251 research outputs found
A Return of the Threshing Ring? Motivations, Benefits and Challenges of Machinery and Labor Sharing Arrangements
Cooperative approaches provide an alternative for small- and medium-sized producers to obtain the efficiencies of large farming operations and remain competitive in an increasingly concentrated agricultural industry. This article examines the motivation and effectiveness of equipment and labor sharing arrangements in the Midwestern US. Case study evidence shows that in addition to cost savings, access to skilled, seasonal labor is an important motivation for farm-level cooperation. Key factors identified for successful cooperative agreements include compatibility of operations and members' willingness to communicate and adapt. Sharing resources is found to improve farm profitability, efficiency and farmers' quality of life.machinery sharing; skilled farm labor; productivity; farm-level cooperations
Pleistocene Mollusca of the Sunbeam Prairie Lacustrine Deposit, Darke Co., Ohio
Author Institution: Department of Geology, University of Toledo; U.S. Geological SurveyA study of the molluscan fauna of the Sunbeam Prairie lacustrine deposit of Darke County, OH combined with palynologic data from an earlier study provide an interpretation of the Late Wisconsinan history. Early Sunbeam Prairie Lake had a molluscan fauna dominated by Gyraulus parvus and Valvata lewisi. Valvata tricarinata, Fossaria obrussa, Gyraulus parvus, and Pisidium casertanum were dominant members of the diverse molluscan assemblage that existed during marl deposition, suggesting changing littoral conditions. The appearance of amnicolids and scattered terrestrial gastropods in the upper part of the marl section indicates a shallowing of water and an increase in aquatic vegetation. The latest stage of Sunbeam Prairie Lake was characterized by gradual infilling with humic sediments, reduction of the aquatic molluscan fauna, and an increase in the terrestrial gastropod fauna. A comparison of our molluscan data to earlier pollen data for the deposit provides inconclusive support for the recognition of the Two Creeks interval in pollen diagrams of central Indiana and Ohio
Layers, Pullets, and the Egg Production Sector
The egg production sector has undergone radical change during the past 25 years. Iowa egg production prior to the 1960s was conducted through relatively small extensively managed flocks dispersed on diversified farming operations. Since that time new technologies have resulted in the industry moving rapidly to specialized intensively managed facilities in fewer locations. This trend can be seen in figure 1 showing the number of Iowa layer and \u27pullet producers in 1964,1978 and 1987. The total number of producers in 1964 was about 72,000. By 1978 that total, had declined by more than 80% to about 11,000. Between 1978 and 1987 it fell by another 50% to less than 5,000
Crop Insurance Purchase Decisions: A Study of Northern Illinois Farmers
When selecting crop insurance coverage, farmers must consider multiple factors. The importance associated with factors that are considered when making crop insurance decisions varies among individual farmers. As available crop insurance options increase, selecting the appropriate coverage becomes a more complicated process. The prevalence of crop insurance participation and the existence of multiple selection criteria also makes understanding participant decisions more difficult. This paper provides findings of a mail survey conducted among farmers in northern Illinois. Mainly, this paper examines factors influencing farmers’ crop insurance purchase decisions, types of coverage purchased, and farmers’ risk attitudes.Crop Production/Industries,
A return of the threshing ring? Motivations, benefits and challenges of machinery and labor sharing arrangements
Cooperative approaches provide an alternative for small- and medium-sized producers to obtain the efficiencies of large farming operations and remain competitive in an increasingly concentrated agricultural industry. This article examines the motivation and effectiveness of equipment and labor sharing arrangements in the Midwestern US. Case study evidence shows that in addition to cost savings, access to skilled, seasonal labor is an important motivation for farm-level cooperation. Key factors identified for successful cooperative agreements include compatibility of operations and members\u27 willingness to communicate and adapt. Sharing resources is found to improve farm profitability, efficiency and farmers\u27 quality of life
African-American patients with cancer Talking About Clinical Trials (TACT) with oncologists during consultations: evaluating the efficacy of tailored health messages in a randomised controlled trial—the TACT study protocol
