Higher education has experienced an increase in enrollment. Of the approximately 14.9 million students in higher education, 24.5% are minority students. Although this percentage is not far from the percentage of minorities in the U.S. population (24.7%), the distribution of minorities enrolled in higher education is significantly different than the distribution of minorities in the nation's population. The percentage of African Americans (10.1%) and Hispanics (7.3%) in higher education is lower than their population in the general population (12.1% and 9% respectively). There is also an unequal distribution of enrollment in higher education based on socioeconomic status. The percentage of students from the top family income quartile attending college is 86%. The percentage of students from the bottom family income quartile attending college, however, is 52%. The disproportionate representation by race and socioeconomic status in higher education has prompted campuses across the country to develop a variety of precollege programs. These programs provide students who are disadvantaged by race or socioeconomic status with the resources and academic skills needed to pursue higher education. One of these precollege programs is Upward Bound. Upward Bound serves high school participants aged 13 to 19 years who are either first generation, socioeconomically disadvantaged, or both. Upward Bound staff focus primarily on promoting academic performance among participants. There is a significant body of literature that suggests self-esteem directly correlates with academic performance. However, Upward Bound staff do not purposefully offer programs to promote self-esteem among participants. This study was designed to gain a better understanding of self-esteem among Upward Bound participants by race (majority versus minority) and gender. The Self-Esteem Index (SEI) was used to collect data. The SEI yields an overall self-esteem score as well as scores on four subscales. Data were analyzed using a series of two-way analyses of variance to explain differences by race (majority versus minority) and gender. There were no statistically significant differences in self-esteem by race. The findings, however, reflected a trend in which majority students consistently scored higher than did minority students. There were statistically significant differences in self-esteem by gender on the Academic Competence scale, Peer Popularity scale, and Personal Security scale. This study was significant for future practice in higher education. The results of the present study might benefit Upward Bound counselors, who might learn more about the self-esteem of Upward Bound students. The results might also inform Upward Bound students about their own self-esteem. In addition, the results of this study might provide directors of federal programs with baseline information about the self-esteem of students participating in the Upward Bound program. / Master of Arts

Upward Bound (UB) projects provide educational support services to high school students in order to address inequalities in college access for low-income (LI) and first-generation students (FGS). However, access alone does not eradicate systemic barriers to positive collegiate experiences and degree attainment. As a federally funded program, UB regularly collects mandated outcome data; however, little is known about the specific academic, social, and emotional supports these programs provide. Especially lacking are in-depth qualitative studies that follow students into college and focus on students’ own stories. To address this gap in research, this study used in-depth interviews to capture the stories of LI, FGS first-year college experiences. Thematic analysis was used to identify challenges, successes, and commonalities in how participants described impacts of their UB participation. The research questions included: 1) What are the academic and social experiences of Upward Bound alumni in their first year at a four-year postsecondary institution, and 2) What is the perceived relationship between Upward Bound participation and the first-year college experience of Program alumni? This research leveraged Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth framework to elevate diverse forms of capital involved in students’ UB participation and college experiences. Analysis revealed significant themes related to expectations, belonging, the pressure to succeed, mental health, the impact of the UB experience, and the power of voice, concluding that, through UB participation, students’ existing capital/cultural wealth is honored, leveraged, and ultimately multiplied. Recommendations for addressing pervasive obstacles to success in college are provided for Upward Bound projects and higher education.

