Trinkets and Charms: the use, meaning and significance of later medieval and early post-medieval dress accessories

This is a thematic study of dress accessories of late medieval to early post-medieval date from two regions of mainland Britain. It is an investigation of everyday objects which aims to re-engage the material world with past individuals. An interdisciplinary approach is used to understand how dress accessories were often more than ornaments, and how they intersected with and were integral to social, political and religious life. Accessories recovered from a range of excavated archaeological sites, chance finds and data recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), have been catalogued and investigated. Documentary evidence, paintings and tomb effigies are sources of evidence drawn upon throughout to supplement the archaeological evidence, to enhance the interpretations and to place the accessories into a wider social context. The accessories have been analysed using object biographies in thematic discussions based on aspects of daily life. The results demonstrate the overall homogenous nature of dress accessories used in the two border regions and there is little evidence to suggest that they were consciously used by later medieval and early-post medieval people to display a border identity. Chance finds and PAS results have extended our knowledge of the types of adornments worn and revealed types not frequently found in excavations. Some variation between and within regions is identified, such as an unusual distribution of dress hooks, the possible presence of ‘Hanseatic’ material in the northeast of England, and purposeful deposits of accessories of monetary value in the north-east of England. Long-term biographies are also identified where a number of accessory types had different meanings depending on their context of use. The themes of memory, heirlooms, and gift giving feature throughout the thematic discussions of the accessories. By viewing archaeological artefacts as things, this thesis endeavours to expand our knowledge of medieval dress accessories and past lives

Computer architecture evaluation for structural dynamics computations: Project summary

The intent of the proposed effort is the examination of the impact of the elements of parallel architectures on the performance realized in a parallel computation. To this end, three major projects are developed: a language for the expression of high level parallelism, a statistical technique for the synthesis of multicomputer interconnection networks based upon performance prediction, and a queueing model for the analysis of shared memory hierarchies

Adapting high-level language programs for parallel processing using data flow

EASY-FLOW, a very high-level data flow language, is introduced for the purpose of adapting programs written in a conventional high-level language to a parallel environment. The level of parallelism provided is of the large-grained variety in which parallel activities take place between subprograms or processes. A program written in EASY-FLOW is a set of subprogram calls as units, structured by iteration, branching, and distribution constructs. A data flow graph may be deduced from an EASY-FLOW program

Tax policies to promote private charitable giving in DAC countries

Researchers have written hundreds of papers on the causes and consequences of official foreign aid, while paying almost no attention to private overseas giving, by individuals, universities, foundations, and corporations. Yet private giving is significant—some $15.5 billion/year, compared to more than$60 billion/year in public giving—and is in no small part an outcome of public policy. In most rich countries, tax deductions and credits lower the “price” of charity to donors. And governments with low tax revenue/GDP ratios leave more money in private pockets for private charity. To correct the near-complete lack of information on this de facto aid policy, we survey officials of 21 donor nations on the use of tax incentives to promote private charity. From the results, we develop an index of the overall incentive for private charity, expressed as a percentage increase over the hypothetical giving level absent incentives. France’s tax code creates the largest price incentive while those of Austria, Finland, and Sweden offer none. Factoring in the income effect of the tax ratio, Australia, Ireland, Germany, and the United States move to the top, with combined price and income effects sufficient to double private giving. As a result, tax policy appears to have nearly doubled private overseas giving from donor countries in 2003, from a counterfactual $8.0 billion. Two-thirds of the$7.5 billion increase occurred in the United States. Of that, nearly 40% appears to be U.S. charity to Israel. According to 21-country scatter plots, countries with lower church attendance and more faith in the national legislature have lower taxes (stronger income effect), but average levels of targeted tax incentives. Income (GDP/capita) does correlate with private overseas aid/capita, but also with public aid/capita, so that the two aid flows are complementary in magnitude.Foreign aid, charitable giving, tax incentives

Modeling and synthesis of multicomputer interconnection networks

The type of interconnection network employed has a profound effect on the performance of a multicomputer and multiprocessor design. Adequate models are needed to aid in the design and development of interconnection networks. A novel modeling approach using statistical and optimization techniques is described. This method represents an attempt to compare diverse interconnection network designs in a way that allows not only the best of existing designs to be identified but to suggest other, perhaps hybrid, networks that may offer better performance. Stepwise linear regression is used to develop a polynomial surface representation of performance in a (k+1) space with a total of k quantitative and qualitative independent variables describing graph-theoretic characteristics such as size, average degree, diameter, radius, girth, node-connectivity, edge-connectivity, minimum dominating set size, and maximum number of prime node and edge cutsets. Dependent variables used to measure performance are average message delay and the ratio of message completion rate to network connection cost. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) optimizes a response variable from a polynomial function of several independent variables. Steepest ascent path may also be used to approach optimum points

The Global War on Terror and U.S. Development Assistance: USAID allocation by country, 1998-2005

The launch of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) soon after September 11, 2001 has been predicted to fundamentally alter U.S. foreign aid programs. In particular, there is a common expectation that development assistance will be used to support strategic allies in the GWOT, perhaps at the expense of anti-poverty programs. In this paper we assess changes in country allocation by USAID over 1998-2001 versus 2002-05. In addition to standard aid allocation variables, we add several proxies for the GWOT, including the presence of foreign terrorist groups, sharing a border with a state sponsor of terrorism, troop contribution in Iraq, and relative share of Muslim population. We find that any major changes in aid allocation related to the GWOT appear to be affecting only a handful of critical countries, namely, Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, and the Palestinian Territories. The extra resources to these countries also seem to be coming from overall increases in the bilateral aid envelope, combined with declines in aid to Israel, Egypt, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We do not find that any of our GWOT proxies (or their interactions) are significantly correlated with changes in country allocation of aid flows to the rest of the world, including to sub-Saharan African countries. Concerns that there is a large and systematic diversion of U.S. foreign aid from fighting poverty to fighting the GWOT do not so far appear to have been realized.Global War on Terror (GWOT), September 11, foreign aid, terrorism, Iraq, muslim, poverty

Why Doesn't Africa Get More Equity Investment? Frontier Stock Markets, Firm Size and Asset Allocations of Global Emerging Market Funds

This paper addresses the question of investment in sub-Saharan African listed securities by examining characteristics of the continent’s 15 equity markets, the rise and fall of African regional funds, and the asset allocation trends for global emerging market (GEM) funds. The data shows that South Africa is now a leading destination of capital, but that few managers invest elsewhere on the continent. However, we find that African markets are not treated differently than other markets and present evidence that small market size and low levels of liquidity are a binding deterrent for foreign institutional investors. Thus, orthodox market variables rather than market failure appear to explain Africa’s low absolute levels of inward equity flows. The paper then turns to new data from firm surveys to explore why African firms remain small. The implications of our findings are threefold: (a) efforts to encourage greater private investment in these markets should concentrate on domestic audiences and specialized regional funds, (b) the depth and success of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange can perhaps be better utilized to benefit other parts of the continent, and (c) any long-term strategy should concentrate on the underlying barriers to firm entry and growth.sub-Saharan African, equity markets, global emerging market,inward equity flows, private investment, Johannesburg Stock Exchange

Meaning and Hope in Health Behavior Change: An Examination of Health Coaching for Individuals with Disabilities

Introduction:In an effort to expand the reach of health-promotion efforts for people with disabilities, a one-on-one health promotion intervention titled Health My Way was piloted. This intervention incorporated health coaching and health-promotion curriculum designed specifically for people with disabilities. Purpose:The intervention was evaluated for its effects on health behavior change. Additionally, personal sense of meaning and hope were examined as potential mechanisms of influence in the hypothesized behavior change process. Methodology:A convergent-parallel mixed-methods research design was used to examine the research questions. Pre- and post-intervention surveys were used to evaluate changes in levels of meaning, hope, and health behavior. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a subset of research participants to better understand the interactions among these variables. Results: Survey responses were available for 39 participants, 12 of whom were interviewed. A main effect of the overall intervention was seen on physical activity. Additional effects on health responsibility, nutrition, and spiritual growth were seen for participants who engaged in relevant curriculum content. No mediational effects were found; however, correlations between pre- and post-test hope scores were low relative to the reliability of the measure, and a portion of the variance seen in physical activity change was associated with changes in hope. Qualitative analysis revealed both meaning and hope were important to health behavior change. The identification of sources of personal meaning was important to the identification of personally meaningful goals and for the initial motivation for health behavior change. Hope was an important component of sustained health behavior change. Increases in hope were seen in some participants, however most participants who achieved their goals or sustained health behavior change experienced an increased only the agency component of hope. Conclusions: Individualized health coaching in the current study was found to be an effective method for improving health behavior in people with disabilities, with the strongest effects in the domain of physical activity. Within this process, personal sense of meaning and hope both functioned as active components. The identification of personally meaningful goals and the generation and maintenance of hope appear to be vital to successful health behavior change via health coaching

Kids Getting Away With Learning: Student Perceptions Of Learning In One To One Laptop Programs

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012This research explores students' perceptions of learning in one to one laptop programs in rural Alaska. This research used constructing grounded theory methods by conducting five focus groups in rural high schools in order to gather and analyze data from the students themselves. The research intent was to let the students' words and experiences shape a new theory how about they learn with these laptop programs. From an epistemological standpoint the goal of this qualitative research was to create a more complete picture of learning in one to one programs using grounded data through gathering, analyzing, and working directly with the students in these programs as "co-participants" to learn from their perceptions of learning using laptops. The new literacies student develop through being 21st century learners were reflected in the student perceptions in one to one programs and challenge researchers to re-examine learning theory in light of the ubiquitous nature of digital learning. This research was part of a larger collaboration with the Tech Cohort (Appendix A) to conduct mixed methods research using the same population to create a more complete picture of the research topics and participants