53,440 research outputs found
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Farm Safety Net Programs: Background and Issues
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) operates several programs that supplement the income of farmers and ranchers in times of low farm prices and natural disasters. Federal crop insurance, farm programs, and disaster assistance are collectively called the farm safety net.
Federal crop insurance is often referred to as the centerpiece of the farm safety net because of its cost and broad scope for addressing natural disasters. The program is permanently authorized and makes available subsidized insurance for more than 130 commodities (ranging from apples to wheat) to help farmers manage risks associated with a loss in yield or revenue. Program cost is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to total 4 billion per year over the next decade. Programs are free for producers.
Agricultural disaster assistance is permanently authorized for livestock and orchards. Under the 2014 farm bill, nearly all parts of the U.S. farm sector are now covered by either a disaster program or federal crop insurance, which is expected to reduce calls for ad hoc assistance. As of May 2015, producer payments had totaled more than $5 billion for losses in FY2012-FY2015.
Compared with the previous farm bill, the 2014 farm bill was enacted with more crop insurance options and higher reference prices designed to trigger payments more often than under previous law. Funding was accomplished by eliminating direct payments that had been made annually since 1996 but played no role in managing farm risk because they did not vary with farm prices.
Several facets of the current farm safety net might be of interest to the 114th Congress. An initial focus could be on USDAâs implementation of the farm safety net provisions. Issues could include the delayed payment schedule, which could expose cashflow problems, and the pending âactively engagedâ rule that could affect program eligibility for some producers.
With ongoing concern for budget deficits and federal spending, Congress also might be interested in reviewing the effectiveness of the revised safety net and actual costs, which are expected to be higher than earlier projections due to lower farm prices. Farm safety net proponents say the current suite of programs has been designed for such situations and is needed to adequately protect producers and the overall agriculture sector. Critics believe that a simplified approach might be more effective and less expensive, with funds used instead for broad societal gains, such as investment in agricultural research or transportation infrastructure. The Administration has proposed trimming crop insurance subsidies, arguing that the safety net could remain effective
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Agricultural Disaster Assistance
[Excerpt] The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has at its disposal several programs designed to help farmers and ranchers recover from the financial effects of natural disasters. These are (1) federal crop insurance, (2) the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP), (3) livestock and fruit tree disaster programs, and (4) emergency disaster loans for both crop and livestock producers. All have permanent authorization, and the emergency loan program is the only one requiring a federal disaster designation. Most programs receive funding amounts of âsuch sums as necessaryâ and are not subject to annual discretionary appropriations
AI-Generated Fashion Designs: Who or What Owns the Goods?
As artificial intelligence (âAIâ) becomes an increasingly prevalent tool in a plethora of industries in todayâs society, analyzing the potential legal implications attached to AI-generated works is becoming more popular. One of the industries impacted by AI is fashion. AI tools and devices are currently being used in the fashion industry to create fashion models, fabric designs, and clothing. An AI deviceâs ability to generate fashion designs raises the question of who will own the copyrights of the fashion designs. Will it be the fashion designer who hires or contracts with the AI device programmer? Will it be the programmer? Or will it be the AI device itself? Designers invest a lot of talent, time, and finances into designing and creating each article of clothing and accessory it releases to the public; yet, under the current copyright standards, designers will not likely be considered the authors of their creations. Ultimately, this Note makes policy proposals for future copyright legislation within the United States, particularly recommending that AI-generated and AI-assisted designs be copyrightable and owned by the designers who purchase the AI device
The savannah hypothesis of shopping
The official published of the article can be found at the link below
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Modelling the effects of mall atmospherics on shoppersâ approach behaviors
Despite previous work, researchers still do not fully understand the mechanisms by
which environmental stimuli influence emotions and affect behavior. This paper attempts to
address this knowledge gap by modelling the effects of a stimulus on emotions and behavior
within the context of a shopping mall and retail stores. We evaluate a stimulus-response
model based on the influence of perceptions on shoppersâ moods, which in turn influence
approach behaviors. A structured questionnaire survey of actual shoppers in a real mall
environment (n=315) was analysed by structural equation analysis. The exemplar stimulus
consisted of a Captive Audience Network (CAN or private plasma screen network) â a topic
that has been little researched to date. The influence of the CAN was small but significant.
The findings have implications for practitioners as even small changes in image can have a
substantial effect on profitability
Non-abelian vector backgrounds with restored Lorentz invariance
The influence of vector backgrounds with restored Lorentz invariance on
non-abelian gauge field theories is studied. Lorentz invariance is ensured by
taking the average over a Lorentz invariant ensemble of background vectors.
Like in the abelian case [hep-ph/0506210], the propagation of fermions is
suppressed over long distances. Contrary to the fermionic sector, pure gauge
configurations of the background suppress the long-distance propagation of the
bosons only partially, i.e. not beyond the leading contribution for a large
number of colours.Comment: 6 pages, no figure
Generation and evaluation of a large mutational library from the Escherichia coli mechanosensitive channel of large conductance, MscL - Implications for channel gating and evolutionary design
Random mutagenesis of the mechanosensitive channel of large conductance (MscL) from Escherichia coli coupled with a high-throughput functional screen has provided new insights into channel structure and function. Complementary interactions of conserved residues proposed in a computational model for gating have been evaluated, and important functional regions of the channel have been identified. Mutational analysis shows that the proposed S1 helix, despite having several highly conserved residues, can be heavily mutated without significantly altering channel function. The pattern of mutations that make MscL more difficult to gate suggests that MscL senses tension with residues located near the lipid headgroups of the bilayer. The range of phenotypical changes seen has implications for a proposed model for the evolutionary origin of mechanosensitive channels
New Views of Multi-Ion Channels
Thus, most site-directed mutagenesis data render it untenable to consider that two or more roughly equivalent high affinity sites govern selectivity in multi-ion pores. The papers by Dang and McCleskey and Kiss et al. respond to this challenge by showing that a model with a single high affinity site, flanked by two binding sites of lower affinity close to the pore entrances, can generate much of the classical multi-ion behavior. The sites need not interact, and the two flanking sites could arise from one of several mechanisms: a featureless charged vestibule, a dehydration step, or a specific weak binding site.
The multi-ion pore remains a cornerstone of permeation theory, but the new theory features only a single high affinity site and no mutual repulsion. The high flux rate occurs because ions pause at the flanking sites and reequilibrate thermally, gaining enough energy to move over the next barrier
The flashing behavior of thunderstorms
Lightning flash distribution in thunderstorms - statistical analysi
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