CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS UNDERGRADUATE ADVISING IN THE WESTERN REGION

The quality of faculty advising has been a source of concern among students and faculty. As an initial attempt at addressing these concerns this paper summarizes the results of a faculty advising study in undergraduate agricultural economics programs. Various advising program characteristics among western schools are discussed and contrasted to schools in other regions. Interregional and interdepartmental variation was found in advisor resource allocation, advising program implementation, rewards and priorities, and evaluations of advising quality. Despite larger enrollments, smaller advising budgets, less support and lower rewards for advising, schools in the West reported advising quality comparable if not superior to that in other regions.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Examining Determinants Of Patient Activation In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Introduction: Self-management plays a central role in the treatment chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the patient characteristics necessary for effective self-management are not understood. The skills, confidence, and knowledge to engage in chronic disease self-care, known as patient activation, may play a key role in the capacity of people to self-manage COPD. How the complex, systemic nature of COPD influences patient activation has not been explored. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among patient characteristics and health outcomes as determinants of patient activation among community-dwelling adults in the U.S. with COPD. The Revised Wilson Cleary Model (Ferrans, Zerwic, Wilbur & Larson, 2005) was adapted to examine a continuum of integrated variables integral to the experience of COPD for this descriptive correlational survey study. Methods: A random sample of 64 community-dwelling adults with COPD completed a self-report postal survey. The questionnaire was comprised of demographic questions and the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule, to measure individual and environmental patient characteristics, and the Quality of Life Index Pulmonary Version III, Pulmonary Functional Status and Dyspnea Questionnaire-Modified, a single question to assess general perception of health, and the Patient Activation Measure-13 (PAM) to assess health outcomes. Additionally, spirometry data was abstracted from participantsâ medical records. Descriptive and univariate statistics were utilized to describe and examine the unadjusted associations between patient characteristics, health outcomes and patient activation scores. Variables significantly (p \u3c .25) associated with patient activation were entered into stepwise multivariate regression models to identify independent predictors of patient activation in the sample. Results: The participants in the study were mostly men and women in their 70s with moderate to severe COPD, having lived with the disease for over four years. The patient activation scores were high among the sample (M = 66, SD = 16), with over 70% of the sample activated at PAM Level 3 and 4 (n = 47, 73%). Univariate analyses revealed significant relationships between several patient characteristics (gender, positive affect, lower Body Mass Index, education level, time since diagnosis of COPD, smoking pack years, urban residence) and patient activation. Health outcome domains, such as low fatigue, good or very good general perception of health, and better perceived overall quality of life) were directly related to patient activation in the sample. The resulting statistically significant regression model (R2 = .488, Adj.R2 = .454, p \u3c .001) contained four independent predictors explaining 45% of the variation in patient activation in the sample. Positive affect β = .457 contributed most to the model, followed by smoking pack years β = .345, overall quality of life β = .264, and female gender β = -.192. Conclusions: Several patient characteristics and complex health outcomes underlie self-management capacity in COPD. This study revealed novel determinants of patient activation that have implications for COPD self-management science and nursing practice. Nurses are in a pivotal position to apply knowledge of patient activation to the individualized assessment and care interventions of people living with COPD. Further research is needed to explicate the unique psychosocial factors that contribute to capacity to self-manage for targeted intervention design in this population

CosmoDM and its application to Pan-STARRS data

The Cosmology Data Management system (CosmoDM) is an automated and flexible data management system for the processing and calibration of data from optical photometric surveys. It is designed to run on supercomputers and to minimize disk I/O to enable scaling to very high throughput during periods of reprocessing. It serves as an early prototype for one element of the ground-based processing required by the Euclid mission and will also be employed in the preparation of ground based data needed in the eROSITA X-ray all sky survey mission. CosmoDM consists of two main pipelines. The first is the single-epoch or detrending pipeline, which is used to carry out the photometric and astrometric calibration of raw exposures. The second is the co- addition pipeline, which combines the data from individual exposures into deeper coadd images and science ready catalogs. A novel feature of CosmoDM is that it uses a modified stack of As- tromatic software which can read and write tile compressed images. Since 2011, CosmoDM has been used to process data from the DECam, the CFHT MegaCam and the Pan-STARRS cameras. In this paper we shall describe how processed Pan-STARRS data from CosmoDM has been used to optically confirm and measure photometric redshifts of Planck-based Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect selected cluster candidates.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Proceedings of Precision Astronomy with Fully Depleted CCDs Workshop (2014). Accepted for publication in JINS

AN ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF SOYBEAN STINK BUG CONTROL ALTERNATIVES FOR THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

