In conducting this research, I wanted to explore whether political incentives have a significant effect on wildfire management in the United States. I attempt to answer this question by proving a theoretical justification for why wildfires may become more expensive to fight and severe to manage because of political institutions. I then attempt to provide some hard evidence to support this theory by using regression analysis. My analysis suggests that political factors do matter for wildfire suppression funding, although I was unable to find strong enough evidence to suggest that these political factors are actually driving more severe wildfires. This research contributes to the literature on public choice theory, a branch of political economy that looks at government from the individual decision makers’ level. Additionally, this research contributes to the literature on what affects wildfire suppression effectiveness and funding. This research may contribute to future analyses of the institutions that make U.S. wildland firefighters more or less capable of effectively managing wildfires to protect human lives, property, and forests.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether number of responses is related to the social desirability and intensity of the test items. 61 Ss were administered the Interpersonal Check List and the Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale. From the Interpersonal Check List number of responses, average item intensity and average item social desirability were calculated. Average item social desirability was calculated from individual item social desirability values obtained from ratings by another, similar S group. The results showed that number of responses is negatively correlated with average item social desirability and positively correlated with average item intensity, as predicted. Social desirability and intensity are negatively correlated. Data pertaining to the Marlowe Crowne scale, a measure of the tendency of an individual S to respond in a socially desirable manner, were inconclusive. It is concluded that a S giving a low number of responses on the Interpersonal Check List is probably trying to create a good impression by refusing to endorse extreme or undesirable test items.

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The purpose was to evaluate the psychometric properties of an 8-item questionnaire instrument to support member checks in positivistic qualitative research. A sample of 1603 junior-level university nursing students (98.2% participation rate) a completed the questionnaire instrument which assessed how closely a written description of the lived experience of in-hospital training applied to their personal experience. The instrument had excellent psychometric properties, including high measurement reliability (α=0.94), strong concurrent validity (72.2%-77.4%), discriminant validity (p < 0.000001), a parametric score distribution with little kurtosis and no skew, and an average score (G score) was centered at midpoint of the scale (midpoint of 4 on a scale from 1 to 7). The experience match was at the level of “matches experience to high degree,” showing the transferability (generalizability) of the findings to the present sample. The instrument can be used to assess the credibility and transferability of findings from qualitative research, assist in finding negative cases, determine the degree of saturation and success of bracketing, and complement the constant comparative method. The instrument is recommended for general use in positivistic qualitative or naturalistic inquiry studies for any type of sample and any type of lived experience. This approach would magnify and empower the reach of the products of qualitative research.

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A new computing platform, the General Purpose Reprsentation and Association Machine is studied and simulated. GPRAM machines use vague measurements to do a quick and rough assessment on a task; then use approximated message-passing algorithms to improve assessment; and finally selects ways closer to a solution, eventually solving it. We illustrate concepts and structures using simple examples.

Linkage to care presents one obstacle toward eliminating HCV, and the current two-step pathway (anti-HCV, followed by HCV-RNA testing) results in the loss of patients. HCV screening was tested in the primary care setting with the fingerstick Xpert HCV viral load point-of-care assay to analyze the practicability of immediate diagnosis. Anti-HCV (Cobas) and HCV-RNA (Cobas Amplicor version 2.0, only performed if anti-HCV was positive) were analyzed centrally as the gold standard. The Xpert assay was performed by 10 primary care private practices. In total, 622 patients were recruited. Five individuals (0.8%) were anti-HCV positive, and one was HCV-RNA positive. The Xpert test was valid in 546/622 (87.8%) patients. It was negative in 544 and positive in 2 cases, both of whom were anti-HCV negative. The HCV-RNA PCR and the Xpert test were both negative in 4/5 anti-HCV-positive cases, and the individual with HCV-RNA 4.5 × 106 IU/mL was not detected by the Xpert test. Primary care physicians rated the Xpert test practicability as bad, satisfactory, or good in 6%, 13%, and 81%, respectively, though 14/29 (48%) bad test ratings were assigned by a single practice. Despite adequate acceptance, interpretability and diagnostic performance in primary care settings should be further evaluated before its use in HCV screening can be recommended.

The process of grading code submissions in programming courses is time-consuming and error-prone. To address this issue, we propose a project that automates the testing and grading process for Java code submissions at Halmstad University. Our approach leverages property-based testing using the JUnit Quick-Check library to generate tests and test reports automatically.   The tool we demonstrate in this project is designed to provide students with immediate feedback on their code submissions and reduce the workload for instructors. By automatically generating tests and test reports, our approach ensures that code submissions meet the required specifications and are free from common errors. The com.pholser library is utilized to implement the property-based testing approach.   We believe that our project has the potential to improve the grading process for programming courses and provide a more efficient and effective way of assessing student code submissions. Our implementation can be easily extended to support other programming languages and can be integrated with existing learning management systems to provide a seamless experience for instructors and students alike. / Processen för att bedöma kodinlämningar i programmeringskurser är vara tidskrävande. För att lösa problemet, vill vi automatisera testerna och generera en testrapport för Javainlämningar vid Högskolan i Halmstad. Vi tillhandahåller ett verktyg som med hjälp av Property-Based Testing och JUnit Quick-check biblioteket underlättar denna process för lärarna. Verktyget är utformat för att kunna ge studenterna direkt återkoppling på deras inlämningar. Genom att automatiskt generera tester och testrapporter säkerställer vi att inlämningarna uppfyller de krav som läraren specificerar.   Detta projekt har potential att förbättra rättningsprocesser i programmerings- kurser genom att testa inlämningar på ett systematiskt och likvärdigt sätt och genom att vara ett mer effektivt sätt att bedöma studenternas inlämningar. Verktyget skulle kunna integreras med en Learning Management System för att även automatisera nerladdning av inlämningar och uppladdning av resultat.

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No description available.