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A Quantitative Study on the Predictive Ability of MCAT Scores on the Pre-Clinical Grade Point Averages of Black Medical Students
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to examine the predictive ability of MCAT scores on the pre-clinical grade point averages of Black medical students. Underrepresented in medicine students, including students of color and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds have often been prevented from pursuing medical education. This is due to the heavy reliance on numeric metrics including undergraduate grade point averages and MCAT scores for admissions decisions. (DeCarvalho et al., 2018; Linville, 2015; Reede, 1999). The research questions employed in this study focused on the relationship between MCAT scores and pre-clinical grades of Black students and the relationship between secondary variables including undergraduate GPAs, socioeconomic status, or the tier of undergraduate institution attended on the relationship of the two primary variables.
This study was quantitative in nature and grounded in Practice Theory. Practice Theory was chosen to stimulate alteration of inequitable structures which lack representation and inclusion for marginalized and underrepresented citizens. Pearson correlations and multiple regressions were used to answer the research questions. This study added to existing data by supporting the need to eliminate absolutes from academic numeric metrics when using them in medical school admissions decisions, indicating the need to develop admissions rubrics which give value to non-quantifiable experiences, and to employ EDI personnel with the ability to forge multidimensional relationships with underrepresented applicants. Results showed a significant, yet weak, positive correlation between MCAT scores and pre-clinical GPAs for Black medical students. Only undergraduate GPAs and the number of EDI staff predicted pre-clinical GPAs and neither of these variables affected the relationship between the primary variables.
Keywords: medical education; standardized test scores; equitable admission
ESG Activities, Political Contributions, and Firm Performance
Get PDFThis dissertation is comprised of two distinct empirical papers which I document in two separate chapters. In the first chapter, I empirically examine the impact of banks’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices on banking efficiency. Using a sample of 578 international banks over the years 2011-2019, I employ a data envelopment analysis (DEA) method to estimate banks’ technical efficiency scores. My baseline Tobit regressions reveal that high ESG performance significantly reduces banks’ efficiency. Further, I find that this relationship is non-linear at very high levels of ESG scores. These findings are consistent across the social (S) and governance (G) dimensions of ESG, across banks with different sizes and specializations, and across banks from America, Asia, and Oceania regions. I separately control for World Bank’s country-wise governance indicators and find consistent results for each of them. My results survive a couple of robustness tests based on Simar and Wilson (2007) two-stage efficiency analysis and fractional probit regressions. For further robustness, I test for and subsequently obtain persistence of the diminishing efficiency. I use a two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation to deal with potential endogeneity. My channel regressions suggest that the negative effect is mainly attributed to significant reductions in bank loans and other operating assets. With this novel evidence, this chapter imparts new direction for further research in the growing literature of ESG issues in banking and finance. In the second chapter, I empirically explore the impact of political connections of U.S. suppliers and buyers. Prior evidence, although mixed, suggest that firm performance is significantly associated with its own political contributions. However, the link between firms’ performance and political connections of their suppliers and buyers is yet to be explored. I examine whether performance of U.S. firms is affected by the changes in political contributions of their supplier and buyers. Based on a large sample of U.S. nonfinancial firms and their politically connected suppliers and buyers from 1996 to 2018, my baseline findings reveal that firms’ profitability, value, liquidity, and debt level reduce significantly in response to increases in lobbying expenditures of their suppliers, supporting the bargaining power perspective of political connections. Further, I find that firms exhibit stronger liquidity and increased internal investments following rises in lobbying expenditures of their buyers, suggesting the cash-flow perspective of political contributions. These findings survive a set of robustness tests based on change-on-change regressions and propensity score matching. This chapter provides the first evidence on the link between firm performance and political contributions of their suppliers and buyers. This study shall be of substantial interest to academics, business organizations, and investors who are concerned about the impact that political connections impose on U.S. corporations
An Investigation and Analysis of the 2021 Surfside Condo Collapse
Get PDFA central mission of civil engineering is to create safe structures to prevent the loss of life and property. The most effective tool in this effort is the development and standardization of codes to govern best practices, material specifications, and safe minimums and assumptions. While much of this is done through thorough testing and research, many lessons are learned the hard way. Historically, major disasters and failures have brought about new standards and changes to ensure that history is not repeated. On June 24th, 2021, 98 people lost their lives when Champlain Towers South, a 12-story condominium in Surfside, Florida, suddenly collapsed in the night. There are lessons to be learned in this tragedy. This investigation and analysis seek to find them
Expendable as a Battleship: UAW Local 50, Demobilization, and the Post war Future of the Willow Run Bomber Plant, 1940-1945
Get PDFThe Willow Run Bomber Plant was leased to the Ford Motor Company during World War II and specialized in the mass production of Consolidated B-24 bombers. While Willow Run’s war service and production record is often highlighted, the plant’s demobilization experience is often ignored along with the United Auto Workers Local 50 that represented the plant’s 21,000 workers. Allied victory in Europe was accompanied with layoffs that threatened Willow Run’s continued operation. This study investigates the advocacy and goals of Local 50 leaders as they underwent a unique campaign through the spring and summer of 1945 that advocated for the plant’s continued use in the post-war economy. While Local 50’s leadership was only marginally influential in shaping Willow Run’s post-war future, the study concludes that the local union was active through their advocacy efforts to preserve worker jobs in the economic readjustment from war to peace
The Complete Annihilation of Victor Neuburg by Aleister Crowley
Get PDFThis play dramatizes the relationship between Jewish poet Victor Neuburg and The Wickedest Man in the World, Aleister Crowley. Crowley chose Neuburg as his chela, or disciple, and together they discovered sex magic. Eventually, their relationship led to Neuburg\u27s mental collapse and the lovers\u27 permanent estrangement
20,000 Feet Between: The Experiential Disparities of Precision Bombing in Austrian Bomb Victims and American Bombardiers, 1945
Get PDFFrom November 1944 until May 1945, the 57th Bomb Wing executed the “Battle of the Brenner” to incapacitate the German war machine. As a result of five campaign missions from March – April 1945, the USAAF not only decimated the village of Matrei am Brenner and Trautson Castle, but also killed dozens of civilians. Recent archaeological excavations at Medieval Trautson Castle prompted serious questions about the USAAF’s bombardment strategies and ethics, especially regarding precision bombing. By analyzing these bombing missions, this thesis will delineate the “Battle of the Brenner” within the evolution of the USAAF’s bombardment doctrine in order to further emphasize the inadequacies of daytime precision bombing. Furthermore, the precision bombing theory in and of itself created experiential disparities between those bombing in the skies and those dying on the ground that must be seriously studied if the entire picture of the U.S. bombing war is to be understood
Job Approval Ratings for Governor John Bel Edwards, US Senator John Kennedy, and US Senator Bill Cassidy
Get PDFThe University of New Orleans’ Survey Research Center (SRC) conducted a live interviewer telephone survey of 325 registered voters in the state of Louisiana. We asked respondents to rate the job performance of Governor John Bel Edwards. We also inquired into how respondents perceived the job performance of the state’s two US Senators, John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy
Just Keep Clippin\u27
Get PDFThroughout this submission, I will discuss the development of my feature thesis screenplay, Crimp, and my short thesis documentary that inspired it, Just Keep Clippin’. I have provided my options to get the feature made and distributed. I will also discuss my experience at University of New Orleans as a graduate student majoring in both, Film Production and Screenwriting