This study examined the moderating impact of gender on the use of humor during employment interviews. Consistent with expectancy violation theory, I hypothesized that the use of humor by female candidates would cause more extreme evaluations than the use of humor by male candidates. In other words, when positive (affiliative) humor is used, females will be rated more positively than males, but when negative (aggressive) humor is used, females will be rated more negatively than males. I also hypothesized that the relationship between humor condition and evaluations would be partially mediated by state positive affect. I also posed a research question regarding how recall of what was said in the interview would relate to humor and evaluations. This experiment was a 2 (gender) x 3 (affiliative humor, aggressive humor, no humor) factorial design. Participants received brief interviewer training, interviewed a confederate playing another participant as the applicant, and then completed measures. Data from 221 undergraduate students were analyzed. Results demonstrate support of some hypotheses, including a main effect of humor condition on evaluations and partial mediation of state positive affect. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Many teachers of international students in the United States are challenged to address cultural differences in a classroom. International students often experience psychological, physical and cultural stress when they study abroad, due mainly to unfamiliar environments and a diverse culture. The question this study asks is: Are there any strategies that can be used to benefit these students? This grounded theory study will examine a purposefully-selected group of subjects from China and Taiwan who are currently studying at a large metropolitan university in the Southeastern United States. After data collection and analysis procedure, I hoped there are some things valued for international student who just arrived at the new environment and provides the reference to those students and college with the similar situation as UCF all over the world.

Background: More than 700 oral bacterial species have been found and together they make out the oral microbiota. Specific species have shown to correlate with various oral diseases such as caries and periodontitis, but also systemic diseases. Most studies have looked at the whole microbiota but the knowledge about tooth site-specific variation within supragingival plaque after lack of oral hygiene in healthy participants is limited.  Aim: This pilot study aimed to characterize variations in the supragingival plaque with regards to the; anterior (incisors and canines) and posterior (molars and premolars) teeth, upper and lower jaw, and left versus right tooth arches. Method: After three days of accumulating plaque, supragingival tooth biofilm was collected from 16 different tooth sites, from six healthy participants. Bacterial DNA was extracted, and 16s rRNA gene (V3-V4) was amplified by PCR and sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq platform. Sequences were blasted and taxonomically allocated using the Human Oral Microbiome Database. Result: In summary, 50 species showed a difference between the anterior and the posterior region, 30 species differed between the upper and lower jaw, and three species differed between the left and right sides.  Conclusion: This study indicates a difference in oral microbiota composition in supragingival plaque on different tooth regions. These findings emphasize the choice of method when analyzing the oral microbiota—also highlighting the importance of further understanding the dynamic forces driving local enrichment and reduction of specific species.

<p> It is well understood that compared with men, women are better able to withstand starvation, have better ultra-endurance capacity, oxidize more fat during endurance exercise, and are more resistant to fat oxidation defects i.e. diet-induced insulin resistance. However, the mechanism(s) for the observed sex differences are unknown. It was my hypothesis that women have greater fat oxidation capacity in skeletal muscle than men.</p> <p> The objectives of my thesis were to determine the mechanism(s) by which women oxidize more lipids; including the role of estrogen as a possible regulator. The most significant findings were that: 1) mRNA for fatty acid oxidation genes are higher in women compared with men, which was confirmed by Stringent Affymetrix GeneChip array analysis, combined with RT-PCR (chapter 2); 2) long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase in human skeletal muscle is not quantifiable despite the majority (90%) of fatty acids oxidized during exercise are long-chain fatty acids (chapter 3); 3) β-oxidation enzymes: tri-functional protein alpha, very long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, and medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase are significantly higher in women compared with men (chapter 4); 4) Acute (8 days) 17β-estradiol supplementation in men significantly increased protein content of β-oxidation enzymes in skeletal muscle, possibly through the regulation of PGC-1α and microRNA (chapter 5).</p> <p> In conclusion, my data provided novel insights into the enhanced ability of women to oxidize fat under periods of metabolic stress by showing that: 1) women are transcriptionally (mRNA) "primed" for known physiological differences in metabolism; 2) women have more protein content of the major enzymes involved in long and medium chain fatty acid oxidation; 3) E2 partially regulates lipid metabolism in skeletal muscle by pre-translational modifications of factors involved in β-oxidation. These findings contribute to the molecular understanding of sex differences in substrate utilization.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> Discrimination in employment still exists in Canada despite legislative attempts to minimize the disparity in treatment of minorities in the workplace. This dissertation examines the possibility of whether deep-level characteristics, such as differences in behaviour, are culturally influenced.</p> <p> Organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB) in the workplace have been a popular area of study for nearly twenty years in the industrial/organizational psychology literature. Research has demonstrated that OCBs can explain variance in job performance over and above that of task performance. While much of the OCB research has focused on the antecedents of OCBs (particularly individual attributes), a handful of cross-cultural and intercultural studies have been conducted with respect to OCBs; however, the type of studies and the findings from these studies have varied widely. Cross-cultural studies have evaluated OCBs in a single non-Western culture, collectivism and individualism as within-culture individual differences and their effects on OCBs, demographic dissimilarity in teams and OCBs, the role of perceptions and the exhibition of OCBs, and the presence and structure of OCB in different countries. From these studies, one can draw few conclusions about the status of national culture as an antecedent of OCB.</p> <p> The main objectives of this study were to investigate whether OCBs are culturally determined (using Vygotsky's sociocultural theory as an underlying basis for this hypothesis and using Hofstede's cultural framework), and whether individual acculturation and gender orientation moderate this relationship. Findings reveal overall that these three variables explain little of the variance in OCBs. None of the moderation hypotheses were supported for individual-level OCBs (OCB-I) or for team-oriented OCBs (OCB-T). Power distance was the only one of Hofstede's cultural dimensions that had relationships (both negative) with OCB-I and OCB-T. Gender orientation and acculturation played more prominent roles as independent variables instead of moderators, though the coefficients were weak. The study also revealed that individual levels of acculturation to Canadian culture may be more of an influencing factor on organizational citizenship behaviours than individual scores on national dimensions. The overall findings show that cultural differences do not have much influence on the exhibition of OCBs within work teams; however, further research must be done to assess the underlying mechanisms of discrimination in the workplace.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis provides insight into methods for estimating blood perfusion, emphasizing the need for accurate modeling in dynamic physiological environments. The thesis critically examines conventional error function solutions used in steady state or gradually changing blood flow scenarios, revealing their shortcomings in accurately reflecting more rapid changes in blood perfusion. To address this limitation, this study introduces a novel prediction model based on the finite-difference method (FDM) specifically designed to produce accurate results under different blood flow perfusion conditions. A comparative analysis concludes that the FDM-based model is consistent with traditional error function methods under constant blood perfusion conditions, thus establishing its validity under dynamic and steady blood flow conditions. In addition, the study attempts to determine whether analytical solutions exist that are suitable for changing perfusion conditions. Three alternative analytical estimation methods were explored, each exposing the common thread of inadequate responsiveness to sudden changes in blood perfusion. Based on the advantages and disadvantages of the error function and FDM estimation, a combination of these two methods was developed. Utilizing the simplicity and efficiency of the error function, the prediction of contact resistance and core temperature along with the initial blood perfusion was first made at the beginning of the data. Then the subsequent blood perfusion values were predicted using the FDM, as the FDM can effectively respond to changing blood perfusion values. / Master of Science / Blood perfusion, the process of blood flowing through our body's tissues, is crucial for our health. It's like monitoring traffic flow on roads, which is especially important during rapid changes, such as during exercise or medical treatments. Traditional methods for estimating blood perfusion, akin to older traffic monitoring techniques, struggle to keep up with these rapid changes. This research introduces a new approach, using a method often found in engineering and physics, called the finite-difference method (FDM), to create more accurate models of blood flow in various conditions. This study puts this new method to the test against the old standards. We discover that while both are effective under steady conditions, the FDM shines when blood flow changes quickly. We also examined three other methods, but they, too, fell short in these fast-changing scenarios. This work is more than just numbers and models; it's about potentially transforming how we understand and manage health. By combining the simplicity of traditional methods for initial blood flow estimates with the dynamic capabilities of the FDM, we're paving the way for more precise medical diagnostics and treatments.

Bostads- och arbetsmarknaden är två relevanta ämnen som ofta diskuteras i olika forum. Utifrån teorin om utbud och efterfrågan samt hedoniska prissättningsmodellen och utformad hypotes syftar studien till att finna ett kausalt samband av en negativ chock i efterfrågan på arbetskraft på bostadsmarknaden. Tidigare studier har gjorts på liknande ämnen, dock har ingen sådan studie med utgångspunkt i Sverige identifierats. Med hjälp av en staggered difference-in-differences-modell analyseras paneldata över sju svenska kommuner med målsättning att undersöka studiens syfte och frågeställning, där samtliga kommuner har exponerats för ett beslut om nedläggning av större arbetsplats. Modellens utfallsvariabel är slutpris per kvadratmeter och kontrollvariabler som inkluderas är olika hedoniska egenskaper för bostäder såsom boarea, antal rum och ägandeform, samt en indikatorvariabel för beslut om nedläggning. Likt tidigare utförda studier som studerar effekten av ökad arbetslöshet på bostadsmarknaden, visar studien på en negativ effekt. Konträrt till tidigare studier är effekten däremot ej statistiskt signifikant.

This dissertation consists of three essays studying the occupational wages, skills, and gender wage gap in U.S. and other OECD countries. The analysis especially focuses on how the gender differences in skill levels and skill returns could explain the gender wage gaps and changes. The first chapter outlines the dissertation by briefly discussing the motivations, methods, and main findings in each of the following chapters. Chapter 2 focuses on the well-documented wage and employment polarizations in the U.S.. The occupations moving into the lower tail ("in" occupations) have more immigrant workers, more part-time workers, and less female workers. In addition, the wage gaps between domestic/immigrant, full-time/part-time, and male/female workers are also larger in "in" occupations. The opposite facts hold true in the occupations moving out of the lower tail ("out" occupations). Utilizing the regional differences, we also find stronger spillover effect from high-wage occupations to the "out" occupations than the effect to the "in" occupations. Chapter 3 investigates how gender differences in skills beyond education and experience can account for the observed gender wage gap and its changes between 1980 and 2015 by using data from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). The main empirical finding is that female workers possess much higher level of caring skills, and the returns to caring skills are significantly negative but have increased over time, accounting for a major part of the persistent gender wage gap and the narrowing gender wage gap from 1980 to 2015. Another significant portion of the narrowed gender wage gap can be attributed to the faster growth in female workers' average directness skills and the fact that the returns to directness skills are significantly positive and stable over time. In the last chapter, we document significant cross-country variation in gender wage gaps among OECD countries by using the data from Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). We find significant cross-country variation in the gender differences in returns. The gender differences in returns to basic labor and experience are the most important factors in explaining the gender wage gap. In addition, gender differences in returns to cognitive and directness skills are playing milder but substantial roles in explaining the wage gap. We also find the social institutions and attitudes indicators are related to the cross-country variation in gender differences. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the choice behavior and achievement of male and female high school students who are given an option of taking a 36 week American History course in either a game-based format or a web-based format. It was hypothesized that (a) males would enroll more frequently in the game-based course than females, (b) there would be no significant difference in achievement between males and females in the game-based course or across course formats, and (c) there would be no significant interaction between gender and the selection of course format. The study consisted of a sample of 7,962 11th grade students who enrolled in American History during the 2009/2010 school year at the Florida Virtual School (FLVS). Students planning to take 11th grade American History at FLVS were given the choice of enrolling in a game-based class format or a standard web-based online class format. A chi-square test of independence was used to analyze enrollment rates. An independent t test was used to analyze achievement based on gender in the game-based course. A two-way factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze achievement data based on gender across course formats, enrollment, and the interaction of gender and enrollment. The chi-square results indicated that there is a relationship between gender and enrollment. Males chose to enroll in the game-based format of the course more frequently than females and females chose to enroll in the web-based format of the course more frequently than males. The independent t test results indicated that there is no significant difference in achievement based on gender in the game-based course. The ANOVA results indicated that there are significant differences in achievement based on gender as well as enrollment, but there are no significant differences in achievement based on the interaction of gender and enrollment. Implications for researchers, teachers, administrators, game developers, and funders are provided.

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