Personality and behavioral factors related to drink-driving among young males : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

The study aimed to replicate the findings of research which highlighted a number of personality and behavioural variables that effect an individuals drink-driving frequency, and intoxication level while driving. These variables are aggression, sensation seeking, self-rated driving style and skill, driving related anger, and alcohol consumption. The studies sample (N = 129) was made up entirely of 20 - 24 year old males. This group has been shown to drink-drive more frequently than any other age group in New Zealand, and males drink-drive significantly more than females. Results showed that physical aggression, verbal aggression, alcohol consumption and risky driving style were correlated with drink-driving intoxication level. However, once a regression analysis was employed it was discovered that only alcohol consumption level had significant predictive validity in relation to drink-driving intoxication level. The more a participant drank the more likely they were to drive when drunk. Overall, the results tend to question how much impact the personality variables studied really have on the frequency of drink-driving. Assumptions in relation to the findings, and implications future research on factors effecting drink-driving, are also discussed

Credit Unions and the Supply of Insurance to Low Income Households

The low-income credit union modelled in this paper is an institution with a particular form of contract designed to allow it to operate among agents that are excluded from using banks. Specifically credit unions deal with those potentially on the minimum income guarantee. The challenge facing them is to distinguish between those whose motivation is consumption smoothing and those who seek the largest credible loan with the intention of defaulting. This is achieved by setting the level of the minimum deposit and the loan and deposit rates such that an intentional defaulter has no incentive to join the credit union.credit unions, intentional defaulter, financial contract

A discrete-time system with uncertainty information

This paper considers a discrete-time queueing system with uncertainty information, that is, an arriving customer may opt, with a certain probability, to be served under a Last Come First Served (LCFS) discipline or, with complementary probability, becomes a negative customer. The arrival of a negative customer to the system removes the customer that is currently being served, if any, and has no effect on the system if the server is free. The input stream of the arriving customers is described by means of a Bernoulli process, and the service times are geometrically distributed. Breakdowns can occur, that is, the possibility of a server failure during the service time of a customer is considered, and the customer that was receiving its service in the moment of a failure of the server goes to the first place of the queue. The server has a general life time distribution, and the repair times are ruled by an arbitrary distribution. A thorough study of the model is carried out, and, using a generating function approach, the steady-state distributions of the number of customers in the queue and in the system are obtained.We also give a necessary and sufficient condition for the stability of the system. Characteristics measures of the model are also given. Finally, some numerical examples to illustrate the effect of the parameters on several performances measures of the system are presented.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Estimating Forest Products Demand and Supply Functions for a Global Trade Model

This paper deals with estimation of demand in wood products. The study aims to serve the needs of global trade modeling, and therefore, the long time perspective as well as the differences in various model regions have been kept in mind. Theoretical foundations of such econometric forecasting have been considered, and specific preliminary models have been suggested taking into account data which is currently available. Finally, recommendations have been given for developing the data base to improve the demand forecasts

Working memory profiles of children with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) : a comparison with controls.

With 10% of the population being infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), South Africa has the highest number of infections in the world (StatsSA, 2013). HIV results in cognitive and motor deficits in children as the severe compromise of the immune system leads to neurodevelopmental dysfunction peri-natally (Ruel, Boivin, Boal, Bangirana, Charlebois, & Havlir, 2011). Neurocognitive deficits affect overall general intellectual abilities and include difficulties with attention and speed of information processing, verbal language, executive –abstraction, complex-perceptual motor function, memory and motor and sensory function (Dawes & Grant, 2007). Developmentally, it is evident that working memory provides a crucial interface between perception, attention, memory and action (Baddeley, 1996; Baddeley 2003). Therefore the purpose of the study was to investigate the working memory profiles of both an HIV positive children and a control sample, on cognitive tasks (Automated Working Memory Assessment), general intellect tasks (Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices) and language competence tasks (Sentence Repetition Test). The current study compared 26 HIV positive children (mean age = 6.58 years) to 26 matched controls (mean age = 6.73 years). It was found that both non-verbal IQ and language proficiency were correlated to HIV status and thus were used as covariates in the study. MANCOVA’s were conducted on the data and produced findings that showed that there were only significant differences in visuo-spatial short-term memory between the two groups. Furthermore, it was also found that there were significant differences between the groups on nonverbal IQ and language proficiency. Therefore, the results showed that HIV may have an overall effect on non-verbal ability and language proficiency and a few aspects of working memory such as visuo-spatial short-term memory. Together with future studies focused on larger sample sizes and children who are not currently on HAART, early developmental interventions can be formulated to assist South African HIV-infected children so that the neurocognitive effects are lessened and their overall lifestyle is improved

StoriesAbout … Assessment: understanding and enhancing students' experiences of assessment in art and design higher education using on-line storytelling and visual representations.

This thesis aims to investigate students qualitative experiences of assessment in art and design higher education using storytelling and visual representations. It aims to investigate whether collaborative storytelling can encourage students to reflect on, and learn from, each others experiences of assessment. In order to examine these aims, an on-line tool, ˜StoriesAbout¦ Assessment was designed and developed, based on an adapted model of storytelling as a reflective tool in higher education. Visual representations of students experiences were also used to identify the affective aspects of the assessment experience. In using these novel methods, the research aimed to highlight the whole student learning experience and how assessment affects that experience. Traditional methods of surveying and evaluation do not usually focus on this, nor do they provide a reflective, learning process for students. The analysis of stories led to a greater understanding of students experiences of assessment in art and design by identifying a number of key issues: the impact of negative experiences, the need for greater clarity of assessment criteria due to the subjective nature of the discipline, the tension students perceive between their role as creative practitioners in an educational setting and their role in the wider art world, the value of peer support and appropriate feedback. The storytelling model enabled students to view stories from different perspectives and to consider changes to their practice, and the model has demonstrated its efficacy in supporting reflective thinking and transformative learning. The emotional aspect to students experiences was particularly evident in their visual representations which often used strong imagery to depict how the stress of assessment affected them. The drawings also showed stereotypes of assessment, such as images of exams, indicating that these previous experiences had become synonymous with assessment, despite there being few formal exams in art and design. In summary, this thesis contributes two new methods for understanding and enhancing the student learning experience, which have been proven in the context of art and design higher education