Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Issue 56, Spring 2010, Society Of Bead Researchers

The Bead Forum: Newsletter of the Society of Bead Researchers

The Application of X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Spectrometry in the Characterization of Glass Degradation in Beaded African Art, by Maria Fusco and Robert J. Speakman.

A Longitudinal Study Of Language And Ideology In Congress, Bei Yu, Daniel Diermeier

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

This paper presents an analysis of the legislative speech records from the 101st-108th U.S. Congresses using machine learning and natural language processing methods. We use word vectors to represent the speeches in both the Senate and the House, and then use text categorization methods to classify the speakers by their ideological positions. The classification accuracy indicates the level of distinction between the liberal and the conservative ideologies. Our experiment results demonstrate an increasing partisanship in the Congress between 1989 and 2006. Ideology classifiers trained on the House speeches can predict the Senators' ideological positions well (House-to-Senate prediction), however the Senate-to-House …

Sac Outreach Bulletin 2010, The South Asia Center

Newsletters from the South Asia Center

No abstract provided.

Onondaga County Community Indicators 2010 (Abridged Report), Syracuse University. Maxwell School. Community Benchmarks Program

Community Benchmarks Program

The 2010 Community Indicators Report highlights how Onondaga County compares to the past and to other geographic areas. This report consolidates information on the trends and issues facing county residents to generate discussion, celebrate success and stimulate interest in collecting and reporting data. The report is not exhaustive and will expand as more data become available

Vol. 4 No. 1, Moynihan European Research Centers, Spring 2010, Moynihan European Research Centers

Newsletters from Moynihan European Research Centers

Kazakhstan and the OSCE -- EU Graduate Simulation -- Berlin Wall panel -- MERC outreach project -- Global Europe -- 2010-11 FLAS announcement

The Identity And Integration Of The Quichua-Speaking People Of Highland Ecuador, Marie-Genevieve Sasseville Babecki

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In 1990 a massive pan-indigenous uprising occurred throughoutEcuador. This uprising paralyzed the nation and brought the newly politicized ethnicity of indigenous people as political actors to national attention. This led to an increasingly contentious struggle for power, related to the historical verticality of classes based upon ethnicity. But why did ethnicity now become politicized in such an explosive manner and how is this politicized identity formed?

Examining historical context, we trace the evolution of state discourse which greatly shapes identity from one of separation and segregation of indigenous peoples and Hispanic elites, to greater inclusion of all populations as citizens. …

April 2010, Syracuse Department Of Economics

Economics - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Getting Into The Workflow: Graduate Support Workshops, Steven Baumgart, Rebecca Payne, Anne Rauh, Lisa Saywell

Librarian Publications

How can librarians engage with graduate student education and research? Often, graduate student orientations of academic departments include only introductory information about the library and are discipline-focused. To address a need for better library support for graduate students increasingly pursuing interdisciplinary research and study, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries initiated a series of workshops designed to integrate into the workflow of graduate students. Presenters will discuss how the program evolved from a one-library pilot program into a coordinated series of workshops across multiple campus libraries. Details about workshop topics, structure, design, and promotion and series feedback and next steps will …

March 23, 2010 Vol. 2 No. 3, Near Westside Initiative

Near Westside Initiative News/Noticias

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Leas And Mecury On The Blood Proteome Of Children, Robert E. Birsall, Michael P. Kiley, Zaneer M. Segu, Christopher D. Palmer, Milan Madera, Brooks B. Gump

Falk College Research Center

Heavy metal exposure in children has been associated with a variety of physiological and neurological problems. The goal of this study was to utilize proteomics to enhance the understanding of biochemical interactions responsible for the health problems related to lead and mercury exposure at concentrations well below CDC guidelines. Blood plasma and serum samples from 34 children were depleted of their most abundant proteins using antibody-based affinity columns and analyzed using two different methods, LC-MS/MS and 2-D electrophoresis coupled with MALDI-TOF/MS and tandem mass spectrometry. Apolipoprotein E demonstrated an inverse significant association with lead concentrations (average being one microgram/deciliter) as …

