This study examines the determinants of tax aggressiveness. I utilize the unrecognized tax benefits (UTB) disclosed by the adoption of Financial Interpretation No. 48, “Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes” (FIN 48) to proxy for firms’ tax aggressiveness. I hand collect UTB disclosures for 562 calendar year-end firms in the S and P 1500. Controlling for firms’ incentives and abilities to engage in aggressive tax positions (tax factors) and firms’ discretion over recognizing the financial reporting benefits of aggressive tax positions, I examine whether firms’ level of aggressive tax positions is influenced by (1) financial reporting aggressiveness, (2) choice of auditor, (3) analyst coverage, and (4) corporate governance quality. Using ordinary least squares regression, I examine the determinants of firms total UTB and its permanent and temporary components. I find that UTB and its permanent component are positively associated with firm size, presence of foreign operations, research and development activity, selling, general and administrative activity, firm value, and the probability that the firm engages in tax shelter activity. However, the temporary component is only increasing in firm size. Also, I find that UTB and its permanent component are positively associated with firms engaging in financial reporting aggressiveness and increasing auditor provided tax services, but negatively associated with analyst coverage, while the temporary component is only positively associated with financial reporting aggressiveness. Finally, I split the sample based on firms’ use of discretion over recognizing the tax benefits of aggressive tax positions prior to FIN 48 adoption. I find that firms which aggressively recognize tax benefits prior to FIN 48 adoption (i.e. firms that increased UTBs at FIN 48 adoption) have UTBs that are positive and significantly associated with (1) the probability that a firm engages in tax shelter activity, (2) auditor provided tax services, and (3) their record of using last chance earnings management to meet or beat analyst forecasts. These associations are not significant for firms that did not aggressively recognize tax benefits prior to FIN 48 adoption, suggesting that firms’ financial reporting aggressiveness is positively associated with firms’ level of tax aggression.

The steady-state natural convection from vertically placed rectangular fins is investigated numerically by means of a commercial CFD program called ICEPAK. The effects of geometric parameters of fin arrays on the performance of heat dissipation from fin arrays are examined. In order to simulate the different fin configurations and compare the results with literature, two experimental studies from literature are selected. Optimum fin spacing for both studies are found numerically and compared with experimental studies. The models are first verified by simulating natural convection on vertically placed flat plate and comparing the results with literature. After verification 30 different fin array configurations for the first experimental case study and 15 different fin array configurations for the second experimental case study from literature are analyzed. It is observed that the present results agree very well with the optimum fin spacing results of the experimental studies. It is also observed that the empirical correlations in the literature are conservative and the numerically obtained correlations predict higher heat transfer rates.

Spanish travel writings on China at the end of the 19th century have been largely ignored in the history of literature. Nevertheless, this topic deserves a thorough examination since these texts constitute a particular and important vision of an "Orientalized" country about an Oriental nation during a critical and complicated historical moment. On one hand, Spain was characterized by an irreversible decadence. Thus, in contrast to British and French imperial discourse, which reflects colonial experiences, Spanish travel writings provide a unique perspective from a Western empire that shared a similar fate with the Other: both being traditional and decadent nations. Furthermore, although China was a goal of imperial ambition, it was far less colonized than other regions. As a result, the commanding imperial gaze and fearless exploration were less likely to be cast on China. In addition, despite its general decline, China remained the home of an ancient and highly advanced civilization that still deserved Western respect and offered the West much to learn. Considering these facts, this dissertation consists of a general analysis of Spanish travel literature on China from 1870 to 1910. The primary purposes of the dissertation are to portray the bibliographic genealogy of references on Spanish travelers and their writings on China during this period; to depict their particular vision in which the construct of colonial discourse is transformed into a pretension to recover the lost imperial prestige and an interiorized reflection on Spain's own problems and possible solutions; and to present a fundamental ambivalence or even difficult conciliation between the colonial discourse and its resistance, ideology and utopia, as well as imperialist ambition and national crisis. Spanish travel writings on China consequently become an allegory of imperial nostalgia: a yearning for the imperial power that had vanished, without hope of restoration. / text

In modern microprocessors, thermal management has become one of the main hurdles in continued performance enhancement. Cooling schemes utilizing single phase microfluidics have been investigated extensively for enhanced heat dissipation from microprocessors. However, two-phase fluidic cooling devices are becoming a promising approach, and are less understood. This study aims to examine two-phase flow and heat transfer within a pin-fin enhanced micro-gap. The pin-fin array covered an area of 1cm x 1cm and had a pin diameter, height and pitch of 150μm, 200μm and 225μm, respectively, (aspect ratio of 1.33). This study covers both uniformly and partially heated scenarios. The working fluid used was R245fa. The average heat transfer coefficient and high speed flow visualization results indicated a rapid transition to the annular flow regime with a strong dependence on heat flux. Also, unique, conically-shaped two-phase wakes were observed, demonstrating the lateral spreading capability of the pin-fin array geometry.

