FACTORS INFLUENCING WEST TENNESSEE FARMERS' WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR A BOLL WEEVIL ERADICATION PROGRAM

Data from a survey were used to evaluate Tennessee farmers' willingness to pay for the boll weevil eradication program. Producer experience, boll weevil control costs, and attitudes about boll weevil damage and insecticide usage after the program were significant explanatory variables and had a positive influence on willingness to pay.Contingent valuation, cotton, regional pest control, pest management groups, Demand and Price Analysis, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

High performance, accelerometer-based control of the Mini-MAST structure at Langley Research Center

Many large space system concepts will require active vibration control to satisfy critical performance requirements such as line of sight pointing accuracy and constraints on rms surface roughness. In order for these concepts to become operational, it is imperative that the benefits of active vibration control be shown to be practical in ground based experiments. The results of an experiment shows the successful application of the Maximum Entropy/Optimal Projection control design methodology to active vibration control for a flexible structure. The testbed is the Mini-Mast structure at NASA-Langley and has features dynamically traceable to future space systems. To maximize traceability to real flight systems, the controllers were designed and implemented using sensors (four accelerometers and one rate gyro) that are actually mounted to the structure. Ground mounted displacement sensors that could greatly ease the control design task were available but were used only for performance evaluation. The use of the accelerometers increased the potential of destabilizing the system due to spillover effects and motivated the use of precompensation strategy to achieve sufficient compensator roll-off

Regional priorities for strengthening climate services for farmers in Africa and South Asia

This report captures a process of shared South-South learning and planning towards defining priorities for strengthening and scaling-up climate information and advisory services for agriculture and food security in West Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, and South Asia. The process began at the international workshop on “Scaling up Climate Services for Farmers in Africa and South Asia” (Saly, Senegal, December 2012), where participants collectively identified critical gaps in the design, delivery and effective use of climate services for smallholder agriculture; and self-organized into working groups to develop a set of priority actions for strengthening climate services for smallholder farming communities within and across regions in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Following up on a commitment made at the workshop, USAID and CCAFS partnered to develop a small grants program and sponsor a set of guided planning workshops to enable the working groups that emerged from the Saly workshop to further develop their visions, and obtain resources to begin to implement them. Expert working groups from all regions prioritized improving the scientific capacity of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to develop location specific seasonal climate forecasts at the subnational scale, and enhancing institutional frameworks for collaboration between the different agencies involved in the production and communication of climate services. The Eastern and Southern Africa working group also emphasized the co-production with farmers of location-specific climate services, and the importance of assessing the added value of climate services for enhancing agricultural production and managing risk. The West Africa working group prioritized communications mechanisms for reaching marginalized groups, including rural radio and Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), and training farmers to access and use climate information. Building on the region’s existing strength in ICTs, the South Asia group emphasized efforts to identify appropriate ICT tools and build the capacity of smallholder farmers, women, poor and socially marginalized groups to access and utilize climate information services

Enzymatic Glycosylation of Vancomycin Aglycon: Completion of a Total Synthesis of Vancomycin and N- and C-Terminus Substituent Effects of the Aglycon Substrate

Studies on the further development of the sequential glycosylations of the vancomycin aglycon catalyzed by the glycosyltransferases GtfE and GtfD and the observation of unusual, perhaps unexpected, aglycon substrate substituent effects on the rate and efficiency of the initial glycosylation reaction are reported

Participants' use of enacted scenes in research interviews: a method for reflexive analysis in health and social care

In our study of a workforce intervention within a health and social care context we found that participants who took part in longitudinal research interviews were commonly enacting scenes from their work during one-to-one interviews. Scenes were defined as portions of the interviews in which participants directly quoted the speech of at least two actors. Our analysis in this paper focuses on these enacted scenes, and compares the content of them before and after the intervention. We found that, whilst the tensions between consistency and change, and change management, were common topics for scene enactment in both pre and post-intervention data, following the intervention participants were much more likely to present themselves as active agents in that change. Post-intervention enacted scenes also showed participants' reports of taking a service user perspective, and a focus on their interactions with service users that had been absent from pre-intervention data. In addition, descriptions of positive feeling and emotions were present in the post-intervention enacted scenes. We suggest that this analysis confirms the importance of enacted scenes as an analytic resource, and that this importance goes beyond their utility in identifying the impact of this specific intervention. Given the congruence between the themes prominent in enacted scenes, and those which emerged from a more extensive qualitative analysis of these data, we argue that enacted scenes may also be of wider methodological importance. The possibility of using scene enactment as an approach to the validation of inductive analysis in health and social care settings could provide a useful methodological resource in settings where longitudinal ethnographic observation of frontline care staff is impossible or impractical

Pricing A Pig In A Poke: Endogenous Valuations And Storage Unit Auctions

Storage unit auctions have recently received widespread attention from reality shows and “get rich easy” business models. This study examines the pitfalls associated with winning storage unit auctions, commonly observed bidding strategies, participant behavior and auction methods. Storage unit auctions present a classic example of endogenous valuation using incomplete information and imperfect secondary markets. The examination of the contents of a storage unit auction yields a novel use for the facility and sheds light on the process that leads to a lien and sale

Age and Growth of King Mackerel, \u3cem\u3eScomberomorus cavalla\u3c/em\u3e, from the Atlantic Coast of the United States

Whole sagittae from 683 and sectioned sagittae from 773 adult (age\u3e 0 ; 437-1.310 mm FL), and lapilli from 29 larval (2-7 mm SL) and 69 young-of-the-year (79-320 mm FL) king mackerel, were examined. All fish were from waters off the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United States (Cape Canaveral, Florida to Cape Fear. North Carolina). Back-calculated lengths at ages and von Bertalanffy growth equations were calculated from both whole and sectioned sagittae. Ages determined from sectioned sagittae were significantly greater than ages determined from whole sagittae, and the magnitude of the difference increased with age (from sections). Rings on sectioned sagittae are considered to be true annual increments, forming during June-September. There was no clear pattern to ring formation on whole otoliths. The oldest fish examined was age 21. The daily nature of rings on lapilli of age 0 king mackerel was not validated, but if the marks are formed daily they suggest growth rates of approximately 0.47 mm/d for early larvae and 2.9 mm/d for fish 1-3 months of age

Exploiting Imine Photochemistry for Masked N‐Centered Radical Reactivity

This report details the development of a masked N‐centered radical strategy that harvests the energy of light to drive the conversion of cyclopropylimines to 1‐aminonorbornanes. This process employs the N‐centered radical character of a photoexcited imine to facilitate the homolytic fragmentation of the cyclopropane ring and the subsequent radical cyclization sequence that forms two new C−C bonds en route to the norbornane core. Achieving bond‐forming reactivity as a function of the N‐centered radical character of an excited state Schiff base is unique, requiring only violet light in this instance. This methodology operates in continuous flow, enhancing the potential to translate beyond the academic sector. The operational simplicity of this photochemical process and the structural novelty of the (hetero)aryl‐fused 1‐aminonorbornane products are anticipated to provide a valuable addition to discovery efforts in pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries.The N‐centered open‐shell character of photoexcited cyclopropylimines is utilized to initiate a radical fragmentation–cyclization sequence that generates bridgehead‐functionalized norbornanes. This unique mode of reactivity requires only violet light to proceed, and the 1‐aminonorbornane products are valuable building blocks for drug and agrochemical discovery programs.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153143/1/anie201909492_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153143/2/anie201909492.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153143/3/anie201909492-sup-0001-misc_information.pd