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Emerging adulthood is a unique developmental period from late adolescence to late 20s during which individuals experience a multitude of developmental transitions and are at an increased risk for internalizing symptoms. Parent emotion socialization in childhood can also contribute to risk for internalizing symptoms and is shaped by parent gender and sociocultural context. Rurality is a sociocultural context that has implications for parenting, but less research has explored how parent emotion socialization varies by rurality. The present study examined maternal and paternal emotion socialization in relation to rurality and emerging adult internalizing symptoms. Participants were 270 emerging adults (18-29 years old; 65.6% female) from a regional university who completed several self-report measures. Maternal and paternal emotion socialization responses did not differ by rurality but evidenced unique associations with emerging adult internalizing symptoms. Rurality did not moderate these associations. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

This study investigates which mechanisms that needs to be improved in order to facilitate more early stage venture capital (VC) investments on emerging markets. For this purpose a qualitative case study of the VC scene in Nairobi, Kenya was performed. The study has a 'best-practice' viewpoint aiming to provide insights to venture capitalists on how to operate within the Kenyan startup scene. The empirical findings of the case study indicate that the region is still an untapped market for VC investments, partly as a result of an equity gap towards early stage startups. The success stories of mobile money transfer startup M-Pesa and information crowdsourcing startup Ushahidi ignited the Nairobi startup scene in 2008 and enabled the city to become the startup hub of East Africa. M-Pesa has not only demonstrated that it is possible to develop highly successful tech companies but also created a payment infrastructure that facilitates for future startups. In light of this, Kenya presents an interesting case study, as the market poses opportunities as well as challenges. Our result indicates that the present equity gap hampers early stage VC and is derived from a lack of experience and knowledge from investor’s and entrepreneurs. In conclusion, the entire "ecosystem" needs to be aligned in order to diminish the gap; VC’s must adopt a more hands on approach in their investment strategy, entrepreneurs need a global mindset, development financial institutions (DFIs) and private equity (PE) funds should act more catalytic in early stage rounds and governmental entities should focus on enhancing entrepreneurial education and the overall economic performance. These alignments will in the long run lead to a more effective startup and VC scene and should be applicable on similar markets. However, specific adjustments for the subject market should always be considered before implemented. / Denna studie undersöker vilka mekanismer som behöver förbättras på tillväxtmarknader i syfte att attrahera tidigt riskkapital. Arbetet har utförts genom en kvalitativ studie över riskkapitalscenen i Nairobi, Kenya. Studien syftar till att beskriva god praxis samt underlätta och vägleda riskkapitalister inom den Kenyanska startup-scenen. En litteraturstudie och granskning av den Kenyanska marknaden indikerar att det finns investeringsmöjligheter inom startup-scenen. Möjligheterna grundas i en bristande konkurrenssituation, där få aktörer erbjuder finansiering till startups i uppstartsfas. Startup-scenen i Kenya är förhållandevis ung men framgångarna för M-Pesa och Ushahidi har bidragit till ett ökat intresse för scenen i Kenya. M-Pesa bevisade inte bara att det går att starta högteknologiska startups i Kenya utan utvecklade även en infrastruktur för mobilbetalningar som i sin tur främjar företagande. Med hänsyn till detta utgör Kenya en intressant fallstudie, då marknaden är kantad av både möjligheter och utmaningar. Resultaten indikerar att bristen på kapital för startups härstammar från en brist av erfarenhet och kunskap från investerare och entreprenörer. Slutsatsen är att hela "ekosystemet" behöver förändras för att minska bristen på kapital; riskkapitalister bör understödja portföljbolag med handledning, lokala entreprenörer behöver tänka mer globalt, Development Finance Institutions (DFI) och Private Equity (PE) firmor bör agera mer katalytiskt och staten bör fokusera på att erbjuda och förbättra utbildning inom entreprenörskap. Dessa anpassningar kommer med tiden leda till en mer effektiv startup och riskkapitalscen. Lärdomar och slutsatser från studien bör med framgång kunna användas på andra tillväxtmarknader, men bör anpassas utefter dess lokala förutsättningar.

<p>Pre-modern societies were subjected to risks attributed to fate, and human-made hazards that were considered manageable. Late-modern society is increasingly exposed to emerging environmental health risks that are products of the modernization process itself (e.g. genetically modified organisms). These risks result from broad changes in the environment and/or human activity. Some of these provoke high public perceptions of risk, and often institutions and communities must respond to these in the absence of scientific knowledge.</p> <p>This dissertation explores the determinants of the perception of food allergies – a recent addition to the environmental risk landscape. A recently assembled national database on food allergies was analyzed using multivariate logistic regression (n=3,462). In parallel, a media analysis of nine years of Canadian newspaper coverage of food allergy issues (n = 598 articles) explored the role of a primary source of risk communication.</p> <p>Results revealed a number of important determinants at the individual-level , as well as a number of experiential (e.g. exposure to food allergy-related information) and attitudinal covariates . The policy environment, was also implicated as an important modifying factor for risk perceptions. The media analysis revealed how food allergies are being constructed by different social actors through the news media, with substantial implications for public understanding. The dissertation concludes with a description of a conceptual framework for characterizing public response to emerging environmental health. This tool may prove crucial for increasing the understanding of the links between people, perceptions, and places as new environmental risks continue to emerge on the landscape.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The emerging contaminants (ECs) such as estrogen hormones, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), bisphenol A (BPA) and 1, 4-dioxane have been detected in natural water bodies at a noticeable level worldwide. The presence of ECs in the aquatic environment can pose potential threats to aquatic organisms as well as human world. Ion-exchange is a highly efficient technology for the removal of heavy metal ions and natural organic materials (NOMs) due to the nature of exchanging similar charged ions. However, this technology has not been explored for removing ECs. In this study, four categories of ECs: estrogen hormones (12), perfluorinated compounds (10), bisphenol A and 1, 4-dioxane were used as model contaminants. The adsorption of each category of ECs onto various types of polymeric resins (MN100, MN200, A530E, A532E and C115) was investigated. The removal of ECs was tested under batch and column mode. The effects of pH, resin dosage, and contact time on the removal of ECs were studied in batch mode; isotherm and kinetics models were applied to fit the experimental data. Column experiments were conducted to verify the practicability of the polymeric resins. Adsorption results have shown that both MN100 and MN200 resins could efficiently remove estrogen hormones mixture (more than 95%), and bisphenol A (more than 80%) with the initial concentration of 100 ìg/L; A532E and A530E could remove perfuorinated compounds mixture (more than 99%) with the initial concentration of 100 ìg/L. As pH increased from 9 to 11, the adsorption capacity onto polymeric resins decreased dramatically for estrogen hormones such as 17á-ethinylestradiol, estriol, 17â-estradiol, 17á-estradiol, estrone, 17á-dihydroequilin and equilin as well as bisphenol A. The adsorption of estrogen hormones and bisphenol A onto MN100 and MN200 resins reached the equilibrium within 24 hours, whereas the adsorption of perfluorinated compounds onto A532E and A530E reached the equilibrium within 8 hours. It was also observed that the adsorption of PFCs largely depends on the C-C chain length. PFCs with longer chain yielded lower adsorption efficiency onto the ion-exchange resins A532E and A530E. Adding salinity decreased the first-order rate constants for the adsorption of bisphenol A onto MN100 and MN200 resins. Fixed-bed column experiment results with estrogen hormones mixtures confirmed that the polymeric resins were good candidates in the removal of estrogen hormones. Trimegestone was the first compound detected in the effluent in the column test while 17â-estradiol, 17á-estradiol were the last. 80% of the exhausted resins (MN100 and MN200) by bisphenol A were regenerated by using pure methanol as regeneration solution. Polymeric resins were not effectively removing 1, 4-dioxane from the aqueous solution. / Civil Engineering

