Factors affecting the location of payday lending and traditional banking services in North Carolina

Payday lending is a relatively new and fast growing segment of the “fringe banking” industry. This paper offers a comparative, descriptive analysis of the location patterns of traditional banks and payday lenders. Utilizing a dataset at the Zip Code Tabulation Area level in North Carolina, we perform negative binomial regressions and find evidence supporting some, but not all common assertions about the location patterns of both types of institutions. A key finding is that after controlling for many covariates, race is still a powerful predictor of the locations of both banks and payday lenders.payday lending, fringe banking, location analysis

Ageism’s Influence on Health Care Delivery and Nursing Practice

Ageism is defined as the intentional and/or subconscious discrimination against elderly people. Despite the prevalence of ageism, nurses are able to offset prejudice against the elderly and improve the quality of health care for older patients by educating patients, families, and health care providers about the effects of ageism and by advocating for the delivery of unbiased care. In order to discuss the extent to which ageism affects the quality of health care and nursing practice, this paper reviews the published literature pertaining to ageism. Elderly cancer patients are even more affected by ageist attitudes and beliefs, and as a result experience poorer health outcomes. Future research should continue to explore the effects that ageism has on the health of the elderly so that changes to nursing practice and health care policy can be made, thereby providing all patients with high-quality health care

The changing patterns of group politics in Britain

Two interpretations of ways in which group politics in Britain have presented challenges to democracy are reviewed: neo-corporatism or pluralistic stagnation and the rise of single issue interest groups. The disappearance of the first paradigm created a political space for the second to emerge. A three-phase model of group activity is developed: a phase centred around production interests, followed by the development of broadly based 'other regarding' groups, succeeded by fragmented, inner directed groups focusing on particular interests. Explanations of the decay of corporatism are reviewed. Single issue group activity has increased as party membership has declined and is facilitated by changes in traditional media and the development of the internet. Such groups can overload the policy-making process and frustrate depoliticisation. Debates about the constitution and governance have largely ignored these issues and there is need for a debate

On the application of radio frequency voltages to ion traps via helical resonators

Ions confined using a Paul trap require a stable, high voltage and low noise radio frequency (RF) potential. We present a guide for the design and construction of a helical coil resonator for a desired frequency that maximises the quality factor for a set of experimental constraints. We provide an in-depth analysis of the system formed from a shielded helical coil and an ion trap by treating the system as a lumped element model. This allows us to predict the resonant frequency and quality factor in terms of the physical parameters of the resonator and the properties of the ion trap. We also compare theoretical predictions with experimental data for different resonators, and predict the voltage applied to the ion trap as a function of the Q-factor, input power and the properties of the resonant circuit

Patient-Specific Modeling in Urogynecology: A Meshfree Approach

Mechanical deformation of tissues in the female pelvic floor is believed to be central to understanding a number of important aspects of women’s health, particularly pelvic floor dysfunction. A 2008 study of US women reported the prevalence of pelvic floor disorders in the 20 and 39 years range as 9.7% with the prevalence increasing with age until it reaches roughly 50% in the 80 and older age group [Nygaard, Barber, Burgio, and et al (2008)]. Clinical observation indicates a strong correlation between problems such as pelvic organ prolapse/urinary incontinence and vaginal childbirth. It is thought that childbirth parameters like fetal weight, duration of labor, and pelvic bony and soft tissue geometry can modulate the level of injury sustained during childbirth. However, it is difficult to study the impact of childbirth parameters non-destructively in living women. Therefore, realistic, efficient, computational modeling capabilities are necessary to study the mechanical response of the organs and muscles during childbirth under varying conditions, in order to develop and test hypotheses for childbirth related injury. Furthermore, manufacturers of embedded prosthetic devices, such as those used to treat prolapse, may benefit from the ability to predict the mechanical performance of their prostheses in situ, and this potential benefit highlights the need for a capability to rapidly develop analytical models of the pelvic floor. This paper discusses an algorithm to automatically generate an analysis-suitable geometry from medical images. The automated analysis capability is demonstrated in modeling vaginal contracture, as might occur in cases of women treated with radiation for cervical cancer

Level models of continuing professional development evaluation: a grounded review and critique

Continuing professional development (CPD) evaluation in education has been heavily influenced by ‘level models’, deriving from the work of Kirkpatrick and Guskey in particular, which attempt to trace the processes through which CPD interventions achieve outcomes. This paper considers the strengths and limitations of such models, and in particular the degree to which they are able to do justice to the complexity of CPD and its effects. After placing level models within the broader context of debates about CPD evaluation, the paper reports our experience of developing such models heuristically for our own evaluation practice. It then draws on positivist, realist and constructivist traditions to consider some more fundamental ontological and epistemological questions to which they give rise. The paper concludes that level models can be used in a number of ways and with differing emphases, and that choices made about their use will need to reflect both theoretical choices and practical considerations

Factors affecting the location of payday lending and traditional banking services in North Carolina

Payday lending is a relatively new and fast growing segment of the “fringe banking” industry. This paper offers a comparative, descriptive analysis of the location patterns of traditional banks and payday lenders. Utilizing a dataset at the Zip Code Tabulation Area level in North Carolina, we perform negative binomial regressions and find evidence supporting some, but not all common assertions about the location patterns of both types of institutions. A key finding is that after controlling for many covariates, race is still a powerful predictor of the locations of both banks and payday lenders

Can deliberate efforts to realise aspirations increase capabilities? A South African case study

This paper takes up Appadurai's suggestion that aspirations could be used as a key to unlock development for people who are economically marginalised, and that their capabilities could be increased by this approach. The notion of “aspirations” is theoretically and conceptually framed, and then Amartya Sen's use of the term capabilities as the space within which development should be assessed is explored. I subsequently describe a five-year programme in which economically marginalised women in Khayelitsha near Cape Town were assisted in voicing and attempting to realise their aspirations, while being assisted with access to some resources. Capability outcomes and constraints are described and analysed, and the question of adaptive preferences is addressed. I conclude that deliberate efforts to realise aspirations, accompanied by some facilitation, can increase capabilities, but that there are also structural constraints to capability expansion for these women that frustrate their aspiration of class mobility.International Bibliography of Social Science

Advances in understanding subglacial meltwater drainage from past ice sheets

Meltwater drainage beneath ice sheets is a fundamental consideration for understanding ice–bed conditions and bed-modulated ice flow, with potential impacts on terminus behavior and iceshelf mass balance. While contemporary observations reveal the presence of basal water movement in the subglacial environment and inferred styles of drainage, the geological record of former ice sheets, including sediments and landforms on land and the seafloor, aids in understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of efficient and inefficient drainage systems and their impact on ice-sheet behavior. We highlight the past decade of advances in geological studies that focus on providing process-based information on subglacial hydrology of ice sheets, how these studies inform theory, numerical models and contemporary observations, and address the needs for future research

The positions of primary and secondary schools in the English school field: a case of durable inequality

In interviews as part of a research study of structural reform in England, some tension between primary head teachers and their secondary peers was evident. This was symptomatic of a long-standing difference in status between the two phases. At a time when relations between stakeholders in local systems are subject to change, we seek to understand anew why that might be the case and how the tension we found was evidence of a current difference of power within interactions between representatives of the phases. We analyse differences of size, resources, workforce, pedagogy and history, and how they have resulted in different, and differently valued, practices and professional identities. We explore how attributes of the two phases have been counterposed and how, in complex interaction with wider discourses of politics, gender and age, this process has invested the differences with meanings and values that tend to relegate attributes associated with primary school. By focusing on the activation of cumulative inequality in interactions, we contribute a complementary perspective to studies of perceived relative status and highlight the implications for understanding school positioning in local arenas as the role of local authorities is reduced