Estimating Consumersï¾’ Valuation of Organic and Cosmetically Damaged Apples

A mixed probit model was applied to survey data to analyze consumersï¾’ willingness to buy apples with cosmetic damage caused by the sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) disease complex. The analysis finds consumers will pay a premium for organic production methods and for apples with low amounts of SBFS damage. Behavioral variables such as experience in growing fruit significantly affect the willingness to buy apples of different damage levels. Consumersï¾’ tolerance of very blemished apples is limited and they trade off production technology attributes for cosmetic appearance. Better understanding of this trade-off is important to organic producersï¾’ decisions about disease control.

Fungicide Evaluation in Penncross Creeping Bentgrass at Greens Height

Fungicide evaluations for control of dollar spot and brown spot in greens height creeping bentgrass were conducted at the Iowa State University Horticulture Station, Ames, IA

Fungicide Evaluation in Washington Creeping Bentgrass at Greens Height

Fungicide evaluations for control of brown spot in greens height creeping bentgrass were conducted at Veenker Memorial Golf Course, Ames, IA

Fungicide Evaluation in Penncross Creeping Bentgrass at Fairway Height

Fungicide evaluations for control of dollar spot and brown spot in fairway height creeping bentgrass were conducted at the Iowa State University Horticulture Station, Ames, IA

Adapting predictive models to reduce fungicide sprays on tomatoes in Iowa

Iowa tomato growers face critical challenges in pest control. The public is concerned about the health risks of pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables as well as environmental contamination; the result has been fewer, more restricted, more expensive pesticide products for minor crops such as tomatoes. At the same time, the market continues to demand high-quality, abundant, blemish-free produce

Structural contributions to the pressure-tuned charge-density-wave to superconductor transition in ZrTe3: Raman scattering studies

Superconductivity evolves as functions of pressure or doping from charge-ordered phases in a variety of strongly correlated systems, suggesting that there may be universal characteristics associated with the competition between superconductivity and charge order in these materials. We present an inelastic light (Raman) scattering study of the structural changes that precede the pressure-tuned charge-density-wave (CDW) to superconductor transition in one such system, ZrTe3. In certain phonon bands, we observe dramatic linewidth reductions that accompany CDW formation, indicating that these phonons couple strongly to the electronic degrees of freedom associated with the CDW. The same phonon bands, which represent internal vibrations of ZrTe3 prismatic chains, are suppressed at pressures above ~10 kbar, indicating a loss of long-range order within the chains, specifically amongst intrachain Zr-Te bonds. These results suggest a distinct structural mechanism for the observed pressure-induced suppression of CDW formation and provide insights into the origin of pressure-induced superconductivity in ZrTe3.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Time of Arrival from Bohmian Flow

We develop a new conception for the quantum mechanical arrival time distribution from the perspective of Bohmian mechanics. A detection probability for detectors sensitive to quite arbitrary spacetime domains is formulated. Basic positivity and monotonicity properties are established. We show that our detection probability improves and generalises earlier proposals by Leavens and McKinnon. The difference between the two notions is illustrated through application to a free wave packet.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Journ. Phys. A; representation of ref. 5 improved (thanks to Rick Leavens