COMPARATIVE RENTS FOR FARMLAND AND TIMBERLAND IN A SUBREGION OF THE SOUTH

This study compares equivalent annual rents for two alternative land uses in a region where farming and timber plantations coexist. The comparison is motivated by the possibility that rising timber prices may stimulate timber processors to compete for farmland. Prices, costs, and market rents are assumed to first follow existing trends and then to reach steady state values. Market rents are projected and capitalized for agriculture. Internal soil rents are capitalized for timber. The results show timber to have a comparative advantage on high fertility sites and suggest that timber might become a competitive land use at the intensive margin of the region's farmland base.Land Economics/Use,

SUBDIVISION SPECIFIC AMENITIES AND RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY VALUES

A hedonic property value model, derived from a dynamic game theoretic framework, is estimated using data obtained for 211 subdivisions including 4628 building lots in five Maryland counties. Linear Box-Cox estimation results show that variables measuring subdivision specific amenities significantly affect residential property values, and omission of such variables produces biased coefficient estimates.Land Economics/Use,

Subdivision Specific Amenities and Residential Property Values

A hedonic property value model, derived from a dynamic game theoretic framework, is estimated using data obtained for 211 subdivisions including 4628 building lots in five Maryland counties. Linear Box-Cox estimation results show that variables measuring subdivision specific amenities significantly affect residential property values, and omission of such variables produces biased coefficient estimates.Land Economics/Use, Public Economics,

THE EFFECT OF A FOREST CONSERVATION REGULATION ON THE VALUE OF SUBDIVISIONS IN MARYLAND

Profit-maximizing land developers are hypothesized to configure subdivisions to minimize the effects of a conservation regulation on developed land values, subject to their expectations about the demand for developed building lots. This hypothesis allows development of a hedonic price model that takes account of production adjustments. The model is applied to the Maryland Forest Conservation Act, which requires developers to retain or plant trees on part of the developed land. Being exempt from the Act allows developers to gain more for the subdivisions they develop: the cost to regulated developers is about six percent of the per-acre price of developed land. The Act has significantly lowered per-acre developed land values in subdivisions with a mixture of townhouses and single-family dwellings. Costs of the Act are reduced by provisions that allow developers to plant trees offsite or to pay fees in lieu of planting.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

HEATING COSTS AND HOUSEHOLD WOOD STOVE ACQUISITION: A DISCRETE CHOICE DEMAND MODEL

This paper examines the acquisition of wood stoves by New Hampshire households through use of a utility-maximizing discrete choice model. The analysis is based on the hypothesis that wood stoves are acquired to decrease the monetary costs of home-heating. Operating costs associated with heating with conventional fuel burning capital and with a combination of conventional and wood stove heating capital are estimated. These operating costs are used to estimate probabilities of 1979 wood stove acquisition for particular types of New Hampshire households.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Effect of intraoperative constant rate infusion of lidocaine on short-term survival of dogs with septic peritonitis: 75 cases (2007-2011)

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether intraoperative administration of a lidocaine infusion to dogs with septic peritonitis was associated with short-term (48 hours) survival after surgery. DESIGN Retrospective case series. ANIMALS 75 dogs with septic peritonitis. PROCEDURES Medical records of dogs with septic peritonitis that underwent laparotomy between January 2007 and December 2011 at the Royal Veterinary College were reviewed. Select variables during the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative periods and short-term survival after surgery were compared between dogs that received an opioid only (group O; n = 33) and dogs that received lidocaine (50 \u3bcg/kg/min [22.7 \u3bcg/kg/min], IV; group L; 42) in addition to an opioid during surgery. RESULTS The proportion of dogs that survived for 48 hours after surgery was significantly greater for group L (35/42) than for group O (20/33). Intraoperative infusion of lidocaine increased the odds of short-term survival (OR, 8.77; 95% CI, 1.94 to 39.57). No significant differences were observed between the 2 treatment groups for variables assessed during the preoperative and postoperative periods. During the intraoperative period, more dogs in group L received an IV bolus of a synthetic colloid than did dogs in group O, but the number of IV boluses administered was not associated with short-term survival. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results indicated that IV infusion of lidocaine might improve the short-term survival of dogs with septic peritonitis. Prospective clinical trials are necessary to determine the efficacy of lidocaine as a supportive treatment for dogs with septic peritonitis

Accurate and robust image superresolution by neural processing of local image representations

Image superresolution involves the processing of an image sequence to generate a still image with higher resolution. Classical approaches, such as bayesian MAP methods, require iterative minimization procedures, with high computational costs. Recently, the authors proposed a method to tackle this problem, based on the use of a hybrid MLP-PNN architecture. In this paper, we present a novel superresolution method, based on an evolution of this concept, to incorporate the use of local image models. A neural processing stage receives as input the value of model coefficients on local windows. The data dimension-ality is firstly reduced by application of PCA. An MLP, trained on synthetic se-quences with various amounts of noise, estimates the high-resolution image data. The effect of varying the dimension of the network input space is exam-ined, showing a complex, structured behavior. Quantitative results are presented showing the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method

Further experiements on the control of early blight or target spot of potatoes

The effective control of Potato Early Blight or Target Spot by the use of Zineb fungicide (used in the proprietary form Dithane Z.78) has previously been reported in this Journal. It was shown in preliminary spray trials that the foliage blight caused by this disease is very destructive, and by the application of four Dithane sprays yields were increased in the order of 30 per cent., equivalent to approximately four tons per acre. Further experiments have now been conducted and the results indicate that even two applications of Dithane spray may, under conditions of severe blight attack, promote worthwhile higher yields

Plant disease - early blight or target spot of potatoes

Early blight or target spot caused by the fungus Alternaria solani is a widespread disease of potatoes which in Western Australia is most prevalent in crops dug in autumn and early summer. The disease may attack both foliage and tubers, but the tuber rot phase of the disease has hitherto caused most concern to local growers because it causes obvious losses in storage. The less obvious but more serious effects of the foliage blight have generally been overlooked, chiefly because the disease usually develops late in the season when the crops are approaching maturity. However recent spray trials with new fungicides have clearly demonstrated that the destructiveness of the foliage attack has been greatly underestimated, for it may cause considerable reduction in yield

CBS domains form energy-sensing modules whose binding of adenosine ligands is disrupted by disease mutations

CBS domains are defined as sequence motifs that occur in several different proteins in all kingdoms of life. Although thought to be regulatory, their exact functions have been unknown. However, their importance was underlined by findings that mutations in conserved residues within them cause a variety of human hereditary diseases, including (with the gene mutated in parentheses): Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (γ2 subunit of AMP-activated protein kinase); retinitis pigmentosa (IMP dehydrogenase-1); congenital myotonia, idiopathic generalized epilepsy, hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis, and classic Bartter syndrome (CLC chloride channel family members); and homocystinuria (cystathionine β-synthase). AMP-activated protein kinase is a sensor of cellular energy status that is activated by AMP and inhibited by ATP, but the location of the regulatory nucleotide-binding sites (which are prime targets for drugs to treat obesity and diabetes) was not characterized. We now show that tandem pairs of CBS domains from AMP-activated protein kinase, IMP dehydrogenase-2, the chloride channel CLC2, and cystathionine β-synthase bind AMP, ATP, or S-adenosyl methionine,while mutations that cause hereditary diseases impair this binding. This shows that tandem pairs of CBS domains act, in most cases, as sensors of cellular energy status and, as such, represent a newly identified class of binding domain for adenosine derivatives