The Renaissance

In the early part of the fifteenth century a change as subtle and indefinable as it was significant, came over the spirit of European society. Without sharp break with the past, involving no strictly new creation, no sudden or unheralded revolution of ideas, gradually rose an altered mode of viewing man, the world, life-far less theological than the old, less respectful to tradition, more confident in man\u27s powers and future-in fine, laic and human. Renewed study of classical antiquity was sign and instrument, rather than essence, of the new movement. If men looked back, it was mostly to clear their vision to look and walk forward. The new thinking, if marked by temporary unbelief, and more given than the old to human and secular things, was not essentially irreligious; if less scholastic, not less profound. Vaster conceptions of the field of truth were born. It was felt that no problem had been absolutely settled, and that the human faculties, either fettered or discouraged or else applied to inane inquiries, had as yet scarcely given a hint of the productive activity possible to them. Hence fresh, courageous, successful effort to see what man might be, do, know

Financial Knowledge or Financial Situations? Toward Understanding Why Some College Students Use Credit Cards to Pay for College Tuition

While the majority of college students use credit cards for educational expenses like textbooks, recent data reports that college students also use credit cards to directly fund their schooling by charging for at least some part of their tuition (Sallie Mae, 2009). Because credit cards carry a higher interest rate than student loans, and because they do not have a period of deferred payment while a student is enrolled in school, credit cards are a particularly risky method of payment that students resort to in order to attend college. Why do college students participate in such risky spending behavior to fund their education? This paper uses data from a nationally-representative data set (Education Longitudinal Study) and from a recent national study on college student finances (Study on Collegiate Financial Wellness) to investigate whether financial knowledge or financial situations are better predictors of whether a student uses a credit card to pay for at least some of their college tuition. While most research on this topic has focused on social-psychological factors that influence college student credit card use, this study includes important financial resource and situation variables that shed light on the ways in which college students make financial decisions in a broader economic environment

Time-interior gradient estimates for quasilinear parabolic equations

Bounded smooth solutions of the Dirichlet and Neumann problems for a wide variety of quasilinear parabolic equations, including graphical anisotropic mean curvature flows, have gradient bounded in terms of oscillation and elapsed time

Organised crime and social media: detecting and corroborating weak signals of human trafficking online

This paper describes an approach for detecting the presence or emergence of Organised Crime (OC) signals on Social Media. It shows how words and phrases, used by members of the public in Social Media, can be treated as weak signals of OC, enabling information to be classified according to a taxonomy of OC. Formal Concept Analysis is used to group information sources, according to Crime and Location, thus providing a means of corroboration and creating OC Concepts that can be used to alert police analysts to the possible presence of OC. The analyst is able to `drill down' into an OC Concept of interest, discovering additional information that may be pertinent to the crime. The paper describes the implementation of this approach into a fully-functional prototype software system, incorporating a Social Media Scanning System and a map-based user interface. The approach and system are illustrated using the Trafficking of Human Beings as an example. Real data is used to obtain results that show that weak signals of OC have been detected and corroborated, thus alerting to the possible presence of OC. Keyword : organised crime, social media, formal concept analysis

Internalizing the Negative Externalities of Mining in Ghana: Should Corporate Social Responsibility Be Voluntary?

Mining operations in Ghana and elsewhere have resulted in both positive and negative externalities in mining countries. Whilst the positive externalities have always been highlighted, not much attention has been paid to the negative externalities on mining communities despite several protestations from civil societies, NGOs and people living in mining areas. The impact of the negative externalities as manifested in health, social and environmental consequences have been borne by mining communities at huge cost. In the face of the consequences of the negative externalities, many have questioned whether CSR as a mechanism to address mining organizations’ negative impact on society should remain voluntary. This paper looks at the negative externalities of mining activities on communities and proposes that mining companies should internalise the cost of negative externalities arising out of their operations through CSR to avert future regulations of their impact on society. Keywords: Externalities, CSR, Mining, Investment, Cos

Regulation of zinc-responsive Slc39a5 (Zip5) translation is mediated by conserved elements in the 3′-untranslated region

Translation of the basolateral zinc transporter ZIP5 is repressed during zinc deficiency but Zip5 mRNA remains associated with polysomes and can be rapidly translated when zinc is repleted. Herein, we examined the mechanisms regulating translation of Zip5. The 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of Zip5 mRNA is well conserved among mammals and is predicted by mFOLD to form a very stable stem-loop structure. Three algorithms predict this structure to be flanked by repeated seed sites for miR-328 and miR-193a. RNAse footprinting supports the notion that a stable stem-loop structure exists in this 3′-UTR and electrophoretic mobility shift assays detect polysomal protein(s) binding specifically to the stem-loop structure in the Zip5 3′-UTR. miR-328 and miR-193a are expressed in tissues known to regulate Zip5 mRNA translation in response to zinc availability and both are polysome-associated consistent with Zip5 mRNA localization. Transient transfection assays using native and mutant Zip5 3′-UTRs cloned 3′ to luciferase cDNA revealed that the miRNA seed sites and the stem-loop function together to augment translation of Zip5 mRNA when zinc is replete

Liberalization of the Financial Sector and Access to Credit by the Micro and Small-Scale Enterprises: Conintergration Analysis

The financial system of sub-Sahara African countries had long been shackled with extensive imprudent regulations operated on inefficient grounds. This paper estimates the impact of macroeconomic factors on credit to the private sector with emphasis on micro and small-scale enterprises in a regime of financial sector liberalization in Ghana. The paper demonstrates the predicaments of Ghana’s inability to liberalize its financial sector and the consequent limitations imposed on access to financial services by the micro and small-scale enterprises. We used the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test for unit root and the Johansen-Juselius multivariate approach to cointegration to test for stationarity and a long-run relationship among the variables in the model. Error correction model (ECM) was used to estimate the short-run impacts. The results indicate that variations in credit to the private sector in a liberalized financial sector are explained significantly by the variables in the model in both the long-run and the short-run. An indication of a large percentage of financial deepening is demonstrated by the study, which leads to an expansion of the volume of institutional credit to enterprises including the micro and small-scale enterprises after the financial sector liberalization in Ghana. Keywords: Cointegration, Stationarity, ADF Test, Error Correction Model, Micro and Small-Scale enterprise

The Relationship Between Vocational & Higher Education: Time For A Re-Charge?

In both the UK and EU there is a growing awareness of the need for Higher and Further Education (HEIs / FEIs) institutions to work together to provide high quality engineering courses able to meet the needs of an increasingly technical and knowledge-based economy (Barrichello et al., 2020, Giraldo, 2022). This paper focuses on learning and teaching in one particular engineering area, that of ‘electrification’, it reflects upon moves to create a regional multi-level educational strategy built upon the development of expertise at partner FEIs. As one of the UK’s leading Engineering Education providers at tertiary level, WMG is leading this boundary-crossing project. An Action Research approach has been developed that transcends organisational competitiveness by creating a multi-level approach to the provision of electrification skills amongst the population of the West Midlands. Four different project objectives have been developed: 1. Analyse stakeholder need from the perspective of employers, students and colleges. 2. Analyse extant provision per FEI in terms of physical and human resources. 3. Identify any gaps in provision of training available within the region. 4. Develop a plan for the establishment of Centres of Excellence across the region. This paper discusses the need for synergising provision within what is very much a Quasi Market (Donovan, 2019). It suggests that rather than compete with each other, FEIs need to be working together, and in partnership with HE, create high quality, industry driven and cohesive regional provision. In an emerging field such as ‘electrification’ (of transport and in terms of new battery technologies), the need for regional focus and expert leadership has become increasingly important

Convexity estimates for hypersurfaces moving by convex curvature functions

We consider the evolution of compact hypersurfaces by fully nonlinear, parabolic curvature flows for which the normal speed is given by a smooth, convex, degree-one homogeneous function of the principal curvatures. We prove that solution hypersurfaces o

Student Lifestyle Choices and Perceptions of Stress Based on Majors

College students are often experience many stressors. This study was designed to look at perceived-stress and health habits with relation to academic department of undergraduate students at Cedarville University. The results of this study have implications for the Physical Activity and the Christian Life (PACL) class, offered on the Cedarville campus, in assessing its current curriculum and making potential future adjustments to the course. The objective of this study was to answer the question: “Do perceived stress levels within different academic departments affect health habits in Cedarville University undergraduate students?” The study was conducted with a campus-wide, 27 question survey using Qualtrics software via email. The survey was primarily comprised of close-ended questions using Likert scales and Cohen’s Perceived Stress scale to quantify perceived stress level, exercise habits, and eating habits. Included in the survey was an agreement to Informed Consent which ensured response anonymity. Inclusion criteria specified that the student had to be 18 years or older to participate. 535 students responded to the survey; 206 male participants (38.5%) and 329 female participants (61.5%). Students were asked to identify their academic department, year and gender. The Engineering and Computer Science department had the highest perceived stress at 15.4% of all the participants, the Nursing at 14.1% and Science and mathematics at (11.8%). It was found that juniors had the highest collective stress among most majors on the perceived stress scale. 71% of participants ranked Academic/school work as the main stressor that they dealt with on a daily basis. 10.9% of participants ranked Relationships second. Junior-year females in science-based departments experienced more perceived stress than males within the same departments. It was hypothesized that higher stress levels would increase poor food choices among Cedarville students, however, the results do not confirm that hypothesis. Results of the survey showed that most of the campus consumed a normal amount of healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. Data relating the amount of exercise in relation to academic department shows that the most stressful majors have the highest incidence of exercise. The Nursing Department had the most participants who exercised 3 to 4 times a week. Engineering and Computer Science Department was second and the Science and Mathematics Department in third. Questions relating to the PACL class were asked regarding the course and how well stress management techniques were integrated into the curriculum. These questions were included in order to evaluate the effects that the PACL course had upon students and their stress management capabilities. Recommendations for further research would be to add a personality questionnaire; questions related to drug and alcohol consumption could also be added to the original survey