International political economy: How does freedom correlate with economic success?

It is thought by many that the size of a nation\u27s economy determines the amount and kind of services that any individual in that nation can access. This paper explores how freedom affects a country\u27s economic success in terms of GDP per capita. The conclusions are that the amount of freedom a country has, as determined by Freedom house measures, does have an effect on Gross Domestic Product per Capita. Generally, the more freedom a country has the higher the GDP per capita is. Countries should promote and establish free regimes in order to have the best economic output. In this research, political and economic freedom play a big part of why freer countries have more success

Project Reconnect Program: Engaging Truant Adolescents through Pre-Court Diversion

The current literature on truancy diversion court programs has failed to examine middle and high school truants’ perceptions regarding how well truancy diversion court programs improve school attendance and performance. As a result, the purpose of this study was to examine participants’ perceptions regarding how well the Project Reconnect Diversion Program empowered their improved school attendance, compliance with school rules, and completion of classroom assignments. The researcher used a case study design to investigate the participants’ perceptions of the Project Reconnect Diversion Program. Purposive sampling was employed to select the participants who completed the Project Reconnect Diversionary Program during the 2010-2011 school year. Data were collected through individual interviews and small group meetings. The Project Reconnect Diversionary Program was found to employ practices that reportedly influenced the participants’ school attendance, completion of class assignments, and improved grades. Moreover, the weekly check-in meetings with the social worker were reported to be beneficial and empowering. The findings from this study permitted the researcher to make several recommendations regarding truancy diversion program evaluation as well as middle and high school models for retention and graduation

Modern Management: Concepts and Skills -12/E.

Managers of today continue to face new opportunities and challenges. These opportunities include much publicized task like Florida’s University Studios opening a new Harry Potter attraction and Apple encouraging technology innovation beyond the iPad and the iPhone. At the same time, other companies face intense challenges, such as BP’s task of cleaning up an oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps because these opportunities and challenges are so daunting, managers today arguably have the ability to earn higher financial reward than at any other time in history. This 12th edition of the Modern Management Learning Package, this text plus its ancillaries, continues the recognized and distinctive tradition in management education that has extended more than 30 years. As in previous edition, this current edition of the Modern Management Learning Package has focused on a single objective: maximizing student learning of critical management concept. All revisions reflect instructor and student feedback regarding ways to refashion the package to further enhance student learning. Starting with the text, the following section explain each major component of this revision

Understanding the Genetic Interactions that Regulate Heat and Drought Tolerance in Relation to Wax Deposition and Yield Stability in Wheat (Tricticum Aestivum L.)

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has been a major food crop for nearly 8000 years. Breeders continue to face an ongoing battle to produce stress tolerant cultivars that are able to feed a rapidly increasing global population. The ability of varieties to perform similarly in grain yield across various environments is an important trait that is critical to successfully keep up with food demands with decreasingly available arable lands. The work described in this dissertation focused on defining and understanding the genetic interactions of epicuticular wax and high temperature and drought tolerance and its association with yield stability, to better aid breeders in stress tolerance selection. The effect of high temperature on epicuticular wax, yield attributes and yield stability were investigated in a recombinant inbred line population of 180 individuals from a Halberd x Len cross by physiological and molecular techniques. Epicuticular wax offers advantages in protecting the plant from both biotic and abiotic stresses. Under HT conditions, EWL can reduce chlorophyll fluorescence by reflecting excess irradiation and also reduce stomatal conductance, helping to regulate the rate of transpiration. QTL for epicuticular wax with large effects were detected on chromosomes 2A, 2B, 3A, 6B, and 7A. A large effect QTL for epicuticular wax was detected in three field environments on chromosome 2B (QWax.tam-2B.1) with the favorable alleles contributed by Halberd. QTL for yield stability and yield components stability indices with large effects were detected on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3B, 6B, and 7A. A large effect QTL for yield stability was detected by five stability statistics over diverse field environments on chromosome 1B (Qyieldss.tam-1B) with Halberd contributing the favorable alleles. High EWL may promote stable yields but its sensitivity to environmental conditions makes it challenging to definitively point to it as a source of improved stability. Although there were mixed relationships with yield performance and environments, the stability statistics QTL provide strong evidence that genetic variation may be heritable and could have implications for breeding programs targeting a set of environments rather than a single environment

Quantum Spectrum Testing

In this work, we study the problem of testing properties of the spectrum of a mixed quantum state. Here one is given $n$ copies of a mixed state $\rho\in\mathbb{C}^{d\times d}$ and the goal is to distinguish whether $\rho$'s spectrum satisfies some property $\mathcal{P}$ or is at least $\epsilon$-far in $\ell_1$-distance from satisfying $\mathcal{P}$. This problem was promoted in the survey of Montanaro and de Wolf under the name of testing unitarily invariant properties of mixed states. It is the natural quantum analogue of the classical problem of testing symmetric properties of probability distributions. Here, the hope is for algorithms with subquadratic copy complexity in the dimension $d$. This is because the "empirical Young diagram (EYD) algorithm" can estimate the spectrum of a mixed state up to $\epsilon$-accuracy using only $\widetilde{O}(d^2/\epsilon^2)$ copies. In this work, we show that given a mixed state $\rho\in\mathbb{C}^{d\times d}$: (i) $\Theta(d/\epsilon^2)$ copies are necessary and sufficient to test whether $\rho$ is the maximally mixed state, i.e., has spectrum $(\frac1d, ..., \frac1d)$; (ii) $\Theta(r^2/\epsilon)$ copies are necessary and sufficient to test with one-sided error whether $\rho$ has rank $r$, i.e., has at most $r$ nonzero eigenvalues; (iii) $\widetilde{\Theta}(r^2/\Delta)$ copies are necessary and sufficient to distinguish whether $\rho$ is maximally mixed on an $r$-dimensional or an $(r+\Delta)$-dimensional subspace; and (iv) The EYD algorithm requires $\Omega(d^2/\epsilon^2)$ copies to estimate the spectrum of $\rho$ up to $\epsilon$-accuracy, nearly matching the known upper bound. In addition, we simplify part of the proof of the upper bound. Our techniques involve the asymptotic representation theory of the symmetric group; in particular Kerov's algebra of polynomial functions on Young diagrams.Comment: 70 pages, 6 figure