Levels of abstraction in human supervisory control teams

This paper aims to report a study into the levels of abstraction hierarchy (LOAH) in two energy distribution teams. The original proposition for the LOAH was that it depicted five levels of system representation, working from functional purpose through to physical form to determine causes of a malfunction, or from physical form to functional purpose to determine the purpose of system function. The LOAH has been widely used throughout human supervisory control research to explain individual behaviour. The research seeks to focus on the application the LOAH to human supervisory control teams in semi-automated “intelligent” systems

Testing Hollnagel's contextual control mod

Please contact publisher for further reprinting or re-useThis article sets out to test the hypothetical COtext and COntrol Model (COCOM) developed by Hollnagel (1993). Essentially, Hollnagel develops the argument that team behavior should be analyzed at a macro, rather than micro, level. He proposes 4 principal models of team activity: strategic, tactical, opportunistic, and scrambled. These modes of team behavior vary in terms of the degree of forward planning (highest in the strategic mode) and reactivity to the environment (highest in the scrambled mode). He further hypothesizes a linear progression through the modes from strategic to tactical to opportunistic to scrambled, depending on context, and vice versa. To test the COCOM model, we placed teams of people in a simulated energy distribution system. Our results confirm Hollnagel's hypothesized model in 2 main ways. First, we show that the team behavior could be categorized reliably into the 4 control modes and this provided a useful way of distinguishing between experimental conditions. Second, the progression between control modes conformed to the linear progression as predicted. This research provided the first independent test of the COCOM model and lends empirical support to the hypotheses

The Fallacy of Free Will in Prostitution: Encouraging Prostitution Reform to Prevent the Repeated Victimization of Vulnerable Persons

Article published in the Michigan State International Law Review

Impact of Burnout on Risk-Taking: The Role of Managerial Political Skill

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between burnout, moral disengagement, risk-taking attitude, and managerial political skill. Using conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study seeks to determine what happens when employees who are experiencing burnout continue working within the organization. The study specifically focuses on the darker side of burnout, and its relationship with moral disengagement and risk-taking attitude by testing the proposition that employees who are experiencing burnout will utilize moral disengagement to rationalize their risk-taking attitude. The impact of managerial political skill on these relationships was also examined as managerial political skill was proposed to moderate the positive relationship between burnout and moral disengagement and moral disengagement and risk-taking attitude. To test the proposed hypotheses, Prolific, an online survey company, was utilized to collect data from 266 respondents. The survey was conducted in two phases, with each phase collected one month apart. The results of the study confirmed a positive relationship between moral disengagement and risk-taking attitude. Contrary to the hypotheses, the relationship between burnout and moral disengagement was not supported. Political skill was proposed to moderate the positive relationship between burnout and moral disengagement and moral disengagement and risk-taking attitude. These relationships were not supported. In addition, burnout did not have a significant indirect effect on risk-taking attitude through moral disengagement. Implications of the findings and future directions are discussed

Workforce Assessment: Measuring the Impacts of COVID-19 on the Maternal and Child Health Workforce

Workforce assessments provide an opportunity to assess, evaluate, and identify the needs of a particular workforce. The use of workforce assessments in the field of maternal and child health (MCH) has been an ongoing and a strongly supported effort by the Health Resources & Services Administration: Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). The maternal and child health workforce is responsible for providing essential public health services to some of the most vulnerable populations such as mothers, children, and people living with disabilities. Thus, the continuation of providing these essential public health services is critical – even in the midst of a pandemic. CityMatCH, with the support of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), has created an online assessment to measure the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the maternal and child health (MCH) workforce. This partnership has yielded multiple workforce assessments over the years to identify, assess, and support the MCH workforce. The purpose of the 2020 online workforce assessment was to support and increase capacity of urban public health departments and MCH leaders in monitoring and responding to current and emerging public health issues and threats, specifically COVID-19 and service provision. This assessment is in alignment with project year one in a five-year cooperative agreement awarded to CityMatCH by MCHB. The online survey was developed and reviewed by CityMatCH staff and federal partners, and was used for program assessment and evaluation purposes. In total, the online survey was 18 questions, comprised of both closed and open-ended questions, and was analyzed through the survey collection system RedCAP and Microsoft Excel. State and local public health department representatives from across the country were surveyed. My contributions to the 2020 workforce assessment included data cleaning, analysis, and reporting. In addition to the data analysis, I was able to utilize my skills in written communication to provide CityMatCH with a written report and a summation of the assessment results to share with our federal partner, MCHB, to inform strategies to strengthen the capacity of the maternal and child health workforce. This workforce assessment helped us gain an understanding of on-the-ground experiences of local and state public health departments during the pandemic and provided us with further understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 on the MCH workforce. Results from the assessment shed light on the challenges of delivering MCH services virtually, the impact it had on the MCH staff as they were reassigned from their regular MCH duties to COVID-19 duties, and the concerns for future MCH outcomes due to the pandemic

