This dissertation studies moral hazard problems and an information acquisition problem in dynamic economic environments. In chapter 1, I study a continuous-time principal-agent model in which a risk-neutral agent protected by limited liability exerts costly efforts to manage a project for her principal. Unobserved risk-taking by the agent is value-reducing in the sense that it increases the chance of large losses, even though it raises short-term profits. In the optimal contract, severe punishment that follows a large loss prevents the agent from taking hidden risks. However, after some histories, punishment can no longer be used because of limited liability. The principal allows the agent to take hidden risk when the firm is close to liquidation. In addition, I explore the roles of standard securities in implementing the optimal contract. The implementation shows that driven by the agency conflicts, incomplete hedging against Poisson risk provides incentives for the agent to take the safe project. Moreover, I study the optimality of "high-water mark" contract widely used in the hedge fund industry and find that "distance-to-threshold" is important in understanding the risk-shifting problem in a dynamic context. In chapter 2, I study a continuous-time moral hazard model in which the principal hires a team of agents to run the business. The firm consists of multiple divisions and agents exert costly efforts to improve the divisional cash flows. The firm size evolves stochastically based on the aggregate cash flows.The model delivers a negative relationship between firm sizes and pay-for-divisional incentives, and I characterize conditions under which joint/relative performance evaluation will be used. I also explore the implications of team production on the firm's optimal capital structure and financial policy. In chapter 3, I study a multi-armed bandits problem with ambiguity. Decision-maker views the probabilities underlying each arm as imprecise and his preference is represented by recursive multiple-priors. I show that the classical "Gittins Index" generalizes to a "Multiple-Priors Gittins Index". In the setting with one safe arm and one ambiguous arm, the decision-maker plays the ambiguous arm if its "Multiple-Priors Gittins Index" is higher than the return delivered by the safe arm. In the multi-armed environment, I obtain the "Multiple-Priors Index Theorem" which states that the optimal strategy for the decision-maker is to play the ambiguous arm with the highest Multiple-Priors Index.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-05-14Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:05:34Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 cumpri_ml_dr_arafcl.pdf: 798182 bytes, checksum: 7666053f2586a500bf1edd3381995065 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Nossa pesquisa se insere no âmbito das discussões acerca da significação linguística com aporte especial da Teoria das Operações Predicativas e Enunciativas (TOPE), a qual tem como égide os pensamentos do linguista francês Antoine Culioli. Entre nossas escolhas, a primeira e principal foi termos elegido a ambiguidade da linguagem o foco de investigação, sobretudo a constituição do sentido. Outrossim, a tese demonstra que há uma força dinâmica (a linguagem e toda sua atividade constitutiva) que torna a enunciação um espaço movediço e hibrido em que sentido, referência, valor, significado não assumem materialidade num ambiente que não articule, fundamentalmente, léxico e gramática. De modo que a atribuição de sentido lexical depende do movimento gramatical e a atribuição de sentido na gramática depende do deslocamento do léxico. Para a realização de nossa meta, a pesquisa subdividiu-se em dez seções em que se discute (nem sempre harmonicamente) a ciência semântica (pressupostos clássicos, conceitos, categorizações e expansões) sob a ótica da produção linguística (as operações constitutivas do enunciado como: modalização, aspectualidade, quantificação, localização, etc.) e gera uma tensão fecunda em toda predicação que é a própria maravilha da linguagem. Tudo isso nos permitiu pensar numa contribuição efetiva ao ensino de língua, sobretudo porque o trabalho focado na indeterminação da linguagem coloca o sujeito (e toda sua atividade) no centro da questão, o que faz com que se concilie e articule desenvolvimento subjetivo e ensino formal e, como isso, se desenvolva a capacidade de autorregulação e de processamento de informações. Nossa investigação, em suma, nos deu material para constatar que a ambiguidade, além de ser inerente à linguagem e além de estabelecer uma zona fronteiriça... / Our research is inserted in the scope of the discussions about meaning with special support of the Theory of Predicative and Enunciative Operations mainly represented by the French linguist Antoine Culioli. We have made lots of choices, and the first and most important was to elect language ambiguity as our focus of investigation, mainly the constitution of meaning. Otherwise, this thesis demonstrates there is a dynamic power (that is, language and all its constitutive activity) that makes enunciation a mobile and hybrid space in which one meaning, reference, value don‘t assume materiality without the articulation between lexicon and grammar. In this way, lexical meaning depends on the grammatical movement and grammatical meaning depends on lexical movement. In order to carry out our goal, the research was shared in ten sections that discusses (not always in a harmonic way) semantics (classic issues, concepts, categorizations and expansions) under the view of the linguistic production (constitutive operations of utterance like: modal values, aspect, quantification, localization, etc.) and generates rentable tension in the predication, which one is the wonder of language. All of it allowed us to think of an effective contribution to language teaching, especially because a work focused on language indetermination sets subject (and all his activity) in the center of the matter, what makes one combine and articulate subjective development and formal teaching and one develop the capacity of self balance and information processing. In summary, our investigation gave us material to conclude ambiguity, besides being inherent to language and besides establishing a boundary between intra and extra linguistics, reinforces the emergency of a model of analysis that prove one may only consider meaning which is, by the way... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Master of Science / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Amber V. Vennum / Cyclical relationships (where multiple break-ups and renewals have occurred) have been characterized as being in a state of “stable instability” (Vennum & Johnson, 2015), and emerging adulthood has been deemed a critical phase of relational development and learning, as well as a time marked by instability (Arnett 2000; 2007). While the research continues to expand on what we know about the concurrent and enduring risks for distress associated with relationship cycling, little is known about what change mechanisms/interventions may reduce these risks, or how helping professionals (therapists, relationship educators) can specifically assist young adults in cyclical relationships. After conducting five focus groups, researchers found specific factors that promote or detract from “decision-making resiliency”, or DMR. Specific points of intervention for professionals working with cyclical relationships to promote DMR are discussed, which included identity development, communication, power/control dynamics and intentionality. Building off of what is known about the nuances of cyclical relationships, this study aims to inform assessments and intervention(s) that would help bolster resilience and decision-making skills in cyclical couples (or couples who have slid into relationships and are, thus, at risk for cycling) in an effort to reduce further distress.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The main aim of this thesis is to study ambiguity in Northern Sotho. Ambiguity, often referred to as 'double or multiple meaning', is, as Scheffler (1979:i) observes, "deserving of systematic study" in its own right. In this study, an attempt is made to give it the attention it deserves insofar as research is concerned. Life is full of verbal (and visual) tricks that are constantly teasing the interlocutors and never allow their interpretative faculties to come to rest. Such verbal tricks sometimes lead to confusions and misunderstandings that often result in unnecessary conflicts. It is the main aim of this investigation to investigate such misunderstandings by revealing what these tricks are, and try to make people aware of such verbal tricks.

English When we observe the interpreters in their booths battling with ambiguity in order to find the accurate meaning of an ambiguous utterance, we inevitably come to the realization of the daunting impact of ambiguities on the latter. Ambiguity in general and diplomatic ambiguity in particular, is a thorn in interpreters’ sides. Then, the main question is “what strategies can the interpreter use to cope successfully with diplomatic ambiguity?” How do interpreters manage to find ways of resolving instances of ambiguity when interpreting in a diplomatic setting that requires immediate disambiguation. This mini-dissertation investigates the theme of diplomatic ambiguity in interpreter-mediated communication and comes up with responses to these concerns and queries. It (this mini-dissertation) primarily focuses on interpreting as an act of communication insofar as interpreting is a professional verbal communication activity. It then looks specifically into ambiguity in diplomatic communication. Diplomatic communication is often riddled with ambiguity; in turn, ambiguity, affects and correlates to meaning. And here lies the problem with diplomatic ambiguity: diplomatic ambiguity prevents a proper understanding or reception of the intended meaning. It therefore poses problems to the interpreter. In view of the above, this mini-dissertation has a practical purpose: to provide the interpreter with a clear sense of problem-solving techniques for the resolution of ambiguity. In this respect, coping tactics and strategies will be proposed as a means of clarifying ambiguities, elucidating obscure passages. / French Lorsque l’on assiste au spectacle d’interprètes s’échinant dans leurs cabines à trouver le vrai sens d’une expression ambiguë, l’on se rend bien vite compte des effets redoutables de l’ambiguïté sur ces derniers. La question de l’ambiguïté en général, celle de l’ambiguïté du discours diplomatique en particulier, constitue une écharde dans le flanc de tout interprète. Alors, la question majeure qui se pose est de savoir «à quelles stratégies les interprètes peuvent-ils recourir pour faire face avec succès à l’ambiguïté diplomatique?». Comment les interprètes arrivent-ils à remédier aux problèmes d’ambiguïté diplomatique surgissant au cours de l’interprétation et qui requièrent une désambiguïsation sur le champ ? Ce mémoire traite de la question de l’ambiguïté diplomatique en situation de communication médiée par un interprète et vient en réponse aux interrogations et préoccupations ci-dessus. Ce mémoire aborde en premier chef la question de l’interprétation conçue comme un acte communicationnel dans la mesure où elle se définit comme un exercice de communication orale fait par un professionnel. Ensuite, un accent particulier sera mis sur l’ambigüité dans la communication diplomatique qui en recèle souvent; à son tour, l’ambiguïté entrave l’appréhension du sens [des mots ou concepts] auquel elle étroitement liée. C’est ici donc que se situe toute la problématique de l’ambiguïté diplomatique: l’ambiguïté diplomatique obstrue aussi bien la bonne compréhension que la réception du message à transmettre. Dès lors surgissent des difficultés d’interprétation. Au regard de ce qui précède, ce mémoire se veut pragmatique: susciter au sein des interprètes le réflexe de la recherche de techniques de résolution des problèmes de l’ambiguïté. Pour ce faire, un éventail de tactiques et stratégies susceptibles d’aider à clarifier et élucider les instances d’ambiguïté sera mis à disposition. / Mini Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / African Languages / MA / Unrestricted

