VALUING CHARACTERISTICS OF TRANSFERABLE DEER HUNTING PERMITS IN KANSAS

The novel use of transferable deer hunting permits in Kansas has altered property rights to a traditionally government rationed good, providing the institutional framework and incentives for competitive market activity. This paper investigates how attributes of the permit itself, spatial determinants, and the socioeconomic characteristics of the consumer-hunter influence market price. Findings provide valuable insight into factors that are important to Kansas interest groups, its economy, and to structuring transferable permits for wildlife programs.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

DERIVED DEMAND FOR WHEAT BY CLASS

To quantify price responsiveness and economic substitutability among wheat classes, derived demand functions were specified from a normalized quadratic profit function. Own-price and cross-price elasticities were estimated for hard red winter, hard red spring, soft wheat (combined red and white), and durum wheat. In general, soft wheat varieties were less responsive to their own price than were hard wheat varieties. Cross-price elasticities indicate that hard red winter wheat, hard red spring wheat, and soft wheat varieties are economic substitutes. Cross-price elasticities are different from those previously reported, which can have important policy implications.elasticities, normalized quadratic, substitution, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,

Grasping, Perching, And Visual Servoing For Micro Aerial Vehicles

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) have seen a dramatic growth in the consumer market because of their ability to provide new vantage points for aerial photography and videography. However, there is little consideration for physical interaction with the environment surrounding them. Onboard manipulators are absent, and onboard perception, if existent, is used to avoid obstacles and maintain a minimum distance from them. There are many applications, however, which would benefit greatly from aerial manipulation or flight in close proximity to structures. This work is focused on facilitating these types of close interactions between quadrotors and surrounding objects. We first explore high-speed grasping, enabling a quadrotor to quickly grasp an object while moving at a high relative velocity. Next, we discuss planning and control strategies, empowering a quadrotor to perch on vertical surfaces using a downward-facing gripper. Then, we demonstrate that such interactions can be achieved using only onboard sensors by incorporating vision-based control and vision-based planning. In particular, we show how a quadrotor can use a single camera and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to perch on a cylinder. Finally, we generalize our approach to consider objects in motion, and we present relative pose estimation and planning, enabling tracking of a moving sphere using only an onboard camera and IMU

Anxiety Disorders

The DSM-IV lists 13 anxiety-related complaints, including (amongst others) generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia and panic disorder. Most of the anxiety disorders listed share common cognitive (worry, apprehension), behavioural (avoidance, escape) and physiological (sweating, hyperventilation) features. Similarly, panic attacks commonly occur in the context of anxiety disorders, regardless of the specific diagnosis. There is a high degree of overlap and co-occurrence between anxiety disorders, and in some cases, for example panic disorder and social phobia, the differential diagnosis can in theory be quite complex and convoluted. In addition to the high degree of overlap between anxiety disorders, there is also a high rate of co-morbidity with mood disorders. For instance, panic disorder is occasioned by major depressive disorder in at least 10 per cent of cases, although some estimates of co-morbidity run as high as 65 per cent. In around one third of these cases depressive onset comes first (DSM-IV-TR, 2000)

Psychological well-being in the Gulf States: The New Arabia Felix

© Justin Thomas 2013. All rights reserved. Few regions of the planet have undergone such rapid social transition as the Arabian Gulf States. Psychological Well-Being in the Gulf States explores the implications of these rapid changes in terms of mental health and psychological well-being

Eating Disorders

Discontent is pathoplastic: it changes shape in response to the sometimes silent, sometimes violent shifts we call sociocultural change. Once-upon-a-time Arab women would lament their lack of curves, then they became aggrieved by the faintest trace of adiposity. Meet Reem