Design of Experiments and Sample Surveys Commons^™

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Does The Design And Personalization Of Mailed Invitations Influence Online Survey Response Rates?, Brock Ternes

The SUNY Journal of the Scholarship of Engagement: JoSE

Nonresponse to online surveys has been a notable concern of survey methodologists, who continue to implement strategies and incentives to boost returns. Don Dillman’s methods emphasize tailored designs to maximize response rates, and this paper assesses how mailed notification designs and requested deadlines for completion influence online survey response rates. Using a target population of rural Kansans, this paper assesses how minor changes in printed notifications are connected to participation in an online survey. Postcards were mailed to private water well owners inviting recipients to complete a 40-item online questionnaire about their water usage; notifications varied in their personalization of …

The Relationship Between Pets Owned And Gender Amongst College Students, Eman Asghar, Bryce Camuso, Josh Feirick

Harrisburg University Research Symposium: Highlighting Research, Innovation, & Creativity

There is a gap between the number of men and women that own dogs. The Mintel Press Team states that "71% of men aged 18-44 own a dog compared to 60% of their female counterparts" (Mintel Press Team, 2016, para: 1). While this statistic includes people who are college-aged, it does not mention college students specifically. Thus, research into the relationship between pets owned and gender amongst college students is an important topic that warrants looking into.

The Knowledge Of One's Blood Type, Mackenzie Degroft, Ethan Hall, Scarlet Morillo

Harrisburg University Research Symposium: Highlighting Research, Innovation, & Creativity

An experiment of sample surveys of undergraduate students' knowledge of their blood type.

Improving Deep Reinforcement Learning Methodology For Autonomous Defense And Escort Of Military High-Value Assets, Joseph Liles Iv

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the application of machine learning to the control of autonomous unmanned combat aerial vehicles (AUCAVs). In particular, this research applies deep reinforcement learning methodologies to a defensive air combat scenario wherein a fleet of AUCAVs protects a military high-value asset (HVA). A collection of air battle management scenarios along with an original simulation environment and a set of designed computational experiments support the approximation of high-quality decision policies by employing Markov decision processes, approximate dynamic programming algorithms, and deep neural networks for value function approximation.

A Comparison Of Quaternion Neural Network Backpropagation Algorithms, Jeremiah Bill, Bruce A. Cox, Lance Champaign

Faculty Publications

This research paper focuses on quaternion neural networks (QNNs) - a type of neural network wherein the weights, biases, and input values are all represented as quaternion numbers. Previous studies have shown that QNNs outperform real-valued neural networks in basic tasks and have potential in high-dimensional problem spaces. However, research on QNNs has been fragmented, with contributions from different mathematical and engineering domains leading to unintentional overlap in QNN literature. This work aims to unify existing research by evaluating four distinct QNN backpropagation algorithms, including the novel GHR-calculus backpropagation algorithm, and providing concise, scalable implementations of each algorithm using a …

What Makes An Impartial Jury? Perceptions Of Jury Impartiality And Court Legitimacy, Joshua P. Freitag

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

In light of decreasing trust in courts at all levels of the American justice system, it is more important than ever to understand what affects people’s perceptions of the courts as fair, just, and legitimate. The Black Lives Matter protests highlighted a racial element to perceptions of impartiality in the jury system. Existing literature reveals a complex historical relationship between race and the jury, but little research has been done on public perceptions of race in the jury box.

With a novel two-experiment design using a survey instrument and a half White–half Black respondent sample pool fielded using Prolific, I …

Improving The Efficiency Of Exponential Ratio-Type Estimator For Population Median: A Calibration Weight Adjustment Approach, Mathew J. Iseh, Kufre J. Bassey

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper modifies the Bahl and Tuteja exponential ratio-type estimator for population median under simple random and stratified sampling schemes using calibration weight adjustment technique with supplementary information to vary the stratum weights. The bias and mean square error of the modified estimator were obtained up to the second-order approximation, which satisfies the necessary conditions for efficiency. The findings show that the new estimator surpasses existing estimators in efficiency gain. This suggests the appropriateness of calibration weight modification in boosting the efficiency of a population parameter estimator under stratified random sampling especially where the population parameter of the auxiliary variable …

Nonparametric Tests For Replicated Latin Squares, Joseph Yang

Dissertations

Two classes of nonparametric procedures for a replicated Latin square design that test for both general and increasing alternatives are developed. The two classes of procedures are similar in the sense that both transform the data so that existing well-known tests for randomized complete block designs can be utilized. On the other hand, the two classes differ in the way that the data is transformed - one class essentially aggregates the data while the other class aligns the data. Within these contexts, the exact distributions and asymptotic distributions are discussed, when applicable. The exact distributions are easily computed using the …

