Who Panics During Panics? Evidence from a Nineteenth Century Savings Bank

Using records of the bank accounts of individual depositors, this paper provides a detailed microeconomic analysis of two nineteenth century banking panics. The panics of 1854 and 1857 were not characterized by an immediate mass panic of depositors and had important time dimensions. We examine depositor behavior using a hazard model. Contagion was the key factor in 1854 but it was not strong enough to create more than a local panic. In contrast, the panic of 1857 began with runs by businessmen and banking sophisticates followed by less informed depositors. Uninformed contagion may have been present, but the evidence suggests that this panic was driven by informational shocks in the face of asymmetric information about the true condition of bank portfolios.

The Fertility of the Irish in America in 1910

In most western societies, marital fertility began to decline in the nineteenth century. But in Ireland, fertility in marriage remained stubbornly high into the twentieth century. Explanations of Ireland's late entry to the fertility transition focus on the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Irish society. These arguments are often backed up by claims that the Irish outside of Ireland behaved the same way. This paper investigates these claims by examining the marital fertility of Irish Americans in 1910 and produces three main findings. First, the Irish in America had smaller families than both the rural and urban Irish and their fertility patterns show clear evidence of fertility control. Second, despite the evidence of control, Irish-Americans continued to have large families, much larger, in fact, than the U.S. native-born population. The fertility differential between these populations was not due to differences in other population characteristics. Rather it was due to the fact that conditional on characteristics, Irish-Americans chose to have larger families. Third, the differential fertility patterns of Irish-Americans were not just due to the effects of being immigrants. Germans and English immigrants also had higher fertility than the native-born population, but to a much larger extent than for the Irish, this higher fertility could be explained by the population characteristics of these groups.Ireland, United States, Fertility, Demography, Immigration

Mortality in the North Dublin Union During the Great Famine

Responsibility for the tremendous excess mortality associated with the Great Irish Famine of 1846-51 is a continuing topic of debate. One view blames an inadequate government response for much of the tragedy. These debates are hampered by a lack of detailed information on how well relief efforts performed at a local level. Excess mortality ranged from one quarter of the entire population in parts of the west to negligible levels along much of the eastern coastline. Much of this cross-section variation reflects relative wealth. But another theme in the historiography stresses the importance of sympathetic or negligent local figures such as a landlord or priest. This study addresses the question of local agency with a case study of the North Dublin Union, the administrative unit responsible for administering the Irish poor law in the northern half of Dublin city and some adjacent parishes. North Dublin Union is unusual for the quality of its surviving administrative records. We use those records to study the Union's day-to-day functioning during the famine and to estimate mortality rates in the workhouse during the crisis. We find that the tremendous mortality of the North Dublin workhouse inmates during the famine primarily reflects the crisis outside the workhouse's walls; the guardians and managers did reasonably well in preserving human life under these trying circumstances.Ireland, famine, mortality, workhouses

Beyond the welcome-back party:the long-term impact of study abroad on teacher behaviour

When pre-service teachers are returning from their study abroad as part of their teacher education programme, they often continue with their course and normal routines in life as they were used to. However, it is essential to reflect on how the study abroad learning outcomes may impact pre-service teachers’ behaviour. This dissertation gives more insights in 1) how study abroad could influence teacher behaviour, 2) which behaviour dimensions are part of intercultural teaching competence, 3) how teacher behaviour is influenced by school- and classroom-level characteristics, and 4) how teachers view diversity in their classroom and the way in which they make use of their study abroad learning outcomes.The findings lead to a new model for teacher behaviour in diverse classrooms and to suggestions on how study abroad may be more effectively integrated into teacher education in such a way that the learning outcomes of the sojourn go beyond the welcome-back party

Fertility in South Dublin a Century Ago: A First Look

Ireland's relatively late and feeble fertility transition remains poorly-understood. The leading explanations stress the role of Catholicism and a conservative social ethos. This paper reports the first results from a project that uses new samples from the 1911 census of Ireland to study fertility in Dublin and Belfast. Our larger project aims to use the extensive literature on the fertility transition elsewhere in Europe to refine and test leading hypotheses in their Irish context. The present paper uses a sample from the Dublin suburb of Pembroke to take a first look at the questions, data, and methods. This sample is much larger than those used in previous studies of Irish fertility, and is the first from an urban area. We find considerable support for the role of religion, networks, and other factors stressed in the literature on the fertility transition, but the data also show a role for the social-class effects downplayed in recent discussions.Ireland, Fertility, Demography

