Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering / Sameer I. Madanshetty / Cavitation is a long studied phenomenon, fascinating and varied. Observed cavitation thresholds vary, typically ranging from the vapor pressure of the liquid to several atmospheres. Recent studies in cavitation involving very clean liquids give rise to thresholds that surpass 100 atmospheres. Calibrating such high intensity, high frequency, focused acoustic fields presents a significant challenge. The present investigation describes how it is possible to exploit the second order acoustic effect of radiation pressure to seek reliable calibration of the high intensity acoustic fields. Experiments describe how to account for the attendant second order effect of acoustic streaming in the evaluation of the radiation force to accomplish meaningful calibration. Beyond the measurement of the second order quantities associated with cavitation, the work also presents a first investigation of a direct estimation of implosion energies of collapsing bubbles near well-characterized surfaces.

Using data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), I examine the impact of birth order on occupational outcomes within the managerial/professional field. I first assess the impact of birth order within the entire managerial/professional field in the United States and then decompose the field into male-dominated, female-dominated, and mixed gender occupations to provide a specific and nuanced analysis of birth order effects within the field. Finally, I also isolate the impact of birth order specifically within the STEM managerial/professional field, given recent and rising interest in STEM occupations. In general, I find limited evidence that birth order has a significant effect across the entire managerial/professional field, male-dominated, female-dominated, and STEM managerial/professional occupations and that first born children are more likely to be in managerial/professional occupations than later born children. However, on average, these effects disappear as additional demographic, education and family characteristic related controls are added.

Neste trabalho são estudados os parâmetros de verificação do estado limite de deformações excessivas (a relação flecha-altura-a/H) e da estabilidade global (o parâmetro &#945 e o coeficiente &#947z) das estruturas de edifícios. Através da utilização de exemplos de estruturas de trinta (30) edifícios usuais de concreto armado, estabelece-se uma relação entre esses parâmetros, objetivando propiciar ao projetista de estruturas condições de avaliar a eficiência e o grau de confiabilidade de cada um deles. São também discutidos e comparados alguns dos procedimentos usuais para realizar uma análise global de segunda ordem das estruturas. Nesta análise deve-se levar em conta tanto a não-linearidade física (NLF) quanto a geométrica (NLG) e, para tanto, são adotados métodos rigorosos e aproximados. Quer-se com isso, principalmente, analisar o processo simplificado como suficiente para se obter os esforços finais de segunda ordem, uma vez que se pretende incluir tal procedimento na norma brasileira NB-1, atualmente em fase de revisão. / In this work, a servicebility pararneter (displacement-height ratio - a/H) is studied, as well as the global stability parameters of building structures (&#945 and &#947z stability coefficients). By analyzing thirty (30) actual reinforced concrete building structures, a relationship among these parameters (&#945, &#947z and a/H) is achieved aiming to demonstrate to the building structure designers their level of efficiency and reliability for practical purposes. Some standard procedures for global second order structure analysis are also discussed with comparison among them. In this analysis, the material and the geometric non-linearities have to be considered and for that one can adopt approximated and accureted methods. Mainly, the interest is to verify the possibility of using the simplified method as a proper tool to compute the final second order efforts of buildings, once this procedure could be included into the Brazilian Code, NB-1, which is being revised.

Neste trabalho são estudados os parâmetros de verificação do estado limite de deformações excessivas (a relação flecha-altura-a/H) e da estabilidade global (o parâmetro &#945 e o coeficiente &#947z) das estruturas de edifícios. Através da utilização de exemplos de estruturas de trinta (30) edifícios usuais de concreto armado, estabelece-se uma relação entre esses parâmetros, objetivando propiciar ao projetista de estruturas condições de avaliar a eficiência e o grau de confiabilidade de cada um deles. São também discutidos e comparados alguns dos procedimentos usuais para realizar uma análise global de segunda ordem das estruturas. Nesta análise deve-se levar em conta tanto a não-linearidade física (NLF) quanto a geométrica (NLG) e, para tanto, são adotados métodos rigorosos e aproximados. Quer-se com isso, principalmente, analisar o processo simplificado como suficiente para se obter os esforços finais de segunda ordem, uma vez que se pretende incluir tal procedimento na norma brasileira NB-1, atualmente em fase de revisão. / In this work, a servicebility pararneter (displacement-height ratio - a/H) is studied, as well as the global stability parameters of building structures (&#945 and &#947z stability coefficients). By analyzing thirty (30) actual reinforced concrete building structures, a relationship among these parameters (&#945, &#947z and a/H) is achieved aiming to demonstrate to the building structure designers their level of efficiency and reliability for practical purposes. Some standard procedures for global second order structure analysis are also discussed with comparison among them. In this analysis, the material and the geometric non-linearities have to be considered and for that one can adopt approximated and accureted methods. Mainly, the interest is to verify the possibility of using the simplified method as a proper tool to compute the final second order efforts of buildings, once this procedure could be included into the Brazilian Code, NB-1, which is being revised.

