Master of Science / Department of Statistics / Paul I. Nelson / The standard Chi-square test for the equality of proportions of positive responses to c specified binary questions is valid when the observed responses arise from independent random samples of units. When the responses to all c questions are recorded on the same unit, a situation called correlated proportions, the assumptions under which this test is derived are no longer valid. Under the additional assumption of compound symmetry, the Cochran-Q test is a valid test for the equality of proportions of positive responses. The purpose of this report is to use simulation to examine and compare the performance of the Cochran-Q test and the standard Chisquare test when testing for the equality of correlated proportions. It is found that the Cochran-Q test is superior to the Chi-square test in terms of size and power, especially when the common correlation among the binary responses is large.

Published Article / Pricing management, as part of the marketing strategy of an organisation, is a difficult and highly complex - but also critically important - management activity, as it affects the revenue and therefore the profits of an organisation. However, scholars such as Bruck (2010), Cram (2006:5), Eugster, Kakkar and Roegner (2000:133), Hinterhuber (2004:765) and Pratt (2007) believe that the pricing function in organisations has largely been neglected by managers and academics and that price is generally set by guesswork and not by scientific means. This article maintains that the pricing function in an organisation can be successfully managed through the implementation of a pricing plan. A critically important step in the pricing plan is to select a pricing strategy or combination of pricing strategies to set the price of a product or service. A number of nonparametric statistical tests are available to assist management in the selection of the most suitable pricing strategy, or combination of pricing strategies, when determining the price of a product or service. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the use of statistical methods in selecting a pricing strategy as part of a comprehensive pricing plan. The article contains an analysis of selected literature, while taking a descriptive and statistical approach to demonstrate the use of statistical methods in selecting a pricing strategy.

This comparative pre-test/post-test quantitative study investigated the effect of an instructional strategy using concept mapping as a graphic organizer on the quality of persuasive writing compositions produced by fourth grade elementary school students. Six fourth grade classes were assigned as intact groups to three conditions: concept mapping treatment, four square treatment, and control. Participants wrote a pre-test essay prior to treatment. Treatment consisted of an instructional unit collaboratively developed by the researcher and classroom teachers on persuasive writing. Instruction for the three treatment groups was the same except for type of graphic organizer used (Concept Map, Four Square, or none). Following treatment, a post-test on persuasive writing was administered in the form of an essay. The concept mapping treatment group used concept mapping as their graphic organizer, the four square treatment group used the four square method, and the control group used no graphic organizer. Each of the pre- and post-test essays for both treatment and control groups were scored using rubrics created collaboratively by the researcher and participating teachers for Persuasive Content and for Engagement with Content. Only the concept mapping treatment group created concept maps during the post-test. Therefore, only the concept mapping treatment groups’ essays received a score for Sophistication of the Concept Map. One-way Analysis of Variance showed a significant mean difference in Persuasive Content and Engagement with Content between the three treatment groups. Concept Mapping had the highest mean scores on each, followed by Four Square and then the control. Pearson’s product-moment correlation showed a moderate positive correlation between Sophistication of Concept Map and both Persuasive Content and Engagement with Content. Positive correlations were also found between prior KCCT scores and persuasive writing scores and prior writing portfolio scores and persuasive writing scores. No significant correlation was found between gender and persuasive writing scores or race/ethnicity and persuasive writing scores. The results of this study indicate that Concept Mapping improves Persuasive Content and Engagement with Content when used as a graphic organizer in the writing of persuasive essays.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Bimetric theory is an extension to general relativity that introduces a secondary symmetric rank-two tensor field. This secondary spin-2 field is also dynamical, and to avoid the Boulware-Deser ghost issue, the interaction between the two fields is obtained through a potential that involes the matrix square-root of the tensors. This square-root “quantity” is a linear transformation, herein referred to as the square-root isometry. In this work we explore the conditions for the existence of the square-root isometry and its group properties. Morever we study the conditions for the simultaneous 3+1 decomposition of two fields, and then, in terms of null-cones, give the (local) causal relations between fields coupled by the square-root isometry. Finally, we show the algebraic equivalency of bimetric theory and its vielbein formulation up to a one-to-one map relating the respective parameter spaces over the real numbers. / Den bimetriska teorin är en utökning av den allmänna relativitetsteorin som introducerar ett sekundärt symmetriskt tensorfält av rang-två. Det här sekundära spin-2 fältet är också dynamiskt, och för att undvika Boulware-Deser spöke, erhålls vaxelverkan mellan de två fältena genom en potential som er baserad på kvadratrotsmatris av två tensorfält. Den “kvadratroten” är en linjär avbildning som kallas kvadratrotsisometri. I detta arbete utforskas förutsättningar för existensen av kvadratrotsisometrin och ges dess egenskaper i termer av gruppteori. Därutöver utforskas förutsättningarna för den samtidiga 3+1 dekompositionen av två tensorfält och sedan, i termer av ljuskoner, ges de (lokala) kausala relationerna för tensorfält kopplade genom kvadratrotsisometrin. Slutligen bevisas den algebraiska ekvivalensen mellan den bimetriska teorin och dess vielbein formulering upp till en bijektiv relation mellan respektive parameterutrymmen över de reella talen. / <p>Summarizes the results from the project done between March 2014 and November 2014.</p>

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason Brody / The use of partnerships between the public and private realm have become increasingly popular. This is due to today’s challenges of declining public resources to fulfill the social and physical needs of urban environments. This dilemma has placed a heightened emphasis on executing creative and collaborative redevelopment projects. Downtown Kansas City has an opportunity for such a project. Washington Square Park in downtown Kansas City, Missouri has a unique opportunity to stand as a catalyst project that would reconnect the urban fabric of the city, increase the population within downtown, and create an unsurpassed gateway into the greater downtown area. The public realm alone cannot accomplish this undertaking. Therefore, implementing the redevelopment of the park through public private partnerships is a natural choice. This study explores the intricacies of implementing the proposed Washington Square Park redevelopment project through the use of public private partnerships. It draws from a body of literature and precedents to provide background material, context and principles that are applied to the Washington Square Park project. The study employs site, market, and stakeholder analyses to assess the current economic environment, property ownership, power relationships and influences relating to the redevelopment project. These methods determined that as the value of Washington Square Park increases so will adjacent property; existing economic incentives are critical for project implementation; multi-family and retail real estate markets are strong while office trends are improving; current zoning allows for very high density with no height limitations; and several “key players” hold the attributes for establishing a conservancy for Washington Square Park. These findings reveal the symbiotic relationships between Washington Square Park and the surrounding context which provides the rational basis for project implementation through public private partnerships. Overall, this document informs the various stakeholders and decision-makers of pertinent information pertaining to the Washington Square Park redevelopment project and propositions a scenario for project implementation through the use of public private partnerships.

Neste trabalho foi utilizada uma metodologia eletroanalítica para o estudo do comportamento dos pesticidas triazínicos, Atrazina e Ametrina em água e sedimentos do rio Mogi-Guaçu. Para isto utilizou-se a técnica de voltametria de onda quadrada (SWV) e o eletrodo de gota suspensa de mercúrio (HMDE). Inicialmente, os parâmetros experimentais (e voltamétricos) foram otimizados a fim de se obter a melhor resposta, em termos de intensidade de corrente de pico e definição do perfil voltamétrico. As melhores condições encontradas foram: eletrólito suporte CaCl2 0,01 mol L-1 em pH 3,0 e 2,3, para Ametrina e Atrazina, respectivamente, f = 100 s-1; a = 50 mV e DEs=2,0 e 10,0, para Ametrina e Atrazina respectivamente. Após a otimização, curvas de trabalho foram construídas para os dois pesticidas. Foram determinados os limites de detecção (LD) e quantificação (LQ), fatores de recuperação, repetibilidade, reprodutibilidade e sensibilidade da metodologia utilizada. Os resultados obtidos utilizando esta metodologia eletroanalítica foram comparados com os obtidos por HPLC-UV. Para Ametrina e Atrazina em eletrólito preparado com água do Milli-Q, os valores de LD encontrados foram de 2,12 ?g L-1 e 1,16 ?g L-1 e os de LQ foram de 7,06 ?g L-1 e 3,90 ?g L-1, respectivamente. Os valores de LD obtidos utilizando HPLC-UV para Ametrina e para a Atrazina foram de 2,69 ?g L-1 e 1,37 ?g L-1, enquanto aqueles para o LQ foram de 9,01 e 10,62 ?g L-1, respectivamente. Observou-se, desta