Race Inclusion Diversity & Equity: The RIDE Report

The Race, Inclusion, Diversity & Equity (RIDE) Report is presented as a resource to augment, strengthen and support existing and future diversity, inclusion & equity efforts at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). It is organized into 7 sections and highlights the voices, perspectives and ideas of over 150 UNMC administrators, students, faculty, staff and community partners (key stakeholders).https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/coph_disp_reports/1001/thumbnail.jp

Analysis and improvement of a multi-pass compiler for a pipeline architecture

In this thesis a parallel environment for the execution of a multi-pass Pascal compiler is considered. Some possible and appropriate ways to speed up each pass of the parallelized compiler are investigated. In addition, a new approach, using the concepts of software science, is explored for obtaining gross performance characteristics of a multi-pass compiler;A pipeline architecture is used for the parallel compilation. The performance characteristics of the pipelined compiler are determined by a trace-driven simulation of the pipelined compiler. The actions in the multi-processor system are synchronized by an event-driven simulation of the pipeline system. The pipelined compiler and possible improvements are analyzed in terms of the location of the bottleneck, queue size, overhead factor, and partition policy. The lexical analysis phase is found to be the initial bottleneck. The improvement of this phase and its effects on the other phases are presented. Also, possible methods for improving the non-lexical analysis phases are investigated based on a study of the data structures and operations of these phases;For obtaining gross performance characteristics of a multi-pass compiler, an analysis based only on the intermediate code files is performed. One of the key concepts in Halstead\u27s software science, called the language level, is applied to this analysis. From the experimental results and statistical verification it is found that there exists a strong correlation between the stand-alone execution time and language level

Selection and student diversity:The impact of tools, preparatory activities and applicant acceptance in health professions education

A diverse healthcare workforce is important to increase and equalize access to high quality healthcare for the whole population. There are concerns, however, that diversity amongst health professionals is already harmed in an early stage: during the selection of prospective students. Therefore, this dissertation provides insights into how selection tools, preparatory activities and applicant acceptance can play a role in shaping student diversity in health professions education. In addition, this dissertation offers recommendations to improve the design of selection procedures in order to ensure or even enhance student diversity

Research and Creative Activity, July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020: Major Sponsored Programs and Faculty Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Foreword by Bob Wilhelm, Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development: This booklet highlights successes in research, scholarship and creative activity by University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty during the fiscal year running July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020. It lists investigators, project titles and funding sources on major grants and sponsored awards received during the year; fellowships and other recognitions and honors bestowed on our faculty; books published by faculty; performances, exhibitions and other creative activity; and patents and licensing agreements issued. Based on your feedback, the Office of Research and Economic Development expanded this publication to include peer-reviewed journal articles and conference presentations and recognize students and faculty mentors participating in the Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experience Program (UCARE) and the First-Year Research Experiences program (FYRE). While metrics cannot convey the full story of our work, they are tangible measures of impact. Nebraska achieved a record $317 million in total research expenditures in FY 2019, a 26$450 million in research expenditures by 2025. Husker researchers are stimulating economic growth through university-sponsored industry activity. Nebraska Innovation Campus created 1,657 jobs statewide and had a total economic impact of $324.1 million in FY 2019. NUtech Ventures brought in$6.6 million in licensing income in FY 2020. The University of Nebraska system now ranks 65th among the top 100 academic institutions receiving U.S. patents, jumping 14 spots from 2019. I am proud of the Nebraska Research community for facing the challenges of 2020 with grit and determination. Our researchers quickly adapted to develop solutions for an evolving pandemic — all while working apart and keeping themselves and their families safe. As an institution, we made a commitment to embrace an anti-racism journey and work toward racial equity. Advancing conversations and developing lasting solutions is among the most important work we can do as scholars. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, rising racial and social tensions, and natural disasters, Nebraska researchers worked diligently to address other pressing issues, such as obesity and related diseases, nanomaterials, agricultural resilience and the state’s STEM workforce. Let’s continue looking forward to what we can accomplish together. Thank you for participating in the grand challenges process and helping identify the wicked problems that Nebraska has unique expertise to solve. Soon, ORED will unveil a Research Roadmap that outlines how our campus will develop research expertise; enrich creative activity; bolster commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; enhance economic development; and much more. Amidst the uncertainty of 2020, I remain confident in our faculty’s talent and commitment. I am pleased to present this record of accomplishments. Contents Awards of $5 Million or More Awards of$1 Million to $4,999,999 Awards of$250,000 to $999,999 Early Career Awards Arts and Humanities Awards of$250,000 or More Arts and Humanities Awards of $50,000 to$249,999 Arts and Humanities Awards of $5,000 to$49,999 Patents License Agreements Creative Activity Books Recognitions and Honors Journal Articles Conference Presentations UCARE and FYRE Projects Glossar

