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Developing an Effective Network Congestion Control Solution for Large-Scale Disaggregated Storage Systems
No full textDisaggregated storage systems represent a promising approach for large-scale data center storage frameworks. This architecture involves physically separating computing devices and storage hosts and connecting them via high-speed networks. This design enables more flexible resource management, simplified upgrade and maintenance, and other desirable features for enterprise storage systems.
However, one of the significant challenges of such systems is the network connection between computing devices and storage hosts. Similar to traditional data center networks, disaggregated storage systems require ultra-low latency to manage storage I/O requests. Consequently, network congestion becomes a significant concern in such a system. Accurately evaluating network congestion control solutions without an evaluation platform designed explicitly for disaggregated storage systems poses a challenge. A comprehensive evaluation platform of disaggregated storage systems is essential for researchers to construct dependable and fast experiments.
The dissertation majorly contains three contributions. The initial contribution presents a prototype of a storage-network iterative simulator to model and assess the performance of disaggregated storage systems. This task poses a challenge for two primary reasons. Firstly, the performance of such systems is contingent on network protocols and storage solutions, both of which interact with each other, resulting in unpredictability at runtime. Consequently, modeling storage and network latency independently and aggregating them may produce inaccurate results. Secondly, the available trace datasets used for generating the workload are insufficient as they do not consider network delay and storage processing time integration. To address these challenges, we develop a storage-network iterative simulator based on the existing storage simulator (MQSim) and network simulator (NS3). This simulator provides an accurate evaluation of network congestion control solutions for large-scale disaggregated storage systems by considering the above-mentioned challenges.
The dissertation\u27s second contribution concentrates on creating a network congestion control method for disaggregated storage systems. The study reveals that existing congestion control algorithms for data center networks are not suitable for our target system due to the unique characteristics of the network topology and storage I/O workload. As a response to the identified issues, we develop a new approach that dynamically determines the initial sending rate for each flow. Our solution particularly assists in enhancing the effectiveness of congestion control protocols under heavy I/O traffic by setting an appropriate initial rate for a flow that reduces congestion from the outset without degrading network performance.
The third contribution enhances the network congestion control method developed in the second contribution by borrowing sending rate information from long network traffic to make our method more adaptive for different types of network workloads
Acculturation and Health Services Utilization Among Older Asian Americans: The Roles of Social Support and Psychological Distress
Get PDFThere are relatively few studies about health services utilization among older Asian Americans. Historically, Asian Americans have been treated as one homogenous race group, and the underlying heterogeneity among specific ethnic groups was underappreciated and neglected. This dissertation investigates the relationship between acculturation and health services utilization among older Asian Americans and several specific Asian ethnic subgroups, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese Americans. In addition, South Asian Americans and members of other Asian groups were also examined.
This study employed two samples of older Asian Americans based on the specific healthcare resources evaluated. The first sample employed five waves of data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), including 2011-2020 to examine the association between acculturation and doctor visits, emergency room visits, and hospitalization. The second sample employed three waves of data from the CHIS (2013-2020) to investigate the relationship between acculturation and dental visits. The mediation role of psychological distress and the moderation role of social support were also investigated.
Logistic regression results showed that the relationship between acculturation and health services is mixed, depending on the type of services and the specific Asian ethnic group. The results showed that as acculturation increased, the likelihood of visiting a doctor increased among older Chinese adults, and the likelihood of visiting a dentist increased among older Chinese, Filipino, and Vietnamese. Contrary to expectations, the likelihood of emergency room visits increased as acculturation increased among older Koreans and Vietnamese, and the likelihood of being hospitalized increased among older Japanese and Koreans. Social support moderated the relationship between acculturation and doctor visits among older Chinese, and between acculturation and dental services utilization among older Asian Americans and Chinese. Social support also moderated the relationship between acculturation and emergency room visits among older Asian Americans. Finally, the results showed that psychological distress did not mediate any of the relationships. The results of this study imply that programs should be developed to help older Asian Americans learn more about the United States health care system and that health care providers should develop services that are culturally appropriate for the populations they serve
“You’re On Your Own”: Examining the Wellbeing of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Who Have Transitioned into Adulthood in the United States
Get PDFThe United States\u27 Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) Program, which has served around 13,000 foreign-born children since the 1980s, aims to incorporate unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) in need of international protection into the child welfare systems of 15 individual states. Despite the fact that children accepted into the URM program have access to the same benefits as those in state custody, URMs face unique challenges from their non-refugee peers. Limited research exists regarding the wellbeing of URMs who have transitioned out of the URM program and into adulthood. This study aimed to explore the experiences of participants who have transitioned out of the URM Program, related to their health (physical/mental), environment, and social connections. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 adults who have transitioned out of the URM Program across five states. Utilizing the World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Framework (WHO, 2012), the URM program’s “successful integration” outcomes (USCCB, 2013), and domains from the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (Midwest study) (Courtney et al., 2007), phenomenological data collection focused on participants’ quality of life, identification of services and supports that have facilitated their transition to adult life, and primary challenges faced. Results showed that despite strong support from URM programs pre-transition, URM youth face significant challenges in adulthood. These challenges include a lack of support post-transition, societal expectations of self-sufficiency, economic insecurity, and difficulty continuing their educational pursuits. Utilizing the findings from this study, policy and practice recommendations are proposed to help inform future service provision for URMs transitioning out of the URM program. Recommendations are also made for future research on this population, based on the study’s findings
“Si Se Puede”: Latinx/a/o Students Thriving at a Selective Historically White Institution
Get PDFThe prevalence of whiteness at selective Historically White Institutions (HWIs) creates hostile and oppressive environments for Latinx/a/o students. Consequently, Latinx/a/o students face racialized barriers that impact their ability to thrive at these institutions. Yet, despite these racialized barriers, Latinx/a/o students have found ways to thrive at selective HWIs. Thriving is a transformative process through which one confronts and copes with challenges but is able to flourish. As part of the process, the transformation happens when one moves beyond the original level of functioning and grows psychologically despite the trauma experienced. The objective of this study was to move beyond the racialized barriers that Latinx/a/o students face and understand how Latinx/a/o students thrive at selective HWIs.
To move away from deficit-based ways of looking at Latinx/a/o student experience, this study integrated three Latinx/a/o-focused, asset-based theories to understand how Latinx/a/o students thrived. LatCrit, community cultural wealth (CCW), and validation theory were utilized in this study. The author examined how seven Latinx/a/o co-creators thrived at a selective HWI in the northeastern United States, employing a phenomenological approach to discover the essence and nuances of thriving for Latinx/a/o students. Initial findings suggest that (a) Latinx/a/o student thriving is connected to various elements not defined by academic success; (b) Latinx/a/o students tap into community cultural wealth, validating agents, and institutional spaces to overcome racialized barriers; and (c) Latinx/a/o student thriving is subjective and episodic at selective HWIs. Overall, these findings illuminate the complexity and nuances of Latinx/a/o student thriving at selective HWIs. The findings also suggest that internal agents at selective HWIs need to be aware of the subjective and episodic nature of thriving for Latinx/a/o students and understand the conditions and elements that can support Latinx/a/o student thriving
Teaching Social Determinants of Health: The Effect of Simulation Based-Education
No full textThe main objective of this dissertation was to make a meaningful contribution to the existing research conducted on improving nursing students’ knowledge in terms of social determinants of health (SDOH) and cultural awareness, which was achieved through the publication of three scholarly articles. First, a scoping review explored how standardized patients were used in undergraduate nursing education. The first paper explored the evidence related to how standardized patient simulations were used in undergraduate nursing education according to the National League for Nursing/Jeffries Simulation Framework for Simulated Participant Methodology. This research revealed a lack of safety applications, standardized patient hiring, using higher-level outcomes, and using policies and procedures. These findings helped shape the simulation scenarios and sessions for Chapter 4.
Second, in Chapter 3, a qualitative study was conducted with prelicensure nursing students to explore their experiences and needs. The qualitative data and literature review findings were used to build simulation scenarios that directly address the needs and concerns of nursing students. The results of this study helped to create scenarios in Chapter 4. The examples and themes from Chapter 3 were used to create simulation scenarios.
Third, in Chapter 4, a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was conducted to create new simulation scenarios and investigate the effectiveness of these scenarios on nursing students’ SDOH and cultural awareness levels. Two simulation scenarios were created with the help of chapters 2 and 3. Results showed that both simulation types significantly improved mean scores of the Cultural Awareness Scale (CAS) from the pretest to the posttest. No statistically significant differences between the standardized patient and manikin-based groups regarding CAS and SDOH Knowledge Survey scores after the intervention were found. Additional research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of the evidence-based simulations on different populations, such as nursing students in different settings or nurses. In summary, this dissertation highlighted the need for simulation-based education and offered practical and policy-related implications for addressing this issue.
