Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Micro-Finance Competition: Motivated Micro-Lenders, Double-Dipping And Default, Brishti Guha, Prabal Roy Chowdhury

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a tractable model of competition among motivated MFIs. We find that equilibria may or may not involve double-dipping (and consequently default), with there being double-dipping whenever the MFIs are very profit-oriented. Moreover, in an equilibrium with double-dipping, borrowers who double-dip are actually worse off compared to those who do not. Further, for intermediate levels of motivation, there can be multiple equilibria, with a doubledipping equilibrium co-existing with a no default equilibrium. Interestingly, an increase in MFI competition can lower efficiency, as well as increase the extent of double-dipping and default. Further, the interest rates may go either way, …

Developing Issues In Licensing: Text Mining, Moocs, And More, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Faculty Publications

This report covers a program co-sponsored by the Collection Development and Electronic Resources Management Interest Groups of the Association of College and Research Libraries New England Chapter (ACRL/NEC), an independent chapter of ACRL. The workshop, titled “Developing Issues in Licensing: Text Mining, MOOCs, and More,” took place on April 25, 2013 at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Approximately 40 people attended.

Uni's Dance Craze: A Psychological Analysis And Creative Documentary On 'The Interlude Dance' And 'The Dance Party', Ian Goldsmith

Honors Program Theses

The UNI campus has been part of an epidemic: a dance epidemic. “The Interlude Dance” and “The Dance Party” are two recent dance phenomena that have played a major role in my undergraduate experience. I sought to study these phenomena through an analytical approach. I sought to determine the psychosocial factors that lead to the initial and continuing success of “The Interlude Dance” and “The Dance Party”, and to build conceptual connections between both phenomena. This creative-research hybrid project culminated in a documentary short-film.

Does International Recruiting Make Sense In The Missouri Valley Conference?, Natalie Johnson

Honors Program Theses

The primary purpose of this research study is to examine the prevalence and effects of international recruiting on team performance of women’s swim and dive teams in the Missouri Valley Conference. This research will evaluate the issues that influence coaches’ and athletes’ decisions to recruit or compete internationally, including evaluating the strength of in-state and regional recruitment pools, athlete retention rates by geographic region, and the correlation between the number of Top 8 finishes to the number of Top 8 finishers by region.

Collaboration And Foundation Leadership: Challenges, Opportunities, And Impact, Jennifer Pereira

The Foundation Review

· This article describes a successful collaboration among foundation, city government, and nonprofit stakeholders that leveraged an initial investment of $60,000 to $4.5 million in public and private funding to create a sustainable Green & Healthy Homes Initiative™ for low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in Providence, R.I.

· Through a partnership with the Rhode Island Foundation, the Council on Foundations, and the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, the city of Providence developed a comprehensive approach to integrated health, safety, lead-hazard reduction, energy-efficiency, and weatherization interventions for low- and moderate-income families.

· The project was led by a steering committee of …

Moving From Partnership To Collective Accountability And Sustainable Change: Applying A Systems-Change Model To Foundations’ Evolving Roles, Karen W. Linkins, Lynda E. Frost, Becky Hayes Boober, Jennifer J. Brya

The Foundation Review

· In a time of scarce resources and significant needs, funders may seek to maximize the impact of their grantmaking through collaboration. While many foundations move well from identifying a problem to building broader awareness and forging key partnerships, they typically flounder in trying to move beyond collaboration to a sense of mutual responsibility or collective accountability for the greater good, which is a precondition for sustainable systems change.

· This article discusses three complex initiatives that made sustainable changes in integrated behavioral health and primary care. Using a conceptual framework based on the Building Blocks of Systems Change model, …

Book Review Of The Generosity Network: New Transformational Tools For Successful Fund-Raising, Terry Horton

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Equity: The Hud Sustainable Communities Initiative, Lisa K. Bates, Marisa Zapata

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 1974, Norman Krumholz boldly called on planners to advocate for equity in public resource allocation and administrative practices. In 2010, the Obama administration’s HUD-DOT-EPA Sustainable Communities Initiative—specifically in the form of the Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant

(SCRPG)—renewed this call for equity. But our review of the responses by thirteen grantees proved disappointing. The plans put forth by award winners recycle many of the activities from the Cleveland Policy Plan (CPP) without employing its overarching mission. Instead of boldness, we are left with a stark reminder about the lack of progress made since the City of Cleveland incited planners …

