The goal of this experiment was to determine what if any effect two different types of warnings have the brake reaction time of distracted commercial motor vehicle operators. The warning conditions were: No Warning, Auditory Tire Skid Warning, and One Second Brake Pulse Warning. Each participant was distracted via a distracter task during the experiment. As the participants were distracted, an obstacle was launched out into their forward path. Each participant received his/her appropriate warning, according to what condition they were placed, when the obstacle entered their headway. It was determined that the Auditory Tire Skid Warning aided in decreasing the movement times, while the One Second Brake Pulse Warning aided in decreasing the number of collisions with the barrels and speed at contact with the barrels. / Master of Science

This dissertation traces three ethical dimensions, or values, of weather warnings in the National Weather Service (NWS): an ethic of accuracy, and ethic of care, and an ethic of resilience. Each appear in forecaster work but are not equally visible in the identity of a forecaster as scientific expert. Thus, I propose that the NWS should consider rethinking its science through its relationship to multiple publics, creating what Sandra Harding calls "strong objectivity." To this end, I offer the concept of empathic accuracy as an ethic that reflects the interrelatedness of precision and care that already attend to forecasting work. First, I offer a genealogy of the ethic of accuracy as forecasters see it. Beginning in the 1960s, operational meteorologists mounted an ethic of accuracy through the "man-machine mix," a concept that pointed to an identity of the forecasting scientist that required a demarcation between humans and technologies. It is continually troubled by the growing power of computer models to make predictions. Second, I provide an ethnographic account of the concern expressed by forecasters for their publics. I do so to demonstrate how an ethic of care exists alongside accuracy in their forecasting science, especially during times of crisis. I recreate the concern for others that their labor performs. It is an account that values emotion and is sensitive to context, showing what Virginia Held calls "the self-and-other together" that partially constitutes a forecaster identity. Third, I critique the NWS Weather Ready Nation Roadmap and its emphasis on developing in the public an ethic of resilience. I argue that, as currently framed, this ethic and its instantiation in the initiative Impact Based Decision Support Services narrowly defines community to such an extent that it disappears the public. However, it also reveals other valences of resilience that have the potential to open up a space for an empathetic accuracy. Finally, I close with a co-authored article that explores my own commitment to an ethic of relationality in disaster work and the compromises that create tension in me as a scholar and critical participant in the weather community. / Ph. D.

<p>Background: Studying insider trading is difficult due to its sensitive and delicate</p><p>nature. Therefore it is hard to gauge the extent of such activities.</p><p>This problem has resulted in a fierce debate whether it should be</p><p>prohibited or not. Using a method where the effect on monopolistic</p><p>information usage can be isolated insider trading can be monitored.</p><p>Such an event is a profit warning.</p><p>Purpose: This paper examines whether insider trading exist for companies</p><p>making a profit warning between year 2003 and 2007 on the Stockholm</p><p>Stock Exchange. Furthermore the aim with the study is to contribute</p><p>to the debate on the insider trading legislation.</p><p>Method: The study’s purpose is achieved through an event study studying the</p><p>cumulative abnormal return as well as average daily returns during</p><p>the thirty days preceding the warning for a sample of thirty companies.</p><p>Since profit warnings should be completely random and as such</p><p>almost impossible for the market to know in advance, a significant</p><p>abnormal return can only be explained with insider trading. The abnormal</p><p>returns were calculated using the Capital Asset Pricing Model</p><p>since it is the most widely used model.</p><p>Conclusion: For the chosen time frame, when testing on a 95% significance level,</p><p>the study found a significant abnormal return during the last 10 days</p><p>of the event window but not for the entire period of thirty days. The</p><p>daily average return for the thirty companies were significant for six</p><p>of the thirty days within the event window. Two of them were included</p><p>in the last ten day period with a confirmed significant abnormal</p><p>return which might suggest that on average insider trading tend</p><p>to occur during these days. The other four was discarded due to</p><p>sample issues. Since the study was limited to a period of four years</p><p>extending the results to a period other than tested should be made</p><p>with great care since conditions may differ over time. Concerning the</p><p>current debate on the insider legislation, the findings can be used by</p><p>both sides. Either to argue for a strengthening of the law or to question its existence.</p>

This thesis uses ethnographic research into online media fandom, focusing on self-reflexive analytical documents that fans call meta, to investigate longstanding questions about the nature of virtual community. It argues that virtual documents should be seen as complete and complex interactions in their original form and as social contexts in their own right, and presents a new approach to ethnographic methodology and ethics suited to working in this context. Fans have incorporated various technologies into the infrastructure that constitutes their community, and these have had various effects on the structure and substance of fannish documents and interactions – and on the character of the community as a whole. The stability and visibility of the digital archive is an important feature of virtual community – one that makes fandom more visible, accessible, and historically grounded for both old and new members. This research also deals with conflict, not as a necessarily divisive force but as a natural and important part of how communities evolve and how members negotiate and articulate what their community should be. It discusses fanfiction as a controversial and sometimes problematic genre, and considers trigger warnings as the solution fans have developed to protect vulnerable members of their community from potentially harmful content (such as rape). It also examines conflict with outside authorities, like creators and the administrators who control the virtual spaces that fans inhabit. These conflicts illuminate creativity and feminism as fannish values, presenting fandom as a community that embraces sex-positive female sexuality. More importantly, they suggest that the creation and maintenance of a ‘safe space’ where all members feel respected and comfortable is a key feature of online community. In addition, fannish storytelling (particularly the creation of what fans call fanon) is part of the production of local knowledge, of boundary mechanisms that mark and separate members of the community from outsiders. These stories as part of the process by which fans position themselves within the broader community – and in so doing, locate themselves within smaller cohorts of fans who affirm and support aspects of their personal experiences and marginalised identities (e.g. as women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, or people of colour) through the reorientation and appropriation of story.

Health at birth is considered an important indicator of health outcomes in adulthood. It is also shown to have a strong association with future educational attainment and labor market outcomes. I examine the effects of behavioral and environmental factors on infant health. The factors I focus on include alcohol consumption during pregnancy, extreme weather events associated with climate change, and pollution that may result from unconventional oil and natural gas development. In Chapter II, I examine the effects of point-of-sale alcohol warning signage that alcohol retailers are required to post in some states on alcohol use during pregnancy and on birth outcomes. I find that point-of-sale warning signs discourage alcohol consumption among pregnant women and are associated with a decrease in the odds of newborns having very low birth weight or being very pre-term. The findings of this research inform decision makers about a potentially effective mechanism through which alcohol consumption among pregnant women can be reduced. They also suggest causal evidence for the link between prenatal alcohol exposure and inferior health at birth. Chapter III documents that exposure to heat waves during pregnancy is associated with increased likelihood of the mother experiencing an adverse health condition during pregnancy and the newborn having an abnormal condition at birth. The results provide an assessment of the magnitude and timing of the effects of extreme heat events associated with climate change on infant health which is potentially helpful in enhancing the effectiveness of adaptation efforts. Finally, Chapter IV provides an empirical investigation of the link between unconventional oil and natural gas development and infant health. The results indicate that unconventional drilling activity is associated with a small, but statistically significant, decline in birth outcomes, especially for those living in rural areas. Given that it is estimated that the rapid expansion in unconventional oil and gas extraction will continue for at least a few more decades, the results of this study may contribute to the discussions related to initiation or tightening of regulations and monitoring efforts to control pollution. This dissertation includes previously unpublished co-authored material.

We are living are living in the age of the trigger warning— educational cultures that threaten English teachers’ ability to present psychologically upsetting literature to students who may lack the necessary resilience to tolerate highly charged literary encounters with complex issues, such as rape, violence, racism, or political strife. And yet literature is filled with conflict— artistic representations of the precise traumas that certain members of our student populations may not be able to tolerate. In order to safeguard trauma survivors from potential reactivation of traumatic stress, a handful of educational institutions promote the use of trigger warnings. But are trigger warnings effective, and, if they are, what do they teach English teachers about what happens to individuals who have endured trauma and are therefore susceptible to being triggered? The purpose of this research, which consisted of interviews and an intensive focus group with seven veteran English teachers teaching at seven distinct schools throughout the world, was to offer insights and pedagogical awareness to English teachers, so that they can better anticipate, conceptualize, and decided for themselves how to respond to students who get triggered by emotionally complex literature. In addition to the qualitative research methods used with the seven English teacher participants, this study utilizes the work and thinking of trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk in an attempt to illustrate the neurological impacts of trauma through a comprehensive overview of PET scans of trauma survivors studied in van der Kolk’s lab in Brookline, Massachusetts. Each PET scan presents key features of what can happen to the brains of survivors, and may provide significant clues into what happens among our students when they get psychologically triggered in the classroom. The dissertation concludes with a one-on-one interview with Harvard psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, and offers his insights, wisdom, and conceptualizations for this highly complex and nuanced problem.

Background: Studying insider trading is difficult due to its sensitive and delicate nature. Therefore it is hard to gauge the extent of such activities. This problem has resulted in a fierce debate whether it should be prohibited or not. Using a method where the effect on monopolistic information usage can be isolated insider trading can be monitored. Such an event is a profit warning. Purpose: This paper examines whether insider trading exist for companies making a profit warning between year 2003 and 2007 on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Furthermore the aim with the study is to contribute to the debate on the insider trading legislation. Method: The study’s purpose is achieved through an event study studying the cumulative abnormal return as well as average daily returns during the thirty days preceding the warning for a sample of thirty companies. Since profit warnings should be completely random and as such almost impossible for the market to know in advance, a significant abnormal return can only be explained with insider trading. The abnormal returns were calculated using the Capital Asset Pricing Model since it is the most widely used model. Conclusion: For the chosen time frame, when testing on a 95% significance level, the study found a significant abnormal return during the last 10 days of the event window but not for the entire period of thirty days. The daily average return for the thirty companies were significant for six of the thirty days within the event window. Two of them were included in the last ten day period with a confirmed significant abnormal return which might suggest that on average insider trading tend to occur during these days. The other four was discarded due to sample issues. Since the study was limited to a period of four years extending the results to a period other than tested should be made with great care since conditions may differ over time. Concerning the current debate on the insider legislation, the findings can be used by both sides. Either to argue for a strengthening of the law or to question its existence.

Background: Studying insider trading is difficult due to its sensitive and delicate nature. Therefore it is hard to gauge the extent of such activities. This problem has resulted in a fierce debate whether it should be prohibited or not. Using a method where the effect on monopolistic information usage can be isolated insider trading can be monitored. Such an event is a profit warning. Purpose: This paper examines whether insider trading exist for companies making a profit warning between year 2003 and 2007 on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Furthermore the aim with the study is to contribute to the debate on the insider trading legislation. Method: The study’s purpose is achieved through an event study studying the cumulative abnormal return as well as average daily returns during the thirty days preceding the warning for a sample of thirty companies. Since profit warnings should be completely random and as such almost impossible for the market to know in advance, a significant abnormal return can only be explained with insider trading. The abnormal returns were calculated using the Capital Asset Pricing Model since it is the most widely used model. Conclusion: For the chosen time frame, when testing on a 95% significance level, the study found a significant abnormal return during the last 10 days of the event window but not for the entire period of thirty days. The daily average return for the thirty companies were significant for six of the thirty days within the event window. Two of them were included in the last ten day period with a confirmed significant abnormal return which might suggest that on average insider trading tend to occur during these days. The other four was discarded due to sample issues. Since the study was limited to a period of four years extending the results to a period other than tested should be made with great care since conditions may differ over time. Concerning the current debate on the insider legislation, the findings can be used by both sides. Either to argue for a strengthening of the law or to question its existence.

In-vehicle warning systems are today mainly using the visual and auditory channels for presentation. As cars get more and more sophisticated the demand on new ways of presenting information increases. This report investigates if the sense of touch, in form of a vibro-tactile seat is a prospective channel for warning information. To achieve the objectives the tactile seat was developed, implemented and tested in a simulator environment. The final result is a complete tactile seat with a set of warnings which correspond with different critical situations. The tactile seat made it possible to conduct a simulator-based experiment including comparison with a visual head-up warning presentation. The experiment proved significant difference in discovery distance in the comparison between the no system and the tactile warning system. The overall conclusion is that a vibro-tactile warning display in the driver’s seat is an excellent way of presenting certain warning information. The tactile channel is especially favorable when fast reaction time is essential. Further work could include designing and testing a combined tactile and visual system.

<p>Background:</p><p>Studying insider trading is difficult due to its sensitive and delicate nature. Therefore it is hard to gauge the extent of such activities. This problem has resulted in a fierce debate whether it should be prohibited or not. Using a method where the effect on monopolistic information usage can be isolated insider trading can be monitored. Such an event is a profit warning.</p><p>Purpose:</p><p>This paper examines whether insider trading exist for companies</p><p>making a profit warning between year 2003 and 2007 on the Stockholm</p><p>Stock Exchange. Furthermore the aim with the study is to contribute</p><p>to the debate on the insider trading legislation.</p><p>Method:</p><p>The study’s purpose is achieved through an event study studying the</p><p>cumulative abnormal return as well as average daily returns during</p><p>the thirty days preceding the warning for a sample of thirty companies.</p><p>Since profit warnings should be completely random and as such</p><p>almost impossible for the market to know in advance, a significant</p><p>abnormal return can only be explained with insider trading. The abnormal returns were calculated using the Capital Asset Pricing Model</p><p>since it is the most widely used model.</p><p>Conclusion:</p><p>For the chosen time frame, when testing on a 95% significance level,</p><p>the study found a significant abnormal return during the last 10 days</p><p>of the event window but not for the entire period of thirty days. The</p><p>daily average return for the thirty companies were significant for six</p><p>of the thirty days within the event window. Two of them were included</p><p>in the last ten day period with a confirmed significant abnormal</p><p>return which might suggest that on average insider trading tend</p><p>to occur during these days. The other four was discarded due to</p><p>sample issues. Since the study was limited to a period of four years</p><p>extending the results to a period other than tested should be made</p><p>with great care since conditions may differ over time. Concerning the</p><p>current debate on the insider legislation, the findings can be used by</p><p>both sides. Either to argue for a strengthening of the law or to question its existence.</p>