The Economics of Primary School Closings: A Cost Analysis

Because of declining demands for a number of urban public services, public officials have had to make difficult adjustments towards more efficient levels of these services. One such adjustment of very great concern has been the modification of education services in response to declining enrollments. This study investigates the impacts of changing enrollments, enrollment scale, capacity utilization, and age of schools on per student instructional costs and per student cost of land and buildings. The resulting model has been estimated for Duluth, Minnesota primary schools and these regression estimates provide a good explanation for per student instructional costs. The residuals for the per student instructional costs are also examined. These residuals provide an important source of information for making managerial decisions regarding service levels since they indicate which schools are performing above or below cost norms

WATER USE COMPONENTS OF A REGIONAL ACCOUNTS AND SIMULATION SYSTEM

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Consistent Forecasting for the 1980\u27s in State Iron Industry Development

A large-scale model, SIMLAB, was used to project the iron ore industry through the decade of the 1980\u27s for the state of Minnesota. This forecast shows that past trends in the industry are unlikely to continue through 1990, although output is seen to increase slightly during this period. Future studies will deal with different development scenarios to estimate the impacts of alternate future assumptions from this baseline trend analysis

The Chlorine Derivatives of Vanillin

The purpose of this work was to complete the possible list of chlorine derivatives of vanillin, and to use these products in testing further the theory that the presence of acidic substituents favors the formation of stereoisomeric aldoximes

Human subjective response to steering wheel vibration caused by diesel engine idle

This study investigated the human subjective response to steering wheel vibration of the type caused by a four-cylinder diesel engine idle in passenger cars. Vibrotactile perception was assessed using sinusoidal amplitude-modulated vibratory stimuli of constant energy level (r.m.s. acceleration, 0.41 m/s(2)) having a carrier frequency of 26 Hz (i.e. engine firing frequency) and modulation frequency of 6.5 Hz (half-order engine harmonic). Evaluations of seven levels of modulation depth parameter m (0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0) were performed in order to define the growth function of human perceived disturbance as a function of amplitude modulation depth. Two semantic descriptors were used (unpleasantness and roughness) and two test methods (the Thurstone paired-comparison method and the Borg CR-10 direct evaluation scale) for a total of four tests. Each test was performed using an independent group of 25 individuals. The results suggest that there is a critical value of modulation depth m = 0.2 below which human subjects do not perceive differences in amplitude modulation and above which the stimulus-response relationship increases monotonically with a power function. The Stevens power exponents suggest that the perceived unpleasantness is non-linearly dependent on modulation depth m with an exponent greater than 1 and that the perceived roughness is dependent with an exponent close to unity

Cigarette Smoke Suppresses Type I Interferon-Mediated Antiviral Immunity in Lung Fibroblast and Epithelial Cells

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of cigarette smoke on innate antiviral defense mechanisms; specifically, we examined the effects of cigarette smoke on the induction of type I interferon (IFN). We observed a dose-dependent decrease in the ability of human lung fibroblast and epithelial cells to elicit an antiviral response against a viral double-strand RNA (dsRNA) mimic, polyI:C, in the presence of cigarette smoke-conditioned medium (SCM). Mechanistically, SCM decreases the expression of IFN-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15) and IFN regulatory factor-7 (IRF-7) transcripts and suppresses the nuclear translocation of key transcription factors, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and IRF-3, after polyI:C stimulation. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the intercellular defense strategy against viral infection is also impaired. We observed a decrease in the ability of fibroblasts to elicit an antiviral state in response to IFN-β stimulation. This was associated with decreased nuclear translocation of phosphorylated Stat1 in response to IFN-β treatment. The effects elicited by SCM are reversible and are almost entirely abrogated in the presence of an antioxidant, such as glutathione. Our findings suggest that cigarette smoke affects the immediate-early, inductive, and amplification phases of the type I IFN response

Not So Fast! An Investigation of Real-World Speeding Behaviors and Underlying Attitudes

Although speeding is a major contributor to traffic fatalities, attempts to address this problem have not led to significant reductions in speed-related crashes. In this paper, we describe an investigation of speeding behaviors that was intended to: (1) identify which drivers speed, (2) model the relative roles of situational, demographic, and personality factors in predicting travel speeds, and (3) classify drivers based on their speeding patterns. The speeding behaviors of 88 drivers were recorded over the course of approximately four weeks of naturalistic driving in Seattle WA. Data collected included 1-Hz recordings of vehicle position and speed using a GPS receiver, and responses to survey questions. Regression models were developed to identify predictors of 1) “any” speeding and 2) amount of speeding. Significant predictors included demographic variables such as age and gender, situational factors such as time-of-day and day-of-week, and key personality factors such as attitudes towards reckless driving

Acidification of Volcanic Ash Soils from Maui and Hawai‘i Island for Blueberry and Tea Production

This publication provides background on soil acidity in relation to plant growth, presents approaches to acidifying soils, and provides guidelines for the acidification of some volcanic soils on Maui and Hawai‘i island that are potential sites for tea and blueberry production

Synthesis Gas Production by Rapid Solar Thermal Gasification of Corn Stover

Biomass resources hold great promise as renewable fuel sources for the future, and there exists great interest in thermochemical methods of converting these resources into useful fuels. The novel approach taken by the authors uses concentrated solar energy to efficiently achieve temperatures where conversion and selectivity of gasification are high. Use of solar energy removes the need for a combustion fuel and upgrades the heating value of the biomass products. The syngas product of the gasification can be transformed into a variety of fuels useable with today?s infrastructure. Gasification in an aerosol reactor allows for rapid kinetics, allowing efficient utilization of the incident solar radiation and high solar efficiency

Effects of White Space in Learning via the Web

This study measured the effect of specific white space features on learning from instructional Web materials. The study also measured learners' beliefs regarding Web-based instruction. Prior research indicated that small changes in the handling of presentation elements can affect learning. Achievement results from this study indicated that in on-line materials, when content and overall structure are sound, minor differences regarding table borders and vertical spacing in text do not hinder learning. Beliefs regarding Web-based instruction and instructors who use it did not differ significantly between treatment groups. Implications of the study and cautions regarding generalizing from the results are discussed.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline