Broiler Farms' Organization, Management, and Performance

This study provides a comprehensive view of the organization, management, and financial performance of U.S. broiler farms. Using data from USDA's Agricultural Resource Management Study (ARMS, formerly known as the Farm Costs and Returns Survey), we examine farm size, financial structure, household income, management practices, and spousal participation in decision-making. We compare broiler operations with other farming enterprises and their earnings with that of the average U.S. household. Because most of the 7 billion broilers produced in the United States in 1995 were raised under contract, we also explore the use of contracts and the effects of contracting on the broiler sector.contracting, broilers, poultry, farm characteristics, farm income, farm operator characteristics, risk management strategies, Livestock Production/Industries,

Cluster, Classify, Regress: A General Method For Learning Discountinous Functions

This paper presents a method for solving the supervised learning problem in which the output is highly nonlinear and discontinuous. It is proposed to solve this problem in three stages: (i) cluster the pairs of input-output data points, resulting in a label for each point; (ii) classify the data, where the corresponding label is the output; and finally (iii) perform one separate regression for each class, where the training data corresponds to the subset of the original input-output pairs which have that label according to the classifier. It has not yet been proposed to combine these 3 fundamental building blocks of machine learning in this simple and powerful fashion. This can be viewed as a form of deep learning, where any of the intermediate layers can itself be deep. The utility and robustness of the methodology is illustrated on some toy problems, including one example problem arising from simulation of plasma fusion in a tokamak.Comment: 12 files,6 figure

Transient complete heart block following catheter ablation of a left lateral accessory pathway.

A 16-year-old female with symptomatic Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome underwent catheter ablation of a left-sided lateral accessory pathway. The accessory pathway was eliminated with the first ablation lesion; however, the patient immediately developed complete heart block (CHB). At first, complete heart block was thought to be due to ablation of left atrial extension of the AV node, and pacemaker therapy was considered. However, careful ECG analysis revealed that the development of CHB was in fact due to bump injury to the AV node during transseptal catheterization. Conservative management allowed resolution of AV nodal conduction without need for a permanent pacemaker

Radiative instabilities in simulations of spherically symmetric supernova blast waves

High-resolution simulations of the cooling regions of spherically symmetric supernova remnants demonstrate a strong radiative instability. This instability, whose presence is dependent on the shock velocity, causes large-amplitude fluctuations in the shock velocity. The fluctuations begin almost immediately after the radiative phase begins (upon shell formation) if the shock velocity lies in the unstable range; they last until the shock slows to speeds less than approximately 130 km/s. We find that shock-velocity fluctuations from the reverberations of waves within the remnant are small compared to those due to the instability. Further, we find (in plane-parallel simulations) that advected inhomogeneities from the external medium do not interfere with the qualitative nature of the instability-driven fluctuations. Large-amplitude inhomogeneities may alter the phases of shock-velocity fluctuations, but do not substantially reduce their amplitudes.Comment: 18 pages text, LaTeX/AASTeX (aaspp4); 10 figures; accepted by Ap

Running-mass models of inflation, and their observational constraints

If the inflaton sector is described by softly broken supersymmetry, and the inflaton has unsuppressed couplings, the inflaton mass will run strongly with scale. Four types of model are possible. The prediction for the spectral index involves two parameters, while the COBE normalization involves a third, all of them calculable functions of the relevant masses and couplings. A crude estimate is made of the region of parameter space allowed by present observation.Comment: Latex file, 20 pages, 11 figures, uses epsf.sty. Comment on the observation of the spectral index scale dependence added; Fig. 3-6 improve

Ethics and Pope Francis’s Encyclical Letter Laudato Si: A Teaching Module

This open-source teaching module consists of: 1. This Teaching Note for the instructor provides background on the Encyclical and specific discussion questions which the instructor can use to guide discussion in class. After each discussion question, this note identifies key points students or the instructor should make during the discussion. The teaching note concludes with “A Summary the Instructor May Use to Conclude Discussion.” 2. “Excerpts from Laudato Si for Discussion in Class,” is a separate document to be read by students before class. It can be reproduced and handed out, or sent electronically to students. It consists of a short description of five key themes in the Encyclical, the important question or questions raised by that theme, and selected paragraphs from the Encyclical addressing that theme. If read thoughtfully in advance, it should provide adequate preparation for the students to participate in the discussion outlined in this teaching note. This teaching module is designed to be used in a single 50 to 60 minute class period, or a shorter period over several days. It can be used in several different types of courses, including a business ethics course, an environmental studies course, a religious studies course, among others. The type of course will determine which discussion questions and discussion points the instructor wishes to emphasize. The authors were particularly focused on providing a way to use the Encyclical in a business ethics class. This module is designed to permit the students to discuss the encyclical by Pope Francis and its major themes, without having to read the entire encyclical. A link is provided in the “Excerpts” document to the full text of the Encyclical on the Vatican website. For several of the themes, additional paragraphs from the Encyclical are recommended which further develop the theme