Alternative Technical Efficiency Measures: Skew, Bias, And Scale, Qu Feng, William C. Horrace

Economics - All Scholarship

In the fixed-effects stochastic frontier model an efficiency measure relative to the best firm in the sample is universally employed. This paper considers a new measure relative to the worst firm in the sample. We find that estimates of this measure have smaller bias than those of the traditional measure when the sample consists of many firms near the efficient frontier. Moreover, a two-sided measure relative to both the best and the worst firms is proposed. Simulations suggest that the new measures may be preferred depending on the skewness of the inefficiency distribution and the scale of efficiency differences.

The Value Of A Statistical Life: Evidence From Panel Data, Thomas J. Kniesner, W. Kip Viscusi, Christopher Woock

Center for Policy Research

Our research addresses fundamental long-standing concerns in the compensating wage differentials literature and its public policy implications: the econometric properties of estimates of the value of statistical life (VSL) and the wide range of such estimates from about $0 to almost $30 million. Here we address most of the prominent econometric issues by applying panel data, a new and more accurate fatality risk measure, and systematic application of panel data estimators. Controlling for measurement error, endogeneity, latent individual heterogeneity that may be correlated with the regressors, state dependence, and sample composition yields an estimated value of a statistical life of …

Panel Data Inference Under Spatial Dependence, Badi H. Baltagi, Alain Pirotte

Center for Policy Research

This paper focuses on inference based on the usual panel data estimators of a one-way error component regression model when the true specification is a spatial error component model. Among the estimators considered, are pooled OLS, random and fixed effects, maximum likelihood under normality, etc. The spatial effects capture the cross-section dependence, and the usual panel data estimators ignore this dependence. Two popular forms of spatial autocorrelation are considered, namely, spatial auto-regressive random effects (SAR-RE) and spatial moving average random effects (SMA-RE). We show that when the spatial coefficients are large, test of hypothesis based on the usual panel data …

February 17, 2010 Vol. 2 No. 2, Near Westside Initiative

Near Westside Initiative News/Noticias

No abstract provided.

January 15, 2010 Vol. 2 No. 1, Near Westside Initiative

Near Westside Initiative News/Noticias

No abstract provided.

Reviews And End Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Ukrainski narodni prykrasy z biseru (Ukrainian Folk Beaded Adornments), by Olena Fedorchuk (2007), reviewed by Maria M. Rypan

Table Of Contents (V. 22, 2010)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Bauxite Mining And Bead Production In Ghana, John Haigh

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Abompe is the current bauxite beadmaking site in Ghana and the hills of the Kwahu Plateau above the village are pocked with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pits dug in search of the raw material. To determine the age of the beadmaking industry in the region, people in Abompe and other villages were interviewed and related stories that suggest the first beadmakers were following the example of people in or around Bepong, a village on the plateau above Abompe. Three areas of bauxite pits on the Kwahu Plateau were investigated to see if there was physical evidence of ancient mining; those …

Front Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Binary Economics - An Overview, Robert Ashford

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

Based on binary economic principles, this paper asserts that one widely overlooked way to empower economically poor and working people in market economy is to universalize the right to acquire capital with the earnings of capital. This right is presently largely concentrated, as a practical matter, in less than 5 % of the population. The concentration of the right to acquire capital with the earnings of capital helps to explain how people either remain poor or end up poor no matter how hard they work or are willing to work. Binary Economics offers a conception of economics that is foundationally …

Trusts Versus Corporations: An Empirical Analysis Of Competing Organizational Forms, A. Joseph Warburton

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

This paper studies the effects of organizational form on managerial behavior and firm performance, from an empirical perspective. Managers of trusts are subject to stricter fiduciary responsibilities than managers of corporations. This paper examines the ramifications empirically, by exploiting data generated by a change in British regulations in the 1990s that allowed mutual funds to organize as either a trust or a corporation. I find evidence that trust law is effective in curtailing opportunistic behavior, as trust managers charge significantly lower fees than their observationally equivalent corporate counterparts. Trust managers also incur lower risk. However, evidence suggests that trust managers …

Disaster Recovery Manual (2010), David J. Stokoe, Department Of Preservation And Conservation

Books

The Syracuse University Library Disaster Recovery Plan for library materials outlines procedures for salvaging a wide variety of library materials in the event of a disaster of minor emergency. We have designed this plan to help library staff cope with and recover materials from minor emergencies that typically involve 500 or less items. The majority of these emergencies will be caused by interior flooding due to leaky pipes (or water coming in from other vulnerable areas in library buildings) or from patron mishaps. The resultant wet books and other objects, such as photographs, microfilm, and sound recordings, can usually be …

Winter 2010, School Of Information Studies

iSchool Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Questions To Be Asked & Answered On Nlp’S Role In Improving Semantic Annotation For Ir, Elizabeth D. Liddy

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

What was early information retrieval like? (before it was called search!)

How was NLP first applied to the task?

Which levels of language analysis were utilized?

Which were successful? Which were not?

Why were other levels not incorporated ?

Do we now see that the higher levels can and need to be included?

If they are, how might they change how we do IR, as well as what tasks we use it for?

Keys To Quality Infant/Toddler Care: Nurturing Baby's Life Journey, Alice S. Honig

Falk College Research Center

Teachers of infants need a large bunch of key ideas and activities of all kinds to unlock in each child the treasures of loving kindness, thoughtful and eloquent use of language, intense active curiosity to learn, willingness to cooperate, and the deep desire to work hard to master new tasks. Here are some ideas that teachers can use during interactions with infants to optimize each child’s development.

2010 Onondaga County Community Indicators, Syracuse University. Maxwell School. Community Benchmarks Program

Community Benchmarks Program

Onondaga County strives to be a sustainable community where every decision is determined on the interdependence and integration of economic vitality, social equity, and environmental stewardship. We are a community of people of many colors, ethnicities, ages, religious affiliations, and economic levels. We take pride in the place where we live, work, play, and raise a family. Our basic creed is Be+ (be positive).

The Onondaga County Community Indicators Report is a snapshot of Greater Syracuse, portraying trends of the time and opportunities for the future. Community Indicators 2010 measures where we are advancing as a community and where we …

How Field Experiences Prepare Future Teachers, Eunjoo Jung

Falk College Research Center

No abstract provided.

Supporting Inquiry By Identifying Gaps In Student Confidence: Development Of A Measure Of Perceived Competence, Marilyn P. Arnone, Ruth V. Small, Rebecca Reynolds

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

Critical to inquiry-based learning is information literacy. Educators can enhance students’ experiences during the inquiry process if they are aware of the skill areas in which students either have or lack confidence. This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the Perceived Competence in Information Skills (PCIS) measure. Educators can use the measure to support student inquiry by identifying and addressing gaps in student confidence. The measure is freely available through Syracuse University’s Center for Digital Literacy.

Eliminating The Underlying Cause Of Poverty As A Means To Global Economic Recovery, Robert Ashford

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

The public analysis of the causes of the current recession and the ways to achieve economic recovery generally proceed on the widely-shared, tacit assumption that there is that there is no substantial, first-order connection between the recession and the failure to address the problem of systemic poverty. Otherwise, the need to alleviate systemic poverty and needed solutions to promote economic recovery would be commonly addressed in the same discussions; and they are not. This widely-shared, tacit assumption is false. The failure to reverse systemic poverty is the fundamental cause of current economic crisis. Recessions (and sub-optimal growth) occur when a …

All Judges Are Political—Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies And The Rule Of Law, Keith J. Bybee

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

This paper contains the introduction to the new book, All Judges Are Political—Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies and the Rule of Law (Stanford University Press, 2010).

The book begins with the observation that Americans are divided in their beliefs about whether courts operate on the basis of unbiased legal principle or of political interest. This division in public opinion in turn breeds suspicion that judges do not actually mean what they say, that judicial professions of impartiality are just fig leaves used to hide the pursuit of partisan purposes.

Comparing law to the practice of common courtesy, the …