Abstract (Turkish)
Bu tezin temel amacı, hemşirelik öğrencilerinin sağlığın sosyal belirleyicileri (SSB) ve kültürel farkındalık açısından bilgilerini geliştirmeye yönelik yürütülen ve üç bilimsel makalenin yayınlanmasıyla elde edilen mevcut araştırmaya anlamlı bir katkı yapmaktır. İlk olarak, bir kapsam belirleme incelemesi, standartlaştırılmış hastaların lisans hemşireliği eğitiminde nasıl kullanıldığını araştırmıştır. İlk makale, National League for Nursing/Jeffries Simulation Framework for Simulated Participant metodolojisine göre standartlaştırılmış hasta simülasyonlarının lisans hemşireliği eğitiminde nasıl kullanıldığına ilişkin kanıtları araştırmıştır. Bu araştırma, güvenlik uygulamalarının, standartlaştırılmış hasta işe alımının, daha üst düzey sonuçların kullanılmasının ve prosedürlerin kullanılmasının eksikliğini ortaya çıkarmıştır. Bu bulgular, Bölüm 4 için simülasyon senaryolarını ve oturumlarını şekillendirmeye yardımcı olmuştur.
İkinci olarak, Bölüm 3\u27te lisans öncesi hemşirelik öğrencileriyle deneyimlerini ve ihtiyaçlarını keşfetmek için niteliksel bir çalışma yapılmıştır. Niteliksel veriler ve literatür taraması bulguları, hemşirelik öğrencilerinin ihtiyaç ve kaygılarını doğrudan ele alan simülasyon senaryoları oluşturmak için kullanılmıştır. Bu çalışmanın sonuçları, Bölüm 4\u27te senaryoların oluşturulmasına yardımcı olmuştur. Bölüm 3\u27teki örnekler ve temalar, simülasyon senaryoları oluşturmak için kullanılmıştır.
Üçüncü olarak, Bölüm 4\u27te, yeni simülasyon senaryoları oluşturmak ve bu senaryoların hemşirelik öğrencilerinin SDOH ve kültürel farkındalık seviyeleri üzerindeki etkinliğini araştırmak için yarı deneysel bir ön test-son test çalışması yapılmıştır. Bölüm 2 ve 3\u27ün yardımıyla iki simülasyon senaryosu oluşturulmuştur. Sonuçlar, her iki simülasyon türünün de Kültürel Farkındalık Ölçeği\u27nin (KFÖ) ortalama puanlarını ön testten son teste önemli ölçüde iyileştirdiğini göstermiştir. Müdahale sonrası KFÖ ve SSB Bilgi Anketi puanları açısından standardize edilmiş hasta ve manken bazlı gruplar arasında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir fark bulunmamıştır. Kanıta dayalı simülasyonların farklı ortamlardaki hemşirelik öğrencileri veya hemşireler gibi farklı popülasyonlar üzerindeki etkinliğini araştırmak için ek araştırmalara ihtiyaç vardır. Özetle, bu tez simülasyona dayalı eğitime olan ihtiyacı vurguladı ve bu konuyu ele almak için pratik ve politikayla ilgili çıkarımlar sunmuştur
Application of Business Analytics Approaches to Address Climate-Change-Related Challenges
Get PDFClimate change is an existential threat facing humanity, civilization, and the natural world. It poses many multi-layered challenges that call for enhanced data-driven decision support methods to help inform society of ways to address the deep uncertainty and incomplete knowledge on climate change issues. This research primarily aims to apply management, decision, information, and data science theories and techniques to propose, build, and evaluate novel data-driven methodologies to improve understanding of climate-change-related challenges. Given that we pursue this work in the College of Management, each essay applies one or more of the three distinct business analytics approaches (i.e., descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive analysis) to aid in developing decision support capabilities. Given the rapid growth in data availability, we evaluate important data characteristics for each analysis, focusing on the data source, granularity, volume, structure, and quality. The final analysis consideration is the methods used on the data output to help coalesce the various model outputs into understandable visualizations, tables, and takeaways. We pursue three distinct business analytics challenges. First, we start with a natural language processing analysis to gain insights into the evolving climate change adaptation discussion in the scientific literature. We then create a stochastic network optimization model with recourse to provide coastal decision-makers with a cost-benefit analysis tool to simultaneously assess risks and costs to protect their community against rising seas. Finally, we create a decision support tool for helping organizations reduce greenhouse gas emissions through strategic sustainable energy purchasing. Although the three essays vary on their specific business analysis approaches, they all have a common theme of applying business analytics techniques to analyze, evaluate, visualize, and understand different facets of the climate change threat
Diagnosing Psychosis Among Black Americans: The Impact of White Clinicians\u27 Colorblind Racial Attitudes and Multicultural Responsiveness
