Farmers or Slaves: Contract Production

This paper discusses the pros and cons of contract production of agricultural products and specifically investigates contract pig production in the USA. Discussion includes the impact that contract production will have on the traditional farm life as many think of it. The author discusses the major global trends impacting the role of the farmer and concludes that agriculture at the farm is continuing its rapid change. Farm families of the future will be required to change rapidly and to adapt to changes in farm management structure.Farm Management,

State-Space Interpretation of Model Predictive Control

A model predictive control technique based on a step response model is developed using state estimation techniques. The standard step response model is extended so that integrating systems can be treated within the same framework. Based on the modified step response model, it is shown how the state estimation techniques from stochastic optimal control can be used to construct the optimal prediction vector without introducing significant additional numerical complexity. In the case of integrated or double integrated white noise disturbances filtered through general first-order dynamics and white measurement noise, the optimal filter gain is parametrized explicitly in terms of a single parameter between 0 and 1, thus removing the requirement for solving a Riccati equation and equipping the control system with useful on-line tuning parameters. Parallels are drawn to the existing MPC techniques such as Dynamic Matrix Control (DMC), Internal Model Control (IMC) and Generalized Predictive Control (GPC)

Dwight Sora Interview

Artist Bio: Dwight Sora is half-Japanese (father) and half-Korean (mother) actor who grew up in the Chicago suburb of River Forest. He has studied the Japanese martial art of aikido since 1993, when he was an exchange student attending Waseda University in Tokyo. He holds a rank of sandan (third degree black belt)

Formulating Competitive Repertoires – Four Different Types of Competitive Actions

Do organizations have systematic patterns of competitive moves in a turbulent business environment? If so, how can organizations manage to maintain such competitive moves? The study of competitive moves deals with the very fundamental issues in strategic management - How do some organizations enjoy sustainable competitive advantages while others don’t? Organizations may be lucky enough to align their strategic fit with the environment at the right moment. While different theoretical arguments (Grimm & Smith, 1997; Hoskisson et al., 1999) have been looking at the content aspects of competitive strategy, it has been less spotlighted with the process aspect on how firms strategically act to achieve sustainable competitive advantages in a competitive business environment

Coverage And Visibility Problems On Topographic Surfaces

This thesis discusses and defines visibility coverage problems by using visibility information derived from topographic surfaces. Algorithms for extracting visibility information are developed and tested on both randomly generated and real topographic surfaces to solve visibility coverage problems, such as the determination of visible regions for specific viewpoints, the determination of a minimal set of viewpoints to see the entire surface. Problems are also extended to the cases of viewpoints whose heights are allowed to vary.;A triangulated irregular network (TIN) model was selected to represent topographic surfaces in this study. A drop heuristic algorithm for extracting TIN models from grid digital elevation models (DEM) was also developed and presented. Heuristic algorithms are used to solve visibility coverage problems and are compared for their performances. Solutions to visibility coverage problems suggested that peaks and vertices on ridge lines are found to be most likely good candidates as solution viewpoints. Relief variations on topographic surfaces are found to have a positive relationship with the number of viewpoints as well as the cost of building watchtowers required to see the entire surface. Parameters describing topographic surfaces, such as statistics of elevations and slopes of triangles, proportions of peak and ridge points in a set of vertices, the spatial autocorrelation coefficient, and the parameters of variograms are found to have similar relationship