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Within this dissertation, I use design-based research along with discourse and interaction analysis to study classroom groups of mathematical learners to better understand and design for group structures and cultures that support students' learning mathematics and becoming mathematical communities. Specifically, I focus on the phenomenon of groups of students learning mathematics together. I take the stance that groups learning math together is fundamentally different from students learning math on their own, requiring new metaphors and conceptualizations of learning. Additionally, understanding the group as a unit is important because only through groups do identity and learning happen (Lave & Wenger, 1991), the production of cultural practices (Fine, 2012), and mathematics is rehumanizing (Gutierrez, 2018). Collectively, the three papers create a map of the different structures within classroom systems as classroom groups learn mathematics together. Each paper focuses on a specific structure while understanding it in relation to the others. Taken together, we begin to find some principles which we can use to tweak and iterate classroom design. Classroom networks and technology can jumpstart ways of learning mathematics together. Representation systems solve locally constituted problems, and researchers and teachers can better identify when the classroom group is learning strategic symbolic navigation. Finally, cultural production can reveal how important long-term social processes are, and it pushes researchers and teachers to design for conceptual neighborhood living. We need future work to better understand how these ideas fully interact and integrate. These three papers form a foundation for my research trajectory to better understand how classroom groups learn mathematics together. In future studies, I will further explore how we can design and support classroom groups to engage in conceptual neighborhood living, strategic symbolic navigation, and conceptual agency. Through long-term classroom studies and design-based research methods, I will further understand how groups create conceptual-cultural materials within classrooms and how this material supports their engagement in mathematics. My goal is to build a sense of these structures' interaction and the mathematics that results from them. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This PhD dissertation studies how market structures and economic incentives transform heterogeneity at agent levels into unequal economic outcomes. The first chapter studies the economic incentives that lead a country to specialise its production in specific segments of a supply chain, and how these incentives transform heterogeneity at the productivity level into wage differences between countries. This chapter presents an innovative framework that incorporates production networks to the Ricardian trade model. It describes the price formation mechanism that occurs along supply chains and how it induces countries to focus on the production of specific goods. Moreover, the model highlights the role of the network structure in the determination of prices, and uses it to explain how changes in the productivity of a country have consequences in the production decisions and wages of the other countries that produce goods in the supply chain. The second chapter studies the effects that the heterogeneity of income flows has over the implementation of collective agreements. Collective agreements are the primary mechanism by which communities cope with market failures. However, the lack of enforcement mechanisms generates coordination challenges. This chapter presents a theoretical framework that studies how inequality among individuals affects the participation incentives of the individuals and explains why agreements that balance the rent-seeking behaviour of wealthy individuals with the redistribution interests of the poor reduce the adverse effects of heterogeneity, and can even use it to create more robust agreements. The third chapter studies heterogeneity at the level of academic journals. This chapter models the interaction between authors and journals as a platform market and uses this model to explain how general interest journals compete against field-specific journals. The model provides new insights into the way in which general interest journals link the different publication incentives of journals across fields. The theoretical results explain why general interest journals tend to attract higher quality publications and how changes in the publication capacity of a journal, or the volume of research in a field, can affect the quality of ideas published in both field-specific and general interest journals. Finally, this chapter applies the previous theoretical results to understand how the Top 5 journals in economics obtained their central role, and how their influence has changed between 1980 and the present.

A definition of value, a higher order construct, how it is created and its constituents remains elusive. This research aims to explain value co-creation and its key enablers in the management consulting industry. Service Dominant Logic (S-DL) first published by Vargo & Lusch (2004) has fostered extensive debate ever since, and with the Service Logic theory of the so-called Nordic School of Marketing (Grönroos, 2011b) they have encouraged research on subjects under the optic of value co-creation (S-DL), value facilitation (SL) and exchange of service, arguing that value is only phenomenologically assessed by the customer (S-DL) and that the only real value is customer’s value-in-use (SL). The understanding of how value is co-created has been scarcely researched empirically as, for instance, Aarikka-Stenroos & Jaakkola (2012) have. Capabilities management has been related to a firm’s resources and the Resource-Based View (RBV); however, empirical research relating capabilities to the process of value co-creation in b2b context has also been discussed as sparse (Lindgreen, Hingley, Grant and Morgan, 2012).This research explores interconnectedness of value, relationship-interaction and dynamic capabilities in management consultancy, and responds to the following research question: What arrays of capabilities and interaction are required for management consulting sustained value-facilitation? The subjects of relationship and interaction are discussed as core to value co-creation while investigating the intervening role of dynamic capabilities. A qualitative abductive methodology is applied, founded on a critical realist philosophical argumentation. The iterative deductive-inductive methods involved in the abductive process ideally approach the open ended questions that emerge researching social phenomena. The data is obtained by elite interviews with executive consultants and CXO level customers, who have had profound experience of consulting assisted co-creation initiatives. Four abductive iterations of data collection and analysis are applied, departing from a theoretical framework that emerges from the review of extant literature and that is informed by the research question. The salient constructs from contextually complex discussions are analysed and lastly synthesized in an overarching model. This research contributes mainly in two areas: (1) The identification of relationship/interaction in consulting at the core of value co-creation, and its key characteristics as a dynamic context. Co-creation is proposed as an evolving-adaptive process dependent on relationship through interaction.(2) The identification of capabilities that allow relationship and co-creation and higher order capabilities that develop capabilities, which emerge from deliberate reflection of the consultant’s strategy. Such dynamic capabilities develop and orchestrate capabilities for value facilitation and customer value creation.

