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Essays on Fine Particulate Matter, Health and Socioeconomic Factors in China
Full text linkThe thesis contains three empirical essays that investigate the relationship between air pollution, economic growth, and health in China.
The first chapter investigates the relationship between air pollution and economic growth, based on Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). We examine the EKC hypothesis based on data in Beijing from 2008 to 2017, with quarterly data. Land use and dummy variables for seasons are controlled. The results confirm an “N” shaped EKC in Beijing, with the first turning point at 60,000 RMB and the second point at 132,000 RMB. The “N” shaped EKC indicates that although air pollution is decreasing now, the pressure for the future is high.
The second chapter explores the effects of income and air pollution on health at individual level. The air pollution includes ambient PM 2.5 concentration level, and household air pollution. Ambient concentration comes from official observing sites, and household air pollution is measured with dummy variables on energy consumption and active and negative smoking. The household air quality data, along with data at individual level, comes from micro dataset called CHARLS (Chinese Health and Retirement Longitude Survey), together with socio-economic factors, Probit models are employed to investigate the health effect of income and air pollution, and spatial probit models are also deployed due to the high spatial correlation of air pollution. It is found that the health of individuals is affected by the local air pollution and income, and the pollution from neighbouring cities.
The third chapter focuses on the effect of income, exposure level of air pollution on health. Compared with concentration level, exposure level is a better description of human interaction with air pollution. With the Mass Balance Equation, household air concentration is a function of ambient concentration and emission of household pollutant sources. Two scenarios, window open and closed, are considered due to the difference of air exchange rate and penetration rate. We find that poor lung health is associated with high exposure level and low income in both scenarios. Exposure reduction should not only include the ambient concentration target set by the government, and improvement on the household emissions, such as kitchen extraction and transfer from coal and crop residual to electricity and natural gas
Comparative Multiple Case Study into the Teaching of Problem-Solving Competence in Lebanese Middle Schools
Full text linkThis multiple case study investigates how problem-solving competence is integrated into teaching practices in private schools in Lebanon. Its purpose is to compare instructional approaches to problem-solving across three different programs: the American (Common Core State Standards and New Generation Science Standards), French (Socle Commun de Connaissances, de Compétences et de Culture), and Lebanese with a focus on middle school (grades 7, 8, and 9). The project was conducted in nine schools equally distributed among three categories based on the programs they offered: category 1 schools offered the Lebanese program, category 2 the French and Lebanese programs, and category 3 the American and Lebanese programs. Each school was treated as a separate case.
Structured observation data were collected using observation logs that focused on lesson objectives and specific cognitive problem-solving processes. The two logs were created based on a document review of the requirements for the three programs. Structured observations were followed by semi-structured interviews that were conducted to explore teachers' beliefs and understandings of problem-solving competence. The comparative analysis of within-category structured observations revealed an instruction ranging from teacher-led practices, particularly in category 1 schools, to more student-centered approaches in categories 2 and 3. The cross-category analysis showed a reliance on cognitive processes primarily promoting exploration, understanding, and demonstrating understanding, with less emphasis on planning and executing, monitoring and reflecting, thus uncovering a weakness in addressing these processes. The findings of the post-observation semi-structured interviews disclosed a range of definitions of problem-solving competence prevalent amongst teachers with clear divergences across the three school categories.
This research is unique in that it compares problem-solving teaching approaches across three different programs and explores underlying teachers' beliefs and understandings of problem-solving competence in the Lebanese context. It is hoped that this project will inform curriculum developers about future directions and much-anticipated reforms of the Lebanese program and practitioners about areas that need to be addressed to further improve the teaching of problem-solving competence
Exploration of using phase change material for thermal management of Electric Vehicle Battery
Full text linkBattery thermal management (BTM) has been considered as one of the most important components in battery management system (BMS), as the thermal performance could heavily influence the safety and the performance of the battery and thus effect on the electric vehicle (EV) or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). Some widely explored BTM systems includes forced air-cooling, direct/indirect fluid-cooling, and heat pipe (HP) systems. The forced air-cooling suffers from the low heat exchange efficiency between the air and the battery wall, while the direct/indirect fluid-cooling method takes the disadvantage of the extensive overall volume with the requirement of some other accessories such as the pump. Besides, HP systems have the limitation as it needs complex system layouts and thus high system weight.
Phase change material (PCM) BTM system has attracted increasing interest as the latent heat could be normally greater than the sensible heat (cooling) those in traditional cooling systems. Moreover, PCM BTM system could work independely without supportive energy or extra accessories, which enables itselt to be employed flexibly in the EV and HEV. However, PCM cooling method faces the issue of leakage, which limits its application in the EV battery packs. The form-stable PCM (FSPCM) and micro-encapsulated PCM (MPCM) slurry then comes to the solution. The conventional PCM with the potential to leak in the battery pack could be embeded in the supoorting matrix to form the FSPCM, or micro-encapsulated in the shell to form the MPCM. Both methods provides surroundings to hold the phase transition process inside and prohibited liquid-phase PCM from flowing into the outter.
As the research which employed FSPCM or MPCM slurry methodologies in BTM systems was very limited, in this PhD project, FSPCM and MPCM slurry were utilized in BTM systems to evaluate their perofmance in BTM. It was expected to improve the existed BTM technologies, and thus enhance the battery safety and performance for EV, HEV or even further related applications.
The methodologies accessible for BTM used in EV or HEV were reviewed in Chapter. 2. The development histories and the features were introduced towards various measures, with the emphasis on PCM BTM, especially FSPCM and MPCM. The scientific gap was therefore pointed out.
A numerical model of the FSPCM BTM was established in Chapter. 3, using MATLAB. The BTM performance was compared in four scenarios, and the optimal one was demonstrated to be the coupled FSPCM and air-cooling BTM system. With higher EG mass fraction, the increase rate of Tcor was observed to be reduced. When the EG mass fraction was 4.6 wt%, Tcor at tC was 317.7 K, 5.2 K lower than 322.9 K (without any EG additives). The thickness of FSPCM should be carefully selected according to the heat generated by the target battery pakage. Comprehensively considering the capital cost of the FSPCM BTM or the size of that system, 0.06 could be the competitive candidate among all.
The experimental investigation of BTM system performance has been conducted in Chapter. 4. Either MPCM slurry or water worked as the coolant to accompanish the BTM system. Their performance were separately discussed towards different working conditions (battery pack charging rates, and C-rates). The optimal working condition for MPCM slurry integrated BTM system was when the charge rate was 2C, as the group using C-rate of 2C spend the longest time of MPCM slurry in the melting range. In thiscondition ∆Tcor was 26.87 °C
Modelling work of BTM system has also been done in Chapter. 5 utilizing ANSYS. The experimented BTM system was modelled with the cooling fluid alternatively switched between MPCM slurry and water, while the cooling module basement made by aluminium or FSPCM discussed in Chapter. 3. High MPCM mass ratio has limited effect on BTM system performance using Al-basement, even though it can slightly enhance the battery cooling performance using FSPCM-basement, in the confined simulation conditions. FSPCM-basement was more promising for a lower battery temperature, compared to Al-basement. The heat transfer between the battery and the coolant was enhanced by the application of FSPCM-basement. The Tcor reduction by substituting aluminium with FSPCM is 0.94%, 0.25%, and 0.01%, respectively, with C-rate ranging from 10C to 3C.
In a conclusion, the BTM integrated with FSPCM and PCM showed the potential to be a high-performance BTM for battery packages used in EV/HEV
Control of Dynamic Supramolecular Systems
Full text linkThis thesis explores the control and application of complex dynamic system chemistry in the nanoscale by (1) manipulating interactions across lipid membranes and on the molecular level (2) through the manipulation of shapeshifting molecules. (1) This project involves the design and development of a library of artificial molecular carriers to be tested for successful bicarbonate targeting. These molecules are designed to instigate the active transport of ions across lipid membranes, 'pumping' ions from areas of low concentration to areas of higher concentration. These carriers can do this by consuming a fuel–redox energy supplied by the charge separation already present in photosynthetic apparatus. The preliminary data of our molecular artificial devices in the presence of plant cells suggest that these transporters have an influence on cell morphology due to possible cell membrane incorporation. Furthermore, emission studies revealed that molecular devices have an impact on the photosynthetic apparatus of the cell which is desired. These results are encouraging for the incorporation of molecular devices in plants. (2) In dynamic covalent chemistry, dynamic covalent rearrangements of fluxional carbon cages, such as bullvalenes and barbaralanes, impart shapeshifting molecular properties which have sparingly been studied. This research project focuses on developing methodologies to concretely control these dynamic fluxional carbon cages to simplify and analyse their structural complexity. Non-covalent control was achieved through the encapsulation of these fluxional molecules. This host-guest chemistry can control the dynamic regioisomerism & stereochemistry through molecular metal-organic cages and chiral macrocycles. For covalent control, the configuration of the cage is controlled by covalently tethered functional moieties. These methodologies involve incorporating phosphine-based ligands to control shapeshifting molecules through metal coordination. The development of such techniques will allow routine access to shapeshifting systems to explore their properties and application beyond synthetic, physical organic chemistry, and at the interfaces with materials chemistry and biolog
Safeguarding Chinese Traditional Local Opera as Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Study of Maoqiang Opera in Shandong, China
Full text linkThere are more than 300 types of traditional local opera currently in existence in China, carrying the traditions, aesthetics, values and dialects of their localities and acting as a vibrant part of the local identity. However, they are generally not commercially viable and are dependent on government support for their survival. Maoqiang Opera, which is based in the rural area of southeast Shandong Province, is a prominent example. The opera has been in existence for over two hundred years but for the past seventy years has been primarily guided by government policies, which aim to keep the opera tradition alive while also encouraging appropriate modernisation. In 2006, Maoqiang Opera was designated as State-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) by China’s Ministry of Culture. In this context, the Maoqiang community claims that they obtained more official recognition of the significance of the culture and more subsidies for the inheritance of the artform.
Drawing upon fieldwork carried out in 2020, this thesis illuminates how government policies have influenced the inheritance, preservation, dissemination and development of Maoqiang Opera in contemporary Shandong society, particularly since its elevation to ICH status. The structure of the thesis is based on the policy framework for safeguarding Chinese traditional culture as ICH laid out by the central government. This consists of four principal elements: ‘Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage’, ‘Carrying out Theatrical System Reform’, ‘Sending Opera to the Countryside’, and ‘Making Traditional Operas Represent Modern Life’. This thesis argues that almost every aspect of Maoqiang Opera is profoundly affected by government policies and actions. It is government intervention that allows the opera to maintain vitality and contribute social value in today’s China
An Ethnography of mental health care practices in Abẹokuta, Southwestern Nigeria
Full text linkIn the context of the rising global burden of mental illness, this PhD thesis explores the complex assemblages of mental healthcare practices in Abeokuta, Southwest Nigeria, a city renowned for innovative and eclectic practice in mental healthcare over the last century. The thesis draws on recent work in Medical Anthropology and related disciplines that has in various ways interrogated questions of multiplicity in biomedicine. Building on this literature, the thesis presents an in-depth ethnographic account of the production of medical multiplicity within Aro hospital, a large and well-known psychiatric hospital in Nigeria. The first part of the thesis follows the patient journey through this hospital. It develops arguments about the multiple nature of personhood that is part of shared understandings between staff, patients and caregivers in the hospital, before showing how this understanding of personhood shapes what it means to be a patient, with a particular focus on how understandings of dependency play out within the forms of patienthood that are produced in the hospital. From here, we see how treatment in the hospital responds to these multiplicities of personhood and patienthood, and is itself a set of multiple, distributed practices. The second part of the thesis zooms out to consider multiplicities of different scales and how this shape what happens at Aro hospital. The first focus is the therapeutic landscape in the area around the hospital, and how the practices of biomedicine of the hospital interrelate with those of the religious and ‘traditional’ healers who are often frequented by patients and caregivers who attend Aro hospital. The final ethnographic chapter situates the practices of staff at Aro within a global context, underlining how connections to an international order produce another form of multiplicity within the hospital
The recent dynamics of Moscow University Glacier and Moscow University Ice Shelf, East Antarctica (1963 – 2022)
Full text linkMass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is dominated by ice discharge through outlet glaciers, many of which are buttressed by peripheral ice shelves. In Wilkes Land, East Antarctica, an ocean-driven increase in ice flux from several large outlet glaciers has caused accelerated mass loss over recent decades. Wilkes Land overlies the Aurora Subglacial Basin (ASB), which contains an ice volume large enough to raise global sea level by 5 m and is potentially susceptible to pervasive retreat. However, ice dynamics within some areas of Wilkes Land remain largely unstudied. This includes Moscow University Glacier (MUG) and Moscow University Ice Shelf (MUIS), which regulate ice discharge from a catchment containing 128 cm of potential sea level rise within the ASB and are subject to intrusions of warm Circumpolar Deep Water. Employing optical satellite imagery and remote sensing datasets to record changes in terminus position, ice surface velocity, ice surface elevation, grounding line location and sea ice distribution, this thesis aims to investigate the ice dynamics of MUIS and MUG between 1963 and 2022. Migration of the MUIS ice front is limited to the unconfined ice shelf region. Both MUG and MUIS exhibited negligible change in flow velocity between 2000 and 2021, and the results suggest limited grounding line retreat of 1.4 km between 1996 and 2017 (~67 m yr). Ice surface elevation remained stable from 1993 to 2010, but MUG was recorded to thin at an accelerated rate (0.86 m yr) between 2011 and 2016, and regions of enhanced surface lowering were observed to correlate with areas of faster ice flow. Overall, these findings imply that MUG and MUIS have remained largely stable in recent decades, but may be starting to exhibit the early indicators of dynamic change. It is suggested that topography exerts critical stabilising stresses on MUIS, enhancing its capacity to buttress the flow of MUG. Continued monitoring of MUG and MUIS, as well as topographically-constrained ice flow modelling, will be important in understanding the response of the Moscow University catchment to future ocean forcing
Neurophysiological correlates of face and identity learning through naturalistic exposure
Full text linkDifferential processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces is now well-established but surprisingly little is known about how familiarity develops over time. The aim of this thesis was to track the neural processes which accompany short- and long-term face and person learning, under more naturalistic conditions than those of previous, laboratory-based research. Using event-related brain potentials, the experiments examined how real-life learning affects the visual face representations (N250 familiarity effect) and the integration of person-related knowledge (Sustained Familiarity Effect, SFE). Chapter 2 revealed an increase in the N250 and the SFE from two to 14 months of familiarity but not afterwards, indicating that the first year of familiarity is critical for the development of the neural representations of visual familiarity and identity-specific knowledge. Chapter 3 tracked the development of these two effects during the first eight months of knowing a person and found a clear N250 and SFE at one month of knowing someone. While the N250 was fully established by five months of familiarity, indicating that the visual representations were fully developed substantially earlier than 14 months, no significant increase in the SFE was observed during the examined eight-month period, suggesting that the integration of identity-specific information needs longer to get fully established. Chapter 4 investigated face learning following a single brief real-life encounter and observed a significant N250 effect after a 10-minute interaction with an unfamiliar person, suggesting that 10 minutes are sufficient to establish initial visual representations. In sum, the present research suggests that image-independent visual face representations are initially established very quickly and get fully developed within the first five months of knowing a person. The integration of person-related knowledge, on the other hand, first emerges after one month of familiarity and gradually develops to the level of highly familiar identities by 14 months. These findings substantially improve our understanding of how we get to know people in everyday life by providing vital information about the time course of this process
“If she wanted to go to Hawaii, then yeah... I want her to live life as much as I can.” Families with Learning-Disabled Children: Exerting Choice and Control For Quality of Life.
Full text linkThe enactment of The Children and Families Act in 2014 represented a significant attempt to create equity for disabled children in England; supporting special educational needs and disabilities (SEND); and promoting family rights to choice and control. This thesis explores the impact of this and other legislation, policies and professional systems on the experiences of disability; specifically for learning disabled-children with complex support needs and their families. It investigates whether families believe they can exercise sufficient choice and control when working with professional agencies to achieve a good quality of life. It also explores whether disability activism founded in theoretical perspectives about embodied disability have been able to challenge successfully societal barriers in progressing the rights of learning-disabled children.
