Essays on socially optimal phosphorus policies in crop production

Phosphorus is a nutrient needed in crop production. While boosting crop yields it may also accelerate eutrophication in the surface waters receiving the phosphorus runoff. The privately optimal level of phosphorus use is determined by the input and output prices, and the crop response to phosphorus. Socially optimal use also takes into account the impact of phosphorus runoff on water quality. Increased eutrophication decreases the economic value of surface waters by Deteriorating fish stocks, curtailing the potential for recreational activities and by increasing the probabilities of mass algae blooms. In this dissertation, the optimal use of phosphorus is modelled as a dynamic optimization problem. The potentially plant available phosphorus accumulated in soil is treated as a dynamic state variable, the control variable being the annual phosphorus fertilization. For crop response to phosphorus, the state variable is more important than the annual fertilization. The level of this state variable is also a key determinant of the runoff of dissolved, reactive phosphorus. Also the loss of particulate phosphorus due to erosion is considered in the thesis, as well as its mitigation by constructing vegetative buffers. The dynamic model is applied for crop production on clay soils. At the steady state, the analysis focuses on the effects of prices, damage parameterization, discount rate and soil phosphorus carryover capacity on optimal steady state phosphorus use. The economic instruments needed to sustain the social optimum are also analyzed. According to the results the economic incentives should be conditioned on soil phosphorus values directly, rather than on annual phosphorus applications. The results also emphasize the substantial effects the differences in varying discount rates of the farmer and the social planner have on optimal instruments. The thesis analyzes the optimal soil phosphorus paths from its alternative initial levels. It also examines how erosion susceptibility of a parcel affects these optimal paths. The results underline the significance of the prevailing soil phosphorus status on optimal fertilization levels. With very high initial soil phosphorus levels, both the privately and socially optimal phosphorus application levels are close to zero as the state variable is driven towards its steady state. The soil phosphorus processes are slow. Therefore, depleting high phosphorus soils may take decades. The thesis also presents a methodologically interesting phenomenon in problems of maximizing the flow of discounted payoffs. When both the benefits and damages are related to the same state variable, the steady state solution may have an interesting property, under very general conditions: The tail of the payoffs of the privately optimal path as well as the steady state may provide a higher social welfare than the respective tail of the socially optimal path. The result is formalized and an applied to the created framework of optimal phosphorus use.

Incredible but true 1921-2005

The memoir was subtitled "A Collection of recollections", and is a collection of various, all but two previously published, essays and articles which cover different aspects of Mr. Brown's life. They are organized in 4 main chapters, "From cradle to crash" (1921-1938), "Exile and Exhaustion" (1938-47), "Life and Liberty" (1947-87), and "Retired and Retried" (1987-2005). As Mr. Brown states, his stories are "true in essence but not in form".

Author-Illustrator

This essay investigates the concept author-illustrator by drawing on two influential essays – ‘Death of the Author’ by Roland Barthes and ‘What is an Author?’ by Michel Foucault. By engaging with the key points of debate that emerge from these positions, this essay argues that the notion of author-illustrator is part of a wider discursive field that is embedded in a complex, commodified, multimedia public sphere where the author is paradoxically reinscribed and erased. This environment is changing the nature of the text, authorship, and reader-text interaction, but until now the concept author-illustrator has been largely absent from these discussions.

Steven M. Lowenstein Collection - Addenda. 1960s-2007

The Steven Lowenstein Collections documents professional activities of Steven Lowenstein, writer, researcher, historian, and teacher. Documents comprising the collection reflect his interests in a wide spectrum of topics related to Jews and Judaism, such as modernity and tradition and their influence on the religion and common folks; Berlin Jews of the upper strata; similarities and differences between agrarian/rural and urban Jews; popular and official Judaism; secular and religious Jews; and other Jewish related topics. However, there is a very small amount of materials related to his professional activities other than research and writing.

Jacob Mestel 1914-1958

Correspondence with individuals: Jacob Ben-Ami, Ossip Dymow, Ovsei Liubomirskii, Kalman Marmor, Nachman Meisel, Melech Ravitch, Dov Sadan, Michael Weichert and Zalman Zylbercweig. Correspondence with organizations: Hebrew Actors' Union, IKUF, YIVO. Manuscripts of plays collected by Mestel as director, including adaptations by Mestel. Mestel's writings: manuscripts of poems, plays, essays, articles, notes, translations. Theater production materials: scripts with Mestel's direction notes, prop and set design notes. Miscellaneous theater materials, including course notes, theater programs. Clippings: Mestel's writings, biographical articles, reviews of performances. Family correspondence and personal papers including papers of Sara Kindman-Mestel. Photographs relating to Yiddish theater in New York, 1930s-1950s.

Nachman Zonabend 1939-1944

The records reflect the organizational structure of the Jewish ghetto administration and consist of the following: Correspondence with German government agencies, 1939-1941, including the Police and Gestapo, the *Oberburgermeister* of Litzmannstadt (German name for Lodz), the *Gettoverwaltung* (German administration of the ghetto). The correspondence pertains to the establishment of the ghetto, expropriation of Jewish property, resettlement of Lodz Jews into the ghetto, sanitary conditions, ghetto industry, anti-Jewish ordinances. Announcements issued by Rumkowski, 1940-1944. A complete set of daily communications to the ghetto population on all subjects pertinent to ghetto life such as: confiscations of Jewish property, food rationing, availability of work, relief distribution, deportations, liquidation of the ghetto. Files of various departments of the Jewish ghetto administration including labor divisions and workshops, the Jewish police (*Ordnungsdienst*), Statistics Department, Ghetto Court, Archives, Resettlement Department, Deportation Commission. Of special interest are the Archives files which contain essays and reports written by the Archives staff expressly for the purpose of historical record on subjects related to ghetto life. Outstanding in this group are reports and literary sketches by Joseph Zelkowicz, including his extensive account about the *Gesperre* (Yid. Shpere) - the deportation of the children, the old and the infirm in September, 1942. In addition, the Archives files contain bulletins of the *Daily Chronicle* of the Lodz Ghetto, transcripts of speeches by Rumkowski, and issues of the *Geto-tsaytung*, a short-lived official publication of the Eldest of the Jews. Iconographic materials, including photographs and albums. The photographs taken by Mendel Grossman, Henryk Ross, Maliniak, Zonabend and others, provide an extensive visual record of ghetto life.

Copy of English translation of prayer for peace during the revolution, with note of Reverend Gershom Seixas to Isaac Moses

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Copy of English address given by Gershom Seixas after his return to New York City

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Jüdisches Museum Wien‏ Collection 1915-1994

Printed materials about the first Jewish museum in Vienna, Austria, which existed 1895 to 1938. Also included is a biography about Maurice (Moritz) Bronner, curator at the museum 1910-1914, by his son, Felix Bronner. Folder 2 holds copies of 2 photographs of Maurice Bronner, circa 1910 and 1965.