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Unraveling Collective Anomalies in Data-Driven Systems: Manifestation, Detection, and Enhancement Implications
Get PDFThis dissertation presents an in-depth investigation into collective anomalies—complex patterns of data that deviate from the norm when considered as a group, rather than individually. It encompasses three pivotal studies that explore the intricacies of identifying and analyzing these anomalies within online customer reviews and urban traffic patterns. The research initially focuses on the subtle shifts in consumer feedback patterns, highlighting the challenges of detecting early signs of collective anomalies. It then advances to the analysis of urban traffic, emphasizing the detection of anomalous trajectory patterns and their implications for urban planning. The final study introduces a spatio-temporal framework to uncover microtransit bottlenecks, aiming to enhance urban mobility. This body of work offers insights into the nuanced manifestation, detection and implications of collective anomalies, providing a significant contribution to the field of data-driven decision-making
Finding Freedoms in Unfreedoms: Resisting and Disrupting Racism, Racialization, and Dehumanization via an Advisory-Based Participatory Action Research Project
Get PDFIn many ways, advisory courses function as microcosms of the schools and school systems that they are situated within. As such, advisory and advisory-like structures facilitate the same dehumanizing hegemony and social stratification that underlies all of U.S. public schooling, in general. Because advisories are not tethered to familiar, classroom-specific markers of systemic oppression such as federally mandated standards and their accompanying curricula, however, they also provide a unique opportunity for students to exist freely during the school day. The purpose of this participatory action research (PAR) study was to examine the ways and extent to which students could reclaim their humanity from within the oppressive context of an urbanized, U.S. public school, via a collaboratively designed, advisory-based project. Action steps involved developing a collective critical consciousness alongside student co-researchers, aligning our research goals and guiding principles with those of local community organizations, and actively listening for, and adhering to, the social and emotional needs of student collaborators and focus group participants alike as they shared their experiences with one another. Results indicated that students who self-identify as Black and/or Latinx equate schooling with captivity. Furthermore, when considered through the theoretical lenses of Christina Sharpe’s “wake work” and Gloria Anzaldúa’s borderlands theory, findings indicated that students internalize the gaze of their captors and create new identities for themselves to counteract the overlapping and oftentimes conflicting expectations that they are forced to contend with. Implications for the organization include developing advisory-based pedagogical practices to empower students within those courses to further their own critical consciousness alongside leadership and disciplinary practices needed to develop additional community-embedded projects
The Impact of Parental Relationship Instability of Children\u27s Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior: A Conditional Moderated Mediation Analysis
No full textThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parental relationship instability (PRI) and children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors. This study focused on four different types of parental relationships, namely stably together, union dissolution without repartnering, repartnering, and relationship churning as prime predictor variables. A complex association between these four types of PRI and child behavior, mediated by parenting stress, was examined. Previous studies have repeatedly documented that raising children with disabilities is highly challenging for parents. The key aim of this study was to examine the potential mediating effect of parenting stress on the relationship between PRI and children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior, as well as the potential moderating effect of child disability status on these mediating effects. Data from the first five waves of the Future of Families and Child-Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a rich, longitudinal dataset that followed a cohort of approximately 5,000 children born 1998 and 2000, was employed, with data being collected at baseline and when the focal child was, 3, 5, and 9 years old. The study employed conditional process analysis (Hayes & Rockwood, 2020) to investigate the potential mediating effect of parenting stress on the relationship between PRI and children’s problem behavior and the possibly that this mediating effect was moderated by child disability status. The results of this study noted a significant association between PRI and a child\u27s internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Specifically, relationship churners were found to have the highest levels of internalizing and externalizing child behavior compared to the other groups. Results illustrated that parental relationship instability, parenting stress, and the child\u27s disability status each have a significant direct impact on the child\u27s internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Among all PRI types, relationship churners exhibited the highest level of child internalizing behavior compared to stably together, repartnered, and stably separated groups. The results indicate that the parental relationship instability has a significant effect on child’s behavior which is further mediated by parenting stress and moderated by child disability
The Marketing Feasibility of the MIT Press in Asian Market
No full textRevenue from international markets is long proven a vitally profitable quadrant on general balance sheet for academic publishers in the United States. Expanding brand image and maximizing audience landscape beyond the comfort zone have appeared to be a new trend accustomed by a considerable number of academic publishers due to intrinsic content fatigue and distributional restraints facing university presses in the market terrain of America. Similar to many U.S. based businesses, some university presses have set out in uncharted international market to create endemic content and promote multi-lingual publications to broaden overall market share and disseminate their global images. This thesis will discuss the feasibility of one of the biggest academic presses in the U.S., The MIT Press (MITP) in particular international market of mainland China. Considering its previous success in international markets of India and Europe, recently, The MITP is proposed to explore sales and publish translated content in mainland China in the foreseeable future. Furthermore, this paper will double down on a holistic feasibility analysis of the Press’s international business blueprint in mainland China by exploring and evaluating the intrinsic advantages, opportunities, barriers, and challenges facing MITP across its competitive landscape in the particular Asian market. Multiple theories extrapolated from the literature review chapter are used to interpret and consolidate the suggested answers to the research question in the thesis, whereas an abundant volume of interviews and surveys from various stakeholders in local market of mainland China was collected and analyzed to further supplement the market feasibility projection made in the thesis, which adopts a qualitative research method accompanied by a number of commonly utilized research tactics arranged from SWOT analysis, Customer-Centric Marketing (CCM) analysis, focus groups, direct interviews, survey samples, competitive analysis, exploratory research, to Minimum Value Product (MVP) lens
Does the Doctrine of Separation of Church and State Matter?: Examining the Experiences of Black Christian Families in Massachusetts Public School System
Get PDFStudents have full freedom under the law to practice religion in public schools. This is especially important for Black students, for whom religion has been shown to improve academic achievement and to mitigate many stressors they face. However, due to misinterpretations of the “separation of church and state” (or the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment), schools may inadvertently suppress the religious freedom of students instead of actively providing a safe space for religious practice. For this research, a single embedded intrinsic case study was conducted to determine how the separation of church and state doctrine manifested in the experiences of Black Christian students and their families in the Massachusetts public school system. Data from nine Black Christian middle or high school students and 10 parents of Black Christian middle or high school students were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using cultural-historical activity theory and critical race theory. Interview responses revealed that students were able to engage with religion and implement Christian values learned at home while at school. However, not all values were important to schools, and students received mixed messages regarding Christianity. Moreover, the public school environment did not feel inclusive for the Christian students. Student participants did not mention the establishment clause directly, but they knew how the environment felt. Some of the parents did point to the separation of church and state as the reason public schools do not allow more conversation around Christianity. The study results show that schools in Massachusetts have an opportunity to be culturally responsive by affirming the Christian identity of students. Churches can also become involved with public schools to further support Black Christian students and their families
The Impact of Marriage Equality among Taiwanese LGBTQ+ Individuals in Relationships: The Mediating Role of Minority Stress and Relationship Satisfaction
Get PDFTaiwan became the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019, however, the impact of marriage equality on Taiwanese LGBTQ+ individuals’ mental health remains understudied. There were three major purposes of this study: (1) It explored what demographic background related to the value of the importance of marriage for LGBTQ+ individuals in relationships; (2) Using the framework of minority stress, this study investigated whether marital status was related to mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, and overall mental health) among Taiwanese LGBTQ+ individuals in relationships. In addition, this study explored the mediating role of minority stress (heterosexist experiences, internalized homophobia, and outness) and relationship satisfaction. (3) This study explored whether having access to full marital rights related to Taiwanese LGBTQ+ individuals in binational relationships’ experience of minority stress, mental health outcomes, and their relationship satisfaction. There were 397 participants included in this cross-sectional survey study comparing data from surveys of Taiwanese LGBTQ+ adults in relationships for analyses. Overall, the results indicated a high level of perceived importance of marriage. Greater age, higher income level, and religiosity were found to be significant predictors for endorsement of marriage importance. Marital status was positively related to mental health with those Taiwanese LGBTQ+ individuals in relationships who were also married reporting lower depression, anxiety, and more positive overall mental health. Greater outness and relationship satisfaction were found to have partial mediation effects for the relationships between marital status and mental health outcomes, suggesting that being married may relate to being more out and more relationally satisfied, which in turn, are both associated with more positive mental health. As for Taiwanese LGBTQ+ individuals in binational relationships, the results showed no sequential mediation relationship between access to marital rights and mental health outcomes through minority stress factors and relationship satisfaction. However, the most consistent and salient finding was that access to marital rights was a significant predictor for policy-related anxiety among LGBTQ+ individuals in binational relationships who lacked rights.
