320 research outputs found
Measuring the Impact of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) on Irrigation Efficiency and Water Conservation
Since the passage of the 1996 Farm Act, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) has provided over $10 billion in technology adoption subsidies. One of the national conservation priorities in EQIP is water conservation, but it is not known how participation in EQIP by irrigators affects water application rates and decisions to expand or reduce a farmâs irrigated acreage. Using a farm-level panel data set drawn from three national samples of irrigators taken in 1998, 2003, and 2008, this study provides the first national scale econometric estimates of the changes in water application rates and irrigated acreage that result when a farm receives EQIP payments. Due to a five-fold increase in EQIP funding following the 2002 farm bill, the change in EQIP participation between 2008 and earlier years is largely the result of an exogenous policy shock. A difference-in-differences estimator that exploits this change in EQIP funding and also controls for unobserved farm-specific variables, suggests that for the average farm participating in EQIP between 2004 and 2008, the EQIP payments may have reduced water application rates but also may have increased total water use and led to an expansion in irrigated acreage. However, since EQIP participation is voluntary, there may still be a need to correct for bias due to sample selection. A nearest neighbor matching estimator finds no evidence of any statistically significant effect of EQIP participation on technology adoption rates, water use, water application rates or acreages, which suggests that there is a high degree of self-selection into the program.EQIP, irrigation efficiency, water conservation, difference-in-differences, matching estimator, Environmental Economics and Policy,
Participation in Conservation Programs by Targeted Farmers: Beginning, Limited-Resource, and Socially Disadvantaged Operators' Enrollment Trends
Beginning, limited-resource, and socially disadvantaged farmers make up as much as 40 percent of all U.S. farms. Some Federal conservation programs contain provisions that encourage participation by such âtargetedâ farmers and the 2008 Farm Act furthered these efforts. This report compares the natural resource characteristics, resource issues, and conservation treatment costs on farms operated by targeted farmers with those of other participants in the largest U.S. working-lands and land retirement conservation programs. Some evidence shows that targeted farmers tend to operate more environmentally sensitive land than other farmers, have different conservation priorities, and receive different levels of payments. Data limitations preclude a definitive analysis of whether efforts to improve participation by targeted farmers hinders or enhances the conservation programsâ ability to deliver environmental benefits cost effectively. But the different conservation priorities among types of farmers suggest that if a significantly larger proportion of targeted farmers participates in these programs, the programsâ economic and environmental outcomes could change.Conservation programs, Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), beginning farmers, limited-resource producers, socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,
Examining heterogeneity and wildfire management expenditures using spatially and temporally descriptive data
Increasing costs of wildfire management have highlighted the need to better understand suppression expenditures and potential tradeoffs of land management activities that may affect fire risks. Spatially and temporally descriptive data is used to develop a model of wildfire suppression expenditures, providing new insights into the role of spatial and temporal heterogeneity in determining expenditures. Incorporating heterogeneity improves model fit and predictive ability over a model with data based on the point and time of fire ignition. The model is potentially useful for providing expenditure information for simulated fire applications and post-season evaluation of suppression activities
The character of Vermont : twentieth-anniversary reflections
Occasional paper (University of Vermont. Center for Research on Vermont) ; no. 19.
pt. 1. The character of Vermont : then and now / Michael Sherman and Jennie Versteeg -- pt. 2. Vermont research and the center for research on Vermont / Samuel B. Hand, Paul Gillies
Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, and Issues
This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems. There is no consensus on a definition of âlocalâ or âlocal food systemsâ in terms of the geographic distance between production and consumption. But defining âlocalâ based on marketing arrangements, such as farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmersâ markets or to schools, is well recognized. Statistics suggest that local food markets account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage of their sales than for larger farms. Findings are mixed on the impact of local food systems on local economic development and better nutrition levels among consumers, and sparse literature is so far inconclusive about whether localization reduces energy use or greenhouse gas emissions.local food systems, farmersâ markets, direct-to-consumer marketing, direct-to-retail/ foodservice marketing, community supported agriculture, farm to school programs, Farmersâ Market Promotion Program, food miles, Community/Rural/Urban Development,
WISE/NEOWISE Observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2
We report results based on mid-infrared photometry of comet 103P/Hartley 2 taken during 2010 May 4-13 (when the comet was at a heliocentric distance of 2.3 AU, and an observer distance of 2.0 AU) by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Photometry of the coma at 22 ÎŒm and data from the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope obtained on 2010 May 22 provide constraints on the dust particle size distribution, d log n/d log m, yielding power-law slope values of alpha = â0.97 ± 0.10, steeper than that found for the inbound particle fluence during the Stardust encounter of comet 81P/Wild 2. The extracted nucleus signal at 12 ÎŒm is consistent with a body of average spherical radius of 0.6 ± 0.2 km (one standard deviation), assuming a beaming parameter of 1.2. The 4.6 ÎŒm band signal in excess of dust and nucleus reflected and thermal contributions may be attributed to carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide emission lines and provides limits and estimates of species production. Derived carbon dioxide coma production rates are 3.5(± 0.9) Ă 10^(24) molecules per second. Analyses of the trail signal present in the stacked image with an effective exposure time of 158.4 s yields optical-depth values near 9 Ă 10^(â10) at a delta mean anomaly of 0.2 deg trailing the comet nucleus, in both 12 and 22 ÎŒm bands. A minimum chi-squared analysis of the dust trail position yields a beta-parameter value of 1.0 Ă 10^(â4), consistent with a derived mean trail-grain diameter of 1.1/Ï cm for grains of Ï g cm^(â3) density. This leads to a total detected trail mass of at least 4 Ă 10^(10) Ï kg
Der frĂŒhe Beginn der Zwangsstörung
Einleitung: Die vorliegende Untersuchung geht der Fragestellung nach, ob sich eine Zwangsstörung, die bereits
im Kindes- bzw. Jugendalter beginnt, von einer Zwangsstörung, die erst im Erwachsenenalter beginnt, hinsichtlich Schweregrad und Symptomatik unterscheidet. Patienten und Methoden: Eine Stichprobe von 370 Patienten
mit Zwangsstörung (ICD-10 F42), die sich zwischen 1998
und 2002 stationÀr in der Psychosomatischen Klinik Windach
befanden, wurde in eine Early-Onset-Gruppe (Störungsbeginn â€15 Jahre) und in eine Late-Onset-Gruppe (Störungsbeginn â„16 Jahre) aufgeteilt. Die Gruppen wurden ĂŒber ICD-10-Diagnosen und Y-BOCSWerte verglichen. Ergebnisse: Beim Schweregrad zeigte sich, dass 20,5% der Early-Onset-Gruppe, aber lediglich 8,7% der Late-Onset-Gruppe unter einer «massiven Zwangsstörung» leiden. Bei der Symptomatik zeigte
sich, dass die Early-Onset-Gruppe hÀufiger die Diagnose
«Zwangsgedanken und -handlungen gemischt» (76,9%)erhĂ€lt als die Late-Onset-Gruppe (61,8%). AuĂerdem nennt die Early-Onset-Gruppe sowohl fĂŒr die Gegenwart als auch fĂŒr die Vergangenheit mehr Symptome als die Late-Onset-Gruppe (Gegenwart 8,2 vs. 7,0; Vergangenheit 5,5 vs. 3,9 Symptomgruppen). Weiter ergaben sich inhaltliche Unterschiede der Zwangsgedanken und Zwangshandlungen. Schlussfolgerungen: Early-Onset-Patienten scheinen hĂ€ufiger von einer massiven Form der Zwangsstörung und einer gröĂeren Symptomvielfalt betroffen zu sein als Late-Onset-Patienten. Ob es sich bei der Zwangsstörung mit Beginn im Kindes- und Jugendalter um einen abgrenzbaren Subtypus handelt, konnte jedoch in dieser Untersuchung nicht eindeutig geklĂ€rt werden und bedarf weiterer Forschungen.Introduction: This study investigates if obsessive compulsive disorder with early onset differs in severity and
symptomatology from that with late onset. Patients and
Methods: A sample of 370 patients with obsessive compulsive
disorder (OCD; ICD 10 F42) who received in-patient
treatment at the psychosomatic clinic of Windach between 1998 and 2002 were divided into an early-onset group (onset â€15 years) and a late-onset group (onset â„16 years). Groups were compared regarding ICD-10 diagnosis and Y-BOCS scores. Results: Considering severity of the disorder 20.5% of the early-onset group but merely 8.7% of the late-onset group suffered from an extreme form of OCD. With respect to symptomatology, the early-onset group was diagnosed with âobsessions and compulsions, mixedâ (76.9%) more often than the lateonset group (61.8%). Also, the early-onset group reported a wider variety of symptoms both for the present and for the past than the late-onset group (present 8,2 vs 7.0; past 5.5 vs 3.9 types of symptoms). There were also differences in the content of rumination and types of compulsive rituals. Conclusions: Patients with early-onset
OCD seem to be more frequently affected by an extreme form of OCD and to experience a higher variety of symptoms than patients with late-onset OCD. If early-onset OCD can be considered a distinct subtype could not be answered unequivocally by the results of this study. This question needs additional research
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