This thesis consists of three independent essays which contribute to the literatures on organizational and regulatory economics.In the first part of the dissertation, I address questions related to the optimal incentive provision in hierarchies. In particular, I investigate how the choice of the optimal compensation policy of an organization is affected by the workers' psychological preferences for reciprocity. This essay relates to a recent strand of theoretical and empirical research that studies how the presence of reciprocity concerns impacts on the optimal organizational design (See e.g. Dohmen et al. 2009, Englmaier and Leider, 2012, Englmaier et al. 2015).The second part of the dissertation concerns the optimal design and regulation of a hierarchical organization in the presence of capture concerns. In many organizations the task of evaluating an agent's performance is delegated to a third party, a supervisor, who can opportunistically misreport information. The question of how the provision of incentives in hierarchies is affected by the supervisor's opportunism has long been studied in economics. Addressing this research question is of great importance since it can improve our understanding of the internal organization of firms and can have broad applications to regulatory design. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Making and being ‘made’ is a paradigm of lived experience applicable to all human beings who have intentions of being made but must also be prepared to execute those intentions. This is a subjective statement and its validation could only be induced from observation of BaSotho females making their unique buildings-as-artefacts, if these women were being ‘made’ through their actions of making then it must also apply to other makers. Prerequisites of this paradigm are that the maker is a free agent who is allowed to have intentions but who is also willing to execute these aims. Effective actions imply that the maker has been prepared mentally and physically, during a constant evolutionary growth of the mind and the body, starting from the stage of being a foetus. Lived experience is phenomenology, a lived gathering of experiences, perceived by all of the senses and integrated by the mind into an accumulated body of knowledge. As the chapters in this thesis illustrate, being ‘made’ was at the future maker’s threshold of consciousness, her primary concern is in making space for affiliation, place for private intimacy, often alone but also at other times with others, place-capacity too, for the spontaneity of appropriation of place and its imponderable use which generate new intentions. All makers of space need to get prepared for their future roles, these roles require a life long interaction with learning. The extent of knowledge affects the depth of intentions as well as its execution. Self confidence is caused by learning and personal experiences, the intensity of lived experiences evolve into a willingness to participate. The making women evolved along a timeline to become the makers of space, but it is not only in the physical requirements of space making that she has to live the experiences, she also has to learn how her interactions within her community affect her future role as maker. Her experience of interpersonal relationships, her Botho moral obligations and societal demands will make her realize the gravity of her responsibilities. Making and being ‘made’; she exists in the present and has a future of lived experiences, when and how reciprocity was accumulated during her life is identified by her existential phenomenology. The creative mind is ‘made’ through action but no sources in literature reviewed mentions that the makers of artefacts made their identity or that reciprocity was sought in the process of making. Execution implies that action has a reciprocal intent, not only to shelter and change the patterns of lived experience, but also to gain rewards for the effort. Approval and praise are such rewards; a sequel for executed intentions, this reward is cognitive and physical. Cognitive because along a time line of lived experience an in depth evolution took place of; self esteem, self confidence, knowledge, insight, increase the depth of intentions, willingness to enact. Physical because along this concurrent time line, only in the execution of intentions does dexterity, agility, ability, control of procedures, manipulation of the dictates of the material – earth. Resulting from a continuous cause to share in a process of effects there evolves an inward psychic and outward agility in the body of the individual; from the yet-to-be-born, to the baby, to the mature woman, ending with the living-dead, Badimo. Reciprocity, an extra sensory perception, affected their identity, self-esteem and knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of their bodies. Reciprocity is a lived experience, phenomenology, that takes place throughout the lifecycle of the makers and especially as makers fulfills their roles within their social and cultural value system. To achieve reciprocity, sometimes unknowingly, the building-asartefact is used as mechanism to substantiate reciprocity between an inward, by the evolution of self, and outward as the evolution of makers. The shaping of identity and sense of self of the maker, through the acts and procedures of making is realized through a reciprocal evolution between self and artefact; self included intuition, talent, and experience of accumulated knowledge, artefact either being executed or existed and is texts of qualities of use. Effective iinteraction with life affecting forces during the required execution of intentions gathered the emotional awareness of reciprocal purpose and meaning in life, self esteem and self confidence cultivated their own personalities. These makers were rewarded within their societal construct; Botho as the African phenomenology of expectations, if their end products resulted in successful physical manifestations of the depth of creativity in mental or psychic preparation. Reciprocity was substantiated within the guidelines of existential phenomenology. During living their experiences humans create them selves by creating and they create because they create them self. Success engenders reciprocity but it can also be lost through personal crises. Reciprocity was the result of most making experiences when: I can do it better, became a continuous quest and personal challenge to innovation within thoughtful lived experience. They achieved the deeper meanings of dwelling, its ‘wetness’ of water. It is inevitably a circular process: in hermeneutic phenomenology there is no possibility of escaping the need to have already understood an artefact-as-home before attempting to explain the process of understanding that product and evaluating its deeper meaning. BaSotho vernacular architecture within the guidelines of hermeneutic phenomenology recorded a cultural continuum as mental and physical reciprocity coupled the vernacular as historical interactive knowledge, to the woman’s timeline as an evolution of interaction, and with the woman achieving reciprocity. This understanding becomes essential while examining how archaeological and actual existing vernacular artefacts formed a reference base that affected and influenced her future intentions for making. Time in a re-iterative progressive process caused the physical manifestation to be evaluated and it then reframed the cognitive insight. The lessons learnt from the BaSotho past are that design has symbolic as well as utilitarian meanings. Evident in the vernacular is the ecological sensitivity of the BaSotho makers with their skill at clustering human habitations in networks of open space becomes vital for the creation of a sustainable future. A life long interaction between the cognitive and physical realms existed. During the evolution of solutions the BaSotho makers adapted form and materials to the conditions of nature; working with natural forms and climatic cycles rather than considering forces as obstacles to overcome has hermeneutic and practical values; used by intentional makers. The cultural identity in the woman made the home, and then the process of home-making ‘made’ the woman; a reciprocal reward. A culture of action: Intentions of bringing manifestations of space into existence create reactions from all the senses. This is true not only of the end product but also during the process of execution. Reciprocity from ontological phenomenology results from her staying in mental and physical control of the process of making with every decision considered, accepted or rejected and her proof of the correct decision evident in the final product and its language spoken to the members of her social construct. The observation of sensorial reciprocity as it presented itself in haptic phenomenology can be induced from the responses she received from users of her buildings-as-artefacts; her manual effort in executing components of her buildings reflected her concerns with the response to all the senses of enjoyment. The hand shapes form and the body delineates space to satisfy a basic need for a place to sleep. Primary data consisted of action photos, each was separated into its phenomenological elements to rediscover true-deeper meanings, and drawings with text recorded these elements. Secondary references in literature were used to validate aspects of the hypothesis, these explained deeper meanings and insights. Action as text: At a threshold of interaction during the process of execution reciprocity is a focused involvement of the whole body, all the senses and mind continuously inform the hand and during its process of execution evaluates and restructures intentions which then appropriately instructs the hand. This haptic phenomenological procedure is inherent to all processes of execution, not only in making space but also in such as making decisions at a board room table. It starts when the maker was a baby, tactile senses are enhanced by skin-to-skin contact, not only of the hand but the whole body becomes an internal and external organ in the perception of positive or negative influences. During the making of space materials continuously dictates and controls the grammar when ice becomes solid water, this metaphor of prescribed procedures of growth is equally appropriate to the processes of achieving spatial accrual. The nature of earth is such a dictate. The quality of a threshold of interaction implies that the depth of reciprocity is dependant on the degree of participation of the makers. Aesthetic phenomenology used a thesaurus of space, place and its formal built synonyms to interpret this unique BaSotho built language symbolically wrapped with its litema. Humans use many practices of language, from verbal to signs. This is relevant to each person who needs to be able to enter into forms of interpersonal discourse at a micro level. Verbal communicative acts are as indicative of intentions as are symbols used at a macro level, this is similarly applicable to the very act of executing communicative intentions. Litema as an art of the earth resulted from an interaction between ontological, haptic and aesthetic phenomena. Interpersonal discourse evolved into a BaSotho culture of community discourse, this evolution caused reciprocity to take place throughout the life cycle of lived experience, from birth till death of the maker, heightened especially when the maker fulfils her roles within her social and cultural constructs. Finally, because the maker of litema is a master of her art, others, say trained architects who make buildings may learn, by carefully studying these buildings-as-artefacts with their symbolic form of language with their essential insights into the process and technique of appropriate response to forces affecting mindsets. It is also usual for the interest in the maker to remain only incidental, observers are often not at all interested in the proof that any particular correspondence exists between the reputable intentions of makers with their acts or that there is a reward in innovation within discovered limitations and the work as it exists. This reward recognize the value of making and being ‘made’ solidified as a multifaceted paradigm of life, living and making. The hypothesis is substantiated. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

Environmental education in the U.S. has been slow to incorporate Indigenous knowledges, with most pre-university curriculum centering around Western science. I believe incorporating Indigenous knowledges into environmental education can promote reciprocal, critical, and active human-nature relationships. While Indigenous knowledges should infiltrate all levels of environmental education, I argue that alternative forms of education which operate outside the formal school system might present the fewest immediate obstacles.

Underwater communication systems are in high demanded for subaquatic environment activities as the sea is an enormous and mostly unexplored place. The ten-meter long and few giga-bit per second range optical communication technique is feasible and has bright future compared to the mature but low data rate (few kilobits per second) acoustic technology and short distance (several meters) radio-frequency signaling schemes. The underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) technique takes advantage of wide bandwidth, low attenuation effect in the visible range for multiple applications such as seafloor and offshore exploration, oil pipe control and maintenance, and pipeline leak detection. Nowadays, visible light-emitting diode (LED)-based and laser diode (LD)-based UWOC system are attractive and much related research is being conducted in the field. However, the major challenges of developing UWOC systems are the attenuation, scattering and turbulence effects of the underwater environment. The temperature gradient, salinity gradient, and bubbles make underwater optical channel predictable challenging and degrade the optical beam propagating distance and quality. Most studies focus on the statistical distribution of intensity fluctuations in underwater wireless optical channels with random temperature and salinity variations as well as the presence of air bubbles. In this thesis, we experimentally investigate the reciprocity nature of underwater turbulence caused by the turbidity, air bubbles, temperature variations, and salinity. Bit error rate measurement and statistical data analysis reveal the high reciprocal nature of turbulence that can be induced by the presence of bubbles, temperature, and salinity. The mitigation strategies for the different turbulence scenarios are discussed.

Reciprocity is a fundamental physical precept that governs wave propagation in a wide variety of physical domains. The various reciprocity theorems state that the response of a system remains unchanged if the excitation source and the measuring point are interchanged within a medium, and are closely related to the concept of time reversal symmetry in physics. Lorentz reciprocity is a fundamental characteristic of linear, time-invariant electronic and photonic structures with symmetric permittivity and permeability tensors. However, breaking reciprocity enables the realization of nonreciprocal components, such as isolators and circulators, which are critical to electronic, optical and acoustic systems, as well as new functionalities and devices based on novel wave propagation modes. Nonreciprocal components have traditionally relied on magnetic materials such as ferrites that lose reciprocity under the application of an external magnetic field through the Faraday Effect. The need for a magnetic bias limits the applicability of such approaches in small-form-factor Complementary Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible integrated devices. One of the main features of CMOS technology is the availability of high-speed transistor switches which can be turned ON and OFF, modulating the conductance of the medium. In this dissertation, a novel approach to break Lorentz reciprocity is presented based on staggered commutation in Linear Periodically-Time-Varying (LPTV) circuits. We have demonstrated the world’s first CMOS passive magnetic-free nonreciprocal circulator through spatio-temporal conductivity modulation. Since conductivity in semiconductors can be modulated over a wide range (CMOS transistor ON/OFF conductance ratio at Radio Frequency (RF)/millimeter-wave frequencies is as high as 103-105), commutated LPTV networks break reciprocity within a deeply sub-wavelength form-factor with low loss and high linearity. The resulting nonreciprocal components find application in antenna interfaces of wireless communication systems, connecting the Transmitter (TX) and the Receiver (RX) to a shared antenna. This is particularly important for full-duplex wireless, where the TX and the RX operate simultaneously at the same frequency band and need to be highly isolated in order to maintain receiver sensitivity. Multiple fully-integrated full-duplex receivers are demonstrated in this dissertation that best show the synergy between the physical concept and application-based implementations by using circuit techniques to benefit the system-level performance, such as TX-side linearity enhancement and co-design and co-optimization of the antenna interface and the RX and utilization of the multi-phase structure of our antenna interfaces for analog beamforming in multi-antenna systems. Finally, this dissertation discusses some of the fundamental limits of space-time modulated nonreciprocal structures, as well as new directions to build nonreciprocal components which can ideally be infinitesimal in size. A novel family of inductor-less nonreciprocal components including circulators and isolators have been demonstrated that achieve a wide tuning range in an infinitesimal form-factor. This family of devices combine reciprocal and nonreciprocal modes of operation, through the transfer properties of fundamental and harmonics of the system and enable a wide variety of functionalities.

