Nicholls State University

About: Nicholls State University is a education organization based out in Thibodaux, Louisiana, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & The Internet. The organization has 456 authors who have published 795 publications receiving 20031 citations.

Unstructured Socializing With Peers and Delinquency: The Role of Mediation Through the Lens of Akers’ (1998) Social Structure Social Learning Theory of Crime and Deviance

Abstract: In purview of Akers’ (1998) social structure and social learning (SSSL) theory of crime and deviance, this study explicates the varied processes by which unstructured socializing with peers influences deviance through variables of social learning theory as well as self-control. To examine the proposed processes, data were obtained from 1,354 adjudicated adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 from the juvenile and adult court systems in Maricopa County, Arizona and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Through use of structural equation modeling, partial support was found for the relationship between unstructured socializing with peers and deviance being partially mediated by differential association, definitions, personal rewards of crime, as well as self-control. By better understanding the multifaceted ways adolescents who spend time in settings of unstructured socializing with friends engage in delinquency, society can better understand the leading factors among youth that occur through socialization resulting in delinquency.

Traffic Measurement between Peers in BitTorrent-Like Networks

Abstract: Our understanding for the traffic behaviors on P2P networks is, unfortunately, still incomplete in the sense that the current studies on traffic measurement primarily focus on the traffic in large, and insufficient efforts have been devoted to the investigation of the inter-peer traffic. Toward resolving this issue, we in this paper propose and implement a method for measuring the traffic between any individual peers. Through deploying this measurement method on the PlanetLab platform, traffic data are collected and analyzed in the following aspects: data correctness, Poisson property, traffic self-similarity of individual peers, and traffic self-similarity of the BT system. Results of these analyses suggest that the proposed method is feasible, effective, and can be extended to larger networks.

Productivity differences: the importance of intra-state black-white schooling differences across the United States, 1840-2000

Abstract: Using newly created data containing real output per worker, real physical capital per worker, and human capital per worker for US states from 1840 to 2000, Turner et al (2007) analyze the growth rates of aggregate inputs and total factor productivity (TFP) We continue this line of work by documenting the importance of TFP differences in explaining cross sectional variation in the levels of (log) output We construct plausible upper bounds on the fraction of the variance in output levels that can be explained by TFP and inputs Similar to the growth rate analysis, we find that TFP can, on average, explain nearly 90% of output variance while inputs can explain up to only 50% of output variance We then consider the possibility that one major institutional difference across states, the extent to which blacks were denied access to formal education, might explain TFP differences across states To this end, we generate and present a years of schooling measures, by race, at the state level from 1840 to 2000 While directly exploiting this series has very little impact on the upper bound of the fraction of output variation that can be explained by inputs, we do find that the size of the gap between white and black years of schooling is negatively related to TFP in the period from 1840 to 1950 We also consider the extent to which time-varying rates of return on education alters the upper bound on the fraction of output variation that can be explained by inputs, finding that time-varying rates have little impact Finally, we find some evidence for external effects of higher education and physical capital

A Note on Topological Continuity

Abstract: (II) For every B c Y, f( B) cfl(B). Both of these conditions involve the closure operator. Recently, a student in an undergraduate topology class asked whether or not there exists a set condition equivalent to continuity which involves the interior operator, denoted here by "int". In Bourbaki [1], one may find as an exercise that the function f from X into Y is continuous if and only if the following is true: