You Could Get Killed Any Day in Hollygrove: A Qualitative Study of Neighborhood-Level Homicide

New Orleans experienced elevated homicide rates throughout the 30 years between 1985 and 2015. The city’s homicides were especially prominent in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. This study explored the lived experiences of residents from one such neighborhood, Hollygrove. Using qualitative methods of individual interviews, focus groups, and participant observation, the study explored homicide through three prominent theoretical lenses, Social Disorganization Theory, Subcultural theories, and Institutional Anomie Theory, to better understand the conditions in a high-homicide neighborhood that help to explain neighborhood-level violence. While existing theories of homicide causation have taken a predominately quantitative approach that compare high-homicide neighborhoods, I took an ethnographic approach informed by a social constructivist paradigm to test existing theories against the lived experiences of those whose daily lives were impacted by neighborhood-level homicide in a single community. Interviews were conducted with neighborhood residents, community leaders, neighborhood politicians, and police officials. The data indicated three conditions connected to high- or low-homicide risk in the community. The neighborhood’s values-orientation moved between subcultural values and prosocial values. Structural conditions in the community shifted between marginalization and enhanced social capital. Finally, neighborhood boundaries were found to vacillate between porous and rigidly defensive. Each of these conditions impacted the neighborhood’s ability to enact collective efficacy and to create a milieu that either resisted or enhanced the likelihood of homicide. While none of the existing theories was sufficient to explain neighborhood homicide, elements of each were present in the data

Wesley, ‘Holy Tempers’, and Commercial Practice

In the early 18th Century, it was satirist Bernard Mandeville who suggested that private vice led to public virtue. More specifically, baser human qualities such as avarice, greed, envy, and pride were said to mobilize the industrial forces in a manner that spurred economic growth and efficiency, an outcome seemingly beneficial to all. While few would argue for vice on such terms today, this article suggests that a neo-Mandevillian argument has found its way into our present context. This argument contends that it is virtue, not vice, that actually services economic growth. Importantly, this manner for animating virtue maintains the same utilitarian essence as Mandeville’s original justification for vice. Here, we may helpfully turn to the theology of John Wesley, who provides a teleological argument for heart holiness and heavenly “fitness” that challenges the various utilitarian rationalizations commonly invoked in today’s commercial marketplace. Wesley’s unique theological perspective provides a more faithful means to navigate market complexities, as believers are called to orient themselves to a heavenly reality that moderates our commercial practice without abandoning human creativity, industriousness, or business sensibility

An inquiry into the economics and ethics of residential integration

This thesis is an inquiry into the economics and ethics of residential integration. Efforts to integrate otherwise segregated black and white households in the United States over the last 40 years has been met with legitimate skepticism. Primarily, there is an absence of evidence as it relates to whether neighborhoods cause disadvantage (neighborhood effects) in addition to a lack of evidence related to whether “mixing” actually produces adequate social benefits for those being moved or for society as a whole. I intend to move the conversation forward by presenting two additional considerations. First, in the economic paradigm, it is useful to explore the issue of segregation through what has been described as adverse impacts occurring in the wake of a market failure (“subprime financial crisis”). Second, there are ethical considerations relevant to the integration discussion that offer new norms by which to engage and advance our approach to residential integration and endeavors to mix. This thesis makes a contribution to knowledge by explicating these two points and ultimately providing a more morally capacious evaluative framework by which to appraise this complex social issue

The many assembly histories of massive void galaxies as revealed by integral field spectroscopy

We present the first detailed integral field spectroscopy study of nine central void galaxies with M*>10¹⁰Mʘ using the Wide Field Spectrograph to determine how a range of assembly histories manifest themselves in the current day Universe.While the majority of these galaxies are evolving secularly, we find a range of morphologies, merger histories and stellar population distributions, though similarly low Hα-derived star formation rates (10¹⁰Mʘ have similarly low star formation rates

A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING FARM MACHINERY PURCHASE DECISIONS

This paper presents a model of the farm management process. The model suggests that certain socioeconomic characteristics of farm managers will influence their decision-making process. Several characteristics are hypothesized an tested using multivariate techniques (multivariate analysis of variance, range tests, and multiple comparisons). The analysis indicates that the soil zone, value of machinery inventory, operator's age, and operator's education influence the importance placed on each of 20 factors. On the basis of the analysis it was concluded that such a model of the farm management process can contribute to an understanding of farm management decisions. In addition, it was concluded that farm managers, farm machinery dealers, and extension agents had significantly different perceptions of the importance of these factors to farm managers. This latter conclusion suggests that more research related to the actual process of decision making is warranted.Farm Management,

The Rarity of Star Formation in Brightest Cluster Galaxies as Measured by WISE

We present the mid-infrared (IR) star formation rates of 245 X-ray selected, nearby (z<0.1) brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). A homogeneous and volume limited sample of BCGs was created by X-ray selecting clusters with L_x > 1x10^44 erg/s. The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) AllWISE Data Release provides the first measurement of the 12 micron star formation indicator for all BCGs in the nearby Universe. Perseus A and Cygnus A are the only galaxies in our sample to have star formation rates of > 40 M_sol/yr, indicating that these two galaxies are highly unusual at current times. Stellar populations of 99 +/- 0.6 % of local BCGs are (approximately) passively evolving, with star formation rates of <10 M_sol/yr. We find that in general, star formation produces only modest BCG growth at the current epoch.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Probing the Inner Regions of Protoplanetary Disks with CO Absorption Line Spectroscopy

Carbon monoxide (CO) is the most commonly used tracer of molecular gas in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks. CO can be used to constrain the excitation and structure of the circumstellar environment. Absorption line spectroscopy provides an accurate assessment of a single line-of-sight through the protoplanetary disk system, giving more straightforward estimates of column densities and temperatures than CO and molecular hydrogen emission line studies. We analyze new observations of ultraviolet CO absorption from the Hubble Space Telescope along the sightlines to six classical T Tauri stars. Gas velocities consistent with the stellar velocities, combined with the moderate-to-high disk inclinations, argue against the absorbing CO gas originating in a fast-moving disk wind. We conclude that the far-ultraviolet observations provide a direct measure of the disk atmosphere or possibly a slow disk wind. The CO absorption lines are reproduced by model spectra with column densities in the range N(^{12}CO) ~ 10^{16} - 10^{18} cm^{-2} and N(^{13}CO) ~ 10^{15} - 10^{17} cm^{-2}, rotational temperatures T_{rot}(CO) ~ 300 - 700 K, and Doppler b-values, b ~ 0.5 - 1.5 km s^{-1}. We use these results to constrain the line-of-sight density of the warm molecular gas (n_{CO} ~ 70 - 4000 cm^{-3}) and put these observations in context with protoplanetary disk models.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, ApJ - accepte

Use of historical data in accounting research: The case of the American Sugar Refining Company

In 1908, the American Sugar Refining Company (ASR) reversed its long-held policy of secrecy as to its financial condition and performance. Prior work, applying contemporary capital market methods to ASR security price data of that period, has suggested a value to ASR shareholders of this policy reversal. This paper examines the historical record of that time and presents additional evidence on this matter, particularly in terms of identifying potentially confounding events occurring during the period under study. The results of this analysis suggest a difficulty in attributing observed abnormal returns to ASR\u27s secrecy policy reversal on the basis of the results obtained from applying capital markets methods. This analysis is useful for scholars interested in applying modern capital market methods to historical data. It highlights the significance of the possible effects of contemporaneous historical events, focuses attention on the importance of a deep understanding of the historical period studied, and suggests a value in combining historical and empirical-markets methods to gain a richer understanding of the events and conditions in the time period under study