"Keep the money for yourself"

The Weed and Seed Site is located in west central Jackson, MS. According to the 2000 census, the population for the area was 23,525. More specifically, the demographics of the area include a population that is more than ninety percent African American with a per capita income of less than $13,000 and a poverty ratio that ranges from 30$39,000 or less. Statistics indicates low income residents of the Weed and Seed community and residents with similar demographics often use alternatives financial resources such a check cashing businesses, pawn shops, rent to own, title loans payday loans and rapid anticipation loan organizations. As a result of the exorbitant fees they pay, resources that could be used for improving their quality of life is significantly reduced. This project attempts to identify some of the problems associated with the predatory financial institutions such as the targeting of low-income communities and the negative impact they have on the lives of the residents. More importantly, this project will offer alternative financial resources for the residents that could help to improve their economic quality of life. As a result of the residents having more positive alternatives for meeting their financial needs, they can use the additional resources to help them improve their quality of life. (Author abstract)Ainsworth, E. L. (2008). Keep the money for yourself. Retrieved from http://academicarchive.snhu.eduMaster of Science (M.S.)School of Community Economic Developmen

Examining stages in curriculum change: Implementation of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).

The practice of medicine is changing radically and there is a substantial gap in the practice of medicine and the current curricular models used. As higher education faculty attempt major curriculum transformations, it is crucial to examine the various influences and their ability to progress from the initiation stage to adoption. The purpose of this study was to identify the external and internal influences that most affected the successful transition from the initiation to the adoption of a CAM curriculum change. These influences were examined within the context of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) so administrators and faculty will have a stronger understanding of which influences that are most vital to address, in order to reach the adoption phase. Secondly, this study identified which incentives and which obstacles had a significantly greater effect on faculty\u27s motivation to change to the CAM curriculum. Lastly, this study identified which diffusion channels led to significantly greater effects on the adoption of CAM. The population for this study consisted of administrators and faculty working at one of the six institutions that received the CAM Education Project Grant sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. A survey questionnaire was distributed to a nonrandom list of full-time and part-time, tenured and non-tenured faculty and administrators directly involved in the planning and implementation of this specific curricular change. A paired t-test was utilized to determine which influence had a greater effect on the initiation, screening, and adoption phases of curriculum change. An ANOVA and TUKEY HSD post hoc analysis was computed to determine which influences were significantly greater. Participants rated grant funding through NIH as a significantly greater external influence. An ANOVA and TUKEY HSD was computed to determine if any incentives and if any obstacles had a significantly greater influence on faculty motivation to change. This analysis revealed that faculty were more likely to participate in the curriculum change process if they were recognized and supported by their institution and the greatest obstacles were limited financial resources and release time

Consumer Credit Practices of Selected Home Demonstration Club Members in Madison County, Tennessee

The purpose of this study was to determine the consumer credit situation among home demonstration club members in Madison County, Tennessee, as a basis for planning educational programs. Home demonstra-tion club members were divided into high, middle, and low income groups and comparing for the purposes of (1) characterizing them; (2) deter-mining which recommended consumer credit practices they were using; and (3) identifying some of the factors that influenced them to adopt or reject the practices. Seventy Negro home demonstration club members were randomly selected for personal interviews from a population of 160 in Madison County. Interviews were conducted during the summer of 1969. Main com-parisons were between high and low income respondents in an effort to identify generalizable group differences. Findings related to the total group interviewed also were studied. The home demonstration club members in this study included 80 percent farm and 20 percent rural non-farm residents. The majorities of both high and low income respondents were farm residents. More than four-fifths of all respondents were homeowners. A larger percent of the high income (87) owned homes than the low income (65). The vast majority of middle income (95 percent) respondents owned their homes. Thirty-five percent of all interviewees worked outside of the home including one-half (50 percent) of the high income and slightly more than one-fifth (22 percent) of the low income. The major occupation of all interviewees\u27 (43 percent) husbands was wage earner. A smaller percent (17) of them were full-time farmers. Most husbands of high income respondents (71 percent) were wage earners but full-time farmer was the major occupation of those in the low income (17 percent) group. One-half of those interviewed had completed more than the eighth grade. This was true for a larger percent of the high income (64) than the low income (26 percent). None of those in the low income group had completed more than the tenth grade as compared to more than one-half of the high income. Slightly more than one-half (51 percent) of the respondents were 55 or more years of age. Only one-tenth (10 percent) of them were under 35 years of age. Low income respondents as a group were older than the high income. All interviewees were using about one-third of the 34 recommended consumer credit practices. High income respondents were closer to practice adoption than were the low income respondents on 29 of the 34 recommended consumer credit practices studied. Low income respondents were closer to practice adoption on the following three practices: (1) examined the contract to know exactly what was purchased when goods and/or services were obtained on credit, (2) Made the down payment as large as possible in most cases when buying goods and/or services on credit, and (3) kept credit purchases and loans to a limited number of places. With regard to factors influencing practice adoption, almost two-thirds (66 percent) of all interviewees felt that homemakers did not have the knowledge needed to adopt the recommended consumer credit practices. High and low income groups were similar in this respect. Almost nine-tenths (88 percent) of all interviewees did not seek the advice of anyone concerning the best place to buy on credit. Almost all of the high income (96 percent) and more than three-fourths of the low income (78 percent) were in this category. Home demonstration club meetings (53 percent), television (29 percent), and the daily newspaper (24 percent) were the major sources of information used by all respondents to secure information on consumer credit. A larger percent of the high income respondents than of the low received information through mass media. Low income respondents de-pended almost equally on television and home demonstration club meetings as their major source of information. The majority (94 percent) of all interviewees were interested in attending one or more meetings on consumer credit. Based on the findings of this study it was recommended that a more effective and efficient program on consumer credit be conducted for the home demonstration club members in Madison County, Tennessee. Implications of the findings for program emphasis were also included in the study

Audit quality and firm performance : evidence from Botswana and Uganda

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of audit quality on firm performance of listed companies in Botswana, and Uganda. As a monitoring mechanism, the role of auditing is to reduce information asymmetry between management and shareholders, thereby bolstering investor confidence which consequently improves firm value. -- Design/methodology/approach: The study sampled domestically listed financial and non-financial companies on the stock exchanges of Botswana and Uganda for the five years 2014-2018.Using auditor size and audit fees as proxies for audit quality and return on assets, and Tobin's Q as measures of firm performance, the relationship between the variables was determined through regression analysis. The study also controlled for complexity, risk and growth of the companies. -- Findings: Results of the study show that audit quality is a negative but non-significant predictor of firm performance for financial performance. -- Originality/value: The findings of the study provide empirical evidence into the effectiveness of auditing as a corporate governance mechanism in the Sub-Saharan capital markets.peer-reviewe

Possibility of enterohepatic recycling of ketoprofen in dogs

Ketoprofen is mainly cleared by glucuronidation. The rate of glucuronidation of this compound has been demonstrated to be greater in dog than in human liver microsomes. Dog is the most common secondary nonprimate species used in drug metabolism studies in the pharmaceutical industry. Therefore, this study was undertaken to provide valuable information to pharmaceutical companies using dog as a model species for pharmacokinetic analyses when differences in glucuronidation occur across species for therapeutic drugs known to be extensively glucuronidated. The pharmacokinetics of ketoprofen was investigated after intravenous (0.27, 0.57 and 1.10 mg/kg) and oral administration of ketoprofen (∼10 mg/100 ml) of the racemate in dogs. Serial blood samples were collected at timed intervals for 7 and 24 h following intravenous and oral administration of the dose, respectively, and concentrations in plasma were determined by a sensitive and specific HPLC method. By comparing the AUC0−∞ following oral and intravenous administrations, ketoprofen bioavailability was ∼100%. A possibility of enterohepatic cycling of ketoprofen in dogs was proposed because of multiple peak phenomenon in the concentration?time profiles after intravenous and oral dosing was observed.Fil: Granero, Gladys Ester. University of Michigan; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Amidon, Gordon L.. University of Michigan; Estados Unido

Evolution of the Fucaceae (Phaeophyceae) inferred from nrDNA-ITS

Sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS-1, 5.8S, and ITS-2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA were obtained from 16 species representing all six genera of Fucaceae (Ascophyllum, Fucus, Hesperophycus, Pelvetia, Pelvetiopsis, and Xiphophora) plus one outgroup (Hormosira). Parsimony analysis indicated that the family Fucaceae is monophyletic and that the northern hemisphere taxa are highly divergent from the only southern hemisphere genus, Xiphophora. The genus Pelvetia is not monophyletic because the European P. canaliculata is more closely related to Fucus, Hesperophycus, and Pelvetiopsis than to other Pelvetia species. We establish Silvetia, gen. nov. and transfer the 3 Pacific species of Pelvetia to the new genus. Fucus is monophyletic and not ancestral in the Fucaceae. The ITS sequences identified two strongly supported lineages within Fucus, one with F. serratus sister to the clade containing F. gardneri, F. distichus, and F. evanescens and a second including F. vesiculosus, F. spiralis, F. ceranoides, and F. virsoides. The ITS was not useful for resolving relationships within each of these clusters and between populations of F. vesiculosus. Within-individual variation in ITS sequences is high in Fucus, a derived genus, compared to Ascophyllum, a more ancestral genus. Mapping of the two characters that form the basis of Powell’s model for speciation in the Fucaceae showed that 1) number of eggs per oogonium has not followed a gradual reduction and that 2) monoecy/dioecy has changed several times during evolution of this family

A systematization of the saddle point method. Application to the Airy and Hankel functions

AbstractThe standard saddle point method of asymptotic expansions of integrals requires to show the existence of the steepest descent paths of the phase function and the computation of the coefficients of the expansion from a function implicitly defined by solving an inversion problem. This means that the method is not systematic because the steepest descent paths depend on the phase function on hand and there is not a general and explicit formula for the coefficients of the expansion (like in Watson's Lemma for example). We propose a more systematic variant of the method in which the computation of the steepest descent paths is trivial and almost universal: it only depends on the location and the order of the saddle points of the phase function. Moreover, this variant of the method generates an asymptotic expansion given in terms of a generalized (and universal) asymptotic sequence that avoids the computation of the standard coefficients, giving an explicit and systematic formula for the expansion that may be easily implemented on a symbolic manipulation program. As an illustrative example, the well-known asymptotic expansion of the Airy function is rederived almost trivially using this method. New asymptotic expansions of the Hankel function Hn(z) for large n and z are given as non-trivial examples