This dissertation is a qualitative study of racially ambiguous people and their life experiences. Racially ambiguous people are individuals who are frequently misidentified racially by others because they do not resemble the phenotype associated with the racial group to which they belong or because they belong to racial/ethnic groups originating in different parts of the world that resemble each other. the racial/ethnic population of the United States is constantly changing because of variations in the birth rates among the racial/ethnic groups that comprise those populations and immigration from around the world. Although much research has been done that documents the existence of racial/ethnic mixing in the history of the United States and the world, this multiracial history is seldom acknowledged in the social, work, and other spheres of interaction among people in the U.S., instead a racialized system based on the perception of individuals as mono-racial thus easily identified through (skin tone, hair texture, facial features, etc.). This is research was done using life experience interviews with 24 racially ambiguous individuals to determine how race/ethnicity has affected their lives and how they negotiate the minefield of race.

Recent studies in the area of sport and exercise science have suggested that weightlifting performance may be significantly improved under ambiguous conditions—namely, when the amount to be lifted is unknown. In the present study, procedural concerns from previous studies examining the effect of ambiguity were noted and a methodological variation was introduced.

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At the heart of this dissertation project is my interest in the internal conflict that emerges in the mundane navigation and maintenance of relational and contextual penalty and privilege. That is to say, I am interested in how individuals maneuver their/our concurrent identity/ies as oppressor and oppressed. I argue that this simultaneous identity is a holistic embodiment that demands complex maneuvering and that requires our vigilant attention. In addition, I am interested in the critical potential of such maneuvering for activism. In this vein, I introduce my intent to queer the limits of identity research in critical intercultural communication research while contributing to, and drawing on, what others have referred to as queer intersectionality (Bilge, 2012; Rosenblum, 1994). I envision queer intersectionality as an ontological modality that yields heuristic potentiality that can aid critical intercultural communication researchers explore the ways in which we embody a simultaneous oppressor-oppressed identity. In order to understand queer intersectionality as an ontological modality, I offer embodied contexts that give rise to oppression and power in given and fleeting moments. Halualani and Nakayama (2010) remind us that “critical work recognizes that there is no theory in advance and no social process of culture without some theoretical sense-making; it travels through a trajectory of theory from and towards context” (p. 9). Centralizing the directed attention upon the significance of context, I intend queer intersectionality to be an embodied modality that critical intercultural communication researchers can use to explore and theorize simultaneous oppressor-oppressed identity performances and critically envision the co-constitutive relationship between privilege and disadvantage.

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