Variations in swine prices within Iowa including a study in statistical procedure

Iowa\u27s agriculture is chiefly corn-hog farming. Corn, which is produced in abundance, provides the raw material upon which the gigantic livestock industry depends. The sale of swine is the most important source of income of the state. Profound changes have taken place in the economics of hog marketing during the last decade. Three-fifths of Iowa hogs are today sold direct to packers; receipts at public stockyards have declined accordingly. Concentration points have been established throughout the hog producing area. Order buying has become well developed. Add to these the improvements in rural transportation, better market news facilities, standardization of hog grades and the comparatively large scale country buying that is practiced today and it becomes apparent that the machinery for marketing hogs is strikingly different from that which served producers only a few years ago

Excess pressure as an analogue of blood flow velocity

INTRODUCTION: Derivation of blood flow velocity from a blood pressure waveform is a novel technique, which could have potential clinical importance. Excess pressure, calculated from the blood pressure waveform via the reservoir-excess pressure model, is purported to be an analogue of blood flow velocity but this has never been examined in detail, which was the aim of this study. METHODS: Intra-arterial blood pressure was measured sequentially at the brachial and radial arteries via fluid-filled catheter simultaneously with blood flow velocity waveforms recorded via Doppler ultrasound on the contralateral arm (n = 98, aged 61 ± 10 years, 72% men). Excess pressure was derived from intra-arterial blood pressure waveforms using pressure-only reservoir-excess pressure analysis. RESULTS: Brachial and radial blood flow velocity waveform morphology were closely approximated by excess pressure derived from their respective sites of measurement (median cross-correlation coefficient r = 0.96 and r = 0.95 for brachial and radial comparisons, respectively). In frequency analyses, coherence between blood flow velocity and excess pressure was similar for brachial and radial artery comparisons (brachial and radial median coherence = 0.93 and 0.92, respectively). Brachial and radial blood flow velocity pulse heights were correlated with their respective excess pressure pulse heights (r = 0.53, P < 0.001 and r = 0.43, P < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Excess pressure is an analogue of blood flow velocity, thus affording the opportunity to derive potentially important information related to arterial blood flow using only the blood pressure waveform

Encouraging Sustainable Transport Choices in American Households: Results from an Empirically Grounded Agent-Based Model

The transport sector needs to go through an extended process of decarbonisation to counter the threat of climate change. Unfortunately, the International Energy Agency forecasts an enormous growth in the number of cars and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Two issues can thus be identified: (1) the need for a new methodology that could evaluate the policy performances ex-ante and (2) the need for more effective policies. To help address these issues, we developed an Agent-Based Model called Mobility USA aimed at: (1) testing whether this could be an effective approach in analysing ex-ante policy implementation in the transport sector; and (2) evaluating the effects of alternative policy scenarios on commuting behaviours in the USA. Particularly, we tested the effects of two sets of policies, namely market-based and preference-change ones. The model results suggest that this type of agent-based approach will provide a useful tool for testing policy interventions and their effectiveness