Thesis advisor: Gerardo L. Blanco / Many academic departments at US higher education institutions have either recently begun to offer STEM-degree programs or have reclassified their traditionally non-STEM degree programs as STEM. It has been theorized that departments may do this to recruit F-1 student visa holders, who may be eligible to apply for two-year US work extensions after graduation after graduating from a STEM-designated degree program. However, this theory has not been studied at US higher education institutions. This quantitative study therefore explores the factors that have driven the creation or reclassification of STEM degree programs at six New England universities, focusing on the perceptions and observations of administrators. The findings show that currently-enrolled or recently-graduated F-1 students were most significant in influencing degree program reviews, although international student recruitment influenced and other institutional goals influenced this as well. Surveyed administrators reported that much of their time was spent ensuring compliance with US Department of Homeland Security regulations, which required significant time working with faculty and staff. The findings demonstrated that immigration policy may, by way of F-1 international students, influence academic decisions, suggesting a shift in the role academic faculty have in curriculum. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Mothers who leave the workforce to raise children may face personal and professional difficulties when returning. There was a lack of qualitative research on what these women experience in their return to work. The purpose of this study was to discover and describe how a mother in a professional or managerial position experiences a return to the workforce after a hiatus of 2 or more years to raise children. The philosophy of Husserl and the methodology of Moustakas guided this transcendental phenomenological study. Through purposive snowball sampling, 12 women participated in semistructured interviews. Data analysis followed the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method leading to a synthesis of participants' lived experiences. Key findings of the essence of the experience were identified in 6 major themes: deciding to return, changing career path, changes in the workplace, feelings upon return, changes at home, and reflections. Social change implications include heightening awareness among women and their families about the process of returning to work after leaving a professional job to care for children. Policymakers may benefit from the information to support mothers' efforts to return to work after a child-rearing hiatus through programs designed to support the reentry of mothers to the professional workplace. Life and career coaches may use findings to prepare women for the reentry process.

High-stakes testing has grown in scope and impact in recent years, as accountability decisions regarding funding, school sanctions, and teacher evaluations often depend on standardized test results. The shift toward more stringent and punitive testing mandates has not gone unchallenged however, as pockets of resistance have emerged among teachers, parents, and scholars, and a growing "opt-out" movement has picked up steam nationwide. Teachers in particular have played a critical role in resistance to high-stakes testing, even while adhering to these same policies in their professional roles. This study examines resistance to standardized testing via the 'opt-out' movement organizing process. I specifically look at teachers' participation in organizing and resistance, and how positions as teachers and sometimes parents influence their participation. I frame the project with a post-structuralism lens, utilizing the Deleuzoguattarian concept of the rhizome to illustrate the complex and connected nature of teachers' involvement in this social movement.

This research study examined how the United Opt Out grassroots movement grew from a small listserv in 2011 into a national formidable organization, now referred to as the Opt Out movement, which rallied against the use of high stakes tests as the primary determinant of student achievement as defined in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002). While educators and parents did not oppose testing, they rejected the focus on a singular assessment created at the state level and the blatant disregard of other school-based assessments. It was soon evident that educators and parents had minimal input, while private corporate foundations and think tanks exerted a tremendous amount of influence on education policy. To counteract the corporate reform movement and to gain voice in education policy, grassroots movements, started and led by educators, began to organize. The Opt Out movement was one such movement that called on students to engage in civil disobedience by opting out of high stakes tests. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Dans cette thèse, nous proposons des solutions parrallèles basées sur le systèmes actuel GPU (graphics processing unit) pour deux problèmes de minimisation de graphe Euclidien, à savoir le problème de forêt/arbre couvrant minimum Euclidien (EMSF / EMST) et le problème du voyageur commerce (TSP). Les solutions proposées résolvent également aussi le problème d'une paire bichromatique la plus proche (BCP), et suivent la technique de ``contrôle décentralisé, du parallélisme des données et des mémoires partagées par GPU".Nous proposons une technique de recherche dans le voisinage le plus proche de dimension K Euclidienne basée sur les approches classiques de NNS d’Elias qui divisent l’espace Euclidien en cellules congruentes et ne se chevauchant pas, où la taille des points de chaque cellule est délimitée. Nous proposons aussi une technique d'élagage pour obtenir le NNS à base de composants afin de trouver le point de sortie le plus proche de l'ensemble de points de requête de Q dans la complexité temporelle linéaire séquentielle lorsque les données sont uniformément réparties. Ces techniques sont utilisées conjointement avec deux GPU algorithmes proposés pour arbre traversement, à savoir la recherche en largeur bidirectionnelle GPU et la liste chaînée dynamique distribuée, afin d'adresser le BCP. Basé sur la solution BCP, un algorithme parallèle Divide and Conquer est implémenté pour construire EMSF et EMST totalement côté GPU. Le TSP est adressé avec différents algorithmes de recherche locaux parallèles 2-opt, dans lesquels nous proposons une méthodologie ``évaluation multiple K-opt, mouvements multiples K-opt" afin d’exécuter simultanément, sans interférence, des processus massifs 2-/3-opt mouvements qui se retrouvent globalement sur le même circuit TSP pour de nombreux bords. Cette méthodologie est expliquée en détail pour montrer comment nous obtenons un calcul haute performance à la fois du côté du GPU et CPU. Nous testons les solutions proposées et rapportons des résultats de comparaison expérimentale par rapport aux algorithmes de pointe. / In this thesis, we propose parallel solutions based on current graphics processing unit (GPU) system for two Euclidean graph minimization problems, namely the Euclidean minimum spanning forest/tree (EMSF/EMST) and the travelling salesman problem (TSP). The proposed solutions also solve the bichromatic closest pair (BCP) problem, and follow technique of ``decentralized control, data parallelism, GPU shared memories".We propose a Euclidean K-dimensional nearest neighbourhood search (NNS) technique based on classical Elias' NNS approaches that divide the Euclidean space into congruent and non-overlapping cells where size of points in each cell is bounded. We propose a pruning technique to obtain component-based NNS to find a query point set Q's closest outgoing point within sequential linear time complexity when the data is uniformly distributed. These techniques are used together with two proposed GPU tree traversal algorithms, namely the GPU two-direction Breadth-first search and distributed dynamic linked list, to address the BCP. Based on the BCP solution, a divide and conquer parallel algorithm is implemented for building EMSF and EMST totally on GPU side. The TSP is addressed with different parallel 2-opt local search algorithms, in which we propose a ``multiple K-opt evaluation, multiple K-opt moves" methodology in order to simultaneously execute, without interference, massive 2-/3-opt moves that are globally found on the same TSP tour for many edges. This methodology is explained in details to show how we obtain high performance computing both on GPU and CPU side. We test the proposed solutions and report experimental comparison results against the state-of-the-art algorithms.

Traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a well-known NP-hard problem which can not be solved within a polynomial bounded computation time. However, genetic algorithm (GA) is a familiar heuristic algorithm to obtain near-optimal solutions within reasonable time for TSPs. In TSPs, the geometric properties are problem specific knowledge can be used to enhance GAs. Some tour segments (edges) of TSPs are fine while some maybe too long to appear in a short tour. Therefore, this information can help GAs to pay more attention to fine tour segments and without considering long tour segments as often. Consequently, we propose a new algorithm, called intelligent-OPT hybrid genetic algorithm (IOHGA), to exploit local optimal tour segments and enhance the searching process in order to reduce the execution time and improve the quality of the offspring. The local optimal tour segments are assigned higher priorities for the selection of tour segments to be appeared in a short tour. By this way, tour segments of a TSP are divided into two separate sets. One is a candidate set which contains the candidate fine tour segments and the other is a non-candidate set which contains non-candidate fine tour segments. According to the priorities of tour segments, we devise two genetic operators, the skewed production (SP) and the fine subtour crossover (FSC). Besides, we combine the traditional GA with 2-OPT local search algorithm but with some modifications. The modified 2-OPT is named the intelligent OPT (IOPT). Simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the IOHGA. The experimental results indicate that generally the IOHGA could obtain near-optimal solutions with less time and higher accuracy than the hybrid genetic algorithm with simulated annealing algorithm and the genetic algorithm using the gene expression algorithm. Thus, the IOHGA is an effective algorithm for solving TSPs. If the case is not focused on the optimal solution, the IOHGA can provide good near-optimal solutions rapidly. Therefore, the IOHGA could be incorporated with some clustering algorithm and applied to mobile agent planning problems (MAP) in a real-time environment.

DVOŘÁKOVÁ, V. Options for partial pension privatization of the pension system in the Czech Republic. Diploma thesis. Brno: Mendel University, 2019. This diploma thesis focuses on possible consequences of the pension system in the Czech Republic if parts of the payment contributions were opted out to privately-owned capital funds. Real data from years 1995–2015 were applied retrospectively to models to show relevant consequences. The thesis concentrates on retrieving the effective percent yield from capitalization for a person with average income. The conclusion of the thesis evaluates the option of partial pension privatization for the Czech Republic based on the calculated results from the models.

No description available.

Depois de algumas décadas da entrada das mulheres no mercado de trabalho, esperava-se que a equidade de gênero já fosse uma realidade nas organizações. Porém, os números mostram que os homens ainda são maioria e que quanto mais alto o cargo, menor a quantidade de mulheres. No Brasil, segundo pesquisa do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), em 2016, 60,9% dos cargos gerenciais, tanto no poder público quanto na iniciativa privada, eram ocupados por homens e 37,8% por mulheres. As mulheres continuam ganhando menos com salários em torno de 75% inferiores ao dos homens. A questão do aumento da presença das mulheres nas organizações deve ser vista como um problema econômico, pois elas representam talentos que podem contribuir para o aumento da produtividade e dos resultados financeiros das organizações, gerando impactos positivos em toda a economia. De fato, a maioria das mulheres possui carreiras não lineares e realizam mudanças de trajetórias em suas carreiras. O termo \"opt out\" foi utilizado para explicar a saída de mulheres altamente qualificadas das organizações. Acreditava-se que o principal motivo desta mudança de carreira era em função da maternidade e da família. Porém, Mainiero e Sullivan (2005) fizeram uma extensa pesquisa e descobriram que os motivos do \"opt out\" eram muito mais complexos. Necessidade de oportunidades interessantes, reconhecimento e equilíbrio entre vida pessoal e profissional são fundamentais para as mulheres. Desenvolveram, então, um novo modelo de carreira chamado de modelo da carreira caleidoscópio. Baseado no funcionamento do caleidoscópio, considera que as decisões de carreira dependem de três pilares: autenticidade, balanço e desafio. As pessoas ajustam suas carreiras de acordo com a importância de cada um desses pilares ao longo de suas vidas. Com base no modelo da carreira caleidoscópio, esta pesquisa de natureza qualitativa analisou os fatores que influenciam as decisões de carreira de mulheres executivas. No referencial teórico, foram considerados 3 construtos principais: carreira, gênero e ambiente corporativo. Foram realizadas 18 entrevistas não estruturadas com 2 grupos de mulheres na fase intermediária de carreira e com pelo menos 1 filho: mulheres que permanecem na carreira corporativa e mulheres que mudaram de carreira. A análise dos resultados foi feita em 2 partes: a análise cronológica das carreiras dessas mulheres e a análise de conteúdo com a categorização e análise das respostas obtidas. As conclusões mostraram que as decisões de carreira das mulheres são extremamente complexas e dependem de inúmeros fatores. Vida pessoal e profissional devem ser analisadas de forma integrada e a maternidade não é o fator decisivo para as mudanças de carreira das mulheres. O modelo da carreira caleidoscópio mostrou-se bastante aderente à análise efetuada e os pilares autenticidade, balanço e desafio foram priorizados de acordo com cada momento. Clima organizacional e liderança positivos, políticas corporativas, suporte da família e do parceiro e equilíbrio nos pilares autenticidade, desafio e balanço são alguns dos fatores que contribuem diretamente para a permanência na carreira corporativa. Diante de dificuldades, insatisfação e desequilíbrios nos pilares da carreira caleidoscópio, as mulheres tomam suas decisões de carreira e em alguns casos, fazem o \"opt out\" total. / After a few decades of women entering the labor market, it was expected that gender equity would already be a reality in organizations. However, men are still the majority and the differences are worse at the top positions. In Brazil, according to IBGE, in 2016, women represented only 37,8% of the management positions in the state and private companies and their wages were 25% lower than men\'s. To increase the presence of women in organizations should be seen as an economic problem, since they represent talents that can contribute to the increase of productivity and financial results of the organizations, generating positive impacts throughout the economy. In fact, most women have non-linear careers and make career changes. The \"opt out\" term was used to explain the evasion of highly skilled women from organizations. Maternity and family reasons were considered the main reasons for these career changes. However, Mainiero and Sullivan (2006) found out that the opt out reasons were more complex. Interesting opportunities, recognition and balance between personal and professional life were considered very important factors for women\'s lives. As a result of this research, they developed the kaleidoscope career model. Based on the kaleidoscope\'s system, it considers that career decisions depend on three pillars: authenticity, balance and challenge. People adjust their careers according to the importance of each of these pillars throughout their lives. Based on the kaleidoscope career model, this qualitative research examined the factors that influence the career decisions of executive women. In the theoretical reference, 3 main constructs were considered: career, gender and corporate environment. There were 18 unstructured interviews with 2 mid-career women groups and at least 1 child: women who remained in the corporate career and women who changed their careers. The analysis of the results was done in two parts: the chronological analysis of the careers of these women and the content analysis with the categorization and analysis of the answers obtained. The findings showed that women\'s career choices are extremely complex and depend on a number of factors. Personal and professional life should be analyzed in an integrated way and motherhood is not the decisive factor for women\'s career changes. The kaleidoscope career model showed to be quite adherent to the analysis performed and the authenticity, balance and challenge pillars were prioritized according to each moment. Positive organizational climate and leadership, corporate policies, family and partner support and the pillars of authenticity, challenge and balance are some of the factors that directly contribute to the permanence in the corporate career. Difficulties, dissatisfaction and imbalances in the cornerstones of the kaleidoscope career can lead women to make significant career decisions and, in some cases, opt out.

Depois de algumas décadas da entrada das mulheres no mercado de trabalho, esperava-se que a equidade de gênero já fosse uma realidade nas organizações. Porém, os números mostram que os homens ainda são maioria e que quanto mais alto o cargo, menor a quantidade de mulheres. No Brasil, segundo pesquisa do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), em 2016, 60,9% dos cargos gerenciais, tanto no poder público quanto na iniciativa privada, eram ocupados por homens e 37,8% por mulheres. As mulheres continuam ganhando menos com salários em torno de 75% inferiores ao dos homens. A questão do aumento da presença das mulheres nas organizações deve ser vista como um problema econômico, pois elas representam talentos que podem contribuir para o aumento da produtividade e dos resultados financeiros das organizações, gerando impactos positivos em toda a economia. De fato, a maioria das mulheres possui carreiras não lineares e realizam mudanças de trajetórias em suas carreiras. O termo \"opt out\" foi utilizado para explicar a saída de mulheres altamente qualificadas das organizações. Acreditava-se que o principal motivo desta mudança de carreira era em função da maternidade e da família. Porém, Mainiero e Sullivan (2005) fizeram uma extensa pesquisa e descobriram que os motivos do \"opt out\" eram muito mais complexos. Necessidade de oportunidades interessantes, reconhecimento e equilíbrio entre vida pessoal e profissional são fundamentais para as mulheres. Desenvolveram, então, um novo modelo de carreira chamado de modelo da carreira caleidoscópio. Baseado no funcionamento do caleidoscópio, considera que as decisões de carreira dependem de três pilares: autenticidade, balanço e desafio. As pessoas ajustam suas carreiras de acordo com a importância de cada um desses pilares ao longo de suas vidas. Com base no modelo da carreira