Education and Social Capital

Education is usually the most important predictor of political and social engagement. Over the last half century, educational levels in the United States have risen sharply, yet levels of political and social participation have not. Norman Nie, Jane Junn, and Kenneth Stehlik-Barry (NJS-B) have offered an elegant resolution to this paradox based on a distinction between the relative education having positive effects on participation. Using a broad range of evidence, including the data used by NJS-B, this paper shows that increases in average education levels improve trust and do not reduce participation levels. The contrast with the NJS-B participation results is found to be due to the definition of the educational environment. We use a changing regional comparison group, theoretically preferable to NJS-B's static national measure. Our results point to a more optimistic conclusion about the consequences of increases in average education levels, while leaving open the puzzle of sluggish participation.

Education and Social Capital

Education is usually the most important predictor of political and social engagement. Over the last half Century, educational levels in the United States have risen sharply, yet levels of political and social participation have not. Norman Nie, Jane Junn and Kenneth Stehlik-Barry (NJS-B) have offered a resolution to this paradox based on the distinction between absolute and relative education, with only relative education having positive effects on education. Using a broad range of data, including that used by NJS-B, this paper shows that increases in average education levels increases trust and does not reduce average participation levels. These results are found when we use a dynamic regional comparison group, theoretically preferable to NJS-B’s static national measure. Our results provide an optimistic conclusion about the effects of increases in education levels, while leaving open the explanation of declining participation levels. Our results suggest that exposure to television during childhood may play an important role in that story.

The nature of a constituent of quebracho tannin.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityTanning is defined as a process of skin treatment whereby the hot water shrinkage point of the skin is raised, the fibres of the skin substance are prevented from mutually adhering on drying, and the skin substance is protected from putrefaction under ordinary conditions in air. There are various kinds of tanning processes such as vegetable tanning, chrome tanning, formaldehyde tanning, oil tanning and synthetic tanning. In vegetable tanning the materials used for the actual preservation process are obtained from the bark or wood or other parts of various trees or plants. Vegetable tannins may be conveniently divided into three groups. The first of these is the class of depsides or gallotannins which are hydrolysable and yield gallic acid. The second group consists of hydrolysable tannins which yield ellagic acid. The third group consists of non-hydrolysable tannins called phlobatannins. The latter yield red-colored insoluble products called "phlobaphenes" on boiling with acid. Catechin tannin is a phlobatannin and the structure of catechin is known, but not the structure of its tannin. The structure of no phlobatannin is known at present. Many have speculated as to their general structure on very slim evidence and some tannins have been synthesized which appear qualitatively similar to phlobatannins, but no real proof of structure has been forthcoming. [TRUNCATED

When Do People Trust Their Social Groups?

Trust facilitates cooperation and supports positive outcomes in social groups, including member satisfaction, information sharing, and task performance. Extensive prior research has examined individuals' general propensity to trust, as well as the factors that contribute to their trust in specific groups. Here, we build on past work to present a comprehensive framework for predicting trust in groups. By surveying 6,383 Facebook Groups users about their trust attitudes and examining aggregated behavioral and demographic data for these individuals, we show that (1) an individual's propensity to trust is associated with how they trust their groups, (2) smaller, closed, older, more exclusive, or more homogeneous groups are trusted more, and (3) a group's overall friendship-network structure and an individual's position within that structure can also predict trust. Last, we demonstrate how group trust predicts outcomes at both individual and group level such as the formation of new friendship ties.Comment: CHI 201

Curved Waveguide Based Nuclear Fission for Small, Lightweight Reactors

The focus of the presented work is on the creation of a system of grazing incidence, supermirror waveguides for the capture and reuse of fission sourced neutrons. Within research reactors, neutron guides are a well known tool for directing neutrons from the confined and hazardous central core to a more accessible testing or measurement location. Typical neutron guides have rectangular, hollow cross sections, which are crafted as thin, mirrored waveguides plated with metal (commonly nickel). Under glancing angles with incoming neutrons, these waveguides can achieve nearly lossless transport of neutrons to distant instruments. Furthermore, recent developments have created supermirror surfaces which can accommodate neutron grazing angles up to four times as steep as nickel. A completed system will form an enclosing ring or spherical resonator system to a coupled neutron source for the purpose of capturing and reusing free neutrons to sustain and/or accelerate fission. While grazing incidence mirrors are a known method of directing and safely using neutrons, no method has been disclosed for capture and reuse of neutrons or sustainment of fission using a circular waveguide structure. The presented work is in the process of fabricating a functional, highly curved, neutron supermirror using known methods of Ni-Ti layering capable of achieving incident reflection angles up to four times steeper than nickel alone. Parallel work is analytically investigating future geometries, mirror compositions, and sources for enabling sustained fission with applicability to the propulsion and energy goals of NASA and other agencies. Should research into this concept prove feasible, it would lead to development of a high energy density, low mass power source potentially capable of sustaining fission with a fraction of the standard critical mass for a given material and a broadening of feasible materials due to reduced rates of release, absorption, and non-fission for neutrons. This advance could be applied to direct propulsion through guided fission products or as a secondary energy source for high impulse electric propulsion. It would help meet national needs for highly efficient energy sources with limited dependence on fossil fuels or conflict materials, and it would improve the use of low grade fissile materials which would help reduce national stockpiles and waste

Worldwide Workshop on Youth Involvement as a Strategy for Social, Economic and Democratic Development

Summarizes January 2000 discussions on building capacity in the field of youth service. Explores connections with social capital, economic productivity, adolescent development, marginalized youth, civic engagement, and policy. Includes country summaries

Dairy Farm Business Summary: Eastern Plateau Region 1985

A.E. Ext. 86-22Dairy farmers throughout the State have been participating in New York Cooperative Extension's farm business summary and analysis program since the early 1950's. Each participating farmer receives a complete summary and analysis of his or her farm business in addition to this publication. The information in this report is compiled by averaging data submitted from the region described at the bottom of this page. Program Objective The primary objective of the dairy farm business summary, DFBS, is to provide farm managers information concerning profitability, financial condition, productivity, and efficiency to be used to assist them in delineating the strengths/weaknesses of the farm business and to improve decision-making. In short, DFBS identifies the records farmers need and provides information to be used in making business and financial management decisions. Program Improvements The 1985 DFBS report features improved accrual accounting procedures, a new measure of farm profitability, a more indepth balance sheet, an annual cash flow statement, and several major improvements in the business analysis format and the analysis measures used. These and other changes are identified in the body of this report. The revised format provides one full page for the analysis of the farm cropping program and another for complete analysis of the dairy program. Corn and hay crop related expenses are evaluated separately for cooperating farmers. The cost of producing milk per cow and per hundredweight of milk sold has been compiled. An annual cash flow worksheet has been added to the farmer's individual report. The popular Progress of The Farm Business report has been moved to page one of the farmer's report and added to this publication. Micro DFBS, which allows Cooperative Extension agents and specialists to calculate and print individual farm business reports in their offices, is now being used by more than 50 percent of our dairy farm management field staff. This innovative program provides faster processing of farm record data and increased use of DFBS in farm management programs