The Political Economy of Downzoning

“Substantial downzoning†is defined as the exercise of police power to significantly reduce the legally permitted density on undeveloped land in a community. This contentious practice is typically challenged by those who perceive the action to limit their market opportunities (e.g., farmers and developers), their sympathizers, and others who prefer the status quo. Supporters tend to be those who perceive positive benefits (e.g., environmentalists, conservationists, and homeowners) and those who see it as a supplement to other preservation techniques, based on concerns over such things as growing public costs of land acquisition, limited effectiveness of existing alternatives, or the perceived urgency to act to manage growth. Given the complexity of the issue and the lack of previous research, this paper develops a conceptual model of the public choice to “substantially downzone†and presents specific hypotheses to be empirically tested, using New Jersey as a case study. The probability of implementing substantial downzoning is found to increase with (i) the amount of open space that remains to be protected, (ii) declining farm population, (iii) recent growth in non-farm population, (iv) recent growth in land values, and (v) the presence of alternative growth management tools. Results also suggest its use as a substitute for other preservation tools when the financial and/or political ability of communities to afford other approaches is limited. Hence, the likelihood of substantial downzoning may increase over time if alternatives become more difficult to implement.substantial downzoning, takings, land use, growth management, open space, political economy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Political Economy,

The Political Economy of Downzoning

Increasingly, in response to concerns about urban sprawl and environmental protection, local governments are exercising their police power to reduce the legal permitted density on undeveloped land. This controversial practice, known in many parts of the country as "downzoning", is generally opposed by farmers, developers and others whose market opportunities are limited by such action. This paper constructs a theoretical model of the impact of larger minimum lot sizes on the current land prices of farmers and homeowners within the same community. The theoretical model suggests that net losses for farmers and net gains for homeowners from downzoning are a reasonable, if not inevitable, expectation. Following Pelzman, Hahn, and Campos, the paper then develops a model to explain the public choice decision-making process that leads to downzoning by local public officials. This model is tested using data on 214 New Jersey municipalities. The probability of downzoning is found to increase when there is a lot of open space to protect, but only when farmers constitute a small proportion of all voters. The probability of downzoning also increases when a community has experienced rapid population growth and increased land values. It is more likely to be found in municipalities that have enacted right-to-farm ordinances, suggesting an overall preservation focus on the part of the community along with some sensitivity to farmers' concerns.Land Economics/Use,

Terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase. Serological studies and radioimmunoassay

Mouse antisera against calf terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase (terminal transferase) have been prepared. The sera have been used to characterize terminal transferase both by studying inhibition of enzyme activity and by developing a competition radioimmunoassay using highly purified 125I-labeled terminal transferase. By either assay, anti-terminal transferase serum did not cross-react significantly with calf DNA polymerases alpha and beta, Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I, or the reverse transcriptase of Moloney mouse leukemia virus. The calf terminal transferase did, however, share cross-reactive but not identical determinants with human and murine terminal transferase. The radioimmunoassay could detect as little as 2 ng of terminal transferase/mg of soluble protein in a tissue extract. Thymocytes were found to contain 280 ng of terminal transferase/mg of cell protein or about 1 X 10^(5) molecules/cell; bone marrow had about 1% of the level of enzyme found in thymus. Extracts of spleen, peripheral white blood cells, lymph nodes, liver, muscle, and kidney all lacked detectable antigenicity of terminal transferase. These data indicate that terminal transferase is a tissue-specific enzyme and is not related to other DNA polymerases

GENETIC CORRELATION OF A MOUSE LIGHT CHAIN VARIABLE REGION MARKER WITH A THYMOCYTE SURFACE ANTIGEN

The inbred and congenic strain distribution of the IH-peptide marker in the variable region of mouse immunoglobulin light chains has been compared with other known genetic markers. A positive correlation was noted between the IH-peptide marker and expression of the Ly-3.1 thymocyte cell surface antigen. This suggests that the locus responsible for IH-peptide expression is genetically linked to the Ly-2 and Ly-3 loci in linkage group XI on chromsome 6 of the mouse

Landscape patterns of periphyton in the Florida Everglades

Periphyton is an abundant and ubiquitous feature of the Florida Everglades, often forming thick mats that blanket shallow sediments and submersed plants. They are considered to be primary ecosystem engineers in the Everglades by forming and stabilizing soils, controlling concentrations of nutrients and gases, and supplying food and structure for other organisms. Distribution patterns are related to underlying physicochemical gradients as well as those hydrologic changes imposed by water management. Because communities respond rapidly to environmental change, their use has been advocated to provide indication of system degradation or restoration. The authors review studies on the distribution of periphyton in the Everglades, highlighting major findings relevant to water management, and also areas where additional exploration is necessary

Identification and characterization of Smyd2: a split SET/MYND domain-containing histone H3 lysine 36-specific methyltransferase that interacts with the Sin3 histone deacetylase complex

BACKGROUND: Disrupting the balance of histone lysine methylation alters the expression of genes involved in tumorigenesis including proto-oncogenes and cell cycle regulators. Methylation of lysine residues is commonly catalyzed by a family of proteins that contain the SET domain. Here, we report the identification and characterization of the SET domain-containing protein, Smyd2. RESULTS: Smyd2 mRNA is most highly expressed in heart and brain tissue, as demonstrated by northern analysis and in situ hybridization. Over-expressed Smyd2 localizes to the cytoplasm and the nucleus in 293T cells. Although accumulating evidence suggests that methylation of histone 3, lysine 36 (H3K36) is associated with actively transcribed genes, we show that the SET domain of Smyd2 mediates H3K36 dimethylation and that Smyd2 represses transcription from an SV40-luciferase reporter. Smyd2 associates specifically with the Sin3A histone deacetylase complex, which was recently linked to H3K36 methylation within the coding regions of active genes in yeast. Finally, we report that exogenous expression of Smyd2 suppresses cell proliferation. CONCLUSION: We propose that Sin3A-mediated deacetylation within the coding regions of active genes is directly linked to the histone methyltransferase activity of Smyd2. Moreover, Smyd2 appears to restrain cell proliferation, likely through direct modulation of chromatin structure

Are Preserved Farms Actively Engaged in Agriculture and Conservation?

This study addresses the question of whether farms enrolled in land preservation programs are actively engaged in agricultural or conservation activities. Data are drawn from an original survey administered to preserved farm owners in the states of New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware in 2011. “Actively engaged” is defined as investment in conservation projects, buildings, equipment, or irrigation since the land was preserved. Affirmative answers to the survey’s investment questions range from a low of 19% for irrigation to a high of 69% for equipment. Special attention was paid to differences between lifestyle farmers and small and large commercial farmers, which are classified using the USDA typology developed in 2000. Regression analysis estimates differences in investment behavior across these groups as well as farm tenure categories, controlling for farm size, program/state location, and demographic variables. Only owners who employ tenants or managers exclusively on their land were found to invest significantly less than the largest professional farmers, and they did so across all four types of investment. This study’s findings support preservation goals articulated by legislators and program administrators, because (1) agricultural and land stewardship investments appear to be widespread on preserved farms, partly due to administrators’ preference for larger parcels, (2) there is no evidence that “hobby farmers” are disproportionately attracted to farmland preservation programs – in fact the opposite seems to be true – while those that exist in our sample behave similarly to the largest commercial farmers, (3) although tenant farming is associated in the sample with lower rates of investment, it is less common on preserved farms than on all farms in the three study states. The matter of land tenure, highlighted in this as in other studies, has not yet become a primary focus of either farm-behavioral research or state agricultural policy

A new ghost cell/level set method for moving boundary problems:application to tumor growth

In this paper, we present a ghost cell/level set method for the evolution of interfaces whose normal velocity depend upon the solutions of linear and nonlinear quasi-steady reaction-diffusion equations with curvature-dependent boundary conditions. Our technique includes a ghost cell method that accurately discretizes normal derivative jump boundary conditions without smearing jumps in the tangential derivative; a new iterative method for solving linear and nonlinear quasi-steady reaction-diffusion equations; an adaptive discretization to compute the curvature and normal vectors; and a new discrete approximation to the Heaviside function. We present numerical examples that demonstrate better than 1.5-order convergence for problems where traditional ghost cell methods either fail to converge or attain at best sub-linear accuracy. We apply our techniques to a model of tumor growth in complex, heterogeneous tissues that consists of a nonlinear nutrient equation and a pressure equation with geometry-dependent jump boundary conditions. We simulate the growth of glioblastoma (an aggressive brain tumor) into a large, 1 cm square of brain tissue that includes heterogeneous nutrient delivery and varied biomechanical characteristics (white matter, gray matter, cerebrospinal fluid, and bone), and we observe growth morphologies that are highly dependent upon the variations of the tissue characteristics—an effect observed in real tumor growth

The ϕ6 Cystovirus Protein P7 Becomes Accessible to Antibodies in the Transcribing Nucleocapsid: A Probe for Viral Structural Elements

Protein P7 is a component of the cystovirus viral polymerase complex. In the unpackaged procapsid, the protein is situated in close proximity to the viral directed RNA polymerase, P2. Cryo-electron microscopy difference maps from the species ϕ6 procapsid have demonstrated that P7 and P2 likely interact prior to viral RNA packaging. The location of P7 in the post-packaged nucleocapsid (NC) remains unknown. P7 may translocate closer to the five-fold axis of a filled procapsid but this has not been directly visualized. We propose that monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) can be selected that serve as probe- reagents for viral assembly and structure. A set of Mabs have been isolated that recognize and bind to the ϕ6 P7. The antibody set contains five unique Mabs, four of which recognize a linear epitope and one which recognizes a conformational epitope. The four unique Mabs that recognize a linear epitope display restricted utilization of Vκ and VH genes. The restricted genetic range among 4 of the 5 antibodies implies that the antibody repertoire is limited. The limitation could be the consequence of a paucity of exposed antigenic sites on the ϕ6 P7 surface. It is further demonstrated that within ϕ6 nucleocapsids that are primed for early-phase transcription, P7 is partially accessible to the Mabs, indicating that the nucleocapsid shell (protein P8) has undergone partial disassembly exposing the protein’s antigenic sites

HIV-2 Integrase Variation in Integrase Inhibitor-Naïve Adults in Senegal, West Africa

Antiretroviral therapy for HIV-2 infection is hampered by intrinsic resistance to many of the drugs used to treat HIV-1. Limited studies suggest that the integrase inhibitors (INIs) raltegravir and elvitegravir have potent activity against HIV-2 in culture and in infected patients. There is a paucity of data on genotypic variation in HIV-2 integrase that might confer intrinsic or transmitted INI resistance.We PCR amplified and analyzed 122 HIV-2 integrase consensus sequences from 39 HIV-2-infected, INI-naive adults in Senegal, West Africa. We assessed genetic variation and canonical mutations known to confer INI-resistance in HIV-1.No amino acid-altering mutations were detected at sites known to be pivotal for INI resistance in HIV-1 (integrase positions 143, 148 and 155). Polymorphisms at several other HIV-1 INI resistance-associated sites were detected at positions 72, 95, 125, 154, 165, 201, 203, and 263 of the HIV-2 integrase protein.Emerging genotypic and phenotypic data suggest that HIV-2 is susceptible to the new class of HIV integrase inhibitors. We hypothesize that intrinsic HIV-2 integrase variation at "secondary" HIV-1 INI-resistance sites may affect the genetic barrier to HIV-2 INI resistance. Further studies will be needed to assess INI efficacy as part of combination antiretroviral therapy in HIV-2-infected patients