Harnessing big data to inform tourism destination management organizations

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceIn the last few years, Portugal has been witnessing a rapid growth of tourism, which reflects positively in many aspects, especially in what regards economic factors. Although, it also leads to a number of challenges, all of them difficult to quantify: tourist congestions, loss of city identity, degradation of patrimony, etc. It is important to ensure that the required foundations and tools to understand and efficiently manage tourism flows exist, both in the city-level and country-level. This thesis studies the potential of Big data to inform destination management organizations. To do so, three sources of Big data are discussed: Telecom, Social media and Airbnb data. This is done through the demonstration and analysis of a set of visualizations and tools, as well as a discussion of applications and recommendations for challenges that have been identified in the market. The study begins with a background information section, where both global and local trends in tourism will be analyzed, as well as the factors that affect tourism and consequences of the latter. As a way to analyze the growth of tourism in Portugal and provide prototypes of important tools for the development of data driven tourism policy making, Airbnb and telecom data are analyzed using a network science approach to visualize country-wide tourist circulation and presents a model to retrieve and analyze social media. In order to compare the results from the Airbnb analysis, data regarding the Portuguese hotel industry is used as control data

The Relationship Between General and Content-Specific Classroom Practices and K-6 Student Math Achievement: A Multi-Method Analysis

Research has suggested that measures of both general classroom observational tools (Classroom Organization and Teacher Emotional/Instructional Support) and content-specific observational tools (Ambitious Math Instruction and Errors and Imprecision) are related to K-6 student math achievement and therefore there is encouragement to use both types of observational measures as part of teacher evaluation. This study aims to provide policy makers, practitioners, and researchers with an overall picture of the expected relationships between the observational measures and K-6 student math achievement to inform decisions, policies, and future research. A multi-method analysis was conducted in which a meta-analytic structural equation model, a quantitative synthesis, and a qualitative synthesis of the current literature were integrated. Classroom Organization was found to have a small to medium effect on math achievement. Teacher Emotional/Instructional Support and Ambitious Math Instruction were found to be positively related to math achievement and Errors and Imprecision was found to be negatively related to math achievement. More research is needed using content-specific observational tools to determine expected effects on math achievement

Innovation in a Circular Economy: Conceptual, empirical and policy underpinnings for transition through an eco-innovation pathway

