Based within the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the overall objective of this thesis was to examine how motivational processes involved in the regulation of eating give rise to different self-regulation strategies in terms of eating quality and quantity, and how the adoption of these strategies influence women’s eating behaviors and life satisfaction over time. This objective was achieved through a series of eight studies, divided into four manuscripts. First, a measure that would allow us to assess healthy and unhealthy eating behaviors based on recent recommendations of Canada’s Food Guide was developed and validated. In Manuscript #1, we validated the Healthy and Unhealthy Eating Behavior Scale (HUEBS) by examining the structure of the scale (Study 1 N = 360; Study 2 N = 711) and by establishing convergent validity through the examination of the relationships between motivational concepts, healthy and unhealthy eating behaviors as measured by the HUEBS, and waist circumference (Study 2 N = 711; Study 3 N = 264). Results supported the factor structure of the scale. It was also demonstrated that as women moved along stages of change for eating regulation, they reported higher levels of self-determined (versus non-self-determined) motivation and a higher consumption of healthy (versus unhealthy) foods. Furthermore, findings showed that healthy eating fully mediated the relationship between self-determined motivation and waist-circumference, and that the relationship between self-determined motivation and healthy eating was moderated by stages of change. Since there was also a need to develop a scale that would allow us to measure planning and self-monitoring strategies in terms of eating quality (i.e., nutrient intake) and quantity (i.e., calories and portion sizes), Manuscript #2 validated the Planning and Self-Monitoring the Quality and Quantity Scale (PMQQS; Study 1 N = 355; Study 2 N = 318). Results supported the 6-factor structure of the scale and demonstrated that strategies related to the quality of eating were more strongly and positively associated with healthy eating and more strongly and negatively associated with unhealthy eating, whereas strategies related to the quantity of eating were more strongly and positively associated with bulimic symptoms and Body Mass Index (BMI). Manuscript #3 then examined if the strategies assessed by the PMQQS provided additional variance to eating behaviors over and above the effects of motivation (Study 1 N = 456) and if the strategies mediated the relationships between motivation and eating, while controlling for BMI (Study 1 N = 456; Study 2 N = 979). Overall, it was found that strategies played a significant role in explaining eating behaviors and that planning and self-monitoring the quality of eating mediated the relationships between autonomous motivation and healthy and unhealthy eating, whereas planning and self-monitoring the quantity of eating mediated the relationship between controlled motivation and bulimic symptoms. Finally, in Manuscript #4, we tested a longitudinal model (N = 230) examining the roles of goals and motivation in the prediction of the strategies and various types of eating and the effects of adopting these behaviors on life satisfaction over a 3-month period. Results revealed that intrinsic goals were positively associated with autonomous motivation whereas extrinsic goals were positively associated with controlled motivation for eating regulation at Time 1 (the baseline), and that autonomous motivation positively predicted quality strategies whereas controlled motivation positively predicted quantity strategies at Time 2 (1 month). Planning and self-monitoring quality then predicted healthy and unhealthy eating behaviors, whereas planning and self-monitoring quantity predicted bulimic symptoms at Time 3 (3 months). Finally, healthy eating was positively associated with life satisfaction, whereas bulimic symptoms was negatively associated with life satisfaction at Time 3. Overall, this thesis increases knowledge on why some women succeed, whereas others fail, to regulate their eating behaviors over time.

