Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 4th Quarter, 2008, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor

The Coastal Empire Economic Indicators are designed to provide continuously updating quarterly snapshots of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area economy. The coincident index measures the current economic heartbeat of the region. The leading index provides a short term forecast of the region’s economic activity in six to nine months.

Do We Want To Measure The Quality Of Care For Vulnerable Older People? The Acove Approach., Neil S. Wenger

Center for Policy Research

There's limited information available about measuring the quality of medical care that is targeted to the needs of older patients. And there's very limited pressure on the system to provide high quality geriatric care. Why is that? Because the quality measures haven't been adequately developed and implemented, and it's more difficult to measure care for an older sample. Measuring care for ill older adults is complex, because they tend to have multiple medical conditions, and they demonstrate substantial variation in goals for care (Wenger and colleagues 2007). The Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders (ACOVE) project began in 1998 as a …

Testing For Heteroskedasticity And Serial Correlation In A Random Effects Panel Data Model, Badi H. Baltagi, Byoung Cheol Jung, Seuck Heun Song

Center for Policy Research

This paper considers a panel data regression model with heteroskedastic as well as serially correlated disturbances, and derives a joint LM test for homoskedasticity and no first order serial correlation. The restricted model is the standard random individual error component model. It also derives a conditional LM test for homoskedasticity given serial correlation, as well as a conditional LM test for no first order serial correlation given heteroskedasticity, all in the context of a random effects panel data model. Monte Carlo results show that these tests, along with their likelihood ratio alternatives, have good size and power under various forms …

Testing For Heteroskedasticity And Spatial Correlation In A Random Effects Panel Data Model, Badi H. Baltagi, Seuck Heun Song, Jae Hyeok Kwon

Center for Policy Research

A panel data regression model with heteroskedastic as well as spatially correlated disturbance is considered, and a joint LM test for homoskedasticity and no spatial correlation is derived. In addition, a conditional LM test for no spatial correlation given heteroskedasticity, as well as a conditional LM test for homoskedasticity given spatial correlation, are also derived. These LM tests are compared with marginal LM tests that ignore heteroskedasticity in testing for spatial correlation, or spatial correlation in testing for homoskedasticity. Monte Carlo results show that these LM tests as well as their LR counterparts perform well even for small N and …

Sudan's Expensive Minefields: An Evaluation Of Political And Economic Problems In Sudanese Mine Clearance, Matthew Bolton

Global CWD Repository

Sudan is an extremely difficult place to run a demining program. Mine clearance agencies face astronomical prices of goods and services, monumental logistical challenges, bureaucratic impediments from government, fraught labor disputes and a deeply embedded political economy of conflict. This multitude of problems has made Sudan one of the most unproductive demining programs, in terms of ordnance or area cleared per US dollar, in the world. This begs the question whether the level of international investment in Sudanese mine action is truly worth it. This paper will argue that in terms of saving lives or increasing access to socio-economic development, …

Ec-Funded Mine Action In Latin America Volume 2 - Country Reports, Russell Gasser

Global CWD Repository

The EC Anti-Personnel Landmine Regulation of 2001 mandated evaluations of EC Mine Action strategy every three years. The first report was a Global Evaluation published in 2005, but this report forms one part of the 2008 evaluation by regions and covers Latin America, 2002-2007.

Total EC funding for mine action in Latin America in the period 2002-2007 was about 8 million euros, roughly 2% of the EC total world wide budget for mine action. Sixty-eight percent of the eight million euros was from the dedicated thematic Anti-Personnel Landmine budget line and 31% was from the geographic budget for Colombia. There …

Making Spiritual Sense: Christian Leaders As Spiritual Interpreters [Review] / Cormode,S., Skip Bell

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Feasibility Of A Joint Economic Development District Between The City Of Brunswick And Hinckley Township, Kevin O'Brien, Claudette Robey, Daila Shimek, Michael Mcgoun, Ryan Foster

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

A Scan Of Attributes In County Government Structure, Kevin O'Brien, Holly Cooper Whisman, Ryan Foster, Melissa Rowe

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report discusses the outcome of a national scan of models of effective county leadership and operations that might translate into alternative structures for consideration by the Commission on Cuyahoga County Government Reform. The scan produced a number of alternate county organizational structures that utilized several formats for executive, legislative, and administrative roles.

Comprehensive Study Of Regionalism: Tools For Comparison And Evaluation, George A. Erickcek, Jason M. Preuss, Brad Watts, Claudette Robey, Kevin E. O'Brien

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Csu's Eda University Center (Presentation), Ziona Austrian

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Landmine Casualty Data: Best Practices Guidebook, Cisr

Global CWD Repository

This Landmine Casualty Data: Best Practices Guidebook reports on advances being made in casualty data collection and management and offers lessons learned that countries can reflect upon as they undertake the challenging task of building mine/ ERW victim information systems that meet their needs for data to use in planning and implementing their comprehensive mine action programs, including mine clearance, mine risk education and victim assistance. While the Guidebook is premised on the advances being made in some countries, much more progress is needed before effective landmine/ERW victim information systems will be operating in all mine-affected countries. It is important …

Developmental Trajectory Of Aggressive Behavior In Clinically Referred Boys: A Rasch Analysis, Scott Lafond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A majority of research investigating aggression and its development in children has relied upon the use of rating scales such as the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). These scales are typically developed using a conventional factor analytic approach for the selection and retention of scale items, but may not contain sufficient numbers of items to adequately assess the unidimensional construct or developmental trajectory of aggressive behavior in youths. The present study evaluates specific psychometric properties of CBCL Aggressive and Delinquency Problems clinical syndrome scale items to determine the degree to which they reflect the breadth and established developmental trajectory of aggressive …

Living On The Edge: The Margins Of Legal Personhood, Symposium Foreword, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan

All Faculty Scholarship

In January 2008, at the Association of American Law Schools' annual meeting, the Jurisprudence Section conducted a panel on "The Margins of Legal Personhood." The goal of this panel was to draw (or sever) connections between and among different "marginal" entities: the psychopath, the animal, and the embryo or fetus. As is perhaps immediately apparent, these entities are not marginalized in a political sense, but rather lie at the margins of our moral and legal communities. Prima facie, they may have some, but lack all, of the capacities necessary for full membership. Because they live on the edge, we must …

Governance In The Ruins, David A. Skeel Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

What gets an economy up and running after a catastrophic war or a period of oppressive rule? While there are nearly as many answers to these questions as experts, one of the most prominent for the past century has been law. Nearly every page of Law and Capitalism, a remarkable new book by Curtis Milhaupt and Katharina Pistor, stands in implicit or explicit dissent from the prevailing view. Milhaupt and Pistor’s countermodel begins a matrix consisting of two axes. The first contrasts a purely protective regime on one end, with a pervasively “coordinative” approach on the other. The second axis …

Guest Workers And Justice In A Second-Best World, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay offers a defense of guest-worker programs and a critique of the objections raised by Michael Walzer and by other critics of such programs. Although critics commonly complain that guest workers are vulnerable to exploitation by employers, we can design guest-worker programs that minimize the risk of such exploitation. Ready access for relatively unskilled guest workers to citizenship and to public benefits, however, generates a fiscal burden for the public treasury. A right to equal treatment for aliens yields perverse results unless aliens are also entitled to equal concern when the host country decides whether to admit the alien …

The Disadvantages Of Immigration Restriction As A Policy To Improve Income Distribution, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I argue that tax and transfer policies are more efficient than immigration restrictions as instruments for raising the after tax incomes of the least skilled native workers. Policies to protect these native workers frol1'l immigrant competition in the labor market do no better at promoting distributive justice and are likely to impose a greater economic burden on natives in the country of immigration than the tax alternative. These immigration restrictions are especially costly given the disproportionate burden that they place on households with working women, which discourages fel1'wle participation in the labor force. This burden runs contrary …

Negotiating Divorce: Gender And The Behavioral Economics Of Divorce Bargaining, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, Deborah Small

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Constructing A Criminal Justice System Free Of Racial Bias: An Abolitionist Framework, Dorothy E. Roberts

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Estimating Term Structure Equations Using Macroeconomic Variables, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper begins with the expectations theory of the term structure of interest rates with constant term premia and then postulates how expectations of future short term interest rates are formed. Expectations depend in part on predictions from a set of VAR equations and in part on the current and two lagged values of the short term interest rate. The results suggest that there is relevant independent information in both the VAR equations’ predictions and the current and two lagged values of the short rate. The model fits the long term interest rate data well, including the 2004-2006 period, which …

Estimating Exchange Rate Equations Using Estimated Expectations, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper takes a somewhat different approach from the recent literature in estimating exchange rate equations. It assumes uncovered interest rate parity and models how expectations are formed. Agents are assumed to base their expectations of future interest rates and prices, which are needed in the determination of the exchange rate, on predictions from a ten equation VAR model. The overall model is estimated by FIML under model consistent expectations. The model generally does better than the random walk model, and its properties are consistent with observed effects on exchange rates from surprise interest rate and price announcements. Also, the …

Learning African-American History In A Synthetic Learning Environment, Adams Greenwood-Ericksen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Synthetic Learning Environments (SLEs) represent a hybrid of simulations and games, and in addition to their pedagogical content, rely on elements of story and interactivity to drive engagement with the learning material. The present work examined the differential impact of varying levels of story and interactivity on learning. The 2x2 between subjects design tested learning and retention among 4 different groups of participants, each receiving one of the 4 possible combinations of low and high levels of story and interactivity. Objective assessments of participant performance yielded the unexpected finding that learners using the SLE performed more poorly than any other …

Emotional Evaluation Of A Product/System, Hana Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Technological advances in products and systems have brought emotional design or emotional engineering to the forefront of research. While several measures to assess emotional expression of products have been developed, the source of the emotion rating of a product or system was often unclear. The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct three studies to examine the causes of emotional ratings and to establish if product-specific emotion rating scales are useful for capturing accurate user evaluations. Three studies were conducted using citrus juicers. Juicers were chosen for several reasons: their wide variety of styles, one self-explanatory purpose (to make juice), …

Game On: The Impact Of Game Features In Computer-Based Training, Renee Derouin-Jessen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term "serious games" became popularized in 2002 as a result of an initiative to promote the use of games for education, training, and other purposes. Today, many companies are using games for training and development, often with hefty price tags. For example, the development budget for the U.S. Army recruiting game, "America's Army" was estimated at $7 million. Given their increasing use and high costs, it is important to understand whether game-based learning systems perform as billed. Research suggests that games do not always increase learning outcomes over conventional instruction. However, certain game features (e.g., rules/goals, fantasy, challenge) might …

Resiliency Factors And Pathways To Incarceration In Female Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Kia Asberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studies find consistently that survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are likely to suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress, and problematic substance use, and may experience also a variety of adjustment difficulties in several emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal domains. Involvement with the legal system is one such outcome to consider, especially given the increasing number of women serving time in correctional facilities with nearly two-thirds of these women being survivors of CSA (e.g., Browne, Miller, & Maguin, 1999). The current literature lacks comparisons between female survivors of CSA who have legal involvement and those who do not; hence, the current study …

Relationship Between Self-Reported Lifestyle Habits, Social Support, And Physiological Factors Associated With Hypertension : A Biopsychosocial Investigation, Deborah A. Chiumento

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The relationship between hypertension and related biological, psychological, and social variables among patients diagnosed with hypertension was investigated utilizing the biopsychosocial model. Fifty-four participants from one outpatient private medical office were administered a demographic form, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Health Adherence Behavior Inventory (HABIT), the Inventory for Cognitive Distortions (ICD), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). Results indicated that the participants' use of caffeine positively correlated with their high blood pressure readings. In addition, participants who reported having significant social support engaged in more health promoting behaviors. These findings were consistent with the hypotheses. Limitations …

Effects Of Statin Medications On Health Related Behaviors, Stephen M. Timchack

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The current study focuses on the psychological effects of statin medications. Specifically, this study examines the health related beliefs and behaviors that may be altered by the consumption of this fast acting class of life saving drugs. Although the statin class of medication generally produces favorable physiological results, as evidenced by reduced levels of serum cholesterol, and in some case increases in high density lipoproteins, the health related belief system and heath related behaviors may actually be altered in a negative fashion by engendering a sense of overconfidence; this in turn may alter beliefs and diminish the importance of adhering …

An Analysis Of Survey Data On Student Perceptions Of Adolescent Counseling Needs, Jane Ellen Santo

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The school counseling needs of adolescents have often
been assessed through the perceptions of school personnel
and other adults. This study provides an alternative
perspective and reports the results of a mental health/life
stress counseling needs’ assessment, conducted directly
with middle school and high school students’ grades 7
through 12. The results of this student-centered survey
are reported with relation to literature pertaining to the
potential counseling needs of adolescents and the
deleterious consequences of not meeting these needs. Data
pertaining to each area of the survey: awareness of
counseling services, participation in counseling services,
perceived counseling needs, and perceived …

Turning Space Into Place In The Sprawling “New City”: Shrinking Space, Visions Of Place, Homeowners In Conflict, Lael Leslie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Was there a "real place" to be found in the sprawling "new city" landscape? This interview study considers the categories of sprawl as a placeless, apolitical space, and of the suburban white middle class, to explore how "place" is variously understood by homeowners confronting rapid spatial reconfiguration. The interviewees are residents of a municipality located in one of New Jersey's "growth corridors." Emphasis is on homeowners' experiences, and on what they view as problems related to rapid growth.

Given the long settlement history of this northeastern seaboard region, this study finds that relations among homeowners had changed over time in …

Diminished Access, Diverted Exclusion: Women And Land Tenure In Sub-Saharan Africa, Michael Kevane, Leslie C. Gray

Economics

Increasing commercialization, population growth and concurrent increases in land value have affected women's land rights in Africa. Most of the literature concentrates on how these changes have led to an erosion of women's rights. This paper examines some of the processes by which women's rights to land are diminishing. First, we examine cases where rights previously utilized have become less important; that is, the incidence of exercising rights has decreased. Second, we investigate how women's rights to land decrease as the public meanings underlying the social interpretation and enforcement of rights are manipulated. Third, we examine women's diminishing access to …