Exploring the Nebraska Rural Poll, 2020

The Nebraska Rural Poll was initiated in 1996. Over the past 24 years, input has been gathered from over 64,000 nonmetropolitan Nebraskans. 102 separate reports have been produced covering 31 unique topics Trend Analysis Subgroup Comparisons Some questions have been repeated at various intervals of tim

Perceptions of Agriculture and the Economy in Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2017 Nebraska Rural Poll Results

Conclusion Most rural Nebraskans view their economic well-being as being dependent on agriculture. Over three-fourths feel their economic well-being is at least somewhat tied to agriculture. Economic dependence on agriculture has changed very little over the past seven years. The proportions reported in 2017 are almost identical to those from 2010. Similarly, most rural Nebraskans believe the economic well-being of their community is very much dependent on agriculture. Overall, over nine in ten rural Nebraskans feel their community’s economic well-being is at least somewhat tied to agriculture. Most rural Nebraskans say their job/income security is about the same as it was a year ago. The concern about job/income security was greater during the 2009 national economic recession compared to this downturn in the agricultural economy. However, most rural Nebraskans are uncertain they would find the kind of job they are looking for in their community. The level of uncertainty of finding the kind of job they would be looking for in their community was higher in 2009 than this year. This uncertainty was higher for persons living in or near smaller communities compared to those living in or near larger communities. Finally, many rural Nebraskans believe the current downturn in agriculture is about the same as other agriculture downturns of the past. Residents of the Panhandle are more likely than residents of other regions of the state to say the current downturn in agriculture is worse or much worse than previous downturns

Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans’ Perceptions of Local Schools: 2016 Nebraska Rural Poll Results

Conclusion Most rural Nebraskans have elementary, middle and high schools in their community or nearest community. Most of the schools available are public but many rural Nebraskans report having both public and private schools of each grade level. Persons living in or near larger communities are more likely than persons living in or near smaller communities to have each level of school in their community. And, persons living in or near the larger communities are more likely than persons living in or near smaller communities to have both public and private schools available. When asked about priorities for their local school, rural Nebraskans give highest priority to providing a safe environment for students. Other top priorities for local schools include: high graduation rate, high quality teachers, teaching problem solving or critical thinking skills to students and preparing students for college. The items that respondents were least likely to rate as high priority include teaching foreign languages, providing community social events/local entertainment, and teaching English as a second language. At least four in ten rural Nebraskans are very satisfied with the following characteristics at their local school: safe environment for students, graduation rate, quality school buildings, and opportunities for physical activities/sports. Less than two in ten respondents are very satisfied with standardized test scores and teaching English as a second language. However, many rural Nebraskans are unsure how to assess the details of their local schools since at least two in ten answered don’t know when asked to rate the characteristics. In fact, four in ten answered don’t know in regards to providing courses for advanced placement and standardized test scores. And, over one-half answered don’t know when asked to rate their satisfaction with teaching English as a second language. Satisfaction levels with many characteristics differ by community size. Persons living in or near smaller communities are more likely than persons living in or near larger communities to be very satisfied with many of the characteristics at their local school. However, satisfaction levels with four items increase as community size increases: providing courses for college credit, providing advanced placement courses, teaching foreign languages, and teaching English as a second language. Regional differences also exist. For many of the items listed, residents of the Panhandle were the regional group least likely to report being very satisfied. However, even though the Panhandle residents are less likely to report being very satisfied with many of the items listed, it does not mean they are necessarily more dissatisfied with those items than the other groups. For many of the items, the Panhandle residents were more likely to answer “don’t know.” The differences between the characteristics that people expect from their local school and those with which they are very satisfied are rather large. For almost all of the characteristics listed, the proportions that feel each is a high priority are larger than the proportions very satisfied with each. For many of the characteristics, the differences between the proportions viewing the characteristics as high priorities and the proportions very satisfied with each are larger for persons living in or near larger communities as compared to persons living in or near smaller communities. For a few items, the gaps are somewhat larger for persons living in or near smaller communities: providing courses for college credit, preparing students for technical/trade school, and providing advanced placement courses

Perceptions of Agriculture and the Economy in Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2017 Nebraska Rural Poll Results

Conclusion Most rural Nebraskans view their economic well-being as being dependent on agriculture. Over three-fourths feel their economic well-being is at least somewhat tied to agriculture. Economic dependence on agriculture has changed very little over the past seven years. The proportions reported in 2017 are almost identical to those from 2010. Similarly, most rural Nebraskans believe the economic well-being of their community is very much dependent on agriculture. Overall, over nine in ten rural Nebraskans feel their community’s economic well-being is at least somewhat tied to agriculture. Most rural Nebraskans say their job/income security is about the same as it was a year ago. The concern about job/income security was greater during the 2009 national economic recession compared to this downturn in the agricultural economy. However, most rural Nebraskans are uncertain they would find the kind of job they are looking for in their community. The level of uncertainty of finding the kind of job they would be looking for in their community was higher in 2009 than this year. This uncertainty was higher for persons living in or near smaller communities compared to those living in or near larger communities. Finally, many rural Nebraskans believe the current downturn in agriculture is about the same as other agriculture downturns of the past. Residents of the Panhandle are more likely than residents of other regions of the state to say the current downturn in agriculture is worse or much worse than previous downturns

Shopping for Food in Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2017 Nebraska Rural Poll Results

Conclusion Rural Nebraskans purchase their food from a variety of stores. Almost four in ten buy most of their food from a supercenter (like Wal-Mart or Costco). Just over three in ten typically shop at a supermarket and just under three in ten buy most of their food at a small grocery store. Differences in the type of store most utilized occur by community size. Persons living in or near larger communities are more likely than persons living in or near smaller communities to purchase the majority of their food from either a supermarket or supercenter. Persons living in or near mid-sized communities (populations ranging from 1,000 to 4,999) are the group most likely to purchase most of their food from a small grocery store. This size of community is most likely to be able to sustain a grocery store but not be a target for a supermarket or supercenter. Thus, local grocery stores do maintain market share in communities which are large enough for them to be viable, but too small to be major markets. Rural Nebraskans are most concerned with the quality, cost and selection of food as well as store characteristics such as cleanliness and customer service when selecting where they shop for food. These characteristics rate higher than location. Most rural Nebraskans shop for food at least once a week. Rural Nebraskans report being satisfied with most items at the store from which they purchase most of their food, although satisfaction with cost consistently ranks lower than quality or selection across major food categories. Most rural Nebraskans are within 30 minutes of the store where they do most of their food shopping. However, persons living in or near larger communities are more likely than persons living in or near smaller communities to be within 10 minutes of the store from where they purchase most of their food. Most rural Nebraskans have options for their food shopping. Most rural Nebraskans have a corner/convenience store closer than the store where they normally shop for food as well as a general merchandise store (like Dollar General or Family Dollar). Almost one-half have a small grocery store closer to them than the store where they normally do most of their food shopping. Almost two-thirds of persons who normally buy most of their food from a supercenter say they have a small grocery store closer to them. Only six percent of persons who purchase most of their food from a small grocery store say there is a supercenter closer to them and only five percent have a supermarket closer. Beyond retail shopping, rural Nebraskans do utilize other sources for foods. Most rural Nebraskans get at least some of their food from a garden and many get some of their food from a farmer’s market or CSA (community supported agriculture)

Decoupling in the 1D frustrated quantum XY model and Josephson junction ladders: Ising critical behavior

A generalization of the one-dimensional frustrated quantum XY model is considered in which the inter and intra-chain coupling constants of the two infinite XY (planar rotor) chains have different strengths. The model can describe the superconductor to insulator transition due to charging effects in a ladder of Josephson junctions in a magnetic field with half a flux quantum per plaquette. From a fluctuation-effective action, this transition is expected to be in the universality class of the two-dimensional classical XY-Ising model. The critical behavior is studied using a Monte Carlo transfer matrix applied to the path-integral representation of the model and a finite-size-scaling analysis of data on small system sizes. It is found that, unlike the previous studied case of equal inter and intra-chain coupling constants, the XY and Ising-like excitations of the quantum model decouple for large interchain coupling, giving rise to pure Ising model critical behavior for the chirality order parameter and a superconductor-insulator transition in the universality class of the 2D classical XY model.Comment: 15 pages with figures, RevTex 3.0, INPE-93/00

Persistent currents in a circular array of Bose-Einstein condensates

A ring-shaped array of Bose-Einstein condensed atomic gases can display circular currents if the relative phase of neighboring condensates becomes locked to certain values. It is shown that, irrespective of the mechanism responsible for generating these states, only a restricted set of currents are stable, depending on the number of condensates, on the interaction and tunneling energies, and on the total number of particles. Different instabilities due to quasiparticle excitations are characterized and possible experimental setups for testing the stability prediction are also discussed.Comment: 7 pages, REVTex

A complete 3D numerical study of the effects of pseudoscalar-photon mixing on quasar polarizations

We present the results of three-dimensional simulations of quasar polarizations in the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing in the intergalactic medium. The intergalactic magnetic field is assumed to be uncorrelated in wave vector space but correlated in real space. Such a field may be obtained if its origin is primordial. Furthermore we assume that the quasars, located at cosmological distances, have negligible initial polarization. In the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing we show, through a direct comparison with observations, that this may explain the observed large scale alignments in quasar polarizations within the framework of big bang cosmology. We find that the simulation results give a reasonably good fit to the observed data.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, significant changes, to appear in EPJ

Extended search for the invisible axion with the axion dark matter experiment

This Letter reports on a cavity haloscope search for dark matter axions in the Galactic halo in the mass range 2.81–3.31μeV. This search utilizes the combination of a low-noise Josephson parametric amplifier and a large-cavity haloscope to achieve unprecedented sensitivity across this mass range. This search excludes the full range of axion-photon coupling values predicted in benchmark models of the invisible axion that solve the strong CP problem of quantum chromodynamics

A century of sea level measurements at Newlyn, SW England

The Newlyn Tidal Observatory is the most important sea level station in the UK. It commenced operations in 1915 as part of the Second Geodetic Levelling of England and Wales, and the mean sea level determined from the tide gauge during the first six years (May 1915-April 1921) defined Ordnance Datum Newlyn (ODN) which became the national height datum for the whole of Great Britain. The 100 years of sea level data now available have contributed significantly to many studies in oceanography, geology and climate change. This paper marks the centenary of this important station by reviewing the sea level (and, more recently, detailed land level) measurements and Newlyn’s contributions to UK cartography, geodesy and sea-level science in general. Recommendations are made on how sea and land level measurements at Newlyn might be enhanced in the future