Evidence from correlational studies suggests outdoor recreation may enhance participants’ environmental concern, but findings are inconclusive. Also, previous research has not systematically addressed the influence of interpretation services on environmental concern, and little research has been conducted in developing Eastern countries. Thus, this study’s objective was to determine whether recreation participation (appreciative vs. consumptive forms) and/or interpretation programs (based on Tilden’s principles of interpretation) influence Thai park visitors’ environmental concern (EC) EC was operationalized through the measurement of three variables: specific environmental concern (SEC), worldwide environmental concern (WEC), and environmental behavior (EB). Data were collected through an experimental design. Two hundred forty Thai students were systematically assigned to one of eight experimental conditions defined by recreation type (appreciative vs. consumptive), recreation activity nested within recreation type (nature photography, hiking, motorcycling, and motorboating), and Tildenian interpretation (interpretation service provided vs. not provided). Results suggest that appreciative recreation activities enhance environmental concern, and interpretation can mitigate effects of consumptive forms of recreation, particularly in terms of worldview environmental concern and environmental behavior. Future research should assess a relationship between recreation specialization and environmental concern and the impact of recreation participant and/or interpretation services on participants’ delightedness.

No description available.

Class of 2011 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To determine whether perceptions of drug disposal among patients are driven by environmental concerns or medication diversion, to determine the preferred method of medication disposal, and to identify related demographic characteristics. METHODS: This was a descriptive cross sectional study. The primary dependent variable is patients' perception of medication disposal. The secondary dependent variables include the impact of income and the preferred method of disposal. Demographic variables include age, medication use, education level, gender, and average household income. RESULTS: The paper survey was completed by 86 patients. Overall, study participants were more concerned with environmental concerns (69.6%, p<0.001) rather than with medication diversion (11.4%) or convenience (19.0%). In the disposal of medications, study participants preferred dropping off medications at a pharmacy (43.8%, p<0.001) to disposing medications at a secure drop off point (17.2%) , crushing medications into coffee grounds (28.9%), or mailing medications to a secure federal collection site (10.2%). Income level of the participants had no impact on their perception of drug disposal or preferred method of medication disposal. CONCLUSION: Patients' perception of drug disposal is more related to environmental concerns than with medication diversion or convenience. Patients' preferred method of medication disposal was pharmacy drop-off as opposed to driving to a secure medication drop off point, crushing medications into coffee grounds, or mailing medications to a secure federal site.

Throughout the literature varying opinions exist concerning the health outcomes, service utilization and patient satisfaction as they relate to maternal and infant care given by physicians versus midwifery care. This study looks at the following question; what differences are there in health outcomes, service utilization, and patient satisfaction, between women who are cared for by either physicians or midwives and vaginally deliver a singleton healthy baby in hospital? This study employs a secondary analysis of data from the TOMIS II study. The TOMIS II data was collected from 250 women in each of five hospital sites in Ontario in 2002. The analysis showed that, except for the breastfeeding, all of the measures of maternal and infant health outcome did not statistically differ between physician-care and midwifery care. With respect to service utilization, the results indicated that family physician visits, length of stay, and utilization of the Healthy babies, Healthy Children (HBHC) resulted in statistically significant lower service utilization by mothers in the midwifery group, while the other measures were found not to be different. Patient satisfaction measures revealed that women receiving midwifery services were much more satisfied with their care than were women receiving physician-based services. Five conclusions were drawn from this study; midwifery care is a viable option for maternity care in Ontario for low-risk birth mothers; the utilization of midwives reduces the total amount of services being used in the health care system; women are more satisfied with their care when they have midwives participating in all parts of their care; health policy in Ontario should focus its efforts to expand midwifery to make it a viable option for maternal and infant care to all healthy women; health care policy should support publicly funded midwifery in each of the jurisdictions in Canada, as a cost-effective approach to care with comparable outcomes. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Revision är en viktig funktion för bolags intressenter som en säkerhet att bolagets företagsinformation är att lita på. Revisionsskandaler runt om i världen har dock gjort att revisionskvaliteten ifrågasatts. I syfte att öka kvaliteten på revisionen har det införts krav på revisorsrotation för bolag av allmänt intresse i Sverige. För en personvald revisor får uppdragstiden som längst vara sju år. Sedan måste bolaget byta revisor. Vidare menar Martin Johansson, tidigare VD för Svenska Revisorsamfundet (SRS), att över 200 uppdrag per revisor påverkar revisionskvaliteten negativt och att ett spann mellan 70 och 150 uppdrag är optimalt.Studiens syfte är att beskriva och analysera om revisionsuppdragets längd och antalet uppdrag påverkar revisionskvaliteten och att diskutera detta i termer av oberoende och kompetens. Genom att mäta going concern-yttranden från revisorn räkenskapsåret innan det år ett bolag gick i konkurs visar studien inget samband mellan längden på revisionsuppdraget och revisionskvalitet. Det är således inte möjligt att slå fast att kortare eller längre revisionsuppdrag ger bättre eller sämre revisionskvalitet. Inte heller finner studien något samband mellan antalet uppdrag och revisionskvalitet. Studien finner således inte något optimalt antal uppdrag med hänsyn till revisionskvalitet. Däremot återfinns de undersökta revisorerna i spannet strax ovanför 70 till 150 uppdrag. / Audit is an important function for corporate stakeholders as an assurance that the company's corporate information is to be trusted. Due to audit scandals around the world, the quality of the audit has been questioned. In order to increase the quality of the audit, requirements have been introduced for auditor rotation for companies of general interest in Sweden. For a person-elected auditor, the term of office may not exceed seven years. Later the company must change the auditor. Furthermore, Martin Johansson, former CEO of the Swedish Auditors' Association (SRS), believes that over 200 assignments per auditor adversely affect the quality of the audit and that a range between 70 and 150 assignments is optimal.The purpose of the study is to describe and analyze whether the length of the audit assignment and the number of assignments affect the quality of the audit and to discuss this in terms of independence and competence. By measuring going concern statements from the auditor for the fiscal year before the company went into bankruptcy, the study shows no relationship between the length of the audit assignment and the quality of the audit. It isn’t possible to state that shorter or longer audit assignments provide better or worse audit quality. Nor does the study find any connection between the number of assignments and audit quality. The study doesn’t find an optimal number of assignments with regard to audit quality. By contrast, the auditors surveyed are just above the 70 to 150 assignments.

No description available.

Drawing on the relevant psychology literature, three procedural variables that could influence the auditors' information processing when making going concern opinion decisions were identified. These procedural variables are the decision frame, the order in which evidence is evaluated and the initial belief held by the auditor. With respect to the decision frame, it was predicted that belief revision after processing contrary information (mitigating factors) is higher for auditors who frame their initial hypothesis in terms of viability (failure). This prediction hinges on the assumption that more weight is put on disconfirmatory information than on confirmatory information, holding "information content" constant. Second, denoting P(C) as the auditors' judgment just before processing contrary information (mitigating factors), it was hypothesized that contrary information (mitigating factors) has a bigger effect on belief revision as ex ante P(C) increases (decreases). Finally with respect to the order of evaluating evidence, it was posited that recency effects occur in belief revision and that these recency effects will be manifest in the auditors' opinion decision. These predictions were tested in a field experiment using 70 experienced auditors from four Big Eight firms. Results of the experiment provided support for the predictions relating to the initial belief and the order in which evidence was evaluated. However, the predictions relating to the decision frame were not supported. Furthermore, the study indicated that auditors exhibited considerable variability in their interpretation of substantial doubt (the standard of proof in SAS 59). Whereas some auditors interpreted this requirement as the preponderance of probability, others required a substantially higher level of probability as a threshold of proof for issuing unqualified opinions. Incidentally, it was discovered that this variability was partly accounted for by auditors' firm affiliation. Implications of these results for the audit review, the standard setting process and the nature of expertise in auditing are discussed.

Security analysts play a central role in the functioning of financial markets through their privileged position as intermediaries between firms and investors. Analyst activity is important to reduce information uncertainty but it is not unbiased. On the one hand, the literature shows that these sophisticated agents promote market efficiency by facilitating the incorporation of new information into stock prices. On the other hand, there is evidence that analysts underreact to negative information and that they tend to be optimistic about firms they follow. Recent studies show that the market does not assimilate immediately the disclosure of a first-time going-concern modified (GCM) audit report. This accounting event is part of a wide range of bad news events which investors are particularly inefficient at dealing with. My thesis explores how analysts deal with the GCM audit report and whether they facilitate the correct assimilation of such information into stock prices. In particular, I use a sample of 924 firms for which their auditors disclose a GCM audit report for the first-time between 01.01.1994 and 31.12.2005. I find that security analysts anticipate the publication of a first-time GCM audit report. My results show that within the one-year period before the GCM disclosure, security analysts downgrade the average recommendation for GCM firms from “buy” to “hold” whereas similar non-GCM firms maintain an average “buy” rating. A number of robustness tests confirm that this finding is not sensitive to the criteria used to select the non-GCM control firm. Moreover, analysts are more likely to cease coverage of GCM firms prior to the GCM event than for matched control firms. In addition, I show that analysts react to the publication of a GCM audit report by ceasing coverage of GCM firms. My results suggest that investors do not recognize an average “hold” recommendation for a stock of a firm immediately before the announcement of a GCM audit report as an unfavourable message even considering that it represents a downgrade from a previous “buy” rating. In particular, I find that the negative short-term market reaction to the publication of a GCM audit report is significantly higher for firms with pre-event analyst coverage compared to firms with no pre-event analyst coverage. This suggests that analyst activity may be misleading the market in terms of the saliency of pre-GCM unfavourable news by issuing “disconfirming opinions” to the market and thus increasing the “surprise” associated with the publication of a GCM audit report. In addition, I show that analyst post-GCM coverage does not increase the efficiency with which the market assimilates the GCM audit report into stock prices. In particular, I fail to find significant differences between the post-GCM return performance of covered firms compared to firms with no analyst coverage. However, I show that the percentage of covered firms following the GCM disclosure is significantly higher for those with best post-GCM return performance than for those with worst post-GCM return performance. This suggests that post-GCM return performance explains the decision of analysts to cover GCM firms but analyst coverage does not influence significantly the post-GCM return performance of such firms. Overall, my thesis contributes to the accounting and finance literature by showing that analyst activity is not providing investors with adequate value-relevant information for their investment decisions in the GCM bad news domain. Firstly, the reluctance of analysts to issue a clear unfavourable message about the stocks of GCM firms seems to explain why the “surprise” associated with the publication of a GCM audit report is greater for covered firms than for non-covered firms. Secondly, the tendency of analysts to cease coverage of GCM firms and the low level of analyst coverage following the GCM announcement may explain why analyst coverage does not reduce the magnitude of the post-GCM negative drift. As such, analyst contribution to the price-discovery process in this case is likely confined to firms with high levels of analyst coverage.

A legacy software system can be taken to consist of N methods which contain within their implementations the intended activities and functions of the system. These activities and functions are referred to as concerns. Some of these concerns are typically implemented and used in multiple methods throughout the system and these are deemed to be crosscutting concerns. Through the use of an aspect-oriented programming paradigm, the implementation and use of these crosscutting concerns can be abstracted into aspects. In order to refactor the system, the process of aspect mining is carried out to identify the crosscutting concerns in the software system. Once identified, the crosscutting concerns can then be refactored into aspects. Clustering-based aspect mining techniques make use of a vector space model to represent the source code to be mined. In this investigation, the individual methods of the software system were represented by a d-dimensional vector by mapping a method M to the vector V where the components of the vector V were values derived from applying a source code metric to each method M. These vector space models were then processed through the k-means++ clustering algorithm and the resulting cluster configurations were then evaluated to assess the quality of the results with respect to the identification of crosscutting concerns. This research studied the effect that the number of dimensions of a vector space model has on the results of a clustering-based aspect mining algorithm. Several vector space models were defined and principal component analysis was used to reduce the dimensionality of the models. Each of the models was processed multiple times through the aspect mining algorithm and the distributions of the collected measures were tested for statistically significant differences using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The results indicate that changes in the number of dimensions of a vector space model can produce significant effects in the collected measures. In addition, the measures used to assess the performance of an aspect mining process need to be analyzed for underlying relationships.

Thesis advisor: Richard M. Kearney / This dissertation exposes the significance of ‘self-disruption’ in ethical development (the process of understanding how to flourish), especially as incited through conversation. By ‘self-disruption’, I mean the experience of being torn away from self-concern (which is a self-reflective enterprise) by something other. ‘Self-concern’ here refers to one’s attachment to one’s projects and plans—including the future self that one seeks to produce (qua preservation of its current identity). This study engages the history of ethical thinking, but it is not antiquarian. To make my case, I primarily rely on Emmanuel Levinas’s ethical metaphysics and critically interpret and draw from insights within 1) Kant’s account of the moral self, 2) Aristotle’s account of the virtuous soul, and 3) the teleological account of the self that we find in contemporary virtue ethics. My claim is that what is latent in each of these accounts is the pivotal role of having one’s attention arrested by ‘the other’, and that fostering this phenomenon belongs to the work of moral philosophy understood as moral cultivation. This research homes in on key discussions within Anglo-American ethics, particularly those that stem from the reevaluation of the nature and task of moral philosophy in the 20th-century. I am skeptical as to whether the resulting Aristotelian virtue ethics is as radical as its advocates claim, and I challenge its reliance on narrative coherence. I do not seek to deny the narrative dimensions of self-understanding, but I do want to underscore the ethical importance of welcoming their disruption. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.