CONNECTING TAXES AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR FARMLAND PROTECTION: A COMPARISON OF LOCAL AND STATE FUNDED ALTERNATIVES IN NEW YORK

The costs of tax relief for New York agricultural landowners is compared with the willingness-to-pay for farmland protection as measured in valuation research. Under an income tax rebate, the program cost is positively related with the perceived household benefits, whereas this trend is reversed under a local property tax exemption.Agricultural and Food Policy, Public Economics,

Theories of Therapeutic Evolution for Juvenile Drug Courts in the Face of the Onset of the Co-occurrence of Mental Health Issues and Substance/Alcohol Abuse

The purpose of this Note is to review two specific and newly emerging therapeutic courts: juvenile mental health courts and juvenile drug courts. It will explain how and why a mental health element should be implemented into the juvenile drug court system. Part II of this Note will give a historical and procedural overview of juvenile drug courts. These procedures will draw mainly from the newly formed Medina County Juvenile Drug Court, located in Medina, Ohio. Part III will explain the origination and procedures currently employed by juvenile mental health courts, as they relate specifically to Santa Clara\u27s Court for Individualized Treatment for Adolescents. Part IV will explain why juvenile drug courts should implement certain elements of mental health courts because of the significant co-occurrence of juvenile substance use and accompanying mental health problems that occur in a significant number of juveniles. Studies have shown, and court personnel agree, that up to 70% of juveniles with substance abuse of alcohol problems have at least one mental health issue that needs to be addressed. Part V of this Note will examine the proposed integration of a mental health element into the juvenile drug courts in light of several pieces of recent and pending legislation, with a special view towards the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004, which supports mental health treatment for criminal offenders in place of traditional incarceration. Finally, Part VI will explain how and why the juvenile drug court system should integrate a mental health element into its current procedures. Like any system in its infancy, the juvenile therapeutic justice system faces many challenges and issues as it attempts to gain more widespread acceptance. This Note strives to help the legal community embrace the therapeutic alternative as a means to improve the lives of juvenile substance abuse offenders with co-occurring mental health problems, while also increasing public safety in communities throughout the United States

Gender and school-level differences in students' moderate and vigorous physical activity levels when taught basketball through the tactical games model

The Tactical Games Model (TGM) prefaces the cognitive components of physical education (PE), which has implications for physical activity (PA) accumulation. PA recommendations suggest students reach 50% moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). However, this criterion does not indicate the contribution from vigorous physical activity (VPA). Consequently, this study investigated: a) the effects of TGM delivery on MVPA/VPA and, b) gender/school level differences. Participants were 78 seventh and 96 fourth/fifth grade coeducational PE students from two different schools. Two teachers taught 24 (middle) and 30 (elementary) level one TGM basketball lessons. Students wore Actigraph GT3× triaxial accelerometers. Data were analyzed using four one-way ANOVAs. Middle school boys had significantly higher MVPA/VPA (34.04/22.37%) than girls (25.14/15.47%). Elementary school boys had significantly higher MVPA/VPA (29.73/18.33%) than girls (23.03/14.33%). While TGM lessons provide a context where students can accumulate VPA consistent with national PA recommendations, teachers need to modify lesson activities to enable equitable PA participation

Games Without Frontiers: Trends in the International Response to Insider Trading

A study examines, from the perspective of two practitioners, current trends in the global regulation of insider trading

Dissecting the Hybrid Rights Exception: Should it Be Expanded or Rejected?

In the early 1960s, the Supreme Court of the United States adopted a high level of protection for religious liberty claims. The Court applied a version of strict scrutiny when evaluating governmental laws or regulations that burdened an individual\u27s free exercise of religion. In 1990, the Supreme Court reversed decades of precedent and fundamentally changed the meaning and application of the Free Exercise Clause. In Employment Division v. Smith, the Court, in an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, determined that the Free Exercise Clause does not protect individuals from laws that donot target specific religious beliefs or practices. However, Justice Scalia offered an exception for cases involving hybrid rights. A hybrid right is one that involves both the Free Exercise Clause and another constitutional right. In the twenty-three years since the Smith decision, state and federal courts have grappled with the meaning and application of the hybrid rights exception with no clarification from the Supreme Court. In the process, lower courts have developed at least three general approaches to hybrid rights-rejection, independent viability, and colorable claim. In some cases, courts arguably have used a fourth approach called the cabining approach, which limits application of hybrid rights to cases closely resembling the cases distinguished by the Court in Smith. Many legal commentators and courts believe the federal circuits have split on the issue of hybrid rights. However, an examination of case law reveals that, regardless of the various approaches, the lower courts\u27 analyses of hybrid rights claims sometimes differ in form, but rarely differ in substance. So, while many courts and legal commentators recognize at least three approaches to hybrid rights, this article contends there can only be one viable approach-rejection.This is so because, as Justice David Souter once opined, the hybrid rights exception is untenable. This article contends that religious liberty advocates should abandon the hybrid rights exception and seek protection elsewhere. Two paths have emerged to provide greater protection for religious liberty. The first involves recasting free exercise claims as free speech claims. The second involves state and federal statutes that legislatively restore a strict scrutiny, pre-Smith approach. This article will argue that, of the two paths, free speech proves more promising. Part II of this article discusses Employment Division v. Smith, and introduces the hybrid rights exception. It also reviews the backlash that followed the Smith decision and outlines the ways state and federal governments attempted to override it. Part III focuses on the failure of the hybrid rights exception. It summarizes the lower courts\u27 responses and approaches to hybrid rights. Then, it illustrates each approach by analyzing specific hybrid rights cases. These cases support the contention that courts accepting a hybrid rights theory, in substance, look no different from courts that do not. Finally, Part IV discusses four main advantages to seeking refuge under the Free Speech Clause

RNA Sequencing Reveals Novel Transcripts from Sympathetic Stellate Ganglia During Cardiac Sympathetic Hyperactivity.

Cardiovascular disease is the most prevalent age-related illness worldwide, causing approximately 15 million deaths every year. Hypertension is central in determining cardiovascular risk and is a strong predictive indicator of morbidity and mortality; however, there remains an unmet clinical need for disease-modifying and prophylactic interventions. Enhanced sympathetic activity is a well-established contributor to the pathophysiology of hypertension, however the cellular and molecular changes that increase sympathetic neurotransmission are not known. The aim of this study was to identify key changes in the transcriptome in normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats. We validated 15 of our top-scoring genes using qRT-PCR, and network and enrichment analyses suggest that glutamatergic signalling plays a key role in modulating Ca2+ balance within these ganglia. Additionally, phosphodiesterase activity was found to be altered in stellates obtained from the hypertensive rat, suggesting that impaired cyclic nucleotide signalling may contribute to disturbed Ca2+ homeostasis and sympathetic hyperactivity in hypertension. We have also confirmed the presence of these transcripts in human donor stellate samples, suggesting that key genes coupled to neurotransmission are conserved. The data described here may provide novel targets for future interventions aimed at treating sympathetic hyperactivity associated with cardiovascular disease and other dysautonomias

Understanding the effects of peripheral vision and muscle memory on in-vehicle touchscreen interactions

It is important to gain a better understanding of how drivers interact with in-vehicle touchscreens to help design interfaces to minimise “eyes off road” time. The study aimed to investigate the relative effects of two interaction mechanisms (peripheral vision - PV and muscle memory - MM) shown to be relevant to visual behaviour when driving, on the time to press different sized buttons (small 6x6cm, medium 10x10cm, large 14x14cm) on an in-vehicle touchscreen. Twenty-five participants took part in a driving simulator study. They were presented with a single, white, square button on the touchscreen on 24 successive trials. For MM conditions, participants wore a pair of glasses that blocked their peripheral vision and for PV conditions they were asked to keep their focus on the vehicle in front throughout. Results showed that task time gradually decreased for the trials when participants could only use MM. However, overall task time for MM conditions were significantly higher than for those in which PV was utilised, and participants rated the use of MM to be more difficult than PV. In contrast, results suggest that for interfaces that utilise peripheral visual processing the learning effect is not evident and operation times are constant over time. These findings indicate that in-vehicle touch screens should be designed to utilise peripheral vision for making simple button selections with reduced visual demand

Understanding the effects of peripheral vision and muscle memory on in-vehicle touchscreen interactions

It is important to gain a better understanding of how drivers interact with in-vehicle touchscreens to help design interfaces to minimise “eyes off road” time. The study aimed to investigate the relative effects of two interaction mechanisms (peripheral vision - PV and muscle memory - MM) shown to be relevant to visual behaviour when driving, on the time to press different sized buttons (small 6x6cm, medium 10x10cm, large 14x14cm) on an in-vehicle touchscreen. Twenty-five participants took part in a driving simulator study. They were presented with a single, white, square button on the touchscreen on 24 successive trials. For MM conditions, participants wore a pair of glasses that blocked their peripheral vision and for PV conditions they were asked to keep their focus on the vehicle in front throughout. Results showed that task time gradually decreased for the trials when participants could only use MM. However, overall task time for MM conditions were significantly higher than for those in which PV was utilised, and participants rated the use of MM to be more difficult than PV. In contrast, results suggest that for interfaces that utilise peripheral visual processing the learning effect is not evident and operation times are constant over time. These findings indicate that in-vehicle touch screens should be designed to utilise peripheral vision for making simple button selections with reduced visual demand