42,885 research outputs found

    RESULTS OF A FARM AND MARKET SURVEY FOR HMONG SPECIALTY CROP FARMERS IN THE MINNEAPOLIS, ST. PAUL METRO AREA

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    This report is part of a larger project, "Risk Management Education and Farm Management Development Program for Hmong Specialty Crop Farmers in the Minneapolis, St. Paul Metro Area," funded by the Risk Management Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture. The project was designed to assist Hmong farmers in the Twin Cities area in improving their production and management practices so they are able to increase their economic viability and reduce their exposure to risk. As part of the overall project, 62 Hmong farmers and 69 customers at farmers markets were surveyed to determine the local specialty crop production and market conditions. The findings of these 2 surveys are contained in the report. The median size of the 62 farms surveyed farms was 3 acres. Forty-two percent of those farmers responding reported total farm product sales between 3,000and3,000 and 8,999. Few farmers indicated they were familiar with crop insurance programs. Sixty-eight percent of the 19 farmers responding (or 21% of the 62 surveyed) said they were familiar with multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI). Only 12% of the 50 farmers responding had bought crop insurance in 2002. The most frequently indicated needs for future education programs were production oriented: weed control, insect control, fertilization, and pesticide safety. All of the 69 customers surveyed regularly bought some kind of vegetables or herbs. Over half of the customers bought potatoes, snap beans, peppers, sweet corn, carrots, cucumbers, basil, and winter squash. Eighty-eight percent of customers indicated they typically spend between 10and10 and 29 on vegetables and herbs during each visit to a farmers' market.Crop Production/Industries,

    Proto-Model of an Infrared Wide-Field Off-Axis Telescope

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    We develop a proto-model of an off-axis reflective telescope for infrared wide-field observations based on the design of Schwarzschild-Chang type telescope. With only two mirrors, this design achieves an entrance pupil diameter of 50 mm and an effective focal length of 100 mm. We can apply this design to a mid-infrared telescope with a field of view of 8 deg X 8 deg. In spite of the substantial advantages of off-axis telescopes in the infrared compared to refractive or on-axis reflective telescopes, it is known to be difficult to align the mirrors in off-axis systems because of their asymmetric structures. Off-axis mirrors of our telescope are manufactured at the Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI). We analyze the fabricated mirror surfaces by fitting polynomial functions to the measured data. We accomplish alignment of this two-mirror off-axis system using a ray tracing method. A simple imaging test is performed to compare a pinhole image with a simulated prediction.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figure

    Numerical Sensitivity Tests of Volatile Organic Compounds Emission to PM2.5 Formation during Heat Wave Period in 2018 in Two Southeast Korean Cities

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    A record-breaking severe heat wave was recorded in southeast Korea from 11 July to 15 August 2018, and the numerical sensitivity simulations of volatile organic compound (VOC) to secondarily generated particulate matter with diameter of less than 2.5 mu m (PM2.5) concentrations were studied in the Busan and Ulsan metropolitan areas in southeast Korea. A weather research and forecasting (WRF) model coupled with chemistry (WRF-Chem) was employed, and we carried out VOC emission sensitivity simulations to investigate variations in PM2.5 concentrations during the heat wave period that occurred from 11 July to 15 August 2018. In our study, when anthropogenic VOC emissions from the Comprehensive Regional Emissions Inventory for Atmospheric Transport Experiment-2015 (CREATE-2015) inventory were increased by approximately a factor of five in southeast Korea, a better agreement with observations of PM2.5 mass concentrations was simulated, implying an underestimation of anthropogenic VOC emissions over southeast Korea. The simulated secondary organic aerosol (SOA) fraction, in particular, showed greater dominance during high temperature periods such as 19-21 July, 2018, with the SOA fractions of 42.3% (in Busan) and 34.3% (in Ulsan) among a sub-total of seven inorganic and organic components. This is considerably higher than observed annual mean organic carbon (OC) fraction (28.4 +/- 4%) among seven components, indicating the enhancement of secondary organic aerosols induced by photochemical reactions during the heat wave period in both metropolitan areas. The PM2.5 to PM10 ratios were 0.69 and 0.74, on average, during the study period in the two cities. These were also significantly higher than the typical range in those cities, which was 0.5-0.6 in 2018. Our simulations implied that extremely high temperatures with no precipitation are significantly important to the secondary generation of PM2.5 with higher secondary organic aerosol fraction via photochemical reactions in southeastern Korean cities. Other possible relationships between anthropogenic VOC emissions and temperature during the heat wave episode are also discussed in this study

    Penguin-induced Radiative Baryonic B Decays Revisited

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    Weak radiative baryonic B decays BˉB1Bˉ2γ\bar B\to B_1\bar B_2\gamma mediated by the electromagnetic penguin process bsγb\to s\gamma are re-examined within the framework of the pole model. The meson pole contribution that has been neglected before is taken into account in this work. It is found that the intermediate KK^* contribution dominates in the Σpˉγ\Sigma\bar p\gamma mode and is comparable to the baryon pole effect in Λpˉγ\Lambda\bar p\gamma and ΞΛˉγ\Xi\bar\Lambda\gamma modes. The branching ratios for BΛpˉγB^-\to\Lambda\bar p\gamma and BΞ0ΣˉγB^-\to\Xi^0\bar\Sigma^-\gamma are of order 2.6×1062.6\times 10^{-6} and 6×1076\times 10^{-7}, respectively. The threshold enhancement effect in the dibaryon mass spectrum is responsible by the meson pole diagram. We also study the angular distribution of the baryon in the dibaryon rest frame. The baryon pole diagrams imply that the antibaryon tends to emerge in the direction of the photon in the baryon-pair rest frame. The predicted angular asymmetry agrees with experiment for BΛpˉγB^-\to\Lambda\bar p\gamma. Measurements of the correlation of the photon with the baryon allow us to discriminate between different models for describing the radiative baryonic B decays. For decays BΞΣˉγB\to\Xi\bar\Sigma\gamma, a large correlation of the photon to the Σˉ\bar\Sigma and a broad bump in the dibaryon mass spectrum are predicted.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
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