Conceptualising financial literacy

The term financial literacy is one that is not new. Financial literacy is perceived as important and as something to be encouraged in those who are not financially literate. These perceptions are exemplified by the existence of centres or bodies dedicated to financial literacy. These include the Financial Literacy Centre, University of Warwick, the National Endowment for Financial Education (USA), Financial Literacy Center (USA), and programmes such as the Start Right Coalition for Financial Literacy (Canada) and the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy (USA). In the UK the Money Management Council is involved in a number of projects aimed at raising the financial literacy of consumers. And yet what does the term financial literacy actually mean ? What distinguishes a financially literate individual from one who is financially illiterate ? This paper explores literature examining aspects of individuals’ financial literacy in particular contexts. Use of the term literacy is also explored. Current definitions were found to be lacking (clearly having implications for the operationalisation of the concept of financial literacy). These limitations are explored and suggestions are offered towards developing an explicit conceptualisation of financial literacy

Collaboration Makes More Lights Come on than Those on the Runway: Experiential Learning through an Interdisciplinary Fashion Show Project Merges Fashion and Technology

Inspired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit, Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, the idea for the theme Futuristic Floral was born to guide the direction of the Apparel Merchandising and Product Development (AMPD) fashion show. In only the second year of production, we wanted to make sure the show would entertain the audience and be a professional production. However, as educators, our primary goal was to make a lasting impact on the education of our students. This project has pushed our students to think, act, communicate, and create on a level that would not have been possible without the interaction of students from apparel and electrical engineering. The true impact for all students involved remains to be seen when the lights go down after the show and they realize they have been a part of something much bigger than they could create on their own

Short-range antiferromagnetic correlations in Kondo insulators

We study the influence of short range antiferromagnetic correlations between local $f$-electrons on the transport and thermodynamic properties of Kondo insulators, as first proposed by Coqblin et al. for metallic heavy fermions. The inter-site magnetic correlations produce an effective bandwidth for the $f$-electrons. They are treated on the same footing as the local Kondo correlations such that two energy scales appear in our approach. We discuss the competition between these two scales on the physical properties.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures. To be published in Physics Letters

Vertical transport and electroluminescence in InAs/GaSb/InAs structures: GaSb thickness and hydrostatic pressure studies

We have measured the current-voltage (I-V) of type II InAs/GaSb/InAs double heterojunctions (DHETs) with 'GaAs like' interface bonding and GaSb thickness between 0-1200 \AA. A negative differential resistance (NDR) is observed for all DHETs with GaSb thickness $>$ 60 \AA below which a dramatic change in the shape of the I-V and a marked hysteresis is observed. The temperature dependence of the I-V is found to be very strong below this critical GaSb thickness. The I-V characteristics of selected DHETs are also presented under hydrostatic pressures up to 11 kbar. Finally, a mid infra-red electroluminescence is observed at 1 bar with a threshold at the NDR valley bias. The band profile calculations presented in the analysis are markedly different to those given in the literature, and arise due to the positive charge that it is argued will build up in the GaSb layer under bias. We conclude that the dominant conduction mechanism in DHETs is most likely to arise out of an inelastic electron-heavy-hole interaction similar to that observed in single heterojunctions (SHETs) with 'GaAs like' interface bonding, and not out of resonant electron-light-hole tunnelling as proposed by Yu et al. A Zener tunnelling mechanism is shown to contribute to the background current beyond NDR.Comment: 8 pages 12 fig

An Exact Diagonalization Demonstration of Incommensurability and Rigid Band Filling for N Holes in the t-J Model

We have calculated S(q) and the single particle distribution function for N holes in the t - J model on a non--square sqrt{8} X sqrt{32} 16--site lattice with periodic boundary conditions; we justify the use of this lattice in compariosn to those of having the full square symmetry of the bulk. This new cluster has a high density of vec k points along the diagonal of reciprocal space, viz. along k = (k,k). The results clearly demonstrate that when the single hole problem has a ground state with a system momentum of vec k = (pi/2,pi/2), the resulting ground state for N holes involves a shift of the peak of the system's structure factor away from the antiferromagnetic state. This shift effectively increases continuously with N. When the single hole problem has a ground state with a momentum that is not equal to k = (pi/2,pi/2), then the above--mentioned incommensurability for N holes is not found. The results for the incommensurate ground states can be understood in terms of rigid--band filling: the effective occupation of the single hole k = (pi/2,pi/2) states is demonstrated by the evaluation of the single particle momentum distribution function . Unlike many previous studies, we show that for the many hole ground state the occupied momentum states are indeed k = (+/- pi/2,+/- pi/2) states.Comment: Revtex 3.0; 23 pages, 1 table, and 13 figures, all include

Pairing, Charge, and Spin Correlations in the Three-Band Hubbard Model

Using the Constrained Path Monte Carlo (CPMC) method, we simulated the two-dimensional, three-band Hubbard model to study pairing, charge, and spin correlations as a function of electron and hole doping and the Coulomb repulsion $V_{pd}$ between charges on neighboring Cu and O lattice sites. As a function of distance, both the $d_{x^2 - y^2}$-wave and extended s-wave pairing correlations decayed quickly. In the charge-transfer regime, increasing $V_{pd}$ decreased the long-range part of the correlation functions in both channels, while in the mixed-valent regime, it increased the long-range part of the s-wave behavior but decreased that of the d-wave behavior. Still the d-wave behavior dominated. At a given doping, increasing $V_{pd}$ increased the spin-spin correlations in the charge-transfer regime but decreased them in the mixed-valent regime. Also increasing $V_{pd}$ suppressed the charge-charge correlations between neighboring Cu and O sites. Electron and hole doping away from half-filling was accompanied by a rapid suppression of anti-ferromagnetic correlations.Comment: Revtex, 8 pages with 15 figure

Homophily and Contagion Are Generically Confounded in Observational Social Network Studies

We consider processes on social networks that can potentially involve three factors: homophily, or the formation of social ties due to matching individual traits; social contagion, also known as social influence; and the causal effect of an individual's covariates on their behavior or other measurable responses. We show that, generically, all of these are confounded with each other. Distinguishing them from one another requires strong assumptions on the parametrization of the social process or on the adequacy of the covariates used (or both). In particular we demonstrate, with simple examples, that asymmetries in regression coefficients cannot identify causal effects, and that very simple models of imitation (a form of social contagion) can produce substantial correlations between an individual's enduring traits and their choices, even when there is no intrinsic affinity between them. We also suggest some possible constructive responses to these results.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures. V2: Revised in response to referees. V3: Ditt

Upper critical field for underdoped high-T_c superconductors. Pseudogap and stripe--phase

We investigate the upper critical field in a stripe--phase and in the presence of a phenomenological pseudogap. Our results indicate that the formation of stripes affects the Landau orbits and results in an enhancement of $H_{c2}$. On the other hand, phenomenologically introduced pseudogap leads to a reduction of the upper critical field. This effect is of particular importance when the magnitude of the gap is of the order of the superconducting transition temperature. We have found that a suppression of the upper critical field takes place also for the gap that originates from the charge--density waves.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Final Interpretation Report of the PHEBUS test FPT0: Bundle Aspects

In this paper, the actual status of understanding of the dominant bundle degradation processes is presented. Here, mainly the results reported in the last years in the Bundle Interpretation Circles organised by JRC/IE and IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, Cadarache) are summarised. For the extensive and detailed computational analyses the commonly used severe accident codes such as ICARE, MELCOR, SCDAP/RELAP and ATHLET-CD are used. For the analysis of fission product release from the FPT0 bundle, specific codes such as SVECHA and XMPR were used as well.JRC.F.4-Nuclear design safet