Agricultural Employment Trends in an Enlarged European Union: Does the CAP Reform/Introduction Matter?

In the course of economic development there is a general downward trend of agricultural employment, although structural change in agriculture is often delayed. In the EU-15, agricultural employment decreased by -2.3% p.a. (measured in regular persons) and -3.0% p.a. (measured in annual working units) between 1995 and 2000. In some of the new EU Member States, employment in agriculture plummeted in the early 1990s, whereas in others it increased during the first years of transition and has served as a social buffer in times of economic hardship. The most important determinants of agricultural employment changes are labor saving technical progress, the macroeconomic environment, the farm structure, socio-economic characteristics of the farmer and agricultural support policies. Currently, farmers in the enlarged EU are facing significant policy changes, both in the EU-15 (2003 CAP reform) and in the new Member States (CAP introduction). The results of 15 case studies assessing the future development of agricultural employment and the impact of CAP reform/introduction confirm the general downward trend which overall will not be much affected by these policy changes. However, the case studies also reveal significant differences between regions and enterprises.Agricultural labor market, agricultural policy, European Union, transition countries, case studies, Agricultural and Food Policy, Labor and Human Capital, J43, Q18, Q19,

AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT TRENDS IN AN ENLARGED EUROPEAN UNION: DOES THE CAP REFORM / INTRODUCTION MATTER?

In the course of economic development there is a general downward trend of agricultural employment. In the EU-15, agricultural employment decreased by 2.3% p.a. (measured in regular persons) and 3.0% p.a. (measured in annual working units) between 1995 and 2000. In some of the new EU Member States, employment in agriculture plummeted in the early 1990s, whereas in others it increased during the first years of transition and has served as a social buffer in times of economic hardship. The most important determinants of agricultural employment changes are labor saving technical progress, the macroeconomic environment, the farm structure, socio-economic characteristics of the farmer and agricultural support policies. Currently, farmers in the enlarged EU are facing significant policy changes, both in the EU-15 (2003 CAP reform) and in the new Member States (CAP introduction). The results of 15 case studies assessing the future development of agricultural employment and the impact of CAP reform/introduction confirm the general downward trend which overall will not be much affected by these policy changes. However, the case studies also reveal significant differences between regions and enterprises.Agricultural labor market, agricultural policy, European Union, transition countries, case studies., Agricultural and Food Policy,

Contributions to efficient algorithms based on rank-1 updates

Das zentrale Thema dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung effizienter Algorithmen zur Rang-1 Aufdatierung in verschiedenen Problemstellungen. Die aufdatierte Matrix A+ ergibt sich hierbei aus der ursprünglichen Matrix A sowie der additiven Rang-1 Korrektur ab^T der Vektoren a und b. Im ersten Teil dieser Arbeit wird die Rang-1 Aufdatierung der LU-Faktorisierung betrachtet. Hierzu werden bekannte Algorithmen durch die Möglichkeit der Spaltenpermutation auf rechteckige Probleme erweitert sowie durch effiziente Matrixzugriffe in ihrer Laufzeit optimiert. Zusätzlich wird ein hybrider Algorithmus vorgestellt, welcher verschiedene Verfahren vereint und speziell zur Verwendung im hier vorgestellten Optimierungspaket entwickelt wurde. Im zweiten Teil wird die Rang-1 Aufdatierung der Singulärwertzerlegung für den Fall unsymmetrischer Matrizen betrachtet. Hierbei liegt das Hauptaugenmerk auf der schnellen Multiplikation von Cauchy-Matrizen mit allgemeinen Matrizen. Dazu werden verschiedene Matrixapproximationen näher untersucht. Weiterhin wird durch einen Korrekturschritt eine hohe Lösungsgenauigkeit der aufdatierten Matrizen sichergestellt. Im letzten Kapitel werden zwei verschiedene Verfahren zur Rang-1 Aufdatierung der Matrixexponentialfunktion vorgestellt. Zunächst wird hierzu die Darstellung der Matrixfunktion durch das Cauchy-Integral verwendet. Der Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf der theoretischen Untersuchung des Quadraturfehlers sowie der effizienten Berechnung von Integrationsweg und Trapezsumme. Des weiteren wird als weiteres Aufdatierungsverfahren eine auf dem Scaling und Squaring Algorithmus beruhende Methode vorgestellt.The main contribution of this work is the development of efficient algorithms for the rank-1 update in different applications. The updated matrix A+ is obtained from the original matrix A as well as from the vectors a and b, which form an additive correction ab^T. The first part of this work is concerned with the rank-1 update of the LU factorization. At first two existing algorithms are extended with the option of column pivoting, which is necessary for updating rectangular problems. The computational time is further reduced by efficient memory access. Additionally, a hybrid algorithm which combines the advantages of different updating strategies is presented. It was developed for the use within an optimization code. In the second part the rank-1 update of the Singular Value Decomposition for unsymmetric matrices is investigated. The focus on the development of an efficient updating algorithm is put on the fast multiplication of arbitrary matrices by Cauchy-matrices. The Cauchy-matrix structure allows using different matrix approximations which are examined. To ensure the accuracy of the updated matrices an additional correction step is performed. In the last chapter different methods for updating the matrix exponential are presented. At first the Cauchy-integral representation of the matrix function is used. The focus of this part lies in the theoretical investigation of the quadrature error as well as in presenting efficient strategies for applying the updating method in practice. Regarding this, two points of interest are the choice of the path of the integration and the efficient computation of the trapezoidal sum. In the end another updating algorithm for the matrix exponential, which is based on the Scaling and Squaring algorithm, is introduced

The role of sport in the district of Bautzen ahead the backgroundof the demographic development

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On the Efficient Update of the Singular Value Decomposition Subject to Rank-One Modifications

In this paper we present an efficient method for updating the singular value decomposition (SVD) subject to a rank-one modification. The updated SVD can be characterized by two problems involving symmetric matrices. The singular values corresponding to these symmetric problems are computed by solving a secular equation. The secular equation can be solved reliably and efficiently with standard software. The singular vectors can be updated efficiently with a few matrix-matrix products. The computational effort to compute the matrix-matrix products can be considerably decreased by exploiting that some matrices are of Cauchy-type. We analyze several methods which exploit this structure. The computational complexity of the proposed approach is O(n2 log2 n)

Mögliche Bestimmungsgründe einer Studienaufnahme in Deutschland

Diese Arbeit untersucht die Abhängigkeit einer Studienaufnahme von ausgewählten sozioökonomischen Variablen. Dazu werden mit Daten aus dem Sozio-ökonomischen Panel mittels eines Probit-Modells Schätzungen bezüglich der Wahrscheinlichkeiten einer Studienaufnahme bei Personen mit Hochschulzugangsberechtigung modelliert. Es zeigt sich, dass für den gewählten Betrachtungszeitraum die hier ausgewählten ökonomische Faktoren, Angaben über die Bildungsherkunft oder allgemeine persönliche Daten nur partiell für die Entscheidung zur Studienaufnahme erklärend herangezogen werden können. -- This paper investigates the influence of socio-economic factors on the decision to go to university. To this end data from the socio-economic panel is used for estimating the probability of taking up studies with the Probit-model. The result of the study indicates that for the period of time in question neither the economic factors nor the educational background nor general personal data provide satisfactory explanation for the decision to go to university or not.

Like-likes-Like: Cooperative Hydrogen Bonding Overcomes Coulomb Repulsion in Cationic Clusters with Net Charges up to Q=+6e

Quantum chemical calculations have been employed to study kinetically stable cationic clusters, wherein the monovalent cations are trapped by hydrogen bonding despite strongly repulsive electrostatic forces. We calculated linear and cyclic clusters of the hydroxy-functionalized cation N-(3-hydroxypropyl) pyridinium, commonly used as cation in ionic liquids. The largest kinetically stable cluster was a cyclic hexamer that very much resembles the structural motifs of molecular clusters, as known for water and alcohols. Surprisingly, strong cooperative hydrogen bonds overcome electrostatic repulsion and result in cationic clusters with a high net charge up to Q=+6e. The structural, spectroscopic, and electronic signatures of the cationic and related molecular clusters of 3-phenyl-1-propanol could be correlated to NBO parameters, supporting the existence of “anti-electrostatic” hydrogen bonds (AEHB), as recently suggested by Weinhold. We also showed that dispersion forces enhance the cationic cluster formation and compensate the electrostatic repulsion of one additional positive charge

Spectroscopic Evidence for Clusters of Like-Charged Ions in Ionic Liquids Stabilized by Cooperative Hydrogen Bonding

Infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations provide strong evidence for the formation of clusters of like-charged ions in ionic liquids. With decreasing temperature, cooperative hydrogen bonding overcomes repulsive electrostatic interaction. The resulting cyclic tetramers nicely resemble well-known molecular clusters of alcohols

On the Efficient Update of Rectangular LU Factorizations subject to Low Rank Modifications

In this paper we introduce a new method for the computation of KKT matrices that arise from solving constrained, nonlinear optimization problems. This method requires updating of null-space factorizations after a low rank modification. The update procedure has the advantage that it is significantly cheaper than a re-factorization of the system at each new iterate. This paper focuses on the cheap update of a rectangular LU decomposition after a rank-1 modification. Two different procedures for updating the LU factorization are presented in detail and compared regarding their costs of computation and their stability. Moreover we will introduce an extension of these algorithms which further improves the computation time. This turns out to be an excellent alternative to algorithms based on orthogonal transformations

Advances in Identifying Beryllium Sensitization and Disease

Beryllium is a lightweight metal with unique qualities related to stiffness, corrosion resistance, and conductivity. While there are many useful applications, researchers in the 1930s and l940s linked beryllium exposure to a progressive occupational lung disease. Acute beryllium disease is a pulmonary irritant response to high exposure levels, whereas chronic beryllium disease (CBD) typically results from a hypersensitivity response to lower exposure levels. A blood test, the beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT), was an important advance in identifying individuals who are sensitized to beryllium (BeS) and thus at risk for developing CBD. While there is no true “gold standard” for BeS, basic epidemiologic concepts have been used to advance our understanding of the different screening algorithms