Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Notions Of Progress, C. Waite

Articles

The question of progress and a concern with relatedness are elements of the same puzzle. The very idea of progress, or lack of it, indicates something about the role machines can play in one’s life. Notions about how technology can be used – to improve, subvert, destroy, extend, or interrogate – reveal the interplay of human and machine. What notion of progress might adequately capture the complex interdependence of human and machine in a way that illuminates our current predicament? To ask whether specific events make things better or worse does not reveal what guides our notion of better and …

Investments And Risk Management Under The New Pension Scheme., Luka A. Dalang

Bullion

Pension today, has become a topical issue. one that has engaged the commitment of government, attention of employers and workers not only in Nigeria but also in many developing and emerging economies of Africa, Asia and Latin America This paper discuss the trend of investments and pension schemes with its risks and challenges in Nigeria. The study however confirmed the non applicability of the financial reform theory hypothesized by McKinnon and Shaw in Nigeria.' . The National pension Commission guidelines as mentioned earlier, are designed to ensure transparency, integrity and objectivity in the vestment process. and to ensure that the …

Investments And Risk Management Under The New Pension Scheme, Atedo A. N. Peterside

Bullion

The Pension Reform Act 2004 ("the Act"), a compul sory contributory pension scheme ("the scheme ' or CPS") has been established for all the categories of workers in the Federal public service, Federal Capital Territory , and in the private sector ( 'applicable sectors'). This paper attempt to discuss and examine the issues of investment and risk management that are essential to the success of the new Scheme, and highlight some of the benefits and limitations of the contributory pension scheme and its investment and risk management framework. The study concluded that, the new CPS, it is also pertinent to …

Financial Sector Outcomes In Nigeria: A Quantitative Evaluation., Abeng M. Okoi

Bullion

Prior to the adoption of the economic reforms measures of the 1980's, most African economies were predominantly characterised by extensive public ownership, management and control of productive and social infrastructures and institutions. This paper discuss the trend of investments and pension schemes with its risks and challenges in Nigeria. The study however confirmed the non applicability of the financial reform theory hypothesized by McKinnon and Shaw in Nigeria 'This Paper quantitatively examine the outcomes of financial sector reforms in Nigeria with a view to validating the applicability of the Mckinnon Shaw hypothesis of financial liberalization. The impact of reforms on …

Contributory Pension Scheme: The Case Of Brazil., Mbatomon R. Ako

Bullion

The reform of the pension industry in Nigeria was necessitated by many problems confronting both the public and private sectors pension schemes. The public sector operated largely the Defined Benefit - Pay As You Go (PAYG) scheme, which depended on budgetary provisions from various tiers of governments for funding. This paper discuss the conceptual issues of Contributory pension scheme in Brazil, the structure of the pension system and the features of the pension scheme as well as some other pension reforms in Brazil. The study concluded that. the pension systems were introduced into the country by the colonial administrators. The …

The Contributory Pension Scheme: Instrument And Legal Frameworks, M. K. Ahmad

Bullion

This paper examines the Pension Reform Act 2004 (the Act) of Nigeria which brought into existence a Defined Contribution system that was fully funded, privately managed and based on individual accounts for both the public and private sector employees. The Act also established the National Pension Commission as the sole regulator and supervisor on all pension matters in the country. The rest of the paper is arranged as follows: in Section 2, a review was made of the literature on the Nigerian pension systems while institutional and Legal Frameworks were discussed in Section 3 and Section 4 concludes the paper.

Volume 26, Number 2, June 2006 Olac Newsletter, Jain Fletcher, Jay Weitz, Barbara Vaughan

OLAC Newsletters

Digitized June 2006 issue of the OLAC Newsletter.

University Of Akron Faculty Journal Reading Patterns, Carol Tenopir, Lei Wu, Xiang Zhou, Kitty Mcclanahan, Max Steele, Natalie Clewell, Donald W. King

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is a question-by-question analysis of the results of the University of Akron survey of faculty, conducted fall 2005 as part of a grant funded by IMLS (see Appendix for the Questionnaire.) Final results may require further analysis or information about the library context for complete analysis. At the same time as this survey, a survey of reading patterns of Akron’s students was conducted, with results presented in a separate report. Also at the same time, surveys of faculty and students at three other Ohio universities and the University of Tennessee were conducted. Comparisons among these will be included in …

The Cresset (Vol. Lxix, No. 5, Trinity), Valparaiso University

The Cresset (archived issues)

No abstract provided.

Media Coverage And Charitable Giving After The 2004 Tsunami, Philip H. Brown, Jessica H. Minty

Working Papers in Economics

Media coverage of humanitarian crises is widely believed to influence charitable giving, yet this assertion has received little empirical scrutiny. Using Internet donations after the 2004 tsunami as a case study in a tobit framework, we show that media coverage of disasters increases charitable donations, with an additional minute of nightly news coverage increasing donations by 0.036 standard deviations from the mean. We repeat the analysis using instrumental variables in a tobit model to account for endogeneity, and the estimates are unchanged. We also show that the magnitude and sign of media impact vary by news source and relief agency.

