This study considers how advising ePortfolios are uniquely situated to address a current challenge in the application of educational technologies: using the right tool for the right job for the right reason at the right time. The particular problem identified for investigation lies at the intersection of two central issues: first, in the age of accountability in higher education, academic advisors lack both a tool and a metric for assessing advising; second, the current ePortfolio field struggles to prove methodological validity with regard to design, development, delivery, and evaluation. These ePortfolios were systematically studied using an approach that provided a workable method for conceptualizing the advising ePortfolio, its design, and its development to improve faculty-student engagement with first-generation students. The sample was composed of 10 first-generation first-year students at the University of Notre Dame. The overall methodology followed design and development research for product/tool use and evaluation. Data were gathered using surveys, interviews, and observations. This study answered the following questions: What procedures were undertaken to facilitate the design and development of a validated advising ePortfolio tool? In what ways is the advising ePortfolio prototype practical in meeting the requirements specified for the target group--first-year first-generation students? To what extent is the advising ePortfolio effective in impacting student engagement, particularly with first-year first-generation students? Key findings indicate that the advising ePortfolio was easy to learn, easy to use, and highly enjoyable. In addition, participants reported that the advising ePortfolio improved the effectiveness of the advising process and, as a result, had a clear impact on increasing student engagement. Beyond the overall positive impact on student engagement, two significant outcomes and contributions emerged: first, the development of the blended advising model, which uses the ePortfolio to deepen the engagement cycle; second, enhanced assessment, learning analytics, and data triangulation models which qualitatively and quantitatively data mines the ePortfolio to create next generation learning analytics that could measure student engagement.

As a starting point, I've created a simple, five step argument for my view on humanity's environmental responsibility. The first four steps are premises upon which I will elaborate to some degree over the course of this paper, and the fifth step is a conclusion that should necessarily follow from the premises if they are true. 1) Humans are currently threatening the earth's viability as a habitat for living thing. 2) Humans have a duty not to threaten the earth's viability as a habitat for living things. 3) Our duty not to threaten the viability of the earth as a habitat for living things is stronger than our duty to obey the law. 4) The exclusive use of traditional, legal attempts to change patterns of human behavior to eliminate their threat to the earth's viability as a habitat for living things is and will always be ineffective. 5) Therefore, when our duty not to threaten the earth's viability as a habitat for living things conflicts with our duty to obey the law, we ought first to satisfy the former.

Racial discrimination has been linked to depressive symptoms (Pascoe & Richman, 2009), but only a few studies have explored this relationship longitudinally. This study examines the possible moderating role of faculty and peer support on the discrimination-depression relationship amongst 180 ethnic minority college freshmen. Results of the hierarchical regression indicate that racial discrimination, β = .13, p < .05, in the first semester of freshman year significantly predicted depressive symptoms in the second semester of freshman year. No interactions were found between discrimination and peer support (β = .06, p > .05), or between discrimination and two forms of faculty support (faculty interactions, β = .05, p > .05, and faculty concern, β = -.10, p > .05). Thus, unlike predicted, peer and faculty support did not serve as protective factors against discrimination-related stress. Future studies should investigate which types of coping most benefit ethnic minority freshmen.

Tidigare antaganden om att flertalet valmöjligheter generellt sätt är överlägset färre är ifrågasatt, och effekter som informations- och valöverflöd är numera välstuderade fenomen. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka effekter som informations- och valöverflöd har på individuella investerare som handlar på de två svenska aktiemarknaderna Nasdaq OMX Stockholm och First North. Överflödet kännetecknas av att individer har begränsade möjligheter att hantera mycket information, vilket gör att beslutsfattningsförmågan försämras. Underprissättning av bolag som börsnoteras föranleder traditionellt sett hög initial avkastning första dagen, då aktiviteten och optimismen från individuella investerare på börsen är stor. När flera företag introduceras under en vecka på OMX Stockholm eller First North undanröjs underprissättningstrender då effekter av överflöd blir påtagliga för individer, som blir passiva. I enlighet med teorierna indikerar resultaten att individer på OMX Stockholm upplever informations- och valöverflöd eftersom antal investerare liksom initial avkastning är betydligt lägre för bolag som noterats under veckor med två eller fler börsnoteringar. Trots att de deskriptiva resultaten för First North tyder på underprissättning, och generellt antyder samma effekter av överflöd som för OMX Stockholm, kunde denna studie inte säkerställa resultatet statistiskt. Resultaten på OMX Stockholm ger bland annat starka indikationer på att den initiala avkastningen kan förväntas vara lägre för bolag som introducerats under samma vecka som andra bolag.

When player skill levels differ widely in a competitive First-Person Shooter (FPS) game, enjoyment suffers: weaker players become frustrated and stronger players become less engaged. Player balancing techniques attempt to assist the weaker player and make games more competitive, but these techniques have limitations for deployment when skill levels vary substantially. In this thesis, we developed new player balancing schemes to deal with a range of FPS skill difference, and tested these techniques in a series of five studies using a commercial-quality FPS game developed with the UDK engine. Our results showed that our balancing techniques (Combo and Delay) are extremely effective at balancing, even for players with large skill differences. These techniques also led to higher enjoyment of the game by players of all skill levels. Our studies are the first to show that player balancing can work well in realistic FPS games, providing developers with a way to increase the audience for this popular genre. In addition, our results demonstrate the idea that successful balancing is as much about the way the technique is applied as it is about the specific manipulation.

