Up to today, economic policy and literature have shared the goal of maximising growth. New strands of economics, however, have emerged, setting themselves a new objective: the promotion of happiness. This paper follows this new emerging view and focuses on one of many aspects that may influence people’s happiness and that is religion. Why religion? Because it is a topic that spans all cultures and continents, regardless of political and economic structures. This feature makes religion a useful tool to find common traits in the truly globalised world of today. Currently, it is also an evolving topic. Indeed, while the West tends towards increased levels of secularity and the Middle East becomes more religious, understanding the effect of faith on happiness is increasingly interesting for researchers while necessary for policymakers. This paper uses the World Values Survey to extract the impact of religion on happiness by controlling for other factors such as religious denomination, region, gender, health and income. In contrast to the predominant literature, religion seems not to have an effect on happiness if not very mildly through the social bonds it promotes. This goes against the conviction of many religious groups and governments that justify the use of religion and religious laws by invoking the promotion of happiness in life. However, it says nothing about other values or feelings religion might promote, outside happiness. This paper should prove useful in striving to boost social wellbeing in Welfare economics, which, according to the results, should not be through religion.

Financial incentives have been used in promoting physical activity; however their long-run effect is not always evident. Pre-committing individuals through deposits, where their money is returned once they achieve their target, is a solution that emerges from Behavioural Economics and aims for longer-term effects. The major explanation for deposits’ effectiveness comes from Prospect Theory: the fact that individuals evaluate outcomes as gains/losses relative to a reference point and tend to dislike losing more than they like winning. Self-reported data obtained from 206 Warwick Economics penultimate year students is used for analysis. Each student randomly received a questionnaire during a Macroeconomics lecture with either the financial incentive or deposit scenario, followed by scenario-based questions. Forty-two students were in the control group thus they did not face any scenario-based questions. A pilot study, prior to the actual experiment, tested the clarity of the questions. The aim of this project is to examine whether deposits are more effective than financial incentives in increasing undergraduates’ probability of moving towards their weekly target hours of physical activity. The results show that deposits can indeed be more successful; however low-incentive levels might have a dis-incentivising effect. Heterogeneous effects among the sample population are also tested based on different time and money constraints. Contribution to existing literature includes testing for physical activity, which is a broader term than gym attendance. Also this project focuses on undergraduates’ behaviour, which is more flexible compared to older adults; a distinction that could be useful in policies.

Directly translated, Schizophrenia is defined as the condition of a “split mind” seeing a break in reality presented by positive and negative symptoms, making this disorder extremely complex. It has been debated that Schizophrenic origins alternate between the controversial ideas of what constitutes the brain and the mind with vast amounts of empirical research substantiating the possibilities for physiological causes. Such causes ascertain that physiology may perpetuate psychopathological processes within schizophrenic individuals. It has been seen that the Schizophrenic mind struggles to relate to its own intentions and executions of behaviour, which is related to the inability to adhere to “The Theory of The Mind”. It follows that this theory provides substantial groundwork in explaining how the Schizophrenic mind perceives its own reality and how distorted perceptions of what is constituted as “normal” behaviour may eventually lead to violence. The link between mental illness and crime is fairly substantiated, although the occurrence of Schizophrenic violence is not as frequently recorded. Within judicial systems, Schizophrenia is not considered a unique defence due to its perceived infrequent occurrence within criminal cases and its lack of detection within initial diagnosis. Although some truth resides here, schizophrenic symptoms may present as violently as their counter parts and therefore calls for the re-consideration of this complex disorder as a unique defence, aiming to fairly convict those suffering from a broken mind.

Bike sharing schemes have become increasingly prominent in cities and towns around the world, which is why aggregate demand for the service needs to be understood by policy makers and operators.

While some academics tried to establish the likelihood of using a bike (Buck and Buehler, 2011), not much research has been conducted on what determines overall demand and capacity utilisation of bike sharing schemes. Wei et al. (2013) examine determinants affecting a range of travel modes in Ohio, including bikes (but not bike sharing). However, as different regions and terrains influence the propensity to use bike sharing, their results may not be applicable to Washington D.C.

This study uses cross-sectional techniques to analyse the determinants of Washington DC’s ‘Capital BikeShare’ service. Making use of an hourly data set on a ‘Capital BikeShare’, this essay concludes that bad weather, wind, low temperatures, and humidity all influence demand negatively. The results identify two groups of users: ‘registered’ and ‘casual’, who differ in the bike usage during peak hours, holidays and weekends.

In conclusion certain climatic determinants do seem to have a significant effect on bike sharing demand and this could be used when setting up new bike sharing scheme in a city with similar climatic conditions. The difference in peak hour usage between the registered and casual users shows that in order to maximise capacity utilisation, the bike sharing schemes should try to reallocate some demand from peak hours to the midday.

The study of disability within ancient cultures is one which is woefully underappreciated within Classical Civilisations. Given the low levels of sanitation, constant war efforts and rudimental medical knowledge, a vast proportion of the Greek populace must have experienced disability in some form throughout their lives, be it through lameness, blindness, gangrene or loss of limb, the list is endless. Yet despite this, the voices of the disabled in ancient cultures have thus far been ignored. My research will change this.

My research is looking at how service-learning facilitates changes in self-efficacy amongst high school students from low-income backgrounds. Service-learning as defined by Jacoby (1998) is “A form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development. Reflection and reciprocity are key concepts of service-learning� (pg. 5).

I am using a NYC-based youth development organization, Global Potential, that works with high school students from low-income communities. The program is divided into three distinct phases: preparation, immersion and integration. The second phase consists of a summer immersion in service-learning, which is done either abroad in a developing country or locally within neighborhoods around New York.

I am measuring changes over time in their self-efficacy and comparing the local and international summer programs to examine if engaging in cross-cultural service work changes how it is affected. In addition to the difference in summer program engagement, I am comparing results with youth participation in voluntary activities throughout the course of the year including a youth-led weekend conference, and on-going cultural events and community service activities. To obtain quantitative information, I am using four standardized assessment tools. To measure qualitatively, I am conducting interviews with participants, teachers, parents, and program staff. I will do assessments at the beginning of the program in January, upon conclusion of the local and international service programs, and at the end of the calendar year.

This paper explores the perception of gender among parents of children living with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia in order to better understand the ways in which socio-cultural constructions of gender influence medical diagnosis, health care, and parenting. Through strategies of purposive and convenience sampling, data were derived from semi-structured interviews with parents of children with classical CAH and a survey of 19 parents of children with various types and degrees of the disorder. The analysis was supplemented by an extensive interview with a pediatric endocrinologist specializing in CAH. Responses to multiple-choice survey questions were converted into statistics to gauge the range of experiences within each category. Responses to open-ended questions were analyzed using a grounded theory method to contextualize responses and identify salient themes. Findings suggested that treatment and surgical intervention provide a means to attaining social normalcy while simultaneously providing a discursive space where parents reinforce or redefine their conceptions of gender. Part of this process manifests in the acceptance of or resistance to authoritative medical categories. By attempting to center the experiences of parents to see how socio-cultural perceptions of gender affect the parenting, diagnosis, health care, and ultimately, the life of people living with CAH, this study contributes to an established but still emerging research agenda examining the complex dimensions of gender as it relates to CAH.

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of FFP (Financial Fair Play) on reducing debt and expenditure on Champions League club transfer fees in the English Premier League (EPL). No other studies have examined this due to the policy only being implemented recently. The period of 2008-2014 allows for the examination in three distinct periods: i) before the announcement of FFP in 2008, ii) during 2009-11 which is after announcement but prior to the implementation of FFP, and iii) the period after FFP was introduced in 2011. Results Pooled OLS and Fixed Effects regressions are used to analyse the differing transfer values between each period. A unique database containing information about every player transfer either to or from an EPL club was developed for this study. This includes information from Scout7 (a database which 90% of EPL clubs use) which allows for more variables and greater accuracy during analysis, compared to previous studies regarding transfer fee analysis. This paper finds that FFP has been ineffective on reducing the transfer fees of Champions League clubs and suggests new policy measures and potential avenues for future research into the subject area.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), is responsible for securing the border between U.S. ports of entry and has divided the 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico among nine Border Patrol sectors. CBP reported spending about $3 billion to support Border Patrol's efforts on the southwest border in fiscal year 2010 alone, and apprehending over 445,000 illegal entries and seizing over 2.4 million pounds of marijuana. The number of border patrol officers has been increased but because of the limitation of patrolling personnel and budget, it is critical to allocate resources appropriately. The goal of this project is to optimize border patrol routes. The infiltrators' goal is to enter US successfully while patrols intend to capture infiltrators to prevent illegal cross-border activities. Students will develop various models with the objective to find optimal routes and patrolling patterns for the optimal border protection.

A concussion is defined as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) caused by an external force resulting from a direct or indirect impact transmitted to the head. Concussions present a wide range of clinical signs and symptoms impacting both neurocognitive (e.g., working memory) and neuromotor (e.g., balance control) performance that can have an immediate and long-term impact on sport participation in males and females. However, the majority of concussion research to date has focused on males. There is little research on concussion rates and symptoms in female athletes and previous research has suggested that female athletes may experience more concussions that are stronger and prolonged relative to males. The goal of this project is to analyze neurocognitive and neuromotor performance data in female football players and compare them to published male values to determine if sex differences exist. Data from 30 female athletes participating in the Independent Women’s Football League (a tackle football league that uses the same rules as the NFL) were collected prior to their 2015 season. Data to be examined for this abstract include the trail making test (a measure of neurocognitive performance) and the balance error scoring system (a measure of neuromotor performance). All data will be compared to male normative values using paired-samples t-tests (p<.05) to determine if sex differences exist prior to a contact sport season.

Studies have shown that having to vocally repeat a distraction task while trying to memorise a set of stimuli, known as articulatory suppression, blocks your capacity to sub-vocally rehearse to-be-learned stimuli, thus decreasing recall accuracy. On top of this, the cognitive load of a stimulus, such as its quantity or the amount of attention it requires, can impede your working memory. Our aim was to see if the higher cognitive demands of a concurrent task would decrease recall accuracy more than a simple concurrent task. 24 participants between the ages of 18-21 were asked to memorise seven letters in either a visual or auditory condition, were given either a complex or a simple distraction task for five seconds, and were then asked to recall as many letters as possible. We found that participants performed better in visual memory tasks, due to the absence of the visuospatial sketchpad’s participation in solely auditory memory tasks. Complex concurrent tasks decreased recall accuracy in both the visual and auditory conditions more than simple ones did, due to high cognitive load.