Government Policy in Support of Domestic Agriculture: Costs and Benefits, The United States

Agricultural and Food Policy,

The Influence of Customized Internet Banner Ad on Attitude-Ad-Brand-Behavioural Relationship

This paper examines the influence of customizing banner ads to entice higher users’ interactivity and sequentially builds not only positive attitudes toward the ad and the brand but also positive behavioral outcomes. It also attempts to introduce a new profilingtargeting parameter based on psychographics for customizing banner ad based on Internet user’s individual differences according to their personality, types of goal-directed motives and preferred information processing strategies. Data was gathered through an online survey with a sample of 385 respondents. The Covariance Structural Modeling results supported a positive attitude-ad-brand-behavioral relationship. Positive attitude towards the ad generates more positive behavioral outcomes. Contrary to expectations, the results did not support the proposition that a positive brand attitude produces more positive behavioral outcomes. The findings provide evidence to support the proposition that customization of banner ads’ creative and appeals (in terms of presentation modality, verbal versus visual presentation and information-rational versus entertainment-emotional appeals) based on users’ individual differences in need for cognition, goal-directed motives and preferred information processing strategies effects positive attitudes toward the ad and the brand

Understanding Disaster Recovery Planning through a Theatre Metaphor: Rehearsing for a Show that Might Never Open

Disaster recovery planning for organizations is fundamental and often urgent. Planning supports the firm\u27s ability to recover the core business functionality of its software, data, and systems after the occurrence of a natural or man-made disaster. Organizations must take steps to protect their software, systems and data backups from natural disasters, power outages, and even terrorist attacks. However the issue of disaster recovery is often awash in checklists or marooned in mundane statistics. Such sterile approaches tend to lead key managers, CEOs, and CIOs to relegate disaster recovery planning to a lower priority when they become overwhelmed with planning minutiae or bored with staid presentations. This paper introduces a theatre metaphor to enable a lively discussion and deeper understanding of disaster recovery planning. Specifically, we introduce the concept of workshopping a play. We explore this new approach from the world of theatrical productions to illuminate and deepen understanding of the importance of testing, evaluation, and reworking of scenarios for each potential disaster

EFFECTIVENESS OF SURGICAL RECONSTRUCTION TO RESTORE RADIOCARPAL JOINT MECHANICS AFTER SCAPHOLUNATE LIGAMENT INJURY. AN IN VIVO MODELING STUDY

Disruption of the scapholunate ligament can cause a loss of normal scapholunate mechanics and eventually lead to osteoarthritis. Surgical reconstruction attempts to restore scapholunate relationship and shows improvement in functional outcomes, but postoperative effectiveness in restoring normal radiocarpal mechanics still remains a question. The objective of this study was to investigate the benefits of surgical repair by observing changes in contact mechanics on the cartilage surface before and after surgical treatment. Six patients with unilateral scapholunate dissociation were enrolled in the study, and displacement driven magnetic resonance image based-surface contact modeling was used to investigate normal, injured and postoperative radiocarpal mechanics. Model geometry was acquired from images of wrists taken in a relaxed position. Kinematics were acquired from image registration between the relaxed images, and images taken during functional loading. Results showed a trend for increase in radiocarpal contact parameters with injury. Peak and mean contact pressures significantly decreased after surgery in the radiolunate articulation and there were no significant differences between normal and postoperative wrists. Results indicated surgical repair improves contact mechanics after injury and that contact mechanics can be surgically restored to be similar to normal. This study provides novel contact mechanics data on the effects of surgical repair after scapholunate ligament injury. With further work, it may be possible to more effectively differentiate between treatments and degenerative changes based on in vivo contact mechanics data

Insights from the U-238-th-234 method into the coupling of biological export and the cycling of cadmium, cobalt, and manganese in the southeast Pacific Ocean

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles 33(1), (2019): 15-36, doi:10.1029/2018GB005985.Better constraints on the magnitude of particulate export and the residence times of trace elements are required to understand marine food web dynamics, track the transport of anthropogenic trace metals in the ocean, and improve global climate models. While prior studies have been successful in constructing basin‐scale budgets of elements like carbon in the upper ocean, the cycling of particulate trace metals is poorly understood. The 238U‐234Th method is used here with data from the GP‐16 GEOTRACES transect to investigate the upper ocean processes controlling the particulate export of cadmium, cobalt, and manganese in the southeastern Pacific. Patterns in the flux data indicated that particulate cadmium and cobalt behave similarly to particulate phosphorus and organic carbon, with the highest export in the productive coastal region and decreasing flux with depth due to remineralization. The export of manganese was influenced by redox conditions at the low oxygen coastal stations and by precipitation and/or scavenging elsewhere. Residence times with respect to export (total inventory divided by particulate flux) for phosphorus, cadmium, cobalt, and manganese in the upper 100 and 200 m were determined to be on the order of months to years. These GEOTRACES‐based synthesis efforts, combining a host of concentration and tracer data with unprecedented resolution, will help to close the oceanic budgets of trace metals.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (OCE‐1232669 and OCE‐1518110), and Erin Black was also funded by a NASA Earth and Space Science Graduate Fellowship (NNX13AP31H). The authors would like to thank the captain, crew, and scientists aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. A special thanks to two anonymous reviewers and Virginie Sanial for providing the additional 228Ra‐based estimates for Cd. All original data have been made available in either the supporting information or through BCO‐DMO (see Website and Database References).2019-06-1

Flexural Cracks in Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Beams with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Reinforcing Bars

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcing bars have attracted considerable attention for applications where corrosion of steel reinforcement is problematic. Due to the generally low elastic modulus and poor bond characteristics of FRP as compared to steel reinforcing bars, the use of FRP results in larger crack widths under service loads. Fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) is proposed for use with FRP to reduce crack widths. The work presented herein includes the results from 16 beams tested under four-point bending with either Grade 420 (Grade 60) steel or FRP reinforcing bars, and either plain concrete or FRC. A modified Gergely-Lutz model was applied to the measured crack widths to calculate bond coefficients that were used to quantify the effectiveness of FRC in reducing crack widths. In the beams with steel reinforcing bars, the FRC was found to have little influence on crack widths. In the beams with FRP reinforcing bars, the FRC was found to significantly reduce maximum crack widths

Distribution of Legumes along Gradients of Slope and Soil Electrical Conductivity in Pastures

Legumes establish and persist on backslope landscape positions but fail on summits and toeslopes in southeastern Iowa pastures, suggesting that these pastures be managed site specifically. Visual delineation of landscape positions, however, can be difficult, and char- acterization of spatial variability through soil sampling is expensive. Creation of digital elevation models (DEM) and apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa) mapping are inexpensive alternatives to de- scribing field conditions. Our objective was to examine the relationships of DEM-derived slope, soil ECa, and legume distribution in pastures.We examined these relationships across four 1.4-ha pastures. Each pasture was divided into 0.46-ha plots that were assigned one of three stocking treatments: continuous, rotational, and nongrazed. We found that legumes, as a percentage of pasture cover,were greatest at 15 to 20% slopes and intermediate values of soil ECa. The absolute ECa value at which legumes were maximized varied by plot within each stocking system and year ECa was measured. When ECa was standardized by pasture and year, however, a nonlinear response curve explained 23 to 42% of the variation of legume cover across the plots. Grazing reduced competition from smooth brome (Bromus inermis Leyss.) and reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L). These grasses dominated at 0 to 8% slopes and where ECa was either low or high in value. We concluded that slope and soil ECa data are useful in identifying sites where legumes are successful in pastures and showed potential for use in site-specific management of pastures

Plant species richness in relation to pasture position, management, and scale

The objective of this research was to describe how landscape position, grazing management, and scale affected overall plant species richness and species richness per functional group in temperate pastures located in the central United States. The effects and interactions of summit, backslope, and toeslope positions and continuous, rotational, and nongrazed stocking systems on species richness were examined at sample scales of 0.18 m2 and 4.5 m2. Landscape position explained 40–63% of species richness variation at 0.18 m2 compared to 3–26% at 4.5 m2 for overall, perennial, perennial grass, vegetative-spreading grass, perennial herb, and perennial N2-fixing herb (legume) functional groups. Grazing management, in contrast, explained 22–35% of species richness variation for overall, perennial, annual–biennial, perennial grass, and perennial bunchgrass functional groups at 0.18 m2 compared to 30–43% of their variation at 4.5 m2. Landscape position and stocking system mostly did not interact. Overall species richness averaged 11.7, 14.3, and 10.3 on summits, backslopes, and toeslopes, respectively, and 14.8, 12.9, and 8.7 within the continuous, rotational, and nongrazed systems, respectively, at the 4.5 m2-scale. Backslope positions supported more species than summits and toeslopes regardless of scale, with differences that appeared related to total vegetation production and aboveground competition. Continuously and rotationally stocked pastures also supported more species than nongrazed pastures, effects that were consistent across functional types and scales. Increased scale enabled detection of a greater number of species per unit area but reduced the percentage of species richness variation explained by pasture position and management

On the use of a Modified Latin Hypercube Sampling (MLHS) approach in the estimation of a Mixed Logit model for vehicle choice

Quasi-random number sequences have been used extensively for many years in the simulation of integrals that do not have a closed-form expression, such as Mixed Logit and Multinomial Probit choice probabilities. Halton sequences are one example of such quasi-random number sequences, and various types of Halton sequences, including standard, scrambled, and shuffled versions, have been proposed and tested in the context of travel demand modeling. In this paper, we propose an alternative to Halton sequences, based on an adapted version of Latin Hypercube Sampling. These alternative sequences, like scrambled and shuffled Halton sequences, avoid the undesirable correlation patterns that arise in standard Halton sequences. However, they are easier to create than scrambled or shuffled Halton sequences. They also provide more uniform coverage in each dimension than any of the Halton sequences. A detailed analysis, using a 16-dimensional Mixed Logit model for choice between alternative-fuelled vehicles in California, was conducted to compare the performance of the different types of draws. The analysis shows that, in this application, the Modified Latin Hypercube Sampling (MLHS) outperforms each type of Halton sequence. This greater accuracy combined with the greater simplicity make the MLHS method an appealing approach for simulation of travel demand models and simulation-based models in general