Nailing Down the Price of New Nonresidential Building Construction: Expanding the PPI to Include Indexes by Region and Type of Contractor

[Excerpt] In the early 2000s, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Producer Price Index (PPI) program began developing price indexes to cover the new nonresidential construction segment of the U.S. economy. This event was precipitated by feedback from industry analysts, economic agencies, and trade associations indicating that there was a lack of regularly available construction data based on a clearly defined methodology. In particular, the Bureau of Economic Analysis needed price indexes for the calculation of the nonresidential construction segment of the nominal gross domestic product. As a result, five new nonresidential building PPIs were created: • New warehouse building construction • New school building construction • New office building construction • New industrial building construction • New healthcare building construction The types of buildings mentioned in these indexes were selected because they covered a majority of the new, nonresidential building construction segment of the economy. The new nonresidential building construction indexes were introduced into publication piecemeal between 2005 and 2013. Although these indexes represented a significant accomplishment in terms of expanding PPI coverage, some data users were looking for more detailed price index information for the construction sector. In December 2016, in response to the requests for regional data, BLS created two additional index structures that reflected more detailed data: • New nonresidential building construction by contractor type and region (236400) • New nonresidential building construction by region (236500) This Beyond the Numbers article explains how these indexes are calculated, what their structures are like, and how analysts can use the data to better understand price movements in the nonresidential building construction sector of the U.S. economy

Highlights of the 2013 PPI User Survey

From December 2012 to May 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Producer Price Index (PPI) program conducted a user survey of its stakeholders in order to learn more about the program’s data users and how they utilize PPI data. The survey was sent by email to more than 42,000 PPI contacts who had a preexisting relationship with the PPI, as either a survey respondent, a subscriber to a data product, or a user who had contacted the PPI program for technical information. To increase awareness, BLS highlighted the survey on the PPI website and announced it in the U.S. Federal Register. The survey resulted in a total of 3,790 responses

Control of on-orbit contamination for the Argos (P91-1) satellite

The ARGOS (P91-1) satellite presents a challenging combination of on-orbit contamination concerns while mandating a low-cost approach. Several experiment payloads contain contamination sensitive optics, another contains large quantities of CO2 and Xe for release in orbit, and one contains an NH3 fueled arc jet thruster. The latter includes a suite of sensors to measure contamination; so prelaunch calculations will be tested. Planned contamination control techniques include: physical separation of sensitive surfaces from contamination sources; flight covers to protect sensitive surfaces during early outgassing on-orbit; gas release and thruster operation early in the flight, before flight covers are opened; and careful control of plumes and venting through a detailed analysis of each

NASA Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission TableSat 1C

The NASA Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission (to be launched in 2014) consists of four spin-stabilized spacecraft flying in precise formation. The MMS spacecraft, which have wire booms up to 60 m long, are analyzed using the UNH MMS TableSat IC, a limited 3-DOF rotation (full spin, limited nutation) table top prototype of the MMS spacecraft. A PID controller is implemented on TableSat IC to observe the effects of spin rate and nutation control on the experimental satellite bus and scaled booms. Nutation and spin are implemented independently and the behavior of the test bed with and without SDP booms is examined. The SDP booms are shown to increase the response time of the controlled platform

Chiral Symmetry Breaking in a Soft-Wall Model of AdS/QCD

We incorporate chiral symmetry breaking in a soft-wall version of the AdS/QCD model by using a modified dilaton profile and a quartic term in the bulk scalar potential. This allows one to separate the dependence on spontaneous and explicit chiral symmetry breaking. The resulting mass spectra in the scalar, vector and axial-vector sectors compares favorably with the respective QCD resonances.Comment: Proceedings of "Crossing the Boundaries: Gauge Dynamics at Strong Coupling", Minneapolis, 2009. 12 pages, 7 figure

Dynamic Diversity in a Catholic Augustinian College

This article shows how Merrimack College’s Catholic heritage and Augustinian tradition provide intellectual and spiritual resources for the college to fulfill its educational responsibility to prepare students for virtuous citizenship in a religiously and culturally pluralistic society. It uses four major Vatican documents and several foundational Augustinian ideas to elaborate principles useful for the guidance of Merrimack’s academic community and the direction of its campus culture. The article concludes with Merrimack’s “Statement of Augustinian Values for Higher Education” as an expression of its distinctive mission in American higher education

Acquisition of Digitial Geophysical Equipment for University of Maine Sea-Level, Coastal and Lacustrine Research

This Major Research Instrumentation award to University of Maine provides geophysical instrumentation for study of sea level and related coastal research. Consisting of a side-scan sonar system, seismic reflection profiler, digital data processing system and a vibracorer, it will be particularly used for research into evolution of coastal and nearshore systems and climate change in glaciomarine environments, especially the Gulf of Maine and adjacent environs. Research plans by University of Maine faculty and students will focus on the acquisition of data needed to model processes of change near former ice sheet margins. The facility plans to build on research partnerships developed over many years with state and federal agencies, private industry and other groups. The project is supported by the Division of Ocean Sciences at NSF. University of Maine will provide cost-share support for more than 40% of total project costs

The Maine Shore and the Army Corps: A Tale of Two Harbors, Wells and Saco, Maine

By discussing the problems of beach erosion and sand movement at Wells and Saco, Maine, Joseph Kelley and Walter Anderson demonstrate how single-minded, engineering approaches to complex, interdisciplinary coastal issues can create bigger problems than previously existed. As Kelley and Anderson explain, at both Wells and Camp Ellis, the Army Corps of Engineers was brought in to construct a harbor at no local cost to the community. This was accomplished by constructing jetties, and the result has been a persistent and serious problem of beach erosion. Over the years, the Army Corps has offered further technical solutions that have served only to exacerbate the problem. In pointing out the shortcomings of these solutions, Kelley and Anderson call for new action requiring federal, state, and local involvement. To do nothing, they argue, is to absorb the costs of letting nature run its course