...FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Reno, Nevada) Costhelper.com reports the average cost of renting a bounce house for one day is $150 to $200 for a standard house and $250 to $600 for a more elaborate one with slides and other features. Individuals and companies who use these inflatables frequently often benefit from buying a bounce house, as opposed to renting one. Blast Zone (http://www.blastzone.com) offers inflatable for both personal and commercial use and prices begin at only $169. Anyone interested in renting an inflatable should consider this option. "Building a better inflatable requires a commitment to quality, continual testing and caring about the end user. The inflatable needs to be durable and safe while providing hours of enjoyment for all. Blast House offers a wide range of options to meet the needs and budget of every customer, and we don't cut corners. We reinforce them, as we understand that the inflatable is only as good as the last jump or splash. This explains why we use commercial grade vinyl to ensure our products hold up with frequent use," the staff at Blast Zone (http://www.blastzone.com) explains....
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...Mahreen Kalam Student I.D. 3033538 Assignment 5: OBESITY IN AMERICA Course: ENG 255 Contact: mehreen112002@yahoo.com OBESITY IN AMERICA Obesity, a word which can brings anyone‘s attention into focus these days and a top contributor to other diseases as the obesity related illnesses are currently responsible for 300,000 deaths per year in the United States .As per the latest official statistics, nearly 25 percent of Canadian children and around 60 percent of Canadian adults happen to be obese. And it’s the leading cause of death of nearly 25,000 Canadians annually. Because sedentary lifestyles, lack of exercise, and stress also contribute to this problem, people want a quick fix to weight loss and naturally that leads them to fad diets or pills, instead of behavior modification. (Kaur, 2011). Obesity is a medical term used to describe a state of excessive body weight, when it is at least 20% higher than the stipulated norm within a specific population category (Simon, 2011). Obesity is defined as having a body-mass index of 30 or more, a measure of weight for height. It has long been debated whether obesity is a relative measure and should not be used as a stigma to label overweight people. However, the fact is, when the weight of a person significantly exceeds a certain norm for their age and gender, the health and well-being of that person tend to generally decrease in quality. Obesity might not...
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...Design, Development, and Testing of Flapping Fins with Actively Controlled Curvature for an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle John Palmisano1, Jason Geder2, Ravi Ramamurti2, Kerr-Jia Liu3, Jonah Cohen1, Tewodros Mengesha3, Jawad Naciri1, William Sandberg2, and Banahalli Ratna1 Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 2 Laboratory for Computational Physics and Fluid Dynamics, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 3 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, George Washington University, Washington, DC 1 Summary. This paper describes the design, construction, and testing of a biomimetic pectoral (side) fin with actively controlled curvature for UUV propulsion. It also describes the development of a test UUV and the design of a fin control system for vertical plane motion. A 3D unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis has been carried out to computationally optimize the fin design including a full study of the primary design parameters. The fin has been constructed and it can reproduce any specified deformation time-history. The full dynamics of the proposed vehicle have been modeled and the forces produced by the flapping fins computed. Finally, the stability of motion in the vertical plane has been analyzed and a control system has been designed. Key words. Biomimetic pectoral fin, UUV, unsteady CFD, PID control, adaptive curvature 1 Introduction Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) have proven very useful...
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...Louisiana Tax Reform: Eliminating Corporate and Franchise Taxes The relationship between tax policies and economic growth is a topic that has been frequently debated. For decades, economists have developed studies exploring this relationship and analyzing its effects. These studies concluded that a negative relationship exists between taxes and economic growth. Taxes have a negative impact on economic growth because of how they influence the activities individuals and firms choose to engage in. Businesses and individuals often base their decisions on the overall tax burden, which creates a disincentive to engage in activities taxed at a higher rate. The Tax Foundation evaluates each state’s business tax climate every year in order to indicate which states’ tax systems are the most attractive to business and economic growth. According to the Tax Foundation’s 2013 State Business Tax Climate Index, Louisiana’s tax system is currently ranked 32nd, far below the rankings of progressive southern states such as Florida and Texas. In addition, Louisiana’s tax structure is poorly perceived because of its complexity. Therefore, in order to create a competitive advantage, the Louisiana tax system must be reformed. Several of the states that rank highest in the 2013 State Business Tax Climate Index do not levy a tax on corporations. Furthermore, the average annual growth rates for those states without a corporate income tax exceeded the growth rate of all other states...
