Monetary policy and global equilibria in a production economy

In linear macroeconomic models, an active Taylor rule for monetary policy can guarantee a locally unique nonexplosive equilibrium. In a series of articles, Benhabib, Schmitt-Grohé, and Uribe looked beyond the local dynamics and showed that active Taylor rules could interact with the zero bound on nominal interest rates to generate multiple equilibria, including a steady-state equilibrium with inflation below target. Recently, the persistence of low inflation and low nominal interest rates has brought attention to Benhabib, Schmitt-Grohé, and Uribe's work in policy circles. We provide an introduction to this line of research. The specific model used here—Rotemberg price setting in discrete time—fits neatly into the frameworks typically used for applied monetary policy analysis. Furthermore, we provide computer programs in the open source software R to replicate the results in the paper.Inflation (Finance) ; Monetary policy

The Perceptions of Alternative Education Students Ages 18-21 About the Factors in the Traditional School Setting that Inhibited Their On-Time High School Graduation

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how students ages 18-21 who are currently enrolled in a non-traditional educational setting articulate their educational pathway. The narrative inquiry method of research allowed the research participants to tell “their stories” in “their own” words. The research participants could articulate their views and perceptions on the factors that affected their educational pathway. Thirteen participants participated in the focus groups sessions and in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Bronfenbrenner’s social systems theory (1979), environmental factors, educational experiences, excessive discipline infractions, and legal problems were dominant themes in the study. The study examined the at-risk social, at-risk school, and at-risk student/family factors that may impact a student’s educational pathway. The study found that even though each research participant had a different educational pathway, many of their social, school, and family experiences were similar. The perspectives of the factors impacting each research participant’s pathway varied as well as his or her perception of the level of support received from individuals throughout his or her educational pathway. Participants in the study were motivated to continue to pursue their secondary educational credentials despite obstacles, setbacks, and adversity. This study identified the need for the local school district to continue providing alternative educational settings to students that need a different learning environment. There is also a need to evaluate the current student supports and interventions offered in the traditional school setting. There is also a need to address the impact of community and neighborhood factors that may affect students while in school. Policies designed for school improvement are recommended

Form-Based Codes: An alternative zoning method used to redevelop the Georgia Square Mall in Athens, GA

Although not a new concept, form-based codes have become increasingly popular as cities, towns, and municipalities begin to develop and redevelop urban and suburban areas. Cities, towns, and municipalities that once encouraged sprawling suburban neighborhoods, shopping centers, and single-use buildings with conventional zoning codes are now looking to redevelop these areas into vibrant urban centers. Unlike conventional zoning codes, form-based codes provides a set of guidelines that address the design of public space through the regulation of the physical form, which includes building heights, form, location, types, façade standards, parking, park space, and community gathering space. Form based codes are seen as a proscriptive alternative to using conventional zoning codes and may be implemented in several different ways. The following paper will briefly explore the history of conventional zoning codes in the United States, which are rooted in protecting the health, safety, and welfare of urban dwellers while cities expanded rapidly during the 19th century, and there effect on sprawling suburban development. In the early to mid 20th century zoning codes meant to protect urban dwellers quickly spread as residents began to leave cities for to smaller towns, municipalities, and suburban locations, which has had a tremendous affect on the physical form of suburban development. By the late 1990’s and early 2000’s a shift began to occur in the habits of suburban dwellers. During this time period many suburban shopping centers that had thrived for half a century began to decline, which can be associated with certain environmental, economic, and social issues taking place across the United States. Businesses located in suburban shopping centers began to relocate to more urbanized shopping areas, leaving behind empty shopping centers with an overabundance of surface level parking. Like many towns across the United States, Athens, GA experienced a rise and fall of suburban development during the past 50 years. An area located along the edge of the city that was home to the largest regional suburban mall in the United States is now struggling to attract businesses and consumers. Using a series of form based design and building standards, the mall site will transform from a dying suburban shopping area into a vibrant urban center.Master of City and Regional Plannin

Ninja: Non identity based, privacy preserving authentication for ubiquitous environments

How should Ubicomp technologies be evaluated? While lab studies are good at sensing aspects of human behavior and revealing usability problems, they are poor at capturing context of use. In-situ studies are good at demonstrating how people appropriate technologies in their intended setting, but are expensive and difficult to conduct. Here, we show how they can be used more productively in the design process. A mobile learning device was developed to support teams of students carrying out scientific inquiry in the field. An initial in-situ study showed it was not used in the way envisioned. A contextualized analysis led to a comprehensive understanding of the user experience, usability and context of use, leading to a substantial redesign. A second in-situ study showed a big improvement in device usability and collaborative learning. We discuss the findings and conclude how in-situ studies can play an important role in the design and evaluation of Ubicomp applications and user experiences

netloc: Towards a Comprehensive View of the HPC System Topology

International audienceThe increasing complexity of High Performance Computing (HPC) server architectures and networks has made topology- and affinity-awareness a critical component of HPC application optimization. Although there is a portable mechanism for accessing the server-internal topology there is no such mechanism for accessing the network topology of modern HPC systems in an equally portable manner. The Network Locality (netloc) project provides mechanisms for portably discovering and abstractly representing the network topology of modern HPC systems. Additionally, netloc provides the ability to merge the network topology with the server-internal topologies resulting in a comprehensive map of the HPC system topology. Using a modular infrastructure, netloc provides support for a variety of network types and discovery techniques. By representing the network topology as a graph, netloc supports any network topology configuration. The netloc architecture hides the topology discovery mechanism from the application developer thus allowing them to focus on traversing and analyzing the resulting map of the HPC system topology

Different dimensionality trends in the Landau damping of magnons in iron, cobalt and nickel: time dependent density functional study

We study the Landau damping of ferromagnetic magnons in Fe, Co, and Ni as the dimensionality of the system is reduced from three to two. We resort to the \textit{ab initio} linear response time dependent density functional theory in the adiabatic local spin density approximation. The numerical scheme is based on the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green's function method. The key points of the theoretical approach and the implementation are discussed. We investigate the transition metals in three different forms: bulk phases, free-standing thin films and thin films supported on a nonmagnetic substrate. We demonstrate that the dimensionality trends in Fe and Ni are opposite: in Fe the transition from bulk bcc crystal to Fe/Cu(100) film reduces the damping whereas in Ni/Cu(100) film the attenuation increases compared to bulk fcc Ni. In Co, the strength of the damping depends relatively weakly on the sample dimensionality. We explain the difference in the trends on the basis of the underlying electronic structure. The influence of the substrate on the spin-wave damping is analyzed by employing Landau maps representing wave-vector resolved spectral density of the Stoner excitations.Comment: 32 pages, 21 figures, to be submitted to PR