ESTIMATING RETURNS TO AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH, EXTENSION, AND TEACHING AT THE STATE LEVEL

The majority of decisions concerning investment and allocation of public funds for agricultural research, extension, and teaching (RET) are made at the state-level, while most of the quantitative RET evaluations are made on a national basis. This paper illustrates an approach for conducting a disaggregated state-level evaluation of agricultural research, extension, and teaching. Ridge regression is employed to handle multicollinearity problems.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Fly-by-light flight control system technology development plan

The results of a four-month, phased effort to develop a Fly-by-Light Technology Development Plan are documented. The technical shortfalls for each phase were identified and a development plan to bridge the technical gap was developed. The production configuration was defined for a 757-type airplane, but it is suggested that the demonstration flight be conducted on the NASA Transport Systems Research Vehicle. The modifications required and verification and validation issues are delineated in this report. A detailed schedule for the phased introduction of fly-by-light system components has been generated. It is concluded that a fiber-optics program would contribute significantly toward developing the required state of readiness that will make a fly-by-light control system not only cost effective but reliable without mitigating the weight and high-energy radio frequency related benefits

Winners and Losers: Formula versus Competitive Funding of Agricultural Research

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, O3, O4, Q16,

Measurement of focusing properties for high numerical aperture optics using an automated submicron beamprofiler

The focusing properties of three aspheric lenses with numerical aperture (NA) between 0.53 and 0.68 were directly measured using an interferometrically referenced scanning knife-edge beam profiler with sub-micron resolution. The results obtained for two of the three lenses tested were in agreement with paraxial gaussian beam theory. It was also found that the highest NA aspheric lens which was designed for 830nm was not diffraction limited at 633nm. This process was automated using motorized translation stages and provides a direct method for testing the design specifications of high numerical aperture optics.Comment: 6 pages 4 figure

Absorption imaging of a single atom

Absorption imaging has played a key role in the advancement of science from van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of red blood cells to modern observations of dust clouds in stellar nebulas and Bose-Einstein condensates. Here we show the first absorption imaging of a single atom isolated in vacuum. The optical properties of atoms are thoroughly understood, so a single atom is an ideal system for testing the limits of absorption imaging. A single atomic ion was confined in an RF Paul trap and the absorption imaged at near wavelength resolution with a phase Fresnel lens. The observed image contrast of 3.1(3)% is the maximum theoretically allowed for the imaging resolution of our setup. The absorption of photons by single atoms is of immediate interest for quantum information processing (QIP). Our results also point out new opportunities in imaging of light-sensitive samples both in the optical and x-ray regimes.Comment: Accepted to Nature Commu

Short-Distance Structure of Nuclei

One of Jefferson Lab's original missions was to further our understanding of the short-distance structure of nuclei. In particular, to understand what happens when two or more nucleons within a nucleus have strongly overlapping wave-functions; a phenomena commonly referred to as short-range correlations. Herein, we review the results of the (e,e'), (e,e'p) and (e,e'pN) reactions that have been used at Jefferson Lab to probe this short-distance structure as well as provide an outlook for future experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, for publication in Journal of Physics

Magnetic interactions in transition metal doped ZnO : An abinitio study

We calculate the nature of magnetic interactions in transition-metal doped ZnO using the local spin density approximation and LSDA+\textit{U} method of density functional theory. We investigate the following four cases: (i) single transition metal ion types (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu) substituted at Zn sites, (ii) substitutional magnetic transition metal ions combined with additional Cu and Li dopants, (iii) substitutional magnetic transition metal ions combined with oxygen vacancies and (iv) pairs of magnetic ion types (Co and Fe, Co and Mn, etc.). Extensive convergence tests indicate that the calculated magnetic ground state is unusually sensitive to the k-point mesh and energy cut-off, the details of the geometry optimizations and the choice of the exchange-correlation functional. We find that ferromagnetic coupling is sometimes favorable for single type substitutional transition metal ions within the local spin density approximation. However, the nature of magnetic interactions changes when correlations on the transition-metal ion are treated within the more realistic LSDA + \textit{U} method, often disfavoring the ferromagnetic state. The magnetic configuration is sensitive to the detailed arrangement of the ions and the amount of lattice relaxation, except in the case of oxygen vacancies when an antiferromagnetic state is always favored.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figure

Nitrogen balance and urine, serum and plasma composition of growing pigs fed on raw or heat-treated field peas (Pisum sativum)

Experiments were conducted to determine the effect of heating field peas (Pisum sativum) on the N balance and urine, serum and plasma composition of growing pigs. In the first experiment, four diets containing raw field peas (cv. Wirrega) or field peas heated to 150° (cv. Wirrega), 165° (cv. Wirrega) or 150° (cv. Dundale) for 15 min respectively were formulated to contain 1.15 g ileal digestible N/MJ digestible energy (DE) and 0.36 g lieal digestible lysine/MJ DE in a sugar-based diet. Digestibility estimates were based on those for the Dundale cultivar of field peas used in previous experiments. Total urine and faeces collection from eight pigs was conducted over two 7 d collection periods with a 7 d diet change-over period. Serial blood sampling from the external jugular vein was conducted on the final day of each collection period. There was no significant difference (P < 0.05) in the N balance or apparent biological value of the field-pea treatments. Pigs fed on diets containing peas heated to 150° (cv. Wirrega) or 165° (cv. Wirrega) had a significantly lower (P < 0.01) daily output of urea and uric acid in the urine, and depressed serum protein and serum urea concentrations. Plasma lysine concentration and daily urine lysine output were not significantly different (P < 0.05) in pigs fed on heated peas. Protein excretion in the urine of pigs fed on diets containing peas heated to 165° increased 3–7 times (depending on estimation technique) the level observed in pigs fed on diets containing raw peas. A second experiment was conducted to determine the apparent ileal digestibility of N and amino acids in cv. Wirrega field peas. This study revealed that N digestibility (0.44) and lysine digestibility (0.35) in peas heated to 165° were significantly lower than the cv. Dundale estimates (0.57 and 062 respectively) used in diet formulations. The depressed serum and urine variables in pigs fed on heated peas were attributed to overestimation of digestibility. The results exemplify the fact that it is not possible to draw general conclusions as to the effects of heat on any particular protein concentrate. Variability in N balance experiments and problems associated with urine analysis are suggested as likely reasons for the current study not reflecting poor utilization of ileal digestible lysine from heat-treated field peas. Despite considerable variation in the results, it is possible that a large proportion of non-utilizable amino acids in heated field peas may be excreted from the pig via the urine in the form of a protein