A Search for Moderate-Redshift Survivors from the Population of Luminous Compact Passive Galaxies at High Redshift

From a search of a ~ 2400 square degree region covered by both the SDSS and UKIDSS databases, we have attempted to identify galaxies at z ~ 0.5 that are consistent with their being essentially unmodified examples of the luminous passive compact galaxies found at z ~ 2.5. After isolating good candidates via deeper imaging, we further refine the sample with Keck moderate-resolution spectroscopy and laser-guide-star adaptive-optics imaging. For 4 of the 5 galaxies that so far remain after passing through this sieve, we analyze plausible star-formation histories based on our spectra in order to identify galaxies that may have survived with little modification from the population formed at high redshift. We find 2 galaxies that are consistent with having formed > 95% of their mass at z > 5. We attempt to estimate masses both from our stellar population determinations and from velocity dispersions. Given the high frequency of small axial ratios, both in our small sample and among samples found at high redshifts, we tentatively suggest that some of the more extreme examples of passive compact galaxies may have prolate morphologies.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, ApJ in press; error in Table 1 corrected, some new references adde

A cross-cultural study of academic help-seeking among postgraduate-taught students at a Scottish university

Academic help-seeking behaviour is an important learning strategy that helps students succeed when they are unable to solve an academic problem on their own. Educational psychology research has strived to identify which factors predict academic help-seeking and has indicated that self-efficacy is significantly related to academic help-seeking. However, previous studies have neither considered international students nor provided an in-depth exploration of the help-seeking process in the Scottish postgraduate taught context. Thus, the overall purpose of this thesis is to examine and understand what and how PGT academic help-seeking process took place in a Scottish university. Consisting of a main study and a follow-on study, it helps to understand how academic and social self-efficacy and other influential factors influence academic help-seeking behaviour among postgraduate taught students (PGT) and to examine the similarities or differences between British and Chinese international PGT students — and provides insight into how the time-transition figures into PGT students’ help-seeking behaviour trajectories. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach was used for this thesis, entailing a quantitative online survey (N = 104) followed by qualitative semi-structured interviews (N = 14) to elaborate on the quantitative findings. The online survey data were analysed using SPSS software and interview transcripts were analysed thematically using NVivo. The interpretation was drawn from both the quantitative and qualitative results. With the onset of the pandemic (2020-), in order to increase the thesis' scope and test the proposed model from the original sequential explanatory mixed-methods study, a follow-on study was conducted using the chosen qualitative visually-guided interview method (N = 8) to explore PGT academic help-seeking behaviour trajectories. The interview transcripts were analysed thematically using NVivo. The final interpretation and conclusions were drawn from both the original study and the follow-on study results. The key findings from this thesis suggest that there is a complex dynamic interaction of demographic, psychological and contextual factors with participants’ personal beliefs and attitudes towards seeking academic help. Additionally, some cultural differences emerged, although academic and social self-efficacy were equally important for British and Chinese PGT students’ academic help-seeking. By using a combination of Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-ecological Theory as theoretical frameworks, this thesis offers new insight into conceptualising the mechanisms involved in academic help-seeking. The findings of this thesis support and expand on recent work suggesting the inclusion of environmental influences in academic help-seeking, the importance of social interaction, the reflection of academic development, and the need for a comprehensive framework for understanding academic help-seeking in the Scottish PGT context. This thesis also demonstrates the value of mixed-method approaches to understanding PGT students’ academic help-seeking behaviour. The implications and limitations of the current research are discussed, highlighting that the academic help-seeking process is more complex than previous research suggests and that multiple environmental influences should be considered

THE ANTECEDENTS OF AN INDIVIDUAL\u27S COMMITMENTS TOWARD CONTINUOUSLY USING SOCIAL NETWORK SITE

The Social network sites (SNS) has been rapid diffusion around the world. With the increasing importance of SNS, continuance intention also becomes a popular issue in the SNS context. SNS providers have to maintain better relationships with users and make individuals continue to use their sites. Based on this phenomenon, the objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of the continuance intention of SNS through examining the effects of commitments. Specifically, followed Meyer and Allen’s three-component model of commitment, we develop a theoretical model to understand the factors that influence normative, affective and continued commitment and investigate the effects of commitments on continuance intention in the SNS context. Through a survey-based empirical investigation, we anticipate the results to enhance our existing knowledge on continuance intention in the SNS context