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Empty Skies, David Gambino

Theses

No abstract provided.

The Detection Of Continuing Current In Lightning Using The Geostationary Lightning Mapper And Exploring Its Relationship To Lightning Initiated-Wildfires, Sarah I. Fairman

Theses

Lightning with continuing current may have current durations that last for hundreds of milliseconds, resulting in continuous optical emission that coincides with the uninterrupted current flow. The space-based Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) is an optical sensor that allows for the detection of continuous optical emission. GLM optical attributes associated with continuous optical emission are utilized to train a multiple logistic regression model to predict the presence of continuing current. GLM flashes that have continuous optical emission related to higher probabilities of continuing current tend to cover a longer distance, have a brighter maximum optical energy, and cover a larger maximum …

"That's A Man:" How Trans Men In The South Bolster Their Claims To Manhood, Megan Y. Phillips

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

While several studies have explored manhood acts and compensatory manhood acts in cisgender men (Ezzell 2012; Sumerau 2012), few have examined them in the trans community. This research fills gaps in the literature by examining an understudied population in the South, an area of the country where queer lives are often ignored. Additionally, it allows us to continue to separate masculinities from only those born with male bodies. Using 51 interviews with trans men, I examine the experiences of trans men in the South and the manhood acts they employ to enhance their masculinity and compensate for their presumed lack …

The Effect Of Intermittent Cooling On Simulated Basketball Game Performance, Dalton E. Cousin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Context: Hyperthermia is induced during prolonged exercise which promotes fatigue and a decline in performance. Basketball athletes have trouble preventing an onset of hyperthermia; thus, cryotherapy is applied intermittently to combat the negative effects.

Objective: To determine, (1) effect intermittent cooling has on simulated basketball performance, perceived exertion and perceived recovery; and (2) change in performance while applying two different forms of intermittent cooling during the Basketball Specific Fatigue Protocol (BSFP).

Design: Crossover study design.

Setting: Indoor collegiate basketball court.

Patients or Other Participants: Sixteen competitively trained recreational basketball athletes (15 males, 1 female; age = 21.1 ± 1.2 yr). …

A Study On The Visual And Verbal Languages Of Typography, Ellyn E. Duncan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

It takes a person 0.05 seconds to form a first impression of something new. While first impressions are quick and surface level, they are generally important in the lasting impression developed by the individual. I believe graphic designers have the ability to manipulate the first impression of their work by using the different languages of typography to command the attention of an audience and direct a planned impression. Through the testing and research of this thesis study, I aim to provide examples of how people share common responses and interpretations of visual elements and show that the visual and verbal …

Understanding The Relationships Between Combat-Related Ptsd Symptoms And Drinking Motives On Military Parental Satisfaction, Melissa C. Hinely

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

As of 2017, over 1.3 million Americans are enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces (Department of Defense, 2017). Military personnel, particularly those exposed to combat, are significantly more likely to experience Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD; Xue et al., 2015). Furthermore, persons with PTSD are more likely to misuse alcohol, particularly when motivated to drink as a means to cope with negative emotions related to their PTSD symptoms (Simpson et al., 2014). Both PTSD and alcohol misuse have been found to contribute negatively to parental satisfaction and distress (Chesmore et al., 2018; McGraw et al., 2018). Veterans/service members who were parents …

Experiments On The Neural Network Approach To The Handwritten Digit Classification Problem, William Meissner

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

When the MNIST dataset was introduced in 1998, training a network was a multiple week problem in order to receive results far less accurate than an average CPU can produce within a couple of hours today. While this indicates that training a network on such a dataset is not the complicated problem it may have been twenty years ago, the MNIST dataset makes a good tool for study and testing with beginner and medium complexity neural networks. This paper follows along with the work presented in the online textbook “Neural Networks and Deep Learning” by Michael Nielson and an updated …

Perceived Credibility Of Child Sexual Abuse Reporting, Bridget Lashbaugh-Barney

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Understanding factors that could influence attitudes and beliefs regarding child sexual abuse may inform efforts to educate clinicians, legal and medical personnel, and even the public on potential sources of bias and barriers to treatment and other service utilization, particularly in rural communities. The purpose of the current study was to experimentally investigate the impact of child accuser age and gender and participant rural status on ratings of perceived credibility of child sexual abuse allegations described in vignettes. With this study, I aimed to not only clarify and update previous findings on accuser age and gender, but also to expand …

Lightweight Sharable And Traceable Secure Mobile Health System, Yang Yang, Ximeng Liu, Robert H. Deng, Yingjiu Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Mobile health (mHealth) has emerged as a new patient centric model which allows real-time collection of patient data via wearable sensors, aggregation and encryption of these data at mobile devices, and then uploading the encrypted data to the cloud for storage and access by healthcare staff and researchers. However, efficient and scalable sharing of encrypted data has been a very challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a Lightweight Sharable and Traceable (LiST) secure mobile health system in which patient data are encrypted end-to-end from a patient’s mobile device to data users. LiST enables efficient keyword search and finegrained access …

Left Atrial Posterior Wall Isolation In The Treatment Of Atrial Fibrillation, Guy Oliver Furniss

Peninsula Medical School Theses

The optimal approach for the ablation of persistent atrial fibrillation is undefined. Left atrial posterior wall isolation (LAPWI) is a promising lesion set, based on techniques for surgical AF ablation. The left atrial posterior wall can be isolated via catheter, surgical or hybrid ablation techniques. This MD thesis aims to inform a comparative trial of catheter versus hybrid ablation. In series of catheter and hybrid ablation with left atrial posterior wall isolation in patients with atrial fibrillation outcomes are suggested to be superior to published outcomes of alternative lesion sets. A complete lesion set with intact LAPWI ablation lines is …

‘The Open Letter To The Evangelical Church’ And Its Discontents: The Online Politics Of Asian American Evangelicals, 2013-2016, Justin K. H. Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent treatments of Asian American evangelicals tend to focus on a shift of attention from their identity-based attempts to found autonomous congregrations to online self-publications. I evaluate this new trend by considering two episodes in Asian American evangelical self-publication: the 'open letter to the evangelical church' in 2013 and the Killjoy Prophets initiative from 2014-2016 when their leader Suey Park disappeared from the Internet. I argue that while Asian American evangelical online self-publication is intended to reform evangelicalism, its discursive nature leads to debates among Asian American evangelicals about whether the cyber-discourse about them is adequately representational. This sobering analysis …

Let’S Get Radical: Extending The Reach Of Baylean (And Forstian) Toleration, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In The Right to Justification Rainer Forst tells us that that social context in which humans find themselves is called ‘political’ when it is ‘an order of justification’ – an order which consists of norms and institutions that are to govern their lives together in a justified or justifiable way.² The most important normative concept that applies to this order, he tells us, is that of justice. Justice ‘overarches’ every form of political community, demanding reasons why some have rights, and asking how it is determined who possesses what claims, and how persons stand in relation to one another as …

The Dog That Barks: Understanding Propaganda Campaigns On Territorial Disputes, Frances Yaping Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why do authoritarian states promote media coverage of foreign disputes in some contexts, but censor coverage in others? The use of media on matters of foreign policy is prevalent in both autocracies and democracies, yet their functions, especially in autocracies, are not well understood. This dissertation seeks to explain a statecraft autocratic leaders are especially adept at and are commonly engaged in – propaganda campaigns on territorial disputes. This project thus provides a window into the domestic constraints and motivations of authoritarian foreign policy and the resulting statecraft in managing its domestic publics on foreign policy issues. In explaining the …

Mitigation Of A Prospective Association Between Early Language Delay At Toddlerhood And Adhd Among Bilingual Preschoolers: Evidence From The Gusto Cohort, Shaun K. Y. Goh, Hwajin Yang, Stella Tsotsi, Anqi Qiu, Yap-Seng Chong, Kok Hian Tan, Lynette Shek, Birit F. P. Broekman, Anne Rifkin-Graboi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There is accumulating evidence of a prospective relation between early language problems and ADHD, a disorder associated with deficits in executive functioning. However, little is known regarding this link among bilingual children. Here, we investigate whether (i) the prediction from language to ADHD may be lower among bilinguals, and (ii) explore if this moderation can be explained by differential executive functioning ability. Utilising a prospective sample of 408 South-East Asian toddlers, bilingual exposure as a moderator of the link between language delay at 24 months to ADHD intermediate diagnosis at 54 months was first examined with an interaction model. Next, …

Using Online Tutorials To Teach The Accounting Cycle, Tracey Chunqi Zhang, Lay Chin Low, Poh Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The accounting cycle is an important yet difficult topic for introductory financial accounting students to learn. These students often lack the business context to understand the accounting cycle and find the traditional teaching approach dry. This problem motivates the authors to examine whether a blended learning approach via online tutorials can improve students’ perceived knowledge of the accounting cycle for the undergraduate introductory financial accounting course. The authors developed four innovative online tutorials with a coherent storyline to enable students to learn the accounting cycle and to supplement in-class learning. To test the effectiveness of online tutorials, an independent survey …

Information Externalities And Voluntary Disclosure: Evidence From A Major Customer’S Earnings Announcement, Young Jun Cho, Yongtae Kim, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between information externalities along the supply chain and voluntary disclosure. Information transfers from a major customer's earnings announcement (EA) can substitute for its supplier's disclosure. Conversely, if the customer's EA increases uncertainties regarding the supplier's future prospects, it can increase the demand for disclosure. After controlling for information incorporated in supplier returns, we find that the supplier is more likely to issue earnings guidance after the customer's EA when the EA news deviates more from the market's expectation. The positive effect of the customer's news on earnings guidance is weaker when common investors, supply-chain analysts, or …

Media Literacy, Scientific Literacy, And Science Videos On The Internet, Sonny Rosenthal

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Although video is not a new format for communicating about science, video-sharing platforms have democratized the process. Individuals who wish to share information or ideas about science can use these platforms to connect with potentially large and diverse audiences. This has benefits and drawbacks. The benefits are related to increased access to scientific information and greater public engagement with science. The drawbacks are related to communication within echo chambers and the spread of misinformation. This mini-review presents these benefits and drawbacks with respect to the science video landscape and media and scientific literacies. It concludes with a brief synthesis of …

Re-Envisioning The Profound Order Of Dao: Pei Wei’S “Critical Discussion On The Pride Of Place Of Being”, Alan Kam Leung Chan

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This chapter offers a reading of Pei Wei’s “On the Pride of Place of Being”, or in David Knechtges’ translation, “Disquisition on Esteeming the Existent.” In this work, Pei sets out the reasons why the concept of “being” should be privileged in philosophical and ethical reflection. This was an audacious project, for in so doing Pei Wei took on almost the entire intellectual establishment, which during the early years of the Jin dynasty was enamored of the view that “being” is derivative, that all beings ultimately arise from a deeply profound and mysterious source, which though subject to different interpretation …

A Survey Of Spatial Crowdsourcing, Yongxin Tong, Zimu Zhou, Yuxiang Zeng, Lei Chen, Cyrus Shahabi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Crowdsourcing is a computing paradigm where humans are actively involved in a computing task, especially for tasks that are intrinsically easier for humans than for computers. Spatial crowdsourcing (SC) is an increasing popular category of crowdsourcing in the era of mobile Internet and sharing economy, where tasks are spatiotemporal and must be completed at a specific location and time. In fact, spatial crowdsourcing has stimulated a series of recent industrial successes including sharing economy for urban services (Uber and Gigwalk) and spatiotemporal data collection (OpenStreetMap and Waze). This survey dives deep into the challenges and techniques brought by the unique …

Is Perception Of Inability To Procreate A Temporal Phenomenon? A Longitudinal Exploration Of Changes And Determinants Among Women And Men Of Reproductive Age In Germany, Jasmin Passet-Wittig, Martin Bujard, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Continued postponement of births and increasing use of reproductive medicine enhance the relevance of infertility and related perceptions for fertility research. Fertility researchers tend to assume that an existing perception of inability to procreate is a stable trait among persons of reproductive age. This assumption is questionable from a life course perspective and has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore we investigate the prevalence, stability, and correlates of perceived inability to procreate. We apply between-within logit models to annual panel data (2008-2015) to study variation in perceived inability to procreate within individuals over time and between individuals. We find that approximately …

Mutual Influence? Gender, Partner Pregnancy Desires, Fertility Intentions, And Birth Outcomes In U.S. Heterosexual Couples, Colleen M. Ray, Sela R. Harcey, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Competing hypotheses exist with regard to how men’s and women’s pregnancy desires and intentions are associated with births among contemporary heterosexual couples. There are compelling cultural and structural reasons to support either the hypothesis that men’s desires and intentions (patriarchal) or that women’s desires and intentions (matriarchal) will have more influence, or that both partner’s desires and intentions will be associated with births (mutual influence). In addition, patterns of change are likely to differ for couples that have children at wave 1 compared to those who do not. Path analyses of the of heterosexual couples (n = 615) who completed …

Survey Costs: Where Are We And What Is The Way Forward?, Kristen M. Olson, James Wagner, Raeda Anderson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Survey costs are a major driver of survey design decisions and thought to be related to survey errors. Despite their importance, no common language exists for discussing survey costs, nor are there established criteria for identifying which cost metrics are useful for which purposes. Past efforts to study survey costs may have been hampered by the notion that more reporting is better reporting. This article starts by introducing a typology for survey cost metrics defined by the type of cost (estimated, observed in records, and actually incurred), currency versus non-currency measures, and level of aggregation (total, by components, per unit, …

How Do Interviewers And Respondents Navigate Sexual Identity Questions In A Cati Survey?, Jerry Timbrook, Jolene Smyth, Kristen M. Olson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Survey-based research has demonstrated that sexual minority individuals experience unique outcomes in areas such as physical and mental health (Boehmer et al. 2007; Hatzenbuehler 2014, 2017), crime (Herek 2009), public education (Kosciw et al. 2015), same-sex romantic relationships and family (Powell and Downey 1997; Umberson et al. 2015), and economics (Black et al. 2007). Having a reliable and valid measure of sexual identity (i.e., the way in which an individual self-describes their sexual orientation) (Gagnon and Simon 1973) is essential for conducting research on sexual minorities. Indeed, many national surveys such as the General Social Survey, the National Health Interview …

What Do Interviewers Learn?: Changes In Interview Length And Interviewer Behaviors Over The Field Period, Kristen M. Olson, Jolene Smyth

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Interviewers are important actors in telephone surveys. By setting the pace for an interview, interviewers communicate the amount of time and cognitive effort respondents should put into their task. It is well-established that interviewers vary widely in the time they spend administering a survey, and that this time changes over the course of the data collection period as interviewers gain experience (Bohme and Stohr 2014; Kirchner and Olson 2017; Loosveldt and Beullens 2013a, 2013b; Olson and Bilgen 2011; Olson and Peytchev 2007). In particular, interviewers get faster as they gain experience over the field period of a survey.

The within-survey …

Leader Readiness In A Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, And Ambiguous Business Environment, Karen Rimita, Stephanie N. Hoon, Robert Levasseur

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Organizational leaders in the 21st century face relentless changes in the business environments in which they operate. The diversity, intensity, and rapidity of these changes create volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), which challenge leaders on ways to lead effectively as existing methods prove inadequate. The problem in this study was that of inadequate leader preparedness to lead and win in VUCA environments. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of 15 Nigerian corporate executives about their VUCA business environment and the strategies they employed for VUCA-readiness and success using open-ended interview questions. The …

The Influence Of Entrepreneurship Orientation On Omani Smes’ Performance, Ghazi Nasser Salim Alalawi

Plymouth Business School Theses

Entrepreneurial orientation is one of the most crucial and reliable means of achieving a sustained competitive advantage in organizations. This is done through an ongoing process of highlighting new opportunities that arise now and then in a typical business environment. This study examines the impact of organizational culture (group, hierarchical, rational, and development) on entrepreneurial orientation (EO). The study also explores the effect of EO on organizational learning, innovation and firm performance, and the mediating role of both organizational learning and innovation and performance in the relationship between EO and firm performance. It applies to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) …

Saudi Equities Herding: The Role Of Regional And Global Factors, Dina Gabbori

Plymouth Business School Theses

Herding is an important stock market behaviour for investors and policymakers, it may affect market volatility, which investors need to understand to properly assess risks. Financial instability may deter risk-averse investors while benefitting investors seeking profit from market inefficiencies. Policymakers who understand herding impacts are better placed to improve the information available to investors. Herding behaviour in the Saudi equity market was examined between 2006 and 2016 using the method suggested by Change et al. (2000), from three related perspectives. Firstly, through its influence on oil market volatility, including during OPEC conference meetings. Results showed significant herding behaviour in most …

Financial Economics Of The Shadow Banking Sector In The Provision Of Safe Monetary Assets In The Uk, Dominic J Silman

Plymouth Business School Theses

We study the role of the so-called 'shadow banking' sector in innovating aggregate money supply and providing safe assets to meet demand from assetholders with a need for low-risk, high-liquidity monetary services. We consider the measurement and literature around shadow banking to date, econometrics of modelling money demand, and latent factor approaches. In doing so we contribute to a literature around shadow banking founded on the papers of Pozsar, Adrian, Shin, Gorton, Metrick, and their various co-authors. We set the shadow banking sector within the financial frictions paradigm espoused by Bernanke and co-authors, and our empirical approach builds on the …

Entrepreneurial Orientation, Dynamic Capabilities And Smes Performance In Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Albasri

Plymouth Business School Theses

The study aims to explore the role of entrepreneurial orientation coupled with three dynamic capabilities in enhancing the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia. In order to achieve this aim, three main objectives have been set, firstly, to examine separately the relationship between innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking on dynamic capabilities. Secondly, to investigate the direct influence of Dynamic Capability (DC) dimensions on firm performance. Finally, to examine the mediating role of explorative, exploitative, reconfiguration capabilities on the relationship between EO and firm performance. The study adopts a positivist philosophy, a deductive approach with a quantitative method, …

Increasing College Entrance Testing Vocabulary For Secondary Students With High-Incidence Disabilities, Cynthia C. Massey, Margarett E. Shippen, Margaret M. Flores, Cindy Head

Georgia Educational Researcher

This study investigated the effects of an instructional technology device, specifically, a computer-based graphic organizer, called the Real-World Connections Vocabulary graphic organizer (Ellis, 2015), on vocabulary acquisition for college entrance testing skills of students with high-incidence disabilities. Although graphic organizers have been studied since the 1960’s, there is very little research regarding the effectiveness of computer-based graphic organizers when used with high school students with mild disabilities, and their benefit acquiring college entrance exam vocabulary knowledge, namely, the ACT exam. By means of a single-subject, multiple probe across participants design, this study demonstrated that a functional relation did exist between …