Complementarities and differences in adoption: an application of hazard models to two technologies in Madagascar

This paper explores the adoption of two agricultural technologies, how their patterns of adoption differ, and the relationship between them. The first technology, the System of Rice Intensification, has been studied previously and high rates of disadoption were observed in some areas. The second technology is off-season cropping, the practice of growing crops (primarily potatoes) in the rice fields during the winter season after the rice harvest. The rates of adoption of off-season cropping were much higher than for SRI and very little disadoption was observed. Through this study we are trying to understand the factors that might explain the differences in adoption and how the adoption of and experience with one technology affects the likelihood of adoption of the other. Our analysis uses hazard models, which have only recently been applied to technology adoption. Findings suggest that both methods increase the likelihood of adopting the other, and off-season crop adopters were less likely to disadopt SRI. Liquidity constraints appear to be more of an obstacle to SRI adoption, suggesting that this might help explain the relative success of off-season cropping.technology adoption, hazard models, Food Security and Poverty, International Development,

LABOR, LIQUIDITY, LEARNING, CONFORMITY AND SMALLHOLDER TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION: THE CASE OF SRI IN MADAGASCAR

Although rice accounts for approximately forty-four percent of land under cultivation and forty-six percent of caloric intake in Madagascar, most farmers cannot produce enough rice to feed their families. Total rice production increased little in the country during the 1990s, and yields were stagnant and well below world average yields. Because of the importance of rice for both family income and nutrition and because of the significant role upland rice cultivation plays in deforestation in Madagascar, intensification of lowland rice production has been a major focus of many development interventions. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a method that has been promoted and closely followed in Madagascar for more than ten years. SRI is remarkable for its dramatic increases in yields achieved without external inputs. While the method is more labor intensive, the doubling or even tripling of yields would appear to make the method extremely profitable. Despite its apparent potential and intensive extension efforts in some areas, adoption rates have generally been low, and the average rate of disadoption (the percentage of households who have tried the method and who no longer practice it) for study area was 40 percent. Using survey data from five communities in Madagascar, a sample selection model and a probit model were used to study three related choices farmers must make concerning the SRI. The first is whether to try the method, and then, conditional on having tried the method a farmer must decide how much of his lowland rice area to put in the SRI. Finally, for all subsequent years, a farmer must decide whether to continue using the method. While many adoption studies have looked at the role of liquidity and labor, few have done so in a dynamic setting. We take advantage of reliable recall data and NGO records on technology use to construct a panel data set, which was used to analyze the effects of learning, labor, liquidity, and social benefits over a five-year period. Learning has been the focus of several recent adoption studies, but this study tries to separate the learning effects from the effects of compliance with authority figures and with social and cultural norms. The results show that planting-season labor and liquidity constraints are extremely important factors in the adoption decisions of Malagasy farmers. Although the method is low-external input, the poorest farmers are not able to take advantage of the technology. This result is very important for development policy-makers in Madagascar who have often seen rice intensification as the most important means by which to alleviate rural poverty in Madagascar.Farm Management,

Better Technology, Better Plots or Better Farmers? Identifying Changes in Productivity and Risk Among Malagasy Rice Farmers

In assessing the productivity gains of a new technology, it is often difficult to determine the extent to which observed output gains are due to the technology itself, rather than to the skill of the farmer or the quality of the plot on which the new technology is tried. This problem of attribution is especially important when technologies are not embodied in purchased inputs such as seed or machinery but result instead from changed farmer cultivation practices. Using data based on observations of farmers in Madagascar who simultaneously practice both a newly introduced and traditional rice production methods, we introduce a method for properly attributing observed productivity and risk changes among new production methods, farmers and plots by controlling for farmer and plot heterogeneity using differential production and yield risk functions. Our results help resolve several outstanding puzzling associated with observed low and incomplete uptake and high rates of disadoption of the new system of rice intensification (SRI) in spite of consistent, sharp yield increases on small farmers' fields without application of additional external inputs.Productivity Analysis,

Missed opportunities and missing markets: Spatio-temporal arbitrage of rice in Madagascar

This paper uses an exceptionally rich data set to test the extent to which markets in Madagascar are integrated across space, time, and form (in converting from paddy to rice) and to explain some of the factors that limit arbitrage and price equalization within a single country. In particular, we use rice price data across four quarters of 2000-2001 along with data on transportation costs and infrastructure availability for nearly 1400 communes in Madagascar to examine the extent of market integration at three different spatial scales sub-regional, regional, and national and determine whether non-integration is due to high transfer costs or lack of competition. The results indicate that markets are fairly well integrated at the sub-regional level and that factors such as high crime, remoteness, and lack of information are among the factors limiting competition. A lack of competition persists at the regional level and high transfer costs impede spatial market integration at the national level. Only six percent of rural communes appear to be intertemporally integrated and there appear to be significant untapped opportunities for interseasonal arbitrage. Income is directly and strongly related to the probability of a commune being in interseasonal competitive equilibrium.Marketing,

Preferential Attachment in Online Networks: Measurement and Explanations

We perform an empirical study of the preferential attachment phenomenon in temporal networks and show that on the Web, networks follow a nonlinear preferential attachment model in which the exponent depends on the type of network considered. The classical preferential attachment model for networks by Barab\'asi and Albert (1999) assumes a linear relationship between the number of neighbors of a node in a network and the probability of attachment. Although this assumption is widely made in Web Science and related fields, the underlying linearity is rarely measured. To fill this gap, this paper performs an empirical longitudinal (time-based) study on forty-seven diverse Web network datasets from seven network categories and including directed, undirected and bipartite networks. We show that contrary to the usual assumption, preferential attachment is nonlinear in the networks under consideration. Furthermore, we observe that the deviation from linearity is dependent on the type of network, giving sublinear attachment in certain types of networks, and superlinear attachment in others. Thus, we introduce the preferential attachment exponent $\beta$ as a novel numerical network measure that can be used to discriminate different types of networks. We propose explanations for the behavior of that network measure, based on the mechanisms that underly the growth of the network in question.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for the WebSci'13 Conference, Paris, 201

Metamaterials Manufacturing: Pathway to Industrial Competitiveness

Metamaterials are artificially structured materials with the promise to remove performance constraints associated with conventional materials, redefining the boundaries of materials science and offering a wealth of new opportunities for innovation and economic growth. The prospects are powerful. National security applications of metamaterials range from enhanced stealth technology to improved military communication to higher-quality reconnaissance imaging to next-generation body armor. Health implications range from greatly improved medical imaging and research tools to superior injury protection products. Metamaterials also have promising energy applications in transportation light-weighting, as well as energy generation and storage technologies. By 2025, it is estimated that metamaterials manufacturing will be a multi-billion-dollar market. The United States has invested heavily in the potential of metamaterials, and U.S. experts and research facilities lead the world in publications, citations, and intellectual property related to this emerging field. Realizing the true benefits of these emerging technologies—and return on federal investments—will require advancing metamaterials from prototypes to products manufactured at scale. Manufacturing of these materials at the volume and quality needed for practical applications requires process innovation and establishment of a strong supporting ecosystem. This report examines the challenges and opportunities facing metamaterials manufacturing and presents a set of actionable recommendations for realizing the promised impact.National Science Foundation, Grant No. 1552534https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145155/1/MetamaterialsManufacturingReport-May21_digital-reduced.pd

Checking beginning student teachers’ competencies – assessment centre admission tests at the Zurich University of Teacher Training and their predictive validity

Um an die Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich aufgenommen zu werden, absolvieren Studierende ohne Maturitätsabschluss neben fachlichen Prüfungen ein Assessment Centre zur Überprüfung ihrer überfachlichen Kompetenzen. Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit der Evaluation der prognostischen Validität des Assessment Centres. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Studierenden mit einer hohen Leistung im Assessment Centre in der Zwischenprüfung deutlich besser abschneiden und von ihren Mentoren als geeigneter für den Lehrberuf beurteilt werden als Studierende mit geringeren Leistungen. Insgesamt verweisen die Ergebnisse der Studie darauf, dass das Assessment Centre ein prognostisch valides Instrument darstellt, um den frühen Studienerfolg der Studierenden vorherzusagen. (DIPF/Orig.)At the Zurich University of Teacher Education, future students who do not have the formal qualifications are required to pass several examinations and a test, which is known as an \u27assessment centre\u27. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the predictive validity of this assessment centre. Major findings indicate that student teachers with high assessment centre ratings are not only more likely to be successful in their teaching profession but are also more likely to be seen as suitable teachers by their mentors after their first year of teaching activity. This study shows that the assessment centre is a valid instrument of competency assessment in the case of beginning student teachers. (DIPF/Orig.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Freshwater Harmful Algal Bloom Research & Development Initiative

Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are particularly impactful to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which manages vast freshwater resources and waterways that provide a variety of services including navigation, flood risk reduction, recreation, fish and wildlife management, as well as potable water supply. The Water Resources Development Act of 2018 (WRDA 2018) authorized the U.S. Army Engineer Research Development Center (USACE-ERDC) to implement a 5-year technology demonstration program to deliver scalable technologies for HAB prevention, detection and management that will reduce HAB frequency and effects to our nation’s freshwater resources across scales (e.g. small waterbodies to river reaches), ecoregions (e.g. subtropical Florida to temperate Ohio and New York), and system types (e.g. reservoirs, riverine, lakes). The USACE-ERDC HAB Research & Development (R&D) portfolio features a range of HAB-combatting methods, models, and technologies that may be used alone or in combination to effectively reduce HAB frequency and impacts to water resource development projects across the nation. An overview of USACE-ERDC sponsored HAB R&D projects will highlight the range of HAB methods, models, and technologies in development, and will provide an opportunity to engage with federal, state, local, and university partners

Student's vocal participation trajectories in whole-class discussions during teacher professional development

Research studies have long shown that dialogic classroom interactions can have a positive impact on student learning. Despite this, in practice, monologic classroom discussions still predominate. This comparative scarcity of dialogic classroom discussions is linked to the considerable challenges inherent in cultivating them, both for teachers and their students. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the extent to which, during a one-year teacher professional development program, students' vocal participation in whole-class discussions can be successfully fostered. As data material, we used videotaped classroom discussions of six classes (three mathematics and three history classes) from pre-, post-, and delayed post-test intervention lessons, as well as from three practice phases of the training. The discussions were evaluated using quantitative analyses and content analysis. In all six classes, the pre-post-test comparison revealed an increase in students' talk share. In four of the six classes, more students participated after the intervention than before. The type of student contributions changed in all classes: The students more often justified their contributions and referred to other students' contributions. The insights gained regarding the mostly non-linear progression of individual developments, and regarding subject-based differences, yield useful hints for the design of professional development formats

Talk, talk, talk: Exploring idea conversations and the micro-level foundations of knowledge sharing for innovation

In this study we explore the drivers and consequences of micro-level instances of knowledge sharing for innovation. We do so by focusing on the temporally bounded conversations that colleagues have about new ideas and we study specifically how the strength of ties between these colleagues influences the duration and breadth of knowledge sharing in the idea-related conversations they have over time. A 14-month on-site field study in a multinational company, in which we mapped 496 dyadic relationships regarding 17 new product ideas, shows that knowledge sharing can be explained by the ties between people being either strong or weak, rather than intermediate. We also discover that characteristics of the idea itself shape how tie strength influences the duration and breadth of knowledge sharing in idea conversations. Finally, we provide initial evidence to show how important conversations are for the success of an idea. Our study sheds light on micro-level instances of knowledge sharing for innovation and provides important insights into how managers can foster an environment in which weak and strong ties can be utilised optimally for sharing knowledge about ideas