HEDONIC PRICE ESTIMATION FOR COMMODITIES: AN APPLICATION TO COTTON

A model of hedonic prices – implicit prices of embodied quality attributes – was developed for cotton lint and the relative importance of various quality attributes were estimated with regression analysis from sample data on observed sales of cotton. Results indicated that producer prices were sensitive to variations in fiber length, micronaire, and trash content. Results also revealed differences in relative importance and sensitivity between years.Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,

Dying without Dignity: Homeless Deaths in Los Angeles County: 2000 - 2007

This report is an investigation into 2,815 homeless deaths in Los Angeles County between January, 2000 and May, 2007, based on statistics provided by the Los Angeles County Coroner's office. When a homeless person dies they do not often get the same sense of dying with dignity as a housed person. December 21st has been commemorated as the National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day by the National Coalition for the Homeless in partnership with the National Health Care for the Homeless Council for communities around the nation to commemorate the lives of homeless people that passed away.Local advocates and service providers celebrate the lives of thousands of homeless people in hundreds of cities around the nation with candlelight vigils, a reading of names, and other acts to remember the lives of those lost while living on the streets of our nation.This report is an investigation into homeless deaths in Los Angeles County between January, 2000 and May, 2007, based on statistics from the Los Angeles County Coroner's office. It is our hope that the homeless people who make up the statistics in this report did not die in vain and that policy makers move to implement the recommendations of this report in an effort to provide the dignity they did not find while living on the streets of our community. Equally important, to implement these strategies to help prevent the untimely deaths of homeless people in the future

Light Neutralino Dark Matter in the NMSSM

Neutralino dark matter is generally assumed to be relatively heavy, with a mass near the electroweak scale. This does not necessarily need to be the case, however. In the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) and other supersymmetric models with an extended Higgs sector, a very light CP-odd Higgs boson can naturally arise making it possible for a very light neutralino to annihilate efficiently enough to avoid being overproduced in the early Universe. In this article, we explore the characteristics of a supersymmetric model needed to include a very light neutralino, 100 MeV < \mcnone < 20 GeV, using the NMSSM as a prototype. We discuss the most important constraints from Upsilon decays, $b \to s \gamma$, $B_s \to \mu^+ \mu^-$ and the magnetic moment of the muon, and find that a light bino or singlino neutralino is allowed, and can be generated with the appropriate relic density. It has previously been shown that the positive detection of dark matter claimed by the DAMA collaboration can be reconciled with other direct dark matter experiments such as CDMS II if the dark matter particle is rather light, between about 6 and 9 GeV. A singlino or bino-like neutralino could easily fall within this range of masses within the NMSSM. Additionally, models with sub-GeV neutralinos may be capable of generating the 511 keV gamma-ray emission observed from the galactic bulge by the INTEGRAL/SPI experiment. We also point out measurements which can be performed immediately at CLEO, BaBar and Belle using existing data to discover or significantly constrain this scenario.Comment: References updated, accepted for publication in PR

Focus on Essential Learning Outcomes

Simpson Central School began a gradual implementation of Early Learning Success strategies and procedures to close the gap among its students. The purpose was to identify the learning needs of students as early as possible and to respond to those needs quickly and systematically. Kindergarten was the grade level of focus for the first year of ELS implementation; however, efforts to improve instruction in grades one through three

Jonah and his friends at The Jackson Laboratory

Jonah, on the cover, may be the oldest mouse that ever lived. He has helped scientists learn about what happens when people get older. Jonah has made a lot of frends at The Jackson Laboratory and would like you to meet them and color them. If you don\u27t want to color inside the lines, that is fine with Jonah. He knows many scientists and some of them made very important discoveries because they grew up coloring outside the lines. Jonah\u27s picture on the cover was colored by Ailish Fahey, age eight, the daughter of Jim Fahey who works at The Jackson Laboratory. Jane Weinberger, who publishes books for children, picked the cover and the 10 other finalists who colored the pictures on the back cover. Karen Davis, one of Jonah\u27s many friends, drew all the pictures, Bob Gottlieb wrote the words

An Appeal to the Delegates to the National Convention of the YCL

Typed letter in support of the Young Peoples Scoialist League. Additional signees: Milton Zaslow, Abe Weber, Max Mont, Bernard Lieberman, Irving Feigin, Helen Gourin, Maritian Malraux Student Publications: The Campus Newspaper Collectio

A survey of academic staff attitudes towards the system of academic titles used in New Zealand universities

This report presents the results of a survey of academic staff at New Zealand universities to determine their attitudes towards a change in academic titles from the current British system to the US system. A questionnaire was developed and sent to a stratified random sample of 1340 academic staff selected from the 7 universities in New Zealand. A total of 671 valid responses was received. The responses were analysed statistically by university, faculty, designation, qualifications, gender, age and overseas experience. The comments were also analysed qualitatively. The overall results indicated that 44% of the respondents preferred the current system of titles, 39% preferred the alternative US system and 17% did not have a preference. However, the differences between the preferences for the two systems were not significant at the 95% ( or 90%) confidence level. The analysis by university revealed that although academic staff at Auckland and Victoria Universities generally preferred the alternative US system and academic staff at Canterbury, Lincoln and Otago Universities generally preferred the current system of academic titles, only responses from Massey and Waikato Universities indicated a statistically significant preference for the current system. Staff in the "professional" faculties (eg Agriculture, Commerce and Law) generally preferred the alternative US system, compared with academics from the more "traditional" academic areas (eg Humanities/Arts and Social Sciences) who tended to prefer the current British system. However, the only statistically significant differences were recorded by Medical/Dental academic staff who overwhelmingly indicated a preference for the current system. The results also indicated that staff who were born or had their main overseas academic experiences in Commonwealth countries (eg NZ, Australia and UK) tended to prefer the current British system of academic titles, whereas staff who were born or had their main overseas academic experiences in generally non-Commonwealth countries (eg in Asia, Europe (excl. UK) and North America) preferred the alternative US system. Professors and assistant/junior lecturers showed a statistically significant preference for the current system whereas, overall, senior lecturers tended to prefer the alternative system (although not statistically significant). Generally the results indicate that there is not a majority support for either the British or the US systems of academic titles and there is a considerable level of dissatisfaction with the current system. Consequently it is concluded that more research needs to be undertaken to determine the best system of academic titles and salary scales for academic staff at New Zealand universities

H. P. Davis Correspondence

Entries include a handwritten letter from Davis suggesting that the Maine Author Collection could include works by the Davis family and the author Patten and typed letters of correspondence from the Maine State Library

The Passive Journalist: How sources dominate the local news

This study explores which sources are “making” local news and whether these sources are simply indicating the type of news that appears, or are shaping newspaper coverage. It provides an empirical record of the extent to which sources are able to dominate news coverage from which future trends in local journalism can be measured. The type and number of sources used in 2979 sampled news stories in four West Yorkshire papers, representing the three main proprietors of local newspapers in the United Kingdom, were recorded for one month and revealed the relatively narrow range of routine sources; 76 per cent of articles cited only a single source. The analysis indicates that journalists are relying less on their readers for news, and that stories of little consequence are being elevated to significant positions, or are filling news pages at the expense of more important stories. Additionally, the reliance on a single source means that alternative views and perspectives relevant to the readership are being overlooked. Journalists are becoming more passive, mere processors of one-sided information or bland copy dictated by sources. These trends indicate poor journalistic standards and may be exacerbating declining local newspaper sales