Fostering Muslim Civic Engagement through Faith-Based Community Organizing

Muslims often encounter discriminatory practices similar to those experienced by other minority groups living in the United States. Such practices range from mass incarceration and anti-immigration efforts to racial and religious profiling. In response, a growing number of U.S. Muslim leaders are organizing their communities and collaborating with non-Muslims to address these issues through civic participation and political action. At the same time, several foundations throughout the country have begun asking how to promote civic engagement among U.S. Muslims. Although little is known about U.S. Muslim civic engagement and its outcomes, data from a national study indicate that faith-based community organizing is becoming a viable pathway for Muslim communities to (1) strengthen themselves internally by developing civic leaders and mobilizing everyday Muslims to address issues affecting their community and (2) strengthen their external ties by bridging religious and social differences and by promoting policies that also benefit non-Muslims

State Cooperative Councils: What are the Local Member Cooperatives Looking For?

State cooperative councils serve a valuable role for local cooperatives by providing services including education, legislative monitoring and lobbying, and promotion of the cooperative form of business. This paper outlines the specific challenges that state councils are experiencing in today's changing agribusiness environment. The results of a survey of members of the Colorado Cooperative Council are reported. Logit analysis is performed to identify the factors contributing to the cooperatives' satisfaction with the state council and the cooperatives' use of the council's services. The paper concludes with suggestions for action by state councils.Agribusiness,

THE CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE COURSE IN AGRICULTURAL CURRICULUM

Capstone courses are being developed in colleges of agriculture in response to demands from agribusiness firms, students, and other university stakeholders. With data from a faculty survey, the factors affecting the success of capstone courses in agricultural economics as well as other agricultural disciplines are identified.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Error analysis and corrections to pupil diameter measurements with Langley Research Center's oculometer

Factors that can affect oculometer measurements of pupil diameter are: horizontal (azimuth) and vertical (elevation) viewing angle of the pilot; refraction of the eye and cornea; changes in distance of eye to camera; illumination intensity of light on the eye; and counting sensitivity of scan lines used to measure diameter, and output voltage. To estimate the accuracy of the measurements, an artificial eye was designed and a series of runs performed with the oculometer system. When refraction effects are included, results show that pupil diameter is a parabolic function of the azimuth angle similar to the cosine function predicted by theory: this error can be accounted for by using a correction equation, reducing the error from 6% to 1.5% of the actual diameter. Elevation angle and illumination effects were found to be negligible. The effects of counting sensitivity and output voltage can be calculated directly from system documentation. The overall accuracy of the unmodified system is about 6%. After correcting for the azimuth angle errors, the overall accuracy is approximately 2%

Performance of Cooperatives and Investor-Owned Firms in the Dairy Industry

A comparison of regional dairy cooperatives with investor-owned dairy firms from the period 1976-87 produced empirical findings that are at variance with the hypotheses suggested by the theory of cooperatives. The cooperatives in the sample performed significantly better than the IOFs when compared by leverage, liquidity, asset turnover, and coverage ratios, while the rate of return to equity was not found to be significantly different. Techniques are also proposed for valuing the nonmarket aspects of cooperatives that are not captured by financial ratio analysis.Agribusiness, Livestock Production/Industries,

COOPERATIVES AND INVESTOR OWNED FIRMS: DO THEY MARCH TO THE SAME DRUMMER?

Agribusiness,

MODELING COUPON VALUES FOR READY-TO-EAT BREAKFAST CEREALS

A theoretical framework is developed to highlight the significant determinants of coupon values. A fixed effects panel data model is fitted with data from the breakfast cereal industry. The explanatory variables include own retail price, brand loyalty, brand market share, rival coupon redemptions, and firm and product type indicators.coupons, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, panel data model, Consumer/Household Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

The Economic Impacts Associated with Locally Owned Agricultural Cooperatives: A Comparison of the Great Plains and the Eastern Cornbelt

Agribusiness,

Positivity of Chern Classes for Reflexive Sheaves on P^N

It is well known that the Chern classes $c_i$ of a rank $n$ vector bundle on \PP^N, generated by global sections, are non-negative if $i\leq n$ and vanish otherwise. This paper deals with the following question: does the above result hold for the wider class of reflexive sheaves? We show that the Chern numbers $c_i$ with $i\geq 4$ can be arbitrarily negative for reflexive sheaves of any rank; on the contrary for $i\leq 3$ we show positivity of the $c_i$ with weaker hypothesis. We obtain lower bounds for $c_1$, $c_2$ and $c_3$ for every reflexive sheaf \FF which is generated by H^0\FF on some non-empty open subset and completely classify sheaves for which either of them reach the minimum allowed, or some value close to it.Comment: 16 pages, no figure

CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF GMO COWPEAS IN SUB-SAHARA AFRICA

Cowpea is the most important indigenous African grain legume for both home use and as a cash crop. Because of its tolerance to drought it is especially important for the Sahel. Genetic transformation of cowpea with Bachilius Thurengius (Bt) genes to control pod boring insects has many advantages, but little is known of the potential consumer response. This paper analyzes and reports the results of a survey of 200 consumers in northern Nigeria in early 2003 concerning consumer awareness of and acceptance of biotechnology. Ninety percent of the respondents were aware of GM products. Those respondents who were most concerned about the ethics of genetic transformation were likely to disapprove of such products, while those individuals who identified international radio as an information source were more likely to approve of GM technology.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,