Evaluating internal control and alternative compliance testing prccedures : a simulation ....

Wiggins, Casper Eldredge Jr The University of Tennessee 1982 해외박사

Examining Dialogue Initiative Policies for Conversational Pedagogical Agents in Game-Based Learning Environments

Wiggins, Joseph Benjamin ProQuest Dissertations & Theses University of Flor 2021 해외박사(DDOD)

Technological advances in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction hold great potential for providing personalized learning in a way that can be scaled to many learners. Conversational pedagogical agents are digitally embodied characters that provide not only cognitive support for learning tasks, but also social support through rapport building and dialogue. These technologies have been developed for a wide variety of age ranges, but they have shown particular promise for supporting middle school students. Middle school is an important time period for the learner, and designing pedagogical agents that are carefully refined, and effective for supporting learning and engagement, is an important area of open work.A crucial design consideration for conversational pedagogical agents is their initiative policy: an aspect of artificial intelligence that chooses when the agent should make a dialogue move. There is reason to believe that the initiative policy is not a one-size-fits-all choice, but rather, should be adapted to learner characteristics such as self-efficacy (a learner’s belief that they can learn in a particular context).While there has been research on the design of conversational pedagogical agents, their initiative policies and how these policies should be adapted for different learner characteristics is highly under-explored. To address that need, this dissertation research examines the design and implementation of a conversational pedagogical agent inside a game-based learning environment for microbiology and literacy. This work examined two different initiative policies alongside learner’s self efficacy to gain insight on learners’ experience with different initiative policies. The observations generated from this work will advance the field of human-computer interaction and hold the potential to lead to more engaging conversational pedagogical agents that provide personalized social and cognitive support during learning.

The students who were almost left behind: High school students' perspectives on trust

Wiggins, Carol D University of Pennsylvania 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

Research strongly suggests that students will remain in school if they have connected in a meaningful way with someone (i.e., teacher, administrator, staff member, counselor, or fellow student) who can help them make effective transitions into the institution's environment. This study examined the connections of relational trust among students and the school community of P.U.L.S.E. High School, an urban transfer high school in the South Bronx, New York, by documenting the perspectives of current and former students of the school. The study focused on the question of how the school earned trust among its students to ensure that the appropriate academic, emotional, and tangible supports were provided to help students fulfill their responsibilities of staying in high school and graduating. Data for this study were drawn from interviews with 12 current and former P.U.L.S.E. High School students. In addition, descriptive data from the school's founding in 2004 through June 2010 were analyzed, including enrollment, attendance, retention, discipline, report cards, and post-high school plans. Results showed that trust did matter to these students. Those students who possessed high levels of trust and perceived that trust was manifested within the school environment had positive school outcomes.

Managing Risk, Managing Race: Racialized Actuarial Science in the United States, 1881--1948

Wiggins, Benjamin Alan University of Minnesota 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation investigates how insurers and the United States government relied on the supposed neutrality of actuarial science to justify their racially discriminatory policies. It argues that the use of race as a variable in the statistical assessment of risk transformed the nature of racism and, in turn, ushered racial disparities in health, wealth, and incarceration from the nineteenth century into the twentieth. Specifically, it investigates the explicit use of race in the actuarial formulas of insurers such as Prudential, in prison management and parole-hearing risk assessments, and in the underwriting manual used for the mortgage insurance decisions of the Federal Housing Administration. It finds that already by the dawn of the twentieth century, leading actuaries and statisticians knew that the social and environmental conditions concomitant with slavery, genocide, and indentured servitude distributed risk inequitably among races. However, capital was ambivalent about the wrongs of the past and the state viewed itself as responsible more for the welfare of capital than for the welfare of its citizens of color when it entered the insurance game during the New Deal.

Analytical research of wind band core repertoire

Wiggins, Timothy D The Florida State University 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

Acton Ostling was a pioneer in providing empirical evidence that certain compositions are worth consideration due to their acceptance, skill and degree of serious artistic merit. His research allowed band directors to sort through a relatively young band repertoire, but did not provide them with a method for facing a much more difficult task: to discover and utilize resources for the preparation and performance of quality wind works. A review of related literature suggested a need to discover, catalog and describe what research is available on works that the profession considers its canon. The purpose of this project was to identify relevant analytical research on wind band core repertoire. This project sought to answer the following research questions. 1) How much research is available on compositions that our profession has deemed to be of serious artistic merit? 2) What taxonomy can be developed to analyze the depth of a research article? 3) What type and to what depth are the analyses on each work? 4) What compositions have been inadequately addressed through research? The core repertoire, for the purposes of this study, was defined as those compositions deemed to be of serious artistic merit in two of three studies based on Acton Ostling's research (N=107). Analytical research was found for each of the compositions utilizing online database search engines and print resources. Based on the initial search parameters, 963 citations were found regarding core repertoire. The data were categorized using a five-tiered taxonomy. Tier one research was further analyzed and annotated for future reference. Results indicate a growing body of analytical research regarding the selected compositions. The depth of the individual analytical studies varies greatly, from annotations to full dissertation-length documents focusing on one composition. A percentage (19%) of this selected core repertoire has no or little known in-depth research associated with it. Results suggest a need for further scholarship not only with regards to analyzing under-represented works, but also with making such analysis research available to a larger population of the profession via inclusion in standard database search engines and print sources. Additionally, such research may provide a method with which to catalog and categorize other research, analytical and otherwise, and could provide a starting point in programming and preparing works of value.

The Choral Music of Joachim Raff (1822-1882)

Wiggins, Jeremy Kenneth ProQuest Dissertations & Theses The Florida State 2019 해외박사(DDOD)

Joachim Raff (1822-1882), known mainly for his symphonic works, composed a significant amount of choral music, which includes seventeen choral-orchestral works, fifty part-songs, six a cappella motets, and other incidental choral music. Raff was well respected as a composer in the second half of the nineteenth century, but performances of Raff's works declined sharply after the turn of the twentieth century. To date, no dissertations or other publications exist that discuss Raff's contributions to the choral oeuvre. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine Joachim Raff's life and to provide historical, contextual, stylistic, musical, and idiosyncratic elements of each of Raff's available choral works. This study divides the analysis of the choral works into two chapters: one chapter for his works for unaccompanied and a cappella chorus, and another chapter that covers his works for chorus and orchestra. In addition to providing a general analysis, the discussion offers insight into the accessibility level of each work.The conclusions of this study are that the choral music of Joachim Raff spans multiple genres and styles, and that it offers accessibility to a variety of choirs. As a resource for those wishing to study or perform choral works by Raff, this document also contains a catalog of his choral works, which provides information on voicing, orchestration, and publication.

Emission from Black Holes and Supernovae in the Early Universe

Wiggins, Brandon Kerry ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Brigham Young Univ 2016 해외박사(DDOD)

How the Plasmid-Encoded Mercury Resistance Locus Accelerates Recovery of Escherichia coli from Exposure to Inorganic Mercury

Wiggins, Andrew George ProQuest Dissertations & Theses University of Geor 2022 해외박사(DDOD)

The element Mercury (Hg) is toxic in all forms. Prokaryotes have evolved an efficient detoxification system widely disseminated by transposons and plasmids. This Hg resistance system (mer) encodes transporters that deliver Hg(II) to a specialized mercuric reductase, MerA, that uses NADPH to reduce reactive mercury, Hg(II), to volatile monoatomic Hg(0) vapor which diffuses away. With transcriptomics I examined the whole-cell response to Hg in a model prokaryote, Escherichia coli MG1655 (MG), carrying a 94-kb conjugative plasmid, NR1 (NR), bearing a classic mer operon. Aim 1 examined the burden of NR1 on chromosomal gene expression of MG and the benefit NR1 provided during Hg exposure. Without Hg exposure, NR1 did not evoke expression of any chromosomal genes and the plasmid itself expressed only its replication genes and several associated with transposons. Upon Hg(II) exposure, NR1’s mer operon genes expressed strongly but most other plasmid genes decreased or did not change. However, for many chromosomal genes Hg(II) provoked significant differences between MG and its un-exposed condition. These large transcriptional responses by MG diminished or disappeared in MG(NR). Thus, just hosting NR1 adds no expression in chromosomal genes and with mer proteins cells recovered growth sooner. Previous work suggested E. coli must increase NADPH production to support observed Hg(II) reduction by MerA. Aim 2 examined expression of chromosomal NADPH-producing enzymes. The only increase (30%) occurred in highly expressed (40,000/cell) TCA cycle enzyme, isocitrate dehydrogenase, ICD, which has a high kcat (72/sec). Those values and RNA-Seq data predicted a mere 30% increase in ICD could produce 18-fold more NADPH than MerA needs to reduce 3 million Hg(II)/min as observed in intact cells. Thus, at typical Hg exposures, MerA’s reductant needs are met by a slight tweak in normal metabolism. Aim 3 focused on 310 MG chromosomal genes of proteins we previously observed as highly vulnerable to binding mercurial compounds. Their transcriptional responses revealed distinct patterns consistent with their metabolic functions, notably respiration, sulfur metabolism, and amino acid biosynthesis. Many Hg-vulnerable proteins have homologs in human mitochondria and could be sensitive reporters of Hg exposure and of the efficacy of detoxification measures.

The association of perceived neighborhood problems and hypertension in the Jackson Heart Study

Wiggins, Corey Cortez The University of Alabama at Birmingham 2012 해외박사(DDOD)

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in adults with a tremendous cost burden to the United States. Hypertension, a risk factor for CVD, affects approximately 65 million people in the United Sates and is a major cause of health disparities between African Americans and white Americans. Previous research suggests that environmental factors are likely to be important in shaping the distribution of cardiovascular risk factors including hypertension. However, this research has been limited to the analysis of census and administrative data. Utilizing the Jackson Heart Study, a longitudinal cohort study aimed at investigating the causes of CVD in African Americans, this study explores specific neighborhood characteristics including problems, violence and socioeconomic status and their association with hypertension prevalence and incidence. Neighborhood socioeconomic status was associated with hypertension prevalence; however, none of the neighborhood characteristics were associated with hypertension incidence. Although the findings are mixed, this study answers the call of investigating the relationship between specific neighborhood characteristics and health. In addition, by investigating neighborhood characteristics, it also informs the development of ecological interventions designed to target environmental problems that are more likely to place individuals at risk for hypertension.

The effect of multiple levels of norms on consumer responses to company requests for help

Wiggins, Jennifer The University of Wisconsin - Madison 2006 해외박사(DDOD)

Previous research on consumer responses to company requests for help has examined the effectiveness of requests for help that activate societal-level norms of helping behavior and the influence of relationship-level norms of helping behavior. This dissertation considers the effects of multiple levels of norms being activated when a request for help is made within the context of a relationship. It predicts that the consumer's response will be influenced by both societal-level and relationship-level norms, and that if the two levels of norms prescribe different behaviors, the consumer will experience a conflict and will respond negatively. It further predicts that the consumer's response to this conflict will be influenced by how strongly each of the norms is held by the consumer. Four experiments conclude that both societal-level and relationship-level norms do influence a consumer's response to a request for help, but they influence different aspects of the response. Both levels of norms influenced consumers' willingness to help, but consumers' attitude toward the request itself was primarily driven by the societal-level norm that was activated by the request, while consumers' emotional response to being asked for help was primarily influenced by whether the request was consistent with the relationship-level norms. This effect occurs at different levels of intensity depending on the consumer's internalization of the societal-level norm, the strength of the relationship-level norms, and the consumer's affective commitment to the relationship.