Determining What's Really Important to Lenders: Factors Affecting the Agricultural Loan Decision-Making Process

Agricultural lenders in today’s environment face many challenges when evaluating the creditworthiness of farm borrowers. To address these challenges, a survey was conducted with financial institutions in Kansas and Indiana where agricultural lenders were asked for their response to hypothetical agricultural loan requests. Each loan request differed by the borrower’s character, financial record keeping, productive standing, Fair Isaac credit bureau score, and credit risk. Lenders provided information about themselves and their financial institutions. The survey data obtained determine the relative importance of financial and non-financial information when analyzing agricultural loan applications. Tobit models are estimated to identify the borrower and lender characteristics that are important in determining loan approval while OLS models are used to investigate the factors that affect interest rates offered to farm borrowers. The results provide a comparison of agricultural lending between two important agricultural states. The results from this analysis also provide lenders with insight on the factors that influence the decision making process of other agricultural lenders.Agricultural loans, Credit bureau score, Credit evaluation, Interest rates

Distributed intelligent control and management (DICAM) applications and support for semi-automated development

We have recently begun a 4-year effort to develop a new technology foundation and associated methodology for the rapid development of high-performance intelligent controllers. Our objective in this work is to enable system developers to create effective real-time systems for control of multiple, coordinated entities in much less time than is currently required. Our technical strategy for achieving this objective is like that in other domain-specific software efforts: analyze the domain and task underlying effective performance, construct parametric or model-based generic components and overall solutions to the task, and provide excellent means for specifying, selecting, tailoring or automatically generating the solution elements particularly appropriate for the problem at hand. In this paper, we first present our specific domain focus, briefly describe the methodology and environment we are developing to provide a more regular approach to software development, and then later describe the issues this raises for the research community and this specific workshop

On the Transition and Migration of Flight Functions in the Airspace System

Since ~400 BC, when man first replicated flying behavior with kites, up until the turn of the 20th century, when the Wright brothers performed the first successful powered human flight, flight functions have become available to man via significant support from man-made structures and devices. Over the past 100 years or so, technology has enabled several flight functions to migrate to automation and/or decision support systems. This migration continues with the United States NextGen and Europe s Single European Sky (a.k.a. SESAR) initiatives. These overhauls of the airspace system will be accomplished by accommodating the functional capabilities, benefits, and limitations of technology and automation together with the unique and sometimes overlapping functional capabilities, benefits, and limitations of humans. This paper will discuss how a safe and effective migration of any flight function must consider several interrelated issues, including, for example, shared situation awareness, and automation addiction, or over-reliance on automation. A long-term philosophical perspective is presented that considers all of these issues by primarily asking the following questions: How does one find an acceptable level of risk tolerance when allocating functions to automation versus humans? How does one measure or predict with confidence what the risks will be? These two questions and others will be considered from the two most-discussed paradigms involving the use of increasingly complex systems in the future: humans as operators and humans as monitors

Shiny Apps: The Evolution of Extension Tools from Spreadsheets to New Interactive Dashboards

The Interactive web dashboard is the newness with characteristics and features that are replacing the status quo downloading spreadsheets. RStudio is the program used to create Shiny Apps dashboards with R. We explain some of those features so that Extension specialists can adopt the methodology, engage stakeholders, and help them understand and apply results to their production systems, although we do not explain the creation process step by step. Our approach offers not only a useful and modern way to disseminate information to empower decision-making, but also a safe environment in which data can be automatically updated and users cannot inadvertently corrupt the tool

Ohio Livestock Waste Management Guide

PDF pages: 3

Structural and functional interrogation of Anterior Gradient-2

Anterior Gradient-2 protein (AGR2) has recently been linked to the onset of several pathologies including asthma and inflammatory bowel disease. Most interestingly, it has been discovered to influence the transformation of cells and metastatic growth essential to cancer development, and has subsequently been linked to the development of resistance to anti-cancer therapeutics. AGR2 protein is overexpressed in a diverse range of human cancer types, and has been detected secreted into the extracellular milieu. Thus, AGR2 protein represents a compelling pro-oncogenic signalling intermediate in tumour emergence and endurance. This thesis presents an interdisciplinary approach including structural biology, cell biology and synthetic biology, and clinical studies to shed more light on the role of AGR2 in cancer development. Synthetic cell based reagents were developed to define the dominant pathways that are reprogrammed in a cell as a result of AGR2 synthesis. A cell panel was engineered incorporating the AGR2 (and mutants thereof) allele into the AGR2-null A375 cell line. These tools were then coupled to quantitative proteomics (SILAC) to unravel the mechanism whereby introduction of AGR2 alters cell phenotype, allowing identification of dominant pathways affected by AGR2 signalling. Using pathway analysis tools, the dominant pathway suppressed by wt-AGR2 expression highlighted the p53-signalling axis. DNA damage induced p53 stabilisation and p21 induction by cisplatin treatment confirmed the influence of AGR2 gene expression. Further data analysis identified the outlying protein expression changes identified by SILAC was the anti-viral cell cycle regulator TSG101 (tumour susceptibility gene 101), and confirmed by immunoblotting. Transfection and silencing studies of TSG101 confirmed that TSG101 attenuates p53 function. These data provide a mechanism to explain the most dominant pathways reprogrammed by AGR2 expression, incorporating ER stress response, proliferation markers and p53 pathway attenuation. Further advances were made in analysis of the function, regulation, and drugability of AGR2 protein. Assays were devised to define the subunit structure of AGR2 as a dimer unit; subsequent functional studies defined intrinsically disordered motifs that regulate stability of the dimer. A two-site sandwich microtiter assay (2SMTA) was designed to screen for self-peptides and mutations that regulate oligomer stability. These assays were used to identify the first biochemical property of AGR2 being that the dimer unit is required for maximal binding to the AAA+ protein, and well characterised AGR2 interactor, Reptin. In addition, based on this dimeric structure, a novel solution based dimerisation assay was developed to identify natural products that are able to disrupt the dimer suggesting that AGR2 itself can be targeted in principle with small molecules for therapeutic purposes

Exploring the theatrical experience with the playwright as director

This study is based upon the production of Framing the Shot, an original play written and directed by Allan Terry Maule, performed in February 2006 in Studio Six of Swain Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This project examines how the dual status of a playwright/director affects the production. Specifically this study examines a.) relevant literature concerning the playwright's role in rehearsal and b.) the development of a performance under a playwright/director

Stock Return Seasonalities and the Tax-Loss Selling Hypothesis: Analysis of the Arguments and Australian Evidence

A ‘tax-loss selling’ hypothesis has frequently been advanced to explain the ‘January effect’ reported in this issue by Keim. This paper concludes that U.S. tax laws do not unambiguously predict such an effect. Since Australia has similar tax laws but a July–June tax year, the hypothesis predicts a small-firm July premium. Australian returns show pronounced December–January and July–August seasonals, and a premium for the smallest-firm decile of about four percent per month across all months. This contrasts with the U.S. data in which the small-firm premium is concentrated in January. We conclude that the relation between the U.S. tax year and the January seasonal may be more correlation than causation

Seasonal and temporal changes during storage affect quality attributes of green asparagus

Asparagus is a perennial crop with a short UK harvest season. Methods to extend the storage life of asparagus have proven difficult. To gain insight into the physiological (viz. colour, respiration rate, cutting energy, and stiffness measured using laser Doppler vibrometry), and biochemical (viz. sugars, ascorbic acid, and abscisic acid and its catabolites) changes throughout the UK season, two cultivars were harvested weekly and stored under shelf life conditions (7 °C). Results were compared to spears (plus one additional cultivar) cold stored (1 °C) for three weeks followed by one week of shelf life. Concentrations of sugar, abscisic acid (ABA) and catabolites at harvest were subject to seasonal variation, directly affecting storage potential. A generalised linear model with stepwise feature selection was applied to select the most important parameters for the prediction of total sugars and phaseic acid (PA). More favourable growing conditions at harvest increased sugars and lowered ABA content and catabolites, which coincided with better maintenance of spear quality during storage; including maintaining textural characteristics. Storage time had a negative impact on spear texture and sugar content, with cutting energy increasing and stiffness decreasing both during cold storage and subsequent shelf life. A partial shift in sugar biosynthesis occurred during shelf life increasing sucrose concentrations. Results suggest that the temporal flux in ABA and catabolites, and individual sugars could be used to model storage potential of asparagus spears

