bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Taxes and the User Cost of Capital for Owner‐Occupied Housing
Authors: Hendershott Patric H. , Slemrod Joel 
Published: October 2003

Owner‐occupied housing is said to be favored in the tax code because the return on owner's equity is not taxed and mortgage interest and property taxes can be deducted in the computation of one's income tax base. The special tax treatment reduces the user cost of capital for owner‐occupied housing.The issue treated in this paper is the measurement of the tax rate to be employed in the user cost calculations. It is argued that different tax rates are appropriate for the tenure choice and quantity‐demanded decisions, and that these values depend on the detailed tax position of the household and the method of finance. Average 1977 tax rates for household in different income ranges are calculated using the NBER TAXSIM microeconomic data file on individual tax returns.
A Future for Public Housing
Authors: Chisholm Nancy S. 
Published: October 2003

Two primary reforms are needed for the future success of the current public housing program: revision of the funding system for operating subsidy and development of a strategy for capital improvements and future use of the inventory. The current funding system has been criticized because of the dramatic growth in operating costs in the last decade and because of apparent over‐funding of some public housing authorities (PHAs) and a distributional bias against housing authorities operating in distressed environments. Either a cost‐based operating subsidy system or a market‐rent based system would have strengths as well as weaknesses. Either type of system can provide adequate, fair, constrained, and predictable subsidies. The current level of deterioration of the public housing stock, the concentration of social and physical problems in 7‐to‐15% of the inventory, and the perverse incentives of the present modernization program, suggest a need for reform of the capital improvement funding system. Each PHA should be provided fixed levels of funds, based on its needs, both for rehabilitating and maintaining projects. Further, a project‐by‐project assessment should be made to identify those which cannot be cost‐effectively managed or rehabilitated.The President's Commission on Housing contributed importantly to public discussion of these policy areas, by recommending a dramatic reassessment of each project and its future use in the context of a change to a market‐based subsidy system.
Measurement of the Spreads Between Yields on Various Mortgage Contracts and Treasury Securities
Authors: Hendershott Patric H. , Shilling James D. , Villani Kevin E. 
Published: October 2003

Spreads between yields on different mortgage instruments and comparable maturity portfolios of Treasury securities have been computed and compared with quoted yields over the 1974–82 period for three different mortgage instruments: GNMA pass‐throughs, FHLMC participation certificates, and conventional mortgage commitments. The methodology explicitly accounts for the expected timing of the payments on the mortgages and thus avoids the cash‐flow timing problems noted in the literature.Between late 1978 and 1981, the computed spreads rose by 30 to 40 basis points relative to those customarily quoted (the internal rate of return on a mortgage, assuming a twelve‐year life, less the yield on near‐par ten‐year Treasuries). This increase can be attributed to the rise in the level of interest rates (the compounding error in quoted mortgage yields is larger at higher levels of rates) and the change in the slope of the yield curve from flat to downward sloping (the twelve‐year prepayment date assumed in the computation of quoted GNMA and FHLMC PC yields seems to be too long).
Pricing Life‐of‐Loan Rate Caps on Default‐Free Adjustable‐Rate Mortgages
Authors: Buser Stephen A. , Hendershott Patric H. , Sanders Anthony B. 
Published: October 2003

A model is developed and utilized in this paper to value a life‐of‐loan interest‐rate cap on an ARM that reprices monthly. The value of the cap is seen to depend importantly on both the slope of the term structure and the variance of the 1‐month rate. However, the cap value is not sensitive to the source of the slope of the term structure — what precise combination of interest‐rate expectations and risk aversion determined the slope. This insensitivity is fortunate because of the great difficulty of knowing at any point in time why the term structure is what it is.Given the variation in the slope of the term structure and the variance of the 1‐month rate that occurred over the 1979–84 period, the addition to the coupon rate on a 1‐month ARM that lenders should have charged for a 5% life‐of‐loan cap has ranged from 5 to 40 basis points.
Real Estate Valuation Models: Lender and Equity Investor Criteria
Authors: Cannaday Roger E. , Colwell Peter F. 
Published: October 2003

The use of valuation models that focus on lender criteria has been growing in the appraisal field. In the rush to build lender criteria into real estate valuation models, equity investor criteria, expectations, and requirements occasionally have been ignored. The specific criteria considered in this paper are the loan‐to‐value ratio and the debt coverage ratio for lenders and the equity dividend rate for equity investors. Each of these three criteria may be a binding constraint on value.Graphical analysis provides a framework within which major real estate valuation models (i.e., Ellwood, McLaughlin, Gettel, Lusht‐Zerbst, and Steele) are compared. A new valuation model (i.e., the Cannaday‐Colwell model) is developed which utilizes the equity dividend rate.The three definitional models (i.e., McLaughlin, Gettel, and Steele) are found to be relevant only by mere coincidence. Each of these models simultaneously considers two of the three key criteria, completely eliminating the possibility of consideration of anything else; i.e., the models become tautological.It is shown that the discounted cash flow based models (i.e., Ellwood, Lusht‐Zerbst, and Cannaday‐Colwell) each tell one‐third of the story. One of these models will be relevant depending upon whether the binding constraint is the maximum loan‐to‐value ratio, the minimum debt coverage ratio, or the minimum equity dividend rate. The relevant model is the one that yields the lowest value estimate of the three.
Portfolio Considerations in the Valuation of Real Estate
Authors: Webb James R. , Rubens Jack H. 
Published: October 2003

When a real asset rises in price faster than inflation (as real estate did in the late 1970s) and rises significantly in price over an extended period (as real estate has done for the last decade and one‐half), it concerns valuation and investment professionals who fear about it being over‐valued. One of the reasons for such price performance may be an increase in demand due to the portfolio characteristics of the asset during the period of time in question. For real estate this means the proportion included in optimal portfolios should be significant and increasing as individual tax rates increase in an environment of increasing average tax rates.This study uses six tax brackets (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%) and portfolios consisting of three traditional assets (NYSE common stocks, corporate bonds and small stocks) plus three types of real estate (residential, business and farmland) to demonstrate that this is what has transpired in the real estate markets. Optimal portfolio weights are derived for each asset for after‐tax portfolios. Real estate in general and residential real estate especially increased as a proportion of the optimal after‐tax portfolio as individual tax rates increased. Other studies are used to demonstrate an environment of increasing average tax rates.
Dynamic Credit Rationing in the Home Mortgage Market
Authors: Kent Richard J. 
Published: October 2003

In this study a model of dynamic credit rationing in the home mortgage market by a profit‐maximizing financial institution is developed.In the 1960s and 1970s it was widely believed that credit rationing was very important in the mortgage market. The recent deregulation and innovation in financial markets is belived to have resulted in a significant weakening of these availability effects. For the model developed it is shown that deposit diversification, such as the introduction of money market accounts in 1978, would tend to reduce the amount of any dynamic credit rationing that was occurring.
The First Twenty Years of AEEUEA
Authors: Kinnard William N. , Berkman Herman G. , Nourse Hugh O. , Weicher John C. 
Published: October 2003

Editors' Note: At AREUEA's 1985 annual meeting, a special session was held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of AREUEA. The session was proposed by George Gau, the 1985 program chairman, and chaired by Patric H. Hender‐shott, the 1985 president. George and Pat selected four past presidents to discuss the first four five‐year periods of AREUEA's history. The presentations were so informative that the Board of Directors proposed publication in some form to preserve the historical record of AREUEA. With the financial assistance of the Homer Hoyt Institute and the efforts of Marc A. Weiss, we are pleased to publish a slightly edited version of the four presentations.An appendix to this article lists the officers and members of AREUEA's Board of Directors since 1965 (any corrections should be drawn to the editors' attention). We note that four individuals have served on AREUEA's Board for a decade or longer: William B. Brueggeman, Hugh O. Nourse, Maury Seldin and Halbert C. Smith. All were president and either editor or secretary‐treasurer.
THE SCENERY FLOW FOR HYPERBOLIC JULIA SETS
Authors: BEDFORD TIM , FISHER ALBERT M. , URBAŃSKI MARIUSZ 
Published: October 2003

We define the scenery flow space at a point z in the Julia set J of a hyperbolic rational map $T : \mathbb{C} \to \mathbb{C}$ with degree at least 2, and more generally for T a conformal mixing repellor.We prove that, for hyperbolic rational maps, except for a few exceptional cases listed below, the scenery flow is ergodic. We also prove ergodicity for almost all conformal mixing repellors; here the statement is that the scenery flow is ergodic for the repellors which are not linear nor contained in a finite union of real-analytic curves, and furthermore that for the collection of such maps based on a fixed open set U, the ergodic cases form a dense open subset of that collection. Scenery flow ergodicity implies that one generates the same scenery flow by zooming down towards almost every z with respect to the Hausdorff measure $H^d$, where d is the dimension of J, and that the flow has a unique measure of maximal entropy.For all conformal mixing repellors, the flow is loosely Bernoulli and has topological entropy at most d. Moreover the flow at almost every point is the same up to a rotation, and so as a corollary, one has an analogue of the Lebesgue density theorem for the fractal set, giving a different proof of a theorem of Falconer.2000 Mathematical Subject Classification: 37F15, 37F35, 37D20.
Identification and Characterization of the
emhABC
Efflux System for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in
Pseudomonas fluorescens
cLP6a
Authors: Hearn Elizabeth M. , Dennis Jonathan J. , Gray Murray R. , Foght Julia M. 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

The hydrocarbon-degrading environmental isolate
Pseudomonas fluorescens
LP6a possesses an active efflux mechanism for the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons phenanthrene, anthracene, and fluoranthene but not for naphthalene or toluene. PCR was used to detect efflux pump genes belonging to the resistance-nodulation-cell division (RND) superfamily in a plasmid-cured derivative,
P. fluorescens
cLP6a, which is unable to metabolize hydrocarbons. One RND pump, whose gene was identified in
P. fluorescens
cLP6a and was designated
emhB
, showed homology to the multidrug and solvent efflux pumps in
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
and
Pseudomonas putida
. The
emhB
gene is located in a gene cluster with the
emhA
and
emhC
genes, which encode the membrane fusion protein and outer membrane protein components of the efflux system, respectively. Disruption of
emhB
by insertion of an antibiotic resistance cassette demonstrated that the corresponding gene product was responsible for the efflux of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The
emhB
gene disruption did not affect the resistance of
P. fluorescens
cLP6a to tetracycline, erythromycin, trimethoprim, or streptomycin, but it did decrease resistance to chloramphenicol and nalidixic acid, indicating that the EmhABC system also functions in the efflux of these compounds and has an unusual selectivity. Phenanthrene efflux was observed in
P. aeruginosa
,
P. putida
, and
Burkholderia cepacia
but not in
Azotobacter vinelandii
. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons represent a new class of nontoxic, highly hydrophobic compounds that are substrates of RND efflux systems, and the EmhABC system in
P. fluorescens
cLP6a has a narrow substrate range for these hydrocarbons and certain antibiotics.
Molecular Architecture of the Regulatory Locus
sae
of
Staphylococcus aureus
and Its Impact on Expression of Virulence Factors
Authors: Steinhuber Andrea , Goerke Christiane , Bayer Manfred G. , Döring Gerd , Wolz Christiane 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

We characterized the
sae
operon, a global regulator for virulence gene expression in
Staphylococcus aureus
. A Tn
917 sae
mutant was obtained by screening a Tn
917
library of the
agr
mutant ISP479Mu for clones with altered hemolytic activity. Sequence analysis of the
sae
operon revealed two additional open reading frames (ORFs) (ORF3 and ORF4) upstream of the two-component regulatory genes
saeR
and
saeS
. Four overlapping
sae
-specific transcripts (T1 to T4) were detected by Northern blot analysis, and the transcriptional initiation points were mapped by primer extension analysis. The T1, T2, and T3 mRNAs are probably terminated at the same stem-loop sequence downstream of
saeS
. The T1 message (3.1 kb) initiates upstream of ORF4, T2 (2.4 kb) initiates upstream of ORF3, and T3 (2.0 kb) initiates in front of
saeR
. T4 (0.7 kb) represents a monocistronic mRNA encompassing ORF4 only.
sae
-specific transcripts were detectable in all of the 40 different clinical
S. aureus
isolates investigated. Transcript levels were at maximum during the post-exponential growth phase. The
sae
mutant showed a significantly reduced rate of invasion of human endothelial cells, consistent with diminished transcription and expression of
fnbA
. The expression of type 5 capsular polysaccharide is activated in the
sae
mutant of strain Newman, as shown by immunofluorescence and promoter-reporter fusion experiments. In summary, the
sae
operon constitutes a four-component regulator system which acts on virulence gene expression in
S. aureus
.
Recognition of DNA by Three Ferric Uptake Regulator (Fur) Homologs inBacillus subtilis
Authors: Fuangthong Mayuree , Helmann John D. 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACTBacillus subtiliscontains three Fur homologs: Fur, PerR, and Zur. Despite significant sequence similarities, they respond to different stimuli and regulate different sets of genes. DNA target site comparisons indicate that all three paralogs recognize operators with a core 7-1-7 inverted repeat. The corresponding consensus sequences are identical at five or more of the seven defined positions. Using site-directed mutagenesis, the Per box at themrgApromoter was altered to mimic the core 7-1-7 motif of the Fur and Zur boxes. In vitro, themrgApromoter containing a Zur box was only recognized by Zur, as demonstrated by DNase I footprinting assays. In contrast, both Fur and PerR bound to themrgApromoter region containing a consensus Fur box. Expression analysis of these promoters is consistent with the in vitro data demonstrating as few as 1 or 2 base changes per half-site are sufficient to alter regulation. Similarly, the Fur box at thefeuApromoter can be converted into a Per or a Zur box by appropriate mutations. While both Fur and PerR could recognize some of the same synthetic operator sequences, no naturally occurring sites are known that are subject to dual regulation. However, the PerR-regulatedzosAgene is controlled from a regulatory region that contains both Per and Fur boxes. Although purified Fur protein bound to the candidate Fur boxes, Fur has little effect onzosAexpression—possibly due to the location of the Fur boxes relative to thezosApromoter. Together, our results identify two nucleotide positions that are important for the ability of PerR, Fur, and Zur to distinguish among the many closely related operator sites present in theB. subtilisgenome.
Investigation of the Role of Electrostatic Charge in Activation of the
Escherichia coli
Response Regulator CheY
Authors: Smith Jenny G. , Latiolais Jamie A. , Guanga Gerald P. , Citineni Sindhura , Silversmith Ruth E. , Bourret Robert B. 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

In a two-component regulatory system, an important means of signal transduction in microorganisms, a sensor kinase phosphorylates a response regulator protein on an aspartyl residue, resulting in activation. The active site of the response regulator is highly charged (containing a lysine, the phosphorylatable aspartate, two additional aspartates involved in metal binding, and an Mg
2+
ion), and introduction of the dianionic phosphoryl group results in the repositioning of charged moieties. Furthermore, substitution of one of the Mg
2+
-coordinating aspartates with lysine or arginine in the
Escherichia coli
chemotaxis response regulator CheY results in phosphorylation-independent activation. In order to examine the consequences of altered charge distribution for response regulator activity and to identify possible additional amino acid substitutions that result in phosphorylation-independent activation, we made 61 CheY mutants in which residues close to the site of phosphorylation (Asp57) were replaced by various charged amino acids. Most substitutions (47 of 61) resulted in the complete loss of CheY activity, as measured by the inability to support clockwise flagellar rotation. However, 10 substitutions, all introducing a new positive charge, resulted in the loss of chemotaxis but in the retention of some clockwise flagellar rotation. Of the mutants in this set, only the previously identified CheY13DK and CheY13DR mutants displayed clockwise activity in the absence of the CheA sensor kinase. The absence of negatively charged substitution mutants with residual activity suggests that the introduction of additional negative charges into the active site is particularly deleterious for CheY function. Finally, the spatial distribution of positions at which amino acid substitutions are functionally tolerated or not tolerated is consistent with the presently accepted mechanism of response regulator activation and further suggests a possible role for Met17 in signal transduction by CheY.
Genome Sequences of Two Closely Related
Vibrio parahaemolyticus
Phages, VP16T and VP16C
Authors: Seguritan Victor , Feng I-Wei , Rohwer Forest , Swift Mark , Segall Anca M. 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

Two bacteriophages of an environmental isolate of
Vibrio parahaemolyticus
were isolated and sequenced. The VP16T and VP16C phages were separated from a mixed lysate based on plaque morphology and exhibit 73 to 88% sequence identity over about 80% of their genomes. Only about 25% of their predicted open reading frames are similar to genes with known functions in the GenBank database. Both phages have
cos
sites and open reading frames encoding proteins closely related to coliphage lambda's terminase protein (the large subunit). Like in coliphage lambda and other siphophages, a large operon in each phage appears to encode proteins involved in DNA packaging and capsid assembly and presumably in host lysis; we refer to this as the structural operon. In addition, both phages have open reading frames closely related to genes encoding DNA polymerase and helicase proteins. Both phages also encode several putative transcription regulators, an apparent polypeptide deformylase, and a protein related to a virulence-associated protein, VapE, of
Dichelobacter nodosus
. Despite the similarity of the proteins and genome organization, each of the phages also encodes a few proteins not encoded by the other. We did not identify genes closely related to genes encoding integrase proteins belonging to either the tyrosine or serine recombinase family, and we have no evidence so far that these phages can lysogenize the
V. parahaemolyticus
strain 16 host. Surprisingly for active lytic viruses, the two phages have a codon usage that is very different than that of the host, suggesting the possibility that they may be relative newcomers to growth in
V. parahaemolyticus
. The DNA sequences should allow us to characterize the lifestyles of VP16T and VP16C and the interactions between these phages and their host at the molecular level, as well as their relationships to other marine and nonmarine phages.
Identification of Quorum-Sensing-Regulated Genes of
Burkholderia cepacia
Authors: Aguilar Claudio , Friscina Arianna , Devescovi Giulia , Kojic Milan , Venturi Vittorio 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

Quorum sensing is a regulatory mechanism (operating in response to cell density) which in gram-negative bacteria usually involves the production of
N
-acyl homoserine lactones (HSL). Quorum sensing in
Burkholderia cepacia
has been associated with the regulation of expression of extracellular proteins and siderophores and also with the regulation of swarming and biofilm formation. In the present study, several quorum-sensing-controlled gene promoters of
B. cepacia
ATCC 25416 were identified and characterized. A total of 28 putative gene promoters show CepR-C
8
-HSL-dependent expression, suggesting that quorum sensing in
B. cepacia
is a global regulatory system.
Prophage Contribution to Bacterial Population Dynamics
Authors: Bossi Lionello , Fuentes Juan A. , Mora Guido , Figueroa-Bossi Nara 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

Cocultures of
Salmonella
strains carrying or lacking specific prophages undergo swift composition changes as a result of phage-mediated killing of sensitive bacteria and lysogenic conversion of survivors. Thus, spontaneous prophage induction in a few lysogenic cells enhances the competitive fitness of the lysogen population as a whole, setting a selection regime that forces maintenance and spread of viral DNA. This is likely to account for the profusion of prophage sequences in bacterial genomes and may contribute to the evolutionary success of certain phylogenetic lineages.
A Transcriptional Pause Synchronizes Translation with Transcription in the Tryptophanase Operon Leader Region
Authors: Gong Feng , Yanofsky Charles 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

Regulation of transcription of the tryptophanase operon requires that translation of its leader peptide coding region,
tnaC
, be coupled with its transcription. We show in vitro that a transcription pause site exists at the end of the
tnaC
coding region and that translation of
tnaC
releases the paused transcription complex, coupling transcription with translation.
Thymine at —5 Is Crucial for
cpc
Promoter Activity of
Synechocystis
sp. Strain PCC 6714
Authors: Imashimizu Masahiko , Fujiwara Shoko , Tanigawa Ryohei , Tanaka Kan , Hirokawa Takatsugu , Nakajima Yuji , Higo Junichi , Tsuzuki Mikio 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

The levels of transcripts of the
cpc
operon were highly reduced in a PD-1 mutant of cyanobacterium
Synechocystis
sp. strain PCC 6714. This was due to a substitution of C for T that occurred at 5 bp upstream of the transcription initiation site of the
cpc
operon. Any substitution for T at the −5 position drastically reduced both in vivo and in vitro promoter activity in cyanobacterium
Synechococcus
sp. strain PCC 7942 but not the in vivo activity in
Escherichia coli
. This suggests that the requirement of −5T appears to be specific for a cyanobacterial RNA polymerase-promoter combination.