SCOPE AND SCALE ECONOMIES FOR MULTI-PRODUCT FARMS: FIRM-LEVEL PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

This study used the flexible fixed cost quadratic function to analyze the cost structure of multi-product farms using farm-level panel data. The robustness of estimated parameters are examined using four panel data estimators. Results suggest that scale economies remain significant in Illinois farming. An increase in soybean acreage reduces the marginal cost of producing corn. Firm-specific effects, that indicate the levels of fixed costs, are found to be positive and significant.Farm Management,

ANALYSIS OF CONSUMERS' INTEREST IN ALTERNATIVE FOOD DELIVERY SYSTEMS: RESULTS FROM A CONSUMERS' SURVEY IN NEW JERSEY

Consumer/Household Economics,

Lithuania's Food Demand During Economic Transition

The linear approximate version of the almost ideal demand system (LA-AIDS) model is estimated using data from the Lithuanian household budget survey (HBS) covering the period from July 1992 to December 1994. Price and real expenditure elasticities for 12 food groups were estimated based on the estimated coefficients of the model. Very little or nothing is known about the demand parameters of Lithuania and other former socialist countries, so the results are of intrinsic interest. Estimated expenditure elasticities were positive and statistically significant for all food groups, while all own-price elasticities were negative and statistically significant, except for that of eggs which was insignificant. Results suggest that Lithuanian household consumption did respond to price and real income changes during their transition to a market-oriented economy.

INCOME OF FARMERS WHO USE DIRECT MARKETING

Policy makers are looking for ways to preserve farmlands, especially near urban areas. Farmers are also trying to find ways to increase their farm income by incorporating non-traditional activities into their farm routine. This paper attempts to quantify the contributions of selected nontraditional activities towards farmers' efforts to enhance their farm income. For farmers involved in direct marketing, a logit model is used to estimate the probability of attaining high income for each activity considered, selling of farm related value-added products, greenhouse operations and urban location of farm markets will increase the chance o attaining high income levels.Farm Management, Marketing,

An Algorithm for Network and Data-aware Placement of Multi-Tier Applications in Cloud Data Centers

Today's Cloud applications are dominated by composite applications comprising multiple computing and data components with strong communication correlations among them. Although Cloud providers are deploying large number of computing and storage devices to address the ever increasing demand for computing and storage resources, network resource demands are emerging as one of the key areas of performance bottleneck. This paper addresses network-aware placement of virtual components (computing and data) of multi-tier applications in data centers and formally defines the placement as an optimization problem. The simultaneous placement of Virtual Machines and data blocks aims at reducing the network overhead of the data center network infrastructure. A greedy heuristic is proposed for the on-demand application components placement that localizes network traffic in the data center interconnect. Such optimization helps reducing communication overhead in upper layer network switches that will eventually reduce the overall traffic volume across the data center. This, in turn, will help reducing packet transmission delay, increasing network performance, and minimizing the energy consumption of network components. Experimental results demonstrate performance superiority of the proposed algorithm over other approaches where it outperforms the state-of-the-art network-aware application placement algorithm across all performance metrics by reducing the average network cost up to 67% and network usage at core switches up to 84%, as well as increasing the average number of application deployments up to 18%.Comment: Submitted for publication consideration for the Journal of Network and Computer Applications (JNCA). Total page: 28. Number of figures: 15 figure

Impact of Biotechnology on Plant Breeding

The application of modern biotechnology to plant breeding is considered to be more efficient and quicker than conventional breeding techniques in the development of new and more resilient crop varieties. To test the impact that biotechnology is having on a industrial plant breeding activities, we relate firm level Plant Variety Protection Certificate (PVPC) applications to corresponding expenditure on research and development (R&D), agricultural biotechnology patents applications, field trials of genetically modified crops, firm structure, as well as industry specific characteristics. Regression results indicate agbiotech activities are directly related to PVP applications, hence the creation of new plant varieties.Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

MARKET STRUCTURE AND INNOVATION IN AG-BIOTECHNOLOGY

The objective of this paper is to make a contribution to a debated issue in industrial organization that of the relationship between market structure and innovation. We place this topic within a theoretical framework and in the context of the agricultural biotechnology research market. Our theoretical model addresses how firm R&D decisions are affected by upstream and downstream market structures, farmer adoption decisions, and patent strength.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Imposex Cases in Snails (Thais Spp.) in the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

The objective of this research was to assess imposex cases in Thais spp. from the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia with respect of identification of imposex severity by using the vas deferens sequence (VDS) scheme and relative penis length (RPL), the relationship between imposex level and sex ratio of Thais spp. through statistical analysis and relationship between length of imposex organs (VDS and RPL) and length of shell size parameters (height, edge and aperture). The present study also observed the relationship between imposex cases and human activities in the sampling areas. Sampling activities were carried out at 27 sites from five states along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia from November 2001 to April 2004. The sampling sites were chosen based on the occurrence of Thais spp. In the present study, four species of Thais were chosen and they were Thais gradata, Thais tuberosa, Thais hippocastanum and Thais bitubercularis. These snails are well distributed along the rocky shore of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. T. gradata was found as the most abundant species, followed by T. tuberosa, T. hippocastanum and T. bitubercularis. The presence and development of imposex were observed in four species of Thais collected from the 27 sites along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Almost 100% of female snails showed imposex characters in various degrees. The observed imposex developments in this study included a pseudopenis and / or a vas deferens sequence (VDS) and could be classified as stage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 according to the VDS classification scheme. Most of the imposex cases occurred at stage 2 (60%), followed by stage 1 (19%) then stage 4 (8 %). While the rest were stage 3, 5 and 6. The serious level of imposex that is stage 6 formed a penis and VDS size grew 100% similar with the size of male’s sexual organs. The highest relative penis length (RPL) recorded in this study was 84.62%. The sex ratio of affected populations was deviated from normal ratio. There was also a significant correlation showing the increment of RPL caused the decrease on female population. From Pearson’s correlation coefficient, negative correlation coefficients found between imposex severity (which represent as RPL) with percentages of female population in T. gradata (r = - 0.0485, p > 0.05), T. hippocastanum (r = - 0.6034, p > 0.05) and T. bitubercularis (r = – 0.0707, p > 0.05). Furthermore, there was no obvious relationship between length of imposex organs (penis and VDS) and length of shell size parameters (height, edge and aperture). The incidence of imposex and the degree of imposex development in individuals were higher in samples collected from marinas, ports and areas with high boating and shipping activities

Biometric multimodal security simulation on schedule Ii controlled drug

The paper present a multimodal (multi biometrics) security system focusing on the implementation of fingerprint recognition and facial feature recognition to enhance the existing method of security using password or personal identification number (PIN). This project is operated through a personal computer where all the identification for fingerprint and facial feature are done by using specific software. Successful identification will send a signal through a serial communication circuit and open an application. In this project, the final application should be a cupboard that store and secure schedule II controlled drug in hospital. Due to some problem, the final application was replaced by using a light emitting diode (LED) simulation circuit