How the Unemployment Rate in Spain affects University Enrollment

This thesis studies the subsequent labor market outcomes of college graduates during an economic recession in Spain over the years 2000-2012. I use data on undergraduate enrollment, unemployment, national income, and educational spend from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics, the CIA World Fact Book, Spain’s Ministry of Education, and World Bank to run regression analyses and the Granger Causality Test. I find that university enrollment and unemployment rate are positively correlated. Regression results show that for every one percent increase in unemployment, enrollment increases by approximately 7,429 students

Larvae of Nearshore Fishes in Oceanic Waters near Oahu, Hawaii

Larvae of over 50 families of nearshore fishes were taken in oceanic waters about 13 km offshore of the leeward (southwest) coast of Oahu, Hawaii during 1977-78, The five most frequently taken families (Labridae, Parapercidae, Serranidae, Gobiidae, and Carangidae) made up over 50% of the total nearshore larvae. Most other families were taken very infrequently. Comparison of catch data from three types of nets indicated that 1.25-m diameter bongo nets often sampled larvae as well or better than a 3-m Isaacs-Kidd trawl and that smaller, 70-cm diameter bongo nets were often as effective as the larger nets for certain abundant taxa. Only a few taxa showed evidence of seasonal patterns in abundance. Irregular temporal variability in abundance of some taxa may have been related to occasional recent influxes of surface water from closer to shore. Most larvae taken were late preflexion stage or older. Densities of even the most abundant taxa were rarely greater than 0.001 m-3. The nearshore fish larvae were not dominated by taxa with large larvae or with larvae possessing apparent specializations to pelagic existence, Most taxa taken were pelagic spawners as adults, but larvae of demersal spawners were roughly as well represented as demersal spawners are among the nearshore fish fauna. Previous studies of waters closer to shore probably sampled insufficient volumes for any but a few exceptionally abundant taxa. Sampling with volumes filtered of the order of 104-105 m3 will be necessary to determine if the dominant taxa taken by the present study are ever more abundant closer to shore, (PDF file contains 23 pages.

The use of composted woodchip as a substrate for growing varieties of edible mushrooms

The world market for edible mycorrhizal mushrooms has experienced considerable growth over the past two decades with annual production estimated to exceed 14 billion USD. The market continues to grow due to interest in the nutritional and health benefits of edible mushrooms. The size of the market for speciality mushrooms has also increased and the overall market trend has been towards fresh rather than canned product. There are a number of different cultural methods in commercial use, with a wide variety of species produced on different substrates. The aim of this project was to evaluate woodchip compost as a substrate to produce edible mushrooms. Woodchip compost appears to have potential as a growing medium but more development is necessary to make this a commercial proposition. This report sets out these findings in more detail

Deployment of Keystroke Analysis on a Smartphone

The current security on mobile devices is often limited to the Personal Identification Number (PIN), a secretknowledge based technique that has historically demonstrated to provide ineffective protection from misuse. Unfortunately, with the increasing capabilities of mobile devices, such as online banking and shopping, the need for more effective protection is imperative. This study proposes the use of two-factor authentication as an enhanced technique for authentication on a Smartphone. Through utilising secret-knowledge and keystroke analysis, it is proposed a stronger more robust mechanism will exist. Whilst keystroke analysis using mobile devices have been proven effective in experimental studies, these studies have only utilised the mobile device for capturing samples rather than the more computationally challenging task of performing the actual authentication. Given the limited processing capabilities of mobile devices, this study focuses upon deploying keystroke analysis to a mobile device utilising numerous pattern classifiers. Given the trade-off with computation versus performance, the results demonstrate that the statistical classifiers are the most effective

Vacuum forming of thermoplastic sheet results in low-cost investment casting patterns

Vacuum forming of a sheet of thermoplastic material around a mandrel conforming to the shape of the finished object provides a pattern for an investment mold. The thickness of the metal part is determined by the thickness of the plastic pattern

Potato Blight (Phytophthora infestans) field demonstrations, 2004

The results are presented of a trial of 28 potato varieties, including 19 blight-resistant Sarpo varieties, at Llanrhystud in Ceredigion. The effects of compost tea preparations in protecting against blight were also studied