When does financial sector (in)stability induce financial reforms?

The article studies whether financial sector (in)stability had an effect on reforms in the financial sector in a large cross-country panel from 1990 to 2005. We forward the theory that countries are more likely to liberalize their financial sectors in times of financial stability. We argue that politicians are less likely to undertake financial reforms if they face a strong lobby in the financial sector which is able to block reforms that are not in its interest. Our empirical results suggest that financial instability leads to regulations, while financial stability is found to induce liberalizations. We also find that weaker financial lobbies are unable to block financial reforms while strong lobbies can effectively stop reforms.Financial reforms; interest group theory; financial stability; financial crises

The art of discovery

"The Art of Discovery" discusses an ambitious educational program taught by the artist which incorporated locative media, contemporary art, site specificity, and creative work as a proposal for the integration of art, technology and science

Building School Leaders\u27 Capacity to Challenge Anti-Black Racism in Schools

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) was developed based on a problem of practice (PoP) in the Green District School Board (GDSB) related to equity leadership, and building the capacity and efficacy of school leaders to address anti-Black racism in K-12 schools. Despite efforts to create more equitable and inclusive classrooms, Ontario schools continue to display achievement gaps and negative outcomes for Black students, including streaming into courses below their abilities, harsher discipline, and higher push out and suspension rates compared to that of their peers. Feeling of isolation, lack of engagement and teacher connection further exacerbate the racial trauma and the negative experiences of Black students. This work is undertaken during a global pandemic that has further exposed the depth of societal inequities, and the growing demand for action and accountability to correct the prevailing racial injustices impacting Black students. Using a critical race theory (CRT) lens, the OIP outlines a change implementation plan that looks at key structures, learning approaches, and accountability measures that center the voices and perspectives of Black students and their families in order to break down and dismantle systemic barriers and address interpersonal racism and discrimination in schools. Social justice, culturally responsive, and distributive leadership are key leadership approaches to disrupt the status quo and create inclusive spaces. A hybrid version of Lopez’s NOFS, Kotter’s XLR8, and Deming’s PDSA models are used to stop and name anti-Black racism, and structure the necessary learning and supports for school leaders to authentically engage with the Black community and co-create intentional actions that transcend into tangibly different experiences and outcomes, within a culturally responsive school environment

When does financial sector (in)stability induce financial reforms?

The article studies whether financial sector (in)stability had an effect on reforms in the financial sector in a large cross-country panel from 1990 to 2005. We forward the theory that countries are more likely to liberalize their financial sectors in times of financial stability. We argue that politicians are less likely to undertake financial reforms if they face a strong lobby in the financial sector which is able to block reforms that are not in its interest. Our empirical results suggest that financial instability leads to regulations, while financial stability is found to induce liberalizations. We also find that weaker financial lobbies are unable to block financial reforms while strong lobbies can effectively stop reforms

An Integrative Review of the Reporting and Underreporting of Workplace Aggression in Healthcare Settings

Objectives.  Despite the prevalence of workplace aggression, workplace aggression is grossly underreported.  The purpose of this paper is to review the state of the science for the reporting and underreporting of WPA enacted by patients and/or visitors and then make recommendations for increasing the reporting of WPA. Design.  An integrative review process was used to select peer-reviewed articles describing the state of the body of evidence for the reporting and underreporting of workplace aggression. Data sources.  Articles were extracted from the Scopus database, a robust search engine that simultaneously searches over 20,000 peer-reviewed journals from over 5,000 international publishers.Review methods.  Article inclusion criteria were publication date between January 1, 2000 and October 24, 2014, healthcare workers as the study population, and dependent variable related to workplace aggression reporting or workplace aggression underreporting.  The initial search yielded 237 citations.  All abstracts were read for direct or indirect relevance At the conclusion of this initial review, 33 articles met inclusion criteria.  The article reference lists were reviewed and seven additional articles were assessed for inclusion.  Twelve articles were retained, read in full, and critiqued. Results.  Twelve articles were retained, read in full, and critiqued.  The underreporting of workplace aggression was as high as 95%.  Reasons for not reporting workplace aggression included perceived lack of organizational change after reporting, violence considered part of the job, and aggression not intentional.  Reasons for reporting workplace aggression included workplace aggression that was perceived as intentional, when administrators took action based on incident reports, when the process for reporting was quick, easy, and efficient, when aggression was physical or resulted in an injury. Conclusion.  The reporting of workplace aggression is paramount to the future success of prevention interventions.  Any changes made to increase the reporting of workplace aggression will require healthcare worker buy-in as well as organizational and administrator support to be effective.Â

Democracy Camp for Teachers: Cross-Cultural Professional Development for Preparing Educators to Create Social Justice-Minded Citizens

The Civitas Democracy Camp for Teachers provides professional development for educators to collaboratively explore ideals of citizenship and citizenship education in democratic societies. Reported herein are the findings of a study of the camp experience of a cross-cultural group of educators who examined the concept of social justice and ways to teach their students about it. Results of the study indicate that the participants broadened their definitions of social justice, expanded their recognition of the importance of teaching about social justice, and enhanced their understandings of approaches for teaching about social justice. Further, the findings indicate that cross-cultural professional development can have positive effects in altering and expanding educators’ content and pedagogical knowledge of important international issues such as social justice

Human fertility after a disaster : a systematic literature review

Fertility is a key demographic parameter influenced by disaster. With the growing risk of disasters, interest in the fertility response to a disaster is increasing among the public, policy makers and researchers alike. As yet, a synthesis of the current evidence on how fertility changes after disaster does not exist. We reviewed 50 studies retrieved from a systematic search based on a pre-registered protocol. We found an overall negative impact of disasters on fertility. If any, increases in fertility were mostly linked with weather-related physical disasters. We also identified 13 distinct mechanisms which researchers have considered as underlying the fertility effects of disaster. By contrast to the common belief that disasters are more likely to increase fertility in contexts with already high fertility, we found little evidence to suggest that the total fertility rate of the studied populations was an important predictor of the direction, timing or size of fertility impacts. While this may be because no relationship exists, it may also be due to biases we observed in the literature towards studying high-income countries or high-cost disasters. We summarize the methodological limitations identified from the reviewed studies into six practical recommendations for future research. Our findings inform both the theories behind the fertility effects of disasters and the methods for studying them

Subnational variations in births and marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea

Background: It has been postulated that the COVID-19 pandemic will contribute to fertility decline, especially in low-fertility contexts. Little is known how the consequences of the pandemic differed at the subnational level. Objective: We investigated whether fertility declined beyond the first wave in early 2020 at both the national and the subnational levels in South Korea. We also examined marital rates, given that delayed marriage is a strong driver of low fertility in many East Asian countries. Methods: Based on monthly birth and marriage registration data for the period from January 2016 to December 2021, we quantified monthly general fertility and marital rates before and after the pandemic across the 17 regions in Korea. We used paired t-tests and interrupted time-series analysis to compare before and after fertility or marital rates. Results: Our analysis suggests that, at least until 2021, fertility rates did not decline beyond the pattern explained by the already declining fertility in Korea. For marriages, we observed a clear post-pandemic decline across regions. Subnational variations in the impact of the pandemic were larger for fertility than for marriage. Conclusions: Despite little evidence that the pandemic directly affected the number of births, the reduction in marriages is likely to have a significant impact on fertility in the coming years. Contribution: We present among the first examination of subnational-level variations in the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on fertility

Liberating Visions: Religion and the Challenge of Change in Maine,1820 to the Present

Liberating Visions: Religion and the Challenge of Change in Maine, 1820 to the Present. Each of the Sampson Center’s three scholars has crafted an original essay related to one of the Sampson Center collections—African-American, Judaic, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender—thereby reflecting on how religious institutions have fostered minority identity and have framed social and cultural transformation. Table of Contents: Religion and Transformation (Joseph S. Wood, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs) Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine Programming (Susie Bock, Director, Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine and Head, USM Special Collections) The African American Collection “There’s a Blessing in Pressing:” Change in Maine’s African American Churches (Maureen Elgersman Lee, Associate Professor of History and Faculty Scholar for USM’s African American Collection) The Judaica Collection “Orthodox and Yet thoroughly Liberal:” Jews and Judaism in Maine Between Tradition and Change (Abraham J. Peck, Director, Academic Council for Post-Holocaust Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Studies and Scholar-in-residence for USM’s Judaica Collection) The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection Coming Out, Going In: Spirituality and Religion in Maine’s LGBT Communities (Howard M. Solomon, Adjunct Professor of History and Scholar-in-Residence for USM’s LGBT Collection)https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/event_catalog/1001/thumbnail.jp

Portable detection of apnea and hypopnea events using bio-impedance of the chest and deep learning

Sleep apnea is one of the most common sleep-related breathing disorders. It is diagnosed through an overnight sleep study in a specialized sleep clinic. This setup is expensive and the number of beds and staff are limited, leading to a long waiting time. To enable more patients to be tested, and repeated monitoring for diagnosed patients, portable sleep monitoring devices are being developed. These devices automatically detect sleep apnea events in one or more respiration-related signals. There are multiple methods to measure respiration, with varying levels of signal quality and comfort for the patient. In this study, the potential of using the bio-impedance (bioZ) of the chest as a respiratory surrogate is analyzed. A novel portable device is presented, combined with a two-phase Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) deep learning algorithm for automated event detection. The setup is benchmarked using simultaneous recordings of the device and the traditional polysomnography in 25 patients. The results demonstrate that using only the bioZ, an area under the precision-recall curve of 46.9% can be achieved, which is on par with automatic scoring using a polysomnography respiration channel. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy are 58.4%, 76.2% and 72.8% respectively. This confirms the potential of using the bioZ device and deep learning algorithm for automatically detecting sleep respiration events during the night, in a portable and comfortable setup