A New View of the Male/Female Pay Gap

We construct a new time series on the Canadian female/male pay ratio. The new series is based on wage data rather than the earnings data that has been used in the past. Wages more closely correspond to the price of labour, which is the focus of most theories of labour market discrimination and public policies in this area. Earnings based estimates combine gender differences in wages with gender differences in decisions of how much to work (i.e., hours). Our results reveal significant differences between the wage and earnings based series. Most importantly the wage series reveals that women have continued to make progress in the last fifteen years. In 2006 the wage based ratio is 0.85 while the earnings based ratio is only 0.72. We also find that as the gender wage ratio has risen, the remaining gap in wages is increasingly unexplained in the sense that it cannot be accounted for by gender differences in characteristics that the labour market values.Gender Pay Gap, Wages, Earnings

An overview of the effect of probiotics and exercise on mood and associated health conditions

The present paper provides a review of the current knowledge relating to the health benefits of probiotics, specially focused on the effects they may have together with physical exercise on mood disorders and related chronic medical conditions. With both these conditions being a substantial contributor to the global disease burden any alternative therapy must be considered. Probiotics influence the gut microbiota through a complex network of events which can influence mechanisms leading to development of mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. Similarly, through a complex interaction between psychological and neurobiological mechanisms, exercise has been found to play a key role in mood enhancement

Analysis of the effect of in-class writing on the learning of function concepts in college algebra

This study examined the effects of in-class writing to learn mathematics on college students in a college algebra course. The students in the two experimental groups wrote explanatory responses to prompts regarding a topic discussed in class the previous day twice a week for eight weeks. The teacher read and responded to all writing assignments the next day. The two control groups spent the time discussing additional examples as a class. All other aspects of the course were held constant for the 209 students in the study;The first goal of the study was to investigate the effect of the in-class writing on mathematics achievement. The second goal was to investigate the effect of the in-class writing on the students\u27 attitude toward Mathematics; A third goal was to investigate whether the in-class writing treatment would be differentially effective for some students more than others based on previous mathematics achievement, length of time since the last math class, or self reported study habits;Findings of the study showed that the in-class writing treatment was differentially effective on the attitudes of low achievement students. The low achievement writing students had significantly more positive attitudes toward mathematics at the end of the study than the low achievement nonwriting students. Also there was a significant interaction for the treatment x time since the last mathematics class. The students in the writing group who had not taken a math class for 1.5 years or more had significantly better achievement scores than those in the control group who had not recently completed a math course. These two findings may have practical implications for making mathematics accessible to more students through the use of writing assignments. In general, the study did not find a significant effect for either attitude or achievement for the writing groups

Managing the waters within area A : water allocation in Jericho as a case study for Palestinian water management

textThis thesis examines the case study of Jericho as an example of the unique challenges of intra-Palestinian water allocation. Over the past hundred years, Jericho has been under the control of five ruling governments: Ottoman, British, Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian. This study begins with an investigation of local water allocation under foreign control. Throughout each period of rule, legislation about water was inherently connected with land control, and Jericho’s history as an agricultural city dictated how water was classified. Despite many of the nominal changes in law from one government to the next, local practice changed relatively little, as the community allocated resources in a fairly consistent way among community members. Jericho’s sustained level of agriculture has been possible because of the consistently high output of a large spring, Ein Sultan, just north of the contemporary city. The second chapter examines the transition from Israeli to Palestinian control of Jericho in 1994, which is now considered an Area A zone in the West Bank, and examines the relationship of nascent Palestinian water institutions with previous informal networks. The last section addresses the challenges facing Jericho today, referencing and analyzing the recently written Master Plan for Jericho’s water system undertaken by a Palestinian nongovernmental organization. The Plan effectively highlights problems within the system of allocation, including: poor water quality, inefficient domestic and irrigation networks, conspicuous local consumption, ineffective pricing systems, and lack of wastewater treatment. However, the plan does not provide long-term suggestions to address the underlying systematic problems with the allocation system. Although Jericho is theoretically a Palestinian controlled municipality, it faces serious obstacles to effective governance of its resources. The informal institutions dominated by the agricultural sector that sustained the community for such a long time, may not be able to adjust in the face of necessary water reform for the city. The local government may need to consider politically unpopular decisions, reform tariffs, and decrease reliance upon foreign aid if it hopes to continue maintain and manage Ein Sultan and other water sources for the growing city into the future.Middle Eastern Studie

Multinomial Nonparametric Predictive Inference: Selection, Classification and Subcategory Data

In probability and statistics, uncertainty is usually quantified using single-valued probabilities satisfying Kolmogorov's axioms. Generalisation of classical probability theory leads to various less restrictive representations of uncertainty which are collectively referred to as imprecise probability. Several imprecise approaches to statistical inference using imprecise probability have been suggested, one of which is nonparametric predictive inference (NPI). The multinomial NPI model was recently proposed, which quantifies uncertainty in terms of lower and upper probabilities. It has several advantages, one being the facility to handle multinomial data sets with unknown numbers of possible outcomes. The model gives inferences about a single future observation. This thesis comprises new theoretical developments and applications of the multinomial NPI model. The model is applied to selection problems, for which multiple future observations are also considered. This is the first time inferences about multiple future observations have been presented for the multinomial NPI model. Applications of NPI to classification are also considered and a method is presented for building classification trees using the maximum entropy distribution consistent with the multinomial NPI model. Two algorithms, one approximate and one exact, are proposed for finding this distribution. Finally, a new NPI model is developed for the case of multinomial data with subcategories and several properties of this model are proven

Friedrich Nietzsche's contribution to the philosophy of art: A critical examination

This thesis is an examination of the philosophy of art of Friedrich Nietzsche. Its five chapters correspond to the areas in which I have found his most philosophically rigorous and comprehensive contributions to the field. Within each chapter is an exposition and critique of the development of these contributions. Whilst it is not my aim to make a point by point reduction of the ideas of Nietzsche to those philosophies established before him, given that his philosophy of art is to an important extent either stimulated by, a reaction against, or a conscious augmentation of the theories of Immanuel Kant and Arthur Schopenhauer, an analysis and critique of the philosophical and artistic offerings of these men feature strongly in the relevant chapters. In the first two chapters I explore two general problems in the philosophy of art with which Nietzsche takes issue: the Kantian idea that the pleasure involved in making judgements of taste is disinterested, and the role of artistic form in a characterisation of beauty. But it is in addressing the nature and value of the individual art forms that Nietzsche makes his most convincing contribution to the philosophy of art. In line with his own personal and theoretical concentration, chapters three and four comprise analyses of his philosophies of music and tragic drama. I conclude my project by stepping away from the individual art forms and looking at the metaphysics that informs Nietzsche's motivation for philosophising about art. I confine myself to a single branch of metapkysics - the question of appearance versus reality - and demonstrate that the sophistication of Nietzsche's philosophy of art grows with the development of his understanding of the nature of our existence

Relationship between School Success and Physical and Familial Factors of Kindergarteners

Teachers in elementary schools often assert that they could teach more successfully if no child under six years of age was admitted to first grade. While teaching kindergarten this writer also found many parents of kindergarten age children quite concerned about the best age for their child to enter kindergarten. Besides age there seemed to be concern in other areas such as physical size, coordination, and emotional maturity. However, most school districts in Washington set chronological age as the major requirement for school admission. The problem to be investigated in this study was to determine the relationship, if any, between physical and familial factors and the child\u27s success in kindergarten. In order to accomplish this one must (1) measure success and then (2) compute the relationship of other factors to success. On the basis of these relationships, if they exist, one can better group children, provide more comprehensive curriculum, and staff classrooms to compensate for both high and low success factors. The purpose of this study was two-fold. The first phase was to determine success and the second to determine the relationship between success and other factors. Educators and other researchers, as well as teachers and parents, have been concerned with the need to determine success and then compute the relationship between success and other factors. For the purpose of this study a presentation of research has been limited to success, chronological age, height, weight, sex, birth order, and parents\u27 education as each of these areas relate to the kindergartener

Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) metamorphosis: Effects of low oxygen

The objective of my research was to examine the physiology and behavior of metamorphosing oysters, Crassostrea virginica, and to investigate the effects of low oxygen stress on metamorphic processes. Specifically, I examined the effects of hypoxia (20% of air saturation) and microxia (&\u3c&1% of air saturation) on settlement, survival, growth, morphology, metabolic rate and feeding on post-settlement oysters. All of the functions I measured were adversely affected by hypoxia and microxia, compared to normoxic controls. Survival times indicate that, like larvae and adults, post-settlement oysters are capable of anaerobic metabolism. The 2 week period following settlement is especially critical to recruitment. Low oxygen conditions increases mortality and have detrimental effects on the development and growth of post-settlement oysters. Oysters have the ability to feed at nearly all stages of settlement and metamorphosis. While hypoxic conditions reduce feeding only in the youngest metamorphosing oysters, microxic conditions affect all ages. Not only does weight-specific metabolism decrease as the oysters grow, but metabolic responses to low oxygen change from relatively oxygen independent to oxygen dependent. I conclude that oyster distribution may be influenced by low oxygen, especially in those areas that experience prolonged (24-48 h) hypoxia or severe microxic events. Low oxygen events may control recruitment into the adult population directly, because of larval settlement failure and post-settlement mortality, and indirectly, because of reduction in feeding, development rate, and growth of post-settlement oysters