Urban Influence on Costs of Production in the Corn Belt

This article determines the relative technical efficiency of rural- and urban-influenced crop/livestock enterprises in the Corn Belt. Farmers in urban-influenced locations are less technically efficient than farmers in rural locations. During 1998–2000, stochastic production frontier procedures indicate that a 10% increase in urban influence leads to a close to 4% decrease in technical efficiency. The most successful urban-influenced farms have controlled costs as effectively as rural farms. They have tended to de-emphasize that nondairy livestock activities—particularly beef and hogs—do not rely extensively on off-farm income, and have relatively large, less residential/lifestyle operations compared to less successful urban-influenced farmers. However, our statistical analysis clearly bears out the refrain in popular literature that urban proximity raises the cost for, and decreases the viability of, traditional farms.     

International briefing 16: training and development in the Republic of Ireland

This paper explores the landscape of training and development in the Republic of Ireland, a country with an impressive economic record in recent years. Both the Irish economic context and business context are explored. The national system for training and development and the surrounding policy and strategy context are set down. Survey data are drawn upon to examine the nature of training and development at organizational level. Here influence on training and development, levels of expenditure, the number of days per employee category and the dominant methods employed training and development are all discussed. Finally the academic study of training and development in the Republic of Ireland is examined.     

Fashion consumers and fashion problem recognition style

Consumer spending over the life span of today's 18‐ to 25‐year‐old emerging adults will reach into the $10 trillion range. Emerging adults are a powerful force in shaping demand for consumer products. The problem recognition styles associated with emerging adults can help marketers understand this group of consumers and provide insight into what kinds of products, services, and messages will appeal to them as lifelong consumers. The purpose of this study was to examine differences between men and women and among fashion consumer groups in fashion problem recognition style. Participants were a convenience sample of emerging adult consumers from one Midwestern university in the US, 136 men and 158 women who completed the Measure of Fashion Innovativeness and Opinion Leadership, Fashion Problem Recognition Style Scale, and provided demographic information. Both fashion followers and men reflected a need‐based approach to problem recognition. Both fashion change agents and women reflected a want‐based approach to problem recognition. Male fashion followers differed from all other groups in indicating a need‐based approach to problem recognition. This study built on previous work by examining differences in problem recognition style owing to fashion consumer group and gender. The basic premise behind problem recognition style was validated; that is, actual state (need‐based) vs. ideal state (want‐based) approaches to fashion problem recognition did relate to fashion consumer group membership and gender.     

Removal efficiency of subsurface vertical flow constructed wetlands for different organic loads.

Using subsurface vertical flow constructed wetlands (SSVFCWs) with intermittent loading it is possible to fulfil the stringent Austrian effluent standards regarding nitrification. For small plants (less than 500 persons) standards for ammonia nitrogen concentration have to be met at water temperatures higher than 12 degrees C, effluent concentrations and treatment efficiencies for organic matter have to be met the whole year around. According to the Austrian design standards the required surface area for SSVFCWs treating wastewater was 5 m2 per person. Within the first part of an Austrian research project the goal was to optimise, i.e. minimise the surface area requirement of vertical flow beds. Therefore, three SSVFCWs with a surface area of 20 m2 each have been operated in parallel. The organic loads applied were 20, 27 and 40 g COD/m2/d, which corresponds to a specific surface area requirement of 4, 3 and 2 m2 per PE, respectively. The paper compares the effluent concentrations and elimination efficiencies of the three parallel operated beds. It could be shown that a specific area demand of 4 m2 per person is suitable to be included in the revision of the Austrian design standard. Additionally it could be shown that during the warmer seasons (May-October) when the temperature of the effluent is higher than 12 degrees C the specific surface area might be further reduced; even 2 m2 per person has been proven to be adequate.     

The beneficial effects of storage on the quality of wastewater for irrigation: a case study in Sicily.

Although the main function of reservoirs in agriculture is to allow the storage and temporal shifting of large volumes of waters, further benefits emerge from their application in wastewater reuse systems. In fact, as observed in several other studies carried out on such complex natural systems, the storage period, under proper conditions, can lead to a significant improvement of the water quality for irrigation thanks to concurrent physical, chemical and biological processes. In order to investigate the reservoir dynamics, an experimental research was carried out in a farm reservoir (volume of 11,000 m3, maximum depth of 6.3 m and mean depth of about 5 m), receiving treated wastewater and subject to scheduled highly variable input to volume ratios, in order to observe the broadest range of behaviour responses. Specifically, over a monitoring period lasted 4 months, the reservoir was operated as a standard batch reactor in the first and third phases and as a continuous flow reactor in the second one. Based on correlation analysis between the chemical, physical and biological water parameters and operational ones, a new operative index is proposed which integrates the morphological characteristics of the tank and the management ones, and shows a significant correlation with the qualitative characteristics of the stored water.     

Experimental evaluation of fishway modifications on the passage behaviour of adult Chinook salmon and steelhead at Lower Granite Dam,Snake River,USA

Previous studies of Pacific salmonid passage over Snake River dams indicated slowed passage at transition pools, the transition area between the fishway entrance and the fish ladder. In 2001 and 2002, we conducted an experiment to determine if modified weirs affected adult salmon and steelhead passage times and route selection through the Lower Granite Dam transition pool. Fish attraction flows through the lower ladder weirs were experimentally increased using removable panels. During the experiment we monitored radio‐tagged adult Chinook salmon and steelhead to determine passage routes and times through the transition pool. The weir treatment increased the number of spring–summer Chinook salmon passing straight through the transition pool compared to those exiting the transition pool to the collection channel or tailrace. Mean passage times through the transition pool differed among routes and were significantly lower during treatment periods for the exit‐to‐collection channel route in spring‐summer Chinook salmon, but not for other routes. Passage times among routes differed in steelhead, but there was no evidence of treatment effects on route use or passage time. Fall Chinook exhibited similar trends in route use and passage time to spring–summer Chinook, but differences were not significant, perhaps because of relatively small sample size. Total dam passage times did not differ by treatment or route for any run. Fish depth during passage of the transition pool suggested that most fish passed through submerged orifices and supported the hypothesis that increased water velocity through these orifices caused the increase in straight‐through passage in spring–summer Chinook. Collectively, the results suggested the weir modifications provided improvement to passage through the transition pool for spring–summer Chinook and no evidence of negative effects on other runs. The results from this study were used to develop new design criteria and modifications of the Lower Granite Dam fishway. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hindered and compression settling: parameter measurement and modelling.

The Vesilind settling velocity function forms the basis of flux theory used both in state point analysis (for design and capacity rating) and one-dimensional dynamic models (for dynamic process modelling). This paper proposes new methods to address known shortcomings of these methods, based on an extensive set of batch settling tests conducted at different scales. The experimental method to determine the Vesilind parameters from a series of bench scale settling tests is reviewed. It is confirmed that settling cylinders must be slowly stirred in order to represent settling performance of full scale plants for the whole range of solids concentrations. Two new methods to extract the Vesilind parameters from settling test series are proposed and tested against the traditional manual method. Finally, the same data set is used to propose an extension to one-dimensional (1-D) dynamic settler models to account for compression settling. Using the modified empirical function, the model is able to describe the batch settling interface independently of the number of layers.     

Half-Way House or Dead End?

Education vouchers ore conventionally attacked by commentators who prefer to maintain the dominance of the srate in the supply of education. Richard Henderson, of the stockbrokers Sheppards & Chase, analyses the vulnerability of vouchers to capture by pressure group and therefore argues for a genuine market in education without the compromise of vouchers.     

Estimation of Agricultural Production Functfons on a World-Wide Basis

Agricultural production is becoming increasingly capital and research intensive. Hayami and Ruttan, along with others, have developed and applied the metaproduction functional approach to the examination of this phenomenon on a worldwide basis. Limitations to the approach derive from a restrictive functional form chosen for estimation, and from a restrictive specification of agricultural capital and land. This study addresses those difficulties by use of the flexible translog functional form for estimation and by specifying an overall agricultural capital index and a land measure incorporating differences in the quality of land (agricultural natural resource) endowments. Estimation results indicate that agricultural comparative advantage in production is likely shifting to developed countries relative to LDC's due to capital constraints in the latter. Also agricultural potential (i.e., land endowments) do not serve to differentiate nations on the basis of agricultural production. Investment in agriculture, including land improvement, is key to the determination of comparative advantage. La production agricole fait appelle de plus en plus a beaucoup de re-cherches et de capitaux. Hayami et Ruttan, avec d'autres, ont developpe et appliqué l'approche fonctionnelle métaproduction pour examiner ce phénomena à l‘échelle du monde. Les limitations de cette approache provienneent de la forme fonctionnelle restrictive choisie pour l'estimation, et de la spécification restrictive de capitaux et terres agricoles. Cette étude traite ces difficultés en utilisant la formule “translog’ fonctionnelle adaptable pour l'estimation et en spécificant un indice du capital agricole global et une mesure de terre qui incorpore les différences du qualité des terres agricoles (ressources agricoles naturelles). Tous les résultats estimatifs indiquent que l'avantage comparatif agricole de production s'incline vers les pays développés parraport aux PMD dû aux constraintes de capitaux dans ces derniers. Aussi la capacité agricole (c'est à dire la richesse des sols) ne sert pas à différencier les nations sur le plan de production agricole. L'investissement dans l'agriculte, notamment l'amélioration de terre, est la cief pour déterminer l'avantage comparatif.     

Effect of Channel Changes in the St. Clair River During the Present Century

Periodic man-made changes in the outlet of Lake Huron through the St. Clair River date back to the middle of the last century. These artificial channel changes have been well documented during the present century. They consist of dredging for commercial gravel removal in the upper river during 1908–25 and uncompensated navigation improvements for the 7.6-m (25-ft) and 8.2-m (27-ft) projects completed in 1933 and 1962, respectively. The total effect of these changes on the levels of Lakes Michigan and Huron (hydraulically one lake) and on the upper St. Clair River profile was determined with dynamic flow models. The ultimate effect of the above dredging was a permanent lowering of the Lake Michigan-Huron levels 0.27 m (0.89 ft), which represents a tremendous loss of freshwater resource [32 km³ (7.7 mi³)].