For decades, two key characteristics in budgeting system-budgetary participation and budgetary emphasis have been intensively discussed in previous management accounting studies. Although previous literature suggested that budgetary participation and budgetary emphasis have positive effects on mangers¡¦ effectiveness, they provided inconsistent and piecemeal evidence. This study attempts to investigate the influences of budgetary participation and emphasis on managerial effectiveness and on slack and to propose a comprehensive model in order to clarify the relationships of intervening variables among budgetary participation and emphasis on managerial effectiveness and slack. This study employs social-cognitive theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1977) and affective events theory (AET) (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) to investigate the relationships between budgetary participation, budgetary emphasis, managerial effectiveness and budgetary slack. According to social cognitive theory, this study suggests that budgetary participation and emphasis enhance managers¡¦ self-efficacy, and then improves managerial performance and job satisfaction. According to AET, this study suggests that budgetary participation implies positive affective events which effectively influence managers¡¦ attitudes-trust in superior and organizational commitment, in turn improve their performance and satisfaction. However, budgetary emphasis is implied as a negative affective event, which may influence managers¡¦ attitudes. In other words, self-efficacy, trust in superior and organizational commitment play critical intervening roles among the relationships budgetary participation, budgetary emphasis, managerial performance, job satisfaction and budgetary slack. In addition, the relationships between the intervening variables and between outcome variables are also explored. Finally, this study proposes a comprehensive budgetary participation¡¦s ¡¥cognitive-attitude-effectiveness¡¦ model. Eighteen hypotheses are proposed. Structural equation modeling was used to test the theoretical models with the 164 responses which were randomly drawn from the listing company in Taiwan Stock Exchange. The results validate the following relationships: 1.Budgetary participation and budgetary emphasis have indirect effects on managerial performance and job satisfaction through self-efficacy. 2.Budgetary participation has indirect effects on managerial performance and job satisfaction through affective attitudes-trust in superior and organizational commitment. 3.Budgetary participation enhances self-efficacy and then improving managers¡¦ attitudes. 4.Budgetary emphasis directly influences budgetary slack. 5.Managers¡¦ trust in superior enhances their organizational commitment. 6.Managers¡¦ job satisfaction improves their performance. Although the relationship between trust in superior and managerial performance is not supported in the comprehensive model, the mediating roles of self-efficacy, trust and organizational commitment are validated. In other words, the cognitive and attitudinal effects of budgetary participation are supported in this study. However, this study suggests a positive path from budgetary slack toward job satisfyaction, which implies that proper slack may result in higher managers¡¦ job satisfaction. This study provides suggestions for future researches and management implications for practical business managements.

Family firms play a significant role in the U.S. economy, making up about 35 percent of S&P 500 or Fortune 500 companies and contributing about 65 percent to the U.S. GDP. This research explores differences in strategic behavior and firm performance between family firms and non-family firms, and further explores whether family firms such as Dell Inc. that use their founding family’s name as part of their firm name (termed family-named firms, or FN firms) behave and perform any differently versus family firms such as Gap Inc. whose firm name does not include their family’s name (termed non-family-named firms, or NFN firms). The first study which is based on a multi-industry sample of 130 publicly listed U.S. family firms over a five-year period (2002–2006), reveals that compared to NFN firms, FN firms have significantly higher levels of corporate citizenship and representation of their customers' voice (i.e., presence of a chief marketing officer) in the top management team. FN firms also have a higher strategic emphasis (i.e., a greater emphasis on value appropriation relative to value creation) compared to NFN firms. Furthermore, FN firms perform better (i.e., have a higher ROA) than NFN firms, and their superior performance is partially mediated by their higher corporate citizenship levels and strategic emphasis. In the second study — an event study of 1294 product introduction announcements of 107 publicly listed U.S. family firms from 2005-2007 — I find that relative to NFN firms, FN firms are rewarded more by the stock market for introducing new products. Superior returns to FN firms’ new product introductions are partially mediated by these firms’ history of trustworthy product-related behavior: FN firms, particularly those with corporate branding, and those wherein a founding family member holds the CEO or Chairman position, are more likely to exhibit a history of avoiding such product-related controversies as product safety issues, and deceptive advertising. The third study explores differences in strategic behavior and firm performance between family firms and non-family firms in the context of 7 U.S. economic recessions between the years 1970 and 2008. Findings based on a sample of 428 U.S. publicly listed firms reveal that family firms consistently outperform non-family firms during economic recessions. This superior performance is partially driven by family firms’ unique strategic behavior: during recessions, family firms maintain higher levels of advertising intensity, exhibit lower financial leverage, and get involved in fewer social and employee-related unethical actions than non-family firms. The three studies taken together have important implications for family firm, branding, CSR, firm valuation, and innovation-related theory and practice. I highlight these implications in my dissertation. / text

There have been many documents published that set strategic goals for the future, including transportation-related goals. However, few documents focus heavily on a specific approach to improve transportation safety. Therefore, a supporting policy document focused on transportation safety is required to ensure that the transportation system runs safely and efficiently; a Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) serves as that document. A SHSP is a high-level traffic safety policy that represents a scientific, data-driven, four to five year comprehensive safety document that is designed to identify a jurisdiction’s emphasis areas (i.e., key areas of safety concern) and target safety goals [i.e., collision reduction goal(s)], and may also include network screening (i.e., identification of high collision locations) and safety strategies/programs for each chosen emphasis area. There are, however, limited documents that discuss the procedure for the development of a SHSP specifically for a municipality. Therefore, the goal of this research was to improve traffic safety by reducing the number and severity of collisions in municipalities across Canada. The objective for this research was to develop a data-driven and more scientific municipal-level SHSP development process (i.e., procedure and key components) that may be used to improve traffic safety for municipalities across Canada. Existing procedures, key components and approaches to develop the key components in existing SHSPs published mainly in North America were reviewed. The literature review (FHWA, 2006; CCMTA, 2011b) suggested that the typical procedure for the development of a SHSP is identifying a “champion” (i.e., an individual or unit with high-level leadership), developing a vision, identifying key stakeholders, developing the key components (i.e., selecting the key emphasis areas, establishing target safety goals, selecting the strategies/programs for the chosen key emphasis areas), and updating and evaluating the SHSP. The existing procedures and key components were adjusted to create the modified process. The modified process consisted of two additional steps to the procedure: 1) Incorporating Upper-Level Policies and 2) Conducting Network Screening. The modified process also outlined the most appropriate approaches to use to develop the key components of a municipal-level SHSP. The modified process (i.e., procedure and key components) was applied to develop a municipal-level SHSP for the City of Saskatoon through a case study to compare the results to the existing process. Saskatoon’s SHSP included seven emphasis areas for a definite period of time (i.e., for the next five years). Target safety goals, network screening and strategies/programs were also developed, but only for the selected emphasis areas. Recent ten-year (2001-2010) collision data from the SGI was used to select emphasis areas, develop target safety goals and conduct network screening. Based on the case study results, upper-level policies should be incorporated in the development of the key components of a municipal-level SHSP. This is because a municipal-level SHSP is the lowest-level SHSP and should incorporate the emphasis areas, target safety goals and strategies/programs that are included in upper-level SHSPs (i.e., provincial- and federal-level). In addition, the SHSP can act as an operational-level safety action plan that supports a jurisdiction’s Strategic Plan. The addition of network screening also provides useful locations in a municipal-level SHSP. The case study results showed that the modified process provided detailed information required by a municipality to make informed safety investment decisions compared to the basic information the existing process provided. Therefore, the modified process is a data-driven and more scientific process that can be used to develop SHSPs that will improve traffic safety for municipalities across Canada.

Submitted by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2017-07-27T15:36:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 4988760 bytes, checksum: c8ab688bf673288f9e97e4ca99382aef (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-27T15:36:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 4988760 bytes, checksum: c8ab688bf673288f9e97e4ca99382aef (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This research explores the prosodic emphasis as effect of meaning in instances of discourse reorganization of aphasic subjects. It aims at identifying the prosodic resources used by the aphasic subjects in spontaneous conversations, with special attention given to intonation and focuses on analysing emphasis from the point of view of Conversation Analyhsis (Marcuschi, 1986) and of the Interational Theory of Intonation (Brazil, 1985). Spontaneous conversations of four aphasic subjects (one female and three male) that were participants in the Grupo de Convivência de Afásicos at the Catholic University of Pernambuco were collected and analysed. Data of repetition/ recovery of words were selected as relevant material for acoustic investigation of prosodic emphasis on the software PRAAT. The results point to the conclusion that the aphasics organize their conversation with resources and structure captured by the Analysis of Conversation, such as turn taking, repetition/ recovery, hesitation, as well as prosodic elements such as pause, intonation, vowel lengthening, that convey emphasis. From categories considered by the Interational Theory of Intonation, tone units, pauses, prominence and different tones were observed. The PRAAT spectrographic analysis shows that the contrast between repeated and recovered words were different not only with respect to vowel lengthening and syllable duration, but also with respect to peak of F0 and intensity. Those variations attest to the generation of new meanings to the same repeated word. Therefore, the aphasic subjects, who display a general slow rate of speech and whose language is somehow disorganized, and who have difficulty of lexical access, preserve and maximize the prosodic resources at the level of phrase and discourse that have the function of facilitating the conversational flow. / Esta pesquisa volta-se à investigação da ênfase prosódica como fator de efeito de sentido na reorganização discursiva do sujeito afásico. Com o objetivo de identificar os recursos prosódicos na organização discursiva, com atenção especial dispensada à entonação, em conversações espontâneas dos sujeitos afásicos, o estudo tem como foco analisar a ênfase, sob a ótica da Análise da Conversação de Marcuschi (1986) e da Teoria Interacional da Entoação de Brazil (1985). Para isso, foram colhidas as conversações espontâneas de quatro sujeitos afásicos (três do sexo masculino e um do sexo feminino), participantes do Grupo de Convivência de Afásicos da Universidade Católica de Pernambuco, com seus interlocutores. Os dados de repetição/ retomada de palavras na conversação sinalizaram situações oportunas de investigação acústica da ênfase prosódica no software PRAAT. Os resultados apontaram que os afásicos organizaram suas conversações usando recursos previstos pela Análise da Conversação como tomadas e assaltos de turnos, repetições/retomadas, hesitações, e ainda os elementos prosódicos como pausas, entoação, alongamentos que indicam ênfase. Da Teoria Interacional da Entoação verificam-se unidades tonais, pausas, proeminências e diferentes tons. A análise acústica do espectrograma gerado no software PRAAT revelou que o contraste entre palavras retomadas no discurso sofreu não somente os alongamentos vocálicos, comprovados pelo aumento na duração da sílaba, mas também a variação no pico da F0 e da intensidade serviram para comprovar a geração de novos significados à mesma palavra repetida. Logo, conclui-se que os afásicos, que em geral têm a sua fala lentificada e que pela desorganização da linguagem sentem dificuldades no acesso lexical para a produção das palavras, preservam e maximizam os recursos prosódicos no nível da frase como facilitadores do fluxo conversacional.

New and better adapted varieties of crop plants have resulted from the application of the principles of genetics. Fundamental research in the field of barley genetics has helped the plant breeder in developing better varieties for specific uses and adaptability. Barley is one of the best cultivated crop plants for making genetic studies. It has a wide range of adaptability, exhibits a host of contrasting genetic characters, is a simple diploid with only seven pairs of chromosomes, and all the cultivated species are interfertile.

The health of pollinators, especially bees, is of the utmost importance to success of many agricultural ecosystems. Microorganisms can cause diseases in bees; such microbes are pathogenic. The ability of a pathogen to cause harm to its host (such as a bee) is termed its virulence. Studying the evolution of different levels of virulence can lead researchers to a better understanding of pathogens, and potentially predict how much harm a pathogen can cause in the future. We studied the evolution of virulence levels for a fungal disease of bees. This group of fungi is composed of 28 species, and some cause a disease in bees called chalkbrood while others do not. Using what we know about virulence evolution we wanted to see if the pathogens could infect all bees, if the pathogens varied in virulence when infecting at the same time as another pathogen, and if solitary bees had any behavioral adaptations that might increase or decrease chalkbrood infection. By using DNA sequences, the relationship between the genetic structures of each of the fungal species was studied, and we found that pathogens of solitary bees grouped together while pathogens of social bees (honey bees) were not part of this group. We then found that a solitary bee pathogen did not infect honey bees very well, and vice versa. The nuances of the relationship between two solitary bee pathogens were examined more closely to determine how the two pathogens interact in this bee. In this case, under varying conditions of infection, one pathogen always maintained a similar level of virulence and spore production, while the other pathogen varied in these measures. In addition, when doses of these fungi were fed to bee larvae at different times, more bees survived than when the doses were given at the same time, suggesting that bee immune responses are very important. Finally, we found no evidence of any specific behaviors of solitary bees exposed to infective spores that would suggest these bees have behaviors that are evolved to alter chalkbrood levels in populations.

This was a study of television interests of older citizens using respondents from two geographical areas--Cache County and Salt Lake City-- using random sampling, rest home, and active senior citizens. The purpose of this study was to ass is t in determining program preferences for a series of television shows beamed for the aged. This involved educational television and particularly KUSU Channel 12. The top ten program preferences, in rank order, were: News and Current Events Music Travelogues Nature Study Drama Health and Medical Care Sports and Recreation Nutrition Hobbies and Crafts Security- Financial Management There are very few programs beamed for the specific interests and needs of older persons. There are opportunities for challenging educational television programs to meet the needs of the aging segment of our society.

As part of a U.S. Geological Survey study in Juab Valley in central Utah from 1991 to 1994, the chemistry of ground - and surface -water samples was determined. Total dissolved solids in the ground water of southern Juab Valley have historically been higher , in general, than ground water in other areas of Utah . Total dissolved solids for ground-water samples from this study ranged from 623 to 3,980 milligrams/liter. High-sulfate chemical data of previous studies suggested that the major source of ground-water salinity is the dissolution of gypsum (hydrous calcium sulfate ) from the Arapien Shale. Sulfur-34 to sulfur- 32 isotopic ratio data have confirmed that dissolved Arapien Shale is the major source of salinity in southern Juab Valley water. This thesis study of southern Juab Valley had four main objectives: 1) define the present chemistry of the ground and surface water; 2) qualitatively determine the mineralogy of the Middle Jurassic Arapien Shale; 3) determine the major sources of salinity; and 4) determine the main flow path in the ground-water system. Chemical data show that the water in southern Juab Valley is predominantly of a calcium-magnesium-sulfate-bicarbonate composition. X-ray diffraction determined the mineralogy of the Arapien Shale as primarily calcite and quartz. Mineralogy of the acid-insoluble residue is illite, chlorite, quartz, and a trace of feldspar. Based on chemical, isotopic, and simple salt weight percent data, dissolution of gypsum is the major source of salinity in southern Juab Valley water. Using the chemical and isotopic data as input , a mass balance computer software program (NETPATH) helped to determine that the gypsum is derived from the Arapien Shale . NETPATH and the potentiometric surface map helped to define the main ground-water flow path as southwest across southern Juab Valley, from Chicken Creek in the San Pitch Mountains on the east side of the valley toward Chick Creek Reservoir in the southwest part of the valley.

The purpose of this paper was to determine the immediate impact of reductions in public grazing on livestock production in the United States. This was accomplished by the use of linear programming techniques. Different grazing reduction simulations were utilized to determine the short and long run effects of across-the-board reductions in public grazing. The United States was divided into 13 regions. The 11 western states were considered as individual regions. Special emphasis was placed on the effects of grazing reduction on Utah. The availability and utilization of feed and livestock products during a "normal year", 1978, were considered in this study. Adjustments in the feed and livestock economies were noted through the simulated reduction in available public grazing lands. Recommendations and possible implications of such actions were also included.

Syfte – Huvudsyftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur informationen som medföljer av en revisionsberättelse signalerar investerare och deras reaktion utifrån denna information. Studien har som första delsyfte att undersöka om det är någon skillnad på effekten på aktiekursen om en revisionsberättelse innehåller en Emphasis of matter paragraph (EMP) eller en Other matter paragraph (OMP). Vidare har studien ett andra delsyfte som ämnar att undersöka om vissa former av EMP samt OMP kan visas ha växlande effekt på aktiekursen. Bakgrund – Syftet med revision kan beskrivas med Agentteorin, där revisorn ska minska informationsasymmetrin mellan företagsledningen och investerare. En revisor ska enligt 5 § Revisionslagen (SFS 1999:1079) granska ett företags räkenskaper och företagsledningens förvaltning av bolaget. Vidare enligt 6 § samma lag, ska revisorn efterräkenskapsårets slut lämna en revisionsberättelse till bolaget som inkluderas i årsredovisningen. Upplysningarna som revisorn lämnar i revisionsberättelsen ger en rimlig försäkran hur rättvisande bild företagets räkenskaper speglar verkligheten. Dessa upplysningar kan exempelvis vara av sådan väsentlig betydelse att de är fundamentala för läsarens förståelse av de finansiella rapporterna, en så kallad EMP. Vidare kan även en revisor lämna övriga upplysningar som hjälper läsaren att förstå själva revisionen, vilket benämns som en OMP i revisionsberättelsen. Med hjälp av revisionsberättelsen kan därmed revisorn signalera företagets intressenter om företagets ställning, vilket exempelvis investerare kan ta i beaktande i deras framtida finansiella beslut. Problemformulering – Tidigare forskning gällande sambandet mellan revisionsupplysningar och ett företags aktiekurs visar på ett motstridigt resultat. Vidare finns det inte någon forskning inom en svensk kontext. Därav har vi formulerat följande forskningsfråga: Finns det ett samband mellan erhållandet av en revisionsberättelse som innehåller en EMP eller en OMP och mindre svenska företags aktiekurs, i termer av abnormal avkastning och abnormal volatilitet? Metod – För att svara på studiens problemformulering använde vi oss av en kvantitativ forskningsdesign där vi undersöker företag som erhållit en EMP eller en OMP underräkenskapsåren 2017-2021. Utifrån en händelsestudie, med ett kortsiktigt händelsefönsterrunt publiceringen av årsredovisningen, avser vi att undersöka om det sker en omedelbar reaktion av investerare. Resultat – Med hjälp av t-test kunde vi konstatera att det generellt sett inte finns ett samband mellan abnormal avkastning och erhållandet av en EMP eller en OMP. Det var enbart för vissa dagar det gick att se en signifikant förändring i den abnormala avkastningen för företag som hade erhållit en OMP eller vissa typer av EMP. Gällande den abnormala volatiliteten konstaterade vi att risken i nästan samtliga fall ökade efter erhållandet av en EMP eller en OMP.