maneira, que os resultados obtidos usando as duas técnicas são muito próximos e inferiores aos valores recomendados pela Comissão Nacional do Meio Ambiente (CONAMA) para águas residuais e efluentes industriais, 50 ?g L-1 para a Atrazina. Além disto, os valores reportados acima são tão baixos quanto os valores máximos aceitos pela Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA - USA) para águas potáveis, 3 ?g L-1 e pela Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA), também para águas potáveis, 2 ?g L-1. A aplicação da mesma metodologia para águas naturais forneceu parâmetros importantes para verificar o comportamento destes pesticidas em águas, principalmente no que se refere à sua persistência. Foram determinados os limites de detecção (LD) e quantificação (LQ), assim como os fatores de recuperação para amostras de água do Rio Mogi-Guaçu, coletadas em três pontos diferentes, utilizando a técnica de SWV. Para Ametrina em eletrólito preparado com água do rio, os valores de LD variaram entre 15,41 e 29,54 ?g L-1 enquanto que os valores de LQ situaram-se entre 51,38 e 98,49 ?g L-1. Já para a Atrazina, os valores de LD variaram entre 4,90 e 6,19 ?g L-1 e os valores de LQ entre 16,36 e 20,65 ?g L-1 respectivamente. Os fatores de recuperação para Ametrina variaram entre 98,12 e 98,50% e para Atrazina entre 98,00 e 98,80%. As fotodegradações dos pesticidas foram estudadas com a exposição à radiação solar de soluções contendo os pesticidas e preparadas com água do Milli-Q, água de rio e água de rio contendo amostras de sedimentos. Os decaimentos da corrente de pico de redução da Ametrina e da Atrazina com o tempo de exposição à luz solar, variaram conforme o ponto de coleta da água do rio Mogi- Guaçu e a natureza do pesticida. Assim, para a Ametrina as porcentagens de decaimento de corrente após 32 horas de exposição foram de 19,10% (água do Milli-Q); 28,24% (ponto 1); 47,62% (ponto 2) e 30,92% (ponto 3). Já para a Atrazina, as respectivas porcentagens de decaimento das correntes de pico de redução foram de 37,50%; 45,90%; 46,10% e 36,53%. Para soluções contendo os sedimentos, a porcentagem de degradação ficou por volta de 30% para Ametrina enquanto que para a Atrazina a diferença foi marcante, ficando em torno de 86%. Os valores dos coeficientes das isotermas de adsorção de Freundlich obtidos indicaram uma dependência da adsorção com o teor de matéria orgânica e argila no sedimento para os três pontos de coleta do sedimento. De acordo com o critério adotado pelo IBAMA, os pesticidas Ametrina e Atrazina apresentam adsorção baixa, ficando pouco adsorvidos no sedimento. Os valores do 1/n da isoterma de Freundlich variaram entre 1,00 e 1,15 indicando uma característica de partição linear para todos os pontos. Os valores de matéria orgânica para os três pontos de coleta, variaram de 5,45 a 15,16%. A matéria orgânica encontra-se revestindo grande parte das frações minerais do solo e sedimento. Estas frações minerais variam de 15,7 a 20,8%, sendo os teores de silte de 12,3 a 16,3%. / An electroanalytical methodology was employed aiming to study the behaviour of the triazinic pesticides Atrazine and Ametrine in water and sediment collected from the Mogi-Guaçu River. The square wave voltammetry (SWV) and the hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE) were employed. In a first step, the experimental (and voltammetric) parameters were optimized in order to yield the highest current signals as well as the most well defined voltammetric profiles. The best conditions were achieved as: 0.01 mol L-1 CaCl2 as the support electrolyte at pH 3.0 and 2.3 for Ametrine and Atrazine respectively, f = 100 s-1, a = 50 mV and ?Es = 2.0 and 10.0 for Ametrine and Atrazine respectively. After this initial step, analytical curves were obtained for both pesticides. The corresponding detection (LD) and determination (LQ) limits were calculated, as well as the recovering factors, repeatability, reproducibility and sensibility for the analytical methodology, which was compared with those, obtained using the HPLC-UV. For Ametrine and Atrazine, in pure electrolyte the LD values were 2.12 and 1.16 ?g L-1, while the LQ ones were 7.06 and 3.90 ?g L-1, respectively. The same parameters, obtained with HPLC-UV yielded LD values of 2.69 and 1.37 ?g L-1 for Ametrine and Atrazine, respectively, while the LQ ones were 9.01 and 10.62 ?g L-1, respectively. In this way, it is apparent that the results obtained in this work were very close for both techniques and lower than the minimum limit allowed by the Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente (CONAMA) for waste water or industrial effluents, 50 ?g L-1. Moreover, they are close to the maximum allowed value for drinking water postulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA – USA), 3 ?g L-1 and the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA), 2 ?g L-1. The application of the same methodology for natural water samples yielded important parameters to establish the behaviour of pesticides, mainly concerning with its persistency. It were determined the detection and quantification limits and recovering factors by the SWV technique, for river water samples collected in three different points. For Ametrine, the LD values for electrolytes prepared with river waters, varied between 15.41 and 29.54 ?g L-1, while the values for LQ were between 51.38 and 98.49 ?g L-1. The same values for Atrazine were determined between 4.90 and 6.19 for LD and 16.36 and 20.65 for LQ. The recovering factors for Ametrine were found to be between 91.12 and 98.50% and for Atrazine between 98 and 98.8%. The photodegradations of pesticide molecules were studied by exposition to daylight of solutions containing the pesticides prepared with Milli-Q water, river water and river water containing sediments. The peak current decaying for Ametrine and Atrazine with exposition time varied accordingly the water collection point in the Mogi-Guaçu River and the nature of the pesticide. In this way, for Ametrine the percentage of decaying after 32 hours of exposition were 19.10% for Milli-Q water, 28.24% point 1, 47.62% point 2 and 30.92% point 3. For Atrazine, the respective decaying percentages of peak currents were 37.5%, 45.90%, 46.10% and 36.53% respectively. For solutions containing sediments (also collected in points 1, 2 and 3) the degradation percentage was around 30% for Ametrine, while for Atrazine the difference, around 86%. The coefficients from Freundlich adsorption isotherms presented values depending on the organic matter and clay present in the sediment samples. The pesticides presented low adsorption characteristic on the sediments. The 1/n values from Freundlich isotherm varied between 1.00 and 1.15, indicating a linear partition coefficient characteristic in all points. In this way, it is possible to associate the Kf values with the partition coefficients (Kd). The organic matter content for the three collection points varied between 5.45 and 15.15. The organic matter is found to be covering the mineral fractions of soils and sediments. These mineral fractions varied from 15.7 to 20.8%, while silt content were among 12.3 and 16.3%.

Intellectual elites have been the collective agents responsible for many democratic transitions worldwide since the early twentieth century. Intellectuals, however, have also been blamed for the evils in modern times. Instead of engaging in abstract debates about who the intellectuals are and what they do, this project studies intellectuals and their ideas within historical contexts. More specifically, it examines the social forces behind the evolving political attitudes of Chinese intellectuals from the late 1970s to the present. Chinese politics has received an enormous amount of attention from social scientists, but intellectuals have been much less explored systematically in social sciences, despite their significant role in China’s political life. Chinese intellectuals have been more fully investigated in the humanities, but existing research either treats different “school of thought” as given, or gives insufficient attention to the division among the intellectuals. It should also be noted that many studies explicitly take sides by engaging in polemics. To date, little work has thoroughly addressed the diversity and evolution, let alone origins, of political ideas in post-Mao China. As a result, scholars unfamiliar with Chinese politics are often confused about the labels in the Chinese intelligentsia, such as the association of nationalism with the Left and human rights with the Right. More important, without considering how the ideas took shape, we would not adequately understand the political trajectory of communist China, where elite politics and local policies have been profoundly shaped by intellectual debates. This dissertation takes a relational approach to the intellectual debates in contemporary China by analyzing the formation of political ideas and crystallization of intellectual positions. It asks two questions: who are the Chinese liberals, and how were their distinctive bundles of political views formed? Drawing on 67 semi-structured interviews with Chinese intellectual elites across the ideological spectrum, as well as detailed historical and textual analyses, this dissertation examines the social forces that have shaped the political attitudes of liberal intellectuals in contemporary China. It argues against the prevailing attempts to define Chinese liberalism as a social category with a coherent ideology comparable to its Western counterpart; rather, as a community of discourse that contains a number of competing and contradictory discourses, it is embedded in China’s social reality as an authoritarian regime governed by a communist party, and contingent on China’s history straddling the Maoist and post-Mao eras. Rather than a monolithic or tight-knit group, Chinese liberals are comprised of an array of social actors, including scholars, journalists, lawyers, activists, and house church leaders. They are liberal not because of what they are for, but because of what they are against; more specifically, Chinese liberals are united by an anti-authoritarian mentality, which is a historical product of the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. In addition to biographical factors, the views of Chinese liberals have been shaped by structural factors represented by the neoliberal reforms and the rise and growth of the intellectual field since the 1990s, as well as interactive factors manifested by the polar opposition between the liberals and the New Leftists. On the one hand, as state-driven capitalism unleashed China’s economic potential, China was well on its way to becoming a major player in the international community toward the end of the 1990s; on the other hand, the fusion of the free market and political power led to rampant corruption and social injustice. How to make sense of China’s crony capitalism became an important dividing line between the New Left and liberalism. As the intellectual debates were increasingly cast as part of global cultural production, how to appropriate Western thinkers and concepts became a site of contestation. While the dramatic expansion of higher education led to the growth of the intellectual field with its own logic and rules, in which both liberals and New Left intellectuals were struggling for symbolic power, the penetration of the political field remained, not only in terms of visible incentives and punishments, but also in terms of its subtle influence on the manner of problem construction and debate. Through combative interactions, the liberals and the New Leftists have defined themselves by reference to each other. In the process of binary opposition, the views of both sides have moved further and further apart with little overlap. This dissertation contributes to political sociology and the sociology of knowledge in three ways. First, departing from the conventional approach that takes political orientations for granted, it takes a relational approach by analyzing the dynamic processes of ideological formation and polarization. Second, it traces the process of ideological alignment and differentiation on three levels: structural, interactive, and biographical. Third, while it has been observed that intellectual elites have been the collective agents responsible for many democratic transitions worldwide since the early twentieth century, the internal division of the intellectuals has received much less attention. My work addresses this issue by analyzing how the Chinese intelligentsia has structuralized into binary opposition since the Tiananmen Square protests. In particular, I treat political ideas as historical contingencies, rather than fixed properties, that are internally shaped by “fractal distinctions.”

Existing opportunities in advanced interceptor, satellite guidance and aircraft navigation technologies, requiring higher signal processing speeds and lower noise environments, are demanding Ring Laser Gyro (RLG) based Inertial Systems to reduce initialization and operational data latency as well as correlated noise magnitudes. Existing signal processing algorithms are often less than optimal when considering these requirements. Advancements in micro-electronic processes have made Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) a fundamental building block for system implementation when considering higher-level signal processing algorithms. Research of real time adaptive signal processing algorithms embedded in ASICs for use in RLG based inertial systems will help to understand the trade-off in finite register length effects to correlated noise magnitude, organizational complexity, computational efficiency, rate of convergence, and numerical stability. Adaptive filter structures selected will directly affect meeting inertial system performance requirements for data latency, residual noise budgets and real time processing throughput. Research in this area will help to target specific adaptive noise cancellation algorithms for RLG based inertial systems in a variety of military and commercial space applications. Of particular significance is an attempt to identify an algorithm embedded in an ASIC that will reduce the correlated noise components to the theoretical limit of the RLG sensor itself. This would support a variety of applications for the low noise space environments that the RLG based inertial systems are beginning to find promise for such as advanced military interceptor technology and commercial space satellite navigation, guidance and control systems.

Let E be a one-parameter family of elliptic curves over a number field. It is natural to expect the average root number of the curves in the family to be zero. All known counterexamples to this folk conjecture occur for families obeying a certain degeneracy condition. We prove that the average root number is zero for a large class of families of elliptic curves of fairly general type. Furthermore, we show that any non-degenerate family E has average root number 0, provided that two classical arithmetical conjectures hold for two homogeneous polynomials with integral coefficients constructed explicitly in terms of E.<br />The first such conjecture -- commonly associated with Chowla -- asserts the equidistribution of the parity of the number of primes dividing the integers represented by a polynomial. We prove the conjecture for homogeneous polynomials of degree 3.<br />The second conjecture used states that any non-constant homogeneous polynomial yields to a square-free sieve. We sharpen the existing bounds on the known cases by a sieve refinement and a new approach combining height functions, sphere packings and sieve methods.