Herbicide Application Rates: Risk Premiums with Environmental Implications

This paper examines the role of risk aversion in setting herbicide label rates and application rates. Companies establish label rates to be efficacious for a wide range of conditions. The use of reduced rates of herbicide offer the opportunity to increase farm profit and reduce herbicide use, an environmental benefit.Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) data storage and analysis using a microcomputer

The current widespread use of microcomputers has led to the creation of some very low-cost instrumentation. A Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) storage device/data analyzer -- a peripheral plug-in board especially constructed to enable a personal computer to store and analyze data from a PCM source -- was designed and built for use on the NASA Sounding Rocket Program for PMC encoder configuration and testing. This board and custom-written software turns a computer into a snapshot PCM decommutator which will accept and store many hundreds or thousands of PCM telemetry data frames, then sift through them repeatedly. These data can be converted to any number base and displayed, examined for any bit dropouts or changes (in particular, words or frames), graphically plotted, or statistically analyzed

Staff Experiences of Using the Recovery Model in Forensic Settings With Patients With a Diagnosis of Personality Disorder

‘Recovery’ has been described as a central plank within mental health policy, however, research has tended to focus on service users’ experiences and there is limited research looking at how staff experience recovery ideas. There are added challenges and barriers when ‘recovery’ ideas are applied to forensic settings for staff to contend with. The validity and reliability of personality disorder diagnoses has long been disputed and critiqued but remains a highly prevalent diagnosis within the forensic service user population. Research suggests that staff may treat individuals with a personality disorder diagnosis more negatively that other groups of service users, which has implications for their recovery. This research aimed to explore how staff in forensic services experienced using recovery ideas with individuals given a diagnosis of personality disorder. Semi structured interviews were conducted with eight staff members from a variety of disciplines who worked in forensic settings. A Thematic Analysis of the data was conducted and four themes were identified; ‘Recovery; Is this what we do?’, ‘Connections; being part of something’, ‘Identity; where do we go from here?’ and ‘Working with systems; where the power lies’. A Thematic map was generated from the data. The findings are discussed in relation to existing literature. Clinical implications are made including recognising the huge emotional impact this work has on staff and better supporting them, and the need to address systemic barriers that result in service users with a personality disorder diagnosis becoming ‘stuck’ in the system. Recommendations for future research are highlighted

SWINE BREEDING SYSTEMS: A STOCHASTIC EVALUATION WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

The after-tax net present value for 27 swine breeding systems composed of Duroc, Hampshire, and Yorkshire breeds were simulated and ordered using stochastic dominance analysis. The concept of the value of information was expanded to develop the concept of the willingness to pay to adopt a new technology. For producers not currently using the dominant system, estimates of the allowable present value cost of adoption are reported and used to explain diverse production practices.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Manure Application Rules and Environmental Considerations

Three manure application limits (N Limit, Annual P Limit and P Banking) were modeled with particular attention to the number of hours needed to appropriately distribute manure. The benefit and costs estimates indicated that P Banking was more profitable than N Limit which was more profitable than Annual P Limit. The number of hours required indicated that the Annual P Limit would not be completed within a two month window approximately 2 of 10 years. The increased number of hours for the Annual P Limit also increased the probability of a runoff event following manure application, relative to the other two scenarios. This work indicates that regulations that require Annual P Limits of manure cost the farmer and may have the unintended consequence of increasing runoff.manure, environment, policy, runoff, hours, acres, probability, rainfall, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

A Pilot Program to Assist CAFOs in Using Weather Data to Minimize Manure Management Risk

This paper summarizes a pilot project to disseminate site specific weather information that has been processed to estimate field runoff potential of land applied manure. Preliminary feedback indicate the program has value but that additional information is needed to understand how farmers use weather information to make decisions within the regulatory constraints they face.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Water Quality Trends across Select 319 Monitoring Sites in Northwest Arkansas

Northwest Arkansas contains two 319 priority watersheds that the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission has identified as being impacted by point source and nonpoint source pollution (i.e., phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment). This project specifically focused on determining water quality trends at select sites within the Illinois River (HUC# 11110103) and Beaver Reservoir (HUC# 11010001) priority watersheds, including Ballard Creek, Osage Creek, Illinois River, White River, West Fork White River and the Kings River where sufficient constituent data were available. Water quality trends were analyzed using flow‐adjusted constituent concentrations of phosphorus, nitrogen, sediment, sulfate and chloride, and parametric and non‐parametric statistical techniques to determine if constituent concentrations were increasing, decreasing or not significantly changing over time. Overall, flow‐adjusted concentrations of phosphorus and sediment have been decreasing across these watersheds based upon both statistical approaches. The decrease in phosphorus was likely the most important observation, because most water quality concerns in this region have focused on elevated phosphorus concentrations in these transboundary watersheds. These trends can be used along with other watershed information to improve the knowledge of how past, current, and future management decisions have influenced the watershed

Database Analysis to Support Nutrient Criteria Development (Phase II)

The intent of this publication of the Arkansas Water Resources Center is to provide a location whereby a final report on water research to a funding agency can be archived. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) contracted with University of Arkansas researchers for a multiple year project titled “Database Analysis to Support Nutrient Criteria Development”. This publication covers the second of three phases of that project and has maintained the original format of the report as submitted to TCEQ. This report can be cited either as an AWRC publication (see below) or directly as the final report to TCEQ

Crop marketing plan (1999)

New 10/99/5M