Do I Need Crop Insurance? Self Evaluating Crop Insurance as a Risk Management Tool in New York State

Crop insurance, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries,

The British host: just how welcoming are we?

Successive studies of the international student experience have documented a lack of contact between host and visitor despite its value for language and cultural learning as well as satisfaction with the stay. In spite of the rise in international education, there is a lack of literature on the domestic student perspective. This article redresses the balance somewhat and reports on findings from a qualitative study of British student attitudes to the presence in large numbers of international students on their programme of postgraduate study. Contrary to previous research findings, domestic students are revealed to be empathetic, flexible and open to new cultures. This mindset was attributed by participants to their desire to work in an international industry. Nevertheless, a phenomenon of segregation is observed in both the home and international student communities, suggesting that cultural identification is the response to cultural diversity

SS433's jet trace from ALMA imaging and Global Jet Watch spectroscopy: evidence for post-launch particle acceleration

We present a comparison of Doppler-shifted H-alpha line emission observed by the Global Jet Watch from freshly-launched jet ejecta at the nucleus of the Galactic microquasar SS433 with subsequent ALMA imaging at mm-wavelengths of the same jet ejecta. There is a remarkable similarity between the transversely-resolved synchrotron emission and the prediction of the jet trace from optical spectroscopy: this is an a priori prediction not an a posteriori fit, confirming the ballistic nature of the jet propagation. The mm-wavelength of the ALMA polarimetry is sufficiently short that the Faraday rotation is negligible and therefore that the observed E-vector directions are accurately orthogonal to the projected local magnetic field. Close to the nucleus the B-field vectors are perpendicular to the direction of propagation. Further out from the nucleus, the B-field vectors that are coincident with the jet instead become parallel to the ridge line; this occurs at a distance where the jet bolides are expected to expand into one another. X-ray variability has also been observed at this location; this has a natural explanation if shocks from the expanding and colliding bolides cause particle acceleration. In regions distinctly separate from the jet ridge line, the fractional polarisation approaches the theoretical maximum for synchrotron emission.Comment: To appear in ApJ Letter

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation project analyzes tensions between class and rhetoric conflicts over coal in West Virginia, particularly contemporary conflicts over Mountaintop Removal (MTR) in the state. In it, I focus on how class animates rhetorics of resistance, identity, and control, (re)examining and recalibrating the relationship between rhetoric and class as vital to the construction of rhetorical theory on one hand and the contemporary salience of class on the other. Here, class broadly refers to the way populations are separated and stratified based on analytics and ideals of value (economic security and mobility being one), primarily articulated to align with teleological commitments to progress as they are defined alongside capitalism and deliberative democracy. Drawing from critiques of sociology, I forward what I call the socialization of class. The socialization of class is the long and deeply engrained process of making populations legible as classed or less inherently valuable. This process depends on varied iterations of class that rely on and enforce one another in the world-making process. As a result, I contend that class is always a rhetorical phenomenon, tangible because of and salient in the social (both material and abstract) is dynamics that have become normal in the contemporary world. In turn, I also contend that rhetoric, as both a field and a practice, has prominent and often unexamined classed dimensions and forward the socialization of class as a way of (re)examining the political tenors that undergird much of rhetorical theory. Appalachian populations, and more specifically West Virginia and its people, have been historically juxtaposed to progress, cultivating material and ideological differences that are used to make Appalachian populations legible in the American imagination. Those differences both animate and are animated by practices, perceptual orientations, and rhetorical maneuvers. Consequently, to elucidate and recalibrate the relationship between rhetoric and class I explore the history of coal in West Virginia and its reliance on varied commitments to progress. Then, I analyze public discourses and events that engage MTR conflicts, focusing heavily on popular West Virginia newspaper articles, editorials, and letters to the editor between approximately 2006 and 2013. I attempt to pay particular attention to the way more contemporary rhetorical appeals are indebted to the history of creating a dependent culture in West Virginia, a conscious goal of the coal mining industry since just before the turn of the 20th Century. In addition to challenging implicit theoretical commitments to progress, the goal here is to formulate a heuristically valuable approach to class that helps make sense of the contemporary demands facing and opportunities available to activists in marginalized communities, particularly rural Appalachia

Improved Hexahedral Meshing on Biological Models

Certain applications of the finite element method require hexahedral meshes for the underlying discretization. A procedure, known as THexing, which is guaranteed to produce an all-hex mesh is to begin with a tetrahedral mesh and then subdivide each element into four hexahedra. This research presents a method for improving the THex approach, known as Diced THexing, or DTHexing. The DTHex approach is based on general coarsening tools. An initial triangle surface mesh is coarsened and smoothed iteratively until a coarse mesh of reasonable quality is obtained. The volume is then easily meshed using a tetrahedral scheme, then refined using ’h’ type modifications. The goal of this method is to 1) improve the quality of elements in the finite element mesh and 2) decrease the number of overall nodes. The DTHex approach has been successful at improving models on biological meshes without increasing node count. This research was conducted using the CUBIT software

Rapid liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of a broad mixture of pharmaceuticals in surface water

Herein, a new method for the detection of 13 different pharmaceuticals and one metabolite in surface water at low ng/L levels is described. The method utilizes ultra performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and a solid-phase extraction sample preparation. Mean method detection limits were low (4.10 ng/L) and overall solid-phase extraction recovery and reproducibility was adequate (mean recovery, 77.9%; mean RSD, 7.3%). The method allows for quick run times and minimal solvent use as compared with other previously reported high performance liquid chromatography-based methods. Application of this method for the detection of pharmaceuticals in Tennessee River surfacewater determined that caffeine, sulfamethoxazole, and carbamazepine were frequently detected (100% of samples). Trimethoprim was moderately detected (30% of samples); acetaminophen, atorvastatin, and lovastatin were infrequently detected (10% of samples); and ciprofloxacin, diltiazem, fluoxetine, levofloxacin, norfluoxetine, ranitidine, and sertraline were not detected. This study reports the first detection of lovastatin in surface water