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Prior to 2009, a mid-sized public institution in the southeast had a faculty-driven honor policy characterized by little education about the policy and no tracking of repeat offenders. An updated code, implemented in August of 2009, required that students sign an honor pledge, created a formal student honor board, and developed a process to track and hold accountable, repeat offenders. Self-reported data on faculty vigilance to detect and punish cheating is collected both prior to and after a change in the honor code at a mid-sized public institution in the southeast. We find that, at the time of the first survey, full professors and faculty with a longer duration of employment were more likely to claim vigilance in cheating detection and harshness in punishing cheaters than newer, untenured faculty. The relationship between these factors and detection and harshness diminished when the honor code was enhanced.

In this teaching note, the authors use an iconic London building, the Gherkin, as a motivation to understand exchange rates, cross exchange rates, and unhedged exchange rate risk. The famous tower was constructed in the early 2000s by Swiss Re, an insurance company, and then sold to investors as part of a sale-leaseback deal in early 2007. Unfortunately, the purchase was funded by a consortium of lenders using multiple currencies and leaving owners open to exchange rate risk. While partially hedging interest payments, the owners did not hedge the loans' principal and ultimately loan-to-value limits caused the building to fall into bankruptcy despite being fully leased. Hopefully the storyline piques student interest and promotes a better understanding of a topic that frequently challenges students.

University students' latent attitudes toward capitalism were quantified and used to predict self-reported cheating behaviors. Results suggest that the relationship between student academic dishonesty and attitudes toward capitalism are complex. Students indicating a strong degree of risk aversion are less likely to report cheating behaviors. Students demonstrating a preference for equality over efficiency, while no more likely to be cheaters, may cheat more often. Efficiency-minded students do not appear to be more likely to cheat, but may engage in fewer instances of cheating. Implications for curriculum development in economics and business programs are discussed.

There are indications in the literature that the devolatilization of some polymers, particularly polyethylene, can be enhanced by the addition of water, generally in the form of steam. In this study three different experimental methods were used with three different solvent-polyethylene systems to evaluate this effect. The results indicated that no measureable differences were found in either the solubility or the diffusivity of the systems between the dry or wet polymer samples., INTRODUCTION This article is devoted to analyzing the effect of water on the removal of the residual monomer and solvent used during the polymerization of ethylene in order to define [...]

Introduction: HIV pre‐exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) involves the use of antiretroviral medication in HIV‐negative individuals considered to be at risk of acquiring HIV. It has been shown to prevent HIV and has been available in Wales since July 2017. Measuring and understanding adherence to PrEP is complex as it relies on the simultaneous understanding of both PrEP use and sexual activity. We aimed to understand the experiences of men who have sex with men (MSM) living in Wales initiating, implementing and persisting with HIV PrEP. Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with MSM PrEP users in Wales who participated in a cohort study of PrEP use and sexual behaviour. Following completion of the cohort study, participants were invited to take part in a semistructured interview about their experiences of taking PrEP. We aimed to include both individuals who had persisted with and discontinued PrEP during the study. The interview topic guide was informed by the ABC taxonomy for medication adherence and the theory of planned behaviour. We analysed our data using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Twenty‐one participants were interviewed, five having discontinued PrEP during the cohort study. The developed themes focused on triggers for initiating PrEP, habitual behaviour, drivers for discontinuation and engagement with sexual health services. Stigma surrounding both PrEP and HIV permeated most topics, acting as a driver for initiating PrEP, an opportunity to reduce discrimination against people living with HIV, but also a concern around the perception of PrEP users. Conclusion: This is the first study to investigate PrEP‐taking experiences incorporating established medication adherence taxonomy. We highlight key experiences regarding the initiation, implementation and persistence with PrEP and describe how taking PrEP may promote positive engagement with sexual health services. These findings may be useful for informing PrEP rollout programmes and need to be explored in other key populations. Patient and Public Contribution: PrEP users, in addition to PrEP providers and representatives of HIV advocacy and policy, were involved in developing the topic guide for this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was introduced in Sexual Health Services of the Welsh National Health Service (NHS Wales) in July 2017 as a 3-year pilot service.Methods: Data were collected through the pre-existing Sexual Health in Wales Surveillance System, to which codes were added to capture PrEP eligibility, outcome of offer of PrEP, reasons for declining and adherence. Eligibility categories were defined based on nationally agreed criteria: men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people at high risk of HIV acquisition; partners of HIV-positive individuals not known to be virally suppressed; and heterosexuals reporting condomless intercourse with a HIV-positive individual not known to be virally suppressed.Results: During the first 6 months, 516 people were eligible, 96% of which were MSM. Overall, 57% of those eligible (296/516) started PrEP. Reasons for declining PrEP were given by 88 (56%) of 157 people; 50 (57%) of whom did not believe themselves to be at risk. Of the available adherence assessments, 89% considered that all risk episodes had been covered. Persistence at 3 months was assessed for 141 people, of which 93 (66%) were still using PrEP. There were no HIV diagnoses in people taking PrEP during the first 6 months. Twenty-nine people were diagnosed with 37 episodes of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) while on PrEP. STI incidence was 105.7 per 100 person-years.Conclusions: The early trend indicates that implementation of PrEP is progressing as planned, and the service has been utilised by clients. This analysis can help refine implementation, inform planning and research around uptake, use and effect in Wales and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incentive packages are popular tools for economic development. However, development projects are often considered in isolation without an analysis of opportunity costs. In this study, we use an intuitive framework for comparing projects and weigh alternate projects against North Carolina's film incentive programme. The results indicate that there are substantial differences in the economic impact of the projects we consider in this study. Our results suggest that policy decisions by governments and economic development officials should weigh a potential project against alternative uses in order to optimize the use of incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the propensity for academic dishonesty by university students using the partitioning method of decision tree analysis. A set of prediction rules are presented, and conclusions are drawn. To provide context for the decision tree approach, the partition process is compared with results of more traditional probit regression models. Results of the decision tree analysis complement the probit models in terms of predictive accuracy and confirm results previously found in the literature. In particular, students' moral character--whether they believe cheating is acceptable--is found to be the most important factor in determining the propensity for academic dishonesty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies suggest that there is a statistically significant, positive relationship between education expenditures and economic growth in the U.S. states and among developed countries. Conversely, some literature suggests that there is no link between education spending and economic growth. There are several explanations given for the lack of a link between spending and growth including higher levels of taxation dampening growth, spending on administration instead of teaching, and poor student-teacher ratios. Our analysis of county level expenditures and demographics finds that it is not the expenditures that matter but the educational attainment level of the workforce. While a locally provided high school degree is still important, it is no longer an end but a means toward attaining a college degree, potentially obtained outside the jurisdiction. These results imply that local development officials must do more than spend on primary and secondary education; they must attract and/or retain college educated individuals as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local jurisdictions across the country continue to adopt alternative financing options, although the effects of these remain uncertain. There are two views of impact fees: (a) an old view, that fees are a tax on development increasing prices and reducing quantity and (b) a new view, that fees provide services and reduce future taxes, thus increasing demand and prices. The research presented in this study, based on data from Florida counties, finds that the relationship between fees on commercial development and fees on employment differs across different categories of economic activity. The use of fees is positively related to service-sector employment growth and negatively related to manufacturing employment growth. This result suggests that different sectors realize different levels of benefits from infrastructure provided through fee revenue and that policy decisions based on total employment may suffer from overaggregations and lead to unintended consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to 2009, a mid-sized public institution in the southeast had a faculty-driven honor policy characterized by little education about the policy and no tracking of repeat offenders. An updated code, implemented in August of 2009, required that students sign an honor pledge, created a formal student honor board, and developed a process to track and hold accountable, repeat offenders. Self-reported data on faculty vigilance to detect and punish cheating is collected both prior to and after a change in the honor code at a mid-sized public institution in the southeast. We find that, at the time of the first survey, full professors and faculty with a longer duration of employment were more likely to claim vigilance in cheating detection and harshness in punishing cheaters than newer, untenured faculty. The relationship between these factors and detection and harshness diminished when the honor code was enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The independence of central banks is an important feature of a properly functioning and stable monetary system. The structure of the Federal Reserve is designed to minimize political influence and insulate policy makers from political pressure. Nevertheless, members of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee are members of society and informed about public opinion, potentially opening them to political bias, even if unintentional. This article uses a Taylor rule structure to examine changes in the Fed’s reaction function to unemployment and inflation under different political administrations and chairman. Preliminary results show that the Fed is more responsive to the output gap under Republican presidential administrations and sets the Federal Funds Rate at a lower level under Republican administrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the many possible composition combinations possible for copolymers there is a critical need to develop methods of predicting the properties of these materials. This paper examines the applicability of popular, current vapor–liquid equilibria prediction models in characterizing the solubility of solvents in copolymers. In some cases anomalous behavior is observed where the solubility of the solvent in the copolymer is greater than or less than in either of the composite homopolymers. Two popular UNIFAC models and the group-contribution, lattice-fluid equation of state (GCLF-EoS) have been evaluated for this application. In general the UNIFAC models showed a better capability than the GCLF-EoS. There is a need for more sophisticated methods for predicting the complex interactions that can be present in copolymer systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents a study that examined the effects of carbon dioxide and ethylene on the solubility and diffusivity of a number of solvents in poly(vinyl acetate) and poly(styrene). The researchers found that in general, the solubilities are reduced by the presence of the soluble gases, while the diffusivity is significantly increased. They concluded that replacing noninteracting gases such as air or nitrogen with soluble gases can lessen solvent removal times and increase production rates.