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State of the States: Blueprints for Building Age-Friendly Futures
No full textExecutive Summary:
Mississippi’s aging population growth mirrors national trends and suggests a need to establish equitable and sustainable age-friendly policies and programs. This report offers an overview of the best practices from age-friendly states, which can be adapted to meet unique challenges and opportunities for Mississippi’s aging population. We highlight five age-friendly policy areas that can improve Mississippi’s livability.
• Aging in Place: Best practices from California, Florida, and Massachusetts can be adapted to promote aging in place through structural changes to homes via universal design and home modifications, or through supportive housing programs and home care.
• Cross-Sector Collaboration: Michigan, Florida, and Washington provide strong examples of how collaboration can successfully occur across public health systems, housing, social services, and transportation. This multi-sector engagement helps to support the equity and sustainability of established programs.
• Supporting Caregivers: Mississippi age-friendly advocates currently aim to provide support for caregivers through the Mississippi Family Caregiver Coalition. New York and North Carolina provide additional solutions for consideration, such as financial and social support for paid and unpaid caregivers.
• Transportation and Social Connections: Investing in increasing equitable access to transportation is a priority for Maine, Michigan, and New Jersey, while community engagement has been an age-friendly focus for Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington to reduce social isolation and promote the well-being of aging adults.
• Equity: States leading age-friendly equity initiatives, such as those addressing social identity-related disparities or rural or community challenges, include Maine, Minnesota, and California.
The Path Forward for Mississippi: Mississippi age-friendly advocates have begun to lay the foundation for establishing an age-friendly ecosystem through multisector collaboration, including joining the Age-Friendly Public Health Systems (AFPHS) network. Additionally, the AFFIRM (Age-Friendly Focused Information and Resource Maps) project provides our state with resource maps containing access to 2,853 age-friendly resources, such as senior centers, medical services, and other community supports. Next steps for accelerating Mississippi’s age-friendly efforts are highlighted below.
• Joining the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States to receive support for establishing age-friendly initiatives.
• Advancing aging-in-place initiatives through universal design consideration and establishing multisector partnerships with healthcare and home services.
• Expanding support to communities for paid and unpaid caregivers, improving transportation access, and providing more community events for older adults.
• Sustaining resource mapping and gap analysis for Mississippi to ensure services meet the needs of the aging population across counties.
The goal of this report is to learn from the successes of age-friendly states and practices so that approaches can be adapted to Mississippi or other states. With the information detailed in this report, state leaders can create age-friendly policies that allow Mississippians to thrive in their homes and communities while creating a more inclusive and age-friendly Mississippi
Addressing the Accounting Pipeline Leak: Academic and Socioeconomic Barriers to Entry, Retention, and Belonging
No full textMany undergraduate students express an early interest in accounting, yet the actual number who later go on to matriculate into the profession is significantly lower. Despite efforts by educational institutions and the accounting industry to attract students to the profession, accounting programs experience high attrition rates. Using a survey-based approach, this research provides insights into factors that influence students to (1) enter university as declared accounting majors, (2) switch into accounting during their time at university, or (3) leave the accounting program. Additionally, this study examines the role of academic and socioeconomic backgrounds in shaping these decisions. By pinpointing potential “leaks” in the accounting pipeline, this study provides actionable insights for universities and industry professionals to bolster recruitment, improve retention, and support students transitioning into the field, ultimately fostering a profession that better reflects the students initially drawn to it
Almost Last Again? Mississippi\u27s Labor Force Participation Rate: Causes and Solutions
No full textMississippi is currently ranked second to last in labor force participation rate in the country. This is the latest damning statistic inhibiting the state from growing and becoming a more nationally recognized state with higher economic output. This thesis examines how Mississippi arrived at this bleak labor force participation rate and what is currently ongoing to alleviate it. It also examines some possible proposed solutions to accelerate those efforts. Through extensive research and numerous interviews with officials from public and private sector employees directly dealing with this predicament, this thesis has assembled a thorough and comprehensive picture of how the state reached this point, what is currently being done to fix it, and some initiatives to hasten improvement. Mississippi has long struggled with maintaining a healthy labor force ever since the inception of the state due to internal factors such as slow innovation and political tension and external factors such as the Civil War and multiple major natural disasters.
Currently Mississippi’s labor force participation rate is depressed by factors including education, healthcare, transportation, childcare, lack of applicable jobs, lack of major cities, and statewide culture. There are ongoing efforts to improve these factors through government funded public foundations like AccelerateMS and private foundations like EmpowerMS along with the normal efforts of the existing education and healthcare systems. This thesis proposes ten initiatives in addition to these efforts to improve the labor force participation rate. These initiatives directly address the main factors of the crisis and further unleash economic development in the state. The initiatives range from examining the balance of administrative salaries to teacher salaries in public education to starting an ad campaign to encourage workforce participation. While the labor force participation rate problems did not appear overnight due to the many intertwined dynamics and will not be fixed overnight, this thesis attempts to reach the heart of the issue and propose some possible steps to improve it
Integrating Pedagogy and Mathematics Content in Content-Focused Professional Development
Get PDFIn this Perspective on Practice, we describe how we interpreted, built on, and adapted the design principles shared in “The Content- Focused Methods Course: A Model for Integrating Pedagogy and Mathematics Content” by Steele and Hillen (2012). Using evidence of learning from that report as a foundation, we provide insights into how integrating pedagogy and mathematics content in content-focused professional development (CFPD) influenced our evidence of learning
The effects of biological products on soybean in Mississippi
No full textBiological products are an option being marketed towards Mississippi soybean producers that have many purported effects. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of biological products across the predominant soybean growing regions of Mississippi. Products were evaluated at seven site-years in Mississippi during the 2023 and 2024 growing season against an untreated and treated control in a randomized complete block design. Products were evaluated for agronomic, morphological, and pathological effects. Very few effects from biological products were observed. With a lack of effects, adoption of these biologicals in Mississippi may be seldom
Semantic segmentation via transfer learning for off-road data
No full textIn autonomous driving, utilizing deep learning models to help make decisions has become a popular theme, particularly in the realm of computer vision. Deep learning models are heavily influenced to make decisions based on the environments in which they are trained. Currently, very few datasets exist for off-road autonomy that include visual semantic segmentation labels. Traditional semantic segmentation requires hand-labeling large imagery datasets or using synthetically generated imagery to train a model. This study aims to apply transfer learning techniques to automatically label a new off-road dataset. That objective will be accomplished in two phases: first, by utilizing pre-existing labels of published off-road datasets, and second, by creating new labels derived from a well-performing model and a small subset of hand-labeled imagery. Additionally, this thesis investigates a proposed advancement to the auto-labeling pipeline using features extracted from auto-encoders
The impact of blockchain technology adoption on data breach incidents
No full textInformation systems scholars have examined the multifaceted benefits of blockchain technology within different IS traditions, providing valuable insights into its diverse applications and potential impacts. In pursuit of economic advantages, such as reduced verification and networking costs, numerous firms adopt blockchain technology. However, blockchain systems in firms can encounter a series of hacks and attacks because of vulnerabilities. The extant studies on blockchain technology and information security suggest conflicting perspectives regarding the legitimacy of blockchain security through conceptual or exploratory papers. In particular, we have a lack of explanatory research that can shed light on the conflicting perspectives. Therefore, I examined the relationship between blockchain technology adoption and information security through empirical research using data breaches. I utilized institutional theory to develop hypotheses and used the staggered difference-in-differences design to test the proposed hypotheses. The longitudinal study applies institutional theory that distinguishes between symbolic and substantive blockchain technology adoption. Symbolic blockchain technology adoption merely offers stakeholders the perception of technological advancement without actual blockchain implementation. Conversely, substantive blockchain technology adoption creates tangible and concrete changes in organizational routines, aligning with the maximization of a meaningful impact on the firms
Designing an instructional coaching model for residency-based alternate route teacher candidates in Mississippi to improve instructional competencies and self-efficacy
No full textAlternate route teachers are adult learners who enter the teaching profession through nontraditional pathways, often without formal training in education. While they bring diverse experiences and a commitment to student success, they frequently face challenges in translating theoretical knowledge into effective classroom practice. Research indicates that instructional coaching serves as a critical bridge between pedagogical theory and practical application, providing job-embedded professional development that enhances instructional competencies. At its core, instructional coaching is a collaborative partnership built on trust and respect, offering teachers a supportive space to reflect on their practice, receive targeted feedback, and develop their professional identity. Alternate route teachers in residency programs present a unique opportunity for instructional coaching, as they are still supported by university instructors and mentor teachers before assuming full responsibility as the teacher of record. A coaching model tailored to this population can strengthen their self-efficacy and instructional decision-making. Mississippi alternate route programs do not currently offer formal instructional coaching programs; however, several offer mentoring services. This project presents a design for a supplemental coaching program within an existing residency model intended to improve instructional competencies and self-efficacy of alternate route teacher candidates
Research advancement of guayule resin as a natural wood preservative
No full textIncreasing concerns about human health and the environment have led to raised demand for eco-friendly wood preservatives. Guayule resin, extracted from Parthenium argentatum plant contains insecticidal and antifungal compounds making it a promising natural wood preservative. This study evaluated suitable carrier system for guayule resin, as well as leaching rate and termite resistance of treated yellow poplar and southern pine specimens. Wood specimens were treated with different concentrations of guayule in acetone, toluene, and ethyl acetate using vacuum impregnation. The leaching behavior and termite resistance of the treated specimens were assessed according to the AWPA Standard E11-16 and AWPA Standard E1-23 respectively. The results revealed that yellow poplar exhibited a higher leaching rate than southern pine; however, yellow poplar demonstrated greater resistance to termite attacks. The optimal treatment was 5% concentration of guayule in toluene as solvent. The results suggest that guayule could serve as a promising eco-friendly wood preservative
Atomistic modeling of Mg and Al systems using rapid artificial neural network derived interatomic potential
No full textMachine learning derived interatomic potentials have proven to be effective tools in simulation that mimic the accuracy of ab-initio calculations to the sub meV/atom level. They offer the advantage of computational speed operating at linear scaling with respect to the system’s size making them more efficient than classical potentials like MEAM (modified embedded atom methods). In this work, interatomic potentials are created based on the rapid artificial neural network (RANN) formalism for magnesium (Mg), Aluminum (Al) and their alloys. From previous works, the RANN formalism produces high-fidelity atomic models with accurate force fields for several metals, offering new insights into their physical properties. The RANN formalism is implemented with the LAMMPS MD package using a training database from DFT calculations, fingerprints inspired from modified embedded atom method formalism (MEAM) and angular screening to optimize atomic neighbor interactions and computational time. The generated RANN potential is a minimized single hidden layer architecture shown to replicate speeds of classical potentials, and its high accuracy is successfully validated with first-principle physical results of elastic, structural, bulk, defects, and thermal properties. This confirms the significance of these potentials for efficient large-scale molecular dynamics simulation