Amenability of Groupoids Arising from Partial Semigroup Actions and Topological Higher Rank Graphs

We consider the amenability of groupoids $G$ equipped with a group valued cocycle $c:G\to Q$ with amenable kernel $c^{-1}(e)$. We prove a general result which implies, in particular, that $G$ is amenable whenever $Q$ is amenable and if there is countable set $D\subset G$ such that $c(G^{u})D=Q$ for all $u\in G^{(0)}$. We show that our result is applicable to groupoids arising from partial semigroup actions. We explore these actions in detail and show that these groupoids include those arising from directed graphs, higher rank graphs and even topological higher rank graphs. We believe our methods yield a nice alternative groupoid approach to these important constructions.Comment: Revised as suggested by a very helpful referee. In particular, a gap in the proof of Theorem 5.13 has been repaired resulting in a much improved version (with fewer hypotheses

Channel Uncertainty in Ultra Wideband Communication Systems

Wide band systems operating over multipath channels may spread their power over bandwidth if they use duty cycle. Channel uncertainty limits the achievable data rates of power constrained wide band systems; Duty cycle transmission reduces the channel uncertainty because the receiver has to estimate the channel only when transmission takes place. The optimal choice of the fraction of time used for transmission depends on the spectral efficiency of the signal modulation. The general principle is demonstrated by comparing the channel conditions that allow different modulations to achieve the capacity in the limit. Direct sequence spread spectrum and pulse position modulation systems with duty cycle achieve the channel capacity, if the increase of the number of channel paths with the bandwidth is not too rapid. The higher spectral efficiency of the spread spectrum modulation lets it achieve the channel capacity in the limit, in environments where pulse position modulation with non-vanishing symbol time cannot be used because of the large number of channel paths

Reducing Feelings of Unpreparedness Experienced by Registered Nurses Assigned the Care of Covid-19 Positive Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Background: Nurses assigned the care of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) individuals, practice within a fragmented healthcare system. Nurses face barriers of patient competence and capacity to consent, communication challenges, a shortage of specialty providers, and fiscal limitation. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered requests from registered nurses, for guidance related to the care of individuals with IDD and diagnosed with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2, the COVID-19 virus. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to reduce, through the administration of in-service, feelings of unpreparedness experienced by registered nurses caring for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and at risk for COVID-19 infection. Method: Nurses enrolled in an IDD course offered by a local university, school of nursing were asked to participate in this research project. The object of the project was to assess the reduction of feelings of unpreparedness experienced by nurses likely to be assigned to care for COVID-19 positive individuals with IDD. The convenience sample of registered nurses enrolled in an IDD course, and consenting to participate in the project, received a 15-item pre- and post- in-service Likert scale survey project. Results: Fourteen of 18 possible professional nurses enrolled in an IDD course, consented to, participate in the study. The participants completed the 15-item pre-post in-service Likert scale survey evaluating feelings of unpreparedness when the care of COVID-19 positive individuals with IDD. The post-in-service Likert scores reflected an improvement in pre- and post-survey scores in the four areas evaluated, knowledge, nursing practice, affective, and implementation. For questions evaluating nurse knowledge, a 0.97-point increase occurred between pre- and post-survey scores, for nursing practice, a one-point increase, for questions evaluating nursing affect, a .13-point increase and for scores evaluating implementation strategies, a 0.57-point increase

Stepping Outside: A Quantitative Study Exploring Nature’s Effect on Therapist Compassion

This dissertation explored the impact of spending time in nature on therapist levels of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction for office- and nature-based therapists. While the study mainly focused on office-based therapists, a sample of nature-based therapists were included for exploratory purposes as they constitute a unique niche of mental health workers who combine traditional talk therapy methods and the healing properties of nature. The literature is reviewed within an ecopsychology frame, key terms are defined, and nature’s impact on mental health and wellbeing is explored. One hundred fifty participants (124 office-based, 26 nature-based) were included in this study. They completed the Professional Quality of Life scale, which examined levels of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction, as well as a series of demographic questions. They were also asked about the amount of time they spend outside, and how they like to use that time. Utilizing Spearman’s correlation, there was a significant negative correlation between time spent in nature and compassion fatigue for office-based therapists. There was no relationship between compassion satisfaction and time in nature for office-based therapists. Similarly, there was no significant relationship between compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction between the office- and nature-based groups. Post-hoc analyses were conducted to explore additional findings, such as the relationship between geography and time in nature. The results of this study contribute to the literature on the positive impact of spending time in nature on wellbeing, as well as the potential benefit of spending time in nature as a self-care strategy for therapists

What Will You Do Here? Dignified Work and the Politics of Mobility in Serbia

Serbia is said to have one of the highest rates of brain drain in the world. For the generation glossed as the “children of the 1990s,” stances toward mobility and migration have shifted along with geopolitics. Following nearly two decades of wartime entrapment, in 2009 the conditions of possibility for mobility fundamentally changed for Serbian citizens. Of both symbolic and material consequence, the country’s return to respectable geopolitical standing also marked a shift toward more nuanced stancetaking in relation to mobility and migration. Namely, by the time of my research, the expectations of youth—not only of “normal mobility” but of “normalcy” more generally—had become more and more often calibrated against personal experiences of real-life travel. Based on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Belgrade, Serbia from October 2014–December 2015, this dissertation tracks some of the consequences of this shift for young potential migrants in Serbia. I explore how the problem of skilled migration is constituted, the discourses produced, and the practices prompted. I analyze the mobility narratives of young potential migrants as proxies for commentary on a host of other socioeconomic issues. My focus is on the real and symbolic geographies invoked in talk of leaving and staying in Serbia; on how young potential migrants narrate their everyday navigations in the “here and now” and give moral weight to migratory aspirations for, and experiences of, lives lived in the “then and there.” I argue that the foundational motif of these varied imaginaries is a deep investment in meritocracy--a value-laden register called upon to articulate aspiration as well as critique. Engaging the politics of mobility holistically, I also excavate what it means to stay in a context so many others leave. I explore the growth of social entrepreneurship and the digital economy as recent efforts to coax dignified work from an inhospitable climate of precarity (and as key to governmental “solutions” to brain drain). I untangle how entrepreneurialism is promoted as a project of reforming values while also serving as a realm of authenticity and “apolitical activism” for some. Training attention on work in the digital economy I illuminate how economic subjectivities are cultivated in complex relation to place and belonging in ways that muddy the dichotomy between staying and leaving. Finally, I show how both promoters of entrepreneurship and Serbia’s digital transformation harness the dominant discourse on brain drain to cast themselves as certain social types and legitimize their agendas. This dissertation demonstrates how contemporary stances toward mobility and migration articulate aspirations to dignify the conditions of life and work, are implicated in a reconfiguration of middle-classness, and reveal how postsocialist subjects understand themselves and construct life projects in the context of ongoing political and socioeconomic change

Open University Day Final Report

Final report on the Open University Day which was held on Saturday, October 17, 2016 as part of UMaine’s 150th Anniversary Celebration which was held in conjunction with Homecoming and Family & Friends Weekend

College of Engineering_GEE 230 Introduction to Engineering Leadership and Management_Group Team Project

Course assignment for a group project for the two sections of the GEE 230 Introduction to Engineering Leadership and Management course, focused on plans for manufacturing productive equipment and respirators. Also, includes cover email from Dean Dana N. Humphrey to the Provost Office regarding the course Dean Humphrey taught