Green Infrastructure Can Combat Combined Sewer Overflows

Every year millions of gallons of raw sewage are dumped directly into our local waterways here in Buffalo, NY. Combined sewer overflows (or CSO’s) are the cause of this environmental and human health hazard, and they occur an average of 68 times per year, whenever we have heavy rain or snow. Currently the Buffalo Sewer Authority (BSA) is negotiating with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to come up with a cost-effective means to prevent CSO’s from occurring and thus bring our local waterways into compliance with water quality standards. BSA is required by law to develop and implement a CSO Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) that explores all viable options for remedying the situation

Taking Business to a “Hire” Level: Strategies for Workforce Planning

[Excerpt] Workforce planning has always existed in some form, but has seen a recent reemergence in the human resources arena as companies try to move away from just-in-time staffing. This renewed focus has forced HR professionals to question how to create a pipeline that considers both the number of required employees and the types of skills needed. The following paragraphs argue that, through estimating, collaborating, and adapting, organizations can maximize their opportunities for a strong pipeline. First, staffing models will be paired with HR metrics to formulate the staffing needs of the organization. Second, collaboration with other functions will be emphasized to maximize the accuracy of the estimations. Finally, emerging concepts, such as eLancing, will be discussed as a way to adjust for unexpected changes in human capital needs

Adiabaticity and the Fate of Non-Gaussianities: The Trispectrum and Beyond

Extending the analysis of [1011.4934] beyond the bispectrum, we explore the superhorizon generation of local non-gaussianities and their subsequent approach to adiabaticity. Working with a class of two field models of inflation with potentials amenable to treatment with the delta N formalism we find that, as is the case for f_{NL}^{local}, the local trispectrum parameters tau_{NL} and g_{NL} are exponentially driven toward values which are slow roll suppressed if the fluctuations are driven into an adiabatic mode by a phase of effectively single field inflation. We argue that general considerations should ensure that a similar behavior will hold for the local forms of higher point correlations as well.Comment: v3: Updated to match published version, minor corrections throughout, 17 pages; v2: Corrected counting of higher order non-linearity parameters, added references, updated formatting, conclusions unchanged, 16 pages; v1: 16 page

Getting There: Improving Attendance in the Buffalo Public Schools

High rates of absenteeism in the Buffalo Public Schools (“BPS”) are strongly linked to low academic performance and graduation rates. Several difficult issues contribute to the low attendance in Buffalo, including poverty, segregation, mental and physical health challenges, access to transportation, and problems with school climate and student engagement. Many effective programs to improve attendance are already in place, but more work needs to be done. Recent data provides some insights into the attendance situation in BPS. For example, recent BPS data shows a direct correlation between high school students’ attendance rates and their success on Regents exams. In spring 2014, there was a difference of 35% between the passage rates of students with satisfactory attendance and those with severe absenteeism

Educational Leave of Absence: Retaining High-Potential Employees Pursuing MBA Degrees

[Excerpt] Surveys show that 78% of companies include tuition reimbursement as a part of their benefits offerings compared to 0% who offer to pay-off existing student loans. These statistics alone shed light on why a growing number of workers are deciding to pursue an educational leave of absence through their company when pursuing their education. Why would an employee leave their work if they know their future employer will not pay off their student loan debt, while at the same time their sponsoring company will cover some of the costs, have a position waiting for them, and continue to provide health coverage while they are in school full-time? Yet despite this continued relationship with their organization, employees often leave the organization upon receiving their MBA, resulting in losses of talent and money for the company. This practice is especially prevalent in employees who receive only partial tuition assistance from their employer while pursuing their MBA—meaning they still have substantial student loan debt to pay off following graduation