Preference for Some Nursery-grown Hybrid \u3ci\u3ePopulus\u3c/i\u3e Trees by the Spotted Poplar Aphid and Its Suppression by Insecticidal Soaps (Homoptera: Aphididae)

Susceptibility ranking of more than 50 clones of hybrid Populus whips showed a wide range of attack ranging from none to very heavy. Clones with P. x jackii parentage were the most susceptible, whereas Carolina poplar was unscathed. Growth loss differed little between very heavily aphid-attacked whips and unattacked whips. Two insecticidal soaps adequately controlled the aphid but one caused some phytotoxicity to Populus

Impact of the Poplar-Gall Saperda, \u3ci\u3eSaperda Inornata\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) on a Hybrid \u3ci\u3ePopulus\u3c/i\u3e Plantation in Michigan

Saperda inornata attacks on hybrid Populus were monitored in a stand for four years after planting. More than 60% of the whips were attacked the first year, resulting in a mean of 1.6 galls/tree (range 0-8). Branch attacks superseded stem attacks in the third and fourth years. Saperda injury significantly reduced height because of leader breakage after the second-year attacks, but the injured trees grew rapidly and recovered much of the height in the third and fourth years. Saperdas killed 4% of the trees during the study, but this was no more than would be expected in a newly established stand. Saperda, at the population levels studied, does not seem to greatly affect hybrid Populus growth or to reduce biomass

The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and US Ethnic Invention

This study evaluates the impact of high-skilled immigrants on US technology formation. Specifically, we use reduced-form specifications that exploit large changes in the H-1B visa program. Fluctuations in H-1B admissions levels significantly influence the rate of Indian and Chinese patenting in cities and firms dependent upon the program relative to their peers. Most specifications find weak crowding-in effects or no effect at all for native patenting. Total invention increases with higher admission levels primarily through the direct contributions of ethnic inventors.Innovation, Research and Development, Patents, Scientists, Engineers, Inventors, H-1B, Immigration, Ethnicity, India, China, Endogenous Growth.

The Dynamics of Firm Lobbying

We study the determinants of the dynamics of firm lobbying behavior using a panel data set covering 1998-2006. Our data exhibit three striking facts: (i) few firms lobby, (ii) lobbying status is strongly associated with firm size, and (iii) lobbying status is highly persistent over time. Estimating a model of a firm's decision to engage in lobbying, we find significant evidence that up-front costs associated with entering the political process help explain all three facts. We then exploit a natural experiment in the expiration in legislation surrounding the H-1B visa cap for high-skilled immigrant workers to study how these costs affect firms' responses to policy changes. We find that companies primarily adjusted on the intensive margin: the firms that began to lobby for immigration were those who were sensitive to H-1B policy changes and who were already advocating for other issues, rather than firms that became involved in lobbying anew. For a firm already lobbying, the response is determined by the importance of the issue to the firm's business rather than the scale of the firm's prior lobbying efforts. These results support the existence of significant barriers to entry in the lobbying process.

First the Context, Later the Challenge: Commercial Mediators Interface with the Volatile International Sector

Unless we talk of international commerce, the two respective sectors in which you and I each work appear to be very separate arenas that lack any commonality. But, if we permit, a common bond indeed yearns to be acknowledged and cultivated: You and I have willingly accepted the honorable mantle as stewards of integrity, competency, and credibility of the mediation process and the profession itself. Mediation - a process which is neither pure nor scientific; a process complete with bastardizations such as mandatory mediation provisions as well as creative variations including partnering and med-arb models; a process which we regard as both mystical and sophisticated, but which is barely embryonic when compared to the development of future theories, processes and applications not yet even imagined. Despite the commonality that we are at least professional colleagues, there are differences in our scenarios, approaches and practices. The distinctions which I shall offer are neither meant to separate us nor to regard one sector as more complex or more difficult, sophisticated, important, or more elevated above the other. By attempting to construct a fuller picture, however incomplete or inaccurate, it may be that knowledge and acknowledgement will evolve - and that our profession as a whole will benefit, and even more so via the crossfertilization of each sector\u27s own distinct artistry

Swath Mapping on the Continental Shelf and Slope: The Eel River Basin, Northern California

First Paragraph The STRATAFORM program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (Nittrouer and Kravitz, 1996, this issue) seeks to understand how sedimentary processes lead to the formation of the stratigraphic sequences on continental margins. A central challenge facing this effort is to understand the transport of sediments in shore-parallel as well as shore-perpendicular directions• Multidimensionality is necessary to describe, for example, the accumulation of sediments from river inputs, the distribution of gullies and canyons on the slope, the meandering of channels, and the structure of slumps and slides