Borderplex Economic Outlook: 2006 – 2008

A variety of measures such as real output, retail receipts, and personal incomes show how the borderplex economy continues to expand (Table 1). Although employment growth is expected to subside, local labor market strength will be sufficiently robust to hold the El Paso unemployment rate well below its 32-year average of greater than 10 percent. Similarly, even though residential construction activity is expected to moderate slightly, overall housing activity is projected to remain high by historical standards. Expansion at Fort Bliss is the source for much of the heightened business activity as the arrivals of new troops translate into greater demand for housing, retail, and other services. By 2008, more than 13 thousand businesses are expected to be registered in El Paso. Per capita personal income is projected to exceed $26,200 that year. Additional detail obtained from simulations of the UTEP Borderplex Econometric Forecasting Model is presented below for El Paso, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua City, and Las Cruces.U.S. - Mexico Border Region; Econometric Forecasts

El Paso Housing Sector Econometric Forecast Accuracy

There is comparatively little empirical evidence regarding the accuracy of regional housing sector forecasts. Much of the recent analysis conducted for this topic is developed for housing starts and indicates a relatively poor track record. This study examines residential real estate forecasts previously published for El Paso, TX using a structural econometric model. Model coverage is much broader than just starts. Similar to earlier studies, the previously published econometric predictions frequently do not fare very well against the selected random walk benchmarks utilized for the various series under consideration.applied econometrics, metropolitan housing sector forecasts, Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Political Economy, C53, R15, R31,

Source-to-Source Transformations for Parallel Optimizations in STAPL

Programs that use the STAPL C++ parallel programming library express their control and data flow explicitly through the use of skeletons. Skeletons can be simple parallel operations like map and reduce, or the result of composing several skeletons. Composition is implemented by tracking the dependencies among individual data elements in the STAPL runtime system. However, the operations and dependencies within a compose skeleton can be determined at compile time from the C++ abstract syntax tree. This enables the use of source-to-source transformations to fuse the composed skeletons. Transformations can also be used to replace skeletons entirely with equivalent code. Both transformations greatly reduce STAPL runtime overhead, and zip fusion also allows a compiler to optimize the work functions as a single unit. We present a Clang compiler plugin and wrapper that automatically perform these transformations, and demonstrate its ability to improve performance

Borderplex Long-Term Economic Trends to 2026

Long-term prospects for the El Paso - Ciudad Juárez borderplex economy call for steady growth. On the north side of the border, the population of El Paso is projected to reach 965 thousand by 2026, the last year of the forecast period. Real gross metropolitan product, the broadest measure of local economic activity, is expected to increase by more than 85 percent over the course of the next two decades to more than $31.5 billion (1996 dollars). Better job market conditions combine with income growth to push total retail sales above$20.7 billion by the end of the simulation period. Given this projected state of affairs, the UTEP Borderplex Econometric Model forecasts housing starts to average more than 5 thousand units per year through 2026. Substantially higher single-family home prices result under these circumstances. Demographic expansion and business growth jointly lead to greater demand for water in El Paso. As shown in Table 1, total consumption will approximate 45.8 billion gallons per year by the end of the forecast period.Border Economies; Econometric Forecasting Analysis

Infrastructure Tolls in Texas: Evidence from the Borderplex

Do changes in toll rates affect pedestrian, car, and truck traffic across the bridges between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico? As more and more attention is paid to the use of tolls as funding mechanisms for new road and infrastructure construction in Texas, the answer to this question has policy implications not only for local and state lawmakers, but also for firms importing and exporting goods between Texas and Mexico. This article uses bridge traffic data from the Borderplex to examine the relative impact of tolls and concludes that local policymakers have more leeway than they thought in raising funds to make infrastructure improvements.Tolls; International Bridges; Border Economics

Source-to-Source Transformations for Parallel Optimizations in STAPL

Programs that use the STAPL C++ parallel programming library express their control and data flow explicitly through the use of skeletons. Skeletons can be simple parallel operations like map and reduce, or the result of composing several skeletons. Composition is implemented by tracking the dependencies among individual data elements in the STAPL runtime system. However, the operations and dependencies within a compose skeleton can be determined at compile time from the C++ abstract syntax tree. This enables the use of source-to-source transformations to fuse the composed skeletons. Transformations can also be used to replace skeletons entirely with equivalent code. Both transformations greatly reduce STAPL runtime overhead, and zip fusion also allows a compiler to optimize the work functions as a single unit. We present a Clang compiler plugin and wrapper that automatically perform these transformations, and demonstrate its ability to improve performance

Development of a Health Survey Instrument for 5- to 8-Year-Old Youths

Measuring program outcomes is required for documenting effectiveness of interventions with youths participating in programs funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u27s Children, Youth, and Families at Risk (CYFAR) initiative. The California CYFAR program provided programming for youths aged 5–8, which necessitated the development of an age-appropriate survey measure. Evaluating younger youths to assess healthful living outcomes is challenging, especially with youths in kindergarten through second grade. This article addresses development and testing of the measure and resultant lessons learned. Recommendations for developing an evaluation survey for younger youths are provided

Malignant Cerebral Edema following CT Myelogram Using Isovue-M 300 Intrathecal Nonionic Water-Soluble Contrast: A Case Report

Lumbar myelogram utilizing nonionic contrast is a commonly performed procedure to identify spinal pathology. Complication rates are low. Cerebral edema has been shown to occur following intrathecal injection of ionic contrast; however, no current literature has documented this complication relating to the ubiquitously used nonionic contrast medium. We report a case of a patient who developed malignant cerebral edema following a lumbar myelogram with Isovue-M 300 nonionic water-soluble intrathecal contrast. We believe this is the first reported case of cerebral edema resulting from the use of a nonionic contrast

Borderplex Economic Outlook: 2006 – 2008

A variety of measures such as real output, retail receipts, and personal incomes show how the borderplex economy continues to expand (Table 1). Although employment growth is expected to subside, local labor market strength will be sufficiently robust to hold the El Paso unemployment rate well below its 32-year average of greater than 10 percent. Similarly, even though residential construction activity is expected to moderate slightly, overall housing activity is projected to remain high by historical standards. Expansion at Fort Bliss is the source for much of the heightened business activity as the arrivals of new troops translate into greater demand for housing, retail, and other services. By 2008, more than 13 thousand businesses are expected to be registered in El Paso. Per capita personal income is projected to exceed $26,200 that year. Additional detail obtained from simulations of the UTEP Borderplex Econometric Forecasting Model is presented below for El Paso, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua City, and Las Cruces