7424 research outputs found
Sort by
The Use of Native American Literature for Teaching Native American History
Get PDFhite historians, schools, and writers have produced works that teach inaccurate and biased subjects that surround Native American history and culture. While most of this inaccurate and racist writing comes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Indigenous authors, both past and present, have written works that have the potential to give more historically accurate and thorough representations of their people and culture. This thesis examines three novels written by Indigenous authors to argue for using Native American fiction to correct misrepresentation of Native culture by white writers. In contrast to both novels and histories written by white people, Native American fiction can give a more accurate picture of U.S. history. This may look like a contradiction--using fiction to teach fact--but Native American novels are often correcting historical facts written by white historians that are actually fictions or at the very least biased points of view
Two Essays in Finance: Effect of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Analyst Forecast Accuracy; Dividend Policies of Zero-Debt Firms – A Behavioral Explanation
Get PDFThe dissertation consists of two essays. In the first essay, we investigate the dynamics of analyst forecast errors relative to economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and find a significantly positive relation between EPU and analyst forecast errors. A doubling of EPU increases earnings forecast errors by 4.29 percentage points, and the volatility and dispersion in forecast errors are positively related to the EPU. This effect of EPU on forecast errors persists for 13 months with a gradually declining effect that is aligned with Oi–Hartman–Abel effect, a channel through which uncertainty can affect firms\u27 financial activities, performance, and growth. Forecast errors are higher for firms with higher sensitivity to the EPU, and the uncertainty factor retains its significance when compared to other risk factors. Additionally, firms with higher idiosyncratic risks show a higher sensitivity to the economic policy uncertainty.
In the second essay, we investigate why a majority of unlevered firms do not pay dividends. Using a behavioral framework, we answer the puzzling but overlooked question: why so many zero-debt firms abstain from paying dividends. In this paper, we present how family ownership is linked to non-dividend-paying behavior of unlevered firms
The Development of the Interdisciplinary School Violence Prevention Assessment (ISVPA): Exploratory Findings of a Pilot Study
Get PDFSchool violence is a global concern. Although divergent disciplines (i.e., counseling, psychology, criminology, and sociology) have made efforts to address the concern, student violence continues to occur in schools. Currently, threat assessments are widely supported and utilized to prevent school violence by examining the contributing factors to a student’s threatening communication or behaviors. The purpose of the present research was the initial development of the Interdisciplinary School Violence Prevention Assessment (ISVPA) to be used by school personnel with existing threat assessment procedures in order to connect students to counseling services. Several challenges were experienced during the research (i.e., COVID, Hurricane Ida) that required a significant shift in the research questions and data analysis (i.e., from parametric to nonparametric analyses and a pilot study). A sample of 27 school personnel (i.e., middle school teachers, principals, and school counselors) were the participants. The ISVPA validity and reliability were assessed through qualitative and quantitative evaluations by an expert panel, focus group, peer reviewers, and school personnel. The results for face and content validity were limited. For the initial ISVPA reliability findings, correlations for 24 items on the ISVPA frequency subscale ( = .50 - .85) and 27 items on the severity subscale ( = .50 - .83) were moderate to strong in strength and significant. Kendall’s tau-b correlations varied from weak to very strong for internalizing problems ( = .23 - .84) and externalizing behaviors ( = .37 - .92). However, correlations for extreme beliefs ( = .21 - .95) and lack of attachment ( = .21 - .69) did not support reliability of the ISVPA. Further research is needed to establish validity and reliability of the ISVPA
Nanoplastics Degradation and Transport Mechanisms in Coastal Louisiana
No full textPlastic production has risen significantly in recent decades and is expected to continue growing. There is abundant evidence of plastic pollution being present in ecosystems worldwide. This poses threats to biodiversity and environmental quality of habitats that can have long-lasting consequences. Mechanical action and chemical processes can degrade the immense amount of pollution in natural environments and turn them into microplastics and nanoplastics. There is a limited body of research regarding the transport mechanisms of microscopic plastic pollution through aqueous and terrestrial environments. This research aims to provide a fundamental basis of knowledge on how complex compositions of soil and water can affect the movement of nanoplastics specifically. Parameters that will be changed in each trial of this research include the soil type, flow of water, salinity, temperature, and nanoplastic type. Soil collected from the field will need to characterized using geotechnical analysis techniques. Lab testing will aid in understanding the Atterberg limits, grain size distribution, organic content, and specific gravity associated with each terrestrial sample. The water and plastic used in this research will be analyzed to understand the physicochemical properties. The tests involved will include dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), excitation-emission matrix spectroscopy (EEMs), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry (UHR-MS). After understanding the sample characteristics, an environmental transport chamber will be used to study the transportation mechanisms under controlled circumstances. The relationships between the different parameters and movements of nanoplastics will be analyzed in this presentation
Anterior Pituitary Volumes and Stress in Children with Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS)
No full textBACKGROUND: Children with 22q11.2DS have high rates of anxiety and 30% will develop a psychotic disorder by adulthood. The physiological effects of long-term stress and dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal cortical (HPA) and/or sympathetic adrenal medullary (SAM) systems may contribute to the etiopathology of mental illness in this population. METHODS: Using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging, we measured anterior pituitary volumes (APV) in children ages 7 to 16 with 22q11.2DS (n= 15) and typically developing controls (n = 20) in relation to psychological and hormonal measures of stress after a stress-induction task. RESULTS: APV did not differ between groups (p\u3e0.05). Children with 22q11.2DS had higher levels of internalizing symptoms (anxiety, depression, somatization) and behavioral indices of stress (tension, restlessness, panic) versus controls and this correlated with smaller anterior pituitary volumes across groups (ps\u3c0.05 corrected). Children with 22q11.2DS had higher levels of HPA-related cortisol and lower levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) than controls but groups did not differ on SAM-mediated alpha amylase measures. Higher levels of DHEA was associated with smaller APV. CONCLUSION: Lower cortisol and higher DHEA as seen in the control group is indicative of a positive hormonal stress coping response. Children with 22q11.2DS show the opposite profile with higher cortisol and lower DHEA and elevated psychological indices of stress. This may indicate a dysregulation of the HPA but not the SAM stress response systems in children with 22q11.2DS
Introduction (Excavatio, vol. 32)
Get PDFThe AIZEN editorial team is very proud to present Volume XXXII (2021) of Excavatio, the International Review for Multidisciplinary Approaches and Comparative Studies Related to Émile Zola and Naturalism Around the World, which comprises eight articles from distinguished contributors from the United States, Canada, France, Hungary, and New Zealand. It is the first volume to be published under the leadership of the new AIZEN President and Editor-in-Chief of Excavatio, Juliana Starr, and also the first volume to be published since the advent of the Covid 19 pandemic. Offering a wide variety of critical approaches to Émile Zola and naturalism – historical, scientific, feminist, and aesthetic – the volume celebrates the ongoing relevance of naturalism in our world today, underlining our indebtedness to the movement on a broad range of pertinent topics including the role of science in treating trauma, the harmfulness of rape culture, the plight of impoverished children, the importance of physical fitness, the function and meaning of technical objects, the interrelationships between the arts, the significance of new resources for research, and the relationships between humans and animals
