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Nerche Updates, Volume 2, Issue 2, New England Resource Center For Higher Education At The University Of Massachusetts Boston

NERCHE Bulletin

No abstract provided.

University Reporter - Volume 11, Number 04 - December 2006

1996-2009, University Reporter

This issue of the University Reporter includes articles about the establishment of the University of Massachusetts Confucius Institute, the use of geographic information systems to map businesses in Dorchester, a campus gerontologist's research into aging minorities and healthcare access, a reunion for Boston State College alumni, a College of Liberal Arts professor's role in monitoring elections in Nicaragua for the Carter Center, and other news from UMass Boston.

Transformation And Taking Stock: A Summary Of Selected Findings From The Mccormack Graduate School Diversity Survey, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Paul Watanabe

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

This report summarizes some of the major findings of a survey of 749 Massachusetts adults which focuses on matters related to race, public policy, confidence in public institutions, and political behavior. Since a principal objective of the poll is to elicit views from diverse perspectives, the respondents include significant numbers from all major racial groups: Whites (N=100), Latinos (N=113), Asian Americans (N=103), and Blacks and African Americans (N=100). The data was collected in October and November 2006. On some items, there are comparisons with data derived from a similar poll conducted in 1998.

The poll was undertaken during a time …

On The Edge: Facing A Challenging And Uncertain Future. Elder Economic Security Standard™ For The Boston Area, Laura Henze Russell, Ellen A. Bruce, Judith M. Conahan

Gerontology Institute Publications

What is an adequate income for older adults in the Boston area to age in place? How does it vary according to their life circumstances: whether they are living alone or with a spouse, rent or own their home, drive a car or use other transportation? How do Boston area elders’ living costs change as their health status and life circumstances change? What happens if they need long-term care to keep living at home?

This report will address these questions through the development of a measure of income adequacy for older adults, the Elder Economic Security Standard (Elder Standard). The …

Data Note: The Relationship Between Supported Employment Status And Minimum Wage For Vocational Rehabilitation Integrated Employment Closures In 2004, Frank A. Smith, Dana Scott Gilmore

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Some VR customers earn less than minimum wage despite being closed successfully, i.e., exiting Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services into an integrated employment setting. Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to pay less than the minimum wage to a person whose disability impairs their capacity to be productive at a particular job. People in supported employment are more likely to have a disability that makes them eligible for Section 14(c) minimum wage exemption. How do wages for customers in supported employment compare to those earned by other customers?

Housing Affordability For Households Of Color In Massachusetts, Michael E. Stone

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

While housing is deeply significant for all of us, in our society it tends to pose particular challenges to many, if not most, people of color. For one thing, households of color continue to have considerably lower incomes, on average, than White-headed households. This means that households of color can, on average, afford less and therefore have fewer housing choices available, just for economic reasons alone. Yet we are not in a world where differential housing choices are determined only by ability to pay. Residential segregation by race persists and is not merely a consequence of unacceptable practices of the …

Elder Economic Security Initiative: The Elder Economic Security Standard For Massachusetts, Laura Henze Russell, Ellen A. Bruce, Judith M. Conahan

Gerontology Institute Publications

What is an adequate income for older adults in Massachusetts to age in place? How does it vary according to where they live, and their life circumstances: whether they are living alone or with a spouse, rent or own their home, drive a car or use other transportation? How do elders’ living costs change as their health status and life circumstances change? What happens if they need long-term care to keep living at home?

This report will address these questions through the development of a measure of income adequacy for older adults using the WOW-GI National Elder Economic Security Standard …

Phase Contrast Imaging Using Photothermally Induced Phase Transitions In Liquid Crystals, Chandra S. Yelleswarapu, Sri-Rajasekhar Kothapalli, Francisco J. Aranda, D.V.G.L.N. Rao, Yvonne Vaillancourt, Brian R. Kimball

Physics Faculty Publications

Phase contrast imaging is performed for live biological species using photothermal induced birefringence in dye doped liquid crystals. Using typical 4-f configuration, when liquid crystal cell is at back focal plane of Fourier lens, low spatial frequencies at center of Fourier spectrum are intense enough to induce local liquid crystal molecules into isotropic phase, whereas high spatial frequencies on the edges are not intense enough and remain in anisotropic phase. This results in π/2 phase difference between high and low spatial frequencies. This simple, inexpensive, all-optical, user-friendly, self-adaptive phase contrast imaging technique using low-power laser offers several distinct advantages.

Changing Patterns Xiii: Mortgage Lending To Traditionally Underserved Borrowers And Neighborhoods In Greater Boston, 1990-2005, Jim Campen

Gastón Institute Publications

The present study is the latest in a series of annual updates of the original report, Changing Patterns: Mortgage Lending in Boston, 1990-1993. Beginning in 1998, the reports’ geographic scope was expanded to include an examination of mortgage lending patterns in 27 cities and towns surrounding the city of Boston. In 2003, the report’s geographic coverage was further expanded to include a total of 108 communities. This year’s report extends coverage to all counties, regional planning areas, and federally-defined metropolitan areas in Massachusetts.

The text that follows this introduction highlights some of the most significant findings that emerge from …

Long-Run Risk-Adjusted Performance Of Ipos In The Life Insurance Industry, Lal Chugh, Joseph W. Meador

Financial Services Forum Publications

The pace of demutualization among major U.S. life insurance companies increased sharply after the mid-1990s. Five of the fifteen largest U.S. life insurers demutualized between 1997 and 2001, and the largest, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, demutualized in 2000. Ten other major life insurance companies, with total assets in 2003 of $775 billion, demutualized over the same time period. The regulatory and competitive environment in the life insurance industry has changed dramatically in recent years. These changes include: (1) the fact that consumers have shown declining interest in the traditional life insurance products of risk bearing and transfer, while revenues from …

Demutualization In The Life Insurance Industry: A Study Of Effectiveness, Lal Chugh, Joseph W. Meador

Financial Services Forum Publications

The regulatory and competitive environment in the life insurance industry has changed dramatically in recent years. We investigate the effectiveness of demutualization as a strategic response to the challenges posed by these sweeping changes. The study finds that the demutualized firms generally have implemented a successful strategy based on higher growth, greater profitability, cost effectiveness and shifts in product mix. Also, we find that management takes greater risk in the investment portfolio. In addition, demutualization unlocks value lying dormant in the mutuals’ surplus. The paper concludes that the demutualized firms have generated substantial excess returns over the several market indexes, …

A Primer On Eva For Healthcare Providers, James L. Grant

Financial Services Forum Publications

The concept of economic profit (EVA) has proved successful in the field of corporate finance since its adoption by several U.S. and International companies over the past 25 years. Unlike accounting earnings, EVA is a measure of a company’s true earnings because it fully “accounts” for the costs of all forms of financing, including debt and equity. In the EVA view, a company is not truly profitable unless it earns a return on capital that bests the opportunity cost of capital. That being said, the question that we address here is how to measure the economic profit of providers in …

Measures Of Investor Sentiment: Who Wins The Horse Race?, Arindam Bandopadhyaya

Financial Services Forum Publications

Traditional research on asset pricing has focused on firm-specific and economywide factors that affect asset prices. Recently, the finance literature has turned to noneconomic factors such as investor sentiment as possible determinants of asset prices. Some researchers (e.g., Eichengreen and Mody, 1998) suggest that a change in one set of asset prices may change investor sentiment, thus triggering changes in a seemingly unrelated set of asset prices, especially in the short run, giving rise to pure contagion. Fisher and Statman (2000) and Baker and Wurgler (2006) have also recognized that investor sentiment may be an important component of the market …

University Reporter - Volume 11, Number 03 - November 2006

1996-2009, University Reporter

This issue of the University Reporter includes articles about funding for the Institute for Community Inclusion's Center for Children with Special Needs, increasing enrollment and diversity at UMass Boston, the efforts of UMass Boston researchers to change the way chemistry is taught in hig schools, the 5th anniversary celebration of the Emerging Leaders Program, actor Danny Glover's involvement with the University's homelessness project, and other news from UMass Boston.

Enhancing Decision Analysis Models With Web Agents, Jeffrey M. Keisler, Wei Zhang

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

Decision analysis (DA) can be enhanced by taking advantage of vast, real-time data available from the World Wide Web (the Web). Human intensive DA models such as influence diagrams may be linked with electronic agents that actively utilize the Web to generate data. At the time of modeling, results of agent actions are treated as stochastic events. Probability distributions are assessed conditioned on the range of outcomes for these events. When the DA model is evaluated the agent performs actions defined by the model in terms of the state of nature. Structuring links for these models presents technical challenges including …

Community Mobility And Dementia: A Review Of The Literature, Nina M. Silverstein, Megan Vanderbur

Gerontology Institute Publications

By the year 2030, 70 million Americans will be 65 or older. Approximately 80 percent of this population will likely be driving themselves. And without appropriate and timely interventions, many are likely to be driving with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Current estimates suggest that 2 percent of the population 65 to 74, 19 percent of the population 75 to 84, and 47 percent of the population 85 and older are likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder. By the year 2050, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease could range from 11.3 million to 16 million. This significant …

Data Note: Relationship Between Integrated Employment And State Unemployment Rates For Mr/Dd Consumers, Katherine Fichthorn, Dana Scott Gilmore

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

State mental retardation/developmental disability (MR/DD) agencies provided day and employment supports to over 466,500 people in 2001. Approximately 23% of individuals supported by MR/DD agencies nationwide were employed in integrated employment settings, with individual state outcomes ranging from 2% to 56%.

Gabriel Okara In Conversation With Professor Azuonye, Chukwuma Azuonye, Gabriel Okara

Africana Studies Faculty Publication Series

Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingrain Okara, was born on April 21, 1921, in Bomandi in present day Bayelsa State. After his primary education in both his home state and in the Army School, Creek Road, Port Harcourt, he was admitted to the elite Government College, Umuahia, from where he went to the Yaba College, Lagos. Thereafter, he trained as a book binder at the Federal Government Printer, after what he calls “an adventure” in pig-trading. Armed with an exposure to art, at Umuahia, where he was a student of Ben Enwonwu, he set out for an career in fine art, in 1946, …

The Feasibility Of Establishing The Mosaic Partnerships Program In The City Of Boston, Deb Devenne, Maia Germain, Marsha Inniss-Mitchell, Kyle Reilly, John Sieracki

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

Six years ago, Rochester, NY Mayor William A. Johnson contracted with the consulting firm Idea Connection Systems (ICS) to create a program then called Biracial Partnerships for Community Progress. Since that time over 400 leaders from all areas of the Rochester community have participated. ICS has established this program, since renamed the Mosaic Partnerships Program, in several cities. Through the UMASS Boston - Center for Collaborative Leadership, Emerging Leaders Program (ELP), the Mosaic Partnerships Program was introduced as a way to bridge race relations in Boston and be a catalyst for change. Can the Mosaic Partnerships Program provide positive results …

Latino Shelter Poverty In Massachusetts, Michael E. Stone

Gastón Institute Publications

There were about 121,000 Latino-headed households in Massachusetts in 2000 – nearly 5% of all households, an increase from 3.5% in 1990. The median annual income for Latino-headed households was $27,400 in 2000. About one-third of Latino households had annual incomes of less than $15,000; one-third had between $15,000 and 40,000; and one-third had incomes of $40,000 or more. The median Latino household size was 3 persons. 78% of Latino-headed households rented housing, and only 22% were homeowners.

Democracy Means That The People Make The Law, Gerald Torres

New England Journal of Public Policy

Gerald Torres delivered the Robert C. Wood lecture at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at University of Massachusetts Boston in 2006. This is his talk.

The New Division Of Labor In Massachusetts, Daniel Georgianna, Corinn Williams

New England Journal of Public Policy

In The New Division of Labor, Levy and Murnane describe a world of work re-shaped by computers where workers whose jobs can be reduced to steps based on rules are replaced, and where jobs that require judgment or negotiation are enhanced. The authors test the hypothesis of Levy and Murnane’s work with a close look at Fall River and New Bedford. These cities, with high unemployment and low rates of educational attainment, show patterns of job replacement by computers as compared with Massachusetts as a whole — a wealthy state with high rates of education, which shows a pattern of …

The Future Of Apologies, Aaron Lazare

New England Journal of Public Policy

Aaron Lazare spoke on the topic of apologies at the inauguration of Chancellor Michael Collins at the University of Massachusetts Boston. This text is taken from Lazare’s 2004 book On Apology published by Oxford University Press and reprinted here with permission.

University Reporter - Volume 11, Number 02 - October 2006

1996-2009, University Reporter

This issue of the University Reporter includes articles about Chancellor Michael Collins' discussion of the future of the UMass Boston campus; the work of Africana studies professor, historian, and playwright Robert Johnson, Jr.; the convocation remarks of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall; and other news from UMass Boston.

Front Matter

New England Journal of Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Learning, Robert B. Reich

New England Journal of Public Policy

As part of UMass Boston’s recent celebration to mark the inauguration of Chancellor Michael F. Collins, M.D., the Division of Corporate, Continuing and Distance Education (CCDE) hosted a “virtual symposium” featuring Robert B. Reich. Between April 24 and May 8, CCDE posted a streaming video and a downloadable audio file of a presentation that Professor Reich had delivered on April 11, 2006 at the national conference of the University Continuing Education Association. This talk was supplemented, on May 3, by a live teleconferencing Q&A session with Professor Reich and about fifty UMass Boston graduate students.

Software And Internet Industry Workers: Implications For The Future Of Work In Massachusetts, Sarah Kuhn, Paula Raymann

New England Journal of Public Policy

Those at the leading edge of the new economy — workers in software and Internet workplaces — can tell us something about the future of work in our new world. The authors have conducted a National Science Foundation-funded study of women and men working in IT. They find that while pay and the opportunity to do interesting work are major attractions, challenges facing this workforce include stress, difficulties balancing work and family, and concerns about employment security. While women and men reported similar attitudes and experiences in many areas, in others there were still significant differences.

Boston And New York: The City Upon A Hill And Gotham, Shaun O'Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article is about the author's experience with visiting New York during it's rebirth after 9/11. He speaks about the history of both cities and how they have each grown into their own to become places of future enterprise and cultural cohesiveness.

Current Status Of Technology Adoption: Micro, Small And Medium Manufacturing Firms In Boston, Pratyush Bharati, Abhijit Chaudhury

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

Examining the extent and nature of adoption of technologies by micro, small, and medium-sized manufacturing firms in the greater Boston area.

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

The editor's note at the beginning of this journal briefly speaks about each article within. The author touches upon learning, the challenges to an education, the effects of the growth of technology, how world politics interfere with economy, and how employment is affected by technology.