Economic Value of the Oil and Gas Resources on the Outer Continential Shelf

A theoretical framework for estimating the economic value of the federal government's offshore oil and gas resources is developed. This framework is then applied to geological and economic data generated by the Minerals Management Service in support of their five-year leasing plan. With an 8 percent real discount rate and a 1 percent real price growth rate, the remaining economic rent as of 1987 on the reserves plus the undiscovered offshore oil and gas resources is estimated at $118.6 billion (1987 dollars). The present value of the government's receipts from cash bonus and royalty payments on these deposits is estimated at$37.2 billion. Over 80 percent of the remaining economic rent is derived from developed reserve deposits located in the Gulf of Mexico. The private sector has previously paid cash bonuses for the leases located on those deposits and financed the installation of the development platforms. Because of this, the government will collect only a small portion, approximately 22 percent, of the rent remaining on those reserves.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

An Empirical Exploration of Exchange Rate Target-Zones

In the context of a flexible-price monetary exchange rate model and the assumption of uncovered interest parity, we obtain a measure of the fundamental determinant of exchange rates. Daily data for the European Monetary System are used to explore the importance of non-linearities in the relationship between the exchange rates and fundamentals. Many implications of existing "target-zone" exchange rate models are tested; little support is found for existing non-linear models of limited exchange rate flexibility.

Higher Calorie Intakes Related to Higher Incomes in Northern Mozambique

Resultados das investigações do Departamento de Análise de Políticas MAP-Direcção de Economíafood security, food policy, Mozambique, food consumption, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q18,

Measuring the Food Environment: A Systematic Technique for Characterizing Food Stores Using Display Counts

Marketing research has documented the influence of in-store characteristics—such as the number and placement of display stands—on consumer purchases of a product. However, little information exists on this topic for key foods of interest to those studying the influence of environmental changes on dietary behavior. This study demonstrates a method for characterizing the food environment by measuring the number of separate displays of fruits, vegetables, and energy-dense snack foods (including chips, candies, and sodas) and their proximity to cash registers in different store types. Observations in New Orleans stores (N = 172) in 2007 and 2008 revealed significantly more displays of energy-dense snacks than of fruits and vegetables within all store types, especially supermarkets. Moreover, supermarkets had an average of 20 displays of energy-dense snacks within 1 meter of their cash registers, yet none of them had even a single display of fruits or vegetables near their cash registers. Measures of the number of separate display stands of key foods and their proximity to a cash register can be used by researchers to better characterize food stores and by policymakers to address improvements to the food environment

Physiologic responses to arm ergometry exercise relative to age and gender

AbstractArm ergometry exercise testing is a valuable alternative method used in the evaluation and management of patients with both cardiac disease and lower limb impairment. The purpose of this study is to provide information concerning the physiologic responses of normal healthy subjects to arm ergometry relative to age and gender, which could serve as a standard for comparison. Eighty healthy subjects (age 22 to 59 years) cycled at 75 to 80 rpm (on a bicycle adapted for arm ergometry) starting at a power output of 10 W, increasing at 10 W/2 min until exhaustion.Sixty subjects were classified on the basis of age into three groups, each with 10 men and 10 women. Men achieved significantly (p < 0.001) higher power output (95 ± 25 W) and oxygen consumption (20.7 ± 3.9 ml/kg per min) than did women (56 ± 19 W and 15.5 ± 3.1 ml/kg per min, respectively). The heart rate response to total body oxygen demand during arm ergometry was significantly higher in women than in men (p < 0.001). These findings were also present when men and women of each age group were analyzed separately. Older subjects reached a significantly (p < 0.02) lower peak power output than did younger subjects although they reached a similar level of oxygen consumption.Separate regression equations for predicting oxygen consumption at each power output were formulated for men and women and validated in 20 other subjects. Small differences in measured and predicted oxygen consumption at each stage were found. These data provide additional information concerning arm ergometry testing and should prove useful in diagnostic exercise testing and cardiac rehabilitation

Spatiotemporal regulation of the cough motor pattern

The purpose of this study was to identify the spatiotemporal determinants of the cough motor pattern. We speculated that the spatial and temporal characteristics of the cough motor pattern would be regulated separately. Electromyograms (EMG) of abdominal muscles (ABD, rectus abdominis or transversus abdominis), and parasternal muscles (PS) were recorded in anesthetized cats. Repetitive coughing was produced by mechanical stimulation of the lumen of the intrathoracic trachea. Cough inspiratory (CTI) and expiratory (CTE) durations were obtained from the PS EMG. The ABD EMG burst was confined to the early part of CTE and was followed by a quiescent period of varying duration. As such, CTE was divided into two segments with CTE1 defined as the duration of the ABD EMG burst and CTE2 defined as the period of little or no EMG activity in the ABD EMG. Total cough cycle duration (CTTOT) was strongly correlated with CTE2 (r2>0.8), weakly correlated with CTI (r2<0.3), and not correlated with CTE1 (r2<0.2). There was no significant relationship between CTI and CTE1 or CTE2. The magnitudes of inspiratory and expiratory motor drive during cough were only weakly correlated with each other (r2<0.36) and were not correlated with the duration of any phase of cough. The results support: a) separate regulation of CTI and CTE, b) two distinct subphases of CTE (CTE1 and CTE2), c) the duration of CTE2 is a primary determinant of CTTOT, and d) separate regulation of the magnitude and temporal features of the cough motor pattern

A Practical Guide to Calculating Cohen’s f2, a Measure of Local Effect Size, from PROC MIXED

Reporting effect sizes in scientific articles is increasingly widespread and encouraged by journals; however, choosing an effect size for analyses such as mixed-effects regression modeling and hierarchical linear modeling can be difficult. One relatively uncommon, but very informative, standardized measure of effect size is Cohen’s f2, which allows an evaluation of local effect size, i.e., one variable’s effect size within the context of a multivariate regression model. Unfortunately, this measure is often not readily accessible from commonly used software for repeated-measures or hierarchical data analysis. In this guide, we illustrate how to extract Cohen’s f2 for two variables within a mixed-effects regression model using PROC MIXED in SAS® software. Two examples of calculating Cohen’s f2 for different research questions are shown, using data from a longitudinal cohort study of smoking development in adolescents. This tutorial is designed to facilitate the calculation and reporting of effect sizes for single variables within mixed-effects multiple regression models, and is relevant for analyses of repeated-measures or hierarchical/multilevel data that are common in experimental psychology, observational research, and clinical or intervention studies

Halpha-Derived Star-Formation Rates For Three z ~ 0.75 EDisCS Galaxy Clusters

We present Halpha-derived star-formation rates (SFRs) for three z ~ 0.75 galaxy clusters. Our 1 sigma flux limit corresponds to a star-formation rate of 0.10-0.24 solar mass per year, and our minimum reliable Halpha + [N II] rest-frame equivalent width is 10\AA. We show that Halpha narrowband imaging is an efficient method for measuring star formation in distant clusters. In two out of three clusters, we find that the fraction of star-forming galaxies increases with projected distance from the cluster center. We also find that the fraction of star-forming galaxies decreases with increasing local galaxy surface density in the same two clusters. We compare the median rate of star formation among star-forming cluster galaxies to a small sample of star-forming field galaxies from the literature and find that the median cluster SFRs are \~50% less than the median field SFR. We characterize cluster evolution in terms of the mass-normalized integrated cluster SFR and find that the z ~ 0.75 clusters have more SFR per cluster mass on average than the z <= 0.4 clusters from the literature. The interpretation of this result is complicated by the dependence of the mass-normalized SFR on cluster mass and the lack of sufficient overlap in the mass ranges covered by the low and high redshift samples. We find that the fraction and luminosities of the brightest starburst galaxies at z ~ 0.75 are consistent with their being progenitors of the post-starburst galaxies at z ~ 0.45 if the post-starburst phase lasts several (~5) times longer than the starburst phase.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 20 pages, 24 figure

PIKES Analysis Reveals Response to Degraders and Key Regulatory Mechanisms of the CRL4 Network

Co-opting Cullin4 RING ubiquitin ligases (CRL4s) to inducibly degrade pathogenic proteins is emerging as a promising therapeutic strategy. Despite intense efforts to rationally design degrader molecules that co-opt CRL4s, much about the organization and regulation of these ligases remains elusive. Here, we establish protein interaction kinetics and estimation of stoichiometries (PIKES) analysis, a systematic proteomic profiling platform that integrates cellular engineering, affinity purification, chemical stabilization, and quantitative mass spectrometry to investigate the dynamics of interchangeable multiprotein complexes. Using PIKES, we show that ligase assemblies of Cullin4 with individual substrate receptors differ in abundance by up to 200-fold and that Cand1/2 act as substrate receptor exchange factors. Furthermore, degrader molecules can induce the assembly of their cognate CRL4, and higher expression of the associated substrate receptor enhances degrader potency. Beyond the CRL4 network, we show how PIKES can reveal systems level biochemistry for cellular protein networks important to drug development