Giving Up the Ghost: Death in the Depression

The preceding section is the human evidence behind this paper: what did the Great Depression feel like? What was it like to live in a Hooverville? To travel across the country in a rundown Jalopy? To Jump freight trains and live in box cars? To go on relief? What impact did the depression have on the national and individual psyche? Many authors have dealt with these questions, so why do it again? First, this thesis represents a attempt to draw together all the information for myself. Second, it is also an endeavor to find what people considered then (and perhaps still do) most important in their lives. Third, it may lead to a deeper understanding of what sort of society entered the depression and how the depression changed it. The first thing to be discussed is the economics of the depression. Most importantly, Just what is a depression? No one seems to know. Economists have agreed on a definition for the term recession, but have not reached a consensus on the term depression. Five different handbooks of economics give five different definitions of the word ranging from a severe slowdown in the economy, to a long lasting recession in economic activity . Perhaps the best way to define a depression is to list its characteristics. Generally, business activity is far below normal, there is great pessimism among business and consumers alike, there is a sharp curtailment of production, little capital investment, contraction of credit, falling prices, mass unemployment, and a high rate of business failures

Giving Up the Ghost: Death in the Depression

The preceding section is the human evidence behind this paper: what did the Great Depression feel like? What was it like to live in a Hooverville? To travel across the country in a rundown Jalopy? To Jump freight trains and live in box cars? To go on relief? What impact did the depression have on the national and individual psyche? Many authors have dealt with these questions, so why do it again? First, this thesis represents a attempt to draw together all the information for myself. Second, it is also an endeavor to find what people considered then (and perhaps still do) most important in their lives. Third, it may lead to a deeper understanding of what sort of society entered the depression and how the depression changed it. The first thing to be discussed is the economics of the depression. Most importantly, Just what is a depression? No one seems to know. Economists have agreed on a definition for the term recession, but have not reached a consensus on the term depression. Five different handbooks of economics give five different definitions of the word ranging from a severe slowdown in the economy, to a long lasting recession in economic activity . Perhaps the best way to define a depression is to list its characteristics. Generally, business activity is far below normal, there is great pessimism among business and consumers alike, there is a sharp curtailment of production, little capital investment, contraction of credit, falling prices, mass unemployment, and a high rate of business failures

Another Kind of Education: The Gruner School

Believing in the limitless potential of the next generation, The Gruner School prepares students to be academically, socially, and mentally strong and excel in life beyond high school through a rigorous program rooted in the intersection of academia and the workforce. Project Description: The project was the result of the Spring 2020 course, IDST 290: Education in Fiction and Fact Seminar, a continuation of the fall SSIR (Sophomore Scholars in Residence) course, Education in Fiction and Fact. The project was to design an ideal school.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/ssir-presentations-2020/1000/thumbnail.jp

Coming soon to a university near you: e-texts and e-textbooks

The hype about digital texts is reaching a frenzied tone. Proponents claim that e-texts will replace traditional texts on campuses and students will save enormous amounts of money; that students will learn more because e-texts offer features not available in print; and that texts will be updated more frequently. This session will examine the hype from the perspective of three major universities. The presenters will describe the varying approaches taken by Big Ten/CIC institutions. Audience members will shape the session as it moves from presentation to panel discussion. Learning Objectives: * Learn about various approaches universities have taken regarding digital textbooks * Get resources describing the advent and adoption of digital textbooks nationally (K–12, higher education * Learn about issues to consider when thinking about an e-text strategy for your institution * Be able to give aid and advice to your institution regarding possible strategies to implement for digital textbook

Spatial and temporal clustering of dengue virus transmission in Thai villages.

BackgroundTransmission of dengue viruses (DENV), the leading cause of arboviral disease worldwide, is known to vary through time and space, likely owing to a combination of factors related to the human host, virus, mosquito vector, and environment. An improved understanding of variation in transmission patterns is fundamental to conducting surveillance and implementing disease prevention strategies. To test the hypothesis that DENV transmission is spatially and temporally focal, we compared geographic and temporal characteristics within Thai villages where DENV are and are not being actively transmitted.Methods and findingsCluster investigations were conducted within 100 m of homes where febrile index children with (positive clusters) and without (negative clusters) acute dengue lived during two seasons of peak DENV transmission. Data on human infection and mosquito infection/density were examined to precisely (1) define the spatial and temporal dimensions of DENV transmission, (2) correlate these factors with variation in DENV transmission, and (3) determine the burden of inapparent and symptomatic infections. Among 556 village children enrolled as neighbors of 12 dengue-positive and 22 dengue-negative index cases, all 27 DENV infections (4.9% of enrollees) occurred in positive clusters (p < 0.01; attributable risk [AR] = 10.4 per 100; 95% confidence interval 1-19.8 per 100]. In positive clusters, 12.4% of enrollees became infected in a 15-d period and DENV infections were aggregated centrally near homes of index cases. As only 1 of 217 pairs of serologic specimens tested in positive clusters revealed a recent DENV infection that occurred prior to cluster initiation, we attribute the observed DENV transmission subsequent to cluster investigation to recent DENV transmission activity. Of the 1,022 female adult Ae. aegypti collected, all eight (0.8%) dengue-infected mosquitoes came from houses in positive clusters; none from control clusters or schools. Distinguishing features between positive and negative clusters were greater availability of piped water in negative clusters (p < 0.01) and greater number of Ae. aegypti pupae per person in positive clusters (p = 0.04). During primarily DENV-4 transmission seasons, the ratio of inapparent to symptomatic infections was nearly 1:1 among child enrollees. Study limitations included inability to sample all children and mosquitoes within each cluster and our reliance on serologic rather than virologic evidence of interval infections in enrollees given restrictions on the frequency of blood collections in children.ConclusionsOur data reveal the remarkably focal nature of DENV transmission within a hyperendemic rural area of Thailand. These data suggest that active school-based dengue case detection prompting local spraying could contain recent virus introductions and reduce the longitudinal risk of virus spread within rural areas. Our results should prompt future cluster studies to explore how host immune and behavioral aspects may impact DENV transmission and prevention strategies. Cluster methodology could serve as a useful research tool for investigation of other temporally and spatially clustered infectious diseases

Modelling aggregation on the large scale and regularity on the small scale in spatial point pattern datasets

We consider a dependent thinning of a regular point process with the aim of obtaining aggregation on the large scale and regularity on the small scale in the resulting target point process of retained points. Various parametric models for the underlying processes are suggested and the properties of the target point process are studied. Simulation and inference procedures are discussed when a realization of the target point process is observed, depending on whether the thinned points are observed or not. The paper extends previous work by Dietrich Stoyan on interrupted point processes

Tile Number and Space-Efficient Knot Mosaics

In this paper we introduce the concept of a space-efficient knot mosaic. That is, we seek to determine how to create knot mosaics using the least number of non-blank tiles necessary to depict the knot. This least number is called the tile number of the knot. We determine strict bounds for the tile number of a knot in terms of the mosaic number of the knot. In particular, if $t$ is the tile number of a prime knot with mosaic number $m$, then $5m-8 \leq t \leq m^2-4$ if $m$ is even and $5m-8 \leq t \leq m^2-8$ if $m$ is odd. We also determine the tile number of several knots and provide space-efficient knot mosaics for each of them.Comment: The original version of this article was split into two articles during refereein

Dynamic Spatial Autoregressive Models with Autoregressive and Heteroskedastic Disturbances

We propose a new class of models specifically tailored for spatio-temporal data analysis. To this end, we generalize the spatial autoregressive model with autoregressive and heteroskedastic disturbances, i.e. SARAR(1,1), by exploiting the recent advancements in Score Driven (SD) models typically used in time series econometrics. In particular, we allow for time-varying spatial autoregressive coefficients as well as time-varying regressor coefficients and cross-sectional standard deviations. We report an extensive Monte Carlo simulation study in order to investigate the finite sample properties of the Maximum Likelihood estimator for the new class of models as well as its flexibility in explaining several dynamic spatial dependence processes. The new proposed class of models are found to be economically preferred by rational investors through an application in portfolio optimization.Comment: 33 pages, 5 figure

Plasmodium falciparum Spatial Analysis, Western Kenya Highlands

Parasite transmission is intense in the highlands, and these areas are vulnerable to epidemics

Classic and spatial shift-share analysis of state-level employment change in Brazil

This paper combines classic and spatial shift-share decompositions of 1981 to 2006 employment change across the 27 states of Brazil. The classic shift-share method shows higher employment growth rates for underdeveloped regions that are due to an advantageous industry-mix and also due to additional job creation, commonly referred to as the competitive effect. Alternative decompositions proposed in the literature do not change this broad conclusion. Further examination employing exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) shows spatial correlation of both the industry-mix and the competitive effects. Considering that until the 1960s economic activities were more concentrated in southern regions of Brazil than they are nowadays, these results support beta convergence theories but also find evidence of agglomeration effects. Additionally, a very simple spatial decomposition is proposed that accounts for the spatially-weighted growth of surrounding states. Favourable growth in northern and centre-western states is basically associated with those states’ strengths in potential spatial spillover effect and in spatial competitive effect