Homelessness as an Impediment to Urban Revitalization: the Case of Dallas, Texas

Homelessness has long been recognized as a serious problem in many American cities, and Dallas in no exception. What’s more, the homeless tend to congregate in the downtown districts (DD) since most service providers are also located in the urban core. Though homelessness is typically considered a social problem, it also has economic consequences. The latest homeless census for the city of Dallas totaled 6,000, and annual outlays by governmental, non-profit, charitable, and faith-based organizations to provide them with services probably exceed $50 million. This estimate doesn’t include thousands of volunteer hours. But the true economic cost of homelessness is much greater. A survey of downtown business owners found that the presence of homeless persons is having a negative affect on their operations and burdening many of them with additional costs for security and cleaning. A majority of retail respondents report that proximity to the homeless was scaring off customers and reducing their sales. An examination of downtown properties using Dallas County Appraisal District (DCAD) records reveals that average values in the southern sector, where most of the homeless are concentrated, are well below those in the northern half of downtown. Consequently, the City of Dallas, Dallas County, and the Dallas Independent School District are losing$2.4 million per year due to valuation disparities from a lack of development in the southern half of the DD. What’s more, we estimate the southern half of downtown can potentially support almost 2.2 million square feet of additional commercial, office and residential space. This development scenario would create more than 5,000 new jobs and generate about $6.6 million per year for local taxing entities. But the revitalization of Dallas’ DD, an avowed goal of the city’s political and business leaders, will not be fully realized until a comprehensive plan for improving homeless services is developed and implemented. Most importantly, the proposed central intake facility should be located away from—but close to—the downtown district. In this regard, the City of Miami can serve as a model. Miami has significantly reduced the visible homeless count and greatly improved the delivery of services. By creating an umbrella agency to oversee all homeless programs—whether provided by government, voluntary or faith-based institutions—the city has avoided duplication and overlap of services. Significantly, Miami has located both of its central intake facilities, known as Homeless Assistance Centers (HACs), away from their downtown district. Miami’s businesses community has recognized that reducing homelessness is a community and economic development issue as well as a social problem, and to that end they have contributed about$50 million over the past decade. The results are tangible, as evidenced by the construction boom currently underway in Miami’s downtown. As with Miami, an effective approach for dealing with Dallas’ homeless population must include greater participation and support by the region’s business leaders. Homelessness has significant economic as well as social consequences for the City of Dallas. While offering our compassion to the homeless, we should also acknowledge that the overwhelming presence of homeless persons on the streets of downtown has negative economic impacts on individual businesses, the prospects for redevelopment, and the city’s finances.

Predicting Parameters for Bertini Using Neural Networks

The purpose of this research is to use machine learning algorithms to predict the fastest settings for a program called Bertini. Bertini is a computer program that approximates solutions to systems of polynomial equations. Settings for this program can be changed by the user, but the user may not necessarily know the best settings to use to optimize the run time for a particular system of polynomial equations. The settings that were focused on were the differential equation predictor methods when tracking the homotopy to the solution of the system. A neural network was used on a training set of data to create a model and then a test set was run through to obtain a percent accuracy for this model. Increased accuracy for the model was obtained by changing hyperparameters of the neural network. Neural networks with training sets of 3,000 and 8,000 polynomials were used and results were found for different parameter settings

Using Literature Circles to Improve Literacy Skills of English Language Learners

The increasing number of English language learners in mainstream classrooms continues to be one of the greatest challenges for educators. English language learners not only must learn the literacy skills necessary to be successful in American society, but they must also learn social and cultural skills. Literature circles are a successful way to improve comprehension skills while also providing English language learners with authentic social interactions. Many educators find literature circles to be an effective way to improve literacy, social, and cultural skills, yet they fail to implement them in their classroom. This research project will consist of a literature circle unit for fourth grade readers at the extending or fluency level of reading. This plan is based on (a) Colorado State Reading and Writing Standards, (b) a review of literature on literacy strategies and literature circles, and (c) personal experience

Part I--Approaches to the synthesis of e̲n̲d̲o̲ triazolines; Part II--Chemistry of carotane sesquiterpenoids

Ph.D.Leon H. Zalko

Multinational lessons from local and regional economic development agencies

This paper discusses the commonalities and differences in local and regional economic development (LRED) across England, Northern Ireland, Australia and the US. The focus is on four themes: the institutional characteristics of the respondents; governance, partners and partnerships; the objectives, regional capacity building and business service activities of responding agencies; and the self-assessment of effectiveness by LRED organisations. Our analysis is based on a survey of LRED agencies in the above-noted countries using a common questionnaire that was slightly adapted for each study area. Using logistic regression, we identify the practices and strategies of local and regional economic development agencies that are associated with higher levels of effectiveness. When all participating nations’ LRED organisations are jointly evaluated, several practices emerge as being positively related to agency performance including being actively involved in industrial estates, labour training and recruitment, marketing the agency’s region to international markets, and promoting industry clusters. Also showing as being positively related to performance are variables identifying whether or not the agency subsidized relocation costs for new businesses, helps local companies access venture capital, engages in education and training programs targeted at youths, and enhances networking opportunities for local business people. Interestingly, we found statistically significant negative relationships between agency effectiveness and engaging in tourism promotion activities, training minority groups, and conducting target industry studies, though this may reflect a correlation between certain activities and problematic economic environments. Though our research methodology of relying on self-assessed performance measures does not allow us to draw sweeping conclusions, we are confident that these findings provide a beginning for identifying a set of best practices that are appropriate for LRED organisations in a multinational setting.

The effect of control strategies on sixth graders\u27 metacognitive awareness

This experimental action research study provided sixth grade students five lessons about metacognitive control skills, with pre- and post-instruction measurements of the students’ observable behaviors and notation of the students’ think-alouds regarding their metacognitive activity. The purpose of the study was twofold: 1. To test whether students’ metacognitive awareness can be increased, and 2. To compare the performance of students who initially demonstrate higher metacognitive awareness by scoring above the median on a Metacognitive Awareness Inventory with student who students scored below the median on the inventory. Because research has shown metacognitive ability to operate independently of academic ability and to enhance academic performance, studies are needed to test various methods of teaching metacognitive skills. A Metacognitive Awareness Inventory consisting of 20 items was administered, with results used to match the control and experimental groups. Each group then participated in a pre-instruction problem-solving activity while observers tallied students’ specific observable behaviors and listened to their think-alouds. Instruction during the study consisted of 5 30-minute lessons: for the control group, questioning strategies, and for the experimental group, metacognitive control skills relating to task variables, personal attitude, and organization of work area, and selection of strategies. Post-treatment measures were taken while the students participated in a computer problem-solving experiment. Results of the study showed increases in awareness of the skills for the experimental group, and although the data was not statistically significant, positive trends were apparent, especially for the students identified as low-metacognitive ability

Quartz-mems: Wet chemical etching assisted by electromagnetic energy sources for the development of quartz crystal to be used for microelectromechanical systems

Quartz crystal resonators have been the most commonly used timing devices to date. Today\u27s timing market requires devices to be as small as possible and consume smaller amounts of energy. Because of the market demand, many startup companies have formed to develop silicon resonators as timing devices. Silicon resonators have poor noise and temperature performance (due to its linear temperature versus frequency coefficient). At the moment the only advantage that silicon resonators have over quartz crystal resonators is a small form factor. The photolithography processing method currently being used in industry is a very tedious task, requiring multiple etching steps and a final frequency trimming step for each individual resonator. The goal of this research was to find a process that could increase the etch rate of quartz crystals beyond the current methods available. This dissertation reports the first results on x-rays assisting the electrochemical etching of quartz crystals in the development of quartz resonators. This process has shown the ability to increase the etch rate of quartz by 27%. The second method explored in this work involves the use of lasers to rapidly etch quartz crystals during the wet etching process. The etch rate with the laser setup can be varied from 3.8 μm/hr to 278 μm/hr. These processes were integrated with a control system used to measure the resonant frequency of each individual resonator to an accuracy of +/- 10ppm. Using two lasers incorporated with the control system allowed for a total etching accuracy of +/- 50ppm for two resonators on the same die

Place leadership and regional economic development: a framework for cross-regional analysis

This paper examines the leadership of places – cities, regions, communities – in Australia, Finland, Germany, Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom and explores the capacity of vignettes to generate new, theoretical and empirical insights. It uses vignettes to identify the features of place leadership evident in 12 case studies across six nations. The research finds significant commonalities in place leadership with respect to the importance attached to boundary spanning, the role of government officials in responding to the prospect of regional decline or growth and how the nature of the challenge confronting a locality determines the adequacy of the response