bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Microcomputer Linear Programming Package: An Alternative to Mainframes
Authors: Laughlin David H. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThis paper presents the capabilities and limitations of a microcomputer linear programming package. The solution algorithm is a version of the revised simplex. Rapid problem entry, user ease of operation, sensitivity analyses on objective function and right hand sides are advantages. A problem size of 150 activities and 64 constraints can be solved in present form. Due to problem size, limitations and lack of parametric and integer programming routines, this package is thought to have the most value in teaching applications and research problems in the smaller size categories.
The Technical Efficiency of Illinois Grain Farms: An Application of a Ray-Homothetic Production Function
Authors: Aly Hassan Y. , Belbase Krishna , Grabowski Richard , Kraft Steven 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to measure the extent of technical inefficiency among a sample of Illinois grain farms using the corrected ordinary least squares method. Instead of assuming a Cobb-Douglas production function, a linear form of the ray-homothetic is used. The results show a significant amount of technical inefficiency among all the farms in the sample, but with large farms being less technically inefficient than small farms.
The Demand and Supply of U.S. Agricultural Exports: The Case of Wheat, Corn, and Soybeans
Authors: Haniotis Tassos , Baffes John , Ames Glenn C. W. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThe demand for and supply of U.S. wheat, corn, and soybean exports is specified in a dynamic framework. Obtained results indicate differences in the export behavior of each product. U.S. corn exports are elastic, while U.S. soybean exports exhibit an inelastic response. For wheat, the derived elasticity of export demand had a positive sign. Hypothesis testing validated the dynamic structure of the estimated models in all markets. Stability properties were confirmed in export markets of corn and soybeans, but results were inconclusive for the wheat market. Adjustment coefficients indicate that exports and export prices do not adjust immediately to their equilibrium levels. Multiplier impacts indicate a stable path of convergence for all markets, with minimal impact of exogenous shocks on wheat and corn exports and export prices. Soybean export prices exhibit a significant response to changes in domestic export capacity, but minimal response to other exogenous shocks.
Toward an Appraisal of the FMHA Farm Credit Program: A Case Study of the Efficiency of Borrowers in Southern Illinois
Authors: Mehdian S. , Herr Wm. McD. , Eberle Phil , Grabowski Richard 
Published: July 2016

AbstractA production frontier methodology is used to measure the overall efficiency of a sample of farms obtaining credit from the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) compared to nonparticipants. The study did not find evidence that the efficiency of FmHA farms improved between 1981 and 1984. Results indicate that the overall efficiency of FmHA borrowers is associated with selected financial characteristics of the farms.
A Welfare Analysis of Port User Fees: The Case of Grain and Soybean Exports
Authors: Peterson E. Wesley F. , Viscencio-Brambila Hector , Fuller Stephen 
Published: July 2016

AbstractUser fees have become a popular means of financing public services, including certain transportation facilities. The Water Resources Development Act of 1986 includes provisions for user fees to finance part of the costs of operations, maintenance, and new construction of the U.S. port system. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the welfare implications of this legislation. An analytical model is developed and used to estimate the impact of port user fees on grain and oilseed producers, consumers, and the government. The results of the analysis indicate that the user fee has a relatively small effect on producer welfare and that the efficiency gains resulting from the replacement of the government subsidy for port operations, maintenance, and new construction with a user fee are negligible.
The Food and Fiber Commission Report: Implications for the South
Authors: Tweeten Luther G. 
Published: July 2016

The report of the National Advisory Commission on Food and Fiber displays some shortcomings, but in the main is a well conceived and extremely useful contribution to farm policy. My paper will focus principally on the implications of the Food and Fiber Commission recommendations for the South. A secondary objective will be to critique some of the recommendations, and to suggest some possible improvements in the Commission report.I have divided the recommendations into three categories for this paper: (a) commercial agriculture, (b) world trade, aid and development, and (c) rural poverty and area development. The implications of the latter two categories are presented in a most sketchy manner. I have attempted to be more comprehensive in explaining the implications of policies for commercial agriculture.
Market Organization and Functional Efficiency
Authors: Lasley Floyd A. 
Published: July 2016

Market organization is both the cause and effect of differences in functional efficiency. Despite this mutual dependency and responsiveness, structure research has stressed firm size, numbers, and concentration within an industry, while efficiency generally has been considered from a plant or firm viewpoint.While the relationships would be similar for most agricultural product markets, this paper approaches the market organization-efficiency relationship with the specific question, “How does the organization and execution of supply coordination influence efficiency in a milk market?” Efficiency is compared by two measures: The proportion of supply needed as reserve, and the cost of handling the supply. The relevant variable is the organizational level at which responsibility is exercised for coordinating supply.
The Industrial Demand for Agricultural Economists
Authors: Polopolus Leo 
Published: July 2016

Industrial demand for agricultural economists can be viewed theoretically as the demand for a factor of production. In this case, the marginal revenue productivity of an industrial economist defines the factor demand. This factor demand is “derived” from the demand for the product.It is an hypothesis of this paper that the industrial demand for economists has shifted outward and to the right. This has occurred because the two components of factor demand-marginal physical productivity of the factor and marginal revenue of the product-have both shifted outward and to the right.
Importance, Causes, and Management Responses to Farm Risks: Evidence From Florida and Alabama
Authors: Boggess William G. , Anaman Kwabena A. , Hanson Gregory D. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractDespite the contention that risk and uncertainty play an important role in agriculture in North Florida and South Alabama, very little is known about producers' perceptions of risk. This paper describes the procedures used and the results obtained from a statistically random survey of farmers' perceptions of the importance of various sources of risk and alternative risk management practices. Initially, farmers were asked to define risk and then to rank various sources of risk and management responses to risk based on the relative importance of each to their operation. Summary statistics, Chi-square analyses, and logistic regression techniques were used to analyze the data.
Optimal Management Strategies for Alfalfa Production Within a Total Farm Plan
Authors: Debertin David L. , Pagoulatos Angelos 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThis paper examines the impacts of alternative management strategies for the production of alfalfa within the context of a total farm plan. A linear programming model is used to represent a 600-acre farm which can grow either grain crops or alfalfa. Alfalfa production competes with the grain crops for available land, labor, machinery, and field time over a calendar of tillage, planting, cutting, spraying, and harvesting activities. The profitability of an acre of alfalfa and the contribution of alfalfa to net returns for the farm varies quite widely depending on the particular alfalfa management strategy selected.
Optimal Irrigation Pivot Location on Irregularly Shaped Fields
Authors: Hatch L. Upton , Hardy William E. , Rochester Eugene W. , Johnson Gregory C. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractAlthough annual rainfall in the Southeast is adequate, its distribution is a potential constraint to agricultural production. Farmers require production information concerning efficient use of irrigation technology adapted to regional growing conditions. Selection of optimal position, size, and number of pivots in center pivot irrigation systems poses special problems on small, irregularly shaped fields. In the southeastern United States, field size and shape are often varied and irregular. A mixed integer programming model was constructed to assist in irrigation investment decisions. The model is illustrated using irrigated peanut production in southeast Alabama. Results indicate the importance of economic engineering considerations.
Profit-Maximizing Dairy Sire Selection Package
Authors: Blake Robert W. , Shumway C. Richard , Tomaszewski Michael A. , Rickard Greg P. , LaBore John M. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThe Net Present Value Sire Summary Professional Package (NPVSS) is a microcomputer program designed for technical personnel to help dairy producers better manage investments in genetic improvement. NPVSS is written in C language, utilizes the MS-DOS operating system, and requires 256K of RAM. It is menu driven and includes parameter screens to define herd management characteristics of individual producers. Profit rankings of bulls can be generated to evaluate alternative: a) objective functions (selection policies for genetic merit in milk income and type scores), b) herd management performance factors (conception rate, calving interval, age at first calving), and c) economic factors (milk price, semen price, discount rate, planning horizon).
Efficiency Criteria and Risk Aversion: An Empirical Evaluation
Authors: Wetzstein Michael E. , Szmedra Philip I. , McClendon Ronald W. , Edwards David M. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractA conceptual link among mean-variance (EV), stochastic dominance (SD), mean-risk (ET), and Gini mean difference (EG) is established for determining risk efficient decision sets. The theoretical relations among the various efficiency criteria are then empirically demonstrated with a soybean and wheat double-crop simulation model. Empirical results associated with extended Gini mean difference (EEG) and extended mean-absolute Gini (EEΓ) for risk analysis are encouraging.
The Agricultural Marketing Agenda for the Eighties
Authors: Ward Ronald W. 
Published: July 2016

The agenda for marketing research in the 1980s, to a great extent, has already been set by the events of the 1970s. Agriculture is in a period of transition in which commodity surpluses are expected to be less of a problem area. International markets are expanding, and the delivery systems have become complex in both structure and in the functions performed. The dynamics of the marketplace obviously influence the research agenda.Before looking at the changing research needs for agricultural marketing, a definition of the concept is needed. For the context of this paper, marketing research is defined to be the process of assimilation and creation of information on the economic performance of potential and existing arrangements that facilitate the assembling, distribution, and consumption of foods, fibers, and ornamentals.
Estimating Market Power and Pricing Conduct in a Product-Differentiated Oligopoly: The Case of the Domestic Spaghetti Sauce Industry
Authors: Vickner Steven S. , Davies Stephen P. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThis paper develops a simultaneous-equations panel data econometric model to obtain point estimates of market power and pricing conduct in a representative product-differentiated, oligopolistic food market. The importance of this class of markets is recognized given its prevalence in the food and fiber system, especially for final consumer food products. The $1.3 billion domestic spaghetti sauce industry is featured. Although the results indicate firms exert limited market power, a portion of this power is derived from tacit price collusion. A higher degree of price collusion was found among brands within a market segment than between segments.
Farm Computer Adoption in the Great Plains
Authors: Hoag Dana L. , Ascough James C. , Frasier W. Marshall 
Published: July 2016

AbstractComputers change rapidly, yet the last survey on computer use in agriculture was in 1991. We surveyed Great Plains producers in 1995 and used logit analysis to characterize adopters and non-adopters. About 37% of these producers use computers which is consistent with the general population. We confirmed previous surveys emphasizing the importance of education, age/experience, and other farm characteristics on adoption. However, we also found that education and experience may no longer be a significant influence. Future research and education could focus on when and where computers are most needed, and therefore when adoption is most appropriate.
Survivorship analysis of Paleozoic Crinoidea: effect of filter morphology on evolutionary rates
Authors: Baumiller Tomasz K. 
Published: July 2016

The evolutionary rates of Paleozoic Crinoidea were obtained using dynamic survivorship analysis. The stratigraphic ranges of 838 genera were used in the analyses, revealing a mean generic duration of 12.0 m.y. and a mean species duration of 6.7 m.y., values within the range of longevities reported for other taxa.Further analyses showed differences in evolutionary rates among crinoid taxa: camerate species and genera were shorter-lived than species and genera of flexibles and inadunates. This pattern may result from ecological differences among these taxa: an energy budget equation solved for crinoids with various filter morphologies revealed that crinoids with fine-mesh filters require higher current velocities to supply them with sufficient particulate nutrients than do crinoids with coarse-mesh filters. A hypothesis stipulating that these differences control the distribution of crinoids among different environments is supported by patterns of occurrence of Mississippian crinoids: the pinnulate camerates (fine filter) dominate higher energy settings while the non-pinnulate inadunates and flexibles (coarse filter) are found in all environments. The “specialized” pinnulate crinoids may therefore be more prone to speciation and extinction than the non-pinnulate “generalists,” thus accounting for the observed differences in the evolutionary rates of the three subclasses.The above hypothesis was tested by comparing evolutionary rates of two morphological groups: fine-filtered crinoids (camerates) and coarse-filtered crinoids (non-pinnulate Paleozoic crinoids). As predicted, fine-filtered taxa had higher extinction and origination rates. A “bootstrapping” technique revealed that the differences in extinction rates were significant at thep< 0.10 level.
Competition, clade replacement, and a history of cyclostome and cheilostome bryozoan diversity
Authors: Lidgard Scott , McKinney Frank K. , Taylor Paul D. 
Published: July 2016

One of the striking yet scarcely documented episodes of clade replacement in the post-Paleozoic fossil record is the decline of cyclostome Bryozoa and the corresponding, rapid diversification of cheilostome Bryozoa. These clades are closely associated morphologically and phylogenetically, and their ecological similarities have previously led to the inference that competition was a primary cause of the overt pattern of replacement. Alternatively, previous compilations of bryozoan families and genera have implied that extinctions at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary differentially affected cyclostomes, and thus were also an important factor in the transition.We first evaluated the ecological context for competition between the two clades, then updated and reexamined the history of absolute family diversity for bryozoans in consecutive geologic stages from Jurassic to Recent. The resulting trends echo the patterns shown in earlier family level compilations, but indicate a slight shift in the frequency of cheilostome family originations from Late Cretaceous to early Paleogene. The relative fall in cyclostome family diversity at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary is significantly less than shown in earlier genus level compilations. We then assessed these various compilations of absolute diversity by analyzing species counts and percentages in 728 fossil assemblages, primarily from North America and Europe, over the same time interval. Cyclostome species overwhelmingly dominate assemblages from Jurassic through Cenomanian, then decline significantly in average percentage dominance through the Campanian. Cheilostomes are predominant in Campanian and later assemblages. Cyclostome species percentages do decrease overall through the Tertiary, but this decrease is small and non-uniform, varying around 30%, with a sharp drop in the Late Neogene. Our within-assemblage results indicate that as cheilostomes radiate, their mean species diversity, maximum diversity, and variance all increase, thereby accounting for much of the decline in average percentage of cyclostomes within assemblages. While this result does not exclude a role for competition, an hypothesis of relative decline in cyclostome species richness based on competitive extinction alone seems unlikely. Further, despite decreases in absolute species counts following end-Cretaceous extinctions, within-assemblage percentages of cheilostome or cyclostome species show only slight change relative to one another. Comparison of these and earlier diversity compilations indicates that the dynamics of bryozoan clade replacement may be perceived differently at different ecologic scales or taxonomic ranks.
Symbiotic relationships between worms and solitary rugose corals in the Late Ordovician
Authors: Elias Robert J. 
Published: July 2016

Symbiotic relationships involving physical contact between worms and solitary rugosan polyps are recorded by the following structures in North American Late Ordovician corals: (1)Trypanitesborings enclosed within septal swellings in two specimens, (2) vermiform grooves and openings along the external wall of one corallum, and (3) a chamber containing a unique brown tube within one individual. These features are indicative, respectively, of commensal boring polychaete annelids that penetrated through coralla, commensal epizoic worms of unknown taxonomic affinity that attached to the side of a polyp, and a tubicolous worm (possibly a polychaete) that was likely a parasitic endozoan. Symbionts comparable to the latter two types are also known from two specimens of Devonian solitary rugose corals.Indirect evidence suggests that symbioses between solitary rugosans and the worms that producedTrypanitesborings as dwelling structures in the sides of coralla were relatively common. However, direct evidence that the hosts were alive has been found in only two corals. In both cases, worms bored through septa within the calices and came into contact with basal surfaces of the polyps, which secreted skeletal material that sealed off the intruders. The rarity of such structures suggests that the encounters were inadvertent. If boring worms favored upcurrent portions of objects in order to maximize feeding benefits and avoid sedimentation, their locations indicate that the concave sides of curved coralla faced toward prevailing currents when in life positions.“Opportunistic” worms are known to have attached to the sides of polyps only in rare instances when the hosts became temporarily exposed as a result of accidents or abnormalities. This indicates that coralla normally served to shield polyps from colonization by nonboring epizoans.Worms that apparently extended up through openings in basal surfaces of polyps likely obtained sustenance parasitically within the central cavities. They could have entered the hosts through their mouths, or via the calices when parts of the polyps detached from their coralla and contracted radially. The rarity of this type of relationship in solitary Rugosa suggests that the worms entered inadvertently.Symbioses involving physical contact between worms and polyps seem to have been rare throughout the history of solitary rugose corals. Both groups apparently tolerated such associations when they did occur, although the rugosans secreted structures in their coralla that served to isolate the symbionts. In doing so, they recorded the presence of worms not likely to be preserved as body fossils. The interpretation of such features provides information on the physiology and ethology of both organisms, on the history of symbiotic relationships, and on the diversity of soft-bodied organisms in ancient environments.
Population size, extinction, and speciation: the fission effect in Neogene Bivalvia
Authors: Stanley Steven M. 
Published: July 2016

The extinction of a species represents reduction of both geographic range and population size to zero. Most workers have focused on geographic range as a variable strongly affecting the vulnerability of established species to extinction, but Lyellian percentages for Neogene bivalve faunas of California and Japan suggest that population size is a more important variable along continental shelves. The data employed to reach this conclusion are Lyellian percentages for latest Pliocene (∼2 ma old) bivalve faunas of California and Japan (N = 245 species). These regions did not suffer heavy extinction during the recent Ice Age, and for each region the Lyellian percentage is 70%–71%.Discrepancies in population size appear to explain the following differences in survivorship to the Recent (Lyellian percentage) for three pairs of subgroups: (1) burrowing nonsiphonate species (42%) versus burrowing siphonate species (84%), which suffer less heavy predation; (2) burrowing nonsiphonate species of small size (73%) versus burrowing nonsiphonate species of large body size (96%); (3) Pectinacea (30%) versus other epifauna (71%), which suffer less heavy predation. During the Mesozoic Era, when predation was less effective in benthic settings, mean species duration for the Pectinacea was much greater (∼20 ma).Along the west coast of North and Central America, mean geographic range is greater for siphonate species of large body size than for siphonate species of small body size and greater still for pectinacean species. These ranges are inversely related to mean species longevity for the three groups, which indicates that geographic range is not of first-order importance in influencing species longevity. Species with nonplanktotrophic development neither exhibit narrow geographic ranges along the west coast of North and Central America nor have experienced high rates of extinction in California and Japan.Rates of extinction are so high for Neogene pectinaceans and nonsiphonate burrowers that without enjoying high rates of speciation these groups could not exist at the diversities they have maintained during the Neogene Period. They are apparently speciating rapidly because of the fission effect: the relatively frequent generation of new species from populations that are fragmented by heavy predation. Thus, ironically, there may be a tendency for high rates of speciation to be approximately offset by high rates of extinction. Only if mean population size for species in a particular group becomes extremely small is it likely to result in a high rate of extinction and a low rate of speciation—and hence a dramatic decline of the group. The fission effect may contribute to the general correlation in the animal world between rate of speciation and rate of extinction.