Long-Term Productivity and Profitability of Conventional and Alternative Farming Systems in East-Central South Dakota: A Case Study

A small body of evidence has begun to emerge over the last 3 to 4 years on the comparative productivity and profitability of conventional farming systems and alternative systems which (1) avoid or use very small amounts of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and (2) place greater emphasis on crop rotations, especially rotations which involve forage and green manure legumes. Most of the evidence thus far has been based on only a few years of data, however. In contrast, South Dakota State university (SDSU) has recently completed three relatively long-term studies comparing conventional and alternative systems. Two of the studies were conducted at SDSU\u27s Northeast Research station, north of Watertown, S.D. in Codington County. Conventional, reduced tillage, and alternative farming systems were compared there, over the period 1985-92 in one study and over 1985-93 in the other study. Results of those studies appear in Dobbs (1994a), Dobbs, et ale (1994), Smolik and others (1994), Smolik, et ale (1993; and forthcoming), and Smolik and Dobbs (1991)

Rural Economy Implications of Farms Converting to Sustainable Agriculture Practices: Some Estimates for South Dakota

The purpose of the research reported in this monograph is to examine the hypothesis implied in that argument, i.e., that adoption of sustainable farming systems would adversely affect rural economies. Effects examined can be conceptualized in terms of the backward and forward linkages shown in Figure 1. The direct (or primary) effect of a conversion from conventional to sustainable farming systems in a local area is the effect on net incomes of agricultural households. Agricultural households are defined here as farm proprietors and their families and hired laborers. Secondary effects result from backward and forward linkages to the farm sector

The alignment of molecular cloud magnetic fields with the spiral arms in M33

The formation of molecular clouds, which serve as stellar nurseries in galaxies, is poorly understood. A class of cloud formation models suggests that a large-scale galactic magnetic field is irrelevant at the scale of individual clouds, because the turbulence and rotation of a cloud may randomize the orientation of its magnetic field. Alternatively, galactic fields could be strong enough to impose their direction upon individual clouds, thereby regulating cloud accumulation and fragmentation, and affecting the rate and efficiency of star formation. Our location in the disk of the Galaxy makes an assessment of the situation difficult. Here we report observations of the magnetic field orientation of six giant molecular cloud complexes in the nearby, almost face-on, galaxy M33. The fields are aligned with the spiral arms, suggesting that the large-scale field in M33 anchors the clouds.Comment: to appear in Natur

Search for rare and forbidden decays of charm and charmed-strange mesons to final states h^+- e^-+ e^+

We have searched for flavor-changing neutral current decays and lepton-number-violating decays of D^+ and D^+_s mesons to final states of the form h^+- e^-+ e^+, where h is either \pi or K. We use the complete samples of CLEO-c open-charm data, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 818 pb^-1 at the center-of-mass energy E_CM = 3.774 GeV containing 2.4 x 10^6 D^+D^- pairs and 602 pb^-1 at E_CM = 4.170 GeV containing 0.6 x 10^6 D^*+-_s D^-+_s pairs. No signal is observed in any channel, and we obtain 90% confidence level upper limits on branching fractions B(D^+ --> \pi^+ e^+ e^-) < 5.9 x 10^-6, B(D^+ --> \pi^- e^+ e^+) K^+ e^+ e^-) < 3.0 x 10^-6, B(D^+ --> K^- e^+ e^+) \pi^+ e^+ e^-) < 2.2 x 10^-5, B(D^+_s --> \pi^- e^+ e^+) K^+ e^+ e^-) < 5.2 x 10^-5, and B(D^+_s --> K^- e^+ e^+) < 1.7 x 10^-5.Comment: 9 pages, available through http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS

Economic Results of Alternative Farming Systems Trials at South Dakota State University\u27s Northeast Research Station: 1985-1988

This report contains baseline economic results for the first four years of a set of experiment station trials comparing particular low-input (alternative) farming systems with conventional and reduced tillage systems in which chemical inputs are used

Sustainable Agriculture in South Dakota

This is a report of the views and experiences of 32 South Dakotans who follow sustainable/regenerative agriculture practices on their farms. It is based on a mail survey undertaken during the summer of 1988. The research reported here complements that undertaken by South Dakota State University (SDSU) since 1984 on large experimental field plots at the University\u27s Northeast Research Station near Watertown

CHIMPS: the ¹³CO/C¹⁸O (<i>J</i> = 3 → 2) Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey

We present the 13CO/C18O (J = 3 → 2) Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey (CHIMPS) which has been carried out using the Heterodyne Array Receiver Program on the 15 m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii. The high-resolution spectral survey currently covers |b| ≤ 0.5° and 28° ≲ l ≲ 46°, with an angular resolution of 15 arcsec in 0.5 km s-1 velocity channels. The spectra have a median rms of ˜0.6 K at this resolution, and for optically thin gas at an excitation temperature of 10 K, this sensitivity corresponds to column densities of NH2 ˜ 3 × 1020 cm-2 and NH2 ˜ 4 × 1021 cm-2 for 13CO and C18O, respectively. The molecular gas that CHIMPS traces is at higher column densities and is also more optically thin than in other publicly available CO surveys due to its rarer isotopologues, and thus more representative of the three-dimensional structure of the clouds. The critical density of the J = 3 → 2 transition of CO is ≳104 cm-3 at temperatures of ≤20 K, and so the higher density gas associated with star formation is well traced. These data complement other existing Galactic plane surveys, especially the JCMT Galactic Plane Survey which has similar spatial resolution and column density sensitivity, and the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey. In this paper, we discuss the observations, data reduction and characteristics of the survey, presenting integrated-emission maps for the region covered. Position-velocity diagrams allow comparison with Galactic structure models of the Milky Way, and while we find good agreement with a particular four-arm model, there are some significant deviations

Knowledge-based energy functions for computational studies of proteins

This chapter discusses theoretical framework and methods for developing knowledge-based potential functions essential for protein structure prediction, protein-protein interaction, and protein sequence design. We discuss in some details about the Miyazawa-Jernigan contact statistical potential, distance-dependent statistical potentials, as well as geometric statistical potentials. We also describe a geometric model for developing both linear and non-linear potential functions by optimization. Applications of knowledge-based potential functions in protein-decoy discrimination, in protein-protein interactions, and in protein design are then described. Several issues of knowledge-based potential functions are finally discussed.Comment: 57 pages, 6 figures. To be published in a book by Springe