Tree Shade and Energy Savings: An Empirical Study

Trees cast shade on homes and buildings, lowering the inside temperatures and thus reducing demand for power to cool these buildings during hot times of the year. Drawing from a large sample of residences in Auburn, Alabama, we develop a statistical model that produces specific estimates of the electricity savings generated by shade-producing trees in a suburban environment. This empirical model links residential energy consumption to hedonic characteristics of the structures, characteristics and behaviors of the occupants, and the extent, density, and timing of shade cast on the structures. Our estimates suggest that if an additional 10 percent of the 125 million home owners in America started using tree shade to reduce electricity consumption an average of 10 kwh/day for 100 days per year, the annual amount of electricity conserved would be approximately 12,500 thousand megawatts. At the 2007 average residential price of electricity ($0.1065/kwh), this would save each household an estimated$106/year and $1.3 billion in the aggregate. Moreover, the electricity saved would represent approximately one-third of the electricity produced annually in the U.S. by wind power.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Impacts of Population and Income Growth Rates on Threatened Mammals and Birds

Per capita income and human population levels in a country have direct influences on its environmental outcomes. Countries with same level of income may have different rate of income growth and vice versa, suggesting that the influence of the rate of income growth on environmental outcomes could be different than that of income level. Similarly, the rate of population growth might have different impact in addition to the impacts of sheer number of population. We explore this empirical question using country-level data on threatened species published by IUCN for the year 2007. Controlling for other factors, our model estimates the influences of the rate of population and income growth on threatened mammals and birds across 113 continental countries. The results suggest that, among other factors, the rate of population growth has significant influences on number of threatened mammals and birds.income, population, spatial models, spatial autocorrelation, endemic species, biodiversity, Environmental Economics and Policy, C21, Q57,

PUBLIC INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURAL AND GDP GROWTH-- ANOTHER LOOK AT THE INTER SECTORAL LINKAGES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Despite its reduced share in India’s GDP, agriculture continues to have a strategic importance in ensuring its overall growth and prosperity. As part of the new economic policy package introduced in the early nineties, there has been a reduction in the rate of public investment. While this may not be bad for the industrial sector, the impact of this policy on agriculture is a matter of concern, in sofar as it not only affects steady growth of agriculture but also influences the overall performance of the economy. This is more so because the agricultural sector public investment has also promoted private investment by way of what is termed as the crowding-in phenomenon. This phenomenon together with inter-sectoral linkages is used in this paper to examine the effect of higher public investment for agriculture on the stable growth of this sector as well as of the entire economy. Policy implications of this exercise are important for obvious reasons.Sectoral linkages, Public Investment, crowding-in

Test of Convergence in Agricultural Factor Productivity: A Semiparametric Approach

We tested for club convergence in U.S. agricultural total factory productivity using a sigma convergence test. We used the same club of states as used by McCunn and Huffman as well as different states within 10 clubs identified by the cluster analysis. Results showed convergence was evident only in a few club groups. Clusters group identified using a statistical method identified only converging clubs. Variables affecting total factor productivity among states were identified using parametric, semiparametric and nonparametric methods. Semiparametric and nonparametric methods gave a better fit than a parametric method as indicated by the specification test. Our results indicated that health care expenditure, public research and extension investment, and private expenditure are important variables impacting total factor productivity differences across states.Clubs, sigma convergence, cluster analysis, semiparametric and nonparametric methods, Productivity Analysis, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Pengaruh Penyiangan Dan Suhu Penyimpanan Terhadap Mutu Kimiawi, Mikrobiologis Dan Organoleptik Ikan Tongkol (Auxis Tharzard, Lac)

