Absorption and dispersion spectroscopy in the far infra-red region

The work described in this thesis can be divided into two main parts. The first part describes the modifications of the instrument (a Beckman-RIIC FS720) to enable it to be operated in the polarising mode with a liquid helium cooled detector. Several problems were encountered during the testing of this equipment particularly when operating the polarising system. Initially the spectra recorded with this system showed considerable distortion in the high and low frequency regions. The low frequency distortion was found to arise from electrical non-linearity (due to overload) within the electronics (RIIC FS200) and modifications to the amplifier have, eliminated this problem. The high frequency distortion, which appears as a ≈120 cm(^-1)limit, has not been corrected and is now thought to arise from a 'software' (computing) problem. The signal-to-noise ratio tests carried out on the cooled detsctor indicate that the bolometer element may not be operating at its most sensitive temperature due to overheating by the hot source. However, when operating with heavy optical filtering (therefore reducing the radiation reaching the bolometer) it has been possible to record spectra in the very far-infrared region (20 -» 5 cm(^-1)).The second part of the thesis describes the practical operation and tests carried out on the previously constructed cell designed for conversion of the instrument to operate in the dispersive mode. To enable this cell to be mounted vertically on the instrument a top window has been included to hold a liquid sample. This leads to the appearance of reflections and multiple reflections not present when studying a gravity held liquid. These reflection fringes have been fully assigned and therefore it has been possible to obtain the continuous dispersion (refractive index) curve of a liquid in the far- infrared region. The overall aim of this work has been to test the limitations and accuracy of the new equipment and make original studies in the far-infrared region

Imperfect Contract Enforcement

We model imperfect contract enforcement when repudiators and their victims default to spot trading. The interaction between the contract and spot markets under improved enforcement can exacerbate repudiation and reduce contract execution, harming all traders. Improved contract execution benefits traders on the excess side of the spot market by attracting potential counter-parties, but harms them by impeding their exit from contracts found to be unfavorable. Multiple equilibria and multiple optima are possible, with anarchy a local optimum, perfect enforcement a local minimum and imperfect enforcement a global optimum. LDCs exhibit parameter combinations such that imperfect enforcement is optimal from their side of international markets. The model thus rationalizes the internationally varying patterns of imperfect enforceability observable in survey data.

Trade Implies Law: The Power of the Weak

Without the rule of law, traders who incur trading costs can be held up by counter-parties who are stronger in anarchic bargaining. The favourable terms which the latter extract can overcrowd that side of the market, dissipating the benefits. We establish plausible necessary and sufficient conditions for a move from anarchy toward the rule of law to benefit all traders. The rule of law might be delayed, not only by the difficulties of setting up legal institutions, but by monopolistic traders that have meantime emerged to address the inefficiencies of anarchic trade. These monopolistic traders must also guarantee atomistic traders against holdup.

Increasing Returns to Education and Progress towards a College Degree

Returns to college have increased, but graduation rates have changed relatively little. Modifying a human capital model of college enrollment to endogenize time-to-graduation, we predict that higher returns to education will both speed graduation and increase enrollment. Some of those new entrants may, however, take longer to graduate. Using the 1989 and 1995 Beginning Postsecondary Studies, we employ a multinomial logit to model the association between individual and family characteristics, and five-year college outcomes: graduation, continued enrollment, and non-enrollment. Between cohort differences arise either because the characteristics of those entering college are different or because the relations between characteristics and outcomes have changed. We utilize a Oaxaca-Blinder style decomposition to distinguish between these two alternatives, attributing differences in characteristics to newly attracted students and differences in the relations between characteristics and outcomes to historically attracted students behaving differently. It is changes in behavior that explain the increased progress we observe.Higher Education, Graduation Rates, Persistence

Reported Progress under the Student Right-to-Know Act: How Reliable is It?

The Student Right-to-Know Act requires colleges to provide institution-specific information on graduation rates for students initially enrolling full-time in the fall term. Not all students enroll in that fashion, especially at two-year institutions. We use data on degree-seeking students from the 1996/2001 Beginning Post-Secondary Survey to identify students for whom statistics are and are not reportable under the Act and to track their progress. Results indicate the published progress rates are substantially higher than the progress rates for the non-reportable populations, whether students enter a two-year or a four-year institution. While progress rates for the two samples are significantly correlated within four-year institutions, they are not within two-year institutions. For those beginning at two-year institutions, the progress rates reported under the Student Right-to-Know Act are indicative of neither their absolute nor their relative (cross-institution) probability of success. Policy makers and prospective students will not make efficient decisions without better information.Efficiency, Resource Allocation, Graduation

Report on the Status of Payday Lending in California

Provides an overview of storefront and Internet payday lending in California, its effects, state and federal laws and regulations, and reform efforts. Includes recommendations for state and local policy, banking access, and consumer education

The island of Kauai, Hawaii's progressive shoreline setback and coastal protection ordinance

Approximately two-thirds of coastal and Great Lakes states have some type of shoreline construction setback or construction control line requiring development to be a certain distance from the shoreline or other coastal feature (OCRM, 2008). Nineteen of 30 coastal states currently use erosion rates for new construction close to the shoreline. Seven states established setback distances based on expected years from the shoreline: the remainder specify a fixed setback distance (Heinz Report, 2000). Following public hearings by the County of Kauai Planning Commission and Kauai County Council, the ‘Shoreline Setback and Coastal Protection Ordinance’ was signed by the Mayor of Kauai on January 25, 2008. After a year of experience implementing this progressive, balanced shoreline setback ordinance several amendments were recently incorporated into the Ordinance (#887; Bill #2319 Draft 3). The Kauai Planning Department is presently drafting several more amendments to improve the effectiveness of the Ordinance. The intent of shoreline setbacks is to establish a buffer zone to protect shorefront development from loss due to coastal erosion - for a period of time; to provide protection from storm waves; to allow the natural dynamic cycles of erosion and accretion of beaches and dunes to occur; to maintain beach and dune habitat; and, to maintain lateral beach access and open space for the enjoyment of the natural shoreline environment. In addition, a primary goal of the Kauai setback ordinance is to avoid armoring or hardening of the shore which along eroding coasts has been documented to ultimately eliminate the fronting beach. (PDF contains 4 pages

Collaborative Genre Tagging

Recommender systems (RS) are used extensively in online retail and on media streaming platforms to help users filter the plethora of options at their disposal. Their goal is to provide users with suggestions of products or artworks that they might like. Content-based RS's make use of user and/or item metadata to predict user preferences, while collaborative-filtering (CF) has proven to be an effective approach in tasks such as predicting movie or music preferences of users in the absence of any metadata. Latent factor models have been used to achieve state-of-the-art accuracy in many CF settings, playing an especially large role in beating the benchmark set in the Netflix Prize in 2008. These models learn latent features for users and items to predict the preferences of users. The first latent factor models made use of matrix factorisation to learn latent factors, but more recent approaches have made use of neural architectures with embedding layers. This master's dissertation outlines collaborative genre tagging (CGT), a transfer learning application of CF that makes use of latent factors to predict genres of movies, using only explicit user ratings as model inputs

Psychological type profile of Roman Catholic priests : an empirical enquiry in the United States

This study explores the psychological type profile of Roman Catholic priests serving in the United States, drawing on data provided by 55 priests who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data demonstrated clear preferences for introversion (67 %), sensing (64 %), and judging (91 %), and for a balance between thinking (49 %) and feeling (51 %). A very high proportion of priests reported preferences for ISTJ (27 %), compared with 16 % of men in the U.S. population. Implications of these findings are discussed for ministry in the Roman Catholic Church