Economic Aspects of Renewable Energy from Agricultural Waste on the Southern Plains of Texas

Motivated to explore sustainability of renewable energy from bio-waste, this study attempted to discover the economic feasibility of effectively utilizing the existing agricultural waste to generate bio-energy, to complement local nucleus business by meeting specific market demands while assessing the reasonable risk associated with bio-energy production for an area with heavy concentration of agricultural production and serious water constraints. Since the problems to be addressed are all location specified critical points for bio-energy generation, GIS maps are used to identify the locations and the associated attainable volumes of agricultural waste. Meanwhile, reasonable variation and distribution of attainable cotton gin waste was identified by using a Monte Carlo Markov Chain simulation. Consequently, the constrained expected profit maximization model was specified to assess the optimal plant size, application of technologies and associated production outputs under multiple scenarios of market situations. Conclusions based on the study results include that the possibility of peaking power contact for bio-energy outputs is critical for taking advantage of larger scales of bio-energy production, reducing the production risk and enhancing the competitiveness of bio-energy products. Gasifying biomass is a feasible way to generate electricity for peak load needs while satisfying self consumption and incidental sale if necessary facilities connecting to the grid are available. Mobile pyrolysis plants have sufficient potential for profits all the way through effectively converting biomass to bio-oil, hence increasing the feasibility of a large-scale bio-energy facility and the capability to meet the needs of higher valued peaking power by utilizing an existing facility at local power plants in the study region. Also, the study results imply that production of bio-energy from agricultural waste has higher risks, and the variance of profits could be immense even though at a typical area with heavy concentrations of agricultural production. Technology improvement associated with reduced expenses for plant facilities or the increased converting efficiency would be the key components for dealing the risk and commercializing bio-energy products in long term.sustainability, bio-energy, agricultural waste, economic feasibility, risk, Agribusiness, Land Economics/Use,

Using Quantile Regression in Hedonic Analysis to Reveal Submarket Competition

A root concern of hedonic property value models is that some commonly-used estimators aggregate very diverse households into a single regression, which may explain the marked differences in implicit price estimates for the same housing attributes across studies. In this paper, we extend a model that captures household heterogeneity through submarket identification and use quantile regression analysis to explore the role submarket competition plays in setting housing prices in those price ranges where different submarkets occupy homes of similar price. We find evidence of direct competition between submarkets with different preferences for at least some homes in a single neighborhood market. We cluster packages of attributes into three broad indices: dwelling structure variables, location variables, and adjacency variables. In the price ranges of competition between two submarkets, there is a clear premium paid in one of the indexed attribute by the final occupant to ‘outbid’ a member from another submarket. The attributes that realize a premium are those that are expected from prior analysis on what those submarkets prefer; and these premiums introduce variation in housing prices that would not be captured by standard hedonic approaches. By examining hedonic parameter instability at different housing price levels, we uncover not only latent diversity among homeowners but direct competition between them that calls into question policy and market conclusions drawn from standard hedonic price models, especially large sample hedonic studies.

Hazards of R&D and Adoption Delays from Water Policy Infrastructure

This work contends that farmers as a group do not impede progress on long run land use change and aggressive forward-looking research to locate a \u27backstop\u27 technology practice(s) that wean them from heavy use of virtually non-renewable aquifer supplies. Interests that may impede progress are paradoxical and defy convention but not theory

Steps Towards Personalized Learning Using Online Asynchronous Technology: A Study of 7th, 10th and 12th Graders at a Small Rural School in Massachusetts

Adolescents’ use of technology is an integral part of their lives. They use it for communicating, archiving, socialization, identity exploration, and a range of other purposes. As a tool for adolescent academic learning, contemporary technologies target the brain’s recognition, strategic, and affective networks. Synthesizing adolescents’ affinity for technology with proven educational practices, knowledge of the brain’s workings, and an understanding of contemporary technologies’ capabilities, leads to the conclusion that technology-enabled personalized learning approaches can result in successful outcomes for students. This dissertation outlines findings from a 6-week mixed-methods study of 7th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students attending a small rural school in Massachusetts. The purpose of this mixed-methods study involving 73 students was to discern from their perspective the efficacy of technology in facilitating more meaningful personalized learning experiences for students. This purpose was accomplished within the framework of standards-based learning by exposing students to an asynchronous learning platform designed to support student learning. High adolescent affinity for technology translates into a desire for greater amounts of it in their learning experiences. Being in control of learning resonates affectively with adolescents, increasing their buy-in to their own learning. Technology features such as multimodality, online tools, feedback mechanisms, and the simple safety of an environment in which to experiment, provide enhanced learning experiences for many students. In addition to content interaction, adolescents require interaction with teachers and peers, albeit to varying extents. Because students have different preferences across all the aforementioned dimensions, we need to adopt increasingly personalized approaches to learning, probably within blended learning environments. Technology can and must play a substantive role in delivering personalized learning experiences for all adolescents

New Concepts in Pacemaker Syndrome

After implantation of a permanent pacemaker, patients may experience severe symptoms of dyspnea, palpitations, malaise, and syncope resulting from pacemaker syndrome. Although pacemaker syndrome is most often ascribed to the loss of atrioventricular (A-V) synchrony, more recent data may also implicate left ventricular dysynchrony caused by right ventricular pacing. Previous studies have not shown reductions in mortality or stroke with rate-modulated dual-chamber (DDDR) pacing as compared to ventricular-based (VVI) pacing. The benefits in A-V sequential pacing with the DDDR mode are likely mitigated by the interventricular (V-V) dysynchrony imposed by the high percentage of ventricular pacing commonly seen in the DDDR mode. Programming DDDR pacemakers to encourage intrinsic A-V conduction and reduce right ventricular pacing will likely decrease heart failure and pacemaker syndrome. Studies are currently ongoing to address these questions

The Effects of Changing Force Structure on Thunder Output

In today\u27s reduction of America\u27s national defense, campaign level models are being used more in the development of force structure. The effects of drawdown are of significant interest to those at the highest levels of authority. Campaign models can bring those high ranking officials the answers they seek with high confidence. THUNDER is a campaign model used frequently by the United States Air Force and many of its contractors. The effects of changing the force structure within THUNDER require modifying variables before executing a new experimental run. Changes in such issues as force structure cannot be immediately addressed. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) can be used to provide a quick answer to effects of changing force structure by executing several experimental runs at a variety of settings. The creation of a \u27response surface\u27 interlinks each scenario. Factor analysis is a multivariate statistics method of reducing dimensionality of data sets and determining relationships between measures on an observation. From this, relationships can be found among different measures of effectiveness to create new, simpler variables. The methods used in this thesis provide a means for creating accurate, \u27quick turn\u27 analysis tools which a decision maker can use to make timely decisions

An Analysis of Sound Exposure in a University Instrumental Music Rehearsal Venue

The purpose of this study is to collect and analyze the sound load exposure of a population of university music students participating in instrumental music ensemble rehearsal

Self-fulfilling Prophecies and the Business Cycle

We demonstrate that multiple stationary rational-expectations equilibria exist in a version of Lucas's island economy. The existence of these equilibria follows from the fact that there is an indeterminate set of monetary equilibria in the two-period overlapping-generations model. We show how to construct stationary rational-expectations equilibria by randomizing over the set of nonstationary monetary equilibria. In some of our equilibria, a positively sloped Phillips curve exists even though our economy contains no signal-extraction problem as in the original Lucas paper. Our equilibria are indexed by beliefs and are examples of the existence of sunspot equilibria in which allocations may differ across states of nature for which preferences, technology, and endowments are identical. Our technique for constructing stationary sunspot equilibria should prove useful in a wide class of models in which an indeterminate stationary equilibrium exists

Lower order terms in the full moment conjecture for the Riemann zeta function

We describe an algorithm for obtaining explicit expressions for lower terms for the conjectured full asymptotics of the moments of the Riemann zeta function, and give two distinct methods for obtaining numerical values of these coefficients. We also provide some numerical evidence in favour of the conjecture.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figure