Arts and Economic Prosperity 5: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts & Cultural Organizations & their Audiences in Western New York

[Excerpt] Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 provides evidence that the nonprofit arts and culture sector is a significant industry in Western New York—one that generates $352.1 million in total economic activity. This spending—$156 million by nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and an additional $196.1 million in event-related spending by their audiences—supports 10,160 full-time equivalent jobs, generates$208.2 million in household income to local residents, and delivers $40.3 million in local and state government revenue. This economic impact study sends a strong signal that when we support the arts, we not only enhance our quality of life, but we also invest in Western New York’s economic well-being

Creating Jobs in Samoa Through Public-Private Partnerships

Samoa’s achievement in contracting out to the private sector the functions of its Public Works Department (PWD) is one of the most successful reforms to upgrade infrastructure; improve the effectiveness of public expenditure; and increase the overall employment, productivity, and capacity in a Pacific island economy in the past 20 years. The reform has resulted in the establishment of nearly 30 new Samoan road construction and maintenance companies. Directly and indirectly, the reform has led to the creation of more than 2,000 new jobs, making this a prime example of the power of public–private partnerships to promote economic development and increase employment.1 Prior to the reform, much of this work was undertaken inefficiently by the PWD, or by foreign companies under contract. All construction and maintenance in Samoa is now outsourced to Samoan companies, which are sufficiently productive and cost-effective that foreign firms now struggle to compete

A Cultural Tourism Strategy: Enriching Culture and Building Tourism in Buffalo Niagara

Their continued dedication to the region\u27s cultural, arts and heritage organizations and the development of cultural tourism has been, and will continue to be, essential to attaining the vision of “A Cultural Tourism Strategy”. The cultural tourism mission is to strengthen cultural, artistic and heritage organizations; expand individual opportunities for creativity and interpretation; help our regional economy grow; enhance the quality of life in our communities; advance the image and identity of the region; and build the region\u27s reputation as a world-class tourism destination. These benefits reinforce one another and can be achieved together

Alzheimer's Disease Prediction Using Longitudinal and Heterogeneous Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Recent evidence has shown that structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an effective tool for Alzheimer's disease (AD) prediction and diagnosis. While traditional MRI-based diagnosis uses images acquired at a single time point, a longitudinal study is more sensitive and accurate in detecting early pathological changes of the AD. Two main difficulties arise in longitudinal MRI-based diagnosis: (1) the inconsistent longitudinal scans among subjects (i.e., different scanning time and different total number of scans); (2) the heterogeneous progressions of high-dimensional regions of interest (ROIs) in MRI. In this work, we propose a novel feature selection and estimation method which can be applied to extract features from the heterogeneous longitudinal MRI. A key ingredient of our method is the combination of smoothing splines and the $l_1$-penalty. We perform experiments on the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. The results corroborate the advantages of the proposed method for AD prediction in longitudinal studies

Rethinking Impact: Understanding the complexity of poverty and change

Summary of workshop on Rethinking Impact: Understanding the complexity of poverty and change. March 26–28, 2008, Cali, ColombiaImpact, CGIAR, Workshop, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Lean Aerospace Initiative Research Projects Phase III

Summary of Lean Enterprise Team Projects, Product Development Team Projects, Manufacturing Systems Team Projects, Supplier Networks Team Projects, Organizations and People Team Projects, Acquisition Team Project

Production Operations Level: Transition-To-Lean Roadmap

This paper provides a roadmap for transitioning an existing production operation to one that fully implements a lean manufacturing philosophy. Integration of engineering, human resources, and business viewpoints are incorporated into the roadmap to provide a systematic implementation process. Specific actions, in order of precedence, are organized into major phases with points of interface defined with other systems that are both internal and external to the business enterprise. Definitions of those terms used on the roadmap, which are unique in describing lean activities and practices, are also presented in this paper. The roadmap is based upon experience gained to date by members of the Lean Aerospace Initiative in implementing lean philosophy into production operations at various aerospace facilities and validated by research conducted by this consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology