Future air traffic - A study of the terminal area

Systems analysis approach to airport planning and predicting terminal facility and aircraft demands in year 2000 for air traffic control system

Hero-X: Emerson Air Flow Design Challenge

This report will follow the development cycle as Capstone Team 12 solves the Emerson Airflow Problem. The problem was proposed by Emerson on HeroX: Incentive Competition, Challenges and Prizes forum. This problem is an open competition to any inventors who can solve the dilemma of measuring total air flow in a residential heating, ventilation and cooling system (HVAC). The solutions will be judged against a rubric given by Emerson that includes price-point, accuracy, scalability, ease of installation and ease of use in order of greatest to least importance [5]. The following report outlines the engineering process from interpreting the problem statement up to a proof of concept design. Each section will speak to a critical engineering consideration such as project planning, patent research, cost analysis, evaluation of competition, and design characteristics which lead to the final designs. In the final pages, two carefully designed products which solve the problem statement will be laid out in detail. The first design is a fan matrix which adjusts to fit in any units filter cavity for a non-intrusive reading at the source. The second is small pressure sensor which will traverse a duct and generate a velocity profile for a specific point in the system. Using a simple algorithm, it will determine average velocity in the section. Beyond this report, the team will further prototype and propose the solutions to Emerson by the submission deadline of January 25, 2016

The Effect of Business Improvement Methods on Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Peripheral Regions

The effect of business improvement methods on innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises in peripheral regions, Regional Studies. This paper tests whether commonly used business improvement methods (BIM) foster or inhibit innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in peripheral regions. The findings show that adopting BIM diverts firms away from successful innovation (i.e., in terms of new products/services and new processes in the past three years), and instead is associated with undertaking innovation-related activities while remaining non-innovators. Indeed, reinforcing BIM (through greater ‘depth’ of use) may lead to further exclusion from successful innovation

A Racial Impact Analysis of SB 30: Medicaid Expansion

Virginia is the second worst state in providing Medicaid to its citizens. The focus of this report is to provide a racial equity impact analysis of Senate Bill (SB) 30, the Senate legislative vehicle for the appropriations of the budget submitted by the Governor of Virginia for fiscal years 2015 and 2016. SB 30 included a provision called “Marketplace Virginia” as an alternative to traditional Medicaid expansion in Virginia. This compromise bill would have covered an estimated 430,000 Virginians who fall in the Medicaid coverage gap by assisting them in purchasing private insurance. This report provides a racial equity impact analysis of the failure of the Virginia General Assembly to pass SB 30. The racial and ethnic impact of this proposed, but failed, legislation is important because minorities in Virginia disproportionately face disparities in health care access and quality. This racial impact analysis captures and reports the potential impact of this legislation by race in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The primary recommendation includesraising eligibility requirements to a minimum of 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Virginia’s current eligibility requirements are so strict that although it is ranked 7th in per capita personal income, Virginia ranked 43rd in Medicaid enrollment as a proportion of the state’s population and 47th in per capita Medicaid spending

Reproductive performance of resident and migrant males, females and pairs in a partially migratory bird

We thank everyone from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) who contributed to data collection, and Scottish Natural Heritage for access to the Isle of May National Nature Reserve. We thank the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (SOC) for their support, and all volunteer observers, particularly Raymond Duncan, Moray Souter and Bob Swann. HG was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) CASE studentship supported by CEH and SOC, FD, SW, MPH, MN and SB were funded by NERC and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, and JMR was part-funded by the Royal Society. Finally, we thank the Associate Editor and two reviewers for constructive comments on the manuscript. The data are available from the Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.532j0 (Grist et al., 2017)Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Influence of ALEC on public education in Oklahoma

This thesis is preliminary research that has been conducted about the highly influential national organization known as the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, a corporate bill mill. The goal of this preliminary inquiry is to provide more information about the state organization’s influence and activity in shaping Oklahoma’s education system, raise public awareness about its practices, and advocate for more transparency regarding ALEC’s meetings and the legislators who have benefitted from being ALEC members. This preliminary research consists of a review of ALEC’s website, relevant documents, and two interviews including one Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) representative and one elected official who is an ALEC member. Although this topic and organization warrants further investigation, these findings provide insight into the organization, laying the groundwork for future explorations, while also allowing me to practice fieldwork with an organization that tends to operate covertly