Soybean Variable Rate Planting Simulator

Soybean seed costs have increased considerably over the past 15 years, causing a growing interest in variable rate planting (VRP) to optimize seeding rates within soybean fields. The publicly available online Soybean Variable Rate Planting Simulator (http://analytics.iasoybeans.com/cool-apps/SoybeanVRPsimulator/) was built to help farmers, agronomists, and other agriculturalists to understand the essential prerequisite agronomic or economic conditions necessary for profitable VRP implementation. The simulator uses three years of soybean yield history to identify relative high, medium and low sub-field yield environments. The user then applies one of three yield classification methods (yield distribution percentiles, predefined yield levels and yield stability zones) to define a low, medium, or high yield environment for each raster. Then defines a simulation scenario by entering a common uniform seeding rate (CUSR), a seeding rate increase within the define yield zone, associated yield increase, and additional input costs due to VRP. Once the scenario is defined, the simulator will calculate the cost and return from the seeding rate change and conduct a break-even economic analysis. This simulator utilizes various peer-reviewed studies to help guide the user to understand realistic expectations from VRP. Simulation-based decisions can help farmers and advising agronomists to build their knowledge and skills while not exposing their customers, farm, or crop to unnecessary risks. Simulation-based training techniques, tools, and strategies are also applied in designing learning modules and used as a measurement tool to establish realistic economic and agronomic objectives and outcomes from new practices or technologies

Field incentive systems for electrical contractors

This thesis focuses on adapting existing incentive based pay systems for use in the electrical contracting industry and what the potential advantages would be from implementing these systems. Incentive based pay systems are methods of compensation that reward employees for achieving a defined level of performance or set of goals. This study explores the psychological basis of using monetary compensation to motivate workers, and the development of incentive based pay systems in several industries that are applicable to the electrical contracting industry. The most notable of the reviewed companies is the Lincoln Electric Company. The report examines the best practices in incentive pay systems across all industries including the construction industry, and creates a new incentive pay system for use by electrical contractors. The new system is designed around a fictional company that embodies the traits of the traditional electrical contracting company and the problems they face. Recommendations on tailoring and customizing the designed system for use by any electrical contracting firm are presented. The completed design is then tested using actual data from an operating electrical contracting firm. Statistical methods of evaluating the effectiveness of a new incentive program as well as the potential productivity improvement are included in the thesis

America’s Present Time: Reviving MLB Attendance by Marketing to Gen Z

Major League Baseball (MLB) has enjoyed steady financial growth in the recent past, which is largely attributed to media and sponsorship deals. Despite this growth, the league is losing favor with younger generations, namely Generation Z, and attendance rates are falling to historic lows with each new season. In order to sustain the financial growth of its league, MLB must better understand the attitudes and perceptions of Generation Z and thereby positively influence Generation Z attendance rates. To address these concerns, I have conducted 2 focus groups with Generation Z undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that illustrate Generation Z’s attitudes, beliefs, and feelings about MLB, attending sporting events, and influences of their consumer behavior. With the participants’ insights, I have considered a few key marketing recommendations that have the potential to help usher in a new generation of MLB fans.Bachelor of Art

Reducing shrinkage through admixtures and aggregate gradation

A study was conducted into the impacts of shrinkage reducing admixtures (SRAs) and larger nominal maximum coarse aggregate sizes on the properties and performance of concrete mixtures. Bridge deck concrete mixtures with different dosages of SRA were prepared and tested. The influence of the SRA on fresh properties, compressive strength, electrical resistivity, mass change, and shrinkage strain is examined. Pavement concrete mixtures with a 1.5-in. nominal maximum coarse aggregate size were prepared and tested. The Tarantula Curve design method was used to vary the amount of coarse aggregate while keeping the amount of fine aggregate constant. The influence of the percent retained on the 1-in. sieve size on the workability performance, compressive strength, electrical resistivity, mass change, and shrinkage strain is examined

Performances of the Past: Angura and the Role of Theatre Art in Japanese National Politics

During the worldwide surge of leftist activism and student protests in the 1960s and into the 1980s, underground theatre art in Japan was dominated by intense political messages that questioned the power of the state apparatus. One such group labeled 'angura' by contemporaries became popular enough to warrant international attention for their use of the experimental, avant-garde. This thesis seeks to understand how this group of underground theatre artists conceptualized their participation in leftist protest. I focus on their construction of collective memory and nostalgia for a pre-war past (1910-1940), that they themselves did not live during, and how their ideology of history showcased and even influenced the political expressions of their artwork. In doing so, I underline how underground Japanese theatre of this time hoped to correct the wartime and prewar imperial transgressions of Japan as a nation through their allegorical representations of the marginalized. I argue that underground Japanese theatre of the 1960s-1980s was a venue where previously undiscussed marginalized persons were represented and where youth activists were allowed to explore dark histories that the mainstream did not wish to platform

Field incentive systems for electrical contractors

This thesis focuses on adapting existing incentive based pay systems for use in the electrical contracting industry and what the potential advantages would be from implementing these systems. Incentive based pay systems are methods of compensation that reward employees for achieving a defined level of performance or set of goals. This study explores the psychological basis of using monetary compensation to motivate workers, and the development of incentive based pay systems in several industries that are applicable to the electrical contracting industry. The most notable of the reviewed companies is the Lincoln Electric Company. The report examines the best practices in incentive pay systems across all industries including the construction industry, and creates a new incentive pay system for use by electrical contractors. The new system is designed around a fictional company that embodies the traits of the traditional electrical contracting company and the problems they face. Recommendations on tailoring and customizing the designed system for use by any electrical contracting firm are presented. The completed design is then tested using actual data from an operating electrical contracting firm. Statistical methods of evaluating the effectiveness of a new incentive program as well as the potential productivity improvement are included in the thesis.</p