City of Milwaukee's Fiscal Condition: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This report presents an analysis of the fiscal condition of the City of Milwaukee government, applying a professional financial evaluation system of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). The city conducted this type of analysis internally during the 1990s, but it has done nothing similar this decade. In March 2009, the Forum released an evaluation of the finances of Milwaukee County also using the ICMA methodology. Milwaukee's city government currently is experiencing serious financial difficulties. The recession hit Milwaukee hard, as it has the region and state, and the negative impact on Milwaukee's businesses and property values has had financial repercussions on city coffers. In addition, the massive decline in stock prices has devalued pension investments. While ranked the second most secure public pension fund in the nation prior to the economic downturn, Milwaukee's pension fund now has an unfunded liability of more than $700 million

Should It Stay or Should It Go?: Exploring the potential for structural reform in Milwaukee County government

Milwaukee County government faces immediate and substantial fiscal and programmatic challenges. The county's structural deficit -- defined as the gap between expenditure needs and anticipated revenues -- is projected to grow from $48 million in 2011 to more than$106 million by 2014, despite several successive years of significant expenditure and staff reductions and anticipation of significant wage and benefit concessions in 2010. This projection is the clearest indication yet that the county's finances are crumbling and that valued services in areas like parks, transit, mental health and public safety face severe degradation without prompt and concerted action. This action could take any of several forms, including the complete elimination of Milwaukee County government. This report, commissioned by the Greater Milwaukee Committee, provides detailed analysis and perspective on the complex issues surrounding that option, as well as other potential structural changes

Concrete Foundations of the New Passenger Station, Washington, D. C

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How Shingles are Made

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Advances in quantum machine learning

Here we discuss advances in the field of quantum machine learning. The following document offers a hybrid discussion; both reviewing the field as it is currently, and suggesting directions for further research. We include both algorithms and experimental implementations in the discussion. The field's outlook is generally positive, showing significant promise. However, we believe there are appreciable hurdles to overcome before one can claim that it is a primary application of quantum computation.Comment: 38 pages, 17 Figure

Rock pool mosquito ecology of the southern Appalachian Mountains

The North American rock pool mosquito, Aedes atropalpus (Coquillet) (Diptera: Culicidae), isprimarily a non-biting species of no perceived threat to public health. The species uses riverine rock pools for immature development and coinhabits the pools with an invasive disease vector, Aedes japonicus japonicus (Theobald) in the United States (U.S.). Since the establishment of the invasive species in the United States in the 1990’s, several reports of reductions in Ae.atropalpus abundance have led to the hypothesis that the native species is being displaced by theinvasive one. The rock pool system remains largely undescribed, limiting our overallunderstanding of ecological interactions between mosquito species in the system. Here weconducted two studies with the unified objective of improving our fundamental knowledge ofrock pool ecology. First, we conducted a field study to describe rock pool communities andanalyze the seasonality of rock pool mosquitoes. Aedes j. japonicus was present in rock pools atboth sites year-round, with overwintering larvae collected in January and winter hatchlingsobserved in February and March. Early season hatching of Ae. j. japonicus allowed the presence of late instar larvae in pools when the first Ae. atropalpus eggs hatched for the season, creatingpotential for stage-dependent competition between the two species. Such asymmetric competition may be an important factor in the reduction of Ae. atropalpus populations. We also conducted a laboratory study aimed at understanding the impact of developmental temperature on Ae. atropalpus fitness. We measured common fitness correlates to predict the finite population growth rate for the species at three ecologically relevant temperature ranges. The results illustrate that the fitness of the species suffers at relatively cold temperatures where Ae. j. japonicus is commonly found in high relative abundances, but also that the optimal developmental temperature for the native species may be close to that of Ae. j. japonicus. Thecombined results of these laboratory and field studies reinforce prior observations of theimportance of temperature in the invasion ecology of Ae. j. japonicus and reveal novel observations that will inform further study of the system

A parsimony-based metric for phylogenetic trees

In evolutionary biology various metrics have been defined and studied for comparing phylogenetic trees. Such metrics are used, for example, to compare competing evolutionary hypotheses or to help organize algorithms that search for optimal trees. Here we introduce a new metric dpdp on the collection of binary phylogenetic trees each labeled by the same set of species. The metric is based on the so-called parsimony score, an important concept in phylogenetics that is commonly used to construct phylogenetic trees. Our main results include a characterization of the unit neighborhood of a tree in the dpdp metric, and an explicit formula for its diameter, that is, a formula for the maximum possible value of dpdp over all possible pairs of trees labeled by the same set of species. We also show that dpdp is closely related to the well-known tree bisection and reconnection (tbr) and subtree prune and regraft (spr) distances, a connection which will hopefully provide a useful new approach to understanding properties of these and related metrics

Inside ‘Inside view’ : reflections on stimulating debate and engagement through a multimedia live theatre production on the dilemmas and issues of pre-natal screening policy and practice

Background The role of applied theatre in engaging both lay and professional publics with debate on health policy and practice is an emergent field. This paper discusses the development, production performance and discussion of ‘Inside View’. Objectives The objectives were to produce applied theatre from research findings of a completed study on genetic prenatal screening, exploring the dilemmas for women and health professionals of prenatal genetic screening, and to engage audiences in debate and reflection on the dilemmas of prenatal genetic screening. Methods ‘Inside View’ was developed from a multidisciplinary research study through identification of emergent themes from qualitative interviews, and development of these by the writer, theatre producer and media technologist with input from the researchers. Findings Inside View was performed in London and the Midlands to varied audiences with a panel discussion and evaluation post performance. The audiences were engaged in debate that was relevant to them professionally and personally. Knowledge translation through applied theatre is an effective tool for engaging the public but the impact subsequently is unclear. There are ethical issues of unexpected disclosure during discussion post performance and the process of transforming research findings into applied theatre requires time and trust within the multidisciplinary team as well as adequate resourcing

Generalized Geometric Cluster Algorithm for Fluid Simulation

We present a detailed description of the generalized geometric cluster algorithm for the efficient simulation of continuum fluids. The connection with well-known cluster algorithms for lattice spin models is discussed, and an explicit full cluster decomposition is derived for a particle configuration in a fluid. We investigate a number of basic properties of the geometric cluster algorithm, including the dependence of the cluster-size distribution on density and temperature. Practical aspects of its implementation and possible extensions are discussed. The capabilities and efficiency of our approach are illustrated by means of two example studies.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. E. Follow-up to cond-mat/041274