This thesis is concerned with the investigation of different configurations of semiconductor lasers to generate short optical pulses through passive modelocking, and the analysis of the possible uses for these optical pulse generators. Three different modelocking configurations have been studied to generate optical pulses at frequencies between 1 and 15 GHz; two of them monolithic configurations, namely all active cavity mode-locked lasers and extended cavity mode-locked lasers and the third one being an external cavity configuration. The all active cavity mode-locked lasers have the advantage of having the easiest and most reliable fabrication process, but exhibited high threshold, around 100 mA for 5 mm long laser, broad pulses, around 10 ps, and high timing jitter levels, up to 22 ps (1 kHz-l0MHz). The extended cavity mode-locked lasers, which incorporate active and passive sections, are also easy to fabricate, but the reliability of the fabrication process depends on the reliability of the technique to fabricate the passive section of the device. They are excellent short pulse generators with very low threshold current, around 25 mA for a 5 mm long laser, pulses as narrow as 3.5 ps and jitter levels as low as 9 ps (1 kHz- 10MHz), which indicates a high stability in the pulse generation. With the external cavity configuration the pulse generation frequency can be reduced to values as low as hundreds of MHz. The drawback with this type of laser is their mechanical instability, which makes them a difficult device to work with. An important application for these optical pulse generators is that of all-optical clock recovery. The locking range of the monolithic configurations, under external periodic excitation, was studied. The all active cavity lasers showed a locking range wider than 0.15% of the free running modelocking frequency, whilst the extended cavity lasers locking range was around 0.03% of the free running modelocking frequency.

This research investigation was designed to provide answers to the question, "What occurs in supervision to positively impact a counselor supervisee's self-efficacy to work with a client?" All subjects in this study were master's degree counseling students attending a university in the Midwest. Participants were enrolled in one of the following courses: Community Counseling Practicum, Community Counseling Internship, School Counseling Practicum, or School Counseling Internship. The study was designed to learn from counselor supervisees what they found most useful/helpful in supervision in order to increase their self-efficacy/confidence for working with clients. Q Methodology was the research approach utilized in this investigation. PQ Method 2.11 was used for the data and factor analysis. Forty-five individuals participated in this study by sorting a Q sample made up of 34 items. Three factors, also referred to as counselor supervisee perspectives, were derived from the data analysis. The factors were labeled (a) Security of My Supervisor, (b) Ready to Learn; Ready to be Challenged, and (c) Open to Feedback; Thoughtful about the Process of Supervision. The study indicated there were differing groups of students who shared common within group perspectives and differing between group perspectives on what they reported as being helpful to them in counselor supervision. The perspectives found in this study are expressed in these factors. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Abstract: Shape Memory Polymers (SMPs) exhibit responsiveness to stimuli, characterized by the Shape Memory Effect (SME) which enables them to temporarily store a shape and return to their permanent/original form upon the application of a stimulus. However, SMPs face challenges in being applied to large-scale applications due to their limited stress recovery response. A promising solution to this problem are Shape Memory Polymer Composites (SMPCs). This study aims to explore the feasibility of producing SMPCs with Additive Manufacturing (AM), which is also known as 4D printing, for large-scale manufacturing. In the future, the aim is eventually to be able to 4D print drone wings that can change their shape to maneuver in the air. Therefore, the goal is to leverage the unique properties of SMPCs, enhancing their applicability in the engineering field. In this work, a large-scale Extrusion Based 3D printing platform is modified and adapted with a pellet extruder. A polymer blend made of SMP polyurethane based MM4520 and PLA with 15% weight content of carbon fibers (CF) were used to create SMPC samples. Compositions of 0, 10, and 20 weight % CF15 PLA on SMP were manufactured and studied for shape recovery, shape recovery fixity ratio and shape recovery flexural stress. Results demonstrated that higher contents of CF15 PLA led to higher shape recovery flexural stresses that increased more than 400% compared to the raw printed material. However, a counter effect occurred to the shape recovery ratio and shape fixity. The shape recovery ratio decreases a maximum of 7% in comparison to the raw material. The shape fixity decreased from 22% from the raw material. This study is the first step to achieve scalability of 4D printing.

Abstract: While the importance of pH and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) on rumen development in calves is well-known, their impact on the small and large intestines are unclear. This study investigated the effects of ruminal SCFA concentrations ([SCFA]) and pH on performance and hindgut fermentation and development of dairy calves. Holstein bull calves (n = 32) were individually housed and fed 900 g/day of milk replacer twice daily and ad libitum calf starter and water. At day 10 ± 3 of life, the rumens were fistulated and cannulated. At day 14 of life, calves were grouped by body weight and assigned in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments into high or low [SCFA] (285 vs. 10 mM) and high or low pH (6.2 vs. 5.2), creating four treatment groups: high [SCFA], high pH (HS-HP); high [SCFA], low pH (HS-LP); low [SCFA], high pH (LS-HP); and low [SCFA], low pH (LS-LP). Body weight was measured weekly. On days 21, 35, and 49, feces were sampled to calculate apparent total tract digestibility, determinate short-chain fatty acid concentrations and pH. Then, the rumen was evacuated and washed for 4 h with one of four treatment buffers. Buffer samples were taken hourly to calculate ruminal SCFA disappearance rates. On day 49, following the rumen wash, calves were harvested, and the tissue weight and length, and digesta of the rumen, cecum, colon, and rectum were collected to measure organic acid concentrations and pH, followed tissue sampling for histomorphometric and gene expression analysis. The digesta pH of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum were also recorded. Data were analyzed with main factors (SCFA, pH, and SCFA × pH) as fixed effects and repeated measures for weekly measurements (e.g., body weight, digestibility, and SCFA disappearance rates, as well as fecal and ruminal organic acid concentration and pH). Treatment and day did not affect performance parameters such as apparent total tract digestibility and gut measurements. In the duodenum (P = 0.05), jejunum (P = 0.04), and ileum (P < 0.01), HS-HP had a greater digesta pH than LS-HP, while the hindgut digesta pH was only affected by the [SCFA] (P < 0.01). High [SCFA] increased the concentration of colonic isovaleric acid (P = 0.05) and fecal branched-chain fatty acids (P < 0.01), while only colonic acetic acid (P = 0.05) and fecal lactic acid concentrations (P < 0.01) were lower in the HS-LP group. Cecum mucosal thickness tended to be greater in calves in the low pH groups (P = 0.07) while decreasing the colonic crypt depth (P = 0.02) and tending to decrease relative cyclin A2 expression (P = 0.09). The high [SCFA] groups had a better cecal crypt development score (P = 0.03), an increase in colonic cyclin A2 (P < 0.01) and NBC1 expressions (P < 0.01), and a tendency to increase ruminal IGF-1R expression (P = 0.08), and the total ruminal SCFA disappearance rate (P = 0.08). The HS-LP group had increased propionate (P = 0.05) and butyrate disappearance rates (P = 0.05). Therefore, 4 h of buffer infusion in the rumen does not change calf performance but does affect hindgut fermentation and epithelium development, in which calves ruminal infused with physiological buffer containing a high short-chain fatty acid concentration and low pH may represent a decreased risk of hindgut acids. However, further investigations are required to understand if calves can experience hindgut acidosis in nutritional trials.

In the second half of the 1980's, Mexico's National Council for Science and Technology began to publish Mexican science fiction short stories in their magazine Ciencia y Desarrollo. This editorial milestone sparked a new generation of Mexican science fiction writers, who, in the following decade, began to publish their work in anthologies. This dissertation analyses a group of science fiction short stories published in those anthologies from 1991 to 2014. Through these short stories, I analyze how Mexican cyberpunk depicts the anxiety and uncertainty surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and how this newly created free-trade zone brought a false sense of hope toward progress and modernity while allowing workers to be exploited, with the complicity of the Mexican State. My work also addresses how the United States-Mexico border has been represented in Mexican science fiction and how it reveals the fissures of a divided Mexican society, which must deal with extreme social inequalities and an ever-present state of violence. How augmented and virtual reality cohabitate these border spaces and dynamics is a central issue of this dissertation. Because social inequalities in Mexico spread well beyond its border with the United States, this project ends by discussing the alarming—inequalities of water distribution in Mexico City and Durango. Mexico's reliance on technology to solve its water shortage problems through hydraulic megaprojects poses a massive danger for its aquifers and basins. This dissertation addresses these catastrophic unequal dynamics through the lens of Mexican science fiction.

Conservation and management of wild populations requires management professionals to devise methods for collecting data that are efficient and accurate. For example, understanding population sizes and stability is important to predicting extinction risk but the lack of comparisons of costs and effectiveness of different methods limits efficient assessment of wild populations. Similarly, monitoring and tracking the spread of wildlife diseases is important for conservation and management, however disease samples and other data have to be collected efficiently and in ways that maximize our understanding of the disease-wildlife systems. In my thesis, we addressed these research gaps in three studies. First, we conducted a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed studies that compared two or more monitoring. This provided an insight into the quantitative differences that are expected among methods. Next, we developed a forward-time, agent-based model to compare different approaches for collecting wildlife data, including data needed to quantify population size or density or understand disease presence. We found that the stationary approaches have more detections or sampling events compared to the mobile approaches, but both approaches have equal number of unique detections (i.e. unique individuals detected or sampled). Our model also suggested that some sampling approaches may be better suited for very large populations compared to other sampling schemes. Finally, we reviewed our current understanding of avian malaria with particular focus on recent advances in understanding this disease and its effects on wildlife and future efforts to control further spread. The results of this thesis will allow conservation practitioners and managers to identify the most effective monitoring techniques for their species of interest, and consideration of more efficient sampling approaches for wildlife diseases.

