956 research outputs found
Economic Performance of Organic Farms in Europe
Economic aspects are increasingly determining the acceptance and further expansion of organic farming in Europe. Drawing on data and studies from the 15 EU member states and three non-EU countries (Norway, Switzerland and Czech Republic), this book provides a comprehensive overview of the economic performance of organic farms in Europe. The analysis of yields, costs, prices and support payments offers an insight into the profits of organic farms of various types and in different countries. Specific attention is paid to the impact of the 1992 CAP reform on the profitability of organic farming.
This book is aimed at policy makers, the private sector, researchers and students in the field of organic farming
Redistributive effects of CAP liberalisation: from the sectoral level to single farm
There is a growing public and political interest in effects of agricultural policy on income distribuion in the agricultural sector. Most of the literature regarding redistributive effects of agricultural policy is ex-post and static in nature and many tools for an ex-ante analysis of impacts of sectoral or macroeconomic policies depict farm groups or representative farms rather than individual farms. However, the measurement of inequality is highly sensitive to the aggregation of individual data. In this paper, redistributive effects of an abolishment of different instruments of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are analysed with a tool that is able to consistently assess impacts of sectoral policy on individual farm incomes. We find that an abolishment of the main components of the CAP, direct payments and market and price policies, results in a more unequal income distribution in relative terms, but a more equal income distribution in absolute terms. Based on the latter, we conclude that if the CAP aims at a more equal income distrbution within the agricultural sector, then significant scope for improving the design of respective policy instruments exists
Benefits of Organic Farming for Society
Recent food scares have lead to a boom in demand for organic products and an increasing awareness of policy makers of the potential benefits of organic farming. However, policies specifically targeting organic farming support do not remain beyond dispute and a sound justification of these is in great demand. The potential specific contribution of organic farming to the achievement of some of the key objectives of the European Common Agricultural Policy, e.g. competitiveness of agriculture, farming income, food supply, food quality and minimisation of negative environmental impacts of agricultural production are discussed.
It is argued that organic farming can contribute to the objectives of the CAP, however, addressing the various objectives to different degrees. The environmental effects of organic farming seem to be largely positive in comparison to conventional farming on a per hectare basis in all categories, be it biodiversity, input-output balances or soil and water resources, although other farming systems might perform better with respect to single indicators or when results are related to the amount of produced output. The quality of organically produced food seems to be higher than that of conventionally produced food for several indicators, for example, the risk of food contamination with pesticides and or nitrate tends to be lower. Income levels from organic farming are on average comparable to income generated on conventional farms, and organic farming is clearly a profitable alternative for quite a few farms in Europe. With respect to rural development organic farming is expected to have little direct effects, e.g. on unemployment rates, although small scale marketing and processing initiatives may contribute directly to rural employment. However, indirect effects such as increased employment in tourism due to a positive âecologicalâ image of a region can be of importance.
Conclusively, organic farming can contribute to several of the declared policy objectives of the CAP. However, the information available to date does not permit a clear conclusion if organic farming achieves desirable effects at lower costs than other farming systems. Nevertheless, the positive effects on a broad range of objectives clearly justifies the support of organic farming and is therefore recommended
Model Order Reduction for Rotating Electrical Machines
The simulation of electric rotating machines is both computationally
expensive and memory intensive. To overcome these costs, model order reduction
techniques can be applied. The focus of this contribution is especially on
machines that contain non-symmetric components. These are usually introduced
during the mass production process and are modeled by small perturbations in
the geometry (e.g., eccentricity) or the material parameters. While model order
reduction for symmetric machines is clear and does not need special treatment,
the non-symmetric setting adds additional challenges. An adaptive strategy
based on proper orthogonal decomposition is developed to overcome these
difficulties. Equipped with an a posteriori error estimator the obtained
solution is certified. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the
effectiveness of the proposed method
Indications for the Nonexistence of Three-Neutron Resonances near the Physical Region
The pending question of the existence of three-neutron resonances near the
physical energy region is reconsidered. Finite rank neutron-neutron forces are
used in Faddeev equations, which are analytically continued into the unphysical
energy sheet below the positive real energy axis. The trajectories of the
three-neutron S-matrix poles in the states of total angular momenta and parity
J^\pi=1/2 +- and J^\pi= 3/2 +- are traced out as a function of artificial
enhancement factors of the neutron-neutron forces. The final positions of the
S-matrix poles removing the artificial factors are found in all cases to be far
away from the positive real energy axis, which provides a strong indication for
the nonexistence of nearby three-neutron resonances. The pole trajectories
close to the threshold E=0 are also predicted out of auxiliary generated
three-neutron bound state energies using the Pad\'e method and agree very well
with the directly calculated ones.Comment: 20 pages, 7 Postscript figures, fig.1 is corrected, uses relax.st
The f_LT Response Function of D(e,e'p)n at Q^2=0.33(GeV/c)^2
The interference response function f_LT (R_LT) of the D(e,e'p)n reaction has
been determined at squared four-momentum transfer Q^2 = 0.33 (GeV/c)^2 and for
missing momenta up to p_miss= 0.29 (GeV/c). The results have been compared to
calculations that reproduce f_LT quite well but overestimate the cross sections
by 10 - 20% for missing momenta between 0.1 (GeV/c) and 0.2 (GeV/c) .Comment: 12 Pages, 10 figure
Consistent alpha-cluster description of the 12C (0^+_2) resonance
The near-threshold 12C (0^+_2) resonance provides unique possibility for fast
helium burning in stars, as predicted by Hoyle to explain the observed
abundance of elements in the Universe. Properties of this resonance are
calculated within the framework of the alpha-cluster model whose two-body and
three-body effective potentials are tuned to describe the alpha - alpha
scattering data, the energies of the 0^+_1 and 0^+_2 states, and the
0^+_1-state root-mean-square radius. The extremely small width of the 0^+_2
state, the 0_2^+ to 0_1^+ monopole transition matrix element, and transition
radius are found in remarkable agreement with the experimental data. The
0^+_2-state structure is described as a system of three alpha-particles
oscillating between the ground-state-like configuration and the elongated chain
configuration whose probability exceeds 0.9
Resonances in the three-neutron system
A study of 3-body resonances has been performed in the framework of
configuration space Faddeev equations. The importance of keeping a sufficient
number of terms in the asymptotic expansion of the resonance wave function is
pointed out. We investigated three neutrons interacting in selected force
components taken from realistic nn forces.Comment: 38 pages, 11 tables, 4 figure
What factors influence training opportunities for older workers? Three factorial surveys exploring the attitudes of HR professionals
The core research questions addressed in this paper are: what factors influence HR professionals in deciding whether to approve training proposals for older workers? What kind of training are they more likely to recommend for older employees and in which organizational contexts? We administered three factorial surveys to 66 HR professionals in Italy. Participants made specific training decisions based on profiles of hypothetical older workers. Multilevel analyses indicated that access to training decreases strongly with age, while highly-skilled older employees with low absenteeism rates are more likely to enjoy training opportunities. In addition, older workers displaying positive performance are more likely to receive training than older workers who perform poorly, suggesting that training late in working life may serve as a reward for good performance rather than as a means of enhancing productivity. The older the HR professional evaluating training proposals, the higher the probability that older workers will be recommended for training.
keywords: training; older workers; HR professionals; factorial survey; multilevel model
The He(e, ed)p Reaction in q-constant Kinematics
The cross section for the He(e, ed)p reaction has been measured as a
function of the missing momentum in q -constant kinematics at
beam energies of 370 and 576 MeV for values of the three-momentum transfer
of 412, 504 and 604 \mevc. The L(+TT), T and LT structure functions have been
separated for = 412 and 504 \mevc. The data are compared to three-body
Faddeev calculations, including meson-exchange currents (MEC), and to
calculations based on a covariant diagrammatic expansion. The influence of
final-state interactions and meson-exchange currents is discussed. The
-dependence of the data is reasonably well described by all calculations.
However, the most advanced Faddeev calculations, which employ the AV18
nucleon-nucleon interaction and include MEC, overestimate the measured cross
sections, especially the longitudinal part, and at the larger values of .
The diagrammatic approach gives a fair description of the cross section, but
under(over)estimates the longitudinal (transverse) structure function.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure
- âŠ