A forest planting plan for the waste land of a Kansas farm

Citation: Willard, Charles. A forest planting plan for the waste land of a Kansas farm. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1908.Introduction: In going over our upland Kansas farms, one is invariably struck with the amount of more or less waste land upon them. Stony hillsides, washed gullies, sloughs, small, frequently flooded creek bottoms, and hillside fields which are washed and gullied until they are mere clay banks, are some of the places of this sort

Senior Recital: Charles Willard, Percussion; October 21, 2018

Kemp Recital HallOctober 21, 2018Sunday Evening6:00 p.m

Measurement Error In Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Labor Market Surveys: Results From Two Validation Studies

This paper reports evidence on the error properties of survey reports of labor market variables such as earnings and work hours. Our primary data source is the PSID Validation Study, a two-wave panel survey of a sample of workers employed by a large firm which also allowed us access to its very detailed records of its workers earnings. etc. The second data source uses individuals' 1977 and 1978 (March Current Population Survey) reports of earnings, matched to Social Security earnings records. In both data sets, individuals: reports of earnings are fairly accurately reported, and the errors are negatively related to true earnings. The latter property reduces the bias due to measurement error when earnings are used as an independent variable, but (unlike the classical-error case) leads to some bias when earnings are the dependent variable. Measurement-error-induced biases when change in earnings is the variable of interest are larger, but not dramatically so. Various measures of hourly earnings were much less reliable than annual earnings. Retrospective reports of unemployment showed considerable under-reporting, even of long spells.

Genome engineering of stem cells for autonomously regulated, closed-loop delivery of biologic drugs

Chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis are characterized by dysregulated responses to pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α). Pharmacologic anti-cytokine therapies are often effective at diminishing this inflammatory response but have significant side effects and are used at high, constant doses that do not reflect the dynamic nature of disease activity. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 genome-engineering system, we created stem cells that antagonize IL-1- or TNF-α-mediated inflammation in an autoregulated, feedback-controlled manner. Our results show that genome engineering can be used successfully to rewire endogenous cell circuits to allow for prescribed input/output relationships between inflammatory mediators and their antagonists, providing a foundation for cell-based drug delivery or cell-based vaccines via a rapidly responsive, autoregulated system. The customization of intrinsic cellular signaling pathways in stem cells, as demonstrated here, opens innovative possibilities for safer and more effective therapeutic approaches for a wide variety of diseases