The role of non-pecuniary benefits in the labour allocation decision of farmers.

working paperPrevious research has primarily focused on the impact of economic variables in explaining the off farm labour allocation decisions of principal farm operators. This study finds attitudes regarding the non-pecuniary benefits associated with the farming lifestyle also significantly affect behaviour by acting as a strong disincentive to farmers towards working off farm. This may suggest that even if economic returns are greater in the offfarm labour market, farmers may not supply additional labour off farm. We also employed separate models of off-farm labour market participation and off-farm labour supply and found certain variables such as a farm operator’s age and the level of diversification undergone by the farm business affect off farm labour market participation and hours supplied differently

An approach from a Vygotskian viewpoint to the teaching of poetry in German in the Irish primary school. An Empirical Study.

This study attempts to explore an approach to the appreciation of poetry in a foreign language, in this case German, by children with a limited competency in that language. The study focuses on the child in the context of the present curriculum for Irish primary schools. Based on a socio-cultural constructivist ethos, it examines a step by step mediated approach to the appropriation of poetry in which group interaction and dialogue play an important role. The study contains a review of the history of the introduction of foreign language learning into the primary sector, from the introduction of the Curaclam na Bunscoile (The New Curriculum) of 1971, until the release in November 2009 of the NCCA 2008 report ‘Modern Languages in the Primary school curriculum Feasibilities and Futures’. The study argues against the main premise of the report, the substitution of a language awareness approach in place of language competency. The study is based on the socio-cultural theories of consciousness of Lev Vygotsky and Piotr Gal’perin, with particular reference to Concept Formation, the Genetic Method, Mediation, Internalization, The Zone of Proximal Development and Object-Orientated Activity Theory. The theoretical and practical implications of a constructivist classroom approach are discussed and evaluated. Theoretical assumptions on the teaching of poetry in general are discussed. There is a critical review of current literature on the uses of poetry in foreign language learning, and a clarification of the methodology proposed for the empirical study. Based on a year’s work on the appropriation of poetry with primary students, the empirical study selects six poems on which the children work in a step-by-step, mediated approach, enabling them to achieve aesthetic response and personal appropriation of the poetry. It uses teacher’s notes, children’s work and detailed descriptions of the methods used, to clarify, assess and evaluate qualitatively the work undertaken. It concludes with suggestions for the further application of the methods involved and possible future research areas

Mathematical Modelling of Tyndall Star Initiation

The superheating that usually occurs when a solid is melted by volumetric heating can produce irregular solid-liquid interfaces. Such interfaces can be visualised in ice, where they are sometimes known as Tyndall stars. This paper describes some of the experimental observations of Tyndall stars and a mathematical model for the early stages of their evolution. The modelling is complicated by the strong crystalline anisotropy, which results in an anisotropic kinetic undercooling at the interface; it leads to an interesting class of free boundary problems that treat the melt region as infinitesimally thin

Land Use Change and Policy in Iowa’s Loess Hills

We consider land use change in Iowa’s Loess Hills, which contain much of the state’s remaining prairie grassland. Although crop production has expanded on the landform since 2005, much of this expansion has been from soybean into corn with a clear trend toward more intensive corn rotations. Forest land has expanded in the area while we do not find evidence of extensive conversion to development. Data indicate that crop production has moved away from more heavily sloped land, but the increase in cropping does not appear to be occurring on land with high crop productivity

Characterizing and Comprehending Land Use Change in the Loess Hills Region

Regional land use change has important implications for ecosystems and the local human population. Metropolitan areas (MAs) are placing increasing emphasis on amenities and the environment when seeking to attract high income workers and their employers. Our interest is in characterizing land use change in Iowa’s Loess Hills Ecoregion (ILHE) that skirts both Sioux City and Council Bluffs MAs. ILHE is a distinctive landform of silty soils up to 200 feet high that were wind deposited just east of the Missouri River floodplain. Covering about 0.7 million acres, the Loess hills stretch north about 200 miles (usually no wider than 15 miles) from Holt County, Missouri, to Plymouth County, Iowa and are largely under private ownership. Although the soils are rich, cultivation has been difficult so that the region contains more than 50 percent of Iowa’s remnant prairie. However, technologies that allow cropping on steeply sloped and highly erodible terrains, increasing agricultural prices, and pressure for urban development have led to concerns about habitat loss conversion and fragmentation (Farnsworth et al. 2010)

Ultralong-range radiative excitation transfer between quantum dots in a planar microcavity

We study the system of two quantum dots lying on the central plane of a planar semiconductor microcavity. By solving the full Maxwell problem, we demonstrate that the rate of resonant excitation transfer between the two dots decays as $d^{-1/2}$ as a function of the distance $d$ at long distance. This very long-range mechanism is due to the leaky and guided modes of the microcavity, which act as effective radiative transfer channels. At short distance, the $d^{-3}$ dependence of the F\"orster mechanism, induced by the electrostatic dipole-dipole interaction, is recovered

Land Use Change and Policy in Iowa’s Loess Hills

Land use changes have important implications on ecosystems and society. Detailed identification of the nature of land use changes in any local region is critical for policy design. In this paper, we quantify land use change in Iowa’s Loess Hills ecoregion, which contains much of the state’s remaining prairie grasslands. We employ two distinct panel datasets, the National Resource Inventory data and multi-year Cropland Data Layers, that allow us to characterize spatially-explicit land use change in the region over the period 1982-2010. We analyze land use trends, land use transitions and crop rotations within the ecoregion, and contrast these with county and state-level changes. To better comprehend the underlying land use changes, we evaluate our land use characterizing metrics conditional on soil quality variables such as slope and erodibility. We also consider the role of contemporary agricultural policy and commodity markets to seek explanations for land use changes during the period of our study. Although crop production has expanded on the Loess Hills landform since 2005, much of the expansion in corn acres has been from reduced soybean acreage. We find that out of the total 258 km2 increase in corn acreage during 2005-’10, about 100 km2 transitioned from soybeans. Data also indicate intensifying monoculture with higher percentage of corn plantings for two to four consecutive years during 2000-’10. In addition, crop production is found to have moved away from more heavily sloped land. Cropping does not appear to have increased on lands with higher crop productivity

What makes self-help interventions effective in the management of depressive symptoms? Meta-analysis and meta-regression.

Reproduced with permission of the publisher. © 2007 Cambridge University Press.Background. Although self-help interventions are effective in treating depression, less is known about the factors that determine effectiveness (i.e. moderators of effect). This study sought to determine whether the content of self-help interventions, the study populations or aspects of study design were the most important moderators. Method. Randomized trials of the effectiveness of self-help interventions versus controls in the treatment of depressive symptoms were identified using previous reviews and electronic database searches. Data on moderators (i.e. patient populations, study design, intervention content) and outcomes were extracted and analysed using meta-regression. Results. Thirty-four studies were identified with 39 comparisons. Study design factors associated with greater effectiveness were unclear allocation concealment, observer-rated outcome measures and waiting-list control groups. Greater effectiveness was also associated with recruitment in non-clinical settings, patients with existing depression (rather than those ‘at risk ’), contact with a therapist (i.e. guided self-help) and the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques. However, only guided self-help remained significant in the multivariate analysis [regression coefficient 0.36, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.05–0.68, p=0.03]. In the subset of guided studies, there were no significant associations between outcomes and the session length, content, delivery mode or therapist background. Conclusions. The results provide some insights into moderators of self-help interventions, which might assist in the design of future interventions. However, the present study did not provide a comprehensive description, and other research methods might be required to identify factors associated with the effectiveness of self-help