This dissertation investigates and assesses the tradeoffs of carbon neutral efforts from a WEF nexus perspective. Three typical efforts were selected as assessment targets to...
Show moreEfforts toward carbon neutrality are crucial for humans' well-being and the environment. Currently, two main ongoing carbon mitigation efforts are enhancing carbon sequestration and reducing carbon emissions. However, there are debates regarding the tradeoffs of these two efforts' related policies and action plans. This dissertation investigates and assesses the tradeoffs of carbon neutral efforts from a WEF nexus perspective. Three typical efforts were selected as assessment targets to answer the overarching question of how carbon neutral efforts would affect the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. The Chinese conversion of cropland to forestland program (CCFP) is representative of carbon sequestration. The hydropower development in MRB is an example of the energy transition to reduce emissions. The coal power industry is the coupling effort of energy transition and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) applications in reducing carbon emissions. This dissertation consists of three main chapters, each corresponding to a journal article to address the three assessment targets. In Chapter 2, I evaluated the accomplishment of CCFP in China and its WEF nexus tradeoffs by applying remote sensing images from 2001 to 2019. The WEF assessment includes the transition matrix generation and the water yield calculation of the converted cropland and irrigation land. Indices related to WEF systems are also considered. In Chapter 3, a diagnostic approach with ten indicators was developed to assess the unilateral change's impacts on the WEF nexus. Using the diagnostic method, I provided statistical evidence of the benefits and tradeoffs of water, energy, food, economic prosperity, and the environment surrounding hydro dams in the Mekong River Basin. In Chapter 4, a scenario-based, life cycle coal power production assessment tool was proposed. By evaluating three portfolios or scenarios, the tradeoffs between reducing coal power production and CCUS application were revealed. This dissertation has successfully assessed the primary tradeoffs of carbon mitigation efforts from the WEF nexus perspective. The three studies can be wrapped up and come to three major conclusions: 1) The cons of major carbon mitigation efforts on WEF nexus and local sustainability exist, but not as speculated, especially for the CCFP and the hydropower dam construction. 2) The carbon neutral policies in China can accomplish their goals if adequately implemented. 3) The adaptive equilibrium between the CCUS application and coal power production reduction in China is crucial and needs to be better planned. The dissertation can enrich the carbon neutrality debate and fill gaps in the current literature on WEF nexus tradeoff studies on carbon mitigation by providing a remote-sensing approach and detailed coal modeling tools. The assessment tools proposed in Chapters 3 and 4 can be widely used by policymakers to understand better the tradeoffs regarding sustainability and WEF nexus in carbon neutral efforts.
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Title: The vector field method and its applications to nonlinear evolution equations
Creator: Abbrescia, Leonardo Enrique
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The vector field method was introduced in the 1980s by Sergiu Klainerman to analyze the decay properties of the linear wave equation. Since its historical debut, the vector field method has been at the forefront of several breakthrough results including the global stability of Minkowski space, the dynamical formation of black holes, and shock formation in 3D compressible fluids.This work showcases how the vector field method can be used in a systematic way to derive a priori estimates for...
Show moreThe vector field method was introduced in the 1980s by Sergiu Klainerman to analyze the decay properties of the linear wave equation. Since its historical debut, the vector field method has been at the forefront of several breakthrough results including the global stability of Minkowski space, the dynamical formation of black holes, and shock formation in 3D compressible fluids.This work showcases how the vector field method can be used in a systematic way to derive a priori estimates for nonlinear evolution equations. For nonlinear dispersive equations, these estimates can be married to the decay properties enjoyed by the solutions to derive quantitative asymptotics. This is done in this work through the lens of three concrete problems: a nonlocal kinetic model, the wave maps equation, and the relativistic membrane equation. For the kinetic model, the vector field method is paired with dispersive decay properties of the spatial density to prove global wellposedness of small data. This can be interpreted physically as "stability" of the trivial solution. For the wave maps equation, a stability result is proven for a "non-trivial" ODE geodesic solution. For the relativistic membrane equation, the vector field method is used to prove stability of large simple-traveling-waves. For the wave map and membrane equations, we intimately use several structural properties known as null conditions that preclude singular behavior.