The period of the Crusades was one of the most important periods in the history of both Western Europe and the Middle East, for it was during this period that the peoples of Western Europe made their first major incursion on eastern soil. The result of this was that an unprecedented amount of contact was established between East and West, forcing each side to become more closely acquainted with the culture of the other. As far as this cultural exchange is concerned, one of the most significant parts of the crusading period was that encompassing the first two crusades and their aftermath (490/1096-564/1169), as it was during this period that crusaders and easterners first clashed with each other, and were forced to learn much about each other. This sudden clash and forced acquaintance resulted in the development of certain attitudes on each side towards the other. This thesis concerns itself with the development of the attitudes of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities towards the Franks (western crusaders) in the major theatre of conflict of the area, the Levant. In the thesis as many texts as possible from the literature of the period are examined, in order to extract information from them concerning the developments in Levantine knowledge of and attitudes towards the Franks. The texts examined include both contemporary and later historical, geographical and judicial texts from the area, and also local works of literature. In addition to the Muslim, Christian and Jewish texts, and for the sake of comparison and completeness, brief consideration is also given to a number of works of Byzantine and Frankish writers. Naturally, use is also made of secondary works by modern scholars. In this way this thesis provides a detailed examination of cross-cultural inter-faith relations during this formative period.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Obstetrics and Gynaecology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Previous research about the acquisition of the case-marking systems of ergative languages suggests that children acquire ergative and accusative languages equally easily (Van Valin 1992), depending on the degree to which the case morphology is consistently ergative or accusative and the degree to which adults use the morphology (Pye 1990). However, split-ergative languages incorporate both accusative and ergative systems, some in the midst of a shift away from ergativity, thus providing variable and inconsistent input for children. Yet previous research suggests that children can acquire variable linguistic forms at early stages, reflecting frequencies in which the forms occur in caregiver input (Henry 1998, 2002, Miller 2006, 2007, Westergaard 2009). This study examines the acquisition of split-ergativity in Kurmanji Kurdish, where the direct case is used with both present-tense agents and past-tense patients and the oblique case is used with past-tense agents and present-tense patients. However, recent research suggests the weakening of ergativity in Kurmanji (Dorleijn 1996), resulting in variable use of case-marking. This study examines the acquisition of split-ergativity in Kurmanji when considering the split systems and inconsistent adult input. Data from children (n=12) and caretakers (n=24) include spontaneous speech samples and results from a modified Agent-Patient test (Slobin 1985). Four children from three age groups, 1;6, 2;6, and 3;6, were recorded interacting with caretakers every three months for one hour over a 12-month period. Statistical analyses were conducted focusing on adult patterns (input for children) and children’s production at different ages. Results suggest that Kurmanji may be shifting away from a split-ergative system, with the past tense extending to a double oblique pattern and nouns gradually losing oblique case-marking altogether, resulting in variable case-marking. Data show that children first use ergative case as early as 2;0 and show evidence of repeated use of split-ergative case-marking by 2;6. Even at these early ages, children use similar variability and frequency in case-marking as their caretakers, closer to usage of younger adults versus older adults. Thus children seem to use ergative case-marking early, and when faced with inconsistent input, they ultimately conform to the patterns modeled by the adult community. / text

The ignition of the first sources of light marked the end of the cosmic dark ages, an era when the Universe transitioned from the relatively simple conditions following the Big Bang to the complex tapestry of dark matter, baryons, and pervasive cosmic radiation fields we see today. To better understand this uncharted cosmic epoch, we primarily utilize hydrodynamical, N-body simulations to model the assembly of the first galaxies at redshifts greater than ten and the stars that form within them. These simulations begin from cosmological initial conditions, employ a robust, non-equilibrium chemo-thermodynamic model, and take advantage of adaptive-grid-refinement to probe the multi-scale, complex process of star formation from ab initio principles. We explore the consequences that metal enrichment has on the process of star formation, confirming the presence of a critical metallicity for low-mass star formation. To assess the observational prospects of these primeval stellar populations with next-generation telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope, we constrain the star formation efficiency of both metal-enriched and metal-free star formation in a typical first galaxy. We also resolve the formation of individual metal-enriched stars in simulations that ultimately began from cosmological scales, allowing meaningful comparisons between our simulations and the recently discovered ultra-faint dwarf satellite galaxies, the suspected analogs of the first galaxies in the local Universe. / text

This work develops some simple models to study risky corporate debt using first passage-time approach. Analytical valuation expression derived from different models as functions of firm’s values and the short-term interest rate with time-dependent parameters governing the dynamics of the firm values and interest rate. We develop some numerical approximation of the analytical valuation, which is given implicitly through Voltera integral equation related to the density of the first-passage- time that a firm reaches some specified default barrier. For some appropriate default barrier arising from financial considerations we obtain a closed-form solution, which is more flexible for numerical calculation.