Browsing by Subject "performance"

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A consistent and predictable commercial broiler chicken bacterial microbiome in antibiotic-free production displays strong correlations with performance
    (2018-01-16) Johnson, Timothy J; Youmans, Bonnie P; Noll, Sally; Cardona, Carol; Evans, Nicholas; Kernezos, Peter; Ngunjiri, John; Abundo, Michael; Lee, Chang-Won; tjj@umn.edu; Johnson, Timothy J
    Defining the baseline bacterial microbiome is critical towards understanding its relationship with health and disease. In broiler chickens, numerous studies have aimed at defining the core microbiome, yet the core and its possible relationships with health and disease have been difficult to define due to lack of study power. Here, the most comprehensive microbiome-based effort to date in commercial broilers was undertaken. The primary goals of this study included understanding what constitutes core in the broiler gastrointestinal, respiratory, and barn environments; how these core players change across age, geography, and time; and which bacterial taxa correlate with enhanced bird performance in antibiotic-free flocks. Using 2,309 samples from 37 different commercial flocks within a vertically integrated broiler system, and metadata from 549 flocks within that system, the baseline bacterial microbiome was defined. The effects of age, sample type, flock, and successive flock cycles were compared, and results indicate a consistent, predictable, age-dependent bacterial microbiome, irrespective of flock. The tracheal bacterial microbiome of broilers was comprehensively defined for the first time, and interestingly, Lactobacillus was the dominant bacterial taxa in the trachea. Numerous bacterial taxa were identified which were strongly correlated with broiler chicken performance, across multiple tissues. While many positively correlated taxa were identified representing targets for future probiotic development, many negatively associated potential pathogens were identified in the absence of clinical disease, indicating subclinical dynamics occurring that impact performance. Overall, this work provides necessary baseline data for the development of effective antibiotic alternatives for sustainable poultry production.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    East of the Center: Resingularizations of the Avant Garde in East Austin, Texas
    (2016-05) Martinez, Carra
    This dissertation examines the ways in which a neighborhood’s vernacular performances—its everyday spatial practices, its interactions with city and state policy, its representations of Texas identity, its communal creations of performances of festivity and protest—constitute acts of aesthetic and political ingenuity that, in the tradition of the avant garde, directly challenge the dominant forms of political subjectivity and practice that have operated across 150 years of Texas history. In the process, this study advocates for a deep examination of the relationship between performance and local productions of space in order to unearth unrecognized avant garde performances, in order to broaden the historical record of the avant garde in the U.S., and in order to challenge historiographic biases within the field of study. Using research methodologies as varied as archival research, performance ethnographies, oral histories, culturally-specific storytelling, personal interviews, and arts-based community engagement work, the dissertation offers close readings of the texts and contexts of East Austin’s avant garde performance traditions including the early Juneteenth celebrations of the black community, the Chicano teatros of the East Austin Brown Berets, and the work of the collective theatre Rude Mechs. In each of these interpretations of East Austin performance, new understandings of avant garde performance practice highlight how minoritarian communities utilize performance as a tool with which to critique and challenge the production of space and the flows of power in Austin, Texas.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Effects of Rater Performance and Perspective on Rating Leniency
    (2019-08) McNeal, Kyle
    Rater errors such as leniency/severity have detrimental effects on the validity of performance ratings. A number of rater characteristics have been examined to understand why some raters tend to be consistently more lenient than others; however, gaps remain in our understanding of these rater characteristics and their influence on rating leniency. The present study examined the previously unexplored characteristic of rater performance as a predictor of rater leniency/severity. It was hypothesized that rater performance would be negatively associated with rater leniency, such that high performing employees would be more severe in their evaluations of others. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that this relationship would be particularly pronounced when raters and subjects are peers to one another, and when rater and subject are of the same gender. These hypotheses were tested using a large archival data set including multi-source assessment ratings and annual performance ratings for employees in a multinational healthcare organization. The hypotheses were not supported, and in fact a small positive relationship between rater self-ratings of performance and rater leniency was detected. Implications and future directions are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Genetic Factors Underlying Disease and Performance Traits in Standardbreds
    (2014-05) McCoy, Annette
    Many diseases and performance characteristics of the horse are considered to be "complex" traits because they are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Furthermore, many are polygenic in nature, reflecting the combined effects of multiple genes. Traditional methodological approaches, such as family linkage analysis and candidate gene sequencing are not ideal for identifying the multiple interacting alleles underlying complex/polygenic traits. An alternative investigational approach is needed that can account for environmental risk factors, issues related to population structure in large study cohorts, and epistatic interactions. In the work presented here, whole-genome approaches, including genome-wide association (GWA) analysis, whole-genome sequencing (WGS), and high-throughput genotyping, were used to investigate the genetic factors underlying three complex traits in Standardbred horses, a breed primarily used for harness racing. These were 1) osteochondrosis (OC; a disease of young horses in which the cartilage at the end of long bones does not form normally); 2) pacing (an alternative pattern of locomotion); and 3) performance (using speed as the phenotype). GWA analysis identified chromosomal regions of association for all three traits of interest, although the significance of the findings for speed was marginal, reflecting the challenge of appropriately phenotyping a complex trait such as performance. WGS performed in eighteen horses identified thousands of variants within chromosomal regions of association identified for OC and pacing, of which a small fraction were predicted to have functional effect. These variants were prioritized and a subset was selected for high-throughput genotyping in the study cohorts (180 horse phenotyped for OC, 500 phenotyped for gait). A few of the markers selected for OC were moderately associated with disease status, while the majority of the markers selected for gait were highly associated with this trait. A crucial next step for interpreting these data will be trying to understand the potential interactions between markers, using a combination of pathway analysis and random forest analysis. Knowledge of gene variants that affect complex traits in the horse - and how they interact with each other - may help reduce the incidence of disease and assist selection for desirable characteristics.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Invisible Men: The Risks and Pleasures of Self-Portrayal in the Work of Contemporary American Male Artists
    (2014-05) DeLand, Lauren
    This dissertation examines the rare phenomenon of self-portrayal in the work of contemporary American male artists. The feminist art movement of the 1970s provided the aegis for many women artists to challenge the gendered dichotomy of artist/subject via the strategic deployment of their own bodies as artistic subjects. Yet remarkably little study has been dedicated to the question of why male artists so rarely make their own, allegedly privileged bodies the subjects of their work. I propose that the shifting definitions of masculinity in postwar America have in fact produced a stringently regulated economy of images of the male body. In four case studies of four contemporary American male artists (Kenneth Anger, Ron Athey, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Glenn Ligon), I employ visual analysis and comparative readings of juridical rulings and institutional policies that dictate the state of the body in contemporary American art.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Knowledge As A Foundation For Performance Measurement
    (2016-05) Boyce, Tamra
    Findings showed that one of the program metrics (teach clients three marketable skills) was significantly associated with overall ratings of program quality. The validity of this individual program element as an indicator for evaluating program quality is supported by the results of a regression analysis. The findings failed to support the thesis that employment programs that address learned helplessness are rated higher than employment programs that do not address learned helplessness. Among these decision makers, there is a preference for program activities that focus on job experience and skill development.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Quality of Life: Assessment for Transportation Performance Indicators: Report on Minnesota Resident Questionnaire
    (University of Minnesota Tourism Center, 2011) Schneider, Ingrid; Guo, Tian
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Quality of Life: Assessment for Transportation Performance Measures
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2013) Schneider, Ingrid E.
    This groundbreaking research sought citizen input on what comprised Quality of Life and what role transportation played in it. this research explored in detail the important factors across the breadth of transportation and how the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) was performing on these important factors.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Symphony of the Effects of Music Therapy on Children with Intellectual-Developmental Disabilities
    (2023-01) Wu, Yue
    The structure of this dissertation is a multi-chapter format. Since it is music related, I used symphony as an analogy for this dissertation work and each chapter is one of the movements of the symphony. This dissertation depicts the story of curiosity, compassion, innovation, collaboration, and perseverance in building the bridge. You will read about music therapy, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), telehealth, the experiences of having a child with disabilities in both China and the U.S., the pilot study of tele-music therapy on children with ASD, and a project called Light in the Well, honoring people with disabilities and their families. This dissertation captured the evolution of my research agenda throughout my PhD career. My historical research project on the development of music therapy in China from my master’s program was completed and published at the beginning of my PhD program. With the understanding of the history, I started to participate service projects in different regions in China. From there, I took more interest in learning about accessibility of disability services and people’s experience of having a child with disabilities. That is how the mixed method China study (Movement 2) came to exist. The relationship formed with the local people led me to this question: how to develop a strategy to serve this population in China remotely? This led me to the core of my dissertation: the tele-music therapy study (Movement 3). The original plan was to compare tele-music therapy and in-person music therapy. Due to COVID restrictions, I only could test the feasibility and efficacy of tele-music therapy. The purpose was to eventually provide tele-music therapy to people in China, so they can also receive the service. At the same time, my work as a music therapist propelled me to look at how to bridge the gap between people with and without disabilities and engage all people through music. I started a project using music to tell the stories of people with disabilities and their families, called Light in the Well (Movement 4). The performance allowed musicians with and without disabilities to come together to tell the emotional journey those featured families have been on. Both people with and without disabilities were in the audience. Light in the Well allowed both groups of people to share an experience at the same time in the same space. This project disseminated previous research funding through fine arts, actualizing the work of music therapy in performance art.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Transforming the University: Preliminary Report of the Metrics and Measurement Task Force
    (University of Minnesota, 2006-03-27) Sullivan, Alfred D.
    The task force charge asks for metrics at several levels—identifying ways to measure progress at the operational level, and in collegiate units, coordinate campuses, and administrative units, as well as University-wide performance measures. A theme throughout this work is to align what we measure, wherever we measure it, with progress toward the University’s aspirational goal. Our work will lead to many activities being measured, monitored, and evaluated at a variety of levels. This is the real key to achieving the University’s goal. But only a relatively short list of measures can be reasonably used to make the University-wide assessment. These latter measures must be chosen selectively from among many competitors.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    "We All Have a Part to Play": Salvage Tourism in American Indian Historical Pageantry
    (2015-05) Phillips, Katrina
    This dissertation, entitled “’We All Have a Part to Play’: Salvage Tourism in American Indian Historical Pageantry,” examines three historical pageants in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Oregon through the lenses of race and authenticity, performance and memory, tourism and the economy, and popular culture and federal policy. In this dissertation, I argue that American Indian historical pageants – which I consider to be staged productions based on local Indian history for the purposes of creating or enhancing regional tourism industries – were not interested in preserving indigenous history. Instead, businessmen, town boosters, and local entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the continued commodification of indigeneity. The non-Native tourist desires that aligned with long-held fears that authentic American Indians would disappear, crushed beneath the wave of white settlement and progress, echoed throughout the nation in the early twentieth century. For American Indians at the height of the assimilation era, historical pageantry became an acceptable outlet for the continuation of traditional practices that had been increasingly repressed by the federal government because dances, songs, and stories could be presented in a commodified environment. Assimilation policies intended to systematically eradicate the cultural elements that made Indians Indian, but by doing so they created a rarified commodity. If Indians were disappearing, then white Americans leapt at the opportunity to see live performances of traditional songs and dances, to see Indian history performed by Indians, before it was too late. The geographic range of these pageants shows the broad reach of connecting tourism and indigeneity, while their temporal range – from the early 1900s through the present day – highlights their continued resonance with local economies and their reliance on these pageants as a means of survival. Some only lasted a few years, while others have been performed for nearly a century. Some relied heavily on indigenous participants, while others simply settled on a general narrative of indigenous history as a way to sell tickets. Regardless of their individual nature, these American Indian historical pageants offer a compelling account of the commodification of Indians, Indian history, and Indianness and its conflation with American history.