CHINA'S AGRICULTURAL WATER SCARCITY : EFFECTS ON INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

Water shortages in important grain-producing regions of China may significantly affect China's agricultural production potential and international markets. This paper provides an overview of how water scarcity could affect China's agricultural production and trade. The paper identifies the areas where available water resources are most overexploited and the crops most vulnerable to reductions in irrigation. We present preliminary results from modeling a decline in irrigated land in water scarce areas in China and the effect this would have on China's production and trade. Wheat and cotton are most vulnerable to a decrease in irrigated area in water scarce regions, and production for these crops could fall by 7-10 percent under a severe cutback in irrigation. The effect this will have on international markets will depend largely on the openness of China's border to imports. In addition, we describe recent conservation policies and how these may affect crop production in China.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A Numerical Model of Crossed Andreev Reflection and Charge Imbalance

We present a numerical model of local and nonlocal transport properties in a lateral spin valve structure consisting of two magnetic electrodes in contact with a third perpendicular superconducting electrode. By considering the transport paths for a single electron incident at the local F/S interface - in terms of probabilities of crossed or local Andreev reflection, elastic cotunneling or quasiparticle transport - we show that this leads to nonlocal charge imbalance. We compare this model with experimental data from an aluminum-permalloy (Al/Py) lateral spin valve geometry device and demonstrate the effectiveness of this simple approach in replicating experimental behavior.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figure

Interactions between Resource Scarcity and Trade Policy: The Potential Effects of Water Scarcity on China’s Agricultural Economy under the Current TRQ Regime

International Relations/Trade, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Wafer level reliability for high-performance VLSI design

As very large scale integration architecture requires higher package density, reliability of these devices has approached a critical level. Previous processing techniques allowed a large window for varying reliability. However, as scaling and higher current densities push reliability to its limit, tighter control and instant feedback becomes critical. Several test structures developed to monitor reliability at the wafer level are described. For example, a test structure was developed to monitor metal integrity in seconds as opposed to weeks or months for conventional testing. Another structure monitors mobile ion contamination at critical steps in the process. Thus the reliability jeopardy can be assessed during fabrication preventing defective devices from ever being placed in the field. Most importantly, the reliability can be assessed on each wafer as opposed to an occasional sample

The Limits upon a Labor Union\u27s Duty to Control Wildcat Strikes

Industrial relations and collective bargaining have come a long way since the violent industrial and economic warfare of the pre-1940\u27s period. But as labor unions and business organizations became more facially professional in their relationship, some union rank and file members have viewed this professionalism as being both restrictive and conservative and have chosen to resolve certain industrial grievances through the use of wildcat work stoppages. This discordant practice has created strains in the collective bargaining relationship of the negotiating union and the employer, in legal actions to enforce the collective bargaining argeement, in the relationship between the union and its membership, and often in the employer-employee relationship, all of which are disruptive to the scope and purpose of collective bargaining under the federal labor laws. Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act provides for enforcement of collective bargaining agreements in federal and state courts against either the breaching union or breaching employer. A section 301 action is a breach of contract action. As such, any analysis must be based upon the language of the agreement between the parties. Moreover, any action for a breach of the labor-management agreement must have a basis in the conduct of the parties. The union and the employer are responsible to each other for a breach attributable to their affirmative conduct. These simple statements of law and the determination of what conduct is to be held accountable to the parties take on added tiers of complexity when the issues involve not a union sponsored or sanctioned work stoppage but a wildcat breach of the collective bargaining agreement by a faction of disgruntled employee-members. Aside from section 301 actions, there are several other possible methods available to a parent union and the employer in dealing with a wildcat stoppage and its participants. However, as will be discussed later, the possible methods of responding to a wildcat work stoppage are not always practical. Thus, the focus of this article is an examination of the extent to which, under section 301, a union or its membership can be held accountable for the actions of wildcat strikers. Additionally, the article addresses the legal and practical ramifications of a union\u27s duty to the employer to control wildcat strikers so as to provide the employer with his contractually created expectations. Part I provides a definitional background and examines the statutory construction and history of section 301. Part II examines the leading Supreme Court cases defining the limits of accountability of a union and its members for wildcat breaches of the collective bargaining agreement. Part III examines the contours and impact of the nonstatutory remedies available to an employer experiencing a wildcat work stoppage. Additionally, this section also discusses the remedies available to a parent union against its recalcitrant membership who have chosen to engage in a wildcat work stoppage. Part IV provides a summary synthesis of the relevant law with an aim toward discerning a workable approach to the wildcat work stoppage problem while providing protection to the collective bargaining agreement and the concept of union democracy

Georeferenced Riverine Habitat Mapping in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area

Abstract This project describes the development of a river habitat map of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area (BISO NRRA) using GPS-based video mapping and image georeferencing techniques. The Big South Fork of the Cumberland River and major tributaries have been floated and mapped with GPS, sonar, and georeferenced under and above water video cameras. Video footage is interpreted for physical bedforms and compiled in an ArcGIS attribute table that can be queried for species specific habitat location. Underwater video mapping system (UVMS) bedform data includes river characteristic (pool, riffle, run), substrate (bedrock, fines/sand, gravel, cobble, and boulder), embeddedness, sonar depth, rugosity, and sinuosity. The Clear Fork River and New River (3rd order streams), White Oak Creek and North White Oak Creek (2nd order streams), and the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, a 4th order stream are compared based on the EPA Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI). Relationships between bedform parameters are evident in UVMS data, and large boulder substrate was predicted with 67% accuracy based on sonar depth and river characteristic. The rugosity metric can indicate the location of other habitat characteristics, such as large woody debris and riverbed drop-offs. Embeddedness distribution was modeled using SAS based on UVMS data. The linear, quadratic, and non-linear models poorly fit the embeddedness distribution, with R-squared values of 0.37, 0.42, and 0.33 respectively. Traditional river habitat assessment methods vary in scale from stream length categorization based on satellite imagery and topographic maps (kilometer resolution), to aquatic microhabitat inventory by biologists (0.1 m resolution). Typically, reach scale (10 m resolution) and mesoscale (1 m resolution) studies are limited by accessibility and man-hours in the field. The underwater video mapping system (UVMS) allows for stream scale habitat quantification with mesoscale resolution. Kayak or canoe based UVMS can map river habitat inaccessible from land. Georeferenced river characteristic and substrate video can be evaluated by biologists in the lab, reducing time and labor required for field studies. One limitation of UVMS is that underwater bedform data is recorded only in the thalweg, the deepest continuous line along a watercourse