La Graella

Spain is a place filled with a vibrant culture, from the people who pose as live art on the streets of Las Ramblas, to those who fill those same streets late at night engaging in stimulating conversation paired with a bottle of wine. Traveling through the streets pass many quarters to the edge of Barcelona, sits the Thermal Power Plant of Sant Adria de Besos, a tall historical landmark which was the focus of a preservation fight to prevent its demolition, and only recently were the Tres Xemeneies granted heritage protection by the municipality. The Bjark Ingles Group has proposed a hypothetical solution that revitalizes the engagement of Les Tres Chimeneas. This project investigates the history and future of the historic power plant and how the site as a connector between Barcelona and Badalona can be used to stimulate environmental, economic, and social factors for the community and tourists alike. The cultural center created aims to transform the post-industrial land into an urban public space where those who visit can engage in a unique, but also educational experience that explores the history of culture for the Spanish region that translates from both the interior and the exterior of the site

Discovery and Optimization of Anti-Cancer Properties of Traditional Herbal Medicines Using Zebrafish-Human Tumor Xenografts

Cancer is one of the most well-known diseases around the world. It hurts everyone in some way, whether they have it themselves or they know someone that is diagnosed. But the problem is not just this brutal disease, the problem is its invasive treatments. The most common treatments for cancer have harmful and painful side-effects that occur in most cases. As a solution to invasive cancer treatments, this experiment is testing herbal medications Neem, Nilavembu, Ashwagandha and Tulsi as potential nontoxic cancer treatments. First, the maximum tolerable dosage for each herbal agent was found. This dosage was used for the toxicity trials as well as the anti-cancer trials. The mortality rate, heart rate and hatch rate of the zebrafish during five days of incubation in solution provided the toxicity data. To test the anti-cancer effects of these herbal agents, a zebrafish-human tumor xenograft model was used. The zebrafish embryos were treated with the maximum tolerable dosage of each solution for five days; when the embryos were three days old, they were injected with human prostate cancer cell and were allowed to incubate in the solution for another two days. After the treatment, the zebrafish were died with acridine orange and imaged under the confocal microscope. Neem, Nilavembu, Ashwagandha and Tulsi all had herbal induced cell death with little to no toxicity. Therefore, presenting a strong case that this study can move forward to be tested on a human model

The Age of Intervention: Addiction, Culture, and Narrative During the War on Drugs

While addiction narratives have been a feature of American culture at least since the early 19th century’s temperance tales, the creation of the Johnson Intervention in the late 1960s and the corresponding advent of the War on Drugs waged by U.S. Presidents have wrought significant changes in the stories told about addiction and recovery. These changes reflect broader changes in conceptions of agency and the relationship of subject to culture in the postmodern era. In the way that it iterates the imperatives of the War on Drugs initiated by Richard Nixon, the rhetoric of successive U.S. Presidents provides a compelling heuristic for analyzing popular and literary texts as reflective of the changing shape of addiction and recovery narratives over the last half century. Johnson, by defining addiction, not intoxication, as a break with reality, argued that confronting addicts with narratives of the potential crises could convince them to seek treatment before they hit bottom. Johnson’s version of “reality therapy” thus presented threatened or simulated crises, rather than real ones. Examining presidential rhetoric and popular culture representations of addiction—in horror movies, “very special episodes,” and reality television—this dissertation identifies features of the postmodern Intervention and recovery narrative in fiction by William Peter Blatty, Stephen King, Jay McInerney, Tama Janowitz, David Foster Wallace, and Jess Walter. I demonstrate how the Intervention is key to understanding the cultural products of the War on Drugs and its continued salience in American culture

