Multiple Factors Affect Job Satisfaction of Hospital RNs

Highlights findings from an analysis of variables associated with job satisfaction levels of registered nurses working in hospitals, including health status, race/ethnicity, career orientation, working conditions, workload, and benefits

The Exchange Rate and Consumer Prices

This article reviews the empirical evidence on exchange rate pass-through to consumer prices in Australia over the inflation-targeting period. It finds that pass-through is relatively low at the aggregate level but is faster and larger for the prices of manufactured goods, which are often imported. There is some evidence that over the past decade exchange rate movements have been flowing through more quickly to retail prices for this subset of highly tradable goods. Looking ahead, the growth of the internet with the greater ability of households to compare prices and to buy from overseas are likely to result in smaller cross-country price differentials and more rapid pass-through from the exchange rate to prices.exchange rate; import prices; consumer prices; inflation; pass-through

Automatic Annotation of Images from the Practitioner Perspective

This paper describes an ongoing project which seeks to contribute to a wider understanding of the realities of bridging the semantic gap in visual image retrieval. A comprehensive survey of the means by which real image retrieval transactions are realised is being undertaken. An image taxonomy has been developed, in order to provide a framework within which account may be taken of the plurality of image types, user needs and forms of textual metadata. Significant limitations exhibited by current automatic annotation techniques are discussed, and a possible way forward using ontologically supported automatic content annotation is briefly considered as a potential means of mitigating these limitations

A Survey of Housing Equity Withdrawal and Injection in Australia

Over the past decade or so, aggregate data suggest a trend increase in housing equity withdrawal in Australia, potentially stimulating household spending. However, there has been little disaggregated information on how equity is being withdrawn and injected, the characteristics of households altering housing equity, and how funds from withdrawn equity are being used. This paper uses a survey of 4 500 households commissioned by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to address these questions. The results suggest that, during 2004, the most common method of withdrawing equity was for a household to increase the level of debt secured against a property they already owned. In contrast, most of the value of equity withdrawn was associated with property transactions, with the typical property transaction resulting in a net equity withdrawal. Turnover in the property market is therefore likely to be an important driver of cycles in aggregate housing equity withdrawal. Bivariate and logit analysis suggests a significant life-cycle influence, with the bulk of equity withdrawal being undertaken by older households, while younger households typically inject, primarily through mortgage repayments or deposits for property purchase. Finally, the results suggest that the bulk of the value of withdrawn equity was used to increase non-housing assets, although a significant proportion of households used the funds for consumption expenditure.housing equity withdrawal; housing turnover; household debt

A Gross Injustice: Proving Age Discrimination by Federal Employers Under the ADEA in the Wake of Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc.

(Excerpt) This Note argues that the “but-for” causation required under Gross should not be extended to apply to ADEA claims brought against federal employers because the reasoning of Gross does not support a broad expansion of its holding, and because a less stringent burden of proof is more appropriate in the federal employment context. Part I explains the current requirements placed on a plaintiff bringing a § 623 ADEA claim against a nonfederal employer, as laid out by the Supreme Court in Gross. Part II explores the applicability of Gross to § 633a of the ADEA, which applies to federal employers, and compares the reasoning of those courts that have chosen to apply Gross in the federal employment context with that of those courts that have refrained from doing so. Finally, Part III proposes that Gross should not be expanded to require “but-for” causation in claims brought against federal employers under § 633a of the ADEA for a number of statutory interpretation and policy reasons, and instead recommends a “substantial factor” causation test in which age must be material to an adverse employment action, but need not be the “but-for” cause

A Gross Injustice: Proving Age Discrimination by Federal Employers Under the ADEA in the Wake of Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc.

