Aid Allocation Volatility to Small Island States

Aid is an important resource for developing countries. Many small island states (including those in the Pacific) are highly reliant on aid to supplement meagre government resources and other foreign capital inflows. This paper investigates the conditional volatility of aid (for bilateral aid disaggregated into sector aid and programme aid, and multilateral aid) to small island states using an econometric framework. In addition, year-on-year changes in aid allocation are also considered for both changes in aid allocations from major donors to the Pacific as well as for changes in aid receipts in 16 Pacific island countries. The entire sample of countries under consideration includes 44 aid-receiving (small island) states from the regions of ...aid volatility, small island states

Reducing Homonegative Prejudice towards Gay and Bisexual Men by Targeting Diverse Sexual Orientation Beliefs: A Replication and Extension Study

This study aimed to replicate and extend the first true experiment to investigate the impact of diverse sexual orientation (SO) beliefs on homonegativity (Fry et al., 2020). We performed an experiment to determine if targeting multiple types of SO beliefs could be more effective in reducing homonegative prejudice towards gay men, binegativity towards bisexual men, and infrahumanization towards gay and bisexual men than just focusing on beliefs about biogenetic determinants of SO. We randomly assigned 200 participants (57% men, 78% white) to a treatment or control condition. Participants in a treatment condition read an essay that summarized: (1) research implying that SO is biogenetically determined; (2) research implying that SO is socially constructed and countering beliefs regarding the discreteness, homogeneity, and informativeness of SO groups; or (3) research implying that SO is biogenetically determined as well as research implying that SO groups are socially constructed and not particularly discrete, homogenous, or informative. We expected that participants in both conditions targeting diverse beliefs pertaining to the social construction of SO would report the greatest decreases in beliefs in the discreteness, homogeneity, and informativeness of SO groups, in homonegative prejudice, and in binegativity. We expected that only participants in the condition excluding biogenetic determinants would report the greatest decreases in infrahumanization, and any observed changes would still be detectable a week after the intervention. We did not observe predicted shifts in SO beliefs. Only participants in the condition discussing biogenetic determinants reported significant decreases in homonegative prejudice and binegativity. There were no changes in infrahumanization. Observed changes were still present a week after the intervention. We discuss the possibility that educational interventions targeting SO beliefs may produce long-lasting reductions in prejudice towards sexual minorities (SMs)

Development of a generalised kinetic model for the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-76).The aim of this work is to find a generalised model for the combustion of hydrocarbons. Predicted temperature-time profiles can be obtained from detailed combustion kinetics, which can be used to derive a generalised model. If the generalised model can predict results from the detailed model it can be applied in computational fluid dynamics code where detailed kinetic mechanisms cannot.A generalised kinetic model is proposed, adapting the Schreiber model (Schreiber et al., 1994) to accurately predict the combustion behaviour of hydrocarbon fuels. The combustion behaviour is described through the characteristics of the temperature-time profiles and the ignition delay diagram, which include two stage ignition and the negative temperature co-efficient region. The Schreiber model is specifically adapted to improve the description of the very low temperature rise before and between ignitions and the auto-catalytic temperature rises during ignition. Using a Genetic Algorithm to optimise the prediction of the proposed model, the pre-exponent factor Ai and the activation energy Eai are the adjustable parameters which are optimised for each reaction in the model. These parameters have been optimised for three fuels: i-octane, n-heptane and methanol. The ignition delays of the pure fuels were accurately predicted. The temperature-time profiles in the instances of two stage ignition are relatively inaccurate. The temperature profiles are however an improvement on the temperature profiles predicted by the Schreiber model, particularly in terms of the slow temperature rise during the ignition delay andthe sharp temperature rise during ignition. The combustion of the binary blends of the three fuels have been predicted using model parameters which are found using the rate constants of each fuel, the blends composition and binary interaction rules. The binary interaction parameters were also optimised using a Genetic Algorithm. The binary interaction rules are based on the Peng-Robinson mixing rules. Overall the ignition delays of binary fuel blends were accurately predicted using binary interactions. However, when modelling the blends between methanol and n-heptane, where one fuel has extreme NTC behaviour and the other fuel has no NTC behaviour, the predictions were less accurate. These binary interaction rules are then used to model ternary mixtures. It is shown that the combustion behaviour of ternary mixtures of the three fuels can be accurately predicted without any further regression or parameter fitting. The accuracy of the ternary prediction is dependent on the accuracy of the binary predictions

Moving Beyond Born This Way : Reducing Homonegative Prejudice and Increasing Support for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights by Targeting Multiple Beliefs about Sexual Orientation

We extended and applied the findings of Grzanka, Zeiders, and Miles’s (2016) latent profile analysis of sexual orientation belief patterns by conducting an intervention study assessing how targeting different sexual orientation beliefs may be more effective in reducing homonegativity than interventions that focus only on biogenetic ideas about sexual orientation. Participants were assigned to one of four conditions and read research essays addressing different lay beliefs about sexual orientation as measured by the Sexual Orientation Beliefs Scale’s (SOBS; Arseneau, Grzanka, Miles, & Fassinger, 2013) subscales (Discreteness, Informativeness, Homogeneity, and Naturalness). One essay contained only scientific research regarding Naturalness (“Born This Way” condition), a second essay contained scientific research regarding Discreteness, Informativeness, and Homogeneity (“Social Constructionism” condition), and a third essay contained scientific research regarding all four dimensions (“Hybrid Essentialism” condition). The fourth condition was a control condition. We predicted that participants randomly assigned to the two conditions that targeted multiple sexual orientation beliefs would exhibit a greater reduction in their beliefs in the informativeness, discreteness, and homogeneity of sexual orientation categories, would demonstrate greater reductions in their levels of homonegative prejudice, and would report greater increases in their support for gay and lesbian civil rights. Sexual orientation beliefs moved in expected directions after the interventions for all conditions. While there was a main effect of time on homonegative prejudice, such that homonegative prejudice decreased from Time 1 to Time 2, there was no main effect of condition. There were no changes in support for gay and lesbian civil rights. Implications for the development of more comprehensive educational and social interventions designed to promote equality and social justice for sexual minorities are discussed

Empirical Problems Using the Efficient Frontier to Find Optimal Weights in Asset Classes

This study documents the transitory nature of efficient weights in six commonly employed asset classes, going beyond a simple stock and bond classes and using a 30 year data window. We review the literature on asset class diversification, including its failures during the recent credit crisis. Results show that asset class diversification benefits are inconsistent and, contrary to common academic wisdom before recent times, historical asset class covariances (even estimated with decades of data) are poor estimates of future values

rnrfa: an R package to retrieve, filter and visualize data from the UK National River Flow Archive

The UK National River Flow Archive (NRFA) stores several types of hydrological data and metadata: daily river flow and catchment rainfall time series, gauging station and catchment information. Data are served through the NRFA web services via experimental RESTful APIs. Obtaining NRFA data can be unwieldy due to complexities in handling HTTP GET requests and parsing responses in JSON and XML formats. The rnrfa package provides a set of functions to programmatically access, filter, and visualize NRFA data using simple R syntax. This paper describes the structure of the rnrfa package, including examples using the main functions gdf() and cmr() for flow and rainfall data, respectively. Visualization examples are also provided with a shiny web application and functions provided in the package. Although this package is regional specific, the general framework and structure could be applied to similar databases

Idaho Literacy Intervention Program Evaluation 2021

In 2020, the Idaho Legislature authorized an independent, external evaluation of the state’s literacy intervention program (Program) that will consider: (a) program design, (b) use of funds, including funding utilized for all-day kindergarten, (c) program effectiveness; and (d) an analysis of key performance indicators of student achievement, as well as any other relevant matters. For the third year, Idaho Policy Institute (IPI) was contracted to conduct the evaluation. Performance data traditionally used in this evaluation is unavailable because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, IPI administered online surveys to teachers (n=494) and administrators (n=101) and conducted in-depth interviews with teachers (n=11) to understand the function and perceptions of the Program across the state. This report also includes data from the 2019/20 (LEA) literacy plans, budgets, and expenditure data

Idaho Literacy Intervention Program Evaluation 2020

For over 20 years, Idaho leaders have recognized the critical importance of early childhood literacy. In this time, the Idaho State Legislature, State Board of Education and State Department of Education have developed policies, rules and plans as well as implemented programs to support reading proficiency in Idaho’s kindergarten through third grade students. In 2015, the Board of Education published an updated Comprehensive Literacy Plan for the state. The Legislature responded in 2016 by amending statutes related to early literacy development and establishing the current Literacy Intervention Program. In 2018, the Idaho Policy Institute completed an external evaluation of the Literacy Intervention Program requested by the Legislature. In 2019, the Legislature requested an additional, updated external evaluation. This report serves as that evaluation. The report evaluates the Literacy Intervention Program and discusses its design, use of funds and effectiveness during its first three years. The Literacy Intervention Program enables tailored literacy intervention plans at the Local Education Agency-level, allowing for flexibility to account for local needs. The mandated collection of data such as Idaho Reading Indicator scores, program budgets and annual expense reports is necessary for ongoing evaluation. Three years of expense data indicate a trend in which Local Education Agencies are better anticipating costs associated with the Program. This allows them to allocate their resources more efficiently. The testing instrument and procedures were changed (moving from the legacy IRI to the new IRI by Istation) in the Program’s third year in order to more effectively evaluate student literacy achievement. This change in testing limits the ability to compare overall literacy achievement across all Program years. However, early indications of patterns within the data can inform the Program’s implementation and evaluation in the future