Drug Ideologies Of The United States, Macy Montgomery

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

The United States has been increasingly creating lenient drug policies. Seventeen states and Washington, the District of Columbia, legalized marijuana, and Oregon decriminalized certain drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine. The medical community has proven that drugs, including marijuana, have myriad adverse health side effects. This leads to two questions: Why does the United States government continue to create lenient drug policies, and what reasons do citizens give for legalizing drugs when the medical community has proven them harmful? The paper hypothesizes that the disadvantages of drug legalization outweigh its benefits because of the numerous harms it causes, such as …

Uconn Baseball Batting Order Optimization, Gavin Rublewski, Gavin Rublewski

Honors Scholar Theses

Challenging conventional wisdom is at the very core of baseball analytics. Using data and statistical analysis, the sets of rules by which coaches make decisions can be justified, or possibly refuted. One of those sets of rules relates to the construction of a batting order. Through data collection, data adjustment, the construction of a baseball simulator, and the use of a Monte Carlo Simulation, I have assessed thousands of possible batting orders to determine the roster-specific strategies that lead to optimal run production for the 2023 UConn baseball team. This paper details a repeatable process in which basic player statistics …

Machine Learning-Based Data And Model Driven Bayesian Uncertanity Quantification Of Inverse Problems For Suspended Non-Structural System, Zhiyuan Qin

All Dissertations

Inverse problems involve extracting the internal structure of a physical system from noisy measurement data. In many fields, the Bayesian inference is used to address the ill-conditioned nature of the inverse problem by incorporating prior information through an initial distribution. In the nonparametric Bayesian framework, surrogate models such as Gaussian Processes or Deep Neural Networks are used as flexible and effective probabilistic modeling tools to overcome the high-dimensional curse and reduce computational costs. In practical systems and computer models, uncertainties can be addressed through parameter calibration, sensitivity analysis, and uncertainty quantification, leading to improved reliability and robustness of decision and …

Arousing Motives Or Eliciting Stories? On The Role Of Pictures In A Picture–Story Exercise, Philipp Schäpers, Stefan Krumm, Filip Lievens, Nikola Stenzel

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Picture–story exercises (PSE) form a popular measurement approach that has been widely used for the assessment of implicit motives. However, current theorizing offers two diverging perspectives on the role of pictures in PSEs: either to elicit stories or to arouse motives. In the current study, we tested these perspectives in an experimental design. We administered a PSE either with or without pictures. Results from N = 281 participants revealed that the experimental manipulation had a medium to large effect for the affiliation and power motive domains, but no effect for the achievement motive domain. We conclude that the herein chosen …

Probability Of Agreement As A Simulation Validation Methodology, Matthew C. Ledwith

Theses and Dissertations

Determining whether a simulation model is operationally valid requires the rigorous assessment of agreement between observed functional responses of the simulation model and the corresponding real world system or process of interest. This research seeks to extend and formulate the probability of agreement approach to the operational validation of simulation models. The first paper provides a methodological approach and an initial demonstration which leverages bootstrapping to overcome situations where one’s ability to collect real-world data is limited. The second paper extends the probability of agreement approach to account for second-order heteroscedastic variability structures and establishes a weighted probability of agreement …

Modeling And Fitting Two-Way Tables Containing Outliers, David L. Farnsworth

Articles

A model is proposed for two-way tables of measurement data containing outliers. The two independent variables are categorical and error free. Neither missing values nor replication are present. The model consists of the sum of a customary additive part that can be fit using least squares and a part that is composed of outliers. Recommendations are made for methods for identifying cells containing outliers and for fitting the model. A graph of the observations is used to determine the outliers’ locations. For all cells containing an outlier, replacement values are determined simultaneously using a classical missing-data tool. The result is …

Identifying Potential Consequences Of Use Of A Measure Through Stakeholder Interviews, Melissa G. Kuhn, Joanna K. Garner, Shanan L. Chappell, Linda Bol

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The advent of Messick’s Contemporary Validity Theory (1994) led researchers in survey and measure design to develop and standardize qualitative and quantitative methods of collecting evidence for the validity of psychological instruments. However, one aspect of this theory, consequential validity, has few agreed-upon evidence-gathering methods (Furr & Bachrach, 2014). This study added a blueprint-driven interview method of collecting forecasted consequences of use of an instrument into the overall process of developing a measure of outreach impact on undergraduate engineering students (Authors, in press). The method, which included a purposeful sampling of end-users, is illustrated with thematically presented results. Potential implications …