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The present study, a part of researcher's Ph.D. project, aimed at exploring the reading trends of young Pakistani students (i.e., Generation Y: born during the 1980s and early 1990s, also known as internet generation), and the impact of digital media on their reading behavior. It was conducted as a pilot study on final year's master level students of the University of the Punjab. Quantitative research design, based on a survey was used. Convenient sampling technique was used to collect data from 50 students through questionnaire survey. It revealed that the students' reading behavior has been significantly changed during the last five years. Their overall reading time and digital reading time has been increased due to the availability of digital devices and digital reading material. The findings of this study are helpful in identifying the trends of reading behavior as well as in planning and designing library services with regard to the considering of the behavior of the students.

Motivated by the ongoing debate on the costs and benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR), we explore how talented managers view CSR investments. Based on nearly 20,000 observations across 17 years, our evidence reveals a nonmonotonic effect of managerial talent on CSR. Exploiting a novel measure of managerial ability, we find that talented managers view CSR investments favorably. However, only those with especially strong talent are in favor of CSR investments. For executives ranked above the 75th percentile in terms of managerial talent, an increase in managerial ability leads to more CSR investments, suggesting that these strongly talented managers perceive CSR as enhancing firm performance. In contrast, for those with weaker talent, CSR investments are negatively associated with managerial ability, implying that these weakly talented managers view CSR as a wasteful deployment of resources. Further evidence shows that our conclusion is unlikely confounded by endogeneity.

Background The purpose of this study was to examine weight loss, physical activity, fitness and diet changes in response to a standard behavioral weight loss intervention in adults with self-reported juvenile onset (n = 61) or adult onset (n = 116) obesity. Methods Participants (n = 177; 43.0 ± 8.6 years; body mass index [BMI] = 33.0 ± 3.4 kg m−2) engaged in an 18-month standard behavioral weight loss intervention. Participants were randomized into three different intervention groups as part of the larger parent trial. BMI, physical activity, fitness and diet were assessed at baseline, 6, 12 and 18 months. Separate adjusted mixed models were constructed using SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Results There was significant weight loss, increased physical activity, improved fitness and reduced caloric intake over time (p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in these outcome variables by obesity onset group. However, there was a significant group by time interaction for fitness (p = 0.001), with the adult onset making significantly greater gains in fitness from baseline to 6 months (p < 0.001); however, this difference was no longer present at 12 or 18 months. Conclusions With the exception of fitness at 6 months, weight loss, physical activity and diet did not differ between juvenile onset and adult onset participants, suggesting that those with juvenile onset obesity are equally responsive to a standard behavioral weight loss intervention in adulthood.

The impact of legal status on romantic relationships has not been adequately explored in the literature. Based on video and phone interviews with 25 undocumented activists from the ages of 18 to 28 years old, this research examines how legal status affects the romantic relationships of undocumented women and men. The hegemony of traditional dating scripts made it difficult for those without legal status to participate. Gender roles were consistent with stereotypical male and female roles in dating, which often attribute more power and responsibility to men. As such, women experienced a slight advantage because traditional notions of courtship did not require them to provide the resources required for dating, such as money or transportation, which in contrast were commonly expected of the men. In contrast, women noted the difficulties of disclosing their legal status and depending on their partners for everyday activities. Additionally, both men and women faced exclusion that inhibited their dating lives, as a direct result of their legal status. This suggests that the impact of legal status may be salient at all stages of family formation and that undocumented young adults are experiencing a distinct phenomenon compared to their documented and native-born peers.

The Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework represents a valuable conceptual tool to systematically integrate existing toxicological knowledge from a mechanistic perspective to facilitate predictions of chemical-induced effects across species. However, its application for decision-making requires the transition from qualitative to quantitative AOP (qAOP). Here we used a fish model and the synthetic glucocorticoid beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) to investigate the role of chemical-specific properties, pharmacokinetics, and internal exposure dynamics in the development of qAOPs. We generated a qAOP network based on drug plasma concentrations and focused on immunodepression, skin androgenisation, disruption of gluconeogenesis and reproductive performance. We showed that internal exposure dynamics and chemical-specific properties influence the development of qAOPs and their predictive power. Comparing the effects of two different glucocorticoids, we highlight how relatively similar in vitro hazard-based indicators can lead to different in vivo risk. This discrepancy can be predicted by their different uptake potential, pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) profiles. We recommend that the development phase of qAOPs should include the application of species-specific uptake and physiologically-based PK/PD models. This integration will significantly enhance the predictive power, enabling a more accurate assessment of the risk and the reliable transferability of qAOPs across chemicals.

