THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE RED IMPORTED FIRE ANT ON THE METROPLEXES OF TEXAS

This research estimates the annual economic impact of the fire ant on key urban sectors in Texas. A study was conducted in 1998-1999 in the 5 metroplexes of Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston to estimate the costs of controlling and managing fire ants (Lard, et al). This study found that the annual expenditure for fire ant control and management by selected sectors in these metroplexes totaled more than $581 million. The total annual expense by sector amounted to$526 million for households, $29 million for golf courses,$25 million for schools, and $0.6 million for cities. These annual cost figures do not include all urban costs or costs borne by electrical utility companies, communication firms and cable companies. These results can be used to assess damages and estimate the potential costs and benefits of control and management programs, such as the community-based effort underway as part of the Texas Fire Ant Initiative.Crop Production/Industries,

Customer Concentration and Cost Structure

This study examines the effects of customer concentration levels on firm cost structure decisions. Analyzing cost data from a sample of manufacturing firms from 1976 through 2013, we find a negative relationship between customer concentration and cost elasticity whereby firms exhibit lower proportions of variable-to-fixed costs in the presence of higher levels of customer concentration. Additionally, we find that greater customer bargaining power, proxied by supplier industry competition and product market fluidity, leads to lower cost elasticity as customer concentration becomes greater. These results are robust to alternate specifications as well as controlling for endogeneity using a two-stage model. Our results suggest that suppliers respond to customer concentration by pursuing increased mutual dependence and cooperation with customers rather than attempting to reduce the effect of power imbalances within the supplier-customer relationship

Methods for the calculation of critical loads and their exceedances in the UK

Report to Defra, prepared under Contract AQ0826. This report describes the calculation and mapping of critical loads and their exceedances in the UK. It consolidates information from earlier “UK Status Reports” into a single report. Part I describes the methods and data used to (a) map the distribution of 14 UK habitats sensitive to acidification and/or eutrophication; (b) calculate critical loads of acidity and of nutrient nitrogen. Part II describes the calculation of critical load exceedances (ie, the amount of excess deposition above the critical load) and presents results and maps based on UK deposition data for 2009-2011. Part III describes the application of site-relevant critical loads to UK SACs, SPAs, SSSIs

Effect of distance and lenses on duction behavior

Effect of distance and lenses on duction behavio

Access, quality and equity in early childhood education and care: A South Australian study

Australian Journal of Education, 59/2, May/2015 published by SAGE Publishing, All rights reservedWhile much is known about the factors related to student performance beyond Grade 3 less is known about the factors that are related to student performance in early childhood education and the early years in primary school. As part of the 'I go to school' project in South Australia, this study tracked children attending integrated preschool/childcare centres -known as Children's Centres- as they made their transition to school. Results indicated that children who attended early childhood education programs that were of higher quality as characterised by higher staff qualifications and a greater range and more engaging children's activities showed a greater gain in cognitive development than children who attended lower quality programs. Findings also suggested that children who benefited the most from attendance in these programs were children from backgrounds of greater social disadvantage than children from less disadvantaged backgrounds

ISM In-Space Manufacturing

Develop and enable the technologies, materials, and processes required to provide affordable, sustainable on-demand manufacturing, recycling, and repair during Exploration Missions

Statistical Literacy Among Applied Linguists and Second Language Acquisition Researchers

The importance of statistical knowledge in applied linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA) research has been emphasized in recent publications. However, the last investigation of the statistical literacy of applied linguists occurred more than 25 years ago (Lazaraton, Riggenbach, & Ediger, 1987). The current study undertook a partial replication of this older work by investigating (a) applied linguists’ general experiences with statistics, (b) underlying factors that constitute applied linguists’ knowledge about and attitudes toward statistics, and (c) variables that predict attitudes toward statistics and statistical self-efficacy. Three hundred thirty-one scholars of applied linguistics and SLA completed a questionnaire. Eighty percent had taken a statistics class; however, only 14% of doctoral students and 30% of professors felt that their statistical training was adequate. A factor analysis of participants’ knowledge of statistical terms revealed three factors: common inferential statistics knowledge, advanced statistics knowledge, and basic descriptive statistics knowledge. An analysis of participants’ attitudes toward statistics revealed two factors: statistics are important and lack of statistical confidence. Regression analyses found that a quantitative research orientation was the strongest predictor of positive attitudes toward statistics; nevertheless, participants also expressed support for qualitative research. Recommendations for improving quantitative methods in our field are made based on our findings

Unitarity of the Higher Dimensional Standard Model

We study the unitarity of the standard model (SM) in higher dimensions. We show that the essential features of SM unitarity remain after compactification, and place bounds on the highest Kaluza-Klein (KK) level N_KK and the Higgs mass m_H in the effective four-dimensional (4d) low-energy theory. We demonstrate these general observations by explicitly analyzing the effective 4d KK theory of a compactified 5d SM on S^1/Z_2. The nontrivial energy cancellations in the scattering of longitudinal KK gluons or KK weak bosons, a consequence of the geometric Higgs mechanism, are verified. In the case of the electroweak gauge bosons, the longitudinal KK states also include a small mixture from the KK Higgs excitations. With the analyses before and after compactification, we derive the strongest bounds on N_KK from gauge KK scattering. Applying these bounds to higher-dimensional SUSY GUTs implies that only a small number of KK states can be used to accelerate gauge coupling unification. As a consequence, we show that the GUT scale in the 5d minimal SUSY GUT cannot be lower than about 10^{14} GeV.Comment: Version in Phys. Lett. B (minor typos fixed, refs added

Galois theory of Salem polynomials

Let f (x) is an element of Z[x] be a monic irreducible reciprocal polynomial of degree 2d with roots r(1), 1/r(1), r(2), 1/r(2), ..., r(d), 1/r(d). The corresponding trace polynomial g(x) of degree d is the polynomial whose roots are r(1) + 1/r(1), ..., r(d) + 1/r(d). If the Galois groups of f and g are G(f) and G(g) respectively, then Gg congruent to G(f)/N, where N is isomorphic to a subgroup of C-2(d). In a naive sense, the generic case is G(f) congruent to C-2(d) x S-d, with N congruent to C-2(d) and G(g) congruent to S-d. When f (x) has extra structure this may be reflected in the Galois group, and it is not always true even that G(f) congruent to N x G(g). For example, for cyclotomic polynomials f (x) = Phi(n)(x) it is known that G(f) congruent to N x G(g) if and only if n is divisible either by 4 or by some prime congruent to 3 modulo 4. In this paper we deal with irreducible reciprocal monic polynomials f (x) is an element of Z[x] that are 'close' to being cyclotomic, in that there is one pair of real positive reciprocal roots and all other roots lie on the unit circle. With the further restriction that f (x) has degree at least 4, this means that f (x) is the minimal polynomial of a Salem number. We show that in this case one always has G(f) congruent to N x G(g), and moreover that N congruent to C-2(d) or C-2(d-1), with the latter only possible if d is odd

Stakeholder collaboration and heritage management

This article examines a collaborative approach to the relationship between heritage management and tourism development in Luang Prabang, Laos. The purpose is to examine stakeholder collaboration and management roles, heritage tourism development, as well as the interdependence of the heritage conservation and tourism relationship. The research examines a UNESCO/Norwegian government project, which aiming to promote collaboration between heritage conservation and tourism through stakeholder involvement. Five aspects are explored: channels of communication between the heritage and the tourism groups, generating income for heritage conservation and management, involving the local community in decisionmaking, involving the local community in tourism activities, and an assessment of the extent and success of stakeholder collaboration