The Cowl - v.81-n.24 - May 4, 2017

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 81, Number 24 - May 4, 2017. 32 pages

Quality time: an exploration of subjective temporality

A jointly constructed social and personal endeavor, the notion of time offers a rich source of relatively untapped sociological insight. As the hallmark of American society's recent evolution, the context of intensified personal busyness and social acceleration asserts the relevance of temporal consideration. A primary conclusion from the review of relevant literature finds the need for research of temporality through the lens of personal, qualitative experience in supplement to commonly popular quantitative forms. Following the suggestion of a parallel shift between culturally oriented and subjectively experienced time, the equation of time to money bears particular interest as a powerful analogy underlying the notion of a quantified time, a concept providing a distilled form of the problem statement. The conceptual lens of "quality time" offers the supplemental, yet contrasting lens which provides the focus of these ideas into the development of this qualitative study. Interviews conducted with students and professors aimed to invite the personal expressions of quality time as a facet of personal reconciliation with time. Data from fifteen interviews with students and professors intended to structure a template of comparison between generations, with additional relevance for the realm of higher education. Although the outcome of the data encouraged divergent avenues of analysis, the resultant discussion seeks to explore promising angles for the subjective experience of time, as counterpart to its social construction, and as a revealing field of sociological inquiry

Investigating adaptive, confidence-based strategic negotiations in complex multiagent environments

We propose an adaptive 1-to-many negotiation strategy for multiagent coalition formation in complex environments that are dynamic, uncertain, and real-time. Our strategy deals with how to assign multiple issues to a set of concurrent negotiations based on an initiating agent’s confidence in its profiling of its peer agents. When an agent is confident, it uses a packaged approach—conducting multiple multi-issue negotiations—with its peers. Otherwise, it uses a pipelined approach—conducting multiple single-issue negotiations—with its peers. The initiating agent is also capable of using both approaches in a hybrid, dealing with a mixed group of responding peers. An agent’s confidence in its profile or view of another agent is crucial, and that depends on the environment in which the agents operate. To evaluate the proposed strategy, we use a coalition formation framework in a complex environment. Results show that the proposed strategy outperforms the purely pipelined strategy and the purely packaged strategy in both efficiency and effectiveness

Investigating adaptive, confidence-based strategic negotiations in complex multiagent environments

We propose an adaptive 1-to-many negotiation strategy for multiagent coalition formation in complex environments that are dynamic, uncertain, and real-time. Our strategy deals with how to assign multiple issues to a set of concurrent negotiations based on an initiating agent’s confidence in its profiling of its peer agents. When an agent is confident, it uses a packaged approach—conducting multiple multi-issue negotiations—with its peers. Otherwise, it uses a pipelined approach—conducting multiple single-issue negotiations—with its peers. The initiating agent is also capable of using both approaches in a hybrid, dealing with a mixed group of responding peers. An agent’s confidence in its profile or view of another agent is crucial, and that depends on the environment in which the agents operate. To evaluate the proposed strategy, we use a coalition formation framework in a complex environment. Results show that the proposed strategy outperforms the purely pipelined strategy and the purely packaged strategy in both efficiency and effectiveness

Essays on Interlocking Directorates and Speculative Dynamics

This thesis is composed by four chapters which can be classified in two broad topics. The first and second chapters deal with the properties of the networks created by interlock- ing directorates, while the third and fourth chapters with the so-called Efficient Market Hypothesis. Connecting these two topics is the notion of a stylized fact (also called a universal property) which is not accounted for by the currently stablished theory. The first chapter shows that the existence of a very well connected dominant community is not explained by the traditional preferential attachment models. In addition, it is also shown that the patterns of accumulation of board positions by single individuals observed in empirical data cannot be explained by a simple random binomial procedure. An in depth analysis of a time framed interlocking directorates dataset from Spain is presented in order to argue that board linkages might have generated some kind of special conditions for lending that would not exist if based on economic criteria only. In addition, the effects of a new gender equality regulation are investigate to conclude that women are still under represented in the boards of directors, although an increase in their absolute number could be observed. Finally, surrogate linearity tests and microscopic (agent based) models are applied in order to explain the stylized facts not account for by the Efficient Market Hypothe- sis. More specifically, with respect to the class of microscopic models called Structural Stochastic Volatility models, it is shown that the introduction of inactive traders in- creases the model ability to explain the stylized facts. Additionally, taking advantage of this model contest, it is argued that a simulation horizon one allows a model to run in order to estimate its parameters higher than what was previously assumed in not necessary in order to compare different models

Compassion : the inward journey to love

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1893/thumbnail.jp

Four Essays on Corporate Governance, Ownership Structure and Capital Structure of GCC Firms

The thesis examines the role and impacts of multiple directorships, nomination committee, joint-audit investment committee and cost of debt, investment efficiency, corporate life cycle and corporate cash holdings of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) firms over 2005-2013 period