102 research outputs found
A Middle Caddo Period Cemetery (41FK97/139) on Big Cypress Creek in Franklin County, Texas
No full textIn the early 1990s, an ancestral Caddo habitation site and cemetery was reported to the junior author in the Big Cypress Creek valley in Franklin County in East Texas by a local collector. The site is in an area of other known ancestral Caddo cemeteries, including the Bruce J. Connally Farm (41FK5) and the P. G. Hightower Farm (41FK7). In this article we summarize the available information about this important but still little known ancestral Caddo site
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Representations of Hierarchical Structure in Visual Memory
No full textVisual working memory possesses a limited capacity for information but people can use objects’ statistical structure to help remember their features. If you know that your papers are scattered around your desk, for example, this constrains their possible locations (e.g. it is unlikely they are in the bathroom) and can help you remember specifically where each paper is on your desk. However, it is often uncertain what information visual working memory should summarize to aid recall later on. Is it sufficient to remember that the papers were near the desk? Or will you need to know where they were relative to each other? My dissertation investigates what statistical structure visual working memory seeks to encode by (Chapter 1) revealing what visuospatial groupings people expect and tend to use, (Chapter 2) examining how people use those expectations to form structured memories of objects’ groupings and (Chapter 3) evaluating the cost of using this grouping structure—what information is lost by encoding objects as components of groups. Overall, my dissertation reveals reveals that while exploiting the statistics of scenes introduces structured biases into memories, doing so enables visual memory to build accurate, multi-level representations of scenes
Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections Newsletter, 2013, Vol 17, No. 1
No full textQuarterly newsletter of the Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota Libraries. This issue includes articles on a donation of books from long-time Sherlockian author and collector Donald A. Redmond by way of his son, Chris; the book "A Case for Sherlock Holmes" by Gladys Ruth Bridgham, published by Walter H. Baker & Co. in 1913; Walter Klinefelter’s "Sherlock Holmes in Portrait and Profile" published by the Syracuse University Press in 1963; additional thoughts on Franklin Pierce Adams, who appeared in a previous issue; an update from the curator on recent donations and outreach activities; a note from the President of the Friends on our 2013 conference and donations from the Baker Street Irregulars Trust; and musings from the newsletter editor.Redmond, Chris; McKay, Marilynne; McKuras, Julie; Sveum, Richard J; Johnson, Timothy J; Malec, Andrew. (2013). Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections Newsletter, 2013, Vol 17, No. 1. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/226297
Visuospatial Priors Revealed through Serial Reproduction
No full textWorking memory is a reconstructive process that requires integrating multiple hierarchical representations of objects. This hierarchical reconstruction allows us to overcome perceptual uncertainty and limited cognitive capacity, but yields systematic biases in working memory as individual items are influenced by the ensemble statistics of the scene, or of their particular group. Given the importance of the hierarchical encoding of a display, we aim to characterize what structured priors people use to encode visual scenes using a nonparametric data-driven approach. In Experiment 1, we examine visuospatial memory’s priors for locations by asking participants to recall the locations of objects in a serial reproduction task. We show that people have priors that bias items toward a more compact structure and organize them into clustered spatial groups. In Experiment 2, we explicitly introduce discrete color groups, allowing us to test whether the color feature governs the spatial grouping. We find that the spatial structures were color-contingent. By analyzing color groups, we circumvent the grouping uncertainty in Experiment 1 and further reveal spatial priors that compress color groups into collinear structures with similar orientations and equidistant spacing
Why is there proportionately more enrollment in private schools in some countries?
