Highly publicized media events involving African American men and the use of deadly force by police officers have occurred between 2013 and 2014. These events have emphasized the need to examine the influence of implicit bias training on police officers' decision-making processes. During the past two decades, Community Oriented Policing Services has invested several billion dollars in training programs designed to eliminate racial bias within the law enforcement community. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how implicit-bias training influences the decision-making processes of police officers. More specifically, this study examined the perceptions of police officers regarding the practical value of implicit-bias training and how the training influences their cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. An online questionnaire containing open-ended questions was administered to 32 sworn, full-time police officers who interact daily with members of diverse communities. The data were coded using evaluation coding, magnitude coding, and descriptive coding. This form of coding assisted in identifying attitudes and stereotypes as well as the impact of implicit bias training police officers' cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Participants reported that implicit bias training made them better prepared to manage their biases while interacting with diverse communities. The findings of this study will provide police agencies and law enforcement training facilitators with the tools they need to improve future training outcomes. Successfully training police officers on how to manage implicit bias during the decision-making process will reduce the potential for stereotyping.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka priming med exempels påverkan på skapelsers kreativitet. Effekterna av priming skulle testas i formen av egenskapspriming såväl som konceptuell priming och mätas utifrån både en användbarhetsaspekt och en originalitetsaspekt. Ett delsyfte var också att undersöka sambandet mellan intresset för att ta fram en skapelse och en skapelses grad av originalitet samt användbarhet. Primingeffekterna prövades genom ett experiment där 36 studenter delades in i 3 grupper som fick i uppgift att ta fram IT-lösningar för kollektivtrafiken. 2 av grupperna primades med var sitt exempel på hög originalitet respektive hög användbarhet. Effekterna av egenskapspriming undersöktes sedan genom en jämförelse mellan grupperna över hur stor andel av de framtagna lösningarna som innehöll egenskaper från exemplen. För att undersöka effekterna av konceptuell primingen gjordes en jämförelse av originaliteten och användbarhet hos dessa gruppers lösningar jämfört med de framtagna av en kontrollgrupp utan tillgång till exempel. Lösningarnas originalitet och användbarhet bedömdes av en expertgrupp bestående av forskare inom kreativitet och branschaktiva inom området. Denna expertgrupp bedömde även sitt intresse för att ta fram de olika lösningarna. Denna bedömning tillsammans med de två tidigare användes för att undersöka sambandet mellan intresset för en lösning och lösningens originalitet respektive användbarhet. Resultatet av studien visade på ett signifikant positivt samband hos båda grupperna av bedömare mellan en lösnings användbarhet och intresset för att ta fram lösningen. Ett signifikant positivt samband gällande en lösnings originalitet och intresset för denne kunde dock endast uppvisas hos forskare medan de branschaktiva visade på ett osignifikant negativt samband mellan de två. Resultatet av egenskapspriming och konceptuell priming visade inte överlag på några signifikanta skillnader mellan grupperna. Studien anses vara av vikt då den visar på hur en ökning av kreativiteten på skapelser inom en organisation inte behöver betyda en ökning av organisationens kreativitet p.g.a. ointresset i att omfamna och satsa på dessa lösningar. Vidare visar studien på hur primingeffekter är svåra att skapa i situationer som i högre grad ska efterlikna de i verkliga livet och hur vidare forskning behövs på området för att kartlägga variabler som påverkar priming och primings begränsningar. / The aim of the study was to examine priming with example’s impact on ideas creativity, regarding usability and novelty both as a result of targeting priming and conceptual priming. A subsidiary aim was to examine the relationship between an idea’s degree of originality and usefulness and the interest in pursuing the idea. The effects of priming were tried in an experiment involving 36 students who were asked to develop IT solutions for public transport. The students were randomly divided into two experimental groups and one control group. The members of the experimental group were primed with an example with high originality respectively usability. The solutions were given two indexes on how many of the properties of respective examples were found in the solutions. Their degree of originality and usefulness were also assessed by a group of experts. This group also assessed their interest in the respective solution. The study revealed a significant positive correlation between a solution's usability and interest of the solution. A positive significant correlation could also be seen between a solution's originality and the interest of the solution, but only in the group of analysts consisting of scientists. Among the industry-experts the results instead pointed toward a negative relationship between originality and interest, although a non-significant relationship. There were no significant differences between the group’s solutions regarding their degree of originality and usefulness nor the frequency in which features from the example was found in the solutions. The study is of importance because it shows how increases in the creativity of solutions produced by individuals and employees not necessarily lead to an increase in the creativity of an organization, due to lack of interest in embracing and invest in these creative solutions. The study also reflects the difficulties in transferring priming effects discovered in a lab environment to situations that more closely resembles those in real life. Further research is necessary to broaden the knowledge regarding variables that affects priming and the limits between which priming exist.

In recent years, amorphous oxide semiconductors have been studied due to their superior characteristics, such as transparent property, high electron mobility exceeding 10 cm2/V¡Es, and can be fabricated on plastic substrates at low temperatures. According to these advantages, a-IGZO thin-film transistors are promising as next-generation electronic devices. Although a-IGZO TFTs have such unique properties, the electrical performances are strongly dependent on its environment such as oxygen, water and visible light. In this study, the electrical characteristics of a-IGZO TFTs under positive bias stress with different ambient gases have been discussed. In particular, the total duration of the negative gate bias applied on the switching transistor is larger than that of the positive gate bias in display application. Therefore, the electrical stability under negative bias stress is vital to investigate. Moreover, a-IGZO TFT regarded as a panel switch may be exposed to visible light for the application of liquid crystal display. The electrical stability under illumination of visible light is also important to study. Experiment results show that device characteristics are affected under water-containing oxygen ambience. We indicates that the existence of water molecules can assist more oxygen to adsorb on the a-IGZO surface than the case without water assisting. That cause the variation of transfer curve under positive bias stress. However, the degradations in subthreshold swing and threshold voltage are caused by the state-related adsorption of water molecules under negative bias stress. Furthermore, adsorbed oxygen on the surface of a-IGZO can be desorbed by illumination of visible light, leading to large variation in transfer curve.

The key features of this dissertation pertain to limited investor attention and its indirect consequences of conservatism and representativeness biases that have impacts on the Taiwan Stock Market. Thus, this dissertation contributes to the empirical work on investors¡¦ limited attention and heterogeneous beliefs to public information, as well as representativeness heuristics. This study examines the market reaction of a sequential release of annual reports in Taiwan, in which different stages of attention-grabbing cause different market reactions. Moreover, investors with limited attention have an incomplete understanding about the content of the annual report, in which different years present significant positive or negative reactions of trading volume, and the evidence supports the hypothesis of limited attention. If people focus primarily on the strength of the evidence, they tend to neglect its weight and manifest representativeness bias. On the other hand, when people are unimpressed by the strength of the evidence, they focus too much on its weight and exhibit conservatism bias. Thus, this study distinguishes the behavioral biases between global representativeness bias and local representativeness bias. The results suggest that accounting performances globally have low strength but high weight features, leading investors to show conservatism bias, and other valuation ratios globally have high strength but low weight features, leading investors to exhibit representativeness bias. However, when global sequence is further decomposed into a local sequence, those behavioral biases disappear. This study also sheds light on how investors are sensitive to the streak length of performance, and the empirical evidence indicates that investors exhibit the gambler¡¦s fallacy to the trend of performance.

Escalation of commitment is the voluntary continuation of investing resources into what appears to be a failing course of action whose outcome is uncertain. Investigation into the escalation of commitment phenomenon is important to organizations because such behavior could result in grave economic loss. This research investigates two cognitive biases that we posit lead to IT escalation of commitment, namely, attribution bias and overconfidence in an escalation decision, as well as desire to rectify past outcomes (DRPO) for its potential role as a mediator. To test our research model, 160 IT managers participated in a web-based role-playing experiment. Attribution was manipulated at two levels (internal and external), creating two treatment conditions. We posited that the participants assigned to the internal attribution condition would escalate their commitment to the failing IT project to a greater extent than participants assigned to the external attribution condition; that individuals that have a high, versus low, level of overconfidence would have a greater tendency to escalate; and that DRPO would mediate the effects of attribution and overconfidence on escalation of commitment. Attribution bias was significant at the .1 level, but in the opposite direction of what was hypothesized; overconfidence showed a significant main effect on escalation. The effect of attribution bias on escalation was significantly mediated by DRPO, but the effect of overconfidence on escalation was not mediated by DRPO. Implications of these findings for both research and practice are discussed.

