Determinants of Iowa Cropland Cash Rental Rates: Testing Ricardian Rent Theory

Based on the Ricardian rent theory, this study employs the variable profit function to analyze the determinants of Iowa cropland cash rental rates using county-level panel data from 1987 to 2005. Accounting for spatial and temporal autocorrelations, responses of local cash rental rates to changes in output prices and other exogenous variables are estimated. We find that Iowa cash rental rates are largely determined by output/input prices, soil quality, relative location, and other county-specific factors. Cash rents go up by $79 for a$1 increase in corn price in the short run. The marginal value of cropland quality, as represented by row-crop corn suitability rating index, is about $1.05. Ethanol plants are not found to have a significant local effect on cash rental rates, impacting local rental markets mainly through the national futures price. Scale of the local livestock industry and adoption of genetically engineered crops have significant impacts on local cash rental rates. In addition, changes in crop output prices are found to have long-run effects on cash rental rates. The long-run change in cash rents is approximately$109-$114 for a$1 change in corn price and is reached in about four years. Our research may be viewed as a test of the Ricardian rent theory. We find limited support for the theory.Land Economics/Use,

Reference Ordinances and Three-Judge Courts

As the fragmentation of areas of governmental responsibility increases, statutory reference terms which once were securely static in meaning must be re-examined. Illustrative of this evolutionary ambiguity are the terms state statute and state officer as they appear in the jurisdictional statute for federal three judge courts. ... The Supreme Court has emphasized the importance of the jurisdictional considerations in potential three judge cases by refusing to discuss the merits of a case which should have been decided by either a single judge or a three judge court and was not. The Court has cautioned us that § 2281 is to be viewed not as a measure of broad social policy to be construed with great liberality but as an enactment technical in the strict sense of the term and to be applied as such. In order that a strict application of the statute not contravene the purpose for which § 2281 was enacted, it should be remembered that the three-judge court was designed to provide a more responsible forum in the litigation of suits which, if successful, would render void state statutes embodying important statewide policies

The Art of Applied Sociology Constructing an Applied Paradigm

Applied Sociology requires a different paradigm than traditional scientific sociology. A framework for doing applied sociology can be formulated from a synthesis of available sociological traditions. Science is simply an agreement of people who have studied a given body of knowledge. The question becomes: where do we stake our agreement? Synergy provides the ideal core agreement for an applied sociology. Synergy is an operational definition of the Good and should become our evaluative mechanism. It is a win-win situation, between individuals, and between the person and the community. We need to re-discover the vision of sociology as social action designed to make a better society. We must function as artists inventing effective social forms and social arrangements where people flourish

Reduction of mm-Regular Noncrossing Partitions

In this paper, we present a reduction algorithm which transforms $m$-regular partitions of $[n]=\{1, 2, ..., n\}$ to $(m-1)$-regular partitions of $[n-1]$. We show that this algorithm preserves the noncrossing property. This yields a simple explanation of an identity due to Simion-Ullman and Klazar in connection with enumeration problems on noncrossing partitions and RNA secondary structures. For ordinary noncrossing partitions, the reduction algorithm leads to a representation of noncrossing partitions in terms of independent arcs and loops, as well as an identity of Simion and Ullman which expresses the Narayana numbers in terms of the Catalan numbers

Fabrication and Electric Field Dependent Transport Measurements of Mesoscopic Graphite Devices

We have developed a unique micromechanical method to extract extremely thin graphite samples. Graphite crystallites with thicknesses ranging from 10 - 100 nm and lateral size $\sim$ 2 $\mu$m are extracted from bulk. Mesoscopic graphite devices are fabricated from these samples for electric field dependent conductance measurements. Strong conductance modulation as a function of gate voltage is observed in the thinner crystallite devices. The temperature dependent resistivity measurements show more boundary scattering contribution in the thinner graphite samples.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures included, submitted to Appl. Phys. Let

W. E. B. Du Bois FBI Files (FOIA)

Covers period 1942-1960. William Edward Burghardt W. E. B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. PDF file is 530 pages

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts

Every lumber region has its lore. Thrilling tales of adventure are told in camp wherever the logger has entered the wilderness. The lumber jack is an imaginative being, and a story loses none of its interest as it is carried and repeated from one camp to another. Stories which I know to have originated on the Penobscot and the Kennebec are told, somewhat strengthened and improved, in the redwood camps of Humboldt Bay. Yarns originating among the river drivers of the Ottawa, the St. Croix, and the upper Mississippi are respun to groups of listening loggers on Vancouver Island. But every lumber district has its own peculiar tales. Some have their songs also, and nearly all have mysterious stories or vague rumors of dreadful beasts with which to regale newcomers and frighten people unfamiliar with the woods. Much has been written concerning the lumber jack and his life; some of his songs, rough but full of the sentiment of his exciting vocation, have been commemorated, but, so far as I know, very few of the strange creatures of his imagination have ever been described by the naturalist or sketched by the artist. The lumber regions are contracting. Stretches of forest that once seemed boundless are all but gone, and many a stream is quiet that once ran full of logs and echoed to the song of the river driver. Some say that the old type of logger himself is becoming extinct. It is my purpose in this little book to preserve at least a description and and sketch of some of the interesting animals which he has originated. Beasts described and pictured include: Hugag, Gumberoo, Roperite, Snoligoster, Leprocaun, Funeral Mountain Terrashot, Slide-rock Bolter, Tote-road Shagamaw, Wapaloosie, Cactus Cat, Hodag, Squonk, Whirling Whimpus, Agropelter, Splinter Cat, Snow Wasset, Central American Whintosser, Billdad, Tripodero, & Hyampom Hog Bear