Review of "This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly"

Reinhart, Carmen M. and Rogoff, Kenneth (2009) This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Princeton University Press

An Economic Analysis of the Abonera Maize Production System in the Atlantic Coast of Honduras

This paper compares the economics of the abonera maize production system, in which maize is grown in rotation with a green manure crop (velvetbean, Mucuna deeringiana), with traditional bush-fallow cultivation of maize in the Atlantic Coast area of Honduras. A probabilistic cost-benefit analysis of introducing velvetbean into the existing maize cropping pattern is carried out for the field, farm, and regional level. The probabilistic approach allows for a more comprehensive assessment of economic profitability, one which recognizes that farmers are interested in reducing production risk as well as obtaining increases in average net benefits. The analysis reveals that the abonera system provides significant returns to land and family labor over the six-year life cycle. The abonera is not only more profitable than the bush-fallow system but reduces the variability in economic returns, making second-season maize a less risky production alternative. Although the labor requirement per unit of land is smaller in the abonera system than that in the bush-fallow system, the larger area allocated to maize implies a net increase in labor requirements at the farm level. At the regional level, widespread adoption of the abonera system appears to have increased the importance of the second season in total maize production. Although a causal link to adoption of the abonera system cannot be established conclusively from the data, adoption of the system remains a likely explanation for the changes observed in aggregate maize production in the Atlantic Coast region. Land rental prices for sowing second-season maize also reflect the widespread impact of the abonera system.Crop Production/Industries,

Reliability models for dataflow computer systems

The demands for concurrent operation within a computer system and the representation of parallelism in programming languages have yielded a new form of program representation known as data flow (DENN 74, DENN 75, TREL 82a). A new model based on data flow principles for parallel computations and parallel computer systems is presented. Necessary conditions for liveness and deadlock freeness in data flow graphs are derived. The data flow graph is used as a model to represent asynchronous concurrent computer architectures including data flow computers

A library for Bukoba. Addressing the divide in Tanzania

The Bukoba, Tanzania community is embarking on an extraordinary journey – its first library. This paper was written to document Community Solutions for Africa’s Development’s (COSAD) story and experience, a non-profit organization working to bring a library to Bukoba. It is a qualitative case study, completed through discussion, online research, a semester long independent study, and library consultation, exploring the following: sustainability for libraries and community programs; electronic access and its challenges (including available access programs, such as HINARI and AGORA); and the very foundation of this library’s aim and purpose – addressing the vast information and digital divide, both of which influence the current standard of living in Tanzania

The Constitutionality of the Monkey Wrench: Exploring the Case for Intelligent Design

Teaching intelligent design in public schools has become an extremely controversial, and highly publicized, educational prospect that is just beginning to garner judicial attention. This Article argues that a proper resolution of the constitutional problems raised by teaching intelligent design requires both a precise understanding of intelligent design and evolutionary theory, and a sophisticated grasp of theological conceptions of the origin and development of life. After explaining these important foundational concepts and surveying the most relevant Supreme Court precedent, this Article discusses two important threshold questions that arise from the origins debate. First, is intelligent design theory inherently religious? Secondly, must science refrain from referring to supernatural causation? Answering each question in the negative, this Article then sketches the analysis necessary for determining the constitutionality of a state actor’s decision to permit, require, or forbid the teaching of intelligent design in public school science classes

The Relationship Between Compensating Students to Attend Summer School and the Students\u27 Attendance and Suspension Rates the Following School Year

A study was made of the Decatur Public Schools basic skills summer school program to determine if paying students to attend the summer school session had any effect on the student. Two areas considered in the study were: 1. Was there any improvement in the attendance records the following school year for the fifty-three junior and high school students involved. 2. Was there any decrease in the suspension rate of the twenty-two high school students. Student attendance and suspension records were compared for the 1977-78 school year and the 1978-79 school year. A t-test was used to determine if there was any signficant difference in attendance or suspension rates for the two years. There was no significant difference at the .05 level of confidence for any of the groups studied. The students involved in the study showed no signficant change as a result of compensation to attend the summer school program

We walk that boundary. It\u27s a tightrope. : A Grounded Theory Approach to the Experiences of Direct Support Professionals Who Work With People With Intellectual Disability and Possibly Sexualized Challenging Behavior

Matters of sexuality and concepts of risk have played a central role in the development of systems of supports for people with intellectual disability (ID) in the United States during the past 150+ years. As community based programs have risen in prominence since the deinstitutionalization movement of the 1970s men and women working as Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) have been tasked with a myriad of responsibilities which may at times include enacting supports or limitations on the sexual or possibly sexual actions of people with ID. How DSPs experience their jobs, understand, and make decisions regarding sexuality is an area of investigation that has received little attention to date. When possibly sexual actions by people with ID are classified as challenging (i.e., possibly sexualized challenging behavior; pSCB), our understanding of the roles, duties, and experiences of DSPs working in community-based systems has been unaddressed in the literature. This study sought to examine the perspectives of DSPs working at a single provider agency, which has a history of supporting individuals with ID and a wide array of pSCB. A grounded theory approach was utilized to analyze the recorded and transcribed statements of 12 participants who individually completed a semi-structured interview. Results of this research revealed participant experiences and perspectives that reflected many aspects of historical systems development and related literature. An overall grounded theory of Being Between was developed via multiple levels of coding and analysis of transcribed data. In essence, participants described the experience of supporting people with ID and pSCB as navigating between a series of internal and external factors (e.g., risk and rights; seeing the potential for change and not; variations in professional roles and relationships). Member checking procedures with participants were utilized to reduce the influence of researcher subjectivity and help ensure that the findings of this research matched the experiences of participants. Findings were also compared to research from other fields (i.e., concepts of moral distress) and further analyzed from Foucaultian perspectives on sexuality, power and the subject, and the panopticon. While the findings were limited due to the small sample size and single study site, the results of this research begin to give voice to the men and women who work in support of individuals with ID and pSCB and guide avenues for future research in this domain

Do Adoption Subsidies Help At-Risk Children?

Over half a million children in the United States are currently in foster care, many of whom are at risk for long-lasting emotional and health problems. Research suggests that adoption may be one of the more promising options for the placement of these children. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, which provided federal funds for monthly adoption subsidies, was designed to promote adoptions of special-needs children and children in foster care. Using data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting Systems for 2000- 2006, I consider the effects of these adoption subsidies on children’s likelihood of being adopted, on time spent in foster care, and on the characteristics of adoptive families. Because subsidies may be determined endogenously, I employ an identification strategy that exploits state variation in the age at which children are eligible for federal subsidy funds. I find that foster children who are eligible for subsidies are more likely to be adopted, and that eligibility increases the hazard of discharge from foster care. Conditional on adoption, higher expected subsidies increase time to adoption finalization and increase the probability that a child is adopted by a relative such as a grandmother