Rehabilitation robotics : stimulating restoration of arm function after stroke

Stroke is a major cause of permanent disability, due to neurological damage in the brain. As a consequence, arm and hand function may be compromised: 60% of stroke patients experiences serious limitations in daily life due to reduced arm and hand function. To minimize such limitations, patients receive rehabilitation care. Optimal rehabilitation treatment should include several key aspects: active initiation and execution of movement, high intensity of training and application of functional exercises. Technological innovations enable development of interventions that specifically address these key aspects. A promising innovation is the use of rehabilitation robots in addition to conventional therapy, since robotic devices can apply forces to the arm of a person in a smart way: imposing passive movements, assisting active movements, or resisting active movements. \ud In her PhD research, Gerdienke Prange investigated in which way rehabilitation robotics can provide a valuable addition to conventional rehabilitation care for people with limitations in arm function after stroke. Both rehabilitation robotics and the sole application of one of its basic features, gravity compensation (or arm support), have the ability to improve arm movement ability after stroke. Gravity compensation facilitates and enhances reaching movements by direct application using a custom designed, smart gravity compensating device, Freebal. This is translated to improvement of unsupported reaching movements after a longer term application of gravity compensation as training intervention, involving mainly an improved ability to activate prime mover muscles at the elbow and shoulder. \ud The potential of current robot-aided therapy and gravity compensation training to improve arm movement ability after stroke is comparable to conventional therapy, and to each other. Considering implementation in clinical practice, the relatively simple, low-tech application of gravity compensation is more suitable than complex, high-tech devices. As advantage over conventional therapy, gravity compensation training, using a low-tech device in combination with interactive games, allows automation of therapy, with one therapist supervising multiple patients training at the same time. This offers the possibility to increase productivity of the healthcare system and reduce costs

Ecolabels and The Economic Recession

We examine the effect of the 2008 economic recession on consumers’ observed expenditures for eco-labelled grocery products. Traditional price theory predicts that consumers change their spending during an economic downturn and we would expect the sales share of eco-labelled products to fall since these are relatively more expensive than non-labelled products. We use supermarket loyalty card data from the UK and show that the recession had widely different effects on the expenditure share of different eco-labelled grocery products. We confirm, empirically, that expenditure shares on organic products declined over the time period under study but the expenditures share for fair-trade products increased over the same period. We evaluate alternative models of decision making to explain our results, viz., a salience model and a model of reputation signalling. We find that both of these models give a plausible explanation of our empirical results

Perancangan Website Design Untuk Produk Craft Kriyadira di Cimahi Utara

Craft atau juga kerajinan merupakan suatu barang bekas yang divariasi dibentuk menjadi suatu barang yang penting dan berguna di kehidupan, hal yang berkaitan dengan buatan tangan atau yang berkaitan dengan barang yang dihasilkan melalu keterampilan tangan tidak menggunakan mesin. Secara umum karya seni yang dihasilkan dari keterampilan tangan (hand skill) dan mempunya segi fungsional (kebutuhan fisik) serta keindahan (kebutuhan emosional). Seni Kriya merupakan karya seni rupa terapan yang lebih menonjolkan rupa atau keindahan. Tembikar di zaman Neolitikum saat itu dijadikan sebuah hiasan dan simbol kehidupan spritual. Di zaman selanjutnya, seni kriya berkembang lebih baik dari segi fungsi, kualitas bahan, bentuk dan corak hiasannya. Awalnya seni kriya hanya berbentuk sederhana, namun seiring perkembangannya menjadi mempunyai bentuk yang bermacam-macam dan lebih banyak hiasannya. Dalam kamus besar bahasa Indonesia Kriya diartikan sebagai pekerjaan kerajinan tangan. Dalam bahasa inggris disebut Craft yang artinya energi atau kekuatan, secara khusus maksudnya adalah suatu keterampilan dalam membuat sesuatu. Fungsi seni kriya atau craft didalam kehidupan yaitu berguna sebagai hiasan, benda terapan, dan juga benda mainan. Permasalahan dalam topik ini penulis ingin memudahkan antara penjual dan pembeli dalam melakukan sebuah transaksi di E-Commerce

Interculturally competent teachers:Behavioural dimensions and the role of study abroad

Intercultural Teaching Competence (ITC) is essential for teaching in increasingly diverse primary schools. However, research has not sufficiently addressed the meaning and development of ITC, including whether study abroad during teacher education contributes to the dimensions included. Therefore, this study seeks to determine which dimensions of ITC the respondent teachers report and whether there is a difference in ITC between teachers with or without study abroad experience. Survey data from 155 Dutch primary school teachers measure dimensions of ITC selected from prior literature, of which five can be measured reliably. Furthermore, compared with teachers without study abroad experience, teachers with such experience score significantly higher on the ITC dimensions of openness and storytelling