A Framework for Discovery and Diagnosis of Behavioral Transitions in Event-streams

Date stream mining techniques can be used in tracking user behaviors as they attempt to achieve their goals. Quality metrics over stream-mined models identify potential changes in user goal attainment. When the quality of some data mined models varies significantly from nearby models—as defined by quality metrics—then the user’s behavior is automatically flagged as a potentially significant behavioral change. Decision tree, sequence pattern and Hidden Markov modeling being used in this study. These three types of modeling can expose different aspect of user’s behavior. In case of decision tree modeling, the specific changes in user behavior can automatically characterized by differencing the data-mined decision-tree models. The sequence pattern modeling can shed light on how the user changes his sequence of actions and Hidden Markov modeling can identifies the learning transition points. This research describes how model-quality monitoring and these three types of modeling as a generic framework can aid recognition and diagnoses of behavioral changes in a case study of cognitive rehabilitation via emailing. The date stream mining techniques mentioned are used to monitor patient goals as part of a clinical plan to aid cognitive rehabilitation. In this context, real time data mining aids clinicians in tracking user behaviors as they attempt to achieve their goals. This generic framework can be widely applicable to other real-time data-intensive analysis problems. In order to illustrate this fact, the similar Hidden Markov modeling is being used for analyzing the transactional behavior of a telecommunication company for fraud detection. Fraud similarly can be considered as a potentially significant transaction behavioral change

Exploration of COVID-19’s Impact on Communication and Decision-Making of First-Year College Students’ Enrollment for Fall 2020 and Their Final Postsecondary Plans

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the extent that the COVID-19 pandemic had on first-year college enrollments for the fall 2020 semester and the alternate plans that were made by Northeastern United States students. The general research question was, “What motivating factors contributed to recent high-school students’ decisions to take a gap year during the COVID-19 global pandemic?” To build an answer, this study was conducted to identify and explore the perceptions of 10 young adults who were accepted and committed to a 4-year college or university after high-school graduation, but they did not accomplish enrollment for the fall 2020 semester, and they took a gap year from schooling during this time. The results of this study found that 4-year institutions were inconsistent in their communication with first-year college students for the fall 2020 semester. No change in cost and fear of missing out (FOMO) dissonance were major factors that influenced nonenrollments. As a result, confidence in decision-making on post-secondary plans flourished among young adults, aged 18–22. The recommendations for stakeholders and institutions, including colleges, universities, and other nonprofit organizations that issue mass-communication efforts, is that they engage in two-way communication practices to ensure the intended information is received. Also, it is important to acknowledge that the first-year college student’s FOMO experience in the midst of a global pandemic was unique and their experiences should continue to be collected in their own words

An Event-based Analysis Framework for Open Source Software Development Projects

The increasing popularity and success of Open Source Software (OSS) development projects has drawn significant attention of academics and open source participants over the last two decades. As one of the key areas in OSS research, assessing and predicting OSS performance is of great value to both OSS communities and organizations who are interested in investing in OSS projects. Most existing research, however, has considered OSS project performance as the outcome of static cross-sectional factors such as number of developers, project activity level, and license choice. While variance studies can identify some predictors of project outcomes, they tend to neglect the actual process of development. Without a closer examination of how events occur, an understanding of OSS projects is incomplete. This dissertation aims to combine both process and variance strategy, to investigate how OSS projects change over time through their development processes; and to explore how these changes affect project performance. I design, instantiate, and evaluate a framework and an artifact, EventMiner, to analyze OSS projects’ evolution through development activities. This framework integrates concepts from various theories such as distributed cognition (DCog) and complexity theory, applying data mining techniques such as decision trees, motif analysis, and hidden Markov modeling to automatically analyze and interpret the trace data of 103 OSS projects from an open source repository. The results support the construction of process theories on OSS development. The study contributes to literature in DCog, design routines, OSS development, and OSS performance. The resulting framework allows OSS researchers who are interested in OSS development processes to share and reuse data and data analysis processes in an open-source manner

The Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC): Vaccine effectiveness study designs: Accelerating the introduction of typhoid conjugate vaccines and reducing the global burden of enteric fever. Report from a meeting held on 26-27 October 2016, Oxford, UK