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Title: The use of waste from orange juicing for food packaging applications
Creator: Fehlberg, Jack Alan
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Utilization of orange juicing waste (OP) as a filler material within a polymer matrix can add value to this agricultural waste and reduce dependency on non-renewable resources. This study aims to study the impact of OP filler's physical characteristics including size, loading, and retention or removal of zest on the properties of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and to produce LLDPE/OP films by blown-film extrusion. LLDPE/OP sheets with zest exhibited decreased thermal stability,...
Show moreUtilization of orange juicing waste (OP) as a filler material within a polymer matrix can add value to this agricultural waste and reduce dependency on non-renewable resources. This study aims to study the impact of OP filler's physical characteristics including size, loading, and retention or removal of zest on the properties of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and to produce LLDPE/OP films by blown-film extrusion. LLDPE/OP sheets with zest exhibited decreased thermal stability, larger OP agglomerates, worsened dispersion, and darker yellower colors and can act as UV- and light-absorbers. Larger OP particles increased air bubble formation, decreased mechanical properties, worsen dispersion, and produced darker yellower composites. Higher OP loadings resulted in LLDPE/OP composite sheets that have darker yellower color, decreased mechanical properties, and increased the size of OP agglomerates, as well as improved distribution and worsened dispersion. LLDPE/OP sheets that had properties most like neat LLDPE were sheets containing OP without zest and smaller particles sizes. This OP was used to determine maximum OP loading for LLDPE/OP films produced by blown-film extrusion. The LLDPE/OP films were subject to a sensory similarity triangle test and a comparison of package acceptance when different OP loading was used. This study found no difference in sensory qualities of bread when packaged in LLDPE/OP to neat LLDPE films. OP loading did not influence consumer perceptions of overall liking, appearance, surface roughness, color, or smell when LLDPE/OP films with 5 and 11.5% OP loadings were compared. This study demonstrates that OP waste can be converted and physically modified into a usable filler for plastic films for food packaging applications without altering the quality of the food product.
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Title: The thrombospondin-CD47 axis in skeletal fracture biology
Creator: Zondervan, Robert Louis
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Skeletal fractures are one of the most common traumatic injuries. While the majority of fractures go on to heal, the incidence of fractures progressing to delayed- or non-union remains a significant concern. Fracture healing and vascularization are closely linked through angiogenic-osteogenic coupling, which regulates the biology of bone development, homeostasis, and repair. Enhancing vascularization by disruption of anti-angiogenic pathways could be a potential therapeutic to improve...
Show moreSkeletal fractures are one of the most common traumatic injuries. While the majority of fractures go on to heal, the incidence of fractures progressing to delayed- or non-union remains a significant concern. Fracture healing and vascularization are closely linked through angiogenic-osteogenic coupling, which regulates the biology of bone development, homeostasis, and repair. Enhancing vascularization by disruption of anti-angiogenic pathways could be a potential therapeutic to improve fracture healing. Thrombospondins (TSPs) are an important class of anti-angiogenic molecules that are produced by mesenchymal cells in the fracture callus. While implicated in regulation of angiogenesis, the TSP interactome is complex and includes over 83 unique ligands. A dominant anti-angiogenic mechanism of TSP1 and TSP2 is believed to be through interaction with cluster of differentiation 47 (CD47), a ubiquitously expressed integrin-associated penta-transmembrane protein that also plays an important role in regulation of cell cycle and homeostasis of the immune system. The purpose of this research is to define the spatiotemporal expression of TSP2 during fracture healing, and to describe disruption of the TSP-CD47 axis in skeletal fractures. A new method to generate physiologically relevant fractures and improve experimental rigor is also described. TSP2 spatiotemporal expression in skeletal fractures was studied using TSP2 green fluorescent protein reporter (TSP2-rep) mice. TSP2 is expressed in the periosteum of uninjured diaphyseal bone. Expression of TSP2 decreases immediately after fracture and then increases in undifferentiated regions of the early fracture callus. As mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiate to become chondrocytes, TSP2 expression is lost. Immunophenotyping by flow cytometry confirms that the majority of TSP2 expressing cells are MSCs. In vitro assays demonstrate all adherent and colony forming cells express TSP2, but that the non-adherent cells are TSP2 negative. The effect of disrupting the TSP-CD47 axis on fracture healing was studied using TSP1-null, TSP2-null, CD47-null, and wildtype (WT) mice. Disruption of the TSP-CD47 axis has a variable effect on callus morphology depending on whether TSP1, TSP2, or CD47 is absent. TSP2-null mice show accelerated intramembranous bone formation. TSP1-null and CD47-null mice show an opposite callus phenotype of reduced bone volume and bone mineral content relative to TSP2-null mice. To focus on the downstream receptor rather than the thrombospondin molecule, disruption of CD47 was studied in the context of ischemic fracture healing using CD47-null mice and mice treated with a CD47 disrupting morpholino. Loss of CD47 limits recovery of perfusion after ischemia relative to WT mice. CD47-null and morpholino-treated mice show reduced ischemic callus bone volume and bone mineral content. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) from CD47-null mice exhibit decreased cellular proliferation and colony formation. Loss of CD47 also downregulates expression of stem cell genes and limits entry into S phase of the cell cycle. The TSP-CD47 axis is a potent regulator of cell homeostasis and has potential for therapeutic development; however, because of cell and context specificity, therapeutics should be cautiously developed and the potential for diverse off-target effects considered.
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Title: The systemic and regional hemodynamic changes responsible for 5-ht7 receptor mediated hypotension
Creator: Seitz, Bridget Mahon
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Serotonin (5-hydroxytrypamine; 5-HT) is known to cause complex dose-dependent effects within the cardiovascular system by altering vascular resistance and arterial pressure resulting in pressor or depressor outcomes. Increased circulating levels of 5-HT has been reported in chronic cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which 5-HT regulates cardiovascular system function under chronic conditions. Previous work in our laboratory found low doses of...
Show moreSerotonin (5-hydroxytrypamine; 5-HT) is known to cause complex dose-dependent effects within the cardiovascular system by altering vascular resistance and arterial pressure resulting in pressor or depressor outcomes. Increased circulating levels of 5-HT has been reported in chronic cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which 5-HT regulates cardiovascular system function under chronic conditions. Previous work in our laboratory found low doses of infused 5-HT causes a sustain fall in arterial pressure. The focus of my work was to understand the hemodynamic mechanisms that cause 5-HT-induced hypotension. A significant finding from my work was determining the activated 5-HT7 receptor is essential in mediating the chronic fall in arterial pressure with low doses of 5-HT. Rats lacking a functional 5-HT7 receptor (pharmacologically or genetically removed) resulted in no 5-HT-induced observed depressor response. At the systemic hemodynamic level, a decrease in total peripheral resistance (TPR) during 5-HT infusion was the result of an elevation in skeletal muscle blood flow mediated by the 5-HT7 receptor, which was measured with Doppler flow probes. Additionally, administration of 5-HT infusion relaxed splanchnic veins, via 5-HT7 receptor stimulation, when measured using novel imaging methodology. An increase in vascular capacitance from splanchnic venodilation is expected to affect arterial pressure by decreasing stroke volume (SV) and cardiac output. However, both SV and CO were elevated from the start and throughout the duration of 5-HT infusion, indicating that changes in vascular capacitance were unlikely to contribute to chronic 5-HT-hypotension. Previous evidence suggested chronic (but not acute) 5-HT-induced hypotension was dependent on activation of nitric oxide synthase. However, the magnitude of the pressor response to a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor was not significantly different between the control or 5-HT infused groups, concluding 5-HT-induced nitric oxide synthase may not be contributing. Collectively, my work provides insight into the unique cardiovascular pharmacology of the 5-HT7 receptor, a member of the 5-HT receptor family whose chronic cardiovascular effects have been little studied up to now. Future work should include: characterizing the impact of 5-HT7 receptor activation by endogenous 5-HT on chronic cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and heart failure; and evaluating whether it is possible to capitalize on the unique cardiovascular effects of 5-HT7 receptor stimulation for therapeutic purposes.
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Title: The search for the broken windows tipping point : a dose-response propensity score assessment of the relationship between disorder and violent crime
Creator: Podges, Alaina De Biasi
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Wilson and Kelling (1982) provide a simple instruction for the implementation of order-maintenance policing: direct limited police resources to the broken windows tipping point. In doing so, they imply a certain functional form of the relationship between disorder and violent crime. That is, Wilson and Kelling's (1982) description of the tipping point suggests that the disorder-crime relationship is best captured as a threshold effect. If this is indeed the case, then a proper test of the...
Show moreWilson and Kelling (1982) provide a simple instruction for the implementation of order-maintenance policing: direct limited police resources to the broken windows tipping point. In doing so, they imply a certain functional form of the relationship between disorder and violent crime. That is, Wilson and Kelling's (1982) description of the tipping point suggests that the disorder-crime relationship is best captured as a threshold effect. If this is indeed the case, then a proper test of the validity of broken windows theory should accommodate nonlinearity. To this end, this study empirically examined the functional form of the relationship between physical disorder and violent crime rate in Detroit, Michigan utilizing a dose-response propensity score methodology. To facilitate its analysis, this study utilized block-group level data on physical disorder, violent crime, as well as socioeconomic and land use characteristics from the Detroit Police Department's record management system, Motor City Mapping project, and Census. Despite its comprehensive analysis, the functional form of the disorder-crime relationship remains unclear. That being said, the bulk of the evidence favors a nonlinear relationship, with partial support for Wilson and Kelling's (1982) interpretation of the broken windows tipping point. Several directions for future research are identified in an effort to spur the cultivation of this undeveloped avenue of research.
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Title: The search for "self" : cultural identity through representations of parent-child relationships in "Instructions Not Included" (2013) and "Under the Same Moon" (2007)
Creator: Moulding, Charles
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This thesis analyzes the films Instructions Not Included (2013), a fish-out-of-water comedy drama about a single father from Mexico raising his daughter in the United States, and Under the Same Moon (2007), a melodrama which shows the quest of a young boy trying to arrive in California from Mexico in less than a week so that he can be reunited with his mother. Focusing on the representations of the parent-child relationship in the context of immigration that are presented in these films, this...
Show moreThis thesis analyzes the films Instructions Not Included (2013), a fish-out-of-water comedy drama about a single father from Mexico raising his daughter in the United States, and Under the Same Moon (2007), a melodrama which shows the quest of a young boy trying to arrive in California from Mexico in less than a week so that he can be reunited with his mother. Focusing on the representations of the parent-child relationship in the context of immigration that are presented in these films, this thesis addresses the debate between globalization and nationalism. The thesis analyses the films' representations of globalization, using the theoretical framework of Arjun Appadurai's "scapes" which postulates that there are five flows which enable people, ideas, and finances to cross political and ideological boundaries. Specifically, this thesis analyzes the implications of these representations for transnational communities and the development of cultural identity. Accordingly, this thesis also demonstrates how the representations of the parent-child relationship are effectively used to illuminate several aspects of immigrant and diaspora cultural identity using the theory of cultural identity of Stuart Hall to support this perspective. Finally, this thesis concludes by applying this analysis to demonstrate what role nationalist ideologies and politics play in the fracture of families, and to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of institutional attempts to curb or control forces of globalization based on the representations in the films.
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Title: The role of viral load in the progression of HIV diagnosis to development of AIDS in Michigan patients population
Creator: Channavong, Souliya
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Objective: The primary objective is to emphasize the prognostic value of viral load in the progression of HIV infection diagnosis to development of AIDS in the state of Michigan." -- Abstract.

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