Least-cost number, size, and location of turkey-processing plants in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin

In the last few years, various reports have dealt with costs of operation of turkey-processing plants. Through these reports and through their own experiences, processing plant managers are well aware of the existence of economies of large-scale operation and the reduction in costs possible from operating at or near capacity. Although the significance of economies of large-scale operation for the individual plant manager is well understood, the significance of these economies for an entire marketing system or for an entire turkey-production region has not been systematically investigated.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/specialreports/1060/thumbnail.jp

A Large Class Engagement (LCE) Model Based on Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) and Flipped Classrooms

Ensuring that university graduates are ready for their professional futures is a complex undertaking that includes, but is not limited to, the development of their professional knowledge and skills, and the provision of empowering learning experiences established through their own contributions. One way to draw these complex processes together for a large undergraduate class setting may be through a teaching and learning framework that centres on engagement. Engagement precipitates deeper learning, based on student-centred knowledge and skills development through co-creation. This conceptual paper proposes the Large Class Engagement model (LCE), which integrates high levels of student cognitive involvement and participation as antecedents to engagement, and treats engagement as a co-creation process between educators and students. The model applies services theory to conceptualise engagement in large flipped classes. The case study in this paper adds a new perspective to higher education. More specifically, it illustrates how a service dominant logic can be used to foster co-creation and thus enhance the learning experiences and outcomes in very large classes

Seedling Performance Associated with Live or Herbicide Treated Tall Fescue

Tall fescue is an important forage grass which can host systemic fungal endophytes. The association of host grass and endophyte is known to influence herbivore behavior and host plant competition for resources. Establishing legumes into existing tall fescue sods is a desirable means to acquire nitrogen and enhance the nutritive value of forage for livestock production. Competition from existing tall fescue typically must be controlled to ensure interseeding success. We used a soil-on-agar method to determine if soil from intact, living (L), or an herbicide killed (K) tall fescue sward influenced germination and seedling growth of three cultivars of tall fescue (E+, MaxQ, and E−) or legumes (alfalfa, red clover, and white clover). After 30 days, seedlings were larger and present in greater numbers when grown in L soil rather than K soil. Root growth of legumes (especially white clover) and tall fescue (especially MaxQ) were not as vigorous in K soil as L soil. While shoot biomass was similar for all cultivars of tall fescue in L soil, MaxQ produced less herbage when grown in K soil. Our data suggest establishing legumes or fescue cultivars may not be improved by first killing the existing fescue sod and seedling performance can exhibit significant interseasonal variation, related only to soil conditions

Physiological monitoring technique using unattached sensors

Electronic instrumentation for body impedance change and electrocardiographic measurements using unattached electrode

Parental supervision positively impacts children’s economic prospects two decades later: A prospective longitudinal study

Importance Upward income mobility is associated with better health outcomes and reduced stress. However, opportunities are unequally distributed, particularly so for those in rural communities and whose family have lower educational attainment. Objective To test the impact of parental supervision on their children’s income two decades later adjusting for parental economic and educational status. Design This study is a longitudinal, representative cohort study. From 1993–2000, annual assessments of 1,420 children were completed until age 16, then followed up at age 35, 2018–2021, for further assessment. Models tested direct effects of parental supervision on child income, and indirect effects via child educational attainment. Setting This study is an ongoing longitudinal population-based study of families in 11 predominately rural counties of the Southeastern U.S. Participants About 8% of the residents and sample are African American and fewer than 1% are Hispanic. American Indians make up 4% of the population in study but were oversampled to make up 25% of the sample. 49% of the 1,420 participants are female. Main outcomes and measures 1258 children and parents were assessed for sex, race/ethnicity, household income, parent educational attainment, family structure, child behavioral problems, and parental supervision. The children were followed up at age 35 to assess their household income and educational attainment. Results Parental educational attainment, income, and family structure were strongly associated with their children’s household income at age 35 (e.g., r = .392, p < .05). Parental supervision of the child was associated with increased household income for the child at age 35, adjusting for SES of the family of origin. Children of parents who did not engage in adequate supervision earned approximately $14,000 less/year (i.e., ~13% of the sample’s median household income) than those who did. The association of parental supervision and child income at 35 was mediated by the child’s educational attainment. Conclusion and relevance This study suggests adequate parental supervision during early adolescence is associated with children’s economic prospects two decades later, in part by improving their educational prospects. This is particularly important in areas such as rural Southeast U.S

On the nature of continuous physical quantities in classical and quantum mechanics

Within the traditional Hilbert space formalism of quantum mechanics, it is not possible to describe a particle as possessing, simultaneously, a sharp position value and a sharp momentum value. Is it possible, though, to describe a particle as possessing just a sharp position value (or just a sharp momentum value)? Some, such as Teller (Journal of Philosophy, 1979), have thought that the answer to this question is No -- that the status of individual continuous quantities is very different in quantum mechanics than in classical mechanics. On the contrary, I shall show that the same subtle issues arise with respect to continuous quantities in classical and quantum mechanics; and that it is, after all, possible to describe a particle as possessing a sharp position value without altering the standard formalism of quantum mechanics.Comment: 26 pages, LaTe

In defense of the epistemic view of quantum states: a toy theory

We present a toy theory that is based on a simple principle: the number of questions about the physical state of a system that are answered must always be equal to the number that are unanswered in a state of maximal knowledge. A wide variety of quantum phenomena are found to have analogues within this toy theory. Such phenomena include: the noncommutativity of measurements, interference, the multiplicity of convex decompositions of a mixed state, the impossibility of discriminating nonorthogonal states, the impossibility of a universal state inverter, the distinction between bi-partite and tri-partite entanglement, the monogamy of pure entanglement, no cloning, no broadcasting, remote steering, teleportation, dense coding, mutually unbiased bases, and many others. The diversity and quality of these analogies is taken as evidence for the view that quantum states are states of incomplete knowledge rather than states of reality. A consideration of the phenomena that the toy theory fails to reproduce, notably, violations of Bell inequalities and the existence of a Kochen-Specker theorem, provides clues for how to proceed with this research program.Comment: 32 pages, REVTEX, based on a talk given at the Rob Clifton Memorial Conference, College Park, May 2003; v2: minor modifications throughout, updated reference

Carbon isotope ratios of Great Plains soils and in wheat-fallow systems

Includes bibliographical references (pages 1076-1077).The purposes of this study were to improve knowledge of regional vegetation patterns of C3 and C4 plants in the North American Great Plains and to use δ13C methodology and long-term research sites to determine contributions of small-grain crops to total soil organic carbon (SOC) now present. Archived and recent soil samples were used. Detailed soil sampling was in 1993 at long-term sites near Akron, CO, and Sidney, NE. After soil sieving, drying, and deliming, SOC and δ13C were determined using an automated C/N analyzer interfaced to an isotope-ratio mass spectrometer. Yield records from long-term experimental sites were used to estimate the amount of C3 plant residue C returned to the soil. Results from δ13C analyses of soils from near Waldheim, Saskatchewan, to Big Springs, TX, showed a strong north to south decrease in SOC derived from C3 plants and a corresponding increase from C4 plants. The δ13C analyses gave evidence that C3 plant residue C (possibly from shrubs) is increasing at the Big Springs, TX, and Lawton, OK, sites. Also, δ13C analyses of subsoil and topsoil layers shows evidence of a regional shift to more C3 species, possibly because of a cooler climate during the past few hundreds to thousands of years. Data from long-term research sites indicate that the efficiency of incorporation of small-grain crop residue C was about 5.4% during 84 year at Akron, CO, and about 10.5% during 20 year at Sidney, NE. The 14C age of the SOC at 0- to 10-cm depth was 193 year and at 30 to 45 cm was 4000 yr; 14C age of nonhydrolyzable C was 2000 and 7000 year for these same two respective depths. Natural partitioning of the 13C isotope by the photosynthetic pathways of C3 and C4 plants provides a potentially powerful tool to study SOC dynamics at both regional and local scales

Electron-lattice relaxation, and soliton structures and their interactions in polyenes

Density matrix renormalisation group calculations of a suitably parametrised model of long polyenes (polyacetylene oligomers), which incorporates both long range Coulomb interactions and adiabatic lattice relaxation, are presented. The triplet and 2Ag states are found to have a 2-soliton and 4-soliton form, respectively, both with large relaxation energies. The 1Bu state forms an exciton-polaron and has a very small relaxation energy. The relaxed energy of the 2Ag state lies below that of the 1Bu state. The soliton/anti-soliton pairs are bound.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 4 eps figures included using epsf. To appear in Physical Review Letters. Fig. 1 fixed u