Competing Screening Rules

Various studies show that agricultural cooperatives behave differently than their investor-owned counterparts. One explanation may be that the internal decision making process differs in these two governance structures. A model is developed to explore how endogenous screening rules affect efficient organizational choices and industrial structures. It is shown that screening level choice may outweigh architecture choice and that screening rules are strategic substitutes. Conditions are derived under which cooperatives are efficient organizational forms. It is also shown that competition may increase the attractiveness of investor-owned firms and circumstances are determined in which cooperatives and investor owned firms coexist in equilibrium.architecture, screening, cooperatives, duopoly, Agribusiness, Q13,

Centralized versus individual: Governance of farmer professional cooperatives in China

Based on a national representative survey conducted in 2009, this study shows that the decision-making within Farmer Professional Cooperatives (FPCs) in China is decentralized to individual farmers. However, there is a trend that the decision rights of farming are decomposed to marketing, production and input procuring. While the rights for production and input procuring stay with family farmers, marketing rights tend to be collectivized. Compared to FPCs having external initiating sources, FPCs initiated by farmers are more inclined to introduce centralized decision-making. The governance structure of FPCs in transition China presents hybrid forms of both hierarchy and family farming. --Farmer,Cooperatives,Governance,China

Do Job, Age, and Place of Residence Matter for Gaming Activity? A Study of the Mid-Colorado River Communities

A household survey in the mid-Colorado River communities of Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead City, Arizona examined local residents\u27 gaming activities. A censored regression analysis distinguished between factors affecting gaming participation versus expenditures. Results suggest that gaming behavior can often be predicted with knowledge of individuals\u27 residence, workplace, and other household demographic characteristics. Both local government agencies and casino managers can use the results to make better-informed decisions

Microwave shielding of transparent and conducting single-walled carbon nanotube films

The authors measured the transport properties of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films in the microwave frequency range from 10 MHz to 30 GHz by using the Corbino reflection technique from temperatures of 20-400 K. Based on the real and imaginary parts of the microwave conductivity, they calculated the shielding effectiveness for various film thicknesses. Shielding effectiveness of 43 dB at 10 MHz and 28 dB at 10 GHz are found for films with 90% optical transmittance, which suggests that SWCNT films are promising as a type of transparent microwave shielding material. By combining their data with those from the literature, the conductivity of SWCNT films was established in a broad frequency range from dc to visible.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Constructing minimal telescopers for rational functions in three discrete variables

We present a new algorithm for constructing minimal telescopers for rational functions in three discrete variables. This is the first discrete reduction-based algorithm that goes beyond the bivariate case. The termination of the algorithm is guaranteed by a known existence criterion of telescopers. Our approach has the important feature that it avoids the potentially costly computation of certificates. Computational experiments are also provided so as to illustrate the efficiency of our approach