Ikan tongkol merupakan salah satu bahan pangan yang dikonsumsi masyarakat dan jika dibiarkanpada suhu kamar, maka terjadi proses penurunan mutu menjadi busuk. Ikan yang sudah mengalami prosespembusukan, bila dikonsumsi dapat menimbulkan keracunan (Histamine fish poisoning). Keracunan inidisebabkan oleh kontaminasi bakteri pathogen dengan dekarboksilasi asam amino histidin oleh enzimhistidin dekarboksilase menghasilkan histamin. Bakteri ini banyak terdapat pada anggota tubuh manusiayang tidak higienis, kotoran/tinja, isi Perut ikan, insang serta peralatan yang tidak bersih.Penelitian eksperimental dengan pola faktorial, yaitu faktor P adalah faktor penyiangan dengan 2 taraf,tanpa penyiangan dan penyiangan, sedangkan faktor T adalah suhu penyimpanan dengan 3 taraf yaitu suhupenyimpanan 30oC, 15oC dan 0oC.Analisis statistik terhadap mutu kimiawi seperti kadar histamin, kadar total volatil bases (TVB) dantrimetilamin (TMA) menunjukkan perbedaan nyata (P<0,05) pada pengaruh penyiangan dan suhupenyimpanan. Terjadi peningkatan kadar histamin, kadar TVB dan TMA selama penelitian. Selamapenelitian terjadi peningkatan jumlah koloni bakteri, jumlah Coliform, kecuali bakteri Vibrioparahaemolyticus negatif. Perlakuan penyiangan dan suhu penyimpanan 0oC memiliki mutu kimiawi,mikrobiologis terbaik sampai hari ke 10 serta masih diterima panelis.Hubungan antara kadar histamin dengan jumlah bakteri mempunyai hubungan sangat kuat, ditunjukkandengan nilai r ? 0,7 kecuali kadar histamin dengan waktu memiliki hubungan agak lemah r ? 0,5.Keamanan ikan tongkol dengan penerapan teknologi tepat guna berupa tanpa penyiangan danpenyiangan pada suhu 30oC hanya aman untuk dikonsumsi sampai hari ke 0. Perlakuan tanpa penyiangandan suhu penyimpanan 15oC aman sampai hari ke 4, sedangkan dengan penyiangan aman sampai hari ke 6.Untuk perlakuan tanpa penyiangan dan penyiangan dengan suhu penyimpanan 0oC aman sampai hari ke 10

EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN INDIAN BANKING

This paper attempts to examine technical efficiency and productivity performance of Indian scheduled commercial banks, for the period 1979-2008. We model a multiple output/multiple input technology production frontier using semiparametric estimation methods. The endogenity of multiple outputs is addressed by semi parametric estimates in part by introducing multivariate kernel estimators for the joint distribution of the multiple outputs and correlated random effects. Output is measured as the rupee value of total loans and total investments at the end of the year. The estimates provide robust inferences of the productivity and efficiency gains due to economic reforms.Banking, Frontier efficiency, Productivity

Dyadic Cantor set and its kinetic and stochastic counterpart

Firstly, we propose and investigate a dyadic Cantor set (DCS) and its kinetic counterpart where a generator divides an interval into two equal parts and removes one with probability $(1-p)$. The generator is then applied at each step to all the existing intervals in the case of DCS and to only one interval, picked with probability according to interval size, in the case of kinetic DCS. Secondly, we propose a stochastic DCS in which, unlike the kinetic DCS, the generator divides an interval randomly instead of equally into two parts. Finally, the models are solved analytically; an exact expression for fractal dimension in each case is presented and the relationship between fractal dimension and the corresponding conserved quantity is pointed out. Besides, we show that the interval size distribution function in both variants of DCS exhibits dynamic scaling and we verify it numerically using the idea of data-collapse.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, To appear in Chaos, Solitons & Fractal

Scaling of the giant dipole resonance widths in hot rotating nuclei from the ground state values

The systematics of the giant dipole resonance (GDR) widths in hot and rotating nuclei are studied in terms of temperature T, angular momentum J and mass A. The different experimental data in the temperature range of 1 - 2 MeV have been compared with the thermal shape fluctuation model (TSFM) in the liquid drop formalism using a modified approach to estimate the average values of T, J and A in the decay of the compound nucleus. The values of the ground state GDR widths have been extracted from the TSFM parametrization in the liquid drop limit for the corrected T, J and A for a given system and compared with the corresponding available systematics of the experimentally measured ground state GDR widths for a range of nuclei from A = 45 to 194. Amazingly, the nature of the theoretically extracted ground state GDR widths matches remarkably well, though 1.5 times smaller, with the experimentally measured ground state GDR widths consistently over a wide range of nuclei.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Physical Review