La machine hollywoodienne se distingue par son emprise sur la consommation internationale de cinéma. Notamment, la récurrence des figures présentées dans le cinéma issu des grands studios de production influencerait non seulement les attentes du public relativement à la forme (durée, structure scénaristique, effets spéciaux), mais aussi la perception de l'histoire, des valeurs, de « l'Amérique » et du trépas. Une de ces figures tient dans les représentations de la mort du héros dans le finale hollywoodien, à laquelle cette recherche se consacre, et ce, à travers la récurrence des figures et leur portée idéologique. C'est sur cette question principale que s'adosse la structuration conceptuelle du mémoire qui est traduite en cadre d'interprétation. Celui-ci s'inspire des concepts de l'École de Francfort sur l'industrie culturelle, des travaux sur l'idéologie du cinéma américain d'Anne-Marie Bidaud, et d'un certain nombre d'auteurs sur les aspects du mythe (Joseph Campbell) et de la représentation de la mort (Louis-Vincent Thomas, Edgar Morin). Nous avons constitué un corpus de 12 films issus de la production hollywoodienne (300, Avatar, Easy Rider, Gladiator, lnglourious Basterds, Pearl Harbor, Public Enemies, Saving Private Ryan, Scarface (1932), Scarface (1983), Titanic, Troy). Ces films, choisis pour leur succès à l'échelle internationale et/ou leurs caractéristiques particulières en regard de la production des grands studios, s'avèrent pertinents pour une analyse s'effectuant sous l'angle des représentations de la mort du héros, particulièrement éloquentes de l'idéologie inscrite dans le finale. On sait que Hollywood produit des films en fonction de marchés donnés, que les productions sont formatées selon des genres précis déclinant leurs propres codes (historique, gangster, drame, péplum, action, fantastique, guerre) et que les finales hollywoodiens, surtout ceux des blockbusters, sont reconnus pour recourir au happy end. Ce schéma récurrent, manifeste dans l'analyse film à film du corpus, est exploré dans la dynamique « mythidéologique » à l'œuvre, mettant en relief des ressorts idéologiques précis, qui traversent les procédés de représentation de la mort et ce qu'en tirent les vivants. Il nous est apparu évident en conclusion qu'en esthétisant la mort, Hollywood renforce une certaine vision de la vie humaine. Peu importe les détours scénaristiques, les films et les héros, les grands studios nous ramènent à une impitoyable finalité : le monde dans lequel nous vivons doit être préservé tel qu'il est. Ceux qui sauront donner leur vie à la reconduction de ce projet de société seront récompensés et les autres, sanctionnés et privés de la rétribution symbolique réservée aux héros. En fait, il ressort nettement que dans les films à l'étude, il n'y a pas de sacrifice du héros sans que la mise en scène le compense par des dispositifs pour évoquer la survivance symbolique du sacrifié, illustrer son immortalité ou justifier son amortalité. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Cinéma, Happy end, Mort, Mythe, Rêve américain

Scholars describe fin-de-siècle Paris as a city of dualities, and examine its past as a series of crises or a tale of burgeoning optimism and opportunity. Historians of women and gender have noted the limitations of this dualistic approach, and have explored new avenues of interpretation. Specifically, they have shown how the combination of positive and negative impulses created a dynamic space in which women could re-imagine and re-articulate themselves. While this approach illuminates the possibilities that existed for women in a complex urban landscape, it also indicates that fin-de-siècle Paris was a contested city, one fraught with challenges for women living in the French capital. If the mingling of crises and belle époque culture had stimulating results for women’s emergence into urban spaces, it had confusing and conflicting effects as well. My thesis shows how fin-de-siècle Paris was a contradictory city for women artists, at a time when both opportunities and constraints in their profession were at a premium. I examine the ways in which several notable women in the arts – painters Gwen John, Suzanne Valadon, and Romaine Brooks, sculptor Camille Claudel, and writer Rachilde – traversed this unsettling path, and evaluated their experiences through artistic representations of private life. Far from portraying the traditional sphere of domesticity, however, which was considered an important form of artistic expression among women at this time, I argue that their depictions of intimate spaces, bodies, children, and female selfhood, were complex and often ambiguous, and part of a larger attempt to grapple with the shifting nature of identity, both as women, and as professionals. John and Claudel created interiors that were signs of independence and artistic innovation, but also reflections of hardship; Valadon and Brooks invested images of the female and child’s body with strength and power, but also with pain and suffering; and Rachilde developed heroines who were unsuccessful in their attempts to create a unique sense of self. Taken together, these representations demonstrate that women artists did not easily articulate a vision of modern female identity at the turn of twentieth century, but rather, highlighted the inconsistencies of this experience. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2008-11-28 10:48:28.537

This thesis considers the teaching of English literature within extramural organisations for adults in England between 1885 and 1910. This challenges the assumption that the beginnings of English as a tertiary-level academic subject can be traced back only as far as the foundation of the Oxford English School at the end of the nineteenth century; in fact extramural English courses had been flourishing for decades before this, and these reached their zenith in the final years before it was introduced at Oxbridge. Oxford created an Honours School of English in 1894, and the Cambridge English Tripos was established in 1917; in ideological terms, such developments were of course crucial, yet it has too often been the case that the extramural literary teaching being conducted contemporaneously has been sidelined in studies of the period. My first chapter will consider the development of English in various institutional and non-institutional environments before 1885, including Edinburgh University, Dissenting Academies, and Mechanics’ Institutes. Thereafter I will explore the campaign, led by University Extension lecturer John Churton Collins, to incorporate English literature as an honours degree at Oxford. Focusing on the period between 1885 and 1891, this second chapter will assess the veracity of some of Collins’s most vehement claims regarding the apparently low critical and pedagogical standards in existence at the time, which he felt could only be improved if Oxford would agree to institutionalise the subject, and thereby raise the standard of teaching more generally. Collins’s campaign enjoyed more success when he drew attention to the scholarly teaching available within the University Extension Movement; my third chapter is underpinned by research and analysis of previously unexplored material at the archives of London University, such as syllabuses, examination papers, and lecturers’ reports. I examine the way in which English literature, the most popular subject among Extension students, was actually being taught outside the universities while still excluded from Oxbridge. Thereafter my penultimate chapter focuses on an extramural reading group formed by Cambridge Extension lecturer Richard G. Moulton. This section considers Moulton’s formulation of an innovative mode of literary interpretation, tailored specifically to suit the abilities of extramural students, and which also lent itself particularly to the study of novels. Uncollected T. P.’s Weekly articles written by Arnold Bennett highlight the emphasis that he placed on pleasure, rather than scholarship. My final chapter considers Bennett’s self-imposed demarcation from the more serious extramural pedagogues of literature, such as Collins and Moulton, and his extraordinary impact on Edwardian reading habits. A brief coda will compare the findings of the 1921 “Newbolt Report” with my own assessment of fin-de-siècle extramural education.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) has the potential of fulfilling the world’s electricity needs. Parabolic-trough system using synthetic oil as the HTF with operating temperature between 300 and 400o C, is the most matured CSP technology. A thermal storage system is required for the stable and cost effective operation of CSP plants. The current storage technology is the indirect two-tank system which is expensive and has high energy consumption due to the need to prevent the storage material from freezing. Latent heat storage (LHS) systems offer higher storage density translating into smaller storage size and higher performance but suitable phase change materials (PCMs) have low thermal conductivity, thus hindering the realization of their potential. The low thermal conductivity can be solved by heat transfer enhancement in the PCM. There is also lack of suitable commercially-available PCMs to cover the operating temperature range. In this study, a hybrid cascaded storage system (HCSS) consisting of a cascaded finned LHS and a high temperature sensible or concrete tube register (CTR) stages was proposed and analysed via modelling and simulation. Fluent CFD code and the Dymola simulation environment were employed. A validated CFD phase change model was used in determining the heat transfer characteristics during charging and discharging of a finned and unfinned LHS shell-and-tube storage element. The effects of various fin configurations were investigated and heat transfer coefficients that can be used for predicting the performance of the system were obtained. A model of the HCSS was then developed in the Dymola simulation environment. Simulations were conducted considering the required boundary conditions of the system to develop the best design of a system having a capacity of 875 MWhth, equivalent to 6 hours of full load operation of a 50 MWe power plant. The cascaded finned LHS section provided ~46% of the entire HCSS capacity. The HCSS and cascaded finned LHS section have volumetric specific capacities 9.3% and 54% greater than that of the two-tank system, respectively. It has been estimated that the capital cost of the system is ~12% greater than that of the two-tank system. Considering that the passive HCSS has lower operational and maintenance costs it will be more cost effective than the twotank system considering the life cycle of the system. There is no requirement of keeping the storage material above its melting temperature always. The HCSS has also the potential of even lower capital cost at higher capacities (>6 hours of full load operation).

Depuis ces trente dernières années, la qualité de vie tend à devenir un critère d’évaluation des thérapeutiques incontournable que cela soit dans un contexte de recherche clinique ou dans un contexte d’individualisation de la prise en charge médicale. L’évaluation de la qualité de vie permet de tenir compte du ressenti du patient quant à sa prise en charge que cela soit sur des aspects purement physiques ou symptomatiques que sur des aspects psychologiques, sociaux ou environnementaux. Dans un contexte de fin de vie où les possibilités thérapeutiques sont limitées et où les symptômes peuvent être extrêmement invalidants, l’évaluation de la qualité de vie s’impose d’évidence.Afin d’appréhender le plus justement possible les particularités de la méthodologie permettant l’évaluation de la qualité de vie des patients en fin de vie atteints d’un cancer, il semblait important, dans un premier temps, de présenter le concept de « qualité de vie relative à la santé », afin de définir les éléments clés quant à sa compréhension et à son utilisation (définition, conceptualisation, instruments de mesures, analyse). La période de la fin de la vie étant une étape particulière de la vie d’un patient, nous avons dans un second temps, cherché à définir le cadre temporel de cette période et définir ainsi, plus précisément, les caractéristiques de la population étudiée. Il est en effet essentiel de tenir compte des spécificités de ces patients pour évaluer, le mieux possible, leur qualité de vie.Les articles relatifs à ce travail de recherche sont présentés dans une seconde partie et discutés ensuite.Ce travail souligne la nécessité de développer des instruments permettant l’évaluation de la qualité de vie des patients en fin de vie atteints d’un cancer dans le respect de leur sensibilité et de la méthodologie essentielle à la validation / In the last thirty years, health related quality of life has become an unavoidable endpoint in a clinical research context and in a therapeutic individualization context. Quality of life evaluation allows us to consider patient health care perceptions; in respect to physical or symptomatic domains or in respect to psychological, social or environmental domains. In a specific end of life context, where treatment opportunities are limited and adverse events could be extremely disabling, the evaluation of the quality of life is obvious. To distinguish more precisely the methodological subtleties of the evaluation of cancer patient end of life quality of life, it seemed important, firstly, to present the concept of health related quality of life, in order to define the main elements concerning both understanding and use of quality of life assessment (definition, conceptualization, tools, measuring instruments, analysis). Because the end of life is a specific time, we sought to define secondly, the time frame of this period, and therefore defined more precisely patient characteristics. It was essential to take into account the specificity of these patients to best evaluate their quality of life.Research related articles are presented in a second part of this work and discussed there afterThis work underlines the necessity to develop measuring instruments to permit quality of life evaluation in a context of end of life with respecting both patient needs and methodological requirements

The steady-state natural convection heat transfer from vertical rectangular fins extending perpendicularly from vertical rectangular base was investigated experimentally. The effects of geometric parameters and base-to-ambient temperature difference on the heat transfer performance of fin arrays were observed and the optimum fin separation values were determined. Two similar experimental set-ups were employed during experiments in order to take measurements from 30 different fin configurations having fin lengths of 250 mm and 340 mm. Fin thickness was maintained fixed at 3 mm. Fin height and fin spacing were varied from 5 mm to 25 mm and 5.75 mm to 85.5 mm, respectively. 5 heat inputs ranging from 25 W to 125 W were supplied for all fin configurations, and hence, the base and the ambient temperatures were measured in order to evaluate the heat transfer rate from fin arrays. The results of experiments have shown that the convection heat transfer rate from fin arrays depends on all geometric parameters and base-to-ambient temperature difference. The effect of these parameters on optimum fin spacing was also examined, and it was realized that for a given base-to-ambient temperature difference, an optimum fin spacing value which maximizes the convective heat transfer rate from the fin array is available for every fin height. The results indicated that the optimum fin spacings are between 8.8 mm and 14.7 mm, for the fin arrays employed in this work. Using the experimental results of present study and experimental results in available literature [2,3,9,10,11,12,14], a correlation for optimum fin spacing at a given fin length and base-to-ambient temperature difference was obtained as a result of scale analysis.