STRUCTURE OF SOUTH CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

Using a dual economic specification of a multiproduct technology, the structure of agricultural production was tested for five South Central states (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana). A comprehensive set of output supplies and input demands comprised the estimation equations in each state. Evidence of nonjoint production in a subset of commodities was detected in four of the five states. Several commodities also satisfied sufficient conditions for consistent aggregations. However, the specific outputs satisfying each structural property varied by state. Sufficient conditions for consistent geographic aggregation across the states were not satisfied. These results provide empirical guidance and important cautions for legitimately simplifying state-level model specifications of southern agricultural production.Industrial Organization,

Being Prepared and Staying Connected: Scouting’s Influence on Social Capital and Community Involvement

Objectives In recent years, scholars have become concerned about the effects that declining levels of social capital are having on community life in the United States. Data suggest that Americans are less likely to interact with neighbors and less likely to participate in community groups than they were in the past. Nevertheless, researchers have found that participation in some types of organizations has a positive impact on social capital and civic involvement. Each year, millions of American youth participate in programs designed to promote positive youth development. Here, we examine the effect that participation in one of the largest youth organizations, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), has on adult social capital and community involvement. Methods Utilizing a national survey of adult males, we compare measures of social capital and community involvement for former Scouts and non‐Scouts. Results Our findings suggest that level of involvement in the Boy Scouts is significantly related to measures of adult social capital and community engagement. Conclusion Scouting tends to have a significant impact on the lives of its most committed members. Future research must continue to explore the long‐term effects of participation in youth organizations

Simulating Your Estate Transfer Alternatives (Input Form)

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Directional emission from asymmetric microlaser resonators of ∏-conjugated polymers

Journal ArticleA ∏-conjugated polymer film was fabricated into an asymmetric microlaser resonator having a quadrapole deformation with irregular boundaries and a Q factor of 600. At high excitation intensities above the threshold for lasing, we observed multimode laser emission spectra and directional emission at four different angles. Chaotic ray dynamics explains the observed emission pattern

Spectral analysis of polymer microring lasers

Journal ArticleThe emission spectra of microring lasers made of p-conjugated polymer films that coat glass optical fibers are analyzed with the help of a Fourier transform. This method allows for the assignment of photopumped emission lines to integral Bessel functions and a more precise determination of the laser threshold excitation intensity based on harmonic analysis

Random lasing in human tissues

Journal ArticleA random collection of scatterers in a gain medium can produce coherent laser emission lines dubbed "random lasing." We show that biological tissues, including human tissues, can support coherent random lasing when infiltrated with a concentrated laser dye solution. To extract a typical random resonator size within the tissue we average the power Fourier transform of random laser spectra collected from many excitation locations in the tissue; we verified this procedure by a computer simulation. Surprisingly, we found that malignant tissues show many more laser lines compared to healthy tissues taken from the same organ. Consequently, the obtained typical random resonator was found to be different for healthy and cancerous tissues, and this may lead to a technique for separating malignant from healthy tissues for diagnostic imaging

Multiple resonances in microdisk lasers of ∏-conjugated polymers

Journal ArticleWe have fabricated microdisk lasers from p-conjugated polymers that show multiline emission spectrum upon optical excitation. Using Fourier transform analysis, each emission line is assigned integer to an interger Bessel function that helps to estimate the field distribution inside the photoexcited polymer microdisk. We found that the microdisk can sustain two different laser modes with different, though complementary, field distributions and that the index of refraction decreases with increasing excitation intensity