South Dakota Farm and Home Research

Director\u27s comments: Look at research as a \u27continuum of discovery\u27 [p] 1Efforts to add value to ag products spread across the state [p] 2Researchers look for ways to Improve sow reproductive efficiency [p] 4Unique SDSU research documents Intergenerational farm transfer 6SDSU engineers measure stress on posts designed for cheaper, stronger pole barns [p] 8Workday for SDSU scientist begins early, ends late [p] 10SDSU plans futuristic development center for rural South Dakota [p] 12New \u27Ag Center\u27 boosts research, Extension In West River [p] 14SDSU dedicates new laboratory honoring veteran MIibank cheese makers [p] 16New wheat variety passes many tests on long road to farmers\u27 fields [p] 18Platte River research collects awards, gives students work experience [p] 20https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/agexperimentsta_sd-fhr/1172/thumbnail.jp

Entrepreneurial mindsets and innovation: an empirical study on behaviours, skills and opinions of Australian visual artists

This dissertation is an empirical exploration into the extent to which a group of Australian visual artists acts in an entrepreneurial manner. This research is a response to employment challenges facing artists in an environment where it could be argued that Australian creative industries courses do not address employability skills. While most arts practices are effectively small businesses, many professional artists lack the skills necessary to financially sustain a living from art. In the traditional business paradigm, entrepreneurial behaviours are considered good practice and contributing factors to success. However, rather than recognising and embracing entrepreneurship as a way of making and sustaining successful businesses, many artists reject it as not relevant to them and their practice. Reasons for this include a perception by artists, particularly within fine arts such as music, literature, visual art, performance and theatre that entrepreneurial values and behaviours conflict with personal and professional ethics, morals and ideologies. Although some empirical studies have examined attitudes to entrepreneurship in music and theatre, few researchers have explored the perspectives of visual artists, particularly in an arts practice context. Furthermore, there are few studies that explore if or how visual artists apply entrepreneurship as a means for success. An aim of this research is to improve understanding of how visual artists approach risk-taking in the pursuit of livelihood and profit. Using a mixed-method design, the study combines opinions from surveys of 160 Australian visual artists with an additional 12 in-depth interviews to inform the survey findings. Thematic analysis of the data collected in the interviews, triangulated with existing theories, deepens understanding of visual artists' entrepreneurial practices, and arts entrepreneurship in general. This thesis proposes that more support mechanisms are needed to assist artists to manage risk when making decisions about their businesses, while staying true to their individual morals, values and beliefs. Findings suggest that artists could benefit from adopting a charitable mindset when it comes to helping their peers develop business skills and sharing common goals, and that higher arts education curricula should include studies to build ethical strategies in arts entrepreneurship and social capital as arts-specific business skills. The researcher recommends that a potential focus for future study in the area of arts entrepreneurship should be innovation in arts marketing

An Empirical Investigation Of Information Technology Mediated Customer Services In China

Information technology mediated customer service is a reality of the 21st century. More and more companies have moved their customer services from in store and in person to online through computer or mobile devices. Using 208 respondents collected from two Chinese universities, this paper investigates customer preference over two service delivery model (either in store or online) on five type of purchasing (retail, eating-out, banking, travel and entertainment) and their perception difference in customer service quality between those two delivery model. Results show that a majority of Chinese students prefer in store and in person for eating out. For ordering tickets for travel and entertainment, they prefer computer/mobile device. For retail purchasing and banking, less than half of the students prefer in person services. In general, the results show that ordering through computer/mobile devices has become more popular in China and has received higher rating for most of customer service quality except security compared to ordering in store. In addition, it is found that there exist a gender difference in purchasing preference and perception in service delivery quality in China

Selection Effects in Entrepreneurship

My work is positioned within an emerging trend in entrepreneurial research which revises prior work by considering the impact of selection effects. Prior research on the individual-level determinants of start-up size, performance, and exit has ignored that individuals select into entrepreneurship and this might seriously bias our understanding of the post-entry process. I'm particularly well positioned to investigate the nature, the extent, and the consequences of these selection effects because I could access extraordinary data on the Swedish population, which allows me to incorporate information on individuals who were at risk but did not enter entrepreneurship. Yet, the overall contribution of my dissertation goes beyond flagging a selection problem and developing a method to cope with it. It comes up with reexamining and even questioning some of the most prominent theoretical explanations to fundamental issues in entrepreneurship, such as the notion of initial size, the liability of smallness, and the interplay between entrepreneurial performance and firm exit.My work is positioned within an emerging trend in entrepreneurial research which revises prior work by considering the impact of selection effects. Prior research on the individual-level determinants of start-up size, performance, and exit has ignored that individuals select into entrepreneurship and this might seriously bias our understanding of the post-entry process. I'm particularly well positioned to investigate the nature, the extent, and the consequences of these selection effects because I could access extraordinary data on the Swedish population, which allows me to incorporate information on individuals who were at risk but did not enter entrepreneurship. Yet, the overall contribution of my dissertation goes beyond flagging a selection problem and developing a method to cope with it. It comes up with reexamining and even questioning some of the most prominent theoretical explanations to fundamental issues in entrepreneurship, such as the notion of initial size, the liability of smallness, and the interplay between entrepreneurial performance and firm exit.LUISS PhD Thesi

