1,412 research outputs found
The Hedonic Price Structure of Faculty Compensation at U.S. Colleges and Universities
Economic theory suggests that the variation in academic salaries across institutions in part reflects compensating differences associated with variation in the levels of local quality of life factors such as environmental quality and the provision of local public services. This paper presents an econometric analysis of the hedonic, or implicit price structure, of faculty compensation at U.S. colleges and universities using data from AAUP merged with data on a host of location-specific characteristics. Quality of life factors are found to be important, accounting for between 7 percent and 12.8 percent of total compensation
Economic Issues of Invasive Pests and Diseases and Food Safety
The problem of invasive pests and diseases has become more urgent and far more complex today than in the recent past. Increased trade and movement of people, and the opening up of new trade routes have increased opportunities for the spread of invasive species. In addition, mono-cropping systems of cultivation; globalization; increased resistance of pests to pesticides and food safety and environmental concerns have all contributed to the growing complexity of the problem on hand. The economic dimensions of the problem can be viewed from at least two perspectives. First, with regard to the spread and impact of invasive species, particularly how best to provide more comprehensive assessments of impacts of invasions, so as to improve the cost effectiveness and efficiency of publicly funded programs aimed at eradication, control or mitigation of invasive pests and diseases. Second, from the perspective of incorporating more economic analysis and use of economic instruments in designing sanitary and phytosanitary measures. The paper explores some of these issues from an economic perspective. It concludes that incorporating more economic analysis in matters related to biological invasions is desirable, but presents a challenge to economists. Measurement requires data, and success in measurement will require that economists and biological scientists work closer together than they have in the past.sanitary and phytosanitary measures, SPS, invasive species, WTO, economic impact of invasive species, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,
Hedonic analysis in a spatial context: theoretical problems in valuing location-specific amenities
Hedonic analysis is frequently implemented to generate implicit prices for location-specific amenities within single markets, either in cross-city wage differentials or within-city rent gradients. Amenities are shown to be generally priced in both land and labor markets, with single market valuations tending to understate true amenity values. Establishing a correct multi-market amenity valuation model is seen to depend on the resolution of a host of additional issues.Amenities; hedonic models; wage differentials; property value differentials; spatial modeling
On the role of amenities in models of migration and regional development
While unable to copy/paste the abstract, the paper discusses the importance of regionally-varying amenities to migration and regional development
Hedonic analysis in a spatial context: theoretical problems in valuing location-specific amenities
Hedonic analysis is frequently implemented to generate implicit prices for location-specific amenities within single markets, either in cross-city wage differentials or within-city rent gradients. Amenities are shown to be generally priced in both land and labor markets, with single market valuations tending to understate true amenity values. Establishing a correct multi-market amenity valuation model is seen to depend on the resolution of a host of additional issues
On the role of amenities in models of migration and regional development
While unable to copy/paste the abstract, the paper discusses the importance of regionally-varying amenities to migration and regional development
Cold gas and young stars in tidally-disturbed ellipticals at z=0
We present an analysis of the neutral hydrogen and stellar populations of
elliptical galaxies in the Tal et al. (2009) sample. Our aim is to test their
conclusion that the continuing assembly of these galaxies at z~0 is essentially
gas-free and not accompanied by significant star formation. In order to do so,
we make use of HI data and line-strength indices available in the literature.
We look for direct and indirect evidence of the presence of cold gas during the
recent assembly of these objects and analyse its relation to galaxy
morphological fine structure.
We find that >25% of ellipticals contain HI at the level of M(HI)>10^8
M(Sun), and that M(HI) is of the order of a few percent of the total stellar
mass. Available data are insufficient to establish whether galaxies with a
disturbed stellar morphology are more likely to contain HI. However, HI
interferometry reveals very disturbed gas morphology/kinematics in all but one
of the detected systems, confirming the continuing assembly of many ellipticals
but also showing that this is not necessarily gas-free. We also find that all
very disturbed ellipticals have a single-stellar-population-equivalent age <4
Gyr. We interpret this as evidence that ~0.5-5% of their stellar mass is
contained in a young population formed during the past ~1 Gyr. Overall, a large
fraction of ellipticals seem to have continued their assembly over the past few
Gyr in the presence of a mass of cold gas of the order of 10% of the galaxy
stellar mass. This material is now observable as neutral hydrogen and young
stars.Comment: 5 pages, 1 table, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
Letter
A Tree-Ring Record of Historical Fire Activity In a Piedmont Longleaf Pine (\u3ci\u3ePinus palustris\u3c/i\u3e Mill.) Woodland In North Carolina, USA
CO2 capture from industrial point source waste streams represents an important need for achieving the global goal of carbon-neutrality. Compared with conventional liquid sorbents, solid sorbents can exhibit several distinct advantages, including enhanced lifetime and reduced energy consumption for sorbent regeneration. Considering that reducing CO2 emission is a great challenge, reaching approximately 37 billion metric tons just in 2021, ideal sorbent solutions should not only exhibit a high capture performance but also enable large scale manufacturing using low-cost precursors and simple processes. In this work, we demonstrate the use of a commodity polymer, polystyrene-block-polyisoprene-block-polystyrene (SIS), as the starting material for preparing hierarchically porous, sulfur-doped carbons for CO2 capture. Particularly, the sulfonation-crosslinking reaction enables the formation of macropores in the polymer framework due to the release of gaseous byproducts. After carbonization and activation, the highly porous structure of SIS-derived carbons is successfully retained, while their surface area can reach up to 905 m2 g−1. These porous carbon sorbents exhibit excellent CO2 uptake performance, reaching sorption capacities of 3.8 mmol g−1 at 25 °C and 6.0 mmol g−1 at 0 °C, as well as a high selectivity up to 43 : 1 against N2 gas under ambient conditions. Overall, our work provides an industrially viable method for “template-free” fabrication of porous carbons from commodity polyolefin-based materials, which can be employed for reducing CO2 emission from industrial plants/sectors
Exploration of bivalent ligands targeting putative mu opioid receptor and chemokine receptor CCR5 dimerization
Modern antiretroviral therapies have provided HIV-1 infected patients longer lifespans and better quality of life. However, several neurological complications are now being seen in these patients due to HIV-1 associated injury of neurons by infected microglia and astrocytes. In addition, these effects can be further exacerbated with opiate use and abuse. One possible mechanism for such potentiation effects of opiates is the interaction of the mu opioid receptor (MOR) with the chemokine receptor CCR5 (CCR5), a known HIV-1 co-receptor, to form MOR-CCR5 heterodimer. In an attempt to understand this putative interaction and its relevance to neuroAIDS, we designed and synthesized a series of bivalent ligands targeting the putative CCR5-MOR heterodimer. To understand how these bivalent ligands may interact with the heterodimer, biological studies including calcium mobilization inhibition, binding affinity, HIV-1 invasion, and cell fusion assays were applied. In particular, HIV-1 infection assays using human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, macrophages, and astrocytes revealed a notable synergy in activity for one particular bivalent ligand. Further, a molecular model of the putative CCR5-MOR heterodimer was constructed, docked with the bivalent ligand, and molecular dynamics simulations of the complex was performed in a membrane-water system to help understand the biological observation
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