The study reports on the development of a photo therapy tool for educational psychologists within the South African context. A literature study explores the nature, advantages, characteristics and the application of photo therapy with clients in a therapeutic setting. The developmental intervention research design guided the practical development of an electronic photo therapy tool that can be applied by educational psychologists in a therapy setting with clients. The empirical research is qualitative in nature, as the effectiveness of the newly developed photo therapy tool is evaluated by emerging adults and educational psychologists as an intervention strategy. In order to accomplish this purpose, emerging adults, as well as educational psychologists shared their perceptions of the newly developed photo therapy tool. Thus the usefulness of the photo therapy tool was investigated as an intervention approach. Qualitative data generation techniques, focus group interviews and photographs were utilised. The research results show that the newly developed electronic photo therapy tool has the potential, as a modern therapeutic tool, to be used by educational psychologists as an intervention strategy. The developmental intervention research design is a continuous process, and as the life world is forever changing, improvements to the photo therapy tool can always be added according to new suggestions and ideas. The findings allow theorisation about the significance of the photo therapy tool. The study further determines that there is definite potential in the electronically created photo therapy tool, as both the young adults and the educational psychologists perceived the photo therapy tool as a possible and valuable tool in the therapeutic intervention process. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Educational Psychology)

Esta pesquisa inova ao investigar a associação de práticas de governança e de características específicas de fundos de pensão brasileiros com o desempenho dos investimentos. Déficits crescentes observados desde 2011, combinados com casos de corrupção e gestão temerária, são fatores que podem contestar a efetividade de fundos de pensão e lançar questionamentos sobre a previdência complementar fechada. O estudo utiliza dados coletados de demonstrações contábeis anuais auditadas de 2011 a 2015 de 41 fundos de pensão do país e que possuem sob a gestão 72% dos investimentos do total das entidades do Brasil. As informações sobre práticas de governança foram obtidas de relatórios internos dos fundos de pensão disponíveis em seus sítios eletrônicos e, também de plataformas eletrônicas como Bloomberg, LinkedIn e Google. Foi desenvolvido estudo quantitativo para investigar o problema de aspectos de governança e de características específicas em fundos de pensão brasileiros e que podem impactar de forma diferenciada o retorno dos ativos sob a gestão. O experimento do trabalho testou dados em painel através do método dos momentos generalizados em dois estágios com uso de variáveis instrumentais. Os resultados indicam evidências de impacto positivo no desempenho dos investimentos quando há uso de melhores práticas de governança como o comitê de investimentos. Sugere-se que estão sendo efetivos a avaliação e o controle de riscos sob esta prática e em benefício dos planos sob a gestão. Porém, há evidências de associação negativa de características no nível destas organizações sobre o retorno dos investimentos. Dentre as características que puderam ser observadas, os resultados sugerem que conexões com governo pelo tipo de patrocínio e existência de contratos de gestão externa dos investimentos por fundo de pensão com patrocinador do setor financeiro, podem influenciar a busca de outros interesses que não o melhor retorno aos planos de benefícios. Entretanto, a partir das mesmas características apresentam-se evidências de associação positiva com uso de melhores práticas de governança. Entende-se que pode haver o incentivo de se manter as condições para atendimento dos interesses políticos de suas relações. Os resultados desta pesquisa trazem contribuições para a discussão de características no nível dos fundos de pensão que podem influenciar o comportamento de seus executivos e para o debate da governança dessas organizações no país. Entende-se que estas contribuições podem ser aplicadas no contexto de demais economias emergentes. Por fim, a pesquisa sugere não ser óbvio que o monitoramento e controle pelos órgãos de supervisão e regulação atual sejam suficientes para evitar a evolução de déficits nos fundos de pensão e de impacto social no longo prazo. O argumento é que sem mecanismos de governança adequados às características no nível das entidades, os executivos em fundos de pensão podem não atuar no interesse único dos participantes dos planos de benefícios. / This research innovates by investigating the association of governance practices and specific characteristics of Brazilian pension funds with the performance of investments. Increasing deficits observed since 2011, combined with cases of corruption and reckless management, are factors that can challenge the effectiveness of pension funds and raise questions about closed private pension plans. The study uses data collected from audited annual financial statements between 2011 and 2015 from 41 pension funds that accounting for 72% of investments in this system. Information on pension fund governance practices was obtained from internal reports available on its websites and also from electronic platforms such as Bloomberg, LinkedIn, and Google. A quantitative study was developed to investigate the problem of governance aspects, and specific characteristics of them that may have a different impact on the return of assets under management. The work experiment tested panel data through the generalized method of moments (GMM) in two stages and use of instrumental variables. The results indicate evidence of a positive impact on the performance of asset under management in the use of governance best-practices such as investment committee. It is suggested that under this practice, risk assessment and control are being effective for the benefit of plans under the management of pension funds. However, there is evidence of a negative association at the organization-level on the return of investments. The results demonstrate that characteristics such as the government connections by the type of sponsorship and the outsourcing of the investment management by pension funds with sponsor from the financial sector can influence the pursuit of interests other than the best return of investments for the benefit plans. However, these same characteristics present evidence of a positive association with the use of governance best-practices. It is understood that the incentive would be to maintain the conditions to attend the political interests of their relations. The results of this research bring contributions to the discussion of characteristics at the level of pension funds that can influence the behavior of its executives and to the debate of their corporate governance in the country. It is understood that these contributions can be applied in the context of other emerging economies. Finally, this paper suggests that it isn´t obvious that monitoring and controlling by current supervisory and regulatory bodies are sufficient to avoid the evolution of deficits in pension funds and greater social impact in the long term. The argument is that without appropriated governance mechanisms to entity-level characteristics, pension fund executives may not act in the sole interest of participants.

L’expérience utilisateur est récemment devenue un sujet central dans la conception de produits ou services. Avec la démocratisation de la Réalité Virtuelle (RV), de plus en plus d’acteurs économiques prennent conscience du potentiel de la RV dans leurs secteurs respectifs.Dans ce contexte de plus en plus dynamique, l’expérience utilisateur (UX) permet d’anticiper les attentes des utilisateurs et des concepteurs afin de proposer l’expérience la plus satisfaisante possible. De plus, au travers de l’anticipation de l’expérience utilisateur, nous sommes en mesure de prédire de plus en plus précisément le degré d’adoption d’une solution technologique par les futurs utilisateurs. Nous avons aujourd’hui compris que la seule dimension technologique n’est plus suffisante pour assurer la réussite d’un produit matériel et/ou logiciel. En revanche, ce produit doit correspondre à l’usage que l’utilisateur compte en faire, et plus encore, il doit offrir une expérience unique, au travers de sensations, de perceptions, d’émotions et de réflexion, induisant un degré de satisfaction le plus élevé possible.Un consensus est depuis longtemps établi sur le fait que jouer, créer, apprendre ensemble est plus efficace et amusant qu’une activité solitaire. Partager et communiquer est primordial, c’est au travers des interactions sociales avec nos semblables que nous sommes capables de combler nombre de nos besoins, des plus pragmatiques aux plus éthérés. Nous avons, au travers de l’étude empirique conduite dans le cadre de cette thèse, apporté une meilleure compréhension de l’impact des interactions sociales (par la modalité vocale) dans le processus d’expérience utilisateur en 3D-IVE (3D Immersive Virtual Environment). À l’aide d’un état de l’art s’appuyant sur les études existantes de l’impact de l’interaction sociale sur la présence virtuelle (sentiment d’être là) ou l’engagement de l’utilisateur (flow). Nous proposons une vision plus holistique de cet impact par une étude centrée sur l’expérience utilisateur globale.Pour ce faire, nous avons conduit trois expérimentations immergeant des binômes d’utilisateurs dans un 3D-IVE. Par la répartition des participants en deux échantillons, l’un étant en mesure de communiquer vocalement, l’autre ne l’étant pas, nous avons pu comparer des données quantitatives et qualitatives afin de mettre en exergue l’impact des interactions sociales (vocales) sur l’expérience vécue. Les résultats quantitatifs obtenus ont confirmé nos postulats quant à l’impact bénéfique de l’interaction sociale (vocale) sur les performances des utilisateurs. Fait surprenant, nous avons aussi observé que la présence virtuelle ressentie tendait à être plus forte lorsque les participants, ne pouvant pas communiquer vocalement, se complétaient par le phénomène naturel de « translucence ». Toutefois, nous avons dû pondérer ces résultats, eu égard aux groupes de discussion qui ont fait émerger des différences d’appréhension de la performance, de la présence virtuelle et sociale. Cette triangulation entre quantitatif objectif, quantitatif subjectif et qualitatif a confirmé la nature variable de l’UX (en fonction de l’utilisateur et du temps) et l’influence forte de la nature de l'activité de l’expérimentation.Nos travaux ont permis de valider la capacité des environnements immersifs simples (logiciel de jeu Minecraft) à générer un bon niveau de présence virtuelle et d’engagement et, de manière générale, un haut niveau de satisfaction chez les utilisateurs. Nous apportons aussi un éclairage sur les méthodes à employer dans ce type de contexte vis-à-vis de la conception des tâches à accomplir; en effet, une même tâche présentée différemment peut induire une expérience assez dissemblable. Malgré la difficulté à généraliser un résultat dû à la nature très variable de l’expérience utilisateur, nous pensons que nos travaux contribueront à une plus grande compréhension de l’impact des interactions sociales vocales sur l’UX dans les 3D-IVEs. / User experience has recently become a central issue regarding to the design of products or services. With the democratization of Virtual Reality (VR), more and more economic actors start to being aware of the potential of VR in their respective sectors.In this increasingly dynamic context, user experience (UX) allows the anticipation of users’ and designers’ expectations in order to offer the most satisfying experience as possible. In addition, through the anticipation of user experience, we are able to predict more precisely the adoption level of a technological solution by future users. We have understood today that the only technological dimension is no longer enough to ensure the success of a hardware and/or software product. However, this must fit to the use that user will have of it, and more, it must provide a unique experience, through sensations, perceptions, emotions and thinking, inducing the highest satisfaction possible.A consensus has been established since a long time about the fact that play, create, learn together are more effective and fun than a lonely activity. Share and communicate is a primary need, it is through social interactions with our peers that we are able to fulfill many of our needs, from the most pragmatic to the most ethereal. We have, through the empirical study conducted as part of this thesis, brought a better understanding of the impact of social interactions (vocal mode) on the user experience process in a 3D-IVE (3D Immersive Virtual Environment). Through a literature review based on existing studies of the impact of social interaction on virtual presence (feeling of being there) or on users’ engagement (flow), we propose a more holistic view of this impact by a study focused on the overall user experience.With this aim, we have conducted three experiments immersing pairs of users in a 3D-IVE. By the division of participants into two samples, one being able to vocally communicate, the other not being so, we were able to compare quantitative and qualitative data to highlight the impact of social interactions (voice) on the user experience. Obtained quantitative results have confirmed our assumptions regarding the beneficial impact of social interaction (voice) on user performance. Surprisingly, we also observed that the perceived virtual presence tended to be higher when participants that were not able to communicate vocally, relied on the natural phenomenon of “translucence”. However, we had to balance these results, given to focus groups that have arisen differences regarding to the apprehension of performances, virtual and social presence. This triangulation between objective quantitative, subjective quantitative and qualitative data has confirmed the variable nature of the UX (depending on the user and time) and the strong influence of the nature of the activity of the experimentation.Our studies have validated the ability of simple immersive environments (Minecraft game software) to generate a high level of virtual presence and engagement, and in general, a high level of satisfaction among users. We also provide an insight into methods to be used in this type of context regarding to the design of tasks. Indeed, the same task presented differently can induce a quite dissimilar experience. Despite the difficulty to generalize a result due to the highly variable nature of user experience, we believe that our work will contribute to a greater understanding of the impact of vocal social interactions on UX in 3D-IVEs.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-10-31T18:21:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Henrique da Luz_.pdf: 4714328 bytes, checksum: 7e4a6b2e242fb6f4b28c3d6deef89c2a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-31T18:21:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Henrique da Luz_.pdf: 4714328 bytes, checksum: 7e4a6b2e242fb6f4b28c3d6deef89c2a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-20 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / UNISINOS - Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos / As mudanças na sociedade e no ambiente organizacional têm ensejado diferentes formas de se pensar a estratégia ao longo do tempo. Nesse sentido, a presente tese busca analisar como o contexto de interação, conectividade e cooperação favorece ou não a adoção de estratégia emergente na lógica da multidão, com aportes metodológicos da Teoria Ator-Rede (ANT). Para tanto, realiza-se uma pesquisa qualitativa, com abordagem exploratória, analisando-se dois casos – O Espaço Comum Luiz Estrela (ECLE) e o Movimiento 15 de Mayo (15M) – que atuam em ambientes marcados pelas características citadas. Pode-se concluir que o estrategizar dos casos estudados assume lógicas da multidão, caracterizando-se por serem emergentes, auto-organizados, fruto das interações entre os praticantes humanos (singularidades) e não humanos, legitimando-se em forma de espiral e tendo governança enquanto abertura. É um estrategizar marcado pelo uso das tecnologias da informação e comunicação e pela participação mais direta, onde as interações e agências ocorrem por meio das diferenças e do comum, numa perspectiva de uno pelo múltiplo – agências e interações na lógica da multidão. São características que não constituem um modelo, mas uma lógica de estrategizar e que assumem formatos diferentes nos casos estudados. Conclui-se ainda que as inspirações metodológicas da ANT, tais como olhar a realidade de forma não essencialista, numa lógica performativa, valorizando as diferenças e considerando a atuação dos atores humanos e não humanos são adequadas para o estudo dessa lógica de estratégia. Diante do exposto, afirma-se que a presente tese contribui para avançar teoricamente nas formas de se pensar as agências, as relações entre microações e macrocontexto, bem como no entendimento do mistério, da experimentação e das diferenças como potência estratégica. Avança também construindo uma estratégia na lógica da multidão, adequada a contextos complexos, próprios da realidade atual e sugerindo inspirações metodológicas para sua apreensão e análise. Por fim, permite às organizações estudadas uma melhor compreensão das suas práticas estratégicas e da sua potência. / Changes in the society and the organizational environment have given rise to different forms of thinking strategy over time. In this sense, the present dissertation seeks to analyze how the context of interaction, connectivity and cooperation favors or not the adoption of an emerging strategy in the logic of the crowd, with methodological contributions by the Actor-Network Theory (ANT). For this, we have conducted a qualitative research with an exploratory approach to analyzing two cases: Espaço Comum Luiz Estrela (ECLE) and Movimiento 15 de Mayo (15M), which act in environments marked by such characteristics. We conclude that the strategizing of the cases studied assumes a logic of crowd for being emerging and self-organized, a result of interactions between the human and non-human practitioners (singularities), legitimizing themselves in the form of a spiral and having governance as openness. It is a strategizing marked by the use of information and communication technologies and by a more direct participation, where interactions and agencies occur through the differences and the commons under a perspective of the uno through the multiple – agencies and interactions in the logic of the crowd. They are characteristics that do not constitute a model, but a logic of strategizing and take up different shapes in the cases studied. We also come to the conclusion that the methodological inspirations by the ANT, such as looking reality in a non-essentialistic way in a performative logic, valuing differences and considering the agency of human and non-human actors, are appropriate for the study of this strategy logic. Furthermore, we affirm that the present dissertation contributes to advancing theoretically in the forms of thinking the agencies, the relationships between micro-actions and micro-contexts, as well as to the understanding of the mystery, experimentation and differences as a strategic power. It also advances by building a strategy in the logic of the crowd suitable for complex contexts, typical of the current moment, and suggesting methodological inspirations for its apprehension and analysis. Finally, this study allows the organizations studied a better comprehension of their strategic practices and their power.

