REU-DEIM Classification of Hispanic Voters in Hispanic Groups Using Name and Zip Code Data in Palm Beach, Florida

When it comes to registering to vote, Hispanic voters can only register as “Hispanic” in the “Race/Ethnicity” category, causing difficulties when analyzing voting trends amongst the Hispanic community. Upon the recent idea that not all Hispanic Groups vote the same, the goal is to create a model that can possibly identify a voter’s Hispanic Group with the information provided on the public Florida voter file. This is accomplished using name and zip code data for all voters in Palm Beach, Florida. This paper will explore the model implemented, its findings and limitations. Palm Beach, Florida, is met with low confidence in classification, leaving the final sample of highly confident active Hispanic voters with 15% of its original sample. Further analysis on other counties will be needed to gauge how impactful this limitation might be on the rest of the state

Effective conversations about literature in ESL

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how to facilitate effective conversations about shared texts in English as a Second Language lessons. Since effective instructional talk between students and teachers help English learners develop speaking and listening skills, as well as improve their understanding of written texts, students need lots of opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations about literature. In the course of this study, six bilingual students practiced to express and elaborate their ideas. They learned to ask their teacher and their peers inferential and critical questions, and respond to those in turn. They discussed stories as well as rules for effective conversations

Guidelines for Construction Companies to Decide Between Outsourcing and Self-Performing for Prefabricated Components

Prefabrication and modularization has been used in the construction industry for decades. It has recently made a resurgence worldwide providing increased productivity, safety, quality and construction schedule. This research has focused on the situation where a construction company has decided to use prefabrication and faces two possibilities, they either will self-perform or they will outsource the construction of the prefabricated components. The decision making process used by a construction company to determine whether to outsource or self-perform prefabricated components is examined and analyzed. Prefabrication is an industrial process in which certain components are manufactured in a specialized facility. These items will then be assembled or installed on the construction site in their final position. Any component manufactured off-site and requires being assembled or installed to form a complete system can be considered as prefabricated. Outsourcing is a strategy in which a company hires another to perform some of their work activities. In the construction industry, outsourcing is performed by highly specialized companies, typically subcontractors or suppliers. In prefabrication outsourcing refers to subcontracting another company to perform manufacturing of prefabricated components offsite with their own resources. Self-performing refers to a company executing activities of a project by utilizing their own qualified labor, specific types of equipment, and have specialized knowledge on how to construct the components. In construction, self-performing is typically used for schedule sensitive, complex and critical activities. This allows the contractors to identify and solve construction issues, control the level of quality, and manage the safety processes. Contractors self-performing have advantage over those that do not because of these issues. When referring to self-performing or prefabrication, it means that a contractor would be in charge of setting up the off-site manufacturing facility and providing prefabricated components that will be assembled or installed in the project. In order to provide guidelines for construction companies to decide between outsourcing prefabricated components (buying/outsourcing) or creating a new division dedicated to manufacturing the components (making/self-performing) a decision tool was developed. The most important reasons for outsourcing and the most important reasons for self-performing were identified in a survey. Using all the information as a base, a survey tool was developed, tested and forwarded to experts to fill. The results of the survey were processed and analyzed in order to create a decision making tool to assist construction companies in their decision to whether outsource or self-perform prefabricated components. The tool is focused on construction companies who have had some experience with prefabrication in the past and are currently trying to decide if they should open a prefabrication facility to self-perform their own prefabricated components or if they should outsource them

La seguridad social: Algunos aspectos de su crisis actual

La antigüedad, universalidad y generosidad del sistema de seguridad social público, así como los cambios en la estructura demográfica y en el mercado de trabajo (incremento del desempleo y el subempleo), han generaron fuertes déficits y aportes cada vez más crecientes por parte de los Estados de la Europa Occidental. Esto ha provocado en los últimos años un intenso debate, respecto al grado de intervención del Estado en este campo, más conocido como "la crisis actual del Estado de Bienestar", y el conflicto entre argumentos ha surgido con singular fuerza

La distribución del ingreso en Chile: La urgencia de una propuesta clara, sencilla y eficaz

Durante los años noventa y hasta la crisis asiática, Chile fue capaz de crecer a tasas altas, presentando notables avances en, reducción del desempleo, aumentos reales de salarios e ingresos, control de la inflación, etc. A pesar de este dinamismo, la distribución del ingreso se mantuvo inalterada, manteniéndose su elevada concentración. Tras la crisis asiática y la recesión de 1999, la economía chilena ha retomado una senda de crecimiento, aunque a tasas moderadas en relación a las que prevalecieron durante los noventa

Violation of action--reaction and self-forces induced by nonequilibrium fluctuations

We show that the extension of Casimir-like forces to fluctuating fluids driven out of equilibrium can exhibit two interrelated phenomena forbidden at equilibrium: self-forces can be induced on single asymmetric objects and the action--reaction principle between two objects can be violated. These effects originate in asymmetric restrictions imposed by the objects' boundaries on the fluid's fluctuations. They are not ruled out by the second law of thermodynamics since the fluid is in a nonequilibrium state. Considering a simple reaction--diffusion model for the fluid, we explicitly calculate the self-force induced on a deformed circle. We also show that the action--reaction principle does not apply for the internal Casimir forces exerting between a circle and a plate. Their sum, instead of vanishing, provides the self-force on the circle-plate assembly.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. V2: New title; Abstract partially rewritten; Largely enhanced introductory and concluding remarks (incl. new Refs.

A modified backward/forward sweep-based method for reconfiguration of unbalanced distribution networks

A three-phase unbalanced power flow method can provide a more realistic scenario of how distribution networks operate. The backward/forward sweep-based power flow method (BF-PF) has been used for many years as an important computational tool to solve the power flow for unbalanced and radial power systems. However, some of the few available research tools produce many errors when they are used for network reconfiguration because the topology changesafter multiple switch actions and the nodes are disorganized continually. This paper presents a modifiedBF-PF for three-phase unbalanced radial distribution networks that is capable of arranging the system topology when reconfiguration changes the branch connections. A binary search is used to determine the connections between nodes, allowing the algorithm to avoid those problems when reconfiguration is carried out, regardless of node numbers. Tests are made to verify the usefulness of the proposed algorithm in both the IEEE 13-node test feeder and the 123-node test feeder, converging in every run where constraints are accomplished. This approach can be used easily for a large-scale feeder network reconfiguration. The full version of this modified backward/forward sweep algorithm is available for research at MathWorks

La gestión y eficiencia en el sector público

Sin duda que diferentes organizaciones y entidades que conforman el sector público, tienen una fuerte incidencia en el desarrollo de Chile, especialmente en términos de lograr una mayor equidad social.Ante esta realidad y ante el proceso de democratización, al sector público se le plantean nuevos problemas y desafíos, como pueden ser: lograr relaciones más cercanas en su interrelación con la sociedad de manera de conocer en forma oportuna las necesidades y requerimientos de esta; ampliar y mejorar la cobertura de sus servicios; incrementar los ámbitos de intervención pública hacia el medio ambiente; la aplicación de instrumentos orientados hacia el desarrollo económico local y el desarrollo productivo; la generación y ampliación de recursos; el aumento de la calidad de la inversión pública mediante la implementación de metodologías; la eficiente asignación de los recursos y su compatibilización con adecuadas pautas de participación y descentralización