Three essays in corporate finance

The dissertation contains three essays in corporate finance. The first essay examines to what extent shareholder gain from activism is the result of wealth transfer from employees of a firm targeted by activism. My baseline results show that target firms experience underfunding in defined benefit employee pension plans after acts of activism. My evidence suggests that the underlying mechanism of this wealth transfer is the agency conflicts between CEO-shareholder alliance and CEO-worker alliance. My identification strategy is to examine possible alternative explanations. My various tests reject alternative hypothesis such as sample attrition, management’s voluntary reforms, activists stock-picking skills, and the changes due to mean reversion. I also find that target firms experience funding shortfalls after activism. It appears that the underlying mechanism is the degree of managers’ entrenchment. Entrenched managers tend to create a worker-management alliance using employee stock ownership. Consistent with this hypothesis, target firms with employee stock ownership in the own company are less likely to experience funding shortfall. In the second essay, analyzing texts in Schedule 13D filings, I address important questions regarding shareholder activism: which forms of activism increases firm value and under what circumstances? I show that investors respond more positively to activist shareholders who use soft activism, communicating with their target firms’ managers or other shareholders rather than a harder approach. Overall, I provide empirical evidence that soft shareholder activism is value-enhancing. In the third essay, I show that a local culture of altruism influences corporate social responsibility (CSR). I measure the level of local altruism by the amount of contributions to charitable, educational, religious organizations, and other cash gifts. I find evidence of a positive relation between local altruism and CSR scores of firms headquartered in a US county. I also find that increased CSR concerns of firms headquartered near altruistic communities have a negative impact on stock returns. Overall, my empirical evidence shows that local culture affects firms’ CSR polices and investors who invest in companies located in altruistic communities react more to the increase in concerns than increase in strengths of CSR. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Connections between the folk psychiatry of addiction and levels of attributed stigma

Some serious health problems, such as addiction, can be highly stigmatized by others. Through different learning experiences and life events, people develop varying conceptions of the etiology of addiction. These sets of beliefs are referred to as “folk psychiatry” and can be understood as a guiding force behind public opinion. This study examines the knowledge individuals use to make judgments about individuals with substance-use disorder by positing a shared cultural model of addiction causality. This research was conducted among undergraduate students at the University of Alabama, as college students in the 18-25 age range are especially at risk for developing substance-use disorder due to binge drinking on college campus and other factors. As causes of addiction are heavily intertwined with biological, social, and political issues, this model aids in recognizing which realm of understanding maintains the highest saliency in laypeople’s conceptions of the development of substance use-disorder. The model consists of 28 causes distributed throughout five themes: Biomedical, Self-Medication, Familial, Social, and Hedonistic. Cultural consensus was found along three dimensions of the model: overall influence of causes, level of personal control over causes, and level of outsider influence on causes. Differing knowledge and understandings of the model of addiction causality and measures of political progressivism were shown to have significant effects on the level of attributed stigma towards individuals with substance use disorder. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Noncommutative spaces from matrix models

Noncommutative (NC) spaces commonly arise as solutions to matrix model equations of motion. They are natural generalizations of the ordinary commutative spacetime. Such spaces may provide insights into physics close to the Planck scale, where quantum gravity becomes relevant. Although there has been much research in the literature, aspects of these NC spaces need further investigation. In this dissertation, we focus on properties of NC spaces in several different contexts. In particular, we study exact NC spaces which result from solutions to matrix model equations of motion. These spaces are associated with finite-dimensional Lie-algebras. More specifically, they are two-dimensional fuzzy spaces that arise from a three-dimensional Yang-Mills type matrix model, four-dimensional tensor-product fuzzy spaces from a tensorial matrix model, and Snyder algebra from a five-dimensional tensorial matrix model. In the first part of this dissertation, we study two-dimensional NC solutions to matrix equations of motion of extended IKKT-type matrix models in three-space-time dimensions. Perturbations around the NC solutions lead to NC field theories living on a two-dimensional space-time. The commutative limit of the solutions are smooth manifolds which can be associated with closed, open and static two-dimensional cosmologies. One particular solution is a Lorentzian fuzzy sphere, which leads to essentially a fuzzy sphere in the Minkowski space-time. In the commutative limit, this solution leads to an induced metric that does not have a fixed signature, and have a non-constant negative scalar curvature, along with singularities at two fixed latitudes. The singularities are absent in the matrix solution which provides a toy model for resolving the singularities of General relativity. We also discussed the two-dimensional fuzzy de Sitter space-time, which has irreducible representations of su(1,1) Lie-algebra in terms of principal, complementary and discrete series. Field theories on such backgrounds result from perturbations about the solutions. The perturbative analysis requires non-standard Seiberg-Witten maps which depend on the embeddings in the ambient space and the symplectic 2-form. We find interesting properties of the field theories in the commutative limit. For example, stability of the action may require adding symmetry breaking terms to the matrix action, along with a selected range for the matrix coefficients. In the second part of this dissertation, we study higher dimensional fuzzy spaces in a tensorial matrix model, which is a natural generalization to the three-dimensional actions and is valid in any number of space-time dimensions. Four-dimensional tensor product NC spaces can be constructed from two-dimensional NC spaces and may provide a setting for doing four-dimensional NC cosmology. Another solution to the tensorial matrix model equations of motion is the Snyder algebra. A crucial step in exploring NC physics is to understand the structure of the quantized space-time in terms of the group representations of the NC algebra. We therefore study the representation theory of the Snyder algebra and implementation of symmetry transformations on the resulted discrete lattices. We find the three-dimensional Snyder space to be associated with two distinct Hilbert spaces, which define two reducible representations of the su(2)*su(2) algebra. This implies the existence of two distinct lattice structures of Snyder space. The difference between the two representations is evident in the spectra of the position operators, which could only be integers in one case and half integers in the other case. We also show that despite the discrete nature of the Snyder space, continuous translations and rotations can be unitarily implemented on the lattices. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Aerodynamic comparisons of membrane wings with cambered and flat frames at low reynolds number

The limited size of micro air vehicles (MAVs) requires small power sources, leading to a need for high aerodynamic efficiency. Flexible membrane wings at the MAV scale can experience improved lift/drag ratios, delays in stall, and decreased time-averaged flow separation when compared to rigid wings. This research thesis examines the effect of frame camber on the aerodynamic characteristics of membrane wings. The frames for the wings were designed in SolidWorks and constructed using an Objet30 Pro 3D printer. The membranes are composed of silicone rubber. Tests were conducted in The University of Alabama’s low-speed wind tunnel in 135 Hardaway Hall in low Reynolds number flow (Re ~ 50,000). Aerodynamic force and moment measurements were acquired at angles-of-attack varying from -4 to 24°. The results were used to determine whether cambered frames provide membrane wings with aerodynamic advantages when compared to those with flat frames. Additionally, a digital image correlation (DIC) camera system was used to acquire time-averaged shapes for the membrane wings during wind tunnel tests. The wings were mounted vertically at angles-of-attack of 6° and 18° to represent the regions of maximum efficiency and approaching stall, respectively. An in-house MATLAB program was developed to average the deflection plots from the images and produce time-averaged shapes. Lifting-line theory was applied to the time-averaged shapes to calculate theoretical lift and induced drag coefficients. The experimental set-up, results, and conclusions are discussed. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Brief depression literacy intervention with palliative cancer outpatients

Cancer patients are at risk for depression due to the nature of their disease. Previous investigations indicate patients meeting screening criteria for depression may be underdiagnosed or undertreated for their symptoms. For cancer patients, psychological distress may exacerbate pain, increase desire for hastened death, and increase disability. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) design was employed to determine feasibility and efficacy of a one-time, in-person psychoeducation and depression literacy intervention by comparing it to a treatment as usual (TAU) control group. Outpatient palliative care patients were eligible with PHQ-9 score ≥5, cancer diagnosis, absence of SMI or cognitive impairment, 19 years or older, able to speak and understand English, and available to be reached and communicate by telephone. Baseline and one month follow-up telephone assessments used vignettes and questionnaires to assess depression literacy, psychological distress, and disability. Forty-three patients enrolled, majority white (65%) females (75%) with mean age of 48 years (SD= 11.08). Three intervention participants dropped out before completing the intervention visit and follow-up interview; therefore, 40 participants were included in analysis. Group differences were controlled using propensity score. Intervention participants demonstrated clinically relevant change in depression literacy including: symptom identification (OR=2.0, 95%CI=0.296-13.511), likelihood to seek MH care with counselors (OR=4.059, 95%CI=0.388-42.491), psychiatrists (OR=4.2, 95%CI=0.397-44.4), and social workers (OR=4.2, 95%CI=0.397-44.401), and improved perceptions toward employees (OR=2.556, 95%CI=0.214-30.469) and parents (OR=15.333, 95%CI=1.711-137.404) with severe depression. Decreased somatic complaints (M=-1.7, SE=1.68, d=-0.378) and more stable level of disability were also found (M=-3.0, SE=3.36, d=-0.319). Although results are promising, future studies with more participants, improved outcome measurement, and diversity in the sample are warranted to improve the understanding of the magnitude of change in depression literacy between groups, and improve the generalizability of findings. Integration of the intervention across time, within the clinical setting may increase uptake and completion of the intervention. Also, long term follow-up would allow researchers to track the effect of the intervention on help-seeking behaviors. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Free inverse semigroupoids and their inverse subsemigroupoids

