Dissertations and Theses

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  • Publication
    15Five: Technology Aligned to the Science of Thriving
    (2019-01-01) Bigony, Courtney; Bigony, Courtney
    Workplace technology start-up, 15Five is unlocking the potential of the global workforce through technology aligned to the science of thriving. This case study describes Positive Product Design, the evidence-inspired method-in-development at 15Five which productizes five psychological constructs central to workplace thriving into software features including: psychological safety, positivity, strengths, intrinsic motivation, and growth mindset. 15Five leverages psychological science from peer reviewed journal articles and research translated through newer mediums such as TED talks, nonfiction books, and social media. When academics and thought leaders disseminate their research findings more broadly, they provide a new source of inspiration for others to learn and draw from. The academics whose research aligns with and inspired the creation of new product features in 15Five are featured. Others interested in reading this case study include CEOs and People Ops (HR) leaders who want to learn more about the science behind 15Five’s product, as well as anyone interested in a new method for designing Positive Technology.
  • Publication
    18F-FDG-PET/CT in Radiation Therapy-Induced Cerebellar Inflammation
    (2022-06-22) Abu Kar, Mohammad; Abu Kar, Mohammad; Alavi, Abass; Korostoff, Johnathan M; Fiorellini, Joseph P; Chang, Yu-Cheng; Abass Alavi
    ABSTRACT Background 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18FDG- PET/CT) is used in the clinical diagnosis and management of oncologic and inflammatory pathologies. It may also have utility in detecting tissue damage induced by radiotherapy (RT) used to treat various types of cancer. The aim of the present study was to use 18FDG-PET/CT to evaluate the effect of RT on the uptake of 18FDG by the cerebellum. Methods Thirty patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) were included in this retrospective study. The patients were treated with photon, proton, or combined photon/proton RT, in addition to chemotherapy. All patients received 18FDG- PET/CT imaging pre-treatment and 3 months post-treatment. The global mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean) of the cerebellum was determined for every patient by global assessment of 18FDG activity using OsiriX MD software. A two-tailed paired t-test was used to compare global SUVmean pre- and post-RT. Results The pre-treatment and post-treatment global SUVmean for the photon group were 5.26 and 5.51 (p: 0.42), respectively. As for the proton only group, the pre- and post-treatment global SUVmeans were 7.06 and 6.05, respectively. In the combined RT group, the pre- and post-treatment global SUVmeans were 6.14 and 6.19 respectively (p: 0.92). The differences between the pre- and post-treatment values failed to reach statistical significance for any of the treatment groups but it should be noted that there was a trend of increased 18FDG uptake in the cerebellum following photon therapy. This trend was not clear in the combined group. As for the proton group, p-value was not calculated as only two patients were included. Conclusion Although not statistically significant, the results showed an incremental increase in global SUVmean following treatment with photon RT likely reflecting the presence of mild radiation-induced inflammation in the cerebellum.
  • Publication
    18F-FDG-PET/CT in Radiation Therapy-Induced Parotid Gland Inflammation
    (2020-12-04) Mouminah, Alaa; Mouminah, Alaa
  • Publication
    20-Century Building Adaptive-Reuse: Office Buildings Converted to Apartments.
    (2020-01-01) Zhang, Yujia
    Adaptive re-use is a solution to avoiding the obsolescence of buildings in urban development. It is beneficial for the city, for the culture, for the environment, and for the building itself. Recently in the United States, historical office buildings converted into apartments have demonstrated a way to extend the life of these buildings. This thesis aims to analyze 20-century office buildings in New York City converted to apartments in order to examine the possibility of this kind of adaptive-reuse solution for historic office buildings in China. It investigates the history, policy, and design of adaptive-reuse of 20th-Century New York City office building into residential apartments for 21th-century living. It analyzes three cases to understand the requirements for a successful building transformation and speculates about future potential for adaptive re-use of modern office buildings. In addition, it identifies reasons why modern Chinese cities lack similar conversion projects and speculates on whether Chinese cities are suitable for adaptive re-use strategies like those developed in the United States.
  • Publication
    2d Materials For Energy Applications
    (2018-01-01) Er, Dequan; Er, Dequan; Vivek B. Shenoy
    Accelerated energy demands, together with unprecedented CO2 emissions, aggravate the global energy and climate change crises, endangering the sustainable development of society in a perpetuity way. The ability to find, extract, and use energy in an effective and clean way is pivotal to the energy paradigm shift, where a large percentage of global energy demand is expected to be met through sustainable energy resources. Research in materials science is contributing towards such a sustainable future by addressing bottleneck questions in energy storage and conversion, which are two main parts of energy sustainability. In particular, recently discovered two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit extraordinary mechanical, chemical, electronic, optical, and magnetic properties that are promising to break through current material limitations in energy applications. The main goal of this thesis is to examine the possibility of using 2D materials in improving current energy applications, in particular, battery electrodes and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts, and to elucidate the mechanisms and guiding principles in tuning 2D materials using combinatorial simulation techniques that bridge different length scales. Representative and promising 2D material systems, including graphene-like materials, MXenes, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), layered covalent-organic framework (COF), and oxides are studied. To evaluate the performance of 2D materials in battery electrodes, we employ the density functional theory (DFT) simulations to investigate the adsorption of different metal ions onto 2D MXenes and 2D graphene-like materials, and hence quantify the enhanced theoretical capacities and rate-performance. Moreover, we find the origin of such improvements and summarize guiding principles in tuning 2D materials for similar applications in batteries beyond lithium. We also show that 2D TMDs are capable of improving hydrogen production efficiency. The role of defects and electronic coupling between substrate and MoS2 catalysts is investigated, followed by a study of using the Janus asymmetry as a feasible way to activate basal plane catalytic activity. Finally, we present a multiscale modeling method that bridges different length scales, and show several successful examples in applying this method in energy applications. This thesis provides new understandings of 2D materials in energy applications. Such understandings may be used to accelerate the realization of future energy plan.
  • Publication
    3 Essays on Corporate Governance, Firm Value and Startegy: Evidence from Founding Family Firms
    (2012-01-01) Lee, Joon Mahn; Lee, Joon Mahn; Raphael Amit
    In my dissertation, I examine how the corporate governance structure may affect the firm value in the market for control and affect strategic behavior of the firm. Particularly, I focus on founding family business firms which have been largely understudied in the management literature. In my first essay, I empirically examine how founder management affects takeover premiums in mergers and acquisitions in 2000s. I argue that a founder manager's unique perspective, values, and influence on the process of the firm's strategic decisions may systematically affect the firm value of both the target and acquiring firms in the M&A market. I specifically examine how founder management affects both target firm value and bidder firm value. I suggest that it is not managerial control per se, but rather who the managers are and their priorities and preferences that most influence corporate value in the marker for control. The second essay analyzes the impact of family ownership, management and control on the strategic investment of the firm. I specifically examine the effect of family ownership concentration level, identity of management, and control enhancing mechanisms on R&D investments. I find that there is an inverted U-shape relationship between the ownership concentration levels of family controlled firms and R&D investment. I also find that firms with family shareholder managers are more likely to have higher levels of R&D investment. The third essay examines how family-control and business group affiliation may influence a firm's investment in R&D. I argue that family control and business group affiliation have separate and distinct effects on firms' strategic actions, although the two firm characteristics are often closely intertwined among firms. Our findings show that when a standalone firm is controlled by a family, the firm invests more in R&D. In contrast, I also find that when a family controls a business group, firms that belong to the family-controlled business group will invest less in R&D. My findings suggest that while families may generally have a long-term perspective for their firms, business groups may provide some incentives and opportunities to the families to expropriate the firm value.
  • Publication
    3 Essays On Markets, Hierarchies, And Morality
    (2017-01-01) Lee, Jooho; Lee, Jooho; Thomas Donaldson
    In my dissertation, I examine issues related to markets and hierarchies, which are core conceptual building blocks for economic theories of the firm, from a moral point of view. The first essay engages with economic theories of the firm and argues that there is a tension between the two primary metaphors – contracts and hierarchies – utilized by economists to describe the nature and purpose of the firm. The second essay provides a moral reason for drawing the distinction between markets and firms in the first place. It argues that the principle of fair play justifies the adoption of a proposed three-part test for employee classification based on economic theories of entrepreneurship. The third essay applies the insights from the first two chapters by arguing that stakeholder theory should pay greater attention to the contract metaphor within theories of the firm.
  • Publication
    3d Biomimetic Model for Cellular Invasion in Angiogenesis and Cancer
    (2016-01-01) Nguyen, Duc-Huy; Nguyen, Duc-Huy; Christopher S. Chen
    Cell migration is an essential and highly regulated process. Cells migrate to vascularize tissues, to form tissue, and to respond to inflammation. Unfortunately, cell migration is also involved in numerous pathological conditions such as in invasive tumors. Cells can migrate as individual cells or as collective groups of cells. Particularly important in cell migration is the collective migration of cells as it is a hallmark of tissue remodeling events during embryonic morphogenesis, wound repair, and cancer invasion. Perhaps, angiogenesis is one of the most crucial collective migration processes as it is involved in multiple physiological and pathological conditions such as formation of vasculature, wound healing, cancer progression and metastasis. During angiogenesis, endothelial cells migrate collectively from existing vasculature in response to a complex biochemical and mechanical cues to form multicellular structures that eventually develop into new functional blood vessels. Angiogenesis is also a highly dynamic process where multiple cells rearrange and coordinate within a sprout. Such dynamic rearrangement requires different cytoskeletal regulators such as Rho GTPases proteins (RhoA, Rac, and Cdc42). Although the roles of Rho GTPase proteins have been well characterized in 2D cell migration, little is known about their contributions in angiogenic morphogenesis. Here, we engineered a 3D biomimetic microfluidic-based device, called AngioChip, where endothelial cells are induced to migrate collectively from a pre-formed biomimetic cylindrical blood vessel into a 3D interstitial collagen matrix. The sprouts in our AngioChip demonstrate in vivo-like morphogenetic features such as formation of tip-stalk cells, lumen formation, filopodial-like protrusions in leading tip cells, and formation of perfusable neovessels. Using this system, we examine the roles of Cdc42 to regulate many aspects of angiogenic morphogenesis. We find that disturbing Cdc42 activity reduces formation of branches, migration speed, and collective migration. Additionally, Cdc42 also negatively regulate filopodia formation. We also develop the AngioChip into a pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) on a chip to investigate the interactions between pancreatic cancer cells and blood vessels. Vascular invasion, where PDAC cells invaded towards the vasculature during tumor progression, is a hallmark of metastatic PDAC. Nevertheless, how pancreatic tumor cells interact with the blood vessels remains largely unknown. Using our PDAC-on-a-chip, we reveal a striking observation where PDAC cells invade and de-endothelialize the blood vessels. This de-endothelialization process leads to vascular replacement in the blood vessels and is mediated by proliferation of PDAC through Nodal/Activin-ALK7 signaling.
  • Publication
    3d Porous High Areal Capacity Lithium-Ion Micro-Batteries
    (2020-01-01) Huang, Chenpeng; Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen; Mark Allen
    The reduction in size and the improvement in the capability of microsystems are presently limited by the size and the capacity of their on-board power supplies. A key performance metrics for the power supplies of microsystems is the capacity per footprint area, or areal capacity, in mAh/cm2, while the commercial 2D thin film micro-batteries possess low areal capacity of less than 0.2 mAh/cm2. Thus, it’s necessary to load battery components onto scalable 3D architectures to enable electrodes with high areal capacity. In this work, novel fabrication techniques are proposed. A facile high current hydrogen-templated electroplating technique is utilized to generate 3D porous microstructures, which serve as the scaffolds, current collectors, or even active materials for battery electrodes. In addition, electrochemical techniques and laser-machined substrate ensure uniform coating and high utilization of battery active materials to allow superior electrochemical performance. On the half-cell level, Si/NiSn composite anode deliver ultrahigh areal capacity over 40 mAh/cm2; and carbonate-compatible S cathode is developed and possess 4mAh/cm2 areal capacity with 85% capacity retention after 50 cycles at a high current density of 2.5 mA/cm2. On the full cell level, the micro-battery delivers an areal capacity of 3 mAh/cm2 with 2.3 mW/cm2 power density that meets the demands of many micro-electronic device. In addition, a proof-of-concept monolithic full cell based on polymer electrodeposition techniques is demonstrated to accelerate the cell manufacturing process. In conclusion, in this study, microelectronics-compatible fabrication of scalable, high surface area, and porous 3D metal network-based Li-ion micro-batteries is devised to enable electrodes with high areal capacity, high power density, manufacturability, low cost, and good safety performance.
  • Publication
    3d Porous High Areal Capacity Lithium-Ion Micro-Batteries
    (2020-01-01) Huang, Chenpeng; Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen; Mark Allen
    The reduction in size and the improvement in the capability of microsystems are presently limited by the size and the capacity of their on-board power supplies. A key performance metrics for the power supplies of microsystems is the capacity per footprint area, or areal capacity, in mAh/cm2, while the commercial 2D thin film micro-batteries possess low areal capacity of less than 0.2 mAh/cm2. Thus, it’s necessary to load battery components onto scalable 3D architectures to enable electrodes with high areal capacity. In this work, novel fabrication techniques are proposed. A facile high current hydrogen-templated electroplating technique is utilized to generate 3D porous microstructures, which serve as the scaffolds, current collectors, or even active materials for battery electrodes. In addition, electrochemical techniques and laser-machined substrate ensure uniform coating and high utilization of battery active materials to allow superior electrochemical performance. On the half-cell level, Si/NiSn composite anode deliver ultrahigh areal capacity over 40 mAh/cm2; and carbonate-compatible S cathode is developed and possess 4mAh/cm2 areal capacity with 85% capacity retention after 50 cycles at a high current density of 2.5 mA/cm2. On the full cell level, the micro-battery delivers an areal capacity of 3 mAh/cm2 with 2.3 mW/cm2 power density that meets the demands of many micro-electronic device. In addition, a proof-of-concept monolithic full cell based on polymer electrodeposition techniques is demonstrated to accelerate the cell manufacturing process. In conclusion, in this study, microelectronics-compatible fabrication of scalable, high surface area, and porous 3D metal network-based Li-ion micro-batteries is devised to enable electrodes with high areal capacity, high power density, manufacturability, low cost, and good safety performance.
  • Publication
    3d-Stiffness Microenvironment Leads To Nuclear Envelope Rupture, Dna Damage, And Genome Variation
    (2021-01-01) Zhu, Kuangzheng; Dennis Discher
    Solid tumor cells grow in a stiff microenvironment with dense extracellular matrix (ECM) and condensed packing of adjacent cells. Tumor cells are capable of migrating through constricted pores formed by ECM or surrounded by other cells, and the nuclear envelope can break with repair factor mislocalization, further leading to DNA damage and genetic changes, or even accumulated to be genomic variations. Cell division, likewise, is confined by a stiff niche of adjacent cells and extracellular matrix, and such confinement has been reported to cause chromosome mis-segregation. The chromosome-loss live cell reporter system was developed to prove that cells undergoing specific types of chromosome missegregation can survive and maintain heritability, resulting in permanent genomic variations. Mitotic cells under in vitro confinement and in vivo conditions exhibit more abnormal division and more fluorescence-null reporter-negative cells, for both cancer and normal types. Confinement and SAC inhibition both lead to chromosome mis-segregation but do not superimpose, and Topoisomerase IIa plays an essential role in cells to survive after confined mitosis. Myosin II was found to lead to increased nuclear envelope rupture and, therefore, more DNA damage, while it protects mitotic cell rounding within 3D confined environments, since the increase of reporter-negative cells was observed after Myosin II knockdown.
  • Publication
    6- and 5-Halodecaboranes: Selective Syntheses From ClOSO-B10H10(2-) and Use as Polyborane Building Blocks
    (2010-12-22) Ewing, William C; Ewing, William C; Larry G. Sneddon
    Decaborane halogenated in the 6-position has been synthesized in high yields via the super-acid induced cage-opening reactions of closo-B10H10(2-) salts. These 6-halogenated compounds were then isomerized to their 5-substituted isomers through base catalysis. The isomerization was driven by the energy differences between the anionic-forms of each respective isomer. These reactions provided 5-halodeboranes in high yields. The bridging-hydrogens of the halodecaboranyl anions were fluxional at a range of temperatures. Variable-temperature NMR studies supported computationally proposed fluxional mechanisms. Both 5- and 6-halodecaboranes were reacted with alcohols yielding boranyl ethers. The mechanisms of substitution, where reactions with 6- and 5-halodecaboranes yielded 5- and 6-boranyl ethers, respectively, were explained computationally and confirmed through isotopic-labeling studies. The regeneration of the polymeric products of ammonia-borane dehydrogenation was carried out through a process that included digestion of the polymer, complexation of the digestate with a base, reduction of B-X bonds to B-H bonds, and finally displacement of the base with ammonia. While digestion schemes proved unable to digest all forms of the dehydrogenated materials, portions of the polymer digested to boron-trihalides were quantitatively regenerated to ammonia borane, with complete separation and collection of by-products.
  • Publication
    70 Candles: Women Thriving in the Eighth Decade
    (2011-01-01) Cole, Ellen
    This paper describes the first steps in a larger project aimed to discover the ways in which women thrive in their eighth decade. How do they define themselves? What brings them joy? I have been particularly interested in the experiences of career women, now 70, the first generation of professional women who have defined themselves by their work and have now passed the traditional age of retirement. To this end, a blog 70candles.com was established and two conversation groups and an interview with two sisters were conducted. I begin this paper with a review of pertinent literature and proceed to a description and thematic analysis of the blog, conversation groups, and informal interview. For richness and depth, I use the actual words of the participants as much as possible, including my own personal story as a 70-year-old professional woman. I end with a discussion of women thriving in the eighth decade and conclude that (1) “aging” and “old” need to be re-conceptualized and (2) there is enormous power in 70 year-old women coming together to share their stories.
  • Publication
    A 21st Century Model For Ivy League Men’s Soccer: A Two-Semester Approach For The Benefit Of Student-Athletes
    (2020-05-12) Fuller, Brian P; Fuller, Brian P
    In June 2019, the Big Ten Conference announced that it would be sponsoring a proposal in the NCAA’s 2019-20 legislative cycle to implement a two-semester playing season for Division I Men’s Soccer called the 21st Century Model. If the new legislation were to pass, the Ivy League will need to decide how it will adjust its own seasonal structure to adapt to the new legislation while remaining faithful to its guiding principles. This capstone sets out to create a 21st Century Ivy League Model for men’s soccer. Using the proposed calendar included within the NCAA legislation as a starting point, this capstone worked to refine it to reflect the Founding Principles of Ivy League Athletics, namely that “academics and the personal growth of the students are of paramount importance” and that all student-athletes “shall be held to the same academic standards of the student body.” The capstone uses a thorough review of the literature surrounding the various challenges individuals encounter during their student-athlete experience, quantitative data from each of the current Ivy League men’s soccer program calendars, and a qualitative student athlete survey to drive the process of creating a theoretical two-semester model for the Ivy League’s consideration.
  • Publication
    A Bayesian Approach for Predicting Building Cooling and Heating Consumption and Applications in Fault Detection
    (2013-01-01) Yan, Bin; Yan, Bin; Ali M. Malkawi
    Making a prediction typically involves dealing with uncertainties. The application of uncertainty analysis to buildings and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, however, remains limited. Most existing studies concentrate on the parameter uncertainty and parametric variability in building simulations for the design stage, and rely on Monte Carlo experiments to quantify this uncertainty. This dissertation aims to develop a rapid and direct method that is capable of quantifying uncertainty when predicting building cooling and heating consumption in the operation stage, while simultaneously capturing all sources of uncertainty and applying these to actual system operations. Gaussian Process regression, a Bayesian modeling method, is proposed for this purpose. The primary advantage of Gaussian Process regression is that it directly outputs a probability distribution that explicitly expresses prediction uncertainty. The predictive distribution covers uncertainty sources arising not only from parameter uncertainty and parametric variability, but also from modeling inadequacy and residual variability. By assuming a Gaussian input distribution and using Gaussian kernels, Gaussian Process regression takes parameter uncertainty and parametric variability into consideration without using the Monte Carlo method. This dissertation makes three main contributions. First, based on the observations from commissioning projects for approximately twenty campus buildings, some of the important uncertainties and typical problems in variable air volume system (VAV) operations are identified. Second, Gaussian Process regression is used to predict building cooling and heating consumption and to evaluate the impact of parametric variability of system control related variables. Third, a method for automated fault detection that uses Gaussian Process regression to model baselines is developed. By using the uncertainty outputs from the Gaussian Process regression together with Bayes classifiers and probabilistic graphical models, the proposed method can detect whether system performance is normal or faulty at the system component level or the whole building level with a high degree of accuracy.
  • Publication
    A Blue Ocean Strategy for the American Symphony Orchestra
    (2015-05-08) Buchness, Jennifer A.; Buchness, Jennifer A.
    The thesis that follows provides a history of symphony orchestras in America, and examines innovation opportunities and strategies that could be employed to attract a younger audience and return the institution to the heyday it once enjoyed. Drawing largely on the Blue Ocean strategy, I attempt to create a landscape wherein American symphony orchestras enjoy an environment with no competitors, instead residing in a blue ocean of uncontested market space. This topic was derived from my genuine interest in hearing orchestras play on, without the imminent threat of bankruptcy and a declining customer base.