Multiphase flows occurring in pipelines with a serpentine configuration is an important phenomenon, which can be encountered in heat exchangers used in a variety of industrial processes. More specifically, in many industrial units such as a large cracking furnace in a refinery, the tubes are arranged in a serpentine manner and are relatively short. As flow negotiates round the 180o bend at the ends of the tubes, the generated centrifugal force could cause flow maldistribution creating local dry spots, where no steady liquid film is formed on the adjacent straight sections of the pipe. As a result, events including coking, cracking and overheating of heat transfer surfaces may occur and lead to frequent shutdown of the facilities. Consequently, this could increase operating costs and reduce production revenue. Thus, it is desirable to know the effect that the bends exert on the flow in the straight part of the pipe. Apart from this, knowledge of the bend effects on the flows in the pipeline could also be important for the design of other pipelines for gas/liquid transport, e.g. offshore gas and oil pipelines. Quite a large number of studies have been found in the literature. The majority of them were for two-phase flow with small diameter pipes (i.d. ≤ 50 mm). However, studies with large diameter pipes (i.d. ≥ 100 mm), have increasingly been considered in recent years as problems related to large diameter vertical pipes are being encountered more and more often in industrial situations. This thesis studies the effect of 180o bends on the characteristics and development of gas-liquid two-phase flows in large diameter downward and upward pipes. The study particularly focuses on the influence of serpentine configuration on flow structure, cross-sectional void distribution and circumferential liquid film profiles and their development along the downward and upward sections. It was found that both the top and bottom bends have considerable impacts on flow behaviour, although to varying degrees. These impacts were highly dependent on the air and water flow rates. For sufficient flow rates, the bends were observed to create flow maldistribution in the adjacent straight section, due to the effects of centrifugal force. The air moved towards the inner zone of the bend and the water towards the outer zone, while a lesser quantity of water was identified on the other surfaces of the pipe. Investigation of the film thickness development in the downward and upward sections showed that, the liquid film behaviour close to the bends was significantly different from those located further away. This can be attributed to the centrifugal force of the bends. Examination of the power spectral density (PSD) along the downward and upward sections showed that, the shape of PSD located in the adjacent section to the bends, was substantially different from those located further away. Furthermore, several flow regime maps were generated which showed that, in addition to bubbly, intermittent and annular flows, unstable flows existed along the upward section, particularly for low gas and water flow rates. In this study it was found that, the lower bend was periodically blocked by the liquid and then blown through by the accumulated air. The data obtained from this study were compared with different theoretical correlations found in the existing literature. Some discrepancy between the results of the current study and those of previous published materials was noted. Updated correlations were presented which provided well results when they applied for the data obtained from the current study and previous studies.

"In warehouse storage applications, it is important to classify the burning behavior of commodities and rank them according to material flammability for early fire detection and suppression operations. In this study, the large-scale effects of warehouse fires are decoupled into separate processes of heat and mass transfer. As a first step, two nondimensional parameters are shown to govern the physical phenomena at the large-scale, a mass transfer number, and the soot yield of the fuel which controls the radiation observed in the large-scale. In this study, a methodology is developed to obtain a mass-transfer parameter using mass-loss (burning rate) measurements from bench-scale tests. Two fuels are considered, corrugated cardboard and polystyrene. Corrugated cardboard provides a source of flaming combustion in a warehouse and is usually the first item to ignite and sustain flame spread. Polystyrene is typically used as the most hazardous product in large-scale fire testing. A mixed fuel sample (corrugated cardboard backed by polystyrene) was also tested to assess the feasibility of ranking mixed commodities using the bench-scale test method. The nondimensional mass transfer number was then used to model upward flame propagation on 20-30 foot stacks of Class III commodity consisting of paper cups packed in corrugated cardboard boxes on rack-storage. Good agreement was observed between the model and large-scale experiments during the initial stages of fire growth."

Some first-generation and low-income students enrolled in an Upward Bound (UB) program in a university in the southeastern United States are not prepared to transition from high school to college; therefore, they may need additional guidance, support, resources, and tools to help them with the process. For this reason, precollege programs such as the UB program were designed to prepare first-generation, low-income students for transitioning from high school to college. The purpose of this bounded qualitative case study was to describe first-generation, low-income students' perspectives of the UB program. The conceptual framework for this case study was Tinto's student integration model. Purposeful sampling was used to select 7 UB graduates who were enrolled in the program for at least 2 years. Opened-ended interview questions were used to gather data for open coding and axial coding data analysis process. The results of this study were used to develop an UB Report which described UB gradates' perspectives of the program. Included in the report are the findings, which revealed that UB graduates identified benefits (motivation, social exposure, and student experiences) and resources (services and guest speakers) as major components of the program that contributed to their transition from high school to college. Reporting the perspectives of UB graduates will help UB directors and secondary and postsecondary administrators better understand how the UB program positively affects first-generation, low-income students' successful transition from high school to college.

