Infant Mortality: Cross Section study of the United State, with Emphasis on Education

On the surface infant mortality is usually thought of as just a unfortunate part of life in what can happen to an individual family, but infant mortality is part of the factors that affect social capital, which can lead back to overall trust in a community. When that trust starts to wither within a community, economic activity will be affected as community members will not behave as they usually do within their given economic boundaries. While social capital is not solely affected by infant mortality, it does show what type of health status an area has. As a community, state, or country becomes “healthier” we usually will see a high quality of life in terms of being able to afford a better lifestyle of all people affected not just a few individuals. “Health is telling us a story about the major influences on the quality of life in modern societies and it is a story which we cannot afford to ignore”. (Wilkinson 1996) How we tie in that health to economic growth is through social capital. Social capital (generalized trust) is positively correlated with GDP growth and is one of many factors in sustaining that growth. (Putnam 1993) A major contribution to that increase in social capital is having a healthy community. Infant mortality has a part of the health component and has a negative correlated effect on GDP growth. Education levels are important factors in reducing infant mortality. Previous authors explored what causes infant mortality to be higher in different regions (i.e. Martinez et al., Song et al. Gisselmann 2005). These authors looked at China, Uruguay, Sweden, and other regions. These authors concluded that education is a main factor, in reducing infant mortality. Gisselmann argues that more years of education is more beneficial for infant mortality rates than higher income levels. This study will look particularly into the United States as a whole, and break down states as individual cross sections. Once it is reestablished with previous literature that infant mortality being reduced is beneficial for the economy, the data itself will look at what reduces infant mortality rates. Each state is thought to have individual characteristics in cultural, religious, social, and other aspects. The study will look into variations of educational attainment levels and income levels. The data will further see within a country whether there is a educational and infant mortality paradox, as well as how much an individual state influences its own infant mortality rate

Effect of oxygen concentration on the structural and magnetic properties of LaRh1/2Mn1/2O3 thin films

Epitaxial LaRh1/2Mn1/2O3 thin films have been grown on (001)-oriented LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 substrates using pulsed laser deposition. The optimized thin film samples are semiconducting and ferromagnetic with a Curie temperature close to 100 K, a coercive field of 1200 Oe, and a saturation magnetization of 1.7muB per formula unit. The surface texture, structural, electrical, and magnetic properties of the LaRh1/2Mn1/2O3 films was examined as a function of the oxygen concentration during deposition. While an elevated oxygen concentration yields thin films with optimal magnetic properties, slightly lower oxygen concentrations result in films with improved texture and crystallinity

Collecting Ourselves: An Analysis of holdings in North Carolina libraries of selected categories from the "North Carolina Bibliography"

Despite the Electronic Age’s impact on libraries, blurring the lines between brick and mortar and the Web, the value of collecting locally and regionally focused works remains high. Of equal importance is a deeper understanding of the choices which local and regional institutions make when collecting information about their geographical areas. As the use of bibliographies is critical to identifying resources for acquisition, this initial study was accomplished by compiling holdings information in OCLC’s WorldCat for titles listed in three sections of the “North Carolina Bibliography� to gain insight into how North Carolina libraries are collecting both North Carolina authors and state focused materials. This comparison will ascertain how widely held the titles are by both academic and public libraries from across the state and worldwide

Testing the salinity tolerance levels of similar invasive species found in the San Francisco Bay

Testing the salinity tolerance levels of similar invasive species found in the San Francisco Bay Julia Smith1,2, Elizabeth Sheets2, and C. Sarah Cohen2 1Department of Teacher Education, California State University, Sacramento 2Department of Biology and Romberg Tiburon Center, San Francisco State University Three non-indigenous colonial ascidian species, Botrylloides violaceus, Botrylloides diegensis, and Botryllus schlosseri, have become well established in San Francisco Bay. Two species, B. violaceous and B. schlosseri, are globally distributed, and understanding the salinity ranges and tolerances of these successful invaders in their introduced habitats is important for predicting their spread. We tested the tolerance of these three morphologically similar species to salinity ranges that they may encounter locally in San Francisco Bay, and globally, in their broad distributions, including a freshwater transit experiment designed to simulate conditions for ships transiting through the Panama Canal. Botrylloides violaceus, B. diegensis, and Botryllus schlosseri were exposed to various salinities (10, 15, 18, and 20 ppt) for a period of 14 hours, and then assessed for two signs of vitality immediately after each treatment, and were monitored for survival after a week. Our preliminary results showed survival of Botrylloides diegensis, and B. violaceus at the lowest (10 ppt) salinity treatment after 1 week, but no colonies of Botryllus schlosseri survived this salinity treatment in a preliminary trial. The three species all showed survival at our higher (15, 18, and 20 ppt) salinity treatments. In a separate trial, the three target species were also exposed to a drastic salinity decrease to 0 ppt for 7 hours, related to conditions in the Panama Canal. There were no signs of immediate survival in colonies that experienced very low salinity conditions. However, small vascular fragments appear to remain in many colonies three weeks later, and are currently being monitored in the event that they may regenerate, as local colonies of each of these speceis have successfully carried out whole body regeneration from vascular fragments as small as 3.9 mm (Benson Chow, unpub. data)