Étude qualitative sur l’expérience des résidents canadiens du modèle d’éducation médicale fondée sur les compétences

Background: Competency-based medical education (CBME) is an outcomes-based curricular paradigm focused on ensuring that graduates are competent to meet the needs of patients. Although resident engagement is key to CBME’s success, few studies have explored how trainees have experienced CBME implementation. We explored the experiences of residents in Canadian training programs that had implemented CBME. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 residents in seven Canadian postgraduate training programs, exploring their experiences with CBME. Participants were equally divided between family medicine and specialty programs. Themes were identified using principles of constructivist grounded theory. Results: Residents were receptive to the goals of CBME, but in practice, described several drawbacks primarily related to assessment and feedback. For many residents, the significant administrative burden and focus on assessment led to performance anxiety. At times, residents felt that assessments lacked meaning as supervisors focused on “checking-boxes” or provided overly broad, non-specific comments. Furthermore, they commonly expressed frustration with the perceived subjectivity and inconsistency of judgments on assessments, especially if assessments were used to delay progression to greater independence, contributing to attempts to "game the system". Faculty engagement and support improved resident experiences with CBME. Conclusion: Although residents value the potential for CBME to improve the quality of education, assessment and feedback, the current operationalization of CBME may not be consistently achieving these objectives. The authors suggest several initiatives to improve how residents experience assessment and feedback processes in CBME.Contexte : L’éducation médicale fondée sur les compétences (EMFC) est un paradigme dans lequel le programme de formation est axé sur les résultats et vise à garantir que les diplômés aient les compétences nécessaires pour répondre aux besoins des patients. Bien que l’engagement des résidents soit la clé du succès de l’EMFC, peu d’études ont exploré comment ils vivent son introduction. Nous nous sommes penchés sur l’expérience des résidents dans les programmes de formation canadiens qui ont mis en œuvre l’EMFC. Méthodes : Nous avons mené des entrevues semi-structurées avec 16 résidents de sept programmes de formation postdoctorale canadiens, afin de sonder leur expérience de l’EMFC. Les participants étaient répartis de façon égale entre la médecine familiale et les programmes de spécialité. Les thèmes ont été dégagés en appliquant les principes de la théorie enracinée constructiviste. Résultats : Bien que réceptifs aux objectifs de l’EMFC, les résidents décrivent des inconvénients de sa mise en pratique, notamment sur le plan de l’évaluation et de la rétroaction. Pour beaucoup d’entre eux, la focalisation sur l’évaluation et le fardeau administratif qui y est lié ont été une source d’anxiété de performance. Les résidents ont l’impression que les évaluations manquent parfois de pertinence, car les superviseurs, se sentant contraints de « cocher des cases », font des commentaires trop généraux et peu ciblés. De plus, un sentiment de frustration a été fréquemment exprimé face à la subjectivité et l’incohérence perçues des jugements dans les évaluations, surtout lorsque ces dernières sont utilisées pour retarder le cheminement vers une plus grande indépendance, constituant ainsi une tentative de « déjouer le système ». L’implication et le soutien du corps professoral ont aidé à bonifier l’expérience des résidents. Conclusion : Bien que les résidents apprécient le potentiel de l’EMFC pour rehausser la qualité de l’éducation, de l’évaluation et de la rétroaction, son opérationnalisation actuelle ne permet pas d’atteindre ces objectifs de façon systématique. Les auteurs proposent quelques initiatives pour améliorer la façon dont les résidents vivent les processus d’évaluation et de rétroaction dans le cadre de l’EMFC