Introduction Low rates of accrual of African-American (AA) patients with cancer to therapeutic clinical trials (CTs) represent a serious and modifiable racial disparity in healthcare that impedes the development of promising cancer therapies. Suboptimal physician–patient consultation communication is a barrier to the accrual of patients with cancer of any race, but communication difficulties are compounded with AA patients. Providing tailored health messages (THM) to AA patients and their physician about CTs has the potential to improve communication, lower barriers to accrual and ameliorate health disparities. Objective (1) Demonstrate the efficacy of THM to increase patient activation as measured by direct observation. (2) Demonstrate the efficacy of THM to improve patient outcomes associated with barriers to AA participation. (3) Explore associations among preconsultation levels of: (A) trust in medical researchers, (B) knowledge and attitudes towards CTs, (C) patient-family member congruence in decision-making, and (D) involvement/information preferences, and group assignment. Methods and analysis First, using established methods, we will develop THM materials. Second, the efficacy of the intervention is determined in a 2 by 2 factorial randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of (1) providing 357 AA patients with cancer with THM with 2 different ‘depths’ of tailoring and (2) either providing feedback to oncologists about the patients\u27 trial THM or not. The primary analysis compares patient engaged communication in 4 groups preconsultation and postconsultation. Ethics and dissemination This study was approved by the Virginia Commonwealth University Institutional Review Board. To facilitate use of the THM intervention in diverse settings, we will convene ‘user groups’ at 3 major US cancer centres. To facilitate dissemination, we will post all materials and the implementation guide in publicly available locations
Statistical-mechanical theory of the overall magnetic properties of mesocrystals
The mesocrystal showing both electrorheological and magnetorheological
effects is called electro-magnetorheological (EMR) solids. Prediction of the
overall magnetic properties of the EMR solids is a challenging task due to the
coexistence of the uniaxially anisotropic behavior and structural transition as
well as long-range interaction between the suspended particles. To consider the
uniaxial anisotropy effect, we present an anisotropic Kirkwood-Fr\"{o}hlich
equation for calculating the effective permeabilities by adopting an explicit
characteristic spheroid rather than a characteristic sphere used in the
derivation of the usual Kirkwood-Fr\"{o}hlich equation. Further, by applying an
Ewald-Kornfeld formulation we are able to investigate the effective
permeability by including the structural transition and long-range interaction
explicitly. Our theory can reduce to the usual Kirkwood-Fr\"{o}hlich equation
and Onsager equation naturally. To this end, the numerical simulation shows the
validity of monitoring the structure of EMR solids by detecting their effective
permeabilities.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur
Dynamics of metallic stripes in cuprates
We study the dynamics of metallic vertical stripes in cuprates within the
three-band Hubbard model based on a recently developed time dependent
Gutzwiller approximation. As doping increases the optical conductivity shows
transfer of spectral weight from the charge transfer band towards i) an
incoherent band centered at 1.3eV, {ii} a Drude peak, mainly due to motion
along the stripe, {iii} a low energy collective mode which softens with doping
and merges with ii} at optimum doping in good agreement with experiment. The
softening is related to the quasidegeneracy between Cu centered and O centered
mean-field stripe solutions close to optimal doping.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, corrections to Fig.
The Antiferromagnetic Band Structure of La2CuO4 Revisited
Using the Becke-3-LYP functional, we have performed band structure
calculations on the high temperature superconductor parent compound, La2CuO4.
Under the restricted spin formalism (rho(alpha) equal to rho(beta)), the
R-B3LYP band structure agrees well with the standard LDA band structure. It is
metallic with a single Cu x2-y2/O p(sigma) band crossing the Fermi level. Under
the unrestricted spin formalism (rho(alpha) not equal to rho(beta)), the UB3LYP
band structure has a spin polarized antiferromagnetic solution with a band gap
of 2.0 eV, agreeing well with experiment. This state is 1.0 eV (per formula
unit) lower than that calculated from the R-B3LYP. The apparent high energy of
the spin restricted state is attributed to an overestimate of on-site Coulomb
repulsion which is corrected in the unrestricted spin calculations. The
stabilization of the total energy with spin polarization arises primarily from
the stabilization of the x2-y2 band, such that the character of the eigenstates
at the top of the valence band in the antiferromagnetic state becomes a strong
mixture of Cu x2-y2/O p(sigma) and Cu z2/O' p(z). Since the Hohenberg-Kohn
theorem requires the spin restricted and spin unrestricted calculations give
exactly the same ground state energy and total density for the exact
functionals, this large disparity in energy reflects the inadequacy of current
functionals for describing the cuprates. This calls into question the use of
band structures based on current restricted spin density functionals (including
LDA) as a basis for single band theories of superconductivity in these
materials.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B, for more information
see http://www.firstprinciples.co
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