Worldwide labor migration has transformed and reshaped various fields of government policy and professional practices. Labor migration is associated with the non-economic social phenomena that scholars have increasingly paid attention to in both sending and receiving destinations. For practitioners in the field of education, medicine, nursing, social work, mental health, public health, and other professional practices, the human face of labor migration migrant workers and their families daily challenges often reveals the human cost of migration behind the image of economic gain and benefits. Migrant workers and their families are facing vexing challenges ranging from basic needs to psychosocial well-being, despite who they are and where they come from. Traditional ways of thinking and knowing cannot address these challenges adequately; rather, established divisions of professions, systems, disciplines, and/or areas of practice might just be the factor that constrains the ability to clearly articulate compelling problems and adds an additional layer of complexity to problem solving. This book focuses on country policies and practices, and draws on theoretical ideas that provide the intellectual basis. In addition, it offers vivid examples of how migrant workers manage to work, pursue economic security, strive and adjust in new communities, define and negotiate self and identity, and seek health and well-being. While the book illuminates shared challenges and experiences for each group of migrant workers (i.e. low-skilled workers, internal migrants and other types of migrating laborers), it also synthesises the intersectionality across all migrant workers, as they remain committed to bettering the lives of their families and communities in their origin countries as well as new host countries and communities. This volume reflects the efforts of interdisciplinary research and collaboration

This edited volume features academic experts using leading policy frameworks to analyze the prominent U.S. public policy issues of the twenty-first century. Readers will learn about the similariti...

Abstract Despite the prominent argument for equal educational opportunity for women in Republic V, commentators frequently question Plato’s sincerity, the quality of the case made, or its significance. Undermining confidence in Plato’s advocacy of female equality are derogatory remarks about women in this and other dialogues. Since we take Plato to be sincere in the argument in Republic V, we reconcile his conclusions there about the equal educational opportunity for women with these seemingly problematic remarks by suggesting that the remarks reflect the interlocutors involved in the dialogue and conventional Athenian prejudices of that time rather than ideas that Plato held to be true. We take seriously the observation of Levin 1996, 14, “in none of those passages in which Plato makes derogatory remarks about women does he use phusis to explain why they behave in the ways of which he is critical.” Hence Plato never suggested that women were by nature limited to the position they occupied socially and politically in 5th or 4th century Athens; he understood the difference between the way they were by convention and the way that they could be, in accordance with their nature, were they to develop their natural capacities through education. We examine carefully Plato’s argument for the equal nature of women in Republic V to defend its viability. The provocation is our not finding in the extensive secondary literature a really detailed treatment of the actual argument and appreciation that it is intended as a sound philosophical argument. We then turn to the devolution schemes in Timaeus 41e–44d and 86b–92c, which again touch on the nature of women and appear to counter the position we attribute to Plato, to show that they are really supportive of our account. Both the Republic and Timaeus limit the natural differences between males and females to body-type. Therefore, even relative physical weakness of women’s bodies does not much problematize for Plato that their natural abilities are equal to those of men, where nature in these contexts means suitability to perform certain functions.

Consumers and businesses have an ethical obligation to do their part to reuse or recycle unwanted items. However, while some consumers and businesses do reuse or recycle e-waste, glass, metal, plastic, paper or textiles, more could be done. Even with environmentalists warning of potential chemical hazards these items produce in landfills, an estimated 85 percent of landfills are filled with unwanted waste. The recycling industry along with local government run media campaigns to raise awareness; however, as a result consumers and businesses may be experiencing information overload which may have a negative impact on consumers ' recycling efforts.

The still photographs incorporate subtle movement, such as wind blowing grass or eyes blinking, that play on repeat through an animated GIF. [...]don't make your readers seasick with too much movement or too many GIFs on the same page.t

The primary purpose of this book is to help students understand the principles of multimedia interface design to develop essential skills. The underlying philosophy of the approach of this text is that concepts are learned and remembered better when learned in a real work environment.

Historians have long recognized Matthew Fontaine Maury as an important if controversial figure in the histories of science and of maritime and naval affairs. These assessments, however, rest on scholarship that is by now more than a half-century old. It is therefore appropriate to look at Maury’s significance from fresh perspectives, incorporating recent historiographical trends in the history of science and cartography, environmental history, cultural history and military history. This article focuses on the ways in which Maury’s cartographic work reframed mariners’ understanding of the marine environment away from what he perceived to be a watery wilderness towards an ordered environment safe and favourable to American commerce. Maury was long known as ‘The Pathfinder of the Seas’, but I argue that his significance, in fact, lies in the ways he and his staff at the Naval Observatory organized the sea as a ‘common highway’, tracing paths, but also imposing narratives and constructing new meanings. Maury’s tool was the nautical chart and, particularly, his Wind and Current Charts series that by the 1850s reimagined the ways mariners, navigators and naval officers understood and harnessed the ocean environment. The article briefly considers these charts from three perspectives – method, process and representation – in order to see the ways in which Maury was pushing the boundaries of the cartographic medium to usher in revolutionary ways of envisioning the ocean environment. By quantifying winds, symbolizing whales and infusing the sea with ship tracks, among other things, Maury was imposing potent, if sometimes flawed, new ways of understanding and imagining the sea that were central to American maritime expansion in the antebellum era. In this and other ways, we can see Maury anew, a figure central to the growth of American commercial empire and to new ways of understanding and thinking about the sea.

The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) was the first Islamic dynasty. Muʿawiya ibn Abi Sufyan established himself as caliph in Damascus after his victory over ʿAli ibn Abi Talib in the civil war that followed the murder of ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan in Medina. Muʿawiya and his successors expanded the territory under Muslim rule dramatically. At their peak, the Umayyads ruled an empire stretching from Spain to the frontiers of China and India. The Umayyads made significant contributions to the development of the Islamic faith and to the spread of the Arabic language throughout the region. Dynastic crises, revenue shortfalls, and the limitations of an empire based on conquest ultimately led to their demise at the hands of the Abbasids in 750.

Authors: Dr. Sharon P. Misasi*, Dr. Gary Morin and Lauren Kwasnowski Dr. Sharon P. Misasi is a Professor of Exercise Science at Southern Connecticut State University. Dr. Gary Morin is a Professor of Exercise Science, Assistant Athletic Trainer and Program Director of the Athletic Training Education Program. Lauren Kwasnowski is a Research assistant for this

The purpose of this book is to highlight the efforts of the members of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) to prepare Scholarly Practitioners in the field of education leadership. The volume is edited by Jill Alexa Perry, Executive Director of CPED, a consortium of 86 schools of education in the US, Canada and New Zealand. CPED is a collaboration of faculty working together since 2007 to re‐envision professional practice preparation in education. Contributing authors include faculty and graduates from CPED‐influenced programs. Faculty members highlight the need to rethink and strengthen all aspects of doctoral level preparation for practitioners, the expanded and enhanced role of research, inquiry and the dissertation in practice, and discuss the implications these changes have on university schools of education. Students and graduates, who face pressing educational issues in their daily lives, reflect on the impact their EdD program has had on their professional practice.

We test whether commonly used measures of agglomeration economies encourage new firm entry in both urban and rural markets. Using new firm location decisions in Iowa and North Carolina, we find that measured agglomeration economies increase the probability of new firm entry in both urban and rural areas. Firms are more likely to locate in markets with an existing cluster of firms in the same industry, with greater concentrations of upstream suppliers or downstream customers, and with a larger proportion of college-educated workers in the local labor supply. Firms are less likely to enter markets with no incumbent firms in the sector or where production is concentrated in relatively few sectors. The same factors encourage both stand-alone start-ups and establishments built by multiplant firms. Commuting decisions exhibit the same pattern as new firm entry with workers commuting from low to high agglomeration markets. Because agglomeration economies are important for rural firm entry also, policies encouraging new firm entry should focus on relatively few job centers rather than encouraging new firm entry in every small town.

Existing studies provide mixed evidence that the U.S. macroeconomic news impacts international stock prices. We believe this may be related to the fact that economic surprises may not capture how investors interpret macroeconomic releases in various economic conditions. Consequently, we follow Birz and Lott (2011) and use newspaper coverage of economic releases as a measure of news. We argue that in addition to capturing the surprise component of macroeconomic releases, newspaper coverage provide interpretation of these releases similarly to how investors may interpret them in various economic conditions. Out of 15 examined international stock markets, we find that the U.S. macroeconomic news impacts stock returns of 12 countries.

This article details the second cycle of cooperative inquiry undertaken by emerging educators who self-identify as "other" because of gender, language, ethnicity, and/or sexual orientation. The current cycle focuses on the impact participation in cooperative inquiry had on researchers' teaching practices. Data sources include transcripts of group discussions and reflective writing completed six months, eighteen months, and two years after the completion of the first cycle of cooperative inquiry. Findings suggest that as a result of engagement in cooperative inquiry, the teacher/researchers established practices to decrease isolation, build unity, and understand students' backgrounds. Teacher/researchers viewed themselves as advocates for diversity within the classroom, took a collaborative approach to teaching, and came to see research as an essential element of effective teaching.

In this age of technology, building quality software is essential to competing in the business market. One of the major principles required for any quality and business software product for value fulfillment is reliability. Estimating software reliability early during the software development life cycle saves time and money as it prevents spending larger sums fixing a defective software product after deployment. The Software Reliability Growth Model (SRGM) can be used to predict the number of failures that may be encountered during the software testing process. In this paper we explore the advantages of the Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) algorithm in estimating the SRGM’s parameters with the objective of minimizing the difference between the estimated and the actual number of failures of the software system. We evaluated three different software reliability growth models: the Exponential Model (EXPM), the Power Model (POWM) and the Delayed S-Shaped Model (DSSM). In addition, we used three different datasets to conduct an experimental study in order to show the effectiveness of our approach.