China's Ongoing Agricultural Modernization: Challenges Remain After 30 Years of Reform

Thirty years ago, China began implementing a series of reforms to improve efficiency in agricultural production. These, and subsequent, reforms reshaped China’s position in the world economy. China’s rapid economic development and transformation from a planned to a market-oriented economy, however, has reached a stage where further efficiency gains in agricultural production will likely hinge on the development of modern market-supporting institutions. The development of market-supporting institutions in China will bring about long-term and sustainable benefits to producers and consumers in China and the global agricultural economy. This report provides an overview of current issues in China’s agricultural development, policy responses to these issues, and the effects of these policies on China’s growing role in international markets.China, economic reform, economic development, agricultural production, agricultural trade, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, Production Economics,

American Bar Association Section of International Law and Practice Standing Committee on World Order under Law Report to the House of Delegates: International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group are the subjects of this report. The report, with its accompanying recommendation, is one of several reports on selected United Nations specialized agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The report has been developed by the Section of International Law and Practice, International Institutions Committee, through its Working Group on UN Specialized Agencies. This is a contribution to the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations in fulfillment of the American Bar Association\u27s Goal VIII-to advance the rule of law in the world. The accompanying recommendation addresses issues of an enhanced role of the IMF in promoting a more stable system of exchange rates, legal technical assistance to member countries of the IMF and the World Bank Group undertaking institutional reform, and the support by the United States to the IMF and the World Bank Group. Of all the Specialized Agencies of the United Nations, perhaps the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group have the highest profile and draw the most attention, both favorable and unfavorable. They stand at the center of the international economic system. This report addresses a few key matters that appear crucial to the future of the IMF and the World Bank Group-with particular emphasis on issues that have a legal aspect. The report begins with a limited set of conclusions and recommendations. It then presents facts and findings that support these recommendations. The Working Group has concluded that on balance, these institutions make valuable contributions to the global economic order and deserve continued support from the United States, including financial support

Optical and Infrared Spectroscopy

Contains reports on three research projects.Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force) under Contract DA 36-039-AMC-03200(E

Biased dynamics of the miscible-immiscible quantum phase transition in a binary Bose-Einstein condensate

A quantum phase transition from the miscible to the immiscible phase of a quasi-one-dimensional binary Bose-Einstein condensate is driven by ramping down the coupling amplitude of its two hyperfine states. It results in a random pattern of spatial domains where the symmetry is broken separated by defects. In distinction to previous studies [J. Sabbatini et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 230402 (2011), New J. Phys. 14 095030 (2012)], we include nonzero detuning between the light field and the energy difference of the states, which provides a bias towards one of the states. Using the truncated Wigner method, we test the biased version of the quantum Kibble-Zurek mechanism [M. Rams et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 130603 (2019)] and observe a crossover to the adiabatic regime when the quench is sufficiently fast to dominate the effect of the bias. We verify a universal power law for the population imbalance in the nonadiabatic regime both at the critical point and by the end of the ramp. Shrinking and annihilation of domains of the unfavourable phase after the ramp, that is, already in the broken symmetry phase, enlarges the defect-free sections by the end of the ramp. The consequences of this phase-ordering effect can be captured by a phenomenological power law.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures; Updated with changes made for publication in Physical Review

Effect of Target Thickness on Cratering and Penetration of Projectiles Impacting at Velocities to 13,000 Feet Per Second

In order to determine the effects of target thickness on the penetration and cratering of a target resulting from impacts by high-velocity projectiles, a series of experimental tests have been run. The projectile-target material combinations investigated were aluminum projectiles impacting aluminum targets and steel projectiles impacting aluminum and copper targets. The velocity spectrum ranged from 4,000 ft/sec to 13,000 ft/sec. It has been found that the penetration is a function of target thickness provided that the penetration is greater than 20 percent of the target thickness. Targets of a thickness such that the penetration amounts to less than 20 percent of the thickness may be regarded as quasi-infinite. An empirical formula has been established relating the penetration to the target thickness and to the penetration of a projectile of the same mass, configuration, and velocity into a quasi- infinite target. In particular, it has been found that a projectile can completely penetrate a target whose thickness is approximately one and one-half times as great as the penetration of a similar projectile into a quasi-infinite target. The diameter of a crater has also been found to be a function of the target thickness provided that the target thickness is not greater than the projectile length in the case of cylindrical projectiles and not greater than two to three times the projectile diameter in the case of spherical projectiles

A Taxonomy of Objectives for the Training of Financial Aid Administrators

The training of financial aid administrators is mostly informal and is accomplished by the workshop and apprenticeship method. There are few training programs specifically for financial aid administrators and these in­clude occasional two-week summer school institutes which have been sponsor­ed by the U.S. Office of Education in coordination with a university or the various state financial aid associations. Occasionally, a financial aid admin­istrator is able to wing a financial aid training program in a Master\u27s or Doctoral program in the Student Personnel area; but, beyond having a few specific courses in financial aid administration, the candidate may engage in a practicum in financial aid or write a major paper on some financial aid related subject in order to complete the degree requirements. The void in formal degree or training programs for financial aid administrators (see: Schiesz, Journal of Student Financial Aid, March, 1974) i& not surprising for a relatively new and emerging profession; but it is clearly one which must be responded to by universities, educational leadership, and ·profes­sional associations at the local and the national levels with the development of formal training programs, degree programs, and ultimately a national examination for the certification of financial aid administrators

SynTable: A Synthetic Data Generation Pipeline for Unseen Object Amodal Instance Segmentation of Cluttered Tabletop Scenes

In this work, we present SynTable, a unified and flexible Python-based dataset generator built using NVIDIA's Isaac Sim Replicator Composer for generating high-quality synthetic datasets for unseen object amodal instance segmentation of cluttered tabletop scenes. Our dataset generation tool can render a complex 3D scene containing object meshes, materials, textures, lighting, and backgrounds. Metadata, such as modal and amodal instance segmentation masks, occlusion masks, depth maps, bounding boxes, and material properties, can be generated to automatically annotate the scene according to the users' requirements. Our tool eliminates the need for manual labeling in the dataset generation process while ensuring the quality and accuracy of the dataset. In this work, we discuss our design goals, framework architecture, and the performance of our tool. We demonstrate the use of a sample dataset generated using SynTable by ray tracing for training a state-of-the-art model, UOAIS-Net. The results show significantly improved performance in Sim-to-Real transfer when evaluated on the OSD-Amodal dataset. We offer this tool as an open-source, easy-to-use, photorealistic dataset generator for advancing research in deep learning and synthetic data generation.Comment: Version

Special Problems in Civil Procedure - Complex Litigation

Organization and Presentation of a Complex Case lecture given by Francis H. Hare Jr., a partner in the law firm of Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton, in Birmingham, Alabama. Judicial Management of Complex Cases lecture given by the Honorable Robert M. Parker, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Complex Litigation in the Public Sector lecture given by Gerald A. Connell, a member of the firm of Baker & Hostetler, in Washington, D.C. The Future of Complex Litigation lecture given by Mary Kay Kane, academic dean and Professor of Law at Hastings College of Law, University of California