Drugs, Crime, Space, and Time: A Spatiotemporal Examination of Drug Activity and Crime Rates

To take stock of the “neighborhood effects” of drug activity, we combined theoretical insights from the drugs and crime and communities and place literatures in examining the longitudinal relationship between drug activity and crime rates at more spatially and temporally precise levels of granularity, with blocks as the spatial units and months as the temporal units. We found that drug activity on a block one month “pushes” assaultive violence into surrounding blocks the next month. Integrating perspectives form social disorganization theory with Zimring and Hawkins’ (1997) contingency causation theory, we also found that the economic resources and residential stability of the “the larger social environment”—that is, the surrounding quarter-mile egohood area—moderate drug activity’s block-level relationship to crime. These results suggest that drug activity increases assaultive violence and serious acquisitive crime rates on structurally advantaged blocks, producing a significant ecological niche redefinition for such blocks relative to others in Miami-Dade County, Florida

Beyond the Grand Tour: re-thinking the education abroad narrative for US higher education in the 1920s

This paper utilizes primary source documents from the first officially sanctioned US study abroad programs in the 1920\u27s to argue that the discourse about the first study abroad programs for US students was a break from the Grand Tour tradition of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Instead, this paper suggests that study abroad represented an experimental and innovative approach to the acquisition of knowledge for US undergraduates. The discourse of those who created these programs and those who participated was distinct from the Grand Tour in three ways that are described in the paper as, distinct by design, distinct by omission and distinct by experience. These three areas of distinction refute the contemporary narrative that conflates the Grand Tour with study abroad

U.S. commercial electricity consumption

Commercial electricity usage exceeds that of industrial usage and is almost as large as residential electricity consumption in the United States. In this study, regional economic, demographic, and climatic data are used to analyze commercial electricity demand in the United States. Results indicate that total commercial demand for electricity is negatively related to price. In addition, the number of businesses and service income positively affect electricity demand for commercial use. The results are similar for equations estimated for kilowatt-hours demanded per business. The regional dummy variables exhibit different signs, which may occur due to climate factors because warm weather regions experience greater volumes of cooling degree-days, while cool weather regions observe larger amounts of heating degree-days. Although coefficients for the price of natural gas are positive, they do not satisfy the 5-percent significance criterion. The latter suggests that natural gas may not be a substitute good for electricity within the commercial sector of the U.S. economy.Commercial Electricity Consumption; Regional Economics

Regional Evidence regarding U.S. Residential Electricity Consumption

Regional economic, demographic, and climatic data are used to analyze residential electricity demand in the United States. Results indicate that electricity is an inferior good for households in the United States. This confirms earlier research compiled using data for less geographically extensive regional and metropolitan markets. The results imply that demographic growth may place fewer pressures on electricity generation capacity than was previously assumed.Residential Electricity Demand, Regional Economics

U.S. Commercial Electricity Consumption

Commercial electricity usage exceeds that of industrial usage and is almost as large as residential electricity consumption in the United States. In this study, regional economic, demographic, and climatic data are used to analyze commercial electricity demand in the United States. Results indicate that total commercial demand for electricity is negatively related to price. In addition, the number of businesses and service income positively affect electricity demand for commercial use. The results are similar for equations estimated for kilowatt-hours demanded per business. The regional dummy variables exhibit different signs, which may occur due to climate factors because warm weather regions experience greater volumes of cooling degree-days, while cool weather regions observe larger amounts of heating degree-days. Although coefficients for the price of natural gas are positive, they do not satisfy the 5-percent significance criterion. The latter suggests that natural gas may not be a substitute good for electricity within the commercial sector of the U.S. economy

Rhetoric and Reality in Study Abroad: The Aims of Overseas Study for U.S. Higher Education in the Twentieth Century

Political and educational leaders today often praise the benefits of study abroad with lofty rhetoric by arguing that overseas study can provide American undergraduate students with a variety of beneficial outcomes such as personal growth, academic gains, professional skills, greater international awareness and cross-cultural understanding. Despite the rhetoric, a relatively small percentage of students participate in overseas study. In 2014, the Institute of International Education reported that 9% of American undergraduates study abroad before graduating. Beyond this, there is a lack of diversity in the students who do study abroad for credit. Although the number of white students enrolled in US higher education is approximately 60%, over 76% of the students who study abroad are white. This lack of diversity and the relatively low levels of participation in study abroad have prompted many proponents to call for new ways to expand this practice so that more undergraduate students benefit from overseas study. This dissertation traces the historical development of study abroad programs for American undergraduate students in the twentieth century focusing on how advocates justified these programs and envisioned their ideal structures. By examining the visions and administrative solutions of study abroad advocates over the past century, this dissertation demonstrates how proponents gradually convinced colleges and universities to adopt these programs to the point that study abroad became a permanent, but highly selective, aspect of U.S. higher education. It also reveals how the discourse about study abroad changed at different points in the twentieth century to adapt to contemporary challenges. This history offers contemporary educators seeking to expand overseas study a deeper awareness of the need for clarity of objectives in study abroad programs. It argues that the rhetoric and the reality of study abroad practices should intersect in transparent ways that all interested stakeholders can understand. Finally, understanding how the roots of selectivity and elitism in study abroad were established to mitigate fears of unregulated growth and academic illegitimacy will help contemporary advocates think about ways to achieve greater access in education abroad while still maintaining institutional standards today.Higher Educatio

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A life written in code, and code written in prose