Master of Science / Department of Plant Pathology / William Bockus / Robert Bowden / Stem rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, has historically been one of the most important diseases of wheat. Although losses have been much reduced in the last fifty years, new highly virulent races of the pathogen have recently emerged in East Africa. These new races are virulent on nearly all of the currently deployed resistance genes and therefore pose a serious threat to global wheat production. The spring wheat variety ‘Kingbird’ is thought to contain multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that provide durable, adult-plant resistance against wheat stem rust. Stem rust-susceptible Kansas winter wheat line ‘KS05HW14’ was backcrossed to Kingbird and 379 recombinant lines were advanced to BC₁F₅ and then increased for testing. The lines were screened for stem rust resistance in the greenhouse and field in Kansas and in the field in Kenya over multiple years. We identified 16,237 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with the Wheat 90K iSelect SNP Chip assay. After filtering for marker quality, linkage maps were constructed for each wheat chromosome. Composite interval mapping and multiple-QTL mapping identified seven QTLs on chromosome arms 2BL, 2DS, 3BS, 3BSc, 5DL, 7BL, and 7DS. Six QTLs were inherited from Kingbird and one QTL on 7BL was inherited from KS05HW14. The location of the QTL on 2BL is approximately at locus Sr9, 3BS is at Sr2, 3BSc is at Sr12, and 7DS is at Lr34/Yr18/Sr57. Although no QTL was found on 1BL, the presence of resistance gene Lr46/Yr29/Sr58 on 1BL in both parents was indicated by the gene-specific marker csLV46. QTLs on 2DS and 5DL may be related to photoperiod or vernalization genes. Pairwise interactions were only observed with race QFCSC, most notably occurring with QTLs 2BL and 3BSc. These results confirm that there are multiple QTLs present in Kingbird. Ultimately, the identification of the QTLs that make Kingbird resistant will aid in the understanding of durable, non-race-specific resistance to stem rust of wheat.

The Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) framework is a new system for creating customized translation quality assessment and evaluation metrics designed to fit specific translation needs. In this study I test the viability of MQM to determine whether the framework in its current state is ready for implementation as a quality assessment framework in the translation industry. Other contributions from this study include: (1) online software for designing and using metrics based on the MQM framework; (2) a survey of the typical, real-world quality assessment and evaluation practices of language service providers in the translation industry; and (3) a measurement scale for determining the viability of translation quality assessment and evaluation frameworks such as MQM. The study demonstrates that the MQM framework is a viable solution when it comes to the validity and practicality of creating translation quality metrics for the translation industry. It is not clear whether those metrics can be used reliably without extensive training of qualified assessors on the use of MQM metrics.

This thesis asks how the Mohajir Quami Mahaz (MQM), transformed itself from an ethnic to a catch-all party. Existing literature heavily emphasizes the MQM’s militancy, while this thesis explores the journey of the party, formed in 1984 to represent Urdu-speakers in Pakistan, through each phase of its development down to its transformation into the Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz (United National Movement) in 1997. The MQM’s process of transformation can be explained theoretically through Kirchheimer’s catch-all party theory. My findings note a shift from an ethno-militant agenda of Mohajir interests to one stressing the need for “national unity” and modernization. It is argued that the party shifted from making choices based on ideology to a strategy-based politics. The MQM, therefore, sought voters outside its traditional constituent base in an effort to gain national appeal. As an urban-based middle-class party, it provides an ideal example of how a party adopts to a changing social environment fractured by military administration, modernity, and political Islam. Therefore, this thesis is the story of the MQM’s journey from mohallah to mainstream.

This thesis asks how the Mohajir Quami Mahaz (MQM), transformed itself from an ethnic to a catch-all party. Existing literature heavily emphasizes the MQM’s militancy, while this thesis explores the journey of the party, formed in 1984 to represent Urdu-speakers in Pakistan, through each phase of its development down to its transformation into the Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz (United National Movement) in 1997. The MQM’s process of transformation can be explained theoretically through Kirchheimer’s catch-all party theory. My findings note a shift from an ethno-militant agenda of Mohajir interests to one stressing the need for “national unity” and modernization. It is argued that the party shifted from making choices based on ideology to a strategy-based politics. The MQM, therefore, sought voters outside its traditional constituent base in an effort to gain national appeal. As an urban-based middle-class party, it provides an ideal example of how a party adopts to a changing social environment fractured by military administration, modernity, and political Islam. Therefore, this thesis is the story of the MQM’s journey from mohallah to mainstream.

This document is a supplement to the article entitled “The Multidimensional Quality Metric (MQM) Framework: A New Framework for Translation Quality Assessment”, which has been acepted for publication in the upcoming January volume of JoSTrans, the Journal of Specialized Translation. The article is a coauthored project between Dr. Alan K. Melby, Dr. Troy Cox and myself. In this document you will find a preface describing the process of writing the article, an annotated bibliography of sources consulted in my research, a summary of what I learned, and a conclusion that considers the future avenues opened up by this research. Our article examines a new method for assessing the quality of a translation known as the Multidimensional Quality Metric, MQM. In our experiment we set the MQM framework to mirror, as closely as possible, the American Translators Association's (ATA) translator certification exam. To do this we mapped the ATA error categories to corresponding MQM error categories. We acquired a set of 29 student translations and had a group of student raters use the MQM framework to rate these translations. We measured the practicality of the MQM framework by comparing the time required for ratings to the average time required to rate translations in the industry. In addition, we had 2 ATA certified translators rate the anchor translation (a translation that was scored by every rater in order to have a point of comparison). The certified translators' ratings were used to verify that the scores given by the student raters were valid. Reliability was also measured, which found that the student raters were not interchangeable, but that the measurement estimate of reliability was adequate. The article's goal was to determine the extent to which the Multidimensional Quality Metric framework for translation evaluation is viable (practical, reliable and valid) when designed to mirror the ATA certification exam. Overall, the results of the experiment showed that MQM could be a viable way to rate translation quality when operationalized based on the ATA's translator certification exam. This is an important discovery in the field of translation quality, because it shows that MQM could be a viable tool for future researchers. Our experiment suggests that researchers ought to take advantage of the MQM framework because, not only is it free, but any studies completed using the MQM framework would have a common base, making these studies more easily comparable.