The Constitutionality of Generic Advertising Checkoff Programs

Agricultural and Food Policy, Marketing, K10, Q18,

Ownership and Control: A Spanish Survey

The paper analyses the ownership structure of a large sample of Spanish listed companies. The results are analysed in terms of governance implications under the agency theory context. The results show a picture with concentrated ownership where stock markets are relatively low important. Direct ownership and voting blocks, which account for indirect ownership through third companies, are larger for non-financial firms followed by families or individuals and financial firms other than banks. Nevertheless, the use of intermediate companies (pyramiding), is not frequent according to our data. Banks seem not to play the important role they did in the past and the recent privatisation reduced to a minimum level, state shareholdings on listed companies.Ownership, Control, Spain

Dissimilar photons can bunch too

Contrary to intuition, photons do not have to be indistinguishable for maximum photon bunching to occur. Partially indistinguishable photons can exhibit pronounced bunching

An Analysis of the 2002 Farm Bill’s Value-Added Producer Grants Program

Our objective is to identify the determinants for success among USDA’s Value- Added Producer Grants (VAPG) program recipients. Business development has become an important program in departments of agricultural economics. Market share was found to be an important determinant of VAPG success. Size variables including greater sales and increased grant dollars, as well as a lower number of producers, were also determinants of business success. Departments of agricultural economics are likely best able to assist VAPG recipients by providing information on price discovery, explaining their relationship to potential plant location, and providing education on best management practices to help producers avoid costly mistakes.agribusiness, business development, value-added, Agribusiness, Financial Economics, Productivity Analysis,

Observation of surface states with algebraic localization

We introduce and experimentally demonstrate a class of surface bound states with algebraic decay in a one-dimensional tight-binding lattice. Such states have an energy embedded in the spectrum of scattered states and are structurally stable against perturbations of lattice parameters. Experimental demonstration of surface states with algebraic localization is presented in an array of evanescently-coupled optical waveguides with tailored coupling rates.Comment: revised version with Supplemental Material, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Identifying Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment Using the FACT-Cog Perceived Cognitive Impairment.

Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) is a concerning problem for many cancer survivors. Evaluating patients for CRCI has been a challenge, in part because of a lack of standardized practices. Self-report instruments are often used to assess CRCI, but there are no validated cutpoints. We present the results of receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identifying cutpoints of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognition perceived cognitive impairment (PCI) in female breast cancer survivors for identifying CRCI cases. We defined presence of CRCI based on elevated complaints on the Patient's Assessment of Own Functioning Inventory compared with healthy control scores. Our results indicate that scores less than 54 in PCI scores using 18 items and scores less than 60 in PCI scores using 20 items exhibited good ability to discriminate CRCI cases from noncases (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.84 [95% CI = 0.73 to 0.94]). These preliminary results represent an important contribution toward standardizing practices across CRCI studies

High resolution satellite imagery orientation accuracy assessment by leave-one-out method: accuracy index selection and accuracy uncertainty

The Leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) was recently applied to the evaluation of High Resolution Satellite Imagery orientation accuracy and it has proven to be an effective method alternative with respect to the most common Hold-out-validation (HOV), in which ground points are split into two sets, Ground Control Points used for the orientation model estimation and Check Points used for the model accuracy assessment. On the contrary, the LOOCV applied to HRSI implies the iterative application of the orientationmodel using all the known ground points as GCPs except one, different in each iteration, used as a CP. In every iteration the residual between imagery derived coordinates with respect to CP coordinates (prediction error of the model on CP coordinates) is calculated; the overall spatial accuracy achievable from the oriented image may be estimated by computing the usual RMSE or, better, a robust accuracy index like the mAD (median Absolute Deviation) of prediction errors on all the iterations. In this way it is possible to overcome some drawbacks of the HOV: LOOCVis a reliable and robustmethod, not dependent on a particular set of CPs and on possible outliers, and it allows us to use each known ground point both as a GCP and as a CP, capitalising all the available ground information. This is a crucial problem in current situations, when the number of GCPs to be collected must be reduced as much as possible for obvious budget problems. The fundamentalmatter to deal with was to assess howwell LOOCVindexes (mADand RMSE) are able to represent the overall accuracy, that is howmuch they are stable and close to the corresponding HOV RMSE assumed as reference. Anyway, in the first tests the indexes comparison was performed in a qualitative way, neglecting their uncertainty. In this work the analysis has been refined on the basis of Monte Carlo simulations, starting from the actual accuracy of ground points and images coordinates, estimating the desired accuracy indexes (e.g. mAD and RMSE) in several trials, computing their uncertainty (standard deviation) and accounting for them in the comparison. Tests were performed on a QuickBird Basic image implementing an ad hoc procedure within the SISAR software developed by the Geodesy and Geomatics Team at the Sapienza University of Rome. The LOOCV method with accuracy evaluated by mAD seemed promising and useful for practical case

Sustainability and Hospitality in Tourism Experiences

Concepts of sustainability have been prominent in international discourse and development policy for at least 35 years. According to the Brundtland Commission: \u201cSustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\u201d (1, p. 43). Sustainability in tourism is a continuous process of making a positive impact on the environment, economy, and society. It is a concept of visiting a place with great respect for the inhabitants of the area and their cultures, customs, and socio-economic systems. At the same time, "Tourism for All" is a concept that addresses a growing segment of travelers with a diverse range of needs and requirements. That is why becoming more inclusive is a more appropriate goal for the tourism industry than focusing just on "accessible tourism". Sustainability in tourism activities cannot be secured unless researchers and policy-makers pay attention to the different needs of tourists. In particular, such considerations include changes in access to resources when the tourist is a man or a woman, is a young or an old person, or has or does not have a disability. Social equality must logically be extended to old and new generations. Inclusion and equality are influenced not only by gender and age but also by other factors, including the local and cultural context, that affect incentives and the ability to adopt sustainable provision practices. This Special Issue intends to cover aspects related to the measurement of tourists\u2019 preferences (case studies, surveys, instruments, etc.) regarding the degree to which they accept (or prefer) experiences in tourism facilities or cultural programmes with sustainable characteristics. We aim to gather papers related to psycho-social and/or environmental sustainability with a particular focus on gender, age, and physical differences in tourists