Alternativamente ao preenchimento de falhas, buscou-se neste estudo apresentar uma metodologia para a geração de séries de precipitações mensais médias apenas com os dados observados disponíveis nas estações pluviométricas presentes na área de estudo e seu entorno. Neste caso, para cada época da série, somente os dados disponíveis foram utilizados para o cálculo da precipitação média, assim em cada época admitiu-se que uma combinação diferente de postos pluviométricos fosse utilizada para o seu cálculo. Para isso foi desenvolvida uma ferramenta computacional em ambiente SIG para automatizar todas as etapas do estudo. Os resultados das séries de precipitação mensal média para uma bacia hidrográfica calculados segundo a metodologia alternativa apresentada foram comparados a dois métodos de preenchimento de falhas comumente utilizados nos estudos hidrológicos. Posteriormente foram avaliados os impactos do quantitativo de falhas nas séries. Também foram avaliados os reflexos na aplicação das séries na modelagem chuva-vazão e por fim a metodologia foi aplicada a um caso concreto. Os resultados encontrados e os testes estatísticos apontam resultados satisfatórios e equivalentes nas condições testadas. Verificou-se uma degradação na correlação entre a série gerada a partir dos dados sem falhas e as séries geradas com os dados com as imposições das falhas com o aumento do número de falhas impostas. As séries de vazões médias mensais geradas utilizando-se o modelo mensal SMAP quando da aplicação das séries de precipitação calculadas pela metodologia alternativa também se mostraram equivalentes, segundo os testes estatísticos realizados, às séries geradas de dados de precipitação sem falhas ou com as falhas preenchidas. As diferenças encontradas entre as séries foram pequenas o que se refletiu nos Índices de Nash-Sutcliffe que foram próximos. / In this study, we proposed a methodology for the generation of average monthly rainfall series only with the observed data available in the rainfall stations present in the study area and its surroundings. In this case, for each season of the series only the available data were used for the calculation of the average precipitation, so in each season it was admitted that a different combination of pluviometric stations was used for its calculation. For this, a computational tool was developed with a GIS approach to automate all stages of the study. The results of the average monthly rainfall series for a river basin calculated according to the alternative methodology presented were compared to two methods of filling gaps commonly used in hydrological studies. Subsequently, the impacts of the number of failures in the series were evaluated. We also evaluated the reflexes in the application of the series in the rainfall-flow modeling and finally the methodology was applied to a case study. The results found and the statistical tests show satisfactory and equivalent results under the conditions tested. There was a degradation in the correlation between the series generated from the data without fail and the series generated with the data with the impositions of the failures with the increase of the gaps imposed. The series of monthly average flows generated using the SMAP monthly model when applying the rainfall series calculated by the alternative methodology were also shown to be equivalent, according to the statistical tests carried out, to the series generated of data of precipitation without gaps or with the gaps fulfilled. The differences found between the series were small, which was reflected in the Nash-Sutcliffe Indices that were close.

Past research on the impacts of acculturation gaps among immigrant family members has yielded inconclusive results potentially due to inconsistent analytical methods, lack of consideration of family processes, and discrepant conceptualizations of acculturation. With a sample of 161 Chinese Canadian immigrant families, the current study adopted a person-centred approach with a family lens to examine the nature of acculturation gaps and how these gaps were associated with family functioning and individual psychological adjustment. Latent profile analyses were utilized to generate mother-father-child acculturation profiles based on individual reports of acculturation (in the domains of cultural identity and value, separately) from mothers, fathers, and children in the same family. The results identified five family acculturation profiles in the identity domain and four family acculturation profiles in the value domain. Parents’ cultural disengagement was linked to the most positive psychological wellbeing and family relationships for all family members. The expected acculturation gaps in the Canadian host dimension were not found to be associated with the most depressive symptoms or family conflicts, suggesting that acculturation gaps where adolescents were more acculturated to the host culture than their parents may be normative in immigrant families and thus not linked to youth maladjustment. In contrast, the reversed acculturation gaps in the host dimension and the expected acculturation gaps in the heritage dimension were consistently found to be associated with family conflicts and individual psychological distress. The results also revealed an undifferentiated acculturation style that was not outlined in Berry’s model. An undifferentiated style was characterized by average acculturation levels on both the heritage and host dimensions, and it was the most prevalent individual acculturation style in the identity domain and the second most prevalent style in the value domain. Directions for future research and the benefits of using a person-centered approach in the research of acculturation gaps are discussed. / Graduate / 2023-09-06

Feminist scholars have theorized that the workplace is gendered and heteronormative1, but little research quantifies the economic consequences of those organizations. This study investigates income discrepancies between gay men and straight men and between lesbians and straight women, to quantify these consequences. Using the National Survey of Family Growth 2006-2010, and controlling for several correlates of income, I use ordinary least squares regression to test the hypothesis that lesbians have higher incomes on the average than straight women do, and that straight men earn more than gay men. I also use hierarchical regression to test the relative strengths of the associations between income and possible causes of variation in it. The study found that gay men earn more than straight men because of higher educational attainment, and that lesbians earn more than straight women, though this finding is not statistically significant. / Master of Science

Becoming a software engineer can be a stressful process. Software engineers are required to have a broad skill set in order to first obtain a job and then thrive in that position. Job applications will list skills that may be required or recommended but many potential applicants, especially new college graduates, may not have experience with all of the skills that are listed in a position description. The field of software engineering is constantly changing and evolving. New skills are constantly needed in a software engineering position. Education cannot keep up with the constantly changing software engineering workplace. Designing courses takes lots of time and effort. Changing courses to meet the newer and more volatile industry standards could potentially harm existing education by causing a decrease in the quality of more foundation skills. For example, a more foundational skill like good testing practices could become muddled in different languages or frameworks due to a newer language potentially not being fully understood or by the intricacies of the language. This study aims to identify the current gaps that exist between software engineering education and industry. In order to address these gaps this study proposes a platform to provide students with resources related to identified gaps. Additionally, the platform will show the students the identified gaps to see if students are interested in exploring skills related to the identified gaps. The identified gaps are derived from a survey of professional software engineers and subsequent interviews. The results of the study show that students are not only interested in learning how people in industry rank their skills, but that students are overall interested in exploring more resources whether they are directly correlated with a gap or not. / Master of Science / Becoming a software engineer can be a stressful process. Software engineers are required to have a broad skill set in order to first obtain a job and then thrive in that position. Job applications will list skills that may be required or recommended but many potential applicants, especially new college graduates, may not have experience with all of the skills that are listed in a position description. For example, many applications will list that a specific programming language as a required skill or they may list a specific language framework that is necessary for the job. These skills may not line up with the languages or frameworks that students learn in school. The field of software engineering is constantly changing and evolving. Additionally, the field is so broad that the requirements for different positions can have great variations at different companies. New skills are constantly needed in a software engineering position. Education cannot keep up with the constantly changing software engineering workplace. Designing courses takes lots of time and effort. Changing courses to meet the newer and more volatile industry standards could potentially harm existing education by causing a decrease in the quality of more foundation skills. For example, a more foundational skill like good testing practices could become muddled in different languages or frameworks due to a newer language potentially not being fully understood or by the intricacies of the language. This study aims to identify the current gaps that exist between software engineering education and industry. In order to address these gaps this study proposes a platform to provide students with resources related to identified gaps. Additionally, the platform will show the students the identified gaps to see if students are interested in exploring skills related to the identified gaps. The identified gaps are derived from a survey of professional software engineers and subsequent interviews. The results of the study show that students are not only interested in learning how people in industry rank their skills, but that students are overall interested in exploring more resources whether they are directly correlated with a gap or not.

Yes / Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) plays an important part in consumer purchase decision. The way consumers perceive the persuasiveness of eWOM message can affect their attitude, and purchase intention, and hence sales. Thus, the topic of persuasiveness of eWOM communications has received much attention from scholars. The objective of this paper is to provide a brief review of the existing literature related to the effectiveness of eWOM communications and offer an overview of the determinants of eWOM persuasiveness. This paper contributes to the existing eWOM literature by reviewing the existing studies on eWOM communications, identifying gaps in the current research and providing directions for future research.

[pt] Este trabalho apresenta o estudo de um caso de entrega de serviço em uma empresa do setor de telecomunicações propondo um modelo de avaliação e diagnóstico do processo. Sendo qualidade do serviço o principal fator da sua estratégia de diferenciação, a empresa busca a melhoria do serviço usando pesquisas de satisfação de seus clientes para identificar suas necessidades e expectativas. Mesmo buscando focar nos fatores críticos de sucesso, a empresa tem tido dificuldade em correlacionar a percepção dos clientes sobre o serviço prestado e as medições feitas internamente visando a redução de custos e melhorias no processo. Tal temática faz florescer numerosas questões sobre a forma como as empresas atualmente gerenciam a qualidade de seus serviços objetivando a melhoria contínua e sustentada como diferencial competitivo na visão cliente. Dada a complexidade do tema, este trabalho concentra-se no aspecto particular da expectativa do cliente sobre a entrega do serviço no prazo e no gerenciamento do ciclo do pedido para entrega eficiente, eficaz e com baixo custo para a empresa. O principal objetivo é a identificação dos gaps entre a percepção do cliente e a visão interna de desempenho cuja redução ou eliminação aumente o valor percebido pelo mercado. Assim, a pesquisa propõe e testa um modelo para diagnóstico do processo de entrega de serviços e, também, formas de manter o processo alinhado com as expectativas dos clientes e as estratégias da organização. Focalizando a entrega de serviços, o trabalho traz uma pequena contribuição para colocá-la no seu merecido lugar na Logística. / [en] This thesis presents a case study of a service delivery system in a telecommunication company and proposes a model for process evaluation and diagnosis. Because service quality is the main factor of its differentiation strategy, the company seeks service improvements by employing satisfaction surveys for identification of its clients´ needs and expectations. Despite its focus on critical factors of success, the company has experienced difficulties in correlating its clients´ perceptions on the service delivered and the internal evaluations aiming cost reduction and process enhancements. This theme brings about numerous issues on the way the enterprises currently manage their service quality in search for continuous, and sustained, improvement as a competitive advantage under the customer´s vision. Given the complexity of the theme, this research concentrates in the particular aspect of customer´s expectations on the service timely delivery, as well as in the management of the order cycle for the company to achieve an efficient, effective and low cost delivery. The main objective of this research is the identification of the gaps between the customer´s perception and the company´s internal view of its performance whose reduction, or elimination, can enhance the market perceived value. Hence, this research proposes and tests a model for diagnosis of the service delivery process, and also, ways for maintaining the alignment of the process with the customer´s expectations, and the organization´s strategy. Focusing on service delivery, this research represents a modest contribution for placing this subject on its deserved place in Logistics.

Invasive plants, animals, insects, and pathogens are a significant problem for land managers and conservationists as they can cause irreparable damage to local ecosystems. The emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive beetle from China, was discovered in the U.S. in 2002, and has decimated ash populations throughout Michigan. It continues to move through Midwestern and some eastern states, usually killing a tree within 2-4 years of infection. Using a Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS), all trees ≥ 45 cm and all ash ≥ 30 cm in diameter were measured and mapped within a 160 acre old-growth deciduous forest in northern Indiana. EAB was detected in 14 trees throughout the forest. A canopy map was generated, estimating 6.6 percent canopy loss due to EAB. Because of this research, the entire spread of EAB within this forest can now be documented and mapped. The methodological framework used in this research can assist land managers and property owners monitor their land by enabling them to: track changes in tree health more accurately; assess damage by creating forest inventory and canopy maps; and model potential damage over time. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management

O tema central desta tese são as razões para a ocorrência dos gaps de gestão da qualidade de serviço. O objetivo é analisar, com base no modelo estendido de qualidade de serviço, as razões para essa ocorrência. Para tanto, realizou-se um estudo exploratório em duas etapas. Na primeira, foi feita uma revisão da literatura relativa ao tema; na segunda, uma pesquisa de campo para se analisarem as razões para a ocorrência dos gaps de gestão da qualidade de serviço numa organização de transporte metroviário. Os resultados mostram que esta tese contribui para o avanço do estado da arte acerca do tema, tanto pelo fato de somar-se aos poucos trabalhos acadêmicos que lhe têm dado atenção, quanto pela identificação de novos elementos relativos ao tema que não foram discutidos por outros pesquisadores. Como parte das considerações finais, apontam-se novas oportunidades de pesquisas para aqueles que se interessam pela qualidade de serviço e pela análise dos gaps de gestão da qualidade de serviço. / The aim of this thesis are the reasons for the service quality management gaps occurrence. The purpose of this work is to analyze, based on the extended service quality model, the reasons for the occurrence of these gaps. To achieve this purpose, a two-stage exploratory study was conducted. In the first stage, a bibliographic review was made. In the second one, a field research was conducted in order to analyze the reasons for the occurrence of the service quality management gaps in a subway system service provider. The results show that this thesis brings a contribution to the advancement of the literature because it adds to a few academic studies that have given attention to the subject, and identifies new elements pertaining to the subject that have not been discussed by other researchers. As part of the conclusion section, new research opportunities are offered to those who are interested in service quality and in the analysis of the service quality management gaps.

Graduation date: 2006 / Canopy gap formation is a major factor contributing to maintenance of overstory species diversity and stand structure in forests and may be integral to development of understory shrub and herb layers as well. Acknowledgement of gap formation as a fundamental feature of natural forests has led to consideration of gaps as an option in forest management regimes. This study examined understory vegetation communities across canopy gaps created as a part of the Density Management Study (DMS), which investigates the effectiveness of a thinning regime in promoting late-successional habitat development in young Douglas-fir forests of western Oregon. Patterns in understory vegetation community composition in and around 0.1 and 0.4ha gaps created as a part of the DMS treatment were investigated. The primary goal of this research was to investigate the potential role of canopy gap creation in fostering heterogeneity in understory vegetation communities, and to examine the extent of gap influence on the surrounding thinned forest matrix. Tree species distributions have been shown to partition across gaps in tropical forest systems through differential responses of species to gradients in resource availability, a pattern known as gap partitioning. In temperate forests, understory vegetation communities are much more diverse than the overstories, and display a greater array of habitat requirements. Therefore, understory communities may be more likely than overstories to exhibit gap partitioning in these forests. Patterns in understory community composition across gaps suggest that gap partitioning has occurred. The strength of this partitioning effect appears to differ between gap sizes, as smaller gaps showed a less powerful effect. Abundance of ruderal species was strongly related to gap partitioning in larger gaps, while smaller gaps were dominated by competitor species. Partitioning may be related to an interactive relationship between harvest-related ground disturbance and resource gradients. Therefore, considerations of gap partitioning processes should take into account intensity and spatial distribution of ground disturbance in relation to resource gradients. In addition, conditions necessary for the expression of gap partitioning in understory vegetation communities may be rare in natural gaps in this region. The influence of gaps on understory vegetation communities in the surrounding forest appears to be relatively small. This small influence extent may help explain the lack of a stand level response to gap formation in these stands. Larger gaps exhibit a slight influence on the understory plant community in the surrounding forest to the north of the gap. In small gaps, there seemed to be an influence of the surrounding forest on gap interiors, resulting in an area of influence smaller than the physical gap area. This relationship may indicate that the area of gap influence on understory vegetation may not scale linearly with physical gap size. Species diversity was higher in gap interiors than in surrounding thinned forests. However this effect was partially due to the presence of exotic species, which showed an affinity for gap interiors. Late successional associated species were negatively related to gap interiors, but only in the larger gap size. Gap creation appears to be promoting small scale species diversity in these stands, but creation of large gaps may also promote the establishment of exotic species and may have a negative effect on late successional associated species. However, any and all of these effects may be transient, as understory communities will be strongly affected by overstory re-establishment, and related changes in resource availability. In general, gap formation may influence small-scale stand heterogeneity as evidenced by understory plant communities, but this effect may rely strongly on the nature of gap formation and intensity of disturbance related to this formation.

Materials, Processes, and Characterization of Extended Air-gaps for the Intra-level Interconnection of Integrated Circuits Seongho Park 157 pages Directed by Dr. Paul A. Kohl and Dr. Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen The integration of an air-gap as an ultra low dielectric constant material in an intra-metal dielectric region of interconnect structure in integrated circuits was investigated in terms of material properties of a thermally decomposable sacrificial polymer, fabrication processes and electrical performance. Extension of the air-gap into the inter-layer dielectric region reduces the interconnect capacitance. In order to enhance the hardness of a polymer for the better process reliabilities, a conventional norbornene-based sacrificial polymer was electron-beam irradiated. Although the hardness of the polymer increased, the thermal properties degraded. A new high modulus tetracyclododecene-based sacrificial polymer was characterized and compared to the norbornene-based polymer in terms of hardness, process reliability and thermal properties. The tetracyclododecene-based polymer was harder and showed better process reliability than the norbornene-based sacrificial polymer. Using the tetracyclododecene-based sacrificial polymer, a single layer Cu/air-gap and extended Cu/air-gap structures were fabricated. The effective dielectric constant of the air-gap and extended air-gap structures were 2.42 and 2.17, respectively. This meets the requirements for the 32 nm node. Moisture uptake of the extended Cu/air-gap structure increased the effective dielectric constant. The exposure of the structure to hexamethyldisilazane vapor removed the absorbed moisture and changed the structure hydrophobic, improving the integration reliability. The integration processes of the air-gap and the extended air-gap into a dual damascene Cu metallization process has been proposed compared to state-of-the-art integration approaches.