Showing papers by "Boston College published in 1981"

Altruism, volunteers, and volunteerism

Abstract: Which public and private policies we deem appropriate to foster volunteering in the public interest is determined by our view of the motives of volunteers and the basic nature of volunteering. This paper examines research results from several disciplines and fields of volunteering to conclude that it is a mistake to view volunteers as principally altruistic. Rather, it argues, volunteering is essentially an instrumental (though not necessarily selfish) activity, done to achieve ends which the volunteer finds rewarding. The policy implications of this view are explored.

Accelerating Inflation, Technological Innovation, and the Decreasing Effectiveness of Banking Regulation

Abstract: To explain the evolution of U.S. deposit institutions and markets in the 1960sand 1970s, we feed into the regulatory dialectic assumptions about the objectives of federal banking regulation and about outside forces that disturb the adjustment process. The disturbing exogenous forces are accelerating change in the technological and market environment of commercial banking and increasing uncertainty concerning the future speed of enviromental change. We hypothesize that, in the face of these environmental changes, the adaptive efficiency shown on average by deposit-institution managers is greater than that shown by managers of the several competing banking agencies. Incorporating this differential adaptive capacity into the regulatory dialectic helps us to understand how increases in the pace of environmental change and in the degree of environmental uncertainty led regulatee responses to come more quickly and regulatory responses to come more slowly. The bottom line is that, when the environment changes rapidly and becomes more uncertain, traditional forms of U.S. banking regulation can be overwhelmed by technological and regulation-induced innovation.

The effect of calcium on the first meiotic division of the mammalian oocyte.

Abstract: In the mammalian ovary, fully grown oocytes are arrested at the diplotene stage of the first meiotic division. While oocytes in vivo resume meiosis only in response to a preovulatory surge of gonadotropic hormones, oocytes isolated from the ovaries and cultured in vitro will spontaneously resume meiosis. Both in vivo and in vitro, meiotic maturation proceeds through the extrusion of the first polar body, where it is again arrested until fertilization. We have used the spontaneous, in vitro maturation of the mouse oocyte to examine the role of calcium in germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) and polar body extrusion. In calcium-free medium or in the presence of concentrations of lanthanum greater than 0.5 mM, the oocytes degenerate rapidly. However, there does not appear to be any effect upon maturation that can be distinguished from a general toxicity of these media. In contrast, two treatments that are known to inhibit transmembrane calcium movements, verapamil and tetracaine each, individually, inhibit polar body formation. They have no effect on GVBD. In addition, oocytes cultured in media containing a higher calcium concentration than control media (greater than 10 mM versus 1.71 mM) show a significantly higher percentage of polar body formation. We conclude that, in these culture conditions, extracellular calcium is not required for GVBD but is required for the completion of the first meiotic division of a mammalian oocyte.

Reduction of Tumorigenicity and of Dihydrodiol Formation by Fluorine Substitution in the Angular Rings of Dibenzo(a,i)pyrene

Abstract: The tumor-initiating activities on mouse skin and in vitro metabolism of dibenzo( a,i )pyrene, 2-fluorodibenzo( a,i )pyrene, 3-fluorodibenzo( a,i )pyrene, and 2,10-difluorodibenzo( a,i )pyrene were compared. After an initiating dose of 500 µg, followed by promotion with tetradecanoylphorbol acetate, dibenzo( a,i )pyrene induced skin tumors in 85% of the mice and caused 5.8 skin tumors/mouse. The corresponding tumorigenic activities for the fluorinated compounds were: 2-fluorodibenzo( a,i )pyrene (85%; 1.7 tumors/mouse); 3-fluorodibenzo( a,i )pyrene (80%; 3.1 tumors/mouse); and 2,10-difluorodibenzo( a,i )pyrene (10%; 0.1 tumors/mouse). After an initiating dose of 100 µg, only dibenzo( a,i )pyrene showed significant tumor-initiating activity. 3,4-Dihydro-3,4-dihydroxydibenzo( a,i )pyrene was identified as a metabolite of dibenzo( a,i )pyrene formed by the 9000 × g supernatant from the livers of Aroclor 1254-pretreated rats. Another dihydrodiol was tentatively identified as 1,2-dihydro-1,2-dihydroxydibenzo( a,i )pyrene. The formation of these angular ring dihydrodiols was inhibited in the metabolism of 2-fluorodibenzo( a,i )pyrene and 3-fluorodibenzo( a,i )pyrene. Angular ring dihydrodiols were not detected in the metabolism of 2,10-difluorodibenzo( a,i )pyrene. These results suggest that an angular ring dihydrodiol, 3,4-dihydro-3,4-dihydroxydibenzo( a,i )pyrene, which can form a bay-region dihydrodiol epoxide, may be a proximate carcinogen of dibenzo( a,i )pyrene.

The Cults and the Legend of Oedipus

Abstract: The relation of the cults to the legend of Oedipus has been studied only for the purpose of showing the priority of one or the other. The reconstruction requires in the first place a demonstration of the independence of the cultic Oedipus from the Oedipus of poetry. The wandering of Oedipus is, of course, a part of the legend. It belongs to the narrative concerning Oedipus as distinguished from the cult of Oedipus. In literature, the name Oedipus is always explained by the mutilation of feet, i.e., in the narrative, the name follows the mutilation. In the case of Trophonius, Epikaste / Iocaste and Demeter serve the same function, and yet, as in the case of Oedipus, the legend of Trophonius has nothing to do with Demeter. The name Oedipus, which, like the name Melampus, is explained by an exposure story, is appropriate to a figure associated in cult with Demeter.

Monoids of upper triangular boolean matrices

Abstract: We study the variety W generated by monoids of upper-triangular boolean matrices. First, we present W as a natural extension of the variety J of finite J-trivial monoids and we give a description of the family of recognizable languages whose syntactic monoids are in W. Then we show that W can be described in terms of the generalized Schutzenberger product of finite monoids. We also show that W is generated by the power monoids of members of J. Finally we consider the membership problem for W and the connection with the dot-depth hierarchy in language theory. Although the majority of our results are purely "semigroup-theoretic" we use recognizable languages constantly in the proofs.

The effects of auditorally augmented feedback on the eye-hand coordination of students with cerebral palsy.

Abstract: To explore the question of whether auditorally augmented feedback can improve the eye-hand coordination of individuals with cerebral palsy, 59 (cerebral-palsied) students (mean chronological age 14 years, 3 months) were pretested with the Southern California Motor Accuracy Test and then randomly assigned to three groups. Group 1 performed training exercises-tracing line drawings-while simultaneously receiving auditorally augmented feedback about their efforts. Group 2 performed the same training exercises without the augmented feedback. Group 3 served as controls. All subjects were post-tested with the Southern California Motor Accuracy Test, followed by a second post-test after a 3-month interval. At the first post-test, the performance of the feedback group was significantly superior to that of the other groups. At the second post-test, the performance patterns among the groups were essentially the same as the time of the first post-test, but between-group differences were no longer significant. The results of this study are discussed in both empirical and theoretical terms.

Secular Patterns in Corporate Finance

Abstract: Trends in the financing of the corporate sector have been widely discussed in both business and academic circles. It is frequently argued, for example, that corporations' use of debt financing has increased dramatically in recent years. These discussions have been hampered, however, by the lack of a unified theoretical framework. In this paper, an attempt is made to develop such a framework using existing corporate finance theory and some extensions thereof. This theory is then used to interpret available data on aggregate corporate financing patterns over the course of the twentieth century. It is found that corporations' use of debt has undeniably increased in the post-World War II period. Nevertheless, the relative corporate debt level was unusually low in the 1940's and current debt levels are not unprecedented when viewed in the context of the entire century. The tax system, in conjunction with inflation, has probably played an important role in the postwar increases in corporate debt, but these factors appear insufficient to explain longer-term trends. It is argued, then, that supplies of competing securities, such as federal government bonds, as well as the secular development of the financial intermediary system, may also be important determinants of long-run corporate financing patterns.

Teleology, Utilitarianism, and Christian Ethics

Abstract: Le reexamen des normes morales dans le catholicisme contemporain. Accent mis sur la teleologie de Richard McCormick.

Comments on Klosterman's "Contemporary Planning Theory Education: Results of a Course Survey"

Abstract: Klosterman’s survey largely provides us with a set of documents that a &dquo;planning theory&dquo; instructor carries mto his class room on the first day the class meets. The documents contain outlines and schedules for the course, expected assignments (usually term papers), and a list of literature to be read. They, in effect, are the demces that shape attention and set the agenda for the learning processes that follow (Forester 1980). Of course,

Coordinating market and evaluation research on the Admissions rating process

Abstract: A research program is suggested that integrates Admissions procedures and methods of statistical analysis to study the first stage of the Admissions selection process: the rating of applicants. To form the base for evaluation research, a systematic procedure is described that provides an index of applicant “quality” in the light of institutional goals. Then the rating process itself is explored using a Path Model to measure the contributions of background and achieved characteristics of applicants to their rating. How questions of bias may be raised and pursued is discussed. Applicants are profiled in segments to show how the effects of policy adjustments may be monitored. For doing marketing research, quality-by-enrollment status segments are defined. Using factor analysis models, an analysis of image variance is applied. Next, a discriminant analysis is used to isolate those institutional attributes that most influence higher quality applicants to enroll. Some specifics of a differentiated policy are given in examples. Implications of this integrated approach are discussed.

Work, careers, and aging

Abstract: This article relates the literature on work and profession to that on aging as a life-long process. The authors maintain that meanings attached to chronological age arise, in large measure, out of the work experience. An individual's career frames expectations about what he/she should be doing at different ages and thus serves as a yardstick against which to measure life process. Five stages of the work career are identified: (1) preparation and exploration, (2) learning the ropes, (3) coming to grips, (4) settling in, and (5) exiting.

Possible correlation of Precambrian rocks of Newport, Rhode Island, with those of Anglesey, Wales

Abstract: The bedded succession in Newport, Rhode Island, consists of the metavolcanic Price9s Neck formation and the older metasedimentary Newport formation. The Newport formation consists of turbidites, sandstone and conglomerate, slate, phyllite, bedded ash, and olistostromes. The Price9s Neck formation consists of agglomeratic breccia, conglomerate, coarse to fine tuff, and graded tuffite merging into tuffaceous sedimentary rock. Both sequences have been affected by two principal fold-generating deformations. The Price9s Neck formation was first folded into upright to overturned folds (F 1 ), whereas the Newport formation was folded into overturned to recumbent folds. In the Price9s Neck formation, the F 1 folds trend east-west to north-northeast-south-southwest, Whereas the F 2 folds trend approximately east-west. In the main outcrop area the F 1 folds in the Newport formation are dominantly north-south trending, are strongly overturned toward the east, and in the west are recumbent and subisoclinal to isoclinal. The second deformation produced a low-lying cleavage and relatively small folds that verge toward the east. The difference in the style of folding is attributed to ductility contrast between the rocks of the two stratigraphic sequences. The Newport granite, which intrudes the Price9s Neck and Newport formations, has a metamorphic aureole. The granite was emplaced prior to the F 2 movements but after the F 1 movements. The succession therefore is late Precambrian in age, because the granite is about 600 m.y. old. The deformation of the sediments may be attributed to the “Avalonian orogeny” that is manifested in Anglesey, Wales, and northern France as the Cadomian. There are strong similarities between Anglesey and Newport in lithologies, stratigraphic succession, and plutonic history.

On Proving the Correctness of Optimizing Transformations in a Digital Design Automation System

Abstract: As part of our research for the Carnegie-Mellon University Design Automation System, we have been investigating methods for proving that the system produces correct designs from correct specifications. This paper presents a mathematical model of the behavior of hardware descriptions which has been used to prove that some of the optimizing transformations applied to abstract hardware descriptions in the system preserve behavioral equivalence. The model goes beyond the usual computational models used in program verification in that it takes into account the proper sequencing of "events" which represent interactions with the environment.