Texas A&M International University: Research Information Online (RIO)
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Overcoming biases against people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness
No full textPeople with mental illness and offenders with mental illness are among the most maligned groups in society. Biases against these groups fuel stigmatization, which is a principal barrier to seeking treatment, and those with serious and untreated mental illness are more likely to have contact with the criminal justice system. In fact, there are so many people with mental illness in the criminal justice system in the United States that this system has become the de facto provider of mental health services. As a result, it has become necessary to include education on issues relevant to people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness in criminal justice curricula. This chapter reports on efforts to overcome student biases against people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness in the classroom setting. Results reveal that at the conclusion of an elective course on offenders with mental illness, students had significantly more positive perceptions of both people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness than they did at the beginning. These results are encouraging. It has become the job of criminal justice faculty to effectively educate the next generation of practitioners and academics to be prepared for and to devise ways to overcome the many challenges offenders with mental illness pose to the criminal justice system (and vice versa) and more positive attitudes toward people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness are a crucial first part of this process
Something to Fear: Perception of Defining Characteristics of Animals, Evaluation of Animals, and the Moderating Role of Speciesism
Get PDFSpeciesism, a form of prejudice wherein a person gives or takes value away from an organism based upon how he or she categorizes living things, is most likely a form of flexible evolutionary adaptation. However, with increasing awareness of humanity\u27s impact on the environment and growing morality, speciesism is increasingly becoming a disadvantage. Speciesism can be reflected in actions from unethical breeding habits to outright attacks on certain animals. The purpose of this study was to examine if altering the physical appearance of animals affects the person\u27s attitudes towards those animals. It was hypothesized that altering physical characteristics of some animals would increase attractiveness of the animals and this effect would be moderated by speciesism. Fifty-six university students were asked to rate each of a series of 20 animal images to measure their specific animal attitudes, defined as their evaluation of the appearance, predicted behavior, and threat potential of those animals. The control group (Condition 1) evaluated 9 unaltered animal images and the experimental group (Condition 2) evaluated the altered versions of those images. Speciesism was measured as a potential moderator of altering the image. Hierarchical regression showed altering the image to be a significant predictor (β = -.271, p = .043) of attitudes. Speciesism, however, was neither a significant predictor by itself (β = -.144, p = .276) nor significantly strengthened or weakened the effect of altering the images (β = -.516, p = .197)
The Domestication of Terrorism: 9/11 and the War In Iraq In Newspapers From Montreal, Canada
Get PDFEl trabajo presenta la domesticación del terrorismo en dos de los diarios más importantes de Montreal, Canadá: The Gazette (anglófono) y La Presse (francófono). A través del análisis de repertorios interpretativos mostramos cómo se domestica (se hace local) el terrorismo acontecido el 9/11 del 2001 y la Guerra en Irak (2003) en esos medios y cómo se articula al imaginario social. Esto nos permite explorar las apropiaciones culturales del terrorismo en dos grupos culturales, en una sociedad como la de Montreal. Palabras Clave: terrorismo, domesticación, The Gazette, La Presse, periódicos, Canadá, repertorios interpretativos. AbstractThis article analyzes the ‘domestication’ of terrorism in Montreal’s[i] most relevant newspapers: The Gazette (Anglophone) and La Presse (French-speaking). Through the use of interpretive repertoires, the paper discusses how the terrorism acts of 9/11, 2001 and their aftermath (War in Iraq, 2003) were “domesticated” (turned into local issues) and articulated to a social imaginary. This allowed the exploration of the cultural appropiation of terrorism by two contrasting cultural groups in Montreal. Key Words: terrorism, domestication, The Gazette, La Presse, newspapers, Canada, interpretive repertoires
In situ impacts of a flooding event on contaminant deposition and fate in a riparian ecosystem
No full textPurpose: Floodwaters contain a mixture of organic contaminants which affect both the water and soil quality within flooded regions. This study is the first to describe the chemical behavior of organic contaminants mobilized during the 2010 flooding event of the Rio Grande. The study compares two sites: one directly impacted by outfall from municipal sources and one primarily impacted by rural runoff. Materials and methods: This study characterized the in situ cycling of organic contaminants (triclosan, ciprofloxacin, and atrazine), their depositional mechanisms, and the post-flood dynamics within riparian soils over 6 months. Water quality (pH, salinity, alkalinity, turbidity, N, and P) of the Rio Grande at four sites within Webb County, TX, was monitored for 3 months pre-flooding and 6 months post-flooding in order to determine contaminant levels along the Webb County border. Soil physicochemical properties (pH, CEC, and EC) were assessed for 6 months at two sites post-flooding: within the municipal area of both Laredo, TX, USA, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico (LCC site), and upstream of the site near the edge of Laredo, TX (MR site). Results and discussion: Low levels of contaminants were detected in the watershed year-round with levels increasing during the flood. Floodwaters had a lower pH than nonflooding conditions, resulting in greater partitioning of both triclosan and ciprofloxacin to particles within the water column with no change detected in atrazine behavior. Soil samples (0–2-cm depth) showed an increase in clay-sized particles (up to 6–14 %) and contaminant concentrations similar to that of water column particles. Organic contaminants were uniform in concentration throughout the soil profile (2–30 cm), demonstrating the impact of infiltration. Both triclosan and atrazine decayed away at rates of 23 ± 2 and 16 ± 1 days, respectively, with no decay of ciprofloxacin detected. Vertical mobility of contaminants within soils was not detected. Conclusions: This study was able to distinguish the influx of contamination contributed by particle deposition from that due to infiltration of the contaminated floodwaters. Further, our data indicates that outfall/effluent contaminants, such as ciprofloxacin, may persist in riparian soils post-flooding. Agricultural management should consider potential exposure and accumulation of floodwater contaminants in crops
Factors affecting the information overload at an managerial level
No full textThe main purpose of this article is to analyze the factors affecting the information overload of the directors. The overload refers to the perception experienced by an individual about its incapability to manage the information needed to execute their work. After a literature revision, hypothesis related to the information volume, the number of information transactions and the quantity of knowledge on business processes necessary are presented. Subsequently, employing the data of 76 Spanish directives, a structural equations model based on Partial least squares (PLS) that allows to test the hypothesis is validated. As a result, it is obtained that, contrary to what one would expect at a managerial level, is the transactions number and not the information volume the most influent factor in the information overload. The final conclusion and contribution of the study is explaining the relevance of the information transactions number as a main factor affecting the information overload at an executive level
The Internet as a general-purpose technology: Firm-level evidence from around the world
No full textThis paper uses firm-level data to assess whether telecom services are general-purpose technologies. We find that only Internet services are so: firm growth and productivity are substantially higher when Internet access is greater and when firms use the Internet more intensively; and it benefits firms of both high- and low-tech industries, firms of all sizes, and firms with and without exporting. Small firms benefit more from Internet than large firms do. In contrast, fixed-line and cellular services are not robustly related to firm performance
Do indirect questions reduce lying about corruption? Evidence from a quasi-field experiment
No full textRecent studies have found reticent managers are less likely to report corruption than are non-reticent managers. We confirm this using new data from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We find reticence greatly affects estimates of corruption for measures based on both direct and indirect questions. We also find reticence affects response rates. Surprisingly, reticent managers were less likely to refuse to answer questions on corruption than non-reticent managers, possibly because reticent managers believe that refusing to answer seems like a tacit admission of guilt. Throughout the analysis, we control for the potential endogeneity of the reticence measure
The delicate balance for jointly pursuing economic growth in Latin America and China
No full textThis paper examines the sources of economic growth for a group of Latin American countries in relation to their export performance in China. The analytical framework is based on an extended normalized quadratic profit function. The ensuing econometric results confirm that a favorable export record with China represents a positive source of growth for Latin America. However, it also creates long-run dependability conditions in terms of reduced prices and thinner profits that weaken its growth capacity. Latin American countries must seek product diversification away from their current commodity base and aggressively climb up the value chain to remain competitive worldwide. Managerial Relevance: identify the sources of economic growth for a group of Latin American countries in relation to their export performance in China; the weakness of this economic growth model; how to seek product diversification away from their current commodity base with emphasis on value chain
Feature selection in credit scoring- a quadratic programming approach solving with bisection method based on Tabu search
Get PDFCredit risk is one of the most important topics in the risk management. Meanwhile, it is the major risk of banks and financial institutions encountered as claimed by the Basel capital accord. As a form of credit risk measurement, credit scoring is the credit evaluation process to reduce the current and expected risk of a customer being bad credit. The credit scoring models usually use a set of features to predict the credit status, good credit (unlikely to default) and bad credit (more likely to default), of the applicants. However, with the fast growth in the credit industry and facilitation of collecting and storing information due to the new technologies, a huge amount of information on customer is available. Feature selection or subset selection is therefore essential to handle irrelevant, redundant or misleading features in order to improve predictive (classification) accuracy and reduce high complexity, intensive computation, and instability for most credit scoring models. In this study, a hybrid model is developed for credit scoring problems to predict the classification accuracy based on selected subsets by first establishing a correlation coefficient based binary quadratic programming model for feature selection. The model is then solved with the bisection method based on Tabu search algorithm (BMTS) and provides optional subsets of features in different sizes from which the satisfactory subsets for credit scoring models are selected based on both the size and overall classification accuracy rate (OCAR). The results of this proposed BMTS+SVM method, tested on two benchmark credit datasets, shed light on the improvement of the existing credit scoring systems with flexibility and robustness. This validated method is then used in an international business context to test the data on the U.S. and Chinese companies in order to find out the subsets of features that act as key factors in distinguishing good credit companies from bad credit companies in these two countries. Finally, The performance of classification models, using different classifiers, in terms of OCAR and misclassification cost is evaluated based on the U.S. and Chinese datasets. Cutoff values which give highest OCAR and minimum misclassification cost is also discussed
The Association Between Perceived Parenting Styles and Aggression in Mexican American Young Adults
Get PDFThe relationship between parenting styles and aggression in children has recently received ample attention throughout the psychological literature, with some aspects of this relationship yielding consistent results while others involve more complex dynamics that require further exploration. One factor that may influence both parenting styles and aggression is culture. While many researchers have investigated the relationship between culture and parenting styles, as well as the relationship between culture and aggression, there appears to be a lack of research investigating the relationship and interactions among these three constructs. It is important to further explore the relationship between perceived parenting styles and aggression to understand the negative consequences that can result during young adulthood from exhibiting aggressive behaviors during primordial days. Given that research on this topic with Mexican American young adults is scarce, and the influence of parenting styles, and perceived parenting styles, that has often been found in the literature may not be applicable due to differences in culture, and levels of acculturation. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between perceived parenting styles and aggression in young adults of Mexican descent, as moderated by individual differences in acculturation. Results indicated that perceived permissive and authoritative parenting, in interaction with acculturation are significant predictors of aggression. Perceived authoritarian and permissive parenting styles also significantly predict aggression