An Economics Capstone Course from Creation to Presentation

This paper details a methodology used to construct a capstone course for the economics major. The capstone course should require students to utilize key concepts that they have learned. The lack of a meaningful topic, however, detracts from a showcase for student understanding. The author details the use of Michael Porter's (1998) location quotients and competitive cluster theory in a capstone course. Applying these concepts increases student understanding of state industries as well as exposing them to an alternative theory of competition not necessarily included in intermediate microeconomic theory.

Essays on international trade and Bayesian forecasting

Economic theory is subject to continual analysis. While theories themselves are sometimes widely accepted, nuances of theory are persistently scrutinized. Researchers have not isolated this debate from a simply theoretic standpoint. Empirical methods in microeconomics also provide a forum for disagreement. This dissertation studies two topics of microeconomic theory that are constantly in debate: integration and cost function estimation. From the standpoint of theoretical integration models in international trade theory, the concept of foreign direct investment is studied in both a horizontal and vertical setting. With respect to horizontal integration, this dissertation modifies the Brander-Krugman reciprocal dumping model to evaluate the effects on production and profit in an international duopoly under settings of non-controlling interest and managerial control. Counterintuitive results abound with managerial control, in that the acquiring firm will increase its exports abroad, despite the presence of transportation costs. Additionally, a discussion of antitrust and nationalist considerations that drive integration decisions is presented. This presents an introduction to a branch of theoretical literature that has seen constant conjecture: vertical integration. Various models of vertical integration are discussed, with the Ordover, Saloner, and Salop model in the foreground. The vertical integration model in this dissertation uses internal transfer pricing to describe the effects of input sales between the downstream and upstream divisions of a merged firm. With price leadership in the input market, foreclosure of downstream firms will occur, and these firms move toward a collusive equilibrium in the absence of tacit collusion among the downstream competitors. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of a debate among empirical researchers concerning the estimation of cost functions. There has been considerable discussion regarding the imposition of regularity conditions on cost functions. These conditions are imposed on the translog, and it seen that forecasting results are improved as a result. This leads to an important conclusion: economic theory matters in empirical work. While the constant scrutiny of theory will never conclude, this dissertation attempts to improve upon existing integration theory, and uses widely accepted economic theory to improve the means in which cost functions are estimated in empirical research

Political Apathy and the Youth Vote: A Survey of Undergraduate Students

Data from past national elections have illustrated that the 18-24 age group is the most apathetic to the democratic process. This paper surveys a broad percentage of students at a midsize regional university in the southeastern United States. The survey is done in order to measure voter registration and participation, civic awareness, and the students\u27 average political leaning. I observe that while voting-age students are rather apathetic, they performed better than the national 18-24 age group in the presidential election of 2000. Upon surveying a small sample of faculty at the same university, it appears that the positive correlations of both age and education with voting activity are reinforced

An Economics Capstone Course From Creation To Presentation

This paper details a methodology used to construct a capstone course for the economics major.  The capstone course should require students to utilize key concepts that they have learned.  The lack of a meaningful topic, however, detracts from a showcase for student understanding.  The author details the use of Michael Porter’s (1998) location quotients and competitive cluster theory in a capstone course.  Applying these concepts increases student understanding of state industries as well as exposing them to an alternative theory of competition not necessarily included in intermediate microeconomic theory. &nbsp

Multicritical Points of Potts Spin Glasses on the Triangular Lattice

We predict the locations of several multicritical points of the Potts spin glass model on the triangular lattice. In particular, continuous multicritical lines, which consist of multicritical points, are obtained for two types of two-state Potts (i.e., Ising) spin glasses with two- and three-body interactions on the triangular lattice. These results provide us with numerous examples to further verify the validity of the conjecture, which has succeeded in deriving highly precise locations of multicritical points for several spin glass models. The technique, called the direct triangular duality, a variant of the ordinary duality transformation, directly relates the triangular lattice with its dual triangular lattice in conjunction with the replica method.Comment: 18 pages, 2, figure

Reconstruction and flux-balance analysis of the Plasmodium falciparum metabolic network

In the paper we present a metabolic reconstruction and flux-balance analysis (FBA) of Plasmodium falciparum, the primary agent of malaria. The compartmentalized metabolic network of the parasite accounts for 1001 reactions and 616 metabolites. Enzyme–gene associations were established for 366 genes and 75% of all enzymatic reactions.The model was able to reproduce phenotypes of experimental gene knockout and drug inhibition assays with up to 90% accuracy. The model also can be used to efficiently integrate mRNA-expression data to improve the accuracy of metabolic predictions.Using FBA of the reconstructed metabolic network, we identified 40 enzymatic drug targets (i.e. in silico essential genes) with no or very low sequence identity to human proteins.We experimentally tested one of the identified drug targets, nicotinate mononucleotide adenylyltransferase, using a recently discovered small-molecule inhibitor

In search of phylogenetic congruence between molecular and morphological data in bryozoans with extreme adult skeletal heteromorphy

peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=tsab20© Crown Copyright 2015. This document is the author's final accepted/submitted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it

Proposing a systems vision of knowledge management in emergency care

This paper makes a case for taking a systems view of knowledge management within health-care provision, concentrating on the emergency care process in the UK National Health Service. It draws upon research in two casestudy organizations (a hospital and an ambulance service). The case-study organizations appear to be approaching knowledge (and information) management in a somewhat fragmented way. They are trying to think more holistically, but (perhaps) because of the ways their organizations and their work are structured, they cannot ‘see’ the whole of the care process. The paper explores the complexity of knowledge management in emergency health care and draws the distinction for knowledge management between managing local and operational knowledge, and global and clinical knowledge

From Too Much to Too Little: How the central U.S. drought of 2012 evolved out of one of the most devastating floods on record in 2011

Table of Contents Section 1: Introduction....................................................................... 1 Section 2: Regional Drought Perspective................................. 2 Section 3: State Drought Perspectives........................................ 3 Section 3.1: Colorado........................................................................... 20 Section 3.2: Illinois.................................................................. 25 Section 3.3: Indiana................................................. 29 Section 3.4: Iowa...................... 36 Section 3.5: Kansas............................................................... 42 Section 3.6: Kentucky............................................................................ 46 Section 3.7: Michigan.............................. 52 Section 3.8: Minnesota............................................................ 58 Section 3.9: Missouri..................................................... 63 Section 3.10: Nebraska................................................. 67 Section 3.11: North Dakota............................................ 73 Section 3.12: Ohio................................................... 79 Section 3.13: South Dakota..................................... 85 Section 3.14: Wyoming........................................... 96 Section 4: Conclusions.............................................................. 9

Cognitive impairment after lacunar stroke: systematic review and meta-analysis of incidence, prevalence and comparison with other stroke subtypes

Funding SDJM is supported by a Wellcome Trust Project Grant (WT088134/Z/09/A). JMW is supported by the Scottish Funding Council through the Scottish Imaging Network, A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Initiative (http://www. sinapse.ac.uk). The study was independent of the funders.Peer reviewedPublisher PD