Design of Experiments and Sample Surveys Commons^™

Developing, Piloting, And Factor Analysis Of A Brief Survey Tool For Evaluating Food And Composting Behaviors: The Short Composting Survey, Jennie Norton

All Master's Theses

Composting on a university campus may take a variety of forms. Sustainable approaches to waste management can be taught and supported through educational programs, peer-to-peer behavior modeling, and composting program interventions. Although peer-reviewed research on composting interventions is somewhat lacking, student interest in the topic is demonstrated by a range of exploratory senior projects and pilot interventions conducted at colleges across the United States and abroad. The purpose of this study was twofold: conduct an educational compost intervention pilot study and develop a survey tool to measure participant attitudes surrounding food behaviors and composting. The Compost Project pilot study focused …

Netnographic Slog: Creative Elicitation Strategies To Encourage Participation In An Online Community Of Practice For Early Education And Care, Ruth Wallace

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Active, participatory netnography, in contrast to passive netnography, is essential if researchers are to gain rich rewards from the rigorous collection of qualitative data. However, researchers should be aware of the ‘netnographic slog’; “the blood, sweat and tears” associated with eliciting quality data and encouraging active participation in online communities.

This article examines the – Supporting Nutrition for Australian Childcare (SNAC) – online community of practice, established to support healthy eating practices in early childhood education and care settings. To ensure research rigour, Kozinets’ netnographic steps were employed. Garnering member participation in this online community was a slog; most community …

Does The Stress Inherent To Laboratory Life And Experimentation On Animals Adversely Affect Research Data?, Jarrod Bailey

Validation of Animal Experimentation Collection

Stress and distress in laboratory animals is often inherent and unavoidable. The effect of these factors on the reliability and relevance of experimental data is not sufficiently appreciated. Greater awareness, debate and discussion of this issue are urgently required.

“Everyday” Knowledge And A New Paradigm Of Animal Research, David Fraser, Jeffrey M. Spooner, Catherine A. Schuppli

Validation of Animal Experimentation Collection

Commentary on Marino and Allen (2017) The Psychology of Cows

Selection Of Breeding Stock By U.S. Meat Goat Producers, Narayan Nyaupane, Jeffrey Gillespie, Kenneth Mcmillin, Robert Harrison, Isaac Stienei

Community & Leadership Development Faculty Publications

Using nationwide survey data, we investigate U.S. meat goat producer preferences and willingness to pay for meat goat breeding stock attributes. Discrete choice experiments were employed, and mixed logit and latent class models were used for analysis. Results showed that producers preferred animals that were highly masculine/feminine, had good structure and soundness, and were of the Boer breed, whereas they preferred fewer animals that were older, of Kiko and Spanish breeds, and priced higher. Significant preference heterogeneity was found among the respondents. Larger-scale producers had greater preference for high masculinity/femininity, good structure and soundness, and Boer bucks.

A Cross-Sectional Exploration Of Household Financial Reactions And Homebuyer Awareness Of Registered Sex Offenders In A Rural, Suburban, And Urban County., John Charles Navarro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As stigmatized persons, registered sex offenders betoken instability in communities. Depressed home sale values are associated with the presence of registered sex offenders even though the public is largely unaware of the presence of registered sex offenders. Using a spatial multilevel approach, the current study examines the role registered sex offenders influence sale values of homes sold in 2015 for three U.S. counties (rural, suburban, and urban) located in Illinois and Kentucky within the social disorganization framework. Homebuyers were surveyed to examine whether awareness of local registered sex offenders and the homebuyer’s community type operate as moderators between home selling …

Letter To The Editor, Jarrod Bailey

Validation of Animal Experimentation Collection

It seems clear that heeding the opinions and recommendations of experienced neuroscientists such as Professor Beuter, the well-argued probable opinion of the time-travelling Parkinson, and Grimm and Eggel’s demands for high animal welfare and honest and realistic harm–benefit analyses, will be of paramount importance for the advancement and evolution of experiments involving NHPs, particularly in neuroscience. This will benefit animals and humans alike.

