Not Separate, Not Equal: Poverty and Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa

As South Africa conducts a review of the first ten years of its new democracy, the question remains as to whether the economic inequalities of the apartheid era are beginning to fade. Using new, comparable consumption aggregates for 1995 and 2000, this paper finds that real per capita household expenditures declined for those at the bottom end of the expenditure distribution during this period of low GDP growth. As a result, poverty, especially extreme poverty, increased. Inequality also increased, mainly due to a jump in inequality among the African population. Even among subgroups of the population that experienced healthy consumption growth, such as the Coloureds, the rate of poverty reduction was low because the distributional shifts were not pro-poor.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40125/3/wp739.pd

Not Separate, Not Equal: Poverty and Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa

As South Africa conducts a review of the first ten years of its new democracy, the question remains as to whether the economic inequalities of the apartheid era are beginning to fade. Using new, comparable consumption aggregates for 1995 and 2000, this paper finds that real per capita household expenditures declined for those at the bottom end of the expenditure distribution during this period of low GDP growth. As a result, poverty, especially extreme poverty, increased. Inequality also increased, mainly due to a jump in inequality among the African population. Even among subgroups of the population that experienced healthy consumption growth, such as the Coloureds, the rate of poverty reduction was low because the distributional shifts were not pro-poor.Poverty, Inequality, South Africa

Toward Greater Global Equity

People around the world do not have the same chances to live, learn, work, and participate in society’s activities, because these opportunities are greatly influenced by circumstances beyond their control, including their country of birth. Global equity is worth pursuing for its own sake and for greater global prosperity. Concrete changes in global policies and global governance are needed to bring about greater equity: better aid to help poor countries make up for limited endowments, more space for legal migration of unskilled workers, more open trade (particularly for agricultural goods), less restrictive protection of intellectual property rights, and reforms in global governance.

Studies on the structure and thermodynamics of electrolyte solutions

The theoretical and simulation methods of statistical thermodynamics aim to develope a relationship between the intermolecular potential and various structural and thermodynamic properties for the fluids. Most of the previous work in the literature of electrolyte solutions either depend on primitive model in which only the ionic species are described on a molecular basis or employ sophisticated solvent models to describe the real electrolyte solutions;It has been found that the primitive model does not provide a realistic description for the structure and thermodynamics of electrolyte solutions in a wide range of concentrations. The computer simulations with sophisticated models give reliable results when compared with experiments, but these models can not be incorporated into the theoretical methods and most of the reported results are either at infinite dilution or at very low ionic concentrations;The objectives of the present work is to perform Monte Carlo simulations with simple and theoretically tractable models including point dipolar, dipolar and linear quadrupolar hard spheres and dipolar diatomics; to provide a mean of comparison and examine the quality of the existing theories and to study various thermodynamic and structural properties of the electrolytes;In the simulation, the interaction energy is approximated with periodic boundary conditions, and Ewald summation technique is used to calculate ion-ion, ion-dipole, ion-quadrupole and dipole-dipole interaction energies. It has been found that; at low ionic charges and concentrations solvated ions or pairs of ions are dominant, triple ions form mostly linear or close to linear clusters. At high ionic charges and concentrations bent triplets and bigger clusters are observed. The solvation characteristics of anions and cations which are exactly the same in a dipolar solvent are found to be dissimilar in a dipolar plus quadrupolar solvent. The total internal configurational energy, compressibility factor and static component of the dielectric constant are found to decrease and the specific heat is found to increase with increasing ionic charge and concentration;Numerical solution of the Ornstein-Zernike equation with the mean spherical approximation is obtained for a mixture of ions and dipoles with the same diameter. The dipole-dipole and ion-ion energies are found to be in good agreement with the Monte Carlo simulation results. Solution of a previously developed perturbation theory for a mixture of ions and dipoles with a new Pade approximation is obtained. The overall internal energy is found to be close to simulation results. An alternative to the existing perturbation theory is discussed

THE INVESTIGATION OF THE INTERNET ADDICTION LEVELS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN TERMS OF SOME DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AND SELF-ESTEEM

The aim of this research is to examine the internet addiction levels of university students in terms of gender, daily time spent online, the frequency of daily internet use and self-esteem. A total of 169 volunteer university students, 127 (75.1%) and 42 (24.9%) men, participated in this study. The data were collected with "Personal Information Form", "Young’s Internet Addiction Test-Short Form" and "Two Dimensional Self-Esteem Scale". Independent samples t-test, ANOVA, Pearson Product-Moment correlation analysis and simple linear regression analysis techniques were used in data analysis. In the research findings, it has been revealed that university students who use internet for 7 hours or more have higher total scores of the internet addiction than university students who use internet for 1-2 hours daily. In addition, the group with the highest internet addiction scores was found to be university students who use the internet continuously. Finally, the self-esteem was found to be significant predictor of the internet addiction. Article visualizations

Are neighbors equal?

"A methodology to produce disaggregated estimates of inequality is implemented in three developing countries: Ecuador, Madagascar, and Mozambique. These inequality estimates are decomposed into progressively more disaggregated spatial units and the results in all three countries are suggestive that even at a very high level of spatial disaggregation, the contribution of within-community inequality to overall inequality remains very high. The results also indicate there is a considerable amount of variation across communities in all three countries. The basic correlates of local-level inequality are explored, and it is consistently found that geographic characteristics are strongly correlated with inequality, even after controlling for demographic and economic conditions." Authors' AbstractEquality ,Spatial analysis (Statistics) ,

Are neighbors equal?

