A Study of the Impacts of the Panama Canal Expansion on the U.S. Northeast Ports and Strategy of the Port of Boston

When it is completed in 2016, the Panama Canal expansion will increase the trade volume and route from Asia to the United States as well as the competition amongst all U.S. ports, creating economic impacts in several areas. East Coast ports will be affected the most due to investments in harbor expansion projects and rise in cargo traffic and imports. The expansion will provide access for the Post-Panamax ships to the East Coast ports. These ships can increase cargo size from 5,000 up to 13,000 TEU’s (twenty-foot equivalent unit). It is estimated that 20-25% of import traffic will shift to the East Coast (Regional, 2013). Larger ships will be able to travel faster and carry heavier loads directly to the East Coast ports, thus eliminating the West Coast stop and reducing train transportation of cargo to the East Coast. In this study there will be a comparison of the economic impacts that the expansion of the Panama Canal creates between the Port of Boston and other major Northeast Ports, specially the Port of Baltimore, the Port of Norfolk and the Port of New York and New Jersey. This paper will evaluate the opportunities and strategies for the Port of Boston, utilizing business models of Strategy Canvas and Four Actions Framework in combination with the Port Choice Model

Understanding the Ecosystems of Chinese and American Entrepreneurship Education

Since the 1980s, entrepreneurship education in the United States has become increasingly popular. The system of entrepreneurship education in the United States is characterized by relatively scientific and systemic teaching and research. The concept of ecosystems, which comes from the natural sciences, is increasingly applied to regional development and focused on inter-organizational relationships. One way to assess the ecosystems of entrepreneurship education is to consider all components of the whole – the business model, teaching philosophy, curriculum, teaching content, teacher training, infrastructure, culture, network and practices of each country. A useful tool for understanding these interrelationships is the Triple Helix Model (university-government-industry). This approach is applied in here this research to compare and analyze the ecosystems of entrepreneurship education in the United States and China, the top two economic and entrepreneurial powers in the world. Government support and industry involvement have helped to make entrepreneurship education in the U.S. successful. Compared with the U.S., entrepreneurship education has started late in China, where a pilot entrepreneurship program was launched at nine universities in April 2002. Teacher training in both entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial consultant team-building was based on the entrepreneurship education project known as Know About Business (KAB), a model created during the 1990s by the International Labor Organization (ILO) for developing countries and adopted by the All China Youth Federation in 2005. At present, China is launching a “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” campaign and investing heavily in universities and government youth agencies. Using the Triple Helix Model, the ecosystems of the Chinese and U.S. entrepreneurship education will be compared and analyzed

Confronting Tracker Field Quintessence with Data

We confront tracker field quintessence with observational data. The potentials considered in this paper include $V(\phi)\propto\phi^{-\alpha}$, $\exp(M_{p}/\phi)$, $\exp(M_{p}/\phi)-1$, $\exp(\beta M_{p}/\phi)$ and $\exp(\gamma M_{p}/\phi)-1$; while the data come from the latest SN Ia, CMB and BAO observations. Stringent parameter constraints are obtained. In comparison with the cosmological constant via information criteria, it is found that models with potentials $\exp(M_{p}/\phi)$, $\exp(M_{p}/\phi)-1$ and $\exp(\gamma M_{p}/\phi)-1$ are not supported by the current data.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Comorbidity and confounding factors in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and sleep disorders in children

Sleep problems are commonly reported in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Research data regarding the complex and reciprocal relationship between ADHD and sleep disturbances has now accumulated. This paper is focused on the types of sleep problems that are associated with ADHD symptomatology, and attempts to untangle confounding factors and overlapping symptoms. The goal is also to present an updated overview of the pathophysiology of and treatment strategies for sleep problems in children with ADHD. The review also points out that future research will be needed to clarify further the other psychiatric comorbidities and side effects of medication in order to improve treatment outcomes and prevent misdiagnosis in clinical practice