THE RETURNS TO AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN MAINE: THE CASE OF A SMALL NORTHEASTERN EXPERIMENT STATION

Estimates of the marginal internal rate of return to expenditures for research by the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station are presented. Estimates are performed using ridge regression under an array of specifications, including alternative functional forms, lag structures, costs of public funds, and variable specifications. The results are consistent with many previous results that imply an underinvestment in agricultural research.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The artist as sacrificial in Schopenhauer's philosophy

This thesis examines a potential tension between Schopenhauer’s portrayal of art as a palliative measure undertaken in response to a fundamentally and necessarily painful existence, and the implicit image he sketches of the artist as suffering in order to precipitate this palliative measure. I begin by outlining Schopenhauer’s larger philosophical project in order to contextualize subsequent discussions of his aesthetics. Having laid this expository groundwork, I proceed to explore the concept of sacrifice as Schopenhauer was likely to have understood and utilized it, drawing on both textual evidence (primarily from The World as Will and Representation) and contextual evidence (given the religious, cultural, and intellectual climate at the time of its writing). This strategy of twofold exploration — that is, both textual and contextual — is deployed again in the third portion of this thesis, clarifying the role of “the artist” qua artist for Romantic Era Germans more broadly and for Schopenhauer more narrowly. In the final section, I utilize these earlier explorations to show that the artist is indeed a sacrificial figure in Schopenhauer’s work. Regardless of the fact that Schopenhauer does not confirm the artist-as-sacrificial paradigm explicitly, the claim can be made that he does — and indeed, must — tacitly accept it

Factors influencing adoption of VSH queens in the honey breeding industry

There are many threats that contribute to the decline in honey bee colonies around the United States; among them is the Varroa mite, Varroa destructor. The Varroa mite is a significant threat to honey bees and, by extension, beekeepers across the United States. It is suspected to be one of the main contributors to the increase in colony collapse and the decline in bee numbers and the beekeeping industry (Danka, May 2013). Fifty-five percent of beekeepers exited beekeeping between 1987 and 2002 (USDA). Although honey production continued to decrease through 2007, the number of beekeepers entering beekeeping had increased (USDA). In 2006, the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) genetic line of bees was developed in response to the destruction associated with the Varroa mite. The hygienic behavior of this line of bees helps reduce susceptibility of colonies to Varroa mites and results in stronger colonies with increasing bee populations (Rinderer, 2010). Relatively little information exists on the adoption level of VSH technology in the beekeeping community and beekeeper’s perceptions of VSH technology. The objective of this study is to identify and discuss factors that significantly influence the decision of adopting VSH technology. Using data collected from a sample of 228 queen breeders across the United States that previously adopted other Varroa sensitive technologies, a probit model is used to analyze the factors involved in influencing the adoption of VSH queens by queen breeders. Factors analyzed include sources of information available, risk preference, sales attributes, demographic information, and income. Results indicate that education level, being risk averse and income all had a significant influence on the adoption decision

Review of \u3cem\u3eA Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity 1880-1940.\u3c/em\u3e Paul T. Phillips. Reviewed by James Leiby, University of California, Berkeley.

Paul T. Phillips, A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880-1940.. University Park: Penn State Press, 1996. $55.00 hardcover,$16.95 papercover

State-Perpetrated Wartime Sexual Violence in Latin America

This dissertation examines the patterns and motives of state-perpetrated wartime sexual violence in Peru and El Salvador. Using a new database on sexual and other forms of political violence, it documents the prevalence and the patterns of perpetration of violence. It seeks to determine whose interests motivate the commission of sexual violence in times of war and why state armed forces commit more sexual violence in some regions and at particular moments during civil war than in others. The dissertation provides a theory of sexual violence perpetrated by state militaries during counterinsurgency conflicts. It argues that sexual violence is a deliberate act of violence perpetrated to advance the politico-military goals of the state. The results of a sub-national statistical analysis show that state-perpetrated sexual violence is most at times and in locations where rebel activity presents a threat to state power but where the rebels have not yet reached dominance. State-perpetrated sexual violence is infrequent in areas where the state retains control as well as in areas where there is a preponderance of rebel power such that the state cannot engage in counterinsurgency operations without risking a significant loss of life. Additional explanatory power is drawn from an analysis of the micro-patterns of state sexual violence and other forms of political violence in Peru and El Salvador. Victims of sexual violence are more likely to be educated women from urban centers who are socially or politically active in their communities. In addition, sexual violence is more likely to be perpetrated in private spaces and in state-run detention centers when commanding officers are present than other forms of political violence. Within the state armed forces, the army and police are more likely to engage in these forms of violence than other sectors of the security apparatus. Paramilitary groups and death squads are less likely to engage in sexual violence than they are to perpetrate other forms of violence, particularly lethal violence. The preponderance of evidence presented in the dissertation demonstrates that sexual violence is often an instrumental weapon of war wielded to defeat armed and unarmed opponents to the state

Improving Country Conflict and Peace Modeling: Datasets, Imputations, and Hierarchical Clustering

Many disparate datasets exist that provide country attributes covering political, economic, and social aspects. Unfortunately, this data often does not include all countries nor is the data complete for those countries included, as measured by the dataset’s missingness. This research addresses these dataset shortfalls in predicting country instability by considering country attributes in all aspects as well as in greater thresholds of missingness. First, a structured summary of past research is presented framed by a developed casual taxonomy and functional ontology. Additionally, a novel imputation technique for very large datasets is presented to account for moderate missingness in the expanded dataset. This method is further extended to establish the MASS-impute algorithm, a multicollinearity applied stepwise stochastic imputation method that overcomes numerical problems present in preferred commercial packages. Finally, the imputed datasets with 932 variables are used to develop a hierarchical clustering approach that accounts for geographic and cultural influences that are desired in the practical use of modeling country conflict. These additional insights and tools provide a basis for improving future country conflict and peace research

Construction Law: 1991/1992 Survey of Florida Law

There were several appellate decisions concerning construction law from mid - 1991 through mid 1992

TOWARD A MARKETING STRATEGY FOR FRESH WILD BLUEBERRIES IN THE NORTHEAST

Marketing,

Babesiosis Acquired through Blood Transfusion, California, USA

Babesiosis was reported in a California resident who received a transfusion of blood products collected in the disease-endemic northeastern region of the United States. Babesiosis should be considered year-round in the diagnosis of febrile and afebrile patients with abnormal blood cell counts who have received blood products from disease-endemic areas