abstract: Public institution facility operations and maintenance is a significant factor enabling an institution to achieve its stated objectives in the delivery of public service. To meet the societal need, Facility Directors must make increasingly complex decisions managing the demands of building infrastructure performance expectations with limited resources. The ability to effectively measure a return-on-investment, specific to facility maintenance indirect expenditures, has, therefore, become progressively more critical given the scale of public institutions, the collective age of existing facilities, and the role these institutions play in society. This research centers on understanding the method of prioritizing routine work in support of indirect institutional facility maintenance expense through the lens of K-12 public education in the state of Arizona. The methodology documented herein utilizes a mixed method approach to understand current facility maintenance practices and assess the influence of human behavior when prioritizing routine work. An evidence-based decision support tool, leveraging prior academic research, was developed to coalesce previously disparate academic studies. The resulting process provides a decision framework for prioritizing decision factors most frequently correlated with academic outcomes. A purposeful sample of K-12 unified districts, representing approximately one-third of the state’s student population and spend, resulted in a moderate to a strong negative correlation between facility operations and student outcomes. Correlation results highlight an opportunity to improve decision making, specific to the academic needs of the student. This research documents a methodology for constructing, validation, and testing of a decision support tool for prioritizing routine work orders. Findings from a repeated measures crossover study suggest the decision support tool significantly influenced decision making specific to certain work orders as well as the Plumbing and Mechanical functional areas. However, the decision support tool was less effective when prioritizing Electrical and General Maintenance work orders. Moreover, as decision making transitioned away from subjective experience-based judgment, the prioritization of work orders became increasingly more consistent. The resulting prioritization, therefore, effectively leveraged prior empirical, evidence-based decision factors when utilizing the tool. The results provide a system for balancing the practical experience of the Facility Director with the objective guidance of the decision support tool. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Construction Management 2019

The two most common methods to measure resting metabolic rate using indirect calorimetry are steady state or time interval. Steady state is commonly defined as the first five minutes in which oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production vary by <10%. A time interval measurement generally lasts 20-60 minutes. Using steady state criteria is often harder to achieve, but many suggest it more accurately measures resting metabolic rate. Our objective was to determine if there were differences between steady state and time interval measurements in a healthy adult population. Seventy seven subjects were measured for 45 minutes. Inclusion criteria included healthy subjects ages 18-65, excluding pregnant and lactating women. Paired t-tests analyzed differences between measures, and Bland-Altman plots evaluated bias, precision, and accuracy. Of 77 subjects, 84% achieved steady state, and 95% achieved SS by minute 30. Most differences between steady state and time intervals were statistically but not practically significant. Bland-Altman plots showed steady state measurements were generally lower indicating that steady state is more indicative of resting metabolic rate. Minutes 6-25 were most precise, accurate and fairly unbiased compared to steady state. We recommend measuring a subject for 30 minutes and using steady state criteria of <10% variation of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production for five minutes if a subject is able to achieve it. However, if a subject cannot achieve steady state, we recommend averaging minutes 6-25.

