Sale Price, Marketing Time, and Limited Service Listings: The Influence of Home Value and Market Conditions

Local markets for real estate brokerage services typically exhibit fairly strict pricing. Increased popularity of limited service brokerages provides an opportunity to study any loss in utility by sellers using these firms. Anecdotal evidence suggests that sellers experience a decreased selling price or an increased marketing time when utilizing limited service brokers, but there has been little prior empirical work. This study finds that limited service listings sell for significantly more and spend significantly less time on the market than traditional listings. The price and marketing time impacts vary by home value and local market conditions.

Final Year of Decade-long National Elm Trial

Although many Dutch elm disease-resistant elm cultivars are available in the nursery trade, much of the public is hesitant to purchase and plant any elm trees. In order to promote interest in planting these trees, scientific data on growth, form, and pest resistance for existing Dutch elm disease resistant elm cultivars are essential

Evaluation of Hosta Cultivarsfor Resistance to Petiole Rot

Petiole rot of hosta, caused by the soilborne fungi Sclerotium rolfsii and S. rolfsii var. delphinii, appeared first in the southern United States. The rapid spread of petiole rot in the Midwest U.S. during the past decade has caused increasing concern among wholesale producers, retailers, and buyers

Assessing New Methods of Integrated Pest Management for Apple Orchards in the Midwest

Producing apples in the Midwest requires intensive, chemically based pest management systems to bring high-quality, fresh market apples to consumers. A combination of rising costs, pest resistance, and new legislation has caused existing systems of apple pest management to become ineffective or to fall out of favor with growers. Because of this, new methods of pest control were developed to combat the ever present problems in apple production. These new methods must meet a number of criteria: sufficient pest control must be achieved, the innovative tactics must be safer for applicators, the environment, and consumers, and must also be economically feasible or they are not likely to be adopted by growers

Intangible capital in the pharmaceutical & chemical industry;

We investigate whether measures of intangible capital based on advertising and R&D can explain variation in Tobin\u27s Q ratio for the pharmaceutical & chemical industry using data from 1982 to 2001. The study is motivated by prior literature studying this relation in other industries, recent literature investigating intangible capital in this industry, and the larger controversy about whether stock valuations have been high due to irrational investors or large investment in intangible capital. We find that our measures of intangible capital are statistically significant determinants of Tobin\u27s Q and explain twenty percent of the variation in our sample

National Elm Trial Update for Iowa, 2007

The graceful American elm that once dominated urban forests across the United States has essentially disappeared from urban landscapes after the introduction of Dutch elm disease. This tragedy illustrates why it is essential to maximize genetic diversity within the nation’s urban forests. Exotic pathogens and insects continue to threaten the health of our shade trees. Dutch elm disease-resistant elm cultivars could enhance the diversity as well as the beauty of urban forests. Although many Dutch elm disease-resistant elm cultivars are available in the nursery trade, much of the public is hesitant to purchase and plant any elm tree. In order to promote interest in planting these trees, scientific data on growth, form, and pest resistance for existing Dutch elm disease resistant elm cultivars are essential

Controlling Bacterial Wilt in Muskmelon with Perimeter Trap Cropping

Perimeter trap cropping (PTC) involves planting one or more rows of a cucurbit crop that is highly attractive to cucumber beetles around the border of a main cucurbit cash crop that is less attractive to the beetles. Cucumber beetles attempting to migrate into the field are concentrated in the relatively more attractive border crop, where they can be controlled by insecticides

Testing a Warning System for Anthracnose Fruit Rot on Day-neutral Strawberry–Year 4

Anthracnose fruit rot (AFR) of strawberry is considered to be caused by three Colletotrichum spp. In the Midwest, however, only Colletotrichum acutatum is found. This pathogen can attach itself to healthy plants and spread throughout the field without causing symptoms on the foliage. When fruit begins to ripen and weather conditions are rainy and warm, AFR can suddenly cause large sunken lesions on the fruit. To protect against AFR where it has occurred in the past, growers need to spray every 7 to 10 days beginning at the start of bloom until harvest

Floral Provisioning for Wild Bee Pollinators in Winter Squash and Muskmelon

When we talk about pollination, the image that comes to mind most frequently is the honeybee. Honeybees do provide the majority of pollination services in our current agricultural system. However, there are wild bees pollinating flowering crops at the same time and these bees are capable of providing a significant portion of the pollination services required of many crops. In fact, in some instances, wild bees may be better pollinators than managed honeybees