Traditional students enroll in post-secondary institutions during emerging adulthood. College enrollment is increasing and adult weight gain occurs most rapidly during the college-age years, with poor food decisions as a potential contributing factor. The present study examined the awareness, perception, and self-reported purchasing behaviors of college students regarding four front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labeling systems and symbols. Students were sent a 24-question web-based survey, with 908 completed surveys that met the research criteria. There were 888 (98.3%) respondents who recognized at least one of the four presented FOP nutrition labels. There were no significant differences between the groups that recognized one to four of the FOP nutrition labels in their stated likelihood to purchase foods with the specified labels. Students’ awareness of four commercial FOP nutrition labeling systems and symbols on product packaging did not have an impact on their food purchasing behaviors.

Le virus Nipah (NiV) est un virus hautement pathogène responsable d’encéphalites et de syndromes respiratoires sévères chez l’humain. Les chauves-souris appartenant au genre Pteropus sont le réservoir naturel du NiV et ne développent pas de symptômes cliniques d’infection. Comprendre les relations entre l’hôte réservoir et le pathogène requiert la disponibilité de modèles pertinents pour l’étude des interactions. Les études portent à la fois sur le virus et son hôte. Ainsi, nous avons caractérisé phylogénétiquement la souche cambodgienne du NiV isolée de chauves-souris Pteropus et nous l’avons comparée avec les souches isolées chez l’homme. De plus, en absence du génome de référence pour l’espèce de chauve-souris Pteropus giganteus, nous avons séquencé et assemblé le génome de cette espèce, hôte réservoir de la souche NiV-Bangladesh, qui est en circulation actuellement. Enfin, afin d’obtenir des phénotypes cellulaires plus pertinents que des cellules immortalisées pour l’étude des interactions entre le NiV et les chauves-souris du genre Pteropus – les seules disponibles actuellement - nous avons utilisé la reprogrammation somatique sur des cellules primaires de chauve-souris Pteropus. Cette technique permet d’obtenir des cellules souches présentant la capacité d’autorenouvellement et de différenciation. En utilisant une combinaison originale de trois facteurs de transcription, nous avons généré les premières cellules reprogrammées de chauves-souris Pteropus exprimant des caractéristiques de cellules souches. Nous avons démontré que ces cellules sont très susceptibles à l’infection par le NiV mais incapables de produire de l’interféron et d’activer les cascades de signalisations antivirales en réponse à une stimulation avec de l’ARN double brin, contrairement aux cellules primaires. Le développement de ce modèle original ouvre de nouvelles perspectives pour l’étude des interactions entre l’hôte réservoir et le pathogène et pour l’identification de facteurs contrôlant la susceptibilité à l’infection par le NiV, et potentiellement par d’autres virus hébergés par des chauves-souris. / Nipah virus (NiV) is a highly pathogenic virus that causes encephalitis and severe respiratory syndromes in humans. Pteropus bats are the reservoir of NiV and do not show any clinical symptoms. In order to understand the host reservoir - pathogen interactions, the relevant models are needed. Such studies focus on both the virus and its host. A phylogenetically characterization of the NiV Cambodian strain obtained from Pteropus bats was performed and this virus was compared with human ones. In addition, we sequenced and assembled the genome of Pteropus giganteus bat, the natural host of the NiV-Bangladesh strain, which is currently circulating. Up to date, most studies have used immortalized primary cells that are not natural target of the virus. In order to get reprogrammed stem cells, a somatic reprogramming approach was applied to various Pteropus primary cells. The reprogrammed cells are capable of self-renew and differente in different cell lineages. Using an original mix of transcription factors, we derived reprogrammed cells exhibiting stem cells features. We demonstrated the high susceptibly of these cells to henipavirus infections compared with the very low level of infection of the initial primary cells. Generated bat reprogrammed cells do not induce interferon production and signalisation in response to dsRNA. The development of this original model opens new perspectives on virus-host interaction studies, especially that of cellular anti-viral response by identifying factors controlling either susceptibility or restriction to the NiV infection, and possibly other viruses hosted by bats.

Modern computing workloads such as machine learning and data analytics perform simple computations on large amounts of data. Traditional von Neumann computing systems, which consist of separate processor and memory subsystems, are inefficient in realizing modern computing workloads due to frequent data transfers between these subsystems that incur significant time and energy costs. In-memory computing embeds computational capabilities within the memory subsystem to alleviate the fundamental processor-memory bottleneck, thereby achieving substantial system-level performance and energy benefits. In this dissertation, we explore a new generation of in-memory computing architectures that are enabled by emerging memory technologies and new CMOS-based memory cells. The proposed designs realize Boolean and non-Boolean computations natively within memory arrays.<br><div><br></div><div>For Boolean computing, we leverage the unique characteristics of emerging memories that allow multiple word lines within an array to be simultaneously enabled, opening up the possibility of directly sensing functions of the values stored in multiple rows using single access. We propose Spin-Transfer Torque Compute-in-Memory (STT-CiM), a design for in-memory computing with modifications to peripheral circuits that leverage this principle to perform logic, arithmetic, and complex vector operations. We address the challenge of reliable in-memory computing under process variations utilizing error detecting and correcting codes to control errors during CiM operations. We demonstrate how STT-CiM can be integrated within a general-purpose computing system and propose architectural enhancements to processor instruction sets and on-chip buses for in-memory computing. <br></div><div><br></div><div>For non-Boolean computing, we explore crossbar arrays of resistive memory elements, which are known to compactly and efficiently realize a key primitive operation involved in machine learning algorithms, i.e., vector-matrix multiplication. We highlight a key challenge involved in this approach - the actual function computed by a resistive crossbar can deviate substantially from the desired vector-matrix multiplication operation due to a range of device and circuit level non-idealities. It is essential to evaluate the impact of the errors introduced by these non-idealities at the application level. There has been no study of the impact of non-idealities on the accuracy of large-scale workloads (e.g., Deep Neural Networks [DNNs] with millions of neurons and billions of synaptic connections), in part because existing device and circuit models are too slow to use in application-level evaluation. We propose a Fast Crossbar Model (FCM) to accurately capture the errors arising due to crossbar non-idealities while being four-to-five orders of magnitude faster than circuit simulation. We also develop RxNN, a software framework to evaluate DNN inference on resistive crossbar systems. Using RxNN, we evaluate a suite of large-scale DNNs developed for the ImageNet Challenge (ILSVRC). Our evaluations reveal that the errors due to resistive crossbar non-idealities can degrade the overall accuracy of DNNs considerably, motivating the need for compensation techniques. Subsequently, we propose CxDNN, a hardware-software methodology that enables the realization of large-scale DNNs on crossbar systems with minimal degradation in accuracy by compensating for errors due to non-idealities. CxDNN comprises of (i) an optimized mapping technique to convert floating-point weights and activations to crossbar conductances and input voltages, (ii) a fast re-training method to recover accuracy loss due to this conversion, and (iii) low-overhead compensation hardware to mitigate dynamic and hardware-instance-specific errors. Unlike previous efforts that are limited to small networks and require the training and deployment of hardware-instance-specific models, CxDNN presents a scalable compensation methodology that can address large DNNs (e.g., ResNet-50 on ImageNet), and enables a common model to be trained and deployed on many devices. <br></div><div><br></div><div>For non-Boolean computing, we also propose TiM-DNN, a programmable hardware accelerator that is specifically designed to execute ternary DNNs. TiM-DNN supports various ternary representations including unweighted (-1,0,1), symmetric weighted (-a,0,a), and asymmetric weighted (-a,0,b) ternary systems. TiM-DNN is an in-memory accelerator designed using TiM tiles --- specialized memory arrays that perform massively parallel signed vector-matrix multiplications on ternary values per access. TiM tiles are in turn composed of Ternary Processing Cells (TPCs), new CMOS-based memory cells that function as both ternary storage units and signed scalar multiplication units. We evaluate an implementation of TiM-DNN in 32nm technology using an architectural simulator calibrated with SPICE simulation and RTL synthesis. TiM-DNN achieves a peak performance of 114 TOPs/s, consumes 0.9W power, and occupies 1.96mm2 chip area, representing a 300X improvement in TOPS/W compared to a state-of-the-art NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPU. In comparison to popular quantized DNN accelerators, TiM-DNN achieves 55.2X-240X and 160X-291X improvement in TOPS/W and TOPS/mm2, respectively.<br></div><div><br></div><div>In summary, the dissertation proposes new in-memory computing architectures as well as addresses the need for scalable modeling frameworks and compensation techniques for resistive crossbar based in-memory computing fabrics. Our evaluations show that in-memory computing architectures are promising for realizing modern machine learning and data analytics workloads, and can attain orders-of-magnitude improvement in system-level energy and performance over traditional von Neumann computing systems. <br></div>

