The purpose of this study was to determine the odds of school organization features predicting schools meeting district or state performance goals. The school organization features were organizational complexity, shared decision making, and leadership behavior. The dependent variable was school performance, operationally defined as a principal's yes response or no response to the question, "did your school meet district or state performance goals." The independent variables representing organizational complexity were school size, diversity of role, span of control. The independent variables representing shared decision making were curriculum influence, policy influence, and professional development influence. The leadership behavior feature was a composite variable. The percent of school lunch was the covariate, as determined by the percentage of students receiving free lunch and reduced price lunch. The sample for this study was taken from the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS) Public-Use Data (NCES: 2004-372) collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The sample consisted of 5,312 public schools and 5,312 public school principals. Data from the SASS Public School Questionnaire and the SASS Public School Principal Questionnaire were used for the data analysis. The methods of data analysis consisted of the identification of indicator variables from SASS, the development of scales, and the fitting of a parsimonious logistic regression model. A principal components analysis was used to extract patterns of association among the indicator variables, shared decision making and leadership behavior. The logistic regression analysis revealed that the best model for predicting the odds of whether schools would meet district or state performance goals consisted of the variables curriculum influence, policy influence, professional development influence, size, diversity of role, span of control, and the covariate, percent of free lunch. The significant variables were curriculum influence, policy influence, professional development influence, and span of control. The odds of school organization features predicting whether schools would meet performance goals was estimated to be .7243, which was less than one or less than chance. There were several limitations of this study that need to be considered when interpreting the results. / Ed. D.

This thesis project is complex because of its crystalline form. It is ordered through structural hierarchy and modularity. The presence of both complexity and order gives articulation to all scales of the project, allows for variety without chaos, and repetition without monotony. All of these characteristics are essential for the program of a high-rise residential building that accommodates 1,500 people. / Master of Architecture

In the Western classical tradition, musicians play music from notated sheet music, called a score. When playing music from a score, a musician translates its visual symbols into sequences of instrument-specific physical motions. Hence, a music score's overall complexity represents a sum of the cognitive and mechanical acuity required for its performance. For a given instrument, different notes, intervals, articulations, dynamics, key signatures, and tempo represent dissimilar levels of difficulty, which vary depending on the performer's proficiency. Individual musicians embrace this tenet, but may disagree about the degrees of difficulty. This thesis introduces musiplectics (musiplectics = music + plectics, Greek for the study of complexity), a systematic and objective approach to computational assessment of the complexity of a music score for any instrument. Musiplectics defines computing paradigms for automatically and accurately calculating the complexity of playing a music score on a given instrument. The core concept codifies a two-phase process. First, music experts rank the relative difficulty of individual musical components (e.g., notes, intervals, dynamics, etc.) for different playing proficiencies and instruments. Second, a computing engine automatically applies this ranking to music scores and calculates their respective complexity. As a proof of concept of musiplectics, we present an automated, Web-based application called Musical Complexity Scoring (MCS) for music educators and performers. Musiplectics can engender the creation of practical computing tools for objective and expeditious assessment of a music score's suitability for the abilities of intended performers. This thesis is based on research submitted for publication at ONWARD'15." A 'pause' is a pleasant interruption along a path; followed by an architectural invitation to stop, explore, stand, lean, sit or lay down. A successful place of 'pause' stimulates the senses and possibly alters the mood of the visitors. / Master of Science

The purpose of this report is to develop a complexity metric suitable for discrete event simulation model representations. Current software metrics, based upon graphical analysis or static program characteristics, do not capture the influence on complexity stemming from the inherent dynamics of a model. A study of extant software metrics provides a basis for identifying desirable properties for model application. Various approaches are examined, and a set of characteristics for a model complexity metric is defined. A metric evolves from the recognition of the two types of complexity: transformation and control, both of which appear prominently in model representations. Experimental data are presented to verify that the Control and Transformation (CAT) metric reflects the desired behavior. Experimental evaluation supports the claim that the CAT metric is an improvement over existing software metrics for measuring the complexity of model representations. / Master of Science

This thesis develops a mathematical framework for analyzing the average bit error rate performance of five different selection diversity combining schemes over slow, frequency non-selective Rayleigh, Nakagami-m and Ricean fading channels. Aside from the classical selection diversity, generalized selection combining and the "maximum output" selection methods, two new selection rules based on choosing the branch providing the largest magnitude of log-likelihood ratio for binary phase shift keying signals (with and without phase compensation in the selection process) are also investigated. The proposed analytical framework is sufficiently general to study the effects of dissimilar fading parameter and unequal mean received signal strengths across the independent diversity paths. The effect of branch correlation on the performance of a dual-diversity system is also studied. The accuracies of our analytical expressions have been validated by extensive Monte-Carlo simulation runs. The proposed selection schemes based on the log-likelihood ratio are attractive in the design of low-complexity rake receivers for wideband CDMA and ultra wideband communication systems. / Master of Science