"A methodology to produce disaggregated estimates of inequality is implemented in three developing countries: Ecuador, Madagascar, and Mozambique. These inequality estimates are decomposed into progressively more disaggregated spatial units and the results in all three countries are suggestive that even at a very high level of spatial disaggregation, the contribution of within-community inequality to overall inequality remains very high. The results also indicate there is a considerable amount of variation across communities in all three countries. The basic correlates of local-level inequality are explored, and it is consistently found that geographic characteristics are strongly correlated with inequality, even after controlling for demographic and economic conditions." Authors' AbstractEquality ,Spatial analysis (Statistics) ,Household surveys ,Economic conditions ,

From Teacher to Trainer: What Changes? Or Does It?

AbstractTime on the job does not ensure professional growth and successful teachers are those who continue to develop throughout their professional lives (Ur, 1991). The little research on the characteristics and competencies of successful trainers who guide teachers through their professional growth conclude that the knowledge and competencies of effective trainers are similar to those of effective teachers (Leach, 1996).This study investigates (1) whether the qualities, skills and knowledge systems that effective teacher educators possess are similar to those attributed to successful teachers, (2) whether experience impacts trainers’ perceptions of the qualities, skills and knowledge that effective teacher educators have, and (3) whether these perceptions relate to the expectations of teachers as regards trainer qualities and competencies.Data were collected through a survey in which trainers were asked to list the qualities, skills and knowledge domains of effective teacher trainers, and to choose the top 10 most important in each category. The responses were collated to determine frequency and importance, and examined statistically to see whether experience played a significant role in choice and rating. The qualities, skills and knowledge domains that emerged from the survey were compiled to form a questionnaire and administered to teachers with varying levels of experience. The findings from this questionnaire were compared with findings from the survey. The results yielded implications for both the selection of potential teacher trainers as well as the content of trainer training programs

İlköğretim İngilizce Öğretmenlerinin Özyeterlik İnançları Üzerine Bir Çalışma

The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not primary school English language teachers’ self–efficacy beliefs changed according to the variables of (a) the department graduated, (b) taking a course about teaching English to children, (c) taking an in-service training, and (d) experience. The descriptive study was conducted with 266 English language teachers working for the public primary schools in the villages and the city center of Mersin in Turkey in 2004. Two data collection instruments used were a questionnaire consisting of 15 items which sought demographic and educational information about the teachers and a 34- item Likert-type scale titled Teachers’ Perception of Professional Competence. The findings revealed that primary school English language teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs changed according to the department graduated, and taking a course about teaching English to children. The teachers who had taken a course about teaching English to children perceived themselves more efficacious than the teachers who had not. Furthermore, the teachers who graduates of English Language Teaching, and English/American Language and Literature, and Linguistics departments perceived themselves more efficacious than the teachers who were graduated from the departments other than English teaching. On the other hand, the study indicated that the teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs did not change according to taking an in-service training. Finally, the outcome of the research implied the interplay between training regarding specific content area and efficacy. According to the overall findings of this research, it is concluded that English teachers’ perception of their teaching competencies has very much to do with their educational background. For this reason, especially primary school English teachers should be equipped with specific teaching methods, techniques and materials for teaching English to young children.Bu çalışma, ilköğretim 1. kademede görev yapan İngilizce öğretmenlerinin özyeterlik inançlarının (a) mezun oldukları bölüme, (b) çocuklara dil öğretimine yönelik ders alıp almamalarına, (c) hizmetiçi eğitime katılıp katılmamalarına ve (d) mesleki deneyimlerine göre değişip değişmediğini araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Betimsel nitelik taşıyan bu araştırmaya, Mersin il merkezinde ve bağlı köylerde 2004 yılında görev yapan toplam 266 Türk İngilizce öğretmeni katılmıştır. Araştırmada, öğretmenlerin demografik özelliklerini belirlemek üzere 15 maddeden oluşan bir anket kullanılmıştır. Güven (2005) tarafından geliştirilen Öğretmen Mesleki Yeterlik Algısı Ölçeği ise katılımcı öğretmenlerin özyeterlik inançlarına yönelik veri toplamak için kullanılmıştır. (Araştırma sonuçları, İlköğretim birinci kademede görev yapan İngilizce öğretmenlerinin özyeterlik inançlarının mezun oldukları bölüme ve çocuklara dil öğretimine yönelik ders alıp almadıklarına göre değiştiğini; çocuklara dil öğretimi dersi alan öğretmenlerin özyeterlik algılarının, almayanlara göre anlamlı farklılık gösterdiğini, İngilizce Öğretmenliği, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı ve İngiliz Dilbilimi mezunu olan öğretmenlerin özyeterlik algılarının, eğitim dili İngilizce ve farklı bölümlerden mezun olan öğretmenlerden daha yüksek olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Ancak hizmetiçi eğitim değişkeni özyeterlik inancında bir farklılık yaratmamıştır. Araştırmada, eğitim özgeçmişinin ve çocuklara dil öğretimine yönelik alınan derslerin ilköğretim 1. kademe İngilizce öğretmenlerinin özyeterlik inancını etkileyen önemli birer değişken olduğu sonucuna varılmıştı

On the reliability of k-out-of-n: f systems with exchangeable components in the stress-strength setup

In this paper, we consider the reliability of k-out-of-n: Fsystems and its conditional form with exchangeable components in the stress-strength setup. We assume a random stress common to all the components in the system level. Applications of these results to illustrate the reliability for the system consisting of three components with the multivariate FGM and multivariate Marshall-Olkin distributions are also given.Publisher's Versio