Kroll Global Fraud Report

In a true sign of the times, companies participating in this year’s Global Fraud Survey reported that information theft is now the most common form of fraud. With 27% of companies reporting incidents within the past year, the theft of information surpassed the theft of physical property for the first time in the four-year history of the Survey. Some industry sectors were particularly hard hit, foremost among them financial services (42%, up from 23% the previous year), professional services (40%, up from 23%), and Technology, Media and Telecoms (37%, up from 15%). And while companies clearly recognize the increasing severity of the problem, to some extent they feel unprepared to deal with it: 77% of respondents believe that their companies are vulnerable to information theft.

Source: Kroll information and Security

Download full pdf report | Link to online overview

Memory, brain and aging: The good, the bad and the promising

Abstract:

A large body of evidence converges on the conclusion that episodic memory (the recollection of personally experienced events) is the only long-term memory system that shows significant age-related deficits. Moreover, the brain regions most likely to show age-related volume loss are those most critically involved in episodic memory. Older adult brains may have much greater plasticity (capacity to change) than once believed; for example, neurogenesis (the birth of new neurons), increases in cognitive (includ-ing memory) performance, and increases in regional brain volume have all been shown to occur in older adulthood, as a result of physical or mental activity/training. The next wave of research will enhance our understanding of brain plasticity in adulthood and enable specific guidelines for lifestyle or pharmacological treatments that optimize brain and memory functioning well into late adulthood.

Source: California Agriculture, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Communication Services, UC Office of the President [via eScholarship Repository]

Download pdf publication | Link to online overview at eScholarship Repository

Effects of stress on health and aging: Two paradoxes

Abstract:

Although older adults are thought to experience more stress and to be more vulnerable to its adverse effects, they often report less stress than younger adults and sometimes show more resilience. Paradoxically, while stress sometimes has long-term positive effects on well-being, studies differ as to whether this increases or decreases with age. We conclude that older individuals have learned to appraise and cope differently with stress.

Source: California Agriculture, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Communication Services, UC Office of the President [via eScholarship Repository]

Download full pdf publication | Link to online overview at eScholarship Repository

Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card

From the introduction:

“Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card” posits that fairness depends not only on a sufficient level of funding for all students, but also the provision of additional resources to districts where there are more students with greater needs.

The National Report Card rates the 50 states on the basis of four separate, but interrelated, “fairness indicators” – funding level, funding distribution, state fiscal effort, and public school coverage. Using a more thorough statistical analysis, the report provides the most in-depth analysis to date of state education finance systems and school funding fairness across the nation.

Source: Education Law Center

Download full pdf report | Link to Report website

Cognitive and motivational factors support health literacy and acquisition of new health information in later life

Abstract:

Health literacy refers to the ability to read, understand and use health information to maintain or improve one’s health. Health literacy skills have been linked to outcomes such as medication adherence, improved health and decreased health-care costs. Health literacy is particularly low among older adults. Given demographic projections that 20% of the U.S. population will be over age 65 by 2030, there is a pressing need to understand health literacy in later life. We present such a framework, as well as data from two studies that show how cognitive and motivational factors support one aspect of health literacy, namely, the acquisition of new health information. A clearer understanding of these issues will provide insight for targeting educational interventions designed to increase health literacy among aging adults.

Source: California Agriculture, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Communication Services, UC Office of the President [via eScholarship Repository]

Download full pdf publication | Link to eScholarship

“The Silence Itself is Enough of a Statement”: Unintended Consequences of Silence as an Awareness-Raising Strategy

Abstract:

The strategy of silence for voice, as seen in the Day of Silence, deploys silence in order to draw attention to the ways in which an individual or group has been silenced and to establish possibilities for voice. The Day of Silence is a nation-wide day of action aimed at addressing anti-LGBTQ bias and harassment in schools. This ethnographic study of a high school gay-straight alliance (GSA) club examines the unintended consequences of silence as an awareness-raising strategy during events related to the Day of Silence and how students and teachers handle these consequences. Silence makes students more defenseless in the face of verbal harassment, makes it more difficult to engage in discussion with others of opposing views, and makes it more challenging for teachers to lead their classes and for students to learn. What remains unheard at MacArthur High are the institutional silences LGBTQ students experience when they find themselves not represented in the curricula and they find critical discussion of heterosexism and hegemonic masculinity absent from classroom and school discourse. While the Day of Silence calls for students to engage in intentional silences in order to raise awareness about anti-LGBTQ bias, it does not necessarily lead others to take more responsibility for their ignorance or to address silences around gender and sexuality. This study makes suggestions for implementing change regarding silences of LGBTQ issues in the curricula, pedagogy, and schooling practices.

Source: ISSC Fellows Working Papers, Institute for the Study of Social Change, UC Berkeley [via eScholarship Repository]

Download full pdf publication | Link to eScholarship Repository

Prosocial Spending and Well-Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological Universal

This research provides the first support for a possible psychological universal: human beings around the world derive emotional benefits from using their financial resources to help others (prosocial spending). Analyzing survey data from 136 countries, we show that prosocial spending is consistently associated with greater happiness. To test for causality, we conduct experiments within two very different countries (Canada and Uganda) and show that spending money on others has a consistent, causal impact on happiness. In contrast to traditional economic thought—which places self-interest as the guiding principle of human motivation—our findings suggest that the reward experienced from helping others may be deeply ingrained in human nature, emerging in diverse cultural and economic contexts.

Source: Harvard Business School Working Papers

Download full pdf publication | Link to HBS Working papers listing

Demographic Profiles of Latino Eligible Voters in 27 States

Press Release:

The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, today released statistical profiles of the Latino eligible voter populations in 27 states. Derived from the 2008 American Community Survey, these profiles provide key demographic and socioeconomic information about Latino eligible voters and all eligible voters (U.S. citizens ages 18 and older). They also contain Latino population estimates for congressional districts in the 27 states.

The Center also launched a new feature on its website called Mapping the Latino Electorate. This interactive feature provides key eligible voter statistics in the nation's 50 states and the District of Columbia along with Hispanic population estimates in 435 congressional districts.

The state fact sheets... contain data on the size and social and economic characteristics of the Hispanic and non-Hispanic eligible voter populations. These fact sheets are based on the Center's tabulations of the Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey. Eligible voters are defined as U.S. citizens ages 18 and older.

Source: Pew Hispanic Center

Link to State Fact Sheets at the Pew Hispanic Center

Resource Brief | Breast Cancer Info Center, Encyclopedia of Chicago, the Livingroom Candidate

Resources Mentioned in Resource Brief podcast Episode #2


ebrary Breast Cancer Searchable Information Center
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/breastcancer

Online Encyclopedia of Chicago
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org

The livingroomcandidate site is part of the “Museum of the Moving Image” and can be found at http://www.livingroomcandidate.org

Cutting to the bone: How the economic crisis affects schools

Introduction:

They’re calling it “The Great Recession.” Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s has the United States gone through such an economic meltdown—huge increases in unemployment, steep drops in housing prices, and tight credit for even the most financially sound. These events have taken their toll on the country’s economic output and unemployment rate, and they have affected just about every classroom in the nation as well.

Education is usually one of the last budget areas to be cut, but most districts today are suffering declines in both state and local funding. At the same time, many are also facing dramatic increases in costs ranging from utilities to pension funds. With decreasing revenues and rising costs, school districts are forced to make tough decisions if they are to balance their budgets and still meet the needs of their students.

Some districts are finding ways to grapple with rising costs and limit the impact on students—for the time being. But what will be the long-term impact of this economic crisis on our next generation of students? This paper will describe what districts are up against and what the long-term impact might be.

