Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is state gambling policy "morality policy"? Framing debates over state lotteries.

The politics of so-called “morality policies” including same-sex marriage, abortion, gun control, and gambling have captured the attention of both the public and political scientists in recent years. Many studies have argued that morality policy constitutes a category of public policy that has distinctive characteristics (such as technical simplicity and less amenability to compromise) compared with non-morality policy. However, in a recent contribution Mucciaroni argues that morality “policy” should instead be viewed primarily as a strategy for framing issues. Drawing on examples from the debate over gay rights, Mucciaroni finds that opponents focus on rational-instrumental or procedural frames more so than engaging in “morality talk. ” In this study, I seek to extend Mucciaroni's analysis to the issue of lottery gambling in the United States. Drawing on data from legislative records in four states, I find that lottery critics mostly avoid private behavior-based morality arguments. Instead, they criticize government's role in sanctioning lotteries and denounce the negative consequences of gambling. Supporters, meanwhile, emphasize the potential benefits of lottery creation and the importance of allowing the state public a voice on the issue. The results indicate that rational-instrumental arguments coexist alongside morality talk in state lottery debates, and that private behavior morality frames are on the decline while governmental morality frames are on the rise.
Intervention or Persuasion? Strategies for Turnaround of Poorly-Performing Councils

This article provides early results from a long-term evaluation of the turnaround strategies by poorly-performing local authorities in England. The history and theory behind central government interventions into local government is reviewed, focusing on the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA). The journeys taken by 10 local authorities, after being labelled as ‘poor’ or ‘weak’, are described and these responses are located within the literature on theories of turnaround and public sector service improvement. The authors conclude by setting out a research agenda for the future.
Effect of Health and Wellness Values on Festival Visit Motivation

Understanding the motivation to visit particular tourist destinations and festivals is important for building effective tourism marketing strategies. This paper explores the effect of existing health and wellness values on the motivation to visit a festival using a field survey at the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival, a typical Australian festival which uses the natural environment, traditions and local produce to provide 21 events during the festival. The study focused on establishing the relationship between health and wellness values and festival attendees' motivation. Qualitative research with random sampling was selected to collect the data. The results revealed high levels of health and wellness values among the participants as well as social interaction, family togetherness, cultural exploration, novelty, natural environment, relaxation, previous food festival experience and food as motivations. Findings of this paper can contribute to festival tourism marketing especially to demonstrate that health-related interests can be significant catalysts for attracting festival attendees.
Role of Wild Game in the Diet of Recreationists in South Carolina

Risk assessors have devoted considerable attention to the consumption of fish in the diet of recreational and subsistence anglers, but little attention has been directed toward the percentage that wild game contributes to total protein intake for people who engage in hunting and fishing. While recall studies have limitations, the relative errors should be similar for different types of fish and game. We interviewed 454 people attending the Palmetto Sportsmen's Classic in South Carolina to determine their consumption patterns of domesticated animals, fish (both wild-caught and commercial) and wild game. The percentage of people who consumed each type of meat was: chicken (98%); beef (95%); wild-caught fish (79%); deer (79%); restaurant fish (73%); pork (71%); dove (47%); commercial fish (41%); wild turkey (40%), duck, squirrel and self-caught quail (about 25% each); restaurant quail (10%); and raccoon (11%). Although a similar proportion of white respondents and black respondents consumed wild game overall (90%), there were ethnic differences in the number of meals of wild-caught fish and game. Black respondents ate more wild-caught fish, rabbit, raccoon and squirrel, and less deer, than did white respondents. Wild-caught fish and game made up 50% of the meat and fish diet of black sportsmen, but only 32% for whites. Wild-caught fish and game were being eaten disproportionately more by low-income black respondents, while more deer was consumed by higher-income black respondents. The data suggest that managers and planners should take into account age, ethnicity and income when (1) conducting exposure assessments, (2) considering consumption patterns for wild-caught fish and game and (3) managing risk from wild-caught fish and game. The data will be especially useful to policy makers and risk managers who are designing consumption advisories, for risk communicators in identifying the target audience and for managers designing long-term stewardship for sites with contamination.
Heating element embedded parylene microcolumn for miniature gas chromatograph

This paper presents the first miniature parylene gas chromatograph (GC) column with embedded heating element. The main advantage of a parylene microcolumn is its lower heat capacity compared with a micromachined silicon/glass column. The analysis time and power consumption of the miniature GC system can be decreased with a parylene microcolumn because of its rapid transient heating. In this paper, the fabrication and heat transfer of a heating element embedded parylene microcolumn are presented.
Re-Examination of the Historical Equity Risk Premium in Australia

In light of the ongoing debate over the value of the equity risk premium, its increasing use in the regulatory setting, and the impact of dividend imputation on the premium, this paper presents a timely new look at the historical equity risk premium in Australia, and provides an improved understanding of the historical record. We document concerns about data quality that become increasingly important the further back in time one looks. In particular, there are sufficient question marks over the quality of data prior to 1958 to warrant any estimates based thereon to be treated with caution. Accordingly, we present a new set of estimates of the historical equity risk premium corresponding to periods of increasing data quality but of decreasing sample size. Relative to bonds (bills), the equity premium has averaged 6.3 per cent (6.8 per cent) per annum over 1958–2005, which is a period of relatively good data quality. Together with other results in the paper, the findings reveal a historical estimate that is substantially less than widely cited historical studies would otherwise indicate. We reconcile prior evidence through documenting a dividend adjustment that has typically been overlooked. We also provide estimates that incorporate an adjustment for imputation credits.
Evaluation of the service quality of container ports by importance-performance analysis

The present study applied importance-performance analysis (IPA) to investigate the relationship between the importance level and satisfaction of port service quality and to enable port authorities to draw port managerial and operational policies for improving service quality. This IPA approach is based on the port service quality characteristics drawn by the Kano two-dimensional quality model, and examines the Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Busan, and Kaohsiung ports from the viewpoints of 15 container shipping lines deploying container ships at the above ports. The results demonstrate that the shipping lines were most satisfied with the Singapore port, while the Shanghai and Busan ports had a lower satisfaction level than the others. The IPA matrixes of the five ports confirm that, from the viewpoint of resource allocation efficiency, resources should be shifted from quadrant D to quadrant A to improve overall performance of service attributes. Therefore, port managers have to 'keep up the good work' regarding these attributes. Terminal operators can use the results to develop port strategies improving port service quality, to design better service quality control systems, and to capture more container cargoes in the fierce inter-port competition in Asia.
Using Multiple Imputation for Vote Choice Data: A Comparison across Multiple Imputation Tools

One commonly acknowledged challenge in polls or surveys is item non-response, i.e., a significant proportion of respondents conceal their preferences about particular questions. This paper applies the multiple imputation (MI) method to reconstruct the distribution of vote choice in the sample. Vote choice is one of most important dependent variables in political science studies. This paper shows how the MI procedure in general facilitates the work of reconstructing the distribution of a targeted variable. Particularly, it shows how MI can be applied to point-estimation in descriptive statistics. The three packages of R, AmeliaII, MICE, and mi, are employed for this project. The findings, based on a Taiwan Election and Democratization Study (TEDS) samples collected after the 2012 presidential election (N = 1826) suggest the following: First, there is little adjustment done given the MI methods; Second, the three tools based on two algorithms lead to similar results, while Amelia II and MICE perform better. Although the results are not striking, the implications of these findings are worthy of discussion.
Long Memory in Oil and Refined Products Markets

We test for the presence of long memory in daily oil and refined products prices’ absolute return, squared return and conditional volatility, using several parametric and semiparametric methods. This study finds strong evidence of long memory (LM) in the daily absolute and squared spot and futures returns for crude oil, gasoline and heating oil but at different degrees. The FIGARCH model also demonstrates strong evidence of LM for volatility for most of oil and products prices’ returns, with also different resilience levels. Structural breaks have only the partial effects of slightly reducing persistence for just absolute and squared returns. Examining the forecasting behavior of two competing models, the less parsimonious ARFIMA which satisfies the LM property, and the parsimonious ARMA with short-term processes, the ARFIMA model provides significantly better out-of-sample forecasts at all forecasting horizons for all three petroleum types.
Can Politicians Bargain with Business?

These authors examine the capability of local government to influence economic development by formulating a framework that treats state-business relations as a bargaining process. This framework suggests that governmental influence is tied to the distribution of bargaining advantages along three dimensions of a liberal-democratic political economy: market conditions, popular-control systems, and public-intervention mechanisms. The authors offer an explanation of how characteristics of these dimensions strengthen or weaken city governments in dealing with private enterprise; experiences of U.S. and Western European cities are drawn upon to illustrate this. They conclude that differences in bargaining resources accounts for wide variation in local political control of business development.
Some Futures are Brighter than Others: the Net Benefits Received by Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Recipients

Using a choice-based sample of households in Florida, the authors provide new empirical evidence on the budgetary incidence of lottery-funded merit scholarships. Specifically, they estimate the benefits received from the Florida Bright Futures (FBF) scholarship and the lottery taxes paid for three typical households in Florida. They find that high socioeconomic (SES) households receive a net program benefit of almost $2,200, whereas low SES households incur a net programloss of almost $700. This result obtains because lower SES households tend to pay more in lottery taxes but are less likely to receive scholarships. Also, the lower SES households with members who do receive the FBF scholarship are more likely to receive the 75% partial scholarship (vs. the 100% full scholarship) than the higher SES households. The results indicate that lottery-funded merit scholarships redistribute income from lower income, non-White, and less educated households to higher income, White, well-educated households.
Error correction models and agricultural supply response

This paper explores the relevance of the error correction specification to agricultural supply modeling. The theoretical basis of the model is outlined, and it is shown how the familiar partial adjustment model is a restrictive special case. In particular it is shown how the error correction model avoids the partial adjustment model's unrealistic assumption of a fixed target supply based on stationary expectations. In an analysis of U.K. pig supply an error correction model provides good empirical results, and is preferred in specification tests to the partial adjustment model. It is concluded that the error correction model provides a superior alternative to the partial adjustment model on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Copyright 1993 by Oxford University Press.
Market volatility and the demand for hedging in stock index futures

This study examines the relation between stock market volatility and the demand for hedging in S&P 500 stock index futures contracts. Open interest is used as a proxy for hedging demand. The analysis employs unique data that identify separately the open interest of large hedgers, large speculators, and smaller traders. Volatility estimates are decomposed into expected and unexpected components, to assess whether traders’ reactions to volatility depend upon its predictability. Results indicate that daily open interest for hedgers increases when unexpected volatility increases. Increases in unexpected volatility may cause hedgers to raise their estimates of future expected volatility, and hence increase their demand for hedging. Open interest of speculators is not related to expected volatility, and is only weakly related to unexpected volatility. The increase in the participation of hedgers in periods of higher volatility is significantly larger than the increase in the participation of speculators. The results suggest that increases in stock market volatility increase the demand for hedging. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 20: 105–125, 2000
Livelihoods of Fringe Communities and the Impacts on the Management of Conservation Area: The Case of Kakum National Park in Ghana

SUMMARY In the developing countries most of the rural communities depend on forest resources for their livelihood. The establishment of protected areas and national parks however deprive them of having access to these resources. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study assessed the NTFPs collection situation of the fringe communities after the establishment of Kakum National Park, the extent to which the livelihood of the communities has been improved, and how the presence or absence of livelihood improvement strategies has shaped the attitudes and perceptions of the fringe communities toward the national park. The results showed that about 17% of the household leaders were unemployed. Livelihood support strategies such as livelihood alternatives and enhancement, social capital and sociological tourism were found to be absent. Opinion leaders of the communities reported that no member is involved in the management of the park. In spite of restrictions, majority (88.4%) of the household members enter the national park for NTFP collection. Hunting was found to be third highest activity. The households reported that majority of the NTFPs they collect were not processed indicating that their capacities to add value to the resource have not been developed. They believe that value addition to NTFPs could increase their income levels but did not support the theory that it could safeguard the future availability of forest resources and contribute to their sustainability. The respondents believed that once the resources are in abundance they must be exploited to meet their socio-economic needs, suggesting the nexus between illegal entry to conservation area and unsustainable exploitation of forest resources. The paper concludes that when restrictions are placed on access to forest resources and no alternative sources of income are made, illegal entry becomes the norm. The illegal NTFPs collectors would not view the resources as “their own” and would exploit them in an unsustainable way to meet their needs.
Two Faces of the Satisfaction Mirror: A Study of Work Environment, Job Satisfaction, and Customer Satisfaction in Dutch Municipalities

During the past three decades, the performance of public organizations has become more and more of an issue. However, academic research on public administration pays relatively little attention to how organizational performance is related to work environment and human resources within organizations. In this research, work environment characteristics, job satisfaction, and customer satisfaction are studied by comparing customer satisfaction data with data on the well-being of front-office employees in 35 Dutch municipalities. The authors test their hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Contrary to what was expected, the findings indicate that the effect of job satisfaction on customer satisfaction is twofold. In organizations in which employees are more satisfied with their jobs, customers are more satisfied with the empathy of the employees, but the waiting times for services tend to increase concomitantly. In addition, findings indicate that the work environment characteristics influence job satisfaction. These results have some implications for human resource management (HRM).
Shifting Patterns of Fuel and Wood Use by Households in Rural Zimbabwe

A questionnaire survey of fuel and wood use was administered to approximately 1500 households in rural Zimbabwe in 1994 and repeated in 1999. The nine localities covered by the survey fell into four strata distinguished by woodland cover, distance from urban centres and whether communal or resettlement (ex-commercial farming) areas. Over time household assets increased, but incomes remained constant in all but one stratum. Simultaneously wood became scarcer according to respondents. In all four strata firewood consumption fell markedly between 1994 and 1999. This was partially, but not entirely, due to switches to other fuels, either electricity near towns or non-wood biomass fuel in deforested areas further from towns. In other areas, non-wood biomass fuels declined considerably. Kerosene use showed mixed patterns, with decreases in the numbers of consumers but increased rates of consumption. Wealthier households were more likely to use modern fuels such as kerosene for cooking, candles and electricity. The general reduction in firewood consumption entailed changes in collection practices and increased purchase of wood, but it is not clear how fuel use efficiency was improved by such a great margin. Utilisation of wood for construction also declined over the five year period.
Women'S Work And The Household Economy: Poverty, Policy And Female Labor Supply In Britain, 1897-1931

The great increase in married women’s labor force participation rates was one of the most notable trends of the twentieth century, and yet relatively little is known about how women’s labor supply behavior related to the household context prior to the Second World War. My dissertation makes use of the detailed information on weekly hours of work and wages contained in the New Survey of London Life and Labour (1929-31), as well as newly-compiled data on female home workers from the 1897 and 1908 Home Industries of Women in London reports published by the Women’s Industrial Council, to provide the first estimation of both the participation and the hours-of-work decisions for female workers prior to the Second World War. The most striking result is the finding that, among female workers in both major data sources, the labor supply curve was negatively sloped -women worked longer hours at lower wages. I also find that, in many households, female workers played an important role in keeping household income above the minimum threshold, and that women from poor households were significantly more likely to be in the labor force, worked longer hours, and were more responsive to household earnings and benefit income. These results are consistent with a theoretical framework in which female household members act primarily as secondary workers who enter the labor force to make up for shortfalls in household income. They are also consistent with empirical studies of labor supply among the working poor in developing countries, in which there has long been evidence of a negative relationship between wages and hours at low wage levels. The final chapter examines the potential impact of the Trade Boards Act of 1909, which set minimum wages for female workers in select trades, on women’s wage rates and income contributions to poor households. The main finding is that, among home workers in the clothing and box making trades, the Trade Boards Act would have increased the wages of the women who were affected by it enough to have been effective in reducing household poverty rates.
Longitudinal Outcomes and Application of the Subunit Principle to 165 Foot and Ankle Free Tissue Transfers

Background: Free tissue transfer to the lower extremity has become a well-established reconstructive modality. The purpose of this study was to develop a “subunit” approach to patients undergoing free tissue transfer for foot and ankle wounds to help further define subunit-specific functional and aesthetic operative goals. Methods: The institutional review board approved this retrospective review of 161 patients who underwent free tissue transplantation for foot and ankle wounds between March 1, 1997, and February 28, 2007, at a single institution. Endpoints included flap-related complications, secondary surgery, time to ambulation, flap stability, and limb salvage. Results: The most common types of wounds treated were trauma-related [n = 120 (75 percent)], diabetes-related [n = 24 (15 percent)], and oncologic defects [n = 8 (5 percent)]. Ten different donor sites were used for reconstruction, with the latissimus dorsi flap being the most common. The mean follow-up time was 26.9 months (range, 0.5 to 130 months). Mean time to ambulation was 3.1 months (range, 0.75 to 14 months). Overall, 11 percent of patients required revision surgery for flap instability at a mean time of 25.3 months after flap surgery. Wounds located over the heel (subunit 5) were most likely to develop instability (Fisher's exact test, p < 0.05). The overall 5-year limb salvage rate as determined by Kaplan-Meier analysis was 89 percent. Conclusions: The use of free tissue transplantation for treatment of foot and ankle wounds is associated with a high rate of limb salvage. Although a variety of flaps may be used, the application of the subunit principle can assist surgeons in designing flaps that will address subunit-specific functional and aesthetic concerns.