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DEFINING SELF-DETERMINATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF YOUNG ADULTS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES IN INCLUSIVE POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Get PDFThe concept of self-determination is well-researched in both educational psychology and special education and has significant theoretical foundations in motivation. It has informed multiple interventions to support instructional strategies, interventions, curricula, and, most recently, inclusive postsecondary education programs. Inclusive postsecondary education programs empower students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to become self-determined. While self-determination is undoubtedly crucial to promoting independence for adults with disabilities in inclusive postsecondary education programs, we have lacked student voice in understanding how to define, measure, or promote self-determination. Thus, it is difficult to know if the efforts to promote self-determination are achieving their goals. The present study aims to define self-determination from the perspectives of young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities enrolled in inclusive postsecondary education programs
LEAF REMOVAL SEVERITY AND TIMING AFFECTS ON ‘HONEYCRISP’ AND ‘WA-38’ APPLE FRUIT QUALITY
Get PDFLeaf removal before harvest can be useful for enhancing red color for bicolor apple cultivars. Red color increases the appeal to consumers. Despite the potential benefits of leaf removal for enhancing red color, there may also be risks to fruit quality. Removing leaves increases sun exposure, which can lead to sunburn damage, reducing the percentage of marketable, non-sunburned fruit and affecting overall fruit quality. This raises the need to balance optimizing fruit coloration with minimizing risks to both the current and subsequent seasons' crops. In the industry, leaf removal has been used to enhance red color but has not thoroughly addressed the impact on tree health and productivity in subsequent years. Here, two experiments were conducted to research the impact of leaf removal on fruit quality. In one experiment, five different leaf removal levels were applied (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the leaf canopy) 14 days before harvest (N=5) to assess their effects on fruit coloration, sunburn, return yields, and shoot vigor in ‘Honeycrisp’ and ‘WA 38’ apples. In the second experiment, red color development and sunburn was evaluated for leaf removal treatments either 7 or 14 days before harvest compared to an untreated control. As the percentage of leaf removal increased, the percentage of marketable, non-sunburned fruit decreased, indicating that sunburn increased as leaf removal increased for both cultivars but to a lower extent for ‘WA 38’. Red color coverage increased with an increase in leaf removal, with 100% removal resulting in the highest percentage of red color coverage in both ‘Honeycrisp’ and ‘WA 38’. When leaf removal severity was greater than 50%, the yields the following year were lower but shoot vigor was unaffected. Leaf removal at either 7 or 14 days before harvest improved red color compared to the control, but there were no differences between these two treatments, indicating that the window for leaf removal can be as little as 7 days before harvest. ‘WA 38’ was easier to color than ‘Honeycrisp,’ and deleafing in a poor color year was good for both cultivars but in a good color year like 2023, deleafing was only useful for ‘Honeycrisp
THE EFFECTS OF COUNTY-LEVEL CHARACTERISTICS ON THE RATE OF PETITIONED JUVENILE COURT CASES
Get PDFJustice by geography suggests that courtroom outcomes vary based on contextual factors. This project evaluates justice by geography at the county-level by looking at the petitioning stage of juvenile justice system processing, where cases are considered for formal processing or are diverted out of the criminal-legal system. To understand if county-level variables affect the percentage of cases in a county that are formally processed for punishment or diverted out of the system, this project conducts multivariate regression analyses to test if political, economic, or rural contexts influences the rate of petitioned referrals. Results shows that, when controlling for the crime rate, the strength of the Republican Party significantly increases the share of noncriminal referrals that are petitioned in a county. These results imply that a connection between punitive punishments and the strength of the Republican Party exist. It is important to recognize what contexts influence juvenile justice system outcomes vary because these contextual variables contribute to spatial inequality
Essays on Wildland Fire and Housing
Get PDFThis dissertation consists of three economic questions relating to wildfire and homes. Each utilizes “big" data. Zillow’s ZTRAX data is combined with MTBS fire perimeter dataand LANDFIRE fire risk data to answer three economic questions. The first chapter examines the spatial relationship between fires and homes. The second evaluates homeowners’ attitudes towards wildfire risk. The third tests if property taxes reflect wildfire risk.Fire managers have strong incentives to save homes. The first chapter examines the relationship between wildfire perimeters and unburned areas within fire in relation to homelocations. The connection is examined by measuring the density of homes around fire perimeters and by measuring the frequency of refugia around structures. The existing studies of refugia, defined as unburned areas within fire perimeters, have not yet evaluated structure