Typhoid fever is estimated to cause between 11.9–26.9 million infections globally each year with 129,000–216,510 deaths. Access to improved water sources have reduced disease incidence in parts of the world but the use of efficacious vaccines is seen as an important public health tool for countries with a high disease burden. A new generation of Vi typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs), licensed for use in young children and expected to provide longer lasting protection than previous vaccines, are now available. The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) has convened a working group to review the evidence on TCVs and produce an updated WHO position paper for all typhoid vaccines in 2018 that will inform Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance's future vaccine investment strategies for TCVs. The Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC) has been formed through a $36.9 million funding program from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate the introduction of TCVs into Gavi-eligible countries. In October 2016, a meeting was held to initiate planning of TCV effectiveness studies that will provide the data required by policy makers and stakeholders to support decisions on TCV use in countries with a high typhoid burden. Discussion topics included (1) the latest evidence and data gaps in typhoid epidemiology; (2) WHO and Gavi methods and data requirements; (3) data on TCV efficacy; (4) cost effectiveness analysis for TCVs from mathematical models; (5) TCV delivery and effectiveness study design. Specifically, participants were asked to comment on study design in 3 sites for which population-based typhoid surveillance is underway. The conclusion of the meeting was that country-level decision making would best be informed by the respective selected sites in Africa and Asia vaccinating children aged from 9-months to 15-years-old, employing either an individual or cluster randomized design with design influenced by population characteristics, transmission dynamics, and statistical considerations

Modelling the impact of referral guideline changes for mild dyskaryosis on colposcopy services in England

Objectives: This model examines the effects of changing referral strategies within the established structure of NHS cervical screening driven colposcopy practice. It considers the effects of the new strategy on colposcopy workload, patient waiting times, and associated costs and health benefits. Methods: By postal survey, the current operational strategies of colposcopy services were established by questionnaire with respect to referral practices and management protocols. After first-cut piloting, and utilising published and original research, a Markovian model was constructed, and the impact of the new strategy was determined on colposcopy workload and patient waiting times for three hypothetical clinic types. Expected costs and benefits of the new policy were assessed through the adaptation of a previous ScHARR cervical screening model. Results: Clinic workload is expected to increase by between 21% and 35% within three years of the policy change, depending on clinic efficiency in other areas; the majority of this impact would be seen within the first year. It is predicted that particularly inefficient clinics would struggle to meet the existing waiting time requirements for women referred with low-grade disease, owing to the increased level of workload seen throughout the patient pathway as a result of the implementation of the new policy. The impact of the new policy can, however, be mitigated through improving the efficiency of existing clinics, by altering policies relating to surveillance of low grade disease, post-treatment follow-up, treatment policy (whether or not treatment is performed at the initial colposcopy visit), and through adherence to national guidelines. A cost-effectiveness analysis using the ScHARR liquid-based cytology model suggests that the policy change is likely to be have a cost per quality-adjusted lifeyear gained of between £1,400 and £5,500 per quality-adjusted life-year gained (excluding the costs of follow-up), which would be deemed acceptable to organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

Economic Security for Survivors of Domestic and Family Violence: Understanding and Measuring the Impact

Survivors of domestic and family violence –the majority of whom are women –experience a range of poor economic outcomes as a consequence of the violence they have survived. Some of these negative outcomes include: reduced access to savings and assets; a reduction in feelings of financial confidence; lower levels of workforce and educational participation; and damage to credit records. This impact is particularly prevalent for women where economic abuse was also part of the pattern of violence. This lack of financial resources makes leaving a violent relationship challenging for survivors. Financial insecurity is also a reason some women return to violent relationships.While these links are becoming better understood, there is a lack of consistency about what the definition of economic security for survivors of domestic and family violence is. Broad economic analysis demonstrates the costs of domestic and family violence to the economy are great and that survivors bear proportionally more of these costs; however, there is no consistent index with which to measure the economic security for survivors of domestic and family violence. In the absence of this understanding it is more difficult to gauge the extent of the problem. It is also difficult to measure whether service and policy responses are dealing with the issue.To this end, Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand with the support of the Con Irwin Sub-fund of the Victorian Women's Trust reviewed the literature about economic security and domestic and family violence. The review was conducted in order to develop a definition of economic security that reflected its individual and structural elements. From there, a range of potential indicators with which to measure the economic security for survivors were scoped. A measurement tool was also piloted with the support of the Australia Institute.It is hoped that through this research, a larger scale, national study could be conducted to measure the full extent of this problem, and that the creation of an 'Economic Security for Survivors Index' could be developed on the basis of the proposed indicators in this report. This index could then be updated regularly to see whether progress has been made in dealing with the issue.The research makes a series of recommendations for policy and practice to better respond to the economic insecurity of survivors. There are also a series of recommendations for furthering data collection and the creation of the index

