University at Albany, State University of New York
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Tu eres inmigrante, pero con mucho honor : exploring school-based identity messaging, belonging, and biculturalism in Central American immigrant students
Get PDFThis study explores the lived experiences of Central American immigrant youth (N = 20) in two high schools located in the same Northeastern state in the U.S. This student sub-demographic represents one of the fastest growing populations in U.S. public schools (Suárez-Orozco & Todorova, 2009; Sibley & Brabeck, 2017). As the primary institutions charged with reception and social inclusion, schools shape trajectories of acculturation, bicultural identity development, and social integration for immigrant youth
Associations Between Maternal Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy And Selected Musculoskeletal Birth Defects Among Offspring In The National Birth Defects Prevention Study
Get PDFMaternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy is known to be associated with poor pregnancy outcomes, including fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. However, evidence for associations between alcohol consumption during pregnancy and some major structural birth defects among offspring is conflicting or inconclusive. This dissertation used data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), a multi-site, population-based case-control study, to examine associations between maternal alcohol consumption and risk of three major musculoskeletal birth defects: gastroschisis, omphalocele, and craniosynostosis. Our analyses built upon previous analyses of these associations using NBDPS data, including larger sample sizes and more robust analytic methods to explore issues related to alcohol consumption measurement, such as bias due to misclassification and the effect of using latent classes to define patterns of risky alcohol consumption
Three essays on sovereign default
Get PDFThe first chapter examines the cyclicality of debt in standard quantitative sovereign default model, the strategic default model. The standard strategic default model has been a canonical model to explain high consumption volatility in emerging markets with default risks, such as Argentina in 2001. These emerging markets with high default risks can be characterized by exhibiting procyclical debt behavior and high level of mean and volatility of interest rate spreads. However, the notion of only emerging markets default has changed, since the Southern European debt crisis starting in 2010. Greece defaulted and other countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland had debt crisis. Unlike the emerging market economies, these countries exhibited countercyclical debt and consumption less volatile than income. Then, can a standard strategic default model explain the default in advanced economies? We choose Greece as a reference country and attempt to match the Greek data leading up to a debt crisis. We find that the standard strategic default model is not capable of generating a countercyclical debt, therefore, leading to consumption more volatile than income. The experiment results suggest that the only way to make debt countercyclical in the standard strategic model is to raise the magnitude of patience parameter. However, doing so leads to very little borrowing and close to no defaults generated by the model, which would not be an appropriate model for explaining default events
Characterizing And Understanding Orographic Precipitation Over The Mountains Of Extratropical South America
Get PDFExtratropical South-America (30-40°S) varies significantly in topography, including a coastal mountain range with elevation from 700-1300 m, a central valley, and the Andes, with elevation from 1000-2500 m on the western side of the continent. The topography of the area can disrupt frontal systems approaching from the Pacific Ocean, leading to enhanced orographic precipitation over the windward slope of the Andes and a sharp rain shadow, with less precipitation in the leeside. These phenomena are also observed over the coastal mountains of south-central Chile. The main goals of this study are to characterize and understand orographic precipitation and rain shadow strength across the southern Andes and to analyze the utility of different datasets and tools to compensate for the limited long-term precipitation records and high-elevation data over this mountainous region
The dance of storytelling: how therapists facilitate clients\u27 narrative-emotion shifting in emotion-focused therapy for trauma
Get PDFThis qualitative study replicated and extended Friedlander et al.’s (2020) case study of time-limited dynamic psychotherapy (TLDP; Levenson, 2010) by investigating therapist behaviors immediately preceding client narrative-emotion shifting from problem markers to change markers in four successful cases of emotion-focused therapy for trauma (EFTT; Paivio & Pascual-Leone, 2010). The primary goal was to identify therapist behaviors in the early, middle and late phases of treatment that uniquely preceded change shifts as identified by the NarrativeEmotion Process Coding System (NEPCS; Angus Narrative-Emotion Marker Lab, 2015)
Trajectories of maternal parenting stress and adolescent behavioral symptoms in unmarried families : the roles of family immigration status, harsh parenting, and father’s early involvement
Get PDFBackgroundAdolescence is a critical period for developing social and emotional wellbeing. Adolescents experience many physical and social changes, making them vulnerable to adaptive and behavioral problems. Compared to their peers in married families, adolescents in unmarried families may be at particularly elevated risk of developing internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems, identifying key risk factors in a family context could provide insights on the development of family-based interventions. Mothers are often seen as the center of the environmental context of children development, their responsiveness to children may be impacted by their economic and psychological resources, which could crucially affect the wellbeing of their children. Compared to married mothers, unmarried mothers are more likely to work in a low-paying occupation and have low average household income, which could contribute to high levels of parenting stress. Research has shown that exposure to maternal parenting stress may be associated with the development of child internalizing and externalizing behaviors in unmarried families. However, as most prior research focusses on evaluating maternal parenting stress at a single time point, the relationships between trajectory patterns of maternal parenting stress and emerging adolescent behavioral problems are unclear. In addition to marital status, family immigration status is also an important component of a family structure. However, the effect of maternal parenting stress on child behavioral problems among immigrant families remains understudied. Understanding the impact of maternal parenting stress trajectories on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and how such impact varies according to family immigration status could provide unique insights for intervention development. In addition, maternal harsh parenting and early father involvement may play crucial roles in the associations of maternal parenting stress and adolescent behavioral symptoms, and evaluating their effects on the associations of interest could provide additional evidence on the development of supportive family programs. The objectives of the current dissertation are to identify the trajectory patterns of maternal parenting stress and evaluate their effects on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors in unmarried families. In addition, the potential effect modification of family immigration status, the mediation effects of maternal harsh parenting were examined. Lastly, joint effects of maternal parenting stress and early father involvement on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors were evaluated. Methods We used longitudinal data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), focusing on births to unmarried parents, which comprise about 75% of the FFCWS sample. Semi-parametric group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify trajectory groups of maternal parenting stress over nine years from ages 1-9. Negative binomial regression models were used to estimate associations between different maternal parenting stress trajectories and adolescent behavioral symptoms at age 15. The mediating effects of maternal psychological and physical aggression were evaluated using a counterfactual approach. The interactions between maternal parenting stress trajectories and father’s early involvement on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms were examined on both additive and multiplicative scales. Results In Aim 1, five maternal parenting stress trajectory groups were identified, representing consistently low (Group 1: 9.2%), consistently mild (Group 2: 54.2%), moderate and decreasing (Group 3: 14.4%), moderate and increasing (Group 4: 16.0%) and consistently high (Group 5: 6.2%) levels of maternal parenting stress. For adolescent internalizing symptoms, offspring exposed to all maternal parenting stress trajectory groups exhibited higher symptoms compared to the consistently low group. Similar results were observed for adolescent externalizing symptoms. In addition, we observed stronger effects of maternal parenting stress on adolescent externalizing symptoms among native-born families than immigrant families across most of the trajectory groups. In Aim 2, maternal psychological aggression significantly mediated the effects of consistently mild (% mediated = 36%) and moderate and decreasing maternal parenting stress (% mediated = 38%) on adolescent internalizing symptoms. Maternal physical aggression was also observed to significantly mediate the effects of consistently mild maternal parenting stress (% mediated = 29%) on adolescent internalizing symptoms. For adolescent externalizing symptoms, both maternal psychological (% mediated: Group 2=38%; Group 3=41%; Group 4=34%) and physical aggression (% mediated: Group 2=33%; Group 3=29%; Group 4=31%) significantly mediated the associations across most of the trajectory groups (except for the consistently-high group). In Aim 3, greater father involvement in supportive activities was associated with lower adolescent internalizing (IRR: 0.969; 95% CI: 0.955 – 0.984) and externalizing symptoms (IRR: 0.980; 95% CI: 0.966 – 0.994). High levels of time investment (IRR: 0.846; 95% CI: 0.732 - 0.966) and greater father involvement in parenting activities (IRR: 0.996; 95% CI: 0.993, 0.998) were associated with fewer adolescent internalizing symptoms. Father involvement in parenting activities was found to significantly alleviate the adverse effects of consistently-mild maternal parenting stress (Group 2) on adolescent externalizing symptoms (RERI=-0.013; 90% CI: -0.030, -0.001) on the additive scale, compared to the consistently-low maternal parenting stress group (Group 1). Conclusion This dissertation extended prior research that focused on evaluating maternal parenting stress at a single time point, and provided novel evidence on the impact of different trajectory patterns of maternal parenting stress on behavioral problems in adolescence. Our findings also provided new insights into the potential effect modification of family immigration status, along with the roles of harsh parenting behaviors and early father involvement, which has laid the groundwork for targeted intervention development to better support the wellbeing of unmarried families
Mining And Black-Box Learning Of Relationship-Based Access Control Policies
Get PDFInformation systems collect a huge volume of data about individuals such as social interactions, health/educational records, etc. To protect such data and mitigate privacy risks, access control policies specify what actions different users are authorized to perform in a system. It is important to obtain an accurate specification of the access control policy implemented in a system to 1) safely and effectively use the system as end-users and 2) ensure that it meets developers\u27 expectations of security/privacy. Unfortunately, most systems today do not come with a clearly documented access control policy. Even worse, the access controls implemented in a system might not conform with the documented policy. There is a great deal of complexity involved in testing the correctness of policy implemented by a typical system comprising a large number of users and resources; such testing involves validating an excessive number of accesses
An Exploration Of The Impact Of Playing A Puzzle Game On Collaborative Problem Solving Skills
Get PDFThe purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of the impact of game mechanics on developing collaborative problem solving (CPS) skills. CPS skills are important for the complex work environments of the 21st century, and games appear to provide potential learning experiences where such skills can develop. The research questions of this study tackled how collaborative problem solving skills developed and how game environments through game mechanics can contribute to such development. Following a qualitative approach, the interactions between dyads in a puzzle game was analyzed using the PISA Collaborative Problem Solving framework (2015). This research contributed to the knowledge needed to support a new generation of learning environments conducive to collaborative problem solving skills based on games. The study explored the impact of a puzzle game, Portal 2 co-op which is a collaborative game where players work together to solve puzzles, on collaborative problem solving skills in two dyads. The researcher used PISA as a framework to measure the collaborative problem solving skills of each individual in every level providing a quantitative score that represented the CPS skills. PISA was also used as the framework to guide the qualitative analysis of the interactions among players and between players and the game, including their spoken words, their interactions with the game elements and the use of the mechanics. To better capture the intended mechanics and other game elements in Portal 2, Jarvinen’s framework for assessing game elements was used to identify those different elements including the goals of each level and sub-challenges within each level. The researcher found that while PISA can be used to guide the assessment of collaborative problem solving skills in interactive and fluid environments such as games
Using stochastic physics perturbations in ensemble forecasts to investigate predictability of mesoscale winter precipitation events
Get PDFAccurate winter precipitation forecasts are difficult due to factors influencing precipitation amounts and precipitation types including numerical weather prediction biases. In particular, large forecast errors can arise due to uncertainties in parameterized processes, especially those related to microphysics and turbulence. Many winter weather impacts are due to mesoscale precipitation features that are better represented in convection-permitting model forecasts. One way to account for model physics uncertainty is to design convection-permitting ensembles using stochastic physics methods. For example, stochastic parameter perturbation (SPP) varies parameters within individual schemes. SPP methods can be combined with varied initial and boundary conditions (ICs/BCs) to represent synoptic-scale uncertainty in limited-area ensembles. In this dissertation, I evaluate and improve the utility of SPP in microphysics (MP), planetary boundary layer (PBL), and surface layer (SL) schemes to better represent mesoscale uncertainty in ensemble forecasts of cool-season events
From judgment to action : moral cognition and the tenuous link to moral courage
Get PDFThough specifics differ across cultures and even across individuals, research has shown surprising consensus as to what constitutes immoral behavior across societies (e.g., murder, theft). Even though much research has broadened our understanding of moral cognition, comparatively few studies have investigated moral action. There are real-world examples of people trying to intervene against immoral behavior, a behavior known as moral courage. This dissertation, comprised of a total of six studies across three manuscripts, seeks to add to the corpus of moral psychology by bridging the gap in knowledge regarding how connected moral cognition and action are. In the two studies of the first manuscript, participants read a variety of short moral vignettes and rated whether they would be more inclined to confront or avoid the moral violator. Participants generally indicated a slight preference for avoidance (or ambivalence between the two motivations) across most violation types. Additionally, a third supplemental study from this manuscript found that people tended to feel disgust in response to different types of moral violations, further corroborating a general (though not exclusively) avoidant response to immoral situations. The study in the second manuscript used the same stimulus set but asked participants what their concerns would be if they were to confront the moral violators in the scenarios. The most common concern among participants was not knowing what to do or say. Finally, the two studies in the third manuscript examined behavior in response to a staged theft, with Study 1 comparing participants’ responses to a hypothetical theft to an ostensibly real one and Study 2 examining the effects of having participants self-affirm their values on subsequent intervention behaviors. Study 1 revealed that people overestimate their levels of moral courage in response to a theft with hypothetical intervention rates being much higher than actual, observed intervention rates. Study 2 showed similarly low levels of intervention in response to the theft, with no effect of self-affirmation. Taken together, these six studies show that although people are quick to judge certain acts as morally wrong, they are not so quick to act. Data from these six studies, particularly qualitative data gathered from interviews in Studies 1-2 of the third manuscript, suggest that people have conflicting motivations in response to immoral acts and give various reasons as to why they do not (or would not) do anything to stop these acts, ranging from lack of perceived self-efficacy to simply not noticing something bad was happening. Thus, the link between moral judgment and moral action appears to be tenuous and easily interrupted