As software engineering is a socio-technical research field, there is a myriad of research strategies and data sources that researchers need to consider when designing their studies. These choices determine different tradeoffs in terms of generalizability, realism, and control, among other aspects of research quality. It is not possible to create a perfect study, so these strengths and weaknesses are acceptable at the study level; however, when a research community's collective body of work suffers from an imbalance in these tradeoffs it can negatively impact overall research quality. Through this thesis, I investigate the research strategies and data sources that are used by the software engineering research community, and reflect on how this may affect aspects of research quality in our collective body of work. I apply Runkel and McGrath's models of research strategies and data sources to the software engineering domain through a systematic mapping study of three years of International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) proceedings and a mixed-methods survey of the authors of these papers. I found that a majority of papers report computational studies relying on trace measures rather than active human participation, showing an imbalance where generalizability and realism are prioritized over control. Through my survey, I confirmed that researcher participants explicitly prioritized realism and generalizability over control, impacting their research design choices. This imbalance in prioritization has the potential to lead to a collective failure to control for extraneous factors in the measurement of human behavior in software development, and without understanding what causes the behaviors we measure, we cannot fully understand why certain approaches and techniques work better than others, thus slowing our ability to advance as a research domain. Therefore, I present a call to action for the community to critically examine and discuss the issues raised by this research, and implement changes to increase the quality and diversity of our future work as a community. / Graduate / 2019-08-08

This dissertation examines the research methods that were used by doctoral students in Public Administration from the period 2000 to 2005. In order to identify the research methods used, it first looked at the purpose of doctoral research in Public Administration. It further identified ten research methods that can be used by doctoral students in Public Administration. When presenting the findings on the purposes of research it was found that 50% of the theses were descriptive and 30% were aimed at developing or improving administrative technology. Three categories were mainly used as units of analyses, namely interventions, organisations and institutions and social actions and events. The units of observations included individuals, official documents and scholarly literature. Of the ten research methods, only four were mostly used; Quantitative1, Hermeneutics, Qualitative1 and Qualitative2. This dissertation also identified that a significant association either exists or do not exist between the chosen variables. / Public Administration and Management / M.A. (Public Administration)

abstract: Time metric is an important consideration for all longitudinal models because it can influence the interpretation of estimates, parameter estimate accuracy, and model convergence in longitudinal models with latent variables. Currently, the literature on latent difference score (LDS) models does not discuss the importance of time metric. Furthermore, there is little research using simulations to investigate LDS models. This study examined the influence of time metric on model estimation, interpretation, parameter estimate accuracy, and convergence in LDS models using empirical simulations. Results indicated that for a time structure with a true time metric where participants had different starting points and unequally spaced intervals, LDS models fit with a restructured and less informative time metric resulted in biased parameter estimates. However, models examined using the true time metric were less likely to converge than models using the restructured time metric, likely due to missing data. Where participants had different starting points but equally spaced intervals, LDS models fit with a restructured time metric resulted in biased estimates of intercept means, but all other parameter estimates were unbiased, and models examined using the true time metric had less convergence than the restructured time metric as well due to missing data. The findings of this study support prior research on time metric in longitudinal models, and further research should examine these findings under alternative conditions. The importance of these findings for substantive researchers is discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2016

abstract: The Yavapai-Apache Nation represents one American Indian tribe whose experiences of historical trauma and alternative responses to historical trauma is not fully understood. This study sought to explore the presence of historical trauma among individuals who did not directly experience events of historical trauma, and ways those individuals have dealt with the possible impact of historical trauma. The foundation of this research reflected that pathological outcomes may not be universal responses to historical trauma for a sample of Yavapai-Apache Nation college graduates, as evidenced by their academic success, positive life outcomes, and resilience. The study utilized Indigenous methodologies and conversational and semi-structured interviews with Yavapai-Apache Nation co-researchers and four central themes emerged. The first theme of Family indicated the Yavapai-Apache Nation co-researchers with a strong orientation toward the family. Families provided support and this positive perception of family support provided the encouragement needed to cope with various experiences in their lives, including school, raising their own families, career goals and helping to impart teachings to their own children or youth within the community. The second theme, Identity, indicated the co-researchers experienced the effects of historical trauma through the loss of language, culture and identity and that while losses were ongoing, they acknowledged the necessity of identity re-vitalization. The third theme, Survival, indicated that despite hardships, the co-researchers acknowledge survival as a collective effort and achieved by an individual’s efforts within the group. The co-researchers described their personal understanding of education and success. They also discussed how they contribute to the survival of the Yavapai-Apache Nation. The fourth theme, Intersection, indicated the co-researchers’ stories and experiences in which the themes of family, identity and survival intersected with one another. It was necessary to include this final theme to show respect for the co-researchers’ stories and experiences. Also discussed are the study’s strengths, limitations, and the implications for research with the Yavapai-Apache Nation and research with Indigenous Communities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Social Work 2018

A valorização dos limites éticos, no que diz respeito à abordagem às pessoas, em pesquisas em que utilizem instrumentos contendo questionamentos é pouco considerada. Pensa-se que o risco para os participantes é quase nulo, uma vez que a utilização de tais instrumentos não envolve danos físicos. Deste modo, parece não estar muito clara para os pesquisadores a importância da reflexão sobre estes tipos de instrumentos de coleta de dados como possíveis geradores de riscos de ordem não-física (psicológicos, morais, sociais, espirituais). Assim sendo, este estudo teve como objetivo reconhecer os tipos de assuntos/questões que possam trazer algum tipo de constrangimento ou mesmo danos a sujeitos de pesquisa vulneráveis (ou não) circunstancialmente. Tratou-se de um estudo prospectivo, comparativo, de abordagem quantitativa onde foram abordados ao todo 1149 sujeitos de pesquisa subdivididos em população vulnerável e não vulnerável circunstancialmente. Tais populações foram convidadas a participar do estudo atribuindo graus de constrangimento relacionado a tópicos de sensibilidade e a situações possivelmente constrangedoras em pesquisa. Foram levantados como assuntos potencialmente constrangedores, falar sobre: traição, violência física, provocação sexual no trabalho, abuso sexual, violência psicológica, morte de pessoas próximas e questões envolvendo a sexualidade e o comportamento amoroso. Contudo, chamanos a atenção, como resultado, o fato de que o constrangimento aumenta se consideradas as condições nas quais tais assuntos são abordados, foram citadas: a falta de autorização/consentimento, a falta de esclarecimento prévio acerca do tipo de questões a serem abordadas, a questão do sigilo e anonimato e o uso de imagens ou gravador. Tais resultados trazem subsídios importantes para a avaliação ética por parte de pesquisadores e de Comitês de Ética em Pesquisa com Seres Humanos, no que diz respeito à prevenção de riscos em pesquisas com questionamentos. / The importance of ethical limits concerning the approaching of subjects in research that use poll instruments is not much considered. People think that the risk for the participants is almost null, assuming that such instruments do not cause any physical damages. This way, the importance of this reflection seems not to be very clear for the investigators using these types of instruments of data collection as possible creators of non-physical risks such as psychological, moral, social and spiritual. Thus, this study aimed at recognizing the types of subjects/questions that could bring some types of embarrassment or even damages to vulnerable (or not) subjects of research, eventually. This was a prospective, comparative, quantitative approach which addressed 1149 subjects of research subdivided into vulnerable and not vulnerable population, circumstantially. These people were invited to participate in the study giving a degree of embarrassment related to sensitive topics and possibly embarrassing situations in research. Issues were raised as potentially embarrassing, such as: betrayal, physical violence, sexual bullying at work, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and death of close people, questions involving sexuality and loving behavior issues. However, it calls us the attention, as a result, to the fact that the embarrassment may increase if considered the conditions under which such topics are approached, such as: the lack of authorization/consent, the lack of prior information about the type of questions to be addressed, the issue of confidentiality and anonymity and the use of images or recorder. These results provide important subsidies for the ethical evaluation by researchers and Research Ethics Committees involving human beings, regarding the prevention of risks in studies with polls.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-04-06T14:40:56Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação[Final] - Thiago Rodrigues Cavalcanti (3).pdf: 3773887 bytes, checksum: c9be5fcff2f29f4495fef60413a169f6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-06T14:40:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação[Final] - Thiago Rodrigues Cavalcanti (3).pdf: 3773887 bytes, checksum: c9be5fcff2f29f4495fef60413a169f6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-15 / O Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES) está na sua 25ª edição em 2011. Ao longo da sua história, vários progressos no campo da engenharia de software foram publicados e debatidos. Durante o Simpósio, os avanços e pesquisas ganham voz e repercutem no meio acadêmico nacional. Entender como a pesquisa de engenharia de software publicada no SBES evoluiu nesse período é o principal objetivo deste trabalho. Os demais objetivos se relacionam com o primeiro diretamente. Compreender quais as áreas de pesquisa e os métodos mais utilizados, e ainda traçar um histórico das abordagens, das unidades de análise e dos gêneros de pesquisa. Neste trabalho ainda quantificamos os artigos publicados em inglês, a quantidade de referências e citações de cada paper. Para entendermos essa evolução foi necessário utilizar algumas classificações difundidas na literatura visando avaliar os trabalhos publicados e os simpósios como um todo. A metodologia utilizada passou pela leitura dos últimos 24 anos do SBES e a consolidação em um formulário de extração. O método inclui ainda detalhes e exemplos dos critérios utilizados, visando dar maior qualidade ao processo. Por fim, uma ferramenta de consolidação automatizada integra os valores encontrados. Os resultados mostram como cada um dos critérios acima definidos evoluiu ao longo do tempo, quais centros de pesquisa têm mais espaço no contexto do SBES e quais aspectos do estudo da engenharia de software podem ser aprimorados. Deste modo, este trabalho ajuda a entender o panorama brasileiro de engenharia de software e demonstra o papel relevante da pesquisa para evolução da ciência. / The Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (SBES) is on its 25th edition in 2011. Throughout its history, several improvements in the field of software engineering have been published and discussed. During the Symposium, the advances and researches gained voice and repercussions in the national academic environment. Understanding how software engineering research published in SBES evolved in this period is the main objective of this work. The other objectives are directly related to the first. To understand the areas of research and the methods used, and build a historical analysis of the research approaches, the unit of analysis and the type of research. This work has quantified the articles published in English, the number of references, and citations of each paper. In order to understand this evolution, it was necessary to use some widespread classifications in literature to evaluate the published works and symposia as a whole. The methodology began by reading the last 24 years of SBES and the consolidation in an extraction form. The method also includes details and examples of the criteria employed to give more quality to the process. Finally, an automated consolidation tool integrated the values found. The results show how each of the criteria described above has evolved over time, research centers which have more space in the context of SBES and also which aspects of the study in software engineering can be improved. Thus, this work assists to understand the Brazilian panorama of software engineering and demonstrates the important role of research for science advance.

In my teaching and software development practice, I realized that most applications with human-computer interaction do not respond to usersâ emotional needs. The dualism of reason and emotion as two fairly opposite entities that dominated Western philosophy was also reflected in software design. Computing was originally intended to provide applications for military and industrial activities and was primarily associated with cognition and rationality. Today, more and more computer applications interact with users in very complex and sophisticated ways. In human-computer interaction, attention is given to issues of usability and user modeling, but techniques to emotionally engage users or respond to their emotional needs have not been fully developed, even as specialists like Klein, Norman and Picard argued that machines that recognize and express emotions respond better and more appropriately to user interaction (Picard, 1997; Picard & Klein, 2002; Norman, 2004). This study investigated emotion from designersâ perspectives and tentatively concludes that there is little awareness and involvement in emotional design in the IT community. By contrast, participants in this study (36 IT specialists from various fields) strongly supported the idea of emotional design and confirmed the need for methodologies and theoretical models to research emotional design. Based on a review of theory, surveys and interviews, I identified a set of themes for heuristics of emotional design and recommended future research directions. Attention was given to consequences; participants in this study raised issues of manipulation, ethical responsibilities of designers, and the need for regulations, and recommended that emotional design should carry standard ethical guidelines for games and any other applications. The research design utilized a mixed QUAN-qual methodological model proposed by Creswell (2003) and Gay, Mills, and Airasian (2006), which was modified to equally emphasize both quantitative and qualitative stages. An instrument in the form of a questionnaire was designed, tested and piloted in this study and will be improved and used in future research. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

In the theoretical part I summarized nowadays Framework educational program at schools in the Czech republic and nowadays educational methods to teaching plants. Also, the thesis describes basic characteristics of plants, methods of plant preservation and research methods that have been used during writing the thesis. The research part indicates the results of the research conducted at grammar-schools in Ústí region and indicates the level of the pupils' knowledge of plants. Furthermore, I have tried to suggest how to make the plant identification tests more intriguing and comprehensible. The thesis uses information obtained from interviews with teachers and survey research carried out among the pupils of Ústí region grammar-schools. Based on the research results I have laid out an optimal number of plant species for teaching the plant identification. Unfortunately, there is a limited number of publications, so I exploited the knowledge and experience of Biology teachers at grammar-schools, and I followed their advice when creating worksheets.

