Are C02 Emission Levels Converging Among Industrial Countries?

Time paths of carbon dioxide emissions in twenty-one industrial countries are examined from 1960-1997 to test for stochastic and conditional convergence. Both panel unit root tests and cross-section regressions are performed. Overall, we find significant evidence that C02 emissions have converged

The Legal and Managerial Challenge of Obesity as a Disability: Evidence from the Federal Courts

The Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibit discrimination against applicants and employees with disabilities. Following the elements of a prima facie claim of discrimination, this legal brief explores the conditions under which obesity has been deemed a disability. Although obesity is not generally considered a disabling impairment, plaintiffs have successfully brought obesity-related claims based on a rarely implicated definition of disability. The so-called regarded as definition protects those who are not substantially limited by any condition but are subjected to discrimination based on the perception that they are limited by a physical or mental impairment. Although employers have faired well in such obesity-related discrimination claims, a review of federal case law suggests that public human-resource managers are advised to adopt a strategy that reduces the likelihood of obesity-related discrimination, as it is more desirable to avoid potentially litigious behavior than to emerge victorious in court

Regulatory Federalism and the Distribution of Air Pollutant Emissions

Recent empirical work suggests that (i) incomes are converging through time, and (ii) income and pollution levels are linked. This paper weds these two literatures by examining the spatial and temporal distribution of pollution. After establishing that theoretical predictions about whether pollution will converge are critically linked to certain structural parameters, we explore pollution convergence using state-level data on two important pollutants—nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides—from 1929 to 1999. We find stronger evidence of converging emission rates during the federal pollution control years (1970–1999) than during the local control years (1929–1969). These results suggest that income convergence alone may not be sufficient to induce convergence of pollutant emissions

Distributed Terror And The Ordering Of Networked Social Space

Truth be told, the “Y2K bug” was quite a disappointment. While the technopundits wooed us with visions of network failures worthy of millennial fervor, Jan. 1, 2000, came and went without even a glimmer of the catastrophic. Yet the Y2K “bug” did reveal the degree to which the American apocalypse now took the form of the network itself. The spaces of everyday life in America and elsewhere in a developed world produce and are produced by network structures that Manuel Castells has called “spaces of flow.” As such, Catastrophe today is marked more by dispersion and dissipation, rather than breakdown — a dis-strophe of social forms, structures, and experience.The dissipation of enactive networks does not, however, equate with a system failure. With the Internet “bubble burst” of March, 2000, the very exuberance of market flows were very much the conditions of possibility for both the irruption of a new economy and its sudden evaporation. It is not the ephemerality of these social forms and structures that disorients activities of everyday life in a network society, but rather our lack of control over distributed processes. The bubble burst, then, by no means sounded a death knell for distributed network functions. Rather, it marked a moment of increased misrecognition of the forms, structures, and practices that were the conditions of possibility for the event itself, as an ideology of authentication eclipsed a rhetoric of emergence and flow. Billions in capital disappeared in a matter of weeks, but the network forms and structures that allowed individual users “direct access” to the flows of capital remained in place for a normative virtual class, articulated as personalized and privatized spaces of control

Burnout in Ghanaian hospitals: Phase model findings in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This replication shows the expected covariation of the phases of burnout with a set of 5 marker variables. As the phases progress I ---> VIII, so do decreases or deficits occur on all the marker variables. All covariants far surpass usually-accepted levels of statistical significance, although the magnitudes are not as great as in much other research with the phases. The Ghanaian incidence of the phases is also compared with several panels of populations. Those comparisons at once indicate a substantial Ghanaian incidence of advanced phases, as well as a distribution comparable to North American worksettings and more favorable than a panel of global worksettings

A New Era of Protection Against Disability Discrimination? The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 and “Regarded As” Disabled

Several U.S. Supreme Court rulings have substantially narrowed the coverage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) since its passage in 1990. Congress amended the ADA in 2008 to restore the original congressional intent of providing broad coverage for people with disabilities.This article seeks to determine whether the 2008 amendments are a mere technical adjustment of the ADA, or constitute significant legislation in their own right.A review of existing law, resulting regulations, and federal cases reveals that the amendments may promise much but deliver more of the same. Nevertheless, employers are well-advised to renew their efforts to cooperate with applicants and employees with disabilities, if for no other reason than to avoid a costly lawsuit that employers are perhaps now more likely to lose

Measuring Customer Service: Georgia’s Local Government Mystery Shopper Program

Abstract unavailabl

Are incomes converging among OECD countries? Time series evidence with two structural breaks

Time series from fifteen OECD countries for the period 1870–1994 are examined to determine if per capita incomes are stochastically converging. To perform our tests, we utilize a minimum Lagrange multiplier unit root test that endogenously determines two structural breaks in level and trend. In contrast to other tests, our test is not subject to rejections of the null in the presence of a unit root with break(s). Overall, our empirical findings provide significant evidence to support that incomes are stochastically converging. One or two permanent breaks in relative income are identified for each country, most often around the two World Wars

An Examination of the Relationship Between Student Success Courses and Persistence, Credential Attainment, and Academic Self-Efficacy Among Community College Students

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between taking a student success course and the educational outcomes of persistence, credential attainment, and academic self-efficacy. Although previous studies have examined student success courses in relation to persistence and credential attainment, few have included a self-efficacy component. This study filled an additional gap in prior studies by seeking student perceptions about their experience in a student success course. Several major findings emerged from the study. Chi-square results revealed significant relationships between enrollment in the student success course and persistence and credential attainment. Logistic regression results indicated that being younger, enrolling in a developmental education course, attending part-time, persisting, and completing a college credential predicted the likelihood of enrolling in the student success course. ANOVA results revealed a significant relationship on the Understanding Subscale of the Academic Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for student success course participants as compared to a control group. Student perceptions obtained from a focus group provided support that taking the student success course had a positive impact on academic self-efficacy and academic success. Findings contribute to the growing body of literature that student success courses provide students with certain skillsets and greater confidence to succeed in college

Software Review: ITSM 2000 Professional Version 6.0

ITSM 2000 Professional Version 6.0, developed by Peter J. Brockwell and Richard A. Davis, B&D Enterprises, Inc., Copyright 1999. The Student Version is included in Introduction to Time Series and Forecasting, 1996, Springer-Verlag New York Inc. (ISBN: 0387947191). The Professional Version is obtainable from [email protected]. Web Page of the author: http://www.stat.colostate.edu/~pjbrock