Title of Dissertation: THREE ESSAYS ON NON-BALANCED ECONOMIC GROWTH, ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, AND THE REGULATION OF PUBLIC LAND IN THE UNITED STATES Michael H. Taylor, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Dissertation directed by: Professor Robert G. Chambers Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics This dissertation is comprised of three essays. The first essay, "The Spatial Consequences of Non-Bala...

This paper summarizes the literature on spatial filtering for analysis of spatial data, as proposed by Griffith (2000a). Given the scarcity of its application in transportation and its fledgling nature, preliminary case studies were conducted using continuous and discrete response data sets, for land values and land use, in comparison with results from spatial autoregressive models with distanc...

Land registration and cadastral systems exist in great variety. This paper describes the rich history of Zambian land tenure systems and discusses the present land tenure system. Zambia has a dual land tenure system: customary tenure and formal title registration. In the customary system the chiefs regulate the allocation of the land. They rule with the consent of their people. This system is c...

PURPOSE We determined clinical factors affecting the under grading of biopsy Gleason sum compared with prostatectomy pathology and developed a model predicting the probability of under grading. MATERIALS AND METHODS We analyzed a cohort of 1,701 patients treated for prostate cancer at our institution between 1988 and 2007 with complete biopsy and pathological data available. Patients with a b...

Background-Histologic grading has been used as a prognostic factor and for clinical behavior evaluation of oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) for the past several decades. At the same time, the prognostic value of different grading classifications remains controversial. Methods-A retrospective study of 48 cases of tongue SCC was undertaken to compare different grading systems and their relation...

While grading the strength of recommendations and the quality of underlying evidence enhances the usefulness of clinical guidelines, the profusion of guideline grading systems undermines the value of the grading exercise. An American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) task force formulated the criteria for a grading system to be utilized in all ACCP guidelines that included simplicity and trans...

One problem that arises with the increasing numbers of students in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is that of student evaluation. The large number of students makes it infeasible for the instructors or the teaching assistants to grade all assignments, while the present auto-grading technology is not feasible for many topics of interest. As a result, there has recently been a great push for ...

Device modeling and simulation studies of a Cu(In1-x,Gax)Se2 (CIGS) thin film solar cell have been carried out. A variety of graded band-gap structures, including space charge region (SCR) grading, back surface region grading, and double grading of the CIGS absorber layer, are examined. The device physics and performance parameters for different band-gap profiles were analyzed. Based on the sim...