Cognitive BPM as an Equalizer: Improving Access and Efficiency for Employees with (and without) Cognitive Disabilities

We examine ProcessGPT, an AI model designed to automate, augment, and improve business processes, to study the challenges of managing business processes within the cognitive limitations of the human workforce, particularly individuals with cognitive disabilities. ProcessGPT provides a blueprint for designing efficient business processes that take into account human cognitive limitations. By viewing this through the lens of cognitive disabilities, we show that ProcessGPT improves process usability for individuals with and without cognitive disabilities. We also demonstrate that organizations implementing ProcessGPT-like capabilities will realize increased productivity, morale, and inclusion.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Addressing Water Inequality in Rural California: East Orosi Clean Water Initiative

The California water crisis has left over one-million residents without potable water. This crisis is due to a multitude of issues: climate change, drought, groundwater overdraft and groundwater contamination. This technical report reviews solutions to the implications of groundwater well contamination. Pollutants contaminate aquifers, affecting small rural communities; one such location is East Orosi, Tulare County, California, a community of 700 people. The community’s only water source is a nitrate-contaminated well. Contamination can be lethal, and a solution to provide the region with potable water is necessary. This technical report summarizes a broad scope of solutions that East Orosi can choose from to address their water crisis: an immediate water relief plan, a new groundwater well, a pipeline diverting clean water into the existing East Orosi water distribution system, and a water treatment plant. A preliminary cost analysis and general scope for each solution has been detailed. A comparison of each proposed solution has found that the most suitable design is the construction of a new groundwater well to reach a lower, uncontaminated aquifer. The team recommends East Orosi’s community conduct a hydrogeologic analysis of the local aquifers to determine if there is sufficient potable water before pursuing the construction of a new well

Hotel Manager Strategies to Reduce Voluntary Employee Turnover

The voluntary turnover rate in the United States hotel industry is among the highest of all industries, resulting in lost revenue. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies hotel managers use to reduce voluntary employee turnover. The targeted population consisted of 6 managers from hotel businesses operating in the MidAtlantic region of the United States who successfully used strategies to reduce voluntary employee turnover. Job embeddedness theory, this study\u27s theoretical framework, was used to describe reasons employees remained in organizations. Data were gathered via semistructured interviews, observational notes, and public business records regarding turnover or retention programs. Yinʼs 5-step analysis model was used to compile, deconstruct, reassemble, interpret, and draw conclusions from the data. Four themes emerged from data analysis: organizational support with property-level flexibility, feeling valued for individual contributions to the team, opportunities for training or advancement, and relationships with managers and peers. The results of this study may contribute to positive social change by providing strategies to reduce employee turnover in a historically low-wage industry, which may result in raising the quality of life for hotel employees, their families, and communities

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe remarkable increase in the last 15 years of published literature on LGBT people has typically used mixed samples of gay men and lesbians, even though differences in historical, political, and social contexts lead each reference group to have unique lived experiences and needs. Kehoe (1988) stated that old lesbians are "triply invisible" due to the intersections of at least three marginalized statuses - old, female, and lesbian. With rich legacies of activism, old lesbian communities can draw on their radical roots to continue improving the lives of old lesbians in the future. Participatory action research (PAR) includes research participants as coresearchers and relies on the wisdom and knowledge of the members of a marginalized community to follow the best course of action for social change in their community. This study documented the process by which old lesbians in the Living Our Visions PAR group in Salt Lake City, Utah, created community and engaged in social change. The research goals were: (a) to serve as a catalyst for old lesbians to meet, organize, and identify goals for their community that would enhance wellbeing and to embark on action to achieve stated goals; (b) to document the activities of the group by actively engaging in the plan-act-observe-reflect cycle of PAR; and (c) to serve as a model for community building and action for other old lesbian communities

Evaluating Social Programs at the State and Local Level: The JTPA Evaluation Design Project

This book draws upon the JTPA Evaluation Design Project initiated, developed and directed by the Washington State Employment Security Department. The five essays offer practical, instructive guidance about planning and executing program evaluations.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1218/thumbnail.jp

The epidemiology of demand for and outcomes of contacts with telephone based healathcare with particular reference to ward deprivation scores: Analysis of calls to NHS Direct Wales 2002-2004.

NHS Direct Wales (NHSDW) is a nurse-led 24-hour health advice and information line. This study estimated the effect of deprivation on the demand for, and outcome of, direct calls to NHSDW after controlling for potentially confounding factors.The author analysed anonymous data from NHSDW on 410,000 calls over 2.5 years, including patient characteristics (age, gender, relationship to caller, ward of residence) and call characteristics (whether for triage or information, day of call). To each call she added ward data including: the corresponding Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation score; population density; and distance from nearest Emergency Department (ED). She used multiple linear regression to model the relationship between deprivation and demand and binary logistic regression to model the relationship between deprivation and outcome.Confounding variables explained 33.0% of variation in advice call rates; and 27.5% of that in information call rates (both significant at 0.1% level). Deprivation was not a statistically significant predictor of these rates (significance levels 0.158 and 0.244 respectively). Deprivation had more effect on outcomes: an increase in deprivation from one fifth to the next fifth increased by 13% the probability of receiving advice to call 999 emergency care within triage calls [Odds ratio (OR) 1.127; 95% confidence interval (Cl) from 1.113 to 1.143]; and that of receiving advice to seek care face to face rather than self care by 5% (OR 1.049; Cl from 1.041 to 1.058) for triage calls and by 3% (OR 1.034; Cl from 1.022 to 1.047) for information calls.In short, deprivation had no detectable effect on demand for calls, but a positive effect on the outcome of the call. While it is possible that the data underestimated the ‘need’ of deprived patients for healthcare, they yield no evidence that NHSDW should seek to improve access from those patient

Experience, Adoption, and Technology: Exploring the Phenomenological Experiences of Faculty Involved in Online Teaching at One School of Public Health

This phenomenological study explored the experiences of public health faculty, who developed and taught online courses, at one particular school of public health from 2006 to 2009. The goal was to explore and document the experiences of faculty involved with this phenomenon. A criterion sample was used to identify and select participants. Five public health faculty participated in the study. Data were analyzed in two ways. Written narratives, observational field notes, and artifact data were analyzed using the inducted grounded analysis technique. Interview data were analyzed using the phenomenological data analysis method, Stevic-Colazzi Keen Method. Findings revealed that the experiences of public health faculty, who develop and teach online courses were similar to those in other subjects and were described as difficult, daunting, painful, and time consuming, leaving the public health faculty feeling frustrated and exhausted. While negative feelings described the experience pertaining to the development of online courses, the experience in the teaching phase was seen as positive, enjoyable, joyful, refreshing, and fun. These experiences were found to be contingent upon instructional and organizational support, availability and quality of resources and faculty development and training. Three overarching themes emerged from the study in relation to the experience. These themes included the rhetoric of fear, transformation, and support. The rhetoric of fear described the participants’ sense of being afraid or apprehensive toward developing and teaching online courses. Transformation described the transition participants made as they emerged as online instructors. Support described the structures needed to engage in the activities of developing and teaching online courses. The study also revealed five types of barriers to developing and teaching online courses at this particular school of public health. These barriers included psychological, organizational, technical, instructional, and time barriers. Benefits for developing and teaching online courses were identified. They included availability for students, access and penetration into global markets, instructional innovation, design innovation, and new methods of instructional delivery. This study provides data that can be used by institutions and faculty as they design and implement social, political, and technical infrastructures to support the activities of online teaching