Using a social constructionist framework, this qualitative study investigates how families navigate complex professional systems to obtain support to achieve independence, agency and a good quality of life for their learning-disabled children. Family narratives are explored to understand family lifeworld and experiences of, and perspectives on relationships with professionals within the system. Data is analysed using the UK Government wellbeing framework and Nussbaum’s central capabilites framework. Analyses of individual Education Health and Care Plans are undertaken to analyse whether they support the best possible outcomes for children. Additionally, the impact of societal constructs of childhood, parenthood and disability are considered.
The findings evidence some good, compassionate professional practice, but suggest that families may lack opportunities for co-production with professionals. Families did not believe that they have sufficient choice and control in working with professionals. Consequently, they have learned to develop strategies to better influence the quality of life outcomes they seek. Findings also point towards an increasing dominance of the SEND system within England. This has shifted focus to education outcomes rather than social outcomes; possibly disadvantaging learning-disabled children with complex support needs. Family narratives additionally provide evidence that, despite the rhetoric of human rights legislation and policies, learning-disabled children experience disability discrimination and ableism within professional and societal contexts. Highlighted is how disability theories have been mostly developed in an adult context which does not sufficiently recognise the lack of agency afforded by society to children, or the symbiotic nature of child/parent relationships. To begin to address this, a preliminary child and family disability contextual framework is offered. It is suggested that this provides the basis for future work to build a model that provides understanding of disability in the context of childhood, parenthood and family
How Effectively Analysts Play Their Roles in the Stock Market: Evidence from Three Scenarios Related to Corporate Misconduct
No full textFinancial analysts play a role as information intermediaries in the stock market. They help investors with investment decision-making by providing earnings forecasts and stock recommendations. Yet, how effectively analysts play their roles as information intermediaries is still underexplored. To further shed light on this topic, my thesis, which consists of five papers, provides an overview of related prior studies and explores the effectiveness of analysts’ roles in three different scenarios related to corporate misconduct.
Chapter 2 provides an overview of the roles that financial analysts play in the stock market. Extant studies provide some evidence of analysts’ sophistication in interpreting various value- relevant information and inferring its implication for firms’ future prospect. However, how well analysts help investors understand the future prospect of firms is still an open question that warrants further research.
To answer this question, Chapters 3, 4, and 5 focus on three scenarios where firms commit misconduct and its implication for future earnings is difficult to infer. Chapter 3 investigates whether and how analyst coverage and forecasts are affected by real earnings management, which is hard to observe and process by outsiders. We find that, although analyst coverage is negatively associated with the extent of real earnings management, the error (informativeness) of analyst forecasts does not increase (decrease) as a result of real earnings management.
Chapter 4 examines whether and how analyst coverage and forecasts are shaped by potential errors in financial statements. Using the financial statement divergence (FSD) scores (Amiram et al. 2015) as the measure of financial statement errors, we find that, although financial statement errors lead to an increase in investors’ demand for analyst forecasts and in analyst coverage, analysts tend to commit more errors in their earnings forecasts.
Chapter 5 seeks to provide insights into how well analysts process the negative corporate information provided by a third party. To this end, we examine how analysts react to media coverage of the environment, social, and governance (ESG) issues about firms. We find that the media coverage increases the business risk and information risk of firms, thereby reducing analyst coverage, and enlarging the error and dispersion of analyst forecasts, to a larger extent.
Previous studies have examined the association between CSR and analyst behaviour. But their inferences cannot be used in an opposite manner to draw inferences on the impact of media- covered CSI on analyst coverage and forecasts, because the economic consequences of CSR to a firm are substantially different from those of CSI. To buttress the contribution of Chapter 5 to the related literature, Chapter 6 expounds the coexistence of, and the difference between, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI), and discusses their distinct economic consequences and factors that will affect these economic consequences. Chapter 7 concludes this thesis
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