SOYBEANS QUALITY PRICE DIFFERENTIALS FROM AN ELEVATOR'S PERSPECTIVE

Soybean prices are determined by interaction between various factors. At an elevator, discount prices for unique characteristics can range from 0.02 cents per bushel to 7.71 cents per bushel of soybeans. This variation suggests that producers of soybeans need quality-characteristic specific information concerning soybeans pricing at the market. This study uses a hedonic model to evaluate price differentials associated with soybean quality based on grain elevator data during the 1998 production period. Foreign material, moisture, bean damage, and net weight were found to significantly influence the cash price of soybeans.hedonic, quality, discount, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,

A Suggested Course In Introductory Computer Programming

Introductory programming courses have long been a popular topic of discussion. Often it is either the only computer course a student takes, or it is the foundation upon which all further training in computer science is built. The usual goal of such a course is to introduce the student to the use of a computer to solve simple problems in his or her particular discipline. Generally, the method of presenting the material may be separated into two distinct schools of thought, which we have termed the Black Box School of Thought and the White Box School of Thought . In this paper, we discuss the benefits and drawbacks associated with the two alternative approaches. Additionally, we present a suggested course outline using the White Box method. © 1981, ACM. All rights reserved

Unseen and unheard? women managers and organizational learning

Purpose This paper uses (in)visibility as a lens to understand the lived experience of 6 women managers in the U.K. HQ of a large multinational organization, in order to identify how ‘gender’ is expressed in the context of organizational learning Design/methodology/approach The researchers take a phenomenological approach via qualitative data collection with a purposeful sample –the six female managers in a group of 24. Data was collected through quarterly semi structured interviews over 12 months with the themes - knowledge, interaction and gender. Findings Organisations seek to build advantage in order to gain and retain competitive leadership. Their resilience in a changing task environment depends on their ability to recognize, gain and use knowledge likely to deliver these capabilities. Here gender was a barrier to effective organizational learning with women's knowledge and experience often unseen and unheard. Research limitations/implications This is a piece of research limited to exploration of gender as other but ethnicity, age, social class, disability and sexual preference, alone or in combination may be equally subject to invisibility in knowledge terms, further research would be needed to test this however. Practical implications Practical applications relate to the need for organizations to examine and address their operations for exclusion based on perceived ‘otherness’. Gendered organizations cause problems for their female members but they also exclude the experience and knowledge of key individuals as seen here, where gender impacted on effective knowledge sharing and cocreation of knowledge. Originality/value This exploration of gender and organisational learning offers new insights to help explain the way in which organisational learning occurs – or fails to occur - with visibility/invisibility of one group shaped by gendered attitudes and processes. It shows that organizational learning is not gender neutral (as it appears in mainstream organizational learning research) and calls for researchers to include this as a factor in future research

Scaling the heights of positive psychology: A systematic review of measurement scales

The volume of empirical research on positive psychology topics has grown substantially over the past two decades.  This review examines how constructs in positive psychology have been operationalized, measured, validated, cited, and applied to build the science. Based on an archive of 972 empirical articles linked to positive psychology, this review found that 762 articles used at least one measurement scale; 312 measures were created or adapted.  Findings reveal a wide range of scales being used to measure a variety of constructs, including scales on both life-enhancing and life-depleting constructs.  Key characteristics such as journals, constructs, and scale development and validation information are discussed.  There are some reliability analyses and validations occurring within the field, but the creation of new measures far outpaces the validation of existing measures.  Weaknesses such as multiple operationalizations may be rooted in inadequate discourse and synthesis.  We call for further cross-pollination for a more scientifically robust scholarship in positive psychology

Hypervelocity Stars. I. The Spectroscopic Survey

We discuss our targeted search for hypervelocity stars (HVSs), stars traveling with velocities so extreme that dynamical ejection from a massive black hole is their only suggested origin. Our survey, now half complete, has successfully identified a total of four probable HVSs plus a number of other unusual objects. Here we report the most recently discovered two HVSs: SDSS J110557.45+093439.5 and possibly SDSS J113312.12+010824, traveling with Galactic rest-frame velocities at least +508+-12 and +418+-10 km/s, respectively. The other late B-type objects in our survey are consistent with a population of post main-sequence stars or blue stragglers in the Galactic halo, with mean metallicity [Fe/H]=-1.3 and velocity dispersion 108+-5 km/s. Interestingly, the velocity distribution shows a tail of objects with large positive velocities that may be a mix of low-velocity HVSs and high-velocity runaway stars. Our survey also includes a number of DA white dwarfs with unusually red colors, possibly extremely low mass objects. Two of our objects are B supergiants in the Leo A dwarf, providing the first spectroscopic evidence for star formation in this dwarf galaxy within the last ~30 Myr.Comment: 10 pages, uses emulateapj, accepted by Ap

Structure of MnO nanoparticles embedded into channel-type matrices

X-ray diffraction experiments were performed on MnO confined in mesoporous silica SBA-15 and MCM-41 matrices with different channel diameters. The measured patterns were analyzed by profile analysis and compared to numerical simulations of the diffraction from confined nanoparticles. From the lineshape and the specific shift of the diffraction reflections it was shown that the embedded objects form ribbon-like structures in the SBA-15 matrices with channels diameters of 47-87 {\AA}, and nanowire-like structures in the MCM-41 matrices with channels diameters of 24-35 {\AA}. In the latter case the confined nanoparticles appear to be narrower than the channel diameters. The physical reasons for the two different shapes of the confined nanoparticles are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, including 9 postscript figures, uses revtex4.cl

Sloan Digital Sky Survey Spectroscopic Lens Search. I. Discovery of Intermediate-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies Behind Foreground Luminous Red Galaxies

We present a catalog of 49 spectroscopic strong gravitational lens candidates selected from a Sloan Digital Sky Survey sample of 50996 luminous red galaxies. Potentially lensed star-forming galaxies are detected through the presence of background oxygen and hydrogen nebular emission lines in the spectra of these massive foreground galaxies. This multiline selection eliminates the ambiguity of single-line identification and provides a very promising sample of candidate galaxy-galaxy lens systems at low to intermediate redshift, with foreground redshifts ranging from 0.16 to 0.49 and background redshifts from 0.25 to 0.81. Any lenses confirmed within our sample would be important new probes of early-type galaxy mass distributions, providing complementary constraints to those obtained from currently known lensed high-redshift quasars.Comment: 23 pages; to appear in The Astronomical Journal, 2004 April. Version with full-resolution figures available at http://web.mit.edu/bolton/www/speclens.ps.gz (PostScript) or http://web.mit.edu/bolton/www/speclens.pdf (PDF