In emergent high technology industries, entrepreneurs and their new ventures play a critical role in enhancing economic growth. In these industries, we can easily see some new ventures grow more rapidly to outperform their competitors. However, looking beyond the surface, new ventures’ growth path is idiosyncratic. More specifically, when growing, new ventures pursue different paths in terms of 1) which technologies they develop, 2) which products they make, and 3) what markets they enter. The question that has struck me is why high-tech new ventures differ on these key strategic choices. Building on literature on entrepreneurship, strategy, industry evolution, and network, this dissertation tries to answer this important question by focusing on intra-firm factors, more specifically, the individual and structural attributes of new ventures. Types of founder experience and new ventures’ knowledge structure are examined in depth. My three studies, each presented as a separate essay herein, investigate how individual (i.e. founder experience) and structural attributes (i.e. knowledge structure) affect key strategic choices regarding i) product market scope (Wernerfelt and Montgomery, 1988), ii) technological search scope (Katila and Ahuja, 2002), and iii) the types of new products (Sanchez and Mahoney, 1996; Henderson and Clark, 1990), respectively. In each, I discuss the relevant theories, methodology, data sources, results and implications. By investigating intra-firm factors that trigger different entrepreneurial strategies, my dissertation responds to an important call – micro-foundation of strategy formation – thus filling a key gap in the entrepreneurship literature. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

The presence of emerging contaminants (ECs) in water and wastewater systems has become a subject of significant concern worldwide. These emerging contaminants are complex organic molecules which potentially affect human health and environment. Conventional wastewater treatment plants are unable to completely remove these contaminants from water and therefore can discharge them into environment. The need to develop effective methods for ECs removal is essential. This study assess the potential of ozone based advanced oxidation processes (AOP) to oxidize number of emerging contaminants. Different combinations of ozone with hydrogen peroxide and sodium persulfate were tested. For this study 1-4, dioxane, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), N,N-Diethyl-metatoluamide, and three pharmaceuticals sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim and carbamazepine have been selected. The effect of different process parameters such as chemical dosages, ozone weight percent, ozone flow rates, etc. on destruction of ECs were examined. It was observed that 1, 4-dioxane were persistent to direct ozone reaction, however were easily oxidized by hydroxyl radical. However, ozonation was solely very effective (&gt; 99 %) in removing pharmaceuticals such as sulfamethoxaole, trimethoprim and carbamazepine. It was not very efficient for the removal of perfluorinated compound and N,N-Diethylmeta-toluamide. The operational conditions were optimized for maximum removal of every compound and their influence on the degradation process is discussed. / Civil Engineering

This dissertation unpacks "innovation" along its constituent dimensions, namely technological, geographic, and people. I study how these dimensions interact among each other to define the course or trajectory of innovation. The setting for this study is the global wind power industry, a rapidly evolving innovation-intensive emerging industry. The innovations are studied at two levels - location-level and firm-level. At the location-level, I measure breadth and depth of innovation along the three dimensions. I then examine how the innovation breadth and depth at a location impact the locations' innovation performance. I find negative curvilinear effects for both but breadth having a larger impact than depth. Since breadth has the potential to develop earlier than depth, I argue that late entering new locations can catch-up faster with leading incumbent locations in emerging industries. At the firm-level, I study the development of firm's innovation capabilities. A special focus is given to emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) as they start with lower amounts of technological and market knowledge but exhibit a fast catch-up to get on par with the industry leading advanced economy multinationals (AMNEs). EMNEs are catching up with AMNEs even in emerging, high technology industries, where their knowledge-based disadvantages are most severe. I explain this phenomenon by distinguishing between output and innovation capabilities. By comparing the knowledge bases of an industry leading AMNE and a fast follower EMNE, I find that AMNE's knowledge base is deeper and composed of more distinct technology groups than that of the EMNE. Thus, although the EMNE has caught up in terms of output capabilities, it still lags in terms of innovation capabilities. Next, I study closely the process of innovation catch-up by analyzing firms' R&D internationalization strategies. I study EMNE R&D internationalization by comparing it to that by AMNE to find that its purpose and drivers are different for EMNEs. While the internationalization of AMNEs' R&D activities can to a large extent be explained in terms of the twin strategies of competence exploitation and competence creation, EMNE R&D internationalization is rooted in the firms' overall catch-up strategy to get on par with industry leaders. An in-depth comparison of knowledge flows reveals that within AMNEs, headquarters often serves the primary source of knowledge for R&D subsidiaries. In contrast, within EMNEs, headquarters accesses knowledge from R&D subsidiaries in advanced economies for innovation catch-up. Within this dichotomy, accessing is more difficult and slower than sourcing making EMNE innovation catch-up harder and slower. / Business Administration/Strategic Management