Estimating a Payment Vehicle for Financing Nourishment of Residential Beaches using a Spatial-lag Hedonic Property Price Model

Beach nourishment projects are common methods for coastal states to protect beaches and property from the natural erosive process. However, while the beneficiaries of beach nourishment tend to be local property owners and recreators, projects are typically funded at the state level. Based on the benefit principle, as local residents receive more of the erosion protection benefits of the nourishment projects, we estimate a value capture tax, designed to levy the financing burden in a manner that approximates the distribution of benefits. The benefits of nourishment projects to coastal property owners are estimated using the results from a spatial-lag hedonic model that controls for viewshed effects. Key Words:

Disentangling Access and View Amenities in Access-restricted Coastal Residential Communities

In small coastal communities with uniform flood risk, amenity value is comprised of two components – view and access. Having controlled for view, it is assumed that any residual amenity value represents the benefit derived from households from accessing the beach for leisure or recreational purposes. However, as properties closer to the beach typically have improved viewsheds, the two amenities are highly correlated, and disentangling view and access is problematical. We posit that for many coastal communities, access is restricted to designated public access points, precluding local residents from accessing the beach area directly from their property. To appropriately account for restricted access, we incorporate a network distance access measure into a spatial autoregressive hedonic model to capture ease of beach access for local residents. Our findings suggest that, as network distance varies independently from property viewshed, collinearity effects are mitigated, and access and view can be disentangled. Key Words:

Magnetic Gimbal Proof-of-Concept Hardware performance results

The Magnetic Gimbal Proof-of-Concept Hardware activities, accomplishments, and test results are discussed. The Magnetic Gimbal Fabrication and Test (MGFT) program addressed the feasibility of using a magnetic gimbal to isolate an Electro-Optical (EO) sensor from the severe angular vibrations induced during the firing of divert and attitude control system (ACS) thrusters during space flight. The MGFT effort was performed in parallel with the fabrication and testing of a mechanically gimballed, flex pivot based isolation system by the Hughes Aircraft Missile Systems Group. Both servo systems supported identical EO sensor assembly mockups to facilitate direct comparison of performance. The results obtained from the MGFT effort indicate that the magnetic gimbal exhibits the ability to provide significant performance advantages over alternative mechanically gimballed techniques

Gulf Views: Toward a Better Understanding of Viewshed Scope in Hedonic Property Models

This study examines the influence of Gulf of Mexico views on residential home sales prices in Pinellas County, Florida. We utilize Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) data to construct four continuous measures of Gulf of Mexico views – the total view, the maximum view segment, the mean view segment, and proximity to view content. Our results illustrate that residential property owners have a higher marginal willingness-to-pay for larger total views and larger continuous view segments. Results also indicate that the proximity of homes to the view content influences view valuations. Key Words:

Disentangling Access and View Amenities in Access-Restricted Coastal Residential Communities

In coastal communities with uniform flood risk, amenity value is comprised of two components – view and access. Having controlled for view, it is assumed that any residual amenity value represents the benefit derived from accessing the beach for leisure/recreational purposes. However, as properties closer to the beach typically have improved viewsheds, the two amenities are highly correlated, and disentangling view and access is problematical. A spatial autoregressive hedonic model captures ease of beach access via a network distance parameter that varies independently from property viewshed, collinearity effects are mitigated, and access and view can be disentangled.beach access, property viewshed, spatial hedonic model, willingness to pay, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Q51, R12, R21, R23,

Pathway-Based Genomics Prediction using Generalized Elastic Net.

We present a novel regularization scheme called The Generalized Elastic Net (GELnet) that incorporates gene pathway information into feature selection. The proposed formulation is applicable to a wide variety of problems in which the interpretation of predictive features using known molecular interactions is desired. The method naturally steers solutions toward sets of mechanistically interlinked genes. Using experiments on synthetic data, we demonstrate that pathway-guided results maintain, and often improve, the accuracy of predictors even in cases where the full gene network is unknown. We apply the method to predict the drug response of breast cancer cell lines. GELnet is able to reveal genetic determinants of sensitivity and resistance for several compounds. In particular, for an EGFR/HER2 inhibitor, it finds a possible trans-differentiation resistance mechanism missed by the corresponding pathway agnostic approach

Ariel - Volume 10 Number 2

Executive Editors Madalyn Schaefgen David Reich Business Manager David Reich News Editors Medical College Edward Zurad CAHS John Guardiani World Mark Zwanger Features Editors Meg Trexler Jim O\u27Brien Editorials Editor Jeffrey Banyas Photography and Sports Editor Stuart Singer Commons Editor Brenda Peterso