Dissertations / Theses: 'Mid-level'

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Trulls, Fortuny Eduard. "Enhancing low-level features with mid-level cues." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/286325.

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Local features have become an essential tool in visual recognition. Much of the progress in computer vision over the past decade has built on simple, local representations such as SIFT or HOG. SIFT in particular shifted the paradigm in feature representation. Subsequent works have often focused on improving either computational efficiency, or invariance properties. This thesis belongs to the latter group. Invariance is a particularly relevant aspect if we intend to work with dense features. The traditional approach to sparse matching is to rely on stable interest points, such as corners, where scale and orientation can be reliably estimated, enforcing invariance; dense features need to be computed on arbitrary points. Dense features have been shown to outperform sparse matching techniques in many recognition problems, and form the bulk of our work. In this thesis we present strategies to enhance low-level, local features with mid-level, global cues. We devise techniques to construct better features, and use them to handle complex ambiguities, occlusions and background changes. To deal with ambiguities, we explore the use of motion to enforce temporal consistency with optical flow priors. We also introduce a novel technique to exploit segmentation cues, and use it to extract features invariant to background variability. For this, we downplay image measurements most likely to belong to a region different from that where the descriptor is computed. In both cases we follow the same strategy: we incorporate mid-level, "big picture" information into the construction of local features, and proceed to use them in the same manner as we would the baseline features. We apply these techniques to different feature representations, including SIFT and HOG, and use them to address canonical vision problems such as stereo and object detection, demonstrating that the introduction of global cues yields consistent improvements. We prioritize solutions that are simple, general, and efficient. Our main contributions are as follows: (a) An approach to dense stereo reconstruction with spatiotemporal features, which unlike existing works remains applicable to wide baselines. (b) A technique to exploit segmentation cues to construct dense descriptors invariant to background variability, such as occlusions or background motion. (c) A technique to integrate bottom-up segmentation with recognition efficiently, amenable to sliding window detectors.
Les "features" locals s'han convertit en una eina fonamental en el camp del reconeixement visual. Gran part del progrés experimentat en el camp de la visió per computador al llarg de l'última decada es basa en representacions locals de baixa complexitat, com SIFT o HOG. SIFT, en concret, ha canviat el paradigma en representació de característiques visuals. Els treballs que l'han succeït s'acostumen a centrar o bé a millorar la seva eficiencia computacional, o bé propietats d'invariança. El treball presentat en aquesta tesi pertany al segon grup. L'invariança es un aspecte especialment rellevant quan volem treballab amb "features" denses, és a dir per a cada pixel. La manera tradicional d'atacar el problema amb "features" de baixa densitat consisteix en seleccionar punts d'interés estables, com per exemple cantonades, on l'escala i l'orientació poden ser estimades de manera robusta. Les "features" denses, per definició, han de ser calculades en punts arbitraris de la imatge. S'ha demostrat que les "features" denses obtenen millors resultats en tècniques de correspondència per a molts problemes en reconeixement, i formen la major part del nostre treball. En aquesta tesi presentem estratègies per a enriquir "features" locals de baix nivell amb "cues" o dades globals, de mitja complexitat. Dissenyem tècniques per a construïr millors "features", que usem per a atacar problemes tals com correspondències amb un grau elevat d'ambigüetat, oclusions, i canvis del fons de la imatge. Per a atacar ambigüetats, explorem l'ús del moviment per a imposar consistència espai-temporal mitjançant informació d'"optical flow". També presentem una tècnica per explotar dades de segmentació que fem servir per a extreure "features" invariants a canvis en el fons de la imatge. Aquest mètode consisteix en atenuar els components de la imatge (i per tant les "features") que probablement corresponguin a regions diferents a la del descriptor que estem calculant. En ambdós casos seguim la mateixa estratègia: la nostra voluntat és incorporar dades globals d'un nivell de complexitat mitja a la construcció de "features" locals, que procedim a utilitzar de la mateixa manera que les "features" originals. Aquestes tècniques són aplicades a diferents tipus de representacions, incloent SIFT i HOG, i mostrem com utilitzar-les per a atacar problemes fonamentals en visió per computador tals com l'estèreo i la detecció d'objectes. En aquest treball demostrem que introduïnt informació global en la construcció de "features" locals podem obtenir millores consistentment. Donem prioritat a solucions senzilles, generals i eficients. Aquestes són les principals contribucions de la tesi: (a) Una tècnica per a reconstrucció estèreo densa mitjançant "features" espai-temporals, amb l'avantatge respecte a treballs existents que podem aplicar-la a càmeres en qualsevol configuració geomètrica ("wide-baseline"). (b) Una tècnica per a explotar dades de segmentació dins la construcció de descriptors densos, fent-los invariants a canvis al fons de la imatge, i per tant a problemes com les oclusions en estèreo o objectes en moviment. (c) Una tècnica per a integrar segmentació de manera ascendent ("bottom-up") en problemes de reconeixement d'una manera eficient, dissenyada per a detectors de tipus "sliding window".

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Tsogkas, Stavros. "Mid-level representations for modeling objects." Thesis, Université Paris-Saclay (ComUE), 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016SACLC012/document.

