A Statistical Analysis of the Factors that Potentially Affect the Price of A Horse

Appraising a horse when either buying or selling can be a difficult process. Buyers and sellers both want the best deal, however one must understand what horse-handlers value the most in determining the value of a horse to arrive at a reasonable market-price. In this senior honor thesis the author attempts to arrive at a concise formula in determining the value of a horse. Sampling for this project included 120 horses on the market found at 20 different websites. Features considered included age, breed, gender, height, type of training, level of training, temperament, location, color, vices, markings, registration, and if the horse was being sold by a private individual or a barn. Of these features only height, breed, type of training, and level of training were found to be significant in determining the value of a horse. The author concludes that by taking these features into consideration one can more reliably appraise the value of a horse

Firm Size, Age and Growth in South Africa

The relationship between a firm’s size, age and proportional growth rate is examined using multiple samples of South African firm-level data from the early to mid-2000s. The foundation of this study is Gibrat’s Law of Proportionate Effect (Gibrat, 1931), which states that a firm’s proportional growth rate is independent of its absolute size at the start of a given period. It is assumed that firm growth follows a random walk and, therefore, should not be affected by firm size. An implication of Gibrat’s Law of Proportionate Effect is that the firm size distribution is lognormal. However, based on both empirical and theoretical literature, this theory of firm growth has fallen out of favour and been replaced by the proposal that there is an inverse relationship between a firm’s proportional growth rate and both its size and age. Two questions are evaluated in this research using the samples of South African firms. The first is whether the firm size distribution is lognormal. If this is not the case then Gibrat’s Law of Proportionate Effect can be rejected. However, this approach cannot confirm that Gibrat’s theory is valid and will, therefore, be referred to in this paper as a partial test. It was shown that the log firm size distribution was not normal, but rather right-skewed with a Pareto distribution characterising the upper tail. Consequently, Gibrat’s Law of Proportionate Effect was rejected for the datasets of South African firms. This evidence is largely observational and does not explicitly assess the relationship between proportional growth rates and firm size. Therefore, the second question is whether Gibrat’s Law of Proportionate Effect holds. This was investigated by testing conditions derived from Gibrat’s Law of Proportionate Effect, the results of which can lead to either the rejection or acceptance of this proposition. This study extends Gibrat’s research in order to determine the relationship between firm age and proportional growth. Statistical methods, such as Ordinary Least Squares regressions, considering only firms that survived the period under consideration, were used. The results revealed that Gibrat’s Law of Proportionate Effect was invalid and there was a systematic tendency for the smaller, younger South African firms in the datasets to grow proportionally faster than the larger, older firms. This finding supports the view that firm growth is not entirely random

Intersectional Discrimination Is Associated with Housing Instability among Trans Women Living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Trans women face numerous structural barriers to health due to discrimination. Housing instability is an important structural determinant of poor health outcomes among trans women. The purpose of this study was to determine if experiences of intersectional anti-trans and racial discrimination are associated with poor housing outcomes among trans women in the San Francisco Bay Area. A secondary analysis of baseline data from the Trans *National study (n = 629) at the San Francisco Department of Public Health (2016-2018) was conducted. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyze the association between discrimination as an ordered categorical variable (zero, one to two, or three or more experiences) and housing status adjusting for age, years lived in the Bay Area, and gender identity. We found that the odds of housing instability increased by 1.25 for every categorical unit increase (1-2, or 3+) in reported experiences of intersectional (both anti-trans and racial) discrimination for trans women (95% CI = 1.01-1.54, p-value < 0.05). Intersectional anti-trans and racial discrimination is associated with increased housing instability among trans women, giving some insight that policies and programs are needed to identify and address racism and anti-trans stigma towards trans women. Efforts to address intersectional discrimination may positively impact housing stability, with potential for ancillary effects on increasing the health and wellness of trans women who face multiple disparities

“I Don’t Know What That is But I Love That’s It’s There”: Rethinking the Heritage Values and Public Outcomes of In Situ Archaeological Conservation and Presentation in Australia

Conserved archaeological remains are kept in situ and presented to the public within new developments all over the world. If David Lowenthal (1985) was correct and heritage is about creating something not conserving things, what it is that these archaeological places create in contemporary society? This PhD argues that the ways conserved archaeological remains are experienced and valued by the public are poorly understood within the archaeological and heritage professions. Based on interviews and surveys at five case study sites in Australia, this thesis draws on the perspectives of fifty-five heritage professionals and nearly three hundred members of the public, highlighting a disjunct between professional intentions and public reception. It challenges accepted professional views that archaeological practice is primarily about the recovery and dissemination of information about the past and suggests this focus obscures the far broader concepts of meaning and value the public ascribe to conserved archaeological remains. The relationships between people and in situ archaeological sites as places can produce authentic and embodied emotional experiences. In turn these experiences can support deep connections and attachments to place and people over time, provide comfort, inspiration and perspective and create outcomes relating to personal and community identity and belonging, enjoyment and wellbeing. These findings have implications for both archaeological and heritage practice and education and point to new ways of thinking about the purpose and outcomes of in situ archaeological conservation and presentation and the practice of archaeology more broadly. In particular: the reconceptualisation of archaeological sites as heritage places not just resources; the acceptance of public values beyond learning about the past including emotional experience and place attachment; decision-making that prioritises public benefit; and recognition and support for wellbeing outcomes

Anisotropy in cell sheeting and cardiac differentiation

Treatment for myocardial infarction is largely limited to alleviating symptoms and preventing recurrence rather than directly repairing or replacing the damaged myocardial tissue. Consequently, one of the overarching goals of cardiac tissue engineering is to generate myocardial tissue that could be implanted as a patch over existing cardiac tissue to improve cardiac function. Advancements in pluripotent stem cell (PSC) technology and differentiation have made PSC-derived cardiomyocytes a viable cell source for engineered cardiac tissues. Because native cardiac tissue is directional in nature (i.e., anisotropic), biomaterial systems have been designed to organize PSC-derived cardiomyocytes to recapitulate this structure. The objective of this dissertation is to use aligned electrospun fibers as anisotropic substrates to generate aligned cell sheets and to evaluate how differentiating cardiomyocytes respond to degrees of anisotropy. We demonstrate that aligned electrospun fibers containing poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), a thermo-sensitive polymer commonly used for cell sheeting, and poly(capro lactone), a hydrophobic polymer commonly used in biomaterials, can be used to generate anisotropic cell sheets. Also shown is that the structure and functional behavior of PSCs-derived cardiomyocytes varies in a gradient-based manner on degree of substrate anisotropy at relatively early timepoints. As time progresses, cardiomyocyte alignment can be achieved on substrates that have a minimum threshold anisotropy. These electrospun, aligned fiber systems can be used in tissue engineering to generate viable cell sheets for cardiac tissue engineering or to precisely study cell sensitivity to differences in substrate anisotropy.Biomedical Engineerin

How do instrumental and expressive network positions relate to turnover? A meta-analytic investigation

Although social network methods have proven valuable for predicting employee turnover, an informed use of network methods for turnover management requires an integration and extension of extant networks-turnover research. To that end, this article addresses two relatively neglected issues in the networks-turnover literature: the lack of integration of turnover process models into networks-turnover research and the differential influence of “network content” (i.e., instrumental vs. expressive network resources) on turnover processes. To address these issues, we draw from social capital and turnover theories as a basis for investigating how turnover antecedents (i.e., work attitudes, job alternatives, and job performance) mediate the associations between instrumental and expressive degree centrality and turnover. We test a theoretical model using meta-analytic path analysis based on the results of random-effects meta-analyses (64 independent samples of working adults) of instrumental and expressive degree centrality in relation to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job alternatives, job performance, and employee turnover. We found that both instrumental and expressive degree centrality relate to employee turnover, but through different mediating processes; instrumental degree centrality decreased the likelihood of turnover via job performance and organizational commitment, whereas expressive degree centrality decreased the likelihood of turnover via job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Furthermore, expressive degree centrality (as compared to instrumental degree centrality) had a negative association with turnover after accounting for these prominent turnover antecedents. These findings illustrate the importance of distinguishing between instrumental and expressive network positions in the turnover process as well as the value of leveraging employee networks for employee retention

The Temporal Relationship between Stress and Spasticity, a Comparison between Subjects with and without Intact Thyroid Function

Purpose/Hypothesis: Stress has been studied as a credible trigger of spasticity, but evidence is limited concerning temporal relationships. Case studies of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and fibromyalgia (FM) have established a ten-day delay between psychogenic stress and episodic pain flares. This is explained by a stress induced release of thyroxine (T4) from the thyroid gland via the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis, which reaches its peak effect by day 10. Models suggest that T4 may increase peripheral nerve excitability, which could increase sensitivity in 1A fibers from muscle spindles, leading to hyper-excitability in motor neuron pools. The purpose of our study is to explore the temporal relationship between stress & spasticity, to see if subjects experience latent increases in spasticity due to stress. Subjects: Subjects ranged from 48-84 years old, including one male with CVA history & one female with CVA history s/p thyroidectomy. Materials/Methods: Every day for 12 weeks, participants completed stress and spasticity inventories. Stress was measured with a visual analog stress scale (VASS) and spasticity with a visual analog functional scale (VAFS) assessing the degree of difficulty to execute a standard daily task due to spasticity severity. Quantitative criteria were established defining days of peak stress and days of peak spasticity. Final temporal relationship results between stress and spasticity were analyzed with serial lag correlations for 0-12 day lags. Results: After 12 weeks of data collection, the male manifested a significant correlation to spasticity related function ten days after criterion peak stress days. Serial lag analysis on peak stress days for this person revealed a 70% correlation supporting a 10-day impact on peak spasticity. The female subject revealed one event in spasticity-related function 10 days after peak stress event, which yields an insignificant 10-day lag correlation of 9.1%. This subject, with history of thyroidectomy, reports taking daily administration of levothyroxine. Consequently, her results are not surprising, since her HTP pathway cannot be influenced by stress. Conclusions: Based on results, evidence supports an increase in CVA-related spasticity ten days after high stress episodes. This relationship was not observed in our female subject s/p thyroidectomy, lending inverse support to the hypothesis that latent ten-day effects may be due to the HPT axis. Clinical Relevance: Patients and therapists frequently are at a loss to explain episodic elevations in spasticity severity. If a consistent temporal relationship between stress and spasticity is confirmed, it would give caregivers, patients, and therapists insight into understanding and predicting episodes of decreased function following high stress days

Bullying By Teachers: Preventative Measures in Hogwarts

In our case study, the Battle of Hogwarts, we decided to address the problem of bullying by teachers against students in the forms of discrimination, indoctrination, and maltreatment of students and how that might result in negative educational outcomes such as a lack of self-esteem, racist beliefs, discrimination, and stress. Students who were bullied before, during, and after the battle may have long-lasting problems that resulted from such instances of mistreatment. For example, professors such as Snape and the Carrows discriminated against Muggle-born students like Hermione. During the take-over of Hogwarts by the Death Eaters, Defense Against the Dark Arts was changed to the Dark Arts, therefore indoctrinating the students to Voldemort’s belief system. Finally, the use of the Cruciatus curse on misbehaving students was a form of maltreatment perpetrated by professors of Hogwarts. After reviewing the literature, as the founders of the New Age of Hogwarts, we have proposed a multidimensional and holistic solution that we will describe after defining our subject matter