This dissertation is concerned with the documentation and analysis of contemporary responses of a particular segment of Greek society to the economic crisis that has impacted on Greece, Europe and the wider capitalist world. Based on ethnographic research conducted in multiple sites, including the city of Athens and the village of Kandyla, I argue that dynamic contemporary connections exist between rural and urban Greece in relation to these responses. I also argue that contemporary responses to the crisis among this segment of society, notably small-business people, are constructed through and built upon strategies that have long histories in Greek village life and that are informed by responses to earlier crises, the memories of which are kept alive both materially and discursively. These responses are rooted in and performed in what Herzfeld has called “collective identification” evident in a set of shared sentiments among research participants regarding the valorisation of hard work and the principle of self-sufficiency, the parasitic nature of the Greek state, the constant production of insiders and outsiders in relation to the state, the use of reciprocity in business contexts, and the deployment of stereotypes regarding youths and politicians. / Dissertation (MSocSci) University of Pretoria, 2017. / Anthropology and Archaeology / MSocSci / Unrestricted

Uppskattning är känslan av att sätta värde på någon eller något. Känslan ger en positiv effekt på individens välbefinnande. Studien inleddes med kunskapssamling av uppskattning i relation till flera forskningsområden inom psykologi, exempelvis uppskattning och personlighetsegenskaper. Studiens syfte var att förstå upplevelsen av uppskattning ur en situation där individer känt sig uppskattade samt uppskattat någon annan. Studien grundades i fenomenologisk utgångspunkt, där deltagarna besvarade en onlineenkät med två öppna frågor utifrån det formulerade syftet, samt fem bakgrundsfrågor. Bland 88 deltagare var 60 kvinnor och genomsnittsåldern var 29.2 år. Med tillämpning av Empirical Phenomenological Psychological Method (Karlsson, 1993) framkom gemensamma mönster i känslan uppskattning – lycka, värme, tacksamhet och reciprocitet. Skälen till känslan av uppskattning var varierande mellan deltagarna. Deltagarna kände sig uppskattade när någon annan bekräftat att de uppskattar dem, men uppskattade någon annan för lättsamma handlingar som de mottagit. Skälen bidrog till positiva känslor vid interaktion och reciprocitet med andra.

The current study examines the roles of expectancy disconfirmation and pseudo-altruistic behaviors as communication strategies to increase receiver compliance, and their effects on perceptions of the source, including credibility and likeability ratings. While adding to the previous research, this investigation examines the effects on compliance when pseudo-altruistic practices are employed in a sales situation. Additionally, subjects’ compliance responses in the treatment groups are analyzed for relationships between compliance and several possible mediators, including participant’s evaluations of the source, and feelings of obligation and guilt. A focus group was held to discuss the face validity of the scenarios. Additionally, a pilot study was conducted to verify the operationalization of the independent variable, and to reveal any items that needed to be modified before the actual study was conducted. 141 undergraduate students were assigned to one of six treatment groups, and responded to the scenario and questionnaire. Five-point Likert type scales were used for the source factor and compliance items, and seven-point semantic differential scales were used for the items which measured source perceptions. Additionally, an optional open-ended item was employed for subjects to explain the motives behind their decisions. Analysis of the data showed that participants in the pseudo-altruistic treatment conditions were more likely to return to Store or Dealership A, or tipped the server more than usual. They also rated the source as more expert and of higher character in the treatment groups that the neutral, control groups. This increase in compliance was consistent across all three scenarios. Regression analyses also revealed that source factors including concern, helpfulness, unexpected behavior, expertise, character, honesty, and likeability predicted 26% of the compliance variance. In conclusion, subjects were more likely to comply in the pseudo-altruistic treatment condition, regardless of the scenario. Their compliance is attributed to feelings of liking and higher ratings of the source, which facilitated reciprocal altruism and benefited the salesperson or server for their selfless behavior.

The utility of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for solving problems of engineering interest has experienced rapid growth due to the improvements in both memory capacity and processing speed of computers. While the capability now exists for the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations about complex and complete aircraft configurations, the bottleneck within the process is the time consuming task of properly generating a mesh that can accurately solve the governing partial differential equations (PDEs). This thesis explored two numerical techniques that attempt to circumvent the difficulty associated with the meshing process by solving a simplified form of the continuity equation within a meshless framework. The continuity equation reduces to the full potential equation by assuming irrotational flow. It is a nonlinear PDE that can describe flows for a wide spectrum of Mach numbers that do not exhibit discontinuities. It may not be an adequate model for the detailed analysis of a complex flowfield since viscous effects are not captured by this equation, but it is an appealing alternative for the aircraft designer because it can provide a quick and simple to implement estimate of the aerodynamic characteristics during the conceptual design phase. The two meshless methods explored in this thesis are the Dual Reciprocity Method (DRM) and the Generalized Finite Difference Method (GFD). The Dual Reciprocity Method was shown to have the capability to solve for the two-dimensional subcritical compressible flow over a Circular Cylinder and the non-lifting flow for a NACA 0012 airfoil. Unfortunately these solutions were obtained with the requirement of a priori knowledge of the solution to tune a parameter necessary for proper convergence of the algorithm. Due to the shortcomings of applying the Dual Reciprocity Method, the Generalized Finite Difference Method was also investigated. The GFD method solves a PDE in differential form and can be thought of as a meshless form of a standard finite difference scheme. This method proved to be an accurate and general technique for solving the previously mentioned cases along with the lifting flow about a NACA 0012 airfoil. It was also demonstrated that the GFD method could be formulated to discretize the full potential equation with second order accuracy. Both solution methods offer their own set of unique advantages and challenges, but it was determined that the GFD Method possessed the flexibility necessary for a meshless technique to become a viable aerodynamic design tool.

Much contemporary political discourse in the US and industrialized west is defective. According to a number of scholars, such as Scott Aikin and Robert Talisse, this defectiveness can plausibly be explicated in terms of a breakdown in political civility. In this thesis, I scrutinize possible explanations for why incivilities are widespread in political discourse. My goal is to defend an explanation according to which citizen incivility in political discourse is blameless. To do this, I appeal to a principle of reciprocity. According to the principle of reciprocity, citizens are not required to maintain civility in political discourse if they have reason to believe that their interlocutors will not reciprocate civility. When applied to contemporary politics, this principle implies that ordinary citizens in democratic societies across the US and industrialised west are often justified in being uncivil in political debate. For these citizens often have no reason to believe that their interlocutors will be civil. If the reciprocity principle is right, then policies aimed at restoring civility in political discourse must be concerned to build citizen trust that others will reciprocate civility. Without this trust, citizens may not see themselves as having reason to be civil. The thesis is divided into two chapters. In chapter 1, I defend the justificatory account of incivility against two competing accounts of political incivility—identity and group theories. These accounts pathologize political incivility as a kind of irrationality, but based on the argument from reciprocity, I argue that political incivilities are often rational and so justified. In chapter 2, I analyse the kind of trust that is necessary to build more civility in political discourse. In particular, I develop and defend a conception of deliberative trust, which is defined as the belief that one’s interlocutor will reciprocally adhere to the norms of civility. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / In this thesis, I scrutinize possible explanations for why incivilities are widespread in contemporary political discourse. By appeal to a principle of reciprocity, my ultimate goal is to defend an explanation according to which citizen incivility in political discourse is blameless. According to the principle of reciprocity, citizens are not required to maintain civility if they have reason to believe that their interlocutors will not reciprocate civility in political discussion. Based on this principle, I argue that ordinary citizens in democratic societies across the US and industrialised west are often justified in being uncivil in political debate. For these citizens often have no reason to believe that their interlocutors will be civil. If the justificatory account of incivility is on the right track, then policies aimed at restoring civility in political discourse must be concerned to build citizen trust that others will reciprocate civility. Without this trust, citizens may not see themselves as having reason to be civil in political debate.