How well do diffusion indexes capture business cycles? A spectral analysis

Sampling (Statistics) ; Business cycles

Accommodating rising population in rural areas : the case of Loudoun County, Virginia

Population

Linear and nonlinear optical properties of metal-dielectric multilayer structures

The object of the present research is to design and fabricate metal-dielectric thin film multilayer structures that make use of the nonlinear optical (NLO) response of Ag for efficient nonlinear absorption for sensor protection. These structures employ structural resonances to overcome the challenges of reflection and absorption that limit access to this large NLO response. The research consists of three parts: first, we present a comprehensive analysis of the contributions to the nonlinear optical response of Ag. Second, we present a systematic investigation of the linear optical properties of Metal-Dielectric Photonic Band-Gap (MDPBG) structures, including optimization of the structure for a particular transmittance spectrum. Third, we study the linear and nonlinear optical properties of Induced Transmission Filters (ITFs). Each of these parts includes experimental results backed by modeling and simulation.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Bernard Kippelen; Committee Member: David Citrin; Committee Member: Farrokh Ayazi; Committee Member: Gee-Kung Chang; Committee Member: Ken Sandhag

Corneille and Racine

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1936. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Validation of Factors Influencing Successful Small Scale Farming in North Carolina

This phase of the research project involves developing a survey instrument to test the validity and predictive value of the variables identified in previous case studies. Given the importance of small farm viability, this research project focuses on identifying ways to further enhance successful small farming in North Carolina. The survey instrument was designed to solicit production and financial data, attitudes and beliefs about farming, as well as demographic questions. The results demonstrated that successful farmers indicators were the “love of farming” and “manageable debt”. Other strong indicators of successful farmers included a combination of marketing strategies that utilize technology such as websites as well as local farmers markets and educational level. Knowledge about the successful small farm is likely to provide valuable information about how to evaluate the “successfulness” of small farm operations and produce best practices models for small scale farm operations.Small Farmers, Agribusiness, Agribusiness, Farm Management,

Case Studies of Successful Small Scale Farming in North Carolina

The goal of this study focuses on determining factors that contribute to a successful small farm in North Carolina and on identifying ways to further enhance successful small farming. North Carolina farms vary extensively in size and other characteristics, ranging from very small retirement and residential farms to establishments with millions of dollars in sales. Farming continues to be a distinctive industry in part because most production, even among very large farms, is carried out on family-operated farms whose operators often balance farm and off-farm employment and investment decisions. The case studies of successful small farmers conducted in November 2007 were the primary sources of data. The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Program identified three “successful” farmers from its sampling frame to participate in the case studies. Researchers identified sets of variables associated with small farm success through various literature, published and unpublished reports and recommendations from experts in the field. After the variables were operationalized, a questionnaire was developed as a guide for conducting the case studies interview protocols. Each case study consisted of a one-visit protocol with electronic follow-up. Researchers conducted on-site interviews, and then toured the individual farms. The case study farmers used a diverse mix of enterprises including specialty crops and a combination of marketing strategies. The educational level ranged from post high school to Ph.D. although all farmers attended several workshops. All farmers minimized risk through diversity, contractual sales and insurance. Only one farmer used computers for record keeping and finance. The overall “love of farming” seemed to be the biggest driving force behind the farmer’s view of success.Small Farmer, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Continuum: designing timelines for hierarchies, relationships and scale

Temporal events, while often discrete, also have interesting relationships within and across times: larger events are often collections of smaller more discrete events (battles within wars; artists' works within a form); events at one point also have correlations with events at other points (a play written in one period is related to its performance, or lack of performance, over a period of time). Most temporal visualisations, however, only represent discrete data points or single data types along a single timeline: this event started here and ended there; this work was published at this time; this tag was popular for this period. In order to represent richer, faceted attributes of temporal events, we present Continuum. Continuum enables hierarchical relationships in temporal data to be represented and explored; it enables relationships between events across periods to be expressed, and in particular it enables user-determined control over the level of detail of any facet of interest so that the person using the system can determine a focus point, no matter the level of zoom over the temporal space. We present the factors motivating our approach, our evaluation and implementation of this new visualisation which makes it easy for anyone to apply this interface to rich, large-scale datasets with temporal data