Are the energy states still energy states?

Traditional energy states managed to avoid the early stages of the recent national recession, buoyed by record high crude oil and natural gas prices. Both production and exploration for crude oil and natural gas expanded rapidly in response to the spike in energy prices, propelling strong job and income gains in the energy states. But the strong performance of the energy states through the early stages of the recession subsequently reversed itself under the weight of collapsing energy prices. These states began to underperform non-energy states by the second quarter of 2009. These gyrations in economic activity are reminiscent of the volatility experienced during the 1970s and early 1980s, suggesting that the energy cycle is alive and well in the energy states. ; Snead examines the economic performance of the energy states in the recent energy price spike and recessionary cycle. He finds that the economies of the energy states remain highly sensitive to changes in energy prices and follow a much different economic cycle than non-energy states. The energy states posted far stronger job growth prior to the recession, entered the recession much later and with more momentum, and have posted smaller cumulative job losses than non-energy states. Most of the energy states were nearly as reliant on the energy sector as a source of state earnings in 2008 as they were at the peak of the prior cycle in 1982. He also finds that the historical ranks of the energy states are poised for a shuffling. Unconventional natural gas production will move some states closer to the top as other states enter the ranks of the major oil and gas producers for the first time.

Are U.S. states equally prepared for a carbon-constrained world?

Climate concerns linked to greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), have taken center stage in the national energy policy debate. Domestic energy use and carbon emissions continue to rise, and forecasts suggest further increases under the existing regulatory structure. However, heightened international and domestic pressure to reduce U.S. carbon emissions suggests that additional changes to the regulatory framework are probable in coming years. ; Reducing U.S. carbon emissions will likely require a comprehensive national framework that will alter the pattern of energy use and production in all 50 states. At issue for state-level policymakers is that carbon restrictions are unlikely to affect the states equally. Energy use and emission patterns vary widely across states, and there is no accepted framework for allocating shares of a national carbon reduction goal. As a result, states that emit the most carbon or have the most energy- and carbon-intensive economies may shoulder the greatest burden. ; Snead and Jones evaluate the current energy posture of the states and thus how prepared they are to cope with ongoing trends in energy use, especially restrictions on carbon emissions. Their findings suggest that the New England, Mid-Atlantic and West Coast states are generally best prepared. These states have the least energy-intensive economies and use fuel mixes with low average carbon intensity; hence, they already release proportionately less CO2. The states expected to be hardest hit by carbon constraints are the traditional energy-producing and agricultural states. These states have energy-intensive economies, by both domestic and international standards, and will face a considerable challenge in altering their energy use and emissions patterns.

Aqueous Alteration in the Kuiper Belt: Evidence from Hydrated Interplanetary Dust Particles

Edgeworth-Kuiper belt objects (EKBOs) formed in the outer reaches of the protoplanetary disk and thus avoided much of the high tempera-ture processing experienced by bodies in the inner solar system. For this reason, they contain a wealth of information on the nature of nebular solids and the chemical conditions in the earliest solar system. Astronomical observations of EKBOs have been limited largely to the surface chemistry of the ices covering these small and difficult to observe bodies. The mineralogy of EKBO objects are poorly known, but clues regarding their mineralogical makeup come from studies of samples from short period comets (e.g. Wild2), and interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) produced by collisions in the Kuiper belt. Interplanetary dust particles from objects in the solar system (mainly comets and asteroids) spiral in to-wards the Sun under the influence of Poynting-Robertson (PR) drag forces and accumulate solar flare energetic particle tracks. Recent work has shown that the observed solar flare track densities (~1010-1011/sq.cm) in these IDPs are ~two orders of magnitude higher than expected if they were derived from main belt asteroids or Jupiter family comets and thus require an origin from outer solar system source bodies such as EKBOs. The track-rich IDPs include representatives from the two major groups of IDPs: the chondritic-porous, anhydrous IDPs and the chondritic-smooth, hydrated IDPs, although rare IDPs with mineralogies intermediate between these two groups are known. Here, we report on the mineralogy, composition, organic matter content, and isotopic characteristics of track-rich hydrated IDPs, and implications for aqueous alteration in outer solar system bodies

Middle School Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding the Motivation and Effectiveness of Homework

The purpose of this study was to understand middle school teachers’ perspectives on the role of homework. Approximately 118 middle school teachers volunteered to complete open-ended surveys describing their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of homework. Qualitative analysis revealed teachers identified several instructional and non-instructional reasons for having to complete homework including: practice, reinforcement, review, responsible, and multiples of the aforementioned categories. Additional findings describe differences related with time spent on homework, assessing process and using homework for instructional and review. Implications describe both the ambiguous and inconsistent homework practices diminishing effective instruction. Further, findings identify the indecisiveness regarding homework assignments, and teacher motivation

NASTRAN used in a production environment

A finite element analysis procedure built around the NASTRAN system is assessed. A number of support programs that were either written or modified to interface with NASTRAN and some improvements that were made to NASTRAN itself are noted. Some typical models are analyzed and an actual schedule is followed for constructing and analyzing the models to support a large design program

Foe vs Foe: The Battle for Narrative Voice in Coetzee’s Foe

The feminist and postmodern critical discussions that revolve around J. M. Coetzee’s Foe often focus on the importance of narrative voice. His retelling of Robinson Crusoe comes to us from the point of view of a female castaway who, many critics claim, represents the silencing of feminine perspective. There are others, however, who see Susan Barton not as a woman overrun by dominant male perspectives, but rather, as a storyteller caught in a battle with a story-receiver for authorial control. Such critics label Susan as a confessor who only desires that Cruso hear the truth in her story; they sentence Foe to the role of an oppressor who disregards the castaway’s true story in favor of a fictionalized account of a shipwreck tale. Some critics see Susan as the reluctant subjugator of a muted Friday. These criticisms, however, do not fully explain the mysterious fourth section of the novel or the appearance of Susan’s unrecognizable daughter. Rather, they skirt around these issues, chalking them up to authorial quirkiness, an assumption that deflects a careful consideration of certain sections of the text and leaves gray areas, which critics can conveniently mold to fit their theories. It is my contention that Coetzee does not intend to place Susan in the realm of confessor, nor does she merely represent a feminine perspective on a male text. Instead, she is a reified character beyond Foe’s control. To put it simply: Susan Barton is not a woman whose story is stolen or misinterpreted; she is the physical manifestation of Foe’s own ideas and she represents the battle between author and character for absolute narrative control; she is a muse who takes on a life of her own

Cryptocurrency and the Stock Market, Can We Trust Them?

Cryptocurrency is a relatively new investment method and currency. Daily, the news media reports about its instability and the perceptions surrounding it. To provide a measure of its perceived stability and trustworthiness, I have conducted a survey of undergraduate and graduate students in various accounting courses. The questions asked in this survey are used to gauge the overall perceptions and opinions of students concerning the stock market and cryptocurrency. The survey uses a five point opinion ranking system, ranging in opinions from 1-5 (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree). This survey is also used in conjunction with questions about ownership of these investment methods to see if there is statistical significance between the perception of trustworthiness of cryptocurrency and the stock market and ownership of these investment methods

A Method Of Content-based Image Retrieval For The Generation Of Image Mosaics

An image mosaic is an artistic work that uses a number of smaller images creatively combined together to form another larger image. Each building block image, or tessera, has its own distinctive and meaningful content, but when viewed from a distance the tesserae come together to form an aesthetically pleasing montage. This work presents the design and implementation of MosaiX, a computer software system that generates these image mosaics automatically. To control the image mosaic creation process, several parameters are used within the system. Each parameter affects the overall mosaic quality, as well as required processing time, in its own unique way. A detailed analysis is performed to evaluate each parameter individually. Additionally, this work proposes two novel ways by which to evaluate the quality of an image mosaic in a quantitative way. One method focuses on the perceptual color accuracy of the mosaic reproduction, while the other concentrates on edge replication. Both measures include preprocessing to take into account the unique visual features present in an image mosaic. Doing so minimizes quality penalization due the inherent properties of an image mosaic that make them visually appealing

Self-assembly directs enamel formation and regeneration

Enamel is a unique bioceramic tissue covering our teeth, which by improving feeding and nutrition fueled an explosion in vertebrate evolution. Enamel is also the tissue affected by the most prevalent infectious disease of humankind, caries. While enamel is the hardest tissue in the vertebrate body it develops as a soft extracellular protein matrix precursor synthesized by ameloblast cells that is composed mainly of the proteins amelogenin and ameloblastin. Amelogenins are small-, hydrophobic-, inherently disordered proteins that self-assembly to form nanospheres through the interaction of two domains located at opposite molecular ends, whereas, ameloblastin self-assembles through but a single N’-terminal domain. The assembled protein supra-structures control the deposition of calcium and phosphate to form long thin crystals that appear to be woven as a continuum by the cell secretion of protein into the extracellular matrix. The proteins of the enamel matrix are replaced to form hydroxyapatite crystallites, leaving behind only trace amounts of protein to improve the biomechanical behavior of the mineral phase. Mutations to the amelogenin self-assembly domain will alter the microstructural hierarchical organization of the enamel tissue, which in turn degrades its materials properties. Enamel matrix protein assembly is essential to enamel formation: a malformed enamel matrix must also leave behind a malformed mineral phase. This unique cell fabrication method accounts for the favorable materials properties of the bioceramic tissue, allowing the tissue to last through a lifetime of use and misuse. Recent work on the second most abundant protein of enamel, ameloblastin, shows that its only known interaction is with proteasome subunit alpha type 3 (PSMA3) at the secretory face of the ameloblast. This interaction serves to degrade ameloblastin from the C’-terminus, leaving an enriched N’-terminus that defines the lateral border of the ameloblast cell. These borders describe the smallest, repeating unit of enamel, the rod, a collection of thousands of long-, thin-, nanocrystallites of hydroxyapatite mineral. To address the loss of enamel due to caries, enamel regeneration can be achieved on demand by inducing undifferentiated cells to proliferate and differentiate as ameloblasts that create canonical enamel tissue using peptide amphiphiles that activate signals through integrin and thrombospondin pathways