The credibility of informality has become a fertile frontier in the study of institutions as is evidenced by the Credibility Thesis and its applications. Whereas the preceding contribution by Liu and ...Zhang (this special issue) examined whether, and if so, under what preconditions informal institutions could be formalized, the current article assesses how informal institutions establish their credibility over time. Focusing on competing informal institutions in a developing context, this article explores the mechanisms through which informal rules cumulate their credibility while challenging the formal ones. This article identifies two fundamental mechanisms that contribute to the increasing credibility of informal rules. First, political bargaining lead to ineffective enforcement of formal institutions and low risk of violation of formal rules; Second, institutional challengers' competition for informal practices ironically facilitates their unorganized coordination and resolves their problems of collective action. The interactions of these two fundamental mechanisms help institutional challengers increase the scale of their informal practice and enhance the credibility of informal rules. This article employs the extralegal land development in Shenzhen, China, as an extreme case. Nearly half of the permanent residents in Shenzhen are living in extralegal houses built on state-owned land by villagers whose rural land has been nationalized by the government. The findings can shed light on the credibility of informal rules in other fields.
•Some informal institutions can successfully establish their credibility over time and challenge the formal institutions.•Political bargaining leads to ineffective enforcement of formal institutions and low risk of violation of formal rules.•Institutional challengers' competition for informal practices ironically facilitates their unorganized collective action.•Some extralegal houses in China cumulated high-level institutional credibility and were conditionally formalized.
We present some results related to Zilber’s Exponential-Algebraic Closedness Conjecture, showing that various systems of equations involving algebraic operations and certain analytic functions admit ...solutions in the complex numbers. These results are inspired by Zilber’s theorems on raising to powers. We show that algebraic varieties which split as a product of a linear subspace of an additive group and an algebraic subvariety of a multiplicative group intersect the graph of the exponential function, provided that they satisfy Zilber’s freeness and rotundity conditions, using techniques from tropical geometry. We then move on to prove a similar theorem, establishing that varieties which split as a product of a linear subspace and a subvariety of an abelian variety A intersect the graph of the exponential map of A (again under the analogues of the freeness and rotundity conditions). The proof uses homology and cohomology of manifolds. Finally, we show that the graph of the modular j-function intersects varieties which satisfy freeness and broadness and split as a product of a Möbius subvariety of a power of the upper-half plane and a complex algebraic variety, using Ratner’s orbit closure theorem to study the images under j of Möbius varieties. Abstract prepared by Francesco Paolo Gallinaro E-mail: francesco.gallinaro@mathematik.uni-freiburg.de URL: https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/31077/
Writing abstracts requires a more disciplined style of writing, with higher demands on both form and substance. Graduate students are expected to produce scholarly outputs attuned to the rhetorical ...and linguistic conventions of abstract writing, acceptable to a wider academic community. Thus, this study examined the usage, distribution, and order of moves, along with the identification of selected lexico-grammatical features of 43 masters’ thesis abstracts from nine graduate programs of a state university. Using descriptive research design, following Hyland’s five-move analysis framework, findings revealed that the presentation of the introduction (I), purpose (P), method (M), product (Pr), and conclusion (C) moves in the abstracts varies across programs. However, the I-move was found to be optional, but all four moves (P, M, Pr, C) were found to be conventional, with a semi-linear structure as P-M-Pr-C. Results further revealed that the lexico-grammatical features of thesis abstracts such as modal choice, use of verb tense and voice, and utilization of nominalization were influenced by the nature of the move type and discipline, along with the authors' emphasis and goal in writing. Conversely, the abstract length of these abstracts was more than twice the number of words suggested by different citation systems, implying a lack of brevity. Based on these findings, the University Graduate School is encouraged to suggest specific guidelines in thesis abstract writing. Lastly, genre-based approach via explicit instruction to promote consistency in lexico-grammatical features of abstracts is highly recommended.
This study examines the relationship of blight reduction with violent crime in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We examine whether an initiative to paint murals in high-crime areas was associated with ...declines in calls for service for violent crime. This relationship was assessed by analyzing variation in calls for service in the areas within 500 feet of mural installations and at the block group level over a nine-year period. Our findings suggest the influence of blight reduction strategies for violence can vary by unit of analysis and that such strategies by themselves are unlikely to be strongly associated with reductions in violence.
Drawing on our combined experiences providing thesis writing support, we critically consider the tensions surrounding policies and practices aimed at plurilingual graduate students using English as ...an additional language (EAL). Our trioethnographic methodology allows us to unpack and explore the ethics framing our individual “editing” practices amid institutional norms, expectations and ideologies. Drawing on relevant literature in the field, our conversations or “trialogues” produce insights and raise questions surrounding the ethical imperative of providing effective thesis writing support for plurilingual EAL writers in an era of increasing internationalization. We conclude with suggestions for flexible, targeted writing support that challenges narrow epistemologies and stale ideologies regarding taboo editing practices of academic and language literacy brokers involved in the production and revision of thesis writing.
Writing a bachelor thesis has a central role in nursing education. Nursing students require both information and academic literacy in order to write their theses, and there is an expectation that ...these skills will contribute to putting their knowledge into practice.
To describe students' perceptions of the student and supervisor roles and to investigate students' experienced self-efficacy during the supervision of their bachelor thesis.
A cross-sectional pre-post design.
Four universities were included. All four had bachelor thesis courses organized as a group supervision process, with a student active approach. Nursing students met together one hour prior to meeting with their supervisor, in order to discuss concerns, try to solve upcoming problems, and plan the agenda for the upcoming supervision session.
A total of 472 undergraduate nursing students were invited to participate.
A web-based questionnaire was used, incorporating the Supervision of Thesis Questionnaire and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Data were collected at two points: before and after the thesis course. Descriptive statistics and frequencies were calculated, and the independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for analytic analysis.
The response rate was 39 % (160/472) pre-course and 28 % (130/472) post-course. Nursing students had high expectations of supervision at both time points. Students reporting high self-efficacy had higher expectations of the supervisor's knowledge of the subject and the methods, compared to those reporting lower self-efficacy.
Nursing students reported high expectations for the supervision process, the supervisor, and themselves, both when entering and when ending the bachelor thesis course. Self-efficacy may contribute to these expectations. Active learning in a group (i.e., collaborative learning) may contribute to nursing students' commitment during the group supervision process in a bachelor thesis course. Further studies are warranted on the optimal group composition to support learning during bachelor thesis courses.
•Nursing students reported high expectations of the supervision process.•Active learning in a group may contribute to students' commitment.•Self-efficacy may contribute to high expectations of the supervision process.
Several papers published in recent years have revived interest in Sorokin's dissociative thesis: the view that intergenerational social mobility has detrimental effects on the social relationships ...and wellbeing of individuals. In this paper, I test the dissociative thesis using data from the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society. On a wide range of indicators that measure participation in civic associations, contact with parents, close personal relationships, social support, subjective wellbeing, etc. individuals who have achieved long‐range upward mobility (i.e. those who move from working class origin to salariat destination) tend to fare better than those who are immobile in the working class. Those who have experienced long‐range downward mobility (moving from salariat origin to working class destination) do about as well as second‐generation members of the working class. Overall, there is no support for Sorokin's thesis.
Each year, more students worldwide enter graduate school to complete their master's degree. A cornerstone of their education is the master's thesis. Respectively, master's thesis supervisors hold a ...key role in higher education teaching, yet no evidence-based overview currently exists of elements that make thesis supervision effective. Based on a systematic literature review, this study presents a summative framework of what is currently known about elements and their relationships that constitute effective master's thesis supervision, focusing on the interactions between individual students and supervisors. We develop an input-process-outcome framework based on 36 existing studies, identifying student and supervisor outcomes, characteristics of an effective student-supervisor relationship along with actions that students and supervisors can take to create and maintain it, along with student and supervisor characteristics that serve as critical inputs for an effective supervision process. We find that current research emphasizes the role of supervisor attitudes and actions in relation to the student-supervisor relationship, while future research is needed on student actions, supervisor learning over time, and contextual characteristics. Following our framework, we generate avenues for future research and summarize effective supervision practices in the dynamic and complex context of master's thesis supervision.
•We present a summative framework of effective master's thesis supervision based on prior research.•Outcomes of effective supervision include reactions, learning, and results.•Supervisor and student actions drive effective relationships and outcomes.•Our framework specifies student and supervisor KSAO as inputs.•We formulate avenues for future research and evidence-based supervisor best practices.
The present work proposes a reflection on the mythical narratives that have been built on Atlantic History in the 21th century and organizes their genealogies, theoretical budgets and issues to be ...treated based on four theses that demonstrate the richness and effervescence of their production. The first thesis places Atlantic History as a conceptual device of power aligned with American interests in the framework of the Great War and, subsequently, the Cold War; and defines the Atlantic World as a space for spreading liberalism as a political project. The second thesis understands Atlantic History as an abstraction of historical processes in dialogue; and defines the Atlantic World as a mixture of institutions, social behaviors and cultural traditions with dynamic borders. The third thesis reproaches the New Atlantic History for not accounting for European historical processes; and defines the Atlantic World as the creation and recreation of structures that cannot be separated from the long duration of the European experience. The fourth thesis locates Atlantic History as a combat narrative; and defines the Atlantic World a space of hybridization of identities.
The present study aims to analyse the research domains, gender gap, and labour market perspectives of doctoral research in LIS in India. Sodhganga, a digital repository of Indian thesis and ...dissertations, was used for extracting doctoral thesis information and Jarvelin & Vakkari classification system was used for categorising the doctoral research topics. A total of 808 doctoral dissertations awarded between 2016 and 2020 were analysed using IBM SPSS and Tableau. The study's findings revealed that the growth of doctoral research in LIS is on rising trends with 150 PhD awarded in LIS every year. Information seeking (33.8%), library and information service activities (30.7%), and scientific & professional communication (16.5%) were found to be the preferred research themes among doctoral students during the study period. Furthermore, it is revealed that there is a gender gap in the number of PhDs conferred, with more men than women receiving these degrees. LIS professionals with a doctorate have the highest employment rate, at 96.2%, and most are in government jobs. Besides, only 40 percent of doctoral candidates reported receiving an incentive after the doctoral degree.
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