The Impeachment of President Clinton: An Ugly Mix of Three Powerful Forces

Popp argues that the 1998-99 impeachment debacle resulted in large part from an ugly mix of three extremely powerful forces--an independent counsel who abused his virtually unlimited power; extreme congressional partisanship that was motivated by the desire to gain control of the government; and media outlets that continuously sought to profit from the sensationalism of it all and consistently flouted standards of professional journalism along the way

The Impeachment of President Clinton: An Ugly Mix of Three Powerful Forces

Popp argues that the 1998-99 impeachment debacle resulted in large part from an ugly mix of three extremely powerful forces--an independent counsel who abused his virtually unlimited power; extreme congressional partisanship that was motivated by the desire to gain control of the government; and media outlets that continuously sought to profit from the sensationalism of it all and consistently flouted standards of professional journalism along the way

An Assessment of Economic Considerations for Industrial Hemp Production

United States farm policy and programs are governed by the Farm Bill. The 2014 Farm Bill allows for the legal production and research of industrial hemp as long as it meets the standards outlined in the Farm Bill. Although it has a wide range of uses (upwards of 25,000 products use hemp), there is a lack of recent information regarding the economic feasibility of hemp production for the private agricultural sector. Through an extensive search of existing literature, information was gathered to construct an enterprise budget for industrial hemp. Data from the enterprise budget were used in a constrained linear programming model to compare how introducing industrial hemp production could change crop allocations in all 75 counties of Arkansas When industrial hemp was introduced, the total number of acres farmed increased by 2.8% to 4.4%, the statewide profit increased by 0.3% to 18.2%, and rice was the only crop that increased in acreage by 5%. While these results suggest that industrial hemp may be an economically promising crop, there are still hurdles to overcome. The lack of clearance (permitting) by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the absence of hemp processing facilities in the United States are clear roadblocks to hemp production. Once permitting hurdles are overcome, additional research will be needed to identify optimal locations for processing facilities and target markets for hemp goods

Marketing Tips for Small-scale, Local Honey Bee Keepers in Northwest Arkansas

The objective of this thesis was to gain market information for beekeepers regarding different honey bee products and to provide information about economic feasibility when produced on a small, local scale. Since cost-of-production information about operating an apiary is widely available, the focus of this work was on gaining marketing knowledge. One of the objectives of the surveys was to develop a better sense of what potential resellers of honey bee products considered locally produced. Another objective was to determine preferences for honey bee product packaging as well as bee pollination services. Using that feedback, a marketing plan for different niche markets can be developed for part-time beekeeping operations. The survey results pertaining to local retailers and end users in Northwest Arkansas in 2016 suggested a supply radius near 100 miles and a preference for small packaging in general. Least cost supply, and at least regional brand recognition were not deemed as important as ensuring locally sourced products that can be sold at a premium. Different niche markets revealed both similar and different priorities related to these marketing aspects

R&D Subsidies and Climate Policy: Is There a "Free Lunch"?

Because of the long-term nature of the climate problem, technological advances are often seen as an important component of any solution. However, when considering the potential for technology to help solve the climate problem, two market failures exist which lead to underinvestment in climate-friendly R&D: environmental externalities and the public goods nature of new knowledge. As a result, government subsidies to climate-friendly R&D projects are often proposed as part of a policy solution. Using the ENTICE model, I analyze the effectiveness of such subsidies, both with and without other climate policies, such as a carbon tax. While R&D subsidies do lead to significant increases in climate-friendly R&D, this R&D has little impact on the climate itself. Subsidies address the problem of knowledge as a public good, but they do not address the environmental externality, and thus offer no additional incentive to adopt new technologies. Moreover, high opportunity costs to R&D limit the potential role that subsidies can play. While R&D subsidies can improve efficiency, policies that directly affect the environmental externality have a much larger impact on both atmospheric temperature and economic welfare.

Development of a Biological Dosimeter for Translocation Scoring Based on Two-Color Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization of Chromosome Subsets

Recently fluorescence in situ hybridization protocols have been developed which allow the paining of individual chromosomes using DNA-libraries from sorted human chromosomes. This approach has the particular advantage that radiation induced chromosome translocations can be easily detected, if chromo-somes of distinctly different colors take part in the translocation event. To enhance the sensitivity of this approach two metaphase chromosome subsets A and B (A: chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 8, 16; B: 3, 5, 9, 10, 13) were simultaneously painted in green and red color. Counterstaining of the chromosomes with DAPI resulted in a third subset which exhibited blue fluorescence only. Green-red, green-blue and red-blue translocation chromosomes could be easily detected after irradiation of lymphocyte cultures with ^Cs-γ-rays. Analyses of painted chromosomes can be combined with conventional GTG-banding analyses. This new biological dosimeter should become useful to monitor both long term effects of single irradiation events and the cumulative effects of multiple or chronic irradiation exposures. In contrast to translocation scoring based on the analysis of banded chromosomes, this new approach has the particular advantage that a rapid, automated scoring of translocations can now be envisaged

A Nonlinear Unit Root Test in the Presence of an Unknown Break

The Perron test is the most commonly applied procedure to test for a unit root in the presence of a structural break of unknown timing in the trend function. Deriving the Perron-type test regression from an unobserved component model, it is shown that the test regression in fact is nonlinear in coefficient. Taking account of the nonlinearity leads to a test with properties that are exclusively assigned to Schmidt-Phillips LM-type unit root tests.Unit root tests, nonlinear regression, structural breaks, innovational outliers