The Mountain West: Affordable Housing Opportunities

This fact sheet provides selected data pertaining to the Mountain West region from, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, a 2018 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The report includes statistics “based on data from the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). THE ACS is an annual nationwide survey of approximately 3.5 million addresses.

A positive SeHCAT test results in fewer subsequent investigations in patients with chronic diarrhoea.

Chronic diarrhoea is a common condition, resulting from a number of different disorders. Bile acid diarrhoea, occurring in about a third of these patients, is often undiagnosed. We hypothesised that a positive diagnosis of bile acid diarrhoea would reduce the need for subsequent investigations for alternative diagnoses. METHODS: Patients previously recruited to a study of chronic diarrhoea who had selenium homocholic acid taurine (SeHCAT) testing and subsequent follow-up at our institution were identified. In a retrospective analysis, the numbers of defined investigations undertaken from the first 3 months after SeHCAT in the following 5 years were compared. RESULTS: 90 patients were identified with primary bile acid diarrhoea (SeHCAT retention 15%, n=54). Follow-up had been performed on 29 and 39 subjects, respectively, with no differences in previous investigations or the last contact date. In the follow-up period, the proportions of these patients who had undergone endoscopic procedures (gastroscopy, colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy) were the same. However, there was a higher proportion of patients in the SeHCAT-negative group who had other investigations, including imaging, physiological tests and blood tests (p=0.037). The use of cross-sectional imaging was significantly higher in this group (p=0.015) with greater proportions having CT (0.44 vs 0.10) and MRI (0.26 vs 0.07). Ultrasound use and the number of blood tests were higher in the SeHCAT-negative group whereas the SeHCAT-positive group attended more clinic appointments (p=0.013). CONCLUSION: A positive diagnosis of bile acid diarrhoea, made by a SeHCAT test, resulted in reduced use of diagnostic investigations over the subsequent 5 years

The Urban Heat Island Effect in Nevada

This fact sheet explores the temperature difference between Nevada cities and their undeveloped surrounding areas using reports by the Urban Land Institute, Climate Central, National Public Radio (NPR), and various governmental organizations. We investigate what “urban heat islands” are, their effects, the correlation between heat and income, and factors that contribute to rising temperatures in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Reno

The Outdoor Recreation Economy in the Mountain West

This fact sheet provides select data from the State Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account (ORSA) at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to highlight the outdoor recreation economy in the Mountain West region, including Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado

Strategic sourcing for a competitive advantage in the hotel industry

In order to remain competitive in an intensely competitive business environment, many companies have resorted to cost-cutting, lay-offs, restructuring, and increased productivity measures to manage expenses and to increase profits. Senior executives in organizations have realized that on average, 50% or more of an organization’s operating budget is spent on purchased goods and services. Therefore, the decisions made by purchasing professionals can help to determine the financial viability of the organization (Ball, 2005). Firms can increase the so-called “bottom line” by either increasing revenues or by decreasing costs. Under economic conditions of strong competition and uncertainty, it is often difficult to increase revenues. Conversely, the competitive environment can provide an advantage to the organization which has the ability to negotiate lower prices for purchased goods and services. The opportunity to increase income without relying on raising revenues is the essence of strategic sourcing initiatives

The effect of network topology on optimal exploration strategies and the evolution of cooperation in a mobile population

We model a mobile population interacting over an underlying spatial structure using a Markov movement model. Interactions take the form of public goods games, and can feature an arbitrary group size. Individuals choose strategically to remain at their current location or to move to a neighbouring location, depending upon their exploration strategy and the current composition of their group. This builds upon previous work where the underlying structure was a complete graph (i.e. there was effectively no structure). Here, we consider alternative network structures and a wider variety of, mainly larger, populations. Previously, we had found when cooperation could evolve, depending upon the values of a range of population parameters. In our current work, we see that the complete graph considered before promotes stability, with populations of cooperators or defectors being relatively hard to replace. By contrast, the star graph promotes instability, and often neither type of population can resist replacement. We discuss potential reasons for this in terms of network topology

Bridging the gap: Home-school partnerships in kindergarten

Although home-school partnerships support Kindergarten children\u27s development of vocabulary, the alphabetic principle, and phonological awareness, the mechanisms through which these partnerships are established and facilitated with immigrant parents from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are largely unknown. Therefore, the major research questions that guided this qualitative, grounded theory study focused on exploring how successful Kindergarten teachers defined home-school partnerships with parents, the strategies the teachers used to communicate with parents, the ways these teachers reached out to parents to create and sustain partnerships, and how the teachers used these partnerships to support children\u27s learning. Vygotsky\u27s sociocultural theory served as the conceptual framework because it supports the critical role that parents play in children\u27s learning and development. To collect the data, the experiences and perceptions of 12 Kindergarten teachers obtained from the Toronto District School Board were elicited through in-depth, semistructured interviews using open-ended questions. I also examined documents used to communicate with parents. Following the guidelines of grounded theory methodology, the data analysis involved open, axial, and selective coding. The results indicated that before Kindergarten teachers can create and sustain home-school partnerships, the teachers must embrace diversity and adopt appropriate practices that enable all parents to become involved. Given that the ability to read is paramount to children\u27s academic success, this study leads to positive social change by providing Kindergarten teachers with a model that they can use to establish and facilitate home-school partnerships with immigrant parents from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds to support children\u27s development of early reading skills

Yoga and the Jesus Prayer—A Comparison between aṣtānga yoga in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali and the Psycho-Physical Method of Hesychasm

The present article will try to show differences and similarities in description about the ascetic teaching and mystical experience of two totally different spiritual traditions, i.e. in regard to the “Jesus Prayer” in the late Byzantine era and “yoga” in ancient India. A prayer made much use of by Christians in the Eastern Orthodox Church is the so-called “Jesus Prayer” or “Prayer of the heart,” including a short phrase, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” that is repeatedly and continuously recited.1 The Jesus Prayer began to spread generally in the Eastern Church with the birth of “hesychasm,” a spiritual movement of Orthodox monasticism in the 14th century Byzantine empire. But a significant part of this movement was not so much the establishment of the Jesus Prayer itself but a special psycho-physical technique which began to be practiced with this prayer by monks on the Holy Mountain of Athos. What interests us in this regard is that this psycho-physical method, including a special bodily posture and a breath control technique, appears to be quite similar to the methods set out in another religious tradition, namely that of yoga that developed from ancient times in India. Because of its impressive similarity, a Byzantinologist, Endre von Ivánka, called the practitioners of hesychasm “byzantinische Yogis.”2 For this present article we take up the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali with its comprehensive method of yoga, and clarify similarities and differences in the conceptual and methodological frameworks of the two systems

Evolving multiplayer networks: Modelling the evolution of cooperation in a mobile population

We consider a finite population of individuals that can move through a structured environment using our previously developed flexible evolutionary framework. In the current paper the behaviour of the individuals follows a Markov movement model where decisions about whether they should stay or leave depends upon the group of individuals they are with at present. The interaction between individuals is modelled using a public goods game. We demonstrate that cooperation can evolve when there is a cost associated with movement. Combining the movement cost with a larger population size has a positive effect on the evolution of cooperation. Moreover, increasing the exploration time, which is the amount of time an individual is allowed to explore its environment, also has a positive effect. Unusually, we find that the evolutionary dynamics used does not have a significant effect on these results