Urban Growth with Limited Prosperity: A History of Public Housing in Laredo, Texas -- 1938 to 2006

Public housing in the United States has been a controversial sociopolitical topic since the years of the Great Depression. The issue of appropriate and secure habitation for the country\u27s deserving poor continues to be of great importance as government subsidies become scarce in the early 21st century. This dearth of support for public housing is even more evident and prominent along the United States-Mexico border of South Texas, a territory described as having a third world environment. The dissertation is a narrative history of public housing in Laredo, Texas, a border community. Compiled from news media records and the archives of the Laredo Housing Authority, the study gives insight into methods used by this authority to achieve decent habitation for the underprivileged residents of one of the poorest cities in the United States. After a historical background of Laredo, the study follows a chronological development of federally funded housing through the six decades that began in 1938. The study accentuates the continuing need for such housing as its sponsoring federal agency; the Department of Housing and Urban Development fails to properly fund its subsidiary programs and projects. Principal governmental and nongovernmental sources substantiate the dearth of appropriate housing, with the author providing further insight to his native city\u27s plight. The conclusion outlines how funding, together with higher upkeep and energy costs, will continue in a downward spiral and will lead to an increase in the underserved poor population

Balancing Exploration and Exploitation in a Declining Industry: Antecedents to Firm Adaptation Strategy and Performance

This paper utilizes the theoretical framework of Raisch and Birkinshaw (2008: 381) to investigate the performance implications of three strategic adaptation approaches (exploitation, exploration, and organizational ambidexterity) in 94 small firms supplying tools and materials to the U.S. - based furniture industry. We measured four organizational antecedents to strategic adaptation as well as the performance outcomes associated with adaptation choice. Results demonstrate that organizational deftness, group potency, elements of communication and cooperation within the firm, and low centralization were significantly related to organizational ambidexterity, and that ambidexterity was positively related to revenue and profit growth. The implications focus on steps that organizational leaders can take to improve the ambidextrous posture of their organizations

A very faint core-collapse supernova in M85

An anomalous transient in the early Hubble-type (S0) galaxy Messier 85 (M85) in the Virgo cluster was discovered by Kulkarni et al. (2007) on 7 January 2006 that had very low luminosity (peak absolute R-band magnitude MR of about -12) that was constant over more than 80 days, red colour and narrow spectral lines, which seem inconsistent with those observed in any known class of transient events. Kulkarni et al. (2007) suggest an exotic stellar merger as the possible origin. An alternative explanation is that the transient in M85 was a type II-plateau supernova of extremely low luminosity, exploding in a lenticular galaxy with residual star-forming activity. This intriguing transient might be the faintest supernova that has ever been discovered.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to Nature "Brief Communication Arising" on 18 July 2007, Accepted on 17 August 2007. Arising from: Kulkarni et al. 2007, Nature, 447, 458-46

All-optical inverter based on polarization switching in long-wavelength VCSELs

All-optical processing of high-speed signals is expected to be a key technology in future photonic networks. VCSELs are very promising devices for these applications due to their inherent advantages. Nonlinear transfer functions can be obtained by using optical injection because it strongly affects the transverse mode and polarization characteristics of VCSELs [1]. Optical injection can be used to obtain polarization switching (PS) of single transverse mode VCSELs. When the polarization of an injected optical field is orthogonal to that of the solitary VCSEL (orthogonal optical injection), PS and bistability are observed [2]. PS by optical injection is expected to be fast and thus suitable for application in all-optical signal-processing systems. In this work we report, for the first time to our knowledge, all-optical inversion operation using PS in a 1550nm single-mode VCSEL induced by orthogonal optical injection. We demonstrate all-optical inversion for NRZ signals at a bit rate of 2.5 Gb/s. An all-fiber system has been developed in order to inject the light from a tunable laser into a commercial 1550nm-VCSEL (RayCan, Co.). The free-running VCSEL emits in the fundamental transverse mode with a linear polarization (parallel polarization) over the whole current range. The subsidiary orthogonal polarization is shifted 0.48 nm to the long wavelength side with respect to the dominant one. Pulsed optical injection was obtained by using a pulse pattern generator and a Mach-Zhender intensity modulator. © 2011 IEEE

Redução no tempo de desenvolvimento de uma coleção de produtos de uma empresa calçadista

The purpose of this article was to describe a method to reduce the development time of a collection of thirty products from a company of the footwear industry. The research method was the design research applied in a children’s shoe company of Vale dos Sinos. The reduction was based on the use of techniques such as modeling, prototyping and deployment. The main contribution to the company was the reduction of the total time of development in almost 20%. Other contributions were the reduction in rework in manufacturing in more than 50%, the reduction of modifications of projects in more than 40% and the reduction of models rejection in more than 60%. The generalization of the findings to other industries was not an objective of the research.Keywords: development time, product development, integrated product development, footwear industry.O objetivo deste artigo foi descrever um método para redução do tempo de desenvolvimento de uma coleção de trinta produtos de uma empresa da indústria calçadista. O método de pesquisa foi o design research, aplicado em uma empresa de calçados infantis do Vale dos Sinos. A redução obtida foi baseada no uso de técnicas de desenvolvimento, tais como a modelagem, a prototipagem e o desdobramento de funções. A principal contribuição para a empresa foi a redução do tempo total de desenvolvimento em quase 20%. Outras contribuições foram a redução no retrabalho na manufatura em mais de 50%, redução das modificações de projetos em mais de 40% e redução da reprovação de modelos em mais de 60%. Não foi objetivo de pesquisa a generalização dos achados de pesquisa para outras indústrias.Palavras-chave: tempo de desenvolvimento, novos produtos, desenvolvimento de produtos, indústria calçadista

Redução no tempo de desenvolvimento de uma coleção de produtos de uma empresa calçadista

The purpose of this article was to describe a method to reduce the development time of a collection of thirty products from a company of the footwear industry. The research method was the design research applied in a children’s shoe company of Vale dos Sinos. The reduction was based on the use of techniques such as modeling, prototyping and deployment. The main contribution to the company was the reduction of the total time of development in almost 20%. Other contributions were the reduction in rework in manufacturing in more than 50%, the reduction of modifications of projects in more than 40% and the reduction of models rejection in more than 60%. The generalization of the findings to other industries was not an objective of the research.Keywords: development time, product development, integrated product development, footwear industry.O objetivo deste artigo foi descrever um método para redução do tempo de desenvolvimento de uma coleção de trinta produtos de uma empresa da indústria calçadista. O método de pesquisa foi o design research, aplicado em uma empresa de calçados infantis do Vale dos Sinos. A redução obtida foi baseada no uso de técnicas de desenvolvimento, tais como a modelagem, a prototipagem e o desdobramento de funções. A principal contribuição para a empresa foi a redução do tempo total de desenvolvimento em quase 20%. Outras contribuições foram a redução no retrabalho na manufatura em mais de 50%, redução das modificações de projetos em mais de 40% e redução da reprovação de modelos em mais de 60%. Não foi objetivo de pesquisa a generalização dos achados de pesquisa para outras indústrias.Palavras-chave: tempo de desenvolvimento, novos produtos, desenvolvimento de produtos, indústria calçadista

Mental Health Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) in the Mountain West

Using data from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s “Mental Health Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs)” 2022 report, this fact sheet looks at the mental health care health professional shortage area (HPSA) designations for Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah

La aplicación de la administración lean en las industrias de minería

Entre las alternativas para asegurar su supervivencia, una particularmente pertinente para lasOrganizaciones es la innovación. La innovación tiene varias dimensiones entre que es posible incluir: i) materia prima; ii) producto; iii) proceso; iv) mercado; v) la manera cómo es realizada la administración. Este artículo tiene el objetivo de mostrar la posibilidad de llevar a cabo una nueva manera de dirección en las industrias de extracción de mineral a través del uso integrado de los conceptos desarrollados en la construcción del Sistema de Producción Toyota (SPT) / el Sistema de Producción Lean, y los conceptos y técnicas tradicionales que se originan de la Ingeniería Minera y la Ingeniería Industrial. El artículo muestra esta integración en dos situaciones de la minería (fluorita y amatista). Los resultados indican la reducción del costo de la producción y aumento de la productividad y la mejora de la Calidad de Vida de Trabajadores

Non-standard Hamiltonian effects on neutrino oscillations

We investigate non-standard Hamiltonian effects on neutrino oscillations, which are effective additional contributions to the vacuum or matter Hamiltonian. Since these effects can enter in either flavor or mass basis, we develop an understanding of the difference between these bases representing the underlying theoretical model. In particular, the simplest of these effects are classified as ``pure'' flavor or mass effects, where the appearance of such a ``pure'' effect can be quite plausible as a leading non-standard contribution from theoretical models. Compared to earlier studies investigating particular effects, we aim for a top-down classification of a possible ``new physics'' signature at future long-baseline neutrino oscillation precision experiments. We develop a general framework for such effects with two neutrino flavors and discuss the extension to three neutrino flavors, as well as we demonstrate the challenges for a neutrino factory to distinguish the theoretical origin of these effects with a numerical example. We find how the precision measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters can be altered by non-standard effects alone (not including non-standard interactions in the creation and detection processes) and that the non-standard effects on Hamiltonian level can be distinguished from other non-standard effects (such as neutrino decoherence and decay) if we consider specific imprint of the effects on the energy spectra of several different oscillation channels at a neutrino factory.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX, final version, published in Eur.Phys.J.