Sustaining sexual and reproductive health through COVID-19 pandemic restrictions: qualitative interviews with Australian clinicians

Background. The sexual and reproductive health care of people with HIV and those at risk of HIV has largely been delivered face-to-face in Australia. These services adapted to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with a commitment to continued care despite major impacts on existing models and processes. Limited attention has been paid to understanding the perspectives of the sexual and reproductive health care workforce in the research on COVID-19 adaptations. Methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between June and September 2021 with 15 key informants representing a diverse range of service settings and professional roles in the Australian sexual and reproductive health sector. Inductive themes were generated through a process of reflexive thematic analysis, informed by our deductive interest in clinical adaptations. Results. The major adaptations were: triage (rapidly adapting service models to protect the most essential forms of care); teamwork (working together to overcome ongoing threats to service quality and staff wellbeing), and the intwined themes of telehealth and trust (remaining connected to marginalised communities through remote care). Despite impacts on care models and client relationships, there were sustained benefits from the scaleup of remote care, and attention to service safety, teamwork and communication. Conclusions. Attending to the experiences of those who worked at the frontline of the COVID-19 response provides essential insights to inform sustained, meaningful system reform over time. The coming years will provide important evidence of longer-term impacts of COVID-19 interruptions on both the users and providers of sexual and reproductive health services

Undocumented Latino College Students and Identity Development: A Qualitative Analysis of Undocumented Latino College Students’ Movement Towards Developing Purpose (Thesis)

Undocumented Latino college students face numerous legal, social, and financial barriers as they attempt to pursue a postsecondary degree. The psychosocial stressors that accompany being labeled as an undocumented immigrant put these students at risk of disengaging from their postsecondary education as they face limited career options and social rejection. Researchers have noted the psychosocial development that occur as students transition to an adult identity, yet little research has been done on how undocumented Latino college students navigate barriers to their identity develop and attempt to define their purpose as not only college students, but members of U.S. Society. This thesis explores how undocumented Latino college students develop a sense of purpose as a result of their psychosocial identity development that occurs during their postsecondary experiences. This study utilizes hermeneutic phenomenological methods to interpret how the narratives provided by study participants reflected Chickering and Reisser’s definition of developing purpose, as well as the barrier navigation that occurs as undocumented students face the challenges of pursuing a postsecondary education within an ambiguous legal climate

Students selling sex: marketisation, higher education and consumption

Robust academic research on the topic of students involved in the sex industry is in its infancy, yet the relationship appears consistent and permanent. This paper draws on findings from the largest study into the stripping industry in the United Kingdom to explore the relationships between students, sex work and consumption. To make sense of the relationship between students and participation in the sex industry, a deeper understanding of other social and cultural processes is needed. In this discussion we argue that the following points are relevant and inter-linked: changes to the nature of sexual commerce and sexual consumption as they become part of the marketplace; changes in social attitudes and the rise of ‘respectability’ in sexual commerce; the ‘pleasure dynamic’ amongst students; and changes in the higher education structure that place students as consumers as well as financially fragile. We set out a future research agenda given that this relationship is set to grow as the individual bares the cost of higher education

A LEGISLATIVE EXAMINATION OF THE NORTH CAROLINA TEACHERS’ AND STATE EMPLOYEES’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

The North Carolina Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System (TSERS) experienced a decline in its funded ratio from 112% in 2002 to 94% in 2011 and an increase in its unfunded actuarial accrued liabilities over the same period. The change in these two indicators is trending toward decreased fiscal solvency. The purpose of this research was to identify the potential changes to TSERS by the North Carolina legislature in light of its recent record of fiscal solvency. Using a qualitative case study research methodology, a thematic analysis of eleven interviews was conducted. Legislation and other documents as well as retrospective observations were analyzed. The results revealed five themes: revenue, politics, transportability, knowledge, and commitment that occurred across the four research questions. This study concluded that the legislature is likely to offer the following amendments in the future: the lowering of the 7.25% rate of return assumption, not allowing the spiking of salary, ensuring the entire amount of all annual required contributions are made, offering an optional defined contribution plan option, and a vesting period decrease