Les ARNs interagissant avec Piwi (ARNpi ou piRNA en anglais pour Piwi-interacting RNAs) interagissent avec les protéines de la branche PIWI de la famille des Argonautes. Ils participent à la répression des transposons dans la ligne germinale. Les ARNpi sont produits à partir de deux mécanismes: la biogenèse primaire et le cycle d'amplification Ping-Pong. Plusieurs questions fondamentales sur la biogenèse et la fonction des piRNAs sont encore ouvertes. Le travail de ce mémoire est concentré sur deux caractéristiques au niveau de la séquence dans les populations des ARNpi, le U1-biais et le biais de brin, dont les origines restent mystérieuses. Nos analyses ont révélé de nouvelles fonctions au protéines Piwi, dont les domaines MID et PIWI jouent un rôle essentiel dans la définition des deux biais. La structure cristalline du domaine MID de MIWI montre que l'uridine peut être favorisé comme premier nucléotide au niveau de l'extrémité 5' des ARNpi. De la même manière, nos résultats obtenus grâce aux études in vivo des protéines Piwi de Bombyx mori démontrent que le module MID-PIWI est essentiel pour déterminer le bias de brin des ARNpi s'associant avec les protéines Piwi. De plus, nous avons confirmé le rôle de la méthylation de la région N-terminale des protéines Piwi pour leur localisation dans la cellule. Ensemble, ces résultats offrent de nouveaux détails pour la compréhension de la biogenèse des ARNpi.Les protéines Piwi ne sont pas les seuls composants dans la voie des ARNpi. Des tests génétiques ainsi que des analyses biochimiques ont identifié plusieurs éléments impliqués dans la voie des ARNpi, cependant leurs fonctions restent obscures. J'ai étudié la protéine Vreteno, contenant des domaines Tudor, qui est impliquée dans le processus de biogenèse primaire des ARNpi. En utilisant la lignée cellulaire BmN4, nous avons identifié in vivo un complexe contenant Vreteno, des longues molécules d'ARN antisens, pouvant representer les précurseurs des ARNpi associés avec Siwi, ainsi que d'autres composants de la voie ARNpi, comme Ago3, BmTdrd12 et Spindle-E. De plus amples analyses sont nécessaires pour comprendre les fonctions de Vreteno dans la voie des ARNpi.Enfin, nous avons également étudié le rôle de l'hélicase à ARN Vasa dans la voie des piRNAs. Nos résultats démontrent que Vasa assemble un complexe régulé par l'ATP sur le ARN messager des transposons, afin de produire de nouveaux ARNpi secondaires avec orientation sens. En étudiant les différentes étapes de la voie des ARNpi, nos analyses ont fourni des informations importantes pour la compréhension de la biogénèse des ARNpi. / Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) associate to members of the PIWI clade of Argonaute proteins and are responsible for silencing of transposable elements in animal germ lines. piRNAs are produced through two biogenesis pathways, known as primary processing and Ping-Pong amplification cycle. There are many fundamental questions regarding piRNA biogenesis and function that are unsolved. In this thesis I have been focusing on the presence of two sequences features in piRNA populations, the U1-bias and the strand-bias, whose determination is not understood. Our analyses have revealed new features of the Piwi proteins, whose MID and PIWI domains play an essential role in the definition of both piRNA biases. The crystal structure of the MID domain of MIWI shows that uridine can be favored as the first nucleotide at the 5' end, while our in vivo results on Bombyx mori Piwi proteins demonstrate that the MID-PIWI module is essential to determine the strand bias of piRNAs that associate to the Piwi protein. Moreover we have confirmed the role of the methylation status of the N-terminus of Piwi protein for determining their localization. Altogether these findings provide new insights in the understanding of piRNA biogenesis.Piwi proteins are not the only components acting in the piRNA pathway. Genetic screenings and biochemical analyses have identified several other factors, which have been involved in the piRNA pathway, but whose functions remain elusive. I have focused on the Tudor domain-containing protein Vreteno, which has been involved in the primary biogenesis pathway. Using BmN4 cells, we have identified an in vivo complex of Vreteno, containing long antisense RNA molecules, which might represent the precursor of Siwi-piRNAs, and other piRNA known factors, like Ago3, BmTdrd12 and Spindle-E. Further analyses are required for the understanding of Vreteno functions in the piRNA pathway.Finally, we have also investigated the role of the RNA helicase Vasa in the piRNA pathway. Our results show that Vasa assembles an ATP-gated Ping-pong complex on transposon mRNAs to generate new sense-oriented secondary piRNAs. By looking at different step in the piRNA pathway our analyses have provided important insights for the understanding of the piRNA biogenesis.

abstract: Recent legislation allowing educational agencies to use Response to Intervention (RTI) in determining whether a child has a specific learning disability, coupled with a focus on large-scale testing and accountability resulted in the increasing use of curriculum based measurement (CBM) as a tool for understanding students' progress towards state standards, particularly in reading through the use of oral reading fluency measures. Extensive evidence of oral reading fluency's predictability of reading comprehension exists, but little research on differential effects across racial, gender, and socioeconomic subgroups is available. This study investigated racial, gender, and socioeconomic bias in DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (DIBELS ORF) probes predictive and concurrent relationship with MAP reading comprehension scores for African American and Caucasian students. Participants were 834 second through fifth grade students in a school district located in a southeastern US state. The dataset consisted of student fall and spring DIBELS ORF scores and spring MAP reading comprehension scores. Concurrent correlation results between spring DIBELS ORF and MAP reading comprehension scores were moderate to large and statistically significant across all grades and demographic groups; however, correlations between fall DIBELS ORF and MAP reading comprehension scores were generally weak. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to examine the best variable, or combination of variables, in predicting MAP reading comprehension scores. Models differed for each grade level; however, spring DIBELS ORF scores were always included, whether alone or in combination with demographic variables, in the best prediction model. Potthoff's procedure was used to simultaneously test for slope and intercept differences among regression equations to determine if DIBELS ORF scores from fall and spring differentially predicted MAP reading comprehension scores across demographic groups. Nine of 24 simultaneous contrasts demonstrated a significant effect; seven were related to race, one was related to gender, and one was related to socioeconomic status. Racial bias in predicting MAP reading comprehension performance from spring DIBELS ORF was found. Differential prediction among gender and SES groups was not consistent indicating little to no practical significance. Results are discussed in the context of practical implications of differential validity, both predictive and concurrent, and potential impact on disproportionality. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Psychology 2013

Today's world is an interconnected global village. Communication and business transactions are increasingly conducted in non-native languages. Literature suggests that biases are present when communicating in non-native languages; that a truth bias is present in first language communication, and a lie bias in second language communication. Less than 10% of South Africa's population identifies with English, the lingua franca of the country, as a first language. Not much research in the presence of bias in second language communication has been published in the South African multi-lingual context. This study evaluated the presences of bias within deception frameworks such as the Truth Default State and the veracity effect. This study investigated whether deception detection can be improved by modifying the conditions under which statements are given by placing statement providers under cognitive load. The accuracy of veracity judgment language profiling software, LIWC2015, using published deception language profiles was compared against the results of the participating veracity judges. Results of the study were mixed. It was consistent with extant literature in a presence of a truth bias overall, but mixed in terms of a lie bias. The results supported the Truth Default Theory and veracity effect frameworks. LIWC2015 performed marginally better than human judges in evaluating veracity.

Much research testing positive psychological interventions (PPIs) has focused on the outcome of emotion regulation (e.g., increased positive or decreased negative emotions and affect). On the other hand, most research testing the effects of attention bias modification (ABM) has focused on the process of emotion regulation (e.g., reducing biased attention towards threatening faces in those with social anxiety disorder). Evidence is sparse and inconsistent on the process of emotion regulation in PPIs and the outcome of emotion regulation in ABM programs. Furthermore, few studies have examined the combined effects of a positive ABM (PABM) with PPIs, which is the focus of the current investigation. The aim of the study is to examine two relationships: 1) the effects of the gratitude letter PPI on the process of emotion regulation and 2) the combined effects of the PABM program and the gratitude letter PPI on the process and outcome of emotion regulation. The researchers used a dot-probe task to bias attention. The dot-probe task presented positive-neutral stimuli pairs (e.g., babies; geometric pattern). In the train-positive group, the probe appeared behind the positive images 90% of the time, compared to 50% in the control group. The researchers used a gratitude letter PPI, where participants wrote a letter for 15 minutes to someone they have never thanked, compared to the control condition who wrote a letter about their morning routine. The results suggest that the gratitude letter PPI does not affect the process of emotion regulation via attentional biases but does increase positive affect in the short term. Further, the PABM program may not affect the outcome of emotion regulation but did demonstrate a biasing of reaction time to positive pictures. This biasing of reaction times in the dot-probe was not consistent with eye-gaze patterns to positive images, suggesting that the dot-probe task does not measure or manipulate attentional biases. Finally, combining the dot-probe task and gratitude letter PPI did not produce a stronger effect on the process and outcome of emotion regulation than the gratitude letter alone. The findings of the current study suggest that the gratitude letter may be an effective and quick intervention to increase positive affect, but that the intervention is not suitable for long-term changes after a single administration. Further, individuals should not expect the dot-probe task to bias attention and should not except the task to influence the outcome of emotion regulation. Instead, researchers could use the task to measure and manipulate one’s decision-making processing speed.

The association between economic freedom and economic growth has been largely explored by researchers and the overall ndings indicate a signi cant and positive relationship. The empirical literature, however, is subject to suer from bias. In this paper we collect 16,070 estimates from 69 studies and using recently developed meta-analytic techniques investigate the eect of publication and speci cation biases on the reported results. While our baseline analysis re- ports some evidence for publication bias, but not very strong and robust, and con rms the speci cation bias reported by previous reviews, we also nd that these results are aected by the inclusion of three in uential outliers in the data set. Once we trim these studies, there is no evidence of speci cation bias anymore and we nd evidence of a robust and strong publication bias. Further, after controlling for the bias, we nd that the true eect of economic freedom on growth is substantially smaller than the eect reported by the empirical literature. JEL Classi cation O43; P10; P12; C52 Keywords 'economic freedom', 'economic growth', 'publi- cation bias', 'speci cation bias', 'meta-analysis' Title Economic freedom and economic growth: A Meta-Analysis