Using Television Commercials As Video Illustrations: Examples From A Money And Banking Economics Class

Video clips are an excellent way to enhance lecture material. Television commercials are a source of video examples that should not be overlooked and they are readily available on the internet. They are familiar, short, self-contained, constantly being created, and often funny.   This paper describes several examples of television commercials that can be used to illustrate concepts taught in Money and Banking and Microeconomics courses. Sources of television commercials available on the internet are also presented

Stock Market Volatility And Presidential Election Uncertainty: Evidence From Political Futures Markets

Uncertainty about the economy can increase volatility in financial market returns. One potential source of uncertainty is the outcome of an upcoming national election. This paper uses a GARCH model to estimate the effect of uncertainty surrounding U.S. Presidential elections on the volatility of U.S. stock market returns from 1992-2012. Uncertainty in these elections is measured using asset prices from the Iowa Electronic Market (IEM), an on-line futures market based on real-world events, including U.S. elections. The empirical results show that the conditional variance in S&P 500 returns increases when IEM presidential election futures market asset prices indicate greater uncertainty about the outcome of an upcoming election

Numerical modeling of carbon dioxide injection at a pilot sequestration site

Over the past several years, lessons learned from various sequestration sites have identified deep, unmineable coal seams as favorable and profitable reservoirs for commercial carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration and long-term CO2 storage. Long-term consequences, however, have not been completely identified and understood. In order to assess the aptitude of such deep unmineable coal seams for a possible commercial sequestration site, a reservoir modeling study was performed at an ongoing Pump Canyon, NM sequestration site located in the coalbed methane (CBM) fairway region of the well-established San Juan basin. The demonstration at the Pump Canyon pilot area is a part of the Southwest Regional Partnership on CO2 sequestration sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy to evaluate available---technologies and practices to capture and store greenhouse gases such as CO2.;The present paper includes three objectives---(1) to study the history of CBM production in the region and construct an appropriate reservoir model based on the cleat geometry and available geological information, (2) to identify any unknown reservoir and geologic properties at the site through a history matching process, and (3) to model CO2 and tracer injections to aid in understanding fluid flow through the system. CBM production data over past two decades demonstrates an adequate facility for deploying the first commercial sequestration in the San Juan basin. A reservoir model was constructed using a modified existing simulator and based on available reservoir and geologic data. Several simulations were performed to obtain a history-match and analyze the CBM production history before and after CO2 injection. During CO2 injection a tracer was injected into the reservoir for tracking purposes. The tracer\u27s movement through the reservoir system was tracked using data from nearby producing wells. Tracer breakthrough occurred when nearby wells began to produce significant quantities of the injected tracer. Several simulations were performed to obtain matches with breakthrough data and tracer properties and further refine the model. The successful performance of this reservoir identifies the San Juan basin as a promising site for commercial sequestration of carbon dioxide

Further thoughts on precision

Background: There has been much discussion amongst automated software defect prediction researchers regarding use of the precision and false positive rate classifier performance metrics. Aim: To demonstrate and explain why failing to report precision when using data with highly imbalanced class distributions may provide an overly optimistic view of classifier performance. Method: Well documented examples of how dependent class distribution affects the suitability of performance measures. Conclusions: When using data where the minority class represents less than around 5 to 10 percent of data points in total, failing to report precision may be a critical mistake. Furthermore, deriving the precision values omitted from studies can reveal valuable insight into true classifier performancePeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Experiential Learning Through Classroom Experiments

This paper describes classroom experiments in cooperative behavior as examples of experiential learning in economics classes. Several games are briefly discussed and a new game in cartel behavior is presented. In this game, Students make production decisions as a cartel and earn revenues based on their own output decision and the output decision of the rest of the cartel. Cooperative behavior generates maximum profit for the group, but individuals have incentive to break from the group. The demonstration can be used to illustrate profit maximizing decisions for a cooperative oligopoly and for individual firms, to introduce strategic behavior and game theory, and to demonstrate the instability of cartels. The paper includes review of other papers and experiments in cooperative behavior, a description of and instructions for the cartel experiment, analysis of results of the experiment, and suggested questions and topics for classroom discussion

Free Personal Care for Older People in Scotland: Issues and Implications

Drawing on recent quantitative and qualitative research, we consider lessons of the Scottish policy of free personal care for older people. The policy is embedded in political debates about devolution and interacts with various changing policies on care and support for older people. Evaluation is complicated by these interactions and by gaps in relevant data, especially concerning costs. Operationally, policy implementation has presented varying difficulties for local authorities. For clients and informal carers it remains popular, but is part of a service-led model of provision which does not reflect their own views of their care and support needs

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

BugVis:Commit slicing for fault visualisation

In this paper we present BugVis, our tool which allows the visualisation of the lifetime of a code fault. The commit history of thefault from insertion to fix is visualised. Unlike previous similartools, BugVis visualises only the lines of each commit involved inthe fault. The visualisation creates a commit slice throughout thehistory of the fault which enables comprehension of the evolutionof the code involved in the fault

Transition to practice: creation of a transitional rotation for radiation oncology

Background: Implementation of Competence by Design (CBD) will require residency training programs to develop formalized “Transition to Practice” (TTP) experiences. A multidisciplinary group of Radiation Oncology stakeholders from tertiary care centres in Atlantic Canada were surveyed regarding a proposed TTP rotation.  Methods: The survey asked participants to quantitatively rank various learning objectives based on defined CanMEDS skills that are expected to be mastered by a graduating resident. Mean perceived importance scores were calculated for each objective as well as for their CanMEDS category. Specific written qualitative feedback was also collected.Results: The survey was circulated to 59 participants with a response rate of 73%. The three objectives with the highest mean importance score were “Independently assessing and managing patients seen in consultation,” “Developing and demonstrating communication skills with patients at an advanced level,” and “Independently assessing and managing follow up patients,” respectively from highest to lowest. The CanMEDS roles with the highest importance score was “Communicator.”Conclusion: Quantitative and qualitative data from a multidisciplinary survey based on CanMEDS roles guided the implementation of a TTP rotation for PGY-5 residents at a tertiary care centre in Atlantic Canada. These results may be relevant to other training programs developing TTP experiences

Defining a magnetic resonance scan sequence for permanent seed prostate brachytherapy postimplant assessment

AbstractPurposeWe describe a magnetic resonance (MR) scan sequence for prostate brachytherapy postimplant assessment.Methods and MaterialsOne brachytherapy team at the British Columbia Cancer Agency has incorporated MR–CT fusion into their permanent seed prostate brachytherapy quality assurance procedure. Several attempts were required to ensure that the diagnostic MR scanner at the adjoining general hospital performed the desired sequence, providing many examples of suboptimal scans and underlining the pitfalls for a center trying to incorporate the use of MR scanning into their brachytherapy program.ResultsThe recommended sequence (Fast Spin Echo T2-weighted, repetition time [TR]/echo time [TE] 4500/90, echo train length [ETL] 10, 20×20 field of view [FOV], 80 bandwidth [BW]) is associated with superior edge detection when compared with those images in which a typical diagnostic sequence was used. The use of a low bandwidth sequence does not compromise edge detection or seed identification when compared with a higher bandwidth.ConclusionsWe have defined a magnetic resonance imaging sequence, which appears to optimize both prostate delineation and identification of seeds, lending itself to straightforward fusion with CT images and allowing for less uncertainty in permanent seed prostate brachytherapy quality assurance