Semigroupoids are generalizations of semigroups and of small categories. In general, the quotient of a semigroupoid by a congruence is not a semigroupoid and homomorphisms of semigroupoids can also behave badly. We define certain types of congruences and homomorphisms that avoid this problem. We then investigate inverse semigroupoids which are semigroupoids in which each element has a unique inverse. A free inverse semigroupoid has a (symmetric) basis, and it turns out to be unique. Using the immersion of graphs from Stallings folding, we introduce the Stallings kernel. We use this to study the structure of free inverse semigroupoids and their inverse subsemigroupoids. We show that closed inverse subsemigroupoids of a free inverse semigroupoid are to some extent similar to subgroups of a free group. In particular, there are analogues of the Nielsen-Schreier theorem and Howson's theorem. In contrast to the situation in a free group, every finitely generated closed inverse subsemigroupoid of a free inverse semigroupoid $F$ has finite index (whether or not $F$ is finitely generated). (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

The association between chronotype and nonrestorative sleep

Nonrestorative sleep (NRS), characterized by a lack of refreshment upon awakening, has received little attention in the sleep literature even though it can occur and cause impairment apart from other sleep difficulties associated with insomnia. The Restorative Sleep Questionnaire (RSQ; Drake et al., 2014) is one of the first validated self-report instruments for investigating NRS severity, presenting new opportunities to explore what factors predict and perhaps contribute to unrefreshing sleep. The present study sought to determine whether inherent circadian preference for morning or evening activity, known as chronotype, predicted restorative sleep in 164 college undergraduates who completed daily RSQs over two weeks. Participants who endorsed greater orientation to evening activity on the morningness-eveningness questionnaire (Terman, Rifkin, Jacobs, & White, 2001) reported significantly less average restorative sleep across their full sampling period, and this association was maintained after accounting for demographic factors, number of sleep-relevant psychiatric and medical diagnoses, sleep diary parameters, self-reported status as an insomniac, and ratings of sleep quality. Furthermore, when analyses were conducted separately for weekday and weekend RSQ scores, eveningness significantly predicted NRS above extraneous variables only during the workweek, not during Saturday and Sunday. These findings have implications for the developing conceptualization of NRS, and continue the work of elucidating the interconnections between common sleep disturbances and the circadian system. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

On a future for silicon carbide in power electronics applications

Silicon-based MOSFETs and IGBTs have long been the premiere options for semiconductor switches in power converter applications. However, each of these Si based device structures has limitations that constrain the performance capabilities of their intended applications. The recently commercialized SiC MOSFET allows for optimized application designs that are not constrained by the limitations of Si semiconductor switches as in traditional designs. This thesis will explore the device properties of SiC MOSFETs and compare them to the properties of Si MOSFETs and Si IGBTs. Device characterization methods for experimentally determining switching losses and conduction losses will be presented, along with special considerations to be made when dealing with wide band-gap devices. In order to demonstrate SiC MOSFETs’ system level optimization opportunities, this thesis will present a hard-switched 5 kW DC-to-DC converter that leverages the SiC devices in question to reach a system level efficiency of 99%. This converter will also be used as a platform to perform a head-to-head comparison of Si IGBTs and SiC MOSFETs in terms of overall system efficiency. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

The sense of international and being-with-in-common

Where do(es) international relations present? The discipline of International Relations (IR) avoids this question because the answer is so obvious. What constitutes the discipline of IR is an attempt to localize the place of international relations as a form of politics that has unique characteristics. These characteristics refer to the limits of politics. In this sense, international relations constitutes an outside of the political sphere within which the political self finds the certainties upon which its political self-understandings rely. It is a projection of the transformation of universal politics to the particular and internal, through the territorial mentality of the classical—in the Foucauldian sense, judicial-political—sovereignty theories. Following this tendency, political theory ignores international relations as an element of the ontological status of being-with, while for its part, the discipline of IR does not take account of the everydayness of being-with as a concern for international politics or attempt to translate our everyday encounter into the particular language of international relations. This project attempts to reverse this shared lacuna of both disciplines and tries to treat the international—as a sense which produces specific meaning of nearness and a particular version of being-inside—which operates in the ontological status of being-with. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Communicating patient status: a comparison of teaching strategies in pre-licensure nursing education

Educational strategies to develop practice-ready, patient status reporting skills in pre-licensure nursing education are needed (Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, and Day, 2010). This study aimed to explore if there was a difference in patient status reporting performance and perceptions of learning for senior pre-licensure nursing students who participated in one of two instructional techniques. The Cognitive Apprenticeship model and a classroom-based, active learning strategy both featuring the ISBARR reporting method comprised the instruction. A sample of 141 baccalaureate nursing students participated in the study. A randomized posttest-only design with comparison group method was used to conduct the research. Reporting performances were scored using The Inter-Professional Critical Incident Report Evaluation Tool during a post-instruction, high fidelity simulation exercise. No statistically significant difference between mean scores for instructional groups was noted in reporting performance or learning satisfaction and self-confidence. This study supports findings from a similar inquiry which suggest that framework approaches to patient reporting can be helpful in learning procedural skill elements. Proficiency in this domain is contingent however upon the ability to recognize the important features of a clinical situation and identify assessment indicators relevant to the problem. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries