Carer-employees are defined as individuals who provide unpaid care to a disabled / ill dependent person(s) while working full-time in the paid labour force. In Canada, there are 6.1 million carer-employees, many of which are experiencing work-life balance struggles, which may result in ill-health. To minimize negative impacts, there is interest in developing caregiver-friendly workplace policies (CFWPs) as an intervention strategy to improve CEs’ work-life balance. However, the effectiveness of CFWPs are still in their infancy and often only focus on the work dimension. One of the most critical dimensions that have not yet been assessed is the activity-travel behaviour of carer-employees, which is largely impacted by the assisted-transport demands of their care-recipient. To contribute to filling in this gap, this dissertation addresses the following objectives: 1) develop an activity-travel behaviour profile of carer-employees using sociodemographic and caregiving characteristics; 2) identify spatial locations with potentially high assisted-transport demand while suggesting new areas to improve mobility independence of care-recipients, and; 3) create and apply a mixed-methods framework that classifies the actual activity-travel behaviour of carer-employees. The purposes of all three objectives are to: contribute to closing the literature gap; visually inform decision-makers and health planners, and; efficiently develop caregiver-friendly transport policies (CFTPs). Highlighted findings show that carer-employees conducting assisted-transport have lower income and are more likely to be tired and overwhelmed than those not performing the transport task (Objective 1). In Hamilton metropolitan area, 38% of the older adult population are not within immediate reach to a vital service, and another 15% are located in potentially high assisted-transport demand areas. Suggested areas for service implementation would improve access for older adults by 18% (Objective 2). Lastly, the framework has classified and ranked three types of activity-travel behaviours (Objective 3). All of these findings have led to the discussion of a multi-pronged implementation strategy for uptake of CFTPs. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation is composed of three essays that analyze the significance of the Food Stamp Program (FSP) for low-income households. The first essay entitled “Intensity of Food Stamp Use and Transient and Chronic Poverty: Evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics” examines the impact of intensity of use of FSP benefits on household exposure to transient and chronic poverty with respect to food and housing expenditures. The study finds that FSP is used for both long-term expenditure support and as a smoothing mechanism before the welfare reform, and only for smoothing expenditures after the welfare reform. Factors that influence both components of poverty are number of children, human capital, minority status and local economic conditions. Another finding is that shorter recertification periods reduce the length of FSP use, and indirectly result in higher poverty. The second essay entitled “The End of the Paper Era in the Food Stamp Program: The Impact of Electronic Benefits on Program Participation” documents the impact of the implementation of the statewide Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system on household participation behavior in the entire period of nationwide implementation. The major finding is that the switch from paper coupons to EBT cards induces participation among eligible households, most likely by reducing the stigma associated with FSP participation. The effect of the EBT system on participation probabilities is the largest among households residing in the rural South, those not headed by a single mother or those with a White household head. The third essay entitled “The Dynamics of Food Stamp Program Participation: A Lagged Dependent Variable Approach” investigates the existence of state dependence and its sources by analyzing the dynamics of participation in the FSP using a lagged dependent variable approach. Results show that FSP receipt in the previous period is an important determinant of current FSP receipt. Estimated persistence rates declined significantly after 1996, suggesting that long-term welfare dependency was reduced after the welfare reform, at least with respect to the FSP. The source of state dependence in FSP participation among low-income households is mostly structural implying that a welfare trap does exist for these households. / Ph. D.

Current marketing channel literature overwhelmingly suggests that entering exchange relationships leads to positive outcomes for the exchange parties. Yet, not all exchanges employ relational exchange. Thus, research appears to lack an understanding of the boundary conditions of successful relational exchange. This dissertation contributes to filling this gap by clarifying what is understood as relational exchange and differentiating it from vertical integration. Here, a two-dimensional perspective on exchange structure is offered that integrates our view of relational exchange and extends the conceptualization of vertical integration beyond sole ownership. To derive boundary conditions of relational exchange the literature on interorganizational relationships is integrated into six determinants and two key outcomes of relational exchange. These boundary conditions thus represent the facilitating circumstances that make relational exchange viable and the outcomes of relational exchange that exchange partners seek to achieve. / Ph. D.

The evaluation of risk is a fundamental aspect of decision-making and influences important outcomes, such as in the domain of financial and health behavior. In many economic applications, risk attitudes are assumed to be inherently stable. Nonetheless, behavioral tasks that elicit risk preferences have shown temporal inconsistencies. The instability of risk preferences can be attributed to several factors such as the way information is presented (framing effects), personal past experiences, and experienced emotions. We conduct four studies in this dissertation to shed light on the state dependency of risk attitudes and on the decision process of risky choice. Chapter 2 examines, using a laboratory experiment, how high stakes in risky choices influence physiological arousal, as measured via skin conductance, pulse rate and pupil size, and attention, as measured via gaze bias and saccades. We link the changes in arousal and attention accompanying high stakes to changes in risk aversion. Moreover, we develop and test a Sequential Sampling Model (SSM), the arousal-modulated Attentional Drift Diffusion Model (aADDM), linking reaction time and choice while allowing attention and its interaction with arousal to modulate the evaluation process of risky alternatives. High stakes caused changes in attention toward the safe option's attributes, heightened physiological arousal, and increased risk aversion. Results from the aADDM, demonstrate that the values of the high attributes are discounted when participants attend to the low attributes, with arousal amplifying this process further. Chapter 3, using a laboratory experiment, investigates how incentives and emotional experiences influence the adaptation process across high and low volatility contexts in risky choice. Due to the brain's computational capacity limitations, perception is optimized to detect differences within a narrow range of stimuli. We show that this adaptation process is itself context-dependent, with stronger incentives, heightened arousal, or more unpleasant feelings increasing payoff responsivity under high volatility. Chapter 4, using survey data, focuses on fear responses during the COVID-19 pandemic and risk perception of the health- and financial-related consequences of the crisis. We show that women report higher fear of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to men, modulating the gender differences in preventative health behaviors. Women also perceive the health risks of COVID-19, and not financial risks, to be greater than men. Chapter 5, using vignette experiments, demonstrates that betrayal aversion, or hesitancy regarding the risk of being betrayed in an environment involving trust, is an important preference construct in the decision to become vaccinated and is not accounted for by widely used vaccine hesitancy measures. We show that people are significantly less willing to get vaccinated when the associated risk involved the vaccine actively contributing to the cause of death. We also find that betrayal aversion is amplified with an active role of government or scientists. Moreover, we test an exogenous intervention that increases willingness to vaccinate without mitigating betrayal aversion. JEL codes: D81, D83, D87, D91, I12, J16 / Doctor of Philosophy / Many decisions involve varying levels of uncertainty and perceived reward like investing in a risky asset or getting a vaccination during a pandemic. These risky decisions, however, require consuming scarce brain resources. In addition, one's own feelings that are altered by the decision context itself or are naturally occurring during daily activities may influence risky decision-making. The scientific mission of this dissertation is to advance our understanding on how the decision context and experienced emotions influence not only risky decisions but also the way by which the decisions are being made. Our results show that real and high monetary rewards reduce financial risk-taking while altering attention and the perception of information. We also find that stronger incentives activate changes in the autonomous nervous system, such as a racing heart rate, increased sweating, or pupil dilation, and increase self-reports of emotional arousal. Importantly, we demonstrate, via computational modeling and experimental analysis, the role of emotional responses in modulating both attention and value perception of rewards in risky choice. In other words, we find that emotional experiences play an important role in adapting the process by which rewards are evaluated and perceived. Since significant life events, such as experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, can lead to substantial uncertainty and emotional distress, we collected survey data upon the crisis' onset to investigate the impact on different aspects of behavior including adherence to prevention measures and willingness to get vaccinated. We find that women, compared to men, reported higher fear of the COVID-19 pandemic and perceived greater negative health risks of the crisis. We attribute observed differences in adherence to prevention measures between men and women to gender differences in emotional responsivity to the pandemic. In addition, we demonstrate the importance of contextual factors, which drive feelings associated with the risk of betrayal, in the decision to become vaccinated. Taken together, the findings in this dissertation highlight the integral role of emotional experiences, which vary with incentives or because of previous experiences, in decision-making under risk.

The goal of this research was to explore the relationship between the undergraduate degree profile (practical vs. liberal arts) and environmental factors (institutional and state level) at regional comprehensive universities (RCUs) from 2006-2020. Neoliberal policies have dominated the higher education environment for the last 40 years and this has increased the pressure on institutions. RCUs represent a subset of the higher education population that have historically been responsive to environmental changes. They also tend to be more tuition dependent. This study examined the changes in the degree production and funding at RCUs and utilized a fixed effects panel analysis to estimate the relationship between changes in the degree production and environmental factors at the institutional and state level. RCUs have experienced an increase in the percentage of practical arts degrees awarded and in their tuition dependence. However, tuition dependence was not shown to have a significant impact on the degree production. Several institutional factors and state factors were shown to be significantly related to increases in practical arts degree production. Institutions with the highest increases in the percentage of practical degrees also had increases in tuition revenue per (full time equivalent) FTE 12-month. At the state-level, unemployment rate, the percentage of college education people and increases in personal income were correlated with increases in practical arts production.

