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In the first essay, in contrast to some earlier studies, I document statistically significant within-country style effects in several emerging Asian equity market portfolios. Small capitalization and value stocks tend to outperform their style counterparts. However, there are considerable periods of time when large capitalization and growth stocks outperform. Overall, single style strategies are risky when applied to each individual market. In the second essay, I report that average return correlations among the zero-cost style portfolios are low - emphasizing the value of an intra-regional diversification strategy. These correlations exhibit significant variation over time. Measures of integration for the style portfolios are also low on average but tend to vary over time. Style returns in the original ASEAN-5 markets exhibit much higher correlations following the Asian financial crisis, and, these correlations remain elevated for several years. These results suggest that while diversification is helpful on average, there are some periods of time when a regional style rotation strategy is warranted and other times when country-specific rotation strategies are reasonable. In the third essay, I conduct bootstrap experiments on significant winner and loser continuations for each style and the style triplets in Asian emerging equity markets. I provide only modest evidence of style continuation in Asian emerging markets. I also test for style-level momentum in emerging Asia and condition style momentum returns on January, market state, monetary policy and cross-sectional dispersion. I find significant conditional style-level momentum in some Asian emerging markets but not others. I attribute the weaker style momentum results in emerging Asia to a lack of country-level style-specific derivatives in these markets.

The Blacksmith Formation of Middle Cambrian (Albertan) age was studied in southeastern Idaho and northernmost Utah. Lithology and sedimentary structures were compared with modern environments and ancient rocks to determine environments of deposition, paleo-geography, diagenetic alterations and patterns of dolomitization. The Blacksmith Formation can be divided into five basic rock types. Rock type A has cryptalgalaminae, nrudcracks, and lacks bioturbation. Rock type A is inferred to have been deposited in the upper intertidal to supratidal environment. Rock type Bis extremely dolomitized and brecciated. It is inferred that rock type B was deposited in the upper intertidal to supratidal environment. Rock type C may have cryptalgal mats, stromatolites consisting of laterally linked hemispheroids, birdseye structures, vertical burrows and pseudomorphs after evaporite minerals. Rock type C is inferred to have been deposited in the lower intertidal environment. Rock type D is fine grained, often dark gray in color, has trails and often contains fossil fragments. Rock type Dis inferred to have been deposited in subtidal-lagoon or open-platform environments. Rock type Eis ooid-rich, and is often cross-stratified. Rock type Eis inferred to have been deposited in an agitated-shoal or quiet-water shoal environment. All rocks of the Blacksmith Formation were deposited in supratidal to shallow subtidal environments. During Albertan time the study area was located in the tropics, and the adjacent area had little relief. Clay mineralogy of the insoluble residues suggests a relatively humid paleoclimate. Tidal amplitude was probably low, as suggested by ·small algal domes, LLH strornatolites, and cryptalgal mats. Water depth varied throughout the area. Less restricted fauna to the north suggest that water depth increased to the north. It is inferred that a transgression from the west, regression to the west, a second transgression, and possibly a second regression controlled the distribution of facies. Early diagenesis included minor compaction of intertidal or very shallow subtidal deposits, whereas deeper subtidal deposits may have undergone more compaction. Cementation occurred early in the inter-tidal or shallow subtidal environment. Dolomitization of the Blacksmith by a hypersaline brine is suggested by pseudomorphs after evaporites, authigenic quartz, desiccation features and cloudy dolomite rhombs. Chemical analyses for sodium also indicate a hypersaline fluid. The association of some of the dolomite with the oolite-shoal environment suggests that the dolomite distribution may be in part facies-controlled. The hypersaline brine likely developed on tidal flats south of the area, and percolated through the sediments via refluxion and through the permeable sediments via hydrostatic head. The amount of dolomite decreases to the north, farther from the source of the brine. As the dolomitizing brine moved downward, the Mg/Ca ratio was lowered so that a ferroan dolomite formed in the subsurface, under reducing conditions. Late diagenetic events include aggrading neoroorphism by low-Mg calcite which may obliterate grains and cement or preserve grains and episodes of cementation. Late dolomitization, producing coarse dolomite rhombs exhibiting undulose extinction and curved crystal faces may have been epigenetic in origin.

Health motivation is found to be a significant driver of local foods purchase (Maples et al., 2013; Onozaka, Nurse, and McFadden, 2010), yet it remains unclear what specific health aspects determine consumer purchase decisions. We study the specific health factors focusing on six particular diseases: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, back/joint pain and Alzheimer’s/dementia to find out whether a relationship exists between disease incidences and consumer decisions to buy local foods. We examine two separate decisions of whether and how frequently southeastern consumers buy local foods in a two-step decision framework known as Double Hurdle model. Results indicate that cancer, diabetes, obesity and back/joint pain are statistically significant to purchase foods at farm stands. Findings might help local food sellers and product marketers in the southeastern United States to gain a deeper understanding of how consumers’ health background and health concerns affect their choice of local food outlets.

Southeastern wildrye (Elymus glabriflorus (Vasey ex L.H. Dewey) Scrib & C.R. Ball) is a relatively new perennial cool-season grass that has shown potential as a forage crop in the Southeastern United States. However, there is a lack of research on this species assessing its agronomic performance. To assess the agronomic performance and it’s tolerance to imazapic field trials were established in Newton and Starkville, MS. A forage production trial included five nitrogen (N) 0, 56, 112, 168, and 224 kg N ha -1 (high input) and five annual clover (low input) treatments. Tolerance to imazapic was assessed with applications of four pre- and early post-emergent applications applied at 0.0, 0.35, 0.7, 0.105, and 0.14 kg ai ha -1. Results from both field trials combine to validate southeastern wildrye as a potential forage crop and continued research and development of agronomic traits in this species.

Mutualistic relationships between endophytic fungi and grasses have shown to improve the hardiness of the host. This relationship is common in grasses, including North American native grasses that are important in both forage and grassland ecosystems. Elymus species, such as Canada wildrye (CWR), commonly host the endophytic fungi, Epichloё, while southeastern wildrye (SEWR) may not. In this study, seed of CWR and seed and leaves from local SEWR were assessed for endophyte infection. Infection status was confirmed via histological analysis of seed squashes and leaf peels. Presence/absence of endophyte was determined by scanning for mycelia within seed and between leaf epidermal cells. Following assessment, all SEWR germplasm were endophyte-free (E-), while CWR was endophyte-infected (E+). Endophyte- infected CWR seed were used to isolate and culture the symbiotic endophyte. Isolated endophyte was used to infect E- SEWR. Infection status of SEWR was determined using leaf peels and PCR. This research will help determine if artificial endophyte infection can be performed in SEWR.

Successful translocation of a listed species into an area of previous occupation requires knowledge of the habitat needs. The presence of the necessary food items is critical to the successful establishment of a new population; this information is unknown for Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris, the southeastern beach mouse, a threatened subspecies on the east coast of Florida. I used fecal and stable isotope analysis to determine the diet of this subspecies at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Brevard County, Florida, between the autumn of 2003 and the spring of 2005. Six trapping grids were established, three in the dune/swale and three in the coastal scrub communities. Fecal and hair samples were collected and analyzed. The diet varied in the amount of 13C consumed between habitats and in the amount of both 15N and 13C consumed among grids within a habitat. There was no significant interaction between habitat and sex in the amount of either 15N or 13C consumed, and sexes also did not differ significantly. Fecal analysis uncovered the dominance in the diet of C3 plants. My data refuted the current belief, that the southeastern beach mouse prefers beach grass seeds of C4 plants, which were consumed but not in the frequency or quantity expected. I also analyzed the diet of Peromyscus gossypinus, the cotton mouse, and Sigmodon hispidus, the hispid cotton rat, using the two techniques. Both species consumed a combination of plant and arthropod material. Their diets varied between dune/swale and coastal scrub habitats. All three species' diets were significantly different, with Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris and Peromyscus gossypinus being the most similar. Both consume a greater proportion of arthropod material compared to the hispid cotton rat. Interspecific competition between the southeastern beach mouse and the cotton mouse may occur in times of limited resources.

Media framing is present in everything one observes on social media. In athletics, mainly collegiate football, media framing goes into each and every detail that goes out to the public. With Power 5 sports, such as the Southeastern Conference, football is one of the most profitable, newsworthy and highly recruiting-based sports out there. Therefore, the planning that goes into all of the social media channels, specifically on the website called Twitter, is planned down to a science. However, there are times where that is not the case, as crises can arise at any given moment. This research explains how seven SEC football sports information contacts were interviewed about their social media habits for any and all situations that could arise on their platforms, and how they plan to handle it while keeping the brand, overall message and trust of its fanbases.

The dissertation examines how member institutions in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) managed their college football programs during World War II. This time period in college sport history is unique because a few university presidents at SEC institutions believed the war gave them the opportunity to permanently implement reforms such as reducing practice hours and limiting the high salaries of coaches. Previous historiography demonstrates that these reforms did not come to fruition. Why were the university presidents and faculty, who claimed responsibility for governing the SEC, unable to capitalize on the opportunity they believed the war had given them to reform college sport? To examine this question, the author visited university archives of all thirteen institutions that competed in the SEC from its founding in 1933 until the end of World War II in 1945. Sources from these archives included correspondence between university presidents, faculty, trustees, athletic department employees, and other university stakeholders. The author also examined articles from newspapers throughout the Southeast, university publications such as yearbooks, alumni magazines, and student newspapers, trustee board minutes, and SEC meeting minutes. Despite the perceptions of some SEC presidents and faculty that the war provided an opportune moment for reform, how universities ran their athletic departments during World War II suggests that attempts to place less emphasis on college athletics would be temporary and driven only by pragmatics. As institutions began to lose athletes to military service, the SEC’s university presidents suspended academic reforms that existed before the war so that their college football teams could survive, which was necessary since only four of the twelve member institutions formally competed in college football during the 1943 season. Given the primary source evidence, it is clear that since university presidents and faculty were unable to reform college athletics during the war, at a time where they perceived athletics as susceptible to reform, then reforms such as reduced practice time and lower coaching salaries are unlikely to come from these university leaders at any point in the future because practicalities, not principles, were the driving force behind wartime reforms.

Poverty Point is a monumental earthwork center dating to the Late Archaic Period (ca. 3700-3100 Cal BP). The site is well known for its diverse collection of foreign lithic materials indicative of a wide-ranging acquisition network. Among the extra-local items recovered from the site are lithic raw materials that were used for bifaces in the form of projectile points and/or knives (PP/Ks). Here, I determined the atomic and molecular composition of 847 bifaces from the Alexander Collection using Visible/Near-Infrared Reflectance (VNIR) and Fourier-Transform Infrared Reflectance (FTIR) spectroscopy. The combined wavelength spectra datasets were compared to a raw material database to determine the location of the parent formations from which the raw materials were obtained. The PP/K raw materials analyzed were sourced to outcrops stretching across the Southeast, Mid-South and Mid-West.