Possible changes to the Retail Prices Index: what they are and why they matter

Peter Levell of the IFS analyses changes in the way the Retail Prices Index (RPI) is calculated and discusses what they entail. Most benefit payments and tax rates have already switched to being linked to the CPI and so any change to the RPI would not affect them, but government bondholders may be adversely impacted

Campus Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA)

This capstone project is designed to increase the knowledge of students living in CSU Monterey Bay\u27s residential housing facilities regarding issues of rape, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. Prevention education and information will be provided by the five community organizations that work closely with survivors of sexual assault, rape, stalking, and dating violence with the hope of raising campus awareness around said issues

Using Connell’s masculinity theory to understand the way in which ex-gang-involved men coped with childhood domestic violence.

This article seeks to foreground enacted masculinity in the narratives of men who experienced both childhood domestic violence and abuse, and gang involvement. This is demonstrated through findings from a small yet in-depth research project, where life-history-inspired narrative interviews were taken from men who had experienced both childhood domestic violence and abuse, and gang involvement. The narratives were analysed using Connell’s theory and analytic frame for masculinities to explore the differing masculine identities that emerged in the narratives. By placing a focus on the masculine performances in the men’s lives, this study identified three distinct masculinity performances that were enacted during domestic violence and abuse, and in response to their experience, namely, subordinate masculinity, vulnerable masculinity and protest masculinity. Drawing from Connell’s work, I demonstrate the way in which these identities were interlinked with experience of domestic violence and abuse in childhood. The coping mechanisms that some participants engaged in appeared to relate to the enactment of violence in order to feel an achieved successful masculinity of their own. Ultimately, this article proposes the need for a greater understanding and consideration of masculinities when working with male child survivors of domestic violence and abuse.<br/

Aspects of model building in noncommutaive quantum field theories

We review quantum field theories on noncommutative Minkowski spaces (NCQFTs), concentrating on the mixing between ultra-violet and infra-red degrees of freedom in such theories. We use background field perturbation theory at the one-loop level to calculate the three and four point functions in supersymmetric NCQFT. We use the results of this calculation to show that the infra-red logarithmic divergences that arise as a result of the UV/IR mixing can be reproduced by an explicitly gauge-invariant low-energy effective action expressed in terms of Wilson lines. We present a noncommutative gauge theory that has the ordinary Standard Model as its low-energy limit. The model is based on the gauge group U (4) x U (3) x U (2) and satisfies all the key constraints that are imposed by noncommutativity: the UV/IR mixing effects, restrictions on representations and charges of matter fields and the cancellation of noncommutative gauge anomalies. At energies well below the noncommutative mass scale our model flows to the commutative Standard model plus additional free U {1) degrees of freedom which decouple due to the UV/IR mixing. Our model also predicts the values of the hypercharges of the Standard Model fields. We find that in order to accomodate the matter content of the Standard Model it is necessary to introduce extra, as yet undetected, matter fields

Relationship between attitudes toward mathematics and career choice

This study examined the attitudes and career choice for eighth grade students at one East Tennessee middle school. Each participant completed the Modified Aiken Mathematics Attitude Scale Survey and a Career Selection form. The attitude scale and the career selection form were both administered by the researcher. Percentage comparisons were made to see if attitudes towards mathematics made an impact on the future career choice. The participants\u27 were compared to see if male attitudes towards mathematics were different from female attitudes towards mathematics. Finally, male and female results on the attitude scale were compared within assigned groups as defined in this study. Students in this school system are required to choose a career track as they leave the eighth grade. Evaluation of students\u27 career selections had previously been examined and programs had been put in place to help students make better career choices. The study made no attempt to evaluate the programs that are in place or attitudes of the teachers in the school

Preliminary report on the CTS transient event counter performance through the 1976 spring eclipse season

The transient event counter (TEC), senses and counts transients having a voltage rise of greater than five volts in three separate wire harnesses: the attitude control harness, the solar array instrumentation harness and the solar array power harness. The operational characteristics of TEC are defined and the preliminary results obtained through the first 90 days of operation including the spring 1976 eclipse season are presented. The results show that the Communications Technology Satellite was charged to the point where discharges occurred. The discharge induced transients did not cause any anomalous events in spacecraft operation. The data indicate that discharges can occur at any time during the day without preference to any local time quadrant. The number of discharges occurring in the one second sample interval are greater than anticipated. The compilation and review of the data is continuing

Trade and inequality in Europe and the US

The share of low-income countries in global exports nearly tripled between 1990 and 2015, driven largely by the rapid emergence of China as an exporting powerhouse. While research in economics had long acknowledged that trade with lower-income countries could raise income inequality in Europe and the US, empirical estimates indicated only a modest contribution of trade to growing national skill premia. However, if workers are not highly mobile across firms, industries and locations, then the unequal impacts of trade can manifest along different margins. Recent evidence from countries across Europe and the US shows that growing import competition from China differentially reduced earnings and employment rates for workers in more trade-exposed industries, and for the residents of more trade-exposed geographic regions. These adverse impacts were often largest for lower-skilled individuals. We show that domestic manufacturing employment declined much more in countries that saw a large growth of net imports from China (such as the UK and the US), than in countries that maintained relatively balanced trade with China (such as Germany and Switzerland). Drawing on a new analysis for the UK, we further show that trade with China contributed to job loss in manufacturing, but also to substantial declines in consumer prices. However, while the adverse labour market impacts were concentrated on specific groups of workers and regions, the consumer benefits from trade were widely dispersed in the population, and appear similarly large for high-income and low-income households. Globalisation has thus created pockets of losers, and recent evidence indicates that in addition to financial losses, residents of regions with greater exposure to import competition also suffer from higher crime rates, a deterioration of health outcomes, and a dissolution of traditional family structures. We argue that new import tariffs such as those imposed by the US in 2018 and 2019 are unlikely to help the losers from globalisation. Instead, displaced workers may be better supported by a combination of transfers to avert financial hardship, skills training that facilitate reintegration into the labour market, and place-based policies that stimulate job creation in depressed location

Children’s experience of domestic abuse and criminality: A literature review

This report looks at children’s experiences of domestic abuse and their criminality, including childhood criminal exploitation, serious youth violence and offending behaviour