Biscayne aquifer in Dade and Broward Counties, Florida

The Biscayne Aquifer is the principal source of water for the heavily populated area in the vicinity of West Palm Beach and Miami. The publication of this data is timely and will assist in the intelligent development of the water resources of the area.(PDF has 64 pages

Simple Pricing Schemes for the Cloud

The problem of pricing the cloud has attracted much recent attention due to the widespread use of cloud computing and cloud services. From a theoretical perspective, several mechanisms that provide strong efficiency or fairness guarantees and desirable incentive properties have been designed. However, these mechanisms often rely on a rigid model, with several parameters needing to be precisely known in order for the guarantees to hold. In this paper, we consider a stochastic model and show that it is possible to obtain good welfare and revenue guarantees with simple mechanisms that do not make use of the information on some of these parameters. In particular, we prove that a mechanism that sets the same price per time step for jobs of any length achieves at least 50% of the welfare and revenue obtained by a mechanism that can set different prices for jobs of different lengths, and the ratio can be improved if we have more specific knowledge of some parameters. Similarly, a mechanism that sets the same price for all servers even though the servers may receive different kinds of jobs can provide a reasonable welfare and revenue approximation compared to a mechanism that is allowed to set different prices for different servers.Comment: To appear in the 13th Conference on Web and Internet Economics (WINE), 2017. A preliminary version was presented at the 12th Workshop on the Economics of Networks, Systems and Computation (NetEcon), 201

SOME EMPIRICAL METHODS OF ESTIMATING ADVERTISING EFFECTS IN DEMAND SYSTEMS: AN APPLICATION TO DRIED FRUITS

Two different methods of incorporating advertising effects into Almost Ideal Demand Systems (AIDS) are presented. Both advertising schemes are designed to allow theoretical restrictions to hold globally rather than at particular sample points. The models are estimated for California figs, prunes, and raisins. Empirical results indicate that generic advertising effects for these three dried fruits are generally weak when compared to price and total expenditure effects. Estimated cross-commodity effects also are relatively small except for the negative effect of raisin advertising on the quantity of prunes demanded.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Bystander

My thesis raises existential questions about identity and the construction of meaning using language as a premise and platform to provoke inquiry about the distinction between various classifications of viewer. A reexamination of the term bystander compelled me to create violently themed imagery in order to locate boundaries within viewership roles. Although it shares similarities with the roles of observer, spectator, and witness, in terms of the bystanderʼs visual observance of an event, there are unclear connotations that allude to varying degrees of lucidity and sentience among these roles. The agency of the viewer is evaluated by his/her level of cognizance and participation in the observed event. The French philosopher Jacques Rancière referred to a heightened state of a viewerʼs self-awareness as an ʻemancipation of the spectatorʼ. This is where the viewer abandons their passive role of observation for one that is rational and presently engaged. Following Rancièreʼs argument, my thesis suggests that the bystander is transformed by the context and circumstance/s of his/her surroundings (violence) and elevated or ʻemancipatedʼ to a status of selfawareness that exceeds all other kinds of viewership roles. Thus all other forms of observation are rendered obsolete as the bystander achieves a new status —an alterity that surpasses his/her own inert physical presence in the world

AN EVALUATION OF CONTROLLED HUNTING FOR MANAGEMENT OF FERAL PIGEONS

Pigeons (Columba livia) are a problem for municipal governments throughout most of the eastern United States. Toxicants, sterilants, trapping, and shooting are the principal control techniques. Due to a general public aversion to toxicants and to monetary constraints, a pigeon control program which utilized periodic hunting pressure was initiated in Stuttgart, Arkansas County, Arkansas. Guidelines for organization of controlled hunts are presented along with pigeon harvest rates and population trends. The city government and interested citizens consider the program to be successful and cost effective

Conceptual analysis of a lunar base transportation system

Important to the planning for a lunar base is the development of transportation requirements for the establishment and maintenance of that base. This was accomplished as part of a lunar base systems assessment study conducted by the NASA Langley Research Center in conjunction with the NASA Johnson Space Center. Lunar base parameters are presented using a baseline lunar facility concept and timeline of developmental phases. Masses for habitation and scientific modules, power systems, life support systems, and thermal control systems were generated, assuming space station technology as a starting point. The masses were manifested by grouping various systems into cargo missions and interspersing manned flights consistent with construction and base maintenance timelines. A computer program that sizes the orbital transfer vehicles (OTV's), lunar landers, lunar ascenders, and the manned capsules was developed. This program consists of an interative technique to solve the rocket equation successively for each velocity correction (delta V) in a mission. The delta V values reflect integrated trajectory values and include gravity losses. As the program computed fuel masses, it matched structural masses from General Dynamics' modular space-based OTV design. Variables in the study included the operation mode (i.e., expendable vs. reusable and single-stage vs. two-stage OTV's), cryogenic specific impulse, reflecting different levels of engine technology, and aerobraking vs. all-propulsive return to Earth orbit. The use of lunar-derived oxygen was also examined for its general impact. For each combination of factors, the low-Earth orbit (LEO) stack masses and Earth-to-orbit (ETO) lift requirements are summarized by individual mission and totaled for the developmental phase. In addition to these discrete data, trends in the variation of study parameters are presented