Parental psychological control has been linked to numerous negative outcomes among emerging-adult children. Given that emerging adulthood is a time for young people to become autonomous, explore their identities, and begin to feel like an adult, controlling parenting that limits these necessary developmental experiences can be particularly harmful to emerging adults. Given this vulnerability, the current study aimed to understand how parental psychological control affects emerging adults' adjustment (i.e., internalizing problems, externalizing problems, identity exploration), explore a moderating factor (i.e., best friendships) that could help these struggling emerging adults, and examine how these relations could differ by parent and child gender. Participants came from four universities across the United States and completed the READY questionnaire online at two time points, one year apart (N = 273, Mage = 20.95). Results revealed that maternal psychological control positively predicted identity exploration for males and best friendships moderated the relationship between parental psychological control and identity exploration for females. No significant results were found for internalizing and externalizing problems. I then discuss conceptual factors that may play a role in understanding the relation between parental psychological control, best friendships, emerging adult adjustment (i.e., internalizing problems, externalizing problems, identity exploration), and gender.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / The department with the greatest economic dependence on the fruit is Ancash, and the Province of Casma is most important in production, as it only produces mango; however, at the productivity level, is a marked difference of 8.2 t/ha compared to the highest worldwide producer, Mexico. Taking this data into consideration, an analysis of the MSEs producing mango in Casma was conducted and problems were seen in the management of resources and processes, both at the levels of planning and control. Considering the problems of MSEs from Casma, a basic Production Planning and Control model was designed based on Process Management and agricultural best practices. The model consists of applying process management tools, such as the flow diagram, the SIPOC turtle, data sheet indicators, procedures, and formats for each sub-process, all with the aim of better understanding the proposal’s development and increasing the productivity of MSEs.

This paper investigates whether East Asians are more likely than Westerners to purchase a brand presented as a best-seller given that East Asians tend to have a higher need for conformity and Westerners tend to have a higher need for uniqueness. Results show that East Asians are more likely than their Western counterparts to purchase such brands when the perceived risk is low. However, when the perceived risk is high, both East Asians and Westerners tend to prefer a brand presented as a best-seller. Results also show that, in a three-option set in which the C option is dominated by the B option but not by the A, both East Asians and Westerners are more likely to select option C when it is presented as a best-seller than when it is not. Managerial implications and the study's limitations are also discussed.

The agriculture community is faced with new challenges to increase food production on a limited amount of suitable land to keep up with the growing population. Fertilizers and intensive cropping are needed to meet food demand, but these practices contribute to environmental degradation due to nutrients and sediment leaving fields and entering waterbodies. Non-point source (NPS) pollution from agriculture has been scrutinized for significantly contributing to eutrophication and hypoxic dead zones. To reduce the harmful impacts of NPS pollution from agriculture, producers and land users have implemented in-field and edge-of-field Best Management Practices (BMP). Water and Sediment Control Basins (WASCoBs) are an example of an in-field BMP that has helped reduce erosion and sediment loading of receiving waters. Cover crops are another in-field BMP that have been used to mitigate erosion and nutrient leaching. The impacts of WASCoBs paired with cover crops on water quality, specifically nutrient loading, is lacking in the current literature and was the focus of this research. Our study site was located in Menard County near Atterberry, IL. The farm had relatively steep topography (5-18% slopes) and suffered from severe gully erosion. In 2018, the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) partnered with the landowner and installed a series of WASCoBs to address the erosion issues. Along with the NRCS and landowner, we worked with the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) to investigate the impacts of WASCoBs and cover crops on nutrient and sediment runoff, hydrology, and crop yields.Four sub-watersheds were included in the study: 1) a 1.5-hectare basin treated with a WASCoB; 2) a 1.4-hectare basin treated with a WASCoB and a cover crop; 3) a 0.2-hectare gully drained watershed treated with a cover crop; and 4) a control, 3.8-hectare gully-drained watershed. ISCO automated water samplers collected runoff from storm events in a time-weighted composite sampling regime. The measured water quality parameters were total suspended solids (TSS), ammonium-nitrogen (ammonium-N), nitrate-nitrogen (nitrate-N), dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP), and total phosphorus (TP). The WASCoB treatment reduced TSS by 98.5-99.8%, TP by 83.8-97.4%, ammonium-N by 42.3-82.9%, and nitrate-N by 32.0-59.6%, respectively. Cover crop impacts on the water quality parameters were not detected, due to poor gemination of the annual rye cover crop. The water quality improvement WASCoBs are a potential tool for farmers and land managers to reduce loading of nutrients and sediment to receiving waters.

With the issuing of Pension Funds circular PF117 in 2004 in South Africa, regulation required valuation assumptions for defined benefit pension funds to be on a best-estimate basis. Allowance for prudence was to be made through explicit contingency reserves, in order to increase reporting transparency. These reserves for prudence, however, were not permitted to put the fund into deficit (the no-deficit clause). Analysis is conducted to understand the risk that PF117 poses to pension fund sponsors and members under two key measures: contribution rate risk and solvency risk. A stochastic model of a typical South African defined benefit fund is constructed with simulations run to determine the impact of the PF117 requirements. Findings show that a best-estimate funding basis, coupled with the no-deficit clause, results in significant risk under both contribution rate and solvency risk measures, particularly in the short-term. To mitigate these risks, alternative ways of introducing conservatism into the funding basis are required, with possible options including incorporating margins into investment return assumptions or the removal of the no-deficit clause.

Med utveckling av streamingtjänster kommer det ständigt nya lösning och produkter. Konkurrensen om kunder är högre än någonsin. Företag tävlar om kunder genom att erbjuda den bästa streaming-upplevelsen i marknaden. Det finns principer och regler för hur man ska designa en produkt för vardagligt bruk och hur man ska designa en produkt för interaktion och användarupplevelse. Men det finns inga specifika principer på hur man ska utveckla streamingtjänster. Denna studie undersöker vilka principer som är bäst vid utveckling av streamingtjänster. Resultatet av denna studie blir ny kunskap som kan implementeras i befintliga streamingtjänster. Syftet med studien är att hitta de bästa principerna enligt kvinnliga användare. Metoderna omfattar både kvantitativ enkätundersökning såväl som litteraturstudie. Resultatet av denna studie kommer att analyseras och diskuteras för att hitta de bästa principerna. / With the development of streaming services there are constantly new solutions and products. The competition for customers is higher than before. Companies compete for customers by offering the best streaming-experience in the market. There are principles and rules for how one should design a product for ​an everyday use​ and how one should design a product for interaction and user experience. But there are no specific principles on how one should develop a streaming service. This thesis explores which principles are the best when developing streaming services. The outcome of this thesis will be new knowledge that can be implemented to the existing streaming services. The purpose is to find the best principles according to female users. The methods encompass both quantitative study and literature studies. The result of the study will be analyzed and discussed to find the best principles.

The fate and distribution of copper-based crop protectants, applied to tomato fields to protect against disease, were investigated in a greenhouse-scale simulation of farming conditions in a coastal environment. Following rainfall, 99% of the applied copper was found to remain on the fields sorbed to the soil and plants; most of the soil-bound copper was found sorbed to the top 2.5 centimeters of soil. Of the copper leaving the agricultural fields, 82% was found in the runoff with the majority, 74%, sorbed to the suspended solids. The remaining copper, 18%, leached through the soil and entered the groundwater with 10% in the dissolved phase and 8% sorbed to suspended solids. Although only one-percent of the copper was found to leave the field, this was sufficient to cause high copper concentrations (average 2102 ± 433 mg/L total copper and 189 ± 139 mg/L dissolved copper) in the runoff. Copper concentrations in groundwater samples were also high (average 312 ± 198 mg/L total copper and 216 ± 99 mg/L dissolved copper). Sedimentation, a best management practice for reducing copper loadings, was found to reduce the total copper concentrations in runoff by 90% to a concentration of 245 ± 127 mg/L; however, dissolved copper concentrations remained stable, averaging 139 ± 55 mg/L. Total copper concentrations were significantly reduced by the effective removal of suspended solids with sorbed copper. This research was supported by a grant from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Funding was also provided by Sea Grant. / Master of Science

No description available.

Increasing awareness of hypoxia in coastal marine regions across the globe has led to creation of nutrient reduction strategies to protect water resources and organisms living in affected waters. In the Mississippi River Basin, the Governor’s Action Plan has called for a 45% load reduction of both, total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P), to reduce the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone to a manageable size. Objectives of this dissertation aimed to determine nutrient reduction efficiencies of low-grade weirs, and to evaluate abundance and composition of microbial communities involved in key processes of denitrification following low-grade weir implementation in the Mississippi Delta. Results of this dissertation evidenced the efficiencies of low-grade weirs to reduce nutrient runoff to downstream waters as a viable BMP. Average median load reductions in N, P, and sediment of -5%, 23%, and 29%, respectively, were determined in ditches with low-grade weirs. Results highlighted more efficient reductions in P and sediment, and greater variability in N reductions during storm events, prompting management considerations toward BMP successes and limitations. Valuable insight towards seasonal nutrient fluxes in agricultural runoff due to spring fertilizer applications, increased rainfall patterns in the winter and spring, and drying-wetting cycles, was also evidenced by the data collected. It was determined that utilizing a three-scale sampling regime was most effective for capturing patterns of microbial community abundance and composition in ditches with low-grade weirs. Preliminary evidence towards weir proximity influencing microbial community abundance, and relationships between microbes and soil carbon and N was also found. Utilizing the three-scale sampling regime, microbial communities in multiple drainage ditches, with and without weirs, were investigated. Outcomes showed that weirs increased soil moisture, which subsequently increased functional gene abundance of 16S rRNA and nirS. Furthermore, weir implementation and associated constructions were not found to directly influence microbial community diversity, abundance, or chemical parameters. Results from this dissertation support the potential benefits of weirs to create suitable environments to physically reduce P and sediment loads and for denitrifying microbes to remediate N from agricultural runoff.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant differences in students based of education demographics and what factors contributed to the successful completion of online courses for postsecondary education students. Specifically, this study sought to determine if there was a significant difference between certain educational demographics (gender, race, classification, course, and professor) and grade; a significant relationship between specific online course features (availability of chat, videos, discussion boards, and video conferences) and grade; a significant relationship between certain student behaviors (location of access, time to complete assignments, interaction with content, frequency of access, interaction with instructor, and interaction with students) and grade; and students’ perception and grades. A Kruskal-Wallis analysis was conducted to analyze differences within and between groups by educational demographics. Spearman Rho’s Correlations were computed to examine if a significant relationship existed between the aforementioned independent variables and the dependent variable of students’ grades. After the data were collected and analyzed, the findings showed that there were no statistically significant differences among students who completed online courses. There was no statistically significant relationships between the independent variables and students’ grades.