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 $8.8 billion per year over the next decade. Producers pay a portion of the premium which increases as the level of coverage rises. The federal government pays the rest of the premium—62Farm commodity programs historically represented the heart of U.S. farm policy by virtue of their long history (dating back to the 1930s). Price and income support is based primarily on statutorily fixed prices and not market prices (as in crop insurance), which can be quite low in some years. For crop years 2014-2018, the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 farm bill, P.L. 113-79) established minimum prices via the marketing loan program for approximately two dozen commodities, including corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, and peanuts. In addition, producers with production histories for covered crops have a one-time choice between Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments and Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) payments. Costs were projected in March 2015 at about$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 USDA’s implementation of the farm safety net provisions. Issues could include the delayed payment schedule, which could expose cashflow problems, and the pending “actively engaged” 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

X-ray source uses interchangeable target anodes to vary X-ray wavelength

Compact laboratory X ray tube generates X rays of various wavelengths by using interchangeable target anodes. The wavelength of the X rays depends on the metal from which the anode is made

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 “such sums as necessary” and are not subject to annual discretionary appropriations

Accretion disks, precessing jets and the asymmetric emission lines of QSOs

The broad line profiles of active galaxies are consistent with emission from the surface of an accretion disk ionized by an ultraviolet continuum emitted from a linear or point source of continuum above the disk. If the point source is offset from the axis of the disk, then the line peak is shifted from zero velocity in a way that resembles observed cases. This misalignment could result from the Lense-Thirring precession of a rotating black hole

The Black Hole Mass - Stellar Velocity Dispersion Relationship for Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7

We assess evolution in the black hole mass - stellar velocity dispersion relationship (M-sigma relationship) for quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 for the redshift range 0.1 < z < 1.2. We estimate the black hole mass using the "photoionization method," with the broad Hbeta or Mg II emission line and the quasar continuum luminosity. For the stellar velocity dispersion, we use the narrow [O III] or [O II] emission line as a surrogate. This study is a follow-up to an earlier study in which we investigated evolution in the M-sigma relationship in quasars from Data Release 3. The greatly increased number of quasars in our new sample has allowed us to break our lower-redshift subsample into black hole mass bins and probe the M-sigma relationship for constant black hole mass. The M-sigma relationship for the highest-mass (log M > 9 solar masses) and lowest-mass (log M < 7.5 solar masses) black holes appears to evolve significantly, however most or all of this apparent evolution can be accounted for by various observational biases due to intrinsic scatter in the relationship and to uncertainties in observed quantities. The M-sigma relationship for black holes in the middle mass range (7.5 < log M < 9 solar masses) shows minimal change with redshift. The overall results suggest a limit of +/- 0.2 dex on any evolution in the M-sigma relationship for quasars out to z ~ 1 compared with the relationship observed in the local universe. Intrinsic scatter may also provide a plausible way to reconcile the wide range of results of several different studies of the black hole - galaxy relationships.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Ap

A Captured Runaway Black Hole in NGC 1277?

Recent results indicate that the compact lenticular galaxy NGC 1277 in the Perseus Cluster contains a black hole of approximately 10 billion solar masses. This far exceeds the expected mass of the central black hole in a galaxy of the modest dimensions of NGC 1277. We suggest that this giant black hole was ejected from the nearby giant galaxy NGC 1275 and subsequently captured by NGC 1277. The ejection was the result of gravitational radiation recoil when two large black holes merged following the merger of two giant ellipticals that helped to form NGC 1275. The black hole wandered in the cluster core until it was captured in a close encounter with NGC 1277. The migration of black holes in clusters may be a common occurrence.Comment: Four pages, accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Major revisions, especially Section

Comment on 'Secure Communication using mesoscopic coherent states', Barbosa et al, Phys Rev Lett 90, 227901 (2003)

In a recent letter, Barbosa et al [PRL 90, 227901(2003)] claim that secure communication is possible with bright coherent pulses, by using quantum noise to hide the data from an eavesdropper. We show here that the secrecy in the scheme of Barbosa et al is unrelated to quantum noise, but rather derives from the secret key that sender and receiver share beforehand