In this thesis I investigate whether two clear and simple indicators, dividends and franking credits, provide users with useful information to assess earnings persistence. Persistence is an important attribute of earnings (Dechow and Schrand 2004). I argue and show earnings persistence is a function of firm life-cycle. Firms can generally be divided into three life stages: establishing profitability, sustainable profitability and declining profitability. Using a simple one-period persistence model I demonstrate that dividends and higher franking credits identify firms in the different stages of the life-cycle. Dividends provide an inherent signal of firms that are in the mature phase of the life-cycle, and hence provide information about earnings persistence. I show firms that pay dividends have persistent profits and losses that reverse. However dividend paying firms are not homogenous. Firms that pay franked dividends have significantly more persistent earnings than firms that pay unfranked dividends. Consistent with higher franking credits identifying more mature firms, fully franked dividend paying firms have significantly less persistent losses than partially franked dividend paying firms. Importantly, my primary results provide an alternative explanation to Hanlon (2005) and add to our understanding of the accrual anomaly. Both Hanlon and my study investigate the informativeness of tax on earnings persistence. I demonstrate that firms that have large differences between the level of franking and accounting income (i.e., pay unfranked dividends while reporting a profit) have large book-tax differences. Such differences in tax and accounting income are a function of the firm life-cycle. Large book-tax differences are not necessarily the result of opportunism (or earnings management). Thus firms with large book-tax differences are typically establishing profitability or entering the declining phase. These firms have less persistence profits, accruals and cash flows than firms with small book-tax differences. I conclude the accrual anomaly is a function of inherent firm characteristics associated with different phases of the life-cycle rather than being a function of earnings management.

The purpose of this study was to profile international level female sevens athletes and determine if anthropometric and physical qualities are able to differentiate between backs and forwards. Twenty-four subjects with a mean (±SD) age of 22.75±3.99 years and body weight of 69.36±5.21kg were sampled from the national team training program. Anthropometric measures (height, body mass and sum of 7 skinfolds) and performance measures (power clean, front squat, bench press, neutral grip pull up, 40m sprint and 1600m run) were collected across the 2013-2014 centralized period and compared across playing position. Thirteen backs (mean age±SD= 21.28±3.54 years) and eleven forwards (mean age±SD= 24.47±3.95 years) had significant differences in body mass (66.40±3.48kg vs. 72.87±4.79kg) and initial sprint momentum (366.81±19.83kg*m/s vs.399.24±22.42*m/s). However no other measures showed positional differences. It is possible that the lack of positional differences in female rugby sevens is due to the multifarious physical requirements of a sevens player, leading to a generic player profile or perhaps due to a lack of selective pressure. It is also possible that the anthropometric and physical qualities measured in this study lacked the necessary resolution or failed to capture the unique attributes of each position. In conclusion, this is the first research profiling international level female sevens athletes. The normative data presented within this paper highlights the physical requirements of female sevens athletes for strength and conditioning practitioners. In addition, the lack of positional differences discovered should impact training program design. / Graduate

To examine differences in body composition and maximal strength between collegiate (CLG) and men's club (CLB) rugby union players, as well as between the forward (FW) and back (BK) positions, seventeen resistance-trained men (24 ± 2.4 yrs; range: 20 ± 27 yrs; 179.3 ± 5.4 cm; 93.7 ± 12.9kg) from a collegiate rugby team (n=11) and a local men's rugby club (n=6) were recruited to participate in the present investigation. Prior to strength testing, height (± 0.1 cm), body mass (± 0.1 kg), and body composition via dual energy x-ray absorptiometry were assessed to determine total percent body fat (%FAT), lean body mass (LBM), lean arm mass (LAM), and lean leg mass (LLM). Maximal upper- and lower-body strength were determined from each participant's one-repetition maximum (1RM) in the bench press and squat, respectively. Additionally, athletic history, resistance training experience, and distractors (e.g. work, school, and sleep) were determined via questionnaire. Significant (p<0.05) differences were observed between clubs in age (CLG: 22.3 ± 1.3y; CLB: 26.2 ± 1.1y), years played (CLG: 2.9 ± 2.4y; CLB: 7.5 ± 2.1y), and starting experience (CLG: 1.7 ± 2.6y; CLB: 5.2 ± 3.4y). In terms of position, LAM was significantly (p = 0.037) greater in FW (10.6 ± 1.7kg) than in BK (9.0 ± 0.5kg). These findings suggest rugby union players possess similar strength and size characteristics, regardless of age, playing experience, or position.

This thesis examined why NCAA Division 1 American football “linemen” experience greater heat strain than “backs” during summer training camps. In study #1, exercise at a heat production of 350 W/m2 in a hot environment (Tdb:32.4±1.0ºC; Twb:26.3±0.6ºC) resulted in greater local sweating on the upper body (head, arm, shoulder and chest; all <0.05) and a greater core temperature (P=0.033) in linemen despite a ~25% lower heat production per unit mass (L:6.0±0.5 W/kg; B:8.2±0.8 W/kg). In study #2, greater convective and evaporative heat transfer coefficients (P<0.05) were found in backs during live summer training camp drills, but these did not lead to a greater dry heat transfer or evaporative capacity. However, the maximum metabolic rate per unit mass was lower in linemen due to differences surface area-to-mass ratio. In conclusion, the greater heat strain previously reported in linemen likely arises, in part, from differences in sweating efficiency and body morphology.

This thesis examined why NCAA Division 1 American football “linemen” experience greater heat strain than “backs” during summer training camps. In study #1, exercise at a heat production of 350 W/m2 in a hot environment (Tdb:32.4±1.0ºC; Twb:26.3±0.6ºC) resulted in greater local sweating on the upper body (head, arm, shoulder and chest; all <0.05) and a greater core temperature (P=0.033) in linemen despite a ~25% lower heat production per unit mass (L:6.0±0.5 W/kg; B:8.2±0.8 W/kg). In study #2, greater convective and evaporative heat transfer coefficients (P<0.05) were found in backs during live summer training camp drills, but these did not lead to a greater dry heat transfer or evaporative capacity. However, the maximum metabolic rate per unit mass was lower in linemen due to differences surface area-to-mass ratio. In conclusion, the greater heat strain previously reported in linemen likely arises, in part, from differences in sweating efficiency and body morphology.

Berri and Simmons (2009) investigate the relationship between the NFL Combine and the NFL Draft. They find that a quarterback’s performance in the Combine can have a significant impact on that player’s draft position. However, they find that no known aspect of a quarterback before they are drafted is an indicator of success in the NFL. I examine if these relationships exist for the Running Back position. I find similar results to Berri and Simmons: that performance in the Combine does have an effect on that player’s draft position, but that no aspect of a running back’s pre-draft characteristics can be seen as a sign of future NFL success.

This thesis examined why NCAA Division 1 American football “linemen” experience greater heat strain than “backs” during summer training camps. In study #1, exercise at a heat production of 350 W/m2 in a hot environment (Tdb:32.4±1.0ºC; Twb:26.3±0.6ºC) resulted in greater local sweating on the upper body (head, arm, shoulder and chest; all <0.05) and a greater core temperature (P=0.033) in linemen despite a ~25% lower heat production per unit mass (L:6.0±0.5 W/kg; B:8.2±0.8 W/kg). In study #2, greater convective and evaporative heat transfer coefficients (P<0.05) were found in backs during live summer training camp drills, but these did not lead to a greater dry heat transfer or evaporative capacity. However, the maximum metabolic rate per unit mass was lower in linemen due to differences surface area-to-mass ratio. In conclusion, the greater heat strain previously reported in linemen likely arises, in part, from differences in sweating efficiency and body morphology.

This thesis examined why NCAA Division 1 American football “linemen” experience greater heat strain than “backs” during summer training camps. In study #1, exercise at a heat production of 350 W/m2 in a hot environment (Tdb:32.4±1.0ºC; Twb:26.3±0.6ºC) resulted in greater local sweating on the upper body (head, arm, shoulder and chest; all <0.05) and a greater core temperature (P=0.033) in linemen despite a ~25% lower heat production per unit mass (L:6.0±0.5 W/kg; B:8.2±0.8 W/kg). In study #2, greater convective and evaporative heat transfer coefficients (P<0.05) were found in backs during live summer training camp drills, but these did not lead to a greater dry heat transfer or evaporative capacity. However, the maximum metabolic rate per unit mass was lower in linemen due to differences surface area-to-mass ratio. In conclusion, the greater heat strain previously reported in linemen likely arises, in part, from differences in sweating efficiency and body morphology.

<p>Due to the profound restructuring and erosion of social services and social programs, health and social services have been reorganized using business models that prize efficiency and cost saving rather than client centered service. Literature on social work practice in this context highlights the pressure on practitioners to standardize their work in order to manage higher workloads and to give primacy to employing organizations’ budgetary interests, rather than the interests of clients, patients and communities. Within this regulation of practice lies the regulation of time, yet in the literature there is relatively little explicit focus on the temporal control of social workers, or on how social workers manage and negotiate institutional time controls.</p> <p>This study sought to explore the intricacies of social workers’ negotiation of time pressures in health care settings. It aimed to examine how social workers perceived these time pressures, the strategies they employ to accommodate multiple demands on their time and how, in the end these time pressures influence social work practice.</p> <p>A small qualitative study was employed, using personal interviews to explore the experience of social workers employed in the health care industry. Participants were chosen according to their unique experiences within the health care system. An analysis of participants’ accounts suggests that, in the face of continuous and ever present time pressures, social work in health care is changing. As case loads increase and become more complex, social workers often find themselves negotiating time in order to manage the unavoidable collision between clock time and process time.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Sustainable governance of natural resources is challenged by the poor understanding of complex human-nature couplings. Major advancements in resilience theory, acknowledging the importance of social-ecological linkages and the self-organizing capacity of social-ecological systems, provides a new perspective on research in sustainability science. Yet, limitations in methods and data for integrated studies of social-ecological systems limit progress in science and management. This PhD project aims to generate and test specific hypotheses building on social-ecological systems theory using a variety of methods and a long-term, multidimensional empirical dataset of the Baltic Sea social-ecological fisheries system. In paper 1, we ask which factors have impacted change in fisheries patterns in the Baltic Sea over a 15 year period, 1995-2009. We conclude that the responses of fishers are largely driven by top-down management regulations, which has favoured increasing scale of operations and specialization, and that the capacity of fishers to engage in ecosystem stewardship is low. Resilience could be enhanced through an increased focus on governance actions that can stimulate the self-organising capacity of the system Paper 2 focuses on one particular fishery, whose long-term dynamics have been strongly driven by an ecological regime-shift in the Baltic Sea. High potential profits and weak control has raised suspicions of widespread misreporting in this fishery. By developing a new method for reconstructing catches, we suggest that under-reporting has been significant, and likely driven by high economic incentives created by ill-designed policy. This misreporting risks contributing to a negative feed-back that substantially alters   the management cycle, and thereby constitutes a part of a social-ecological trap in this fishery. The research within this project so far indicates that there are good prospects for using the Baltic Sea as case for integrated social-ecological studies, aiming at informing resilience theory. Some ideas on future direction of the research are outlined.