The objectives were to: 1) determine if im treatments of Lutalyse expedited the training of sexually inexperienced boars for semen collection and increased spermatozoal output, and 2) determine the effects of dietary L-carnitine supplementation on boar libido, semen quality, sperm production, and maintenance of sperm motility during liquid storage. Experiment 1 utilized lean-type, terminal-line boars (National Pig Development, Roanoke Rapids, NC) (n = 40; 177.4 ± 2.4 d of age and 112.8 ± 2.0 kg body weight) that had not previously experienced natural mating. Boars were individually moved twice weekly for 6 weeks (total of 12 training sessions) to a semen collection room equipped with an artificial sow. Upon entering the semen collection room, boars received in treatments of either deionized water (4 mL, n = 10) or Lutalyse at doses of 5 mg (n = 10), 10 mg (n = 10), or 20 mg (n = 10), and subsequently received a libido score of 1 to 5 (1 = no interest in the artificial sow; 5 = mounting the artificial sow and allowing semen collection). The percentages of boars successfully trained for semen collection during the experimental period were similar (P > 0.05) for controls (20%) and boars receiving 5 mg (30%), 10 mg (20%), or 20 mg (10%) of Lutalyse. Average libido score for boars receiving 10 mg Lutalyse (2.35 ± 0.08) was greater (P < 0.05) than for controls (2.14 ± 0.06). Libido score for the 20 mg treatment group were (1.78 ± 0.06) lower (P < 0.05) compared to the other treatment groups. Characteristics of ejaculates (volume, gel weight, sperm concentration, total spermatozoa) from control boars and boars treated with Lutalyse at doses of 5, 10, or 20 mg were similar (P > 0.05). For Exp. 2, the same group of boars was utilized in two similar trials (Trial 1, 1a, 1b: n = 9 for control and L-carnitine-treated boars; Trial 2, 2a, 2b: n = 10 for control and L-carnitine-treated boars). Boars were fed a fortified, corn and soybean meal-based diet at a rate of 2 kg/d. Boars that were randomly selected for L-carnitine treatment received the same diet mixed with L-carnitine to achieve supplementation of 500 mg/d. For 16 wk, semen was collected weekly via the gloved hand method and was analyzed for gel-free volume, gel weight, sperm concentration, sperm per ejaculate, and characteristics of sperm motility. Time to ejaculation (reaction time), duration of ejaculation, and number of false mounts were also recorded for each collection. Trials 1a and 2a were conducted during weeks 16 and 17 for each respective trial. Boars were collected once on 4 consecutive days, allowed 4 d of rest, and then collected again, to estimate daily spermatozoal production. At the end of 16 wk, a semen sample was also processed and extended in Beltsville Thawing Solution (BTS) to achieve a dilution of 3 x 109 spermatozoa/100 mL-dose for Trials 1b and 2b. The extended semen was stored in plastic bottles at 18°C and motility was evaluated daily for 7 d post collection. L-carnitine supplementation for 16 wk had no effects on semen volume, gel weight, total number of sperm cells per ejaculate, reaction time, or sperm motility (P > 0.1). Boars receiving the L-carnitine-supplemented diet displayed an increase in the number of false mounts before ejaculating and an increase in sperm concentration (P < 0.05) in Trial 2. A treatment by week interaction was detected for sperm concentration in Trial 2 (P < 0.005). Increased sperm concentrations in L-carnitine-treated boars were demonstrated after only one week of feeding the respective diets. Given that the production of a mature sperm cell requires 7 to 8 wk in boars, it is therefore difficult to conclude that differences in sperm concentration were due solely to treatment. Daily spermatozoal production was similar between control boars and boars supplemented with L-carnitine (P > 0.1) for both Trials 1a and 2a. L-carnitine supplementation did not affect percent motility in Trials 1b and 2b or sperm progressive motility in Trial 2b during 7 d storage (P > 0.1). A treatment by day interaction was determined for sperm velocity (P < 0.05) in Trial 2b. L-carnitine supplementation decreased mean sperm velocity significantly after 2 d of storage. Overall, L-carnitine had no beneficial effects on boar libido, semen quality, sperm production, or maintenance of sperm motility during liquid storage. However, Lutalyse increased libido scores, but did not affect the number of boars trained for semen collection or number of spermatozoa ejaculated. / Master of Science

Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois), L. elisus (Van Duzee), L. borealis (Knight) and Adelphocoris lineolatus (Goeze) were the major species of plant bugs present in commercial field bean and soybean fields in 2008–2010. Lygus lineolaris comprised 78–95% of the mirid adults and <10% were A. lineolatus. Lygus lineolaris reproduced in field beans and completed a single generation. In field beans, adults entered the crop in late July, corresponding to growth stages from late vegetative to pod initiation, and females laid eggs in the crop. Nymphs hatched and developed and were most numerous at the seed development and seed filling stage. At seed maturity, late instar nymphs and adults were present. In soybeans, L. lineolaris reproduced but nymphs had poorer survival than in field beans. Late in the season, adult numbers greatly increased in field beans and soybeans, partly due to immigration of adult Lygus bugs from early‐maturing crops. Field beans and soybeans appeared to be a transient host for A. lineolatus. There were no effects on yield quality or quantity associated with the numbers of plant bugs seen in field surveys. In laboratory and field cages, the type of injury from L. lineolaris feeding differed among plant growth stages but not between nymphs and adults, although nymphs generally were more injurious. At flowering to pod initiation, abortion of buds, flowers or pods was the most common response to feeding injury; pod abortion did not occur when injury occurred at later growth stages. Sometimes abortions resulted in reduced yield quantity, but sometimes plants compensated for the injury. No loss of seed quality occurred from feeding at this stage. During seed development and filling, feeding injury most frequently affected the vascular supply to filling seeds, resulting in shriveled seeds and pods at harvest, and consequent reduced total harvested seed weight. At seed maturity, direct seed injury, involving penetration of the testa and loss of cotyledon tissue, was the most frequent injury and resulted in pits in the seed coat at harvest. There was no loss in yield quantity when feeding occurred at seed maturity, but seed pitting reduced yield quality. / May 2016

Quantitative and qualitative Soil Organic Matter (SOM) properties were observed in the soil samples of a medium-term field experiment (Cambisol ? Studena, Czech Republic) and an exact field experi?ment (Chernozem ? Gross Enzersdorf, Austria) in the year 2005 considering different soil tillage systems (conventional and minimum tillage). Except the standard parameters, soil organic matter content and quality in particulate water stable aggregates size fractions was additional determinated for Cambisol. Cambisol showed more favourable values of both quantitative and qualitative SOM parameters in minimum tillage system compared to those in conventional tillage system. SOM quality in the water stable aggregates fractions was better in minimum tillage compared to conventional tillage. Cambisol also showed that SOM in aggregates fractions is much more quality compared to SOM in the original soil samples. Chernozem showed higher values of both quantitative and qualitative SOM parameters in conventional tillage compared to those in minimum tillage but the differences are not high. It can be said that Chernozem organic matter reaction to tillage technology changes is slower and of minor rate in comparison with that of Cambisol organic matter. The results of quantitative and qualitative parameters do not conform to the generally recognised values for the Chernozem soil type.

A qualitative transcendental phenomenological methodology was used to identify the essence of healthcare workers' perceptions at the workplace. In-depth interviews were conducted on 25 physical therapists and physical therapist assistants consisting of over 214 years of clinical experience representing 11 clinical sites in the South Florida area. The perceptions towards their coworkers and managers during times of change were explored from a variety of angles and yielded an insightful essence of the work they do on a day to day basis as front-line medical professionals. There were eight major concerns identified as influential factors that impact job performance, coworker and manager relationships, and patient care in this segment of the healthcare system. Based on the essence derived from the therapists' and assistants' experiences, 14 functional propositions were posited and lay the foundation for future research. Managerial recommendations along with the Healthcare Workers Systematic Daily Flow Model were offered to guide in the development of the recommended initiatives.

Without a comprehensive understanding of anthropogenic pressures on the water environment, it is difficult to develop effective and efficient strategies to support water management in a proactive way. A broader systems perspective and expanded information systems are therefore essential to aid in systematically exploring interlinks between socioeconomic activities and impaired waters at an appropriate scale. This thesis examined the root causes of human-induced water problems, taking the socioeconomic sector into account and using systems thinking and life cycle thinking as the two main methods. The European DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-State of the Environment-Impacts-Responses) framework was also used as a basis for discussing two kinds of approaches to water management, namely state/impacts-oriented and pressure-oriented. The results indicate that current water management approaches are mainly state/impacts-oriented. The state/impacts-oriented approach is mainly based on observed pollutants in environmental monitoring and/or on biodiversity changes in ecological monitoring. Employing this approach, the main concern is hydrophysical and biogeochemical changes in the water environment and the end result is reactive responses to combat water problems. As a response, a pressure-oriented approach, derived from a DPR (Drivers-Pressures-Responses) model, was developed to aid in alleviating/avoiding human-induced pressures on the water environment. From a principal perspective, this approach could lead to proactive water-centric policy and decision making and the derivation of pressure-oriented information systems. The underlying principle of the DPR approach is that many root causes of human-induced water problems are closely related to anthroposphere metabolism. An industrial ecology (IE) perspective, based on the principle of mass/material balance, was also introduced to trace water flows in the human-oriented water system and to account for emissions/wastes discharged into the natural water system. This IE-based perspective should be used as part of the basis for developing pressure-oriented monitoring and assessing impacts of human-induced pressures on recipient waters. While demonstrating the use of the pressure-oriented approach, two conceptual frameworks were developed, for water quantity and water quality analysis, respectively. These two frameworks could help motivate decision makers to consider water problems in a broader socioeconomic and environment context. Thus they should be the first step in making a broader systems analysis in any given river basin, regarding setting systems boundary and identifying data availability. In this context, a combined hydrological and administrative boundary is suggested to monitor anthropogenic processes and organise socioeconomic activity statistics. / QC 20120515

<p>  </p> <p>The rapid growth of the English Language Learner (ELL) population in Indiana has raised challenges for English language arts (ELA) instruction. This research adopts collective case studies and mixed-methods studies to explore the quality and quantity of ELA instruction (time allocation to literacy components and group configuration) for ELLs in Indiana elementary classrooms. Study one aims to further the understanding of the quality and quantity of ELL literacy instruction in Indiana first-grade classrooms through a collective case study. Then, a sequential mixed methods study is designed to examine the effect of professional development on ELL literacy instruction in second-grade classrooms (Study 2). To gain a deeper understanding of how Indiana schools have been coping with the COVID pandemic, another sequential mixed-methods study is designed to explore how the pandemic has impacted the quality and quantity of literacy instruction compared with the pre-pandemic era in K-5 classrooms (Study 3). These serial inquiries hold important implications for literacy educators with ELL students on how best to structure and plan for their English language arts (ELA) instruction. Also, they will inform schools on how to select professional development that yields significant transformations in teachers’ literacy practices, as well as how to better address ELL needs during the pandemic.</p>

O presente trabalho apresenta-se como um marco inovador na área de gestão de recursos hídricos, já que o mesmo consegue inserir aspectos de qualidade da água para os processos de outorga e cobrança pelo uso da água, de forma articulada a todos os instrumentos da Política Nacional de Recursos Hídricos (Lei 9.433 de 1997), possibilitando a efetiva aplicação da Política e da Resolução n° 48, de 21 de março de 2005, que estabelece critérios gerais para a cobrança pelo uso dos recursos hídricos. Traz também para a Política um novo conceito, o de Justiça Hídrica, ou seja, quem capta água com qualidade superior paga mais do que quem capta água com qualidade inferior, assim como, quem mais polui e prejudica os usuários de jusante, mais paga. Neste trabalho, a variável de decisão do sistema é o volume outorgado e o estudo leva em consideração a capacidade de autodepuração, o enquadramento em classes de uso, o regime de vazão do corpo hídrico, a qualidade da água captada e os prejuízos, em termos de qualidade da água, ocasionados pelos usuários-poluidores aos usuários de jusante. A ferramenta de auxílio aqui oferecida é um Sistema de Suporte a Decisão (SSD), denominado RB, que apresenta: um módulo Interface, um módulo Modelos, constituído pelo modelo de outorga e cobrança pelo uso da água RM1 e pelo modelo de qualidade das águas QUAL2E e, por fim, um módulo Dados, que representa os dados de entrada e saída do sistema. O SSD RB foi aplicado à bacia do rio Jundiaí, afluente do rio Tietê, localizado no Estado de São Paulo. Na aplicação do SSD RB, foi realizada uma análise comparativa para a variação de cenários relativa a Classes de Uso do corpo hídrico, vazões de referência e diferentes valores de cobrança que podem ser utilizados. A aplicação do SSD RB reflete a necessidade de uma articulação sistemática entre os instrumentos da Política Nacional de Recursos Hídricos, apoiada na diretriz de gestão integrada de recursos hídricos, ou seja, existe um único corpo de trabalho (a gestão de recursos hídricos) cujos membros (instrumentos de gestão) só ganham sentido quanto articulados entre si com um mesmo objetivo: a garantia de água de boa qualidade com a quantidade necessária à atual e às futuras gerações. / The main objective of this study is to develop a set of tools to help with the implementation of water management mechanisms such as the analysis of authorization of water uses (permits) and water charging. An integrated analysis of both water quality and quantity is needed and the decision process must also take into account watershed plans and the designated uses of the water. In this study, the decision variable is the volume of water authorized in each permit. The tool developed in this study is a Decision Support System named RB, based on the QUAL2E model and an water permit and charging simulation system named RM1. The RB system was tested in the Jundiaí watershed, a tributary of the Tietê river located in the State of São Paulo. In this case study, several scenarios with different classification of water bodies, reference flows and water values were tested. The application of the system shows that water management tools must be applied in an integrated manner, mainly to reflect both aspects of water quality and quantity. Water management tools are to be articulated so that the main objective of supplying water with good quality and in an adequate amount is sustainable in the long run.