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... Despite the high rates of violence against women and the recent attention to the physical and emotional consequences of this abuse, until recently relatively little attention had been given to the unseen victims—the children. More than half the female victims of domestic violence live in a household with children under the age of 12.Greenfield (1998). Research suggests that between 3.3 million and 10 million children in the United States are exposed to domestic violence each year and more than a decade of empirical studies indicates that exposure to domestic violence can have serious negative effects on children. These effects may include behavioral problems such as aggression, phobias, insomnia, low self-esteem, and depression. Children exposed to domestic violence may demonstrate poor academic performance and problem-solving skills, and low levels of empathy. Exposure to chronic or extreme domestic violence may result in symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder, such as emotional numbing, increased arousal, avoidance of any reminders of the violent event, or obsessive and repeated focus on the event. Retrospective studies indicate that there may also be negative effects in adulthood, including depression, low self-esteem, violent practices in the home, and criminal behavior. Carlson (1992). Families affected by domestic violence touch all service systems and live in every community. Children exposed to domestic violence are in our schools, day-care centers...
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...Neglect in Childhood Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D.* Kevin Colwell, M.A.** Stephanie Schick, M.Ed.*** For: Encyclopedia of Crime & Punishment Project Director, D. Levinson Berkshire Publishing Group Great Barrington, MA * ChildTrauma Academy, Houston, TX and Children’s Mental Health Programs, Alberta Mental Health Board, Calgary, CA ** ChildTrauma Academy, Houston, TX *** ChildTrauma Academy, Houston, TX Official Citation: Perry, B.D., Colwell, K. and Schick, S. Child Neglect in: Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment Vol 1.(David Levinson, Ed.) Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks pp 192-196, 2002 Introduction Child neglect is the most common form of child maltreatment (a broad category of behavior that also includes sexual, physical and emotional abuse). The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), a review of abuse and neglect data from all states, reported over 1,000,000 substantiated cases of abuse in its last review (annual year 1994). Fifty two percent of these cases were from neglect. The majority of the 2000 or more documented abuserelated deaths each year are due to neglect. These statistics are likely an underestimate of the actual occurrence of neglect. Neglect is the least studied and most poorly characterized form of child maltreatment. This is due to multiple factors including the difficulty in defining and documenting neglect in children. Definitions Neglect can occur in several forms. A broad definition of neglect is any failure to provide for the basic...
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...Clicking Clean: How Companies are Creating the Green Internet April2014 greenpeace.org For more information contact: enquiries@greenpeace.org Lead Author: Gary Cook, Greenpeace Co-Authors: Tom Dowdall, Greenpeace David Pomerantz, Greenpeace Yifei Wang, Greenpeace Editor: David Pomerantz, Greenpeace Creative Direction & Design by: Arc Communications Published in April 2014 by Greenpeace Inc. 702 H Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, D.C. 20001 United States greenpeace.org 2 Contents Executive Summary 5 Company Scorecard 7 Cloud Source 9 Global Energy Snapshot 13 The Cloud’s Next Stop: China 17 The Road Map to a Green Internet 19 Your Online World: Green IRL, or #dirty? 25 Green Internet Leaders and Best Practices 29 Where the Cloud Touches the Ground -- Map: Global Data Center Hot Spots -- Map: US Data Center Hot Spots -- US Regional Profiles 35 36 38 40 Appendix 1: Methodology 42 Appendix 2: Company Scores Explained 44 Appendix 3: Company Data Center Facilities and Estimates of Power Demand 64 Notes 78 03 4 © Frank van Biemen / EvoSwitch / Greenpeace Greenpeace USA Clicking Clean: How Companies are Creating the Green Internet Executive Summary Executive Summary For the estimated 2.5 billion people around the world who are connected to the internet, it is impossible to imagine life without...
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...“Global Consumer Culture is a beguiling illusion that completely glosses over the hard realities of national, ethnic and religious differences. It is therefore a dangerous fiction for the marketing manager to engage with.” Discuss, with examples. Introduction Globalization has made a more variety of products available for all consumers. In this sense, globalization increases differences, rather than generate homogenization (Lee & Usunier, 2009). Moreover, global influences are adapted to local circumstances; therefore, globalization results in an increasingly cultural diversity. The existence of a global consumer culture does not imply the disappearance of differences; rather, the modern culture results in the sum of these differences (Arnett, 2002). Global consumer culture (GCC) is a new stratum of common culture that superimpose on national cultures (Lee and Usunier, 2009) in the same way in which these overlap local traditions and subcultures existing within national boundaries, given the fact that most countries are already multicultural (Smith, 1991). Notably, it has been argued that culture is the most influential factor on consumer behaviour (Cleveland and Laroche, 2007); consequently, it is important to define the extent to which a modern global culture determine purchasing decisions, and these insights should inform marketing strategies. Therefore, the question is whether a GCC does exist, in which sense it should be interpreted, and how it does affect national cultures...
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...White Paper: An Analysis of Harrah’s Total Rewards Players Rewards Program © 2006 Gaming Market Advisors December 2006 Prepared by Gaming Market Advisors 330 E. Warm Springs Rd Las Vegas, NV 89119 4340 E. Kentucky Ave. Suite 311 Denver, CO 8024 Table of Contents I. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS............................................................................................................................................1 II. PROJECT OVERVIEW..................................................................................................................................................4 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................................4 III. TOTAL REWARD PROGRAM OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................5 Tiers and Tier Credits ............................................................................................................................................5 Reward Credits .....................................................................................................................................................7 IV. TOTAL REWARDS MARKETING STRATEGY .............................................................................................................11 V. TOTAL REWARDS TIER BENEFITS...................................................
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...U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice APR. 04 Special REPORT Forensic Examination of Digital Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcement U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs 810 Seventh Street N.W. Washington, DC 20531 John Ashcroft Attorney General Deborah J. Daniels Assistant Attorney General Sarah V. Hart Director, National Institute of Justice This and other publications and products of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice can be found on the World Wide Web at the following site: Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij APR. 04 Forensic Examination of Digital Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcement NCJ 199408 Sarah V. Hart Director This document is not intended to create, does not create, and may not be relied upon to create any rights, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by any party in any matter civil or criminal. Opinions or points of view expressed in this document represent a consensus of the authors and do not represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The products, manufacturers, and organizations discussed in this document are presented for informational purposes only and do not constitute product approval or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Justice. This document was prepared under Interagency Agreement #1999–IJ–R–094 between...
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...Traffic Merging for Energy-Efficient Datacenter Networks Alessandro Carrega Suresh Singh Roberto Bruschi Raffaele Bolla Portland State University National Inter-University Consortium for University of Genoa University of Genoa Genoa, Italy Telecommunications (CNIT) Portland, OR 97207 Genoa, Italy raffaele.bolla@unige.it Genoa, Italy singh@cs.pdx.edu alessandro.carrega@unige.it roberto.bruschi@cnit.it Abstract—Numerous studies have shown that datacenter networks typically see loads of between 5% – 25% but the energy draw of these networks is equal to operating them at maximum load. In this paper, we propose a novel way to make these networks more energy proportional – that is, the energy draw scales with the network load. We propose the idea of traffic aggregation, in which low traffic from N links is combined together to create H < N streams of high traffic. These streams are fed to H switch interfaces which run at maximum rate while the remaining interfaces are switched to the lowest possible one. We show that this merging can be accomplished with minimal latency and energy costs (less than 0.1W) while simultaneously allowing us a deterministic way of switching link rates between maximum and minimum. Using simulations based on previously developed traffic models, we show that 49% energy savings are obtained for 5% of the load while we get an energy savings of 22% for a 50% load. Hence, forasmuch as the packet losses are statistically insignificant, the results show that energy-proportional...