Integrated Quantitative-Qualitative Analysis for Guatemala: Ensuring food and nutrition security in a time of volatility

DFI

Modelling Studies for a \u2018Whole of Society (WoS)\u2019 Framework to monitor Cardio-Metabolic Risk among Children (6 to 18 years)

In the World Health Assembly (WHA) 2013, India was among the first country to adapt global framework for monitoring non-communicable diseases (NCD) - Government of India (GOI) has set targets to halt the prevalence of diabetes and obesity by 2025. To halt the prevalence of major NCDs it is necessary to protect children from becoming obese or overweight. Childhood obesity is a precursor of adulthood obesity and attendant cardio-metabolic risk. In last 15 years the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased almost four times (4 to 15%). This translates in to approximately 58 million obese and 122 million overweight children in the country. Studies have reported at least one cardiovascular risk factor among 70 per cent of these children. It is frightening to know that, unit percentage rise in its prevalence in India shall add at least another five million children into the cardiovascular risk pool. Body Mass Index (BMI) [Weight (kg)/Height (m2)] is the most widely used definition for monitoring overweight and obesity; among children BMI-for-age based growth curves (centile values) are used. There are number of BMI-for age based guidelines with varying cut offs (like IOTF, WHO, CDC etc.) \u2013 in India, the growth curves published Indian Association of Pediatrics (IAP), 2015 is considered as the standard. Despite BMI\u2019s large scale application in clinical and public health programs it has many inherent problems. Firstly, BMI cannot distinguish between fat and fat free mass. Excess body fat is an independent risk factor for cardio vascular and metabolic diseases. In an individual with BMI of 20, body fat may range from 5%-40% whereas for body fat content of 20% BMI may vary from 15-30 points. Validity studies using BMI to identify children with excess adiposity have generally documented low to moderate sensitivities (6-46%). Secondly, BMI is not independent on height of the individuals. BMI may not be a sensitive measure in children at the extremes of the height due to unusual fat distribution or highly developed muscles. BMI preferentially classifies taller children and adolescents as overweight. Finally, the definition of childhood overweight and obesity is arbitrary as it is extrapolated from adult reference data and not based on its association with health outcomes. Considering these variations, there has been a growing concern about using single standard to define overweight and obesity which may be appropriate for many sub-populations in the world. Methods: Overall aim of this study was to develop a monitoring mechanism that correlates with cardio-metabolic risk factors among Indian children aged 6-18 yrs. Primary objective of the study was to relate health outcomes, i.e. measures of cardio-metabolic risk, to body fatness and to 4 measure its distribution. Under this overarching goal specific objectives were finalized as mentioned in section 1.4 (Page no.40). Quantitative data was collected from schools in 3 regions (New Delhi, Shillong and Hyderabad) from a representative sample of 3242 children between 6 to 18 years of age. Detailed assessments were done on; a) anthropometry; b) pubertal staging; c) blood biochemistry (fasting plasma insulin, fasting plasma glucose, lipid profile and sub-fractions uric acid) using semi-automated analyzer), d) body composition by bio impedance (BIA) (InBody 720, body composition analyzer, Biospace\ua9), e) body composition using DEXA (Hologic QDR 4500A) on selected sub samples, f) socio-economic status (standard of living index), g) media and market exposures, h) food frequency and dietary recalls, and i) physical activity recalls. The results are presented as: \uf0b7 Study 1: Assessment of whole-body composition using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) among children 6 to 18 years: Validation with Dual X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) \uf0b7 Study 2: Reference values and Percentile curves for cardio-metabolic risk factors among Indian children (6 to 18 years) \uf0b7 Study 3: Clustering of Bio-chemical Markers of Cardio-metabolic Risk among Indian Children: An Imperative for Continuous Monitoring of Risk Factors \uf0b7 Study 4: A multi-level framework for monitoring cardio-metabolic risk: proximal & distal factors associated with clustering of bio-chemical marker