Background: This mixed-methods dissertation is multi-layered and exploratory in nature. It provides methodological contributions to the fields of evaluation and research methods by demonstrating how the root cause analysis (RCA) method can be utilized to evaluate program improvement and assist in the development of research questions and hypotheses. Additionally, it adds to the literature on reproductive genetics decision-making by contributing to the knowledge of this complex process. Research Aims: This dissertation includes the following three aims: 1) to illustrate how the RCA interview method can be a useful tool to improve programs that have not been implemented with fidelity; 2) to demonstrate how the RCA interview method can be adapted for research by elucidating research questions and hypothesis development processes; and 3) to glean information pertaining to reproductive genetics decision-making knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among genetic counselors and women who were pregnant and had reproductive genetic counseling. Methods: Mixed-methods research took place over a 13-month period in Arizona and across the U.S. between June 2015 and August 2016 among two separate groups. The qualitative research includes semi-structured, in-depth interviews with genetic counselors (n=22), and RCA interviews (n=9) with genetic counselors sampled from 12 southwestern and western states. The quantitative research comprised of piloting two survey instruments. Survey #1 for genetic counselors (n=22) and Survey #2 for women who had genetic counseling and were pregnant between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2015 (n=104). Results: The results by manuscript are: 1) RCA is a useful evaluation tool for evaluating program improvement when programs have not been implemented with fidelity; 2) RCA is a beneficial methodological approach for researchers for focusing areas of inquiry, generating research questions, and developing research hypotheses; and 3) Women with a master's degree or higher are more likely to have reproductive genetic testing than women with a bachelor’s degree or under. Women who received reproductive genetic testing had significantly higher genetic testing knowledge scores than women who did not have genetic testing. Women who held a master's degree or higher had significantly higher genetic testing knowledge scores than women with a bachelor’s degree or under. Conclusions: RCA is a flexible and adaptive tool that works well for evaluation and research purposes. Reproductive genetic testing is a complex field that is rapidly changing, and there are significant differences in knowledge among women facing testing decisions calling for tailored interventions around genetic testing literacy. Recommendations: Evaluators and researchers alike should be aware of RCA as a useful methodological tool that they can use to help evaluate program improvement as well as facilitate the process of developing research questions and hypotheses. Genetic literacy interventions and decision-making resources must take into consideration the role education has on genetic testing decisions as well as its part in understanding the appropriateness, benefits, and limitations of specific genetic tests. This research further advocates for women to have access to certified genetic counselors to tailor the information to meet the individuals' needs in order to promote informed, autonomous genetics decision-making.

The number of translation programs within a university context has multiplied in many countries worldwide, which led to the need to question their quality (Gambier, 2012). In the Arab world, especially in the Gulf region, translator education is an emerging practice. For instance, in Qatar, the first translation programs were launched in 2012 at both Qatar University (BA minor in translation ) and the MA programs in translation studies at the Translation and Interpreting Institute (College of Humanities and Social Sciences; Hammad bin Khalifa University). Arabic scholars in the field of translation have highlighted the ongoing curriculum and pedagogical issues at the regional level. Many university programs in the Gulf region prefer to import foreign curriculum packages rather than invest in creating localized programs (Badry & Willoughly, 2015); hence, there is a need for programs relevant to the local and regional communities and contexts (Taibi, 2016). This could only be done through ground exploratory research to identify the problems and address them through a consensus process between the various stakeholders: academia, society and the profession. This doctoral thesis is a result of an exploratory and descriptive study carried out on the two existing translation programs in Qatar (a postgraduate program at the translation and interpreting Institute at Hammad Bin Khalifa University; and an undergraduate program at Qatar University) to identify the type of pedagogical and curricular practices in these institutions and align them with the findings from the practices in the translation and interpreting professions as well as translation professionals' perceptions in the state of Qatar. The present study has focused on the following objectives: 1) the identification and description of the professional translator profile in the Qatari context; 2) the identification of the pedagogical (teaching and learning) practices used in translation programs at Arabic universities in the Gulf region, such as Qatar; 3) knowledge required according to the opinions of professionals working in the field, and the competencies that these professionals believe should be developed in a translation program; and 4) a description of the necessary conditions to integrate such professional requirements in these types of professionally-oriented programs. The findings obtained from the study suggest that a knowledge of the working environments of translators and the required knowledge, skills and abilities to exercise the translation profession is crucial to a translation instructor as well as to a translation or interpreting curriculum developer. Such an awareness would result in the transfer of a different meaning of translation and translator status in society than the one it carries at present in Qatar. Also, there is a need to update the pedagogical and curriculum practices within a university context in Qatar to further integrate professionally oriented types of content, and adopt innovative pedagogies to educate multilingual service providers in the country. Although participants claimed that they are willing to integrate dynamic teaching practices, at the same time they also declared that they would keep the same curricular practices privileged by the institutions. The Interviewees from the profession reported the poor students’ performance in an internship in the local context. Other interviewed practising translators - who graduated from one of the translation programs in Qatar- suggested that the current modes of instruction need to be revised and that more situated, project and problem-based types of activities need to be implemented in the classroom. The results may be useful for teaching staff, instructors, administrators, and the management to improve and reconsider their existing curriculum and pedagogical practices within a university-based program by including the integration of research-based professional practices in the initial design of courses. The positive and consensus-based partnership between academic instances and the professional practitioners is a key solution in this regard. The addition or deletion of courses in a program and the focus on the importance of textbooks without diagnosing the social and community needs, as well the lack of a clear framework to assess faculty or instructor competency and eligibility to educate and train translators, has led to quality issues in existing programs.