A MODEL TO EXPLAIN PARTICIPATION IN NEW YORK'S AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS AND USE-VALUE ASSESSMENT PROGRAMS

Logit regression models are estimated to identify factors affecting decisions to enroll farmland in New York's agricultural districts program and participate in the use-value assessment program. The results suggest that the districts law is consistent with preserving the best farmland at the rural-urban fringe and that the decision to enroll in agricultural districts affects in a recursive fashion the decision to participate in the use-value assessment program. Short-term monetary gains are the overriding considerations in applying for use-value exemptions. This may lead to additional erosion of the tax base via tax preferences for agricultural land.Land Economics/Use,

“Open Markets” v. “Structured Bilateral Trades”: Results of Economic Modeling of Point-to-Point Source Water Quality Trading in the Non-Tidal Passaic River Basin

Environmental Economics and Policy,

Surface diffusion coefficients by thermodynamic integration: Cu on Cu(100)

The rate of diffusion of a Cu adatom on the Cu(100) surface is calculated using thermodynamic integration within the transition state theory. The results are found to be in excellent agreement with the essentially exact values from molecular-dynamics simulations. The activation energy and related entropy are shown to be effectively independent of temperature, thus establishing the validity of the Arrhenius law over a wide range of temperatures. Our study demonstrates the equivalence of diffusion rates calculated using thermodynamic integration within the transition state theory and direct molecular-dynamics simulations.Comment: 4 pages (revtex), two figures (postscript

Ashurbanipal's Legacy: Rediscovering the Greatest Library the World had Ever Known

In this time of seemingly endless war, it is more important than ever to preserve and study the artifacts left behind by the early inhabitants of the Middle East. In absence of physical artifacts, the only records of history are the mutable oral traditions passed from person to person through the centuries. Like in the children's game of telephone, these stories change with each iteration. Despots can take advantage of this by reshaping the narrative to fit their rhetoric; conceivably changing the perception of the past irreparably within a generation. Without immutable proof, the truth can be lost in the propaganda. The Middle East has undergone this process of benign misinterpretation and malevolent revising for thousands of years; Ashurbanipal's Library represents one of the rare caches of unadulterated truth. It is vital from both a regional identity and a world history standpoint that this truth is preserved for future generations