caleidoscópio, esta pesquisa de natureza qualitativa analisou os fatores que influenciam as decisões de carreira de mulheres executivas. No referencial teórico, foram considerados 3 construtos principais: carreira, gênero e ambiente corporativo. Foram realizadas 18 entrevistas não estruturadas com 2 grupos de mulheres na fase intermediária de carreira e com pelo menos 1 filho: mulheres que permanecem na carreira corporativa e mulheres que mudaram de carreira. A análise dos resultados foi feita em 2 partes: a análise cronológica das carreiras dessas mulheres e a análise de conteúdo com a categorização e análise das respostas obtidas. As conclusões mostraram que as decisões de carreira das mulheres são extremamente complexas e dependem de inúmeros fatores. Vida pessoal e profissional devem ser analisadas de forma integrada e a maternidade não é o fator decisivo para as mudanças de carreira das mulheres. O modelo da carreira caleidoscópio mostrou-se bastante aderente à análise efetuada e os pilares autenticidade, balanço e desafio foram priorizados de acordo com cada momento. Clima organizacional e liderança positivos, políticas corporativas, suporte da família e do parceiro e equilíbrio nos pilares autenticidade, desafio e balanço são alguns dos fatores que contribuem diretamente para a permanência na carreira corporativa. Diante de dificuldades, insatisfação e desequilíbrios nos pilares da carreira caleidoscópio, as mulheres tomam suas decisões de carreira e em alguns casos, fazem o \"opt out\" total. / After a few decades of women entering the labor market, it was expected that gender equity would already be a reality in organizations. However, men are still the majority and the differences are worse at the top positions. In Brazil, according to IBGE, in 2016, women represented only 37,8% of the management positions in the state and private companies and their wages were 25% lower than men\'s. To increase the presence of women in organizations should be seen as an economic problem, since they represent talents that can contribute to the increase of productivity and financial results of the organizations, generating positive impacts throughout the economy. In fact, most women have non-linear careers and make career changes. The \"opt out\" term was used to explain the evasion of highly skilled women from organizations. Maternity and family reasons were considered the main reasons for these career changes. However, Mainiero and Sullivan (2006) found out that the opt out reasons were more complex. Interesting opportunities, recognition and balance between personal and professional life were considered very important factors for women\'s lives. As a result of this research, they developed the kaleidoscope career model. Based on the kaleidoscope\'s system, it considers that career decisions depend on three pillars: authenticity, balance and challenge. People adjust their careers according to the importance of each of these pillars throughout their lives. Based on the kaleidoscope career model, this qualitative research examined the factors that influence the career decisions of executive women. In the theoretical reference, 3 main constructs were considered: career, gender and corporate environment. There were 18 unstructured interviews with 2 mid-career women groups and at least 1 child: women who remained in the corporate career and women who changed their careers. The analysis of the results was done in two parts: the chronological analysis of the careers of these women and the content analysis with the categorization and analysis of the answers obtained. The findings showed that women\'s career choices are extremely complex and depend on a number of factors. Personal and professional life should be analyzed in an integrated way and motherhood is not the decisive factor for women\'s career changes. The kaleidoscope career model showed to be quite adherent to the analysis performed and the authenticity, balance and challenge pillars were prioritized according to each moment. Positive organizational climate and leadership, corporate policies, family and partner support and the pillars of authenticity, challenge and balance are some of the factors that directly contribute to the permanence in the corporate career. Difficulties, dissatisfaction and imbalances in the cornerstones of the kaleidoscope career can lead women to make significant career decisions and, in some cases, opt out.