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This study examines small entrepreneurial firms and factors that influence their level of knowledge management and knowledge creation. The dissertation investigates the effect of top management team as a resource in small entrepreneurial firms. Stepping outside of the internal resources of a firm, this paper also delves into the effect of outside sources of capital and knowledge of firm knowledge creation. The paper enriches research on the factors that increase knowledge creation and knowledge management of small entrepreneurial firms. First, in response to evidence that Top Management Team (TMT) characteristics affect performance of high technology firms, this examined TMT average age, education and founder presence effect on the research and development (R&D) intensity, in a cross-sectional sample of software and pharmaceutical firms, with IPOs between the years 2002 and 2004. Average education is positively associated with R&D intensity. The interaction of TMT education and TMT average age negatively affects R&D intensity. TMT education in founders is positively associated with R&D intensity. The first set of results enriches extant research on TMT characteristics’ effect on R&D intensity, which ultimately affects firm performance. Continuing, extant research posits that the research and development (R&D) intensity of firms is highly correlated with knowledge creation as measured by patent citation. This paper argues that there are unexplained variables that moderate the effectiveness of research and development knowledge creation. Using the resource-based view, the top management team (TMT), is examined as an intangible asset. Hypotheses are developed on how high-technology firms’ creation of knowledge, operationalized as their patent citations output, is affected by the TMT characteristics of average age, education level, education background, founder presence, and TMT industry experience. The findings show that TMT education background and TMT industry experience are significant influences on firm patent citation. When controlling for the TMT variables, R&D intensity was not significantly related to patent citation. Finally, research on research and development intensity demonstrates a strong association with patents. At the same time, there is an unexplained gap in the move from research and development to patents in explaining innovation. Prior research assumes that internal resources are preeminent, ignoring the role of external factors. This paper reviews outside resources to assess their effect on patent citation and patent rates. It was found that partnerships with universities and firm geographic location improve innovative activity, whilst grants from the government and partnerships with large firms are not significantly associated with innovative activity. The Board of directors (BOD) has no significant impact on innovative activity. In terms of interaction effect, BOD has a negative interaction effect with geographic clusters. This paper enriches research on the outside resources that increase innovative activity. / Business Administration

This study’s main focus is people’s experience of telepresence (or presence for short) —where the roles of technology are misperceived by media users in various ways, such as the illusion of “being there” in a mediated environment. Although over 2000 articles have examined telepresence and nearly all of research studies about telepresence have been conducted in labs by controlling and measuring the effects of different factors, with few examining it from the perspective of people’s experiences in their daily lives. Following Lombard and Sun’s (2014) (my previous study with Lombard) study of people’s presence experience outside the lab, this study used the combined results of a survey and an interview (n = 36) to explore participants’ lived experiences of presence. Participants offered basic information about them and their experience of presence in the survey; and talked about any experience of presence in their lives and specifically talk more details about their recent experience during the interviews. This study found when, where, with what kind of media, and in what situation people are more likely to have the experience of presence, and explored what elements could contribute to people’s experiences of different types of presence. The results of this study noted aftereffects of presence experiences, which means the effects presence has after people’s mediated experiences are over. These results were new findings to the study of presence outside the labs. Moreover, this study also demonstrated the value of Lombard and Sun’s (2014) survey and found two questions in the survey that could be improved. / Media Studies & Production

Soybean is an important source of protein in animal feed, and growing demand for meat consumption worldwide has led to increased soybean production. Over 120 million metric tons of soybean were harvested in the United States in 2018, approximately one-third of the world production. In the Mid-Atlantic region, soybean is one of the most valuable field crops. Major foliar diseases that reduce soybean yield in the Mid-Atlantic region are frogeye leaf spot (FLS) and Cercospora leaf blight. In addition to crop rotation and host resistance, foliar fungicides, often with quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) active ingredients, are used to manage these soybean foliar diseases. Yield benefits of foliar fungicides have been inconsistent and this may be the result of low disease pressure, unfavorable environmental conditions for disease development, or the presence of fungal pathogen populations that have developed resistance to fungicides. The objectives of this research were 1) to develop a pyrosequencing-based assay to rapidly quantify QoI resistance frequencies in Cercospora sojina, the causal agent of FLS, 2) to examine the effects of fungicide application timings, disease pressure, and environmental factors on soybean yield, and 3) to develop a weather-based soybean foliar fungicide application decision aid for the Mid-Atlantic U.S. using a threshold decision rule. A pyrosequencing assay targeting the G143A mutation was designed, and a Virginia survey of C. sojina populations indicated that the G143A mutation conferring QoI resistance is widespread. In small plot fungicide application timing experiments, five weekly fungicide applications starting at beginning pod (R3) resulted in the greatest yield, but for single fungicide applications, R3 or 1 week after R3 resulted in the greatest yields. There was positive relationship between the cumulative number of disease favorable days (mean daily temperature 20-30°C and ≥ 10 hours of relative humidity >90%) from planting to R3 and disease severity at the full pod stage (r = 0.97, P = <0.01). Higher disease severity was associated with greater yield loss (r2 =0.53, P = 0.10) suggesting foliar fungicide applications are more likely to have yield benefits as the number of disease favorable days prior to R3 increase. A disease favorable-days threshold (FDT) using the environmental parameters indicated above was evaluated in on-farm experiments throughout Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Based on decision rules, FDT = 8 three weeks prior to R3 was the best predictor of a yield benefit with an R3 fungicide application. The decision aid was also able to correctly predict when a fungicide application would not be profitable ≥90% of the time. This weather-based decision aid along with monitoring of fungicide resistance development within the region will provide soybean growers in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. with tools to maximize yields and profitability. / Doctor of Philosophy / Soybean is the third most valuable field crop in the world, ranked only behind rice and wheat in value. Over 98% of the soybean crop is used for animal feed due to its high protein content. The United States is the largest soybean producer in the world, responsible for one-third of global production. Soybean is the top cash crop in the Mid-Atlantic region. Foliar fungal diseases can reduce the soybean yield by causing lesions on the leaves that reduce photosynthesis and cause premature defoliation. Frogeye leaf spot (FLS) caused by Cercospora sojina is a major yield reducing soybean foliar diseases in the Mid-Atlantic region. Foliar fungicides, often with quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) active ingredients, are used to manage the disease. However, fungicide efficacy has been inconsistent. Inconsistencies may be due to low disease pressure, improper application timing, or fungicide resistance. The purpose of this research was to investigate the fungicide efficacy inconsistencies and to develop management tools to improve yield and maximize profitability. Our objectives were to 1) develop a molecular assay to quantify frequencies of the mutation conferring fungicide resistance in Virginia populations of C. sojina, 2) examine the effects of fungicide application timings, disease severity, and weather on soybean yield, and 3) develop a weather-based soybean foliar fungicide application decision aid for the Mid-Atlantic U.S. The C. sojina fungicide resistance mutation was widespread in Virginia, but overall frequencies were relatively low compared to findings from Midwest and Southern states. In fungicide timing experiments, beginning pod (R3) applications resulted in the most consistent yield benefits, and disease severity and yield loss increased as the number of weather-based disease favorable days prior to R3 increased. We used data from on-farm experiments in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware to develop a weather-based disease favorable-days threshold that increased the probability that a fungicide application at R3 would have a yield benefit in soybean. The results of our research have led improved fungal disease management recommendations for soybean in the Mid-Atlantic that will maximize yields and profitability.

The objective of this study was to develop a method by which smallholder forest plantations can be mapped accurately in Andhra Pradesh, India using multitemporal (intra- and inter-annual) visible and near-infrared (VNIR) bands from the Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instruments (MSIs). Dependency on and scarcity of wood products have driven the deforestation and degradation of natural forests in Southeast Asia. At the same time, forest plantations have been established both within and outside of forests, with the latter (as contiguous blocks) being the focus of this study. The ecosystem services provided by natural forests are different from those of plantations. As such, being able to separate natural forests from plantations is important. Unfortunately, there are constraints to accurately mapping planted forests in Andhra Pradesh (and other similar landscapes in South and Southeast Asia) using remotely sensed data due to the plantations' small size (average 2 hectares), short rotation ages (often 4-7 years for timber species), and spectral similarities to croplands and natural forests. The East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh were selected as the area for a case study. Cloud-free Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) S10 data was acquired over six dates, from different seasons, as follows: December 28, 2015; November 22, 2016; November 2, 2017; December 22, 2017; March 1, 2018; and June 15, 2018. Cloud-free satellite data are not available during the monsoon season (July to September) in this coastal region. In situ data on forest plantations, provided by collaborators, was supplemented with additional training data representing other land cover subclasses in the region: agriculture, water, aquaculture, mangrove, palm, forest plantation, ground, natural forest, shrub/scrub, sand, and urban, with a total sample size of 2,230. These high-quality samples were then aggregated into three land use classes: non-forest, natural forest, and forest plantations. Image classification used random forests within the Julia Decision Tree package on a thirty-band stack that was comprised of the VNIR bands and NDVI images for all dates. The median classification accuracy from the 5-fold cross validation was 94.3%. Our results, predicated on high quality training data, demonstrate that (mostly smallholder) forest plantations can be separated from natural forests even using only the Sentinel 2 VNIR bands when multitemporal data (across both years and seasons) are used. / The objective of this study was to develop a method by which smallholder forest plantations can be mapped accurately in Andhra Pradesh, India using multitemporal (intra- and inter-annual) visible (red, green, blue) and near-infrared (VNIR) bands from the European Space Agency satellite Sentinel-2. Dependency on and scarcity of wood products have driven the deforestation and degradation of natural forests in Southeast Asia. At the same time, forest plantations have been established both within and outside of forests, with the latter (as contiguous blocks) being the focus of this study. The ecosystem services provided by natural forests are different from those of plantations. As such, being able to separate natural forests from plantations is important. Unfortunately, there are constraints to accurately mapping planted forests in Andhra Pradesh (and other similar landscapes in South and Southeast Asia) using remotely sensed data due to the plantations' small size (average 2 hectares), short rotation ages (often 4-7 years for timber species), and spectral (reflectance from satellite imagery) similarities to croplands and natural forests. The East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh were selected as the area for a case study. Cloud-free Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) S10 images were acquired over six dates, from different seasons, as follows: December 28, 2015; November 22, 2016; November 2, 2017; December 22, 2017; March 1, 2018; and June 15, 2018. Cloud-free satellite data are not available during the monsoon season (July to September) in this coastal region. In situ data on forest plantations, provided by collaborators, was supplemented with additional training data points (X and Y locations with land cover class) representing other land cover subclasses in the region: agriculture, water, aquaculture, mangrove, palm, forest plantation, ground, natural forest, shrub/scrub, sand, and urban, with a total of 2,230 training points. These high-quality samples were then aggregated into three land use classes: non-forest, natural forest, and forest plantations. Image classification used random forests within the Julia DecisionTree package on a thirty-band stack that was comprised of the VNIR bands and NDVI (calculation related to greenness, i.e. higher value = more vegetation) images for all dates. The median classification accuracy from the 5-fold cross validation was 94.3%. Our results, predicated on high quality training data, demonstrate that (mostly smallholder) forest plantations can be separated from natural forests even using only the Sentinel 2 VNIR bands when multitemporal data (across both years and seasons) are used.

Target spot, caused by Corynespora cassiicola, is a common lower canopy disease of soybean in the southern United States. Given the recent resurgence of target spot and increasing reports of resistance to the quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicide class within C. cassiicola, a survey of C. cassiicola from the Mississippi soybean production system was initiated in 2019 to determine the nature of its resistance mechanisms. A total of 819 monoconidial isolates were collected from 228 geographic field locations in 75 Mississippi counties. The molecular mechanism of resistance was determined using a PCR-RFLP analysis by comparing nucleotide sequences in the cytochrome b gene. The percentage of isolates containing the G143A substitution increased from 71.3% in 2016 to 93.5% in 2021. In all, 85.8% of the C. cassiicola isolates carried the G143A substitution. The EC50 values of QoI-resistant and -sensitive isolates to azoxystrobin varied significantly with QoI-sensitive isolates exhibiting lower EC50 values than QoI-resistant isolates. Moreover, results of fitness evaluations indicated that QoI-resistant isolates are more competitive than QoI-sensitive isolates and there were no fitness costs associated with QoI resistance in C. cassiicola. Additionally, the sensitivity of six C. cassiicola isolates to eight fungicide active ingredients in four fungicide classes were evaluated. Results indicated that three succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors benzovindiflupyr, fluxapyroxad, and pydiflumetofen were the most effective in inhibiting mycelial growth regardless of isolate phenotype followed by the methyl benzimidazole carbamate thiophanate-methyl, two demethylation inhibitors (DMI) difenoconazole and flutriafol, the QoI pyraclostrobin, and the DMI prothioconazole. Furthermore, the efficacy of seven commercial fungicides on target spot was evaluated in the greenhouse and field. Pydiflumetofen + difenoconazole, fluxapyroxad + pyraclostrobin, and thiophanate-methyl delayed disease progress and protected soybean yield, which indicated their effectiveness in managing target spot. Pydiflumetofen + difenoconazole also significantly reduced defoliation. Notably, fungicides applied at R3 were more effective in reducing disease severity and defoliation than additional growth stage timings. The current study revealed a reduction in C. cassiicola sensitivity to QoI fungicides and a shift to QoI-resistant populations exhibiting fitness advantages. Our findings provide pertinent information for growers as to which fungicides should be recommended to manage target spot.

This paper examines peri-urban space existing separate from the urban fabric and often in between urban and rural landscapes. This is a largely neglected area and often considered by each side as belonging to the other. Contemporary studies identify two sides associated with the rural-urban fringe: the expanding built settlements and ebbing countryside, ignoring significance and the circumstance of the spaces. The peri-urban fringe is a planning opportunity, which provides services beyond simple human habitat or wasteland of undesirable function. Through this study I intend to present the peri-urban interface as an intricate element of the urban infrastructure. This paper examines a series of case studies, which display peri-urban land-use planning and design through established areas, boundaries, and buffers spanning North America, Western Europe and Australia. Each area is examined to determine scope, program, and ecological and social impacts. The data informs positive and negative impacts within the peri-urban area. The peri-urban fringe spaces take on many forms and functions. Successful sites enrich the associated urban communities, whereas unsuccessful sites, which often exist in conflict with abutting environments, reduce quality of life and essential ecological processes. The peri-urban interface varies with many scales and circumstances, which affect quality of life for the urban population. Planning in the PUI is essential in promoting healthy populations and ecologies. Scale, program and accessibility determine how effectiveness of a peri-urban interface. Through this study, I want to identify significant value of the peri-urban interface as an opportunity and asset for the urban landscape. / Master of Landscape Architecture

The ubiquity of "things" in Victorian fiction tempts the reader to let them remain hidden in the domestic background, but in overlooking these objects both cultural context and historical meaning are lost. Elaine Freedgood's foundational work, The Ideas in Things, calls for a reading of objects in Victorian novels that follows them beyond the pages of the text; following this, I consider two specific objects of empire—diamonds and tea—in light of Jane Bennett's theory of vibrant matter, which posits that things engage with people in ways that "impede or block the will and designs" of humans and calls for a "cultivated, patient, sensory attentiveness to ... things and their affects" (xiv). Alongside Bennett, I employ Sianne Ngai's notion of ugly feelings to explore the affects that attach to diamonds and tea. Ngai argues that ugly feelings like envy, irritation, and boredom stall rather than instigate action and that their stagnating effects make them "far better suited to interpreting ongoing states of affairs" than bigger, louder affects such as fear and anger (27), allowing "texts to become ‘readable in new ways' and generate fresh examinations of historically tenacious problems" (8). My investigation of Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (1868) and Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford (1853) reads their objects as vibrant matter while attending to minor dysphoric affects running underneath the grander emotions of the narratives. Placing them in conversation with the periodical press and household manuals that sought to justify imperial control, I argue that the ugly feelings in these novels expose a fraying English moral fabric and undermine the framing of empire as a civilizing mission. By tracing currents of irritation and anxiety that circulate around the diamond in The Moonstone and by reading resignation and regret in the dregs of tea in Cranford, I uncover subtle critiques of empire.

L’hémostase primaire est un processus permettant la formation d’un clou plaquettaire qui sera stabilisé par un réseau de fibrine. Ce caillot est également consolidé grâce à des phases tardives de l’hémostase primaire résultant des fonctions plaquettaires ; il s’agit principalement de la rétraction qui diminue la taille du caillot afin de le stabiliser. Cette phase est déclenchée par une signalisation « outside-in », consécutive à l’activation de l’intégrine αIIbβ3 et à l’agrégation plaquettaire, et est dépendante d’une réorganisation du cytosquelette. Le premier objectif de ce travail a été d’étudier la signalisation impliquée dans la rétraction, et en particulier l’implication des protéines ROCK, MLCK, Rac-1 et de l’actine dans l’activité de la chaine légère de la myosine (MLC) . MLC est en effet une protéine clé de la réorganisation du cytosquelette. Nous avons mis en évidence une phosphorylation biphasique de MLC dont le deuxième pic, corrélé à la rétraction, est dépendant de Rac1 et de la polymérisation de l’actine. Cette étude a été appliquée à une pathologie, le syndrome de Lowe. Il s’agit d’une maladie génétique rare, également appelée OCRL (Oculo cérébro rénal de Lowe) en référence aux organes majoritairement touchés. Suite à l’observation d’événements hémorragiques per et postopératoires suggérant une instabilité du caillot et l’observation dans une étude précédente d’un temps d’occlusion allongé au PFA100®, nous avons mis en place une étude sur 15 patients et 15 témoins pour lesquels nous avons étudié les différentes phases de l’hémostase primaire. Outre une anomalie et un retard de maturation des mégacaryocytes, nous avons mis en évidence pour la première fois chez ces patients un défaut de la voie « outside-in » responsable d’une anomalie de l’étalement plaquettaire et de la rétraction du caillot. Ce défaut de rétraction, dû à un défaut d’activation de MLC, pourrait être en partie responsable des événements hémorragiques observés chez ces patients. / Primary hemostasis is a mechanism allowing platelet clot formation that is thereafter stabilized by a fibrin network. Fibrin clot is also consolidated following post occupancy events, mainly clot retraction that decrease clot size and thus strengthen it. This phase is triggered by « outside-in » signaling. It is consecutive to αIIbβ3 integrin activation and platelet aggregation, dependent on cytoskeleton organization. Our first objective was to investigate signaling events underlying retraction, and particularly the involvement of ROCK, MLCK, Rac-1, and actin in MLC (Myosin Light Chain) phosphorylation. Indeed, MLC, involved in cytoskeleton rearrangement, is a key protein of this mechanism. We described a MLC biphasic phosphorylation profile, which second peak was dependent of Rac1 and actin polymerization. In a second part, we studied clot retraction signaling in patients with the Lowe syndrome. It is a rare genetic disease, caused by absence of OCRL (oculo cerebro renal of Lowe) protein in reference to the majority of affected organs. The rationale of this study was a previous observation of hemorrhagic events during and after surgeries, suggesting clot instability. A thrombopathy was suggested by a closure time lengthening in the PFA-100 system. The study enrolled 15 patients and 15 controls. Besides a defect of megakaryocyte maturation, we described a defect of « outside-in » signaling responsible for spreading and clot retraction abnormality. This retraction defect, caused by a MLC activity defect, could be partly responsible for hemorrhagic events reported in these patients.