A rake receiver, which resolves multipath signals corrupted by a fading channel, is the most complex and power consuming block of a modem chip. Therefore, it is essential to design a rake receiver be efficient in hardware and power. We investigated a design of a rake receiver for the WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) system, which is a third generation wireless communication system. Our rake receiver design is targeted for mobile units, in which low-power consumption is highly important. We made judicious judgments throughout our design process to reduce the overall circuit complexity by trading with the performance. The reduction of the circuit complexity results in low power dissipation for our rake receiver. As the first step in the design of a rake receiver, we generated a software prototype in MATLAB. The prototype included a transmitter and a multipath Rayleigh fading channel, as well as a rake receiver with four fingers. Using the software prototype, we verified the functionality of all blocks of our rake receiver, estimated the performance in terms of bit error rate, and investigated trade-offs between hardware complexity and performance. After the verification and design trade-offs were completed, we manually developed a rake receiver at the RT (Register Transfer) level in VHDL. We proposed and incorporated several schemes in the RT level design to enhance the performance of our rake receiver. As the final step, the RT level design was synthesized to gate level circuits targeting TSMC 0.18 mm CMOS technology under the supply voltage of 1.8 V. We estimated the performance of our rake receiver in area and power dissipation. Our experimental results indicate that the total power dissipation for our rake receiver is 56 mW and the equivalent NAND2 circuit complexity is 983,482. We believe that the performance of our rake receiver is quite satisfactory. / Master of Science

Guided by the research on cognitive performance tasks (e.g., Wood, Mento, & Locke, 1987), the potential moderating effects of skill and outcome difficulty upon the relationship between specific, difficult goals and physical task performance were examined from an attribute treatment approach. Overall, different measures of performance yielded several convergent findings. Using a sample of 184 laboratory participants, a test of the primary hypothesis failed to support the expected three-way interaction among skill, outcome difficulty and goal setting. Models containing skill and outcome difficulty were found to provide the most parsimonious explanation of variance in performance, regardless of whether assigned or personal goal were used as an index of motivation. After controlling for skill and outcome difficulty, goal commitment showed a weak positive relationship with task performance. Self-efficacy was not related to performance among participants pursuing specific, difficult goals. Potential reasons for the failure to obtain evidence of the predicted three-way interaction among skill, outcome difficulty, and goals are discussed in the context of limitations to the present study. Future research directions are suggested. / Master of Science

Yes / The link between finance and politics (especially opinion polling) is interesting in both theoretical and empirical terms. Inter alia the election date corresponds to the effective price of an underlying at a known future date. This renders a derivative pricing approach appropriate and, ultimately, to a simplification of the approach suggested by Taleb (2018). Thus, we use an options-pricing approach to predict vote share. Rather than systematic bias in polls forecasting errors appear chiefly due to the mode of extracting election outcomes from the share of the vote. In the 2016 US election polling results put the Republicans ahead in the electoral college from July 2016 onwards. In the 2017 UK general election, though set to be the largest party, a Conservative majority was far from certain.

Thesis advisor: Judith A. Vessey / Background: The number of children with medical complexity (CMC) cared for by parental caregivers is increasing in the United States. Studies reveal parental caregivers experience significant caregiver burden, often attributed to the disease management required by CMC. However, literature has also identified numerous systemic challenges that arise while caring for CMC at home. The impact of systemic challenges on parental caregiver burden has not been examined, thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between these systemic challenges and parental caregiver burden. Methods: Three studies were completed to explore this relationship. An integrative review of literature from 2014-2023 was completed to identify systemic challenges within the home care system and whether parental caregivers attribute burden to these challenges. A case-control secondary analysis of the National Survey of Children’s Health compared levels of burden between parental caregivers and parents of children without medical complexity as they relate to systemic challenges. Lastly, a qualitative descriptive study was conducted with parental caregivers living in Massachusetts to examine their experiences of caring for CMC. Results: The integrative review of 10 articles revealed a dynamic and interconnected relationship between systemic challenges and parental caregiver burden. The secondary analysis comparing 1,352 parents (n = 676 parental caregivers) revealed significant associations and increased odds of experiencing burden among parental caregivers while navigating systemic challenges. Finally, three themes capturing the experiences of parental caregivers (N=11) emerged from collected qualitative data; lack of discharge preparedness causes emotional distress, care becomes increasingly complex creating new unanticipated challenges, and the psychological toll of parents assuming provider role. Conclusion: The findings from this dissertation provide data-driven evidence to support a relationship between systemic challenges of caring for CMC and parental caregiver burden. This greater understanding of parental caregiver experiences highlights the need for a more holistic perspective in evaluating the care of CMC at home such that systemic challenges, and not a child’s medical needs, are the focus of future exploratory, intervention, and health policy work. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

Objective of the present study is the development of methods for the assessment of manufacturing systems complexity and the investigation of flexibility and complexity relationship. Towards this target, a complete approach based on information theory permitting the analytical, quantitative and systematic modeling and quantification of both static and dynamic manufacturing complexity is proposed. Static complexity concerns the structure of the manufacturing systems, namely the products, the processes, the resources that constitute the systems as well as their interconnections. Static complexity is treated as the information that is required for the description of a manufacturing system. Multi domain matrices modeling the relationships between products, processes and resources are formalized as networks following the notions of graph theory. The information content of each matrix is assessed employing Shannon entropy measure and their aggregation yields the static complexity. Dynamic complexity is related to the uncertainty in the behaviour of a manufacturing system and in the present study is associated with the unpredictability of the performance indicators timeseries. The unpredictability of the performance indicators timeseries, which are provided by computer simulation, is captured employing the Lempel Ziv algorithm that calculates the Kolmogorov complexity. The dynamic complexity is either the unpredictability of a specific timeseries or the weighted mean of a series of performance indicators timeseries produced under different product demand scenarios. The relationship between flexibility and complexity is investigated for a group of 19 different configurations of a manufacturing system. In particular, operation flexibility that refers to the system’s ability to produce a set of products through different machines, materials, operations and sequences of operations and total complexity, and both static and dynamic are examined employing a utility function. As a case study, two assembly lines producing three car floor model types at three different product mixes are investigated. The dynamic complexity of each assembly line is assessed and the relationship between product mix and dynamic complexity is studied. The evaluation of the case study revealed the efficiency of the suggested approach validated its applicability to industrial environments. / Αντικείμενο της παρούσας διατριβής είναι η ανάπτυξη μεθόδων για την εκτίμηση πολυπλοκότητας συστημάτων παραγωγής και η διερεύνηση της σχέσης ευελιξίας και πολυπλοκότητας. Προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση προτείνεται μια ολοκληρωμένη προσέγγιση βασισμένη στην θεωρία της πληροφορίας που επιτρέπει μια αναλυτική, ποσοτικοποιημένη και συστηματική προτυποποίηση και εκτίμηση τόσο της στατικής όσο και της δυναμικής πολυπλοκότητας των συστημάτων παραγωγής. Η στατική πολυπλοκότητα αφορά την δομή των συστημάτων παραγωγής, και σχετίζεται με τα προϊόντα, τις διεργασίες, τους παραγωγικούς πόρους που αποτελούν το σύστημα καθώς και τις μεταξύ τους σχέσεις. Η στατική πολυπλοκότητα αντιμετωπίζεται ως η πληροφορία που απαιτείται για να περιγραφεί ένα σύστημα παραγωγής. Πολυ-πεδιακοί πίνακες αναπαριστούν τις σχέσεις μεταξύ προϊόντων, διεργασιών και πόρων και προτυποποιούνται ως δίκτυα ακολουθώντας την θεωρία γράφων. Το πληροφοριακό περιεχόμενο κάθε πίνακα εκτιμάται με την χρήση της εντροπίας Shannon και το άθροισμα για όλους τους πίνακες δίνει την στατική πολυπλοκότητα. Η δυναμική πολυπλοκότητα σχετίζεται με την αβεβαιότητα της συμπεριφοράς των συστημάτων παραγωγής και στην παρούσα διατριβή συνδέεται με την απροβλεψιμότητα των χρονοσειρών δεικτών απόδοσης ενός συστήματος. Οι χρονοσειρές των δεικτών απόδοσης προκύπτουν από υπολογιστική προσομοίωση και η απροβλεψιμότητα τους εκτιμάται με των αλγόριθμο Lempel Ziv ο οποίος υπολογίζει την πολυπλοκότητα Kolmogorov. Η δυναμική πολυπλοκότητα είναι η απροβλεψιμότητα είτε μιας συγκεκριμένης χρονοσειράς είτε ο σταθμισμένος μέσος όρος ενός συνόλου χρονοσειρών δεικτών απόδοσης. Η σχέση ευελιξίας – πολυπλοκότητας διερευνάται για 19 διαμορφώσεις ενός συστήματος παραγωγής. Συγκεκριμένα, η ευελιξία λειτουργίας που αναφέρεται στην ικανότητα ενός συστήματος να παράγει ένα σύνολο προϊόντων χρησιμοποιώντας διαφορετικές μηχανές και διεργασίες και πολυπλοκότητα τόσο η στατική όσο και η δυναμική μελετώνται με μια συνάρτηση χρησιμότητας. Ως περίπτωση μελέτης εξετάζονται δύο γραμμές συναρμολόγησης που παράγουν τρία δάπεδα αμαξιού σε τρία μείγματα παραγωγής. Η δυναμική πολυπλοκότητα κάθε γραμμής και η σχέση μείγματος παραγωγής και δυναμικής πολυπλοκότητα μελετώνται. Η αξιολόγηση της περίπτωσης μελέτης αποδεικνύει την αποτελεσματικότητα των προτεινόμενων μεθόδων σε βιομηχανικό περιβάλλον.