<p>Utilizing autoethnography and thematic analysis, this thesis explores reflexivity and social work praxis. Specifically, it illuminates the phenomenon of reflexivity and its related themes; reflexivity’s multiple meanings, challenges and enabling factors, its link to internal processes, rationale for usage and timeliness of inquiry. The multiple ways that practitioners engage in reflexive inquiry was revealed through dyadic interviews. However, current literature does not reflect this and the breadth and scope of reflexive inquiry is lost within contemporary social work discourse. Therefore, this thesis puts forth multiple definitions of reflexivity, which broaden the scope of reflexive inquiry, contextualize its usage and highlight its indications. The first group of definitions, efficacious, exigent and entrenched reflexivity are defined in terms of four key components; the reflexivity’s focus and center, what the reflexivity seeks and the degree to which reflexivity is utilized as a tool of practice. These definitions shed light on the varying depths of reflexive inquiry. The next group of definitions, extant and revenant reflexivity can serve to highlight to the worker when an experience needs to be reflected upon. The final group of definitions, polycentric and monocentric reflexivity, identify the context in which reflexivity takes place, namely communally or in isolation. The impetus for disseminating these broadened definitions is my belief that their incorporation into contemporary social work discourse and utilization as a required tool of practice will further promote the integration and support of the dual existences of the professional and personal selves; that their procurement into practitioner pedagogy will lead to dedicated space within the practice setting that enables one to be an emotional being, complete with emotional realities while simultaneously coexisting as a social worker, complete with social work related realities. I believe this will result in increased efficiency and productivity to serve and care for our clients, as well as increased worker health and well-being, to serve and care for ourselves.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>The studied application area is a private bank with different branches located in different provinces around the country. There was not integrated security solution to provide communication among different branches. Some of these branches could communicate through the satellite and the others could communicate through a different technology, such as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM).</p><p>Different bank security policies were applied and maintained for different branches separately. In addition, the number of branches is expected to grow during coming year in each province.</p><p>The old topology was partial mesh and it could not support enough redundancy in case of disruption. If a connection between two branches failed, other branches might lose their connectivity as well. In addition, it could not achieve optimum routing.</p><p>Providing integrated quality of service (QoS) for the wide area network (WAN) by using different technologies is not easy to achieve, and it causes so many problems for the system. The bank uses a variety of protocols for different applications, depending on its demand, so the new applied technology should not depend on protocols, or at least should support different protocols at a same time. In the old technology, the bank was responsible for granting availability and connectivity maintenance. Providing proper bandwidth is an important aspect in the bank scenario and for the old technology; supplying enough bandwidth was costly.</p><p>As mentioned above, the old applied technology was dependent upon different protocols. Therefore, packets in different open system interconnection layers (OSI layers) would have to check thoroughly to find the source/ destination address, data and so on, to reach the correct destination. This might cause security problems for entire system. In addition, processing packet in each layer of the OSI model is time consuming.</p><p>One important aspect for the retail-banking scenario is considering all features of the security domain, such as security policy, information security, physical security, access level control, integrated security for the system and so on. Some features of the security domain in this project were not covering completely, such as integrated information security, merged security policy, and integrated physical security for the system.</p><p>In this project, all mentioned problems are solved by implementing a specific communication technology which can overcome the problems above. This technology supports multiple protocols, and it provides fast and secure communication. It can also cover redundancy and it does not cost as much as previous technologies like ATM and satellite. Easy provisioning is one feature of this technology. In this technology, the service provider is responsible for granting availability and connectivity maintenance.</p><p>The mentioned features of the security domain, which were not covered by the old technology, will be covered by a proper, integrated security solution. The IP-based physical security systems provide centralized monitoring and they can define a merged security policy for all different branches around the country. Specific, pre-defined scenarios are created for different events in different situations.</p>

