Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-156). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (M.A. (Sociolinguistics))--University of Pretoria, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-183).

Bilinguals are generally adept at segregating their two competing languages and switching between them when contextually appropriate, although it has been shown that switching languages incurs a reaction time delay, or switch cost (Kolers, 1966). These switch costs are modulated by language dominance, with bilinguals evidencing greater delays when switching into their dominant language relative to their non-dominant language (e.g. Meuter & Allport, 1999). While these asymmetrical switch costs have formed the basis for theories of bilingual language separation and selection, the key factor of language context, the degree to which each language is employed in a given paradigm or conversation, has yet to be considered. In addition, previous research and subsequent theories of language selection have focused exclusively on the lexical level, yet given the distinct phonetic categories in a bilingual’s two languages (Caramazza et al., 1973), selection must also occur at the phonetic level. Addressing these gaps in the literature, this dissertation investigates the language switching costs and phonetic production of Spanish-English bilinguals in two experimental paradigms: a cued picture-naming task and an oral production task. In both studies, bilinguals (English-dominant, Spanish-dominant, and balanced bilinguals) produced language switches in varying language contexts, from monolingual to bilingual. Analyses focus on switch costs, error rates, and phonetic production, as a means to further the understanding of the language switching mechanism at the lexical and phonetic levels. Drawing on results from the two experimental paradigms, this dissertation makes several major contributions to the ongoing discussion regarding bilingual language selection. First, this study provides evidence for a gradient nature of the language switching mechanism at the lexical level. Second, it contributes an examination of the effects of language switching at the phonetic level, demonstrating asymmetrical phonetic transfer. And third, parallels are drawn between the underlying effects of language switching and the phonetic realizations produced in connected speech. Implications are considered for theories of bilingual language selection, and a gradient account of the Inhibitory Control Model (Green, 1986) is proposed at both the lexical and phonetic levels. / text

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation explores the factors associated with religious switching among Latinos in Chicago churches. In the last few decades, some scholars have suggested that there is a growing trend among Latinos away from Catholicism and toward conservative Protestantism. Drawing on insights from previous literature on religious conversion more broadly, and from literature on ethnic and immigrant congregations, I examine the possibility that the way a church meets the various needs of congregants is associated with religious switching. More specifically, I explore whether having one's social, spiritual, and material needs met through one's congregation is associated with switching from participation in a Catholic church to participation in a Protestant church. To explore these potential associations, I use data from the Chicago Latino Congregations Study (CLCS), a multilevel study of predominantly Latino congregations in Chicago and the churchgoers who attend them. Using multilevel modeling, I examine both individual congregant-level factors and congregation-level factors, including characteristics of church leaders, and their association with religious switching. The results of this analysis suggest the importance of examining whether or not congregations have formalized ways of incorporating new members into the church, and whether or not the church leader is directly involved with helping congregants meet material needs such as finding a job. Also, results demonstrate that these two factors are more commonly found in evangelical and Pentecostal Protestant churches in Chicago than in Catholic churches. I propose that when congregations employ methods of reaching out to potential new members in personal, individualized ways—such as a church leader directly helping a potential new member with finding a job—affective ties are established and nurtured, setting the ground work for religious switching.

No description available.

Ownership matters. It affects residual rights under incomplete contracts and, therefore, incentives. The first chapter of this thesis analyzes in how far ownership can be substituted by other economic factors. Contrary to an assumption found in the literature market foreclosure can be achieved without vertical integration in the following scenarios: repeated games, reputation games, and also in a finitely repeated game when there are switching costs. The main chapter is concerned with implications of ownership in regulated industries where a monopolistic supplier of an essential input is required by a regulator to charge cost based prices. Our analysis focuses on the impact of ownership on the monopolist's incentives to exploit informational asymmetries about production costs. We conduct a comparative study of vertical integration, vertical separation, and joint ownership. Effects on welfare, investments incentives, and entry are analyzed for each ownership structure. Joint ownership performs best. Accounting separation is shown to be generally ineffective as regulatory instrument. We use an alternative model which allows to take into account network duplication. Starting from a free market analysis of equilibrium pricing and entry decisions we explore the relation between ownership and the degree of regulation required in order to ensure efficient outcomes. Two part tariffs, network duplication, price discrimination and a long-term commitment to fixed input prices induce reductions of final prices. The final part of this thesis investigates results in the theory of competitive market equilibrium. Many of these results rely on restrictive assumptions on consumer behaviour. We analyze in how far traditional equilibrium theory is robust against a relaxation of underlying assumptions. We do not assume agents to be rational in the sense that their choices arise from maximisation. Randomly fluctuating demand is allowed for and consequences for predictions made by traditional competitive equilibrium theory are re-examined.

No description available.