Extending And Customizing Content Discovery For The Legal Academic Community With Innovative Interfaces' Pathfinder Pro: The Pence Law Library Approach, Sima Mirkin

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Incorporation of technological tools into teaching methodology is an ongoing process. Using graphic illustrations with explanations, this article will demonstrate the functionality of one such tool, Innovative Interfaces’ Pathfinder Pro, a context-sensitive linking mechanism, in conjunction with the Pence Law Library online catalogue. The article also discusses the benefits of using this tool in legal research instructions and distance learning programs.

Jeffersonian Ideals: Practical In The United States Of The 21st Century?, Charles William Gustafson Ii

Honors Program Theses

Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States, a statesman, lawyer, scientist, author of the Declaration of Independence, and a proponent of education in the United States of America. Understandably, his educational philosophy is inextricably linked to his political philosophy, as Gordon C. Lee puts it, " ... liberty without enlightenment seemed to Jefferson a contradiction in concepts, an anomaly," (Lee 1961, 2-3). Thomas Jefferson emphasized the importance of education in the United States, as Roy J. Honeywell puts it, "His educational plans were a very necessary part of his political and social reforms, and his educational ideas were as …

Adapting The Who Tool On Sexual And Reproductive Health And Human Rights: Experiences In Four Countries, Ian Askew, Kaila Clarke, Fauzia Akhter Huda, Joyce Mumah, Mary Philip Sebastian

Reproductive Health

No abstract provided.

Dynamics Of Drug Markets : An Examination Of Arrestee Drug Acquisition Behavior, Tanya T. Meisenholder

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Using data from the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program, and from the 2000 U.S. Census, this exploratory study examined drug market acquisition behaviors and how this behavior differs by drug type, user characteristics, and across locations. A descriptive and comparative assessment of drug markets and acquisition behavior revealed substantial differences within and across drug types. This wide variation was evident across drug market clientele and across locations, regardless of the measure considered. The analysis also demonstrated that this data can be used to identify drug buyers that may also be drug sellers. Hierarchical and K-means cluster analysis was used …

School Psychologists' Awareness, Involvement, And Perceptions In Servicing Gifted Learners, Monica Pires

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

School psychologists are comprehensive service providers asked to help with all students in assessing their needs, providing intervention strategies, and consulting with others. However, the role of school psychologists in gifted education is unclear, as more attention is given to students perceived to be disadvantaged. This underserved population experiences a wide-range of challenges that can be assisted by school psychologists (Brown, 1982; E.L. Robinson, 2002). To date, there has been no study to investigate school psychologists' awareness, perceptions, and involvement in gifted education. This study assessed potential service delivery differences in gifted education, examined current practices and awareness of related …

Assessment Of The Availability And Use Of Maternal Health Supplies In The Primary Health Care System In Amhara Region, Ethiopia, Sarah Raifman, Sisay Mellese, Kelemua Hailemariam, Ian Askew, Annabel Erulkar

Reproductive Health

Maternal mortality in Ethiopia remains among the highest in the world. A UN Commission Report in 2012 identified 13 life-saving commodities—defined as medicines, medical devices, and health supplies—that effectively address avoidable causes of death during pregnancy and childbirth that, if more widely accessed and properly used, could significantly reduce preventable deaths among women. This assessment, conducted by the Population Council, evaluates the availability of these life-saving commodities that are essential for basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care, and safe and clean delivery services within primary health care in Ethiopia. The report concludes that Ethiopia’s pharmaceutical procurement and supply system is …

Cost Estimation For Scale-Up Of Voucher Services In Kenya, Shubhra Kumar, Smita Sanghrajka, Benjamin Bellows

Reproductive Health

This document reports on the Government of Kenya’s Output-Based Aid (OBA) vouchers program—an affordable strategy to meet the international and national objectives for improved maternal and reproductive health. To help achieve the global Millennium Development Goals related to maternal and child health, the Kenyan government has launched several initiatives including this Vision 2030 flagship program which harmonizes global and national objectives by improving access and enhancing equity in health service delivery. The report finds that the three maternal health MDG indicators—maternal mortality rate, rate of institutional deliveries, and contraceptive prevalence—can all be improved substantially by scaling up the OBA program. …

Infographic: Vouchers Are Transforming Reproductive Health Access Worldwide, Population Council

Reproductive Health

No abstract provided.

Faktor Politik Dalam Alokasi Dana Antarpemerintah Indonesia, M. Syareza L. Tobing, Bambang P. S. Brodjonegoro

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

The intergovernmental transfer system currently applied in Indonesia is intended to prevent the intervention of political powers. However, there are indications of political determinants behind central government transfers to sub-national governments. In order to prove the existence of these political factors, this research utilizes empirical panel data models of Dana Alokasi Umum (DAU), Dana Dekonsentrasi and Tugas Pembantuan using political variables. Results show that while there are no significant political variables in the DAU and Dana Dekonsentrasi models, there is a political determinant behind the amount of Dana Tugas Pembantuan, where a higher seat share for the Golkar …

The State Of Food Insecurity In Maputo, Mozambique, Inês Raimundo, Jonathan Crush, Wade Pendleton

Hungry Cities Partnership

Food insecurity is a fact of life for the vast majority of households across Maputo’s poverty belt. The Maputo urban food security survey done by AFSUN as part of its baseline survey of 11 Southern African cities found that households exist in a constant state of food insecurity manifested in a lack of access to sufficient affordable food, poor dietary quality and undernutrition. Income is meagre and only those households with access to wage income have any chance of holding food insecurity at bay. With a vibrant informal food economy, Maputo’s poor are surrounded by fresh and processed food. Food …

Critical Research Needs For Successful Food Systems Adaptation To Climate Change, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Charles A. Francis, Chad Kruger, Carol Barford, Jacob Park, Brent H. Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

There is a growing sense of the fragility of agricultural production in the Global North and South and of increasing risks to food security, as scientific observations confirm significant changes in the Gulf Stream, polar ice, atmospheric CO₂, methane release, and other measures of climate change. This sense is heightened as each of us experiences extreme weather, such as the increasing frequency of droughts, floods, unseasonal temperatures, and erratic seasonality. The central research challenge before us is how global, national, regional, and local food systems may adapt to accelerating climate change stresses and uncertainties to ensure the availability, …

Food Webs And Food Sovereignty: Research Agenda For Sustainability, Charles A. Francis, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Nancy Creamer, Michelle Wander, Jacob Park, Thomas Green, Brent Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Future food production will be constrained by the scarcity of fossil fuel and fresh water as well as increasing intensity and unpredictability of weather events and climate changes. The assurance of food security and equity for many consumers is complicated by concentration of ownership of land and other production resources, as well as a global corporate food systems model that is driven by profit at the expense of people and the environment. To assess potential alternatives to the contemporary global food chain, well focused research is needed on local food production and food webs where small- and midscale family farms …

Service Learning Students’ Perceptions Of Citizenship, Audrey Falk

Education Faculty Publications

This study examines the conceptions of citizenship held by students engaged in a service learning course. Open-ended responses to instructor-developed surveys were analyzed. Results indicated that students primarily viewed good citizenship in terms of community service; however, their ideas about service were limited to passive kinds of service such as helping others and volunteering, rather than active kinds of service such as community organizing. Results were compared with conceptions of citizenship held by students engaged in another course with a smaller volunteering component. Opportunities for broadening service learning students’ understanding of citizenship are discussed.

Corporate Social Responsibility As Corporate Soft Law: Mainstreaming Ethical And Responsible Conduct In Corporate Governance, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article explores corporate social responsibility ("CSR') as a viable mode of regulation and governance in the corporate arena. A starting premise is that good corporate governance must move resolutely beyond a compliance mindset to one which recognises that effective corporate governance must have an ethical backbone in which the dimensions of responsibility, transparency, and accountability are evident, recognised and supported. Regulatory endeavours and corporate governance reforms in the past decade have increasingly intersected with mainstream CSR motivations. CSR is increasingly inducted and mainstreamed into corporate governance thinking, characterised by the dual perspective ofrisk management and values-driven/principled governance and operations. …

Does Competition Within The Military Reduce Expropriation?, Madhav S. Aney, Giovanni Ko

Research Collection School Of Economics

How can agents in the military, which control the means of coercion, commit not to expropriate from producers? In this paper we propose competition within the military as one of the mechanisms that can deter predation and consequently create commitment. In our model, even if agents within the military could expropriate all output costlessly, it is attractive to protect producers from predating military units. This is because there is a marginal defensive advantage and consequently defense is an e ective way to potentially eliminate other military units, reducing competition and leading to higher future payo s. The model predicts that …

Recruiting Entry-Level Sci-Tech Librarians: An Analysis Of Job Advertisements And Outcome Of Searches, Mary Lou Baker Jones, Mary Frances Lembo, James Manasco, John Sandy

University Libraries' Staff Publications

What qualifications are academic library administrators looking for in candidates for entry-level science and technology librarian positions? The Student Relations Committee of the Sci-Tech Division decided to explore this question, with the objective of providing career development information to students in library and information science who are interested in science or technology library positions.

Strategic Interaction And Social Networks, Quqiong He

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays which investigate individuals’ interaction in different contexts using social network analysis. The first essay generalizes the models of link formation of Rogers (2005) by allowing that giving and asking choices can be made separately and simultaneously by each agent. We focus on two specifications of the relationship function: the concave specification and the linear specification. The second essay empirically tests how the pattern of village structure, in terms of lineage network composition, affects people’s reciprocal behavior, utilizing data from Chinese Household Income Project Survey 2002. The third essay demonstrates different types of asymmetries and …

Nonprofit Organizations In The Making Of Civic Community : Exploring How The Structure Of Nonprofit Sectors Matters For Community Wellbeing, Sarah Prater Walsh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, through the lens of the civic community perspective, I examine the role of nonprofit organizations in enhancing community wellbeing. The primary contribution of this dissertation to existing literature on civic communities is the theoretical development of the concept of civically engaging institutions. I take a multifaceted approach to the understanding and investigation of civically engaged institutions, in which I expand the concept beyond civic congregations and associations, to include all organizations categorized as nonprofit. Synthesizing literatures on nonprofit organizations and civic communities, I argue that nonprofits can be considered locally oriented and civically engaged as they are …

Creating An Sli Performance Profile With Load, Christy Marie Seidel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this body of work was to gain a clearer understanding of the potential cognitive factors that may contribute to Specific Language Impairment (SLI). This study attempted to simulate a performance profile of SLI in typically developing children within a grammaticality judgment task, featuring structures historically difficult (third person singular –S and auxiliary BE) and easy (plural –S and progressive –ING) for individuals with SLI. Cognitive load was manipulated through the length of the sentences to be judged, and individual differences in phonological short term memory (PSTM) and working memory were measured (WM). For a successful simulation to …

A Feedback Inclusive Neuromuscular Training Program Alters Frontal Plane Kinematics, Eric K. Greska, Nelson Cortes, Bonnie L. Van Lunen, James A. Oñate

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

-Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) neuromuscular training programs have demonstrated beneficial effects in reducing ACL injuries, yet further evaluation of their effects on biomechanical measures across a sports team season is required to elucidate the specific factors that are modifiable. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a 10-week off-season neuromuscular training program on lower extremity kinematics. Twelve Division I female soccer players (age: 19.2 ± 0.8 years, height: 1.67 ± 0.1 m, weight: 60.2 ± 6.5 kg) performed unanticipated dynamic trials of a running stop-jump task pretraining and posttraining. Data collection was performed using an 8-camera …

Mcquade Messenger- Winter 2013, Merrimack College

McQuade Messenger

Triannual newsletter outlining the activities, events, hours, features, and resources available at McQuade Library. Winter 2013, 3 pages.

Does Gender Play A Role In Text Messaging?, Wendy Ceccucci, Alan Peslak, S.E. Kruck, Patricia Sendall

Organization Studies and Analytics Faculty Publications

This purpose of this research was to study the effect of gender on text messaging (SMS). A comprehensive survey was developed to explore various aspects of text messaging usage. The survey included factors from the Theory of Reasoned Action, Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, End User Computer Satisfaction, Expectation/Confirmation Theory, and Diffusion of Innovation. Overall, there was very little statistical difference based on gender with the exception of emotions. All of the positive emotions were higher for females than males. In other words, females were more pleased, satisfied, contented, and delighted with their text messaging experience.