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This thesis analyzes the role of the news media in the Referendum for Independence in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia. More specifically, I seek to shed light on if a newspaper's geographical location or political views result in biased media coverage. Based on communications theory, I argue that news coverage can shape the public's political opinion and attitudes. My research analyzed the reporting of two core newspapers by sampling articles from a major newspaper based in Madrid, El País, and a newspaper based in Catalonia, La Vanguardia. My results suggest that the newspaper's location and distribution had a greater impact on coverage compared to its political and ideological leanings.

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Yes / For the first time, a set of Lattice-Boltzmann two-way coupling pointwise Euler-Lagrange models is applied to gas mixing of sludge for anaerobic digestion. The set comprises a local model, a “first-neighbour” (viz., back-coupling occurs to the voxel where a particle sits, plus its first neighbours) and a “smoothing-kernel” (forward- and back-coupling occur through a smoothed-kernel averaging procedure). Laboratory-scale tests display grid-independence problems due to bubble diameter being larger than voxel size, thereby breaking the pointwise Euler-Lagrange assumption of negligible particle size. To tackle this problem and thereby have grid-independent results, a novel data-scaling approach to pointwise Euler-Lagrange grid independence evaluation, based on an application of the Buckingham π theorem, is proposed. Evaluation of laboratory-scale flow patterns and comparison to experimental data show only marginal differences in between the models, and between numerical modelling and experimental data. Pilot-scale simulations show that all the models produce grid-independent, coherent data if the Euler-Lagrange assumption of negligible (or at least, small) particle size is recovered. In both cases, a second-order convergence was achieved. A discussion follows on the opportunity of applying the proposed data-scaling approach rather than the smoothing-kernel model.

No / The present paper uses life course theory to explore the move toward 'independent living' required of young people leaving care in England and Wales. Informal interview contact with 14 young people who had recently left care was maintained over a period of 12-18 months. Biographical stories constructed from field research are used to consider the social and developmental processes of the life course. The contextual analysis formalized within life course theory focused on the social timing and social construction of independence, revealing the way in which important 'invisibilities' may have social and developmental consequences for care leavers.

This dissertation investigates auditor independence by examining the effects of various factors on independence, both in fact and as perceived by several distinct groups. The first study examines the effects of auditing students' cognitive moral development and client risk on students' judgments related to an audit partner's acquiescence to client pressure in an earnings management scenario. The results indicate that students with higher levels of moral reasoning evaluated earnings management as less ethical and were also less likely to accept earnings management by an audit client. The results also indicate that subjects in a high client risk scenario evaluated earnings management as less ethical and were also less likely to accept earnings management by an audit client. Furthermore, this study investigated whether client risk moderates the effect of cognitive moral reasoning on ethical judgments and behavioral intentions. The results do not indicate an interaction. The second and third studies deal with potential consequences associated with the perceived impairment of auditor independence. Specifically, the second study deals with the effects of auditor-provided non-audit services on the client company's bond rating. If financial statement users believe that auditors providing non-audit services impairs the auditor's independence, they are likely to recognize an increase in information risk associated with such impairment (Johnstone et al. 2001). This could occur regardless of the true nature of the auditor's independence and would suggest a negative relationship between the amount of non-audit services purchased from the company's auditor and the company's bond rating. The results of this study support that contention. The third study investigates the effects of client importance and audit firm size on juror evaluations of auditor liability and damage awards. Previous research in accounting shows that client importance can affect sophisticated financial statement users' perceptions of auditor independence. However, no study has investigated perceptions of auditor independence in a litigation context. The results indicate that when an auditor is involved in litigation associated with an audit client that is financially more important to the auditor, jurors' evaluations of negligence are higher and they assess more in punitive damages. No effect of audit firm size on negligence ratings or damage awards is found. / Ph. D.