The assumption in economics of a representative agent is often made. However, it is a very rigid assumption. Hall and Jones (2004b) presented an economic model that essentially provided for a representative agent for each age group in determining the group's health level function. Our work seeks to extend their theoretical version of the model by allowing for two representative agents for each age—one for each of “Healthy” and “Sick” risk-factor groups—to allow for additional heterogeneity in the populace. The approach to include even more risk-factor groups is also briefly discussed. While our “extended” theoretical model is not applied directly to relevant data, several techniques that could be applicable were the relevant data to be obtained are demonstrated on other data sets. This includes examples of using linear classification, fitting baseline-category logit models, and running the genetic algorithm.

The parallels between the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Henry Fielding are very striking. Both authors produced some of the greatest works in English literature, yet very little scholarly investigation has been done regarding these two in relationship with one another. In this work I explore the characters of Chaucer’s Parson and Parson Adams, assessing their strengths and weaknesses through pastoral guides by Gregory the Great and George Herbert, while drawing additional conclusions from John Dryden. I examine the episodic, theatrical nature of both authors’ works, along with the inclusion of fabliau throughout. Finally, I look at the shared motif of knight-errant in the works of both authors and the motion employed throughout the tales as travel narratives. By examining these authors’ works, I contend that Fielding masterfully employs many of Chaucer’s literary techniques in his own tales, crafting them to work specifically for the eighteenth-century novel and its audience.

My research area is applications of topology to biology, especially DNA topology. DNA topology studies the shape and path of DNA in three dimensional space. My thesis relates to the study of DNA topology in a protein-DNA complex by solving tangle equations and calculating distances between DNA knots.

Rip current images are useful for assisting in climate studies but time consuming to manually annotate by hand over thousands of images. Object detection is a possible solution for automatic annotation because of its success and popularity in identifying regions of interest in images, such as human faces. Similarly to faces, rip currents have distinct features that set them apart from other areas of an image, such as more generic patterns of the surf zone. There are many distinct methods of object detection applied in face detection research. In this thesis, the best fit for a rip current object detector is found by comparing these methods. In addition, the methods are improved with Haar features exclusively created for rip current images. The compared methods include max distance from the average, support vector machines, convolutional neural networks, the Viola-Jones object detector, and a meta-learner. The presented results are compared for accuracy, false positive rate, and detection rate. Viola-Jones has the top base-line performance by achieving a detection rate of 0.88 and identifying only 15 false positives in the test image set of 53 rip currents. The described meta-learner integrates the presented Haar features, which are developed in accordance with the original Viola-Jones algorithm. Ada-Boost, a feature ranking algorithm, shows that the newly presented Haar features extract more meaningful data from rip current images than some of the current features. The meta-classifier improves upon the stand-alone Viola-Jones when applying these features by reducing its false positives by 47% while retaining a similar computational cost and detection rate.

This thesis has four chapters. After a brief introduction in Chapter 1, the $AJ$-conjecture is introduced in Chapter 2. The $AJ$-conjecture for a knot $K \subset S^3$ relates the $A$-polynomial and the colored Jones polynomial of $K$. If $K$ satisfies the $AJ$-conjecture, sufficient conditions on $K$ are given for the $(r,2)$-cable knot $C$ to also satisfy the $AJ$-conjecture. If a reduced alternating diagram of $K$ has $\eta_+$ positive crossings and $\eta_-$ negative crossings, then $C$ will satisfy the $AJ$-conjecture when $(r+4\eta_-)(r-4\eta_+)>0$ and the conditions of Theorem 2.2.1 are satisfied. Chapter 3 is about quantum curves and their relation to the $AJ$ conjecture. The variables $l$ and $m$ of the $A$-polynomial are quantized to operators that act on holomorphic functions. Motivated by a heuristic definition of the Jones polynomial from quantum physics, an annihilator of the Chern-Simons section of the Chern-Simons line bundle is found. For torus knots, it is shown that the annihilator matches with that of the colored Jones polynomial. In Chapter 4, a tangle functor is defined using semicyclic representations of the quantum group $U_q(sl_2)$. The semicyclic representations are deformations of the standard representation used to define Kashaev's invariant for a knot $K$ in $S^3$. It is shown that at certain roots of unity the semicyclic tangle functor recovers Kashaev's invariant.

Analytical baseflow separation techniques such as those used in the automated hydrograph separation program HYSEP rely on a single input parameter that defines the period of time after which surface runoff ceases and all streamflow is considered baseflow. In HYSEP, this input parameter is solely a function of drainage basin contributing area. This method cannot be applied universally since in most regions the time of surface runoff cessation is a function of a number of different hydrologic and hydrogeologic basin characteristics, not just contributing drainage area. This study demonstrates that streamflow conductivity can be used as a natural tracer that integrates the different hydrologic and hydrogeologic basin characteristics that influence baseflow response. Used as an indicator of baseflow as a component of total flow, streamflow conductivity allows for an empirical approach to hydrograph separation using a simple mass balance algorithm. Although conductivity values for surface-water runoff and ground-water baseflow must be identified to apply this mass balance algorithm, field studies show that assumptions based on streamflow at low flow and high flow conditions are valid for estimating these end member conductivities. The only data required to apply the mass balance algorithm are streamflow conductivity and discharge measurements. Using minimal data requirements, empirical hydrograph separation techniques can be applied that yield reasonable estimates of baseflow. This procedure was performed on data from 10 USGS gaging stations for which reliable, real-time conductivity data are available. Comparison of empirical hydrograph separations using streamflow conductivity data with analytical hydrograph separations demonstrates that uncalibrated, graphical estimation of baseflow can lead to substantial errors in baseflow estimates. Results from empirical separations can be used to calibrate the runoff cessation input parameter used in analytical separation for each gaging station. In general, collection of stream conductivity data at gaging stations is relatively recent, while discharge measurements may extend many decades into the past. Results demonstrate that conductivity data available for a relatively short period of record can be used to calibrate the runoff cessation input parameter used for analytical separation. The calibrated analytical method can then be applied over a much longer period record since discharge data are the only requirement.

This thesis investigates the history of labour management at David Jones, the major Australian retailer and manufacturer, between the years 1838 and 1958. This thesis examines the development of consent-based approach to labour management at David Jones, in particular the development of paternalism and welfarism. In doing so this thesis explores both general questions regarding the factors that influence why certain firms adopt a consent-based approach to labour management, as well as informing debates around the existence of nineteenth century paternalism and the origins of twentieth century welfarism. The historical material contained at the David Jones Archives and elsewhere reveals little evidence of paternalism as a deliberate management strategy. This brings into question the usefulness of paternalism as a concept in the historical study of Australian labour management. The inability to trace paternalism also undermines explanations of twentieth century welfarism premised on the pre-existence of nineteenth century paternalism. The historical materials, however, do note that twentieth century welfarism was a deliberate labour management strategy adopted by David Jones management. Welfarism, combined with systematic management and training, was initially adopted following the First World War to deal with the threat of industrial turmoil. However, in the 1930s, welfarism increasingly became a pro-active strategy designed to create skilled selling and raise the profile of the firm within the community. Further, welfarism at David Jones in the inter-war period was more than merely a new form of paternalism, somehow transformed by being in a larger, more bureaucratic setting or a result of employers confronted an increasingly feminised workforce. Welfarism at David Jones was a deliberate strategy, informed by overseas experiments, management consultants and the new science of psychology. Welfarism at David Jones continued into the post World War Two period. However, new forms of retailing, in particular self-service, undermined attempts to create skilled selling. Elements of welfarism remain at David Jones and continue to support the firm???s corporate image as a provider of high-quality customer service.

Studies on earnings management usually hypothesise that managers manage accruals opportunistically. Few studies however, argue that managers can also use accruals to improve the value relevance of reported earnings to help investors better assess the firm's operating performance. While substantial evidence on managers' opportunistic behaviour on accruals has been documented in the literature, empirical evidence on the informativeness of accruals is scarce and inconclusive. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether managers use accruals to communicate private information regarding the firm's operating performance, or as reported in the literature, use them for their own benefit. This thesis finds that on average, firms reporting high earnings accompanied by high accruals have significantly negative subsequent period stock returns suggesting that these firms manage their accounting earnings. Focusing on stock dividend issues as an incentive to opportunistically increase accruals, the results are found to be consistent with the earnings management hypothesis. Stock dividend issuing firms are reported to significantly increase accruals in the issue year followed by poor earnings and stock price performances in the subsequent year. Moreover, discretionary accruals of the issuing firms are negatively correlated with both future earnings and abnormal stock returns. This evidence attempts to complement the earnings management literature. The analysis on the incentive to decrease accruals related to share repurchases, however, does not provide sufficient evidence to suggest that managers use their discretion to decrease accruals. To investigate the hypothesis that managers use accruals to convey information regarding their firm's future profitability, this thesis employs the contemporaneous earnings and dividend announcements as the research setting. This choice was made to increase the likelihood of detecting the use of accruals as private information communication while simultaneously mitigating the likelihood of the opportunistic income smoothing hypothesis to explain the results. The evidence strongly indicates that managers use both accruals and dividend increases as their private information communication regarding their firm's future profitability. Dividend increasing firms report positive accruals which are positively correlated with future profitability. This finding contributes to the literature by providing evidence on the accrual signalling hypothesis. Overall, the results of this thesis suggest that, depending on the incentives, managers can use the discretion accorded under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in estimating accounting accrual, either to manage accruals opportunistically or to help investors better assess the firms' operating performance.

Thesis (Th.M. (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

This study proposes an approach to a solution for the problem of the perceived ‚separatedness‛ of language from reality which employs the rhetorical concept of ethos, the doctrinal concept of the Chalcedonian definition of the nature of the incarnated Christ, and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of ‚answerability.‛ As an alternative to theories of reading and interpretation based on the arbitrariness of linguistic meaning, radical skepticism, and the death of the author, the approach defined in this study emphasizes affirmation of the centrality of the human person and the necessity of close, loving attention as the grounds of both aesthetic vision and ethical action. Developing three exemplary readings of novelized epics including Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, David Jones’s In Parenthesis, and Chenjerai Hove’s Bones, the study demonstrates how loving, careful attention to ethos—the definition of which is expanded to include relationships between language and character in literary works, genres, characters, authors, and teachers—is the prerequisite for answerability in literary relationships. Whether one is primarily interested in authors, characters, genres, canon, readers, or critical reception, attention to ethos illuminates the ways in which responses to literary works are conditioned by and analogous to responses to persons. The complex and irreducible relationships between the ‚word‛ and the ‚person‛ require an individual answerability for which there is no alibi. Ultimately, the ‚word‛ and the ‚world‛ are united in the answerable person, whether that person is an author, a character, a reader, a critic or a teacher.