13506 research outputs found
Sort by
The Impact of CEO Home Bias on CSR, Earnings Management, and M&As
Get PDFThis thesis investigates the effects of CEO home bias on corporate actions through three individual but interweaved essays. Specifically, the first essay studies whether social trust sourced from CEOs’ birthplaces affects corporate social responsibility decisions. Using a sample of US public firms, this essay finds that CEOs who manage firms headquartered in their birth states engage in more corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The results suggest that the idiosyncratic styles of managers impact corporate policies in the form of CSR decisions.
The second essay examines the effect of CEO home bias on accrual-based earnings management activities. Consistent with the view that home CEOs care more about their reputational capital, this essay finds that home CEOs are associated with significantly less accrual-based earnings management in their firms than non-home CEOs. Overall, the evidence suggests that CEO reputational capital affects earnings management activities within firms.
The third essay examines whether CEO home bias affects acquisition deterrence. This essay finds that firms with home CEOs are less likely to receive a takeover bid but more prone to adopt antitakeover provisions. This finding is consistent with the birthplace attachment explanation, which indicates CEOs’ reluctance to lose hometown jobs. This essay also shows that target firms with home CEOs are more likely to withdraw deals during the M&A process but are more willing to complete deals if the acquirer comes from the same state. The findings suggest that having a home CEO on board in the target firm acts as a “shield” against corporate takeovers
West Cornwall Methodism Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: A Missional Ecclesiology
Get PDFThe thesis considers a missional ecclesiology, arising out of and applicable to the experience of Methodism in West Cornwall. It is important therefore to take a historical overview of West Cornwall Methodists, believing that the problems and opportunities of today in areas of mission and ministry can be traced though that history. And as against a superficial reading, the purpose is not merely negative. In fact, the conclusion is one of cautious optimism, to seek and find a positive future. Each of the history chapters will demonstrate the evolution of various factors that constitute that which makes West Cornish Methodism what it is today. It will be demonstrated that it has been moulded by certain unique facets including the Cornish personality of independence and tenacity, furthered by geographical remoteness. Added to this there were dangerous industries such as mining and fishing, and the decline of an indigenous people that held, at least formerly, strong religious beliefs.
The latter chapters will focus on how national Methodism by its pervading inflexible structures has been a mixed blessing leading to perceived tensions in the practice of the local churches. Conference initiatives, taken in areas of considerable concern, coupled to long-term numerical decline have led to insecurity and hesitancy as to the future. The fundamental reason for the last four chapters is that they will demonstrate how the previously discussed historical context shapes the here and now and indeed the future. In seeking a positive future, theological concepts such as Missio Dei and Volkstum will be defined and discussed as a basis for further mission. For this there will be a need for the local churches to prepare themselves for a positive role in the communities of which they are a part
Antibacterial Functional Surfaces
Get PDFDevelopment of antibacterial surfaces is a technological strategy of great importance in different healthcare and economic spheres, due to the versatility of using a variety of bulk materials with customised surface functionality. Currently, these antibacterial functionalised materials are needed given the antimicrobial resistance has become a major threat for the healthcare and food-production sectors worldwide. This thesis presents introductory discussion about what antibacterial surfaces are and why they are important, explains experimental techniques used, and proposes three different approaches of antibavcterial coatings whose chemical properties were studied and corelated to their corresponding antibacterial activities.
The first proposed approach is the surface immobilisation of chitosan on pulsed plasma deposited poly(glycidyl methacrylate) coatings, where amine and hydroxyl groups of chitosan undergo nucleophilic substitution with epoxide groups of the plasma deposited films leading to surface tethering of the biopolymer. These cloths were effective at killing Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.
The second approach is the atomised spray plasma deposition of poly(acrylic acid) coating, that displayed high antibacterial efficiency against E. coli which is attributed to the high retention of the functional carboxyl group and its easiness to be deprotonated in aqueous media.
The third proposed approach is the atomised spray plasma deposition of metallosurfactant/polymer coatings that showed high antibacterial efficiency against S. aureus and E. coli within minutes of interaction time, due to the antibacterial properties of metallosurfactants where metal ions were complexed with cationic or non-anionic with doubly hydrophobic alkyl chain surfactants. An estimation of the possible antibacterial mechanism is discussed by testing different mutant E. coli strains. Furthermore, these samples showed antibacterial activity after reuse from one antibacterial test to another for several times after rinse with water.
The work concludes with an overall discussion and conclusion about the three experimental approaches, and with corresponding appendices showing detailed data from antibacterial test results.
Supporting research data published in Durham University Research Data Repository. DOI: http://doi.org/10.15128/r2v405s940
Consultation behaviours with online resources in English-Chinese translation: an eye-tracking, screen-recording, and retrospective study
Get PDFOnline resources which support translators in their workplace in the digital age have undergone rapid development in both their variety and efficiency. Most existing studies focus on describing the characteristics of consultation, leaving two critical issues unexplored: the factors influencing consultation and the impact of consultation on translation products.
To fill this gap, the present study intends to answer the following three questions: (1) What is the effect of information needs on consultation behaviour? (2) What is the effect of translation experience on consultation behaviour? (3) What is the effect of consultation behaviour on translation quality? 68 participants (22 language learners, 23 translation students, and 23 professional translators) were recruited to translate three 100-word texts from English (L2) into Chinese (L1). Their translation (using the Translog II interface) and consultation processes were recorded using a Tobii eye-tracker with a built-in screen-recording function. Retrospective interviews and post-translation questionnaires were used to categorise the translation problems that were encountered and to collect the participants’ background information.
The main findings are as follows: (1) as the perceived translation difficulty increases, the amount and proportion of attention on consultation, the number of online resource types, and the number of transitions show an upward trend, but cognitive load on consultation is not affected; (2) consultation for production problems involves a greater amount of attention and a higher complexity than for comprehension translation problems; (3) consultation behaviour is generally target-oriented, and information relevance evaluation is consistent with the information required by the types of translation problem; (4) the reliance on consultation shows an inverted U-shape relationship with translation experience; and (5) longer consultation only benefits the production of individual solutions but not holistic target texts
Court-ordered obstetric intervention: Capacity, Consent and Compulsion
Get PDFThis thesis progresses knowledge and understanding of the problems that continue to exist in obstetric cases. It explains how these issues manifest and suggests solutions to tackle this broad-ranging problem
Thin Film Flow on Functional Surfaces: Stability and Morphology
Get PDFThis thesis explores the stability and morphology of gravity induced film flow down smoothly corrugated rigid substrate, uniformly heated/cooled from below.
The problem of interest is complicated by the presence of a free-surface whose location is unknown \textit{a priori}.
This complication is overcome by reducing the governing equations of motion and energy to a manageable form within the framework of the well-known long-wave expansion, which exploits the disparity between the horizontal and vertical length scales in order to eliminate the depth-coordinate from the governing formulation.
Two methods for implementing a long-wave expansion are considered, with each leading to an asymptotic model of reduced dimensionality.
The first is a perturbation series of the fluid velocity and temperature with respect to a small parameter which represents the disparity between the horizontal and vertical length scales,
the second is a power series expansion with respect to the vertical coordinate in which the series truncation is correlated to the number of degrees of freedom with respect to the horizontal coordinate.
\par
A key feature of the power series method is proof that, for any asymptotic model to be able to accurately resolve the thermodynamics beyond the trivial case of `a flat film flowing down a planar uniformly heated incline', the expansion of the fluid temperature must be quadratic to leading-order in the long-wave expansion.
The ensuing analysis reveals why heat transfer models based on the Nusselt linear temperature distribution fail to converge outside of the long-wave limit and details how asymptotic models can be extended to higher-order.
Superior predictions are obtained compared with earlier work and reinforced via a series of corresponding solutions to the full governing equations acquired using a purpose written finite element analogue, enabling comparisons of free-surface disturbance and temperature predictions to be made, as well as those of the streamline pattern and temperature contours inside the film.
In particular, the free-surface temperature is captured extremely well at moderate Prandtl numbers for film flow down smoothly corrugated substrate.
\par
Investigation of the stability characteristics of gravity-driven film flow is opened with the classical problem of a thin film flowing down an inclined plate and its associated hydrodynamic stability as described by the Orr-Sommerfeld equation, which reveals the asymptotic methods are not able to fully capture the thermo-capillary effect in the heated/cooled case.
The stability problem is extended to film flow over non-planar substrate via Floquet theory, with the interaction between the substrate topography and thermo-capillarity investigated through a set of neutral stability curves.
Although no relevant experimental data is currently available for the heated film problem, existing numerical predictions and experimental data concerning the stability behaviour of isothermal film flow are taken as a reference point from which to explore the effect of both heating and cooling
Determining the Effects of Cooling Rate on Magma Crystallisation Using a High Temperature Heating Stage
Get PDFIn order to understand igneous rock textures and the history of erupted products and the dynamics of lava flow emplacement, it is necessary to understand how crystals grow and what effects different cooling histories have on their growth. Previous studies on crystal growth have often assumed constant crystal growth rates and focused on crystallisation over long timescales more appropriate to igneous intrusions. This work aims to quantify and describe crystal growth rates, morphological variations and textural development of crystals growing from natural lava flow samples, primarily focussing on plagioclase feldspar. High Temperature Heating Stage experiments were carried out at temperatures and cooling rates appropriate to basaltic lava flows, in which wafers of the glassy rind from Blue Glassy Pahoehoe were melted and re-crystallised. It was possible to directly observe and record crystal growth over time at controlled cooling rates, and to extract information from the quenched products. The experiments in this study grew crystals at very low undercoolings, maintaining an interface controlled growth regime and facetted crystal morphologies. Bulk
evolution of crystal growth indicated that growth rates were not constant over time, decaying as they grew. The morphology and aspect ratio of these crystals changed over time, with aspect ratio increasing as growth was significantly faster in the length direction during the observed period. The relationship between mean aspect ratio and crystallisation time proposed by Holness (2014) was experimentally verified. We also observed the ‘true’ crystallisation time of crystals, highlighting a need for better constraint on how crystal growth times are used to calculate growth rates. The results of this study will contribute to better future interpretations of magmatic histories and crystallisation conditions in natural basaltic lava flows, as well as refinement of Crystal Size Distribution studies
Essays on Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policies
Get PDFOn one hand, this thesis contributes to the emerging literature on monetary policy for oil exporting countries by identifying new transmission channels and assessing the welfare and macroeconomic impacts of monetary targeting objectives. On another hand, it contributes to the new literature on heterogeneous agent models for policy analysis. Therefore, this thesis is split into two; the first part develops a DSGE model to assess oil price shocks and to determine welfare optimising policy responses for low- and middle-income net exporters of oil. While the second part, utilises heterogeneous agent and two-agent new Keynesian (HANK and TANK) models to assess the impact Large Scale Asset Purchases (LSAPs) have on the economy and inequality. The results show that firstly, output gap targeting is welfare improving under declining oil prices, but inflation targeting is welfare improving under increasing oil prices. Secondly, foreign bias in the home consumption basket induces different transmission channels for net exporters of oil. Thirdly, oil price fluctuation transmits differently to the exchange rate and terms of trade, which plays a crucial role in the occurrence of the Dutch disease. Fourth, given financial frictions, the capital access channel dominates the propagation of shocks. While the borrowing constraints induce different input demand dynamics for oil firms which constricts the magnitude effects of negative oil price shocks but expands positive effects. Fifth, the results from HANK and TANK show a positive but short-lived impact of asset purchases on the economy. It reveals a different transmission channel to consumption – transfers and wages. While portfolio rebalancing occurs, aggregate consumption is driven by transfers and wages. This explains the modest impacts of LSAPs within the literature as transfers have smaller fiscal multipliers. Sixth, the transfers and wages transmission channel underpin the decrease in consumption inequality and growth in income inequality respectively, while labour supply decisions and portfolio reallocation underpin the increase in illiquid wealth inequality
The Medical Services of the New Poor Law in County Durham: 1834-1910
Get PDFThis thesis analyses the development of New Poor Law medical services in three contrasting Durham unions from 1834 to 1914. The county makes an excellent choice to investigate these services because it experienced rapid population growth following mining and industrial expansion, which produced a disparate range of economies and communities. The thesis scrutinizes medical services in a large port town of Sunderland, the mining community of Chester-le-Street, and the vast and remote, rural Weardale. The research utilizes evidence from administrative records and surviving pauper documents in order to understand the challenges and experiences of those administering, delivering and receiving medical care. The research makes comparison with other unions across the country.
The thesis analyses the development of medical services in the Durham unions, and shows that the universal New Poor Law had constant exceptions in the provision of medical services in Durham’s unions. Despite the unions spending less on medical care than other parts of England the thesis does not conclude that a north-south divide accounts for this difference. Instead, it recommends investigation into the alternative medical services available in the county which may account for the differences. Analysis of several case studies reveals the range of difficulties faced by sick paupers, medical officers and nurses, including a bureaucratic system that created conflict, settlement laws that created obstacles for the sick poor and negative attitudes of the administrators towards those in need of care. The research argues that poor law nursing contributed to the development of nursing as a profession and deserves greater recognition by historians. The thesis also exposes the inefficient administrative processes that restricted the uptake of vaccination in the three unions and concludes that compulsion did not contribute to increased uptake of vaccination in the Durham unions
Trauma and Hauntology in Shakespeare’s Early History Plays
Get PDFIn his first tetralogy and Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare delineates two opposing views on historiography, manifesting not only a redemptive understanding of history foregrounding a traditional sense of historical restitution, but also an amoral Machiavellian vision featuring the synergy between fortune and virtu. Neither approach, however, sufficiently explains the persistent manifestations of historically unresolved trauma that Shakespeare accentuates in these plays. This thesis argues that there is a prescient re-conceptualisation of historiography in those plays that could be described as traumatography, in which historical aberrations doggedly unsettle the more familiar conventions of linear narrative. In keeping with the Augustinian pessimism, Shakespeare suggests trauma can reside within. Skepticism about the state of an uninterpreted social cohesion haunts his hope for a shared recovery from past cultural trauma.
Chapter one reads Clarence as a victim of war trauma and establishes a framework to understand how a historical violence belatedly besieges a subjectivity. Chapter two examines the cultural and socio-political forces that cause a revision of primal violence. By producing a disconnect between the past and the present, this effect of superimposition plants trauma at the heart of historical transmission. Chapter three examines Shakespeare’s reflection on trans-historical trauma in the first tetralogy. It argues that Shakespeare stages a skepticism about mankind’s moral capability, a skepticism in keeping with the pessimistic view of human nature salient in Western culture. Chapter four proposes that Shakespeare presents a prescient vision of the Freudian pessimism about civilisation. For Shakespeare, civilisation seems incapable of working through the possibility of social disintegration. Chapter five argues that the intense military culture in 1 Henry VI paradoxically inaugurates a future in Richard III of the ghostly and the immaterial. Chapter six examines the fetishisation of historical trauma and the victimisation of the other in Titus Andronicus
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Open Research Online? Become a CORE Member to access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard! 👇