Introduction to Library Trends 28 (1) Summer 1979: The Economics of Academic Libraries

published or submitted for publicatio

"Applying Optimization and the Analytic Hierarchy Process to Enhance Agricultural Preservation Strategies in the State of Delaware"

Using agricultural preservation priorities derived from an analytical hierarchy process by 23 experts from 18 agencies in the State of Delaware, this research uses weighted suitability attributes to evaluate the historical success of the State of Delaware’s agricultural protection fund, which spent nearly $100 million in its first decade. This research demonstrates how these operation research techniques can be used on concert to address relevant conservation questions. Results suggest that the state’s sealed-bid-offer auction, which determines the yearly conservation selections, is superior to benefit targeting approaches frequently employed by conservation organizations but is inferior to the optimization technique of binary linear programming that could have provided additional benefits to the state, such as 12,000 additional acres worth an estimated$25 million.Conservation Optimization, Farmland Protection, Analytic Hierarchy Process

Applying Optimization and the Analytic Hierarchy Process to Enhance Agricultural Preservation Strategies in the State of Delaware

Using agricultural preservation priorities derived from an analytical hierarchy process by 23 conservation experts from 18 agencies in the state of Delaware, this research uses weighted benefit measures to evaluate the historical success of Delaware’s agricultural protection fund, which spent nearly $100 million in its first decade. This research demonstrates how these operation research techniques can be used in concert to address relevant conservation questions. Results suggest that the state’s sealed-bid-offer auction, which determines the yearly conservation selections, is superior to benefit-targeting approaches frequently employed by conservation organizations, but is inferior to the optimization technique of binary linear programming that could have provided additional benefits to the state, such as 12,000 additional acres worth an estimated$25 million.conservation optimization, farmland protection, analytic hierarchy process, binary linear programming, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Late Holocene Paleoflood Hydrology of the Snake River in the Lower Hells Canyon, Idaho

The Snake River watershed spans a large geographic region from the Rocky Mountains to the inland Pacific Northwest, and a comprehensive paleoflood chronology on the mainstem of the river is key to identifying the frequency and magnitude of large prehistoric floods within the region. We examined and compared four sites of slackwater deposits along a 20-km reach of the Lower Hells Canyon on the Snake River, Idaho. The sites contain evidence of up to 34 paleofloods within the last 1700 years. Stratigraphic breaks, soils, and in-situ plant or archaeological materials demarcate distinct layers that represent discrete paleoflood events. Radiocarbon dates from in-situ and transported charcoal constrain the ages of stratigraphic sequences with similar sedimentological characteristics. The spatially coherent pattern in the paleoflood deposition and chronology over the last 1700 years in the lower Hells Canyon indicates a relatively consistent geomorphic environment in which the accumulation and preservation of paleoflood sediments is not significantly influenced by variations in the morphology of individual sites. This coherence is likely due to a slight widening of the canyon where the bedrock transitions from the hard, accreted metamorphic terrane of Hells Canyon to the basalt of the Columbia Basin, which accommodates the abundant slackwater deposition of fine sand and silt downstream of alluvial fans and in long benches along the channel margins. These geomorphic settings provide longer-term stability or protection of deposits from erosion by channel migration and undercutting from subsequent floods. Hydraulic modeling of the study reach using HEC-RAS and Lidar data indicates that the flow necessary to overtop the existing deposits is approximately 6,500 m3 s-1 (230,000 ft3 s-1). The Snake River Flood Terrace has a record of 2-4 large flood events within the last 300 years. Combining this information leads to the conclusion that these four recent prehistoric floods were larger than 6,500 m3 s-1 (230,000 ft3 s-1) in magnitude. A comparison with the historic record indicates that the largest flood in the 62-year gage record at Anatone, WA of 5,520 m3 s-1 (195,000 ft3 s-1) in 1974 is insufficient to overtop the Snake River Flood Terrace. However, one of the flood deposits from the last 300 years may be the result of a large flood in 1910 recorded within the 110-year gage record from Weiser, Idaho

Fine-scale habitat use related to crop depredation by female white-tailed deer in an agricultural landscape

The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is the most popular game animal in the United States but is also responsible for a large amount of damage to agricultural crops. Understanding how deer use agricultural landscapes on a small scale will facilitate management. Global Positioning System (GPS) telemetry collars were attached to 16 female white-tailed deer at Chesapeake Farms, Kent County, Maryland, during 2 summer growing seasons (10 in 2001 and 6 in 2002). Twelve collars collected usable data and collar success averaged 90 and 86 percent in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Mean adaptive kernel home-range sizes (25.22 ha in 2001 and 39.36 ha in 2002) did not differ between years (p = 0.14). Mean core areas (3.12 ha in 2001 and 6.28 ha in 2002) were larger in 2002 (p = 0.04). A habitat selection analysis was performed to determine which habitats were selected more or less than others during the soybean growing season. Habitat use pooled across all deer was different from random in both years (p \u3c 0.0001). Habitat use differed among individual deer (p \u3c 0.0001). Agricultural crops were among the most selected habitats in both years. In 2001, corn ranked first and soybeans ranked fourth. In 2002, corn and soybeans were selected equally and ranked third. Other important habitats included wooded and early successional areas. Selection of clover ranked comparatively low. To assess temporal use of selected habitats throughout the growing season, I calculated percentage of daily deer locations occurring in corn fields, soybean fields, clover plots, early successional areas, and wooded areas. Deer use of natural cover and food sources declined as use of crops increased. Temporal use patterns of some habitats changed between 2001 and 2002, which was likely related to a drought the second year. Reducing deer damage to agricultural crops while maintaining a healthy deer population requires an integrated strategy that incorporates both deer harvest and habitat management. Considering deer use of an agricultural landscape on a small scale will assist managers in abating damage and providing quality deer hunting opportunities

"Integrating Optimization and Strategic Conservation to Achieve Higher Efficiencies in Land Protection"

Strategic land conservation seeks to select the highest quality lands given limited financial resources. Traditionally conservation officials implement strategic conservation by creating prioritization maps that attempt to identify the lands of highest ecological value or public value from a resource perspective. This paper describes the history of using optimization in strategic conservation and demonstrates how the combination of these approaches can significantly strengthen conservation efforts by making these programs more efficient with public monies.Mathematical Programming, Conservation Optimization, Cost Effectiveness Analysis, Strategic Conservation

Manual of Operating Procedures for a Computerized Farm Financial Information System

The computerized farm information system described in this publication was developed by South Dakota State University Farm Management research workers. The system is designed to provide detailed data on cash flow patterns, enterprise costs, net worth, net income, family living, depreciation schedules and business operating ratios. The program is written in FORTRAN and is operational on the IBM System/360-Model 30 with 64K storage capacity. Large capital investments and greater dependence upon borrowed capital to finance highly technical farming operations requires farm operators to have sharper analytical tools than ever before. Modern computers are helping to provide these tools. However, efficient use of the computer requires training and understanding on the part of those persons supplying input data. The program described in this publication is being used at South Dakota State University to provide training to farm management students in EDP procedures. In addition, it is serving as a valuable research tool for the gathering of detailed data from selected panels of farmers. All programs are catalogued on disks and are available to the data processor upon the proper call instructions to the computer. This procedure eliminates program compile time and provides an efficient means for processing any number of sets of farm data

Methods for Computing the Greatest Common Divisor and Applications in Mathematical Programming.

Several methods are presented for determining the greatest common divisor of a set of positive integers by solving the n integer program: find the integers x. that minimize Z = E a.x. i = l subject to Z 2: 1. The methods are programmed for use on a computer and compared with the Euclidean algorithm. Computational results and applications are given.http://www.archive.org/details/methodsforcomput00macgCaptain, United States ArmyMajor, United States Arm