Pulpwood vs. sawtimber: A “quick and dirty” economic analysis of hardwood timber management

A major decision in hardwood forest management is the type of final products to produce. Until recently, the only options in many areas of the South for hardwoods were sawtimber products-crossties, dimension lumber, and veneer, for example. In the past ten years, however, hardwood markets have changed dramatically. Across much of the South, hardwood pulpwood is now in very high demand

Effect of application timing on efficacy of site preparation treatments using Chopper® GEN 2™

Chopper® GEN2™ is a new imazapyr product for use in forestry site preparation. A single treatment (32 ounces of Chopper® GEN2™ per acre) was applied at three timings on three sites (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia) to test the effect of application timing on treatment efficacy. Hardwood control was excellent for all applications. Pine growth varied by site, but all treatments resulted in excellent pine growth. Pine stem volume was 5 to 10 times greater in treated plots as compared to untreated plots

Improving southern oak seedling survival can boost after-tax investment returns

Private forest landowners have many reasons for managing their timberlands- from intensive timber production to wildlife habitat to family recreation. An exciting forestry development is the establishment of oak plantations on agricultural land. Both state and federal governmental assistance programs can provide part of the initial investment involved in forest establishment costs. Unfortunately, there are few existing studies to help landowners decide if the investment will be profitable

U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform

The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform was created by Congress to assess U.S. immigration policy and make recommendations regarding its implementation and effects. Mandated in the Immigration Act of 1990 to submit an interim report in 1994 and a final report in 1997, the Commission has undertaken public hearings, fact-finding missions, and expert consultations to identify the major immigration-related issues facing the United States today.LBJ School of Public Affair

Developing Measurable Cross-Departmental Learning Objectives for Requirements Elicitation in an Information Systems Curriculum

The ability to elicit information systems requirements is a necessary learning objective for students in a contemporary information systems curriculum, and is a skill vital to their careers. Common challenges in teaching this skill include both the lack of structure and guidance in information systems textbooks as well as the view that a student’s education consists of a disparate set of unrelated courses. These challenges are exacerbated by faculty who focus only on their taught courses and by textbooks that often promote an isolated, passing glance at both the importance of and the idea behind requirements elicitation. In this paper, we describe a multi-year, faculty-led effort to create and refine learning activities that are aligned to requirements elicitation learning objectives both within and scaffolded across courses in a modern information systems curriculum. To achieve success in developing this marketable skill within information systems students, learning activities were integrated across the entire information systems major in a process we call Bloomification, where learning objectives, aligned learning activities, and courses are related and connected across the curriculum. This cross-departmental process is presented and lessons learned by the faculty are discussed

The learning climate for administration students

This paper was originally presented at the Administration in Social Work Editorial Board Institute, Charleston, SC, June 2002. The authors would like to thank Mike Austin for his very useful comments on an earlier draft of the paper.The percentage of MSW students specializing in administrative practice has been declining in recent years, as has the percentage of NASW members who identify themselves as administrators or supervisors. One of many possible explanations for these trends is that schools of social work are inhospitable environments for social work administration. The research reported in this article sought to determine if administration students perceive the school climates at three different universities to be hostile to social work management practice, and, if so, to explore the dynamics of how these climates influence the choices made and the education of administration students. We found that at all three schools, nonadministration students were perceived to be critical of students who selected administration concentrations and administration as a career path, that majorities of students experienced anti-management comments and attitudes in a variety of forms, and that administration students thought their foundation courses provided inadequate background for their advanced studies. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and recommendations for change. (C) 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved

Preclinical Evaluation of Anticancer Efficacy and Pharmacological Properties of FBA-TPQ, a Novel Synthetic Makaluvamine Analog

We have recently designed and synthesized a novel iminoquinone anticancer agent, 7-(4-fluorobenzylamino)-1,3,4,8-tetrahydropyrrolo[4,3,2-de]quinolin-8(1<em>H</em>)-one (FBA-TPQ) and initiated its preclinical development. Herein we investigated its efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics in <em>in vitro</em> and <em>in vivo</em> models of human pancreatic cancer. Our results demonstrated that FBA-TPQ inhibited pancreatic cancer cell growth, induced apoptosis,<em> </em>and caused cell cycle arrest <em>in vitro</em>. It inhibited the growth of xenograft tumors with minimal host toxicity. To facilitate future preclinical and clinical development of the agent, we also developed and validated a Rapid Resolution Liquid Chromatography (RRLC) method for quantitative analysis of FBA-TPQ in plasma and tissue samples. The method was found to be precise, accurate, and specific. Using this method, we carried out <em>in vitro</em> and <em>in vivo</em> evaluations of the pharmacological properties of FBA-TPQ, including stability in plasma, plasma protein binding, metabolism by S9 enzymes, plasma pharmacokinetics, and tissue distribution. Our results indicate that FBA-TPQ is a potential therapeutic agent for pancreatic cancer, providing a basis for future preclinical and clinical development

Targeting BTK for the treatment of FLT3-ITD mutated acute myeloid leukemia

Approximately 20% of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) have a mutation in FMS-like-tyrosine-kinase-3 (FLT3). FLT3 is a trans-membrane receptor with a tyrosine kinase domain which, when activated, initiates a cascade of phosphorylated proteins including the SRC family of kinases. Recently our group and others have shown that pharmacologic inhibition and genetic knockdown of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) blocks AML blast proliferation, leukaemic cell adhesion to bone marrow stromal cells as well as migration of AML blasts. The anti-proliferative effects of BTK inhibition in human AML are mediated via inhibition of downstream NF-κB pro-survival signalling however the upstream drivers of BTK activation in human AML have yet to be fully characterised. Here we place the FLT3-ITD upstream of BTK in AML and show that the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib inhibits the survival and proliferation of FLT3-ITD primary AML blasts and AML cell lines. Furthermore ibrutinib inhibits the activation of downstream kinases including MAPK, AKT and STAT5. In addition we show that BTK RNAi inhibits proliferation of FLT3-ITD AML cells. Finally we report that ibrutinib reverses the cyto-protective role of BMSC on FLT3-ITD AML survival. These results argue for the evaluation of ibrutinib in patients with FLT3-ITD mutated AML

Predicting trajectories of offending over the life course:findings from a Dutch conviction cohort

Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit