Epstein-Zin Utility Maximization on a Random Horizon

This paper solves the consumption-investment problem under Epstein-Zin preferences on a random horizon. In an incomplete market, we take the random horizon to be a stopping time adapted to the market filtration, generated by all observable, but not necessarily tradable, state processes. Contrary to prior studies, we do not impose any fixed upper bound for the random horizon, allowing for truly unbounded ones. Focusing on the empirically relevant case where the risk aversion and the elasticity of intertemporal substitution are both larger than one, we characterize the optimal consumption and investment strategies using backward stochastic differential equations with superlinear growth on unbounded random horizons. This characterization, compared with the classical fixed-horizon result, involves an additional stochastic process that serves to capture the randomness of the horizon. As demonstrated in two concrete examples, changing from a fixed horizon to a random one drastically alters the optimal strategies

The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act And Medicaid Expansion: Leadership Strategies For Effective Change Management In Managed Care Organizations

As a result of tlie 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), eligibility requirements for the Medicaid program were revised resulting in a greater number of people eligible to enroll in tlie government healthcare program. These circumstances require numerous organizational changes for Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) that administer the Medicaid program in order to accommodate the healthcare needs of the growing Medicaid population and comply with applicable regulatory requirements. This case study sought to identify effective leadership strategies employed by Minnesota Medicaid MCO change leaders guiding organizational change processes and seeking quality change outcomes, resulting from the externally imposed change. Minnesota Medicaid MCOs were chosen for this study as Minnesota accepted the option to expand the Medicaid eligibility requirements prior to the national mandate in 2014, creating opportunity to learn from those leadership experiences and share the information with leaders who will face similar changes in the future. This exploratory research identified three components to support successful change leadership in this context, including collaboration, planning and preparing, and communication. This research contributes to a void in existing literature on change leadership and change management, which has historically focused on internal change initiatives

Oppressive Heroes and Submissive Victims: How Oppression is Perpetuated in Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Oppressive Heroes and Submissive Victims: How Oppression is Perpetuated in Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman (1998) and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) are two novels whose narrators experience the struggle of being a woman in a male-dominated society. Comfort Woman follows the story of a Korean girl, kidnapped and used as a sex slave (euphemistically called a “comfort woman”) by and for Japanese soldiers during World War II. My paper focuses on how Akiko is subordinated not only as a Korean but also as a woman, how the American missionaries actually keep her subordinate, and how she later becomes independent. Similarly, in The Handmaid’s Tale, a Handmaid named Offred is being used for sex to conceive a Commander’s child. In both novels, the narrators are being used for sex and can be considered what postcolonial scholar Gayatri Spivak might call the “subaltern” in that they cannot speak for themselves. My presentation explores the ways in which the narrators and their peers are situated as subaltern, the ways in which their supposed aides, such as the missionaries and the Aunts, keep them within the realm of the subaltern, and the ways in which they are able to begin to escape that realm through the acquisition of voice

The Origins of Mesoamerican Civilization

This research project will attempt to unravel the various threads of cultural influence that existed in Archaic Mesoamerica. Of particular interest will be to test the validity of the theory that there is a “mother culture,” usually posited as the Olmec, which was responsible for the innovations that led to the social complexities of later cultures such as the Mayans and Aztecs. Alternately, it is possible that innovations developed by several different cultures were shared through diffusion due to strong trade networks and other methods. This research question is important because it deals with the evolutionary development of advanced social structures and complex societies. Historical data will be examined to see if there is any bias towards one of these competing viewpoints. Of particular interest will be to look for parallels between the development of these civilizations and ones that developed around the same time in the Middle East and Asia. Finally, several archaeological case studies will be examined to attempt to fit the evidence within one of these theoretical frameworks and show how archaeological evidence can facilitate theory formation.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1073/thumbnail.jp

Oral History Interview: Charles Aurand

This interview is one of a series conducted concerning the history of Marshall University. At the time of the interview, Reverend Charles Aurand was a part- time professor of history and religious studies as well as a minister of St. Paul\u27s Lutheran Church in Huntington, WV. In this interview, he discusses his background, his experiences with Africian-Americans and the Civil Rights movement, the Lutheran Church and their relations to African-Americans, his experiences as a student at Marshall University restaurants, movie theaters, a discussion of Huntington (WV).https://mds.marshall.edu/oral_history/1247/thumbnail.jp

An antenna array processing system for multiple source bearing estimation

The principal topic of this dissertation is the application of array signal processing to angle-of-arrival (AOA) estimation of multiple plane waves. Assuming that a passive linear array of uniformly spaced sensors is used to measure the radiation field, a digital signal processing system is proposed which determines the number of narrowband sources and their respective bearings;The proposed direction-finding system integrates several algorithms in a cohesive arrangement to exploit their mutually similar structures. The Modified forward-backward linear prediction (MFBLP) spectral analysis method of Tufts and Kumaresan is used to obtain high spatial resolution, and the eigenanalysis which is central to its operation provides an excellent point of entry for a procedure to estimate the number of plane waves detected by the array. This procedure utilizes the AIC or MDL information theoretic criteria in an ensemble manner to generate a reliable estimate of the rank of the signal subspace of the deterministic correlation matrix of the array snapshot;Two algorithms are presented for determining the spatial frequencies of the incoming plane waves, based on the MFBLP method: one uses an iterative version of Newton\u27s method to locate the spectral peaks, and the other uses an iterative method to locate the equivalent complex poles;Statistical processing of the bearing estimates from a number of array snapshots is then used to maintain accuracy and precision in noisy array environment; two different estimators are proposed for this ensemble averaging, and their performance is characterized when applied to a single-source scenario. This utilizes both analytical and Monte Carlo computer simulation. The distributions are characterized in both wavenumber and bearing domains. Expressions for the bearing CRLB, expected standard deviation, and bearing estimate confidence interval are developed, believed to be the first known formulations of overall DF system performance as a function of array spacing, number of elements, true source bearing, and sensor signal-to-noise ratio. The statistical precision is shown to be related to the effective aperture of the antenna array, revealing the degradation in performance as the angle-of-arrival approaches endfire

Staff Development Models in Education Compared to Actual Practice

Staff development, including in-service education, is an excellent method for improving instruction in our schools. Five common components of in-service models (needs assessment, establishing priorities, determining objectives, developing a program format, and evaluation) and four recommendations are discussed. Based on a selective literature review, three models of in-service education are presented based on two levels of operation. Orientation (expanding general knowledge) and In-Depth, Long-Term (emphasizing learning new skills) and three elements required for educational change; personal, organization-related, and curriculum-related development. The model used by a local school district is investigated and critiqued. Recommendations for empirical research are given

Career Patterns and Job Mobility of College and University Music Faculty

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68554/2/10.2307_3344592.pd