Methyl parathion or Penncap M (an encapsulated methyl parathion) are used extensively throughout the United States for controlling stink bug pests in soybeans, Glycine Max (L.) Merrill. However, this insecticide is highly toxic to mammals, birds, and non-target arthropods, and thus is less environmentally sound than other insecticides. For environmental and human health considerations, investigating alternative insecticides for control is desired. For this investigation, research based on field experimental data from Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana during the 1988 and 1989 growing seasons were employed. Results indicate that alternative, currently available, and less toxic insecticides may reduce producer costs, increase yield, and improve soybean quality. These alternative insecticides include Scout (tralomethrin), Karate (lambda-cyhalothrin), Orthene (acephate), and Baythroid (cyfluthrin). In terms of improved profits these alternative insecticides may dominate methyl parathion or encapsulated methyl parathion.Crop Production/Industries,

Feasible Fumigant-Herbicide System Alternatives to Methyl Bromide for Bell Pepper Producers

With the current methyl bromide (MeBr) system for producing Georgia’s peppers being phased out, alternative fumigant and herbicide systems for producers are analyzed. Using stochastic dominance analyses, two alternatives exceeding MeBr’s yield and financial efficiency were identified. A programming model, incorporating simulation-optimization techniques, generated optimal production and financial plans. Results indicate potential economic viability under alternative systems vis-à-vis the traditional MeBr production system. The Telone II and Chloropicrin combination with Metham potassium may offer a viable substitute for MeBr.fumigant, herbicide, methyl bromide, multi-period programming, optimization, simulation, stochastic dominance, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries,

Do dwarf galaxies form in tidal tails?

The formation of tidal dwarf galaxies (TDG) inside tidal arms of interacting disk galaxies has been studied with N-body and N-body/SPH simulations at different resolutions. In pure N-body simulations no bound objects are formed at high resolution. At low resolution bound objects can form in tidal tails in agreement with previous work. We conclude that tidal dwarf galaxies are not likely to form by pure collisionless collapse in tidal tails. However, the presence of a sufficiently massive and extended gas component in the progenitor disk supports the formation of bound stellar objects in the tidal arms. Our results clearly favor a dissipation supported scenario in which the formation of TDGs is induced by the local collapse of gas which then triggers the collapse of the stellar component.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures, revised version, MNRAS accepte

A Farm-level Approach to the Methyl Bromide Phase-out: Identifying Alternatives and Maximizing Net Worth Using Stochastic Dominance and Optimization Procedures.

Alternative fumigant and herbicide systems for Georgia's pepper farms are analyzed relative to soon-to-be phased-out methyl bromide system. Stochastic dominance analyses identify two alternatives exceeding MeBr's yield and financial efficiency. A programming model using simulation-optimization techniques provides important implications on the pepper farms' economic viability under these alternative systems.Crop Production/Industries,

Building a Socio-technical Perspective of Community Resilience with a Semiotic Approach

Situated in the diversity and adversity of real-life contexts facing crisis situations, this research aims at boosting the resilience process within communities supported by digital and social technology. In this paper, eight community leaders in different parts of the world are invited to express their issues and wishes regarding the support of technology to face social challenges. Methods and artefacts based on the Organisational Semiotics (OS) and the Socially-Aware computing have been applied to analyse and consolidate this data. By providing both a systemic view of the problem and also leading to the identification of requirements, the analysis evidences some benefits of the OS-based approach to consolidate perspectives from different real-life scenarios towards building a socio-technical solution

Circuit architecture explains functional similarity of bacterial heat shock responses

Heat shock response is a stress response to temperature changes and a consecutive increase in amounts of unfolded proteins. To restore homeostasis, cells upregulate chaperones facilitating protein folding by means of transcription factors (TF). We here investigate two heat shock systems: one characteristic to gram negative bacteria, mediated by transcriptional activator sigma32 in E. coli, and another characteristic to gram positive bacteria, mediated by transcriptional repressor HrcA in L. lactis. We construct simple mathematical model of the two systems focusing on the negative feedbacks, where free chaperons suppress sigma32 activation in the former, while they activate HrcA repression in the latter. We demonstrate that both systems, in spite of the difference at the TF regulation level, are capable of showing very similar heat shock dynamics. We find that differences in regulation impose distinct constrains on chaperone-TF binding affinities: the binding constant of free sigma32 to chaperon DnaK, known to be in 100 nM range, set the lower limit of amount of free chaperon that the system can sense the change at the heat shock, while the binding affinity of HrcA to chaperon GroE set the upper limit and have to be rather large extending into the micromolar range.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure