Life Sciences Commons^™

Why Agriculture Productivity Falls: The Political Economy Of Agrarian Transition In Developing Countries, Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir

Purdue University Press Books

Why Agriculture Productivity Falls: The Political Economy of Agrarian Transition in Developing Countries offers a new explanation for the decline in agricultural productivity in developing countries. Transcending the conventional approaches to understanding productivity using agricultural inputs and factors of production, this work brings in the role of formal and informal institutions that govern transactions, property rights, and accumulation. This more robust methodology leads to a comprehensive, well-balanced lens to perceive agrarian transition in developing countries. It argues that the existing process of accumulation has resulted in nonsustainable agriculture because of market failures—the result of asymmetries of power, diseconomies of scale, …

Biomethane Production From Distillery Wastewater, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Distillery wastewater treatment is a great ecological problem, for example, India produces 2.7 billion liters of alcohol that results in 40 billion liters of wastewater. However, this material can be seen as a resource since 11 million cubic meters of biogas at 60% methane could be produced in addition to cleaning the water. The distillery has two options of what to do with the biogas. The first is to use the biogas to fuel the distillery making the production plant more energy efficient and removing some of the need to buy natural gas. The other is to upgrade the biogas …

On Testing For Significant Quantitative Trait Loci (Qtl) Effects When Variances Are Unequal, Pradeep Singh, Shesh N. Rai

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

The basic theory of QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) mapping is to score a population for a quantitative trait according to the marker genotype, and then to use statistics to identify differences associated with the markers and the quantitative trait of interest. Permutation based methods have been used to estimate threshold values for quantitative mapping. The permutation test based on the Student t-test for equality of means does not control Type I error rate to its nominal value when variances are unequal. In this study we propose a modification of the Student t-test based on the jackknife estimator of population variance. …

Sample Size Determination In Animal Health Studies, Zhanglin Cui, Alan G. Zimmermann, Daniel H. Mowrey

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

Oftentimes in animal health studies, a treatment group is randomly assigned to a pen of animals, and the pen of animals as a whole is treated (fed the same medicated feed or water) together. In this scenario, the pen of animals is the experimental unit and the individual animal may be an observational unit. In addition to having the pen as the experimental unit, if multiple sites are used and site is treated as a random factor, this adds complexity to the study. To properly design the study, it is necessary to determine the number of animals in a pen, …

Nf05-637 The Power Of Family Literacy, Janet S. Hanna, Kayla M. Hinrichs, Carla J. Mahar, John Defrain

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

Virtually all families want their children to learn to read and write, and to succeed in school, and are eager to provide any support necessary.

Family involvement in everyday language- and literacy-related activities has a significant impact on children's language dvevelopment acquisition of early literacy skills. Early language and literacy activities at home contribute to differences when children enter school.

Small Sample Power Characteristics Of Generalized Mixed Model Procedures For Binary Repeated Measures Data Using Sas, Matthew Beckman, Walter W. Stroup

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

Researchers in the agricultural and biological sciences often conduct experiments with repeated measures and categorical response variables. Recent advances in statisticalcomputing have made several options available to analyze data from these experiments. For example, SAS has several procedures based on generalized mixed model theory. These include PROC GENMOD, MIXED, NLMIXED, and the GLIMMIX macro. Inference for these procedures depends on asymptotic theory. While statistics literature contains some information about the small-sample behavior, there is much that remains unknown. This presentation will focus on Bernoulli response variables. Power characteristics are compared via simulation for several scenarios involving relatively small repeated measures …

Cc01-371 Estimated Irrigation Costs, 2001, Roger Selley

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

This extension circular consists of a series of tables to help the operator estimate irrigation costs for the year 2001. Costs were calculated at four well depths for a gravity system which has an output of 1,000 gpm and irrigates 100 acres.

Irrigation costs were estimated with the aid of the Irrigation System Cost Analysis computer program. Energy prices used in the cost computations are those which were expected to occur in 2001. Irrigation equipment and well drilling costs were collected by a telephone survey from selected dealers. These costs do not include sales tax, personal property tax, insurnace, or …

Empirical Estimates Of Power For Binomial Data With Mixed Models, R. K. Splan, L. D. Van Vleck, H. D. Hafs

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

Observations on return to estrus from anestrus postpartum beef cows were used as the basis for a simulation study to develop a method to determine numbers of locations and animals per treatment per location to achieve a specified power of test. Estimates of among location and total variance were obtained by REML from the data set and then used to generate simulated data for the binomial trait. Each combination of several pre-determined factors was replicated 1000 times. Pre-determined factors were number of locations, number of animals per treatment per location, desired detectable difference due to treatment, alpha-probability level and ratio …

G96-1296 Gear Up And Throttle Down -- Saving Fuel, Robert Grisso, David P. Shelton, Kenneth Von Bargen

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

"Gear Up and Throttle Down" is a fuel-saving practice suitable for light drawbar loads (less than 65 percent of full power) when reduced PTO speed is not a problem.

For the most efficient operation, a tractor's engine should be operated near its rated capacity. However, there are many field operations (such as light tillage, planting, cultivating, and hay raking) that do not require full tractor power. This is especially true when older implements, which were sized for a smaller tractor, are used with higher horsepower tractors. Also, many operations should be performed at a fixed field speed.

For these lighter …

Nf92-99 Emergency Food Safety, Julie A. Albrecht

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

This NebFact offers suggestions for saving food after natural disasters.

Agricultural Aircraft Equipment, N. Shafer

Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station: Historical Circulars

This bulletin gives a detailed account of the installation, operation, and performance of spray dispersal equipment as tested on the Piper PA-18A airplane. Equipment is also applicable to other types of agricultural aircraft now being used. A list of various aircraft equipment and where it can be obtained is included.

Rb34-71 Effects Of Inflation And Deflation Upon Nebraska Agriculture, 1914 To 1932, H. Clyde Filley

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

Nebraska farmers prospered during the period which followed the depression of the nineties and preceded the beginning of the World War. To be sure the prosperity was not uniformly distributed either by years or by areas. The corn crop was unusually short in a large portion of the state in 1901 and an almost total failure in many of the southern counties in 1913. Chinch bugs did considerable injury in 1901 and the Hessian fly in 1905 and 1914. There was noticeable damage from insects in some areas in other years. No part of the state, however, suffered from long-continued …