Stigma Cities: Birmingham, Alabama and Las Vegas, Nevada in the National Media, 1945-2000

Early in 1994 Time magazine proclaimed Las Vegas, Nevada “The New All American City,” a “city so freakishly democratic” that Americans just could not resist. Twenty-three years earlier, Look magazine had conferred the same title upon Birmingham, Alabama, stressing its progress in race relations. Such media castings of normality must have surprised the American public in both instances. By the time of each city’s designation as “All-American,” the public had long been subjected to stories of their seemingly abnormal internal actions and qualities. Both cities suffered from stigmatized identities in the wider American perception that were fully formed by the mid-1960s. Las Vegas symbolized the abnormalities of legalized gambling, sexual promiscuity, and organized crime. Mention of Birmingham evoked associations with the deviance of racial intolerance and violent resistance to progressive change. A survey of the two cities’ national media representation provides insight into key aspects of these images’ development and endurance from 1945 to 2000

Glucoregulatory and order effects on verbal episodic memory in healthy adolescents after oral glucose administration

The ingestion of oral glucose has been observed to facilitate memory performance in both elderly individuals and in young adults. However, fewer studies have investigated the effect of glucose on memory in children or adolescents. In the present study, the ingestion of a glucose laden drink was observed to enhance verbal episodic memory performance in healthy adolescents under conditions of divided attention, relative to a placebo drink. Further analyses found that this glucose memory facilitation effect was observed only in adolescents exhibiting better glucoregulatory efficiency. These findings demonstrate that the glucose memory facilitation effect can be generalised to younger individuals. The importance of controlling for treatment order in within-subjects designs investigating the glucose memory enhancement effect is also discussed

The impact of a high versus a low glycaemic index breakfast cereal meal on verbal episodic memory in healthy adolescents

In this study, healthy adolescents consumed a) a low glycaemic index (G.I.) breakfast cereal meal, or b) a high G.I. breakfast cereal meal, before completing a test of verbal episodic memory in which the memory materials were encoded under conditions of divided attention. Analysis of remembering/forgetting indices revealed that the High G.I. breakfast group remembered significantly more items relative to the Low G.I. breakfast group after a long delay. The superior performance observed in the High G.I. group, relative to the Low G.I. group, may be due to the additional glucose availability provided by the high G.I. meal at the time of memory encoding. This increased glucose availability may be necessary for effective encoding under dual task conditions

A Student Guide to Fundraising

The following thesis is a fundraising manual written for high school and college students. As a student myself, I know sometimes things are easier understood when described by a peer and I think that fundraising is a perfect example of this. While many students participate in fundraisers in their schools, there are very few who reach the magnitude of the “professionals,” raising hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. With my experience in the field, as explained in the introduction, I hope to steer fellow students in the right direction toward these lucrative fundraisers in hopes that they too can raise a large amount of money for whatever cause it is that they believe in. The manual is broken down into six chapters that describe different parts of the fundraising world. Each chapter represents an equally significant step that, if ignored, could result in the failure of the fundraiser. There is also a chapter at the end full of “Quick Hits,” as I call them, which are a few random ideas that I believe will help a fundraiser along his/her way. The information in the manual came from a number of sources. Because there are no other writings that are specifically about student-based fundraising, a lot of what is written comes from my own experience. This, along with interviews with a few members of the charity organization I run, makes up a large portion of the manual. As a result of this, I am sure to start every chapter off with my “Filosophy,” giving my input on the information that I am about to present. I do not ignore the professionals, though, as some of what they have written can apply to students as well. Even though many write for adults who want to make a living fundraising, the principles that they mention can be useful. This is especially evident in the chapter on leadership, as well as the chapter where I examine tips from fundraising guru Kim Klein about what a fundraiser should not do. Other chapters in the book include planning, budgeting and side projects. These all deal with the actual organization and implementation of the fundraising event. They include suggestions about what students can do in each area as well as examples from my own fundraiser. The hope here is that students can read them, see what I have done and find a way to apply it to their own cause. The manual concludes with a few words of advice. I remind the reader to use the fact that he/she is a student to his/her advantage. I also point out that the most important tool that he/she is going to have is passion. One of the main ideas that I try to get across throughout the entire thesis is that if students are willing to put in the time and the effort, they will be able to accomplish great things and even surprise themselves. If they have enough passion, they’ll be able to meet and even surpass their expectations, raising a lot of money for their cause and making a huge difference in the world

Information and modeling issues in designing water and sanitation subsidy schemes

In designing a rational scheme for subsidizing water services, it is important to support the choice of design parameters with empirical analysis that stimulates the impact of subsidy options on the target population. Otherwise, there is little guarantee that the subsidy program will meet its objectives. But such analysis is informationally demanding. Ideally, researchers should have access to a single, consistent data set containing household-level information on consumption, willingness to pay, and a range of socioeconomic characteristics. Such a comprehensive data set will rarely exist. The authors suggest overcoming this data deficiency by collating, and imaginatevily manipulating different sources of data to generate estimates of the missing variables. The most valuable sources of information, they explain, are likely to be the following: 1) Customer databases of the water company, which provide robust information on the measured consumption of formal customers, but little information on unmeasured consumption, informal customers, willingness to pay, or socioeconomic variables. 2) General socioeconomic household surveys, which are an excellent source of socioeconomic information, but tend to record water expenditure rather than physical consumption. 3) Willingness-to-pay surveys, which are generally tailored to a specific project, are very flexible, and may be the only source of willingness-to-pay data. However, they are expensive to undertake, and the information collected is based on hypothetical rather than real behavior. Where such surveys are unavailable, international benchmark values on willingness to pay may be used. Combining data sets requires some effort and creativity, and creates difficulties of its own. But once a suitable data set has been constructed, a simulation model can be created using simple spreadsheet software. The model used to design Panama's water subsidy proposal addressed these questions: a) What are the targeting properties of different eligibility criteria for the subsidy? b) How large should the subsidy be? c) How much will the subsidy scheme cost, including administrative costs? Armed with the above information, policymakers should be in a position to design a subsidy program that reaches the intended beneficiaries, provides them with the level of financial support that is strictly necessary, meets the overall budget restrictions, and does not waste an excessive amount of funding on administrative costs.Water Conservation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Health Economics&Finance

Designing direct subsidies for water and sanitation services - Panama : a case study

As an alternative to traditional subsidy schemes in utility sectors, direct subsidy programs have several advantages: they are transparent, they are explicit, and they minimize distortions of the behavior of both the utility, and the customers. At the same time, defining practical eligibility criteria for direct subsidy schemes is difficult, and identifying eligible households may entail substantial administrative costs. The authors, using a case study from Panama, discuss some of the issues associated with the design of direct subsidy systems for water services. The conclude that: 1) There is a need to assess - rather than assume - the need for a subsidy. A key test of affordability, and thus of the need for a subsidy, is to compare the cost of the service, with some measure of household willingness to pay. 2) The initial assessment must consider the affordability of connection costs as well as the affordability of the service itself. Connection costs may be prohibitive for poor households with no credit, suggesting a need to focus subsidies on providing access, rather than ongoing water consumption. 3) A key issue in designing a direct subsidy scheme is its targeting properties. Poverty is a complex phenomenon, and difficult to measure. Eligibility must therefore be based on easily measurable proxy variables, and good proxies are hard to find. In choosing eligibility criteria for a subsidy, it is essential to verify what proportion of the target group fails to meet the criteria (errors of exclusion) and what proportion of non-target groups is inadvertently eligible for the benefits (errors of inclusion). 4) administrative costs are roughly the same no matter what the level of individual subsidies, so a scheme that pays beneficiaries very little, will tend not to be cost-effective. It is important to determine what proportion of total program costs will be absorbed by administrative expenses. 5) Subsidies should not cover the full cost of the service, and should be contingent on beneficiaries paying their share of the bill. Subsidiesfor consumption above a minimum subsistence level, should be avoided. Subsidies should be provided long enough before eligibility is reassessed to avoid"poverty trap"problems. 6) The utility or concessionaire can be helpful in identifying eligible candidates, because of its superior information on the payment histories of customers. It will also have an incentive to do so, since it has an interest in improving poor payment records. Thought should therefore be given at the design stage to the role of the service provider in the implementation of the subsidy scheme. 7) The administrative agency's responsibilities, the sources of funding, and the general principles guiding the subsidy system should have a clear legal basis, backed by regulations governing administrative procedures. 8) To reduce administrative costs, and avoid duplication of effort, it would be desirable for a single set of institutional arrangements to be used to determine eligibility for all welfare, and subsidy programs in a given jurisdiction, whether sub-national, or national.Sanitation and Sewerage,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Public Health Promotion,Economic Theory&Research,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Poverty Assessment,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions

Deliberation day: an iSchool educational project

This poster describes the design and facilitation of a Deliberation Day (D-Day) implemented in an educational setting. The purpose of the D-Day event was to provide an enabling context for new students to explore their capacity to discuss a key informational issue in a public setting, and to experience the benefits and pitfalls of small group work. The informational issue being discussed was the European Court of Justice May 2014 Ruling on the Right To Be Forgotten. The preparation and design of the Deliberation Day is presented. Some preliminary findings from the Day are reported relating to three Polls taken before, during, and after students’ public deliberations on the Right. Analysis of the poll data identifies a clear shift in opinion throughout the Day, from majority agreement in favor of the Right before discussion to a more diverse and circumspect range of opinions after deliberation

The Design and Application of Bis-Urea Derived Supramolecular Gelators

A series of amino-acid derived bis-urea gelators were synthesised, some of which show strong gelation in a wide variety of solvents. The gels were probed at the molecular, microscopic and macroscopic levels to gain insights into the gelation behaviour observed. Mixtures of different gelators also result in gels, some of which show different fibre morphologies and X-ray powder patterns to the pure gelators. The series was extended to include fluorescent 1- and 2-pyrenylalanine derived gelators and the fluorescence behaviour of the gels in solution, the gel state, in mixed gels and with the addition of anions was investigated. Tetrabutylammonium-acetate was found to disrupt urea-hydrogen bonding leading to the break-down of the gels, a process which was followed by NMR spectroscopy, rheometry and fluorescence spectroscopy. Two gelators were used to template the formation of porous polymers which SEM and gas adsorption studies show reflect the different fibre morphologies observed in the gels. The use of supramolecular gels as a medium for controlling the crystallisation of pharmaceutical compounds was developed. Proof of principle for the growth of a wide range of pharmaceutical compounds from a variety of different gels was demonstrated. The supramolecular nature of the gels was exploited by using anions to break down the gels in order to recover the crystals. Comparison of crystals grown from gels with those grown from solution highlighted a number of differences in crystal form, habit and stability. Gelators which mimic the chemical functionality of the drug compound being crystallised were synthesised. A study investigating the crystallisation of 5-methyl-2-[(2-nitrophenyl)amino]-3-thiophenecarbonitrile (ROY) showed some differences in polymorphism when crystallised from a gel designed to mimic ROY compared to generic gels. A placement with the particle science group at GSK explored the potential of supramolecular gels for use in early stage screening of pharmaceutical compounds in an industrial setting

Making a Case for Collaborative Business Planning: Educating Information Management and Systems Graduates for the Knowledge-Based Economy

This paper presents and discusses the design and evaluation of an innovative educational exercise that combines elements of both learning about and learning for e-commerce. The principle guiding the design of the exercise was the provision of an opportunity for postgraduate information management and information systems students to learn about and for e-commerce through the collaborative development of a business plan. A survey distributed at the end of the module collected data on students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills related to their learning about and for e-commerce on the business plan exercise. The data analysis focuses on students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills relevant to entrepreneurship, and demonstrates that the collaborative development of a business plan can be an effective learning tool for students to acquire not only specific domain knowledge of e-commerce topics such as business strategy, e-commerce business models, and e-commerce technology, but also generic information, communication, and management skills, relevant to learning about and for entrepreneurship