Thesis advisor: Dennis L. Shirley / The recent mathematics curriculum reforms in the United States resulted in various classroom initiatives and research on cultivating students’ mathematical identity. Among many dimensions of mathematical identity (Fellus, 2019), mathematical authorial identity is connected to how students leverage the interactional space and communicate their ideas about mathematical concepts while invoking authority, especially during students’ peer discussion in mathematics classrooms (Povey & Burton, 2003; Schoenfeld & Sloan, 2016). Despite the emerging importance of students’ mathematical authorial identity, most research on authorship and authority in mathematics classrooms has focused on the relationship between teachers and students, and not on the relationships of students with one another in small groups (Amid & Fried, 2005; Cobb et al., 2009; Wagner & Herbel-Eisenmann, 2014). More attention is needed to understand how the notions of authorship and authority work in students’ interactions with others, and what interactional patterns occur as students construct mathematical authorial identity through classroom discourses (Langer-Osuna, 2016, 2017, 2018; Langer-Osuna et al., 2020). The current study used an applied conversation analysis to investigate students’ interactional patterns of seven small group discussions. These students met virtually four times over one school year to exchange feedback on each other’s mathematical arguments. After transcribing students’ small group discussions, I focused on the occurrences of accounts, which are statements “made by a social actor to explain unanticipated or untoward behavior” (Scott & Lyman, 1968, p. 46). They are typically used by interactants when they offer additional explanation or elaboration in situations when they are accomplishing a dispreferred action. The results indicate that mathematical authorial identity was manifested in three different types of account turns. The first type of account turns was ‘missing accounts,’ which were expected to occur but were missing due to students accomplishing other interactional work. Students deployed this type of accounts as they accomplished various forms of disagreement. The second type of account turns invoked external authority. Students typically deployed this type of account turns towards the end of a sequence, and they were likely to use strong expressions of disagreement. The third type was account turns that invoked shared/internal authority. These account turns usually occurred at the beginning of a new sequence and when students expressed weaker disagreement. The various types of account turns and interactional environments suggest that students actively conceptualize and manage interactional work, such as facework and preference organization, when navigating mathematics classroom discourse. Based on the findings, this dissertation offers pedagogical implications for mathematics educators to actively cultivate group norms that could occasion more interactional affordances for students and be aware of interactional features and sequences that foster students’ construction of mathematical authorial identity. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This study investigates how key figures in new religious movements (NRMs) with roots in Western esotericism establish their authority on movements' websites. This study aims to provide a more comprehensive picture of ten key figures than previous research that focused on single key figures within esoteric movements. A qualitative content analysis of the websites of ten such movements has shown how a wide range of claims ultimately represent variations on a small number of themes. These are: claiming to draw upon knowledge and experiences from established traditions; having produced the key texts of the movement; possessing unique personality traits; having had important religious insights, including having received revelations; having previous success as leaders; and integrating scientific findings with their religious message. The present study on the one hand shows the utility of James R. Lewis’ typology of legitimacy strategies, together with Weber's classic tripartite classification of authority. On the other hand, it also demonstrates that a quite restricted number of themes recur on these websites, and that leaders from a diverse set of esoteric movements are primarily depicted as legitimate authorities by being presented as charismatic figures

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2010. / Statement of responsibility on t.p. reads: Yann Krysinski and Sebastain Luck and Toshi Shepard-Ohta and Gregory Woods. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122). / The Massachusetts Bay Transit Agency (MBTA) has the stated service objectives of customer service excellence, accessibility, reliability, and state-of-the-art technology. Over the last few years, the MBTA has been concerned about a possible decline in bus service quality. In response, the MBTA launched the Key Bus Route Initiative (KBRI) program in 2009. Funded entirely by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the program is intended to improve bus service reliability on six key bus routes in the Boston area. The program uses an array of new initiatives to achieve this goal. In September 2009, our team of four students in the Master of Engineering Program was asked to provide an independent impact analysis of the KBRI program. In response, we worked to analyze KBRI as well as expand the scope of the study to answer the two-part question of how to best improve bus service performance with limited resources and how to best use existing technology to strategically plan for future performance improvements. To this end, performance metrics were developed, which focus on customer's perception of both bus service efficiency and reliability. These metrics and the methodology provide a short term tool to analyze KBRI, but also a strategic framework for continuous improvement in overall MBTA bus service. This report demonstrates that additional resources deployed on KBRI selected routes had considerable positive impacts on bus service performance. As a result of the KBRI initiatives, MBTA customers riding these routes saved a total wait time of 56 hours per day in the AM and PM peak travel periods. In addition to demonstrating how these results were achieved, this report provides further in-depth analysis of MBTA bus service performance. Several cases are shown where performance was improved without adding additional resources. For that reason, we provide general schedule related findings, which are summarized as recommendations for future efficient schedule adjustments on other MBTA routes. Additionally, our analysis has shown that tremendous potential exists for expanded use of automated data collection systems at the MBTA. By linking several systems, which to this point have not interfaced with one another, we provide to the MBTA a framework for how to use these existing technologies to strategically plan for future performance improvements. / by Yann Krysinski ... [et al.] / M.Eng.

Thesis (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-241). / Many city and regional transportation authorities, including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in Boston, offer a monthly pass to local employers which they can distribute to their employees. There are many ways in which an agency, employer or individual benefit from an employer pass program. There are financial benefits for all three parties, as well as increased convenience for employees, better travel demand management for employers, and increased ridership for agencies. The MBTA Corporate Pass Program was established almost forty years ago in an attempt to move away from inefficient fare collection methods while providing an avenue for employers to contribute to their employees' transit commutes and increase transit ridership generally. With these intentions in mind, this thesis aims to analyze the MBTA's employer pass program, and to quantify its benefit to the MBTA through program penetration, additional revenue captured, and reduced sensitivity to fare increases and seasonal fluctuations. Influencing factors such as company location, subsidies and local city policies are also analyzed to determine the effects of employer benefits policies on an employee's participation in the Corporate Pass Program and their transit ridership. The results show that the Corporate Pass Program is a very positive program for the MBTA, and accounts for 27% of their annual revenue. The MBTA receives an estimated additional $4.4 million in potentially foregone revenue from LinkPass Corporate pass holders annually. The program captures additional revenue by appealing to employees with lower transit usage than the average pass holder, many of whom do not use the aggregate ride "value" of the pass in most months and are attracted to the program because of the pretax or employer-provided subsidies. Furthermore, the Corporate Pass Program provides greater revenue stability month to month than other types of monthly passes as its users are less likely to cancel its purchase for vacation months than retail month to month users. This research also finds that certain employer characteristics, such as size, pass subsidy, location and parking availability have clear influences on employee participation and more subtle influences on average employee ridership. / by Dianne E. Kamfonik. / S.M.in Transportation

Thesis (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-172). / This thesis reviews a select group of transit environmental mitigation proposals through the application of ridership estimation methodologies. In recent years, rider demands and environmental concerns have led many transit agencies to explore options for increasing service even within constrained budgets. Anticipated state and metropolitan area climate change mitigation strategies are likely to result in the need for further transportation system changes in many cities. In response to environmental concerns raised during the construction of the Central Artery/Tunnel, Massachusetts committed to extending the Green Line light rail from its Cambridge terminal at Lechmere into Somerville and Medford. The Massachusetts State Implementation Plan requires that the Green Line be extended in two branches by the end of 2014. Massachusetts has delayed construction on the extension, and it must therefore undertake mitigation for the delay. Facing both financial constraints and pressure to increase service, transit agencies such as the MBTA need new ways to improve transportation systems with limited financial input and means by which to evaluate the impact of proposals. Several mitigation proposals focusing on transit services in the Lechmere Station area are presented in this thesis. Increasing service on the Green Line to Lechmere is found to be a good first step towards improving service in Somerville. Proposals for increasing bus feeder service to and from Lechmere and the surrounding areas include both increasing service on existing routes and introducing new routes. Partnerships with existing private providers could also help decrease the costs to the MBTA of introducing a new route. In order to analyze the mitigation proposals, several methodologies are explored including area wide transportation planning models, direct demand (regression) models and comparison equations. A rail elasticity of demand with respect to service is calculated based on a prior MBTA system experience, while elasticities from literature are used for buses. In addition, a direct demand model is estimated for the MBTA bus network, and the results are compared to elasticity analysis. Regional planning models are found to be important for predicting system-wide responses but often are too detailed and expensive to use to evaluate every proposal. Instead, direct demand models can help with initial rankings of proposals, and service elasticities can help further examine expected ridership changes due to service improvements. / by Jamie C. Rosen. / S.M.in Transportation

Thesis: S.M. in Transportation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2014. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 101-102). / Transit agencies commonly increase fares to raise revenue, reduce service to lower costs, or combine the two strategies. Fare increases impact specific subsets of transit users in different ways based on their demographics and the transit system fare structure. Automated fare collection (AFC) systems enable increased fare structure complexity, such as fare differentials by user group or ticket medium. While AFC systems create the opportunity for more intricate fare scenarios, they also record transaction-level ridership data that can be used to better understand the impacts of such changes. This thesis presents a study of the 2012 Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) fare increase using AFC system data. Fares increased by an average of 23%, but the increases varied by fare type, which is based on the user type and medium type, and trip mode. Elasticities by fare type were developed using the ridership changes from April - June 2012 to April - June 2013. Variation of usage within the primary fare type categories was also analyzed before and after the fare increase. Two longitudinal panels were developed to study changes in individual behavior over time: a panel of cards active in April - June 2012 and 2013, to observe changes over the period of the fare increase, and a panel of cards active in September - November 2012 and 2013, to serve as a baseline for comparison in absence of a fare increase. Each panel contained approximately 40% of the cards used in the corresponding three-month period in 2012. The usage distribution of the cards in each panel was representative of the distribution of the general population of cards active during each time period, with the exception of very infrequent stored value users. A regression model was developed to attempt to separate the effects of the fare increase, internal factors such as frequency of use and participation in the corporate pass program, and external factors such as weather, employment, and gas prices on the usage changes within both panels. While the effect of the fare increase on change in usage was negative, low R-squared values for both models indicate that the heterogeneity in usage changes is due to additional factors other than those included in these models. / by Kate S. Pincus. / S.M. in Transportation

<p> The Volta River Authority (VRA) is responsible for the generation and transmission of power in Ghana. For this purpose, VRA owns and operates two hydroelectric generating stations (at Akosombo and Kpong) with a combined installed capacity of 1060 Kw. The Akosombo plant is served by the Lake Volta Reservoir. Prediction of inflows into the Volta Lake is one of the important functions of the reservoir management group.</p> <p>For this project, some of the more recent methods of mathematical modelling are investigated with a view to building a simple stochastic model which adequately represents and forecasts the Volta river average monthly flow. The Box-Jenkins family of models are employed in this exercise. A parsimonious model in the form of a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model is arrived at which adequately models and forecasts the available data.</p> <p>The selected model is reasonably easy to set up, has few parameters to estimate and therefore making the updating of these parameters a relatively simple task.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

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