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...Risk in Housing Markets: An Equilibrium Approach⇤ Aurel Hizmo† NYU Stern January 30, 2012 Abstract Homeowners are overexposed to city-specific house price risk and income risks, which may be very di cult to insure against using standard financial instruments. This paper develops a micro-founded equilibrium model that transparently shows how this local uninsurable risk a↵ects individual location decisions and portfolio choices, and ultimately how it a↵ects prices in equilibrium. I estimate a version of this model using house price and wage data and provide estimates for risk premia for di↵erent cities, which imply that homes are on average about $20000 cheaper than they would be if owners were risk-neutral. This estimate is over $100000 for volatile coastal cities. Next, I simulate the model to study the e↵ects of financial innovation on equilibrium outcomes. Creating assets that hedge city-specific risks increases house prices by about 20% and productivity by about 10%. The average willingness to pay for completing the market per homeowner is between $10000 and $20000. Welfare gains come both from better risk-sharing and from more e cient sorting of households across cities. ⇤ I am deeply grateful to Patrick Bayer, Andrew Patton, and Peter Arcidiacono for their encouragement and support. I also thank Robert McMillan, Tim Bollerslev, Vish Viswanathan, Chris Timmins, Jimmy Roberts and the seminar participants at Duke Finance, the ERID Conference at Duke, Fed Board, NYU Stern...
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...The Supply Chain Management Processes Keely L. Croxton, Sebastián J. García-Dastugue and Douglas M. Lambert The Ohio State University Dale S. Rogers University of Nevada, Reno Increasingly, supply chain management is being recognized as the management of key business processes across the network of organizations that comprise the supply chain. While many have recognized the benefits of a process approach to managing the business and the supply chain, most are vague about what processes are to be considered, what sub-processes and activities are contained in each process, and how the processes interact with each other and with the traditional functional silos. In this paper, we provide strategic and operational descriptions of each of the eight supply chain processes identified by members of The Global Supply Chain Forum, as well as illustrations of the interfaces among the processes and an example of how a process approach can be implemented within an organization. Our aim is to provide managers with a framework to be used in implementing supply chain management, instructors with material useful in structuring a supply chain management course, and researchers with a set of opportunities for further development of the field. “Streamlining crosscompany processes is the next great frontier for reducing costs, enhancing quality, and speeding operations”. Supply chain management is increasingly being recognized as the integration of key business processes across the supply chain...
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...amazon global fullfilment strategyAmazon.com Supply Chain This area of the paper focuses on Amazon.com's supply chain and how it supports their business in the internet retailing environment. First, we have discussed Amazon.com's different operating models and explained the different supply chains that support those business models. After the business and supply chain models are defined we have discussed Amazon.com's supply chain network, inventory segmentation strategies, order sourcing decisions, overall replenishment and fulfillment process flows, intra-warehouse process flows, and transportation policies. This report analyzes the overall Amazon.com supply chain for United States distribution with a specific emphasis on the Media product segment. Amazon.com US Retail Product Segment Books, CDs, and DVDs and magazine subscriptions comprise the media product line at Amazon.com (Amazon.com 2002 Annual Report). Amazon.com began as an online bookseller and its first product line expansions were music and movies. As a result, the Media segment comprises a large percentage of Amazon.com overall revenues. In 2004, Media accounts for 74% of all revenues. Within the US, the Media segment accounts for 67% of all revenues. In dollar terms, the Media segment in the US generated $2.6 billion in revenue in 2004, compared 115 to $3.8 billion generated across all segments in the US (Amazon.com 2004 10-K Report). The pie chart below shows the breakout of revenue percentages by product and...
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...A Dynamic Oligopoly Game of the US Airline Industry: Estimation and Policy Experiments Victor Aguirregabiria∗ University of Toronto Chun-Yu Ho∗ Boston University This version: November 19, 2007 PRELIMINARY AND INCOMPLETE VERSION Abstract This paper estimates the contribution of demand, cost and strategic factors to explain why most companies in the US airline industry operate using a hub-spoke network. We postulate and estimate a dynamic oligopoly model where airline companies decide, every quarter, which routes (directional city-pairs) to operate, the type of product (direct flight vs. stop-flight), and the fare of each route-product. The model incorporates three factors which may contribute to the profitability of hub-spoke networks. First, consumers may value the scale of operation of an airline in the origin and destination airports (e.g., more convenient checking-in and landing facilities). Second, operating costs and entry costs may depend on the airline’s network because economies of density and scale. And third, a hub-spoke network may be an strategy to deter the entry of non hub-spoke carriers in some routes. We estimate our dynamic oligopoly model using panel data from the Airline Origin and Destination Survey with information on quantities, prices, and entry and exit decisions for every airline company over more than two thousand city-pair markets and several years. Demand and variable cost parameters are estimated using demand equations and Nash-Bertrand equilibrium...
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