Compared to traditional business services, IT-enabled services provide more value to customers and providers by enabling traditional business services with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and delivering them via e-channels (i.e., Internet, Mobile networks). Although IT-enabled service systems help in co-creating value through collaboration with customers during service design and delivery, they raise challenges when we attempt to understand, design and produce innovative and intelligent IT-enabled services from a multi-disciplinary perspective by including businesses, technology and people for value addition and increasing benefits. Due to their social-technical nature and characteristics (i.e., Intangibility, Inseparability, Perishability, Simultaneity), IT-enabled services also lack common methods to systemize services driven by customer requirements and their satisfactions and co-produce them through ad-hoc collaboration. In this thesis, we propose a middle-out methodology to model, design and systemize advanced IT-enabled service driven by customer requirements and collaboration among all actors to jointly co-create service systems. From a multi-disciplinary perspective, the methodology relies on a multi-view models including a service system reference model, a requirement model and a collaboration model to ensure system flexibility and adaptability to requirement changes and take into account joint efforts and collaboration of all service actors. The reference model aims at a multi-disciplinary description of services (ontological, systematical and characteristic-based descriptions), and formalizing business knowledge related to different domains. As for the requirement model, customer needs are specified in common expressiveness language understandable by all service actors and made possible its top-down propagation throughout service lifecycle and among actors. The collaboration model advocates a data-driven approach, which increases busi-ness, technical and semantic interoperability and exhibits stability in comparison to business processes centric approaches. Finally, the collaboration hinges on de-livery channels expressed as data flows and encapsulating business artifacts as per which business rules are generated to invoke underlying software components.

The studied application area is a private bank with different branches located in different provinces around the country. There was not integrated security solution to provide communication among different branches. Some of these branches could communicate through the satellite and the others could communicate through a different technology, such as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). Different bank security policies were applied and maintained for different branches separately. In addition, the number of branches is expected to grow during coming year in each province. The old topology was partial mesh and it could not support enough redundancy in case of disruption. If a connection between two branches failed, other branches might lose their connectivity as well. In addition, it could not achieve optimum routing. Providing integrated quality of service (QoS) for the wide area network (WAN) by using different technologies is not easy to achieve, and it causes so many problems for the system. The bank uses a variety of protocols for different applications, depending on its demand, so the new applied technology should not depend on protocols, or at least should support different protocols at a same time. In the old technology, the bank was responsible for granting availability and connectivity maintenance. Providing proper bandwidth is an important aspect in the bank scenario and for the old technology; supplying enough bandwidth was costly. As mentioned above, the old applied technology was dependent upon different protocols. Therefore, packets in different open system interconnection layers (OSI layers) would have to check thoroughly to find the source/ destination address, data and so on, to reach the correct destination. This might cause security problems for entire system. In addition, processing packet in each layer of the OSI model is time consuming. One important aspect for the retail-banking scenario is considering all features of the security domain, such as security policy, information security, physical security, access level control, integrated security for the system and so on. Some features of the security domain in this project were not covering completely, such as integrated information security, merged security policy, and integrated physical security for the system. In this project, all mentioned problems are solved by implementing a specific communication technology which can overcome the problems above. This technology supports multiple protocols, and it provides fast and secure communication. It can also cover redundancy and it does not cost as much as previous technologies like ATM and satellite. Easy provisioning is one feature of this technology. In this technology, the service provider is responsible for granting availability and connectivity maintenance. The mentioned features of the security domain, which were not covered by the old technology, will be covered by a proper, integrated security solution. The IP-based physical security systems provide centralized monitoring and they can define a merged security policy for all different branches around the country. Specific, pre-defined scenarios are created for different events in different situations.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is part of the developmental disabilities. There are numerous symptoms for ASD patients, including lack of abilities in social interaction, communication obstacle and repeatable behaviors. Meanwhile, the rate of ASD prevalence has kept rising by the past 20 years from 1 out of 150 in 2000 to 1 out of 54 in 2016. In addition, the ASD population is quite large. Specifically, 3.5 million Americans live with ASD in the year of 2014, which will cost U.S. citizens $236-$262 billion dollars annually for autism services. So, it is critical to make an accurate diagnosis for preschool age children with ASD, in order to give them a better life. Instead of using traditional ASD behavioral tests, such as ADI-R, ADOS, and DSM-IV, we applied brain MRI images as input to make diagnosis. We revised 3D-ResNet structure to fit 110 preschool children's brain MRI data, along with Convolution 3D and VGG model. The prediction accuracy with raw data is 65.22%. The accuracy is significantly improved to 82.61% by removing the noise around the brain. We also showed the speed of ML prediction is 308 times faster than behavior tests.

<p>Anaerobic digestion uses a mixed, microbial community to convert organic wastes to biogas, thereby generating a clean renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, few studies have quantified the relationship between waste composition and the subsequent physical and chemical changes in the digester. This Ph.D. dissertation aimed to gain new knowledge about how these differences in waste composition ultimately affect digester function. This dissertation examined three areas of digester function: (1) hydrogen sulfide production, (2) digester foaming, and (3) methane yield. </p> <p>To accomplish these aims, a variety of materials from four different large-scale field digesters were collected at different time points and from different locations within the digester systems, including influent, liquid in the middle of the digesters, effluent, and effluent after solids separation. The materials were used for biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests in 43 lab-scale lab-digester groups, each containing triplicate or duplicate digesters. The materials from field digesters and the effluents from the lab-digesters were analyzed for an extensive set of chemical and physical characteristics. The three areas of digester function were examined with the physical and chemical characteristics of the digester materials and effluents, and the BMP performances. </p> <p>Hydrogen sulfide productions in the lab-digesters ranged from non-detectable to 1.29 mL g VS^-1. Higher H₂S concentrations in the biogas were observed within the first ten days of testing. The initial Fe(II) : S ratio and OP concentrations had important influences on H₂S productions. Important parameters of digester influents related to digester foaming were the ratios of Fe(II) : S, Fe(II) : TP, and TVFA : TALK; and the concentrations of Cu. Digesters receiving mixed waste streams could be more vulnerable to foaming. The characteristics of each waste type varied significantly based on substrate and inoculum type, and digester functioning. The influent chemical characteristics of the waste significantly impacted all aspects of digester function. Using multivariate statistics and machine learning, models were developed and the prediction of digester outcomes were simulated based on the initial characteristics of the waste types. </p>

<p>Post-disaster temporary housing has been a significant challenge for the emergency management group and industries for many years. According to reports by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), housing in states and territories is ranked as the second to last proficient in 32 core capabilities for preparedness.The number of temporary housing required in a geographic area is influenced by a variety of factors, including social issues, financial concerns, labor workforce availability, and climate conditions. Acknowledging and creating a balance between these interconnected needs is considered as one of the main challenges that need to be addressed. Post-disaster temporary housing is a multi-objective process, thus reaching the optimized model relies on how different elements and objectives interact, sometimes even conflicting, with each other. This makes decision making in post-disaster construction more restricted and challenging, which has caused ineffective management in post-disaster housing reconstruction.</p> <p>Few researches have studied the use of Artificial Intelligence modeling to reduce the time and cost of post-disaster sheltering. However, there is a lack of research and knowledge gap regarding the selection and the magnitude of effect of different factors of the most optimized type of Temporary Housing Units (THU) in a post-disaster event.</p> The proposed framework in this research uses supervised machine learing to maximize certain design aspects of and minimize some of the difficulties to better support creating temporary houses in post-disaster situations. The outcome in this study is the classification type of the THU, more particularly, classifying THUs based on whether they are built on-site or off-site. In order to collect primary data for creating the model and evaluating the magnitude of effect for each factor in the process, a set of surveys were distributed between the key players and policymakers who play a role in providing temporary housing to people affected by natural disasters in the United States. The outcome of this framework benefits from tacit knowledge of the experts in the field to show the challenges and issues in the subject. The result of this study is a data-based multi-objective decision-making tool for selecting the THU type. Using this tool, policymakers who are in charge of selecting and allocating post-disaster accommodations can select the THU type most responsive to the local needs and characteristics of the affected people in each natural disaster.

The first-principles methods such as density functional theory (DFT) often produce quantitative predictions for physics and chemistry of materials with explicit descriptions of electron’s behavior. We were able to provide information of electronic structures with chemical doping and metal-insulator transition of rare-earth nickelates that cannot be easily accessible with experimental characterizations. Moreover, combining with mean-field microkinetic modeling, we utilized the DFT energetics to model water gas shift reactions catalyzed by Fe3O4at steady-state and determined favorable reaction mechanism. However, the high computational costs of DFT calculations make it impossible to investigate complex chemical processes with hundreds of elementary steps with more than thousands of atoms for realistic systems. The study of molecular high energy (HE) materials using the reactive force field (ReaxFF) has contributed to understand chemically induced detonation process with nanoscale defects as well as defect-free systems. However, the reduced accuracy of the force fields canalso lead to a different conclusion compared to DFT calculations and experimental results. Machine learning force field is a promising alternative to work with comparable simulation size and speed of ReaxFF while maintaining accuracy of DFT. In this respect, we developed a neural network reactive force field (NNRF) that was iteratively parameterized with DFT calculations to solve problems of ReaxFF. We built an efficient and accurate NNRF for complex decomposition reaction of HE materials such as high energy nitramine 1,3,5-Trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX)and predicted consistent results for experimental findings. This work aims to demonstrate the approaches to clarify the reaction details of materials using the first-principles methods and machine learning force fields to guide quantitative predictions of complex chemical process.

<div> <div> <div> <p>Understanding protein-protein interactions (PPIs) in a cell is essential for learning protein functions, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases. This dissertation introduces the computational method to predict PPIs. In the first chapter, the history of identifying protein interactions and some experimental methods are introduced. Because interacting proteins share similar functions, protein function similarity can be used as a feature to predict PPIs. NaviGO server is developed for biologists and bioinformaticians to visualize the gene ontology relationship and quantify their similarity scores. Furthermore, the computational features used to predict PPIs are summarized. This will help researchers from the computational field to understand the rationale of extracting biological features and also benefit the researcher with a biology background to understand the computational work. After understanding various computational features, the computational prediction method to identify large-scale PPIs was developed and applied to Arabidopsis, maize, and soybean in a whole-genomic scale. Novel predicted PPIs were provided and were grouped based on prediction confidence level, which can be used as a testable hypothesis to guide biologists’ experiments. Since affinity chromatography combined with mass spectrometry technique introduces high false PPIs, the computational method was combined with mass spectrometry data to aid the identification of high confident PPIs in large-scale. Lastly, some remaining challenges of the computational PPI prediction methods and future works are discussed. </p> </div> </div> </div>

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva föräldrars erfarenheter om social delaktighet på lekplatser för barn med fysiska funktionsnedsättningar. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en kvalitativ intervjustudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer, där 12 föräldrar till barn med fysiska funktionsnedsättning intervjuades. Vid analysen av intervjuerna använde författarna en kvalitativ innehållsanalys, vilket resulterade i 2 kategorier. Resultat: Utifrån föräldrarnas erfarenheter visade resultaten att otillgängliga lekplatser begränsade eller hindrade deras barn att vara socialt delaktiga. Det framkom också att tillgängliga lekplatser kunde möjliggöra barn med fysiska funktionsnedsättningars sociala delaktighet om de tillgängliga delarna inte separerades från resterande lekredskap. Föräldrarnas erfarenheter var att framkomligheten på lekplatserna var av stor vikt för att möjliggöra deras barns lek med andra. Resultatet visade även att föräldrarna hade erfarenhet att bemötas av negativa attityder, oförståelse och bristande kunskap från hemkommuner och lekplatsskapare. Barnens beroende av föräldrarnas stöd för att ta sig runt på lekplatser fick föräldrarna att känna sig som ett hinder för deras barn att leka och umgås med andra barn. Slutsats: Slutsatser från studien är att involvera föräldrar till barn med fysiska funktionsnedsättningar och deras barn i skapandet av lekplatsmiljöer för att främja social delaktighet. Vidare diskuteras behovet av arbetsterapeutisk kompetens om meningsfulla aktiviteter samt kunskap om att anpassa miljöer utifrån barns behov kan utgöra ett bra stöd till skaparna av lekplatser för att möjliggöra social delaktighet genom att utforma tillgängliga lekplatser för alla oavsett förmåga. / Aim: The aim of this study was to describe parents experiences of social participation in playgrounds for children with physical disabilities. Method: The study was conducted as a qualitative interview study with semi-structured interviews, where 12 parents of children with physical disabilities were interviewed. When analyzing the interviews, the authors used a qualitative content analysis, which resulted in 2 categories. Results: Based on parents experiences, the results showed that inaccessible playgrounds limited or prevented their children from being socially involved. It also emerged that accessible playgrounds could enable children's social participation if the accessible parts were not separated from the rest of the play equipment. Parents experiences were that the accessibility of playgrounds was of great importance to enable their children to play with others. The results also showed that parents experienced negative attitudes, incomprehension, and lack of knowledge from local authorities and playground designers. Children's dependence on parental support to get around playgrounds made parents feel like a barrier to their children being able to play and socialize with other children. Conclusion: Conclusions from the study is to involve parents of children with physical disabilities and their children in the creation of playground environments to promote social inclusion. It further discusses the need for occupational therapy skills on meaningful activities and knowledge on adapting environments based on children's needs can provide good support to playground designers to enable social inclusion by designing accessible playgrounds for everyone regardless of ability.