4,820 research outputs found
The state of agricultural credit in New Zealand
In this paper the subject of agricultural credit has been subdivided into three sections covering background, borrowing, and lending. The background covers some of the changes in the New Zealand economy and government policies which have affected both borrowers and lenders in the agricultural sector, and consequently the amount and form of credit used.
The section on borrowing (Section 3) examines the present credit
needs of farmers, in particular the apparent trends towards increased
equity and greater difficulty in servicing debt.
The lending section (Section 4) examines the roles of government
and private lending institutions in the field of agricultural credit
and changes in the amount and form of credit available
A review of agricultural credit in New Zealand
The following discussion of the agricultural credit market
encompasses agriculture in its wider sense. Because most of the
available information and data on agricultural credit is concerned with
traditional forms of pastoral farming (sheep, beef and dairy) the
discussion relates primarily to those sectors. However, the growing
importance of other sectors such as horticulture, grain cropping and
deer farming is recognised and where possible their credit situation is
also considered.
The purpose of the paper is to update previous research by the
Agricultural Economics Research Unit into the financing of the
agriculture industry. In the past the agricultural credit situation has been
relatively stable. Because of its large contribution to exports, agriculture (pastoral agriculture in particular) received considerable support from Government in the form of policies aimed at maintaining a steady flow of investment. Credit assistance was one of the cornerstones of these policies. In 1982 the Government began to change its stance. In the Budget of that year interest payments and certain development
ceased to be tax deductible where the farm property was sold within 10 years of purchase.
Although this steadied inflation in land prices, long term
investors particularly pastoral farm investors still enjoyed
considerable advantages over investors wishing to borrow capital for
diversification into or expansion of enterprises which were capable of
better returns on investment. It was not until late 1984 that a wide
range of policies were introduced to remove these advantages and
promote greater equity between enterprises and industries requiring
capital for restructuring or expansion. As a result some of the
conclusions reached in Discussion Papers on agricultural and
horticultural credit published by the Unit as recently as April and
October 1984 have been quickly overtaken by economic events and
need updating. This paper begins with a background of trends in the New
Zealand economy and then in chronological order details recent changes
in Government Policy. This is followed by a discussion of the
implications of these changes for the financing of agriculture.
Finally the present state of the agricultural credit market is
discussed and some conclusions are drawn.
The discussion is based on a variety of sources including MAF,
Reserve Bank, Treasury, AERU and private economic reports and data. A
considerable part of the material was also obtained from personal
correspondence and interviews with people directly involved in the
finance industry. The views expressed are, of course those of the
authors
Cost effective flat plate photovoltaic modules using light trapping
Work in optical trapping in 'thick films' is described to form a design guide for photovoltaic engineers. A thick optical film can trap light by diffusive reflection and total internal reflection. Light can be propagated reasonably long distances compared with layer thicknesses by this technique. This makes it possible to conduct light from inter-cell and intra-cell areas now not used in photovoltaic modules onto active cell areas
Emergence: Key physical issues for deeper philosophical inquiries
A sketch of three senses of emergence and a suggestive view on the emergence
of time and the direction of time is presented. After trying to identify which
issues philosophers interested in emergent phenomena in physics view as
important I make several observations pertaining to the concepts, methodology
and mechanisms required to understand emergence and describe a platform for its
investigation. I then identify some key physical issues which I feel need be
better appreciated by the philosophers in this pursuit. I end with some
comments on one of these issues, that of coarse-graining and persistent
structures.Comment: 16 pages. Invited Talk at the Heinz von Foerster Centenary
International Conference on Self-Organization and Emergence: Emergent Quantum
Mechanics (EmerQuM11). Nov. 10-13, 2011, Vienna, Austria. Proceedings to
appear in J. Phys. (Conf. Series
Changes in union membership over time : a panel analysis for West Germany
Despite the apparent stability of the wage bargaining institutions in West Germany, aggregate union membership has been declining dramatically since the early 90's. However, aggregate gross membership numbers do not distinguish by employment status and it is impossible to disaggregate these sufficiently. This paper uses four waves of the German Socioeconomic Panel in 1985, 1989, 1993, and 1998 to perform a panel analysis of net union membership among employees. We estimate a correlated random effects probit model suggested in Chamberlain (1984) to take proper account of individual specfic effects. Our results suggest that at the individual level the propensity to be a union member has not changed considerably over time. Thus, the aggregate decline in membership is due to composition effects. We also use the estimates to predict net union density at the industry level based on the IAB employment subsample for the time period 1985 to 1997. JEL - Klassifikation: J
Disrupted Maturation of the Microbiota and Metabolome among Extremely Preterm Infants with Postnatal Growth Failure
Growth failure during infancy is a major global problem that has adverse effects on long-term health and neurodevelopment. Preterm infants are disproportionately affected by growth failure and its effects. Herein we found that extremely preterm infants with postnatal growth failure have disrupted maturation of the intestinal microbiota, characterized by persistently low diversity, dominance of pathogenic bacteria within the Enterobacteriaceae family, and a paucity of strictly anaerobic taxa including Veillonella relative to infants with appropriate postnatal growth. Metabolomic profiling of infants with growth failure demonstrated elevated serum acylcarnitines, fatty acids, and other byproducts of lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation. Machine learning algorithms for normal maturation of the microbiota and metabolome among infants with appropriate growth revealed a pattern of delayed maturation of the microbiota and metabolome among infants with growth failure. Collectively, we identified novel microbial and metabolic features of growth failure in preterm infants and potentially modifiable targets for intervention
The structure of causal sets
More often than not, recently popular structuralist interpretations of
physical theories leave the central concept of a structure insufficiently
precisified. The incipient causal sets approach to quantum gravity offers a
paradigmatic case of a physical theory predestined to be interpreted in
structuralist terms. It is shown how employing structuralism lends itself to a
natural interpretation of the physical meaning of causal sets theory.
Conversely, the conceptually exceptionally clear case of causal sets is used as
a foil to illustrate how a mathematically informed rigorous conceptualization
of structure serves to identify structures in physical theories. Furthermore, a
number of technical issues infesting structuralist interpretations of physical
theories such as difficulties with grounding the identity of the places of
highly symmetrical physical structures in their relational profile and what may
resolve these difficulties can be vividly illustrated with causal sets.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure
Emergence: Key physical issues for deeper philosophical inquiries
A sketch of three senses of emergence and a suggestive view on the emergence
of time and the direction of time is presented. After trying to identify which
issues philosophers interested in emergent phenomena in physics view as
important I make several observations pertaining to the concepts, methodology
and mechanisms required to understand emergence and describe a platform for its
investigation. I then identify some key physical issues which I feel need be
better appreciated by the philosophers in this pursuit. I end with some
comments on one of these issues, that of coarse-graining and persistent
structures.Comment: 16 pages. Invited Talk at the Heinz von Foerster Centenary
International Conference on Self-Organization and Emergence: Emergent Quantum
Mechanics (EmerQuM11). Nov. 10-13, 2011, Vienna, Austria. Proceedings to
appear in J. Phys. (Conf. Series
Two-proton events in the 17F(p,2p)16O reaction
In a recent experimental study (Gomez del Campo et al, PRL 86, 43 (2001)) of
the reaction 17F(p,2p)16O, two-proton events were measured from excitations
near a 1-, E*=6.15 MeV state in 18Ne. We calculate by means of R-matrix theory
the resonant two-proton production cross section and branching ratios. We
conclude that it is unlikely that two-proton production via population of the
1- state is sufficient to explain the observed two-proton events. Alternative
sources of such events are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Resubmission to Physical Review C (first received
6 March 2001
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