Source: (U.S.) Center for public Education

Link to full online article

A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States

Description:

A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States presents findings from data collected for the 2005-2006 academic year from more than 5,000 doctoral programs at 212 universities. This report also includes illustrations of how the data can be used to produce rankings of doctoral programs based on measures important to faculty, students, administrators, funders, and other stakeholders.

Source: National Academies Press

Download pdf report brief (free) | Download full report (requires login)

Hold the Vegetables: How 'Now vs. Later' Affects Customer Choice

Paper Abstract:

How do decisions made for tomorrow or 2 days in the future differ from decisions made for several days in the future? We use data from an online grocer to address this question. In general, we find that as the delay between order completion and delivery increases, grocery customers spend less, order a higher percentage of “should” items (e.g., vegetables), and order a lower percentage of “want” items (e.g., ice cream), controlling for customer fixed effects. These field results replicate previous laboratory findings and are consistent with theories suggesting that people’s should selves exert more influence over their choices the further in the future outcomes will be experienced. However, orders placed for delivery tomorrow versus 2 days in the future do not show this want/should pattern, and we discuss a potential explanation

Source: Marketing Letters via Knowledge@Wharton

Read the discussion paper online at Knowledge@Wharton

Read the full pdf from Marketing Letters (subscription required)

European Union Mental Health Survey

A poll released to mark World Mental Health Day reveals that during the 12 months preceding the survey, 15% of respondents across EU Member States sought professional help for psychological or emotional problems and 7% took antidepressants, mostly for depression or anxiety. According to the results, there is still stigma attached to mental disorders, with 22% of those surveyed saying they would find it difficult to speak to a person with a "significant mental disorder". This issue and the other results will be discussed during the next thematic conference under the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being.

Source: Public Opinion Analysis sector of the European Commission

Download full pdf publication | Link to Public Opinion Analysis sector of the European Commission

European Union : E-Communications Household Survey

Overview

Europeans are becoming increasingly "digital" according to a European Commission Eurobarometer survey which questioned 27,000 households throughout the EU on their use of internet, telephones and TV. More Europeans are subscribing to broadband internet and digital television in fixed-cost bundled 'packages'. Increased broadband take-up means even more Europeans are going online with 35% now using social networking websites. However, they have concerns about cost, quality of service and security, as well as online freedom. One fifth of fixed and mobile internet users reveal that they have experienced problems with blocked content and applications. The Commission's May 2010 Digital Agenda for Europe not only sets ambitious targets to bring broadband internet to all of Europe's citizens but also outlines measures to boost competition, trust and security.

Source: Public Opinion Analysis sector of the European Commission.

Download full pdf publication | Download pdf summary

The House of Representatives Apportionment Formula: An Analysis of Proposals for Change and Their Impact on States

Summary:

In preparation for the reallocation of Representatives among the states based on the 2010 Census, it may prove helpful to examine the current House of Representatives apportionment formula. In addition, some members of the statistical community have, in the recent past, urged Congress to consider changing the current apportionment formula. Consequently, an examination of other methods that could be used to apportion the seats in the House of Representatives may contribute to a deeper understanding of the apportionment process. Seats in the House of Representatives are allocated by a formula known as "the Hill," or equal proportions, method. If Congress decided to change it, there are at least five alternatives to consider. Four of these are based on rounding fractions and one, on ranking fractions. The current apportionment system (codified in 2 U.S.C. 2a) is one of the rounding methods. The Hamilton-Vinton method is based on ranking fractions. First, the population of 50 states is divided by 435 (the House size) in order to find the national "ideal size" district. Next, this number is divided into each state's population. Each state is then awarded the whole number in its quotient (but at least one). If fewer than 435 seats have been assigned by this process, the fractional remainders of the 50 states are rank-ordered from largest to smallest, and seats are assigned in this manner until 435 are allocated. The rounding methods, including the Hill method currently in use, allocate seats among the states differently, but operationally the methods only differ by where rounding occurs in seat assignments. Three of these methods--Adams, Webster, and Jefferson--have fixed rounding points. Two others--Dean and Hill--use varying rounding points that rise as the number of seats assigned to a state grows larger. The methods can be defined in the same way (after substituting the appropriate rounding principle in parentheses). The rounding point for Adams is (up for all fractions); for Dean (at the harmonic mean); for Hill (at the geometric mean); for Webster (at the arithmetic mean, which is 0.5 for successive numbers); and for Jefferson (down for all fractions). Substitute these phrases in the general definition below for the rounding methods: Find a number so that when it is divided into each state's population and resulting quotients are rounded (substitute appropriate phrase), the total number of seats will sum to 435. (In all cases where a state would be entitled to less than one seat, it receives one anyway because of the constitutional requirement.) Fundamental to choosing an apportionment method is a determination of fairness. Each apportionment method discussed in this report has a rational basis, and for each, there is at least one test according to which it is the most equitable. The question of how the concept of fairness can best be defined, in the context of evaluating an apportionment formula, remains open. Which of the mathematical tests discussed in this report best approximates the constitutional requirement that Representatives be apportioned among the states according to their respective numbers is, arguably, a matter of judgment, rather than an indisputable mathematical test.

Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of congress

Download full pdf publication | Link to online summary at Open CRS

Video calling and video chat

From Overview:

Almost a fifth of American adults – 19% – have tried video calling either online or via their cell phones. These figures translate into 23% of internet users and 7% of cell phone owners who have participated in video calls, chats, or teleconferences.

Video calling has become increasingly available as camcorders have spread through the online environment, cameras have been built into smart phones, and as video-chat services like Skype, Google Talk, and Apple iChat have become a feature of the online and smart phone environment. Teleconferencing is also becoming more embedded in the business environment.

This summer, in a nationally-representative telephone survey using landlines and cell phones, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Project asked for the first time about the prevalence of video calling both online and on cell phones.

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

Download full pdf report | Link to online overview

In Search of Copyright’s Lost Ark: Interpreting the Right to Distribute in the Internet Age

Abstract:

Prior to the emergence of peer-to-peer technology, the Copyright Act’s distribution right was largely dormant. Most enforcement actions were premised upon violations of the reproduction right. The relatively few cases invoking the distribution right involved arcane scenarios. During the past several years, direct enforcement of the Copyright Act against file sharers has brought the scope of the distribution right to center stage. Whereas the 1909 Act expressly protected the rights to “publish” and “vend,” the 1976 Act speaks of a right to “distribute.” Interpreting “distribute” narrowly, some courts have held that copyright owners must prove that a sound recording placed in a peer-to-peer share folder was actually downloaded to establish violation of the distribution right. Other courts hold that merely making a sound recording available violates the distribution right. The ramifications for copyright enforcement in the Internet age are substantial. Under the narrow interpretation, the relative anonymity of peer-to-peer transmissions in combination with privacy concerns make enforcement costly and difficult. A broad interpretation exposes millions of peer-to-peer users to potentially crushing statutory damages. Drawing upon the historical development of copyright law and the legislative history of the Copyright Act of 1976, this article explains why Congress selected the term “distribute” in its last omnibus revision of copyright law, shows unequivocally that Congress intended to encompass broadly the 1909 Act rights to “publish” and “vend” within the right to distribute, and rejects the position that Congress required proof of “actual distribution” to prove violation of the distribution right. This critical legislative history has been notably absent from treatise accounts and briefing on the liability standard in the file sharing cases, leaving courts without a compass to navigate this statutory terrain. This article traces the origins of the key legislative terms to elucidate the scope of the distribution right in the Internet age.

Source: U.C. Berkeley Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper Series [via eScholarship Repository]

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract [eScholarship Repository]

Support For Same-Sex Marriage Edges Upward

From Online Overview

Majority Continues to Favor Gays Serving Openly in Military

Polls this year have found that more Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally than did so just last year. In two polls conducted over the past few months, based on interviews with more than 6,000 adults, 42% favor same-sex marriage while 48% are opposed. In polls conducted in 2009, 37% favored allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally and 54% were opposed. For the first time in 15 years of Pew Research Center polling, fewer than half oppose same-sex marriage.

Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

Download full pdf publication | Link to online overview

The Reversal of the College Marriage Gap

In a reversal of long-standing marital patterns, college-educated young adults are more likely than young adults lacking a bachelor's degree to have married by the age of 30.

In 2008, 62% of college-educated 30-year-olds were married or had been married, compared with 60% of 30-year-olds who did not have a college degree.

Throughout the 20th century, college-educated adults in the United States had been less likely than their less-educated counterparts to be married by age 30. In 1990, for example, 75% of all 30-year-olds who did not have a college degree were married or had been married, compared with just 69% of those with a college degree.

As those numbers attest, marriage rates among adults in their 20s have declined sharply since 1990 for both the college-educated and those without a college degree. But the decline has been much steeper for young adults without a college education.

Source: Pew Research Center

Download full pdf publication | Link to Pew Research Center

A Field Training Guide for Human Subjects Research Ethics

Summary Points

* Community trials of interventions to address major global causes of illness and death are often located in low-resource settings, where research findings will be most directly applicable.
* Although investigators delegate research activities involving human subject contact to local field workers, they retain ultimate responsibility for human subject protection and scientific integrity.
* To train every cadre of field worker in research ethics requires simplified training guidelines that can be easily translated and adapted for use in a wide variety of settings and cultural frameworks, especially where field workers have limited formal education.
* Field workers need appropriate training materials, tailored to varying levels of human subject responsibility, that focus on basic principles of community research.
* We have produced a Field Training Guide for Human Subjects Research Ethics, which is freely available to the public. In this article we address how to identify field training needs and meet high standards of research ethics at every level of human subject interaction.

Source: A Field Training Guide for Human Subjects Research Ethics. PLoS Med 7(10): e1000349. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000349

Download full pdf guide | link to online Summary

Murder by numbers: monetary costs imposed by a sample of homicide offenders

Prior research on the monetary costs of criminal careers has neglected to focus on homicide offenders and tended to minimize the public costs associated with crime. Drawing on expanded monetization estimates produced by Cohen and Piquero, this study assessed the monetary costs for five crimes (murder, rape, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and burglary) imposed by a sample of (n 1⁄4 654) convicted and incarcerated murderers. The average cost per murder exceeded $17.25 million and the average murderer in the current sample posed costs approaching $24 million. The most violent and prolific offenders singly produced costs greater than $150–160 million in terms of victim costs, criminal justice costs, lost offender productivity, and public willingness-to-pay costs.

Source: The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology
Vol. 21, No. 4, August 2010, 501–513

Download full pdf publication | Link to Author Web Site

Mexico-U.S. Relations: Issues for Congress

From the Summary

The United States and Mexico have a close and complex bilateral relationship, with extensive economic linkages as neighbors and partners under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In recent years, security issues have dominated U.S.-Mexican relations, as the United States has supported Mexican President Felipe Calderón's campaign against drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) through bilateral security cooperation initiatives including the Mérida Initiative, an anti-crime and counterdrug assistance package first funded in FY2008. Immigration and border security have also returned to the forefront of the bilateral agenda since Arizona enacted a controversial state law against illegal immigration (S.B. 1070) on April 23, 2010. In late July 2010, a federal judge blocked large parts of S.B. 1070 from taking effect pending the results of a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. In response to rising concerns about border security, President Obama has deployed 1,200 National Guard troops to support law enforcement efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border and Congress has approved $600 million in supplemental funds for border security (P.L. 111-230). Now in the fourth year of his six-year term, President Calderón of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) is focused on restarting the Mexican economy, which contracted by 7% in 2009 (largely as a result of the U.S. recession), and combating drug traffickers and organized criminal groups.

Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress [via openCRS]

Download full pdf publication | Link to online summary via OpenCRS

Safest cities for families with young children revealed

The study, "Safest Cities for Families with Young Children," evaluated the 50 largest U.S. cities on specific criteria that contribute to home, community and overall personal safety. The results showed that 10 cities lead the way in helping reduce risk of fire deaths, pedestrian accidents and other mishaps that contribute to the estimated 14 million potentially disabling, unintentional injuries that children sustain each year.

The 2010 "Safest Cities for Families with Young Children" include:

* Boston
* Columbus, Ohio
* Louisville, Ky.
* Minneapolis, Minn.
* New York
* Portland, Ore.
* San Francisco
* Seattle
* Tampa, Fla.
* Virginia Beach, Va.

Source: United Underwriters

More information about the Study online at United Underwriters (link)

Toward a Culture of Consequences : Performance-Based Accountability Systems for Public Services

Summary Abstract

Performance-based accountability systems (PBASs), which link incentives to measured performance as a means of improving services to the public, have gained popularity. While PBASs can vary widely across sectors, they share three main components: goals, incentives, and measures. Research suggests that PBASs influence provider behaviors, but little is known about PBAS effectiveness at achieving performance goals or about government and agency experiences. This study examines nine PBASs that are drawn from five sectors: child care, education, health care, public health emergency preparedness, and transportation. In the right circumstances, a PBAS can be an effective strategy for improving service delivery. Optimum circumstances include having a widely shared goal, unambiguous observable measures, meaningful incentives for those with control over the relevant inputs and processes, few competing interests, and adequate resources to design, implement, and operate the PBAS. However, these conditions are rarely fully realized, so it is difficult to design and implement PBASs that are uniformly effective. PBASs represent a promising policy option for improving the quality of service-delivery activities in many contexts. The evidence supports continued experimentation with and adoption of this approach in appropriate circumstances. Even so, PBAS design and its prospects for success depend on the context in which the system will operate. Also, ongoing system evaluation and monitoring are integral components of a PBAS; they inform refinements that improve system functioning over time.

Source: RAND Corporation

Download full pdf publication | Download pdf Executive Summary | Link to online abstract

Who Gives More? A Comparative Perspective of Philanthropic Giving through Foundations within the UEFA and the NFL

Abstract:

Due to the specifics of the football governance systems and cultures of Europe and the United States, we hypothesize that the charitable foundation involvement of the National Football League (NFL) and its teams is more pronounced than that of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and its Champions League (UCL) clubs. On the basis of a literature review, web research and emails to foundation staff, the study produces the following findings that support our hypothesis: At both the association/league and team level, the NFL is stronger as well as longer involved in charitable foundations than the UEFA. At the team level, 3 times as many NFL foundations as UCL club foundations exist. The minimum amount of giving of NFL team foundations is 13 times higher than that of UCL club foundations. On average, NFL team foundations are twice as old as their UEFA equivalents.

Source: Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich Working Paper Series

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Vital Signs: Binge Drinking Among High School Students and Adults

From the Abstract:

Background: Binge drinking was responsible for more than half of the estimated 79,000 deaths and two thirds of the estimated 2.3 million years of potential life lost as a result of excessive drinking each year in the United States during 2001--2005.

Methods: CDC analyzed data from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) on the prevalence of binge drinking (defined as consuming four or more alcoholic drinks per occasion for women and five or more for men during the past 30 days) among U.S. adults aged ≥18 years who responded to the BRFSS survey by landline or cellular telephone. Data also were analyzed from the 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) on the prevalence of current alcohol use (consuming at least one alcoholic drink during the 30 days before the survey), and binge drinking (consuming five or more alcoholic drinks within a couple of hours during the 30 days before the survey) among U.S. high school students, and on the prevalence of binge drinking among high school students who reported current alcohol use.

Source: U.S. Center for Disease Control

Download full pdf report | Link to online abstract and report

A Positive Approach to Studying Diversity in Organizations

From the Executive Summary:
Considering that the topic of workplace diversity often garners unhappy discussions of prejudice, isolation, and conflict, it's not surprising that many researchers avoid the topic altogether. Only 5 percent of articles published in management journals from 2000-2008 included race or gender in their keywords. In this paper, Harvard Business School professors Lakshmi Ramarajan and David Thomas propose a positive approach to studying diversity, with hopes that this will lead managers to feel more positive about adopting diversity policies in the workplace.

Source: Harvard Business School Working Papers

Download full pdf publication | Link to Executive Summary and abstract

Resource Brief : Ancient Manuscripts, Archives, and more

OR view with quicktime viewer ....

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Resources in the Resource Brief video:

New Online Exhibition from The European Library: "Reading Europe: European Culture Through the Book"
http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/exhibition-reading-europe/

British Library Digitized Manuscripts...
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/

British Library's YouTube Feature:
http://www.youtube.com/user/britishlibrary?feature=mhum


National Library of Medicine online collection
http://collections.nlm.nih.gov


Internet Archive:
http://www.archive.org/

Open Library
http://openlibrary.org/

Latinos and the 2010 Elections: Strong Support for Democrats; Weak Voter Motivation

From Overview:

In a year when support for Democratic candidates has eroded, the party's standing among one key voting group-Latinos-appears as strong as ever. Two-thirds (65%) of Latino registered voters say they plan to support the Democratic candidate in their local congressional district, while just 22% support the Republican candidate, according to a nationwide survey of Latinos. If this pro-Democratic margin holds up on Election Day next month, it would be about as wide as in 2008, when Latinos supported Barack Obama for president over John McCain by 67% to 31%.

However, Hispanic registered voters appear to be less motivated than other voters to go to the polls. Just one-third (32%) of all Latino registered voters say they have given this year's election "quite a lot" of thought. In contrast, half (50%) of all registered voters say the same. And when it comes to their intent to vote, half (51%) of Latino registered voters say they are absolutely certain they will vote in this year's midterm election, while seven-in-ten (70%) of all registered voters say the same.

Source: Pew Hispanic Center

Download full pdf Report | Link to online overview

Boosting Financial Literacy in America: A Role for State Colleges and Universities

Perspective from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities

Given the overarching ramifications that financial literacy plays in the modern economy, this paper contends that a renewed emphasis on financial literacy is central to individual, family and communal economic security. New responsibilities and opportunities given to consumers, such as retirement planning, have increased the need for more sophisticated consumer financial knowledge. State colleges and universities can fulfill a meaningful role by offering financial education programs and services to students, faculty, staff and members of their communities. Included in this paper is a series of replicable practices that promote improved financial literacy.

Source: American Association of State Colleges and Universities

Download full pdf publication | Link to online introduction

The Statute of Anne and its Progeny: Variations Without a Theme

Abstract:

Scholars generally agree that no definitive account can be given of the specific circumstances surrounding the passage of the Statute of Anne or the precise meaning ascribed to it by Parliament. The result was that its content remained hotly contested for the next century in Britain. Ultimately the model established by the Statute was abandoned in Britain, but not without first having significant effects in its former colony, the new United States. This paper explores the instability that the open texture of the Statute of Anne introduced into the new American copyright system, and traces the statute's footprints into the twenty-first century. The simple fact that United States adopted the Statute of Anne without agreeing then or since on the objectives and appropriate scope of copyright does much to explain the tortured history of copyright doctrine in this country, and the fervor of the modern so-called "copyright wars."

Source: New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Spoofing Herzog and Herzog Spoofing

Abstract:

This essay explores how humor, parody, and self-parody have shaped and reshaped the public image of the filmmaker Werner Herzog, especially since the 1990s and with the help of various spectators, particularly those who create and circulate their own images of the iconic German director. To see this dynamic at work, we have to look not only at Herzog’s films, but also at his many interviews and public appearances, at his performances in films made by other directors, at animated cartoons and reality TV programs, at Internet blogs and streaming videos, at comedy websites and live-comedy shows. Collectively, this material suggests that the revitalization of Herzog’s career in recent years has relied in part on humor and parody: that of the filmmaker and that of his audience.

Source: TRANSIT, Department of German, UCB, UC Berkeley

Download full pdf publication | Link to online record in eScholarship Repository

Future industry clusters

The old economic order is shifting. As the global economy recovers some emerging markets are likely to grow faster than traditional economic powers. At the industry level, these shifts are even more apparent with accelerating capital flows, fundamental demographic changes, and the rise of state capitalism reshaping the world map for many sectors. PwC's Macro Consulting team has developed a tool to map future clusters across the world. This report uses this tool to highlight the geographical locations that will host the largest clusters in five industries:

* pharmaceuticals
* automobile assembly
* asset management
* filmed entertainment and
* tertiary education

The expected top locations in 2025 and 2040 are disclosed for each of these sectors highlighting key trends for the industry and how the new economic order will influence future geographical winners.

Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC)

Download full pdf publication | Link to PWC online site

The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age

From the Online Overview

This is the first comprehensive, national-level study of the state of sound recording preservation ever conducted in the U.S. The authors, Rob Bamberger and Sam Brylawski, have produced a study outlining the web of interlocking issues that now threaten the long-term survival of our sound recording history. This study tells us that major areas of America's recorded sound heritage have already been destroyed or remain inaccessible to the public. It suggests that the lack of conformity between federal and state laws may adversely affect the long-term survival of pre-1972-era sound recordings in particular. And, it warns that the continued lack of national coordination among interested parties in the public and private sectors, in addressing the challenges in preservation, professional education and public access, may not yet be arresting permanent loss of irreplaceable sound recordings in all genres.

Source: Council on Library and Information Resources (Commissioned for and sponsored by the National Recording Preservation Board, Library of Congress)

Download full pdf publication | Link to online overview

2010 Kids and Family Reading Report : Turning the Page in the Digital Age

From the Press Release

The study, conducted by Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, and Harrison Group, a leading marketing and strategic research consulting firm, found that from age 6 - 17, the time kids spend reading books for fun declines while the time kids spend going online for fun and using a cell phone to text or talk increases. Parents express concern that the use of electronic and digital devices negatively affects the time kids spend reading books (41%), doing physical activities (40%), and engaging with family (33%).

The study also found indications that technology could be a positive motivator to get kids reading -- 57 percent of kids (age 9-17) say they are interested in reading an eBook, and a third of children age 9-17 say they would read more books for fun if they had access to eBooks on an electronic device. This includes kids who read 5-7 days per week (34%), 1 to 4 days per week (36%) and even those who read less than one day per week (27%).

The findings from the Kids and Family Reading Report indicate that the ebook market will continue to grow. While only 6% of parents surveyed currently own an electronic device used for reading eBooks and other digital publications, 16% plan to purchase one in the next year. And parents are not hesitant to share those devices with their children – approximately 8 in 10 (83%) of these parents say they do or will allow/encourage their child to use their eReading device.

Source: Scholastic



Download full pdf publication | Link to Scholastic

Pew Report : Online Product Research

From the Online Overview

The commercial use of the internet by American adults has grown since the mid-2000s, with 58% of Americans now reporting that they perform online research concerning the products and services that they are considering purchasing. That is an increase from 49% who said they conducted product or service research online in 2004.

Morever, the number of those who do research about products on any given day has jumped from 15% of adults in September 2007 to 21% in September 2010. From February 2004, the number of adults conducting research on any given day has more than doubled, up from 9%.

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

Download full pdf report | Download pdf questionnaire | Link to online overview

Portrayal of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People on the BBC

September 2010: As part of the BBC's diversity strategy, we have carried out research and consultation on the portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual people across broadcast media including the BBC. During 2010 we have carried out qualitative and quantitative research, and conducted a public consultation in the most comprehensive study ever done into this area by a broadcaster.

The BBC's Working Group has made five recommendations which the BBC has agreed to take action on.

3 pdf publications are available for download:

Portrayal of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People on the BBC – Executive summaries and recommendations (235KB)

Portrayal of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People on the BBC – Consultation report (355KB)

Portrayal of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People on the BBC – Research report (2828KB)

Link to the BBC Report Site

Recruiting and Retaining America's Finest : Evidence-Based Lessons for Police Workforce Planning

Overview:

Personnel management is a critical but oft neglected function of police organizations. While much attention is given to recruiting and retention, these are only tools for accomplishing a larger goal: achieving and maintaining the profile of officers by experience and rank that satisfies agency needs and officer career aspirations. Police agencies often have little ability to assess their organization and environment, and they receive little guidance on how best to build and maintain their workforces. In this monograph, the authors seek to fill the gap of information available to police agencies through a survey on their recruitment and retention practices. The survey, sent to every U.S. police agency with at least 300 sworn officers, sought to document such characteristics as authorized and actual strength by rank, officer work and qualifications, compensation, and recruiting efforts. The authors used these data to provide an overview of current recruitment and retention practices, to describe how they affected police recruitment and personnel profiles, and to identify future research needs. Findings include that police compensation, city size, and crime rates had statistically significant effects on police recruiting. Advertising and recruiting incentives had little effect on the number of recruits. Cohort sizes and structures highlighted current and future personnel management challenges. To facilitate comparative and longitudinal analyses of police staffing, the authors recommend ongoing national data collection.

Source: RAND Corporation

Download full pdf publication | Link to online overview

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1860-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Coverage includes Cleavland, Garfield (and assassination), McKinley, and Roosevelt administrations. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Annexation of Hawaii etc.

I had a bit of fun just searching for "Monet" limited to the year 1922 and found a NY Tribune article on August 13, 1922 announcing the the French Gallery to house his paintings. Great quote:

"Whether Monet's art is of permanent value may be debatable..."

Link to "Chronicling America" at the Library of Congress

Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence

There has been a recent increase in the level of drug trafficking-related violence within and between the drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. This violence has generated concern among U.S. policy makers that the violence in Mexico might spill over into the United States. Currently, U.S. federal officials deny that the recent increase in drug trafficking-related violence in Mexico has resulted in a spillover into the United States, but they acknowledge that the prospect is a serious concern.

Source: Congressional Research Service [via Secrecy News]

Download full pdf report

Snapshot of U.S. Television Usage: What We Watch… and How

With the new TV season upon us, Nielsen has provided a look at what, and how, we watch TV in the U.S. Throughout 2009-2010, television viewing continued to fragment and adapt to new technologies such as digital video recorders and high-definition television.

Source: Nielsen


download Nielsen State of TV fact sheet (pdf)

Black-White Gap in Self-Employment in the U.S.: Do Cohort and Within Race Differences Exist?

Abstract:

In this paper we ask three questions: First, is there evidence of a Black-White gap in self-employment between 1994-2002 and could the inclusion of the White immigrant population be driving this result? Second, do within race differences in self-employment exist among the U.S. born? Finally, do cohort differences in the Black-White self-employment gap exist among the U.S. born? These questions are based on some of the regression findings in our earlier paper focused on the role of information and institutions in understanding the Black-White gap in self-employment. We find that the Black-White self-employment gap is not driven by the existence of White immigrants in the data set. In addition, we find that within race and cohort differences exist in the Black-White self-employment gap. A subgroup of U.S. born African-Americans have a self-employment probability that is identical to that of U.S. born White-Americans. In addition, younger cohorts of African-Americans have a much smaller self-employment gap than do older African-Americans.

Source: Institute for the Study of Labor


Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

High School Students’ Perceptions of Motivations for Cyberbullying: An Exploratory Study

Abstract:

Objectives: Internet usage has increased in recent years resulting in a growing number of documented reports of cyberbullying. Despite the rise in cyberbullying incidents, there is a dearth of research regarding high school students’ motivations for cyberbullying. The purpose of this study was to investigate high school students' perceptions of the motivations for cyberbullying.

Method: We undertook an exploratory qualitative study with 20 high school students, conducting individual interviews using a semi-structured interview protocol. Data were analyzed using Grounded Theory.

Results: The developed coding hierarchy provides a framework to conceptualize motivations, which can be used to facilitate future research about motivations and to develop preventive interventions designed to thwart the negative effects of cyberbullying. The findings revealed that high school students more often identified internally motivated reasons for cyberbullying (e.g., redirect feelings) than externally motivated (no consequences, non-confrontational, target was different).

Conclusion: Uncovering the motivations for cyberbullying should promote greater understanding of this phenomenon and potentially reduce the interpersonal violence that can result from it. By providing a framework that begins to clarify the internal and external factors motivating the behavior, there is enhanced potential to develop effective preventive interventions to prevent cyberbullying and its negative effects.

Source: eScholarship Repository [West J Emerg Med. 2010; 11(3): 270-274.]

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Academia: How to Use Blogging as a Marketing Tool

A blog can be an effective way to bridge the space between product and consumer via entertaining and educational content. Colleges can use blogs to communicate the values and ideas that define their programs, so long as the end user is kept in mind—whether that means 17-year-olds beginning their senior year in high school, journalists looking for interesting stories, or aging donors who can no longer make the trip to the campus.

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Link to online article

The People’s Right: Reimagining the Right to Counsel

from Abstract:

This Article re-imagines the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel, which has been treated exclusively as an individual right enforceable through the Due Process Clause, as a collective right of the People. Building on the writings of Anthony Amsterdam and Akhil Amar, this Article argues that there are vital structural protections inherent in the right to counsel that go well beyond an individual’s due process rights. In particular, the Founders of the Constitution, above all else, contemplated a robust system of checks and balances when executive power was exercised. Perhaps the paradigmatic example of the exercise of such power is the arrest and prosecution of an individual. In the world inhabited by the Founders, the primary means by which executive power was to be checked was through the jury system.

Source: New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

2010 College-Bound Seniors: Total Group Profile Report

College-Bound Seniors reports present data for high school graduates who participated in the SAT Program from 1996 to 2009. The reports include SAT Reasoning Test™ data, SAT Subject Tests™ data, demographic and academic information, and college plans.

You can use College-Bound Seniors reports to:

* Interpret scores of individual students within the broader context of data aggregated across groups of college-bound seniors
* Study changes over time in the characteristics of students taking SAT tests
* Look at year-to-year educational and demographic changes in this population, along with changes in test performance

Source: College Board

Download full pdf publication | Link to College Board archive for previous year reports

March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project

Milwaukee's Place in the Struggle for Civil Rights

This digital collection presents primary sources from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society that provide a window onto Milwaukee’s civil rights history. During the 1960s, community members waged protests, boycotts, and legislative battles against segregation and discriminatory practices in schools, housing, and social clubs. The efforts of these activists and their opponents are vividly documented in the primary sources found here, including photographs, unedited news film footage, text documents, and oral history interviews. This website also includes educational materials, including a bibliography and timeline, to enhance understanding of the primary sources. The March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project seeks to make Milwaukee’s place in the national struggle for racial equality more accessible, engaging, and interactive.

Link to March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project

Paris Review Open Archive: Interviews

The Paris Review has put up an archive of author interviews. Spanning almost 50 years, the collection includes conversations about writing and a writer's life with Arthur Miller, Truman Capote, Woody Allen, Dorothy Parker, and so many more.

Browse by Decade or Author Name

Link to Paris Review Interview Archive

Regional and Racial Variation in Primary Care and the Quality of Care Among Medicare Beneficiaries

The report, which studies the fee-for-service Medicare population from 2003 to 2007, shows that improving access to primary care alone does not always keep people with chronic conditions out of the hospital, improve their chances of getting the optimal care recommended for their condition, or improve health outcomes. Researchers also found that patients’ access to and use of primary care, the quality of overall care, and their likelihood of hospitalization varied markedly in different locations.

Despite the central role that primary care can play, access is not always enough to ensure that patients receive high-quality care. Achieving the benefits of primary care is likely to require both improving the services provided by primary care clinicians and more effective integration and coordination with other providers.

Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Times Higher Education World University Rankings

From Release:

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010-11 were developed in concert with our new rankings data provider, Thomson Reuters, with input from more than 50 leading figures in the sector from 15 countries across every continent, and through 10 months of extensive consultation. We believe we have created the gold standard in international university performance comparisons.

The overall top 200 ranking and the six tables showing the top 50 institutions by subject were based on criteria and weightings that were carefully selected after extensive consultation. All of them drew on our exceptionally rich data set. Of course, we recognise that different people have different interests and priorities. So to allow everyone to make the most of our data and gain a personalised view of global higher education, the tables on this site can be fully manipulated and sorted. With this feature, users may rank institutions by their performance in any one of the five broad headline categories to create bespoke tables or make regional comparisons via our area analyses.

Source: Times Higher Education Supplement

Link to list website and information on methodology

Direct link to top 200 World Universities List

UNESCO : 2010 Global Education Digest

From the Press Release:
The 2010 edition of the Global Education Digest focuses on gender and education to mark the 15th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women. Shortly after this landmark conference in 1995, the international community pledged to eliminate gender disparities at all levels of education by 2015 as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As the official source of data to monitor advancement towards these goals, the UIS has released the Digest on the eve of the UN Millennium Summit (New York, 20-22 September) to present the latest available data to analyse national progress and pitfalls in offering every child and young person equal access to education regardless of their sex.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Download full pdf publication: 2010 Global Education Digest
Link to online Press Release

Few Say Religion Shapes Immigration, Environment Views

From the Online Overview:

Many Americans continue to say their religious beliefs have been highly influential in shaping their views about social issues, including abortion and same-sex marriage. But far fewer cite religion as a top influence on their opinions about several other social and political issues, including how the government should deal with immigration, the environment and poverty.

Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

Download full pdf publication | Link to online overview

From Separate Spheres to Gendered Spaces: The Historiography of Women and Gender in 19th Century and Early 20th Century America

Abstract:

How has the study of the built environment changed the historiography of gender? This paper analyzes the shifts in the historiography of women and gender in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American history. It examines the evolution from a metaphorical concept of spheres to a more complex understanding of the interactions between space and gender. In the 1960s, feminist historians introduced the concept of ‘separate spheres’ as a way to understand the history of women in the nineteenth century. When historians, in the 1970s and 1980s, began to study actual spaces it became clear that the relationship of gender and space was more complex than the dichotomies of public and private, male and female, urban and suburban, which reinforced the idea of separate spheres. The study of actual spaces demonstrates that the boundaries of everyday life were more porous than those idealized by separate spheres and spaces. Further, scholars in the 1990s were able to show how the design, spatial arrangement, and décor of spaces contributed to the construction of masculinity and femininity in relation to each other.

Source: eScholarship Repository

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Bureau of Labor Statistics Spotlight : Back to College

In 2009, there were over 10,000 establishments (places of employment, whether campuses, offices, research facilities, or other locations) operated by colleges and universities in the United States. (Source: QCEW) This Spotlight presents BLS data related to college and university students and graduates, as well as colleges and universities as an industry and place of employment.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Download full pdf publication | Link to online overview including graphs

Social Security's Financial Outlook: The 2010 Update in Perspective

Introduction:

After being held up for four months while estimates were modified to reflect the expected effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the 2010 Trustees Report for the Social Security system finally emerged in early August. The report contains no surprises, which may explain the relative lack of attention it has received in the press. But the fact that the future of Social Security has been relatively untouched by the market collapse and ensuing recession is itself newsworthy. Despite reduced revenues and increased benefit claims in the short run, the system continues to face a 75-year deficit equal to about 2 percent of taxable payroll.

This brief puts the current report in perspective and discusses a few interesting wrinkles, such as the outlook for a cost-of-living adjustment in 2011 and the implications of a decline in the Average Wage Index. Unfortunately, for the third year in a row, the Social Security Trustees Report has not been signed by any public trustees. The absence of these independent voices from the valuation process reflects a persistent failure of the political process, but not of the program itself.

Source: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

Download pdf research brief | Link to online introduction

Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography

From Charles Bailey at Digital Scholarship.org

Can scholarly journal articles and other scholarly works be made freely available on the Internet? The open access movement says "yes," and it is having a significant impact on scholarly publishing. There are two major open access strategies: (1) open access journals publish articles (typically peer-reviewed articles) that are free of charge and may be able to be reused under an open license (e.g., a Creative Commons license), and (2) self-archiving of digital eprints (typically prepublication versions of articles) by authors in digital repositories, where they can be accessed free of charge and sometimes reused. Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography, which has over 1,100 references, provides in-depth coverage of published journal articles, books, and other works about the open access movement. Many references have links to freely available copies of included works.

Download full pdf bibliography | link to DigitalScholarship.org

The Rise of Apps Culture

Some 35% of U.S. adults have software applications or “apps” on their phones, yet only 24% of adults use those apps. Many adults who have apps on their phones, particularly older adults, do not use them, and 11% of cell owners are not sure if their phone is equipped with apps.

Among cell phone owners, 29% have downloaded apps to their phone and 13% have paid to download apps.

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project and Nielsen

Download full pdf publication | Download pdf questionnaire | Link to online overview

An Evaluation of the Data from the Teacher Compensation Survey: School Year 2006–07

This report provides an overview of the Teacher Compensation Survey (TCS) data collection in 17 states for school year 2006-07. It also includes a comparison of state administrative records with other sources of data, data availability and quality. This report discusses the uses of the data, and the limitations and advantages of the TCS.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Privatizing Public Interest Law

This Article examines the tradeoffs of private public interest practice through an empirical study of a cluster of firms in the Los Angeles area. Its main focus is on how the relationship between the firms’ private form and public agenda plays out across three key axes: professionalism (how lawyers understand their obligations to clients, causes, and communities); power (how lawyers make decisions within the firm); and profit (how lawyers select and staff cases).

Source: UCLA School of Law [via eScholarship Repository]

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

An Inconvenient Sandwich : The throwaway economics of takeaway food

Being casual about what, when, and where we eat is both a cause and a symptom of the hectic, mobile lives we lead. It helps to shape our aspirations and our sense of identity.

Although casual food is everywhere, the ‘casual eating’ subdivision of the catering sector is overlooked. So diverse that it can seem to defy classification, it has no shared voice or body of knowledge. Nevertheless, it requires closer scrutiny.

Casual food tends to be cheap, is often highly processed, and generates a lot of food and packaging waste. Although it is hugely popular, it is criticised for being unhealthy, and information about where it comes from or what it contains is rarely available when you buy it. Work in the sector is poorly paid, precarious, and sometimes illegal.

The whole food system is under widespread pressure to become more sustainable. Broadly speaking, the challenge is to produce more and better quality food, more ethically, from less land, using fewer resources, and with fewer negative impacts, and to share it more equitably. Efforts to make the food system more sustainable will have to take the social, environmental, and economic impacts of our casual eating habit into account.

This report is based on a series of interviews with the owners of small independent takeaways and cafés.

Source:new economics foundation (U.K.)

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

The Fading Glory of the Television and Telephone

After occupying center stage in the American household for much of the 20th century, two of the grand old luminaries of consumer technology -- the television set and the landline telephone -- are suffering from a sharp decline in public perception that they are necessities of life.