Assessing Heterogeneity In Meta-Analysis: Q Statistic Or I2 Index?, Tania Huedo-Medina, Julio Sanchez-Meca, Fulgencio Marin-Martinez, Juan Botella

CHIP Documents

In meta-analysis, the usual way of assessing whether a set of single studies is homogeneous is by means of the Q test. However, the Q test only informs meta-analysts about the presence versus the absence of heterogeneity, but it does not report on the extent of such heterogeneity. Recently, the I² index has been proposed to quantify the degree of heterogeneity in a meta-analysis. In this article, the performances of the Q test and the confidence interval around the I² index are compared by means of a Monte Carlo simulation. The results show the utility of the I² index as …

The 2006 Citizen Recovery Survey - New Orleans And Jefferson Parish, Susan Howell, Jeanne S. Hurlburt, John Beggs, Valerie A. Haines

Survey Research Center Publications

No abstract provided.

Catch Them (Preservice Teachers) While You Can!, Audrey Church

Education & Human Services Faculty Publications

The article addresses a university school library instructor's approach, which features a meeting with preservice teachers early in the sequence of coursework. The majority of preservice teachers are not learning in their teacher preparation programs about the benefits of collaborative partnerships with teacher-librarians.

Empirical Analysis Of Cost And Returns To Commercial Table Egg Production In Lagos State., G. O. Evbuomwan

Economic and Financial Review

The paper seek to establish that commercial table egg production in Lagos State is profitable. This was based on the fact that there was an increase in the per capita income of the populace and also increase in the awareness of the health implication of intake of protein from eggs.

Refugees And Asylum Seekers From Mixed Eritrean­Ethiopian Families In Cairo, Louise Thomas

Faculty Journal Articles

People from mixed Eritrean­Ethiopian families have been caught on the ‘front line’ of hostile relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia, especially since the outbreak of the 1998­2000 war between the two countries. This report, based on interviews conducted with refugees from mixed Eritrean­Ethiopian families in Egypt, seeks to explain the uniquely difficult situation still faced by this group. It contends that because of their family relations with both Eritrea and Ethiopia, people from mixed families find themselves in limbo legally, socially and psychologically, and should therefore be of concern to UNHCR’s international protection regime. This report has three aims. The first …

Exploitation Or Fun?: The Lived Experience Of Teenage Employment In Suburban America, Yasemin Besen-Cassino

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Objectivist scholars characterize typical teenage jobs as “exploitive”: highly routinized service sector jobs with low pay, no benefits, minimum skill requirements, and little time off. This view assumes exploitive characteristics are inherent in the jobs, ignoring the lived experience of the teenage workers. This article focuses on the lived work experience of particularly affluent, suburban teenagers who work in these jobs and explores the meaning they create during their everyday work experience. Based on a large ethnographic study conducted with the teenage workers at a national coffee franchise, this article unravels the ways in which objectivist views of these “bad …

The Legality Of Collecting And Disclosing Patient Race And Ethnicity Data, Sara J. Rosenbaum, Taylor Burke, Sonia W. Nath, Jennifer Santos, Dana Thomas

Health Policy and Management Issue Briefs

This policy brief weighs whether the collection of patient data by race or ethnicity, as part of a program of quality improvement, violates the law.

Modern Day Slavery: Spotlight On The 2006 "Trafficking In Persons Report," Forced Labor And Sex Trafficking At The World Cup, U.S. House Of Representatives Committee On International Relations

Human Trafficking: Data and Documents

The Subcommittee will hear expert testimony today concerning the scourge of human trafficking—modern-day slavery. As I know many people know by now, the United States Government estimates that between 600,000 to 800,000 women, children, and men are brought and sold across international borders each year and exploited through forced labor or commercial sex exploitation. Potentially millions more are trafficked internally within the borders of countries.

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Developments 2005-2006, Bruce B. Johnson, Ben Blomendahl, Kyle Overturf

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Reports

Nebraska’s agricultural land values rose an average of 9.6 percent during the year ending February 1, 2006. This brought the state’s average all-land value to over $1,000 per acre and the total worth of agricultural real estate to more than $45 billion.

In the wake of a series of generally favorable income years for most of the state’s agricultural sector, land values have advanced rather sharply over the past three years – particularly in the eastern third of the state. The three eastern districts have experienced value increases of 40 percent or more since February 2003.

