Social indicators and the study of inequality

This paper was presented at the conference "Unequal incomes, unequal outcomes? Economic inequality and measures of well-being" as part of session 5, "Social indicators in New York City." The conference was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on May 7, 1999. The authors address some of the challenges faced by economists and others who undertake to measure well-being and inequality and to identify inequality's causes and effects. Their project - the New York City Social Indicators Survey (SIS) - uses social indicators to track economic well-being and inequality. By pushing beyond the limitations of current data sources, SIS will enable the authors to collect the data necessary to define inequality in concrete terms and evaluate whether New York City is becoming more or less unequal. Significantly, it will also shed light on what effect government policies have on inequality's magnitude and consequences.Economic indicators ; Public policy ; Income distribution ; New York (N.Y.)

Specimen geometry effects on graphite/PMR-15 composites during thermo-oxidative aging

Studies were conducted to establish the effects of specimen geometry on the thermo-oxidative stability and the mechanical properties retention of unidirectional Celion 12000 graphite fiber reinforced PMR-15 polyimide composites. Weight loss, flexural strength and interlaminar shear strength are measured at isothermal aging times as long as 1639 hr at a temperature of 316 C for three different specimen geometries. It is found that the three different types of specimen surfaces exhibit different values of weight loss/unit area. The mechanical properties retention is also found to be dependent on geometry for these composites. The interlaminar shear strength decreases significantly over the complete range of aging times. The flexural strength retention starts showing geometric dependency after about 1000 hr of aging at 316C. Weight loss fluxes, associated with the three different types of exposed surfaces, are calculated and used to develop an empirical mathematical model for predicting the weight loss behavior of unidirectional composites of arbitrary geometries. Data are presented comparing experimentally determined weight loss with weight loss values predicted using the empirical model

Supports for Working Families: Work and Care Policies across Welfare States

Familienpolitik, Sozialpolitik, Sozialstaat, Eltern, Erwerbstätigkeit, Familie, Kinderbetreuung, Vereinigte Staaten, Westeuropa, Family policy, Social policy, Welfare state, Parents, Labour force participation, Family, Child care, United states, Western

Exploring the feasibility of international collaboration and relationship building through a virtual partnership scheme

International collaboration is an under-studied component of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This study sheds light on the process of international collaboration by illustrating an exploratory approach to the process of forming and maintaining collaborative partnerships. Participants in this study were put into pairs (each one comprised of one individual from the University of Glasgow and another from the University of Wisconsin System) and asked to participate in email correspondence over the course of one year. The text of participants’ emails was pooled and analyzed through a general inductive approach using NVivo software. The study, though small in nature, helps to illustrate and further understand international collaborative relationships. We offer suggestions for future international collaborations and discuss the implications of emphasizing such partnerships within SoTL

Influences on Music Preference Formation

Music preference is a multifaceted topic that addresses questions which continuously elude musicologists, music researchers and social psychologists. How does something so pervasive in our lives, such as music, remain a mystery to us? Music preference has been studied on many levels and the factors that influence the types of music we prefer are numerous, including genres, exposure, personality, and musical characteristics. However, our understanding of how and why music preferences are formed is still fragmented. We can narrow down music preferences into two broad categories: intrinsic and extrinsic qualities. In attempt to explore these characteristics, three commonly emerging theories concerning musical preference formation will serve as the foundation: repeated exposure, social learning, and inherent musical qualities. The current paper aims to draw on these theories in relation to the development and reasoning behind our musical preferences

Autofictional themes, Practices and Strategies in View of the Construction of Intercultural Values at the University of Swaziland.

This article explores the notion of autofiction/faction: a post-modern literary concept which represents a blend of fact and fiction. At the same time, the paper wants to draw the reader’s attention on the pedagogical possibilities of autofictional writing in the teaching of literature at the University of Swaziland. The notion of interculturality,with its goal of creating understanding of and among people, while safeguarding the relative identities of the actors involved, guides the analysis of postmodern feminine writing in the form of three Francophone women authors, C. Beyala, N. Bouraoui and A. Nothomb. Beyala writes autofiction from a feminist perspective, hers is thestruggle for recognition of women rights and women’s autonomy within a patriarchal society. Bouraoui came to autofiction from a  psychoanalytical perspective, which makes her a descendant from Doubrovsky, the inventor of the autofiction neologism. Nothomb proposes a very personal and cathartic relationship to writing through which she wished to reach women in general. In conclusion, the article suggests the benefits of the analysis of the concept of autofiction as well as of the themes and language used in autofictional texts to university students in Swaziland because they promote intercultural understanding and acceptance

Optimal model parameters for multi-objective large-eddy simulations

A methodology is proposed for the assessment of error dynamics in large-eddy simulations. It is demonstrated that the optimization of model parameters with respect to one flow property can be obtained at the expense of the accuracy with which other flow properties are predicted. Therefore, an approach is introduced which allows to assess the total errors based on various flow properties simultaneously. We show that parameter settings exist, for which all monitored errors are "near optimal," and refer to such regions as "multi-objective optimal parameter regions." We focus on multi-objective errors that are obtained from weighted spectra, emphasizing both large- as well small-scale errors. These multi-objective optimal parameter regions depend strongly on the simulation Reynolds number and the resolution. At too coarse resolutions, no multi-objective optimal regions might exist as not all error-components might simultaneously be sufficiently small. The identification of multi-objective optimal parameter regions can be adopted to effectively compare different subgrid models. A comparison between large-eddy simulations using the Lilly-Smagorinsky model, the dynamic Smagorinsky model and a new Re-consistent eddy-viscosity model is made, which illustrates this. Based on the new methodology for error assessment the latter model is found to be the most accurate and robust among the selected subgrid models, in combination with the finite volume discretization used in the present study

On the Numerical Dispersion of Electromagnetic Particle-In-Cell Code : Finite Grid Instability

The Particle-In-Cell (PIC) method is widely used in relativistic particle beam and laser plasma modeling. However, the PIC method exhibits numerical instabilities that can render unphysical simulation results or even destroy the simulation. For electromagnetic relativistic beam and plasma modeling, the most relevant numerical instabilities are the finite grid instability and the numerical Cherenkov instability. We review the numerical dispersion relation of the electromagnetic PIC algorithm to analyze the origin of these instabilities. We rigorously derive the faithful 3D numerical dispersion of the PIC algorithm, and then specialize to the Yee FDTD scheme. In particular, we account for the manner in which the PIC algorithm updates and samples the fields and distribution function. Temporal and spatial phase factors from solving Maxwell's equations on the Yee grid with the leapfrog scheme are also explicitly accounted for. Numerical solutions to the electrostatic-like modes in the 1D dispersion relation for a cold drifting plasma are obtained for parameters of interest. In the succeeding analysis, we investigate how the finite grid instability arises from the interaction of the numerical 1D modes admitted in the system and their aliases. The most significant interaction is due critically to the correct represenation of the operators in the dispersion relation. We obtain a simple analytic expression for the peak growth rate due to this interaction.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure