Rental Housing and the Natural Vacancy Rate

This study uses 1989-2005 data for the Seattle metropolitan area to test the natural vacancy rate hypothesis for rental housing markets using a new methodology. Findings support the existence of a natural vacancy rate for apartments that varies over time, and in some cases across apartment submarkets. Results show a decline in the natural vacancy rate in the time period following the introduction and growth of the Web. Results also show significant differences in natural vacancy rates for different geographic subareas. No significant differences in the natural vacancy rate are found for different apartment types.

Television Strategies in Digital Media: How The Tonight Show Has Transformed in the Age of Digital Distribution

Digital Media has impacted the ways in which people consume and engage with media, and this change influences the strategies of television networks, from content style, production practices, and distribution methods. This study explores the implications of digital media in television strategies through the examination of NBC’s The Tonight Show, first through a comparative analysis of historical host, Johnny Carson, to the show\u27s most recent host, Jimmy Fallon. This analysis found that the two hosts have contrasting personalities which cater well to the audiences of their time. Additionally, it was discovered that the programming of the show has grown more segmented from historical episodes to modern-day, and there were more opportunities for audience engagement through social media. The results from this comparative analysis were then considered further through an analysis of The Tonight Show’s YouTube channel. Videos from the YouTube Channel were studied to better understand the strategies of NBC in distributing their content digitally through this platform. The results of this analysis suggest that the programming methods of The Tonight Show are formatted in a way that allows for an easy transition into a digital media space and high audience engagement across multiple platforms. Keywords

Transatlantic Vividness: Imagining at a Distance in Nineteenth-Century Poetry

"Transatlantic Vividness: Imagining at a Distance in Nineteenth-Century Poetry" explores “the vivid” as a vernacular aesthetic category central to transatlantic Anglo-American poetics in the long nineteenth century. Grounded in Hume’s theory of vivacity, vividness is a peculiar kind of realism that accounts for readers ascribing the same force and reality to descriptions as they do to objects in the phenomenal world. To describe a poem as vivid is to claim that the distance between the world and its representation has been undone. In poetry that circulated widely on both sides of the Atlantic, we see how the heightened, unrealistic description of geographically distant places allegorized the distance between the reader and the page so as to turn that deficit into an asset. Often dismissed as idealized, these poetic descriptive styles in fact make visible a nineteenth-century desire: to imagine being affected, as if physically, by a poem. Each chapter focuses on a distinct form of vividness, traced within a set of once-popular poems and their reception histories: Gertrude of Wyoming (1809) by Thomas Campbell, Zóphiël; or, the Bride of Seven (1833) by Maria Gowen Brooks, American responses to poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Poems of Places (c.1876-1879) collected by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Imagined at a distance and set in exotic locations (“the East,” the Caribbean islands, colonial North America, the U. S. South), these poems produce verisimilar effects without a commitment to realistic description. Reading the poems and nineteenth-century readings of the poems, the dissertation fashions a fourfold system for analyzing vividness as inaccuracy, as amplified temporality, as luminosity, and as reference. Both the introduction and epilogue feature poems by Lucy Larcom in order to reflect on past and future possibilities of “vivid” reading. The dissertation draws on a range of methods—primarily historical poetics, aesthetics, and transatlantic studies, but also reception studies, book history, affect theory and phenomenology—in order to explore the aesthetic and extra-aesthetic implications of vividness as a historical concept and theoretical category.PHDEnglish Language & LiteratureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137166/1/jhhansen_1.pd

An Examination of Cardio-Vascular Patients’ Experiences in a Rural Food Prescription Program

The burden of diet-related chronic diseases in rural communities has prompted the implementation of food prescription programs in rural areas to investigate the impact of more affordable and accessible fresh produce on these vulnerable populations. Because there is little research on the impact of food prescription programs on cardiovascular patients in rural areas, this study will focus on how food prescription programs can benefit this at-risk population. Another goal of this study is to receive feedback from participants to improve food prescription programs to better suit cardiovascular participant needs. To accomplish these goals, a series of questions were asked to qualifying participants with a cardiovascular condition to help identify cardiac specific interventions that could be implemented in an existing program. From these questions, it was found that 100% of participants interviewed said that food prescription programs have helped them improve their eating habits, but they would have to purchase significantly less produce without support from the program. Because of this, it is recommended to help participants find sustainable access to healthier options long-term

Canadian / U.S. Exchange Rates and Nonresident Investors: Their Influence on Residential Property Values

Factors external to a home’s characteristics may influence the sales price. This analysis focuses on Bellingham, Washington, because of several influences including the Canadian economy and nonresidents. First estimated is a constant-quality Bellingham housing price index, which is used as the dependent variable in a reduced-form model of market price to estimate the impact of the exchange rate. The analysis (1984-94) suggests that a 10% rise in the exchange rate leads to a 7.7% rise in Bellingham home prices. Additionally, in 1990, non-county buyers paid 4% to 6% more than county residents and non-county sellers received 6% to 8% less.

A Community Without Walls: Testing the Waters

In a world where so many students have turned to the web for fast, “good enough” answers, how can librarians work together to respond? Academic librarians can stimulate better collaboration with school librarians in both information literacy and collection development efforts. The presenters will discuss the challenges an academic library faced in a collaborative project with local middle and high school librarians. We will also demonstrate why this project was important, analyze what was learned, and discuss future plans to address anomalies identified in programs geared to enhance the information literacy skills of students at all levels. Although many academic librarians may be ambivalent or hesitant about working collaboratively with school librarians to promote information literacy skills, we believe there are benefits to this collaboration. The presenters will describe their efforts to establish such a partnership. We added new partners to our collaboration. We will share our experience in working with student teachers from our University who are teaching information literacy skills to the students in our community. Building teams and developing mentoring relationships can be a difficult challenge. Differing academic calendars and daily schedules, access to technology, and travel restrictions are just a few of the factors affecting a positive collaboration among area librarians. The project was funded with support from the State Library under a program promoting a “community resource without walls.” The presenters value this concept and continue to be eager to learn how other librarians have approached or established these relationships. Our experience has enabled us to identify critical components or successful collaboration between school and academic librarians and we look forward to extending this knowledge through lively discussion with conference attendees

The Value of a Water View: Variability over 25 Years in a Coastal Housing Market

Given a relatively inelastic supply of locations with coastal water views, the price of a water view is likely to rise during housing market upturns and fall during downturns. Using 25 years of data and more than 20,000 home sales for Bellingham, Washington, this study uses the hedonic methodology to estimate water view premiums over different phases of the housing cycle. Views are differentiated both by scope and by distance from the water. Results show real dollar premiums associated with water views move with the housing cycle, rising when housing demand and overall market prices increase and falling when the overall price of housing declines. In addition, the relative value of a view fluctuates as well

The Influence of Canadian Investment on U.S. Residential Property Values

This study is an examination of the impact of foreign investors on an American residential real estate market. Point Roberts, Washington, a real estate market that is dominated by Canadians, is the focus of the analysis. Utilizing a ten-year database of home sales, the empirical analysis suggests that the Canadian/U.S. dollar exchange rate and market conditions in nearby Vancouver, British Columbia, strongly influence Point Roberts residential property price levels. A rising Canadian dollar seems to motivate increased demand for Point Roberts property by Canadian investors, for example. The sensitivity of real estate prices to exchange-rate changes appears to be a three-to-six-month lagged function. In general, it appears that a higher Canadian dollar will increase the Canadian demand for Point Roberts real estate which, in turn, leads to higher transaction prices. In addition, transaction prices in Point Roberts are slightly more volatile than are prices in the Vancouver market.