Information Theoretic-Based Privacy Protection on Data Publishing and Biometric Authentication

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Survival Analysis of Canadian Oil and Gas Firms

In the context of oil price fluctuations inducing boom and bust cycles, this empirical study is a survival analysis of the Canadian oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) industry. The population includes 540 public Canadian E&P firms that have their headquarters and production activity in Canada, and the data covers the periods of Q1-2002 to Q1-2016 representing over 15,850 firm-quarter observations. The method is an extended Cox model with repeating events, allowing for the use of time-varying predictor variables and the analysis is executed in R, a free statistical software. The study introduces a new definition of financial distress as two consecutive quarters of negative operating cash flow to total assets ratio, develops a baseline model with financial ratios and industry-specific covariates and tests three hypotheses. The first two hypotheses examine the extent to which hedging and company size respectively correlate to the state of financial distress, and the third hypothesis explores how being financially distressed contributes to being a target in a merger and acquisitions (M&A) transaction. The findings show that a hedging firm is 18.5 times less exposed to the hazard of financial distress than a non-hedging firm; and with each unit size increase, a firm is 1.18 times less likely to experience financial distress, but financial distress is not a valid predictor of the hazard of being an M&A target. This study provides a new perspective supporting the use of hedging and size increase for increasing corporate resilience in Canadian oil and gas firms

NASA Tech Briefs, May 1993

Topics include: Advanced Composites and Plastics; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery; Fabrication Technology; Mathematics and Information Sciences; Life Sciences

Nonparametric efficiency and productivity change measurement of banks with corporate social responsibilities : the case for Ghana

This thesis has twofold objectives. The first is to develop a framework based on the existing theory and method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for measuring performance of financial firms that have the dual goals of profit maximisation and Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSRs). The second is to examine the impact of banking regulatory reforms including bank ownership, specialisation, and capitalisation types on the average efficiency and frontier differences of banking subgroups. The objectives are achieved using the standard DEA, the metafrontier analysis and the global frontier differences (GFD). DEA can handle multidimensional inputs and outputs without specifying specific functional forms. CSR is conceptually justified and modelled as an additional output into the banking intermediation approach. Two DEA models, one with CSR and another without CSR are measured and compared. Parametric and nonparametric tests and regressions are utilised to support, empirically, the relevance of CSR in bank performance evaluation. Do foreign banks outperform private-domestic and state banks? Should banks diversify their products or focus in narrow range of products and services? Are listed banks more efficient than non-listed banks? The second part of the thesis contributes to the extant literature by answering these questions using the metafrontier analysis and the GFD to provide new evidence on the effect that the entry of foreign and private-domestic banks, universal banking and listing of banks on the stock market, have on bank performance. Banks are segmented into groups based on their bank-specific attributes and their average efficiencies and bestpractice differences compared. Relevant policy recommendations are drawn from the analysis for both the banking regulator and bank management. The final methodological contribution extends the GFD by defining a further decomposition of the global frontier shift, into components that indicate whether an observation is situated in a more or less favourable location in the production possibility set. Consequently, a four-factor “Newly-decomposed Malmquist productivity change index” is proposed. The index and its decompositions have potentially interesting policy implications, which are illustrated using the empirical data on Ghanaian banks. The index is in the spirit of the standard Malmquist index but the intuition is that some components can be used to draw conclusions about productivity changes for a whole population of firms whilst others determine whether individual firms are in favourable locations and/or moving towards locations that are more favourable over time. More importantly, arguably, a listed, universal or foreign bank can be located in a favourable position and move towards location that is more favourable by virtue of its bank-specific attributes or by contributing more towards CSR. These factors are explored and policy measures prescribed in the final contribution of the thesis

An Anatomy Based Health Education Curriculum Taught by Medical Students May Improve High School Students Health Knowledge

To date, few high school based interventions have been shown to have lasting effects on adolescents\u27 health behaviors. The need for health interventions targeting adolescents is underscored by data showing that several health behaviors with significant short and long term adverse effects begin in early adolescence and become progressively more prevalent toward late adolescence. This project tested the efficacy of a novel anatomy based health education curriculum at increasing health knowledge. The course was taught by first year Yale medical students. The curriculum placed emphasis on nutrition, physical activity and infectious disease. Forty Juniors from Career High School visited Yale\u27s anatomy lab once every two weeks for ten hour-long sessions. In addition to visits to the anatomy lab, students completed two class projects, one covered nutrition and the other focused on exercise. Four additional sessions at Career High School were dedicated to the class projects. Pre and post test analysis showed an improvement in health knowledge with a thirteen percentage point improvement on a standardized health knowledge survey. The students\u27 performance was compared to a control cohort of thirty-one students who were not exposed to the curriculum. Students exposed to the curriculum had a nineteen percentage point advantage compared to control students who had not been exposed. Curriculum efficacy as demonstrated by this small cohort validate further testing with larger cohorts and more vigorous controls as well as separate testing to measure changes in health behavior attributable to curriculum exposure

Understanding East-West Differences in Social Anxiety: The Roles of Culturally-Tuned Attentional Processes

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

The segregation stereotyping bind: social networks and resource acquisition among men and women business owners in gender typical and atypical sectors

This thesis is concerned with gender segregation in entrepreneurship – a phenomenon that is termed here entrepreneurial segregation. Researchers studying occupational segregation have established that sex segregated social networks and gender stereotyping play an integral role in driving sex segregation in employment. Since women are embedded in female-dominated networks and men move in male-dominated circles, they inevitably receive job leads (resources) from members of the same sex. In addition, because of gender stereotyping, those supplying the job leads (resource providers) offer job seekers information about jobs in sectors that are perceived as appropriate for the jobseekerʼs gender. Drawing on this knowledge, Bourdieuian social capital theory and gender role congruency theory, this thesis examines the social networks of men and women entrepreneurs in gender congruent and incongruent business sectors, with the express purpose of uncovering whether an inability to secure business resources poses inhibitive effects on business development of entrepreneurs in gender atypical sectors. Taking an inclusive approach, the purpose of the study was to identify and explain any detriment in resource acquisition experienced by women business owners by comparing their experiences in different industries with those of men. 255 New York City based entrepreneurs operating firms in two maledominated industries (construction and sound recording), one femaledominated industry (childcare) and one integrated industry (publishing) completed an online survey based on the Dutch Resource Generator social network tool. Respondents indicated the specific resources they were able and unable to secure through their networks, the sex of, and relationship to each resource provider, and their experiences of gender stereotyping. A mixture of bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses (Mann Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests, multiple regression and discriminant function analyses) was used to examine the data. The findings revealed that the ability to mobilize resources is strongly influenced by the sex composition of entrepreneursʼ networks, and an interaction between the sex of the business owner and the gender-domination of the industry in which he or she operates. In the female-dominated childcare industry, women were just as successful as men in their attempts to secure resources. Women operating businesses in male-dominated sectors suffered in terms of their ability to obtain resources, particularly financial resources. Men owners of childcare firms did not suffer in the same way, even though they reported relatively high levels of discrimination against them by staff, customers, suppliers and colleagues. Networking strategy had little impact on the ability of nontraditional women to secure resources. This suggests that nontraditional women are locked into a kind of networking bind, a phenomenon that is dubbed the segregation-stereotyping bind