Perceived economic pressures and farmer ethics

We hypothesize that an increase in the economic pressures a farmer feels could result in that farmer being more tolerant of unethical conduct than farmers not experiencing economic pressures. To test this hypothesis, we use data from a survey of 3,000 Missouri farmers with farm sales in excess of $10,000 in 2005 in which farmers were asked how acceptable they considered various unethical or questionable farming practices. The survey also contained questions designed to measure perceived economic pressures. We find evidence that economic pressures result in a greater willingness of farmers to tolerate unethical conduct, particularly in the case of actions that have the potential of causing harm or that are influenced by law or contract. We also find that the more frequently a farmer reports observing an unethical action, the more accepting he is of it. Copyright (c)2008 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

Theory of Attosecond Pulse Generation

This chapter will discuss the theoretical aspects of producing attosecond pulses via the process of high harmonic generation driven by an intense infrared laser pulse. We will discuss the generation of attosecond pulses both at the single atom and at the macroscopic level, including a discussion of phase matching. Our goal is to broaden the understanding of attosecond pulse generation beyond the single atom level, where one thinks about the emission in terms of the laser-atom interaction alone, to include macroscopic aspects of this process. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013