Community perspectives: Community check cashing

In May of 2009, Community Development Finance (CDF) opened the first nonprofit, full-service check cashing store in the country in Fruitvale, California. The project is designed to provide low-income households with the financial services they need, without the asset-stripping characteristics common to the fringe banking industry. In addition to providing affordable check cashing services and a payday loan product, CDF also provides financial coaching and literacy training, small business assistance, and referrals to other social service organizations that provide help in areas such as housing, immigration, and legal issues. Over time, CDF hopes to expand into other neighborhoods that have a heavy reliance on fringe banking.Check cashing services

Lost and Found at Sea, or a Shipwreck’s Art History

To be lost and found at sea: What kinds of thinking does the shipwreck prompt? This essay pursues this question by centering fragmented remains—large beeswax blocks and Chinese porcelain ware—from the Santo Cristo de Burgos, a Spanish galleon lost while traveling from Manila to Acapulco at the end of the seventeenth century. By considering how durable commodities were recovered and reimagined, primarily by Indigenous inhabi­tants of the Oregon coast, this essay reflects upon the kinds of histories that can be written around and because of wrecked ships. Tacking between past and present, we use the Santo Cristo de Burgos to draw out the lineaments of a shipwreck’s art history, bringing into focus three interrelated themes, each critical to the material histories of wrecks: the interpretive recalcitrance of cargo, the reframing of value through recovery, and the production of material surplus in the watery depths

Foreign Market Development As Well As Entry: An Empirical Analysis of Two Fast-Food Chains.

This dissertation consists of three empirical studies on foreign market entry and development by US fast-food chains. While prior international business research has principally sought to explain when, where and how firms enter foreign markets, surprisingly little attention has been given to what happens after entry. The first study considers the predictions of internationalization theory and transaction cost theory in explaining McDonald’s choice of entry mode: contract, joint venture or subsidiary. Exploiting a cross-section of 72 foreign market entries, I specifically assess whether regional or global operating experience and scale of operations influence choice of entry mode. I methodologically isolate the influence of experience in other markets from merely the timing of entry into those markets. Results proved statistically insignificant. Additional data is being collected to determine whether international experience and scale does not influence foreign entry mode choice or if instead the insignificance stems from a lack of data. The second study also uses McDonald’s international expansion to investigate which factors influence the timing of foreign market entry, which factors and post-entry expansion separately, and how closely the two are related. I find that rather than expanding into new markets after having saturated existing markets, McDonald’s allocates resources simultaneously across markets, favoring those with greater potential profits. Certain factors effecting expansion post-entry differ from those that effect entry. These results suggest that sunk costs play a role in both entry and expansion. The third study explores how firm capabilities develop in foreign markets. Specifically, I examine how binding ownership boundaries are to knowledge transfer and how knowledge accrues from operating experience across different countries. Using weekly sales and cost data for all outlets in the 10 largest foreign markets of a single franchised fast-food chain over a period of 13 years, I find wide variation in learning economies both within and across countries. More importantly, experience gained at outlets operated by country developers—firms responsible for overseeing a foreign market—have a greater influence than even outlet-specific experience for franchisee-owned outlets. These findings challenge the unqualified view that knowledge transfers more readily within firm boundaries than across them.Ph.D.Business AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57658/2/leibsohn_1.pd

Horizons pacifiques de l’art américain

Au début de ce siècle, l’historien David Armitage déclarait : « Désormais, nous sommes tous des atlantistes ». Cette assertion, qui sonne comme une bravade, contient une grande part de vérité. À leur sommet, les Atlantic studies s’efforçaient (et s’efforcent toujours) d’ouvrir des perspectives méthodologiques et historiques sur les réseaux – réels, imaginaires, ou un peu des deux – reliant les populations et les marchandises des Amériques et de l’Afrique à celles de l’Europe occidentale. Elle..

Análise numérica em tanque agitado por impelidor não convencional: curva de potência, número de bombeio e hidrodinâmica / Numerical analysis in stirred tank by unconventional impeller: power curve, number of pumps and hydrodynamics

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar o comportamento de um tanque agitado dotado de um impelidor radial não convencional. A simulação computacional permite a otimização de custos de análises com experimentos físicos, melhorando a eficiência do processo de pesquisa. O modelo utilizado neste trabalho será fabricado futuramente para validação por processos experimentais, encontrando na Mecânica dos Fluidos Computacional (Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD), a possibilidade de obtenção de resultados experimentalmente complexos. Inicialmente é apresentada a geometria do tanque agitado e o teste de independência da malha, posteriormente, a hidrodinâmica em padrão de escoamento promovida pela geometria do impelidor não convencional, além de propriedades características de tanques agitados, sendo estes o comportamento do número de potência e número de bombeio. O objetivo deste tanque é de manter em suspensão sais específicos para análise de precipitação, um dos principais problemas pouco compreendidos na indústria de petróleo e gás. Os resultados foram satisfatórios, nos quais os parâmetros do conjunto podem ser vistos como mais eficientes se comparados à literatura. 

The Maya wall paintings from Chajul, Guatemala

The recent renovation of a house in Chajul in western Guatemala has revealed an unparalleled set of wall paintings, most probably from the Colonial period (AD 1524-1821). The iconography of the murals combines pre-Columbian elements with imported European components in a domestic rather than a religious setting, making them a unique example of Colonial-period art. Here, the authors present the results of iconographic, chemical and radiocarbon analyses of the Chajul house paintings. Dating to the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries AD, the paintings may be connected to a revival of the local religious organisations (cofradías) in the context of waning Spanish colonial control

Geographische Kenntnisse und ihre konkreten Ausformungen

Der Tagungsband untersucht anhand der drei für das Internationale Kolleg Morphomata programmatischen Schwerpunkte »Genese«, »Dynamik« und »Medialität« die Frage, wie sich epistemische Konzepte von geographischem Wissen in verschiedenen Kulturen und Epochen, in unterschiedlichen Medien und Materialitäten konkretisieren. Das Spektrum der Beiträge reicht von der jungsteinzeitlichen Wandmalerei (Çatal Höyük, Türkei) über Homers berühmten Schiffskatalog und antike Straßenverzeichnisse bis zu Allegorien der vier Erdteile in der Kunst der Neuzeit – schließt aber auch den neuentdeckten »Grazer Paravent« mit der Darstellung Ôsakas vom Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts ein

MED12 Alterations in Both Human Benign and Malignant Uterine Soft Tissue Tumors

The relationship between benign uterine leiomyomas and their malignant counterparts, i.e. leiomyosarcomas and smooth muscle tumors of uncertain malignant potential (STUMP), is still poorly understood. The idea that a leiomyosarcoma could derive from a leiomyoma is still controversial. Recently MED12 mutations have been reported in uterine leiomyomas. In this study we asked whether such mutations could also be involved in leiomyosarcomas and STUMP oncogenesis. For this purpose we examined 33 uterine mesenchymal tumors by sequencing the hot-spot mutation region of MED12. We determined that MED12 is altered in 66.6% of typical leiomyomas as previously reported but also in 11% of STUMP and 20% of leiomyosarcomas. The mutated allele is predominantly expressed in leiomyomas and STUMP. Interestingly all classical leiomyomas exhibit MED12 protein expression while 40% of atypical leiomyomas, 50% of STUMP and 80% of leiomyosarcomas (among them the two mutated ones) do not express MED12. All these tumors without protein expression exhibit complex genomic profiles. No mutations and no expression loss were identified in an additional series of 38 non-uterine leiomyosarcomas. MED12 mutations are not exclusive to leiomyomas but seem to be specific to uterine malignancies. A previous study has suggested that MED12 mutations in leiomyomas could lead to Wnt/β-catenin pathway activation however our immunohistochemistry results show that there is no association between MED12 status and β-catenin nuclear/cytoplasmic localization. Collectively, our results show that subgroups of benign and malignant tumors share a common genetics. We propose here that MED12 alterations could be implicated in the development of smooth muscle tumor and that its expression could be inhibited in malignant tumors

Assessing a social norms approach for improving recreational fisheries compliance

This study aimed to assess the suitability of the Berkowitz’ (2005) social norms approach (SNA) for improving compliance behaviour amongst recreational fishers. A total of 138 recreational shore anglers were interviewed in Eastern Cape, South Africa and asked about their compliance, attitudes towards compliance, perceptions of compliance and the attitudes of other anglers. Results indicate that angler compliance for individual regulations was relatively high (75%–90%). Attitudes of anglers towards compliance was positive, with >80% feeling that “breaking any regulation is wrong.” Yet, as predicted by the SNA, interviewees often overestimated the non-compliance and negative attitudes of other anglers, particularly as their social proximity decreased. Interviewees with the greatest misperceptions were also less compliant. The social norms present in the Eastern Cape rock and surf fishery fulfil the criteria required for the application of the SNA, suggesting that this approach may provide a suitable normative intervention for improving compliance to be used in conjunction with instrumental approaches in recreational fisheries