The Economic Impact Of Sports And Sporting Events On The Charlotte Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) Economy

The sports economy in the Charlotte MSA has grown dramatically in the past twenty-five years.  In 1980, attendance was less than 500,000 and total revenue was less than $15 million.  In 2011, Charlotte hosted a National Basketball team, a National Football team, two major NASCAR Cup events, several college teams, and a number of other important events.  This study calculated the economic impact of sports and sports events in the Charlotte MSA in 2011. NAICS data cannot be readily recast to isolate the sports industry, so this study used primary and secondary data.  The data were divided into four categories: Professional and College Sports TeamsSpecial Events (PGA, NASCAR, etc.)Major Amateur and Youth Events (including TEAM Charlotte Swimming, BASS/ESPN Outdoors)Sports Video and Media Productions Once data on the direct output from sporting activities are assembled, the IMPLAN 382 by 382 multiplier matrix was used to calculate the indirect effects and the induced effects of the sporting activities and the employment supported by the estimated economic activity. In 2011, sports and sporting events contributed over$1 billion directly to the regional economy and a total of more than $2 billion when indirect and induced effects are considered.  The direct effect amounts to 0.7 percent of the MSA GDP and the total effect is 1.7 percent.  This economic contribution supports nearly 14,000 jobs directly and more than 23,000 when indirect and induced effects are taken into account.  This corresponds to 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent of total employment, respectively

The Economic Impact Of The Film And Video Production And Distribution Industry On The Charlotte Regional Economy

This report provides measurement of the 2008 economic impacts of the film and video production and distribution industry on the Charlotte regional economy.  Officially known as the Charlotte USA Region, this 16 county area is one of America’s fastest-growing metropolitan regions and supports a well established and expanding film and video production and distribution industry.  Four different types of economic impacts generated by the film and video production and distribution industry were estimated based on the 2008 information. These impacts include: (1) output impacts; (2) employment impacts; (3) employee and freelancers compensation impacts; and (4) value added impacts. The results are disaggregated to identify the direct economic impact of the film and video production and distribution industry, the indirect (supply chain) impact of the industry, and the induced (re-spending) impact of the industry. The total impact of the industry is then the sum of direct, indirect, and induced impacts

Right-to-Work Laws as Economic Freedom: Their Role in Influencing the Geographic Pattern of Manufacturing Jobs, Incomes, and Finances

A large empirical literature has found positive effects from economic freedom on economic outcomes, such as output and per capita economic growth. This study seeks to explain empirically the disparate timing of state manufacturing earnings and employment decline, as well as the shift among states in both manufacturing earnings and manufacturing employment resulting from right-to-work laws, which can be viewed as reflecting labor market freedom and thereby acting as a de facto economic policy. The results of the empirical estimations suggest a marked geographic shift of manufacturing employment and compensation in the U.S. during the 1970 to 2012 time period. The empirical estimations indicate that the regions of the country that have historically represented the manufacturing base have suffered the greatest relative losses in both employment and compensation during this period. In addition to regional location, it appears that right-to-work laws have had the effect of leveling manufacturing employment and compensation levels across the states since 1970. The data analysis suggests that, at least in part due to right-to-work laws, the manufacturing sectors of the states and regions are becoming increasingly similar over time, i.e., manufacturing activity that was once highly concentrated in the Great Lakes, Northeast, and Mideast has now converged significantly, with the outcome that there is little geographic difference in concentration among the eight BEA regions

Estimating The Economic Impact Of Local Cultural Organizations: The Charlotte Arts & Science Council Example

This paper details the impact of the 58 affiliated members of the Charlotte Arts & Science Council on the economy of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. We find that the affiliated members of the Arts & Science Council had a sizable impact on the Mecklenburg economy.  Output was expanded by $129,171,622; earnings were increased by$50,589,999; and employment was increased by 2,132 full-time equivalent jobs.  These economic impacts were an important addition to the rich and varied cultural offerings provided by the Arts & Science Council affiliates

Right-to-Work Laws as Economic Freedom: Their Role in Influencing the Geographic Pattern of Manufacturing Jobs, Incomes, and Finances

A large empirical literature has found positive effects from economic freedom on economic outcomes, such as output and per capita economic growth. This study seeks to explain empirically the disparate timing of state manufacturing earnings and employment decline, as well as the shift among states in both manufacturing earnings and manufacturing employment resulting from right-to-work laws, which can be viewed as reflecting labor market freedom and thereby acting as a de facto economic policy. The results of the empirical estimations suggest a marked geographic shift of manufacturing employment and compensation in the U.S. during the 1970 to 2012 time period. The empirical estimations indicate that the regions of the country that have historically represented the manufacturing base have suffered the greatest relative losses in both employment and compensation during this period. In addition to regional location, it appears that right-to-work laws have had the effect of leveling manufacturing employment and compensation levels across the states since 1970. The data analysis suggests that, at least in part due to right-to-work laws, the manufacturing sectors of the states and regions are becoming increasingly similar over time, i.e., manufacturing activity that was once highly concentrated in the Great Lakes, Northeast, and Mideast has now converged significantly, with the outcome that there is little geographic difference in concentration among the eight BEA regions

BurstCube: A CubeSat for Gravitational Wave Counterparts

BurstCube will detect long GRBs, attributed to the collapse of massive stars, short GRBs (sGRBs), resulting from binary neutron star mergers, as well as other gamma-ray transients in the energy range 10-1000 keV. sGRBs are of particular interest because they are predicted to be the counterparts of gravitational wave (GW) sources soon to be detectable by LIGO/Virgo. BurstCube contains 4 CsI scintillators coupled with arrays of compact low-power Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) on a 6U Dellingr bus, a flagship modular platform that is easily modifiable for a variety of 6U CubeSat architectures. BurstCube will complement existing facilities such as Swift and Fermi in the short term, and provide a means for GRB detection, localization, and characterization in the interim time before the next generation future gamma-ray mission flies, as well as space-qualify SiPMs and test technologies for future use on larger gamma-ray missions. The ultimate configuration of BurstCube is to have a set of $\sim10$ BurstCubes to provide all-sky coverage to GRBs for substantially lower cost than a full-scale mission.Comment: In the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Busan, Kore

Boronate probes for the detection of hydrogen peroxide release from human spermatozoa

Human spermatozoa are compromised by production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and detection of ROS in spermatozoa is important for the diagnosis of male infertility. Probes 2',7'-dichlorohydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFH), dihydroethidium (DHE) and MitoSOX red (MSR) are commonly used for detecting ROS by flow cytometry, however these probes lack sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which is particularly damaging to mammalian sperm cells. This study reports the synthesis and use of three aryl boronate probes, peroxyfluor-1 (PF1), carboxy peroxyfluor-1 (CPF1) and a novel probe 2(2-ethoxyethoxy)ethoxy peroxyfluor-1 (EEPF1) in human spermatozoa. PF1 and EEPF1 were found to be effective in detecting H2O2 and peroxynitrite (ONOO(-)) produced by spermatozoa when stimulated with menadione or 4-hydroxynonenal. EEPF1 was more effective at detection of ROS in spermatozoa than DCFH, DHE and MSR; furthermore it distinguished poorly motile sperm as shown by greater ROS production. EEPF1 should therefore have a significant role in diagnosis of oxidative stress in male infertility, cryopreservation, age, lifestyle and exposure to environmental toxicants.Malcolm S. Purdey, Haley S. Connaughton, Sara Whiting, Erik P. Schartner, Tanya M. Monro, Jeremy G. Thompson, R. John Aitken, Andrew D. Abel

How market standards affect building design: the case of low energy design in commercial offices

This paper develops existing work on building design through a focus on one important yet understudied form of regulation: market standards. Market standards are agreed upon definitions of ‘necessary’ provision in buildings and are fundamental in ‘formatting’ markets and determining the value of a building in the market. The paper presents a case study of the design of ten commercial offices in London, UK, the effects of market standards on the designs and on the potential for the development of lower energy buildings. Theoretically, the paper integrates literatures on standards, institutions and markets to argue that market standards do important ‘work’ in design processes that requires closer scrutiny. In particular, we show that market standards: are an important form of normative and cultural regulation in the field of commercial office design; format and act as calculative devices in property markets; and result in forms of knowledge diminution that break the relationship between building design and occupiers’ practices. Together, these effects result in particular designs being legitimised and valued, and lower energy designs being delegitimised, devalued and pushed to the periphery of the attention of commercial office designers

Examining the presence and nature of delusions in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia syndromes

Objectives Abnormal beliefs and delusions have been reported in some people with dementia, however, the prevalence of delusions, and their neurocognitive basis has been underexplored. This study aimed to examine the presence, severity, content and neural correlates of delusions in a large, well-characterised cohort of dementia patients using a transdiagnostic, cross-sectional approach. Methods Four-hundred and eighty-seven people with dementia were recruited: 102 Alzheimer's disease, 136 behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia, 154 primary progressive aphasia, 29 motor neurone disease, 46 corticobasal syndrome, 20 progressive supranuclear palsy. All patients underwent neuropsychological assessment and brain magnetic resonance imaging, and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory was conducted with an informant, by an experienced clinician. Results In our cohort, 48/487 patients (10.8%) had delusions. A diagnosis of behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (18.4%) and Alzheimer's disease (11.8%) were associated with increased risk of delusions. A positive gene mutation was observed in 11/27 people with delusions. Individuals with frequent delusions performed worse on the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (p = 0.035), particularly on the orientation/attention (p = 0.022) and memory (p = 0.013) subtests. Voxel-based morphometry analyses found that increased delusional psychopathology was associated with reduced integrity of the right middle frontal gyrus, right planum temporale and left anterior temporal pole. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that delusions are relatively common in dementia and uncover a unique cognitive and neural profile associated with the manifestation of delusions. Clinically, delusions may lead to delayed or misdiagnosis. Our results shed light on how to identify individuals at risk of neuropsychiatric features of dementia, a crucial first step to enable targeted symptom management

Fermi Large Area Telescope Constraints on the Gamma-ray Opacity of the Universe

The Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) includes photons with wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared, which are effective at attenuating gamma rays with energy above ~10 GeV during propagation from sources at cosmological distances. This results in a redshift- and energy-dependent attenuation of the gamma-ray flux of extragalactic sources such as blazars and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). The Large Area Telescope onboard Fermi detects a sample of gamma-ray blazars with redshift up to z~3, and GRBs with redshift up to z~4.3. Using photons above 10 GeV collected by Fermi over more than one year of observations for these sources, we investigate the effect of gamma-ray flux attenuation by the EBL. We place upper limits on the gamma-ray opacity of the Universe at various energies and redshifts, and compare this with predictions from well-known EBL models. We find that an EBL intensity in the optical-ultraviolet wavelengths as great as predicted by the "baseline" model of Stecker et al. (2006) can be ruled out with high confidence.Comment: 42 pages, 12 figures, accepted version (24 Aug.2010) for publication in ApJ; Contact authors: A. Bouvier, A. Chen, S. Raino, S. Razzaque, A. Reimer, L.C. Reye