Panel data and open-ended questions: Understanding perceptions of quality of life

This paper describes the burgeoning interest in quality of life studies and suggests that as well as expert definitions, we need to consider people’s own perceptions of what matters. Using openended questions from the 1997 and 2002 waves of the British Household Panel Survey we analyse both quantitatively and qualitatively how perceptions of quality of life differ for men and women across the life course. Qualitative analysis reveals that key domains such as health, family and finances often refer, not to self, but to others. Longitudinal analysis demonstrates that people’s perceptions of quality of life change over time, particularly before and after important life transitions. Thus our findings challenge overly individualistic and static conceptions of quality of life and reveal quality of life as a process, not a fixed state

Evaluating the Stormwater Treatment Performance of AbTech Industries Smart Sponge® Plus, Landry, N

The ability of AbTech’s Smart Sponge® Plus to remove fecal-borne bacteria from stormwater was evaluated in a storm drainage system located in Seabrook, New Hampshire. The Smart Sponge ® Plus was installed into a water quality inlet and samples were collected from influent (pre-treatment) and effluent (post-treatment) for analysis of bacterial concentrations and loadings during 15 storm events from September 3, 2003 to May 24, 2004, excluding winter months. The 15 storms included events with a range of rainfall intensities and amounts, as well as accompanying runoff volumes. Flow weighted composite samples were analyzed for fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli and enterococci to determine if concentrations were lowered as stormwater passed through the Smart Sponge® Plus material. In most cases, bacterial concentrations were reduced within the treatment system, but to varying degrees. The efficiency ratio based on reduction in event mean concentration for each bacterial indicator in the flow was calculated for each storm event. The values ranged most widely for fecal coliforms, whereas the range of ratios was narrower and the values were more consistent for enterococci. The overall load reductions for the bacterial indicators were 50.3% for fecal coliforms, 51.3% for Escherichia coli and 43.2% for enterococci. Relatively consistent pH values were observed in influent and effluent samples. The overall range of pH values was large, ranging from 5.21 units in influent from storm event #11 to 7.64 units in influent from storm event #1. Conductivity values were gr eater in the effluent in 14 of the 15 storm events, especially in storm events #12 and #13 when effluent conductivities were \u3e50% higher than influent values. Quality assurance/quality control procedures supported the methods and results of the study. Overall, the observed reductions in bacterial concentrations in post-treatment stormwater would still result in discharge of elevated bacterial levels that would continue to limit uses in receiving waters

Analysis of the Evolutaion of Scope Management and Needs Identification in Agile Methodologies

Identifying stakeholders, identifying metrics, and analyzing specific aspects of agile development. This has led to a variety of questions around scope management such as How do scope changes impact the velocity throughout the course of a project? , What factors help determine the overall viability of adopting different scope measures? , and What are the roles of project owners and managers in facilitating scope changes in project cycles? This research encompasses a review of previous literature, an analysis of structured project progression, and semi-structured interviews in order to investigate the evolution of scope management and needs identification in agile methodologies

Valuing Air and Noise Quality: A Choice Modeling Approach

空气污染和噪音污染普遍存在于在世界许多城市，其对健康和环境造成的负面影响已有很多记录。地方政府需要保证公民健康，但其还需要同时促进经济增长，这往往会加重空气污染和噪音污染。本论文实施了选择实验调查，使用条件逻辑模型来研究空气质量和噪音质量对受访者选择居住地的影响。本论文的主要目的是估算提高空气和噪音质量所需要的福利值。结果显示，非中国受访者和那些声称他们关心空气污染的人对空气污染更为敏感。结果还显示，没有在噪声污染地区生活经历的受访者，声称关心噪音污染的受访者，以及女性这三类人对噪声污染更为敏感。根据受访者意愿支付金额数据显示来看，非中国受访者愿意为改善空气质量愿意支付的金额更高，那些不关心空...Air and noise pollution are prevalent in many cities around the world, and the negative health and environmental consequences have been well documented. Local governments are faced with the task of promoting the good health of its citizens as well as economic growth at the cost of increased air and noise pollution. The current study implements a choice experiment survey to examine how air and nois...学位：经济学硕士院系专业：经济学院_国际贸易学学号：1522015115471

Media Coverage of LGBT Issues: Legal, Religious, and Political Frames

This project creates an original dataset of 1,008 randomly sampled news items that discussed LGBT political issues posted online between 2011 and 2017 by Huffington Post Queer Voices, NPR, and Fox News. I use quantitative methods and content analysis to locate the 14 most popular LGBT political issues in media coverage and to confirm there are three competing media frames of political discussion in coverage of LGBT political issues. There are three results chapters. Chapter 5 describes the 14 LGBT political issues that appear most often in political science research and to what extent media coverage of these 14 issues differs across the political left, right and center. I find that academia addresses more LGBT issues, more often, than does media coverage. Also, media coverage and academic literature contain four competing narratives about LGBT people and issues: a Family Narrative, an Identity Narrative, a Tragedy Narrative, and a Political Activity Narrative. Moreover, politically left media coverage is more like academic discussions about LGBT politics than politically right or centrist media coverage. Chapter 6 describes three competing frames in media coverage. A legal frame contains language that discusses constitutions, trial and appellate courts, litigation tactics, and appellate procedure. A religious frame contains language that discusses the Bible, Jesus, religious-based curative therapy, evangelicals as political participants, and quotes from clergy. An institutional frame contains language that involves elections, political parties, direct democracy, constitutional amendments, local state and federal legislatures, and the President. I find that legal framing of LGBT issues has increased since the 2000s, while religious framing has declined, and political framing is slowly rising – peaking in federal election years then decreasing in non-election years. Chapter 7 describes how the media’s focus on same-sex marriage eclipses coverage of less-covered, but still important, LGBT political issues. Further, since same-sex marriage was legalized nation-wide in 2015, the media has been increasingly focused on transgender issues rather than 13 other LGBT political issues. So, the issues, narratives, and frames one encounters in news coverage about the LGBT is noticeably different than in the 2000s, and differs on the political left, right, and center

Encouraging Public Access to Pharmaceuticals Through Modified Protection of Clinical Trial Data

Part I of this Article investigates the development of pharmaceuticals and clinical trial data with a focus on patent and data protection. Part II evaluates the effects of protection and the challenges it poses to widespread public pharmaceutical access. Part III discusses two scholarly approaches to the public access issue that focus on clinical data protection and their associated challenges. In light of these scholarly works, Part IV suggests a new approach to clinical trial data protection that aims to improve public pharmaceutical access while maintaining the incentives to invent for drug developers

FORMULATING ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL INDICATORS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. ESRI Policy Research Series, 1996

The programme of the present government includes a commitment to "working towards a new set of indicators of sustainable economic development which will take account of environmental as well as social factors". The central concern is to go beyond existing measures of economic activity produced within the national accounting framework (such as GDP or national income) in order to develop a more complete picture of economic and social progress in Ireland. The present publication provides an overview of the issues and options which arise in connection with this commitment, and suggests steps which might be taken in pursuing it. The publication is set out in two largely separate essays, one dealing with environmental indicators, the other with social indicators. While it would be desirable to deal with those two topics together, the differences in the intellectual and institutional traditions from which they have developed are such that an integrated approach has not yet emerged. In the final section of the present summary, the recommendations emerging from the two essays are brought together, though they are presented separately in the body of the report

A note on behaviour at an isotropic singularity

The behaviour of Jacobi fields along a time-like geodesic running into an isotropic singularity is studied. It is shown that the Jacobi fields are crushed to zero length at a rate which is the same in every direction orthogonal to the geodesic. We show by means of a counter-example that this crushing effect depends crucially on a technicality of the definition of isotropic singularities, and not just on the uniform degeneracy of the metric at the singularity.Comment: 13 pp. plain latex. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit