Servicer performance in processing HAMP loan modifications: a survey of Massachusetts-based counseling agencies

The Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP) attempts to help homeowners avoid foreclosure by compensating servicers that allow borrowers to modify the terms of their mortgages. To understand the seemingly troubled HAMP process, the Community Development unit of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank of Boston administered surveys to loan-modification counselors. The results indicate that the process takes much longer than the guidelines indicate and that servicers frequently claim the applications are incomplete. The surveys were run twice to assess any improvements.Mortgage loans - Massachusetts ; Mortgage servicing

Lessons from resurgent cities

In 2008, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston began a project to help reinvigorate the city of Springfield, Massachusetts. This cross-departmental initiative uses the Boston Fed's research and convening capabilities to complement the efforts of other organizations dedicated to improving economic and social conditions in New England's fourth-largest city. As noted in an earlier joint Federal Reserve-Brookings Institution study, Springfield has one of the highest rates of concentrated poverty in the country: one-third of the city's poor live in neighborhoods where poverty rates exceed 40 percent. Thus, a particular focus of the Boston Fed project has been to support revitalization strategies that would enable more city residents, particularly those located in poor areas, to prosper. While the Boston Fed project focuses on the city of Springfield, we hope to devise approaches that can be replicated in other struggling mid-sized cites around New England and the nation. To this end, this essay reports on lessons learned from our research on older industrial cities that have adapted relatively well to economic challenges, and are recognized as vital communities today. We believe these "resurgent cities" provide relevant, inspiring insights on development strategies for urban America.Cities and towns ; Cities and towns - Massachusetts ; Economic conditions ; Economic conditions - Massachusetts ; Economic policy ; Economic policy - Massachusetts

Teaching skills in virtual and blended learning environments

Universities are currently immersed in what is known as the process of European convergence to create the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The aim is to establish a standardized, compatible and flexible European university system that enables graduates and undergraduates to move easily from one institution to another within Europe. As a result of evaluation mechanisms, the system will be transparent and of high quality, which will make it attractive and competitive internationally in a globalized world. In this paper, we focus on two distance learning modes that will become more important as a result of this change in universities: e-learning and b-learning. These basically involve the virtualization of learning processes through the use of computer equipment. We carried out a qualitative study using the case study method. The results indicate that teaching staff use information and communication technology (ICT) to improve student learning. Similarly, a high percentage (78%) of lecturers use some form of digital platform as a support for teaching. In conclusion, training policies should strengthen university teachers’ skills in the use of ICT equipment, tools and resources related to blended and virtual learning

Twists of opposite handedness on a scroll wave

The dynamic interaction of scroll waves in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction with a vertically orientated gradient of excitability is studied by optical tomography. This study focuses on scroll waves, whose filaments were oriented almost perpendicular to the gradient. Whereas scroll waves with filaments exactly perpendicular to the gradient remain unaffected, filaments with a component parallel to the gradient develop a twist. Scroll waves with U-shaped filaments exhibit twists starting from both of its ends, resulting in scroll waves whose filaments display a pair of twists of opposite handedness. These twists are separated by a nodal plane where the filament remains straight and untwisted. The experimental findings were reproduced by numerical simulations using the Oregonator model and a linear gradient of excitability almost perpendicular to the orientation of the filament.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Exploring the Influence of Personality on Bias Propensity: A Pilot Experiment

Treball Final de Grau en Economia. Codi: EC1049. Curs acadèmic: 2022/2023This dissertation explores the influence of individuals' psychological characteristics on their economically irrational decision-making through a pilot experiment. The research aims at addressing the question by designing an experiment. Firstly, the study provides a contextualization of behavioral economics and highlights the key features of economic behavior. Additionally, it examines the impact of personal traits on investors and delves into the major cognitive biases that will be analyzed in the experiment. Subsequently, a pilot experiment is conducted, followed by an extensive analysis of the results obtained and the limitations encountered during the implementation. The findings shed light on the relationship between psychological characteristics and irrational economic decision-making, contributing to a deeper understanding of this field. The experiment serves as a valuable stepping stone for future research in this area

Accommodation in Fiction: The Role of Convergence in Intergroup Encounters

Linguistic strategies are frequently used in fiction so as to create a sense of reality. One of the most common of such resources in many anglophone TV series is the creation of groups of friends, who develop some rituals and conventions that the viewers are able to recognise as the show goes by, and one of the most common linguistic strategies in the creation of rituals and conventions is accommodation, which is usually used to create a sense of convergence or divergence towards the interlocutor(s). Although considerable research has been devoted to the concept of accommodation, less attention has been drawn to its use in fiction and the effects it triggers. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyse the use of convergent accommodation as a linguistic strategy used to create a sense of reality in intergroup encounters within fiction. Hence, Communication Accommodation Theory (Dragojevic et al., “Communication Accommodation Theory”, “Accommodative Strategies”) was chosen as the framework to develop the study because it provides a thorough analysis of accommodative moves, considering speakers’ orientation, goal and subsequent evaluation. The samples were gathered from the TV series How I Met Your Mother, for the characters in the series are a group of friends consisting of two women and three men, which also allows for the study of possible gender differences as regards trends in accommodation. The samples were analysed both in a quantitative and qualitative manner, considering speakers’ initial orientation and gender. The results from the analysis show that convergent accommodation has an important role in the creation of rituals and conventions to provide the show with the desired sense of reality. Besides, the results also show some interesting differences in the way women and men are depicted regarding accommodation trends

Vilation of the Principles of Equal Treatment by the Creation of the Crime of Feminicid

El ensayo va encaminado a plasmar una interpretación personal acerca del principio de igualdad, en cuanto a la creación del delito de feminicidio, norma implementada en nuestro ordenamiento jurídico con la Ley 1761 del 6 de julio de 2015, con el fin de brindar un mayor castigo al hombre que comete homicidio contra una mujer. Pues de manera general, “el que matare a otro” se encuentra tipificado en nuestro ordenamiento jurídico en la ley 599 de 2000, en su artículo 103 que regula el homicidio; razón por la cual desde mi punto de vista no había la necesidad de adicionar un nuevo delito, en el caso en donde la víctima es una mujer. Como resultado en la historia se evidencia el sometimiento de la mujer, la falta de respeto entre las parejas, la presencia del machismo en la crianza tanto de los hombres como de las mujeres, concluyendo que existe aún un retraso, un sumisión de la mujer muy alta que únicamente puede ser corregida con intervención consciente de la familia y del Estado.The essay is focused in the personal interpretation of the equality principle regarding the creation of the femminicide crime , implemented in the law 1761 of July 2015 designed to give a greater punishment to the man that commits homicide against a woman .As in general form the principle of “he who should kill the other one” is stated in the 599 law of 2000 in the article 103 that typifies homicide. For that reason from my point of view there is no reason to create a new crime, in the specific case that the victim is a woman. As a result of Feminicide it is evident the oppression of women , the lack of respect between the couples , and the presence of “machismo” in the raising of men and women , concluding that there is still a backlog and a widespread submission of women that can only bee fixed trough the intervention of the pair, family and stat