RATES OF RETURN TO PUBLIC AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE PRESENCE OF RESEARCH SPILLOVERS

This study uses new state data to examine the contributions of public agricultural research, extension, and infrastructure to agricultural productivity. The estimated social rates of return (which take into account spillover effects) are high and imply a need for federal or regional institutions to coordinate public agricultural research funding.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF FARM SIZE: TRENDS AND DETERMINANTS

Because of policy interest in the size distribution of farms, there is an interest in understanding the causes of changing farm sizes. This paper addresses an overlooked issue in the literature on the determinants of farm size, namely, the empirical specification of farm size. We examine 5 different size measures: acres operated, land and building value, cash receipts, cash receipts plus government payments, and a constructed measure of the rental value of farms. We graphically show the difference in trends in farm size using the various measures for the U.S. and selected states. We then discuss how the results of an analysis of the determinants of farm size depend on the farm size measure employed. The data set is a panel data set of 48 states from 1960 to 1996.Farm Management,

THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT POLICIES ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND STRUCTURE: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Our paper begins with a consideration of the causal relationships among productivity, farm structure, government farm payments and public investments in research and extension. We then empirically test key relationships for a relatively recent period (1960-96) in the history of agricultural structural adjustment using a simultaneous equations econometric model. Future work will expand and refine the measurement of variables thought to explain the relationship between productivity and structure.Agricultural and Food Policy, Productivity Analysis,

AGRICULTURAL STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT TO GOVERNMENT POLICIES: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Economic theory alone cannot predict the impacts of government payments on farm structure. We estimate a 5-equation model for the 1978-96 period to measure the impacts using state micro and macro data sets. We found that government payments were positively associated with farm size and farm exits, but negatively associated with the extent of consolidation in farm production and the off-farm work of operators.government payments, productivity, farm size, farm exits, off-farm work, consolidation, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Agricultural Productivity in the United States

Increased productivity is a key to a healthy and thriving economy. Consequently, the trend in productivity, economywide, is one of the most closely watched of our common economic performance indicators. Agriculture, in particular, has been a very successful sector of the U.S. economy in terms of productivity growth. The U.S. farm sector has provided an abundance of output while using inputs efficiently. Agricultural productivity growth has been an important source of U.S. economic growth throughout the century, but the years since 1940 have seen an even faster growth in agricultural productivity. The annual average increase in productivity from 1948 to 1994 was 1.94 percent. This reflects an annual growth in output of 1.88 percent per year and an actual decline in agricultural inputs of 0.06 percent per year. This report describes changes in U.S. agricultural productivity, and its output and input components, for 1948-94. The report also discusses factors that have affected productivity trends and provides detailed, technical information about the USDA system for calculating productivity.productivity, efficiency, agricultural production, outputs, inputs, Productivity Analysis,

Development of a PID Controlled Arduino-Based Stabiliser

Inverted pendulum remained as the most popular topic for control theory researches because of its characteristic of being non-linear, unstable and under-actuated system. It is ideal for verification, validation and enhancement of control theory by stabilizing the inverted pendulum in an upright position using various controller and stabilizer mechanism. For this project, Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is used to stabilize the inverted pendulum by tuning the respective gains (kP, kI, and kD) to control the parameters of inverted pendulum which includes the rise time, settling time, overshoot and steady-state error in cooperation with of Arduino microcontroller. The objective of this project is to design and build a stabilizer mechanism with the integration of mechanical and electrical components to stabilize two Directional (2D) inverted pendulum similar to 3D printer mechanism. Besides that, PID controller will be tuned in Arduino microcontroller and control the output of stabilizer mechanism. The stabilizer mechanism is designed in SolidWorks software and built using various manufacturing techniques, raw materials and 3D printing, while the electronics components such as gyroscope and Direct Current (DC) motors are controlled using Arduino Due in C++ language. The gyroscope determines the tilting angle of the pendulum as a feedback in the control loop, and the gains of PID are used to control the speed and direction of DC motor to provide sufficient force/torque to keep the inverted pendulum in an upright position. The stabilizer mechanism with inverted pendulum has been built and the gains of PID have been tuned using “trial and error” method as friction is now taken into consideration. The inverted pendulum is successfully stabilized in an upright position (0o measure at z-axis) using control theory

Nitrogen-rich activated carbon monoliths via ice-templating with high CO2 and H-2 adsorption capacities

An ice-templating &amp; solvent exchange approach has been developed to prepare porous carbons with tuneable surface area and N contents. These porous carbons exhibit a high uptake of both CO2 and H2.</p

Assessing Rates of Return to Public and Private Agricultural Research

Previous work on the rate of return to public agricultural research for the United States has neglected private agricultural research expenditures. This study, which factors in production variables like weather and the shifting health of national economy over a 70-year period (1915-85), does include private research. When private research is omitted, the rate of return to public research rises by almost 20 percent. This finding supports the extension of Federal and State funding for agricultural research, especially if it can be coordinated with effrots in the private sector