1,492 research outputs found
IMPACT OF RISK PREFERENCES ON CROP ROTATION CHOICE
Stochastic dominance analysis of five crop rotations using twenty-one years of experimental yield data returned results consistent with Pennsylvania cropping practices. The analysis incorporated yield risk, output price risk, and rotational yield effects. A rotation of two years corn and three years alfalfa hay dominated for approximately risk neutral and risk averse preferences, as did participation in government programs under the 1990 Farm Bill. Crop rotation selection appeared to impact net revenues more than the decision to participate in government programs.Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,
HIV/AIDS Employees, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Their Impact on Small Business
This article examines the AIDS epidemic and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as they impact on small businesses. A recent Supreme Court ruling provides extensive ADA protection for employees with HIV/AIDS. New therapies now allow HIV/AIDS victims to live longer and many want to work. Because some stereotypes about the disease exist, many small businesses are unaware that the ADA protects these employees and may violate their civil rights. The article examines this ADA protection and provides a sample policy for small businesses
Feasibility of Large High-Powered Solar Electric Propulsion Vehicles: Issues and Solutions
Human exploration beyond low Earth orbit will require the use of enabling technologies that are efficient, affordable, and reliable. Solar electric propulsion (SEP) has been proposed by NASA s Human Exploration Framework Team as an option to achieve human exploration missions to near Earth objects (NEOs) because of its favorable mass efficiency as compared to traditional chemical systems. This paper describes the unique challenges and technology hurdles associated with developing a large high-power SEP vehicle. A subsystem level breakdown of factors contributing to the feasibility of SEP as a platform for future exploration missions to NEOs is presented including overall mission feasibility, trip time variables, propellant management issues, solar array power generation, array structure issues, and other areas that warrant investment in additional technology or engineering development
Germline and somatic JAK2 mutations and susceptibility to chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms
Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are a group of closely related stem-cell-derived clonal proliferative diseases. Most cases are sporadic but first-degree relatives of MPN patients have a five- to seven-fold increased risk for developing an MPN. The tumors of most patients carry a mutation in the Janus kinase 2 gene (JAK2V617F). Recently, three groups have described a strong association of JAK2 germline polymorphisms with MPN in patients positive for JAK2V617F. The somatic mutation occurs primarily on one particular germline JAK2 haplotype, which may account for as much as 50% of the risk to first-degree relatives. This finding provides new directions for unraveling the pathogenesis of MPN
The All-Data-Based Evolutionary Hypothesis of Ciliated Protists with a Revised Classification of the Phylum Ciliophora (Eukaryota, Alveolata)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The file attached is the published version of the article
Different paths to the modern state in Europe: the interaction between domestic political economy and interstate competition
Theoretical work on state formation and capacity has focused mostly on early modern Europe and on the experience of western European states during this period. While a number of European states monopolized domestic tax collection and achieved gains in state capacity during the early modern era, for others revenues stagnated or even declined, and these variations motivated alternative hypotheses for determinants of fiscal and state capacity. In this study we test the basic hypotheses in the existing literature making use of the large date set we have compiled for all of the leading states across the continent. We find strong empirical support for two prevailing threads in the literature, arguing respectively that interstate wars and changes in economic structure towards an urbanized economy had positive fiscal impact. Regarding the main point of contention in the theoretical literature, whether it was representative or authoritarian political regimes that facilitated the gains in fiscal capacity, we do not find conclusive evidence that one performed better than the other. Instead, the empirical evidence we have gathered lends supports to the hypothesis that when under pressure of war, the fiscal performance of representative regimes was better in the more urbanized-commercial economies and the fiscal performance of authoritarian regimes was better in rural-agrarian economie
System-Size Independence of Directed Flow Measured at the BNL Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider
We measure directed flow (ν_1) for charged particles in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at √S_(NN)=200 and 62.4 GeV, as a function of pseudorapidity (η), transverse momentum (p_t), and collision centrality, based on data from the STAR experiment. We find that the directed flow depends on the incident energy but, contrary to all available model implementations, not on the size of the colliding system at a given centrality. We extend the validity of the limiting fragmentation concept to ν_1 in different collision systems, and investigate possible explanations for the observed sign change in ν_1(p_t)
Measurements of meson production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC
We present results for the measurement of meson production via its
charged kaon decay channel in Au+Au collisions at
, 130, and 200 GeV, and in and +Au collisions
at GeV from the STAR experiment at the BNL Relativistic
Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The midrapidity () meson transverse
momentum () spectra in central Au+Au collisions are found to be well
described by a single exponential distribution. On the other hand, the
spectra from , +Au and peripheral Au+Au collisions show power-law tails
at intermediate and high and are described better by Levy
distributions. The constant yield ratio vs beam species, collision
centrality and colliding energy is in contradiction with expectations from
models having kaon coalescence as the dominant mechanism for production
at RHIC. The yield ratio as a function of is consistent
with a model based on the recombination of thermal quarks up to GeV/, but disagrees at higher transverse momenta. The measured nuclear
modification factor, , for the meson increases above unity at
intermediate , similar to that for pions and protons, while is
suppressed due to the energy loss effect in central Au+Au collisions. Number of
constituent quark scaling of both and for the meson
with respect to other hadrons in Au+Au collisions at =200 GeV
at intermediate is observed. These observations support quark
coalescence as being the dominant mechanism of hadronization in the
intermediate region at RHIC.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, 4 table
Identified baryon and meson distributions at large transverse momenta from Au+Au collisions at GeV
Transverse momentum spectra of , and up to 12 GeV/c
at mid-rapidity in centrality selected Au+Au collisions at GeV are presented. In central Au+Au collisions, both and
show significant suppression with respect to binary scaling at
4 GeV/c. Protons and anti-protons are less suppressed than
, in the range 1.5 6 GeV/c. The and
ratios show at most a weak dependence and no significant
centrality dependence. The ratios in central Au+Au collisions approach
the values in p+p and d+Au collisions at 5 GeV/c. The results at high
indicate that the partonic sources of , and have
similar energy loss when traversing the nuclear medium.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
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