Analysis Of The Economic Effects Of Low Income Housing Tax Credits

The development of low income housing projects can provide both social and economic benefits to a state.  As an economic engine, low income housing projects provide construction jobs and positively impacts long term employment.  This paper examines the specific impact investments in low income housing projects and associated tax credits

Providing International Opportunities For Business Students: A Guide To Planning A Short-Term Study Abroad Program At Regional And Small Universities

In recent years the perceived value and interest in participating in study abroad programs among college students has been increasing.  Faculty who endeavor to develop study abroad programs face many challenges, particularly at smaller universities where resources may be very limited.  This article offers recommendations to help faculty of regional and small universities who are considering developing a new direct-enrollment short-term program. The article addresses several pertinent issues including: the suitability of faculty, selecting a location, designing the course content, and post-trip evaluation

Using research to inform learning technology practice and policy: A qualitative analysis of student perspectives

As learning technologies are now integral to most higher education student learning experiences, universities need to make strategic choices about what technologies to adopt and how to best support and develop the use of these technologies, particularly in a climate of limited resources. Information from students is therefore a valuable contribution when determining institutional goals, building infrastructure and improving the quality of student learning. This paper draws on a survey of student experiences and expectations of technology across three Australian universities. Analysis of text responses from 7,000 students provides insight into ways that institutional learning technologies and academicled technologies are influencing the student experience. This paper also discusses how the three universities have used this information to develop strategic initiatives, and identifies a need for new strategies to support academic-led use of the available tools. © Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2014

Structural response monitoring of New Zealand bridges

In 2010, New Zealand introduced High Productivity Motor Vehicles onto the road network. To date, the movement of these heavier vehicles has been limited by the capacity of infrastructure, particularly bridges on the State Highway and local road networks. To limit the extent of costly bridge strengthening and replacement, the New Zealand Transport Agency is currently undertaking Structural Response Monitoring of three key bridges in the South Island. The Structural Response Monitoring systems employed to date include a range of conventional bridge monitoring and testing techniques, such as visual inspections, material testing, and survey levelling; as well as more advanced monitoring systems using accelerometers, displacement transducers, vehicle weigh-in-motion testing, advanced bridge model calibration, and concrete condition assessment. Whilst the monitoring is still its initial stages, significant conclusions around the structural performance of the bridges have already been made. These include the low likelihood of first degree resonance of the beams, calculation of a bridge specific impact factor, information on the continuity of the joints and interactions of the split piers. To minimise the cost of response monitoring, a five step methodology was developed. This included preliminary diagnostics, detailed bridge analysis and model calibration, assessment of critical failure mechanisms and focussed response monitoring on key regions under high stress. This paper outlines the findings of this testing and provides a cost effective solution for the monitoring of bridge structures

Examining Reservoir Management Practices: The Optimal Provision of Water Resources under Alternate Management Scenarios

Economic

Does Looking Inside a Circuit Help?

The Black-Box Hypothesisstates that any property of Boolean functions decided efficiently (e.g., in BPP) with inputs represented by circuits can also be decided efficiently in the black-box setting, where an algorithm is given an oracle access to the input function and an upper bound on its circuit size. If this hypothesis is true, then P neq NP. We focus on the consequences of the hypothesis being false, showing that (under general conditions on the structure of a counterexample) it implies a non-trivial algorithm for CSAT. More specifically, we show that if there is a property F of boolean functions such that F has high sensitivity on some input function f of subexponential circuit complexity (which is a sufficient condition for F being a counterexample to the Black-Box Hypothesis), then CSAT is solvable by a subexponential-size circuit family. Moreover, if such a counterexample F is symmetric, then CSAT is in Ppoly. These results provide some evidence towards the conjecture (made in this paper) that the Black-Box Hypothesis is false if and only if CSAT is easy

Structure of Mesoplodon densirostris

p. 23-50 : ill. ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 50)

On Paleolimulus from the Mazon Creek Konservat-Lagerstätte

Sur Paleolimulus de la Konservat-Lagerstätte de Mazon Creek. Les xiphosuridés, aussi appelés limules, incluent des chélicérates actuels dont le registre fossile remonte à l'Ordovicien. Malgré les traces de leur longue histoire évolutive, les xiphosuridés sont rarement préservés dans les assemblages fossiles en raison de leur exosquelette cuticulaire non minéralisé. Cependant, dans des circonstances exceptionnelles, une abondance de spécimens de xiphosurides fossiles a été documentée. Le Konservat-Lagerstätte de Mazon Creek, d'âge Moscovien, représente un tel dépôt de fossiles qui présente une grande abondance et diversité de xiphosuridés. Bien que relativement bien connus, les spécimens de Paleolimulus de Mazon Creek n'ont pas encore fait l'objet d'un examen taxonomique approfondi. A la lumière des efforts récents pour organiser Paleolimulus, nous revisitons ce matériel non décrit, érigeons Paleolimulus mazonensis n. sp., et présentons une analyse phylogénétique qui place P. mazonensis n. sp. comme un taxon frère de P. signata (Beecher, 1904). La paléoécologie et l'ontogenèse possible de P. mazonensis n. sp. sont présentées, ainsi que des perspectives de recherches futures pour mieux comprendre ce genre xiphosuride fossile emblématique