presence or structure protection activities as potential causes for refugia. This chapter analyzes the spatial frequency of structures within fire perimeters and within refugia. A variety of datasets are utilized to show a correlation between refugia and structure locations. Furthermore, the findings indicate that structure density is 40% higher within 30 meters of fire perimeters than structure density between 30 and 60 meters. Structure density, the number of homes per unit of area, is a new measurement that is developed to county the number of homes at different distances from the fire perimeter. The increased density at the fire perimeter demonstrates that fires often burn immediately near to houses before being stopped. There is also evidence that wildfires are contained further away from homes where there is a larger number of homes. The results suggest that fire suppression mitigates fire spread.In year 2020, there were 9,630 residences destroyed by wildfires in the United States. While living in the wildland urban interface (WUI) may be desirable for homeowners, the increased wildfire risk in some WUI locations may make certain homes less desirable. The second chapter examines the relationship that home materials have on house prices in fire prone areas. A hedonic model of housing prices based on housing attributes and wildfire risk is constructed to determine home buyer willingness to pay for home attributes that are vulnerable to wildfires, such as wooden roofs. Homebuyers initially appear willing to spend more to purchase homes in high fire risk areas. However, they value a home in a high fire risk area less if it has a flammable roof despite wooden roofs commanding a price premium in other locations. The results suggest that homeowners may be aware of how fire risk relates to their type of home but still place more value on the aesthetics than the associated fire risk. To fund wildfire protection, some states have required homes located in areas determined by the state to be at higher fire risk to pay a fee. From 2011 to 2017, California charged property owners a fee of approximately $150 for each habitable structure located in the state responsibility area. In states and counties that don’t charge a fee for living in a fire risk area, fire protection services are paid for by the entire group of taxpayers. This may result in an implicit subsidy to homeowners in high fire risk areas. The third chapter develops a model to determine if states and counties charge high fire risk homeowners more in taxes than non high-risk homeowners. A random forest estimator is used on cross county assessment data to back out county assessment models that determine the assessed value of properties. The resulting models are used to examine the assessed value of homes relative to fire risk.Preliminary results indicate that high fire risk homeowners pay a slight premium to live in high fire risk areas but less than the amount spent on rural fire protection
Impact of Yeast Strain and Accelerated Aging on Volatile Phenol Content in Smoke-Affected Wines
Get PDFWildfire smoke has a significant detrimental effect on global wine and grape industries. Described here are the experimental approach to vineyard smoke application and aromacompound liberation during several points of the winemaking process. Over the last couple decades of smoke research, the industry has determined the sensorial role of smoke-derived volatile phenols on undesirable characteristics in wines. During smoke exposure, the grapevine stores these compounds predominantly as glycosides in both the leaf and the berry. Some of these sugar-bound compounds are released enzymatically during fermentation. Compounds such as smoke-derived thiols and thiophenols also contribute to smoky and ashy aromas and aftertastes in smoke-affected wines. The capacity for yeast to act upon the release of both volatile phenols and thiophenols was evaluated herein. This study found that yeast had no significant impact on the post-fermentation concentrations of volatile phenols. Thioanisole and thiophenol were confirmed to be higher in smoke-affected wines and yeast may have an impact on the release of several other thiophenol compounds.The increase of free smoke-related volatile compounds can also be observed during aging of both control and smoke-affected wines. Compound evolution due to aging can be accelerated using elevated temperatures. A method for accelerated smoke-affected wine aging was evaluated by comparing 35ºC and cellar temperature, 13ºC, in the concentrations of smoke-derived volatile phenols. This study determined that cellar temperatures inhibited the further release of guaiacol over 18 months in smoke-affected wines. At elevated temperatures, however, the increase in guaiacol occurred at the same rate in both smoke-affected and non-smoke-affected wines, providing evidence of secondary sources of artifactual guaiacol. Potential future studies are also described for the further evaluation of smoke-derived compound release
EVALUACIÓN DEL IMPACTO DE LAS PERTURBACIONES HUMANAS SOBRE LAS COMUNIDADES DE JAGUARES Y VERTEBRADOS TERRESTREES EN BOSQUES NEOTROPICALES: LA RESERVA DE LA BIOSFERA MAYA COMO CASO DE ESTUDIO
Get PDFA key challenge of measuring the outcomes of area-based conservation approaches in the tropics is detecting species' responses to cryptic human disturbances underneath intact forest canopy. Although studies have measured the state of species in specific areas, comparative studies between management strategies providing quantitative outcomes remain scarce, especially in the Neotropics. Here, we compare species distribution, richness, functional diversity, and faunal degradation of terrestrial wildlife communities in a community-managed forest and a strictly protected area within Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve. Using multispecies occupancy models and a spatially extensive camera-trapping grid, we assess how species respond to protection and human access, a proxy for hunting and cryptic resource utilization by nearby communities. We also estimate the density of an apex predator (jaguars; Panthera onca) to determine whether the population status of a key species reflects changes in the overall terrestrial community. Although it has been proposed that the jaguar can be used as a focal species for conservation, the sensitivity of their populations or the magnitude of the response to human disturbances remains to be quantified. At the species level, we detected that for some species, the effects of human access on occupancy were stronger than the combined effects of all other habitat variables. In the community-managed forest, ease of human access negatively impacted the occupancy of tapirs and hunted species such as the great curassow, ocellated turkey, and white-lipped peccary. In contrast, smaller and more generalist species were positively associated with ease of access, possibly reflecting trophic release near human settlements. Jaguars had higher densities in the protected area than in the community-managed forest, and their density was influenced by human access. We found no differences in species richness or mean community occupancy at the community level between the community-managed forest and the protected area. With the incidence-based faunal degradation index, we found medium to low faunal degradation levels in the protected area and medium to high levels in the community-managed forest of Uaxactun. Additionally, we found contrasting differences in functional dispersion and functional divergence between the two types of protection. These findings illustrate the influence of cryptic disturbances on some species’ distribution underneath intact forests while demonstrating that management actions in the community-managed forest have helped to maintain diverse assemblages, though with medium to high faunal degradation levels and some changes to the distribution and density of key species nearest to the community. Our results provide metrics for further monitoring the integrity of wildlife communities and demonstrate the need to go beyond remotely sensed measures and delve deeper into species richness metrics when assessing and monitoring biodiversity outcomes within tropical forests.
Classical vs. Quantum Plasmon-enhanced Spectroscopy and Nano-optical Applications in Two-dimensional Materials
Get PDFThe development of technology follows closely behind novel discoveries in scientific research. With each discovery, modern research and development has been increasingly pushed toward the nanoscale. Increasing interest in materials existing at the nanoscale for technological components has highlighted increasingly prevalent practical limitations within conventional measurement techniques. One such limitation has been the inability to perform nanoscale spatial characterization of functional materials from optical diffraction limits. To address this, the growing field of nanoscale plasmonics has demonstrated super-resolved spectroscopic microscopy through near-field optical field enhancement.This dissertation focuses on two novel research directions, designated as Part II and Part III within the text. Part II focuses on advancements in our fundamental understanding of plasmon-enhanced light-matter interactions through AFM-coupled, plasmon-enhanced optical microscopy. In Chapters 4 and 5 we will elucidate fundamental phenomena from nanoscale plasmons and enhanced optical fields, and then follow up in Chapters 6 and 7 with demonstrations of the practical considerations when conducting near-field spectroscopy. These studies will lay the groundwork for Part III, which focuses on applying plasmon-enhanced light-matter interactions towards 2D materials – nanoscale materials of increasing interest for electronic component miniaturization. In Chapter 8, we will demonstrate a novel technique for nanoscale characterization of domain boundaries in a thin film ferroelectric. Then, in Chapter 9 we will demonstrate how plasmon-mediated charge transfer and injection can be used for optoelectronic control of thin film semiconductor/ferroelectric heterostructures and devices.Additionally, we will discuss the fundamentals of plasmon-enhanced spectroscopy as well as 2D materials in the background information of Part I. Finally, we will end the dissertation by discussing possible future research directions in Part IV
INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT THROUGH AN EVOLUTIONARY LENS ACROSS THREE DOMAINS OF WOMEN’S HEALTH DEPRESSION, SEXUAL BEHAVIOR, AND SUBSTANCE USE
Get PDFHuman fitness relied heavily on social relationships in the ancestral past, yet it is often the case that a behavior which increases fitness for one individual may cause a fitness cost for another, resulting in interpersonal conflict. This dissertation uses an evolutionary lens to explore the relationship between interpersonal conflict and women’s health. Paper 1 draws on the hypothesis that male-male physical conflicts in the ancestral past resulted in the sexual dimorphism in upper body strength. In a population sample of US men and women we found tradeoffs between strength and immune function and a positive relationship between strength and short-term and long-term mating success. The sexual selection hypothesis predicts that the effect of strength on mating success will be greater for men than for women, and this prediction was exceptionally well-supported for partnered status and numbers of lifetime partners, suggesting the hypothesis applies to both short-and long-term mating success.Paper 2 uses an evolutionary bargaining framework, which argues that depression is an adaptation that evolved to credibly signal need in adversity, and to coerce help during conflicts with powerful social partners by withholding valuable benefits. In a population sample of US adults, we found that grip strength is negatively associated with depression and propose that the sex difference in upper body strength is a candidate evolutionary explanation for some of the sex difference in depression.Finally, paper 3 uses a mixed-methods approach to understand the reasons breastfeeding women choose to consume cannabis. In a sample of women from the US Pacific Northwest, the majority reported consuming cannabis to treat or manage a medical condition, especially mental health conditions, and most reported receiving no helpful guidance about cannabis consumption for their healthcare providers. This supports an evolutionary perspective on substance use as a form of self-medication.These papers are related through an evolutionary understanding of the ubiquity of interpersonal conflict and its impact on human health and behavior. Future public health work can draw on the evolutionary medicine framework and related models to make novel predictions and solutions regarding burdensome global health issues including those related to mental health, substance use, and sexual behavior
Use-Inspired Bayesian Optimization for Engineering Design From Materials and 3D Printing to Circuits
Get PDFThe problem of adaptively selecting a sequence of experiments to optimize multiple conflicting objectives has been a challenging obstacle in many real-world scenarios. This process, often referred to as adaptive experimental design arises in many real-world domains including material discovery, analog circuit design, and additive manufacturing. For instance, in analog circuit design, one of the key challenges is optimizing circuit parameters that balance objectives efficiency, voltage, and ripple by conducting the fewest number of expensive circuit design simulations. Similarly, in biomedical engineering, optimizing a 3D printer’s parameters for creating the perfect presurgical organ models while spending the least amount of money on required materials, involves trading-off print quality, speed, and cost of material.In such multi-objective optimization (MOO) problems, we have the ability to evaluate any candidate solution by performing expensive experiments, where the cost is measured interms of consumed resources, be it computational or physical resources (e.g., cost of materials required to perform a lab experiment). The overarching goal is to approximate the optimal Pareto set, a set of non-dominated solutions that represent the best possible trade-offs among objectives, while minimizing the total resource cost of experiments.This thesis studies new challenges in adaptive experimental design within the framework of Bayesian optimization (BO) that are directly inspired by use-cases in real-world engineering design problems. First, we need to perform expensive experiments to determine if an input design is feasible or not (aka black-box constraints); design space contains a small fraction of feasible inputs; and there are preferences over multiple conflicting objectives. Second, we need to select a batch of experiments to find high-quality and diverse Pareto front solutions. Third, we have a small experimental resource budget which requires a planning or non-myopic approach to find high-quality Pareto solutions within the resource budget.For the first challenge, we introduce a preference-aware constrained multi-objective Bayesian optimization algorithm that allows practitioners to specify preferences over objectives, ensuring that the optimization process aligns with domain-specific priorities while handling expensive black-box constraints. For the second challenge, we propose a Pareto front-diverse Batch Bayesian Optimization algorithm that selects diverse batches of candidate solutions for parallel evaluation by improving the exploration of the Pareto front. For the third challenge, we introduce non-myopic Bayesian optimization algorithms that plan several steps ahead, balancing immediate gains with long-term benefits. These algorithms are particularly valuable in scenarios with strict resource limitations, where strategic planning can significantly enhance overall efficiency.To demonstrate the practical utility of our proposed algorithms, we apply them to multiple challenging real-world problems, including optimizing 3D printer parameters to produce accurate and precise organ models for presurgical training, discovering high-performing nanoporous materials for hydrogen storage, and designing efficient analog circuits for sustainable computing. Through extensive experiments on synthetic benchmarks and real-world applications, we show that our algorithms substantially improve resource-efficiency to uncover high-quality solutions compared to existing methods. By effectively incorporating user preferences, handling constraints, utilizing batch evaluations, and planning under resource constraints, this dissertation advances the state-of-the-art in multi-objective BO
Chemistry Notations, 2023-2024
No full textThis newsletter documents news from faculty, staff, students, and alumni of the Department of Chemistry at Washington State University. This issue includes notes about Chem Club, the Graduate Chemistry Society, Visitation Weekend, and the Cool Reaction