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Dans cette thèse, nous proposons l'utilisation de représentations de niveau intermédiaire, et en particulier i) d'axes médians, ii) de parties d'objets, et iii) des caractéristiques convolutionnels, pour modéliser des objets.La première partie de la thèse traite de détecter les axes médians dans des images naturelles en couleur. Nous adoptons une approche d'apprentissage, en utilisant la couleur, la texture et les caractéristiques de regroupement spectral pour construire un classificateur qui produit une carte de probabilité dense pour la symétrie. Le Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) nous permet de traiter l'échelle et l'orientation comme des variables latentes pendant l'entraînement, tandis qu'une variante fondée sur les forêts aléatoires offre des gains significatifs en termes de temps de calcul.Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, nous traitons de la modélisation des objets, utilisant des modèles de parties déformables (DPM). Nous développons une approche « coarse-to-fine » hiérarchique, qui utilise des bornes probabilistes pour diminuer le coût de calcul dans les modèles à grand nombre de composants basés sur HOGs. Ces bornes probabilistes, calculés de manière efficace, nous permettent d'écarter rapidement de grandes parties de l'image, et d'évaluer précisément les filtres convolutionnels seulement à des endroits prometteurs. Notre approche permet d'obtenir une accélération de 4-5 fois sur l'approche naïve, avec une perte minimale en performance.Nous employons aussi des réseaux de neurones convolutionnels (CNN) pour améliorer la détection d'objets. Nous utilisons une architecture CNN communément utilisée pour extraire les réponses de la dernière couche de convolution. Nous intégrons ces réponses dans l'architecture DPM classique, remplaçant les descripteurs HOG fabriqués à la main, et nous observons une augmentation significative de la performance de détection (~14.5% de mAP).Dans la dernière partie de la thèse nous expérimentons avec des réseaux de neurones entièrement convolutionnels pous la segmentation de parties d'objets.Nous réadaptons un CNN utilisé à l'état de l'art pour effectuer une segmentation sémantique fine de parties d'objets et nous utilisons un CRF entièrement connecté comme étape de post-traitement pour obtenir des bords fins.Nous introduirons aussi un à priori sur les formes à l'aide d'une Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM), à partir des segmentations de vérité terrain.Enfin, nous concevons une nouvelle architecture entièrement convolutionnel, et l'entraînons sur des données d'image à résonance magnétique du cerveau, afin de segmenter les différentes parties du cerveau humain.Notre approche permet d'atteindre des résultats à l'état de l'art sur les deux types de données
In this thesis we propose the use of mid-level representations, and in particular i) medial axes, ii) object parts, and iii)convolutional features, for modelling objects.The first part of the thesis deals with detecting medial axes in natural RGB images. We adopt a learning approach, utilizing colour, texture and spectral clustering features, to build a classifier that produces a dense probability map for symmetry. Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) allows us to treat scale and orientation as latent variables during training, while a variation based on random forests offers significant gains in terms of running time.In the second part of the thesis we focus on object part modeling using both hand-crafted and learned feature representations. We develop a coarse-to-fine, hierarchical approach that uses probabilistic bounds for part scores to decrease the computational cost of mixture models with a large number of HOG-based templates. These efficiently computed probabilistic bounds allow us to quickly discard large parts of the image, and evaluate the exact convolution scores only at promising locations. Our approach achieves a $4times-5times$ speedup over the naive approach with minimal loss in performance.We also employ convolutional features to improve object detection. We use a popular CNN architecture to extract responses from an intermediate convolutional layer. We integrate these responses in the classic DPM pipeline, replacing hand-crafted HOG features, and observe a significant boost in detection performance (~14.5% increase in mAP).In the last part of the thesis we experiment with fully convolutional neural networks for the segmentation of object parts.We re-purpose a state-of-the-art CNN to perform fine-grained semantic segmentation of object parts and use a fully-connected CRF as a post-processing step to obtain sharp boundaries.We also inject prior shape information in our model through a Restricted Boltzmann Machine, trained on ground-truth segmentations.Finally, we train a new fully-convolutional architecture from a random initialization, to segment different parts of the human brain in magnetic resonance image data.Our methods achieve state-of-the-art results on both types of data

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McGovern, David. "Mid-level Vision : Combining the Outputs from V1." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.523678.

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Ng, Siu-kan, and 吳少芹. "Diversity of elevated space along Mid-level-escalator." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2010. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B47153052.

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Albaradei, Somayah. "Learning Mid-Level Features from Object Hierarchy for Image Classification." IEEE, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/28540.

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One of the most active research areas in computer vision is image classification. Although there have been many research efforts in this area, it remains a difficult problem, especially when the number of categories is large. Most of the previous work in image classification uses low-level image features. We believe low-level features ignore a lot of the semantic structures of the image classes. In this thesis, we go beyond simple low-level features and propose new approaches for constructing mid-level visual features for image classification. We represent an image using the outputs of a collection of binary classifiers. These binary classifiers are trained to differentiate pairs of object classes in an object hierarchy. Our feature representations implicitly capture the hierarchical structure in object classes. We show that our proposed approach outperforms other baseline methods in image classification.

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Flanders, Melanie Good Glenn E. "Characteristics of effective mid-level leaders in higher education." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/7106.

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Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb. 22, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dr. Glenn E. Good, Dissertation Supervisor. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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Feng, Tang. "Feature based representations for mid- and high-level vision /." Diss., Digital Dissertations Database. Restricted to UC campuses, 2008. http://uclibs.org/PID/11984.

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Subirana-Vilanova, J. Brian. "Mid-level vision and recognition of non-rigid objects." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37708.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1994.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-239).
by J. Brian Subirana-Vilanova.
Ph.D.

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Lindsay, Adam Taro. "Using contour as a mid-level representation of melody." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61826.

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Mossmyr, Simon. "Noisy recognition of perceptual mid-level features in music." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-294229.

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Self-training with noisy student is a consistency-based semi-supervised self- training method that achieved state-of-the-art accuracy on ImageNet image classification upon its release. It makes use of data noise and model noise when fitting a model to both labelled data and a large amount of artificially labelled data. In this work, we use self- training with noisy student to fit a VGG- style deep CNN model to a dataset of music piece excerpts labelled with perceptual mid-level features and compare its performance with the benchmark. To achieve this, we experiment with some common data warping augmentations and find that pitch shifting, time stretching, and time translation applied on the excerpt spectrograms can improve the model's invariance. We also apply stochastic depth to the VGG-style model — a method which randomly drops entire layers of a model during training—and find that it too can increase model invariance. This is a novel application since stochastic depth has not been used outside the ResNet architecture to our knowledge. Finally, we apply self-training with noisy student with the aforementioned methods as sources of noise and find that it reduces the mean squared error of the testing subset by an impressive amount, although the overall performance of the model can still be questioned.
Självträning med störningar är en delvis övervakad självträningsmetod som uppnådde en avsevärd pricksäkerhet på ImageNets bildigenkänningsprov. Den använder sig av dataförstärkning och störningar i modellen när den ska anpassas till en stor mängd artificiellt annoterad träningsdata tillsammans med vanlig träningsdata. I den här uppsatsen så använder vi självträning med störningar för att träna ett VGG-liknande faltningsnätverk med en datamängd av musikstycken annoterade med perceptuella mellanliggande särdrag. För att uppnå detta så börjar vi med att experimentera med dataförstärkning och finner att förändring av tonhöjd, tidsuttöjning och tidsförflyttning (applicerat direkt på musikstyckenas spektrogram) kan öka modellens tolerans för förändringar i datan. Vi experimenterar även med stokastiskt djup — en metod som inaktiverar hela lager av ett neuronnätverk under träning—och finner att detta också kan öka modellens tolerans. Detta är en nyanvändning av stokastiskt djup eftersom metoden såvitt vi känner till inte har använts i annat än varianter av ResNet. Slutligen så använder vi självträning med störningar med de tidigare nämnda metoderna och finner en avsevärd minskning i modellens fel, även om dess övergripande prestanda kan ifrågasättas.

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Heess, Nicolas Manfred Otto. "Learning generative models of mid-level structure in natural images." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/5866.

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Natural images arise from complicated processes involving many factors of variation. They reflect the wealth of shapes and appearances of objects in our three-dimensional world, but they are also affected by factors such as distortions due to perspective, occlusions, and illumination, giving rise to structure with regularities at many different levels. Prior knowledge about these regularities and suitable representations that allow efficient reasoning about the properties of a visual scene are important for many image processing and computer vision tasks. This thesis focuses on models of image structure at intermediate levels of complexity as required, for instance, for image inpainting or segmentation. It aims at developing generative, probabilistic models of this kind of structure, and, in particular, at devising strategies for learning such models in a largely unsupervised manner from data. One hallmark of natural images is that they can often be decomposed into regions with very different visual characteristics. The main approach of this thesis is therefore to represent images in terms of regions that are characterized by their shapes and appearances, and an image is then composed from many such regions. We explore approaches to learn about the appearance of regions, to learn about region shapes, and ways to combine several regions to form a full image. To achieve this goal, we make use of some ideas for unsupervised learning developed in the literature on models of low-level image structure and in the “deep learning” literature. These models are used as building blocks of more structured model formulations that incorporate additional prior knowledge of how images are formed. The thesis makes the following contributions: Firstly, we investigate a popular, MRF based prior of natural image structure, the Field-of Experts, with respect to its ability to model image textures, and propose an extended formulation that is considerably more successful at this task. This formulation gives rise to a fully parametric, translation-invariant probabilistic generative model of image textures. We illustrate how this model can be used as a component of a more comprehensive model of images comprising multiple textured regions. Secondly, we develop a model of region shape. This work is an extension of the “Masked Restricted Boltzmann Machine” proposed by Le Roux et al. (2011) and it allows explicit reasoning about the independent shapes and relative depths of occluding objects. We develop an inference and unsupervised learning scheme and demonstrate how this shape model, in combination with the masked RBM gives rise to a good model of natural image patches. Finally, we demonstrate how this model of region shape can be extended to model shapes in large images. The result is a generative model of large images which are formed by composition from many small, partially overlapping and occluding objects.

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Nguyen, Kay Vu. "Leadership development of mid-level administrators in California community colleges." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3674336.

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In recent years, concerns over the future of community college leadership have intensified because of the looming retirements of college presidents who started their careers in the 1960s and 1970s. With senior administrative turnovers continuing to rise at the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Academic Officer levels, community colleges are looking for ways to prepare for leadership transition and succession in order to continue to operate effectively. Although the middle managerial position is often used as a stepping stone for senior administrative positions, little is known about the mid-level administrators and their roles. With little research on mid-level administrators, their roles, and the processes in which they develop their leadership skills, community colleges are not equipped with resources to tap into this potential and abundant leadership pool successfully.

The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of mid-level administrators in California community colleges, the challenges they face in their positions, and more importantly, to explore the learning process that mid-level administrators engage in to cultivate their leadership skills to address those challenges. The study was guided by the following research questions: (1) What are the leadership and managerial challenges that California community college mid-level administrators face in their positions? (2) How do community college mid-level administrators develop and cultivate their leadership skills to address leadership and managerial challenges in California community college settings? (3) What leadership skills, knowledge, and competencies do mid-level administrators believe they need in order to be effective in their position as well as their career overall? And (4) What leadership development resources and support do mid-level administrators feel they would need in order to advance to the next administrative level position?

The research methodology was a qualitative approach to understanding their leadership experiences. Data were collected by means of one-on-one interviews and a brief questionnaire. Data were collected from 12 participants who currently work as deans or directors in community colleges in southern California.

Findings revealed that challenges to the mid-level administrators include managing employees, campus politics, and an increasing workload. The findings also highlighted the importance of leadership mentoring and training for mid-level administrators so they can be effective in their current position and to prepare them for career advancement. Recommendations for policy and practice include adding new language in accreditation standards to focus on effective leadership and implementing ongoing managerial and leadership trainings for mid-level administrators.

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Perry, Nathan W. "Determining the appropriate capital level for Farm Credit Mid-America." Thesis, Kansas State University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/27653.

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Master of Agribusiness
Department of Agricultural Economics
Allen M. Featherstone
Farm Credit Mid-America is experiencing strong growth due to the success of the farming sector in our four state territory of Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. The company is well positioned to meet the financial demands of its customers and they have an aggressive growth plan to increase total assets from $18 billion to $25 billion in five years. They also plan to add 600 new employees in that time period. Determining the appropriate level of capital to sustain growth and meet the demands of its customers will be a primary objective of the organization over the next five years. Permanent capital is viewed as a percentage of total assets at Farm Credit Mid-America with the ideal amount between 14% and 16%. A detailed analysis of the current capital level, regulatory requirements, and the projected future financial position of the company was completed to: · Define and understand capital as it applies to Farm Credit Mid-America; · Research the current capital levels for Farm Credit Mid-America; · Compare capital levels of Farm Credit Mid-America to capital levels of other Farm Credit Associations and other banks; · Understand Basel III Accords and how it applies to Farm Credit Mid-America’s capital requirements; · Complete sensitivity analysis with multiple scenarios applied to the current Farm Credit Mid-America loan portfolio to determine the effect certain events may have on capital levels; · Determine if Farm Credit Mid-America is appropriately capitalized based on the other objectives. When looking at the results, it is determined that current capital levels are in line with other Farm Credit associations and competitors. Also, Farm Credit Mid-America has met the Basel III guidelines for minimum capital requirements. The sensitivity analysis included a wide range of scenarios from normal growth rates to extreme loan portfolio distress and the effects those scenarios would have on permanent capital. The permanent capital ratio exceeded the minimum standard of 12% on all sensitivity analysis scenarios. Therefore, based on the objectives of this thesis Farm Credit Mid-America appears to be adequately capitalized.

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Kader, Nancy Stowe. "Justifying bioethical case decisions reflective equilibrium and mid-level moral principles /." College Park, Md. : University of Maryland, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/2404.

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Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2005.
Thesis research directed by: Philosophy. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

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Davidson, Denise L. "National job satisfaction of entry- and mid-level student affairs professionals." Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1244571494.

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Hansen, Keith R. "Mid-Level Student Affairs Professionals’ Perceptions of Spirituality: A Phenomenological Study." Connect to this title online, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1120146661.

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Davidson, Denise L. "National Job Satisfaction of Enty- and Mid-level Student Affairs Professionals." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1244571494.

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Georgiev, Kristiyan. "REALTIME MAPPING AND SCENE RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON MID-LEVEL GEOMETRIC FEATURES." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2014. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/296059.

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Computer and Information Science
Ph.D.
Robot mapping is a major field of research in robotics. Its basic task is to combine (register) spatial data, usually gained from range devices, to a single data set. This data set is called global map and represents the environment, observed from different locations, usually without knowledge of their positions. Various approaches can be classified into groups based on the type of sensor, e.g. Lasers, Microsoft Kinect, Stereo Image Pair. A major disadvantage of current methods is the fact, that they are derived from hardly scalable 2D approaches that use a small amount of data. However, 3D sensing yields a large amount of data in each 3D scan. Autonomous mobile robots have limited computational power, which makes it harder to run 3D robot mapping algorithms in real-time. To remedy this limitation, the proposed research uses mid-level geometric features (lines and ellipses) to construct 3D geometric primitives (planar patches, cylinders, spheres and cones) from 3D point data. Such 3D primitives can serve as distinct features for faster registration, allowing real-time performance on a mobile robot. This approach works in real-time, e.g. using a Microsoft Kinect to detect planes with 30 frames per second. While previous approaches show insufficient performance, the proposed method operates in real-time. In its core, the algorithm performs a fast model fitting with a model update in constant time (O(1)) for each new data point added to the model using a three stage approach. The first step inspects 1.5D sub spaces, to find lines and ellipses. The next stage uses these lines and ellipses as input by examining their neighborhood structure to form sets of candidates for the 3D geometric primitives. Finally, candidates are fitted to the geometric primitives. The complexity for point processing is O(n); additional time of lower order is needed for working on significantly smaller amount of mid-level objects. The real-time performance suggests this approach as a pre-processing step for 3D real-time higher level tasks in robotics, like tracking or feature based mapping. In this thesis, I will show how these features are derived and used for scene registration. Optimal registration is determined by finding plane-feature correspondence based on mutual similarity and geometric constraints. Our approach determines the plane correspondence in three steps. First step computes the distance between all pairs of planes from the first scan to all pair of planes from the second scan. The distance function captures angular, distance and co-planarity differences. The resulting distances are accumulated in a distance matrix. The next step uses the distance matrix to compute the correlation matrix between planes from the first and second scan. Finally plane correspondence is found by finding the global optimal assignment from the correlation matrix. After finding the plane correspondence, an optimal pose registration is computed. In addition to that, I will provide a comparison to existing state-of-the-art algorithms. This work is part of an industry collaboration effort sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), aiming at performance evaluation and modeling of autonomous navigation in unstructured and dynamic environments. Additional field work, in the form of evaluation of real robotic systems in a robot test arena was performed.
Temple University--Theses

