The Influence of Parents' Racial Stereotype Endorsement on Black Students' Beliefs and Self-Concept

In a sample of 429 African American youth and their parents, I examined the relationships among parents’ racial stereotype endorsement, students’ 7th grade stereotypes, and students’ 10th grade self-concept. The results showed that parents’ beliefs did not predict youths’ beliefs. However, with school English grades controlled, boys in 7th grade with a more positive perception of Blacks’ verbal abilities had higher verbal self-concept in 10th grade, and boys with a more positive perception of Whites’ verbal abilities had lower verbal self-concept in 10th grade. The results of this study provide evidence for longitudinal effects of racial academic stereotype endorsement on self-concept and the negative impact that racial stereotypes can have on self-concept. Enhancing Black students’ beliefs and increasing their perception of in-group competency may result in self-concept and academic identity development improvement.Bachelor of Art

Essays on organisations and their internal conflicts

Defence date: 11 December 2023Examining Board: Prof. Giacomo Calzolari (European University Institute, supervisor); Prof. Thomas Crossley (University of Michigan, co-supervisor); Prof. Roland Strausz (Humboldt-Universität of Berlin); Prof. Konrad Stahl (University of Mannheim)This thesis is composed of three essays; each broadly related to conflicts of interests within organisations. First, “Internal Arbitrage: An Application to Multinational Enterprises”, studies the conflict of interest between a multinational enterprise (MNE) and its joint venture partners who are privately informed about local market conditions. MNEs can exploit the segmentation between national markets through internal arbitrage by using internal capital movements to lower profits in one country to raise them in another. This is generally not in the best interest of the outside investors who, given sufficient authority, prevent internal arbitrage. The MNE’s problem thus consists of truthfully eliciting the private information of its co-investors without delegating authority. Second, “The Dark(er) Side of Full Surplus Extraction” considers a principal contracting with one agent who possesses some relevant, private information in the canonical adverse selection model with general quasi-linear preferences and type-dependent reservation utilities. I derive the necessary and sufficient condition for full surplus extraction (FSE). FSE occurs when the principal can design an incentive-compatible mechanism in which the privately informed agent earns no information rents. Differently from previous FSE results known in the literature, I show that FSE can be efficiency decreasing. At times, the FSE mechanism is optimal for the principal even though the best nonFSE mechanism implies a higher total surplus. Finally, “Private Benefits of Influence”, considers a conflict of interest between different shareholders in a widely-held firm led by a professional manager. Empirical evidence suggests that large shareholders – so called blockholders – earn excess returns per share, i.e. private benefits. But without control, the blockholder must incentivise the manager to extract private benefits on her behalf. She does this by either imposing low powered incentives or by paying the manager a compensation premium. The blockholder can potentially rely on dynamic incentive provision to achieve her goals. This embeds the problem in the dynamic relationship between the blockholder and the manager. I show that this shaped by the blockholder’s investment strategy: a blockholder with a passive investment strategy – e.g. an index tracker – finds it easier to extract private benefits than a blockholder who can invest and divest at will. Dynamically, a passive investment strategy functions as a valuable commitment device to stay invested in the firm.-- 1. Internal Arbitrage: An Application to Multinational Enterprises -- 2. The Dark(er) Side of Full Surplus Extraction -- 3. Private Benefits of Influence -- Appendix A Chapter 1 -- Appendix B Chapter 2 -- Appendix C Chapter

Le trasformazioni urbane nei luoghi della riforma agraria

Basilicata Region, inside the project Pays.Med.URBAN, has elaborated the Atlas of Urban Landscape, an observatory that, integrating the traditional instruments of technical-scientific analysis with photography, stresses the impact caused on local landscapes by phenomena of urban disintegration and fragmentation of agrarian- ecological-texture. From the research, articulated in section representatives of the principal and more diffuses landscape alterations, emerged a thematic that runs transversely: the safeguard of regional centers born in fascist period and during the Fifties in relation with the Agrarian Reform. They are rural settlements that strongly characterized landscape both for typological character of buildings, than for the unitary design of territories

Automated Control System for the Remote-Controlled Torch Positioner

The goal of this project is to design and implement a controls system for Dr. Morscher’s burner rig. The rig serves to simulate jet turbine conditions and test how materials, specifically ceramic matrix composites, react under high temperatures and stresses. Currently, the location of the torch relies solely on manual adjustments and has no automated control system. The improved design will automatically adjust the torch position based on the desired temperature of the sample being tested, therefore maintaining a steady environment for the sample. The current method of manual adjustments for regulating temperature is a crude solution that does not allow for specific testing conditions. We will utilize LabView to create the controls system with the input being the Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera for temperature measurement, and the torch’s distance from the sample being the output. A FLIR camera mount will be modeled and produced to create a stationary position for the camera to take accurate measurements. The torch mount for this setup has already been created, including the servo motors required to move the torch. The main objective of this project is to create a controls system that will allow the mount to automatically move depending on the temperature input by the FLIR camera

Photodetachment of Deprotonated Aromatic Amino Acids: Stability of the dehydrogenated radical depends on deprotonation site

International audienceWhile aromatic amino acids in their deprotonated form have been well characterized by IR and photoelectron spectroscopies, no information is available on the neutral dehydrogenated protonated radicals and, in particular, on their stability when the deprotonation site is changed. This is investigated by observing the neutral fragment issued from either simple photodetachment or dissociative photodetachment of the deprotonated aromatic amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan. We show that the dehydrogenated radicals of aromatic amino acids produced upon photodetachment of molecules deprotonated on the carbonyl group dissociate without barrier, leading to the formation of CO 2 and a radical amine. However, when the system is deprotonated on functional groups located on the chromophore, the radicals produced by photodetachment are stable, indicating the important photostabilizing role played by functional groups

Hubble Space Telescope Near-Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Bright CEMP-s Stars

We present an elemental-abundance analysis, in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectral range, for the bright carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars HD196944 (V = 8.40, [Fe/H] = -2.41) and HD201626 (V = 8.16, [Fe/H] = -1.51), based on data acquired with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. Both of these stars belong to the sub-class CEMP-s, and exhibit clear over-abundances of heavy elements associated with production by the slow neutron-capture process. HD196944 has been well-studied in the optical region, but we are able to add abundance results for six species (Ge, Nb, Mo, Lu, Pt, and Au) that are only accessible in the NUV. In addition, we provide the first determination of its orbital period, P=1325 days. HD201626 has only a limited number of abundance results based on previous optical work -- here we add five new species from the NUV, including Pb. We compare these results with models of binary-system evolution and s-process element production in stars on the asymptotic giant branch, aiming to explain their origin and evolution. Our best-fitting models for HD 196944 (M1,i = 0.9Mo, M2,i = 0.86Mo, for [Fe/H]=-2.2), and HD 201626 (M1,i = 0.9Mo , M2,i = 0.76Mo , for [Fe/H]=-2.2; M1,i = 1.6Mo , M2,i = 0.59Mo, for [Fe/H]=-1.5) are consistent with the current accepted scenario for the formation of CEMP-s stars.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in Ap

Optimal Ki67 cut-off for luminal breast cancer prognostic evaluation: a large case series study with a long-term follow-up

Although Ki67 index suffers from poor reproducibility, it is one of the most important prognostic markers used by oncologists to select the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer patients. In this study, we aim to establish the optimal Ki67 cut-offs for stratifying patient prognosis and to create a comprehensive prognostic index for clinical applications. A mono-institutional cohort of 1.577 human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative/ER+ breast cancer patients having complete clinical, histological, and follow-up data was collected. The 14 and 20 % Ki67 cut-offs were correlated to disease-free interval (DFI) and disease-specific survival (DSS). To create a comprehensive prognostic index, we used independent variables selected by uni/multivariate analyses. In terms of DFI and DSS, patients bearing tumors with Ki67 < 14 % proliferation index did not differ from those with Ki67 values between 14 and 20 %. Patients with tumor with Ki67 > 20 % showed the poorest prognosis. Moreover, to tumor size, the number of metastatic lymph nodes and Ki67 > 20 % was given a score value, varying depending on definite cut-offs and used to create a prognostic index, which was applied to the population. Patients with a prognostic index ≥3 were characterized by significant risk of relapse [DFI: Hazard Ratio (HR) = 4.74, p < 0.001] and death (DSS: HR = 5.03, p < 0.001). We confirm that the 20 % Ki67 cut-off is the best to stratify high-risk patients in luminal breast cancers, and we suggest to integrate it with other prognostic factors, to better stratify patients at risk of adverse outcome

Bioaccumulation of dioxin-like substances and selected brominated flame retardant congeners in the fat and livers of black pigs farmed within the Nebrodi Regional Park of Sicily.

An observational study was designed to assess the bioaccumulation of polychlorodibenzodioxins (PCDD) and polychlorodibenzofurans (PCDF), dioxin-like polychlorobiphenyls (DL-PCB), and 13 selected polybromodiphenylethers (PBDE) in autochthonous pigs reared in the Nebrodi Park of Sicily (Italy). Perirenal fat and liver samples were drawn from animals representative of three different outdoor farming systems and from wild pigs and then analyzed for the chemicals mentioned previously. The highest concentrations of PCDD + PCDF and DL-PCB were detected in the fat (0.45 and 0.35 pg World Health Organization toxicity equivalents [WHO-TE] per g of fat base [FB], respectively) and livers (12.7 and 3.28 pg WHO-TE per g FB) of the wild group, whereas the free-ranging group showed the lowest levels (0.05 and 0.03 pg WHO-TE per g FB in fat and 0.78 and 0.27 pg WHO-TE per g FB in livers). The sum of PBDE congeners was highest in wild pigs (0.52 ng/g FB in fat and 5.64 ng/g FB in livers) and lowest in the farmed group (0.14 ng/g FB in fat and 0.28 ng/g FB in livers). The contamination levels in fat and livers of outdoor pigs had mean concentration values lower than those levels reported for intensively indoor-farmed animals. In wild pigs, bioaccumulation was associated with their free grazing in areas characterized by bush fires. The results of this study aid to emphasize the quality of the environment as a factor to guarantee food safety in typical processed pig meat products, specifically from outdoor and extensive Nebrodi farming systems