The purpose of the study was to attempt to understand why Brigham Young University Technology Teacher Education program has attracted and retained a high number of females. This was done through a self-created survey composed of four forced responses, distributed among the Winter 2006 semester students. Likert-scale questions were outlined according to the five theoretical influences on women in technology, as established by Welty and Puck (2001) and two of the three relationships of academia, as established by Haynie III (1999), as well as three free response questions regarding retention and attraction within the major. Findings suggested strong positive polarity in four of the five influences and in both relationships, with particular emphasis on subject content, positive teacher/student relationships, as well as an overall positive environment as major contributors to attraction and retention at this university. "Role Models, Mentors, and Peers" was the only influence that scored in the negative range. Though the effect size showed differences between males and females on individual questions as well as the two relationships and "Messages from Counselors", no practical difference was found between the male and female perceptions under the five remaining general categories. In all three categories where a medium to large effect size was shown, females were favored in having more positive responses and perceptions than males.

This MA thesis aims at identifying the equivalence of the Russian translations of Sylvia Plath’s poems from the collection “Ariel” (1965) on the basis of the comparative and categorical text analysis. The author studies the peculiarities of manifestation of text categories of theme, chronotope (locality and temporality) and tonality in the original poetic texts as compared to their Russian translations by V. P. Betaki. The identification of categorical markers and their equivalence is proved to be able to define the quantitative degree of translation equivalence to the original. Moreover, the chosen linguistic method contributes to singling out the typological characteristics, which, on their turn, make it possible to describe even more specific divergences between the original and translated texts, as well as the translator’s strategies in general. The results of the research paper can be used as a material for the further categorical method application in the sphere of translation studies. / Настоящая магистерская диссертация посвящена выявлению степени эквивалентности русских переводных вариантов стихотворений из сборника «Ariel» (1965) Сильвии Плат на базе сопоставительно-категориального анализа текстов (СКАТ). В работе рассматривается специфика проявления полевых текстовых категории темы, хронотопа (локальности и темпоральности) и тональности в исходных поэтических текстах на английском языке и их русских переводах, выполненных В. П. Бетаки. Доказано, что вычленение маркеров каждой из указанных категорий и их переводческих соответствий позволяет установить количественный уровень эквивалентности варианта художественного текста оригиналу; более того, выбранный лингвистический метод способствует выявлению типологических черт, на основании которых можно описать более частные расхождения переводных вариантов и общие стратегии переводчика. Результаты данной работы могут быть использованы в качестве материала для дальнейшего применения СКАТ в области переводоведения.

Le bien-être des élèves en milieu scolaire est un enjeu qui suscite de plus en plus d’intérêt depuis quelques années. Les adolescents de première génération d’immigration identifiés comme EHDAA et scolarisés en classe d’adaptation scolaire fermée, eux, sont susceptibles de vivre des enjeux inhérents à leur statut particulier qui peuvent grandement affecter leur bien-être. Alors que 67,1% des élèves dans les écoles de Montréal sont issus de l'immigration (Réseau Réussite Montréal, 2019), les données quant à leur présence dans les classes d’adaptation scolaires, elles, sont difficilement accessibles, bien que des études antérieures aient dénoncé une surreprésentation de certaines communautés au sein des effectifs ÉHDAA de la province (McAndrew et al., 2011). Les difficultés liées à l’adolescence à et au contexte migratoire, conjuguées à un statut EHDAA sont des croisements peu étudiés au sein des écrits (Collins et Borri-Anadón, 2021), d’autant plus qu’aucune étude ne s’est attardée, à notre connaissance, à leurs impacts sur le bien-être de ces jeunes. Cette étude de cas multiple, réalisée auprès de trois adolescents issus de première génération d’immigration scolarisés en classe d’adaptation scolaire a pour but de documenter et de décrire les répercussions du processus de catégorisation, du modèle de service ainsi que de l’approche catégorielle sur le bien-être des élèves. Nos données témoignent d’un processus de catégorisation vécu d’une manière somme toute positive, alors que l’annonce de la catégorisation et du changement de modèle de service, elle est vécue comme un choc. Des sentiments d’exclusion, de discrimination, d’injustice et des enjeux d’estime de soi et de relations interpersonnelles ont également été relevés. / The well-being of adolescent students has become an increasingly important issue in recent years. First-generation immigrant adolescents identified as having disabilities or learning difficulties (EHDAA) and enrolled in closed special education classes are likely to experience challenges inherent to their particular status that can greatly affect their well-being. While 67.1% of students in Montreal schools come from immigrant backgrounds (Réseau Réussite Montréal, 2019), data regarding their presence in special education classes is difficult to access, although previous studies have highlighted an overrepresentation of certain communities within the EHDAA population in the province (McAndrew et al., 2011). The challenges associated with adolescence and the migratory context, combined with an EHDAA status, are intersections that have received limited attention in the literature (Collins and Borri-Anadón, 2021), particularly as no study, to our knowledge, has specifically examined their impact on the well-being of these young individuals. This multiple case study, conducted with three first-generation immigrant adolescents enrolled in special education classes, aims to document and describe the repercussions of the categorization process, the service model, and the categorical approach on students' well-being. Our data indicates that the categorization process was generally experienced in a positive manner, whereas the announcement of categorization and the change in the service model was perceived as a shock. Feelings of exclusion, discrimination, injustice, as well as self-esteem and interpersonal relationship issues were also identified.

The dissertation examines the effect of changes since 1994 on the role of the South African Public Service Commission (hereafter referred to as the Commission). Its contention is that the changes since 1994 re-focused the role of the Commission on development and modernisation of public administration practices. The role of the Commission is now confined to monitoring, evaluation, investigation and research. The dissertation finds that the Commission does not have a formal transversal monitoring and evaluation system. The co-operation between the Commission and other oversight bodies (such as the Public Protector and the Auditor-General) involved in monitoring and evaluation of public service delivery is minimal. There is no "national consensus" yet on what the constitutional value and principle that public administration must be development-orientated means. The Commission has not set out research as its key performance area whereas its role in labor relations is superfluous. Recommendations in respect of the foregoing shortcomings are made in the dissertation. / Public Administration / M.A. (Public Administration)

In this paper, I analyze the effectiveness of state level Earned Income Tax Credit programs on improving of poverty levels. I conducted this analysis for the years 1991 through 2011 using a panel data model with fixed effects. The main independent variables of interest were the state and federal EITC rates, minimum wage, gross state product, population, and unemployment all by state. I determined increases to the state EITC rates provided only a slight decrease to both the overall white below-poverty population and the corresponding white childhood population under 18, while both the overall and the under-18 black population for this category realized moderate decreases in their poverty rates for the same time period. I also provide a comparison of the effectiveness of the state level EITCs and minimum wage at the state level over the same time period on these select demographic groups.

Thèse par articles. / La présente thèse fait état des avancées en logique déontique et propose des outils formels pertinents à l'analyse de la validité des inférences légales. D'emblée, la logique vise l'abstraction de différentes structures. Lorsqu'appliquée en argumentation, la logique permet de déterminer les conditions de validité des inférences, fournissant ainsi un critère afin de distinguer entre les bons et les mauvais raisonnements. Comme le montre la multitude de paradoxes en logique déontique, la modélisation des inférences normatives fait cependant face à divers problèmes. D'un point de vue historique, ces difficultés ont donné lieu à différents courants au sein de la littérature, dont les plus importants à ce jour sont ceux qui traitent de l'action et ceux qui visent la modélisation des obligations conditionnelles. La présente thèse de doctorat, qui a été rédigée par articles, vise le développement d'outils formels pertinents à l'analyse du discours juridique. En première partie, nous proposons une revue de la littérature complémentaire à ce qui a été entamé dans Peterson (2011). La seconde partie comprend la contribution théorique proposée. Dans un premier temps, il s'agit d'introduire une logique déontique alternative au système standard. Sans prétendre aller au-delà de ses limites, le système standard de logique déontique possède plusieurs lacunes. La première contribution de cette thèse est d'offrir un système comparable répondant au différentes objections pouvant être formulées contre ce dernier. Cela fait l'objet de deux articles, dont le premier introduit le formalisme nécessaire et le second vulgarise les résultats et les adapte aux fins de l'étude des raisonnements normatifs. En second lieu, les différents problèmes auxquels la logique déontique fait face sont abordés selon la perspective de la théorie des catégories. En analysant la syntaxe des différents systèmes à l'aide des catégories monoïdales, il est possible de lier certains de ces problèmes avec des propriétés structurelles spécifiques des logiques utilisées. Ainsi, une lecture catégorique de la logique déontique permet de motiver l'introduction d'une nouvelle approche syntaxique, définie dans le cadre des catégories monoïdales, de façon à pallier les problèmes relatifs à la modélisation des inférences normatives. En plus de proposer une analyse des différentes logiques de l'action selon la théorie des catégories, la présente thèse étudie les problèmes relatifs aux inférences normatives conditionnelles et propose un système déductif typé. / The present thesis develops formal tools relevant to the analysis of legal discourse. When applied to legal reasoning, logic can be used to model the structure of legal inferences and, as such, it provides a criterion to discriminate between good and bad reasonings. But using logic to model normative reasoning comes with some problems, as shown by the various paradoxes one finds within the literature. From a historical point of view, these paradoxes lead to the introduction of different approaches, such as the ones that emphasize the notion of action and those that try to model conditional normative reasoning. In the first part of this thesis, we provide a review of the literature, which is complementary to the one we did in Peterson (2011). The second part of the thesis concerns our theoretical contribution. First, we propose a monadic deontic logic as an alternative to the standard system, answering many objections that can be made against it. This system is then adapted to model unconditional normative inferences and test their validity. Second, we propose to look at deontic logic from the proof-theoretical perspective of category theory. We begin by proposing a categorical analysis of action logics and then we show that many problems that arise when trying to model conditional normative reasoning come from the structural properties of the logic we use. As such, we show that modeling normative reasoning within the framework of monoidal categories enables us to answer many objections in favour of dyadic and non-monotonic foundations for deontic logic. Finally, we propose a proper typed deontic system to model legal inferences.

當資料屬於類別型的長期追蹤資料（Longitudinal categorical data）時，除了可以透過廣義估計方程式（General estimate equation, GEE）來求解模型參數估計值外，潛在移轉分析（Latent transition analysis, LTA）法也是一種可行的資料分析方法。若資料的期數不多，也可以選擇將資料適度分群後使用羅吉斯迴歸分析（Logistic regression）法。當探討的反應變數為二元（Binary）型態，且觀察對象於每一期提供多個測量變數值的情況之下，廣義估計方程式與羅吉斯迴歸分析法的使用，文獻上常見先將所有的測量變數值加總後，以「中位數」作為分類的切割點。不同於以上兩種方法，潛在移轉分析法則是直接使用原始資料來取得觀察對象的潛在狀態相關訊息，因此與前二者的作法不同，可能導致後續的各項分析結果有所差異存在。 為了能夠了解造成中位數分類法與移轉分析法差異的可能因素，我們架構在潛在移轉分析法的模型下，以不同的參數設定來進行電腦模擬，比較各參數條件下的兩分類方法差異。結果發現各潛在狀態下的測量變數反應機率形式、第一期潛在狀態的組成比例等皆會對兩分類方法是否具有相同分類有所影響。另外，透過分析「青少年媒體使用與健康生活調查」的實際資料得知，潛在移轉分析會將大部分的觀察對象歸屬於「網路成癮」，而中位數分類法則是將大部分的觀察對象歸屬於「無網路成癮」。此外，可以注意到「沮喪」、「線上情色每星期平均使用天數」、及「父母相處狀況」這幾個控制變數與各分組結果的關聯性，於上述三種資料分析方法中有所不同。 / Several methods can be used to analyze longitudinal categorical data, as among them Latent Transition Analysis (LTA), and Generalized Linear Models estimated by Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) probably the most popular. In addition, if the number of periods is two, then with certain grouping of data, the Logistic Regression can also be applied to perform the analyses. When there are more than one manifest response variable for each study subject, LTA is able to classify the subjects in terms of the original manifest response variables and proceeds with necessary analyses. On the other hand, GEE method and Logistic Regression lack the flexibility, and require certain transformation to transform the manifest response variables into a categorical response variable first. One common way to form a binary response is to sum all manifest variables, and then taking median as a cut-point. In this study, we explore the differences of the classification resulted from LTA directly and using median as a cut-point through simulations. An empirical study is also provided to illustrate the classification differences, and the differences on the subsequent analyses using LTA, GEE method, and Logistic Regression approach.

La thèse se concentre sur une recherche méthodologique sur l'optimisation structurelle catégorielle au moyen d'un apprentissage multiple. Dans cette thèse, les variables catégorielles non ordinales sont traitées comme des variables discrètes multidimensionnelles. Afin de réduire la dimensionnalité, les nombreuses techniques d'apprentissage sont introduites pour trouver la dimensionnalité intrinsèque et mapper l'espace de conception d'origine sur un espace d'ordre réduit. Les mécanismes des techniques d'apprentissage à la fois linéaires et non linéaires sont d'abord étudiés. Ensuite, des exemples numériques sont testés pour comparer les performances de nombreuses techniques d’apprentissage. Sur la base de la représentation d'ordre réduit obtenue par Isomap, les opérateurs de mutation et de croisement évolutifs basés sur les graphes sont proposés pour traiter des problèmes d'optimisation structurelle catégoriels, notamment la conception du dôme, du cadre rigide de six étages et des structures en forme de dame. Ensuite, la méthode de recherche continue consistant à déplacer des asymptotes est exécutée et fournit une solution compétitive, mais inadmissible, en quelques rares itérations. Ensuite, lors de la deuxième étape, une stratégie de recherche discrète est proposée pour rechercher de meilleures solutions basées sur la recherche de voisins. Afin de traiter le cas dans lequel les instances de conception catégorielles sont réparties sur plusieurs variétés, nous proposons une méthode d'apprentissage des variétés k-variétés basée sur l'analyse en composantes principales pondérées. / The thesis concentrates on a methodological research on categorical structural optimizationby means of manifold learning. The main difficulty of handling the categorical optimization problems lies in the description of the categorical variables: they are presented in a category and do not have any orders. Thus the treatment of the design space is a key issue. In this thesis, the non-ordinal categorical variables are treated as multi-dimensional discrete variables, thus the dimensionality of corresponding design space becomes high. In order to reduce the dimensionality, the manifold learning techniques are introduced to find the intrinsic dimensionality and map the original design space to a reduced-order space. The mechanisms of both linear and non-linear manifold learning techniques are firstly studied. Then numerical examples are tested to compare the performance of manifold learning techniques mentioned above. It is found that the PCA and MDS can only deal with linear or globally approximately linear cases. Isomap preserves the geodesic distances for non-linear manifold however, its time consuming is the most. LLE preserves the neighbour weights and can yield good results in a short time. KPCA works like a non-linear classifier and we proves why it cannot preserve distances or angles in some cases. Based on the reduced-order representation obtained by Isomap, the graph-based evolutionary crossover and mutation operators are proposed to deal with categorical structural optimization problems, including the design of dome, six-story rigid frame and dame-like structures. The results show that the proposed graph-based evolutionary approach constructed on the reduced-order space performs more efficiently than traditional methods including simplex approach or evolutionary approach without reduced-order space. In chapter 5, the LLE is applied to reduce the data dimensionality and a polynomial interpolation helps to construct the responding surface from lower dimensional representation to original data. Then the continuous search method of moving asymptotes is executed and yields a competitively good but inadmissible solution within only a few of iteration numbers. Then in the second stage, a discrete search strategy is proposed to find out better solutions based on a neighbour search. The ten-bar truss and dome structural design problems are tested to show the validity of the method. In the end, this method is compared to the Simulated Annealing algorithm and Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolutionary Strategy, showing its better optimization efficiency. In chapter 6, in order to deal with the case in which the categorical design instances are distributed on several manifolds, we propose a k-manifolds learning method based on the Weighted Principal Component Analysis. And the obtained manifolds are integrated in the lower dimensional design space. Then the method introduced in chapter 4 is applied to solve the ten-bar truss, the dome and the dame-like structural design problems.

Increased demands on water supplies caused by population expansion, saltwater intrusion, and drought have led to water shortages which may be addressed by use of recycled water as recycled water products. Study I investigated recycled water production in Florida and California during 2009 to detect gaps in distribution and identify areas for expansion. Gaps were detected along the panhandle and Miami, Florida, as well as the northern and southwestern regions in California. Study II examined gaps in distribution, identified temporal change, and located areas for expansion for Florida in 2009 and 2015. Production increased in the northern and southern regions of Florida but decreased in Southwest Florida. Recycled water is an essential component water management a broader adoption of recycled water will increase water conservation in water-stressed coastal communities by allocating recycled water for purposes that once used potable freshwater.

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