The regulatory framework of many countries allows the upward revaluation of assets. Previous studies on the association of asset revaluation and future performance in Australia (Barth and Clinch, 1998), U.K. (Aboody, Barth and Kasznik, 1999) and Hong Kong (Jaggi and Tsui, 2001) have shown that upward asset revaluations are positively associated with the firm’s operating performance, suggesting that asset revaluations are value relevant. This study extends the previous research by focusing on the New Zealand environment with recent data to examine the association of upward asset revaluation and future operating performance. There is no obvious evidence indicating that upward revaluations are associated with operating performance in New Zealand. Our market assessments show that current year asset revaluations are related to share prices and returns, but are not statistically significant.

Die Dissertation widmet sich den intragenerationalen Aufstiegsprozessen von Haushalten aus der Mittelschicht zu den Wohlhabenden. Intragenerationale Mobilitätsforschung wird bislang vor allem als arbeitsmarktbezogene Inidivualmobilität angesehen. Diese Dissertation erweitert den Ansatz auf die Ebene des Haushaltes. Dem liegt der Gedanke zugrunde, dass die soziale Position eines Individuums nicht allein durch sein Erwerbseinkommen determiniert wird. Ebenso entscheidend ist der Kontext des Haushaltes. Dieser bestimmt darüber, wie viele Personen zum Einkommen beitragen können und wie viele daran partizipieren. Weiterhin kommt der Haushaltsebene in Paar-Haushalten die Rolle des Aushandlungsortes zu. Hier wird über Familienplanung, Kinderwunsch und damit in Zusammenhang stehend auch über die Erwerbsbeteiligung der Partner entscheiden. Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht diese Annahmen mithilfe von Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels (SOEP) der Jahre 1984 bis 2010. Der Fokus liegt auf der Erwerbsbeteiligung und dem Bildungsniveau des Haushaltes, seiner Struktur, sowie dem Beruf des Haushaltsvorstandes. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass dies die Hauptfaktoren sind, die über die finanziellen Möglichkeiten eines Haushaltes entscheiden. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt der Arbeit liegt in der Berücksichtigung des historischen Kontextes, da anzunehmen ist, dass die oben benannten Faktoren sich und ihren Einfluss auf die Aufstiegsmöglichkeiten von Haushalten im historischen Verlauf verändert haben. / This dissertation is about the intra-generational upward mobility of households from middle to upper class. Research on intra-generational mobility often only analyses individual mobility in the context of labour market. This dissertation takes an additional look on the context of households. This is done on the opinion that the social position of individuals is not only determined by its labour market income. Also the context of the household is very important. The structure of household decides about how many individuals can contribute income to the household income and how many people participate from this income. In a couple-household it is also the place to decide about family planning, children and related to this about labour participation of each individual. The dissertation analyses these hypotheses with the data of the socio-economic panel (SOEP) of the years 1984 to 2010. The focus of this analysis is on labour market participation, the level of education, the structure of households and the job of the head of household. It is assumend that these are the main criterias which determine the household income and so the chance to upward mobility. An additional focus of the dissertation is on the historical context. It is assumed that the mentioned criterias change their influences on the upward mobility of households over time.

We can visualize a graph by producing a geometric representation of the graph in which each node is represented by a single point on the plane, and each edge is represented by a curve that connects its two endpoints. Directed graphs are often used to model hierarchical structures; in order to visualize the hierarchy represented by such a graph, it is desirable that a drawing of the graph reflects this hierarchy. This can be achieved by drawing all the edges in the graph such that they all point in an upwards direction. A graph that has a drawing in which all edges point in an upwards direction and in which no edges cross is known as an upward planar graph. Unfortunately, testing if a graph is upward planar is NP-complete. Parameterized complexity is a technique used to find efficient algorithms for hard problems, and in particular, NP-complete problems. The main idea is that the complexity of an algorithm can be constrained, for the most part, to a parameter that describes some aspect of the problem. If the parameter is fixed, the algorithm will run in polynomial time. In this thesis, we investigate contracting an edge in an upward planar graph that has a specified embedding, and show that we can determine whether or not the resulting embedding is upward planar given the orientation of the clockwise and counterclockwise neighbours of the given edge. Using this result, we then show that under certain conditions, we can join two upward planar graphs at a vertex and obtain a new upward planar graph. These two results expand on work done by Hutton and Lubiw. Finally, we show that a biconnected graph has at most <i>k</i>!8^<i>k</i>-1 planar embeddings, where <i>k</i> is the number of triconnected components. By using an algorithm by Bertolazzi et al. that tests whether a given embedding is upward planar, we obtain a parameterized algorithm, where the parameter is the number of triconnected components, for testing the upward planarity of a biconnected graph. This algorithm runs in <i>O</i>(<i>k</i>!8^<i>k</i><i>n</i>³) time.

We can visualize a graph by producing a geometric representation of the graph in which each node is represented by a single point on the plane, and each edge is represented by a curve that connects its two endpoints. Directed graphs are often used to model hierarchical structures; in order to visualize the hierarchy represented by such a graph, it is desirable that a drawing of the graph reflects this hierarchy. This can be achieved by drawing all the edges in the graph such that they all point in an upwards direction. A graph that has a drawing in which all edges point in an upwards direction and in which no edges cross is known as an upward planar graph. Unfortunately, testing if a graph is upward planar is NP-complete. Parameterized complexity is a technique used to find efficient algorithms for hard problems, and in particular, NP-complete problems. The main idea is that the complexity of an algorithm can be constrained, for the most part, to a parameter that describes some aspect of the problem. If the parameter is fixed, the algorithm will run in polynomial time. In this thesis, we investigate contracting an edge in an upward planar graph that has a specified embedding, and show that we can determine whether or not the resulting embedding is upward planar given the orientation of the clockwise and counterclockwise neighbours of the given edge. Using this result, we then show that under certain conditions, we can join two upward planar graphs at a vertex and obtain a new upward planar graph. These two results expand on work done by Hutton and Lubiw. Finally, we show that a biconnected graph has at most <i>k</i>!8^<i>k</i>-1 planar embeddings, where <i>k</i> is the number of triconnected components. By using an algorithm by Bertolazzi et al. that tests whether a given embedding is upward planar, we obtain a parameterized algorithm, where the parameter is the number of triconnected components, for testing the upward planarity of a biconnected graph. This algorithm runs in <i>O</i>(<i>k</i>!8^<i>k</i><i>n</i>³) time.

The purpose of the study is to discuss the effect of three kinds of diversification strategies in the smart phone industry: self-brand strategy, upward integration strategy and brand extension strategy. Based on the moderate effect of evaluation of firm and product involvement, the influence of these three strategies will be evaluated by consumer¡¦s view when firms who are smart phone-related consider entering smart phone industry. Hon Hai, Canon and CHT were selected as cell phone equipment manufacturer, digital camera firm and internet service provider through pre-test 2. A 3(diversification strategy: self-brand strategy, upward integration strategy, brand extension strategy)x 2 (brand evaluation: high, low) experimental design collected data from white color workers and master students in NSYSU through 6 color printed advertisements. First of all, the result of search suggests that the willingness to buy is effected by different evaluations on cell phone equipment manufacturer and digital camera firm. Willingness to buy will be high if the evaluation of cell phone equipment manufacturer and digital camera firm is high too. However, for consumer, willingness to buy is not different whether the evaluation of internet service provider is high or low. Second, consumer involvement influences the behavior of buying smart phone. Consumer who is high-involvement has higher willingness to buy than low-involvement under three different strategies. Finally, willingness to buy is not different under these three strategies no matter what strategies firms adapt when they try to enter smart phone Industry.