Steamboats and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom

King Cotton and the Transportation Revolution This book is the first in-depth analysis of the relationship between the rise of southwestern steamboats and the cotton kingdom. Based on a wide array of primary research in government documents, court records, travelers accounts, antebellu...

An Exploratory Study Investigating the Correlates of Sexual Health Anxiety and Preferences for Digital Services Amongst Internet Users

Background: Sexual health clinics are under increasing pressure because of the demand for sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening services. Sexual health anxiety has been associated with increased clinic attendance and repeat screening. Aims: This study aimed to investigate the level of sexual health anxiety and its correlates in adults in England and their opinions on digital sexual health services. Setting and Design: An online cross-sectional study was conducted between May 2019 and January 2020 among internet users living in England aged 18 years and older. Methods: Participants were recruited from advertisements on social media (eg, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit), and data were collected via an online Qualtrics survey. Statistical Analysis: Multiple regression analyses were used to identify correlates of sexual health anxiety. Results: One-hundred and thirty-eight participants completed the survey (mean age = 29.25, SD = 11.29; 51% male, 81% White, and 56% educated to the degree level). Average sexual health anxiety was mild (M = 2.19, SD = .79), and the average subscale values ranged from 1.88 (SD = .92) to 2.67 (SD = 1.25). Higher sexual health anxiety was predicted by a higher frequency of obsessive-compulsive behavior and a greater risk perception of STIs. There were some overlaps between the predictors of subtypes, but further research is needed. Conclusion: Despite the levels of sexual health anxiety in the sample, the acceptability of digital sexual health services was high, but preferences leaned heavily toward face-to-face and in-person interaction

Interest Rate Parity in Excel

This paper develops interest rate parity in a framework that is easily implemented in Excel. The student can either be given the paper to see how the code is developed using the intuition of the interest rate parity framework or the student can be taught the interest rate parity framework and develop the Excel code as an assignment. Using either teaching method or the other exercises suggested in the paper, the student is able to understand how traders exploit violations of interest parity and become more comfortable with basic concepts, such as direct quotes and indirect quotes

Corruption, Foreign Direct Investment and the Cost of Doing Business in Vietnam

Corruption is a key impediment to: foreign direct investment, an accurate measurement of political risk, and a barrier to effective corporate governance. By examining the political structure of Vietnam and the impediments created by corruption, this paper defines some of the difficulties with investing in Vietnam. However, with regard to the sugar industry, some solutions have emerged with companies taking direct control of contracting, offering credit, and the building of infrastructure

The online dating romance scam : causes and consequences of victimhood

The online dating romance scam is a relatively new and under-reported international crime targeting users of online dating sites. It has serious financial and emotional consequences, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. However, little if anything is known about psychological characteristics that may put people at risk of romance scam victimization, or influence how they react to it. Online daters (N=853) and participants recruited from a victim support site (N=397) completed a battery of online questionnaires. High scores on the romantic belief of Idealization were associated with likelihood of being a romance scam victim. Victims experienced significant emotional distress as well as financial losses. Even respondents who reported being fooled by scammers, but who had not lost any money, reported significant distress. Level of emotional distress was associated with high Neuroticism, and also with high Loneliness and low Openness to Experience among victims not losing money. The findings have implications for the feasibility of crime-prevention measures based on victim characteristics, and for treatment of victims by law enforcement and other stakeholders

A Limnological Study of Ricks Pond and the Gulpha Creek Drainage in Garland County, Arkansas

A limnological investigation of Ricks Pond and the Gulpha Creek drainage of Garland County, Arkansas was conducted between 1 June 1978, and 21 August 1978. Water samples taken from ten stations on three different dates indicated that the stream and pond systems were typical in water quality characteristics of other small, high gradient streams and impoundments in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. In Ricks Pond, thermal stratification occurred along with the development of an oxygen deficient zone below a depth of one meter. Other water quality parameters indicated that Ricks Pond is a moderately productive ecosystem, with the productivity limited by the nitrogen species. The fecal coliform bacterial counts were very low, indicating no direct input of excessive amounts of fecal matter into the system during the present study. However, a Hot Springs city sewer line runs through the pond, and two manholes emerge from the pond\u27s surface. The possibility exists that this sewer line could discharge raw sewage into Ricks Pond during periods of high water. A biological investigation was also conducted in the study area, and lists of the phytoplankton, periphyton, higher aquatic vegetation, zooplankton, benthic macroinvertebrates, and fishes are presented. Twenty-seven species of fishes were collected from the Gulpha Creek drainage, and no rare or endangered forms were found. Ricks Pond is best-suited for the establishment of a put- and-take fishery for channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus. The following recommendations were made for the establishment of such a fishery: (1) Renovation of the pond by draining and deepening it; (2) Removal of the sewer line from the pond; (3) Stocking of catchable size channel catfish at the rate of approximately 300-400 pounds per acre; (4) Periodic monitoring of the water quality

Beware of the Ides of March: The Demise of HIH Insurance

Despite differences in corporate governance systems in the United States and Australia, the corporate governance failures that led to each country’s largest bankruptcy are strikingly similar. WorldCom in the United States and HIH Insurance in Australia were both created by a rapid series of major acquisitions, failed after their last major acquisitions, and attempted to hide their declining performance with aggressive and/or fraudulent accounting practices. In this paper we present a clinical examination of the corporate governance failures that led to the demise of HIH Insurance and show that corporate governance failures are not endemic to the existing corporate governance system in the United States

The Subtlety of Political Risk with Foreign Direct Investment: The Case of the Vietnamese Sugar Industry

Political risk entails more than a host country taking advantage of investment from foreign sources. A more subtle form of political risk is attributable to the host government\u27s mismanagement of policies that may be intended to attract foreign direct investment, but may have unintended consequences. A perfect example is the \u27\u27One Million Tonne Sugar Program sponsored by the government of Vietnam during the mid-1990s. What appears to be a very lucrative investment for foreign investors becomes a financial disaster due to the inability of the government to allocate resources efficiently and police its borders from smugglers