Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-160).

Les sports d'hiver regroupent un ensemble d’activité très répandus en France et dans le monde. Chaque année, les secouristes réalisent environ 50 000 interventions suite à des blessures sur les domaines skiables Français. Dans ce contexte, des campagnes de sensibilisation sont mises en place afin de diminuer l’adoption de comportements à risque sur les pistes de ski.Afin de renforcer ces campagnes, nous proposons d’utiliser les techniques d’amorçage développées en psychologie sociale. La technique développée consiste à réexposer les pratiquants à une amorce issue d’une affiche, à laquelle ils étaient préalablement exposés, préconisant de ralentir afin de diminuer leur vitesse sur les pistes. Plusieurs modérateurs impliqués dans la prise de risque ont été envisagés, à savoir la personnalité (recherche de sensation et impulsivité), l’autorégulation émotionnelle (fuite et évitement), le système nerveux autonome (représenté par le tonus vagal) et le risque objectif de se blesser.Dans trois études de laboratoire, nous montrons l’efficacité de la procédure d’amorçage afin de diminuer la prise de risque liée à la vitesse en ski. Parmi les principaux résultats, nous montrons que la recherche de sensation et le tonus vagal sont des facteurs modérateurs de la susceptibilité à l’amorçage. Nous montrons également, et de façon inattendue, la sensibilité particulière à l’amorçage d’un message de nature relaxante pour réduire la prise de risque en contexte de sports d’hiver.Deux études en situation écologique ont aussi été réalisées pour tester la procédure directement sur une piste de ski. Nous confirmons avec ces deux études que la réexposition à une amorce issue d’une affiche permet de réduire significativement la vitesse, particulièrement l’après-midi lorsque le risque de blessure est élevé.Ces travaux dans leur ensemble montrent que la procédure d’amorçage est efficace pour réduire la vitesse en sports d’hiver. La recherche de sensation, le système nerveux autonome et le risque objectif de se blesser devraient également être pris en compte dans la conception des campagnes de sensibilisation basée sur notre procédure d’amorçage. En conclusion, ces travaux sont les premiers du genre à avoir développé et testé une procédure originale de prévention afin de réduire la prise de risque en sports d’hiver. / Winter sports include a wide range of activities in France and around the world. Each year, rescuers perform about 50 000 intervention on French ski areas. In this context, prevention campaigns are developed to reduce risk behaviors on ski slopes.To enhance these campaigns, we propose to use the priming techniques. The technique consists in re-exposing skiers to a prime from a poster including a message advocating to slow down (to which they were previously exposed) in order to decrease the speed on ski slopes. Moderators involved in risk-taking were also considered, namely personality (sensation seeking and impulsivity), emotional self-regulation (escape and avoidance), autonomic nervous system (represented by vagal tone) and objective risk to injury.In three laboratory studies, we show the effectiveness of the priming procedure in order to reduce the risk-taking associated with speed in skiing. Among main results, we show that sensation seeking and vagal tone are important factors in susceptibility to the priming. We also show an unexpected result on the priming of a relaxing message to reduce the risk-taking in winter sports.Two ecological studies were also carried out to test the procedure directly on a ski slope. We confirm with these two studies that re-exposure to a leader from a poster significantly reduces speed, particularly for afternoon with a high risk injury.This work shows that the priming procedure is effective to reduce the speed in winter sports. The sensation-seeking, the autonomic nervous system and the objective injury risk should also be taken into account in the design of prevention campaigns based on our priming procedure. This work is the first to have developed and tested an original procedure to reduce the risk taking in winter sports.

x, 99 p. / Using data for publicly listed commercial banks and bank holding companies around the world, I investigate the market discipline effect of subordinated debt on banking firm risk taking in the period 2002-2008. In addition, I examine whether this effect depends on national bank regulations and legal and institutional conditions. I provide evidence that subordinated debt has a mitigating effect on banking firm risk taking. Further, the results suggest a threshold level of national bank regulations and economic development above which subordinated debt mitigates risk taking. Overall, the evidence supports the efficacy of proposals calling for increased use of subordinated debt in banking firms. / Committee in charge: Wayne Mikkelson, Chairperson; Ekkehart Boehmer, Member; Diane Del Guercio, Member; Wesley Wilson, Outside Member

This thesis is about influences on young people's sexual risk taking. It is situated within a complex context of young people's sustained structural/self-sexualisation, significant sexual activity, unwanted outcomes such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs), intended benefits such as pleasure, and recurrent interventionists' promotion of abstinence-until-marriage sexual norm to young people. The above conceptualization is tested with a mixed-methodology that recruited fifty-six students with a snowball sampling technique. McCracken's long-interview and Stones' empirical research brackets for structuration theory facilitated narrative data collection, which were subjected to structural-hermeneutic analysis. Respondents identified four broad influences on their dominantly heterosexual behaviour. They include external influences (mass media), internal influences (positive pre-dispositions to premarital sex), agency (purposeful sexual action), and (un)intended outcome (STI and pleasure). Respondents emphasize that influences are non-hierarchical, differentially combine, and are dependent on individuals, contexts and seasons. They also infer the Nigerian context concurrently constrain and enable their sexual conducts via three normative sexual behaviour options. These are (1) the dominant Nigerian culture promoted abstinence-until-marriage. (2) Modernity sanctioned safer-sex with contraceptives. (3) Collective/individuated preference for unprotected premarital sex, periodic abstinence and contraceptive use. Respondents admit they practise the latter, which is a hybridization of option (1) and (2) and is illustrative of the co-influence of structure and agency on action. The conclusion is drawn that sexual risk taking is influenced by young people's concurrent structural/self sexualisation and their pursuit of contextual, personal and collectively meaningfial goals. Consequently, dominant linear conceptualizations of sexual risk taking, e.g. problem behaviour, will continue to be limited in effectiveness because they neglect these complex, recursive and interrelated influences. Thus, pragmatic efforts to manage risk-prone sexualities must concurrently engage their complex structural and agential sources, governed by safer-sex promotion, a recognition of multiple influences and individuated/collective value that both society and young people attach to sex.

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using asset securitisation as risk management technique in banks. This study examines the direct impacts of asset securitisation on the riskiness of banks’ loan portfolios as well as the indirect impacts on the subsequent financial stability. This study also tests the changes in banks’ equity capital and liquidity as a result of using asset securitisation in order to understand their potential contributions to the examined bank risk behaviour. Furthermore, this study tests the impacts of adopting the Basel capital requirements on banks’ exposure to asset securitisation and the related bank risk behaviour. The study is informed by stakeholder theory. The use of stakeholder theory in the current study helps in addressing the causal connections between banks’ risk management practices and the achievement of banks’ performance objectives. Using stakeholder theory also helps understand the role of external regulatory structures in supporting risk management practices in banks. The empirical study is conducted by using a sample of 44 bank holding companies selected from 13 European countries during the period 2004-2014. The choice of the sample banks is based on the availability of securitisation data as well as the condition that all European banks should have placed at least one securitisation transaction during the period of the study. Moreover, seven linear regression models were developed to examine the study relationships and were estimated by using Fixed Effects panel data analysis. The use of panel data analysis in this study aims to capture the dynamics of bank risk behaviour and other bank-specific conditions that are associated with asset securitisation during the period of the study. The results found in the empirical analysis confirm that incorporating the use of asset securitisation with higher capital requirements is more likely to reduce originators’ credit risk-taking that arise from their lending activities. The findings reported in this study, however, do not support the regulatory capital arbitrage hypothesis of the securitisation products. Furthermore, this study confirms that European securitising banks continued to view asset securitisation as cost-efficient funding source, despite the decreasing number of transactions since the crisis. The findings in this study also show that European securitising banks did not effectively operate their securitisation proceeds in profitable investments during the period of the study. Based on the results found in the current study, we can suggest that introducing more risk-sensitive capital requirements is a key factor in the future development of the asset securitisation markets. This study contributes to the existing literature by emphasising the direct connections between asset securitisation and the riskiness of banks’ loan portfolios. This study also is one of the first studies to test asset securitisation effects on the absolute level of bank capital in order to provide a better understanding of the regulatory capital arbitrage hypothesis. The current study further extends the existing literature to test the role of the Basel capital requirements in controlling the use of asset securitisation in banks, taking into account the former regulatory frameworks and the full implementation years of the Basel (II) framework. Unlike previous studies, the employment of stakeholder theory in the current study has helped in expanding the perception of risk management in banks, from purely controlling device to a broad approach that aims to support bank’s existence and prosperity. Furthermore, this study is one of the first studies that had a broader look at the European securitisation market, during the years before and after the crisis and compared the empirical results of both sub-samples to validate the robustness of the study findings in terms of the financial crisis.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Programa Multi-Institucional e Inter-Regional de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Contábeis, 2014. / Submitted by Ana Cristina Barbosa da Silva (annabds@hotmail.com) on 2014-10-30T19:16:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_MariaCamilaBaigorri.pdf: 499445 bytes, checksum: 31af2db6f8ca02648945307dce190031 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tania Milca Carvalho Malheiros(tania@bce.unb.br) on 2014-11-05T11:44:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_MariaCamilaBaigorri.pdf: 499445 bytes, checksum: 31af2db6f8ca02648945307dce190031 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-11-05T11:44:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_MariaCamilaBaigorri.pdf: 499445 bytes, checksum: 31af2db6f8ca02648945307dce190031 (MD5) / O objetivo dessa pesquisa é verificar se as operações de securitização aumentam o risk takingdas instituições financeiras. A inovação financeira e o desenvolvimento do mercado detransferência de risco permitiu que as instituições financeiras alterassem seu modelo denegócio. Com a possibilidade de transferir o risco de suas operações para o mercado,questiona-se se as instituições perdem o incentivo para monitorar o risco, ex ante e ex post.Assim, utilizando o z-score como métrica para o risk taking, foi analisado efeito dasoperações de securitização no risco das instituições originadoras usando para isso umaamostra formada pelas instituições financeiras listadas na Bovespa durante o período que vaide 2004 a 2012. Utilizando o modelo de dados em painel com efeitos aleatórios, encontraramseevidências empíricas que as operações de securitização estão associadas a um maior risktaking. ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / This research aims to verify if Securitization increases Bank’s risk taking. Financial innovation and the development of market risk transfer changes banks’ business models. Withthe possibility to transfer the risk to the market, banks may lose their incentive to screen creditrisk, ex ante and ex post. Using the z-score for measuring the risk taking, we analize the effectof securitization in the originator bank’s risk, using a sample of banks listed on Bovesparanging 2004 to 2012. Using panel data with random effects, we find evidence that securitization increases the risk taking in brasilian market.

D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology) / The Licensing Branch of the Atomic Energy Corporation of South Africa is responsible for setting safety standards as regards the nuclear energy industry. The present study forms part of an investigation, initiated by members of the Licensing Branch, into the impact and possible social risk of nuclear technology on society. The ultimate aim of the investigation, towards which this study intends to make a sound contribution, is the development of appropriate social risk criteria. Financial assistance by the Atomic Energy Corporation of South Africa is hereby acknowledged. Any views or conclusions are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the AEC. The financial assistance of the Human Sciences Research Council towards the costs of this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed or conclusions reached are those of the author and are not to be regarded as a reflection of the opinions and conclusions of the Human Sciences Research Council.

Do adolescents of colour really engage in risk-taking behaviours as often generalised by the public? Are they in fact the alcohol, drugs, sex, and violence generation? This study attempts to investigate the conditions influencing the choices adolescents make prior to their engaging in risk-taking behaviours. In the social sciences, concerns over adolescents’ recklessly irresponsible behaviours have deep roots. In 1904 G. Stanley Hall depicted adolescence as misbehaving because of the storms and stresses of the transition from childhood to adulthood. Subsequently, social scientists produced substantial evidence that the storminess of adolescence is largely an over generalisation, which has not been empirically substantiated. In corroboration of this interpretation, this study also indicates that not all adolescents engage in risk-taking behaviour, and those risky individuals do not necessarily engage in all spheres of risk-taking. The majority of the target group only experimented with certain risk behaviours by engaging in them on one occasion only. The specific high school was selected because the researcher knew the learners, as she was an educator there at the time. She was thus reasonably aware of the frequency, the nature and the severity of the risk-taking behaviours of the target group. In general, the most important findings of the study signified a moderate level of participation in risk-taking activities. However, in certain spheres such as cigarette smoking, alcohol usage and sexual intercourse, an extreme participation level was reported. Certain factors such as gender, age, socio-economic conditions, parental (one or both) absence, and the respondents’ attitude towards the specific behaviour, were discovered to have played an influential role in the target group taking risks. Based on the reasons advanced for engaging in risk-taking behaviour, the researcher concluded that the following theories were applicable in explaining the behaviour of the respondents. These theories are the social learning theory, symbolic interactionist theory, social identity, the theory of reasoned action, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The researcher trusts that this study will assist the reader to understand the complex contributing circumstances that the target group has to contend with in making decisions.

Background: Chlamydia screening is an international strategy used to reduce rates of infection in a target population. This thesis set out to explore the behaviour of young people against the principles of this government strategy for infection control and self-empowerment. The work was set in County Durham and Darlington where I led a service for improved awareness and screening for Chlamydia for young people aged 15 – 24 years. Aims: This research was based on interviews with Chlamydia screening service users in order to understand the factors that influenced their risk taking behaviours and to generate theory for public health practice. An analysis of outcomes from a large sample of over 20,000 subjects and observations of young people in settings where Chlamydia testing and advice was available gave context and background to this study. Findings Chlamydia screening was used as a strategy to offset risk taking that enabled young people to continue behaviours that they valued. This finding is a new and unexpected contribution to Chlamydia screening literature, and also supports the developing theory of edgework. Knowledge and awareness of Chlamydia did not change as a result of screening activities, and this did not have a major influence on preventative behaviour. The national messages that one in 10 young people are infected, and that infection is easily detected and managed, was interpreted by some that nine in 10 young people were not infected, and that this was not a significant health threat. Incentives were found to significantly increase screening uptake although this did not lead to a change in risk taking. There was an increased likelihood to have sex with the perception of knowing a partner, although this was not necessarily based upon factual information. Most participants demonstrated lethal patterns of alcohol consumption that commonly led to sexual encounters and all those who stated that they were aware of safe drinking limits demonstrated lethal patterns of alcohol consumption. All participants with a positive test result had a negative result within the previous year suggesting no change in risk taking following screening, and although all participants said that they would modify their behaviour in the future, when they were probed all stated that this would not happen giving reasons such failure to moderate alcohol use. Conclusion: These findings led me to conclude that risk taking in relation to health and potential disease is a normal process in the development of young people. Young people value risk taking activities for promoting self-identity and supporting emotional and social well-being. Public health interventions need to consider the developmental needs of young people using an asset based approach in order to provide interventions that address the causes of risk taking behaviours.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Donald A. Saucier / Researchers have yet to examine how trait sensation seeking and state positive affect combine to influence participation in risky behaviors. This study examined how participant levels of sensation seeking and positive affect interacted to influence participant interest in performing a risky behavior. It was hypothesized that an interaction between sensation seeking and positive affect would be found, such that high sensation seekers low in positive affect would show more interest in participating in a risky activity than high sensation seekers that were high in positive affect or all participants low in sensation seeking, regardless of positive affect. Trait sensation seeking was measured in an initial group of participants (N = 693), using a subscale of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (Zuckerman Kuhlman, Joireman, Teta, & Kraft, 1993). Using these scores, high and low sensation seekers (N = 99) were invited to a second study, where videos were used to manipulate levels of state positive affect (Hemenover, 2003). Participants were then given a questionnaire to measure interest in participating in a risky drug study. No interaction was found, but a main effect for sensation seeking (Zuckerman, 1971) was discovered, such that high sensation seekers reported more interest in participating in a risky behavior than low sensation seekers. Therefore, it appears that participant interest in risky behaviors was a function of levels of trait sensation seeking. It is possible that problems with data collection or the risk-taking scenario contributed to the inability to support the hypothesis.