Purpose: Accelerometry is commonly used to objectively measure physical activity (PA), however, differential data collection methods and analysis techniques yield dissimilar outcomes. The aims of this research were to (1) understand how accelerometer output varies among accelerometers worn on the non-dominant wrist (NDW), dominant wrist (DW), and hip; (2) develop site-specific algorithms to predict activity type classification, activity intensity classification, and estimates of metabolic intensity; and (3) compare the algorithms in a free-living setting. Methods: Forty participants (16.8 – 64.2 yr) completed a sequence of sedentary and physical activities in a laboratory while wearing accelerometers on the NDW, DW, and hip. Participants also wore a portable metabolic analyzer to objectively measure oxygen consumption (VO2). One-second accelerometer output was compared across wear locations by activity type and intensity classifications (Aim 1). Accelerometer output data were transformed into variables related to the magnitude (ϒ), horizontal angle (φ), and inclination (θ) of acceleration, and used to develop algorithms for the NDW, DW, and hip. Random forest algorithms were developed to predict activity type classification (i.e., sedentary, lifestyle, and ambulatory) and activity intensity classification (i.e., sedentary, light, moderate, and vigorous), and regression models were built to predict VO2 (Aim 2). Following the laboratory visit, participants simultaneously wore an accelerometer at each of the three locations for three days of free-living data collection. The site-specific algorithms developed in Aim 2 were compared for equivalence (Aim 3). Aim 1 Results: Analysis of variance indicated that accelerometer output differed between the NDW, DW, and hip for all activities completed, except for lying supine. Differences were expected; thus, Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between the NDW, DW, and hip, and compared across activity type and intensity classifications. For activity type, the relationships between all wear locations were different for all activity types (i.e., sedentary, lifestyle PA, and ambulatory PA). For activity intensity, the relationships between the wrists were significantly different between sedentary and light activities. Additionally, relationships between the NDW, DW, and hip differed between light and moderate, and light and vigorous PA for all wear locations. The disparate correlations indicated that accelerometer signals do not just increase in magnitude as intensity increases; rather they increase differentially by wear location and activity type. Aim 2 Results: Site-specific random forest algorithms were developed to predict activity type and intensity classification. The algorithms utilized 10-15 features of the accelerometer signal related to variability, location, and central tendency. The hip had prediction accuracies of 84.9% for activity type classification and 80.2% for activity intensity classification. The dominant wrist had activity type prediction accuracy of 83.6% and intensity prediction accuracy of 78.9%. The non-dominant wrist had prediction accuracies of 83.1% and 78.0% for activity type and intensity, respectively. The VO2 prediction algorithms had Mean Absolute Errors of 2.96 ml/kg/min for the hip, 3.34 ml/kg/min for the NDW, and 3.49 ml/kg/min for the DW. This equates to an average error of 0.93 metabolic equivalents (METs); algorithms currently used in practice yield errors of 0.89 to 2.00 METs. Aim 3 Results: The site-specific prediction algorithms were applied to free-living data. Using the random forest algorithms, activity type classification estimates differed by 2 to 82 minutes/day, and activity intensity classification estimates differed by 0 to 83 minutes/day; however, these differences were not significantly different. The VO2 prediction models provided estimates of PA within 0 to 57 minutes/day of one another. The hip provided the lowest estimates of MVPA, while the NDW provided the highest estimates, however the VO2 estimates from all wear locations were statistically equivalent to one another. Conclusion: The differential relationships among accelerometer outputs from the NDW, DW, and hip indicate that output differs based on activity type and intensity. This non-systematic error prevents scaling or comparing data collected at different wear locations and supports the need for site-specific analysis methods. Site-specific prediction algorithms provided comparable to improved performance over currently-utilized analysis methods in PA research, and the PA estimates were equivalent across wear locations. This research provides a more nuanced understanding of the impact of wear location on accelerometer output and alternative methods for analysis. Importantly, the algorithms created allow for comparisons to be made among data collected at the NDW, DW, and hip, which has not previously been possible.

For most of the twentieth and all the twenty-first century, there has been a great debate over educational reform for teaching mathematics. From these debates have come a critical look at how to properly instruct students so they can actively learn in the classroom, yet still retain the information for use in their later life. These questions are rooted in the larger debate between philosophical and psychological dimensions of human growth and development. Some educators, therefore, believe structuring their instruction around some philosophies such as idealism, realism, pragmatism, or existentialism was the key to success for their students. Others took the psychological approach and featured behaviorist or cognitive ideas in their teaching. Most feel that the approaches to psychology reflect these philosophical and psychological theories. These positions have resulted in the emergence of specific suggested teaching strategies that each proponent believes provide the solutions to the dilemma of how to best educate today’s students. This study examines what effect two different instructional strategies have on student acquisition of mathematical concepts and procedures.