The Subjunctive Selecting Habits of Spaniards and Spanish Language Learners in Jaén, Spain

Because the Spanish subjunctive mood is so variable and does not adhere to a straightforward set of rules, research about its everyday uses by native speakers is very useful and enlightening for learners of the Spanish language. This particular study focuses on several matrices that have exhibited variation in other studies on the topic such as no pensar que, no creer que, dudar que, no dudar que, creer en la posibilidad de que, alegrarse de que, and dar pena de que. This study found that the second language learners (SLLs) demonstrated more variability regarding subjunctive/indicative mood selection than the native speakers and differed with the native speakers mainly regarding the matrices no dudar que, dudar que, es seguro que, and alegrarse de que. Furthermore, no particular characteristic, gender, age, nationality, L1, length of time spent in Spain, length of time studying Spanish, nor interaction with native speakers proved to cause a closer approximation to the mood selection of the native speakers. Even so, this thesis explores the daily uses of the subjunctive/indicative moods in Spanish by native speakers, and offers a clearer understanding of the SLL mood selecting process and justifications, shedding light on the uncertainty of the subjunctive mood in Spanish

Enhancing Upconversion nanoparticle performance of NaYF4: Yb,Tm with doping optimization and shell addition and of NaYF4: Yb,Er with Yb,Nd shell addition

Upconversion (UC), is a phenomenon that occurs when low-energy excitation (usually near-infrared (NIR)) results in higher-energy emission. Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) are particles less than 100 nm in size that are synthesized using rare earth metals such as Yb, Er, Tm, and Y. UCNPs have important applications in a variety of fields, including bio-imaging, security printing, and latent fingerprint development. Traditional methods for latent fingerprint development such as fluorescent powder dusting have several drawbacks including low contrast, high background interference, and autofluorescence. NIR-to-NIR UCNPs are composed of NaYF4: Yb, Tm and emit 800 nm light under 980 nm excitation due to the absorbance of Yb3+ ions. NIR excitation produces no background emission from substrates and ambient lighting does not hinder the collection of the 800 nm emission from the nanoparticles. Exciting using NIR light reduces fluorescence from the substrate and improves the contrast of luminescent images created using the particles. These features make NIR-to-NIR UCNPs attractive for latent fingerprint development. Here, NIR-to-NIR UCNPs of various Yb doping with passive shell layers of NaYF4 were synthesized. Passive shells are those that do not participate in upconversion but assist in covering surface defects that may have occurred during synthesis and decreases the effect of surface quenching. The goal of this research was to optimize and increase the brightness of the NIR-to-NIR UCNPs by adjusting the doping concentrations of Yb, while also observing the effect of surface quenching before and after the addition of the inert NaYF4 shells to the UCNPs. The brightness of the nanoparticles was analyzed using internal quantum efficiency measurements at varying excitation power densities. In addition to the NIR-to-NIR UCNPs, NIR-to-Green UCNPs with both an active shell of 10% Yb and 10% Nd and passive shell of NaYF4 were synthesized. NIR-to-Green UCNPs are composed of NaYF4: Yb, Er, and convert NIR excitation to shorter-wavelength green emission. The 980 nm excitation wavelength required by traditional Yb, Er UCNPs overlaps a weak absorbance band of water, interfering with excitation and increasing the chance of overheating tissues while imaging. However, addition of the active shell allows for the NIR-to-Green UCNPs to be excited by either 800 nm or 980 nm light while also covering surface defects and decreasing surface quenching. Exciting the particles with 800 nm, which is in a transparency window for biological samples, greatly reduces the danger of overheating tissue while maintaining the high penetration depth for bio-imaging. For security printing, these particles can also be used to print two different but overlapping images which can be viewed individually using different excitation sources