This dissertation identifies key determinants of outbound cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by emerging Asian acquirers during 2001-2012. Using a zero-inflated model that takes into account different mechanisms governing country pairs that never engage in cross-border M&As and country pairs that actively participate in cross-border M&As, I uncover unique patterns for emerging Asian acquirers. Emerging Asian acquirers originate from countries with lower corporate tax rates than those countries where their targets are located. Furthermore, the negative impact of an international double tax burden is significantly larger than that found in previous studies. While country governance differences and geographical and cultural differences are important determinants of international M&As, relative valuation effects are muted. Coefficients of these determinants vary substantially, depending on whether targets are located in developing or advanced nations. Also, determinants differ considerably between active and non-active players in cross-border M&As. Moreover, comparisons of empirical models illustrate that estimating a non-linear model and taking into account both the bounded nature and non-normal distributions of fractional response variables lead to different inferences from those drawn from a linear model estimated by the ordinary least squares method. Overall, emerging Asian acquirers approach the deals differently from patterns documented in developed markets. So, when evaluating foreign business combinations or devising policies, managers or policymakers should consider these differences.

Sociologists offer a rich description of families from higher and lower social classes in their work. Some individuals, however, manage to break out of the system of social inequalities and receive an academic degree, even though their parents have a lower level of education. The aim of the thesis is to describe the specifics of such students and outline the psychological level of the given issue. Psychological oriented authors in other countries call this population first generation college students. In particular, key life moments that have influenced the individual's educational path will be examined. Another goal will be to find out how such individuals perceive themselves as a student and also find out which attributes are associated with this role. The research also focuses on the family and the wider social environment of the individual to discover whether this social environment provide some support. The thesis also contributed to explanation of motivation and integration as main factors associated with and academic success of students. The research method is semi-structured interviews and respondents were young people in Master's / engineering programs at universities. The basic condition was that they have parents without higher education. Data analysis revealed that for respondents are...

Latino college enrollment rates in South Carolina do not reflect the overall increase in the Latino population in the state, which suggests that schools, colleges, and universities may be unprepared to serve the unique needs of Latino students. Consequently, Latino students are less likely to pursue opportunities in higher education than their non-Latino counterparts, which raises significant public policy concerns about equity and the potential economic contributions of the Latino communities. The purpose of this narrative policy analysis (NPA), based upon critical race theory, was to explore the perceptions of Latino students, parents, and advocates related to opportunities in pursuing education after high school in Greenville County, SC. Criterion and snowball sampling identified 15 individuals from whom interview data were acquired. Participants included 7 Latino students, 3 of their parents, and 5 advocates of Latino student attainment of college education. Secondary data consisted of higher education related legislation, policy documents, and reports. Data were inductively coded and analyzed using Roe's NPA procedure. These findings suggest that, at least according to these 15 participants, multiple barriers to college enrollment exist, including cultural expectations and unfamiliarity with the college application and financial aid processes. This study could encourage policy makers to consider perspectives of critical race theory as they create policies and support culturally relevant programs and financial aid guidance to Latino parents, students, and high school counselors. Such programs would lead to positive social change by promoting higher educational achievement, which is essential for the profitable employment of Latinos in the private and public sectors in South Carolina.