UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION IN DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS IN THE SOUTH: STATUS, CHALLENGES, AND OPPORTUNITIES

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

SPECIFICATION OF THE IMPACT OF SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS ON CONSUMPTION OF THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SOURCES OF PROTEIN

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE MANAGERS AND THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Managers of agricultural cooperatives were contacted to determine their knowledge/capabilities and perspectives of the cooperative environment with special emphasis given to the importance of cooperative principles to the operation and success of the business, division of responsibility between management and the board of directors, and business decision making in the areas of financial analysis plus selected scenarios. Managers showed strong adherence to traditional cooperative principles and basic decision areas. Self-assessments were positive and consistent with performance measures. The opportunity exists to improve manager knowledge/capabilities related to cooperative principles, division of responsibility between managers and the board, and financial analysis.board of directors, cooperative principles, cooperatives (agricultural), leadership, management, managers, Agribusiness,

EVALUATION OF FEASIBILITY OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CROPS USING MARKET WINDOW ANALYSIS

Fruits and vegetables have been identified as potential production alternatives to use available farm resources. Several "market window" studies have been undertaken to evaluate such feasibility. These state and regional studies are analyzed and compared to identify underlying assumptions and methodologies. Recommendations of the studies are evaluated on an aggregate basis and limitations of the market window technique are identified and discussed. The technique was judged to be useful in planning because it involves consideration of potential costs to be incurred, markets to be evaluated, and price expectations for the various commodities considered.Crop Production/Industries,

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS STUDENTS AT SOUTHERN LAND GRANT UNIVERSITIES

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

COMPUTERIZED MARKETING FOR FRESH PRODUCE - A DEVELOPMENT FOR TODAY

Marketing,

CONSUMER HOME-USE EVALUATION OF A DEVELOPED LEAN GROUND BEEF PRODUCT

This study reports findings on the acceptance of a new lean ground beef product. Tested products involved 1) a Developed Lean product (less than 10% fat plus quality enhancers), 2) a Lean product (less than 10% fat without quality enhancers), and 3) a Market product (slightly more than 20% fat). These products were home delivered on a rotating basis to a random sample of 91 households, one product each week for three weeks. Product traits were evaluated by the household meal preparer at three stages of home use: preparing (5 traits), cooking (3 traits), and eating (4 traits), and by other household members at the final consumption stage of eating. More favorable ratings were observed for both Developed Lean and Lean products over the Market product at the preparing and cooking stages. Ratings at the eating stage were similar between the Developed Lean and the Market products indicating a favorable response to the Developed Lean product.Consumer/Household Economics,

2006 AAPP Monograph American Series

The African American Professors Program (AAPP) at the University of South Carolina is proud to publish the sixth edition of its annual monograph series. The program recognizes the significance of offering its scholars a venue for engaging actively in research and for publishing papers related thereto. Parallel with the publication of their refereed manuscripts is the opportunity to gain visibility among scholars throughout institutions worldwide. Scholars who have contributed manuscripts for this monograph are to be commended for adding this additional responsibility to their academic workloads. Writing across disciplines adds to the intellectual diversity of these papers. From neophytes, relatively speaking, to an array of very experienced individuals, the chapters have been researched and comprehensively written. Founded in 1997 through the Department of Educational Leadership and Policies in the College of Education, AAPP was designed to address the underrepresentation of African American professors on college and university campuses. Its mission is to expand the pool of these professors in critical academic and research areas. Sponsored by the University of South Carolina, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the South Carolina General Assembly, the program recruits doctoral students for disciplines in which African Americans currently are underrepresented among faculty in higher education. The continuation of this monograph series is seen as responding to a window of opportunity to be sensitive to an academic expectation of graduates as they pursue career placement and, at the same time, one that allows for the dissemination of AAPP products to a broader community. The importance of this monograph series has been voiced by one of our 2002 AAPP graduates, Dr. Shundele LaTjuan Dogan, a former Program Officer for the Southern Education Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia, a former Administrative Fellow at Harvard University, and currently a Senior Program Officer with the Arthur M. Blank Foundation, focusing on the Pathways to Success Initiative. Dr. Dogan wrote: One thing in particular that I want to thank you for is having the African American Professors Program scholars publish articles for the monograph. I have to admit that writing the articles seemed like extra work at the time. However, in my recent interview process, organizations have asked me for samples of my writing. Including an article from a published monograph helped to make my portfolio much more impressive. You were \u27right on target\u27 in having us do the monograph series. {AAPP 2003 Monograph, p xi) The African American Professors Program offers this 2006 publication as a contribution to its readership and hopes that you will be inspired by this select group of manuscripts. John McFadden, Ph.D. The Benjamin Elijah Mays Professor Director, African American Professors Program University of South Carolinahttps://scholarcommons.sc.edu/mcfadden_monographs/1008/thumbnail.jp

Considering the Case for Biodiversity Cycles: Reexamining the Evidence for Periodicity in the Fossil Record

Medvedev and Melott (2007) have suggested that periodicity in fossil biodiversity may be induced by cosmic rays which vary as the Solar System oscillates normal to the galactic disk. We re-examine the evidence for a 62 million year (Myr) periodicity in biodiversity throughout the Phanerozoic history of animal life reported by Rohde & Mueller (2005), as well as related questions of periodicity in origination and extinction. We find that the signal is robust against variations in methods of analysis, and is based on fluctuations in the Paleozoic and a substantial part of the Mesozoic. Examination of origination and extinction is somewhat ambiguous, with results depending upon procedure. Origination and extinction intensity as defined by RM may be affected by an artifact at 27 Myr in the duration of stratigraphic intervals. Nevertheless, when a procedure free of this artifact is implemented, the 27 Myr periodicity appears in origination, suggesting that the artifact may ultimately be based on a signal in the data. A 62 Myr feature appears in extinction, when this same procedure is used. We conclude that evidence for a periodicity at 62 Myr is robust, and evidence for periodicity at approximately 27 Myr is also present, albeit more ambiguous.Comment: Minor modifications to reflect final published versio

Communications Biophysics

Contains research objectives, summary of research and reports on three research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 PO1 GM14940-04)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 TOl GM01555-04)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NGL 22-009-304