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USING VISUAL ACTIVITY SCHEDULES EMBEDDED WITH VIDEO MODELS TO INCREASE SOCIAL INTERACTION IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM
Full text linkThesis (M.A.)--Michigan State University. Applied Behavior Analysis - Master of Arts, 2025Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often struggle with social interaction and communication, limiting their ability to form relationships and engage in meaningful exchanges. Activity schedules provide structured visual supports that increase independence and social engagement. While research supports their effectiveness, few studies have examined the integration of video modeling within these schedules to enhance social interactions. This study evaluated the efficacy of embedding video models into activity schedules to increase social interactions to children with ASD using a multiple-probe across participants design in an Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) clinic. Results showed Noah demonstrated an increase in independently performed social interaction components, improving from 0 (range 0\u20130) at baseline to an average of 4 (range 0\u20136) during intervention. Morgan showed no change, maintaining 0 (range 0\u20130) throughout all phases. These findings suggest video modeling may facilitate social skill acquisition for some but not all learners. Future research should explore individual learner characteristics, long-term effectiveness, and generalizability.Keywords: photo activity schedules, social interaction, autism, video modelingDescription based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
CRIP PLANET : 21ST CENTURY ECOPOETIC METHODS
Full text linkThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. English - Doctor of Philosophy, 2025My work addresses ecopoetry written in the US and Pacific that is specifically attentive to the acceleration of slow violence and climate change, as well as the long histories that have culminated in their disproportionate impacts on disabled people and people of color, disabled and nondisabled alike. I argue that contemporary ecopoetics remains focused on creating or articulating new ways of writing poetics of relation connected to nature which elide the works of authors whose methods work ecologically with a less direct focus on the more-than-human world. Crip Planet is a methodological survey of the work of Larry Eigner, JJJJJerome Ellis, Douglas Kearney, Craig Santos Perez, Selina Tusitala Marsh, and Tusiata Avia. With the exception of Perez, these authors are rarely included in ecopoetry anthologies unless they are collections specifically attentive to race, gender, disability status, or other markers of identity; I argue for their inclusion in the field of ecopoetics precisely because their methodologies attend to vast networks of culture, nature, violence, and temporality. These authors disrupt the trend in ecopoetics to frame their writing in \u201c\u200b\u200ban absolute break with the past,\u201d instead bringing attention to long histories that offer contexts. Repeated calls from Black poets and poets at the heart of crip of color critique call for a move from a noun state\u2013what Nathaniel Mackey calls \u201cthe confinement to a predetermined status\u201d\u2013to a verb state\u2013the \u201cdomain of action and the ability to act.\u201d The ecopoets here are actors within a mess, offering critical methods\u2013verbs\u2013for those who have been pushed out of what is considered orderly towards treatment as garbage and those who take the literal and figurative garbage of the present and transform it into a tool for survival. By attending to ecopoetic methods of the present, their places, and how they form connections, I show some ways to build strange affinities with those who have been forced into similar, messy situations. It is a methodological study that looks to poets writing now who utilize temporal care work, mess, and recycling as critical practices for surviving this moment of ecological collapse.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
Nonsmooth Optimal Control for Coupled Sweeping Processes with Joint Endpoint Constraints under minimal assumptions
Full text linkThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Mathematics - Doctor of Philosophy, 2025A sweeping process typically refers to a dynamical system represented by a differential inclusion in which the set-valued map is the normal cone to a \u201cnicely\u201d moving closed set called the sweeping set. Although the sweeping process was originally developed for elastoplasticity applications, it has been widely recognized for its application in many other fields, including hysteresis, ferromagnetism, electric circuits, phase transitions, traffic equilibrium, economics, population motion in confined spaces, and other areas of applied sciences and operations research. Due to the nonstandard differential inclusions involved---with unbounded and discontinuous right-hand sides produced by the normal cone---classical results from the literature on differential inclusions are not applicable. In this dissertation, the study of nonsmooth optimal control problems (P) involving a controlled sweeping process with three main characteristics is launched. First, the sweeping sets are nonsmooth, time-dependent, and uniformly prox-regular. Second, the sweeping process is coupled with a controlled differential equation. Third, a joint-state endpoints constraint set S is present. This general model incorporates various significant controlled submodels, such as a class of second order sweeping processes, and coupled evolution variational inequalities. A full form of the nonsmooth Pontryagin maximum principle for strong local minimizers in (P) is derived for bounded or unbounded moving sweeping sets satisfying local constraint qualifications (CQ) without any additional restriction. The existence and uniqueness of a Lipschitz solution for the Cauchy problem of our dynamic is established and the existence of an optimal solution for (P) is obtained. Two of the novelties in achieving the first goal are (i) the construction of a problem over truncated sweeping sets and truncated joint endpoints constraint set preserving the same strong local minimizer of (P) while automatically satisfying (CQ), and (ii) the complete redesign of the exponential-penalty approximation technique for problems with moving sweeping sets that do not require any assumption on the sets, their corners, or on the gradients of their generators. The utility of the optimality conditions is illustrated with an example.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