No full textThe proportion of students enrolled in private rather than public schools varies greatly among countries. The author tries to explain (1) the systematically higher proportion of enrollment in private schools in developing countries than in developed countries, at the secondary level, and (2) the seemingly random variation across countries within a given level of education and stage of development. The author argues that differentiated demand and nonprofit supply - both of which stem from cultural heterogeneity, especially religious heterogeneity - are the major explanations for variations in the proportion of private education within a given stage of development and educational level. By contrast, the author hypothesizes that the proportionately heavy enrollment in private secondary schools in developing countries stems from limited public spending, which creates an excess demand from people who would prefer to use the public schools but are involuntarily excluded and pushed into the private sector. Limited public spending on secondary education, in turn, is modeled as a collective decision which is strongly influenced by the numerous families that opt for many children, and that consequently can only afford to invest small amounts in each child, in developing countries. The results of regressions that determine private-sector size recursively and simultaneously with public educational spending are consistent with these hypotheses.Economic Theory&Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Gender and Education,Inequality,Environmental Economics&Policies
Interventions for Children with Conduct Disorder
No full textabstract: The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on interventions for children with conduct disorder. Conduct disorder mainly effects children and adolescents, and is characterized as a pattern of persistent (sometimes anti-social) behavior in which an individual violates the basic rights of others or disregards societal norms and rules. If left untreated, conduct disorder can be a precursor to more severe behavioral problems and consequences, including juvenile delinquency and unlawful behavior as an adult. The interventions reviewed in this paper include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), supportive counseling, experiential therapy, multisystemic therapy (MST), parent management training (PMT), military school, scared-straight programs and boot camps, and medication. Based on empirical data and recommendations from experts in the field, I conclude with suggestions for parents on how best to help their children diagnosed with conduct disorder
Institution-Supported Agriculture (Buckeye ISA): Addressing Neighborhood Food Security at the Family Level
No full textThe Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT) is working with OSU Extension and central Ohio partners to improve food security in its community. With the support of a three-year, 750,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the project is supporting formation of a network of more than 100 low-income households, particularly in communities of color, that grow and sell food to Ohio State. The ultimate goal is to increase household food security and self-reliance for fresh food, while creating new economic opportunities through Ohio State's buying power. Ohio ranks among the worst states in the nation for food security, but Ohio State is making a major investment in a systems approach to tackling this challenge. The university set a goal of increasing locally and sustainably sourced food to 40 percent of the up to $39 million in annual food purchasing by 2025. This new focus on local sourcing creates economic pull to producers in surrounding communities, many of which are well above the national average household food insecurity rates. The network would be composed of many farmers or gardeners and one very large buyer, Ohio State, institution-supported agriculture, or the Buckeye ISA. Partnerships have been formed with community partners, government agencies and allied organizations, such as the City of Columbus, Franklin County, Columbus Public Health, Mid-Ohio Foodbank, Scotts Miracle-Gro and Lowe's, to provide the human and social capital for technical training and business support to the producer network, by tackling such challenges as land access, production, processing and food safety, logistics and distribution, business and leadership. Partnerships have also been formed with community groups who have a long-standing commitment to improve food security, including: Parsons Area Merchants Association, Greater Columbus Growing Coalition, The Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden, Local Matters, and Franklinton Farms. The project addresses many of the action items outlined in the Columbus and Franklin County Local Food Action Plan, including: connecting new or growing small-scale food businesses to financial and technical assistance, increasing capacity for more residents to grow food for themselves and their neighbors, institutional buyers adopting food purchasing policies to support increased purchases of healthy and local food, and engaging underrepresented communities in developing and implementing culturally appropriate food assistance, education, nutrition, gardening, and cooking programs. Through this proposal, we hope to reach conference attendees interested in creating or expanding local and sustainable food systems and/or working in underserved communities. We also hope to reach those interested in forming multi-agency partnerships and collaborations to increase outreach and impact.AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Casey Hoy, faculty director, Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT), [email protected] (Corresponding Author); Timothy McDermott, OSU Extension educator, Franklin County; Angela Latham, program coordinator, Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT)The Buckeye ISA project started with ambitious goals to address identified significant neighborhood challenges faced not only in Columbus, but also in many other communities. Learn how this project developed partnerships with community organizations including the City of Columbus, Mid-Ohio Foodbank, Lowe's Corporation, Scotts-Miracle-Gro, OSU Extension, and InFACT to provide the human and social capital needed through coordinated technical training and support. Discuss how leveraging existing assets and developing new partners grew into a network of producers in disadvantaged communities and addressed needed inputs in land access, fresh pro-duce production, processing and food safety, logistics and distribution, business acumen and leadership skills
Private equity funds and hedge funds: a primer
No full textPrivate equity funds and hedge funds are both alternative asset classes that are continuously growing in importance. Although they have different focuses, they share some characteristics. First of all, both have or allegedly have a significant impact on the economy as well as the financial system they operate in. Therefore, the question of a potential regulation of both asset classes arises. Due to the lack of sophisticated knowledge about the differences of these asset classes, market players fear that attempts to regulate hedge funds will adversely affect private equity funds. Besides the regulatory issue, there are several other links between these two asset classes that have to be looked at. The relationship between those two asset classes is therefore of general importance. Last months' developments in the hedge fund industry (e.g. rumors about turbulences as well as hedge funds forcing the dismissal of the CEO of Deutsche Börse) have now even led to a broad public debate about private equity and hedge funds. At least in Germany the debate has been partly fueled by the fact that both types of funds are highly funded by institutional investors from abroad. Due to this the debate widened and included criticism on Anglo-Saxon style capitalism as well. In the light of the last German elections, hedge funds and private equity funds have even been compared to locusts, notorious for exhausting whole countries. However, the distinction between hedge funds and private equity funds remains very vague in this discussion, so that deep mistrust is spread among the public opinion against these new, mostly unknown and misunderstood types of investors. For this reason it is important to * discuss the arguments for or against regulation, * look at the major links between the two asset classes, * look at the major differences that exist between the asset classes, and * conceive a set of criteria to clearly distinguish between both types of funds. The purpose of this paper is to comment on possible solutions to the above mentioned tasks. It outlines preliminary thoughts and findings. Further, it comments on the steps that we think should be taken to further enhance perception of private equity funds as opposed to hedge funds from a public as well as a regulatory perspective. --Private Equity Funds,Hedge Funds
A presumptive pigovian tax on gasoline : analysis of an air pollution control program for Mexico City
No full textWithout continuous monitoring of emissions, a pollution control agency needs to evaluate abatement options itself. Apart from making activities cleaner, it should also stimulate reductions in the level of activity in polluting sectors. The author develops an analytical framework to show that a tax on a variable input, such as gasoline, is useful for this purpose. It encourages individuals and firms to sacrifice trips when they would prefer those sacrifices to those of higher spending on abatement. The instrument exploits privately held information about which trips can be saved at a low social cost. Other weaknesses of a program based on indirect instruments - as opposed to one induced by a theoretically conceived pollution tax - remain. One of these is that the agency may have poorer information than individuals and firms about the status of vehicles and the effectiveness of individual abatement options. Such an information gap - which could be bridged by a true pollution tax - is abstracted from the analysis. The author shows that the tax rate that belongs in a cost-effective pollution control program is independent of the price elasticity of demand for the polluting good. But the higher the demand elasticity, the higher are the costs of not including a presumptive tax on the polluting good in the tool kit of the pollution control agency. The author estimates the cost savings available when an optimal gasoline tax is included in an otherwise well-composed program, appropriately accounting for the welfare costs ofdemand consumption. He shows that the targeted emission reductions can be obtained at 11 percent lower costs, saving 350 million a year. After recent price increases, implicit tax rates in Mexico City are higher than suggested by the author's analysis. Higher rates may or may not be justified due to the benefits of demand conservation not accounted for in the analysis.Energy and Environment,Pollution Management&Control,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Transport and Environment
Identity and dislocation in Caribbean women's literature: a study of the writings of Velma Pollard
No full textJamaican-born Velma Pollard has been publishing poetry and short stories for nearly
thirty years. Her first poems appeared in the 1970s, her first volume of short stories in
1989, and her first novel in 1994. Despite this considerable literary output, in the evergrowing
critical literature on Caribbean women's writing Pollard's work has not attracted
any of the scholarly treatment accorded to other writers. Given this lack of critical
attention to Pollard's considerable body of work, this thesis aims to provide the first
detailed and contextualised study of her writings (excluding the majority of her poetry
and of her writings on linguistics), and to accord Pollard the recognition her work
deserves.
Chapter 1 of this thesis situates Pollard's writings in the context of Caribbean
(women's) literature, and writings on identity, dislocations and (Caribbean) migration. I
argue that Pollard's principal contribution to Caribbean literature is found in her
engagement with two main subjects, return migration and relationships (male-female and
female-female), within a wider context of debates on identity and dislocation.
Chapter 2 introduces Pollard's work by way of a general discussion of her novella
Karl, which won the Casa de las Americas literary award in 1992. I consider Karl to be
central to Pollard's work, not least because it features many of the themes explored by
her later writings, including her novel, Homestretch, which is the subject of Chapter 3.
Pollard's first novel, Homestretch, which was published in 1994, explores the themes
of identity and dislocation through the experiences of 'return migrants' and 'repeat
migrants' and their comparison of life in England, the United States and Jamaica. The
novel chronicles how these migrants come to reconnect with and accept their cultural
heritage.
In chapters 4 and 5 I discuss selected stories taken from Pollard's two collections
of short stories, Considering Woman ('Cages', 'My Sisters', 'My Mother', and 'Gran') and
from Karl and Other Stories ('A Night's Tale', 'Miss Chandra', 'Betsy Hyde', and 'Altamont
Jones'). In these stories Pollard explores male-female relationships and the lives of
several generations and a wide range of Caribbean women and men. Pollard utilises the
West Indian setting, speech, situations and conflicts in these stories to graphically
describe familiar Caribbean role models and to provide a narrative and literary
examination of the frustrations and conflicting desires of women in the region.
In my conclusion, I address the ethnographic quality and significance of her work,
and its contribution to an understanding of the Caribbean
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