In contrast to these …

Port Royal Sound Survey: Results From The 2004 Field Season, James D. Spirek, Christopher F. Amer

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Chronic Pain In A Couples Context: A Review And Integration Of Theoretical Models And Empirical Evidence, Michelle T. Leonard, Annmarie Cano, Ayna B. Johansen

Psychology Faculty Research Publications

Researchers have become increasingly interested in the social context of chronic pain conditions. The purpose of this article is to provide an integrated review of the evidence linking marital functioning with chronic pain outcomes including pain severity, physical disability, pain behaviors, and psychological distress. We first present an overview of existing models that identify an association between marital functioning and pain variables. We then review the empirical evidence for a relationship between pain variables and several marital functioning variables including marital satisfaction, spousal support, spouse responses to pain, and marital interaction. On the basis of the evidence, we present a …

Outcomes Associated With A Home Care Telehealth Intervention, Faith Hopp, Peter Woodbridge, Usha Subramanian, Laurel Copeland, David Smith, Julie Lowery

Social Work Faculty Publications

To determine whether adding telehealth technology to traditional home care services increases health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and home care satisfaction, and decreases resource utilization among home care patients. This trial included 37 home care patients receiving services in a Veterans Affairs medical center, randomized into intervention and control groups. Outcome measures included patient satisfaction and HRQOL at baseline and 6-month follow- up, and the use of inpatient and outpatient services before and during the 6-month study period. Intervention group patients reported greater improvement in the mental health component of HRQOL, (t = 2.27; df = 15; p = …

Shifts In Agricultural Land Valuation In South Dakota: From Market-Based To Income Based Criteria, Tonya Hansen, Richard Shane, Larry Janssen

Economics Staff Paper Series

Agricultural land prices rise amidst increased demand from agricultural producers and individuals seeking land for recreational, speculative, or residential uses. Interest in changing South Dakota's method of valuing agricultural land from a market-based to an income-based approach surfaced and resurfaced in the late 1970s and 1990s, respectively. Using results from two studies, we describe differences in land market conditions between these time periods and summarize the state and county valuation shifts resulting from adopting an income valuation approach. Specifically, we report internal valuation shifts between crop and pasture landowners and external valuation shifts between agricultural landowners and nonagricultural property owners.

The Political Economy Of Township Government Debt, Township Enterprises, And Rural Financial Institutions In China, Lynette H. Ong

Lynette H Ong, Dr

This paper sheds light on the ways in which township governments had mobilized resources from local financial institutions, and how failure to repay many of these loans had given rise to sizeable local government debt. Mobilization of resources was done through loans to collective enterprises whose de facto owners were township authorities. Though the enterprises were nominal borrowers, loan transactions would not have occurred in the absence of guarantees by township governments. Another way of financial resource mobilization was by establishing local informal financial organizations that were subject to less strict regulations, and over which township authorities could exercise control. …

Angels As Spiritual Guides, David San Filippo Ph.D.

David San Filippo Ph.D.

The existence of angels has been discussed for centuries in legendary, philosophical, and religious writings. Many people have reported encounters with angels at different times in their life. Near-death research has recorded angelic encounters, during near-death experiences, by describing encounters with beings of light or angelic forms recognizable to the experiencer. This essay will discuss some legendary, theological, and philosophical beliefs that support the belief in the reality of angels as messengers, guides, and guardians to human beings and their function as spiritual guides during near-death experiences.

Long-Lived Consumers, Intertemporal Bundling, And Tacit Collusion, James D. Dana, Yuk-Fai Fong

Yuk-Fai Fong

In a repeated price game with long but finitely-lived consumers, the use of staggered long-term contracts allows firms to earn positive profits for a wider range of discount factors and market structures than without intertemporal bundling. Because consumers anticipate a price war, intertemporal bundling reduces the gains from business-stealing while leaving the cost of the resulting price war is unchanged. Though less empirically relevant, we also show that in a repeated price game with infinitely-lived, and arbitrarily-small, consumers, firms can use a menu of single-period and infinite-length contracts, to earn strictly positive profits for any discount factor or market structure.

Human Capital, Weak Identification, And Asset Pricing, Qiang Zhang

Qiang Zhang

I develop a new approach to accounting for human capital and essentially all stock and non-stock wealth in estimating the return on wealth portfolio. Using the estimated return and aggregate U.S. data in weak-identification robust tests of the Epstein and Zin (1991) and Weil (1990) model, I find that the model can simultaneously match the historical average equity premium, risk-free rate, and stock return volatility with reasonable parameter values.

The “Csi Effect”: Better Jurors Through Television And Science?, Michael Mann

Michael D. Mann

This Comment explores how television shows such as CSI and Law & Order have created heightened juror expectations in courtrooms across America. Surprise acquitals often have prosectors scratching their heads as jurors hold them to this new "Hollywood" standard. The Comment also analyzes the CSI phenomena by reflecting on past legal television shows that have influenced the public's perception of the legal profession and how the "CSI effect" has placed an even greater burden on parties to proffer some kind of forensic evidence at trial.

The Comment was published in volume 24 of the Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal (2006).

666, The Antichrist And Satan, David Randall Jenkins

David Randall Jenkins

The Efficient Recalcitrance Assumption plagues [(Star of David Set), (N: N+1)] transition, begetting scripture's "666," "Antichrist" and "Satan" metaphorical references.

Rodney Lives: Resistance , Renewal And Unity, Aubrey W. Bonnett

Aubrey W. Bonnett

No abstract provided.