Parenting behaviors and a variety of behavioral problems in children covary. The current study first aimed to examine how and why parenting and child behavioral problems are linked in middle childhood. In particular, a longitudinal design (1364 children assessed from 54 months to 5th grade) was used to examine whether the developmental link between parenting and child behavioral problems were reciprocal. A twin design (131 pairs of monozygotic and 173 pairs of dizygotic twins assessed from 6 to 8 years of age on average) was used to examine the underlying genetic and nongenetic etiology of this link. In addition, using these two samples, the current study also aimed to examine whether parental attributes, including negative affect, executive function, and social cognitive factors, modulate the link between parenting and child behavioral problems. Results across these two studies suggested that parenting and child behavioral problems mutually influenced the development of each other over time, potentially through both evocative and passive gene-environment correlation processes and environmental transmissions. In addition, maternal dispositional anger modulated the effects of child behavioral problems on changes in maternal parenting quality over time. Finally, implications of the current study were also discussed. / Ph. D.

<p dir="ltr">Inverse problems in infinite dimensions are ubiquitously encountered across the scien- tific disciplines. These problems are defined by the need to reconstruct continuous fields from incomplete, noisy measurements, which oftentimes leads to ill-posed problems. Almost universally, the solutions to these problems are constructed in a Bayesian framework. How- ever, in the infinite-dimensional setting, the theory is largely restricted to the Gaussian case, and the treatment of prior physical knowledge is lacking. We develop a new framework for Bayesian reconstruction of infinite-dimensional fields which encodes our physical knowledge directly into the prior, while remaining in the continuous setting. We then prove various characteristics of the method, including situations in which the problems we study have unique solutions under our framework. Finally, we develop numerical sampling schemes to characterize the various objects involved.</p>

This thesis explores stakeholder engagement in complex networked governance and adaptive management structures. It analyzes the adaptive capacity, multi-level learning, and stakeholder engagement and inclusion processes organizations engaged in transboundary environmental planning employ for effective governance. Over the last few decades, networked governance and adaptive management have become increasingly popular within natural resource management, while public demand for and expectations of stakeholder engagement within government funded programs has grown. There is a need to better understand networked governance arrangements' structures and strategies for local stakeholder engagement, and how these structures and strategies support inclusive determination and implementation of regional planning and funding priorities. Research for this project involved a qualitative study of local stakeholder engagement within the Chesapeake Bay Program using document analysis and semi-structured interviews of Bay Program staff, advisory committee members, and partners. This paper finds that inclusive stakeholder engagement, practiced in both episodic and institutionalized forms, is critical to the social learning and change required for successful natural resource management within regional partnerships. Networked governance arrangements can strategically employ engagement practices that create spaces for network and social learning and increase diversity through inclusion. Informal subnetworks play a key role in developing new engagement strategies (e.g., trusted sources) and preparing organizations for change (e.g., alternative decision-making methods). This research makes the following recommendations for stakeholder engagement: prioritize DEIJ in engagement design; identify engagement goals, values, and roles; strengthen networks to support diversity in participation and inclusion; create mechanisms to operationalize engagement learning; and regularly evaluate engagement practices. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning / This thesis explores stakeholder engagement in complex networked governance and adaptive management structures. It analyzes the adaptive capacity, multi-level learning, and stakeholder engagement and inclusion processes organizations engaged in transboundary environmental planning employ for effective governance. Over the last few decades, networked governance and adaptive management have become increasingly popular within natural resource management, while public demand for and expectations of stakeholder engagement within government funded programs has grown. There is a need to better understand networked governance arrangements' structures and strategies for local stakeholder engagement, and how these structures and strategies support inclusive determination and implementation of regional planning and funding priorities. Research for this project involved a qualitative study of local stakeholder engagement within the Chesapeake Bay Program using document analysis and semi-structured interviews of Bay Program staff, advisory committee members, and partners. This paper finds that inclusive stakeholder engagement, practiced in both episodic and institutionalized forms, is critical to the social learning and change required for successful natural resource management within regional partnerships. Networked governance arrangements can strategically employ engagement practices that create spaces for network and social learning and increase diversity through inclusion. Informal subnetworks play a key role in developing new engagement strategies (e.g., trusted sources) and preparing organizations for change (e.g., alternative decision-making methods). This research makes the following recommendations for stakeholder engagement: prioritize DEIJ in engagement design; identify engagement goals, values, and roles; strengthen networks to support diversity in participation and inclusion; create mechanisms to operationalize engagement learning; and regularly evaluate engagement practices.

Die Arbeit behandelt einen Reduktionsbeweis der zeigt, dass die Identifikation der Zeichenkette die von einem konsistenten rekurrenten neuronalen Netz das höchste Gewicht unter allen Zeichenketten zugewiesen bekommt ein Problem ist, dass NP-vollständig und APX-hart ist. / The thesis mainly consists of a proof by reduction that shows that identifying the string that is assigned the highest weight amongst all strings by a complete recurrent neural network is a problem that turns out to be NP-complete and APX-hard.

No / In the UK it is established that health and social care services for people with dementia from black and minority ethnic communities need to move towards providing evidence-based culturally appropriate care. At present, however, the evidence base available to guide professionals working with people with dementia from diverse ethnic and cultural groups is limited, and beliefs about dementia and the type of treatment and support needed have received little attention. Consequently this creates problems for service providers faced with appropriately supporting people with dementia and their families from black and minority ethnic communities.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with substance use problems, however, few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Research has found that cannabis use motives may mediate the association between ACEs and cannabis-related problems among young adults. However, research has not identified the affective components driving coping motives. Further, higher instances of ACEs predict an increased tendency to experience internalized shame. Coping with shame may be the mechanism linking ACEs to cannabis-related problems. Data were collected using Prolific, an online crowdsourcing platform. Participants were young adults (n = 155, 61.9% Female, 56.8% White) ages 18-29 years (M =22.8, SD = 3.01), who used cannabis in the past year. A serial mediation model examined whether cannabis use coping motives and shame mediate the association between ACEs and cannabis-related problems 6-months later. The overall model showed good fit to the data (χ2(8) =14.30, p=.07, CFI=.96, SRMR=.04, RSMEA=.07). There was a significant indirect effect from ACEs to cannabis-related problems (IND=0.06; 95% CI=0.01 to 0.16) through internalized shame and cannabis-use coping motives. The model accounted for 41% of the variance in cannabis-related problems. Findings suggest that individuals who reported greater ACEs were more likely to endorse cannabis-use coping motives, and this association was fully mediated by internalized shame. Coping motives in turn were associated with greater cannabis-related problems, and coping motives fully mediated the link between shame and problems. Interventions that target reduction in maladaptive affective responses to ACEs, such as shame may be a promising avenue for cannabis use disorder treatment.

The early onset of externalizing behaviour problems (EBP) is associated with negative outcomes later in life, such as poor mental health, substance use, crime, and unemployment. Some children also develop conduct disorder (CD), entailing a high disease and economic burden for both individuals and society. Most studies on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of parenting interventions targeting EBP among children have evaluated selective or indicated preventive interventions, or treatment strategies. Evidence on the effectiveness of universally delivered parenting programmes is controversial, partly due to methodological difficulties. The overall aim of this thesis was to 1) address the methodological challenges of evaluating universal parenting programmes, and to 2) employ different health economic methods to evaluate parenting interventions for EBP and CD in children. Study I indicated that offering low intensity levels of Triple P universally, with limited intervention attendance, does not result in improved outcomes, and may not be a worthwhile use of public resources. Study II showed that using the distribution of an outcome variable makes it possible to estimate the impact of public health interventions at the population level. Study III supports offering bibliotherapy to initially target CP in children, whereas Comet could be offered to achieve greater effects based on decision-makers’ willingness to make larger investments. Cope could be offered when targeting symptom improvement, rather than clinical caseness. The economic decision model in Study IV demonstrated that Triple P for the treatment of CD appears to represent good value for money, when delivered in a Group format, but less likely, when delivered in an Individual format. To reduce the burden of mental health problems in childhood, cost-effective and evidence-based interventions should be provided on a continuum from prevention through early intervention to treatment. We believe our results can assist decision-makers in resource allocation to this field.

In 1961, P. W. Kasteleyn provided a baffling-looking solution to an apparently simple tiling problem: how many ways are there to tile a rectangular region with dominos? We examine his proof, simplifying and clarifying it into this nearly self-contained work.

In this paper we consider the question of uniqueness of positive solutions for Dirichlet problems of the form - Δ u(x)= g(λ,u(x)) in B, u(x) = 0 on ϑB, where A is the Laplace operator, B is the unit ball in RˆN, and A>0. We show that if g(λ,u)=uˆ(N+2)/(N-2) + λ, that is g has "critical growth", then large positive solutions are unique. We also prove uniqueness of large solutions when g(λ,u)=A f(u) with f(0) < 0, f "superlinear" and monotone. We use a number of methods from nonlinear functional analysis such as variational identities, Sturm comparison theorems and methods of order. We also present a regularity result on linear elliptic equation where a coefficient has critical growth.

O Problema da Mochila Compartimentada é uma extensão do Problema da Mochila, em que os itens solicitados são divididos em classes, de modo que a mochila deve ser subdividida em compartimentos, os quais têm capacidades limitadas e são carregados com itens da mesma classe. Além disso, a construção de um compartimento tem um custo fixo e ocasiona uma perda no espaço da mochila. O objetivo consiste em maximizar a soma dos valores dos itens, descontado o custo fixo de inclusão de compartimentos. Neste trabalho, são abordados dois métodos de solução. A primeira abordagem é uma heurística, que consiste na combinação de duas heurísticas da literatura. A segunda abordagem é o método Geração de Colunas, que além de fornecer um novo limitante superior para o Problema da Mochila Compartimentada, ao final do método o problema mestre foi resolvido com as variáveis definidas como inteiras, obtendo uma solução factível. Em ambos os métodos, o modelo não-linear é decomposto em dois modelos lineares, no qual, um gera compartimentos e o outro os seleciona. Os resultados obtidos com as duas abordagens foram comparados com um limitante superior e se mostraram bastante satisfatórios / The Compartmentalized Knapsack Problem is an extension of the classical Knapsack Problem, where the ordered items are partitioned into classes, in such way that the knapsack must be divided into compartments, each one having limited capacity. In addition, the building of a compartment has a fixed cost and involves a loss of the overall capacity. The objective is to maximize the sum of the items utility value, minus the fixed costs of the compartments. This dissertation presents two solving methods. The first approach is a heuristic method, which is a combination of two heuristics from the literature. The second approach is a Column Generation method, that apart from it gives a new upper bound to the Compartmentalized Knapsack Problem, in the end of the method the master problem was solved with the variables defined as integer, that supplies a feasible solution. In both methods, the mathematical non linear model is decomposed into two linear models, one generates the compartments, and the other selects them to compose the knapsack. The results obtained with these two approaches were compared with an upper bound and they showed very efficient