Chinese Abstract
台灣在2019年成為亞洲第一個合法化同性婚姻的國家，然而，婚姻平權 (Marriage Eqaulity)對台灣性別與性少數族群 (LGBTQ+) 精神健康的影響仍未受到充分研究。因此，本研究有三個主要目的：(1) 探討社經文化背景對於台灣性別與性少數族群在婚姻重要性之影響；(2) 在少數族群壓力理論架構下，研究婚姻狀況是否與台灣性別與性少組群群個體的心理健康結果相關（包含抑鬱、焦慮和整體心理健康指數）。此外，也探討不同少數族群壓力測量（包含異性戀霸權經驗、恐同內化指數和出櫃程度）和關係滿意度的中介作用。(3) 本研究探討對於台灣跨國同性伴侶是否擁有完整婚姻權與少數族群壓力、心理健康結果和關係滿意度的經驗之關聯。 此橫向研究納入了397名參與者的問卷，比較了不同婚姻狀況和不同婚姻權的台灣性別與性少數族群成年人的經驗。 整體而言，結果顯示台灣性別與性少數族群成年人對於婚姻重要性有高度的認同。年齡較大、收入水平較高和宗教信仰程度較高的人被發現是對婚姻重要性認可的重要預測因素。婚姻狀況與心理健康結果呈正相關，已結婚的台灣性別與性少數個體報告較低的抑鬱、焦慮和更正向的整體心理健康。出櫃程度和關係滿意度對婚姻狀況與心理健康結果之間存在部分中介效應，這代表已結婚的個體可能有相對高的出櫃程度和關係滿意相關，進而有更正向的心理健康結果。 至於在台灣跨國關係中的性別與性少數個體數據，結果顯示具備婚姻權的與心理健康結果之間不存在通過少數壓力因素和關係滿意度的連續中介關係。然而，特別的數據發現是，對於缺乏婚姻權的跨國伴侶個體來說，是否具有婚姻權對於婚姻平權政策相關的焦慮感是一個重要預測因素。 本研究的結果也在臨床工作和公共政策發展有所討論跟貢獻。同時也探討了研究的限制和未來可能研究方向
A Qualitative Meta-Analysis Examining the Functions and Meanings of Gender in Transgender Identity Development
No full textTransgender and gender diverse people represent a marginalized group who often experience a variety of adverse life events related to discrimination, bias, and stigma. The unique stressors that marginalized groups experience, such as facing gender-based discrimination and prejudice, go beyond the general stressors that all people may be subjected to and are forms of minority stress (Meyer, 2003). Exposure to experiences of minority stress, including interpersonal and societal rejection, has been found to contribute to the disproportionate negative mental health outcomes experienced by the transgender community (Drabish & Theeke, 2021; Testa et al., 2012). However, the majority of research on transgender people focuses on negative experiences, such as mental health disparities, gender dysphoria, and minority stress. Additionally, much of the research documents individual and interpersonal experiences of transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people, with less research focusing on how TNB people develop their gender identities. To address this gap, this paper presents a qualitative meta-analysis examining the functions and meanings of gender within the process of transgender identity development. Using a critical-constructivist grounded theory (CCGT) meta-analytic approach, I reviewed 27 qualitative studies (which included 426 total participants across studies) to seek to understand how gender functions in relation to sociocultural power structures and how those structures influence the experience of transgender people in developing their gender identities. For the purposes of this study, I describe how the literature documents that functions of gender are connected to not only coping with minority stress, but also to positive themes around agency, self-expression, and vitality that are developed within transgender communities. Based upon that understanding, I offer recommendations for researchers and clinicians working with these populations
Recipes for Resistance: Examining the Reproduction of Indigeneity Through Foodways at the Seneca Boston-Florence Higginbotham House, Nantucket, MA
Get PDFIn the 18th and 19th centuries, Indigenous peoples on Nantucket defied settler-colonial narratives of erasure. Native Americans negotiated the dynamics of racism by increasingly interacting with a rapidly developing free-Black population on the island. In the mid-18th century, a predominately Black racialized community established itself, in which many Native Americans, particularly Native women, began to reside. Among these Native women was Thankful Micah, a fifth-generation Wampanoag who married Seneca Boston, an African American man. Archaeological excavations at the Seneca Boston-Florence Higginbotham House have revealed evidence of Indigenous cultural material; however, Indigenous identity at the site and in the community has been under-studied. This thesis uses documentary and zooarchaeological data to understand the continued presence of Indigenous identity at the Boston-Higginbotham House. Using foodways as an entry point for discussing the reproduction of Indigeneity, this study analyzes the diet of Thankful Micah’s household to understand the intentional connections to the family’s Native and African American cultural heritage. This thesis discusses how dietary preferences and consumption patterns of certain hybridized Native, African, and Anglo-American foodways reinforce Indigeneity in this pluralistic space. By disrupting the narratives of erasure for Nantucket’s Indigenous people, this work reinforces to scholars and the public that Native women were critical social actors in the past who reproduced culture in the perpetuation of community persistence. Moreover, this work encourages scholars of Indigeneity to examine similarly racialized spaces for evidence of Native persistence
A Behavioral and Neural Investigation of Biases in Emotional Perception: The Role of Social Anxiety, State Affect and Face-Sex
No full textEmotional processing and face perception are critical aspects of social functioning, making them pertinent domains to explore not only in the typically developing populations, but also in neurodivergent populations, such as in the context of social anxiety disorder. By employing various experimental paradigms, including psychophysical and neuroimaging methods, the research presented in this dissertation aims to elucidate how emotional processes are influenced by social anxiety, state affect and face-sex, and how they may change across the lifespan. In Chapter 2, I delve into the influence of social anxiety on emotional processing and the moderating role of state affect. With the use of psychophysical techniques, such as the point of subjective equality (PSE) metric, this chapter reveals stronger negative biases in individuals high in social anxiety, particularly when negative affect is also strong. Additionally, state affect and social anxiety interact in such a way that social anxiety alone is not sufficient to fully explain perceptual biases. In Chapter 3, I extend the investigation of biases in emotional perception as a function of social anxiety, by exploring the interaction between social anxiety and face-sex. Contrary to expectations, individuals high in social anxiety exhibit increased biases in emotional processing regardless of the sex of the emotional face, challenging assumptions of sex-specific responses, such that high socially anxious individuals would perceive male faces more negatively than female faces compared to individuals with low levels of social anxiety. This finding might suggest that the absence of an interaction between social anxiety and face-sex is the indication of a more complex and nuanced relationship between the two and could be that other individual differences might be moderating this effect. In Chapter 4, I broaden the scope to examine age-related changes in the perception of emotions in male and female faces over the course of the lifespan, considering 6- to 64-year-olds. Findings in previous adult studies show evidence for the bias to perceive male faces as angry and female faces as happy, however the developmental perspective of such biases is lacking. By investigating perceptual biases across different age groups, the chapter provides insights into the developmental trajectory of emotional face perception. Our findings suggest that overall male faces are perceived more negatively than female faces, while children as young as 6 years show a strong bias to perceive male faces as angry, as bias that appears to decline with age, indicating the dynamic nature of emotional processing across the lifespan. In Chapter 5, I introduce the use of electroencephalography (EEG), using fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS), to better understand the neural markers of the interplay between face-sex and emotion in faces. The goal was to isolate a neural response to angry-male and happy-female faces. This novel approach aims to provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of emotion in faces and shed light on the neural correlates of the interaction between face-sex and emotion. Together, the chapters of this dissertation contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between emotional processing, the role of social anxiety, state affect, and face-sex, while also considering age-related changes, and neural correlates. By elucidating the underlying mechanisms and developmental trajectories, this dissertation offers insights into potential avenues for intervention in atypical populations, such as in individuals with social anxiety, and highlights the importance of considering individual differences in emotional processing across different contexts
Digital Accessibility Knowledge Among TVIS: Proficiencies in Acquiring Accessible Materials
No full textStudents with visual impairments deserve equal access to educational materials and have a legal right to accessible materials. This study explored the critical role and proficiencies of teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) in acquiring digital accessible instructional materials (AIM). The Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, Technological Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge frameworks were combined to provide a holistic understanding of TVIs\u27 technological experiences with digital AIM. A mixed-methods transdisciplinary approach surveyed 114 K–12 TVIs across the US to understand their technology use, self-reported proficiency, and experiences acquiring AIM. The study also assessed TVIs’ skills in applying digital accessibility best practices through two inaccessible digital document simulations. The results showed that TVIs were the primary personnel responsible for all the major steps in acquiring digital AIM (including gathering, adapting, and teaching technology skills). Time constraints, difficulty obtaining materials from teachers, and technological difficulties were all common obstacles. In 41% of cases, students did not consistently receive accessible materials on time. Despite the rise of digital resources, there was a high need to adapt print materials. A mere 28% of participants were considered proficient in multiple aspects of technology knowledge. Participants primarily used mainstream technology to acquire digital AIM, spent eight hours a week, and commonly spent time outside working hours to meet their students’ needs. The number of years of experience did not impact the time spent each week acquiring digital AIM. However, technological proficiency had a significant impact; TVIs who were proficient spent 3.24 hours more per week acquiring digital AIM than those who were not proficient. Participants with higher technology proficiency also spent significantly more time adapting simulations and tended to have greater simulation accuracy. A discussion on the implications of the quality of education for students who are blind or visually impaired led to practical recommendations for more frequent hands-on training using commonly available tools, simplified accessibility guidelines, and building awareness to streamline collaboration processes