Ants are ubiquitous in most communities and many form opportunistic mutualisms with honeydew-producing hemipterans (e.g. treehoppers). Hemipterans excrete honeydew, a carbohydrate rich substance, that ants harvest and, in return, ants protect their honeydew-producing partners from parasitoids, predators, and competitors. Given the efficacy of tending ants in removing hemipteran antagonists, and the strong roles that ants play within their communities as predators, competitors, and seed dispersers, surprisingly little is known of the effects of ant-hemipteran mutualisms (AHM) on the invertebrate communities in which they are embedded or on the plants that host AHM. Using observational and manipulative field experiments, I examined the long-term effect of AHM on their host plant’s, honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), reproductive potential and quality. In addition, I measured how the presence of AHM affects the abundance, richness, diversity, and composition of the invertebrate communities living on honey mesquite. Plants hosting AHM may indirectly benefit (through the removal of herbivore arthropods) or suffer (through the loss pollinators) due to the defensive behavior of tending ants. To determine the effects of AHM on their host plant, I established a four-year press experiment in which I removed AHM from 50 randomly trees, while leaving 50 as controls. In addition, I marked and followed 30 trees from which AHM were naturally absent. To assess if mesquite quality differed between trees hosting AHM and trees in which AHM were naturally absent, in 2012 I assayed foliar condensed tannin concentrations, a secondary defense compound, and, in 2015, I measured foliar nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, and iron as they are essential for growth and reproduction. I compared the reproductive potential between AHM present and removed trees by counting flowers and fruits across all 4 years of the study. Mesquite that hosted AHM contained significantly less condensed tannins and significantly higher concentrations of N%, Mg, and Fe. Furthermore, over the duration of the study mesquite hosting AHM contained significantly more flowers than those from which AHM were removed or naturally absent. My results indicate that AHM select trees of high quality and their continued presence is associated with high levels of reproductive potential. Most studies that have evaluated community-level effects of AHM compare total abundance and species richness in communities (or host plants) with and without AHMs. However, both measures are dependent on sampling effort, complicating comparisons across different studies. To examine the effects of AMH on the arthropod community in mesquite, I first compared family richness and alpha diversity using standardized rarefaction and extrapolation curves. I then measured beta diversity and turnover in community composition from one year to the next. The removal of AHM increased invertebrate diversity and significantly altered community composition. Although treatments did not statistically differ in turnover rates, replacements occurred among treatments at the family level which may be biologically meaningful. Furthermore, herbivore and predator populations increased, and pollinator populations decreased following the removal of AHM. These results suggest that the presence of AHM can alter the composition of arthropod communities and food-web dynamics. However, these effects were significant in some years and not others, suggesting the importance of temporal variation in drivers of communities. Overall, my work demonstrates that AHM can be drivers of community composition and illustrate the importance of examining their effects across multiple seasons.

Orientador: Fábio Leão Bertequini / Resumo: O consumo de energia elétrica por parte de consumidores residenciais apresenta curvas de carga bem definidas ao longo do dia e por meio delas é possível perceber horários de maior e menor concentração de demanda. Consequentemente este comportamento exige muito dos sistemas de geração e distribuição em determinados intervalos de tempo e as concessionárias, por sua vez, tomam medidas para incentivar o consumo em momentos fora destes intervalos. Esta prática é denominada Gerenciamento pelo Lado da Demanda, que pode ocorrer de forma Direta ou Indireta. Uma das formas de Gerenciamento pelo Lado da Demanda Indireto (GLDI), que atualmente vigora no Brasil, é a Tarifa Branca (TB). O objetivo consiste em deslocar a demanda de ponta para horários fora de ponta, contribuindo, assim, para a melhoria da curva de carga do alimentador e, além disto, incentiva a mudança de hábito dos consumidores. Por outro lado, a adoção da TB e a mudança dos hábitos de consumo dos consumidores poderão causar impactos na rede de distribuição os quais devem ser investigados. A proposta deste trabalho é analisar esses impactos, com base em um modelo de Programação Linear Inteira Mista o qual considera a adoção de painéis solares pelo consumidor e, consequentemente, a exportação de energia elétrica para a rede. O modelo busca a otimização da curva de carga do consumidor rearranjando os horários de uso dos aparelhos eletrodomésticos para os horários fora de ponta, levando em conta o conforto e a redução da fatu... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The consumption of electric energy by residential consumers presents well-defined load curves throughout the day through which is possible to perceive times of higher and lower demand concentration. Consequently, this behavior puts a high demand to Generation and Distribution Systems during certain given intervals of time so distributers, in turn, take measures to encourage consumption at moments outside those time ranges. Such practice is known as Demand-Side Management (DSM), which can occur either directly or indirectly. One of the indirect Demand-side Management that takes place in Brazil is called the “White Fee”. Its main objective is to shift peak demand to off-peak hours, contributing to the improvement of the feeder’s load curve and also to encourage consumers’ change of habits. On the other hand, the accession of the White-Tariff and the change of consumer behavior can impact on the distribution grids, which should be looked into. The proposal of this paper is to analyze such impacts based on a Mixed Integer Linear Programming model which considers the consumers’ solar panels purchase, and consequently, energy exports to the grid. The model seeks the enhancement of the consumers’ load curve by rearranging the hours of use household appliances at offpeak hours, taking into account comfort and a decrease in consumers electricity billing. The model was implemented in the AMPL language, making it possible to solve the CPLEX. In order to observe the impact of the White T... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The loss of large apex predators, and their subsequent reintroduction, has been identified as a substantial driver on the structure and function of ecological communities through behavioral mediated trophic cascades (BMTCs). The reintroduction of wolves (Canis lupus) to Yellowstone National Park (YNP) has served as foundational case study of BMTCs. In our system, it has been suggested that wolves have established a ‘landscape of fear’ in which the primary prey, elk (Cervus elaphus), now avoid risky places, which ultimately led to the recovery of the vegetation community. Although this case is frequently cited as a well-understood example of a landscape of fear, researchers never quantified whether elk avoided risky places, a critical component of the BMTC hypothesis. Thus, I employed numerous quantitative approaches to evaluate the role of wolves and cougars on elk habitat selection in northern Yellowstone. The results from this work suggest that the daily activity schedule of wolves provide a temporally predictable period of risk that allows elk to use risky places during safe times. As such, diel predator activity flattened (i.e., made less risky) the landscape of fear for 16 hours per day, 7 days a week, which permitted elk to forage on deciduous woody plants despite the presence of wolves. Thus, suggests that any trophic cascade in northern Yellowstone is likely driven by the consumptive effects of wolves on elk. In addition, my results suggest that daily activity patterns are an important component of predation risk, and as such, provide a predictable avenue for elk to avoid predators despite residing in an environment spatially saturated with wolves and cougars. Thus, the ability of elk to avoid predators through fine-scale spatial decisions provides support for my findings that the current spatial distribution of prey is largely driven by the consumptive effects of predators on the prey population, rather than a landscape of fear. In combination, these results suggest that the landscape of fear, and more generally, fear effects, may be of less relevance to conservation and management than direct killing within free-living, large landscapes.

This study validated and evaluated the feasibility of a web-based electronic behavior assessment system, ‘eBA’, designed to facilitate collaboration between caregivers and service providers (behavior analysts) in conducting indirect functional behavior assessment (FBA). In Phase 1, the content and the web architecture of the eBA were validated and refined through a formative evaluation by five behavior analysts. In Phase 2, the eBA system was pilot tested with 10 service providers and 10 caregivers using a post-test only control group design to examine the efficiency and quality of the system and identify the levels of satisfaction with the system by the service providers and caregivers. The results indicated that the eBA system components were appropriate to conduct indirect FBA and useful for use by caregivers and service providers collaboratively, gathered quality information, and showed higher levels of caregiver and service provider satisfaction, compared to traditional paper-pencil format of assessment.

Kin recognition is the ability to identify a conspecific as a relative and can occur even when animals are complete strangers. By being able to recognise relatives, animals are able to give preferential treatment to those with which they share genes. Recognition may occur by either direct familiarisation (learning a phenotypic cue that reliably correlates to kinship), or by indirect familiarisation (learning kinship relationships through previous encounters). Rats (Rattus norvegicus) can recognise kin, however to what degree kin recognition is mediated by genetics (direct familiarisation) or social relationships (indirect familiarisation) are unknown; the influences of kinship and familiarity on the ability to learn from a conspecific is also unknown. Furthermore, the sex of an animal can also influence its ability to learn but this effect has received little attention in the literature, particularly when considering observational learning tasks. I assessed if relatedness and/or familiarity influenced a rat's ability to learn through observation, and if gender relationships influence the learning process. Eighty rats ( observers ) were given the opportunity to observe a demonstrator rat press a joystick in a given direction to obtain a food reward. Observers watched a demonstrator that had one of the following relationships with them: related and familiar, related and unfamiliar, unrelated and familiar, or unrelated and unfamiliar. When observers were given the opportunity to manipulate the joystick, the number of sniffs of the joystick, the latency to first move the joystick and the total number of presses were recorded. Rats that were both familiar and related to the demonstrator consistently performed better than any other treatment group; furthermore, rats that were familiar with the demonstrator performed the task more efficiently than rats that were not familiar with the demonstrator. When the demonstrators and observers were related, the observers produced more presses and sniffs of the joystick while having a lower latency to the first push In addition, male observers learnt better than females regardless of the demonstrator sex, with males that were familiar to their demonstrator making nearly twice as many pushes than any other treatment group. The results from this study are discussed in relation to both the mechanisms of direct and indirect recognition and the potential adaptive value on kin discrimination in the learning process. The home range hypothesis may explain why gender differences in learning were found: male rats have larger home ranges than females. Male rat will regularly encounter more rats than females and would need to ascertain if unfamiliar individuals are relatives. Females remain closer to natal sites and as such are more likely to encounter kin and therefore may not need as well as developed kin recognition ability.

Laser thermal ablation (LTA) is an in situ ablative technique that induces heat destruction of liver tumours. Despite increasing clinical use of LTA, reports of long-term outcomes and limitation of treatment in specific cohorts of patients with liver tumours are lacking. In addition, the mechanisms of action of therapy have not been fully elucidated. This study highlights the long-term clinical results and limitations of LTA in the treatment of a cohort of patients with unresectable colorectal liver metastases and examines the mechanisms of action of thermal ablative injury in a murine model.