Les systèmes de recommandation sont devenus une partie indispensable des services et des applications d’internet, en particulier dû à la surcharge de données provenant de nombreuses sources. Quel que soit le type, chaque système de recommandation a des défis fondamentaux à traiter. Dans ce travail, nous identifions trois défis communs, rencontrés par tous les types de systèmes de recommandation: les données, les modèles d'apprentissage et la protection de la vie privée. Nous élaborons différents problèmes qui peuvent être créés par des données inappropriées en mettant l'accent sur sa qualité et sa quantité. De plus, nous mettons en évidence l'importance des réseaux sociaux dans la mise à disposition publique de systèmes de recommandation contenant des données sur ses utilisateurs, afin d'améliorer la qualité des recommandations. Nous fournissons également les capacités d'inférence de données publiques liées à des données relatives aux utilisateurs. Dans notre travail, nous exploitons cette capacité à améliorer la qualité des recommandations, mais nous soutenons également qu'il en résulte des menaces d'atteinte à la vie privée des utilisateurs sur la base de leurs informations. Pour notre second défi, nous proposons une nouvelle version de la méthode des k plus proches voisins (knn, de l'anglais k-nearest neighbors), qui est une des méthodes d'apprentissage parmi les plus populaires pour les systèmes de recommandation. Notre solution, conçue pour exploiter la nature bipartie des ensembles de données utilisateur-élément, est évolutive, rapide et efficace pour la construction d'un graphe knn et tire sa motivation de la grande quantité de ressources utilisées par des calculs de similarité dans les calculs de knn. Notre algorithme KIFF utilise des expériences sur des jeux de données réelles provenant de divers domaines, pour démontrer sa rapidité et son efficacité lorsqu'il est comparé à des approches issues de l'état de l'art. Pour notre dernière contribution, nous fournissons un mécanisme permettant aux utilisateurs de dissimuler leur opinion sur des réseaux sociaux sans pour autant dissimuler leur identité. / Recommendation systems have gained tremendous popularity, both in academia and industry. They have evolved into many different varieties depending mostly on the techniques and ideas used in their implementation. This categorization also marks the boundary of their application domain. Regardless of the types of recommendation systems, they are complex and multi-disciplinary in nature, involving subjects like information retrieval, data cleansing and preprocessing, data mining etc. In our work, we identify three different challenges (among many possible) involved in the process of making recommendations and provide their solutions. We elaborate the challenges involved in obtaining user-demographic data, and processing it, to render it useful for making recommendations. The focus here is to make use of Online Social Networks to access publicly available user data, to help the recommendation systems. Using user-demographic data for the purpose of improving the personalized recommendations, has many other advantages, like dealing with the famous cold-start problem. It is also one of the founding pillars of hybrid recommendation systems. With the help of this work, we underline the importance of user’s publicly available information like tweets, posts, votes etc. to infer more private details about her. As the second challenge, we aim at improving the learning process of recommendation systems. Our goal is to provide a k-nearest neighbor method that deals with very large amount of datasets, surpassing billions of users. We propose a generic, fast and scalable k-NN graph construction algorithm that improves significantly the performance as compared to the state-of-the art approaches. Our idea is based on leveraging the bipartite nature of the underlying dataset, and use a preprocessing phase to reduce the number of similarity computations in later iterations. As a result, we gain a speed-up of 14 compared to other significant approaches from literature. Finally, we also consider the issue of privacy. Instead of directly viewing it under trivial recommendation systems, we analyze it on Online Social Networks. First, we reason how OSNs can be seen as a form of recommendation systems and how information dissemination is similar to broadcasting opinion/reviews in trivial recommendation systems. Following this parallelism, we identify privacy threat in information diffusion in OSNs and provide a privacy preserving algorithm for the same. Our algorithm Riposte quantifies the privacy in terms of differential privacy and with the help of experimental datasets, we demonstrate how Riposte maintains the desirable information diffusion properties of a network.

O presente trabalho apresenta-se como um marco inovador na área de gestão de recursos hídricos, já que o mesmo consegue inserir aspectos de qualidade da água para os processos de outorga e cobrança pelo uso da água, de forma articulada a todos os instrumentos da Política Nacional de Recursos Hídricos (Lei 9.433 de 1997), possibilitando a efetiva aplicação da Política e da Resolução n° 48, de 21 de março de 2005, que estabelece critérios gerais para a cobrança pelo uso dos recursos hídricos. Traz também para a Política um novo conceito, o de Justiça Hídrica, ou seja, quem capta água com qualidade superior paga mais do que quem capta água com qualidade inferior, assim como, quem mais polui e prejudica os usuários de jusante, mais paga. Neste trabalho, a variável de decisão do sistema é o volume outorgado e o estudo leva em consideração a capacidade de autodepuração, o enquadramento em classes de uso, o regime de vazão do corpo hídrico, a qualidade da água captada e os prejuízos, em termos de qualidade da água, ocasionados pelos usuários-poluidores aos usuários de jusante. A ferramenta de auxílio aqui oferecida é um Sistema de Suporte a Decisão (SSD), denominado RB, que apresenta: um módulo Interface, um módulo Modelos, constituído pelo modelo de outorga e cobrança pelo uso da água RM1 e pelo modelo de qualidade das águas QUAL2E e, por fim, um módulo Dados, que representa os dados de entrada e saída do sistema. O SSD RB foi aplicado à bacia do rio Jundiaí, afluente do rio Tietê, localizado no Estado de São Paulo. Na aplicação do SSD RB, foi realizada uma análise comparativa para a variação de cenários relativa a Classes de Uso do corpo hídrico, vazões de referência e diferentes valores de cobrança que podem ser utilizados. A aplicação do SSD RB reflete a necessidade de uma articulação sistemática entre os instrumentos da Política Nacional de Recursos Hídricos, apoiada na diretriz de gestão integrada de recursos hídricos, ou seja, existe um único corpo de trabalho (a gestão de recursos hídricos) cujos membros (instrumentos de gestão) só ganham sentido quanto articulados entre si com um mesmo objetivo: a garantia de água de boa qualidade com a quantidade necessária à atual e às futuras gerações. / The main objective of this study is to develop a set of tools to help with the implementation of water management mechanisms such as the analysis of authorization of water uses (permits) and water charging. An integrated analysis of both water quality and quantity is needed and the decision process must also take into account watershed plans and the designated uses of the water. In this study, the decision variable is the volume of water authorized in each permit. The tool developed in this study is a Decision Support System named RB, based on the QUAL2E model and an water permit and charging simulation system named RM1. The RB system was tested in the Jundiaí watershed, a tributary of the Tietê river located in the State of São Paulo. In this case study, several scenarios with different classification of water bodies, reference flows and water values were tested. The application of the system shows that water management tools must be applied in an integrated manner, mainly to reflect both aspects of water quality and quantity. Water management tools are to be articulated so that the main objective of supplying water with good quality and in an adequate amount is sustainable in the long run.