No full textThere is established support for the disproportionate rate at which clinicians diagnose Black Americans with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders rather than affective disorders (e.g., depression; Neighbors et al., 2003; Olbert et al., 2018; Schwartz & Blankenship, 2014; Trierweiler et al., 2006). Clinician biases have been investigated as probable causes of the longstanding trend of disproportionate rates of psychosis diagnoses among Black populations. However, the influence of racial biases, specifically, have not yet been explored. Researchers have identified that adopting a colorblind racial ideology may introduce bias and limits clinicians’ ability to engage with elements of multiculturalism in their assessment and treatment of racial minority clients (Neville et al., 2013). This association warrants further exploration, given that White clinicians’ lower cultural awareness and multicultural responsiveness have been linked with uncomprehensive assessment and inappropriate approaches to therapeutic interventions (Constantine & Gushue, 2003; Constantine & Sue, 2007). Furthermore, multicultural insensitivity may increase clinicians’ susceptibility to clinical interpretations based on racial stereotypes, which may, in turn, contribute to psychosis misdiagnoses in Black populations (Miserocchi, 2014). Limited multicultural awareness and responsiveness was found to correlate with more negative racial attitudes towards persons of color (Chao, 2012; Gushue & Constantine, 2003; Miserocchi, 2014; Neville et al., 2006; Spanierman et al., 2008), higher levels of racist beliefs and/or negative racial biases, defensiveness, and denial/distortion of racial topics/discrimination in general (e.g., colorblind racial attitudes; Neville et al., 2000, Neville et al., 2013). Conversely, clinicians’ higher endorsement of self-perceived multicultural counseling responsiveness has been linked with better mental health treatment outcomes and reductions in CBRA (Miserocchi, 2014; Neville et al., 2013; Spanierman et al., 2008). In sum, there is a need to further understand the role of colorblind racial attitudes (CBRA) and less self-perceived multicultural responsiveness as possible forms of racial bias in the diagnostic decision-making process for clinicians working with racial minority clients, as findings from studies investigating the race of clients and/or clinicians have yielded limited and inconclusive information. This study examined whether a client’s race, depicted in a set of clinical vignettes as White or Black, influenced clinicians’ interpretation of psychiatric symptoms or likelihood of diagnosing psychosis. I then considered if and how colorblind racial attitudes and self-perceived multicultural responsiveness related to clinicians’ diagnostic decision-making processes, when making distinctions between depressive and psychotic symptoms
Two-Dimensional Smooth Function Restoration From Its Noisy Integrals
No full textThe process of estimating the underlying probability density function that describes a sampled set of data is known as density estimation. The bin hierarchy method (BHM) is a density estimator that allows us to restore a smooth function from its underlying noisy integrals. It has been shown that the BHM computes the maximally smooth function using essentially all the information from the integrals in an efficient, automated, and minimally memory-intensive manner. The structure and mathematics for BHM have been presented in [9][10], with appropriate numerical tests having been conducted. This thesis reviews the BHM method and discusses potential generalizations for bivariate data, such as using bicubic splines or biquadratic histosplines as spline interpolants. Proposed applications on forms of joint probability density functions found within physics and other sciences are also discussed
Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, Pro-Conflict: Understanding the Relationships Between Experiences and Conflict Escalation as it Relates to the Abortion Debate
No full textThe landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade sparked a 50-year conflict between two social groups- the pro-life and pro-choice movements . As political parties, religious groups, and prominent social figures more clearly aligned themselves with either the pro-choice or pro-life movement, the salience and controversy around the issue rose significantly. Individuals within each group began to see others as outsiders, rivals, and even enemies. Strong opinions and passionate perspectives do not just materialize, they are influenced by a myriad of factors unique to each individual. This thesis seeks to understand, using a conflict resolution perspective, how various experiences individuals may have with abortion may influence their opinion on the issue, and ultimately escalate the conflict
The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good: Carbon Credits and Funding for Decarbonization in Developing Countries
Get PDFCarbon credits issued in the voluntary carbon market are an important source of funding for projects in developing countries designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as forest preservation and renewable energy. Beyond their potential to provide billions of dollars of private sector financing for decarbonization, carbon credits can generate economic opportunity, employment, and biodiversity. But they are controversial, mainly (but not only) because it is difficult to confirm and to quantify their emissions benefits. This article argues that policymakers should nonetheless support voluntary carbon market growth, so long as companies use carbon credits to mitigate emissions they cannot avoid on their net zero pathways, rather than offsetting emissions they can and should reduce. In this way, carbon credits can operate as a voluntary tax on unavoidable emissions, used to finance the energy transition in developing countries