Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, EDU Policy and Leadership

This study analyzed the process of state policy interpretation and implementation by a large public school district. It used Ohio's Credit Flex policy as a lens to examine how district leaders make decisions about how to craft and implement Credit Flex policy, how the existing contexts and policy ecologies influenced the fidelity to the policy aims, and how policy actors interpreted policy and influenced the policy implementation process at the local district and school-building level. Data was collected through document analysis and interviews. Document analysis was conducted using state-level policy documents and school-district documents detailing their Credit Flex policy. Interviews were conducted with members of the original state policy committee, and with the district superintendent, building leaders, and school counselors. This study aimed to provide insight into the policy implementation process for school district leaders. Additionally, this study highlighted practices in policy implementation that could yield successful management of policy actors and policy contexts so that policies are implemented with high amounts of fidelity to their original policy goals.

Committee: Ann Allen (Advisor); Bryan Warnick (Committee Member); Scott Sweetland (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; School Administration; School Counseling; Secondary Education

Master of Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, 2010, EECS - Computer and Information Sciences

Live streaming applications, especially those based on peer-to-peer networks, are becoming popular nowadays. It is widely known that there are still some performance challenges on transmission and scalability in peer-to-peer live streaming system. This thesis focuses on improving transmission efficiency in live media streaming and improving scalability in peer-to-peer live streaming systems. First, we improve transmission efficiency in live media streaming by studying chunk scheduling algorithms which include Greedy, Rarest First, Mixed, Random and our proposed Alternate algorithms, and delivery methods which include Push and Pull methods. Based on the evaluation of startup latency and streaming continuity for different chunk scheduling algorithms and delivery methods, we discuss how to make an optimal choice for better transmission efficiency. Second, we improve the scalability for peer-to-peer live streaming system by utilizing our incentive model, a bank incentive model, which can encourage peers to make more contribution in order to obtain extra benefits from their neighbors and the system. As well as applying encouragement to the peers, our incentive model can support multiple platforms and the extensibility of incentive strategies.

Committee: Shudong Jin (Committee Chair); Michael Rabinovich (Committee Member); Swarup Bhunia (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science