Library: Best sellers

Immigrants are characterized on the average with higher human capital and are rewarded potentially less as compared to their native counterparts. This question has motivated me to analyze the immigrants-natives wage gap in detail and find the extent of this potential discrimination against the immigrants. I analyze the data from the first two quarters of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 2009 using the Oaxaca Decomposition technique. Applying both the threefold and twofold decomposition approaches, I computed the wage gap first using simple decomposition based on threefold and then the twofol...

Salvia divinorum is a hallucinogenic herb that was originally used in the Mazatec Indian culture of Oaxaca, Mexico for spiritual and medicinal purposes (Wasson, 1962). Salvia divinorum produces powerful hallucinogenic effects when the leaves are chewed, orally consumed in a liquid state, or dried and smoked. Its active ingredient is Salvinorin-A (Roth et al., 2002; Siebert, 1994), a highly selective kappa-opioid receptor agonist (Roth et al., 2002), that researchers consider to be the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen (Ortega, Blount & Manchand, 1982; Siebert, 1994; Valdes et al., 1...

The research problem focused on Panama's low-income consumers' decision making process when shopping for consumer-products. The purpose of the research was to determine Panama's low-income consumers' consumption values, preferences, and loyalty towards a particular brand over another. The qualitative research method was employed in this study, and the data collection process consisted of observation and in-depth interview documents that were organized and categorized. The results of the study found that Panama's low-income consumers' brand preferences were widely varied and brand-loyalty behav...

Since the turn of the century the use of computer-mediated-communication (CMC) has become more widespread in educational contexts and weblogs (blogs), one of the more popular forms of CMC (Bloch, 2007), have been the focus of numerous studies. However, whilst these studies have listed the potential benefits of blog use for language learners, few studies have offered any practical tips for educators who wish to implement the use of writing blogs in the EFL classroom. Moreover, the vast majority of studies have focused on the use of blogs with relatively high-level learners in academic contexts....

'Attitudinal change' in the context of economic reforms has been referred to in Rodrik and Subramanian (2005), DeLong (2003), Kohli (1989), and Panagariya (2004, 2008). This dissertation provides empirical support for this literature, establishing an earlier start for India's economic policy liberalisation than presented in stylized accounts. It demonstrates the endogenous nature of the origins of these policy shifts. 'Attitudinal change' literature had directed attention to the need for further research into India's policy changes of the early 1980s and for studying broader comparability issu...

The dissertation describes the processes surrounding the production of investigative knowledge within the Danish Police based on in-depth analyses of how investigators seek out, discover, and produce knowledge that can assist in the production of evidence for identification and prosecution. The central question informing the dissertation is the question of how knowledge comes about, and how such processes of knowledge can be studied anthropologically. The dissertation develops a theoretical frame for the study of knowledge, which addresses the becoming of knowledge as the effect of the inte...

Before the seismic events of Northridge (Los Angeles, 17 January 1994) and Hyogoken-Nanbu (Kobe, 17 January 1995), MRFs were supposed to be the most reliable seismic resistant systems due to the high number of dissipative zones that are able to develop. Before these earthquakes, especially in the United States, MRFs were realized, generally, by adopting fully welded connections, which, at the time, were retained to perform better compared to other joint typologies. In addition, the economic advantages deriving from the adoption of field fully welded connections strongly influenced choices of b...

While distance education is solidly entrenched in the American educational scene, clinical training using distance learning technology is not yet so clearly accepted. A review of the literature found very few studies of the use of Internet technology for clinical training. This study used semi-structured interviews combined with Giorgi's method of phenomenological analysis of experiences of students and site supervisors involved in the Amridge University clinical training program. The purpose of the study was to examine the process by which master's degree students are able to construct their ...

The evolution, ages and masses of neutron stars are the fundamental threads that make pulsars accessible to other sub-disciplines of astronomy and physics. A realistic and accurate determination of these indirectly probed features play an important role in understanding a very broad range of astrophysical processes that are, in many cases, not empirically accessible otherwise. For the majority of pulsars, the only observables are the rotational period, and its derivative which gives the rate of change in the spin. I start with calculating the joint P-Pdot distributions of millisecond pulsar...

Internationally adopted persons confront multiple challenges in constructing their identities. This study of the narrative burden of self looks at and interprets the dynamic process in which internationally adopted people develop, coordinate and manage their sense of self, identity and cultural/racial personhood. Drawing on the theory of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM), the study focuses on their use of orphaning and adoption stories to most skillfully position and tell one's origin story in concert with one's internal sense of self, and the pressures and forces found in interpers...