Programs and Communities
The collection collates collections by schools, centers, programs, and research groups.
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- All Subjects: Communication
- All Subjects: Neolithic period
Hybrid system models - those devised from two or more disparate sub-system models - provide a number of benefits in terms of conceptualization, development, and assessment of dynamical systems. The decomposition approach helps to formulate complex interactions that are otherwise difficult or impractical to express. However, hybrid model development and usage can introduce complexity that emerges from the composition itself.
To improve assurance of model correctness, sub-systems using disparate modeling formalisms must be integrated above and beyond just the data and control level; their composition must have model specification and simulation execution aspects as well. Poly-formalism composition is one approach to composing models in this manner.
This dissertation describes a poly-formalism composition between a Discrete EVent System specification (DEVS) model and a Cellular Automata (CA) model types. These model specifications have been chosen for their broad applicability in important and emerging domains. An agent-environment domain exemplifies the composition approach. The inherent spatial relations within a CA make it well-suited for environmental representations. Similarly, the component-based nature of agents fits well within the hierarchical component structure of DEVS.
This composition employs the use of a third model, called an interaction model, that includes methods for integrating the two model types at a formalism level, at a systems architecture level, and at a model execution level. A prototype framework using DEVS for the agent model and GRASS for the environment has been developed and is described. Furthermore, this dissertation explains how the concepts of this composition approach are being applied to a real-world research project.
This dissertation expands the tool set modelers in computer science and other disciplines have in order to build hybrid system models, and provides an interaction model for an on-going research project. The concepts and models presented in this dissertation demonstrate the feasibility of composition between discrete-event agents and discrete-time cellular automata. Furthermore, it provides concepts and models that may be applied directly, or used by a modeler to devise compositions for other research efforts.
Background: The consequences of poor communication or non-therapeutic communication cannot be overemphasized; these can include non-adherence to treatment plan, reduced treatment compliance, higher psychological morbidity, dissatisfaction with care and poor patient-caregiver relationship. Patients’ perception of how they are being treated affects how they respond to treatment plans and medication regimens
Method: The project consisted of providing education on the principles of therapeutic communication to healthcare workers in an outpatient psychiatric clinic. Follow up materials on therapeutic communication principles were provided on a weekly basis for one month. A pre-survey questionnaire was given to patients before intervention and a post-survey questionnaire after intervention to determine patient satisfaction with care and degree of communication with healthcare workers. The Short Assessment of Patient Satisfaction (SAPS) and the Communication Assessment Tool-Team (CAT-T) were the instruments utilized in this project.
Finding: Patient satisfaction and communication with staff were statistically and significantly improved after education on therapeutic communication was given to staff.
Conclusion: Education on therapeutic communication is an effective intervention tool in improving patient’s satisfaction and communication with staff and health care team members in a psychiatric outpatient clinic.
The photographs focused on aspects of life and behaviors that have contributed to happiness in local communities. A website was created and a gallery event was mounted for public review and discussion. Gallery attendees and website visitors were asked to complete a survey to assess (1) gained knowledge of sustainability solutions, and (2) how effective a tool photography is as a means of sustainability solutions communication.
This visual medium allowed people think about how to incorporate sustainable community solutions into their own lives and may have changed people’s interest in, and thoughts about, overall sustainability and sustainable solutions. The survey results demonstrated that photographs can successfully communicate sustainability ideas. Specifically, viewers gained an increased awareness of how community and urban gardening can increase happiness, well-being, and sense of community. This visual approach can continue to be used to more successfully communicate additional sustainability solutions ideas and methods to the public.
This report describes the process by which I created a concise but comprehensive online source of information about best practices in sustainability for urban planners. The goal of the project was to provide accessible information that would help planners in ways that help them comprehend and implement sustainable solutions to common planning problems that are found throughout the United States. To create the website, I researched methods for communicating clearly to planners, took a graduate course in communicating about sustainability, and drew on information that I had compiled on sustainable solutions for transportation, economy, water, green space, and governance.