Why Catholics Can't Vote Pro-Life

"(...) In this paper I will: 1. Discuss the problem of voting pro-life in the United States; 2. Investigate an example in which one pro-life voter’s pro-life positions are compromised; 3. Propose that the division over the “life issues” in Western democracies is rooted in misapprehensions of the Christian conceptions of A) Sin, B) the Human Person and C) Salvation before suggesting that the D) Christian Concept of God provides a useful corrective for these misapprehensions. Finally in 4., I will call on makers of public policy to overcome the ideologies based in these misapprehensions and to value human life in all their policies. This is my Hope for the Future. [...]."p.153)

Determinants of Banks\u27 Total Risk: Accounting Ratios and Macroeconomic Indicators

During the recent financial crisis, 325 U.S. banks failed whereas only 24 banks failed from 2000-2006. It is important to identify how banks’ operations and changes in the economic environment might influence the total risk level faced by U.S. banking institutions in order to avoid the number of bank failures experienced during the recent recession. This study analyzes publicly traded banks in the U.S. from 1978 to 2010. Various accounting ratios and macroeconomic indicators are used as proxies for the effects of individual bank operations and changes in the economic environment. Total risk, as measured by the standard deviation of ROA and ROE, is regressed against the accounting ratios and economic indicators to identify the important sources of total risk. Bank size, the equity to asset ratio, allowance for loan loss ratio, liquidity ratio, loan to asset ratio, growth in real GDP, growth in the money supply and the interest rate spread all appear to be significantly associated with total risk

Leadership Advancement and Mentoring of Women Into Chief Financial Officer Roles

This qualitative study investigated the personal descriptions and experiences of women in chief financial officer roles for Fortune 1000 companies, educational institutions, and private entities. Research on women in senior leadership roles is typically reflective of those in chief executive officer positions rather than chief financial officer positions. The literature is also limited on the ascension of women into chief financial officer roles and the influences of mentoring on career progression. The purpose of the study was to capture individual points of view from participants\u27 lived experiences of leadership advancement, gender inequality, and mentoring in chief financial officer roles in order to discover meaning and understanding of the phenomenon. The interview questions for this study examined (a) the effect of the glass ceiling on career ascension, (b) the influence of mentoring as either a mentee or mentor, (c) the possibility of token management roles, (d) the impact of pay disparities, (e) the implications of leadership style, (f) the influence of gender discrimination, and (g) the organizational culture in limiting or promoting women in leadership roles. The theoretical framework of the study included social learning theory, feminist theory, role congruity theory, and relational-cultural theory. Data were collected via personal interviews with 10 participants, which were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded for themes. The results showed that although gender inequalities exist, there has been progress with the mentoring and promotion of women into chief financial officer positions. The study has the potential to effect social change by emphasizing the importance of mentoring programs for women that not only address professional aspirations and goals, but also create balance for personal accomplishments

Arthur Ransome the Stylist: A Structural Analysis of Coot Club (1934)

This paper breaks new ground in the field of Ransome criticism and presents new findings.  It is the first to examine Arthur Ransome’s use of signals in his novels for children, here Coot Club (1934).  Structural analysis of the novel has revealed a carefully concealed three-tier structure, and shows Arthur Ransome to be a consummate stylist.&nbsp

Pharmaceutical benefits scheme cost recovery

Since the beginning of 2010 the Australian Government has applied cost recovery to the listing process of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). Drug companies seeking to list their drugs on the PBS or vaccines on the National Immunisation Program pay a fee at two key points - upon lodgement of the application and at the pricing stage. The lodgement fee relates to the evaluation work of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and all of its supporting administrative functions. The pricing fee relates to the pricing work of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Authority and its supporting functions. Companies that want an independent review of a PBAC recommendation to not list a drug on the PBS will also pay. The fees are not trivial - $119 500 for a major PBAC evaluation,$25 000 for a complex \u27pricing\u27 and $119 500 for an independent review. Hardly spare change, even for a pharmaceutical company. So what is the purpose of the cost recovery scheme and what are the likely consequences

Americanizing the beautiful game : the rise of mainstream American soccer, 1960-2005.

This thesis examines the rise of mainstream soccer in the United States from 1960 to 2005 with a national, a regional (Oklahoma), and then a local (Edmond, OK) focus. It argues between 1960 to 2005 conservative-leaning capitalists and politicians redefined mainstream soccer as a commercial investment aimed not to truly popularize the international sport in the United States, but to Americanize it with the mindset of producing capital for them. For example: Alan Rothenberg, a lawyer who conducted the soccer tournament in the 1984 Olympics and coordinated the 1994 World Cup in the United States, established the most recent professional soccer league, Major League Soccer, as a single-entity to promote more revenue earning for the investors. Between 2002 and 2005, MLS considered Edmond, Oklahoma, as a potential new location for an expansion team with a desire to promote soccer in the area and capitalize on the strong youth presence of the sport. Even though the attempt failed, the Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education approved funding to the University of Central Oklahoma for renovations to the school's football field Wantland Stadium, which the school needed for the possible expansion club

Large Deviations and Exit-times for reflected McKean-Vlasov equations with self-stabilizing terms and superlinear drifts

We study a class of reflected McKean-Vlasov diffusions over a convex domain with self-stabilizing coefficients. This includes coefficients that do not satisfy the classical Wasserstein Lipschitz condition. Further, the process is constrained to a (not necessarily bounded) convex domain by a local time on the boundary. These equations include the subclass of reflected self-stabilizing diffusions that drift towards their mean via a convolution of the solution law with a stabilizing potential. Firstly, we establish existence and uniqueness results for this class and address the propagation of chaos. We work with a broad class of coefficients, including drift terms that are locally Lipschitz in spatial and measure variables. However, we do not rely on the boundedness of the domain or the coefficients to account for these non-linearities and instead use the self-stabilizing properties. We prove a Freidlin-Wentzell type Large Deviations Principle and an Eyring-Kramer's law for the exit-time from subdomains contained in the interior of the reflecting domain.Comment: 41 page