SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: HOW SHOULD GOVERNMENT COORDINATE FARM REGULATIONS AND POLICY?

Agricultural sustainability is an evolving process ever-seeking a balance between society's economic, environmental and social demands. Governmental policy and regulations while attempting to correct adverse externalities, have at times within themselves created adverse externalities. Failures often lie within the policies themselves, but poor coordination among government agencies is also at fault. This paper outlines a number of coordination issues and attempts to show how the empowerment of communities through ecosystem management is a partial solution to environmental degradation.Environmental regulation, Government policy, Regulation, Sustainability, Ecosystem management, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Bounds to the normal for proximity region graphs

In a proximity region graph ${\cal G}$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$, two distinct points $x,y$ of a point process $\mu$ are connected when the 'forbidden region' $S(x,y)$ these points determine has empty intersection with $\mu$. The Gabriel graph, where $S(x,y)$ is the open disc with diameter the line segment connecting $x$ and $y$, is one canonical example. When $\mu$ is a Poisson or binomial process, under broad conditions on the regions $S(x,y)$, bounds on the Kolmogorov and Wasserstein distances to the normal are produced for functionals of ${\cal G}$, including the total number of edges and the total length. Variance lower bounds, not requiring strong stabilization, are also proven to hold for a class of such functionals.Comment: 33 pages; changes in response to referees' comment

Transport systems research vehicle color display system operations manual

A recent upgrade of the Transport Systems Research Vehicle operated by the Advanced Transport Operating Systems Program Office at the NASA Langley Research Center has resulted in an all-glass panel in the research flight deck. Eight ARINC-D size CRT color displays make up the panel. A major goal of the display upgrade effort was ease of operation and maintenance of the hardware while maintaining versatility needed for flight research. Software is the key to this required versatility and will be the area demanding the most detailed technical design expertise. This document is is intended to serve as a single source of quick reference information needed for routine operation and system level maintenance. Detailed maintenance and modification of the display system will require specific design documentation and must be accomplished by individuals with specialized knowledge and experience

An application generator for rapid prototyping of Ada real-time control software

The need to increase engineering productivity and decrease software life cycle costs in real-time system development establishes a motivation for a method of rapid prototyping. The design by iterative rapid prototyping technique is described. A tool which facilitates such a design methodology for the generation of embedded control software is described

Some Potential Evolutionary Costs Associated with Paternal Care in the Water Bug Belostoma flumineum Say

Female water bugs (Belostoma flumineum) deposit eggs in a mucilaginous cement on the back of conspecific males, who then brood these eggs until hatching. Sex role reversal, in which females compete for males and males are discriminating, is predicted in this species because males provide parental care exclusively, and represent a limited resource. Presumably the advantage of this paternal behavior is increased survival of young. However, the potential exists for this egg-brooding behavior to incur evolutionary costs, and quantifying some of these costs was the thrust of this study. One cost, a loss of polygynous opportunity, was investigated in both laboratory and semi-natural field conditions by measuring the length of time the male spends brooding to the time females spend between successive clutches. Results suggest that females, after ovipositing one clutch of eggs, will oviposit a second clutch before her first clutch has hatched, if a mate is available. This suggests a cost of decreased polygynous opportunity for the male. Presumably, male water bugs would be less able to escape predators or capture prey while egg-ladden because of decreased swimming capabilities. Therefore an experiment was designed to measure swimming speed. Encumbered male B. flumineum swam significantly slower than unencumbered males or females. In addition, an experiment was undertaken to measure food intake. It was found that males eat less during the brooding period than after hatching. Therefore swimming speed reduction and decreased feeding may also be potential costs to male care

Some Potential Evolutionary Costs Associated with Paternal Care in the Water Bug Belostoma flumineum Say

Female water bugs (Belostoma flumineum) deposit eggs in a mucilaginous cement on the back of conspecific males, who then brood these eggs until hatching. Sex role reversal, in which females compete for males and males are discriminating, is predicted in this species because males provide parental care exclusively, and represent a limited resource. Presumably the advantage of this paternal behavior is increased survival of young. However, the potential exists for this egg-brooding behavior to incur evolutionary costs, and quantifying some of these costs was the thrust of this study. One cost, a loss of polygynous opportunity, was investigated in both laboratory and semi-natural field conditions by measuring the length of time the male spends brooding to the time females spend between successive clutches. Results suggest that females, after ovipositing one clutch of eggs, will oviposit a second clutch before her first clutch has hatched, if a mate is available. This suggests a cost of decreased polygynous opportunity for the male. Presumably, male water bugs would be less able to escape predators or capture prey while egg-ladden because of decreased swimming capabilities. Therefore an experiment was designed to measure swimming speed. Encumbered male B. flumineum swam significantly slower than unencumbered males or females. In addition, an experiment was undertaken to measure food intake. It was found that males eat less during the brooding period than after hatching. Therefore swimming speed reduction and decreased feeding may also be potential costs to male care