FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL SERVICE PROGRAMS AND FOREIGN RELATIONS

International Relations/Trade,

South Dakota Farm Commodity Prices 1910-1953

The purpose of this publication is to present the trend of prices over time for the principal farm products in South Dakota. Every individual engaged in the business of farming is interested directly in the trend of prices for the products which he produces. He may wish to base his next years production on his estimate of what the prices will be after he has harvested his crop or fattened his livestock. He faces the question whether he would gain by feeding the grain to livestock or by selling it as cash grain. The only basis on which he can estimate future prices is the historical trend of the last few years, together with an estimate of what supply and demand and other factors will do. Whether conscious of it or not, he is making some kind of a forecast of future conditions, basing his judgment on mental observations of past trends in relation to future markets. The graphs and tables presented hero may help to eliminate the errors that arise because of lack of information or limitations of individual memories

Leasing and Leases in South Dakota

Almost three-fourths of the 83,000 Farm Operators in South Dakota Lease All or a Part of Their Land. These tenant operators, the owners of that land and agents who handle it constitute a high proportion of the people of the state. With a large and ever increasing amount of land in county, state, and federal ownership every citizen within the state is more or less affected by the manner in which the land is handled. As a consequence, leases and the leasing systems employed have some bearing on the economic and social welfare of practically every individual in the state. Equitable leases, that consider not only the best interests of landlords and tenants but that also provide for the proper use of the land, may beneficially affect the well-being of a high percentage of the people of South Dakota. (See more in text.

Design of drives for inverter-assisted induction generators

pre-printThis paper investigates the control of power generation using two-phase squirrel-cage induction machines, where the load is connected to one stator winding and the load voltage is controlled through the other winding. The concept can be applied to three-phase machines as well. A state-space model of the machine is used to identify suitable operating regions. Then, two types of control algorithms are proposed: The first type regulates the frequency and the magnitude of the generated voltage and is suitable for stand-alone operation. The second type also regulates the phase of the voltages, enabling grid synchronization. Experimental results are presented for each of the control algorithms. The closed loop systems are found able to track the desired reference and to reject disturbances caused by significant changes in load and speed

Taxation in South Dakota: A Preliminary Report

The demands for tax-supported services in South Dakota are ever increasing while the tax receipts to finance such services are not increasing accordingly. The upward trend in the cost of education highway and public welfare programs are primo examples of the additional revenue requirements. Methods of financing these programs and the effect of financial policies on those paying the tax bills will be the subject of this report. Voters and state legislators need to know the effects of alternative programs for collecting and spending state revenues. In this report an attempt will be made to point out the major services that are received from taxation as well as how much these services are costing. Major emphasis will be placed on taxes pi\id by South Dakota citizens, with particular consideration given to the affects of various tax policies on the farmers. In the operation of the economic system in this country a very large percentage of the decisions made by individuals, either to buy or to sell goods or services, is left to the discretion of those buying and selling. If buyers feel that the price of a desired item is too high, they either attempt to get along without it or possibly buy a cheaper substitute# Such decision making is and has been an important factor in raising the level of living in this country. An exception to this important aspect of economic activity can be found in the field of taxation. How often do people evaluate the services they are receiving when making tax payments? Do they consider whether good tax purchase is being made cr do they feel that the product or service offered for sale is overpriced? To have a system of taxation that is thought by all taxpayers to be ono that distributes the burden of payments fairly, is an ideal probably never attainable. However a constant effort should be made to reach that goal. By so doing the inequalities that do exist can be minimized

Asbestos exposure and mesothelioma in South Africa

Objectives. To describe the exposure experiences of South African mesothelioma  cases, with emphasis on the contribution made to the caseload by different fibre  types, the proportion of subjects with no recall of asbestos exposure and only environmental contact, and the importance of putative causes other than asbestos.Design. A multicentred case-control study.Subjects and setting. 123 patients with mesothelioma interviewed by trained  interviewers in study centres established in  Johannesburg, Kimberley, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.Results. A convincing history of asbestos exposure was obtained in the overwhelming majority of cases (only 5 cases had unlikely asbestos exposure). Twenty-three subjects had worked on Cape crocidolite mines, 3 at Penge (an amosite mine), 3 on mines  producing amosite and Transvaal crocidolite and 1 on a Transvaal crocidolite mine. Exclusively environmental exposure  accounted for at least 18% of cases; 91% of these cases (20/'22 subjects) had had contact with Cape crocidolite. There was a relative paucity of cases linked to amosite and no convincing chrysotile case. Non-asbestos causes occur rarely, if at all; in South  Africa.Conclusion. The preponderance of crocidolite cases, followed by amosite and then chrysotile cases, is consistent with the view that there is a fibre gradient of mesotheliomagenic potential for South African asbestos (crocidolite > amosite >chrysotile)

Adaptive Optics Imaging of QSOs with Double-Peaked Narrow Lines: Are they Dual AGNs?

Active galaxies hosting two accreting and merging super-massive black holes (SMBHs) -- dual Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) -- are predicted by many current and popular models of black hole-galaxy co-evolution. We present here the results of a program that has identified a set of probable dual AGN candidates based on near Infra-red (NIR) Laser Guide-Star Adaptive Optics (LGS AO) imaging with the Keck II telescope. These candidates are selected from a complete sample of radio-quiet Quasi-stellar Objects (QSOs) drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which show double-peaked narrow AGN emission lines. Of the twelve AGNs imaged, we find six with double galaxy structure, of which four are in galaxy mergers. We measure the ionization of the two velocity components in the narrow AGN lines to test the hypothesis that both velocity components come from an active nucleus. The combination of a well-defined parent sample and high-quality imaging allows us to place constraints on the fraction of SDSS QSOs that host dual accreting black holes separated on kiloparsec (kpc) scales: ~0.3%-0.65%. We derive from this fraction the time spent in a QSO phase during a typical merger and find a value that is much lower than estimates that arise from QSO space densities and galaxy merger statistics. We discuss possible reasons for this difference. Finally, we compare the SMBH mass distributions of single and dual AGN and find little difference between the two within the limited statistics of our program, hinting that most SMBH growth happens in the later stages of a merger process.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; accepted to the Astrophysical Journa