Informational lobbying in the European Union: Explaining information supply to the European Commission

Information supply is an important instrument through which interest groups can exert influence on political decisions. However, information supply to decision-makers varies extensively across interest groups. How can this be explained? Why do some interest groups provide more information than others? I argue that variation in information supply can largely be explained by organizational characteristics, more specifically the resources, the functional differentiation, the professionalization and the decentralization of interest groups. I test my theoretical expectations based on a large new dataset: Using multilevel modeling, I examine information supply to the European Commission across 56 policy issues and a wide range of interest groups by combining an analysis of consultation submissions with a survey conducted among interest groups

Vocal Disorders: Evaluation, Treatment, and Maintaining a Healthy Voice

Typically, vocal inefficiencies can be diagnosed and cared for by a singer’s voice teacher. Breathing, alignment, and resonance issues are often normal, and almost every singer will face at least one type of vocal inefficiency throughout the course of vocal study. However, when a singer’s vocal tract becomes disordered, proper phonation becomes difficult, even with a voice teacher’s guidance. Vocal disorders differ from inefficiencies because they must be treated under the supervision of a medical professional. Because a singer’s voice teacher is the primary caretaker of their students’ voices, it is the voice teacher’s responsibility to have an understanding of vocal disorders, and be able to refer a singer to the specialists that can aid in treatment, should a disorder arise. The voice teacher needs to be an integral member of this voice care team, and may assist the singer in successfully completing a voice therapy plan, if the vocal disorder requires one

The Impact of Oil Price Shocks on Local Texas Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This thesis paper examines the effects of changes in the oil and gas industry on local Texas labor markets especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The events surrounding the COVID-19 virus are unique in US history and create a need for unique and specific analysis. The paper analyzes multiple factors when determining results including oil production, oil price, COVID-19 cases, unemployment, and population. Using this data, we will run multiple OLS linear regressions with the aim of finding the magnitude of effect and determining whether the relationships between the studied variables experienced any significant changes during different time periods both including and excluding the year 2020. The results coming from my analysis show an economically significant correlation of oil prices, oil production, and COVID-19 cases with unemployment rate. This relationship also clearly changes between some of the separate time periods that are used in the analysis

Electronic Commerce, Sales Tax, & the Implications for Missouri

The internet is an ever-growing source of information, services, products, communication, and income for millions of people around the world. With these growing capabilities comes the issue of how to tax goods and services bought via the internet. According to the Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998, electronic commerce (e-commerce) is defined as “any transaction conducted over the internet or through internet access, comprising the sale, lease, license, offer, or delivery of property, goods, services, or information” (Advisory Commission, 2000). E-commerce is important to state and local governments due to the large volume of sales conducted via the internet and the potential inability to tax and collect sales tax revenue from these transactions.Includes bibliographical reference

A Profile of Missouri's Energy Use

With the rising prices of energy, and concern over supply shortages, there has been a renewed focus upon energy conservation within the United States. Due to the strong relationship between energy use, environmental quality and economic vitality, energy consumption is a relevant topic for Missouri citizens. The kinds of energy sources we use influence the quality of our environment and the amount of energy we use affects our economy.Includes bibliographical reference

The Lives of H-2B Workers in the Trump Era: An Anthropological Perspective on Immigration

The purpose of this ethnographic study is to describe the effects of the Trump Administration’s change in immigration policies on Romanian H-2B workers in South Florida. The effects of administration change on the H-2B program is generally defined within three themes that emerged from my research: The change in the concept of cultural space and how enforcement plays a role in the creation of boundaries; how policy change has an influence on migrant workers’ concept of identity and belonging; and lastly, how the program and outlying forces create a culture of uncertainty and fear. The article is based on three months of participant-observation, data from interviews and surveys, and analysis of this qualitative data in relation to the anthropological literature in particular as well as other sources pertaining to the immigration debate. The study of the experiences of this specific population, may help inform policies on foreign migrant workers within the H-2B program particularly, given the current political climate for NGOs involved in the support of immigrant communities; encourage further research within academic realms, and foster an understanding of the experience of this specific population within the visa program

Musical and Cultural Significance in Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915”

“We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child” (Agee 3). These first words of James Agee’s prose poem “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” introduce the reader to a world of his youth – rural Tennessee in the early part of the century. Agee’s highly descriptive and lyrical language in phrases such as “these sweet pale streamings in the light out their pallors,” (Agee 5) invites the reader to use all his senses and become enveloped in the inherent music of the language. Is it any wonder that upon reading Agee’s words, composer Samuel Barber should be drawn into this narrative that enlivens the senses and touches the heart with its complexity of human emotions told through the recollections of childhood from a time of youth and innocence. The search for their native voice – their “American” voice – was something that interested both James Agee and Samuel Barber. For Agee, it was finding the sights, sounds, and images of America that had been described in the works of Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, and his contemporaries, Southern writers William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and Carson McCullers. For Barber, it was a different process. Samuel Barber had to discover his “American voice” by exploring borrowed traditions – folksongs, and homegrown popular musical styles of Jazz and the Blues. The idea of an “American voice” in music was already present and established in works of composers such as Charles Ives and Aaron Copland. For Barber, his native voice emerged when he chose James Agee’s text to set to music

Pavement Quality Indicators Study

Stadtarchiv Troisdorf, „Schulchronik Bergheim“ 1900-1924, B 998, S. 22 Der Unterricht ist wieder aufgenommen und die älteren Schüler müssen in der Landwirtschaft helfen. August 27 Mit dem gestrigen Tage wurde der Unterricht wieder aufgenommen. derselbe In Abwesenheit des Kollegen Schürmann wird die Mittelklasse von Frl. Schell u Hauptlehrer Gronewald weitergeführt; für die beiden Oberklassen fällt der Unterricht an den Nachmittagen aus, da die größeren Kinder bei den landwirtschaftlichen Arb..

A Comparison of Fourth Grade Students\u27 Encyclopedia Research Skills Utilizing Traditional Instruction Contrasted with Traditional/Technological Instruction at King Science Center

The King Science Center was created in 1985 by the Omaha School Board which serves 43,000 students. The center was originally a magnet for grades four, five, and six. Formerly the building was a junior high school or a ninth grade center from 1959 to 1988. The facility was reorganized into a science middle school magnet by first removing the ninth grade and then transferring grades four, five, and six from the former King Science Center facility and adding grades seven and eight