Partial Hamiltonian reduction of relativistic extended objects in light-cone gauge

The elimination of the non-transversal field in the standard light-cone formulation of higher-dimensional extended objects is formulated as a Hamiltonian reduction.Comment: 11 page

Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: 2005 Family Farm Report

Most farms in the United States- 98 percent in 2003- are family farms. They are organized as proprietorships, partnerships, or family corporations. Even the largest farms tend to be family farms, although they are more likely to have more than one operator. Very large family farms and nonfamily farms account for a small share of farms but a large-and growing-share of farm sales. Small family farms account for most of the farms in the United States but produce a modest share of farm output. Median income for farm households is 10 percent greater than the median for all U.S. households, and small-farm households receive substantial off-farm income. Many farm households have a large net worth, reflecting the land-intensive nature of farming.Agricultural Finance, Consumer/Household Economics, Industrial Organization,

Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: 2005 Family Farm Report

Most farms in the United States—98 percent in 2003—are family farms. They are organized as proprietorships, partnerships, or family corporations. Even the largest farms tend to be family farms, although they are more likely to have more than one operator. Very large family farms and nonfamily farms account for a small share of farms but a large—and growing—share of farm sales. Small family farms account for most of the farms in the United States but produce a modest share of farm output. Median income for farm households is 10 percent greater than the median for all U.S. households, and small-farm households receive substantial off-farm income. Many farm households have a large net worth, reflecting the land-intensive nature of farming.Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), family farms, farm businesses, farm financial performance, farm-operator household income, farm operators, farm structure, farm type, multiple-operator farms, multiple-generation farms, small farms, contracting, Farm Management,

ERS Farm Typology for a Diverse Agricultural Sector

The Economic Research Service (ERS) developed a farm typology which categorizes farms into more homogeneous groups than do classifications based on sales volume alone, producing a more effective policy development tool. The typology is used to describe U.S. farms.Farm Management,

HYDRA: Hybrid Deep Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting

Purpose: Magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) methods typically rely on dictio-nary matching to map the temporal MRF signals to quantitative tissue parameters. Such approaches suffer from inherent discretization errors, as well as high computational complexity as the dictionary size grows. To alleviate these issues, we propose a HYbrid Deep magnetic ResonAnce fingerprinting approach, referred to as HYDRA. Methods: HYDRA involves two stages: a model-based signature restoration phase and a learning-based parameter restoration phase. Signal restoration is implemented using low-rank based de-aliasing techniques while parameter restoration is performed using a deep nonlocal residual convolutional neural network. The designed network is trained on synthesized MRF data simulated with the Bloch equations and fast imaging with steady state precession (FISP) sequences. In test mode, it takes a temporal MRF signal as input and produces the corresponding tissue parameters. Results: We validated our approach on both synthetic data and anatomical data generated from a healthy subject. The results demonstrate that, in contrast to conventional dictionary-matching based MRF techniques, our approach significantly improves inference speed by eliminating the time-consuming dictionary matching operation, and alleviates discretization errors by outputting continuous-valued parameters. We further avoid the need to store a large dictionary, thus reducing memory requirements. Conclusions: Our approach demonstrates advantages in terms of inference speed, accuracy and storage requirements over competing MRF method

Municipal Composting and Organic Waste Diversion: The Case of Fayetteville, Arkansas

It is estimated that 40% of food is wasted in the United States; representing $165 billion in wasted resources. A vast majority of that wasted food is ultimately placed in landfills where it decomposes and releases harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs). In fact, food waste alone is responsible for 23% of annual methane emissions for the US. This has a huge impact on global climate change due to the potency of methane as a greenhouse gas. Currently only 5% of the food waste produced is recovered across the nation. Source reduction would be the best solution to reducing this food waste, however, large-scale source reduction is not feasible with the current food market in the US. This is why many cities are beginning to adopt municipal composting programs as a way to divert more of their waste from landfills. The goal of this research was to review and show the impacts of how Fayetteville, Arkansas currently handles waste throughout the city, particularly in regards to food waste and other compostable organics. After getting a snapshot of Fayetteville’s current situation, a model created by the EPA was used to assess the carbon footprint of Fayetteville’s current waste management system. A proposed system in which all organic waste is diverted is created and analyzed within the model, in order to compare the impact the city could have on reducing their carbon footprint. The proposed system reduced the carbon footprint of the cities waste management system by over 200%. Based on the proposed system total impact from waste management would go from a net positive impact of 4,796 MTCO2E per year to a net negative impact of 4,989 MTCO2E per year. These results help to prove that moving toward composting all organics would result in decreasing the impact the third largest city in Arkansas has on the environment

A dynamical symmetry for supermembranes

A dynamical symmetry for supersymmetric extended objects is given.Comment: 3 page

Postsecondary Writing: First-Year Students’ Perceptions of College Writing Preparedness

As access to higher education continues to grow it is important to consider the way students are prepared for college level work. This is especially true in the area of writing, which is considered to be the academic skill most linked to success at the college level (Conley, 2008). This qualitative study investigates college writing preparedness through the perspectives of ten first-year students at a small, liberal arts institution in Massachusetts. The study sought to explore how K-12 institutions and postsecondary schools can work to better prepare students for college writing. Participants described the differences between secondary and postsecondary writing and expressed that there was a gap between the way they were prepared in high school and what was expected of them when they arrived at college. This study recommends ways K-12 and postsecondary institutions can improve upon college writing preparation to create a better transition for students between high school and college level writing. These recommendations include creating stronger K-16 partnerships, improving first-year writing courses, encouraging student use of faculty support and writing centers, helping students to see themselves as novices, and continuing to critically assess the education system in the United States

Million-Dollar Farms in the New Century

Million-dollar farms—those with annual sales of at least $1 million—accounted for about half of U.S. farm sales in 2002, up from a fourth in 1982 (with sales measured in constant 2002 dollars). By 2006, million-dollar farms, accounting for 2 percent of all U.S. farms, dominated U.S. production of high-value crops, milk, hogs, poultry, and beef. The shift to million-dollar farms is likely to continue because they tend to be more profitable than smaller farms, giving them a competitive advantage. Most million-dollar farms (84 percent) are family farms, that is, the farm operator and relatives of the operator own the business. The million-dollar farms organized as nonfamily corporations tend to have no more than 10 stockholders.Contracting, family farms, farm businesses, farm financial performance, farm-operator household income, farm operators, farm structure, farm type, million-dollar farms, Farm Management,

Growing Farm Size and the Distribution of Farm Payments

Crop production is shifting to much larger farms. Since government commodity payments reflect production volumes for program commodities, payments are also shifting to larger farms. In turn, the operators of very large farms have substantially higher household incomes than other farm households, and as a result government commodity payments are also shifting to much higher-income households. Since the changes in farm structure appear to be ongoing, commodity payments will likely, under current policies, continue to shift to higher income households. This brief uses 2003 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) data to detail the shifts.Farm structure, commodity programs, farm payments, farm household income, farm income, farm program payments, ERS, USDA, Agricultural and Food Policy, Industrial Organization,