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Shreve, Melissa, Tatiana Sawyer, Mel Nelson, and Terri Warholak. "Electronic Prescribing Requirements for Mid-level Practitioners in the United States." The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/613944.

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Class of 2016 Abstract
Objectives: To identify which types of mid-level practitioners have prescribing authority in each state in the United States (US), compare the types of prescriptive authority for scheduled medications for mid-level practitioners, and delineate differences between state and federal requirements for electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) for mid-level practitioners in each state. Methods: A data extraction tool was developed and utilized to collect e-prescribing requirements and mid-level practitioner prescriptive authority from publically accessible state and federal websites. Dependent variables were analyzed using frequencies and percentages. A comparison of regional mid-level practitioner prescriptive authority patterns was conducted. Results: Mid-level practitioner prescriptive authority and e-prescribing requirements were collected from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). For e-prescribing requirements, 19 (37%) states listed federal law requirements, 28 (55%) states listed requirements in addition to federal law, and 4 states (8%) did not specify requirements. Overall, over half of the US had more stringent e-prescribing requirements than federal law. States varied in which mid-level practitioners had authority to prescribe controlled substances: 98% of states allow nurse practitioners to prescribe; 96% allow physician assistants; 84% allow optometrists; 14% allow naturopathic doctors; 12% allow registered pharmacists; 8% allow certified nurse midwives, 4% allow homeopathic physicians, medical psychologists, and nursing homes; and 2% allow doctors of oriental medicine, certified chiropractors, clinical nurse specialists and/or advanced practice registered nurses. Conclusions: There are differences in e-prescribing requirements and varying levels of prescriptive authority for mid-level practitioners between US states.

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Hedgecoth, David M. "Factors Influencing the Programming Practices of Conductors of Mid-Level Collegiate Ensembles." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1338233451.

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Erdem, Mehmet Erkut. "Simultaneous Bottom-up/top-down Processing In Early And Mid Level Vision." Phd thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12610167/index.pdf.

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The prevalent view in computer vision since Marr is that visual perception is a data-driven bottom-up process. In this view, image data is processed in a feed-forward fashion where a sequence of independent visual modules transforms simple low-level cues into more complex abstract perceptual units. Over the years, a variety of techniques has been developed using this paradigm. Yet an important realization is that low-level visual cues are generally so ambiguous that they could make purely bottom-up methods quite unsuccessful. These ambiguities cannot be resolved without taking account of high-level contextual information. In this thesis, we explore different ways of enriching early and mid-level computer vision modules with a capacity to extract and use contextual knowledge. Mainly, we integrate low-level image features with contextual information within uni&
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ed formulations where bottom-up and top-down processing take place simultaneously.

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Moseley, Gina Elaine. "Mid to late quaternary sea level change of the circum-Caribbean region." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.508171.

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Eigenstetter, Angela [Verfasser], and Björn [Akademischer Betreuer] Ommer. "Learning Mid-Level Representations for Visual Recognition / Angela Eigenstetter ; Betreuer: Björn Ommer." Heidelberg : Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1180499883/34.

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Leverich, Cynthia S. "Mid-level Dental Care Provider: Awareness and Attitudes of Ohio’s Dental Hygienists." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3148.

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The purpose of this study was to determine the awareness and attitudes of dental hygienists in Ohio regarding the Advanced Dental Hygiene Practitioner (ADHP) as an occupation proposed by the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and to determine whether the ADHP could be a viable career option for Ohio dental hygienists. I developed a survey to assess dental hygienists’ awareness, attitudes, and their views regarding the new mid-level dental provider. The study was limited to licensed dental hygienists in Ohio. The study included a simple random sample of 400 of the 4100 dental hygienists in Ohio obtained by a systematic approach, a random start and selection of subjects at a constant interval. The method of data collection was electronic surveys. Fifty-four dental hygienists (13% of the sample) participated in the study. The results show that most of those responding were aware of the ADHP. Also, their attitude regarding the new mid-level dental provider was positive. Attitudes varied more when the respondents provided data on the adoption of legislation for the new provider. There was no consensus among respondents regarding the ADHP as a viable career option. More robust research is needed on the viability of the ADHP in Ohio.

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Laitinen, J. (Jarmo). "Vegetational and landscape level responses to water level fluctuations in Finnish, mid-boreal aapa mire – aro wetland environments." Doctoral thesis, University of Oulu, 2008. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789514288791.

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Abstract Gradient, which is largely considered to be related to water level in mires, is referred to as a microtopographic mud bottom to carpet to lawn to hummock level gradient or the hummock level to intermediate level (lawn) to flark level gradient. The relationship of this vegetation gradient to various physical water level characteristics was studied. The general classification used in the present summary paper divides the aro vegetation of the inland of Northern Ostrobothnia into two main groups: (a) treeless fen aro vegetation (Juncus supinus, Carex lasiocarpa, Rhynchospora fusca, Molinia caerulea) and (b) heath aro vegetation (Polytrichum commune). The first group (a) was divided into fen aro wetlands with an approximately10 cm peaty layer at most and into aro fens with a peat layer thicker than 10 cm. The treatment of the water level gradient was divided into three main groups. (1) The mean water level correlated with mire surface levels (microtopographic gradient) within mires with slight water level fluctuations and partly within mires with considerable water level fluctuations. (2) Three habitat groups could be distinguished on the basis of the range of water level fluctuation i.e. mires with slight water level fluctuations, mires with considerable water level fluctuations and the aro vegetation with extreme water level fluctuations. (3) The timing of water level fluctuations indicated that there are different types of patterns within aro wetlands, the seasonal pattern being mainly a response to yearly snow melt and the several-year-fluctuation pattern being related to the regional groundwater table fluctuation in mineral soils (heath forests). A link was suggested between the stability of the water regime and peat production in local aapa mire – aro wetland environments. From the point of view of peatland plants the direction of variation from a stable to an unstable water regime in aapa mire – aro wetland environments represents a transition towards more and more harsh ecological conditions, partly forming a gradient through natural disturbance. A qualitative functional model was provided for the mire – aro wetland systems of Northern Ostrobothnia. The model supposes differences in the characteristics of peat between two functional complexes within a mire system. Finally, the model for local mire – aro wetland systems was converted to a general from: diplotelmic (acrotelm) mires were divided into two subtypes (diplotelmic water stabilization mires, diplotelmic water fluctuation mires) and the relationship of those subtypes to percolation mires and seasonal wetlands was considered.

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Edwards, T., and A. Geldenhuys. "Challenges for mid-level commanders in the South African National Defence Force : management model and training needs." Interim : Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol 6, Issue 1: Central University of Technology Free State Bloemfontein, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/11462/395.

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Public Article
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996) and conclusive Acts record that effective human-resource management, career-development and training practices must be cultivated to maximise human potential. The unique nature and wide range of activities of the South African National Defence Force assign exceptional demands on the management expertise of military commanders. Therefore, the importance of effective training and for the purpose of this article, effective management training for mid-level commanders is indisputable. Against this background, a new management model is presented and the resulting training needs are empirically investigated in this article. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the survey, targeted 165 mid-level commanders in the South African National Defence Force. The empirical results of the study suggested that the existing management training for mid-level commanders fails to meet expectations primarily because of the non-existence of an appropriate management model. Thus, the article present a contemporary management model as foundation for management training of mid-level commanders in the South African National Defence Force. The management model also sanctions applicable standards for the development of management skills and appropriate competencies of military commanders.

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Gruhne, Matthias [Verfasser]. "Extraction and Evaluation of Mid-level Features for Semantic Music Analysis / Matthias Gruhne." München : Verlag Dr. Hut, 2012. http://d-nb.info/1028783361/34.

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Barton, Lisa Ceinwen. "Antecedents and outcomes of mid-level marketing managers product-market strategy implementation behaviour." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2006. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/54326/.

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This thesis presents a study of mid-level marketing managers' behaviour in product-market strategy implementation with the overall objective of understanding how the performance of product-market strategy implementation might be improved. A literature review from a number of fields is conducted in order to develop a guiding framework for the development of a conceptual model. By combining perspectives on product-market strategy implementation from a structural, contextual and interpersonal process perspective, the study provides a broad and integrative understanding of product-market strategy implementation performance. A holistic model encompassing situational antecedents to two dimensions of mid-level marketing managers' product-market strategy implementation behaviour (counterproductive work behaviour and citizenship behaviour) is presented. The outcomes of these dimensions of behaviour are assessed in terms of the internal and external effectiveness of product-market strategy implementation performance. A number of hypotheses are constructed linking situational antecedents to the dimensions of product-market strategy implementation behaviour and these dimensions of behaviour to product-market strategy implementation performance. The research design and empirical method used to test the hypotheses is developed and presented A questionnaire is designed and employed as the survey instrument to generate the data on the hypothesized relationships. The method of administration uses a four stage postal survey. The data generated are examined through an analysis of the descriptive statistics before scale construction through principal components analysis. The hypotheses are subsequently tested through correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis A discussion of the findings provides a number of conclusions that make a tangible contribution to knowledge and practice. Several directions for future research that emerge from the findings, in addition to opportunities presented from the limitations of the study are offered.

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Harman, M. C. M. "Mid- to late Holocene relative sea-level change in the north of Ireland." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.431599.

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Rodriguez, Wilmarie. "What Keeps Student Affairs Professionals In The Field: Perspectives Of Mid-Level Administrators." W&M ScholarWorks, 2021. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1627407519.

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Mid-level student affairs professionals are leaving the field at an alarming rate. Even though many studies have given considerable attention to the reasons employees leave, less attention has been given to the reasons they decide to stay. The purpose of this mixed-methods sequential explanatory study was to examine factors influencing mid-level student affairs professionals’ retention at two public, medium to small size, 4-year universities in the Mid-Atlantic region. First, the administration of a survey to student affairs professionals at two selected institutions occurred to assess their job embeddedness at the institutions. Interviews, through a narrative approach, with select mid-level student affairs professionals followed that explored in more depth reasons these professionals indicate they have stayed in their positions. The goal in the explanatory interview follow-up was to investigate how the three variables of the Job Embeddedness Model—links, fit, and sacrifice—serve as predictors of longevity in student affairs positions. Additionally, the interviews provided a deeper look into these professionals’ lives and the reasons they decide to stay or leave the profession. The findings of the study are significant to professional stakeholders who want to implement program changes to support their retention efforts of mid-level leaders. Such use of the data may positively impact the student affairs profession by improving retention programs centered on the unique needs of mid-level student affairs professionals. Further, the data may greatly impact the culture of institutions by shifting the nature of their relationship with student affairs professionals.

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Cameron, Tracey LaShawne. "The Professional & the Personal: Worklife Balance and Mid-Level Student Affairs Administrators." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/29528.

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The integration of work and family continues to be a challenge for women and men of the academy (Gatta & Roos, 2004). Much of the research on worklife balance in the post-secondary education setting focuses on the lives of instructional faculty (Bailyn, 2003; Bassett, 2005; Drago et al., 2006; Drago & Williams, 2000; Gatta & Roos, 2004; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999; Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2004). There is also a need to understand how university administrators juggle the demands of work and personal life. The primary purpose of this phenomenological inquiry was to make meaning of the lived experiences of mid-level student affairs administrators by examining worklife balance. A secondary purpose was to gather administrator perceptions of their environment to gain insight into infrastructures that may promote or hinder worklife balance efforts. Respondents consisted of 30 mid-level student affairs administrators from an array of post-secondary institutions across the United States. Data were generated from semi-structured telephone interviews and two projection exercises. Findings suggest that mid-level student affairs administrators describe their worklife experiences as driven by a shortage of time. Administrators maintain that time is a limited resource that causes difficulty when juggling competing worklife demands. Their involvement in multiple, interdependent roles is rewarding but presents ongoing personal and professional challenges. Administrators report that shortage of time, coupled with the demands of multiple roles impacts personal well-being and career satisfaction. Mid-level student affairs administrators also identified environmental infrastructures that promote and/or hinder worklife efforts in the context of several cultural dynamics. Formal and informal support mechanisms such as policies, programs and resources, effective supervision and campus support networks assist administrators in mitigating worklife challenges. This is in contrast to expectations, behaviors, and values that reinforce unhealthy workplace norms. In addition, the lack of organizational policies and programs and poor supervision also hindered worklife efforts.
Ph. D.

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Dlamini, Phiwase Marilyn. "Impact of organizational culture on perceived job satisfaction of mid-level social workers /." The Ohio State University, 1993. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487844948075587.

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Clements, Vicki L. "The essential leadership and management skills of mid-level managers in non-profit organizations." Thesis, Pepperdine University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3568447.

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The role of the middle manager in organizations is evolving. As organizations shift from strictly hierarchical structures to ones that are increasingly horizontal and interconnected through team-based collaborations, middle managers are being asked to assume more leadership responsibilities in addition to their traditional management duties. While there is agreement that both leadership and management skills are required for organizations to be successful, there is limited information on the specific skills that are required to both manage and lead from the middle.

Mid-level managers who successfully develop both skill sets are well positioned for future leadership positions. Preparing middle managers for senior level responsibility is of particular importance to non-profit organizations which are currently facing a significant deficit in the leadership pipeline. To fully develop their human capital, senior level executives in non-profit organizations need to have a good understanding of the management and leadership skills they desire in their middle managers.

