An Analysis of the CAP Reform

The Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community in 1957, defined the objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). These objectives, contained in Article 39, follow: 1) Increase agricultural productivity by promoting technical progress and by ensuring rational development of agricultural production and optimum use of the production factors, particularly labor. 2) Ensure a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, in particular by increasing the individual earning of the persons engaged in agriculture. 3) Stabilize markets. 4) Assure the availability of supplies. 5) Ensure that supplies reach consumers at reasonable prices. The objectives of the CAP have been met, mostly through price policies that traditionally have been tied to production. The result of these policies is that production of many agricultural commodities has increased beyond levels necessary to meet CAP objectives and excess supplies have accumulated, been exported with subsidies, or both, at great expense to the European Community

Optical BCS conductivity at imaginary frequencies and dispersion energies of superconductors

We present an efficient expression for the analytic continuation to arbitrary complex frequencies of the complex optical and AC conductivity of a homogeneous superconductor with arbitrary mean free path. Knowledge of this quantity is fundamental in the calculation of thermodynamic potentials and dispersion energies involving type-I superconducting bodies. When considered for imaginary frequencies, our formula evaluates faster than previous schemes involving Kramers--Kronig transforms. A number of applications illustrates its efficiency: a simplified low-frequency expansion of the conductivity, the electromagnetic bulk self-energy due to longitudinal plasma oscillations, and the Casimir free energy of a superconducting cavity.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, calculation of Casimir energy adde

Association of Relative Age in the School Year With Diagnosis of Intellectual Disability, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Depression

IMPORTANCE: Young relative age within the school year has previously been associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis and, based on limited evidence, diagnosis of intellectual disability. No study to date has examined the association between relative age and diagnosis of depression. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the associations with intellectual disability and ADHD and investigate a potential novel association between relative age and childhood depression. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This population-based cohort study of 1 042 106 children aged 4 to 15 years used electronic record data collected before January 3, 2017, from more than 700 general practices contributing to the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression modeling was used to explore the association between relative age and the incidence of intellectual disability, ADHD, and depression before age 16 years. Data were analyzed between July 2017 and January 2019. EXPOSURES: Relative age within school year determined by month of birth and categorized into four 3-month groups. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Intellectual disability, ADHD, and depression. RESULTS: In the total cohort of 1 042 106 children, 532 876 were male (51.1%) and the median age at study entry was 4.0 years (interquartile range, 4.0-5.0). There was evidence that being born in the last quarter of the school year (ie, being the youngest group in a school year) was associated with diagnosis of intellectual disability (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.30; 95% CI, 1.18-1.42), ADHD (aHR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.28-1.45), and depression (aHR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.08-1.59) compared with being born in the first quarter. A graded association was seen with intermediate age groups at a smaller increased risk of each diagnosis compared with the oldest group, with aHRs for intellectual disability for those born in the second quarter of 1.06 (95% CI, 0.96-1.17) and for those born in the third quarter of 1.20 (95% CI, 1.09-1.32); aHRs for ADHD for those born in the second quarter of 1.15 (95% CI, 1.08-1.23) and for those born in the third quarter of 1.31 (95% CI, 1.23-1.40); and aHRs for depression for those born in the second quarter of 1.05 (95% CI, 0.85-1.29) and for those born in the third quarter of 1.13 (95% CI, 0.92-1.38). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this study, relative youth status in the school year is associated with an increased risk of diagnosis of ADHD, intellectual disability, and depression in childhood. Further research into clinical and policy interventions to minimize these associations appears to be needed

Implications of a GATT Agreement for World Commodity Markets, 1993-98: An Analysis of the Dunkel Text on Agriculture

The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) received a request in mid-February to analyze the proposed changes to agriculture and agricultural trade made by Arthur Dunkel. These changes essentially fall into three areas. 1) Export Competition. Subsidies are subject to reduction in two ways. Expenditures are to be reduced by 36 percent and quantities exported with the benefit of subsidies are to be reduced by 24 percent from 1986-90 average levels. 2) Internal Support. Using a world reference price based on the 1986-88 average levels, internal supports as measured by an aggregate measure of support (AMS) are to be reduced by 20 percent from 1986 levels. Credit will be given for support reductions made since 1986. 3) Market Access. Import restrictions are to be converted to tariffs and reduced across the board by a simple average of 36 percent. Tariffs on individual commodities are to be reduced by at least 15 percent. Where import barriers are in place, either minimum access of 3 percent of domestic consumption in 1993, rising to 5 percent in 1999, or minimum access of 1986-88 average import levels is to be provided, whichever is greater

Development of an apparatus for cooling 6Li-87Rb Fermi-Bose mixtures in a light-assisted magnetic trap

We describe an experimental setup designed to produce ultracold trapped gas clouds of fermionic 6Li and bosonic 87Rb. This combination of alkali metals has the potential to reach deeper Fermi degeneracy with respect to other mixtures since it allows for improved heat capacity matching which optimizes sympathetic cooling efficiency. Atomic beams of the two species are independently produced and then decelerated by Zeeman slowers. The slowed atoms are collected into a magneto-optical trap and then transferred into a quadrupole magnetic trap. An ultracold Fermi gas with temperature in the 10^-3 T_F range should be attainable through selective confinement of the two species via a properly detuned laser beam focused in the center of the magnetic trap.Comment: Presented at LPHYS'06, 8 figure

Dealing with mobility: Understanding access anytime, anywhere

The rapid and accelerating move towards the adoption and use of mobile technologies has increasingly provided people and organisations with the ability to work away from the office and on the move. The new ways of working afforded by these technologies are often characterised in terms of access to information and people ‘anytime, anywhere’. This paper presents a study of mobile workers that highlights different facets of access to remote people and information, and different facets of anytime, anywhere. Four key factors in mobile work are identified from the study: the role of planning, working in ‘dead time’, accessing remote technological and informational resources, and monitoring the activities of remote colleagues. By reflecting on these issues, we can better understand the role of technology and artefact use in mobile work and identify the opportunities for the development of appropriate technological solutions to support mobile workers

Sinking of a magnetically confined mountain on an accreting neutron star

We perform ideal-magnetohydrodynamic axisymmetric simulations of magnetically confined mountains on an accreting neutron star, with masses less than ~0.12 solar masses. We consider two scenarios, in which the mountain sits atop a hard surface or sinks into a soft, fluid base. We find that the ellipticity of the star, due to a mountain grown on a hard surface, approaches ~2e-4 for accreted masses greater than ~1.2e-3 solar masses, and that sinking reduces the ellipticity by between 25% and 60%. The consequences for gravitational radiation from low-mass x-ray binaries are discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, and 3 tables; accepted for publication in MNRA

Fear of the unknown: a pre-departure qualitative study of Turkish international students

This paper presents findings from eleven in-depth interviews with Turkish undergraduate students, who were, by the time of data collection, about to spend a semester at a European university under the Erasmus exchange scheme. The students all agreed to be interviewed about their feelings about studying in a foreign culture, and were found to be anxious prior to departure about the quality of accommodation in the new destination, their language ability and the opportunity to form friendships. Fears were expressed about possible misconceptions over Turkey as a Muslim and a developing country. Suggestions are made for HEI interventions to allay student travellers’ concerns

Towards a precision measurement of the Casimir force in a cylinder-plane geometry

We report on a proposal aimed at measuring the Casimir force in a cylinder-plane configuration. The Casimir force is evaluated including corrections due to finite parallelism, conductivity, and temperature. The range of validity of the proximity force approximation is also discussed. An apparatus to test the feasibility of a precision measurement in this configuration has been developed, and we describe both a procedure to control the parallelism and the results of the electrostatic calibration. Finally, we discuss the possibility of measuring the thermal contribution to the Casimir force and deviations from the proximity force approximation, both of which are expected at relatively large distances.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures (.eps format, higher-resolution figures in published version