Musculoskeletal injuries are a predominant cause of morbidity and lameness in horses. These include fractures, osteoarthritis, chronic wounds, and tendon and ligament injuries. Due to their regenerative potential and immunomodulatory properties, bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (bm-MSCs) are considered an alternative treatment option for these types of injuries. However, studies have shown that cell delivery through direct injection leads to low cell viability and retention rates. The use of hydrogels as cell carriers has been studied as an alternative delivery mechanism to provide mechanical protection to the cells and hence improve cell viability after injection. A well-studied material is poly(ethylene glycol)-fibrinogen (PF), which has been used to encapsulate other cell types in microspheres that led to improved cell retention after subcutaneous injection. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the ability to rapidly encapsulate equine bm-MSC in PF microspheres, and to evaluate the effect of encapsulation on cell viability, phenotype, and ability to differentiate into mesodermal-derived lineages. In addition, encapsulated bm-MSC were exposed to shear through different needle gauges to provide a preliminary assessment of their potential use for local injection. In this project, equine bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (bm-MSCs) were isolated, and a protocol for their rapid and scalable encapsulation in PEG-Fibrinogen was established. Cell viability, proliferation, tri-lineage differentiation, and multipotency cell marker expression were measured pre- and post-encapsulation. Based on viability and proliferation results this study showed that encapsulated bm-MSCs are a potential alternative for use in large animal cell therapy. In general, the results from this study provide insight on the application of encapsulated MSCs for cell therapy.

The impact of Neogene volcanism on hydrocarbon exploration in the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand remains under-explored. To better understand these effects, I performed detailed seismic interpretation coupled with examination of data from exploratory wells drilled into andesitic volcanoes. I discovered that igneous bodies can mimic the seismic expression of common sedimentary exploration targets such as bright spots, carbonate mounds and sinuous sand-prone channels. I find that by understanding the context of volcanic systems, one can avoid misinterpreting them as something else. Important clues that help distinguishing volcanoes from carbonate mounds in seismic data are not in the actual mound-like reflectors, but rather in features around and below these ambiguous facies. These clues are the disruption of reflectors immediately below volcanoes and igneous sills forming forced folds nearby and below the volcanic edifices. Secondly, in good quality seismic surveys, volcanic rocks of intermediate magma composition (andesitic) present distinctive patterns in seismic data. Such patterns are easy for machine learning to identify using a combination of seismic attributes that highlight the continuity, amplitude and frequency of the reflectors at the same voxels. Clustering of these seismic attributes using Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) allowed for the identification of different architectural elements such as lava flows, subaqueous landslides and pyroclastic flows associated with the andesitic Kora volcano. Finally, by 3D mapping of the Eocene, Miocene and Pleistocene strata in the Kora 3D seismic survey, I reveal that the andesitic volcanoes are capable of large structural trapping (Mega forced folds) in both the strata predating and postdating the volcanism. These traps are four way-dip closures with the potential to store more than 1.0 billion of barrels of oil if filled to spill point.

According to Army standards, many soldiers are overweight, but this isn’t only a problem with current soldiers, it has become a major recruiting challenge. Weight and body composition is determined by methods prescribed by the Department of Defense. Many service members take issue with these programs because of unattainable weight requirements and outdated methods used to measure body fat in soldiers. With current methods, soldiers with larger body frames can be mistaken for having high body fat content and can be separated from the military.

Teaching methods and styles at the collegiate level have not changed all that much: Professors still generally give lectures from the lectern or stand in the front of the class, while writing on the board or pointing to a slide projected on a screen. Some questions and answers can occur with the occasional group activity; however, the focus seems always to come back to the text. Students read the required textbook, listen to a lecture and take tests. There are however alternative methods that engage the students as well as the professor in the learning process. Active learning is one such method that is rooted in anything course-related that all students in a class session are asked to do other than simply watching, listening and taking notes. Active learning focuses on involving students in the learning process more directly compared to traditional methods. Another method which infuses both a performative background with an academic footing called performance pedagogy, emphasizes on the students bringing their ideologies, cultures, belief systems, and backgrounds into the classroom while incorporating their physical and metaphorical selves into the classroom space. The idea is that when students are exposed to these methods in a classroom setting, they can apply the subject content more effectively outside of the classroom, receive more frequent and immediate feedback, and provide students an opportunity to think about, talk about, and process course material. To demonstrate these methodologies, this teacher’s supplement has been created containing class activities for an undergraduate intercultural communication course using a standard sixteen-week semester.

Packaged unitary HVAC equipment and systems are factory-made assemblies that often provide heating and cooling to buildings all year round. In the commercial sector only, roughly 60% of the commercial building floor space of the U.S. use packaged rooftop air conditioning units. RTUs have an associated annual primary energy consumption of over 2.6 quads. This is about 2% of total U.S. primary energy consumption. In order to reduce that number, equipment efficiency requirements are periodically increased by the US DOE. Efficiency of rooftop units are typically measured by a series figures of merit (EER, SEER and HSPF) that are obtained through laboratory testing. Increasing efficiency requirements leads to energy savings, but there are space, material cost and theoretical limitations to how much efficiency can continue to be improved. There is a series of technological innovations that reduce energy consumption that are not captured by the currently used figures of merit and methods of test. Simulation and field testing can provide good information but computational models are difficult to calibrate and field samples are typically small. Therefore, there is a need to develop a standardized laboratory protocol that can capture the energy savings that occur outside of the realm of steady-state efficiency.An experimental procedure for load-based testing that includes minor modifications to typical environmental chamber arrangements was developed. The method uses outside air temperature and humidity and constant indoor loading as boundaries for testing rooftop units. In order to simulate the conditions that rooftop units typically encounter on a building, temperature and load profiles for two different climate zones were imposed in the chamber and external static pressure of the ducting system was set to values typically measured on the field. A series of pre-calibration tests, guidelines for chamber operation and recommendations for data analysis are all included as part of the method.A total of 84 tests were performed in the Oklahoma State University Psychrometric Chamber laboratory to develop and validate the new method of test. A 15-ton (53 kW) nominal packaged rooftop unit equipped with an outside air economizer, supply air fan speed control and short-cycling digital scroll compressors was tested. The effect of these technologies and various unit control approaches were studied and presented in this work.

The motivation for this thesis is to examine optimal monetary policy under alternative scenarios. Different models are applied, which incorporates both theoretical and practical methods. The thesis strives to address several questions in DSGE models: (1) Which instrument should central banks select, interest rate pegging, or constant growth rate of the money supply? (2) How should monetary and macroprudential policies be conducted when policy makers fear that their model is misspecified? (3) What is the welfare gain from a commitment when using unconventional monetary policy? Since financial frictions are being increasingly included in models that analyse monetary issues, the roles of macroprudential policy and model uncertainty are highly relevant today. The research mainly consists of three essays. The first essay evaluates Poole (1970)'s analysis within a modified Smets and Wouters (2003) model. Previous works only incorporate limited features for central banks' monetary policy choices and instead of; most models are calibrated. I estimate a micro-founded model using Bayesian methods to assess the relative desirability of using the interest rate or the money supply as the monetary policy instrument. The result I find that monetary targeting fares better under fiscal shock when intertemporal substitution is high. Monetary targeting is also favoured under technology shock, preference shock, and labour supply shock. The second essay analyses a DSGE model with financial frictions when when the macroprudential authority fears model misspecification. The robust control method is applied to a macroprudential policy to overcome model uncertainty. Under commitment to optimal macroprudential policy, I find that the robust central bank responds more aggressively than it in rational expectations case. The aggressiveness is mainly because the central bank fears that the impacts of shocks to economic variables are more persistent than they appear to be. The third essay quantifies the welfare gains when unconventional monetary policy operates under commitment as opposed to under discretion. I find that the highest gain from commitment is obtained when credit intervention is small. However, the high intensity of the credit intervention policy generates the most stable consumption. The results imply that the central bank has an incentive to discrete from a single interest rate policy instrument to the other policy instrument that combines with interest rate and credit intervention. This central bank's discretion behaviour would be more evident under financial shocks. The results presented in each of the chapters suggest that both monetary and macroprudential policies are important. However, their design and implementation should acknowledge the limitations that arise from the policy instrument being used, the awareness that models may be omitting important mechanisms and the fact that policy makers are generally regarded as unable to commit.

This thesis consists of three papers to analyse the effect of migration dynamics on open economies. Each study examines a different topic of migration in a macroeconomic context using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. The first paper analyses the effect of an increase to migration on the macroeconomy and to native citizens. The analysis employs a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) and a DSGE model to analyse the effect of a migration shock on the macroeconomy and fiscal budget in per native terms. Analysis features a constructed dataset for the native population using population and net migration statistics for Germany. The DSGE model diverts from the standard per capita terms to have variables for the macroeconomy and native household in per native terms and the variables specific to the migrant household in per migrant terms. The second paper features a DSGE model of a small open economy with asymmetric search and matching frictions to study brain waste and increased migration following a relaxation of migration policy. To show the gains from eliminating brain waste, the differences between natives and migrants are eliminated. A SVAR provides empirical analysis of the effects from a migration shock. These models use data from Canada, a country that has recognised brain waste on a microeconomic level. The final paper analyses the effect of migration policies in a two-country DSGE model. The two countries are asymmetric, beginning with their profiles as an oil-producer country and an oil-consumer. The migration decision for agents in the resource cursed country is endogenous and depends on the job finding probabilities net of migration costs. The model uses occasionally binding migration constraints to evaluate the role of migration policies. The model is estimated using data from Venezuela and the United States. The results presented in each of the papers show that immigration has a small but statistically significant positive effect for an economy empirically and theoretically. For the final paper, migration policies had negative effects in both countries by preventing the oil-consumer from maximising the labour force and the sending country by keeping unemployment high and draining fiscal resources.

Health and safety are gaining increasing interest across industries, but the business case for workplace health is not necessarily solid, as most operations models focus largely on compliance and risk mitigation. Managers realize that organizational health goes beyond health costs because employees are the primary drivers in achieving the business's desired performance. A more balanced approach should account for both contributions of a healthy workforce and the resources required to support it. This research introduces a financial model to quantify the effect of improvements on health and safety in the workplace, by (1) establishing a numerical relationship between improvements in the work environment and performance outcomes and (2) linking multiple operational outcomes into a common financial indicator. While different methods have been proposed to assess the implementation of health and safety programs, the challenge for any financial approach is the aggregation of the different performance outcomes linked to health and safety improvement.The Economic Assessment of the Work Environment (EAWE) builds upon prior work regarding health assessment in the workplace to forecast the financial benefits of health and safety implementations. The model can be applied by any organizational unit following a five-step process, beginning with a health assessment of the workplace to identify critical elements in the work environment. Based on the health assessment, an action plan is developed to address those gaps in the work environment. Next, performance targets are defined based on a set of internal goals and external benchmarks. The economic model transforms the expected improvements in the health and safety status into expected performance outcomes. The net cash-flow effect on the firm is the result of the combined costs and benefits associated with the implementation plan. The implementation plan should be applied in stages, starting from individual jobs and proceeding towards department and organizational practices.The proposed model was tested in a packaging firm in the Midwest that intended to start a health and safety assessment program. Based on the health assessment, an action plan was developed by management to address gaps in the specific tasks, as well as the overall work environment. The net results from those initiatives delivered $1.62 million in savings, consistent with the estimates of the proposed model for Stage 1 ($764,501), which was focused on job improvement, and Stage 2 ($1.75 million), which was focused on department improvement, findings consistent with the estimates provided by the theoretical approach.The EAWE aggregates both health costs and performance improvement outcomes into a common cash-flow analysis. The proximity between the proposed financial estimate and the actual results in the firm is an indication that the proposed model can provide a range-of-magnitude estimate for the health and safety improvements. The model offers a dynamic framework for corporate decision makers when evaluating health and safety programs. Further research should explore the bounds of EAWE across different types of organizations and the evolution of performance over time.

This research investigation was designed to provide answers to the question, “What occurs in supervision to positively impact a counselor supervisee’s self-efficacy to work with a client?” All subjects in this study were master’s degree counseling students attending a university in the Midwest. Participants were enrolled in one of the following courses: Community Counseling Practicum, Community Counseling Internship, School Counseling Practicum, or School Counseling Internship. The study was designed to learn from counselor supervisees what they found most useful/helpful in supervision in order to increase their self-efficacy/confidence for working with clients.Q Methodology was the research approach utilized in this investigation. PQ Method 2.11 was used for the data and factor analysis. Forty-five individuals participated in this study by sorting a Q sample made up of 34 items. Three factors, also referred to as counselor supervisee perspectives, were derived from the data analysis. The factors were labeled (a) Security of My Supervisor, (b) Ready to Learn; Ready to be Challenged, and (c) Open to Feedback; Thoughtful about the Process of Supervision.The study indicated there were differing groups of students who shared common within group perspectives and differing between group perspectives on what they reported as being helpful to them in counselor supervision. The perspectives found in this study are expressed in these factors.

The current study examines the multiple and contradictory representations or formulations of Spanish identity in a selection of contemporary novels, films, and plays, from the 1990s to the present, that explore concerns and questions about the status of Spain as a nation and its national identity. Some of the works analyzed here show the (re) construction of the national identity through a negotiation with the past. In other words, how nations are established upon a rich legacy of memories, past glories and sacrifices, heroes and epics, as well as many things that are forgotten. Also, the new challenges to the national identity in Spain, including recent issues related to immigration, are explored. The novels Huesos de Sodoma (2004) by Luis Antonio de Villena and Cosmofobia (2007) by Lucía Etxebarria are analyzed from the perspective of the (re) construction of the nation and the different voices coming to that (re ) construction. These authors focus on specific groups, such as; the gay community in the novel Huesos de Sodoma, and Lavapiés, a community in Madrid, in the novel Cosmofobia. Each space shows us an idea and appreciation of the nation, either through the early construction of the nation, or the analysis of a multicultural and multiethnic nation in which we live. The films Las cartas de Alou (1990), by Montxo Armendáriz, and Saïd (1998), by Lorrenç Soler, open a space for the representation of immigrants. However, both authors provide an excuse to show the silenced aspect of the experiences lived by these new members of the nation when they come across a new different culture. Because of globalization and internationalization of the economic development, modern states are in the process of permanent change. The number of illegal immigrants grows and at the same time grows both racism and xenophobia. Thus, the dramatic plays Cachorros de negro mirar (1995), by Paloma Pedrero, and Salvajes, by José Luis Alonso de Santos, highlight aspects of immigration and racism in Spain in the early twentieth century. In the words of the characters, we realize their behaviors are based on residual configurations and distant past. In synthesis, I consider that it is possible to capture the meaning of a nation and its identity through the images that it projects and the fictions that it constructs.

