In this thesis we consider how user-generated content that is assembled by different popular Web portals can be exploited for Multilingual Information Retrieval. We define the knowledge that can be derived from such portals as Social Semantics. We present to approaches, Cross-lingual Explicit...

Sexual activity among adolescents is associated with risks such as pregnancy and STDs, and there is substantial policy interest in how peers influence the timing of sexual initiation. This paper measures separate effects for two social mechanisms--peer-group norms and partner availability--using...

This dissertation is a collection of three essays on high school dropout by adolescents and the roll of their siblings in this risky behavior. Dropping out of high school can scar the individual for his entire labor supply period with lower earnings, higher unemployment, and in turn incur...

The scope of my dissertation is to understand how consumers’ online communication affects consumers’ behavior and market outcomes. The recent growth of consumer generated media (CGM), also known as “new” media, has provided consumers easier interaction, both to search for product...

Agriculture remains a key component of economic development, but the methodology for how development policies are determined has changed for developing countries. In the last decade, the focus of economic growth in developing countries has shifted from country-wide prescriptions to testable...

Critics of the trait approach to the study of entrepreneurship have called for adaptation of theory from other disciplines to explain entrepreneurial behavior. This study responds by focusing on the first step in the process by which entrepreneurial career preference is developed. Social...

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. October 2010. Major: Conservation Biology. Advisor: Kristen C. Nelson, PhD. 1 computer file (PDF); x, 182 pages, appendices 1-3.