  • Publication
    A Book For All Seasons: Reading Habits And Material Reception Of Dante’s “divina Commedia” In Early Modern Italy .
    (2022-01-01) Vacalebre, Natale; Eva Del Soldato
    Throughout the fourteenth century, Dante's Commedia was the poem of the Italian high bourgeoisie and university culture. However, the early fifteenth-century Italian humanists looked with suspicion at vernacular literature, and particularly at Dante’s work. By contrast, in that same period, a popular cult for Dante began to develop. My dissertation investigates the habits and attitudes of a great variety of early modern readers in relation to the text that today is considered the greatest literary work in the Italian language. Through a comparative investigation of the data derived from the analysis of manuscript marginalia contained in early printed copies of the Commedia, my dissertation assesses how ordinary and less-ordinary readers in the broad geographic and social Italian context read and assimilated Dante’s poem in the early modern age. My close examination of marginalia suggests that the first typographic readers used the Commedia both as a literary text that conveyed various levels of knowledge—e.g., poetry, astrology, theology, philosophy—and a work of extensive political and moral value that, especially after Charles VIII’s invasion of the Italian peninsula in 1494, assumed a prominent role in shaping the emerging Italian national consciousness. Moreover, the dissertation will show also how intellectual readers from the 17th-19th centuries, to get close to Dante’s world, used the early printed copies of the poem, at that point easily available and “cheap.” My dissertation, therefore, tells the history of the post-medieval reception of Dante as a form of diachronic material exchange by mapping the reading attitudes of men and women of different social classes that influenced the creation of modern Italian cultural identity.
  • Publication
    A BUDDHIST-INFORMED CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR APPROACHING DIFFICULT EMOTIONS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
    (2015-05-18) Szczygiel, Pamela A; Szczygiel, Pamela A; Ram Cnaan, PhD; Lina Hartocollis, PhD; Barry Magid, MD
    Clients often enter psychotherapy with struggles and concerns related to their direct experience of emotion. Though most of the major psychotherapy theories in the West address the general issue of emotion, very few have developed a framework or theory for supporting clients in their direct encounters with difficult feeling states. Since Buddhism is highly experiential and Buddhist philosophy is mainly concerned with the issue of human suffering, its relevance to maneuvering difficult emotions in a clinical context is profound. While the use of Buddhist concepts and practices in mental health treatment in the West has proliferated in recent years, the clinical use of Buddhist material has often bypassed the larger philosophical framework of Buddhism. This secular, decontextualized use of Buddhist material has limited the potential value of Buddhist philosophy in mental health treatment. This dissertation offers a conceptual framework for approaching difficult emotions that is grounded in the wisdom of Buddhism. Zen Buddhism is especially relied upon in the development of the following themes: Sitting With, Middle Path, Healthy Interdependency, and Compassion. Further, clinical composite case vignettes are presented to demonstrate how the themes can be worked with in a therapeutic context.
  • Publication
    A Business Analytics Approach to Corporate Sustainability Analysis
    (2014-01-01) Wen, Jeff
    Sustainability has become increasingly important to corporations, as stakeholders have called for increased transparency and as corporations have recognized the benefits of considering corporate sustainability. As a result, there has been a dramatic increase in disclosure both through corporate statements and through annual reports in which companies will describe the environmental activities in which they are involved. These documents and reports are of interest to researchers because they represent a wealth of information that can be studied and analyzed. In the past, the contents of these reports have been studied through manual methods; however, there is a great potential for automatic analysis of these reports. This paper will document the methodology taken to produce an automated analytics software that produces outputs that can further be used in analysis. Specifically, the program is meant to calculate the word frequencies of certain words and phrases that are of interest and it also extracts the sentences in which these words or phrases are contained. In this research, the output of the program is used in 2 applications. One regresses the sustainability word frequencies against a published sustainability score and another application uses a simple form of sentiment analysis to analyze the positive and negative sentiment of the extracted sentences. Human methods are usually used to perform tasks such as sentiment analysis and frequency count. The program created in this research provides a first step toward future computational analysis work. While the program is able to perform the tasks for which it was designed, improvements can be made to produce a more comprehensive and versatile program.
  • Publication