As the world seeks answers to the defining challenges of climate change and environmental sustainability, several hypotheses are being canvased in the search for a solution to decouple economic growth and social development from resource exploitation. Among those, the circular economy (CE) emerged as an operational response defined by its opposition to a harvesting-wasting economic model, proposing instead restorative and regenerative activities. But reconfiguring existing paradigms is not trivial. Aligning innovation activities with more sustainable paths is a central requirement for the desired socio-techno-economic paradigm shift. This work proposes that a new pathway is needed for gearing the sustainable innovation agenda towards a CE, and foster structural change. CE-inducing eco-innovation (EI) must, however, be monitored and measured, and implications to socio-cultural agents, organisational strategies and policy priorities have to be bore in mind, if we are to ascertain if progress is being made. As CE and the EI – CE nexus research is still in its early days, this work adds to the discussion by contributing (1) to the theoretical development of these concepts and their interrelations; (2) to the empirical definition of pro CE EI proxies; and (3) to the prospective anticipation of CE developments. Within the sustainability debate, and using an innovation studies perspective, this research adopted a mixed methods approach, using both quantitative and qualitative methods such as literature reviews, bibliometrics, patent and trademark analysis (using the specific case of Portugal), and foresight techniques (Delphi study). The overall findings suggest that CE’s main ideas are arguably timely. CE’s establishment within the sustainability debate seems, nevertheless, dependent on overcoming short term barriers constraining its further development, of technological and economic nature, but also of a socio-cultural kind. CE is argued as a multidimensional, multi-actor approach reliant on “systemic transformative” innovation, thus dependent on a combination of “harder”, (technological, R&D-driven), and “softer” (non-technological change in social and business culture) knowledge. The empirical diagnosis of an innovation system’s pro circularity tendencies proved to be informative as to assess convergence to circularity. In the Portuguese case, it successfully shed light on ongoing dynamics related with signs of effective transformation towards CE activities, even if highlighting structural limitations associated with systemic failures regarding actors and networks. Redirecting innovation systems towards a more “circular” paradigm is, therefore, deeply dependent on an institutional “coordination role” enabling “framework conditions” directly linked to a systemic action. That is, associating bottom-up measures to top-down policies in a coherent strategic roadmap, in order to avoid mismatches and contradictory incentives. This pointed to the usefulness of rethinking innovation policy design. In one hand, to address market and system failures, leading to underinvestment and lack of connectivity in innovation. In the other hand, to promote the diffusion of CE related information for enterprises and civil society, in order to encourage market awareness and change mind-sets towards “circular” behaviours. As the conceptual and practical implementation challenge remains pressing, this work added important underpinnings for fine-tuning a CE inducing “policy mix”.Num mundo crescentemente interdependente, as alterações climáticas e a sustentabilidade ambiental são questões globais complexas. A importância de dissociar desenvolvimento da exploração de recursos tem propiciado um alargamento de horizontes a novos conceitos. Nesse contexto, a economia circular emergiu como uma resposta operacional, definida pela sua oposição ao modelo económico atual de exploração/desperdício. Contrapõe, ao invés, processos restaurativos e regenerativos. A reconfiguração dos paradigmas existentes, a este nível, não é, contudo, algo trivial. Uma vez que o alinhamento das atividades de inovação com objetivos mais sustentáveis é um requisito central na alteração de paradigma sócio-tecno-económico, este trabalho foca a necessidade de orientar a agenda de inovação para a “circularidade”. A eco-inovação pro-circularidade deve, no entanto, ser monitorizada e medida, e as implicações para os agentes socioculturais, estratégias organizacionais e prioridades políticas levadas em conta, se quisermos verificar o seu progresso. Nesse âmbito, pretendeu-se contribuir para o debate em curso contribuindo para: 1) uma melhor compreensão teórica do papel da eco-inovação na implementação de uma economia circular; 2) a definição e teste de proxies empíricas de inovação pro-circularidade; 3) o desenvolvimento de uma visão prospetiva de futuros desenvolvimentos nesta área. No contexto do debate da sustentabilidade, e usando uma perspetiva baseada nos estudos da inovação, foram adotados métodos quantitativos e qualitativos, incluindo revisões de literatura, métodos bibliométricos, análise de patentes e de marcas comerciais (usando o caso específico de Portugal), assim como o uso do método prospetivo Delphi. As conclusões gerais sugerem que as principais ideias da economia circular são indiscutivelmente oportunas. Dentro do debate da sustentabilidade o estabelecimento de uma economia circular parece, no entanto, dependente de se vencerem barreiras de curto prazo, de natureza tecnológica, económica e sociocultural. A abordagem preconizada pela economia circular é assim tida como multidimensional, multi-ator, dependente de uma inovação sistémica "transformadora”, compreendendo não só inovação tecnológica, mas também mudanças institucionais abrangentes quanto a políticas públicas, mercados e práticas sociais. O diagnóstico empírico das tendências pró-circularidade de um sistema de inovação provou ser informativo nessa avaliação. No caso português, permitiu conhecer as atuais dinâmicas, sublinhando sinais de transformação efetivas em direção a atividades circulares, ao mesmo tempo que assinalou as limitações estruturais associadas a falhas sistémicas quanto aos atores e redes (interconexões). Redirecionar os sistemas de inovação para um paradigma mais “circular” é, portanto, profundamente dependente de um “papel de coordenação” institucional que permita “condições de enquadramento” diretamente ligadas a uma ação sistémica. Isto é, associando medidas bottom-up e top-down num roteiro estratégico coerente, a fim de evitar desequilíbrios e incentivos contraditórios. Importa, por isso, repensar igualmente os instrumentos das políticas de inovação. Por um lado, resolvendo falhas de mercado e sistema, que levam a sub-investimento e falta de conectividade. Por outro, promovendo a difusão de informação para empresas e sociedade civil, a fim de estimular a conscientização e mudar mentalidades em relação a comportamentos “circulares”. O desafio de implementação continua a ser premente, este trabalho pretendeu contudo acrescentar ao debate tendo em vista contribuir para o ajuste do “mix de políticas” indutoras de circularidade

Semantic and Syntactic Matching of Heterogeneous e-Catalogues

In e-procurement, companies use e-catalogues to exchange product infor-mation with business partners. Matching e-catalogues with product requests helps the suppliers to identify the best business opportunities in B2B e-Marketplaces. But various ways to specify products and the large variety of e-catalogue formats used by different business actors makes it difficult. This Ph.D. thesis aims to discover potential syntactic and semantic rela-tionships among product data in procurement documents and exploit it to find similar e-catalogues. Using a Concept-based Vector Space Model, product data and its semantic interpretation is used to find the correlation of product data. In order to identify important terms in procurement documents, standard e-catalogues and e-tenders are used as a resource to train a Product Named Entity Recognizer to find B2B product mentions in e-catalogues. The proposed approach makes it possible to use the benefits of all availa-ble semantic resources and schemas but not to be dependent on any specific as-sumption. The solution can serve as a B2B product search system in e-Procurement platforms and e-Marketplaces