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High school coaching is recognized by many to be a very difficult occupation. Many of the pressures in coaching center around the interactions which occur between coaches and the parents of the athletes they coach. Very little is known about what parents expect from high school athletic programs. In order to determine what parental expectations are of high school sports, parents from three schools within the same school division who had children who participated in a team sport during the 1997-1998 school year were surveyed by mail. The survey attempted to determine parental positions on various issues which included the relationship between athletic participation and self-esteem, responsible decision making, educational aspirations, participation in games, parental support for their children, and expectations of coaches. A response rate of over 40 percent was observed. In addition responses were disaggregated to determine if differences existed between schools and gender. Responses to the survey indicate that parents are very supportive of athletic activities and believe that athletics have a positive influence on the lives of their children. Substantial differences between gender and schools were not observed. Results from this survey can provide coaches with an abundance of information that can be used in establishing athletic programs and maintaining positive relationships with parents of their athletes. / Ed. D.

Computational modelling of populations of cells has been applied to further understanding in a range of biological fields, from cell sorting to tumour development. The ability to analyse the emergent population-level effects of variation at the cellular and subcellular level makes it a powerful approach. As more detailed models have been proposed, the demand for computational power has increased. While developments in microchip technology continue to increase the power of individual compute units available to the research community, the use of parallel computing offers an immediate increase in available computing power. To make full use of parallel computing technology it is necessary to develop specialised algorithms. To that end, this thesis is concerned with the development, implementation and application of a novel parallel algorithm for the simulation of an off-lattice individual-based model of a population of cells. We first use the Message Passing Interface to develop a parallel algorithm for the overlapping spheres model which we implement in the Chaste software library. We draw on approaches for parallelising molecular dynamics simulations to develop a spatial decomposition approach to dividing data between processors. By using functions designed for saving and loading the state of simulations, our implementation allows for the parallel simulation of all subcellular models implemented in Chaste, as well as cell-cell interactions that depend on any of the cell state variables. Our implementation allows for faithful replication of model cells that migrate between processors during a simulation. We validate our parallel implementation by comparing results with the extensively tested serial implementation in Chaste. While the use of the Message Passing Interface means that our algorithm may be used on shared- and distributed-memory systems, we find that parallel performance is limited due to high communication costs. To address this we apply a series of optimisations that improve the scaling of our algorithm both in terms of compute time and memory consumption for given benchmark problems. To demonstrate an example application of our work to a biological problem, we extend our algorithm to enable parallel simulation of the Subcellular Element Model (S.A. Sandersius and T.J. Newman. Phys. Biol., 5:015002, 2008). By considering subcellular biomechanical heterogeneity we study the impact of a stiffer nuclear region within cells on the initiation of buckling of a compressed epithelial layer. The optimised parallel algorithm decreases computation time for a single simulation in this study by an order of magnitude, reducing computation time from over a week to a single day.

This dissertation discusses novel techniques for interpolation-based software model checking, an approximate method which uses Craig interpolation to compute invariants of programs. Our work addresses two aspects of program analyses based on model checking: verification (the construction of correctness proofs for programs) and falsification (the detection of counterexamples that violate the specification). In Hoare's calculus, a proof of correctness comprises assertions which establish that a program adheres to its specification. The principal challenge is to derive appropriate assertions and loop invariants. Contemporary software verification tools use Craig interpolation (as opposed to traditional predicate transformers such as the weakest precondition) to derive approximate assertions. The performance of the model checker is contingent on the Craig interpolants computed. We present novel interpolation techniques which provide the following advantages over existing methods. Firstly, the resulting interpolants are sound with respect to the bit-level semantics of programs, which is an improvement over interpolation systems that use linear arithmetic over the reals to approximate bit-vector arithmetic and/or do not support bit-level operations. Secondly, our interpolation systems afford us a choice of interpolants and enable us to fine-tune their logical strength and structure. In contrast, existing procedures are limited to a single ad-hoc choice of an interpolant. Interpolation-based verification tools are typically forced to refine an initial approximation repeatedly in order to achieve the accuracy required to establish or refute the correctness of a program. The detection of a counterexample containing a repetitive construct may necessitate one refinement step (involving the computation of additional interpolants) for each iteration of the loop. We present a heuristic that aims to avoid the repeated and computationally expensive construction of interpolants, thus enabling the detection of deeply buried defects such as buffer overflows. Finally, we present an implementation of our techniques and evaluate them on a set of standardised device driver and buffer overflow benchmarks.

In functional programming it is common practice to build modular programs by composing functions where the intermediate values are data structures such as lists or arrays. A desirable optimisation for programs written in this style is to fuse the composed functions and thereby eliminate the intermediate data structures and their associated runtime costs. Stream fusion is one such fusion optimisation that can eliminate intermediate data structures, including lists, arrays and other abstract data types that can be viewed as coinductive sequences. The fusion transformation can be applied fully automatically by a general purpose optimising compiler. The stream fusion technique itself has been presented previously and many practical implementations exist. The primary contributions of this thesis address the issues of correctness and optimisation: whether the transformation is correct and whether the transformation is an optimisation. Proofs of shortcut fusion laws have typically relied on parametricity by making use of free theorems. Unfortunately, most functional programming languages have semantics for which classical free theorems do not hold unconditionally; additional side conditions are required. In this thesis we take an approach based not on parametricity but on data abstraction. Using this approach we prove the correctness of stream fusion for lists -- encompassing the fusion system as a whole, not merely the central fusion law. We generalise this proof to give a framework for proving the correctness of stream fusion for any abstract data type that can be viewed as a coinductive sequence and give as an instance of the framework, a simple model of arrays. The framework requires that each fusible function satisfies a simple data abstraction property. We give proofs of this property for several standard list functions. Previous empirical work has demonstrated that stream fusion can be an optimisation in many cases. In this thesis we take a more universal view and consider the issue of optimisation independently of any particular implementation or compiler. We make a semi-formal argument that, subject to certain syntactic conditions on fusible functions, stream fusion on lists is strictly an improvement, as measured by the number of allocations of data constructors. This detailed analysis of how stream fusion works may be of use in writing fusible functions or in developing new implementations of stream fusion.

In this thesis, we present novel software technology for the analysis of wireless networks, an emerging area of computer science. To address the widely acknowledged lack of formal foundations in this field, probabilistic model checking, a formal method for verification and performance analysis, is used. Contrary to test and simulation, it systematically explores the full state space and therefore allows reasoning about all possible behaviours of a system. This thesis contributes to design, modelling, and analysis of ad-hoc networks and randomised distributed coordination protocols. First, we present a new hybrid approach that effectively combines probabilistic model checking and state-of-the-art models from the simulation community in order to improve the reliability of design and analysis of wireless sensor networks and their protocols. We describe algorithms for the automated generation of models for both analysis methods and their implementation in a tool. Second, we study spatial properties of wireless sensor networks, mainly with respect to Quality of Service and energy properties. Third, we investigate the contention resolution protocol of the networking standard ZigBee. We build a generic stochastic model for this protocol and analyse Quality of Service and energy properties of it. Furthermore, we assess the applicability of different interference models. Fourth, we explore slot allocation protocols, which serve as a bandwidth allocation mechanism for ad-hoc networks. We build a generic model for this class of protocols, study real-world protocols, and optimise protocol parameters with respect to Quality of Service and energy constraints. We combine this with the novel formalisms for wireless communication and interference models, and finally we optimise local (node) and global (network) routing policies. This is the first application of probabilistic model checking both to protocols of the ZigBee standard and protocols for slot allocation.

Background: Critical race theorist, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (2014), states that the racial climate in the United States has shifted away from the more overt forms of racism towards a race-neutral and (Bobo, 2011; Lentin, 2011; Plaut, 2010; Smith et al., 2011) color blind ideology (Alexander, 2012; Emerson & Smith, 2000; Omi & Winant, 2014; Smith et al., 2011; Wise, 2010). According to Gushue and Constantine (2007), “The conscious or unconscious minimization, denial, or distortion of race and racism is known as color blindness” (Neville et al., 2000; Neville et al., 2001). This erroneous perspective is detrimental (Atwater, 2008) to the organizational structure of the United States (Emerson & Smith, 2000), especially the Christian [church] (Bonilla-Silva, 2002; Yancey, 2010). In the state of Mississippi, approximately 170,000 (UMData, 2017) Black and White individuals identify as United Methodist. This racial composition is unique to Mississippi because Blacks make up a large proportion of the population (Census, 2010). However, little to no research has been conducted to examine the colorblind racial attitudes of adults in The United Methodist Church (UMC) or to evaluate current anti-racism programs in Mississippi’s UMC. According to The UMC’s official website, no formalized evidence-based program exist that both teaches and trains its members to be engaged in racial justice. Therefore, the development of an intervention that investigates color-blind racial ideology (Neville, et al., 2013) from a critical race theory framework is needed. Program Description: Counter Narrative is a faith-based program, set to be implemented spring of 2018 in The UMC. The program challenges three notions: racism is no longer a problem, Christians should be colorblind, and that the church is silent about racial injustices. It has three components: Revising the Narrative (anti-racism workshops), Rewriting the Narrative (cross-racial training program), and R2 (race relations task force). Aim: Engage adults in constructive dialogue around race Explore and examine participants personal attitudes, behaviors, and language towards race colorblindness Educate participants about the historical context of racism and racial equity in America and The UMC Equip participants with the resources and skills to build authentic cross-racial relationships and to become racial justice advocates Methodology: Revising the Narrative—6 anti-racism workshops will be held in one year, for approximately eight hours each. Each session will be co-facilitated by individuals trained in anti-racism and will include a worship service, an overview of the social principles, history of the church’s commitment to eradicate racism, content knowledge, and processing exercises. Evaluation: Pretest/posttest survey will be administered with multiple follow-ups. Rewriting the Narrative—31 sessions (Training, Social Events, Service Learning, and Diversity Workshop) will take place over one year. Evaluation: Pretest/posttest survey will be administered and focus groups will be conducted. R2—12 meetings will be held, once a month for two hours. Also, participants will receive at least 14 hours of anti-racism training. Evaluation: Pretest/posttest survey will be administered and in-depth interviews will be conducted at the end of the year. Long-Term Objective: Reduce racial colorblindness and racial tension between Black and White Christians.

Students on two continents are participating in a new, innovative program designed to promote research into communication disorders across languages and cultures. The three-year project, jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Brazilian Ministry of Education (Fundacao Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior; CAPES), supports student exchange as well as cross-cultural and cross-linguistic curriculum development for students of speech-language pathology and audiology at four universities in the United States and Brazil. The universities include East Tennessee State University (lead U.S. university, Dr. Brenda Louw, Project Director), the University of Northern Iowa (Dr. Ken Bleile, Project Director), Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (lead Brazil university, Dr. Marcia Keske-Soares, Project Director,), and Universidade de São Paulo-Baurú (Dr. Inge Trindade, Project Director).

Fortunately, there are others, most notably Rosenthal (see http://class.csueastbay.edu/commsci/ASHAStudRes.htm), who provided an impetus to our own design and implementation of the research methods course in the department of communicative disorders at East Tennessee State University. Rosenthal described a graduate research course in which students designed and executed a research project within an 11-week quarter. At the completion of the course, the top student projects were selected for publication in a departmental student research journal and submitted to the California State University Student Research Competition.