Digital Forensics Tool Selection With Multi-Armed Bandit Problem, Umit Karabiyik, Tugba Karabiyik

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital forensics investigation is a long and tedious process for an investigator in general. There are many tools that investigators must consider, both proprietary and open source. Forensics investigators must choose the best tool available on the market for their cases to make sure they do not overlook any evidence resides in suspect device within a reasonable time frame. This is however hard decision to make, since learning and testing all available tools make their job only harder. In this project, we define the digital forensics tool selection for a specific investigative task as a multi-armed bandit problem assuming that …

Inference From Network Data In Hard-To-Reach Populations, Isabelle Beaudry

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to develop methods to make inference about the prevalence of an outcome of interest in hard-to-reach populations. The proposed methods address issues specific to the survey strategies employed to access those populations.

One of the common sampling methodology used in this context is respondent-driven sampling (RDS). Under RDS, the network connecting members of the target population is used to uncover the hidden members. Specialized techniques are then used to make inference from the data collected in this fashion. Our first objective is to correct traditional RDS prevalence estimators and their associated uncertainty estimators for …

Further Advances For The Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (Smart), Tianjiao Dai

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

ABSTRACT

FURTHER ADVANCES FOR THE SEQUENTIAL MULTIPLE ASSIGNMENT RANDOMIZED TRIAL (SMART)

Tianjiao Dai, M.S.

Advisory Professor: Sanjay Shete, Ph.D.

Sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART) designs have been developed these years for studying adaptive interventions. In my Ph.D. study, I mainly investigate how to further improve SMART designs and optimize the interventions for each individual in the trial. My dissertation has focused on two topics of SMART designs.

1) Developing a novel SMART design that can reduce the cost and side effects associated with the interventions and proposing the corresponding analytic methods. I have developed a time-varying SMART design in …

A Comparison Of The Quality Of Informed Consent For Clinical Trials Of An Experimental Hookworm Vaccine Conducted In Developed And Developing Countries., David J. Diemert, Lucas Lobato, Ashley Styczynski, Maria Zumer, Amanda Soares, Maria Flávia Gazzinelli

Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine Faculty Publications

Informed consent is one of the principal ethical requirements of conducting clinical research, regardless of the study setting. Breaches in the quality of the informed consent process are frequently described in reference to clinical trials conducted in developing countries, due to low levels of formal education, a lack of familiarity with biomedical research, and limited access to health services in these countries. However, few studies have directly compared the quality of the informed consent process in developed and developing countries using the same tool and in similar clinical trials. This study was conducted to compare the quality of the informed …

Agent-Based Models Of The Green Dot Bystander Violence Prevention Program On College Campuses, Parkes Kendrick, Tsikata Apenyo, Hannah Callender

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the hard work of a diverse collection of organizations committed to violence prevention, the prevalence of rape, abuse, and other forms of interpersonal violence remains startling, especially on college campuses. Here we present an agent-based model (ABM) of interpersonal violence rooted in the philosophy of the Green Dot Bystander Training Program, in the hopes of providing insight into ways in which training of students can be improved so that intervention attempts are more effective. Two models, with and without adaptive behaviors, are studied under two population sizes. Through sensitivity testing, various outcomes are analyzed to measure the effectiveness of …

"It Makes You Feel Like Someone Cares" Acceptability Of A Financial Incentive Intervention For Hiv Viral Suppression In The Hptn 065 (Tlc-Plus) Study., Elizabeth Greene, Allison Pack, Jill Stanton, Victoria Shelus, Elizabeth E Tolley, Jamilah Taylor, Wafaa M El Sadr, Bernard M Branson, Jason Leider, Natella Rakhmanina, Theresa Gamble

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: HPTN 065 (TLC-Plus) evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of providing quarterly $70 gift card financial incentives to HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) to encourage ART adherence and viral suppression, and represents the largest study to-date of a financial incentive intervention for HIV viral suppression. A post-trial qualitative substudy was undertaken to examine acceptability of the financial incentives among those receiving and implementing the intervention.

METHODS: Between July and October 2013, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 72 patients and 12 investigators from 14 sites; three focus groups were conducted with 12 staff from 10 sites. Qualitative data collection elicited …

Statistics-Bierce Library Study, Tyler J. Hushour

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This is a report from two surveys that I created and administered to students and faculty at Bierce library who came to the Circulation Desk or the Tech Desk, as well as some of my other findings when periodically looking around the library to see where students like to study or hang-out. There was a written survey given at the Circulation Desk, and a different survey given at the Tech Check-Out Desk. The project is for Melanie Smith-Farrell, the head of Access Services, and is based on a similar study Ian McCullough did in the science library. While this is …

When Is A Randomised Controlled Trial Health Equity Relevant? Development And Validation Of A Conceptual Framework, J. Jull, M. Whitehead, M. Petticrew, E. Kristjansson, D. Gough, Sarah Baird, +Several Additional Authors

Global Health Faculty Publications

Background Randomised controlled trials can provide evidence relevant to assessing the equity impact of an intervention, but such information is often poorly reported. We describe a conceptual framework to identify health equity-relevant randomised trials with the aim of improving the design and reporting of such trials.

Methods An interdisciplinary and international research team engaged in an iterative consensus building process to develop and refine the conceptual framework via face-to-face meetings, teleconferences and email correspondence, including findings from a validation exercise whereby two independent reviewers used the emerging framework to classify a sample of randomised trials.

Results A randomised trial can …

What’S Brewing? A Statistics Education Discovery Project, Marla A. Sole, Sharon L. Weinberg

Publications and Research

We believe that students learn best, are actively engaged, and are genuinely interested when working on real-world problems. This can be done by giving students the opportunity to work collaboratively on projects that investigate authentic, familiar problems. This article shares one such project that was used in an introductory statistics course. We describe the steps taken to investigate why customers are charged more for iced coffee than hot coffee, which included collecting data and using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Interspersed throughout the article, we describe strategies that can help teachers implement the project and scaffold material to assist students …

A Markov Decision Process Approach To Adaptive Contact Strategies, Artur Grygorian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the field of survey methodology, optimizing contact strategies helps organizations increase response rates using their allocated budget. Markov Decision Processes (MDP) are widely used to model decision-making strategies in situations where the outcomes have a random component. In this research, we use MDPs and adaptive sampling techniques to construct a strategy that, based on target audience characteristics, suggests the best contact policy. The data we use comes from the First Destination Survey conducted by the Office of Career Services at Georgia Southern University. The constructed model is quite flexible and can be used by other organizations to optimize their …

Tuning Optimization Software Parameters For Mixed Integer Programming Problems, Toni P. Sorrell

Theses and Dissertations

The tuning of optimization software is of key interest to researchers solving mixed integer programming (MIP) problems. The efficiency of the optimization software can be greatly impacted by the solver’s parameter settings and the structure of the MIP. A designed experiment approach is used to fit a statistical model that would suggest settings of the parameters that provided the largest reduction in the primal integral metric. Tuning exemplars of six and 59 factors (parameters) of optimization software, experimentation takes place on three classes of MIPs: survivable fixed telecommunication network design, a formulation of the support vector machine with the ramp …

What Affects Parents’ Choice Of Milk? An Application Of Bayesian Model Averaging, Yingzhe Cheng

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

This study identifies the factors that influence parents’ choice of milk for their children, using data from a unique survey administered in 2013 in Hunan province, China. In this survey, we identified two brands of milk, which differ in their prices and safety claims by the producer. Data were collected on parents’ choice of milk between the two brands, demographics, attitude towards food safety and behaviors related to food. Stepwise model selection and Bayesian model averaging (BMA) are used to search for influential factors. The two approaches consistently select the same factors suggested by an economic theoretical model, including price …

A Traders Guide To The Predictive Universe- A Model For Predicting Oil Price Targets And Trading On Them, Jimmie Harold Lenz

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

At heart every trader loves volatility; this is where return on investment comes from, this is what drives the proverbial “positive alpha.” As a trader, understanding the probabilities related to the volatility of prices is key, however if you could also predict future prices with reliability the world would be your oyster. To this end, I have achieved three goals with this dissertation, to develop a model to predict future short term prices (direction and magnitude), to effectively test this by generating consistent profits utilizing a trading model developed for this purpose, and to write a paper that anyone with …