Me Artsy compiled and edited by Drew Hayden Taylor

Review of Me Artsy compiled and edited by Drew Hayden Taylor

What Communities Can Do to Rein In Payday Lending: Strategies for Successful Local Ordinance Campaigns through a Texas Lens

Because New Mexico has one of the highest consumer usage rates and highest concentrations of payday and title loan shops in the nation,2 we thought it would be an ideal place to measure the public’s knowledge of and interest in these ubiquitous loans. We also measured knowledge of interest rate caps in the context of credit cards, as a point of comparison. Our data are consistent with that of previous studies showing that the general public overwhelmingly supports interest rate caps both in general and for certain types of loans. More uniquely, we also found that many consumers are unaware that there are no interest rate caps on many forms of consumer loans. These data are useful in explaining why consumers do not do more to change the law on interest rate caps

The Price Premium for Organic Babyfood: A Hedonic Analysis

The price premium associated with organic babyfood is estimated by applying a hedonic model to price and characteristic data for babyfood products collected in two cities: Raleigh, North Carolina, and San Jose, California. The price per ounce of babyfood is modeled as a function of a number of babyfood and store characteristics. The estimated organic price premium is generally equal to 3 cents to 4 cents per ounce. To the extent this premium reflects consumer willingness to pay to reduce pesticide exposures, it could be used to infer values for reduced dietary exposures to pesticide residues for babies.babyfood, hedonic analysis, organic foods, Demand and Price Analysis,

Me, Myself, & Identity Online: Identity Salience on Facebook vs Non-Virtual Identity

Many Social Networking Sites have come and gone over the past decade, but Facebook continues to grow in popularity. Facebook is designed to connect people to one another through virtual networks of “friends” where members participate in the presentation of self virtually- through profile creation, maintenance, and exchanges of content. Social Networking Sites create a location for identity formation and projection that is similar, yet distinct, from face-to-face interactions. Facebook offers a unique avenue for people to control their presentation of self, while maintaining reflexive features. This study this study explores the notion of a particular “Facebook role” while specifically addressing front stage projections in relation to backstage information and the resulting differences in identity. In effect, people are “themselves” on Facebook, just a consistently “good” version of themselves

The purposes of school:an instrumental case study

Abstract. This thesis is a qualitative study about the purposes of school using a combination of theoretical and empirical data. The school under study is the collection of schools and corresponding social imaginary that emerged in the 19th century in the compulsory mass education movement. This is the social imaginary of a “relatively uniform model” of compulsory mass schooling, or education for all, as a state or government responsibility. The research aims to answer the following questions: i) How have the purposes of school been understood by different researchers since the spread of mass schooling? ii) How do the purposes of school appear to be understood by different agents within an education community in Ontario? As the research is framed as a case study of the education community in Ontario, along with a section summarizing the history of school, the first data set, a collection of literature by a diverse group of educational authors, was used in order to inform the analysis of a second data set and contribute to the case. This data set was analyzed using inductive qualitative content analysis, with themes emerging from the data. The second data set, data from the case itself, was a selection of interviews with educators as well as one student interview and 30 student productions about the topic. These were analyzed using deductive qualitative content analysis, whereas the themes induced in the first data set were used to analyze the second data set, with space for new themes to emerge. The findings of the study suggest that there is quite a panoply of perceptions of the purposes of school. On the theoretical side, much depends on the context and history of schools in the given context, and vary in terms of temporal purposes (preparation for adulthood and for the present moment), as well as in terms of individual or collective purposes, and finally as an oppressive or enlightening force. For the educators in Ontario, the purposes seem to be more fluid and depend on the students’ and school board’s initiatives. The purposes have been found to also relate to individual beliefs and values. As will be discussed below, every purpose but one found in the literature, was also mentioned in the interviews. Interestingly, new themes emerged. There also seems to be a major issue with respect to the lack of time available and taken by educators to reflect on the purposes of school. It is possible that we are stuck in a cycle of accepting that this school under study has no viable alternative in our societies, without necessarily understanding or reflecting on the “why” behind its existence.Abstract . Ce mémoire consiste d’une étude qualitative sur la raison d’être de l’école. L’étude se base sur une combinaison de données théoriques et empiriques. L’école étudiée est celle qui a émergé au XIXe siècle durant la période qui a commencé le mouvement vers l’éducation obligatoire pour tous. Ce mouvement s’est transformé dans un imaginaire social puissant d’un «modèle relativement uniforme» de la scolarité en tant que responsabilité de l’État ou du gouvernement. La recherche vise à répondre aux questions suivantes: i) Comment la raison d’être de l’école a-t-elle été comprise par différents chercheurs depuis la diffusion de la scolarisation des masses? ii) Comment la raison d’être de l’école semble-t-elle être comprise par différents agents au sein d’une communauté scolaire en Ontario? La recherche est présentée comme une étude de cas d’une communauté éducative en Ontario, avec une section résumant l’histoire de l’école. Le premier ensemble de données, une collection de littérature par un groupe diversifié d’auteurs pédagogiques, a été utilisé afin d’éclairer l’analyse du deuxième ensemble de données. Le deuxième ensemble de données consistait d’entretiens avec les agents de la communauté scolaire ainsi que des contributions d’élèves. Le tout a été analysé à l’aide d’une méthode d’analyse de contenu qualitative déductive. Les thèmes induits du le premier ensemble de données ont été utilisés pour analyser le deuxième ensemble de données, avec un espace pour l’émergence de nouveaux thèmes. Les résultats de l’étude suggèrent qu’il existe une panoplie de perceptions sur la raison d’être de l’école. Sur le plan théorique, beaucoup dépend du contexte et de l’histoire des écoles dans le contexte donné, et varie en termes d’objectifs temporels, ainsi qu’en termes d’objectifs individuels ou collectifs, et enfin comme une force oppressive ou éclairante. Pour les éducateurs de l’Ontario, les objectifs semblent plus fluides et dépendent de la réalité des élèves et des initiatives conseils scolaires. Il a été constaté que les raisons d’être qui ont emergés des données concernaient également les croyances et les valeurs individuelles. Comme nous le verrons ci-dessous, toutes les raisons d’être sauf un trouvés dans la littérature ont également été mentionnés dans les entretiens. De plus, de nouveaux thèmes ont émergé. Il semble également avoir un problème majeur en ce qui concerne le manque de temps dis-ponible et pris par les éducateurs pour réfléchir à la raison d’être de l’école. Il est possible que nous soyons coincés dans un cycle d’accepter que ce modèle, celui de l’école obligatoire et pour tous, n’a pas d’alternative viable dans nos sociétés, sans nécessairement comprendre ou réfléchir sur le «pourquoi» derrière son existence

Theoretical studies of the phase transition in the anisotropic 2-D square spin lattice

The phase transition occurring in a square 2-D spin lattice governed by an anisotropic Heisenberg Hamiltonian has been studied according to two recently proposed methods. The first one, the Dressed Cluster Method, provides excellent evaluations of the cohesive energy, the discontinuity of its derivative around the critical (isotropic) value of the anisotropy parameter confirms the first-order character of the phase transition. Nevertheless the method introduces two distinct reference functions (either N\'eel or XY) which may in principle force the discontinuity. The Real Space Renormalization Group with Effective Interactions does not reach the same numerical accuracy but it does not introduce a reference function and the phase transition appears qualitatively as due to the existence of two domains, with specific fixed points. The method confirms the dependence of the spin gap on the anisotropy parameter occurring in the Heisenberg-Ising domain

Mass and angular momenta of Kerr anti-de Sitter spacetimes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory

We compute the mass and angular momenta of rotating anti-de Sitter spacetimes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravity using a superpotential derived from standard Noether identities. The calculation relies on the fact that the Einstein and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet vacuum equations are the same when linearized on maximally symmetric backgrounds and uses the recently discovered D-dimensional Kerr-anti-de Sitter solutions to Einstein's equations

On the mass of a Kerr-anti-de Sitter spacetime in D dimensions

We show how to compute the mass of a Kerr-anti-de Sitter spacetime with respect to the anti-de Sitter background in any dimension, using a superpotential which has been derived from standard Noether identities. The calculation takes no account of the source of the curvature and confirms results obtained for black holes via the first law of thermodynamics.Comment: minor changes; accepted by CQ