Methods of Risk Protection Used by Polish Farmers

To answer the research question: what methods of protection against risk do Polish farmers use depending on the farm type, the sample was divided into clusters depending on farm characteristics. The results show that small farms use completely different risk management tools than medium and large farms, no matter what their main product is. There is also a significant difference between farms that have relatively large share of off-farm income and the remaining ones. Summing up, policy makers should prepare a diversified offer of risk management tools for farmers, depending on their needs.risk in agriculture, risk management, family farms,

A Geographic Modeling Framework for Assessing Critical Infrastructure Vulnerability: Energy Infrastructure Case Study

Vulnerability of critical infrastructure systems is of the utmost importance to a nation\u27s national security interests, especially the electric grid. Despite the importance of these systems, disruptions continue to occur at an alarming rate, thus indicating that there is a fundamental flaw in the way critical infrastructure systems are analyzed for vulnerability. Critical infrastructure systems are typically analyzed using mathematical approaches such as graph theory, which strip systems of their important geographic information, and only look at their connections to each other. While these relationships and metrics provide useful information, they cannot provide the entire picture. As such, this research seeks to develop a new, geographic framework that not only takes into account the information uncovered by graph metrics, but information about the unique geography of the area that can impact these systems. Using Southeast Asia as a study region, this research seeks to answer the following broad questions: 1. What are differences that arise from analyzing energy network vulnerability using the new geographic framework versus graph theory alone? 2. What types of evaluation methods are applicable for determining if the proposed framework is more effective than graph theory? To answer these questions, this research developed a field-based model utilizing service areas as the unit of analysis. The factors of betweenness, degree, closeness, land use, service area population, other critical infrastructure frequency, natural hazard frequency, and temperature extremes. These factors were ranked from one to five, one indicating the least vulnerability and five indicating the highest vulnerability. These factors were then weighted, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process to determine the weights, and summed to determine an overall vulnerability ranking. The higher the score, the more vulnerable a particular substation is. The results indicate that many of these variables provide little insight into the vulnerability of the electric grid, when validated against real-world data from the 2012 Indian Blackout. The most important variables were betweenness, land use, natural hazard frequency, and temperature extremes. Basic metrics of percentage of substations identified versus substations affected in a real-world scenario provided the basis for effective evaluation of each model

Increasing Community Engagement for Individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities

These three projects highlight various aspects of the Institute for Community Inclusion\u27s efforts to increase community engagement of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, both locally and nationally. The Transitions to Work project, for which ICI provides evaluation assistance, partners with Boston-area employers to increase engagement of adults with disabilities in the regional workforce. The Community Life Engagement initiative complements the employment focus by looking at other aspects of community life, such as volunteerism and participation in community events and resources. On the national level, Real People Real Jobs is a website and publication series highlighting the employment successes of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Farmers’ risk perception, risk aversion and strategies to cope with production risk: an empirical study from Poland

Agriculture is an activity burdened with multiple risk factors, some of which are related to the biological nature of production. Climate change, liberalisation of international agricultural trade and changes in the agricultural support system mean that the importance of risk in agriculture will increase. This means that increasing attention will be given to risk management at the farm level, although implementation of the appropriate risk management strategy is connected to farmers’ perception of, and aversion to, risk. This study, which integrates these three aspects of risk in agriculture, is based on data collected from almost 600 participant farms from the Polish FADN system. It was shown that drought is perceived by farmers as the main factor of risk in production in Poland. Polish farmers are rather risk averse, but a little more in terms of their personal health and less in the case of the farm. The analysis showed that the following factors increased the level of risk aversion of Polish farmers: debt ratio, losses in production in previous years, soil quality and concentration on financial independence as a hierarchy of priorities. The most important risk-coping strategy was crop insurance. Knowledge of farmers’ perception of risk, risk aversion and preferred risk management strategies is essential for creating policy instruments to support agricultural risk management, and for the development of training programmes tailored to the needs of farmers

Data Note: Vocational Rehabilitation Employment Outcomes for Transition-Age Youth with Intellectual Disabilities

As transition services evolve, increased attention is being given to the outcomes of transition-age youth. Since different age groups have different employment support needs and unique circumstances, it is crucial to monitor their outcomes separately and to address their services in a customized manner. This Data Note will focus on employment outcomes of transition-age youth with intellectual disabilities (ID) as compared with older age groups of people with ID. In this analysis, transition-age youth with ID are divided into two groups: ages 16–21 and ages 22–30. They are then compared to all other working-age adults. Nationally, the percentage of closures into employment (out of all people with ID receiving VR services) was somewhat greater for older people (Figure 1). Thirty-six percent of individuals ages 31 through 65 achieved an employment closure, compared to 34% of those ages 22–30 and 28% of those ages 16–21. This is not surprising, considering that with age, people generally gain experience and become more employable. When looking at the same outcomes across states (see Table 1), large variability can be observed. In general, the youngest group tends to have the lowest rate of employment closures compared to the two other groups, and many states mirror the national average with an incremental growth of the rate of employment closures. However, four states (DE, NH, VT, and WY) have the opposite trend, with higher percentages of employment closures for both younger groups (16–21 and 22–30), compared to the 31–65 group. Six other states demonstrate the highest rate of employment closures for the youngest group (16–21) compared to both older groups (AZ, CO, ID, NC, NE, and SC). It is worth exploring if these states are doing anything differently in terms of services and policies addressing transition-age youth that may be correlated to a higher percentage of closures to employment

Massachusetts Employment and Disability Snapshot Report, 2000-2005

This monograph presents the results of secondary analysis of the RSA-911 database from the Rehabilitation Services Administration. All successful VR closures for individuals with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy for six data points between 1985 and 1998 were investigated. Trends in competitive labor market and extended employment (sheltered workshops) closures were examined. The use of supported employment in the VR system and its outcomes were also discussed. Findings include increased incidence of competitive labor market closures and supported employment services, with a decrease in extended employment closures. This is the second in an annual series of snapshot reports on the employment of people with disabilities in Massachusetts developed by the Medicaid Infrastructure and Comprehensive Employment Opportunities (MI-CEO) grant. It is intended to provide people with disabilities, advocates, policymakers, researchers, and other interested parties an overview of the state and trends in employment of people with disabilities. The report includes information on the employment of people with disabilities overall in Massachusetts as well as data on particular sub-populations of people with disabilities: those on Supplemental Security Income; MassHealth (Medicaid) members; and people receiving disability services from the Department of Mental Retardation, the Department of Mental Health, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, or the Commission for the Blind. Data are also given on services provided to people with disabilities through One-Stop Career Centers. These centers constitute the workforce development system for the general population. Since each agency has a distinct population, mission, budget, and data collection mechanism, collecting consistent data across agencies is not possible at this time. A committee of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, with support from the MI-CEO grant, is in the process of developing and implementing a common set of measures across agencies. In the meantime, this snapshot is intended to provide an overall view of the state of the state and should not be used for comparison across agencies

Optimized forecaster farming: a new tool to put accuracy into precision farming

Non-Peer ReviewedFarmers looking at Precision Farming as a tool to better manage fields have found no real way to apply this technology to fertilization and crop production. The misconception between precision and optimization has lead many farmers to feel that the technology was oversold and not able to deliver more yield for less fertilizer dollars. Farmers required a tool to optimize the dollars spent on fertilizer to achieve the highest Net Return per acre. The PRS™ Forecaster is a constrained resource computer model that can forecast the yield potential and fertilizer response site by site through a field. The model was allowed to distribute $2160.00 of fertilizer N, P, and K across 54 acres in a way that optimized the whole field net return. This was compared to a control site where the same$40.00/acre was spent but on a best “average” blend of fertilizer. Field validation of this optimization proved that more net return ($19.50/acre) could be derived with reallocation of fertilizer dollars using the PRS™ Nutrient Forecaster

Assessing N competition between outplanted conifer seedlings and early successional plants using ion-exchange membranes

Non-Peer ReviewedDuring the early establishment phase, outplanted white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss.) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) seedlings are vulnerable to lethargic growth or mortality because of interspecific competition for soil nutrients, particularly nitrogen (N). Accurately quantifying the degree of N competition is essential for supporting effective vegetation management decisions. This study evaluated N competition at four boreal forest sites, three years following outplanting, using two-week in situ burials of ion-exchange membrane (IEM) in plots with and without vegetation management (VM). The effect of noncrop N uptake on soil N availability also was assessed using conventional 2N KCl extractions. Vegetation management continued to support increased conifer seedling growth, with no effect on survival compared to control plots. Although the N supply rate measured using IEM (Plant Root Simulator™-probes) were not correlated (P >0.05) with 2N KCl-extracted N concentration, there was a correlation (R2 = 0.68 to 0.76, P <0.01) between N supply rate and seedling growth. Ammonium-N supply rate was better correlated than NO3--N with conifer seedling growth, which is in agreement with preferential NH4+-N uptake by conifer species. The results of this study support the use of in situ IEM burials for monitoring soil N bioavailability during the early establishment phase