ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst
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Recent Submissions
Publication Event-Structure and the Internally-Headed Relative Clause Construction in Korean and Japanese(2004-09)This dissertation investigates how syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic factors interact to produce the Internally-Headed Relative Clause (IHRC) construction in Korean and Japanese. The IHRC construction differs from the more familiar Externally-Headed Relative Clause (EHRC) construction in several ways. First, unlike an EHRC, an IHRC's content restricts the matrix clause's content, rather than the semantic head's. Second, its interpretation is heavily influenced by the discourse context in ways not seen with the EHRC. Third, unlike the head of an EHRC, the head of an IHRC does not correspond to any overt syntactic phrase, so it needs to be determined by language users, based on the relative clause's content, the matrix predicate's semantics, and the discourse context. The literature offers numerous insightful analyses of the IHRC construction, but it leaves two central questions unanswered: what determines the interpretation of the construction? And, if pragmatic principles have a role to play, how do they interact with the morphosyntax and the semanties? I answer these questions within an event semantics framework. 1 show that the construction's interpretation is determined partly by grammatical factors (e.g., the embedded clause's aspect, the matrix predicate's semantics) and partly by pragmatic factors (e.g., the discourse context and discourse participants' world knowledge). In particular, I isolate two sources of the semantic variability of the construction. First, the matrix clause contains a pronominal definite description, whose denotation contains a free relation variable. This variable's value is determined by the embedded clause's event structure, the matrix predicate's semantics, and the discourse context. Second, the relative operator that occurs in this construction connects the embedded clause's content with the matrix clause's content by establishing either a temporal or a causal relation between them, depending on whether the embedded clause describes a temporary state or a permanent state. This study establishes important connections between the semantics of a definite description and event structure, thereby solving the particularly challenging formallinking problem, one that afflicts existing E-type pronoun analyses. It also provides a constrained but flexible interpretive mechanism for the construction, eliminating the need for many of the extra-grammatical constraints that characterize existing treatments.Publication Circadian Effects of Melatonin Receptor-Targeting Molecules in vitro(University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2024-10)The dataset is first categorized into two folders (Bmal and Per2) based on the promoter reporter. The data is further separated by experiment date/treatment time of day (standard timing versus delayed timing, indicated as "standard" and "delayed," respectively). For the data labeled "standard" the cells were treated with small molecules immediately after synchronization. For data labeled "delayed" the cells were treated with molecules 12 h after synchronization. Each excel file will have the date the experiment started followed by the promoter gene, treatment time, and treatment type (MT = melatonin, NT = not treated, DMSO = vehicle, UCSF7447 = melatonin receptor-targeting molecule).Publication Implicit Coordination in Sellers' Inflation: How Cost Shocks Facilitate Price Hikes(2024)Supply shocks are now widely recognized as a driver of the recent inflation bout, but the role of firms’ pricing strategies in propagating input cost shocks remains contested. In this paper, we review the state of the academic debate over sellers’ inflation and assess whether, in line with this theory, economy-wide cost shocks have functioned as an implicit coordination mechanism for firms to hike prices. We use a dataset containing 138,962 corporate earnings call transcripts of 4,823 stock-market listed U.S. corporations from the period 2007-Q1 to 2022-Q2 to con- duct sentiment analysis via both dictionary-based natural language processing and a large language model approach. We find that large input price shocks (as well as their co-occurrence with supply constraints) correlate with positive sentiments expressed in executives’ statements about cost increases. Qualitative analysis pro- vides further insights into the reasoning behind executives’ optimism regarding their ability to turn an economy-wide cost shock into an opportunity to raise prices and protect or even increase profits.Publication Distributional implications and share ownership of record oil and gas profits(2024)The 2022 oil and gas crisis resulted in record fossil-fuel profits globally that rehabilitated the oil and gas industry, obstruct the energy transition and contributed to inflation. We analyse the size and the distribution of financial beneficiaries of these unprecedented profits across countries and across wealth groups within the United States, using company income statements and comprehensive ownership data, to construct a global network of shareholdings with 397,619 nodes. We estimate that globally, net income in publicly listed oil and gas companies reached US$916 billion in 2022. The United States was the biggest beneficiary receiving US$301 billion in fossil fuel profits both from domestic extraction and through global shareholding, more than U.S. investments of US$267 billion in the low carbon economy that year. Analyzing the U.S. distribution including privately held US companies, 51% of profits went to the wealthiest 1%, predominantly through direct shareholdings and private company ownership. In contrast the bottom 50% only received 1%. The incremental fossil-fuel profits in 2022 over those in 2021 were enough to increase the disposable income of the wealthiest Americans several percent and compensate a substantial part of their purchasing power loss from inflation that year, thereby exacerbating inflation inequality. Record fossil-fuel profits also reinforce existing racial and ethnic inequalities and inequalities between groups with different educational attainments. Our results also show that only a small share of overall profits benefits institutions that serve the wider public such as pension funds. We discuss how windfall profits taxes could be used to both lower inequality and accelerate the energy transition as increasing geopolitical tensions and climate impacts portend continued volatility in oil and gas markets.Publication Interseeding cereal rye and triticale into cool-season perennial pastures - data(2024)No-till drilling cereal rye (Secale cereal L.) and triticale (x Triticosecale Wittm. ex A. Camus.) into existing perennial pastures may increase the early spring forage inventory while maintaining beneficial ecosystem services inherent in no-till pasture systems. This interseeding system has not been well documented with cereal rye and triticale in majority tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb.) Darbysh.) and orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) pastures. An equal mix of cereal rye and triticale was drilled into existing pastures in early fall of 2020 and 2021. Cereal rye and triticale were interseeded at 0, 67, and 135 kg ha–1 with either 0 or 45 kg nitrogen ha–1 at planting in a 2 × 3 factorial randomized complete block design with four replications. The forage was harvested the following spring at boot stage and analyzed for herbage accumulation and nutritive value. Herbage accumulation increased by 500 kg ha–1 after interseeding 135 kg ha–1 of rye and triticale. Adding 45 kg nitrogen ha–1 independently increased dry matter herbage accumulation by 474 kg ha–1. Although, interseeding rye and triticale moderately reduced nutritive value parameters compared to the pasture, the nutritive value in all treatments remained high (relative feed value 135 with 17% crude protein). Fall nitrogen fertilizer increased herbage accumulation but had no effect on nutritive value. This shows that interseeding rye and triticale into pastures can be an applicable strategy to boost spring herbage inventory in perennial cropping systems dominated by cool-season grasses while maintaining good nutritive value.
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