Why aren't more veterinary practices owned or led by women?

The increasing proportion of women among the body of UK veterinary surgeons practicing clinical medicine has been consistently highlighted in RCVS surveys (RCVS 2006, 2010, 2014a). Despite women outnumbering men in clinical practice (57% v 43%) in 2014 (RCVS, 2014a) they do not own veterinary practices or hold practice partnerships or leadership positions in proportions that may be expected, even when adjusting for age and experience (RCVS, 2014b)

Murder, Nonnegligent Manslaughter, and Spatial Autocorrelation in Mid-South Counties

In this paper we explore to what extent murder and violent crime rates in the mid-South are spatially autocorrelated with a variety of county-level spatial association measures. The analysis shows that while statistically the murder and violent crime rates in the mid-Southern counties are spatialy associated, the degree of clustering among these counties is minimal-especially when compared to clustering among the significant predictors of violent crime (percent black, female headed households, percent in poverty, etc.). The analysis has important implications as to how county violent crime rates are being modeled

Industry Structure and Earnings Growth During National Business Cycles in Appalachia

Appalachia is a region that has undergone notable socio-economic change over the last twenty years. This change has produced communities of socio-economic “winners” and “losers.” In this paper, I attempt to understand why some communities \u27won\u27and others \u27lost\u27during this period using an analysis informed by two key sociological theories at the opposite end of the structure-agency continuum (new urban sociology, human ecology). The analysis combines shift-share analysis and the Land-Deane two-stage least squares technique for spatial effects to predict earnings change related to local industry mix and county effects for the following business cycles: 1980-82 recession, 1983-88 recovery, 1989-92 recession. The analysis shows that measures from both theoretical perspectives are important, but neither dominates (unlike in previous analyses). Implications for current/future theory and research are discussed

Racial Differences in Hormonal Contraception Use and Accessibility Among University of South Carolina-Columbia Undergraduate Women

The objective of this study is to see if there are racial disparities in hormonal contraception use amongst USC Columbia undergraduate women, similar to nationwide trends noted in previous studies. This research is important as undesired pregnancies are more prevalent for Black and Hispanic women, and recent legislative changes throughout the nation - and specifically in South Carolina - are challenging abortion rights, thereby increasing the importance of birth control in preventing an undesired pregnancy. Increasing access to hormonal birth control serves to increase body autonomy and a woman’s agency over reproduction, specifically in the face of these current challenges to reproductive rights. A survey of 273 undergraduate women was conducted to determine if a racial disparity existed on hormonal contraception use. Additionally, I investigated the common barriers to hormonal contraceptive access, how students are gaining information on hormonal contraception, and how many legal changes in South Carolina are affecting demand and accessibility of hormonal contraception among USC undergraduate women. Analysis of the data found that there was not a significant difference in hormonal contraception use amongst Black, Hispanic, and Asian students compared to their White peers. However, there were racial differences in how students were gaining information on hormonal contraception, which reveals different avenues for increasing the availability, accuracy, and reliability of resources on the topic. Other findings reveal that these students are open to the newly passed “Pharmacy Access Act” in South Carolina. Surveyed students also have a greater desire for hormonal birth control in the face of abortion restrictions and are concerned about changing legislation that impacts the accessibility of information on abortion, and indirectly birth control, online

Federal Spending and Economic Growth in Appalachian Counties

In this paper I use a model informed by key theories of regional processes, and I test three related hypotheses concerning the effects of different types of federal spending (public investment, defense, salaries/wages) on economic growth in the 399 Appalachian counties during recent business cycles. The analysis incorporates a maximum likelihood estimate spatial lag regression model and shows the federal public investment spending and defense spending exerted net positive effects on per capita income, civilian employment, and private nonfarm employment growth rates between 1983 and 1988. In addition, public investment spending had a positive relationship with percentage of earnings from mining for the 1983-1988 period. Federal spending, however, had less consistent effects during the 1989-1992 recession. Implications for theory and research on regional processes are discussed

Right-to-Work Laws and Local Economic Growth: Recent Evidence from Appalachia

Right-to-work legislation continues to be debated at both the national and state levels. This paper seeks to inform the debate on the effectiveness of RTW laws as an economic development strategy. Using the 399 counties ofAppalachia as a case study, and a model informed by the human ecology and the new urban sociology, this paper compares recent earnings change during the last three business cycles in counties from right-to-work and non right-to-work states in the region. The analysis combines shift-share analysis and spatial lag regression analysis and estimates the relative effects of a variety of measures on county earnings change. The analysis fails to detect any overall advantage in earnings growth from nationally expanding industries for counties in RTW states since 1980. Moreover, the analysis indicates that other factors are more important in stimulating earnings growth from nationally expanding industries, particularly education. Implications for policy and legislative action are discussed

Rat cities and beehive worlds: density and design in the modern city

Nestled among E. M. Forster's careful studies of Edwardian social mores is a short story called "The Machine Stops." Set many years in the future, it is a work of science fiction that imagines all humanity housed in giant high-density cities buried deep below a lifeless surface. With each citizen cocooned in an identical private chamber, all interaction is mediated through the workings of "the Machine," a totalizing social system that controls every aspect of human life. Cultural variety has ceded to rigorous organization: everywhere is the same, everyone lives the same life. So hopelessly reliant is humanity upon the efficient operation of the Machine, that when the system begins to fail there is little the people can do, and so tightly ordered is the system that the failure spreads. At the story's conclusion, the collapse is total, and Forster's closing image offers a condemnation of the world they had built, and a hopeful glimpse of the world that might, in their absence, return: "The whole city was broken like a honeycomb. [⋯] For a moment they saw the nations of the dead, and, before they joined them, scraps of the untainted sky" (2001: 123). In physically breaking apart the city, there is an extent to which Forster is literalizing the device of the broken society, but it is also the case that the infrastructure of the Machine is so inseparable from its social structure that the failure of one causes the failure of the other. The city has-in the vocabulary of present-day engineers-"failed badly.

Socioeconomic Performance in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas during the 1980s

The socioeconomic gap between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas increased during the 1980s. We test three competing explanations for this trend during the 1980s: overdependence on manufacturing, especially in nonmetro labor markets, the emergence of producer services as a catalyst of socioeconomic growth, and federal spending. Using a model that is informed by a variety of perspectives in sociology and economic geography, and commuter zones (CZs) as spatial units of analysis, we estimate the effects of manufacturing concentration, producer service concentration, and federal spending on per capita income, per capita earnings, and private nonfarm employment growth during the 1983-1988 business cycle recovery. The OLS and interaction models show that all three factors help explain why metro areas outperformed nonmetro areas during this time period. The effects of producer service concentration, however, best fit with our expectations. Implications of our findings are discussed

External Ownership and Bank Lending Behavior: Empirical Evidence Using Control Group Methods

As banking systems have become more integrated on both the international and national scales, banks in peripheral regions have been purchased by larger banks headquartered outside those regions. These externally controlled banks allegedly siphon funds from the regions by taking deposits but curtailing their lending activity. Such a practice would retard regional economic development efforts by making it more difficult for local businesses and residents to obtain commercial and industrial loans