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Do Spatial Spillovers of Technology Transfer Networks Impact Urban Innovation Capacity? Evidence from Chinese Cities
Get PDFAs the flow of innovation elements breaks through geographical boundaries, patent transfer and the resulting spatial knowledge spillovers have become a crucial pathway for cities to enhance their competitive advantages and foster collaborative innovation. This study crawls technology transfer data through Big Data mining and uses social network analysis to construct an intercity technology transfer network among 286 Chinese cities at the prefecture-level and above between 2000 and 2020. The study explores the influence of technology transfer networks and their spatial spillovers on urban innovation capacity. The results are as follows: (1) Moran’s I results indicate that technology transfer and innovation activities among Chinese cities exhibit significant spatial dependence. (2) The Markov chain analysis reveals that the technology transfer networks among Chinese cities exhibit significant spatial spillovers. (3) Spatial econometric analysis and effect decomposition demonstrate that technology transfer networks exhibit significant spatial dependence and spillover effects. Through the induced spatial knowledge spillovers, technology transfer networks contribute to enhancing the innovation capabilities of neighboring cities
"Educating the Educated:" The Exacerbation of the Black-White Achievement Gap in U.S. Public School Districts Located in University Towns
Get PDFSome of the nation’s largest Black-white achievement gaps are found in some of the seemingly most promising public school districts: districts home to or neighboring a university. Despite the tendency of these districts to be well-resourced, racially diverse, and politically liberal, districts home to or neighboring a university claim the top nine spots on Reardon et al.’s (2019) list of the largest Black-white achievement gaps in the nation. While existing literature highlights the systemic issues and variables at the root of the racial achievement gap on a national level, this study focuses specifically the factors that exacerbate the Black-white achievement gap in public school districts home to or neighboring a university. This study draws on ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews with current and former teachers, administrators, parents, and former students from the district of study, Fairview. Fairview is the pseudonym given to a diverse, liberal, affluent public school district in the southeastern United States that is home to a prestigious research university. Through thematic analysis, we find that the presence of the university creates an extremely stratified community where wealth and education fall along racial lines in an exaggerated way. This stratification results in differences in parent intervention, a culture of opportunity hoarding among white parents, and district-decision making processes that maintain racial inequity, resulting in an exacerbated Black-white achievement gap. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for stakeholders in university contexts and future research.
References
Reardon, S. F., Kalogrides, D., & Shores, K. (2019). The Geography of Racial/Ethnic Test Score Gaps. American Journal of Sociology, 124(4), 1164–1221. https://doi.org/10.1086/700678Bachelor of Art
Exploring Adolescents’ Response to the 2020 FDA Flavor E-Cigarette Ban: Usage and Cessation Outcomes
Get PDFThe 2020 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) flavored e-cigarette ban was implemented to reduce adolescent vaping, particularly by restricting flavored electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), which are a key factor in youth initiation. This study used data from the 2017-2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) to explore the ban's impact on adolescent e-cigarette use by examining demographics, adolescent (aged 11 to 18) usage rates, reasons for use, and cessation attempts. The analysis finds that overall e-cigarette use declined after the ban, and flavor-related reasons for use significantly decreased. However, intentions to quit remained largely unchanged, while personal and psychological factors such as stress relief increased as reasons for continued use. Accessibility and affordability were identified as persistent barriers, with fewer adolescents citing affordability-related reasons for using post-ban. The findings suggest that while the ban reduced youth interest in flavored e-cigarettes, personal and economic factors continue to drive vaping behaviors. This indicates that education campaigns targeting demographics and policies focused on accessibility and affordability may be necessary for sustained impact. Future research should investigate the long-term effects of the ban and explore additional policy interventions to support sustained reductions in youth vaping.Bachelor of Art
Resilient, Not Deficient: The Role of Social Support in First-Gen Student Mental Health
Get PDFFirst-generation college students (FGCS) often face unique challenges compared to their continuing-generation counterparts during college. Some of these challenges are likely due to the cultural mismatch between their previous environment and new academic and social settings, which may increase their risk for depressive symptoms. Despite these obstacles, many studies find no differences in depression between FGCS and their continuing-generation counterparts, suggesting the need to explore potential protective factors that may buffer depressive symptoms, such as social support. Therefore, using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a nationally representative dataset of U.S. adolescents followed into adulthood, I investigated how social support mediates the relationship between generational student status and depressive symptoms. First-generation college student status is determined based on parental education levels, and depressive symptoms are measured using the CES-D scale. In adolescence at Wave I, I analyze both familial support from parents and nonfamilial support from teachers, other adults, and friends. In young adulthood Wave III, I focus specifically on parental social support, including emotional closeness and financial support. I estimate six Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models that progressively add controls for baseline depressive symptoms, demographic characteristics, academic factors, and social support at both time points. Findings suggest that first-generation status is not a significant predictor of depressive symptoms in college after controlling for earlier depression. However, perceived closeness to parents during college is a strong protective factor associated with lower depressive symptoms for all students. These results convey the importance of social support and shift the focus from deficits to the resilience of FGCSs.Bachelor of Art
An evaluation of behavior’s role in range expansion
Get PDFUnderstanding how species ranges evolve is central to a wide range of issues in ecology and evolution. A species’ range can evolve through a variety of factors, one of which is through barriers to dispersal. Physical dispersal barriers are often considered in range dynamics, but the role of behavior in dispersal is less appreciated, though it can have major consequences. For example, the presence of more exploratory individuals at expanding range fronts has been found in some systems yet is still not often acknowledged, motivating us to further investigate the relationship, as it could greatly impact distribution models and ecosystem dynamics. Within our system, we expected that exploratory behaviors associated with higher rates of dispersal would be more prominent among individuals closer to a recently expanded portion of their range. We conducted behavioral tests on Spadefoot toads collected from across their range to examine this relationship in their exploratory behaviors. Higher rates of exploration were found in individuals who were collected closer to the recently expanded range front. This pattern suggests that, as expected, exploratory behaviors are associated with range expansion and would have consequences for predicting future changes to species ranges. Therefore, behavior may be critical in the development of species ranges, supporting the need to conduct future studies evaluating their mechanisms and role.Bachelor of Scienc
Progress in using calcium carbide as acetylide source in ethynylation methods of various substrates
Get PDFTerminal alkynes have found great applications in the synthesis of complex molecules in medicinal chemistry and agrisciences. This study aims to design practical ethynylation methods for various substrates using calcium carbide—an abundant, affordable acetylide source. Inspired by a fluoride-assisted activation of calcium carbide with ketones and subsequent retro-Favorskii reaction, we hypothesized that ketones could trap calcium carbide in-situ to form propargyl alcohols. These serve as ideal leaving groups to complete acetylide transfer after the propargyl alcohols are connected to the desired chemical moieties. Optimization studies revealed benzophenone as the ideal acetylide trap with mild deprotection conditions and low cost. Herein, we reported an effective three-step ethynylation method for various aryl halides by combining the well-established Sonogashira coupling with retro-Favorskii deprotection. Trials of ethynylations for other nucleophilic substrates like aldehydes and nitrones proved ineffective and needed further investigation. The current progress of this method would likely enable future expansion of ethynylation methods of other acetylide acceptors and contribute to synthesis of biomolecules.Bachelor of Scienc
Dyadic Coping and Dual-SUD Couples
Get PDFDual-SUD couples are romantic relationships where each partner meets DSM-5 for a substance use disorder. Dual-SUD couples have a set of unique challenges and experiences regarding their substance use given the nature of shared maladaptive behavior. Dyadic coping is the process by which two people in a relationship manage stress together (e.g., via stress communication, joint problem solving). Higher dyadic coping is associated with better relationship functioning and individual well-being among couples with physical health contexts such as chronic illness. In the context of substance use, dyadic coping has been shown to improve substance use outcomes (abstinence, reduction in substance use). However, studies on dyadic coping are limited to patient-partner dyads (i.e., couples where there is one primary “patient”). No studies have tested how dyadic coping plays a role in substance use behavior change for dual-SUD couples and are working on their substance use together. This study examines how dyadic coping changes throughout a 12-session couples-based SUD treatment and its association with post-treatment substance use outcomes. Preliminary results showed 81.6% no reliable change in total dyadic coping score from pre- to post-treatment, while there was no significant correlation between dyadic coping and substance-use frequency at post-treatment. Bachelor of Scienc
[Penington Institute] Overdose in the United States: Lessons from a Shifting Crisis
No full textPresentation delivered to attendees of Penington Institute's recurring webinar series on the decline in overdose mortality in the United States
Out of the Closet and Into the Office: The Role of Higher Education in the Perception of Gay Men in Business Leadership
Get PDFThe present thesis investigated whether learning that gay men are highly educated would cause people to see gay men (vs. straight men) as having attributes that are more strongly associated with leaders. To test this, N = 519 people completed an online survey in which they listed the attributes that they tend to most strongly associate with either gay men or straight men, and they did so either after having read (or not read) an article about how highly educated gay men tend to be in comparison with straight men. Findings revealed that participants’ beliefs about gay men (vs. straight men) were largely unaffected by what article they read. Nevertheless, exploratory analyses revealed a variety of interesting findings. The study revealed three main findings: (1) that the traits people associate with gay men tend to be rated as no more or less “leaderly” than the traits people associate with straight men; (2) that interestingly, the traits people associate with gay men tend to be rated as more aligned with competence than the traits they associate with straight men; and (3) that gay men’s seeming “more competent” than straight men indirectly predicts their seeming “more leaderly” than straight men, but that this indirect effect seems to be suppressed by an alternative indirect effect.Bachelor of Business Administratio
THE FOUNDER FACTOR: FOUNDER PROFILES IN PREDICTING STARTUP SUCCESS WITH MACHINE LEARNING
Get PDFVenture capital (VC) investment decisions are often susceptible to subjective human judgment, potentially leading to cognitive biases and inconsistent outcomes. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), specifically machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), promise improvements in the accuracy and fairness of startup evaluations. This research investigates whether incorporating founder attributes derived from LinkedIn profiles into predictive models enhances the accuracy of early-stage venture success predictions. Employing NLP methods, including transformer-based embedding techniques and sentiment analysis, this study integrates structured financial metrics and textual founder characteristics to holistically assess startup potential. Empirical results demonstrated that under the proposed framework in this study, adding founder-specific data did not significantly improve predictive accuracy across modeling techniques, highlighting challenges such as feature dimensionality, data quality, and collinearity. These findings do not clearly support or refute traditional VC assumptions about founder importance in predictive analytics. Future research should explore dimensionality reduction methods, and improved feature balancing and data sourcing to improve predictive accuracy. The dataset constructed in this study offers a potential for additional exploration and methodological developments in startup success prediction.Bachelor of Scienc