The purpose of this study was to explore, with senior level executives in non-profit organizations, the management and leadership skills they value in their middle managers. The study was designed using the Delphi Method approach of identification, shared evaluation and re-evaluation, and finally consensus among the executives, to determine the most desired and essential management and leadership skills. At the conclusion of the process, 11 senior level executives identified 11 management and leadership skills they believe are essential for effective mid-level management. 4 management skills were considered to be critical: (a) focused on the mission, (b) organized, (c) communication, and (d) accountability. 7 leadership skills were identified as essential: (a) authenticity, (b) promotes healthy organizational culture, (c) values human capital, (d) takes responsibility, (e) creates alignment, (f) provides senior level support, and (g) relationship building.

Recognizing that organizations are stronger and healthier when both skill sets are present, the findings in this study may be used to identify current strengths and weaknesses within the management structure of a non-profit organizations so that training and hiring adjustments can be made, and to create training programs to better prepare mid-level managers for future executive positions in order to build a strong leadership pipeline.

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Friar, Greta. "Ghost Forests of the Mid-Atlantic : how sea-level rise is killing our coastlines." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112888.

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Thesis: S.M. in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2017.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 23-25).
Up and down the eastern seaboard of the United States, ocean levels are rising at rates faster than just about anywhere in the world. Coastal forests are dying off as a result-an early warning, if people will pay attention, of the disruptive changes in store for both natural ecosystems and human habitation. Dying coastal forests herald other coastal landscape changes: after the forests start to die, so do the marshes that live in zones between ocean and forest. As sea-level rise and human development combine to narrow the range of coastal ecosystems, problems arise for local flora and fauna, natural nutrient cycles, and coastal communities.
by Greta Friar.
S.M. in Science Writing

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Kent, Davis Linda. "Boundary spanning, networking, and sensemaking/sensegiving| how career services directors enact mid-level leadership." Thesis, University of Massachusetts Boston, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10247061.

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This study seeks to understand higher education leadership overall by exploring how mid-level leadership is enacted by career services directors. Given that higher education institutions are facing a wide range of challenges that require an equally wide range of skills to address them, colleges and universities may need to become more inclusive regarding who contributes to institutional leadership. Mid-level leadership is defined in this study as a process of social interaction that originates with a middle manager and that cuts across functional areas and/or hierarchical levels to impact institutional goals. Three research questions frame the study: 1) How do career services directors develop the capacity for social influence within their institutions, 2) How do career services directors use their social influence to cut across functional areas and hierarchical levels, and 3) What institutional goals are advanced when career services directors enact mid-level leadership? A collective case study methodology was employed. Twelve career services directors whose profiles matched the study’s selection criteria for individual characteristics (e.g. years working in a director-level position in career services, years working at the director level at their current institution, minimum of master’s degree, evidence of engagement in leadership activities on- and off-campus), unit characteristics (e.g. unit size, staff configuration, and scope of services offered), and institutional characteristics (e.g. geographic location, institutional size, four-year public or non-profit status) took part in interviews for the study. Study findings indicated that career services directors developed the capacity for social influence by creating internal networks, involving staff in increasing the visibility of the unit, and establishing themselves and/or their unit as a critical institutional resource. They utilized their social influence by deliberately leveraging their networks, providing access to information and resources, and framing issues for institutional stakeholders. The study found that when career services directors enacted mid-level leadership, the institutional goals they impacted included the development and/or implementation of the institution’s strategic plan, curriculum development and student learning, and the advancement of diversity initiatives.

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Scott, Nathan A. "Models, analysis, and recommendations pertaining to the retention of Naval Special Warfare's mid-level officers." Thesis, Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/39010.

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defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. As such, it is in the public domain, and under the provisions of Title 17, United States Code, Section 105, it may not be copyrighted.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Naval Special Warfare (NSW) is facing a substantial deficiency within its midgrade (815 years of active duty service) officer ranks. This thesis employs two different models in order to provide recommendations to the NSW Community Managers office for potential changes that might improve retention of these officers. The NSW Community Managers should use findings from the annualized-cost-of-leaving model to improve near-term retention, and they should use recommendations from the analytical hierarchy process for improving long-term retention.

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Al-Shammari, Susan. "How Do Mid-Level Leaders Communicate with White Collar Workers in a Multi-National Setting?" Thesis, Pepperdine University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10827780.

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Managing employees from different cultural and national backgrounds within international business organizations is one of the greatest challenges that mid-level leaders face in the new millennium because of the broad range of communication difficulties that can arise (Cox, 1991; Cupach & Imahori, 1993; Fitzsimmons, 2013; Ietto-Gillies, 2005; Lisak & Erez, 2015; Oliveira, 2013). The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine and evaluate the effectiveness of the communication strategies and tactics of mid-level leaders in one major multinational company with a sizable multinational workforce, Saudi Aramco. The theoretical framework for this study was Communication Accommodation Theory (e.g., Giles, 2014; Giles, Coupland, & Coupland, 1991, 2007). The principal survey instrument employed was the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (Downs & Hazen, 1977).

Only 7 demographic variables (education, age, gender, nationality match, language match, income, and duration of time with the company) had any significant correlations with the Seven Dimensions Of Communication Satisfaction proposed by Downs and Hazen (1977), but the strength of all those correlations was weak, with the exception of education. The more education the participants had, the more satisfied they were with their job.

Interestingly, in a culture in which gender differences play such an important role, there were no significant differences by gender in the workforce at Saudi Aramco. It was notable however, that the most satisfied employees were those who had been at the company the longest. National and language differences also played almost no role in employee satisfaction, most likely because the whole workforce is fluent in English. The employees did place some significance on what Suchan (2014) describes as Arabic styles of persuasion, which favor: (a) the use of repetition and paraphrasing to make a point, (b) the use of highly ornate and metaphoric language, and (c) the use of strong emotion.

Finally, in comparing the employees’ responses to Goleman’s (2000) Six Styles of Leadership, the researcher discovered that the workers at Saudi Aramco relate most of all to Goleman’s affiliative, coaching, and democratic leadership styles.

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Castellani, Jennifer. "Deconstructing Eve: A Critical Feminist Analysis of Mid-Level Female Administrators in Conservative Evangelical Universities." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1462203657.

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39

Judkins, Sharon Kay. "Hardiness, stress, and coping strategies among mid-level nurse managers: Implications for continuing higher education." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2001. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2799/.

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This study investigated relationships among hardiness, stress, and coping strategies among mid-level nurse managers in hospitals. Coping strategies were hypothesized to be positively related to stress. In addition, hardiness and its components were hypothesized to be positively related to stress and coping strategies. Demographics were hypothesized to be unrelated to stress, hardiness, and coping strategies. Both hardiness and coping strategies were hypothesized to be predictors of stress. Pearson correlation coefficients, multiple regression, and linear regression were used in data analysis. Stress was associated with specific coping strategies viz., confrontation, selfcontrolling, accepting responsibility, and escape-avoidance. High hardiness, particularly commitment and challenge, was associated with low levels of stress and with problemfocused coping strategies. By contrast, low hardiness was associated with high stress and use of emotion-focused strategies. Significant demographics, when compared to study variables, included age, experience, time with supervisors, number of direct reports, highest degrees obtained, and formal or informal higher education in management. Young nurse managers who were less experienced in nursing and management, and who had fewer direct reports, reported the highest stress levels among nurse managers. High hardiness, particularly commitment, was a strong predictor of low levels of stress; use of escape-avoidance was a significant predictor of occupational stress. This study supported the theoretical suppositions of lower stress if hardiness and specific coping strategies are high among mid-level nurse managers. Potential exists for work-related stress to be reduced by increasing hardiness and adaptive coping strategies. Implications for higher education research and practice are discussed.

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Mitchell, Robbie. "REPRESENTATIVE BUREAUCRACY: A STUDY OF ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN AFRICAN AMERICANS AT THE SENIOR LEVEL AND THE MID LEVEL OF THE FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE." VCU Scholars Compass, 2011. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/2477.

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For years African Americans have comprised the largest minority group within the federal civil service, yet have been under represented at the higher levels, namely, GS13 through GS15 and the senior executive service (SES). Executive and legislative actions alone have not been sufficient to overcome the under-representation of African Americans at higher levels of the federal bureaucracy. The theory of representative bureaucracy suggests that passive representation, or the extent to which a bureaucracy employs people of diverse social backgrounds, leads to active representation, or the pursuit of policies reflecting the interests and desires of those people (Kingsley, 1944). Implicit in this definition is the expectation that minority administrators, specifically African American senior administrators, would have an interest in increasing their representation at higher decision-making levels within the bureaucracy. This research utilized quantitative analysis to examine 48 federal agencies in five four-year increments to determine how much senior level African Americans contributed to African American increases at mid levels of the federal bureaucracy. Further, this research utilized qualitative analysis in the form of standardized structured interviews to determine to what extent African American senior administrators believed that it was important to increase the representation of African Americans at higher levels. The results of the quantitative analysis suggests that African Americans at the highest levels (GS15 and SES) of the federal bureaucracy have exerted a positive influence on the overall change in the percentage of African Americans at the mid level (GS13 and GS14) over time. Further, the results indicate that of all the independent variables tested, African Americans at the senior level were the most significant contributors to the positive change in the percentage of African Americans at the mid level, after a four-year period. The influence of African Americans at senior levels was significant only in agencies where African Americans at mid levels were already below the mean for African Americans within the federal civil service. This finding suggest that African Americans at the highest levels take an active approach to representative bureaucracy when there is inequity for African Americans at mid-level positions in their agency.

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Chan, Kwai-chau Carrie. "A review of density control system in Hong Kong : a case study of Mid-level West /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1993. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B19739928.

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Chan, Kwai-chau Carrie, and 陳桂湫. "A review of density control system in Hong Kong: a case study of Mid-level West." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1993. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31258177.

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Darrigo, Melinda. "Clinical Decision Making by Critical Care Mid-Level Practitioners Working within an Interdisciplinary Team: A Dissertation." eScholarship@UMMS, 2009. https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/gsn_diss/12.

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To improve patient safety a major change in health care reduced medical resident work hours to limit provider fatigue, in 2002 (Philibert, Friedmann, Williams, & Hours, 2002). This resulted in mid-level practitioners filling this provider void in health care teams, including critical care units (Buchanan, 1996; Christmas et al., 2005; Hoffman, Tasota, Scharfenberg, Zullo, & Donahoe, 2003; Hoffman, Tasota, Zullo, Scharfenberg, & Donahoe, 2005; Hooker & McCaig, 1996, 2001; Kaups, Parks, & Morris, 1998; Miller, Riehl, Napier, Barber, & Dabideen, 1998; Yeager, Shaw, Casavant, & Burns, 2006). In order to make appropriate clinical decisions for patients in critical care settings, mid-level practitioners are required to interpret data from multiple sources and to assimilate this information in a timely manner (Bernard, Corwin, & MacIntyre, 2000). Although these practitioners are actively involved in decision making individually and among interdisciplinary teams in critical care units, their decision making has not been described in the literature to date (Shortell et al., 1994). Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to describe how critical care mid-level practitioners (N= 17) make decisions within an interdisciplinary team, undergirded by the cognitive continuum theory. A qualitative research design using focus groups guided by naturalistic inquiry enabled data collection. An interview guide, developed from the literature review and undergirded by the cognitive continuum theory, was used to structure discussion in the focus groups. Additionally, a demographic questionnaire and vignette were used to aid in description of findings. Data was managed by note based analysis and summarized on a Microsoft Excel document. Qualitative description was used to illustrate the findings. Prior to this study, there was a paucity of empirical literature describing the clinical decision making of critical care mid-level practitioners. The findings revealed a web of complexity in mid-level practitioner decision making on an interdisciplinary team. This included an overarching theme of quality of care, with central overlapping themes of judgment, resources, and negotiation interwoven with sub-themes of trust, communication, experience, and team structure. This study’s findings have direct implications for mid-level practitioner training courses, mid-level training, critical care orientation programs, theory development, and health policy.

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44

Wilson, Carol A. "Morphodynamics in Mid-Atlantic and New England saltmarshes: ecophysical processes and implications with sea-level rise." Thesis, Boston University, 2013. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/12890.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University
This dissertation reports on the physical, biological, and biogeochemical processes in saltmarshes of Santee Delta, South Carolina, and Boston Harbor and Plum Island Estuary in Massachusetts to evaluate and quantify their dynamic response to sealevel rise. This includes comprehensive ecophysical analyses along the continuum of low to high marsh settings (South Carolina and Massachusetts, respectively), in addition to presenting information on historical saltmarsh evolution, recent anthropogenic alteration, and future sustainability. In the Santee Delta, South Carolina, relative sea-level rise is resulting in rapid creek extension on low marsh platforms of Spartina alterniflora. Measurements of redox potential, pH, belowground biomass, and soil strength reveal that crab colonization and bioturbation from the crab Sesarma reticulatum facilitate creek extension by altering the geotechnical and geochemical properties of the soil. Oxidized conditions in the upper 10-15 cm of the marsh induced by burrowing causes enhanced degradation of belowground biomass, which reduces the structural integrity of the soil and lowers elevation. This process ultimately increases the erosion potential of the sediment in creek head areas. In Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts, creek extension is similarly occurring into localized depressions on high marsh platforms dominated by Spartina patens. Coring and stratigraphic analyses, elevation and vegetation surveys, and accretion rates on marsh platforms and in re-vegetating pools suggest the marshes are in dynamic equilibrium with sea-level rise. Degradation of organic matter, loss in elevation and pool formation is counterbalanced by creek incision, drainage, rapid revegetation, and regain in elevation. These marshes appear to be stable with respect to sea-level rise, and the recent increase in pool formation is linked to changes in drainage density. Finally, saltmarsh evolution throughout the Holocene is investigated in Boston Harbor. Cores, stratigraphic analysis and radiocarbon dating indicate that the marshes on Thompson and Peddocks Islands developed ~2-4 thousand years ago when rates of sea level rise decelerated after glacial melting. A reduction in sediment supply from drumlin bluff stabilization and anthropogenic diking has greatly impacted these marshes in the past century, evidenced by transition from high to low marsh vegetation. Their sustainability with accelerating rates of sea-level rise is questionable.

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Bogenschutz, Margaret M. "Career aspirations of mid-level administrators in higher education : an analysis based on Schein's Career Anchors /." The Ohio State University, 1987. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1334176075.

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Moore, LaDonna R. "The Relationship Between Experiences with Microaggression and the Leadership Practices of Mid-Level Student Affairs Professionals." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1459457137.

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Little, Erica Sherese. "Preparing future leaders in higher education| Excellence practices from staff to mid-level management role transitions." Thesis, Pepperdine University, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10139070.

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Mid-level leadership is key to a functioning university and it is important that mid-level leaders feel they have the tools and resources they need in order to succeed. To be successful in a new mid-level leadership position, entering supervisors must clearly communicate a strong sense of vision, values, and principles to their staff and establish positive relationships to encourage inclusivity, support, and effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to determine what higher education institutions can do to prepare staff for a successful transition into mid-level management and leadership roles successfully. This purpose was achieved by identifying successes and challenges that current mid-level leaders at higher education institutions have experienced while transitioning into their current or past roles, and examining how they were able to successfully employ their leadership and navigate pitfalls in their new mid-level leadership positions.

Data were collected from 15 mid-level leaders in higher education in the form of a 13-question, semi-structured interview format, which focused on their past recollections of transitioning into a mid-level leadership role. The key findings of the study yielded 54 themes that answered 4 research questions. In particular, being a supervisor and a colleague was the primary challenge associated with mid-level leadership. Additionally, study participants indicated that having a comprehensive training/onboarding program, specifically for mid-level leaders, would allow for a better chance of a successful mid-level transition into a new campus environment or department. As a result of the study findings, a framework of advice emerged for aspiring and current mid-level leaders transitioning into a new mid-level role and suggestions for effective initiatives that higher education institutions could employ was provided to assist in helping a new mid-level leader successfully transition into one’s role.

Keywords: mid-level leadership; onboarding; transition; higher education

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48

Wolters, Dominik [Verfasser]. "Robust and Accurate Detection of Mid-level Primitives for 3D Reconstruction in Man-Made Environments / Dominik Wolters." Kiel : Universitätsbibliothek Kiel, 2019. http://d-nb.info/1175507792/34.

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49

Silva, Débora de Oliveira. "Experimental investigation of the thermal performance of screen mesh wick heat pipes operating in mid-level temperature." Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), 2018. http://urlib.net/sid.inpe.br/mtc-m21c/2018/08.21.18.18.

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Abstract:

Heat pipes are two-phase heat transfer devices with the capacity of transfer large amounts of heat with a small temperature difference between the evaporation section and the condensation section, making the heat transfer process be highly efficient. The robust and simple tubular structure with no moving parts makes the heat pipe a perfect choice for different applications such as industrial or aerospace sector. Heat pipe technology has been widely applied in various areas, such as heat exchangers, spacecraft thermal control and cooling systems for electronic components. This technology has found increasing application in improving the thermal performance of heat exchangers in many industrial environments. The use of heat pipes in heat exchangers allows the development of more compact and efficient equipment, when compared to traditional heat exchangers. For some applications, such as heat recovery in industrial process, the use of heat pipes on heat exchangers presents to be rather interesting due to their direct influence on increasing the efficiency, allowing a more compact design.However, in many thermal control applications, heat pipes using mid-level temperature working fluids, such as water or ammonia, with operating temperatures between 200 K (−73 C) and 550 K (277 C), can hardly operate at steady state conditions. The heat pipe performance depends on its geometry, working fluid, wick structure, and operating conditions. The working fluid is one of the most important parameters as the heat pipe utilizes the phase change to transport the heat. Therefore, the selection of the working fluid is of great importance to enhance the thermal performance of the heat pipe. Heat pipes operating at midlevel temperatures have found several applications in industrial sector. In this work, heat pipes were designed and manufactured with the objective of investigating the potential application of heat pipes operating at mid-level temperature. The thermal conductance obtained from the experimental tests were used to correlate the thermal conductances obtained analytically, with results showing high accuracy based on the adjustment factor applied. The numerical model results were compared with experimental measurements at the same condition. Good agreement was observed between numerical predicted temperature profiles and experimental temperature data. Test results showed reliable operation during the power step and power cycles, with fast start ups, achieving thermal conductances of up 26.59W/ C.
Os tubos de calor são dispositivos que utilizam a mudança de fase de um fluido para transferir grandes quantidades de calor com uma pequena diferença de temperatura entre a seção de evaporação e a seção de condensação, tornando o processo de transferência de calor altamente eficiente. A estrutura tubular robusta e simples, sem peças móveis, faz do tubo de calor uma escolha perfeita para diferentes aplicações, tanto no setor indústrial como no aeroespacial. A tecnologia de tubos de calor tem sido amplamente aplicada em várias áreas de transferência de calor, inclusive em sistemas de controle térmico e sistemas de refrigeração para componentes eletrônicos. Esta tecnologia encontrou uma aplicação crescente na melhoria do desempenho térmico dos permutadores de calor em muitos ambientes industriais. O uso de tubos de calor em trocadores de calor permite o desenvolvimento de equipamentos mais compactos e eficientes, quando comparados aos trocadores de calor tradicionais. Para algumas aplicações, como a recuperação de calor em processos industriais, o uso destes dispositivos apresenta-se bastante interessante devido à sua influência direta no aumento da eficiência, permitindo um design mais compacto. No entanto, em muitas aplicações de controle térmico, tubos de calor que utilizam fluidos de trabalho de temperatura intermediária, como água ou amônia, com temperaturas de operação entre 200 K (−73 C) e 550 K (277 C), dificilmente podem operar em condições de estado estacionário. O desempenho do tubo de calor depende da sua geometria, fluido de trabalho, estrutura porosa e condições de operação. O fluido de trabalho é um dos parâmetros mais importantes, pois o tubo de calor utiliza a mudança de fase deste para transportar o calor. Portanto, a seleção do fluido de trabalho é de grande importância para melhorar o desempenho térmico do tubo de calor. Os tubos de calor que operam a temperatura intermediária encontraram várias aplicações no setor industrial e aeroespacial. Neste trabalho, os tubos de calor foram projetados e fabricados com o objetivo de investigar o potencial aplicação em temperatura intermediária. Os resultados do modelo numérico foram comparados com resultados experimentais nas mesmas condições. Boa concordância foi observada entre os perfis de temperatura numéricos e os resultados experimentais de temperatura. A condutância térmica obtida a partir dos testes experimentais foi utilizada para correlacionar as condutâncias térmicas obtidas de forma analítica, com resultados com alta precisão com base no fator de ajuste aplicado. Os resultados do teste mostraram operação confiável durante o incremento e ciclagem das potências, com rápida incialização, atingindo conduções térmicas de até 26, 59W/ C.

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50

Thorpe, Eleri Rhian. "Mid-level marketing managers and marketing strategy implementation effectiveness : an empirical study from the guided evolution perspective." Thesis, Aberystwyth University, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.529899.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mid-level'

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