The imminent consequences of the deteriorating state of the socio-ecological systems pose significant challenges to the well-being of society and societal functioning. The financial sector, specifically banks, plays a crucial role in the transition toward sustainable development because they hold the financial resources and the power to allocate these resources. For banks to contribute to this transition, credit risk assessment (CRA) can serve as an impactful process for sustainability integration. However, as CRA is a well-incorporated process within banks, it is unclear if it is strategic enough to support a transition toward sustainability. This research, therefore, aims to analyse the key gaps, opportunities, and limitations for integrating sustainability considerations into the credit risk assessment process using a strategic sustainable development (SSD) lens. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) was used as a conceptual framework to give a better understanding of the sustainability challenge and to analyse how credit risk assessment can contribute to sustainable development. Data were collected through document review and semi-structured interviews with practitioners from Nordic banks who have relevant experience to explain how banks incorporate sustainability into their credit risk assessment practices within corporate lending and credit. A semi-systematic literature review was also done to determine the views and methods of integrating sustainability considerations into the credit risk assessment process according to academic literature. The findings were structured using the FSSD’s 5-Level Model (5LM) to identify the key gaps, limitations, and opportunities in literature and practice. The results suggest that the key gaps in integrating sustainability into the credit risk assessment process are sustainability data inadequacy, inaccessibility, incomparability, trustworthiness, and storage, and the qualitative manner of sustainability data. Further to these limitations is a competence gap where crucial skillsets needed include systems and sector-specific sustainability knowledge.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Durational residency requirements as a qualification for holding statewide elected office appear in most state constitutions. These requirements are said to promote legitimate state interests, such as giving voters an extended period of time to get to know the individuals who are interested in holding statewide public office. Indiana is no different. In Article 5, Section 7 of its 1851 constitution, Indiana requires governors to have been “a resident of” the state for five years preceding election. Because no governor’s satisfaction of this requirement had ever been questioned, the constitutional language had never been interpreted – until 1988. In November, 1987, Evan Bayh announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor in the 1988 election. However, for approximately thirteen months during the required five year period, Bayh worked in Washington, D.C. As a result, a question arose whether Bayh was “a resident of” Indiana while he lived and worked in Washington. His eligibility to serve as governor, if elected, was formally challenged by leaders of the Indiana Republican Party. Bayh argued that he had been “a resident of” Indiana his entire life even though he had temporarily lived elsewhere. Bayh argued that the constitution does not require physical presence in order to be a resident of the state. Rather, residency was akin to domicile, a legal concept meaning that place which, once established, an individual considers to be his/her permanent home. One’s domicile cannot be terminated absent evidence of a clear intention to do so. Those challenging Bayh maintained that continued physical presence for the entire five years was, in fact, constitutionally required. In the alternative, his opponents argued that the actions taken by Bayh during his time in Washington were sufficient to establish his intent to terminate his residency in Indiana and re-establish it there. For almost eight months, Bayh’s eligibility to serve was a focal point of public attention in the 1988 governor’s race. While Bayh and his opponents pursued answers in several legal forums, they also were competing for advantage in the most important forum of all – the court of public opinion. Finally, on April 28, 1988, the Indiana Supreme Court rendered a decision declaring Bayh eligible to serve, if elected. This thesis considers not only what happened, but why. Were those challenging Bayh’s residency motivated by constitutionalism, partisan advantage or both? What were the political implications of the challenge? What was the significance of the extensive “forum-shopping” in which both sides engaged. In the end, did the attempt to disqualify Bayh actually strengthen his candidacy and help propel him to victory in November, 1988?

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Previous methods for planning clothoid based continuous curvature paths aim at minimizing path length. However, minimal length paths are not always smooth, natural, and drivable. A method of generating clothoid-based trajectories is discussed using constructive polylines. The goal of the motion planner is to create a path for a large car-like vehicle in human driving environments. Thus, the trajectories generated by the motion planner must be smooth, drivable, and natural such that the vehicle can follow the planned path on human roadways. Several examples are shown of trajectories developed for a DARPA Urban Challenge vehicle and a method of testing the motion planner and the vehicle controller is described.

I denna intervjustudie studeras lärares, specialpedagogers och rektorers uppfattning om skrivundervisning för elever i skrivsvårigheter. Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om undervisning till elever i skrivsvårigheter på mellanstadiet utifrån såväl stöd och utmaningar till eleverna som till de lärare som undervisar dessa elever. Det material som ligger till grund för studien är sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med två lärare, två specialpedagoger och två rektorer. Teorin som ligger till grund för studien är Gibbons modell om olika lärandezoner som hör till det sociokulturella perspektivet och visar hur lärande påverkas av graden av stöttning och kognitiv utmaning. Intervjuerna är analyserade utifrån Gibbons fyra zoner: utvecklingszonen, frustrationszonen, trygghetszonen och uttråkningszonen. Resultatet visar att stöttning för elever i skrivsvårigheter kan ske genom individanpassade strategier, tydliga instruktioner och digitala verktyg. I analysen framgår att elever kan hamna i alla fyra zonerna beroende på tillgång till stöd och utmaning, men alla tre pedagoggrupperna strävar efter att leda eleverna till utvecklingszonen. Resultatet visar också att lärarna och specialpedagogerna uppfattar samarbete dem emellan och kompetens som viktig stöttning i sin yrkesutövning. För att kunna tillgodose både elevers och lärares behov krävs organisatoriska åtgärder som är tillåtande och flexibla, där tid och personal är de enskilt viktigaste faktorerna. I analysen framgår att lärarna, specialpedagogerna och rektorerna sällan eller aldrig hamnar i trygghetszonen eller uttråkningszonen, utan att de enbart pendlar mellan utvecklingszonen och frustrationszonen.

There is a pervasive belief in the United States that the college experience typically includes frequent social activities characterized by widespread alcohol use. Unfortunately, awareness of the hundreds of deaths and wide variety of other harms experienced by college students as a result of alcohol use is much less pervasive. In an effort to increase awareness of the negative impact of alcohol use on college campuses, the NIAAA commissioned a panel composed of scientists and college presidents to document alcohol-related harms and identify strategies that have been found to be effective in reducing risky alcohol use based on empirical evidence. The final report of this expert panel was released as a "Call to Action" for institutions nationwide in an effort to increase understanding of the severity and prevalence of risky alcohol use, and to provide descriptions of programs that were considered effective based on empirical evidence. Unfortunately, there were very few strategies found to be effective, and one of the effective approaches could only be implemented in specialized laboratories operated by scientists with expertise in expectancy challenge. Due to the severity and pervasiveness of the college alcohol problem and the limited number of strategies deemed effective, there is clearly a pressing need to develop and validate an expectancy challenge method that could be implemented by any institution without being limited by the need for a specialized laboratory and highly trained personnel. Achievement of these goals was the focus of the present project. To this end, an expectancy challenge curriculum designed for delivery in a college classroom was developed based on a laboratory delivered protocol previously found to be effective in reducing alcohol use among college students, and a classroom delivered curriculum previously found to be effective with high school students. The newly developed college classroom curriculum was implemented in a single session with groups of students during their regular class time in their usual classroom. Measures of alcohol use and associated harms were completed anonymously by each participant before completing the curriculum and for the month following completion of the curriculum. Analyses indicated significant reductions in alcohol consumption among males and females in comparison to students who were randomly assigned to a wait-list control condition. Unfortunately, significant reductions in alcohol-related harms were not found. The time periods for baseline and follow-up were only one month each, and that limitation in the number of opportunities to experience harms limits the likelihood of demonstrating a significant reduction in harms as well. Overall, this project represents an important advance in the development of alcohol use reduction strategies that are theory-based and effective in reducing alcohol use based on empirical evidence. In addition, the curriculum that was developed and validated in this project represents the first expectancy challenge method that can be readily implemented at any institution willing to devote one hour to reducing their students' risk for a long list of negative consequences associated with alcohol use on college campuses. Motivation and a typical classroom are all that is needed.

This study is focused on the challenges in puzzle video games. Based on several previous studies, the researcher created seven different types of challenges in puzzle games. To study the key of challenging levels in puzzle games, three games were chosen, then walkthrough videos of these games were watched and challenges were noted and categorized into different types. The collected data showed that different puzzle games have different challenge types while abstract reasoning is the most common challenge in every puzzle game. The total challenge numbers and pacing in puzzle video games strongly depend on the design intention of the game. And The number of challenge types has no direct connection with difficulty. The category of seven types of challenges and the results of this study may bring reference and inspiration to future studies. It may also shed some light on puzzle game design.

Email communication has become an indispensable aspect of modern life, enabling rapid and efficient information exchange for individuals and organizations worldwide. However, the rise of phishing attacks poses a significant threat to the security and privacy of email users, with attackers continuously refining their techniques to exploit unsuspecting victims. This systematic literature review (SLR) aims to examine the challenges faced in email phishing detection for both private and organizational users, highlighting the unique obstacles and requirements for each user group. By analyzing relevant and current research from the past three years, this study seeks to identify the key challenges in email phishing detection, including the evolving tactics used by attackers, the limitations of current detection methods, and the hurdles in user education and awareness. Furthermore, it investigates the differential impact of these challenges on private and organizational users, with a focus on the potential differences. The comparative analysis offers valuable insights into the distinct challenges private and organizational users face in their efforts to defend against email phishing attacks. Understanding these differences is crucial for developing targeted, effective solutions that can enhance the overall resilience and security of email communication systems. Ultimately, this SLR serves as a foundation for future research and development in the field of phishing detection, fostering a safer online environment for all users.

Blockchains and Byzantine Fault Tolerance form the basis of decentralized currencies and ledgers, such as Bitcoin, Ripple, ZeroCash, and Ethereum. Several studies have focused on the currency aspects (e.g. authenticity, integrity, anonymity, and independence from central banks). In this thesis, we start by exploring to understand the security challenges and practical solutions for building simple payment networks. Then, we leverage such understanding in identifying the security challenges of more advanced and complex systems, in particular Futures Exchanges. The decentralization of a Futures Exchange poses new security challenges: i) the interplay between the security and economic viability, i.e. using the Price Discrimination Attack one can strategically force a trader out of the market when the trader's anonymity is broken; ii) the non-monotonic security behavior of an Exchange, i.e. an honest action may invalidate security evidence; and iii) the proportional burden requirement in the presence of high-frequency participants. Our goal is to enucleate the non-trivial design principles to resolve these challenges for building secure and distributed financial exchanges. We demonstrate the application of the distilled design principles by building a cryptographic reference for a futures exchange called FuturesMEX. We also simulate the performance of a FuturesMEX Proof-of-Concept with the Lean Hog market data obtained from the Thomson Reuters Ticks History DB. The results show that the obtained protocol is feasible for a low-frequency market such as Lean Hog. Furthermore, we investigate an extension of public markets, i.e. dark pools (private markets), in which the order book information is conditionally visible to some (financially) suitable parties. We propose a new cryptographic scheme called Witness Key Agreement that makes dark trading possible by probing prices and volumes based on committed financial information Finally, we evaluate the theoretical and practical performance of the new scheme; using a simulation of the dark pool data collected from the aggressive Bloomberg Tradebook, we obtain positive results.

High-risk alcohol consumption remains a primary public health concern for students on college campuses. In response to this concern the National Advisory Council of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism created a task force to identify and recommend strategies to aid college administrators in implementing effective alcohol programming at their institutions. While most administrators report being aware of these recommendations, many have not successfully implemented empirically supported interventions on their campuses. One significant barrier is the cost and difficulty of training and hiring skilled staff to implement these interventions. Of the strategies identified as effective, challenging alcohol expectancies is the only strategy validated for group administration with college students and has significant potential to address this remaining barrier. However, current expectancy-based interventions still require highly trained expert facilitators for implementation. The present study aimed to convert the previously validated Expectancy Challenge Alcohol Literacy Curriculum (ECALC) into a digital format amenable to non-expert facilitation. The resulting digital ECALC was implemented in 48 class sections of a first year student course in a group randomized trial. It was hypothesized that receiving the digital ECALC would result in significant changes in alcohol expectancies and subsequent changes in alcohol use and related harms. Analyses revealed significant changes in both positive and negative expectancies following the digital ECALC, however no significant changes in alcohol consumption or alcohol-related harms were observed at a 30 day follow-up. Exploratory subgroup analyses revealed significant differences between experimental and control groups on average and peak drinks per sitting for classes receiving the digital ECALC during the fall semester only. Semester specific variables, environmental context, and social influence variables may have contributed to the lack of behavioral changes in the overall sample following observed expectancy changes. This study represents an important development in expectancy-based interventions for college students as the digital format removed the need for an expert facilitator and maintained significant changes in expectancies. Future studies should focus on replication of these expectancy changes and on demonstrating subsequent changes in alcohol use and related harms. The present study also represents the first evaluation of a group-administered expectancy intervention to report on intra-class correlations which will aid future researchers in designing sufficiently powered studies going forward.