A high level of “environmental awareness” in the participating countries will likely raise the success of the Kyoto Protocol negotiated in Paris in 2015. In this context it is of interest to investigate the diffusion of environmental awareness, and also the (economic) factors, on which this diffusion depends. This paper addresses these questions for the regions of the Russian Federation, which are sufficiently diverse regarding cultural and economic issues. From a formal point of view, a “Multiple-Indicator-Multiple- Causes” (MIMIC) approach, based on a variety of “indicators” for environmental awareness, derived from search entries in c Yandex, and a variety of “causes”, economic and socio-economic factors, is applied. The empirical results point first to a strong dependence of environmental awareness on the level of GRP per capita. Moreover, the diffusion seems to spread from the eastern part of Russia towards the western regions.

This study aimed to provide information about the quality of the evidence on reading fluency instruction for at-risk students and students with reading/learning disabilities as a way to evaluate whether an instructional strategy is evidence-based and has potential for classroom use. An extensive search process with inclusion and exclusion criteria yielded a total of 18 studies to be included in the present study: 12 group design studies and six single-subject design studies. The quality indicators proposed by Gersten et al. (Except Child 71:149–164, 2005) and Horner et al. (Except Child 71:165–179, 2005) were applied to evaluate the quality of selected fluency intervention studies. Results revealed that (a) most group design studies provided little information about the intervention and agent for the comparison group, (b) internal and social validity were not clearly stated in single-subject design studies, and (c) procedural fidelity in assessment and intervention implementation was inadequately addressed in both group design and single-subject design studies. Lack of methodological rigor, which hampers determinations of the effectiveness of fluency instruction, the current status of intervention studies, and future directions are discussed.

Researchers have noted the lack of research to guide reading practice for students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Although comprehensive syntheses have identified promising practices and areas for future research, none have evaluated the rigor of studies according to quality indicators. The current study evaluated the extant single-case reading intervention research for this student population according to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards. Thirty studies met article selection criteria, 20 (66.6%) of which had at least one dependent variable that did not meet design standards. Study findings suggest a need for researchers to employ stronger designs and place a greater emphasis on investigating the effects of reading instructional practices in inclusive settings. Overall, two reading interventions were identified as potentially promising: cognitive mapping and a listening while reading accommodation. Furthermore, findings suggest that it may be advantageous to embed behavioral strategies within reading interventions. Study limitations include the exclusive use of single-case design studies and a reliance on visual analysis to determine intervention effectiveness.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) causes 5% of all strokes and is responsible for about 18,000 deaths per year in the United States (Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, 2008). The incidence of SAH has been estimated at 6 to 8 per 100,000 persons per year (Linn, Rinkel, Algra, & van Gijn, 1996). In nearly 15% (range 5–34%) of patients with SAH, no source of hemorrhage can be identified via four-vessel cerebral angiography (Alen et al., 2003; Gupta et al., 2009), resulting in two major types of SAH: aneurysmal (ASAH) and nonaneurysmal (NASAH). Anecdotal evidence and contradictory research suggest that patients with NASAH experience some of the same health-related quality of life (HRQOL) issues as patients with ASAH. The purpose of this quantitative survey design study was to compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL) 1 to 3 years post-hemorrhage in patients who have experienced a NASAH to those who have experienced an ASAH. This is the first US study to specifically investigate HRQOL in NASAH and the second study comparing HRQOL outcomes between aneurysmal and nonaneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage patients. Our results are comparable to the first study by Hutter and Gilsbach, (1995), which also found that the two groups are much more similar than different. There were no significant differences between 28 of the 36 demographic and clinical characteristics examined in this study. Our study confirms previous findings that there is a significant impact on employment for both hemorrhage groups and an even greater inability to return to work for the NASAH patients. The nonaneurysmal group had more physical symptom complaints while the aneurysmal group had more emotional symptoms. Lastly, both groups had low levels of PTSD, and these levels did not differ significantly between groups. However, PTSD and social support were shown by regression analysis to impact HRQOL for both groups. We recommend that clinicians assess for PTSD in all subarachnoid hemorrhage patients and institute treatment early, which will decrease the negative effects on HRQOL. This may include offering psychological services or social work early in the hospital course to all SAH patients. Further research and policy changes are needed to assist in interventions that improve vocational reintegration after SAH. NASAH patients should no longer be referred to as having suffered a “benign hemorrhage.” They have had a life changing hemorrhage that may forever change their lives and impact their HRQOL.

The essential characteristic of the future is uncertainty. A basic feature of the economy, and life in general, is that decisions are made under conditions of uncertainty-the future is unknowable. Having reliable guidelines or indicators that provide discipline and signposts to the future is required for the process of successful investing. Conditions are constantly changing, and there are no rewards for replaying the same old game over and over. To answer for this demand, continued from the previous studies (Choi, 1996; Choi et al., 1997a; Choi et al., 1997b; Choi et al., 1999), this study developed the restaurant industry business cycle models and examined financial practices of the high and low performing firms over the industry cycles. The U.S. restaurant industry demonstrated three cycles (peak to peak or trough to trough) for the period of 1970 through 1998. The restaurant industry peaked in 1973, 1979, and 1989. The industry troughed in 1970, 1974, 1980, and 1991. The mean duration of the restaurant industry cycles is 8 years (SD: 2) calculated by peak to peak and 6.5 years (SD: 2.08) calculated by trough to trough. Expansion takes an average of 6 years in the restaurant industry but declines sharply after it reaches the peak taking average 1.33 years. The restaurant industry experienced high growth (boom) every five years on average. The troughs of the growth cycles, contrasted to the peaks of the growth cycles, coincided with those of the restaurant industry business cycles in each case except one (1985). During that year a low growth phase interrupted industry business expansion but did not terminate it. Restaurant industry growth cycles, then, tend to be relatively symmetrical: since 1970 the average duration was about 2.25 years for both expansion (L-H) and contraction (H-L). In contrast, the restaurant industry business cycles in the same period show a strong asymmetry: the expansions lasted on the average 6 years; the contractions, 1.33 years. The expansions have varied in duration much more than the high growth phases have (the respective standard deviations are 2.58 and 0.95 years). This study supports the view that the cyclical fluctuations of the growth of the restaurant industry can be projected by measuring and analyzing series of economic indicators and each economic indicator has specific characteristics in terms of time lags, and thus can be classified into leading, coincident, and lagging indicators. This study formed a set of composite indices with twelve indicators classified in the leading category, six as coincident, and twenty as lagging. The high performing firms' financial practices regarding investment decisions measured by capital spending, and price earning ratio, and part of financing and dividend decisions measured by market value of common share outstanding are independent of the cyclical fluctuations of the industry cycles. But, their practices regarding dividend decisions measured by the earning per share, investment decision measured by cash flow per share, and financing decisions measured by asset value per share and long term debt level are dependent on the events (Expansion/Contractions) in the Restaurant Industry Cycles. Conclusively, high performers exercise their capital investment (reflected by capital spending) and equity management (reflected by common share outstanding and P/E ratio) independently while being less influenced by the industry swings. They exercise, however, their working capital management (reflected by cash flow per share), earning management (reflected by EPS), asset management, and long term debt management quite dependently while being more influenced by the industry swings. The financial practices exercised by the low performing firms are independent from the events in the industry cycle. Although some financial practices are related to the events in the industry cycle, the directions are opposite to the events in the industry cycle. Specifically, for all of the selected financial strategies except common share outstanding and long-term debt, the low performers practice them independently from the cyclical fluctuations of the industry cycles. Even for common share outstanding and long-term debt strategies, they practiced their strategies in opposite directions to the events (Expansion/Contractions) in the Restaurant Industry Cycles. It is expected that the above results can be used for improving investment performance through understanding the cyclical behavior of the economy and the restaurant industry. With that model, investors should be able to take part in the upswings while avoiding the cyclical downturns, and to structure a portfolio that keeps risk to a minimum. This should then presumably result in competitive investment decisions of firms, thereby improving the effectiveness of resource allocation. / Ph. D.

Agile methods provide an organization or a team with the flexibility to adopt a selected subset of principles and practices based on their culture, their values, and the types of systems that they develop. More specifically, every organization or team implements a customized agile method, tailored to better accommodate its needs. However, the extent to which a customized method supports the organizational objectives, i.e. the 'goodness' of that method, should be demonstrable. Existing agile assessment approaches focus on comparative analyses, or are limited in scope and application. In this research, we propose a systematic, comprehensive approach to assessing the 'goodness' of agile methods. We examine an agile method based on (1) its adequacy, (2) the capability of the organization to support the adopted principles and strategies specified by the method, and (3) the method's effectiveness. We propose the Objectives, Principles and Strategies (OPS) Framework to guide our assessment process. The Framework identifies (a) objectives of the agile philosophy, (b) principles that support the objectives and (c) strategies that implement the principles. It also defines (d) linkages that relate objectives to principles, and principles to strategies, and finally, (e) indicators for assessing the extent to which an organization supports the implementation and effectiveness of those strategies. The propagation of indicator values along the linkages provides a multi-level assessment view of the agile method.  In this dissertation, we present our assessment methodology, guiding Framework, validation approach, results and findings, and future directions. / Ph. D.

To meet the surging water demand due to rapid population growth and changing climatic conditions around the world, and to reduce the impact of floods and droughts, comprehensive water management and planning is necessary. Climatic variability, hydrologic uncertainty and variability of hydrologic quantities in time and space are inherent to hydrological modeling. Hydrologic modeling using a physically-based model can be very complex and typically requires detailed knowledge of physical processes. The availability of data is an important issue to justify the use of these models. Data-driven models are an alternative choice. This is a relatively new and efficient approach to modeling. Data-drive models bridge the gap between the classical regression and physically-based models. By using a data-driven model that relies on the machine learning approach, it is possible to produce reasonable predictions from a limited data set and limited knowledge of underlying physical processes of the system by just relating input and output. This dissertation uses the Multivariate Relevance Vector Machine (MVRVM) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) for predicting a variety of hydrological quantities. These models are used in this dissertation for identifying influential climate indicators, and are used for long-term streamflow prediction for multiple lead times at different locations in Utah. They are also used for prediction of Great Salt Lake (GSL) elevation series. They provide reasonable predictions of hydrological quantities from the available data. The predictions from these models are robust and parsimonious. This research presents the first attempt to identify influential climate indicators and predict long lead-time streamflow in Utah, and to predict lake elevation using machine learning models. The approach presented herein has potential value for water resources planning and management especially for irrigation and flood management.

El problema principal que se desarrolla en la tesis es la existencia de un alto volumen de pan que no se llega a vender, seguido del atraso en la entrega de insumos y la presencia alta de mermas en el proceso de producción. Las micro y pequeñas empresas aportan aproximadamente el 24% al PBI nacional y dan empleo al 75% de la PEA. Las Mypes que se dedican a la elaboración de panes, durante el primer trimestre del año 2018 tuvo un crecimiento del 4.1% con respecto al año anterior. Tomando en cuenta la importancia del sector, es importante fortalecer su desempeño en un mercado muy competitivo. En ese sentido, se llevó a cabo una revisión literaria con el fin de dar solución al problema encontrado. Existen investigaciones donde se implementa la estandarización del trabajo, modelado de procesos y planificación de producción. Sin embargo, todos los casos de estudio de esas investigaciones son empresas con un buen nivel de madures o difieren mucho de la realidad de las microempresas peruanas. Por todo lo dicho anteriormente, en la presente tesis se propone un sistema básico de gestión que ayuda a reducir los tres principales problemas expuestos. Este sistema lo componen tres procesos, gestión de calidad, planificación y control de la producción y gestión logística. Así mismo, cada proceso tiene herramientas como el modelado de proceso, Sipoc, indicadores y formatos. La implementación del sistema se llevó en la panadería Cosmos y se obtuvo un aumento de la productividad de 89.90% a 94.81%. / The main problem that develops in the thesis is the existence of a high volume of bread that does not reach a seller, followed by the delay in the delivery of supplies and the high presence of losses in the production process. Micro and small companies contribute approximately 24% to the national PIB and employ 75% of the EAP. The Mypes that are dedicated to the production of panels, during the first quarter of 2018 had a growth of 4.1% compared to the previous year. Taking into account the importance of the sector, it is important to strengthen its performance in a very competitive market. In this sense, a literary review was carried out in order to solve the problem found. There are researches where work standardization, process modeling and production planning are implemented. However, all the case studies of these investigations are companies with a good level of studies or differ greatly from the reality of Peruvian micro-companies. For all the aforementioned, in this thesis a basic management system is proposed that helps to reduce the three main problems affected. This system is made up of three processes, quality management, production planning and control, and logistics management. Likewise, each process has tools such as process modeling, Sipoc, indicators and formats. The implementation of the system was carried out in the Cosmos bakery and an increase in productivity was obtained from 89.90% to 94.81%. / Trabajo de suficiencia profesional

Science communication is a skill that can be strengthened with practice. Like any skill, it helps to know what you need to practice in order to get better at it. When presenting information to an audience, the skill of science communication comes into play as early as the first draft of a presentation. As you think about how you will tell your story to the audience, you likely consider including text on slides, images, graphs, maps, or even videos. However, it is crucial to remember that accessibility barriers are something we must often consciously work to rid our presentations of, in order to make sure we are telling the same story to everyone in the audience. How you present your research inherently determines the way in which your audience learns and engages with that information. If a presentation has many accessibility barriers, it can lead to an incomplete picture forming for members of your audience. For instance, if a member of your audience experiences colorblindness, they may not be able to get a full understanding of your charts, maps, or graphs depending on your color choices. Individuals that have difficulty with hearing may not be able to clearly perceive your take home messages without captions or clear points in easily readable fonts. Doing something small like enabling captions in your presentation can help more than just those that are hard of hearing follow along, but also audience members who use visual assistance with auditory processing or who do not have the same native language as the one in which you are presenting (Cooke et al., 2020). This project is going to dive into one of the examples from earlier: maps. Maps used in the scientific community for disseminating information to general audiences have historically been two dimensional, with some exceptions. However, thanks to the ease of access to rapidly evolving technology, turning the story of your spatiotemporal data into a 3D map with 360 visualization that tells a more powerful story to your audience is becoming more common. One use example of this is modeling projected sea level rise (SLR) in coastal communities, which will be the focus of this capstone. Capstone products: Included in zip file under Download Button: Capstone paper Accessibility Tips for Scientific Presentations.[PDF] Link: https://go.wm.edu/b6g7S5 360 Scene of Norfolk Sea Level Rise Projections.[3VR file] Norfolk_SLR_VIMS_CCRM_Data_360VR.3vr Link: https://go.wm.edu/j9mgFQ Link Only: 3D Map of Norfolk Sea Level Rise Projections:https://go.wm.edu/QdYPGq

Carbon export from the land to the ocean are an important part of the global carbon cycle, linking terrestrial watersheds and the global carbon cycle. Burial of terrestrial organic carbon represents a long term sink for atmospheric CO2. Approximately 0.4 Pg Cy-1 is delivered to the global ocean from rivers, equally divided between POC and DOC. However, the amount of carbon entering the ocean is a small portion of the total amount entering rivers from the terrestrial environment, suggesting a large amount of processing in inland waters and estuaries. Most monitoring efforts have focused the processing of organic matter on baseflow conditions. However, recent studies have shown that POC and DOC exported during storm events, a small time period during a hydrologic year, can account for the majority of the annual carbon exported from small watersheds. This dissertation identifies the impact different magnitudes of storm events have on the source, composition and reactivity of organic carbon released to downstream waters from the terrestrial environment at Taskinas Creek, Virginia. The proximity of the Creek to the York River estuary, the changes in water table at the site, along with the small size of the watershed allowing opportunity to examine the connectivity between the watershed processes and delivery of organic matter made the site ideal for identifying how hydrology and environment alter POM and DOM export and reactivity. The sources, composition and flux of DOM and POM were measured during four storm events of different magnitudes to determine how events impacted the sources and fluxes of organic matter and the % reactive DOC exported. Events of different magnitudes with varying sources of DOC and POC had similar % reactive DOC that was not predicted using excitation emission spectroscopy. The events resulted in DOC fluxes 1.5-490 fold higher than baseflow. POC fluxes for storm were 6.7-55 times higher than DOC fluxes. Although the % reactive DOC did not increase during storm event conditions, coupled with the overall flux, storm events represent a considerable pulse of % reactive DOC to downstream waters, well above baseflow levels. When considered with increases in storm intensity due to climate change, storm event fluxes of reactive OM may have broad impacts on estuaries and the global carbon cycle through changes in carbon storage.