This study investigates variation in preferences for mutual emotional dependence and togetherness in heterosexual romantic relationships among adults in the United States specifically considering the impact of race, gender, gender ideology, and cohort on preferences. A social structure and personality framework and concepts from exchange theory are used to interpret and predict relationship preference patterns found using binary hierarchical logistic regression analysis of data from the 1996 General Social Survey's (GSS) gender and emotions modules. Gender, gender ideology, cohort, and specific sociodemographic variables, such as education and marital status were found to impact preferences for mutual emotional dependence, however, no racially distinct patterns were found. The variables in the models explain less of the differences in preferences for togetherness than emotional dependence. However, education had a curvilinear relationship with preferences for togetherness, as people with the lowest and the highest educations were least likely to prefer togetherness. / Master of Science

Predicting fatigue failure is a critical design element for many engineering components and structures subject to complex service conditions. In high-temperature and corrosive environments, many materials exhibit rate dependent phenomena that can significantly alter safe service life predictions. Existing cycle processing techniques such as Peak Counting, Simple Range, and the Rain Flow method are able to resolve complex service histories into sets of simple cycles, but these methods are unable to handle time-related parameters such as engage rate and cycle sequence. To address this, a cycle processor was written in FORTRAN 95 later termed the Multi-Algorithm Cycle Counter (MACC). This code was utilized as a platform to develop, test, and study various methods of extracting and interpreting rate parameters extracted from cycles defined by existing counting algorithms.

Herman Witkin's research in differentiation theory proposed a conceptual framework describing the cognitive style known as field-dependence-independence. The operational measures of this construct are restructuring skills and interpersonal competencies, and were originally conceived to be fixed in an individual. A recent reconceptualization, however, suggested that there may be some malleability in learning strategies that flow from cognitive style. Learners predisposed to field dependence might gain access to restructuring skills brought to problem-solving Situations by field independents. Thus this study undertook to examine the effects and practicability of restructuring training as a means of addressing individual learner differences. Community college students were identified on the field-dependence-independence continuum using the Hidden Figures Test. Students in the experimental group received training in use of restructuring strategies. All participants were given subsequent tasks requiring the employ of restructuring strategies. These posttest tasks included a visual disembedding task, a verbal disambiguating task, and a task of visual perspectivism. Training effect was observed in field dependents for all three test tasks. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a supplantation technique (zoom) on field dependent and field independent learners in the teaching of a picture detail recognition task through television. Specific research questions included: will field dependent or independent cognitive style affect the student's ability to recognize picture details presented in a television format; will the zoom television technique affect the learning of a picture detail recognition task for students classified as field dependent or field independent; is there an interaction effect between cognitive style and television presentation mode; will recall increase across four learning trials, can the zoom technique be modeled successfully in other picture detail recognition tasks by field independent and field dependent subjects; and is there an interaction effect between the learning trials and the television presentation mode? Students were shown two videotape treatments: one under the zoom condition which acted as a supplantation device and one under a no-zoom treatment which withheld supplantation. A posttest only 2x2x4 repeated measures design was utilized. The independent variables were cognitive style, treatment condition, and learning trials. The dependent measures were four posttests measuring picture detail recognition. Results indicate that the zoom treatment did not produce significantly higher picture detail recognition scores for either field independent or field dependent learners. Cognitive style had no significant effect on students' picture detail recognition ability in a learning task presented by television. Also, there was no significant interaction between the treatment and cognitive style. There was a significant difference in mean student performance across the four picture detail recognition tasks, as well as a significant interaction between the treatment condition and the learning trials. / Ed. D. / incomplete_metadata

[ES] Producir software eficiente y efectivo es una tarea que parece ser tan difícil ahora como lo era para los primeros ordenadores. Con cada mejora de hardware y herramientas de desarrollo (como son compiladores y analizadores), la demanda de producir software más rápido y más complejo ha ido aumentando. Por tanto, todos estos análisis auxiliares ahora son una parte integral del desarrollo de programas complejos. La fragmentación de programas es una técnica de análisis estático, que da respuesta a ¿Qué partes del programa pueden afectar a esta instrucción? Su aplicación principal es la depuración de programas, porque puede acotar la zona de código a la que el programador debe prestar atención mientras busca la causa de un error. También tiene otras muchas aplicaciones, como pueden ser la paralelización y especialización de programas, la comprensión de programas y el mantenimiento. En los últimos años, su uso más común ha sido como preproceso a otros análisis con alto coste computacional, para reducir el tamaño del programa a procesar, y, por tanto, el tiempo de ejecución de estos. La estructura de datos más popular para fragmentar programas es el system dependence graph (SDG), un grafo dirigido que representa las instrucciones de un programa como vértices, y sus dependencias como arcos. Los dos tipos principales de dependencias son las de control y las de datos, que encapsulan el flujo de control y datos en todas las ejecuciones posibles de un programa. El área de lenguajes de programación está en eterno cambio, ya sea por la aparición de nuevos lenguajes o por el lanzamiento de nuevas características en lenguajes existentes, como pueden ser Java o Erlang. Sin embargo, la fragmentación de programas se definió originalmente para el paradigma imperativo. Aun así, hay características populares en lenguajes imperativos, como las arrays y las excepciones, que aún no tienen una representación eficiente y/o completa en el SDG. Otros paradigmas, como el funcional o el orientado a objetos, sufren también de un soporte parcial en el SDG. Esta tesis presenta mejoras para construcciones comunes en la programación moderna, dividiendo contribuciones en las enfocadas a dependencias de control y las enfocadas a datos. Para las primeras, especificamos una nueva representación de instrucciones catch, junto a una descripción completa del resto de instrucciones relacionadas con excepciones. También analizamos las técnicas punteras para saltos incondicionales (p.e., break), y mostramos los riesgos de combinarlas con otras técnicas para objetos, llamadas o excepciones. A continuación, ponemos nuestra mirada en la concurrencia, con una formalización de un depurador de especificaciones CSP reversible y causal-consistente. En cuanto a las dependencias de datos, se enfocan en técnicas sensibles al contexto (es decir, más precisas en presencia de rutinas y sus llamadas). Exploramos las dependencias de datos generadas en programas concurrentes por memoria compartida, redefiniendo las dependencias de interferencia para hacerlas sensibles al contexto. A continuación, damos un pequeño rodeo por el campo de la indecidibilidad, en el que demostramos que ciertos tipos de análisis de datos sobre programas con estructuras de datos complejas son indecidibles. Finalmente, ampliamos un trabajo previo sobre la fragmentación de estructuras de datos complejas, combinándolo con la fragmentación tabular, que la hace sensible al contexto. Además, se han desarrollado o extendido múltiples librerías de código con las mejoras mencionadas anteriormente. Estas librerías nos han permitido realizar evaluaciones empíricas para algunos de los capítulos, y también han sido publicadas bajo licencias libres, que permiten a otros desarrolladores e investigadores extenderlas y contrastarlas con sus propuestas, respectivamente. Las herramientas resultantes son dos fragmentadores de código para Java y Erlang, y un depurador de CSP reversible y causal-consistente. / [CA] La producció de programari eficient i eficaç és una tasca que resulta tan difícil hui dia com ho va ser durant l'adveniment dels ordinadors. Per cada millora de maquinari i ferramentes per al desenvolupament, augmenta sovint la demanda de programes, així com la seua complexitat. Com a conseqüència, totes aquestes anàlisis auxiliars esdevenen una part integral del desenvolupament de programari. La fragmentació de programes és una tècnica d'anàlisi estàtica, que respon a "Quines parts d'aquest programa poden afectar a aquesta instrucció?". L'aplicació principal d'aquesta tècnica és la depuració de programes, per la seua capacitat de reduir la llargària d'un programa sense canviar el seu funcionament respecte a una instrucció que està fallant, delimitant així l'àrea del codi en què el programador busca l'origen de l'errada. Tot i això, té moltes altres aplicacions, com la paral·lelització i especialització de programes o la comprensió de programes i el seu manteniment. Durant els darrers anys, l'ús més freqüent de la fragmentació de programes ha sigut com a <<preprocés>> abans d'altres anàlisis amb un alt cost computacional, per tal de reduir-ne el temps requerit per realitzar-les. L'estructura de dades més popular per fragmentar programes és el system dependence graph (SDG), un graf dirigit representant-ne les instruccions d'un programa amb vèrtexs i les seues dependències amb arcs. Els dos tipus principals de dependència són el de control i el de dades, aquests encapsulen el flux de control i dades a totes les possibles execucions d'un programa. L'àrea dels llenguatges de programació s'hi troba en constant evolució, o bé per l'aparició de nous llenguatges, o bé per noves característiques per als preexistents, com poden ser Java o Erlang. No obstant això, la fragmentació de programes s'hi va definir originalment per al paradigma imperatiu. Tot i que, també hi trobem característiques populars als llenguatges imperatius, com els arrays i les excepcions, que encara no en tenen una representació eficient i/o completa al SDG. Altres paradigmes, com el funcional o l'orientat a objectes, pateixen també d'un suport reduit al SDG. Aquesta tesi presenta millores per a construccions comunes de la programació moderna, dividint les contribucions entre aquelles enfocades a les dependències de control i aquelles enfocades a dades. Per a les primeres, hi especifiquem una nova representació d'instruccions catch, junt amb una descripció de la resta d'instruccions relacionades amb excepcions. També hi analitzem les tècniques capdavanteres de fragmentació de salts incondicionals, i hi mostrem els riscs de combinar-ne-les amb altres tècniques per a objectes, instruccions de crida i excepcions. A continuació, hi posem la nostra atenció en la concurrència, amb una formalització d'un depurador d'especificacions CSP reversible i causal-consistent. Respecte a les dependències de dades, dirigim els nostres esforços a produir tècniques sensibles al context (és a dir, que es mantinguen precises en presència de procediments). Hi explorem les dependències de dades generades en programes concurrents amb memòria compartida, redefinint-ne les dependències d'interferència per a fer-ne-les sensibles al context. Seguidament, hi demostrem la indecidibilitat d'alguns tipus d'anàlisis de dades per a programes amb estructures de dades complexes. Finalment, hi ampliem un treball previ sobre la fragmentació d'estructures de dades complexes, combinant-lo amb la fragmentació tabular, fent-hi-la sensible al context. A més a més, s'han desenvolupat o estés diverses llibreries de codi amb les millores esmentades prèviament. Aquestes llibreries ens han permés avaluar empíricament alguns dels capítols i també han sigut publicades sota llicències lliures, fet que permet a altres desenvolupadors i investigadors poder estendre-les i contrastar-les, respectivament. Les ferramentes resultants són dos fragmentadors de codi per a Java i Erlang, i un depurador CSP. / [EN] Producing efficient and effective software is a task that has remained difficult since the advent of computers. With every improvement on hardware and developer tooling (e.g., compilers and checkers), the demand for software has increased even further. This means that auxiliary analyses have become integral in developing complex software systems. Program slicing is a static analysis technique that gives answers to "What parts of the program can affect a given statement?", and similar questions. Its main application is debugging, as it can reduce the amount of code on which a programmer must look for a mistake or bug. Other applications include program parallelization and specialisation, program comprehension, and software maintenance. Lately, it has mostly been applied as a pre-processing step in other expensive static analyses, to lower the size of the program and thus the analyses' runtime. The most popular data structure in program slicing is the system dependence graph (SDG), which represents statements as nodes and dependences as arcs between them. The two main types of dependences are control and data dependences, which encapsulate the control and data flow throughout every possible execution of a program. Programming languages are an ever-expanding subject, with new features coming to new releases of popular and up-and-coming languages like Python, Java, Erlang, Rust, and Go. However, program slicing was originally defined for (and has been mostly focused on) imperative programming languages. Even then, some popular elements of the imperative paradigm, such as arrays and exceptions do not have an efficient or sometimes complete representation in the SDG. Other paradigms, such as functional or object-oriented also suffer from partial support in the SDG. This thesis presents improvements for common programming constructs, and its contributions are split into control and data dependence. For the former, we (i) specify a new representation of catch statements, along with a full description of other exception-handling constructs. We also (ii) analyse the current state-of-the-art technique for unconditional jumps (e.g., break or return), and show the risks of combining it with other popular techniques. Then, we focus on concurrency, with a (iii) formalisation of a reversible, causal-consistent debugger for CSP specifications. Switching to data dependences, we focus our contributions on making existing techniques context-sensitive (i.e., more accurate in the presence of routines or functions). We explore the data dependences involved in shared-memory concurrent programs, (iv) redefining interference dependence to make it context-sensitive. Afterwards, we take a small detour to (v) explore the decidability of various data analyses on programs with (and without) complex data structures and routine calls. Finally, we (vi) extend our previous work on slicing complex data structures to combine it with tabular slicing, which provides context-sensitivity. Additionally, throughout this thesis, multiple supporting software libraries have been written or extended with the aforementioned improvements to program slicing. These have been used to provide empirical evaluations, and are available under libre software licenses, such that other researchers and software developers may extend or contrast them against their own proposals. The resulting tools are two program slicers for Java and Erlang, and a causal-consistent reversible debugger for CSP. / Galindo Jiménez, CS. (2024). Program Slicing for Modern Programming Languages [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/211183