The Impact of Labor Constraints on the Farm Performance

Stricter immigration policies that affect an estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants, 40% of whom are hired as farm workers, can potentially leave the highly labor-dependent organic farms more economically vulnerable. The displacement of unauthorized immigrants will expectedly create labor shortages. This study analyzes the impact of hiring constraints and changes in farm labor market conditions (due to stricter immigration policies) on the technical efficiency and financial performance of organic and conventional farms. A production function approach is used to analyze survey data that has a mix of organic and conventional farms in the Southeast region. Adjustment strategies to deal with labor shortage and providing workers with nonwage incentives have been determined to be an important determinant of farm income. Among the strategies, adjustment of wage and nonwage benefits were found to be the most effective but a combination of strategies is the most preferred approach to deal with labor shortage. Furthermore, we found productivity difference between farmers with labor shortage adjustment strategies and those who do not.Agricultural Finance, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis,

THE POTENTIAL OF NEAR INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY AS A METHOD OF DETERMINATION OF THE FAT CONTENT IN

Yogurt is a food product produced by fresh milk as the raw material which is easier to digest and assimilate than fresh milk. Today, it is a very popular food product and is marketed worldwide.Consequently, is important to know its chemical composition. On the other hand, the use of near-infrared technologies is increasing in the last years as it is a fast and easy technique.Nevertheless, studies about its use in yogurts are limited. 141 samples of yogurt were analysed by NIRS. The whole experiment was carried out at 20ºC. 75% of the samples were used for calibration set and the rest were used for validating this model. A NIR Luminar 5030 Miniature “Hand-held” with a spectral range of 1100-2300 nm was used to obtain the spectra, with a sampling interval of 2 nm. The software used for analysis was The Unscrambler. The predictive models were established by using partial least squares (PLS). The information that is used to predict the composition and quantities of the samples is contained into the spectral curves. The pivotal step for spectroscopy technique is to extract quantitative data from them. In this study, PLS algorithm was used to achieve this purpose. 87 samples were chosen as a calibration sample cluster, and PLS mathematic model was built by using NIR-spectroscopy and fat content of each sample (Fig.1). The correlation coefficient between spectral data and fat content of yogurt was 0.965, the standard error of calibration (SEC) was 0.587, and the standard error of prediction (SEP) was 0.642. The fat content of another 33 samples was predicted by a mathematical model (Fig.2). The correlation coefficient of linear regression between predicted and measured values shows a reasonable to excellent prediction performance of 0.929. In conclusion, the results indicated that NIRS could quantitatively analyze fat content of yogurt in a fast and non-destructive way

Nonlinear Self-Adjoint Classification of a Burgers-KdV Family of Equations

The concepts of strictly, quasi, weak, and nonlinearly self-adjoint differential equations are revisited. A nonlinear self-adjoint classification of a class of equations with second and third order is carried out

Tourism in Caves and the Conservation of the Speleological Heritage:The Case of Serra da Bodoquena (Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil)

The Serra da Bodoquena is the region in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil in which the municipality of Bonito is located. This municipality is the primary calling card for tourism in the state and is one of the most developed areas of ecotourism and speleotourism in the country. The tourism there is entitled ecotourism, and is designed to be sustainable. The present case study focuses on the ecologically sustainable aspects of the speleotourism practiced there, especially the proposals for tourist carrying capacity adopted. The results and discussion provide suggestions for the adoption of a different formulation of carrying capacity focusing on both operational and quantitative aspects. Ecologically sustainable speleotourism in the Serra da Bodoquena should be possible as long as new proposals limiting visitation are adopted which conform to technical environmental management procedures and consider the interests of local stakeholders

Sequential injection analysis (SIA): twenty years in a Brazilian perspective

The year of 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the development of Sequential Injection Analysis (SIA) by Ruzicka and Marshall. Considered the second generation of the flow injection methods, this article briefly describes the history, the basic principles of the technique and reviews all papers developed by Brazilian scientists aiming the divulgation of this automation technique in Analytical Chemistry.FAPESPCNPqCoordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES