Contemporary studies of media Arabic often pass over issues of media form and the broader relevance of language use. The present thesis addresses these issues directly by examining the language used in Jordanian non-government radio programmes. It examines recordings and transcriptions of a range of programme genres - primarily, morning talk shows and 'service programmes' (barāmiž ḳadamātiyya), and Islamic advice programmes, both of which feature significant audience input via call-ins. The data are examined through an interpretive form of discourse analysis, drawing on linguistic anthropological theory that analyses language as a form of performance, through comparison of radio programmes as 'units of interaction'. This is supported by sociolinguistic data obtained from the recordings, including phoneme frequency analysis, in addition to the author's experience of 6 months of fieldwork in Jordan in 2014-15. The analysis focuses on four major themes: (1) the influence of media context, specifically the sonic exclusivity and temporal evanescence of radio, on language use, as well as the impact of digital media; (2) the indexicality of certain locally salient sociolinguistic variables, and the use to which they are put in radio talk; (3) the role of language in constructing the identity, or persona, of broadcasters; and (4) the role of language in constructing and validating authoritative discourse, in particular that of Islamic texts and scripture in religious programming. Through its analysis of these themes, using selected recording excerpts as demonstrative case studies, this thesis shows that specific strategies of Arabic use in the radio setting crucially affect both the publics - the addressed audiences - of radio talk, as well as the frameworks of participation in this talk - how and to what extent broadcasters and members of the public can participate in mediated discourse. The results demonstrate the unique value of an interpretive study of linguistic performance for highlighting broader social issues, including the inclusion and exclusion of particular segments of the society through linguistic strategies - Jordanians versus non-Jordanians, Ammanis versus non-Ammanis, and pious Muslims versus non-believers; and the use of language to reassert, or occasionally challenge, dominant ideologies and discourses, such as those of gender, nationalism, and religion. This study thus contributes an examination of contemporary Jordanian non-government radio language in its social and political context - something which has not been attempted before, and which provides important insights regarding both the nature of contemporary Arabic media language and its broader social and cultural import.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued International Financial Reporting Standard No. 8 (IFRS 8) “Operating Segments” in November 2006 as a part of its convergence programme with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB); the new standard became effective for periods beginning on or after 1/January/2009 (IASB, 2006a). IFRS 8 supersedes the previous international accounting standard (IAS): IAS 14 Revised (IAS 14R) “Segment Reporting” (IASC, 1997). IFRS 8 requires segments to be identified in accordance with the management approach. In particular, operating segments are to be identified on the basis of internal reports that are “regularly reviewed by the Chief Operating Decision Maker (CODM) to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance” (IASB, 2006a, para 5). There are two main objectives to this study: (i) to assess the impact of IFRS 8 on the segmental disclosures of Jordanian listed firms in their annual reports for 2009 when the standard became effective; and (ii) to explore the perceptions of external auditors, preparers and users (investors and analysts) of financial statements about this new segmental reporting standard. A decision usefulness theoretical framework underpins the research; the research was carried out by using a disclosure index analysis and semi-structured interviews. The two objectives of this thesis were investigated by employing these two methods; a disclosure index and semi-structured interviews. The research is located in Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) functionalist paradigm using a decision usefulness theory lens. The findings suggest that IFRS 8 has had a significant and sizeable impact on the segmental disclosure practices of Jordanian companies in 2009 compared to disclosure practices in annual reports for 2008 based on IAS 14R; a sample of reports for 109 first market Jordanian listed companies were investigated. The disclosure index findings indicate that the Jordanian listed companies provided more disaggregated segmental information, published data on additional segmental items and supplied new Entity-Wide Disclosures (EWDs) in accordance with IFRS 8’s management approach. For example, 10% of the sample companies provided segmental information for the first time in 2009. The Jordanian listed companies provided details about more disaggregated business segments (where the mean number of segments rose from 2.4 to 2.7) and geographic segments / EWDs (where xii the mean number of segments increased from 1.5 to 1.8). The average disclosure index score rose from 18.6% in 2008 to 30.6% in 2009. In addition, 27% of the sample companies went beyond the requirements of IFRS 8 by identifying the CODM in their annual reports for 2009. With regards to the semi-structured interviews, 31 participants agreed to provide their views on IFRS 8. The respondents indicated that the quantity and quality of segmental information provided under IFRS 8 in annual reports for 2009 was “better” than that disclosed in 2008; it was more understandable, relevant, reliable and comparable than the segmental information which had previously been reported. Their responses also indicated that the implementation of IFRS 8 did not appear to cause any difficulties for external auditors, preparers and users during 2009; most interviewees reported that IFRS 8 was not a problematic standard. They believed that the disclosure of segmental information increased, published segmental information became more organised and better explained and the segmental information disclosed was more transparent. The current study is the first of its kind in Jordan, and adds to the growing literature on financial disclosure; it therefore fills a gap about segmental disclosure in developing countries. It is also exploratory in nature, since very little is known about segmental reporting practices in Jordan. Thus, this study’s findings represent a significant contribution to knowledge.

This dissertation project examines how value is changed and created through organic certification and the universalizing ideas of capacity building within the olive oil industry in Jordan and how these shifts affect the social and material processes of production. I approach organic olive oil production in Jordan as one method that producers use in accessing markets and capacity building. By shifting from looking strictly at organic certified farms to examining the larger context of capacity building and international standards, I identify how organic is just one strategy in a larger effort to diversify Jordanian agricultural production and to access global markets. However, more work needs to be done to elucidate how development shapes organic and other ‘alternative’ initiatives differently than in European and North American contexts. In order to do this, I incorporate postcolonial critiques of GPN and critical development studies to further our understanding how of these certifications and standards are taken up, challenged, and sometimes abandoned in favor of other production methods in local spaces of the Global South. The local embeddedness of olive oil production and the relative recent history of export provide a unique opportunity for examining how producers, organizations, governments, and universities create new export industries. In order to trace how these capacities are built, this dissertation examines the following questions: how is value redefined as producers try to access distant consumers? What are the material and social strategies? In answering these questions, I examine three types of value: taste/sensory, organic/environmental, and gendered tradition. Through the examination of these values, I found that they were each built through a mechanism: re-asetheticizing local taste, creating a new commodity network, and pushing domestic labor into the public sphere. Each mechanism has intended and unintended consequences for the social relations of production. In summary, this dissertation explores the use (and abandonment) of organic certification within the larger context of development and capacity building in Jordan. In order to explore how value is being created in new ways, the three empirical chapters examine extra virginity, organic certification, and women’s rural organizations. By looking beyond a singular commodity chain, this dissertation examines the processes through which institutional assemblages are formed and destabilized. Therefore, each of the three empirical chapters covers a different aspect of the institutions that are defining value within the larger network of the olive industry. This approach will further our understanding of how quality and conventions function in systems under transition. (Higgins, Dibden, and Cocklin 2008a). Together these findings provide a broad picture of efforts in Jordan to improve and expand the Jordanian olive oil industry. A large aspect of this effort is to produce exportable olive oil. While only a small percentage of producers are exporting, governmental and development networks want to build the capacity of the olive industry so that more farmers are producing to international standards. Through this broad initiative, traditional ideas of quality and the best practices of production are being challenged. These shifts create new networks and products through which rural producers try to capture value. While the overall ramifications of this shift for the average farmer are small now, with further government standardizing, production and its associated social relations could be significantly changed. The traditional farmers who were able to sell within their personal networks may lose their ability to sell flexibly, and simultaneously larger irrigated producers may flourish, having larger environmental impacts.

This dissertation is a comparative study of the law of criminal complicity in Jordan (a civil law jurisdiction), and in New South Wales (NSW) (a common law jurisdiction). It addresses the basis of criminal culpability of individuals, and explores the extent to which the basis of such culpability rests on the autonomy and autonomous actions (or inactions) of individuals. Ideas of such autonomy have been integral to western ethical, political and legal thinking since the seventeenth century. The analysis in this dissertation raises issues where the criminal law does not adequately take into account the limits on individual autonomy in relation to liberty of action, freedom of choice and effective deliberation. These issues highlight that a more serious and deeper understanding of individual autonomy as a ground of culpability must be taken into account by law-makers, to ensure that the grounds of criminal culpability more adequately reflect the limits on people’s individual autonomy in modern society today. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis examines the determinants of corporate performance and likelihood of default of Jordanian publicly listed companies. Despite the large body of work that has investigated the determinants of corporate performance and default, no comprehensive study has emerged in an emerging market. Indeed, most of the empirical research on corporate performance and failure has been conducted in the developed markets such as the USA and the UK. This is the first rigorous and comprehensive study to examine empirically the determinants of corporate performance and failure of the publicly listed companies in an emerging market of Jordan. Also, it is the first study to present evidence on the determinants of corporate performance and failure in the Jordanian market using microeconomic and macroeconomic variables. Another objective of the research is to investigate the effect of the two financial systems on corporate health, since two banking systems operate in Jordan. It is also the objective of this thesis to investigate the effects of external shocks on Jordanian corporate performance and failure, especially those occurring within the Middle East region such as the Gulf Crisis 1990-1991 and the outbreak of the Intifadah in September 2000. Our study uses time-series and cross-sectional data of the publicly traded companies on the Amman Stock Exchange over the period 1989-2003. The study examines the determinants of capital structure and corporate performance using the random effects model and the pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method. The study also examines the determinants of corporate failure (default) using the Logit model. A firm’s tangibility is found to have a positive and significant impact on a firm’s capital structure, while it has a negative impact on the short-term debt to total assets ratio. Firm profitability, liquidity, and stock market activity are found to have a negative and significant impact on a firm’s capital structure. The analyses show that a firm’s capital structure is negatively and significantly related to corporate performance, but positively and significantly related to its failure. The Gulf Crisis 1990-1991 had a positive impact on corporate performance, while the outbreak of Intifadah had a negative effect on corporate performance. The study also highlighted the importance of industrial sectors in determining corporate performance. Ownership concentration measured by the largest five shareholders was found to be positively and significantly related to corporate failure in both the cross-sectional sample and the panel data sample. The analysis also found that there is a non-linear relationship between a firm’s performance value and ownership structure. Another important finding is that Islamic banks' credit has an important and significant impact in increasing a firm’s performance measure return on assets (ROA). Unexpected changes in interest rates are found to be negatively and significantly related to corporate default (failure). This implies that corporate performance and distress, or insolvency, are affected by their capital structure, ownership structure, cash flow, and macroeconomic variables. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The purpose of this analytical study is to determine the degree of application of Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy and practices in the industrial corporations in Jordan. Through detailed examination of primary and secondary empirical data from these corporations, the study examines the link between TQM and labour productivity. The population of the study consists of all Jordanian shareholding corporations listed under the industrial category in Amman Stock Exchange. In late 1998, this consisted of a total of 90 companies. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analysed in investigating the relationship between TQM implementation and labour productivity. Detailed survey responses from 76 participating companies were classified into two groups: high-level TQM implementation and low-level TQM implementation. About 60% of these companies were classified as companies with high-level TQM. Descriptive analysis of the survey responses plus company report data found that mean labour productivity measurements for companies with high-level TQM were significantly higher than for those with low-level TQM over the years (1993-1998). Also mean growth rates of labour productivity measurements for companies with high-level TQM were higher than for those with low-level of TQM during this period. Regression analysis demonstrated a statistically significant positive relationship between TQM and labour productivity. This relationship showed a high positive slope in companies with ISO 9000 certification, and considerably lower (but still positive) slope in companies without ISO 9000 certification. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Dans une première partie, on se donne un groupe réductif connexe complexe G, et on classifie les modules simples dont le cône des vecteurs primitifs admet une déformation G-invariante non triviale. On relie cette classification à celle des algèbres de Jordan simples, et aussi à celle (due à Akhiezer) des variétés projectives lisses dont les orbites sous l'action d'un groupe algébrique affine connexe sont un diviseur et son complémentaire. Notre principal outil est le schéma de Hilbert invariant d'Alexeev et Brion; on en détermine les premiers exemples. On détermine aussi les déformations infinitésimales (non nécessairement G-invariantes) des cônes des vecteurs primitifs; elles sont triviales pour presque tous les modules simples. Dans une seconde partie, on construit le ``schéma Quot invariant'' et on en détermine une classe d'exemples dans le cas où l'espace ambiant est un cône des vecteurs primitifs.

<p>A solid-phase extraction (SPE) method was developed for the determination of organochlorine pesticides, namely aldrin, alpha-BHC, beta-BHC, delta-BHC, dieldrin, endosulfan I, endosulfan II, endosulfan sulfate, endrin, endrin aldehyde, lindane, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, 4,4’-DDD, 4,4’-DDE and 4,4’- DDT in water. The effect of extraction conditions, such as the addition of sodium chloride and methanol to the sample prior to loading was studied. The sample was concentrated by a plain polystyrene-divinylbenzene resin, and the extract was eluted by ethyl acetate. Qualification and quantification of the target pesticides were performedby gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in the full-scan and selected ion-monitoring mode, respectively, and for better detection of pesticides in field samples the mass spectrometer was altered from electron ionization (EI) to chemical ionization mode (CI). The repeatability of the method for MilliQ-water fortified with pesticides at a level of 0.1 to 0.6 µg/l ranged from 8 to 18%, and the obtained recoveries ranged from 67 to 135%. </p><p>The method was evaluated for the determination of organochlorine pesticides in fourteen surface- and groundwater samples taken from locations along King Talal Dam, King Abdullah Canal and Zarqa River in the Jordan Valley. The limit of detection of the pesticides residues in 500-ml field water samples ranged from 0.0009 to 15.7 ng/l. The obtained results confirmed the presence of trace amounts of some organochlorine pesticides in the analyzed samples, i.e. lindane and endosulfan compounds.</p>

Soit $\mathcal D$ un domaine borné symétrique réalisé comme boule unité d'un système triple de Jordan hermitien $E$. On suppose $\mathcal D$ de type tube, simple et de rang $r$. La frontière de Shilov $\Sigma$ de $\mathcal D$ est l'ensemble des tripotents inversibles de $E$. La composante neutre $G$ du groupe des automorphismes de $\mathcal D$ agit (transitivement) sur $\Sigma$, et son action sur $\Sigma\times\Sigma$ se compose de $r$ orbites, dont une seule ouverte, constituée des couples dits transverses. L'indice de transversalité d'un couple de tripotents inversibles mesure son défaut de transversalité et donne une paramétriation de ces orbites (il varie entre $0$, lorsque le couple est transverse, et $r$). Le groupe fondamental de $\Sigma$ est cyclique infini. L'indice de Maslov d'un chemin continu dans $\Sigma$ (relativement à un tripotent inversible $e$) caractérise sa classe d'homotopie à extémités fixées. Il peut se définir comme l'indice d'intersection du chemin avec le cycle de Maslov $\Sigma(e)=\bigsqcup_{k=1\dots r}\Sigma_k(e)$, où $\Sigma_k(e)$ est l'ensemble des tripotents inversibles dont l'indice de tranversalité avec $e$ est $k$. Cet indice généralise l'indice de Malov des chemins dans la Lagrangienne d'espace vectoriel symplectique réel. On considère désormais un domaine borné symétrique d'un espace de Banach réalisé comme boule unité d'un $JB^*$-triple $E$, et supposé de type tube. Nous construisons, dans notre thèse, l'indice de Maslov d'un chemins continu dans $\Sigma$ relativement à un tripotent inversible $e$. Un tel chemin doit vérifier une condition de type Fredholm relativement à $e$. Nous définissons une telle condition puis nous définissons l'indice de transversalité d'une paire de Fredholm. Nous établissons alors un lemme de perturbation pour cet indice qui nous permet de construire l'indice de Maslov, non plus comme un indice d'intersection mais comme un flot specral, et de montrer qu'il est invariant par homotopies à extrémités fixées.

In the discussions about contemporary celebrities, the femme fatale, the bad boy, the child star, and the wannabe have become accepted and even celebrated figures. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, however, actors and actresses who challenged acceptable strategies for celebrity behavior were often punished by exile, debt, disgrace, and humiliation. Some performers even faced a veritable textual and historical oblivion. Illegitimate Celebrity considers the careers of Dorothy Jordan, William Henry West Betty, Edmund Kean, and Margaret Agnes Bunn, and offers a historical genealogy of "illegitimate" performers who dared to break with social convention and struggled to define and redefine themselves according to strict social codes that dictated their behavior both onstage and off. By examining celebrity productions, portraits, caricatures, and performances as elements to producing celebrity, I demonstrate how the audiences used these public figures to create complex narratives regarding class, femininity, masculinity, marriage, nationalism, among others. Ultimately, the study of illegitimate celebrity reveals the role of celebrity in shaping these discursive structures and provides an important history for modern narratives regarding the role of celebrity in society. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / English / PhD; / Dissertation;