17179 research outputs found
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Center for analytics and data science
No full textWe are a university-level center with faculty from every college. Our core affiliate faculty include methods experts in areas such as statistics, optimization, artificial intelligence and computing in addition to domain experts from agriculture, criminal justice, engineering, geography, and health, among others
My Friend and Mí
No full textMy Friend and Mí is a children's book in both Spanish and English that focuses on international travel and second language acquisition. The book, which includes illustrations, is intended for upper elementary students. The plot centers on a young American boy who moves to Spain and speaks only English. He meets another boy who only speaks Spanish when he starts primary school in Spain. We witness their friendship develop as they share cultures and learn each other's languages. In this part of the book, strategies for learning a second language are woven into the plot, and at the conclusion, we witness each boy experiencing each other's cultures (food, customs, etc.) and code-switching between both languages.Curriculum and Instructio
The predictive factors of hospital bankruptcy: A longitudinal analysis
No full textThis study develops an explanatory and predictive logistic model for hospital bankruptcy utilizing only 8 financial and hospital-level variables (drawing from 3,091 hospitals spanning 2008-2021). This robust tool may prove useful to healthcare leaders to more accurately assess and predict financial distress and bankruptcy in their own institutions in the future.Family and Consumer Science
"We'll Meet Again...": An Improv Experience Using Immersion and Video Games to Challenge Theatrical Norms
No full text“We’ll Meet Again...” is an original theatre piece devised by an ensemble of 11 actors through guided improvisational rehearsal exercises. The story follows 10 High School Seniors grappling with their relationships and sense of self when an eternal eclipse plunges their final semester into darkness. There is no scripted dialogue as audiences are encouraged to come multiple performances to follow the same cast of characters, in the same settings, organically develop different relationships and conflicts every night. The audience is assigned the role of “Guardian Angels”, invited to chase after the characters closely and silently, and when turned to by an actor: offering insight that will directly affect the character’s choices. The performance was conducted in a classroom with 10 televisions mounted on the wall; allowing the audience to be immersed in a school setting, while also using multimedia elements to take them out of the classroom seamlessly. The performance week of April 8th coincided with the real-world event of the Great North American Solar Eclipse visible in Texas. The project began by drawing thematic inspiration from Greek myths such as: Orpheus and Eurydice, Cupid and Psyche, Sisyphus, Tantalus, and the Moirai, as well as drawing influence from Astrology, Tarot Readings and High School Dating Simulator Video Games. This thesis paper tracks the production journey from conception, through rehearsal, to performance.Theatre, Dance, and Fil
The effectiveness of skin cancer visuals targeting minority populations: Educating Hispanic and African American participants about acral lentiginous melanoma
No full textAcral lentiginous melanoma is an aggressive type of melanoma that occurs equally among people of all skin types (i.e., race/ethnicity). The incidence of ALM is rising among Hispanic/Latino patients and the mortality rate for ethnic patients is more than double when compared to Caucasian patients. The current study engages on this issue by investigating whether ALM patient education materials (PEM) featuring models with one of the three skin types yield better results on knowledge, risk perception, and message perception among Hispanic and African American participants.Communication Studie
Loaded Conversations: Identity and Culture of American Private Gun Ownership
No full textThe sensationalization of the national gun control debate has hitherto produced radicalized opposition groups that demand citizens must pick out of two extremes; this false dichotomy ignores the deeply contextualized experiences of private individuals. This qualitative study and rhetorical analysis of sixteen interviews with private gun owners investigates how the identities and cultural practices of gun owners are influenced and constructed through the stories that we tell ourselves and others. The findings of this study, and its emphasis on identity and the way figurative language shapes our actions, contribute to the civil discourse on gun ownership with a rhetorical empathy that resists the postmodern paralysis of being categorized as either strictly pro or anti-gun.Englis
Characterization of Gut Microbiome in Vitamin D Supplemented C57BL/6J Mice
