Chemical and isotopic compositions of pore fluids from ODP Sites 169-1034 and 169-1037

We have analysed the concentrations of Li, K, Rb, Cs, and B, and the isotopic ratios of Li and B of a suite of pore fluids recovered from ODP Sites 1037 (Leg 169; Escanaba Trough) and 1034 (Leg 169S; Saanich Inlet). In addition, we have analysed dissolved K, Rb, and Cs concentrations for estuarine mixing of the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system. Together, these data sets have been used to assess the role of sediments in the marine geochemical cycles of the alkali elements and boron. Uptake onto clay minerals during estuarine mixing removes 20-30% of the riverine input of dissolved Cs and Rb to the oceans. Prior to this study, the only other recognised sink of Rb and Cs was uptake during low-temperature alteration of the oceanic crust. Even with this additional sink there is an excess of inputs over outputs in their modern oceanic mass balance. Pore fluid data show that Li and Rb are transferred into marine sediments during early diagenesis. However, modeling of the Li isotope systematics of the pore fluids from Site 1037 shows that seawater Li taken up during marine sedimentation can be readily returned to solution in the presence of less hydrated cations, such as NH4+. This process also appears to result in high concentrations of pore fluid Cs (relative to local seawater) due to expulsion of adsorbed Cs from cation exchange sites. Flux calculations based on pore fluid data for a series of ODP sites indicate that early diagenesis of clay sediments removes around 8% of the modern riverine input of dissolved Li. Although NH4+-rich fluids do result in a flux of Cs to the oceans, on the global scale this input only augments the modern riverine Cs flux by ~3%. Nevertheless, this may have implications for the fate of radioactive Cs in the natural environment and waste repositories.

Ancient songs and ballads, from the reign of King Henry the Second to the Revolution,

"Observations on the ancient English minstrels" and "Dissertation on the songs, music, and vocal and instrumental performance, of the ancient English" : v. 1, p. [i]-xcvi.

Development, Annotation and Protection of Digital Archive “Bulgarian Folklore Heritage”

The key to prosperity in today's world is access to digital content and skills to create new content. Investigations of folklore artifacts is the topic of this article, presenting research related to the national program „Knowledge Technologies for Creation of Digital Presentation and Significant Repositories of Folklore Heritage” (FolkKnow). FolkKnow aims to build a digital multimedia archive "Bulgarian Folklore Heritage” (BFH) and virtual information portal with folk media library of digitized multimedia objects from a selected collection of the fund of Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum (IEFSEM) of the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS). The realization of the project FolkKnow gives opportunity for wide social applications of the multimedia collections, for the purposes of Interactive distance learning/self-learning, research activities in the field of Bulgarian traditional culture and for the cultural and ethno-tourism. We study, analyze and implement techniques and methods for digitization of multimedia objects and their annotation. In the paper are discussed specifics approaches used to building and protect a digital archive with multimedia content. Tasks can be systematized in the following guidelines: * Digitization of the selected samples * Analysis of the objects in order to determine the metadata of selected artifacts from selected collections and problem areas * Digital multimedia archive * Socially-oriented applications and virtual exhibitions artery * Frequency dictionary tool for texts with folklore themes * A method of modern technologies of protecting intellectual property and copyrights on digital content developed for use in digital exposures.

Development of New Solutions in the Field of Digitization and Digital Presentation of the National Folklore Heritage

This article briefly reviews the software developments for digital presentation and preservation of Bulgarian folklore treasure created within the project “Knowledge Technologies for Creation of Digital Presentation and Significant Repositories of Folklore Heritage” by teams of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics.

Deconstructing the Religious Archive and its Secular Component and its Relationship to Violence

The thesis argues for the inclusion of the study of religion within the public school curriculum. It argues that the whole division between “religious” and “secular” spaces and institutions is itself rooted in a specific religious tradition. Using the theories of Jacques Derrida, I argue that, unless the present process of globalization is tempered with alternative models of organizing that don’t include this secular/sacred division, the very process of Western globalization acts as a moral religion. Derrida calls this process “globalatinization,” the imposition of Western defined institutions upon other cultures. The process creates a type of religious violence through act of imposing notions of “secular/public” and “sacred/private.” Drawing from Mark Juergensmeyer’s theory of religious violence, and Derrida’s and Foucault’s understanding of discursive formations, I argue that religious studies should enter this “secular/public” space in the form of educating about the world’s religions. Such education would go a long way in preventing the demonization of the “other” through promoting empathy, understanding, and respect for “other” traditions. Finally, education would provide a needed self-critique of the dividing of “secular/sacred” in contemporary Western life.

Treefrogs in Forested Swamps at the La Selva Biological Station: Assemblage Variation through Space and Time

Swamp-breeding treefrogs form conspicuous components of many tropical forest sites, yet remain largely understudied. The La Selva Biological Station, a rainforest reserve in Costa Rica, harbors a rich swamp-breeding treefrog fauna that has been studied in only one of the many swamps found at the site. To understand if the species composition of treefrogs at La Selva varies over space or time, frogs were censused in 1982-83, 1994-95, 2005 and 2011 at two ponds located in the reserve. Data on treefrog habitat utilization were also collected. Species composition varied spatially only in 2011. Temporal variation was observed at both ponds for all groups tested. Habitat use varied among species and between swamps. The pattern of variation suggests that temporally dynamic systems such as temporary Neotropical forest swamps will converge and diverge in species composition over time.

Essays on the Impact of Stakeholders' Sentiment on the Financial Decision Making Process

The most important factor that affects the decision making process in finance is the risk which is usually measured by variance (total risk) or systematic risk (beta). Since investors' sentiment (whether she is an optimist or pessimist) plays a very important role in the choice of beta measure, any decision made for the same asset within the same time horizon will be different for different individuals. In other words, there will neither be homogeneity of beliefs nor the rational expectation prevalent in the market due to behavioral traits. This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first essay, Investor Sentiment and Intrinsic Stock Prices, a new technical trading strategy is developed using a firm specific individual sentiment measure. This behavioral based trading strategy forecasts a range within which a stock price moves in a particular period and can be used for stock trading. Results show that sample firms trade within a range and show signals as to when to buy or sell. The second essay, Managerial Sentiment and the Value of the Firm, examines the effect of managerial sentiment on the project selection process using net present value criterion and also effect of managerial sentiment on the value of firm. Findings show that high sentiment and low sentiment managers obtain different values for the same firm before and after the acceptance of a project. The last essay, Investor Sentiment and Optimal Portfolio Selection, analyzes how the investor sentiment affects the nature and composition of the optimal portfolio as well as the performance measures. Results suggest that the choice of the investor sentiment completely changes the portfolio composition, i.e., the high sentiment investor will have a completely different choice of assets in the portfolio in comparison with the low sentiment investor. The results indicate the practical application of behavioral model based technical indicators for stock trading. Additional insights developed include the valuation of firms with a behavioral component and the importance of distinguishing portfolio performance based on sentiment factors.

Personal and Institutional Factors: Relationship to Self-Efficacy of Persistence to the Senior Year in College among Self-Identified Black Undergraduate Students in a Hispanic Serving Institution

While undergraduate enrollment of all racial groups in United States higher education institutions has increased, 6-year graduation rates of Blacks (39%) remain low compared to other races; Asians (69%), Whites (62%), and Hispanics (50%; NCES, 2010). Women’s graduation rate is higher than men’s; 58% compared to men’s at 53% in public institutions (IPEDS, 2011). Retention literature does not address the perceptions of Black ethnic groups’ experiences in college, particularly in Hispanic serving institutions. Informed by Tinto’s (1975, 1987, 1993) student academic and social integration model, Guiffrida’s (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) model of relationships while at college, and ex-post facto research design, the study investigated personal and institutional factors that relate to Black students’ self-efficacy and persistence to the senior year in college. Data about Black ethnic undergraduate seniors’ (N = 236) academic and social experiences in college were collected using the Student Institutional Integration Survey (SIIS), an online questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to collect background information about the sample, correlation was calculated to indicate the degree of relationship between the variables, and multiple linear regressions were used to identify variables that are predictors of self-efficacy of persistence. Independent samples t-test and analyses of variance were computed to determine whether differences in perceptions of personal and institutional factors that relate to self-efficacy of persistence to the senior year in college could be identified between gender and ethnicity. Frequency was summarized to identify themes of participants’ primary motivation for finishing undergraduate degree programs. These themes were: (a) self-pride/personal goal, (b) professional aspiration/career (c) motivation to support family, (d) desire to have financial independence/better job, (e) to serve community, (f) opportunity to go to college, (g) being first-generation college student, and (h) prove to family the value of higher education. The research findings support the tenets of academic and social integration theories which suggest that students’ interaction with peer and faculty, relationships with family and friends, and involvement in institutional activities and organizations influence their persistence in college. Implications based on the findings affect institutional policy, curriculum, and program improvements that relate to Black undergraduate students’ academic and social support.

Effects of Family, Child, and Teacher Demographics on Prekindergarten Children's Access to and Use of Numeracy and Spatial Materials in the Early Education Setting

Florida’s Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program (VPK) aims to ensure that all 4-year-olds are prepared to excel in K-12 mathematics. Early numeracy/spatial skills are predictive of success in K–12 mathematics. No research has examined whether VPK classrooms are equipped with the materials necessary to teach numeracy/spatial skill. The Pre-Kindergarten Numeracy and Spatial Environment Survey was created to examine the frequency of access to and use of numeracy/spatial materials in VPK classrooms. The 69-item survey was completed by the lead educator from a sample of 62 pre-kindergarten classrooms in Miami-Dade County. Regression analysis results suggest the location of the pre-kindergarten center, the sex distribution of the children in the classrooms or the number of years of experience that the educator has as a lead teacher along with the extra training courses undertaken by the teachers does not affect the access to or the use of, numeracy and spatial materials in the classrooms.

The influence of processing instructions at encoding and retrieval on face recognition accuracy

Whereas previous research has demonstrated that trait ratings of faces at encoding leads to enhanced recognition accuracy as compared to feature ratings, this set of experiments examines whether ratings given after encoding and just prior to recognition influence face recognition accuracy. In Experiment 1 subjects who made feature ratings just prior to recognition were significantly less accurate than subjects who made no ratings or trait ratings. In Experiment 2 ratings were manipulated at both encoding and retrieval. The retrieval effect was smaller and nonsignificant, but a combined probability analysis showed that it was significant when results from both experiments are considered jointly. In a third experiment exposure duration at retrieval, a potentially confounding factor in Experiments 1 and 2, had a nonsignificant effect on recognition accuracy, suggesting that it probably does not explain the results from Experiments 1 and 2. These experiments demonstrate that face recognition accuracy can be influenced by processing instructions at retrieval.

Workplace Aggression: A Reconceptualization Of The Construct & An Exploration Of Strain Based Outcomes

The examination of Workplace Aggression as a global construct conceptualization has gained considerable attention over the past few years as organizations work to better understand and address the occurrence and consequences of this challenging construct. The purpose of this dissertation is to build on previous efforts to validate the appropriateness and usefulness of a global conceptualization of the workplace aggression construct. This dissertation has been broken up into two parts: Part 1 utilized a Confirmatory Factor Analysis approach in order to assess the existence of workplace aggression as a global construct; Part 2 utilized a series of correlational analyses to examine the relationship between a selection of commonly experienced individual strain based outcomes and the global construct conceptualization assessed in Part 1. Participants were a diverse sample of 219 working individuals from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk participant pool. Results of Part 1 did not show support for a one-factor global construct conceptualization of the workplace aggression construct. However, support was shown for a higher-order five-factor model of the construct, suggesting that it may be possible to conceptualize workplace aggression as an overarching construct that is made up of separate workplace aggression constructs. Results of Part 2 showed support for the relationships between an existing global construct workplace aggression conceptualization and a series of strain-based outcomes. Utilizing correlational analyses, additional post-hoc analyses showed that individual factors such as emotional intelligence and personality are related to the experience of workplace aggression. Further, utilizing moderated regression analysis, the results demonstrated that individuals experiencing high levels of workplace aggression reported higher job satisfaction when they felt strongly that the aggressive act was highly visible, and similarly, when they felt that there was a clear intent to cause harm. Overall, the findings of this dissertation do support the need for a simplification of its current state of measurement. Future research should continue to examine workplace aggression in an effort to shed additional light on the structure and usefulness of this complex construct.

The Role of Agriculture and Food Consumption in Tropical Conservation

A growing human population, shifting human dietary habits, and climate change are negatively affecting global ecosystems on a massive scale. Expanding agricultural areas to feed a growing population drives extensive habitat loss, and climate change compounds stresses on both food security and ecosystems. Understanding the negative effects of human diet and climate change on agricultural and natural ecosystems provides a context within which potential technological and behavioral solutions can be proposed to help maximize conservation. The purpose of this research was to (1) examine the potential effects of climate change on the suitability of areas for commercial banana plantations in Latin America in the 2050s and how shifts in growing areas could affect protected areas; (2) test the ability of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to map productivity of banana plantations as a potential tool for increasing yields and decreasing future plantation expansions; (3) project the effects on biodiversity of increasing rates of animal product consumption in developing megadiverse countries; and (4) estimate the capacity of global pasture biomass production and Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbon synthesis (IGCC-FT) processing to meet electricity, gasoline and diesel needs. The results indicate that (1) the overall extent of areas suitable for conventional banana cultivation is predicted to decrease by 19% by 2050 because of a hotter and drier climate, but all current banana exporting countries are predicted to maintain some suitable areas with no effects on protected areas; (2) Spatial patterns of NDVI and ENDVI were significantly positively correlated with several metrics of fruit yield and quality, indicating that UAV systems can be used in banana plantations to map spatial patterns of fruit yield; (3) Livestock production is the single largest driver of habitat loss, and both livestock and feedstock production are increasing in developing biodiverse tropical countries. Reducing global animal product consumption should therefore be at the forefront of strategies aimed at reducing biodiversity loss; (4) Removing livestock from global pasture lands and instead utilizing the biomass production could produce enough energy to meet 100% of the electricity, gasoline, and diesel needs of over 40 countries with extensive grassland ecosystems, primarily in tropical developing countries.

Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Study Abroad and Their Level of Achievement of Global Learning Outcomes

This study expanded on current research on study abroad and global learning, using the Global Perspective Inventory (GPI), and conducted at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, FL. The GPI assesses the holistic development of a global perspective in higher education within three domains and their respective FIU-determined equivalents: cognitive (global awareness), intrapersonal (global perspective), and interpersonal (global engagement). The main purpose of this study was to assess FIU’s undergraduate students’ perceptions of study abroad on their level of achievement of global awareness, global perspective, and global engagement. The secondary purpose was to determine how the students described their study abroad experience and achievement of global learning. The research design for this study consisted of parallel mixed methods. The quantitative component was an ex post facto with hypothesis design, using a pretest/posttest nonequivalent group methodology. FIU undergraduates (N=147) who studied abroad for one semester or more completed the GPI pre- and post-tests. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests were conducted to compare the means. The interviews included 10 students, and were analyzed through Structural coding, Saldaña’s In Vivo coding, and Value coding. Quantitative analyses indicated positive changes in the students’ global awareness and global perspective. These analyses also showed that the FIU students achieved higher post-test means on all the domains of the GPI compared to other studies. Qualitative analyses showed that the students’ experiences incorporated all three global learning outcomes, most notably global awareness and perspective.

Defining Fluid Restriction in the Management of Infants Following Cardiac Surgery and Understanding the Subsequent Impact on Nutrient Delivery and Growth Outcomes

Adequacy of nutritional intake during the postoperative period, as measured by a change in weight-for-age z-scores from surgery to the time of discharge, was evaluated in infants (n = 58) diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and admitted for surgical intervention at Miami Children’s Hospital using a prospective observational study design. Parental consent was obtained for all infants who participated in the study. Forty patients had a weight available at hospital discharge. The mean preoperative weight-for-age z-score was -1.3 ±1.43 and the mean weight-for-age z-score at hospital discharge was -1.89 ±1.35 with a mean difference of 0.58 ±0.5 (P Nutritional intake during the postoperative period was inadequate based on a decrease in weight-for-age z-scores from the time of surgery until discharged home. Our findings suggested that limited fluid volume for nutrition likely contributes to suboptimal nutritional delivery during the postoperative period; however, inadequate nutrition prescription may also be an important contributing factor. Development of a nutrition protocol for initiation and advancement of nutrition support may reduce the delay in achieving patient’s nutritional goals and may attenuate the observed decrease in z-scores during the postoperative period.

Don't Get Mad, Get Even: How Employees Abused by Their Supervisor Retaliate Against the Organization and Undermine Their Spouses

My study investigated the effects of abusive supervision on work and family outcomes including supervisor-directed and organization-directed deviance and spousal undermining. Using a moderated-mediation model, the relationship of abusive supervision on outcome variables was proposed to be mediated by moral courage and moderated by leader-member exchange (a-path) and work and family role quality (b-path). Two separate studies were conducted using a sample (N=200) recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and through relatives of students at a large US public southeastern university (N=150 dyads). Results confirm the effects of abusive supervision on work and family outcomes while analyses of contextual and conditional factors are mixed. Confirmatory factor analyses, factor loadings, and model fit statistics are provided and implications for research and practice are discussed.