Assessing the Effectiveness of Farm Supply Cooperatives: A Comparison of Farmer and Manager Viewpoints

This paper reports the results of a survey of attitudes of commercial farmers and supply cooperative managers about agricultural supply cooperatives. Cooperative managers and farmers frequently made significantly different responses to questionnaire statements. With a few expectations, farm size and farmer age did not appear to influence perceptions about supply cooperatives. Whether a farmer was a cooperative member was important in some cases. Lower prices in lieu of easy credit and patronage refunds were found to be acceptable to farmers, but not at the expense of good service. Managers placed great importance on member loyalty to the supply cooperative without regard to price consideration.Agribusiness,

The problem of the density of sea water

The Density of Aqueous Solutions The density of a solution can be determined easily and is of interest not only for its own sake but also in the calculation of other physical quantities. Many investigators have therefore determined the density and concentration of aqueous solutions. Of the older works, those of Kohlrausch, Kohlrausch and Hallwachs, Baxter and Wallace, and Lamb and Lee are outstanding for their precision...

Physical Therapy Rehabilitation following Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair

Background and Purpose: According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, previous studies have found the prevalence of rotator cuff tears may exceed 50% in individuals older than age 65. Since this age group is the fastest growing of the U.S. population, rotator cuff pathology is sure to become a more significant problem in the future. With this information, it is important to continue research on rotator cuff rehabilitation following arthroscopic surgery. Case Description: This case report describes the physical therapy interventions and functional outcomes of a 58-year-old patient who underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a partial tear of the supraspinatus tendon. The patient was scheduled to attend physical therapy sessions three times each week for seven weeks. During his sessions the main focus was on decreasing his pain and increasing the range of motion of his shoulder joint, as well as strengthening and stretching the musculature of the rotator cuff. Outcome: Following seven weeks of physical therapy, the patient met all of the long-term and short-term goals that were set for him. He was cleared by the physician to return to work. Discussion: This patient regained functional recovery in just over three months post surgery. I believe this patient recovered quickly due to several factors. These factors include his prior level of muscular strength, the size of the rotator cuff tear, his compliance with physical therapy and his home exercise program, and his high motivation to return to work

THE CONSEQUENCES OF AN OPEN FIELD BURNING BAN ON THE U.S. KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS SEED INDUSTRY

An econometric model of the U.S. Kentucky bluegrass seed industry in the Pacific Northwest is specified and estimated in order to evaluate the short and long run consequences of yield reductions associated with a ban on open field burning of grass residues. While results differ among regions, model simulations of short run effects of reduced yields attributed to the burning ban indicate price increases for grass seed ranging from 0 to 69 percent and long run effects indicate increased acreage of grass seed production due to producers responses to higher prices.Crop Production/Industries,

Liquid Feed Injection in a High Density Riser

First investigations on liquid feed injection in a high density circulating fluidized bed of FCC particles were done by means of fast responding thermocouples, capacitance and conductivity probes. The results imply very limited radial mixing between dry solids, wet solids and liquid for the injection parallel to the hot up-streaming gas-solid flow

Drugs for neglected diseases: a failure of the market and a public health failure?

Infectious diseases cause the suffering of hundreds of millions of people, especially in tropical and subtropical areas. Effective, affordable and easy-to-use medicines to fight these diseases are nearly absent. Although science and technology are sufficiently advanced to provide the necessary medicines, very few new drugs are being developed. However, drug discovery is not the major bottleneck. Today's R&D-based pharmaceutical industry is reluctant to invest in the development of drugs to treat the major diseases of the poor, because return on investment cannot be guaranteed. With national and international politics supporting a free market-based world order, financial opportunities rather than global health needs guide the direction of new drug development. Can we accept that the dearth of effective drugs for diseases that mainly affect the poor is simply the sad but inevitable consequence of a global market economy? Or is it a massive public health failure, and a failure to direct economic development for the benefit of society? An urgent reorientation of priorities in drug development and health policy is needed. The pharmaceutical industry must contribute to this effort, but national and international policies need to direct the global economy to address the true health needs of society. This requires political will, a strong commitment to prioritize health considerations over economic interests, and the enforcement of regulations and other mechanisms to stimulate essential drug development. New and creative strategies involving both the public and the private sector are needed to ensure that affordable medicines for today's neglected diseases are developed. Priority action areas include advocating an essential medicines R&D agenda, capacity-building in and technology transfer to developing countries, elaborating an adapted legal and regulatory framework, prioritizing funding for essential drug development and securing availability, accessibility, distribution and rational use of these drugs

On the Nature of the Strong Emission-Line Galaxies in Cluster Cl 0024+1654: Are Some the Progenitors of Low Mass Spheroidals?

We present new size, line ratio, and velocity width measurements for six strong emission-line galaxies in the galaxy cluster, Cl 0024+1654, at redshift z~0.4. The velocity widths from Keck spectra are all narrow (30<sigma<120 km/s), with three profiles showing double peaks. Four galaxies have low masses (M<10^{10} Mo). Whereas three galaxies were previously reported to be possible AGNs, none exhibit AGN-like emission line ratios or velocity widths. Two or three appear as very blue spirals with the remainder more akin to luminous H-II galaxies undergoing a strong burst of star formation. We propose that after the burst subsides, these galaxies will transform into quiescent dwarfs, and are thus progenitors of some cluster spheroidals (We adopt the nomenclature suggested by Kormendy & Bender (1994), i.e., low-density, dwarf ellipsoidal galaxies like NGC 205 are called `spheroidals' instead of `dwarf ellipticals') seen today.Comment: 14 pages + 2 figures + 1 table, LaTeX, Acc. for publ. in ApJL also available at http://www.ucolick.org/~deep/papers/papers.htm

Comment on "Zeeman-Driven Lifshitz Transition: A Model for the Experimentally Observed Fermi-Surface Reconstruction in YbRh2Si2"

In Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 137002 (2011), A. Hackl and M. Vojta have proposed to explain the quantum critical behavior of YbRh2Si2 in terms of a Zeeman-induced Lifshitz transition of an electronic band whose width is about 6 orders of magnitude smaller than that of conventional metals. Here, we note that the ultra-narrowness of the proposed band, as well as the proposed scenario per se, lead to properties which are qualitatively inconsistent with the salient features observed in YbRh2Si2 near its quantum critical point.Comment: 3 page

FREE WILL, DETERMINISM, LIBERTARIANISM AND AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS

В тази статия се изразява твърдението, че позицията на свободната воля е правилна, а тази на детерминизма е неправилна, и че либертарианството и австрийската икономика са съвместими с първо споменатата, но не и с последната позиция. This paper makes the claim that the free will position is correct, that of determinism incorrect, and that libertarianism and Austrian economics are compatible with the former but not the latter