38,315 research outputs found
AN OPERATIONAL APPROACH FOR EVALUATING INVESTMENT RISK: AN APPLICATION TO THE NO-TILL TRANSITION
Roy’s safety-first rule is used to provide measures popular with farmers of short and long term business risk associated with various no-till transition strategies over an investment horizon. The short run rule provided more sensitivity to inter-year financial risk than other commonly used criteria. Results revealed that speed of adoption influenced the probability of successful transition more than did the sequence of drill acquisition methods. Higher equity and larger farms had a greater chance of transition success. Slow acreage expansion with a custom or rental drill reduces risk until a no-till yield penalty is eliminated.Investment risk, Monte Carlo simulation, no-till, rent- purchase, risk, safety-first, technology adoption, transition strategy
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF AGRICULTURAL POLICY REFORM: AN INTERREGIONAL COMPARISON
Mathematical programming results revealed that moving toward more flexible agricultural policies would generate substantial economic and environmental gains in a North Carolina diversified cropping region. But in a Washington-Idaho dryland grains region, only the use of relatively new and sometimes problematic alternative cropping systems permitted environmental and economic gains under policy reform. In both regions, a recoupling policy, which links government payments to resource-conserving farming practices, was needed to protect environmental quality when market prices for program crops were high.Agrichemical leaching, Agricultural policy, Alternative agriculture, Erosion, Mathematical programming, Agricultural and Food Policy,
On higher derivative corrections to Wess-Zumino and Tachyonic actions in type II super string theory
We evaluate in detail the string scattering amplitude to compute different
interactions of two massless scalars, one tachyon and one closed string
Ramond-Ramond field in type II super string theory. In particular we find two
scalar field and two tachyon couplings to all orders of up to
on-shell ambiguity. We then obtain the momentum expansion of this amplitude and
apply this infinite number of couplings to actually check that the infinite
number of tachyon poles of S-matrix element of this amplitude for the
case (where is the spatial dimension of a D-brane and is the rank
of a Ramond-Ramond field strength) to all orders of is precisely
equal to the infinite number of tachyon poles of the field theory. In addition
to confirming the couplings of closed string Ramond-Ramond field to the
world-volume gauge field and scalar fields including commutators, we also
propose an extension of the Wess-Zumino action which naturally reproduces these
new couplings in field theory such that they could be confirmed with direct
S-matrix computations. Finally we show that the infinite number of massless
poles and contact terms of this amplitude for the case can be
reproduced by Chern-Simons, higher derivative corrections of the Wess-Zumino
and symmetrized trace tachyon DBI actions.Comment: 51 pages, some refs and comments added, typos are removed. Almost all
ambiguities in BPS and non-BPS effective actions have been addresse
AN INVERSE DEMAND APPROACH TO RECREATION FISHING SITE CHOICE AND IMPLIED MARGINAL VALUES
An alternative methodology for determining marginal willingness to pay values for recreational fishing trips is developed based on inverse demand systems and the distance function. Our empirical application uses joint estimation of several species-specific site equations from a recreation fishing data set. Results are compared to a random utility model.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,
EMPIRICAL SPECIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR TWO-CONSTRAINT MODELS OF RECREATION DEMAND
Theoretical restrictions implied by the two-constraint recreation demand model are developed. The structure necessary to specify empirical models shows that most current models of recreation incorporate time in a manner inconsistent with theory. Results are applicable to all recreationists and are particularly useful to those with endogenous marginal values of time.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,
The Physical Properties of LBGs at z>5: Outflows and the "pre-enrichment problem"
We discuss the properties of Lyman Break galaxies (LBGs) at z>5 as determined
from disparate fields covering approximately 500 sq. arcmin. While the broad
characteristics of the LBG population has been discussed extensively in the
literature, such as luminosity functions and clustering amplitude, we focus on
the detailed physical properties of the sources in this large survey (>100 with
spectroscopic redshifts). Specifically, we discuss ensemble mass estimates,
stellar mass surface densities, core phase space densities, star-formation
intensities, characteristics of their stellar populations, etc as obtained from
multi-wavelength data (rest-frame UV through optical) for a subsample of these
galaxies. In particular, we focus on evidence that these galaxies drive
vigorous outflows and speculate that this population may solve the so-called
``pre-enrichment problem''. The general picture that emerges from these studies
is that these galaxies, observed about 1 Gyr after the Big Bang, have
properties consistent with being the progenitors of the densest stellar systems
in the local Universe -- the centers of old bulges and early type galaxies.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in "Pathways Through an Eclectic Universe", J. H.
Knappen, T. J. Mahoney, and A. Vazedekis (Eds.), ASP Conf. Ser., 200
Qualitative Analysis of Polycycles in Filippov Systems
In this paper, we are concerned about the qualitative behaviour of planar
Filippov systems around some typical minimal sets, namely, polycycles. In the
smooth context, a polycycle is a simple closed curve composed by a collection
of singularities and regular orbits, inducing a first return map. Here, this
concept is extended to Filippov systems by allowing typical singularities lying
on the switching manifold. Our main goal consists in developing a method to
investigate the unfolding of polycycles in Filippov systems. In addition, we
applied this method to describe bifurcation diagrams of Filippov systems around
certain polycycles
THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN PREDICTING ADOPTION OF WIND EROSION CONTROL PRACTICES
Logit and ordered probit analyses were used to identify factors associated with reduced tillage adoption, continuous spring cropping, and the number of changes made in response to wind erosion. Contrary to previous results for water erosion control, simple perception of a wind erosion problem or membership in a particular socioeconomic category did not significantly explain adoption of wind erosion control practices, but participating in a targeted educational program did. This educational program: (a) highlighted the threats of wind erosion to human health and to soil productivity, and (b) described specific potentially profitable farming practices for solving the wind erosion problem.Environmental Economics and Policy,
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