No full textVitamin D (VD) is an essential vitamin that many people have a deficiency of worldwide. Because of this, many individuals around the globe suffer from different illnesses such as autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological disorders that are associated with VD deficiency. VD is known for its main function in maintaining bone health. However, in recent years VD has been recognized for its function in autoimmune health, gut barrier, and gut microbiome composition. This study will observe the correlation of VD supplementation through diet and integrity of the gastrointestinal tract and its effect on gut microbiome composition. To better understand the effects VD has on gut permeability and gut microbiome composition which may be used to produce solutions for illnesses related to VD deficiency, this study used male and female C57BL/6J mice to investigate the VD levels and gut microbiome composition after placing them on a control diet or VD supplemented diet, with or without antibiotic treatment. Real-time PCR (qPCR) measured mRNA expression of tight junction proteins occludin, claudin, and ZO-1 for gut integrity. Also, 16S PCR sequencing was used for the extracted DNA of fecal samples collected for the identification of the gut microbiome. This study found that VD improved the diversity of gut microbiome composition and gut integrity via mRNA expression of tight junction proteins ZO-1 and occludin. These results could help provide a clearer picture of VD impact on gut microbiome composition and gut permeability while also providing context for treatments of specific illnesses associated with VD deficiency such as inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, and heart disease.Biolog
An Autotuning System for Portable Heterogeneous-Compute Interfaces
No full textWriting performance portable code has been a long-standing challenge in the high-performance computing (HPC) community. This challenge has been exacerbated by the inclusion of accelerators in HPC systems from multiple competing vendors. To address performance portability issues on accelerator-based heterogeneous systems, AMD and Intel have recently introduced suites of APIs capable of generating code for different accelerators with reasonable performance. While these APIs improve programmer productivity, achieving optimal performance still requires significant manual tuning effort. This thesis proposes a multi-tiered approach to autotuning CUDA applications ported to AMD architectures via the Heterogeneous-Compute Interface (HIP). We begin by deconstructing the HIP compilation process, identifying key transformations in converting CUDA to HIP. We then pinpoint the native compiler optimizations that most influence the performance of CUDA codes when executed on AMD architectures with the HIP runtime interface. We then construct a combined search space around these transformations and their parameters and explore it using a Genetic Algorithm. Our autotuner is the first system to investigate the HIP autotuning space and includes a regression-based strategy to quickly narrow down the search space to the most promising regions. Experimental results with the Rodinia benchmark suite demonstrate that our autotuning strategy achieves an average speedup of 1.10, with performance improvements of up to 7x on certain applications.Computer Scienc
Navigating the Imposter Phenomenon in a Work Environment
No full textNo abstract prepared.Art and Desig
The Relationship Between Intergenerational Conflict with Depressive Symptoms and the Alcohol Use in Asian American Emerging Adults: The Moderating Factor of Helicopter Parenting
No full textAsian Americans (AA) have been reported as “low risk” for depressive symptoms and alcohol use compared to members of other racial and ethnic groups. Literature suggests that sociocultural factors such as intergenerational conflict (IGC) and helicopter parenting (HP) have both significant and non-significant associations with these outcomes. In addition, there is a not a HP measure that has been validated for AAs, warranting additional research investigating when IGC predicts these outcomes and how HP plays into the relationship with IGC and these outcomes in AA emerging adults. The current study explored the factor structure of the HP measure and assessed whether HP may be a moderating factor between IGC with both outcomes among 281 AA emerging adults recruited from Texas State University and Prolific. There were multiple hypotheses for this study, and results partially showed marginally significant support. Three factors (Parent’s Perspective, Parent’s Control, Parent’s Actions) emerged from the factor structure on the HP measure. IGC was not associated with either outcome. However, Parent’s Control was a marginally significant moderator between IGC and both outcomes. Findings from this research suggest assessing other cultural values (individualism/collectivism, gender roles) that may affect HP with these outcomes. Future research should also focus on creating a HP measure adapted for AAs to better understand parent-child relationships within this population.Psycholog