DECOUPLED PAYMENTS: HOUSEHOLD INCOME TRANSFERS IN CONTEMPORARY U.S. AGRICULTURE

Decoupled payments are lump-sum income transfers to farm operators that do not depend on current production, factor use, or commodity prices. Such payments are not currently constrained by global trade rules, but many countries argue that they distort production and trade and that their use should be limited. This report examines the U.S. experience with decoupled payments in its Production Flexibility Contracts program under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of 1996. The payments have improved the well-being of recipient farm households, enabling them to comfortably increase spending, savings, investments, and leisure but with minimal distortion of U.S. agricultural production and trade. However, farm operators may retain as little as 40 percent of program benefits due to higher land rents. While commercial farms received the largest share of decoupled payments, they rent in over two-thirds of their program acres, which suggests that a sizable portion of their program benefits may be passed through to nonfarming landowners.Consumer/Household Economics,

Differential phase shift keyed signal resolver

A differential phase shift keyed signal resolver resolves the differential phase shift in the incoming signal to determine the data content thereof overcoming phase uncertainty without requiring a transmitted reference signal

Four-phase differential phase shift resolver

Two systems have been developed to resolve phase uncertainty without transmitting reference signals. In both methods signal is impressed on carrier as differential, rather than absolute, phase shift. At the receiver four-phase demodulation and logic process unambiguously resolves differential phase shift of input carrier

FIRM EFFICIENCY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY USE: EVIDENCE FROM U.S. CASH GRAIN FARMS

We implement stochastic frontier analysis techniques to show the effects of information technology use on firm efficiency. Results from a sample of 1,865 U.S. cash grain farms reveals that information technology use within the farm business moved farms significantly towards the efficiency frontier. Also moving farms towards the efficiency frontier were the use of written long-term plans, advanced input acquisition strategies, and increased farm labor hours relative to total labor hours. In contrast, an increase in the debt to asset ratio was associated with movements away from the efficiency frontier.Crop Production/Industries,

ARE U.S. FARM PROGRAMS GOOD PUBLIC POLICY? TAKING POLICY PERFORMANCE SERIOUSLY

Distributional analysis is employed to assess the ethical acceptability of agricultural policy along plurastic moral criteria. Using 1999 micro-data from USDA ARMS survey and the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, we discuss policy performance (measured as the effect of direct government payments on the distribution of incomes and profits) relative to policy goals. We show that current programs only minimally address the post-?farm problem? objective of providing a safety net, and the goal of providing an abundant supply of agricultural products is potentially well-implemented given institutional constraints.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Structural tailoring of counter rotation propfans

The STAT program was designed for the optimization of single rotation, tractor propfan designs. New propfan designs, however, generally consist of two counter rotating propfan rotors. STAT is constructed to contain two levels of analysis. An interior loop, consisting of accurate, efficient approximate analyses, is used to perform the primary propfan optimization. Once an optimum design has been obtained, a series of refined analyses are conducted. These analyses, while too computer time expensive for the optimization loop, are of sufficient accuracy to validate the optimized design. Should the design prove to be unacceptable, provisions are made for recalibration of the approximate analyses, for subsequent reoptimization

Validation of scramjet exhaust simulation technique at Mach 6

Current design philosophy for hydrogen-fueled, scramjet-powered hypersonic aircraft results in configurations with strong couplings between the engine plume and vehicle aerodynamics. The experimental verification of the scramjet exhaust simulation is described. The scramjet exhaust was reproduced for the Mach 6 flight condition by the detonation tube simulator. The exhaust flow pressure profiles, and to a large extent the heat transfer rate profiles, were then duplicated by cool gas mixtures of Argon and Freon 13B1 or Freon 12. The results of these experiments indicate that a cool gas simulation of the hot scramjet exhaust is a viable simulation technique except for phenomena which are dependent on the wall temperature relative to flow temperature

Validation of scramjet exhaust simulation technique

Scramjet/airframe integration design philosophy for hypersonic aircraft results in configurations having lower aft surfaces that serve as exhaust nozzles. There is a strong coupling between the exhaust plume and the aerodynamics of the vehicle, making accurate simulation of the engine exhaust mandatory. The experimental verification of the simulation procedure is described. The detonation tube simulator was used to produce an exact simulation of the scramjet exhaust for a Mach 8 flight condition. The pressure distributions produced by the exact exhaust flow were then duplicated by a cool mixture Argon and Freon 13B1. Such a substitute gas mixture validated by the detonation tube technique could be used in conventional wind tunnel tests. The results presented show the substitute gas simulation technique to be valid for shockless expansions

Differential phase shift keyed communication system

A communication system using differential phase-shift-keying (DPSK) transmits and receives binary data without requiring timing or phase reference signals. The system encodes and modulates the data at the transmitter, and decodes and demodulates the data at the receiver, without ambiguity as to the data content

Multiscale probability mapping: groups, clusters and an algorithmic search for filaments in SDSS

We have developed a multiscale structure identification algorithm for the detection of overdensities in galaxy data that identifies structures having radii within a user-defined range. Our "multiscale probability mapping" technique combines density estimation with a shape statistic to identify local peaks in the density field. This technique takes advantage of a user-defined range of scale sizes, which are used in constructing a coarse-grained map of the underlying fine-grained galaxy distribution, from which overdense structures are then identified. In this study we have compiled a catalogue of groups and clusters at 0.025 < z < 0.24 based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Data Release 7, quantifying their significance and comparing with other catalogues. Most measured velocity dispersions for these structures lie between 50 and 400 km/s. A clear trend of increasing velocity dispersion with radius from 0.2 to 1 Mpc/h is detected, confirming the lack of a sharp division between groups and clusters. A method for quantifying elongation is also developed to measure the elongation of group and cluster environments. By using our group and cluster catalogue as a coarse-grained representation of the galaxy distribution for structure sizes of <~ 1 Mpc/h, we identify 53 filaments (from an algorithmically-derived set of 100 candidates) as elongated unions of groups and clusters at 0.025 < z < 0.13. These filaments have morphologies that are consistent with previous samples studied.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures and 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Data products, three-dimensional visualisations and further information about MSPM can be found at http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/sifa/Main/MSPM/ . v2 contains two additional references. v3 has a slightly altered title and updated reference