TESTING DYNAMIC MODELS OF THE FARM FIRM

In this paper two models of dynamic firm behavior are fitted to a data set developed from business records of Indiana dairy farms. The parametric restrictions implied by a cost-of-adjustment model are rejected. A less restrictive, disequilibrium model is accepted; this is a model of partial and interrelated adjustment among inputs and outputs. The results suggest that adjustment in quasi-fixed inputs is slow affecting the adjustment in variable inputs and outputs.Agricultural Finance, Livestock Production/Industries,

Implications of the Biofuels Boom for the Global Livestock Industry: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis

In this paper, we offer a general equilibrium analysis of the impacts of US and EU biofuel mandates for the global livestock sector. Our simulation boosts biofuel production in the US and EU from 2006 levels to mandated 2015 levels. We show that mandates will encourage crop production in both biofuel and non biofuel producing regions, while reducing livestock and livestock production in most regions of the world. The non-ruminant industry curtails its production more than other livestock industries. The numerical results suggest that the biofuel mandates reduce food production in most regions while they increase crude vegetable oils in almost all regions. Implementing biofuel mandates in the US and EU will increase croplands within the biofuel and non-biofuel producer regions. A large portion of this increase will be obtained from reduced grazing lands. The biofuel producing regions are expected to reduce their coarse grains exports and raise imports of oilseeds and vegetable oils. While all livestock industries use more biofuel byproducts in their animal feed rations, the dairy and other ruminant industry benefit most from the expansion of DDGS. We finally conclude that, while biofuel mandates have important consequences for the livestock industry, they do not harshly curtail these industries. This is largely due to the important role of byproducts in substituting for higher priced feedstuffs. In addition, with relatively inelastic food demands, producers are able to pass much of the price rise on to consumers. In general, US, EU, Meddle East & North Africa, and Russia will experience significant welfare loses due to the combined US and EU mandates, while Brazil, Japan, India, and East Asia are expected to get major gains.Biofuels, Livestock, Feed Ration, Biofuel Co-Product, Land Use, Livestock Production/Industries,

Assessing internal contamination levels for fission product inhalation

Issued as final reportTKC Global Solutions ll

Characterizing and evaluating the response of various portal monitors when used to screen people for internal contamination

Issued as final reportOak Ridge Associated Universitie

Biofuels for all? Understanding the Global Impacts of Multinational Mandates

The recent rise in world oil prices, coupled with heightened interest in the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions, has led to a sharp increase in domestic biofuels production around the world. Previous authors have devoted considerable attention to the impacts of these policies on a country-by-country basis. However, there are also strong interactions among these programs, as they compete in world markets for feedstocks and ultimately for a limited supply of global land. In this paper, we evaluate the interplay between two of the largest biofuels programs, namely the renewable fuel mandates in the US and the EU. We examine how the presence of each of these programs influences the other, and also how their combined impact influences global markets and land use around the world. We begin with an analysis of the origins of the recent bio-fuel boom, using the historical period from 2001-2006 for purposes of model validation. This was a period of rapidly rising oil prices, increased subsidies in the EU, and, in the US, there was a ban on the major competitor to ethanol for gasoline additives. Our analysis of this historical period permits us to evaluate the relative contribution of each of these factors to the global biofuel boom. We also use this historical simulation to establish a 2006 benchmark biofuel economy from which we conduct our analysis of future mandates. Our prospective analysis of the impacts of the biofuels boom on commodity markets focuses on the 2006-2015 time period, during which existing investments and new mandates in the US and EU are expected to substantially increase the share of agricultural products (e.g., corn in the US, oilseeds in the EU, and sugar in Brazil) utilized by the biofuels sector. In the US, this share could more than double from 2006 levels, while the share of oilseeds going to biodiesel in the EU could triple. Having established the baseline 2006-2015 scenario, we proceed to explore the interactions between the US and EU policies. This involves decomposing the contributions of each set of regional policies to the global changes in output and land use. The most dramatic interaction between the two sets of policies is for oilseed production in the US, where the sign of the output change is reversed in the presence of EU mandates (rising rather than falling). In other sectors, the interaction is more modest. However, when it comes to the impacts of these combined mandates on third economies, the two policies combine to have a much greater impact than just the US or just the EU policies alone.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Research in the development of an improved multiplier phototube

Performance and response characteristics of smoothing, image intensifier dissector for low light level astronomy and optical detectio

Magnetization structure of a Bloch point singularity

Switching of magnetic vortex cores involves a topological transition characterized by the presence of a magnetization singularity, a point where the magnetization vanishes (Bloch point). We analytically derive the shape of the Bloch point that is an extremum of the free energy with exchange, dipole and the Landau terms for the determination of the local value of the magnetization modulus.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Agriculture Productivity Growth: Is the Current Trend on the Track to Poverty Reduction?

In this study we evaluate the effect of annual productivity growth in agriculture over the 1991-2001 period on poverty in eleven developing countries. We compare this with the optimal pattern of productivity growth of comparable cost with the sole goal of maximizing poverty reduction. This comparison reveals that regional agricultural development is a viable option in the fight for poverty reduction.Food Security and Poverty,

Ammonia emissions from deciduous forest after leaf fall

The understanding of biochemical feedback mechanisms in the climate system is lacking knowledge in relation to bi-directional ammonia (NH3) exchange between natural ecosystems and the atmosphere. We therefore study the atmospheric NH3 fluxes during a 25-day period during autumn 2010 (21 October to 15 November) for the Danish beech forest Lille Bøgeskov to address the hypothesis that NH3 emissions occur from deciduous forests in relation to leaf fall. This is accomplished by using observations of vegetation status, NH3 fluxes and model calculations. Vegetation status was observed using plant area index (PAI) and leaf area index (LAI). NH3 fluxes were measured using the relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) method. The REA-based NH3 concentrations were compared to NH3 denuder measurements. Model calculations of the atmospheric NH3 concentration were obtained with the Danish Ammonia MOdelling System (DAMOS). The relative contribution from the forest components to the atmospheric NH3 flux was assessed using a simple two-layer bi-directional canopy compensation point model. A total of 57.7% of the fluxes measured showed emission and 19.5% showed deposition. A clear tendency of the flux going from deposition of −0.25 ± 0.30 μg NH3-N m−2 s−1 to emission of up to 0.67 ± 0.28 μg NH3-N m−2 s−1 throughout the measurement period was found. In the leaf fall period (23 October to 8 November), an increase in the atmospheric NH3 concentrations was related to the increasing forest NH3 flux. Following leaf fall, the magnitude and temporal structure of the measured NH3 emission fluxes could be adequately reproduced with the bi-directional resistance model; it suggested the forest ground layer (soil and litter) to be the main contributing component to the NH3 emissions. The modelled concentration from DAMOS fits well the measured concentrations before leaf fall, but during and after leaf fall, the modelled concentrations are too low. The results indicate that the missing contribution to atmospheric NH3 concentration from vegetative surfaces related to leaf fall are of a relatively large magnitude. We therefore conclude that emissions from deciduous forests are important to include in model calculations of atmospheric NH3 for forest ecosystems. Finally, diurnal variations in the measured NH3 concentrations were related to meteorological conditions, forest phenology and the spatial distribution of local anthropogenic NH3 sources. This suggests that an accurate description of ammonia fluxes over forest ecosystems requires a dynamic description of atmospheric and vegetation processes