1,220 research outputs found

    Productivity in Higher Education/ Kevin Stange, Kevin Strange, Caroline M. Hoxby.

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    In English.How do the benefits of higher education compare with its costs, and how does this comparison vary across individuals and institutions? These questions are fundamental to quantifying the productivity of the education sector. The studies in Productivity in Higher Education use rich and novel administrative data, modern econometric methods, and careful institutional analysis to explore productivity issues. The authors examine the returns to undergraduate education, differences in costs by major, the productivity of for-profit schools, the productivity of various types of faculty and of outcomes, the effects of online education on the higher education market, and the ways in which the productivity of different institutions responds to market forces. The analyses recognize five key challenges to assessing productivity in higher education: the potential for multiple student outcomes in terms of skills, earnings, invention, and employment; the fact that colleges and universities are "multiproduct" firms that conduct varied activities across many domains; the fact that students select which school to attend based in part on their aptitude; the difficulty of attributing outcomes to individual institutions when students attend more than one; and the possibility that some of the benefits of higher education may arise from the system as a whole rather than from a single institution. The findings and the approaches illustrated can facilitate decision-making processes in higher education.Hoxby, Caroline M. / Stange, Kevin -- Staiger, Douglas -- Hoxby, Caroline M. -- Minaya, Veronica / Scott-Clayton, Judith -- Riehl, Evan / Saavedra, Juan E. / Urquiola, Miguel -- Altonji, Joseph G. / Zimmerman, Seth D. -- Courant, Paul N. / Turner, Sarah -- Vlieger, Pieter De / Jacob, Brian / Stange, Kevin -- Deming, David J. / Lovenheim, Michael / Patterson, Richard -- Carrell, Scott E. / Kurlaender, Michal -- Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction / 1. What Health Care Teaches Us about Measuring Productivity in Higher Education / 2. The Productivity of US Postsecondary Institutions / 3. Labor Market Outcomes and Postsecondary Accountability: Are Imperfect Metrics Better Than None? / 4. Learning and Earning: An Approximation to College Value Added in Two Dimensions / 5. The Costs of and Net Returns to College Major / 6. Faculty Deployment in Research Universities / 7. Measuring Instructor Effectiveness in Higher Education / 8. The Competitive Effects of Online Education / 9. Estimating the Productivity of Community Colleges in Paving the Road to Four- Year College Success / Contributors -- Author Index -- Subject Index1 online resource (392 p.)

    Space, time, and bodies: the dimensions of difference in women's cinema and continental philosophy

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    This dissertation examines the question of difference, and especially of sexual difference, in women’s cinema and continental philosophy. I analyze four movies by three of today’s most influential women filmmakers: Jane Campion (The Piano, New Zealand), Claire Denis (Beau Travail and Trouble Every Day, France), and Lucrecia Martel (La niña santa/The Holy Girl, Argentina), as well as philosophical texts by Luce Irigaray, Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, and Friedrich Nietzsche. I argue that these films represent difference not only through characterization, but more essentially by emphasizing one of cinema’s core devices: space (e.g. camerawork), time (narration and editing), and bodies. Through these, the films articulate relations that go beyond hierarchies of power to portray and enact movements toward others who are acknowledged in their singularity. Each chapter is devoted to a film, and opens with a close reading of its aesthetics with a focus on space, time, or bodies. My study of the filmic elements is set in a dialogue with analyses of the corresponding concepts in the philosophical texts. In particular, I explore the relevance for cinema studies of the concept of the interval, which is a central, yet until recently often-overlooked notion in Irigaray’s work. The interval can be defined as the force of difference as it constitutes two subjects (as opposed to a subject and an object) through the distance that both separates and brings them together. It lends itself well to cinematic analysis for it concerns bodies, and it is at once spatial and temporal. The interval itself is brought to bear on other concepts: Bergson’s duration and intuition, Deleuze’s interstice, and Nietzsche’s theory of violence. Through these theoretical and filmic networks, this dissertation sketches out new perspectives for feminist film criticism.A revision of this work was published by Rowman and Littlefield and is available from http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/the-dimensions-of-difference.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Caroline M. Godar

    The theory of eucharistic presence in the early Caroline divines, examined in its European theological setting

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    The question of Christ's presence in the eucharist was an issue which caused great controversy in the Reformation period, and which continued to evoke dispute during the seventeenth century. Various interpretations of the Caroline divines' teaching on the eucharistic presence have been offered, but often they seem either to indicate the theological position of the writer rather than that of the theologians considered, or to ignore the broader context of eucharistic doctrine. The purpose of this study, therefore, was 1. to investigate the theology of eucharistic presence in the thinking of several seventeenth-century Anglican divines, and 2. to examine their teaching in relation to the sixteenth-century Anglican heritage and the various continental sacramental doctrines, Reformed, Lutheran, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. To accomplish this goal, eight theologians were chosen for examination: Adrianus Saravia, Lancelot Andrewes, John Cosin, Richard Montague, William Forbes, William Laud, Jeremy Taylor and Herbert Thorndike. When available, nineteenth-century editions of their works were used; otherwise, seventeenth-century texts were employed. Similarly, modern editions of Roman, Orthodox, Lutheran and Reformed writings were utilized when possible. Thy examination of eucharistic teaching included seven major points: 1. the sacrament as mystery, 2. eucharistic change, 3. the relationship between Christ's body and the bread, 4. eucharistic communion, 5. the nature of Christ's body in the sacrament, 6. consecration, and 7. adoration in the eucharist. This study has shown that there was great diversity in the thinking of the Caroline divines (although they did not treat the subject of eucharistic presence with equal detail or depth); no unified understanding of sacramental presence was expressed. Reformed ideas inherited from the previous century remained strong, but new tendencies toward other understandings of the eucharist can be discerned. The period, therefore, can be seen to represent a new stage in the history of Anglican eucharistic doctrine

    Imitative ability in preschool age children with autism in the presence of odor

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    Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are generally thought to be impaired in the ability to imitate, but the causal processes responsible for this deficit are not well understood. Different theoretical perspectives offer different insights as to which behaviors are most difficult for individuals with ASD to imitate and why. This study investigated the imitative ability of five 3-5 year old children with ASD and thirty-two of their typically developing peers of the same ages on several categories of behavior thought to be difficult for individuals with ASD to imitate, including emotional expressions, motor behaviors, and sequences. Imitation was assessed twice using a newly refined imitation test, with approximately 1 week between visits. Imitation was scored for each component of the action imitated for each repetition. Overall, there were differences in imitative ability due to age for every category measured and due to diagnosis for nearly every category, with larger effect sizes for age. When all categories were measured at once, there was a significant age X diagnosis interaction; performance of older children with ASD approximated that of older typically developing children but younger children with ASD were consistently the worst imitators. Odor effects were modest. In general, odor affected imitative performance differently for older and younger children, with younger children benefiting more from odor when imitating more complex tasks. Looking behavior also varied according to age and diagnosis, with younger children with ASD appearing disorganized in their strategy for attending during the imitation task. The other groups appeared similar, with older children with ASD approximating the looking behavior of younger typically developing children. Looking behavior and imitation performance were related. It is suggested that the study of imitation should be broad enough to speak to multiple theoretical perspectives so as to create a more unified description of imitative abilities in individuals with ASD.Ph.D.Includes abstractVitaIncludes bibliographical referencesby Caroline Nell Coffiel

    The Association of Waist Circumference With Functional Mobility Among Adults With Obesity and Knee Osteoarthritis

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    Abstract Date Presented 3/30/2017 We examined to what extent high waist circumference was linked with decreased functional mobility over 4 yr in adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Measuring waist circumference may better stratify the risk of decreased functional mobility among adults with obesity and knee OA. Primary Author and Speaker: Simone Gill Contributing Authors: Gregory E. Hicks, Yuqing Zhang, Jingbo Niu, Caroline M. Apovian, Daniel K. White</jats:p

    Orchid love

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    As a 46XY chromosomal woman with the intersex variation Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) recently separated from her husband, the author explores the philosophical intricacies of dating, sex and love through her journaling and documentary practice. This ‘empowered reveal’ forms the basis for a transformative, phenomenological exploration of love, loss, desire and sex through a prism of feminism and embodied difference. It will be argued the positioning of the author and her lovers together, sexually strong, is a rupture of asexual preinscription

    Applying natural language models and causal models to project management systems

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    Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2018.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 97-101).This thesis concerns itself with two problems. First, it examines ways in which to use natural language features in time-varying data in predictive models, specifically applied to the problem of software project maintenance. We attempted to integrate this natural language data into our existing predictive models for project management applications. Second, we began work on creating an easy-to-use, extensible causal modeling framework, a Python package called CEModels. This package allows users to create causal inference models using input data. We tested this framework on project management data as well.by Caroline Morganti.M. Eng

    On the Sherlocks, Jane Coleman and County Kildare in the Eighteen Forties

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    In the late 1980s and early 1990s the author acquired about 30,000 letters written mainly in the 1840s. These pertained to estates throughout Ireland managed by the firm of James Robert Stewart and Joseph Kincaid, hereafter denoted SK. Until the letters – called the SK correspondence in what follows – became the author’s property, they had not seen light of day since the 1840s. Addressed mainly to the firm’s office in Dublin, they were written by landlords, tenants, the partners in SK, local agents, etc. After about 200 years in operation as a land agency, the firm in which members of the Stewart family were the principal partners – Messrs J. R. Stewart & Son(s) from the mid- 1880s onwards – ceased operations in the mid-1980s. Since 1994 the author has been researching the SK correspondence of the 1840s. It gives many new insights into economic and social conditions in Ireland during the decade of the great famine, and into the operation of Ireland’s most important land agency during those years. It is intended ultimately to publish details on several of the estates managed by SK in a study more comprehensive than the present article, in book form. The proposed title is Landlords, tenants, famine: business of an Irish land agency in the 1840s, a draft of which has now been completed. A majority of the letters in that study are on themes some of which one might expect - rents, distraint (seizure of assets in lieu of rent); ‘voluntary’ surrender of land in return for ‘compensation’ upon quitting quietly; formal ejectment (a matter of last resort on estates managed by SK); landlordassisted emigration (on a scale much more extensive than most historians of Ireland in the 1840s appear to believe); petitions from tenants; complaints by tenants, both about other tenants and about local agents; landlord-financed and other relief of distress both before and during the great famine; major works of improvement (on almost all of the estates managed by SK which have been investigated in detail in the draft book); applications by SK, on behalf of landlords, for government loans to finance improvements; recommendations of agricultural advisers hired by SK, etc. Thus, most of the SK correspondence is about aspects of estate management. But the firm of SK was not only a manager of land. The correspondence reveals only two estates in Kildare, each of them relatively small, managed by SK in the 1840s. These were the lands of the Sherlocks near Naas and of Jane Coleman in the Kilcullen district. The correspondence on these properties differs substantively from most of those discussed in detail in the draft of Landlords, tenants, famine: first, it is relatively small in quantity, and secondly, it contains relatively little on the core aspects of estate management indicated above. Much of that on the Sherlocks focuses on misfortunes among family members, while the correspondence on Jane Coleman highlights the benevolence of that proprietor.

    A Study of Immune Deficiencies as a Risk Factor of Hodgkin's Lymphoma in Children

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    Le risque de LH est augmenté en cas de déficit immunitaire acquis ou inné. Les déficits immunitaires innés associés à un risque accru de LH, sont les DICV (Déficit Immunitaire Commun Variable), XLP (Syndrome lymphoprolifératif lié au chromosome X) et ALPS (Syndrome lymphoprolifératif Autoimmun). L’objectif de notre travail était d’évaluer la prévalence de ces déficits immunitaires chez des enfants atteints de LH. Nous avons reçu, 395 prélèvements de patients atteints de LH au diagnostic. L’âge médian de la population étudiée est de 13 ans, allant de 3 à 18 ans. Le sex-ratio M/F est de 1.1. Il augmente à 3 au dessous de l’âge de 10 ans. Parmi les biopsies (n=84) qui ont été relues, 87% sont de type scléro-nodulaires (SN), 7% à cellularité mixte (CM) et 6% non spécifié. L’EBV est détecté in situ dans 23% des cas de LH. Les patients atteints de LH-EBV+ sont significativement plus jeunes que ceux atteints de LH-EBV- (p=3.10-4). Ce sont plus fréquemment des garçons que des filles (63% ; M/F : 1,7) et fréquemment de sous-type CM (40%). Enfin, ils ont une charge virale EBV significativement plus élevée (p=3.10-3) que les enfants qui ont un LH-EBV-.Parmi les 83 premiers enfants analysés, un immunophénotypage approfondi a montré une diminution de la population lymphocytaire par rapport aux témoins et une lymphopénie B fréquente (31 patients sur 83 soit 37% des patients). La lymphopénie B était corrélée aux facteurs pronostiques connus du LH. Dans un cas parmi les 31, une baisse des immunoglobulines a été mise en évidence ce qui est évocateur de DICV. Nous avons montré que dans les autres cas, les lymphopénies se corrigeaient à distance de la maladie. La recherche de profil cytokinique associé à ces lymphopénies (TGF, BAFF, IL-7) n’a pas permis de mettre en évidence de mécanisme physiopathologique simple pour expliquer ces lymphopénies. Nous émettons l’hypothèse qu’elles sont liées à l’exposition au contact des cellules tumorales à des signaux favorisant l’apopotose.En ce qui concerne la recherche d’autres déficits immunitaires innés, aucun cas évocateur de XLP n’a été mis en évidence sur la base de la quantification des lymphocytes NKT. Cinq cas parmi les 83 (6%) avaient une expansion de lymphocytes T DN (Lymphocytes TCRαβ CD4-CD8-) dans le sang périphérique. Des dosages de Fas ligand et d’IL-10 plasmatiques ont permis d’exclure un ALPS. Au total, nous n’avons pas pu affirmer de défaut qualitatif des sous-populations lymphocytaires évoquant les déficits immunitaires de type XLP et ALPS. Seule une lymphopénie B avec baisse des IgG est évocatrice de DICV. Nous avons étendu l’analyse à l’ensemble des patients (395patients) avec un contrôle à distance du diagnostic pour ceux qui étaient anormaux. Nous avons identifié 4 patients potentiellement atteints de DICV, 1,5%. Parallèlement, nous avons recherché un déficit de la réponse T anti-EBV par cytomètrie de flux et l’Elispot. L’étude de la réponse T anti-EBV par la cytométrie de flux, a montré une tendance vers une baisse de la production d’IL-2 par les CD4 et les CD8 de patients avec une charge virale EBV élevée en réponse à une stimulation par des peptides EBV en présence de lignées autologues. L’étude de la réponse T anti EBV par la technique d’ELISPOT sur 9 patients n’a pas montré globalement de déficit du contrôle de l’EBV sauf pour une jeune patiente de 10 ans ayant une charge virale EBV très élevée sans réponse T anti-EBV efficace. Les résultats que nous avons obtenus restent à approfondir, ce qui permettra d’enrichir les connaissances actuelles sur cette pathologie.Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (HL) is one of the most frequent lymphomas occurring in childhood. In young children, there is a high predominance in boys and frequent association with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV). Cohort studies have shown that patients affected by several immune deficiency syndromes - e.g. X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome (XLP), functional deficit of Fas/FasL pathway and common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) - are risk factors of HL. We intend to search for qualitative and quantitative immune deficiencies as susceptibility factors to child's HL in a prospective study related to Euronet –PHL C1 protocol. Eighty-three patients at diagnosis of HL have been analysed. Median age of the study population is 13 years, (5-18 years). Gender-ratio M/F is 1.1 with a larger male predominance before the age of 10 (gender-ratio of 3). The search for a defect of NKT population that would be suggesting of XLP was negative in all patients. A moderate expansion of circulating TCRαβ+ double negative cells (DNT) has been detected in 5 patients. This expansion has been further explored in the hypothesis of a defect of Fas/FasL pathway by plasmatic quantification of Fas ligand and Il-10. This led to the exclusionof the diagnosis of ALPS. An unexpected high frequency of B-cell lymphopenia has been detected in 31 out of 83 patients (37%). Peripheral B cell lymphopenia was associated with the following poor prognostic factors: advanced stages (p1,000 EBV copies per 250000 PBMCs). These cases will be further explored by molecular analyses.Our findings confirm the known epidemiological data of HL now mainly associated to NS subtype in children and adolescents and EBV status in HL at this age. We show that peripheral B cell lymphopenia in paediatric and adolescent HL patients is frequent and associated with poor prognosis factors. We confirm the association between CVID and HL
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