Measuring public opinion on abortion is an ongoing concern for political scientists, mainly because the public does not always exhibit fixed attitudes on such topics. Most citizens express a centrist viewpoint between the pro choice and pro life extremes. These include a small group whose answers to abortion questions are so inconsistent that they give public officials an inaccurate measure of public opinion on this important issue. Inconsistent responses may result from context effects, such as the order in which the questions are asked or the way they are asked. Usually, researchers ask a battery of questions in which respondents say whether they approve of abortion generally and under a variety of circumstances, citing the reasons for which a woman might seek an abortion. This project includes an independent national survey using questions adopted from the General Social Survey. The sample is divided into four experimental groups with different question orders. Based on these findings, the recommended question order would be the one with the general question last and the remaining specific questions in a somewhat random pattern alternating between the so-called “hard” and “easy” individual abortion situations. One of the more surprising findings is that people didn’t recognize themselves as subtracting the specific situations from the general question when it was asked first; hardly any said that was what they were doing when they gave inconsistent answers. Otherwise, about an equal number of respondents admitted answering the questions off the top of their heads as those who showed ambivalence by claiming they were deeply committed to their inconsistent responses. The study found most people who inconsistent on abortion are moderates leaning towards pro choice. Also, politically conservative regular church-goers can be just as inconsistent on abortion as the non-religious, non-political, low-educated non-church goers, especially if they are basically pro choice. Without a full understanding of who is generating inconsistent answers on abortion, some researchers may be tempted to eliminate these respondents from their sample. This research should allow them to understand these respondents better and develop better question wording and question orders to reduce their numbers.

Previous research has documented the prevalent effects of message order on message persuasiveness. Based on the Belief Updating Model (Hogarth and Einhorn, 1992), response mode has been found as one moderator of primacy versus recency effects. The present study considers additionally the role of culture as a moderator. Because internalized cultural values and norms affect how messages are processed and interpreted, we propose that cultural differences in cognitive processing styles will impact whether primacy or recency effects are stronger under different message order conditions in for Easterners and Westerners. Results from the current work offer evidence that both culture and cognitive style (holistic versus analytical thinking) serve as moderators to explain message order effects. Results replicate prior studies showing a primacy effect with End of Sequence response mode and a recency effect with Step-by-Step response mode. Further, we found that Easterners were more influenced by the primacy effect when compared to Westerners. However, the effect of primacy was attenuated by response mode. Westerners were equally influenced by both primacy and recency effects.

Previous research has documented the prevalent effects of message order on message persuasiveness. Based on the Belief Updating Model (Hogarth and Einhorn, 1992), response mode has been found as one moderator of primacy versus recency effects. The present study considers additionally the role of culture as a moderator. Because internalized cultural values and norms affect how messages are processed and interpreted, we propose that cultural differences in cognitive processing styles will impact whether primacy or recency effects are stronger under different message order conditions in for Easterners and Westerners. Results from the current work offer evidence that both culture and cognitive style (holistic versus analytical thinking) serve as moderators to explain message order effects. Results replicate prior studies showing a primacy effect with End of Sequence response mode and a recency effect with Step-by-Step response mode. Further, we found that Easterners were more influenced by the primacy effect when compared to Westerners. However, the effect of primacy was attenuated by response mode. Westerners were equally influenced by both primacy and recency effects.

Evidence from research in psychology and auditor judgment has shown that perceptions that form early in a sequential judgment process can influence subsequent judgments. Auditing Standard 12 requires auditors to identify fraud risk factors and assess the risk of fraud as part of the process of assessing overall misstatement risk. While it is expected that fraud risk assessments should have a bearing on overall risk assessments, it is possible that perceptions formed from assessments of fraud risk can negatively affect the evaluation of any evidence reviewed thereafter. Because different classes of transactions may be affected by fraud risk factors in different ways, fraud risk assessments may differ across classes of transactions. These differences may make subsequent auditor judgments susceptible to the contrast effects bias, where subjects overreact to the differences such that the fraud risk assessments influence auditor judgment more than they should. This study examines whether auditors who learn that fraud risk is low for one class of transactions immediately after examining a class of transactions that has high fraud risk, can overreact to the contrast such that they reduce their sensitivity to evidence that suggests increased misstatement risk. The study also examines whether these contrast effects can be mitigated by acquiring information about fraud risk assessments later in the sequence of evidence, after auditors have reviewed and assimilated evidence related to other risks. The study finds that, as predicted, auditor judgments are influenced by contrast effects. Auditors who examined classes of accounts for which fraud risk assessments were different were less sensitive to evidence suggesting increased risk in accounts that had been identified as having low fraud risk. However, contrary to predictions, these contrast effects were not mitigated by evidence order.

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