What’s Sex (Composition) Got to Do with It? The Importance of Sex Composition of Gangs for Female and Male Members’ Offending and Victimization

Sex composition of groups has been theorized in organizational sociology and found in prior work to structure female and male members’ behaviors and experiences. Peer group and gang literature similarly finds that the sex gap in offending varies across groups of differing sex ratios. Drawing on this and other research linking gang membership, offending, and victimization, we examine whether sex composition of gangs is linked to sex differences in offending in this sample, further assess whether sex composition similarly structures females’ and males’ victimization experiences, and if so, why. Self-report data from gang members in a multi-site, longitudinal study of 3,820 youths are employed. Results support previous findings about variations in member delinquency by both sex and sex composition of the gang and also indicate parallel variations in members’ victimization. These results are further considered within the context of facilitating effects such as gender dynamics, gang characteristics, and normative orientation

A Data-driven Approach for Mapping Grasslands at a Regional Scale

Ph.D.University of Kansas, Geology 2019The goal of this research was to use a data-driven approach to develop a regional scale grassland mapping protocol with the following objectives. First, identify and characterize the spatial distribution of grassland types and land use across Kansas as well as the static or dynamic nature of grasslands over time using multi-year U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) 578 data. Second, evaluate the spectral separability of four hierarchies of grassland types and land use using FSA 578 data, multi-seasonal Landsat 8 spectral bands, Landsat 8 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) NDVI time series. Third, determine the optimal data combination, and the appropriate thematic resolution, for mapping grassland type by evaluating the modeling performance of the Random Forest (RF) classifier. A county-level analysis of the multi-year FSA 578 data found that the data were not all-inclusive of total grasslands across Kansas, but were sufficient to illustrate regional trends in grassland type, land use, and field size. Eastern Kansas was found to be more diverse in grassland type, more variable in land use, and contained a high number of smaller fields. Conversely, western Kansas consisted of larger fields that were primarily grazed native grasslands and land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). These results indicate a more complex grassland landscape to map in eastern Kansas, while also providing guidance for training sample distributions for image classification. Jeffries-Matusita (JM) distance statistics were calculated for three-date multispectral Landsat 8, three-date Landsat 8 NDVI, and 23-period, 16-day composite Terra MODIS NDVI time series. The results indicate that combining the three datasets maximized the spectral separability of grassland types across all four grassland-type hierarchies. A comparison of the three datasets showed that multispectral Landsat 8 data had the highest JM distance statistics (which indicates the most separability). JM distance statistics calculated by-band and by-period consistently showed that information from spring and fall was more important than summer for separating grassland types. The results showed lower separability for land-use classes within a grassland type versus between grassland types. The spectral separability of pairwise comparisons incorporating land use between grassland types varied, indicating that land use does affect spectral separability in some instances. On the other hand, JM distance statistics did not substantially drop when more refined grassland types were aggregated to coarser grassland type classes (e.g. Level-1: cool- and warm-season), indicating that land use does not negatively affect the spectral separability of functional grassland types. The results indicate low spectral separability between brome and fescue but moderate to high separability between native and CRP, suggesting the use of a Level-1 or Level-2 thematic classification scheme for the study area. Finally, random forest models were constructed and evaluated using 2015 FSA 578 data and four datasets of remotely sensed data in two adjacent Landsat scenes (path/rows). Models were created for each of the four grassland hierarchies. The results showed that out-of-bag (OOB) error increased with grassland hierarchy complexity (the number of thematic classes) and OOB error was lowest for the combined remotely sensed dataset. Mapping CRP as a separate grassland type resulted in low producer’s accuracy levels, with CRP largely mapped as warm-season grasslands, suggesting the Level-1 classification scheme was appropriate for regional mapping of grassland types. Path/rows 27/33 and 28/33 had OOB overall accuracy levels of 87% and 92%, respectively. User’s and producer’s accuracy levels indicate that cool-season grasslands were mapped more accurately in path/row 27/33 where that class is more dominant than in 28/33. Using test data (withheld verification data) unexpectedly increased overall accuracy levels by 4% and 6% over OOB accuracies, which may have resulted from varying data proportions between OOB and test data, suggesting the need for further evaluation

Community College Student Participation in Undergraduate Research: An Explanatory Case Study for Faculty and Research Mentors

This study adapted the current model of science undergraduate research experiences (URE\u27s) and applied this novel modification to include community college students. Numerous researchers have examined the efficacy of URE\u27s in improving undergraduate retention and graduation rates, as well as matriculation rates for graduate programs. However, none have detailed the experience for community college students, and few have employed qualitative methodologies to gather relevant descriptive data from URE participants. This study included perspectives elicited from both non-traditional student participants and the established laboratory community. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the traditional model for a non-traditional student population. The research effort described here utilized a qualitative design and an explanatory case study methodology. Six non-traditional students from the Maine Community College System participated in this study. Student participants were placed in six academic research laboratories located throughout the state. Student participants were interviewed three times during their ten-week internship and asked to record their personal reflections in electronic format. Participants from the established research community were also interviewed. These included both faculty mentors and other student laboratory personnel. Ongoing comparative analysis of the textual data revealed that laboratory organizational structure and social climate significantly influence acculturation outcomes for non-traditional URE participants. Student participants experienced a range of acculturation outcomes from full integration to marginalization. URE acculturation outcomes influenced development of non-traditional students? professional and academic self-concepts. Positive changes in students? self-concepts resulted in greater commitment to individual professional goals and academic aspirations. The findings from this study suggest that traditional science URE models can be successfully adapted to meet the unique needs of a non-traditional student population – community college students. These interpretations may encourage post-secondary educators, administrators, and policy makers to consider expanded access and support for non-traditional students seeking science URE opportunities

Examining the Impact of Victimization on Girls’ Delinquency: A Study of Direct and Indirect Effects

Previous research has acknowledged that there is a relationship between victimization and later delinquency, but the specific attributes of this relationship are unclear because measures of both direct and indirect victimization are rarely explored in a single study. We included both indirect and direct victimization to examine which form of victimization was a stronger predictor of substance use, fighting, running away, and sex work among girls committed to a juvenile justice facility. Findings indicated that direct victimization was typically a more salient predictor of delinquency than indirect forms of victimization. Further, running away and sex work appear to be unique outcomes that are particularly likely when girls experience direct rather than indirect victimization. Findings are summarized with implications for health and public policy

Project Portfolio Management in an Industrial Organization

Trail Operations is the only refining and smelting operation in the Teck Resources Limited organization. It has evolved into a major industrial complex in British Columbia and one of the largest combined Zinc Lead smelters in the world. Annual major expenditures to maintain facilities are approximately $100M. Project selection and approval is ad hoc and lacks detailed evaluation. Justification often focuses on matching the 10% rate of return expected for investments to maintain an operating facility. New investment opportunities must now compete with other Teck opportunities and provide either a greater return on investment or other justification. As a result, efforts to formalize the selection, timeliness, and return on investment of Trail projects are underway. This paper will identify issues related to the project process, the approach identified to address these issues, and a plan to implement the recommendations. This approach will treat the projects as a portfolio of potential investments and develop structured workflows for their creation, selection, planning, and management. The deployment of this methodology is in progress

Carbohydrate Hydrolysis and Transport in the Extreme Thermoacidophile \u3ci\u3eSulfolobus solfataricus\u3c/i\u3e

Extremely thermoacidophilic microbes, such as Sulfolobus solfataricus, are strict chemoheterotrophs despite their geologic niche. To clarify their ecophysiology, the overlapping roles of endoglucanases and carbohydrate transporters were examined during growth on soluble cellodextrins as the sole carbon and energy source. Strain-specific differences in genome structure implied a unique role for one of three endogenous endoglucanases. Plasmid-based endoglucanase expression promoted the consumption of oligosaccharides, including cellohexaose (G6) through cellonanaose (G9). Protein transporters required for cellodextrin uptake were identified through mutagenesis and complementation of an ABC transporter cassette, including a putative oligosaccharide binding protein. In addition, ablation of the binding protein compromised growth on glucose and alpha-linked oligosaccharides while inactivation of a previously described glucose transporter had no apparent impact. These data demonstrate that S. solfataricus employs a redundant mechanism for soluble cellodextrin catabolism having both substrate uptake and extracytoplasmic hydrolytic components

Eat Smart. Play Hard™ San Luis Obispo: A Nutrition and Fitness Pilot Program for Young Children and Their Adult Buddies

Eat Smart. Play Hard™. San Luis Obispo!, a multi-component primary prevention program targeting low-income, Hispanic children 6-8 years, focuses on promoting healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors using an innovative child-adult buddy system approach. The child-adult buddies participate in multiple activities to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables, and level of physical activity and decrease their consumption of sweetened beverages. The results of the pilot program show high program satisfaction and improvements in dietary and physical activity behaviors. Such programs provide an opportunity to establish and promote healthy behaviors among young children and ultimately prevent overweight development

Effects of Pubertal Growth Variation on Knee Mechanics During Walking in Female and Male Adolescents

Introduction: Puberty substantially alters the body\u27s mechanical properties, neuromuscular control, and sex differences therein, likely contributing to increased, sex-biased knee injury risk during adolescence. Female adolescents have higher risk for knee injuries than male adolescents of similar age engaging in similar physical activities, and much research has investigated sex differences in mechanical risk factors. However, few studies address the considerable variation in pubertal growth (timing, pace), knee mechanics, and injury susceptibility within sexes, or the impact of such growth variation on mechanical injury risk. Objectives: The present study tested for effects of variation in pubertal growth on established mechanical knee injury risk factors, examining relationships between and within sexes. Methods: Pubertal growth indices describing variation in the timing and rate of pubertal growth were developed using principal component analysis and auxological data from serial stature measurements. Linear mixed models were applied to evaluate relationships between these indices and knee mechanics during walking in a sample of adolescents. Results: Later developing female adolescents with slower pubertal growth had higher extension moments throughout stance, whereas earlier developers had higher valgus knee angles and moments. In male adolescents, faster and later growth were related to higher extension moments throughout gait. In both sexes, faster growers had higher internal rotation moments at foot-strike. Conclusions: Pubertal growth variation has important effects on mechanical knee injury risk in adolescence, affecting females and males differently. Earlier developing females exhibit greater injury risk via frontal plane factors, whereas later/faster developing males have elevated risk via sagittal plane mechanisms

Belief in the unstructured interview: The persistence of an illusion

Unstructured interviews are a ubiquitous tool for making screening decisions despite a vast literature suggesting that they have little validity. We sought to establish reasons why people might persist in the illusion that unstructured interviews are valid and what features about them actually lead to poor predictive accuracy. In three studies, we investigated the propensity for “sensemaking” - the ability for interviewers to make sense of virtually anything the interviewee says—and “dilution”—the tendency for available but non-diagnostic information to weaken the predictive value of quality information. In Study 1, participants predicted two fellow students’ semester GPAs from valid background information like prior GPA and, for one of them, an unstructured interview. In one condition, the interview was essentially nonsense in that the interviewee was actually answering questions using a random response system. Consistent with sensemaking, participants formed interview impressions just as confidently after getting random responses as they did after real responses. Consistent with dilution, interviews actually led participants to make worse predictions. Study 2 showed that watching a random interview, rather than personally conducting it, did little to mitigate sensemaking. Study 3 showed that participants believe unstructured interviews will help accuracy, so much so that they would rather have random interviews than no interview. People form confident impressions even interviews are defined to be invalid, like our random interview, and these impressions can interfere with the use of valid information. Our simple recommendation for those making screening decisions is not to use them