DETERMINANTS OF LENDER RESPONSE TO SHORT-TERM CREDIT NEEDS OF SMALL COMMERCIAL FARMERS

Agricultural Finance,

U.S. BIOMASS SUPPLY FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATION: CLIMATE POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND CARBON NEUTRALITY

This paper investigates three important energy and climate policy issues: (1) the availability of biomass for electricity generation (i.e., supply), (2) climate policy effects on this supply, and (3) the net greenhouse gas reduction when biomass is used for electricity generation. Using a detailed model of U.S. agriculture and forestry markets and land-use, that includes a broad and diverse set of biomass feedstocks, we evaluate competing potential sub-national and feedstock specific supplies of biomass for U.S. electricity generation. Our preliminary results suggest significant supply, with residues dominating at lower delivered energy prices, and dedicated crops significant at higher prices. Sub-national variation is dramatic and will affect generation siting and sustainability. We find displacement of food crops, but net forest land and cropland expansion. We also find that GHG policies could substantially increase the delivered cost of biomass; however, the implications for individual regions and feedstocks is non-uniform, with some supplies falling to zero and others increasing. Finally, we find that bioelectricity is not carbon neutral, but can be emissions reducing relative to coal generation, yield greater direct GHG benefits than biofuels, and even result in domestic indirect emissions reductions with incentives for forest based feedstocks.Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Stabilization and the Inevitability of Adaptation: Challenges for U.S. Agriculture

Environmental Economics and Policy, Q1, Q54, Q58,

Factors Determining the Use of Guaranteed Loans by U.S. Commercial Banks

Financial Economics,

Radical feminism and John Stuart Mill : a comparative analysis and critique of radical feminism : an honors thesis [(HONRS 499)]

This project is an effort to understand the philosophical underpinnings of the radical feminist movement. Pornography is the issue which will be used to acted upon by radical feminists. After investigating and explicating the views of the radical feminists, their motives and philosophies will be compared to those of John Stuart Mill. The positions of the radical feminists will also be critiqued, applying Mill's works On Liberty and The Subjection of Women.Honors CollegeThesis (B.?

Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment

Most empirical models of investment rely on the assumption that firms are able to respond to prices set in centralized securities markets (through the "cost of capital" or "q"). An alternative approach emphasizes the importance of cash flow as a determinant of investment spending, because of a "financing hierarchy," in which internal finance has important cost advantages over external finance. We build on recent research concerning imperfections in markets for equity and debt. This work suggests that some firms do not have sufficient access to external capital markets to enable them to respond to changes in the cost of capital, asset prices, or tax-based investment incentives. To the extent that firms are constrained in their ability to raise funds externally, investment spending may be sensitive to the availability of internal finance. That is, investment may display "excess sensitivity" to movements in cash flow. In this paper, we work within the q theory of investment, and examine the importance of a financing hierarchy created by capital-market imperfections. Using panel data on individual manufacturing firms, we compare the investment behavior of rapidly growing firms that exhaust all of their internal finance with that of mature firms paying dividends. We find that q values remain very high for significant periods of time for firms paying no dividends, relative to those for mature firms. We also find that investment is more sensitive to cash flow for the group of firms that our model implies is most likely to face external finance constraints. These results are consistent with the augmented model we propose, which takes into account different financing regimes for different groups of firms. Some extensions and implications for public policy are discussed at the end.

Multimedia applications of three-dimensional digital filters.

Digital signal processing has long been an extremely important field of study. One-dimensional and two-dimensional filters have applications in areas such as audio filtering or image processing respectively. As VLSI technology continues to increase, higher-dimensional digital filters are becoming more practical. This thesis investigates the application of Three-Dimensional (3-D) Digital Filters to the area of multimedia. Specifically, it investigates the use of 3-D Interpolation filters to increase the horizontal, vertical, and temporal resolution, or frame rate, of a moving image sequence. The thesis begins by presenting the theory of digital interpolation in one dimension, and then extends that theory to three dimensions. Next the theory is presented for the design of a filter with appropriate characteristics for filtering a video image; i.e. near-linear phase and a steep transition band. After the basic theory is presented, a plan for implementing the filtering of a video image in software is presented along with the relevant file format information. Results from this implementation are shown next, and the thesis ends with a summary and conclusions.Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2000 .M34. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 40-04, page: 1048. Adviser: M. A. Sid-Ahmed. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2000

Process of educational innovation: A micropolitical study of the implementation of a team teaching model

This is a two-year case study, conducted in a large school district (over 10,000 students), of an attempt to introduce interdisciplinary team teaching at the high school level. The purpose of this study was to examine what teachers do and think as they engage in the process of implementing educational reform. I believed initially that the success or failure of educational reform depended largely on the actual teachers involved in implementing that reform. Once I was in the setting, however, it was clear that administrators must be included because reform depends on much more than what teachers do and think. To gain an in-depth understanding of the interactions among the key persons involved in the innovation process, micropolitics was selected as the guiding conceptual framework. Micropolitics refers to the use of both formal and informal power by individuals and groups to achieve their goals. Also, given the nature of the problem, a qualitative approach was employed because it allowed me to focus on understanding—that is, it allowed me to focus on the complex interactions among teachers and administrators and on what these interactions meant to those involved. As a nonparticipant observer, I collected data through interviews, observations, and from historical/archival documents. Over the course o f the two-year study I interviewed on numerous occasions, both formally and informally, the participating teachers, building principals, and district level administrators. I employed an analytic inductive method to analyze the data. My major findings as to the reason for the failure of this team teaching innovation are as follows: 1. The possibilities for the success of the innovation were diminished because of misperceptions on the part of teachers about the amount of support they were receiving for their efforts from administrators. 2. The “culture” of the three high schools in this district, with its focus on transmitting subject matter, was resistant to the student orientation o f the team teaching approach. 3. The site-based decision-making structure in the district allowed individual principals to end an innovation even though it was highly desired by district level administrators and the teachers involved in the process. 4. T he power and influence of people of higher socioeconomic status over building principals led directly to the failure of this team teaching innovation

ESTIMATING THE VALUE OF SEQUENTIAL UPDATING SOLUTIONS FOR INTRAYEAR CROP MANAGEMENT

Results of comparing updating versus nonupdating modeling assumptions call into question the use of models based on nonupdating strategies as valid representations of actual farmer actions. If farmers are sequential updaters, the results indicate that models assuming no updating are inaccurate. The degree of this inaccuracy ranges between 4% and 10% of profits for the study area. Further, the results indicate that updating appears to be important for both descriptive and prescriptive studies of farmer behavior.Crop Production/Industries,