A Gathering For Gardner Puzzle-Game

Each different letter of GATHERING FOR GARDNER is used exactly three times in the following words: DIE, FAD, FIT, FOG, GIN, HAG, HER, HOD, NOR, RAT, TEN

The White Rabbit 12-Puzzle

Martin Gardner\u27s fondness for the characters and themes of Lewis Carroll\u27s Alice is well-known and to honor Gardner we offer two word puzzles to be played on the 12-node diagram of the WHITE RABBIT

Chris Farrell's Sound Money Guide to Sharing the Wealth

All across the country, Americans get together to share their concerns and passions, especially when it comesto improving their communities. The philanthropic spirit moves people to support the arts, contribute to theiralma maters, construct low-income housing, improve education and tackle all kinds of social ills. America'scharities, nonprofit organizations, and religious congregations are remarkably diverse, ranging from smallgroups of volunteers working out of basement offices to national fraternal organizations with several hundredthousand members to multi-billion dollar enterprises with skyscraper headquarters and global ambitions.Generosity, whether measured in time or money, is on the rise after stagnating for almost a quartercentury following the economic turmoil of the 1970s. Americans gave some $190 billion, or 2.1 percent ofGross Domestic Product, to charities in 1999, according to figures compiled by the American Association ofFund-Raising Counsel. That's up from$124 billion and 1.5 percent of GDP in 1997 (see chart on page 4).Volunteerism is strong, too. Among adults age 18 or over, more than half volunteer their time. In a sense,the nonprofit community is the nation's largest employer with some 109 million volunteers donatingan average of 3.5 hours a week.This guide is designed as an introduction to the major options available for giving money away

Cluster Typologies and Firm Survival: Complementary and Substitutive Effects

Agglomerations, or clusters, are typically defined as the idea that firms can benefit from shared locations through mutual knowledge, labor pools, and suppliers, and have long been a subject of scholarly interest. However, research in geographic economics has identified a broad array of agglomeration externalities beyond such supply-side clusters, which problematizes the use of the term cluster to refer to any geographic grouping of firms. Clusters can be groups of firms from the same country ( country-of-origin clusters), demand side (clustering to lower search costs for customers), Jacobsian clusters (tight groups of diverse firms), internal (groupings of firms from the same parent company), or urban (focused in areas of high population density). Since the nature of inter-firm interactions should differ in each type of agglomeration, our study contributes to the agglomeration literature by identifying complementary and substitutive relationships between agglomeration typologies. Specifically, we extend prior work which has examined the mutual effects of Jacobsian and Marshallian externalities by attempting to answer our research question, i.e., what combination of agglomeration externalities consistently leads to firm survival? Using establishment-level data from the software and clothing industries in the state of Texas, we identify multiple combinations of cluster types (and their absence) which lead to firm survival on a consistent basis. The results find several combinations of causal mechanisms that lead to the equifinal outcome of firm survival. Our configurations exceed levels supported by prior literature with PRI scores over .7 and coverage scores between .05 and .109.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2023_business/1001/thumbnail.jp

Slack, Location, Diversification, or R&D Intensity? How the Most (and Least) Innovative Firms Deploy Resources

Firms frequently innovate by recombining knowledge components. Through bringing together diverse scientific or technological concepts, firms can reassemble these extant knowledge components into novel and useful innovations. At the same time, many of the mechanisms firms use to recombine knowledge components carry substantial agency costs. When firms conduct research and development, diversify, hold slack resources, or locate near close competitors, they become vulnerable to misappropriation of investor resources due to opportunistic actions by agents. Using patent citation data from semiconductor firms, we study how firms, which consistently produce high-quality innovations, balance the need for knowledge recombination with the need to protect investors from opportunism. Our results indicate that, consistent with an agency lens, innovative firms operate under a significant debt load. Consistent with the knowledge recombination perspective, however, innovative firms typically engage in multiple activities that lead to innovation via knowledge recombination.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2023_business/1002/thumbnail.jp

The effect of bubble size on the performance of ebullated bed hydroprocessors

A recent cold-flow study has revealed that modifying gas distributor design in three-phased fluidized beds can have a significant effect on overall phase hold-ups and regime transition velocities, even at equivalent phase velocities. It is conjectured that this can be attributed to changes in the bubble-size distribution within the reactor. This study aims to develop a complete kinetic-hydrodynamic model of a resid hydroprocessing ebullated bed reactor with internal recycle in order to study the effects of bubble size distribution on performance metrics of industrial significance. The model consists of combined catalytic and ther-mal reaction models, phase separation efficiency correlations obtained through CFD modelling, catalyst fouling and deactivation models, boiling-point based Vapour-Liquid Equilibria (VLE) relations, and specialized phase hold-up corre-lations developed for resid hydroprocessing applications. A preliminary hydrodynamic model comparing monodisperse bubble sizes between 0.5 mm and 4 mm has been performed. At the lowest bubble size, gas entrainment (and hence gas hold-up) were maximal, while ideal phase separation was achieved at the largest bubble size. Bed gas hold-ups ranged from 10 % to 40 %. Increased gas entrainment was also associated with a decrease in internal liquid recycle ratio required for design ebullation height. The effect of bubble size was most pronounced near a diameter of 1 mm. Ongoing analysis into the effect of bubble recycle on bed gas phase com-position in a reactive system is being performed. The effect of bubble size on liquid residence time and hence conversion will be studied with the objective of determining the optimal bubble size for maximizing key conversion parameters

The early impact of COVID-19 on local commerce: changes in spend across neighborhoods and online

We document a number of striking features about the initial impact of the pandemic on local commerce across 16 US cities. There are two novel contributions from this analysis: exploration of neighborhood-level effects and shifts between offline and online purchasing channels. In our analysis we use approximately 450 million credit card transactions per month from a rolling sample of 11 million anonymized customers between October 2019 and March 2020. Across the 16 cities we profile, consumers decreased spend on the set of goods and services we define as “local commerce” by 12.8% between March 2019 and March 2020. Growth in all 16 cities was negative. Consumers shifted a substantial share of local commerce spend online, such that year-over-year growth in online spend was small, but positive, at 1.5%. With respect to grocery and pharmacy purchases, online spend grew at least three times as fast as offline spend. Overall spend declines were uniform across neighborhoods of differing median household income, though lower-income neighborhoods experienced the highest proportion of extreme negative declines. We also find evidence that many low-income neighborhoods are increasing spend on online grocery slower than others, but increasing their use of online restaurants the fastest. Consumers in low-income neighborhoods also tend to live farther from the grocery stores at which they shop. Compared to their counterparts in higher-income neighborhoods, consumers in low-income neighborhoods have not been more likely to shop at grocery stores closer to where they live since the onset of the pandemic

Hurricane Rated Pet Door Final Design Report

Our Senior Design group has been commissioned by a major pet door distributor, Pet Doors USA, to create a working prototype of a hurricane rated pet door. The main goal of this project is to meet specifications set out for us by our sponsor which include; making the door accessible to a 25-100 lb dog and meeting DP50 Hurricane Code. The final design is a rotating door that utilizes a worm gear and worm screw that turn a shaft to which the door is attached. A polycarbonate front panel is used due to its strength and impact resistance. The automation is accomplished with the use of RFID tags and sensors. The pet wears an RFID tag and when it comes in range of the sensors it signals the door to open. The final tests to be performed on the door included the water infiltration test, the final impact test, and the pressure/deflection test. For the water infiltration test, cobalt chloride paper was used to determine whether any moisture came through the door after spraying it with a hose. During the test, water began to infiltrate the corner of the door where the individual pieces of the weather-stripping meet and allow for a small crack. The pressure test setup was to place the door horizontally and place a box full of sand directly above the door. This test was successful with no permanent deflection or perceived dam- age to the pet door. For the impact test, a rack of weights with a 2x4 attached to it was dropped onto the door panel. The panel withstood the impact with no signs of cracks, indentions, or any other damage. When the door was tested for functionality, it was discovered that the power generated by the controller is insufficient to open the door. However, by attaching the motor to an external power source, the door was able to open easily. Thus, both the mechanical and electrical assemblies work independently but in order to merge them there needs to be more time and effort devoted to this project. Aside from this, the project can be considered a success in that all failures have been identified and a minimal amount of additional work is needed to create a working prototype that can pass all the required tests