Oxygen and Sodium Abundances in M13 (NGC 6205) Giants: Linking Globular Cluster Formation Scenarios, Deep Mixing, and Post-RGB Evolution

We present O, Na, and Fe abundances, as well as radial velocities, for 113 red giant branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the globular cluster M13. The abundances and velocities are based on spectra obtained with the WIYN-Hydra spectrograph, and the observations range in luminosity from the horizontal branch (HB) to RGB-tip. The results are examined in the context of recent globular cluster formation scenarios. We find that M13 exhibits many key characteristics that suggest its formation and chemical enrichment are well-described by current models. Some of these observations include: the central concentration of O-poor stars, the notable decrease in [O/Fe] (but small increase in [Na/Fe]) with increasing luminosity that affects primarily the "extreme" population, the small fraction of stars with halo-like composition, and the paucity of O-poor AGB stars. In agreement with recent work, we conclude that the most O-poor M13 giants are likely He-enriched and that most (all?) O-poor RGB stars evolve to become extreme HB and AGB-manqu\'e stars. In contrast, the "primordial" and "intermediate" population stars appear to experience standard HB and AGB evolution.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 18 pages; 3 figures; 1 tabl

Will the Working Poor Invest in Human Capital? A Laboratory Experiment

This paper presents the results of a laboratory experiment involving some 250 subjects in the Montreal area. The experiment focused on three main questions : (1) Will the working poor invest in various assets? (2) Are these subjects willing to delay consumption for substantial returns? (3) How do these subjects view risky choices? Answering these questions will help answering the key research question : Given the right incentive, will the working poor save to invest in human capital? To view the report, please click here : www.srdc.org/english/publications/workingpoor.pdf Ce rapport présente les résultats d'une expérience en laboratoire impliquant environ 250 sujets résidant dans la région de Montréal. L'expérience tente de répondre à trois questions : 1) Les travailleurs à faible revenu investissent-ils dans des actifs diversifiés?; 2) Les sujets sont-ils prêts à reporter leur consommation dans le futur en échange de rendements financiers substantiels?; 3) Comment ces sujets perçoivent-ils les choix risqués? Les réponses à ces questions vont permettre d'éclairer le sujet principal de cette recherche menée par le SRDC, à savoir : Si on leur procure les bonnes incitations, les travailleurs à faible revenu auront-ils tendance à épargner pour investir dans du capital humain? Pour visionner l'intégralité du rapport cliquez ici : http://www.srdc.org/uploads/workingpoor.pdf

Saving Decisions of the Working Poor: Short-and Long-Term Horizons

We explore the predictive capacity of short-horizon time preference decisions for long-horizon investment decisions. We use experimental evidence from a sample of Canadian working poor. Each subject made a set of decisions trading off present and future amounts of money. Decisions involved both short and long time horizons, with stakes ranging up to six hundred dollars. Short horizon preference decisions do well in predicting the long-horizon investment decisions. These short horizon questions are much less expensive to administer but yield much higher estimated discount rates. We find no evidence that the present-biased preference measures generated from the short-horizon time preference decisions indicate any bias in long-term investment decisions. We also show that individuals are heterogeneous with respect to discount rates generated by short-horizon time preference decisions and long-horizon time preference decisions. Dans cet article, nous évaluons si les préférences exprimées pour le présent peuvent prédire les décisions d’investissement dans le long terme. L’article mobilise l’approche de l’économie expérimentale avec comme participants des travailleurs canadiens à faibles revenus. Chaque participant est invité à choisir entre une somme qu’il peut toucher à très court terme et un montant plus élevé, mais qui ne lui sera versé que plus tard dans le temps. Pour certains choix, les montants ne seront disponibles que dans 7 ans et peuvent atteindre jusqu’à 600 $. Nous trouvons que les décisions entre le présent et un horizon de court terme permettent de prédire les arbitrages réalisés par les participants entre le présent et des décisions à plus long terme. Ce résultat est important dans la mesure où il est plus difficile et coûteux d’étudier les décisions de long terme que celles de court terme. Nous observons également une forte hétérogénéité entre les participants relativement à leurs taux d’escompte de court et de long terme.intertemporal choice, field experiments, risk attitudes, choix intertemporels, économie expérimentale, attitudes vis-à-vis le risque

Human Capital Investment by the Poor: Informing Policy with Laboratory and Field Experiments

The purpose of the study is to collect information that can be used to design a policy to induce the poor to invest in human capital. We use laboratory experimental methodology to measure the preferences and choices of the target population of a proposed government policy. We recruited 256 subjects in Montreal, Canada; 72 percent had income below 120 percent of the Canadian poverty level. The combination of survey measures and actual decisions allows us to better understand individual heterogeneity in responses to different subsidy levels. Two behavioral characteristics, patience and attitude towards risk, are key to understanding the determinants of educational investment for the low-income individuals in this experiment. The decision to save for a family member’s education is somewhat different from that of investing in one’s own education. Again, patient participants were more likely to save for a family member’s education, but in contrast to investing in one’s own education, a subject’s attitude towards risk played no role. Le but de cette étude est de recueillir des informations pour concevoir une politique publique afin d’inciter les pauvres à investir en capital humain. Nous utilisons l’approche expérimentale pour mesurer les préférences et les choix de la population ciblée. Nous avons recruté 256 sujets à Montréal. 72 % avaient un revenu inférieur à 120 % pour cent du seuil de faible revenu de Statistique Canada. La combinaison de mesures d'enquête et les décisions réelles nous permettent de mieux comprendre l'hétérogénéité individuelle dans les réponses aux différents niveaux de subvention. Deux caractéristiques comportementales, la patience (désir d’épargne) et l'attitude envers le risque, sont essentielles à la compréhension des déterminants de l'investissement éducatif pour les personnes à faible revenu dans cette expérience. La décision d’investir dans l'éducation d'un membre de la famille est quelque peu différente de celle d'investir dans sa propre éducation. Encore une fois, les participants les plus patients sont les plus susceptibles d'épargner pour l'éducation d'un membre de la famille, mais au contraire, investir dans sa propre éducation, l'attitude d'un sujet vis-à-vis le risque ne joue aucun rôle.Intertemporal choice, field experiments, risk attitudes, working poor, choix intertemporels, expériences sur le terrain, les attitudes vis-à-vis le risque, travailleurs pauvres

The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television

It has been widely argued that the experience of watching television has altered significantly since Raymond Williams’s theorisation of flow in the mid-1970s. Yet despite the rise of new technologies such as personal video recorders and on-demand services, broadcast television remains the primary way in which television is viewed in the West. This article, therefore, asks whether Williams’s theorisation of flow has continued significance in understanding the nature of broadcast television in the digital era. Focusing on the broadcast junctions, identified by Williams as a fundamental part of the broadcast flow, it examines the changing ways in which broadcasters have constructed and explained the value and experience of television from the 1980s to the 2000s. In doing so, it argues that we need to be as attuned to the continuities and similarities as the differences if we are to understand the changes to television wrought by digital

The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television

It has been widely argued that the experience of watching television has altered significantly since Raymond Williams’s theorisation of flow in the mid-1970s. Yet despite the rise of new technologies such as personal video recorders and on-demand services, broadcast television remains the primary way in which television is viewed in the West. This article, therefore, asks whether Williams’s theorisation of flow has continued significance in understanding the nature of broadcast television in the digital era. Focusing on the broadcast junctions, identified by Williams as a fundamental part of the broadcast flow, it examines the changing ways in which broadcasters have constructed and explained the value and experience of television from the 1980s to the 2000s. In doing so, it argues that we need to be as attuned to the continuities and similarities as the differences if we are to understand the changes to television wrought by digital

Beyond catch-up: VoD interfaces, ITV Hub and the repositioning of television online

The past 5 years have seen a rapid acceleration in the development of online television in the United Kingdom and beyond, with rise in ownership of Internet-connected television sets, smartphones and tablets, increased access to broadband and the growing penetration of transaction and subscription video-on-demand (VoD) services. This article asks how free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters are adapting to a media marketplace in which, according to Ofcom, on-demand television is becoming mass market, through an analysis of ITV Hub – the VoD player for the United Kingdom’s largest free-to-air advertiser-funded broadcaster. Focusing on the mature UK VoD market and the broadcaster whose business model is most threatened by online television, the article combines trade press and textual analysis to demonstrate how ITV has developed a VoD service highly structured by the logics of broadcasting. Centering its analysis on the interface for ITV Hub, the article argues that this increasingly quotidian form of television ephemera offers a vital site through which to understand the changing nature of television as a medium. The article concludes that with contemporary developments in VoD, the distinctions between linear/broadcast and non-linear/on-demand television (flow vs. file, passive viewer vs. interactive user) are breaking down in ways that challenge prevailing arguments that on-demand television can be understood as offering a distinctly different (and more empowered and interactive) experience for viewers. </jats:p

Tiny Tusk Internship: Barriers to Effective Breastfeeding within Low Socioeconomic Populations

Tiny Tusk Breastfeeding and Infant Support is a program created to facilitate safe and quiet places for mothers to breastfeed at various events at the University of Arkansas. It serves as a platform to spread important and essential information about breastfeeding to mothers and reach various women all from different backgrounds and populations. The purpose of this review of literature is to identify barriers that women within low socioeconomic populations face that influence their decision to breastfeed. These barriers included lack of social support from family, friends, and healthcare providers; latch difficulty; and concerns of milk supply. Altogether, low-income women face barriers to breastfeeding at the individual, community, and societal level

Employee Motivation: A Comparison Of Tipped And Non-tipped Hourly Restaurant Employees

Employee motivation shall be defined by Robbins (as cited in Ramlall, 2004) as: the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort\u27s ability to satisfy some individual need. To engage in the practice of motivating employees, employers must understand the unsatisfied needs of each of the employee groups. This study desires to provide practitioners in the restaurant industry the ability to recognize motivators for these different employment groups and their relationship to organizational commitment. The restaurant industry consists of two types of employees: salaried and hourly. This study focuses on hourly employees, and their subdivision: tipped employees. For the purpose of this research hourly employees shall be defined as employees that depend on their hourly wage as their main source of income and tipped employees shall be defined as employees that depend on the receipt of tips as their main source of income. The purpose of this study desires to provide practitioners in the restaurant industry a comparison and analysis of employee motivation between the two employment groups and their level of organizational commitment. After formulating a thorough research review, a questionnaire instrument was assembled. The sample for this study was a convenience sample consisting of 104 restaurant hourly tipped and non-tipped, front of the house personnel employed in a single branded, national restaurant chain located in the metropolitan area of Orlando, Florida. The research instrument was a survey questionnaire instrument comprised of three sections: 1.) twelve motivational factors derived from Kovach (1995), 2.) nine questions from the reduced OCQ from Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979), and a section concerning demographic information of gender, age, race, education level, marital status, job type and tenure in the industry. Results from the study revealed that firstly, all of the employees in this thesis study felt that management loyalty was the most important motivating factor; secondly, intrinsic motivation factors were more important to non-tipped hourly employees; thirdly, gender had a strong influence in half of the motivating factors; fourthly, promotion and career development was found to be more important to non-tipped employees; lastly, overall mostly medium positive relationships were found between employee motivation and organizational commitment. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed in the final chapter

Developing a Centralized Tutoring System: A Comprehensive Resource Available for Students

Peer tutoring at colleges and universities has become an essential resource in helping to enhance undergraduate students’ academic performance and persistence (Arco-Tirado, Fernández-Martin, & Fernández-Balboa, 2011), institutional retention rates (Grillo & Leist, 2013), and the academic abilities of students with learning disabilities (Troiano, Liefeld, & Trachtenberg, 2010). The Tutoring Center at Merrimack College, designed for this project, will house all peer tutors specializing in a variety of subjects, including, but not limited to: business, engineering, foreign languages, computer science, biology, and chemistry. According to Vygtosky’s (1978) learning theory, students learn most effectively and more thoroughly when working with more knowledgeable and skillful peers (Vygotsky, 1978). Therefore, to increase access to tutors, the tutors will be available through the Learning Labs, which allow students to work with a peer tutor on a drop-in basis, and they will also have appointment hours available to meet with students who seek more individualized support. This project seeks to centralize all tutors in one location and to provide greater academic services by employing tutors with more versatile academic specialties. By doing so, the tutors will become more accessible to a larger population of undergraduate students, and the academic support efforts of Merrimack College will become streamlined