9,549 research outputs found
Measurement Error, Legalized Abortion, and the Decline in Crime: A Response to Foote and Goetz (2005)
Donohue and Levitt (2001) argue that the legalization of abortion in the United States in the 1970s played an important role in explaining the observed decline in crime approximately two decades later. Foote and Goetz (2005) challenge the results presented in one of the tables in that original paper. In this reply, we regretfully acknowledge the omission of state-year interactions in the published version of that table, but show that their inclusion does not alter the qualitative results (or their statistical significance), although it does reduce the magnitude of the estimates. When one uses a more carefully constructed measure of abortion (e.g. one that takes into account cross-state mobility, or doing a better job of matching dates of birth to abortion exposure), however, the evidence in support of the abortion-crime hypothesis is as strong or stronger than suggested in our original work.
Further Evidence that Legalized Abortion Lowered Crime: A Reply to Joyce
Donohue and Levitt (2001) present a number of analyses that suggest a causal link between legalized abortion and reductions in crime almost two decades later when the cohorts exposed to legalized abortion reach their peak crime years. Joyce (2003) challenges that finding. In this paper, we demonstrate that Joyce's failure to uncover a negative relationship between abortion and crime is a direct consequence of his decision to focus exclusively on the six-year period 1985-90 without including adequate controls for the crack epidemic. We provide empirical evidence that crack hit the high-abortion early legalizing states harder and earlier. We then demonstrate that using precisely the same treatment and control groups as Joyce, but extending the data analysis to encompass the lifetime criminal experiences (as opposed to an arbitrary six-year window), the evidence strongly supports the hypothesis that legalized abortion reduces crime. We also show that our original results are robust to focusing on only the cohorts born immediately before or after Roe v. Wade. The data suggest that ease of access to abortion, rather than simply de jure legalization, is a critical determinant of the extent of the crime reduction.
Magic composite pulses
I describe composite pulses during which the average dipolar interactions
within a spin ensemble are controlled while realizing a global rotation. The
construction method used is based on the average Hamiltonian theory and rely on
the geometrical properties of the spin-spin dipolar interaction only. I present
several such composite pulses robust against standard experimental defects in
NRM: static or radio-frequency field miscalibration, fields inhomogeneities.
Numerical simulations show that the magic sandwich pulse sequence, a pulse
sequence that reverse the average dipolar field while applied, is plagued by
defects originating from its short initial and final \pi/2 radio-frequency
pulses. Using the magic composite pulses instead of \pi/2 pulses improves the
magic sandwich effect. A numerical test using a classical description of NMR
allows to check the validity of the magic composite pulses and estimate their
efficiency.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
Proposal for a Penn Bookstore Internship Program in Events and Marketing
The purpose of this thesis is to propose the creation of an events/marketing internship program at the Penn Bookstore. I begin with a review of common terms and definitions used to describe student-learning experiences. Penn has multiple resources available to undergraduate students looking for an internship. Based on a review of internship programs offered through Penn and at a variety of local organizations, I identify and describe common and unique program categories. In addition, I examine three internship program models from the perspective of academic, non-profit and corporate/for-profit organizational settings. Based on this review, I propose my vision for an internship program model for the Penn Bookstore. I conclude by relating the benefits of the proposed internship program to the Bookstore, the undergraduate student community at Penn, and the University
ELSA: An Integrated, Semi-Automated Nebular Abundance Package
We present ELSA, a new modular software package, written in C, to analyze and
manage spectroscopic data from emission-line objects. In addition to
calculating plasma diagnostics and abundances from nebular emission lines, the
software provides a number of convenient features including the ability to
ingest logs produced by IRAF's splot task, to semi-automatically merge spectra
in different wavelength ranges, and to automatically generate various data
tables in machine-readable or LaTeX format. ELSA features a highly
sophisticated interstellar reddening correction scheme that takes into account
temperature and density effects as well as He II contamination of the hydrogen
Balmer lines. Abundance calculations are performed using a 5-level atom
approximation with recent atomic data, based on R. Henry's ABUN program.
Improvements planned in the near future include use of a three-region
ionization model, similar to IRAF's nebular package, error propagation, and the
addition of ultraviolet and infrared line analysis capability. Detailed
documentation for all aspects of ELSA are available at
http://www.williams.edu/Astronomy/research/PN .Comment: 2 pages, contributed paper, IAU Symp. 234, Planetary Nebulae in Our
Galaxy and Beyon
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