Just 42% of Americans say they consider the television set to be a necessity, according to a new nationwide survey from the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project. Last year, this figure was 52%. In 2006, it was 64%.

Source: Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends

Download full pdf publication | Download pdf topline questionnaire | Link to online summary

Putting Culture Back in Context: A Context Dependent Model of How Cultural Inputs, Toolkits, and Meanings Influence Action

Abstract:

In this article I outline a new framework for the sociological study of culture that relates three fundamental facets of human culture (inputs, toolkits, and meanings) to each other and suggests the contingencies under which each can influence action. Sociological theories of culture typically pitch these facets as opposing perspectives of “what culture is.” I argue that while each perspective answers a necessary part of the theoretical puzzle linking culture and action, existing models are not sufficient as standalone answers. Even the more theoretically nuanced attempts at integrating multiple elements of culture tend to argue that one particular aspect of culture provides the most powerful link to action a priori. The empirical inadequacies of each perspective as a stand-alone theory of “how culture affects action” are accounted for by the failure of theorists from each perspective to fully recognize and integrate the other elements of culture, as well as the concrete contingencies that give them analytic power, into their models. I argue that inputs, toolkits, and meanings are fundamental, complementary, and necessarily intertwined elements of culture. Further, which of these elements has the strongest influence on action is a function of social context. I use examples from both my own research on health behaviors and the empirical works of other scholars to propose a context dependent model of how and under what conditions each element of culture can affect both action and outcomes. Specifically, I show how varying levels of social stability, inequality, codification, and institutional involvement affect the relative influence of each aspect of culture.

Source: Institute for the Study of Social Change UC Berkeley [via eScholarship Repository]

Download full pdf publication | Link to online overview

An opportunity not taken…yet: U.S. labor and the current economic crisis

Abstract:

The United States is undergoing what in many ways is its most profound economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Great Recession, as it is popularly called, is having a devastating impact on U.S. workers. In this context, U.S. unions, workers’ most important advocates, have been vociferous in calling for financial reform, job creation, and other strong policy measures. However, whereas the Great Depression in the United States saw labor engaged in dramatic mass mobilizations, large-scale militant actions, and a powerful role in promoting policy changes, the current economic slump the U.S. labor movement has accomplished none of these things. At first glance, this absence may seem surprising. However, I will argue, expanding on an earlier analysis by Milkman (2010) that in fact, it is a relatively unsurprising outcome of both long-term historical trends and shorter-term conjunctural factors.

The paper makes this case in four sections. First, I briefly summarize the impact of the crisis on U.S. workers. Second, I describe the response of U.S. unions to the Great Recession, drawing extensively on online searches to document my findings. Third, I discuss the long-term and short-term reasons for the very limited nature of that response. In closing, I explore some alternative paths that may indeed lead U.S. labor to mount a more vigorous response in the months and years to come.

Source: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment UCLA [via eScholarship Repository]

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention

Globally, approximately one half of the population lives in rural areas, but less than 38% of the nurses and less than 25% of the physicians work there. While getting and keeping health workers in rural and remote areas is a challenge for all countries, the situation is worse in the 57 countries that have an absolute shortage of health workers.

After a year-long consultative effort, this document proposes sixteen evidence-based recommendations on how to improve the recruitment and retention of health workers in underserved areas. It also offers a guide for policy makers to choose the most appropriate interventions, and to implement, monitor and evaluate their impact over time.

Source: World Health Organization

Download full pdf publication | Link to online overview

U.S. Unauthorized Immigration Flows Are Down Sharply Since Mid-Decade

The annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005, according to new estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center.

This sharp decline has contributed to an overall reduction of 8% in the number of unauthorized immigrants currently living in the U.S.-to 11.1 million in March 2009 from a peak of 12 million in March 2007, according to the estimates. The decrease represents the first significant reversal in the growth of this population over the past two decades.

Source: Pew Hispanic Center

Download full pdf report | Link to interactive map | Link to online summary

Mathematica Research Brief: Helping the Most Elderly Remain Independent

Since passage of the Older Americans Act (OAA) in 1965, the Administration on Aging (AoA) has strived to help elderly Americans maintain their independence and remain living in their communities. Through its Aging Services Network, AoA provides services to help address the effects of declining physical health and functioning that frail adults experience. Funded under Title III of the OAA, services such as homemaker support, home-delivered meals, transportation services, and case management are available to those age 60 and older, with delivery targeted to the most vulnerable elderly.

An issue brief from Mathematica Policy Research, the first in a series, presents findings from AoA’s National Survey of OAA Program Participants and assesses whether Title III services are reaching adults at higher risk of nursing home entry.

Source: Mathematica Policy Research

Download Policy Research Brief in pdf format | Link to press release

Secrecy and Democracy: Who Controls Information in the National Security State?

Abstract:

In national security matters, we give executive officials largely unchecked power to conceal from the public and even from Congress whatever information they choose to consider sensitive. We thus disconnect part of the essential machinery of democracy. Secrecy is nothing new, but in an era of transnational terrorism and expanded conceptions of what “national security” means, secrecy’s potential for eroding checks and balances is growing, even under a President ostensibly committed to greater openness in government. Democratic values and sound national security policy both suffer as a result.

This Article argues that information access is central to legitimate governance and that in matters involving classified information, we have needlessly constrained democratic processes, as a result of misdirected fears and misplaced reverence for executive expertise. Many capabilities necessary for sound secrecy decisions can be found only in Congress or the courts.

Discomfort with the executive information monopoly is increasingly evident in judicial decisions and legislative initiatives, but these acts of resistance remain halting and uneven. This Article attempts to give coherence to the often-tentative efforts by the other branches to claim a coordinate role. Building on congressional and judicial strengths, it develops an oversight framework more consonant with our constitutional design – an information democracy that combines robust national security safeguards with maximum feasible transparency and accountability.

Source: New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

“The Sole Right...Shall Return to the Authors”: Anglo-American Authors’ Reversion Rights From the Statute of Anne to Contemporary U.S. Copyright

Abstract:

This study of author’s reversion rights begins with the Statute of Anne and the debates that led up to the adoption of section 11, which vested in the author a second fourteen-year term, provided he or she was still alive at the end of the initial fourteen-year term. The study then will address the impact of the author’s reversion right on publishing practice and authors’ welfare in the United Kingdom through the eighteenth century to the demise of the reversion right in 1814. We will suggest that the apparent lack of use of the reversion right by authors in the eighteenth century was a result of a host of factors, including but not limited to the common (but by no means universal) contractual practice which purported to confer on a publisher the entirety of an author’s rights. In addition, we call attention to the multiple and shifting interpretations of what was required by section 11, as well as the social and economic limitations on an author’s capacity to take advantage of the reversion. The second half of this study turns to the law and publishing practices in the United States, where reversion rights have proved more enduring if not always more beneficial to authors.

The study concludes that history and practice suggest at best inconsistent achievement of reversonary rights’ aim to offset the author’s weaker bargaining position by assuring her a future opportunity to make a better deal. Legislators might improve the reversion rights regime, but it is not clear that authors’ lots will accordingly ameliorate. Substantive regulation of contracts of transfer, rather than rights to terminate those transfers, may offer the preferable path to ensuring meaningful and effective protection of authors’ interests in reaping the fruits of their intellectual labors.

Source: Columbia Public Law & Legal Theory Working Papers

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

American Policing at a Crossroads

Abstract

As victimization rates have fallen, public preoccupation with policing and its crime control impact has receded. Terrorism has become the new focal point of concern. But satisfaction with ordinary police practices hides deep problems. The time is therefore ripe for rethinking the assumptions that have guided American police for most of the past two decades. This essay proposes an empirically grounded shift to what we call a procedural justice model of policing. When law enforcement moves toward this approach, it can be more effective, at lower cost and without the negative side effects that currently hamper responses to terrorism and conventional crime. This essay describes the procedural justice model, explains its theoretical and empirical foundations, and discusses its policy implications, both for ordinary policing and for efforts to combat international terrorism.

Source: New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Postsecondary Institutions and Price of Attendance in the United States

This First Look presents findings from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) fall 2009 data collection, which included three survey components: Institutional Characteristics for the 2009-10 academic year, Completions covering the period July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2009. and data on 12-Month Enrollment for the 2008-09 academic year. These data were collected through the IPEDS web-based data collection system.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download full pdf publication | Link to online summary

NBER paper Does Culture Matter?

This paper reviews the literature on culture and economics, focusing primarily on the epidemiological approach. The epidemiological approach studies the variation in outcomes across different immigrant groups residing in the same country. Immigrants presumably differ in their cultures but share a common institutional and economic environment. This allows one to separate the effect of culture from the original economic and institutional environment. This approach has been used to study a variety of issues, including female labor force participation, fertility, labor market regulation, redistribution, growth, and financial development among others.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

On Political Corruption

Abstract:
This Essay takes Citizens United as a launching point to revisit the central Buckley v. Valeo paradigm and examine what possibilities for reform remain to redress the vulnerabilities of democracy before the powers of the purse. Beginning with Buckley, the Court recognized that contributions had the unique potential to corrupt the political process. Revisiting the contribution process and the concept of corruption may yield a better handle on what should be the sources of concern in the financing of electoral campaigns. The inquiry begins with the contested terrain over the nature of political corruption. Once the Supreme Court announced in Buckley that the concern over corruption or even its appearance could justify limitations on money in politics, the race was on to fill the porous concept of corruption with every conceivable meaning advocates could muster. Citizens United categorically rejected the rationale of Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce that corruption ensues from the electoral distortions caused by differences in wealth. Citizens United also rejected any attempt to draw the lines of participation at persons versus corporations based upon similar access to wealth. But what is the remaining corruption concern?

The argument presented is that the corruption concern is really a concern with ensuring public – rather than private – outputs from the policy making process of government once in office, rather than when candidates stand for election. The argument rests heavily on the idea that the threat to democratic governance may come from the emergence of a “clientelist” relation between elected officials and those who seek to profit by relations to the state. This reorientation toward corruption in the outputs of policy making suggests effective solutions to address the financial vulnerabilities of democracy compatible with the Court’s strong constitutional stance in Citizens United. Specifically, the focus is on mechanisms to empower democratic participation in two ways, one by inducement, one by prohibition. Counterintuitively, the inducement looks to increasing the amount of contributions to campaigns to alleviate some of the concerns over political corruption, while the prohibition seeks to bar those in a position to distort public policy – such as government contractors – from providing support to candidates’ campaigns.

Source: New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers. Paper 216.
http://lsr.nellco.org/nyu_plltwp/216

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Student Victimization in U.S. Schools

This report uses data from the 2007 SCS to examine student criminal victimization and the characteristics of crime victims and nonvictims. It also provides findings on student reports of the presence of gangs and weapons and the availability of drugs at school, student reports of bullying and cyberbullying, and fear and avoidance behaviors of crime victims and nonvictims at school.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

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The Experience of Tenure-Track Faculty at Research Universities: Analysis of COACHE Survey Results by Academic Area and Gender

A new report by COACHE reveals evidence of major differences in work satisfaction between faculty in different academic areas and between men and women within many of those areas. In surveys of untenured assistant professors at research universities, faculty in the physical sciences and humanities were among those satisfied with more aspects of their work lives, while faculty in education and the visual and performing arts were satisfied with the fewest aspects. In additional analysis, COACHE researchers found that gaps in satisfaction between women and men were most prevalent in the social sciences.

Source: Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education.(COACHE)

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Latinos: Discrete and Insular No More

Abstract:

As part of this symposium to celebrate the publication of a Latinos and the Law casebook by Richard Delgado, Juan Perea, and Jean Stefancic, this Essay considers why the time is ripe for bringing Latinos out of the casebook squibs and into the canon. The primary answer is: numbers. As Latinos become an increasingly large segment of the U.S. population, understanding how they fit into American history and how their presence has shaped the law's development becomes central to understanding the nature of our polity. But the growth of the Latino population into a dominant minority (and an outright majority in some jurisdictions) raises a new set of questions: what happens to our conceptions of rights and responsibilities when a minority starts to take on the characteristics of a majority, or an outright majority ceases to exist? Our conception of the category "Latino" and its place in our politics and constitutional jurisprudence must change as the population grows in size and importance. This Essay explores how and why.

Source: New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

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America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2010

The Forum's signature report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, provides annual updates on the well-being of children and families in the United States across a range of domains.

The 2010 Childstats website includes 68 tables and 59 figures that describe the population of children and depict their well-being in the areas of family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.

Source: Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics

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May it Please the Senate: An Empirical Analysis of the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings of Supreme Court Nominees, 1939-2009

Abstract:

This paper examines the questions asked and answers given by every Supreme Court nominee who has appeared to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee since 1939. In doing so, it uses a new dataset developed by the authors. This database, which provides a much-needed empirical foundation for scholarship in emerging areas of constitutional law and political science, captures all of the statements made at the hearings and codes these comments by issue area, subissue area, party of the appointing president, and party of the questioning senator. The dataset allows us to quantify for the fist time such things as which issues are most frequently discussed at the hearings, whether those issues have changed over time, and whether they vary depending on the party of the appointing president and the party of the questioning senator. We also investigate if questioning patterns differ depending on the race or gender of the nominee. Some of our results are unsurprising: for example, the hearings have become longer. Others, however, challenge conventional wisdom: the Bork hearing is less of an outlier in several ways than is frequently assumed, and abortion has not dominated the hearings. We also discover that there is issue area variation over time, and that there are notable disparities in the issues addressed by Democratic versus Republican senators. Finally, we find that female and minority nominees face a significantly different hearing environment than do white male nominees.

Source: UGA Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10-12. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1630403

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Tackling inequalities in life expectancy in areas with the worst health and deprivation

Introduction:

The Department of Health has made a serious attempt to tackle health inequalities across England. But, having set a target in 2000 to reduce health inequalities, it was slow to take action and health inequalities were not a top priority for the NHS until 2006.

The NAO report found that, although life expectancy overall has increased, the gap in life expectancy between the national average and the Government’s dedicated “spearhead” areas has continued to widen. The Department will not meet its target to reduce the health inequalities gap by 10 per cent by 2010, as measured by life expectancy at birth, if current trends continue.

Source: United Kingdom National Audit Office

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Assessing How Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets

Summary:

To learn more about the possible outcomes of marijuana legalization in California, RAND researchers constructed a model based on a series of estimates of current consumption, current and future prices, how responsive use is to price changes, taxes levied and possibly evaded, and the aggregation of nonprice effects (such as a change in stigma). Key findings include the following: (1) the pretax retail price of marijuana will substantially decline, likely by more than 80 percent. The price the consumers face will depend heavily on taxes, the structure of the regulatory regime, and how taxes and regulations are enforced; (2) consumption will increase, but it is unclear how much, because we know neither the shape of the demand curve nor the level of tax evasion (which reduces revenues and prices that consumers face); (3) tax revenues could be dramatically lower or higher than the $1.4 billion estimate provided by the California Board of Equalization (BOE); for example, uncertainty about the federal response to California legalization can swing estimates in either direction; (4) previous studies find that the annual costs of enforcing marijuana laws in California range from around $200 million to nearly $1.9 billion; our estimates show that the costs are probably less than $300 million; and (5) there is considerable uncertainty about the impact of legalizing marijuana in California on public budgets and consumption, with even minor changes in assumptions leading to major differences in outcomes.

Source: RAND Corporation

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