Permanent Homelessness in America?

This paper seeks to determine the approximate number of homeless persons in the U.S., the rate of change in the number, and whether or not the problem is likely to be permanent or transitory. It makes particular use of a new 1985 survey of over 503 homeless people in New York City. It finds: (1) that the much maligned 1984 Department of Housing and Urban Affairs study was roughly correct in its estimate of 250,000 - 350,000 homeless persons for 1983; (2) the number of homeless has grown since 1983, despite economic recovery, with the number of homeless families growing especially rapidly (3) homelessness is a relatively long-term state for 6omeless individuals, who average 6-8 years of homelessness; (4) much of the homeless problem can be attributed to increases in the number of the poor in the 1980s and declines or rough constancy in the number of low-rent rental units; (5) relatively few homeless individuals receive welfare or general assistance money; a large proportion have spent time in jail. Overall, the study suggests that economic recovery will not solve the problem of homelessness, and that in the absence of changes in the housing market or in the economic position of the very poor, the U.S. will continue to be plagued with a problem of homelessness for the forseeable future.

Matrix elements for a generalized spiked harmonic oscillator

Closed-form expressions for the singular-potential integrals are obtained with respect to the Gol'dman and Krivchenkov eigenfunctions for the singular potential V(x) = B x^2 + A/x^2, B > 0, A >= 0. These formulas are generalizations of those found earlier by use of the odd solutions of the Schroedinger equation with the harmonic oscillator potential [Aguilera-Navarro et al, J. Math. Phys. 31, 99 (1990)].Comment: 12 pages in plain tex with 1 ps figur

Cottonwood Progeny Tests at the Horticulture Station

An important element of a long-term project on the development of genetically improved cottonwood (Populus deltoides) clones for biomass production in the North Central Region of the U.S. is now in progress at the Horticulture Station in plots 11A and 11B. Most of the funding for this overall program came from the Biomass Feedstock Development Program of the USDOE until that program was canceled by the new administration in December 2001. With the loss of that funding, a summer field crew no longer was available to maintain studies for this project at the Moore, McNay, and Kanawha research farms as had been done in previous years. The convenience, availability of on-site help, and protection from deer browsing and rutting made the Horticulture Station a good place to consolidate the testing program beginning in the summer of 2002. Current, maintenance-level funding for the project comes from McIntyre/Stennis funds and the Agriculture Experiment Station Project 3905

Generalized spiked harmonic oscillator

A variational and perturbative treatment is provided for a family of generalized spiked harmonic oscillator Hamiltonians H = -(d/dx)^2 + B x^2 + A/x^2 + lambda/x^alpha, where B > 0, A >= 0, and alpha and lambda denote two real positive parameters. The method makes use of the function space spanned by the solutions |n> of Schroedinger's equation for the potential V(x)= B x^2 + A/x^2. Compact closed-form expressions are obtained for the matrix elements , and a first-order perturbation series is derived for the wave function. The results are given in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions. It is proved that the series for the wave function is absolutely convergent for alpha <= 2.Comment: 14 page

Dispersal of \u3ci\u3eFenusa Dohrnii\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae) From an \u3ci\u3eAlnus\u3c/i\u3e Short-Rotation Forest Plantation

The European alder leafminer, Fenusa dohrnii, is a defoliating insect pest of Alnus in short-rotation forest plantations. A 2-year study was performed to quantify movement from infested stands to uninfested areas. Sticky traps and potted monitor trees were installed at different locations within and at various distances from (0,5, 10, and 20 m) an infested stand to measure adult flight and oviposition activity, respectively. Trap catch and oviposition activity fell off sharply with distance, few insects being trapped or eggs laid at distances of 5 m or greater from the infestation

Environmental Factors Affecting Hong Kong Banking: A Post-Asian Financial Crisis Efficiency Analysis

Within the banking efficiency analysis literature there is a dearth of studies which have considered how banks have ‘survived’ the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. Considering the profound changes that have occurred in the region’s financial systems since then, such an analysis is both timely and warranted. This paper examines the evolution of Hong Kong’s banking industry’s efficiency and its macroeconomic determinants through the prism of two alternative approaches to banking production based on the intermediation and services-producing goals of bank management over the post-crisis period. Within this research strategy we employ Tone’s (2001) Slacks-Based Model (SBM) combining it with recent bootstrapping techniques, namely the non-parametric truncated regression analysis suggested by Simar and Wilson (2007) and Simar and Zelenyuk’s (2007) group-wise heterogeneous sub-sampling approach. We find that there was a significant negative effect on Hong Kong bank efficiency in 2001, which we ascribe to the fallout from the terrorist attacks in America in 9/11 and to the completion of deposit rate deregulation that year. However, post 2001 most banks have reported a steady increase in efficiency leading to a better ‘intermediation’ and ‘production’ of activities than in the base year of 2000, with the SARS epidemic having surprisingly little effect in 2003. It was also interesting to find that the smaller banks were more efficient than the larger banks, but the latter were also able to enjoy economies of scale. This size factor was linked to the exportability of financial services. Other environmental factors found to be significantly impacting on bank efficiency were private consumption and housing rent.Finance and Banking; Productivity; Efficiency.

Accounting for environmental factors, bias and negative numbers in efficiency estimation: A bootstrapping application to the Hong Kong banking sector

This paper examines the evolution of Hong Kong’s banking industry’s technical efficiency, and its macroeconomic determinants, during the period 2000-2006 through the prism of two alternative approaches to efficiency estimation, namely the intermediation and production approaches. Using a modified (Sharp, Meng and Liu, 2006) slacks-based model (Tone, 2001), and purging the efficiency estimates for random errors (Simar and Zelenyuk, 2007) , we firstly analyse the trends in bank efficiency. We then identify the ‘environmental’ factors that significantly affect the efficiency scores using an adaptation (Kenjegalieva et al. 2009) of the truncated regression approach suggested by Simar and Wilson. 2007). The first part of the analysis reveals that the Hong Kong banking industry suffered a severe downturn in estimated technical efficiency during 2001. It subsequently recovered, posting average efficiency scores of 92 per cent and 85 percent under the intermediation and production approaches respectively by the end of 2006. As for the sub-group analysis, commercial banks are, on average, shown to be the most efficient operators, while the investment bank group are shown to be the least efficient. Finally, with respect to the truncated regression analysis, the results suggest that smaller banks are more efficient than their larger counterparts, although larger banks are still able to enjoy gains from scale economies and benefit from the export of financial services. Moreover, private housing rent and the net export of goods and services are found to be negatively correlated with bank efficiency, while private consumption is shown to be positively correlated.Hong Kong Banks; DEA; Slacks; Environmental factors, Negative numbers; Bias.

Closed-form sums for some perturbation series involving associated Laguerre polynomials

Infinite series sum_{n=1}^infty {(alpha/2)_n / (n n!)}_1F_1(-n, gamma, x^2), where_1F_1(-n, gamma, x^2)={n!_(gamma)_n}L_n^(gamma-1)(x^2), appear in the first-order perturbation correction for the wavefunction of the generalized spiked harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian H = -d^2/dx^2 + B x^2 + A/x^2 + lambda/x^alpha 0 0, A >= 0. It is proved that the series is convergent for all x > 0 and 2 gamma > alpha, where gamma = 1 + (1/2)sqrt(1+4A). Closed-form sums are presented for these series for the cases alpha = 2, 4, and 6. A general formula for finding the sum for alpha/2 = 2 + m, m = 0,1,2, ..., in terms of associated Laguerre polynomials, is also provided.Comment: 16 page