(Excerpt) This Note argues that the “but-for” causation required under Gross should not be extended to apply to ADEA claims brought against federal employers because the reasoning of Gross does not support a broad expansion of its holding, and because a less stringent burden of proof is more appropriate in the federal employment context. Part I explains the current requirements placed on a plaintiff bringing a § 623 ADEA claim against a nonfederal employer, as laid out by the Supreme Court in Gross. Part II explores the applicability of Gross to § 633a of the ADEA, which applies to federal employers, and compares the reasoning of those courts that have chosen to apply Gross in the federal employment context with that of those courts that have refrained from doing so. Finally, Part III proposes that Gross should not be expanded to require “but-for” causation in claims brought against federal employers under § 633a of the ADEA for a number of statutory interpretation and policy reasons, and instead recommends a “substantial factor” causation test in which age must be material to an adverse employment action, but need not be the “but-for” cause

The female body in question: a study of Monique Wittig's writings with particular reference to L'Opoponax

PhDThis thesis is a comprehensive study of Monique Wittig's fiction, in which I explore the links between womanhood, sisterhood and writing. Particular attention is paid to L'Opoponax (1964), in which I argue that Wittig suggests a way out of the impasse of Freudian theories of femininity. This is achieved at all levels: stylistic, formal and thematic. I begin by defining my psychoanalytic and literary contexts (Freud, Klein and Irigaray for the former, contemporary French, English and American women's writing for the latter), in order to introduce the major debates connected with the concept of the female body and its representation in Western culture. I then show how the Freudian drama of sexual difference - namely, castration anxiety as it affects the little girl - is both powerfully evoked and systematically sidestepped in L'Opoponax, with its focus on relationships between women. Using Klein and Irigaray, I describe the problems arising within the mother/daughter dyad. I suggest that L'Opoponax hints at a healed relationship but also leaves much unsorted; this is seen to pull against the radical innovations of later texts, particularly Le Corps lesbien, accounting for some of the violence to be found there. The question of the mother versus the woman is thus not fully closed, but creates a space within which the amantes, female lovers, can begin to live and move. I end by replacing this question within its wider context as it is a crucial one for the future development of feminist writing

Opinions, Attitudes, and Self-Efficacy of Secondary School Counselors in RAMP and non-RAMP Designated Schools and their Work with Students with Disabilities

The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) implemented standards that aid the professional school counselor via a comprehensive program to serve all students (ASCA, 2019). This study examines secondary school counselors working in RAMP and non-RAMP designated schools. The designation of recognized ASCA model programs (RAMP), which awards schools when they successfully implement comprehensive programs, leads one to believe that RAMP programs exhibit effectiveness, while understanding that lacking RAMP certification does not mean a comprehensive school counseling program does not exist. The current study surveyed secondary school counselors’ attitude, self-efficacy, and opinions toward work with students with disabilities. An independent samples t test explored group differences among secondary school counselors working in RAMP and non-RAMP designated schools. A MANOVA determined the variance of self-efficacy and attitudes of secondary school counselors working in RAMP and non-RAMP designated schools toward students with disabilities. Results of the study indicate there are not any differences in the attitudes, self-efficacy, and opinions of secondary school counselors working in RAMP and non-RAMP designated schools. Future implications for school counselors are to increase training in the area of Response to Intervention (RTI) and special education as the need and population grows within school systems as well as determining standards on how effectiveness of school counseling programs can be measured. Keywords: ASCA, RAMP, attitudes, self-efficacy, opinions, disabilities, t test, MANOVA, RT

Mind the Gap: Another look at the problem of the semantic gap in image retrieval

This paper attempts to review and characterise the problem of the semantic gap in image retrieval and the attempts being made to bridge it. In particular, we draw from our own experience in user queries, automatic annotation and ontological techniques. The first section of the paper describes a characterisation of the semantic gap as a hierarchy between the raw media and full semantic understanding of the media's content. The second section discusses real users' queries with respect to the semantic gap. The final sections of the paper describe our own experience in attempting to bridge the semantic gap. In particular we discuss our work on auto-annotation and semantic-space models of image retrieval in order to bridge the gap from the bottom up, and the use of ontologies, which capture more semantics than keyword object labels alone, as a technique for bridging the gap from the top down