Objective: This study proposes a decision-support framework to track the state of the human-at-work system on an operational basis. The work compatibility model provides a multi-dimensional diagnostic of the human-at-work system. By integrating the work compatibility model into a visual framework, management can make informative decisions that contribute to the improvement of human performance Background: Examples of multidimensional models can be found in performance measuring systems and human performance measures. Performance measuring systems, either hierarchical or balanced models, are focused on the reduction of operational variables to financial performance. Human performance measures rely on respondents to weigh different factors and define the best rules for aggregation. In the work compatibility model, respondents rate work-factors as energizers and demands on the system. An expert model uses a matrix function to quantify the degree of compatibility. Based on the matrix output, operating zones determine how far the system is from the optimum performance. Conceptual model: The matrix function of the expert solution is transformed into a plane with two regions set along the compatibility line. Work factors are aggregated into two vectors, one on each region of the plane, and the resultant of the two vectors provides two indexes: the yield ratio, a relative measure of the magnitude of vector, and the efficiency ratio, a relative measure of the angle between the two vectors. A Visual Basic application is developed to implement the proposed quantitative methods. The continuous model is tested with data from a manufacturing company to analyze the behavior of the response function. Case study: The yield ratio follows a normal distribution, and the efficiency ratio follows a chi-square distribution. An analysis of variance shows that the yield ratio provides a performance levels similar to those of the expert solution. The decision process starts by setting targets are for each department based on core competencies. The diagnostic shows that the Manufacturing Department has a low yield ratio and the Sales Department has an medium yield ratio. Both departments have a high efficiency ratio, which means that all dimensions are well balanced. A top-down approach identifies work factors that require immediate improvement: conflict, perceived risk/benefit, dissatisfaction and muscular activities. The work compatibility principles can be applied to low performing factors in order to set a course of action. Enablers such as job design, self-managed teams and performance communication are recommended to correct under-performing work factors. Conclusions: The proposed model is capable of monitoring slight improvements in the human-at-work system that will not be noticed by the expert model. The proposed indexes allow performance comparisons across respondents and across dimensions. By using a unified approach to all subsystems, decision-makers are more likely to grasp the behavior of the human-at-work system and provide actions that effectively improve human performance.

The Appalachian Basin is characterized by great number of stripper wells and marginally producing oilfields that face a number of production problems. The purpose of this study was to identify the main problematic issues and preferred solutions for oil production in the Appalachian Basin. Investigation and identification of oil production problems and preferred solutions began with searches in the Society of Petroleum Engineer (SPE) library, and Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) website. In addition, journals, workshop, conference were used to find additional information. Formal interviews were arranged with oil producers to gain more insight into problems in the Appalachian Basin. Accordingly, the following production problems were identified and ranked in order of decreasing importance: water production, poor understanding of reservoir heterogeneity, limited availability of compatible water for water injection, lack of sufficient reservoir data such as permeability, porosity, and primary production data for reservoir characterization, and paraffin and asphaltene causing operational issues. The technologies that are investigated included: water controls treatment, water-handling methods, and reservoir characterization using Artificial Neural Networks, paraffin and asphaltene control. In addition, corrosion problems and electrical cost reduction are discussed.

PCPH was initially defined as a proto-oncogene on the basis of its frequent detection as an activated oncogene in tumorigenic Syrian hamster embryo fibroblast cell lines converted to the neoplastic state by a single treatment with the carcinogen 3-methylcholanthrene (MC). Further studies identified the translation product of the PCPH gene as a ribonucleotide-binding protein with special affinity for ribonucleoside diphosphates. Later, we showed that the PCPH protein was homologous to the product of the yeast GDA1 gene and demonstrated that it had intrinsic guanosine diphosphatase activity, although it did not complement the disrupted phenotype when expressed in gda1 null Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. These results indicated that the primary function of PCPH was unlikely to be related to the ribonucleotide recycling function that its yeast counterpart performs in the Golgi during the process of protein glycosylation. However, taken together, our data strongly suggested that the normal cellular function of PCPH was related to ribonucleotide metabolism. We now report that PCPH is structurally and functionally identical to the mammalian ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase CD39L4 (ENTPD5), recently described as a member of the lymphoid activation antigen () CD39 protein family. These results may help to establish the normal cellular function of the PCPH proto-oncogene product and its role in neoplastic development during carcinogenesis.

Density currents are typified by flows along the bottom of oceans or lakes. Such currents occur because the water flowing into the receiving water is colder, saltier or contains more suspended sediment. Numerous studies of density currents have been carried out over several years, and still inconsistencies between predictions and experimental results have not been resolved. Previous experimental studies showed density currents with slower propagation speeds and larger density current thicknesses than those prescribed by a momentum balance analysis. Modifications to the basic momentum balance analysis have been developed to account for the observed slower propagation speeds; such modifications are not predictive in that there are required empirical coefficients to describe the experimental observations. In this study various analytical models that describe density currents were evaluated in terms of their ability to reproduce the experimental results. A formulation based on energy considerations, a minimum energy condition, was studied and its applicability over the whole range of flow conditions was tested. This formulation allows for density currents with larger thicknesses and slower propagation speeds than those prescribed by any momentum balance analysis. The minimum energy formulation predicts density current characteristics in an absolute frame of reference while the formulations based on the momentum balance analysis express their results in a frame of reference moving with the current front. Therefore significant differences in predicted propagation speeds arise among the various theories in situations where the receiving fluid is allowed to move in counter or coflowing conditions. In this investigation an experimental study of density currents flowing over horizontal boundaries was performed. The experimental work consisted of density currents produced by a continuous release of a heavy fluid (salt water flow) into a lighter fluid (fresh water ambient flow). The experimental setup provided flexibility to impose arbitrary flow conditions in the receiving fluid. The experiments were performed over a wide range of flow configurations to test conditions in which significant differences between various theoretical predictions were present. Extreme conditions such as very large coflows and counterflows were tested. Measurements of frontal velocity, density profiles, total water depth and flow rates were made during the experiments. It was found in this investigation that the minimum energy formulation was able to describe density current characteristics such as front propagation speed and current thickness better than any of the other formulations reviewed. Limits on current propagation were established in terms of the maximum possible relative current thickness as described by the minimum energy condition. Counterflows were limited by a maximum intrusion flow rate and coflows were limited by a maximum propagation speed.

The study focused on the student service related problems of culturally distinct groups of students attending a community college. The groups selected for the study were sixty international students and sixty English as a Second Language students. The researcher administered the Michigan International Student Problem Inventory, an instrument which has been widely used to indicate foreign students' problems. Combining the use of naturalistic research methodology, the researcher utilized an indepth interview to document the problems they were facing. Patterns and trends among the problems were analyzed and reported. The results indicated that many international students experienced concerns in the area of financial aid, had difficulties with some of the immigration regulations and work restrictions, and experienced forms of racial and social discrimination. The English as a Second Language students tended to experience most difficulties in the area of English language functioning but also experienced problems related to academic functioning and making friends. The student service areas most closely related to the international students' concerns were Financial Aids, Admissions, Placement, Counseling, and English Language Services. English as a Second Language students' problems were most closely related to the areas of English Language Services, Admissions, Counseling, and Academic Advisement. Recommendations generated by the study include the development of a new instrument to include topics generated by the students in the open-ended section of the questionnaire, a translation of the instrument into the major languages of the English as a Second Language population, and the need for future research on subgroups of the populations who indicated a greater number of problems than the others. Institutional recommendations are included which focus on how the college could address the problems which the students identified.

This thesis examines the domestic and international transmission of fiscal shocks, especially in the wake of the European sovereign debt crisis after the Great Recession. The thesis is divided into three main chapters, with each chapter addressing contemporary policy questions in recent macroeconomic debates. The first chapter investigates the effect of fiscal consolidation on different types of household, and how the degree of household's financial constraints interacts with the government's debt-consolidation plan in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model estimated on UK data. In the second chapter, the analysis is extended to a two-country model in order to investigate the international transmission of fiscal shocks between the UK and the Euro area, and how the relative participation of these countries at the global asset market influence cross-border fiscal spillovers. Motivated by the recent calls on the German government to increase its spending, the third chapter estimates the international spillover effects of an expansion in German government spending on output and bilateral exchange rates of 15 European (10 Euro and 5 non-Euro) economies within a sign-restricted structural VAR model. Evidence from the closed-economy model shows that different types of households respond differently to fiscal consolidation shocks, depending on the degree of financial constraints they face. Tighter household's credit constraints dampen the responsiveness of fiscal instruments to government debt, thereby prolonging the actualisation of the consolidation plan. On the international transmission of fiscal shock, the results show that EA fiscal shocks have sizeable effects on the UK economy, while UK fiscal shocks have negligible effects on the EA economy. Also, relative countries' participation at the international asset market drives the amplification and propagation of cross-border fiscal spillovers. Furthermore, German government spending shock has moderate but short-lived effects on the output of other European countries, with homogeneous responses in the Euro countries, but heterogeneous responses in non-Euro countries.