Crop Subsidies in Foreign Countries: Different Paths to Common Goals

This is an update of CERI-SR07-01, our report on international crop policies conducted in February of 2007. Since then, the landscape for agricultural products has undergone changes due to developments related to the use of ethanol and the recent economic recession. Also, in most of the world, both developed economies such as the EU, Australia, and the U.S., and developing countries such as China and Brazil, have increased their domestic agricultural supports and/or altered the types of support. It is uncertain if this increase is permanent or transitory.Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,

The Rest of the Story: Print News Components in Agricultural Communications Programs at Land·Grant Universities

The purpose of this study was to learn about print news units within agricultural communications departments across the land-grant university system

Response of yearling steers to burning and fertilizing pasture and intensive early season stocking (bluestem pastures)

Nine pastures totaling 492 acres were summer grazed by yearling Hereford, Hereford-Angus cross, and Angus steers distributed equally by breed. Five pastures were burned April 22, 1975; four were not burned. Burned and nonburned pastures had 0, 40, or 80 lbs. of nitrogen per acre applied aerially April 29, 1975. Stocking rates were determined with herbage production data from experimental plots under similar treatments. Under equal fertilization and stocking ratios, burned and fertilized pastures produced as much or more average daily gain and more gain per acre than nonburned pastures. Fertilizing and heavier stocking tended to reduce average daily gains but increased gains per acre. Steers on the early season, intensely-stocked pasture gained the most per day (1.78 lbs.) and produced the highest gain per acre (70 lbs.)

From Budgets To Video News Releases: Television News Components In Agricultural Communications Programs At Land·Grant Universities

The 133-item questionnaire was designed to learn, first, whether a given agricultural communications department had a television news component (TNC): and for those that did the resource commitment to each of them, the types and natures of the projects produced, how audiences were defined, and answers relating to production, distribution, marketing, equipment and demographics

Age Constraints for an M31 Globular Cluster from Main Sequence Photometry

We present a color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of the globular cluster SKHB-312 in the Andromeda galaxy (M31), obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. The cluster was included in deep observations taken to measure the star formation history of the M31 halo. Overcoming a very crowded field, our photometry of SKHB-312 reaches V ~ 30.5 mag, more than 1 mag below the main sequence turnoff. These are the first observations to allow a direct age estimate from the turnoff in an old M31 cluster. We analyze its CMD and luminosity function using a finely-spaced grid of isochrones that have been calibrated using observations of Galactic clusters taken with the same camera and filters. The luminosity difference between the subgiant and horizontal branches is ~0.2 mag smaller in SKHB-312 than in the Galactic clusters 47 Tuc and NGC 5927, implying SKHB-312 is 2-3 Gyr younger. A quantitative comparison to isochrones yields an age of 10 +2.5/-1 Gyr

A Search for Early Optical Emission from Short and Long Duration Gamma-ray Bursts

Gamma-ray bursts of short duration may harbor vital clues to the range of phenomena producing bursts. However, recent progress from the observation of optical counterparts has not benefitted the study of short bursts. We have searched for early optical emission from six gamma-ray bursts using the ROTSE-I telephoto array. Three of these events were of short duration, including GRB 980527 which is among the brightest short bursts yet observed. The data consist of unfiltered CCD optical images taken in response to BATSE triggers delivered via the GCN. For the first time, we have analyzed the entire 16 degree by 16 degree field covered for five of these bursts. In addition, we discuss a search for the optical counterpart to GRB 000201, a well-localized long burst. Single image sensitivities range from 13th to 14th magnitude around 10 s after the initial burst detection, and 14 - 15.8 one hour later. No new optical counterparts were discovered in this analysis suggesting short burst optical and gamma-ray fluxes are uncorrelated.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, subm. to ApJ Let

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 18, No. 3

• The End of the Horse and Buggy Era • Moravian Architecture and Town Planning: A Review • Humor in a Friendly World • Chickens and Chicken Houses in Rural Pennsylvania • Eighteenth-Century Emigrants to America from the Duchy of Zweibrucken and the Germersheim District • Horse-Drawn Transportation: Folk-Cultural Questionnaire No. 11https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1035/thumbnail.jp

An Untriggered Search for Optical Bursts

We present an untriggered search for optical bursts with the ROTSE-I telephoto array. Observations were taken which monitor an effective 256 square degree field continuously over 125 hours to m_{ROTSE}=15.7. The uniquely large field, moderate limiting magnitude and fast cadence of $\sim$10 minutes permits transient searches in a new region of sensitivity. Our search reveals no candidate events. To quantify this result, we simulate potential optical bursts with peak magnitude, m_{p}, at t=10 s, which fade as f=(\frac{t}{t_{0}}) ^{\alpha_{t}}, where \alpha_t < 0. Simple estimates based on observational evidence indicate that a search of this sensitivity begins to probe the possible region occupied by GRB orphan afterglows. Our observing protocol and image sensitivity result in a broad region of high detection efficiency for light curves to the bright and slowly varying side of a boundary running from [\alpha_{t},m_{p}]=[-2.0,6.0] to [-0.3,13.2]. Within this region, the integrated rate of brief optical bursts is less than 1.1\times 10^{-8} {\rm s}^{-1} {\rm deg}^{-2}. At $\sim$22 times the observed GRB rate from BATSE, this suggests a limit on \frac{\theta_{opt}}{\theta_{\gamma}}\lesssim 5 where \theta_{opt} and \theta_{\gamma} are the optical and gamma-ray collimation angles, respectively. Several effects might explain the absence of optical bursts, and a search of the kind described here but more sensitive by about 4 magnitudes should offer a more definitive probe.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl