Fifteen Years of Future Farmers of America Progress in South Dakota 1929-1944

The origin of the Future Farmers of America in South Dakota did not occur by chance. Instead, it grew from the desires and needs of farm and ranch boys enrolled in vocational agriculture in South Dakota high schools. Numerous vocational agriculture departments in the state had agriculture clubs preceding the organization of the F.F.A. in South Dakota. Many of them were planning and carrying to completion various activities now common to the F.F.A. in this state. However, these clubs lacked a coordinating agency such as a state association operated by and for representatives from their own group. W.P. Beard, state supervisor of agricultural education and teachers of vocational agriculture, as well as others identified with vocational agriculture in South Dakota high schools, saw this need and furnished the guidance and instruction necessary to organize and activate the South Dakota Association. It is the purpose of this study to assemble and present to the reader pertinent facts in authentic form, appertaining to the development of Future Farmers of America in South Dakota. This investigation covers the first fifteen years of the life of the association plus a brief account of the early beginnings of agricultural student groups prior to the time of the development of F.F.A. in other states and consequently the origin and growth of the future farmer movement in the nation

Development of sustainability within a university curriculum

There are currently many complex issues facing human society. There are a range of well-documented environmental problems that stem from past and current methods of human development. Declining ecosystems and species extinctions aside, many humans suffer and struggle within this mounting tide of environmental hardships as well as continuing struggles with access to education and equality within society. A large portion of these struggles arise from the disparity in wealth and the seemingly oppressive nature of economic systems for the 'have-nots' of the world. This quick overview of environmental, social, and economic conditions shows the interdependencies of the three aspects of sustainability or sustainable development. As there are calls to action from the scientific community, government, and society to address these issues of sustainable development, there are a number of voices calling for general changes within the various levels of the education system and more specifically with connecting students to the subject of sustainability. This thesis makes the argument that the most effective step in addressing both these issues is an introductory course on sustainability. Although the issues of sustainability and education are framed under different context, they both can be reduced to the concept of more holistic thinkers in society and in the classroom. A review of more discipline-specific courses incorporating sustainability, faculty surveys, and alternative learning and teaching methods strengthened the course design process. The end result is an upper level undergraduate course that uses the topics of food, water, and energy to bring a new level of understanding to the student on sustainability and holistic thinking.M.S.Committee Chair: Meyer, Michael; Committee Member: Amekudzi, Adjo; Committee Member: Bergin, Michae

Using yeast to implement DNA-based algorithms

In 1993, Leonard Adleman showed that synthetic strands of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can be made to compute in test tube reactions and thus invented the DNA computer. The DNA computer scales with remarkable efficiency when used to solve computationally hard problems. Here, we show that the DNA computer can be recast using the common yeast Sacchromyces cerevisiae. The yeast computer retains the efficiency of Aldeman\u27s DNA computer but is much easier and far less costly to implement

Perceived difficulty differences in print and online patient education materials

The empirical study that is the subject of this essay extends work on readability with an explicit focus on whether readers report difficulty understanding health information in print versus on screen. The central concern of this essay, then, is not a matter of reading levels or penetrability of the text, but of how the delivery mechanism interferes with or enhances a person\u27s reading experience through their perception of its difficulty. Though the study relies on convenience sampling with a limited number of participants, findings suggests that some first-year college students perceive online PEMs to be more difficult to read than print-based ones—even when the reading level of the PEMs is similar. While further study will be needed to confirm the results in randomly sampled populations, demographic information about the sample’s high levels of digital literacy suggests that other populations might also perceive online PEMs as more difficult to read than print-based equivalents. Patients’ perceptions of the difficulty of patient education materials (PEMs) influence their ability to effectively learn from those materials. This work, thus, concludes with a call for more research into patients’ perceptions of difficulty of PEMs in print versus on screen

The Art of Manipulation: Agents of Influence and the Rise of the American National Security State, 1914-1960

Throughout the twentieth century, British and Chinese agents of influence, fellow travelers and their unwitting allies conducted political warfare campaigns designed to exploit America’s rising xenophobia to achieve specific diplomatic goals. The result of these “friendly” political warfare campaigns led the United States to not only fight in two world wars but also lead to a fundamental shift in U.S. foreign and domestic policy. By creating a culture of fear, these political warfare specialists influenced the U.S. political climate making it amiable toward their respective governments’ diplomatic agendas. These foreign agents infiltrated the media, created front organizations, and quietly worked behind the scenes to shape American foreign and domestic policy. During the First World War, British intelligence played on American fears by suggesting that “hyphenated” Americans might be treasonous. Patience, luck, and nerve finally paid off as a reluctant president asked Congress to declare war. Two decades later, England, once again, found itself embroiled in war. By the summer of 1940, Winston Churchill, the newly appointed British Prime Minister, knew the only way the British Empire could survive was to drag the United States into the conflict. Using the lessons learned from the Great War, British intelligence began working to drag a reluctant nation to war. British agents of influence suggested that German Fifth columnists working on American soil sought to undermine the nation. The fear of subversion helped to shift U.S. attitudes. The British were not the only nation struggling to survive. Half a world away, the Chinese fought Imperial Japan, and like the British, the Chinese began lobbying the United State for support. The British and the Chinese competed for American aid. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor did not end this competition nor did the defeat of the Axis powers. As the “Good War” ended, the British and the Chinese worked to ensure that U.S. aid would help rebuild their shattered economies. The blowback from these operations led the rise of the American national security state. This is the story of how these agents of influence and their domestic allies worked to change the course of a nation.History, Department o

Matching Contributions and the Voluntary Provision of a Pure Public Good: Experimental Evidence

Laboratory experiments are used to study the voluntary provision of a pure public good in the presence of an anonymous external donor. The external funds are used in two different settings, lump-sum matching and one-to-one matching, to examine how allocations to the public good are affected. The experimental results reveal that allocations to the public good under lumpsum matching are significantly higher, and have significantly lower within-group dispersion, relative to one-to-one matching and a baseline setting without external matching funds.public goods, free riding, laboratory experiments

Comparing Small-Group and Individual Behavior in Lottery-Choice Experiments

Lottery-choice experiments are conducted to compare risk preferences revealed by three-person groups versus isolated individuals. A lottery-choice experiment consists of a menu of paired lottery choices structured so that the crossover point from a low-risk to a high-risk lottery can be used to infer the degree of risk aversion. A between-subjects experiment of group versus individual lottery-choice decisions reveal that there is not a significant difference in the average crossover point, but lottery choices are affected by a significant interaction between subject composition (individual or group) and lottery winning percentage. Also, a three-phased individual-group-individual sequenced experiment reveals that the count of safe lotteries chosen by groups is, on average, significantly greater than the mean of the individual members. Finally, making a phase-two group decision has a significant impact on subsequent phase-three individual decisions relative to the initial phase-one (individual) decisions.lab experiments, risk preferences, group decisions