Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Sustainable Municipal Operations: Albany, Oregon, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Ed Gallagher, Dave Rouse, Dennis Kurtz, Tanya Johnston

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Portland State University, Hatfield School of Government (PSU), and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), has formed a partnership to develop Sustainable Municipal Operations Plans that documents sustainability and energy management best practices. The goal of this partnership is to determine how a City/municipality can actively manage energy as a controllable expense by following a predetermined operation protocol. The PSU team developed a framework of best practices for sustainable municipal operations in different categories including facilities, fleet, purchasing, operations and the work environment. After identifying pilot jurisdictions, the team applied these best practices to the current operations of local governments in …

Sustainable County Operations: Yamhill County, Oregon, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Ed Gallagher, Dave Rouse, Dennis Kurtz, Tanya Johnston

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Portland State University, Hatfield School of Government (PSU), and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), has formed a partnership to develop Sustainable Municipal Operations Plans that documents sustainability and energy management best practices. The goal of this partnership is to determine how a county/municipality can actively manage energy as a controllable expense by following a predetermined operation protocol. The PSU team developed a framework of best practices for sustainable municipal operations in different categories including facilities, fleet, purchasing, operations and the work environment. After identifying pilot jurisdictions, the team applied these best practices to the current operations of local governments in …

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol 36-W, No. 12, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

$ Cruel and Senseless

Some But: So Little, So Late

La Realineación Debetía Significar Clausura de las Prisiones

Voices From Inside

Voices in Solidarity

National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Deconstructing Definitions: Repositioning Technological Access & Literacy Within Agent Ability, Carole Reynolds

Department of Humanities Publications

Our society cannot have concerns about access without literacy because they are congruous; neither is distinct nor complete without the other in technological contexts. The United States Department of Education repeatedly calls for more, better, and increased access and literacy to technologies. Our elected officials make national speeches imparting similar rhetoric and ideas. A problem with this particular information dissemination by inherently powerful entities or persons is they make assumptions of what access and literacy are, with minimal definition, and virtually no context of agent ability with technology. These ambiguous terms and deficient definitions have subsequently proliferated in academic scholarship, …

Does Green Consumerism Increase The Acceptance Of Wind Power?, Caroline L. Noblet, John Thøgersen

Publications

In this paper, we discuss what might be termed an action-based learning approach to promoting important pro-environmental actions, such as support for or acceptance of environmental policy. Such an approach involves promoting simple and easy behaviours as entry points for more radical steps towards sustainability, referred to as “catalytic” or “wedge” behaviours. Despite the obvious need for innovative approaches to promote important pro-environmental behaviour, and sound theoretical backing for such concepts, there is a lack of research testing the key propositions of this approach. In a survey study based on a random sample of residents of the state of Maine, …

Minerva 2012, The Honors College

Minerva

This issue of Minerva includes a celebration of the life and impact of former Honors Dean, Charlie Slavin; a discussion of the Honors College's role in the University of Maine Blue Sky Strategic Plan; and profiles of student Kyle Franklin and alumni Heidi Crosby and Richard Becker.

Dawnbreaker Vol 60 No 2 (Winter 2012-2013), Dawnbreaker Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

How And Why Do Dictatorships Survive? Lessons For The Middle East, Erica Frantz

Bridgewater Review

Political events in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have dominated news headlines for the past two years. Since the revolution in Tunisia in December 2010, one dictatorship after the next has appeared on the verge of collapse, as citizens gather en masse to voice their demands for democratic governance. In countries such as Libya and Egypt, though relatively successful democratic elections were held following the collapse of long-standing dictatorships, it is uncertain whether the new political system being installed will be democratic or autocratic. When looking to the future of the region beyond the Arab Spring, one thing …

Why Some Muslim Countries Are Democracies And Some Are Not, Shaheen Mozaffar

Bridgewater Review

The transitions to democracy in Tunisia and Egypt shortly after the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring, and subsequently in Libya, provide an opportunity to test the empirical validity of the conventional wisdom that democracy cannot be established and sustained in Muslim countries. This article undertakes this task through a systematic comparative analysis of 56 countries classified as Muslim countries by virtue of their membership in the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). It first maps variations in the incidence of democracy among the 56 Muslim countries based on the widely used Freedom House Rating (FHR, www.freedomhouse.org) of countries into “Free,” …

Will The Arab Spring Succeed In Bringing Bread, Freedom, And Dignity?, Sandra Popiden

Bridgewater Review

Economic discontent fueled the political dissatisfaction that erupted in the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen in 2011. Demonstrators blamed repressive authoritarian governments for slow economic growth, increasing poverty and social inequality, high youth unemployment and rampant corruption. Alongside demands for increased political freedom, greater participation in politics, and an end to repression were calls for economic freedom and improved well-being. The uprisings, which spawned democracy in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, continue to reverberate across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by opening up previously closed public spaces to wider popular participation in national debates over …

Social Media And Political Changes In Al-Alam Al-Arabi, Jabbar Al-Obaidi

Bridgewater Review

The Arab countries are typically described as lacking democratic traditions, freedom of the press, human rights and civil liberties. The utilization of social media for political purposes became crucial to the widespread expression of pent-up social discontent that precipitated the Arab Spring. Uploaded videos, photos, and Twitter feeds served to outrage people in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria. This volatile combination of a young population, authoritarian rule, corruption and poverty is prompting youth to spearhead political demonstrations and the demand for regime change.

Parsing The Mind With Homer, Jonathan B. Holmes

Bridgewater Review

How does one parse the mind? Do we categorize its functioning as mental or physical? Is it one big homogenous lump or a heterogeneous set of distinct abilities or mental faculties? Do we envision its workings to be like some kind of hydraulic mechanism or more like some kind of information processor? A large variety of possibilities have been offered over the centuries. Current models of the mind see it functioning like an information processor with numerous distinct modules carrying out individual tasks. Minds need to be excellent parsers, categorizers, and story tellers in order to get us by in …

Tourists' Perceptions Of Aboriginal Heritage Souvenirs, Janet Chang, Geoffrey Wall, Jul-Cheng (Richard) Hung

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Heritage souvenirs are an indispensable part of indigenous tourism and the authenticity of indigenous heritage is a vital aspect of such tourism. This study adopts a mixed methods approach to explore the perceived authenticity of glass bead souvenirs of the Paiwan Tribe in Pintung County, Taiwan. The study explores differences in the evaluations of authenticity among stakeholders and the factors that influence perceptions of authen- ticity. An understanding of tourists’ perceptions of indigenous heritage offers valuable information for the creation of indigenous souvenirs and for reviving the promotion of indigenous culture.

Perceptions Of Mental Illness In The Legal System, Krista Wallace

Criminal Justice

Previous research suggests that there are stereotypes and misperceptions about the mentally ill population which affect juror’s decision making in cases where the insanity defense is raised. Many individuals believe it to be a “loophole” in the criminal justice system for offenders to escape punishment (Skeem and Golding, 2002). This study explores community perceptions of schizophrenia and personality disorders in a legal context. Results support that individuals are significantly less confident of their verdict decisions when the offender has a mental illness than when the offender has no mental illness. In addition, the presence of a mental illness significantly affects …

Patient Care News: December 2012, St. Cloud Hospital

Patient Care News

Happy Holidays

Christmas and New Year's Holiday Sign-up Sheets for Cut and Call

Daisy Award Honoree: Cara Plaine RN

Help! My Patient Has a Guardian. What Does This Mean?

Staff Injury Due to an Aggressive Patient

Design, Institutional Arrangement And Implementation Of Macro-Prudential Framework, Charles Akoroda

Economic and Financial Review

The paper says that a sound and well-functioning financial system is viewed as compromising three pillars that are necessary to support orderly financial development and sustained financial stability. It enumerates the three (3) pillars as including: Macro-prudential surveillance and financial stability analysis; Financial system supervision and regulation to help manage the risks and vulnerabilities protect market integrity and good governance of financial institutions'; and Financial system infrastructure including: legal infrastructure for finance; systemic liquidity infrastructure; and transparency, governance and information infrastructure.

A Millenial Little Pieces: Selected Writings From A Gen-Y, Lauren Elizabeth Valentine Servideo

Journalism Program

This is an anthology of my favorite pieces written during my time at SUNY Albany. The subject matter of each piece differs wildly from the next, but they do share one thing in common, and that is my focus on character and cultural studies. Exploring and dissecting the works of Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, Martha Gellhorn, and various other literary journalists throughout my undergraduate career has inspired the style of all the creative non-fiction included in A Millenial Little Pieces: Selected Writings from a Gen-Y.

Can A Financial Crisis Occur Under The Rules Of Islamic Finance?, Michelle Walton

Political Science

No abstract provided.

On The Development Of Residential Property Price Indices For Nigeria, Olowofeso E. Olorunsola, Abiodun S. Bada, Mohammed A. Bamanga

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This work focuses on the development of house price indices for Nigeria, and the estimates of the Nigerian Residential Property Price Indices on housing characteristics are presented. Four main methods of index construction were considered, these are hedonic regression, repeat-sales, stratification and central price tendency methods. It was discovered that econometric methods like hedonic and repeat sales were constraints in constructing residential property price indices for Nigeria by the nature of the data available. Hence, the central price tendency and the sale-based stratification methods which are internationally used measures were applied to the available zonal-level dataset from a survey of …

Analysis Of Crime Data Using Principal Component Analysis: A Case Study Of Katsina State, Shehu U. Gulumbe, Dikko H. .G., Bello Yusuf

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper analyses Katsina State crime data which consists of the averages of eight major crimes reported to the police for the period 2006 – 2008. The crimes consist of robbery, auto theft, house and store breakings, theft/stealing, grievous hurt and wounding, murder, rape, and assault. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were employed to explain the correlation between the crimes and to determine the distribution of the crimes over the local government areas of the state. The result has shown a significant correlation between robbery, theft and vehicle theft. While MSW local government area has the lowest crime …

Inflation And Economic Growth In Nigeria: Detecting The Threshold Level, Sani I. Doguwa

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper re-examines the issue of the existence and the level of inflation threshold in the relationship between inflation and growth in Nigeria, using three different approaches that provide appropriate procedures for estimating the threshold level and inference. While Sarel’s (1996) approach provides a threshold point estimate of 9.9 per cent that was not well identified by the data, the technique of Khan and Senhadji (2001) identifies a 10.5 per cent inflation threshold as statistically significant to explain the inflation-growth nexus in Nigeria. Also, the approach of Drukker et al (2005) suggests a two threshold point model with 11.2 and …

Understanding The Dynamics Of Inflation Volatility In Nigeria: A Garch Perspective, Babatunde S. Omotosho, Sani I. Doguwa

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The estimation of inflation volatility is important to Central Banks as it guides their policy initiatives for achieving and maintaining price stability. This paper employs three models from the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) family with a view to providing a parsimonious approximation to the dynamics of Nigeria’s inflation volatility between 1996 and 2011. Of the competing models, the asymmetric TGARCH (1,1) provides an appropriate paradigm for explaining the dynamics of headline and core CPI volatilities in Nigeria, while the symmetric GARCH (1,1) was found to be adequate for food CPI. The results are quite revealing. Firstly, model outcomes indicate …

Neuroanatomical Substrates Of The Disruptive Effect Of Olanzapine On Rat Maternal Behavior As Revealed By C-Fos Immunoreactivity, Changjiu Zhao, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Olanzapine is one of the most widely prescribed atypical antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia. Besides its well-known side effect on weight gain, it may also impair human parental behavior. In this study, we took a preclinical approach to examine the behavioral effects of olanzapine on rat maternal behavior and investigated the associated neural basis using the c-Fos immunohistochemistry. On postpartum Days 6–8, Sprague-Dawley mother rats were given a single injection of sterile water or olanzapine (1.0, 3.0 or 5.0 mg/kg, sc). Maternal behavior was tested 2 h later, after which rats were sacrificed and brain tissues were collected. …

President's Message On Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion, Janet M. Riggs

Reports from the President’s Office

Last spring I announced that we would take time this year to focus some of our thinking and conversation on the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion. There are many reasons for us to direct our efforts to this topic: the changing demographics in our society and the need to provide a welcoming environment to a diverse student body, faculty and staff; our responsibility to prepare students for living in diverse communities and working in diverse workplaces; and our desire to prepare citizens who will be sensitive to social injustices and motivated to right them. In addition, we cannot dismiss …

Municipal E-News: Issue 43: December 2012, Mtas

Municipal E-News

The “Municipal E-News” was created by MTAS in 2009 as part of our continuing efforts to meet our mission of providing timely, valuable information and assistance to Tennessee cities.

December 2012, Volume 8, Number 4, Winthrop University Archives And Special Collections

Retrospect: News from the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections at Winthrop University

No abstract provided.

The Cresset (Vol. Lxxvi, No. 2, Advent/Christmas), Valparaiso University

The Cresset (archived issues)

No abstract provided.

December 2012: Volume 2 Issue 2, Dacus Library

Dacus Developments

In this Issue:

Nunc Scripsi Totum The Medieval Manuscript Collection
Dacus Library of Winthrop University
Friends of Dacus Library Endowment Fund Launched!

Metropolitan Report - December 2012, Division Of Business And Economic Research, College Of Business Administration, University Of New Orleans

UNO Metropolitan Report

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Self-Directed Learning And Information Literacy Among Adult Learners In Higher Education, Tiffani Reneau Conner

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-directed learning and information literacy. Participants completed the Personal Orientation in Self-Directed Learning Scale ([PRO-SDLS], Stockdale, 2003) and the Information Literacy Test ([ILT], James Madison University, 2003). The PRO-SDLS is a self-report scale consisting of 25 statements about self-directed learning preferences in college classrooms. The ILT is a 60-item multiple-choice test that assesses the information literacy skills of college students. Correlation, ANOVA, and multiple regressions were used to test relationships and differences between self-directed learning and information literacy. Despite claims that teaching information literacy creates self-directed learners, composite scores …