ESTIMATION OF ECONOMIC RENT AS A MEASURE OF FACTOR OWNERS' WELFARE

Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

SOCIAL SUBSIDIES, ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION, AND UTILIZATION OF AGRICULTURAL WASTES: AN OREGON EXAMPLE

Environmental Economics and Policy,

New shield for gamma-ray spectrometry

Gamma-ray shield that can be evacuated, refilled with a clean gas, and pressurized for exclusion of airborne radioactive contaminants effectively lowers background noise. Under working conditions, repeated evacuation and filling procedures have not adversely affected the sensitivity and resolution of the crystal detector

Ground-state of graphene in the presence of random charged impurities

We calculate the carrier density dependent ground state properties of graphene in the presence of random charged impurities in the substrate taking into account disorder and interaction effects non-perturbatively on an equal footing in a self-consistent theoretical formalism. We provide detailed quantitative results on the dependence of the disorder-induced spatially inhomogeneous two-dimensional carrier density distribution on the external gate bias, the impurity density, and the impurity location. We find that the interplay between disorder and interaction is strong, particularly at lower impurity densities. We show that for the currently available typical graphene samples, inhomogeneity dominates graphene physics at low ($\lesssim 10^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$) carrier density with the density fluctuations becoming larger than the average density.Comment: Final version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

A Tale of Two Schools: A Practitioner’s Use of Bourdieu’s Theory to Understand Academic Underachievement Among Students at His Inner-City School

This paper describes my journey, as a teacher at a Canadian inner-city elementary school, toward conceptually understanding why many children at my current school repeatedly academically underachieve. I have utilized Bourdieu’s theory of practice as a heuristic to examine how social reproduction operates differently for school children from different social classes and leads to differences in achievement. The first component of this paper establishes a crucial theoretical base for practitioners by describing theory of practice and its key concepts of cultural capital, habitus, field, and symbolic violence, to explicate how social reproduction functions in education, highlighting the roles of institutions and professionals, and the transformative and generative potentials of Bourdieu’s theory. The second component provides important epistemological and methodological considerations regarding how practitioners might conduct successful empirical studies while avoiding the problems that are prevalent in existing empirical literature

Modeling for thermal resistance of non-O157 shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli in ground beef

Predictive models in microbiology are used for estimating the growth or survival of microorganism in a set of environmental conditions. A validated predictive model provides an alternative to extensive survival and shelf life studies. In this study, a predictive inactivation model for non-O157 shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in ground beef was developed. Six strains of non-O157 STEC; E. coli O26:H1, E. coli O45:H2, E. coli O103:H2, E. coli O111:H8, E. coli O121:H9, and E. coli O145: nonmotile, has similar pathogenicity as E. coli O157:H7 and can cause serious food borne illnesses. These pathogens are considered as an adulterant in meat products. The thermal behavior these non-O157 STECs was studied in laboratory media as well as in ground beef with varying fat content. There was no significant difference in the heat resistance among the strains, therefore, a cocktail of the strains was used for ground beef study. Ground beef fat content levels of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30% were used. Survival curves were generated between surviving population against time during heat treatment at five temperatures 55, 60, 65, 68, 71.1ºC. The shape of survival curves was analyzed by statistical analysis software (SAS®) to identify the best fitting primary model. The survival of these pathogens was modeled as a second order polynomial function of fat content of ground beef and temperature of cooking. The accuracy factor of the developed model was 11.43%, which is in the acceptable limit of 25%. The model was successfully validated for predicting process lethality in ground beef obtained from three grocery stores

Vitreous GeO2 response to shock loading

Shock wave profiles in vitreous GeO2 (6.56 Mg/m^3) under planar loading were measured using stress gauges to 14 GPa. New and previous data yield Hugoniot: D=0.974 (km/s)+1.711 u for shocks of 6 to 40 GPa. We show that the phase change from 4- to 6-fold coordination of Ge+4 with O–2 in vitreous GeO2 occurs from 4 to 15 GPa. Hugoniots of vitreous GeO2 and SiO2 are found to approximately coincide if the pressure in SiO2 is scaled by the ratio of SiO2 to GeO2 initial density

Zero length crosslinking of bovine carbonic anhydrase II and chondroitin-4-sulfate

Bovine carbonic anhydrase II (EC 4.2.1.1) was covalently linked to chondroitin-4-sulfate (β-glucoronic acid-[1-3]-N-acetyl-β-galactosamine-4-sulfate-[1-4]) from bovine trachea. A zero length crosslinking procedure which reacts the protein amino groups with preactivated carboxyl groups of chondroitin-4-sulfate was carried out with l-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide and N-hydroxysuccinimide as coupling agents. The complex remained enzymatically active, was water soluble, and appeared to be about 170 kDa as analyzed on SDS-PAGE and column chromatography on Sephadex G 150. It is likely that 5 protein molecules (30 kDa each) are linked to 1 chondroitin-4-sulfate molecule (20 kDa). The CO2 hydration activity of the complex was generally slightly less than the unmodified protein with both forms having highest activity at a pH 8 and the lowest activity at pH 5.5. The same was true for the kinetic parameters kcat and kcat / KM. The pH dependence of kcat was not affected upon conjugation with chondroitin-4-sulfate. The KM appeared to be slightly less for the modified form of the enzyme for the hydration of CO2 at all pH values used. For the dehydration of bicarbonate at pH 5.5 (room temperature), the KM was also slightly less for the modified enzyme (KM = 21.7 mM) as compared to the unmodified form (KM = 24.2 mM). The complex also appeared to be capable of hydrating CO2 in human plasma and seemed to be more resistant of inhibitory effects of plasma as compared to the unmodified enzyme. The effects of a noncompetitive inhibitor, acetazolamide, were similar between the crosslinked complex (KI = 3.87 x 10-8 M) and the unmodified enzyme (KI = 4.62 x 10-8 M). However, the modified enzyme was more resistant to denaturation by guanidine hydrochloride, SDS and heat. Covalent coupling of chondroitin-4-sulfate to enzymes may present a method with which the stabilization of biological structures can be achieved with a minimal (if any) loss of enzymatic activity. The BCA II : chondroitin-4-sulfate complex produced in this work may be of use as an artificial blood substitute designed to transport CO2 molecules in vivo

Influence of various training systems on yield and quality of Muscat Hamburg grapes

Effect of different training systems on the performance of Muscat Hamburg was studied as regards yield and quality for six years. Although the space allotted and fertilizer applied per vine were the same, the vines trained on bower system gave yields five times as high (9.0 kg/vine) as those trained on head system (1.8 kg/vine). Unilateral Kniffin, unilateral telephone, bilateral telephone and bilateral Kniffin gave yields of 5.4, 5.6, 5.8 and 6.7 kg/vine, respectively. There was no measurable effect on quality of fruit.Der Einfluß verschiedener Erziehungssysteme auf Ertrag und Qualität der RebsorteMuskat HamburgIn einem sechsjährigen Versuch wurde der Einfluß verschiedener Erziehungssysteme auf die Ertrags- und Qualitätsleistung von Muskat Hamburg verfolgt. Obwohl die Fläche und die Düngergabe je Rebe durchweg gleich waren, erbrachten die Reben bei Pergolaerziehung im Durchschnitt den fünffachen Ertrag wie bei Kopferziehung (9,0 kg/Rebe gegenüber 1,8 kg). Bei einseitiger Kniffin-, einseitiger „Telephon"-, zweiseitiger „Telephon"- bzw. zweiseitiger Kniffin-Erziehung wurden Durchschnittserträge von 5,4, 5,6, 5,8 bzw. 6,7 kg/Rebe erzielt. Ein meßbarer Einfluß der Erziehungsform auf die Beerenqualität lag nicht vor