HOW MUCH DO FARMERS PAY IN TAXES?

A variety of federal, state, and local taxes are levied on farming operations in the United States. To date, there has been no attempt to systematically estimate what the total tax burden is on U.S. farms and how that burden varies from state to state. Based on the results of this analysis, the total farmer tax burden in 1994 was estimated at nearly $17 billion, most of which was in the form of real property tax (44%) and federal personal income tax (26%).farms, income taxes, property taxes, tax burdens, Agricultural Finance, Public Economics,

An assessment of the quality of the I-DSD and the I-CAH registries - international registries for rare conditions affecting sex development

With the proliferation of rare disease registries, there is a need for registries to undergo an assessment of their quality against agreed standards to ensure their long-term sustainability and acceptability.This study was performed to evaluate the I-DSD and I-CAH Registries and identify their strengths and weaknesses. The design and operational aspects of the registries were evaluated against published quality indicators. Additional criteria included the level of activity, international acceptability of the registries and their use for research. The design of the I-DSD and I-CAH Registries provides them with the ability to perform multiple studies and meet the standards for data elements, data sources and eligibility criteria. The registries follow the standards for data security, governance, ethical and legal issues, sustainability and communication of activities. The data have a high degree of validity, consistency and accuracy and the completeness is maximal for specific conditions such as androgen insensitivity syndrome and congenital adrenal hyperplasia. In terms of research output, the external validity is strong but the wide variety of cases needs further review. The internal validity of data was condition specific and highest for conditions such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The shift of the registry from a European registry to an international registry and the creation of a discrete but linked CAH registry increased the number of users and stakeholders as well as the international acceptability of both registries. The I-DSD and I-CAH registries comply with the standards set by expert organisations. Recent modifications in their operation have allowed the registries to increase their user acceptability

Measuring the Economic Impact of High Speed Rail Construction for California and the Central Valley Region

The nation’s first high-speed rail project is under construction in California’s Central Valley as of the date of this report. This research analyzes the immediate economic impacts, focused on employment and spending generated by California High-Speed Rail (HSR) Construction Package 1 (CP1) in the Central Valley and the rest of California. The authors use a two-pronged approach that combines original economic analysis and modeling with case study vignettes that explore the economic impacts through the lens of a sample of businesses and individuals directly impacted by this phase of HSR development. Overall, the economic analysis suggests that CP1-related spending (forecasted through to 2019) will lead to more than 31,500 additional jobs (both part-time and full-time) by the year 2029. Growth is concentrated in Fresno County, with the number of additional jobs estimated at more than 15,500. The analysis considers job growth across a number of alternative scenarios, converting the raw jobs estimates to full-time equivalent job-years. Under the most conservative HSR spending scenario considered, over the 15-year period evaluated, more than 25,000 full-time equivalent job-years are created. This amount to 14,900 jobs per billion (real) dollars of spending, or a cost of approximately $67,200 per job-year

On the road to Enlighten-ment: establishing an institutional repository service for the University of Glasgow

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to chart the development and growth of open access and institutional repositories at the University of Glasgow, Scotland from initial work in 2001 to the University's recently launched service, Enlighten. The University of Glasgow is a signatory to the Scottish Open Access Declaration and recently released a statement on Open Access.<p></p> Design/methodology/approach – The study will focus on the key lessons learned through a twin track approach of advocacy and service development during the DAEDALUS Project (2002-2005) and the transition of that work to a University service called Enlighten. This service includes a repository for published and peer-reviewed papers which has now had over 2 million hits and over 270,000 PDF downloads since it was established in February 2004.<p></p> Findings – The paper reveals the lessons learned by the Library and the project team. It also identifies the range of issues which must be addressed in the successful implementation of a repository and its transition to a production service. These include the development of content policies, copyright clearance and the cultural change necessary to populate a repository service. These challenges have and continue to be addressed by the repository team at the University of Glasgow.<p></p> Originality/value – This paper provides details of the lessons learned in the practical experience of setting up an institutional repository and ensuring its transition to a full and supported University service. It will be of particular interest to institutions implementing a repository or running a pilot service.<p></p&gt

The UK NHS Economic Evaluation Database : Economic issues in evaluations of health technology

Objective: The U.K. NHS Economic Evaluation Database (EED) project is commissioned to identify papers on economic evaluations of health technologies and to disseminate their findings to NHS decision makers by means of structured abstracts that are available through a public database and the Cochrane Library. This paper discusses current issues relating to the economic aspects of producing NHS EED abstracts. Methods: A review of NHS EED was undertaken between 1994 and 1999 to determine the methodologies adopted and issues that influence the usefulness of economic evaluations. Methods adopted to improve the quality of NHS EED abstracts are also reported. Results: Eighty-five percent of NHS EED abstracts are cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs), 9.3% are cost-utility analyses (CUAs), and only 1.4% are cost-benefit analyses (CBAs). Of the total abstracts, 65.9% are based on single studies, 19.5% on reviews, 3.9% on estimates of effectiveness, and 10.7% on combinations of these sources. Models are utilized in 16.7% of CEAs, 60.2% of CUAs, and 20% of CBAs. Analyses of CBA studies reveal a degree of misuse of well-established definitions. NHS EED internal control mechanisms are reported that provide a means of ensuring that abstracts are based on sound academic principles. Conclusions: Most economic evaluations are conducted by means of CEA, followed by CUA, while CBA accounts for an extreme minority of cases. Single studies form the principal source of effectiveness data, although models are widely used, principally in CUA. The structure of NHS EED abstracts provides decision makers with the principal results and an interpretation of the relative strengths and weaknesses of economic evaluations

ENTRY INTO FARMING: THE EFFECTS OF LEASING AND LEVERAGE ON FIRM SURVIVAL

Agribusiness,

A comparison of the responses of mature and young clonal tea to drought.

To assist commercial producers with optimising the use of irrigation water, the responses to drought of mature and young tea crops (22 and 5 years after field planting respectively) were compared using data from two adjacent long-term irrigation experiments in Southern Tanzania. Providing the maximum potential soil water deficit was below about 400-500 mm for mature, and 200-250 mm for young plants (clone 6/8), annual yields of dry tea from rainfed or partially irrigated crops were similar to those from the corresponding well-watered crops. At deficits greater than this, annual yields declined rapidly in young tea (up to 22 kg (ha mm)-1) but relatively slowly in mature tea (up to 6.5 kg (ha mm)- 1). This apparent insensitivity of the mature crop to drought was due principally to compensation that occurred during the rains for yield lost in the dry season. Differences in dry matter distribution and shoot to root ratios contributed to these contrasting responses. Thus, the total above ground dry mass of well-irrigated, mature plants was about twice that for young plants. Similarly, the total mass of structural roots (>1 mm diameter), to 3 m depth, was four times greater in the mature crop than in the young crop and, for fine roots (<1 mm diameter), eight times greater. The corresponding shoot to root ratios (dry mass) were about 1:1 and 2:1 respectively. In addition, each unit area of leaf in the canopy of a mature plant had six times more fine roots (by weight) available to extract and supply water than did a young plant. Despite the logistical benefits resulting from more even crop distribution during the year when crops are fully irrigated, producers currently prefer to save water and energy costs by allowing a substantial soil water deficit to develop prior to the start of the rains, up to 250 mm in mature tea, knowing that yield compensation will occur later

Do stiffness and asymmetries predict change of direction performance?

Change of direction speed (CODS) underpins performance in a wide range of sports but little is known about how stiffness and asymmetries affect CODS. Eighteen healthy males performed unilateral drop jumps to determine vertical, ankle, knee and hip stiffness, and a CODS test to evaluate left and right leg cutting performance during which ground reaction force data were sampled. A step-wise regression analysis was performed to ascertain the determinants of CODS time. A two-variable regression model explained 63% (R-2 = 0.63; P = 0.001) of CODS performance. The model included the mean vertical stiffness and jump height asymmetry determined during the drop jump. Faster athletes (n = 9) exhibited greater vertical stiffness (F = 12.40; P = 0.001) and less asymmetry in drop jump height (F = 6.02; P = 0.026) than slower athletes (n = 9); effect sizes were both "large" in magnitude. Results suggest that overall vertical stiffness and drop jump height asymmetry are the strongest predictors of CODS in a healthy, non-athletic population

Sequence of Quaternary Sediments in the Bélanger Sand Pit, Pointe-Fortune, Québec-Ontario

Drilling in the floor of the Bélanger sand pit (Ontario) near Pointe-Fortune, Québec, added 3 stratigraphic units to those already exposed in the pit: a lowermost till, and an intermediate organic-bearing (?) sand-clay unit overlain by a massive lacustrine clay. The subsurface units, comprising about 70% of the stratigraphy, complete the Quaternary sequence exposed in the pit face : an organic-bearing silty sand (>40 000 years BP) unit truncated by an unfos-siliferous sand unit and overlain by the uppermost till. The overall sequence forms a continuous 18 m column of Quaternary sediments. The Pointe-Fortune sequence shows some similarities with the Trois-Rivières Quaternary series which includes the Saint-Pierre sediments >75 000 years old. In addition to stratigraphie information the combination of direct (drilling) and indirect (geophysical) methods of investigation by providing a three-dimensional picture of the subsurface has proved helpful in interpreting the stratigraphy. The geotechnical properties of a massive overconsolidated clay have been determined to facilitate the planning of future subsurface investigation.Des forages à l'intérieur de la sablière Bélanger (Ontario) près de Pointe-Fortune, Québec, permettent d'ajouter trois unités stratigraphiques à celles déjà visibles à la surface: un till inférieur, et, en position intermédiaire, un ensemble sable-argile avec matière organique(?) recouvert par une argile lacustre. Ces trois unités comprennent près de 70% de la stratigraphie du site et sont recouvertes par une unité de sable et de sable silteux contenant de la matière organique datée à >40 000 ans. Cette dernière est tronquée par une unité de sable non fossilifère, et un till occupe le haut de la coupe. La totalité des sédiments quaternaires forment une séquence de 18 m de haut. La séquence quaternaire de Pointe-Fortune présente des similarités avec la série quaternaire de Trois-Rivières, qui inclut les sédiments de Saint-Pierre d'un âge de plus de 75 000 ans. Cette étude en plus de fournir de nouvelles données sur la stratigraphie démontre que l'utilisation conjointe de techniques directes (forages) et indirectes (géophysiques) s'avère utile à l'interprétation des données stratigraphiques en présentant une image tri-dimensionnelle du terrain. Afin de faciliter de futurs travaux de forage, nous avons établi les propriétés géotechniques de l'argile massive compacte

Methods of editing cloud and atmospheric layer affected pixels from satellite data

Subvisible cirrus clouds (SCi) were easily distinguished in mid-infrared (MIR) TIROS-N daytime data from south Texas and northeast Mexico. The MIR (3.55-3.93 micrometer) pixel digital count means of the SCi affected areas were more than 3.5 standard deviations on the cold side of the scene means. (These standard deviations were made free of the effects of unusual instrument error by factoring out the Ch 3 MIR noise on the basis of detailed examination of noisy and noise-free pixels). SCi affected areas in the IR Ch 4 (10.5-11.5 micrometer) appeared cooler than the general scene, but were not as prominent as in Ch 3, being less than 2 standard deviations from the scene mean. Ch 3 and 4 standard deviations and coefficients of variation are not reliable indicators, by themselves, of the presence of SCi because land features can have similar statistical properties