The Impact Influencers Have on the Buying Habits of Individuals

Social media has given rise to a new type of celebrity, commonly known as an “influencer.� An influencer, in theory, influences the opinions of others, but how much of an influence do they actually have? This study analyzes the true power over people’s opinions these micro-celebrities possess. Through a survey of 278 individuals, comments on posts, and looking at purchase trends it was determined the impact. The study found that people want to trust who they are buying from, and they feel a higher level of trust from these individuals. The findings reflect that people will change their opinions, purchase products, and listen to influencers

Examining the Relationship Between Library Services Use and Fall-to-Fall Retention in Community College Libraries

Community college libraries exist to support institutional outcomes. One such outcome is student retention. This study’s purpose was to fill the gap in the literature at the community college level, proposing that a model including all library service use types would explain variance in student retention beyond that explained by total library financial expenditure. Services included were numbers of physical materials circulated, digital books circulated, e-serials used, reference transactions, library presentations, attendees at presentations, gate counts, and interlibrary loan materials borrowed. Additionally, it was proposed that the relationship between gate counts of physical entry into the library and student retention would be moderated by ratios of nontraditional students attending colleges and Pell Grants awarded. The study uses 2018-2019 fiscal year data obtained from the ACRL Annual survey and IPEDS. A multiple regression analysis found no relationships between the service use model and retention. No relationships were found between any independent variable in the study and student retention, nor was any moderation detected. It was proposed that a feedback loop may exist at community colleges that divorces library activity from institution level student retention outcomes. Such a feedback loop has been untested in the literature, and further research is suggested

Environmental Compliance Through Regulation Technology

RegTech (short for Regulatory technology or regulation technology) simply put, is the use of technology to enhance compliance with regulations. As RegTech has developed, some have been quick to define RegTech as something for the financial sector, because it gained prominence with its use in the financial industry. It is true that RegTech gained prominence when it found success in the financial industry and became an important part of FinTech. However, RegTech is its own separate field within technology, which is simply the extrapolation of the ideas around automating compliance and providing insight, and can be applied to many different areas of compliance. Essentially, as long as you have regulations or rules, you can use regulation technology to streamline and ensure compliance. RegTech, or regulation/regulatory technology is simply using technology to apply the vast sets of rules and regulations that an area of law imposes, to company practices, creating checks and balances. RegTech can therefore be applied to many different areas of compliance with regulations. This article explores RegTech as a stand-alone field, and then explores possibilities of how RegTech can intersect with regulatory compliance specifically for environmental regulation and compliance, applying RegTech to environmental compliance, permitting, within the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I am proposing that RegTech should be adopted, based on the requirement for agencies to use the Best Available Technology, including the EPA. Finally, I believe for this to be implemented, it must be a concerted effort between industry, the legislature, and agencies like the EPA. Organizations who educate congress on the importance of technology like this also play an important role

The development of the sonic pulse technique and its comparison with the conventional static method for determining the elastic moduli of rock

The determination of the elastic moduli of rock has long been a problem to the geophysicist, mining engineer and the civil engineer. There is a considerable amount of literature on determining Young\u27s modulus by the sonic pulse technique. However, the use of this technique to determine the three elastic constants, Young\u27s modulus, shear modulus, and Poisson\u27s ratio from measurements of both the longitudinal and shear wave velocities presents some difficulties, especially in the method of accurately determining the shear wave velocities. In this thesis, what is believed to be a new method of measuring shear wave velocities in the laboratory is developed and used with the conventional method of measuring the longitudinal wave velocity to determine the three elastic constants of four rock types. These results are then compared to those obtained by conventional static methods for determining elastic moduli, with the effect of anisotropy of the rocks being considered. The results by the two methods were in fair agreement for Young\u27s modulus and the shear modulus, however, large unexplained variations in Poisson\u27s ratio were often observed --Abstract, page ii

The Rise of America\u27s Two National Pastimes: Baseball and the Law

Mark McGwire\u27s seventieth home run ball sold at auction in January of this year for $3,005,000. In late 1998, Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos sued a former Orioles manager and his daughter in the circuit court of Cook County, Illinois. Angelos alleged that the original lineup card from the 1995 game when Cal Ripken, Jr., broke Lou Gehrig\u27s consecutive game record belongs to the Orioles, not to the former manager and certainly not to his daughter. There may be no crying in baseball, but there is money. And wherever earthly treasure gathers two or more, a legal system arises. From this confluence of forces is born Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law, a recent addition to that burgeoning genre of nonfiction works about the business and law of baseball. Legal Bases intends to inform a lay audience about basic legal concepts that have shaped baseball as well as other aspects of American law and culture: antitrust law and monopolies, collective bargaining, labor arbitration, enforcement of private contractual rights, and an overview of the civil justice system. In the process, author Roger I. Abrams introduces Legal Bases as a teaching tool that uses baseball as the backdrop to discuss the role in American society of law, legal institutions, and private ordering in the development of a significant American business enterprise (p. 3)

Facebook engagement on college students\u27 interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning

In recent years college students have incorporated social-networking sites, and more specifically Facebook, into their daily lives. Facebook has received empirical attention; attention focused on what students are doing on Facebook, who its users are, and, more recently, why students access Facebook. However, researchers who have assessed motivations for accessing Facebook have emphasized how motivations are associated with certain activities, and have not simultaneously and directly examined how activities and motivations are associated with both maladaptive and adaptive factors of students’ interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning. The purpose of the present study was to examine how Facebook engagement is associated with college student functioning. Data were collected from 208 undergraduate students attending a large Midwestern university and were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression (HMR), simultaneous multiple regression (SMR), and canonical correlation analysis (CCA). The results indicated that the Facebook motivation to cope was negatively associated with conscientiousness; the motivation to enhance was positively associated with life-satisfaction and negatively associated with loneliness and identity distress; and the motivation to conform was negatively associated with social connectedness and positively associated with identity distress. Further, the results indicated that the Facebook activity of social comparison was negatively associated with social connectedness; the activity of linking was positively associated with life-satisfaction and negatively associated with loneliness; and the activity of posting self-in-focus photos (i.e., “selfies”) was negatively associated with social connectedness and life-satisfaction and positively associated with loneliness and identity distress. Finally, two Facebook Engagement variables were identified by CCA. The first, Common Facebook Engagement, was positively associated with identity distress. The second, Passive Social Monitoring, was positively associated with social connectedness and life-satisfaction. Overall, the findings suggest that counseling psychologists who work with college students could gain insight into college students’ interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning by assessing both Facebook activities and motivations at intake and throughout the therapeutic process. Additionally, in accordance with the Self-Determination Theory of motivation, it may be helpful for counseling psychologists to be aware that college students’ intrinsic motivation to access Facebook is likely positively associated with their interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning