Flores and Wells\u27 Slavery in the land of the free: A student’s guide to modern day slavery (Book Review)

A review of Flores, T., & Wells, P. (2016). Slavery in the land of the free: A student’s guide to modern day slavery. Boise, ID: Ampelon Publishing. 175 pp. ISBN 978098934198

Can the Independent Counsel Statute Be Saved?

The independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act face an uncertain future. Harriger argues that the statute in its current form meets virtually none of the goals Congress intended in 1978 and that the statute should be substantially revised in an effort to minimize the costs and maximize the benefits

Maternal Emotion Coaching and Depressive Symptoms and Children's Problem Behaviors

The emotion socialization strategies that mothers use with their children impact children’s adjustment outcomes, such as internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Maternal emotion socialization strategies may be particularly important for children of depressed mothers, as depressed mothers often show deficits in parenting and their children tend to have elevated behavior problems. The present study examined how maternal emotion coaching and depressive symptoms were associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, and whether mothers’ emotion coaching served as a protective factor for children of depressed mothers. During a laboratory visit, mothers (N = 77) engaged their three-year-old child in conversation about past events that made the child sad, angry and scared. Maternal emotion coaching strategies were coded based on mothers’ awareness and acceptance of children’s emotion, as well as their facilitation of children’s elaboration and problem solving strategies. Children’s internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed using mothers’ report on the Child Behavior Checklist, while mothers’ depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Regression analyses show that maternal emotion coaching interacted with maternal depressive symptoms in predicting child problem behaviors. Mothers’ emotion coaching strategies significantly moderated the association between maternal depressive symptoms and children’s externalizing behaviors. The results of this study suggest that emotion coaching serves as a protective factor for children’s negative social and behavioral outcomes associated with maternal depressive symptoms.No embargoAcademic Major: Human Development and Family Scienc

Conspicuous Consumption and Inequality

We analyze the change in consumer demand following a mean preserving change in consumption inequality when there is conspicuous consumption. We model interdependent preferences including “keeping up with the Joneses” (imitating others) and “running away from the Joneses” (distinguishing oneself from others) with multiple peer groups and peer group effects (envy and snob effects). An individual not directly involved in the redistribution increases consumption of the more conspicuous good when she demonstrates i) ‘keeping up’ and a relatively stronger envy effect, or ii) ‘running away’ and a relatively stronger snob effect. Behaviors generated by existing models emerge as special cases.Conspicuousness; peer group effects; keeping up with the Joneses; status signaling; envy; snob

Magnetic Excitations in the Iron Based Superconductors

Presented within are neutron scattering studies detailing the spin dynamics of BaNi$_{x}$Fe$_{2-x}$As$_{2}$ for x = 0 (parent), 0.04 (underdoped), and 0.1 (optimal) dopings, and FeSe$_{x}$Te$_{1-x}$ for x = 0 (parent), 0.3 (underdoped), and 0.4 (optimal) dopings. These recently discovered Fe-based superconducting compounds are strikingly similar, in many respects, to the cuprate class of unconventional superconductors and share qualitatively similar phase diagrams consisting of a long range ordered magnetic ground state in the parents which, upon doping, is supplanted in favor of superconductivity. The dopings discussed herein allow us to tune through the phase diagram, beginning with long range ordered parents and ending with optimally doped superconductors with short range magnetic correlations. For BaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$, the excitations in the ordered state are strongly damped and persist up to 300meV. Low energies excitations are centered around Q$_{\text{AMF}}$ and disperse towards the zone boundary with increasing energy. Only scattering above 100meV is effected when warming above T$_{N}$. In underdoped x = 0.04 BaNi$_{x}$Fe$_{2-x}$As$_{2}$, we find an order of magnitude reduction in the coupling between layers and a corresponding crossover from 3D to 2D magnetism. In coauthor work on optimal doped x = 0.1 BaNi$_{x}$Fe$_{2-x}$As$_{2}$ we establish the existence of a 3D resonance mode in the superconducting state. Excitations at optimal doping above the resonance are very similar to the paramagnetic scattering observed in the parent and consists of diffuse scattering below 100meV while above this threshold the signal has similar dispersion, linewidths, and intensity as the ordered state. For FeTe, I discuss our existing efforts and data collection aimed at addressing issues associated with calculating the effective moment from Q,E-integrated data. Tuning through the phase diagram to the x = 0.3 underdoped FeSe$_{x}$Te$_{1-x}$ system we find filamentary superconductivity with magnetic spectral weight sitting at both the AFM and nesting vector. Upon reaching x = 0.4 optimal doping, the scattering completely transfers over to the nesting vector and a 2D resonance mode appears below T$_{c}$