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The composition of The Wings of the Dove has received adverse criticism virtually since its first publication in 1902. Relying upon James's, and Percy Lubbock's, contention that the· purpose of a novel's form is to treat its subject, this thesis will argue against ~he prevailing critical·views. The discassion will demonstrate that the subject of The Wings of the Dove is located in Milly Theale's moral influence upon Merton Densher and Kate Croy. The composition of the novel adequately develops and augments this subject. Moreover, this thesis will suggest that The Wings of the Dove provides as good an example of the culmination of James's literary accomplishments as any of the other later novels. His special talents are equally apparent in the techniques he employs to create a structural unity in The Wings of the Dove. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The effect on Ni^2+ uptake of human serum albumin (HSA), sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (DOC), D-penicillamine (O-Pen) , ethylenediaminetetra-acetic acid [di sodiurn salt] (EDTA) , L-aspartic acid (L-Asp) , L-Lysine (L-Lys) , and L-histidine (L-His) was examined in three cell lines: (1) human red blood cells (RBCs), (2) cultured human B-lymphoblasts and (3) rabbit alveolar macrophages. It was found that EDTA, L-His, HSA, and O-Pen were good inhibitors of ^63Ni^2+ uptake by cells and each was able to remove ^63Ni^2+ previously associated with the cells. In contrast L-Lys and L-Asp, which do not bind Ni^2+ well, were both poor inhibitors of Ni uptake and poor sequestering agents for cell-associated Ni^2 +. Thus it seems that at physiological concentrations , L-His and HSA play a major role in regulating the association of Ni^2+ with cells. DOC enhanced cellular uptake of ^63Ni^2+, but was not very effective in removing ^63Ni^2+ from cells. An increase in pH enhanced ^63Ni^2+ uptake in the lymphoblasts, macrophages and human peripheral lymphocytes. This dependence was interpreted to indicate the existence of either: (1) an increase in membrane permeability with an increase in pH; (2) the development of a proton gradient across the cell membrane favouring the antiport transport of H^+ and Ni^2+; or (3) Ni^2+;proton competition for cellular binding groups. The cellular uptake of Ni^2+ is interpreted in terms of an "equilbrium" model of metal-ion transport. It is concluded that since HSA and L-His can control cellular uptake and removal of Ni^2+, they may play a role in regulating the cellular toxicity of this ion. It was found that L-His and O-Pen acted similarly such that at various concentrations both inhibited cellular uptake of ^63Ni^2+ but did not change the normal distribution of Ni^2+ within the cell. Conversely, DOC enhanced Ni^2+ uptake by cells while simultaneously shifting the distribution of Ni^2+ from the cell lysate to the cellular membranous pellet. Furthermore, DOC caused Ni^2+ to become more lipophilic as shown by the increase of ^63Ni^2+ in a chloroform extract. DOC also caused a change in Ni^2+ distribution in whole blood by enhancing Ni^2+ association with RBCs and lymphocytes and decreasing serum-associated Ni^2+. The different responses produced by O-Pen, L-His and DOC are ascribed to the hydrophilicity of the [Ni(D-Pen)_2]^2- and Ni(His)_2 complexes and the lipophilicity of the Ni(DDC)_2 complex, and allow a rationalization of the contrasting therapeutic effects of O-Pen and DDC. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

This research examines the effects of consumer motivation during an interpersonal sales encounter. The research proposes that a consumer's motivational mind-set affects the consumer's cognitive appraisal of the salesperson and the consumer's subsequent emotional response. Of primary interest is the interaction between a consumer's motivation and a salesperson's behavior. A main thesis of this research is that a congruency mechanism operates between the consumer and the salesperson during a sales encounter. Depending on the consumer's mind-set and the behavioral orientation of the salesperson either a congruent or an incongruent situation will be perceived by the consumer. Based on the congruency mechanism it is proposed that cognitive appraisals concerning goal facilitation will arise that will subsequently trigger specific emotional responses and behavioral outcomes. / Ph. D.

Each year, companies will spend millions of dollars developing or migrating to new software systems in their business processes. Much of the focus of development and implementation has been based upon customer need (i.e., requirements), and rightly so. Equally important to requirements, however, are the users' perceptions of the software. Does a user actually think a piece of software would help them meet the need identified? Does the user think it would be easy for them to implement this software as a solution? What do the people around the user think and how does that opinion affect theirs? It is important to understand what factors determine whether a potential user will adopt a software application and how much they will use it? A commonly used model for explaining this is the Technology Acceptance Model. Davis (1989) found that subjective belief about a software system is most closely related to the actual intention to use it. Specifically, Davis uses Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use in the Technology Acceptance Model to model intention to use a software system statistically. Neither of these subjective views are formed by a potential user in isolation. The opinions and behavior of others can potentially exert a great deal of influence on an individual's perception of these factors. Davis himself points out the omission of social influence in the original Technology Acceptance Model was due to measurement difficulties rather than to its potential value in the model. Difficulty in measuring social influence is evidenced by the lack of a definitive scale of social influence. By its common use in many studies, Subjective Norm has become the "defacto standard" for measuring social influence but this has not resulted in a consistently significant measure of social influence. The goal of this current study is two-fold. The primary goal is to incorporate a validated scale of social influence into the original Technology Acceptance Model which preserves the model's parsimony while significantly increasing its explained variance. Secondarily, in doing so, a modified scale based upon Subjective Norms will be verified and tested. In response to a recognized shortcoming of Subjective Norm, a cognitive element will be included into the modified scale. In this current study the modification of Subjective Norm was developed based upon existing research on the topic. The Technology Acceptance Model is augmented by the proposed scale and tested over four surveys. Two systems are chosen for study because of the nature of their use; use of one (Filebox) is voluntary, and use of the other (Blackboard) is compulsory. The results of the survey were consistent across all four surveys, with the model predicting over 40% of the variation in behavior every time. Including the modified scale of Subjective Norm significantly increased the explained variance of the model (i.e., R2) in every survey. The results verify the reliability and validity of the modified scale of Subjective Norm. These four studies make a strong case for including this scale of social influence as a regular scale in the Technology Acceptance Model for future research. Future directions for studying the scale and the resulting model are also discussed. The resulting behavioral model is a valuable tool that will give software developers and managers more forethought and insight into the development of and migration to specific software systems. / Ph. D.

The experimental investigation of the application of mechanical interferometry to the construction of influence lines has proven successful. The method is similar in principle to other methods of model analysis. Mechanical interferometry offers the advantages of speed and permanence of record over the other methods in present use. The idea seems to offer commercial possibilities. / Master of Science

The problem of influence maximization has been studied extensively with applications that include viral marketing, recommendations, and feed ranking. The optimization problem, first formulated by Kempe, Kleinberg and Tardos, is known to be NP-hard. Thus, several heuristics have been proposed to solve this problem. This thesis studies the problem of influence maximization under the deterministic linear threshold model and presents a novel heuristic for finding influential nodes in a graph with the goal of maximizing contagion spread that emanates from these influential nodes. Inputs to our algorithm include edge weights and vertex thresholds. The threshold difference greedy algorithm presented in this thesis takes into account both the edge weights as well as vertex thresholds in computing influence of a node. The threshold difference greedy algorithm is evaluated on 14 real-world networks. Results demonstrate that the new algorithm performs consistently better than the seven other heuristics that we evaluated in terms of final spread size. The threshold difference greedy algorithm has tuneable parameters which can make the algorithm run faster. As a part of the approach, the algorithm also computes the infected nodes in the graph. This eliminates the need for running simulations to determine the spread size from the influential nodes. We also study the target set selection problem with our algorithm. In this problem, the final spread size is specified and a seed (or influential) set is computed that will generate the required spread size. / Master of Science

Staff auditors often rely on team members as a source of information to determine the behaviors that are normal and acceptable. This may be one cause of the prevalence of audit quality reducing dysfunctional audit behaviors (DAB) within the profession. Social influence theory, applied in an auditing context, posits that staff auditors are influenced not only by the preferences of their superiors (i.e., compliance pressure) but also by their peers' DAB (i.e., conformity pressure). Given the importance of the work performed by staff auditors, I conduct an experiment to identify the role that a peer team member's behavior and a superior's preference plays in influencing staff auditors' behavior. I predict, and find, that staff auditors with a peer team member who engages in a DAB are more likely to engage in a DAB. I also predict, and find, that staff auditors with a superior who has a preference toward efficiency are more likely to engage in a DAB. Finally, I predict that a superior's preference toward efficiency will amplify the influence of a peer team member's involvement in a DAB. Interestingly, I find that a superior's preference amplifies the effect of a peer team member's behavior when it is toward efficiency only, not effectiveness, for a face-to-face request from the client, but not for an email request. These results suggest that peer behavior influences the effect of a superior's preference of staff auditors in the intimidating situation of having a face-to-face interaction with the client. This could be because of the cognitive dissonance staff auditors experience when their general understanding of the standards does not align with their peer's behavior. The results of this study provide insights into a potential risk introduced to the audit engagement through audit team dynamics. / Doctor of Philosophy / Financial statement audits conducted by public accounting firms are frequently performed in a team setting. Most of the audit team consists of younger, inexperienced staff auditors who perform much of the testwork that informs the final audit opinion. Staff auditors’ lack of knowledge requires them to seek information to complete their testwork, from both their peer team members and their superiors. Peer team members may engage in behaviors that reduce the quality of the audit, which shows staff auditors that these dysfunctional behaviors are acceptable. At the same time, superiors often display a preference toward effectiveness (i.e., improving audit quality) or efficiency (i.e., saving time). I perform an experiment to determine if staff auditors mimic the audit quality reducing behaviors of their peer team members, while also considering the preference of their superior. I find that staff auditors are more likely to engage in audit quality decreasing behaviors when their peer team members have done so previously. I also find that staff auditors are more likely to engage in audit quality decreasing behaviors when their superior has a preference toward efficiency. I find that a superior’s preference toward efficiency, but not effectiveness, amplifies the effect that a peer team member’s behavior has on the likelihood that a staff auditor engages in an audit quality increasing behavior of requesting information from the client in a face-to-face interaction, but not for an email request. These results suggest that peer behavior influences the effect of a superior’s preference of staff auditors in the intimidating situation of having a face-to-face interaction with the client. In general, I find that peer behavior and superior preference influence staff auditors’ chosen behaviors.

Yes / Exposure to political corruption and political uncertainty separately demands opposing risk management responses: to reduce cash to minimize expropriation and to increase cash to hedge policy risk. We study how local political corruption and political uncertainty interact in their impact on corporate cash holdings within the United States. We find robust evidence that firms located in states with higher corruption scores react to increases in local political uncertainty by increasing cash holdings more than those in less corrupt settings. This behavior suggests that firms in more corrupt settings find it expedient to raise cash to facilitate influence of officials in the face of local political risk. We find further support for this conclusion by showing that politically engaged firms respond to our measure of political risk by increasing cash and increasing spending on campaign contributions. Our findings point to a potential channel through which different jurisdictions experience the entrenchment and persistence of corruption.

Yes / Objective: Past research has suggested that social influences on drinking can be manipulated with subsequent reductions in alcohol intake. However, the experimental evidence for this and the best strategies to positively change these social influences have not been meta-analyzed. This research addressed these gaps. Method: Randomized controlled trials testing social influence-based interventions on adults’ drinking were systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed. The behavior change techniques used in each study were coded and the effect sizes showing the impact of each intervention on (a) social influence and (b) alcohol intake were calculated. Meta-regressions identified the association between these effect sizes, as well as the effect of specific behavior change techniques on social influences. Results: Forty-one studies comprising 17445 participants were included. Changes in social influences were significantly associated with changes in alcohol intake. However, even moderate-to-large changes in social influences corresponded with only a small change in drinking behavior and changing social influences did not reduce alcohol-related problems. Providing normative information about others’ behavior and experiences was the most effective technique to change social influences. Conclusions: Social influences and normative beliefs can be changed in drinkers, particularly by providing normative information about how much others’ drink. However, even generating large changes in these constructs are likely to engender only small changes in alcohol intake. / NHS Leeds, UK.