STUDENT MOTIVATION TO LEARN HEBREW BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THE BAR MITZVAH
Full text linkThesis (M.A.)--Michigan State University. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages - Master of Arts, 2025This mixed-methods study explores the trajectory of student motivation to learn Hebrew throughout the process of preparing for the bar mitzvah. It investigates the experiences of teenage students enrolled in Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish supplemental schools, focusing on D\uf6rnyei\u2019s (2009) L2MSS constructs of ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and L2 learning experience. Descriptive statistics for questionnaire data are presented alongside a thematic analysis of factors that increase and decrease student motivation. The findings highlight a decrease in motivation upon completion of the bar mitzvah and illuminate the social and individual variables that influence students\u2019 and motivation to learn Hebrew. This study concludes with a call for more research in this language community and provides evidence to support professional development and the inclusion of student perspective.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
A COMPARISON OF WRITTEN AND VERBAL FEEDBACK ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BEHAVIOR-SPECIFIC PRAISE
Full text linkThesis (M.A.)--Michigan State University. Applied Behavior Analysis - Master of Arts, 2025This study examined the comparative effects of written and verbal performance feedback on behavior technicians\u2019 implementation of behavior-specific praise (BSP) during behavior analytic treatment sessions. Given the established effectiveness of feedback in improving staff performance, this study sought to determine whether the mode of feedback delivery (written or verbal interaction) influenced the frequency of BSP use. An A-B-A-C reversal design was employed to assess the effectiveness of these feedback modalities. Results indicated that verbal feedback was the most effective in increasing BSP use, while written feedback demonstrated moderate effectiveness. Future research should address the limitations of this study by increasing the sample size, examining the quality and characteristics of feedback, and exploring different feedback delivery methods.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
Categorified Jones-Wenzl projectors for odd Khovanov homology
Full text linkThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Mathematics - Doctor of Philosophy, 2025The Jones-Wenzl projectors are particular elements of the Temperley-Lieb algebra essential to the construction of quantum 3-manifold invariants. As a first step toward categorifying quantum 3-manifold invariants, Cooper and Krushkal categorified these projectors. In another direction, Naisse and Putyra gave a categorification of the Temperley-Lieb algebra compatible with odd Khovanov homology, introducing new machinery called grading categories.The first goal of this thesis is to provide a generalization of Naisse and Putyra's work in the spirit of Bar-Natan's canopolies or Jones's planar algebras, replacing grading categories with grading multicategories. From this updated viewpoint, we describe an invariant of diskular tangles from odd Khovanov homology, naturally extending Naisse and Putyra's tangle theory. In this thesis, the main application of our theory for diskular tangles is a proof of the existence and uniqueness of categorified Jones-Wenzl projectors in odd Khovanov homology. These results have a nearly immediate award: the existence of a new, "odd" categorification of the colored Jones polynomial. Finally, a major motivation to develop a tangle theory for odd Khovanov homology is to ultimately determine the state of its functoriality. In forthcoming work by the author, we study this question by approximating Khovanov's argument for the original theory. In doing so, we develop a theory of Hochschild homology for modules and algebras graded by categories, indicating that the new constructions offered by grading categories are also deserving of study.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
DEVELOPING WEED MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN TRUVERA SUGARBEET AND DESICCATION STRATEGIES IN SOYBEAN
Full text linkThesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Crop and Soil Sciences - Master of Science, 2025Weed management is one of the most challenging facets of sugarbeet production. \u2018Truvera\u2019 is a new herbicide-resistant sugarbeet trait package with resistance to dicamba, glufosinate, and glyphosate. Six site-years of field experiments were established to evaluate crop tolerance and weed control of 15 herbicide programs that included dicamba and glufosinate in comparison with current weed management programs in glyphosate-resistant (GR) sugarbeet. GR waterhemp control was 90% or greater in herbicide programs with at least two postemergence (POST) applications of glufosinate or dicamba tank-mixed with acetochlor, 49% greater than the current strategy for GR waterhemp control. Additionally, herbicide programs with POST dicamba followed by (fb.) glufosinate also provided good waterhemp control. GR horseweed control was 95% or greater from herbicide programs that contained at least two applications of an effective POST (glufosinate, dicamba, or clopyralid). Truvera sugarbeet provides growers with two additional herbicide options that will improve control of several problematic weed species, including GR weeds, and protect profitability in sugarbeet production. Variable fall weather patterns can delay harvest of early planted longer maturity group (MG) soybeans resulting in potential yield loss. Field research was conducted over four site-years to evaluate two preharvest desiccation timings (early, label) of the harvest aids paraquat, saflufenacil, and sodium chlorate on typical and late MG soybeans for soybean desiccation, yield, seed quality, and seed dry down. Early applications of paraquat and sodium chlorate improved soybean desiccation by as much as 26% compared with nontreated soybean, however desiccation was only improved between 3-9% at the label timing. Applications of harvest aids resulted in soybean yield losses of 8 and 9% in two out of four site-years. The risk of soybean yield loss from harvest aid applications may outweigh potential benefits from accelerated maturity.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
FEDERATED REINFORCEMENT LEARNING FOR CONTENT DISSEMINATION IN UAV NETWORKS
Full text linkThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Electrical and Computer Engineering - Doctor of Philosophy, 2025In disaster scenarios with compromised communication infrastructure, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can provide ad hoc connectivity for resilient information dissemination. This thesis develops a hierarchical UAV-assisted framework of federated multi-armed bandit learning for post-disaster content dissemination. The developed framework incorporates a two-tier UAV hierarchy consisting of Anchor UAVs (A-UAVs) with high-cost backhaul connectivity, and more mobile Micro-Ferrying UAVs (MF-UAVs) without backhaul links. Such a hierarchy allows for strategic offloading of storage-intensive tasks to A-UAVs, while leveraging the mobility of MF-UAVs to dynamically ferry content across disconnected user clusters. By integrating trajectory-aware selective caching strategies into UAV operations, the framework aligns aerial mobility patterns with evolving spatio-temporal content demands. Algorithmic innovation of the framework stems from a federated bandit and stateless reinforcement learning paradigm, which enables UAVs to collaboratively learn content popularity profiles, and adapt caching policies based on localized user request patterns. Unlike centralized methods, the federated approach preserves data locality and minimizes inter-UAV communication overhead, which is critical in bandwidth- and energy-constrained post-disaster environments. The multi-armed bandit learning mechanism utilizes a multi-dimensional reward feedback architecture that captures content relevance, inter-UAV delivery latency, and caching diversity across disjointed and isolated user communities. The thesis also explores the interplay between UAV energy budgets, caching capacities, and mission-critical delivery constraints such as quality-of-service expectations in terms of tolerable access delay. To summarize, the research in this thesis bridges multi-agent learning with mission-oriented aerial networking towards developing solutions for smart content dissemination in networks with sparse connectivity.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
Applied algebraic and geometric topologies and their biological applications
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Mathematics - Doctor of Philosophy, 2025Biological macromolecules display intricate geometric and topological organization that defies traditional descriptors based solely on atom-level coordinates or sequence information. This dissertation introduces an integrated framework that advances both computational algebraic and geometric topology to capture multiscale structure\u2013function relationships in biomolecular data. In the algebraic domain, we expand persistent homology to higher-order N-chain complexes, producing generalized, efficiently computable descriptors; in the geometric domain, we develop a suite of multiscale invariants\u2014including the multiscale Gauss linking integral, evolutionary Khovanov homology, and persistent Khovanov homology\u2014to quantify entanglement in knot-type data. Applied to protein\u2013ligand affinity prediction, DNA/RNA topological analysis, and macromolecular flexibility assessment, these tools yield interpretable features with competitive accuracy, underscoring the promise of topological approaches in contemporary biological research.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
\u201cAn Outstanding Teacher, Civic Leader, and Author\u201d : The Education-Activism of Jane Dabney Shackelford
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. History - Doctor of Philosophy, 2025\u201cAn Outstanding Teacher, Civic Leader, and Author\u201d: The Education-Activism of Jane Dabney Shackelford is the first book-length study of the Early Black History Movement through the life and times of schoolteacher, education-activist, and author Jane Dabney Shackelford (1895-1979). Shackelford, a native of Terre Haute, Indiana, published one of the major first Black history textbooks for schoolchildren, lead Negro History Week campaigns in Indiana, was lauded nationally for her innovative anti-racist teaching, and recognized internationally for her writing. This dissertation excavates the worldviews, pedagogies, and activism of community-centered Black women educators and draws from the wealth of archival resources they left us\u2014including Shackelford\u2019s personal papers housed in Terre Haute, archives in Indianapolis, Bloomington, and New York, and digitized repositories such as the Hoosier State Chronicles collections, Journal of Negro History, Negro History Bulletin, and Harvard Library Colored Teachers Associations\u2019 \u201cBlack Teacher Archive.\u201dDescription based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references